Friday, November 19. 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
University requests hike in housing fees
By Clay McCuistion
Kansan staff writer
The Kansas Board of Regents heard gloomy fiscal tidings from its budget director and a request from several Regents schools for hiked student housing rates in a meeting yesterday at the Kaw Valley Technical School in Topeka.
The board heard from Marvin Burris, director of fiscal affairs for the Regents, during the meeting.
"He painted a very dismal budget picture," said Mary Burg, executive assistant to the chancellor and University of Kansas liaison to the Regents.
Budget director Duane Goossen's recommendations to Gov. Bill Graves last week included no increases in funding for Regents schools. Normally, at least a small increase is requested.
Marlin Rein, University director of budget and governmental relations, said budget requests generally were cut to the bone before the governor made his final recommendations to the Legislature in January. Still, a decrease in state revenue this year has made the situation more difficult.
"The governor will go through all those budgets and make whatever decisions he thinks he can make fiscally," Rein said. "This year has been a little bit of an unusual one."
Rein said he was hopeful that Graves would add to Goossen's atypically bare-bones budget request.
The University will appeal Goossen's recommendations today, and the Regents will appeal directly to the Gov. Graves on Monday.
Also yesterday, the board heard an unrelated request from the University and four other Regents schools to increase fees for
student housing. The University is asking for a 4.4 percent increase for the 2000-2001 academic year—$173 extra for each student. The University asked for the largest increase.
in housing payments of any Regents institution.
In material submitted to the Regents, the
University stated that the proposed increases were driven partially by facility enhancements and inflationary costs.
The board also approved the request for a study that would explore research capabilities at the University, Kansas State University and Wichita State University. The study was inspired by an April 2 statement by Kansas Sen, Pat Roberts made in Topeka.
"Kansas is falling dangerously behind other progressive states in providing an adequate science, math and engineering infrastructure," Roberts said.
The study also will examine the research infrastructure at universities in states such as Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
"This is just an initial step," Burg said. "Pat Roberts is interested in anxious we have an assessment of what our research needs are."
In other academic affairs business, the board accepted reports from the six state schools about the Vision 2020 program. The initiative, adopted in 1995, hopes to help universities face the challenges of higher education in the 21st century.
Vision 2020 studies several areas, including student retention, student satisfaction, placement of undergraduates and graduate and research programs. According to information submitted to the Regents, all six universities are making steady progress toward their goals.
Edited by Chris Hopkins
Campus finishing upgrades to avoid Year 2000 glitches
By Nathan Willis
Kansan staff writer
The computers have been upgraded, and the tests have been run.
Now really all that's left for the people who have been preparing the University of Kansas for the Year 2000 computer problem is to sit back and watch the days melt away until Jan.1.
"For all intents and purposes, we're finished," said Beth Warner, Year 2000 coordinator. "We're tying up a few loose ends with the state, and we're still doing some testing on the student administrative system, but we’re pretty much done."
And the results of the work should be a problem-free campus when the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1, Warner said.
Warner said the upgrades, which were completed last month with an upgrade of the pay roll system, surprisingly were trouble-free.
It has gone amazingly well; she said. In addition, the state computers that the University shares information with should be ready as well, she said. Although the University shares financial aid data with the federal government, most of that correspondence is still done through paper, she said, meaning any problems in federal systems shouldn't affect University systems.
The one wild card is the computer systems within academic departments, said Glen Thurman, an administrative assistant at Academic Computing Services.
"It is pretty much up to the individual departments to upgrade." Thurman said. "Administration has been worked on. But it is kind of a problem on the department side."
Thurman said no centralized system for coordinating upgrade efforts and charting progress among the departments existed. Instead, Academic Computing Services has provided a guide for departments to follow in their upgrades at www.ukans.edu/computing/vzk/what.shtml he said.
Facilities Operations is done with all its upgrades except in one area, said Mike Richardson, director.
"We've checked all the elevators on campus
YEAR 2000 SITUATIONS
The following Web sites provide more insight into the Year 2000 situation at the national, state and University levels:
v2k.state ks.us
www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/
www.ukans.edu/computing/y2k/
and have been assured by their manufactures that they're OK." Richardson said. "We have lots of old elevators that it doesn't apply io, anyway. The operating system at the power plant has been taken care of, too."
The only things that aren't finished are some of the systems that control air conditioning and heating in campus buildings, he said. Upgrades continue, and any buildings that aren't upgraded by the new year will be switched to manual controls, meaning no building should be left out in the cold, he said.
Still, the University has established contingency plans just in case there are problems. Computer technicians, Facilities Operations crews and extra public safety officers will be on campus the evening of Dec. 31 — just in case.
He also said he had received assurance from the University's electric, gas and water providers that there would be no problems.
The campus Public Safety Office has multiple backup radios in case communications fail, and much of the campus has emergency power from battery backups or generators, said John Mullens, assistant director of public safety who is in charge of creating contingency plans.
"These things could happen tonight," he said.
"We could lose water and gas tonight for whatever reason, and people would work through the situation. But if that happens during Y2K, some people could quite honestly go off the deep end."
Water pumps that normally are used to boost the pressure in tall buildings on campus could be used to suck water out of the city's towers in case of fires, he said.
The biggest problem, he said, might end up being panicky people caused by Year 2000 hysteria, not computers.
— Edited by Darrin Peschka
Education powwow includes Jayhawk delegates
By Erinn R. Barcomb
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
A conference on the education of Native Americans has included input from University of Kansas students and faculty, some of whom are involved in the new indigenous nations studies program.
The Kansas Institute on Indian Education began yesterday and continues today at the Holiday Inn Holidome, 200 MacDonald Drive. The conference has consisted of workshops and a powow last night, which was attended by about 60 people.
The event consisted of singing, dancing and drumming with an announcer's commentary. Some of the dancers were part of the New Dawn Native Dancers, a dancing group aimed at young people.
Michele Bible, a student from Haskell Indian Nations University, was head lady dancer. She said it meant she got to lead the women into the arena around the center drum.
"It's an honor because you get to show everyone how it's done." Bible said.
Jeremy Shield, who helped organize the powwow, said that because many of the dancers were from Haskell, the powwow included geographic diversity. He said that the drums from Oklahoma were "south-style" but that many of the dancers were from the north.
Laurie Ramirez, president of First Nations Student Association, said that KU students and faculty would participate in panels yesterday and today. She said the topics ranged from retaining cultural identity to cross-cultural teaching strategies. Club members also attended the powwow.
The conference was aimed at educators, social workers, school guidance counselors and health care professionals who worked with indigenous people.
"The conference has doubled in size and scope," he said. "We had some registrations come in from Minnesota."
This is the first semester for the program, which director Donald Fixico began working on last January. Although it has only eight students, Fixico is proud of the progress the program has made.
KU students from the indigenous nations studies program spoke yesterday at a workshop entitled, "The Many Stories of Tribalism."
Dave Cade, director at the Pelâth Center of Lawrence, said about 300 attended last year. He said that he was used to seeing people from Kansas and Oklahoma at the conference but that lately the event had been expanding.
"This is kind of a historic semester for us," he said. "From where I'm sitting this year, this didn't even exist."
The department offers an interdisciplinary master's program, which consists of three core courses and 30 hours in other departments, including a thesis or other substitute.
The lead powwow dancer shows off the color of his costume. The Kansas Institute on Indian Education sponsored the Powwow at the Holiday Inn Holidome last night. Photo by Eric Sahmann/KANSAN
"This is kind of a historic semester for us. From where I'm sitting this year, this didn't even exist."
Donald Fixico
Director of the KU indigenous studies program
Flixico said that despite a small staff and budget, the program was advertising itself through a Web site, word of mouth and advertisements in journals. He said he had received about 60 calls concerning the program.
He also said that the program was different from most others in the country, which focused on the study of Native Americans. The title of the program at the University allowed for the study of indigenous people in other parts of the world. Fixico said.
Edited by Mike Loader
Two young dancers look on during the pow-
wow. Photo by Eric Sohmann/ KANSAN
writer@kansan.com
Watson renovations to furnish teaching center
By Derek Prater
Kansan staff writer
The Watson Library Reference Department will undergo renovations in coming weeks that may make navigating the department trickier but ultimately will benefit both students and staff.
Kathy Graves, coordinator of reference services, said contractors were scheduled to start work Dec. 1 and should be finished by the beginning of next semester.
"We're hoping there won't be too much noise until classes are over," she said. "We thought that by doing it at this time, it would be the least disruptive."
The construction should not interfere with the reference desk, the network terminals or the printed materials, Graves said.
The southeast corner of level three of Watson Library will be the home of the
Clark Instruction Center, named for Marilyn S. Clark, former director of the Watson Reference Department.
The 850-plus square-foot teaching center will include at least 16 dual-user computer workstations, an instructor's console, a ceiling-mounted projector with a wall-mounted screen and a printing station, said Mary Rosenbloom, assistant to the dean of libraries.
Cindy Pierard, instruction coordinator, said a teaching center had been needed for quite some time.
"I'm personally delighted that we have the opportunity to construct this center." she said.
The teaching center will be more conducive to meeting the needs of instructors and students as they conduct research, Plerard said.
In fiscal year 1999, library staff taught 641 instruction sessions for about 7,885 patrons, Rosenbloom said.
Shana Rippe, Fairview senior, said she learned to use the reference department on her own, but that new students
While the center is being built, the open study area on level two will be closed to readers so that the space can be used to store reference office furniture.
Reference staff are now moving out of their offices and being relocated temporarily to various locations throughout the building.
The total cost of the project will be $200,000. The Provost's Instructional Technology Fund, the KU Friends of the Library and the KU Department of Athletics' Jayhawks for KU Libraries Fund provided funds for the project.
Graves said there would be lists at the reference and circulation desks that would help people locate displaced reference staff.
"It'd probably help freshmen get oriented and learn what they need to know," she said.
might benefit from the center.
The center should be in operation by early next semester. Pierard said.
— Edited by Julia Nicholson