4A
STATE
POLITICS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2007
Issues remain unresolved
Deferred maintenance high priority; annual break brings no closure
BY JOHN HANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — When legislators started their annual session in January, their leaders spoke with urgency of the need to deal with deteriorating buildings on state university campuses. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius made it high priority.
The Board of Regents estimates its universities have a backlog of $663 million worth of repair projects, and it believes the list will grow if legislators don't pass a plan this year. But the board also doubts some of the ideas being floated.
But relatively little happened during the 82 days that followed. No comprehensive plan addressing a backlog of university repairs has emerged from committee. Sebelius outlined a proposal, but it was dead before the bill was introduced.
Legislators are taking their annual spring break and are scheduled to reconvene April 25 for a brief session, wrapping up their business for the year. While they've yet to finish work on other major issues, like health care, they're the farthest away from a resolution on the universities' problem.
Senate President Steve Morris (R. Hugoton) said it was an urgent issue last week.
The university's maintenance problem is actually two issues bundled together. The first is the backlog, which would require a large, yet-to-be-provided infusion of money over a short period of time.
The second is the annual cost of keeping up with maintenance, so that the backlog doesn't grow, which the regents estimates at $84 million.
The state levies a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value to finance educational building projects, and it raises about $31 million annually. But almost half of that money is going to pay off bonds for a "Crumbling Classrooms" initiative designed in 1996 to address some maintenance issues.
If the universities want to put more than the remaining $16 million into maintenance, they have to divert the money from other programs.
"It's a big price tag, and the challenge is to identify revenue streams that deal not only with the backlog but with the ongoing need to ensure that sufficient dollars are flowing to state universities to deal with maintenance," Reggie Robinson, the regents' chief executive officer, said.
Whatever the reasons for the lack of progress toward a comprehensive plan, it's clear that addressing the universities' maintenance is the biggest piece of business left for legislators.
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The University of Kansas
COLLEGE SPORTS
Dick Whipple/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Recruiting hype affects athletes
BY DAVE SKRETTA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Blake Larson, right, speaks with fellow officers during Crisis Intervention Team training at the Lenexa Police Station on Friday. Larson, a police officer in suburban Kansas City, was a 6-foot-7, 320-pound offensive lineman and the prized recruit of the University of Iowa a few years ago. He never started a game and quit the program after his junior year. Larson is one of many former high school stars whose college careers never fulfilled their unrealistic expectations.
SHAWNEE — Blake Larsen wishes he could have been just another guy on campus.
Larson, a police officer in suburban Kansas City, was the 6-foot-7, 320-pound offensive lineman and the prized recruit of the University of Iowa a few years ago. He was a Parade All-American, rated by several experts as the top offensive line prospect in the country.
Larsen never started a game.
Larsen never started a game.
“It’s tough to stay grounded,” he said, reflecting on a promising career gone awry. “You’re the center of attention. You start to believe your own hype.”
Larsen quit the Hawkeyes program after his junior year and is one of many former high school stars whose college careers are tarnished by unfulfilled, and often unrealistic, expectations.
While injuries and academic problems have doomed many, experts and administrators increasingly say external influences — mainly fans and the media
— are contributing to the downfall of high school athletes when they reach college.
In some cases, players develop a sense of entitlement that sets them up for failure, said Dr. Doug Gardner, a sports psychologist with ThinkSport Consulting Service in Lafayette, Calif. In other cases, athletes wilt under the pressure and scrutiny.
"A lot of young people get totally absorbed in the situation," Gardner said. "They're flattered that someone is interested in them."
R. Gerald Turner, co-chairman of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, said the increased attention is "dramatically impinging upon the lives of student-athletes," turning them into commodities by people "who
care nothing about them other than their news value"
Turner, the longtime president of Southern Methodist University, said there is a pressing need for reform in recruiting, but acknowledges there is no good way to curtail growing public interest.
"We've become very concerned with the intrusiveness of the whole process on the lives of these young people," Turner said, "as if nothing about college is of importance other than how many stars they get on their athletic ranking."
Companies such as Rivals.com and Scout.com have found a niche in recruiting coverage, and in turn are becoming the target of athletics reformers like Turner.
By the time the football signing period ended April 1, both sites had posted extensive profiles on nearly every player who signed a Division I letter of intent. Most were accompanied by photographs and video clips.
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