According to Wheeler, Pearce has extensive experience that will benefit Western. “Her extensive experience in higher education include working with the Missouri Department of Higher Education and the General Assembly,” Wheeler said. “She is a great fit for Western.”

Ann Pearce will not take the title of Director of External Relations; she receives her own title as the Special Assistant to the University President. According to Pearce she will take on many of the same duties as Wheeler.

“The duties include governmental relations at the local, state, and federal levels,” Pearce said. “Also being a university liaison with the greater St. Joseph community and with decision makers throughout the state.”

According to President Vartabedian, Ann Pearce has the experience Western needs.

“Ms. Pearce has 25 years of impressive experience at the University of Central Missouri,” Vartabedian said. “She has a track record of effective performance in the areas of expertise that we were seeking.”

President Vartabedian states that she is responsible for all things governmental from local to federal level. “She is primarily responsible for building and sustaining strong and positive leadership with those in influential and decision making roles,” Vartabedian said.

Though she is the  Special Assistant, rumors have circulated as to whether  Ms. Pearce would  receive her own parking space. According to Pearce the rumors are true.

“I do have my own parking space, and it is justified,” Pearce said. “I will not be sitting behind my desk all day.”  The position requires Pearce to travel quite a bit on and off campus. Pearce states that she must be confident that there will be a space for her when she returns to campus for her meetings.

According to Pearce she is ready to get to work.

“I am anxious to meet as many members of the Missouri Western family as I can, and to work closely with them to hear their views,” Pearce said. “The more I researched the university the more I was impressed by it.”

President Vartabedian stated that Pearce stood out as having both extensive legislative and academic experience. “I have been very impressed with Ms. Pearce’s willingness to ‘go the extra mile’,” Vartabedian said, “and do whatever is needed to be done to further the goals of Missouri Western.”

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“We are curious as to what specific standards of the university Huey-Shi [Chew] failed to meet,” The petition says, “Based upon the information currently available to students, it would seem that Huey-Shi was very satisfactory, and that her future at Western was promising.”

Chew’s departure was one of 13 since the reorganization of Student Affairs. International students have praised her dedication to students and were baffled by her departure.

Gilbert Imbiri, Student Assistant for the International Student Services office, said that the petition was read and approved by the International Student Club, but that the petition is as far as their concerns will go.

“That’s all we can do is sponsor it,” Imbiri said. “We all live with a student visa status so we just don’t want to get in trouble.”

Before the end of the semester, petition organizers sent the signed document to administrators, who did not directly respond to the request. Missouri law protects former employees from their employers by not allowing them to release information about their former employment.

Sharon Moore, one of the students who helped write the petition, said she had mixed feelings about Peralez’s response. Esther Peralez, Vice President for Student Affairs, responded to the petition by stating that Missouri law prevented her from disclosing information about Chew’s employment, but told Moore that if she had any concerns they should discuss them with Tay Triggs, assistant dean of student development or Steve Potter, international student adviser.

“What we were asking for was something that the college could not comply with under the sunshine laws,” Moore said. “So, I understood the response in that sense, but on the other hand, she could have definitely made an effort to find a different way in her power to address our concerns.”

While Triggs respects the students’ right to ask questions, she wishes that students would focus on concerns that affect the entire student body or things that the administration can control.

“They have a right to ask questions,” Triggs said. “I just hate that we can’t answer a lot of those questions.”

While the position remains empty, Imbiri is filling in the gaps by helping new international students adjust. Last week was the start of orientation for new international students. Imbiri also said that Potter has been helping after Chew’s departure. Even with the extra help, Imbiri said that the International Student Services office is struggling.

“It feels empty,” Imbiri said. “There’s no body in charge. This semester just began and a lot of students need help.”

The search committee has yet to fill the position, but Imbiri said that several interviews have been scheduled.

“It’s a field that needs a specific someone to do it,” Imbiri said, “When she left, I’m the one kind of in charge of all the students. It’s frustrating because I’m just a student too.”

Triggs hopes to have the position filled by March at the latest. She also said that the new Director for Global Engagement should have a breadth of knowledge and be able to provide leadership.

“It’s not just about someone having an open door policy and having a great relationship with students,” Triggs said. “You’ll find that all over campus. But we also need someone who can come in a give the university some direction in regards to the international program.”

In reaction to the cut from state funds, Western will be raising tuition somewhere in the 10 percent range. The Columbia Tribune reported that the schools in the University of Missouri system will be raising their tuition an average of 5.8 percent.

President Robert Vartabedian believes that Western is different from other universities because Western is a growing campus.

“Our circumstances are a little different than other universities,” Vartabedian said. “While I’m thankful that the cut’s not more than [7 percent] still, it will hurt if we cannot offset it.”

Vartabedian said that everyone at Western has suffered from cuts but believes that a raise in tuition will help Western grow even more.

“We’ve made the best of the belt tightening,” Vartabedian said. “But I think we’re at the point where we’re very, very lean and that we really need to move forward with getting more resources for the University.”

Deputy Commissioner for the Missouri Department of Higher Education, Paul Wagner, met with Western administration last month to gather information about the university’s financial situation. Wagner said that when looking at schools and their situations, he doesn’t try to compare.

“Clearly Western has some of the same challenges that other schools do,” Wagner said. “State funding has been reduced, while enrollment has gone up, and of course fixed costs always increase. It doesn’t matter to me what any other school does. I’m simply looking at that school and their circumstances.”

The 7 percent cut to is part of Gov. Nixon’s proposed budget. The governor needed to cut nearly $500 million to balance it. This budget isn’t finalized and must be approved by the Missouri Congress. In the last few years, Congress has approved Nixon’s budget, leaving cuts untouched.

Once the state budget is finalized, Western will be proposing the tuition increase to the University’s Board of Governors. Once approved by the board, Western can begin requesting a waiver from Senate bill 389. Senate bill 389 freezes tuition at 4-year state institutions in Missouri. If the wavier is not granted, Western could be penalized with another 5 percent cut from the state if they raise tuition above the U.S. Consumer Price Index.

In an article in the Springfield News-Leader, sponsor of SB 389 Gary Noddler said that the bill was never meant prevent schools from raising tuition when necessary.

Vice President for Financial Planning and Administration, Mel Klinkner also believes that SB 389 was not intended for the current economic climate coupled with increasing mandatory costs.

“If we grow from 4,000 students to 6,000, and we still have the same staffing levels, how do you cut?” Klinker said. “We’re just at a point where I don’t know where else we can cut from the budget. I mean, everybody has to cut back as much as we can. We cut back our budgets and not added staff. It’s pretty tough.”

On Feb. 2, Vartabedian will be testifying in front of the State Appropriations Committee. The committee has asked Vartabedian to address some specific areas concerning Western and its budget.

In the past year, 13 staff members of the Division of Student Affairs have left, retired or have had their contract terminated. Some of these dismissals have come as a surprise to students who worked with the administrators closely.

Vice President for Student Affairs Esther Peralez has made changes — not just in personnel but in practice — based upon “involvement theory,” which she says will help retention and graduation rates by involving and including students in as many activities as possible.

“There were some issues when I came in,” Peralez said. “There was a limited view point of the role of Student Affairs when I got here. They thought they had a Student Affairs unit, and they had the components of it, but there wasn’t really an understanding of student affairs or why we really do need a Student Affairs.”

Peralez’s goal has been to teach the staff members of Student Affairs professional competencies and involvement theory. Several of her theories focus on developing students as individuals outside the classroom.

Creating a climate that is welcoming to many students from different backgrounds is important to Peralez.

“It’s very critical,” she said, “because, at this point students are making an initial commitment to whether they want to come to our school or not, and if you have a bad taste in your mouth, you’re going to walk.”

Non-Traditional Learning

One of the first departures was former Non-Traditional Student Services Director Ellen Kisker, who retired in the fall of 2010. The reorganization of Student Affairs would have placed Kisker as Student Life Director.

At the time of her departure, Kisker felt the position would take too much time away from non-trad students.

“I was told that the non-trad students could take care of themselves and be interdependent,” Kisker said. “I didn’t agree with that philosophy.”

When Kisker retired, non-trads planned a protest to show their support for Kisker before the September Board of Governor’s meeting. The protest was called off in lieu of a meeting with Board Chair Kylee Strough, President Robert Vartabedian and leaders of the Non-Traditional Student Association.

“She was a pivotal resource,” non-trad Stacey Hersh said. “You knew that going to her you weren’t going to get the run around of ‘go here, go there.’”

Since Kisker left, the Missouri Western chapter of Omicron Psi, a national honor society that recognizes non-trads, hasn’t taken in any new members. According to Hersh, Kisker wasn’t the adviser, but played an instrumental role in planning the ceremonies and luncheons for Omicron Psi.

Non-trad Kimberly Wright was supposed to be inducted, but never got the opportunity.

“It was something that every year I watched friends do the ceremony,” Wright said. “It was something that excited me. I really worked hard to have my turn. Then it was gone.”

“I don’t expect any special treatment because I’m a non-trad,” Wright said. “I’m just a student like everybody else, but I want to be recognized too, just like an athlete would.”

Peralez said that there are plans to revive Omicron Psi, but that she wants non-trads to still include themselves with traditional students and their activities.

“It was so hard to convince them that I wanted them as role models, that they shouldn’t separate themselves from the traditional students,” Peralez said.

The Non-Traditional Student Lounge has been officially renamed The Non-Traditional Help/Resource Center. The couch that was donated to the room has been removed, and anyone wanting to use the center must sign a special agreement and turn over their student ID while in the room.

One of the policies for the room-use agreement form is that students must use appropriate language and behavior.

