thursday, march 18, 2004
news
the university daily kansar
3A
Proposed recycling fee increase will be on spring election ballot
By Andy Marso
amarso@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Student Senate approved an initiative to send a $1 fee increase for campus recycling to a student referendum last night.
The increase will be voted on by the student body in Senate's general election April 14 and 15. If approved, it would increase the Campus Environmental Improvement Fee from $2 per semester to $3.
The added funds would go to hire more Facilities Operations employees to accommodate expansions in the University's recycling.
Facilities Operations officials recently ordered ten 50-gallon recycling bins to put at five campus locations: Wescoe Hall, the Kansas Union, Summerfield Hall, Burge Union and Learned Hall. They also ordered two 18-foot mobile storage trailers complete with a baler to compress the recyclables.
Doug Riat, Facilities Operations director, said the fee increase would help his department by providing another employee to manage the new equipment.
Nick Sterner, Senate community affairs director, co-wrote the initiative with Jason Boots, engineering senator. Sterner said the increase, if approved, would add at least one full-time recycling position to the current one full-time and 10 part-time positions. Boots said the new equipment wouldn't be as useful unless Facilities Operations had more personnel to manage the collections and emptying of the trailers.
Campaign violation being investigated
Sterner said a number of other recycling projects also were in the works, including 20 more bins and a proposed 5,000 square foot recycling center to be built on West Campus.
The Elections Commission is investigating a complaint of KUUnited representatives soliciting in Templin Hall.
The complaint was filed Tuesday by Kristan Seibel, Association of University Residence Halls senator.
Seibel filed the complaint after reading a report in Templin's desk shift log about KUnited candidates entering Templin accompanied by a Templin resident last Friday. The report stated that the candidates
went upstairs with KUnited buttons and posters without checking in at the front desk. Jana Szatkowski, Student Senate communications director, was one of the KUIned members at Templin that day. She said they had been invited into Templin by residents and didn't solicit door-to-door. Dane Hague, Elections Commissioner, said the commission was investigating the complaint and would hold a hearing about it shortly after spring break.
EVERY WEEK THE Kansan PROFILES ONE STUDENT SENATOR.
SENATE SPOTLIGHT
Other Senate news:
Senate narrowly passed a
Name: Jake Hills
Year: sophomore
Hometown: Bonner Springs
Position: Freshman/sophomore
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator.
Years in Senate: two
Senate accomplishment he's proud of: Opening the lines of communication with Kim Wilcox, dean of the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences
Goal: Get a KUID cash-to-card machine in Anschutz Library.
Where he would be
Wednesday
nights if he wasn't at Senate meetings; In Anschutz Library studying or at home watching reuns of Family Guy on DVD.
resolution to oppose a ban on gay marriage at the state or federal level. The resolution stated that a ban on gay marriage would conflict with the University's Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which forbids discrimination against homosexuals. Some senators said the resolution should have been grounded in the U.S. Constitution instead of the code, while others argued that it didn't accurately reflect the opinions of University students. The final vote was 21 in favor, 21 against and 9 abstained. Catherine Bell, student body vice president, cast the tie-breaking vote in favor.
Senate approved two new replacement senators. Armando
Noriega, Lima, Peru, graduate student, and Preeti Krishnan, Musqat, Oman, graduate student, are engineering students and were approved for two graduate senator seats.
Adam Taff, Kansas City, Kan., resident, and a Republican candidate for the state's third district House of Representatives seat, addressed Senate. Taff spoke about his military experience and fielded questions.
Senate approved its lineitem budget for 2005. The budget will distribute $129,325 in student fees to 48 campus organizations.
-Edited by Paul Kramer
Pulitzer-winner talks politics at Lied Center
By Marc Ingber
mingber@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Although people wanted to hear David Broder's political predictions last night, the only one he was willing to make was regarding the Kansas men's basketball team.
The next couple months will allow the public to form its opinion, Broder said.
"I am confident you will prevail. That is my first and last prediction," he told the audience at the Lied Center, referring to the team's game tonight against the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Broder, political correspondent for The Washington Post, came as part of the Anderson Chandler Lecture Series sponsored by the School of Business.
Annie Bernethy/Kansan
David Broder, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, spoke on the political and economic challenges of 2004 last night at the Lied Center.
During the 2000 election, Broder said he thought of George W. Bush as a slightly right-of-center politician.
Broder, who won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1973, spoke about topics ranging from media bias to strengths and weaknesses of presidential candidate John Kerry and President Bush.
He said Bush was seen as a decisive leader who staked out his positions and stuck to them.
"My sense of him was a throwback," he said, comparing Bush to past Republican spideries such as the Gerald Ford administration.
Although it has shown some signs of improving, the economy is one area where Bush seems to be vulnerable, Broder said.
Bush's opponent, U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) had an aloof personality, Broder said. That makes him not well liked personally by members of either party, but Broder said he was well-respected.
Bush's huge tax cuts and huge increases in defense spending as well as his calls for change in public education quickly proved Broder wrong.
Another topic Broder discussed was Ralph Nader's decision to enter the presidential race. He said Nader's contention that there was no difference between a Democrats and Republicans was nonsense.
When asked if the media was biased, he said it wasn't a sure thing either way.
Surveys in recent decades show that newsrooms vote more Democratic than the country as a whole, he said. But on the flipside, Broder said surveys showed that people who run the editorial page vote more conservatively.
The political journalists
Broder knew throughout his career weren't very opinionated either way, he said.
"My strong impression is there is so little political ideology in that group, it barely fills a thimble." he said.
Instead, he said that it was more common for journalists to be found at a bar at the end of the day, gossiping about politicians' speaking abilities.
"I thought it was cool to picture Broder in a bar talking about everyday things and gossip," Frank Tankard, Overland Park freshman, said.
— Edited by Henry C. Jackson