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Sikes Lake becomes Swan Lake:  Gracefil East Texas birds find home on MSU Campus
Marianne Lechuga | Staff Reporter

Two Mute swans have found a new home among the ducks and the geese at Sikes Lake.
Thanks to a collective effort of biology professor Dr. Fred Stangl, the biology honorary society Beta Beta Beta, and the Biology Club, the 4-year-old pair is enjoyed by both campus and community.
“It was their gift to the university,” Stangl said.
It wasn’t every day residents in Wichita Falls could see such elegant birds until the swans arrived from breeders in East Texas last month.
“You can’t go 100 miles in any direction and see a swan. Only at MSU,” Stangl said.
Stangl approached Tri-Beta president, Stormie Melton, and challenged both clubs to raise money to get the swans here.
“Dr. Stangl would match whatever amount we made,” Melton said.
The $1,000 for the swans was raised by selling breakfast burritos and cheesecake. The swans stick to the back portion of Sikes Lake, but are not too shy to approach admirers.
“They beautify Sikes Lake for the community,” senior biology major Tony Young said.
The pair have already produced offspring prior to arriving at the lake. The members hope they will produce more. In order to mate, it is important for the swans to not feel threatened. A floating island will be provided to give them seclusion from the jogging trail.
“An 8 foot square floating island with a styrofoam base and a wooden platform will be installed where they can nest and not have people bother them,” Stangl said.
The birds will earn their keep in financial and aesthetic value.
“Whenever they have babies we’ll raise them and sell them for scholarship money,” Biology Club president Thomas Mercado said.
Swans have a life expectancy of 30 years.
“If they breed they’ll be here forever,” senior biology major Amber Miller said. “If our kids go here then they’ll be able to enjoy something I helped start.”
Graduate biology student Samwene Msinjili is proud of their contribution.
“I feel good about being part of a permanent new edition for the campus,” Msinjili said.
There will be a dedication for the swans. Students can also get involved with the chance to name the presently unnamed swans.
“It’s a fun thing to get the campus involved to name both the male and female in a contest with a prize given to the winner,” Young said.
Stangl encourages everyone to go look at the beautiful birds.
“They’re there to look at and to fall in love with because they’re ours,” Stangl said. “They belong to the campus.”

Moon get $200,000 settlement
Camron Rushin | Editor-In-Chief 

The Board of Regents paid former MSU president Henry Moon $200,000 to settle his two-year  lawsuit against the university. 
The university insurance carrier paid $50,000 while $150,000 of the settlement came from a fund that was started when the campus bookstore was sold.
Moon sued the university for wrongful termination and for not fulfilling the tenure he had been promised by the BOR.
The settlement was made Sept. 20 but the amount was to be kept secret until the case was dismissed by a Federal Court.
Board Chairman Mac Cannedy released the information after a Freedom of Information request was filed on Dec. 17.
The board voted to give Moon tenure before he was hired. Moon wouldn’t come to MSU unless tenure was part of the deal, Cannedy said.
“Our attorney said we couldn’t legally do what we did,” Cannedy said. “We went about it wrong. That was what the disagreement was about.”
Moon was hired in 2000 to replace retiring president Louis J. Rodriguez. After one year Moon’s contract was not renewed by the BOR. He spent 2001 on administrative leave receiving a $65,000 salary. On Sept. 30, 2002 The BOR removed Moon from his administrative leave status. A month later Moon filed a lawsuit against  MSU, the BOR, four individual members of the board,  President Jesse Rogers and Vice President of University Advancement and Student Affairs Howard Farrell.
Moon claimed that the defendants  conspired to have him removed from MSU and denied him tenure.
To receive tenure at MSU a professor must have taught for at least four years and worked  at least two years at MSU and go through  an approval process which ends with the BOR.
The Moon suit has cost the university $62,263 for legal services of attorney Roger Lee,  according to the president’s office.

SGA Approves Recreation Center Proposal
Shinice Curry | Staff Reporter

At the special session meeting Tuesday, the student senate approved sending the proposed recreation center to a student referendum. The vote was 44 - 6 with one senator abstaining.
The student referendum will give the student body an opportunity to approve the building of the recreation center or nix the project.
"Even though [the senate] voted yes, it is not set in stone," said Reese Tally, a recreation center committee member.
 A date for the student vote has not been set. The election board will meet and announce the dates for voting at a later time.
"The students will tell us if this is something that they want," said Keith Lamb, associate vice president of student affairs. "This is something that came from the students and will benefit the students."
The proposed recreation center will include basketball courts, a running track, an outdoor heated aquatics center and other facilities. Along with the recreation center, there will also be a new Vinson Health Center.
According to Joey Greenwood, the new Vinson Health Center will be almost triple the size of the current center. The health center will include expanded medical services and another physician.
If the student body approves the new recreation center, a fee of up to $130 will be added to student fees per semester starting Spring 2007.  This fee will cover all general upkeep cost, as well as pay the salaries of the recreation center workers.
"The most we'll charge is $130, but with the cost of construction decreasing, we may be able to charge less," said Joey Greenwood, director of recreational sports.
"I think that it will add to MSU and give people something to do," said Amanda Helms, senator for the Respiratory Care Club.


Ernest Cooper takes a shine at Liberal Arts building
Paige Dickerson | News Editor

As he sweeps up the English faculty room, he waves at everyone who passes by and greets them.
Ernest Cooper, janitor in the Liberal Arts building, has been cleaning up after MSU students and faculty for seven years.
He came to MSU after working at a factory and several other cleaning companies. MSU offered better pay and benefits. Cooper comes to work at about 1 p.m. and starts with the bathrooms and “goes from there.”
“I try and treat them just as if they were in my own house,” Cooper said.
Cooper takes care of the Liberal Arts building from about 1 in the afternoon until 10 at night. On some occasions he gets the chance to come in early so he can go to speeches like Ben Stein’s on Monday.
In the years he’s worked at MSU Cooper has seen everything from the Dallas Cowboys working out to “clothing I shouldn’t have found in classrooms.”
“I got along better with the staff of the Cowboys. The players, they would look at you but it was like a pane of glass, they would see you but also see right through you,” Cooper said.
After working here a while, nothing fazes him.
“I’ve seen everything. It’s just another day,” Cooper said.
In addition to his day job he enjoys photography in his off time. He has won nine awards in the past five years, he said. He submits photos to the Texas-Oklahoma Fair and other competitions.
Recently he was doing some work with the National Guard and saw a tree in the mist from the rain which he caught on film as his most recent piece.
“It had been raining for four days and I turned to look and there was a tree shrouded in fog and the tree was just a little white pill in the sky, and I just snapped it,” he said.
Faculty at MSU have also used Cooper’s talents. He goes to many sporting events and photographs the player.
“I give the pictures to the coaches to do whatever they want with them. I have 11 of my pictures hanging in the personnel department and I have some in the football area,” Cooper said.
Michael Collins, professor of history, will use some of Cooper’s shots in a book he will publish soon.
“I’ve shot anything from weddings to birthday parties. Anything from A to Z,” he said. “I got into it after my divorce as sort of a stress relief. Then I got to know Frank in the student center and he sold me some of his old equipment and I haven’t stopped since.”
Cooper said he does the photography just for the fun and doesn’t plan any future businesses with it.
“This is something I enjoy. If it ever became a business I would quit,” Cooper said.