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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
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OUR OPINION
Graduating students should indulge senioritis
Spring Break is over and there's less than two months of classes left this semester. If you're a senior — graduating, that is — it's time to start thinking about senioritis.
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2006
Don't be afraid to give in to this thinking.
There's more beers at the Crossing, more skipped classes and more of the "Yeah, this paper's not going to get any better" rationale.
It's natural. In the last two months of schooling, students can treat themselves before that first job, that first big move or that first indefinite stay at their parents' home. There has been plenty of time to be a good student and there will be plenty of time to do well in the real world. Give yourself a little pat on the back during this transition, if you've earned it.
College is, after all, about more than just school.
Don't be stupid about it, of course. Not graduating or nearly not graduating because you didn't have the fortitude to go to classes or get work done isn't senioritis, it's moronitis.
But there's one group of students to whom this affliction's aftermath will affect more: Those who are continuing their education.
Students temporarily forgoing their foray into the real world to get more education will have their final transcripts noted.
Graduate and other post-graduate professional schools require students to turn in a transcript after graduation. Of course, by this time the student will have already been accepted into his or her school. But senioritis isn't an excuse for that odd looking 'D' in the Art of Walking class you snuck in during your senior year.
Issue: Slacking off before graduation
Stance: Seniors deserve relaxation, but they should remember how grades affect admission to post-graduate institutions.
For these students, the well-intended advice to keep studying, keep reading textbooks and keep going to class rings truer. Not only will their final senior marks be scrutinized more by schools than employers, but these students' diligence during these warm months will be appreciated more
A solid final semester gives the impression of gearing up for more rigorous study. It shows the avoidance of the habitual let-down at the end of school.
Both traits smack of being ready for post-graduate work.
And, unfortunately, and maybe unfairly, senioritis doesn't really apply to these students. The Urban Dictionary defines senioritis as an crippling disease that strikes seniors, causing laziness and a lack of studying. These undergrads aren't near the end of their college careers quite yet.
Save it for the third year of law school or the end of a masters program in economics. (Senioritis is not recommended for or diagnosed by most medical students).
Or, if you're really assiduous, go for "doctorateitis." There is nothing like the release of coasting for two months after 10 years of schooling. You'll have really earned it then.
- John Jordan for the editorial board
Free All for Call 864-0500
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.
So I'm in Vegas right now and a guy just asked me what state Kansas was in. Wow, it's really Vegas.
not good movies to watch if you want to get play.
To all the young men at the University of Kansas, if your name is Bradley, don't even think about giving me your number.
not good movies to watch if you want to get play.
I just pooped a chiclet.
not good movies to watch if you want to get play.
You know you're a pothead when you almost cry vacuuming out the bottom of your car.
Spring break in Manhattan sucks.
Hey Free-for-All, just calling to say happy spring break. Aw man, I got barbecue sauce on my hands.
Chuck Norris is who Willis was talking about.
Holocaust movies are
Watch out Texas, now Kansans can carry concealed guns, too.
--of the keys
Will you take me to Taco Bell? Oh, this is just an answering machine? Fine, I'll get it myself.
Phoggy Dog, I know I'm moving kind of fast, but will you be my girlfriend?
John Goodman fights for what he believes in.
Saying that you graduated from K-State is about like bragging that you used to live in Leavenworth Prison.
Is it sad that Ace of Bass is on the radio and I'm totally rocking out right now?
Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half hour torturing himself until he gave up the location
When I smoke a cigar, it makes my head light and my pants tight.
God bless everybody that sacrificed their spring break to go and help clean up Katrina. You guys are amazing.
Jonathan Kealing, editor
864-4854 or jaeking@kansan.com
Joshua Bickel, manager
864-4854 or jbickel@kansan.com
Nate Karlin, managing editor
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Jason Shad, opinion editor
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TALK TO US
Patrick Ross, associate opinion editor
864-4324 or press@kansan.com
As concern increases, future of avian flu is up in the air
Sarah Connelly, sales manager
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Arl Ben, business manager
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Malcimco Gbenn, general manager, news adviser
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▼ COMMENTARY
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser 86-7866 or weaver@kansan.com
As avian bird flu marches across Asia and Europe, talk of pandemic — worldwide illness caused by a virus no one has immunity to — is in every newspaper and on every radio and television.
Jason Shad, opinion editor
84-4924 or jshaad@kansan.com
Scientists, pharmaceutical companies and government officials are preparing for bird flu's potential arrival in the United States by tightening tracking of migratory birds, monitoring influenza cases more closely, stockpiling antiviral drugs and developing plans for vaccination and quarantine should a pandemic occur.
In the town of Iblisi, Georgia, near Russia and Turkey. two young girls died of a common strain of influenza, not bird flu. Yet the whole town has nearly shut down. School attendance decreased by half, restaurants stopped serving chicken and eggs, and the streets are emptier because people are simply staying indoors, reported the New York Times.
The psychological effects of a potential pandemic seem as serious as the physical ones. People could react as they did to Mad Cow disease — in this case, cutting out chicken to be on the safe side, which could harm the poultry industry. It has done so in Asia and Europe.
The usual conspiracy theories emerge, too. Tamiflu is manufactured by Roche, the pharmaceutical company that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld owns stock in. According to The Insider, a United Kingdom online journal
BIRD FLU FACTS
BECCA EVANHOE
opinion@kansan.com
avian flu, an influenza virus of the type H5N1, to develop into a pandemic ten years ago, said Gianofranco Pezzino, director of the Kansas Health Institute.
Although it shows signs of "pre-pandemic behavior," such as mutating into new strains and having potential to infect humans, H5N1 isn't classified as a pandemic. It's not global, and as it exists now, the virus only transfers from birds to humans — not from one human to another.
As.of March, 2006:
And it doesn't seem likely to transfer between humans anytime soon. In studies published by researchers in Japan and Holland, the virus stays too deep in the lungs to be transferred by coughing and sneezing, like the common, seasonal flu is.
But if H5N1 doesn't develop into a pandemic, some other virus probably will, and soon. As for which virus or where it will come from, it's all educated guesswork at best.
Bird flu is found in 45 countries.
"Viruses can always surprise. Viruses do what viruses do. And we don't know as much as we'd like to think we do," said Gail Hansen, state epidemiologist with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
The bottom line is that viruses will always keen scientists oussine
150 million birds have died or have been exter minated because of the virus.
It's this lack of a sense of control that needs to be battled the most. Preparation is necessary, both to quell the fears of American citizens and to stop or slow a pandemic if it strikes.
Evanhoe is a Derby senior in chemistry.
At least 150 bird species have been infected
The answer to that question is scary: Nobody really knows.
H5N1 has infected 179 people in eight different countries since 2000. Of those, 78 died.
devoted to conspiracy theories, he's made $5 million off of it. Other theories say that H5N1 fears — and preparation and protection from H5N1 — are played up by the Bush administration to restore people's faith in the government after Hurricane Katrina.
Many scientists expected
PAGE 5A
But is all of the chatter simply the result of an overactive media, or of a government made nervous by nature because of Hurricane Katrina? What are the real probabilities of avian flu developing into a pandemic?
GRE is better measure than GPA
YOUR OPINION
Fellow seniors, if you've got some things you still want to do before you go off to the rest of your life, then the time is now. Younger classmates, you may have a bit longer. Regardless of classification, though, I give you this advice: Risk failure and go about your affairs so that your memory of them will be as devoid of the pangs of regret as possible. Then you will never be left wondering to yourself, "Did I miss out on something?"
"I hardly think GPAs are a better measure of a student's potential success. Grades are the equivalent to wooden nickels in academia. How
many times have you or a student you known negotiated their way to a better grade? How many times has a 78 percent gotten bumped up to an 80 percent, or a B by some charitable teacher? How many student take classes taught by teachers with the reputation of going easy in the gradebook and evading the teachers who
force you to earn your grade? Grades were a joke in high school and continue to be in undergraduate courses. I, for one, am glad that schools have gotten hip to the fraud that the letter grade system is and started forcing students to earn their way into admission with an objective measure of a student's skills."
Editor's note: The comment below is an online response to a March 17 letter-to-the-editor entitled, "Too much emphasis placed on GRE." The comment appears unedited.
Yet the converse of this is just as poisonous — unless we remember our short-comings, we may be apt to attribute more to ourselves than we have earned, feeling smug and beyond the trouble of engaging ourselves in new and worthy causes.
For seniors it's time for reflection
COMMENTARY
SCOTT SHORTEN opinion@kansan.com
For many of us seniors whose undergraduate careers have come nearly to an end, we have a fleeting chance to take one last moment amidst our other daily events and chaos, to reflect on all that we have done with our time at this university. And more importantly, if necessary, to use what little time we have left at our disposal to tie up some of those more slippery objectives.
Shorten is a Stillwell senior in business administration.
As for myself, I have often thought about my four years here—mostly wondering whether if, in two months, I will walk away from KU knowing that I did all I could to make my college experience worthwhile from educational, organizational and, as equally important I think, social viewpoints. Will I look back on the University and beam with pride of the things I may have been able to accomplish for myself, or will I focus instead on the fact that I left so much undone and so many opportunities unrealized? Will I recall more vividly the things I have taken great satisfaction in, or the things of which I've been greatly ashamed?
Either way, I think that we would all be well-advised to appreciate both the positives and the negatives as necessary and important: The pride of successes for allowing us to hold ourselves in high esteem as we move forward into future challenges; the shame of our errors and pains of our defeats as prickly fiends to our otherwise complacent consciences, driving us to reconcilc our hearts and to rectify our wounded self-confidence. Without our pride, we run the risk of fading into the masses of men and women who lead, as Thoreau suggests, "lives of quiet desperation."
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