CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, November 15, 1995
3A
Bus system struggles with exhaust of funds
Missing the Mark
KU On Wheels, part of the student-run transportation system, fares a budget short fall resulting from many factors. This reflect's the financial states of the campus transportation system, (including KU on Wheels, Saferide and Liftvan) over the last 10 years.
Senate board looks at options to solve problems
By Sarah Wlese Kansan staff writer
Jodie Chester / KANSAN
Source: Student Senate Treasurer's Office
In the last few weeks, members of Student Senate's transportation board have struggled to find solutions to KU on Wheels' financial problems — problems they inherited from previous boards.
Although some of the harmful trends can be traced back to 1988, it is this year's board that has been taking the brunt of the criticism, said Ron Vanderslice, KU on Wheels coordinator.
There is no single cause for the $60,000 shortfall KU on Wheels is facing. It is a combination of stagnant Senate subsidies, increasing operational costs and higher bus pass prices, said David Hardy, transportation board adviser.
"It's disappointing to hear students talking about it because they place the blame on us when the problems are the result of decisions of past boards," Vander-slice said.
Hardy said that since the late 1980s, the Senate allocations had fallen short of the 35- to 40-percent subsidy required for a transportation system to run properly.
Some years the amount the board requested didn't cover expenses, and other years Senate didn't give the board the amount it had requested. In 1991, the board requested about $425,000 and received $317,000.
Even though Senate's subsidy jumped from $300,000 to $400,000 last year, the increase didn't make up for all the years of inadequate funding, said Bob Grunzinger, Senate treasurer.
Bus routes have expanded westward. Because KU on Wheels pays the Lawrence Bus Company $28 for every bus hour, far-reaching routes have increased the system's operating costs.
With increasing costs and decreasing subsidies, the board
needed money, Grunzinger said.
needed money,Granzinger said. "The only way we could make our needed income was to raise our pass prices," he said.
From Fall 1994 to Fall 1995, bus pass prices jumped from $50 to $60 a semester. For off-campus students with cars, buying a $53 annual parking pass could have been a more affordable option.
"You can't just sit on a subsidy and raise user fees and expect it to work," Hardy said.
And it hasn't. Bus pass sales actually have generated less revenue because fewer people are buying them. In Fall 1993, KU on Wheels sold 7,470 passes. As of Sept. 30 of this year, only 6,011 had been sold.
Last year the board used about $60,000 of KU on Wheels' $80,000 reserve account.
A week ago, the board voted to request a $160,000 short-term loan from Student Senate's reserve account as well as a $15 restricted fee for campus transportation. This would restore the board's $120,000 reserve account, avert the budget shortfall and provide for future planning.
With one legislative deadline remaining this fall, it is not likely that either piece of legislation will be presented until the spring.
By then, revenues from spring bus pass sales will help the board
determine if a $15 restricted fee would be too big or not big enough, Vanderslice said.
Last year, the transportation board's request for a $14 restricted fee was rejected. Vanderslice said this time, the board would be anything but hasty.
"We don't want to put a restricted fee through Senate and have it fail," he said. "It's very important that transportation get the fee."
Right now, the board has to go through Senate's block allocation process every two years, not knowing how much money it will receive.
A restricted fee would allow the board to make real long-term plans because a certain level of financing would be guaranteed.
Kim Cocks, student body president, said she hoped the finance committee and Senate would pass the bills when they were submitted.
"I don't think Student Senate would want to punish constituents for mistakes made by past boards," she said.
The loan and the restricted fee are necessary, but they are not the ultimate solutions to campus transportation. Cocks said.
Cocks said that was time for other entities, such as the University and the city, to share the responsibility for transportation.
SenEx considers parking proposals
By Sarah Wiese
Kansan staff writer
More questions than answers surfaced yesterday when the parking board presented two possible parking solutions to the University Senate Executive Committee.
The parking board has been exploring the options of both a parking garage in the northeast corner of campus and a park-and-ride system.
Glenn Prescott, parking board chairman, said he hadn't expected SenEx to come to any conclusions on the spot.
"I expected to sort of provide some sort of preliminary information and let them think about it," he said.
When it came to the 1,000-space parking garage, most of the questions pertained to aesthetics and location.
Other sites discussed were just north of Spencer Museum of Art in lot 91 and another south of the Wagon Wheel Cafe on 14th Street.
With the park-and-ride system, people would park at the Lied Center and ride a bus to campus. Parking and bus passes would be required.
Bob Nunley, SenEx member,
said he thought that trying park-
and ride on a trial basis was a
good idea.
"It seems that experimenting with the system would be inexpensive," he said.
A parking department survey of
1,500 faculty, staff and students will reveal whether people would be willing to use a park-and-ride system, said Don Kearns, director of parking. The survey results are due by the end of the month.
Stevie Case, parking board member and vice chairwoman of SenEx, said it was important to give SenEx ample time to look into all the options thoroughly.
Jack Davidson, SenEx chairman, said SenEx needed time to think about and discuss the parking options presented. He said members might respond to the parking board as soon as next week.
"I believe it wouldn't be in the best interest of students to rush this process," said Case, Olathe sophomore.
You pay for what you get
By Josh Yancey
Kansan staff writer
Tuition change could prevent students from class shopping
Three-fourths of KU students would pay the same or less for tuition if linear tuition was enacted at the University of Kansas.
The other fourth — the 25 percent of KU students who take more than 15 hours each semester — would pay more.
Linear tuition, which would go into effect Fall 1996, has been approved by the Board of Regents, said Marvin Burris, budget director for the Regents.
Gov. Bill Graves will make the plan part of his budget request to the Kansas Legislature in January, Burris said.
The bottom line: Students would pay for what they got in terms of class hours.
Students who take longer to graduate because they work and take fewer hours likely would benefit most from the policy. They no longer would have to pay the existing full-tuition price for course loads more than six hours. According to the office of institutional research and planning, 885 KU undergraduate, or 4.8 percent of the total, are taking between 6.5 and 11.5 hours this semester. Such course loads are smaller than the average full-time student's but still are within the full-tuition boundary.
The plan has been worked out so that a course load of 15 hours would cost roughly the same as the old flat tuition rate, said Lindy Eakin, vice chancellor for administration and finance.
Therefore, course loads more than 15 hours would cost more, he said.
Jill Zeligson, Tulsa, Okla., junior, has taken 15 to 17 credit hours each semester to graduate on time. She said she would rather take heavy course loads in her last semesters than stay for a fifth year, and she wouldn't look forward to paying more for them.
It almost would be like paying for another semester, she said, which would defeat the purpose.
"It would be kind of unfair to students who have to pay for their tuition," she said. "I'd probably have to take less hours and be in school longer."
Tuition Changes
Burris said linear tuition would help keep classes open longer during enrollment. Students would be less likely to shop for classes — to enroll in classes they probably will end up dropping — because they
Source: staff research
Jodie Chester / KANSAN
would have to pay more, he said.
Zeligson disagreed. Because students would have their money refunded if they dropped a class, she said, then class shopping would continue.
"If you're going to get your money back, it wouldn't make that much of a difference," she said.
However, Doug Donahue, Hinsdale, Ill., senior, admitted that he had shipped for classes. Being required to pay more for larger class loads would discourage him from doing so again, he said.
Evan Kuhlmann, Lawrence junior, said he would welcome the policy. He attended classes at the University for several semesters before taking off a few years. Now that he has returned to school, he said, he must work full time and take fewer hours to afford tuition.
"From my point of view, it might be a better deal," Kuhlmann said.
There's a big difference between seven or eight hours and 17 hours, Kuhlmann said, and to pay the same tuition for both course loads isn't fair.
"As a non-trad, it could be better and more affordable for me," he said. "It's work full-time versus go to school full-time."
Race-based scholarships questioned
Kansan staff writer
By Hannah Naughton
Kennedy staff writer
The word 'scholarship' can cause a student to salivate in anticipation of financial assistance. However, finding the word 'minority' before it frustrates some students who don't meet the scholarship qualifications because of their race.
Of the 910 scholarships listed for freshmen in the 1996-97 University of Kansas Viewbook,235 scholarships are specifically for minority students. In a time when affirmative action is being questioned, so are race-based scholarships.
"In high school I knew I wanted to go to college and then med school," said Brent Peters, Wichita junior. "It may be self-deafening, but I'm not going to get a scholarship because I don't fit the criteria. I had great merit, but put that side-by-side with people who are minorities, and they got the money, and I didn't."
Peters said academic scholarships should be based on merit, and students should not be disqualified because of their race. "
However, the donors of the scholarship money, not the University, often place stipulations on who is eligible for scholarships.
"One purpose of the scholarships is to compensate for past and present under-representation of minority groups in higher education." said Evan Heimilch, program assistant at the Office of Minority Affairs who researches scholarship information for minority students.
Heimlich, Mariboro, N.J., graduate student, said it was important to do everything possible to empower people from minority groups.
In reality, minority scholarships are less of a threat than what some perceive.
"The number of minorities getting scholarships is tiny," Heimlich said.
Tom Pham, Wichita junior,
receives a KU Endowment Merit
Scholarship which pays him $500
each year and is renewable.
"If I didn't have it, I would still be able to go to school," Pham said. "My parents are fairly well-to-do, and that's why my scholarship is not very big."
Pham said he thought minority scholarships did tend to cause a separation between the majority population and minority groups.
A lot of white people who need financial assistance can't apply for minority scholarships, he said, but minority students can apply for all scholarships.
"I sympathize, and I understand how they feel. I would feel the same way," Phan said. "I can't do anything. I'm not going to reject my scholarship as a statement against the system."
Peters said minorities who took scholarships when they didn't need the money were interfering with helping the people who really needed the money.
"Maybe they should step aside and let someone else get it who needs it." Peters said.
Pham said that he deserved the scholarships he had received.
"I've gotten non-minority scholarships too," Pham said. "I have earned them. I do work really hard to keep up my grade point average."
Heimlich said that minority scholarships offered through the University, minority groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and different church groups send necessary and positive messages.
"Scholarships from within a group are extremely important as a statement of values, both to people who aren't members of the group and to the members, that the group is continuing and reinforcing its collective commitment to educating scholars," Heimlich said. "KU makes an important statement also."
4