Wednesday, April 19, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Styrofoam costly to planet, regardless of affordability
Styrofoam use in the Kansas and Burge unions is being challenged, and with good reason.
Last week a purchasing board for the unions heard discussions concerning the use of Styrofoam. Soon it will present a summary of the hearings. Then it will decide whether to continue purchasing plastic foam products for the unions.
Representatives of Dart Container Corp. of Michigan, one producer of the cups and containers used at the University of Kansas, spoke on behalf of plastic foam producers. Environs, a prominent analyst group, spoke about the hazards of plastic foam.
It is clear that the University should discontinue purchasing the Styrofoam products. The plastic company representatives admitted that some alternative to plastic foam needed to be found, and they could not answer questions concerning Styrofoam's safety.
Environs, on the other hand, let the facts speak for themselves. Styrofoam contains chemicals that are potentially hazardous, such as benzene and styrene. Benzene is the fifth most common contaminant found in human tissue, and styrene has been linked to many health hazards.
The most sound argument against Styrofoam use is its inability to decompose. Plastic foam makes up 30 percent of waste in landfills, but that could increase to 100 percent because the product does not decompose.
Styrofoam may be cheaper than paper and glass, but in the long run it is much more costly. With our worsening environment, we cannot afford to skimp now.
Glass plates and cups are efficient alternatives to plastic foam. What we would lose in immediate convenience, we would make up for in a safer environment. Paper products also would be viable substitutes for foam.
By only looking at the bottom line, the unions miss the more serious problems — a deteriorating environment and unhealthy working conditions.
Grace Hobson for the editorial board
KU drivers in search of legal parking stalls are almost daily faced with a decision.
Should I park illegally, go to class and drop another $10 paying a parking ticket? Or should I run back home and see if I can still fall asleep?
Parking policy a headache
Such unenvirable choices make us all penniless delinquents. Every school day, in lot 90, south of Robinson Center, and lot 91, north of Spencer Museum of Art, metered parking stalls sit idly, while circling motorists curse.
In February, the Senate Executive Committee considered recommendations of the parking board. After receiving SenEx approval, the recommendations went to the University Council, where some of the proposals were combed out.
Students often will deride a Parking Services employee seen alongside a car, scribbling out a ticket. Or maybe they will vent their contempt at the people who wisely sit behind bars collecting money in Hoch Auditorium.
But the real culprit is bureaucracy. Changing parking policy can be a bigger headache than finding a decent space.
But the net recommendations, which include the elimination of 400 metered stalls from lot 90, finally will receive a hearing from the Board of Regents in June. If it approves the recommendations, the changes will be made in August, which is little consolation for those who spent $40 for a semester of frustration.
Regents policy mandates that parking changes run through each committee. That process wouldn't seem so tortorious if, in cases of extreme wrong, exceptions could be made, or at least early consideration given. Anyone who doubts that lot 90 is one such example should buy a yellow sticker.
Some students even have considered bringing a baseball bat to campus to tee off on a few meters and circumvent bureaucracy. But, then, that probably carries a higher fee.
James Farquhar for the editorial board
News staff
Julie Adam ... Editor
Karen Boring ... Managing editor
Jil Jones ... News editor
Deb Gruver ... Planning editor
James Fuarqhar ... Editorial editor
Elaine Sung ... Campus editor
Tom Simons ... Sports editor
Jennie Swatikowski ... Photo editor
Dave Eames ... Graphics editor
Neal Eames ... Art/Features editor
Tom Ethen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Debra Cole ... Business manager
Pam Nole ... Retail sales manager
Carmine Mampas ... Construction manager
Scott Frager ... National sales manager
Michelle Garland ... Promotions manager
Brad Lenhart ... Marketing manager
Linda Propp ... Production manager
Derek Martin ... Asst. production manager
Kim Coleman ... Co-op sales manager
Carl Cox ... Classification manager
Janne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Day in the slammer eye opening
Political science class gets a dose of reality at Kansas State Penitentiary
veryone should go to prison at least once
When my political science professor announced on the first day of class that we would have the opportunity to go to the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, I was excited by the prospect. I thought it would be like going to the zoo or a carnival sideshow.
What I got was a dose of reality.
Our tour guide was Bill Lucas, administrative assistant to the prison director. He had been working in corrections 12 years and knew many of the prisoners.
But Lucas doesn't refer to them as prisoners, he calls them "population." And as far as he's concerned, there is too much population at Lansing.
The number of prisoners at Lansing has decreased by about 1,000 in the past few years through transferring population to other prison facilities across the state. And some god has come of it, including the splitting up of what Lucas called the leaders and the "boy's girl-friends". But a new prison is imperative to the survival of the Kansas correction systems.
The tour we took seemed to be the no-holds-barred tour of the facility. When we arrived, Lucas gave us a little background information on the prison. The guards at the front desk stamped our hands with the light sensitive goo, which we needed to into and out of the maximum-security area.
Lucas told us that we should feel free to talk to any of the people in the room. He said, "You might even see someone you know."
Jill Jess News editor
No guns are carried in the prison. Instead, guards carry radios to communicate with each
other and to alert others of trouble. Lucas tried to demonstrate an emergency signal for us, but the batteries in his radio were dead. It was very reassuring.
Stocked with a new radio, however, our group was on its way. The first stop was the administration wing. If a face it, if you' ve seen one wing at administration wing, we've seen them all. I wanted to see prisoners
And after a security check through the ultraviolet light, I got my wish. We went to the vocational-technical area where prisoners were learning trades such as refrigeration and masonry. It was a bit disconcerting to see prisoners wandering around carrying welding tools. I stuck close to Lucas, and it wasn't just because I was taking notes.
Although we were the ones taking the tour, our group seemed to be as much on display as the prisoners. They peeked through windows at us and called to us through fences. But it still seemed more like an adventure than a trip through reality.
The stop in a maximum-security cellhouse brought things into perspective. We stood in front of the cells for about 10 minutes while Lucas entered the security system. But I didn't hear a word he said.
Prisoners yelled to each other and to us. "Hey."
you got a light?" "What college are you from?"
"Yeah, look at the monkeys. Do your best monkey face." "What's your last name?" "Not all of us are killers, you know." There were cat calls and other comments that would not be appropriate for print.
And although I was nervous and uncomfortable, suddenly these statistics, these exhibits in a cage, became people. These were human beings into cells into cells about the size of two bathroom stalls.
The best way to bring home the reality of a problem is to see it firsthand. Too often, people who have committed crimes are sent away and forgotten. Law-abiding citizens want to ignore the problems that these people, who are products of our society, are facing.
Lucas said that about 80 percent of the prison population had committed a drug-related crime or another crime while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He said that when they were straight, they were productive and relatively harmless.
That's not to say criminals should not be responsible for their actions, and it's certainly not to say I want some child molester or drug addict to grow up here crowding won't go away if we just ignore it.
A band-aid measure by the Legislature, such as the plan it recently passed to expand existing facilities, is not going to solve the problem. The plan does not improve with a little gauze and plastic tape.
Anyone who doesn't realize the severity of the problem should arrange a tour of the prison.
Jill Jess is a Lawrence senior majoring in journalism.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
Who's accountable?
This is in reference to the front page article in the April 7 Kansas concerning Watkins Memorial Health Center. James Strobl, Watkins director, was right when he told the reporter that "it was not policy to comment on personnel matters." But, that's not the issue. We, the students, are concerned about the obvious management problems that exist in human resources and in our operation in its existence, and we are paying for its operation. We have been paying more and more for less and less, even before the newly announced cutback of services.
To cite just one example: We are getting more Watkins ads and image propaganda and less professional medical services for our money. We can, and do, read health education magazines, newspapers, publications of federal and state governments and KU's own Student
Assistance Center, Professor Wayne Osness, a nationally recognized expert, and his able associates teach numerous health courses right next door to Watkins. Why have wasteful duplication at a cost of over $100,000 a year of training? How many Watkins own figures, which were distributed to the Student Senate March 13 as a matter of public record.
Using Watkins' own figures, why does it cost a quarter of a million dollars in salaries alone to administer this small clinic? A quarter of a million dollars of our mandatory 'restricted' fee money. Is it because of increasing costs, or is it unsupervised and inefficient management?
Who is watching our money? Who is checking on how and for what purposes our money is being spent? Is it the same person who "watched" the management of the student bus service when it received mandatory tax (restricted fee) increases while its director embezzled over a third of a million dollars of our money — which was never recovered?
Were these also personnel questions, or are they questions of accountability to the fee-payer?
Let's have a management audit of the health center. Let it be done by qualified outside care. Let it be done in an emergency room.
Audit Division. There are too many evasive answers and unanswered questions about Watkins' management. Let's have a hard-nosed look at management and sidestep Mr. Strobli's flippant "no comment." Hell, we are paying for it!
Note would mean a lot
Patrick McGrath Third year law student
I have been haunted by a remark made by Derek Schmidt in his recent column about a murdered friend: "I considered sending flowers or a note of condolence to her parents. But flowers wilt, and since we never met, my note would mean very little to them."
One of the most difficult aspects of dealing with the death of a loved one is a feeling of isolation, no matter how uncomfortable we may feel about the subject of death, no matter if we don't feel we know the right thing to do. You may feel that it grieving family and give them your support. To not say anything is to allow them to suffer alone. Write her parents. It will mean a great deal to them.
Ronald H. Legren
Lawrence graduate student
BLOOM COUNTY
bv Berke Breathed