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Friday, January 30, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Policy misses its mark
The English department has decided to get tough and crack down on unexcused absences.
This semester, it has started to strictly enforce its policy to "terminate administratively the enrollment of any student who misses two consecutive class meetings during the first five weeks of the semester."
The policy, which has existed for several years, is stated in the KU Timetable.
If a student misses two consecutive classes, instructors inform the department, which then notifies the student by letter. The letter asks the student to call the department within five days and explain the absences.
If a student who planned to drop a class calls the department and explains, then other students who attend a class in hopes of adding would have the chance.
Barbara Paris, office specialist for the English department, said the department had sent out 80 letters, but only five students had responded. The department will not automatically drop a student who doesn't respond.
Many students don't bother to respond because they plan to drop the class anyway, Paris said.
Although the department is making a decent attempt to solve a problem and help students add classes earlier in the semester, their solution has created more problems.
Enforcing the policy has created an extra load of administrative work for the English department, without achieving its goal of getting other students into the English classes.
At least the English department tried to solve a frustrating problem for students and instructors, at a time when more class doors than usual were slammed in students' faces.
Wise to break promise
Gov. Mike Hayden has found out early that it's not always easy to keep campaign promises.
Reality forced the newly elected governor to renge on one of his campaign promises
— to return to taxpayers the state income tax increases expected to result from the federal tax overhaul.
Instead of getting money back, Kansans can expect their state income taxes to go up for the 1987 tax year in what Hayden's opponents have called a "backdoor tax increase."
cuts for state universities and then give a tax refund?
Hayden wants the money, about $140 million for fiscal year 1988, to sit in the state's general fund.
In this instance, Hayden did the right thing. How could he talk about financial woes and institute 3.8 percent budget
Since the exact amount Kansas can expect to get back is unknown, it would be foolish for Hayden to try to refund the money.
If Hayden did refund the money and then needed to dip into the state's general fund, he probably would be forced to go to the people and ask for more money in the form of higher taxes.
The state already has the taxpayers' money, so it is better for Hayden to keep the money instead of asking the taxpayers to give it back.
Not just a personal risk
Apparently, some people have a hard time getting the message.
Three U.S. teachers were seized this week in West Beirut.
The three teachers and an Indian professor were in an office of the Beirut University College when kidnappers, posing as police assigned to protect them, entered the office and abducted them. That brings the total number of Westerners reported to be missing and believed kidnapped in Beirut to 25. That's 25 more than it should be.
When are these Americans going to realize the kind of situation they are putting themselves in, and more importantly, the position they are putting the U.S. government in? An attempt by the Reagan administration to gain the release of the American hostages through Iran has rocked the nation and seriously damaged the credibility of
the government. In the end, these negotiations haven't accomplished much. Maybe a few hostages have been released, but the abductions have not ended. Why should they when the terrorists know that the U.S. government is willing to negotiate with them?
The U.S. government must stop becoming involved in these situations. It is not the government's responsibility to run interference on behalf of the hostages. State Department officials repeatedly have warned Americans remaining in Lebanon to leave, but they still remain. Certainly, these people could find employment or education elsewhere. They do not need to be in Lebanon.
do not need to be in Lebanon. If these Americans choose to remain in a country where they are practically at the mercy of anti-American terrorists, they should accept the consequences for their actions without the assistance of the United States. It is their problem, not the nation's.
News staff
News staff
Frank Hansel    Editor
Jennifer Benjamin  Managing editor
Jul Warren     News editor
Brian Kabertline  Editorial editor
Sanna Ergelland  Campus editor
Mark Siebert   Sports editor
Diane Dullmeier 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 Schere  Campus sales manager
Duncan Calloun  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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Opinions
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Movie gives false picture of El Salvador
The pitiful who labor under the assumption that Ronald Reagan is the worst thing to happen to the people of Central America will have their spirits lifted this weekend. Oliver Stone's production of "Salvador," a violent movie alleging to portray the political state of El Salvador, will be shown on campus today and tomorrow by Student Union Activities.
Administration's detractors reserve human rights criticisms solely for U.S. allies. El Salvador is no exception, in human rights there are ignored
Paul Campbell Columnist
nasty U.S. militarists frothing for blood.
It would be criminal neglect on our part to refuse the assistance needed to defeat the guerrillas and merely provide enough to entrench the status quo.
Stone's portrayal panders to the liberal delusion that the United States is getting into another Vietnam. It is a nihilistic flight of fantasy whose violence is surpassed only by its hatred of the Reagan foreign policy in Central America.
Fortunately, the U.S. foreign policy success in El Salvador is as accountably positive as the movie's message is negative. In fact, El Salvador is one the United States' most successful foreign policy endeavors.
The movie presents the typical cardboard caricatures that should be expected: right-wing yahoo raping and pillaging their way across the landscape, noble guerrillas spouting the joys of Communist liberation and
It is virtually impossible to remake a country in our image no matter how good we think our system is. The traditions of the region, which for El Salvador includes repression and poverty, are slow to change.
Through 1980 and 1981, El Salvador was on the verge of being overrun by the communist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), as now receiving Soviet-bloc aid via Cuba and Nicaragua.
After the inconsistency of the Carter years, President Reagan has used military, but primarily economic aid and financial government of Jose Napoleon Duarte.
Duarte's job has not been at all easy. Indeed, the moderate in revolutionary situations is being pressed upon from both the left and right.
Political killings by death squads have declined and the FMLN no longer is able to field the numbers previously possible. El Salvador has conducted four regularly scheduled elections in which the people have turned out to vote despite attacks and harassment by the guerrillas.
Those responsible for the murder of four U.S. nuns are behind bars. The Salvadoran military has been reformed into an effective military organization. The right of assembly by church, labor, and political groups can be exercised without interference.
A truly democratic revolution is a slow process that first promotes plurality, with economic development following. In El Salvador, good first steps are being taken because of United States' help, but the decisions are ultimately those of the Salvadorans.
Duarte has shown great political prowess in El Salvador as he builds the democratic center against the extremes. While the Duarte government has engaged in talks with the guerrillas, the FMLN remains committed to power-sharing without elections. Further bloodshed can be minimized if the left's political wing enters the electoral process.
The coup-prone generals understand that all aid provided by the United States will be lost should they revert to their old ways. While Duarte's generals historically are inclined to influence national politics, they have lost the taste for government rule.
To best assure Duarte's continued success, the United States must provide him with enough military and economic aid to foster the development of pluralistic institutions and economic growth.
And the movie "Salvalder?" It instills a misplaced sense of U.S. failure in Salvadoran policy. As movies like "Missing In Action" and "Rambo" cater to those who wish we had won Vietnam, so "Salvalder" caters to those who want the United States to lose El Salvador.
Mailbox
Arms sale inexcusable
How low has this nation fallen? If Jon Gregor's editorial in the Jan. 27 issue of the University Daily Kansan reflects the opinions of a significant portion of the U.S. public, our country is morally bankrupt.
No circumstance could ever exist that would justify sending arms to both sides of a war. Those who supply these weapons are nothing but death merchants. Gregor excuses the sales of arms to Iran and Iraq, believing it is acceptable to "help maintain a balance in the war." In other words, he is saying our access to oil in the Middle East is worth the deaths of the people killed by the arms we provide — that the lives of the young people of Iran and Iraq are expendable for our purposes. Those who support the arms sales are nearly as responsible for the deaths in this region as those who use the arms.
Governments draw their only true powers from the consent of the governed, yet Gregor clearly suggests that our government should he to us, implying that we should only follow, not direct our government. He scoffs when his fellow citizens oppose an illegal war in Nicaragua and oppose the illegal and immoral arms sales and the general sidestepping of the Constitution and laws of our country by the Reagan administration.
To Gregor, power comes down from the government, not up from the people. Those in government office are not above the heads of the rest of us. They are people who need to know we are watching them, that they are accountable to us for their actions.
The rally to impeach the president last week was not a silly event, as Gregor suggests, but an expression of patriotism and world citizenship by people who would rather take part in the governing of their nation than be taken by their government.
Lies are not acceptable in high office. Throw the lars out.
John Bode Manhattan senior
A lack of planning
The University Daily Kansan article about the use of "computerized I.D.s" for residence hall dining and other activities showed a lack of planning and thought on the part of faculty members. It is an example of misleading reporting and a failure to separate the truth from hypoe.
A "computerized LD." is incommensurable. What should have been said was that the new KUIDs be used with a computer system. It also seems incongruous for students to try to "persuade a computer" to let them
eat. That is fiction rather than news.
Regarding the use of the KUIDs to link dinner hall closings to projected usage, that could be done now with information that is available already. That is a poor justification for a $40,000 computer system.
Judging from the article, it appears there are great expectations about a new KUID and the emphasis on what the sophisticated computer system that will be providing all the services. The card is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
As the KUID card is used by more than 30,000 people, it does not seem appropriate or wise to go out and buy a computer for reading KUID cards based on KU residence hall activities. Nor does it seem wise to have each University office specify, buy, install and maintain its own systems. Can you imagine what state we would be in if every department had the equivalent (or its own version) of the systemware software (chaos)? I can guarantee the systems would be incompatible, unreliable, a waste of money and result in a tremendous duplication of effort (and probably not work).
I believe if any computer system is purchased, it should be with the entire University in mind and planned to accommodate all departments and as many applications as possible. Gordon F. Sargent
Lenexa graduate student
I resent the condescending tone of the editorial titled "A fantasy issue," which appeared in the Jan. 26 issue of the University Daily Kansan. In addition, the editorial omitted some key facts.
First, the editorial makes a very unprofessional crack at the "poor students" who can't get into local bars, and implies that they only go there to get drunk. In reality, many students go to bars to see live bands. The next editorial, ironically, encouraged support for the arts.
Issue not a fantasy
Also, the editorial fails to state what is "impractical" about underage admission to bars, when it is currently allowed in Manhattan and Hays. If Brady Stanton and Kelly Milligan, student body president and vice president, were elected on this issue, it was because the student body wanted someone to stick up for the important right to have fun.
The courage shown by Stanton and Milligan is needed at a time when students are facing hassles ranging from scholarship cuts to a drinking age which is higher than the draft age. The last thing they need is their new newspaper telling them to roll over and play dead.
Ben Asher Springfield, Mo., junior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed