To the editor:

The position of two headlines in Thursday’s paper — “KU to eliminate more than 150 jobs, lay off 30 people” and “Leaders say Kansas Athletics must focus on growing revenue, not cutting expenses” — seem to invert the mission of the university.

In resolving its financial difficulties, KU is following the blueprint laid out in the 1932 Marx Brothers movie “Horse Feathers.” Groucho played President Quincy Adams Wagstaff of Huxley College and faced circumstances similar to KU today: balancing the cost of education amid demands for football success.

Groucho as Huxley president asked the trustees, “Have we got a stadium?”

“Yes,” they replied.

“Have we got a college?” he then asked.

“Yes,” said the trustees.

“Well, we can’t support both,” said Groucho. “Tomorrow we start tearing down the college.”

As a parent and spouse of KU alumni and as a Kansas taxpayer and professor emeritus, it seems to me that KU is slowly tearing down education while expanding the entertainment wing of the university: athletics.

Has KU lost its moral compass?

David M. Katzman,

Lawrence