You can almost cry
KU's budget bulges
By Linda Fabry Kansan Staff Reporter
The next time you're in panic trying to figure a monthly budget shed a tear for the University of Kansas.
They have budget problems you wouldn't believe.
Look what happened to them this year.
About two years ago, in April, 1936, the University made a very well educated guess as to the number of students they would have to matriculate this fall.
They guessed — rightly — that about 15,690 students would show up for enrollment. And upon that guess, they submitted a budget to Board of Regents who in turn gave it to the Kansas Legislature for approval.
But, came fall, 1967, and everything went financially hawwei.
The predicted number of students appeared, only to be greeted by classroom shortages, teacher shortages and every other shortage imaginable.
University officials had estimated the TOTAL number of students correctly, but they didn't really expect such variations as 500 more freshmen (who balanced out unexpectedly lower totals among upperclass students) and the ensuing overload upon freshman-oriented courses.
But, say University officials, this year was a bit unusual.
Most of the time, their budgetary problems result from too large or too small of a total enrollment figure.
When not enough students show up—a number under the prediction upon which the budget is based—the University is short the amount of expected fees. Under rigid financing rules set down by the state, its only recourse then is to "borrow" state funds.
When more than the predicted number of students enroll, the University finds itself in another pot of financial hot water—it's total budget, often regardless of extra fees brought in by extra students, is inadequate to handle the extra students. Again, it must borrow money.
But the real pain comes when, either with too many or not enough students, that "borrowing must be done—because any borrowed funds come out of next year's already planned budget.
Add a few other factors, such as the state's rule that says whatever the University spends within a given year must come meticulously close to what it's budgeted to spend, or the Legislature's apparent yearly penchant for slashing the University's proffered budget, and you can understand headaches in Strong Hall.
Francis Heller, acting provost, says the only answer to alleviating such money problems is to make correct estimates of future enrollment totals.
Oread money lender besieged and broke
By Monte Mace Kansan Staff Reporter
Behind an inconspicuous door in the basement of Strong Hall is an office that deals with more money each year than most KU students will earn in a lifetime.
And the money many students make after graduating from KU will have been made possible, in part, because of the work of that office.
It's the office of Student Financial Aid, which provides more than $2 million in loans and scholarships yearly to students.
But the reason the office exists—to allow more and more students to go through college—ironically hamstrings its operation.
With more students attending KU each year, more financial aid is paid, and that requires more office work. Thus more workers and office space are needed as KU enrollment grows.
Space forces move
A need for more space forced the moving of the office from second floor Strong to the basement two years ago.
The office previously had been split into two rooms on the second floor of the building.
Now, even though the placement of desks, filing cabinets and other office equipment had been planned, growth overtook and cramped the office in one year.
See Money lenders, page 6
But, he adds, "To attempt to say that you can predict this total exactly is foolish.
"The only way that we are without these problems is if we hit it right on the nose."
It almost makes you want to cry.
A student newspaper serving KU
SECTION B
Exact student population stymies the statisticians
This year the estimated KU enrollment, on which the budget is based, was 15,690.
Official figures showed an enrollment of 15.791 students giving an error in the estimate of less than one per cent.
Kenneth E. Anderson, dean of the school of education and the person who makes the estimates, said, "One year I only missed by two students."
He said the problem with this registration was not the estimate of total enrollment but rather the increased number of freshmen.
Problem with freshmen
"A number of admissions directors from private institutions met this summer in Minneapolis," he said.
Anderson said there are a number of reasons for the increasing number of freshmen enrolling at KU and other state schools around the country.
"The estimate is based on the total number of students, not the number in each class," he said.
"Their figures showed that there are two students in public colleges for every one in a private school and they estimated by 1975 the figures will be close to 5-1." he said.
"One reason for the increased enrollment may be that public schools have improved academic reputations and people noting this would rather go to a comparatively inexpensive public university rather than an expensive private one," Anderson said.
He also noted that many schools sponsored by religious organizations are de-emphasizing religion courses thus parents who would send their children to these schools are taking greater interest in the, again, cheaper state institutions.
Account for freshmen
These may, in part, account for the 250 to 300 more freshmen than expected, at this year's enrollment.
Anderson said his prediction is
based on the number of students in the first grade in Kansas schools.
"By correlating this number to the number of seniors from that class 11 years later, I can estimate the number of seniors in any year simply by knowing the number of first-graders for the corresponding year," he said.
Then taking the estimate of 12th graders for a given four-year period, an estimate of the number of students at KU in a future year can be made, he explained.
A range is given of 310 students either way from the estimated enrollment, he said.
"The trouble with a system like this is the Board of Regents would like an exact figure from which to figure the budget," Anderson said. "The budget should be planned in terms of a range rather than a definite number."
Anderson estimates KU enrollment will grow to 17,790 in the 1976-77 school year.
Master Plan grapples with classroom needs
By Tim Jones Kansan Staff Reporter
Uncomfortably packed classrooms, painfully obvious to KU students and faculty, are old problems says the man who should know, R. Keith Lawton, vice chancellor in charge of operations.
But, he adds, those problems are curable within the next decade.
Lawton cites the present classroom shortage as an example of KU's rapid growth and the administration's frenzied attempt to keep up with that growth by using sophisticated buildings for laboratories and temporary edifices for classrooms.
"It was much easier to make the four walls and a roof and floor needed for classrooms temporary than the sophisticated rooms needed for laboratories," he explains.
With the influx of students after World War II—from 5,485 in 1939-40 to 10,439 in 1946-47 we didn't have time or money available to build all the buildings we needed, Lawton says.
"When I came here as housing director in 1946, I had one dormitory, Corbin, to work with.
With the student in mind
Hill designed as a 'hub'
"The campus is designed similar to a half wheel, with the hub of the wheel near the union," he said.
We haven't forgotten the student in our planning of the campus, noted R. Keith Lawton, vicechancellor of operations.
Because of lack of money we have had to move students all over the campus and into temporary buildings, he said.
'Prior to the war, dormitories were non-existent. Students lived in the larger homes around the University.
Specialized buildings like science and engineering where students may spend their whole
Lawton said the placing of buildings has not been haphazard but designed with the student in mind.
As the new classroom buildings are completed, including the $5.8 million humanities building on the site of old Robinson and Haworth, these students will find the majority of their classes right here at the hub of the wheel, he said.
"The plan calls for bringing the largest body of students, arts and sciences majors, back to the hub of campus," Lawton said.
day," are in the next row in the semi-circle outside the hub," he said.
Then on the outside will be the graduate departments and research buildings where people do spend their whole day, Lawton said.
"While we had to construct specialized buildings first, we did leave room at the hub for the huge classroom reservoirs," he said.
"It's only unfortunate that we have had to build dormitories so far away," he said.
"I had to house students in 186 renovated army barracks and I even had people living in the basements of a couple of churches in town," Lawton says.
"The buildings were the result of 100 years of accumulation."
Buildings Not Enough
Campus buildings, which had amply served the students' academic needs before the war, were just not enough, he says.
He recalls there was no construction on campus in the years prior to the war. "This was because there was very little money available during the depression, and public works projects were located in metropolitan areas where the largest number of unemployed workers lived.
"All of a sudden we had to double the size of the campus," Lawton says.
Temporary buildings such as Blake and Lindley annexes were erected until permanent structures could be constructed.
A master plan for building was being used as early as 1955.
"Advances made in the physical sciences and the increase of their relative importance made construction of facilities for their teaching mandatory.
"Students in arts and sciences, the largest body at KU, need only a normal classroom.
"These facilities are space-consuming, cannot be used for other purposes and are difficult to make temporary.
"Although the greatest number of students do not use these specialized rooms they still had to be built.
These rooms also happen to be the easiest to make temporary because all they need is a few desks, and no specialized equipment.
"Therefore classrooms were put in temporary structures while we built the specialized buildings," Lawton says.
"As the University grew and we needed more space for administration, more space was taken from the classroom reservoir," he adds.
Strong Hall used to be a classroom as did Green Hall. Carruth-O'Leary was a residence hall before being used for classrooms and offices.
"When I first came here my office was a practice room for
See Master, page 7