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Wednesday, February 6, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KU's coffers fill up
Students revel in success of Campaign Kansas thanks to generous donations from KU alumni
Seventeen months early, Campaign Kansas already has exceeded its $177 million goal.
Contrary to popular belief, the money was not found in the form of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Nor did KU officials win the state lottery. The money was obtained through the hard work and dedication of the KU officials and volunteers who have spent their time and energy working to enrich our University.
The five-year fund-raising effort began in 1987 after the chancellor and other administrators determined the University's monetary needs and formed a massive volunteer organization.
In addition to the five Kansas University Endowment Association members who make up the Campaign Kansas Executive Board, there are 50 Steering Committee members and 500 National Council members. These numbers do not include the many regional volunteers across the country who have contacted KU graduates and explained KU's needs.
Chancellor Gene A. Budig also should receive special recognition for his work. Much of his time is spent traveling across the country to talk to alumni personally. Jordan Haines, national chairperson of the campaign, has given a tremendous amount to Campaign Kansas, in terms of both time and money.
Students should not worry that the $177
million will disappear into a jungle of adminis trative red tape. Students and faculty already are benefiting from the money provided by Campaign Kansas. This spring, many KU students are receiving financial aid from the $39 million raised in scholarships and fellowships.
The recently completed fitness center at the University of Kansas Medical Center was the product of a generous $2 million gift, and a $700,000 donation made possible the expansion of the engineering library in Learned Hall. Much of the money will be used to benefit other areas of the University in ways yet unseen.
Engineering students are using new computers and laboratory equipment purchased with part of the $3 million KU received for new equipment.
It is difficult to fully realize the extent and size of the gifts that alumni have given to us, but their contributions have made a significant impact at KU. Their donations will improve the University for our generation and future generations. Because of their generosity, KU's reputation as one of the country's finest public universities will continue to be upheld.
Although most students do not stop to think of where a new computer or scholarship came from and why, the gifts that caring KU alumni have given are greatly appreciated.
Jennifer Schultz for the editorial board
West Bank curfew dehumanizing
Israel imposes cruel conditions on Palestinians
More than 1.7 million Palestinians are prisoners in their own homes. They are justifiably angry at the decision by the Israeli army to impose a curfew in the Occupied West Bank because the curfew is draining the life out of their already hard-pressed community.
The curfew, now in its third week, is the longest since the 1967 Six Day War. Already it has taken a heavy toll on the refugees, both emotionally and economically. People are cooped up in their homes on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and are only allowed out for a couple of hours, two or three times a week. Palestinians find stores running out of necessities by the time they get to shop.
More than 100,000 Palestinians have been unable to keep their day jobs in Israel and, as a result, have lost their only source of income.
Already the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinian refugees, has started to coordinate an emergency distribution of flour, oil and rice in particularly hard-hit areas. Yet Israel seems to be blind and deaf to these injustices.
There can be no justification for the physical and mental cruelty imposed on the Palestinian refugees who are, in essence, prisoners of war. Trapped in their own homes, facing poverty and starvation, it is not surprising that these
people harbor bitterness and resentment toward Israel.
The admiration Israel gained from its decision to restrain itself from retaliation against constant provocation from Iraq has been eroded by its decision to clamp down on the Palestinians so harshly. Israel's record regarding the treatment of those on the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been disturbing. Now that this war has brought the Palestinian question to the forefront of world debate, Israel cannot afford to fuel the resentment that its position on Palestine already has engendered.
There seems to be no end to this curfew. The Israeli army sees it as a logistical necessity to prevent pro-Iraqi sympathies from gaining momentum. For the army the fundamental human right to live and move freely is something that does not seem to fit into their principles.
For the Palestinians, this is yet another reason to resent Israel. Their frustration at such inhumane treatment could be a bad omen for Israel in the long run. The Palestinians are clinging to the possibility that one day soon their time will come. For Israel's sake, humanity might be worth considering now. Deep wounds heal slowly.
Clare McGinn for the editorial board
Basketball game Bench Hogs can try even the most patient
Believe me, when it comes to tolerance, I am a martyr. In most situations I have discovered that I love blind eyes and have a special eye. Let me be more specific.
Clare McGinn
Staff columnist
I am the sort of person who can conduct a conversation with a person wearing ill-fitting dentures and still smile through the saliva of sapphire that engulfs me. I don't get too irritated when I go into a dress shop and an obsequious shop assistant with a burning desire to earn commission to sell me something that Queen Elizabeth II would turn her nose up at.
"it's really flattering to your shape. I think it makes a really interesting fashion statement," she said. "I think you look like actors" been a fashion statement."
So, as you can see, my capacity for patience is such that, by comparison, Mother Teresa of Calcutta looks like a man out with less interesting footwear.
creature with hardly any endearing qualities – unless a dog-like devotion to imaginary friends counts. Designing a game of seats for the game, the whole rows of seats for the game, the
However, since arriving in Kansas, my personality has undergone a dramatic change, and the dark side of my nature emerges whenever I go to the basketball games in Allen Field House. I love the atmosphere, the game. I even like the songs. But I have learned from bitter experience that those of us with student tickets need to be here early if we are to see games all at all. The possibility of getting a decent seat in the limited student sections is virtually nil. But, undaunted and determined to see the Jayhawks play, I have taken to turning up to the games at least two hours early.
Now that the season has started to move up a gear, and our team is acquiring themselves masterfully in the Big Eight competition, a new and burrible species of baseball fan I am growing to love. He's the Headed Lesser: Ryumed Ben Hog
'A new and horrible species of basketball fan has started to appear — The Fat-Headed Lesser-Brained Bench Hog.'
Bench Hogs will arrive at the stadium hours before play begins ready for their bench-guarding vig. Inapparently, they are laden with a sleeping bag, a few coats, some backpacks, a fortnight's worth of Kansan back pressures, the intellectual precessions, the cartoon section of their roommate's newspaper.
Then they set about spreading their load over every available space they can see. Once this task is accomplished, they set about filling in the eight or nine hours to go before the game. For many of us, this would involve doing some homework, reading a book or even writing a letter. However, the Bench Hog is known to have a lower metabolic rate than the average human and the brain capacity of a flea.
The Bench Hogs, scattered around the field house, will sit quite happily, humming KU basketball songs, and spend those hours tearing up their supply of newspapers into confeit. They believe that when the moment
The Bench Hog is a loathsome
comes to welcome the Jayhawk team onto the floor, everyone is going to be really impressed by all the teeny-ween pieces of paper that they throw in the air in tribute to Abonzo. The team knows the fact. It is nobody gives a loss!
So I arrive with my friends, a respectable two hours early, and find myself confronted by row upon row of people, bering these rows, are the Pence Hens
"These rows are taken." Four little words guaranteed to send me into fits of apoplicate rage. Saved by whom? A load of coats and backpacks? I've never seen them on my own effort to get here early. Why should I have to make way for a row of coats?
Boiling up inside me is a volcano of anger. I start to hallucinate and imagine Bench Hog roasts on a spit or be decapitated with a rusty chain saw. Basically, the Bench Hog cannot respond to argument because language is a skill they have serious problems with.
All they know is that their 20 friends, who are at The Crossing having a pre-match beer, or two or three, want the Bench Hog to save them seats that they will occupy 10 minutes before the game. As a reward, the Hog might be lucky and get a slice of pizza for his vigilance.
Maybe I should negotiate with the Bench Hogs in the language that they understand. Perhaps next time I should offer them two slices of pizza and a comic book of their choice, and then the Hogs would make room for me. But, right at this moment, the dark side of my nature is telling me, "Slaughter the Hogs and fry their butts for bacon." I hate Bench Hogs.
Clare McGinn is an exchange student from Belfast, Ireland, majoring in English literature.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Saddam lacks rationale
It's easy to blame the government for the way it has handled the Iraqi problem. War is a terrible thing. Whenever a person inflicts pain, the victim often gets what it is a tragedy. There are times, however, when talking is not enough.
Life would be nice if we could solve all of our problems simply by talking about them. Rational people can do
things like that. Unfortunately, life is not easy and not all people are rational. When a person understands only violence, and when threats, torture and executions are a person's chief bargaining tools, other responses become necessary. They become necessary not because they are the best response, but because the person with whom we are dealing understands nothing else. Saddam uses such tactics that views the use of violence as evil. The more the doves in this country ramble on about peace at all costs, the more he can control our perception of the war. So all we see are the civilian casualties, and he looks more like a martyr instead of the murderer
he is.
The misunderstanding and miscalculations on both sides that have led to a war are unfortunate. Regardless of how you view the war, both Congress and the United Nations view it as necessary and legal. Our nation was founded on the premise of an individual's and a nation's right to self-determination. As a nation, we have an obligation to help others as they struggle to gain or regain those basic human rights that we take for granted. We have fallen short of this ideal a time or two, but we can attempt to limit these failures. Burying our comfortable, self-serving heads in the sand may make us feel better, but it promotes more failures.
not success.
I believe that this war is justified and that history will remember it favorably. On the other hand, if any of you out there know of a better way to solve this mess, share it with them or perform a perfect performance when you should share this idea is your elected representative in Congress.
Martin E. Pittler Kansas Union Concessions
Rights start at birth
Joe Thompson's letter in the January 25 issue of the Kansan displays great presumption about the intentions of our founding fathers, a lack
of medical knowledge and a preoccupation with the reproductive decisions of others.
Kansas maintains that life begins at birth. For an example of the change Thompson suggests, we can look at Missouri, a state which defines life as beginning at conception, but arbitrarily applies this definition only to abortion-related issues and not the drinking age, the driving laws, the inheritance laws, etc.
Thompson asserts that were the founding fathers alive today, they might be so impressed by medical technology that they would want to define life as beginning before birth. The authors of our Constitution had
great respect for technology, however, their overriding purpose was to secure individual liberties for U.S. citizens, with as little government intrusion into these citizens' lives as possible.
If Thompson is concerned about the rights of "children," perhaps he should consider contributing his efforts to helping the already living, poverty-streaking, emotionally mentally disabled children who live in the United States, which scarcely care for these children's lives, much less their rights.
Elisabeth Powers Toneka graduate student
KANSAN STAFF
CHRIS SIRON
RICH CORNELL Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
AUDRA LANGFORD Business manager
MINDI LUND Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Editors Business总监
News... Melanie Matthes Campus sales mgr... Sophie Wehbe
Editorial... Tiffany Marnus Regional sales mgr... Carmen Dresch
Planning... Holly Murnan National sales mgr. Jennifer Claxton
Campus... Jennerl Reynolds Co-op sales mgr.. Christine Musser
      Pal Solner Production mgrs. Rich Harbinger
Sports... Ann Sommerlater Katie Kauder
Photography... Keith Thorpe Marketing director. Gail Ebinbird
Graphics... Melissa Unterberg Creative director. Christy Hahs
Features... Jill Hartington Classified manager. Kim Crowder
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Home Remedies
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by Tom Michaud
YOU BET! I'M HERE TO DESCRIBE THE FACET BY WHICH THE OPPOSING TEAM- AND LORD, DO THEY LOOK STUPID...
THEY LOOK LIKE AX MURDERERS, WHICH MAY BE APRECURSOR TO SOME SERIOUS HACKING...
LET'S HOPE... THE REPS HAVEN't BEEN PAID OFF