Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, January 24, 1991
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Campus groups battle for shares of this year's student activity fees
Budget hearings begin tonight in Senate's finance committee
By Michael Christie Kansan staff writer
About $150,000 must be trimmed from the requests of 19 student groups that are seeking financing from Student Senate, said Craig Fulton, Student Senate Finance Committee chairperson.
Fulton said the amount was small in comparison with past budget hearings.
He said $150,000 was not much considering 19 groups were requesting financing.
Budget hearings begin in the finance committee. The first groups seeking money will appear before the committee at 7 tonight in the Kansas Union. They are Student Senate, Campus Transportation, Graduate Student Council, University Dance Company and University of Kansas Concert, Chamber Music and New Directions Series.
Each semester. $28 of a student's
fees are designated to the student activity fee. This money, which totals $1,288,150 this year, is allocated by Senate to various groups that request money and that get Senate approval for their requests.
Before the finance committee can approve each group's budget, the group must prove it deserves financing. The Student Senate Executive Committee and finance committee decide whether the groups deserve code status, which means they are eligible to receive two-year financing.
Graduate Student Council is requesting an increase of $54,528 in its annual budget.
Oscar Quiros, executive coordinator, said that although graduate students made up about 25 percent of KU's student population and were in the organization last year received only 6 percent of the student activity fee.
'We feel we should have a bigger share of our contributions.'
The requested increase would
- Oscar Quiros
coordinator of
Graduate Student Council
increase the percentage slightly, to about 8 percent, he said.
"We feel we should have a bigger share of our contributions," Quiros said.
More than half of Graduate Student Council's budget is reserved for special projects. Quiros said the amount included subsidizing travel expenses for graduate students to present their research at conferences. A graduate student is allowed a one-time, $250 stipend to defray travel costs to a conference, he said, but not all graduate students have received this stipend in the past because money has run out.
Special project money is spent to bring speakers to the University of Kansas as well, he said. All are recognized in their fields, and this
benefits the University, Quiros said.
Student Senate also must go through the budget hearing process, Fulton said. Salaries for Senate members and money for other Senate expenses would be paid from the $83,146 that Senate is requesting.
University Dance Company is requesting twice what it received last year. It is receiving $6,000 from the company and is requesting $12,204 for next year.
Rita Riley, office assistant in the department of music and dance, helped prepare the budget for the dance company.
She said the requested increase would help pay for better costumes, supplies and personnel expenses. More people are needed to design costumes than the present budget allows, she said.
Chamber and Concert Series received $88,882 from Senate this year. It is requesting a 10-percent increase for the next two years.
Campus Transportation is requesting an increase of $18,950 for next year's budget. KU on Wheels and UH are a large part of this organization.
KJHK affiliation with ABC begins
By Benjamin W. Allen
Kansan staff writer
To bolster its news coverage, KJHK has contracted with the ABC News Network to integrate national news stories with local coverage and to run special programs provided by ABC.
The ABC affiliation began in early December, but it was not until Jan. 16 that the network capabilities were fully realized.
The first special program aired by the station was President Bush's live address to the nation on Saturday that states led its attack on Iraqi forces.
Tim Mensdiek, general manager of KJHK, said that many different networks had been connected but that ABC provided the best deal.
Menskindie said the station would pay a $50-a-month fee to the Missouri station, which owns the rights, and $80 for new equipment.
Because KJHJK is a college station, ABC is providing the service free.
He said that Cable News Network had been considered but that it charged $300 a month and that
the equipment needed would have cost $5,000.
"It the ABC affiliation — would attract listeners who were very interested in news and it would make our news operation more credible and more credible-sounding on the air," Menskindde said.
"We feel it's a major addition to our news department."
He also said the ABC affiliation would teach students how to integrate national network coverage into local stories.
Taiju Takahashi, KJHK news director, said, "It's just a nice way to beef up the newscast. It extends our coverage quite a bit."
He said that the station would use the network primarily for audio segments to bolster a local story but that the station would avoid just running the packaged news that the network offers.
"It should, in time, increase our listening audience and increase our credibility."
Other means the station is using to increase its coverage are a new in-line Associated Press wire network and be operational in mid-February.
Will it match?
To take a break after classes, Nicki Morrissey, Overland Park sophomore, examines a rug that she may buy for her kitchen. Morrissey was at the Antique Mall, 830 Massachusetts St., yesterday.
Retired Kansas Congressman to join political-science staff
By Erik Nelson Kansan staff writer
Whittaker welcomes chance to share expertise with students
After serving six terms in Congress, Bob Whittaker is coming home to Kansas to share his experience with KU students.