“A lot of students would complain,” Peralez said. “There was swearing and talk of sexual overtones and things like, and actually they were disrupting some of the other departments. We said, ‘you’ve got to be more academic.’”

The agreement also states that the computers in the center are for academic use only and that students should access personal Facebook and email accounts on their personal computers.

When Peralez worked at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn., she said that nearly 80 percent of the student body was non-traditional students.

“They were kind of like the role models, and they brought in the traditional students,” Peralez said.

Unexpected Departures

Another goal of Peralez’s reorganization was to eliminate individual sections of Student Affairs that didn’t communicate and coordinate with other sections. She also said that she wants divisions of Student Affairs to realize that they aren’t here just for themselves.

“I had all of these departments, different departments that everybody was in,” Peralez said. “I had a director of non-trads, a director of this and a director of that. So everybody stayed in their silos.”

Peralez wanted to eliminate these silos so each division of Student Affairs could focus on an overarching goal and communicate about that goal—student involvement.

“It’s a concept of, if we’re talking to each other then we can help each other,” she said.

Since the reorganization, students have seen the surprising departures of several personnel.

Don Willis, former assistant dean of student services, left the university over the summer. Willis worked closely with several student organizations, including Western Activities Council.

Lauren Dillon, vice chair for WAC, said that Willis’ departure was unexpected.

“I don’t think he gave us much notice, but I don’t think the university gave him much notice either,” Dillon said.

Dillon said that Willis did a lot of work behind the scenes as far as assisting WAC in the booking of events and even helping set up the spring concert. Dillon also said that the work now can be overwhelming.

“It’s difficult,” she said, “but we’re managing.”

Along with Willis, Huey Shi Chew, former international student services coordinator, is no longer employed by the university. In the last few years, Western has seen an increase in its international population at an average of 10 students per year.

Instead of an International Student Services Coordintor, Western has opened up a Global Engagement Director position, which will not just focus on international students but would also work with the campus as a whole to “internationalize” it.

According to Peralez, the director will also work with faculty to create curriculum and work with the existing study abroad program.

International student Toni Dance said that she found Chew’s departure sudden and unexpected.

“She basically helped me find a job on campus, and if I had any issues with my visa she’d help me with that,” Dance said.

“I wish she was still here,” Dance said.

Climate of fear

Former Testing and Assessment Coordinator Debra Webb was told on Sept. 7, her birthday, that her last day of employment would be Sept. 9.

Webb was offered the position below her, which was her secretary’s position.

“I was number 11, and it didn’t stop there,” Webb said. “Many people have either left, [Peralez will] make it look like by choice, but it wasn’t directly by choice, it was from things she was doing.”

Webb was told that her position was being eliminated due to budgetary reasons. As testing and assessment coordinator, Webb administered tests to Western students with disabilities and was responsible for national testing. Now, those duties are part of Western Institute.

“I’m a graduate of Missouri Western,” Webb said. “She has done nothing but given it a black mark as far as I’m concerned, and I can’t believe that the upper level is letting her get away with this.”

Webb said that once a month she attended a mandatory meeting that all staff under student services at the time had to attend. Webb said that this meeting interfered with giving tests to students.

“It took a big chunk out of the day,” Webb said. “I tried to explain this to my supervisor, and it didn’t matter.”

Kathy Kelly, administrative coordinator for the Student Government Association, said she has never felt like her job was in jeopardy. When Peralez first arrived, Kelly said she was frustrated.

“It took me to step back and say ‘it’s not her, it’s me,’” Kelly said. “Because she told me what her expectations were, and either I could quit my job or meet those expectations. I chose to meet those expectations because the person who wins in the student.”

She said she never felt like those expectations were too high and they made her job challenging. This year, Kelly played an instrumental role in organizing homecoming, something she said Dr. Peralez pushed her on.

“I’m glad she set them,” Kelly said. “I feel like we get stagnant in our jobs, and I worked and did my same job, same week, day in and day out and never went above and beyond that.”

A former employee of Western who worked in Student Affairs, but wishes to remain anonymous, said that she retired earlier and could have worked a couple of extra years.

“I think everybody was afraid they were going to lose their jobs,” she said. “You know, if she didn’t like you, like Huey Shi [Chew].”

Both sources recounted an incident where former International Student Services Coordinator Huey Shi Chew asked for time off to visit her mother, who was terminally ill in Malaysia. Chew wanted an extra week off after the fall 2010 Thanksgiving break.

“Well, Peralez will think about it and let her know” Webb said. “[Chew] kept telling her supervisor, which is Tay Triggs. Finally she told her that she was going to go talk to the President [Robert Vartabedian] if she didn’t make a decision. Miraculously, that afternoon, ‘Oh, you get to go.’”

Webb said that the next week, Chew was told by Triggs that Chew was going to be reviewed in January 2011 because she wasn’t working up to expectations.

“I’ve been a Gold Coat member for 25 or more years,” Webb said. “I will not buy Gold Coat tickets any more, I will not donate any money to the college anymore as long as that lady is still there. She has ruined too many lives.”

Peralez declined to comment on any personnel decisions. Willis and Chew declined to comment as well.

Missouri Western State University has decided to do business this coming year with BlueCross BlueShield of Kansas City over Aetna, Western’s current healthcare provider.

Western contracts are traditionally three years, but if they see a bid that they just can’t refuse, that would be benefit the employees and the University, then they will consider changes.

According to the Director of Human Resources Sally Sanders, Western is not obligated to a three-year contract.

“We only go out for bids every three years; we don’t get three-year agreements on rates,” Sanders said. “Medical health insurance rates are renewed annually. That’s an industry standard.”

According to Benefits Coordinator Misty Miller, the switch from Aetna to BlueCross was merely because they offered a better plan.

“We chose to go back to BlueCross BlueShield of Kansas City because they offered us a much lower percent of increase for our employees and the university,” Miller said. “They offered a rate cap until 2013, which is a very rare opportunity for a large group like Missouri Western.”

With costs of running the university rising annually, it is comforting to know at least one cost will be stable.

“The rate cap that BlueCross BlueShield offers is very rare, but going into 2013 with a safety net was comforting,” Sanders said. “We have high claims, and we know that we have issues with employees, which we felt we could not pass up.”

Mel Klinkner, vice president of financial planning and administration, agrees.

“The 13 percent cap, that Aetna didn’t offer, gives us some security,” Klinkner said. “If we had bad claims, then we won’t have to pay any more than 13 percent plus those taxes.”

According to Klinkner, there were no penalties for early contract cancellation from Aetna toward the university.

“We had 31 days to give them written notice, and they have been in the loop and know what’s going on,” Klinker said. “So just for financial reasons, that’s why we chose BlueCross.”

According to Klinker, employees will pay more than they did last year for health insurance.

“It’s going to affect employees because whatever they paid last year,” Klinker said, “it’s going to be 15.69 percent more, so every plan will cost that, except our base plan.”

Sanders states that the university still pays 100 percent of the premiums for an employee’s base plan. Adding a spouse to the plan has always been an out of pocket expense, but these rates have increased under BlueCross.

“The base plan is where the employees will see no change,” Sanders said. “But if employees want a richer plan, or buy up plan, than that’s all on the employee.”

According to Klinker there is no real benefit for Aetna losing business with Missouri Western.

“Only in the sense that they don’t have to pay the claims, and they lost money based on what they had to do,” Klinker said. “Aetna has to pay out the rest of 2011; Blue Cross doesn’t have to until 2012. There is no advantage, and I would have loved to stay with them.”

The new healthcare plan is cheaper for  Western.

“Going with BlueCross we save nearly a quarter of a million dollars, and with the 13 percent cap that Aetna didn’t offer, we couldn’t refuse,” Klinker said.

Before the switch to BlueCross, Missouri Western had a $30,000 Wellness fund. Under the new plan, according to Miller, Western will have a $20,000 Wellness fund.

“This wellness fund is for programming- and wellness-related expenses,” Miller said. “The fund will also carry over its balance year to year, so we will be able to plan and project projects and expenses better.”

The grant will help fund and support programs at Missouri Western and the Alliance Francaise of St. Joseph that have a focus on French Canadian heritage and the musical and cultural traditions of the northwestern area of Missouri.

The MHC is the only state-wide agency in Missouri devoted solely to educating people of all ages on the subject of humanities.

The MHC awards grants to organizations all across the state of Missouri to help support programs whose objective it is to create learning programs that will remain with students for life.

During 2010, around 83,000 Missouri residents received aide from MHC programs and grants. The goal of the MHC during the next five years is to expand so that they may provide programs and support projects throughout the entire state.

Marilyn Webster-Brown, program assistant for the humanities council, said “If we see an organization, more specifically from a university that needs a little help and has the right intentions in mind, we will give them grants for their respective programs. Our organization always wants to help out the young people; after all, they are the future of not only our state, but this country.”

The music department at Missouri Western is happy to be awarded the grant.

William McMurray, a music history professor, says that the awarded grant money is a little help for the department.

“When an organization, such as the Humanities Council, gives you any amount of money, you are thankful that they are willing and able to help you out,” McMurray said. “Even if it is just a small sum, every little bit helps.”

Students in the music department will benefit from the grant. Funding from the grant will allow faculty members to provide material in the classroom that will educate their students on the French Canadian heritage and various aspects on the music and culture of northwestern Missouri.

“Because of this grant money, it won’t be about just sitting in a classroom being lectured at by professors,” junior Cindy Martin said. “It will be more entertaining to have items from that time period to help teach us students on what went on for whatever it is we’re being taught.”

