WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1896 March 30, 2023
www.thesunflower.com
Volume 127 Issue 26
Paying for police: Security charge suggests strain on police department BY SALSABILA ATTARIA skattaria5@gmail.com
When Spectrum, an LGBTQ organization on campus, decided to host a panel to support gender non-conforming students at the same time as a controversial documentary screened by the right-wing student organization Turning Point USA, safety was of utmost concern. Members were surprised when campus police informed organization advisor Jennifer Pearson that, in order to organize police presence, a charge would be billed to Spectrum. “It wasn’t something I expected,” Pearson said. “I made an argument that I didn’t think Spectrum should have to pay for the police presence because of the motivation for the event and the safety concern.” Through the counter-event, Spectrum’s goal was to protect LGBTQ students at a time when legislation surrounding LGBTQ
individuals continues to appear in the Kansas State Legislature. “We wanted to counter (Turning Point’s event) with a more positive event,” Pearson said. “We felt it was important to protect the safety of students by having a police presence there.” After speaking to Pearson, Student Engagement, Advocacy and Leadership (SEAL) was able to cover the charge for Spectrum and the event went on as planned. The charge led to individuals, like Amy Nguyen, asking why students would have to pay for police presence. Nguyen is heavily involved in student organizations on campus. “Our campus is prominently promoting that students are safe here and they provide a lot of resources,” Nguyen said. “So what does it mean when students are not already covered when it comes to safety?” Nguyen, as well as other students, think that placing the
burden of safety on a student organization comes across as illogical, especially since most events take place on the university’s campus. “A lot of it has to do with staffing issues. It has to do with how many people I have available that are working their regular shifts,” WSUPD chief Guy Schroeder said. “Oftentimes, we have to go outside of the guys that are on their regular shifts and mandate overtime for them then be present for specific events.” Staffing issues in the police department point to the idea that when campus safety resources are stretched too thin, a larger problem at the administrative level may be present. Due to raised enrollment numbers over the last few years, various student resource areas at Wichita State have felt a similar pressure. Resources like the Shocker Support Locker and university counselors reported an
Illustration by Wren Johnson / The Sunflower
inability to keep up with students after enrollment rates increased. “We are getting bigger and bigger as a university and more space to cover means more things to cover,” Schroeder said. “One of the other issues that I run into is
being able to retain officers. I can tell you that part of that is simply because we’re one of the lowest paid agencies in the entire area.”
SEE POLICE, PAGE 3
Motion to allocate funding increase to The Sunflower denied by SGA BY DANIELLE WAGNER suzwagner65@gmail.com
After the inital phrase went all the way down the line, the starting player came to the end of the line to demonstrate the phrase. All the players laughed after seeing the vast difference between start and finish. | Photos by Kristy Mace / The Sunflower
On March 24, the Office of Disability Services hosted a Deaf Game Night event in Grace Wilkie Hall. Students, staff and community members gathered to play several games that shared Deaf culture.
After comparing the initial sign sequence to what was left in the end, the group bursts out in laughter. The group began as one big line, but was eventually split into two shorter lines.
Office of Disability Services hosts game night based in Deaf culture BY COURTNEY BROWN
T
browncourtney2002@gmail.com
he room was mostly quiet, except for bursts of laughter and the motions of sign language during a Deaf culture game night. The Office of Disability Services (ODS) hosted a game night on March 24, welcoming all students to practice American Sign Language and play games rooted in Deaf culture. Kelly Adams, the ODS senior sign language interpreter, organized the event. She hoped to provide deaf and hard-of-hearing students the chance to form relationships. “We’re just trying to provide a comfortable space where people can gather, learn their language, hopefully build relationships and be able to communicate with these people,” Adams said. Shauna Leuci and Grace Wigley, two Deaf members in the Wichita Deaf community, led the games. “We just came to hang out with these cool people,” Leuci signed in ASL. Maddie Fields attended the game night. Since Fields is an ASL tutor for the Office of Student Success, she hoped to be a friendly face for students she knows. “They feel better about coming if they
know someone,” Fields said. “And it’s just always a good experience to see people here and practice sign and have people meet the Deaf community members.” For the elephant game, participants stood in a circle. When cued, a participant extended their arm like a trunk, and those beside them cupped their ears like an elephant. If a player didn’t react correctly, they were out. “I love the elephant game,” Fields said. “It’s fast and fun.” Other games included an ASL alphabet story game and a visual telephone game, where participants stood in a line, turned around and signed a message. Attendees also played Charades, using gestures and expressions instead of signing. Telephone and Charades ranked as Wigley’s favorites. “I like to see how all the expression and everything changes as it goes through,” Wigley signed. “And then also charades because I really like acting things out.” Besides playing games, attendees also learned deaf history. Adams spoke about the oralist movement, which advocated teaching deaf people by speech and lip-reading instead of sign language. Adams said this movement, promoted by
Alexander Graham Bell, contributed to the oppression of deaf people. “In public schools, you would have teachers slapping hands with rulers because these little kids signed … and would make up their own sign language,” Adams said. Adams also said differences between ASL and English can cause deaf people to write differently. “(ASL) has a different syntax,” Adams said. “And in ASL, because it’s visual, the signs don’t represent any English phonemic element … So the way (ASL signers) write is going to be patterned more towards American Sign Language versus English.” Leuci and Wigley said they hoped attendees enjoyed being immersed in Deaf culture. “(I hoped they enjoyed) that they had the opportunity to hang out with us cool Deaf people,” Leuci said, “and learn some sign language and facial expression, learn about the Deaf world and Deaf culture.” Adams hopes to host similar events in the future. Those interested in learning more about Deaf culture can attend events offered by the Wichita Associations of the Deaf. Fields, who plans to add a second major in ASL in the fall, also recommends taking classes with Lorita Slieter, a deaf teacher at WSU who teaches ASL and Deaf culture.
The editor of The Sunflower suggested that Student Government and its student fees committee were self-serving after denying a small increase to the newspaper but giving larger increases to themselves, during Wednesday night’s Student Senate meeting. At the meeting, the Senate presented the first read of the Student Services Fees Act, which if passed next week will raise student fees by 2.9% next year. Jaycie Nelson, editor in chief of The Sunflower, spoke about funding allocations for The Sunflower. The Sunflower had requested $160,000 for their general budget for next year — a $15,000 increase from last year and about the same amount The Sunflower was consistently receiving 15 years ago. “I’m asking you to do your job and serve the students,” Nelson said. “Because if you pass the budget without corrections, it’s clear to me and every other student who (Student Government Association) really serves.” After requesting a $15,000 increase to support students’ wages, the fees committee recommended The Sunflower only receive a $5,000 increase, 33% of the originally requested increase. “SEAL requested an increase of $100,000,” Nelson said. “They are getting $90,000 — 90% of their request. SGA requested an increase of $80,000. They are getting $45,000, 56% of their request.” Nelson requested that the Senate send the bill back to the committee for changes to be made in order for The Sunflower to increase student employee salaries. Currently, editors at the publication earn $10 an hour; the Board of Student Publications, made up of local professionals, faculty, and student representatives, voted to raise that pay to $12 an hour to keep up with the rising cost of living, tuition and other expenses. The Board of Student Publications, granted authority by the president of the university, oversees the budget of student publications on campus. SEE SGA, PAGE 2