2 18 by Kansas State Collegian

VOL. 121, ISSUE 96

INSIDE

T H U R S D AY, F E B R U A RY 1 8 , 2 0 1 6

THE INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR KANSAS STATE UNIVERSIT Y

BSU leadership conference ‘motivates’ high school students to choose college

this issue

PAGE 3: Baseball begins season on west coast

PAGE 4: Campus trees replaced during construction

From the president’s desk Fellow K-Staters, We hope you are all having a productive week so far. It’s hard to believe that we’re so close to the middle of the semester already. With midterms fast approaching, we know it can be a stressful time for students, but we’re confident you can push through them. With that in mind, we wanted to keep things short with this update. We want to give a shoutout to the Green Action Fund. Last week we mentioned how important their initiative was in bringing Green Apple Bikes to campus, but that’s just one of the many projects the Green Action Fund works on. The GAF provides an opportunity for K-State to fund projects that improve campus sustainability through a host of student-led projects. Some of the projects that the GAF is currently involved with are reducing food waste at JP’s, the Biodiesel Initiative, revitalizing the Willow Lake Student Farm, a fruit tree orchard at the farm, promoting campus trees, a campus-access survey and paperless recordkeeping at the K-State Rec. Projects that the GAF is involved with go a long way not only in tangibly improving how students interact with the K-State campus, but also raise the university’s profile as an eco-friendly and sustainable university as a whole. We want to really emphasize our appreciation for the students working on the Green Action Committee and the work they do. Lastly, we hope to see you all at Bramlage this weekend as K-State takes on KU. We saw the impact the student body had when we came together and got loud a few weeks ago against a firstranked Oklahoma. We’re looking forward to more of the same when the Cats take on the Jayhawks this weekend. Looking forward to you all wearing purple and being loud. We welcome your feedback and any suggestions. You can reach us at sga@ksu. edu or via Twitter at @KStateSBP_SBVP. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you and Go Cats, Andy Hurtig, student body president Joe Tinker, student body vice president

Evert Nelson | THE COLLEGIAN

Ronesha Cobb, senior in marketing, dances with Ebony Paul, senior in apparel and textile marketing, and other girls on the stage in the K-State Student Union Grand Ballroom on Wednesday during the third annual Black Student Union Leadership Conference.

DANIELLE COOK the collegian

-State’s Black Student Union hosted high school students from all around Kansas at its leadership conference in the K-State Student Union Main Ballroom on Wednesday. The event began at 8:30 a.m.

and lasted until about 3:30 p.m. Visiting students attended a keynote session and then broke off to participate in different workshop sessions, such as “The Black Network: The Black Campus Movement” workshop run by the BSU and “Why Choose College?” run by Multicultural Student Ambassadors, according to Dee Tucker, sophomore in elementary education and BSU member. Tucker

helped with a workshop during the conference. Tucker said the leadership conference was meant to be a motivator to inspire high school students to choose college as a life path in the future. “I think it’s important that we teach people younger than us about things that we’ve experienced, so once we’re in front of them and we show them stuff like this, then it’ll

motivate them to come to college,” Tucker said. “It’ll make it seem fun and like something they can actually accomplish.” Timothy Smith, with Jobs for American Graduates at Highland Park High School in Topeka, attended the conference with a group of HPHS students. see page

5, “BSU”

Manhattan schools affected by court decision JASON TIDD the collegian

The Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling on the state’s education funding impacts the Manhattan school district’s financial future. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 11 that the block grant funding law is unconstitutional. According to Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution, the Legislature must “make suitable provision for the finance of the educational interests of the state. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in March 2014 that Article 6 includes both “adequacy” and “equity” components, according to KMUW 89.1, Wichita. This interpretation means the Legislature must ensure enough funding for a suitable education and the educational opportunities are equal throughout the state. The court’s decision only addressed the equity part of the block grant’s constitutionality. KMUW reported that the court decided the 2015 block grant legislation “increased wealth-based disparities among districts” and resulted in a loss of about $54 million of funding for poorer districts and also financially hurt wealthier districts. “The way (education funding) was modified (with the block grant)

THIS DAY IN HISTORY On this day in 1930, Pluto, once believed to be the ninth planet, is discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh. history.com

Data from the Kansas Association of School Boards Graphic by Audrey Hockersmith

had a basically dis-equalizing effect in that it would take more tax dollars in a poorer property wealth district to fill in the gap than it would in a

district that had greater property tax wealth,” Lew Faust, director of business services for USD 383, said. Faust said the block grant fund-

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ing law is still in effect. The court is simply requiring that the Legislature change the law to make it equitable. Faust also said the court put a stay on some of the other decisions or recommendations that were a part of the previous court decision. “If (the court) would have thrown it all out, of course it could have thrown school funding and finance into chaos and would have disrupted the system,” Faust said. “So I think it was a judicious effort on their part to try and keep schools open and operating through the rest of the current fiscal year.” Fixing the law will start with the House Education Committee, Sydney Carlin, Democratic Manhattan representative, said. “I think they should start right away because it’s going to take a lot of input from a lot of people to do this,” Carlin said. Robert Shannon, superintendent of USD 383, said there are “a lot of parties involved in trying to determine what will happen next.” Those include, he said, the Legislature, governor’s office, local school districts, the state board of education, the Kansas Supreme Court and various professional associations, including the Kansas Association of School Boards and the teacher’s association. see page

5, “FUNDING”

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Longhorns hook Wildcats in Austin, Texas RILEY GATES the collegian

-State wasn’t supposed to win this game. The Wildcats entered the game after winning two in a row, they were the underdogs, and rightfully so. Although the Longhorns, 23-2 overall and 12-2 in conference play, were fresh off a loss to the Oklahoma Sooners — a team that K-State had recently beaten — they were still the No. 8 team in the country and had every right to be the favorite on Wednesday night. The Wildcats, 16-9 overall and 6-8 in the Big 12, entered the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, as the underdog. They gave the Longhorns a scare but came up on the short end of the stick in a 5158 loss. “Well I think we did good things,” K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said. “We battled the glass well ... this thing boiled down to poise and then some toughness plays. There are plays in here we will look back at and be disappointed in. I’m certainly proud of our effort and proud that we believed we could win this game.” The game was not pretty from the start. Both teams struggled to find any sort of success on the offensive side of the ball as Texas took a 4-2 lead into the first quar-

File Photo by Rodney Dimick | THE COLLEGIAN

Head coach Jeff Mittie instructs his team during the second round of the Sunflower Showdown on Saturday inside Bramlage Coliseum. ter media timeout. The lack of success on offense and the strong defense by both teams were reflected by the score at the end of the first quarter, where the Longhorns held a 10-7 advantage on the Wildcats. In the second quarter, junior center Breanna Lewis took advan-

tage of a Texas scoring drought. Texas’ senior center Imani Boyette scored a layup at the 9:16 minute mark of the second quarter. The Longhorns didn’t score again until the 4:46 minute mark. Lewis jumped on the opportunity and scored 14 points during the second quarter, boosting

K-State to a 27-18 lead at halftime. Lewis contributed 20 points and 10 rebounds in the game, as well as four steals and two blocks. “She was really good,” Mittie said of Lewis. “We were getting the ball to her deep, and then in the second half, they were really

tight on her. They wore us down at times, but I thought she was pretty good, though. They have as good physicality as anyone in the country and (Lewis) played well against it.” In the third quarter, junior guard Kindred Wesemann connect on a 3-pointer 1:15 minutes into the quarter, giving the Wildcats a 14-point lead. Texas was not put down by this and responded to the shot with a 10-2 run. Texas outscored K-State 21-12 in the third quarter, tying the game at 39 with just one quarter to play. The two teams hung with each other for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, and the score was still tied with just 4:56 minutes remaining in the game. Texas built a 47-43 lead coming out of the media timeout. Then the Longhorns pieced together an 11-8 run that helped them avoid the Wildcats’ upset bid. K-State entered the game as a 10 seed in the latest bracketology from ESPN. A win would have been a huge step in solidifying the Wildcats’ tournament bid. Now, the Wildcats will have to earn their way into the tournament in their final four games. The Wildcats will look to get back on track when they return to Manhattan on Sunday to face the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 2 p.m. in Bramlage Coliseum.

BatCats take on UC Riverside for season opener in California CHRIS ROBINSON the collegian

Cassandra Nguyen | THE COLLEGIAN

Then-junior infielder Tyler Wolfe and then-sophomore infielder Jake Wodtke tip their hats before the start of the baseball game against Santa Clara on March 7, 2015, at Tointon Family Stadium. The Wildcats took a victory on each day of the three-day series.

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K-State baseball is coming off a rebuilding season with many new faces. The Wildcats finished the 2015 season with a 27-30 overall record and a 10-14 record in the Big 12. Head coach Brad Hill and his team made the Big 12 tournament after not making it in a disappointing 2014 campaign. The Wildcats will be looking to improve on their 2015 season with eight returning seniors and six other letter winners from last season. Along with these returning players, K-State added 17 newcomers, 12 of whom are freshmen. When talking about the experience of this year’s team, Hill said he thought the seniors could be of help. “Eight seniors is a lot of seniors,” Hill said. “We have such a large freshman class. That’s the kind of thing that offsets that experience, particularly the number of young kids that will be playing this year. But at the same time we like to think those eight seniors will provide good leadership. I do think we have a lot of experience at the top, but we have a lot of kids that don’t have experience.” Senior shortstop Tyler Wolfe

is one of the top returners for the Wildcats. Wolfe did not start off very well last year, but that all changed when Big 12 play began. He reached base in the last 22 games of the season, batting .350 during that stretch. Wolfe is the starting shortstop for the Wildcats, but he can also pitch when needed. “We have a little more depth in the infield, so I should have the opportunity to throw more this year,” Wolfe said. “I always have been able to pitch — I’ve pitched my whole life — so I feel comfortable out there.” K-State will open the 2016 season on the road in Riverside, California, against the University of California, Riverside in a fourgame series. UC Riverside is coming off a disappointing 2015 campaign with a 15-40 overall record and

a 4-20 record in the Big West Conference. The team has five seniors this year. Hill said he knows going on the road is never easy. “With Riverside, it will be California kids who have been playing outside,” Hill said. “We’ve been fortunate to be outside on the weekends, but we haven’t been able to be outside midweek. We’ve been able to put a lot of game-type practice in, but we haven’t done a lot of breakdown. I would like to be able to do defensive things outside. There are a lot of differences when you talk about being out and in, particularly when you start talking about your defensive schemes and what you do defensively.” The first game of the fourgame series between K-State and UC Riverside will begin at 8 p.m. Friday.

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Campus trees preserved for historic, aesthetic value RAFAEL GARCIA the collegian

s K-State grows and new buildings are constructed across campus, the landscaping and abundance of trees is affected, Mark Taussig, university landscape architect, said. Although many campus trees have been removed to make room for new buildings and the heavy machinery needed to construct them, the landscaping section of the K-State Division of Facilities works to replace or replant the removed trees, Taussig said. Taussig said that many trees are removed every year from campus, but every effort is made to replace them. “We probably remove 25-55 trees every year just because of old age, weather and storms,” Taussig said. “An analysis is done to determine the value of the tree. We ask whether the tree is in prime condition, if it’s in a good stage in its life. We also try to determine if we can relocate it, if it’s a good tree.” Though he was not able to provide an estimate of the number of trees that have been removed as a result of construction, almost every construction project in the past few years has caused the removal of at least some trees, Taussig said. He said, however, that trees taken out due to building projects have been relocated around campus. “In every one of those (projects), we planted more trees than we took out,” Taussig said. “I can say that with certainty, except for the Union project.” Gus van der Hoeven, a retired specialist in landscape and environmental horticulture of K-State Research and Extension, said there must be a balance between new buildings and open space. “If we keep adding buildings and there are no longer any green spaces, then it becomes very haphazard and you’ve lost the design,” van der Hoeven said. “If there is planning for buildings, then I also expect there to be planning for open spaces because we need them. People and students enjoy

George Walker | THE COLLEGIAN

A squirrel rests in a tree on Anderson Lawn on April 25, 2014. The reduction of trees on campus could affect squirrels and other wildlife. an environment where there are trees and flowers.” Trees must be respected for more than just aesthetic value, van der Hoeven said. “Don’t treat trees as cosmetics,” van der Hoeven said. “Trees have dimension. They come in all different shapes and colors. Trees must be part of the landscape plan for the campus.” Taussig said trees serve many purposes around campus, including cooling the air in summer, reducing erosion and cleaning the air. “Trees play an important role in the beauty of the campus, but environmentally they’re pretty significant too,” Taussig said. The trees also provide other benefits, including shade, climate control, traffic control and habitats for campus squirrels, van der Hoeven said.

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He said he once caught a squirrel to release on campus to enjoy the trees. “Today, I’d be more hesitant,” van der Hoeven said. “I don’t think it’s as much fun for a squirrel to come to campus because we have lost a lot of habitat.” When students walk across campus, having all of the trees around makes the experience a pleasant one, Keturah Pence, junior in family studies, said. “I’ve lived here my whole life, so I love that you can always see the trees on campus,” Pence said. “I would plant more trees and be more proactive about it. It takes trees so long to grow, so the sooner we do it, the sooner we can see a change.” On its website, the Division of Facilities listed a self-guided tree walk that students and visi-

tors can use to walk through and observe the various kinds of trees on campus. The 664-acre main campus is home to over 100 different species of trees, according to the Division of Facilities’ website. The diversity of trees allows the campus to be an arboretum for students. “There are many different trees that we can grow on campus so that carefully situated planting of trees on campus might be a learning experience, especially for our students in landscape architecture,” van der Hoeven said. The K-State campus is also listed as a Tree Campus USA member. Tree Campus USA is a program that recognizes colleges and universities across the nation that invest heavily in the management, care and planting of trees on their campuses. “Trees are key to the land-

scape of the campus,” Taussig said. “A lot of people would say that we have a beautiful campus, and I think that that is in large part because trees are what is common and tie the campus together. It’s a common thread that weaves through the campus. We might have nice limestone buildings and great uniformity, but it’s the trees that provide the beauty and comfort.” The campus trees are a part of K-State’s identity, and they must be respected accordingly, van der Hoeven said. “Students may have sat on them when they were here years ago, or later their children may have walked under them,” van der Hoeven said. “When you come back and that has suddenly become a parking lot, you miss that tree. The trees make a statement. You do not move history.”

Symptoms, treatment, prevention of mumps KELSEY KENDALL the collegian

Two students have officially been diagnosed with the mumps. The mumps is a viral infection, making it very easy to spread person-to-person, according to an Aug. 12, 2015, article by Mayo Clinic titled “Mumps.” There are many ways to ensure health in case mumps becomes more common on campus.

WHAT ARE MUMPS?

The Medical News Today article “Mumps: Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment” by Mike Paddock, described the mumps as being an infectious virus that causes swelling in the parotid glands, which are the salivary glands

located in front of the ears. This causes swelling in the face sometimes as well. Common complications that can occur when one has the mumps are orchitis, which is the swelling of the testicles, oophoritis, which is the swelling of the ovaries, inflamed pancreas and, in some rarer cases, deafness and viral meningitis, according to Paddock’s article. In more extreme cases, mumps can cause brain inflammation, which could be potentially fatal. It is significantly less likely than many of the other complications, as it only happens in 1 in 6,000 cases, according to Paddock’s article.

SYMPTOMS

Mumps can cause a variety of symptoms, including headache, nausea, dryness of the mouth, painful joints,

fever, pain in the sides of the face where it is swollen and many others, according to Paddock. These can appear up to two or three weeks after a person has come in contact with the mumps virus. If inflammation of the pancreas occurs, there can also be pain in the upper abdomen.

can help reduce the risk of spreading the virus. Many countries generally vaccinate young children for the mumps, according to Paddock. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said after the licensing of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in 1967, mumps decreased in the U.S. by 99 percent before 2005.

TRANSMISSION

TREATMENT

Like many viral infections, the mumps can be spread through contact with infected saliva, according to Mayo Clinic. This means when someone sneezes, coughs or shares eating utensils and cups, it is possible for the virus to be transmitted. Paddock said in his article that frequent hand-washing and covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing

Paddock’s article said because the mumps is a viral infection, antibiotics do not help in the treatment. Those who get the mumps will simply be treated for their symptoms. Then, the virus just has to run its course. According to the article, most recover from the mumps in approximately two weeks. Also, getting sufficient sleep and drinking fluids are recommended.

thursday, february 18, 2016

BSU | Conference FUNDING | School officials uncertain about budget ‘empowers high school students’ continued from page

Smith said the leadership conference highlighted “black empowerment” but encouraged students of all ethnicities to appreciate their history and differences in culture. “It was about empowering high school students of color, and really all students, to embrace their heritage and embrace other cultures so that hopefully, we can get to a more loving, tolerant world,” Smith said. Smith said he was drawn to bring students to BSU’s conference because he wanted them to experience leadership education in a college setting and help them discover the opportunities that await them in college, not only academically, but extracurricularly. “They have to do some of those things in order to be exposed to different types of people, different types of opportunities, and it enlarges the world in a way that we can only hope to do in a high school setting,” Smith said. “I think it was good for them.” The leadership conference gave high school students in attendance access to beneficial information, giving them the knowledge that they, no matter their race or culture, have something to contribute to society, Smith said. “I think our students of color are dealing with white supremacy and racism every day, and if they’re not getting filled with information that allows them to see themselves in a positive way, to realize that their history is riddled with contributions that have driven society forward, they’re going to be in trouble,” Smith said. Daisy Gonzalez, sophomore at Highland Park High School, said the conference workshops and activities encouraged her to see a bright future for herself. “They were talking about Black History Month and about college and your dreams, and how you can accomplish them,” Gonzalez said. “I’m more motivated to follow my dreams and get to where I want to be.”

