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Tuesday, February 28, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Budget cuts lack reasoning
The Student Senate finance committee seems to be throwing punches wildly, like a person threatened in the dark.
In the wake of the committee's initial budget decisions made Sunday afternoon, campus groups are reeling.
The committee has the formidable task of recommending budget allocations for campus groups to the full Senate. The requests amount to about $1.8 million. The money available amounts to about $1.1 million.
Something's got to go.
University students understand being tight on money. They are often tight on money themselves. However, what's baffling about the finance committee's recent actions is the lack of solid reasoning.
solid reasoning.
Normally, when there isn't enough bread to go around, the server gives each hungry person a slice in an effort to be fair and to sustain as many as possible for as long as possible.
It seems that Senate has another idea about feeding the campus groups. One gets half a loaf, one gets a slice; and one
The KU Forensics team got a $1,100 crumb — $10,444 less than it received for 1988-89. The Kansan got a slice — half of what was received for 1988-89. The KU Recreational Services got a plateful — a 44 percent increase beyond the 1988-89 allocation.
None of those amounts are particularly inappropriate when taken by themselves, but the fact that those results all emerge from the same committee and the same budget situation seems fishy.
Some groups asked for more than twice what they received last year. After committee cuts, they still came out ahead. Other groups, including the Kansan, asked for the same amount as last year and were cut. Some groups, it seems, were penalized for not playing the game.
penalized for not paying the gueen The finance committee has recommended that the Black Student Union's budget be cut by 5 percent. At a time of racial tension on campus, make sense of that.
If the problem is tight money, the first decision should be to freeze allocations. The second should be to determine cuts by weighing the number of students affected by the group in question. The third should be to cut requests on a percentage basis if the budget still is not met.
Random cuts smell suspiciously like favoritism.
Driving and dropping out
Karen Boring for the editorial board
Teen-ager's have always had to fight their parents for the car keys. But now they have to fight the government.
State legislators across the nation recently have introduced controversial bills aimed at lowering the high-school dropout rate. But rather than encouraging students to graduate, the bills are taking the form of bribery.
The controversial proposals would take away students' rights to drive if they weren't making "satisfactory progress" toward a diploma. A recent bill in Colorado was defeated narrowly in the Statehouse. The measure would have raised the diving age to 18, but granted driving permits to students older than 16 who met requirements.
A similar bill passed in Wisconsin, where state troopers now are sent to the homes of students who have more than 15 unexcused absences to confiscate their drivers' licenses.
That type of legislation has good motives, but does not address the causes of the problem. Many students drop out of school for reasons a driver's license suspension won't cure. Some young men and women have to drop out to support their families or raise a child. Should they be forced to drive illegally to work?
Others drop out because school isn't "cool" or because they aren't succeeding. Instead of dangling a driver's license in front of their faces, how about teaching them the benefits of a good education? Supportive programs should be developed to aid those who are having trouble getting through school for social and financial reasons.
Legislators need to study the dropout problem more carefully and find positive ways to encourage students to stay in school, rather than punishing them and taking away rights with questionable legislation.
Cindy Harger for the editorial board
News staff
Julie Adam...Editor
Karen Boring...Managing editor
Jill Jeas...News editor
Do Graver...Planning editor
James Farquhar...Editorial editor
Elaine Sung...Campus editor
Tom Stinson...Sports editor
Janine Swialatkowski...Photo editor
Dave Eames...Graphics editor
Neal Gordes...Art/Feature editor
Tom Elben...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Debra Cole...Business manager
Pamela Noe...Retail sales manager
Kevin Martin...Campus sales manager
Scott Frugel...Nurse sales manager
Michelle Garland...Promotions manager
Brad Lenhart...Sales development manager
Linda Propp...Production manager
Debrink Martin...Asst. production manager
Kim Coleman...Co-op sales manager
Curt Ciccarelli
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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PUT ON YOUR HIGH-HEELED SNEAKERS
Senate budget ignores excellence
It has long been assumed that a university should promote and encourage excellence from its students. If you are of that opinion, and if you believe that type of academic excellence is supported
that type of academic excellence is rewarded by our student government representative you now call.
At revenue code budget hearings Sunday, the Student Senate finance committee tentatively cut budgets of the KU Forensics队. Black Student Union and the University Daily Kansan to less than what they received last year. It seems that quality of campus groups, importance to the University and need for money have taken a back seat to political maneuvering.
How can the committee defend its decision to cut money from nationally acclaimed organizations such as the KU Forensics team and the Kansan? And how can the Senate justify cutting the BSU budget at a time when minorities on this campus need support?
Julie Adam Editor
Forensics and BSU no doubt will suffer hardship because of Senate decisions. As for the Kansan, cutting the budget in half — from $109,898, which it has received each year since 1982, to $54,945 — won't hurt the students who were so as much as it will hurt the students who read it.
The Senate finance committee wants the Kansan to use its reserve fund of $235,000 to make up the difference of the cut. It also has assumed that the Kansan could raise advertising rates to generate more money. Both ideas result from the Kansan's misunderstanding of the newspaper business.
The reserve fund is not intended for the day-
to-day business of printing the Kansan. The computer system in the newsroom is outdated, and because of the life of the system, will not last many more years. During the past four years, the Kansan has saved that money for emergencies, such as replacing our worn-out computers. The reserve fund is intended to be used when a new system is needed, so the Kansan will not have to ask the Senate for the money.
Second, a newspaper cannot arbitrarily raise its advertising rates. The Senate requested that the Kansan give University organizations rate raises and advertising rates for our Lawrence advertisers.
Besides being unfair, favoring one business more than another is not proper training for advertising students. It also is likely that raiding advertising costs would cause some advertisers to seek space in another publication, such as the University Observer, which is scheduled to debut Thursday.
The Senate says the Kansan should move out on its own. Because the Senate is pushing the Kansan toward autonomy, it apparently thinks that the students should not pay for the publication. At a daily rate of four cents a paper per student, there is no better bargain for students at the college.
Pushing the Kansan out of the activity fee fund also would cause more students to be pushed out. Some campuses charge students for the paper. If the Senate forces the Kansan to charge students daily, it also can count on fewer students knowing what is happening on campus, even lower student turnout at Student Senate elections and an uninformed student body. The activity fund money is the students' subscription and the Kansan's circulation for the semester.
Some senators contend that a conflict of interest arises when the Kansan endorses Student Senate coalitions, because the Kansan receives money from the Senate. But that is another misunderstanding on the part of the finance committee.
The Kansan is not in the business of serving the Student Senate Rather, the newspaper serves KU students, whose money the Senate is doling out.
One committee member said he would prefer to have a mediocre campus newspaper than to finance the Kansan at current levels. The Senate passed legislation that required Forensics and RSU to pursue excellence, either.
Student Senators may not appreciate the high standards set by the groups it finances. But when students vote this spring for their government, they will be more likely to endorse senators who believe excellence is a worthy goal.
Julie Adam is a Kansas City, Kan., senior majoring in journalism.
Labels divide us
In response to Mark McCormick's Feb. 21 editorial, I must command him and others like him who feel strongly about their native heritage to secure a cultural identity.
I will be the first to agree that blacks have endured grave social injustices from the time they arrived in this country until the early 1960s. However, with a new enlightenment and the arousal of a social consciousness, the 1960s produced not only legislation prohibiting oppression against blacks, but a new social awareness of the existing problems as well.
I realize that in the case of any vast social change there are always those who will resist. But for the most part it would appear that certain barriers between races have begun to be dismantled, and instead of using terms which connote white supremacy or black oppression, we should try to come together as one unified people with a common goal of eliminating all social prejudices and creating equality and opportunity for all.
The very things that McCormick is trying to
contact with the new-found cultural identity are merely being reinforced with terms such as "African American." The term accompanies what most labels intend to do. They separate.
The term does not help further the fight against social injustice or eliminate social prejudice; rather it alienates blacks from others striving for the same cause.
Granted, blacks are adversely affected by employment, education and housing problems, but so are whites, Hispanics and many other ethnic groups.
I would hope that McCormick could see clearly to understand that others see the same problems facing America, but on a grander scale. The confusion of what to call ourselves really isn't necessary because most people share the common goals of social justice.
Lynn McVay Wichita senior
Silent Slattery
On Feb. 17, Jim Slattery stated in the State Capitol that the United States must "rethink our commitment to a 600-ship Navy and to unreliable, exotic weapons systems."
It is easy for a politician to call for such cuts in defenses as usual, offers no specifi- *c* up his刷皮.
Perhaps Slattery wants to cut support for the B-1 bomber based in Wichita. Perhaps Slattery
wants to cut support for defense research and development projects, some of which have provided jobs and education in the state.
In the past I have asked Slattery to explain his vote for Jim Wright as Speaker of the House. He remained silent. In the past I have asked Jim Slattery to clearly state his position on Washburn University as a part of the state Regents system. He remained silent.
It would be reasonable for the people of the 2nd District to conclude that Jim Slattery has no specific proposals for defense cuts unless he makes them clear.
Will Stallery tell us of all the cuts he proposes for the defense of our country? Or
Doug Martin
Topeka resident
Uniform misnomer
I noticed that your basketball team has the words "Kansas University" printed on its uniforms. My diploma says that I graduated from the University of Kansas. Has the University of Kansas changed its name, or has the basketball team simply decided to misspell the name of the school it represents? I think that simply putting "Kansas" on the uniforms (as in the past) is preferable to using the name of a school that doesn't exist.
Eric Cooper
Minneapolis, Minn., resident
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed