Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2010
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I wish my friend would just get over liking her best friend so that I can ask him out!
I hate conformity, but I just got my North Face and it's so warm!
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I signed up for eharmony, and it said I have zero matches in the whole world.
I think [the above] is just trying to get in The Kansan tomorrow
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Yes, Golden Globes, just keep talking to Morgan Freeman. I don't want to hear anyone else talk.
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I just started my very first reading assignment of the semester, and then Facebook happened.
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I wish there was a button to retract a friend request.
I judge my level of success by how many times I'm in the
My heart said no but my vagina said yes. Guess who?
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Driving 80 mph in the fog is such a head rush!
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Dear Lawrence, you did me well tonight. Thank you.
Ok, yes, kissing is really great. I like it as much as the next girl. But listening to my roommate and her boyfriend stand in the kitchen and give one another kisses makes me want to throw up.
I have so much back hair part it in the middle.
I just stole a roll of toilet paper from Wescoe. I'm so freaking proud of myself. Now I can graduate happy.
We've been dating for seven months now and we just had our first Facebook chat. Boyfriend, you rule.
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Dominos needs to just give it up - they cannot make pizza.
I'm going to forgo my last year of college and enter the NBA draft. I haven't played in a while but I was pretty impressive back in middle
I forgot working out is hard.
I am madly in love with you.
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GSP should become coed
EDITORIAL BOARD
NICHOLAS SAMBALUX
GSP Hall is potentially taking a step into the future by making the longtime female-only residence coed. This overdue change would allow men to be accepted as residents after pending renovations to the dorm.
According to Diana Robertson, director of the department of student housing, plans are in the beginning stages, but she said she hoped to develop a focus group including students, housing officials and an architect to discuss the building's possible changes.
The department of student housing had to rethink the usage of GSP as a female-only residency because it received fewer requests for a gender segregated living situation and because a dining hall serving both men and women is more practical to operate than one serving only women.
Some girls argue that a same-sex dorm lets them live without any inhibitions. It's is a place where make-up is applied only when necessary and academic studies are made easier without the distraction of men. But this is truly an outdated tradition.
Through the years GSP-Corbin has acted as a safeguard for those individuals who were uncomfortable living with the opposite sex; but times are changing.
We don't live in an overly puritarial society where men and women living together is considered taboo. In the real world, men and women are not separated into same-sex spheres. It is important that both sexes learn to relate and interact socially because in the workforce it's an equal playing field.
Corbin Hall will remain a female-only residence, which still provides female students with the opportunity to live with only females.
Some current residents remain relatively neutral on the possible changes. Others just don't see the point.
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"I am totally open to living in a coed dorm but I feel that one of the reasons for having an all-girls dorm would be for safety reasons, Stephanie Marquess, a Lenexa freshman, said. "What's the point of having a dorm that is all-girls with a coed dorm right next to
it?"
Other students see it from another perspective.
McKenzie Spear, a Wichita freshman and Corbin Hall resident, enjoys living in one of the female-only dorms. She said she liked meeting many girls that are in sorority houses either living in GSP or Corbin. But Spear said she was open to the idea of GSP becoming coed.
"If it is going to change,it is going to change," she said.
The idea of a same-sex dorm is outdated and the potential for GSP to be coed in the future will give students more opportunities for a more realistic experience of how men and women interact in society.
-Stefanie Penn for The Kansan Editorial Board
EDITORIAL CARTOON
NICHOLAS SAMBALUK
Grim predictions reflect flaws in system
POLITICS
Is the sky falling yet? I've been hearing conflicting reports that it is, at least over Washington D.C., for several months.
Generally, the basis for this is either that President Barack Obama has not done enough in his first year in the White House, or that the Senate passed its version of health coverage reform.
In surmation, either not enough stuff has happened on Capital Hill, or too much stuff has happened. Truly, this is a conundrum worthy of the "Damned if you do/ Dammed if you don't" Far Side mug I used to drink coffee out of.
What I'd really like to focus on is the latter of those two things. Now that both chambers of Congress have passed some kind of legislation altering U.S. health care coverage, there are still a few technical steps left in the process.
A new version must reconcile differences between the bills passed by each chamber. After that, the two chambers must both pass the new version of the bill. Then, the president must sign it. And, in spite of this civics lesson that I doubt you wanted, opponents of health care reform still say the process was rushed.
Liberal Loudmouth
There is also concern that
From a PR standpoint, I agree this isn't the best method. But to properly sum up why it is necessary, I feel more comfortable deferring to Stephen Colbert: "Republicans will not be able to contribute their ideas, like 'no', or 'no', or in an attempt to appeal to the Spanish-speaking base, 'nada'."
Democratic leadership wants to bypass the official conference committee system and create a final draft of the bill in private meetings, excluding Republican members of Congress.
BY BEN COHEN bcohen@kansan.com
Without a conference committee, how will "no" stay in the process (aside from official statements and the daily rantings of right-wing talk-show hosts)?
As my over-simplified road map of the legislative process demonstrates, whatever new version comes out of the conference
Democrats haven't been entirely united on the subject either. Plenty of less-liberal Democrats sided with Republicans in opposition to the public option. Democratic Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) was the one who proposed the successful amendment banning abortion coverage, a distinctly conservative issue.
committee will return to Congress, only to be thoroughly debated or just screamed about.
The moral of this story is that the process is far from over. The sky isn't falling on the health care system, though changes are in the works. No public option is rather disappointing, though I do think we'll have that sometime in the relatively near future.
The attempt to ban abortion coverage was simply a poor try at cross-party compromise that will probably die in whatever version of a conference committee we actually get.
Instead of stocking up on umbrellas, it think we are better served just seeing how it actually goes, at least through one more step in the process.
Cohen is a Topeka senior in political science.
HUMOR
Battling addiction to bad television
Friends, family and even strangers have mocked me for my love of the Canadian teen soap opera, "Degrassi: The Next Generation." They say things like, "Where's your mascara, Petunia?" or "You want to make a TV show someday" or just "Realize?"
I admit the show is essentially a melodramatic stink bomb with twice the issues as 90210 (which range from AIDS to cutting) and triple the cheeseball. However, my reasons for watching such a critically challenged television program are simple: addiction.
When I was in sixth grade there was an early episode on in which the character Emma Nelson (the anorexic, almost-school-shooting victim, pot-"addicted", gonorrhea-infected, vegetarian activist dating a bad boy) has her first period while talking to her crush. The terrible sticky red stain was enough to entice my brother to call me "gay." So, I did what any little brother would: I kept watching to spite him. So began my spiraling fall into "Degrassi" obsession.
When crack addicts light their first bowl up, surely they don't assume they're on the road to addiction. They probably realize it when they're in an alley doing questionable things for their addiction.
In the same way, I realized my personal addiction when Liberty, who was simultaneously knocked up and up-tight, was smacking her boyfriend JT for selling drugs to pay for an apartment.
In a climactic scene where IT realizes in the corniest, most Canadian way that he'd lost everything to drugs, I finally understood that "Degrassi" was just one big, fat moral lesson.
BY CHANCE CARMICHAEL ccarmichael@kansan.com
I have never fairly analyzed the performances of Sarah Barble-Ratahier or Shane Kippel (who play Liberty Van Zandt and Spinner Mason respectively; and yes, I know those names by heart), I ignore the plot-holes and disappearing characters (where in the world is Kendra Mason?), and I even continue to watch the show with only three original characters remaining.
Despite repeated attempts to delete "Degrassi" from my favorite television shows on Facebook, I always find myself sighing and readding it. As someone so willing to mock Matthew McConaughey's many attempts at "acting," I wonder, why do I overlook the faults of "Degrassi?"
As a film student, I appreciate the value of talent and critical merit. However, in the case of "Degrassi", my addiction is simply because of its laughably ridiculous entertainment value.
I figure if you're aware of and acknowledge the horridness, it's ok to watch shows like "Degrassi," "The Hills." or "Jersey Shore."
Then again, being aware of how bad crack is does not make me a good crack addict.
Carmichael is a Mulvane sophomore in film and media studies and journalism.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A year later, I was excited to start my life at the University of Kansas where I felt valued and welcomed because of, and aside from, my differences.
Thursday afternoon that feeling diminished when I found my girlfriend and myself the targets of verbal discrimination while homebound on a KU on Wheels bus. Throughout the 30-minute bus ride we refrained from responding, even acknowledging the name-calling and inappropriate actions of the group of men
After high school I decided to follow in the footsteps of my parents and attend Pittsburg State University in southern Kansas. Soon after arriving in the small college town, I realized that it was not the ideal place for me, as a person of the LGBT community, to feel accepted and supported
Enraged and ready to take action, I began to research the policies that protect me from this mistreatment. I found that the University offers more than a great education and a rich cultural experience; it offers a safe environment where I do not have to tolerate discrimination.
In hopes of raising awareness and encouraging other students
who encounter our situation to report discrimination, I plan to take full advantage of the various resources provided by the University and continue to enjoy my time here free from hate-fueled mistreatment.
As Lauren Bornstein wrote in her column in Thursday's issue, "There's no better time than the present." It is our job as the student body to make campus safe and receptive to people of all kinds. Use the provided resources, fight against oppression and hatred and stand up for what you believe in, here and now. And finally, be thankful for your representatives and your school for allowing your time at the University to be as colorful as the rainbow!
Dylan Kinglsley is a junior from Kansas City.
"We have a right as humans to live our lives free from fear, oppression, discrimination and harassment. The preamble of the Constitution of Queers and Allies states," we have a right to a University, town, state, country and world that recognizes and values us."
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Stephen Montemayer, Brianne Phanenstedt, David Bray, Michelle Dickey, Vicky Lu McEmily MCye and Kate Larsen.