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MONDAY, FEB. 8, 2016 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 7
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
KANSAN EDITORIAL:
Why the Kansan is suing KU and what it means for our readers
KANSAN EDITORIAL BOARD @KansanNews
The Kansan Editorial Board consists of Vicky Diaz-Camacho, Gage Brock, Kate Miller and Maddy Mikinski. Because Diaz-Camacho is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, her position on the board for this editorial was filled by Candice Tarver.
The University Daily Kansan filed a lawsuit against Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Vice Provest for Student Affairs Tammara Durham on Feb. 5 in response to what the Kansan alleges are violations of its First Amendment rights.
The decision to file this lawsuit was not made lightly. As an organization composed of students who attend the University of Kansas, the Kansan has taken this step as the last possible solution to an issue that has been escalating since May 2014.
The Kansan published a strongly-worded editorial written by Mark Johnson, chairman of the Kansan Board of Directors, in May 2014 criticizing the Student Senate election process and calling attention to the fact that the president and vice president did not receive the majority of student votes. On Feb. 27, 2015, the Student Senate Fee Review Committee voted to cut the Kansan's funding in half. By reducing the student fee from $2 to $1 for each student, the Kansan lost $45,000.
The official reasoning for the funding cut was the Kansan's reduced print schedule, from four to two days per week. However, Senate member Garrett Farlow said the 2014 editorial was repeatedly referred to during the decision-making process. Farlow reported in a testimony that Morgan Said, student body president at the time, had said the reduction was also an opportunity for the Kansan to "fix its content."
Other Student Senate members shared similar sentiments.
According to the official complaint, Tyler Childress, a Finance Committee member, said March 4, 2015, that the paper's quality was in a "steady decline." Emma Halling, another committee member, said on March 25, 2015, that the Kansan could request more funding the following year if it "improved" the quality of its content, and, in an interview with a Kansan reporter, said that some of the Kansan's coverage "had been really problematic in the past." Further appeals by Kansan leaders to reinstate the full funding were met with the same reasoning.
Kansan leaders met with University officials on April 1, 2015, to raise the First Amendment concerns this cut would entail. Durham, as vice provost, had to approve the student fees budget before it was sent to the chancellor for final sign-off. Gray-Little had the ability to veto it; on May 6, 2015, she signed off on the Senate's 2015-16 budget as approved by Student Senate and Durham, which included the funding cut to the Kansan, with full knowledge of what the cuts would mean for the publication.
By using our content as reasoning for reducing our funding. Student Senate is violating the Kansan's First Amendment rights. By not stopping this funding cut, the chancellor and the University are endorsing these violations, despite the editorial freedom the U.S. Constitution guarantees the Kansan.
Our responsibility to our readers and all people with any interest in the University is to hold those in power accountable. By doing that, the Kansan has been punished with a budget cut that required us to eliminate 13 paid student staff positions. The Kansan has been without a full-time news adviser since the fall, and we are financially unable to hire one as a direct impact of the reduced funding.
The bottom line: This cut has impacted our ability to properly serve our readers, and although we will always strive for excellence in our coverage, less funding makes this more difficult than ever.
Filing this lawsuit is the last step in a drawn-out, exhaustive process. Kansan leaders and board members have made the ramifications of this budget cut clear to many Student Senate leaders and campus administrators, including the chancellor, and no resolution has been made. We hoped it wouldn't go this far, but we are left with no choice if we aim to effectively serve our readers, as we have done for 112 years.
Here's what this means for you as a reader: It is our duty to you that the Kansan's content be unaffected by these legal proceedings. We will continue to produce high-quality, objective journalism regarding the University and Student Senate, as well as all aspects of University life. We will also treat coverage of this lawsuit as we would any other lawsuit by reporting on it accurately and fairly. Editor-in-Chief Vicky Diaz-Camacho, who is listed as a plaintiff in the complaint, will not be involved in any of the Kansan's coverage of the lawsuit and Student Senate. The managing editor, Kate Miller, will oversee Student Senate coverage and report on the lawsuit's proceedings, remaining uninvolved in the details of the case except for what reporting requires.
The mission of the University Daily Kansan is to serve as a primary, credible news source for the University community. Despite the obstacles that have been placed in our way, we will strive for that. The Kansan Editorial Board hopes to have our funding reinstated and our First Amendment rights restored quickly, with as few unnecessary proceedings as possible.
Lara Korte/KANSAN
*Lara Korte/KANSAN*
Freshman Zoya Khan from Kansas City said she wears the hijab as an outward manifestation of her faith, even though she sometimes feels judged for it.
OMA opens women's only lunchroom
▶ CONNER MITCHELL
@ConnerMitchell0
At the conclusion of the Student Senate meeting on Jan. 27, Diversity and Inclusion Director Omar Rana announced the creation of a women's lunchroom in the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Room 102 of the OMA is available from noon to 1 p.m. on weekdays, mainly for women on campus who require a safe space to eat lunch due to religious attire that cannot be removed in public, Rana said.
He said the process to get the lunchroom approved was lengthy and required the exploration of many campus resources, including Student Senate.
Before taking the job as Diversity and Inclusion Director, Rana was a conversation leader with International Student Services. While talking to women from the Middle East who wear burqas and niqabs, he asked how the University's campus could be more accessible.
"One thing that they mentioned is that they didn't really have a place to go for lunch hours," Rana said. "They can't really eat in the Union because they would have to take off their burqa or niqab, which they can't do, or they would have to eat under it, which isn't always the most comfortable."
Zoya Khan, a freshman from Kansas City and secretary of the Muslim Student Association, said the creation of the lunchroom was an important step forward for the University.
"I think it's about creating a safe space for Muslim women on campus, and I think that's really allowing
for that. I think it's creating an environment of inclusivity and acceptance," she said. "We are part of the KU community, and KU is allowing for us to feel comfortable."
Rana commended Precious Porras, director of the OMA, for her work in providing the accommodations for the lunchroom.
"The OMA really came through for us, and I do think they really deserve that gratitude from myself and from the student body for being an entity on campus that really does work, when sometimes it's hard to find those entities that do work," he said.
Kahn said she heard a lot of positive support from women within the Muslim Student Association about the creation of the lunchroom.
"[The reaction has been] overwhelming support and happiness. People are really excited that KU is willing to take this step forward," she said.
Rana said there were 25 to 30 women on campus that could use the accommodation, and it was likely that three to five women would use the lunchroom on a daily basis.
"I think as long as there is that need for a student to have that sort of accommodation, the University should make that accommodation," he said.
Every other Friday, Rana said, the location of the lunchroom will move to the Wheat Room in the Kansas Union due to a schedule conflict with the OMA. He said when the room is available in the OMA, students are asked not to bring eggs for lunch, as an OMA staffer is severely allergic.
- Edited by Skylar Rolstad
New vice provost brings international experience
Baxter Schanze/KANSAN The University named DeAngela Burns-Wallace as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies.
▶ FOREST LASSMAN
@ForestLassman
While working for the U.S. State Department, DeAngela Burns-Wallace educated young people about different cultures and international issues. Now, she's
returned to her midwestern roots to be part of the campus-wide conversation of inclusion and student retention.
Burns-Wallace began her new position as University vice provost for undergraduate studies last month.
She previously worked at Stanford University and the University of Missouri, but before that, Burns-Wallace worked for the U.S. Department of State.
During her time at the State Department, Burns-Wallace worked to bring young people into government positions. While doing that, she came in contact with a former mentor and teacher who convinced her to start working in admissions at Stanford, her alma mater.
"I love all things international. I love learning cultures and languages and meeting people," Burns-Wallace said. "The world of a diplomat gives you a lot of those types of things."
"In that work it was a really fun time to kind of open the boundaries of who went to Stanford and who was
applying to Stanford, and our charge was to go all over the country and all over the world and find students that brought a richness of experiences and backgrounds to the University," Burns-Wallace said.
Later, Burns-Wallace moved to the University of Missouri to work as the assistant vice provost for undergraduate studies. She grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and came to the University as an American Council on Education fellow two years ago.
Burns-Wallace said she had the opportunity to shadow University leadership and learned about the University and undergraduate education.
"So when the opportunity became available for this position, given the work I was already doing at MU, which
Tom Volek, associate dean for undergraduate studies, led the search committee that helped select Burns-Wallace. Volek said he thinks Burns-Wallace will do well at the University and that he looks forward to working with her.
was very similar, given the knowledge base I had about KU from my time here and just my affinity for the region and in general being closer to Kansas City, I think it was kind of a trifecta to bring everything together with a really unique opportunity."
The University has worked on a plan this school year for better diversity and inclusion, and Burns-Wallace has experience with diversity issues on other campuses.
"Part of it is being a part of the conversation. It's about being in there and working
with students, understanding student voices and bringing those perspectives into the conversations that we have as an administration as we develop our course as faculty," Burns-Wallace said.
Burns-Wallace said her goal is to ensure every student's success at the University.
"Success means many things: it means they are coming back year after year, it means they are graduating with the degree that they came to the institution to pursue [and] it means they are engaging in the enrichment activities that we know make an educational experience powerful."
- Edited by Deanna Ambrose
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