OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBELY CRATEFTE, Editorial editor
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
4A
MAaK OZMIXE, Business manager
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JA YSTEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
Monday. March 10. 1997
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Editorials
Policies against hazing aren't enough to stop this tradition
As evidenced last week with the suspension of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, hazing among Greek students does occur, despite how many times greeks say that it doesn't.
It appears that those who haze do it to promote morale and elicit loyalty among members. Hazing is also said to be a tradition, so much so that some greeks may not even know why they haze, except that members before them did it.
But this is a sick tradition, one that must be stopped. Although some greek houses have taken steps toward this end by detailing to members the consequences of hazing, that obviously hasn't completely solved the problem. The tradition of hazing appears so ingrained in belonging to a greek house that it is has practically become a requirement.
To be sure, hazing is not all that greeks are capable of. Every year, greek members devote hundreds of hours to community-service projects, among other positive activities.
Still, hazing among greeks does occur
There is no reason that hazing activities should occur anywhere.
on this campus. A recent article in the Topeka Capital-Journal reported that within the last 18 months, the University has taken action against four fraternities for hazing-related incidents. Besides being detrimental to the houses and members, hazing violates the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
The fault for hazing lies with the active members and with those who haze. These members often command complete subservience from those who rush their houses, which gives active members power over their pledges.
However, with this power comes responsibility that is too often ignored. Greek members' power should be used for constructive activities, not hazing.
Using tradition as an excuse to further conduct hazing is ludicrous. It is petulant
and unoriginal to adopt the "they did it to us, so we are going to do it to them" mentality that some greeks have when brooding about the ethics of hazing.
Some greeks also argue that hazping promotes unity within pledge classes. This is a false dogma. Most pledges want to be included in a Greek house to the extent that they will tolerate minor inconveniences. When these inconveniences become abusive hazing tactics, pledges are often alienated if they speak out against such activity, and they may forfeit their membership if they do so. This promotes divisiveness, not unity, within the pledge class between those who protest hazing and those who do not.
Active members should be more vocal in their opposition to hazing policies, and they just shouldn't haze. Hazing is abusive, and it only adds fire to the stereotyping of greeks that so many members are always fighting against. Most Greek houses may claim not to participate in hazing policies, but when one house is implemented, all are punished.
NICK ZALLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Minority faculty plan is good for all
The University's new Minority Faculty Recruitment Plan takes a much-needed step by making minority recruitment a priority. With this the University is improving upon a key aspect of education in the late 20th century: exposure to diversity.
Increasing minority faculty from the current 124 to 200 by the year 2000 is a main aspect of the plan, which was issued March 4 by Provost David Shulenburger. This directive follows a goal Chancellor Robert Hemenway stated in his August 1995 convocation address.
Right now there are four Native American, 73 Asian, 31 Black and 16 Hispanic faculty members. To meet the plan's 200 by 2000 goal, almost half of 180 to 200 new hires anticipated during the next five years will need to be faculty of color.
These are challenging numbers, and often any mention of increasing quantities of certain groups raises questions about quotas. But the proposed 202 bv
Exposure to diversity is essential to offering students a good education.
2000 goal is not a quota. Rather it's a demonstration of the University's intentions to put significant effort toward recruiting minority faculty. There is no penalty for falling short of the goal, and no unqualified candidates will be hired just because they are minorities.
To help departments offset the cost of recruiting minority faculty, the Provost's office has established a $250,000 bridge fund, up from the $40,000 fund of previous years. Although it could cost more to attract minority candidates, it's a worthwhile investment. The new plan is not about tokenism; it's about education.
exposure to diversity is part of a good education in the late 20th century," said Maurice Bryan Jr., director of the University's Equal Opportunity Office.
"In my mind, the reason why we want minority faculty is not to color in our coloring book. It's because we really believe
If the University is a forum for conversation, exchange, intellectual questioning and growth, we must support diversity. But even from a practical point of view, increasing minority faculty is smart. Because students will leave the University to work with all sorts of people — not just Caucasian people — exposure to diversity during college is essential. "We need to have our University look like the rest of the world," said Danielle Dempsey-Swopes, associate director of the Equal Opportunity Office.
Clearly, arguments against recruiting minority faculty pale in light of the benefits the entire community stands to gain. The University's new plan for minority recruitment has the best interests of the entire academic community in mind, and it deserves student support.
LAURA WEXLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Police take power trip when leaving nickel tip
Let me tell you a little story that will eliminate any faith you once had in human beings.
Columns
An inboxed couple eats a late-night breakfast at a local Village Inn, an activity for which drunk people have had a biological need ever since the invention of sausage links. The couple isn't too thrilled with the service they receive. They verbally abuse their waitress, who is trying her best for someone who's being bossed around at 1 a.m. by drunk people.
The couple shows their annoyance by leaving her a nickel for her labor. A wee bit disgusted with this paltry gratuity, the waitress picks up the coin. Instead of pocketing it, she places it in front of the couple as they're paying their bill at the cash register. They put the nickel back on the table.
The waitress switches from disgust mode to downright surly. As the couple is leaving the restaurant, she angrily flips the nickel at them.
The couple shows their
The coin manages to hit one of them in the head, doing the kind of damage only a coin can do: None. But the next thing we know, the couple calls the police in an attempt to press charges.
The cops, no doubt, wave off the petty squabble, laughing and citing it as a waste of their time, right? The police department has more serious snags to deal with on a Saturday night, right?
Wrong. The waitress is arrested for assault, escorted out of the diner in handcuffs and led on to a strip search. She spends her evening in a cell with the rest of the hardened criminals. Straight to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect 4,000 nickels.
How does this happen, you ask? Simple: It turns out both members of the generous, dining couple are off-duty police officers. In the unspoken brotherhood of cops, one cop doesn't question another's unbending desire for swift punishment.
Even when the weapon in question is a coin.
In a just world, anyone who leaves a nickel tip shouldn't be too surprised to find it firmly embedded in his or her skull.
It should come as no surprise that this episode really occurred last month in Wichita. The Wichita Police Department stood behind its actions, claiming there was nothing excessive about arresting a woman for throwing a nickel.
After delivering pizzas here in Lawrence — and getting stiffed again and again while deliverling during paralyzing blizzards — I myself had concocted various vengeful plans involving a sudden, violent union between my car and the offender's living room.
But the real issue here is the abuse of power. How many times have you seen a cop change lanes without using a turn signal? Speed? Run a stop sign? How many times have you wished you could pull one over and sobly say "License and registration, please?" while he sweats and fumbles through his glove box to appease you with the proper identification?
If we bad-mouth a policeman on the job, we are arrested faster than you can say "night stick." Why is a waitress worthy of any less respect? Must be because one carries a gun and the other a ketchup bottle.
Shouldn't the police have been more concerned with the inadequate sobriety level of the off-duty cops who were on their way to their car when the nickel incident occurred? They waved this issue off almost immediately.
Doesn't this scare you a little? Almost like an out-of-control police car zipping in and out of lanes like that of the intoxicated Georgia diplomat that killed a teenager in Washington in December?
But what the Wichita Nickel Massacre tells us is the ones we need to get off the streets are the snipy restaurant servers of the world, not those who are really a menace to society.
Media more concerned with sports than lives
Jeff Ruby is a Wichita graduate student in Journalism.
One must wonder about the fate of mankind when a news story about a man threatening to jump off a bridge during rush hour is delayed by a story about sports.
I realize the importance of basketball in this town. I used to camp out for the games as a freshman. This was back in the old days when students had to camp outside all day and night for days before the big games. I attribute the severe case of mono I caught to those wonderful, freezing nights waiting in a tent with friends just to see a basketball game. I remember my dedication and my need to sit
My youthful enthusiasm has been replaced with a respect for the game, but a deeper respect for my health and sanity. Now I prefer to watch the games on TV in a calmer atmosphere where heat, restrooms and a comfortable couch replace the tent, Holly Hobby sleeping bag and the many trees and bushes around the field house.
But I digress. As much as I like basketball, and as much as I understand the fiscal benefits of hosting the conference at Kemper Arena, I am still a little miffed about the arrangement of the news stories.
as close to the bench as possible just to catch a bead of sweat from the towel of Rex Walters.
What happened to our priorities? Although I am concerned about the Chiefs and the Jayhawks, I am more perturbed by death, destruction and anarchy, especially when it is on a busy interstate
A similar situation arose a few weeks ago when a huge disaster occurred where lives were lost, extensive property damage was done and chaos reigned. After providing a one-second teaser about the disaster, the yutz of a newcaster gleefully turned the broadcast to a colleague who was standing in a hotel lobby talking to Jeff George. Suddenly the precarious quarterback situation with the Chiefs was more important than people dying.
The troubled soul perched atop a wire overpass at the Van Brunt exit ready to end his life on a busy highway was apparently less newsworthy than the Chiefs. Perhaps if the man attempting suicide had been Steve Bono or the relative of a quarterback the Chiefs are eying, then he may have garnered a top seed in the news-bite feeding chain.
Sabrina Steele is an Overland Park senior in political science.
Perhaps the aforementioned instances were isolated occurrences with regard to the story arrangement, but I don't think that is the case. Unless our lives are directly impacted, we tend not to pay attention, not to care and not to concern ourselves with the trivial details of other people's lives or deaths. The media is simply catering to our whims, showing us the things we care about, like football and basketball, and squeezing in a few brief bits about death, peril and destruction.
I cannot unleash a blanket condemnation of the TV and print media, for I contribute to the perpetuation of the idea that viewer's priorities are whacked. I probably fit the profile of the average viewer and reader more than I am willing to admit. The recent fire at Sundance Apartments claimed the lives of two complete strangers. I watched a bit of the report, rather disinterestedly, then switched to C-SPAN. I didn't give the tragedy a thought until I saw a front-page photo of a friend rifling through his stuff in the same building a few days later. The deaths of two men with families, friends, futures and dreams didn't phase me, but as soon as an acquaintance of mine is impacted, watch out, because I almost begin to care about the human race.
highway in my area. I am happy the Jayhawks are playing well, and I hope the Chiefs work things out. I'd really like for Elvis Grbac to join the gang, simply so we can enjoy the cheesy pleasure of saying, "Elvis has left the stadium." Perhaps if he signed with us, I would allow that to preempt a story about a truce between Israel and Palestine
Foreigners like Namkyu Park should not whine about discrimination. They should accept it.
Letter only re-enforces Namkyu Park's point
That is basically how Lawrence resident Clara Westphal responded to Park's column. Why? Because we pesky foreigners already enjoy more privileges than we deserve. Apparently we are just a bunch of opportunists who are abandoning their home country and flooding into this country for one purpose: to live on handouts from the U.S. government.
Letters
Thank you, Ms. Westphal, for complementing Park's column with a living demonstration of the kind of ignorance and stereotyping that keeps discrimination alive in this day and age. You: backward attitude has managed to overshadow the otherwise legitimate issues that you raised.
Albert A. Gapud Los Banos, Philippines graduate student
Support from greeks is heart-warming
If you cannot take part in that tradition, then perhaps it is you, Ms. Westphal, who should find a place where you are more comfortable.
I am writing this letter as a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
I have news for you: Discrimination is wrong. We are not talking about a mere inconvenience that one can learn to live with. We are talking about an unacceptable injustice that this country has long rejected and condemned. You live in a nation that strives to promote the dignity of people of all origins. Lawrence in particular has an exceptional tradition of hospitality toward international visitors.
ity to extend our thanks to all those who have offered us support.
However, we are doing just fine because of the perseverance of our Rock Chalk directors, the cast and the support that we have received from the Greek community.
Obviously we have been under stress because of losing our Rock Chalk partner so close to the opening of the show.
Although many people perceive sororities and fraternities to be in constant competition, this week has proven the opposite. The cards, phone calls and general support and encouragement that we have received have made me proud to be a member of the Greek community at the University of Kansas.
Leigh Nida Lawrence sophomore