4A
Friday, February 23, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Amending referendum bill could have made it work
Ami Hizer, Lawrence senior and Student Senator, sponsored a bill that would have required a student fee referendum for the creation, revocation or amendment of any student fee. This bill was killed in a Student Rights Committee meeting yesterday without any debate at all. The bill also would have required that any bill outlining the creation, revocation or amendment to student fees be submitted by Feb. 1 of each year.
The bill also stated that a student fee referendum would be held once a year if necessary, and all informational literature about a fee should be informative, factual and unbiased.
The reason this bill was submitted was because required fees concern students. Also, Student Senate has made a commitment to change student government by focusing more on students' concerns.
In theory, this is an excellent idea because it means that every student has a chance to decide on the fate of fees they would have to pay. But having a referendum for every creation, revocation or amendment
THE ISSUE:
Student referendum
to any fee is questionable.
It would have made sense to change Hizer's bill to state that the creation or amendment of any fee increase should have a referendum if it is increased by $20 or more. One reason for this is low voter turnout.
In Senate elections, an average of about 10 percent of the student body votes. Most of the students who do vote are either strongly for or against an issue. That means that most students who do not have strong feelings about the issue will not vote. Therefore, a referendum will not always accurately represent the views of the student body.
Student Senate is supposed to be representing the student body and generally our student representatives are better informed about issues dealing with fees. If proposed fee increases are less than $20, they should be decided by Senate alone.
Instead of Rights killing the bill, the committee should have amended it.
SARBPAL HUNDAL FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Inspection legislation necessary for tattoo, body-piercing shops
Almost every student knows someone with a tattoo or body-piercing. KU students have tattoos ranging from Greek letters to cartoon characters. Some tattoos are concealed while others are exposed to the general public. Piercings of belly buttons, tongues and eyebrows are very popular.
Because of the increasing popularity and the high risks associated with tattoos and body-piercings, the proposed tattoo regulations by the Kansas legislature are a good idea.
The bill being sponsored would require licensing and inspections for all the tattoo and body-piercing shops in Kansas. The main argument against the proposed legislation is that the shops already are safe. Owners and employees claim they consistently maintain a safe and sterile environment because they handle and work with needles every day. Employees take these safety precautu-
THE ISSUE:
State legislation
tions to protect both themselves and their customers
If most of the shops abide by health standards and regulations, why would it matter if they were subject to inspections? The inspections only would serve to ensure that the shops used sterile methods with all customers.
There isn't a lot of student opposition to the legislation. Many students feel it only would increase safety standards.
The proposed legislation would increase the confidence customers have concerning their personal safety. Because most people are informed about the risks before they are tattooed or pierced, the legislation would serve as an added precaution and ensure that all customers and employees remain safe.
TARA FITZPATRICK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Individualism discouraged, not nourished by college life
In the days of ancient Greece, universities were forums for intellectual exploration.
It was an enduring trend.
KANSAN STAFF
Today, however, many universities are arenas for intellectual indoctrination. Exploring various ideas is OK as long as you accept ideas with which the reigning academics agree.
Anyone who plans to vote for Bob Dole or likes Newt Gingrich knows what I mean.
In many classes at the University of Kansas, any positive support of Dole is greeted with a knee-jerk chorus of moans, sighs and snickers. Professors often fuel these "Dolephobic" fits with diatribes of their own.
It is perfectly reasonable to criticize Dole in a classroom, but vilifying anyone who supports him is hardly a prelude to a profitable discussion of ideas. Typically, good discussions lead to a phenomenon known as learning.
In other classes, a student who offers a religious comment will be subject to so much shame that he or she might as well have come to class naked.
The academic establishment has
As a result, universities like the University of Kansas are full of "Me too" liberals and left-wing "Dittotheads" who mindlessly follow the dominant ideology. The original Dittotheads are right-wing fans of Rush Limbaugh who allegedly agree with everything he says without thinking for themselves.
It's ironic that university countercultures and alternative communities that pride themselves on being new, different and revolutionary no longer go against the grain but rather create the grain — They are the new establishment.
In a university community, there are two kinds of people who make no contribution to the greater good: those who refuse to question and those who refuse to be questioned.
The college experience is too short and precious to be wasted by never mustering the courage to challenge the orthodoxy or by lacking the courage to allow your orthodox beliefs to change.
John Hart is a Shawnee graduate student in Journalism
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
Battered women do not lack self-esteem
The new orthodoxy has come with an array of doctrines that can be dangerous to question. Some doctrines include relativism, the nebulous tolerance ethic, multiculturalism, political correctness, gender feminism and gay rights, many of which have their merits, and all of which are worthy of further debate. But none should be immune from criticism.
This letter is in response to Todd Hiatt's column on Feb. 9 concerning a domestic violence dispute he witnessed. Instead of using the power of the printed word to spread information about the dynamics of domestic violence and criticize society's attitudes toward it, Hiatt engages in insulting victim-blaming and sophomore psychoanalysis.
Hiatt witnessed a woman being beaten, after which she ran back into her house instead of trying to run away. He flippantly explains this as "learned helplessness."
Sadly, a few pompous, self-righteous liberals have created a climate of intolerance and fear in which the ideal of free inquiry, held dear by many liberals, is next to impossible to achieve.
succeeded in dismantling the old orthodoxy — the Western, Judeo-Christian tradition — but has replaced it with a new orthodoxy of its own — a liberal, secular, humanist world view. Now, the search for absolute truth is absolutely goofy.
ASHLEY MILLER
Editor
VIRGINIA MARGHEIM
Managing editor
ROBERT ALLEN
News editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
I guess it didn't cross his mind that maybe the woman ran into her house because her children were in there, or her money, or her shoes or everything she owns. Or because she didn't know where else she could go. Or because her abuser would track her down and kill her (statistically, more women are killed after they leave than are killed while they are in the home, which makes escaping a fairly problematic option, now doesn't it?) Or because she prayed that once the police came, who Hiatt said came and went without taking anyone into custody, they would haul the guy off to jail, thus giving her a few precious hours to make a plan.
STAFF COLUMNIST
HEATHER NEIHASU
Business manager
KONAN HAUSER
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Hiatt explains that part of the problem is men's inflated self-worth and women's lack of it. To the contrary, most of the strongest women I ever have met were survivors of domestic violence, and they had tons of self-worth.
But self-worth alone doesn't put food on your table, doesn't clothe your kids, doesn't make you safe, doesn't make the police get to your house faster or take you any more seriously, doesn't make you earn as much as your male counterparts, doesn't make housing affordable, doesnt make violence in our society any less prevalent, doesn't help you through the legal system, doesn't eradicate racism, classism and homophobia, doesn't help you get family and friends back after your batterer scares them all off, I could go on forever. The problem isn't women's self-esteem. It is the way society and individuals allow battering to continue, in large part by blaming its existence on women for being too helpless to get out.
Campus ... Joann Birk
Philip Brownlee
Editorial ... Craig Lung
Associate editorial ... Craig Lung
Posture ... Matt Hood
Sports ... Tom Brickson
Sports coach ... Kevin
Photo ... Andy Ruelstad
Graphics ... Matt Flickerman
Special sections ... Novela Sommere
Jen Humphrey
Wire ... Tara Trenery
Journalism ... Leslie
Why not wonder why Hiatt didn't take action by talking to the police so they would know he witnessed this crime? Why not talk about how batterers on diversion in Lawrence have to go to an eight-hour anger management workshop and that is all? Why not talk about the domestic violence shelter in Lawrence (it's called WTCS, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day at 843-3333), where they offer support groups and resources for women who decide it is time to leave?
Campus mgr ... Ralph Olsen
Regional mgr ... Kelly Connelyne
Regional manager ... Mark Ostikm
Special Sections mgr ... Michael Gellilh
Production mgr ... Rechel Gallilh
Heather Vailer
Marketing director ... Heather Vailer
Public Relations dir ... Angela Adamson
Creative director ... Ed Kowalakii
Stacy Wolkenburg
Internship/o-cop mgr
Jennifer Roth Lawrence first year law student
Why does Hiaft feel it necessary to make women look weak and beg them to snap out of it? Instead, why not question why this man, and millions like him, feels entitled to beat this woman out in the front yard? Why not ask why the police came and went without arresting the aggressor, which they are required to do by state law?
Conformity now defines alternative movement
Taking a semester off and hanging out in Colorado
no one person has the authority to say what is cool. Nevertheless, through many hours of intensive study and observation, I have come up with a list of alternative characteristics. To provide you with a better understanding of what is cool today, the following things are alternative and, therefore, cool:
Wearing Birkenstock sandals at all times, including formal occasions
We all have been subjected to and adhered to the latest fads of coolness since childhood. Back when Bon Jovi music and tight-rolled blue jeans were in, cool was easily defined. However, with the latest trend being the alternative movement, cool is now a nebulous word. Furthermore,
STAFF COLUMNIST
■ Reading poetry at a coffee shop
■ Being fed up with the system for no reason at all whatsoever
Sorry, folks, but if people want to do something different, they should examine themselves and find what they truly enjoy. This is the true essence of coolness. By developing their own personality and lifestyle, pseudo-alternative people might become the unique individuals they so desperately long to be.
Growingyourhairout
But, when people do these things just to give off the appearance of coolness, they only make themselves look worse. The funny thing is that some of these people actually believe that they are doing something different.
If people truly prefer wearing Birkenstock sandals as opposed to tennis shoes or loafers, then they should, by all means, wear them. If people feel that taking a semester and going to Colorado is the best thing for them to do, they should do it.
Decorating your car with Phish and/or Grateful Dead decals and mounting a ski rack on top, despite living more than five hundred miles from the mountains
Having an overall lack of personal hygiene
Telling your acquaintances that you liked a band "before they made it big"
The truth is that the word alternative has nothing to do with nonconformity anymore.
Considering your major political affiliation to be Greenpeace
Granted, there are many people who have strong feelings and preferences for alternative things, but many people give off the impression that they are just posing in someone else's lifestyle. Ironically, with the popularity of being alternative, mass conformity has reached an all-time high.
Carrying a water bottle to class as if you might get dehydrated on the 15 minute walk to campus
Actively participating in a Honk for Heen campain
Now that you can easily define what cool is, you must be careful not to offend cool people. Because the supposed essence of being alternative is nonconformity, alternative people do not appreciate being called cool.
Mike Walden is a Leawood sophomore in political science.
Playing frisbee golf at least once a week
Having a controlled substance charge on your criminal record
FATE
SAY! LOOK AT THIS OLD LAMP. WHEN I WAS YOUNG I WASTED TIME. WITH IDLE DAYDREAMS AND ERRANT WISHES OVER SUCH REILLS
HTTP://FALGON.JCC.OKATS.ORG
BUT NOW I AM GROWN-UP AND MUST GO FIND A JOB. GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT. FINANCIAL SECURITY.
By Shawn Trimble
THEN AGAIN, IF YOURE GOING TO BE SELF-DELUSIONAL,
MIGHT AS WELL DO IT WITH STYLE. COME GENE.
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