The University Daily Kansan emphasizes the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
COMMENTARY: People should stop obsessing over celebrity gossip and start paying attention to what is going on in the real world. See Kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2007 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 9A
》 OUR VIEW
Students should get proactive in petition for SafeBus
Safety and the best student service possible should be the top priorities for the University; bottom line. The recent tabling of the newly adopted Delta Force SafeBus bill, as reported in Monday's University Daily Kansan, hurts that bottom line.
Ashlee Kieler's story reported that there were issues with
the passing of this bill. Jessica Mortinger, Transportation Board chairwoman, outlined some of the concerns as: "camera pricing options, security personnel on buses and cost analysis." These concerns aren't completely unreasonable, but seem quite nitpicky. SafeRide doesn't have cameras in their
cars. There aren't any security guards riding with SafeRide users. Even without beefy guards and big brother cameras SafeRide is in heavy demand and successfully delivers inebriated students to their final destinations. Pass the SafeBus bill and then pick apart the extraneous details.
The benefits of SafeBus far outweigh the increased $3 per semester student fee. Many universities of similar or smaller size to the University already have a system like SafeBus in place. A small fee increase for each of the 30,644 University students, as reported on the University's Web site, should
cover all costs and concerns of those that decided to table the bill. However, it's next to impossible to put a price on the safety of all the students that will most certainly utilize this much-needed feature.
If students feel strongly about this issue, they need to sign Tom Cox's petition. Once a
referendum occurs, the SafeBus decision will be left up to all the student voters.
It's your University. It's your money. You should be benefiting as much as realistically possible. SafeBus should be a reality.
University too concerned with marketing
》 LISCENSE TO SHILL
— Tasha Riggins for the editorial board.
Those of you who still find humor in the fifth grade joke slogan of "Muck Fizzou," the Athletic Department wants to save you from your own poor judgment, even if it means paying hefty lawyer fees. How magnanimous! But a closer look sees past the altruism and exposes the greed and hypocrisy involved in the University's claims.
In last week's University Daily Kansasan, associate athletics director Jim Marchiony gave two reasons for opposing the shirts sold by Joe- College.com.
"Many of the shirts attach themselves to the University and are in poor taste," he said. He added. "There are licensees who pay a fee for the right to use the Kansas marks and it's not fair to them for others to be circumventing the rules."
Unfortunately, neither is the true
reason for the legal action. Instead, it is athletic department revenue.
As reported by Michael Phillips in the Wichita Eagle, the University's distribution of licensing revenue
changed last year, and now the Athletic Department pays a fixed amount to the chancellor's office and pockets the rest. Increased revenue stays entirely within the Athletic Department, and one way to raise revenue is to remove competition.
BY BRANDON MINSTER
When it comes to determining if a shirt violates university trademark, Marchiony told Phillips, "It depends on what else is on it." So a "KU is great" shirt is legally different than a "KU sucks" shirt? I don't see it.
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
but I do see a difference between protecting the school's image and trying to change it through silencing conflicting opinions. Shirts that say "Muck Fizzou" or feature a cartoon sperm labeled "KU Swim Team" present a view of the University that, however unwanted, is warranted. There exists at KU an irritated hatred of Missouri and a fixation on sex. If it weren't true, people would see these shirts and think, "What's that supposed to mean?" These shirts sell here because they portray an image many students want to associate with themselves, and at a cost significantly below officially licensed material.
If the University were concerned with licensees' bottom lines, why did they raise the license fee from 8 percent to 9 percent this year? And if the concern is over poor taste, why does the University seek to profit from student credit card debt through the officially licensed Visa card I was offered this week? "Dear KU Student," the letter began on a personal note. "You're a Jayhawk." And so at a starting APR of only 17.15 percent I could get my own Jayhawk Visa.
Funny, I thought credit card debt was a problem among students. Maybe I can start selling a shirt that reads "KU Credit Card Team." For only a nine percent cut, the Athletic Department would call it kosher.
Minster is a Lawrence junior in economics.
LOUISIANA PURCHASE
" GIMME A CASE OF BEER AND SOME CRAWFISH. "
Grant Snider/KANSAN
U.S. needs revamped tax code
>> LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Tax-avoidance schemes are growing faster than the IRS' ability to crack down on them.
Until the 110th Congress addresses inequities in our tax system, we'll continue to further plunge into the abyss of what is becoming irreversible national debt. It appears that this Congress is merely poised to put a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage.
Billions of tax dollars are lost through outsourcing of jobs to other countries. Companies leaving the United States each year is accelerating at an alarming rate. The loss in tax revenue is becoming almost incalculable, exacerbated by enormous tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans.
In a December 2003 report, the IRS identified over 400,000 taxpayers involved in tax evasion strategies that are likely illegal. That year, the IRS had estimated the number at 131,000. It is clear that the IRS (and Congress) doesn't have
The IRS Tax Code needs to be completely revamped. Tax loopholes for "special interests" must be eliminated. Taxes on unearned income should have been increased not decreased.
What has the Bush Administration done to solve the problem? They have declared that outsourcing of jobs is good for America, tax cuts will reduce the deficit, and have slashed in half the number of IRS auditors charged with auditing tax reports on multi-million-dollar incomes!
a clue as to how much revenue is being lost. Now the problem is only getting worse.
The IRS tax code has become so incomprehensible that virtually nobody can understand it, leaving it subject to broad interpretation.
Paul G. Jaehnert
Vadnais Heights, Minn. resident
》 COMMENTARY
Some students are obsessed with other people's lives. These kinds of students (who love the gossip magazines and things like that) aren't satisfied with just living their own life and being concerned with actual people and events that affect the world. Instead, our society is obsessed with knowing what kind of purse so-and-so has. Real life is taking a back seat to fantasy.
I know everyone's sick of hearing about Anna Nicole Smith and her babies and her old dead husbands. I roll my eyes and growl at Court TV and CNN whenever her name pops up. Forgive me if I'm adding to the noise.
Sure, watching the E! channel and picking up the gossip rags in the grocery store checkout line may seem harmless, but it hides something deeper, something darker. Because these "celebrity-chasing" students don't care about their own lives, they
Stop forsaking news for needless celebrity worship
1 hope my noise sounds different.
Journalists are supposed to seek the truth and report it. Celebrity-chasers are forcing journalists to seek out information about celebrities that very well may be true, but not important in the least bit. The important truth is the genocide going on in Darfur and what the city council decided at its last meeting. The important truth is why China wants to get rid of Starbucks and why John Doe opened up that new deli down the street. The important truth is not what kind of shampoo Jessica Simpson uses.
BY CALEB SOMMERVILLE
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slander and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
I just saw Lew Perkins rolling out of the parking lot in his brand new, bright red Corvette convertible. Is that why the students are getting the shaft? So we can pay
(Obviously female voice) Free-for-All, this is Brandon Rush. To the girl who keeps texting me and fol-
BY CALBE SOMMERVILL
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
forcing themselves to disconnect with the very world they live in. The Associated Press wire on any given day has three or four headlines about problems in the Middle-East
First, they are forcing the journalism world to cover worthless stories like what party Kanye West attended.
and other news, but is filled with stories of this party and that DUI. Celebrity-chasers, by being interested in every little thing that celebrities do, are making themselves dumber. These students don't pay attention to the real news, the news that actually affects the way they live. They live their lives through the lives of celebrities.
are causing two terrible things to happen.
Secondly, celebrity-chasers are
Students need to wake up. We shouldn't care about the mundane details of people we'll never meet. We need to care about the events that affect our world. We need to pay attention to what businesses
Delta Force. Real issues, real leaders, real losers.
are doing well, what the situation in Iraq is like and what we as citizens can do about the problems in our world. Sure, those famous people provide us with entertainment, but that's what iTunes and movieaters are for. Let's not let celebrities distract us from the importance of living in this crazy world.
page essay.
Instead of watching Laguna Beach and E! in your free time, watch CNN in the mornings to get the headlines. When you go to lunch or class, pick up the Kansan or one of the four free papers available for students (The New York Times, The Kansas City Star, The Lawrence Journal-World, and USA Today). If we start getting connected to the world, we will know more about our surroundings and therefore be able to affect the world around us for the better.
Homework may suck, but I tell you what, it'll make you appreciate life. There's nothing better than the feeling of completing a seven-
Sommerville is a Hutchinson, Minn. sophomore in journalism.
FREE FOR ALL
Call 864-0500
for his sw.
lowing me around campus: Stop.
Who put chopsticks into the holes on the intercom in Hash's elevator? Who did that? Whoever it was, thank you, because I took one. I'm going to use it to put my
This is for the really cute boy that sat by me during the calculus midterm, tonight. I think I love you, and you have really nice
o'clock shadow! I'm a man!
hair up
Rocky 7: Rocky Balboa vs. Chuck Norris.
I just ate ten tacos from Taco Bell. I'm going to be throwing up tonight, just not out my mouth.
tion point, and so on.
Free-for-All, I finally got a five
Free-for-All, why does it seem like architecture students are the only ones doing work on campus? I learn cross-border skills.
Free-for-All, did you wash your butt crack today?
shoes
I just wanted to let United Students know that your messages are so big, I forgot what the beginning of them said.
hing of the
The versce
Shut up, Spangles! Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclama-
grandma's sweater and holding her purse while he's at the bank?
To the guy with the Wii injury, on the front of the Kansan: My friend had a sex dream about you.
Why am I looking at a picture of Sherron Collins wearing a
Brian, it was a one-night-stand!
Get over yourself, man-whore!
The Kansan does not care about drunk people.
That puddle in the elevator,it was urine.
Free-for-All, I just walked into the Underground and there was a dude making waffles. It's going to be a good day.
》 TALK TO US
Gabriella Souza, editor
864-4854 or gsouza@kansan.com
Nicole Kelley, managing editor 864-4854 or nkelley@kansan.com
Courtney Hagen, opinion editor
864-4924 or chagen@kansan.com
Patrick Ross, managing editor 864-4854 or prossikansan.com
Natalie Johnson. associate opinion editor
864-4924 or njohnson@kamans.com
Lindsey Shirak, business manager
864-4014 or ishirak@kansan.com
Jackie Schaffer, sales manager
864-4462 or jschaffer@kansan.com
Mealcim Gibson, general manager, news adviser
364-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
》 SUBMISSIONS
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions.
LETTER GUIDELINES
For any questions, call Courteney Hagen or Natalie Johnson at 648-4810 e-mail opmailikamon.kansas.
Maximum Length: 200 words
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor@kansan.com
SUBMIT LETTERS TO
Maximise Design 219
Include: Author's name, class, hometown (student)
or position (faculty member/staff) and phone number (will not be published)
Maximum Length: 500 words
GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
111 Sauset First Hill
1455 Kaysen Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 60454
783-848-4588 or ikamam.kamam.com
**include:** Author's name, class, hometown (*student*); position (*faculty member*)/staff*, phone number (*will not be published*)
Also: The Kansan will not print guest columns that attack a reporter or another columnist.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Gabriella Souca, Nicole Kelley, Patrick Ross, Courtney Hagen, Natalie Johnson, Alison Kieler, Tasha Riggins and McKay Stangler
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