SWEAT FOR SUCCESS: Football players practice through the heat to prep for season opener npage 8
Wednesday n September 1, 2010
Shrinefest pairs good Texas music with a good cause npage 7
thewichitan
your university n your voice
State calls for deeper cuts from strapped budget “ ” Brittany Norman Editor in Chief
As the Texas Legislature continues to dig deeper into the pockets of state agencies to cover an $18 billion deficit, MSU administrators must prepare a plan to return as much as 10 percent of the university’s state appropriations for the next biennium. President Dr. Jesse Rogers said the proposed cuts, which will be finalized during the January 2011 legislative session, will be difficult even in the best-case scenario.
This is the largest budget cut I’ve been involved in. We’ve never been in a position to cut up to $6 million out of our operating budget. -MSU President Dr. Jesse Rogers
“It’s very serious,” Rogers said. “Our budget will be cut somewhere between 5 percent – which is a certainty – and 10 percent. That is on top of the 5 percent we cut this biennium.” Rogers said the university has already pared away $2 million from the 2010-2011 budget after the legislature requested that all state agencies reduce their
budgets by 5 percent. “That first 5 percent was difficult,” Rogers said. He said the university slashed $600,000 in the previous school year, and plans to cut the remaining amount – over $1 million – over the next year. One of the money-saving measures the university has taken is instating a limited hiring
freeze. “(Limited hiring freezes) are very hard to do because we are not overstaffed,” Rogers said. “We need every position we have. There are quite a few positions still open, and if we can hold positions open for awhile, we will do so.” He said MSU has also postponed or scaled back some cam-
MSU gets ‘Sprinkled’
See BUDGET on page 3
New provost prioritizes accreditation, recruiting Chris Collins Managing Editor
urges students to embrace change Brittney Cottingham Features Editor
See CONVOCATION on page 5
such as student services, maintenance projects and the academic budget, to start hammering out a new budget. “This is the first time I’ve done that sort of planning as a provost or president, but this is also the largest budget cut I’ve been involved in,” Rogers said. “We’ve never been in a position to cut up to $6 million out of our operating budget.” In the past, it has been possible to handle budget cuts at solely an administrative level,
Dr. Alisa White (Photo courtesy)
Convocation speaker Jonathon Sprinkles
A who’s who of MSU: President Rogers, the Deans and Administration heads, Peer Counselors, Student Ambassadors, members of fraternities and sororities, cheerleaders, athletes, and many more, were in attendance Tuesday night in the Fain Fine Arts Center Theatre to welcome the Class of 2014 to Midwestern. “[New Student Convocation] is to officially welcome our new students as the Class of 2014 and start them off on their journey to receive a great college education at Midwestern State University,” Student Development and Orientation director, Matthew Park said. But the festivities didn’t kick off until keynote speaker, Jonathan Sprinkles, took the stage and dazzled the crowd with a message of letting go of the one’s past self and accepting the future with an open mind. Telling them his motto, “If it is going to be it’s up to me. So I choose to see
pus projects and cut money out of existing projects. “It was difficult, but I don’t think the students have felt (the effects of the cuts) in too many ways,” Rogers said. But if the cuts continue, Rogers said the effects might become more noticeable. As a result, the administration has formed three committees to develop plans for the potential 5 or 10 percent cuts. Those committees will be seeking input from across the university. The committees will look at specific areas of the university,
(Top) Cheerleaders throw prizes into the audience during New Student Convocation Tuesday night. (Bottom) Jonathon Sprinkles spoke to new students about moving into their futures with open minds. (Photos by Kassie Bruton)
After a search spanning over a year and more than 100 applicants, MSU admins have chosen Texas native Dr. Alisa White to fill the empty provost’s office. White said her main priorities at MSU will be meeting accreditation goals, improving retention rate and helping with student recruitment in a fiscally depressed era. White, who started working as provost July 16, was born in December 1958 in Weatherford, Texas, to Robert White and Kathryn Shires White. The 51-year-old provost has lived in Montana, Arizona, West Virginia, Tennessee, Alaska, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas. Her family moved often because her father Robert worked as a traveling minister and church administrator with the Church of God. White earned her Ph.D. in
mass communication from the University of Tennessee in 1990, her MSLS in library science from the University of Tennessee in 1984 and her BA in business from Lee University in 1980. She said she gets the impression that Wichita Falls has a strong community spirit. “People really believe in working together to develop the university and provide quality education. I felt like it was a good team to be part of,” she said. “I think there’s an energy to a campus that translates very well to someone who has an adventurous spirit,” she said. “A university is not a place to go and sit back on your laurels. There’s always something to move forward and do.” She said her first job out of college was as an advertiser for Yellow Pages. She also advised a campus radio station and a cable TV station in Georgia, and has done professional market re-
See PROVOST on page 3
New music hall gives band room to play Chris Collins Managing Editor
(Above) MSU band members rehearse in their new stateof-the-art music hall. Construction was completed on the facility over the summer, allowing the band to leave behind the old, cramped and moldy music hall. (Right) The new music hall is situated by the Fain Fine Arts building. (Photo by Brittany Norman)
The MSU band has finally found a new home. After more than 60 years of waiting, the band has moved out of its dingy, moldy headquarters and into a 3,000 sq. foot, state-of-theart rehearsal facility. Construction on the building began at the end of spring and was wrapped up this summer. The project cost about $3 million, $500,000 of which was donated by the Fain Foundation. The first rehearsal in the old building was in 1946. Before then it served as an Air Corps barracks in Wichita Falls. The building’s name, like the busy street, was Call Field. When it was moved from its original location to MSU, it was one of the first buildings on campus. The barracks, which was decent for housing soldiers, made a less-than-ideal- practice hall. “It was very small,” said Larry Archambo,
professor of music. The building was completely renovated in 1988. This was also the year MSU added a marching band and football team to its list of student activities. Last year’s band, with 132 members, was the largest in school history. This year the band has 128 members, its second biggest troupe in history. The MSU music department is accredited by
the National Association of Schools of Music. The organization sets guidelines regarding how much space each individual musician needs in order to be comfortable and competent. “It’s like if you play trumpet, you should have ‘x’ amount of square feet to play in. It’s for comfort, for air quality, for a few different things,” Archambo said. “It’s a little different for a tuba player, a little different for a piccolo player, string bass, whatever. He said that based on the NASM guidelines for space allotted to players, the MSU band should have about 45 members to be comfortable. With almost triple that many members, it was time for a change. “When we had marching rehearsal in there it was deafening,” Archambo said. “It was crowded we had to move all the racks that hold stands and chairs outside just so we could have room to play. It was pitiful. It was terrible.”
See MUSIC HALL on page 3