WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2006
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 5A
Should the Student Activity Fee portion of the Student Senate Rules and Regulations be amended as follows?
BY NICOLLE KELLEY
r.kelley@kansai.com
KANSAS STATE WRITER
The following information shows the amendments that would be made to each fee if the referendum on election ballots next week is passed. Entries with a mark-through indicate alterations or eliminations of fees
A. Student Senate Activity Fee $17.50 $10.00
B. Student Union Fee
Building Fee $33.00
Renovation Fee $12.00
C. Student Health Fee
Operations $90.50 $60.00
Facilities, maintenance, and equipment $1.50
D. Child Care Facility Construction Fee $4.00
E. Women's and non-Revenue Intercollegiate Sports Fee $20.00
F. Student Recreation Fee
Recreational Services $7.25 $5.00
Recreational Facilities $52.50
Sports Clubs $2.25 $2.00
G. Student Media Fee $3.00 $4.00
H. Campus Safety Fee $2.00 $3.00
I. Educational Opportunity Fee $6.00 $3.00
J. Campus Transportation Fee $18.00
K. Campus Environmental Improvement $3.00
L. Legal Services $8.50 $7.00
M. Newspaper Readership Program Fee $5.00
N. Multicultural Resource Center Construction Fee $3.50
O. Student Union Activities Fee $5.00
Source: Elections Commission
The Multicultural Affairs committee has been working on this initiative all semester as a way to promote multicultural education on campus. If the referendum is passed in next week's Student Senate elections it would add about $70,000 to the Senate budget.
Should the Student Activity Fee be increased $1.50 per semester and 75 cents in the summer term to fund Multicultural Education Enhancement?
"This referendum is a poorly written and dishonest push to help a section of student groups at the expense of the whole body of organizations," Jones said. "Coalitions don't want to talk
Craig said the money from the fee increase would be used to fund multicultural education events. It would allow any organization that puts on an event that falls under the multicultural definition to receive more funding after going through Senate for general funding.
Nolan T. Jones, Pittsburg junior and Senate communications director, said that this particular referendum was the most misleading item on the ballot and would not promote a positive multicultural education at the University.
about the damage this fee does for fear of sounding 'against multiculturalism' but to oppose this referendum is to support everyone's cultures instead of Multicultural Affairs Committee's hand-ricked few."
Jones said that this initiative was saying that multicultural events were more important than other student events. He said it would damage the relationship among student groups by fostering arguments about whether or not the event falls under the guidelines of being multicultural.
Craig said the small increase the initiative was asking for was not a big trade-off for what the University would be gaining from better multicultural events. She said that by giving those organizations more money the group would be able to spend less time fund raising and more time advertising and making the event even better.
Edited by Kathryn Anderson
Should the Student Activity Fee be increased by $20 to fund women's and non-revenue intercollegiate sports?
Earlier this semester the Athletics Department gave a committee that was reviewing student fees two proposals to increase the women's and non-revenue sports fee. One would increase the amount by $20 and the other by $5. The committee decided to support the $5 increase and take it to a vote in Student Senate. The fee increase of $5 was failed during Senate meetings.
Not giving up, the Athletics Department decided to collect signatures and get the other original proposal of $20 a semester put on the ballot for the students to vote on.
jm Marchiony, associate athletics director, said the fee increase was needed so the Athletics Department could better support the teams that aren't making their own money.
Of the $20 increase, $15 would be used to build a boathouse for the women's rowing team, which it does not have. He said that the project would cost between $2 million and $3 million, so the Athletics Department would have to raise whatever amount of money the fee didn't cover. He said that if it failed to raise that extra amount, the Athletics De-
parment had made a commitment to the Senate that it would refund $15 of the fee to each student.
that would affect many students.
Marchiony said he thought students would be willing to support the fee because they would want to be able to see competitive women's and non-revenue sports teams. He said that the fee was needed to keep the University up-to-date on the Title IX code that says all equipment, scholarships and general funds for men's and women's sports teams must be equal. If the University fails to meet that requirement, the federal government can withhold funds
Nathan Ladd, Effingham senior and junior/senior CLAS senator, said that he did not support the fee increase. He said that because the Athletics Department was a corporation, it was able to raise large sums of money through such things as endorsements without student support.
"I think asking us to pay for a rowing facility that will only benefit a small percent of people on campus is not money well spent," Ladd said.
Edited by Matt Wilson
Should the Student Activity Fee portion of the Student Senate rules and regulations be reduced by $46?
Students pay $294.50 a semester in required campus fees. If this referendum passed, that amount would be reduced to $248.50, saving students $46 a semester.
Dennis Chanay, Paola sophomore and presidential candidate for the $100 Fee Cut coalition, said he had been working on this initiative is because he thought students were paying too much, and the burden was keeping some students from attending the University.
He said that many of the fees students
are paying were for things that students shouldn't even be involved with. He used the Campus Environmental Improvement fee as an example, and said that trusting that money to student politicians who don't know about grounds-keeping didn't seem right.
This particular issue has brought up many questions and has people wondering if something like this could actually hurt Student Senate in the long run.
Stephanie Craig, Edmond, Okla.
senior and holdover server for Del
ta Force, said that if this referendum passed, it would be devastating to many important resources on campus. She said she thought the people who wrote the initiative were trying to take a stand against how much students pay at the University, but that the services they were cutting were too important.
"I think students need to vote no on that and preserve what students have here at KU," Craig said.
To learn more about the different campus fees and what they are used for, visit kucampusfees.org, a site created by Delta Force to help educate students before voting on this issue.
Chanay said he didn't expect the
fee cut to hurt Senate. He said that it hurt his trust in the organization to hear that Senate wouldn't be able to do anything after the 15 percent cut because they already had "millions of dollars at their finger tips."
Edited by Kathryn Anderson
Book recounts residential life
BY RACHEL PARKER
rparker@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Many students going into their freshman year of college have heard residence hall stories from previous years, whether they be from older friends, residence assistants or fellow residence hall residents. The experience has been said to be irreplaceable.
A new book, highlighting the memories of University of Kansas alumni and their experiences in student housing between 1919 and 1966, is going to be available in KU Bookstores. Friday.
Fred McElhenie, researcher and writer for the Department of Student Housing, collaborated with more than 900 former KU student housing residents during a span exceeding five years so he could write "Making Do and Getting Through: KU Co-ops, Halls and Houses 1919-1966."
McElhenie said he wanted the students from each generation at the University to understand what life was like for the other, and for the department to recognize the enhancement student housing might have on its residents' lives.
Some students said their favorite college memories came from experiences in the residence halls. Friends Renae Saathoff, Lawrence sophomore; Beth Sholin, Kansas City, Kan., sophomore; and Danielle Wright, Ellsworth sophomore, all laughed as Wright told a story about her residence hall last year.
Wright and her suitemates tried to unclog her shower in Templin with the help of a drain remover given by one of her suitemate's fathers.
"It made like three floors smell like rotten eggs," she said.
Wright and her suitesmites met through random room assignment, and became good friends.
Shomin, who became friends with most of the people on her floor in Oliver, agreed that the residence halls were the best way to meet friends.
While some entries in the book are humorous, others are touching. McElhenie's was moved by a story contributed by Mou-Hui King, who talked about one New Year's celebration he spent at the University:
"For some of the boys, that was the last New Year's Eve before going off to war, for a few it was to be the last New Year's ever."
The development of bigger and newer residence halls like the ones we see today was caused in part by the enrollment boom that came after World War II.
McElhenie said the book contained recollections from the cream of the crop; athletes, World War II veterans, the Mayor of Washington D.C. and a Princeton professor, to name a few.
McEllenbie has been at the University since 1958. He has held numerous positions, including the dean of men, assistant director of Centennial College, director of residential programs and associate director of Student Housing for Residence Life.
Edited by Matt Wilson
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