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Wednesday, September 12, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Improper spending
Cost of Student Senate's leadership conference more than some programs get for an entire year
Asagna or chicken, as well as potatoes, salad and bread. And don't forget the cheesecake
A1 $28 a plate, we hope the 35 student senators who stayed for dinner at senate's leadership conference went back for seconds.
The Aug. 23 conference, scheduled each year to train new senators and to promote teamwork.
That's less than the $3,000 set by Aimee Ball, student senate vice president, she said.
It's also $844 06 more than last year's conference cost. That meeting was at the Topeka Ramada Inn. Lunch, dinner, the day's programs and overnight stays for about 40 students cost $1,390, said Carl Damon, senate treasurer then and now.
This year, 52 senators, seven officers and staff members joined several speakers for breakfast, lunch and several training programs at the Holidome. Perhaps the lunch buffet of tacos, burritos, beans, rice and enchiladas, at nearly $14 a plate, didn't impress some people.
Damon wasn't impressed. He said he had been determined to lower the cost of this year's conference. He had planned for it to cost no more than $2,000 and was upset when he received the bill less than a week before the event.
Upset and surprised. Hall had not told Damon about her plans for the conference. They had discussed it last in July before Hall took a two-week vacation. Damon said that he had expected Hall to rent a conference room somewhere in Lawrence.
Hall said she didn't know how she could have planned the event at a lower cost than last year's. Perhaps Damon could have. As treasurer, thrift is his speciality. At the conference, senators were taught how Senate operates. Were they taught to ignore available experience and specialized training?
With budget goals $1,000 apart, neither Damon nor Hall apparently had any idea what the other was doing.
Last year, the Ramada Inn charged Senate for each meal served, Damon said. Lunch was about $9 a person, including a tip. The cost of the dinner was closer to $12. No shows didn't
Holdome caterers on the other hand, required Hall to pay for the number of people she expected to attend. In her exubberence as
our new vice president, Hall overestimated how many would attend the conference.
Alone, such enthusiasm should not be faulted. Insulting, however, is the irresponsibility she showed with money provided by student fees.
The conference cost students more than was given to several organizations for the entire 1990-91 school year. For example, Environs received $2,200 and Students Against Hunger was allocated $900.
Hall said she researched the few choices available to her, naming overnight camping and the Kansas Union as the options she rejected. Neither would have proved less expensive, she said.
The conference should take place off-campus and include catered food, Hall said, because such treatment impresses upon the senators the importance of their role.
Yet, she didn't want to schedule the event outside Lawrence because some senators would balk at buying gas to travel there, Hall said.
Like most of us, the senators are more careful with their own money than with others. In fact, Hall said, she saw no reason to worry that senators would continue a long-standing practice of pooling their own money for an after-conference party. They didn't like the idea of paying $125 for a Holidome keg of beer.
The $774.08 that Damon hadn't accounted for will be taken from Senate's special projects fund, he said. That fund now stands at $9,225.92
Hall, who still considers the extra money well-spent because of an increase in attendance early in the day, said the special fund was not in jeopardy.
That fund is unusually large this year. Senate gave itself and other groups extra money after Senate stopped contributing to Robinson Center's budget two years ago.
Speakers still will be invited and paid through the fund. Hall said. In addition, the State Budget Office will be asked to
And Hall has learned a lesson. She said that she would recommend to the next vice president that dinner be removed from the agenda.
Instead, she said, senators could spend their own money at the nearest pizza place.
For $28, each senator could have two larges, a medium, a small and a salad.
Rich Cornell for the editorial board
Support military
Remember U.S. troops sweating it out in gulf
While enduring the blistering heat of the past several weeks, it was easy to remember that the United States military was preparing to fight a war in the desert of the Persian Gulf region.
Now that the heat here no longer is oppressive, it can be easy to forget that thousands of U.S. soldiers — our friends and relatives — are across the world enduring circumstances that are worse than any weather we could experience in Kansas.
This week there will be several opportunities to support U.S. troops in the gulf. Today and tomorrow the Sociology Club is sponsoring a drive to collect books and magazines to send to service members abroad. The club will collect the reading materials, as well as cash donations, on the lawn in front of Strong Hall. Money donated will finance some of the shipping costs, and the sociology department will pay any remaining.
The club was inspired by a letter to the editor by Bill Sheehy, who is serving in Saudi
Arabia, in the Sept. 4 Kansan, Sheehy, a former KU mascot and a 1988 graduate, suggested sending reading supplies because they provide a very short supply and very high demand.
"I thought you might enjoy this quick note to let you know that the spirit of the Jayhawk has flown from Kansas to North Carolina to Palo Alto and has been widely written," "Rock Cahk Jayhawk GO KU!"
The Sociology Club deserves praise for its initiative to support the troops, and we should build on the lead set by the club and Gov. Hayden to continue that support. In the spirit of the Jayhawk, best wishes to our service members in the gulf.
Also, Gov. Mike Hayden has declared Friday as Kansas Service Members Day. He said the proclamation was to "let our activated service members know their fellow citizens support them."
Julie Mettenburg for the editorial board
Members of the editorial board are Sarah Bly, Rich Cornell, Kjerstin Gabrielson, Sally Gibbs, David Harger, Tiffany Harness, Jill Harrington, Stephen Kline, Julie Mettentburg, Mary Neubauer, Christine Reinolds, Derek Schmidt, Carol Shirne and Buck Taylor.
FLECH UDK
Reasons for Bush visit questioned
President Bush visited my hometown of Topeka on Thursday to give a speech at a fund-raising banquet for Gov. Mike Hayden, who is up for re-election in November.
The visit left me wondering if President Bush really cares about Kansas, or just about the Republican holding the governorship in Kansas.
The president's visit seemed like a political afterthought. Bush spent less than two hours in Teoka. It was as if one of the president's advisers said, "I have a great idea. Let's have the president make a quick refueling stop in Teoka. The Republican governor needs some help in his re-elec
"The best part is that the new Air Force One was built in Wichita. That's another city in Kansas. We zip out and pack it. It will only take a few hours."
It is hard to believe that there were 700 people at the Kansas Exoprocent willing to pay $200 a plate just to listen to President Bush recycle his food in the Middle East and tell fellow Republicans what a great guy Mike Hayden is.
Gov. Hayden was not completely innocent either. The night before the president was to visit Topeka, the governor traveled to Washington, where he saw his family have to turn around and fly back to Topeka in less than a day. I am at a
The arithmetic of the visit is amazing. The audience paid $25 a minute to listen to President Bush's 20-minute speech or, if one prefers to present during the entire stop, the cost becomes $47 a minute.
Bryan Swan Staff columnist
loss to explain why he traveled there,
unless he was on a secret mission.
That mission appears to be that by jetting to Washington, Gov. Hayden was able to fly into Topkea aboard a Boeing 737. The crew of the bush. There was an estimated
Racially, well-off Whites stick to the west side of Topeka, the Blacks, Hispanics and poor Whites to the less prosperous north and east sides, with a shaky middle-class racial mix in the south.
Neither the cost of the president's visit nor the money raised for Gov. Hayden's campaign would probably be enough money to help stimulate economic growth in the less well-off areas of the city. Nonetheless, an elitist $500 lounge only serves to alienate the average Kansan from the coming election for governor, reinforcing the growing sense of
"'The best part is that the new Air Force One was built in Wichita. That's another city in Kansas. We zip in and we zip back out. It will only take a few hours.'"
- What a Bush adviser might have said.
crowd of 3,500 people at Forbes Field to greet them when they arrived.
The president's visit cost $50,000.
That is more than many working people make in an entire year. The cost was subtracted from the estimated $35,000 the event raised. At least taxpayers were not stuck with the bill, but that does not excuse its outrageousness.
Outside the Exprotecte is a city where few could afford a $500 lunch. Topека is rapidly becoming a city of economic and racial extremes. A new shopping mall was recently constructed on the west side of Topека, and it lured a considerable number of businesses away from other parts of the city. The downtown district has suffered from this flight of capital, and areas of the city north of the Kansas River are blighted.
apathy felt toward the democratic process.
Instead of a quick speech at a blue-blood banquet, President Bush could have taken a few extra hours to visit with the average citizen of Topeka.
My purpose is not to bash any political party. Both sides are guilty of a fund-raising mentality. This common strategy holds that without adequate cash, no one can mount an campaign effort for a high office.
I am sure that one day soon the Democratic Party will make the same mistakes. Republicans are being treated like something as a bipartisan issue after all
Tracks not for children
I recently read the "Railroad responsibility" editorial from the Kansan that was reprinted in the Aug. 31 Ottawa Herald. I believe the editor writer has her points reversed.
She wrote about 12 column inches trying to make a point that train speed limits should be lowered outside Lawrence city limits. Then she closes the door and send sentence, "The people have the responsibility to stay off the tracks."
There is a strong likelihood a person is going to be killed, or at least badly injured, when struck by a train regardless of whether the train is going 10, 20, 40, 60 or whatever miles an hour.
My question is, what in the world were the 6-year-old and his two slightly older companions doing on that property "walking on the tracks"?
I do feel sorry for the family of this deceased child. But it appears to me the emphasis in this situation should be that parents must educate their children about the danger of trains and trespassing on railroad property. Further, parents have a responsibility to supervise their young children.
Clark Havenor Ottawa resident
Bryan Swan is a Topeka senior majoring in journalism.
ROTC adheres to policy
I would like to address those who would propose discriminating against ROTC programs on campus. ROTC classes are open to all students. The U.S. Department of Defense regulates commissioning of officers with the Assault Forces. Camps for ROTC program must adhere to government policy.
I am 34 years old and substantially overweight, consequently ineligible for commissioning. Conversely, the Naval ROCT unit has always been cordial and tremendously helpful in providing a character so evident in these programs would preclude anyone from experiencing bias.
Bruce Pistone, Lawrence resident
KANSAN STAFF
DEREK SCHMIDT
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KERSTIN GABRIELSON
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TOM EBLEN
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JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business staff
MINDY MORRIS Retail sales manage
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Three Imaginary Girls
By Tom Avery