Opinion
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2010
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--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
I kinda sorta like you.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
I got a surprise for you!
Cougars love cats.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
I'm going to hook up with the first guy I see at the bars tonight wearing a KU shirt. My opinions are endless.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
We hadn't won a game in almost a year ... This is the epitome of the right time to rush the field.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
Rushing the field makes it look as if KU students have forgotten the wins we had before last year. It makes us look desperate and a bit pitiful
I just throw up listening to "when the levee breaks." How awesome is that?
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
I'm so angry I was too poor to buy a ticket for this game!
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
My roommate just said she didn't want any Silly Bandz because you can't eat them.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
To the guy who plays piano every morning in the Kansas Union — you inspire me.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
You've been dating for four days. Your anniversary does not belong on Facebook.
Dear neighbor boy: If you're gonna blast screamo music, I'm gonna blast Miley Cyrus. On repeat.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
It ain't easy being sexy.
Would love to go one class without someone asking a stupid question. Just once.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
I love the Space Jam soundtrack!!!!
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
It ain't easy being sexy.
Cheap burgundy, a coffee cup,
and a twisty straw. I'm the
classiest person you'll meet
tonight.
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they
--all the responsibilities Perkins had before he announced his early retirement
No one wants to play with dirty equipment.
3
EDITORIAL BOARD
Athletics accountability begins with interim AD
Lew Perkins' unexpectedly early retirement and the naming of his temporary replacement, Sean Lester, as interim athletics director was handled quickly and efficiently by Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and by the Athletics Department.
In his new role as interim athletics director, Lester has inherited
Connecticut for eight years as a senior administrator.
Lester's seven years with the athletics department and his previous experience as a senior administrator for another university's athletics department make him a good candidate for interim athletics director.
"Whatever responsibilities any athletics director has, those are the responsibilities Sean has," Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director said. "He is responsible for running the Athletics Department."
A department in transition
Lester's history with the University goes back to September 2003, when he started his position as senior associate athletics director. He came to KU with Perkins from the University of Connecticut, where he received his masters in education in 1995 with a concentration in sports management. He worked under Perkins at the University of
Though his current position is
Jack Martin, University spokesman, said that Lester was chosen because of his experience and ability to lead the department.
temporary,
students
should still
hold Lester
to the same
standards
as they will his replacement. Lester should hold the department to a high ethical standard and should have the students and their safety, wants, and needs as his highest priority.
In a press release issued Sept. 7, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said that she hopes to announce the new athletics director soon but has set the goal for next spring.
A search committee will be formed to determine the characteristics for Perkins' permanent replacement but Martin said that the search began back in June when Perkins first announced his retirement for September 2011.
In a joint press conference with Lester held Sept. 7, Bill Self, coach of the men's basketball team, said he wanted Perkins' replacement to
"I want somebody who will come in here and love this place as much as we love it," Self said.
know KU and its traditions.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
A love for KU and a knowledge and appreciation of its traditions is of course essential for the best candidate. But integrity and high moral standards are equally if not more important.
Gray-Little said in the same press release that Lester has told her that he doesn't not consider himself to be a candidate for the new athletics director.
"Right now my focus is on leadership within the department." Lester said during his joint press conference with Self.
During this transitional time, the Athletics Department should be focused on ensuring stability within the department and Lester should work to be a good representative of the University.
Students should let Lester know what they expect from him in his temporary position and should hold him to the same standards as Perkins' permanent replacement.
Kate Larrabe for The Kansan Editorial Board
NICK SAMBULAK
SKEPTICISM
When it comes to sugar, corn receives undeserved treatment
Earlier this year, buyers of Hunt's brand ketchup probably noticed a conspicuous change to their bottle of America's favorite condiment: a bright yellow banner running across the label with the words "NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP" proudly displayed
It seems that the consumer is getting what he wants by refusing to buy anything with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and forcing companies to make the switch to traditional cane sugar (sucrose) or risk losing customers. Despite this apparent populist victory, the fact remains that there is no conclusive research to back up the claims that HFCS is any worse for people than the table sugar replacing it, yet according to websites like sweetdisguise.com and several Facebook groups, it's responsible for everything from cancer to organ failure.
Hunt's, however, is only part of a growing trend of foods and drinks that have reformulated to exclude this greatly maligned, corn-derived sweetener that seems to have found its way into everything from bread to peanut butter.
Much of the controversy surrounding HFCS began with a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published in 2004 that suggested a link between skyrocketing obesity rates in the
U. S., and the prevalence of HFCS in Americans' diets. That article has since been contradicted by many others—including one by an author of the 2004 paper—affirming that HFCS is no worse than the sucrose replacing it.
But, what was seen—and what led to the suspicion that HFCS might be responsible for America's growing waist line—is a correlation between the proliferation HFCS in our diets since the 1970s and a surge in obesity rates that began around the same time.
BY ANDREW HOLTZEN
The authors of the 2004 paper noticed this correlation, and proposed that the different composition of HFCS compared with sucrose was partly responsible.
The problem is that HFCS and sucrose vary only slightly. The two sugars are what are known as disaccharides, or a sugar composed of two simpler sugars—in both cases fructose and glucose.
According to the University of Maryland, the two most commonly used forms of HFCS have a fructose to glucose composition of 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose, and 42 percent fructose and 53 percent glucose.
is metabolized differently from glucose and could contribute to weight gain, the difference between the ratio of fructose and glucose in HFCS and table sugar is small.
While it's true that fructose
Compared with sucrose, which is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose, there is only a bit more fructose in the first variety and actually less in the second.
The issue at hand is not whether one type of sugar is worse than another, but how much sugar we are consuming in the first place.
According to the USDA, no more then 267 calories from added sweeteners like sucrose or HFCS should be consumed daily for a 2000-calorie diet.
Obesity is a problem that will not be resolved by simply swapping one sugar for another, but will require a reevaluation of our entire diet as well as our lifestyle.
Holtzen is a junior from Fayetteville, Ark., in chemistry and Spanish.
CAMPUS
Saturday's football game was more than just a win
Like most students, I was mesmerized during Saturday's football game against Georgia Tech. I am not a hardcore fan, but I was taken. The high drama and emotion took me captive.
The game took a lot of people captive. If the #rockchalk hashtag was trending on Twitter, you knew something of note had to have been happening in Memorial Stadium.
And after an epic struggle, KU won. We won a game we weren't supposed to win on the heels of a loss we weren't supposed to suffer. The victory was a true upset.
It was a euphoric moment, though I can't help but believe that the mood of relief and celebration was not just about this game, as amazing as it was.
I think many of us, whether we admit it or not, saw a turning point in this game, especially after last week's embarrassing loss to North Dakota State.
In some small way, this university moved away from the scars of the past year on Saturday. To be sure, there's a long way to go. Only a university and an athletics department dedicated to the highest standards of conduct will be able to do that.
This wasn't a turning point in a sport's season, though. No, Saturday's game represented the departure away from the past year of University life, which has been marked by scandal and budget cuts, investigations and resignations.
Hawk Life
BY JONATHAN SHORMAN
That was something I had started to forget recently.
All those issues were pushed to sidelines to make way for a football team that showed us all that at the core of this university are students. Everyone who watched that game was reminded that students are the heart of KU – not so-called adults who have done irresponsible things in the name of profit or greed.
Saturday's game was about students - students doing remarkable things. Students doing great things. It was about a student body believing in their classmates.
But for a few hours,none of the politics or doubts or intrigue that has seemed to infect athletics (and the whole university by extension) mattered.
This is what it means to be a student at The University of Kansas. This is what it means to be a Jav Hawk.
Even if we don't win another game this year, let's not forget that.
Shorman, the opinion editor, is a junior from McPherson in journalism.
Quitting Facebook
This sad example of the passivity, hesitancy and ultimate mundane nature that is characteristic of the Facebook generation is leading me to make a decision that some may call insane.
That's right: by the time this article is in print, I will have deleted my Facebook.
Last night I dreamt I was Facebook chatting a friend about our Art of Film homework. Of all the crazy and amazing scenarios my subconscious could have conjured up - such as fighting a dragon, flying over green valleys, making out with Brad Pitt - my dream consisted of sitting at a computer, scanning through a website.
I don't want to do it anymore.
I want to remember that the choice to have a Facebook is just
Not permanently; just for one month. It'll be a cleansing of the mind after four years of moderate Facebook usage. If I like my new life, I'll keep it deleted. I've been toying with this idea for a long time. Why? Simply because I think that Facebook's whole mission to connect people has led us to become more socially askew than ever.
We are so awkward. We click through random stranger's pages, learn random information about them, and act totally surprised when we meet them in real life. We debate if a status is appropriate to "like" and if a friend would be upset to be cut out of a profile picture. We judge people based on their favorite TV shows and books before we get to know them, before we even meet them.
that: a choice. Yes, this might not be the most opportunity time to delete my connection to the rest of the world, considering five of my closest friends are 3,000 miles away in London, Florence and Madrid. But we will still have Skype. And the telephone. And old fashioned letters. I suppose in my Facebook-free life I might not be able to read my freshman year roommate's statuses about Michelangelo's David and the best flavor of gelato. But maybe she will write me, in her slanty, almost cursive-like handwriting, a silly poem about pasta that I can hang above my desk.
Maybe I will lose touch with a few hundred acquaintances who I don't see regularly at Marist; camp friends, junior varsity volleyball teammates who I don't talk to over the phone or have the patience to write letters to. But maybe that's okay. Maybe the majority of my 731 Facebook friends don't really matter.
Am I heartless? Possibly. I just know that my best friends mean the world to me and communicating with them some way is very important, but everyone else... well, I hope everyone is doing well. But, at the end of the day, perhaps I don't really care.
So adios, Facebook! I am devoting this month to reading books for fun, biking by the river, and writing letters to my loved ones. My life and my dreams will be 100 percent Facebook free. Suck it, Mark Zuckerberg.
-From Uwire. Christina O'Sullivan for The Circle at Marist College
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