Wednesday, February 25, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Judging from the lines at the enrollment center during the first few weeks of each semester, a proposal by the University to shorten the period when students may add classes would needlessly intensity the frustration involved in schedule changes.
Last week, Brower Burchill,
associate vice chancellor for
academic affairs, submitted a
plan to shorten the add period
for all colleges from four
weeks to two weeks. The plan
is supported by Robert
Lineberry, dean of the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
who claims it is not good for
students to add classes one
month into the semester.
Staying out of line
Adding a class in the third week of the course may often be a disadvantage to students and an inconvenience to professors. Many first exams are administered and many papers are assigned during this period. Some classes, however, do not give exams until three weeks later. Thus, it is possible for a student to be
prepared despite a late add date.
This may not be an enviable task, but it is often a necessary one. Many students who drop courses after the first few weeks of the semester and find themselves short on hours are able to enroll in additional courses only during the second half of the add period.
Because of the long lines encountered under the current add system, some students may delay adding classes until the final two weeks of the period. In the meantime, they attend the class and do the necessary course work. Though inadvertently, this cuts down on traffic at the enrollment center.
Opinions
This semester, about 10,000 students added courses in the second half of the add period. If the plan to shorten the add period succeeds, it may mean 10,000 additional students standing in Strong Hall in enrollment lines that already extend the length of the building.
Bearing a moral burden
The Kansas Legislature will be shouldering a great burden if it passes an abortion bill requiring a pregnant juvenile to get the permission of a parent or legal guardian before having an abortion. However, it is a burden that needs to be shouldered.
Morality cannot be legislated, but in this case it should be monitored.
Most teenage girls who get pregnant are not mature enough to know the ramifications of their decision.
It makes sense that parental consent be required, especially since all other surgery on minors requires consent.
In dealing with abortions, there will always be exceptions, and the bills do have built-in safeguards. In the event of a medical emergency, no consent would be required. Also, if a girl could not get permission from her parents, she could seek permission from the court.
One problem with the Legislature's approach is that the issue is not a high priority with some of the representatives. Teenage abortion is a problem that will not go away by ignoring it, and the legislators need to deal with and pass the bill.
In today's society, young people are more sexually active, but that doesn't mean that they are mature enough to deal with the consequences.
But somebody has to be.
Company not chicken
Yet another U.S. company has called it quits with South Africa.
Pepsico Inc.'s Kentucky Fried Chicken, which has about 180 outlets in South Africa, recently decided to pull out its assets and operations this year. The company owns about one-third of the outlets and the rest are franchised.
Kentucky Fried Chicken joins a growing number of U.S. companies ending business in South Africa, which practices the controversial system of apartheid. About 5 million whites in the country rule about 24 million blacks.
Economic conditions in the country that allegedly disrupted employees' lives and the operation of the franchises might have prompted the company's decision to leave the troubled country
Kentucky Fried Chicken
made a sound business decision in light of the turmoil in the troubled country. No one knows for sure what its real motives were for pulling out of South Africa. The company may have pulled out strictly for economic reasons or because it does not want to invest money in a country that doesn't treat all of its citizens with equal respect.
Either way, the decision makes a statement. If the South African situation hinders U.S. companies economically, the companies should pull out. The same is true for other companies. If enough companies remove their assets from South Africa, then maybe the government will speed up social reforms, saving lives and ridding the world of dehumanizing system of apartheid along the way.
News staff
Frank Hansel ... Editor
Jennifer Benjamin ... Managing editor
Jul Warren ... News editor
Brian Kaberline ... Editorial editor
Sandra Engelland ... Campus editor
Mark Siebert ... Sports editor
Diane Dultmeier ... 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 Culboun ... Marketing manager
Lori Copple ... Classified manager
Jennifer Lumianski ... Production manager
David Nixon ... National sales manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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No need to save me a seat on the aisle
At least not until the effects of a terrible experience I endured the other night have worn off.
I'll never bad-mouth cable television again.
Kirk Kahler
Columnist
For the first time in two years, I got off of the big pillow in my front room and went to the theater to catch a movie.
Obviously, I had forgotten why I had avoided theaters for two years.
The seat that I always had chosen when I was still going to movies on a regular basis was empty, so I took it home and settled on the barn. I was starting to enjoy myself.
The evening started off well. After dutifully buying a tub of popcorn and vat of Coke, I entered the theater in search of a prime seat.
But just before the lights went down and the previews started, two guys and their dates hurried into the
theater and sat in the seats directly behind me. Their entrance was accompanied by a noisy distraction.
No big deal, I thought of the noise. I only missed a Toyota commercial and a preview of a movie that will definitely be on HBO within the week.
I suddenly and frightfully became aware of the reasons why I no longer patronized movie theaters — that o'l voodoo I call the high school ruination of any otherwise enjoyable event.
I guessed that the people who were sitting behind me were in high school and I placed their mental capacitieslow those of you who read my column.
It became evident, however, that the problem would grow throughout the country.
The quartet emitted all the early warning signs: yelling at aquaintances across the theater, speaking loudly of sexual practices that they probably read about while skipping school and perusing the dirty magazines at Town Crier.
special effort to let everyone know that he was chewing tobacco, much to the vocal dismay of his date, who insisted he was filling his mouth with earthworms.
One of the young men made a
I lied and told myself that all this would present no distraction because the movie was supposed to be so powerful. "I'll probably get so involved that I'll forget they're even there," I thought they.
Boy, was I wrong.
One of the guys was so stupid, that his stupid friend had to dissect and eat him.
"Why did he fall down?" the dumber one asked.
At the end of the movie, my disgust was at somewhat quieted. When I went to hook up with the son of my distraction all for them, so we staring at the screen, wide-ever.
"He's got shrapnel in his back," the dumb one replied.
'What's that?
"Little pieces of metal."
Then, I thought of myself when I was their age.
I couldn't believe my ears! These guys, about as sharp as a two-bladed marshmallow, are able to attract cars in their motor vehicles? We're in trouble.
The guy that was chewing, however, caused an occasional distraction by expectorating gallons of spitite on the floor next to an empty Coke vat.
Thankfully, they finally stretched their attention spans to the limit and were fairly quiet for the last 75 percent of the movie.
1. too, used to go to movies with every intention of being a consumate pest. I used to throw coins and bottles down the incised floor and into the trash across the theater. I even used to be proud of the fact that I chewed tobacco.
I like to think that I have grown up somewhat since then. I admit that I still don't act like I'm 23, but I like to enjoy myself.
Roberts gets it from both sides
I don't know how the Rev. Oral Roberts puts up with it. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
I hope that the four people who sat behind me the other night also continue enjoying themselves, but not at the expense of others. Because the movie's strong message had an obvious impact on them, I like to think they will do just that.
Just the other night, he was on TV describing a terrifying experience he had in his own bedroom.
Mike Royko
Columnist
"The devil came to my room," he said, "and I felt those hands on my throat, and he was choking the dog. I yelled to my wife, 'Honey, come!'
His wife rushed into the room.
"She laid her hands on me and rebuked the devil and commanded the devil to get out of my room. I went in and helped my bed of my night rest." Roberts said.
That shows how lucky a man is to have a wife with good hearing, especially one who can rebuke the devil and make the nasty bugger take a walk. Some women might have slept through the whole thing.
Or to have a bartender walk over and say, "I got these chits you signed the other night when you were in here and bought drinks for all those . . .uh. . .you remember?" You wanna square it?"
Roberts told this story to show how difficult his life had been since he revealed that God had been placed on the arm to raise money.
A kind of deadline like that can't be an easy thing to live with. It's one thing to get a computerized letter from American Express saying that you are a week overdue in paying for your high-living follies.
The TV preacher revealed weeks ago that God had warned him if he didn't raise $8 million by the end of March. he would die.
But it's something else when God himself tells you to come up with eight really big ones or else.
Making it even worse were those who doubted Roberts. Other preachers said God was not an extortionist, God is not a terrorist, God doesn't tell TV preachers to raise money or die.
This led me to urge people to withhold their contributions. As much as I admire Roberts, I had to point out that if he failed to raise the money and dropped dead on March 31, he will prove the skepticism of many mass conversion of atheism, agnostics and other wandering souls.
But now we have this new element — Roberts being choked in his bedroom by the devil.
How much, I ask, can a man be expected to tolerate?
On the one hand he has God telling him to hustle his TV congrregation for eight mill or be wafted off to heaven.
Now, $8 million isn't what it used to be, but it's still a tidy sum. And it's not like Roberts is Ivan Boesky and can run a scam on a bunch of Wall Street chumps. He has to depend on the kindness of little old ladies watching TV in boarding houses.
So, there is poor Oral, counting up all these little money orders, with God peeking over his shoulder, poised to zap him.
Many of them don't have checking accounts. They have to totter to the currency exchange to get money orders.
And after a hard day, what does he get? He goes home, eats dinner, tells his wife, "Don't worry, we've got it." He's fine, and turns in for a good night's sleep.
He wakes up in the middle of the night, and there is the devil squeezing his throat.
I could understand how someone with a weaker spirit might say, "Hey, I've had it with the preacher starting to startromow. I sell used cars."
But, as John Belushi would have said, "Noooooooo."
Under these trying circumstances, that's the least a preacher is entitled to — a good night's sleep.
And who could blame him? I've known corporate creatures who had nervous breakdowns because they weren't promoted from fourth vice president to third vice president.
Here we have a man who is being threatened by God with death — just when the golf season ends, he is devil choking him in his bedroom.
Roberts didn't say how he knew it was the devil. Assuming he doesn't use a night light, I would think that most furtive characters who choke you in your bed would look alike.
I'm just glad that his wife was there to rebuke the devil. I just wish he had said what form the rebuke took.
Maybe it was just a neighborhood mugger.
But I'll take his word that it was the devil. Maybe the guy's eyes gloed in the dark, which would be a tip-off.
Under the circumstances, does a wife say, "You nasty thing, you, take your hands off my husband's face. Are you some kind of pervert?"
With five or six weeks before God's deadline, who knows what will happen next? Demons with pitchforks in the breakfast nook? Underworld fiends in the family room?
It isn't easy being Oral Roberts or his wife.
Maybe they ought to buy a big, mean dog.
Mailbox Not naive on policy
I cannot imagine that Paul Campbell is so naive to believe that the foreign policy of countries is based on love and kindness. I presume Campbell knows that it is based on egotistical interests and selfishness.
When the people of a country realize that there is injustice and that they are being exploited, which produces poverty, misery and famine, the appropriate atmosphere is created in which revolutions are likely to place the people not because of two or three dozens of armed men, but because of the search of a large percentage of the people for justice.
If the U.S. officials were so concerned about El Salvador, they should have aided them long before the people became aware of the situation. This aid should have consisted of helping the development of the country in areas such as education, health and commerce.
I am not in the political science field, but I am a U.S. citizen who doesn't believe in violence but does believe in justice. I want to state clearly that those who have the "power" aren't motivated by love and care towards other countries. Americans aren't the "good guys" fighting against the "bad guys". It's just a game of personal interests that rules and motivates the relationships between countries.
Samuel Sommerville Argentine graduate student
Belief in 'Amerika'
After viewing ABC's controversial miniseries "Amerika" and reading editorial opinions in various newspapers that said the television movie was "right-wing propaganda," I only can wonder why people are getting so upset. But it really doesn't surprise me. The movie was simply trying to make us aware of the importance and fragility of our freedom. It tried to point out how easily freedom could be lost if we don't remember, everyday, how important it is to each and everyone of us.
Patriotism is not the creation of the right-wing and it certainly isn't propaganda. A movie that tries to stir some much-needed patriotism in this nation should not be ostracized by people who think that it is either anti-Soviet or right-wing propaganda.
We read in various publications, namely the Kansan, that it was "deplorable" for our media to air "Amerika" and that the depletion of Soviet leaders in the movie was nothing short of evil.
The Kansan criticized the movie because the people who were trying to lead Americans out of the oppression were clearly the good guys and the Soviets were the bad guys. They think that a movie will damage U.S.-Soviet relations. Come on, Kansan, DID you know? It was the Soviets' intelligence and our intelligence? But then again, what's new?
Chris Wilson Olathe sophomore
BLOOM COUNTY
bv Berke Breathed