2C
ONTHEHILL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
CLAS
MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2006
Dean focuses on planning
BY JACK WEINSTEIN
Joseph Steinmetz began his tenure as dean the college of liberal arts
and sciences at the University of Kansas July 1. Steimetz came from Indiana University where he had served as chairman of the department of psychology for 10 years in additior
Steinmetz
to being a full professor. He was also a senior advisor to the dean of liberal arts and sciences for long range planning in 2005. Steinmetz started his career at Indiana as an assistant professor in 1987
Q: Why did you choose to come to KU?
A:This is an incredibly great place, outstanding place. With good students, good faculty, a good national reputation and in particular, since I have the position as dean of the Liberal Arts and Sciences here, I really like the mix of departments in this college over some of the other places I had looked and had offers from.
Q: What are your immediate plans for the college?
A: The immediate plans for this year is to take the college through a planning process. It will be a strategic
planning process and what I'm going to do is visit all of the units in the college, meet with the faculty and meet with the chairs.
I'm very curious about finding out not as much as where they've been as departments and programs and what their plans are for the future. I will collect all of those.
I'm really interested in promoting collaborations between departments, between the college and other units on campus. I try to think in three to five year terms because things take time to accomplish. So that's the plan.
Q: Is differential tuition on your agenda for the first year?
A: When I was here interviewing and visiting in December and January, this issue was on everyone's mind.
The college, I believe two years ago, went through this process and it was not approved by the students, it wasn't adopted. It's been adopted in every other school. There's a lot of people here that believe we should study it. What I need to do is take, during the same fact-finding for this year, find out if there is enough support for this kind of idea to be explored again.
Q:Do you think that the fact that tuition has been raised for the past four years, it will continue to hurt getting differential tuition passed
if that's what you decide to do?
A: Planning is important. I understand why this is important for parents because they tend to anticipate how much it will cost. As a tuition paying parent myself, I absolutely agree that I'd rather know what tuition is going to be. I don't know.
Q: Are you a basketball fan?
A: A big one, I came from Indiana.
Q: Would you consider yourself fortunate to move from one basketball school to another?
A: Absolutely, I think at this point especially because KU has a good team. IU has changed coaches as you know with Kelvin Sampson coming from the Big 12 to IU. There are a lot of question marks about that team. There's less question marks about this one. I'm really looking forward to it.
I'm a big football fan too. And there, this will be a big difference because Indiana struggled for years and years in football. It was really hard for Indiana to compete in the Big 10 so this will be a welcome change. I would welcome a .500 team.
Kansas staff writer Jack Weinstein can be reached at jwelinstein@kansan.com
MONEY
Beak'Em Bucks adds vendors
BY DANI HURST
The Beak 'Em Bucks program at the University of Kansas is looking a whole lot more rewarding this year.
Beak 'Em Bucks is the name of the account that is linked directly to a student's KUID card that can be used to pay for items and services both on and off campus. Money can be added to this account, at any time, via three methods: depositing money online, adding money into your optional campus fees or using a cash-to-card machine. The three cash-to-card machines on campus are located at Anschutz Library, which is adjacent to Budig Hall, on level three by the reference desk, the Kansas Union, on level four outside of the KU Card Center, and at Watson Library, on level three by the circulation desk.
The big changes made for this year were the implementation of a new rewards program, dubbed Beak
'Em Bucks Rewards, the addition of more off-campus merchants and the creation of a Beak 'Em Bucks Web site, www.beakbucks.com.
Matthew Bogner, a Beak 'Em Bucks representative from SA Cash, a college marketing company, said that the goal of the program was "to give students more options," both for on- and off-campus spending. Bogner also said it was a way to help merchants gain access to money that was — when Beak 'Em Bucks was exclusively for on-campus spending — once completely cut off to them.
Off-campus locations are not new this year, but the number has increased to more than 20 vendors. Miles said that the addition of off-campus vendors last year came as a direct request from students. She said the KU Card Center had done a survey more than a year ago asking if off-campus Beak 'Em Bucks
would be a good idea, and that the response was positive.
With each purchase, students accumulated rewards points, which would be redeemable for prizes. The number of rewards points awarded depended on the amount spent and at which vendor, but the range was anywhere from 10 to 30 points per dollar spent, Bogner said. A student could check on the Web site to see how many points had been earned so far and eventually pick a prize once a rewards-point goal was met. Bogner also said that throughout the year there would be special promotions and discounts associated with the program.
With the rewards program in place and with more vendors, Bogner said he anticipated a positive response.
"We have really high expectations," Bogner said. "We expect everyone in the area to be happy with it."
According to Nancy Miles, KU Card Program Director, the best part of the Beak 'Em Bucks program in general was the "convenience factor" it offered students. Every student already had a KUID card, she said, so if a student had money on the account, it was always with them to use at their discretion.
Nandini Mehta, India junior, said that she'd only used her Beak 'Em Bucks a few times because she didn't know much about the program and because she always had a credit card with her, so she never felt the need. She did say she'd use it on campus before to buy food because "it cuts the line short," but said that now she knew more about the program and would "definitely" use it more often off campus.
Kansan staff writer Dani Hurst can be at drhust@kansan.com
Edited by Adrienne Bommarito
These off-campus locations around Lawrence that accept Beak 'Em Bucks. Also listed are the point values you earn at each location for every dollar you spend.
Bigg's BBQ
Sports Bar
2429 Iowa St.
30 points
Buffalo Bob's Smokehouse 719 Massachusetts St. 20 points
Celius Tannery
4637 W. Sixth St.
20 points
Chili's Grill and Bar 231.9 Iowa St. 25 points
Domino's Pizza
832 Iowa St.
30 points
Gumby's Pizza
1445 W 23rd St.
30 points
Kwik Shop
1420 Kasold Dr, Ste A
1714 W. 23rd St.
1846 Massachusetts St.
3440 W. Sixth St.
845 Mississippi St.
10 points
Kwik Shop, Inc.
1611 E. 23rd St.
4841 W. Sixth St.
10 points
Mass Street Dull
941 Massachusetts St.
20 points
Pizza Shuttle
1601 W. 23rd St.
30 points
Taco John's
2309 Haskell Ave.
1623 W. 23rd St.
1101 W. Sixth St.
30 points
Wheat State Pizza 711 W.23rd St, Ste 19 30 points
Wendy's
601 Kasol Dr.
523 W 23rd St.
10 points
》 HOUSING
RA's offer guidance to other students
BY DANI HURST
Believe it or not, resident assistants have feelings, too.
It's true. It may seem obvious that RAs affect the students who live in their hall, but it goes both ways. It's easy to forget that RAs are students, also.
A week before other students set foot on campus for the fall semester, about 130 select students make their ways to their corresponding residence halls for training. All the residence halls on campus, including Jawhaker Towers, employ RAs.
According to Jennifer Wamelink, interim associate director for residence life, the training occurs every summer and focuses on building a community feeling with residents, understanding diversity, knowing campus resources and emergency procedures, as well as building communication skills.
Arnold Phomnavong, Springdale, Ark., junior, said being an RA was all about balance. He was an RA in Ellsworth Hall, and said it was difficult because he wanted to be friends with his residents, but there was also a line that he and his residents never crossed. He said an RA can only put out so much, but without respect from the residents then the RA doesn't get as much back.
"My residents respected me," Phommavong said, "and so I respected them."
"All I know is I put myself out there," he said. "It may not be some life-changing thing, but I feel like I did grow and help students."
Katie DiPasquale, Milwaukee,
Wis., sophomore, said her RA in
McCollum Hall was nice, but that she had no influence on her residents.
"No one really respected my RA," DiPasquale said, "but I didn't expect an RA to have a lot of influence, anyway."
Gena Milburn, Derby graduate student, was an RA at Naismith Hall for a year. Milburn said she had good and bad experiences there, but one of the most difficult things she encountered was asserting authority on students who were not much younger than herself.
Milburn said upholding rules was difficult because if a student got angry, she still had to live with them.
"It's hard to come down on people because they can make your life hard for the rest of the year," Milburn said. "It puts a lot of pressure on us to uphold the rules."
The duties of an RA include not only rule enforcement during the year, but also facilitating move-outs. "Move-out week was the worst week of my life," said Stephen Eidelman, Brooklyn junior, and RA for Naismith.
According to Eidelman, a lot of the residents didn't checkout properly despite the $200 fine for improper checkouts. Eidelman said he found a lot of inappropriate materials, such as bongs, pornographic photographs and broken beer bottles.
Eidelman also said he discovered a lot of broken hall property, such as mirrors, sinks, beds and drawers, which makes the RA's job much more difficult.
SEE RA ON PAGE 4C
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