4
University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Monday, Jan. 27, 1986
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Don't single out athletes
KU athletic officials have acknowledged that recreational drug use by student athletes mirrors the use of drugs in society. No evidence has been shown that drug use among student athletes is any worse than usage among the rest of the student population.
The NCAA not only has taken aim at the use of performance-enhancing drugs by student athletes, but also at their recreational drug use. In so doing, it has overstepped its bounds.
The use of drugs to promote a competitive advantage is unfair, and the NCAA is right to try to control that kind of usage.
But athletic administrators are exceeding their role in trying to curb the use of recreational drugs. Student athletes have as much right to control their personal lives as do any other students.
It is entirely feasible that it is even less so. People who spend so much time conditioning their bodies for optimal performances surely think twice before risking harm to themselves by the use of street drugs. But if they choose to do so, then that is their business.
The bell rings. The students quiet down and look attentive, but the teacher never shows because there is no teacher for that class.
At the point where recreational drug use interferes with an athlete's performance, either on the playing field or in the classroom, the matter becomes the coach's business, and the individual should be dealt with.
But random testing for recreational drugs is expensive: estimates begin at $200 a student. It is degrading for the majority of athletes who never use the drugs. And it is an infringement on the private lives of those who sometimes do.
Imagine this scene: students scatter into a Kansas classroom, go to their respective places, giggle behind their desks and spilt wads.
If such an infringement is justified — on the grounds that recreational drugs can be dangerous, or because the use of them is illegal — then perhaps colleges should begin random testing of all students.
Give teachers incentive
Why single out student athletes for such treatment?
Although this situation may never happen, a realistic situation of severely overcrowded classrooms could happen within the next three to five years when the supply of teachers in Kansas is predicted to fall dramatically, unless colleges begin producing more teachers.
Overcrowded classrooms would mean that students would suffer by not getting the educations they need.
Unless college students majoring in education are given more incentive — better pay — teachers may become an endangered species in Kansas.
A study directed by Jack Skillie, dean of the Emporia State University College of Education, found 213 teacher and administrator vacancies in Kansas as of Sept. 3, 1985. Within the past four years, there was a 2.8 percent drop in the number of teachers prepared to teach in 1985 to 1984.
The average salary for teachers in Kansas was $22,768 for the 1985-86 academic year,$2,367 below the national average. The median starting salary in Kansas is $15,850, according to the Kansas Department of Education.
This attrition of numbers is a direct link to the low salaries that Kansas pays its teachers.
Many teachers teach out of their love for distributing knowledge to their students. But that love simply can't pay the bills, and it begins to wear thin with each monthly paycheck.
Wish list priorities
"You have to spend money to make money," budding businessmen are advised. And Kansas will have to spend a lot of money if it wants to help develop the state's economy, a KU research institute says.
There is no doubt the investment is needed. The Kansas economy has stagnated. Its backbone industries — oil and gas, aircraft and agriculture continue to perform poorly
But the same weak economy reduces money available for any new initiatives. Even Carlin's proposed sales tax increase and a possible state lottery would not bring in enough to finance everything on the state's development wish list.
Of the 34 recommendations in the interim report of the Institute for Public Policy and Business Research, all but a handful call for the state to provide tax relief, increased financing or additional resources to further economic development.
So the state must choose.
And in choosing, it will have to pick those programs most likely to lead Kansas out of its economic swamp.
High-priced campaigns to attract foreign industry are popular, if only for their drama. But they gamble with precious resources, and success is rare. They need to be left to simmer.
But fostering small businesses and financing risky research and development efforts promise both short- and long-term benefits.
The limited success of the Centers for Excellence at some of the Board of Regents schools bears this out. One of the earliest efforts, tied to KU's Center for Bioanalytical Research, has spun off the profitable Oread Laboratories Inc.
This venture, and others like it, will do more to attract newcomers, build communities and develop the state's economy than a new Toyota plant.
News staff
Michael Totty ... Editor
Lauretta McMillan ... Managing editor
Chris Barber ... Editorial editor
Cindy McCurry ... Campus editor
David Giles ... Sports editor
Brie Waddell ... Photo editor
Susanna Shaw ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe ... Business manager
David Nixon ... Retail sales manager
Jim Williamson ... Campus manager
Lori Eckart ... Customerized manager
Carolina Innes ... Production manager
Pallian Lee ... National manager
John Ohrzan ... Sales and marketing adviser
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words and should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
Guest shots should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters and guest shots. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 119 Staffer-Flint Hall.
The University Daily Kansan (ISP5 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stuffer-Fair Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods, and on Wednesday, but not on Thursday or Friday. Subscription mail are by $19 for six months or $2 a year in Douglas County and $18 for six months and $3 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118
Stauffer Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045.
A final answer on fate of 'poor kitty'
About six years ago I happened to have a cat I didn't need. It had been brought home by my youngest issue. He feared that it would freeze in the 55 degrees and sunshine.
Since I was already providing food and shelter for a large group of creatures, I did not want any more.
I offered it around, but none of my neighbors wanted the cat, or, for that matter, any of the children.
So I decided to write a column, offering the cat to anyone who would give it a nice home. Or even a miserable home.
In hopes of stimulating a fast response, I wrote that if somebody did not take the cat off my hands in a few days, I would give it to a friend of mine who kept a tank full of piranhas.
And, as I wrote at the time, "If somebody doesn't, little children, it will be snap, snap, gobble, gobble, right down to his curly tail."
Mike Royko Chicago Tribune
For days my phone rang continually. I heard from hundreds of weeping little tots who pleaded with me not to feed the kitty to the fish.
I also heard from angry parents who said I should be ashamed of myself for frightening poor little children. One mother said her little boy had awakened during the night from a terrible dream about the bad piranha fish. He must have been a slow kid. At his age, I was having pretty good dreams about bad girls.
Another woman called to berate me because her daughter wouldn't eat supper. "She won't eat," the woman said, "until she knows you haven't fed the cat to the fish."
"Well, tell that to my daughter," she said.
"Of course I haven't." I said.
The girl came on the phone and then said, "Did you give the cat to the fish?"
"Sure." I said.
"Waaaaah!" she said.
Well, if the kid doesn't want to eat supper, that her hard luck.
Finally, the furor died down, the children dried their tears and ate their suppers, and the little old ladies stopped picking on me and resumed picking on little old men.
But recently the phone rang, and it was a little kid asking me if I had fed the kitty to the fish.
Holy smoke, I thought, the kid has been worrying all these years. He must have ulcers and gray hair.
But when I talked to him, I realized what had happened.
book form. The book publisher didn't have the sense to delete my phone number, which I had included in the column when I tried to get rid of the cat.
Once again I am getting phone calls, and tiny voices are pleading with me not to let those fish go gobble, gobble, snap, snap.
The column was among a few dozen that a publisher tossed into
So, once again, and once and for all, I want to reassure all those upset little children.
And they ate it.
I gave the little kitty to a nice couple who live on the North Side of Chicago.
No, girls and boys, the mean man on the newspaper did not give the nice little kitty to the bad fish.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Mike Royko has been on vacation. This column was published Oct. 1, 1976.
Mailbox
Right vs. left
The government of the United States has for quite some time been in the habit of supporting right wing dictatorships and military governments in defense of the national interest. This support has been opposed by American liberals. At the same time, the U.S. government has worked actively to destabilize and even overthrow very similar regimes on the left, and American liberals have in turn tended to support those regimes. This crucial distinction was ignored in Paul Campbell's column of Jan. 22.
As long as the U.S. government claims to act in our name, we are to a certain extent responsible for its actions. While I can't speak for American liberals, I know that if our government for some unimaginable reason began to support an authoritarian Marxist regime or to attempt to topple a capitalist government that was popular with its own people, I would feel compelled to try to do something to stop it.
As for the left's failure to denounce the Soviet Union publicly on a regular basis, rallies and marches seem redundant to the point of silliness when one remembers that the United States already has several thousand nuclear warheads aimed and ready to launch at the godless commies.
Dennis "Boog" Highberger Lawrence graduate student
No longer a liberal
I learned many new and amazing facts from Campbell's wonderful article. Apparently, all dictatorships are not alike; it is not their actions that should determine whether I oppose them but their allegiance. I learned that Joe McCarthy, along with his few supporters, was a quiet, unbiased, wholesome American guy. He, through a liberal conspiracy, was unjustly portrayed as a powerful senator with a habit of branding various liberals and their organizations as communists and taking them before senate committees. The fact that not one communist was found by these committees is irrelevant. Once again, I wish to thank the author of
On Wednesday, Jan. 22, I learned something about myself that I was unaware of. It seems, according to the column "Liberals selective in bearing outrage," that I and my clone-like bleeding-heart peers were wrong all along. I thank Paul Campbell for informing me of my misunderstanding.
the above-mentioned article for reminding me that as a liberal, it's not right and wrong that should concern me but right and left.
Since this day of enlightenment, I've considered taking steps to retain my redefined liberal status. No longer would I be able to take a stand on an issue based on my ethics, but instead I must first check my directory of pinkos and fascists to see whether I should endorse or denounce it. As I sip my borscht and read the morning's Pravda, I would now have to conspire for the demise of conservatives and their organizations. No longer would I be able to endorse free speech and thought, but must take my party's stand and violently oppose anyone who doesn't agree.
After careful consideration, I've decided to retain my views and change my status. No longer am I a liberal. Instead, I'm a moderate-leftist pseudo-liberal with conservative-humanistic sympathies and optimistic overtones.
Greek, Trojan, etc.
Jonathan Cohen Mission Hills sophomore
On Jan. 20, Matthew Wilson wrote a letter lambasting an article by Leslie Hirschbach. His letter complained about Hirschbach's semantics describing the characters in an opera. Let me say this about that.
When I was in high school, we studied Greek mythology. Each of the books we used was titled "Greek Mythology," by Edith Hamilton or Bullinch, etc. We understood that not all the characters therein were of Greek origin, but we did not write to the authors (and not just because they were dead) demanding that the titles be changed to "Greek, Phoenician, Trojan, etc. Mythology." Intelligence dictated that it really didn't matter. Ease up, Matthew Wilson!
Schuyler Steelberg
Wichita freshman
Opera misdated
I enjoyed Leslie Hirschbach's Jan. 18 article concerning the Purcell of "Dilo and Aeneas" last week, but have a correction to add to that of Matthew Wilson in this column Jan. 20. The opera was variously described as "Renaissance," "16th-century," and "of the 1600s." Music historians usually put the end of the Renaissance at about 1600, with the birth of opera — but which ironically represents a rebirth
(renaissance) of Greek drama with music.
Nonetheless, it is a fact that the 15th century involves the 1500s (specifically, 1501-1600). Purcell's opera dates from 1689. Although it represents the musical renaissance in that it is an opera about an ancient story, in music history we refer to Purcell as belonging to the Baroque era.
J. Bunker Clark professor of music history
No right to restrict
The Ku Klux Klan and its members are despicable. They advocate, among other anti-democratic ideas, that the government should threaten and use force and violence to control Blacks, Jews and political minorities.
The Kansan editorial "Time to draw the line" (Kansan, Jan. 21) is despicable, equally but somewhat more subtle. It advocates, without quite admitting it, that the government should prevent Klan members from peacefully assembling and stating their beliefs. Of course, the government can do so only by threatening or using force.
The editorial admits that this action would be unconstitutional. Therefore, the editorial, like the Klan, advocates the anti-democratic use of force to control political minorities. Should the government also use force to control Kansas editorials?
It is true that several Klan organizations have an unsavory history of violent lawbreaking. Democratic governments are justified, and even obligated, to use force so as to control Klan violence. Indeed, national and local authorities have been much too tolerant of Klan violence, especially in the South.
But mere speech and assembly are very different from violence. The virtuous response to anti-democratic speech is pro-democratic speech, and not violent suppression.
David Burress visiting professor of economics
Former KLZR fan
To understand my position, I
I have to agree with Keith Hayes (Kansan, Jan. 17) and Tim Savage (Kansan, Jan. 21) in referring to the quality of broadcasting coming from KLZR-FM these days. KLZR used to be the only station I would listen to. Now, not even my father's car has a button set for KLZR.
should give you a bit of history. I am from Johnson County, and the only stations available in the area at the time of KLZR's beginning were (and mostly still are) solely hard rock or Top 40 — a choice of the Grateful Dead or Barry Manilow. Variely meant an intimate relationship with the tuning dial. No one played progressive music with the exception of KJHK, which for this kid from Kansas, was a bit too much. Then, KLZR, The Cars. The Go-Go's. Roxy Music. The Clash. R.E.M. And more! I had seen the light. No more calluses from changing the dial. No more sleepless nights. All that changed in late December. KLZR now plays a syndicated radio show from Dallas called "Rockin' Hits." (My sister has lived in Dallas for more than five years and has never heard of it.) The music is new Top 40 and old Top 40. The DJ's have degrees from the Lounge Lizard School of Broadcasting. Polyester shirts open to the waist and gold chains have never had it so good.
In case you were wondering, no, I don't listen to KLZR anymore. Oh, by the way, Tim, if you can find my Lazer Gold Card wherever Lawrence trash is dumped, you have my permission to send it in.
Brian Courtney DeSoto senior
Change was for worse
In response to a letter published in your Jan. 17 issue regarding the change in programming format by KLZR, I can only agree with the author of the letter; I do not like the change that the station has made.
I enjoyed listening to KLZR because it was different from many of the other radio stations that cover this market. I enjoyed hearing music that was not on the Top 40 hits list, especially shows such as "Twelve O'Clock Rock."
Now that these elements are gone, I have no interest in KLZR because it is just another loud-mouthed, Top 40 station like half a dozen others in this market. I have derived a lot of satisfaction in my protest of KLZR by reassigning their button on my stereo to one of the other local stations. I urge others to make a similar protest.
In addition, I urge merchants who advertise on KLZR to wait until the next market surveys are available before spending your advertising dollars with that station. It does no good to advertise on a station that nobody listens to.
Huntsville, Ark. graduate student