FRIDAY, FEB. 15, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Regents delay hearing on final tuition proposals
By Meredith Carr Kansan staff writer
The Board of Regents decided yesterday to delay the date to hear final tuition proposals until April.
The Regents will make their final decision about which proposal will be implemented in May after the Legislature finishes.
Marvin Burris, Regents member, said the Regents delayed the hearing to give the schools more time to go over final proposals.
The state is facing a $426 million budget shortfall from last fiscal year. When the Legislature decides on the budget, the University of Kansas will know how much state-allocated money it will receive.
This would help the University
Pushing back the date will also give the University of Kansas administration chances to continue the tuition dialogue with students.
decide on which tuition proposal would be most appropriate to submit to the Regents.
Members of Student Senate and University Council formed the Ad-Hoc Committee on University Funding in January to address concerns about tuition increases.
"It makes me feel great," said Dallas Rakestraw, Nunemaker senator representing freshmen and sophomores and the committee's co-chair. "We can cover all bases and our decision doesn't have to be rushed. In addition, we can get proposals to the administration, and they can have plenty of time to review it."
The committee will explore two new proposals this week regarding tuition increases. Some things being taken into consideration are other Regents schools' proposed tuition increases and other Big 12 schools facing tuition increases.
Matt Steppe, Student Senate
Legislative Awareness Board director and a member of the AdhOC Committee, said he was relieved because the group would have an opportunity to explore all the possibilities.
Contact Carr at mcarr@kansan.com. This story was edited by Brooke Hesler.
Objectivists club attendance stagnant but interest remains
By Maggie Koerth
Kansan staff writer
Tim Lang, chair of the department of religious studies, has seen many belief systems come and go.
"Just because a group is controversial and visible one year doesn't mean they will be the next," he said.
The KU Objectivists club was a controversial group when it formed last semester. A series of high-profile events, including giving away cake during a KU Greens' peace fast, gave it local media coverage. Because of the coverage, people found out about the group, but since then meeting attendance has been stagnant.
Rachelle Cauthon, Overland Park junior and president of KU Objectivists, said the group's philosophy of putting oneself and personal interests above other people conflicted with a lot of students' beliefs and added to the controversy.
Regardless of the sparse meeting attendance, the number of people at Objectivist events has grown. About 25 people came to their first event and about 40 came to Wednesday night's lecture by Brooklyn, N.Y., professor Andrew Bernstein.
Part of the problem may be that while students are hearing the Objectivist name for the first time they aren't understanding enough of what they hear to be interested.
Rachel Goens, Broding, S.D., senior, said she heard about the club last semester but didn't know anything about Objec-
tivism.
"The chalkings were kind of vague and they really didn't interest me," she said about messages the organization had scrawled with chalk on the sidewalks at the University of Kansas.
Another issue may be that students simply disagree with the philosophy.
Adrienne Banks, Stillwell freshman, attended Bernstein's lecture. She said she didn't like Objectivism because she thought compassion was essential to human survival.
"They don't think people should ever be self-sacrificing and I don't think you can have human relationships without that." she said.
Miller said belief movements could gain a lot of attention at first and then fizzle out.
"We are a country of short attention spans," he said. "When you bring a new idea into an area people might be really excited about it for a while and then the next new thing will come along and people forget."
Cauthon said publicity was not the Objectivist's goal.
"What we want to do is get the philosophy out and get people talking," she said.
Cauthon said it was difficult to overcome the common perception that philosophy was boring and dry. She said events and lectures were a way to interest people and show them how Objectivism affected their lives.
But events may not be the best way to bring people into the group. Miller said the best way
What Is Objectivism?
Objectivism is a philosophy created by Ayn Rand, a Russian-born writer and philosopher.
Objectivists believe people can find happiness by striving to achieve their goals.
Objectivists believe that man is a heroic being.
Objectivists believe it is wrong to be self-sacrificating because it keeps one from achieving one's goals.
Famous Quote: "My philosophy in essence is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement his noblest activity, and reason his only absolute." — Ayn Rand
Source: The Ayn Rand Institute
groups like the Objectivists could get their ideas out was through one-on-one contact.
Cauton said most of the members came to the group through discussion.
Because of this, Cauton wasn't worried about Objectivism falling out of the limelight.
"We don't need lots of publicity. We could keep talking without it," she said. "I don't think we will die out."
Contact Koerth at mkoearth@ kansan.com. This story was edited by Justin Henning.
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Clay Blair, Regents chairman, commended the students who came to the meeting.
PROTEST
"I think we're getting a really good response from the Regents," he said. "They really seem to want to talk about it with us."
He handed out valentines and a $500 student scholarship to each Regents university that attended.
Money for the scholarships came from the Clay Blair Foundation, a charitable educational fund.
The scholarship will be distributed at Student Senate's discretion.
Contact Hill at shill@kansan.com. This story was edited by Sarah Warren.
MOCK TRIAL
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Bell, Beesley and Chris Kaiser, Overland park junior, compose the veteran leadership of the team.
Bell holds three years of experience in mock trial, and said he was impressed with KU's lineup.
The group is coming back from a disappointing season last year when it failed to qualify for nationals for the first time in its four years as a team. Bell said a lack of clearly defined leadership created problems.
"I've never seen a team as prepared or as talented as the one we have this year," he said.
"That really took the focus off us as a competitive team," he said. "It was not an optimal situation."
The members agreed their biggest challenge at regionals
The team will be the underdogs against Drake — the school started the mock trail competition and has usually sent two teams to nationalas first and second place finishers.
would be Drake University, of Des Moines.
Bell said the team met Drake's top team earlier this year and did well against it. He said he was hoping for an upset victory.
The team doesn't have a faculty coach but still managed third place finishes behind Drake in the past.
"It's not like you can just try harder," he said. "You either know it or you don't, and you're either calm or you're freaking out."
Faulconer said preparation would be key to the team's success.
Contact Pracht at apracht@ kansan.com. This story was edited by Gillian Titus.
Plagiarism debacle continues
The Associated Press
The Wyandotte County district attorney began taking deposition-style testimony yesterday from people involved in the Piper High School plagiarism controversy.
District Attorney Nick Tomasic issued subpoenas last week for members of the Piper school board, district administrators and Christine Pelton, the teacher involved in the case.
Pelton, a biology teacher in the eastern Kansas school district, resigned in December after the board overruled her decision to give zeros to 28 sophomores she accused of plagiarizing a botany project from the Internet.
Tomasic said Pelton would be the first to testify yesterday, followed by board members and administrators today.
He said he was investigating whether the board violated the
Kansas Open Meetings Act Dec. 11 by discussing plagiarism accusations in private and then directing a change in the grading system without a public vote on the matter.
"So far we're questioning whether or not they were proper in going into executive session if they were talking about grading procedures," Tomasic said.
A public body in Kansas can reach a consensus in secret but cannot act on it without a public vote.
He said the board and his office could reach a consent settlement, in which the board would agree they violated the law and then agree not to do it again. Or, he said each board member could be fined up to $500.
"We don't know what happened. All we know is they met, they adjourned and the next morning action was taken." Tomasc said.
Another option, depending on what Tomasic discovers in testimony, could be to file a motion to have the members removed from the board, Tomasic said.
Pelton said she suspected plagiarism because some students' reports contained identical material. She then ran the papers through a computer program that detects whether a paragraph or page is plagiarized from sources on the Internet.
Tomassic said his investigation would take at least a week.
Pelton thought the 28 sophomores shouldn't get any credit for their work, and therefore should flunk her biology class.
But after several parents complained, the board ordered her to give the students partial credit and to decrease the project's value from 50 percent of the final course grade to 30 percent.
Pelton resigned the next day.
AMBASSADORS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
to spread the word during the past year.
Katie Lang, Stillwill junior and student coordinator of KU Ambassadors, said no one had complained about the few minority ambassadors.
Scott said the ambassadors had done a good job by arranging meetings with student groups, and more diversity within ambassadors would help lead to more diversity on the KU campus.
"We haven't had any feedback, but the campus environment has made us more aware that it's something we might need to improve," Lang said.
Mark Dupree, Kansas City,
Kan., sophomore, and president of Black Student Union, said that there needed to be more minorities in ambassadors, especially when the University was stressing the importance of diversity.
Erica Van Ross, co-coordinator of multicultural recruitment in the Office of Admissions and Scholarships said that more diversity in ambassadors would help.
"I think it would be just as beneficial as diversifying the rest of campus," she said.
Robert Page, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said it was important that minority students got involved in both ambassadors and the minority recruitment team, which works out of the Office of Admissions and Scholarships.
Students who want to volunteer as ambassadors must complete an application process to be selected. Members are recruited in the spring. Applications for next year's ambassadors are due March 1 at the Student Organizations and Leadership Development Center on the fourth floor in the Kansas Union.
"I think it would be just as beneficial as diversifying the rest of campus."
Erica Van Ross co-coordinator of multicultural recruitment
Contact Shaffer at Ishaffer@ kansan.com. This story was edited by Kristi Henderson.
APARTMENTS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
exceeds half a month's rent, it's not really legal."
Menda Vanderpool, Uniontown sophomore, said she was confused the first time she signed a lease.
"It's not something your parents sit you down and tell you about." Vanderpool said.
Vanderpool lives at Aberdeen apartments on 2300 Wakarusa Drive and splits a $700 rent with a roommate. She said they looked at cheaper apartments, but they weren't as nice.
"I come from a small town, so there aren't a lot of apartment spaces there." Vanderpool said. "I don't really know how to compare the prices. I was kind of surprised that most of them cost about $700 a month."
She said most of the apartments seemed expensive, even with the cost divided among roommates.
Chris Doll, Dodge City sophomore, said he and three other roommates shared a house on Kentucky Street. They pay $935 per month for rent.
"With bills it can be pretty expensive." Doll said.
with my roommate to get a nicer apartment." Vanderpool said.
Students can look online at the apartment department to check out an apartment database at
Chris Doll
Dodge City sophomore
www.digitaljayhawk.org/apt_dept/. for seminars and free information about leasing policies, call Housing & Credit Counseling at 749-4224.
Contact Shuman at mshman@ kansan.com. This story was edited by Molly Gise.
"With bills it can be pretty expensive."
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