Wednesday inside
West campus cougar A scientist at the University of Kansas gave what he believed to be conclusive evidence of a cougar on West Campus. Other state researchers don't think the animal is wild because it is in a highly populated area. PAGE 3A.
Topeka efforts The University Senate Executive Committee wants to improve its lobbying skills at the capital. University Relations is communicating with KU faculty and staff to keep SenEx better informed on lobbying efforts. PAGE 3A.
A different kind of Jayhawk
Despite a 27-game winning streak against
Despite string Kansas State, the Kansas men's basketball
team won't let its past success influence tonight's game. Bill Self's Jayhawks are a different squad. PAGE 1B.
Pitching success The Kansas baseball team continues its strong start to the season with players such as Mike Zagurski. The pitcher, a junior college transfer, has added his skill and experience to the team along with eight other transfer players. Zagurski has high expectations for the season.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
index
Briefs 2A
Opinion 4A
Sports 1B
Sports briefs 2B
Horoscopes 3B
Comic 3B
KANSAN
January 28, 2004 IN ITS 100TH YEAR AS THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Vol. 114 Issue No.80
Coalition names candidates
Blake Swenson, Kevin McKenzie of Delta Force will attempt to defeat KUnited in this spring's Student Senate election
By Andy Marso
amarso@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Blake Swenson is getting ready for the busiest semester of his life. The Topeka senior is in the midst of his first year as an off-campus senator, but Senate and school aren't all he'll be juggling soon. Swenson will run for student body president this April after securing the Delta Force coalition's nomination. His running mate will be Kevin McKenzie, Salina sophomore.
Swenson was nominated at a November Delta Force meeting, after a run-off with another coalition member. It was a moment he had been hoping for
since watching last year's Delta Force campaign end in defeat.
"I saw the dejected faces at our party last year as the results came in and I knew this group could do big things on campus to make this university better," Swenson said. "My brother was with me and I turned to him and said, 'I think I want to run next year.'"
Swenson accomplished his goal to run for student body president, but the next challenge is more daunting.
In the eight-year history of Delta
Swenson
Force, only Justin Mills has ever been elected student body president. Mills and running mate Kyle Browning won the 2002 election.
Swenson ran for a Senate position with Delta Force last year. He lost his election, but gained a spot as a replacement senator this year.
Kevin McKenzie's brother, Scott McKenzie, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator and five-year Delta Force member, said he saw some similarities between Mills and Swenson.
"What's great about both these guys is that they try to include everybody," Scott McKenzie said. "Some politicians work by having a small core group of supporters, but these two try to get different perspectives, get different people involved."
Swenson said getting a diverse group of students involved in Delta Force's campaign would definitely be a priority.
He said he had already contacted 85 leaders of student groups and asked them to run with Delta Force. Those leaders included members of the greek community.
"We want to help people get over the idea that Delta Force is anti-Greek," Swenson said. "We're not anti-greek. We want to work with people who want to make the University better and I know there are greeks that want that."
Stamping for Art
Megan True/ Kansar
Tim Holtzolaw, Wichita senior, stamped flyers for the Art Department Senior Show last night. The opening reception for the show begins Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Art and Design Building.
State cuts balance bigger budget New budget could mean higher tuition
SEE DELTA FORCE ON PAGE 8A
By Ron Knox
rknox@kansan.com
Kansan stuff writer
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' budget for fiscal year 2005 plays a give-and-take game with the University of Kansas' money and could result in higher fees for students, said Lindy Eakin, vice provost for administration and finance.
The budget proposal, released Jan. 19, called for increases in the budget of all six Board of Regents universities, including the University of Kansas.
Examples of non-personnel expenditures include utilities, technology programs and landscaping. The reductions could force income-based programs like housing to increase fees for next year.
"They'll tell you how much the University will receive," Eakin said. "What they don't tell you is what we're giving up in other places."
Those reductions in other places will result in a 10 percent cut in non-personnel expenditures.
But Sebelius' ongoing struggle to cut money from the state's operating and spending budgets will erase almost all monetary gains the University could receive.
"Housing will have to look really hard
at what they are going to do," Eakin said.
Along with housing, programs like parking and continuing education could see cuts in their operating budgets as well, Eakin said.
But large financial reserves allow those programs to maintain student's fees unlike housing, which suffers from low reserves and higher operating costs.
"If they don't have it in reserves, the money will have to come from somewhere." Eakin said.
The Housing Department has not yet been contacted by the Provost Office regarding the possibility of budget cuts and could not comment.
If housing does increase fees, the increases would not take effect until next year. Eakin said.
The possible cuts stem from a new mandate in Sebelius' budget designed to repair the relationship with some civil service employees.
Sebellus' proposed budget authorized a 3 percent increase in state employees' salaries, a marked raise after three years of nearly no increases because of state financial turmoil.
The total increase equaled more than $19 million for all state universities, or about $3.27 million for the University of Kansas.
Gov. Sebelius' proposed 2005 budget
Amount added to state employee raises:
$3,272,623
Amount taken away by Budget Efficiency Savings Team:
$3,247,856
Total remaining amount added to KU budget:
$24,767
The gap leaves about $25,000, which is not nearly enough to fund the 3 percent employee raise outright.
But because of cuts authorized by the Administration's Budget Efficiency Savings Teams, a program Sebelius installed to trim the state budget, the University will lose more than $3.2 million—almost the entire amount of the allocated budget increase.
So the University must find the money elsewhere, typically from a program that collects fees to support its services.
SEE BUDGET ON PAGE 8A
New bill could boost bioscience industry
By Becca Evanhoe bevanhoe@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
A $500 million plan designed to promote Kansas' bioscience industry could new resources to the University of Kansas.
Provost David Shulenburger said he thought the plan would benefit the state and that he was optimistic about money it could bring in to the University.
With new companies comes more money, and a better economy for Kansans in general.
The 10-year plan is two-fold: funding bioscience research will create new products and patents.
The Kansas Economic Growth Act, presented yesterday by state Rep. Kenny Wilk (R-Lansing) and state Sen. Nick Jordan (R-Shawnee), would fund science research, which their hoping will lead to more jobs.
Also, the state will provide ways for these innovations to turn into companies through a series of programs.
Bioscience research, which includes drug manufacturing and medical supplies, is a hot topic in research.
The U.S. Federal Reserve estimates that biosciences will make up 15 to 18 percent of the U.S. economy in the next 20 years.
In the bill, Jordan and Wilk propose to match federal grants for research, fund new labs and equipment and partner the University's researchers with corporations.
If passed, the plan claims it will create more than 20,000 jobs in the biosciences industry, almost doubling the current amount of such jobs in Kansas.
While Jordan and Wilk hope that the plan will make the State a leader in the biosciences industry, University researchers hope that they will be able to cash in on the funding and new facilities that the bill promises.
"This is something that KU has been positioning itself for for some time," said Jeff Aube, chair of the medicinal chemistry department.
If the state becomes more involved and committed, Aubé said, then the result can only be progress.
Jack Fincham, dean of the school of pharmacy, agreed.
"I see it benefiting us because it highlights biomedical research, which is one of the main things this school is known for," he said.
Part of the bill details the formation of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, which would have the task of recruiting star professors and scholars to the state, aiding commercialization and funding the initiative.
Should the bill pass, the University could see some of the funds by the next fiscal year, Shulenburger said.
Edited Henry C. Jackson
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