A team of scholars visiting the University of Kansas this week will look further into suggestions for reaccreditation.

Suggestions introduced by students, faculty and staff included allowing architecture students to design a building for campus rather than hiring outside contractors, strengthening government relations and utilizing University resources.

The next step for the 12 scholars of the accreditation team will be to compile information from suggestions, concerns and individual meetings with other people at the University. Information will be measured against the criteria for reaccreditation. The suggestions the scholars provide will help the University become more successful, said Barbara Romzek, chairwoman of the steering committee and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Twenty-two people attended the open four forums yesterday and Monday. Romzek said the accreditation team used the comments and concerns they heard at the open forums as another way to get information about the campus.

One of the four students at the forum was a graduate teaching assistant who voiced his concerns about GTA salaries and the University administration.

Michael D. Johnson, GTA for the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, said he salary was 10 percent less at the University than at a northern school he taught at six years ago. But Johnson also said the department treated him well.

Johnson said the University easily found money, except for GTA salaries.

“Where are the priorities? Where is the money going?” he said.

The previous accreditation report from 1994 included a concern that GTAs were being overused and underpaid, according to the Self-Study report.

The 2005 Self-Study states that salaries and benefits for GTAs have increased, and the tuition enhancement has increased the availability of graduate fellowships.

In the staff forum, Dana Goble, associate comptroller, said she and her co-workers in the Comptrollers Office were not well acquainted with students.

“Staff in non-academic areas don’t feel as connected with the students,” she said.

Forum attendees discussed this issue in relation to the University and the students, as well the University’s as connection to the Lawrence community.

Students and staff had one common concern: The way the University promotes itself both inside and outside the University.

The University is too publically modest and needs to find a way to publicize its accomplishments without seeming arrogant, said Dan Consolver, director of academic technology services.