1.
KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 27. 2010 / NEWS
3A
Budget cuts continue to affect University
BY ANNA ARCHIBALD aarchibald@kansan.com
The state of Kansas is continuing to play a balancing game in an effort to bridge the existing $400,000 budget gap in higher education.
This year's higher education budget of $747 million is at the same level it was in 2006. For the next fiscal year, Gov. Mark Parkinson recommended an increase of $10 million to the budget, which would bring the higher education budget to $757 million in 2011.
Parkinson said in a press release
that he expected the expenditure rate for the University of Kansas in 2011 to be more than $742 million.
The money for higher education in Kansas comes from a variety of sources in addition to state funding. In 2008, only 22 percent of revenue came from state appropriations. The University supplements its budget with money from tuition and fees and from private donations.
About 200 positions, almost half of which were faculty positions, have already been cut at the University in the last year because
of budget cuts, Kathy Damron director of state relations for the University said.
It's a dramatic decrease in state support in a time when enrollment at KU is at record level," Damron said. "You can't eliminate adequate funding levels for education.
Parkinson said he didn't want to make any more cuts to higher edu-
"It's a dramatic decrease in state support in a time when enrollment at KU is at record level."
KATHY DAMRON Director of state relations for KU
when that is really the investment for the future"
Chancellor
Bernadette
Gray-Little
cation. The cuts already amount to $35.5 million for the University and $106 million statewide in the past year.
said state cuts to the system of higher education could take years
to recover from.
To prevent further cuts statewide, Parkinson proposed an increase in taxes, which, if enacted, would generate approximately $380 million, some of which could go to the higher education budget.
"My budget recommendations provide a balanced budget by keeping many current reductions in place and by increasing revenue," Parkinson said. "However, the recommendations avoid deeper, crippling cuts that would damage the foundation of our state."
in cigarette and tobacco tax from 79 cents to $1.34 and a temporary one-cent rise in sales tax.
"Without the revenue increases, crippling cuts will be applied to all areas of the budget," Parkinson said.
The tax proposal includes a rise
Damron said now was the time to stop making additional cuts.
"When you're not increasing investments to higher education, you are really moving backwards," she said.
Edited by Kirsten Hudson
TOMS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
TOMS Shoes are sold during an event to students and other attendees Tuesday night. Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS Shoes, visited the Lied center to share about his business, which sends a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of TOMS shoes sold.
"The Amazing Race" As part of the show, the two were able to go to Argentina.
In 2006, Mycoskie said, he decided he needed a break from his 80-hour work week at a technology firm in Los Angeles and went back to Argentina. After weeks of tango lessons and polo games, Mycoskie met some English-speaking philanthropists. These philanthropists explained to Mycoskie that they were doing a shoe-drive. They would go to Buenos Aires, collect shoes from wealthy families, and take them to a nearby town, Los Piletones, where they would distribute them to children. Mycoskie decided to accompany the philanthropists to Los Piletones, where he saw and befriended a number of children who were too poor to afford shoes. Several of these children were denied admission to school because of their lack of shoes, which were part of the school's uniforms. Even worse, many children were contracting fatal illnesses through their feet.
"I was really touched," Mycoskie said in his lecture, "but my business mind couldn't help but think 'What happens when the shoes run out, or when the kids grow out of their shoes?' That night, I went to bed with mixed emotions."
The next day, Mycoskie developed the "One for One" business plan, discussing his idea for the
protect with the friend he was staying with
"When I had the idea," Mycoskie
Soon,
Mycoskie
started
producing
shoes and
"We got so excited," Mycoskie said. "We thought, if we sell enough, we can give shoes to the whole village of Los Piletones."
has expanded into a nation-wide trend, something Mycoskie said that he never planned.
"I was really touched, but my business mind couldn't help but think What happens when the shoes run out, or when the kids grow out of their shoes?"
BLAKE MYCOSKIE
Founder of TOMS Shoes
selling them to his friends and family, and eventually began selling to some small stores in LA. Since then, TOMS Shoes
said in his lecture,
"It was just a project.
When my life really changed
was on that first
shoe drop."
Mycoskie said that he was often asked why he used his initial investment to start a business, instead of buying several pairs of shoes. Mycoskie said
"The amount of money I invested in TOMS when I started
that his reasoning was based on the sustainability of his company.
could have bought 40,000 pairs of shoes," Mycoskie said in his lecture. "It would've been a great gesture. But I took that same money, I haven't spent a dollar more, and my return on investment has been four times as many shoes given away."
Mycoskie created a business model that could help people over and over again.
"You need to keep them in shoes once you get them in shoes," Mycoskie said. Four students from Kansas State University, including Kate Hambleton, a Kansas State junior from Olathe, made the trip to hear Mycoskie speak.
"What he's done with his whole company has been really inspirational to me." Hambleton said.
Edited by Katie Blankenau
THE SHOE
The designs for TOMS Shoes are based on Argentine alpergata shoes, the signature style of the company. Originally, all the shoes Blake Mycoskie designed were alpergatas. But once TOMS started giving shoes to countries with different climates and weather patterns, the company started making different types of shoes, such as rubber rain boots for kids in Ethiopia.
THE COMPANY
TOMS has production factories in Argentina, China and Ethiopia. Blake Mycoskie said that this was important for two reasons: First of all, the company doesn't need to spend money on shipping the shoes around the world. Second, Mycoskie said the factories created jobs for people who would otherwise have none.
"That's a really important part in what we're trying to do as well." Mycoskie said.
First lady says budget will aid military families
POLITICS
The largest sum, $1.9 billion, would be spent on counseling and other support services. An additional $1.3 billion would go for military child care.
WASHINGTON — First lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday the president's 2011 budget will include a record $8.8 billion to support military families.
President Barack Obama included another $439 million to build 10 Defense Department schools, the first step in a program to replace or
The budget also has $84 million for career development for military spouses, including tuition assistance and a federal internship program. It includes $14 million for Coast Guard housing and money for youth programs for military kids.
The $8.8 billion request would increase funding by more than 3 percent, up from $8.5 billion in the current budget period.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
renovate 103 such schools by 2015.
Now in the White House, she has continued to visit military installations around the country and talk to military families about their needs and concerns. She has shared what she heard with her staff and other members of the administration.
Mrs. Obama began focusing on the needs of military families during the 2008 presidential campaign as the country fought two wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan and service members and their loved ones endured multiple deployments to the combat zones.
White House aides described her role in the budget process as part of a broader administration effort.
Mrs. Obama made the announcement at a luncheon for military
spouses at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington and sought no credit for the increased spending. Rather, she said, it was "the result of military families speaking up and being heard."
The announcement came as the president prepared to propose a three-year freeze in discretionary federal spending in his State of the Union address Wednesday night. Veterans and defense programs would be exempt.
Aides justified the spending on military families by saying their welfare is an important part of U.S. national security.
Obuma is expected to send his budget blueprint to Congress on Feb. 1.
BILL (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
abolishment of the death penalty, if passed, would not take effect until July 1, 2010.
Although Francisco is not a member of the Judiciary Committee, she said that she was glad the committee had decided to review the death penalty, and that she hoped to debate a bill in the full senate.
George Dungan, a senior from Lincoln, Neb. and vice-president of KU Young Democrats, said he was glad legislators had decided to debate the death penalty, especially during a time of economic instability for the state.
"I think senators feel this is a good time to engage again in this discussion and debate," she said.
"For me, it's not an argument of whether it is a more effective punishment," he said. "We need to make sure we aren't executing innocent people. That's my primary concern."
"In a time when Kansas is struggling to make ends meet, it seems absurd to continue an ineffective and expensive program, such as the death penalty," he said.
Eric Foss, a senior from Overland Park and president of KU College Republicans, said his support for the death penalty hinged on the effectiveness of a state's appeals process.
Foss said he thought it was possible the death penalty would end in Kansas.
Kansas is one of 35 states with the death penalty, according to the National Center for State Courts. Fifteen states have abolished the death penalty, the most recent being New Mexico, which outlawed the death penalty last year.
"I think now, more than ever, because of budget constraints it is pretty likely that the decision to outlaw the death penalty may be made," he said.
Edited by Katie Blankenau
To read Kansas Senate Bills 208 and 375,check out kansan.com
PIZZERIA
Voted Best Pizza in Lawrence!
Wednesday Special Small 10" 1 topping $ ^{3.75}+\text{tax}$ Med 12" 1 topping $ ^{5.75}+\text{tax}$ Lg 16" 1 topping $ ^{7.75}+\text{tax}$
*Carryout ordine in only*
749-0055 • 704 Mass. • rudyspizzeria.com
Thurs. Jan. 28
Door open 8 p.m. All ages welcome.