OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor
SUSANNA LOOP, Managing editor
KIMBERLY CRTAFTRE, Editorial director
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news advisor
MARK OZIMER, Business manager
DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
JUSTIN KNUPE, Technology coordinator
JA STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
Thursday, January 30, 1997
Demond Robinson/KANSAN
Editorials
On-campus computer access more difficult than it should be
Student access to computers on campus has long been a glitch in the services offered by the University. Although there are seven labs on campus, excluding those in University housing units, many students have no clue that some of the labs exist.
However, the University has provided students with incorrect information regarding computer labs. At the circulation desk in Watson Library, maps are available showing all the computer labs on campus, who can use them and what hardware and software they are equipped with. Unfortunately, this map is outdated and leaves off at least two labs. Students can obtain a newer map from the reference desk, but this map, updated last year on Feb. 8, is almost a year old. These maps would indeed be helpful to students if they were accurate.
Out of date information may be keeping computer labs elusive to students.
In addition, there is a discrepancy between these two maps. One map lists two labs in 122 and 123 Fraser Hall. These labs do not exist, although there is a lab in a Fraser Hall. This lab is open to classes of students, but not for individual student use because the computers aren't secured to the desks.
This lab was supposed to be open last fall, but many delays kept that from happening. Now the desks and computers are in place, but the lab still is not open. John Lloyd, a systems analyst, said the computers were supposed to be locked down last week. But Lance Rombough, of Networking and Telecommunications, said the computers were not secured until yesterday, and didn't know when the lab would open.
Most of the computer labs that are apart from the computer center are department- or school-specific, which means they are meant for use by students in particular programs. This is acceptable, except that other students are left without much computer access. Students can, however, look forward to the opening of a new computer lab in Budig Hall. This lab will help the problem, but it by no means will solve the computer crisis on campus.
Computer access is a necessity during college, and the University has a responsibility to provide the technological resources necessary in the pursuit of education. If that fails, the University's educational system is in danger of
NICOLE SKALLA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Teacher evaluations aren't ignored
Randomly marking answers on an exam may get some students lucky with a good score, but this technique is not advantageous when answering questions on a teacher evaluation form.
Some students have misconceptions about the significance of teacher evaluations. They feel their assessment of a professor's quality is meaningless when compared to other factors used in the evaluation process. This is not true. Student evaluations are an important part of evaluating a professor at this University.
Lawrence Draper, University Council president, said the Board of Regents mandates that student evaluations be part of a teacher's evaluation. With this mandate comes a responsibility, not only for students to objectively fill out evaluations, but for each department to provide evaluation forms that, as Draper said, are controlled for known biases, such as a student's poor performance in a class having a reflection on the quality
Students should realize that their evaluations make a difference.
So how important are student evaluations to the University? Provost David
of the professor. The Council recently failed in an attempt to provide uniform evaluation forms for every department in the University. But as long as certain criteria are met by each department, Draper said, uniformity could be compromised. These criteria include having evaluation questions that are unambiguous and indifferent to the difficulty level of the class or the strictness of the teacher. However, it is up to students to take teacher evaluations seriously by answering evaluation questions objectively. After all, the goal of student evaluations is to help teachers recognize their strengths as well as their weaknesses.
Shulenburger said student evaluations may be the deciding factor in determining whether professors are eligible for promotions, tenure or sabbaticals. In addition, because the University has a merit-based system for giving raises, student evaluations can play a role in raising professors' salaries. Shulenburger said student evaluation results go into department files at the end of each semester so that they can be used to evaluate teachers.
Student evaluations do not fall on apathetic eyes, as some students suppose. We need to realize that our opinions do matter and that we have a direct role in fostering the accountability of our professors as educators. If we choose not to take part in this role, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. As Shulenburger said, students who do not take their role in the evaluation process seriously should not complain about their instructors.
NICK ZALLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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Column
People need to learn respect, not racism
Maybe the Aryan Nation is not composed of bilthering idiots, as I previously had assumed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Ku Klux Klan was created to ensure the propagation of Caucasians. The goals of the Aryan Nations include the massive propagation of Caucasians and ensuring that interracial relations do not lead to the eradication of the race. This basic premise acknowledges that the Caucasian gene is a recessive gene, which easily would become extinct if mixed with a dominant Black gene.
Hence, perhaps the real answer to eliminating
racism is to take the genetic premise of the Aryan Nation and use it to eliminate the Caucasian race. Caucasians created racism; therefore, the elimination of the Caucasian race probably would create a world devoid of discrimination.
Because that is not likely to happen any time soon, we will have to settle for the elimination of racism. Usually I try to avoid addressing racism. fas
cism, environmentalism or any other "ism" simply for fear of saying something offensive or not politically correct. However, a friend of mine recently pointed out that silence is the root of the problem. KKK and Aryan Nation members and other such racists apparently have no problem voicing their loud, obnoxious and evil opinions. Why is it so difficult for me to stand up for what is right?
The tiny bit of optimism I still possess is clutching desperately at the utopian ideal of creating a harmonious world where race is not a divisive social issue. Various cultures and races would be celebrated and appreciated, thus bringing the country together, not dividing it.
My childlike innocence slowly is chipped away by incidents like the recent refusal of Pizza Hut to deliver to certain areas. In my naive way, I like to think there are no evil places, just a few evil people.
When I worked in a lobbyby firm a few blocks from the Capitol in Washington, D.C., I was warned constantly of the lascivious events that occurred and the dangerous people who lived there. Aside from an occasional gunshot and helicopters mounted with bright search lights, I felt safe walking from my office to the metro station at night.
Countless Caucasians warned me of the dangers of working in that predominantly Black neighborhood. Walking at night in any neighborhood near the Capitol may not have been the brightest thing to do, but I
never felt really threatened. I had no fear until I walked home from the bus stop to my dimly lit neighborhood in the suburbs outside the beltway.
Although we may consider ourselves protected in this happy campus bubble, we still are susceptible to the evils of the world. Incidents such as the racial slurs that appeared on the door of a residence hall resident in recent years indicate that our campus is reflective of the real world. Unfortunately, the world is racist.
The sage I mentioned earlier shed some light on the explanation for racism, if there can be such a thing. Keep in mind that explanation does not mean justification. His brief history lesson reminded me of a few things that got lost in the one-sided, Eurocentric education I received in my almost 100 percent Caucasian suburban Johnson County high school. When Columbus landed in 1492, he essentially started a 123-year party for the Europeans. As part of the pillaging and plundering race for 123 years, Caucasians got used to working together and being in control.
In 1619, when Blacks were introduced to the colony of Jamestown, they were brought in as indentured servants, equivalent to the Caucasian servants. However, the colonists needed more servants, and too many were completing their servitude and being released. Hence, perpetual servitude for Blacks was established, and slavery was born. Granted, this was a Reader's Digest version of a large chunk of history, but I just wanted to point out that at one point Blacks and Caucasians were on equal footing — as indentured servants, but at least they were equal.
I am not some great arbiter of people's behavior. Nor do I wish to heap virulent criticism upon the backs of my countrymen. Paraphrasing one of my favorite lines from Casablanca, under my cynical shell I am at heart a sentimentalist. In my fit of optimism, I simply wish to advocate the possibility of individual dreams being reached through common effort. We all are carbon-based life forms regardless of our race or culture.
The key difference may be in the eloquent words of my profound friend: "I was taught not to hate."
Racism simply is brainwashing at its most severe. As children, we frolic with children of different races and cultures without concern. We may notice the differences in skin color, but the variances pique our interest—they do not repel or scare us. Until we are indoctrinated with the idea that different is bad and the same is good, we don't care what our playmates look like, as long as they canick the ball hard enough, or play hide-and-seek, or build strong snow fortresses.
Our priorities for establishing
John Fisher / KANSAN
priorities for establishing friendships may change a bit as we age, but the premise of picking friends based on race is not an instinct. Because it is something that is taught, it can be unlearned. This may sound like a *Romper Room* version of cultural harmony, but racism is nothing more than a simplistic, despicable, contemptible, vile idea, so it should be easy to eliminate.
My wise friend grew up as a Black male in the 1950s and 1960s.
Through all of the injustice and violence, he was taught not to hate Caucasians.
He was able to loathe the conditions, but he could not hate the people causing the oppression.
If only we all could possess the same capacity to respect humanity.
Sabrina Steele is an Overland Park senior in political science
Letters
Ebonics column fueled flames of racist thought
I couldn't help but draw a comparison between Andy Rohrback's method of expressing his opinion on Ebonics and Rush Limbaugh's method of communicating his garbage. Rohrback's column was expressed in an alarmist and insensitive fashion, so reminiscent of Limbaugh's approach to communication.
They espouse their opinion based on little, inaccurate, incomplete, biased or out-of-context information and spread it amongst the populace creating unfounded fears. They don't shed any light on the subject. They tend only to dim any hope of recovery from our racial
Rohrback, like Limbaugh, has fueled the flames of racist thought and fear and I don't think he even knows it. That is what is so dangerous about people like Rohrback and Limbaugh.
insecurities and further polarize us as a community or nation.
When the topic is also emotionally charged, whether the writers understand all the intricacies of the issue or not, the opinion piece can do a great deal of harm when written in such alarmist and uninformed fashion. Rohrback knows very little
These persons have access to thousands of readers or viewers. And although people are free to listen or read what they choose, if the topic is controversial, more people tend to read or listen.
now can he make any type of value judgment about African-American claims of seeking racial equality or unity? He is really uninformed and naive about a lot of issues. He needs to stick to writing about topics he is familiar with or about which he has done adequate research, and then he needs a long lesson in how to write about sensitive or controversial issues without offending persons who are not directly the subject matter of his piece.
He may not have meant to do harm, but I believe such journalism, opinion or not, really sets us all back.
about Ebonics and even less about African Americans.
Marshell Jackson
Administrative Associate
Student Assistance Center
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