OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
4A
CRAIG LANG, Editor MARK OZIMEK, Business manager
SUSANNA LOOF, Managing editor DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
KIMBERLY CRABTREE, Editorial editor JUSTIN KUPP, Technology coordinator
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
rnday, January 17, 1997
Editorials
Student athletes should have tougher academic requirements
Although commentators often highlight KU student athletes who are outstanding scholars, one look at the average team grade point average will tell you that not all student athletes are faring well in academia. According to figures for the Spring 1996 semester, the average team GPA for football and baseball were below 2.5
Although coaches and support staff continually say that the student should be emphasized in "student athlete," this is not coming across in the guidelines the coaches and administration follow.
The KU Athletic Department spends more than $500,000 each year on student support services, giving student athletes access to resources for success in the classroom. Although the department should be commended for meeting the academic needs of student athletes, it also should establish tougher grade standards to promote academic success.
The athletic department should place the same emphasis on grades, sports.
In all the University's schools except the School of Fine Arts, students are put on probation if their GPA falls below 2.0.
But a student athlete on academic probation alone suffers no consequences in athletic eligibility.
Kim Barger, assistant director of Student Support Services, said guidelines for athletic competition eligibility were set by the NCAA, not the University. Under these guidelines, juniors must have a GPA of at least a 1.8, and seniors must have at least a 1.9.
If student athletes drop below the required GPA, they become ineligible for competition—but not practice.
This does little to help students raise
their grades because they still are devoting many hours to practice.
If student athletes truly are students first and athletes second, their eligibility should be determined by the scholastic bodies and athletic department, not by a national organization.
When students are on academic probation, their first concern should be to raise their GPA to at least a 2.0, the minimum required for graduation.
Regardless of their NCAA status, student athletes who are on academic probation at the University for more than one semester should be put on athletic probation and cut from practice to gain more study time.
One semester out of competition may hurt the team, but it will help the athletes concentrate more on education.
If coaches and staff want student athletes to get an education, they should have tougher academic standards.
KAREN CHANDLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Volunteers can change a child's life
Some children who live in Lawrence do not know that the University of Kansas exists.
Jennifer Seeley, the case manager for Partnership with Youth said it's because they have so many other things to worry about, like food, money and keeping out of trouble, that education isn't a priority.
KU students, however, can do something to help these children by becoming Big Brothers or Big Sisters through the Partnership with Youth, a Lawrence organization that runs the local Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. The goal of this program is to match juvenile offenders and their at-risk siblings with suitable adult role models. Although "juvenile offender" has a negative connotation, all offenses commit
Big Brothers/ Big Sisters program is looking for stable, caring mentors.
The primary purpose of this program is to help these children realize that a whole other world awaits them outside the realm of drugs and crime. By giving them guidance, helping them find employment and encouraging them to lead drug-free lives, mentors can help them get on track. As Big Brothers or Big Sisters, students can help with tutoring, as well as aid children in discovering what they want from life.
ted by these teens are nonviolent.
college mentors would be providing them with an opportunity to see what a college education can do. But there is more to mentoring than dealing with the problems of these youths. Having fun also is part of the program.
Also, because many children in the program know nothing about college,
The only requirements for Partnership with Youth volunteers is that they be stable role models and give three to four hours a week for at least a year. Most of the children in this program are between 10 and 17 years old.
The time requirement is not too much to ask, considering the benefits reaped by both children and mentors.
Anyone interested can call the Partnership with Youth at 843-7359 or attend an informational meetings at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesdays at 733 Massachusetts St.
LATINA SULIYAN . . . Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASH . . . 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
LINDSEY HENRY . . . Campus
DAVE BRETTENSTEIN . Features
PAM DISHMAN . . Photo
TYLER WIRKEN . Photo
BRYAN VOLK . . Design
ANDY ROHRBACK . . Graphics
ANDREA ALBIGHT . . Wire
LZ MUSSER . . Special sections
AERICA VEAZEY . . News clerk
NICOLE SKALLA FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
NEWS EDITORS
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
ADVERTISING
HEATHER VALLER . Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR . Campus
DANA CENTENO . Regional
ANNETTE HOVER . National
BRIAN PAGEL . Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI . Internet
DARCI McCLAIN . Production
DENA PISCOTTE . Production
ALLISON PIERCE . Special sections
SARA ROSE . Creative
DANA LAUUVET . Public relations
BRIAN LEFEVRE . Classified
RACHEL RUBIN . Assistant classified
BRIDGET COLLYER . Zone
JULIE DEWITT . Zone
CHRIS HAGHIRIAN . Zone
LZ HESS . Zone
ANTONY MIGLAZZO . Zone
MARIA MRIST . Senior account executive
How to submit letters and guest columns
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.
All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuiffer-Plint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Kim Crabtree (opinion@kansan.com) or LaTina Sullivan (isulvannäkkan.com) at 864-4810.
Columnist promises points, provocation
Columns
Hi. I'm Carson. I'll be your columnist for today.
I'll also write other columns for your reading
pleasure this semester.
Should you become violently disgusted with what I write, the University of Kansas has provided waste receptacles for your convenience.
So, if you have followed me this far, thank you. I am not a writer.
However, after a few years of reading the columns in the Kansan, I figured this was a good time to start. I also figured that because this was my last semester at the University, I could pretty much say anything I want and know that I will only be persecuted for a semester.
I wanted to use this first col-
First, I will only write about things that I know about or have an opinion on. In this manner, I will refrain from bothering you with trite and directionless columns. I figure there are plenty of columns for the Kansan. I don't need to write one every other day. I will write when I have something to say.
In my time here, I have never read a columnist who explained exactly what it was that they were trying to do with their column.
I wanted to use this one column to let you know a little bit about myself and what I want to do with this column. I have been at the University five years.
So right now I just want to tell you where I am coming from and what I am going to do.
Second, I will not write about a movie that I have not seen. Furthermore, I will not base any argument that I make on a writer with whom I have little to no working background.
Third, I will make a point. You know where I am coming from on this one; you have read a column about somebody's trip to Las Vegas or how a teacher impacted someone's life. When you finish the column, you think, "Who the hell are you, and what are you getting paid to say?" Well, I won't be one of those people. Enough said.
Fifth, I want to write a column that is somewhat provocative. I don't know how easy or difficult it will be to shake things up on a college campus. Part of me thinks that in the realm of the academically correct, it would be pretty simple to write something that would get people all worked up. But the other part of me thinks that our generation has been so bombarded by the sick, weird and extreme that anything I write is going to be tame compared to the everyday life of the typical college student. Oh well, whichever, I still get my five bucks.
Fourth, I can't guarantee that I will make you laugh, but I will try. I haven't tried hard in this column. If I wanted to, I could though. Easy. You would bust up if I were trying ... really. But, I'm not trying.
Having written all that, I know I've left a lot out. What do you want from a columnist? Do you want someone to agree with you, make you think, make you mad, make you laugh, what? Let me know. The power of the printed word is great. I want to wield it wisely.
The stories and features are none of my business. I'm not an editor or a reporter.
However, I am a columnist, so that I can work on. George Will, I am not. Hunter S. Thompson, I am not — although I am building an armed compound outside of Aspen, Colo., to emulate the man. Carson Elrod, I am.
Carson Eirrod is an Topeka senior in U.S. History and theater.
Ramsey's death an example of child's lost innocence
I always have been the one to cheer for the underdog. The overexposed and the favored have enough fans.
One such case of the doverse is that of Jon-Benet Ramsey, the six-year-old Boulderite found strangled in her home Christmas night. I first heard about her when I was home in Colorado
during semester break. I thought it was a local murder case that would be forgotten as most soon are.
Why are people so fascinated with this case? Is it because she is caucasian, affluent, young and beautiful?
Imagine my surprise when, upon returning to Kansas, Jon-Benet's murder was the top story on the local news and has been on every new magazine and talk show I have seen.
I certainly didn't see the murder of an African-American toddler caught in the crossfire of a gang fight at the Denver Zoo in national headlines. Hey, it's just another gang casualty; she was an innercity kid, and nobody outside the Denver area would care. anway.
Probably.
The fascination here is not just that JonBenet was the WASP daughter of a rich computer executive and a Boulder socialite.
It is because she was a six-year-old beauty pageant regular made up to look like a seventeen-year-old sex goddess, isn't it? We sit in our decidedly unglorious living rooms watching the image of an angelic blonde wearing too much makeup, thinking back to our own six-year-old selves. We were sticky terrors with no front teeth, tearing around on training wheels and skimming our knees. But we sure were cute.
Cute. Not sexy, poised, mini-adults with portfolios and glamour shots. This little girl even had her
hair bleached to a light blonde. I wasn't even allowed to wear makeup until I was in high school.
But it's not JonBenet's fault she was a walking icon of lost childhood. It was her mother's, a 1977 beauty queen herself. Twenty years is long enough for a beautiful sparkle to fade. The solution? Have a daughter and live your life through her.
I'm not bashing rich people. I'm picking the proverbial bone with the so-called pageant moms and parents who push their children to achieve what the parents never could or can no longer achieve.
These things don't just happen. They happen when unbearable pressure meets a child's undeveloped ability to cope. They happen when parents devote everything to their wunderkind without thinking about the pressure that hovers over the child's every waking moment. These children - child actors and musicians - may become washed up at 13 as codependent, 12-step messes. They wind up like Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Of course, I'm generalizing. But luckily for Jon-Benet Ramsey, she'll never have to be a has been; she was caught in the prime of her pathetically short life. Her death is, of course, a tragedy, but nothing is as sad as the life she might have lived had she survived.
Don't people learn? How much did we hear last summer about how female gymnasts are psychologically tortured and physically stunted in pursuit of an Olympic championship? Does anyone remember the tragedy of Jessica Dubroff, the seven-year-old who was killed when the Cessma she was piloting crashed? Or what about the Texas case of the rival cheerleaders, in which one girl's mother shot the other girl's mother?
Dena Piscotte is a Grand Junction, Colo., senior in Journalism.
Letters
Fans should respect all visiting sports teams
Let me begin by saying that I love Kansas Basketball, the University of Kansas and the city of Lawrence. When I attended the Kansas vs. George Washington game, I heard some things in the stands that embarrassed me. If you remember, George Washington's team had players from other countries, and I distinctly heard a chant of "Green Card" when those players had the ball.
I think it is all in good fun to taunt the other team and yell things like "Air Ball." I have been a loud fan and done my share of taunting. I used to dress up as Seinfeld's Kramer. However, I think it is a disgrace to the University, the basketball team and Roy Williams to chant slurs at any player. If some one from the media — remember ESPN was at the game — would have
Jeremy Boldra Hays graduate student
Ridiculing Ebonics is more harmful, divisive
In the future, I would ask that KU students and fans think and act, don't just react. Represent this school in a positive way.
broadcasted the chant, the University of Kansas would have been labeled a racist school. The future of our basketball team, as well as our school, would have been leopardized.
I don't know if the recent experimentation with Ebonics is going to have an effect on the education of young native speakers of Black English. After all Black English itself is neither definable nor uniform (as is the case with almost all varieties of a language). I am certain, however, that the children would prefer to have a teacher that
won't squirm and correct them for *aksing* questions in their native dialect of English. They would prefer a teacher who is acquainted with the linguistic aberrations of her students from General American, which in turn is just another non uniform dialect—quite distinct, at least in its sounds, from the one, say, chosen in Scotland or Jamaica. Ridiculing the speakers of non-standard American English, whether they are black or white, from Texas or New York, I think is more divisive than accepting linguistic diversity and trying to equip young students. As a linguist, I mourn for the loss of diversity. As a member of the human society, I understand the underlying motivations.
George Tesdandella
Lawrence graduate student