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KANSAN.COM/NEWS | THURSDAY, OCT. 15, 2015

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NEWS SECTION
EDITORS

JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
The University does not accept Visa cards to pay tuition because it has some very specific requirements that KU cant meet, said Katrina Yoakum.

News editor
Allison Kite

Using a Visa to pay tuition? Think again.

Associate news editor

Kelly Cordingley

KWANG HYUN
@ChwangWitIt

Sports editor
Scott Chasen
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Christian Hardy
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Vicky Daz-Camacho
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arts & culture editor
Ryan Wright
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Anissa Fritz
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When JongHyun Park, a

23-year-old student from
South Korea, tried to pay part
of his tuition and fees with a
Visa credit card through the
Universitys online payment
system, he couldnt use the
card. He ended up having to
get a MasterCard to make the
payment.

VIDEO FROM PAGE 1

We were trying to figure out
what we could do to give people a baseline understanding,
and when you have a campus
this large, this is one of the
ways you do that, she said.
KU Athletics is also working to provide student athletes
with information and education on microaggression and
other issues. The department
has a diversity committee
made up of staff, student athletes and representatives from
offices on campus like the
Multicultural Center and the
Emily Taylor Center.
The committee works to
educate and inform student
athletes and staff on different
diversity topics every year, said
Theresa Becker, associate athletics director.

Thats because the University,

unlike other Division I schools
in Kansas, doesnt accept Visa
as a payment option for tuition
and fees.
Wichita State University and
Kansas State University are
among those that accept Visa,
according to their websites.
Nationally, more than 60 percent of public universities accept Visa for tuition and fees,
according to Creditcard.com.
It was inconvenient for me

because Im an international
student and I dont have a lot
of options to pay my tuition,
Park said.
He said other "foreign students use Visa since MasterCard isnt that popular in other
countries like South Korea.
According to Cardhub.com,
roughly 50 percent of credit
card users have Visa, followed
by MasterCard with about 30
percent. Along with MasterCard, KU accepts Discover

and American Express. If an

attempt is made to use an invalid card to pay for tuition, or
a card is returned for another
reason, the University charges
students a $1.50 fee.
Katrina Yoakum, the Universitys comptroller, said she
periodically receives questions
from parents and students
about why the University does
not accept Visa for tuition
payments. She said the Universitys billing system cannot

meet Visas requirement that it

separates a 2.25 percent convenience fee from the overall
tuition bill that the University
charges for credit card transactions.
Visa has some very specific
requirements, and currently
we cannot meet those requirements, so therefore we dont
accept Visa, Yoakum said.

Its kind of a broad topic

for us this year, but generally
speaking it has everything to
do with social issues, Becker
said. With that being our focused topic, we are going to be
very, very sensitive to and very
committed to making sure
we address microaggression
issues when we present our
information and our training
and education to our students
and staff.
Becker hopes this sort of
awareness and training, paired
with the education from the
Office of Diversity and Equity,
will help prepare student athletes for the real world after
they finish their eligibility and
graduate.
Thomas said he also agrees
that this sort of awareness
and training can help prepare
students for successful careers
and a future in the world after

college. He said he believes

this generation doesnt want to
create spaces where people feel
mistreated because of certain
comments and stereotypes.
We want people to be more
thoughtful, and I think this
generation is pushing that,
Thomas said. How great
would it be for our students to
say, Yes, when you think about
how we promote diversity and
how we are seen as a leader
around diversity, thats KU.
Our students can wear that as
a badge of honor. Our faculty can wear that as a badge of
honor."
Onianwa and others say a
more welcoming environment
could help KU improve the retention rate of black freshmen,
which has been declining since
2010.
Something I tell people to
do a lot is go to office hours,

and go talk to teachers because

they help a lot, Onianwa said.
But if you dont feel comfortable going to your teacher at
all, especially if you feel like
they arent going to take you
seriously, then you really wont
go. Then your grades slip, and
youre afraid to ask for help because youre afraid to fulfill the
stereotype of not doing well in
school or something. So then
you get behind even more, and
then you drop out.
As far as the efforts of the
University go, Onianwa said
she thinks that they are a good
start, but said she wonders
whether people can change
their habits.
With microaggression, the
people that actually know what
it is are the people that actually
care, she said. But most people when they hear microaggression defined theyre like,

Oh thats stupid, why are you

offended by that? So the people who dont care probably
arent going to understand it.
The Office of Diversity and
Equity and IOA are working
to get feedback about the video from some students and
groups to ensure that they are
releasing an effective product.
We want to get to a place
where people are having more
conversations than this office
is having, and that they are
starting to facilitate the process of, Hey lets talk about
these things, Thomas said.
We really want it to be infused
throughout our campus.
Edited by Amber
Vandegrift

Student Senate committees pass a bill to use

gender-neutral pronouns in rules handbook
ALANA FLINN
@alana_flinn

Two Student Senate committees passed a bill on Wednesday with the goal of eliminating microaggression on
campus.
In an effort to make Student Senate more inclusive, a
bill passed through both the
University Affairs and Rights
committees tonight that, if
passed through full Senate
next week, would remove all of
the gender-specific pronouns,
including he," "she," "him,"
"her," "his" and "hers, from
the Student Senate Rules and
Regulations. They would be
replaced with gender-neutral
pronouns "they," "them" and

"their.
Harrison Baker, an author of
the bill and a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator,
said there would be about 90
pronoun changes. The changes
aim to make transgender students who want to be involved
in Senate less alienated.
I went through and eliminated every possible combination of pronouns that are
microaggressions, Baker said.
We strive to be an inclusive
group in Senate and sometimes we fall short of that, and
this opens up as many doors as
possible for those people.
The bill will be seen by full
Senate next Wednesday.
Edited by Maddie Farber

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Senate meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 14.

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