THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2011
WWW.KANSAN.COM
STUDENT SENATE
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 129
CANDIDATES MAKE THE CASE
Ashleigh Lee/KAN.
Gabe Bliss, vice presidential nominee and Libby Johnson, presidential nominee for KUnited state their platforms Monday night at a debate held in the Kansas Union. Bliss and Johnson went against their opponents to talk about how they want to make experiences unique for every student.
Casey Briner, presidential nominee and Josh Dean, nominee for vice president for Renew KU talk about issues and how to resolve them between their opponents from KUnited Monday night at the Kansas Union. More than 50 people attended the event put on by the University Da Kansan.
Ashleigh Lee/KANSAN
BY JONATHAN SHORMAN jshorman@kansan.com
Candidates sparred over sustainability and attendance records in the Student Senate debate on Monday evening, in a discussion that hit on topics from wireless printing in the libraries to beer in the Kansas Union.
Presidential and vice presidential candidates for KUnited and Renew KU clashed over the prospect for sustainable restrooms, one of KUnited's platforms. According to its website, KUnited's plan
would install energy-saving hand dryers that the coalition says would cut energy use by 80 percent compared to regular dryers, and would reduce paper towel use to 1/20 of current levels.
At the debate, Renew KU vice presidential candidate Josh Dean said that studies show that hand dryers don't cut down on germs. KUnited disagreed, citing different studies.
The dispute came in the context of an argument over which coalition and candidates did the most work and had the more reliable
research.
"It's blatantly not true that we haven't done our research," Dean said.
On specific platform issues,
Dean charged that KUnited presidential candidate Libby Johnson had a poor attendance record at University Senate meetings last year. Johnson responded that it was true that she only attended one University Senate meeting last semester but that her absences were because she had class at the same time of the meetings.
Renew KU responded to a question about beer in the Union, saying that the coalition wanted to bring beer back as a way to help change the image of alcohol at the University.
Renew KU presidential candidate Casey Briner said that alcohol in the Union would come with a limit of two drinks per person, and wristbands and stamps would be used to make sure underage students are not served.
SEE DEBATE ON PAGE 6A
MORE SENATE COVERAGE
SAAC gives support to KUnited
Candidate biographies
PAGE 7A
Vote Wednesday and Thursday at Mrs. E's Dining Hall, Wescoe Beach, and online at
students.ku.edu
STUDENT SENATE
Coalitions explain technology platforms
BY JONATHAN SHORMAN
jshorman@kansan.com
The days of professors telling students to close their laptop screens would be over under KUnited's technology platform.
KUinited presidential candidate Libby Johnson and vice president candidate Gabe Bliss want to create an acceptable use policy for technology that would allow the use of laptops and other electronic devices in every classroom.
Bliss said the policy would help students who use computers to take notes. The policy would also make sure students could use electronic textbooks in the classroom.
"It would really offer an alternative to textbooks, and textbooks, we know, are a really big money drainer for students," Johnson said.
Johnson said several faculty members have expressed their support for the idea. However, Renew KU presidential candidate Casey Briner and vice presidential candidate Josh Dean said that while Renew KU agreed with the plan in principle, faculty would not approve of the
"The way (KUnited) are approaching this policy is completely counterproductive," Dean said.
"We're going to come to the plan that's best for every one on campus." Johnson said.
Johnson and Bliss acknowledged that some classes would not be well-suited to computer use but said that they would work with faculty and administration to develop a workable policy.
KUnited also wants to expand access to wireless internet on campus and in student housing.
Briner and Dean said that faculty would be hesitant to give away autonomy over their classrooms and that promoting a possible policy in a public way was not helpful.
Shannon Higgins, a junior from Bonner Springs, uses her laptop in Strong Hall.
The coaltions website says that the expansion will create a wireless network that "spans into Strong Hall, onto Wescoe Beach, next to Potter's Lake, and in all parts of Student Housing."
Johnson said expansion of the wireless network would not require a fee increase.
"There's a big pot of money that's kind of on reserve that's accumulated that can be used for wireless projects," Johnson said.
Ashleigh Lee/KANSAN
Johnson and Bliss said they hoped to work with ResNet and student
housing to provide students with multiple wireless packages.
Briner and Dean said collaboration with ResNet would be difficult.
"Student Senate doesn't have any direct influence over ResNet," Dean said.
Renew KU plans to make printing wireless throughout libraries
Edited by Danielle Packer
BY JONATHAN SHORMAN jshorman@kansan.com
Printing documents from Watson and Anschuti
libraries will become more convenient if Renew KU has its way.
Presidential candidate Casey Briner and vice presidential candidate Josh Dean want to introduce wireless printing on campus. Renew KU's website says printing documents at Watson and Anschutz can take up to 10 to 15 minutes.
"The facilities are in place, we just need to put funding toward them and we do have money to do so," Briner said.
Briner and Dean said
they wanted to give Information Technology and the libraries leverage over details of the plan, such as whether students would be able to print to the libraries from anywhere on campus or would have to be in the library.
KUnited presidential candidate Libby Johnson disagrees. Johnson said implementing wireless printing would not be straightforward and that the
infrastructure for wireless printing was not in place.
"It would take a lot more money; it might take an increase in student fees. There are security issues that I don't think have been considered," Johnson said.
Renew KU also wants to make grade distributions for classes available to students online.
Briner and Dean said that grade distributions are public record and that making the information available be helpful to students who sometimes pay money to access the distributions on third-party sites such as www.ratemyprofessor.com.
"We should be able to access our own information without paying for it," Dean said.
Johnson said the ethics of making grade distributions available online hadn't been considered. In small classes, posting a grade distribution could potentially reveal students' grades.
Renew KU's final technology platform plank email forwarding, drew praise from all sides.
Under Renew KU's plan, messages sent to graduated students' University email would be forwarded to another address.
"Think about all the resumes you've submitted while you've been in college that have your email address on them," Dean said.
Though Johnson said there are ways currently that students can have their email forwarded or create an alumni account, she supported the plan.
"I think that's a great idea," Johnson said, "and we would be in support of doing that, too."
Edited by Danielle Packer
INDEX
Classifieds ... 11A
Crossword ... 4A
Cryptoquips ... 4A
Opinion ... 5A
Sports ... 12A
Sudoku ... 4A
INDEX
WEATHER TODAY 7250
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
TICKET SCANDAI | 2A
Judge gives former consultant 46 months and $1 million fine
Tom Blubaugh will have to pay more than $840,000 to the University. He pled guilty to arranging third parties to sell tickets and covering up the profits. Blubaugh's wife, former associate athletics director in charge of the ticket office, will be sentenced on Thursday.
MEN'S BASKETBALL | 10A
Selby a notable no-show at Jayhawks' awards banquet
Coach Bill Self said that Josh Selby was still training in Las Vegas, but had not made a decision on his future at the Kansas basketball banquet Monday night. The rest of the team was in attendance, including returning contributors Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor.
---