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Friday, January 26, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Willner hearing
Public has right to know hearing's outcome after spending $15,000 on the legal process
The Faculty Senate hearings for Dorothy Willner cost the taxpayers of the state of Kansas more than $15,000.
Now there is a possibility that the outcome of the dismissal hearings, the first of their kind in the University of Kansas' 124-year history, will be kept a secret from the public. The Faculty Executive Committee may choose to announce the decision at a closed session. Such a decision would be a slap in the faces of Kansans who have, in many cases unknowingly, provided the means for Willner to have a fair hearing.
Willner, professor of anthropology, has been accused by the University of failure to carry out academic duties and violation of professional ethics. The Faculty Senate Committee on Tenure and Related Problems began hearing testimony from witnesses during open dismissal proceedings on Oct. 16, 1989. The hearings continued until Dec. 18.
According to University Governance expense accounts, the taxpayers footed a bill of $15,782
The original 3,467 page transcript alone cost $8,533 or about $2.50 a page. The court reporters who wrote the transcript were paid $10 an hour, costing the taxpayers another $1,200.
University Governance bought copies of the transcript for Willner and Marino Rose, associate general counsel for the University, at a total cost of $4,695.28 or about 85 cents a page.
total cost of $4,695.28 or about 83 cents a page
The University made four copies of the book
transcript for the remaining committee members at a cost of $693 or 5 cents a page.
Finally, various long-distance and overseas phone calls were made from a $350 telecommunications system.
missions locations.
After a month of deliberations, the five-member committee had not made a decision and began reviewing the evidence individually. When the members arrive at a decision, a copy of it will be given to Willner, Chancellor Gene A. Budig, FacEx and the American Association of University Professors.
Scott said in a letter to the Kansas that at the Jan. 22 FacEx meeting, he asked the committee members whether they opposed an open meeting to discuss the decision of Tenure and Related Problems Committee. He said no member voiced such an opinion.
FacEx Chairman William Scott said that FacEx might release the decision at one of its weekly meetings unless the committee decided to announce it in closed session.
It is ludicrous to think that this important, history-making, precedent-setting decision could be kept from the very people who paid for the hearings in the first place.
The taxpayers provided these hearings; they have a right to know what decision is made. Moreover, the University community affected by Willner and the hearings have the right to know the outcome. It is only fair.
Angela Baughman for the editorial board
Members of the editorial board are Richard Brack, Daniel Niemi, Christopher R. Ralston, John P. Milburn, Liz Hueben, Cory S. Anderson, Merceda Ares, Angela Baughman, Andres Caveller, Chris Evans, Tiffany Harness, Stephen Kline, Camille Krebhl, Melanie Mathews, Jennifer Metz and Scott Patty.
Just say 'no'
Legislation is unenforceable, unnecessary
line rationale behind this bill is that it would help prevent the spread of AIDS. One of the bill's sponsors acknowledged that it would be impossible to enforce the law and concluded that its strength would lie in the fact that it could be used as a convenient excuse for young people to avoid having sex.
Senators in Washington state are trying to impose their own私密 on the teen-age population by proposing a bill that would make it illegal for anybody under the age of 18 to have sexual contact unless they were married.
When will politicians learn to stay out of the
bedroom? There are more important issues senators need to deal with than the sexual conduct of teen-agers, or adults for that matter. The sexual morality of teen-agers should be the responsibility of parents, not politicians.
Even though the senators have proposed the bill on the pretense of curtailing AIDS, that argument falls flat when considering the reasons for passing the law. Wouldn't a logical excuse for a teen-ager who doesn't want to have sex simply be the fear of AIDS?
Whatever happened to just plain "no?" Mereda Ares for the editorial board
We may be throwing our environment away
These days, everybody is an environmentalist. All it takes is an oil spill, pictures of garbage heaps and some grim weather forecasting about Florida-like weather in Alaska, and everyone falls in to be counted as "for" nature.
George Bush, Dow Chemical and the apolitical Grateful Dead have joined the granola parade, all proclaiming to be ecoactivists of one stripe or another. It would seem the earth is now safe; we can enthrust the planet to our "environmentalist" president, our concerned congressmen, and those good, corporate executives who will redefine us assured us that it will turn all of its plastic foam waste into park benches and wall paneling.
Nothing like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. By putting such faith in the role that big business and big government should play in our environmental lils, we actually are diverted from some basic issues that need to be addressed if we are going to create a truly ecological society. Just like fast food, we're falling for a fast ecology that prescribes quick fixes: a few laws, maybe even a contribution to Green peace. But the
Chris
Kromm
Guest columnist
roots of the ecological crisis go much deeper and force us to ponder the much bigger picture.
We can start by realizing that the death of nature is no "current issue," but part of a sad history of destruction our culture has dubiously achieved. We treat each oil spill or other catastrophe as a random mistake or isolated blunder that can be matched up with regulations or corporate promises, but these assaults on the planet are not "accident."
Ever since the book of Genesis commanded Judeo-Christian mankind to seek "dominion over" nature, Western civilization has been at work reversing millions of years of natural evolution. From unstable slash-and-burn agriculture to an industrial revolution marked by pollution-beleching and earth-
degrading factories, cities, cars and machinery, we have tried to subdue and ignore nature in the pursuit of "progress," leaving our legacy as the most devastating civilization the Earth has had to bear. It's time to start digging to see why our society has so persistently sought to destroy nature.
We need to begin questioning old values. Is science as we know it working with or against nature? Descartes, the leader of the scientific revolution, said the purpose of science is to "conquer nature." Considering the proportion of our scientists devoted to bomb production, nuclear power design and "mastering the gene," this hostility to the Earth seems to continue. As for economics, is our market economy, which is based on a never-ending search for profits and "growth," compatible with our finite planet? Can we really expect to stop the destruction of wildlife habitat and farm acres when land is viewed as a mere commodity?
we in the United States have proved we can out-pollute, out-develop and out-consume any country with our capitalist "grow-or-die" economy. Maybe it isn't so great that we're
pushing East Europe and the Third World to follow in our literally earth-shaking foot-steps.
We also have to start making connections, the most important being that our treatment of nature is tied to our treatment of people. Mailing bombs to Black activists, raping a woman, ignoring AIDS victims, invading Third World countries and destroying wilderness are all actions bound by one dark thread: a domineering attitude of callous insensitivity for life itself.
This connection is clearest in our "defense," which holds not only the capacity to end all human life with a growing stockpile of missiles, but the potential to shred the biological links that support all species, in addition to some algae and cockroaches. To keep the war economy alive, our military pollutes drinking water with nuclear testing, destroys millions of acres of land with war games, and ranks as the greatest user of polluting fossil fuels and biggest generator of hazardous and radioactive wastes. It shouldn't be surprising that an entire institution devoted to shooting down people hits the innocent bastard Mother Earth as well.
Recycling, banning plastic foam and stopping whaling all are directly important and basic issues. In fact, that anybody opposes these measures, that they have to be won through hard-fought battles, is truly amazing. But they are mere reformist pieces of what, for our very survival's sake, must be a cultural revolution. Once we begin to see a pattern to our destruction, and counter these roots with a new reverence for all human life around us, we will have made the most important step to reharmonizing with the planet — and ourselves.
Idealistic? Somewhat, of course — but very practical. Nature will submit only to so many centuries of rugged abuse, and shouldn't wait to see how long it takes before our half-hearted attempts are proved inadequate, and the whole web of life begins to collapse. We can reinvent the environmental issue and make it trendy only so many times before the Earth grows tired of the fashion show and draws the curtain on all of life.
> **Craig Kromm** is a Manhattan junior majoring in history.
LETTERS to the EDITOR Rally story fair
I was so glad to see that your story covering the anti-abortion rally in Topeka (Jan. 22, page 1) actually contained pictures and quotes from anti-abortion activists. You even included the number of demonstrators who partici
pated in the march. This is ques-
an improvement on the job you did
reporting the pro-choice rally in
November.
Even though the pro-choice activists numbered 3,500 (almost twice the amount of anti-abortionists at the recent rally) all of your quotes and pictures were of the fewer than 100 anti-abortionists who also attended that rally. I am confident reporting will continue in the future when the next pro-choice event rolls around.
Katy Terrell
Lawrence graduate student
Lawrence graduate student
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Civil war is not the way to go in USSR
Fighting in Armenia and Azerbaijan is the most dramatic of the USSR's domestic woes.
Iran would have the world believe that the violence is nothing more than specific religious discrimination
The people of Armenia and Azerbaijan need to realize that glasnost, which allowed tensions between the two republics to come out in the open, cannot survive in a civil war. By being the first to officially declare independence from the Soviet Union, the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh stands as testament to this. As will the region of Azerbaijan if it follows its threats of secession without a lot more discussion with the Kyrgyzstan. The Kabulian will allow violent secession than Lincoln could permit the Conederacy to dissolve the Union. For once, even the United States will have a hard time objecting to the use of Soviet force.
Brandt
Pasco
Guest columnist
There is an old Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times." Just what the future holds for the USSR is very much up in the air right now, but it sure is interesting. ➤ Brandt Pasco is a Lawrence sophomore majoring in political science.
If Armenia and Azerbaijan are examples of how not to abuse glassware, Lithuania is a beautiful example. The system to achieve one's own ends.
against Muslims. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is well known that the Communist Party has little patience for any religion. It dislikes them all equally. To the Kremlin, Islam is just another barely tolerated religion among a host of others.
With their nonviolent approach, the Lithuanians have accomplished far more in the way of reform than any other nationalist movement. Not only
The United States must not lodge complaints against the use of force by the Soviet government in solving the violent unrest in Azerbaijan and Armenia. To do so could further weaken Gorbache's position by falsely giving hope of U.S. assistance for one side or the other.
Because Gorbachev is hanging on by a thread, he is willing to make diplomatic deals to gain support. Not only does he have powerful enemies within the Soviet government, but the public does not support him as much as he would like. His perestroika has largely failed; the Soviet economy is in terrible condition; the Eastern bloc is breaking away from Soviet control; and ethnic unrest is threatening to tear the country apart.
concern to Gorbachev, as a nationwide outbreak of violence could be the end of him. All this unrest could serve as a good excuse to remove Gorbachev in favor of a hard line Stalinist. If this is to be avoided, the Soviet people must put aside their differences long enough for Gorbachev to untangle the mess their country is in.
Certainly all this is of no little
did the Lithuanian Communist Party sever ties with the national organization — and seems to have gone away with it — but Gorbachev has even mentioned that a plan is in the works to modify the Soviet Constitution for the legal secession of the republic. Naturally, there are plenty of skeptics, myself one of them, but just the fact that he even would mention the possibility is nothing short of amazing.
CAMP WHNEELY
HERE'S R.J. MAXWELL
THE OPOSSUM PULLING
ANOTHER ALL-NIGHTER.
YOU'RE BURNING THE CANDLE
AT BOTH ENDS A LITTLE EARLY IN
THE SEMESTER, AREN'T YOU R.'J
BY SCOTT PATTY
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED USING SPEED OR COCANE?
HEY, BUDDY. THIS BODY'S A WELL-OILED MACHINE. I'M NOT GONNA POLLUTE IT WITH HARMFUL STIMULANTS!