continued from page

“I don’t think there is anyone specifically who can tell you where we are going ... I think that’s part of the ambiguity, or a large part of the ambiguity, is it is not one entity that’s leading,” Shannon said. “It’s an interplay.” Faust said the school district will operate “business as usual” with the funds they were authorized to use for this year under the block grant, and they don’t anticipate any change in that. He said they assume that any change to the law will go into effect next year. The uncertainty with the funding law makes it more difficult for the district to plan, Faust said. The later in the legislative session that school finance is dealt with, the less time the school district will have to respond and make adjustments if there is a change in budget authority. “When you are constantly in a perpetual state of, ‘We don’t know,’ it makes it difficult to plan for general operations and definitely to do much long-range planning to try and meet the needs of your students,” Faust said. Shannon said the planning for the next school year is already in progress, including budgeting, staffing, curriculum decisions and textbooks, instruction materials and technology purchases. Faust said it is normal for the school district to already be working on the next year’s budget.

“We have to,” Faust said. “That’s common in the way our cycle works because the Legislature, many times it’s late in the legislative session before they would make a final decision on school finance because it’s such a big piece of the overall budget.” Faust said the district must plan using the known variables and assume the process is based on the same principles as previous years. “If the rules of the game change,” Faust said, then adjustments are made. He said the two-year nature of the block grant leads to an assumption that next year’s funding will be equivalent to this year’s. It is not ideal, Faust said, for the Legislature to deal with school financing so late in the session, but it is just the way the system in Kansas has always worked. Faust said the old funding formula would be a good place for the Legislature to start, even if it is not the solution. “The court had found the previous system, the previous finance formula and the previous way of distributing funding in terms of these two funds, or the equity piece, to be constitutional,” Faust said. “So it seems logical that at least the first step would be to go back to the way it was distributed and the way the formula was calculated for that before. But there are other ways that it could be done, but whatever is crafted has to try and level the playing field.” Faust said the purpose of the old school finance formula was

to equalize the tax burden and the educational opportunity for all school districts in the state. “The whole intent of the finance law when it was redone back in 1992 was to try and make school finance equal for all students across the state, regardless of whether they lived in Johnson County or if they lived in some other county that didn’t have near the wealth that Johnson County did, so that the educational opportunity wasn’t dictated by their zip code,” Faust said. Carlin said the best option she knows is an adequately funded finance formula, but she wants the House Education Committee to seek out better ideas and analyze the systems of other states. “From my perspective, or from most school officials’ perspective, the formula was fine, it was just never funded fully,” Faust said. “And if it would have been funded fully, we probably would have been fine. It’s just as we went through the Great Recession and economic difficulties in the state and so on, (the Legislature) would change it or cut back on the base state aid and that type of thing, and that’s what created problems.” Shannon, like Carlin and Faust, supported a finance formula. “I would like to see us collectively land a new school finance formula that is adequate and equitable,” Shannon said. “And I am going to be consistent with where I have been for several years, is that the adequa-

cy amount must be something comparable to where we were in 2010 or 2011 before the significant reductions in base funding per student occurred.” Shannon, who is retiring June 30, said he will still be concerned about public school funding after he is no longer superintendent. “It will be different,” Shannon said. “Nevertheless, I am concerned about where public schools and state finances head. As a former educator, always an educator, citizen of community school district and grandfather of a child who is in a Kansas public school.” Marvin Wade, the current superintendent of Marshalltown Community School District in Marshalltown, Iowa, will start as USD 383’s superintendent on July 1. “I am or will be in communication with the next superintendent on major matters that I believe either will be in progress or will be facing him shortly after he starts in the office,” Shannon said. “Other things I know he’s aware of, the supreme court matter that has happened.” Faust said it is important for the Legislature to act sooner rather than later. “We hope that there is some action that is taken by the Legislature in the next couple of months that will meet and satisfy the equity test so that there is no chance of disrupting the educational process and endangering of schools, not only next year — that would be absolute worstcase scenario,” Faust said.

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senior, political science

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Pretend like youʼre taking notes and do the SUDOKU