Opinion The University Daily Kansan
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WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 27,2010
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FREE FOR ALL
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
To contribute to Free For All, visit Kansan.com or call (785) 864-0500.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
Back in the day, the Christmas season started after Thanksgiving, not after Halloween.
Taylor Swift has written my life story.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
One week until my life is complete. KU basketball, you complete me
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
The days where you don't text me are the worst.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
I'm in love.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
If I see Taylor Swift on campus, I'm going to interrupt whatever she's doing and recommend that Beyonce can do it better.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
The sexual tension on FFA is explosive. I feel like if posts included pictures, we'd all be hooking up.
What is with the sickos on campus and they always seem to be at Watson. Gross.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
Ignorance leads to stupidity. Not all young people are stupid and not all old people are wise.The disease of stupidity is an equal opportunity infection.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
My shirt is nerdier than yours.
Too many people are trying to have sex with me.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
Hey you damn woodchucks ...
Stop chuckin' my wood!
Excuse me, Blackboard, I would very much appreciate if you would stop hoarding my homework.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
I used 1.5 gigabytes of data my first month of having a smartphone.I think I have a problem
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
I like charming wit and intelligence.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
A walkie talkie!
I want to thank the guy riding around on those Razor scooters on campus ... totally made my day.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
BATTLE ROYALE!
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
Hey squirrels ... it's getting cold. Do you remember where your nuts are?
--the "now hiring" sign and thought it would be a good idea to apply. They hired me on the spot and I momentarily thought things were looking up.
LIFE EXPERIENCE
Low-wage work dreary, but helps build character
I attended "Confessions of a Recruiting Director" with career expert Brad Karsh a few weeks ago because I was desperate for resume advice in panic of approaching summer internship application deadlines.
According to Karsh, if a job or extracurricular activity wasn't an award-winning leadership experience pertaining to the job you are applying for it is best to only briefly mention it in a single bullet point or don't mention it at all in your resume.
After listening to Karsh's do's and don'ts of resume writing, I quickly decided it was time to clean up my resume. As I deleted my high school jobs off my resume, I couldn't help but wonder if those two years of experience were actually worth it.
The money earned from those near minimum-wage jobs was certainly all blown on ridiculous teenage garbage (like Hollister shirts that now collect dust in my closet at my parents) and the experience doesn't add anything to the resume of my future.
Take, for instance, my job as a "safari guide" (also known to common folk as a hostess) at Rainforest Cafe. Long story short, I had a hard few months after I quit my previous (and less degrading) job at the family bakery, my boyfriend broke up with me and most of my friends moved away to college.
But when I really think about it, those first two jobs did more for me than any job that Brad Karsh would consider to be resume-worthy.
So basically, I was suddenly broke, had way too much time on my hands and in a brief disillusioned moment of disparity. I saw
Texts in the City
BY MANDY MATNEY
But shortly after I was forced to wear the Steve Irwin-style uniform to work in an environment filled with demanding soccer moms, I understood why they were so desperate to hire people. But looking back, I learned a lot.
First of all, I learned the golden rule of life: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Before my time served in customer service, I never really realized the true effect a single complaint or rude remark can have.
After listening to hundreds of customer complaints and rude remarks, I've developed a remarkable skill for pretending to care and listen, smiling and nodding "yes ma'am/ sir," deep down inside. I just want to hit the customer in the head, ask where their manners were and demand an apology for treating humans with such disrespect. Turns out, this skill I perfected in my first jobs is unfortunately put to use constantly in my college life at school, work and play.
Secondly, through my first jobs I learned that it is impossible to get along with everyone although we are capable of respecting each other despite our sharp indifferences. To
say the least, Rainforest Café didn't exactly attract the type of people my stuck-up Johnson County self was used to. But I had to do what I could to get along with these people to make my paycheck.
For example, I worked with a strange man who took so much offense to the fact that I wasn't referring to the groups of people I was seating as "safaris" (as listed in our handy-dandy guides) that he told our manager and I was talked to because I was showing signs of "not taking the job seriously." I wanted to tell him he was a weirdo for being a 30-year-old host at Rainforest Cafe, but that wouldn't have helped our situation. I learned I had to treat the people I worked with the respect and decency I wanted from my coworkers in order to get through the hellish job and make the paycheck.
Finally, I learned the importance and respect of a hard-earned dollar. No feeling can replace receiving a paycheck you have put your sweat, blood and tears into.
A recent BusinessWeek article reported that only 46 percent of 16-to 24-year-olds are currently employed, which is the lowest it has been since the government starting keeping track in 1946.
Our generation needs to change this statistic and disregard previous negative beliefs of the less desirable jobs available. Low-paying jobs might not be "resume worthy", but they certainly give us a great taste of the real world and an altered, more mature sense of character.
Matney is a junior from Shawnee in journalism.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
I SAY THAT ANYONE WHO OPPOSES MY IDEAS IS RUNNING ON HATE AND FEAR. BUT I HAVE HOPE.
I HOPE THAT YOU HATE AND FEAR WHOEVER OBJECTS TO MY IDEAS!
NICHOLAS SAMBALUK
Fraternity has changed since death
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In response to the editorial from October 22, "Hazing code needs more clarity," the KU chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon takes issue with the implication that there may have been hazing in the fraternity when Jason Wren was a pledge. The author stated, erroneously, that KU changed its alcohol policies, but nothing else was done in response to Jason Wren's death. However, the Lawrence Police Department and the university conducted thorough investigations. Evidence of hazing was never uncovered. Furthermore, this incident was cited in order to support the author's opinion that all hazing allegations should be enforced equally and without fail. In doing so, the author implied that the death of Jason Wren was not fully investigated and that the rules against hazing were not enforced as they should have been.
This implication is unfounded and completely false.
The KU chapter of SAE does not haze its pledges. Anything that could lead to the physical or mental harm of a pledge is counterproductive to building a brotherhood. As a result, we have no use for hazing. We want our pledges to take pride in being a member of SAE—harming them in any way makes that goal harder to achieve. While we vehemently refute the implications of the editorial; we agree that hazing allegations should be fully investigated and regulations should be equally enforced.
图
Since the death of Jason Wren, SAE has enacted sweeping changes to the rules and enforcement of house policies. Hard liquor is prohibited on the property and beer can only be consumed by members who are over the age of 21. This is in addition to the strict
enforcement of existing rules on underage drinking. On April 16, 2010, SAE held its first annual Jason Wren Initiative with the purpose of educating college students on the dangers of alcohol. SAE will continue to focus on philanthropic and educational events, just as it has done for many years. As a chapter, we have grown from our initial lack of knowledge to become fully aware of the dangers of alcohol. Hopefully we can use the tragic events of March 8, 2009, to encourage responsible drinking at KU and universities throughout the U.S. SAE hopes that the men of Phi Gamma Delta can learn and grow from their own experiences, and we wish them the best during this difficult situation.
- Jeffrey Wilson is a senior from Destin, Florida in journalism.
POLITICS
Brownback needs clearer position on higher education
One can't help but wonder if Abraham Lincoln had gubernatorial
candidate Sen. Sam Brownback in mind when he said, "You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."
Brownback, the Republican seen as the prohibitive favorite to claim the governor's office, has little incentive to stake out firm positions on issues the next chief executive will confront. Better to conceal from Kansans his true agenda than to say anything that may thwart his cakewalk to Cedar Crest.
Look no further than Brownback's refusal to support the Board of Regents' Kansas Commitment. As Student Senate President Michael Wade Smith told the Lawrence Journal-World, the plan represents "a much-needed and vitally important step toward re-investing in our higher education system."
The $50 million proposal would help make up the increasing cost of education since 2007, fund facility repairs, and increase efforts to recruit students to critical-needs fields.
To be sure, there's a great deal of skepticism toward increased spending during a time of budget woes. But the Commitment is just the sort of investment needed to deliver returns for students struggling to meet the ever-rising challenges of completing higher education and a state sorely in need of a vibrant economy and well-educated workforce.
State Sen. Tom Holland, Brownback's Democratic opponent, responded to Smith's plea for support of the Commitment with an emphatic endorsement. And Brownback? His campaign spokeswoman told the Journal-World that Brownback plans to "stabilize funding for higher education." I suppose that's better than the presumed alternative destabilizing state support for its universities.
Politics on Campus
Taking platitudes out of politics would render most practitioners of the profession practically mute. But Brownback's unwillingness to speak in anything but the vaguest of vagaries on one of
BY LUKE BRINKER
lbrinker@kansan.com
the most critical issues facing the state and its universities rises to a new level of offense. It would be one thing if Brownback had countered the Regents' proposal with a plan of his own. But when pundits and prognosticators have pronounced you a lock to win the state's top job, why dabble in the details?
To be fair to the senator, he has stated his support for the University's effort to win designation as a national cancer research center. (In other news, Brownback has also come out in favor of baseball, apple pie and motherhood.)
Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor, had it right when he said that one campaigns in诗ait but governs in prose. But that axiom doesn't give politicians license to wage campaigns utterly devoid of substance.
Issues matter no more in 2010 than in any other year, but the lingering effects of the recession serve to underscore why elections matter. It's a shame, then, that so little attention has been devoted to Brownback's wishy-washiness on higher education.
Much discussion has centered on the unlikelihood of younger voters to replicate their relatively high turnout in the 2008 election, when they supported then-Sen. Barack Obama in droves. Polling supports the notion that young adults are more disengaged this year than they were two years ago. Persistently high unemployment and the inability of Obama to wave a magic wand and dispel all our national troubles largely explain this.
But the contrast in the two gubernatorial candidates' stances on higher education shows why, now as much as ever, students should make their voices heard on Nov. 2.
Brinker is a sophomore from Topeka in history.
Chatterbox Responses to the news of the week on Kansan.com
"Personally I think a large part of sexual "orientation" revolves around culture. Change the culture, and you change the norms. For instance, if you examine prisons or other places with all male or all-female populations, you will see homosexuality rates skyrocket. Clearly, that is not a case of being "born" one way, but "raised" a certain way due to culture - and when that changes, so can lots of things."
— "NarCarp" in response to "Those against equality share in deaths" on Oct. 22.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
MEMBERS OF THE Kkanan EDITorial Board are Alex Garrison, Nicky Gerik, Erin Brown, David Jonathan Slauson and Shaun Wilson.