Rancher shows city slickers the ropes
Camron
Rushin | For The Wichitan
|
|
|
Ya-Rei
Chan | The Wichitan
|
| Brady
Crumpler wants to give everyone the chance to have an
experience on a ranch. He says one of the best parts about
being a rancher is showing others how wonderful ranch
life really is. |
The
pungent smell of manure wafts through the air at Chaparral
Ranch. Horses graze in a field. Pickups and tractors tool
down a nearby farm-to-market road. Unlike most days, it’s
quiet on the ranch, 9,000 acres northeast of Wichita Falls.
This land is home to about 1,000 cattle, 100 horses and one
tough dude. Most men couldn’t endure what Brady Crumpler has.
He’s had his face kicked in by a horse, been gored in the
butt by a bull and stomped more times than he can count. It
finally took a separated pelvis in his late 30s to get him
to retire from professional bronc and bull riding. “Even when
you’re hurt, you’re so obsessed. All you can think about is
getting on the next bull,” Crumpler said. Throughout his career,
Crumpler ranked among the top 15 bronc and bull riders in
Texas. Today, he sits behind his cluttered desk taking phone
reservations and changing his infant son’s diapers, his gray
hair at his temples poking out below his black stetson. His
wranglers are tucked into his boots. Old rodeo photos and
news clippings surround him. Now, Crumpler is in the entertainment
business. It’s his job to make sure people have the best time
they can possibly have outdoors. If they want to go camping,
he’ll take them camping. If they want to go riding horses,
he’ll take them riding horses. If they want to have a party,
he’ll throw them a party. “Once people find out that I’m here,
they want to be out here every weekend,” he said. For 17 years,
Crumpler has owned and operated Chaparral Ranch. Several things
happen there. Cutting horses are trained. Horses are bred
and cattle are being raised. Most importantly, Crumpler has
opened his ranch to the public so they can have a taste of
life on the range. Every year, MSU students, either alone
or through fraternities, and sororities, take advantage of
his hospitality. “Everyone wants
See
Ranch
Rogers,
MSU deal with blow from Austin
Jason
Palmer | Staff Reporter
MSU
will likely lose money from its revenue bond and Institutional
Enhancement funding, according to President Jesse Rogers,
who attended committee meetings in Austin Tuesday. The House
Appropriations Committee (HAC) handed back MSU’s version of
the biennium budget plans at the meetings. The committee agreed
with most of the $8 million in cuts from the budgets of 2004
and 2005 that Rogers had proposed earlier. “They finished
with their mark-up, or more appropriately mark down, and with
all of their changes we were still $8 million down,” Rogers
said. The plan for these budgets was built from the zero-based
plan and breaking down the major areas of expense for the
university. MSU would be $4 million below the projected amount
per year for the two years that could be affected. While HAC
approved most of MSU’s proposal, there were changes in some
of the numbers from the HAC compared to the MSU plan. One
major change was in the amount of monies that the state would
give the university for the debt service revenue bonds. Those
bonds are good for 20 years. The HAC proposes a drop of 10.6
percent in the amount of money given, which would cost the
school $1.4 million. “The bonds were a major swing issue for
us,” Rogers said. “Once the bonds are issued, it is always
understood that the money they say will be there is there.”
The other main area of contention was the Institutional Enhancement
funding the university received. Rogers was worried the state
would cut the See
Budget
Students
get healthy at community fair
Paige
Dickerson | Staff Reporter
Do you know how healthy you are? More than 1,600 students,
community members, and faculty gathered for screening at
the third annual health fair Friday to determine just that.
This year more than double the participants attended than
last year to be screened for everything from their blood
glucose levels to their grip strength. The health fair is
put on annually by the college of Health and Human Services
which includes majors such as dental hygiene, respiratory
care program, radiological sciences, social work, criminal
justice and a master’s degree in public administration.
“I thought I should come and have a couple of the tests
that they were offering. It’s great. It’s a big benefit
to the community,” Wichita Falls resident Mary Loggins said.
Businesses, community members and students helped set up
about 50 booths with literature about prescription medicines,
diabetic footwear, child abuse and more. Many booths also
had literature in Spanish available. “One of the most popular
booths, though, was one where United Supermarkets served
salads to everyone,” fair chairperson Betty Bowels said.
United Supermarket was not the only booth concerned with
healthy eating; the American Heart Association provided
a bulletin on how to make low-fat, low-cholesterol meals.
Several booths advertised prescription medicines for
See
Health
Opera
offers audience wide variety of entertainment
Matt
Terrell | Staff Reporter
|
|
|
Jason
Palmer | The Wichitan
|
| Sophomore
Jeremy Kaspar, Count Monterone, holds sophomore Eri
Makuta, daughter of Count Monterone as he is ridiculed
by Rigoletto. |
The
proverbial fat lady is preparing to sing at MSU. “Rigoletto,”
Verdi’s opera of royal lust and revenge, will be performed
on March 14 and 15 in Akin Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. by the
MSU Opera Workshop with all the glass shattering vocal emotion
expected from an Italian opera. Hailed as Verdi’s most famous
opera, “Rigoletto” is characterized by its complex and passionate
melodies. Although some portions will be sung in the original
Italian to add a genuine opera-house feel, most of the opera
will be sung in English and should be easily understood
by those unfamiliar with the plot. The story angered censors
in 1851 because of its portrayal of immoral behavior among
royalty, and the audience will soon see why. “Like most
operas, the story is quite silly, but it’s still entertaining,”
said Don Maxwell, professor of music. “It has drama, murder,
sex, and some of the best music ever written.” The cast
is a 20-person ensemble made up of MSU voice students and
two community members who have been rehearsing the famous
opera since the beginning of the semester. Rigoletto, played
by Billy Brasfield, is a hunchbacked jester and the protagonist
of the opera. The action begins when he is cursed by an
elderly noble and forced into a web of deceit involving
his daughter Gilda, played by freshman Courtney Longcrier,
and the Duke of Mantua, played by Ben Bunsold. This is the
first time in 25 years that “Rigoletto” has been performed
at MSU. According to Maxwell, it’s not often that MSU can
present a production of this size, so he was lucky to have
a group of students with this much talent. Tickets are free
for students with ID. General admission is $7. Senior citizens,
military personal and high-school students can purchase
discount tickets for $6. There is no reserved seating. The
box office opens at 6:45 p.m.
Thank you for reading The Wichitan via Online version! Our
dedicated, hard working staff will be on Spring Break next
week. However, we will return with an online update around
the first week of April.
Daniel
Chavez | The Wichitan Online
