The Weekly Rose

Unionization is the natural conclusion when an administration igrnores Shared Governance. A university that doesn’t respect its workers cannot respect its students. A university that doesn’t invest in sustainability cannot claim to care about our future.

Back with a vengeance on Wescoe Beach after getting kicked out of Kansas in 2023 for violating state gambling laws, the sports betting app Underdog Fantasy has returned to targeting college students with cash giveaways during Hawk Week in exchange for creating an account and placing a bet.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) ranks colleges based on their free speech environment. These rankings feign neutrality while excusing fascism, they do not represent the full picture of how free speech operates on campus.

Management takes months to produce counterproposals and is often underprepared to bargin, but tell UAKU "Don't punish us for good deeds". Over a year after winning their union, there is still no contract in sight for faculty and academic staff as the University of Kansas’ management stalls negotiations.

Private equity billionaire David Booth has contributed a portion of his multi-billion dollar fortune to KU’s latest vanity project and its floundering football team.

State Universities, financially bound to the legislature, are overcomplying in lock step with their every demand at the expense of diversity initiatives and trans students, faculty, and staff.

Formatting your email signature in the face of the pronoun ban may seem daunting. Comply with the letter, but not the spirit of the law, and fill your email with non-gender identifying pronouns.

CapFed is a facade beyond its modular facade; it is a shell over an institution that exists to reproduce the logics it teaches and the capitalists it relies on – no matter the ‘external’ costs. It understands its role in the community, it knows it will always have support from private actors and University administration, and doesn’t care that it eliminates contingent possibilities, both practical and theoretical.

In 1992, former Kansas Senator Bob Dole tried to kill public broadcasting. Trump is pushing Congress to finish the job.

While administrative compensation has skyrocketed, the purchasing power of faculty and academic staff salaries at KU has declined by almost a fifth. Girod sits inside his cushy office, separated from the rest of the university by a passcode lock, while the departments he oversees make enormous sacrifices to make ends meet.

Criticism and misinterpretation has erupted following the passing of a Resolution Recognizing the Ongoing Genocide in Palestine. Let’s clear that up.

On Wednesday, April 9th, 2025, the University of Kansas (KU) Student Senate voted to pass Resolution 2025-306, “A Resolution Recognizing the Ongoing Genocide in Palestine”. This eight page-long resolution, written and submitted by JSPL (Jewish Students for People’s Liberation), KU SJP (KU Students for Justice in Palestine), and KU YDSA (KU Young Democratic Socialists of America), documents war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people.

A Resolution to Recognize the Ongoing Genocide in Palestine is passed by the Student Senate in a vote of 35-5.

A Resolution to Recognize the Ongoing Genocide in Palestine” Introduced to the KU Student Senate by Jewish Students for People’s Liberation (JSPL), KU Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and the KU chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA)

Sometimes, I find it helps to ask ourselves how we got to where we are now. My freshman year at Unionfest, as I was bobbing and weaving through a sea of barely-adults, I came across a table for the Sunrise Movement. I knew about the organization from its work with the Green New Deal and AOC, but I didn’t know that KU had a chapter! I scanned a QR code to join their GroupMe and eventually started showing up to meetings towards the end of my first semester.

I used to write opinion pieces for the University Daily Kansan. I say used to, because I no longer do. The story of why that is the case, written here in four parts, I hope will be illustrative of how journalism functions today and what it means for those with vocal, principled stances on ongoing crises.

The resolution championed by Sunrise Movement KU focused on Environmental Justice, advocating for more than just sustainability. It also makes demands for student employee wage increases, recognizes solidarity with the faculty union and graduate teaching assistants union, and demands options for healthy plant based food options on campus.

In April of this year, the Kansas State Legislature passed HB 2105. HB 2105, also known as House Bill 2105, is a bill that has immediate and profound effects on post-secondary educational institutions. It prohibits these institutions from hiring faculty or other applicants based on a “DEI Pledge” and from making staff pledge support for or oppose a political ideology.

The KU YDSA are proud to return to campus with a renewed organizational commitment to better the lives of all citizens of Lawrence.