Friday inside
Cultural celebration The Asian-American Student Union will hold it annual Asian Festival next week. The festival includes an art show, film festival, games, dance performances and a food tasting. PAGE 3A
Heading to Mass. St. Vermont St. BBQ is moving into the space formerly occupied by Paradise Cafe.The new location will allow the restaurant to have sit down meals and a bar for the first time. PAGE 5A
Out for revenge
Despite recent losses,the Jayhawks are focused or
scoring a victory against the Iowa State Cyclones. In its last match, Kansas lost to Iowa 68-61. PAGE 1B
Crumpeteers
Students have found a new favorite
sport at the University of Kansas. Armed with Wiffle Ball bats, teams with names such as 'Princess Carriage' are battling it out on the fieldhouse lawn. Athletic? Maybe. Energetic? Sure. Hilarious? Definitely. PAGE 1B
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Comic 6A
KANSAN
February 20, 2004 IN ITS 100TH YEAR AS THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Vol.114 Issue No.97
Schools oppose budget
Kansas universities reject budget proposal to 'tax students'
By Anna Clovis
aclovis@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas Student Senate does not stand alone in opposing part of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' proposed budget.
Yesterday at the Board of Regents meeting in Topeka, John O'Hara, Kansas State University student body president, presented a resolution written by the Students' Advisory Committee that supported the intent of the budget, but not the methods of reallocating money.
The Students' Advisory Committee is a subcommittee of the Regents composed of the student body presidents and student legislative directors of all six Regents universities in Kansas.
According to Gov. Sebelius' budget proposal, fee-based programs such as the Department of Student Housing and Watkins Memorial Health Center might face budget cuts. The money from these programs would be used for university faculty and staff salary increases.
In order to compensate for the budget cuts in the programs, Gov. Sebelius suggested what the Committee called a tax
on students.
The Committee also asked for Gov. Sebelius and fellow state leaders to never use student fees and tuition to pay for the fee-based programs.
Ryan Faulconer, a member of the committee that wrote the resolution, said the committee said using money from student fees to make up for the proposed gap in state funding was "blatantly unacceptable."
The Regents said the resolution was "very well done" and encouraged the committee to send it to every state legislator.
O'Hara said five of the six Regents universities had passed similar resolutions in their student senates. He said Emporia State planned to pass a resolution concerning the proposed budget this week.
Faulconer said it was good to know that the other Regents universities supported the University of Kansas resolution.
The University of Kansas was the first to pass such a resolution on Feb. 4.
"We're all in it together." Faulconer said. "It's stronger than just one university."
Edited by Cindy Yeo
Lacrosse the sky
Mecan True/Kansan
Jordan Mallin, St. Louis senior, and Ryan Wallace Overland Park senior, discussed lacrosse tactics yesterday afternoon at Broken Arrow Park. Mallin said that the team looked good this season and it has several new guys that should help the team.
Election goal unfulfilled
Coalition working to create new position
By Andy Marso
amarso@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Editor's note:
Every Friday The University Daily
Kansan will review one of the past platform's of
Student Senate coalitions to update readers on how the programs have progressed. This is the fourth article in the series. Next week, the Kansan will look at Delta Force's recycling in residence halls platform.
As the former men's outreach coordinator at the Emily Taylor Women's
Resource Center, Travis Weller became familiar with the damage that sexual assault can do.
"I have friends who are survivors." Weller, Garden City senior, said. "I don't think it's an issue that's addressed on campus very often."
So, when Weller decided to run for Senate with Delta Force last year, he made sure one of the coalition's platform issues was to expand the University of Kansas' sexual-assault prevention services.
A year later, the University has one part-time employee to address sexual-assault prevention and education — but Weller thinks it needs at least one full-time employee, if not more.
Weller researched other universities and found that most of similar size to the University had at least one full-time position. Among the universities Weller researched were Kansas State, University of Colorado and University of Iowa.
With that in mind, Weller and Delta Force vice presidential candidate Fallon Farokhi proposed using money from the tuition increases to fund a full-time sexual-assault-prevention employee at the University.
"It was one of the big selling points of our campaign," Farokhi said. "Some people didn't know we even had sexual assault prevention services."
SEE ELECTION ON PAGE 8A
Voting irrelevant for students
Focus is on 'service politics'
By Ron Knox
rknox@kansan.com
kansan staff writer
When college students get involved in politics, they volunteer, work in their communities and protest politics and policies.
The New Student Politics, a study on student civic engagement comprised of 33 students from 27 colleges and universities, found that voting is often irrelevant for college students' political involvement.
But they don't show up at the polls at election day.
This study was based on information provided by Campus Compact, a nationwide organization of university presidents that aims to get students involved in politics. The study also reports that instead, students are more actively involved in what the statement calls "service politics," politics that emphasize
"People are getting involved in politics for their own reasons, not just because they feel a duty to vote," said Sarah Long, author of The New Student Politics statement, at a Campus Compact conference yesterday.
community involvement rather than traditional civic service, including voting and lobbving legislators.
Several other groups reported similar information, illustrating a trend among college students around the country.
According to a Harvard University Survey, 60 percent of college students have been involved in community service in the past year.
But according to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 32 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds voted in the 2000 presidential election.
SEE VOTING ON PAGE 8A
Robin Majerle, Olathe freshman, went to a teleconference about youth voting and the political process in America yesterday afternoon at the Relays Room in the Burge Union. Majerle went to the teleconference because it was part of her Freshman Honors tutorial class.
Meeting empowers members of BSU
By Jodie Kraftt
jkraftt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Daniels said the conference was an opportunity for students to step into leadership roles on black student government.
A year of planning and fundraising should pay off for members of the Black Student Union who traveled to Manhattan yesterday for a Big 12 conference, said Tony Daniels, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
"These students get to see more student leaders that are African-American like themselves," Daniels said. "They get to talk about social issues, converse and share experiences."
"I'm eager to have the students feel the energy of being around other students like themselves," she said.
In addition to empowerment, one purpose of the conference is to bring students together to network and share ideas, said Santos Nuñez, adviser for the organization.
Thirty Black Student Union members are attending the conference called "Empowerment: Learning From Our Past to Conquer Our Future," a three-day event hosted by Kansas State University.
Leadership and inclusiveness are also important ideas for students to take away from the conference, said Robert Page Jr., director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Page will speak tomorrow on leadership and the importance of Big 12 council schools working together with smaller, non-Big 12 universities.
Page said 1,100 students from 48 schools were attending the conference. Renita Norman, Topeka junior, said she went to the conference as a freshman and sophomore and liked making contacts and getting moral support from other students.
"It's great to be around so many African American students who are trying to do something with their lives." Norman said
Students attending the conference can attend workshops, speeches and social events. The executive board of the Big 12 council will meet to discuss new legislation and ways to improve black student unions across the Big 12 area.
One piece of legislation proposed would implement a state caucus for non-Big 12 schools, said Mark Dupree, Big 12 council president.
"It would bring more black collegates together," the Kansas City, Kan, senior, said.
Trey Allen, president of the Black Student Union, said he wanted communication between students at the conference to result in more ideas and events for the organization.
"We're hoping to expand on what we do for our general assembly as a whole," the Wichita sophomore said. "We want to keep people coming back after the conference."
Allen said schools within the Big 12 council were willing to support each other, despite competition. He said the organization worked to get various sponsors to bring in more money for Kansas State to host the conference.
Each year, the conference location rotates among the nine schools in the Big 12 council. The University hosted the 2001 conference and hosts again in 2009.
Edited by Guillaume Doane
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