Group touts cutting costs

All three political coalitions participating in the upcoming Student Senate elections explained their ideas for improving KU in month's student senate debate. The Students of Liberty platform focuses on getting money back in the hands of students. The group proposes eliminating what they see as unnecessary student fees. Adam Wood, the coalition's presidential candidate, emphasized financial responsibility.

"At the very least, do a complete audit and make sure that there's accountability on where every cent of that money is going," Wood said. "Because when students pay $370-plus every semester for this stuff, you've got to make sure that that's not being wasted."

Photo: Bryan Wilcox

Alex Porte, student body assistant treasurer, said that Students of Liberty's take on cutting fees might be too drastic. He offered an alternative solution.

"James Madison once said that the cure is often worse than the disease. And I really don't think that just capping fees at a hard level would be feasible," Porte said. "I think that maybe if you want to cap them at a point in the future, like let's say we don't want fees to go over $500 period, we could work from there."

Additional planks in the Students of Liberty platform include installing wind turbines and solar panels on the KU campus as a source of renewable energy, and also reclassifying mopeds as bicycles to encourage students to use the fuel-efficient vehicles. The group also advocates restricting searches in on-campus housing and allowing dorms to stay open over breaks and not funding student groups that restrict their membership.

Information about the other two political coalitions can also be found on KUJH Online.