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MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017 | VOLUME 133 ISSUE 27
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
Grad students looking for more perks, assistance
Brittney Oleniacz is a graduate teaching assistant at the University. She is a native of New Jersey and is also a member of Student Senate.
▶ HAILEY DIXON
@_hailey_dixon
Baxter Schanze/KANSAN
student Senate
Every day you can see graduate students working at every corner on campus. Some may be leading a class discussion in Fraser, helping a faculty member conduct an experiment in Lindley, studying for an exam in the Watson stacks or simply taking a break to unwind and drink a cup of coffee at the Union.
At the University, there are 6,158 graduate students and 16 percent of classes at the University are taught by graduate teaching assistants.
However, despite graduate students', graduate teaching assistants' and graduate research assistants' integration and importance to many at the University, graduate teaching assistants are often underappreciated, according to some.
"First of all, graduate students don't have the red carpet experience that freshmen do," said Brittney Oleniacz, a native of Phil-
lipsburg, New Jersey and graduate teaching assistant working toward her a doctorate in geology.
"We come for very specific reasons,very different reasons than undergrads. Just overall as KU as a graduate school.I have mixed feelings."
In the recent climate survey, it was reported that 24
percent of graduate students have seriously considered leaving the University at some point.
Oleniacz said there are both positives and negatives to being a GTA at the University.
"One of the pros is definitely the faculty-in-training," she said. "You are basically learning teaching styles
and how to convey information, and that's a big part of just being in academia. I don't know if I am going to be a professor one day, but what I am learning now is definitely important."
In return for their teaching and all of the schedule balancing that comes with it, some GTAs get assistance with their tuition.
Each graduate teaching assistant has an appointment with their specific department. Their appointments, which translate into their workload, cannot exceed 20 hours per week during the semester, according to guidelines in the policy library. Greater time commitments within their jobs translate to more tuition assistance.
An appointment of 40 percent (approximately 16 hours of work per week) or more allows graduate teaching assistants to have their entire tuition paid for. If the appointment is less than 40 percent, the percent of tuition paid goes down to 25 percent, depending on the percentage appointment.
Angela Murphy, a Marshfield, Missouri native now working as a fellow (a special research-focused program for graduate students), said she believes GTAs deserve better pay, as many live close to the poverty level. According to the Kansas Lifeline Program, the poverty line for a one-person household in Kansas is $16,281.
Oleniacz said each department at the University is different when it comes to pay. She said she feels financially grounded, especially compared to when she was an undergraduate student at Edinboro University, which is located in Edinboro Pennsylvania.
SEE GTA PAGE 2
Complaint calling for Womack's disqualification dismissed
Caitlynn Salazar/KANSAN on Saturday evening. Earlier
The Senate Court of Appeals hears arguments for KUnited, One KU and the Elections Commission on Saturday evening. Earlier this week, the Elections Commission tied on a decision in this case and caused it to move up to final authority.
CHANDLER BOESE @Chandler_Boeese
The Student Senate Court of Appeals unanimously voted Saturday night to dismiss a complaint asking for the disqualification of Mady Womack, the presidential candidate who has been declared the winner of the Student Senate election.
Seniors Jake Vance and Michaeli Hennessy as well two law students, Annie
The complaint from the KUNited coalition alleged that Womack, as well as members of her coalition, OneKU, had campaigned improperly during the elections on April 13 and 14 by encouraging students to vote on their phones and then "intimidating" them into casting their vote for OneKU. The Elections Commission heard the complaint on April 17 and declared a "symbolic tie" in their decision, which resulted in the complaint being dismissed.
Calvert and Joe Uhlman, represented the Court of Appeals at the Saturday hearing.
We are happy that the Court made a clear statement validating our victory."
Mady Womack Presidential candidate
In their ruling and in the hearing on Saturday evening, the court decided to approach the case as "the court of first impression," meaning that it was looking at the evidence and ruling on the violation itself, rather than the procedure and behavior of the lower court. The ruling, as well as statements made by COA justices during the hearing, indicated that the Elections Commission's symbolic tie necessitated such an approach.
"A tie does not decide a
winner or loser — it is the absence of such a decision," the ruling said. "So this Court cannot utilize its standard of review, and instead must view this case as the court of first impression."
In approaching the complaint in this way, the COA decided that there was no violation, citing lack of evidence and failure to prove intimidation. It said there is no rule in the Student Senate Rules and Regulations that Womack had actually broken, especially given the common practice of approaching students as she had.
"We are happy that the Court made a clear statement validating our victory," Womack said. "I look forward to assuming my duties as Student Body President this Wednesday."
Womack was not available to speak to the Kansan after the ruling was issued Saturday night but did send a comment via text.
One thing that all of those at the hearing, held Saturday evening, seemed to agree upon was a lack of clarity in SSRR, especially in regards to this incident.
"The thing that I would most like to see come from these is a rewrite of the Student Senate Rules and Regulations, to see the defining of many undefined things that have caused us great trouble during the election," said Nellie Kassebaum, a KUnited member who represented the group at the hearing. However, the final opinion did not give guidance or recommendations for how SSRR could be interpreted or rewritten going forward. Though the opinion did acknowledge that the rules could be clearer while addressing Womack's behavior, they said her reliance on previous campaigning behavior was reasonable.
Pending further appeals, the election results will be certified in 72 hours.
KU seeks dismissal of federal Title IX suit
▶ CHANDLER BOESE
@Chandler_Boese
The University is trying again to get a federal Title IX lawsuit currently pending against them dismissed, on the grounds that a related suit has already been heard, tried and dismissed at the state level.
The federal lawsuit, which was filed by the parents of former Kansas rower Daisy Tackett, alleges that the University created a hostile educational environment for her after her alleged sexual assault in Jayhawker Towers in 2014. According to the lawsuit, the University did not take sufficient action to protect her on campus afterward and even allowed her coaches to take retaliatory action against her.
The new motion, which was filed Friday, says that the federal case would give Tackett "two bites at the apple." Tackett had been involved in a consumer protection lawsuit in the Douglas County Court, which alleged that the University's advertisements of safe on-campus housing misled her and her parents. The case was dismissed last month because Tackett couldn't show "continuing injury."
Because the parties and events in both lawsuits are
"All of the issues between Ms. Tackett and the University could have been presented in the state court action, just as they could have been presented in this case," the lawsuit said. "Instead, for whatever reasons, Ms. Tackett chose to split her claims, and she did so at her own risk."
the same, the University's new motion says that the federal lawsuit would require both parties and the court to essentially redo a process they've already gone through.
Dan Curry, the Kansas City, Missouri, lawyer representing Tackett, said via email Saturday that his team had reviewed the motion.
"We do not believe it has merit," Curry said via email. "We will be filing a response asking the Court to deny it in its entirety."
The University has tried on two other occasions to get the suit dismissed, saying that they did adequately respond to Tackett's report of sexual assault and could not have prevented it from occurring.
The Kansan reached out to the University on Saturday afternoon for comment on the motion, but did not receive a response.
If the case moves forward, the trial is scheduled for the summer of 2018.
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