New housing policies pinch student wallets

Baker University has altered its housing policies, forcing incoming freshman to live in student dormitories.
Read The Baker Orange's article about the change.

Students under 21 are required to live on campus in residence halls. One way out of dorms is to live in a greek house. But to do that, students must have 30 college credit hours.

In the past, freshmen who earned 30 credit hours during high school could bunk up in greek houses. Not anymore. The new housing policy no longer recognizes those hours. Instead, the 30 hours must be attained AFTER high school.

The change puts greek houses in a bind by reducing budget expectations. Some houses have freshmen move in at the launch of each semester. Devoid of freshmen members, it might be harder for houses to meet financial obligations.

So why the sudden distinction between hours earned in high school and hours earned after? Well, Baker claims living in dorms enhances the student learning experience. The resources available in a dorm enable students to comfortably nuzzle their way into college life, Baker officials say.

But it's really not about student comfort. It's really about money. Baker banks on having a certain amount of on-campus residents. Strict regulations make it pretty easy to dip into students' wallets. Now it's even easier.

Baker's kind of like the school bully, hoisting up new freshmen and shaking money and earned college credit hours from their grasp.

One of the dorms is infected with mold and has a leaky ceiling Watch Fox 4's coverage of the problems , while the others are tightly cramped. Given the current conditions of student resident halls, Baker should be trying to help students find quality living quarters. But intead, it's using an iron fist to generate a profit.

The new housing policies are bogus and should be altered immediately.

Caucus causes problems

Barack Obama swept away the Douglas County vote for the Democratic caucus. He garnered a honking 80 percent of the vote.

More dedicated than postal workers, voters flocked to the polls in large numbers. They trudged through snow and endured icy winds and rain while standing in long lines during the dark, cold night.

Organizers were overwhelmed -- and perhaps under prepared-- because it was the first signficant caucus in Kansas within the past decade.

Some voters were turned away after arriving just a few minutes late. Rejected voters cited their inability to locate a parking space as the hazard holding them back. Some said the caucus was not planned well and as a result, people were pushed away for not meeting an arbitrary deadline.

But while some people weren't allowed to vote because they missed the time slot, many did make it. Whether everyone was able to vote or not, it's nice to see people willingly endure unfavorable conditions for the value of democracy.

Beef, it's what's for dinner. Grass-fed beef, that is.

Click here to listen to a podcast of Kurtis talking about grass-fed cattle

Click here to listen to Kurtis recite a snatch of dialog from the movie "The Legend of Ron Burgandy," which he narrated.

When hunger strikes, it's not unusual to shove the key into the ignition, roll down to the nearest fast food joint and list off items. Within minutes, a stressed worker plops a slab of meat on a bun, crams it into a paper bag and viola: dinner.

In order to afford this convenience, however, the cows used to make the meat are typically jammed into lots and filled with corn-feed.

But feedlot cattle aren't the only options for dinner. Bill Kurtis-- a well-known journalist and KU graduate-- and his company, Tallgrass Beef, offer a viable alternative: grass-fed cattle.

It's not a new idea. In fact it's the traditional diet for cattle, and for the past few decades farmers have tinkered with reviving it.

However, it seems to have been a battle between convenience and health.

To keep up with the demand for beef, ranchers try to fatten cattle quickly, preparing them for slaughter and ushering them onto your dinner plate in a timely fashion.

But, corn-fed beef are usually high in saturated fat, which is linked to heart disease. They're also typically low in Omega 3s, which can combat heart disease by lowering blood pressure.

The trend isn't hard to spot: it's tasty and fast, but not very healthful.

Kurtis claims the switch from corn to grass is a healthy event for both the cow and the consumer. He describes the process as "moving ahead by traveling backward." And Kurtis's cows don't taste gamy like other grass-fed beef because the stock of cattle used have the right genetics, he says.

Kurtis and Michelle Martin recently compiled a collection of recipes, many designed to make grass-fed beef a normal rotational meal item.


But Kurtis doesn't anticipate a massive chunk of consumers to flock forward for grass-fed beef. He thinks there's an audience, but it's just a small slab of the beef-eating pie.

"We're decaf coffee," Kurtis said. "We're the alternative."