Pork politics

By By John Jordan (Contact)

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Student Senate gave $5,460 to fund the weekly Shabbat dinner for KU Hillel and $6,670 to the Ballroom Dance Club to help hire a dance instructor and band at its annual gala dance.

The KU Equestrian Team asked for $9,175 to rent horses for the club to use, but didn’t get it.

Ballroom Dance Club and Hillel both had student senators as members, but the Equestrian Team did not.

The University Daily Kansan reviewed the $163,000 appropriated this year to student groups by Student Senate, and found that nearly $100,000, or 61 percent, went to groups that have at least one senator as a member. The Senate also allocated itself $143,000 to pay for supplies, salaries and rent and paid senators for travel and food expenses. This money comes directly from student pockets through the $17.50 fee which students pay each year to Student Senate.

For senators elected by a specific school or other University group, funneling money to constituents smacks of old-fashioned, pork-barrel politics: bringing home the bacon to the people who elected them. Critics say that senators who guide student money toward their own groups present a conflict of interest. Senators deny the conflict and respond that members of student government are simply active in multiple groups, and those groups benefit from well-planned and well-written requests for funding.

“The idea that Senate funds only or even primarily out of self-interest is flat-out wrong,” said Nolan Jones, Pittsburg junior and Senate communications director.

But Senate’s budget speaks for itself; groups with senators in them tend to get funded.

During Student Senate’s line-item process last April, KU Mock Trial reaped $12,070 in funding — the largest chunk of the nearly $98,000 given to student groups in the line-item process. Mock Trial’s president, Angela Carlon, is a student senator and a member of the finance committee — and one of the members who uses the money to travel to tournaments throughout the country.

What Senate does with student money

Each student pays $294.50 in campus fees each semester. Of that, $17.50 goes to Student Senate. For this school year, Senate estimates it receives $849,950 in revenue. Here’s how Senate breaks that up:

Block Allocation Account: $636,214

This money is “pre-budgeted” by Senate and allocated every two years. Funds typically go to big corporations and groups that have been around such as the KU Band, the Lied Center, the Graduate and Professional Association and Student Senate itself. Senate gets the largest appropriation of this money: $143,000.

Line-Item Allocation Account: $134,374

This money is “pre-budgeted’ by Senate and allocated to student groups in the spring as funding for the next year. Groups must have received funding from Senate before to qualify for line-item funding.

Unallocated Account: $79,362

This money is available for general funding and events for all student groups. To qualify, groups must either: 1. not have received funds from Senate before, 2. have received funding from block or allocated accounts and want funds for a special event, or 3. received funds the year before after the deadlines for block and allocated funds.

Student group requesting funds must be registered with the Student Involvement and Leadership Center.

— Student Senate budget book and rules and regulations

Although Student Senate has rules that prohibit groups getting money for travel, Senate allows groups to apply for exemptions. Mock Trial was granted an exemption.

The group is traveling to seven tournaments this year, and the group could also travel to the National Mock Trial tournament if it qualifies. Carlon, a Shawnee senior who has studied law, said the group drives to most tournaments but flies to tournaments in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Carlon said the funding paid for gas expenses, plane tickets and hotel reservations, and members paid for their own food.

Carlon said Senate paid for less than half of Mock Trial’s expenses. Generally, Senate follows a guideline of paying the first $1,000 and half of the rest of the costs for the events or conferences it helps fund.

Mock Trial also gets money from the School of Law, the Office of the Chancellor, the Office of Student Success, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a Kansas City law firm and a Coca-Cola contract, Carlon said.

To avoid a conflict of interest, she didn’t vote when the finance committee voted on Mock Trial’s funding. She said that any appearance of a conflict of interest was false.

“I can certainly understand why you could have the misconception that crossover between student groups and Student Senate is a bad thing,” Carlon said. “The reality is just the opposite.”

Said Carlon, “It’s a sign of good students being involved in multiple groups. Those groups do not come to Senate for frivolous funding; rather, their bills are often the most well-written. They also often spend their money in the most judicious manner.”

Donald Haider-Markel, associate professor in political science, said actions like Carlon’s were a part of politics, and so was defending those actions.

“One can always make an argument,” Haider-Markel said about justifying more money going to groups with senators. “Who’s going to buy it?”

Senators getting money for special interests isn’t necessarily unethical in politics, it’s convenient, Haider-Markel said.

Traditionally, money that goes to projects or groups who are constituents of politicians is considered government pork, Haider-Markel said. For example, money that goes to roads or airports in the politician’s district can be called pork.

“Individuals with access to power basically make agreements, ‘You fund my group, I’ll fund yours,’” Haider-Markel said. “That kind of log rolling is pretty standard.”

In Student Senate’s case, more than $61,000 of the funding is going to entities that elect a senator to represent them in Senate or have connections with the school that elected them. For instance, the Black Student Union’s senator, C’Nea Hatches, has sponsored bills to get $12,000 to help fund the Black Student Union and groups associated with its events and speakers. Also, the group gets money to send 50 members to the annual Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government.

Another kind of pork, perhaps more questionable, is the money given to a company or interest with personal financial ties to the politician, such as vice president Dick Cheney’s former company, Halliburton, getting lucrative government contracts.

Haider-Markel said that when groups with ties to senators got the majority of funding, it had the appearance of favoritism. He said if Senate wanted to get rid of the appearance of bias, it would need to come up with a process for funding that took into account both the importance of the group to all students and rules concerning conflicts of interest.

One such rule: Forbidding senators to debate or vote on money for groups they are in.

Besides giving most of the group funding to groups with student senators as members, Senate also allocates $143,000 from student fees to itself to pay for supplies, salaries, rent, speakers and travel for senators.

The largest chunk of this money goes for salaries, to a full-time secretary in the senate office and ten students. The ten students get paid a total of $61,280 to work in the student office.

Student body president Nick Sterner, vice president Marynell Jones, treasurer Bryan Young and Student Legislative Awareness Board director Josh Bender each earn $8,320 a year. Their salaries are based on working 20 hours per week at $8 per hour for 52 weeks per year.

Six other executive staff members are paid hourly with salaries between $2,100 and $6,300. Their pay is based on $7 per hour for 50 weeks per year, with each working a different amount of hours.

Students for these positions are picked from applicants by the student body president. This year Sterner, who ran with KUnited’s coalition, filled six of the eight staff positions with students who also ran with KUnited in last spring’s election.

Sterner said the most qualified applicants were chosen, and Senate got the final vote on approving the executive staff.

Senate allotted itself $3,000 for travel this year. Like Mock Trial, Senate voted itself an exemption to allow funding for travel. Last semester, four senators and executive staff used some of the money for a trip to Washington, D.C., for a United States Student Association conference. Senate paid a total of $740 for conference registration and $663 to fly there.

Although Senate will not provide funding for other student groups to pay for food, each traveler was allotted $104 for meals, based on state guidelines for meals not provided at the conference. Because Senate’s own money comes from block allocated funds, a section of the budget with different rules for funding, they got money for food.

Senators say their own funding and the funding of student groups they are members of should raise no concern.

“Because student senators are some of the most active, driven and successful people at KU, it’s no coincidence that they also happen to be involved with the most successful student groups,” Carlon said.

Another reason could be that senators know the somewhat confusing process and rules that student groups must follow when getting money from student funds. Student groups face a daunting list of 39 rules and regulations that govern getting funding from Senate.

Bogdan Pathak, a senator, senate finance committee member and member and former president of the KU Ballroom Dance Club, wrote a bill that got the club $6,600 to fund a ballroom instructor and events for the club this semester.

Pathak, Albuquerque graduate student, said he knew how much to ask for, what to expect and how to succeed because he knew the ins and outs of the finance committee from serving on it for three years.

“My experience writing bills helps me avoid the pitfalls that other student groups have,” Pathak said. “It was easier for us.”

Student groups with no Senate representation often need help from a senator to get through the funding process.

Murali Satuluri, Vizag, India, graduate student and member of KU Culture India Club, worked with Pathak and another finance committee member to get money for the club’s annual Diwali, an annual cultural event featuring dances, skits and mythological stories.

The group asked for funding for lighting, an audio system and advertising for the event. Satuluri estimated the group was asking for around $800.

But when they went to the Senate finance committee to get funds, Satuluri said the committee grilled the group, making them account for every dollar they were asking for. The group had to come back and provide more details at later meetings. Eventually, the group got the funding they requested and continues to get funding.

Satuluri said without personally working with a senator, the group wouldn’t have known all the rules they had to follow to get money.

“Many groups aren’t clear on what they can get funding for,” Satuluri said. “Having senators surely helps in knowing the rules better, because there is someone that knows the system.”

If a group doesn’t work with people in the financial committee, it will have difficulty getting money, Saturluri said.

One group that has connections to Senate is KU Hillel. The Jewish organization’s president and former president are both senators. The group got $5,060 this year to fund Shabbat dinners. The group also got $400 for general expenses. The $5,060 goes to pay for rent at the Burge Union for the weekly meal, not the food itself.

Nine sponsoring senators backed the bill.

Melissa Horen, Overland Park junior and former president of KU Hillel, said the group needed the $5,060 to finish their fundraising and that students from all walks of life went to the dinner.

Even though Senate can fund religious groups which are open to all students, not all groups ask for money.

Austin Smith, Spokane Wash., senior, is president of the Midwest Student Ministries, a Christian group on campus. Unlike KU Hillel, Smith’s group doesn’t have any members on Student Senate and hasn’t asked for any money for this year.

Smith said he would like to get money for his group’s barbecues and dances but the process was difficult. Smith said he didn’t know how to get money or if his group had to do fundraising to qualify for funds.

He said he didn’t have time to be a senator and shouldn’t have to be a senator to get money.

Another reason groups with senators for members get funding is that senators notify their own groups that money is available, while other groups might not know how much money is out there.

Jones admits that outreach to all student groups has been something senate needs to improve. He said last year there was “next to no outreach.”

“Can we contact more groups? Yes, and we’re always trying,” Jones said. “Funding opportunities are not hidden.”

To reach out to groups, he said Senate was trying to get senators to contact all the student groups listed with the Student Involvement and Leadership Center. Senate also has required more outreach from senators.

And because a group didn’t get funding doesn’t mean they can’t try again. The KU Equestrian Team will be trying again for funds to rent horses next semester after the finance committee asked them to first go to Recreation Services.

Until then, according to the numbers, the surest way for a group to get money appears to be having a senator among its members.

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