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VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL: Worst day of your life or favorite holiday? Send us your opinions of the day in 80 words or fewer and we'll print the best.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2007
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 7A
OPINION
>> OUR VIEW
Students should be given seats for tickets
The old adage, "Don't make promises you can't keep" needs to be stitched on a pillow and sent to Allen Fieldhouse. As reported in Monday's University Daily Kansan, more than 100 students with tickets were left out in the cold, literally. Needless to say there were more than 100 pissed off people after the game Saturday. However, the initial anger of those seat-deprived students was the University's fault.
Granted there was confusion and game days, particularly this one, are chaotic. Regardless of excuses on either side simply put; this was unprofessional. The ticket system change, which incited many, was promised to be a better and more organized ticketing and seating system. Based on reports from locked out students and ushers, organization was lacking. Every aspect of the University prides itself on professionalism and stature. Mass confusion and professionalism are polar opposites.
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on the iPod.
To the guy who stole my iPod in Room 435 Oliver: If you give it back to me, I will give you $50, no questions asked. Call the number on the iPod. Thank you.
图
The "leggings as pants trend",
also known as the "I" can see your
uginning" trend
Dy.
An apology and refunds are a start. However, ensuring that this doesn't happen again is the only acceptable answer. The Jayhawk basketball team represents the University. Clearly, students make up the bulk of this campus. If they're promised a seat, because that's what a ticket represents (the holding of one seat), they should get it. Otherwise everyone should be on the street selling null-and-void tickets to the game.
I wish there was a tree house class at KU, because I would be all over that shit. I'd be the TAI I mean, "all you that stuff" Okay.
For as much time and commitment that students put into getting tickets to watch their team play, this is unacceptable. When a person purchases something, obviously they expect to receive due compensation. Students follow the campout rules and ticket procedures. Surely then those in charge of ticket distribution should be held to some standards. Quid pro quo. That's just bad business
I called in the other day to challenge Julian Wright to a game of bowling, and I decided now that if I win, he should play on my intramural team.
frozen.
— Tasha Riggins for the editorial board.
I'm looking at the Kansas Transportation fee, and every student at KU pays the same amount, yet I had to watch ten McCollum buses drive by in half an hour before my bus that goes off-campus showed up, so I was frightened.
to use
To the guy that I danced with tonight, who lifted up my arm: Sorry it smelled bad.
it's so cold outside that my butt is chafing.
Why is it that the same people who are screaming about the oppressiveness of the Patriot Act think that it's okay to legislate where we can smoke, what kind of food we can eat, and what kind of light bulbs we're allowed
I told my math teacher that Chuck Norris could divide by zero. He said he couldn't, so his name is "Liar", because he tells
lies.
Orgasms in the Wescoe bath-
it's so cold outside that my butt is chafing.
Yes, in fact, the fries are ready
it's so cold outside that my butt is chafing.
I don't know if this classifies my friend as retarded, but he got bored and deep-fried an apple.
it's so cold outside that my butt is chafing.
Martin Luther King was never a president, moron.
My bones are achin! What's up with that?
Dear Conan O'Brien, I want to have your red-headed, tall babies. Love, Becky.
Valentine's Day opinion special
To the car that almost hit me today: Next time, please yield to pedestrians. Thanks.
This Valentine's Day the opinion page wants to hear from you. Tell us in 80 words or fewer what you think about February's hearts and-chocolate fest or your best or worst Valentine's Day memories. We'll print the best responses in the Valentine's Day issue. Send comments (with "Valentine's Day" in the subject line) to opinion@kanson.com by Tuesday, February 13. Please include your name, hometown and year in the e-mail.
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COMMENTARY
Art of education: more creativity needed
If only class were a little more like Sesame Street, more butts would be in the seats of 120 Budig.
Since preschool, our curricula have steadily decreased in developing the imagination. Consequently, the excitement about school and the passion for learning children often display is lost.
The current system weans children off their markers and crayons in favor of word processors and blue books. Teachers pack knowledge into their students' heads, hoping they'll retain a fraction of it and use it in the world. Every student has asked, "When am I ever going to need this?"
Instead of making education about packing knowledge into students' heads, why not make it about enticing them to explore their world?
It's like the old saying, "if you give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but teach him to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime." Giving a mind knowledge is far less effective than teaching a mind to learn.
Education only works when students can make it their own.
conceptualizing the material in their own terms. Of course, coercing students into thinking the extra mile isn't automatic.
Emphasizing the arts in our
the arts in avail schools can spark that interest. Giving students the opportunity to work with, create, and explore art primes their brains to think critically.
Art has a unique power to engage the mind. It can reach students who are otherwise uninterested in school by offering curiosity as a catalyst in all academic realms. It's an all-in-one mental workout that makes the engineers of the Bowflex Home Gym jealous.
Singing, acting, drawing, reading and writing have shaped who I am, as a student and as a person. I've had mentors who gave me an outlet to my creative impulses. My happiest moments are when I can sit down with a book or a pen and paper with a cup of coffee and let
BY BRIAN ERVIN
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
my mind wander. Most importantly, with the conceptual, analytical and abstract thinking tools I acquired trying to improve my artistic endeavors I discovered a
greater appreciation for my English, history and science classes.
Experiencing the passion of creating something new can stimulate one's intelligence in ways a textbook can't. Out of creativity, passion is born. Glazed-over expressions die and classroom desktops remain drool free. Minds that are stimulated in this way will show improved interest and performance across the board.
day, bored moving from stoplight to stoplight, curiosity kicked in. Mentally I graphed my car's speed. Over that I drew the trajectory of my acceleration. Then considered the acceleration (derivative) of acceleration. A light went on. It was an exciting moment for me.
My freshman year at the University,
I took Calculus I, passed and thanked the gods I never had to take a math class again. I learned the formulas but couldn't explain what calculus was any better than the farcical MTV boy band 2Ge+her in their hit song "You + Me = Us." Then one
Many people arrive at an understanding of calculus, the Krebs cycle and the sociopolitical consequences of WWII through a textbook, but teaching the arts can reach disenchanted students who wouldn't otherwise open those textbooks. It opens them to a world they are comfortable to freely explore, manipulate and understand. It has the power to continually expand the mind — and in an age where good teachers are a scarcity commodity — to do it without direct instruction. If we continue to develop students' imaginations like Sesame Street has done for over 4,000 episodes, maybe our 1,000-person lecture halls will actually see 1,000 students wandering in.
Ervin is a Overland Park junior in theatre and film and psychology.
COMMENTARY
Stuewe: Let's talk about sexual violence
Here's a story to get all the feminists riled up. A college student in Tampa, Fla., went to police after being raped. She was then nailed on a 2003 warrant for failure to pay a fine and refused her second dose of the morning-after contraceptive. The outrage of this story is clear, not only was this 21-year-old denied proper medical treatment she was also denied proper judicial treatment.
I feel another level of outrage and sadness for this woman, which is that this incident won't lead to better things. Florida lawmakers will write specific laws designed not to keep women safe, but to keep themselves out of the national media. This woman's lawyers will win her a lot of money and everyone will move on pretending justice has been served. It's too bad that this national moment will most likely pass without an honest discussion about rape and sexual assault.
just like the Duke lacrosse rape allegations. We will hear stories about the trial, the defendant's sexual history, the bad emailing habits of college boys and how to get a stripper in Durham. As long as it doesn't come anything close to an open and productive conversation about how sexual violence is viewed and dealt with you will hear a news story about it.
This case is shaping up to be
The more we talk and the more we act,the better the situation becomes for victims. This time it must be different.
It is a deeply important conversation to have. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, which is the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization, one in six American women and one in 33 men are victims of sexual
assault in their lifetime.
Let's make this time different. As a nation we must use the attention given to this case to create a national discussion about sexual violence and assault. A discussion that should include TV programs about what we can do as a society to stop sexual violence as well as how we can appropriately and compassion-
ately deal with victims.
We should have more panels, poetry readings and educational rallies about why this violence happens and how victims can overcome the pain. Finally, a productive discussion about rape and sexual violence would include every last
How do we do that? Get involved with the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center on campus,www.etwr.cku.edu, or volunteer at the Women's Transitional Care Services (785-865-3956).
These are things brave people all over the country are doing already; and it is time we supported them fully.
Most importantly, talk to your friends about sexual assault and violence. Tell them to speak up. Even though this college student in Florida was punished for doing just that, silence is not the solution. The more we talk and the more we act, the better the situation becomes for victims. This time it must be different.
person in this country standing up and saying, "this is a problem, let's work together to fix it."
Stuewe is a Lawrence junior in political science and American studies.
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