4A
Wednesday, June 12, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Minimum wage increase would benefit students
Like a rainbow emerging from a departing summer storm, the bipartisan agreement to increase the federal minimum wage attests to the beginning of a brighter future for financially strapped students. The proposed increase from the current $4.25 an hour to $5.15 an hour is vital to the well-being of those dependent on minimum wage positions for income supplementation.
An article appearing in the U.S. News and World Report cited a recent report which found the pay of chief executive officers has jumped about 30 percent last year alone, placing their average median salary about $5 million. This increase is in sharp contrast to minimum-wage workers who have watched helplessly as their wages, adjusted for inflation, have decreased about 50 cents from the last increase in 1991. At a time when students face possible tuition increases resulting from the implementation of linear tuition, in addition to decreasing student loan opportunities, an increase in the federal minimum wage could be beneficial to KU students.
Despite strong evidence supporting an increase, opponents maintain an increase would result in fewer job opportunities as employers cut back positions to accommodate the
THE ISSUE:
Minimum wage
The minimum wage increase would help students meet the cost of living.
increase. The ample opportunity to be employed at the minimum wage is evidence that there is not a short supply of these positions. According to the University Job Placement Center, about 1,180 student hourly positions were posted between July 1995 and June 1996, many of which were minimum wage positions. Moreover, Terry Glenn, director of the job placement center, contends that he does not foresee a negative impact on the number of student hourly positions, if the minimum wage were increased.
If terms are not agreed on to pass the increase, the value of the minimum wage will be at a 40-year low by January. Although a questionable reduction in the number of positions available would be unfavorable to those looking for a job, an even larger negative impact would be felt if an increase was not approved, as agitated minimum-wage workers contend with a decreasing value in their wages in a time of an increasing standard of living.
JEREMY LIND FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Clinton's tax credit plan deserves a closer look
When President Clinton proposed a tax credit last week for students' first two years of college, his plan was perceived as just another battle in the tax-cut war with Bob Dole. Campaign politics overshadowed the issue: this proposal could help some Americans continue their educations after high school.
With his tax credit plan, full-time students or their parents would receive a $1,500 tax credit, which roughly covers the one-year tuition cost at community colleges. To receive credit for the second year of college, the student must maintain a B average and refrain from using drugs. This credit would be
THE ISSUE:
Student tax credit
available only to families with annual incomes less than $100,000.
If Clinton had not made this proposal in the midst of his re-election campaign, perhaps his plan would have received the consideration it deserves.
The tax credit plan would be financed by higher corporate taxes and a $16 departure fee for passengers on international flights.
Clinton may have discovered a long-term solution to ease the cost of college education without burdening the middle-class taxpayers.
KIM BECKA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNI
University should adopt domestic partners policy
The University of Kansas needs a domestic partnership policy for same-sex couples. Many universities grant benefits such as health care insurance to the married spouses of employees.
To grant equivalent benefits to domestic partners would acknowledge discrimination against same-sex couples. It also would correct discrimination by defining the criteria by which committed partners would be treated as family members for the purpose of granting employee and student benefits.
Unmarried people who are in committed relationships cannot enjoy these benefits because their relationships are not sanctioned by the state. Same-sex couples in particular are affected because they cannot marry.
There are inconsistencies between our policies and our practices at the University. Married students and University employees are entitled to privileges that are denied to same-sex couples.
For example, the University provides family housing for married students and spouses with or without children, and to single parents with children.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said last week that family housing was not extended to same-sex couples because they were not legally married.
This means that same-sex couples are ineligible because the University uses the "related by blood."
KANSAN STAFF
In the Midwest, the University of Colorado offers student housing and medical benefits for all students with domestic partners. At the University of Minnesota, employees who have domestic partners receive bereavement and sick leave, child care, medical benefits and a pension plan. The University of Chicago offers family housing, a family-leave policy and provides a tuition waiver for domestic partners who are fulltime employees.
These and other universities have dispelled objections that a domestic partnership policy could not be administered in a cost-effective manner.
The University has an enduring commitment to fair and equitable treatment of its employees and students. What kind of message is sent to students on campus when the University claims not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status, yet discriminates in its practices? Can the phrase "related by blood or marriage" be justification for refusing family housing accommodation and other student and employee benefits?
The material and emotional consequences for same-sex couples can no longer be ignored.
Christine Robinson is a Lawrence doctoral candidate in sociology.
KU instructors provide a superior education
they offer to married couples to domestic partners.
I appreciated Jeremy Lind's editorial on June 5 defending University of Kansas teaching assistants after Johnson County Community College ran a recruitment ad implying that the instruction at JCCC was superior to that offered by KU. I would like to make a comment based upon my comparative experience teaching at both JCCC as a part-time instructor and at KU as a teaching assistant. JCCC relies heavily on part-time faculty to teach their courses. In 1994 JCCC employed more part-time than full-time faculty, and the way that JCCC compensates part-time instructors increases the likelihood that JCCC students will receive inferior instruction.