On March 20 and 21, Dennis Stroughmatt will be coming to St. Joseph. Stroughmatt, a French Creole musician and speaker, will be performing two musical programs that consist of songs from story tellers and singers, traditional fiddle music and a wealth of stories on Creole French traditions of Mardi Gras.

“I am personally looking forward to Mr. Stroughmatt coming to the St. Joseph area. He provides anyone that is in attendance a program they won’t forget,” McMurray said. “For students, it’s a first-hand opportunity to learn outside of the classroom.”

Judy Grimes introduces the main speaker for the transportation meeting, which discussed potential plans for a new public transit system specific to campus.

The Division of Student Affairs, St. Joseph Transit, the City of St. Joseph and the Greater St. Joseph Area Metropolitan Planning Organization sponsored a transit operation study meeting Oct. 13 in Blum Union.

The study is meant to allow the community to express their needs regarding scheduled stops along bus routes and pick-up and drop-off destinations within reasonable time frames.

Concerns from students prompted officials to hold this meeting so they could hear how students are being affected in particular.

Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Judy Grimes said they have often heard anecdotal information from students that they have trouble getting to and from campus.

“There are critical masses of people that need to get to and from campus. We need to know their interests and concerns,” Grimes said. “I am particularly concerned with the incoming freshmen, and there are a huge number of them who do not have vehicles, so part of the reason for the meeting is to find out what the demand is.”

Mark Swope is the project manager for the St. Joseph transit study and was the main speaker at the meeting. Swope discussed the transit service specific to campus and said the system has not really been looked at closely for a few years now and specific changes in service will be aimed at getting the buses where they need to be.

“The purpose of the project is to come up with recommendations for the optimization and more efficient and effective use of transit services in St. Joe,” Swope said.

Charlotte Foster is an education instructor at Western. She expressed her concern for the education students.

“Education students need transportation to and from the schools they are teaching at, to work, to home, and a majority of them don’t have a car. They rely on public transportation,” Foster said.

It is important to do this study in hopes of getting insight from people on how to better serve the public and provide students with adequate, dependable transportation.

Transportation Planner for the City of St. Joseph, Ty Nagel, said trends change, population density shifts and employer locations shift over time.

“Studies are required every so often to get a good idea of where the residential areas are and, of those, who needs transit use,” Nagel said.

Kurt Janicek is the general manager of First Transit. She said they are the best kept secret in St. Joseph right now.

“A lot of people are not aware of what we do, where we go, how efficiently and how cheaply we can do it. [Informing the people] is one of our goals,” Janicek said. “Like any other tax funded agency, we are a part of the city of St. Joseph. We have our dedicated fund of sales tax money and so on, but sales are down and money is tight, so what we are trying to do instead of cutting service or cutting runs is looking at ways to operate more efficiently with the infrastructure we have in place.”

Additionally, snow routes are being explored trying to find ways to get the buses to come on campus in bad weather.

The transit operation study is collecting data, listening to the public and analyzing this data. After gathering all this information they will present their findings to the City Council.

Nagel said the end of the study will wrap up around the end of February, and that changes will take effect depending on how drastic they are.

These new regulations begin in the business office, with students now receiving reimbursement checks through mail or direct deposit, instead of in person like the previous years. This means a student must update both their phone numbers and addresses to receive their money. According to Business Office Bursar Dan Eckhoff, it’s the student’s responsibility to keep the business office updated with personal information.

“Whomever it is, they have to understand that it’s their responsibility to notify us. A lot of people don’t tell us that they changed their address or their phone number changes,” Eckhoff said. “If they don’t communicate that to us, there is no way we can communicate back to them. Then, naturally, they are upset when they don’t get their money timely because we mailed it to the wrong address.”

All students, however, do have the option to receive their funds through direct deposit, which is what the business office encourages, according to Eckhoff. He stated that 72 percent of students have already jumped on board with direct deposit.

In addition to business office changes, financial aid is also preparing to make changes to a student’s eligibility.

One change is that if a student has 60 credit hours or above, they must declare a major in order to receive their financial aid.

“We are requiring students to declare a degree if they have 60 hours or more — whether it’s an associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree,” Marilyn Baker, director of financial aid, said. “By doing that, we think that it should provide a better retention. We are requiring students to do that before we disburse their financial aid. Money talks, so we think it’s helping to put them on a path to graduate.”

In addition to this requirement, students who accumulate over 134 hours are required to meet with their adviser to determine how many hours are needed in order to graduate. The adviser must sign-off on a form that declares the meeting has occurred, and then the form must be received by financial aid.

Both the business office and financial aid office feel the students must be consistently checking their emails and notifications on Goldlink. Echoff is also considering developing a text messaging system to keep students more financially aware.

“I don’t know how you can make [communication] better,” Eckhoff said. “I thought about and I can create a thing were you can subscribe to texting.  I thought about doing that for when we send bills. They have to subscribe to that, just like you do with Griffon Alert System.”

These emails sent by both offices must not contain too much personal information, according to federal regulations. This, however, could make it difficult for a student to decipher what financial concerns are more important then others.

Senior Robby Malone feels that communication with the students and service to the students could be a lot better.

“I think the business and financial office is lacking is customer service,” Malone said. “Its not that students don’t find them as a resource, but when it’s time to use them, it’s a headache. They could take some positive manners in customer service and communicating better with students on new policies besides email. Overall, I feel the attitude needs to be focused for the students and not on the payment of the balance. If we feel that we are cared for than the respect will be mutual.”

There are 6,296 students enrolled at Western as of the official census date of Sept. 27. Jeanne Daffron, vice president for academic affairs, announced that enrollment has risen 2.6 percent over last fall’s numbers and approximately 27 percent since fall 2003.

Daffron noted that the percentages of part-time and non-traditional students have risen.

“I expect that has a whole lot to do with the economy,” Daffron said. “Perhaps people who have lost jobs or are finding jobs may consider this to be a good time to continue their education.”

Daffron went on to point out that, within the state of Missouri, the number of unemployed people with only a high school diploma is twice that of unemployed people with a higher degree. She applauded the students who have the initiative to continue their education.

“In this part of the state, and in Missouri as a whole, we have pretty low educational levels compared to other states around the country,” Daffron said. “We do know that it’s really important for the economic future to have well-educated citizens.”

Esther Peralez, vice president of student affairs, cited Griffon Hall as a reason for the increased enrollment numbers.

She stated that the resident halls are 92 percent full, and that fall 2011 is the first semester in many without a waiting list for on-campus housing.

High school enrollment and graduation rates across the country have been rather flat, so this larger enrollment number is unexpected.

“We really didn’t anticipate, in terms of budget, that we would have an increase,” Daffron said.

Daffron added that while this larger-than-expected enrollment does mean added revenue, it also means added expenses and pressures for the university. Kylee Strough, chair of the Board of Governors, echoed this sentiment.

“We know that if this [increased enrollment] continues, it’s added stress and strain on our facilities, as well as our staff and faculty.”

Strough did not offer a direct answer when asked which part of infrastructure would be updated first due to increased enrollment numbers.

“That comes from those that are here every day during the week,” Strough said. “It’s not for the Board to look and say ‘what do we need to do?’, because we’re not on campus living and breathing it every day.”

Strough added that the Board relies very heavily on the suggestions of students, faculty and staff and encouraged students to give their input.

The Board has begun to brainstorm ways to financially handle Western’s growing student body.

“What I can tell you is that it didn’t take more enrollment to be announced this week for the Board to look at ‘how can we begin to supplement the budget?’,” Strough said. “Looking to the state for more dollars is not the answer. They’ve told us that.”

Esther George, an alumna of Western’s class of 1980, has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer for the Federal Reserve in Kansas City, Mo. She is one out of two women who are bank presidents for the Federal Reserve. George also serves on the Board of Fountain Directors at Western, and has received much attention since being announced the President of the KC Federal Reserve.

Dr. Patrick McMurry, professor of economics at Western, believes that George’s record of hard work has paid off. “George is one out of twelve bank presidents in the United States,” said McMurry. “This is huge for a Western Student to achieve.”

Students of the Craig School of Business want to know more about her accomplishments and how she influenced Western. Business major Jimmy Summers feels that the education he receives from Western will lead him to the same success as George.

“When business students find out that George went to Missouri Western, that will result in them having a great outlook on our business school and overall university,” Summers said. “Western is not just producing students, but driven ones like Esther George.”

Dean of the Craig School of Business, Philip Nitse believes that George’s accomplishments have shown that our university is stepping up in the world. “When an alumnus achieves this level of success, everyone at the institution should feel pride, especially in the sense that this is proof that the education provided here at Western is of such quality,” Nitse said. “It shows that someone can go on and accomplish something great.”

The Craig School Business will receive much attention because of George becoming the next President of the Federal Reserve. Nitse says that Esther has been a long standing supporter for the Business School.

“George has served with distinction as a member of our Advisory Board,” Nitse said. “Her picture is currently used in the pictures around the building as a successful alumna.”

Faculty and students both now wonder if George will be asked to come and speak to the Western community about her journey from student to success. When asked, Nitse believes she has a standing invitation, and the school will be working with her to nail down a date to speak.

Western has been producing well-educated students that have success and stable careers, but when you have a student like Esther who worked her way from the bottom up, it makes students wonder if they can achieve the same level of success.

Summers says that when you have students like George who soar high to reach these goals, it makes a current student think about their own future.

“Every student has their own personal goals and dream job in mind,” Summers said. “The fact is now we can soar high, and are motivated to work harder toward our goals and dreams to be like Mrs. Esther.”

