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Volume 128 Issue 89
Thursday, March 5, 2015
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
kansan.com
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The student voice since 1904
WEEKEND EDITION
ALI DOVER/KANSAN
Finance committee approves changes to required fees
Garrett Farlow, a senior from Tecemseh, addresses the Student Senate Coalition at the Formation Caucus.
ALANA FLINN
@alana_finn
In midst of the Student Senate finance committee approving its fee review for the year, sophomore Garrett Farrow disputed the zero amount the committee recommended for the Student Safety Advisory Board last night.
Farlow made an argument that the zero amount proposed should be increased to 50 cents, because this money would be put toward student safety.
"Fifty cents is the magic number that will give us a lot of flexibility for projects that would consist of security cameras, or other capital improvement projects," Farlow said. "I don't think you can put a dollar amount on a person's life or their safety."
Fee review applies to the required campus fees all students pay along with tuition.
The original decision to not allocate any money to the Student Safety Advisory Board is because the financial committee did not see a reason for the extra funding. The Safety
Board has a $100,000 reserve, which Senate found sufficient enough to fund the board's endeavors.
However, Farlow argued the funding from Senate has one of the biggest impacts on safety of students on campus.
"It's important for students because the public safety office and administration don't have the ability to give the students everything that they need to be safe here at KU," Farlow said. "The budget cuts are crippling these organizations, and, to have student voices say exactly what they want done is something that sets KU apart."
The original overall fee review amount was $453.70, but after several other amendments made to original allocations, the final fee review amount approved is $455.50.
Changes to the originally proposed fees are: 50 cents added to the original $0 allocation to the Student Safety Advisory Board; 80 cents added to the original $5 allocation to
SEE SENATE PAGE 2A
RFN IIP0WIT7/KANSAN
Israeli journalist Ari Shavit shares his view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before his speech Wednesday night. Shavit is also a best-selling author.
Israeli journalist urges youth to challenge both sides of politics
LYNDSEY HAVENS
@LyndseyAlana
There's nothing sexy about politics, war or nuclear power, at least not according to Ari Shavit. Shavit, an Israeli journalist, writer and New York Times best-selling author, has plans to change the way people react to and engage in such topics. Shavit said "Israeli" is important to his title because had he not grown up in Israel, he probably would not have been a journalist.
Shavit has spent the past year on tour visiting various universities and speaking mostly to the millennial generation. Last night, he presented his ideas and perspectives to the University.
"It's so important to have a new kind of dialogue between the younger generation, the millennials, in America and Israel, and I'm doing my best to promote that new kind of dialogue and this is why I'm here, this is why I'm exhausted," he said. "I'm in a different city everyday, I'm in planes all the time, I drink black coffee all the time, and yet I'm full of energy and I'm so happy because meeting people like you is a great privilege and [I almost] have a sense of mission regarding it."
During the presentation, he called Israel "an underdog on steroids" and discussed how his best-selling book, "My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel," is essentially a "yin and yang between despair and hope."
"I've become a journalist because I feel that Israel, my country, is such a fascinating human endeavor and a kind of unique nation, for better and for worse," Shavit said. "And therefore, to be a journalist in Israel, I feel, is a real privilege because we say that we journalists write the first draft of history, so when you watch, when you give testimony, you are a witness of such huge drama, even on a daily basis. It's fascinating."
Shavit released his book in November 2013. He said it's a book about history, but it's not a history book, and that it's relevant to politics, but it's not a political book. Shavit
added that he wrote the book's content to be relevant on a "human level" and created a non-fiction book that reads like a novel.
The Kansan spoke with Shavit earlier in the day, before his presentation, about current hot topics ranging from the Israeli Prime Minister's recent speech to Congress, to the importance and delicate nature of remaining unbiased in so much controversy.
Could you tell us about your career and what your objective is?
I'm known for two things: one, what you are doing right
SEE SHAVIT PAGE 5A
KATLYN BALLARD/KANSAN
On-campus living costs for 2015-16 students are expected to increase by an average of $130.
Housing rates set to increase for coming year
CHANDLER BOESE
@Chandler Boese
According to KU Student Housing, on-campus living costs will increase by approximately 2.5 percent in the coming 2015-16 academic year.
Between the scholarship halls, residence halls (not including new halls) and Jayhawker Towers, prices will increase by an average of $130. In the coming year, each student will have to pay, on average and not including a meal plan, $5,542 in the Jayhawker Towers, $6,550 in the residence halls and $3,594 in the scholarship halls.
Scholarship hall resident Mallory Paxson, a junior from Neodesha, isn't happy about the increase. She said Housing is just pushing people further away from living on campus.
"Now that apartments are allowing you to pick your roommates by potluck, they're just going to lose more and more people," Paxson said. "Apartments are still college life, but they're cheaper."
In comparison to other universities in and around Kansas, the University is
KU
$9,880.13
KU (average of res. halls, plus "Crimson Flex" dining plan)
K-STATE
$10,471.33
K-State (average of res. halls, includes dining plan that is comparable to "Crimson Flex" plan)
WSU
$10,753.34
WSU (average of res. halls, plus dining plan comparable to "Crimson Flex") plan
Source: university websites
$10,735.34
UMKC (average of res. halls,
includes dining plan that is
comparable to "Crimson Flex"
plan)
UMKC
$10,753.34
about par. Information on the websites of Kansas State University, Wichita State University and UMKC show that each charges annual rates within $900 of the Kansas'.
Here, the average yearly cost of living in a residence
SEE LIVING PAGE 7A
University sexual assault cases will remain a mystery
MIRANDA DAVIS
@MirandaDavisUDK
The University's administration has declined to release records requested this semester by the University Daily Kansan that would give context to sexual assault cases filed at the University.
Since September, when students protested the University's handling of sexual assault, The Kansan has filed multiple Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) requests with the University to release data on sexual assault cases filed at the University through the Office of Institutional Opportunity and
Access (IOA).
In February, the University responded to one of The Kansan's initial records requests from October with a list on the Student Affairs website, which holds 32 sanctions it has given students who violated the University's Sexual Harassment policy from IOA's creation in 2012 to December 2014. Although the University originally said it would charge the Kansan around $600 to produce this information, it did not because it felt releasing the information was a service
OPINION 4A
A&F 5A
PUZZLES 6A
SPORTS 1B
SEE ASSAULT PAGE 2A
CLASSIFIEDS 3B
DAILY DEBATE 2B
All contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2015 The University Daily Kansan
Don't Forget
Rock Chalk Revue starts tonight.
Today's Weather
4.
Sunny with no chance of precipitation. Wind SE at 8 mph.
HI: 35
L0: 21
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