MSU President Jesse Rogers is preparing to tighten the pockets of departments around the campus that the university’s budget usually fills. Administrators received a letter from the state last week stating MSU must return at least 7 percent of the revenue generated and allocated by the state. Governor Rick Perry signed the letter that was sent to all state agencies receiving funds. Texas will be short of meeting its $114 billion budget by close to $10 billion and is looking to recover as much money as possible. MSU is expected to immediately return between $1.2 million to $1.4 million. “We still have a lot of planning this year and next,” said Rogers at a faculty and staff meeting held in the Fain Fine Arts Theater Tuesday. “We have never been in a situation quite this deep financially.” These large cuts arrived late in the fiscal year. The state delayed sending the memo until after the Christmas sales numbers were tallied. Due to the extremely slow economy, the previous estimates of the state’s budget shortfall were understated. “We saw this coming to some degree,” Rogers said. “But the state is just now realizing other costs such as Medicare funds.” According to Rogers, MSU has not been “unwise” with spending the budget, but he along with other university presidents did not foresee the cuts being that high. As for the deadline to the state this week, Rogers said, “We’ve done what we have to do in planning. We’ll report on broad categories to the state and tell them that we are ready.” In the letter from Perry, it was suggested that the reduction plans include elimination of all out-of-state and foreign travel, eliminate planned capital purchases for the remainder of this fiscal year and not to enter into any new contracts. The memo also suggested implementing a hiring freeze or even a reduction of staff. He believes that MSU can cut $170,000 with energy conservation by closing some small buildings over the summer and perhaps holding summer school to a four-day week. “At first I didn’t think that would be worth it, but that is three or four full-time faculty positions that could be saved for next year,” Rogers said. Up to $140,000 could be returned with program cuts relating to off-campus and public services but not academic programs. The largest area of savings would be a cut in travel expenditures. Rogers said he would rather take $700,000 from the travel budget rather than eliminating staff positions. “Our people are more important than that,” Rogers said. The proposal that garnered the most intrigue was Rogers’ idea of borrowing $300,000 from the 2003-2004 budget. This would be possible due to the deficit spending allotment that the funding allows. “We would be borrowing time. We don’t want to jeopardize what he have now, but we must achieve those savings in some way,” Rogers said. The administrators must also find a way to save over $3 million for the next two fiscal years. Those budgets will have steep cuts unless the economy in the state improves. The plans for the next two years must be turned into the state by Feb. 10. “We will have to wait and see if we will be funded for our growth,” Rogers said. Rogers outlined a tentative plan for the extended reductions for the next two budgets. “There will be reductions in positions. I don’t see a way to avoid it. We’ll hire and delete very carefully,” Rogers said. He did state there would be no hiring freeze, citing it does not prove productive and can lower moral around the faculty. Projects involving renovations would not be cancelled but could be pushed back. Rogers said that MSU can not back-off their plan of growth to accommodate a larger student body. “Those funds are already dedicated to construction,” Rogers said. Rogers added that summer school would not be canceled. The tuition generated would be a needed boost to the revenue the university “Not offering classes could do irreparable harm to students, faculty and programs,” Rogers said. Those classes could cost the students more money though. One obvious answer to increasing funds is to raise tuition. Rogers plans to meet with the Student Government Association this week to discuss the possibility of an increase but says “We can’t and won’t balance the budget on the backs of students.” “I want to convey my belief that we can work and plan together to not hurt the university in the long run. MSU will come through this with morale and programs intact.”

 

Space tragedy no surprise, professors say
Jessica Lovelace | Staff Reporter

Mark Farris, mathematics professor and former employee of the Aeroceustics department of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Saturday’s space shuttle crash was a tragedy, but that’s all part of space exploration. Physics professor John Rhoads said the tragedy could have been expected. “The tragedy is at once sobering and unifying – there is no diversity in this event. This event was American, a collective endeavor by a group of united people that went wrong,” he said. “The event reminds us that even the best and brightest among us are indeed fallible as we stretch to expand our knowledge and techniques.” NASA said space exploration must continue, “although we grieve deeply, as do the families of Apollo and Challenger before us.” “The space shuttle really is an experimental aircraft,” Farris said. Farris compared training jet crashes at Sheppard Air Force Base every couple of years, to the few space flight missions in the world’s history, saying it would appear evident the crash of Columbia was predictable event at some point. “As far as what happened and why, I don't think anyone really knows,” Farris said. “But when you think about a space shuttle entering the atmosphere, one must realize that it involves some real extremes that are happening over a rapid period of time that lead to the wearing out of the shuttle.” “The shuttle coming back to Earth is in many ways no different than a meteoroid entering the Earth’s atmosphere, becoming a meteor and vaporizing in a blaze of light across the night sky,” Rhoads said. “I am sure that there were people concerned with the issue of whether Columbia's materials were in a safe, reusable condition, but a space craft is an extremely complicated device,” Farris said. NASA used to spend billions of dollars on their budget but is now forced to work within significantly smaller means. “The directive over about the last 10 years, goes by the phrase of ‘better, faster, cheaper,’” Farris said. “The space program is valuable, both practically and spiritually,” Rhoads said. “As we strive to do more, we learn new techniques, we make discoveries about ourselves, about our universe.” NASA had finalized weeks a budget request allowing for shuttle upgrades just weeks before the launch of the recently fatal mission. In 2002, NASA announced it would fly several missions per year and make larger investments in shuttle upgrades, making the overall safety of the shuttles optimal, according to MSNBC.com. “The accident will solidify opinion in certain groups that space exploration should be left to the robots and telemetry," Rhoads said. “Yet, I can see that wonderful picture of planet Earth taken by Apollo 17 on their trip to the Moon and be in awe. I can only imagine the magnitude of the spiritual awe that the individual astronauts felt as they looked back at home, at that same image.” Farris predicts a manned mission to Mars within the next 20 years. “The exploration of Mars, perhaps a human presence there, may become a reality in your lifetime,” Rhoads said. “But we will have to ‘practice’ and we will make a few costly mistakes. But we will perfect our techniques and be better for having expended the effort.” Farris noted the achievement of Sir Edmond Hilary who climbed Mt. Everest, along with the success of Magellan, who sailed around the world at the risk of his own death. "The tragedy reminds us of the human costs of expanding our horizons – Magellan’s crew sailed on and so, too, will the space program,” Rhoads said. “There is an innate drive in the human spirit to explore that is more powerful, but in progressively fewer individuals, than concerns about personal safety. God help us all if bureaucratic safety concerns ever trump the human spirit," said Rhoads. Exploration is a desire in man motivated by curiosity. It is the curiosity of people that promotes greater knowledge of our environment and develops a greater understanding of who we are, Farris said. “On Jan. 16, we saw our loved ones launch into a brilliant, cloud-free sky. Their hearts filled with enthusiasm, pride in country, faith in their God, and a willingness to accept risk in the pursuit of knowledge, knowledge that might improve the quality of life for all mankind," the families of the space shuttle Columbia stated, according to NASA news.