Volume 128 Issue 112
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
kansan.com
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The student voice since 1904
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
Future Majority members sell baked goods on Wescoe Beach on Tuesday afternoon. They are a student political interest group working to raise political awareness about the current state of the education budget in Kansas.
Future Majority group aims to raise education budget monev
SKYLAR ROLSTAD
@SkyRolNews
Members of Future Majority, a student political interest group, held a bake sale Tuesday afternoon in front of Wescoe Hall to raise money toward the state of Kansas' budget shortfall. The group also distributed flyers and voter registration information.
The group's focus on this budget shortfall was how the shortfall would affect education.
"We want to make students aware that poor governance and bad policy does have a consequence for them, so we thought wed have some fun with it," said Clay Cosby, a University senior and Future Majority member. "We said
wed try to raise $667 million to help save the state of Kansas with a bake sale"
Cosby said 60 percent of the Kansas budget funded education.
"I just thought it was a really important issue because I'm paying for my own college," said freshman Vince Munoz another Future Majority member.
The Associated Press reported that the budget shortfall after Monday was $400 million and growing, but previously was reported as $667 million at the beginning of April. It was reported by the Kansas City Star that Kansas' budget shortfall between both 2015 and 2016 could be around $1 billion.
Cosby said the group planned
to meet with legislators who are sympathetic with their initiative to raise awareness of the budget shortfall at the Capitol building in Topeka. They will also film a video of their trip.
"A lot of people didn't know what we were doing at first," Munoz said. "Some people even thought we were seriously trying to raise [$667 million] with a bake sale."
fun with it its a little bit more engaging to have a bake sale," Cosby said.
Future Majority also plans to send a check with the $17.25 they raised, Cosby said, and offer it to the Kansas Department of Revenue.
Munoz and Cosby said the people on Wescoe Beach who donated to the bake sale or spoke to the group received its tongue-in-cheek message well.
"I'm not under the impression that the Department of Revenue is going to accept a check from the Future Majority," said Cosby.
The group identifies itself as non-partisan. Cosby said the purpose of Future Majority is two-pronged: to raise awareness in state and local politics and to mobilize student engagement in politics.
Edited by Vicky Diaz Camacho
"When they see we're having
"We are independent speakers," said Munoz. We're not out to elect a certain person with an R or a D by their name."
Chancellor dicusses accessible public education, funding
KELLY CORDINGLEY
@kellycordingley
Insisting public higher education should remain a public good and not a private one was the focus of Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little's Monday Message this week.
Citing that over the last 15 years, per-student state support has decreased roughly 40 percent, Gray-Little noted some of the ramifications of that decline.
"Though universities continue to seek ways to become more efficient, the erosion of state support has inevitably forced many schools to scale back their mission or, in many cases, to increase tuition," Gray-Little wrote in her message.
Joe Monaco, associate director of Strategic Communications, said the chancellor's Monday Messages typically touch on topics that would affect the University or current happenings. This trend in education from public to private, and the proposed legislation to freeze Regents University's tuition are some of the issues currently at hand.
"We often write about topics that are timely or relevant to the campus community," he said. "This seemed like one that was timely and relevant."
Gray-Little wrote the proposed freeze to tuition "was a curious move by legislators, as it does nothing
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to address the state's revenue shortfall, and because KU remains very affordable compared to neighboring state universities and aspirational peer universities."
"We understand the intent of that, and we share the legislature's focus on affordability for Kansas students and families."
JOE MONACO Associate director of Strategic Communications
This proposal is more detrimental to the University than previous proposed cuts, Monaco said.
"We understand the intent of that, and we share the legislature's focus on affordability for Kansas students and families," Monaco said. "But a tuition freeze is complicated and would result in a greater loss of revenue for the University than the original cuts that were proposed earlier in the session."
As Gray-Little continued, she added the freeze "prevents us from being able to keep up with inflation, let alone to embark on new initiatives to benefit Kansas."
While the legislature debates this bill, among other budget bills, Monaco said the University will continue to
SEE MESSAGE PAGE 2
SSAB hears proposals for future outreach positions
RILEY MORTENSEN
@RileyMortensen
Late Tuesday afternoon, members of the Student Safety Advisory Board heard proposals from the Student Senate Transportation Coordinator and representatives of the Willow Domestic Violence Center.
The Willow Domestic Violence Center presented a proposal for the creation of a full-time KU Outreach Advocate. The advocate position would be paid and allow the Willow to provide advocacy and outreach services to students, staff and faculty in an on-campus setting, according to the proposal.
Kristine Chapman, director of community engagement at the Willow, pointed out that in their needs assessment for the proposal they found that, according to the Center for Disease Control, 1 in 3 teens and young adults of both genders will face dating violence.
"We feel like there's a huge demographic of people that are falling through the gaps," said Becca Burns, director of volunteer services for the Willow. "If the numbers are
as high as they state they are nationally, it's an impossible task for any one person."
Burns also said another issue their proposal is trying to address is the difficulty students have in reaching off-campus services like their center.
"Being able to be on campus and provide on campus support group services, for example, might be really beneficial to someone who does not feel safe enough
MISSY MINEAR/KANSAN
Kristine Chapman, director of community engagement for the Willow Domestic Violence Center, presents a proposal to the Student Safety Advisory Board on Tuesday afternoon in the Kansas Union. Chapman is proposing to have a full-time advocate for domestic violence on the KU campus.
SEE SSAB PAGE 2
SHERYL MILLER
@KUSheryl
Don't Forget
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALI DOVER/KANSAN
To celebrate Earth Day, two student organizations will work to clean up campus. Peer Health Educator (PHE) and the KU Center for Sustainability student groups will be on Wescoe Beach and Stauffer-Flint Lawn from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to educate about cigarette litter and pick up cigarette butts around campus.
OPINION 4
A&F 5
Kelsey Fortin, a health educator at Watkins Health Center, said the groups plan to educate students on what happens environmentally when cigarette butts are littered. Volunteers will scatter around campus picking up cigarette butts, where they will display the litter in a litter box at Stauffer-Flint.
CLASSIFIEDS 7
DAILY DEBATE 7
PUZZLES 6
SPORTS 8
Index
"We will be displaying the litter box showing cigarette
"We have each collected hundreds and hundreds of butts to showcase in the litter box and we aren't done yet," Knipp said.
Kirby Knipp, a senior and Peer Health Educators from Olathe, helped other Peer Health Educators and students within the KU Center for Sustainability group pick up cigarette butts in preparation for the event.
Morgan Beaumann is a senior from Norton studying applied behavioral sciences. As part of her practicum, she has been working as an intern for the KU Center for Sustainability. Beaumann conducted research on smoking behaviors in preparation for this event.
butts so students can see the impact that is being made;" Fortin said.
"People think the [cigarette] butts are biodegradable, but that is a false perception," Criner said. "The butts are full of toxins that leach into our environment, like our water supplies."
The Peer Health Educators and KU Center for Sustainability groups want this event to lead to a cleaner campus and environment in the future. Both campus groups will use this opportunity to provide education on the current push
KU Center for Sustainability Education and Outreach Coordinator Kim Criner agreed. She said throwing out cigarette butts is the last "socially acceptable" form of littering.
"We are trying to understand why people believe it is okay to
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litter cigarette butts and how we can prevent them from doing so," Beaumann said.
Happy Earth Day! Respect Mother Nature today.
SEE SMOKE PAGE 2
Today's Weather
Sunny with a 0 percent chance of rain. Wind NNE at 9 mph.
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HI: 60
L0: 37
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