Opinion The University Daily Kansan
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010
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FREE FOR ALL
Mega Edition
This edition of Free For All is so epic, you might want to consider some music. Recommended reading music includes the 1812 Overture, Teach Me How to Dougie and the Inception soundtrack.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Stop Day: my favorite KU tradition since 2008.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Someone just asked if there would be a word bank on our final. This is college, so no.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Does anyone else automatically think of the Weasleys when they see tall red heads on campus? I do!
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
To the guy that was in a Santa hat on Wescoe with the boombox playing Christmas music, you made my day. Thanks!
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Rudolph should know his nose is as red as his eyes. Hopefully he's okay to drive his sleigh this year, because we won't get anything if he dies.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
If you wanted to woo your teacher you should've started earlier in the semester. They'll know something's up now.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
If I would have known I would receive chocolate for perfect attendance, I wouldn't have missed that one class period.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
I want to pop the moon bounce!
I love the number game!
People send a number to your inbox, and then they respond to that number (instead of your name) and tell you what they think of you!
You talk in a monotone all semester long and on that last day of class you start cracking jokes? Where was this four months ago??!
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Budig may be a 1000-person lecture ... but its still not safe to pick your nose and examine your boogers unnoticed.
PROcrastination, if it wasn't good for you they would have called it CONcrastination right?
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
People who wear velvet clothing scare me.Really bad.
I'm to the point where I don't know if I should worry more about finals, or how many meal plans i have left.
Quit sippin' on that hater-aid!
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
I'm so tired that I just slid my debit card about five times to get into my hall.
So I just had to tell my foreign roommate the bird and bees
I don't visit McCollum unless I get tested afterwards. That place is across.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
To the girl wearing reindeer antlers in my health class; I'm judging you
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
SCHNAPP'S DAY is coming!!!
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the perfect 3:30 am snack.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
But I heard Big Jay say, as he flew out of sight, "Rock Chalk to all, and to all a good night!"
Does it look like my name is Judge Joe Brown? NO it does
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
RIP John Lennon.
Santa: climbin'in yo chimneys, snatchin'yo cookies up.
The best way to defining the relationship, "I don't want none!"
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Come to find out the warm, yellow soap in Anschutz was not a new invention.
I watched South Park in my religions class today. Get on our
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
I've yet to determine if all these people are staring at me because I'm unbelievably attractive or fascinatingly ugly. For the sake of my self esteem, I pretend it's the former.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
Hi I'm Christopher Columbus.
What do you say you let me
discover those south undies?
It's embarrassing how little money is in my bank account.
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
EDITORIAL
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
It's embarrassing how little semen is in my sperm bank.
Dear parents, why couldn't you have conceived me a week earlier or a week later? My birthday is during finals week EVERY year ... sincerely, disgruntled daughter.
Academic improvements stand out against semester's disappointments
--the kind of play we saw during these games can become the norm next season
There's too much blood in my caffeine system!!
We're finally here. The last day of classes has come; the end of the semester is at hand
It's been a long semester at the University. Much has happened. Some of it positive, some of it negative.
The football team, under Turner Gill's coaching, had a disastrous season, winning few games. The weekly pounding became tiring and was capped in a final defeat by Missouri during Thanksgiving break.
But there were some bright spots. KU's victory against Georgia Tech gave hope early in the season and the incredible come-from-behind victory against Colorado was spectacular to watch. I hope
In September, Lew Perkins announced his sudden retirement
Later in the
have yet to play out in court, it is disturbing that even during the height of the Jayhawk's athletic successes, corruption may have been present in the athletics
semester, five former and current Kansas Athletics employees were charged with federal crimes related to the ticket scandal that resulted in the diversion of thousands of tickets and the loss of million of dollars. While these charges
Semester in Review
system.
There have been positive developments at the University, however. It may be little things, such as a surprise Friday.
evening concert by Jason Mraz at the Union last week. Or it could be academic improvements, like the addition of a doctoral program for the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
CARTOON
toward goals that may be realized in the future, such as raising admission standards.
Substantive steps were also taken
Jonathan Shorman for The Kansan Editorial Board.
An Admissions Task Force created by the Kansas Board of Regents has proposed changes to the Regents' high school curriculum that would up the ante for students wishing to apply to admission to state universities in Kansas. Any action on these proposals should be watched closely.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Wikileaks rant full of authoritarianism
MARIAM SAIFAN
Rajiv Tarigopula's article
Rajiv Tariqopula's article "Wikileaks' revelations dangerous to United States' interests, foreign policy" constitutes nothing more than an authoritarian diatribe against a well informed populace. Tariqopula says that increased transparency "would be beneficial for the health of our democracy,[but] this objective must be accomplished through traditional investigative journalism, not through an extreme, illegal, unsanctioned release of classified documents." This statement, though it may seem sensible, conveniently ignores the state of our press. The fact is that the press has become just another subsidiary of major American corporations. News media owned by corporations have no interest in revealing information that may upend the status quo because of the vested interests of such corporations in military/government contracts. What Assange represents is the purest form of press. If we fail to support people willing to risk everything to further freedom of information, then we are, in effect, condemning ourselves to
ignorance.
Tarigopula then appeals to the reader to trust in our elected officials "to act in accordance with the oath they swear." On what planet is he living that the public should take their representatives' integrity for granted? Has he not heard of Watergate? The Monica Lewinski Affair? Valerie Plame's outing? The Pentagon Papers? After the Citizens United decision we have less reason than ever to trust them. Tarigopula's argument is not only an appeal to embrace ignorance, but naivety as well.
The fact is that money, the language of corporations, speaks louder than the language of the people. The U.S. government is supposed to be of, for, and by "The People." However, without all the facts at our disposal, We The People, and by proxy our elected representatives, become powerless to the whims of would-be corporate puppet-masters both foreign and domestic.
Joe Nelson is a freshman in sociology from Smolan.
Good luck on finals and have a great break!
In response to Seth Robinson's article on tenure:
Regulation of tenure key to teacher reform
Your concern is valid; incompetent teachers regularly fail students and the nation, but your criticism is focused on the wrong target. What you are describing is more accurately attributed to overactive teachers unions, not tenure as a whole. Poor unions, who act to protect teachers without regard for education, make for tragic situations like the ones we see in Philadelphia, New York and several other major U.S. cities.
Modern tenure is not invincible such as you portray; poor teachers can still be fired, it is simply more difficult. What tenure does do is protect the freedom of teachers to do their jobs without government censure, as was common in history and is present around the world today. Without tenure, teachers would be completely at the mercy of administrators and government legislators, forcing educators to simply deliver canned speeches without the freedom to teach what they believe to be truth is a grim figure lurking in the future of this country as much as this specter of educational incompetence. I find it astounding and frightening that we are so enthusiastic about casting aside everyone who doesn't quite match up to embryonic standards without thinking about the enormous loss that we would incur if educators could not teach or research freely and overcome the ignorance that is all to common even to this day. If nothing else, if tenure dies in public schools, it is likely that it will also perish in the university system, endangering the freedom of thought which is essential.
Increasing effort toward evaluation, vetting before granting tenure and public awareness has already done much to open this system, but regulating what already exists is the key, not elimination.
—Russell E. Schloemer is a first year Sociology Master's Student from Indiana, Penn.
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