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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Friday, Dec. 6, 1985
These days, students skate down and across the snowpacked stairs and sidewalk fronting Watson Library.
A few yards away, a concrete ramp reaching to the library doors bears no scars of winter. The ramp stands as the handicapped students' only entrance to the library.
"Whenever you can't use something, you feel unwanted or undesirable," says Robert Turvey, chairman of the KU Architectural Barriers Committee, devoted to addressing problems handicapped students encounter on campus.
Handicapped students shouldn't feel unwanted here. They should have the same choice of residence halls as other students — eight, not three.
The ramp is an example of what the University needs better access to campus buildings and better understanding of the problems of handicapped students.
They need access to the Clyde W. Tombaugh observatory atop Lindley Hall to
view Halley's comet
In short, the University needs to follow the lead of Emporia State University and Johnson County Community College. The schools, says the director of a local handicapped support group, are state leaders in making their campuses accessible.
A wheelchair-bound student last week said he thought KU responded to needs of handicapped students as an afterthought.
It's time for the afterthought to assume precedence in the minds of administrators. The University needs to map a plan to make all corners of the campus accessible by 1990.
The schools don't want to lose handicapped students. More important, they want to present equal opportunity through equal access.
Under a proposal being considered by a Faculty Council committee, the fall semester would begin the day after Labor Day. Final exams would be condensed into five or six days.
Handicapped students have enough trouble scaling the Hill. They don't need to fight man-made barriers of concrete and steel - or those formed by indifference and unconcern.
In 1990, the University's calendar might look a whole lot different.
A cool calendar change
Although August's mugginess often lingers into September, beginning classes after Labor Day certainly would cut air conditioning costs on campus.
Still, starting classes in September is a cool idea.
The proposal is only in the discussion stage, and eventually must be approved by the Board of Regents. At the earliest, it could be approved in 1989.
The switch also would align the University's school year with the rest of Kansas' public schools. This would make life less hectic for staff members and students whose children start school after Labor Day
Students could return the week before Labor Day to pay fees, buy books and enjoy Country Club partying. But under the proposal, the Labor Day holiday would mark the start of school — not an interruption after only a week of classes.
Condensing the current 11-day final exam schedule also makes sense. Under the proposal, exam times would be cut to two hours and the number of exams a day would have to be increased.
One week of finals would be plenty. Stop Day could remain on the Monday after the end of classes, and finals could run Tuesday to Tuesday.
The proposal has one snag: Regents schools must operate under 16-week semesters. But if classes were extended through the usual first week of finals, KU students would get their required 16 weeks.
And not have to sweat out those last two weeks of August.
Reining in the PACs
Whether the delay will lead to a sound law or simply is the first of many obstacles remains to be seen. The bill will go to the Senate Rules Committee for hearings early next year.
Republican senators Tuesday managed to avoid a vote on a bill to limit campaign contributions by political action committees. They argued, probably correctly, that the bill was being pushed to a vote too hastily.
Sensible action in a few months is laudable; Congress should pass fewer measures in haste. But it should pass a strong law to pull in the reins on PACs, which have failed as a means of achieving campaign reform.
In 1974, the first year for PACs, candidates for the House averaged $53,000 on their campaigns; 1982 candidates averaged $228,000. In
the same span, Senate campaigns went from $437,000 to $1.8 million.
A lot of that money is coming from PACs, which gave candidates $12.5 million in 1974 but more than $100 million in 1984. And PACs have proliferated: more than 4,000 exist in a variety of forms.
As a result of these and other conditions, members of Congress now never cease to raise money. Therefore they never cease to campaign or to be vulnerable to the lure of vote-buying.
The proposal before the Senate, initiated by Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., would limit the amounts candidates could receive from all PACs and reduce the amount a PAC could give to a campaign.
It might not close all the loopholes that unaffiliated PACs have been crawling through, but it's a start.
Rob Karwath
Editor
John Hanna Michael Totty
Managing editor Editorial editor
Lauretta McMillen
Campus editor
Susanne Shaw
General manager, news adviser
Duncan Calhoun
Business manager
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Retail sales Campus sales
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I have my methods, which I've described in the past — saying yes. I am the phone company and telling people to toss their defective phones out the window, or babbling madly, or insulting the ethnic origin of the caller.
Dialing the 'wrong number club'
That's why I'm thinking of forming this club — so the victims can swap ideas on ways to fight back.
I'm thinking of forming a club. Something like a national organization of chronic wrong number victims.
The membership would be made up of people such as myself, who are plagued by wrong numbers.
As I've written before, my office number is the same as one of AT&T's busiest 1-800 lines.
So, when people in the Chicago area forget or are too light-headed to dial 1-800, they get me. Dozens of times a day, they get me.
But there are other approaches, such as the woman on the West Coast who found herself being deluged by calls from people wanting to make hotel reservations.
The phone companies go ahead and give some corporation a number that already belongs to some individual or small business.
Since I first wrote about this, I've discovered that things like this happen to people all over the country.
And when people in their area neglect to dial 1-800 first, somebody else's phone rings.
When we complain, the phone company tells us to change our numbers, which seems unfair, because we had the numbers first.
Mike Royko Chicago Tribune
started thinking that maybe somebody would sue me, so as in envenience as it was, I went ahead and changed my number."
"At first, I told them to dial 1-800, and then the number. Some of them argued with me and got mad. And even after I told them to dial 1-800 some of them are so dumb they'd 'Ly it again the same way and get me back on the phone."
"So I figured, if people are too stupid to follow directions and dial
A man in New York told me that he got calls for one of those weirdo sex phone services that provide the caller with a recorded lewd monologue by a panting, moaning, shrieking woman.
"Most of them would just hang up when they heard me answer. But some of them said things like: 'I thought this was the number for the dirty talk.'
'If people are too stupid to follow directions and dial the right number, why should I be courteous to them?'
"So I'd say, 'I can give you some
the right number, why should-I be courteous to them?
"When people told me that the reservation was for a couple, I'd tell them that we expected them to bring their wedding licenses, because we didn't want anything sinful going on in our hotels. A few of them told me to go to hell and that they'd stay somewhere else.
swear words . And I'd just rattle off some four-letter words. Or I'd say: "Have you heard the one about the farmer's daughter?" They'd get mad and tell me it was a big roi-off.
"I started giving them reservations or taking their cancellations. When they'd ask me how much a room would be, I'd tell them. "Oh, we have a special. Our best rooms are $22 a night and we will have a free bottle of champagne upon your arrival." They got all excited.
"It got to be kind of fun, but then I
But I don't. It really isn't that difficult to dial a phone number correctly, and people who stop through a number and disturb somebody deserve what they get.
And those of us who are pestered are entitled to at least have a little fun as our measure of revenge
Some people probably think it's malicious to do what the lady did to the hotel chain dialers. Or what I do to some of the AT&T customers.
For example, there is Sen, Edward M. Kennedy. He's had the same problem. As he wrote:
"For the past few months, I've been enduring the same sort of mixed-up telephone calls in Washington that you've had in Chicago. If people in the D.C. area forget to dial area code 301, they reach my Senate office instead of the new Red Lobster restaurant 40 miles away in Annapolis, Md.
"At first, I simply told the callers they had reached the wrong number, and needed to dial the area code first. But you're right, Mike — after a few dozen calls, you get the urge to respond in kind.
"So, when the callers kept asking,
'Are you the Red Lobster?' I started saying,
'No, I'm the green giant.'
"One time, when I said, 'Hello,' one of the early callers asked, 'Who's this?' And I said, 'Senator Edward Kennedy.' He said, 'Very funny. And I'm Ronald Reagan. What time do you serve dinner?"
"Sometimes they ask, 'How much are your lobsters?' And I reply, 'If you have to ask, you can't afford them.' If they press further, I'll say, 'Do you want a lobster with two claws or three?'
"Mostly, though, I try to be polite. But as you know, Mike, it's not always easy. It's really not the Red Lobster's fault. I blame those idiots in Congress who broke up the telephone company."
So, if you qualify for membership in the wrong number club, drop me a line or give me a call. But for Pete's sake, dial the right number.
The unfinished conservative agenda
WASHINGTON — President Reagan has three years left to complete his agenda.
That agenda has been focused on reducing the role of the federal government in all aspects except for national security. In many ways he has succeeded in changing the direction of the country to the right.
There have been cutbacks across the board in social programs. Reagan would have preferred to scrap many of them, but he found that was impossible because of the power of the constituencies.
Helen Thomas United Press International White House correspondent
He has appointed men to top positions who are striving to impose the conservative philosophy on their departments and agencies.
Education Secretary William Bennett is striving mighty to redirect his department to ideologically redirect the federal role, advocating back to basics, such as prayer in the schools.
WELL, I HOPE HE AT LEAST HAS THE DECENCY TO WAIT 'TIL WE'VE FINISHED...
Attorney General Edwin Messe wants to return to the founding fathers' interpretation of the Constitution on the assumption that social changes in 200 years should not be considered by the Supreme Court.
He also wants to wipe out the 20-year-old affirmative action program, the impetus for broadening the employment opportunities of blacks, Hispanics and women under federal contracts.
The president has not made a final decision on whether to go along with Meese's recommendations, although he is against any quotas. The Reagan cabinet is split to the subject with only a minority advocating a change.
In terms of reorienting the thinking of Congress to spend less on domestic
programs, the president has been successful. But the plight of the farmer has blocked his drive to eventually eliminate price supports and other federal assistance programs.
But Reagan has failed in his promise at the start of his first term to balance the budget by 1984.
The $200 billion-plus deficit still looms as a large shadow over his accomplishments, as well as the projected trade deficit that may go as high as $150 billion.
In terms of curbing the budget, the administration is concerned that defense spending is a likely target. It will not be ignored on Capitol Hill.
and that has made Defense Secretary, Caspar Weinberger and White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan wary of the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget legislation.
Otherwise, his foreign policy is still
On the international front, Reagan's goals have not been as clearly defined other than the basic anti-communist thrust and the determination to support freedom fighters who seek to topple Marxist, or at least leftist, governments. The assistance to rebels in global trouble spots has come to be known as the Reagan Doctrine.
nebulous. The summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave him a fresh start in seeking a way for the superpowers to avoid a nuclear confrontation.
In his remaining three years in office, the president is expected to focus more attention on the international front. His selection of a personal biographer, Edwin Morris, to record all aspects of the remaining years of his presidency is an indication that he is already looking to the future and the legacy that will remain when he leaves the White House.