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Wednesday, April 15, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
Libraries in a bind
The University of Kansas has attained a strong academic reputation over the years, and one reason has been its commitment to a healthy library system.
Now that system is being threatened by budget cutbacks and the declining value of the dollar overseas. Because of this, students and professors may not have as much information at their fingertips as they once had.
Last week, Jim Ranz, dean of libraries, said the libraries were starting to cancel as many as one-quarter of the periodical subscriptions. In the last two years, the libraries have lost $843,000 in net buying power and the University libraries would run up a $900,000 deficit next year if they tried to maintain the current periodical subscriptions and the level of book acquisitions.
Despite the 3.8 percent cutback, which cost the libraries $58,000 this year, it has been
the decline of the dollar's power that has hurt the most, said Ron Francisco, chairman of the University Senate library committee.
The University needs to take preventive measures to preserve the KU library system.
Fee release will help some, but that may not be enough. In order to keep the library system strong, the University needs to take additional steps such as a contigency fund like Francisco has supported. This fund would be financed either by the state or through endowments. It would collect interest and dividends when the dollar is strong and release money to the library when the dollar is weak.
Steps such as these to maintain the strong tradition of the KU libraries will keep librarians from saying, "I'm sorry, we don't carry that anymore," when students and faculty need publications for research.
Handle with care
Only a short time ago, one of the state's mental hospitals, the Winfield State Hospital and Training Center, came under the scrutiny of federal inspectors after problems, including patient abuse, were reported at the facility. The hospital ended up losing its eligibility for more than $700,000 a month in Medicaid. Federal officials said the state could have until summer to improve the center.
Now, a new set of problems are plaguing another state hospital.
State inspectors have uncovered problems with patient care at the Norton State Hospital. The hospital was told to make improvements in "its treatment of mentally retarded adults and to reduce its reliance on medications as a substitute for trying to make
the clients more self-sufficient." These improvements must be made by June 15.
Running a state hospital, especially one that takes care of mentally retarded individuals, must be done with a lot of caution and attention. The lax care that has been given at these hospitals not only puts the welfare of these patients in jeopardy, it also is a disgrace to the state.
The state has begun to take some steps towards improving conditions, but not enough. They need to take a firm stand and crack down on the inefficiencies at these and similar institutions. The state has a responsibility to look after the well-being of those citizens who can't take care of themselves. They should be doing a better job of ensuring that responsibility.
Freedom to obey
The anti-apartheid protesters in South Africa have not given up their struggle for freedom despite the harsh attempts by the Pretorian government to silence them.
And each time the South African government tries to restrict the people, they come back with greater strength.
The government recently outlawed any actions or expressions that protest the detention people without a trial or call for the release of those detained.
President Pietter Bothe gave the police additional power when he declared a state of emergency that was intended to quiet the general public. The police are restricting the public's rights to speak, write and assemble, because the public might offend the government and its policies.
But the protesters in South Africa refuse to let the government take away their basic freedoms, Protesters, including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, continue to plan church services to pray for those who have been jailed.
They continue to violate the government's attempts to deny them free thought and expression. The problems in South Africa are not over, nor will they be until the people of the country, black and white, rid it of the despicable system of apartheid.
Any support to the South African government is support for apartheid. The U.S. government, and U.S. universities and companies, should cut all ties with the South African government.
The United States should be a leader and encourage other countries to break ties, until the dehumanizing system of aparthief is conquered.
Frank Hansel
Jennifer Benjamin
Juli Warren
Brian Kablerine
Sandra Engelland
Mark Subert
Diane Dullmeier
Bill Skeet
Tom Eblen
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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 organization, the name of the organization should be included.
Guest shots should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
of Santiago, continues to compile the gruesome figures about tortures, detentions and disappearances.
The Kansan reserves the right reject or edit letters and guest shots. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
It is too soon to figure out whether the pope's visit will have any effect on the government of Chile. Authoritarian regimes such as those in the Philippines and Haiti continued many years after papal visits. Later, both regimes were overthrown by the opposition.
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To make sure that everybody in the world fully understood his message, Pope John Paul II repeated it in at least five languages: The military government of Chile is "dietorial," and the Roman Catholic Church will continue to fight for political freedom in Chile.
Pope's visit promotes hope for freedom
Carlos
Chuquin
Columnist
In his recent visit to Chile, the pope's effort was to "proclaim the malicious dignity of a human person." This was a big slap to the government of Augusto Pinochet, which is responsible from numerous human rights violations since coming
The Roman Catholic Church has been taking the position that the Pinochet government should enact constitutional changes so a quick transition to democracy can take place in 1989, the year of the next national elections.
to power in September 1973.
With political parties, unions and professional organizations strictly controlled by the state, the church has become the last hope for the Chilean people to restore democracy.
President Pinochet has made it clear that he intends to present himself as the only candidate in those national elections. This would mean an extension of his term until 1997.
government "has been inspired by the superior objective" of restoring political stability and institutional government.
When Pinochet welcomed the pope, he said his politically troubled country had sought stability in the face of "the most extreme materialistic and atheistic ideology ever known to man." Pinochet insisted that his
Chileans think the pope's presence in their country has renewed their confidence and hopes for freedom and justice. At least during the pope's stay in Chile, the people experienced a rare taste of civil freedom.
But Pinochet's unbelievable statements have not demoralized the church as they have other opposition political forces. The church in Chile has emerged as a vocal opponent of the military regime, with the only hope that what happened in the Philippines a year ago will occur in Chile.
The church's role in the Philippines became important in the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos.
The church itself is seeking the total restoration of democracy and respect of civil liberties. A total of 3,778 citizens of Chile are still forbidden to return to their homelands. The Chilean Human Rights Commission established in 1973 by Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, former archbishop
As John Paul said, "the church is in Chile to promote the victory of good over evil." Sooner or later, Pinchet will realize that his days as a dictator are over, and the real democracy will be restored.
Mailbox Biased coverage
Racism is alive and well at KU especially in the Kansan.
During the International Festival, Arabs were among the most who participated, both in the exhibitions and the cultural show. The Palestinians were co-awarded first prize overall. Did the Kansan devote any space to their table or why they won? No. Neither did they devote any attention to the other Arab participants. Let's give credit where credit is due.
We would like to challenge the Kansan to give unbiased and non-racist coverage to Palestinians as well as the other Arabs in Lawrence and abroad.
Whenever the Palestinians have a demonstration or march, the Kansan invariably asks someone from a Jewish organization their opinion. Why don't you consult the Palestinians about Jewish activities on camps or when the Palestinians are killed in war? After all, the Palestinians here do have relatives in those camps.
We, among many, are tired of the poor coverage of the "other side of the story." We especially are disappointed by the lack of interest the Kansan displays in an issue that even now commands international headlines.
It seems as though everyone here is afraid of being labelled anti-semitic. Let's get something straight. Arabs are semitical people too. Perhaps the Jews here would accuse the Kansan of anti-semitism if it printed something against Israel.
Let's hear less about what happened 40 years ago in Europe and more about what is happening now in the Middle East.
But what about the Palestinians? We thought freedom of the press included reporting the whole truth, not just selective pieces that minimize the importance of racism against Arabs and Palestinians both in Lawrence and around the world.
Yes, it was too bad about Hitler and the Jews. But that was 40 years ago. How about Begun, Sharon and Shamir and the Palestinians? This is the present we live in.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women and children are being murdered no less atrociously, yet they are still unheard above the cry of the Zionist Jews who want blood for derailing the Palestinians and are making the Palestinians pay it.
Prove to us that the Kansan is not racist against Arabs and Palestinians in particular. We have seen little evidence to the contrary.
Beth Wiens Lawrence senior
Mahmoud Abu-Ali Nazareth, Palestine junior
Program should end discrimination without eliminating talented people
One result of a recent Supreme Court decision is that employers now can promote women over men who may be more qualified. Another result will be to cast an inevitable suspicion over women who get promotions: Did they get their jobs
PAUL
GREENBERG
Columnist
through the classifieds or through sex discrimination? It probably will be that much harder now for deserving women in the work force to get the respect due them.
