Local briefs

Legislature: House blocks effort to set tuition limits at universities

Topeka  An attempt to limit how much Kansas University and other schools can raise tuition was defeated Wednesday in the House.

Rep. John Toplikar, R-Olathe, tried to limit any tuition increase to no more than twice the federal inflation rate for that particular year.

Universities now are developing five-year tuition plans.

KU administrators have said they need $50 million more per year if they are to match funding at “peer” universities in other states.

No additional state funding would require doubling tuition the next five years for an undergraduate resident student, whose tuition rate is about $2,884 per year.

Environment: Conference to focus on water management

Former Gov. Mike Hayden and Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall, Republican gubernatorial candidate, will be among those sounding off on water issues at a conference next week.

The 19th annual Water and the Future of Kansas conference will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Lawrence Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive.

Featured presentations include Ogallala Aquifer management, protection of surface water quality and interactions between surface and ground water. .

The conference is sponsored by Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment, Kansas Geological Survey, Kansas Water Resources Research Institute, K-State Research and Extension, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Conference registration is $75. For more information, visit www.dce.ksu.edu/dce/conf/waterfuture or call Don Whittemore at 864-2182.

Government: Floodplain guidelines ready for planning commission

After months of work, proposed floodplain regulations for the city are ready for consideration by the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission.

A subcommittee reviewing the regulations agreed Wednesday to submit the proposal to the commission with a statement of “general support.”

The regulations allow development in the city’s floodplains  so long as developers can provide a study showing construction won’t enlarge the floodplain and harm other properties.

The commission will hear about the regulations at its mid-month study session March 13 and consider a recommendation for approval March 27. The Lawrence City Commission will have final say on the proposal.

Kansas University: Regents executive director to make visit as dean finalist

Kim Wilcox, a finalist for dean of Kansas University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will visit campus March 7.

Wilcox will meet with faculty, staff and students during an open forum from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union.

Wilcox has been executive director of the Kansas Board of Regents since 1999. He taught in KU’s speech-language-hearing department from 1984 to 1998, before he joined the regents.

Two other finalists for the position, which oversees 14,000 students and 550 faculty, already have been announced. Kip Hodges, a professor of geology and former dean at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, already interviewed on campus, and John Lipski, professor of Spanish and linguistics at Pennsylvania State University, will visit campus Monday.

The fourth finalist, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, will have a public forum at 3:30 p.m. March 11.