MONDAY,APRIL15.2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
KUnited winners make plans hope to increase Senate visibility
By Adam Pracht Kansan staff writer
SARA SHEPHERD/KANSAN
Leawood junior Jonathan Ng and Senatobia, Miss., Junior Loren Malone were elected last week to be student body president and vice president next Fall.
The cheering has died off and the guests at celebration parties have all gone home. Now the work begins for Jonathan Ng, Leawood junior, and Loren Malone, Senatebia, Miss. junior.
Ng and Malone were elected as the new student body president and vice-president from KUnited Thursday in the Student Senate elections. They defeated Delta Force and SMILE coalition candidates.
"It's a really humbling experience for me," Ng said. "A lot of people ask, 'How does it feel? How does it feel?' In some respects, it feels different, but in a lot of respects, I'm just so excited and so ready to start working on everything that we set out to do."
Malone said the victory was the result of many volunteers, many of whom were not even running for office.
"I was so proud of our candidates," she said. "Everyone who poured so much time into it and worked so hard."
Ng said they would continue to work on their party platform, which includes a new Multicultural Resource Center, solutions to transportation problems and creating a central location for information about the University of Kansas.
However, Malone said their larger goal was to make Student Senate more visible to students and to encourage more interaction with students and student groups.
Ng said that he wanted to involve students in the issues that concerned them.
"I've always been a strong believer that you don't need a set position or title to make a difference anywhere, especially on the University," Ng said. "But one thing that this position allows us to do is to give us access that all these other people normally
wouldn't have."
Already Ng has made history as student body president. He is the first Asian-American to be directly elected to the position and the second in all of University history. Alan Lowden was the first Asian-American to become president in 1991. He rose to the spot from vice-president after Senate voted to remove the president.
Ng said he thought that any first of this kind was important.
"Hopefully it just gives students inspiration and hope that they can do great things regardless of their background or where they're from." Ng said.
But Malone said Ng's background wasn't the only way he will make his mark.
"He's an amazing person no matter what his ethnicity," Malone said. "There's no one else that I can see doing as good a job as he's going to do as student body president."
Both winners have been involved in Senate since their freshman years at the University. Ng got his start as part of the University Affairs committee. He was also readers' representative for The University Daily Kansan last fall.
Malone was a representative of the PanHellenic Council. She said
it helped her to realize she was representing many students and their interests, not just her own view when she signed Senate bills and resolutions.
"That really made me think twice about the things I was putting my name on and made me really appreciate who I was and how I was helping them as an organization." she said.
Both candidates are also interested in world travel. Malone spent three months in Ireland as a bartender, and Ng once traveled to Spain to study abroad for his Spanish major. He said he and his friends participated in the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain while they were there.
"It was the stupidest thing that we've ever done," he said, "But the coolest too."
Ng said that he and Malone would try to be representatives of the students as they serve.
"I don't think anyone really deserves to be there," Ng said. "You're just fortunate enough to be able to serve in that position. So it's something that you just can't take for granted."
pracht@kansan.com. This story was edited by Justin Guenley.
Contact Pracht at
By Meredith Carr Kansan staff writer
Kansas business leaders criticize legislature's cuts to higher education
Kansas business leaders invited current and former Board of Regents members to a press conference in Wichita Thursday to call upon the legislature to increase alternative means of revenue for higher education in the 2003 fiscal year. Chancellor Robert Hemenway also attended the press conference.
The business leaders voiced their concerns about budget cuts for higher education. They said that state students would not get a quality education by the time they entered the workplace.
The state is facing at least a $725 million budget shortfall proposed for the 2003 fiscal year, and also has made cuts to higher education. These cuts include an estimated $1.5 million budget cut for the University of Kansas.
The University is looking at a proposed $43 million tuition increase to start in Fall 2003.
Frank Meyer, chairman and CEO of Custom Metal Fabrications and board chairman of Kansas Chamber of Commerce, said he didn't agree with the higher education budget cuts.
"I'm not speaking from Kansas nostalgia today but from the vantage point of a hard-nosed business person who employs highly skilled people," Meyer said. "Kansas cannot afford a second-rate public school system, one that does not prepare students for the interrelated, international, Internet-based challenges of the future."
Jordan Haines, Board of Regents member from 1977 to 1984, said that the future of Kansas not only depended on the economy, but also on the security of higher education.
"The ability of our institutions to absorb such cuts, and still bolster the state's economy is like draining a car's gas tank,and then expecting to drive the Kansas Turnpike at 70 miles per hour." Haines said. "You can't do it."
Sandy Rupp, executive assistant of Kansas Health Foundation, said the higher education budget cuts hurt the state and its students.
"This is the future of Kansas, and with the raise in tuition, the kids either won't go to school, or will go out of state," Rupp said. "When these kids go out of state it's hard to get them to come back, and it's a lose-lose situation for the Kansas economy."
back, and is involved in State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said the budget situation was the worst it had been in 20 years. She agreed that an increase in revenue was needed to help Regents schools.
"If we don't have a higher economy then we don't have the financial aid assistance for students," said Ballard, also associate vice chancellor for the University. "At some point we have to make sure we have a quality program that isn't going to be eroded over the next few years."
The legislature is on break until Wednesday, May 1, when the full body will reconvene. Ballard said a closing date was not specific because of the budget situation.
Contact Carr at mcarr@kansan.com. This story was edited by Kristi Henderson.
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