The same thing happens when some bright student gets into Harvard or Yale nowadays. Somebody familiar with the prevailing favorisms is bound to wonder: "Was it because the kid is black?" That's scared fair to the truth, which he whispers in a creed color or national origin. But that's the effect of college admissions weighted by race and sex.
Preferences like these on the job or in education used to be called discrimination when they favored men or whites. When, when women or blacks are favored, that's called Reverse Discrimination. But discrimination is still discrimination. And one result hasn't changed: Confidence in those favored is undermined and standards made suspect.
"It's probably the worst Affirmative Action decision ever issued by
Once upon a time, Affirmative Action meant searching for the highest quality among victims of prejudice, rather than promoting people without their qualifications being the most important consideration. The country needs to eliminate such discrimination on the grounds of race or sex. Instead, the Supreme Court has united the nation about how ownership it. Only in terms of thought is this decision not very discriminating.
the Supreme Court," says Linda Chavez, who as staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights helped make it a commission for civil rights and not just a lobby for the more popular minorities. As usual, she went to the root of the problem, and injustice, of favoritism: "I think, with many of these decisions, that in a sense it does a great disservice to the intended beneficiaries. In my view, the women's movement was aimed at allowing women to compete on an equal footing without regard to their sex, and I think what this decision does is return us to the nineteenth-century concept that says women are the weaker sex and need special protections in order to be able to compete."
If this is the worst Affirmative Action decision ever delivered by the Supreme Court, that may be only because it's the latest. The court's opinions on the subject seem to be going from worse to outrageous. While this approach may gain a job or a point for a favored plaintiff, the most obvious result is to turn seethement reentiment into vocal outrage on the part of those who are now being discriminated against. Charles Murray, the politician, has used this strategy; "put it this simple, graphite way:" Affirmative Action is just leaking a poison into the system. "What a sad end for a good idea. Affirmative Action is becoming one of those phrases that can no longer be said without a smirk. The same process that turned Welfare into a bad word is at work here, and it is not pleasant to watch.
Defenders of this decision argue that gradations of quality really aren't important in the workplace, anyway. That's the same line the majority opinion took. To quote Drew S. Days, III, a professor of law at Yale: "The opinion is very important because it emphasizes the fact that in most job situations, the differences between candidates are rather insignificant. To say that someone who scores a 75 is better than a person who scores 73 does not understand essentially how most employers
function, which is to look at a pool of qualified people and select from that pool. . . ."
If true, that observation would explain a lot about the gray patina of mediocrity that has attached itself to much of American working life. If employers really don't care about measurable differences in the quality of their work force, of course quality will slip — regardless of sex or race. Can this be how they choose students at Vale Law School? If not, would Professor Days recommend that they do so, overlooking differences on test scores and discriminating by race or sex among all the qualified? Or does this gross approach to job preferment not apply to the education of firefighters, police officers, or, as in this case, road dispatchers for a county transportation agency? The professor's analysis of this issue would seem to combine the worst aspects of both sobribness and apathy.
When a society doesn't much care whether its road dispatchers or plumbers make perfect scores or are just barely qualified, that is bound to be reflected in the workings of that society. It already is to a great extent. Far from aiming for excellence, such a society may have to sacrifice simple competence. It comes as no surprise to learn that Professor Days was an assistant attorney general in the Carter Administration, which was known for many things but not competence.
Perhaps the most dismal sentence of this dismal decision is to be found in the concurring opinion from John Paul Stevens, who seemed perfectly aware that the court was ignoring the clear purpose of the act in question, but chose to do so anyway. "I must admit that I am very conscious of the act that is at odds with my understanding of the actual intent of the authors of the legislation."
That's not an exercise of law but of power. It isn't an expression of authority but of arbitrariness, which, come to think, is perfectly consistent with what this decision forebodes for U.S. society.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed