4A Thursday, April 25, 1996 OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN VIEWPOINT New campus group takes on Lawrence textbook monopoly A group of KU students has decided to break the local bookstores' monopoly on the textbooks trade. Friends, a non-profit student organization, was created to match students who want to buy books with those who want to sell books. It does not make sense to sell back textbooks to local bookstores for a ridiculously low price — especially if another student will have to buy them for a much higher price the next semester. With the end of the semester approaching, the temptation is great to sell one's old textbooks through the bookstores' buyback network. Even if this system gives the illusion of a quick and easy way to make money, the profits are non-existent. Indeed, students who sell their textbooks back to the bookstores in May will have to spend all the money they receive—and even more—to purchase new textbooks in August. That is why an organization like Friends is necessary to help break this cycle. However, this is not the first time that such an organization has formed on campus. In order to survive, Friends needs the support from as many students as possible. The matchmaker pool needs to grow bigger. THE ISSUE: Textbook buyback KU students should support a system where students sell their used books to other students at the end of the semester. The larger the group of matchmakers, the more likely a student can find the books he or she needs for next semester. That is why Friends needs everyone's help. It is hoped that the local bookstores will not create legal and bureaucratic hurdles that would keep Friends from growing. It's time to break the bookstores' monopoly on the textbook trade. To get more information about Friends, students can call 864-6353 or send e-mail to the organization at: FRIENDS@kuhub.cc.ukans. edu. HENRI BLANC FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD. Anti-violence march can educate men and can empower women Womyn Take Back the Night is an annual event protesting violence against women and children. But it's not just for women.A men's discussion group will help men understand and deal with the effects of violence against women. It allows women who have been victims of abuse to find strength together each year. It is a program designed to empower women. It is part of a nationwide partnership of students and community members. Doris Cordero, Lawrence senior, said that this night helped women gain strength if they felt their lives were unsafe. The march and rally, sponsored by Students Against Violence Against Womyn Rape Victim/Survivor Services and Women's Transitional Care Services, recognizes the remarkable means by which women and children survive The event includes the womyn's rally at South Park and womyn's circle at Watson Park. It also includes a men's rally to discuss violence against women. THE ISSUE: Violence Sponsors of the Womyn Take Back the Night march and rally hope both men and women will learn from the event. Terry Huerter, co-coordinator and facilitator of the men's circle, said it helped find answers about how men own up to sexism and deal with being an oppressor group. The discussion can help men empower themselves and make a difference in ending violence against women. For men and society in general, it is important that everyone learns the reasons for violence against women and makes an effort to change. This change can begin by attending the event tonight. SARBPAL HUNDAL FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD KANSAN STAFF ASHLEY MILLER Editor VIRGINIA MARGHEIM Managing editor ROBERT ALLEN News editor TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE Editors HEATHER NIEHAUS Business manager KONAN HAUSER Retail sales manager JAY STEINER Sales and marketing adviser JUSTIN KNUPP Technology coordinator Campus Joann Birk Phillip Brownlee Editorial Paul Todd Editorial Laura Lerner Features Matt Hood Sports Tom Erlokson Associate sports Bill Petulaura Illustrator Mike Blanchard Graphics Noah Musser Special sections Novelda Sommare Jan Humphrey Wire Tim Thomas Illustration Micah Leaker Business Staff In case you hadn't noticed, Lawrence now is a huge new suburb instead of an old college town. It's a change very much for the worse. They give the new areas nature-sounding names like Quail Run, but all the quail have run away. So now it seems that the wetlands have received a reprieve. The project is stalled at 35th and Iowa, which is exactly the alignment where they won't be allowed to put it. Kind of presumptuous of those county planners, don't you think? These people have neglected their homework from the beginning. The South Lawrence Trafficway is in some trouble. Now deep into construction on the west and south sides of Lawrence, the issue of where the eastern leg will go never has been settled for the 14-mile loop that already is estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars more than its budget. Here's a telling statement. An attorney with the Kansas Department of Transportation said the Trafficway would stand as a monument to a community's inability to communicate with itself. That's an important point to examine. I hope we're learning to communicate better than we did on the trafficway debacle. And this is one commentator who is mighty pleased to be able to communicate with the community in the University newspaper. Some ways that we did not communicate with ourselves were about the issue of growth, especially the cancerous variety that feeds only on profit, and also the matter of preserving what few natural areas are left around Lawrence. And it's clear that the spiritual and educational values of Haskell's Native Americans were given little consideration. Frank Lingo is a Lawrence resident and a freelance writer Lawrence trafficway problems stem from more than money Campus mgr ... Karen Gerch Regional mgr ... Kelly Connelly National mgr ... Mark Oztokm Special Section mgrs ... Norm Blow Production mgrs ... Rachel Cahill Marketing director ... Heather Valerian Public Relations dir. Amanda Anderson Creative director ... Ed Kowalda Classified mgr ... Stacey Weingarten Internship/co-op mgr ... T.J. Clark The Environmental Protection Agency said recently that the county didn't properly do the longawaited second part of the environmental impact statement that was supposed to address the wetland questions that the original plan didn't do right, either. Make your voice heard — apply for the Kansan's editorial staff Why can't Douglas County's project team and their expensive consulting firm get it right? Well, it seems they just don't