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Monday, November 14, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KU's best professors get recognition they deserve
No one is reluctant to point a finger at the cause of the mediocrity of American education. From "A Nation at Risk," the government report revealing a crumbling public education system, to "The Closing of the American Mind," Allan Bloom's account lamenting the lack of cultural literacy in higher education, an easy target is drawn: teachers.
And why not? They have little prestige or status in society; they earn some of the lowest public-service salaries in the nation; and their profession is shunned by college graduates.
One would think that a university professor might draw a little more respect. But all at the ivory tower is not idealistic, as any University of Kansas professor will attest.
Overcrowded classrooms, poor salaries, poorly prepared students seeking advising and other problems interfere with the learning process and the time professors can spend outside of class addressing students' concerns about their educations.
That is why the HOPE awards are some of the most prestigious among the dozens of awards and prizes given by the University in a year.
The names of previous HOPE award winners are on a large plaque adjacent to the main lobby of the Kansas Union.
Seniors annually vote on the Honors for Outstanding Progressive Educator award, which will be presented Saturday at the Kansas-Missouri football game.
Those names represent educators who have lived up to the true mission of the University: to stimulate the minds of students and help them to think freely; to instill in them the skills and knowledge they need; and to teach them how to use that knowledge to improve the lives of others.
The numbers on the television screens and the ceaseless scrutiny and projections that accompanied them reaffirmed in many voters' minds last week that their votes do not count in a presidential election.
Mark Tilford for the editorial board
The 10 finalists for the HOPE awards deserve praise, as do all the nineteen. They set a high standard that all professors should seek to follow and that the entire University can be proud of.
Networks blow it again
president election In such an election the worst place to cast a vote is on the West Coast. There, part of the electorate is destined to hear who their next president will be before they ever get to vote. In a democracy, where every vote counts, not only is that unfair, it just isn't right.
it just isn't right. Every four years, commercial networks, in their pompous and self-serving race to beat their competitors, fall into the habit of reporting the news before it happens. The process entails exit polling, followed by the irresponsible tradition of predicting the winner in the election.
The networks projected the winners in some states with less than 1 percent of the votes counted. One network even declared George Bush the winner in North Dakota after only six votes had been counted. And at 8:17 p.m., Dan Rather said that Bush would be the next president of the United States.
The damage is undoubtedly immeasurable and irreparable when voters are discouraged from casting a vote because the networks have declared a winner.
It turns out the network was right. But what if it had been wrong? The networks were wrong in some cases. NBC incorrectly projected Maryland and had to change it from Dukakis to Bush.
Networks must restrain their eagerness and recognize that the way they report the results is an ethical question and not one surrounded by dollars and cents. If they can't do this, and it doesn't appear they can, the system itself could be changed.
A nationwide poll-closing time would prevent projections while other states still are voting. To make sure voters in all zones get the same amount of time to vote, the voting could take place during a 24-hour span, perhaps on the weekend or during a national Election Day holiday.
And finally, states could withhold election results until all of their precincts have reported. That would deter premature network predictions because no solid statistics could back them up.
There are problems, of course, with such proposals. But something needs to be done. If only the networks would understand their influence and remember that their words are scrutinized more so than the numbers that they rush to report.
crustized more so than the hair on the
Restraint is the cure. Without it, the voters will always lose.
Tony Balandran for the editorial board
News staff
Todd Cohen ... Editor
Michael Horak ... Managing editor
Julie Adam ... Associate editor
Stephen Wade ... News editor
Michael Merschel ... Editorial editor
Noel Gerdes ... Campus editor
Craig Anderson ... Sports editor
Scott Carpenter ... Photo editor
Dave Eames ... Graphics editor
Jill Jess ... Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Greg Knipp...Business manager
Draca Cole...Retail sales manager
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Jim Protasman...National sales manager
Kurt Messerman...Promotions manager
Sarah Higdon...Marketing manager
Brad Lenhard...Production manager
Michelle Garland...Asst. production manager
Nestel Lehmann...Classified manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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Student's act teaches an ethics lesson
I heard about the incident while I was picking up a paycheck for a fellow student. I joked with the woman in charge, telling her that if she had any lefter checks, she could give them to me. As a matter of fact, she said, we have just such a check.
A student had stopped by the office recently and refused his paycheck. He'd worked for the money and was entitled to the check by all standards but his own. Apparently, he believed he hadn't worked hard enough to deserve the check. So he refused the money.
Amazing.
Many of us seem to think that the chief ethical consideration is not getting caught when we break the law. Those of us who try to obey the laws often believe ourselves to be unusually righteous. For example, a few semesters ago I accidentally received an extra scholarship check. The situation was clear cut. Obviously, an oversight was involved. The money really wasn't mine, so, feeling quite virtuous, I gave it back.
Amazing.
But the case of the student mentioned above is different. He refused the check not because of an oversight and not because he hadn't worked for it, or because he was worked for it enough. These are some standards.
Compare his standards with the ones outlined in a recent U.S. News and World Report article. According to the article, members of a prominent U.S. institution habitually use their positions of influence to improve their own coffers. While following the letter of the law, they ignore its spirit. They influence public policy, then gain personally through financial contributions and
Mark Jost
Staff Columnist
peaking engagements. They cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Why doesn't the government do something? Because the institution in question is the U.S. Congress. Here are two examples of what our leaders have been up to:
- By allowing multinational corporations such as Bechtel and Monsanto to continue to deduct a large portion of their research expenses, Congress effectively gave them $211 million in tax breaks on top of approximately $1 billion in annual benefits that they received in previous years. Congress also extended an additional $703 million in potential research tax breaks for the same corporations.
Key people involved were Sen. Lloyd Bentens, D-Tex, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-III, and Rep. Beryl Anthony, D-Ak. Benten received $15,120 in campaign contributions; Rostenkowski, $10,000 in contributions and $7,500 in speech fees; Anthony, $19,000 in contributions and $5,000 in speech fees. Total political action committee dollars to Congress: $2,672 million.
A measure placed on the defense-appropriations bill will waste hundreds of millions of dollars by eliminating most competitive bidding for spare
parts for military aircraft and ships. An Indiana based contractor was the measure's chief supporter.
Sen. Dan Quayle, R-Ind., and Rep. Frank McCloskey, D-Ind., pushed the measure. Quyle received $8,500 in PAC contributions from the contractor's parent company, General Motors; McCloskey got $1,600. GM and its affiliates gave a total of $468,119 in PAC donations to members of Congress.
There are plenty of other examples in the article. Not that we should conclude that all members of Congress are out for themselves. But the government's recent track record isn't much to be proud of.
President-elect George Bush has promised that he intends to propose a new code of ethics that contains "high standards" for public officials.
Responding to that idea, columnist Paul Greenberg asked, "Ever notice that one of the first reactions to an ethical scandal is not an insistence that standards be obeyed, but a proposal to raise them? If folks didn't do what was right before, what makes a reformer think they'll obey even higher standards?"
higher standards.
It seems to me we need fewer ethics rules and more people who meet the standards we already have. That brings me back to the student I mentioned at the start of this column. If he is reading this and one day decides to run for office, I hope he lets me know. He has at least one vote waiting for him.
■ Mark Jost is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.
On behalf of the faculty, staff, students and fans of Perry Middle School, we would like to extend our thanks and comment about 30 KU Marching Band members for their support at our recent home football game. We also would like to thank our assistant football coach and KU student teacher, Josh Woodward, for his efforts in making this happen.
The students who came to help us celebrate and motivate us to a thrilling overtime win were polite, mannerly yet enthusiastic and entertaining. Their presence and support helped us celebrate an already memorable 1982 football halftime even performed an improbable halftime show!
Thanks, KU band
We salute their efforts and congratulate them for their entusiasm and exemplary behavior. We would be glad to have you back at any time.
Go big blue!
Brian Bingham
Adviser Base Council president
Kathy Erickson
Pep Club/Cheerleading sponsor
Eric Hyler
principal
Brian Bingham
Stop the Klan
The following is a response to the editorial of the Penn State Daily Collegian (reprinted in the Oct. 31 Kansan) that defends the Ku Klux Klan's right to march on Independence Hall in Philadelphia without counter-protest (the KKK backed out of their march when they were unable to obtain a demonstration permit).
The oft-used "free speech" argument, employing the Constitution to shield the Klan, makes a mockery of the pain and suffering of untold millions of people in this country and around the world who have been victimized by and have fought against race-hatred and fascism. The Ku Klux Klan diametrically opposes the ideals that underlie both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and where equality and democracy are the tenets of the Republic, how should a group be placed in such it exposes and practices exclusion and genocide? It is clear that there can be no place in this country for fascist-supremacists to destroy the hard-won gifts of millions of U.S. citizens who do not fall into the category of Protestant-white-male.
It may be easy to defend the Klan's rights in the cozy, white, Penn State newsroom, yet anyone who has had a family member terrorized or has himself been a victim of Nazi/Klan attacks, or anyone who recalls the history of Germany, Spain, Greece and Chile understands that unless you defend your home, your rights and your nation against fascists and meet them head on, you are not merely providing them a forum which in effect legitimizes their genocidal views, you are inviting national disaster.
Organized around the slogan, "All Out to Stop the Klan," a Labor Black-based anti-Klan demonstration (to which the editorial presumably was a response) has totalled much more than 200 national and international endorsers. This broad base of working people and students recognizes the danger and moral outrage of fascism and its insulting practices with burials and other race-hate incidents that have been increasing recently in the city of "brotherly love."
The Klan's right to speak cannot be compared seriously with the right of every black, Jewish, Hispanic, Asian, Catholic, unionist, gay or any so-called "undesirable" person to live and live in dignity without fear. It is an incontrovertable fact. People die unless fascists are stopped.
We urge every student to do his or her part to protect this country and its people. Racists must be taught that their violence and virulent ideas are not welcome in our neighborhood or in our country. Constitutional arguments about free speech are misleading. The Constitution was not intended to protect those who incite and perpetrate violence against the citizens of our country. There is no freedom of speech in a concentration camp.
Dan May
Lawrence senior
David Scheuer
Honolulu sophomore
Lee Manliow
Chicago junior
Stephanie Ring
Olathe Junior
Tom Archer
Lawrence resident
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed