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Delta Force unconcerned with minority party status
By Paul Kramer
pkramer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
After winning a majority of Student Senate seats last spring, KUnited should control legislation this year. Surprisingly, KUnited's chief opponents in last year's election, Delta Force, are just fine with that.
The self-proclaimed "watchdog" group on campus is content with the situation. With fewer Senate seats this year, the group is focusing on activities outside of the typical Senate format, and pushing advocacy.
Drew Thomas, Delta Force senator, said his group was more concerned with student issues on and off campus than other coalitions.
Thomas said Delta Force platform issues, such as monitoring the tuition advisory committee, which finalizes the allotment of tuition dollars, and supplementing the sexual-assault program run through the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, were ways Delta Force could be effective outside the Senate.
Only one 15-hour-per-week counselor works with sexual-
assault victims. This is a position Thomas and other Delta Force members would like to become full time, or for another part-time worker to be added.
Kathy Rose-Mockry, director of the center, said she was aware of Delta Force's interest in her program and welcomed the attention.
Rose-Mockry said she was thrilled that this issue was getting attention from a campus group. She said the attention would help get money needed for the new position.
Along with student safety
issues, Delta Force has spent time handing out fliers to Board of Regents members before the tuition increase vote and organizing a rally on behalf of graduate teacher assistants for a raise.
The group has also worked with Students for Peace in antiwar rallies and by providing forums to discuss alternatives to war.
Brian Thomas, Delta Force member, not related to Drew Thomas, said he was drawn to Delta Force because of its reputation for direct activism on student issues.
He said going to the administration or relevant campus groups rather than waiting for a bill to get through Senate was a more direct and effective way to get things accomplished.
Delta Force has won one presidential campaign in its seven-year history. That was two years ago with Justin Mills and Kyle Browning.
"It was my first year in Delta Force and I was excited," Drew Thomas said. "Everyone said we were going to lose and we won. I was shocked."
was shocked. He said he thought Delta Force could win another presidential
election in the future, but it was dependent on getting all student supporters to vote.
appointed Scott McKenzie, Delta Force member and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator, said the coalition wouldn't stop campaigning for Senate seats or the presidency. Campaigning is another way to raise issues that affect a broad range of students, he said.
Delta Force meets at 8 p.m. Sunday nights in the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building, 1204 Oread Ave.
FacEx to monitor salaries
Edited by Ehren Meditz
By Robert Perkins
rperkins@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Faculty Executive Committee doesn't think that new professors should make more money than more experienced professors.
The committee is comprised of only faculty members and deals with issues faculty related issues such as tenure and pay.
such as tenure. FacEx passed a charge yesterday to the Faculty Compensation Committee to monitor such pay differences, which can result from universities competing for new professors.
FacEx members worried that the findings of the Compensation Committee would not have any effect once it reached the administration.
istration.
Joe Sicilian, FacEx member and professor of economics, said
he wasn't sure it was as big of an issue for the administration as it was for the faculty.
"I think that they're sincere in that they're concerned with the problem, but I don't think they're going to put new money towards fixing it," he said.
kissing it. Sicilian said he thought it wasn't a high enough priority for the administration.
administration. The differences in pay are the result of salary compression, which occurs when the University hires a new professor for more than what a professor who has taught for several years makes.
Competition between universities for good professors and inflation drives the market value of teachers up every year, requiring schools to devote more and more money towards attracting new teachers.
have gone to raises for experienced professors winds up going to hire brand new ones.
Ray Davis, FacEx chair and an associate professor in public administration, advised the committee to be careful when deciding how to word the charge.
In the end, money that would
"We're not going to get what we want unless we very specifically ask for it," he said.
Susan Twomby, committee member and professor of teaching and leadership, said she worried that the University's financial position might not allow it to take the sort of action the committee wanted.
"Part of my concern is that we'll plan and plan and then there will be no money. It seems sort of futile," she said.
The charge requires a report back to FacEx by Feb. 1, 2004.
— Edited by Jonathan Reeder
Groups file suit against EPA, sav water needs improvement
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Four environmental groups have sued the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming it must declare whether Kansas water quality rules are adequate.
"It is regrettable that the people of Kansas have to continue to file lawsuits in federal court in order to get the EPA to fully carry out the Clean Water Act passed by Congress more than 30 years ago," the groups, which include the Kansas Natural Resources Council, the Kansas Sierra Club Friends of the Kaw and the Arkansas River Coalition, said Monday in a prepared statement
agency had no comment on the new litigation. He said the agency was busy working on the regulations that the environmentalists want a ruling on.
mentions,
"It's a high-priority item."
Kessler said, adding there was no timetable to complete the task
Martin Kessler, a spokesman for the regional EPA office in Kansas City, Kan., said the
At issue are regulations the state submitted in December 2002 to put in place new water quality standards.
The environmental groups said EPA had up to 60 days to approve the rules or 90 days to disapprove and specify needed changes. That deadline passed about five months ago.
The environmental groups oppose the state rules, saying they were written to please the agricultural industry by allowing lax restrictions on waste runoff
from farms, ranches and feedlots.
The lawsuit, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., is not the first instance in which the Kansas environmental groups have sued the EPA to get it moving faster.
In July, a federal judge ordered the EPA to upgrade the potential use of more than 1,000 bodies of water in Kansas. As a result, the EPA designated 1,062 bodies of water across the state as "primary contact recreational," which means the waters should be clean enough to fish and swim in. That means industries and municipalities that discharge into such waters may have to improve their treatment processes to remove more bacteria from their waste, officials said.