Friday, Jan. 31, 1986
Mailbox
University Daily Kansan
5
The right to stand
Where do they get off taking our seats away from us? If the reserved seat ticket holders wish to remain seated, then they can sit somewhere else. I'd suggest at home in front of their television, where they probably spend most of their time anyway. Or they can listen to it on the new KLZERO radio.
Nobody, I repeat, nobody is going to tell me when to sit at a 'Hawks game and expect me to respond like a well-trained dog! The University of Kansas Athletic Corporation has
Nobody, I repeat, nobody is going to tell me when to sit at a 'Hawks game and expect me to respond like a welltrained dog! Dan Cavanaugh
Dan Cavanaugh Overland Park senior
gone too far! They have blatantly robbed fans of our right to freedom of expression.
I suppose next the alumni will be irritated by the volume level of the crowd. Then all of the administrative yes men will be handing out more threatening letters to the students ordering silence except to applaud an outstanding play.
Well, I for one am not going to take this sitting down, and I am hope all fans
who share my view on this issue will show their solidarity by joining me in boycotting the concession stands at the ball games from now on.
And if that doesn't work, we can hold a stand-in at Anthony Redwood's office.
It seems to me there are plenty of alternatives to putting all of the students in the rafters. There could be a section from floor to ceiling for students who wish to stand. There could also be a section from floor to ceiling for short, fat and lazy fans who wish to sit.
Dan Cavanaugh Overland Park senior
And finally, there could even be a section for the alumni to sit in silence, preferably in the parking lot.
Questions were wrong
A Jan. 16 Kansan article cited figures from a poll showing that 80-90 percent of the general public "believed" the news and gave the news organizations a "favorable" rating.
The results were hardly a surprise. With a steady diet of 30-second news briefs (with hardly 10 seconds of useful information) and items of trivia filling up most daily newspapers, the general public does not receive anything substantive to question.
Non-news (nonsubstantive trivia)
has by its very nature items which
can only be true. (Example: President
Reagan had a meeting today.
They talked.) Telling me the public
believes the news is not telling me
anything, nor does it enhance the image
I have of the current news
business.
What the poll should have asked the public were things such as: Did you receive any substantial information on the news? Do you really care that the people reading the news are Cynthia Smith or Phil Witt or your next door neighbor? Do your really like to be told every half hour in the evening that you are going to get a big story at 10 p.m. and the big story takes all of 15 seconds to tell you and is about nothing?
Is the purpose of the network news to sell commercial time or to give the news? How do you put up with 30 seconds of commercials for every 15 seconds of news? Why do we have to be told about what the news person is doing for the weekend? Ad nauseam.
The results of the above question should be much more revealing than asking whether one believes the "news."
Gordon Sargent
Lenexa graduate student
Don't punish students
This letter is in response to the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation's decision to make the top few rows behind the home bench off limits to spectators. I feel that this decision is an adequate one for the rest of the season, but that something more permanent drastically'needs to be done in the off-season.
This problem resulted from trying to generate more money from ticket sales and a lack of consideration on KUAC's part for all the fans. However, punishing the students by eliminating our lower-level seating is not the answer.
I certainly do not feel that our students are inconsiderate of others, but that enthusiasm generated by our fans makes Allen Field House one of the 10 most difficult places to win on the road. That is a statistic that I do not want to relinquish.
I would also like to address a comment by KUAC Board Chairman Anthony Redwood that at most sporting events in the country people are considerate of others and stand only at certain times.
Finally, I would like to pose a question to Athletic Director Monte Johnson and the board: Would there even be a problem if it were the alumni and reserved seat ticket holders inhibiting the student's view of the court?
Eric Boyer
Lenexa junior
Worse cuts to come
Let me commend you for your timely piece on the dangers of the recently enacted Gramm/Rudman/Hollings Deficit Reduction Act to federal student aid. I might just expand upon a couple of the points your article raises.
Jerry Rogers, director of student financial aid, correctly indicates that what is at issue under the Act is "accessibility." The effect of this new law in the first round of cuts on March 1 will be staggering; its cumulative effect will be nothing short of devastating.
Initially, the March 1 cuts will slash 68,000 students nationally from the Pell Grant grants. The program which funds our state scholarship
program will be cut by almost $4 million, meaning that 35 fewer Kansas students will receive awards.
This, of course, is only the impact of the first round of cuts, which assumes an across-the-board reduction of $11.7 billion or 6 percent in federal spending. The cuts scheduled for Oct. 1 will reach $90 billion, which means that much larger percentage reductions in student aid will be necessary.
The central point is this: accessibility to higher education is severely threatened by the act. Student aid, adjusted for inflation, has declined by more than 19 percent in the last four years, and further cuts will mean even more students are being "priced out" of higher education. This is not only bad public policy, it is a violation of the philosophical principle behind "public" higher education.
I urge all students who receive federal student aid to express your concern over the effects of the act to Sen. Dole, Sen. Kassebaum, Rep. Slattery and other members of Congress.
On Saturday, Dec. 14, we, along with more than a hundred of our classmates took a law school final at Green Hall. Most of us had parked in the yellow-zone parking lot between the law school and Allen Field House. Although barriers were at the entrances to the lot, they were on the grass, out of the flow of traffic.
John Allen
director of legislative affairs Associated Students of Kansas
Priorities wrong
Halfway through the exam, the professor notified us that we had to move our cars immediately after the completion of the test or our cars would be towed. The reason was that a basketball game was scheduled to begin a full two hours after the end of the exam, and the Williams Fund ticket-holders had to park their cars.
When the exam was over, there were no fans rushing to park in the lot. But for our cars, it was nearly empty. As law students, we take our exams seriously. They alone determine the grade for every class we take. We feel that the announcement, coming in the middle of the exam, and the threat behind it, were not only distracting and disturbing, but also totally unnecessary.
Which brings us to our point: Who sets the priorities at this university? Was it the Chancellor, having ultimate control of the parking situation, who decided to rate sports higher than academics? Whether it was him, or some minor Parking Services employee who told the professor to inform us of the grave situation, it is deplorable conduct and it will not soon be forgotten by us as a classic example of why not to recommend KU to any prospective college students we may know.
Today's students are the Williams Fund contributors of tomorrow, and we believe the University should take this into consideration when setting its priorities.
Harry Mallin
Lawrence second-year law student
Kathryn Nichols
Lawrence second-year law student
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