4
4
Tuesday, April 7, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
---
Fast revives message
The divestment battle, dormant for almost two semesters, has begun once again with a dramatic, attention-grabbing tactic.
Michael Maher, Roeland Park senior, began a hunger strike March 31 for divestment. Maher has said he will not eat until he receives letters from at least 50 alumni, asking the Kansas University Endowment Association to divest from U.S. companies doing business in South Africa. As of yesterday, he had received a few letters.
Maher and other KU activists once drew attention to the divestment issue through protests, a few that ended in arrests of some students. The students have appealed to the Endowment Association and to KU administrators, but their angry cries for divestment have been ignored for the most part and have become muffled sobs.
Now, some of these students
The problems in South Africa have not gone away. They still exist, just as they did in fall 1985, when the divestment movement peaked at KU and university students across the country protested for divestment.
have added a new twist to an old issue. The protesters are appealing to alumni with a personal tactic. Alumni can have a strong voice in the operations of the University and the Endowment Association, because their money, funneled through the Endowment Association, helps to support the University. It is too bad that a student has to go to such extremes to be heard.
Most of us will never know what criteria fraternities base their decisions on when rushing new members, but hopes are being renewed that it has nothing to do with being a lightweight or a heavyweight.
KU alumni and friends should use that voice to help the students who wish to make a statement against the morally repugnant system of aparthied in South Africa.
The movement at KU has returned. But this time, a life is on the line.
Cheers to a dry rush
Last week, the Interfraternity Council voted unanimously to adopt a policy that would forbid beer from rush parties. The measure is expected to gain formal approval at the council's next general assembly meeting April 22. Under the terms of the policy, fraternities found to be in violation of dry rush would be fined $500 or 10 percent of the fraternity's rush budget.
Opinions
The reasons for the unanimous decision stem from the practical, legal and responsible considerations in rushing new members.
Many fraternities have witnessed the escalating costs
of liability insurance for alcohol-related accidents The costs of a single lawsuit, which could cause a house to close down, make the risk of supplying beer at parties very high.
The decision also indicates that fraternity members are making a more serious effort to comply with the state's drinking law that bars liquor from being served to those under 21.
More importantly, however, is the added degree of responsibility that the fraternities are encouraging in choosing new members for their houses. Prospective participants in the greek system will be more likely to see that fraternities are more than tavern substitutes, and participants will be able to judge rushees in a more rational manner.
Cheers to a dry rush.
Learning from Baby M
Superior Court Judge Harvey Sorkow's decision in the Baby M case did more than affect the lives of William and Elizabeth Stern and Mary Beth Whitehead. It could set the stage for future cases.
Sorkow's ruling has set a precedent in an uncharted area that could be the basis for future decisions. Surrogate motherhood has become a reality, and now legislators on both the national and state levels need to consider how to regulate the practice.
Even before the Baby M decision, which gave custody to Stern, the biological father, some states realized the effect that surrogate motherhood would have on the society, so they started action on regulatory bills.
hiring surrogates have been introduced and are under consideration in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, California and Wisconsin.
Bills to limit the practice of
Proposals that would ban altogether the practice are being considered in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Minnesota and Rhode Island.
Sorkow's ruling said surrogate contracts are legal under New Jersey law, and in his 121-page opinion he urged legislators to put laws on the books that would prevent future disputes similar to the Baby M case.
Legislators need to take a close look at legislating surrogate motherhood and make sure the laws are fair to all parties involved so that there won't be a repeat of the Baby M case.
News staff
News staff
Frank Hansel ... Editor
Jennifer Benjamin ... Managing editor
Juli Warren ... News editor
Brian Kaberline ... Editorial editor
Sandra Engelland ... Campus editor
Mark Siebert ... Sports editor
Diane Bulmeier ... Photo editor
Bill Skeet ... Graphics editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Lisa Weems ... Business manager
Donnie Hardy ... Advertiser
Denise Stephens ... Retail sales manager
Kelly Scherer ... Campus sales manager
Duncan Calhoun ... Marketing manager
Lori Copple ... Classified manager
Jennifer Hainski ... Production manager
David Nixon ... National sales manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
Letters should be type, 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
Guest shots should be by writer will be photographed.
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.
