THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2010
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 60
DUMPSTER DIVING
Students embrace "Freeganism," consume businesses' leftover food
Dalton Gomez/KANSAN
Four bags of potatoes, three pot roasts, two bags of oranges, a package of mushrooms, a package of peppers and a package of broccoli were the salvage Thursday. If these items were found on your dinner table instead of in a dumpster, they wouldn't be given a second thought.
CAMPUS
BY SAMANTHA COLLINS
Student group helps fight childhood obesity
scollins@kansan.com
The halls of Woodlawn Elementary School echo with the sounds of barnyard animals.
"Moos" and "quacks" sound from the third-grade classroom. But these noises aren't coming from animals; they're coming from children who are walking around with their eyes shuit, trying to find their fellow mooers or quackers.
The activity was part of a program that the on-campus group GROW started this year. Erica Bennett, a junior from Emporia and co-coordinator of GROW, said the club is an initiative to promote healthy habits.
To better promote this initiative, the group designed a year-long program with monthly themes to teach third- and fourth-graders at the school how to become healthier, both mentally and physically. This month's theme is teamwork. The children played games where they
Monica Powers, left, and Erica Bennett, are co-coordinators of GROW, an on-campus group that promotes healthy habits for children.
SEE GROUP ON PAGE 3A
Audit finds School of Business to be mostly consistent in course fee usage
ADMINISTRATION
BY GARTH SEARS
gsears@kansan.com
Of the $30 million the School of Business has raised since 2004 from course fees, a third-party accounting firm reported that the school spent 99.8 percent appropriately
The report addresses concerns from several MBA students who lodged complaints with the Kansas Board of Regents this summer. The findings are from an audit by BKD LLC, the same accounting firm that investigated the Athletics Department ticket scandal.
The proposal established a student advisory committee, responsible for overseeing how the course fees were spent. But the committee was disbanded by 2006, perhaps the students' biggest complaint.
resignation wasn't related to those demands.
The report "confirms that we have used those funds for the benefit of our students and the advancement of the programs in our school," said William Fuerst, dean of the School of Business.
The school instituted the course fees in 2004, and the tuition proposal for it specified where the money could be used.
BKD LLC's audit found that 0.2 percent, or about $60,000, of the $30 million in spending was inconsistent with the original fee proposal. BKD reported that almost $28,000 in payroll to some professors over the summer of 2005 was inconsistent with the fee proposal. The audit also found that the school used more than $24,000 of course fees inappropriately to pay for fees related to accreditation and membership in the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Some of the MBA students also called for Fuerst to be fired. He announced Sept. 22 that he would step down after the academic year, but a school spokesperson told The University Daily Kansan that his
banding the committee "an oversight," and said that keeping the committee might have prevented conflict.
Provost Jeffrey Vitter called dis
"Could we have avoided the controversy by having a mechanism in place?" Vitter said. "I think the answer is yes."
The committee was re-established Oct. 21 and agreed to meet again to discuss the findings of this review.
Course fees, also called differential tuition rates, represent about 40 percent of the school's budget. On top of normal tuition, business students paid an extra $102 per credit hour in course fees this semester, and master's business students paid an extra $187 per hour.
BKD's report, released Thursday includes an appendix accounting for just under $30 million, listed by year and broken down into 17 categories of spending.
Vitter said the committee will receive reports on expenditures and planned expenditures in the future.
In a response letter at the end of the report, Fuerst said the school will review what BKD identified as inappropriate spending with the student advisory committee.
will ever answer their issue."
Although BKD found that the school spent nearly all of the fee money appropriately, the report also said the fee proposal was vague in places and that "there could be differences of opinion" about whether an expenditure conflicted with the fee proposal.
"If this doesn't answer the issues of critics, then that's their issue," Vitter said. "I don't think anything
Freegans minimize waste, save money
BY MEG LOWRY
mlowry@kansan.com
Edited by Alex Tretbar
The provost's office contracted BKD to perform the audit, which cost an estimated $50,000 and was overseen by a committee of students, faculty and staff. The provost's office paid for the audit with private donations.
In Lawrence, one man's trash may be another man's trough.
"Freeganism" is a lifestyle focused on consuming less. This can include a diet that consists of food that is free, usually obtained through "dumpster diving." Jason Herwig, a senior from Hutchinson, is a freeman.
"Ten minutes ago, this food was on a shelf," Herwig said. "But now that it is in a dumpster, it's completely foreign. That's just the regular system people understand."
Freeganism began as an anticapitalist movement in the 1960s, and regained popularity in 1999 when former Against Me! drummer Warren Oakes published "Why Fregan?"
Today, it has evolved into a lifestyle of using alternative methods to obtain food.
"I am an environmental studies major, so reducing waste is pretty much the gospel to me," said Greg Beverlin, a senior from Paola.
"You really get to see hands-on just how much is thrown away," Greg said. "Thirty seconds after food expires it is perfectly good, but the store can't risk it. They throw away dumpsters full every single day."
According to the Department of Agriculture, 90 billion pounds of food are thrown away each year. Herwig said he subsidizes the high price of local food by "dumpstering" food.
Beverlin does not adhere to
"I really believe that every dollar counts." Herwig said. "In the wasteful system we operate in, it helps me support the local economy. Instead of supporting big corporations, you are using their waste to support your local habitat."
freeganism, but started sympathizing with its ideology after working at a grocery store for six months.
Herwig said "dumpster diving" is also called "urban foraging", a term that may be easier for people to accept.
"Dumpster diving" isn't the only way to salvage food though. Helen Jin, a sophomore from Wichita, is a member of Daily Bread, an organization that goes
SEE FREEGANISM ON PAGE 3B
MEN'S BASKETBALL | 1B
Three-pointers pose a struggle for Jayhawks
The statistics from last year's team to this year's are pretty similar except when it comes to shooting from the arc.
Kansas receives higher grade in sustainability, but isn't perfect
OPINION | 5A
Columnist Kate Larrabee explains how the University scored a higher grade this year, but still needs more student involvement and leadership in sustainability. Kansas received a 'B,' just behind Texas and Colorado.
The University's new paintball club is starting practices for competitive and recreational players alike. The members hope to compete against other schools later in the year as well.
Resurrected club lets the paint fly in growing sport
CLUBS|6A
INDEX
Classifieds...2B
Crossword...4A
Cryptoquips...4A
Opinion...5A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...4A
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