4A
Friday, March 17, 1995
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: SPRING BREAK CAUTIONS
Week-long break is a time for fun but not without planning
Now that spring break has arrived, the editorial board would like to remind everyone of those tedious yet important things that college students inevitably forget when they are turned loose for nine days of freedom.
First, let your parents know where you will be at all times. The general phrase, "I'll be within a 500-mile radius" will work. This will make it much easier for the search helicopters to find you when you pass out from too much relaxation.
Second, if you are taking a long road trip, pack lots of water, snacks and whatever else comes to mind so you don't have to waste money stopping at a convenience store every other hour.
Third — this is especially important for those who will be road tripping the majority of spring break — take plenty of clean underwear. Didn't your mother
Annual recreation and rest ritual still prompts reminders to have fun and be reasonably careful and cautious.
ever tell you that the most embarrassing thing you could do to yourself is to be in a car wreck, get taken to the hospital and not be wearing any underwear because every pair you own is dirty?
In all seriousness, though, party with care. Most students get through the week with a minimum of damage or problems. Take care so that you are not involved in an auto accident. And always go out in groups because there's safety in numbers.
Finally, and most important of all, no matter what you are doing for spring break, remember to relax, drain your body of built-up stress, and remember that there are only six more weeks of school after break.
AMY TRAINER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: ASSIGNMENTS OVER THE BREAK
Albeit wishful thinking,try to plan ahead for what lies ahead
Spring has arrived and not a moment too soon.
All the signs that make spring in Kansas so unique are taking shape — snow and bone-chilling cold one day, 70-degree weather with hurricane-like conditions the next.
Another sure sign of spring is a noticeable improvement in students' outlooks as they prepare for the yearly migration to warmer climes known as springbreak.
Most students' ideal spring break includes leaving the books, papers and projects as far away as possible to gather dust in some dark corner of the bedroom while keeping the suntan lotion and malt beverages close at hand.
This is an admirable goal, for which the week-long sojourn was established. Unfortunately, in the hands of overzealous students, spring break can have the unintended consequence
Spring break means taking a break from school, but don't forget to plan for projects and papers coming due.
of wrecking what would otherwise have been a successful academic semester.
Before throwing the books under the bed with the winter coat, cap and gloves, consider how a little careful planning could help avoid an academic crisis after spring break.
If this planning includes bringing a book or two with you during the break, or even working a little extra the few days before you leave, remember that time and semester projects wait for no one. And never will that be clearer than when you return to an insurmountable load of classwork.
A little forethought could help make those Spring Break experiences carry over to the rest of the year.
JOHN COLLAR 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 Lewenzon
Campus...David Wilson
Colleen McCain
Sports...Gerry Fey
Associate Sports...Ashley Miller
Jamie Lance
Associate Photo...Paul Kotz
Features...Nathan Glou
Design...Brian James
Freelance...Susan White
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Beth Pole
Regional mgr ... Chris Branaman
National mgr ... Shelly Falvites
Coop mgr ... Kelly Connelys
Special Sections mgr ... Brigg Bloomquist
Production mgrs ... JJ Cook
Klm Hyman
Marketing director ... Mindy Blum
Promotions director .. Justin Frosolone
Creative director .. Dan Gier
Classified mgr .. Lissa Kulseth
I'm glad people disagree with me,
I'm glad I offended you, and I'm glad there have been responses that have, in some ways, offended me.
I've learned from them and can only hope you've learned something from me.
Long ago, on learning that I would be allowed to write this column, I made myself a couple of important rules. First, I would not name any names, unless of course they were names of big-shots. Second, I would not, under any provocation, respond to any letters.
Columnist looks forward to negative reader responses
Otherwise, why read the opinions of other people in the first place?
Oh well, what are rules for, if not to be broken?
It seems that little out' me managed to annoy the hell out of a few people. And all I can say by way of apology is good.
I have been in an informal race with one or two other columnists to see who could offend somebody the quickest.
This job's description has nothing in it about being nice or supporting the views of the entire campus. As far as I can tell, we're supposed to agitate, annoy, bother and upset as many people as possible.
Now, let's look at this from an educational standpoint. More moron (let's use myself as example) writes a column on literature or privacy. Reader X, bored, turns to the editorial page. This reader begins to scan the words and, oh my gosh, there's something that there that dislikes. Well that's enough of that, he thinks, and a letter is sent off to the editor complaining about the columnist's
total lack of basic intelligence or understanding.
So what happens over here? Are we, the poor misinformed columnists called before the editorial review board and told to shape up or ship out?
Hell no. We are told someone sent in a nasty letter, and we
Would Bambi have been as effective if the hunter never caught his mother or if the forest hadn't caught fire? Would Henry V been as a good play if the king were noble and forrightthe whole time? Would Huckleberry Finn have lasted this long if there hadn't been racist issues involved?
STAFF
COLUMNIST
look at the editor in question and say, with great worry and fear in our voices, "Cool. That's two for me." Then we go on our merry ways.
This isn't to say no one should read this and write in response. Actually, I have quite a lot of respect for those individuals who actually consider how these opinions impact them. These are the readers l, and those who share this page with me, hope for because these are the people who actually think about what we've said and get off their butts long enough to tell us when we are wrong.
Challenging one's beliefs is what the concept of education is all
Isaac Bell Is a Lawrence junior in English.
about. Sure, columnists are primarily here for entertainment, but entertainment does not have to be trivial to be enjoyable. The best movies, books or plays are the ones that challenge the audience, that force us to say, "What the hell?" I love to read, but I hate to read books that never once force me to disagree with a character's behavior or beliefs. Why watch something where everything that happens is nice and pleasant?
Don't believe me?
Affirmative Action is more than quotas
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I was troubled by the Feb. 21 editorial on Affirmative Action written by Lance Hamby and Chris Vine for the editorial board. If it is in fact the case that the Kansan editorial board as a whole endorses the viewpoint set forth, I am saddened as well. From my perspective, the editorial demonstrates a lack of understanding of how Affirmative Action works or whom it benefits. Affirmative Action does not have to do with quotas or with special privileges to people who are not qualified to succeed. Nor does it focus primarily on racial minorities, though they were the focus of your editorial.
What Affirmative Action has
done is open doors. It has not guaranteed admission to school or success in school any more than it has guaranteed jobs or job security to people from "protected classes." Once the doors are open, it is up to women, minorities, people of various national origins or different religions to succeed. Has it worked? I would submit that it has worked at the University of Kansas. In 1965, one year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, women comprised only 36.5 percent of the KU student body. Thirty years later, more than 50 percent of our students are women. KU in 1965 was an open admissions University, just as it is today, so there was no change in admissions policy to account for the change in representation. What did change was attitudes and expectations.
Many of us (women, minorities
I suggest that you do some research on the relevant laws and their effects before you attempt again to address such a complex and historically significant issue.
and others from "protected classes") who were students in the 1960s and 1970s would not have had the same opportunities a generation earlier. However, once offered the opportunity — for education or employment — the responsibility for succeeding has been with us. There are at this University a number of women and minorities who are in positions that a generation ago, due to habit or tradition, would have been filled by white men. However, we retain those positions not because of our race or sex but because of the quality of work we do.
Jeannette A. Johnson Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor
Baseball 'union a far cry from the organization it represents
Call me old-fashioned, but I think real labor unions should be
We should note what an utterly senseless notion it is to have a union made up of men whose job description includes hitting screwballs and standing around adjusting their athletic cups.
made up of men and women bound to one another by shared hate of their bosses and a mutual love of unfiltered cigarettes. This clearly is not the case in professional baseball, where the members are bound only by narcissism and a shared stink of
Ben-Gay. Let me give another example of the way millionaire professional baseball players have wrongly procured a working-class vocabulary, as if to gain sympathy for their fight against the millionaire owners.
The idea of baseball players getting together for collective bargaining doesn't wash. Bargaining is something you do when you're at a garage sale and really want a 40-year-old wet-dry vacuum. Or, it's when you're visiting Mexico and haggle on the price of a Coke, getting it at the low price of 6 million pesos (67 cents).
Professional baseball players don't even do the bargaining themselves — they have their lawyers do it. Any intelligent American knows that if a lawyer is involved, you're no longer bargaining. God help you, you've just started negotiating.
It's clear that professional baseball players have misusing union and collective bargaining. Should we stop referring to the baseball-players union and start talking about that gang of whiny, spoiled, tobacco-spitting babies? Probably.
First, players should demand that owners replace the traditional baseball uniform with the following:
MIXED MEDIA
But if baseball players really want to be called a union, they can make the necessary changes. To regain public support, to renew our proletariat sympathies, the players must drastically revise their contract demands. The changes also would go a long way toward making a boring game seem interesting.
Secondly, players must demand to be forced by the manager — who now is called boss — to work at another task when they are out of the game or waiting to bat. Instead of riding the pine when not on the field, players now should cut the grass, chalk the field or sell food in the stands. Can you imagine the joy of buying a "PLUMPER HOT DOG!" or an "ICE COLD COKE!" from Ken Griffey Jr. or David Cohn?
Lastly, players must not end the strike until they receive assurance of a fifteen-minute smoke break between the third and the fourth innings, as well another during the seventh-inning stretch. Why? You can't have a union if you don't have a smoke break.
Chris Reedy is a Topeka Junior in English and phloseology.
Jeans, preferably threadbare and stained with oil
■ Blue polyester shirts, complete with patches for the name and union numbers (Players' Local #409)
Traditional baseball stirrups worn with work boots.
By Jack Ohman