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Tuesday, February 15, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Comment
Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Kansas or the School of Journalism
Poll subjects detailed
Perhaps it's a commentary on our times that this semester's burning campus issue centers on the whistle that signals—or had signaled—the end of classes.
The whistle, of course, was silenced at the start of the semester as an experiment to determine whether the University of Kansas could function without the alarm clock that had controlled the movement of classes for 64 years. Administrators said the whistle would be shut off for a few weeks, when students and faculty could voice their opinions about the new-found peace and quiet.
The time has come to voice opinions—formally. The Student Senate will canvass student views on the whistle issue in an opinion poll to be conducted during the regular Student Senate elections Wednesday and Thursday.
THE QUESTION—which will read simply, "Do you want the whistle that signals the ending of classes to be retained?"—is one of seven that will be on the ballot. Two of the questions are informational ones designed to tailor Senate approval to how many received financial aid at KU. The others deal with student issues, circa 1977.
It now seems inevitable that those answering the questionnaire will favor reinstating the whistle. Students and instructors alike miss the prompting of the old fog horn. This is an important factor to determine the time has proven distasteful to teachers and irksome to students.
ITS TOO BAD. Things were much more pleasant without the hourly honking from a shrill whistle, and the campus seems less like a factory without the thing.
But people want it back. So be it. University officials have indicated that they will wait to hear the results of the Senate poll before deciding whether to strike up the whistle again. A vote in favor of reinstating the whistle will help restore a bit of the status que that so many on campus obviously miss.
Some thoughts on the other three issues:
- The Student Senate will ask students whether they would like to see Jayhawk Blvd. closed to all traffic except emergency and service vehicles from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on school days. Such a move would establish a pedestrian mall of sorts in the central portion of campus during the day.
A JAYHAWK Blvd. without cars would be nice, but it would also be a waste of desperately needed parking spaces and a
thorn in the side of anyone who has business in the central campus.
The boulevard has been restricted to unauthorized traffic for years, and that is about as far as one can realistically go in reducing the flow of traffic.
Presumably, the only vehicles that get on Jayhawk Blvd. now are the ones with permits indicating that they have business on campus. If there are vehicles getting on the road that don't have to be there, let them drive or choose a different selective in issuing campus drives passes. But to think that Jayhawk Blvd. could be shut off to all traffic is a pipe dream.
*Students will be asked whether they favor the establishment of a refreshment area somewhere inside a Boston Library. Students might rightightharpoon a very practical on on closer examination.
Some will argue that refreshments could be restricted to the area in which they are sold. However, because the library is so hard-pressed to pay the employees it needs now, it's hard to imagine that there could be supervision of a refreshment area. And library materials are too costly to be trusted to the honor system.
THERE HAS NEVER been a concession service inside Watson, and for good reason. Library materials are too easily ruined by food and drink.
- The Senate Academic Affairs Committee has proposed a one-credit-hour course on the educational resources available to students. This course would teach students how to use Wattson Library pools of information located around campus.
THIS IS A marvelous idea, one students should highly favor. The thought of starting a research project has long struck fear in the hearts of new KU students, largely because finding and sifting through resource materials seemed like such an awesome task.
Any time spent帮学生learn the research ropes would be well spent. And learning one's way around Watson Library is surely one of the most educational experiences on campus. There's no reason not to award academic credit for it.
The Senate will also ask students whether they think such a class should be mandatory. That would be taking a good idea one step too far. There's no reason to shove the idea down the board or put a technical engineering student who would find it much less valuable than a history student.
WASHINGTON—In a celebrated case in Colorado a few weeks ago, Claudine Longet got the ball lower. It is a reasonable surmise that on the same day in Colorado, in some other court, a defendant got 30 days for stealing firearms during serious crimes. Same punishment.
WHAT WE ARE talking about is the disturbing disparity in the punishments imposed by our criminal courts. Few aspects of our criminal justice system are under attack among judges or provoked stronger criticism from the public. Now a three-year study has been completed that may do much to correct the situation. For the first time, some rational guidelines have been developed and analyzed in organizing task of fixing sentences on guilty defendants.
