4A
Tuesday, November 7, 1995
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: BLACK LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM
Explanation should be given for cancellation of symposium
The 11th annual Black Leadership Symposium for Kansas high school students scheduled for Nov. 3 was canceled and has left many participants disappointed. As of now, no statement or excuse has been given as to why. Students, counselors and everybody who was involved in this forum deserve to know the reason it did not take place.
The goal of the program is to gather African-American high school students who have a minimum grade point average of a 3.0 and who have leadership potential. This program is a good way for the University of Kansas to recruit, and many students look forward to participating in it. The cancellation has affected participants from all over the state and could damage recruitment. This program gives high school students the opportunity to visit a college campus and to get involved. The Black Leadership Symposium is an important event that benefits both the KU campus and Kansas high school students.
Program would have helped KU recruitment and its planners deserve explanation for cancellation.
The symposium was organized by Jacob Gordon, professor and the executive director for the Center of Multicultural Leadership. Many speculations have arisen as to why the forum was canceled, but none has been confirmed. Some participants are upset and confused, and they have every right to be.
Many people have been involved in organizing this conference. And for all the anticipation and hard work they have given, they deserve an explanation. Somebody who knows the facts needs to step forward and give everybody who participated in the organization and planning of the symposium a valid reason for its cancellation.
TARA FITZPATRICK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
THE ISSUE: CLASS BREAK
Ten-minute break is sufficient
The University of Kansas should not consider extending the time between classes to more than 10 minutes. The 10-minute break between classes is enough time for students to walk from one class to another, provided they don't stop to talk, eat lunch, get a soda or linger to chat in their previous classes.
Extending the break between classes, as some students have requested, would mean extending the class day as well as the academic year, options that are not worth the extra minutes.
The campus of the University of Kansas is big, and students ought to take that into consideration when planning their class schedules. Students have the responsibility to plan their schedules in a way that will enable them to get from
Extended break isn't necessary if students plan their schedules right and don't waste time between classes.
one class to another in 10 minutes.
Furthermore, professors should be more considerate about students' time crunch. Some faculty members fail to dismiss class when the whistle sounds, thereby keeping students from getting to their next class on time.
Students can arrive in class on time if they walk faster and plan their class schedules with the 10-minute break in mind. However, faculty members need to dismiss class on time. With a little planning and cooperation between students and faculty, the 10-minute break between classes can be sufficient.
LUBY MONTANO- LAUREL FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
News & Special Sections...Deedra Allison
Editorial...Heather Lawrentz
Associate Editorial...Sarah Morrison
Associate Campus...Teresa Vazey
Associate Campus...Paul Todd
Associate Campus...Marcus Hewitt
Associate Sports...Tom Erickson
Photo...Paul Kotz
Wire...Robert Allen
Video...Michael
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Meredith Hennings
Regional mgr ... Tom Dulce
Administrative mgr ... Markus Kruse
Special Sections mgr ... Heather Niehaus
Production mgr ... Evanston Easton
Marketing director ... Kate Krys
Public Relations director ... Beth Gahli
Creative director ... Bridget Coupland
Intermphasis co-op mgr ... Kelly Connelys
Meanwhile, the issues of lesbians, bisexuals and gays are being used for the political gain or loss of a handful of candidates. The good news is that many people are talking about something that used to be routinely silenced. The bad news is that it is nothing more than talk. If Clinton had any real interest in the rights of lesbigays, he surely could have proven it by now. Luckily, I remember not only Clinton's past actions involving my issues, but also a useful saying my grandfather taught me: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
As a result, Congress will overturn the domestic partnership law in D.C., which allows lesbiagay people access to some of the benefits of married heterosexual couples. The action will have negative consequences for many residents of the capital and is primarily a response to Clinton's move.
Scott Manning is a Lawrence graduate student in French.
anything concrete, he goes on record as opposing discrimination, and he won't have to worry about too many lesbigay voters supporting Dole.
Gay rights are a victim of political campaign posturing
Last week, President Clinton came out in support of a bill which would prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace. The law only would apply to non-religiously affiliated enterprises with more than 15 employees. This week, Congress is in the process of eliminating the current domestic partnership laws of the District of Columbia. What do these two seemingly opposite actions have in common? They are both cynical moves aimed only at each other, a part of larger campaign strategies. After being ignored by mainstream politics for most of this country's history, lesbiqay people are suddenly in a more central position as pawns of both major parties.
The bill supported by Clinton actually has been around for years, periodically reintroduced and routinely ignored despite the growing number of co-sponsoring legislators, Democratic and Republican alike. The most recent version of the bill, introduced by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., still has no chance of passing in the Republican-held Congress.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Clinton's support for the bill is a first: No other president has taken a stand on sexual orientation discrimination. But
this news would sound better if my memory were shorter. After Clinton's own discriminatory "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy for the military, his credibility on this particular issue is, from all perspectives, nonexistent.
any serious interest in the rights of lesbigay people, he could have asked the attorney general's office to submit a brief concerning the Colorado Amendment 2 case, recently heard by the Supreme Court. Several states did just that, some condemning and others supporting the measure, but the Clinton administration remained silent, apparently indifferent about the outcome.
If Clinton ha
Clinton's renewed interest in his lesbigay constituency is likely the result of Dole's embarrassing episode with the Log Cabin Republicans. Clinton easily can support a measure he knows he will never have to deal with because it will never leave Congress. Without actually doing
This has gone too far. There are only a few things that make me really angry, but this continued attempt to make team mascots seem like degrading beasts has done it.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Mascot issue is much ado about nothing
When someone decides to pick a mascot for its team, it is supposed to be an honor. Teams pick a mascot because they like what that mascot stands for, and they hope that someday, with hard work and sacrifice, their team can achieve some of the positive ideals that their mascot represents.