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
SARAH WIESE
Editor
CRAIG LANG Managing editor
KAREN GERSCH
Business manager
SARA ROSE
Director of Client Services
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
marriage or adoption" criterion to define a family.
Nothing legally prohibits the University and the Legislature from instituting a domestic partnership policy for same-sex couples. Many universities in the country have instituted these policies despite anti-marriage laws. The University is implying that it chooses not to extend its definition of family and benefits to same-sex couples.
How the University defines "family" has serious ramifications for all students. The st and a r d excludes many students who form family units on the basis of a choice that the law does not recognize.
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
Extending domestic partner benefits to same-sex partners is a policy consistent with the University's nondiscrimination policy and Lawrence's human relations ordinance. Our goal at the University should be equal access to all employee and student benefits. The issue here is to make practices comply with University policy and city law and to eliminate discrimination.
An increasing number of universities now extend the benefits that
Campus...Jason Strait
Associate Campus...Dan Gelston
Editorial...Kim Becks
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Manish Good
Dan Krier
Assistant instructor in sociology
There were some very good instructors that I encountered at JCCC. However, the University of Kansas provides good teachers with a superior opportunity to teach and good students with a superior opportunity to learn.
STAFF COLUMNIST
I prefer the first option of making swimsuit shopping easier on everyone. For now, we in Lawrence are lucky. We are free of the shopping burden this year, knock on concrete. And I am glad I chose not to go home this summer.
But if that's not possible, then let's have men go through the same trials women endure. Let them wear Speedos. Let the Speedos come randomly sized so that each pair must be tried on to ensure a proper fit. Let them be padded and elasticized and hard to get in and out of. Not that I'm vengeful, but I would like equality in the shopping experience.
tants receive financial support that allows them to dedicate themselves to their teaching responsibilities. KU teaching assistants are not without competing demands on their time. However, the non-teaching activities that compete for the time of KU teaching assistants, coursework and research projects, are directly related to their professional development and contribute to their competence in the classroom.
Doesn't the men's shopping experience sound less traumatic? Wouldn't it be fairer if we had parity in swimwear? It would save women selection time, and they could feel less self-conscious about their bodies if swimsuits were loose-fitting and the choices were small, medium and large.
JCCC implies that their "real" part-time instructors provide better instruction than KU teaching assistants. This seems unlikely. JCCC pays their part-time faculty about $1,200 for each three credit hour course and limits part-timers to two classes per semester. Part-time faculty can earn about $2,400 each semester with absolutely no meaningful benefits. To make ends meet, JCCC part-time instructors frequently must find additional employment, spreading thin the energy and time that they can devote to their teaching. Even the most dedicated and conscientious part-time instructor finds that the quality of teaching suffers: one simply cannot afford to give essay examinations, read papers or spend days preparing lectures.
suit is no bli-ideal. These people check the box next to "M" in the gender category on applications, registration forms and most government documents. These people do not buy swimsuits; they buy trunks.
Men have an easier time than women purchasing swimwear
In contrast, KU teaching assis-
We spend hours wriggling in and out of various styles of body-hugging lycra. We try to match sizes of bikini tops and bottoms without the saleswoman noticing. We attribute the flaws of our appearance to harsh store lighting. We leave the store feeling 10 pounds overweight and in a state of shock because of the size printed on the tag.
STAFF COLUMNIST
For some people, buying a swim-
Last year, I accompanied a male friend on a shopping trip for a pair of trunks. We would "drop by" to "pick up" some trunks, as he put it. In the store, he went toward the single rack which had 10 pairs of trunks of varying fabrics hanging on it. He looked them over, chose the green, checked the size and said, "OK, let's go."
"You're not going to try them on?" I asked. "Why?" he said. "These are medium. That should work." He sounded so certain.
We sift through the infinite array of suits for those which meet our needs, and we take at least 20 to the dressing room. The "limit three" rule is unofficially suspended during the swimsuit season. What woman could try three suits — or even any low multiple of three — and find one she likes?
Compared with female swimsuit shopping, this was amazingly simple. In department stores each summer, countless women wade through a sea of swimwear to find that elusive swimsuit they like and look good in. There are suits to maximize or minimize the bust, deemphasize hips and trim the waist. Each is equipped with the elastic, padding or a pattern that does the trick. This gives the illusion that swimsuit manufacturers want to help you.
Pool closing spares women summer agony of swimsuits
This may sound unkind but I'm glad the pool isn't open this summer. We should thank the bad weather and slow construction for allowing us to breath a collective sigh of consumer relief. This year we can escape the annual torture of buying a new swimsuit.
OUT FROM THE CRACKS
By Jeremy Patnoi