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Friday, March 25, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
War on Hunger brings unity among Lawrence residents
Something strange is happening in Lawrence.
Democrats and Republicans are joining forces — on something that has nothing to do with politics. A University of Kansas business fraternity is involved in a project having more to do with donating money and resources than earning them. Lawrence residents are getting enthusiastic about picking up trash for a good cause.
The KU War on Hunger is bringing out generosity and good will in a lot of people.
will in a lot of people. The War on Hunger, April 4-9, is a giant effort to fight hunger at home and around the world by raising money and awareness. However, it also is doing a service for KU and Lawrence even before the events get started.
KU Students Against Hunger is sponsoring this worthwhile effort. The events will stretch over a whole school-week and will boost campus and community awareness far more than a single day's events could.
The events range from high-profile attention-getters to serious learning seminars and discussions. Among high-profile events are a balloon launch to kick off the week. Lawrence residents will participate in a city clean-up project to earn money for the drive, and several area bands will play in a benefit concert. A campus fraternity is sponsoring a comedian-activist speaker during the week.
dian-activist speaker during the week. On the educational side, Lawrence teachers and University faculty members will attend an in-service briefing about teaching students about hunger, and a panel discussion is scheduled for the end of the week.
It's a good balance between promotion of the cause and education about dealing with hunger. KU students and others who have involved themselves in the fight against hunger are to be commended. It's going to be a great week.
Katy Monk for the editorial board
Lifting ban opens channels
Russian author Boris Pasternak won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1958 for his novel "Doctor Zhivago;" and now, 30 years later, that novel will be available to the people in his home country.
home country. The Soviet Union recently ruled that 3,500 previously banned book titles would be published. The Soviets should be commended for easing their restraints on information because citizens deserve an open exchange of ideas, especially from their own writers.
their own writers.
The titles were banned under Joseph Stalin because the authors' views weren't compatible with the ideals of the Communist Party. The books were then removed from bookshops and libraries.
But now, Soviet citizens will be able to read the works of the formerly banned authors, and more book titles soon might be made available.
made available.
Also, Soviet authors soon might be able to make use of a vanity press, where they would be able to pay to have their own books published. The authors would share in any profits made and would absorb part of the loss for unsuccessful books.
The Soviet Union in the past few months has shown an increasing openness to new and different ideas, and this release of previously banned books is along that same vein. Alan Player for the editorial board
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
Academic freedom suffers at KU
Instructors can't teach well when pressure groups are able to set agendas
The furor surrounding the proposed visit to the University of Kansas by the Ku Klux Klan has been important for what the ensuing discussion has revealed. It seemed to me that the cancellation of the visit was a simple violation of academic freedom. What seemed especially shameful about the episode was that the Faculty Executive Committee did not come down resoundingly on the side of academic freedom. If faculty governance will not support academic freedom when the chips are down, who will?
The FaeEx statement that appeared March 8 in the Kansan is essentially a defense of the view that academic freedom was not violated in the goings-on surrounding the proposed visit of the Klan. I think this view is quite wrong. The point of this column is to explain why.
If the FaceEx statement is read quite literally, it is subject to a number of different interpretations. I will forgo this analysis in order to get at what I think is the heart of the FaceEx position. FaceEx holds that academic freedom means that the decision concerning what transpires in a faculty member's classroom rightly belongs only to the faculty member teaching a class. FaceEx concludes that because the journalism faculty made the decision on their own to cancel the Klan visit without pressure from either the KU administration or faculty governance, it follows that academic freedom was not violated. This FaceEx position is clear, succinct, and easily expressed. But it is just as surely wrong.
Consider a (purely, of course) hypothetical example. Suppose that I am teaching a literature course and that I propose to devote a class session to discussion of the works of Heinrich Riehe. Heine was Jewish. Suppose an anti-Semitic group
Don Marquis
Guest Columnist
(Let's call them "brown shirts") demands that the works of Jews not be taught at KU. The brown shirts make demands on the Chancellor. They threaten to demonstrate and interrupt my class. Because a demonstration would interfere with the classroom educational process, I decide, on educational grounds, to study some non-Jewish poet instead.
post histories.
If I made that educational decision without presencia from faculty governance or the chancelor on the FacEx analysis of academic freedom entails that my academic freedom was not violated. Because in such a case my academic freedom clearly was violated, the FacEx analysis of academic freedom is wrong. The error is easy to see. When a group outside the University demands to censor the educational content of certain courses, and as a consequence of those demands, a faculty member decides to change the educational content of the course, then of course academic freedom has been violated. The Klan case is analogous in appropriate respects to the Heine case. So academic freedom was violated at KU.
There is an apparent problem with this analysis. One might argue that the administration and governance did not violate academic freedom, for they allowed the individual faculty members to make their decision. The individual
faculty members did not violate their own academic freedom. The anti-Klan group isn't responsible for upholding academic freedom. Therefore, no one violated academic freedom. Accordingly, academic freedom was not violated. Does this argument save the FacEx position?
What this argument tells me is that there is more to the duty to preserve academic freedom than noninterference. When forces outside the University attempt to interfere with the educational process, the University administration has a positive obligation to insulate faculty from those illicit pressures that distort educational decisions. In particular, the administration has an obligation to provide security when there is a threat of disruption of the educational process so that faculty aren't pressured to make educational decisions because of threats by pressure groups. The Klan visits were canceled because of security concerns. This shows that the KU administration, by failing to guarantee adequate security, failed to preserve academic freedom. That FaceEx did not pressure the administration to do its duty shows that FaceEx did not defend academic freedom. Now we can understand, at least intellectually, why this was so.
notice what our present situation is. A political group outside KU demanded the right to censor the educational content of what goes on here. They succeeded — twice! The administration and FacEx see no problem! One would do well to keep in mind the next time one hears "flagship institution," "higher education," "four-star university," and similar labels used to describe this place.
place.
Don Marquis is an associate professor of philosophy.
Other Voices
It is amazing that a campus the size of Auburn's does not have more buildings accessible to the handicapped.
Campus must be accessible to disabled
It is amazing that a campus the size of have more buildings accessible to the handicapped. An effort is being made by the University Handicapped Committee to encourage more accessibility on campus, but progress is slow.
These projects cannot be ignored because they are inconvenient or because they are not high on the list of priorities.
The Auburn Plainsman Auburn University
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SDI essential to security
The Soviets are building their own SDI. Moreover, they soon will be in a position to deploy an extensive ground-based anti-ballistic missile. The battle management radar stations under construction at Krasnyarky and other sites will enable them to break with the ABM treaty virtually overnight. The fact that they have not yet done so should not diminish our efforts to construct a stable strategic environment.
The evidence continues to mount that the technical, moral, strategic and economic arguments against strategic defense are breaking down. The simple reason is that MAD (mutually assured destruction) is falling apart.
ment.
The Soviets also have thousands of mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles and large-scale defense programs. Modern delivery systems are very accurate and can employ lower-yield weapons. The combined effects of the future strategic situation means that we will face the possibility, however unlikely, of a strike against our retaliatory facilities.
strike against our readers. MAD advocates claim that none of this matters because no first strike could sufficiently destroy retaliatory capacities. There
Fortunately, there is an alternative — SDI. We currently have the technology to spot, track and kill ICBMs. Laser and particle beam weapons could become effective ground-based systems. Recent cost estimates have been in the $130 billion range. SDI is an investment in the $130 billion range that would reduce the risk of nuclear war and provide us with many options should a calamity occur. Perhaps the most subtle effect would be to convince the Kremlin that we are serious about maintaining deterrence and strategic parity. Let's not accept a dangerous short cut to that necessary goal.
are many assumptions inherent in such an argument. To name a few, it assumes ineffectiveness of Soviet defenses, our willingness to retaliate against superior forces, and their unwillingness to take risks.
Ben Casad Lawrence senior
Fundamentalists whine
Though poorly written, Steve Gantz's column on fundamentalism was coherent enough to show what a bunch of hypocritical whinners they were. It is apparent that he took a Kansan editorial literally, just as he does the Bible. See what misunderstanding can occur?
Gantz appears to be speaking for all fundalists, as he repeatedly refers to the collective as "us fundamentalists." Was he elected as a representative fundamentalist, or was he chosen by God? He never mentions Christian fundamentalists, so he must be speaking for the Middle Eastern zealots who
burn heretics alive, just like the good ol' days. As a fundamentalist, does Gantz want to return to the basics, such as burning witches? He should if he follows the literal meaning of the Bible.
Bible:
Gantz denies in his column that fundamentalism wants to return religion to public education. I agree. They don't want religion; they want Christianity. Bringing the teacher an apple would be punished as a temptation. He asks what would be wrong with teaching the Bible in school? Nothing, if you are unable to teach your child enough racism, sexism, elitism, and fear in the comfort of your own home. Again, the Golden Rule is deceivingly used to justify another's beliefs: I'll do to you as I wish others would do to me. Sounds kind of kinky, doesn't it? If a fundamentalist doesn't want his or her child to receive a well-balanced meal, should the school cafeteria serve an alternate meal of narrow-minded junk food?
Steve Gantz stereotypes himself and fundamentalists alike. Why must people label themselves as fundamentalists? Can't they stand on their own, a part of the thinking world, and just live the perils of their theology? I try to avoid labeling myself as any one thing because it is never wholly accurate. Thus, fundamentalists are labeling themselves.
Why is Gantz so paranoid about being stuck away in a corner or locked up in a padded cell? Don't his rigid beliefs already sentence him to a sterile Hell?
Forest Bloodgood Stillwater, Okla., junior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed