4
Tuesday, December 7, 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Rework finals schedule to prevent wasted days
The semester's end has been unnecessarily delayed by a finals schedule insensitive to the needs of faculty and students. This year's finals schedule delays the last day of examinations until Dec. 20. It seems that the schedule was made without regard for when the last day would fall. Placing the last day of the semester on a Monday does not make sense; it delays students' departure and final grading for three days. Because the last final is delayed until Monday, thousands of students must wait and delay their return home because the last final is delayed until Monday.
The delay is bothersome to the faculty, as well. If the last final was Friday, there would be another weekend that faculty could use for grading examinations before grades are due. Additionally, in a time when the University is under financial pressure, the delay causes another full weekend of operation for the University, most notably residence halls and buildings. A reduction of these costs is imperative.
Stop day is a Friday, creating a three-day weekend. This seems out of line with the intent of stop day, which provides a one-day break between the end of classes and the start of finals. The University should be more open and flexible in molding the finals schedule to the calendar so that the time could be used more efficiently. Why not move stop day forward a day and start finals Friday and eliminate the three-day delay at the end of the semester? If the mindlessness of the present schedule is due to a Board of Regents mandate or a University guideline, it is the responsibility of Chancellor Budig and the rest of the administration to change those rules for benefit of KU's students, faculty and finances.
It is unreasonable to suggest that the finals schedule could be further reduced from six days to five, but it is reasonable to start the six-day schedule earlier to prevent lengthening the semester. This would prevent a three-day delay for one day of finals.
CHRIS REEDY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
DAVID BURGETT, J.R. CLAIRBORNE, CHRISTINA CORNISH, CARSON ELROD, TOM GRELINGER, MATT HOOD, MANNY LOPEZ, COLLEEN McCAIN, TERRILYN MCORMICK, MUNEERA NASEER, KIRK REDMOND, CHRIS REEDY, MIKE SILVERMAN, EISHA TIERNEY, KC TRAUER AND DAVID WANEK
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Third World aid often filtered back to source
One, everyone, of the civilized nations earned $100,000 for having a man or woman dead rather than alive in 1992. Of this per person cost of death, the United States earned about $50,000 per person killed. These figures are provided by the world's biggest investment cartel, the World Bank.
As against this huge amount spent on arms, a paltry sum of $56 million was provided in economic aid to developing countries in 1990 and the lending nations also sold
In a recent report titled "World Military and Social Expenditures 1993," the World Bank, a major lender to less-developed countries ... says after the end of the Cold War, world military spending in 1992 alone exceeded $600 billion, of which nearly half of the earnings went to the United States. And six million people died in the wars fought with these weapons that exchanged hands between the3 seller and buyer nations.
to them weapons worth $36 billion during the same year. In other words, 64.28 percent of the financial "aid" found its way back to the "donor" countries through arms sales, leaving only $20 billion for economic or social "development" projects ...
It is not only the poor countries that need to develop social services and human environment by diverting funds from meeting fabricated threats, the United States and other arms producers as well need to stop fabricating war threats. The world's only existing superpower matches poor nations in having one person in seven living in poverty, with half of its adult population illiterate, and with more than 37 million Americans lacking any form of health care — despite earning $300 billion through arms sales in just one year. That means there is something terribly wrong with what leaders of developed countries call their civilization.
SAUDI GAZETTE
JIDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA
KANSAN STAFF
KC TRAUER. Editor
JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE Managing editors
TOMEBLEN
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
AMY CASEY Business manager
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
Editors
AMY STUMBO Retail sales manager
AMYSTUMBO
Assistant to the editor ... J.R. Clerbome
News ... Stacy Friedman
Editorial ... Terrilyn McCormick
Campus ... Ben Grove
Sports ... Kristi Fogler
Photo ... Kip Chin, Renee Kneeber
Features ... Efra Wolfe
Graphics ... John Paul Fogel
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ...Ed Schager
Regional sales mgr...Jennifer Perrler
National sales mgr...Jennifer Evenson
Co-op sales mgr ...Blythe Focht
Production mgr ...Jennifer Blowey
Kate Burgess
Marketing director ..Shellah McConnell
Special sections mgr ..Justith Standley
Creative director ..Brian Fumco
Classified mgr..Gretchen Kootenleinch
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
Guest email addresses should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be
The Kauai reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kauai newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Student Senate's decision against funding club is discrimination
The Student Senate Finance Committee missed a prime opportunity to enhance the quality of political debate at the University of Kansas by killing a bill to provide advertising money for a series of forums hosted by the KU Federalist Society. The KU Federalist Society, as it is chartered and was presented to the finance committee, is an organization that seeks to promote a forum for the discussion of law and public policy issues primarily through the use of speaking engagements. These speaking engagements typically take the form of a debate between two speakers with opposing viewpoints who discuss such important political issues as gun control, public financing for the arts, and health care.
