4a
Opinion
Monday, February 19, 2001
Perspective
Senate projects seek to improve students'lives
for comments, contact Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Now that you are settled back into your normal routine of classes, work and fun, probably the last thing on your mind is Student Senate. We hope we can convince you that we are busily working on projects that directly impact you.
For the first four weeks of the semester, we brought you a program that gave students free access to copies of the New York Times, USA Today, Lawrence Journal-World and The Kansas City Star at Wescoe Hall, the Kansas Union and Oliver Hall. If you were near any of these buildings, you probably saw these papers.
These four weeks were a pilot project to introduce a possibly permanent Newspaper Readership Program next fall. The program would feature many more distribution locations. This project is a result of the work of
You may also have heard about the $428,000 surplus in Senate's reserve account and our endeavors to spend that money (because it's yours) on projects that benefit you. We have been soliciting your ideas since last semester and now are poised to make some decisions on how to spend these funds.
Some of the possibilities include information kiosks for student use; converting the Stauffer-Flint bus shelter into an information stand and/or a snack counter; the construction of a youth hostel, service learning center or off-campus resource center; and more pencil sharpeners and clocks on campus. If you want to comment on any of these ideas or offer any of your own, please e-mail Ben at brw@ukans.edu.
Another project we are
working on its minority student recruitment and retention. In 1966, Chancellor Robert Hemenway made that project a priority of his administration. A group of student senators, executive staff members and members of other student organizations are researching and preparing a minority recruitment and retention plan.
Ben Walker guest columnist opinion.kansan.com
Marlon Marshall guest columnist opinion@kansan.com
Senators also have been vigilant in protecting student interests at the City Commission. With a proposed ordinance to reduce the number of nonrelated individuals that can reside in a single-family residence from four to three, the city threatens to impact thousands of students and where they can live.
Lobbying by students and other Lawrence organizations succeeded in convincing the commission that the original proposal to limit the number of unrelated people to two was not prudent. Although we are disappointed the commission has chosen to disrupt the status quo, this middle-ground compromise is much better than the original proposal.
We are also continuing in our usual role as your advocates at the state level. Dangerous budget cuts threaten the University, but rest assured that we will be hard at work protecting your interests in Topeka.
Specifically, students have lobbed against a proposed elimination of the $2 the state gives for every $1 students pay for technology. Students have paid $1 per credit hour for the last three years, generating $600,000 a year. That means the state has contributed about $1.2 million annually. We also will fight the governor's recommendation to cut the University's general budget by more than $1 million.
These are just a few of the many projects that we're working on, including breaking ground on the upcoming recreation center and major renovations and additions to the Kansas Union
We encourage you to make your voice heard. Any student can join a Student Senate committee at any time. If you are interested, please contact the Student Senate office at 864-3710, or visit our Web site at
http://www.ukans.edu/~senate. If you do not have the time to get involved, you can contact us with your ideas, concerns or questions.
We hope that you are happy with the progress we have made throughout the year, and we will continue to work for you every day.
Walker is a Hutchinson senior and student body president. Marshall is a St. Louis senior and the student body vice president.
MEANWHILE, AT THE HOUSING OFFICE...
Bruno Pieroni/KANSAN
Kansan.com poll
Last week's question: Would you pay extra student fees to make Student Senate's newspaper readership program permanent?
Yes. I liked having several news-
Yes. I liked having several news papers available.
No. I didn't read the newspapers very often, anway.
Yes, but fees shouldn't rise excessively.
Next week's question: Do you agree with the Kansas Board of Education's decision to restore evolution to the state's science curriculum? 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: 96
Perspective
Campus museums allow quiet break from classes
If you're like me, you probably go to class and don't take the time to stop and enjoy the many interesting parts of our campus.
For example, until a few days ago, I had never been to Spencer Museum of Art — the lovely white marble building directly behind the Kansas Union — even though I
had walked past it almost daily for three years.
If you actually go inside and check it out, you can see some pretty cool stuff. If you're not super-interested in old paintings — which I'm not — there are still exhibits there you might enjoy. My favorites are the giant disco-esque neon clamshell sculptures and the new exhibit featuring artists from Cuba.
Granted, for those of us who don't know much about art, some of the exhibits can be confusing. Take, for example, one painting depicting a fluorescent man throwing up on his shoes. I tried but couldn't figure out exactly what the artist was trying to say with that piece. Finally, I came to the conclusion that the painting must be trying to make some sort of statement about what happens when you drink too much jungle juice.
Speaking of jungle juice, the museum security guards told me that it ruins their weekends when kids come in and stumble through or pass out in the exhibits. If you are too drunk or hung over to walk, you
Matt
Overstreet
columnist
opinion@kansas.com
While at the museum, I desperately wanted to touch the giant disco clams but stopped myself. After an unfortunate incident at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita involving me, a buffalo and three armed rent-a-cops, I developed a healthy fear of all security personnel.
shouldn't be in a museum in the first place. But if you happen to drink so much cough syrup that Rembrandts start looking like Picassos, I found that security doesn't care.
Unlike the guards at the zoo, however, I've found the museum staff to be pleasant and very helpful, especially when it comes to explaining the meaning of the exhibits. Except the ones that involve vomit.
My favorite is the Natural History Museum. The main reason I love the Natural History Museum is slightly less disturbing.
During the spring and summer, you can look through a glass tube on the sixth floor and see a real bees' nest. Unlike little kids there on field trips, the bees don't cry when you stare at them and are usually hard at work. In fact, once you see how hard the bees work, you will probably stop wasting those little packets of honey from Mrs. E's.
If art doesn't interest you, there are a variety of other museums on campus that often go unvisited by students.
If you have never stopped by any of these museums, I suggest you swing in between classes and check out some of the exhibits. Looking at cool paintings or bees' nests is certainly more fun than lying drunken on the floor in Budig Hall.
And probably a lot more comfortable, too.
Editorial
Overstreet is an Augusta junior in political science.
Department must correct bug problem
The cockroach invasion in Jayhawker Towers should jolt Student Housing into action.
Certain standards of living, including proper pest control and fumigation, should be expected when a person signs a contract with a landlord. It is irrelevant who the landlord is—these standards should be met.
Students living in Jayhawker Tower have reported problems with cockroaches since October. Cockroaches are a sign of unclean living conditions, and students shouldn't have to live in this filth.
Only recently has anything been done to alleviate the problem in the Towers. But even more troublesome is the Department of Student Housing's policy that not all students receive extermination services — only those who request it when a problem arises.
In addition, the department's lack of action is in direct contrast to its mission statement. The department's handbook states that one part of its mission is to provide "reasonably priced living environments that are clean, attractive, well maintained and that meet current standards of care and comfort."
Allowing a cockroach infestation to continue for so long surely would violate those standards.
The handbook says that students should report pests immediately. In addition, they are urged to keep their apartment clean so the environment would be unappealing to pests.
Students should do all of this, as there is some responsibility on their part. Students who leave out food or allow pets to take over their kitchen without reporting it do shoulder some of the blame for an infestation.
But the department has a greater responsibility to maintain a suitable living environment for its residents. It promises an environment that is free of pests. Students are expected to abide by their housing contracts. Both parties need to hold up their ends of the bargain.
Students should not be solely responsible for preventing pests. Housing should fumigate regularly to ensure that the problem does not spread. This should be a part of the clean and comfortable living environment the department promises to students in the first place.
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 will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed. For more comments, visit www.kansan.com.
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Hey, Kansan: You're not supposed to quote a reporter or columnist unless absolutely necessary. Didn't you go to newspaper class in junior high and high school?
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You know you're in college when your teacher shows you nudie movies during class.
I'd really like to thank rec services for completely taking the fun out of basketball. Pick-up games are far superior to inneply officiated atrocities.
FWI: BET does not discriminate, and when was the last time we heard about a Black person in history class other than during Black History Month?
My roommate and I are sick of all this Vagina Monologues crap. We're going to write a new play called the Schlong Dietribes and go off on every subject we think is crap.
What is with this offensive piece of trite about the frat boy gene? I mean, honestly.
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I think we do have a White history month. I think it's in January, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.
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I don't see why everyone doesn't go to the women's basketball games because they beat Iowa State, and it was the best game I'd seen in Allen Fieldhouse all year.
I was wondering why we have to read about straight people on the front of the UDK all the time. Isn't there something else to write about?
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If Ryan Wood doesn't like the food at Mrs. E's, maybe he should try going to another college. I did, and it was horrible. E's has variety, and as long as you don't go to the grill, most of the stuff is good.
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I don't know what kind of garbage grinders they have in movies, but flowers don't go down the drain as easy as they would have you believe.
To those of you out there who think you know what pimpin' is about, may I suggest you go check out the move *American Pimp* at the Union. Some of y'all have no idea what you're talking about.
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Ostriches don't make good alcoholics.
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