OPINION
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOF, Managing editor
KIMBERLY CRANTEE, Editorial editor
TOM EBILEN, General manager, news adviser
MARK OZIMER, Business manager
DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KUFTK, Technology coordinator
JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
Friday, January 31, 1997
Editorials
University, students should take active role to protect cars
Each semester, students at the University of Kansas suffer the task of finding a parking space in congested and inadequate parking lots.
Last weekend, four vehicles parked in lot 112 near Oliver Hall were damaged and burglarized. The damage was estimated at $1600. Police said these incidents possibly were perpetrated by the same party.
Now, in addition to general parking problems, there have been several incidents that lead us to question the safety of the University's parking lots.
Every day, the University Daily Kansas reports every day the various random acts of vandalism and burglary like a car stereo stolen and damage to vehicles. However, many students gloss over these incidents.
The security of University parking
Car burglaries have led some students to question the safety of parking lots.
should not be taken for granted, and these incidents should not be overlooked.
The pervasiveness of these vandals and thieves is a symptom of the questionable safety of University parking. Lots are often inadequately monitored, which results in the presence of illegally parked vehicles and loitering.
We should question whether the funds and labor devoted to the safety of University parking lots and the protection of students' private property are adequate.
weight, then the answer would be a firm no.
Students, however, cannot only blame the University and parking officials. As educated and informed citizens, students should take precautions such as not leaving valuable property inside a vehicle, and they must use their common sense.
However, we must consider whether the simple addition of lights is a panacea or whether more stringent measures are needed like the increase patrols and funding.
The addition of new lighting to many lots attempts to combat these crimes, and this effort should be commended.
Either way, measures should be taken so that students can be confident that their concerns are addressed and their interests are protected.
PHONG HU FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
BSU deserves block-allocation status
The Student Senate finance committee made the correct decision Wednesday when it granted the Black Student Union block-allocation status. The committee reversed last semester's proposal to remove BSU's block-allocation status.
Certainly, the recent decision was not unanimous. The proposal for block-allocation status passed by one vote. Debate arose from perceived incidents of financial mismanagement on the part of the BSU and whether it deserved the flexibility of block-allocation status.
Block allocation is a two-year privilege reserved primarily for professional and community-oriented groups.
BSU had a deficit of $420 during Summer 1995. Andrea Lockett, Shawnee junior and BSU president, said the deficit resulted because BSU officers
Finance committee made the right decision to reverse BSU's status.
were away for the summer, and consequently, the group was unable to pay the bill. The Comptroller's Office was forced to pay the outstanding bill.
However, all things considered, BSU's block-allocation status did not need to be suspended.
In order for BSU to execute a creative and proactive strategy in its recruiting and educational efforts, the group needs to be free of bureaucratic shackles.
group's ability to benefit the University of Kansas. The educational purpose that BSU embodies has benefited the University since the group's creation in 1968. At a time when minority recruitment is more important than ever, Senate should support BSU's endeavors.
The finance committee demonstrated concern for this incident.
Certainly, the BSU is not off the hook. The allocation process comes next. During the budget hearings, Senate probably will, and should, scrutinize BSU's $27,500 request for next year, which is $3,250 more than this year's budget.
Because most groups with block-allocation status have professional staffs, the student-operated BSU should prove it is capable of handling such responsibility
Restricting BSU to a line-item allocation status would have diminished the
Everyone involved should realize that student money is a responsibility that should not be handled lightly.
NEWS EDITORS
KANSAN STAFF
LA TINA SULLIVAN ... Associate Editorial
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Suburban flight slows city's growth
Columns
A civil war of sorts is going on in Kansas City. Pitted against each other are the "north" and "south," or, more specifically, downtown Kansas City against its suburbs. The Mason-Dixon Line could be drawn along Interstate 435.
Urban sprawl is slowly sucking the lifeblood out of Kansas City. Downtown and surrounding areas are being abandoned as people and industry continue to leave the city's core for the green expanses of southern Johnson County. What effects will this unchecked growth have on the city?
Already, several generations of so-called Kansas Citians have grown up with
Abandonment seems to be at the heart of the debate. Older parts of the city are being left to decay while developers move elsewhere to create hollow imitations of the city's past. This leaves a growing wasteland at the city's roots. Even Kansas City's coveted Country Club Plaza is feeling the pinch of suburban expansion as Leawood's copy, Town Center Plaza, siphons off more high-end retail dollars.
The newer developments lack the planning and zoning that could actually complement existing areas. For example, Hallbrook Farms,
stronger ties to Oak Park Mall than to the city's historic sites. The cultural contributions of the city, like museums, restaurants and theaters — and I don't mean movie theaters — lie within the city limits. It seems these places are rarely frequented, and I still have friends who could give me better directions to Old Navy, a clothing store, or Movies 10 than to the city market or even a bar in Westport.
one of southern Johnson County's exclusive enclaves, has more mock-tudor and quasi-colonial homes per square acre than all of Johnson County combined.
Signs are evident of developments' infiltration into the city's older sections. Recent construction along old-moneyed Ward Parkway, near the Plaza, reveals one particular home, with obvious Hallbrook undertones, looking more like a gigantic Taco Bell than one of the stately homes it is nestled between.
These developments are blatant knock offs of existing area landmarks, yet their success strains older neighborhoods.
There are few concessions on this issue among residents. Someone living in midtown, unable to escape the encroaching strip clubs, is not likely to feel fondly toward people deserting the city for a more comfortable suburb. Likewise, the legions of mini-vanned suburbanites are probably not willing to venture back into the city for something that could just as easily be picked up at the local mall.
For Kansas City and its suburbs to thrive planning is essential. Salvaging an architecturally significant building downtown should be considered before businesses rush to a distant corn field in Overland Park to begin construction on some new office park.
We must continue to support plans to revitalize areas that have fallen to ruin. Union Station's conversion to a science museum and recent downtown hotel and convention center construction are good examples.
Like the riverfront casinos, Kansas City needs to gamble on overlooked areas that could rejuvenate depressed parts of town.
Mike Cole is a Mission Hills junior in Journalism.
People lose belongings find kindness in floods
Sarah bragged to everybody about the weather in California. She talked about wearing short sleeves in December and going to the beach in February.
February. She was referring more to Southern California, where she had done her undergraduate work, then to the northern part
than to the northern part,
where we are from. And when-
ever California was mentioned
last semester, often so were
the words sunny, warm and
beach.
While Kansas experienced mild weather during much of the winter break, the West Coast was plagued with some of the worst flooding in its history.
I think Sarah jinxed us.
California weather attracted
California ariate attention. Friends and family from nationwide attention. Friends and family from Kansas to New York called us out of concern. So extensive was the damage, President Clinton declared the state a major disaster area. More than half the state's counties operated in states of emergency.
The flooding forced more than 120,000 people to evacuate their homes, some on short notice. Many waited on rooftops for rescue workers to carry them to safety.
Schools and churches were filled with people who had to seek refuge for a day or two or sometimes longer. They left behind their homes and their memories.
The future of local businesses is still in question. Animals were lost or abandoned. So many that special shelters had to be set up for them alone. People died.
Hazardous roads left many holiday travelers stranded. Near Lake Tahoe, people waited up to 45 minutes to go through one traffic light. It took three hours to drive just 12 miles.
People in surrounding counties nervously watched to see whether levees would cave in, destroying everything those people had.
Others, who were less threatened, viewed with amazement the flooded landmarks and rivers at their highest stages in years.
Some news programs broadcast almost continuously. The news coverage, which pre-empted regular television shows, did not let viewers down in presenting excitement and drama. However, unlike ER, this excitement and drama was real. And it was more tragic than entertaining.
It was a tragedy masked by the calm faces of newscasters, by the distance of the camera and by the shield of the television screen.
It was a tragedy for many people.
n however, until just a couple of days ago, the words nice and weather had ceased to exist in the same sentence.
It was a tragedy for nearly people. But people also banded together. People in one town worked all night to sandbag levees to avoid further flooding. People risked their lives to save others, to save animals and to save irreplaceable possessions.
One couple I know was befriended by a generous man and his son, who took them to a place to stay and then lent the couple their rental car so that they could go get food.
Elena Maculuso is a Sacramento, Calif., graduate student in Journalism.
When I left Lawrence for swampy California, it was a whopping 10 degrees. When I returned three and a half weeks later, I found it even colder than when I had left. I was told of the nice weather in Lawrence while I was gone.
People spent their evenings and weekends volunteering at shelters to help out their less-fortunate neighbors. Many more people donated food and clothing.
People recognized the good in complete strangers and in people they already knew.
Seniors should have priority game seating
Letters
As the best four years of our lives are coming to a close, the pressures of the real world are embarking on us. Resumes, job interviews and KU basketball have become the top priorities of our everyday routines. With so much on our minds, attending KU basketball games have become difficult.
Unlike underclassmen, we don't have time to camp out, therefore we sit in the nosebleed sections. As seniors, we feel that we are slighted because of our other obligations.
We should be rewarded for our three and a half years of hard work and dedication to the University. Seniors should be given allocated seats or priorities over underclassmen Michigan and Duke reward their seniors. Why are we overlooked.
Matt Rubin
Plymouth, Minn, senior
David Bellison
Highland Park, Ill., senior
Ross Chiger
Milwaukee senior
We encourage the KU athletic department and Roy Williams to make some sort of effort to comply with our request. Senior Night on Feb. 22 would be best time to honor our request. After all, what does Senior night mean when the majority of seniors were unable to camp out for days and hours in advance? Seniors want to remember their last game at Allen Field House.
I have two comments.
Columnist logic doesn't explain human atrocities
First, it's high time the Arch Deluxe was put in its place. Robert Bishop rocks.
Second, as I read the column
by Rachel Naas and tried to follow her yeh, it happens, but it shouldn't 'because logic', I almost laughed out loud.
Her poorly thought out defense of John Bennet Ramsey—and I'm not saying he did it—was based on the same logic that some have used to determine that certain races are inferior to others and men are superior to women biology.
I nearly choked on my burrito when I read the sentence that said people like Susan Smith "...are the result of genetic randomness or perhaps bad unbringing."
Rachel Naas may find supporters of her contrived hypothesis in the Bell Curve camp, but no one else will look to the lungfish for answers to human atrocities.
Sem Riepe Mount Pleasant, Iowa, senior