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University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, April 15, 1992
OPINION
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Forget fee check-off plan
Laura Mullins, in her guest column published April 3, 1992, was quite critical of an editorial by Amy Francis concerning fee allocation. However, if Ms. Mullins is to examine exactly what enacting such a policy at the University of Kansas might do, she and her supporters probably would vacate their narrow attempt at student empowerment.
Stating that students will benefit from this plan is false. They will not, no circumstances.
The proposal Ms. Mullins writes about would allow students to indicate where their $25 allocation would go. The $25 allocation currently is reserved for Student Senate. The proposal sounds great. Students deciding where their money goes is truly democracy in action. However, for this to work, Mullins explains that, "the best publicity an organization can get will involve actually producing results for the students it is intended to serve."
Stephen Martino
Staff columnist
Ms. Mullins, do you truly think that groups which currently receive Student Senate financing, such as Campus Transportation, KU Legal Services, and KU Bands, would receive all the money they need to effectively render their services?
For example, in fiscal year 1991, Campus Transportation received $76 from every $25, equaling $330,950 for the whole year. Yet, it is nearly impossible for anyone to effectively gauge the number of students who take advantage of this excellent service. I, for one, haven't ridden the bus in a year and a half, but I can recognize that it presents an excellent service. Nevertheless, if I were allowed to choose where to place my money, I'm quite sure Campus Transportation wouldn't be a very high priority. And
I'm also sure it wouldn't be a high priority for other students. They might feel the $45 they spend each semester for a bus pass is enough of a contribution. In fact, to reach $335,901, 13,358 students, over half of the students in residence at the Lawrence campus, would have to allocate their entire $25. No chance.
And it doesn't stop there. There are only 235 students involved in KU Band. If every band member gave $25, that would equal $5,875, or 7 percent of the $84,500 currently given. What happens if the band doesn't get enough money? Can you imagine a homecoming without a band? The public address announcer would have to say to the alumni, "Unfortunately, because of a lack of funds, the University of Kansas has not have a band this," and KU BUGAR (Kansas University Gamers and Role Players) will be giving a Dungeons and Dragons demonstration on the 50-yard line during half-time.
How many students have taken advantage of KU Legal Services? If they haven't, they aren't very likely to finance it. But that logic doesn't account for the possibility that they might need to contest a traffic violation or deal with a lazy landlord sometime in the future. Ms. Mullins' defense of the check-off proposal does not provide a clause for retroactive activity-fee allocation.
Of course, Ms. Mullins and her supporters claim all will be set right because not many students actually will take the time to allocate their funds, allowing Student Senate to rectify any inequities. However, this is based on two premises.
One, only a small percentage of students actually will choose to designate where their funds will go.
However, with the implementation of the mail-in registration, the possibility of students taking the time to color in a bubble for their favorite group goes up substantially. Supporters have claimed that about 20 percent of students would take advantage. But this is only an estimate. They don't know. The more students who would take advantage of this sort of system, the less money for Senate to allocate later.
Secondly, M.s. Mulllins assumes that the money distributed by students will be distributed in some sort of equitable fashion. Yet, what happens if 80 percent to 90 percent of all the money is distributed to four or five groups?
Students allocating funds is an excellent idea in theory, but it will never work in practice. Such a policy would create noise-making among organizations, as Ms. Francis wrote. Student Senate, its finance committee, the student treasurer and administrative assistant spend many hours determining how much is reasonable to allocate to organizations. It is their primary function.
Self-allocation would create more inequities. For the protection of all of their services, students should stand opposed to it.
Stephen Martino is an Olathe sophomore majoring in political science.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Paper merits Senate support
Alternative publications are needed to promote diversity and
liberalism on campus
In budget hearings last month, the Student Senate Finance Committee cut Disorientation from the student organizations budget for fiscal year 1993.
Complete withdrawal of Senate support was definitely a shocking contrast to the $9,600 requested by the group, which publishes the alternative newspaper Take This! The explanation given by the Finance Committee was that Disorientation was not worth the money.
A Finance Committee member also said that Disorientation made a mockery of the whole budgetary system by putting false names in place of a list of officers on budget request forms.
Leslie Lancaster, junior senator and Finance Committee member, said that seven other student groups were not allocated money because of various reasons. Disorientation was the only group to complain openly about the situation.
On the brink of organizational death, Disorientation drummed up student support by collecting 500 signatures in three days. This support demonstrated by students sent the message to the Finance Committee that, contrary to the committee's opinion, more than a few people see a need for an alternative news source such as Take This!
Jason McIntosh presented an amendment acceptable to Student Senate that allocated to Disorientation the remaining money of the student organizations budget, $1,314.96, the approximate cost of two issues of Take This!.
But the group now must justify requests to the Finance Committee for additional financing for the next school year. It also must abandon its principle of devoting its space to news and actively seek more advertising.
The University of Kansas should be seen as a place that nurtures innovative thoughts and events that can be inclusive of everyone. However, when a group such as the Senate Finance Committee can make decisions that lead to the demise of groups that promote alternative ideology, the image of a liberal and diverse campus is obscured.
AIDS fight must alter focus
J. R. Clairborne for the editorial board
Community must work with famous victims of the disease to force government intervention
Magic Johnson has tested positive for HIV. Now, Arthur Ashe has announced he has AIDS. Rock Hudson died from it. And, according to the World Health Organization, 10 million to 12 million now have the disease.
The United States is waking up to the facts of AIDS, which has killed more than 130,000 Americans. The government needs to establish a comprehensive policy to attack the epidemic before it grows even further. But until then, private industry and individuals will bear the weight of the problem. That being the case, bickering about the issues must be replaced with unity to achieve progress.
