OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
4A
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBELY CRATEFET, Editorial director
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZIMKE, business manager DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager JUSTIN KNUPI, Technology coordinator JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
Fridav. February 21, 1997
Jeff MacNeily/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Editorials
SUA should consider speaker's interest, public-speaking abilities
Amid the debate following Spike Lee's recent visit to the University of Kansas, one thing is certain. It cost $18,000 to bring him here.
Was it a wise investment?
Maybe, maybe not. But, beyond the debate about whether Lee's visit was successful is a larger question, "What do we want from a speaker?"
"Pop culture sells," said Josh Mermis, coordinator of the Student Union Activities forums committee that brought Lee to campus. Mermis said his committee aimed to bring speakers who had wide appeal among students.
"People can now say they saw Spike Lee at KU." Mermis said. "And KU got a lot of good coverage from him being here."
But the privilege of dropping Lee's name at a cocktail party isn't worth $18,000, not when that amount could bring several speakers — speakers who don't require a basketball ticket — to campus. Commercial appeal and name recognition must be balanced with a speaker's ability to deliver a significant
Groups should decide what they want potential speakers to deliver.
performance, whether it's a poetry reading, lecture or anything else.
In the most basic sense, speakers are hired to speak to students. As Lee demonstrated, the ability to make an excellent film is not necessarily related to the desire or skill to talk with students about the issues they care about.
We are students at a university. Shouldn't we invest our money in learning something, rather than just attracting a big name to campus?
Beyond that, shouldn't we also demand that speakers be willing to interact with students? The Hall Center for the Humanities, which brings several speakers yearly on a more limited budget of $9,000, has clear guidelines for evaluating potential speakers, said Janet Crow, acting executive director. The
Hall Center does extensive research into how potential speakers interacted with audiences at previous lectures.
"We really do quite a bit of checking to make sure the speaker wants to meet with faculty and students." Crow said.
Mermis said he also had checked out the speakers' previous lecture venues, but only those that were given to him by the speakers' agents. It's unlikely, then, that a balanced view of a speaker's performance will emerge. More research needs to be done into a speaker's relations with students. After all, we bring speakers here to talk with us, not to avoid us.
Certainly no one can predict the future. No one can know for sure what kind of performances speakers will give until they give them. But if SUA understands that KU students want speakers who will deliver substance, it can make these expectations clear to potential speakers.
SUA invests in speakers for students' benefit. As students, it's our choice to decide what we want from our investment.
River dredging should be denied
LAURA WEXLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The Army Corps of Engineers should not grant Penny's Concrete permission to dredge the Kansas River. If the proposed site is dredged, the common good of Kansans will be ignored and another natural habitat will be adversely altered.
Lance Burr, a farm owner near the river and co-founder of Friends of the Kaw, said that dredging not only created a river bottom of mud, but that it also deepened the channel, which encouraged erosion of the surrounding land. The river's sand bottoms are a distinct feature which contribute to its beauty.
Recreational enjoyment of the river would be compromised next.
People recently have rediscovered the recreational possibilities of the Kansas River. It is an excellent place for canoeing and is regaining the reputation as a recreational site. Unfortunately, past dredging of the Kansas River has created obstacles for recreational users.
Although Bill Penny, owner of Penny's Concrete, has proposed to use plastic pipelines that sink into the river to make canoeing safer, hazards still exist.
In December, the Army Corps of Engineers recognized this problem and denied a permit to Victory Sand and Gravel to dredge at a site nearly 20 miles from Penny's proposed site. Despite that decision, Penny's company has kept its eye on the river.
Penny's Concrete should not be allowed to dredge the Kansas River.
Recently in the University Daily Kansan, Penny said that the river was the best resource for sand. He explained that pit extraction away from the river would be environmentally more detrimental because it required burning more fuel,
thus adding more toxins to the air.
That may be true, but mining off the river also means expensive sand. Penny's would pay only 15 cents a ton to the state. If Penny's pit-mined off the river, the company would have to buy the land.
But this sand shouldn't even be for sale. It belongs to the people of Kansas. Simply because the area has a reputation for industrial grounds does not mean it should be open to unregulated environmental assault.
If the Army Corps allows Penny's to extract sand from the river, another site to enjoy nature's beauty would be lost. Dering Penny's Concrete a permit to dredge the Kansas River would not be radical environmentalism. When the benefits of public enjoyment far outweigh the benefits of private gain, nature must be protected.
Also, the limit per dredging site is 300,000 tons of sand, but Burr said no one was responsible for enforcing the limit.
KANSAN STAFF
ANDREW LONGSTRETH FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Those of us unfortunate enough to attend Spike Lee's lecture saw stupidity in one of its purest forms.
Spike Lee fan did the wrong thing at speech
Column
Stupidity comes in all shapes, sizes and colors.
I'll probably get some flak for writing this, but I don't care. If you're bold enough to act like a fool
in front of 1,950 people, then you're bold enough to handle the criticism and social commentary that comes with the territory.
For those who didn't attend the lecture or haven't heard about "You Know," he was the ever-so-cool, hip-hop brother who "you know what I'm saying ... just wanted to lead his people ...'cause you know what I'm saying ... can you help a brother out?"
However, I am offended when individual expression turns into a clown show, manages to portray disturbing stereotypes about African Americans and invalidates the accomplishments of the true unsung leaders on this campus — those who work diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the journey for the next African-American student will be easier.
I'm all for individual expression and realize that people have the right to express themselves as they see fit.
In five minutes, "You Know" portrayed African-American KU students as incoherent, rambling idiots who can't verbally express themselves or get organized unless some film director shows them the way. He also managed to slip in the "we can't resist the urge to steal 'cause you know ...
His questions and comments dragged on in this manner for five minutes until Spike told him he could come backstage and talk to him. "You Know" then proceeded down the aisle with his ever-so-down gamba' walk.
For those who missed it, after Spike finished his lecture, "You Know" walked across the stage and — oh so smoothly — slipped a bottle of water off the table.
it's just too tempting."
These actions made me cringe, but what really made me angry was that "You Know" had the audacity to say that he wanted to "you know ... organize (he's not sure for what) ... and lead (only God knows where) his people."
During the course of a semester the Black Pan-Hellenic Council, Black Student Union and other African-American student groups have offered free peer tutoring and counseling, brought innercity children to the University to show them their options, organized an African-American resource fair, organized bone marrow drives, volunteered in nursing homes and the Boys and Girls Club, and the list goes on. These people are full-time students and do this work above and beyond their full-time course loads and jobs.
With this utterance he belittled the many unnoticed accomplishments that African-American students have achieved on campus.
I think it's time that African-American students who are not involved in athletics are recognized for their contributions to the University of Kansas.
With little or no recognition, these students give their time and energy because they have an interest in their campus community. Instead of asking others, who will not take an active interest in KU's African-American community, for help, these students take matters into their own hands.
And they will continue to do so, not for attention, but because they are true leaders and realize that organization and leadership have a lot to do with hard work, commitment and dedication and little to do with empty rhetoric.
You know what I'm saying?
LaTina Sullivan is a Memphis, Tenn., senior in journalism.
Guest column
Availability of old tests, papers lead greeks astray
Greek houses commonly provide their members with dubious test and paper files, which inevitably are a source of frustration for professors. If the files in question never existed, then neither would the temptation to use them. A professor's effort to eliminate such detrimental influences are not unjust.
It is a professor's responsibility to be impartial. But student attempts to gain unfair and unethical advantages force professors to abandon that impartiality. In each case, it is the professor's job to confront the problem.
Greek students are no more victims than they are recipients of just, albeit frustrating, treatment, much the same as the majority of the nation's university students. To say
This duty is largely placed on the backs of professors.
The fact that greek students believe that they no longer can have pride in their respective houses also is odd. Sororities and fraternites are exclusive, private organizations, and their selective
Test files can serve a noble purpose as an academic resource for students. But once the files become a tool for misconduct they make the academic playing field unlevel, and it is the University of Kansas' duty to maintain integrity.
After reading the University Daily Kansan article Greek Discrimination, I thought the greek students quoted possessed an odd and distorted view of justice, as well as a blindness to a nearly hypnotic double standard.
their professors as prejudiced and unreasonable, yet failed to support their theories. Both students were treated by the professors not only with the utmost academic impartiality, but, in one case, with an entirely undeserved grace.
that a professor's frustrations with the Greek system are misdirected is unfair to the professor.
The students quoted in the article portrayed
membership practices do little to alter the negative impressions people may have of greeks.
If greeks feel victimized and harassed, they should take a moment to look at the big picture. When on campus, all students, including Greeks, are given the same academic opportunities.
In fact, a disproportionate number of Student Senate seats are filled by Greek members, giving them disproportionate representation in the University hierarchy.
Greek students should be angry at those who take advantage of their privileges, not at the professors who grow tired of dealing with such immature conduct.
Contrastingly, in the social realm, fraternities and sororites enjoy an elitist luxury of exclusion and prejudice, in which objectivity virtually plays no role and unfounded bias dictates who is worthy of admittance.
I am not in any way saying that greek students are a lesser breed of student, or that I believe Greek students are inherently more dishonest and unethical than the rest of us. I am, however, saying that the Greek system must accept some responsibility for the conduct of its members, especially when the resources they provide tempt their members to use unethical means to accomplish their objectives.
Otherwise, it is not a case of one bad apple spoiling the bunch, it's of one bad system spoiling its members.
When the greek system can say that it is doing everything in its power to dissuade academic misconduct, then measures can be sought to ensure that greek students are not falsely being accused of such practices.
I wouldn't leave money lying about in the open. This isn't because I distrust society, but I can curb a would-be criminal's temptation to take the money by eliminating the opportunity.
Matthew Podszus is a Colorado Springs, Colo., Junior.
If an added academic element of partiality were to exist, it would further skew the professed equality of all University students.
Jeff MacNelly/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
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