STUDENT SENATE
ELECTION
2011
Student Senate voting starts today
Voting for Student Senate candidates takes place today and tomorrow. Voting is available online and at select polling sites around campus. Results will be available Thursday evening.
WHO: Student Senate WHAT: Voting for 2011-2012 school year WHEN: Today from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and tomorrow from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. WHERE: Online at https://apps.ku.edu/~election/ and polling sites at Mrs.E's Wednesday and Thursday and Wescoe on Thursday
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2011
WWW.KANSAN.COM
STUDENT SENATE
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 131
Transitions for student transit
BY ROSHNI OOMMEN
roommen@kansan.com
If they elected, members of the Renew KU coalition, have some specific
loans for transportation both on- and campuses that they'd like to see enacted to make student transportation easier and safer.
Josh Dean, vicepresidential candidate, said that the coalition wants to take a comprehenive review of where transportation
signs and markings are placed, especially unmarked off-campus bus stops. Dean said that currently none of the off-campus bus stops are marked. Instead of looking at a particular section of KU on Wheels steps, Dean
said that the coalition would like to take an inventory of all the Lawrence bus stops. That way, Dean said, the proper signs could be made all at once.
Casey Briner, presidential candidate, said Renew KU has also proposed that a Safebus route be extended to the west Clinton Parkway area. Renew KU chose the area because of its proximity to student housing, such as The Grove and The Legends. In the past year, Briner said, there were three fatal accidents in the Clinton Parkway area at night.
"It's only a matter of time before we have a student fatality out there because somebody's trying to get home and they don't have a way to drive," Briner said.
Dean said that the addition of a new Safebus route to that area would cost about $2 per student per semester.
To make transportation more affordable and student-friendly, the KUnited coalition has some ideas ltd like to see enacted for the next school
year if its members are elected into office.
Libby Johnson, presidential candidate, said the first improvement the coalition would like to see is an addition to the Safebus routes that go through Lawrence. Like the Renew KU coalition, KUnited has proposed a route that would be extended down Clinton Parkway near popular student apartment complexes.
The KUINed coalition also proposed the addition of bike rentals on campus. Johnson said that Student Senate would develop a system that would offer bikes to students, making them available to rent for short and long terms. Gabe Bliss, vice-presidential candidate, said KUINed estimated that the bike rental would cost less than $7 per day, which is approximately the same price as two gallons of gas.
"We want to make sure we can give affordable options for our students so they can be on campus, focusing on their studies," he said.
In addition, KUnited would like to focus on on-campus parking for the next school year.
Johnson said that KUnited would like to make signs in parking lots clearer and more visible so that students are more aware of parking regulations. Bliss said KUnited also proposed an addition to the KU Parking
that would provide students with an interactive map. This map would allow students to see which lots they're allowed to park in, select a lot to check its availability or search a building to see which lots are nearby.
— Edited by Amanda Sorell
ECONOMY
Kobach stresses negative effects of illegal immigration
BY ADAM STRUNK astrunk@kansan.com
At the end of the speech, the first 10 rows of audience members jumped to their feet in applause. Others behind them sat silently, with their hands at their sides or on their laps.
Kris Kobach speaks about the effect of undocumented immigration on the economy at the Lied Center Tuesday night. Kobach helped write the recent controversial Arizona immigration bill.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach had just finished delivering a speech on illegal immigration to a crowd of about 900 at the Lied Center Tuesday night. Kobach, who gained notoriety as an anti-immigration advocate last year when he helped write the controversial Arizona immigration bill, spoke about the economic effects of undocumented immigrants as well as laws surrounding immigration.
"Imigration is a subject that inspires great passion and great debate," Kobach said in his opening statement. "It is also a subject that does not lend itself well to debate on hand-held signs."
His statement about hand-held signs may have alluded to the crowd of 250 KU students, faculty members and Lawrence residents who assembled outside the Lied Center before the speech. The crowd held signs, sang and chanted while protesting the speech.
"As a Lawrence resident and KU student, I want something that will bring our community together and not tear us apart," said Sarah Stern, a sophomore from Lawrence and vice president of the Hispanic American Leadership Organization.
Members of the protest worried that some of Kobach's actions, such as his work with the Arizona immigration law and similar bills he helped with in Kansas and Nebraska, encouraged racial profiling. The Arizona law makes a provision for state law enforcement to detain those who they have reasonable suspicion of being in the country illegally. The law also makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime.
Kobach defended the law in his speech.
"They don't turn a blind eye," he said. "Any time they hand out a traffic ticket and they develop a reasonable suspicion that the individuals they are talking to are not here lawfully — this, by the way, cannot in any way be determined by a person's skin color and a person's national origin or a person's race — then they have to call the feds."
Kobach also stressed that illegal immigrants take away jobs from Americans.
"If you really want to create a job for an American citizen tomorrow, deport an illegal alien today," he said.
KU economics professor Ronald Caldwell, who specializes in labor economics, disagreed.
"A lot of this is based on the idea that there is a fixed number of jobs, and that is so false," Caldwell said. "If that was true, population growth alone would kill us in this country. Clearly, there is no fixed number of jobs."
Caldwell explained that as a population increases, so does its needs. These needs then create job positions for people to fill.
"When you have massive uninvited immigration, you are going to have stress on the welfare state," he said. "Illegal aliens are overwhelmingly poor; it's just the facts."
Kobach spoke of the strain that undocumented immigrants put on the existing services provided by the United States.
This time, Caldwell corroborated Kobach's statement.
"If these individuals don't have health care, which I imagine they
Caldwell quickly added, however, that it is difficult to know whether undocumented immigrants helped or hurt the economy. He said that while undocumented immigrants use money for services, they also pay certain taxes, spend money within the economy and could actually create jobs. He also said that gathering data on
don't, these jobs that they have are probably not offering health care; they would go to the hospital," he said. "Somebody has to pay for this and if they don't have the means to pay for it, that may fall on us."
illegal immigration was extremely difficult.
"It's not like you're going to call them up and say, 'OK, are you an undocumented immigrant? I have a battery of questions for you'" he said. "It's not going to happen that way. I am sure there would be something out there, but I am a little skeptical about how much confidence I would have in the numbers."
The lecture lasted about an hour. At the end of the lecture, Kobach answered questions, which people submitted either online or
at the forum. Administrators for the KU School of Business said they did not screen the questions but gave them to Kobach in the order they were submitted. Both Kobach's supporters and protesters remained quiet throughout and did not disrupt the speech. Three KU Public Safety Officers and two Kansas Highway Patrolmen were on hand to control the protest if needed.
— Edited by Caroline Bledowski
KUJH TV-News
For more coverage of this story, check out KUJH's newscast today at 4 p.m. on channel 31 for Knology subscribers.
INDEX
INDEX
Classifieds ... 9A
Crossword ... 4A
Cryptoquips ... 4A
Opinion ... 5A
Sports ... 10/
Sudoku ... 4A
WEATHER
TODAY
81 53
Partly Cloudy
Forecasts by KU students. For a complete detailed forecast for the week, see page 2A
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2011 The University Daily Kansan
Queers & Allies show that it's OK to be gay and in an open relationship
CAMPUS | 3A
During their annual Kiss In, members of the LGBTQ community and friends showed that homosexual relationship are not that different from heterosexual relationships.
GREEK LIFE | 3A
Greek community observes second annual Jason Wren Initiative
More than 1,500 people gathered to listen to Rick Barnes speak about alcohol use in honor of Jason Wren, who d'eed two years ago because of alcohol poisoning.
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