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volume 137, Issue 15 • wednesday, January 26, 2011
Topeka efforts continue Google Search
Robert Burkett WASHBURN REVIEW Since roughly this time last year, Topeka has waited in anticipation of the decision to come regarding Google’s fiber wire project and where they intend to place their new technology. The original announcement from Google was scheduled Dec. 15, 2010 but as the date continued to approach, the California-based Internet power was silent on where they would place their revolutionary technology. For those who are unaware, 2010 to some degree has been the year of Google in Topeka. Jared Starkey, co-founder of Think Big Topeka started up a Facebook page that was exploring the possibility of getting Topeka involved. He instigated the process originally. Some of the early members of the organization came upon it by complete accident. “I was just surfing through the Internet and stumbled onto this page about the Google project,” said Alissa Sheley, member of Think Big Topeka. “By the time I joined, I was number 48 on their page. Eventually, some of our other friends started saying on Twitter, ‘Alissa and Brandon [Sheley] should bring Google to Topeka’ and at that point, it was game on.” Sheley made phone calls and brought in help to get the effort rolling.
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“I called Jim Ogle, station manager at 13 News,” said Sheley. “Jim is all about Topeka, so once he got involved things just started taking off.” Among the things that took off quickly were the efforts to do what had been mentioned as a “Google Day,” renaming Topeka to Google as a bit of a publicity effort. After proposing to the city council that there be such an effort, the group of grassroots activists received a surprise. “We had originally asked for a week from the council thinking they would come back with an offer of a day,” said Sheley. “So we were pretty blown away when they came back and said, ‘let’s just make it Google for a month’.” Through various efforts that followed, members of the Washburn community have lent their personal support to efforts to bring Google to Topeka. Among those is Kevin Halgren, assistant director of information and systems services department. Halgren’s view on the technology coming to Topeka is one of interest in what the community could do with the technology. “I think it’s important because it would put our community at the cutting edge of technology,” said Halgren. “Part of the reason Google wants to do this project is to give the community a chance to experiment with it and come up with ideas for how we can use the Internet that maybe no one has thought of before.”
For the Washburn campus itself, the Internet technology would not have a direct effect on the school’s current Internet access. Washburn is currently part of the Kansas Research Educational Network (KANReN) that provides a high-speed Internet connection to many of the major universities in the state of Kansas at speeds comparable or even faster than what Google is providing in their fiber wire project. “I think we really haven’t even begun to see what would be capable with that technology available for the surrounding community,” said Halgren. In the meantime, Topeka continues to wait for a decision while Google extends the time frame for decision. Google announced they are taking more time to consider the process in addition to dealing with change in leadership at the top as they transition to a new CEO of the company. “I’m sure they have a lot to consider right now,” said Sheley. “We’ve been getting them more specifics on how friendly our community is to new business and things like that. We’re just waiting to see what happens but in the meantime we will continue to do what we can to keep things rolling on this.”
Robert Burkett is a senior mass media major. Reach him at robert. burkett@washburn.edu
Audit instills confidence in Washburn financial safeguards
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that new eyes are checking over the accounts. “Washburn has a long history of having very strong financial controls,” said Farley. “We’re a very fiscally conservative organization so it did not surprise me at all that we had a good outcome from the audit.” The auditors noted certain aspects of Washburn’s financial system that they encountered over the period of the audit. They praised the staff for its experience and dedication, and noted the benefits of Washburn’s improved enrollment and collection tactics. Chris Leach, the director of finance, explained how tactics for collecting outstanding debts to the university have improved.
“We engaged two outside collection agencies,” he said. “Once we got those external people involved, we saw those past debts stack up.” Also, a new program allows the university to interfere with state refund checks or garnish wages. Of course, academic institutions in general always have the ability to put a hold on a transcript, and even declaring bankruptcy doesn’t cancel a student’s debt. “Over Christmas, we collected an outstanding debt from 1982 because a student needed a transcript,” said Leach. RubinBrown also made some suggestions of things that could be improved to be what Lilly called “best practice-type stuff.”
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Last Monday, members of the Washburn Board of Regents met to discuss the 2010 audit, and it was just plain dull. Nothing could have been more usual—which pleased everyone involved. Representatives of RubinBrown, the auditing company, said that there was nothing out of place or surprising about the audit. “No transactions happened without proper management process,” said Kaleb Lilly, a member of RubinBrown’s engagement team. Between 2009 and 2010, the university’s revenues increased from
about $88 million to $100.5 million. Oddly, although tuition and enrollment both increased over the year, the university reported $32 million in tuition from 2009 and only $30.7 million in 2010. Jerry Farley, president of Washburn University, said that this is accounted for because Pell Grants cannot be reported in the same section as tuition, and the number of grants increased significantly from year to year. The total expenses in 2009 were $95.5 million, and decreased in 2010 to about $94 million. This is the first audit that this particular company has performed, said Farley. The university policy dictates that a different company perform the audit every four years, to make certain
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Among these were that with the current system, the passwords for accessing sensitive financial information should have better alphanumeric standards and be changed more regularly than what they currently are. Also, many offices do not follow one standard system for record keeping. Overall, the audit was clean, and the RubinBrown representatives only had a few recommendations for changes to Washburn’s financial process. “[Changes] that have not already been implemented or put into place, we plan to address over the coming months,” said Leach. Regina Budden is a senior mass media major. Reach her at regina.budden@ washburn.edu
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Regina Budden WASHBURN REVIEW
Graphics by Josh Rouse, Washburn Review..
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