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Thursday, October 21. 1993
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
New CLAS GPA policy is a help, but no remedy
The "new and improved" probation and dismissal policy for students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is another step toward
eral Arts and Sciences is another step toward improving academic standards at the University of Kansas. However, much remains to be done to keep unqualified students out of the University in the first place.
According to the new policy, students will face the possibility of being placed on probation or being academically dismissed if their cumulative grade point average falls below a 2.0, no matter how many hours they have. The change will give students who are doing poorly the chance to explore other educational options before they waste more time and money.
The change will enhance the learning environment for more successful students. Students who are not keeping their grades up to what is required for graduation are taking up vital classroom space and financial resources. KU is reputed as being a strong academic institution, and this reputation is harmed when students who are performing poorly are retained.
Unfortunately, this move toward stricter grade requirements is only a Band-Aid for the greater problem of open admissions for Kansas high school graduates. Students who may not have developed the skills or maturity for a large university atmosphere are sacrificed by the policy of open admissions. Those who cannot make the grades will be turned out of the University system, but only after impeding their own educational progress and the success of the University.
Earning a degree from KU should be a reflection of academic excellence. Strengthening academic standards in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has added to the esteem of a college diploma. However, this policy change may be an attempt to conceal the harm that open admissions has caused rather than a solution to the problem.
EISHA TIERNEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The need for mandatory drug testing becomes more obvious with each drug-related accident that claims innocent lives.
Mandatory drug testing could prevent tragedies
Recently, a tugboat driver hit a bridge supporting train tracks. Shortly after that, a train ran off the broken track into the river, killing 47 people.
The cause of the accident is questionable. There was heavy fog that night, and the tugboat was not on the correct fork of the river. However, the tugboat driver also had been using illegal drugs.
There is no way to know what really happened, but it is a fair to assume the driver would have been more aware of his surroundings had he been sober. He should have taken the correct fork and to remembered to use his radar. That would have alerted him to the bridge. The result was the death of train passengers, by no fault of the train operators.
Mandatory drug testing might not have prevented this accident. However, the company would have known if he had been using illegal drugs at the time he was hired.
Drug testing should be mandatory for positions in which machinery or vehicles are used. Positions in which human lives are at stake should require a drugfree staff. Obviously, this includes a wide array of jobs. It would require extra work for many companies who do not currently screen their prospective employees.
The argument for this extra cost and time is simple. There is no price that can be placed on human life.
There is no price that can be placed on human life. Hopefully businesses will realize the solution before more innocent lives become statistics.
DAVID BURGETT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
KCTRAUER, Editor
KC TRAUER, Editor
JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE
Managing editors
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
Editors
AMY CASEY
Business manager
AMY STUMBO
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
Editors
Assistant to the editor ... J.R. Clairborne
News ... Stacy Friedman
Editorial ... Terrilyn McCormick
Campus ... Ben Grove
Sports ... Krist Fogel
Photo ... Klip Chin, Renee Knoeser
Features ... Erza Wolfe
Graphics ... John Paul Fogel
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr ... Ed Schager
Regional Sales mgr ... Jennifer Perrer
National sales mgr ... Jennifer Evenson
Co-op sales mgr ... Blythe Focht
Production mgr ... Jennifer Blowey
Kate Burgess
Marketing director ... Shelly McConnell
Creative director ... Brian Fusco
Classified mgr ... Jance Davis
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 columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be pleased to answer the right to reedit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kauai newroom, 111 Stuart-Flint Hall.
Post Office line offers a chance to observe offbeat personalities
The other day, I went to the post office, where they have the third longest lines in the world (the longest lines are in Russia, where people used to line up for miles to buy bread that costs something like two year's worth of their wages, and the second longest are found at Mrs. E's, where people stand in line for hours to eat standard food and be yelled at), and ever vigilant as I am for Scientific Stuff that needs to be distilled for your enjoyment and understanding, I found a few interesting things.
STAFF COLUMNIST
The first of these were the people around me. In front of me was a Line Holder-Upper. But this was not your regular, run-of-the-mill Line Holder-Upper. He would stare intently at the line in front of him for minutes on end while the line stood still, as if to will it forward. Then just as he seemed he might explode, his gaze would suddenly move from the line to the coin-operated stamp machines on his right. Or to the person at whom he was gawking on his left. This motion was somehow cosmically linked to the line, and mere nanoseconds after he made it, the line would leap forward. Only, of course, he wouldn't
know, because he was by then telepathically communicating with the stamps in the machine or with the legs of the person. This was the main cause of the many Exasperated Sighs coming from behind me each time he held the line up, I, of course, am far more intelligent than those who were sighing and realized that this man posed no threat to my precious time, because he eventually realized that the line had left him behind and leapt forward to meet it.
What was making me uncomfortable was the fact that standing behind me was the World's Most Impatient Man. Not only was he the World's Most Impatient Man but he was a personal space encroacher, which meant
that he gave the toughest exasperated sighs and did with his face millimeters from my ear. More than once he actually touched me and then didn't move away. He also had another not-line-related problem. He had what is known among scientists as a whistling nose. No doubt you have either witnessed or experienced this phenomenon. It occurs when a person does not blow his or her nose, and it needs to be blown. The resulting obstructions — boogers — cause the air entering and exiting the nose to swirl around in very complicated ways and make a sound which is remarkably like a barely audible, highly mistimed flute. This is why I get the generous salary I do; I'm able to compare scientific observations to sensations we've all had before, like listening to a barely audible, highly misted flute. Whistle Nose, as this condition has come to be called, would not be noticeable in a normal line environment but for the fact that this man had his snout practically on my eardrum.
As I moved closer to the front of the line (and, luckily, my pal moved farther from my ear), I could hear the
transactions that people were making with the postal clerks. Some had legitimate business there like packages that can't be taken care of anywhere else. Or one of the little yellow slips that tells you somebody messed up somewhere and now you have a letter or something at the post office with postage due. Most, however, didn't have any reason to be there:
"I'd like a $5 book of stamps, please."
"OK, but for future reference ma'am, you can avoid waiting in line and buy them at the machines over there."
"Well, actually, I want 5 dollars' worth of stamps, but I want them each different. One Elvis, one flower, one flag, one Buddy Holly..."
This was why I was standing in such a line. People like this lady had to make special time-consuming transactions. She didn't even have her check signed and dated by the time the clerk had gathered all her stamps.
Ryan McGee is a Worland, Wyo. sophomore.
Parents shouldn't blame television
I spent many hours of my childhood watching television. I would schedule my day from 3:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. by what was on. Getting cable changed my life—the options, the variety. I knew every episode of "M*A*S"H" "My Three Sons" "The Brady Bunch." You name the program, I can tell you all about it.
"Mary Tyler Moore" was my favorite. When I was four, I remember wanting to move to Minneapolis. Mary was a grown-up—she could stay out all night, or go to bed at 7:00. She had friends that she didn't always like, but learned to appreciate anyway. She had bad dates and cool clothes.
Cartoons were cool, too. For many kids, the first fall Saturday morning with all the new shows was almost worth returning to school.
For all my time spent watching television, even relating what I saw to my own life, I never believed that what I saw was real. It had the same value and the same function as mythology
But what a twisted world is "Beavis and Butt-head." Is it a realistic satire of a generation, a creative spoof of a universal condition of our society or deprivation? For whatever reason, I admit that "Beavis and Butt-head" has caught my attention and sometimes my fancy. In a demented way, "Beavis and Butt-head" is humor taken to disgusting ends. Or vice-versa.
or books—a window into others' perceptions of the world.
But never real. Like Elmer Fudd, Beavis and Butt-head have been brutalized a dozen times, only to walk
And now the nation cries foul and fault. In Ohio, a series of explosive incidents caused by children are being blamed on "Beavis and Butt-head." Children and their parents, say they never even thought about explosives before "Beavis and Butt-head." In an attempt to appease those who would sue MTV, "Fire! Fire! Fire!" will never be said on MTV again.
away laughing and confused. Like the coyote, they fall victims to their own disastrous schemes, experiencing death regularly but never dying.
What is going on? Did you ever think you could do any stunt you saw in a cartoon? Did you not realize, even as a child, that cartoons are not reality? If cartoons had such extensive influence, would not have generations of children hit themselves with anvils?
I think it's stretching to say "Beavis and Butt-head," or any program, caused the children in Ohio to play with fire. What about lack of adult supervision? What about accessibility to flammable materials? What
about experimentation and testing the boundaries of "don't touch?" And, if the cartoon were responsible, is that not a result of parents' allowing MTV to be watched by very young children? As a rule, MTV is not for children; there are many things on MTV that frighten me, and I'm 26.
Children need adult guidance to help them understand and interpret what they see in the media. It is important for parents to talk to children, to respect their questions of authority and their ideas about the world they live in. It takes time to have discussions with children, particularly if the only point of reference they have is the television they have been placed in front of and have been forgotten.
"Beavis and Butt-head" is quite different from "Mary Tyler Moore." But sometimes I think I learn as much about the world from "Beavis and Butt-head" as I did from Mary.
Patrick Dilley is a Lawrence graduate student in higher education.
Different races should strive for knowledge, understanding
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I would like to say a few words in response to the recent letter to the editor by Chris Bramich, entitled "White people ignorant about racial problems." I find it hard to swallow that white people are inherently racist as Mr. Bramich seems to believe. By using phrases such as "most whites" and "the only time whites care," he is perpetuating racial differences rather than attempting to overcome them. Lumping whites all into one category in regards to racism is not only inaccurate, but morally bankrupt as well. It is this form of stereotyping that is the foundation upon which all types of racism are created.
To be honest, I have grown weary of reading constant letters and columns that harp only on what irreconcilable differences we as separate races hold and what we have not accomplished.
I would like to promote a new approach. Let's begin looking at what we have in common instead of how we differ. Instead of incessantly complaining about the ignorance that each individual race has toward each other, let's strive to
gain knowledge and understanding of other racial communities. Rather than harping on what we have not accomplished, let's look at what we can accomplish.
By allowing the past to hold us back, we can never look optimistically toward the future. While Mr. Bramich raises a good point that racism is often hidden in humor and tradition, if we allow ourselves to focus solely on the problem, without attempting to develop solutions, we will be doomed to a life of inequality.
Glenwood Springs, Colo., freshman
"Lumping whites...is not only inaccurate, but morally bankrupt..."
Mat Hostelier
Glenwood Springs, Colo., freshman
Past important to society, but ignorance can't be preserved
In Joseph Suber's letter in the Oct. 14 Kansan, he states "if the University is dedicated at all to preserving and understanding Western tradition, it will renounce its open support of a lifestyle that many find morally objectionable." As a student who has fulfilled both semesters of his Western Civilization requirement, I would like to say that the purpose of the Western Civilization program, and therefore of the University, is not to preserve the Western tradition. Its purpose is to understand it. If you don't believe me, just check the statement of purpose in the Western Civilization Collected Readings. Intolerance, religious persecution, mass genocide, the Crusades, the Babonic plague and Adolf Hitler are all part of the Western tradition. I believe it's important to understand, and never forget, what has happened in the past but ignorance is not something I want to preserve.
Robert Johnson
Overland Park sophomore
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