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Thursday, March 8, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Students in a jam
Closing Jayhawk Boulevard would ease traffic prevent accidents, yet maintain campus beauty
Among the many stressful situations that students face during their college years, walking to class has never been a
walking to class has never been a particularly real fear. Fear of such things as midterm and final exams, semester projects, drunken drivers and even sexually transmitted diseases always have been more threatening.
But at the University of Kansas, walking to class has become a situation that now warrants a great deal of concern and caution.
In the past two years, four accidents involving pedestrians and cars have occurred along Jayhawk Boulevard, one of which involved a blind bus passenger. Many students narrowly escape injury every day on their way to classes. Physically challenged pedestrians have an even more difficult time getting across campus safely.
Something needs to be done to ensure that pedestrians can walk to campus without the threat of colliding with a car or bus.
Members of the Campus Transportation Committee are exploring three options to improve traffic flow and safety on the boulevard. Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, will review these options and develop a long-range plan to improve the situation.
One option is to close Jayhawk Boulevard from Poplar Lane to Bailey Hall and redirect traffic behind Strong Hall. Only emergency vehicles would be allowed on the boulevard, and the boulevard would be replaced with more walkways and landscaping.
This plan not only would ease the traffic congestion on the boulevard by eliminating it entirely, but also it would alleviate the congestion that occurs when masses of students sabotage boulevard traffic flow between classes.
By making that portion of the boulevard more of a scenic walkway than a Grand Central Station, the appearance of the entire campus also would be improved. When guests visit the campus, they could enjoy a relaxing stroll through campus without being run down by cars, buses or students.
Another option that the committee is considering is designing bigger and better bus stops so that students can safely wait for buses and buses can load and unload passengers without holding up traffic. Although this might improve the safety of bus passengers and eliminate some traffic jams, it will not relieve the problems of traffic and student congestion
Altering the path of the street and limiting traffic during the day is the third option the committee is considering. But it seems this plan really doesn't offer a solution. After all, aren't the hours that vehicles can drive on campus already limited? Simply changing the route of the boulevard is costly and inefficient
The committee members should consider the safety of students as well as the preservation of the beauty of our campus when they decide how traffic problems are to be dealt with. Turning the boulevard into a park-like atmosphere instead of a mob of cars, buses and students is the only way to solve the problem and make walking to class relaxing, safe and enjoyable.
Melanie Matthes for the editorial board
Fake 'Slave Sale'
Rugby team needs more sensitivity to Blacks
U rugby needs a lesson in sensitivity. The team sponsored a "slave sale" March 1 at Johnny's Up and Under.
Apparently the "slaves" that were "sold" at the "sale" were not sold into a lifetime of hardship and abuse. They were only slaves for a day.
During this day of servitude, were the 'masters' of these slave allowed to beat, maim or kill their slaves on a whim? Probably not.
No harm done? Wrong
A slave sale is typical of the ignorance and insensitivity that plagues the University of Kansas campus.
Paying someone for a day of services is a popular fund-raising idea. But the name "slave sale" has connotations that deeply disturb many African-American students and should disturb everyone.
If this type of thing is acceptable, then why not have a Holocaust fundraiser? Send someone you don't like to a gas chamber. It's just a joke — but not a funny one.
Education is the key to ending this type of insensitivity. Someone educated about the atrocities of slavery would think twice about naming a fundraiser a slave sale.
Cory Anderson for the editorial board
Eroding rights
Supreme Court allows questionable searches
We should be taking a hard look at the Supreme Court's recent assault on the Fourth Amendment.
In two decisions last week, the court sent the message that the war on drugs is more important than individual rights at home and abroad.
In one decision, the court said police officers could search a house during an arrest when they had reasonable suspicion that something was hidden there that could present a danger to them. If the officers by chance find something that can be used as evidence during the search, that is just an added bonus.
In another decision, the court said the Fourth Amendment doesn't protect foreigners from warrantless searches by U.S. officials on foreign soil.
But what kind of message are we sending about freedom when we don't practice elsewhere what we preach in our own Constitution? A hypocritical one.
The ruling is expected to make it easier for agents to fight the war on drugs.
And what are we saying about our devotion
to constitutional rights when those rights can be suspended for a war that appears to be unwinnable? The message appears to be that politics is more important than freedom.
The court seems to have enlisted in the war on drugs and expects the rest of us to follow blindly along.
But we should not allow the court, stacked as it is with Reaganite conservatives, to force the war on drugs down our throats and alter the Bill of Rights in the process.
The Constitution was not written to make law enforcement easier. It was not designed to facilitate the war on drugs. It was not meant to be read with an eye to convenience.
It was designed to reflect the kind of country this is and what it believes to be the proper relationship between government and people. To narrow those sentiments makes America's much-touched devotion to human rights look a little less than sincere.
Both of the court's decisions invite the kind of behavior the United States should discourage.
Be responsible
■ Take it easy next week. Undoubtedly, students deserve a week to enjoy themselves wherever they choose, but activities should be done in moderation. If you are going to drink, don't drive. Choose a designated driver. Practice safe sex; use a condom and don't have sex with every person you meet.
Richard Brack. for the editorial board
Spring break should be remembered for a good time. Use common sense. Come back in one piece.
Members of the editorial board are Richard Brack, Daniel Niemi, Christopher R. Ralston, John P. Milburn, Liz Hueben, Cory S. Anderson, Angela Baughman, Andres Caveler, Chris Evans, Stephen Kline, Camille Krehbiel, Melanie Matthes, Jennifer Mate and Scott Patty.
lege!" Or would that not have been funny?
Sheron Danoff-Burg Ann Arbor, Mich., graduate student Lawrence Bolday Lawrence graduate student
Naismith ad sexist
We were sorry to see the posters on campus that attempt to entice potential residents of Naismith Hall by saying, "Take your mom to college." At first glance, 'we thought it was admirable that someone was doing something in appreciation of the women who were responsible for our being here. However, Naismith equates motherhood with "weekly maid meals" and "only meals." Is this what Naismith values and expects of all women or only mothers? We suggest that they should have been honest and advertised, "Take a slave to col-
Rape definition
The article, "Speaker discusses sex roles" (March 1, page 3), which summarized a talk I gave at University Forum, contains an important error. The article said, "Token resistance occurs when a woman says no to a man, but the man says yes." This does not the definition of token resistance; that is the definition of rape.
Charlene Muehlenhard
Asstistant professor of psychology
and women's studies
News staff
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Pot issue weeds truth out of politicians
Drugs affect Massachusetts politicians differently than Texans.
In the Texas gubernatorial race, State Treasurer Ann Richards this week lost her lead in the quest for the Democratic nomination. She was the clear front-runner until late February, when she twice refused during televised debates to deny having used illegal drugs.
The questioners didn't want a personal history; they wanted to know whether she had smoked pot, sniffed cocaine or shot heroin. They didn't find out, and many Democrats now wisely worry that Republican campaigners would chew up Richards if she were the Democratic candidate
Her primary opponents, former Gov. Mark White and Attorney General Jim Mattos, flatly denied any charges against him. Richards danged around the point.
Republicans would enjoy that. Richards was the person who at last summer's Democratic National Convention said George Bush "was born with a silver foot in his mouth."
"My addiction was alcohol," said Richards, a recovering alcoholic. "I have revealed more about my personal life, including my alcoholism and my recovery, for 10 years, than any person who has ever run for governor."
Derek
Schmidt
Staff columnist
The mass mea culpa began in the middle of last week when a television reporter asked state Attorney General James Shannon about his tough stance against casual drug users. Shannon admitted during the interview that he had used marijuana.
The Democratic rivals already are capitalizing on her potential Republican mauling.
Then the dominoes started to fall. Massachusetts Democrats who in the past week have admitted marijuana use include:
"It won't be pretty," said White, who now leads the Democratic pack. "It's a serious question."
Not in Boston, where hiding past drug use is out of vogue. Politicians there are lined up to reveal their dabblings with drugs. It's the kind of stuff that true-confessions hotline numbers are made of.
Sen. John Kerry.
Rep. Joseph Kennedy II
Rep. Richard Neal
Rep. Richard Neal.
Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy, a candidate for governor.
State Auditor Joseph DeNucci.
State Sen. William Golden, a candidate for lieutenant governor.
Two Republican candidates for lieutenant governor also have come clean: Paul Cellucci and State Rep. Pork Torkildsen.
Douglas Ginsburg must wish he had stayed in Boston. In 1897, he was denied a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court after admitting he had used marijuana during the 1960s and '70s.
CAMP UHNEELY
Soon after that, one political figure after another stepped into the spotlight and acknowledged using pot. To motilize his Southern constituents, he ordered that all smoking dope in the 1980s with drinking moonshine during Prohibition.
A 1987 Newsweek poll showed that only 22 percent of the public thought a person who admitted marijuana use should be disqualified from public office. Nonetheless, each revelation made headlines.
Gore's wife, Tipper, who raised publicly against lewd and drug-related rock music lyrics, also admitted to having had a relationship with Babbitt, former Arizona governor.
It's not that way in Boston.
The pages aren't big enough nor the telecasts long enough to lambast each of last week's Boston confessors. On Friday, the Boston Herald ran a front page headline "Pols who have gone to pot." Under it were lined up tiny photos of the officeholders. Nobody was singled out.
The contrition of the Boston confessors pacified the public. Kennedy's defense was clear.
The Boston strategy worked. The public generally appreciated the honor pay.
"Like many people my age, I tried it when I was younger." Kennedy said, "I certainly believe that there is no bacon drug; there can be terrible consequences."
Massachusetts and Texas share special political bonds: JFK and LBJ, and Dukakis and Bentsen. But their drug politics differ. Future elections may be analyzed best by monitoring the states' most important political institutions: Cheers and Gilley's.
"I really think it shouldn't be a big deal," one construction worker said.
Derek Schmidt is an Independence senior majoring in journalism and history.
THE C. POPUS TRANSPORTATION
COMMITTEE IS CONSIDERING
CLOSING JAYHAWK BOULEVARD
BECAUSE OF TRAFFIC.
PROPOSITION 1: JAYHAWK
CANAL
A ROMANTIC WATERWAY, BUT
POSSIBLE MOUNTAIN PROPERTY
NOW IS YOUR TURN TO VOICE
YOUR OPINION ON WHAT
SHOULD HAPPEN AFTER THE
BLVD. IS CLOSED.
PROPOSITION 2: SKATEBOARD
ALLEY
RAMPS, JUMPS, EVERYTHING
A SKATEBOARDER LOVES AND
PEDESTRIANS ABOR.
CHECK THE BOX NEXT TO THE PROPOSITION YOU THINK IS BEST.
BY SCOTT PATTY
Proposition 3: SKY RIDE
AN EASY WAY TO GET ACROSS
CAMPUS WHILE ENJOYING
THE VIEW.
CUT OUT AND MAIL BALLOT
TO:
JUDITH FRAYLEM
EXEC. VICE CHANCLUR
C/O SHOND HALL
PROPOSITION 4: MONORAIL
THE RAIL WILL RUN FROM
GSP TO WEST CAMPUS.