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SGA Ponders Recreation Center Proposal
Shinice Curry | Staff  Reporter 

The main discussion at the senate meeting on Tuesday was the proposed recreation center. The student committee gave presentations to convince senators to vote on behalf of the center. 
According to Joey Greenwood, if the senate votes in favor of the new center, then it will go to a student referendum, which will allow the entire student body to vote.
“Our biggest concern is that [students] know the facts. I hope we get a positive vote on this,” Joey Greenwood said.
The prospective site for the center to be built is next to Sikes Lake where the current Outdoor Education Center is located.
“It will get rid of the architecturally challenged metal building we have right now,” Greenwood said.  “The center will fit in with the style of the campus.”
It has also been proposed that if the new housing, Sunwatcher 2, is built, there may be a walkway built over Midwestern parkway for easier access to the center.
Committee members presented all the new amenities that are in plan for the center.  Some of these include indoor and outdoor basketball courts, racquetball courts and rock climbing. Along with this, the new center will also have state of the art weight and cardiovascular areas.
One of the major amenities that committee members focused on was the heated outdoor aquatics area.
According to Greenwood, an indoor pool would be twice as expensive.  Although the committee isn’t really focused on price, they believe that an outdoor pool would be more beneficial to the students.
 There are also plans for an outdoor adventure center so students can do things such as check out canoes or tents for camping.
According to committee members, the new recreation center will also expand recreational programs.
“In order for us to bring in brighter students, we have to offer more,” said Joshua Davenport, a committee member. “It will provide more for our students.”
According to Michael Fairbanks, all the equipment in the current wellness center will be moved into the new recreation center will then current building will be used strictly for academic classes and school athletics.
Another major thing this new center focuses on is a new health center.  Currently there is only one physician for the approximately six thousand students MSU has. With the new proposed plan, a new physician will be hired to improve the amount of waiting time. 
According to Keith Williamson, the university physician, there are hopes for an enhanced procedure room and a functioning X-ray unit.
The center will also benefit students because it will offer more on campus jobs for students.
“Basically, we are looking at doubling the number of student workers,” Greenwood said. 
The cost of the new facilities would come directly out of student fees and is proposed to be $130 per semester.  This fee would include salaries, initial building and upkeep of the center.
If the student body votes yes to the center proposal, the fee will be in effect starting spring of 2007, and the new center should open in the fall of 2007.
“The new recreation center is really something for everyone. There shouldn’t be a student that says there is nothing to do,” Greenwood said.




30 Years of Christmas Cheer: Fantasy of Lights brightens Midwestern's front yard
Paige Dickerson | News Editor

This year will mark the 30th anniversary of the Fantasy of Lights display set up at MSU.
The display was originally started up by L. T. Burns in the 1920’s in he and his wife, Lillian’s, yard. Every year they added a new display, attracting crowds of people every year. Lillian continued setting up the display even after her husband’s death in 1954.
She would serve hot chocolate and converse with people as they passed by.
“They say that sometimes cars would be lined up all the way around the block,” Janus Buss, director of public information and marketing at MSU, said.
After Mrs. Burns died in 1971, she left the display to her son or to Archer City, but it was stored because Archer City had no real place to set it up. After that it was moved to MSU where it has remained for the past 30 years.
The Burns family allowed it to come to MSU on one stipulation: that no one would ever be charged to see it.
After several displays were added they arrived at the 33 current ones with more than 20,000 lights outlining the buildings facing Taft.
The Fantasy of Lights are paid for by donation only. Boxes are setup throughout the display and volunteers have “Santa’s boots” to draw donations from cars that drive by.
“This year really we are on the right track with funding. We are right about where we are every year,” Buss said. “This could go on forever. This is a great Wichita Falls tradition.”
Every year, she said, they get calls asking whether it will still be set up. One man this year called from Abilene because he used to go when he was a child and wanted to bring his grandchildren this year.
The Fantasy of Lights is turned on every night until New Years in Hardin Lawn. To make a donation drop it in the boxes around the displays or send it to Fantasy of Lights, C/O MSU, 3410 Taft Blvd.



