NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2005
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3A
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Increase ranks high nationally
BY JOHN JORDAN
jjordan@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Lynn Stearns said she didn't know much about the University of Kansas, but she was willing to help pay for her son, Kyle Stearns, Derby senior, to go anywhere.
Plus, she said that tuition was "really cheap."
"I wasn't really excited about my son going to a Kansas school," Lym said, "until he started going here."
She said she was happy with her son's experience at the University. Then, tuition started going on.
Lynn said she and her husband didn't have problems paying, but the increase was a surprise. As it turned out, since Kyle started going to the University in 2002, only five other universities have had higher percentage increases in tuition.
According to a USA Today annual survey of 67 top public universities, KU's 55 percent in-state tuition increase since 2002 is the sixth highest in the nation. Still, the University's tuition
Similar tuition hikes have taken place at Kansas State University, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Colorado. Each school is in the top 10 of tuition increases.
Lindy Eakin, vice provost for administration and finance, said the University ranked high because of the five-year tuition increase plan. After presenting the plan four years ago, Eakin said the increase was something that administration, students and faculty wanted.
Eakins said that before the plan, the University's tuition ranked 32nd out of 34 American Association of Universities public schools. Now, the University's tuition ranks 28th.
The University will not be in the top 10 of percentage tuition increases in four years, Eakin said.
The money has gone to hire 100 new faculty and to improve technology, while 20 percent of the tuition increase went to financial aid to help students adjust to higher tuition.
The low tuition of the two Kansas schools in 2002-2003 explains the high
Top ten in-state tuition percent increases since 2002-03
University of Arizona 74.1%
UC-Barkley 71.4%
University of Oklahoma 71.0%
Arizona State University 70.4%
UCLA 61.3%
University of Kansas 55.4%
University of Colorado 50.6%
Clemson University 50.6%
Kansas State University 48.8%
Rutgers University 48.0%
TUITION ON THE RISE
Source: USA Today
faculty salary raises, classroom improvements and funded different academic departments.
Kansas State, Colorado, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University have lower tuition than Kansas.
"When you start so low, percentage increase is a skewed perspective," Shubert said.
After the first tuition increase in 2003-2004, Lynn Stearns said her family was more prepared for rising costs.
percentage increase, said Bruce Shubert, associate vice president of administration and finance for Kansas State University.
He said although tuition increased 48 percent for Kansas State and 55 percent for Kansas, the schools' tuitions were still competitive in the Big 12. The money Kansas State has received gave
Edited by Kellis Robinett
"You still get your money's worth," she said.
Bush heads to Gulf area for reconstruction
HURRICANE KATRINA
BY JENNIFER LOVEN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. — President Bush, focusing on progress since Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, hugged wiggling children at their newly reopened school and hammered nails into a home for a storm victim. Still, everywhere he went, there were signs of the rebuilding's slow pace.
The president told a classroom of kindergartners to be proud of a school system that is "vibrant and alive" and committed to maintaining its former excellence.
In this hard-hit coastal Mississippi town, Bush celebrated the return to school of 1,100 elementary students.
With many students' friends missing, the reopening was bittersweet. The classes being held at DeLisle El-
Don Ryan/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
emeretary School combined students from two schools, which before the storm hit six weeks ago together educated 2,000.
Earlier, in the pitch-dark hour before dawn, Bush spent nearly two hours at a bustling Habitat for Humanity construction site in Covington, La. Aiming to support the effort to find housing for those displaced by Katrina, Bush — donning a hard hat, work gloves and a giant wraparound leather tool belt — briefly joined Habitat volunteer builders, then chatted, signed autographs and posed for pictures.
The construction of two homes coming just four days before Bush's deadline for getting the more than 32,000 people still in shelters into sturdier accommodations — paled before the larger task at hand.
Claudia Bridgewater wears protective gear as she removes photographs from her flood-damaged house in east New Orleans, Tuesday. Bridgewater and her husband, Alvin, returned from Austin, Texas, where they are staying with their daughter.
CORRECTIONS
ON THE RECORD
$\diamond$ Tuesday's The University Daily Kansan contained an error. Because of a production error, the letter to the editor, "Quote Laughably Wrong," was misprinted. The letter should have read, "His response was absolutely not 'If I slap you, it's offensive. If I call you a cunt, it's funny.'"
- An 18-year-old KU student reported a $500 Men's Cannondale bicycle stolen sometime between 7 p.m. Oct. 1 and 12:30 a.m. Oct. 8 from Oliver Hall.
ON CAMPUS
- A 20-year-old KU student reported an $80 Huffy bicycle and a $15 cable lock stolen sometime between 10 p.m. Oct. 7 and 8 a.m. Oct. 10 from McCollum Hall.
- A 21-year-old KU student reported $170 in plastic light covers stolen sometime between 6 a.m. Oct. 9 and 12:30 a.m. Oct. 10 from the Jayhawker Towers.
♦ Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan monk who spent 33 years in prison for protesting the Chinese occupation of Tibet, is speaking at 2:30 p.m. today at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. A book signing will follow.
♦ KU archivists Jean Bischoff and Judy Sweets are giving a free "white glove tour" of the Dole Archive at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Dole Institute of Politics on West Campus. Reservations are required and can be made by calling Bischoff at 864-1405.
LAWRENCE
City commission bans parking on west side of Lawrence Avenue
The city commission passed an ordinance establishing no parking along the west side of Lawrence Avenue, vesterday with a 4-0 vote.
The no parking on Lawrence Avenue will extend from 150 feet north of Bob Billings Parkway to Applegate court. Applegate at the Orchards neighborhood residents have been campaigning for the ordinance since June, when they presented their case to the Traffic Safety Commission. They were denied their request at that time. Commissioner David Schauer said he thought the neighbors made a good case that banning parking would make the street safer. Mayor Boog Highberger was not present because of an illness in the family. On Oct.4, he was the only commissioner who expressed concern about enacting the ordinance. He said he thought speeding may increase without the parked cars.
Travis Robinett