Section A·Page 3
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, December 9, 1997
December graduates appreciate individual recognition ceremonies
By Rachelle Datweiler
rddetweiler@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Many students who are graduating and leaving Lawrence may find that their degree is the only recognition they'll receive.
Each school offers December graduation ceremonies at its discretion, and this semester, the School of Engineering, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Journalism are the only schools planning a public acknowledgment.
All December graduates can walk down the hill in May, but schools with a high enrollment, such as the College, and schools whose graduates often move after receiving a degree, such as the engineering school, offer a ceremony and a reception in December to honor their students, said Jeannette Johnson, assistant to the provost.
"That walk down the hill means a lot to people," she said. "If they can't do that, they may go home or go to any parties they may have planned."
The college experience may seem incomplete
Winter Walkers
December graduation ceremonies:
1:30 p.m. Sunday at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union
Doctoral graduate of the University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
School of Engineering:
1 p.m. Sunday at Crafton-Preyer Theater in Murphy Hall
School of Journalism
3:00 p.m. Sunday at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union
for those students who can't walk down the hill and whose schools do not offer a December ceremony. Johnson said
The School of Engineering frequently receives letters of appreciation from students' parents in response to the ceremony, and last year about 450 students participated, said Ann Bakerink, director of academic studies in the engineering school.
The School of Engineering's graduation ceremony is at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Wooldruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union, and it will offer students an opportunity to walk across the
stage. Bakerink said.
Erin Spiridigliozi, assistant dean of the College, said that December graduation ceremonies offer an intimate setting where students can celebrate the completion of college with their peers.
"People felt it was a much more intimate ceremony and a more tangible march than the full-blown University graduation where the students get lost in the quantity of students," she said.
This is the second December graduation ceremony that the College has offered. It starts at 1 p.m. Sunday at Crafton-Preyer Theater in Murphy Hall.
The response to last year's December graduation for the College was overwhelming, and this year the parents and family of graduates are expected to fill the theater, Spiridigloloz said.
The ceremony will also provide students and faculty with another chance to see each other if they cannot attend the May graduation.
"We certainly wanted to do this for the benefit of our students, but we also saw it as a mechanism for faculty to participate one more time with our graduates," Spridigliozi said.
GTAs continue push for health care
By Mike Perryman
Kansas staff writer
Kansan staff writer
The University and its graduate teaching assistants will push for progress as they sit through yet another Kansas Health Care Commission meeting Thursday in Topeka.
The meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. in Room 123 south of the Capitol building. It will focus on a proposed regulation that would allow the commission to develop a new, statewide health care policy that could replace the student health care plan at each of the Regents universities.
Approval of the regulation would be a significant step in the GTA's quest for an affordable health care policy and an adequate employer health care contribution. The proposed policy is specifically aimed at improving health care for CTAs.
The commission is expected to vote on the regulation Thursday and decide whether the University
would be permitted to buy the statewide policy, and if so, whether GTAs would be eligible for it, Provost David Shulenburzer said.
"I'm optimistic that they'll vote on the statewide policy on Thursday," he said. "As far as I know, the statewide plan would be optional but would be available to all students if they wanted it."
If the regulation is approved, the next step would be for the health care commission to decide how much the University would contribute to the plan, said Stephen Mathis, chairman of the GTA negotiating committee.
The policy is still vague and has not yet specified what the employer's health care contribution would be. The University and its GTAs want the commission to know that they want a 75 percent employer contribution.
"If the HCC dictates the University's contribution to be 50 percent, we're basically screwed," Mathis
said. "We really need 75 percent for it to be affordable."
At the last meeting, the commission released an economic impact statement, which broke down the costs of the proposed health care plan. It showed the employer's contribution as 50 percent.
"That figure is not set in stone," Mathis said. "It was simply used by the commission while crunching numbers to see if the plan would be feasible."
The University and the GTA union tentatively agreed on the 75 percent employer contribution and submitted their plan to the commission in September. They emphasized the importance of the 75 percent contribution at the last commission meeting, which was held Oct.20.
Right now, a GTA health care plan doesn't exist. With the statewide plan, the University would be able to contribute 75 percent to help pay for GTA health care costs, said Helen Sheumaker, a graduate teaching
assistant in the Western Civilization department.
At the same time, the plan would cover a larger, statewide base of students. With more students participating in the plan, the amount required by the University would be reduced. Sheumaker said.
If the regulation is approved, the health care commission will begin negotiating the statewide health care plan with different health insurance companies, which would in turn administer the plan to the University, said Jeannette Johnson, assistant to the provost.
"I was told a couple of times that the commission would be able to negotiate a plan that would be at least equal to the students' current plan," she said.
GTAs want the health care coverage to at least be equal to the present student insurance plan, Mathis said.
"It is going to be interesting to see how some of this plays out with the legislature," he said.
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