4A
Monday, April 15, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
CLAS needs to develop a new system of advising
Some students find the transition from high school to college difficult. They are used to the securities of their overbearing parents, high-string teachers and compassionate advisers. Entering a large university, where they are lucky if the teachers even recognize them outside of class, can be intimidating. Perhaps the undergraduate center could devise a plan to provide personal advising assistance to students.
The advising staff agrees that there is an impersonal advising system for freshmen and sophomore students, people for whom advising is particularly crucial. Pam Houston, director of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Center, said she thought students should know the names of their advisers. But, she also said that was easier said than done. At a large university, it is difficult to assign personal advisers to each student. One of the advising staff's main complaints was that students who declare an interest in a major were likely to change that interest without notifying the undergraduate center. Students may think their original advisers are not suited for their new interests, but without contacting the advising staff there is no way they can provide the
THE ISSUE: advising
necessary help.
The undergraduate center now is taking small steps to improve this problem. About 10 percent of the entering class is chosen randomly and assigned to advisers. There are a few departments that provide advisers for students who have declared an interest in those departments, but not all of them are in contact with the undergraduate center. The African and African-American studies and communication departments collaborate with the undergraduate center and give it names of advisers to include on students' enrollment forms. Students who are undecided may be assigned to go to the geology department, the department of African and African-American studies or French department with a personal adviser from that department. It is up to the student to contact these advisers.
The small steps are meager in comparison to the large problem facing students. We need all the help we can get. Hopefully, the undergraduate center won't stop at giving advisers to only 10 percent of entering students. What about the rest of us?
SARAH PRESTON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Small classes are important for a high-quality education
As the needs of the University of Kansas exceed available funds, corners must be cut, which usually causes less significant areas of the budget to suffer.
The ability to suit the differing interests of students and the desire to facilitate small classrooms has become less significant in the eyes of the administration.
By establishing a minimum enrollment policy for classes, the University has chosen to put less emphasis on academic diversity.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway, who strongly supports the policy, said some kind of minimum guidelines had to be set. He said that in tight budget times maximum efficiency is needed.
The policy, which went into effect in June 1995, requires at least 12 undergraduate or six graduate students to be enrolled in a class with stand cancellation.
The efficiency of this institution should not compromise the individual attention given in these small classes.
Renee Speicher, executive director of the Graduate and Professional Association, said
THE ISSUE:
12/6 rule
many graduate courses being canceled were replaced with independent study options, which meet requirement criteria but also lack the grouplearning experience and interaction of a classroom setting.
Jason Angilan, Lawrence graduate student and Student Senate Executive Committee member, said the policy contradicted the notion that small classes benefited education. He said the University should support the knowledge students could gain from a narrow student-teacher ratio.
How can cancellation of these classes significantly affect the budget if the instructor's salary remains intact? If a specific class has a willing instructor, interested students and an available classroom, it should be offered.
The tightening of the University budget has distorted what should be the administration's priorities. Cutting corners should not decrease the quality of education.
ERIN KRIST FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
Ah, college — the freedom, the independence.
ASHLEY MILLER
Editor
VIRGINIA MARGHEIM
Managing editor
ROBERT ALLEN
News editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors
Finally you've escaped the constraints of your parents, and it seems like complete bliss — that is until you get sick.
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Campus .. Joann Birk
... Phillip Brownlee
Editorial .. Paul Todd
Associate editorial .. Craig Lang
Movies .. John Lennon
Sports .. Tom Erickson
Associate sports .. Bill Petula
Photo .. Matt Flickoner
Graphics .. Noah Musser
Special sections .. Novice Sports
Illustration .. Ternary
Michael Laender
Common sense required when fighting sicknesses
Business Staff
HEATHER NIEHAUS
Business manager
KONAN HAUSER
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Moms (and dads) may nag you to set the table, do your homework and walk the dog, but they also take care of you when you are feeling under the weather. Parents buy you lots of Kleenex for your funny nose (and not that rough, cheap kind either), they make you tea and soup, they buy you magazines to keep you entertained, and they basically treat you like royalty.
Campus mgr    Karen Gernch
Regional mgr    Kelly Connelye
Regional mgr    Mark Odlakm
Special Sections mgr    Olivia McKinnon
Production mgr    Rachael Cahill
Marketing director  Heather Vailer
Public Relations dir   Angle Adameon
Creative director   Ed Kowalda
Creative director   Stacey Ward
Internship/oop mgr   T.J. Clark
alcohol causes dehydration, and that is the opposite of what you need when you're sick.
Try to eat well. Greasy, fatty foods can be tough on the system and don't help your cold nearly as much as Mom's chicken soup. For a stuffy nose, try Tabasco sauce. It may taste nasty, but it will clear you up in a jiffy.
Find a nice neighbor or friend to make you some herbal tea. If you have neither nice neighbors nor friends, make it yourself. In my opinion, tea is a great alternative medicine. Maybe it won't cure your flu, but it can help with a sore throat, while restoring fluids to your body at the same time.
I know my home remedies seem obvious, but it is surprising how few people follow them. For many people, being sick doesn't change their schedule at all. They just go on with life as if everything is peachy keen. It wouldn't surprise me to someday see a person walk into a party dragging an IV.
You probably are thinking that I am either a premed major or a health nut who thinks her body is a temple that must not be defaced. Well, I am neither. I have a very limited knowledge of science and health, but I do know what works for me.
Just pretend I'm your mother. You listen to your mother, don't you? If you don't, you should. After all, she knows a lot of good stuff, plus she makes a mean cup of tea.
But school is a bitter contrast for most. Now when you wake up feeling like you were run over by a train, you are forced to drag your sorry self out of bed and go to Watkins, where you inevitably will be subjected to mono and strep tests and then be bombarded with enough medicine to drug a small nation.
Steph Brower is a Cary, N.C. freshman in pre-printsmall.
And no one at Watkins will feel sorry for you; they are either sick themselves or sick of dealing with illness. It is not like being at home where a little sniffle is regarded as a precursor of death, and you are so pampered you consider getting sick more often.
At home, Mommy or Daddy come to your room in the morning, feel your forehead and suggest you take a day off to rest. Here, you can tell yourself that, but you also have to convince yourself it is worth missing a test that you can't make up or using that last free absence.
More often than not. students
STAFF COLUMNIST
would rather use their absences for hellish hangovers than for killer head colds. And this is probably why illness is so prevalent at college: it is hard to stay healthy when half your class is coughing and sneezing and sending out millions of invisible germs just
searching for a new victim.
For those of us living in the breeding grounds of disease, otherwise known as the residence halls, preventing illness is more difficult. Basically, it is impossible not to get sick.
"ONCE I TOLD A DENTIST JOKE IN A LARGE CLASS, AND A DENTIST'S KID CAME UP AND LET ME KNOW ID MADE A MISTAKE. IT SEEMS LIKE SOME PEOPLE HAVE AN UNDEVELOPED SENSE OF IRONY."
Burdett Loomis, professor of political science, about offending some sensitive people in his political science classes.
So how do we combat this problem? We could either send our parents plane tickets with a pathetic note begging them to come and "make it all better," or we could take responsibility unto ourselves. The first option is preferable, in my opinion, but the second is probably more realistic.
Sleep — a lot. Stop partying for a weekend and get some rest and you'll be amazed at the results. I tried it once when I had the flu and it helped more than any of the medicine I took.
Abstain from alcohol. As painful as it may be to give up your beer, it really is necessary. Too much
Here are some helpful hints to speed up your recovery when you are sick as a dog.
"I DON'T THINK THEY'LL ASK FOR A TIT SHOT. BUT IF THEY DO, I GOING TO ASK FOR MORE MONEY."
■ Jenny Nichols, Lawrence sophomore, about being selected to play one of two lovers having sex while being spied on by aliens in the coming Tim Burton movie "Mars Attacks."
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"THE PRODUCER ASKED, YOU'RE A WHAT FOR THE BASEBAL TEAM? I SAID, 'TM A BAT GIRL', HE ASKED, 'SO YOU CARRY BATS?' AND I SAID, 'WELL YEAH.'
Amy Ludwig, Haysville sophomore, about how her job withe the KU baseball team helped her get on *The Price is Right*. She won $4,588 worth of prizes.
"WE DISCUSSED THESE THINGS FOR FOUR DAYS, SO IF THE BODY FEELS THAT WE DIDN'T PUT ENOUGH TIME INTO THIS, WE SORRY."
Ward Cook, Nunemaker senator, about the trouble a bill allocating $8,000 from the Senate line item allocations account had in passing the full Senate on Wednesday.
Joseph Hickey, Houston junior, about his Western Civilization classes alleged lack of a substitute instructor for Gregg, who missed about half of the semester because of a family emergency.
"THE ONLY FACE WE SAW TEACHING THE CLASS WAS BETH GREGG'S."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. I FEEL THE STUDENTS ARE GROSSLY EXAGGERATING."
Antha Cotton-Spreckelmeyer in response to student allegations that the Western Civilization department failed to provide a substitute teacher for about half of the class sessions in one section. The teacher was absent because of a family emergency.
OUT FROM THE CRACKS
I am a member of the twenty-something, slacker generation known in popular culture as Generation X. As a member of this group, to which all people between the ages of 20 and 30 belong (whether or not you like it), I feel the need to share the rules with everyone so as to keep up our sacred name, as well as our image, for our generation
Generation Xers shouldn't keep following the 'slacker' rules
1. Do not work. This extends to
2. If you are forced to work, complain. Complain about many things, but spe-
STAFF COLUMNIST
employment as well as school work. Remember, work is meaningless and unimportant. We are above work. Anyone who thinks that you should work is old, jaded and just plain wrong.
cifically about how uncool your job is and how you shouldn't have to work.
3. Don't shower. I'm not sure why, but this is a cardinal rule. Advance to Rule No. 4.
4. Don't wash your clothes. This goes hand in hand with the third rule. The basic point is to make sure you smell "natural."
5. Sleep very, very late. In fact, never get out of bed. Stay there all day, living off of both your parents and society, milking the system for all it is worth. If you must get out of bed, perhaps out of some incessant need for movement (though this, too, is frowned upon), go only to your neighborhood coffee shop. Drink coffee, talk about how cool you are and complain about having to work, about not having a cool job, about the lighting. Refer to Rule No. 2. Complain just to make sure people know that you are not happy (even if, in truth, you are quite content. See Rule No. 6).
6. Never be happy. Even if you are happy, do not, under any circumstances, act as such. You are a member of Generation X, and to be defined by happiness would be the ultimate in horror.
And who wouldn't want such an illustrious label?
While these rules may mean some heavy changes in your life, they are quite easy to follow. And keep in mind, if you follow these six simple rules, you, too can be defined by the stereotypes of your generation.
DOONY@FAYLON.CC.UKMAJS.EDU
To all those who think that Generation X can be defined in so simple a letter, maybe you should open your eyes and realize that there are 25 other letters in the alphabet, and even they may not be enough to define me, let alone the other members of my generation. Wake up.
After all, you are a member of Generation X. Show your pride! Actually, never mind. Pride, I guess, is not allowed. That would break stereotypes, which is not something that a member of Generation X would do.
I have not lived up to the Generation X handbook, and I have forgotten the words to the pledge. I never learned the secret handshake, and labels never have seemed to fit me. Maybe it is true that no one fits the stereotype.
Actually, if you are reading this, you are probably breaking a rule. After all, you would have had to step onto the campus to get the paper, and why would you do that? It would break Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 5.
I guess that I just do not make a very good member of the generation. Writing this seems to break some rules, too.
Stacy Nagy is a Topeka sophomore in Ruslan.
By Jeremy Patnoi
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