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Thursday, November 3, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The enrollment advising system at the University of Kansas is a mess.
The best enrollment help comes from those enrolling
Everyone has heard the horror stories about bad advice that cost unsuspecting students an extra semester or two of tuition. Students tend to blame uninformed advisers for their misfortune, but in the final analysis, students themselves have to be responsible for their own education.
Even though there are advisers who don't know what they are doing, there are many others who do a good job. They try to know students personally and keep up with changing graduation requirements. But even those with the best intentions don't have as much time to devote to a student's education as the student has.
education as the students use.
Students have to take it upon themselves to examine the material they are introduced to in the entrance requirements of the school they plan to enter and for graduation requirements. Students also have to scan the Timetables and have a tentative schedule planned with alternative classes listed in case first choices fill up.
However, the University could do its part by making requirements clearer and more accessible to students. For instance, schools could post requirements, especially requirements that have been changed, so that students can find them easily.
easily. The new computer system being tested by the University could help solve many enrollment headaches. The system will allow students to see their existing graduation requirements and then help them design their schedule on the computer which has its own timetable that is updated twice daily. But even if the computer system is implemented on a wide scale it will be a supplement, not a replacement, for a faculty adviser and a student's own research.
All this must be done in preparation for adviser appointments. Advisers can suggest good classes, but busy professors don't have time to pick an entire schedule for students who aren't prepared.
Florida is famous for its Mickey Mouse attractions, but now it seems that state legislators want the state to be famous for its mickey mouse laws, a new one in particular.
and students have to advise themselves. They must realize that advisers don't always have the right answers. Every requirement should be checked and double-checked because the final responsibility for a college degree rests with the student.
Julie McMahon for the editorial board
Obscenity law is obscene
its mickey mouse laws, a new one. Florida officials saw their new law put into action recently when the state nabbed its first obscene bumper-sticker offender. The unfortunate victim was pulled over by police in Naples, Fla., for having a bumper sticker on his truck that said, "Shit happens."
Florida lawmakers are giving police officers discretion to decide what is obscene. Then the driver has to pay the price.
said, "Suit happens."
The penalty for being convicted of this gross obscenity violation, up to six months in jail and a $500 fine, complements the asiminity and unconstitutionality of the law.
Different opinions on what constitutes obscenity abound. Even the Supreme Court of the United States has not been able to determine exactly what is obscene.
And then, after T-shirts are no longer safe, what will be next? Keychains, knickknacks and posters?
to determine exactly what a law raises several questions. Could a similar law apply to a person who yells that phrase out the window of his car to passing motorists?
If Florida legislators get away with this law, what is to stop them from banning T-shirts with the same saying on it? If Florida legislators get away with this law, what is to stop them from banning T-shirts with the same saying on it?
Ridiculous as that may sound, even today a Topeka high school is restricting the kinds of T-shirts students can wear. T-shirts with references to drugs, sex or rock 'n' roll are strictly prohibited in the school.
The American Civil Liberties Union has said it might intervene to challenge the constitutionality of the bumper-sticker law. For the sake of Americans' rights, the law should be struck down as unconstitutional.
track down as unconstitutional. Obscenity laws such as the one in Florida force people to adhere to standards that are higher than what many would consider fair. Such laws unnecessarily interfere with people's rights to express themselves. Instead of removing bumper stickers, Florida should get to work on removing that law from its books.
Julie Adam for the editorial board
News staff
News start
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 Jesk ... Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Greg Knipp ... Business manager
Debra Kropp ... Retail sales manager
Chris Cooper ... Corporate sales manager
Linda Prokop ... National sales manager
Kurt Merrick Smith ... Promotions manager
Margaret Higdon ... Marketing manager
Brad Lenhart ... Production manager
Michelle Garland ... Asst. production manager
Michael Lehmann ... Classified manager
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Sending in the candidates, uh, clowns
The elections may be a circus, but the audience must make sure the show goes on
I've been really unproductive so far this semester. Instead of studying, lately I have been spending time in some of my favorite bars chatting it up with strangers and telling bizarre tales that are too wild to be doubted. My best one is about the greatest show on earth, the fantastic circus of clowns.
I begin my tale by saying that I have been moonlighting at the local circus now for several years. I'm not actually a part of the show, or in the crew, but a very special member of the audience. I have registered with the circus, and I have the grave responsibility of electing the clowns who will be in charge of the circus next season. My task may sound simple, but it really is a challenging exercise in democracy to understand the subtle choreography of their political dance.
choreography of their jointed movements. The clowns rehearse their comedic routines long and hard to give substance and form to the circus as a whole. But in the final acts before the deciding audience, they scurry as frantically as decapitated chickens, assauling each other in mock violence to impress the audience with their maturity and leadership skills.
This year the program is especially extravagant because we are electing the King Clown of the circus, the bigest boo of the show. With all eyes on the center ring, the clowns singled out by the spotlight dance, babble, banter and improvise to impress their captive audience. The candidate-clowns try their best to upstage other to keep the bright lights shining on their side of the circus.
Many clowns are worthy of our highest honors.
Nikolas Huffman Guest columnist
but only the fattest, most influential clowns, close personal friends of the circus owners, receive the essential notoriety of the media spotlight. The two fat boys scuffle playfully for the circus owner's favor, while the other clowns wrestle valiantly in the obscurity to bring their new dances to the attention of the diverted audience.
attention of the spotlight operators pay extra special attention to the two fattest boys, the clown princess most suitable to the desires of the circus owners. Their apparent popularity is actually a function of their intense media presence, not their popular appeal.
The dominance of the two fattest clowns disturbs many people because the choices we are offered are minimal at best. Rather than chasing the style of theater we prefer, we are presented with a pair of pretty smiles, faces with confidence and toothed jaws, the most attractive in the pack. We are allowed to chose not between the best and brightest the circus has to offer, but between the lesser of twin evils.
With each new season the owners get stronger, the clowns get fatter and our choices get slimmer. This once world-renowned circus has degenerated into a well-rehearsed farce on democracy, so futile
in its execution that circus attendance rates are frighteningly low for such a highly educated, free nation. During the last major touring season, nearly two-thirds of the circus tent's reserved seats remained unoccupied, an abhorrent statistic for the model of representative democracy worldwide.
With each new popularity poll reinforcing the two corporate stooges we should be voting for, the prospect of a serious election becomes more like a vanishing dream. The circus is a pathetic joke, I must admit.
But it is a joke that I am a party to nonetheless. As a member of the once-noble circus, I am responsible no matter how ridiculous it becomes. My objections to it are no excuse for me to abandon the entire circus. The circus is my home, and I must cast my vote regardless of the futility and uselessness of my choice.
Thus, I am resolved to crying softly in my beer, waiting for the big day at the circus. Every day I feel the tension mounting, that sense of imminent doom. A friend described it best as that despicable feeling you get when you're underage at the bar and the police come marching in the door. Or maybe its more like the feeling when all the dreams and fantasies have ended and you're lying face-down in the dirt, with a gun pointed at your head.
Nikolas Huffman is a Lawrence senior majoring in geography and philosophy.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
Endorsing DuPree
Will you please allow me to respond to your endorsement of Wint Winter for State Senate?
Although I concede that Winter, a Republican, indeed has been a "good friend of the University," Mike DuPre, a Democrat, also would that friend, as any other, advocate to the Kansas Legislature must be. Your endorsement troubles me for two major reasons.
reasons.
First, you endorse Michael Dukakis for his environmental stand, but you too easily dismiss Mike DuPree because his even more fervent environmental stand does not "tap the state's list of priorities at this time." To paraphrase DuPree, if we have no earth upon which to educate, education becomes a moot point. If protection of the earth is not a top state priority, we had better elect those individuals who will make it taps. We need legislators now who have the vision to see what's coming tomorrow in order to make the wisest decisions today. Winter clearly lacks this vision. It was Winter who chose to fund Hillsdale Lake, dubbed the "Johnson County Yacht Club," instead of cleaning up polluted drinking water in Galena at the nation's worst hazardous waste site.
Second, Mike DuPree not only "believes" general fund sales tax revenue should be used for education, property tax relief, reclassification of state employees and programs for the elderly and disabled not highway and prison improvement, Mike DuPree will vote as he believes, unlike Winter. DuPree's basic agenda of protecting the earth first and then building our economic development emphasizes investments in human capital over pavement and buildings.
Winter, however, has voted consistently against additional state aid to education. From 1983 to 1987, during Winter's term in office, state aid dropped from 45 percent to 42 percent. Consequently, Douglas County propped which help pay for schools nearly 60 percent, from 48 to 81 mills! So much for winter's "belief" in education and property tax relief.
refer.
Mike DuPree, however, is on record as fully supporting KNEA's goal of 50 percent state aid to education. Mike DuPree is on record too for working hard for the second and third years of the Margin of Excellence. As far as the state employee's reclassification study is concerned, we need more Democrats in the senate who will act aggressively to break Hayden's hold on the general fund — not Republicans who stand silent before the governor and give lip service to their care for the truly needy.
I'm sorry, but your endorsement of Wint Winter takes into account a very narrow perspective, which in itself lends no credence to the broader, global perspective KU is supposed to
represent and our candidate does represent, which is why KU Democrats fully endorse Mike DuPree for State Senate.
Douglas Johnston Wichita senior President, KU Democrats
A good look at Ambler
The Kansan deserves to be complimented on the section featuring the central administration in the Oct. 26 paper. In an institution the size of the University of Kansas, it is rare for the student body to be offered such a concise and personal observation of some of the University's administrators. I would particularly like to comment on the article featuring Amber, vice chancellor for academic affairs. I feel fortunate to have become personally acquainted with Dr. Amber through my employment with the office of student affairs. Amber's style, personality and professionalism was portrayed accurately in the article. I truly respect his dedication to the university and his sincere concern for the well-being of KU students. I appreciate the Kansan recognizing Ambler's admirable qualities and revealing him as such a valuable asset to this University.
Dionne Scherff
Lawrence senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed