4A
Wednesday, January 17, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Faculty raises are too low
In his State of the State Address, Gov. Bill Graves not only showed Kansans that he was able to create a balanced budget but also provided the faculties at the state's higher institutions with a much-needed salary increase. Even though he should be commended for this action, he needs to realize that these people still deserve more.
It is possible that the state has a budget surplus from tax revenues. In this event, some of the surplus should go to the faculties.
The faculty at the University of Kansas is dedicated to teaching and research. We have some of the best teachers. Giving them only a 2.5 percent salary increase is not just. This is slightly higher than the rate of inflation. Compared to our peer institutions, the faculty at KU receives lower salaries.
The University has a problem retaining faculty. This is evident in the loss of a few very popular professors.The main concern is low salaries.
THE ISSUE:
Salary Increase
Without increased pay the quality of education will suffer when faculty leave and KU cannot attract new teachers
The low salaries also cause problems in hiring new faculty. The University is known for penny-pinching, which discourages qualified people from applying. The education KU students receive is topnotch, and clearly this is because of the faculty. To keep this standing, new faculty must be the best. This requires attractive salaries.
KU is well-respected because of its faculty and staff.
To preserve this respect, they should receive more than a 2.5 percent salary increase.
SARBPAL HUNDAL FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Poor rooms hinder learning
There is an issue that is crumbling at the University of Kansas: the classrooms.
Many of the University's classrooms have interior problems in addition to not meeting fire safety requirements and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The learning environment of these classrooms and buildings is not a good one.
To obtain a good education, students must be able to concentrate on what the teacher is saying, not which tile is going to fall on their heads. These conditions are detrimental to the ability of the University to educate its students.
The University is willing to do something about the problem. However, it does not have the funds to make the much-needed repairs. Therefore, the University has gone to the Kansas legislature to request the funds.
The House Appropriations Committee is considering the $163 million request which would be made available for all the state's schools, $50 million of which could go to KU.
THE ISSUE:
KU Infrastructure
As classrooms crumble teachers and students will find concentrating on schoolwork a challenging task.
The committee should decide to give the University the money for the repairs. In light of the fiscal tightening set forth by Gov. Bill Graves, the committee may hesitate to award the funds. However, this would be a mistake.
One of the top priorities of a state should be the education of its citizens. Anything that detracts from the students learning environment or hinders access to education should be repaired.
The classrooms are crumbling, and the state should not allow the education of its citizens to deteriorate along with them.
DEBBIE THOMPSON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNelly/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
All school and no play takes away from real life
Late-night ingestion of art theory and Euro-centric history, sneaking highway catnaps on the drive home from work, that burning dry-eye sensation that comes earlier each evening, all while enduring a pot of coffee gnawing at my guts. Yeah, you safely could say that I am not excited about the beginning of another semester.
All these discomforts are fueled by barking professors eager for you to commit every desire within your soul to their classes. Knowledge, they will tell you, is the most important aspect of life, and this knowledge is found in your textbook, labs and practice. Sacrifice yourself on the altar of book-dependent education. It will make you the best person.
Of course, most of us recognize the fallacy of the argument. Books are important, even a passion for me. Yet nothing replaces the importance of life and living. Feeling. Experience. Permanently connect your nose to a textbook for a semester, denying yourself the other necessary staples of life — romantic relationships, friendships, spirituality, personal aspirations and journeys — and you won't emerge from college in any better condition than before you started.
STAFF COLUMNIST
I have plenty of friends and acquaintances who, while in school, worked through spring break, committed summers to
classes and stayed in on the weekends to catch up on studies, only to emerge from academia with the ability to cough up facts about Shakespeare or advertising strategies from the 1970s. They also graduated at 23 years of age with the inability to be intimate, to act on a social level, to recognize good or bad attributes in people or to tell interesting stories about their past.
One friend often haughtily brags the she worked hard and earned her degree in three years. She is also having a dead-end affair with a married man with whom she works. Although degrees and grades matter, do not be fooled into thinking that education will make you intelligent.
Balance is vital to a healthy life. Once you enroll in college, you should commit yourself to your studies, for they are an important in shaping aspects of your growth. But remember that school should enhance, rather than be, your life. A plethora of other discoveries await us at this point, and only a fraction of
them can be revealed through publishing houses and classroom lectures. You are at KU to learn, not to swallow statistics and facts that will mean little after the final exam has passed.
Aristotle recognized the need for people to live life rather than know life. In his Metaphysics, he writes, "If a man has theory without experience, and knows the universal, but does not know the particular contained in it, he will often fail in his treatment." You must partake in something to truly know it.
But balance was another key attribute of Aristotle's teachings: Don't swing the pendulum too far to the other extreme, living a modern bacchanalia in the taverns every night amidst a deluge of beer and empty carnal endeavors, while your academic carcer swirls in the gutter outside.
Take every point in your life to develop yourself into an individual, not a carbon-copy kid emerging into the world with your little University of Kansas Stamp of Approval, adept in the writings of Wordsworth and existential theory without a feeling of what any of it means.
Make time to appreciate the life you have. Grades are merely measurements of academic performance, not judgments on your worth as a person.
Leslie Bowyer is an Ottawa senior in art history.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Department merger limits independence
My name is Joseba Gorbea-Isusi, and I am a Basque student majoring in aerospace engineering. I am writing in response to David Teska's article published in the Nov. 13 issue of the University Daily Kansan related to the merger of the aerospace and mechanical engineering departments.
I would like to complain about the publication of a question attributed to me. It obviously originated in a wrong interpretation of my words, and from my point of view, it was incorrect and totally out of context in the article.
was that the article did not reflect the real situation created by the merger between the aerospace and mechanical engineering departments.
However, I consider this a simple anecdote, because what really made me decide to write this letter
In the same way, nothing was said about the tension experienced during the meeting held on Friday, Nov. 10, with David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs. This meeting was, to say it nicely, a total waste, as every aerospace engineering student would agree. In this meeting, only part of our questions were accepted and fewer were answered satisfactorily. We were not listened to.
For me, and for many aerospace engineering students, thinking of a merger between aerospace engineering and any other department without considering its serious consequences is already an error.
Our department is one of the best aerospace engineering departments in the nation, which means that it is comparable to the best aerospace engineering departments in the world. Any action taken to limit its independence will, without a doubt, degrade the quality of the education that we receive at the University of Kansas.
I hope that the people responsible for this situation will abandon the idea of a merger, and they will come out with other solutions in favor of the prestige of the department of aerospace engineering of the University. It is well recognized in the United States and all around the world.
Joseba K. Gorbea-Isuali
Lawrence junior
Students should look out for the temptation of credit cards
Many students these days find themselves in the middle of severe financial hardships. Whether it is a result of student loans or simple credit card debts, these students are learning about debt the hard way.
When people sign their names to credit applications, they almost always have good intentions. They say that the card is for emergencies or the loan is for tuition. A great many of these people, however, do
not comprehend the significance of a 19.8 percent annual percentage rate. These people do not understand that by signing up for a credit card, they have made themselves indentured servants to corporate America. Most noteworthy, they have no idea of the importance of a credit bureau report.
When people apply for credit, companies pull the applicants' credit bureau reports to examine their credit histories. This report contains information such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers. The report also provides potential creditors with access to payment records from all of the applicants' credit during the past seven to 10 years.
If for some reason you have filed bankruptcy or have been sued by a creditor for delinquent payments, this information appears on your credit bureau report, too. A little known fact about these reports is that not only do potential creditors have access to this information, but potential employers do as well. In fact, most employers review an applicants' credit bureau reports before hiring him. These employers interpret a person's credit history as indicative of their overall responsibility. Sometimes, a company will eliminate prospective employees based upon their poor credit histories. If more people were aware of these things, they might think twice about using credit frivolously.
When a debtor does not pay his bills, creditors have the option of suing for judgment. When they win this suit, and creditors are almost always victorious, a number of things can happen. They can garnish his wages, meaning that they can take money directly from his paycheck. In some cases, the creditors can force the debtor to either sell his assets or have them repossessed for liquidation. With defaulted student loans, a creditor may put a lien on the debtor's income tax return, meaning that they take whatever amount is due them directly from the Internal Revenue Service. In any case, creditors are quite capable of collecting money owed to them.
This information is much more disturbing when you consider the amount of credit card solicitation on campus. While walking on campus, some guy with a wry smile and bad haircut often will stop students, wanting to give them his company's credit card. To increase the temptation, this character even offers a free gift.
Whether or not companies have permission to solicit their credit cards at the University of Kansas, they do not belong here. If students want credit cards, they merely have to make a phone call or fill out an application through the mail.
The University has a responsibility for the well-being of its students. In this circumstance, it is failing. After all, a college campus is supposed to be used as a place to become educated, not victimized.
Mike Walden in a Leawood sophomore in political science