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OPINION
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOF, Managing editor
KIMBELY CRRAFTEE, Editorial editor
TOM EBINLE, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZMEK, Business manager
DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUP, Technology coordinator
JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
4A
Tuesday, March 4, 1997
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Editorials
Lazy smokers litter campus, squander all students' money
Cigarette butts litter the walks, steps and lawns of this beautiful campus. They make their way into sidewalk cracks, bushes and puddles. But the places they don't always seem to find their way into are ashtrays.
It is a fairly conservative estimate to say that a third of all KU students smoke. If all 25,000 students were on campus each day, that is more than 8,000 smokers a day. Assume that every smoker has only three cigarettes a day and then throws the butts wherever he or she pleases. That makes for more than 20,000 cigarette butts a day littering our campus.
The question is, why are there cigarette butts all over the lawns and walks of KU when every building on campus
Ashtrays are provided outside of most campus buildings. Use them.
has at least one ashtray outside its doors? It is nothing short of laziness and carelessness on the part of smoker who think that their one cigarette won't make a difference. That is, if they even think at all before tossing their trash into a bush or flower bed.
As KU students, part of the money we pay goes to keeping the campus clean and well-groomed. Littering not only takes away from the beauty of campus but, in the long run, it costs us. If the money we pay for campus maintenance
and landscaping goes to cleaning up our mess, that likely leaves less money for the University to spend on new shrubs, flowers and landscaping.
Solving this problem is not difficult. If you are smoking a cigarette between classes, walk the few extra feet to drop your cigarette butt in an ashtray rather than tossing it on the ground. If you can't find an ashtray, put out the cigarette on the bottom of your shoe and drop it in a trash can.
The University spends thousands of dollars every year to keep our campus beautiful. As smokers, we need to spend an extra minute and do our part to keep it that way by throwing our cigarette butts where they belong — in an ashtray.
BEN SHOCKEY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Students should be more proactive
So with all these dissatisfied students, a forum on advising, a forum for student complaints and suggestions, should draw a big crowd. right? Wrong.
Many students claim that advising is one of the biggest problems facing the University. After all, many undergraduates do not have a real adviser until the end of their sophomore year. In this case, a real adviser would be someone who does more than sign an Academic Record Tracking System form.
The town hall meeting sponsored by Student Senate last Tuesday at Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall had a whopping four students in attendance, all residents of GSP-Corbin. Some student senators were present, as well as the people responsible for putting together the meeting, but actual student participation was minimal.
When the University decides to address a problem, especially one that affects the student body, students
Town hall meetings are a way to get input,but few students are participating.
should stand up and be heard. Without student involvement, the University administration will be forced to assume that the issue is not important to students, and it may decide to disregard the issue until students are actually interested in getting involved in the decision-making process.
The University can spend time and money to rectify its woes. But unless students are involved, administrators may not be aware of all the problems students face on an issue. Student apathy should compel the University to disregard this and other problems for which students seem to have no opinion.
this campus. It does, however, affect about 12,000 students. When only four students attend a forum to discuss an issue that affects about half of the campus population, something is definitely wrong, and the fault lies with the 12,000 students who were unable to get off their couches for an hour to take an active role in helping themselves.
Granted, freshman and sophomore advising does not affect all students on
Apathetic students are a major problem with advising. Instead of sitting at home and whining about the University's inability to fulfill its responsibilities, students should actively seek career advice from faculty.
Any plan the University proposes is doomed to fail if students do not take an active role.
The whole point of a better advising system is to make it easier for students to choose a major and to look for potential career options. If students are unwilling to be involved in this process, maybe they should rethink why they attended college in the first place.
KANSAN STAFF
LA TINA SULLIVAN . . . Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASI . . . News
NOVELDA SOMMERS . . . News
LESLIE TAYLOR . . . News
AMANDA TRAUGHBER . . News
TARA TRENARY . . News
DAVID TESKA . . . Online
SPENCER DUNCAN . . Sports
GINA THORNBURG . Associate Sports
BRADLEY BROOKS . . Campus
LINDSHEY HENRY . . Campus
DAVE BRETTENSTEIN . Features
PAM DISIMAN . Photo
TYLER WIRKEN . Photo
BRYAN VOLK . Design
ANDY ROHRBACK . Graphics
ANDREA ALBIGHT . Wire
LIZ MUSSER . Special sections
AERICA VEAZEY . News clerk
NICOLE SKALLA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
NEWS EDITORS
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HEATHER VALLER ... Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR ... Campus
DANA CENTENO ... Regional
ANNETTE HOVER ... National
BRIAN PAGEL ... Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI ... Internet
DARCI MCLAIN ... Production
DENA PISCOTTE ... Production
ALLISON PIERCE ... Special sections
SARA ROSE ... Creative
DANA LAUVETZ ... Public relations
BRIAN LEFEVRE ... Classified
RACHEL RUBIN ... Assistant classified
BRIDGET COLLYER ... Zone
JULIE DEWITT ... Zone
CHRIS HAGHIRIAN ... Zone
LIZ HESS ... Zone
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Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
How to submit letters and guest columns
All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Kimberly Crabtree (opinion@kansan.com) or LaTina Sullivan (sullivan@kansan.com) at 848-4810.
Oliver Hall resident ready for new home
Columns
Waking up at 3:30 a.m. to a fire alarm for the third time last week reaffirmed my joy at leaving the University housing system after this semester. Standing outside the residence hall on this subarctic February morning and watching fire engines make yet another useless trip down Nai-
nuch I will enjoy
smith drive reminded me how living in my own house with my own smoke detectors that will only sound when they detect smoke.
I've lived in the KU residence halls for two years. For the first year I even worked there as a desk assistant and security monitor. I know the complex director, the residence assistants and the cafeteria staff. I know what time the food service truck comes to drop off our meals. I know
out me cafeteria closes at 9 a.m. for breakfast.
But if you get there at 9:05, you can still get cereal and bagels, and they don't scan your card.
I know that the change machine does not give you four quarters for a dollar. Instead, it gives you three quarters, two dimes, and a nickel in the fervent hope that you will spend the odd change in the vending machines instead of the washing machines. I also know which vending machines give you back a quarter for two dimes and a nickel.
I know exactly how long it takes to walk to Wescoe starting from the 10th floor of Oliver Hall. I know that the mail gets to the residence hall at 2:30 p.m., but doesn't get to our boxes until 4:30 p.m. I know that it is not a dorm but a residence hall. I know that I cannot take a shower between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. because our cleaning lady cleans the showers then. I know the cleaning lady's name is Norma.
I know that the elevator on the left opens and closes its doors twice when it gets to the 10th floor. I know that pizza and Chinese food delivery drivers cannot deliver the food to your door. I also know the pizza and Chinese places that will deliver to your door anyway. I know how to fit an entire jumbo Gumby's pizza box into a 3.5 cubic foot refrigerator, a microwave and a trash can. I know the shelf life of a jumbo Gumby's pizza when it's being stored in a 3.5 cubic foot refrigerator.
I know that you have to check guests in with a picture ID after 11 p.m. I also know that it doesn't really matter whose picture ID it is. I know why they moved the pool table into the lobby and out of the windowless, lockable room in the basement. I know my roommate. I know our fish. I know Oliver Hall.
I know dorm life. I know dorm life too well. It is definitely time for a change.
So, last semester I got together with three of my friends, and we started looking for houses. We called real estate agencies, talked to our friends who already had apartments, and finally narrowed our search to three or four places close to campus. We calculated the cost with food and utilities, and it was about $100 a month cheaper than the residence hall. We will be able to sign a lease in April.
I know that it is time for a change. I know that the house my friends and I want to live in will be much better than the residence hall. I know that it will be cheaper, bigger, nicer, quieter and cleaner than the residence hall. What I don't know is how to convince my dad to pay for it.
Mary Corcoran is an Overland Park sophomore in Journallam.
Life is a dance, so be sure you find the right music
The last time I was in Andover, I managed to catch a basketball game at my old high school. The home Trojans hammered the Maize Eagles 71-55, and I got to see some old friends.
But it wasn't so much the game as the halftime show that caught my attention. After the Trojanettes dance squad did its number, one of the squad's members came forward to perform a solo.
It's been two years since I left Andover High, and the folks that I knew are becoming fewer and farther between. This dancer was Bree David, and although I don't know her well enough
to talk about her personally, her act seemed to be an analogy for life. Bree was dancing to Michael Card's El Shaddai.
The moment I heard the song, I was surprised. While most high schoolers — and, I dare say, college students — would rather dance to the latest Seal or Babyface — or worse, the *Evita* dance mix — Bree was dancing to a patently religious song at a public school. And it was in front of hundreds of people.
As I watched her dance, I realized something. There are three ways to handle your beliefs. You can tiptoe through life, constantly afraid to upset
someone and avoiding conflict at every turn. You can march through life, throwing your world view in the face of everyone who disagrees with you.
There are thousands of people, even on this campus, who are frustrated because they don't understand how to dance through life. Most of them are marching, stomping on toes at every opportunity and insisting on abject compliance with their every wish. When they don't get their way, they overreact. Others are tiptoeing, and their spinelessness is their downfall.
The next time you're angry at the system or at those around you for rejecting your message, examine your own actions. Are you tiptoeing, marching, or are you dancing?
Dance onto the platform of life so people can see you. You may not receive a standing ovation, but your message will be heard.
When you dance, you live what you believe, and you aren't afraid to show the world who you are. Every note of the song is an element of your dance, and the entire number is one consistent work of art. You dance for yourself and for everyone around you. You dance without shouting or raising a fist. And people will watch.
Andry Rohback is an Andover junior in Journalism and political science. E-mail: arohback@tamsa.com
Or you can dance.
Kansan used statistics improperly in GPA story
Once again The University Daily Kansan has chosen to participate in the proliferation of junk journalism. In the Feb. 19 article, Greek houses excel in academics, it is implied that the KU fraternity and sorority members academically outperform the rest of the student body.
To support this, the average GPAs of all Greek students and all University students are quoted.
The problem lies in what seems to be a common ignorance, or worse, an indifference, on the part of journalists toward the proper use of statistics.
Letters
If a mean is presented as representative, in this case the GPA of a typical student either Greek or otherwise, it must be accompanied by its standard deviation.
For example, as an approximation, we took the standard deviation of the means presented for the various greek organizations.
Many foreign students are attending college on American tax money.
The result is a GPA of 2.904, plus or minus .253 for a typical Greek student.
Kelly Farrar, Ph. D.
Lawrence resident
Timothy Catterson
Kearney, Neb,
graduate student
Andrew Dunmer Lawrence graduate student
Patrick De Lurgio Shawnee senior
Considering that this is a place of higher learning, where many of us not only use statistics on a daily basis, but also endeavor to educate students in their proper use, we ask that in the future rather than impede, you assist in the University's mission to education by abstaining from such improper use of statistics.
Columnist can't be too displeased with the U.S.
This is statistically identical to the given value of 2.840 for all university students. This statement can be made without even considering the standard deviation of the GPA for University students. To do so would only improve the agreement.
In response to Namkyu Park's article on his views of Americans regarding discrimination
against the foreign students, his experiences cannot be too unpleasant if he has stayed in this country for six years.
One student in California complained because his welfare payment of $2,500 a month was being decreased by $200 because of the student grant money he was to receive.
Foreign residents by the thousands are rushing to become citizens because a law was passed to eliminate welfare and social security payments to non-citizens.
Guess why they are here.
People are still flooding into this country and very few are leaving.
Instead of going back to their own country to make it a better place for its citizens, many foreign students are finding ways to stay here.
If Park is so displeased, maybe he should find a place where he is more comfortable.
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Clara Westphal
Lawrence resident