Ya-Rei Chan | The Wichitan

Junior Monica Williams holds dried flowers from her grandmother’s funeral (upper left) and a cross her grandmother gave to her (right).

The scene looks like a family reunion. Relatives who have been absent for years make an appearance. Everyone brings a covered dish. They talk about the good times and laugh awkwardly. Then there’s the service. The cemetery. The body. “I didn’t get to tell him how much I loved him and that I would miss him,” MSU junior Monica Williams said about her grandfather. During her time at MSU, Williams has had two grandparents pass away. It is not uncommon for college students to experience illness and death with aging grandparents. “By the time you get to college, grandparents are up there in years where they’re having bad health problems,” Counselor Vikki Chaviers said. In Williams’ case her grandfather was diagnosed with Lou Gherig’s Disease a year before he passed away in the spring semester of her freshman year. It was hard for her to watch the once capable ranch worker struggle to do the things he loved. “It really began to frustrate him,” she recalled. Williams’ grandmother passed away this summer from Alzheimer’s. The disease worked quickly to steal away the essence of the woman Williams had known all of her life. The changes brought on by the first stages of the illness were the hardest for Williams to endure. “One time I went to go see her and she knew who I was. I was her granddaughter,” Williams said. “The next time she didn’t even know who I was.” Like many students, Williams was away from home when her grandparents grew sick and died. MSU senior Krista Rogers made the five-hour journey alone to her small hometown after receiving the call that her grandmother had been taken to the emergency room. Staying in Wichita Falls wasn’t an option for Rogers. The uncertainty of the situation was unsettling. “My mom would tell me, ‘She looks fine,’ but you don’t really know until you see that person yourself and get to talk to them yourself how they really are,” Rogers said. The road was the last thing on Rogers’ mind. “I had to consciously tell myself to be careful and just think while I was driving. Instead of See Grandparents

 

MSU confronts record enrollment and budget
Jessica Lovelace | Staff Reporter

MSU has broken its enrollment record yet again. In a press release, Janus Buss, director of public information, stated that enrollment is at 6,034 students. This is a 4.07 percent increase over the same time period last year. Enrollment has increased each spring semester for the past two years. Some students, though, may be wondering if their tuition dollars are going to stretch since MSU President Jesse Rogers announced a budget cut leading to a decrease in campus resources. Last year’s spring enrollment, 5,798, was a 5.23 percent increase. This is the first time spring enrollment has reached the 6,000 mark. Robert Clark, vice president for academic services, foresees possible problems due to higher numbers of students and less money for the school budget. “It is likely to slow the school down, but MSU hopes to eventually get where it needs to be,” Clark said. “(The budget cuts) could not be coming at a worse time for MSU.” “The economy has taken a down turn; we are going to have to push some programs a little bit further down the road.” “When you have to start taking away resources, obviously it is going to have a negative impact.” Clark said MSU has been making a major push on retention, “particularly first year students,” and the state of the economy as contributing factors that will slow MSU down on its step-ahead of the game track. A lot of other schools will also be faced with slowing down the pace, state agencies, and “everybody who comes under that state umbrella.” Clark said. “We have been increasing over the last few years,” Clark said. “It is a sustained increase, and its one that we can handle.” MSU has been trying to work with faculty, and “really everybody throughout academic services to be more cognizant of the needs of upcoming students,” he said. Clark said that a lot of people are coming back to school as opposed to working. “Historically, when the economy is bad, you’ll find enrollments going up in colleges and universities,” he said. Renovation of dorms and building new dormitories are not the only plans that the University has been laboring to neutralize the impact of higher numbers of students on campus. “We have plans in terms of an academic system,” Clark said. “That will be tied in with the “strategic master plan” that the school has enforced. Clark said that a lot of the ideas coming out of this plan are expensive and will have to be fulfilled as the schools funds will allow. The increase of enrollment numbers and the budget cut, “allows us to take a look at what we are doing and make some decisions about where we need to invest money and maybe where we can cut back,” Clark said. “It is going to awhile before we can implement them.”

 

Rogers presents budget in Austin
Jason Palmer | Staff Reporter

MSU President Jesse Rogers spoke to the Texas House Sub-Committee for Education Tuesday and presented his plans to return $1.21 million in accordance with the 7 percent budget reductions. “They seemed satisfied and did not ask any significant questions about our plans,” Rogers said. MSU was the first university of almost 15 other schools to present their plans to the committee. Rogers said that he must return to Austin to present the budget plan for the next two years on Feb. 28. The percentage cut from the state has fluctuated in rumors through agencies across the board, but Rogers is sticking to the 8.5 percent reduction. “They did not change any numbers today and the current amount is still $3 million,” Rogers said. Gov. Rick Perry indicated in his State of the State address that he would push for deregulation of tuition at state schools. This means that there will no longer be a cap that schools can charge for students. Several universities in the DFW area already charge the maximum allowable amount for tuition. “MSU is below the median on tuition and probably in the lower quarter, and we do not nickel and dime students with fees,” Rogers said. “We do not want to react and raise tuition to compensate for the losses.” Student Government President Michael Mills and the executive staff met with Rogers last week to discuss the budget situation. “There had been a lot of hearsay and after speaking with him things became a lot more clear,” Mills said. The administration has always prided itself on keeping fees low but students are going to have to help out, according to Mills. Rogers has accepted an invitation to speak to the student senate about a fee increase, if there is one. Rogers took the same opportunity to address the senate last year when fees were increased slightly to offset the budget. “He spoke to us and outlined where the money was going in perfect detail,” Mills said. As a result of the meeting, the senate See Budget