the review washburn university
WWW.WASHBURNREVIEW.ORG • (785) 670-2506 • 1700 S.W. College • topeka, kan. 66621
Check out Topeka historical art districts Argo 6 & 7
Serving Washburn University since 1873
volume 137, Issue 7 • wednesday, October 6, 2010
Budget not child’s play Part two of three
Josh Rouse WASHBURN REVIEW
The University Childcare Development Center, located in University United Methodist Church at 1621 College Ave., is under evaluation from the Washburn Student Government Association this year after several questions arose regarding how student activity fee money is being spent. The UCD currently enjoys an automatically-allocated $30,000 per year from WSGA to help fund the 41-child center, in comparison with the maximum of $3,000 WSGA is allowed to allocate per student organization each year. Student money doesn’t make up a majority of the center’s income. About eight percent of the total budget is student activity fee money. “It is important to recognize that our job as members of WSGA is to serve the students of Washburn to the best of our ability,” said Caley Onek, WSGA president. “Washburn has a diverse body of students and we are proud of that. However, each student deserves fair opportunity to reap the benefits of the student activity fee. We will be looking into this matter further. We need to get all of the facts
and gather as much student feedback of his main concerns, is no stranger as possible before any decisions are to the current system. Lawrence was made.” appointed chair of the Childcare Task This year, WSGA will have two Force by WSGA in fall 2008 when seats on the center’s board, allowing it student government became curious insight into the expenditures and how about how money was being spent. the student activity fee is being spent “The big thing was just looking to benefit students. Onek said WSGA at funding and how the money spread will be learning more about the center out. Especially looking at how much during the course of the year, and she was being spent per child over there as wants to make sure more students can far as how much our funding covered benefit from the program. WU students money,” said Lawrence. “One of our biggest responsibili- “We compared the amount of kids ties is to make sure we are allocating there and the amount of funding used the student activwith other univerity fee the best UNIVERSITY CHILDCARE sities as well to see way possible,” said how we compare.” DEVELOPMENT Onek. “We do feel Lawrence said the university childthe task force comcare is a good program for our stu- pared the UCD with other university dents. Therefore, we give them a large childcare systems to get a feel for how sum of money for their operations and they stacked up. For reference, he said have done so for several years. But it Emporia State housed roughly twice is also our job to make sure that we are as many children and used roughly the serving the most students with each same amount of funds. dollar allocated, so we will be looking “We did not compare well with into all of our programs paid for by the most schools, but of course we do not student activity fee this year, as is our have a childcare facility strictly for job constitutionally.” WU students, we just give money so Former WSGA senator Will Law- they will take in WU students chilrence, who ran for WSGA president dren,” said Lawrence. in 2009 and listed childcare as one During his 2009 presidential cam-
paign, Lawrence and his running mate, Charity Hockman, set goals of having Washburn host its own childcare facility, one that could hold 140 children to meet the needs of the students. “Ideally we wanted to look at moving the facility on to campus and making it completely operated by Washburn,” said Lawrence. “One of the biggest expenses in that facility is payroll. If Washburn took control of the facility. then they would become part of WU’s payroll, which would also give the full time employees benefits which they currently do not receive. This would reduce the operating expenses of the facility and give more money to be used for the children.” Onek, who ran as Garrett Love’s vice presidential running mate in the 2009 election and unopposed as the presidential nominee in the 2010 election, has never had childcare reform on her political platform. She said the idea of having a facility on campus raises a lot of economical concerns for the university. “This is not an objective on Vice President Mullin’s and my agendas, but it is always nice to hear what the students feel we need on campus,” said Onek. “If this is something the students
Graphic by Maggie Pilcher, Washburn Review
truly believe we need, then we could pursue this further. At this point, no, I don’t think this[an on campus facility] should be a high priority as far as capital expenditures go. Another question would be even if we do build a brand new facility for childcare, how many students would that entity be serving and is the benefit of it worth the cost of the new building?” Lawrence said the idea was “extremely unfavorable” by the administration when he proposed changes, mainly because of budgets and finances at the time. He said he has no reason to believe the attitude of the administration has changed, but also pointed out that it never hurts to ask and that the more attention the subject gets, the more likely it is that change could happen. “There still needs to be more research done, which hasn’t been done, because Love-Onek never reappointed the task force. So, when my senate term was up, the task force expired and no further research was ever done on it,” said Lawrence. Josh Rouse is a senior mass media major. Reach him at joshua.rouse@washburn. edu
El-Saidi,Pembrook present for open VPAA position Kelsie O’Connell WASHBURN REVIEW
Kelsie O’ Connell is a freshman mass media major. Reach her at kelsie.oconnell@ washburn.edu
The final candidate Kelsie O’Connell WASHBURN REVIEW for the Vice President of Buzz about the candidacy for the Academic Affairs position new vice president of academic affairs continues to be a trending topic among presents this week. faculty at Washburn, as Randall Pempresented Friday afternoon in Dr. Michael Horvath, brook the Bradbury Thompson Alumni Cenis currently Professor and ter. Currently the executive vice presDean of the School of Edu- ident and provost at Baker University, discussed changes that have cation at Indiana Universi- Pembrook been recently implemented at Baker. ty South Bend (2006-pres- One important connection has been made to Johnson County Community College in Kansas City, Kan. ent). “They are creating a special honHis presentation for ors liberal arts program within the college,” said Pembrook. faculty and staff is Thurs- community “They have designated a program for day at 3:20-4:20 p.m. in these students that I’m talking about, and there’s no reason why Baker needs Henderson 100. to get all of these students. Washburn can get some of these students too.” The presentation for Pembrook supposed enrollment could be increased with a larger students is Friday, in the varietyalso of sports to choose from. He BradburyThompson Alum- talked of an instance where a bowling team and wrestling team had been ni Center convocation hall implemented in a school, recruiting 60 students that otherwise would have at 10:45-11:45 a.m. gone to a different school. Following all presentations, feedback can be made to President Farley at jerry.farley@washburn.edu
“I think athletics provide some great opportunities for recruiting,” said Pembrook. “I think athletics can help Washburn grow in enrollment.” Pembrook spoke animatedly continuing to discuss enrollment and the innovations that will need to be done in all schools in order for students to
Read how NOTO is evolving
ARGO 10
A3
Women’s volleyball dominates Lady Blues Classic
sports
Washburn’s Julie Cote stays strong despite hearing difficulties
a&e
news & opinion
The search for the new Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) continued as candidate Mohammed El-Saidi gave his presentation last Tuesday. El-Saidi is currently the associate vice president for academic affairs at Utah Valley University. Previously a dean and professor of math at Texas A&M-Central Texas, El-Saidi discussed the basics of higher education as well as his personal views regarding the future of Washburn University. According to a handout received by each member of the crowd, ElSaidi believes the VPAA should be able to “work with the president and other vice presidents as a professional team.” As well, El-Saidi believes that the relationship between faculty members is an important part of a university’s program. “For us to succeed, the VPAA must have a very strong relationship with the faculty,” said El-Saidi. “I do believe in shared governments. Clearly it is based on democratic ideas.” El-Saidi believes in an open door policy, which allows faculty to openly come in and discuss important issues or talk about day-to-day life; therefore, he also feels strongly about the relationship between the staff and faculty of the university being at a trusting and personable level. “It must be based upon trust and transparency. Transparency is extremely important,” said El-Saidi. “If
the faculty knows what I’m doing, [if] they are aware of the demands of the academic affairs and they are part of the decision making process, they will march behind. They will support me.” El-Saidi, if chosen, says he’d like to see about a lower tuition rate in order to attract more straight from high school students. He also discussed the issue of community colleges and the challenge to make Washburn transfer friendly. Noting the positive comments he heard about Washburn so far, the issue of decreased quality of education at Washburn could be a problem if the “transfer friendly” idea was enforced. “We have to be user friendly, or transfer friendly, but we should not sacrifice the quality of education,” said El-Saidi. El-Saidi applauded Washburn for its academic excellence as well as the small class sizes, which he said are important to student learning. Reiterating his idea of faculty equality and excellence, El-Saidi added a final comment to the future of Washburn. “I believe there are a lot of opportunities here, and you have great faculty,” said El-Saidi. For more information regarding El-Saidi and the competing candidates, students and faculty may visit MyWashburn.
A5
want to attend. The idea of new technology is an ongoing challenge for faculty and students that will continue to change in the future. Pembrook said that the use of clickers, a technology used by some universities to record student participation, would easily help in larger class sizes, as well as keep up with the demand of technology. As well, employers will expect students to come out of college understanding the way technology grows and the way it works. “I think they’re going to want a different format of teaching,” said Pembrook of employers. “I think we’re making a change in the next few years.” In order for students to get the education they need from faculty, wages were also a point of concern addressed. The faculty in the audience showed their concern as they questioned his opinion on salary raises. “I think that you have to figure out a way to get money into the salary pool,” said Pembrook. “You can’t expect, long-term, to retain your great faculty if the consistent message is: there are no wage raises.” Pembrook continued to answer questions by many faculty and staff members during the interview portion of the presentation. The full speech, along with a resume and application letter can be viewed on MyWashburn. Kelsie O’ Connell is a freshman mass media major. Reach her at kelsie.oconnell@ washburn.edu