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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THURSDAY, MARCH 30. 2006
OUR OPINION
Major indecision not a problem for students
PAGE 7A
For students who don't
Forcing high school students to pick doesn't help anyone. For students who already know what they want to do, the option is just a formal choice that shouldn't make a difference. These students would take the same classes anyway if the school offered them. If it doesn't offer courses that appeal to these students, they are out of luck anyway.
The state of Florida is considering making high school freshmen declare a major. The proposal, by Gov.Jeb Bush, has the intention of reducing the dropout rate of high school students by tailoring their schedules to their future career plans.
Nevermind that some college students can't even decide on what their major is. The University of Kansas doesn't even require its students to declare a major until the second semester of their sophomore years.
The University has no problem with students who are undecided. A brochure for the Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center says that it's fine not to know your major right away and that one of the primary objectives of the center is to help students choose one.
Issue: High-school students selecting majors
How many college students graduate with a major and then go on to do something unrelated?
Stance: Students should not be required to decide a career path so early in life.
The more the process of choosing a major is left open, the more freedom students have to truly find a major that interests them.
know, it narrows their options by forcing them to pick a major. A major would set a course track and limit the ability to see what appeals to a student by limiting his or her ability to sample a variety of classes.
- John Jordan for the editorial board
For every high school freshman who knows his major, there are plenty more who have no idea.
Who expects eighth graders to have their careers planned? And how many of them will stick with their choices?
Free for All
Call 864-0500
I can't wait until spring,
because spring means skirts
and skirts equal happiness.
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
you, frat boy
Repeat after me Crypto-
quote: F equals T, F equals T,
F equals T. Not that difficult if
you just try.
And now for a lesson in bus etiquette: It is gross to fart in a bus full of people. It is nasty to fart when you're standing in the middle of the aisle and your fart goes in someone's face. That's right, I'm talking to
You know you're a pot-head when you accidentally call one of your friends Vicky, because that's your pipe's
name
Jack Bauer has killed so many terrorists that at one point the fifth most-wanted on the CIA's hit list was an 18 year old from Malaysia who illegally downloaded "Dodgeball."
图
Hey. You know when you're a real big druggie, you sell your car to buy drugs.
That was awful, I'm sorry.
REXBADIN *SAMARANTE GEE*
If anybody ever disses on Brandon Rush again, I'm going to send a polar bear to
I swear, Lawrence drivers are the worst. Clinton Road is a 45-mile-per-hour zone, and they all drive 35. I'm gonna rear end one of them and then drive off. They won't be able to catch me. They can only go 35.
--dental Library & Museum.
Go ahead, call me a hippie liberal — even trees need hugs some times — but we all have something to learn from Bill Clinton's time in office.
Hope and courage can lead to building a better country
▼ COMMENTARY
If the road to Little Rock has revealed anything to me, it is this. We must overcome fear in order to deal with the challenges currently facing our country.
The first weekend of Spring Break was a dreary one, but not even the gray clouds and the rain could cover the obvious poverty in the Ozark regions of Missouri and Arkansas.
It is evident from the opinion polls, the public outcry, the media coverage and the international attention that America is not living up to its potential.
I went to Little Rock because it was a chance to spend some time with my father and get out of Lawrence. I wanted to know what Little Rock had to teach me about building a better America. I had the questions and I wanted answers.
I found part of my answer at the William J. Clinton Presi-
The leaning shacks and the long-abandoned farms on the road to Little Rock take those external ideas about the problems in our country and bring them home, right home. My father would call this a life lesson. John Locke, our philosophical Founding Father, would call it sufficient evidence for the necessity of change in government. I call it Interstate 540.
LIZ STUEWE opinion@kansan.com
This was part of my answer. In order to be a better country we must overcome our doubts and create a broad vision of a bright future for all Americans. But how do we do this?
Clinton once wrote, "If we are driven by our vision of a better future, we will achieve it." This vision is lacking in current politics. Neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party has offered us a vision of a better future for America.
The second step I made that day was at Little Rock Central High School, the site of the famous civil rights battle to racially integrate public schools in 1957. Central High is an intimidating brick and stone building that towers over everything else in the neighborhood. Next door a quaint, well-restored, 1950s gas station
houses a museum about the struggle. And somewhere in between the pictures of the black students being escorted to class by the 101st Airborne Division and the words of civil rights leaders urging a peaceful coexistence of the races, I found the second part of my answer.
How do we create a vision of a hopeful, prosperous future for all Americans? Courage. The strength and courage it took for those students to attend school under such hostile and violent conditions are an example for all of us.
President Clinton stated the challenge eloquently, "History has a habit of testing us — as individuals and as a nation—a habit of demanding that we choose between our hopes and fears, between our vision of how things ought to be and an acceptance of things as they are."
This is our test. It may not be pleasant or easy, but we need an inclusive vision, as individuals and a nation, that is based on hope for the future and not the fear of the present. And we can do this by showing courage in the face of adversity.
Stuewe is a Lawrence sophomore in political science and American studies.
Immigration issues require consideration, not dismissal
COMMENTARY
Immigration is a bewildering, complex problem for the United States with no clear antagonist. Who should be let in? What process should determine eligibility? Should we blame immigrants for wanting to become citizens of our country? There is no easy solution.
On one hand, Americans are somewhat culpable for the present crisis. Americans should be proud that others want to immigrate to our nation. It means that we have done something right. It means that we have something special that other people want to share in. Last time I checked, there was no great push from anyone to cross the border into China, Russia or any other country. Oppressed
and down-trodden people want to come here because we have what they do not: free markets, free speech, free press, and free religion; in a word, freedom. Our forebears saw this freedom and came running. And, now, we are free to enjoy the fruits of the sacrifices that they made.
Can we in good conscience deny that freedom to other people, even in the name of national security? Our nation has made such great strides toward promoting freedom; we cannot go on to say that these immigrants are not worthy of enjoying their freedom here, that they must do so in their respective native lands. Sure, security is a risk, and we must take every practical step to minimize
On the other hand, immigrants to the United States do not always help their situation. During demonstrations last week one might have thought that the protesters wanted Mexican, not United States citizenship. Not once did I see an American flag, only Mexican. It was reason-
that risk. But, we cannot summarily discount all foreigners as terrorists and drug dealers.
ANDREW SOUKUP opinion@kansan.com
able enough grounds to question where their true loyalties lie. Moreover, as long as our society continues to make special concessions to these new immigrants in schools, universities and the work place — such as in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants — it is questionable whether they will ever be fully assimilated into American society. If they are not assimilated into American society, they will always remain as marginalized, second-class citizens and never enjoy the true freedoms that our nation offers.
Again, this is a complex situation. Not all immigrants receive, or even ask for, special accommodation. Not all immigrants display such affection for the
nations they left behind. It bears repeating that we cannot just categorize all immigrants into the same stereotypes. But, stereotypes are always stereotypes for a reason. There are legitimate problems that require strong laws to be enforced. No program will be perfect in its clemency toward the demoralized and exploited, nor in its justice for those who seek to take advantage of American generosity and compassion. But, the answer does not lie on the poles of unrestricted amnesty or unmitigated xenophobia. There has to be a happy medium.
Soukup is a Lakin sophomore in linguistics.
To stay or not to stay: Graduates earn more
BETSY MCLEO
opinion@kansan.com
▼ COMMENTARY
Unfortunately, times have changed since the 1960s, and starting a computer company or becoming a world-class director isn't as easy as it used to be. These days, employers want degrees, not just talent, and it shows in the salaries of college graduates.According to the Times, men in their early 40s without a college degree made an average of $42,000 in 2000. Those with a four-year degree made $65,000.
I'm dropping out of school and moving to the beach. At least, that's what I tell myself at 3:00 a.m. with half a term paper done and another project to finish, for a subject I don't like and won't ever use. I'm in the sophomore slump, that period in college when I think to myself, "What the hell am I doing here?" When the pressure of college finally outweighs the distant hope of a six-figure paycheck, some students throw up their hands in frustration and say "screw it," retreating back to the safety of home to find a job or to regain sanity.
Maybe college isn't for everyone, and there's nothing wrong with taking a break from the hustle and bustle of academia. Do what makes you happy, even if that means dancing on a pole or bagging groceries. Life seems too short to waste on homework, but for now, I think I'll grit my teeth and bear it, because the next two years will set me up for my last few decades.
McLeod is an Overland Park sophomore in journalism.
TALK TO US
Not every successful person in the world has a college degree. Ted Turner, founder of CNN and TBS, was expelled from Brown University in 1960 for having a girl in his room. Woody Allen went to New York University, where he dropped out because of poor grades. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to pursue his computer career. According to the census bureau, as of March 2005 only 36.1 percent of the population had some sort of degree. Some students leave college, planning to return and finish their degrees later. According to the New York Times, "Almost one in three Americans in their mid-twenties now fall into this group, up from one in five in the late 1960s."
Jonathan Kealing, editor
864-8548 or jealking@kansan.com
Joshua Bickel, managing editor
864-8548 or jjsicke@kansan.com
Nate Karlin, managing editor
864-8548 or nklarlin@kansan.com
Jeason Shad, opinion editor
864-8524 or jahad@kansan.com
There's a general consensus that any young adult not enrolled in school is a deadbeat, stalled out on the road of life. For many of us, our parents and teachers are the ones who push college onto our plates, making us swallow the belief that without a college degree, we will die alone in a box somewhere. In England, it's customary to take a year off after secondary school to explore other options before committing to a university.
Patrick Rosa, associate opinion editor
864-4924 or prosae@kansan.com
Ari Ben, business manager
864-4462 or addirector@kansan.com
Sarah Connellly, sales manager
864-4462 or adales@kansan.com
Malecolm Gibson, general manager, news advisor
864-7667 or mgjblson@kansan.com
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing manager
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
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