FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2006
NEWS
ON CAMPUS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3A
The Department of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity is holding a workshop on "Cultivating a Positive Attitude at Work" from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. today in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union.
Brent Steele, assistant professor of political science, is holding a seminar on "Peace, War, & Global Change" at 4:00 p.m. today in the Seminar Room of the Hall Center for Humanities.
BOARD OF REGENTS
The University Theatre and English Alternative Theatre are presenting the play "An Army of One" by Zacory Boatright at 7:30 p.m. at the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall. Tickets are available for $10 to $12.
Policy requires the write stuff
BY FRED A. DAVIS III
davis@kansan.com
KANSAN SCREW WRITER
Prospective Jayhawks looking to enroll at the University of Kansas in fall 2007 will have an additional item to complete with their admissions package a writing component.
At the monthly Kansas Board of Regents Meeting in Topeka on Wednesday, David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor, proposed the measure that would make the writing component a required part of admissions.
As part of the proposal, six of the universities within the Kansas Board of Regents, as well as Washburn University in Topeka, would require the ACT or SAT writing test as part of the admissions process. One member school, Fort Hays State University, already has its own writing test that it administers to students at orientation. Therefore, the regents left it to the discretion of each university to decide whether the would require the ACT or SAT from students.
The writing test itself is a relatively new feature of both
the ACT and SAT. The ACT began offering the writing test as an optional 50-minute essay for an additional $14 last year. The essay is optional because not all universities require a student to submit the written component for admissions, said Ken Gullette, director of media relations for the ACT. The writing test for the SAT exam is mandatory.
The purpose behind adding the written component to the admissions process was not to deter students from attending KU, according to Shulenberger. Instead, he said it would serve as
a tool for advisors to determine a prospective student's writing comprehension and to help with placement. Also, state law establishes admissions criteria, making it illegal to use the writing score as a grounds for acceptance to the university since it is not a part of the pre-existing admissions criteria.
Currently, only four other Big 12 schools - Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech - require a student to submit the writing test. The requirement began last year at those schools.
Edited by Erick R. Schmidt
STUDENT SENATE
Rising textbook costs target of new campaign
Carly Pearson/KANSAN
Kelly Dancho, Bethlehem, Pa., graduate student, left, and Darianne Hicks. Lawrence senior, right, check prices on textbooks Thursday afternoon at the Kansas Union Bookstore. With the start of the spring semester arriving students flooded the bookstore in preparation for classes.
BY NICole KELLEY
nkelley@kansan.com
KANKSAN STAFF WRITER
For the average student, college is an expensive experience in which textbooks account for a significant part of that overall cost. The Governmental Accountability Office recently reported that the price of textbooks and supplies has risen at twice the rate of inflation during the past two decades. It now accounts for about 26 percent of tuition and fees for a four-year public institution.
Student Senate has joined Student Public Interest Research Groups, a national organization, to contact publishers to stop bundling. Bundling is packaging textbooks with additional material related to the same topic. Senate also contacted the organization to stop the release of unnecessary new editions that cause textbook prices to rise.
The textbook issue is starting to gain national attention as more universities join in and write resolutions of their own,
said Hannah Love, Dodge City sophomore and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Senator.
Love said they were trying to get publishers to understand that additional materials included in the bundles, such as CD-ROMs, were driving up the cost of new books in ways that only benefited the publishers. She said that a majority of the time bundling was not necessary and that was why they were encouraging publishers to change.
Bruce Hildebrand, executive director of higher education for the Association of American Publishers, said that the reason more bundles were being used was because the publishers were beginning to take on new responsibilities.
"They wouldn't be getting snippy with us if they weren't worried about it," said Love. "They were of course going to deny it because that's how they make their profits. They are increasing their profits, so obviously they are doing something."
In the past, universities would provide extra course materials such as language workbooks and study guides. Now that schools are no longer doing this, publishers have taken over and are now offering these as bundles.
In addition to contacting the publishers directly, Student Senate is trying to encourage more professors to let the bookstores know which books they will be using as early as possible so more used books can be found.
"Professors actually create the textbook market. We really value their participation in this process because we know they want to keep prices low for students," said Tim Norris, director of bookstores for the KU Memorial Unions.
When professors get their adoptions turned in sooner, it allows the bookstores to buy more books back at the end of the semester saving students even more money.
"This is the most immediate band aid that we can use to cover up the big problem. It's no where near the solution that needs to be happening." Love said.
— Edited by Meghan Miller
Dole Institute assembles women in politics
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics announced "First Woman President" as the title of its new presidential lecture series Thursday.
The series will discuss when and how a woman president will be elected in the United States,how a woman campaigns differently than a man and whom the first woman president might be.
The series will feature an entirely female cast of Celinda Lake and Kellyanne Conway, pollsters and authors, Eleanor Clift, an author, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, and former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
The series kicks off February 7 with Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate and John Kerry's challenger for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
— Anne Weltmer
Nobel Prize winner to speak at Spencer
Frank Wilczek, a winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics, is scheduled to present "The Universe is a Strange Place" at 7:30 p.m. today in the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Wilczek won the Nobel Prize for work he did in 1973 during his graduate studies at Princeton University with fellow Nobel Prize winner David Gross.
The two won the 2004 prize with H. David Politzer, who independently discovered their theory of asymptotic freedom.The Nobel Academy termed their work as bringing physics one step closer to "a theory for everything."
Catherine Odson
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