This is also the case in Indian mascots. Native Americans are thought of as brave people who have had to conquer more than their fair share of hardships. Their ancestors took a buffalo and made things out of it that to most people would seem like garbage, in effect making something out of nothing.
We are the University of Kansas Jayhawks. This mascot was picked a long time ago because it is a mascot that shows our pride for our state and the hard working people who live here. We hope that our sports teams embody the values of not only our current residents, but also the Jayhawkers of long ago. This is why we are the Jayhawks, not because we hope to degrade the entire state of Kansas
This is why teams select Indian mascots, not to degrade. They don't pick a mascot to depict its negative stereotypes. This is true be it an Indian mascot, a Jayhawk, or anything else.
Pat Leopold
Hoxie freshman
I think it is ridiculous that people would even claim that Indian mascots, or any mascots for that matter, are intended to be degrading. The truth of the matter is, they are intended to represent the exact opposite.
Student Senate needs to take responsibility
and the worthless, lazy hicks that live here.
KU On Wheels is in big financial trouble ... surprised? We at KU Environs are not, and the Transportation Board should not have been surprised either. Last year, KU On Wheels ran a negative balance and was forced to go into their reserve fund (which was once $200,000) and be forced to find a loan somewhere. Where are they looking? They want the students of University of Kansas to cover their debt. But, the real question is why has this happened? The answer is simple. Student Senate members of the Transportation Board stated last year during elections that there were no problems with KU On Wheels, but according to the financial record, there were problems. Since the Student Senate Executive committee members failed to deal with reality, the problem has become worse.
KU Environ has known about this problem for more than six weeks and has met with the City Manager and city officials to organize a meeting between the city.
StudEx officers and the administration. However, now that the student-run KU bus system has proven itself fiscally irresponsible, KU students would have limited power in the advent of a citywide bus system. This all comes back to the irresponsible behavior on the part of the StudEx officers, because, rather than deal with the problems of KU On Wheels when they became apparent, they chose to play Russian roulette and politics. There must be some accountability within the Senate because their decisions adversely affect all students of KU.
Katherine Smith co-coordinator of KU Environs
Kansan overdoes political correctness
Political correctness at the Kansan has hit another low. In the Nov. 3 article "Justice prevails for South African," it was reported that the ANC did well in South African local elections. "That means many territories that were controlled by whites would be governed by councils led by African Americans..." Through the Kansan's continuing effort to avoid offending self-appointed designators of group names, another absurdity has been printed. Do you really believe that South Africans would submit to being governed by foreigners?
Jon D. Snyder
Lawrence graduate student
Klein's new ads challenge perception of male sexuality
Calvin Klein is at it again, and the sex police have pulled out the big guns.
Klein recently released a new print advertisement to be featured in Playboy and Esquire magazines. The ad features a 20-year-old male model, chest bare, clad in a pair of
white Calvin Klein briefs, sitting, leaning slightly backward with his legs spread apart.
STAFF
COLUMNIST
And the critics are coming out of the woodwork.
This isn't the first time Klein has taken heat for his sex ads. Klein's recent jeans and underwear ads featuring young teens sparked
controversy. Critics charged that he focused on the sexual vulnerability of young teens in mainstream ads.
It's no shock that these new ads were plastered all over the nightly news.
Interviews were done with the young boys featured in the ads and Klein himself. Critics even went as far as to argue that the ads were encouraging child pornography.
As for the ads featuring teenagers, I can see why some would be concerned, but these new ads are nothing new thematically. Sex sells. History has proven that, and advertisers are simply continuing to profit from it.
Klein's ads in the late '70s and early '80s featured a young Brook Shields — wearing a pair of liquid jeans — saying that nothing comes between her and her Calvin's. More recently, in a perfume ad, Klein featured Kate Moss — a '90s answer to Twiggy — sprawled naked, lying on her stomach on a sofa.
The use of sexual innuendo with females in ads is nothing new. Klein and other advertisers have played off the sexy female to sell products for decades. Ads for Lucky Strike cigarettes decades ago featured a seductive female to sell their smokes.
Historically, some controversy has surrounded ads that feature females seductively, but it has been nothing compared to the opposition that emerges when sexy males are featured. Somehow, somewhere along the line, society chose to define female sexuality in terms of its relation to men, and these new ads challenge that.
By featuring this male in this seductive manner, Klein is, in essence, making him the sex object. He is defining this man's sexuality in terms of its relation to women, and no one is comfortable with that.
Men fear being placed in that sexobject role that women have been forced into for years. It represents a loss of control and a sexual power.
Somehow, seeing Kate Moss buck-naked is less offensive than seeing this man in his underwear. Women on display for men to stare at is somehow more acceptable than putting a man on display for women to gaze at.
Perhaps this hypocritical viewpoint is too embedded in society and who we are. Historically, women have been expected to be coy, virtuous and submissive. Women, particularly those our parents' age, still are not allowed to have a sexuality outside of what men desire. Things have improved in the work force and in the classroom, but they haven't changed in the bedroom, and they probably won't, at least not for a long time.
Nicole Kennedy is an Overland Park Junior in Journalism.
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 Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Heather Lawrenz, editorial page editor, or Sarah Morrison, associate editorial editor, at 864-4810.