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Tuesday, January 16, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Editorial Board explains itself
The editorials you read in this section are not written by paramilitary animal-rights activists, nor are they written by a committee of the National Rifle Association. They are written by students.
We are the University Daily Kansan editorial board, and our goal is to provide the newspaper with a diverse student voice.
In the final weeks of last semester, the editorial editors searched for a variety of students who aren't afraid to share their opinions. What we came up with were 12 individuals representing different majors and cultural backgrounds.
For those who have had problems with past editorials, we hope you will take note that this semester's board has several new members who offer new points of view.
The editorials are the results of semi-weekly meetings between the board and the editorial editors. Board members discuss local and national events and topics of interest that pertain to students
THE ISSUE:
Opinion coverage
The Kansan Opinion Page should contain a broad range of student voices on diverse and relevant issues.
and the University of Kansas.
Although not all issues are worthy of an editorial, the board tries to find the topics that have the greatest effect on the lives of KU students. When a topic is deemed worthy of an editorial, the board discusses and debates all sides of the issue.
While every board member may not agree entirely with the ideas expressed in the editorial, the board strives to take a position that can represent as many of the opinions as possible.
A vote is taken following the discussion, and a thesis is created based on the majority's opinion. One member of the majority is then chosen to write the editorial.
CRAIG LANG FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Changes hurt busy students
It is mystifying that in an age where education is valued greatly, the Board of Regents has decided to increase the cost of it. And it is puzzling why Chancellor Hemenway, who hopes to attract more ambitious students to his institution, does not oppose a policy that penalizes such students. The newest tuition policy, which will be put into effect this summer, will increase the cost of education and punish ambitious students.
Why was the old system scrapped? Uniformity should be the rule by which all tuition polices are evaluated. Under the new system, fairness seems to have become a quaint concept. The University of Kansas should reward those students who take it upon themselves to either finish their education quickly or who simply wish to work hard. True, a student with eight credit hours works just as hard in classes as a student with seventeen. However, a student who chooses the more rigorous path should not have to bear a greater economical burden.
On a purely economic basis, saying that because a student consumes more he should have to pay more
THE ISSUE:
Linear tuition
The University's new pay-by-the-credit-hour tuition plan penalizes students who take ambitious classloads.
makes sense. But in higher education there should be an incentive structure that rewards students who take more classes, not less. The glory of the old system was that regardless of class schedules, most students were the same when it came to tuition. Tuition, the basic cost for attending class, was the unifying constant. This will not be so under linear tuition.
A quarter of the student body will graduate in four years. In many professional schools, large class loads are mandatory. The bottom line is that students who take more than 15 hours will pay more — considerably more. A student who takes twelve hours will pay $756, while the student with eighteen pays $1,134. This is a perverse precedent for the castigation of academic excellence. It is a bad policy, and the administration should oppose it.
TOM MOORE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
ASHLEY MILLER
Editor
VIRGINIA MARGHEIM
Managing editor
ROBERT ALLEN
News editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Canipus ... Joann Birk
... Philip Brownlee
Editorial ... Paul Todd
Features ... Matt Hood
Sports ... Tom Brocken
Made ... Matt Rollins
Matt Filker
Graphics ... Nosh Musser
Special sections ... Novelds Bommers
Win ... Tara Trenary
On-line coordinator ... Tina Fassett
HEATHER NIEHAUS
Business manager
KONAN HAUSER
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
By Todd Hiatt
Editore
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Karen Gersch
Regional mgr ... Kelly Connelys
National mgr ... Mark Ozdemk
Special Sections mgr ... Norm Blow
Production mgrs ... Rachel Califf
Marketing director ... Heather Viller
Public Relations dir .. Angie Adamson
Creative director .. Ed Okewaldi
Creatived mgr .. Stacey Weygarten
Internship/oo-op mgr .. T.J. Clark
Two, the Steelers will shut out Deion Sanders and the Cowboys in the Super Bowl.
One, Quentin Tarantino finally will realize that he is a director, not an actor.
I have three predictions for 1996.
Neglected and abused children do not receive the care that they need from foster homes and social service agencies.
It is an obvious case of an unfit mother. She has a chronic heroin habit that rehabilitation has yet to cure, she has been arrested several times for passing bad checks and once for stabbing a man, and she once abandoned her two young children for nine months before reclaiming them to collect state support money.
Unfortunately, this case is not an unusual one. It has been estimated that between 25 and 50 percent of children killed by abuse or neglect nationwide have been reported to the system as being in a high-risk situation.
And three, the Kansan will continue to build upon its long-time intention of providing KU students with the news they need.
In her latest encounter with the law, she was arrested for stealing a car so she could drive to Florida
with her abusive boyfriend. Her children had nothing to eat, and each had only one pair of shorts and a T-shirt to wear. Because the children already had been in state custody once, I would like to report that the children now are safe in a foster home or group residence. But I can't do that. They remain in the custody of this woman who obviously doesn't deserve to have them.
A faulty system
The excuse for incompetent handling of cases and agencies is the slashing of the budget by Congress, but the problems have existed before this election year loomed and the budget became a priority. In a way, though, I find it hard to fault Congress or the bureaucrats for wanting to cut the budget of such an ineffective, problem-ridden program. Too bad they didn't do the same with Star Wars or the Stealth bomber.
But the system simply does not work in its present form. Too often, the child's welfare is secondary to the needs of the agencies involved, or the child is a victim a second time of the incompetence and ignorance of those who purport to be the child's advocate.
But they aren't just eliminating programs in this case. They are eliminating hope. They are taking away the chance for these children to become healthy human beings either through incompetence or for the sake of better managing their money. That is unforgivable. I only hope they sleep better than I do at night knowing the situations these children have to endure.
A Child's Hope
Fire investigators who don't know enough about their profession to do a competent job. And hire enough competent people to handle the enormous caseload.
Illustration by Micah Laaker
OK, I can't actually guarantee the first two predictions, but one can always hope. However, I am sure that this year, and especially this semester, the Kansan will improve for one reason: We are listening to what students have to say. And as we listen, we are changing to give the readers what interests them.
The irony is frustrating. The children who need the state's protection can't get it, and the children who don't need it are convinced they do and are taken from their homes. The problem should be easily fixed.
We need an SRS where the primary purpose is not the management of funds but the care of children. That care will not come from heavy caseloads, bad policy and the subjugation of children's needs to the demands of an insensitive and uncaring bureaucracy. It will come only when the children are placed first.
Readers should enjoy new Kansan
This mistaken belief in repressed memories and the ignorance of the workings of the mind has led to innumerable mistakes of children or adults being convinced by their therapist that they had been victims of physical or sexual abuse by their parents. Unfortunately, these children who have been "professionally" referred to the system usually are the easiest to take from their families.
A 1992 study by Michael Yapko, psychiatrist and author, found that 83 percent of the therapists interviewed ranked their own knowledge of memory as average or below. Remember, this is in a profession where memory is of paramount importance in the interviewing and evaluation of children. This lack of knowledge is why 43 percent of those interviewed believed trauma in early childhood could create functional amnesia and 41 percent believed that early childhood memories were accurately stored and retrieved by the brain.
Misdiagnosis
The problem begins with the therapists who refer the children to the system and with the state investigators who are supposed to keep the children safe. Child protective services as a whole are filled with incompetent employees.
They also will place a time limit on the length of time an individual can reside in institutional or foster care. In other words, a child with no suitable home who is in desperate need of structure and stability will be shuffled around every few months like cattle being moved from pasture to pasture. Supposedly, this is meant to better meet the needs of the children by allowing for a nonbiased, individualized outcome. However, I fail to see how placing generic restrictions on the type and length of care children can receive will do anything more than produce children who is more troubled coming out of the system than they were going in.
But even when children are removed from their families, it is no guarantee that the victimization will stop. In a memo dated December 8, 1995, Teresa Markowitz, commissioner of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, stated that the primary goal of the SRS was to be a better manager of the services it provided and purchased. To reach this goal, they will be discontinuing many services, such as tutoring and intensive counseling for troubled children, Markowitz said.
Some children cannot just go home after six months — or a year — or two years — or ever. Sometimes their family life is too unstable. Sometimes there is no family at all. In spite of this, for the child's own good, the SRS is going to rotate them around the state without any thought as to their feelings or needs. The only explanation for this must be rank stupidity. A new school, a new family situation, a new circle of friends and a new behavior modification program every six months isn't going to promote the welfare of any child. The only thing it possibly may promote is the career of Commissioner Markowitz.
One of the most important changes we've made is an increase in our diversity. The Kansan has made a concerted effort to increase the range of
voices on all pages of the newspaper, including campus, sports and opinion. By doing this, we move one step closer to representing all members of the student body.
If readers will do that, then at least one of my predictions will come true: You can count on the University Daily Kansan to give you what you want this semester. Tarantino's revelation and the Steelers' win are anybody's guess.
But, as always, we'd like to build upon the number of viewpoints we've added by having
students tell us what they think. If readers want to share their thoughts or ideas, they can write a letter to the editor. Or, students who want to write can join the Kansan Correspondents program, which is designed to draw in both journalism and nonjournalism students interested in contributing to the newspaper.
Second, we've widened our coverage by increasing the number of beats on our campus desk, including beats that will concentrate on such things as money matters, government and relationships. We found that these stories are part of what students like to read, so we're going to provide.
Third, we're trying to make the Kansan as reader-friendly as possible by improving the way it looks and the way we present the news. The opinion page has been redesigned and will contain longer, more in-depth columns that spend time exploring issues not usually addressed in daily columns. In addition, the features page is undergoing a facelift so that we can provide the readers with "news you can use," not just "news you need to know."
All of this semester's changes were made with the students in mind. However, change is an
ongoing process. We're always looking to serve students better. And the best way to do that is by using the readers' feedback.
Call us. The number is 864-4810.
Stop by the newsroom. The address is 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Or, as I said, write a letter. We'll read it.
The most important thing to remember is that without reader input, we cannot change for the better. We need to know what students are thinking, feeling and talking about if we are to serve our purpose.
Ashley Miller is a Wichita senior majoring in Journalism.
OUT FROM THE CRACKS
By Jeremy Patnoi
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