care. If you feel like your concerns are not being heard, working on the opinion page is the way to make sure that the issues and topics that affect you as a KU student are being addressed properly. Also, an official with the Federal Highway Administration, which controls the money for the project, said the trafficway planners failed to see the wetland complex as one contiguous and interdependent system and did not acknowledge the tremendous importance of the complex as a national natural landmark. Likewise, they failed to study the impact on Haskell's Native Americans. The official said they failed to disclose that this was the last 600 acres of the original 18,000 acre wetland and what that meant to the functions it played such as flood storage, water purification, and habitat for a vast array of plant and animal species. We are looking for outspoken individuals to represent the student body as columnists, editorial board members, editorial cartoonists and strip cartoonists for this summer and fall. The majority of the wetland area The University Daily Kansan is looking for a variety of voices. GUEST COLUMNIST OPINION PAGE STAFF WANTED is owned by Baker University and Haskell University, but there is a tract of about 20 acres that is owned by the University of Kansas, and the wetland is used for biological studies by many students and professors from the schools. Since the Traf- Since the trafficway nightmare was first dreamed up back in the 1980s as a developers' sweetheart deal, paid for with your local and federal taxes, the planners have railroaded their way through every ecological concern that the building of a road entails. Back in 1990 when Douglas county citizens got to vote on it, some people swallowed the baloney that the highway was meant to relieve traffic congestion on 23rd Street, but a study showed that 92 percent of the cars on 23rd were bound for a destination on that street. But from day one the trafficway has been about turning enormous tracts of land on the south and west sides of Lawrence into shopping malls and residential developments. The ballot wording was ambiguous and misleading, helping the well-financed proponents to victory. The editorial board will meet once a week in the summer and twice a week in the fall for members to talk about issues on campus and in Lawrence that they believe will have an effect on their lives. Members of the board then will write about those issues and where they stand. The editorial and strip cartoonist will be required to submit a cartoon on the topics of their choice once or twice a week. The Kansan wants a diverse staff of students from a variety of backgrounds and a wide range of opinions. Anyone with the ability to write, speak or draw is encouraged to apply. vant to his or her life as well as the lives of other students. Each columnist will be required to submit a column once a week on an issue he or she feels is relea Applications are available for both summer and fall opinion page staffs in the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall, and they will be due on Tuesday, April 30. Interviews will be announced by the opinion page editors. For more information, contact Craig Lang, fall editorial editor; Nicole Kennedy, fall associate editorial editor, or Kim Becka, summer editorial editor, at 864-4810. HUBIE Because of the labor-intensive weeks that mount upon my current student incarnation, I often lament the inability to do things that I used to live for. Time only allows so much to get done, and as with all of us concerned with our futures, critical concepts and factual memorization tend to take precedence over television marathons and beer. My solitude will allow me to develop new ideas, and help diversify the campus population next semester. Such exploration is necessary for the good of our world, because, to quote Abbey again, "Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation." Learning does not make up for moments of quiet serenity Most importantly, solitude enables me to contemplate who I am and develop ideas that best fit me. I can reject old ideas and replace them with new thoughts and observations. This summer will allow me to escape from the canonized books, a dependence upon which writer Edward Abbey recognized as "a surefire sign of spiritual fatigue ... that veil of ideas, issuing from the brain like a sort of mental smog that keeps getting between man and the world, obscuring vision." The aspect of my former life that I Leslie Bowyer is a Lawrence senior in art history The aspect of a miss most, however, is my solitude. STAFF COLUMNIST Solitude allows my mind to wander without hindrance. I can think about anything and everything I want. I don't have to constantly return to the thesis statement. I can contradict myself if I desire to do so. And most importantly, I can diverge from the current accepted thought patterns that dominate the university experience. I can choose whether I will be reactionary or revolutionary. I suppose that on the surface, my nights of study sequestered from the world appear as hours of quiet solitude. Absolutely alone with my notes and textbooks, I seem free from all human interaction and societal distraction. My own mind appears to be my only companion, and silence reigns. Before I returned to college, I always appreciated my opportunities for solitude. I did not recognize, however, how little I would be able to experience once the educational onslaught began. I like many others, probably assumed that being alone with my books and my hunger for knowledge would satiate my need for solitude. What better way to utilize quiet than by learning about the great literary and artistic masters? Solitude has deeper meaning to me, though. It is not merely loneliness or even aloneness. It is a mental state of contemplation without interference, an appreciation of the stillness that my body can experience while my mind is free to expound on the secretive mysteries of life or the simple aspects of my own existence. The necessity of solitude is not for a forum to learn the "what's" of a subject, but rather the "why's." Oftentimes, we absorb the final product of a historical or cultural event, but we never consider the reason it occurred, or what the ramifications are in relation to our contemporary existence. Being alone to fully ingest our education, and to tie it into our own personal experience, is more important than being able to regurgitate it on the test and forget it that afternoon. WELL, LENME PUT IT THIS WAY: "IN THIS WORLD, THERE ARE ONLY TWO TRAGEDIES. ONE IS NOT GETTING WHAT ONE WANTS, AND THE OTHER IS GETTING IT." -OSCAR WILDE By Greg Hardin