"In addition to the new chairs, the Senate has chosen to accept gifts from the Athletic Department."

Now... I'm not gonna say I love the way Senate is doing things right now, 'cause I don't... but, um... that subtitle... uhhhh... there's no better way to put that?

I agree with OldGoldLegs...
How inappropriate for the UDK to suggest that Senate OK'd "gifts" from Athletics. Senate simply rejected a horribly written bill from the Rights Committee. The UDK often preaches about Student Senate funding 3rd party organizations and how wrong that is..... guess what? Student Senate funds the UDK! A third Party! I encourage all Student Senators to begin to question the funding of our government's "watchdog." I also encourage them to write legislation that would dramatically cut the UDK's funding from Student Senate. They may get it back when they write correct, honest, unbiased legislation.

Maybe the UDK Editorial Board should write something about their funding??? How's that for free speech???

Tell your Student Senator.... Cut the UDK's funding from student fees! It's not fair! I shouldn't pay for it!

That dirty rag the Kansan...

Certainly whomever edited this article would have accurately reflected the mood in the room last night, amiright? I guess it was not important. As stated earlier, we did not "choose" to keep receiving gifts. Rather, we failed a horribly written bill from the rights committee. I might add that several senators had proposed amendments that would have fixed this bill to a semi-passable state, but we decided to fail it instead, before we could hear their ideas.

I certainly hope that when the new senate deals with this in the fall, they have the time to examine this issue front to back and write a piece of legislation that holds all of us accountable. I don't think we need to ban gifts all together, but how about we have to report the gifts we receive?

Cutting funding would accomplish what, exactly?

I'm pretty sure that you can't cut the Kansan's funding from Student Senate because it doesn't have any. The UDK is funded by ad sales. They receive no money from the state.

Here's the big problem I have with senate's intentions. If you were to destroy the paper -- but hermeschick has show that you can't (sweet burn hermes) -- you would be screwing over the students who work on the publication out of their careers.

Students show their UDK stories to employers when applying for jobs. As a former UDK reporter, that's how I got my first few jobs.

It's pretty arrogant for student senators to try to punish reporters for doing their job. Sure you don't like what's being said about your coalition, but a journalist's job is to report what's happening. Obviously senators in bed with KU Athletics (metaphor) or other organizations is something students should know about.

Please, senators, stop the petty whining about how you don't get portrayed as good guys all the time. Student senate isn't important enough to constitute trying to sabotage others' careers. Grow up and learn to take it in stride. If you get into actually relevant politics, you'll have to deal with being the hero and villain. Get used to it.

Senators, don't be a Hugo Chavez. Support your local paper.

I think one thing to remember is that Student Fee dollars do not work the same way as money from Senate Appropriation, Line-Item, or Reserve Account. The fees represent many different student services that might not otherwise be possible without student fees. They are also not required to conform to the same rules that govern those other accounts.

The media fee is always one that people want to cut. In fact it comes in about 3-5 year cycles that someone wants to eliminate it. This seems especially true in terms of Senate coverage. The last time, I remember someone from the Kansan informing Senate that it made up like 4-6% of their total budget. I am guessing it might be the same or less now. As a result, the message of we want change just means that the Kansan has to work slightly harder for ad revenue.