news
4 Wednesday
October 26, 2011
e thwichitan
www.thewichitan.com
MSU to spend more on alert system MEGAN FERNANDEZ FOR THE WICHITAN More than half of Midwestern State University students will be in the dark if an emergency breaks out. Currently, 34 percent of MSU students are enrolled to receive an emergency notification through the MSU alert system. MSU Alert is an emergency notification system that allows MSU to send emergency information by e-mail and/ or by text message. All notifications from the MSU alert system are cleared by the chief of police and President Jesse Rogers. MSU uses an “opt-in” system, where all MSU students have the option of signing up to receive emergency notifications. They will have the option to take their name off the notification list.
MSU alert is powered through e2 Campus, a mass notifications solutions provider. MSU currently has a little more than 6,000 students enrolled, even though they have only paid the provider a fee of $5,000 for 3,000 students to use the service. Beginning summer 2012, however, MSU will begin to pay double the amount of what they currently pay once a new law is passed. The Texas State Legislature recently passing a law requiring all state schools to automatically register their students for an emergency notification system. No money was funded for state schools through this law, and no specific fee will be allocated to students’ tuition and fees, as of yet. Police Chief Dan Williams believes MSU Alert is a great way to relay important information to students about snowstorms and tornadoes, as well as
possible acts of terrorism on campus. In the event of a shooting, Williams sad his officers would be first on the scene. They would immediately notify the Wichita County Sheriff’s Department, Texas Highway Patrol, and Wichita Falls Police Department. MSU police officers, along with all other officers, have been trained to handle volatile solutions, Williams said. MSU officials are extremely cautious in determining whether or not an emergency notification should be sent out. While threatening weather notifications may come easy to announce, other situations, especially those involving threats, are thoroughly investigated beforehand. Williams said that in an event of a rumored bomb threat, he and his officers would investigate the situation before making any decisions. However, if a threat is called in with detailed information of where the bomb was placed and
when it would blow up, no precautions are taken and an emergency notification will automatically be sent out. Williams said the MSU police officers do their best to head off situations by searching for weapons in dorms and by the housing staff reporting anything suspicious. During the time Williams has been at MSU, no weapons have been found in the dorms. Williams wishes more workshops could be held between officers, faculty and students, informing them on how to react to a shooter on campus. If notified that a shooter is on campus while in a classroom students should: lock and or barricade doors, turn off lights, close blinds, block windows, and turn off radios and computer monitors. Williams advises everyone to keep calm and out of sight and silence cell phones. While the MSU Alert deals only with campus emergencies, there is another
Student loans add to angst of protesters GERALDINE BAUM
MCT
For almost a week, Nate Grant has sat cross-legged on a wall at the Occupy Wall Street encampment, holding a cardboard sign that bears his scrawled grievance: “Students Ought Not Be a Means of Profit.” Strangers have harangued him: “Get a job, you commie.” Tourists have photographed him. Others have stopped to engage in existential standoffs. “I have to pay interest on my car loan,” a banker told Grant. “What’s the difference between that and you paying off a student loan?” This sparked a debate that lasted so long that the 22-yearold protester from New Jersey missed out on getting a free sleeping bag. He spent his first night at the protest sleeping on cold concrete. With the nation’s student loan debt approaching $1 trillion, the issue has also generated debate in Washington. The Obama administration announced plans Tuesday to expand a government program to help 1.2 million borrowers reduce their payments and consolidate their student debt. Republicans, including some presidential hopefuls, have demanded in recent days that government student aid programs be reduced or eliminated. About two-thirds of the students who were in four-year colleges in 2009 used loans to pay tuition, accruing an average debt of $24,000, said Lauren Asher, president of the nonprofit Institute for College Access&Success. One in 10 owed $40,000 or more. And even at a time when new tools have been developed to help poor students negotiate federal payments, an increasing percentage of them are defaulting. Last year, 320,000 people who recently left college defaulted on a federal payment. “Compared to a generation ago, a lot more people have student loans and are carrying debt that is much greater,” said Asher, adding that besieged state governments are passing on costs to students at public schools by driving up tuition. “Most people look at the sticker prices at Harvard and Yale,” Asher said. “But most students go to public schools, and tuitions there are also rising
rapidly.” Republicans in Congress are seeking to lower the $5,000 cap on federal Pell Grants, which aid low- and middle-income students and do not require repayment. “Look, I worked three jobs to pay off my student loans after college,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan said last week at a town hall meeting in his native Wisconsin. “I didn’t get grants, I got loans, and we need to have a system of viable student loans to be able to do this.” Presidential candidate Ron Paul also reminded voters last weekend that he had worked his way through college and medical school, and promised that if he was in the White House he would eliminate federal student loans altogether. But President Barack Obama has supported loan programs and tried to improve them. He also has reminded voters of his personal experience: Both he and his wife, Michelle, came out of college and law school with $60,000 in student loan debt. “We were paying a bigger amount every month than our mortgage,” he said last summer. “And we did that for eight, 10 years. So I know how burdensome this can be.” It doesn’t take long before any conversation in the strikingly youthful crowd in Lower Manhattan turns to the loans many of the twentysomethings have racked up. It’s not a central theme, like corporate greed and unemployment, but rather a subtext to all the chanting and marching. Grant left Ithaca College in upstate New York in May with a degree in English and $90,000 in private and federal loans. “College makes you cynical,” he said quickly. “I guess I’m proud of my degree. I just don’t see where it gets me.” Cynical, perhaps, but when he read on the Internet about the rumblings down near Wall Street, he decided to join the fray on Thursday. By Tuesday, Grant had found work with the organizers running a camera — something he learned in college. It won’t pay, but he said it felt good to have purpose. “I’ve gotten a job with the movement,” he texted. “It’s eating up all of my time.”
category called “timely warning,” dealing with recurring crimes in Wichita Falls. For example, this past summer multiple robberies were recorded within a two to three-day span in Wichita Falls. Because the robberies took place near MSU, Williams sent a timely warning to the campus, notifying students to be cautious with their belongings. This warning was not sent through MSU Alert, but through email. The MSU alert is not a news source. It is used strictly for emergencies dealing with the campus, not Wichita Falls, Williams said. Williams hopes the notifications provider MSU chooses to use keeps pace with technology. MSU Alert is not only for students and faculty, but also parents who wish to be notified of emergencies at the same time of their son or daughter. Signing up for MSU Alert takes less then five minutes, Williams said. Loren Eggenschwiler
One segment of the newly finished bike trail in Wichita Falls.
Happy trails
Wichita Falls recently finished a bike trail running from Lucy Park to Jaci Park, a 14.9-mile route. The project has cost taxpayers about $9 million.
W
hether it’s for fitness or a daily commute, trailblazing students are saddling up and taking their bikes out to the recently completed Wichita Falls Hike & Bike Trail system. The trail began in 1987 as a way to create a path around Lucy park, followed by a series of extensions along the Wichita River CADEN BURROSS Williams park and over FOR THE WICHITAN through the Scott Street area. Over the last 25 years, as the trail grew on the northeast side of town, additional construction was completed in the Hamilton Park and Holliday Creek areas. It wasn’t until this September that the two existing lengths of track were joined and final concrete for the trail was laid. But it’s not just MSU students who are taking advantage of the trail – from its earliest stages, agencies and clubs donated money and planned for the future. Groups such as Streams and Valleys, the Wichita Falls Bicycle Club, the Wichita Falls Runners Group and many others have played a role in helping the trail become what it is today. Even with support from the community, however, this project couldn’t have been completed with donations alone. According to Jack Murphy, parks and recreation department director, the project has cost about $9 million so far. Only 16 percent of that was paid for by the city. About 84 percent was awarded through state and federal funding. The Community Development Block Grant, which helps to carry out community development activities, is one type of grant the city has been able to use for the project. With this type of funding, the city was able to develop a trail completely separate from the motorway. Instead of using city streets, the trail follows the park system and natural waterways behind neighborhoods and around the eastern side of town. Now only the pavement has been laid.
In the future, Murphy said, the trail will have more amenities. “A trail has to be attractive, a lid out so that it’s curvy, to appeal to the eye. (It needs) benches, shelters, rest stops, water, restrooms,” he said. Plans for future additions to the trail will bring it around full circle to the west side of Wichita Falls. The ability to circumnavigate the city on bicycle without having to deal with vehicles is a huge bonus for most cyclists. At ten feet wide, the trail strictly prohibits motorized vehicles of any kind, except emergency and utility. It is intended only for recreational use. The absence of cars is one of the main reason students seem to enjoy the trail. It’s why more students are using it every day. Some students use it to jog around a scenic creek. Others walk with their friends. The trail gives them a chance to get out and stretch their legs without having to look over their shoulders for approaching traffic. The trail offers a quick and safe route to campus from many neighborhoods around town Students who have been looking to save a little money in gasoline and cut back on emissions have been using the trail as a way to commute. The closest entry point is only a few blocks from school. Tyler Helms, an MSU senior who rides as much as 60 miles a week, said he would probably not ride his bicycle as often if it weren’t for the trail. “It’s not safe to ride on the streets around here,” Helms said. Though it’s not his only reason to ride, it definitely encourages him to know he doesn’t have to be on the lookout for cars. Helms, who uses his bicycle for commuting as well as for exercise, think more people will go outside and ride if they know about the trail.