THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
SPORTS
INSIDE Fire injures four in North Lawrence
Kansas basketball pulls off
p. 2
historic 16-point comeback to defeat West Virginia The University Daily Kansan
vol. 136 // iss. 2 Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018
Dystopian fiction draws parallels to current political climate p. 9
SEE BASKETBALL • PAGE 11
City prepares for guns in court The city has funded extra security guards for the Lawrence Municipal Court after the end of the concealed carry exemption, but doesn’t have enough funding to keep concealed carry out of city buildings
SAVANNA SMITH @savsmith20 Following the expiration of a four-year exemption to a state law that legalized concealed carry in most public buildings, an additional armed guard has been included in the budget for the municipal court this year, according to City Attorney Toni Wheeler. However, she said, the additional security is not enough to ban concealed carry in the court. Personal and Family Protection Act, under Kansas state law, requires public buildings to allow
Illustration by Gracie Williams/KANSAN concealed carry unless adequate security measures are in place. At the municipal court, the armed guard will add extra security when court is in session. However, the adequate security measures necessary as defined by the state would resemble that of airport security, Wheeler said. According to Vice Mayor Stuart Boley, meeting those expectations is unrealistic and therefore concealed carry will be permitted. “The problem with that, frankly, is that it is very costly,” Boley said. “It would just be exorbitant to provide that security for all
our public buildings.” The city of Lawrence has budgeted $90,832 for three part-time security guards at the municipal court in 2018, according to the city attorney’s office. Two guards are present when court is in session. According to both Boley and Wheeler, home rule, which allows Kansas cities to govern themselves through their own laws and ordinances, cannot be used to combat the state legislation. “I think that we are going to have to just try to convince the legislature that there is a better way to do
things, but in the meantime we are going to have to obey state law,” Boley said. The 2017 city of Lawrence Legislative Priority Statement requested the law be amended to return the power to make decisions on public safety to local governments. The statement said, alternatively, it requests an extension of the exemption period by ten years and asks the state to aid funding for the costly security measures. However, Wheeler confirmed that the city’s exemption to the law expired on Dec. 31, 2017, and the law went into effect the next day.
“We will continue to advocate for the law to be changed but until that time we will comply with it,” Wheeler said. All municipal buildings, including the Municipal Court and City Hall, are affected by this policy, said Assistant City Attorney Maria Garcia in an email to the Kansan. This includes properties owned or leased by the city, she said. However, Garcia said it excludes buildings owned by the city but leased by private entities. Concerning any safety risks, Wheeler said concealed carry in these build-
ings does not necessarily mean an increased risk of violence. She believes the additional security that will be provided at the municipal court will reassure the public and employees. However, she said, it will also aid responsiveness if an incident were to occur. “We just want to be in the best position we can with the resources we’ve been given,” Wheeler said.
— Edited by Hannah Strader
New tuition plan won’t affect current students
EMILY WELLBORN @EmWellborn
During Wednesday’s Board of Regents’ meeting, Provost Neeli Bendapudi and Chancellor Douglas Girod gave new details regarding the tuition waivers for “high merit” out-ofstate students that Girod unveiled at the last Regents meeting, but it won’t apply to current students. When asked by the Regents why these tuition discounts will only apply to incoming freshmen, Bendapudi said that she wished they could apply to both, but “this is an expensive proposition.” “Our current students who are already here have scholarships, and we cannot do both,” she said. Bendapudi didn’t specify whether they will apply to transfer students, but said it was something upper administration would “discuss.” The two administrators explained to the Regents that this redistribution of funds will be a more practical use of funds and ul-
timately increase revenue if this program attracts at least 175 more out-of-state students. There were about 6,400 out-of-state undergraduate students enrolled on the Lawrence campus this fall according to the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access. “The goals of it is to increase our competitiveness for the best and the brightest minds across the country, to really simplify the process as well and in the process will free up some scholarships for in-state need-based scholarships,” Dr. Girod said. Bendapudi said that this program will free up about $1 million of scholarship funds annually. The waivers will be distributed in a tiered system that would give “high caliber” students a discount, making their tuition the equivalent of in-state tuition. “Before it we would have one flat rate where everybody got 150 percent (of instate tuition) above a certain threshold,” Bendapudi said.
Caitlynn Salazar/KANSAN The Kansas Board of Regents brings their agenda to the University at Capitol Federal Hall. The Board governs the state’s six universities and oversees the higher education system. The administrators didn’t specify what the threshold of each tier would be, but laid out what the waivers’ discount equivalent would be. “The highest ability students get in-state, the next level would be 125 percent of in-state and the third tier — again still very, very competitive — would get the equivalent of 150 percent,” Bendapudi said. The standard rate of tuition for in-state students
is $327.25 per credit hour while the rate is $852.85 per credit hour for out-ofstate students, which is about 260 percent of what Kansas residents pay. “We’re only offering this for four years, so it’s also an incentive for everyone to finish up quickly,” Bendapudi said. Undergraduate students who take longer than that to graduate will have to pay normal tuition rates, but won’t be penalized in
any other way. Students will also need to maintain a 3.25 GPA and take 30 credit hours per years, but this isn’t expected to be a challenge for the students whom these waivers are trying to attract. “Candidly, the very high-ability students are not the ones that we worry about for retention, when we look at the numbers historically,” she said. The University doesn’t need approval for this idea,
since it already got it a few years ago, according to the Regents President Blake Flanders. The administrators didn’t specify when this new system would be implemented this meeting, but previously said that the change could come as soon as next semester.