cheka.
26th April 2016, 10:40 PM
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/ku-minority-students-seek-parallel-university-government/article_2579b28f-0941-53ac-a140-ee06777a6f2f.html
KU minority students seek parallel university government
Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 12:00 am Comments (4)
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Minority students at the University of Kansas, frustrated by what they see as a lack of attention to issues they care about, are pushing for an independent governing body to represent their interests — and have won the school’s recognition and funding to start the process that could allow them to do so.
Students insist they’re not trying to set up a wholly separate student government, with the thorny “but equal” questions that might spur. Details on how the arrangement would work haven’t been decided, but advocates say they want a structure whose focus on social justice issues and multicultural students would complement the work of the traditional student government.
Leaders of the effort at Kansas say they were spurred by years of neglect combined with specific moments, such as last semester when Kansas Student Senate leaders shut down discussion by some members about the appointment of a new head of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Similar long-simmering frustrations have contributed to student protests at colleges elsewhere in the past year — including those at the University of Missouri last November.
After several contentious meetings, the Student Senate voted in March to relinquish control of about $90,000 in funding per year for the proposed Multicultural Student Government and to add seats for multicultural representatives on a committee that determines campus fee allocations. The votes made the new government an officially recognized student organization, but several steps are necessary before it would become a co-governing body.
Jameelah Jones, a graduate student who helped lead the effort, said the goal is to work with the Student Senate, perhaps with a liaison between the groups, but its main mission is to center attention and fee expenditures on minority students. For example, organizers would like a semester-long orientation for multicultural students, particularly first-generation college students, more scholarships established for underserved students such as women with children and funding for students who face financial emergencies.
“It doesn’t take away from what the Student Senate does,” she said. “We want a smaller group focused on marginalized students and advocating for them at the university and state level. We pay the same amount of money and put in the same amount of effort. We would simply be centered on those students who feel they are not being represented.”
The Kansas effort and protests at other colleges are pushing college administrators to acknowledge that minority students often do not get the same quality of experience as other students, said Eddie Comeaux, an associate professor of higher education at the University of California-Riverside.
KU minority students seek parallel university government
Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 12:00 am Comments (4)
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Minority students at the University of Kansas, frustrated by what they see as a lack of attention to issues they care about, are pushing for an independent governing body to represent their interests — and have won the school’s recognition and funding to start the process that could allow them to do so.
Students insist they’re not trying to set up a wholly separate student government, with the thorny “but equal” questions that might spur. Details on how the arrangement would work haven’t been decided, but advocates say they want a structure whose focus on social justice issues and multicultural students would complement the work of the traditional student government.
Leaders of the effort at Kansas say they were spurred by years of neglect combined with specific moments, such as last semester when Kansas Student Senate leaders shut down discussion by some members about the appointment of a new head of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Similar long-simmering frustrations have contributed to student protests at colleges elsewhere in the past year — including those at the University of Missouri last November.
After several contentious meetings, the Student Senate voted in March to relinquish control of about $90,000 in funding per year for the proposed Multicultural Student Government and to add seats for multicultural representatives on a committee that determines campus fee allocations. The votes made the new government an officially recognized student organization, but several steps are necessary before it would become a co-governing body.
Jameelah Jones, a graduate student who helped lead the effort, said the goal is to work with the Student Senate, perhaps with a liaison between the groups, but its main mission is to center attention and fee expenditures on minority students. For example, organizers would like a semester-long orientation for multicultural students, particularly first-generation college students, more scholarships established for underserved students such as women with children and funding for students who face financial emergencies.
“It doesn’t take away from what the Student Senate does,” she said. “We want a smaller group focused on marginalized students and advocating for them at the university and state level. We pay the same amount of money and put in the same amount of effort. We would simply be centered on those students who feel they are not being represented.”
The Kansas effort and protests at other colleges are pushing college administrators to acknowledge that minority students often do not get the same quality of experience as other students, said Eddie Comeaux, an associate professor of higher education at the University of California-Riverside.