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STUDENT SENATE
Closed-door meeting violates regulations
BY ERIN SOMMER
esommer@kansan.com
Student Rights Committee chair Mason Heilman will address full Senate tonight about a committee meeting that was held last week in violation of Senate Rules and Regulations.
When Senate committees met Oct. 24, the Student Rights Committee moved into a closed forum and asked all non-voting members of the committee and members of the media to leave.
According to Article III of Student Senate Rules and Regulations, all official business of Student Senate must be open to the public.
"I allowed it to happen because I was being told by people in the room that it was fine," Heilman, Lawrence sophomore, said. "I didn't know better."
Thursday, Student Body president Hannah Love and vice president Ray Wittlinger sent a letter to Heilman to inform him that the meeting was in violation of rules and regulations. In the letter, they asked him to "maintain a sense of decorum in the Rights Committee while always seeing to it that Rules and Regulations are unheld."
The letter also expressed concern that the meeting may have violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act, which said that all meetings of groups that are supported in whole or in part by public funds must be open to the public.
Kay Johnson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union for Kansas and Western Missouri, said that whether Student Senate violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act depended on whether they were considered an administrative body by
details
Article III, Section 3.3.1.1 of Student Senate Rules and Regulations. "All official business of Student Senate, its committees, and boards shall be restricted to the officially held public meetings of said groups."
"Law or no law I would hope that wouldn't be something Student Senate would do," Wittlinger, Olathe sophomore, said.
Heilman said a committee member moved to go into a closed forum after the Student Rights' Committee completed the items on the regular meeting agenda. He said that members used the closed forum
the state.
to discuss the tuition sponsorships that are received by the student body president, vice-president, treasurer, legislative director and the Graduate Professional Association's executive director, communications coordinator and finance director.
Adam McGonigle, Wichita sophomore and Student Senate Executive Committee chair, said that most voting members of the Student Rights' Committee who stayed in the room during the closed forum did not know that they were violating rules.
Emily Williams, Overland Park senior and secretary of the Student Rights Committee, said that minutes were not recorded during the closed session of the meeting.
"The vast majority of people in that room were not ill-intentioned," McGonigle said. "When the vote happened to go into a
closed committee, people did not know what was going on."
Wittlinger said that Heilman would not be reprimanded further than the letter he was sent last week.
Wittlinger also said that he was disappointed that other veteran members of the Student Rights' Committee did not follow the rules.
"There are members of that committee who preach about accountability more than anyone else," Wittlinger said. "It blows me away that those same people would move into a closed session."
Wittlinger said that he planned to use the meeting as an opportunity to educate Senate members about the Student Senate rules and state laws regarding closed meetings.
Edited by Luke Morris
Homecoming Spice
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Mitch Creed, olathe senior, performs a Kansas Homecoming version of Spice Girls "Wannabe" with other members of the Theta Chi fraternity Tuesday night at the pep rally in the parking lot of the Student Recreation and Fitness Center. "If you wanna beat Nebraska, stand on your feet. This is all jawhawk Nation, let's all wave the wheat." Creeds dressed up as Sporty Spoils.
POLITICS
Young voters apathetic
With the one-year countdown to the 2008 Presidential Election beginning campaigns and debates are heating up. Youth participation, although increasing, is still not as strong as it could be.
Jerry Austin, political consultant and Dole Institute fall fellow, said it was definitely a two-step process. He said first a student needed to register to vote, and second they needed to be motivated to vote.
Many students on campus admitted they really weren't knowledgeable or interested in the election. Natalie Rodriguez, Belleville, Ill., sophomore said she really hadn't kept up on the issues and thought there could be stronger effort to reach out to students.
"The candidates, groups like 'Rock the Vote,' I think they haven't done a good enough job of reaching us," Rodriguez said. "We kind of live in our own little bubble here in college."
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
>> Q & A
Reporter stresses political knowledge
Political reporter, Robert Novak, sat down to visit with the Kansan while he visited the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics Tuesday. Novak is known by his Chicago Sun Times column "Inside Report," and appearances on CNN and Fox News. More recently Novak's name has been tied to the 2003 CIA leak scandal, in which Novak wrote the column that identified Valerie
Plam as a CIA operative.
Novak's conversation with the Kansan ranged from his nickname, "The Prince of Darkness," the upcoming election and how he may have got confused with Harry Potter.
Novak visited the Dole Institute Tuesday evening, and also held a book signing for his new book, "The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington."
FULL STORY PAGE 10A
Groups to hold summit
CAMPUS
Novak
Latino high school students from across the state of Kansas will gather at the University today for the Latino Leadership Summit.
The office of Multicultural Affairs designed the summit to encourage Latino students to attend the University.
The students will have the opportunity to experience college life for a day and will hear from a motivational speaker. Students will also be given information about how to apply and how to pay for college.
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
index
Classifieds...4B
Crossword...6A
Horoscopes...6A
Opinion...7A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...6A
All contents, unless stated otherwise,
© 2007The University Daily Kansan
ORPHANS OF CONFLICT
Chad authorities arrest French nationals after attempted rescue
FULL AP STORY PAGE 4A
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