4a
Opinion
Monday, February 26, 2001
For comments, contact Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Perspective
Bill will force Senate to take look at itself
Sometimes it's harder to be honest with yourself than anyone else. Student Senate to be experiencing that right now.
seems to be experiencing that right now. Reviving an idea that failed to win Senate approval last semester, a group of senators led by senior Justin Mills is fighting to convince Senate to require that senators at least pretend to care about their constituencies. For two legislative cycles now, they've been tinkering with the bill in an attempt to reduce its opposition.
It might seem surprising — or not, depending on your perspective — but this bill has inspired sizable opposition in the past.
The bill is grounded in the ideal of representative government, the belief that legislators will be concerned about accurately representing the views of those they were elected to represent.
As in the United States as a whole, in the Student Senate, this often doesn't seem to happen. Were you to ask students walking down Jayhawk Boulevard if they've ever met one of their student senators, you'd probably find that they haven't.
Senators would argue this is because students don't care, which is, of course, true. Election turnout in student government
Aaron Proffitt
guest columnist
opinion@kansan.com
ment elections is even lower than turnout in "real-life" elections. But senators shouldn't be able to get out of it that easily. How much do they try to contact or meet their constituents? For most of them, the answer is that they don't at all — until election season, of course.
Because elections are around the corner, this bill is likely to pass Senate accompanied by heaps of high-sounding rhetoric about representation and concern for constituents. Both candidates for student body president, Mills and Jessica Bankston, are sponsoring the bill.
So if it's probable that people wishing to run with one of their coaltions will happily vote for the bill. Doubtless some sponsors support the bill honestly and whole-heartedly. They believe that senators should reach out to students.
Don't get me wrong; I support the bill. I've voted for it in committee, and I've questioned its sponsors to see how well they've covered their bases. They have good answers for my questions. Since the last reworking of the bill, they've answered even more objections.
I have doubts, though, about whether it will make a difference in practice. I've been in Senate, and I've seen how most senators view their duties. They talk a good game during elections, but when they've earned their mailbox in the Senate office, they become more interested in hitting the bar after meetings than in working for the good of the University of Kansas.
I'm sure I'll anger some senators by writing that — but the ones I'm writing about won't even bother to be angry about it. It's been true for a long time now. A handful of senators write most of the tasks, work with and against the administration and city for the best interests of students. Most senators simply show up at meetings, smirk at each other and vote.
Sometimes they can't even be troubled to vote.
sometimes they can even be troubled to vote — particularly on those nasty controversial bills when the vote is by roll call. It's so much easier to be out of the room at the time.
The bill will pass, and its sponsors will, rightfully, feel good about it. A good number of other senators—the ones who are actually there to vote for it—will also feel good about it because they'll have voted for a nice idea. Not that they really care about their constituents, but after all, they can pretend for a bit — until it comes to doing something substantive.
This is the result I'm hoping for because it will force Senate to examine itself. I hope it's surprised by what it sees. It will see a representative body fighting about whether to maintain contact with its base. It will see a corpulent mass with a few functioning parts — the senators who really do care — but with a great deal of scar tissue hindering real service.
Passing the bill is one step in the right direction, for it prevents senators from hiding in their chairs and avoiding doing their jobs. Hopefully, that waste tissue on the body of senate will get itself into shape. Otherwise, this bill will make it possible to remove it surgically. Senate must pass this bill and begin to ensure that its members do their jobs — unless it wishes to lose what credibility it has.
Proffitt is an Overland Park senior in political science and English.
HERE AT KU, WE LOVE DIVERSITY,WE ENCOURAGE SELF. EXPRESSION,AND WE ARE ALL ABOUT FREEDOM OF CHOICE!
Bruno Pieroni/KANSAN
Kansan.com poll
Last week's question: Do you improve rep
agree with the State Board of Education's decision to restore evolution to the state's science curriculum?
Yes. The board acted in the students' best interests.
Yes. The decision will drastically improve Kansas's reputation.
No. Evolution theory doesn't belong in the curriculum.
No. The decision was politically motivated.
Next week's question: Should Student Senate fund religious organizaitons? Log on to www.kansan.com to cast your vote.
This poll is not scientific. Numbers do not add up to 100 percent because of rounding. Total votes: 120
Perspective
Statistics stack up quickly against gun-rights groups
I don't know much about guns, but I do know something about the law. Here's a quick lesson: The
Constitution means what the Supreme Court says it means. In the 1934 case United States v. Miller, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment means that states can have militias, not
that individuals can bear arms.
Many state constitutions contain clauses protecting an individual's right to bear arms. Some don't. Either way, the federal constitution does not.
The founders of this country thought that the question of an individual's right to bear arms was best left to the states. With
John Audlehelm columnist oikansan.com
Republicans' insistence
Why is it that conservatives want to return more power to the states but then look to the federal government to protect what they consider one of their most fundamental rights? Why do Republicans want to arm themselves to the teeth in the name of protecting themselves from the government, but they're the first ones
The typical conservative response to these legal facts is to blindly insist that citizens have a right to bear arms. News flash: The laws of this country apply to you, even if you really, really think they shouldn't.
on states' rights, I would think that they would appreciate the founders' intent.
to vote for more military spending, which arms the government?
I also know a few things about statistics. In 1994, according to the FBI, there were 196 justifiable gun homicides and 9,390 handgun murders.
In the same vein, the New England Journal of Medicine reports that if you keep a gun in your house for protection from home invasion, you are 22 times more likely to use that gun to shoot some body you know than to shoot a criminal.
Say you have two stacks of cards. One has 10 cards, and the other has 200. Each stack includes one random death card that kills you upon choosing it. Now begin picking five cards from just one stack. Which stack do you choose?
Of course, the NRA has its statistics. One of them says that children who are given guns as presents are less likely to be juvenile delinquents and will almost never use their guns to commit crimes.
Gun control is crime control. The statistics clearly show that guns cause more crime than they prevent, and crime prevention and control is the primary responsibility of any government.
We need reasonable gun-control measures that balance the safety of the 9,390 with the (perceived) rights of those silent 196.
Statistics can be refuted, and they can also be impersonal. Even if the chance of getting shot is one in a million, that's a small comfort if you're the one.
On this point, the NRA and I agree. If you're going to give your kid a gun, at least teach him how to use it.
Audleheim is a Des Molnes senior in journalism and political science.
Editorial Students need more facts on e-mail switch
The change to Exchange will benefit students,but many still don't know about it.
A big change is occurring with the University of Kansas' e-mail system. Students who currently have accounts on the Falcon or Eagle servers must migrate to HAWK, otherwise known as an Exchange account, by Thursday, May 31. But many students still don't know this.
The Falcon and Eagle servers are being phased out. All students will now be on one server, simplifying the e-mail system. Moving to the new server will allow students to use Microsoft Outlook to read their mail instead of Telnet.
There are several advantages to using Outlook. It allows students to search the KU e-mail directory from their e-mail server. It allows access to e-mail from any computer with Internet access through Outlook Web Access. Professors can set up public course folders on Outlook, making it simpler for them to contact students. Changing the e-mail system benefits students, but there are also drawbacks.
With e-mail being as vital as it is, students must be made aware of the changes and what they need to do to have their e-mail ready for next year. There needs to be more publicity about the switch. To its credit, the University sent a student-wide e-mail last week to tell students about the change, in addition to other actions to spread the word.
But many students still express ignorance of the switch. Even more say that they know they have to switch but that they don't know how. Still others who have already switched say they don't know how to check their new accounts.
Clearly, a sustained effort to inform students is necessary when the University requires such a major change. Although the University has taken steps to inform students, the number of students who are unaware of what they need to do indicate that it should step up its efforts. It also should provide training to students and faculty, teaching them about Microsoft Outlook.
The Exchange accounts will be beneficial for students. But it is important that Academic Computing Services handle the transfer smoothly as thousands of students attempt to change e-mail.
Emily Haverkamp for the editorial board
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed. For more comments, visit www.kansan.com.
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America has a designated God? I must have missed that memo.
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Anyone who says there's nothing to Lawrence is stupid. They've obviously never sat around drinking beer and calling the Free for All all night long.
Ten pieces of mail. Nine of them were credit card applications, and only one was for me.
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Maybe they should rename ESPN the Duke basketball network and name Dick Vitale the head of Duke basketball.
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How is it that Texas beats Iowa State and we can't? Why?
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I just got home from the step presentation this weekend, and I was not impressed by the booing. Everyone deserves respect.
On Friday's front page, you have a guy complaining about his getting stuck on the bus for five minutes and another not complaining about his near-fatal disease. Kind of puts things in perspective for you, doesn't it?
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Basketball fans, don't forget to bring your panties to wave at Quinn Snyder on March 4.
Is this a rhetorical question?
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I was wondering if it would be too difficult to get some of that toilet paper with the quilt design on it instead of that wax paper I have to wipe with Ellsworth.
This is about Tim Dupree and the bus. I don't understand. He feels that just because he's a minority and a male he got screwed. Because if anyone else had done it, would they think it was because of who they were or what they did?
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I would like to say thank you to that bus driver who actually waited for me to sit down before he started the bus.
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I just want to know if I'm the only person who thinks that Lawrence is slowly becoming the most trendy place on earth.
One day I was walking in the woods, and I saw this dog, and it sat down because that's what they do.
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I would just like to note that both my roommates are now 21. Life is good for this underage drinker.
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