Opinion: Amid crisis, Europe resists extremism

It was politicians and lawyers that created the mechanisms for the financial crisis. Banks and Wall Street just followed the rules, e.g., writing subprime loans for those who could not afford them (but congress said you had too give it to them), insuring mortgages that they 'knew' would never result in default (because congress told them so). It's like Apple not paying any taxes on billions in profits, by complying with the laws congress wrote. And now those same congressmen are asking Apple to pay more taxes then the law obligates them to pay. Don't blame, business, bankers, or Wall Street. Look at those making the rules and getting rich while serving in congress.

May 21, 2013 at 4:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Opinion: Amid crisis, Europe resists extremism

Using Iceland as an example of a country is pointless. It is basically a very small city. Its strategy has nothing to offer any reasonably sized country. You'd be better off looking at Cyprus as an example, not Iceland.

May 21, 2013 at 4:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU faculty, staff push for improved tuition benefits for themselves and their families

The five kids free anecdote is grossly misleading. Most private schools do not have "deep pockets" (one third are living on the financial edge; few have any significant endowments) and the tuition benefit for most private schools is much more restrictive than the anecdote would suggest, if it exists at all. Some private schools are reducing or eliminating this benefit. A smarter way would be to increase KU merit scholarship funding and expect that children of university employees would be deserving based on merit, not nepotism.

May 14, 2013 at 11:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

More classrooms in use at KU on Tuesdays and Thursdays; far fewer on Fridays

My grad school alma mater addressed this capacity issue with a schedule that included Saturday mornings and 7:45 start times all week. And they carved out fifty-minute slots each hour that allowed these 'mods' to be packaged in other ways than a traditional MWF 10:00 to 10:50 schedule. They could create a rich, full capacity schedule -- without conflicts -- that had classes meet, for instance, Tu and Th at 9:00 and then Friday at 2:00. Or TuThSa at 7:45. Science labs might get three consecutive mods.

And don't buy the 'research' argument for shorter work weeks. This was at a much more productive and research-oriented university and, besides, many of the 'bad' schedules were covered by graduate teaching assistants. Run this same analysis, one for tenured faculty and one for everyone else and you will likely see a big difference in schedules.

February 21, 2013 at 8:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Simons' Saturday Column: KU can’t afford to fall behind online course trends

And Yale just announced they have a $40 million operating budget DEFICIT this year. To paraphrase a wag, "They're too broke to be this slow."

February 2, 2013 at 4:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU researchers push for government-funded college savings accounts for children

This idea is irrational to the point of lunacy. Instead of student debt for college, we create more government debt for taxpayers? Who knows if they will even attend college? or complete college? or earn a degree that creates value for them or society? Why make a new charge to the federal government credit card? Realize that the federal government is already basically creating a deficit account for each newborn: Just divide the federal debt by the number of newborns.

This is a joke ignoring the reality of today as well as the traditional approach to saving and earning (the right to) an education. It is up to the parents to start this saving account, not taxpayers.

February 2, 2013 at 4:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Diversity official Rodriguez leaving KU different than he found it 35 years ago

Hopefully someday we'll get past defining diversity in terms of skin color, get back to defining a university in terms of the diversity of ideas, thought and expression, and get back to defining equity or equality in terms of opportunity rather than wealth re-distribution.

February 2, 2013 at 12:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Activist Sandra Fluke to speak at KU in March

You have no idea what you are talking about what you blithely assert, "I am sure..." All you do is expose your bias and ignorance.

January 23, 2013 at 6:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Note to court: Effect is a noun; affect is a verb ... except when they're not

The description, "highly educated, veteran jurists" does not mean what you think it means. It just means that they went to school for a long time. Maybe when KU reduces the length of time it takes to earn a law degree jurists will learn to make fewer mistakes...or maybe more.

January 23, 2013 at 12:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Family man: KU’s Travis Releford relishes fatherhood

Some people who seem to admire this arrangement don't know or see the difference between a "baby daddy" and a father. The statistics are not political and it is not a matter of 'commitment': No father means a tremendous increase in the likelihood of jail, drug use, truancy, and dropping out. Face the facts. Happy talk is not a substitute for reality, just because 'reality shows' seem to have become a substitute for reality.

January 21, 2013 at 2:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )