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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Students make blankets for Lawrence Community Shelter
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Students involved with Blanketing the Community craft a blanket in this photo from last year's event. The annual program at the University allows students to make blankets for the Lawrence Community Shelter.
MINSEON KIM
@MinseonKim94
Blanketing the Community is an annual program at the University, where students living in residence halls make fleece blankets for the Lawrence Community Shelter. Students will make blankets and have snacks at the Hashinger Hall Theater and Crawford Community Center on Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m.
This year, the Concerned, Active and Aware Students program from the Center for Community Outreach is restarting the partnership with the KU National Residence Hall Honorary that organized last year's event. Materials and instructions for blankets will be provided, and all blankets will be transferred and distributed at the Lawrence Community Shelter.
Cody Christensen, CAAS student coordinator and a sophomore to Topeka, said homelessness isn't an abstract issue in Lawrence, and serving as a CAAS coordinator came as an opportunity for him to give back to the community.
"I realized about the social inequalities that exist in Douglas County and after reading the data on paper. I really wanted to see this issue firsthand to see if I could make a difference in solving it or help contribute to at least minimizing the problem." Christensen said. "I think volunteering is a great way we can, that KU as a whole, can really benefit Douglas County."
During the weekly CAAS volunteering, Christensen found out about the major shortage of blankets at the local shelter and worked with his co-
coordinator Abby Schletzbaum to organize this program.
Mia Gonzalez, director of development and marketing at the Lawrence Community Shelter, said with 140 people in the shelter every day, blanket donations are a big help to the shelter.
"We are unable to purchase our own blankets," Gonzalez said. "We are always in need of blankets all year round. But now that it's winter, it's colder in general so we have more people and we run out of supplies."
The Lawrence Community Shelter is the only 24/7 emergency homeless shelter serving Douglas County, and it provides various programs for families and help for finding employment. With its move to a new location, 3655 E. 25th St., it is able to hold twice as many families, but also needs more blankets for permanent and overnight residents.
CAAS will donate the blankets after the event next week during its regular weekly volunteering at the Lawrence Community Shelter. No sign-ups are required, and ride requests are available at the Kansas Union at 3:45 p.m for students to get to the shelter.
Makalya Reed, a freshman from Stockton, is a regular volunteer for CAAS and said she is looking forward to meeting other service-minded students at the event. Reed is also donating 45 additional quilts her mom made.
"My mom has been making charity quilts for as long as I can remember," Reed said. "She sends them to Denver, Kansas City, Mo., places with large homeless populations because the quilts provide comfort and a lot of the times, they provide a lot of warmth, especially during these months."
Reed also said volunteering
can teach college students life lessons that classes cannot teach.
"It makes us more aware of those around us," Reed said. "We can't really be aware of the human condition unless we go out and see people who are experiencing difficulties or just come from different walks of life. I think volunteering really allows people to do that."
Volunteering weekly at the Lawrence Community shelter, Reed said she loves spending time with kids there.
"I just really like volunteering with people," Reed said. "I guess I've been always volunteering, and I got the spirit from watching my mom make the quilts and helping her out. I've always looked up to her for doing that, and I am glad that I can help her out spreading the quilts around more."
Edited by Alyssa Scott
Budget cuts could impact higher education
ALLISON KITE
@Allie_Kite
Higher education is one part of the state budget facing potential cuts because of a $279 million shortfall.
the November consensus revenue estimate, which is created by legislative researchers and university economists, indicates a $279 million gap between projected revenues and approved expenditures in the Kansas budget. This gap has to be made up by June 30 because the state is constitutionally prohibited from ending the fiscal year with a deficit.
"We just have to make better use of the resources we already have."
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DAVE TRABERT
Kansas Policy Institute
Annie McKay, executive director of Kansas Center for Economic Growth, said she believes this will be the primary issue dealt with in the upcoming legislative session. Options to make up the money could include transfers of money out of highway department reserves, budget cuts and seizing of other efficiencies or savings of state departments.
"To absorb those reductions mid-year is really challenging" McKay said. "They have contracts in place. They have personnel. They have wages they have to pay. They have benefits. They have to keep the lights on."
Dave Trabert, president of the Kansas Policy Institute said the highway department and other departments have unnecessary excess cash reserves that could be dipped into to fill up the hole. He went on to say that if departments statewide were to operate more efficiently, the gap could be filled easily.
"The plan has always been laid out there that it can be done without reducing services or a tax increase," he said. "We just have to make better use of the resources we already have."
However, Duane Goosen, former budget director for the state, said dipping into cash reserves would be only a temporary fix. He said the real solution is to reverse tax cuts implemented in 2012 and 2013.
"Another possibility that might be used would be to take money from the state highway fund," he said. "That might be a solution — a temporary solution — for this year, but that doesn't fix things next year."
Edited by Logan Schlossberg
An evening with the Chief Curiosit Correspondent from The Field Museum.
Emily Gras
Thursday, Nov 13
7:00-8:00pm
The Commons at Spooner Hall
2014
KU
COMMON BOOK
EVENT
Sponsored by:
KU Natural History Museum,
the Office of First-Year Experience,
the School of Journalism,
The Commons,
and the Spencer Museum of Art
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