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Thursday, January 26, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Board right to recommend another Lawrence school
The Lawrence School Board acted courageously Monday night, overcoming public debate and controversy with its recommendation to split Lawrence High into two high schools
Lawrence High's tradition of state domination in sports, activities and academics is not taken lightly in this town. But Board members understand that the Lawrence school district's strong educational foundation will not be weakened by the breakup.
And they are right. They acted boldly for the good of Lawrence's students in spite of the reluctance of the community to grow and change. Board member Mary Loveland summed it up by saying, "The Lawrence school district is no longer a small-town district because Lawrence is no longer a small town."
But the school board is not finished with its monumental task. It must fight to pass the $20 million to $25 million bond issue needed to build the new school.
Board member Mary Lou Wright's recommendation to allocate as much as a million dollars to upgrade the current Lawrence High also must be granted. The school cannot compete with the modern facility unless new equipment is added and the building is refurbished.
Most important, however, is locating the new school. The board's recommendation stipulates that the school be built in equitable boundaries, allowing for optimum cultural diversity
Balancing the second school racially and socioeconomically is crucial to ensure the best possible education for all students. The school district now owns 50 acres of land west of Wakarusa Drive running along 15th and Sixth streets. The board agreed, though, that the location was not the best one. The affluent location may hinder diversity.
A better location would be north of Sixth Street. That way, the boundaries would be more fair to all students. The district also could increase its use of busing to allow students who live farther away an opportunity to participate in extra-curricular activities. Even though many high school students don't like to ride a bus, those who don't have cars or can't yet drive would have the option.
Lawrence must come together to pass the board's recommendation. The community may be uncomfortable turning its back on Lawrence's one-high-school tradition, but it is imperative that it does.
- Grace Hobson for the editorial board
It's been slow in coming, but KU students will definitely be paying fees by mail in 1991.
Fee payment will be easier
The new fee payment system that the Fees Policy Commission worked on for almost three years finally is becoming a reality. The new system replaces the one KU has been using since 1955 and will make paying fees a much simpler process.
The first phase of the three-part program now is complete. It replaced the computer punch cards with a full-page statement. The second and third phases will be the most welcome changes, though we'll have to wait longer for them.
The second phase will automatically subtract any financial aid or scholarship payments from your tuition. The third phase allows students to mail in fee payments.
allows students to be billed July 1, with payment due Aug. 1, one month before classes begin. Students can even pay in installments, with half due Aug. 1 and half due Oct. 1. How easy can it get?
it get?
No longer will you have to leave jobs or vacations early to spend hours waiting in lines. And you won't be forced to pay fees in one lump sum.
Because fees will be paid two weeks before classes start, teachers will have a more accurate idea of their class size. The more time teachers have to determine the size of their classes, the easier it will be for students to find classes they can add.
The Fees Policy commission should be commended for taking its time and making sure that all of the bases are covered. The new program is comprehensive and, most important, easy. It has taken some time, but the program will be worth the wait.
Jennifer Hinkle for the editorial board
News staff
Julie Adam...Editor
Karen Boring...Managing editor
Jill Jess...News editor
Deb Gruver...Planning editor
James Farquhar...Editorial editor
Elaine Sung...Campus editor
Tom Stinson...Sports editor
Janine Swilakowski...Photo editor
Dave James...Graphics editor
Neal Geredes...Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Business staff
Debra Cole...Business manager
Pamela Noe...Retail sales manager
Kevin Martin...Campus sales manager
Scott Frager...National sales manager
Michelle Garland...Promotions manager
BradLenhart...Sales development manager
Linda Prokop...Production manager
Debrina Martin...Asst. production manager
Kim Collenant...Co-op sales manager
Cari Cressler...Classified manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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Wrestling hints help other sports
FL players and owners debate free agency in court. Baseball owners talk about a lockout before the 1990 season
about a lockout before the 1990 season if they don't get their way. Violence threatens to ruin the grace of hockey, and indoor soccer teams are in and out of business faster than most Christmas tree lots. Pro basketball and hockey teams play 80 to 82 meaningless regular-season games to eliminate a handful of teams from the playoffs, football adds extra wild-card teams and baseball explores the possibility of expanding its post-season. Is it any wonder that the average professional sports fan just doesn't give a damn any more?
Oh, every so often, pro sports try to inject life into the tedium. They jack up the baseball, devise three-point shots, curve the hockey stick and outlaw the bump-and-run. Then, when all the scoreboards read 11-9, 66-65 and 191-190, they raise the pitcher's mount, legalize pass interference and make the baskets two feet higher until every result becomes 1-0 in overtime.
every result becomes. But that won't do. To recapture the emotion, drastic measures must be taken. Only one professional sport these days is addressing these problems positively, and as a result, it is enjoying record popularity. Other sports must follow its lead. I'm speaking, of course, about professional wrestling.
Every pro wrestling match is a morality play
pitting one good-guy wrestler against a bad-
Bill Kempin Staff columnist
wrestler. It's easy to tell which one is which. Good guys usually are known by their Christian names: Jimmy Davis or Eddie Thomas. The bad guy either puts a descriptive nickname in front of his given name — "Bulldog" Bob Smith, "Gruesome" Gus Gillis — or he forges a name altogether and is known only by a horrible description like "The Mongolian Trash Compactor."
for.
