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Thursday, February 11, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
College made a valid attempt to lessen advising problems
Good advice is often hard to find, especially if you are looking for academic advising at the University of Kansas.
But the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has made several positive strides to ensure that all students in the college get good advice in planning their schedules and making progress toward their degrees.
A drive to get students in for early advising and test-driving a computer advising system are the two paths the college has been pursuing.
take advantage of what is available The college's Advising Support Center used an advertising campaign to get students in for early advising, but only about 40 students showed up.
The college's efforts are futile, however, if students do not take advantage of what is offered.
Advisers at the center now have more time to give students. And early advising allows students to avoid the last-minute crunch, when professors have too little time and too many students to see.
The new computer advising system is still in the experimental phase. If the system works the way college officials would like, students will be able to determine which requirements they have fulfilled and which ones they still need. Advisers could concentrate on academic advising, rather than administrative details that the computer could handle.
The college has done its part. Now it's the students' turn.
Academic center a bad idea
This exam has only one question, worth 100 percent of your grade. The University of Kansas is: a) experiencing grave financial difficulties; b) losing professors to institutions that can afford to navn better; or c) rolling in dough.
If you picked c, you are probably the KU Athletic Department.
The Athletic Department, and notably Olga Evelyn, academic adviser for the men's basketball team, wants to see KU build an academic center twice the size of Nunemaker Center, with tutors, complete reference sources, computers, and enclosed offices for the staff. All for the athletes.
and spin out a white squirrel.
It's not as if Watson Library didn't exist. If it's good enough for the rest of the student body, it's good enough for the athletes
Campaign Kansas funds are currently slated to build this athletic academiclm. This money should be used to benefit the University as a whole, not to chew up some green space and spit out a white elephant.
Besides, the basketball team recently got the carte blanche to use Nunemaker Center, formerly reserved for honors students. What more do they need?
students. What more to they need.
KU athletes are KU students. There's no reason to take yet another step to cut them off from the rest of the University.
Katy Monk for the editorial board
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
Drug testing experiment is unfair
Other Voices
During the past several weeks, major cities across the United States have participated in an experiment conducted by the National Institute of Justice.
In this study, suspected criminals who have been arrested are required to submit to a drug test, even though the crime may not have been drug-related and the question of guilt or innocence has yet to be decided.
Even more disturbing is that in some cities, including Indianapolis, judges can use the test results in determining sentences. Proponents of the program say it will reduce the crime rate and, in turn, ease the expensive problem of prison overcrowding.
expense problem is the This experiment is hardly the panacea it is intended to be. It is blatant disregard of a suspected criminal's basic rights secured to them in the Constitution.
Consider the case of a suspected criminal who tests positive for drugs and is subsequently declared innocent of his alleged crime. But, he is still treated as a drug abuser, even if his drug use is recreational.
And what if the criminal is both guilty and tests positive? The result is a distortion of the question of guilt or innocence which makes a fair unbiased trial nothing more than a despondent wish.
Indiana Daily Student Indiana University
News staff
Alison Young...Editor
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ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC DEBATE
Koop's folly could be boon for KU
Surgeon general's testing plan wouldn't fight AIDS, but think of the money
Forget reviving agriculture. Forget the need for higher oil prices. Forget, if you can, the superconducting super collider.
Kansas doesn't need any of those to bring the state's economy back from the dead. What it needs is U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's plan to screen an entire university for AIDS.
Taken at face value, Koop's suggestion that such a test might yield worthwhile information about the virus is at worst ridiculous and at best mildly laughable. But there's a potential treasure box underneath that veneer of worthlessness. To get an idea of how much money the test could bring into the state, multiply the 26,000 students at the University of Kansas by the $75 an AIDS test costs. That's nearly $2 million in government cash. And it's just the beginning.
cash. And it's just a quick way to perform and analyzing that many AIDS tests would require a lot more doctors, nurses and researchers than there are in Lawrence right now. If these well-paid professionals move in for the testing, they might bring enough buying power to justify a suburban mall for Lawrence, or at least a BMW dealership.
Doctors wouldn't be the only ones moving to town. Reporters and camera crews from around the world would flock to see how the town that showed the world how not to survive nuclear war
Michael
Merschel
Staff Columnist
in "The Day After" copes with the virus that killed sex.
With Gene A. Budig touting KU on national television, intelligent students would fight for the chance to attend KU. The state's brain-drain problem would slow to a trickle.
problem would show. The state Chamber of Commerce could get into the act by taking out ads with typically catchy slogans: "Kansas: We'll meet your test!" Firms across the nation would consider Kansas for important industrial projects. And tourists would forsake Disneyland to vacation in that town with all those AIDS-tested people.
Student-oriented industries would have a heyday. T-shirts emblazoned with "KU AIDS '88: One test I'm glad I failed" would become deurgueur. Bars could throw huge parties for people who tested negative. There, people could have sex with total strangers and worry only about pregnancy and herpes, just like in the good old days.
glance. Koop's proposal could spark a whole new industry for Kansas. Once the world's researchers see what a great place Lawrence is for AIDS testing, they all will want to screen the students here for all their favorite malady. This year, AIDS. Next year, syphilis. The year after that, bubonic plague. Lawrence and KU would be the world's disease capital.
If this all sounds far-fetched, well, so does Koon's plan.
Kop's plan:
Would mass-testing at KU say anything about what the incidence of AIDS is anywhere else? No. Would a test at any other university provide researchers with information that could be applied anywhere else? No. Is there any point in spending so much money and effort for such a test in the name of research? No.
Koop should be commended for at least suggesting that something be done to learn about AIDS, which is more than most of our national leaders have done. But if he is serious about doing something worthwhile, he'll come up with an effective, scientifically sound plan.
If he won't do that, Kansas should try to get whatever benefit it can out of the test. The fight against AIDS won't be getting much at all. Michael Mershel is a Lakewood, Colo., junior majoring in journalism.
Love your neighbors
In the past week letters from Doug Brown and Mary Louise Haag expressed very different perspectives on issues concerning the Bible, homosexuality and homosexual rights. In my opinion, neither Brown nor Haag correctly characterized all these issues.
First of all, the Bible clearly states that homosexuality is a sin. One need not be an expert in history and theology to understand this as the Bible says, "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, . . . nor homosexuals, . . . nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (I Corinthians 6:9-10) In response to homosexual efforts to dispute this, Proverbs 21:2 states that "every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart." The homosexual, like all of us, is a sinner who must accept the gracious gift of salvation through Jesus Christ if he or she is to have a relationship with God and inherit eternal life.
ship we Doug Brown suggests that the Lawrence City Commission should "protect the innocent by prosecuting those who desire to overthrow the laws of God." I would suggest what the Bible verifies, that none of us are "innocent" and all of us have had times when we have rejected God. Two fundamental principles of the Bible are that man should hate evil and love God and that he should hate sin but love the sinner. Christians should love homosexuals and pray for their salvation and deliverance from sin. The Bible states that "if any man is in Christ,
he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." My friends and I know individuals who were formerly homosexuals and now have experienced this transforming power of Jesus Christ.
Finally, concerning the debate surrounding homosexual rights, I am not convinced that traditional values are those which society should live and govern itself by, and it bothers me that there are probably those who will justify their prejudice and hatred toward homosexuals because of the decision rendered by the Lawrence City Commission. However, I refuse to condemn the Commission's action. Rather, I prefer to quite simply beg each individual to, with dignity and compassion, love his neighbor as himself, whether that neighbor be male or female, white or black, or hetero- or homosexual.
Scott Nehrbass Altamont junior
Surveillance is wrong
The Kansas article on FBI surveillance quoted me as saying "I don't care" if the FBI is tracking my movements. What I meant was that I do not plan to change my movements because the FBI may be watching. I certainly do care about the principle. Like the students who were cited in the article, I also object to FBI surveillance of citizens who oppose President Reagan's Central American policy.
den Reagan's central The FBI, I cannot help but add, has a tough job. The latest poll shows that approximately 70 percent of the citizens of the United States oppose President Reagan's Central American policy.
Charles L. Stansifer Director of Latin American studies
Correction
Because of an editor's error, a letter appearing in Tuesday's Kansan was incorrect. Following is the letter as it should have appeared.
The howls of outrage over the loss of the cherished tax breaks have started as the effects of the 1966 Tax Reform Act begin to be felt. A recent Kansan editorial (Feb. 2) now joins the chorus, bemoaning the loss of the double exemption and the partial taxation of scholarship income. A little perspective on who benefits and who pays as a result of tax reform is in order.
What the 1986 Tax Reform Act did was to eliminate most of the loopholes (the double exemption was one) that allowed upper-income families to reduce their adjusted gross income and pay a lower percentage of their actual income in taxes than low- to moderate-income households. In exchange for eliminating the loopholes, tax rates were reduced for everyone. The personal exemption and standard deduction were increased, taking millions of working poor off the tax rolls and significantly reducing the tax burden on the middle class (median income $27,000). Heavy itemizers will pay more, but by restoring the link between adjusted gross income and actual income, tax reform has returned progressivity to the tax code. Now, it is the state legislature's turn to follow the federal lead.
Allan Dietrich Long Director, Cartographic Service
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed