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Tuesday, March 8, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
A Kansas basketball era ends as seniors leave field house
An era has ended at the University of Kansas.
As the Jayhawks' all-time leading scorer and the all-time Big Eight career scoring leader, Manning has shot, blocked and rebounded his name into the record books.
An era has ended at the University of Danny Manning has played his last game in Allen Field House. For four years, he has amazed us with his talent and finesse on the basketball court.
Many KU students only will remember KU basketball with Manning. They entered the University with him in 1984 and will leave with him this spring. Others who came in after the start of the Manning era now will face KU basketball without him.
But Manning can't and won't take the credit alone. His undying selflessness never was more apparent than at Saturday's Oklahoma State game. He wanted the other seniors to shine, and shine they did.
The highlight of the game came when Coach Larry Brown sent Archie Marshall in to try a three-point shot. Although Marshall missed the shot, it was a crowning moment after the heartbreaking injury he suffered early in the season.
Manning and his teammates have built a 106-33 team record in four years, creating a dynasty at KU that will stand for many years.
Chris Piper, who as a consistent contributor to the team has played with a nagging injury all season, scored 10 points and bad six rebounds.
many years. The senior class of 1988 soon will leave the University for greater things. But the seniors also leave behind a team that will continue without perhaps the best player in KU's history.
They will do fine.
They will do the Danny, Chris and Archie — good luck in the future. And
Jody Dickson for the editorial board
Bill overlooks high-risk jobs
"It's nobody's business what I do in my spare time."
So goes the rallying cry of those who object to on-the-job drug testing. But what some people do in their spare time can mean the difference between life and death for others
The Kansas Senate is considering a bill that would require applicants for "safety-sensitive" state jobs to take drug tests. Current employees in such jobs also could be tested if suspected of drug use.
suspected of drug use. The bill is a laudable attempt to address the problem, but it seems to veer from the mark when it comes to defining "safety-sensitive."
Police officers, train traffic controllers, bus drivers - those whose jobs involve public safety - must operate with their senses at their sharpest or put other people's lives in jeopardy Offending the sensibilities of such people is far less serious than letting them perform their jobs under the influence of drugs. These are the jobs that should be labeled safety-sensitive
But according to the bill, not all of them are. The bill starts off reasonably enough with drug tests for law enforcement officers authorized to carry firearms. It follows with tests for state correctional officers.
So far. so good.
So far, so good.
But the next job described as safety-sensitive is that of the governor, who rarely packs a pistol or spends his time controlling prison inmates. Gov. Mike Hayden, who recommended the drug testing bill, seems to want to use himself as an example. His message is "Look, guys, if I can do it, you can, too."
The list of "safety-sensitive" jobs continues with the lieutenant governor, heads of state agencies who are appointed by the governor and employees on the governor's staff.
governor and employees on the governor's staff. Not making the safety-sensitive list are those who work for the state in transportation jobs, jobs that involve public safety to an even larger extent than do those of police officers or prison guards.
prison guards. The bill is a good idea, and it should be passed. But it would better meet its purposes if it were expanded to include all state employees whose jobs involve the safety of the public.
it's a good idea, Gov. Hayden, but at this point it's not enough.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
The editorial board consists of Alison Young, Todd Cohen, Alan Player, Jody Dickson, Katy Monk, Russell Gray and Van Jeneterte.
News staff
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Richard Stewart...Graphics editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
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WHEN ED MEESE SLEEPS
FacEx analyzes KKK issue
The reactions and counter-reactions to the decision of three KU faculty to cancel a classroom visit and a radio talk show appearance of two Ku Klux Klan members are dividing the University community. Unfortunately, some of these reactions are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what occurred.
I. The Chronology: The Key Events
independently, a student enrolled in Journalism 690 - Advanced Broadcast Reporting, acting on his own, scheduled an appearance of the same KKK members on a JKHK radio program. The radio program was part of the student's coursework, and as such was subject to the direct supervision of a faculty member. The program was also subject to the supervision of another faculty member with advisory responsibilities at the radio station. While setting up the program, the student was informed by the KKK members about the forthcoming classroom visit. The student subsequently told the reporting instructor that the classroom visit would be mentioned on the radio show. At that time, the instructor said that if the classroom visit were mentioned, he would postpone the visit because such publicity would frustrate his educational objectives. Shortly thereafter, both the planned classroom visit and the scheduled radio talk show became generally known in the community.
Here is the chronology of key events, as Faculty Executive Committee understands them. An instructor teaching news reporting arranged an in-class/situation interview for his students. His purpose, as with a number of other situation interviews he had scheduled, was to teach students how to interview and expose extremists. He chose two KKK members for this exercise. His plan was to have the extremists arrive in class on Wednesday, Feb. 17, without advance notice, be questioned by the students and then leave, after which the students would write their accounts of the visit. The classroom visit was not designed to, and would not have given, the KKK a public platform to dispense to the public-at-large its message of hatred and racism.
On Wednesday evening, Feb. 17, a group of ministers from Lawrence and Kansas City issued an ultimatum to the University administration, demanding that the classroom visit and radio talk show appearance be canceled. Some important premises of the ultimatum seemed to rest on incorrect information. When the ministers and others claimed that the University was teaching racism, supporting extremism and going out of its way to "officially sponsor" a forum for the espousal of hatred, the ministers and others misunderstood the facts. The in-class/situation interview exercise was nothing of the sort. The radio talk show certainly was not intended to be used for such purposes, although it appears that the show's hasty preparation did not provide enough assurance that it would be balanced and safe from exploitation by the extremists.
safe from exposure.
Unfortunately, the ultimata placed the three faculty in the reporting instructor and the other two faculty) in an unavoidable dilemma; one not of their own making. These faculty members had available to them eminently sound and sensible educational reasons for deciding, in the exercise of their own academic freedom; to postpone both events. Unfortunately, the faculty were forced to make these educational judgments in the context of a situation with uncertain volatility, one element of which was an ultimata widely perceived in the University community as suggesting that that some kinds of individuals, such as members of the KKK, had no right to appear on a university campus. Canceling the visits for educational reasons would inevitably suggest to many observers that academic freedom had been sacrificed in the face of community pressure.
The academic freedom of teachers, as traditionally understood, consists of freedom of inquiry and research, freedom of teaching, and freedom of utterance and action outside the confines of the University. Academic freedom is premised on the understanding that "truth is
II. Academic Freedom
discovered through research and inquiry and that there is no such thing as a truth not subject to question."
Our nation's commitment to academic freedom is longstanding. As stated by United States Supreme Court in Keyshani v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. "Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom. . . . The classroom is peculiarly the 'marketplace of ideas.' The Nation's future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to that robust exchange of ideas which discovers truth 'out of a multitude of tongues, (rather) than through any kind of authoritative selection."
From the very beginning, FacEx committed itself to the proposition that academic freedom should not be sacrificed and that the right of the faculty involved to make their own judgments about how to fulfill their educational goals should not be abridged. We believe that the University administration, from the very beginning, understood not only the nature of this right but also that it could not exert pressure upon the faculty making these judgments, let alone dictate their decisions, without violating this right.
Justice Frankfurt stated in Wieman v. Updegraff, "To regard teachers — in our entire educational system, from the primary grades to the university — as the priests of our democracy is therefore not to indulge in hyperbole. It is the special task of teachers to foster those habits of openmindedness and critical inquiry which alone make for responsible citizens, who in turn, make possible an enlightened and effective public opinion. Teachers must fulfill their function by precept and practice, by the very atmosphere which they generate; they must be exemplars of openmindedness and free inquiry. They cannot carry out their noble task if the conditions for the practice of a responsible and critical mind are denied to them."
In short, one of the core elements of academic freedom is that faculty are entitled, within the bounds of the limited constraining principle that teachers cannot abandon the prescribed curriculum, to make their own educational judgments about how their educational mission will be fulfilled in the classroom.
When confronted with the ultimatum and the reality that the decisions were theirs to make, the faculty members had three choices: to cancel the visits (and possibly pursue, in their discretion, alternative means of achieving their educational objectives), to hold the visits as planned (which might have involved an announcement to that effect or simply making no announcement at all) or to postpone their decisions until later (on the basis that more time was needed to evaluate their educational objectives and other developments). FacEx monitored the situation closely throughout the week of Feb. 15, this included contacts with the faculty involved, with the dean of journalism and with the administration. Through these inquiries, FacEx satisfied itself that the University administration neither exerted pressure upon the faculty nor disregarded the faculty members' right to make judgments about what would occur in their own classrooms. FacEx offered to meet with the ministers, but this offer did not result in a meeting. FacEx was not in a position to contain pressures exerted from outside the University community except to make sure that the faculty understood that whatever decisions they made, including taking the option of postponing their decisions until later, would receive the support of the administration. No fact was discovered by FacEx or was brought to FacEx's attention suggesting that the faculty involved lacked this understanding.
It is highly regrettable that the three faculty were required to make educational judgments with the public attention riveted on them. It is for this reason that FacEx prepared a statement Friday morning, prior to the announcement of the
faculty members' decisions, which expressed FacEx's support for and solidarity with the faculty members, regardless of what decisions they might choose to make. The decisions the faculty members ultimately made were supported by sound instructional rationales: The radio show was not ready to proceed, and the publicity attendant to the classroom visit frustrated the instructor's educational objectives. Neither decision necessarily leads to the conclusion that academic freedom was sacrificed. Of course, the faculty involved were clearly subjected to considerable pressure from outside the University community. But in the end, the faculty members, to the best of our knowledge, made their own decisions about how to fulfill their educational objectives with the knowledge that whatever decision they made would receive the University's support. This is precisely what is to be expected from the University in the defense of academic freedom. (One of our University colleagues has suggested that it was the responsibility of University Senate Executive Committee to advise the faculty that the scheduled visits should not be canceled. This suggestion is incorrect. How the individual faculty member's educational objectives should be fulfilled were decisions only for those faculty. For SenEx or anyone else to insist that the KKK be allowed a classroom forum would have violated the academic freedom of the faculty involved, just as much as ordering the faculty to cancel the visits would have violated that freedom.)
Once the faculty members' decisions are under stood in this way, it does not follow that this University's commitment to "that robust exchange of ideas," which is the core of the First Amendment and academic freedom, is now diminished (In hindsight, it is unfortunate that the public statements issued by the administration were not worded more clearly. Some aspects of the releases, as reported in the media, confused many faculty members, especially those not privy to the chronology of events in this particular case. The FacEx statement addressing this matter, which was released to the press on Friday, Feb. 19, received no coverage in the media. In order to avoid difficulties in future situations, the procedures through which information is released to the public, with particular attention to how well current procedures served the University community in this situation, should be reviewed and evaluated.) Extremist views, even views as repugnant as those held by the KKK, are entitled to be heard in the University community. Of course, it is essential that such views be presented in formats that show sensitivity and respect for the views of others and that provide ample opportunity for critical comment and evaluation. Extremists should not be allowed to exploit the University forum in ways that make the University appear as a partner in the propagation of extremist values. The freedom is to express ideas. Obviously, this freedom does not equal an unqualified right to a classroom forum; academic freedom means that the individual faculty member is entitled to decide how and in what manner expression occurs in the classroom.
III. Human Rights
The experiences of past couple of weeks raise one other issue, which is completely separate from academic freedom and the importance of the free marketplace of ideas. Much more needs to be done at the University, and in our society generally, to eradicate racism, to provide equal opportunity, to increase sensitivity to and understanding of the concerns of racial, religious, and ethnic minorities, and to protect human rights. Those within the University community, and we hope those in the public-at-large as well, should renew and expand upon their efforts to preserve and promote these values. To this end, we pledge our unqualified support to the Task Force being convened by the Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, that will be addressing a wide-range of minority concerns.
The above is a statement by the Faculty Executive Committee.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed