4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
CAMPUS
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2009
Posters to debut in April
Men of Merit program to honor men who exemplify masculinity
BYDAVIDUGARTE
dugarte@kansan.com
A new series of posters featuring men who define masculin-
Women of Distinction calendars this coming April. The project, called Men of Merit, is meant to recognize male students, faculty and staff who are role models for other males in the University.
Rick Lofgren, Chicago second-year graduate student and member of the Men of Merit project, said the posters would help show masculinity in an appropriate light.
"Masculinity is so much larger than the macho image presented by society."
"It is important to recognize these men to show KU's current and future male population that the current definition of what it means to be male may not necessarily be the norm." Lofgren said.
The idea for Men of Merit came to Gary Green, San Antonio senior, when he was looking at the Women of Distinction calendar. He thought there should be something similar for men at the University.
The Athletics Department and Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center combined efforts to develop Green's idea into a series of posters featuring men at the University.
Green is part of the Men of Merit nomination committee, which looks for men who challenge norms, take action and have a positive effect on the University or the community.
"I believe there are many men here at KU who are very deserving of this honor." Loftgren said.
A study done by the Population Reference Bureau indicates there have been lower rates of enrollment at colleges and universities among males since 1991. Males also tend to hold far fewer
RYAN CAMPBELL
Olathe senior
leadership roles than women at the college level.
Lofgren said he was passionate about the Men of Merit project because he had been studying male development and was well-versed in issues regarding the
college male. He said the Men of Merit program was a great start to creating programs that sought to engage male students at the University.
Lofgren said students could feel pride and a connection with the Men of Merit program because they had the opportunity to nominate a man they felt was qualified or could be nominated themselves
Nominations for the Men of Merit program are due March 13. Ryan Campbell, Olathe senior and member of the nomination committee, said selections would be made by late March and the release date
for the posters was April 15.
The project is the work of the Women and Men's Poster Series, a new student group also working on the Women of Distinction calendar.
Campbell said the posters were meant to show a whole spectrum of male existence on campus. The nomination committee has a loose rubric to guide its selections so all nominees are viewed through the same lens, Campbell
said.
He said men were redefining masculinity in so many different ways that the committee found it difficult to adhere to a strict set of guidelines.
"Masculinity is so much larger than the macho image presented by society," Campbell said. "Masculinity is about integrity, accomplishment and compassion."
Milton Wendland, Lawrence doctoral student, said when he received an e-mail asking him to be part of the effort to put the program together, he jumped at the chance.
Wendland said he thought he was included because of his affiliation with the department of women, gender and sexuality studies and because his teaching and research interests centered on gender and sexuality.
"I want my father and friends and my sons to know that being a man is about being fully human."
"I want my father and friends and my sons to know that being a man is about being fully human, striving to be the best person they can be," Wendland said.
"And it's important for women to see that too."
MILTON WENDLAND Doctoral student
Wendland said there was a cultural trend to blame men for most of the atrocities and violence in society, and there were a lot of restrictions placed on men.
"Restricting yourself to one idea of what a man is limits yourself, limits your relationships," Wendland said. "Men of Merit is a way for KU students to be thinking about how they will live their lives now and in the future."
— Edited by Carly Halvorson
PORTE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
erencing that Porte's suspension would prevent him from taking part in the hearings. "I'm confident that everything will go well and we will have a successful allocation, but he will be missed."
Porte was suspended after he released a memo to The University Daily Kansan detailing McGonigle's recommendations regarding student fee adjustments. In the memo McGonigle recommended the fee review subcommittee eliminate the campus media and safety fees while allowing for increases to the Senate Activity Fee to finance "minimal salary increases" for senators. The
campus media fee provides money to The University Daily Kansan, KUJH, KJIK, Kiok Magazine, KUpedia and KU Filmworks. McGonick asked that the memo be kept confidential.
"Personally, I feel like this information was too important to the student body to let it be confidential." Porte said.
According to Student Senate Rules and Regulations, the student body president has the power to suspend or remove from office any member of the executive staff if they do not meet the job description set by the Senate. However, McGonigle
would not comment on the reasons for the suspension because University regulations prohibit the discussion of personnel matters.
NATION
Porte said he was initially given the opportunity to write a letter of apology to the Senate in exchange for keeping his job. He said McGonagle did not think the letter was up to his standards, even after several edits had been made, and upheld the decision to suspend Porte. Porte can appeal the suspension up to one week after the action.
Edited by Chris Horn
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Barack Obama's fiscal 2010 federal budget. The administrations housing plan is intended help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Housing plan intended to help 9M
Homeowners whose houses have lost too much value excluded
BY ALAN ZIBEL
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's housing plan is intended to help 9 million struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure, but it leaves out tens of thousands of borrowers in the most battered housing markets who won't qualify because their homes have lost too much value.
The program detailed Wednesday offers refinanced mortgages or modified loans with lower monthly payments. Yet its refinancing plan is limited to borrowers who owe up to 5 percent more than their home's current value. Loan modifications, supported by $75 billion in federal funding, are unlikely for severely "underwater" borrowers.
In the California cities of Stockton, Modesto and Merced, more than one out of every 10 homeowners with a mortgage won't qualify for any help because they owe more than 50 percent more than their house's current value, according to data from real estate Web site Zillow.com.
The plan doesn't help homeowners in states "that are at the epicenter of the housing debacle," said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
The ineligible households are concentrated in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, but can also
be found in struggling cities such as Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich. Even houses in the outlying suburbs of the nation's capital, where the economy is relatively healthy, have dropped substantially in value.
For a homeowner who borrowed $380,000 and now has a house worth $270,000, "I just don't know what you do with that," said Jared Martin, a mortgage broker in Bethesda, Md.
Government officials acknowledge that the initiatives are only a partial fix for a sweeping problem that has helped plunge the U.S. economy into the worst recession in decades.
Of the nearly 52 million U.S. homeowners with a mortgage, almost 14 million, or nearly 27 percent, owe more on their mortgage than their house is now worth, according to Moody's Economy.com. Nearly half of all borrowers in Nevada were "under water" on their home loans as of December, according to First American CoreLogic.
"This is not going to save every person's home," said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. "The plan is not intended to ... augment somebody's loan for a house that they couldn't afford under any economic situation, good or bad."
In troubled Stockton, nearly one in five borrowers owe more than 50 percent above their home is now worth, making it unlikely that
Though banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co. issued statements praising the plan, there was also skepticism that banks would be willing to participate.
they will qualify for any aid.
"I've just seen so many of the programs not work," said Pava Leyrer, president of Heritage National Mortgage in Randville, Mich. "It gets borrowers' hopes up. They call and call for these programs and we can't get anybody to do them."
The program has two parts: one to work with lenders to modify the loan terms for up to 4 million homeowners, the second to refinance up to 5 million homeowners into more affordable fixed-rate loans.
For the modification program, which runsthrough 2012, borrowers who are eligible will have to provide their most recent tax return and two pay stubs, as well as an "affidavit of financial hardship" to qualify.
In the affidavit, applicants will have to cite the reasons behind their financial woes, such as job loss or a drop in income. The government will then take steps to verify the information.
Borrowers are only allowed to have their loans modified once, and the program applies for loans made on Jan. 1, 2009, or earlier. Mortgages for single-family properties that are worth more than $729,750 are excluded.