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Monday, March 20, 1978
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers
Reassess government
SUA, AURH, ASHC, IFC, BOCO, GradEx,
Panhellenike, a host of student, faculty and
university senates and councils—just so
many words and acronyms to so many
students. In essence, they are the core of
University of Kansas student government, a
system as complex and diverse as the labels
themselves.
KU's student government recently has been in the spotlight as much for its actions as its lack of action. This semester was the lowest turnout ever for a Student Senate election, "abominable" attendance reported at some University committee meetings and lack of applicants and quorums.
when viewed as a whole, the evidence
points to disinterest in student government. Whether through apathy or ignorance, the average college student keeps his hands clean of student government.
In this editorial focus, the Kansan has tried to summarize and scrutinize facets of student government, using both its own observers and also those "inside" the system.
Although the heart of the problem may not be immediately apparent, the problems uncovered signal a need for some soul-searching and redefinition of student government goals.
SUA needs recognition
Lack of student recognition seems to be a major problem for Student Union Activities. Students don't have nothing to many KU students, even though those same students may frequently attend the films, concerts, lectures and other programs scheduled by them.
Kim Herren, SUA president, said recently that SUA was so diverse that even after her three years of involvement, she had only begun to find out about SUA was responsible for.
The elusive SUA, a division of the Kansas Union, is controlled almost entirely by a board of 13 students. Moving down the hierarchy from college to university there are committees for nine specialized areas: film, travel, fine arts, forums, Free University, indoor recreation, outdoor recreation, public relations and special events, the president to the infrequent volunteer, a total of 400 people are the SUA. Those 400 people are responsible for University planning of the social, political and cultural life of KU students.
ACCORDING TO SUA's 1977-78 budget, SAU expects to spend $488,735 this year. But because SAU's income is projected to fall $2,000 short of its expenses, the Memorial Corporation Board has committed itself to making up the difference. SUA usually makes money from sports but consistently loses on the fine arts, outdoor recreation and forums programs.
Although few KU students are aware of how SUA operates, few students can say that SUA has nothing to interest them.
"I know a lot of kids are just sitting around and getting drunk, but they don't have to. They're not benefitting themselves if they know it. SUA has something for everybody," Herren said.
STUDENT interest and involvement is indeed the heart and soul of SUA. Perhaps its most surprising aspect is that we are in need of volunteers. The perpetual job of volunteer recruitment is the
Pat Allen Editorial writer
basis of the future of the student-run SUA.
The outlook is good for next year's SUA. Herren said the board received 47 applications and completed chairman positions.
John Vicidomine, assistant director of student activities, described the student who volunteers for SUA work as one who wants a five-page resume instead of a one-page resume.
Jay Howard, next year's president, said the volunteers also were rewarded by some complimentary tickets and personal satisfaction when they received on a successful project.
Vicidomine said it was standard in university student activity organizations for work with students on a strictly integer basis.
In fact, be said, "The day student organizations have to pay their students, the their institutions will be in big trouble."
BUT THE financial considerations of prospective SUA workers cannot be minimized. KU students who cannot afford to work 20 hours without pay must have their training covered from participation in SUA.
Salaries for SUA workers would take a huge chunk out of SUA's programming budget, but Vicidomine said there was a possible alternative to financial reimbursement.
He said a few students have made posters for SUA and project the graphic art classes. He said SUA advisors would like to see more students like him work on the work for the work they do for SUA.
If the student has the time and doesn't have to work at a paying part-time job, the SUA does provide plenty of practical experience. Vediamine said she is lucky to have free reign that sometimes they became "monsters" about promoting their own particular
areas. More coordination between chairmen and board members was one area where the organization was making improvement, Vicidomine said.
**WHAT KIND of student does SUA hope to attack?** Some of its recent posters may provoke the question. In the past several years, the SUA sponsored trip to a basketball tournament game, for example, the SUA poster listed among attractions: "beer, of course," "basketball," and "overly broad assumption about basketball enthusiasts, which may have an unintentional self-defeating effect. For one reason or another, the SUA's travel has not been popular this year.
Herren said that if SUA did have participation problems, it was because students were not enthusiastic.
"Nothing hurts as bad as putting on a program and falling on our buets with it," she said. The possibility that the program itself was at fault is discussed by the board and the advisers who evaluate most programs.
SUA HAS not done any recent polls to study its responsiveness to the student body. To keep students current, it will have to remain flexible. Herren said large student turnover on the board helped SUA.
"There are too many students out there who aren't getting any experience. We keep telling ourselves that people don't know who we are so we have to work on that," he said.
Vicidomine, new this year from the University of Dayton, said he had expected KU's first win in football, committing to be a lot bigger than it is.
IT SEEMS as if many KU students are missing a sure bet by not participating in SUA. As volunteer involvement and interest increase, the entire student body stands to benefit.
As Vicidomain said, "If people knew what SUA has to offer, floods of people would be applying and we would be programming to accommodate those who want the experience."
Grad council worth questioned
By LARRY COSGROVE
Guest Writer
After having been involved in graduate student politics at the University of Kansas for more than a year now, I feel confident that I am capable of students' role in University governance.
There probably are a few people out there who, after reading this commentary, will write to the editor decrying what has been written. "This is not true we unlearned." Well, I consider that the students' matters, and I know enough to see that only a few graduate students are involved in the University sector of governance, that graduate students have no control over their own student activity fees (everything comes out of the Student Senate) or over the organizational structure is a joke.
In short, we need a new form of graduate student government.
r MST, CONSIDER graduate student involvement in the Student Senate. Only a handful of graduate senators show up at meetings, and like it or not, the Student Senate is an important part of campus life (I didn't play朋客). In the Senate have differing views about graduate students; all are tainted with contempt in some form or another. Some undergraduates think of us as instructors; others as staff. They all eat fish Bar and Grill, and a few others serve as a bunch of loudmouth dopes.
On the other side, I can say that some grad senators have ill feelings toward the undergrads. Some of this is related to
contempt for the Greek system, which looms large within the Senate. And others, particularly myself, are against certain egomaniacs who hog speaking time and play parliamentary procedure games. This gives the Senate an amateur air which puts the older graduate crowd ill at ease.
ADD THE FACT that Senate meetings can be long and boring (thanks to the curriculum), but they are an impression of the Senate as an undergraduate circus, a zoo. You have a lot of graduate senators getting feet-on with the whole mess and
I am not coming down on the Senate. There are undergraduates and grad students who do see eye to eye on occasion. Besides, the Senate has undergraduate students to become involved in University governance. Plagued by apathy and dissension it may be; but if there were no Student Senate, all of those important officials will be ill-politicized. University of Kansas Athletic Corporation, would have absolutely no student input. I have confidence that Mike Harper, student body president, and Reggie Robinson, vice president, will reconsider the old
A good deal of KU's grad students also become involved in committees in their departments that are more career-oriented. There is a university orientation but one can expect at a Senate meeting, but there are drawbacks.
DEPARTMENTS CAN be cliquish affairs, and if you are a departmental "outside" who doesn't associate with faculty or other grad students, you surely won't be elected to a department committee. You are here and there, however, involvement in one's own department is probably the best route to take.
Of course, I have not mentioned the ubiquitous Graduate Student Council. The GSC really does not exist, though some would tell you it does. Theoretically, the GSC consists of graduate students at a mandatory meeting, I guarantee that only fifteen or so show up. Most of them attend to get the free beer or soda.
The other part of the Graduate Student Constitution, the Graduate Executive committee, is becoming morbund. Few recent graduates have completed GradEx elections. This year 89 grad students in the election, about two percent of the total number of graduate students, and this was a good year. You will be one of the Student Senate had problems.
WHILE GENERAL apathy might be the explanation for low interest in GSC and GradEx, the people involved with it were generally very satisfied. Mikelsen, the present coordinator (and I refrain from the true title of executive coordinator) didn't publicize elections. He was he and we said that they would not represent us and I can imagine that 98 percent of KU's graduate students
didn't know what was going on, including the fee waiver talk.
Members of GradEx. past and present, have constantly decried publicity. You'll hear the familiar, "Don't trust the teacher," or "Don't ask about as interesting as a doorknob. The fear is that someone, someday, is going to pubicize GSC for the fraud that it really is. It is a useless white elephant, and you know what you're doing with something new put in its place. Grad students don't need an executive coordinator. They need an articulate, popular, well-respected student who can help graduate student aims, particularly in the realm of academia.
AND IF, by chance, another form of graduate student government is tried and still is a lemon like the GSC, I think that the masquerade should be over. We then should dump the concept of graduate student government and put available student activity money into an academic endowment fund. There are a lot of students who need funding to present papers, to organize colloquies (good speakers don't come cheap), or to fund departmental publications.
Maybe then we can have useful graduate student involvement, without having to put mouse into a system that allows you to access 80 percent of the graduate student body.
Larry Cosgrove, Philadelphia graduate student, currently is a member of the University of Kansas Student Senate and Graduate Executive committee.
Students influenced by living group organizations
There are ways and there are ways, the saying goes, and the ways in which the living group organizations affect the lives of others. Organizations have different influences, in various areas.
Living groups organized within the University of Kansas and the Greek systems compel the individual to lose some of his individuality in making some contribution to the group. The four organizations that are composed of living groups try to make a contribution, and they usually attempt to make sure it is a contribution that will help them as well.
The four organizations are: Panhellenic, comprising the majority of the KU sororities; Interfraternity Council, organizing the Greek society in the medical institution; University Residence Halls and the All Scholarship Hall Council.
THE INFLUENCE of Panellenik is most direct on the women of the 13 sororite includes. President Kate Watson defines the panellenik as the coordinating body of the actions of the sororites.
The first role, recruitment, is displayed every year when Panhellenic takes charge of rush. According to Rhoads, the organization provides workers, advertisies to prospective pledges, registers the guests and paperwork, handles paperwork, frees those members not working for Panhellenic to study the new wave of hopefuls and consider carefully which ones to take.
what exactly that coordinating body's limits are? It doesn't matter. Palatineptic can't tell the sorrowites how to run their individual houses but that the organization has known all too often times.
Panhellenic has two main roles that are visible to the observer: it recruits women into the Greek system, and it channels their energy into Panhellenic-supervised pursuits.
terfraternity Council is称
keeps the Greek men's houses
in some kind of cohesion. IFC
President Dave Baker says
that women women's houses,
the fraternities' internal affairs
are their own.
Like Panhellenic, the In-
"We are known as the body that governs, but we don't govern the individual houses." Baker said.
The IPC does offer advice and mediation if necessary to help the fraternities get along. Its role, as seen by Baker, is more advisory than is that of Pannellenic. The fraternities have two rushes each year, a formal and an informal One-Wheel Rush, which does IPC coordinate the efforts. It sets rules for informal rush, Baker said, but does not function as a central clearinghouse.
ITS ADVISORY capacities center on cooperation between fraternities. The IF C, with its annual Undergraduate Endeavor weekend for Greeks to meet and discuss common problems. It also brings high school seniors to Lawrence for their first semester ("for men only") weekends.
"Our first job is to sell them on the University of Kansas,"
"Over half the Student Senate is usually made up of Greek students, and these tries to draw from its membership people with a lot of desire. They may offer more controversial topics to think about."
Baker said. "Then we try to sell them on the fraternity system."
The Association of University Residence Halls is the student government for residence hall people who are former residents. pass PaL
Like Rhoads, Baker thinks much of the impact of IFC is centered on the people who are on the ground of the Greek living groups.
THE EIGHT HALLS in AURH contain about 4,300 students—more than the number of students who voted in the presidential elections. Paul is fond of comparing AURH to the Senate.
"We work like Student Senate does, and our communication is powerful," she said. "We works directly with the administration, Paul said, on matters that affected its members most, such as conventions."
"We helped to work on the
cancellation-vacating rate," he said, referring to the amount owed to the residence hialeah by students in the semester is over. "The rate is very difficult for students to understand, especially the way it was written. Our committee must talk into a week-by-week rate."
Paul emphasized that the programs AURH had were mainly for the residents of the halls. The proportion of the student body that lives in the halls is indeed substantial, and AURH is quite satisfied to deal mainly with that proportion.
One of the programs Paul is proudest of is the summer intern program. Several persons are hired each summer to keep open. University contact with AIRH.
ASHC's housing and contracts committee surveys each hall's money needs for the years ahead and tries to suggest a reasonable rate for room and board. The actual final rate is a compromise between the administration and the council.
The functions of ASHC, beyond publicizing the scholarship halls and planning inter-hall parties, are twofold: ASHC works with the Administrative Housing Board on matters such as contracts and maintenance of the halls, and it also works with the office of women and the dean of women in selecting new members for the scholarship hall system.
because of its relative smallness.
AN INTERN program—with one intern only—is one of the programs in the works for the university. The ASHC comprises roughly 400 students living in the eight scholarship halls east of campus. Its outgoing secretary, Eileen Marky, thinks the council may have trouble trying to work with the University
"We aren't always going to our way." Myers said. "I feel our way is different, sidering we have difficulty talking to the administration.
PERHAPS THE most distinctive feature of ASHC is its selections committee, which each year reviews applications and will fill vacancies in the hall the following year. Teams of
All four of the living-group organizations consider themselves to have influence on students' lives at KU. And they do, simply because of the students directly in their membership. But there is more. Panhelenic and the Interfaternity Council may turn an imbued with what independents call "the Greek mentality," but they do channel people into working in ways that affect more than just the Greeks.
sorship hall people and KU staff members read and rate the applications. Their ratings, along with grades, activities and other criteria, are used to determine who lives in the halls.
The Greek organizations with their rushes and channeling effect, AURH with its vast membership, ASHC with its self-selection—all combine to form a picture of organizations it is most effectively affecting students' lives than the students who belong to the organizations realize.
The All Scholarship Hall Council and the Association of University Residence Halls serve more as governmental units to their own members. It is almost like another layer of government between the students themselves and the institutions. The assassinations carry on the fight against red tape and the barons on the Hill.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily August 14th, 2009. Subscriptions to the KU Mail and Joly are accepted Saturday, July 30th and Sunday, August 1st from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. 66454 Subscriptions by mail are a $1 annual or $15 monthly. A year inside the county. State subscriptions are a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are a semester.
Editor
Harbara Rosewille
Publisher
David Dary