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MONDAY, DEC. 5, 2016 | VOLUME 132 ISSUE 31
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
Campus pays respect to Nick Herren with vigil
▶ HAILY DIXON
@_hailey_dixon
Nicholas "Nick" Herren will be remembered for his beaming, crooked
"He was really great," Prins said, "Words can only say so much about the character of Nick."
Prins said Herren adored those around
DAY IN THE LIFE
kansan.com
LANDRI JAMES
Miranda Anaya/KANSAN Landri James is the president of the First Nations Student Association and recently visited Standing Rock Reservation.
First Nations Student Association president
By Hailey Dixon
@_Hailey_Dixon
As Americans across the country watch the conflict unfold between Native Americans and law enforcement, one University student has taken it upon herself to step up and speak out for Native people's rights.
I absolutely adore and am very thankful for my family and culture that have taught me so much more than anything you could ever learn in a classroom."
Senior Landri James is an enrolled member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, but traces her lineage through many other tribes, as well.
"I'm an enrolled member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Mayetta, Kan," James said. "I am also Ponca and Kickapoo through my mother, Laverne Biggoose, and Menominee and Santee Sioux through my father, Lloyd James. My Potawatomi name is Mkites and it means 'little black bear.' I'm bear clan and I'm my mother's first and only child, so my Potawatomi color is blue."
In her hometown of Lawrence, James' native heritage set her apart from other students.
ot stories that stick out to me over the years. But when I got older, I realized that I may have missed out on quite a lot of relationship building and maintaining with my non-native friends and their families. But I'm at peace with that."
"Growing up in Lawrence, I remember being the only native student in my class, grade and entire school, it seemed like," James said. "I still have a humble handful
However, James said she is proud of her Native American heritage.
"I absolutely adore and am very thankful for my family and culture that have taught me so much more than anything you could ever learn in a classroom," she said.
James gained her associates degree through Haskell Indian Nations University and is continuing her education at the University. She is also the president of the University's First Nations Student Association, which collected money and items to bring to the recent protests at Standing Rock Reservation.
es a threat to the health and culture to the reservation.
James, along with other University students, took the $4,111 in collected donations from the "Lawrence Stands with Standing Rock" march, which James helped coordinate, to Standing Rock in North Dakota earlier in the month of November.
She, and other individuals, protested the Dakota Access Pipeline, which protesters say pos-
The issue resonates with James, who, as part of the Kickapoo reservation just north of Lawrence, said that they have never been able to drink the water. She said she thinks the protest of the pipeline has brought national attention to an important issue.
"Everywhere there's different landfills, different chemical waste plants that are placed just right by our reservations," she said. "But there's just so many different things. This is just so important because we gained so much support. It's important because it could set a precedent for future opportunities to stop or to combat corporate greed and to encourage weaning our dependencies on fossil fuels."
When James arrived at the reservation, she said she thought that the camp looked like a powwow, with multitudes of people at the camps, all protesting the same pipeline for natives.
"I just think it's really beautiful that everybody is coming together for a common goal," James said. "That non-natives are willing to endure those living conditions, for us and for the cause."
Trinity Carpenter, a senior from Richmond, is
a fellow activist of James. Carpenter said that she and James formed a camaraderie and supported each other.
Landri James
"I feel like we did that initially [formed a bond]," Carpenter said. "We formed basically a protection at work to the best of our degree."
This is not Carpenter's first, or last, trip to Standing Rock, she said.
"This is my third trip up there, so I've got to see camp in a whole lot of different conditions," Carpenter said. "When I
nirst went up there, it was impressive, it was beautiful, it was a collective action that I had never seen at such a collective scale. People were being fed collectively, people were helping collectively, there were no questions where you were or if you were contributing."
Returning to Lawrence, James said she continues to see an increase in Native Americans and native culture in the Lawrence area.
"Haskell Indian Nations University, the four
tribes of Kansas, and the desirable education and diversity in Lawrence, Kan., seems to keep Native families around to raise their children," James said. "It's been amazing seeing the growth of the indigenous population in northeastern Kansas keep up with the growth of the major cities in this area, too. I think the only downside is that you meet, learn about and miss a lot of good people from other tribes that eventually move back home."
year's DEI report, which suggested "that the University place the Student Senate under immediate review and restructure the organization of student governance at KU."
According to the proposal, the committee shall "consider, draft, and/or propose amendments to the relevant governance documents." Essentially, this means that the members will
The rationale for the new ad hoc committee, according to the proposal, was that while a Multicultural Student Government could benefit students, leaders should take a look at how the Student Senate system functions as a whole.
rently held by Student Senate. The proposal was tabled.
One of the biggest issues that was empha-
Pam Fine, a Faculty Senate representative and journalism professor, said looking into another election method could benefit minority students.
"The implication of the diversity committee's report is that the coalition system is discriminatory," she said. "It is incumbent upon us to say 'OK, let's have someone go deep in on it and see what
and Science senator. "Most important of these is that I worry about how it is going to affect the autonomy of our governance structure ... It will say to Student Senate that 'We are going to violate your autonomy and tell you what you have to do with your rules,' and I think that is totally unacceptable."
SEE SENATE PAGE2
might later avail to look up the 2002 tuition cost, and compared it to this year," he said "I saw how large of an increase there was. I was pretty upset, so I started talking about it with people."
her. we're fighting for lower tuitions prices at all of these schools, not just KU."
According to a University press release from 2002, the cost of in-state tuition per semester was $1,741.75, while out-of-state was $5,343.25. Current-
Co-founder Lev Comolli, a Lawrence native, approached the University's Amnesty International chapter at the beginning of this semester to pitch KUART.
SEE KUART PAGE 2
INDEX
NEWS...2
OPINION...4
ARTS & CULTURE...9
SPORTS...12
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