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Monday, February 2, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Cheers,not jeers
When 15,000 screaming basketball fans cram into Allen Field House to cheer on the Jayhawks, it is a sight that cannot be beaten in college athletics.
The students transform the field house into a rowdy arena where few opponents emerge victorious. The Jayhawks' current 44-home game winning streak attests to that.
However, during Kansas' 72-48 victory over the Iowa State Cyclones on Tuesday, the field house became too rowdy. Fans ruined the spirit of the game when they stopped cheering for the Jayhawks and started jeering the Cyclones, primarily Iowa State forward Tom Schafer.
Schafer, who entered the game averaging 17.5 points a game, had an awful night and scored just four points. He
made only two of 14 shots from the floor. The Jayhaws had a 58-38 lead when Cyclone coach Johnny Orr pulled Schafer with 4:52 left.
This did not go over well with the Jayhawk fans, especially those seated behind the Kansas bench. Because the Jayhawks had such a commanding lead in the final moments of the game, fans concentrated their cheering efforts on the return of Schafer.
Kansas coach Larry Brown immediately got up and raised his hands to calm the crowd. Instantly, the fans became silent. This is just another of the many sportsmanlike gestures that Brown has made during basketball games.
The Jayhawks have given fans plenty to cheer about. They don't need to resort to taunting opposing players.
A beer's a beer
The State Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs is now discussing dropping this distinction as part of a revision of the state's liquor laws. This comes despite a recommendation by a liquor law review committee that the distinction remain.
Kansas is one of six states that makes a legal distinction between weak beer or cereal malt beverages, which are 3.2 percent alcohol, and strong beer, which has a higher alcohol content. Weak beer may be purchased in grocery and convenience stores and gas stations, while strong beer can be purchased only from retail liquor stores.
Opponents of the change say it could cause law enforcement
problems if the sale of stronger beer were allowed by outlets which can now sell only weak beer.
The distinction between strong and weak beer made sense when there was a difference between the age limits for purchasing 3.2 beer and liquor, but this reasoning will go out the window July 1 when the drinking age for all types of alcohol becomes 21. At that time, the two-stretch system will cease to be a law enforcement aid and will become a hassle.
If all beer customers can legally purchase both strengths of beer, it is nonsensical to route one to a grocery store and another to a liquor store.
A legacy of dedication
Tuesday morning, Cora Downs, KU distinguished professor and internationally revered researcher in microbiology, died at 94. She left behind a self-created legacy of commitment and achievement in her field. Today, we reap the benefits.
She earned recognition for work on "rabbit fever," Rocky Mountain spotted fever, rickeltsia and 'Q" fever. Her most celebrated achievement was her development of a technique used to trace and identify viruses within living organisms and test tube cultures. The technique now is one of the world's most widely known procedures in the pathology field.
Miss Downs received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at KU. She became a member of the KU faculty in 1917 and continued teaching until her formal retirement in 1963 when her visits to the research labs and classrooms of Snow and Malotl halls became less frequent. Her students remember her as captivating in her dedication to the truth in science.
These were the creations that earned her recognition and put KU on the map in the bacteriological sciences. Oxford University honored her as a Special Fellow of the Institute of Health and her picture hangs in her honor at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. From among these and other national and international awards, Miss Downs regarded the Citation for Distinguished Service as the most meaningful. It is KU's highest honor.
Her loyalty to KU, and her commitment to her field were intertwined with her personal willingness to create and to labor diligently. This combination, so masterfully embodied in Miss Downs, resulted in a legacy of personally initiated advancement in science.
During her retirement, Miss Downs was known to inquire about the happenings on 'The Hill'. 'The Hill' is still educating and being educated. Thanks to people like her we're doing it in a more distinguished way.
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I heard a rumor the other day that the important people in Washington were thinking about raising their salaries.
Teachers deserve higher salaries, too
That's understandable. I think Being a legislator is hard work. It's probably necessary to offer more
Lori Polson Columnist
money to attract the best-qualified men and women to govern this country
But I have to wonder why they're spending so much time and money worrying about the quality of congressmen and less time and money worrying about those who hold the future in their hands.
I'm talking about teachers. You know, those mean people who wouldn't let you throw paper airplanes in grade school, and the drill sergeants who forced you to write English themes.
Everyday in classrooms around the country, teachers come face to face with those who will shape the future. (It's kind of scary to think of your 12-year old sister as a possible presidential candidate, isn't it?)
After all, wasn't it teachers who taught the Supreme Court justices what the Constitution meant? How many doctors would be practicing today if they hadn't, at some point in their lives, had an inspirational science teacher?
I've thought about this a lot, and I just can't understand why everyone is so worried about financial incentives for legislators. But people seem to ignore financial incentives for teachers.
Teaching has had a history of being the lowest paid profession.
It just seems to me that there is something incredibly wrong with a country where teaching is taken for granted. Could good schools even have been constructed without educated people to draw up the blueprints?
Everyone is talking about the crisis in education today, and I tend to
agree with them. The fact that there is even one illiterate adult in a country as advanced as ours is a tragedy.
Some groups are taking steps to correct this situation. The Holmes Group, an education reform group composed of KU and more than 90 other universities nationwide. The group, in a report published recently, claimed the undergraduate education major too often has become a substitute for learning any one academic subject thoroughly enough to teach it well. To remedy this, the group supports the elimination of the undergraduate education major, requiring teachers instead to major in a liberal arts program for a bachelor's degree before earning a master's degree in education. I'm sure this is a positive step.
selves out of that salary bracket is pretty dim.
OK, so now you might be thinking that teachers should be in the field because they love to teach and not because they expect to make money.
But come on. How many of us are really going to go to school for five years with the prospect of earning as much as two thousand starting salary when we graduate?
Maybe the starting salary isn't that bad compared to other occupations. But the hope of ever raising them-
Yes, but the same should hold true for other professions
I know I wouldn't want a doctor to remove my appendix just to finance his trip to Europe. I hate to think of it, but when I wills on the side for a few extra bucks,
Yet, money is important - at least to some degree.
Education is vital. After all, if you can read this, it's because someone, most likely a teacher, taught you how to read.
But in these hard times of budget deficits and financial crises, I have to realize that legislators probably will get a raise. Teachers probably won't.
Good teachers love to teach. But they also love to feed their families, own a home and send their kids to college, just like the legislators do.
Mailbox
Considerate parking
This letter is addressed to all TABs (temporarily able-bodied) who park in handicapped parking places, park in crosswalks or in front of either curb cuts or building entrances for the disabled, and ignore pedestrian right-of-way on campus.
Not only do these acts exclude people who are disabled from activities such as attending class, going to and from work and seeing movies, but they are also against the law. The physical barriers you construct against disabled people are just another extension of the social and psychological barriers which are equally, if not more, handicapping.
You may not always be so fortunate so as to have healthy legs, arms, eyes and ears. You can make things easier for yourself in the future as well as for disabled people today if you convince your own behavior and attitudes.
Dawn Semon Lawrence graduate student
They're trying to make a living.
Let's give teachers a break. They're not trying to make a buck
Dawn Semon
Marc Berghaus Meade sophomore
Now, take Brother Jed Smock. That man can put on a show. Great theatrics and incredible audience participation. In terms of entertainment value, he and Sister Cindy, the ex-disco queen, literally blow something like the anti-Reagan rally out of the water.
Maybe the Committee to Un-elect Reagan should take a few theater classes before they have another rally.
Accepting the lies
David R. Barlow Basehor iunior
Jon Gregor believes that it was perfectly all right for President Reagan to lie to the American people concerning the Iran-contra affair. Gregor expressed this opinion in his Jan. 27 column, "Mistake in Iran deal was getting caught."
Recently, a flier circulated that read, "The only way to stop the lies is to stop the liars." Gregor termed the flier "outrageous" and that it was probably the siliest flier to be seen here in a while.
On a campus eager for entertainment, it's too bad that the only thing to come along recently has been the "Impeach Reagan" rally. The performance was sloppy, anticlimactic and poor entertainment.
If Gregor believes that the truth is "outrageous" and a "silly" idea, then he probably believes that it was all right for President Johnson to mislead Congress and the American people during the Vietnam War. Does he also believe that the only mistake made by Richard Nixon concerning the Watergate scandal was his being caught?
Maybe Gregor is right. We should throw the truth out the window. But Gregor must remember that if we choose to do this, the principles that this country was built on will become nothing but lies.
Where's Brother Jed?
Monopoly, crayons and clothes create problems for colorblind
I am colorblind.
A colorblind person is easy to spot if you look carefully. Nine out of 10 colorblind people are male. We can be recognized by certain key characteristics, ranging from the way we dress to the way we drive.
John Benner Columnist
One way to be certain that someone is colorblind is to hold up two fingers and ask him. "How many fingers do you see?" If he is colorblind, he will hit you.
What it means to be colorblind is unfathomable to the normal color-seeing person. This must be true, because the first question I am asked when someone discovers my handicap is, "What color is this?"
Being colorblind means having to say I'm sorry, I'm sorry that the sweater I bought as a gift is yellow, purple and green plaid.
In sorry I take so long during Monopoly game transactions because I have to look at each and every bill carefully or lose my shirt.
I'm sorry that all the board game pieces and all of the Uno cards have strips of masking tape with the color written on them. I can, however, save face by volunteering to take the pink pieces because no one else wants them.
Alas, life is not as simple as a board game. A colorblind person can never be absolutely sure, when driver sees them, the next traffic light is red or green.
Being colorblind means frequent guessing.
Guessing wasn't enough, however, to get me through a coloring book without creating some green-faced Martians out of normal Earthlings.
At the age of four, I finally was saved by a new set of Crayolas with the color written on the wrapper. My friend, a teacher, thought it was funny to peel them
Because of my siblings' penchant for peeling, my kindergarten teacher
called my parents to discuss my mentalabilities. She had seen one too many purple puppies.
Being colorblend means having to take someone with me to buy clothing. It is easy to spot solitary colorblind people in clothing stores. We are looking for Garanimals in extra-large sizes.
katz
Unfortunately, buying clothes is only the beginning of the nightmare — now comes matching the garments. A colorblind person consistently wears brown pants and a blue shirt.
I have ten identical pairs of socks in my drawer; blue for the right foot
Recently, I visited a friend in the hospital. I began at the information desk and was told to follow the red stripe to get to his room.
I looked down and saw a mass of lines that crossed and recrossed one another on the way to their final destinations. Down the hall, I lost track of my red stripe. While I was kneeling on the ground trying to sort them out, I realized people were staring at me.
"Lost a contact." I muttered, just loud enough for them to hear.
Colorblind people are not to be ridiculed or pitied. We are just like other people, but can be singled out by certain mannerisms we may have adopted to better cope in a colorful world.
By knowing some of these mannerisms, you can avoid asking us stupid questions like. "What color does this look like to you?"
k. l. thorman
BLOOM COUNTY
bv Berke Breathed
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