Try another example. In U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, a defendant accused of bank robbery is being held years in prison. In a Federal District Court somewhere else, a different defendant also is convicted of bank robbery. His case, by the average, is 10 years. Some prisons. Different punishments.
Sentencing guidelines supported
The study emerged last month from the Criminal Justice Research Center in Albany, N.Y., under a grant from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. The program developed from an analysis of actual experience in the municipal courts of Denver and the state courts of Vermont. Criminal courts in Newark and Des Moines also contributed their observations. Based on the findings, guidelines are in prospect for Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Seattle.
IF THE guidelines catch on—and there is every reason to believe they will—the system has become more insecure in criminal justice since the development of probation and parole systems many years ago. The guidelines will not produce absolute uniformity. Instead, they are achieved in a desirable. Too many human variations enter in. But the guidelines will provide a useful tool for the authorities to arrest one individualized and equal.
To develop the guidelines, the Research Center staff began by listing the relevant factors that judges considered in imposing sentences. To their amusement, they included more than 205 considerations. What was the offense at Law? What was the "real offense"? These
AFTER A study of more than 400 cases in Denver and in Vermont, patterns began to emerge. Some factors constantly recurred. Others had no significant influence. In time, the number of body伤者 increased 205 items to a dozen factors of major importance. By quan-
James J. Kilpatrick
(714) 1977 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
are often different. Was a weapon used? Was the victim harmed? What of the defendant's age, education, emigration, record, family background? Was the defendant on narcotics?
The sustem does not diminish a judge's discretion. If a judge
be developed that provides all the information a judge needs in the vast majority of his sentencing decisions.
concludes that a defendant should get a sentence of 10 years instead of the five suggested by the guidelines, the judge is free to impose it—but he would be required to write a memorandum, the judge said, and a major variation from the norm. The very act of drafting the memorandum, it is thought, would compel a judge to look closely at his own motions. Is he being lenient out of unwarranted sympathy? Is he being because of mere prejudice?
UNDER THIS PLAN, judges will be equipped with the knowledge of what other people are doing. The appropriate judge will have empirical data
on what has gone before.
Defendants and their lawyers will know generally what to expect, given the nature of the crime and the record of the accused. If nothing else, the guidelines should reduce the angry criticism that arises in court, and simply situated defendants, found guilty of apparently identical crimes, get widely disparate punishments.
Equal justice under law, as every court observer knows, is an unattainable ideal. We will never get there. But it remains to prove that these guidelines constitute a big step in the right direction.
Office job a coffee clash
Iris doesn't make coffee anymore.
She never did. She doesn't even drink the stuff.
Yet her refusal to make coffee for her bosses recently cost her her job.
Iris Rivera, a 35-year-old former employee of the State Appellate Defender's office in Chicago, was one of several secretaries in the office who was ordered to fix coffee for her
Mayor-council government defended
To the editor:
I thought that Brent Anderson's article was extremely good on why we should keep our present form of government. I also expected that many would respond as Ms. Plasman did, in defense of the change to Mayor-Council form of government.
This is a particularly unique election year nationwide. People are voting for change. What we must determine is when does a change in government favor the people? The answer is when their needs are addressed by the government. I have always been a firm believer that changing forms of things disguises their contents. In the case of city government, change in the form at the top doesn't necessarily mean a change in the favor of people's interests. For example what will the fight for wards do to this city? I fear that those in the area of most need in our town, north and east Lawrence, may lose out in redistricting designations because of business interests in that section. Citizen like six of these currently filed for commission stand a chance to be effective in a technical professional job like councilperson? Its no secret that people on the KU campus are interested in the requirements for councilperson more readily address their qualification than those of the average citizen. The mayor is the leader of this group of eight and there is no doubt in my mind that for the first decade we would see councilpeople from other cities and states in these jobs.
Our present form of government, as shaky as it has appeared, still lets the people speak out any time about governmental issues, wouldn't trade that for backdoor deals in smoke-fired
dangerous when people's interests are at stake. It appears also as though our chances as citizens to directly address the commission will decrease. We must ask ourselves, how would the important issues like the Haskell Loop, the Garage, municipal employment and municipal housing be handled without all the public presentations on behalf of citizen concerns citywide? District representation dilutes city-wide effectiveness.
nns is a letter of commendation in regard to your article on Feb. 9. Tony Ice has been a dedicated worker for the University for more than four years. His dedication to Lawrence and baseball for Lawrence high school is another reason he joined the university more than a decade. The University and the parents of Lawrence are indebted to him for his diligent and unheardful efforts.
He is a man of excellent character and a man deserving respect. He really appreciates youth and enjoys working with and around young people. I'm glad that someone besides those
Now the so-called experts decide we need a new water plant. Do the people get to vote
water bill or because the trash wasn't picked up on time. Then he says the motives of those who organized the petition drive are less clear than those of "Joe and Sally College."
Maybe I should clear things up for him. The people who organized the petition drive hope to get a government more responsive to the people's needs. For instance, when the City Commission decided to destroy a neighborhood just to put in another business district or benefit the general public, it was these people who worked hard to stop it.
Tony Ice lauded To the editor:
In short, geographical representation hands away our rights as citizens to the power structure on a silver platter. Southwest Lawrence will never have to listen to north and east Lawrence problems directly. We'll need councilpersons to do and to take care of. All problems would be solved in a "scratch my back," I'll scratch yours' attitude. These trade-offs become
However, there are some other aspects to be remembered about the Greek organizations. They can and do discriminate unfairly at times on many issues.
Readers Respond
rooms made by representatives who don't know what I want to say.
the mayor-Council form emphasizes differences to the point that resentment and bitterness increases toward those areas that are “better” for the people, the campaigns for equity. This, too, destroys citywide efficiency and understanding of issues. Given the present situation in Lawrence where the business sector is much more organized than it was a year ago, interests that the people, I don't see where an overriding of a vote or veto means anything. It's just a matter of time before their persistence wins out. They have the time to wait, people have the time to wait, and the time to wait. If representation democrycis is what we want, then we've got it.
Carlos Watson Kansas City, Kan., senior
Carlos Watson
connected with this went to charity.
Petitioners praised To the editor:
I'm responding to the article by Brent Anderson in the Feb. 9 Kansan. First, he assumes people will vote for a mayor-council form of government because the forgo to pay their
Some sociologists state that Greek organizations can be just an extension of the home away from home. Some post adolescents allegedly can't cope with the "free" academic social ties of the Greek system, regimentation of the Greek system. This system can also provide all the family relationships, the house "mother," the big "brother" and the little "sister." All this is largely accompanied with the use of anniversary and other of the sentimental "family" trappings.
He also complains that people from different wards will spend all their time worrying about their own wards instead of the city as a whole. Let's look at how much they are spending amounts to five commissioners who come from the same general area so they worry about one area and pretty well ignore the rest of the city. I am surprised people are interested in revenge, as Joe and Sally are.
boss. When she refused, she was canned.
And as for Joe College, maybe a more responsive city government would be more interested in trash collecting than in needless growth, causing urban sprawl. And as for the local waterworks responsible city water works would give a fair warning before giving her the surprise of empty waterpipes.
on it? No. But they were generous enough to let us decide how to pay for it. Big deal.
Let's face it, the mayor-council form of government means more democracy and less regulation no matter how you look at it.
Steve Otto Lawrence sophomore
in the athletic department has shown some appreciation for him. That is to say thank the Kansan staff and Joe Radcliffe for a job that was more than a good deed.
Generally the Greek organizations are functional on college and university campuses. They provide living arrangements for students; they provide an enforced studious environment and a social life.
Greek life grilled To the editor:
Kansas City, Kan., senior
Pt smuck Omega -Hypcron-
Biogeeta -Fraternities-Sorior-
ties-sick boom hah!?
how they liked their coffee. Ask Joe DiMaggio. or Danny Thomas. (Forget Mrs. Olson.) IF RIVENA's case was to be delayed by the basis alone, it would be decided quickly, and in her favor.
That's the rub
They also "require" their members, at times, to participate in many of the college's activities and help to generate support for them. These are good things these organizations do. I remember one act in participation organizations at Kansas State College at Pittsburgh cleaned up the entire length of U.S. Highway 69 from Pittsburg to Kansas City. All fund raising
Karl Hassard
But there is another, more fundamental element in the Rivera case. She is paid by her boss, and if she fails the function. If coffee-making is part of that function, and if Rivera knew that before she accepted the job, then she was fired —she broke the contract.
The Greek system also helps to promote the middle class image and system, sometimes to the extreme. And these students must pay their expenses, dues, party fees and whatnot. Largely it takes a secure middle class family to support a student in his or her Greek desires. Some students would say the Greek society would say the American politician's
Fraternities and sororites are good for some things and bad for others. So, the new student should wary pick and choose his academic life style, keen cool and Sis up to you.
Jeffrey L. Latz 121 W. 14th E
In the aftermath of this nation's bicentennial year, I was quite surprised to read in the Feb. 11 Kansan that this year's recipient of the William Allen White Foundation's Award for Journalistic Merit said in a letter from freedom of the press didn't apply to all publications. Mr. Kirkpatrick also was quoted as saying, "Society has a right to protect itself."
But the timing and the issuance of the order requiring secretaries to make coffee leads
Free press a must To the editor:
The founding fathers (and mothers) must be spinning in their graves. It is exactly this kind of selective censorship
they tough so hard to destroy.
They, unlike the editor of the Chicago Tribune, realized that when freedom of expression is stifed, we as a, whole, suffer. Where would we be in the realm of protection? Society would "protect" itself against the theory of evolution? How could we possibly continue to grow and develop as a nation if all anomalies were suppressed? Society would be quite stagnant without the "protected" ourselves against new ideas and creativities.
Hustler, the publication in question, is offensive to many and makes others uncomfortable. But if self-serving selective censorship starts here, where will it go next? Playboy, Time, and Reader's Digest (yes, even the venerable Reader's Digest) could be next step. If you give rights to certain groups, how long can it be before the cancer spreads?
To paraphrase an old saying, Mr. Kirkpatrick seems to believe, "If I agree with what you say, how you live, or what you will defend with my life your right to do. If not, tough."
Steve Lathan
Shawnee junior
Letters to the editor are welcomed but should be typewritten, double-spaced and bolded. All words in letters are edited and may be condensed according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. Also required are KU students must provide their academic standing and hometown; they must provide their position; others must provide their address.
Letters Policy
Fifty Chicago secretaries, under the banner of Women Employed, rallied to her defense. Rivera has filed a case with the Fair Employment Practices Commission.
THE EVENT received widespread, although brief, media attention. Rivers's boss lamaely explained that because the secretaries were usually the first to arrive at the office, they had to take over all of course, the attorneys had more important things to do.
Crucial to the story is the fact that only days before, coffee-
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AND HOW MANY would like to forget the whole brown, soggy mountain-grown mess? Two issues arise from the Rivera incident. One can be surprised by the intelligent people (one hopes) ascribe to the notion that it is the woman's job, and hers alone, to make coffee, whether at home or on the job. Although no studies probably have been made on the subject, one can make coffee just as well as women. Perhaps better—after all, the attorneys Rivera worked for presumably knew
Key was a quest Greer
Rivera's story would be laughable if there weren't so many secretaries like her. Who can guess how many secretaries on campus, in downtown Lawrence, across the state of Missouri, or written agreement that they tend to the machine, the grounds, the cream and-or sugar?
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Bill Sniffen
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to precisely the opposite conclusion—Rivera's bosses changed the ground rules. They, not she, broke the contract. Consequently, unless another employee of Rivera was present, her bosses violated any agreement upon which her employment was based.
Rivera appears to fit none of the afermentioned categories. She is simply someone who wants to do her job, yet someone who won't roll over and play dead. And that's to her
SECRETARIES HAVE been much maligned as dizzy broads, clock-watching office firls, supercilious old hags, or silly girls (Elinabeth Ray has probably expanded the stereotype.)
She deserves to be rehired; her bosses should make their own coffee.
Where does that leave the rest of the still coffee-making, sludge draining secretaries? Just ask the boss: One lump or two? And where would you like it?
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