Monday, February 21, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Human-rights activist Rigoberta Menchu speaks about the concerns of indigenous peoples Saturday at Haskell Indian Nations University. The Nobel Peace Prize winner from Guatemala addressed University of Kansas and Haskell students about the injustice behind Leonard Peltier's imprisonment. Photo Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Activist urges Peltier's release
Menchu stresses need for unity justice for all
By Kursten Phelps
writer@kansan.com
Special to the Kansan
International solidarity is a crucial element to the struggle for universal justice and human rights, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú Tum told students at the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University this weekend.
Menchu's speeches capped a weeklong visit to the United States, in which she lobbied for the release of Leonard Peltier, a Native American serving two life sentences at the Leavenworth Penitentiary.
"The most important thing is that the struggle for human rights is not a struggle for a couple of people; it's not a temporal thing," said Menchu, an indigenous and human-rights activist from Guatemala, during her speech to about 500 people at Wescoe Hall Friday night. "It is a permanent struggle for all of us. If you in the
United States defend rights elsewhere in the world, you must also defend it in your own country."
Menchu, who spoke in Spanish and used translators, said that after she started learning about Peltier's case, she saw clear discrepancies and miscarriages of the law. For example, she said, the FBI used the testimony of three teenagers who were threatened with prison sentences if they did not cooperate. Also, she said the FBI first declared it was searching for a red pickup truck they believed the shooter was riding in. Later, at Peltier's trial, the description was changed to an orange and white striped van that could be more easily linked to Peltier, she said.
"The legal arguments used in this case are so weird that they can go from a red pickup truck to another type and color vehicle," she said. "I don't know what kind of strange magic they have that can do that."
Menchú said that because of the complexity of the legal system, it was important for lawyers and people with legal knowledge to join the struggle to punish human rights offenders.
"I am not a lawyer, and before, I never understood lawyers," she
Menchú also addressed the status of three human rights cases from Guatemala, Argentina and Chile that are now in the legal system in Spain.
said. "They are designed to confuse people. The language of the courts is difficult; it's not a common language. You who will one day graduate in law, perhaps, will one day defend the truth and apply justice as it should be applied, not just in your country, but in the world."
"If we can now take cases to court in Spain, finally we will have a court that is not bought, that is impartial," she said. "So we have hope, not just because we hope the people responsible for the deaths will go to jail, but because now the world will realize how to punish crimes against humankind."
Saturday at Haskell, Menchu said that although the leaders of the genocide in Guatemala had not been punished yet, there had been progress.
"The greatest criminals once had the liberty to cross borders, take luxurious vacations in Miami, study in the most prestigious universities of your country," she said. "But because of the capture of Pinochet, they will not leave Guatemala because they are not
She also stressed to the Haskell audience the importance of unity among indigenous peoples, and suggested working toward establishing an exchange program between Haskell and the Guatemala-based Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation.
sure that they won't be captured and tried somewhere else."
"I congratulate your university, because it is universities like this that can bring brotherhood together to do many things," she said. "In a way, I have more hope in universities like this than the big universities. Many big universities seem like machines of production with many paradigms and grand schemes."
"But for us, education is about creativity, about development. It has to do with people, with our peoples, and with life. I think we have to have other types of innovative ways of changing this world."
She added that although the struggle for justice was often lonely because many people did not want to take the risks involved with her type of work, she had a moral debt to cases such as Peltier's.
"If Leonard Peltier dies in prison," she said, "I do not want to be an accomplice to his death."
Budget clash erupts between K-State,KU
Kansan staff writer
Rv Katrina Hull
writer@kansan.com
Wildcats and Jayhawks are clashing outside the sports arena and under the Topeka Capitol dome.
Student leaders at the University of Kansas and Kansas State University disagree on where state financial aid dollars should originate.
Korb Maxwell, University of Kansas student body president, says more financial aid is a must — even if it comes out of student pockets. Jason Heinrich, K-State student body president, says the money should not come from students or university budgets.
K-State student senators passed a resolution last week condemning Maxwell's proposal and any proposal that cuts university budgets for more financial aid dollars.
"Essentially, we decided that it wasn't our role to ask the Legislature to cut the budget," Heinrich said. "We kind of looked at the trade off. Basically, it's taking money out of one pocket and putting it another."
House and Senate committee deliberations this week will include what to do about financial aid increases not matching tuition increases — or if anything can be done, given the tight state budget.
Last week, the House Education and Legislative Budget Committee recommended removing $1 million from the state universities' operating budgets and designating that money for financial aid and student salaries.
weiteren side argues that more financial aid is not a priority. Instead, the disagreement is about the give-and-take relationship between tuition and financial aid.
Maxwell said that tuition was about giving access to education, but that University administrators wanted to take tuition dollars to finance the University. Chancellor Robert Hemenway said Thursday that he was against pulling money from the University's budget for extra financial aid.
Ben Walker, Student Legislative Awareness Board director, said KU's student lobbying would focus on financial aid and not its source. But financial aid takes priority rather than a university's general operating costs, he said.
"Financial aid is more important
FINANCIAL AID
If financial aid had another $1 million . . .
Recommendations made by the House Education and Legislative Budget Committee designate a $1 million increase in student aid.
■ Marvin Burris, Board of Regents director of finance, said the $1 million was from the state general fund, not student tuition — but it still was money normally designated for universities' budgets.
■ The budget cut would be divided among the six state universities, but not all of the money would be returned to the universities in financial aid dollars, said Paul West from legislative research.
Students at both public and private universities would receive about $400,000 from the $1 million in the form of grants — and only 60 percent of that grant money would return to state universities under the proposal, West said. Of the remainder, $330,000 would go to student salaries and $260,000 would go toward state-scholarship programs.
- The Kansas grant program allocates $6.5 million to private schools and $3.5 million to state universities, West said.
to me than an extra computer somewhere on campus," Walker said. "Without more financial aid, there may be no one to use that computer."
Legislators come down on either side of the issue as well.
State Sen. David Kerr, R-Hutchinson and Senate Ways and Means chairman, said he was reluctant to remove money from the universities' operating funds or to use tuition money for financial aid. But in a tight budget year, Kerr said, those might be the only sources for a financial aid increase
State Rep. David Adkins, R-Leawood and House Appropriations chairman, endorsed cutting $1 million from budgets to ensure accessibility to higher education.
Faculty to receive satisfaction surveys, opportunity to voice concerns
"If it's coming from our pockets," Maxwell said. "We'll try to keep it in our pockets."
Under the House committee recommendations, some of the $1 million would go to the private universities as well.
Maxwell said he would prefer that the money stayed at the universities.
By Ryan Devlin
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
v members. get out your axes.
Faculty members, get one year. For the second straight year, the Faculty Work Satisfaction Survey will be given to all KU faculty members in attempt to gauge their attitudes about their jobs. The survey, developed and issued by the Faculty Compensation Committee, should hit faculty mailboxes this week.
Last year's report did not bear good news, said Ron Ash, professor of business and committee co-chairman.
"The overall result was that faculty are pretty dissatisfied with pay and compensation," Ash said.
He said 37 percent of faculty members returned their surveys to the committee last year. The report indicated that 80 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with their pay. Sixty percent of responding faculty said they were dissatisfied with benefits, pay raises, pay structures and contingent rewards, Ash said.
Provost David Shulenburger said that although University Governance administered the survey, the provost's office provided the funding for the survey because it expected the results to be of value. Shulenburger said last year's results were what he expected.
the AAUP (American Association of University Presidents) salary survey ranks our faculty salaries around the lowest 20 percent of institutions like us as every salary level." Shulenburger said. "Our salaries are 88 percent of the average peer schools. With salaries this far below the competition, I am not surprised at dissatisfaction with salaries."
Ash said this year's survey would be identical to last year's form. He said the committee wanted to have a higher return rate than last year's 37 percent.
said.
"We got clear results the last time, and nothing has been done since." Genova
But Tony Genova, chairman of the department of philosophy and former committee member, said he didn't think the faculty would take this year's survey seriously because too little had changed since the last survey.
Shulenburger said the administration took the results of last year's survey very seriously and he was continuing to work in conjunction with the Board of Regents to make the case for faculty salary increases to the Legislature.
He said the survey reflected the difficulty of academic departments to recruit and keep top-flight professors.
Shulenburger said he and Chancellor Robert Hemenway went before the Senate budget committee last week to support the governor's recommendations. He said he was optimistic that the committee would support the recommendations.
"The bill that established the new Regents pledged four years of faculty salary increases to help us catch up to our peers." Shulenburger said. "The 5.9 percent increase recommended by the governor for next year is the first of four increases designed to make our salaries more competitive."
Ash said his committee hoped to have the results of the survey by the end of the semester. Ash said last year's survey reflected a serious problem, even if salary increases were passed.
"If you perceive you are being mistreated or undervalued, then the tendency is for you to go somewhere where you're valued or to simply cut back on the quality of your work," Ash said. "The end result is that students get less than they could be getting."
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Alternative Spring Breaks 2000
809 VERMONT ST. LAWRENCE, KANSAS 785.843.8808
"What Do I Want My Life to Say?"
A cross-cultural and environmental experience through volunteer service in villages and schools 68 miles northwest of Santa Fe. Director: Thad Holcombe of ECM with Kate Hage as student coordinator.
Northern New Mexico
Marion County, South Carolina "Habitat for Humanity: Volunteer with a Hammer" Votunteer service building homes, coordinated by KU Habitat for Humanity. Director: Brian Tanjer as student coordinator.
New York City
"Exploring the Core of the Big Apple: Its Wealth and Poverty"
Volunteer service in soup kitchens and homeless shelters with opportunities for urban exploration.
Directors: JoeAfford and Shawn Norris of Canterbury House and Lutheran Campus Ministry.
Mexico Border
Call 843-8202
"Justice and Solidarity"
Explore border issues through personal contact with workers, immigrants and activists-plus volunteer construction in Colonia near Nuevo Laredo, Director: Joe Harrington, KIL Professor.
KU Professor.
These Spring Breaks are sponsored by campus
These Spring Breaks are sponsored by campus ministries of ECM (Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Church of the Brethren, Quaker), Canterbury House (Episcopal), Lutheran Campus Ministries (ELCA), KU Habitat for Humanity and Cross Border Network.