Whittaker, 51, has accepted a part-time, renewable nine-month position in KU's political science department.
In a prepared statement, Whit-taker said, "I am pleased that I will be able to use my governmental experience to the benefit of Kansas youth. Since leaving KU in 1959, I have harbored a hope in the back of my mind that I would have the chance to return."
Elaine Sharp, chairperson of the political-science department, said in the release that Whittaker would serve as a resource for a departmental program that allowed students to spend a semester in Washington, D.C., studying national politics and Congressional operations.
Burdett Loomis, professor of political science and director of the program, said this semester's program
involved 25 KU students, many of whom are political-science majors.
Loomis said that Whittaker would be an attractive addition to the program.
"Certainly he has access to many important and interesting people in Washington," he said. "He will be a leader, adding some contacts and guidance."
Loomis also said that the department hoped to employ Whittaker as a lecturer in the future.
Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said that appointments such as Whittaker's were useful educational tools.
"I think the University is always enriched when there are people available in an area," he said.
Brinkman also said that departmental needs played an important role in such part-time appointments.
"We rely upon what the departments want to do," he said.
Whittaker graduated from the Illinois College of Optometry but attended KU for two years.
After practicing optometry for 16 years in Augusta, he entered politics. He served two terms in the Kansas House of Representatives before being elected to the 5th Congressional District seat in 1978.
His Congressional experience includes service on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and on subcommittees formed to deal with issues related to the transportation of information as well as health and environmental issues.
Whittaker is not the first politician to serve as a guest lecturer in the political-science department. Former Gov. John Carlin and former Sen. James Pearson have received similar appointments in the past.
Whittaker also has served on the steering committees for the Congressional Rural Caucus and the Rural Health Care Coalition.
hough east Kansas grows, state loses population in census
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Only a fourth of Kansas' counties gained population during the 1980s, but Douglas County showed a hefty increase, as did other areas in the state, according to Census Bureau figures released yesterday.
Douglas County was up nearly 21 percent, from 67,640 in 1980 to 81,786 in 1990, and Lawrence had a 24.4 increase, from 32,738 to 65,608.
Johnson County, in the Kansas City area, grew 31 percent to 355,054 in 1990. It had the largest numerical increase in the state, expanding by more than 84,000 people during the decade.
Wichita remained the biggest city in the state, with a 1990 population of 678,540.
cent from 1980.
Next is Kansas City, Kan., which suffered a 7 percent decline in population to 149,767 in 1990.
Topega had a 1990 population of
119,883, an increase of about 1
percent from 1980.
Johnson County ranked second, followed by Wyandotte County with a 1990 population of 161,993, which is a share of about 6 percent from 1980. Shawnee County was next with a 1990 population of 160,976, up 3.9 percent.
'People that are moving out of rural areas are likely to go to the larger centers, such as Kansas City or even out of the state.'
- Helga Upmeier
Rural areas generally declined. A total of 79 of the state's 105 counties lost population during the decade, with portions of northern Kansas suffering the largest percentage declines.
a research associate with the Institute for Public Policy and Business
Economics played a major role in determining the population patterns of urban areas.
The northeast and central counties in Kansas are the growth counties. Upmire described them as the "loop counties" because they generally followed a looping highway route through the Kansas City area to Wichita.
with economic-type development — where the jobs are. People tend to follow the jobs."
researchers.
"All of the agriculturally based counties basically have been losing population," said Helga Upmeier, a research associate with the Institute for Public Policy and Business Research at the University of Kansas.
Teresa Floerchinger, state demographer in the Division of Budget, said, "I think you could associate it
She attributed the growth to economic development in many communities and a general rural-to-urban shift in population to eastern Kansas cities.
"People that are moving out of rural areas are likely to go to the larger centers, such as Kansas City or out of the state," said Umeirer.
Some adjustments still remain possible. There have been complaints that the 1990 census undercounted minorities and others in urban areas.
The figures from the Census Bureau generally represent final tailies for 1990 and reflect changes made in primary numbers released last August.
The Census Bureau will decide by July whether to make a statistical correction for a possible undercount or overcount.
When final statewide figures were released, Kansas had a 1909 resident population of 2,477,574, up 4.8 percent from 1980.
For the 1990 tally, the Census Bureau counted people living abroad. The overseas total — 2,485,600 for Kansas — was used to determine how many representatives each state will send to the U.S. House. Kansas will lose one of its five congressional seats.
The new population figures are important for state and local governments because they are used to distribute federal money for dozens of programs, including highway edu- cation, food bank, budget year, for example, 45 programs used 1980 culture data to distribute $17.4 billion.
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