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Monday, December 8. 1986 / University Daily Kansan
So much for team spirit
It's a matter of good faith equity and solidarity. It's not a matter of winning or losing, or the performance of a single season.
When the Athletic Department last week announced it was giving a 3 percent raise to its football coaches, the immediate response was shock. The second response was: For what? Then, the question: Why now?
At a time when University classes, staff positions and salaries have been strangled by a statewide economic crisis, during a year when the University's chancellor tried to refuse a similar raise and then donated it to pay for student scholarships, how could Athletic Director Monte Johnson and the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation authorize the raise? The money is private and does not does not come from shrinking state funds, but the move was an exercise in bad timing.
It's also a lesson in insensitivity.
KU is not financially healthy. And it's influiencing to think of Bob Valeseney, who's already paid more than twice the average professor's salary, banking a paycheck that 3 percent faster than last year's. Meanwhile, faculty
salaries have been frozen and vacant staff positions will remain unfilled.
It's a matter of equity.
It's a matter of solidarity.
The coaches who received them should return them to the KUAC. Or, better yet, donate them to help reopen one of the 100 classes that may be cancelled next spring, or to help fill a vacant faculty position, or to buy supplies for the science departments or the KU Med Center, or to offset cuts in KU's police department and facilities operations. The list of where the money could have been better spent is endless.
One wonders what possessed the KUAC to give raises to the men who jockey blocking sleds at such a dismal economic time. They were wrong. Wrong to think about giving the raises. Wrong to approve them.
And how do the coaches feel about being benefactors of this insensitivity? Are they so isolated from the rest of the University's staff that they can accept the raises without an ounce of remorse or embarrassment?
At a university, the needs of the many do outweigh the needs of the few. If KUAC is so rich, why don't they spread the wealth — we need it.
The spirit of giving
In this year when the number of homeless people has reached a crisis proportion, pre-holiday shopping has reached an all-time high. Where do the priorities of the American people lie?
Is the holiday-hype trance induced by merchandises? Is the only holiday spirit a ghost of Christmas mases past? The profit-hungry merchants finally have gotten to us. We have forgotten what the spirit of giving is all about.
It is not just buy, buy, buy.
How about giving someone — even your time — to someone you have never met? Hundreds of people are in need of food, clothes, friendship and much more. Why not take some shopping money and give — even if only a little — to someone who is less fortunate?
tributes to making someone's holiday happier.
The next time you walk by a bell-ringer, don't put your head down and act as if he isn't there. Stop and put a few coins in the can. That little bit con-
Lawrence provides several opportunities to spend your Christmas dough on something other than He-Man and Laser Tag. And several local organizations have spent a few hours out of the week to contribute to the needy.
Fraternities and sororites get together and help out by delivering food to people unable to leave their homes, collecting cans, donating toys to the Salvation Army and giving Christmas parties for orphans.
The shelter for the homeless in the gymnasium of the Salvation Army could always use help. And the United Way is more than happy to take contributions. Giving some time or money to any of these groups is painless. And it will bring back some of the real spirit of giving that the holidays are all about.
According to that venerable old publication, Playboy magazine, the University of Kansas is ranked 26th in the top 40 list of colleges that know how to party.
Party affiliation
Now, coming in 26th out of the 250 colleges polled is pretty good, if you value things like that. Even better is that we beat out the Aggies at Kansas State University, although they did rank a close 27th.
The research conducted to determine the ranking was hardly scientific. The Playboy writer said he called four or five students from each college and asked them several questions, such as "What's the biggest blow-out party of the year?" and "What's the most
notorious make-out spot on campus?" From these questions he determined the list.
Now, if he had called the five biggest dubs on campus, that would definitely skew the results. The fact that we barely beat K-State attests to the unreliability of it all.
Certain sticks-in-the-mud may not see the benefit of being one of the best partying schools in the nation. However there is nothing wrong with occasionally blowing off steam, and it can't hurt when recruiting.
As the Playboy researcher, Wayne Duvall, said, "I'm not saying that these aren't academic institutions. I'm just saying that they really know how to have fun."
News staff
News staff
Lauretta McMillen ... Editor
Kady McMaster ... Managing editor
Tad Clarke ... News editor
David Silverman ... Editorial editor
John Hanna ... Campus editor
Frank Haniel ... Sports editor
Jacki Kelly ... Photo editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
David Nixon ... Business manager
Gregory Kaul ... Retail sales manager
Denise Stephens ... Campus sales manager
Sally Depew ... Classified manager
Lisa Weems ... Production manager
National sales manager
Beverly Kastens ... Traffic manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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My name appears in the little box in the left-hand corner of this page for the last time today, and I'm not quite sure what to think of that.
Selfish comments from a sad editor
Lauretta McMillen
I had come to feel like somewhat of a fixture in that space, and I feel compelled to comment on my own passing. My name first appeared there in the spring of 1984, when I was sports editor. Since then, I've also been listed as campus editor and managing editor.
Editor
but none has ever been so enlightening as this editor business. There's nothing quite like being ultimately responsible for everything that goes into the paper every day of the semester.
Each of these positions has brought a different perspective of the University Daily Kansan and has left an impact on the life in the newsroom and at KU.
Sometimes that responsibility has made me incredibly proud. When I watched the paper come off the presses Nov. 5, the morning after election night, I knew that we were
Other times, I have wanted to crawl in a hole and hide until people could somehow forget some of the things we have put into print. Friday's paper had our resident basketball star listed as "Danny Manny," and early in the semester, the Kansan was all too quick to jump on the bandwagon in saying the Rev. Jesse Jackson would speak on campus. Other mistakes have been much less humorous and much more painful.
the only paper in the Lawrence area that morning with complete election results. I also knew that our reporters, photographers and editors had pulled together to fill more than five full pages of the paper with interesting election coverage.
I began my Kansas career by writing a Christmas story seven semesters ago. It was something about Cabbage Patch doll and it was a musky, squishy piece that I probably wouldn't allow in my own paper today, but it was a beginning.
But when things go wrong, there's nowhere to hide, and that's the way it's supposed to be. We are given a lot of freedom on this paper, and responsibility must accompany that freedom.
And now, it has all drawn to a close, and I'm finally ready to leave. Or at least I'm going to leave, ready or not. In one word, I guess I feel grateful.
I'm grateful to the professors who taught me the basics. Learning how to ask the right questions at the right time was probably the most important information I have gained from college.
I'm grateful to the Advanced Reporting class. The members of that class serve as reporters for the Kansan, and I still believe that there is no harder course at the University of Kansas. They work at least 40 hours a week on their stories, and very few members of the class ever receive an 'A.'
I'm grateful that I've been allowed to be a part of a strong, demanding college newspaper for such a long time.
I'm grateful to my staff, a talented bunch of young adults that made this semester much easier than many in the past. At times, it seemed as if I could sit back and just watch the paper run itself.
I'm also grateful to the general managers who have served the Kan-
Yell when fallacies are offered as truth, and challenge anything you find hard to believe.
man while I've worked here. General managers are the grown-ups in charge of the business-type things that happen on the Kansan, and Susanne Shaw and Tom Eblen have served this paper, and this editor, for years. We also know of what goes into the paper, but they do have a lasting effect on our lives.
But enough of the sentimental and back to business.
Expect the best, you deserve it and you pay for it. Call when mistakes are printed, yell when fallacies are offered as truth, and challenge anything you find hard to believe.
This is a good college newspaper. It is a good newspaper in general, and it is the students at KU who keep it that way.
The student editor at the other end of the phone line may not always have the answer, but he or she should be pushed to try to explain.
I'm almost sure that journalism never gets any better than this and I'm even more certain that I will never again be an editor in charge of a group of people as fine as those I have attempted to lead this semester.
So, thanks. Thanks to KU, to the William Allen White School of Journalism, to my staff, my friends and my husband.
But most of all, thanks to my parents. They paid for all of this.
AFTER A RELAXING VACATION CLEARING BRUSH AT THE RANCH..
Honesty is rare policy in government
The National Security Council has been selling arms to its old enemy Iran, providing another fine example of the double standard by which the U.S. government operates.
In the past, our government has taken a strong "anti-terrorist" stand, and it killed 17 civilians in the raid on Libya in April to prove it.
Jan Underwood
Columnist
Harsh criticism was in store for other countries that did not follow suit. An example is France, which would not let U.S. planes fly in its airspace on their way to Libya and which until recently maintained its relations with another U.S. enemy, Syria.
The U.S. government has chastised Iran for its alleged involvement in terrorist activities. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger even made a trip to China recently to dissuade that country from shipping arms to Iran.
But the National Security Council has had a deal with Iran for some time. Apparently our government
feels free to do exactly the opposite of what it says is doing. Government officials have a name for this kind of behavior; they call it disinformation.
When President Reagan first confessed to the arms deal, he said the NSC had sent only one little insignificant planeload of arms to Iran. That number has since blossomed to as many as 20.
Reagan also said that no one would lose a job over the arms deal. John Poindexter then resigned, and Alfred LL Col. Oliver North of the NSC.
Reagan swore that no other countries were involved. But apparently Israel played an important role in the arms deal.
Our president told us that he didn't know anything about the diversion of arms-sale profits to the Nicaraguan contras.
He said LA Col. North arranged the contra connection all by himself. But other officials, notably White House Chief of Staff Don Regan, CIA Director William Casey and Vice President George Bush, all have been linked to the affair. And it is highly unlikely that this all could have taken place without presidential approval.
The administration has even lied about the bank accounts involved in order to cover the CIA connection to
the deal, Attorney General Ed Meese recently said that the money for the contras was put into a contra-controlled Swiss bank account. But it turns out that the money went into a CIA account that also finances rebels forces in Afghanistan and Angola.
Many people are rightly outraged by the deal with Iran. But Americans don't seem to want to believe that the arms deal is part of a pattern of government hypocrisy. There are many other examples. Here are a few favorites:
While the U.S. government says it is fighting terrorism, it is in fact financing terrorists in several other countries besides Iran. The U.S. government supported contras, for example, recently killed five more civilians. The civilians were farmers; three of them were women.
■ Our government also finances terrorism in Angola. There, a U.S.-backed group similar to the contras is burning villages and planting mines in farmers' fields. Members of the group want to force the Angolan people into submission so they can overthrow the government.
President Reagan is always saying he wants less "government interference." By this he seems to mean fewer taxes for the wealthy
and fewer laws regulating what industry can do to employees and the environment.
But the administration has no qualms about regulating the private lives of U.S. citizens. Attorney General Ed Meere recently said that he wanted employers to watch their workers in locker rooms, bars and parking lots to see whether they were taking drugs.
Government hyporisy also exists on the state level. Gov.-elect Mike Hayden made campaign promises to lower Kansans' taxes. Three days after the election, he said taxes would not be lowered. In fact, they probably will be higher next year because Kansas is in debt.
These examples of the government's lies are more sinister, in some ways, than the Iranian fiasco. The public is angry about the arms deal. But it usually assents to contradictory governmental policies. Our political leaders lie to us with smiles on their faces, and a beguiled American public smiles back.
Americans have come to accept government doublespeak as normal behavior and therefore have let it continue. Gov. John Carlin was right when he said politicians were "about as honest as the people would allow them to be."