OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
CRAB LANG, Editor
SUSANA LOOF, Managing editor
KIMBELY CRAFTER, Editorial director
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZMKEK, Business manager
DENNIS HAUNER, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUPE, Technology coordinator
JA YSTEIN, Sales and marketing adviser
Tuesday, February 4, 1997
Erik Grier/KANSAN
Editorials
KU should consider all students when deciding to cancel class
Although students rejoiced at the cancellation of classes on the afternoon of Jan. 27, the news came five hours too late. For the unlucky students without bus passes, the ones who spent the morning coaxing their cars up the snow-packed, icey hills around campus, the announcement seemed pointless. Why weren't classes canceled earlier in the day? The weather was clearly awful, as testified by all of the drivers stalled on campus.
The decision to cancel classes must be made by the chancellor and the provost, said Provost David Shulenburger. The decision is based on whether traffic can safely move on campus.
Classes were canceled because of the
The decision to cancel classes on Jan. 27 came about five hours too late.
large number of cars that were having problems on campus and impeding the bus traffic. The ability of the buses to run is an understandable factor to determine whether classes should be held, but it should not be the main factor.
Shulenburger said that the commuting radius for the University was so large that it would be difficult to determine if the weather was bad enough in each of the surrounding areas to warrant closing.
Bob Grunzinger, KU on Wheels coordinator, said that 6,000 students on campus have bus passes. With that in mind, the university should consider all the other students students who walk or drive to class, including those who commute from Kansas City and Topeka.
However, most students, commuters included, have to make it to campus for classes. If the weather is terrible in Lawrence, then they won't be able to get to those classes.
Poor road conditions are a serious threat to all commuters — whether it is parents taking their children to elementary school or college students driving themselves to class.
If the Lawrence schools close because of hazardous roads, the University should take the same precautions.
KAREN CHANDLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
GTAs need support to get benefits
Now that graduate teaching assistants are unionized at the University of Kansas, they are requesting fair working conditions. The GTA Coalition is meeting with the University to once again discuss benefits for graduate teaching assistants.
These benefits include a health care plan, a cost-of-living wage increase and a guaranteed tuition waver. Currently, GTAs have their tuition waved, but the University has yet to guarantee this benefit.
GTAs are a benefit to both students and the University, and they deserve basic benefits.
basic benefits.
Unfortunately, there is an air of weariness surrounding the coalition about the University taking their requests seriously. This is largely a result of the membership level. Because Kansas is a "Right to Work" state, employees who qualify for union membership can still receive union benefits without actually joining
GTAs are only requesting fair working conditions from the University.
Most universities with unionized GTAs offer at least these simple benefits to GTAs. Graduate students who teach do so because they have a passion for their area of study, not for the income it may provide. Yet the University seems unwilling to ensure that GTAs can afford to eat while finishing their degrees. As a result, more than a few GTAs hold other jobs in addition to teaching and taking graduate classes.
the union or paying any dues. Therefore, the GTAC membership roll does not have many names on it, but the organization fights for the rights of many.
University officials also fail to recognize the vast amount of money GTAs save them each year. If professors were required for all of the classes now taught by GTAs, the cost of paying those professors would be much higher. But GTAs are more valuable than the money they save the University and they deserve to be treated that way.
A majority of KU students have had GTAs as instructors at some point during their college careers. GTAs are
often closer in age to their students, which makes it easier for some students to approach them with questions.
The GTAC is having a rally at 12:30 p.m. today in front of Wescoe Hall before the group meets with University officials tomorrow. The purpose of this rally is to bring attention to the coalition's requests. Undergraduate students are encouraged to sign a petition supporting the requests.
If the University sees a greater support for GTAs, then perhaps officials will take GTAs' requests seriously and grant them the benefits they deserve.
KANSAN STAFF
DREW DEGOOD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
NEWS EDITORS
LA TINA SULLIAN . . . Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASI . . . News
NOVELDA SOMMERS . . . News
LESLEY TAYLOR . . . News
AMANDA TRAUGHBER . . . News
TARA TRENARY . . . News
DAVID TESKA . . . Online
SPENCER DUNCAN . . Sports
GINA THORNBURG . . . Associate Sports
BRADLEY BROOKS . . . Campus
LINDSEE HENRY . . . Campus
DAVE BRETTENSTEIN . Features
PAM DISHMAN . . Photo
TYLER WIRKEN . Photo
BRYAN VOLK. . . Design
ANDY ROHRBACK . . Graphics
ANDREA ALBRIGHT . . Wire
LZ MUSSER . . Special sections
AERICA VEAZEY . . News clerk
AVEHAVEN THEATER
HEATHER VALLER ... Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR ... Campus
DANA CENTENO ... Regional
ANNETTE HOVER ... National
BRIAN PAGEL ... Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI ... Internet
DARCI McLAIN ... Production
DENA PISCIOTTE ... 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
ANTHONY MIGLIAZOA ... Executive
ANTHONY MIGLIAZOA ... Executive
ANTHONY MIGLIAZOA ... Executive
ANTHONY MIGLIAZOA ... Executive
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Column
In the real world, small talk is useless
I saw my old acquaintance Joe Schmo walking down Massachusetts Street the other day and for no reason whatsoever wanted desperately to avoid talking to him. I was going one way, and he was
The most tragic events are the stupid ones you have to endure every day.
late to cross to the other side of the street, and I could feel it coming. Seeing Joe before he saw me, I accidentally triggered the beginning of a dreadful duel.
The despised "Oh God, don't make eye contact so I won't have to make pointless small talk" game.
in this unspoken — but deadly serious — epic battle, it is acceptable to glare at the
person walking toward me, but not at the same moment in which he peers at me.
If you're lucky, you both win and hurry happily past, pretending not to notice one another, which is what happened with Joe and me on Massachusetts Street. We completed the game by refusing to acknowledge one another's existence even though it was only a month and a half ago when we sat together in Western Civilization.
But in the sad, alternative outcome to the eye contact game, both contestants lose as their eyes lock for even the smallest fraction of a second.
If this calamity occurs, both weary warriors are penalized with 30 seconds of boring small talk, usually starting with "How was your break?" moving on to how cold it's gotten and culminating in authentic claims of how we really need to get together one of these days. We really only care about how cold it's gotten, but there still no reason to talk about it with everyone.
Add to this dull chat the confusion of not know
ing whether you are on the handshake, hug or high-five basis with your Joe Schmo, and you've got an awkward situation every time you see some jerk you know coming toward you on Massachusetts Street.
so the ideal solution is to play the game that avoids banal conversations and embarrassing displays of affection. Some say the looking-at-the-watch tactic is effective in avoiding people, but I prefer the game because there's more skill involved. Besides, possibly more demeaning than small talk is someone catching you looking at your bare wrist, realizing that your watch is sitting on your dresser at home.
A nice little post-script to the game: If you're walking with someone you know, and you've both just successfully passed good old Schmo, you turn to your partner once Schmo is safely out of earshot and exclaim, "Hey, wasn't that Joe Schmo?," knowing full well all along that it was Joe Schmo.
The conversations we have with people we kind of know are a million times worse than those with whom we share no experiences. For example, we don't seem to mind telling the barber about what we're doing in school. Then again he's got us hostage and may well butcher our hair if we clam up during his trite interrogation. At least men have sports to fall back on in the hair stylist's chair. What's the common denominator for women?
Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. We've all played the game before, and we'll play it again for a simple, indisputable reason: There's nothing more awful on this earth than small talk. It turns completely intelligent and interesting folks into mindless zombies programmed to repeat certain lame catch phrases while kicking themselves for not having anything deeper to say.
Jeff Ruby is a Wichita graduate student in Journalism
Guest column
Advising plan would end confusion, intimidation
Ask any 50 freshmen and sophomores at the University of Kansas what advising is, and you'll probably get 50 different answers. As a junior in a professional school, my experience with advising has been positive. However, as a freshman I was too intimidated to ask for any help and as a sophomore I was too confident in my own advising system to care.
REBECCA KELLEY
It wasn't until I was appointed to the Student Senate Subcommittee for Academic Affairs and Student Outreach, and later to the Vision 2020 Committee for the Improvement of Advising Services for Freshman and Sophomores that I discovered why the University's advising is inadequate and inconsistent.
If advising does not become an academic priority at this
I also began to understand how decentralized the University's advising system is. To even call it a system would be too complimentary. To some students it is based on enrollment, while to others it involves mentor-relationships.
university, it could cost each student time, money and postelital income after graduation.
The advising blueprint formulated by the Vision 2020 Committee will make advising for freshman and sophomores consistent through the creation of a central advising center.
The center would coordinate all advising efforts for freshmen and sophomores. It would employ 20 advisers full-time, including regularly scheduled advisers from the professional schools and advising by qualified graduate students and peers. The center would lay a foundation for students continuing in the liberal arts or in the professional schools.
The new advising center would serve as a clearinghouse of information for KU freshmen and sophomores, alerting them to campus services and organizations and volunteer opportunities. This would alleviate much of the confusion and intimidation many freshmen experience when they enter the University.
The committee also recommends that personnel from the career placement and study abroad offices be moved to or spend time in the advising center. Better coordination with these offices
The center also would provide technological resources to students and faculty, including online information pertaining to advising and student services, and accessible student records for advisers.
would inform freshman and sophomores of the existing services and opportunities that are offered.
Ideally, advising should be a top priority for faculty at the University of Kansas. However, this probably won't happen until the University places a greater value on advising. Professional advisers who participate in the center should be compensated for their efforts, and evaluated by students.
Advisers have a responsibility to their students to not only provide accurate enrollment information but to serve as a guide in outlining University and lifetime goals. The committee believes advisors should care about students and be accessible and approachable. Programs such as those provided for honors and at-risk students do an excellent job, but these opportunities should be available to every KU student.
Public advising forums will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Pioneer Room at the Burge Union and at 7 p.m. Monday in the Jayhawk Room at the Kansas Union. Please take this opportunity to voice your opinion on the Vision 2020 advising proposal.
Yet, along with faculty responsibility comes student responsibilities. Under the Vision 2020 proposal freshman would be required to visit the advising center before enrollment.
Student input is important to the advising committee. I strongly encourage students to read copies of the committee's recommended advising blueprint that are available through departments, campus organizations and University Senate. Our committee is open to suggestions and would value comments students might offer.
To be successfully advised, students must be prepared and take advantage of the resources available. The committee recommends that students only make changes in their recommended course of study after consulting an adviser. In effect, both the adviser and the student need to make a commitment to each other for the new center to prove effective.
Bebecca Kelley is an Englewood, Colo.,Junior in business communications.
Letter
Columnist's incident was misunderstanding
In response to Namkyu Park's Jan. 22 column on racial discrimination, I really must say that I don't believe the library incident which he described was an act of discrimination. While obviously no one would ever be amused with being completely ignored by a library worker for a long period of time, it is not likely that there
was racial hatred behind Park's being ignored.
Almost any person working at a job that involves serving people would never risk their necks by openly ignoring a customer, no matter how racist that person might be. No one would ever be that cruel, only to serve a female patron of a different race only moments later.
Is it possible that the library worker simply thought that Park was not waiting for assistance? Or could he have just
accidentally thought that the man at the counter had already been waited on? Things like this happen from time to time; they're known as misunderstandings. And while the column did address a worthwhile topic, racial discrimination, a misunderstanding like the one that apparently happened to Park isn't something worth getting upset about.
Steven Bromert
Des Moines, Iowa, junior