4
University Daily Kansan/Tuesday January 21,1992
OPINION
KU students will pay more, but receive less in return
Welcome back to the University of Kansas. I hope your break went well. I had a great time. However, I did have quite a conversation with my father about tuition increases. He wanted to know why they were going up and what extra services I was procuring for my extra contributions. I'd like you to know what I told him.
You pay your money to the University, but it does not really stay at the University. It goes to the state and is put in the state general fund.
Every year, the Legislature and the governor decide how much the University is going to get back from our tuition and also what the state is going to contribute. Every year, we are paying more and the state is contributing less. Hence, we are bearing an increasing share of the cost of our education.
Ten years ago, our tuition covered 24.3 percent of the University's educational budget. In fiscal year 1992, tuition has increased to cover 36.9 percent of educational costs. But we are being short-changed because we get less education for our increasing tuition — as you will see.
First, Hoch Auditorium burned down. That building accounted for 7 percent of our classroom space. Some
Joe
Cinalli
Guest
columnist
of our best faculty taught there because that was the most efficient way to expose large numbers of students to quality educators. Now students may be unable to take required classes because there simply is not enough space.
Gov. Finney is ignoring our request to restore classroom space while still touting the now largely invalidated concept of self insurance, the idea that state buildings are insured automatically.
Second, many of us have to work to go school. A lot of us depend on our campus jobs to get us through each month. This year, the state did not finance increases in student wages, but the minimum wage went up 26 percent. With the increase in minimum wage, the same state appropriations pay for fewer employee hours. The state wants us to pay more while it
eliminates jobs, decreasing our abili ty to pay.
Third, the governor has denied a 5-percent proposed increase in KU faculty salaries. Finney only wants to give us a 2.5-percent increase. The University's academic budget already is strained — KU faculty members are doing 118 percent of the work of colleagues at comparable schools at 48 percent of their average salaries. KU must get the full 5-percent increase if it wants to attract and keep the best possible professors. That way, we can get the education that we are paving for and that we deserve.
Lastly, Gov. Finney thinks she has the answer for the state's money boes; video lottery machines. If the governor wants to gamble, she should do that in Las Vegas, not in Kansas, and not with our education.
We can do something to let her know how we feel. She has a hotline. Her number is 1-800-432-2487. Tell her we need Hoch. Tell her we need more student jobs and higher faculty salaries. Tell her we need our whole proposed budget. It's simple, it's free and it can make a difference.
Joe Cinall is a Salina senior majoring in communications.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Senate ignores student input
Student Senate should not exclude the student body in choosing vice president.
Tomorrow, the University of Kansas Student Senate will elect a new student body vice president. This action is necessary because former vice president Alan Lowden ascended to the presidency after the removal of Darren Fulcher. Without an effective and experienced person as vice president, Senate's second semester could be as much a waste as the first.
Student governance's attitude toward this election and its failure to better inform the student body befits a name change from Student Senate to Student Oligarchy. A decision that important and far-reaching deserves the input of the entire student body. Thus far, Senate seems to be operating on two basic assumptions: First, they don't need student advice and input to make this decision; and second, important officials such as vice president should be selected in dark, smoke-filled rooms.
The vast majority of students are apathetic concerning most Senate actions, except those that seek to dismiss the student body president. This apathy is only fueled by Senate actions that exclude students. Do senators care what students think? Do they want to hear student voices? It may be more convenient for senators to conduct business in private among themselves, but is it democratic?
Only student senators can seek the position of vice president, and only student senators can vote. It should be their goal to select someone who brings experience and motivation to the Senate and improves the campus atmosphere. Then they should think long and hard about how they can increase the students' input in all aspects of student government, especially in something as important as selecting a vice president.
New budget will raise tuition
Stephen Martino for the editorial board
Students and faculty to pay for half of Finney's increase in state university financing
Last week Gov. Finney revealed her 1993 budget. The good news is that she did not cut the state universities' financing. In fact, she increased the budget for the University of Kansas by $12 million. The bad news is that half of the increase will come from increased tuition and student fees. Tuition revenues in the past at KU already accounted for more than the traditional 25 percent of the higher education budget, and that share has continued to rise. Kansas residents will see their tuition increase next fall by 10 percent and non-residents by 12.5 percent. It seems we will be getting a public-school education at private-school prices.
Most students already are struggling to come up with enough money for school. Gov. Finney may not have noticed that there is a recession going on. Jobs are scarce, student
loans and grants are more difficult to obtain.
loans and grants are more current than boom!
The bad news for faculty and staff is that they only will be receiving a 2.5-percent merit salary increase, half of what KU had requested. Because this will be the third year in a row with only a 2-percent to 3-percent increase, will KU be able to attract or even retain enough good instructors to provide a first-rate education?
No money at all was allotted for rebuilding Hoch Auditorium, which would provide much-needed classroom space.
The $12 million increase, most of which will be paid for through tuition hikes, does not seem to benefit those students who pay that tuition.
Gov. Finney wants to have it both ways, increase state spending and not raise taxes. This makes her look like a miracle worker. But these miracles are not without cost, and much of that cost seems to be left to the students and faculty of the state universities.
King did more than dream for a just society
Kate Kelley for the editorial board
In 1968, the year King died, he launched the Poor People's Campaign and spoke out against the Vietnam War, he began a battle with a new "pharaoh," the federal government. King always strove to solve a problem by uprooting it.
The Rev Martin Luther King today is known by most people for his famous "I Have a Dream" speech that he gave in 1963 at the march on Washington. Many times King is referred to as "the dreamer." I have problems with this view because King was more than just a "dreamer." He what we would叫 a "practical idealist." When he had an idea, he went about making his idea a reality.
In his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," King said, "I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial a laiyang of the masters and does not grapple with underlying causes."
If we view King as just a "dreamer" and fail to read and study what King really was about, we deprive ourselves of something that truly is great. King not only gave leadership to the world, but he also gave us a method for solving problems in our society. If we only concentrate on "IHave Dream," we will miss this aspect of King's contributions.
This aspect of King is best outlined in "Letter From a Birmingham Jam." King responded to eight clergymen from Alabama who criticized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for demonstrating for Black civil rights. First,
James Baucom Guest columnist
King stated that he seldom took time to answer criticism of his work and ideas because doing so would give him no time to do constructive work.
King then explained to the clergymen that it was unfortunate that demonstrations were taking place in Birmingham, but that it was more unfortunate that the city's white power structure gave the Black community no alternative. He explained that his non-violent campaigns took three basic steps before taking direct action; collection of facts to determine whether injustices existed; negotiation; and self-purification.
In Birmingham at that time, there was overwhelming evidence of racial injustice. The local merchants made promises to the Black community leaders that went unfulfilled. In one example, the merchants agreed to remove the humiliating racial signs from their stores. As weeks and months went by, the Black community realized that they were victims of a broken promise. A few signs were removed briefly and later returned, but many
remained.
After negotiation failed, King and his followers had no alternative except to prepare for direct action and present their case before the conscience of the local and national community.
Parallels exist between King's struggle for civil and human rights in the '50s and '60s and the struggle for equality, self-em empowerment and continued human rights in the 1990s. There are many similarities to how those in power reacted to change then and how those in power are reacting to change now. As King wrote in his "Letters," "Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but ... groups tend to be more immoral than individuals."
On Stop Day last semester, some students had a non-violent demonstration. The demonstration was a mock funeral that represented those students' lack of faith in the administration's willingness to help solve some of the problems of exclusion here at KU.
Interestingly enough, certain administrators seemed to perceive the students' demonstration to be inspired by others than the students themselves. Hmmr m. This kind of behavior chimes with that of J. Edgar Hoover and the FHI when they dismissed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and King as pawns for some communist group. As if King and others couldn't think and see injustices for themselves.
"None of you would want to rest content with the superficial analysis that deals merely with effects."
The Rev. Martin Luther King
Then there's a majority of administrators who merely want to make a few superficial changes that can be easily removed after public pressure dies down. Kind of like the way the Birmingham merchants took down the "colored only" and "whites only" signs for a few months and then put them back up.
Lastly, there are those who look at the students who want to help change and say, "You realize that the situation can't be changed overnight. Let's meet next month to discuss the possibility of creating a committee to look into the creation of a committee to make recommendations to solve the problem."
I say to those administrators that your plea for us to wait has almost always meant "never." When you see racism manifested in the form of police brutality, as the nation saw
with the Rodney King beating; when you see a growing number of people smothering in an airtight cage of poverty while living in an affluent society; when you see a disproportionate number of Black people permanently removed from achieving success in life because of college accessibility; when you really see that thousands of college graduates have no appreciation or knowledge of other cultures and those cultures' contributions to humanity; when you find yourself thinking long and hard to try and explain to your little cousins why they are never taught anything positive about Africa in grade school; when you see subtle racial and cultural insults daily on television re-enforcing an already racist U.S. population; and when you feel that you are constantly fighting an uphill battle merely to make America a better place for the next generation—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
King taught us that time is, for the most part,
neutral; we can use it our advantage to make
some real progress.
Over the Martin Luther King holiday, I didn't sit around the house and twinkle my thumbs. I took time to truly reflect on the greatness of one of my heroes. If you didn't take some time out to study the essence of King's message yesterday, I would encourage you to do it.
James Baucom is a Topeka junior majoring in journalism.
KANSANSTAFF
T.FFANYHARNESS
Editor
VANESSA FUHRMANS
Managing editor
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
News. Mike Andrews
Editorial. Beth Randolph
Planning. Lara Gold
Campus. Eric Gorski/Orcilleon
Sports. Eric Nelson
Photo. Julie Jacobson
Features. Debbie Meyers
Graphics. Jeff Messey/Aimee Branard
JENNIFER CLAXTON Business manager
JAYSTEINER Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr  Bill Beltleenberg
Regional sales mgr  Richard Burshurger
National sales mgr  Scott Hanna
Co-ons sales mgr  Ame Johnson
Production mgrs  Kim Wallace
Marketing director  Lisa Keeler
Marketing director  Kim Claxton
Creative design  Leanne Fowler
Classified mgr  Kip Chin
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must use standard fonts.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
they can be mailed or brought to the Kansas new room, 111 Suffer Fint Hall.
Loco Locals
I JUST GROUPE AND
EVERYTHING GOES SOUR...
NO JOB... AND MY PARENTS
AREN'T GETTING ANY
IF YOU TALK ABOUT HER
LEAVING FOR ... I. I. JUST
DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!
GOUT AND FIND SOMETHING
TO KEEP YOUR MIND
occupied...some OF US ARE
STILL IN SCHOOL... GO FIX
by Tom Michaud