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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
PAGE 3
STATE
KBOR approves 14 courses for automatic transfer
MCKENNA HARFORD
news@kansan.com
The Kansas Board of Regents approved 14 additional courses for automatic transfer among the 32 public state universities, which makes 46 total courses where the credit will be equal at all universities. This round of courses was approved as part of a larger goal to improve seamless transfer and articulation of classes to help ensure automatic transfer of credit and consistent quality.
Students will now be able to take any of the 46 freshman and sophomore level courses and be confident that the credit will transfer and that the quality of the classes will be consistent across campuses. The policy is flexible for all students and their situations, and can ease the transition out of a community college.
"I think that it gives some extra security for students to know that they can start at a two-year [college] and move to a four-year [university]," Rosen said.
Senior Jasmyn Alstrin, who
transferred from Johnson County Community College; believes that the policy will make transferring easier for students, as long as they are aware of their options.
"I think it will make the process smoother because there were a lot of classes that I had to retake," Alstrin said.
This is the first time that the approval was made in time for summer courses.
"It's important for us to look for the courses that are likely candidates for students to be taking at one place and trying to move to another ... to create a seamless guide," said Sara Rosen, senior vice provost for academic affairs.
Because the policy helps make the transfer process simpler for universities and more transparent for students, it helps the Regents reach their annual goal of helping 60 percent of students in Kansas earn degrees.
"With more classes on the list, the more seamless it is, the more Kansans get degrees," said Breeze Richardson, the Regents associate director for communications
According to Richardson, approving automatic transfer courses is beneficial for the transfer process because the University plays a role in deciding what the courses should look like.
"It's beneficial for universities for sure, as students go on to higher courses [the universities] don't have to figure out if the transfer class a student arrived with meets core requirements," Richardson said. "With established standards, it's more of a guarantee students will be prepared."
in order for these courses to be approved for the list, representatives of all the state institutions work together to decide what the core outcomes of the courses should be. Rosen believes that this cooperation among schools leads to better advising for students.
and government relations.
"I think the more we understand each other's institutions, each other's degree programs, the better we can advise students," Rosen said.
wont lose as much time and funding. It also has the power to improve graduation rates.
"It's good for students and I think it's good for the University because we want to work on our graduation rate and we want to work on our time to degree," Rosen said.
The policy is valuable to universities because they
Richardson added that the Regents is also working to have more workforce alignment, which means assuring that the skills and knowledge that comes with earning a degree matches what is needed in the workforce.
Automatic transfer continues to be a priority for the Regents and the University, so each year they both work to add more courses to the transfer list and to make sure that the quality of all courses is assured.
"We are working to make things aligned with what the economy needs, so that degrees are more valuable, but also needed," Richardson said.
Edited by Austin Fisher
ADDED TRANSFER COURSES
FOR SUMMER 2014
Acting II
Art History I: Prehistoric to Medieval
Art History II: Renaissance to Contemporary
Chemistry II with Lab
Childhood Growth and Development
Elementary Statistics
French I
Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology
Music Theory
Logic and Critical Thinking
Social Problems
Kansas Board of Regents
Spanish II
Theatre Practicum
Stage Crafts
This Saturday is the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) priority date. Complete the app by March 1 to get priority consideration for several important funding programs, including the KU
NATIONAL
Tuition Grant.
Go to fafsa.ed.gov for details.
@UNIVERSITYDAILYKANSAN
Campaign tries to overturn same-sex marriage bans
ATLANTA — Less than two weeks after a federal judge declared Virginia's ban on samex marriage unconstitutional, a new effort has been launched in the South seeking to build wider acceptance of gay and lesbian couples in the hope of overturning similar bans across the region.
The $1 million effort will be focused on field organizing and sharing the stories of gay couples through local community and business events as well as social media in 14 Southern states.
The key, supporters say, will be to share stories like those of Linda Ellis and her partner, Lesley Brogan, who appeared at Monday's event. The two have been together since 1988 and are raising their sons John, 15, and Sam, 12, in Decatur, Ga.
marriage supporters are on the "right side of history."
"This is about a trajectory. This is about the fact that marriage equality is on an irreversible path toward being legalized across the United States of America," said Reed, who spoke of his initial reluctance to move from civil unions to supporting gay marriage based on religious reasons.
"They will tell you we are just like any other old married couple," Ellis said. "They will tell you that, and it's not true. Not yet. And we're ready for it to be."
"And some folks have to decide, just like I did, where they want to be on a historical issue," said Reed. "I was wrong, and I changed my opinion."
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was among those kicking off the "Southerners for the Freedom to Marry" campaign Monday, saying he believes gay
Georgia and the 13 other states targeted in the campaign all have either a constitutional or statutory provision defining marriage as between a man and a woman, and Republicans still hold considerable sway in those states.
Meanwhile, lawsuits have been filed across the region challenging those bans. Virginia became the first state in the South to see its voter-approved ban overturned when U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen found it unconstitutional in a ruling Feb. 13.
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Less than two weeks after a federal judge declared Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, a new effort has been launched in the South seeking to build wider acceptance of gay and lesbian couples in the hope of overturning similar bans across the region.
ACCESS FROM PAGE 2
go. And so even though it's not mandated that we create an additional accessible front entrance, we prioritize listening to people with disabilities — what they think is important."
Increased initiative for the ramp was generated after members of AbleHawks and Allies and the Student Senate wrote a resolution urging the University to fund the project in October 2013. This was partly a result of Student Senate deciding not to allocate its own funds towards the construction.
"The primary reason [was] that they didn't have a lot of money. That would have completely drained their funds," Marta said. "They just felt like they wanted to be able to give to the student groups, which is what the Senate money is technically for, and they felt like Strong Hall was something the University should address."
The resolution passed unanimously in the fall, and the University allocated $195,000 from its educational building fund to the project.
"Contingent upon legislative approval as part of the overall
EBF funding to the Kansas Board of Regents, we anticipate the funding will be transferred to KU shortly after the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, 2014," Graves wrote in an email.
"We've been putting effort into [the project] for the last two years and it's finally paying off," she said. "We don't have to wait as long as we could if they weren't already doing construction this summer."
The class that entered for the 2013-2014 academic year currently has 109 students. The law school's target enrollment for the 2014-2015 academic year is set at 120 students.
Marta said that the timing for the Strong Hall project coincides perfectly with the continued construction along Jayhawk Boulevard.
Some Kansas residents have expressed concern about the amount of money being given to non-resident students. Steven Freedman, law school admissions director, said the Vantage Scholarship is meant to complement current instate scholarships.
Even with these current and proposed projects, much has yet to be done in other areas of accessibility, Merta said. She cited the recent snow that caused obstructions to campus roads and sidewalks as an example.
"We've increased our budget for everyone. We are giving
— Edited by Nick Chadbourne
"The snow removal has been kind of a problem and there's a lot of obstacles with a campus that's on a hill" she said. "There's a lot of sidewalks and there's a lot of roads, and if you can't utilize those things, you can't participate in all that campus has to offer."
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out more scholarships to Kansas residents than ever before," Freedman said. "But keep in mind, Kansas residents are already receiving in-state tuition on top of their scholarships."
"We are still targeting Kansas residents, despite this opportunity," Mazza said. "We are just giving out more money, there is no less money available to them."
TUITION FROM PAGE 2
There is no deadline for the application. Applications can be found online at law.ku.edu/vantage.
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