By Maya Smith, Kansas Reflector
The University of Kansas Student Senate has proposed a drastic cut to the University Daily Kansan, reducing per student funding for the news outlet from $3.65 to $0.75 for the 2025-26 academic year. But after the Finance Council met Wednesday night, a majority voted in favor of sending the proposal back to the Fee Review Committee.
The cut was presented alongside other changes to the annual student fees, including KU SafeRide, reallocating student diversity fees to the Student Engagement Center and an increase to operations of campus transportation.
For the 2024-25 school year, each student enrolled at KU paid $522.05 in student fees, with $3.64 going toward the Daily Kansan. The 2026 fee review proposal also requests the School of Journalism to contribute funds to “reflect the value that the UDK provides to its students.”
Editor-in-chief Courtney Lane and others at the Kansan say that this would eliminate the publication’s ability to pay editorial staff and senior reporters.
“They want to cut our funding down to one fifth of what it was,” Lane said. “You’re going to start getting one fifth of the journalism that we’re doing.”
Kansan staff members took to social media to express their frustration, starting an online petition Monday night that had more than 7,000 signatures Thursday morning. Students also took signs to the Tuesday night men’s basketball game to show their support for the Kansan.
“This would mean we are going to lose every single one of our paid staff members,” Lane said. “We will go back to being a completely volunteer basis, which is what we have been the last four or five years, and you can see it in the quality of our journalism.”
The Senate’s Finance Council held a meeting Wednesday night to review the budget proposal for the new student fees. More than 100 people joined the virtual meeting with many expressing their concerns about the proposed new budget as well as questioning why the council could not disclose reasons for the University Daily Kansan cut.
“Unfortunately the decisions of the committee all occurred during deliberation, which occur in executive session, so we are not allowed to discuss those conversations,” said Finance Council chair Megan Stopperan. “This is how we’ve operated. We discuss sensitive topics such as personnel salaries.”
In a speech in support of the proposed budget, vice chair of finance Farzad Janjua said that the council needed to “consider what we’re willing to cut” since they cannot increase beyond a 2% threshold in spending.
“The question is, does everyone read the UDK,” Janjua said. “That’s why I asked about raw metrics. Compare (the UDK) to something like buses. Let’s say the UDK remains at a flat fee. Then another institution will come here and ask for the exact same thing and list out the harms.”
Student Body President DaNae Estabine released a statement Tuesday on the Student Senate Instagram, saying that the president does not have a vote in the Fee Review Committee that put together the proposal. Other Student Senate members contacted did not respond for comment. The comments on the post are disabled.
The statement also reiterates that the Fee Review Committee meetings are “highly confidential.” It encourages students to contact their student senators and attend upcoming meetings to voice their concerns.
The Finance Council will reconvene Feb. 26 to discuss changes made after the Fee Review Committee meets. Moving forward, Kansan advisor Nick Jungman says that the news outlet wants to continue to be present for decisions made.
“I was encouraged by last night’s students, I think we showed that students cared,” he said. “We’re just hoping that the fee committee takes the finance council’s recommendation, which was to maximize the fee so that we don’t leave any money on the table.”
