The Wichitan Online

Mindy Lethcoe | News Editor

Ya-Rei Chan | The Wichitan

Masayoshi Kageyama leans against one of the two new vans MSU will drive around the country when a team or an organization needs to travel for an event.

The billboard stands 20 feet by 60 feet, and your face is plastered all over it. That’s one big head against the blue sky, towering over the tiny cars racing by. The faces of 14 Midwestern State University students beckon drivers to come to—you guessed it. The billboards and the students on them are part of an estimated $48,000 ad campaign. So how are these model students dealing with their billboard debuts in the new image campaign launched just a few weeks ago? “I’ll probably just laugh about it and try not to get too big-headed about it,” sophomore interdisciplinary studies major Danny Saravane said. “I think it’ll be pretty funny because everybody who drives by will see it, and when they see me, they’ll say, ‘Hey, you’re that guy on the billboard.’ It’ll be funny.” Junior Valerie McCubbins has a different take on the whole celebrity issue. “It’s kind of weird,” she said, laughing. “I hope people don’t recognize me. Most people who’ve seen the ad don’t know it’s me, so that’s a good thing.” Out of more than 6,200 students, only eight female and six male students were chosen to represent the student body image in these ads. Although it wasn’t a formal selection process, Janus Buss, director of public information, hand-picked these students to ensure a good mix of students and a fair representation of the student body for the ads. Some of the students she knew beforehand, but others were just in the right place at the right time. “I just happened to see some of the students walking across campus, and I stopped and asked if they’d be in a photo shoot,” Buss said. Buss said the idea for the campaign came about a year ago when a marketing committee began setting goals and priorities for Midwestern’s image, but the specifics didn’t formulate until earlier last fall. “We have not had a full-fledged marketing campaign to this extent since I’ve been here,” Buss said. “Most universities have become more aggressive to recruit students, and we need to take steps to do that, too.” The committee felt the university needed an image facelift, and they worked to create an image and new slogan to appeal to all the community. The committee decided on, “It’s my university, make it yours,” with the students dressed in black, long sleeved shirts superimposed with pictures of the university. “We want all the (community) groups to buy into MSU being their university,” Buss said. But the ads aren’t just staying in Wichita Falls. In fact, after the See Billboards

INS implements new tracking system for students
Annette Moore | Staff Reporter

While many students greet the new semester with anticipation, international students find themselves subjected to closer scrutiny via a new online INS tracking system and foreign student registration program. The new tracking system is part of the INS’s attempt to monitor the activities of foreign students within the United States in lieu of the fact that the hijackers of the airplanes on 9-11 entered the United States on non-immigrant student visas. The new computerized tracking system, the Student and Exchange Visa Information Service (SEVIS), officially began operation on Jan.1, 2003. MSU International Student advisor, Elisabeth Walker says the SEVIS system was adopted here at MSU in October 2002. The new tracking system, according to Walker, will require all international students to update their student profile before being issued new SEVIS I-20’s. “All of the current students have to have SEVIS I-20’s by Aug. 1, 2003,” Walker said. Information on new international students must also be processed into the SEVIS tracking system by Jan. 30, 2003. “In the past there wasn’t one tracking system that we used or one database. We used an I-20 program from a company called Education Catalysts, and prior to using SEVIS there were a lot of programs that a lot of different schools used,” Walker said. The prior program allowed the international student’s office to retain all of their records on a personal computer system. “With this new tracking system, the system is automatically linked to INS, and they get the information immediately. We can run reports from this program, but they retain all of the information,” Walker said. With the SEVIS tracking system, information flows both ways. Not only can educational institutions input information into the system, but so can the INS. Walker said that since adopting the new system she has issued new SEVIS I-20’s to international students traveling outside the country. However she said that some immigration officials at ports of entry into the United States are still not familiar with the new documents. “I think I had one case of one student entering the country where the INS official said ‘Why do you have two I-20’s,’ and the INS official didn’t understand that we were on a new system now and need to issue new documents to our students,” Walker said. However, the student was allowed re-entry without further difficulty. Although Walker said these students do not face any major difficulties entering the United States; however, she said that persons who fit certain profiles will undergo more extensive background checks and have to wait longer to obtain visas. “Right now - separate from the SEVIS I-20’s, INS is calling in different groups of foreigners to be registered at the local district offices,” Walker said. “Currently nationals or citizens of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia who were admitted to the United States on or before Sept. 2002, who are male and were born before Jan. 13, 1987, and who will be in the United States until at least Feb. 21, 2003 will have to register,” Walker said. The new registration process See INS

Director leaves due to ‘good old boys’
Lindsey Rich | Editor-in-Chief

MSU’s Career Management Center is short a director this semester, and before he left, former director Robert Shindell had some things to say about the school’s administration. Shindell turned in his resignation to Robert Clark, vice president of academic services, on Dec. 16, 2002. Shindell accepted a job offer at Texas Tech University where he will be director of their new Career Management Center, and he will also get the opportunity to earn his doctorate in higher education administration. “(Tech) is everything I want out of a school,” Shindell said. “It’s on the cutting edge of everything. Students want to be here, and that makes a big difference.” Shindell served as director of MSU’s Career Management Center for two years, and during that two years he said he endured things that were painful for him. “The university’s mission and focus didn’t match mine, and I couldn’t get the resources to serve the students well,” he said. “The on-going system of the good old boys at MSU just didn’t work for me. MSU’s been doing the same thing for 40 years, and that’s not how society works.” He said he was only allowed to hire two full-time staff members at the Career Management Center, even after he told administrators that a sufficient number would be one full-time worker for every 1,000 students. “I just never felt comfortable (at MSU),” he said. “I loved the students and the people that I worked with, but how my peers treated me was pretty poor.” Shindell said See Shindell

Radiologic program gets $25,000 grant
Paige Dickerson | Staff Reporter

Two MSU faculty in the Radiologic Sciences Department received a $25,000 grant to develop a curriculum for a Radiologic Assistant (RA) program. Donna Wright and Jeffrey Killion are responsible for getting the program set up and getting additional help as needed. According to a press release, "The purpose of the post-baccalaureate program is to prepare graduate RAs to perform skills similar to those described by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) and American College of Radiology (ACR). To this end, the program will accept only registered technologists with a minimum of five years of professional experience." An RA will make the first observations of diagnostic images, and a supervising radiologists will make the official interpretations and write the final reports. "An RA enhances patient care by extending the capacity of the radiologist in the diagnostic imaging environment. The RA performs patient assessment, patient management, fluoroscopy and other radiology procedures," said Wright. MSU was one of four schools in the nation to receive this grant to help develop the curriculum model. The other programs receiving the grant are located in New Jersey, North Carolina, and California and are all associated with major medical centers. "I think MSU was picked because we have three innovated radiological programs already in place," Wright said. "All the other programs chosen are major medical centers. We had some tough competition." The three programs available at MSU are an associate’s degree, bachelor of science degree entirely online, and a master of science and radiologic science. "The master’s program is a hybrid program where the students are on campus two weekends a month and the rest is done online. It is the only one like it in the nation," Killion said. "With this successful infrastructure, the university is uniquely aligned to provide the advanced academic program and the Radiologist-directed clinical preceptorships required to prepare experienced and certified radiographers for this new role as RAs" said a press release. The program that Killion and Wright are proposing is also a hybrid program in which students will work in a clinical environment and have periodic on-campus seminars. It will take two years to complete including one summer session. Students who do not already have a Bachelor of Science degree will be required to meet the core requirements for the Bachelor of Science and Radiologic Sciences as required by the University Catalog.

The Grand Opening of the new MSU Mesquite Dining Hall was Tuesday, and Bob Stage, director of food services, has hopes that the new atmosphere will make students feel as though they are eating in a fine restaurant, not a school cafeteria. One of the new features of the dining hall is new stations such as the “comfort food” area where students can order carved meats, potatoes and the like. But, have students been mislead by the Real Food on Campus (RFOC) program? The verdict is in, and students are expressing varying opinions on the matter. Killingsworth Hall resident August Shoeman was very enthusiastic about the changes that have occurred. “Though the lines are longer, the food does seem fresher and healthier,” she said. Some students, though, think the RFOC isn’t cutting the mustard. McCullough-Trigg Hall resident Allison Hontz said that although the food seems fresher, there is less variety in food choices. One of the biggest problems students have with the new layout is how confusing it is. Pierce Hall resident Chris Thompson said he had a difficult time with the condiment section. “One of the problems with the new cafeteria is that the ‘bigger burger’ condiments are located directly next to the burger line, therefore, the line gets backed up,” he said. Some students are saying that while the food presentation has changed for the better, the food still tastes the same. Another real complaint is the disappearance of the salad bar. The students just don’t seem satisfied with teh dismal assortment of vegetables where Pan Geos used to be. All in all the students are either very enthusiastic or very critical of the RFOC program. Stage says he is open to all comments regarding the new program.