Ashe, Johnson and Hudson are stars. The disease is as deadly for them as for the millions of others who have it. However, their cases do afford the rest of us a greater opportunity to some day eliminate the disease.
This winter, when Johnson announced his testresults, his sexualorientationwasimmediately questioned. He denied being gay. Johnson's response elicited negative feedback from the homosexual community. Its feeling was that his denial might drive a wedge between heterosexuals and homosexuals. The same scenario may apply to Ashe.
The concern should not be with how famous people contracted the disease. The focus should instead be with concentrating on using their selling power. If Johnson or Ashe want to define their sexual orientation, that is their right. It should not hinder the overall awareness movement. Their illness is no different than others', but their financial and educational pull is certainly stronger.
In many situations, the federal government drags its feet in efforts to move the nation forward. The AIDS epidemic is no different. We as a community need to pool our resources. Let Johnson's famous court vision and Ashe's court savvy be the type of guiding lights needed for a change.
And the government should be questioned. What magnitude does the disease have to reach before a change occurs? When will it step in and help? What sort of human sacrifice needs to occur before the disease is taken seriously? Who else has to die?
Jim Brown for the editorial board
National perspectives
"The Philadelphia Inquirer on Bill Clinton": It has been said often, and it needs to be said again. 1992 is not ordinary election year. It is the first election since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. The United States should be setting its course not just for the next four years but for a generation.
This is particularly so because the United States, in the aftermath of the Cold War, finds itself unusually unnerved. There is a widespread fear that the current recession is just a foretaste of a period of general decline, one that already is taking its toll on millions of families. In short, these are times that cry out for strong leadership and new direction.
We think the Democrats have their best candidate in many years in Bill Clinton.
Clinton is accused of being too smooth, too tuck. Yet somehow, this smoothness seems to be stumbling at every turn. So just what are we looking for? An anti-politician? Perhaps. But when it's all over we also want someone who can govern effectively.
Clinton has that ability. He's itching to go
one-on-one against George Bush in the fall. We believe that if given the chance, he can make his case.
The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La., on the economy:
A hundred economists, including six holders of the Nobel Prize, have outlined a recovery plan that appeals to common sense but not to political expediency.
The expeers said the Federal Reserve Board immediately should slash interest rates even
They also want President Bush and Congress to offer more business tax credits for investment in physical plants and equipment and to boost aid to states and cities by $50 billion a year for schools and infrastructure improvements.
The added federal spending would increase the budget deficit short-term, but the package would promote investment and economic growth, the said.
Long-term, the economists said, the ideas
could be financed by higher taxes and by deep cuts in defense spending. That would allow the painful but necessary process of debt reduction to continue.
The economists emphatically oppose a middle-class tax cut—a fawrite topic of President Bush, his leading Democratic challenger and one of the wealthiest in history, for term consumption, not long-term investment.
Do not count on Bush, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton or congressional leaders to embrace a plan that bites the bitter pill of a tax increase, fails to cater to the political appeal of a consumer tax cut and looks beyond the next election and into the next century.
Does the Bush administration think its allies may lawfully kidnap U.S. citizens to be prosecuted abroad if existing extradition treaties do not expressly forbid abductions?
It's highly doubtful. But administration attorneys did present just such an argument
The Daily News, Longview, Wash., on government-sponsored kidnapping:
before the Supreme Court. Only it was a Mexi can citizen who had been abducted.
U. S. drug enforcement officials had paid for the kidnapping of a Mexican doctor so that he could be brought to the United States to stand trial in the killing of a U.S. drug agent. The administration says this is lawful because there is no treaty between the United States and Mexico that says kidnapping is unlawful.
A U.S. District judge in Los Angeles did not buy into that argument. It's startling that President Bush does, given all his recent efforts to create this new era of international cooperation.
The Times Union, Albany, N.Y., on foreign aid:
"America First" is a campaign issue debated by candidates in both party primaries.
The issue should not be allowed to obscure the United States' humanitarian agenda for the world's most vulnerable population — children.
Regrettably, the aid the children need is a
KANSAN STAFF
casuality of the "America First" debate. A issue is foreign-aid legislation that has been stymied by politics. First, the battle over loan guarantees for Israel prompted Congress to delay action on any increase in foreign aid appropriations. Now, the battle over military foreign aid threats to prolong the day when aid is approved.
Last fall, Congress supported a $800 million increase in two vital domestic programs for children — WIC and HeadStart. Those increase programs were warranted, given their proven benefits to society.
TIFFANYHARNESS Editor
VANESSA FUHRMANS Managing editor
The increases sought for children in other countries amount to roughly half of that — a small price to pay for financing programs that can save many of the 250,000 children worldwide who die each week from preventable diseases and malnutrition.
There is a simple solution to Congress' quandary. First, it should draw a line between money for military foreign aid and money for humanitarian assistance. Then, it should approve the latter, as a matter of conscience.
Editors
News  Mike Andrews
Editorial  Beth Randolph
Planning  Lara Gold
Campus  Eric Gorski/Rochelle Olson
Sports  Eric Nelson
Photo  Julie Jacobson
Features  Debbie Myers
Graphics  Aimee Braimard/J Jeff Meesey
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
JENNIFER CLAXTON Business manager
JAYSTEINER Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Campus sales mgr ..Bill Leibengow
Regional sales mgr ..Rich Harbarger
National sales mgr ..Scott Hanna
Co-op sales mgr ..Arnelson Johnson
Production mgrs ..Kim Wallace
Marketing director ..Lisa Keeler
Creative director ..Clark沁
Creative director ..Lead artist
Classified mgr ..Ki Chin
Business Staff
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Stick
by David Rosenfield