The Kansas Commitment | ESU Bulletin

For Emporia State, the Foresight 2020 and The Kansas Commitment approved by the Kansas Board of Regents on Sept. 15 would be a new opportunity and a challenge.

“The opportunity is that the six goals provide clear direction for us in terms of what the expectations are from the Board of Regents,” said Tes Mehring, vice president of academic affairs and student life. “The goals also provide challenges. Some of the goals are clearly inspirational and will require continued and intense commitment from faculty and administrators to meet the goals.”

Foresight 2020 is a 10-year long agenda composed of six strategic goals, which aims to improve the quality and efficiency of Kansas higher education system. The Kansas Commitment is funded by a $50.4 million state general fund with $27,075 other funds to stimulate Kansas economic development by investing in higher education.

“If the legislature funded it, we believe it would be a considerable opportunity for the university,” said Raymond Hauke, vice president of administration and fiscal affairs.

Besides being beneficial by increasing the state’s higher education budget 2.73 percent, restoring building maintenance projects and keeping the university’s sales tax, according to The Kansas Commitment, ESU will get $1.125 million in funding mainly used to build three new degree programs: e-commerce, student affairs administration and sustainability.

“That would probably happen if the legislature provides the funding, and we will know the result by next May 1, after the legislature’s meeting in January,” Hauke said.

Jonathan Rivers, senior secondary education major and president of ASG said he attends the Kansas Board of Regents meeting every month as a member of the Student Advisers Committee and to give suggestions and feedback from the perspective of student.

“Last year our message was ‘no more cuts’… you don’t have to give us (ESU) more money, just stop cutting us because we can’t survive right now. We were cutting programs. We were losing teachers. We were losing students. Our message for this year is investing Kansas then you will see positive returns for economy,” Rivers said.

Rivers said ASG will have open forum to discuss the funding plan and listen to students’ opinions. The regents will visit campus early next week.

Han Yan

IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION: FACTS AND FICTIONS

US Fed News Service, Including US State News September 7, 2006 Indiana University at Fort Wayne issued the following news release:

The United States became what it is today thanks in large part to immigration and naturalization. But these days there are few hotter items of discussion among political pundits, liberals, conservatives, or anyone else, than the number of immigrants – both legal and illegal – pouring into this country.

In an effort to clear up some of the misunderstandings and to correct wrong information about the naturalization process, the American Democracy Project, the Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, and the American Studies Program at IPFW are sponsoring a panel discussion Tuesday, Sept. 19, beginning at 7 p.m. on the second floor of Helmke Library. go to site immigration and naturalization in our site immigration and naturalization

Panelists will include Stacey Summers of the Department of Homeland Security, Citizen and Immigration Services, Luz Ostrognai of Catholic Charities, and David Schuster of IPFW’s Department of History. Elizabeth Kuebler-Wolf of IPFW’s American Studies program will moderate the discussion.

Topics for discussion will include the differences between the rights of non-citizen immigrants and citizens; the government’s definitions for immigrant, citizen, and naturalization; the basic process for becoming a naturalized citizen, and others.

The panel discussion is presented in conjunction with IPFW’s Constitutional Education Programming and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Andrew Downs at 260-481-6691.Contact: Andrew Downs, 260/481-6691.

Andrew Downs, 260/481-6691.