Students in the Steven L. Craig School of Business at Missouri Western State University and their partnership with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. will be opening a new store in St. Joseph. They are leasing the former Russell Stover Candies store on Frederick Avenue for the new RMCF and its subsidiary, Aspen Leaf Yogurt, offering self-serve frozen yogurt.

For the first time, RMCF will have a live video connection from the store to the classroom here at Western.

Students in the CSB will be able to watch salesmanship transactions taking place in real time while observing every day operations.

Western President Robert Vartabedian expressed what an exciting opportunity this is for Western’s business students.

“Adding this live video connection to the store in St. Joseph as a teaching tool, I think, is a role model for a successful entrepreneurship program,” Vartabedian said.

The live video connection is an opportunity to extend the classroom beyond campus and students will be able to hear and see everything going on. It will allow business students to actually work at the business and witness what happens from the opening all the way through every aspect of the operation.

Dr. Philip Nitse, dean of the Craig School of Business, knows the benefit students will have from a live video connection.

“It is something that is hands-on, tangible, not just something their reading in a text book,” Nitse said.

According to Nitse, the projected opening of the store is around the middle of November and that’s all based on any problems with construction that may arise, but at the moment the project is on target.

Not only do business students benefit from opening a RMCF store and yogurt shop here in St. Joseph, but it is good for Western as a whole.

Nitse said it will bring very valuable insight and awareness of the community about the exciting things Western is doing.

Western’s CSB alum is successfully operating six RMCF franchises in five different states.

Western alum, Seth Lyons, graduated in December 2008 with alum partner Kelsey Lyons. Kelsey majored in economics and Seth majored in finance.

The Lyons team opened the first Western and RMCF partnership in Silverthorne, Colo.

Together they have built a success story that has continued.

Seth gives credit for his success to Western and all its professors in the CSB.

“I would tell any of the students at Western, if they are not a business student to become one because they are doing some extraordinary things there. The professors and the administration are doing some pretty great things. Carol Roever does it all, but if I had to mention anyone I would say Dr. Larry Lawson had the biggest affect on my life,” Seth said.

Brittany Malone is a business student here at Western in her senior year and recognizes these amazing achievements.

“The RMCF operations have been very successful because the people involved have been successful at it; very evidently with Seth Lyons. I am currently in the entrepreneurship program and actually doing the business plan and expanding my baking skills,” Malone said.

Whether or not students will receive class credit for working in the St. Joseph store will depend.

“It depends on the nature of the student. There will be some that do, but others will be just workers at the store,” Nitse said.

Renovations and the live video connection will cost Western nothing. All the cost is being provided by RMCF and Steven Craig Nitse said.

Nitse believes it will be a worthwhile investment.
The projected opening of the store is around mid November and that’s all based on problems with construction, but at the moment the project is on target.

Nitse said this is not the same as the other stores.

“This is a totally separate operation. It is a joint effort designed to provide information for student training, but that’s about it,” Nitse said

Some of the proceeds coming back to the CSB will help fund other future programs.

“Think your congress is the best money can buy now?” Assistant professor Dr. Jonathan Euchner said.  “Well you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Western marked the observance of Constitution Day by holding a panel discussion between two of Western’s own political scientists, professor of political science David Steiniche and Assistant Professor of Political Science Jonathan Euchner. The day’s discussion was titled, “Constitutional Perversion? Money, Free Speech and American Politics.”

Students gathered in the Kemper Recital Hall on Friday, Sept. 16 to participate in the annual Constitution Day events at Missouri Western. The event was open to all students and the public.

The Constitution Day discussion opened with assistant professor of political science Dr. Edwin Taylor acting as master of ceremonies and delivering introductory remarks. Taylor provided background for the day’s discussion.

“[The Constitution] is best understood as a living document,” Taylor said.  “One of the primary challenges facing the constitutional world today is the relationship that has evolved between money in U.S. politics and free speech.”

Taylor provided a comparative perspective while outlining the context of a situation that is an increasingly hot button issue as presidential campaigning begins for the elections of 2012.

“Does the Supreme Court Ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case that was recently decided pervert democracy and the political rights of citizens as provided in the U.S. Constitution?” Taylor said.

Euchner and Steiniche represented two sides of a hotly contested issue in current politics.

Euchner opened up the discussion and represented those that oppose the recognition of corporations as individuals capable of making campaign contributions. Euchner specifically took aim at last year’s Citizens United ruling, asserting that it was a constitutional perversion to recognize corporations as individuals endowed with rights.

“Our democracy is not for sale to the highest bidder,” Euchner said.

Steiniche upheld that a corporation’s right to donate money to campaigns was a right upheld by the First Amendment. He pointed out that the First Amendment protected freedom of speech while neither excluding corporations or limiting the right to individuals.

“Free speech for individuals includes groups, since groups are simply collections of individuals,” Steiniche said. “Which according to the First Amendment, have the right to assemble and thus implicitly the right of speech. For what else is the purpose of legal assembly.”

Political science major Micah Burrow attended the day’s events because of a personal interest in hearing the discussion. Burrow encourages other students to become informed as well.

“People need to realize that if they don’t do anything and they’re apathetic that nothing is going to happen to benefit them,” Burrow said. “Apathy doesn’t get you anywhere, and you can’t complain about it when you aren’t saying anything about it.”

The event concluded with a question and answer session between the panel and audience members. Taylor described it as opening it up “Oprah-style.”

“It’s your voices that are most important,” Taylor said. “Many of you sit in our classes everyday and listen to us talk for 50 minutes or an hour and 20 minutes. It’s our hope that we can hear your voices as you ask these well-learned folks some questions about this discussion.”

The Constitution Day events were sponsored by the economics, political science and sociology department.

Friedman currently holds the position of Foreign Affairs columnist for the New York Times. His five bestselling books, including his most recent, “Hot, Flat and, Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America,” deal with topics that the Convocation is not unfamiliar with, like “green” issues and globalization.

Dan Boulware, former president of Missouri Western’s Board of Governors, founded the convocation series 20 years ago. He had some ideas as to what Friedman’s message to students may be.

“Average is over. You can’t expect to be average anymore,” Boulware said. “We need to have the mentality of an immigrant: nothing is owed to us. We’re going to work hard; nobody is going to give us anything. We shouldn’t expect to have people to give it to us; we need to earn it.”

Friedman has been on the Convocation wish list for a several years, according to Western Vice President for Institutional Advancement Dan Nicoson. Nicoson said that scheduling conflicts have prevented Friedman from coming in the past.

Friedman is not as commonly recognized as past Convocation speakers, but Nicoson is not worried about that.

“It’s kind of different because being not a sitting politician or not a television/media figure,” Nicoson said, “he’s not as immediately recognizable to people, even though within the print media he’s as big a name as any of them.”

Nicoson seems to be right: the Convocation Dinner, which will take place Monday, Sept. 19, is nearly sold out.

Senior history major Gary Weidemann is excited to hear Friedman speak, even though he doesn’t know much about him.

“I know he’s a foreign affairs correspondent, so I hope that he talks about American relations with Libya,” Weidemann said.

Missouri Western President Dr. Robert Vartabedian is also excited to hear Friedman speak.

“I’ve not heard him speak, but I’ve been told he’s a very good speaker,” Vartabedian said. “Sometimes you get these big names come in and they just read to you, and it’s not very interesting. My understanding is that he’s a very compelling speaker.”

Students like Weidemann should take advantage of Western’s unique Convocation series, according to Boulware.

“We’ve been blessed from the standpoint that we’ve been able to get top speakers,” Boulware said. “The Washington Speakers Bureau says that we have as fine of a college speaking series as any in the country. This doesn’t happen everywhere across the country—this is different and this is exceptional.”

The Convocation will take place in the M.O. Looney Complex at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20. The event is free and open to students and the community.

            Griffon Hall Residence Director Danny Thompson feels that Griffon Hall is almost better than an apartment in that students have more security and better attractions then the average apartment.

“Parents and students looking for a clean, secure living community will not be able to match the amenities and security found in Griffon Hall,” Thompson said. “Griffon Hall has a fitness center, fully functional conference room with audio visual equipment, two 70 inch televisions, furnished rooms, computer stations and 24 hour security camera coverage. Each room has a full size bed, dresser, desk and build in closet.”

According to Thompson, before Griffon Hall was approved, the college took time to provide what students were desiring and suggesting in a residence through out the past few semesters.

“I think Griffon Hall will be very popular for those upper-class students looking for an apartment experience but want to live close to campus,” Thompson said. “Griffon Hall is far above an off campus apartment. Utilities, cable and internet are included along with the laundry and weight room in the building. There is also a community that you just cannot get in an off-campus apartment. Residents will get to know each other and see in other in class and will hopefully build relationships that last beyond the college years.

According to Thompson, Griffon Hall is not quite full, and there are quite a full rooms still available.

“I think once students see the inside they will want to live there, and we will have little problem filling the building,” Thompson said. “At this point, we are almost at capacity and I see no issues in filling the building in the years to come.”

Griffon Hall Residental Assistant Brandon Bernhardt explains his excitement for the new hall.

“Griffon Hall with be a great addition to Missouri Western,” Bernhardt said. “It is an exciting, new opportunity.”  

Juda Residental Assistant Jessica Criss, feels that Griffon Hall will also amaze students, once students move in and see the interior.

“Griffon Hall is still under construction, but what I have seen looks amazing. I think students will be pleased. It’s very unique from the six halls.

“Missouri Western is made up of dedicated people who will not go quietly,” Varatabedian said. When speaking of the challenges facing the campus he made several references to the “You Can’t Keep a Griffon Down” campaign, which started at a student rally over the summer to protest the state’s cutting of appropriations for Western. Vartabedian outlined a three point strategy to attack Western’s financial challenges after giving a brief history of the campus’s nearly 100 years in the higher education business.

Vartabedian’s first plan of attack is to seek outside funding through searches for grants and revenue possibilities, which involve learning opportunities for students with income for the university. He named Associate Provost Brian Cronk as the spearhead for these operations.

The next strategy is to take full advantage of all of Western’s assets. One of these plans it to lease some of the 723 acres owned by Western to agricultural interests. Vartabedian said that administration is looking for opportunities to lease some of the land which could be used in an environmentally responsible and esthetically pleasing way.

The third front of the challenge is to be faced by faculty, staff and students. Vartabedian announced an all-out effort to do everything possible to see to it that Senate Bill 389 be amended in a “fair” way. He called on everyone in the room to contact senators and the governor and share our unique story. “We must rally senate alums to amend Senate Bill 389,” Vartabedian said. Handouts were provided with contact information for senators and others to contact to push for funding and the amendment of Senate Bill 389.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has proposed funding for higher education to be performance-based on things such as graduating numbers. Vartabedian is pushing for a more fair assessment of all universities and promises to push for more and fairer funding concerning the unique way in which Western fulfills the need of higher education in this community. “Our governing board must be allowed to govern to meet our needs,” Vartabedian said.

The opening act of the meeting was conducted by two Assistant Professors of Theater and Cinema, Dallas Henry and Tee Quillin. They delivered a skit that lampooned Western’s administration, Missouri State Governor, Jay Nixon and Northwest Missouri State University.

Provost and VP of Academic Affairs, Jeanne Daffron followed with introductions of six new faculty members. “We are fortunate that most faculty members have decided to stay at Western,” Daffron said.

With all figures taken into consideration, the grand total for students enrolled for the summer semester was 3,335 which results in an 8.7 percent increase.

On the surface this sounds great, but diving into the numbers gives a different dynamic to the composition of those numbers, when compared to previous years.

All of the sessions (full term, first four, second four, and intersession) saw decreases according to the information provided by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jeanne Daffron; however, the online and off-schedule enrollments were up 47.29 percent. The second four-weeks and the intersession saw the biggest decreases at 48.6 percent and 35.79 percent, respectively. The total for that category doesn’t completely figure into the headcount number, but the total enrolled for those categories rose to 1,467, up by nearly 500 students.

As Western continues to face financial issues in the wake of raising its tuition, it seems that these increases will be short lived. Daffron seems confident that college education will still be seen as a benefit and may help counteract the increase.

“I know that any increase in cost has an impact on students who want to attend college; however, it is still true that higher education is a very good investment,” Daffron said.

According to Daffron, Western’s tuition is the third lowest in the state of Missouri, and Western commits about 12 percent of its budget to student scholarships.

Besides tuition increase, students will also have to keep an eye on their financial aid for this school year, as there have been changes to some grants.

Marilyn Baker, director of financial aid, said that the “Two Pell Grants in a Year Program” has been eliminated, but the maximum amount has remained the same.

“If a Pell Grant recipient does not attend full time in the fall and spring, the student would be eligible for a Pell in the summer,” Baker said. “They would not have used their entire scheduled award for the academic year.

Jennifer Griffin, a junior communications major, said that she feels the bigger impact will be financial aid.

“If there is a cut in financial aid and an increase in tuition, it will definitely make an impact on the enrollment at Missouri Western,” Griffin said.

Griffin also offered a potential solution to the financial problems facing Western.

“I also think that Missouri Western should look at their business degree students and see if they can come up with some new, out-of-the-box ideas tuition problems,” Griffin said.

At this point it’s somewhat of a wait-and-see game as to how this will affect enrollment for Western in the short term, but financial aid awards will need to go up to keep pace with increasing tuition. If not, some students may take fewer classes and some may take a semester off to pay for classes.

Fortunately, Western has seen amazing growth in enrollment and facilities the past few years and that may continue to help keep enrollment near current numbers.

After negotiations over an increase in tuition, the state has lowered the amount of funding it gives Missouri Western by 8.2 percent, the highest cut out of all the Missouri universities. While other universities were cut 7 percent, Western and the University of Missouri system saw higher cuts because of an increase in their tuition.

According to Vartabedian, Governor Nixon wanted Western to raise tuition by only a total of 5.5 percent. While Western’s increase this year was 5.5 percent, students will also have to pay an additional 2.98 percent from an increase last year. That increase went on the books but was never collected.

“I was very honest from the get-go that that would be very difficult given our funding circumstances,” Vartabedian said.

Currently, Western receives the lowest state appropriations per student, about $4,300. Harris-Stowe, Lincoln and Truman Universities, along with the University of Missouri schools, receive roughly $7,000 per student in state appropriations.

While Vartabedian doesn’t want to cut funding from other schools and give it to Western, he believes that the current system is flawed.

“The two things we need to deal with this is the repeal of Senate Bill 389 which forces us to jump through a lot of hoops to get a tuition increase with no guarantees,” Vartabedian said. “The other thing would be trying to get the legislature to do something with our appropriation.”

Vartabedian believes that a system that ties a university’s enrollment to their appropriations would be fair for all of Missouri’s universities.

As far as tuition, this year’s increase including required fees still makes Western the third cheapest in the state. The two schools with lower tuition than Western are Missouri Southern and Harris-Stowe.

Last year, Missouri Western’s student senate voted unanimously for an increase in tuition, a sign to Vartabeidan that students want a quality education.

“A Harris-Stowe for example can abide by the Governor’s wishes and not ask for a significant tuition increase,” Vartabedian said. “Our financial circumstances are that with all these increasing costs and cuts from the state and so forth that for us to sustain a quality education we need to ask what the student will tolerate, and they seem to be willing to tolerate a certain level.”

The Student Government Association also held a rally over the summer to vocalize their displeasure with the state’s cuts. Several days after the 8.2 percent cut was announced, Western’s student leaders gathered in Blum Union to rally against the cut. The “You Can’t Keep a Griffon Down” campaign aims to alert community leaders and state representatives that Western students want more funding for a quality education.

A symbolic petition has also been started online. Community members, students, staff and faculty can sign to show their support for more state funding for Western.

SGA president Alison Norris said that the “You Can’t Keep a Griffon Down” was originally a slogan started at the rally over the summer but has transformed into a campaign.

“We feel that students deserve the highest education possible at Missouri Western,” Norris said. “We deserve the same amount of state funding as any other student.”

Roughly 150 students and four state representatives attended the rally that was held over the summer.

“After the rally, several members of SGA wrote letters to the governor to show how we felt about the situation,” Norris said. “We thought the 8.2% wasn’t permanent, but we just found out that it was.”

Norris and other key members of SGA plan to meet with the governor in September to persuade him to rework the state’s formula for funding universities.

Currently, Western is looking at other possibilities of revenues other than tuition and state funding. One idea that Western administration is currently talking about is leasing the large amount of farm land that Western has.

“It will help out a little bit, but not substantially,” Dr. Vartabedian said.
While the leasing will only bring in $50,000 to $100,000 in revenue, that translate to nearly one full-time professor position.

Dean of Graduate Studies Brian Cronk is also making efforts to bring in more money to Western’s budget via grants. A new initiative aims to give professors time to apply for grants for research that students can participate in to further their education outside the classroom.

“Part of what universities do is look for grants,” Cronk said. “Now there may be more pressure on us because of the budget cuts, but we’d still be doing it but maybe not emphasizing them quite as much. But we’re looking for anything and everything we can do.”

While Cronk said that there are larger grants in Science and technology, grants for the humanities subjects do exist.
“We’ve focused on the spending side,” Cronk said. “Now we need to focus on the revenue side.”

The award was developed by Senator Blunt in 1991 to promote literacy volunteer work throughout communities in Northwest Missouri. Anyone can become eligible for the award as long as they complete volunteer literacy activities in a unique way and with a huge impact.

Many Missouri Western faculty and literacy volunteers were in attendance for the event. Guest speakers from Western and the St. Joseph community were on hand to speak at the luncheon.

While attendees were enjoying their lunch they were able to watch a couple videos put together by nominees for the Literacy Citation Award. The videos featured many people that were impacted by the generosity of those who volunteer their time to help promote the importance of reading.

Sen. Roy Blunt presents Ernestine Blakley with a Literary Citation award at Missouri Western's Literacy Luncheon.

“We started Hope Outreach on June 13th, 1994,” said Blakley. “We started taking books to several locations and reading to children.”

Senator Blunt had some very choice things to say about his award, those who work so hard to be eligible for it and those who are impacted by the volunteers. Blunt also talked about reaching out to people in a new ways that make the comfortable like using Twitter and Facebook.

“If you do not have basic literary skills the you can’t communicate,” said Blunt. “We want make sure that everyone has access to literary skills.

“Congratulations for all the hard work the people here today have done,” said Blunt.

Western President Dr. Vartabedian has some very strong words about Senator Blunt and the importance of this award.

“Senator Blunt is a modified renaissance man,” said Vartabedian. “He has been a champion of literacy.”

Pastor Ernestine Blakley was selected to receive the Roy Blunt Literary Citation Award for all of her hard work she has done throughout Northwest Missouri. Blakley was very appreciative of the award and happy to receive it.

“I truly share this award with everyone here today,” said Blakley. “Literacy is a life skill and when we promote it we are giving life skills.”

The eight board members and President Vartabedian commenced the session last week to hear the request made by Mel Klinkner and Esther Peralez. The board was not completely sold at first for the tuition increase, as they had a few questions about revenue.

