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Thursday, March 12, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinions
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Catching a good break
It's spring break. Let's PARTEEEEE!
The two phrases have become synonymous. And throughout the years, other words have become equated with spring break also — wasted, crooked, smashed, stupidity and death.
About this time each year, the natives begin to get restless. Thousands and thousands of college students migrate to the warm, sunny beaches of Florida and Texas in search of fun and a place where crabby professors and impossible midterms are only a bad dream.
But what should be a relaxing escape, lately has turned into an annual disaster. Fun-starved students have driven local residents crazy with their intense search for entertainment. Even more disturbing is the danger that they put themselves in while "vacationing."
The police departments in Texas and Florida probably make their biggest profits during the winter months from all the arrests and fines imposed on students for using fake IDs and violating open container laws.
If that isn't bad enough, reports abound each year about students who overindulge themselves and get hit by cars or fall off window ledges. Spending spring break in jail, in the hospital or in a body bag is not the epitome of a fun spring break.
So be careful. The idea of a break from classes is to relax and have a good time, not to be as destructive, or self-destructive, as humanly possible.
Eliminating barriers
In 1963, the hardships faced by blacks who wished to gain wider admission to the nation's colleges and universities was symbolized by former Alabama Gov. George Wallace blocking the doorway of the University of Alabama. Today, a more appropriate symbol would be a college dropout leaning up against a huge dollar sign.
According to a recent article in Newsweek On Campus magazine, the number of blacks graduating from high schools in this country rose 26 percent between 1977 and 1984. Meanwhile, the number of these graduates entering college fell from 50 percent to 42 percent during the same period.
The situation at the University of Kansas is not much rosier. Eight hundred thirty-three black students are enrolled at KU, out of a total enrollment of 26,766. And the dropout rate for those students is nearly 72 percent.
This sad trend is caused by two main factors — declining government student aid and a
small number of black faculty members.
The Reagan administration's crushade to switch student aid from grants to loans has hit blacks especially hard because they are more likely than whites to live below the poverty level.
And a small number of blacks with master's or doctorate degrees, as well as a lack of enthusiasm in hiring black faculty, deprives black students of role models who understand their problems.
KU deserves credit for its efforts in recruiting black students and faculty, but these efforts need to be built upon and spread to other colleges and universities. Institutions of higher learning need to draw more than just the most academically talented blacks.
Likewise, the federal government needs to reverse its de facto discriminatory student aid policies. Increasing student aid grants would be a small price to pay to boost the standard of living for blacks nearer to that of whites.
Highway robbery
Excitement was in the air after the announcement of a badly needed multilevel parking garage. The University of Kansas finally was taking steps to alleviate the frustrating campus parking situation.
But the excitement quickly cooled after a shocking announcement that the University's Parking Board proposed to pay for the lot by raising the price of permit fees and parking tickets.
The University Senate Executive Committee and the University Council both approved a plan that would allow parking services to dig deeper into the pockets of faculty, staff and students.
The plan would raise the cost of blue permits from $52 to $70; red permits from $45 to $55.
and yellow permits from $35 to
$40. In addition, residence hall stickers would increase from
$20 to $23. The plan also would
raise parking tickets from
$7.50 to $10, campus passes
from $17 to $30, and passes for
service vendors from $80 to
$100
Raising the prices, especially of tickets, is outrageous.
The Board of Regents has approved about $5 million in University bonds to finance the 640-space parking garage.
Faculty, staff and students have been paying for a long time for the University's inadequate parking. They deserve the extra parking. What they don't deserve is highway robbery from the University.
News staff
News staff
Frank Hansel . Editor
Jennifer Benjamin . Managing editor
Jill Warren . News editor
Brian Katherine . Editorial editor
Sandra Engelland . Campus editor
Mark Siebert . Sports editor
Diane Dulmeet . Photo editor
Bill Skeet . Graphics editor
Tom Eblen . General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Lisa Weems . Business manager
Bonnie Hardy . Ad director
Denise Stephens . Retail sales manager
Kelly Scherer . Campus sales manager
Duncan Calhoun . Marketing manager
Lori Cogle . Classified manager
Jennifer Lumianski . Production manager
David Nixon . National sales manager
Jeanne Hines . Sales and marketing adviser
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Balcony accidents plague spring break
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — She bought new clothes, a swimsuit, sunglasses — all in upbeat styles. Spring break was approaching and Lauren Day Buffington, like 265,000 other college students in 1986, was heading to Daytona Beach to enjoy sun, fun and our famous beach.
Edee Dalke
Guest Shot
The day Laurain left the Gordon Junior College campus in Barnesville, Ga., she aced her chemistry final. The 20-year journalism student was so excited about her spring break plans that it was all she could talk about for three weeks. But she also talked about being careful. She was well aware that people had fallen to their deaths from balconies in several cities during previous spring breaks, and aware that drinking and high balconies could be dangerous. As she left, she remarked, "That's crazy. I wouldn't dare hang around them."
"What's the thrill in that?"
But days later, Florida front page news read, 'A 20-year-old college student from Georgia plunged to her death Thursday when she lost her grip while trying to climb from one
sixth floor balcony to another. Police report that Laurain Day Buffington fell backward onto the parking lot and died instantly."
Lives ending as statistics; it happens every year. Daytona Beach records, starting from 1966, report that students have fallen from balconies at least 28 times. Fifteen have died. The average fall is four stories. In 1984 three accidents brought one death. In 1985 three died of falls in Daytona Beach alone, and last year in Florida, seven students lost their lives during spring break, three of whom died after balcony falls.
As a 1983 graduate of Kansas State University who moved to Daytona Beach three years ago, I have seen spring break from the other side. A spring break enthusiast myself, I recall my own travels everywhere from Padre Island, Texas, to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. I fully endure spring break as an important — no vital — aspect of college memories.
But when I hear of a failing accident at a hotel just down the street, I cringe. I cringe because I know that it was an ordinary student. No one unusual.
Our city is taking a firm stand. Local business owners, especially, want students to have a great time. Your fun increases the chance of return visits. With 300,000 visitors during spring break, accidents are bound to occur, but plunging from a
balconv is absolutely senseless.
The most significant change in this year's balcony safety program is a new law that allows the hotel to detain a student acting in a life-threatening manner. Last year a student could not return to school without a police officer witnessed the action or obtained an arrest warrant.
A few of Daytona's hotels are implementing their own balcony-safe safety by sealing balconies and windows in rooms occupied by stud
Now, if understanding and conforming to rules and regulations are exactly the reason that you need to get away for spring break, fear not. The law on balconies simply means this:
If you dangle, jump, balance, do hand stands, climb or any other version of balcony play that's attempted yearly, you will promptly be held by hotel management until an officer arrives to formally arrest you.
Sadly enough, the students' responses to the deaths have been only a pause. And then the party continues. Many feel that it's not a possibility for themselves. Like Lauren Day Buffington, who left saying, "That's crazy . . . what's the thrill in that?" they think it happens only to the crazies who have completely lost their senses or to the other guy.
A friend of one of last year's victims was quoted as saying, "The night preceding was nothing really too crazy, just partying and meeting people. He was a fun-loving guy, but he wasn't crazy enough to jump off a balcony."
Wherever it occurred, whatever the cause, these accidents had one thing in common. It was a student attempting to have a good time. With or without enforced regulations, college students should be responsible not only for themselves, but for those they traveled with to their spring break destination.
Alcohol may weaken one's responsibility and judgment. The histories of the baleony deaths show various reasons and situations for the falls. Anyone on a balcony could be caught up in the moment and be at risk. For those students who plan a trip to a spring break "hot spot," such as Daytona Beach, here is a list of "high-risk" thoughts. If you find yourself thinking one take caution:
"That next balcony is so close." "I'll just sit up on here on the ledge." "I'm just following my friend and he just made it." "The others will grab me before I go over."
"Not me, that's crazy . . . what's the thrill in that?"
Edee Dalke is an advertising account executive for the Orlando Sentinel and a free-lance writer from Daytona Beach, Fla.
Living the life of a court-ordered convert
— the church of secular humanism.
It was a painful conversion, but I hope to unite with my fellow humanists and change that.
I was just shocked to find out the other day that I now belong to this country's newest recognized religion
Brian
Kaberline
Editorial editor
One day I'm walking down the street, books in hand, feeling fairly independent. The next thing I know — BAM! I'm in a new religion.
Our religion has a glorious past, about a week old now. Our founder is not Jesus, Buddha, Abraham or even Mohammed, but U.S. District Judge W. Breward Hand. And even though he doesn't understand the land, we think he is kind of a fool.
Hand founded the religion when he ruled that 44 textbooks used in Alabama schools were unconstitutional. Apparently, he thought they promoted the values of secular humanism, which maintains that people can handle their own affairs without
intervention from God and teach situational ethics in place of moral absolutes.
Apparently, we have offended the Big Guy in the sky by actually using the brains He put in our heads. The Moral Majority hates us for that; probably because they've never tried it.
Yea my brethren, we have been caught in our sins. Some diehairs like myself knew this day would come, but we wanted to see how long we could go on brainwashing the nation's youth unnoticed.
We teach the young about one parent families, divorce, basically everything that Pat Robertson would like to abolish if he is elected president in 1988.
Maybe it is slightly unethical or immoral to talk about these subjects, but you know how it goes. If we don't teach them about things like divorce, they'll only pick up misconceptions about it from their stepparents.
We have no churches yet. It would be pretty dangerous to take the time to find a site and hire an architect when we're hoping to be disbanded by an appeals court. Besides, what would we do there? Read banned
books?
If we were to try to read all of the books that have either been banned or contested in Alabama, it could take years. Maybe we should think of building a library instead of a church.
The ironic thing about the birth of our group is that the very people who fought so hard in that Alabama court to declare us a religion are the very people who charged that we were opposed to all religion just six years ago.
In 1981, a group of us liberals, as we were called then, supported a lawsuit to strike down an Alabama law that provided for a moment of silence or voluntary prayer in the state's schools. The almighty Judge Hand ruled in favor of the more than 600 defendants in the case and the law was upheld.
Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the great Hand's decision and the moment of silence was history. At that point, most judges would have given up, but not our Judge Hand.
Hand, exercising an option that he was magnanimous enough to leave in a footnote to his original decision,
pulled the former defendants into court, miraculously transformed them into plaintiffs and began hearings on whether other religious influences might have crept into Alabama schools.
So, here we are. Because we didn't want religion taught in schools (using some filmsy excuse about the Constitution prohibiting a mixing of church and state) we have been declared a religion ourselves. Seems logical to
The thing that doesn't seem logical though is that the biggest goal of our new religion is to go to a higher court and go back to being just plain liberals again.
I guess some people are never happy though.
With racial and sexual discrimination still not completely wiped out, the poor getting hit with budget cuts and people beginning to believe Ronald Reagan again, liberals are busy enough today. Personally, I think racism, poverty and a warrior mentality is more worthwhile than arguing with people like Oral Roberts who might get zapped if they can't keep up their ransom payments.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
FOR GOODNESS SAKE...
I AM A TYPICAL, OVERWEIGHT AMERICAN ...
AND I D LIKE A DIET PLAN WHICH ALLOWS ME TO REMAIN A LAZY PIG,
THANK YOU
GREAT, LET'S EXACTLY!
GET YOUR THAT'S THE
STOMACH TICKET!
SURGICALLY NOTHING
REDUCED RADICAL!