4A
Wednesday, December 6, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: BASKETBALL
Student fans shown no respect
Allen Field House is one of the toughest places for opposing teams to play college basketball. The raucous crowds at men's basketball games have helped the Jayhawks earn a .821 all-time winning percentage in the field house.
The enthusiastic student fans are the primary source of this electric atmosphere. Unfortunately, the Athletic Department seems to forget this when deciding ticket-taking policies for home games. Students are treated as if they are a necessary evil, not an asset.
Disorganization and chaos abound on each game day as a phalanx of students gather outside the doors of the field house. The department makes the students form a single line and lets them in through only one or two doors on the north side of the building.
For students who wait in line for hours or days to get a good seat, the single line serves to ensure that they get first choice. That is a fair policy. But for students who would rather sit high in the
On game days at Allen Field House, students are treated more like cattle than a valuable part of KU tradition.
To remedy this problem, the department should continue to let students in through only one door if they want to come more than two hours before tipoff. But within two hours of the start of the game, students should be permitted to enter any door in the field house, including the front doors.
bleachers than sacrifice time and, during colder weather, possibly even their health for a good seat, the single-line policy forces them to stand in an extremely long line in the cold. Lines up to an hour before tipoff routinely wind all the way around the field house lawn and past the parking garage.
The preferential treatment the Athletic Department shows alumni by opening all doors to them while herding students through just one or two side doors is ridiculous. It is, after all, the students' University, and it is time the department stopped leaving them out in the cold.
SARAH MORRISON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: UNIVERSITY BUDGET
Schools need control of budgets
The Legislature finally is beginning to see the light. The Legislative Budget Committee has approved, in concept, a proposal that would give Board of Regents institutions control over their tuition revenue and greater freedom in managing their own financial affairs.
Each year, the money paid by students to their universities is sent directly to the state and then allocated to the universities as the state sees fit. The proposal, by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Robin Jennison, would remove the schools from this menial position of dependency on state politicians and allow university chancellors and presidents greater managerial control and accountability for the budgets.
For years, the Legislature has had total control over the budgets of the Regents institutions.
A proposal that would give Board of Regents institutions control over their tuition revenue should be approved.
If this proposal is approved, the Legislature at last would give up control of the funds that are supposed to be going to education and give it to those who are most concerned with putting it to the use that it was intended.
It is high time that the Legislature relinquished its control of the Regents schools' budgets. The Legislature would be doing a great injustice if it failed to approve this proposal. Such an oversight would continue to shortchange the better interests of higher education in the state of Kansas.
CHRIS VINE FOR THE EDLTORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors
News & Special Sections...Deedra Allison
Editorial...Heather Lawrens
Associate Editorial...Michael McKenzie
Associate Campus...Virginia Merghulm
Associate Campus...Teresa Veasey
Associate Campus...Jennifer Furlow
Associate Sports...Tom Brickson
Photos...Robert Allen
Garden coordinator...Tina Pansett
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgre | Meredith Hennings
Regional mgre | Tori Dulce
National mgre | Neather Barnes
Mission mgre | Neather Barnes
Production mgre | Raney Easton
Marketing director | Katie Nye
Public Relations director | Botha Gell
Creative director | Briggs Snyder
Senior Vice President Value Internship/co-op mgre | Kelly Connolly
Chan Lowe / CHICAGO TRIBUNI
Caring for homeless can be scary but rewarding
"There but for the grace of God I," said Phillip Nathan Mansfield as he looked at me over his coffee. Bundled up for the winter cold with his big, gray beard spilling down his chest, he looks like Santa would if Kafka were God. But Phil isn't Santa. He is a homeless man struggling to live here in Lawrence, and his comment on the plight of the homeless was well taken.
We are all living in a world beyond our control where external forces could tear our lives apart without notice. Most of us are just one or two missed paychecks from being homeless ourselves. Many of us don't have health insurance, and a catastrophic illness would mean destitution. But we live our lives on faith, trusting that the powers greater than us — the economic system, the state, God — will shelter us from life's more twisted turns. Usually we are right, but when looking at those who have fallen through society's cracks, it is easy to see that that isn't always the case.
The causes of homelessness are as varied as the individuals who suffer from it. Maybe it is caused by a lost job or a depressed job market. Maybe it is due to the lack of affordable housing or a personal crisis. For Phil, it was a head injury suffered when he was 19. Following that, he was placed in the state hospital in Topeka for several years before working his way to Lawrence. Here he did doctoral work at the University of Kansas before his growing disillusionment set him adrift again. Finally, he became one of Lawrence's homeless. Focused, intelligent and highly articulate, it would be easy to forget that he
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lives outside year-round. But he won't let you. Phil is one of the strongest advocates the homeless have here in Lawrence, and he isn't shy about educating the masses of their plight.
According to Jay Leipzig, housing coordinator for Lawrence, there
A stray dog has the Humane Society to feed him every day, provide him with water and give him shelter around the clock. The homeless of Lawrence have a temporary shelter, and meals are offered only once a day and are inconveniently spread throughout our community.
are about 30 chronically homeless people in Lawrence, with another 4 percent of the population in imminent danger of losing their housing. Others have estimated the amount to be closer to 900 people without homes. And in reality, both figures are probably wrong. But whatever the number, one fact remains: We treat our stray animals better than the homeless.
It is true that many fine people do what they can to help. The Salvation Army has maintained the temporary shelter here for years, and many organizations provide the daily meal that is often the only unused food the homeless get. But Lawrence lacks a central intake center, which would consolidate many of the help providers in one location. It lacks a permanent shelter that would give the homeless access to washers and dryers, showers, semi-private accommodations, job boards and a place to keep some belongings. And it makes it difficult for case workers to help the homeless meet their needs. We simply don't have the facilities here in Lawrence to care adequately for the poorest of our community. It is time our City Commission did something concrete to alleviate this needless suffering.
Until that happens, you can play a part in easing the hardship of life on the street. All you have to do is stop and talk with a homeless person next time you are downtown shopping or eating. Ask them how they are doing. Ask them if they are hungry and if you could buy them a meal. Then sit down and eat with them. Don't preach, though. If you feel the need, get a pubit. Just be nice. They aren't a different species. They are just like you and me — "suffering from the human condition," as Phil would say. They are cold and hungry and lonely as you would be in their situation. And it is Christmas.
If you are too scared of personal contact or if the social pariah schema is too deeply ingrained in you, then give them blankets, clothing, food or money. You can just drop it and run if the fear is too overpowering. But give something.
Trust me. When you turn around and feel that warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach, your effort will be worth it. Savor the feeling as a present to yourself. Perhaps you will like it so much you will return the next week to give again.
Todd Hlist is a Lyndon senior in social welfare.
Real world problems can wait; enjoy your freedom
I don't mean to scare you, but it's a jungle out there. I should know; I just left the wilds of the real world to go back to school full time. While students anxiously count the minutes until they hear "Pomp and Circumstance," the fact is, life really is
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COLUMNIST
our parents said it would be — hard. The other ironic truth is: You don't know how good you have it right now. On a recent episode of Seinfeld, Jerry and George wonder what their lives are all about and decide they should become more grown-up. Both vow to be
less petty as they look for ways to be real man. George discovers his manhood immediately and gets engaged. However, Jerry isn't ready to let go of his youth, and he ends up reneging on his pact with George. In the end, Jerry is happy, and George feels beaten, betrayed and old. The message is clear: There is nothing wrong with hanging on to one's belief in the ideal.
But that's the good thing about freedom: You get to determine what it means for you. And you get to take as long as you want to do it.
I remember being incredibly sick of college as a senior 10 years ago. I didn't care if I ever saw another syllabus in my life. I hated morning classes, and I was tired of writing papers. It seemed I was on an endless treadmill — always preparing for life, never actually living it. And so I jumped at the chance to teach high school English when I graduated. At last, I had a career. I could tell people I was something other than a student. I would be free.
But freedom comes in many different forms, I would later discover. While I was able to make my own decisions and pay my own way, these luxuries had a price. Sometimes we pay by staying on at a job we hate, or we put up with a boss who is a jerk. Often we take promotions in careers we don't enjoy just because it means more money. When children come, we are free only to do what is best for them. And again, sacrifices and compromises are made. We buy property - it is our choice, after all
—and this, too, means responsibility. How free are we, really?
I do not regret my teaching career, for it was quite rewarding. But I propose that there is nothing wrong with taking your time to move into a career or another life choice. People said my husband and I were crazy to dump our jobs (he is now a first-year medical school student at KU), leave Los Angeles and begin again. I now look at some of my 30-something friends, who are miserable in their jobs, and say the same thing about them — they're out of their minds.
Donna Davis is an Overland Park graduate student in education.
Prof says grievance rights were violated
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A recent editorial in the University Daily Kansan loudly proclaimed the sanctity of free speech and emphasized the necessity of preserving the free speech rights of the editorial staff of the Kansan. Unfortunately, the Kansan's willingness to extend those rights to others in the University community is limited, as witnessed by the repeated failure to print any of the responses that I have sent following the appearance of my name — usually in a false, or at best unflattering, context — in the pages of your publication. Nevertheless, I sit down, yet again, to write a response to the editorial "Professor deserves to lose rights," written by Mark Potter, that appeared in the Oct. 28 edition of the expectation that this, too, will be ignored — no doubt once again a victim to your narrow view of what constitutes free speech on a university campus.
Potter needs to be aware of the implications of the subject he
University Senate Rules and Regulations 5.2.1 states:
"No person shall be subjected to discharge, suspension, discipline, harassment, or any form of discrimination for having utilized...grievance procedures."
Why, I must ask, do you support the deliberate violation of University rules and regulations? And why do you write in support of those who engage in such a violation?
writes about (a colleague of mine wondered whether his words were not dictated by Vice Chancellor Shulenburger). He is thus reminded of the following:
I work as a faculty member in The School of Engineering. Our mission statement tells me that INTEGRITY is of PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE. The Office of Academic Affairs issues a pamphlet stating that academic integrity is everyone's business — students, staff, faculty and administrators. The dean of engineering tells the engineering faculty that "We cannot tolerate cheating in the School of Engineering. I urge you to work vigorously to prevent its occurrence." The Code of Ethics for Engineers tells me that "Engineers shall not falsify or permit misrepresentation of their, or their
Potter claims that "Administrators were forced to issue an order that prevents Hector Clark from abusing the grievance process." First, there has been no such abuse. Second, the net was drawing tight around David E. Shulenburger. His ruling was issued to protect himself from charges of ethical violation and was issued when those charges were before the Judicial Board. Conflict of interest? Of course. Was it not Shulenburger who used now-convicted faculty Code of Conduct violator Julian Holtzman to assess my academic performance for promotion three years ago, despite the fact that Holtzman had twice threatened to sue me if I pursued the charges that resulted in his conviction? Yes it was.
associates', academic or professional qualifications." So, whether Potter likes it or not, I have a professional obligation to deal with violations of professional behavior and of the code.
The fact is that of three hearings that I have attended on grievances in the past several years, one failed because the chairperson did not follow procedures. In the other two, by my effort, Terry N. Faddis,
If Potter and the Kansan editorial board want a university where integrity is not paramount, they've got it. If they want a university where faculty violations of the norms of professional behavior go unpunished, they've got it. If they want a university where the vice chancellor for academic affairs is unwilling to uphold the most basic standards of ethical behavior, they've got it. If they want a university where the chancellor eagerly violates the rules and regulations of the university, they've got that, too. It's called the University of Kansas, and putting prohibitions on me "until the turn of the century" is not going to wipe away the stain.
professor of mechanical engineering, was found guilty of one count of violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct for falsifying his claims of publications, while in the other, Julian Holtzman, director of the Center for Excellence and professor of engineering management, was found guilty of two counts for falsifying his own claims and those of others.
Meester Clark associate professor of mechanical engineering
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