4A
Thursday, April 13, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: CAMPUS GROUP REGULATIONS
Campus contributions marred
The Organizations and Activities Center registers and offers many resources for student organizations and the general student population that those organizations serve. Many of the organizations at the OAC target specific populations or represent a particular point of view that may be seen as political and are thereby viewed by some as being activist organizations.
Many of the organizations at the OAC that are activist groups have made many contributions to the campus and the community. Whether it be a push for social, environmental or spiritual awareness, the OAC and the organizations that it encompasses are at the forefront of change in our community.
However, since many of the nonacademic groups on campus are viewed by some to be somewhat radical, they are often under public scrutiny for things other than the services that they provide. The good that has been done by such on-campus groups
Conducting their own background checks can help organizations protect themselves from embarrassment.
can quickly be forgotten when a scandal erupts involving one prominent member of the group.
The OAC and the student, campus and community organizations that it houses should protect themselves from the damage that one person's questionable past can cause. One way to protect themselves would be to run an inexpensive criminal background check on OAC organization leaders, such as the one recently done by the Kansan . Although this may seem like a privacy invasion, the OAC would not have to release any information it might find. Also, a felony conviction in someone's past would not necessarily rule out holding a student leadership position, but it would assist the organization in making responsible decisions regarding their leaders.
JOHN BENNETT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
Spectators should strike, too
A specter is haunting baseball — the specter of arrogance, greed, immaturity, stupidity, feeble mindedness, ignominy, irrationality and braggadocio.
More than a spectra, though, it is a stench. The time has come for fans of baseball, if there are any left, to reject this stench. The only way to let the professional participants of baseball (people who strike more than they play hardly can be referred to as players) know that fans are rejecting their stench is for the fans to go on strike.
Perhaps you have heard of this word. In case you have not, here is quick definition. A strike is an organized movement by a group of people, referred to as a union, who individually do not have much bargaining leverage but collectively can be fairly powerful. Unions are historically an oppressed and poor group of people. This theory is apparently antiquated because today people in
An opening-day boycott by all baseball fans would cause distress within the rich, spoiled major-league echelon.
certain professions that have a job description of working outdoors and an average salary of more than $1 million apparently feel that these job benefits are no longer acceptable, and therefore they too feel justified in forming a union. Just as this certain group people went on strike so should the fans.
It is the right and duty of every fan to go on strike on opening day. Opening day is the best day of the season to strike because it is essentially the only day of the season when every game is a sellout. This strike must be short. Strikes that continue for any length of time, for instance 200 days, usually lose their strength and just end in a quagmire. No, this must be a one-day strike. Fans of all teams, unite.
TIM MUIR FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
DENISE NEIL
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
Editors
JENNIFER PERRIER
Business manager
MARK MASTRO
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
News...Carlos Tejada
Planning...Mark Martin
Editorial...Matt Gowen
Associate Editorial...Heather Lawnz
Campus...David Wilson
Colleen McCain
Sports...Gerry Fey
Associate Sports...Ashley Miller
Photo...Jamie Lanoe
Associate Photo...Paul Kotz
Features...Nathan Oleson
Design...Brian James
Presidence...Susan White
Business Staff
Campus mgr ...Beth Pots
Regional mgr ...Chris Branaman
National mgr ..Shelly Favelsi
Coop mgr ..Kelly Connealy
Special Sections mgr ..Brigg Bloomquist
Production mgrs ..JJ Cook
Hymman Klim
Marketing director ..Mindy Blum
Promotions director ..Justin Frosolone
Creative director ..Dian Gler
Classified mgr ..Lissa Kulseth
Robert Tapley / KANSAN
Narrow-minded Kansan editor tells version of 'truth'
In Thursday's Kansan, editor Stephen Martino attempted to justify his outrageous behavior in the name of a naive quest for the truth. It is not a particularly surprising explanation, given that Martino is a member of that privileged class of humans in our society who are allowed to determine for the rest of us what is true. In fact, as the self-righteousness of his explanation clearly demonstrates, Martino has never questioned the fact that in our society there are people who act for reasons that he can not understand
Further, if he and the writers at the Kansan are so entirely driven by "The Truth," why then did Thursday's front-page article sensationalize that truth to focus the reader's attention on the charges brought against Eric Moore, rather than on the fact of the conviction? An inexcusable wrong was committed by Moore, but it was not the one that most readers of that article were methodically led to assume. If Martino agonized about this situation with the care and concern that he claims, one can only read the article published with an equally attentive concern and judge his misrepresentation of "The Truth" as deliberate.
know better than that person the reasons for his or her behavior.
Martino claims that "the Kansan knew (Moore's reasons for resigning) to be false." How dare Martino attempt to justify the vilification of an individual on the presumptive belief that Martino could possibly
GUEST COLUMNIST
Again, the privilege assigned in our country to a certain group of men allows them to believe that such a thing is possible and that it is their responsibility to tell us what to believe. The clear lack of understanding of HIV, AIDS and the necessary health concerns surrounding i.
demonstrates the destructiveness of Martino's belief in his brand of truth. To Martino, Moore's illness was nothing more than an excuse: something to hide behind.
Martino's headline on the front page article, "LesBiGay director quits amid controversy," exhibits the way he tries to tell us what to believe. The only real controversy was at the Kansan; whether to be an individual attempting to save his own life or to pursue a naive version of the truth. There was no controversy prior to the article's publication. Moore must either protect his health very carefully or die.
Surviving with HIV is a skill, and the results are a prolonged life.
When Martino claims that the Kansan knew Moore's reasons for stepping down to be false, he overlooks the fact that at this point, Moore's continued existence on this planet must be of more concern to him than anything else. The simple fact is that when Moore learned that the Kansan might publish his criminal record, he realized the impact that the situation would have on his health: an immunological disaster brought on by extreme dures. He
had only one hope. If he stepped down as a public figure, he might spare himself that scrutiny and thus spare his immune system further damage.
Moore committed a reprehensible crime. LesBiGay Services of Kansas and Lesbigay communities everywhere, unequivocally deplore the sexual abuse of children. Although Moore served the legal sentence for his crime, he clearly will never be able to right the wrong he committed. One might see, however, in the past two years of Moore's dedication to fighting injustice in a variety of areas, an attempt to do everything possible to make a positive contribution to society. I wonder if Martino will accept the responsibility to live his life knowing that he will never be able to make up for the results of the imposition of his naive belief in one sole truth: his.
Scott Manning is a Lawrence graduate student and the acting director of LesBibGay OK.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Moore's police record was sensationalized
Matt Wong's column in Friday's Kansan was a balanced, responsible reaction to a potentially volatile situation. The story in question was irresponsible and sensationalized.
I was among the protesters who helped carry the load of papers up the Hill toward the pile. I thought hard about what I was doing and why it was important. As a writer, I am greatly concerned about First Amendment rights. I treasure my own so much that I will even defend the rights of those whose views I find repugnant, a.k.a. the Rev. Fred Phelps or the KKK. However, while Moore's resignation from LesBiGay Services of Kansas, perhaps including his statements about his HIV status, would comprise one story, the disclosure of his police record was another. It should have shared space with similar information: the details of the police records of other Student Senate candidates, which was buried on the third page. Moore's police record is no more, or less, relevant than those of the other two candidates mentioned and for that reason should have been
restricted to the same space. In light of the fact that last week was LesBiGayS OK Awareness Week and the last week before Senate elections, the Kansan's treatment of this issue was sensationalist, tabloid journalism.
Ted Fleming
Lawrence freshman
Kansan staff, editors did the right thing
I have to say that I support wholeheartedly the Kansan's decision to run the controversial Eric Moore story.
First, may I remind some students of the Darren Fulcher controversy of 1991. Fulcher's past criminal records were not made public when first discovered by a Kansan reporter. When the Kansan finally published a report that Fulcher had charges of abuse on his record, the campus was outraged that the Kansan had not disclosed the information sooner.
This time the Kansan printed information that it felt the students of this campus should know as soon as it was uncovered. There was a very different reaction this
time around. Instead of praising the Kansan for timely reporting, people were outraged that the controversial issue was published, period.
Second, I was terribly disappointed in the action taken by the students who felt it was their duty to protect their peers from the controversial article printed in last Thursday's Kansan. There are certainly better ways to protest than censoring a publication.
I was further disappointed by fliers posted on campus depicting the Kansan editor as some sort of tabloid journalist. Did Steve Martino publish that article for personal satisfaction or to stir things up? I think not. I think that Martino was doing his job — he was printing the news. I also noticed that Martino had the nerve to identify that it was his decision to run the story — he was obviously prepared to take the heat. Whoever made up the fliers did not. What does that say to you?
The Kansan is not going to please everyone all the time — that is not its job. I applaud the Kansan and its staff for having the courage to publish this story
Danielle Raymond Wilmette, Ill., senior
I'm not against the academics of college,just the mechanics
I'm going to get an "F" in a class this semester, and I just don't care.
Yes, this is a sort of anti-academic column. But before you throw your copy of the Norton Anthology of Literature at me and declare me the education antichrist, please read on. It's not the idea of education that
STAFF COLUMNIST
suddenly has become anathema. Instead, the mechanics of enlightening oneself suddenly have become too much of a burden.
I realized this when, while cleaning out my Kansan mailbox, I discovered a drop card that had been sent to me through cam-
push mail. I had received it one month before, after a conversation with the teaching assistant who was running the guitar class I had signed up for in October but never attended.
In January, just as I was about to head off to the class, a friend told me it had been canceled. Nice, I said, and found something thoroughly unconstructive to do with the sudden two extra hours in my week.
So imagine my surprise when I got a call in late February from a woman who claimed to be the teacher for this class, and she claimed I hadn't shown up for a single session, and she claimed I would fail her class if didn't drop it.
Oops.
The teacher was nice enough to send me a drop card through campus mail. When I received it, I thought to myself how nice it was for her to do that — then chucked it into my mailbox and thus into official paper damnation. When I finally found (and remembered) it during my monthly mailbox cleanout, the last day to drop a class already had passed.
Oops again.
The folks at the enrollment center told me I had to go to the School of Fine Arts, file for a petition to drop, talk to deans and associate deans and whatnot. And I decided not to bother. I'm a graduating senior. I only have to pass two of my classes to get my diploma. I no longer have to keep up my grades for scholarship. In the midst of everything else that had been going on in my life, this seemed dreadfully unimportant. But a larger issue also is influencing my lack of interest. It's taken me four years, but I've finally realized what I've learned in a class isn't necessarily reflected in my grades. The lessons I've learned in KU classrooms — the lessons that will stay with me for the rest of my life — didn't always translate into "A's on my report card. I've finally realized that academia isn't for me because the mechanics of it — drop cards, the add-drop line, grades, page-length requirements, petitions to graduate, etc. — tend to confuse my learning process.
This message shouldn't keep people from doing well in school. The last thing I want is freshmen hanging this column on their walls and using it as an excuse to major in beer.
But when these freshman finish their education, I hope they realize their education isn't contained on their final report cards. Their education came from the books they read, the equations they finished, the projects they designed, the professors they listened to and — most important — the people different from themselves they met at KU.
Too bad they don't get grades for those lessons. Then, an "F" would truly disappoint me.
Carlos Tejada is a Lawrence senior in Journalism.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin