KU Student Senate considering fee increase to fund new Multicultural Student Government

KU Student Senate logo

The Kansas University Student Senate on Wednesday will consider a proposal to spend $90,000 a year in required student fees to fund a “Multicultural Student Government” at KU.

The Senate’s finance committee has recommended adding a $2 semesterly fee to support the newly created organization, Student Senate Chief of Staff Adam Moon said. The $2 fee increase is expected to generate about $90,000 annually, he said.

The new fee would join several existing fees allocated to the Office of Multicultural Affairs, according to the finance committee’s fiscal year 2017 required campus fees bill.

The bill states that the OMA director and the Student Senate Multicultural Affairs Committee are trustees of the OMA fees, but a newly added provision states, “The Multicultural Student Government Fee shall be overseen and governed solely by the Multicultural Student Government.”

It’s not clear how the Multicultural Student Government would be organized, what it would govern or how it would work with the existing Student Senate.

OMA Director Precious Porras was not available for an interview this week. KU students Kat Rainey and Jameelah Jones, who spoke on behalf of the funding at last week’s Senate finance committee meeting, did not respond to messages from the Journal-World.

Moon said he did not receive a written proposal explaining more about the organization.

At last fall’s town hall forum on race, a student activist group called Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk issued a list of 15 diversity related “demands” for the university. One was, “Establish Multicultural Student Government independent of current University of Kansas Student Senate.”

The proposed Multicultural Student Government fee increase is one of several recommended fee increases and decreases included in the required student fee bill the Senate will consider.

The KU Student Senate meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.