The Federalist Society's opponents on the Finance Committee displayed a paranoid fear of any group that
The organization is restricted by its charter from taking positions on policy issues and endorsing political candidates. Nonetheless, the Finance Committee refused to support the organization because its members are primarily conservative and libertarian.
might give speaking time to points of view they do not share. They ostensibly rejected the funding request because Senate has a prohibition on financing organizations with a political slant.
members.
This is an extraordinary claim in light of Senate's funding for liberally oriented publications such as Who 'sinations and organizations like Enviros which participate in political protests. In fact, the Finance Committee passed, at the same meeting, a bill to finance LesBiGay Awareness Week in which the expressly stated purpose was to further "the political growth of KU students." Evidently, the prohibition only applies to organizations whose philosophies differ from those of the Student Senate
The Federalist Society can be distinguished from other groups that deal with political issues by its commitment to objectivity in its public forums. The group demonstrated this commitment in a debate it hosted on the school voucher issue between state Representative Kay O'Connor and Russell Getter, a KU political science professor. The event attracted students from various political backgrounds who freely expressed a diversity of opinions.
Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, commented on the organization at a Yale University event: "It has been my pleasure to speak at many Federalist Society gatherings around the country, and I think one thing your organization has done is to contribute to free speech, free debate and most importantly public understanding of, awareness of, and appreciation of the Constitution." The predominately liberal ACLU would never offer such high praise if the organization was as conservatively-biased as some Finance Committee members asserted.
More than 98 percent of the Federalist Societies across the country receive financing from their student governments. The KU group asked for only $290 to advertise a series of five speaking engagements. The Federalist Society will pay for all other expenses for the forums that the organization is planning to schedule. Other groups that won approval for speaking engagements at the same committee meeting had requests in excess of $5,000 and sought honoraria as well as advertising money.
By killing funding for the Federalist Society, the Finance Committee demonstrated the ugliest stereotypes of a politically correct student government. Federalist Society events across the nation have involved such prominent speakers as George Bush, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Alan Dershowitz.
The committee's decision was a great disservice to all of the students at KU and showed that student government will not tolerate conservative opinions even if they are presented in a neutral forum.
Lance Hamby is a wichita junior matoring in political science and journalism.
Technology wreaks havoc on holiday
There are certain things that will never cease to amaze me. Like the fact that the stores put up Christmas decorations days before Thanksgiving. Or the way the end of the semester, for which we all pray and hope, can sneak up on us like it does. Or the fact that Thanksgiving break qualifies as a Major Absence.
COLUMNIST
A Major Absence is an absence from classes after which people must greet each other with a hearty, almost surprised greeting like "Hey! How're you?" and then ask, "How was your Thanksgiving (or other Major Absence title)?" Having been asked this a million or two times in the last week, in the interest of efficiency and breath saving, I will make public the Ryan McGee Thanksgiving Story.
