4A
Friday, February 2, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Criticized inauguration becomes more friendly
The chancellor's coming inauguration has been criticized for costing too much in a time of financial cutbacks in higher education, especially in Kansas.
The event, which will be on Feb. 11, costs $27,500, and Student Senate has approved $2,500 more from Senate's unallocated ac-count to help pay for the Branford and Ellis Marsalis concert on Feb. 10. The concert specifically was planned as part of the inauguration weekend to get students involved in the festivities. Student also can pick up free tickets to the inauguration ceremony at the Student Union Activities box office in the Kansas Union.
Sue Morrell, manager for SUA, said that Student Senate asked the organization to coordinate a student event for the inauguration. Thus, they organized a Marsalis performance, but for SUA to break even on this venture, it must sell 1,500 of about 1,900 tickets available. Morrell said the event was a risky one for SUA given that as of Wednesday only 831 tickets had been sold.
Usually performances are paid for by SUA, which receives its money from
THE ISSUE:
Inauguration events
the Kansas and Burge Unions. But since the Marsalis performance was part of the inauguration, SUA asked Senate for help in making the tickets for the concert cheaper for students by helping with the costs. The tickets to the Marsalis concert are $16 for students and $20 for the general public. But without Student Senate's help the tickets could have been much more. $2,500 is only a fraction of the money needed to pay for a Branford and Ellis Marsalis performance.
More than 1,000 people have reserved tickets for the inauguration ceremony, but only five students have picked up free tickets from the SUA box office. Wheth-er students agree with the high cost of the ceremony, they should grab a ticket, put on a dress or a tie and go see what all the hoopla is about because tickets are free.
Despite the $27,500 price tag,the office of the Chancellor has done a good job of making the inauguration festivities open to the student body.
THE KANSAN EDITORIAL BOARD
Punishments don't fit crimes in University residence halls
In some halls, creative sanctions are enforced. This could be an activity such as making a bulletin board for the floor for spray-painting the bathroom. These sanctions will only work, however, if the punishment fits the crime. The temptation could too often be to have the violator do some positive, hallimproving project that the violator doesn't care about anyway.
The KU residence halls can be trashed like dumpsters any time during the week. One can party as loud as possible regardless of the neighbors' complaints, and no disciplinary sanctions will be taken. So far, the department of student housing has not done much to change this situation.
People who violate the noise rules in residence halls are taking valuable time away from those students who need to sleep, relax or study. People who trash or vandalize the halls
THE ISSUE:
Creative sanctions
Residence halls need better discipline policies
cost the students money. Instead of imposing creative arts-and-crafts projects on rule violators, the department of student housing should make violators absolutely pay for any loss of property or defacing of property, and should make noise violators pay tickets issued by the KU police, not the hall monitors.
Granted, most of the rule violations in the residence halls are small enough that they are not given a second thought, but concrete sanctions need to be found that punish violators for their actions and help those students who were inconvenienced. Those students don't need bulletin boards, they need rules that will keep violations from happening.
THE KANSAN EDITORIAL BOARD
Marko Fields / KANSAN
Groundhog Day remains most basic among holidays
Next to the Fourth of July, with its glaring disregard for all things safe and controlled, Groundhog Day has to be my favorite holiday. I understand that Groundhog Day lacks that certain alcohol-induced elan of other holidays, yet on a certain level it remains the closest thing to a pagan ritual that we recognize. Even Halloween, complete with witches, goblins and things that go bump in the night, has its roots in some long-forgotten Christian holy day.
Ah, but not Groundhog Day. Yes,
this partless observance of sophisticated rodents, who surely must be as equally amused by our interest in them, remains the most basic of all our recognized holidays. What is this day but an acknowledgement that we are trying to survive yet another brutal season where the hunting, gathering and farming we do to survive is more difficult because of the cold and snow?
The actions of a gooey little rodent, smart enough to hide out for the winter, away from the human toils of scraping ice off of car windows and shivering in a little studio in the heart of the Lawrence student ghetto, satisfies our need for the hope that we will get through another year. Poor pathetic us. What a delightful pity that we need symbols even more primitive than crucifixes and stained glass.
Besides all of that, Groundhog Day always brings to mind my favorite joke. This, of course, is the likely reason for my holiday preference.
Just stop me if you have heard this one.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Three freshmen Republican Congressmen were sitting in a bar somewhere near Capitol Hill. Davidson Neumoney, a thirty弄 newcomer from the left coast of Florida, made his money in the real estate speculation game and earned his seat in the bar by convincing all the retirees in his district that they deserved a free-range chicken in every Calphalon pot, just like the old days.
Roberto "Bob" DeSlima, a 42-year ex-fruit picker from the central valley of California, made his money by marrying the cannery owner's daughter and earned his seat with a few well-placed lies in Spanish to gatherers of his ex-colleagues.
And, last, Jerry Lee Zenophobe, a fiftyish veteran of the Texas Legislature, made his money selling cars to solid Americans and earned his seat by timing his aspirations for a national seat with the mid-1900s.
After making deficit-cutting small talk for about five minutes, when they gleefly took turns rattling off federal programs that soon would be stripped to the bone, they sat back for the main course of jawbonin'. Jawbonin' took the form of recounting oft-repeated tales of plunder of some chest of booty that had gone undiscovered, waiting for the
morally good and financially astute them, to unearth. The tales of victory against the lazy no-count rednecks and unedge-yu-hated mi-nor-u-tees from back home tightened their slacks with pride but left them bored eventually, swirling the ice cubes in their drinks and staring out the window of the bar.
Representative Neumoney, waxing philosophical, turned to his good buddy, Representative DeSlima, and asked, "Hey, Bob, what the hell's your favorite holiday?"
"That'd probably have to be Groundhog Day, Dave. You know, that holiday where they light off all them firecrackers and I end up naked in the back of the houseboat with one of those cute little legislative interns they always givein' us."
"Bob, you is stupid sometimes," said Representative Zenophobe. "That ain't Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day is when we get trees and decorate those things up. Then everybody gets presents. You remember, like last year when I let you in on that little slush activity comin' from those corporate farmin' boys."
"Sorry I even asked." Representative Neumoney said. "Both of you are ignorant. Groundhog Day is the day that Jesus was crucified. He was buried in a cave, and three days later he came out, saw a shadow and then went back in."
I love that joke. You know, I heard it from a priest. Now, he had this Groundhog thing in perspective.
John Martin is a Lawrence second-year law student.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Students have right to research instructors
As a student at the University of Kansas, I would like to comment on the Student Senate resolution to release instructor evaluations to the student body. After reading the article "Evaluation request draws criticism" in the Jan. 31 edition of the University Daily Kansan, I noticed, specifically, the opinion of Bob Minor, professor of religious studies. According to the article, Minor was disappointed by the resolution's treatment of students as consumers.
I would only like to add that any faculty member who is opposed to the release of evaluations is raising a red flag that they have something to hide.
In response to this, I would like to point out that the students are consumers. We spend a lot of money to get the best education from a quality university with quality instructors. We are purchasing a service and investing in our futures and should have the right to research information regarding the quality of that service.
Jennifer Maenner Marionville, Mo., senior
How to submit letters
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.
All letters should be submitted to the Kansen newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Rint Hall. The Kansen reserves the right to edit. out to length or reject all submissions.
KANSAN STAFF
Generation gap noticeable in dating habits
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Baby Boom generation. As this era of parents, care givers and elders moves farther from us, it is obvious that we live in a world very different from theirs.
Our parents see things from different angles than we do. Whereas we might stand and look at things and predicaments, they are perched high above, judging everything, casting a speculative glance on the whole thing.
STAFF COLUMNIST
It is not a bad thing, however, that our parents do things in a seemingly archaic and antiquated fashion. It simply means that our generation is coming into our own. But some of our parents' ideals and actions also should ring true today.
Take, for example. the institution of marriage. Our parents married at early ages and stayed married for quite some time. They did not wallow in the mires of single life until it was too late. Our parents actually threw themselves into the world and met someone else. They sacrificed pride and embarrassment for the desire to link up with someone — to be married, in a sense.
We do not hold marriage in the same esteem that our parents did. They saw it as a necessity, something that everyone did. We view it as a barrier to the single life. The idea of marriage has become perverted in that it is no longer a union between two souls. It is just a thing that our parents did because they felt they had to.
We do not approach marriage like our parents. Their world was filled with constant interactions and social gatherings, all thinly veiled as nuptial opportunities. We are more of a group looking for the easy way out; no one wants a long-term commitment or personal obligation. But when people from our generation get married, there is a decent chance that in 10 years their personal lives will wind up looking like a scene from Purple Rain.
It seems to me that we are a generation working too hard for the redundancy of touch. There are no more dates or spontaneous encounters that lead to bigger and better things. Instead, we place personal ads, go to singles' bars and get on line to meet people. There seems to be a lack of intestinal fortitude that drives people to engage in personal interaction.
The problem with these personal ads, bars and on-line experiences is that they are totally false. If you really think that "Sparky-dot-com" looks like the person says, then you have been cheated seriously by the entire technological process. Chances are that the person on the receiving end of your chat-room antics looks a lot like Ernest Borgnine after a thick night of scotch.
We are too scared to confront those whom we wish to meet; we think too much and act too little, and that equates loneliness. This brooding stance of independence can lead you only so far. If people wanted to be alone or emotionally self-sufficient, there would be no bars or nightclubs, no Internet, no hotlines. It is actually a sign that people want to make the effort, but somehow that notion gets lost in the maze of hellos and goodbyes. If we just put aside the differences and acted upon the similarities, then we too might be a generation locked in the throes of nuptial bliss. And then — guess what — we'll be just like our parents.
Carter Voekel is a Dallas junior in English.
ASHLEY MILLER
Editor
VIRGINIA MARGHEIM
Managing editor
ROBERT ALLEN
News editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Campus mgr ... Karen Gersch
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HEATHER NIEHAUS
Business manager
KONAN HAUSER
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JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
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Campus ... Joann Birk
... Philip Brownies
Editorial ... Paul Todd
Associate editorial ... Craig Lang
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THE COMPLETELY POINTLESS ADVENTURES OF BRIGG & FRO
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