4A
Tuesday, January 30, 1996
OPINION
U N I V E R S I T Y D A
A N
VIEWPOINT
Park-and-ride makes more sense than costly garage
Parking on campus is an important issue which should be thought out clearly before any plan is initiated. There should be an overall transportation plan for our campus which includes the parking issue.
The parking board and parking department are considering building a parking garage north of the Kansas Union. It would be built on the Hill where the Continuing Education Building is located.
Is it worth the cost?
A major concern this plan raises is whether it has been clearly thought out. It seems that the plan has problems.
The first problem is historically relevant to the University of Kansas. The Continuing Education Building is the ninth-oldest building on campus, which makes it a historical landmark of the University.
Another problem involves the construction of parking garages.
Parking garages are expensive to build, and the weather of Kansas is not favorable to parking garages unless a lot of money is spent building them.
A subcommittee of the long-range planning committee for the future of the University said in its report that parking garages should be the last option.
"Parking garages should be considered to be one of the least desirable parking options because of capital, operating and environment cost," the report said.
An alternative to garages is to have a park-and-ride system. With this system, students, faculty and staff would park their vehicles in lots off the main campus, and a shuttle bus would transport them to campus bus stops. This plan would avoid the high cost of building a parking
THE ISSUE:
Parking plan
Possible new structure next to the Kansas Union would cost too much and take away from the beauty of campus.
Park-and-ride does work. That is evident in a letter from the city of Lawrence to the transportation board stating, "It appears that numerous KU students are driving to this area, parking their vehicles and riding the bus to school."
Let's work together
Studies in both the transportation study and master plan prepared by BRW, Inc. compare the cost of building a parking garage to park-and-ride. It states that a park-and-ride system is more cost-effective and includes the cost of new buses.
It is time the parking board and transportation board get together and work on suitable solutions for all areas of transportation that don't degrade the aesthetic quality of the campus. Working together for long-range solutions also must include ideas in the master plan.
garage, and lots now used for single event purposes could be used regularly.
The master plan has good solutions,but these ideas will remain on paper unless they are tested and implemented.
SARBPAL HUNDAL FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The University should be praised for considering all forms of transportation in the master plan. But it is time for the individual entities that control transportation to come together and actively plan for the future of campus transportation. The goal should be to plan together, not independently.
Are you happy with your life at the University of Kansas? Do you want a chance to share your feelings with other students?
want a chance to share your feelings with other students?
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Applications are available in the Kansas newsroom at 111 Staufer-Flint. For more information, contact Paul Todd, editorial editor, or Craig Lang, associate editorial editor, at 864-4810.
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Drugs, the State and...
By Ian Ritter
the Test
Illustration by Noah Musser
never have been an advocate of the idea that some people can be considered guilty
before proven innocent. With this concern in mind, I wondered what the drug-testing policy for employees at the university would be. Drug testing employees is not a policy that I've been particularly in favor.
locally in favor of. Knowing that companies such as Wal Mart reserve the right to randomly test their employees while working and at the time if hiring always has disgusted me.
I could never understand why it would matter if a clerk at Wal Mart was getting high. Even if the person's register performance is becoming inhibited, making them urinate in a cup seems silly. Drugs or no drugs, if they're not working up to their supposed ability, disciplinary action should be taken that does not involve the employee giving up their personal fluids.
And as long as an employee is doing a fine or even a terrible job at work, it should be no concern of businesses as to what the worker does during his or her free time. In other words, once that time card has been punched for the day, the company's jurisdiction over an employee should not exist.
Some people at the ACLU feel the same way.
"You do have something of value to protect and that's your individual privacy," said Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the Kansas and Western Missouri ACLU. "Pre-employment testing is certainly not
I'm not alone with my anti-drug testing feelings.
testing for anything probable."
Knowing that other companies test people for drugs, I wanted to know if my professors or the people that serve food in Wescoe Terrace had to humiliate themselves by giving up their urine for the job.
Thinking that I would have a lot to be upset about, I reviewed the drug testing policies of the University and the State of Kansas. To my dismay, KU's policy didn't give me much to rant and rave about.
"It's one of those things that I'm sure there's a viable reason for," George said. "I think it is true that people need to be assured that the people driving these vehicles are in condition to drive them."
can influence a worker's performance, such as little sleep or a disagreement with a spouse. Other tests such as tests for reflexes could be administered daily to remedy the possibility of on the job dangers.
The only workers who are eligible for drug testing on campus are those who carry guns and those who drive big trucks—police officers and employees who drive vehicles that weigh more than 26,000 lbs. Police are tested before hiring, while the drivers are subject to random testing. The random tests take place before a driver's shift, where they are paid to drive to Topeka for a test.
George said that she wasn't sure if random drug testing was the best solution for controlling employee safety, but said that the intent of the program was honorable.
Point taken.
"We're not concerned about safety here," Kurtenbach said. "There's something else going on."
Kurtenbach did make the argument that random testing wasn't the best solution, though. He said that many factors other than drug use
Plus, Lynn George, employment specialist at the Department of Human Resources, said that not a single person had been fired or not hired as a result of testing positive for drug or alcohol use.
But the idea of a slobbering drunk driver with a bottle of whisky between his legs, speeding down a crowded Jayhawk Boulevard in a semi just doesn't sound like my idea of a safe and stable environment.
On the same token, cops on PCP wielding guns — Yikes!
Knowing that some of these people are allowed to touch weapons in the first place frightens me.
However, I think the policy of random testing for this single job at the University isn't too much to ask. People who drive vehicles that weigh more than 26,000 lbs. could do some serious damage.
Well, testing the reflexes of workers before a shift could be a time-consuming task, but so is paying workers to go get tested in Topeka.
But is drug testing the best solution for these problems?
It is not as if they are working at Wal Mart.
State law beyond the policy of testing certain drivers and police officers probably is going too far. If the policy is ever extended to positions outside of these two, then it should be looked at closely as a possible breach of personal rights.
And if professors ever have to start taking the tests, the policy would need a serious overhaul.
Being in the proper condition to drive and to teach are two very different things.
As if that wasn't bad enough, it now is being attached to the word tuition, two connotations that make me nauseous. I am irate about the new system of linear tuition.
Tuition plan penalizes on-schedule students
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The administration seems to be under some sort of disillusionment that it is us wishy-washy students, who can't make up our minds about which classes we really want to take, who are
The word linear, until I saw the article in the University Daily Kansan on Wednesday, Jan. 24, brought visions of algebraic equations.
The idea sounds fairly ideal, until you consider the state of the KU enrollment.
I know that I would like nothing better than to enroll in 20 hours of classes that are really popular but unessential to my graduation, then wait until classes start — just enough time to anger everyone else who thought the classes would be fun — to drop them and add others.
That is certainly my idea of a
And I am no math major, but it seems as if the University will lose quite a bit of money on the deal, seeing that they will have to bill and reimburse students numerous times, since the students will still have to add-drop just to get the classes they need to graduate.
responsible for the change. It seems to me that if we could get into the classes needed to graduate the first time around, we wouldn't have to add-drop at all. They seem to think that we think it is fun, like a Twister game or something, to stand in line for hours and find out that we need a Dean's stamp in order to add-drop some class for which we reluctantly received a closed-class opener.
Nicki Reno
Westwood junior
The administration should consider that the students who will be penalized for such a change are the students who are attempting to work up to their potential, and imagine this, graduate on time. And keep in mind that it is not a $10 difference we are talking about.
For my schedule, it adds up to a $440 difference had it been implemented this semester.
good time.
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.
How to submit letters and guest columns
All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Paul Todd, editorial editor, or Craig Lang, associate editorial editor, at 864-4810.
Guest columnis: Should be double spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
OUT FROM THE CRACKS
By Jeremy Patnoi