Thursday, October 14, 1999
The Univer sity Daily K ansan
Section A · Page 3
Regents spend afternoon viewing students' work
By Clay McCusinion writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Board of Regents members took a break from debating and implementing higher education policy yesterday afternoon, touring campus in a KU on Wheels bus and visiting Nunemaker Center to view undergraduate research.
Beth Huddleston, Pittsburg senior, explains the contents of her poster to Provost David Shulenburger, Regent Sylvia Robinson and Flora Wyatt, Huddleston's faculty mentor. Huddleston's poster was about the new Stanley Elementary School. Photo by Kate Levenson/KANSAN
Sylvia Robinson, a Regent from Kansas City, was enthusiastic about the posters.
Eight poster displays were set up by University of Kansas Honors Program members, summarizing work they had done in disciplines from literature to education to science. The students — along with faculty members who helped them with their research — explained their work to the seven Regents members who attended the 4 p.m. presentation.
"I have been thoroughly impressed with the students," she said. "I think it's true that when students find their passion, they excel."
Most of the Regents spent their morning in a meeting of the Commission on Higher Education Coordination. The commission is a new group devoted to supervising the 37 institutions that now make up the Regents system.
Robinson said she was glad to spend some time away from meetings.
"This afternoon has been dedicated to seeing students," she said, "a wonderful reminder of why we come together."
The chairman of the commission, Fred Kerr, was appointed to the board only three months ago by Gov. Bill Graves. He, too, said he was glad to spend time with students.
Barbara Schowen, director of the Honors Program, said it was important to spotlight the work of undergraduate students.
"It's a real privilege," Kerr said. "There's some fantastic young people doing some very sophisticated work."
or undergraduates.
"We wanted to showcase that for the Board of Regents visit," she said. "I'd like them to come away recognizing that there are a lot of undergraduates that are participating in research and that the faculty at KU really welcomes them."
Kristopher Carlson, Topea senior, presided over a poster with the tongue-twisting title, "Combined Methods Applied to the Synthesis of Structurally Complex Organophosphorus Compounds."
He said he hoped the presentations would broaden the Regents' minds.
"I hope they get an understanding for the diversity of research programs that are available at KU," he said. "And I hope that they understand the importance of allocating necessary funds to encourage students to take on projects like this."
Kristi Kuhn, Victoria senior welcomed the opportunity to
interact with the Regents and to talk about her research on rabbits.
"It's a good opportunity to share my research in a general setting," she said. "My independent research has taught me more than any other classes have taught me."
- Edited by Kelly Clasen
Members underline importance of equity in face of lawsuit
By Clay McCusition
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
As the Board of Regents assembled on campus yesterday, the issue of salary equity was a constant presence.
The news of a gender discrimination complaint filed by board staff member Christine Crenshaw made the plans of the six Regents schools to study gender equity seem richly ironic. Board members refused to comment on Crenshaw's case specifically but underlined the importance of equal pay.
"It's obviously an issue important to a lot of people and certainly we want to promote fairness," said Fred Kerr, a Regent from Pratt. "Our priority is on trying to provide better educational opportunities for the people of this state, and we need to work through that issue — from a fairness standpoint — so we can get on to the priority of educational opportunities."
Bill Docking, chairman of the Regents and an Arkansas City banker, said the board would conduct an equity survey of its own.
in tandem with the universities it governs. The Kansas Department of Administration will study the pay of staff members, he said.
"The process we're going through in the Board of Regents office includes new job descriptions being drawn up because we have a new organization being put together." Docking said. "All of this will be most helpful to us in trying to address these issues."
Provost David Shulenburger said that, contrary to earlier statements by Mary Hawkins, Faculty Senate president, a qualitative equity survey would take place.
After the September meeting of the board, Hawkins said she had no knowledge of a plan for such a qualitative survey at the University.
University shulenburg said that after a basic study looking at the pay of women and minorities was completed through his office, further work would be done.
"We're putting together, with governance, a committee that will survey women, minorities, the unclassified and faculty to find out what their concerns are related to their gender and minority status," he said. "Then, when we know what these concerns are, we'll take the next step and look into them and find out if there's anything we can change."
Student Senate passes petition for course-repetition policy
Edited by Chris Hutchison
By Chris Borniger
writer @kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
After nearly an hour of debate, Student Senate passed a petition last night that could give students a chance to redeem themselves — or at least their grades.
Senate approved the legislation, which requests that the administration implement a course repetition policy, 39-19. Now students can retake
policy. $b9541-9a4
a class, but their
second grade is
averaged with
the first. The
proposed policy
would figure
only the second
grade into the
grade into student's grade point average.
Mark Bradshaw, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator, introduced a motion to send the petition back to committees, which failed. The University Affairs Committee acclaimed the legislation last week, and the Student Rights Committee approved it 20-4.
app over it. 10-4.
"I don't think everything that needed to be considered came up in committees," he said.
Bradshaw said he didn't favor that the petition would allow a student's
GPA to be reconfigured with an improved grade.
"The big thing is now seeing it through," said Dede Seibel, student body vice president and the bill's sponsor. "We need to get the faculty on board."
improved grade students actually have a chance to take advantage of the policy, however, it must be approved by the Academic Procedures and Policies subcommittee of the Senate Executive committee, then SenEx itself, University Council and University Senate. Next, it would need Chancellor Robert Hemenway's approval.
But that argument boiled down to trying to keep up with the Joneses, Bradshaw said.
Seibel said more universities across the nation were forming similar policies — including fellow Big 12 Conference schools such as the University of Oklahoma, Iowa State University and Texas Tech University.
Ben Walker, another one of the legislation's sponsors, said the policy enabled students planning on attending graduate school to be more competitive with students who they
"Just because other universities do it doesn't make it a good argument for KU," he said.
would compete against to be accepted.
Nicole Skalla, CLAS senator, voted against the petition. She said students who really wanted to master the material still could seek a class instructor's permission to sit in on the class.
"KU should not be a remedial learning school," she said.
In other business, Senate approved legislation:
Calling for the Board of Regents to
*Calling for the Board of Regents to adopt a nondiscrimination policy*
adopt a northerner orientation
inclusive of sexual orientation.
- Calling for a day of remembrance for Wilk Chamberlain
- Expressing respect for the memory of former Chancellor Raymond Nichols.
- Restructuring Student Legislative Awareness Board.
Senate also approved funding bills to allocate:
$285 to the Medical Ethics Club.
$165 to the Sociology Club.
$$\$10 to the KU American Civil Liberties Union.
$392 to Habitat for Humanity
$324 to and
Ecology Organization
$285 to the Vietnamese Student Association.
- Edited by Katrina Hull
Continued from page 1A
students, Carlin said.
students, can she said "When that happens, often some student who wants to add has not been able to get in because of that," she said.
Faculty also have to worry about whether all their students are enrolled, and administrators waste time filling out paperwork and updating records when students add late, Carlin said.
Carlin said. Even the University as a whole can lose money because 20th-day enrollment numbers determine the University's share in some state funding, meaning credit hours students enroll in after the 20th day of classes don't count toward state aid, she said.
Sometimes class shoppers can hurt themselves because federal loan programs are based on how many hours a student is enrolled in, Turvey said.
All these problems led Carlin to send out a letter on Sept. 27 that accompanied the 25th-day rosters given to all faculty. It referred faculty members to an e-mail address where they could send lists of students with enrollment problems. Carlin also reminded faculty in the letter that it could prevent unenrolled students from taking tests and doing other class work.
The problem is that locating unenrolled students is a task easier said than done, said Sally Frost Mason, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and professor of biochemistry who has about five unenrolled students in her introduction to biology class.
She reminded her class that all students needed to be enrolled after she received
Illustration by Jason Williams
out she says, "As professors, we would only notice that a student was engaged in this behavior after we attempted to reconcile grades from quizzes, papers and exams with the rosters," she said. "It's impossible to know what the reasons are unless the student comes to see you or you have a way of seeking them out."
More than 50 students with enrollment problems have been located by professors so far, though most are students who are enrolled but are not attending classes, Turvey said. Still, Turvey and Carlin said the operation to root out students with enrollment problems now, rather than the usual process of waiting till the end of the semester, was successful.
Carlin's letter. But unenrolled students blend in with enrolled students in large classes like hers, making them difficult to seek out, she said.
"Most of the students we've talked to have been pleased just to know that someone is interested in them," Turvey said.
Edited by Katrina Hull