WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008 News WWW.KANSAN.COM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
STUDENT SENATE
Leaders to receive less compensation under new policy
BY DEEPA SAMPAT
dsampat@kansan.com
Under a new policy Student Senate leaders will now receive an award compensation funded by a University Endowment Senate account. Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior and student body president, said the new policy had passed through the necessary channels and would be implemented this fall. Senate leaders will no longer be granted tuition sponsorships by Student Success funds.
The new policy, proposed by former student body president Hannah Love and former student body vice president Ray Wittlinger, provided compensation to six Student Senate positions. The student body president and vice president will receive $3,000 per semester; Student Executive committee chair, legislative director and graduate affairs representative will receive $2,000 per semester and student body treasurer will receive
$1,500 per semester.
McGonigle said he first learned that Student Success would not provide tuition sponsorships last April. The tuition sponsorships provided leaders with in-state tuition. He said that's when Love and Wittlinger came up with the new proposal.
"It was too late in the year for student senators to consider any sort of compensation increase on their own,"McGonigle said.
He said that because the Senate cycle was already almost finished in April, there was no way to find funds by writing a bill and taking it through Senate committees.
Marlesa Roney, vice provost of Student Success, said Student Success no longer provided tuition sponsorships for two reasons.
"I was only authorized to provide the funding for one year." Roney said. "Also, students raised questions about whether the administration should be paying student leaders."
The student senators who will receive the compensation are also paid $8.50 an hour for 15-20 hours of work per week.
"Student Senate leaders are some of the lowest paid student employees on campus." McGonigle said. "I think it's unfortunate our compensation doesn't compare to the amount of responsibilities Student Senate members have."
The policy will expire after the spring 2009 semester.
"This is a one year bandage fix," he said. "Ultimately the permanent fix will have to be taken care of by Student Senate."
Tom Cox, Shawnee graduate student and student rights committee vice-chair, said, after hearing about the new policy, he initially reacted unfavorably toward it. He said that if student senators want a pay raise they should request it, which he said they had not done.
"It seems ironic that they are
executive awards compensation
Office Semester Compensation
President $3,000
Vice President $3,000
StudEx Chair $2,000
Legislative Director $2,000
Graduate Affairs $2,000
Treasurer $1,500
Total $13,500
Hourly salary for 15-20 hours of work per week: $8.50
spending student money on the clock to get paid more money," Cox said.
Cox said he thought student senators should only be paid by funds from student fees because they represent the students. He said he thought neither Student Success nor Endowment should provide any sort of compensation to Student Senate
leaders.
"When they are employed by the administration or an administrative body they are not paid to represent, that creates a conflict of interest," Cox said.
LAW
—Edited By Rustin Dodd
Supreme Court not on the fence about U.S.-Mexico border
BY CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
McALLEN, Texas - A U.S. Supreme Court decision paving the way for a 670-mile federal fence along the U.S.-Mexico border drew swift criticism from environmentalists, who promised to make another legal stand in Texas.
The justices' turned down a plea Monday to hear a lawsuit opposing a two-mile section of the fence in Arizona brought by the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife.
The section of fence in question in that case has already been built and even if the court had taken the case, oral arguments would not have been heard until October.
But Monday's decision could have the most immediate implications for Texas, where opposition has been most widespread and fence construction is expected to begin next month.
The Audubon Society has already said that if the fence is built as planned in South Texas it would have to close its 557-acre Sabal Palm Audubon Center near Brownsville. The center would be left entirely in the no man's land behind the fence north of the Rio Grande.
The Nature Conservancy's Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve also would be affected, as would portions of the 90,000-acre Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, assembled over decades along the river to protect one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the country.
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ronmental, conservation and cultural laws in October to resume construction of the fence section after a federal judge halted it because there had not been enough environmental study.
ing at the Supreme Court level," said Merriewood Ferguson, a Brownsville environmentalist who has spent 25 years working to protect habitat near the river. "We're not giving up hope, there's just too much at stake."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived 19 envi-
The case rejected by the high court Monday involved a two-mile section of fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz.