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he Student Voice of the University or Central Oklahoma Since 1903
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Tuition must keep pace with costs, officials say
Sparky lights parade
By Carrie Cronk
Staff Writer
Vista Video Voice You hear it all the time. Young Americans don't care about the news. Serious news is too complicated for them. All they're concerned about is celebrities. The question is: Are those sentiments true? PAGE 2
Robert Frost visited UCO in 1939 In 1939 Central State Teacher's College in Edmond became Central State University. The university began offering four-year,1 bachelorette degrees for the first time. The college in Edmond was not the only thing undergoing changes, however. The Dust Bowl had essentially ended. John Steinbeck's Nobel Prize winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, a story detailing the exodus of a family from a drought and poverty stricken Oklahoma, was first published. PAGE 3
Fraternities offer summer fun Fraternities across campus are providing the major source of entertainment for most college students staying close to campus this summer. PAGE 4
by Vista photographer Eric Rothwell
UCO needs the money from a recently approved tuition increase to help cover part of the university's mandatory cost increases, Charlie Johnson, executive director of University Relations, said. UCO officials announced this week that tuition and fees will increase by 9.5 percent for the fall 2009 semester. "The tuition and fee increase will generate about $3.6 million dollars in new funds to cover part of the nearly $5.6 million in mandatory inflationary costs here at UCO for the coming year," he said. Johnson said rising prices of fuel, health care, food and utilities are consuming more of the school's budget. "The state funding for UCO in the past decade has decreased from 63 percent of our general budget to 49 percent. When you look at the fact that we have lost that large percentage of ... funding from the state, we just have to find a way to make up for it," he said. "We're raising tuition and fees to provide the kinds of programs that we basically can ... and do provide to our students. We're all about student learning, but in order to be able to continue to provide those programs we have to pay for these mandatory costs increases just to keep things going."
Sparky, the firefighter mascot, walks beside an Edmond fire truck at the LibertyFest Parade on July 4.
see TUITION, page 4
Recruiters travel Information Highway to reach internationals By Abha Eli Phoboo
Staff Writer
UCO recruiters have moved part of their search for international students to space — cyberspace. Thanks to online chat rooms, recruiters don't need planes, trains, or automobiles to connect with those abroad. Instead workers at the Office of International Student Services (OISS) click a computer mouse. And the world is theirs. For about a year, the OISS has used online chat room services as part of its multi-facetted approach to international recruiting and the service is only growing in popularity. It allows potential students to go online and chat directly with a UCO representative and to learn more about the school. "We had students sign on this month from every major continent," said Dennis Dunham, director of the OISS, "We have actually completed the applications for several students while they were online in their countries. One student from the UK was so impressed that
she decided to come here. She said she hadn't been getting responses from other universities." The international office uses Skype to communicate with individual students, but services aren't limited to simply going online and waiting for students to show up. Skype, the online phone service, is free all over the world. Through the use of Skype services, prospective students can get in touch with the advisers at no cost and receive instant feedback. "Chatting allows us to clarify UCO info for our prospective students," said Jay Shacklett, admissions adviser. "We answer many questions, and we check on application status for some. Many of our chatting students tell us that they appreciate the service very much." Prospective students who have shown interest in the university are sent email reminders before the chat days. A schedule of the chat sessions are also by Vista photographer Eric Rothwell posted on the OISS website at http: / / www.ucok.edu / ioffice / online_office_ This space, a computer screen desktop, has become hours_and_chat.htm. a recruiting battleground for colleges and universisee CHAT ROOMS, page 3 ties wanting to entice international students.
College's namesake dies at 97
OKC gains second NBA franchise What do Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steve Nash, Chris Paul and Tim Duncan have in common? Besides being five of the best players in professional basketball, all five will be coming to the Ford Center sometime within the next year to play against the recently relocated Oklahoma. City NBA franchise. PAGE 8
leadership," Webb noted. "He certainly contributed in a major way to making this Dr. Joe C. Jackson, UCO vice president university what it is today, and all of our emeritus and namesake for the Jackson lives are richer because of him. " Born April 24, 1911, just four years College of Graduate after Oklahoma statehood, Jackson Studies, died Monday, was the oldest of nine siblings and July 7. 2008. He was 97. the first in his family to graduate Services will be at 2 from high school. He worked three p.m. Saturday at the jobs to pay his way through college Baggerly Funeral Home, at the University of Oklahoma, Edmond, with burial to where he later earned a master's follow in Memorial Park. and a doctorate in education. In an announcement Jackson spent more than 70 years to the campus, UCO in education, both at a high school President Roger Webb and junior college teacher, then called Jackson a respected joined Central State College in 1948. educator and a longtime From 1951 to 1976, he was leader and supporter of Central's vice president of academic UCO. Dr. Joe C. Jackson affairs and dean of students. With "Dr. Jackson's life exemplified so much of this university's his leadership, Central created graduate life, its call to make learning a life-long programs, recruited faculty and raised the passion and to teach through example and educational standards. He prepared Central
"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose." - g—om Wrause
for its change to university status in 1971 and then did the work afterward to make it more than a university name, Webb wrote. Jackson often said the biggest moment in his tenure came in 1971 when then Gov. David Hall came to Central to sign the bill that changed Central State College to Central State UniverSity, Webb noted. In 2002, UCO named the Joe C. Jackson College of Graduate Student and Research for the man who established the philosophical and educational foundations for graduate education at Central. After his retirement from administration, he continued to do what he loved best — teaching part-time at Central; at his church, St. Luke's United Methodist; and at Epworth Villa, the retirement village where he lived the last few years. When he taught his final class at Central in 2004, he had more than 90 students come
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see JACKSON, page 4