One board member asked “Why can’t the increase in revenue from the new Spring Sports Complex as well as higher increase (20 percent) in students bring in more money?” Klinkner, vice president of financial planning and administration, delivered his answer in complete confidence with Vartabedian backing him up.

“It helps,” Klinkner said. “The part that it doesn’t help is the state appropriation. The 18 percent growth didn’t get us any money.”

Based off of state appropriation, many other states give universities more money for having more students. Missouri is not one of those states. Only two universities get less money than Missouri Western, yet Western has increased students almost every year since 1999. The total since then has grown over 1,000 students.

“The last six states I worked with, it does that,” Vartabedian said. “We’re certainly hoping that will be reconsidered and acted upon, but there is no guarantee that will change. We can’t just sit back and wait for that to happen.”

Klinkner mentioned the last two years there has not been an increase when there should have been. Now they have to do something as the cut made by Gov. Nixon was just too much to handle.

So what does this mean for the students?,

They will pay $17.61 per credit hour more if you live on campus, which is roughly $203 more starting in the 2011-12 school year. If you live out-of-state, look to pay $32.21 per credit hour, which is $370 more. This is all based off a 15 credit hour semester.

The way that the university calculates this tuition increase is by using the formula provided by the Missouri Department of Higher Education. It has to be calculated this way because that is what the state recognizes as Western’s average tuition. The MDHE recognizes Western as having a total cost of $5,560.40 based on 30 credit hours, for a total cost of $185.35 per credit hour, which is how they arrived at the increase. The commissioner’s office views the request as a 6.33 percent increase, because they recognize Western’s tuition as including the uncollected consumer price increase the Board approved last year.

Dan Danford, one of the members, said he and the rest of the members are all in agreement that this has to be done in order to keep this university as best as possible.

“We have gone out on a limb tonight,” Danford said. “People in the state will be upset with us. But understand the time we needed to increase tuition (state dollars) were frozen.”

With the approval, the tuition increase allowed by the governors is more than what the state law allows, therefore, a fine can be handed out which could be $2 million dollars. If that happens, Western will be able to appeal that decision.

Mandatory costs are growing as well as cuts by the governor, but that is not the only reason for raising the tuition. The members wanted to make sure that everybody remembered the students in this situation. Vartabedian said he has spoken to student leaders, and they have agreed paying a little extra for a quality product is the right decision. Chairman Kylee Strough agreed.

“The quality of product is still intact,” Strough said. “I don’t think that can remain true if we don’t take action.”

Gov. Nixon has suggested cuts of seven percent for 2011-12 class year. Dan Nicoson, vice president for advancement, wrote in a guest column to the St. Joseph News-Press the reasoning behind the tuition increase of such magnitude.

“One key reason Western is especially hurt by a state budget cut is growth,” Nicoson wrote. “Our enrollment has risen 18 percent over the last three years, the state’s highest growth rate among public universities. But in Missouri, the appropriation process does not consider enrollment, leaving Western the lowest per-student appropriation in the state.”

With all the members agreeing, the decision will now move on to the commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education to approve.

The other item on the agenda for the meeting was the increase in cost of living. Three percent increase will mean $59 more dollars to live in a double room in Scanlon, $79 more dollars to live in a single room in Scanlon and $67 more to live in the apartments. With the motion pass, Peralez, vice president of student affairs, said April 1st students will be asked if they want to live in Griffon Hall, the new dorm room addition. She said students have already expressed interest in living there.

The Griffon Hall will cost $3,100 a semester.

This topic has been a sore spot for many students, particularly smokers, and now everyone will have the opportunity to read the new policy and determine whether or not to adopt it.

It is important to note before going any further that this cannot pass by a simple majority, two/thirds of those voting must be in favor to pass it. Once passed by the students, the policy will go before faculty and administration for approval–if approved the policy would go into effect Aug. 1, 2012.

Dillon Harp, SGA president, is excited about the tobacco policy and its placement on the ballot for a student vote.

“What I hope students get out of the process, is they get to vote,” Harp said. “This has been a topic that has been around campus for the last couple of years and now is the opportunity, they get a chance to say yes, we want to go tobacco free or no, we want to keep the status quo.”

Student Governor Peter Gregory said that the policy is being created to promote a safe and healthy environment here at Missouri Western.

The policy also includes electronic cigarettes, and Gregory gave his reason on why the decision was made to include a tobacco-less product within the policy.

“Electronic cigarettes have the same addictive characteristics as traditional cigarettes,” Gregory said.
The enforcement within the document is left vague as it states that employees and students are encouraged to communicate this policy.

The policy alludes to the student code of conduct, which if handled as Gregory said, is intended to be in line with the current alcohol policy and could eventually spell expulsion for repeat offenders.

Another major issue at hand with this policy is the enforcement for faculty and staff. Western obviously has a student handbook to guide us in disciplinary issues for students, but the same is not available for tenured contract employees of the university, at least not for student perusal.

Many students like Kirk Gries, a senior studying sociology, feel that the logical changes for the policy would be to add smoking shelters.
“If they want me away from the buildings, give me a shelter to get out of the rain,” Gries said.

Gries was strongly opposed to the idea of the university implementing a policy banning tobacco and related products. Like Gries, many students also question whether this would include smoking inside their personal vehicles while on campus.

“I can’t smoke in restaurants, I just about can’t smoke in any bars, and now the college is trying to tell me I can’t smoke outside while I’m at school,” Gries said. “I’m going out to have a smoke.”

Student Senator Nick McCutcheon said that his personal views were irrelevant because the policy was going to be voted on by the students. McCutcheon did say that one of the best aspects of the policy was the cessation, which would help those seeking to quit the help they need.

“I’m interested to see if the students understand the scope of this and how big it is,” McCutcheon said. “I’m also interested to see if they’re going to fight because I know there are a lot of students that have very strong opinions on this.

The petition, which has been approved by the Student Affairs office, took almost a week to approve due to snow days. Director of Student Life Don Willis has asked that Hayes not gather signatures until Willis sees a physical copy of the petition.

In Willis’s 30 years working with students, he said he has never recalled a petition.

“Mostly, we just want to gather information,” Willis said.

Vice President for Student Affairs Esther Peralez commended Hayes for proceeding through the proper channels before gathering signatures from students, but believes that this process does not interfere with student’s first amendment rights.

Black Student Union President Leah Hayes

Hayes met with Chief of Police Jonathan Kelly before attempting to get her petition approved. Hayes told The Griffon News that she was not pleased with his reaction to her concerns.

Kelley could not be reached for comment by press time.

“I gave him a scenario, but he stopped me in the middle of my story and said that that didn’t happen because that didn’t happen on paper,” Hayes said.

According to Hayes, an African American student who works with her was stopped on Downs Drive for a traffic violation. Since this student was driving with out her license, she was instructed to call her roommate, who owned the car, to operate the vehicle for her. Hayes then said that the roommate cursed out the police officer and sped off without reprimand from the officer.

“She has gotten out her car for a routine traffic stop, but the roommate can curse you out and speed off even though she was just speeding now sitting out on the curb,” Hayes said. “That doesn’t seem right. “

A study conducted by the Loaned Executive Management Assistance Program found several areas of concern when the Department of Public Safety was requesting to carry firearms on campus in 2007. One area was of the mindset and attitude of the officers in 2007, which the study found many negative comments on.

The study summarized that officers appeared to be authoritarian and unapproachable to students and that a need for cultural and diversity training existed.

Currently, Campus Police Officers attend diversity training every summer. Due to the Kansas City Chief’s summer training camp, officers attended different diversity training at the police academy.

‘They do go through that diversity training, but I don’t feel they fully understand the students that they are serving,” Hayes said.

Vice President for Financial Planning and Administration Mel Kilnkner said that if students they are being mistreated by campus police, he would take it seriously. But, he hasn’t heard any specifics.

“Every semester I talk to the police officers about how it’s a little bit different on a campus than it is in a community,” Klinkner said. “We have a relationship that we want to build with the faculty and staff and the students. So it’s not just that we want to be looked at as the enforcers, we want to be a part of the community.”

The priority deadline for FAFSA is March 1. To submit their FAFSA, students must fill out tax forms for 2010, and possibly their parents’ taxes for 2010 if they live in their household.

Director of Financial Aid, Marilyn Baker, strongly considers submitting your FAFSA before the deadline.

“You need to do it prior to March first for priority financial aid purposes,” Baker said. “(We) highly encourage them to complete the 2011-12 FAFSA, which is available now, online. It’s there. It’s ready.”

If students need help filling out their FAFSA, Western will hold the annual “FAFSA Frenzy” this weekend.

On Sunday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m., Western will give free help to students who need it. This includes students who attend Western, as well as high school students; incoming freshman and their parents are welcomed to come. Financial aid professionals will be on hand to assist those who need it. You may also have a chance to win a $1,000 scholarship just by attending. That is just one scholarship among many that will be handed out.

“We have financial aid like SUG (Student University Grant) which is a grant, work study, purposes loans, those type of aid scholarships,” Baker said. All of these will be available if students submit their FAFSA before March 1.

Students should bring their W-2 forms and 2010 tax returns. If forms are not ready, students should still bring their W-2 forms, but bring 2010 statements of interest earned and their 2009 forms.

According to the FAFSA Frenzy pamphlet, available at numerous locations around campus, if “inclement weather” occurs, the event will be held just one week later, on Sunday, Feb. 20. The FAFSA Frenzy will be located in Spratt Hall.

If students are unable to attend, they will still have two weeks before the priority deadline to get the information needed so they are able to get grant money that is available.

“We’ve been doing a great job of divvying out responsibilities until we get a director hired,” Tay D. Triggs, Assistant Dean of Student Development, said.

