September 26, 2012

Page 1

Mixed Results

pg. 7

Men’s soccer loses against Incarnate Word Friday, manages to beat Ouachita Baptist Sunday

Family dorms

pg. 4

Dorms not only give single students a home, families reside on campus

wichitan

ht e Wednesday — September 26, 2012

thewichitan.com — your campus / your news

Speaker Straus talks higher education, Romney Community leaders invite Texas Speaker of the House to MSU By BRITTNEY COTTINGHAM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

In less than one hundred days, the Texas legislators will begin a new session in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Texas Speaker of the House, Joe Straus, was invited by community leaders to speak at MSU where high education, water and the state budget were the main topics of discussion. “I do travel a lot and I like to get out to local communities with the representatives from around the state,” Straus said. This also gave the speaker an opportunity to meet with, who he referred to as representativeselect, James Frank, candidate for state house representative for the 69th district and Drew Springer, who is running for state representative in the 68th district.

“It is good to be in the community and hear local concerns,” Straus said. When Straus spoke of funding public universities, he said public support of public universities is a subsidy, but it is his responsibility. Even though he said he believes in finding as many venues as possible to fund public education, the current economy makes that process more difficult for legislators. “The money has to come from somewhere because education isn’t free,” he said. After the bomb scares on the University of Texas and the debate on allowing guns on campus, Straus said the bill that allows guns on campus is currently off the table. “The higher education community came out very strongly opposing that bill in the last session,” he said. “I don’t think it ever got as far along as it appeared to.” Straus said it does not necessar-

ily mean it would not reappear. “It also doesn’t mean that there might be some ways to find a compromise,” he said. The San Antonio native, who was elected speaker of the Texas house in 2009, attended the Republican National Convention earlier this month. He said Gov. Mitt Romney needs to be very clear and forceful about his programs for the future of this country if he wants to be elected this November. “I think he will do that and I have every confidence that he is a good communicator,” he said. Last week, Romney raised eyebrows at a private Florida fundraiser when he was recorded saying that there are 47 percent of people who will vote for President Obama and it was not his job to worry about those people. “I’ll never convince them,” Romney said in the video. “They should take personal responsibility and care of their lives.” Straus said sometimes things are taken out of context or delib-

Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus speaking on Thursday at MSU. Photo by NICOLE BARRON

erately quoted in a way that does not make a particular candidate look very positive. “The whole discussion about dependency on government is

an important conversation for Romney to have,” Straus said. “People who believe as I do, as all of us do, that there should be a safety net for people that are hav-

ing a hard time.” He clarified it shouldn’t be con-

SPEAKER pg. 3

$1M loss due to enrollment drop 4.3 percent decline in student attendance By BRITTNEY COTTINGHAM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

TWITTER MADNESS Controversial twitter account condemned by Faculty Senate

[Editor’s note: The names of some of the students in this story indicated with an asterisk (*) are fictitious in an effort to keep the sources anonymous at their request.] By BRITTNEY COTTINGHAM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A new Twitter account, an outlet for students to voice their frustration, concern and problem with the university, has students in a frenzy. The MWSU Problems Twitter account launched over the summer and has been a place for students to speak out via social media about parking, tuition costs and troubles with the campus Internet. With close to 400 followers, the people behind the Twitter kept their identity unknown. The Wichitan reached out to the founder of the Twitter account, asking him to explain the purpose of the account and to

address the controversial tweets directed at Caribbean students. Dustin*, a MSU senior who wishes to remain anonymous, said the mystery behind the account is the reason why he doesn’t want to release his name. “It makes you think who is behind this genius Twitter account,” Dustin said. “So it’s better to remain anonymous. Who knows, maybe I’ll reveal myself when I graduate.” Dustin described sitting around his house one summer day and coming across different “problem” Twitter pages. “So, I thought to myself Midwestern has a lot of problems,” he said. “What a good way to get the problems out there by creating a Twitter page dedicated to it.” He said the account was originally created for students to vent and to voice their opinions. “That’s what makes America great — freedom of speech,” he said. With the success of the Twitter account, Dustin said he believes the student voice is start-

ing to be heard. “By expressing our opinions, we show the high-horse administrators what the actual problems are,” he said. “They’re starting to come around to listen to students.” Dustin said the administrators said they are working on improvements, but actions speak louder than words. “Parking still sucks,” he said. “We still have no baseball team. The bookstore has outrageous prices. Campus police still park at Stripes at 1 a.m. and chill there for hours. I’ll believe it when I see it.” Along with the complaints about university issues, slowly came outbursts against the university Caribbean student community including one student’s negative comments about Caribbean students that was often retweeted. Shortly after that tweet, other students joined in with tweets of their own. These comments affect Caribbean students like Raisa Charles, who wrote a Letter to the Editor published in the Sept. 19 issue of the Wichitan.

“I wrote [the letter] because I was upset by what I reading on the Twitter,” Charles said. “I wanted the administrators to know about it and to do something.” President Jesse Rogers invited Charles to meet with him Tuesday because he admitted to being embarrassed by what he witnessed on Twitter. “Dr. Rogers said he wanted me to know that most students on campus don’t feel that way and that most of the faculty doesn’t feel that way either,” Charles said. Charles said she believes many students have a misconception about Caribbean students and their culture. “People see Caribbean students and don’t really get to know them outside of the classroom because we do live off campus,” Charles said. “I can see where the disconnect comes from and I wish there was a way to resolve it.” Dustin said the comments

TWITTER pg. 4

President Jesse Rogers said enrollment is probably the university’s greatest priority at this time. Due to the decline in enrollment, the university fell short of its budget by $1 million in tuition for this fiscal year. The administrators are currently evaluating how to make up for the loss. “This is my greatest concern at this time and may be so for the next few years,” Rogers said. Midwestern took another hit by the state of Texas due to the university’s low enrollment. The state made budget cuts for higher education 2.3 million per year.

There was also an increase in tuition waivers required by the Hazelwood Act. “Since students pay approximately 40 percent of the cost of our academic program, we must increase our enrollment to make up for the nearly $4 million decrease in revenue over the past two years,” he said. According to Rogers, the university is down approximately $7 million per year. Enrollment is down 266 students since fall 2011. The university saw an overall decrease in every classification, expect new first-time freshmen, which rose 0.8 percent. The university welcomed 606 full-time new first time freshmen this semester.

DECLINE pg. 3

MSU to expand health sciences By ERIN WRINKLE STAFF WRITER

At the August Board of Regents meeting, the Board agreed to filing a Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) to request funding for upcoming projects for the fiscal years of 2014 and 2015. One of the items being requested included funding $2.9 million to expand health sciences: nursing, radiologic science and dental hygiene. “Midwestern is committed to addressing shortages in health related disciplines to meet the needs of Texas communities,” provost Betty Stewart said.

Between these different departments in the College of Health Sciences and Human Services Dr. Stewart said there is no priority to the expansion. “The health sciences are a vital part of the university’s academic program and much needed resource for the community,” Stewart said. According to the Board, the dental hygiene department needs new equipment, while the radiologic science department is wanting more faculty and equipment. The nursing department is

EXPANISION pg. 3


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