KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010 / NEWS
3A
STUDENT SENATE
$100,000 in group funding approved
BY ANNIE VANGSNES
anniev@kansan.com
Student Senate finance committee approved funding for more than 70 student groups for the 2010- 2011 school year Wednesday.
Senate allocated more than $100,000 to those groups and will allocate another $85,000 throughout the school year at its weekly meetings. That money comes from the $15.50 Student Senate fee that students pay each semester to finance campus organizations and events. Students pay a total of $423.35 in fees each semester.
Treasurer Mitch Knopp, a senior from Manhattan, said line-item budget review allows Senate to plan funding for groups that are funded annually.
"When we're allowing groups to budget that much more in advance, it gets a better value for students." Knopp said. "It also helps with officer turnover because it kind of forces groups to start planning for next year."
The funding was approved after 12 hours of meetings that took place at the end of February.
STUDENT GROUPS'
SENATE FUNDING
Edited by Anna Archibald
Most student organizations received a few hundred dollars in funding. The top five highest funded programs were:
Center for Commun
uity Outreach: $25,645
Jayhawk Motorsports:
$8.085
Student Senate Advertising Program (Senate provides ad space for other organizations to use): $7,000
Student Bar Associa tion: $6.882
Mock Trial: $6,620
Dances with drums
Chance Dibben/KANSAN
The Shidara Tako Drum company performs at the Lied Center Wednesday night. The drum group, which features highly choreographed drumming, traditional folk songs, skits and dancing, comes from the town of Toei, Japan.
CHECKERS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
and asked if they could use me"
Bruce Guy, another class checker, said he'd known Baldwin and 4 Gardner since high school.
"I'm here for the same reason as the other guys," Guy said. "I just really enjoy the kids."
One summer, when Baldwin was away and unable to do the checking, Gardner asked Guy to fill in. He reluctantly agreed, and after a week, he was hooked.
Buskirk said there were two main groups of athletes who get checked.
Though the athletes might not always like being checked on, Baldwin said there is a mutual understanding between the checkers and the student athletes.
"We check the new students coming on board so we can establish good habits early on," Buskirk said. "Beyond that, we leave it up to the counselors to decide who should be checked. It's not a by-sport issue at all."
"They know what were there to do, and they respect that," Baldwin said.
Jake Sharp, former running back, said the system provides extra motivation for athletes to excel academically.
"I didn't necessarily like being checked when I got here, but I understood that if I got good grades my freshman year, 1
wouldn't have to be checked any more," he said.
The checkers, along with Buskirk, agreed that in most cases, it's a maturing process with the athletes.
"There was this one football player who came in with a real bad attitude his first year," Gardner said. "By his senior year he respected us, and we would sit out on the steps and talk like friends."
The class checkers see several benefits to the program besides helping athletes.
"I know that I'm more interested in the games now because I actually know the guy under the helmet," Guy said.
The three checkers also said their friendship with athletes had led them to attend many of the non-revenue sporting events.
When it comes down to it, Buskirck said, the checkers are there to benefit the athletes.
"They're only there to help you, even if you don't realize it," Sharp said.
Edited by Michael Holtz
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Mark Pacey, a graduate student from Manhattan and chair of the finance committee for the student senate, and Vans Coppe, a senior from Salt Lake City and secretary of the finance committee, take questions Wednesday night from senate members regarding a proposed bill to cut $1.70 from the student media fee, which helps to fund The University Daily Kansan student newspaper. The bill, which would reduce the Kansan's budget by about $83,000, received a majority 7-3 vote to pass. The final phase of the bill will be introduced March 24 during the full Senate meeting.
FEE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
funded by The Kansan.
Montemayor said he was hopeful the proposal wouldn't pass in full Senate.
Attendees and committee members made five speeches against the proposed cut. Those included statements by The Kansan's Editor in Chief Stephen Montemayor, Business Manager Cassie Gerken and General Manager Malcolm Gibson. Senators and attendees debated the issue for almost an hour.
Montemayor, Gerken and Gibson explained how the cut would affect student jobs and the overall operation of the paper. Kansan staff couldn't provide an exact number of expected employment losses, but said at least 20 staff members could lose their jobs.
"If the reporters have to be cut and our content goes down, the product quality goes down and
"It's certainly disappointing," he said. "But it's not the end of the road by any stretch."
advertisers don't advertise' Gerken said. "So it affects a lot of things"
Edited by Taylor Bern
EDUCATION
Kansas City plans to close half its schools
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City school board narrowly approved a plan Wednesday night to close nearly half the district's schools in a desperate bid to avoid a potential bankruptcy.
The board voted 5-4 after parents and community leaders made final pleas to spare the schools even as the beleaguered district seeks to erase a projected $50 million budget shortfall. The approved plan calls for shuttering 29 of 61 schools — a striking
amount even as public school closures rise nationwide while the recession eats away at budgets.
Some parents called for Superintendent John Covington's departure after the vote, shouting, "He has to go."
Covington, one in a long line of superintendents, has spent the past month making the case to sometimes angry groups of parents and students that the closures are necessary. He declined to discuss the closures after the meeting but planned to talk at a news conference Thursday.
Laura Loyacono, 45, the parent of a 13-year-old girl and 16-yearold boy, served on a committee
that helped draft the closure proposal.
"It's not an easy thing." Loyacono said. "We knew going into it that we would have to close a significant number of schools because of the budget issues and because the resources have been so diluted and so spread out that I think some of the program quality has really suffered."
Despite the need, she said nobody likes to see schools closed.
"None of us liked voting for this,"board member and former desegregation attorney Arthur Benson said, "but it was necessary."
Associated Press
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