The Wichitan - Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls Texas

MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY | November, 10, 2004

FRONT PAGE

Tuition Increases: Board Passes Proposed Tuition Increase
Jason Palmer | Staff Reporter

If you were thinking about graduating early, perhaps in the spring, you’ll be spared from part of one of the largest tuition increases in MSU history.
The Board of Regents approved a $21 dollar per credit hour local tuition increase, spread between this spring and next fall semesters, last week during their annual November meeting.
Local tuition will cost $53 per credit hour in the spring, up $8, and jump another $13 in Fall 2005 to top $66 per credit hour.
This semester, a 12-hour course load (including state tuition and all the combined fees) cost $1,508. One year from now (Fall ’05) that same load will cost $1,796.
But it is not all local tuition. The state tuition cost, $48 per credit hour, will rise two more dollars and several fee increases will help bump the total up.
MSU stands to rake in more than $1.58 million in additional revenue from the increases alone, money that would go towards hiring new faculty, giving another round of pay raises to faculty and staff and pushing towards completing several projects such as accreditation of the business program and bringing an electrical engineering program to MSU.
“If we don’t do something now, we are going to lose our momentum. In fact, we could lose the progress on those programs and it will take years to recover,” President Jesse Rogers said.
The main concern is hiring faculty. Virtually every department on campus could use another faculty member, and several departments, such as the science and business programs must add at least one.
“It takes a year to get faculty in place, and if you wait until that money is available, you’ve put off hiring them for a year,” Rogers said.
“You have to do some planning to operate a university like this. You’ve got to start hiring now for the fall semester,” Regent chairman Mac Cannedy said.
The decision to increase tuition did not come without serious discussion from the board members.
“We’re here to make sure that (the students) interest is supreme to anything else we do,” Regent Munir Lalani said. “We need to raise tuition as a last resort.”
“It is a very difficult problem. It is hard to sit through (the BOR meeting) and stand on a point, but I have to do that,” Rogers said.
“I hated to do it, I really did. I hate to go up on tuition,” Cannedy said. “But I think the increases are reasonable, based upon the uncertainties we have before us,”
Those uncertainties come in the form of another potential budget cut from the state.
Rogers and Cannedy have both been informed that $1.5 million could be axed from MSU’s general revenue appropriation. The loss of that source of revenue would put the university in a huge financial bind.
Rogers won’t know until late summer if the state will in fact cut that money, and decided the university could not risk leaving tuition at its current level and preventative measures were necessary.
The Legislature convenes in May to dole out two years worth of money to all colleges in the state.
“I’d rather face the consequences of (raising tuition now) then face the consequences of that $1.5 million dollar cut becoming a reality,” Rogers said.
“There are scenarios where we may or may not have resources in the future, then lets wait until we absolutely have to have it,” Lalani said.
“We’re still probably not even fully recovered from the budgets cuts over the past two years,” Cannedy said, referring to the general revenue cuts from two years ago.
According to Rogers, the state budget board is already at ends with MSU for not raising tuition higher last year.
“The state, I think, is telling us we are going to have to fund our own operations,” Cannedy said.
Rogers purposely kept MSU’s tuition increases to a minimum in hopes that the state’s economy situation would improve and they would be able to restore some of the money that was cut two years ago.
Currently, MSU’s tuition is the fourth cheapest in the state. Theoretically, the $21 per credit hour increase will send us climbing the charts, if none of the other schools increase their tuition. But with another round of budget cuts appearing likely, that will not be the case.
“I do believe that we’re going to remain competitive with other school, that’s an issue,” Rogers said.
Several other schools in the state around the same enrollment as MSU have tuition numbers already between $50-$60 per credit hour.
Regardless, the BOR and Rogers expressed their concern of a new trend of falling enrollment as more and more students spend at least one year at a junior college.
“I feel like this decision will have some effect on a lot of students ability to go to school,” Lalani said.
“I think that no matter what we do, enrollment is going to drop as a result of tuition,” Rogers said. “The question is how large an increase will have what size effect. It’s not quantitative at all, we just don’t know.”

Multiculture Center Tops SGA Agenda
Shinice Curry | Staff Reporter

A proposal for a new Multicultural Information Center was on the agenda at the student Senate meeting on Tuesday.
According to the proposal the current resource room does not provide adequate assistance for students with regard to multiculturalism.
“There are campuses smaller than ours that have these services.” Crystal Williams, MSU student senator, said.
The proposal calls for a new office and budget for this center. According to the proposal, the new center should increase the number of minority and African-American students on campus, encourage diversity and it will help increase retention rates of MSU African American students.
The budget for the new proposed center will come out of student fees, according to Michael Mills, former SGA president.
A motion was passed by the Senate to present this proposal to a committee for investigation.
In other business, Michelle Donahou, Observer for the Board of Regents, gave a report over the last Board of Regents meeting held on November 5, 2004.
According to Donahou, there was much debate over the future tuition increases. Most of the debate involved the Board’s worry about retention. Another concern was that the university would lose students to community colleges.
Donahou reported that the administration has authorized to approve plans for new apartment-style housing on the South campus, if additional housing is needed after Pierce Hall is reopened in fall 2005.
SGA President Abdel AitRoua also spoke to senators about volunteering for student committees such as the Student Mentor Program and the Publicity Program.

Meth a Major Problem for Wichita Falls Area
Marianne Lechuga | Staff Reporter

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, methamphetamine is the number one drug in rural America. Sgt. Eddie Haisten, part of the special operations SWAT team, believes it to be the most problematic in Wichita
Falls.
“Drugs in general have always been a problem in the city, but it seems to go in stages depending on drug of choice,” Haisten said. “Right now methamphetamines seem to be causing a lot of problems.”
Haisten has been part of the police force for 15 years. Seven of those years he was part of the tactical unit and dealt with cases in narcotics. Haisten believes part of the problem lies in how the drug affects the person.
       It is an addictive stimulant drug that has a high potential for abuse and addiction. It can be taken orally, snorted, injected intravenously, or smoked. Immediately after taking the drug, the user experiences an intense “rush” described as extremely pleasurable. The drug stimulates the central nervous system, with its effects lasting anywhere from four to 24 hours.
     “To get that drug they’ll do anything—rob, break into cars and houses, forgery. Anything on their part to try and scam people to get the money to buy these drugs,” Haisten said.
Making meth is relatively easy with instructions on how to cook it on the Internet and access to ingredients for the recipe in over-the-counter purchased from grocery stores and gas stations.
       Junior criminal justice major Matt Bailey, an employee at
Albertson’s, said he runs into the problem regularly.
      “Basically you can get all the ingredients at grocery stores but buy them at various places to not look suspicious,” Bailey said.
       Bailey said it is obvious to him when someone comes in frequently asking for lithium batteries and cold medicine. He refuses to sell the items to those people.
     “They can fry their brains but I’m not going to help them,”
Bailey said.
      Bailey said he is experienced with picking them out.
      “They reek of chemicals, their eyes are bugged out, they fumble with their words, and their arms are ripped up from the needles and burned from using the meth,” Bailey said.
       Haisten said that all the components of meth are becoming more difficult to acquire.
“The businesses are more alert so they limit the quantities of the items they sell that we consider to be components to make the drug,” Haisten said.
Corporations like Wal-Mart have set limits on the amount of cold pills you can buy at its stores. The same is true for Albertson’s. Sudafed and batteries are also locked up to prevent theft off the shelves.
“There’s a DEA-restricted limit on the amount of Sudafed and batteries that can be purchased,” Bailey said.
For Bailey it can be frustrating because the store still wants to make money, so sometimes he has to sell them the items.
“I hate it because I can’t do anything about it yet,” Bailey said.
That is the reason he is persuing a career in undercover narcotics. In the meantime, he does what he can.
“If they come in everyday I’ll go out and follow them into the parking lot and write their tag numbers down and give it to the narcotics units,” Bailey said.
Due to his help, there have been four meth labs busted, Bailey said.
The manufacturing, selling, and possession of meth is overwhelming law-enforcement. Haisten said there is an increasing percentage response due to meth problems because it coincides with crimes of forgery, theft, and assault. As a result, the police are not only dealing with the drug problems, but also problems with damage to property or vehicles.
“That one meth user probably ties up a large number of police officers investigating the situation,” Haisten said.
Meth makes the user feel paranoia, confusion, and nervousness.
“They’re not rational and that’s a safety concern because it makes it dangerous for the police officer dealing with these individuals,”
Haisten said. “They’re more likely to take drastic measures to evade police officers.”
Bailey believes meth is a big problem in this part of the country because of the seclusion a smaller city provides.
“This part of Texas it’s really easy to have a place to cook it because of all the secluded counties,” Bailey said.
Police have busted more than 9,300 meth labs nationally in the past year.
That is nearly a 500 percent increase since 1996.

'Humble Boy' is a stinging Sensation
Paige Dickerson | News Editor

The MSU production of “Humble Boy” will start a run beginning Thursday before packing up and heading to the American College Theater Festival on Nov. 20.
“Humble Boy,” written by Charlotte Jones, is loosely based on “Hamlet.”
“This play stands on its own. You don’t have to know about ‘Hamlet’ to understand this play,” Ron Fischli, dean of the Fain College of Fine Arts and director of the play, said.
MSU will present one of the first American productions of “Humble Boy.”
“There are only three or four other places that have put this play on,” Fischli said.
The production is set in England in a country garden. Felix Humble (junior Donald Gipson), the main character, is a 35-year-old astrophysicist who comes home to his father’s funeral to find his mother Flora (senior Laura Jordan) in the arms of another man George Pye (junior Nathan Jacobs.)
Sophomore Hannah Stephenson will play Rosie Pye, the girlfriend Felix abandoned when he moved away. Other cast members include Flora Humble’s friend Mercy Lott (senior Brette Paglierani,) Jim, the gardener, (senior George Tipton) and the beekeepers portrayed by juniors Chance Browning and Kaylie Noles, senior Tasha Casey and sophomore Shane Skelton.
Fischli selected this play because of the uniqueness and the challenge it would present to the student actors and the roles it contains.
“All six rolls are wonderful. All of them are significant and also there are three parts for men and three parts for women. When I found this play it was a no brainer (to pick it for the festival,)” Fischli said.
The American College Theater Festival will be on Nov. 20. MSU will perform alongside five other schools. Although it is a competition to see who will move on to a national level, Fischli said he likes the opportunity more than the competition.
“I like to emphasize the festival part of it more. It’s a chance to share our work and get to know others locally,” he said. “We get to see six shows in three days. There is a really interesting dynamic that’s special when other actors are watching the performance,” Fischli said. “There is always a little pressure when you share the work, but it’s good pressure.”
After the Thursday performance on campus, Tom Hoffman, associate professor of English, will lead a question and answer session about the play.
“Humble Boy will run Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:20 p.m. Tickets are $7 for general admission and $6 for military, high school students, and senior citizens. Students, faculty and staff receive one free ticket with a valid MSU ID. Call 397-4393 for tickets. This play does contain some adult situations and language so it is not appropriate for young children.