Student, Community recognize World AIDS Day
Cassie Daley | Staff Reporter

By 2003 the United States had lost 2.6 million citizens.
It wasn’t due to a terrorist attack, war or bombing. It wasn’t even due to violence or car accidents. It was due to AIDS.
Currently, there are about 9,000 people in the U.S. living with HIV/AIDS and over 40 million all over the world. Many of these citizens are forced to go through their individual battles with this disease alone, in shame and without treatment.
Why?
Because even more than 20 years since the initial discovery of the AIDS virus, victims are still battling the stigma it carries.
 “AIDS is not a punishment set by God,” said Reverend Ivor Koch during his service given in honor of World AIDS Day recognized on Dec. 1. This statement set the tone for the ceremony held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 1504 10th St.
He ended his powerful service stating all too matter-of-factly, “HIV/AIDS may rarely make the headlines these days, but it is devastating the lives of individuals, families, and communities all around us.”
This ceremony was about hope, healing and remembering.
The pews of the church were filled with all ages. People came in groups and couples, and some came by themselves. One man sitting in a back pew was wearing ripped, faded levis and a sweatshirt with a hole in the collar and talking with a man next to him wearing a suit and tie complete with shiny shoes. Even still, no one looked out of place.
Students from MSU were also present, including several members of Diversity MSU who recognized World AIDS Day in the Clark Student Center on Monday, Nov. 29th.
 “This ceremony means so much to me,” said junior Ann Kingston. “It means that other people besides me care that people are dying of AIDS.”
 “The only word that can describe it is moving,” said junior and president of Diversity MSU, Amy Giles. “It’s painful but hopeful and very powerful. It’s a celebration of life.”
The ceremony was filled with singing and prayers.
At one point there was an opportunity to write the names of loved ones on white doves strung by red yarn and hang them on a tree in the front of the church. Doves are a symbol of peace and hope, the human soul and compassion.
One-by-one almost the entire audience flooded the tree, each holding at least one dove, some holding several. Many people walked away from the tree with tears in their eyes, and several people stood in the aisle and hugged. As crowded as that Christmas tree was, this time no one was pushing for his or her turn.
The ceremony was concluded outside each audience member holding a candle.  As everyone filed outside and huddled together, each person was offered a white balloon to release in memory of someone they had to say good-bye to. The balloons symbolized the release of the souls of those who died, and to celebrate that they are no longer suffering.
All at once a cold black sky was salted with the white of peoples’ prayers and memories. All around the names of individuals no longer with us were being said.
Giles was remembering her girlfriend from when she was younger who died of AIDS, contracting it after being raped.
 “I was thinking of a friend, John who has died of AIDS, and Little John who is dying of AIDS,” said Kingston after the ceremony.
Kingston was also remembering a patient she had cared for, named Susie who died of AIDS. She got it the first time she ever had sex because she had sex with a man who was knowingly spreading it. She was 19.
“The idea that all over the world everyone was lifting up their hearts and prayers for people who have died of AIDS, or who have AIDS now, or who might get AIDS in future was overwhelming,” said Kingston.
The Circle of Hope, founded in 1993, has organized and executed the World AIDS Day ceremony for 10 consecutive years.
 “It’s a way of giving back to the community,” said president of The Circle of Hope J.D. Todd who began volunteering with the organization after he retired.
The Circle of Hope located on 813 N. Beverly at the United Methodist Church of Wichita Falls, work in conjunction with Wichita Falls Health Department to educate and support those within the Wichita Falls community affected by AIDS.
 “It reaches a lot further than people think,” Todd said, “I’ve become more aware of the situation in the world. When I first got involved I thought people got HIV from not taking care of themselves, but since I’ve learned that many thousands of people get involved by no fault of their own.”
The Circle of Hope runs a food pantry that HIV-infected persons can visit for assistance with their nutritional needs. They offer transportation assistance to help clients reach the food pantry as well as medical appointments. The also provide financial assistance for medications and other reasons that falls within the AIDS Circle of Hope guidelines.
The Circle of Hope, the Wichita Falls Health Department, Diversity MSU and several other members of the Wichita Falls community all joined hands and spirits on World AIDS day, to get a unified message across.
 “People everywhere have to suffer through this and there’s so much injustice of all kinds that are at the roots of why AIDS is such an epidemic in this world. People need to be educated and reminded,” said Giles, best expressing this message. 
They also joined together in order to gain support from one another.
 “Surely with all the prayers and support, a cure will be found,” said Kingston, expressing the hopes of everyone who attended.

Installing new Internet may Hinder Registration
Jennifer Tavlian Sports Editor

Midwestern State will soon receive an upgrade in Internet service, but complications could leave some students scrambling during registration time in January.
On January 3, the Internet service provider will switch from TXE Next to SBC. The move will allow a tripling in bandwidth for about the same price and bring fiber-optic cables to MSU.
Right now, the school has three T1 lines which gives us about 4.5 megabytes per second for the whole network. Once the new service is installed in January, MSU will be operating at 15 megabytes per second.
“It will allow us to do things like multimedia that we couldn’t experiment with before,” said Michael Dye, Director of Information Systems. “That’s the same service used in computer labs.”
Dye expects WebWorld, MSU student registration site, to be out for only a few hours on January 3, but Darla Inglish, University Registrar, fears the upgrade could take longer and therefore interfere with registration.
During the time of the upgrade, the MSU Internet will not be accessible from off-campus. This means that registration and payment through WebWorld will be unavailable as well.
Information Systems expects WebWorld to be available through on-campus computers during the upgrade.
Registration for reenrolling students is scheduled to begin on January 4 and the system should be available both on- and off-campus by January 5 or 6.
Information Systems suggests that if WebWorld is not available by the time a student needs to register to try phone registration at 940-397-4802.
Students needing to make a tuition payment can do so from an on-campus computer. For students needing to make a credit card payment of tuition from off-campus during the outage, dial the Business Office at 940-397-4760, 4112, or 4103.