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Friday, February 5, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Reborn Secure Cab program will not do the job efficiently
The Student Senate is attempting to revive the Secure Cab program. Hoorah! But they could be doing it better.
program. Hooban. But the program, which made its debut in 1986, was intended to provide free transportation to students who were drunk or who were afraid to walk home at night. The Student Senate paid a Lawrence cai company $2.50 for each ride the cab company provided to students with valid KUIDs. But the program was dropped in December when the cab company raised its rates to $4 a ride.
Under the planned revival of the system, vans supposedly would stop at hourly intervals at local bars and places on campus. They then would shuttle students to their homes and continue their routes. One van would be used Sunday through Wednesday, and two vans would run Thursday through Saturday. A third van would be available for unusually busy times.
The proposed system is flawed, however. There are more than 20 bars in Lawerence, and Charles Bryan, director of KU on Wheels, said the vans could not possibly stop at all of them. This means some students, intoxicated or not, would be driving home. Also, the vans would not be stopping at private parties, as cabs would have.
Despite these facts, Bryan maintains faith in the proposal. He said that the old Secure Cab program was undependable and that students sometimes had to wait up to an hour for a cab. With the new program, however, waiting also can be expected.
Bryan cites lower cost as the primary reason for using the shuttle van system, but cabs would not be much more expensive. If the program had begun Feb. 1, it was estimated that it would have cost about $10,500 for the rest of the semester. A bid by Yellow Cab Co., however, was only $2,100 higher.
Student Senate should spend the extra money and invest in a cab-operated program. The Senate now has about $163,745 in its unallocated account, and an expenditure of $2,100 would make a small dent in those extra funds.
The Student Senate should worry more about the safety of the student body and less about stuffing its already bulging mattress.
Alan Player for the editorial board
FBI overstepped its bounds
Liberty is a word that seems to be overworked these days, and most people will agree that it is the cornerstone of the American way of life. The FBI should note that in its purest form, liberty protects the ideas, speech and opinions of even the most radical among us. To protect only those who agree with the current administration would be to sell liberty like a harlot to the highest, most powerful bidder.
Unfortunately, there are those who think that liberty sometimes must be taken away in order to keep it. That logic is reminiscent of the GI in Vietnam who said, "We had to destroy the village so we could save it." Twisted logic.
If the FBI imagined that it was acting within the parameters of the Constitution and the laws of this land while conducting surveillance of U.S. citizens who opposed policies in Central America, it was sorely misled. The times of J. Edgar Hoover and the misuse of an agency owned by the U.S. public for private political motives are gone. A full investigation should be conducted, and those members of the FBI that are responsible for any improper activities should be held accountable.
able. This matter cannot be taken lightly, and to allow the abuse of the rights and liberty of one person is to invite the same abuse for others. This is not the first time that liberty has been in real danger from within, but it should be the last. The American people deserve no less.
Van Jenerette for the editorial board
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
K-State fans can party without a riot
K-State's basketball team wasn't the only victor Saturday night when it beat the University of Kansas. The fans, both in Allen Field House and that night in Aggieville, also beat the skeptics who say K-State students rarely party without a riot.
Instead, most acted like gracious winners.
Stefan asked did just what Coach Lon Krueger suggested: "Let's have a lot of fun tonight, but let's have some sense about it, OK."
Kansas State Collegian Kansas State University
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Students should unite
A large number of students are growing angry because they are unable to find a seat at Allen Field House for KU basketball games. The reason is simple — others are in their seats. For those not aware of the problem, KU students must present their tickets with a current KUID card to gain admittance into the field house. Once inside, students must sit in designated areas and are not allowed to sit anywhere else. Since seats are limited and are available on a first-come first-served basis, many students arrive several hours or even days before the game to get a good seat. Those that arrive closer to game time get less of a choice.
The problem is that many non-students are taking the student seats — families, younger children and older people. This is unfair to KU students, who cannot sit in any other areas. There are ushers around to kick students out of other people's seats, but they do not monitor the student seating at all. Why not check for student IDs in the student seating area, since they are required anyway? After all, KU is their school and they should at least be able to get a decent seat in the area that they paid for.
without having to arrive the night before or sitting in the rafters. The Athletic Department will resell student tickets to anyone who wants them during vacation times. If this is untrue, why was the student area filled with small children and their parents over break? I really doubt that the Athletic Department needs the money that badly that they need to sell tickets twice.
I propose that KU students unite. We should form a group called SANSIS (Students Against Non-Students In Their Seats) to work with the Athletic Department to arrive at a solution for this problem. I realize that it is always difficult dealing with a bureaucracy, especially for students, but I feel something needs to be done soon.
Larry Perlman
Evanston, Ill., graduate student
Column was frightening
I am not armed with statistics and other facts, and I don't claim to be an authority or a representative of anyone other than myself. But I do recognize unsound logic and unfounded arguments when I read them.
I found Gordon Gruber's column in the Feb. 2. Kansan both frightening and offensive. There is not enough space here to refute every one of his contents, although there is no foundation for a single one of them, except, I'm sure, in his own mind. But there are a few that I can no
longer sit and listen to without protest.
He proceeds to say that human rights require a "sensitive balance of social interests." Human rights are not a question of social interest! Whose social interests anyway?
As he listed the characteristics of the "chozen" groups protected by the human rights ordinance, he listed persons of "unchangeable status" and "immutable characteristics." Had he done his homework, he would have known that both heterosexuality and homosexuality are "immutable characteristics."
He uses the Bible for his argument. So what else is new? In November 1984, the department of religious studies at KU presented a forum on "Christianity and Homosexuality" at which all the Biblical quotations frequently used to condemn homosexuality were explained in their theological and historical context by people with both scholarly and theological knowledge of the Bible. Shall I assume he and the other members of ACTV missed that seminar?
one of the major causes of fear is ignorance. Before Gruber continues his "forthright" crusade, he should consider enlightening himself. There are books in the Lawrence Public Library on sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular, copyrighted after 1973, which are written for the layman, so that even a person of average intelligence — such as myself and such as Gruber — can understand.
Mary Louise Haag Lawrence graduate student
BLOOM COUNTY
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