Friday, March 9, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 5
Letters to the editor Heating problems demand action
I am writing to express my disappointment after having read the article in yesterday's Kansan, "Mechanical problems heat up Amini." Frankly speaking, the comments of Ken Stoner, director of student housing, were irresponsible and personally offensive.
I think it would probably have been better for the residents of K.K. Amini and the Department of Student Housing had we had an "in house" discussion of the problems.
Lucas C. Neece Topeka senior
However, because Stoner already issued a statement to the general University community, I think it fair and necessary that the University community should hear a resident's reply to your statement.
I am in my third year living at K.K. Amiini. I've known since my first week that the heating and cooling system has problems. My home is too cool in the summer, to the extent that residents keep windows open. My home is too warm in the winter, so we keep windows open
My first year in residence, my roommates and I called maintenance on a weekly basis, trying to keep the room at a medium temperature. We were eventually told that it was how it was and that was it. At a meeting this fall about the rate hike, which will put our rate higher than the other scholarship halls, Stoner explained that it was more expensive to run our hall because it was a more efficient building. This seems a very strange statement. When one of our residents asked if we couldn't fix the heating and cooling problem, Stoner explained that although we may not be happy with it, the system works as designed.
I wonder what Stoner meant when he said "one resident had complained to the department about the heating system before Sunday." Many men have complained to housing about heating during the last four years, and, as I understand it, since the hall's opening in 1922.
Because the system works as designed and the fire alarm works as designed, I spent an
saturday evening school out or my home.
It is my desire for Stoner to address the men
of K.K. Amini and state that there is a problem with the heating and cooling system and that he is now prepared to deal with it.
Students can get help for e-mail switch
Academic Computing Services appreciates recent Kansan coverage of the Exchange e-mail system and the student migration to the system from Falcon and Eagle (Emily Haverkamp's Feb. 26 editorial "Students need more facts on e-mail switch" and Cassio Furtado's Feb. 28 article "New KU server will identify viruses").
Ms. Haverkamp excellently described the benefits to students migrating their e-mail to Exchange. Mr. Furtado's article accurately presented the automatic virus scanning and quarantining features on the Exchange system (another benefit in migrating).
ACS staff has worked hard preparing information, tools and training to make the student migration to Exchange (e-mail) and People (Web sites) by the May 31 deadline as straight-forward as possible. Still, Ms. Haverkamp's editorial let us know we need to do more.
In the weeks between now and May 31, ACS will be posting migration information campuswide, running several Kansan ads, dedicating computers and providing assistance in our public labs to help students migrate their e-mail and Web sites, and offering additional migration classes. ACS also offers several classes on using Microsoft Outlook. Students can continue to get step-by-step instructions on migrating at http://www.ku.edu/exchange/students.
administrative assistant, Academic Computing Services
Dropping sports not the solution
There are more and better options than simply dropping two men's sports.
The University could retain all nine men's sports, not touch women's scholarships and still have plenty of football scholarships.
The biggest issue that must be addressed is the grossly disproportional number of scholarships for football. When fully funded, football gets 85 scholarships. If the Athletics Department is trying to save $600,000 a year, an across-the-board cut of scholarships and a bigger cut from football could work instead.
Title IX advocates are going to cry foul if you try to cut any women's scholarships. I predict a class-action reverse discrimination lawsuit will end this. For now, a plan to eliminate men's scholarships would be proposed. Basketball should not lose scholarships because you don't want to bite the hand that feeds you.
Everybody else should bear the burden, and football should bear the most — it can afford it.
Given that tuition (of-state), room and board and books is $15,000 per year (roughly) and there are nine men sports, then $600,000 divided by $15,000 equals 40 scholarships. Forty scholarships divided by nine men's sports equals about 4.44 scholarships per sport.
A three-scholarship cut across the board for men's sports, save basketball, should be proposed. Football would be forced to absorb the remainder. Outdoor track, indoor track and cross country count as three sports but mostly have the same athletes. So one of the men's track scholarships goes three times as far, counting for three sports. Instead of cutting nine scholarships from three men track programs, cut four from the three track programs.
The University would retain all nine men's sports, not touch any women's scholarships and still leave 60 full-ride scholarships for football. That is almost enough for six full squads of 11 players. The 25 scholarships aren't going to be missed by football; most of those guys won't see any playing time anyway.
If the current head football coach doesn't like it, another one will come along who will.
Forcing everyone to pay for art is unfair
Don Fearon KU diving coach,1989-1997
Many people write in to voice their disagreement with John McCool, but so few try to refute him. A good example is Melissa Montgomery's recent letter, "Columnist's argument promotes art censorship." Monday.
Let's assume a world where the following become law: All artists receive adequate taxpayer support. Anyone who goes to Congress calling himself an artist must receive funding. Is this what Ms. Montgomery advocates?
If so, we'll have a lot more artists. Take me, for example. I'm trying to find an engineering job. It's hard. If I were unethical, I could apply for government support as a musician. I'd be terrible, but what right does the government have to deny me aid based on subjective tastes?
This program would be a magnet for frauds calling themselves artists. By what standard could we distinguish people genuinely struggling to express themselves from impostors? Any denial of funds would be "censorship."
As long as the National Endowment for the Arts works with a fixed budget, some artists will be supported at the expense of others, who can then rightly ask why they are being censored while others are receiving support.
But someone has to grow food for this evergrowing group of artists. Someone has to build their houses and sew their clothes. It would be asking taxpayers to fund a program with increasing costs and decreasing rewards.
The only artists who go to the government for funding are those who cannot find anyone else to support them. No one will buy their art. No one considers them worthy of support. They don't provide society with something it wants
If taxpayers get their money back instead, they will spend it differently. Some will pay for the symphony, but some will buy a better house or nicer clothes. This means some individuals have higher priorities than supporting artists who see in cups and put it on display.
You might think that the resulting wave of unemployed artists is a terrible tragedy. You might love painting and lament that some painters must now find some average job to support themselves. But what right do you have to take other people's money to support painters? Each person has the right to decide what art to support or whether to support it. To consider artists without thinking about the rest of society is neither ethical nor practical.
Colorado Springs, Colo. senior
Teatro Lirico D'Europa in
Aida
Verdi's opera about the conflict of love, loss, and with an acclaimed part
Part III of III
The Lied Center of Kansas
All tickets 1/2 price for students
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Find out when the Lied Center Concert Series presents Verdi's Aida.
80% of KU students use a designated driver.
- Based on survey responses from 1,459 KU students. Survey administered by the KU Office of Institutional Research & Planning (2000)
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KUAC - please reinstate men's swimming, diving & tennis
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