I spent Thanksgiving, also known as The Great Big Spectacular Holiday Shopping Season Kick Off With Lots of Bargain Basement Prices, with some extended family in the Middle of Illinois Somewhere. This in itself is somewhat of a remarkable fact, in that for me to have spent the holiday there, Mabel, my not-so-trusty vehicle and sidekick, must have made it that far. Which is not to say that the journey was entirely without incident. My breakdowns were few in number and occurred in the daylight, though, so they are hardly worth mentioning. They are only important because they are what caused me to have my first Negative Holiday Experience. When I arrived at the Middle of Illinois Somewhere, I went to the auto parts store and grappled with a thing they have there called the Damncomputer. Actually they call it The Almighty and Wise Super Helpful Computer. They are wrong. They only call it that because they are taught to call it that in Auto Parts Store Employee School. If they really knew its true nature, as I do, they would call it by its real name, the Damncomputer. Lest you become
a naive and ever-so-wrong auto parts store employee, let's look briefly at why this is its real name. First, it lies. I personally saw it look an employee straight in the eye and tell him that my car had a part which it does not have. And has never had. Without even cracking a smile. Second, well ... Okay, never mind. There's only one reason. But it's a dang good one.
After fixing Mabel, I went inside to join my relatives and fellow Thanksgiving celebrators for a bit of rest and relaxation. This, I soon found out, was the wrong place to go. Inside was where the action was, after all. There was the traditional bustle going on the kitchen. Only it wasn't Thanksgiving yet. It was only Wednesday. I thought this odd, but having been raised by my mother to be a good boy and help out whenever possible, I washed my hands and poked my head in (all that would fit with all those pots, pans, turkeys, people and stuffing flying around in there) to see if I could be of any help. I was forcibly ejected from the area. And told to not come back until the next day, when things would be busy. "All right, then," I thought, "to the living room for a bit of TV.
Been a long time since I've seen any. Hope I still know how to work one." I didn't have to know. When I got to the living room, my cousins were battling my uncle for the remote control.
Uncle: "Gimme the controller, boy!" Cousin 1: "Dad, there's no reason to watch commercials with one of these."
Uncle: "You change channels too much! Chill the controller!"
Cousin 1: "There's no reason to watch commercials. You always leave the commercials on. We can watch two games at once."
I had to leave. Things can get ugly when they team up on him like that, and I didn't have the heart to watch. I didn't know where else to go, though. No kitchen, no TV — what else is there? I began to wander around the house distractedly, my eyes glazed over from aimlessness. And I didn't stop until Sunday, when it was time to come back to school, where I wander around distractedly, my eyes glazed over from an undecided major.
Ryan McGee is a Worland, Wyo. sopher. more
Sex in stacks story was ill-timed, in poor taste
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Had Wednesday, Dec. 1 been like any other day, I would have been merely annoyed with the University Daily Enquirer's decision to print its bit of journalistic voeurism, "Sex in the stacks: Ever done it in the library?" on Page 1.
I personally have no interest whatsoever in reading about used condoms found lying around in public places and find the use of quotes from a social welfare professor a rather pathetic attempt to legitimize the existence of such a piece.
However, Dec. 1 was not like any other day. It was World AIDS Day.
Although the frivolities of sex do have their place, it was not on Page 1 during World AIDS Day.
Even more mysterious was why the Kansan would stash such an important article as "Study shows women more likely to contract AIDS in heterosexual acts" on Page 5 of the same day.
The 51 percent of the population who are female, whether straight or lesbian, especially those attending KU, need information like this (preference doesn't matter here since any woman can be the focus of sexual assault). Some experts are saying that in the next decade seven out of 10 heterosexuals who contract AIDS will be women.
Heidi Kraus
KU employee
The federal government didn't even recognize women with AIDS for medical benefits until recently.
I'm not above finding humor in humanity's fobles or occasionally seeking titillation in the public media, if the source isn't too tawdry.
Even the Page 3 article on game-day parking problems at the dorms more directly affects the lives of student than does "Sex in the stacks."
But do these subjects really belong on Page I versus the human interest section on any day? Especially World AIDS Day?
Resident's complaint shows his immaturity
I have some advice for the resident in Templin Hall who became upset after being asked to remove some pictures of naked women from the outside of his dorm room door: GROW UPI ignorant attitudes such as his have stood in the way of progression throughout time. No one is prohibiting him from hanging pictures of naked women over his bed (where he may find it the most useful). I hope that someday he will learn that people are diverse and he alone cannot define what is offensive to the world.
Jennifer Warren
Jennifer Warren Ottawa senior