INSIDE: The 1983 Student Senate Elections
The University Daily KANSAN
November 15, 1983 Page 6
Coalitions stress new type of involvement
Stories by Pete Wicklund and John Egan
Photos by Stephen Phillips, Gary Smith
and Don Henry.
COSTUME PARTY
Carla Vogel
Dennis "Boog" Highberger
The candidates for student body president and vice president from the Costume Party Coalition say they'd demand that the party not be disqualified.
Dennis "Boog" Highberger, Costume's presidential candidate, and Carla Vogel, vice president candidate, said last week that the elimination of the two candidates would position a motion of power structure within the Student Senate.
"It's going to be hard for me to work with the existing structure of Student Senate," said Higherbauer.
Highberger and Vogel, Overland Park senior, said they wanted attitude changes to take place in the Senate. Instead of what they call bureaucratic game-playing, they would like senators to treat each other more respectfully.
voget said that the coalition wanted to eliminate titles of power because the titles suggest superiority.
THE SENATE WOULD be able to strive toward a common goal if senators would work together as equals, they said. Opening the lines of communication is important to them, so much that they said they would like Senate members to gather in a circle during meetings.
Vogel said that facilitators were needed to run meetings, not figureheads. The responsibility of overseeing the meetings should be shared, Vogel added.
higherguber said, "I don't want to be a president. I don't want to have power over anybody. The Costume Institute is the world's largest museum."
How the Senate achieves its goals is Highberger's highest priority.
"IT'S REALLY THE process that's important to me. We can't achieve good goals with bad means," he said. "What's really important is how we relate to each other, and what will get things done and treat each other with respect."
Under the leadership of the Costume Party, Hübberger said he hoped the Senate would become more democratic.
He said, "A lot of things Student Senate does don't seem very important to me. We're concerned with things that are a little more important than whether or not to sell beer in the stadium."
SOME OF THE ISSUES the Costume Party has addressed in its platform include strengthening the Senate's defense of student rights, decommissioning the nuclear reactor on campus and divesting the KU Endowment Association from its South African investments.
Vogel said that nothing would be accomplished by a current proposal that would restructure the Senate and change five Senate committees into subcommittees.
The candidates also said they thought that some student representation would be lost if that move were made.
"I definitely think it's really important to get all the students" input, "Higherberger said."
TO GET THAT INPUT, Highberger and Vogel said they would try to talk with students not affiliated with the Senate. They said that some students do not speak English, but some students do because some students do not know the Senate exists.
FREEDOM
Greg Haunschild
Steve Bergstrom
Money talks. And money is what the Freedom Coalition is talking most about.
Mandatory student fees should be abolished, offering students the choice of which campus organizations they wish to support, say the candidates for student president and vice president from the Freedom Coalition.
Steve Bergstrom, Winnetka, III, junior and the presidential candidate, and Greg Haunschild, Scott City senior and the vice president candidate, said last week that students should be able to financially back, on an individual basis, those campus organizations in which they are interested, instead of having the Student Senate decide for them. The coalition has stressed this as their main platform issue.
"STUDENT SENATE IS NOT a legitimate taxing body." Bergstrom said. "Rather than charge everyone, the 21,000 students are very capable of spending their money as they see fit."
The student body, Bergstrom said, should not be forced to pay for organizations in which they do not participate.
For example, he asked "Why does a Democrat want money to go to College Republicans?"
Bergstrom said that a Freedom Coalition administration would "absolutely guarantee" that there will be no military intervention.
if something is not done . . . the students will be hit with a significant increase. A lot of students can't afford a major increase in tuition and fees," Bergstrom said. "This is the most serious issue facing the college."
Bergstrom and Haunschild also said they were
against continued financing of KU's chapter of Associated Students of Kansas, a statewide student lobbing group
ASK IS SUPPLIED to represent the views of all KU student organizations, they said. But because the groups have diverse interests, the candidates said that they are looking for an "appropriate stance" in trying to serve the group, needs fairly.
The Freedom candidates also said they were opposed to the "extremely high" parking ticket fines being imposed on them.
Senate operations would be altered if Bergstrom and Haunschild are elected, they said.
The candidates favor streamlining the Senate's committee system and support tighter security methods to prevent problems with Senate elections.
REDUCING THE NUMBER of Senate committees from nine to four and forming subcommittees, as had been proposed by a Senate rules and regulations committee, would count of senators needed for a voting quorum, they said.
"It's futile to have a committee of 30 and only nine show up." Bergstrom said.
Bergstrom, who is also chairman of the KU chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, said, "If the students vote for us they will know what the coalition stands for."
Bergstrom said that other members of Freedom were affiliated with the campus branch of Young Americans for Freedom, a national conservative group, but that their platform was not based on YAF.
MOMENTUM (write-in)
Mark McKee
McDonald's, Momentum and KU
That combination might just become a reality if members of the Momentum Coalition are victorious in the debate.
Among Momentum's campaign promises is a pledge to try to open a McDonald's restaurant in the Kansas Union, according to Kevin Walker, the coalition's candidate for president.
walker, Webster Groves, Mo., senior, who ran unsuccessfully for student body president last year, is running this year with Mark McKee. Overland Park junior — a newcomer to Walker's revived Momentum
Although Walker and McKee said last week that a McDonald's on campus was "feasible," they would nonetheless face tough opposition in their run for the golden arches of the student government.
MOMENTUM IS RUNNING with a slate of 23 Senate candidates, but neither Walker nor McKee are on the ballot. They were barred from filing because Walker was suspended from university on the act. 17 executive candidate filing date.
So, after two unsuccessful attempts to get their names placed on the ballot, Walker and McKee are running for president and vice president in a write-in campaign.
Kevin Walker
campaign.
The McDonald's proposal, however, will take a back seat to Momentum's three other propositions, Walker and McKee said.
Momentum also seeks a deferred-tution plan, an extensive campus lighting plan and a guaranteed check
Momentum's deferred-tuition plan, if enacted, would
allow students to pay their tuition in three installations. Walker said students who selected this option would be charged a 15 percent administrative fee, but added that the plan would not require additional funding from the state legislature.
Walker said that the present University requirement that students pay their entire tuition during enrollment was not fair to some students — especially when high tuition costs were considered.
Increased crime in the Stouffer Place neighborhood and in nearby Daisy Field was the reason for Moments' decision to send the group home.
"All that required," Walker said, "is that the University administration change their attitude."
WALKER AND MCKEE said that there were numerous dark areas on campus where rapes and mugging could occur. The candidates said that they would commit up to $40,000 of the Student Senate's unallocated funds toward the installation of additional lighting on campus.
"I think that money would serve as an incentive to get the Endowment Association and the administration involved in providing additional lighting," Walker said.
Momentum's guaranteed check approval plan would allow Lawrence merchants to accept any check written up to $20 by any currently enrolled student who presented their KUID.
He said he realized that $40,000 would not be enough to light all the campus.
They said that students who wrote bad checks would be fined $10 by the Senate and would have holds placed on their records.
PRIORITY
Dennis Strickland
The Student Senate often has been accused by some students as being a group that doesn't accomplish much. The senators, some say, are self-serving, apathetic and non-sympathetic to student needs.
And problems this year with meeting quorums and committee inactivity have only helped to reinforce
But the leaders of the Priority Coalition said last week that their coalition, if elected, would work to
SCOTT SWENSON, THE coalition's candidate for president, and Dennis Strickland, the coalition's vice president candidate, said their No. 1 goal would be to make the Student Senate "a student senate."
"We're going to go out there and find what the students want," said Strickland, Bucyrus junior.
Scott Swenson
To help establish communication between senators and their constituents, Swenson and Strickland have
propose that they would initiate a requirement that all senators would have to spend several hours a week in the Senate office in the Kansas Union.
Swenson, Topeka junior, said the senators would essentially take over the receptionist duties from the Senate secretary. He added that this would allow the secretary to take care of other Senate business and would allow the Senators to meet their constituents in person.
ANOTHER PLAN OF the Priority leaders is a senator identification plan. Swenson said that senators would wear a button on the days of the Senate meetings, which he said would alert constituents to the
meetings
By locating a student with a Senate badge, Swenson
But communication is not the only issue that Priority candidates will address if they are elected. Swenson and Strickland said they would also look into such issues as student organization financing and campus security.
said, constituents could directly address their concerns to their senators.
In addressing security, Swenson said that Priority's first goal would be to oppose a proposal by a subcommittee of the University Parking Board that would close the campus to night traffic.
The proposal was tabled two weeks ago by the sub-
committee, but could be revived again sometime next
week.
Svenson said that closing the campus to traffic would mean that students would have longer walks in campus.
"IF SEEMS THAT Parking Services is doing fine the way they are," Swenson said. He added that he would support the idea of a shuttle bus, which would run between large outlying parking lots and the campus.
On the issue of residence hall fees, Swenson and Strickland said they disapproved of the housing department's proposed $82 increase in 1984 housing contracts.
"Perhaps housing could have looked at a few other innovative ways to absorb the costs," Swenson said, suggesting energy conservation programs and changes in meal plans.
Strickland said a Priority administration would also carefully scrutinize all budget requests made by campus organizations. Priority, he said, would "put the audit back into the Finance and Auditing Committee."