Other pro sports can do the same thing. Each league can be divided in half, 50 percent "good-guy" teams, 50 percent "bad-guy" teams, and the squads can be renamed accordingly. A "good-guy" team will always be pitted against a "bad-guy" team — the California Angels vs. the Milwaukee Manglers, the Miami Dolphins against the Hartford Harpoons, the Pittsburgh Peace Corps Workers vs. the Cleveland Cannibals.
Imagine the frenzy in the bleachers when the Atlanta Air Polluters distract the umpires while Sheik Percival A. Headclock, the manager of the Air Polluters, clubs the opposing pitcher over the
nead with a set of brass knuckles. Feel the fever pitch when the Utah Used Car Dealers "accidentally" pile onto the referee just as salt is thrown into the eyes of Tommy Truebue, quarterback for the Iowa Innocent Bystanders.
Almost every wrestler feels like a champion, probably because he is a champion in some category. Wrestling has the world wrestling champion, the national wrestling champion, the North American tag-tteam champions, the United States champion and the intercontinental heavyweight champion, to name only a few. Picture the renewed interest in baseball around the country when St. Louis and mid-America baseball league profit is the Western Hemisphere baseball championship, Jacksonville is the baseball champion of cities whose population is less than a million, and Salt Lake City is the North American international intercontinental Mormon baseball champion.
There could be Texas death matches in basketball where points don't count and the first team whose members all foul out loses, chain matches where each quarterback is connected by an eight-foot chain to an on-rushing defensive lineman, and fence matches where a 100-foot-high screen is erected around a ballpark to keep potential home runs from going out.
Professional sports, the decision is up to you.
■ Bill Kempin is a Leavenworth graduate student majoring in journalism.
Band deserves praise
I found it most curious that the story about the wonderful prize brought home to our University by the Marching Jayhawks was relegated to page 14 by the staff of the Kansan, and yet the same information found its way to the front page and later the editorial page of the Lawrence Journal-World. Somehow it seems that it should have been on the front page of the Kansan with at least a large picture of the band. Those marching Jayhawks worked awfully hard just to make page 14 with such an honor.
Twyla Bogaard
Lawrence junior
Story was misleading
The article titled "Owner Blames KUEA for Rezoning Problems" of Jan. 24 presented statements that were misleading and not found in fact.
According to your article, Bill Muggy, the owner of the Jayhawk Bookstore, has alleged that the Kansas University Endowment Association and the KU Bookstore were acting in collusion to stifle any attempt of an expansion of his store.
The fact is, to my knowledge, no member of the KU Bookstore staff or the Kansas and Burge Union staff has had any conversations with Endowment Association staff members concerning the Jayhawk Bookstore. I was not aware that there was a presence of我 pressed Jayhawk Bookstore expansion until I read your article containing this information.
The expansion of Mr. Muggy's store is a private matter involving the residents of the area and does not involve the KU Bookstore.
For more than 40 years it has been the KU Bookstore's intention to work in harmony with local merchants for the benefit of the University. We remain committed to supporting the activities and services offered by the Kansas and Burge Unions and to serving the students, faculty and staff of our University.
Mike Reid Manager Unions
KU Bookstore, Kansas and Burge Unions
Theater offers choice
Christine Winner's "Local Fans Like More Movie Screens" (Jan. 24) is accurate in its description of the intense competition that goes on between movie theaters for the customer's entertainment dollar.
But the story, either for lack of reporting skills, editorial completeness or a general lack of awareness, is often felt by the media in support of the movie theater, failing to make sure that everyone gets a slice.
Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St., also is a choice. If the slant on this public-relations news story was that the customers wanted
more choices, why was the Kansan denying them more?
them more:
Liberty Hall does show art and foreign films that might not have the mass appeal of more mainstream movies, but this type of PR-journalism only compounds the problem of Liberty Hall try to compete with the chain theaters.
Liberty Hall has a rich history that weaves through the Civil War and into the rockin' days of the Red Dog Inn. Liberty Hall is one of a diminishing number of independent movie theaters.
Could this be an idea for a feature story: either a profile angle on the Hall or an investigative piece on the chain theaters and independent competition?
Jude Pate Lawrence senior and Liberty Hall employee
Column was out of line
I just finished reading Bill Kempin's article, "Baby-sit Your Way to Financial Freedom," and I am appalled the Kansan would actually print such a piece of trash. The line that says that by baby sitting you will be "allowing otherwise worthless people to go out into the work force and establish an identity and self-esteem of their own," especially makes my blood boil. As the mother of a 16-month-old girl, I know how much work parents have to do. They devote so much of their time and energy to what can be a very hard and frustrating, but also extremely important job, and they deserve more than insults from ignorant people like Mr. Kempin.
Carol Smasal Lawrence Junior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
THE NEW COOKING SYSTEM HAS OPENED UP NEW EXPRESSIVE HORIZONS! WE LIVEBLARED THE FIRST AMENDMENT FROM THE PRUDES AND THE