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Monday, April 9, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Senate elections
Real Representation coalition is best for campus; member candidates run gamut of student groups
Liz Kennedy/Special to the KANSAN
James Baucom, Topeka freshman, demonstrates his support for the Real Representation coalition during a campus rally last week.
Real Representation is the coalition capable of rooting out the narrow-interested status quo in Student Senate. It will work for the best interests of the student body and not hackeyed campaign promises.
Todd Boerger and Mike Thomas, candidates for student body president and vice president, have canvassed the University to bring together leaders from a spectrum of campus organizations. This is a fresh approach to coalition-building, not another recycling of the same Senate members who often have failed to represent their constituents.
The Real Representation coalition comprises six presidents of residence halls, along with an array of presidents and leaders of various organizations, including Black Men of Today, Students Concerned About Discrimination, Hilille, HALO, the scholarship halls, greeks, off-campus and non-traditional students.
Real Representation has adopted a platform that concentrates on salient, concrete and viable goals. In cases where goals might not be reached easily or by Senate working alone, the coalition readily admits it. In most cases, however, the coalition has moved beyond broad, sweeping statements and devised specific action.
For example, a solid plan for minority recruitment and retention is one of the best reasons to vote Real Representation. The coalition realizes that minority recruitment is not the only solution to increasing the number of minority students on campus. Recruitment must be coupled with a program of retention to present a well-rounded solution.
Real Representation's plan to send minority students to high schools as recruiters will make other minorities feel more comfortable about attending the University. Prospective students would find out first-hand about the school and its climate.
In another plank, Real Representation advocates the creation of a Multi-Cultural Center for minority and international students. The center would be a place where students could enjoy their culture, share it with others and educate the rest of the campus community. Education is vital to improvement.
Advising would also be improved by recruiting upper-level students to provide peer counseling. This would improve the advising process where students often feel lost in the shuffle and displeased with the results.
These are issues that must be addressed and can be addressed by students. Other coalitions argue that they can accomplish their goals in a few weeks with a minimum of work. But the other coalitions include the same people who have been in Senate for years and have failed to do more than serve their own interests. Why should we believe that they will suddenly accomplish these goals? Senate must serve the interests of the student body.
In this election, Real Representation will best serve the interests of the student body and provide the leadership and diversity that the University needs.
Members of the editorial board are Richard Brack, Daniel Niemi, Christopher R. Ralston, John P. Milburn, Liz Hueben, Cory S. Anderson, Angela Baughman, Andres Caveller, Chris Evans, Stephen Kline, Camille Krehbiel, Melanie Matthes, Jennifer Metz and Scott Patty.
The editorial board
System didn't create racism
In his April 4 column, Dan Grossman reflected on the recent incident at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity by indicting the Greek system as "an inherently racist and elitist social organization." He recounts his greek experience saying, "The anti-Semitism that I encountered there was worse than I have ever experienced." Those unfamiliar with the Greek system might be missing a fraternity are nothing more than a training ground for Ku Klux Klan executives. Memories of my four years as a member of a KU fraternity are slightly more pleasant.
Obviously there is a need for fraternity to encourage Black and other minority students to participate in rush. But blaming the Greek system for a problem that envelopes
I did encounter racism as a greek, but not any more than I did before I moved into the fraternity and not any more than I have since I moved out.
The Greek system is decidedly segregated, and this is a shame. But in my four greek years I saw a total of 10 or 12 Black students participate in rush. It is difficult, if not impossible, to be admitted to a fraternity if you do actively participate in the system. If more Black students expressed interest in belonging to "white" fraternities by going through rush, then more Black students would belong to these "white" fraternities.
Stan
Diel
Staff columnist
all of society is irresponsible. Greeks did not invent racism, and they do not hold a monopoly on it.
Grossman said greek criteria for admittance was limited to "haircuts, wealth and fashion sense." I will admit that I once spoke against signing a prospective member because of his appearance. I do not know what religion or what ethnic origin he was. I do know that the man was unclean and smelled bad. I did not want to spend four years of my life in his shower. Does this make me shallow, racist or elitist? Fraternities probably do consider appearance when making membership decisions. But they also consider little things like academic ability and personality.
The accusation that wealth is a factor in membership decisions is an absolute untruth. Prospective members are never asked how much money they have. Fraternities offer need-based scholarships and in-house jobs to members who need financial assistance. Wealth is simply not an issue. An ability to pay one's bills may be but never wealth.
Grossman says the incident at SAE
was "an inevitable result of a social organization based on elitist and, therefore, racist principles." This is ludicrous. The incident at SAE was the result of one man's drunken stupidity and a society which fosters such ignorance. If the man who reportedly shouted racial slurs that night is a bigot, SAE did not train him to be a bigot and certainly did not make him a member because of his bigotry.
Maybe, like society, fraternities fail to purge their ranks of bigots. But they certainly do not go out and recruit them.
The Greek system is not a white elitist system. Black students often sit in a group apart from whites in front of Wescoe Hall and often sit together in groups in classrooms. This type of segregation is reflected in the Greek system but cannot be separated. This is part of untenational segregation is a societal problem that should be dealt with, but picking out one tiny segment of society to blame it on is an act of bigotry in itself.
Grossman apparently had a bad experience in a fraternity at KU. As a result he has stereotyped all fraternities in the same manner that he accuses fraternities of stereotyping minorities. Fraternities are not any more or less bigoted than society as a whole.
Stan Diel is a Hutchinson senior majoring in economics and journalism.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Grossman errs
Dan Grossman's acrimonious personal attack on former President Reagan in the Kansan on March 27 indicates a fundamental ignorance surprising for even a Kansan columnist. Grossman confesses that he "never doubted the fact that Reagan was the man behind the scam . . . that Reagan's impeachment or resignation was a foregone conclusion." How thoughtless for history to be, Grossman says, "in spite of much testimony to the contrary, Grossman determined even before any hearings or trials that the former president was the ringleader of this perfidious gang of miscreants. If we only had more such perceptive purveyors of truth, then we could dispense with
Reuel Hanks
these absurd notions of "innocent until proven guilty," and "due process."
Pedestrian fees
Hudel Hanks
Lawrence graduate student
If the University decides to cone Jayhawk Boulevard to a pedestrian walkway, or a park-like street, at the cost of $500,000 or $500,000, who will pay? Will it be students, faculty and staff through the parking fee? I am already concerned that the parking fee pays for renovating KU's streets and driveways after damage by building contractors, as well as the new parking lot for the Lied Center, which, at least for the foreseeable future, will have no education. Jayhawk Boulevard is converted, perhaps KU needs to set up a fee, a yellow sticker for pedestrians, to pay for it.
J. Bunker Clark Professor of music history
News staff
Richard Brack...Editor
Daniel Nieml...Managing editor
Christopher R. Relaton
Lisa Monroe...Planning editor
John Milburn...Editorial editor
Candy Niemlman...Campus editor
Mike Coelson...Rice Owner
E. Joseph Zurga...Photo editor
Stephen Kline...Graphics editor
Kris Berguelt...Amarifweed, Amarifweed
Tom Eblin...General manager, news adviser
Margaret Townsend...Business manager
Tami Rank...Retail sales manager
Misey Miller...Campus sales manager
Kathy Boullard.Regional sales manager
Mike Lehman...National sales manager
Mindy Morris...Co-op sales manager
Nate Stamos...Production manager
Mind Landier...Assistant production manager
Carrie Staninke...Marketing director
James Gleannapp...Creative director
Janet Rorholm...Classified manager
Wendy Stuart.Townsend
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
Business staff
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Latin America deserves U.S. attention
What will be the future of Latin America?
Changes have occurred so rapidly in Eastern Europe that attention logically has been diverted toward these countries.
As the United States makes significant efforts to help the new democracies in Eastern Europe and ensure a stable economic future there, another group of nations is getting hurt in the process.
Yet, the new democracies in Latin America deserve concern. Chile, Panama and Nicaragua recently achieved democratic status and, in years past, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil freed themselves from strict military governments that cruelly governed for decades.
The United States should look south. If U.S. support continues to diminish, it's likely that some of our governments in Latin America will fail.
World powers unintentionally are undermining the Latin American democracies. These new democratic institutions are fresh and naive, but they are fragile too. In Nicaragua and Panama, the so-called democracies have not been established by any means.
But Latin American nations will not sit down and wait for a check to come from the United States. Since
Andres Cavelier
Staff columnist
the early 1980s, other leading powers have invested heavily in South America, creating beneficiary markets for contracting nations. Japan has huge industrial investments in every country.
At recent symposiums in Miami, experts expressed a growing concern for the economic and political future of Latin America. Important questions were asked, such as what would happen if most U.S. financial companies kept opening markets in Eastern Europe while undermining clear opportunities in the Caribbean?
In political matters, the frank opposition to military coups and strong defense of democracy in Latin America by the Carter and Reagan administrations, and democratic alive in Latin America. This attention should be carried on.
The "stabilization" of the Nicaraguan government after Violeta Chamorro's victory in the elections should be backed regularly by the Bush administration. How? By keeping a watchful eye on events and by
This raises the problem that if the United States does not collaborate for the good of its neighbors, Latin American nations will be left alone. Unfortunately, the present political and economic systems of the world do not allow the poor to get rich.
Another issue at stake, independent of U.S. aid, is the role democracy is playing in Latin America. Is it working? Individual cases show that a nation's form of government does not necessarily reflect the well-being of a nation. Third World nations are not able to bring themselves up to a First World level. No matter what they do, the rich always will get richer. Foreign debts and inflation figures of these countries cast a negative outlook that may never be solved.
offering aid to the countries rebuilding democratic systems.
Brazil and Argentina, both under democratic governments and both with a history of military governments in recent years, are facing troubled economic situations. In Brazil, the new president, Fernando Collor de Mello, almost was forced to cancel the plan to privatize plan because of a 2,700 percent inflation increase during the last 12 months.
Going down the list, Argentina's democratic future is in limbo, which
has caused consternation and alarm abroad. Some members of the "carapintañada" movement say the military must step in once again if President Carlos Saul Menem falters in Argentina.
As Winston Churchill said in 1947, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." This sounds like something Latin America is facing now.
The future seems to be as dark as ever. What should be done? Who knows? A former ambassador to Bolivia recently wrote a book titled, *Lost Illusions, Latin America's Lost War*, and *Recounted by its Leaders*. The title of the book might reflect the reality that Latin America is living.
The only conclusion that can be drawn is that no existing form of government seems to fit Latin America. New democracies have taken a second breath of hope, but the only thing that might help them is to beg the United States for more cooperation. But since no nation is obligated to provide help to others, Latin America is in a “callelejon sin salida,” or in an alley without an exit. It’s a deadlock situation.
▶ Andre Caveler is a Bogota, Colombia, senior majoring in journalism and
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BY SCOTT PATTY