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, Kansan 181 Stuffer-Fitt Hall, Lawan, Kan. 66045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and on Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage paid in Lawrence, Kan. 66045, by mail are $40 per year in Douglas County and 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 Fint-Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045
Media need to get back to the basics
I was recently told by different people in the journalism school that I'm "over cynical."
It happened in one of my classes, when I accused the mainstream media of being more concerned with profits than with quality reporting. I
Christian Colbert Columnist
My idea of strong reporting entails more than just a reporter serving as a purveyor of information. We're already drowning in a sea of information, nine-tenths of which is drivel. A good reporter should be ready to challenge and refute, rather than be used as a tool of the government and politicians to spread propaganda, as so often happens.
An excellent example of the type of reporting I'm criticizing is the recent information that reporters were fed
It's as if the reporters covering the story trusted the Pentagon completely to provide them with accurate estimates. Let me remind those of you who aren't aware, the CIA is not responsible for the same CIA that has been providing us with inflated estimates of the Soviet military buildup for decades.
by the Pentagon involving estimates of Soviet military expenditures. Without verifying any of the information, the story made front pages across the country and was presented as fact.
added that if students wanted to get a job on a big newspaper, they had better abandon any idealism they thought they were in, either conform or starve out there.
If the Syrians hadn't broken the Irangate story, would we still be revering the Reagan administration? I think so. It appears that for the last six years, the one thing the media have been successful at doing is reinforcing the propaganda of this administration by not challenging the information it feeds them.
By conforming, I mean that journalists today had better be prepared to accept frivolous, repetitive and useless work, and to purge themselves of independent thought.
If contemporary media are not falling us, why then, did a Syrian magazine have to break the Irangate bomb? Why not? It would not there for the U.S. press to notice.
Or, why have the media failed to adequately inform U.S. citizens about what is really happening in Nicaragua? Many U.S. citizens falsely believe that Nicaragua is a totalitarian government installed by the Soviet Union because of the media's failure to challenge or refute Reagan's characterizations of what's
happening there
Sound Orwellian? If Parenti is correct, then our democracy is a struggle. It's even more tragic when you consider that our society is increasingly becoming a corporate military society where independent thought is liberated and more military equipment and profit are the driving forces.
Why have the media failed to fulfill their watchdog role? I believe the root of the problem lies, in part, in the profit motives of the big conglomerates. It's not good business to support a staff of investigative reporters. That takes time and money. Perhaps it's also not good business to expose the truth when the truth indicts the powerful people who have a vested interest in the status quo. It could be that U.S. citizens have become so accustomed to frivolous news that they probably would not enjoy quality journalism.
Perhaps the reason so many U.S. citizens lack sound judgment and elect presidents like Reagan is that mass media are failing to do their job.
Writing in this month's Columbia Journalism Review, William Boot is critical of journalists who "got caught up in the Reagan euphoria and came across more like the obsequious courtiers who praised the emperor's 'garrants.'"
Boot believes the "press has much to answer for in not having made the naked truth about the emperor more known" before the Iragate scandal.
In his book "Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media," Michael Parenti's main thesis is that "the press does many things and serves many functions, but its major
role, its irreducible responsibility, is to continually recreate a view of reality supportive of existing social and economic class power."
I'm not saying there are no quality journalists working today; not at all. There have always been good journalists whose work has reflected their personal values and moral outlook. But they are so overwhelmed by the rest of the pack and condemned by the public that their voice is small, very small.
I think journalists should start re-examining the profession and consider whether they are doing their job to provide a public service or if their only motivation is to merely collect a paycheck. If it's the latter, then the people will continue to be as frivolous as the news we give them.
Am I "over-cynical?" I can't answer. However, I'm certain that I'd rather criticize what's wrong, even if that means being called "over-cynical" or anything else, then silently acquiesce and contribute to the madness and confusion of contemporary life.
Spy case may not be so serious
WASHINGTON — Admittedly, I've never been a U.S. Marine or a sailor either, for that matter. But it was interesting to note that both guards accused of spying at the American Embassy in Moscow were enlisted men.
Dick West (JPI Commentary)
Stand now and repeat after me:
"My, how things have changed."
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
It used to be that non-commissioned officers in the Army were told nothing about what was going on, secret or otherwise. I'm not sure commissioned officers, or Gentlemen by Act of Congress as we used to call them, were all that hep, either.
They were left, along with everyone else, to figure out for themselves the meaning of the bonehead orders that came down from on high. Hence, the question of whether two soldiers may have done more damage than a spy ring headed by one Navy radioman never arose.
There is no doubt, however, that some of my Army buddies would have allowed beautiful Soviet women to work their wiles on them.
Perhaps the State Department did the wise thing in insisting that all Marine guards at its Moscow Embassy be replaced.
It was hardly their fault if the Marines, as with most servicemen since time immemorial, were young and unmarried. The bonehead part was expecting such a policy to work in the first place.
"You should see the place," they may have reported. "Green striped scoevers and blue plaid drapes. You have straps and plaids gone together."
It has been reported that the two guards admitted to "sensitive" floors female Soviet nationals employed by the Embassy.
Therefore, rather than closing down embassy communications equipment, the State Department perhaps should first have examined the color scheme.
Did it ever occur to U.S. brass hats to wonder whether the Soviet women were merely curious to see what the Americans had done with the rooms? Why did American officials automatically assume some sort of hankypanky was going on?
The Soviet women may simply have been interested in seeing for themselves whether the slipcovers matched the draperies.
Mailbox
You tell voters to support the advisory questions. But how should they vote on each question? What does a "no" vote on question two mean? Does it mean that the voter doesn't want a mall? Or that they don't want to spend an unlimited amount of taxpayers' money for a mall? Or that they want some other kinds of downtown development — a single department store, a group of village-like shops? Or that the question is poorly worded and too broad to understand?
Your editorial in the April 1 Kansan is the soul of inconsistency. Is it perhaps your "April Fools" joke? First, you endorse three candidates for City Commission, two of whom are vehemently opposed to the building of the 600 block mall. Then, in the next paragraph, you urge support of building that mail. Have you thought about these issues?
Finally, your editorial equates a mall with "progress." I guess that must make Overland Park the most progressive town in Kansas. Is it progressive to encumber taxpayers with $20 million in debt to build a privately owned store? Is it progressive to block Massachusetts and Vermont streets; thus funneling bridge and downtown traffic through a beautiful and historic residential district? Is it progressive to widen those residential streets which will encroach on a city park and pool
An April Fools' joke?
complex? Is it progressive to bring in three department stores and 90 national retail stores (malls are 95 percent national chains) when many retail areas in Lawrence are unoccupied?
I hope the voters spend more time than you did researching these questions.
Pat Kehde
coordinator. University Information Center
Yes sir, thank goodness there are still a few of us left who want to keep this nation safe and tied to its puritan roots. We are called to save the souls of the youth who promote the wearing of unitards and dance as if they have Lucifer himself in them!
But let us not concentrate only on the Crimson Girls, let's look at the heart of American pastimes. How about the men's swim team? Now that little loincloth can provoke many a lewd thought in the minds of our innocent females. And along that line, can't we do something about the basketball players' jerseys? All of that underarm hair nauseates me.
Welcome to the Plains states, brothers and sisters. It is here that the good Lord motivates our fellow Americans to come to the aids — well, make that the sides — of our countrymen.
But why stop there? Maybe we can re-establish censorship, book burn-
Aiding countrymen
ings and even a dusk-to-dawn curvet for those under the age of 21. And we can do it all in the name of morality to protect the delicate minds of our young people here at the University of Kansas in preparation for the real world. . .
Katie Hannigan
Tulsa, Okla., freshman
Alumni too powerful
It's bad enough that our Crimson Girls cannot wear the uniforms of their choice, but look at the reaction that caused this decision. Apparently, several complaints were submitted by horrified, money-giving alumni of the University. Their actions will now cause a group of students, who perform at games played by students, for students, to change their attire.
It's too bad a certain few can control what happens with a snap of their fingers. When people like Barb Heck, who know absolutely nothing about the Crimson Girls, can carry so much weight, only bad things can happen. In Austin, Texas, complaining alumni at the University of Texas caused the dismissal of a football coach who had just one substitute quarterback in Dallas, the students at Southern Methodist University do not have a football team to cheer for because of outside interference.
Vince Wondrack Lawrence sophomore
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed