University Daily Kansan, March 27, 1981
Page 7
Five student senators suspended for absences
By KAREN SCHLUETER Staff Reporter
If the number of student senators receiving suspension notice this week is any indication, cutting the Student Senate's size in half succeeded in removing some of the Senate's dead weight.
Octavio Vivero, Senate executive secretary, sent letters to five senators this week informing them that they were suspended from the Senate until they were removed before the Student Senate executive committee to justify their absences.
Last October, before the Senate cut its size from 120 to 65, 45 senators were suspended because of excessive excused and unexcluded absences.
The five suspended senators are Jon Frobish, liberal arts and sciences senator; Phebe Hau, graduate student senator; Peter Sackett, graduate student senator; Rick Stanley, business
senator; and Kevin Boldt, engineering senator.
EACH OF THESE senators had four absences, excused or unexcused. There have been four Senate meetings this semester.
Viveros said the senators would have a chance to justify their absences at the StudEx meeting Monday. If StudEx approves their excuses, they will be missed. If they miss two more meetings they will no longer be senators.
The absence policy in the Senate rules states that any senator with two unexcused absences or four absences of any kind is suspended from Senate. This is no definition of what constitutes an excused absence in the rules.
Bren Abbott, student body vice president, said that senators were excused for personal emergencies, class conflicts on the nights of Senate
He said that studying for a class or writing a paper were not sufficient excuses for missing a Senate meeting.
meetings or other excuses approved by the executive secretary.
Abbott said that many senators missed meetings this semester because of class conflicts on Tuesday and Thursday nights. He said Wednesday nights were the regular meeting time for senior senators, where conflicts with KU basketball games, there had been only one Wednesday meeting this semester.
“It’s an understanding that Senate meetings will be on Wednesday,” Abbott, the senator had said. Wednesdays class, I would expect him to resign.
FIFTH-THREE SENATORS attended the first Senate meeting this semester, 40 attended the second, 38 attended the third, and 24 attended the fourth meeting. These figures were
Abbott said he thought most of the senators' excuses were legitimate, but there was a problem with senators leaving meetings early.
taken from the roll call taken at the end of each meeting.
"I have noticed abuse in the sense that people are leaving meetings early to write papers or study for tests," he said.
Abbott said he was satisfied with the results of cutting the Senate's size so far.
"I'm probably stating this prematurely, but as of now it's met its goal," he said.
"We've had no problems making quorum even though we have had what I would consider poor attendance."
Abbott said the main reason for the cut was to ensure that the senators who were elected were interested in doing their job.
"Cutting the size increased the competitiveness of being elected, so in
theory you elect those who really care to do the job," he said.
Viveros agreed with Abbott, saying that he did not feel that student representation had been hurt by the cut.
"As far as getting a diverse group, I think it's worked very well," he said. "There hasn't been any group who's representation has been cut."
"I seriously believe that the objectives they tried to achieve by making the cut have been satisfactorily realized."
GREG SCHNACK, former student president and an advocate of the cut, said that although the Senate had been meeting quorum this semester, it early to judge whether the cut had been successful in improving its efficiency.
Schnacke said that the effectiveness of the cut could be better judged when
"It can be judged when there are more frequent and exciting meetings, dealing with issues other than the budget," he said. "If the committee system is working well, then I think a smaller Senate works better."
the Senate was not preoccupied with budget issues.
He said he supported the cut because of problems in remeeting muorum.
"We'd get into a long meeting where stuff had to get done, and people would be," he said. "Then someone would be with us, and we would have to postpone business."
"Also, a lot of the seats were uncontested or we had to fund volunteers to fill them."
Matt Davis, former student boo2 vice-president also supported the cut. He said that he had not been following this semester's Senate close, but that he did not think the experiment had been run very scientifically.
Bill to change residency requirement fails
By BRAD STERTZ
Staff Reporter
TOPEKA-State residency requirements for university students were among a package of Board of Regents proposals that the Senate Ways and Means Committee acted on yesterday.
In a set of bulk roll-call votes, the committee finished work on three bills and held three others for further study.
The committee killed a bill that would have changed the residency requirement for in-state tuition from 12 months to six months.
Officials from Wichita State University headed the unsuccessful efforts on the bill. They said they wanted the change made because the 12-month return deadline was unlikely to recruit part-time students who also worked in Wichita industries.
A Wichita State spokesman said that the current system was devised for the traditional student from out-of-state who would shop around for a school, go to that school and never intend to live in the state permanently.
At Wichita State, however, most of the students come from families that are new to the area, he said. A large percentage also comes from full-time workers who enroll in summer or night classes.
Jim Foster, a spokesman for Boeing, Inc. said a shorter residency requirement would help his firm recruit who hadn't completed their degrees.
Foster said that people throughout the state who would be affected were the families who had been living in Kansas for seven months, owned property, were paying state taxes and working at a full-time job.
JOIN CONARD, executive officer of the Board of Regrets, told the Senate committee that residency was not required for those who had lived in the state 12 months.
"Each campus has residency committees to try to determine the intent of an individual," Conard said. "It is up to those committees to
determine that the individual had reasons other than going to school for four years in trying to establish residency.
"Actually it gets down to trying to mind-read the individuals' intents.
Conard said that if a student came into school as a full-time student, that student normally did not file for residency.
He said that if the same number of people took advantage of the residency process at six months as did under 12 years, the number of would be $300,000 system-wide.
"We introduced this last year in the House," Conard said. "It was defeated when the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee asked our attorney if we would rather have this or building at Kansas Technical Institute.
"Of course this year, remembering what happened last year, we decided
not to push for this, but the Regents do support the idea in principle."
BEFORE THE VOTE, State Sen. Jack Steinger, D-Kansas City, said that taxpayers' money spent for higher education should be used only for permanent taxpayers and not for transient residents.
"It is my understanding that our out-of-state fees are still very competitive," he said, and I don't think we have to worry about it. "Most who are in the state for a short period."
In other action on bills affecting the Regents schools, the committee:
- Approved funding for the recruitment of personnel for educational institutions. This was also required to keep recruitment standards for state schools competitive.
- Held up a bill that would have allowed unclassified employees to have state death and disability benefit coverage after 90 days on the job.
Bon Voyage Party Tomorrow Night
Love Boat Cruise Giveaway! (for two)
- two $50 food and drink prizes
- four $25 food and drink prizes (no purchase necessary)
- Becerros taco bar at 7:00 pm
23rd and Ousdahl
Cut out this taco and bring it in Thursday through Sunday, March 26-29.
TACO JOHN'S.
Offer good at participating Taco John's listed below with coupon only.
1101 W. 6th St.
Lawrence, KS 66044
1626 W. 23rd St.
The University of Kansas
School of Fine Arts
Presents
Mustslav Rostropovich
Cellist
8:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 2, 1981
Houston Auditorium
This KU concert is one of only four solo sape
panes by Host the world this season.
Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office All state public HS $10 and SB. Students with ID & DS and S4. Special ticket rates for patrons of the theater and member Music Series. For reservations, call 913-648-3982
"The world's greatest cellist and possibly the greatest who ever lived." New York Post
The Arts
THESE ARE THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT.
Tonight they're all out to get the Warriors.
Premium Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Presents A Lawrence Gordon Production "THE WARRIORS" Executive Producer Frank Marshall Has Based Upon the Novel by Soil Yurick. Screenplay by David Shaber and Walter Hill. Produced by Lawrence Gordon. Directed by Walter Hill
R RESTRICTED BAR RIGHTS
Friday—3:30, 9:30 Saturday—7:00
Friday—7:00, Saturday—3:30, 9:30
Friday and Saturday, March 27 & 28
Woodruff Auditorium $1.50
—No refreshments allowed—