TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 5A
Jumping
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
between 1985 and 2003, according to the Provost office.
A memo written by Provost David Shulenburger last year compared the university to five peer schools: Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon. He stated that the University received 20 percent less in overall funding and that its faculty salary budget was 10 percent less compared to its peer schools.
Peter Maneall, former KU professor of history, left in the summer of 2001 to teach at the University of California at Berkley. He blames Kansas' budget crisis for many of the University's budget woes. Simply put, he said, Kansas taxpayers don't support higher education.
"In Kansas, it's always a grudging thing," he said. "Will the legislators see to give even marginal increases to the University budget?"
Mancall left the University to recruit faculty for USC Berkley's arts and sciences departments.
"We came to a very ambitious and entrepreneurial private university," he said.
Private universities don't have the same budget concerns that state-funded public universities do, but that doesn't mean state-funded schools aren't pulling faculty members away from the University of Kansas.
The University of Florida lured Leo Villalon and his wife, Fiona McLaughlin, away from the University of Kansas last summer. Both worked with the KU African & African-American studies department.
"The fact that salary was low at KU made me predisposed to consider other alternatives," he said.
Kansas' inability to support higher education leaves the University without the resources to retain faculty members who might consider leaving. He said the legislature needed a stronger commitment to solve this problem.
"Obviously you have to invest in resources if you're going to keep people there," he said.
Differing perceptions
KU administrators admit state funding is a problem in Kansas, but they say the state is allocating what it can toward public education.
Faculty members might perceive the state's cuts brought on by its recent budget crisis as abandonment, said Sandra Gautt, vice provost for faculty development.
Faculty members watch KU administrators make tough decisions when paring down the costs of running the University and blame the state for not stepping in to fill the gaps.
But, she said, the state is doing the best it can with the money it has.
It appears the state focuses on K-12 public education because of its proximity to taxpayers, Gauss said.
"Higher education isn't in that same line of sight," she said.
Broken promises
In May 1999, the legislature redefined the jurisdiction of the Board of Regents and promised increased funding to higher-education institutions.
It promised $26 million to the six Regents universities — Wichita State, Kansas State, Fort Hays State, Pittsburg State, Emporia State and Kansas — over a four-year period for faculty salary enhancements. The first installment was issued in 2001, bringing a 5.9 percent salary increase for KU teaching faculty. It was the last increase faculty received.
The state also granted top-notch universities, community colleges and vocational schools a 2 percent increase in their allotments from the state general fund. These grants were supposed to start in 2003, but recent budget cuts make this unlikely.
Government leaders blame the current deficits on a history of bad budget decisions that began in the mid-1990s when the legislature passed a series of tax cuts. Since then,
Last Thursday, several of these legislative leaders met in Topeka for a public forum on the state's budget crisis.
revenues have shrunk and the state is now forced to cut expenditures.
The problem, they said, begins with the public. Most people want to continue receiving state services but decry tax increases to finance them. It's a flawed relationship that's finally catching up to lawmakers.
"I believe the public will not be moved until they've been denied something personally," said Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood.
"This next session will boil down to the legislature deciding if they can live with cuts or bite the bullet and increase taxes," sald Pat Hurley, state lobbyist and former state legislator.
It's a tough job convincing Western Kansans that paying more taxes for higher education is in their best interest, said Sen. Tim Huelskamp. R-Fowler.
The legislative leaders who met Thursday said Gov.-elect Kathleen Sebelius planned to reevaluate government spending and try to reduce it before she issued more cuts or increased taxes. Economic projections show current spending could create a $667 million deficit by June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Some legislators predict this could be the year to increase taxes to save gov-
"We simply can't go another year without salary increases."
Recent layoffs have spared faculty members, but many empty faculty positions have been left unfilled affecting the variety of classes the University can afford to offer.
where they are giving salary increases."
The future
Residents there are reluctant to pay more taxes to finance higher education because there aren't any Regents schools in their area, he said. And for them, leaving their farms or communities to attend schools in northern and eastern Kansas is not an option.
Huelskamp is ready to defend his constituents' position.
Robert Hemenway Chancellor
"Put some more money in it — it's going to be a better school?" he said. "I don't always believe that."
Chancellor Robert Hemenway says the state's budget situation is damaging for the University. Cuts in the state budget for fiscal year 2002 alone caused an $18.8 million reduction in general fund money for the University of Kansas.
Hemenway said he was concerned about faculty salaries and the University's inability to increase teaching faculty pay.
ernment programs.
"That's what we're going to have to say this year," said Sen. Janis Lee, D-Kensington and assistant Senate
minority leader.
Hemenway plans to lobby the state for more funding here. Without it, he said KU officials would seek funds elsewhere.
Securing private money outside of state funding is best, but if donors fail to step forward. Hemenway said he would turn toward tuition enhancement dollars. This money came from the tuition increase to be used for enhancements — not to fill holes in KU's budget.
"I can foresee a situation where you might ask to use tuition enhancement money to hire a faculty member," he said.
As for getting what you pay for, professor Shafer-Landau said that raising taxes was the logical solution to Kansas' budget problems.
"There's always the debate about lowering taxes,"he said."The bottom line: If you want services,you pay taxes."
Edited by Katie Teske
Troupe wins award for KANU show
By Justin Henning
jhenning@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Maybe you didn't realize your radio dial could go down this low.
A little-known radio program has made a lot of people laugh, and now it's getting recognition.
Kansas Public Radio station 91.5 FM, KANU has award-winning programming on the airwaves. Its program, Right Between the Ears, just won three Communicator Awards for its series. The international competition recognizes excellence in mass media.
"It's great to get that kind of recognition from your peers," said Darrell Brogdon, producer and principal writer for the show.
Brogdon described the show's format as being like Saturday Night Live. The show is not a regular broadcast because it is performed by a troupe of live performers who have scheduled shows that are broadcast live on the air. He said this helped differentiate it from other radio humor programs such as morning drive-time shows, which he called sophomoric and tasteless.
The show received the Crystal Award of Excellence, the highest award in the Best Writing category. It also earned a Crystal Award of Distinction for Best Narration, as well as an honorable mention for its live broadcast of their 2001 Christmas Show.
"It's a compliment to the spirit of the show," Brogdon said.
The program, which began in 1983, used to be called The Imagination Workshop. The title was changed to be less ambiguous, as the original name made people think it was a kids' show or radio drama. After paring it down, Brogdon said the title "Right Between the Ears" got a positive reaction from people.
The show's annual Christmas show was already recorded at Liberty Hall but will be rebroadcast at 6 p.m. on Christmas Day. The next live performance will be Saturday, Feb. 22 at Liberty Hall.
"We have a faceless audience," Brogdon said. "I see all ages at Liberty Hall."
For more information, visit the program's web site, www.rightbetweentheears.org.
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Medis said his sister had contacted the FBI yesterday. But, he said, Lawrence
Medis said he and his sister, Lisa Hunt of Oklahoma City, Okla., wanted to call attention to the beating because not enough had been done to prevent hate crimes.
Edited by Ryan Malashock
police should have notified the federal authorities instead of his sister.
"First we have to determine what the motive behind the battery is," Pattrick said. "Right now we're investigating this as a battery."
Patrick said Lawrence police had received information from its CrimeStoppers line, 843-8477.
Patrick said it was premature for Lawrence police to call the FBI.
Medis said he didn't know if he could wait for things to change in Lawrence.
Air Force unit teaches other nations
The Associated Press
"We greatly appreciate the public's help and hope that will continue," Patrick said.
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. — They don't wear green berets. Hollywood hasn't glamorized their exploits in exotic lands.
"I'm thinking about relocating." he said. "I love so much about this town, but if nothing is going to be done about this, I don't want to live here."
Edited by Melissa Shuman
Even within their own service they are a sometimes overlooked and underappreciated bunch.
They are air commandos of the 6th Special Operations Squadron, possibly
the least well-known Air Force special operations unit, whose main expertise teaching the finer points of air power to less-developed foreign forces happens to fit neatly with the U.S. goal of building coalitions for the war on terror.
Lt. Col. Eric Huppert, the squadron's commander, calls this an "inside-out" approach to the war on terrorism. The idea is to help a country, through training and advice, defeat homegrown rebels or terrorists without having to bring in U.S. combat power, as happened in Afghanistan, where no such relationship had existed.
This veil of secrecy is meant to protect them, but Huppert admitted it also prevents the 6th SOS from attracting the attention, even within the Air Force, that could lead to a bigger budget and expanded role.
The Associated Press
Colleges expect boom in future applications
GLASSBORO, N.J. — Chris Tumminia, an assistant in the admissions office at Rowan University, got a glimpse of the future the morning she received 61 online applications following the Veterans Day weekend.
Even more applications arrived in the morning mail.
"I wasn't happy," Tumminia said. "It was a lot of work."
Tumminia and others in admissions offices nationwide might as well get used to it. Counselors and education experts are expecting a blizzard of college applications from high school seniors over the next several years.
The surge is attributed to a boom in the high school population, combined with a tendency among students nowadays to apply to more colleges.
"It's the perfect storm of college admissions, all these forces coming together at the same time," said David Hamilton, director of college counseling at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Wheaton, Md.
An estimated 3.1 million seniors are expected to graduate next June alone, and census projections say the boom will continue through the end of the decade.
As recently as five years ago, high school seniors applied to five or six colleges on average, said Robert Franek, editorial director of the Princeton Review, which publishes guides to colleges. Now the average is between six and 10 schools, he said.
On the Net:
Princeton Review: http://www.princetonreview.com
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