Thursday, March 16. 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Senate vetoes budget; student groups dangle
By Erinn R. Barcomb
writer@kansan.com
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A Student Senate budget bill hit a sour note with supporters of the KU Choral Society.
Because the bill did not allot the group $2,000 it requested for sheet music. Senate voted last night to send the entire budget bill, including funding for 18 other groups, back to the finance committee.
we have a very small amount of new music," said Cindy Bracker, fine arts senator and member of the KU Choral Society. Bracker said the music department had a large library of old music.
Aravind Muthukrishnan, finance committee chairman, said the group asked for sheet music each year.
Erin Simpson, liberal arts and sciences senator, said she thought the group should do more in the way of
fund raising and membership fees, even though Bracker said those had been increasing.
The bill also would have financea $8,702 in computer money for OAKS, the nontraditional student organization.
Senate also voted to form a tech-
crunch committee.
A revised budget should go before Senate at the April 5 meeting.
biology committee to recommend what types of equipment Senate should finance and to suggest criterion for distributing technology money.
In other Senate news:
■ In a verbal vote. Senate almost unanimously approved a change in
policy that allows lawyers from Legal Services for Students to accompany a student in academic and disciplinary heartlines.
"Instead of paying for another attorney, you already have these," said J.D. Jenkins holdover senator.
Lawyers still cannot attend in a dispute between two students, and they cannot counsel students in court cases against the University of Kansas.
Senate made recommendations to a proposed city commission ordinance that would compel landlords to register with the city. Because many landlords use management companies, talking directly to a landlord can be difficult, said Greg Smith, liberal arts and sciences senator.
"If you have a river of sewage running through your basement, you want to get out of your lease," he said. "You could go to the city and find out who your landlord is."
By Sindy Greenfield
writer @kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Islamic holiday part of religion's five pillars
Saira Sufi, Topeka junior, will spend this morning celebrating Hajj.
Sufi will participate in Eid prayers as part of remembering and celebrating Hajj, the Islamic holiday commemorating the sacrifice of Isaac, the son of Abraham.
Hajj is part of the five pillars of Islam, the other four being a declaration of faith, five daily prayers, alms giving, and fasting during Ramadan.
Riza Demirier, Lawrence graduate student, said the celebration of Haji was on equal standing with the Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas, and most Muslims in the United States celebrate Haji similarly to those holidays.
In countries such as Saudi Arabia, Islamic people buy and sacrifice lambs to symbolize the sacrifice and trust of Abraham.
It is the most dramatic and developed
of all Muslim rituals. Demirer said.
Fatima Harrak, assistant professor of religious studies, said Islam meant "suffering."
"Sacrifice is the ultimate surrender to God, since God commanded sacrifice of Abraham's son," she said.
Islam requires a pilgrimage to Mecca
Islam in a lifetime. It is around this time
that the pilgrimages begin, but because
traveling to Mecca is now costly, it is
not demanded as much as it used to be,
Harrak said.
Sufi said she had been to Mecca on a smaller pilgrimage, called Umrah. Umrah can be done at anytime and the religious activities are different from a traditional pilgrimage. Her parents have made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and she hopes to make the same journey at some point in her life.
Harrak said Hajji was a time to get together with family and attend prayer services.
Local services will begin at 8 a.m. today at the Islamic Center of Lawrence, 1917 Naismith Drive.
The celebration will continue for about a week. The Center will offer special festivities for children Saturday.
Professor challenges intellectual property policy with amendment
By Ryan Devlin
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The University's intellectual property policy will be the subject of a discussion session at 3:30 p.m. today at the Regents Room in Strong Hall.
The focus of the discussion will be an amendment proposed by Russ Ostermann, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering.
The amendment would change the policy with regards to ownership of copyrightable software. Currently, the university's intellectual property policy states that the University
retains ownership of all copyrightable software created by faculty using the University's equipment
Ostermann's proposal would distinguish between software created as a result of University-sponsored research and software created using University equipment but not part of University-sponsored research. He said some software created could fall under the category of independent scholarly work.
"If the software is created as a normal expression of scholarly work unrelated to sponsored research, then it seems to me ownership should rest with the creator." Ostermann said.
He said the copyrightable software policy conflicted with other aspects of the intellectual property policy.
"If you look at the policy, all other forms of scholarly or artistic work 'notwithstanding the use of University resources' belong to the creator," Ostermann said. "Software may be the normal scholarly or artistic output of many faculty."
Ostermann said the rules governing the creation of software by faculty should mirror those governing the creation of a novel by an English professor or a piece of music created by a professor of music. In those situations, even if the work was created using the university's equipment,
However, Provost David Shulenburger said that he could not accept the amendment because it would cause the University's policy to be at odds with the Board of Regents' policy. The Regents' policy states that software created using equipment owned by a Regents institution is owned by that institution.
the creator retains the rights to their work.
"We are not free to change the Regents' policy in our campus policy." Shulenburger said.
"We can only interpret it and adapt it to local conditions," he said. "Russ Ostermann's proposal would cause ownership of software to be in question only if it resulted from sponsored research. That contradicts the Regents' policy, so the change cannot be accepted."
Ed Meyen, professor of special education and chair of the committee that drafted the University's policy, said though Ostermann's amendment was inconsistent with the language of the Regents policy, it was in the spirit of the policy as a whole.
Meyen said he wasn't sure whether the amendment would make it into the final version of the policy, which is set to be debated by the University Council on March 30.
Ostermann said he didn't know what would happen at the meeting.
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