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Volume 126 Issue 80
kansan.com
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
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FEES
University works to replenish overdrafted student funds
MIKE VERNON
news@kansan.com
A 2011-12 University error resulted in the Kansas Athletics department receiving nearly $45,000 in extra money from a student-fee-funded account, most of which has been paid back to Student Senate.
The account is funded by the Women's and Non-Revenue Intercollegiate Sports fee, a required semesterly payment of $25 benefitting travel for women's and non-revenue sports at Kansas. In 2011-12, the year the overdraft occurred, Kansas Athletics' travel expenses rose by more than $1 million.
In a Monday meeting, an Advisory Board overseeing the fee recommended that the
current $25 fee either be eliminated or lowered to $20.
Associate Athletic Director Jim Marchiony declined to comment on the overdraft, saying the University had better information on the subject.
University of Kansas spokesman Jack Martin stressed via email that Kansas Athletics does not handle the distribution of the student fee money.
"The student funds are disbursed to Kansas Athletics every 60 days automatically," Martin said. "Kansas Athletics does not control the timing or the amount of the disbursements."
Martin said the fee payments are handled by the Comp- troller's office and ultimately
overseen up the academic chain by the Provost's Office. Martin added that the University noticed the error in March of 2013 and addressed the problem the following summer.
"All I know is that every so often throughout the year we [Athletics] will receive a wire transfer from the University, and at the end of the year we add up the amount of wires and call it 'revenue' on our books." Kaufman said in the email. "Seems that whoever at the University is responsible for calculating the amount of these wires may have over calculated it at some point(s)?"
SEE ATHLETICS PAGE 2
When Marcus Tetwiler took office as student body president in August of 2013, the error had not yet been addressed, according to emails obtained by the Kansan. Tetwiler emailed Pat Kaufman, CFO of Kansas Athletics, when he noticed a negative balance of $44,704.96 in the account pertaining to the fee.
knowledge of the overdraft. Martin said the delay was due to staff turnover during the summer.
Hornberger responded to Kaufman and Tetwiler 15 days after the original email. After conducting research, he ex-
Kaufman forwarded the message to Jason Hornberger, senior budget and personnel administrator for the University, explaining that he had no
KEY POINTS
University makes accounting error in 2011-2012
The error results in extra $45,000 going from a Student Senate reserve account to Kansas Athletics through the Women's and Non-Revenue intercollegiate Sports fee.
The fee is a required $25 semesterly payment for students at Kansas.
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The Women's and Non-Revenue Intercollegiate Sports fee is one of 18 required campus fees for students.
The University, Kansas Athletics and Student Senate all stress that the Athletic Department is not responsible for the overdraft.
The University learned of the error in March of 2013. In August 2013, after prompting from student body President Marcus Tetwiler, the University replenished the funds.
MONEY
Student groups receive funding
AMELIA ARVESEN
news@kansan.com
Twenty-four student organizations received a piece of the Educational Opportunity Fund for the 2014- 2015 school year totaling $275,000.
The objective of the EOF is to financially support persons of diversity across campus to allow them to remain within their programs of interest through scholarships or employment through organizations. More than $50,000 was requested and the amounts designated to each group were carefully decided by the EOF Board, Student Body President Marcus Tetwiler said.
"It's really cool to see these departments come in and say how important it is to have persons of diversity within their program and the values that it brings not only to their department but to the university community as a whole," Tetwiler said.
Each organization made a brief presentation to the board with a proposal of the use of funds along with numbers in the specific department. Some organizations received close to the amount requested while others received only a fraction. Funds were not allocated to the HawkLink
Writing Fellows and the Spencer Art Museum.
The amount available to distribute is budgeted the previous year based on enrollment and the student senate activity fee. Amounts are deliberated by the board and were presented on Tuesday to the organizations.
The EOF Board is made up of the student body president, a representative from the Dean of Students Office, a representative from the Office of Student Financial Aid, the finance committee vice chair, the Student Senate treasurer and between three and six appointed students.
Alternative Breaks received $2,850 of the requested $60,902. Historically the organization has received $14,000 for scholarships and director compensation, said co-director Hannah Sitz, a senior from Andover.
Hilltop Child Development Center was one of many groups who received funds close to the amount requested.
"I think Student Senate goes right in line with what our mission is to continue to offer services for families," Betham Smith, executive director of Hilltop, said.
SEE FUND PAGE 2
"At first glance that may
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALEAH MILLINER/KANSAN
TURN TO PAGE 3 TO SEE A BREAKDOWN OF WHAT FUNDING ORGANIZATIONS REQUESTED AND WHAT THEY RECEIVED
Lawrence city commissioners stalled on a proposal concerning the treatment of bed bugs because of cost concerns. The policy would require hotels, motels and rental properties to hire professional exterminators rather than giving the job to maintenance men.
YU KYUNG LEE
news@kansan.com
Bed bugs — these blood-sucking pests have been on the city's radar for the past couple of years.
But as the city commissioners were set to pass a more stringent policy on bed bug treatments last week, a halting question was asked: Who pays?
It is an expensive problem that no one wants to claim responsibility for. For a two-bedroom apartment, the costs of bed bug treatment can range from $300 to $1200.
While property managers may want to relegate the job
"Right now there is nothing that says that," said Brian Jimenez, city code enforcement manager. "Couple times the maintenance men do something, but that's not enough. So we are going to give out pretty detailed expectations on our policy, what we think we want people to do."
to the maintenance men rather than hire professionals, bed bugs are hard to eradicate with the cheaper chemical treatment. That was why the proposed policy requires hotels, motels and rental units to get a licensed exterminator within three days of a bed bug complaint.
"It's hard to find fault in anybody and to prove it as their fault would be very very difficult, so in our cases we have fronted the cost of treating the bed bugs." Cedarwood manager Joshua Aarnes said. "It's written in our agreement. They can be held responsible if they do have bed bugs and don't report them, however. We just ask that they report it whether to the city or to us."
While tenants at Cedarwood have incentives to report it, if the tenants are solely respon-
When there were bed bug outbreaks at Cedarwood, the management rather than the tenants paid for professional
While some lease agreements, like those at Cedarwood apartments, specify who would pay in the case of bed bugs, many do not.
The problem with determining who pays is that it is hard for landlords to prove that the tenants are responsible for bringing in the bed bugs. It could be that tenants bring it home from their friends' house or from used furniture and mattresses. It could also be that old tenants brought the bugs in but left without reporting it.
extermination.
SEE BUGS PAGE 2
Q&A WITH DR. ROBERT BROWN FROM WATKINS HEALTH CENTER
Robert Brown
"They can look like flea bites or other things that people usually don't notice when they get bitten; they usually chew on the skin a little bit and it's not like a severe stinging bite. They sometimes move from place to place and that may be a distinguishing feature—you may get several bites in a line on an exposed area of skin."
How do you identify bed bug bites?
"Some people might not notice for several days, and if they were in a place that was infested, they would be getting more and more. That would be another clue."
CLASSIFIEDS 7
CROSSWORD 5
Index
CRYPTOQUIPS 5
OPINION 4
Health risks?
SPORTS 8
SUDOKU 5
How do you treat bed bug bites?
All contents, unless stated otherwise, $ \textcircled{c} $ 2014 The University Daily Kansan
"Mainly it causes irritation. They can be scratched a lot and they can get infected. It can potentially carry some different kind of diseases but I don't think they are commonly thought of as passing on blood-borne diseases"
Don't Forget
"Treating them is fairly easy, with antihistamines and steroid creams. It's getting rid of the bugs that's harder to do."
This is the last week of the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Today's Weather
Cloudy, thunderstorm possible, Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph
HI: 57
LO: 43
The sun will come out tomorrow
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