4A
Friday, November 3, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: RECREATION CENTER
New recreation center needed
The University of Kansas needs a new recreation center or significant improvements to the current one, Robinson Center.
Across the country, interest in health and fitness has increased in the past decade. The demand for accommodating health and fitness centers has grown also. Unfortunately, Robinson isn't adequate to meet the demand of the University.
Robinson, which was built in 1966, is outdated. However, the real concern students have is the availability of equipment and space in Robinson.
For example, Robinson doesn't have enough courts to satisfy the wide variety of sporting interests at KU. It has four wooden courts and two made of tile. The courts are used for aerobics, basketball and volleyball, to name a few of their uses. By comparison, the University of Nebraska has twice as many multi-purpose courts than KU.
It's tough to accommodate the athletic interests of the nearly 25,000 students at the University onto six courts. Six courts do not even meet the needs of basketball enthusiasts on campus.
Robinson Center lacks the space and equipment to accommodate the athletic needs of 25,000 students.
Construction of a new recreation center needs to begin soon. Presumably, finances to construct the new center would be generated by increasing the student campus fee. However, there are a few alternatives.
First, if SuperTarget can pay for the women's soccer field, it is possible a new recreation center could have a corporate sponsor as well. This would lessen the financial burden on the University.
Another option would be making membership to the new recreation center an option on the options form available every semester during enrollment. A fee on the options card every semester could generate a substantial amount of revenue for the project. Another advantage of this option would be that students who don't use the recreation center wouldn't have to pay.
However it is financed, it is clear that students deserve a more modern and accommodating recreation center.
MARK POTTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
OPINION BRIEFS
Students are lousy tippers
Some University of Kansas students have a problem behaving themselves in public. Students are a large group of food service customers in Lawrence, and they should learn to respect and tip food servers.
Food servers depend on tips to support themselves. Most waiters and waitresses do not make minimum wage because employers expect their employees to receive tips. College students know firsthand the hardships of living on a limited budget and should empathize with food servers. An appropriate tip is as least 15 percent of the price of
the meal. And good service deserves a good tip.
Many students complain about receiving poor service because they are students. But if those in the service industry wearily eye student customers, it is probably because they have been poorly tipped and rudely treated by students numerous times in the past.
The lack of respect for food servers is shocking. Obnoxious behavior in local restaurants is an embarrassment to the student community.
Students should close their mouths and open their wallets.
CHARITY JEFFERIES FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Jeff MacNellv / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Cuteness helps make passage to adulthood a little easier
I could tell I was impressing them with my obvious maturation.
"Oh yeah, I'm graduating in May with a degree in journalism." Oooohh!
Three of my mom's coworkers who have known me since I was 16 were all oohing and ahhing over me as if I were the Fourth of July fireworks that rained purple sparklers.
"And then I'm applying for a job with The Oregonian in Portland." Aaaahhh!
"And after a couple of years, I hope to be living in Spain." Wooooo!
But as I made my farewells and my mom led me to her office, the shot was to the heart.
They see that this is not the same girl they hugged and kissed off to college three and a half years ago, I thought regularly as their eyes shined at me with what I perceived to be newfound respect. This is a woman. She has struggled against adversity (boys, booze and pain-inducing yet incredibly hip footwear), and the wisdom of adulthood is her prize. Soon we will sit together and drink black coffee and discuss lovers and girlhood dreams and career goals.
Cute. CUTE! You spend your whole life, 22 years, struggling for
"She's so-ooo cute," cooled one of the women while we were still in earshot. The two others giggled in agreement.
Cute CUTE! You spend your
cocker spaniels and those little plastic elves with the goofy faces and the big hair. Cute is those mini salt and pepper shakers that come with your meal on an airplane. Cute is the first compliment your first love gave to you. Cute is those made-up songs that kids hum and rock their heads to, mindless of everyone else, while they wander through supermarkets with their dad. Cute is the little girl whipping the soccer ball around the boys because she hasn't been told she's not able to.
dignity and intelligence and fairness and maturity in your character and the one adjective that's used to sum you up: cute. Why not, "She's so-ooow" advanced for her age." Or "She's so-ooow" dedicatedly pursuing her future." But so-ooow cute?
I never realized how great cute could be until two weeks ago, as I was on my way to Strong Hall to enroll for the last semester of my college years.
Cute is puppy
Cute isn't all bad.
"Woah!" I stopped short and
COLUMNIST
thought about that. "Last semester
thought about that. "Last semester ... Wait ... That can't be right ... no ... Well, I'm not ready."
No, I thought, in some kind of frantic determination to deny the inevitable. My last opportunity to absorb the classical college education of art, literature and culture that I had been pretty much ignoring the last three years. The last five months that my parents will be paying for my rent. The small remaining time that I can screw up really bad and still be excused for it.
Well, I'm just not ready. I'm still terrified and unsure and the rate of my mistakes has not slowed down at all. I'm still not sure about who I am or what I believe in. Stepping off of the Campanile, everyone's going to expect me to react with dignity and intelligence and fairness and maturity when it would be a hell of a lot easier just to be cute.
But when I pick myself up, the last word anwone will use is cite
Cute is the lack of expectations. But I guess I've come too far to let a momentary desire to revert to childhood submerge all my dreams of adulthood. I know I'm going to have a place there, somewhere, in the real world, and I know I'm going to trip and stumble getting there.
Angelina Lopez is a Tulsa, Okla., senior journalism
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Writer forgets about persecuted in Ireland
KANSAN STAFF
Tom Good has shown himself to be quite capable at writing about matters in which he has no knowledge. In his letter on mascots in America that ran in yesterday's issue of The University Daily Kansan, he indicates that the Irish have not been persecuted. For his information, at the same time that the Native Americans were being persecuted in the United States, the Irish had been thrown off their land. Whole villages of people were forced into bushes that were then set on fire. To cope with the loss of land, they resorted to eating only potatoes, which grew in the bad soil left to
STEPHANIE UTLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
Lawrence senior
The issue is being proud of one's heritage. Mascots either can be seen as a reminder to teach about our heritage or as stereotypes of groups. Being both part Irish and part Native American, I choose the former.
Campus mgr ... Meredith Heening
Regional mgr ... Tom Dulce
National mgr ... Heather Barnes
Special Sections mgr ... Heather Nishua
Production mgr ... Nancy Euston
Krista Nye
Marketing director ... Beth Galli
Public Relations director ... Beth Galli
Creative director ... Brigit Bloomquist
Classified mgr ... Heather Valler
Intermily/oop mgr ... Kelly Connelys
them. When the potato blight came, they immigrated to America to avoid starvation, while the English were exporting grain from their shores. The ones who stayed behind were forced to give up their native Gaelic language and speak only English.
Business Staff
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
Libeth Tempero
All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the absolute right edit, cut to length or out-right reject all submissions.
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the authors signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
How to submit letters and guest columns
I realize that I will never be in a band or become a cheerleader, but I also realize that what I do in my spare time isn't superior to what any other person does. The most unsuspecting people have become heroes. Who knows, some person you label a science geek today may have the cure for AIDS tomorrow.
Jenny Wideke is an Evergreen, Colo., Junior in Journalism.
But recently, I realized despite being stuck in a clique, there are people who are much worse than me. There are those people who make no attempt to understand or even acknowledge the diverse personalities at KU. These are the individuals who are so set in their ways that they are unaccepting or hostile to people with different interests. This is not about racism or discrimination or anything quite that deep. It's about pure ignorance. For example, as a cheerleader walked by one day, I overheard a girl make the snide remark "Why would a person want to spend their time cheerleading?" Being six feet tall, I can't exactly say that I would love to be a cheerleader, but I respect and admire people willing to put forth the time and effort to dedicate themselves to an activity. I wonder how the snide girl would have felt if the cheerleader countered, "Why would any girl waste her time with THAT sorority?" It hurts when someone attacks your activities, cutting right through the core of who you are. Our activities involve our friends and they reflect our inner selves and our dreams. People pour their hearts into their dreams and their extracurricular activities. If someone's dream is different from yours, that doesn't make it any less valid. What if someone told Benjamin Franklin that electricity was a wild dream and to forget about it? We would be in greater darkness than the narrow-minded people in this world.
Everybody has their niche in life. For some people it's drama and others it's athletics. Certain people like science and others are involved in music. After a time you find what you like and you stick to it. You make friends that are
Narrow minds wound other people's pride hinder progress
STAFF COLUMNIST
involved in your activities, you practice whatever it is you do and your hobbies fill your thoughts constantly. Soon, your entire existence revolves around whatever your niche is.
one thing — no sir, I was not going to limit myself. I had come from a fairly small town and wanted to experience everything college life had to offer. So, when I arrived in the dorm, I met as many people as I could. I became friends with every sort of person. Some were in bands or engineering, and others were more into the athletic scene. But two years later, I find myself stuck in my clique of people, desperately trying to cling on to these friendships from my freshman year to give me some diversity in my narrowed life. I keep thinking that I have let all the variety in my life slip away. I struggle to find common ground with my old friends, and they do the same.
When I first arrived at the University of Kansas, I wasn't about to get sucked into just
THE COMPLETELY POINTLESS ADVENTURES OF BRIGG & FRO
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