Employees from other offices on campus have been pitching in to get students the assistance they need.

“We have people over in the residence halls who have human resources experience, actually, and have been helping look at resumes for students as well. That’s one of the big things students come in for,” Triggs said.

Student Employment Coordinator, Matthew Gregg, worked directly below Garlinger before her retirement. He is now responsible for many of her previous duties.

“I don’t feel overwhelmed by any means. You know, I know I’ve got a lot of support,” Gregg said. “If I need support, all I do is call our Associate [sic] Dean, Tay Triggs, or I’ll say something to Dr. Grimes or Dr. Peralez. Our division is a very supportive division.”

Triggs applauds Gregg for taking his added responsibilities in stride.

“Matthew’s been awesome. He’s stepped up, big time,” Trigg said.

Gregg has been assisted by the Career Development Center’s administrative assistant, Kathy Kountz, and the Center’s student worker, Bill Mayes. Mayes is working on his own campus program to show campus employees how valued they are.

“I’m in the process of trying to work on student employment appreciation week,” Mayes said.

The search committee has been taking their time hiring a new director.

“Whenever you do a search, there’s some people who are definitely qualified for the position, and there’s those people who just threw their hat out there to see what happens. So you have to really sift through carefully to make sure you’re getting top candidates,” Triggs said.

Gregg believes that they have found some of those “top candidates.”

“We’ve got some fantastic candidates. I’m just super excited about having some new ideas,” Gregg said. “New faces are always wonderful because there’s fresh ideas and new ideas.”

Career Development has selected several candidates to begin interviewing over the phone. If the rest of the hiring process goes smoothly, MWSU will have a new Director of Career Services by late March.

“That’s what we’re shooting for,” Triggs said.

Once the field of prospective future directors has been narrowed to three, the candidates will be invited to campus for campus interviews.

“The campus interviews will be open: they’ll be open to students, they’ll be open to faculty and staff to attend, ask questions,” Triggs said.

In the meantime, Gregg encourages students to continue coming to the Career Development Center. Gregg wants to give students assistance and listen to what they have to say.

“I am only as good as the feedback I get from students,” Gregg said. “Whether it’s good or bad, I just need to know what the students need.”

Career Development will have been without a Director of Career Services for the better part of 6 months by the end of March, but Triggs and the rest of the search committee are in no hurry.

“We’re taking our time with the search because we want to hire the best possible person. We have high hopes and some real expectations of our Career Development office,” Triggs said. “We want to take it to new heights.”

These “new heights” include further implementation of career assessment software, available in the Career Development Center, Eder 202. Triggs believes that these assessment programs are important to underclassmen.

“We are developing plans to make sure that our freshmen and sophomores can come in and really sit down and figure out: where do their strengths lie? Where do the weaknesses lie? What would be the best areas for them to go into?” Triggs said.

Triggs’ personal experience with these types of assessments helped her find a job that she enjoys to this day.

“As an undergraduate, I did those assessments, and they pretty much pointed me in the direction of Student Affairs, because it was everything that I loved to do,” Triggs said.

“There are four times as many up for review this year,” Dr. Ali Kamali, Chair of the Promotion and Tenure Committee, said. “In a normal year there would be six or seven.”

Faculty members hired on a tenure track position are required to have a tenure review after the sixth year of service.

The majority up for tenure will also be up for promotion from assistant to associate professor or from associate to professor.

“Up or out” means that if someone is not granted tenure then they will receive a one year terminal contract for the following year.

According to Michael Cadden, Chair of the English, Foreign Language and Journalism Department, the year they receive is due to the unique job cycle in higher education.

“It’s more about recognizing that academic hiring is a different process than other jobs,” Cadden said.

Each teacher up for review will submit an evaluation package that has relevant information that supports the candidate being tenured. They also turn in a binder full of student evaluations.

One way to help try to keep a professor that had an impact on you is to write a letter.

“We take unsolicited letters from students very seriously,” Kamali said.

The review starts with the department chairperson and ends with the Board of Governors.

Promotion includes a raise of $2,000 for assistant professor, $5,000 for associate professor and $7,000 for a promotion to professor.

Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences Murray Nabors said that the committees don’t consider the financial ramifications of the raises when it comes to tenure, even with the abnormally large amount of teachers up for review.

“Financial effect is never considered when someone is up for tenure review,” Nabors said. “The process is not linked to the economy.”

Every instructor is given an annual review and after three years they are given a mid-term review to help the candidate prepare and get evaluated similar to how they will be when they are up for tenure review.

“There should be no surprises regarding the progress someone is making towards tenure because there is a review each year,” Nabors said.

Being granted tenure basically means that after six years the university is willing to invest in a teacher. According to Cadden, a common misconception is that once someone receives tenure then that person has complete job security.

“It clearly states in the policy guide that there are reasons to be dismissed – people have been fired who had tenure,” Cadden said.

In anticipation of the big number up for tenure review, the time frame for the departments has been shifted.

Each department has had to get materials to the next level of review sooner this year.

Dan Nicoson, vice president for university advancement, was one of the people responsible for bringing Shields to campus and says that Shields has always served Western’s campus and the community very well.

“A study of Sen. Shields time in office would be an excellent study of leadership as he rose to leadership positions in both the house of representatives and the senate, including the highest legislative office in the state legislature of Senate President Pro Tem,” Nicoson said.

Shields’ speech, which was held at the Fulkerson Center, focused on the importance of government efficiency, training future leaders and moving past divisive politics.

“We have to move past term limits and focus on how to make government work,” Shields said, addressing people upset over his term-limit imposed retirement.

Shields also touched on some of the ways he was involved on Missouri Western’s campus, for which he is held in high regards by University President Robert Vartabedian.

“I’m a great admirer of Charlie Shields. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a person, as a political leader, and I think it’s a huge loss to have him be term-limited,” Vartabedian said.

Vartabedian says that Shields was instrumental in Western gaining university status, getting help from the state for the construction of Remington and Agenstein halls, and getting the Chiefs training camp on Western’s campus.

In his speech Wednesday Shields recounted a story of a St. Joseph boy and his dad who ran into Jamaal Charles, the Chiefs’ star running back, at the grocery store and were able to get his autograph.

“You can talk about economic development, but this is a young man that got to meet his hero,” Shields said.

After touching on the training camp, Shields moved on to give advice for getting good leadership in public office. He said that communities need to focus on leadership training, a strong support system for those interested in public office and getting over the notion that candidates need to have a perfect past.

Another thing important for good leadership is an active and engaged press in the process, Shields said. He worries that cutbacks to the media are hurting the political process, and that people are moving online for their news.

“The problem is people are getting their news from blogs, and blogs are bias!” Shields said.

The senator then went on to recount some of the highlights of his 20 year career, and some of the things he learned from his life in politics. He said that he learned from working with both political parties, door-to-door campaigning, his wife and his children.

“One thing I’m most proud of is that they still believe that being a legislator is an honorable profession,” Shields said.

Shields concluded this emotional end to his speech by addressing the audience before taking their questions.

“It’s been an honor to serve you for the last 20 years,” Shields said.

Hamzaee began teaching internationally in 1994 when he was invited to Iran to teach in Iranian institutions. He travels over the Christmas holiday break, over summer and between the spring and summer sessions so he is still available to teach at Western.

This time, Hamzaee has been invited by Tehran University, the oldest university in Tehran, to participate in several positions. He will serve on the Editorial Board for the Iranian Economic Review and on the dissertation committee for graduate students, as well as teaching economics to graduate students and speaking in seminars for the faculty.

Hamzaee is originally from Iran. He attended college in Iran and served in the military for one and a half years before he was allowed to leave. After he served his military service he moved to the U.S. where he completed his graduate studies. Hamzaee now teaches economics at Missouri Western, as well as teaching internationally at seminars, conferences and schools.

Hamzaee said he loves teaching economics. He said he can’t get enough.

“The reason I do so much is because when I go to my classes, I feel like I am taking a break,” Hamzaee said. “I have fun and I love it.”

If the relations between the U.S. and Iran were better, Hamzaee would travel around 12 hours from New York to Iran. Because of the tensions, the trip takes around 30-40 hours one way. Due to the strained relations between the U.S. and Iran, traveling takes longer.

Sophomore Aaron Majors said that Dr. Hamzaee is the teacher that students recommend when asked by other students.

“He’s an excellent teacher,” Majors said. “He’s good at getting students involved. He’s one of the best.”

Hamzaee said that one reason he is invited to teach so much is because he has so much research and information available that Iranian professors do not. Iranian professors are not as available to do research. Many times, when Iranian professors leave school, they go to another job. Hamzaee is also able to speak Persian and English, which is another benefit.

Besides loving his teaching, Hamzaee has family in Iran. When he goes to Iran to teach, he also goes to visit family. Hamzaee has a passion for his teaching, and according to his students, it shows in his classroom.

According to Gregory George, the mechanical supervisor at Missouri Western, the origin of the fire was that the banks of heating elements ignited filters that were near the ducting system. The fire department was called and students and faculty were evacuated from the library. No one was hurt.

The fire was observed and extinguished relatively quickly but the presence of heavy smoke prevented the confirmation of all combustibles being extinguished,” George said. “The decision was made to request the assistance of the local fire department with their portable breathing devices and fire detection equipment.”

Students that were in the library were told to leave immediately. The library was closed for the rest of the day. Caitlin Cress, an employee of the Center for Academic Support in the Hearnes Center, was there when the fire occurred.

“We all thought it was a drill until we smelled the smoke,” Cress said. “The alarms went off. They were so incredibly loud. We all left the building once we realized that Hearnes was the only building with alarms going off.”

George said that the damage to the library was minimal and will be easily fixed.

“Photographs show evidence of a relatively small, well-contained fire which resulted in very limited damage to the building,” George said.
However, the cause of the fire is still under review.

“The investigation into the exact sequence of events leading up to this fire is still under investigation,” George said.

These changes began in the summer or 2010.

While this change was made to help students advance in their progress towards a degree, not all students know about the “Year Round Pell.” Junior Rebeccah White is one of these students.

“I didn’t know that I could get funding for summer classes though my Pell Grant,” White said. “Since I am kind of behind in my sequence of classes for my degree, this can really help me catch up.”

Previously, students used all the money they were awarded from their Pell Grants for fall and spring classes, they were not allowed any more funds for summer classes.

Now, if students are eligible, they can receive more grant money to help pay for summer classes.

Students are eligible if they are enrolled in and attend a minimum of 6 credit hours, enroll in and attend at least one four week and/or one eight week course, and are a degree seeking student at Western.

Graph | Andy Inman

Students enrolled in less than 6 credits hours during the summer are not eligible for the Year Round Pell. They need to have remaining Pell Grant money from their fall and spring award in order to receive a Pell Grant for summer.

Interim director of financial aid Marilyn Baker encourages all students who receive Pell Grants to check and see if they are able to receive extra funding for summer classes.

“We don’t know how long it will be available,” Baker said. “I would definitely encourage students to take advantage of it while it is available.”

Due to this change, there was an 80 percent increase in Pell Grant dollars awarded to students from the 08-09 school year to the 09-10 school year. It increased from $104,861 to $539,721. Students use this money to attend summer classes.

For the 2010 school year, there was a ten percent increase in FAFSA applications compared to fall 2009. Also compared to fall 2009, there was a 19 percent increase in the number of students awarded financial aid, a 22 percent increase in federal loan certification, and a 14 percent increase in total funds disbursed for fall 2010.

This means that more students are applying for and receiving scholarships, grants and loans, both Federal and institutional.

Not all students are eligible for the Year Round Pell, but Baker encourages students to check the financial aid website and to visit the financial aid office. For students who are eligible, the Year Round Pell can help them get ahead in their studies.

Stacy Hersh, a junior, had several concerns she wanted to voice.

“If I’m in a building, that I have to use an elevator to get to the second floor and there’s a fire, what is the university’s plan to get me out of that building,” Hersh said. “As a disabled student, I’m fortunate, my husband goes here, but he’s a senior and next year he won’t be here and I won’t feel safe.”
Hersh said she thinks that this is definitely an issue that should be addressed in every course syllabus, and should be specific to each classroom.

Many of the concerns of those in attendance were accessibility issues and how that affects them on a day-to-day basis.

“Last semester in my manual chair, I tipped out of it three times on the hills on campus,” Hersh said, trying to maintain her composure, “I tipped out of it and lay on the sidewalk as students and professors walked by me and did nothing, so when I say I won’t feel safe, it’s a legitimate concern.”

Classroom configuration was another concern that Hersh said plagues many of the disabled students at Western, because many times the desks are moved around for each class and not put back.

Hersh also referenced the drive and the determination the university showed in pursuing acquiring the Chiefs training camp even in the uncertain economic climate they were facing at that time.

“This university wanted the Chiefs training camp and we saw what they could do to get it here,” Hersh said. “If the university really wanted to get gung ho and get the campus up to speed ADA and make the changes…get that same spirit and change it into a different project.”

Ruth Dome, a third-year criminal justice major, was one of the 200 or so students receiving an email about a meeting that would provide students with disabilities an opportunity to voice their concerns.

“I’ve got several things I’m frustrated and angry about, and I’d like to have them heard,” Dome said.

“There are people that have handicapped placards, stickers or tags, they make use of it but I see them get out and walk off like there’s nothing wrong,” Dome said. “And that irritates me because there are a lot of people that need it.”

“At Wilson Hall, I was going to one of my classes—an 8 a.m. class—and I saw this kid come whipping in with his four-wheeler in the back of his truck,” Dome said. “He pulls in, throws his placard up, jumps out and runs in to Remmington, and I’m still trying to get out of my truck.”

Michael Ritter, disability services coordinator, said that he is aware that there are some perception issues with a lot of the people utilizing handicapped spots and that it’s difficult to address them.

“I’ve talked to the security folks a number of times and we don’t have a great way to address this issue,” Ritter said. “Sometimes the student may have a hidden disability, and they’ve [security personnel] gotten burned a few times by going up and asking somebody if they really have a need to park there.”

Ritter said that in many of those cases the student would then produce documentation stating they had a heart condition or some other ailment not clearly visible.

Unfortunately, the predominant issue facing most students with disabilities is accessibility. Whether the issue was a door that closed too fast, a hill that is too steep, a threshold that is too tall, a classroom door a student can’t enter or a bathroom they can’t get into; the feeling was that the university needs to provide these students with a way, in all cases to go to school and maintain their dignity.

“This university wanted the Chiefs training camp and we saw what they could do to get it here,” Hersh said. “If the university really wanted to get gung ho and get the campus up to speed ADA and make the changes…get that same spirit and change it into a different project.”

The report is required by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, which requires any college or university that participates in federal financial aid programs to issue the report. This is so everyone on and around the campus can be aware of any violent crimes that have happened in the past years.

Freshman Samantha White says she hasn’t had any issues with crimes since she has been attending Missouri Western.

“I think the campus is pretty safe,” White said. “I have never had any problems and I have never felt unsafe.”

According to the report, Western’s campus has been increasing in campus safety. Missouri Western’s Chief of Police Jonathan Kelley agrees with the report.

“I think Western is a very safe campus and I believe that is evidenced by our most recent Clery statistics,” Kelley said.

The report is divided into two sections. One is crimes reported to Missouri Western Police Department by type, such as burglary, assault, and sex offenses. The second section is arrests and referrals due to liquor, drug, or weapons law violations. The report records the statistics for the last three years.

The report stated that in 2009, a total of seven crimes were reported to the Missouri Western Police Department. All seven reported crimes were burglary, and five were reported to have happened in the residence halls. This is compared to 18 crimes reported in 2008 and 41 reported in 2007.

Of the 18 crimes in 2008, 15 were burglary and nine happened in the residence halls. One was aggravated assault on campus, one was a non-forcible sex offense in the residence halls, and one was motor vehicle theft on public property that is on or adjoins Western’s campus, such as the conservation department.

Crime rates have gone down on Western’s campus dramatically in only two years. Arrests and referrals due to liquor, drug, or weapons law violations have not. According to the report, these have actually increased since 2007.

A total of 83 arrests and referrals happened in 2009, compared with 86 in 2008 and 75 in 2007. This could simply be due the increased number of students enrolled at Missouri Western.

Many arrests and referrals happened in the residence halls. 43 out of 53 liquor law violations in 2009 happened in the residences halls, and 18 out of 27 drug law violations in 2009 happened in the residence halls.

The best way to avoid being the victim of a crime is to be aware of campus safety. The Missouri Western Police Department website has a guide to campus safety. Kelley says that the police department provides daily crime logs as well as the yearly crime report, and helps raise safety awareness.

Graphic | Andy Inman

On July 21, a library employee was putting books on a fairly empty shelf when it became unstable and knocked over the other shelves in a domino effect. Police and paramedics were called and made sure no one was hurt. Almost 12,000 volumes were affected by the collapse.

However, many students don’t understand what is taking so long for the second floor of the library to open.
Junior Chiquita Keeble shared her frustration.

The second floor of the library has remained closed after a shelving collapse that happened in July. The staff is in the process of reorganizing the books. Photo | Debo'ra Baskin

Library Director Julia Schneider talks about what took so long to get the second floor open.

“We were thinking around the 16 or 17 of September we could start putting books up on the shelves,” Schneider said. “When we found out the stabilizing piece did not come, we weren’t going to risk putting books on the shelves without that there after what we had been through.”

Schneider said that the cast of repairs for the replacement of the new shelves cost around $55,000, which included the new shelves and the labor. All damages were covered by insurance.

Because the second floor has been closed, the librarians had to find other ways to accommodate students.
Jim Mulder supervisor of public services talked about what changes were made to help accommodate students.

“We didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” Mulder said. “If anyone needs a book from upstairs, we have one of the library employees get it for them to avoid the piles of books that are on the floor.”

Schneider explained other ways they helped to accommodate students, like bringing down tables and chairs to the main level for students to use.

“We’ve had some people who like to use the smaller study rooms and they haven’t been available,” Mulder said. “Some people like to browse the shelves and unfortunately they haven’t been able to do that.”

The library staff is continuing to work on reorganizing the second floor and hopes it will be open soon.

The Missouri Court of Appeals function is to hear appeals from previously held trials in the given district area. The appealing party usually feels that there were errors in their trail that could be grounds for a retrial.

Three Missouri judges; Chief Judge Lisa White Hardwick, Buchanan County Judge Keith Marquart and Judge Gary Witt will preside of the appeal hearings. They will hear the arguments for appeal in five cases.

Hardwick is in her first year as the Western Districts Chief Judge. She has practiced law in the Kansas City area for over 15 years and has been a member of the appeals court for a total of nine years.

Hardwick feels that it is important for the Missouri Court of Appeals to convene outside of their normal Kansas City court so that more of the public is exposed to how appeals process of the legal system works.

“This gives individuals an opportunity to observe a part of the judicial system they normally do not see. We hope those attending will gain a better understanding of the of the courts function,” Hardwick said.

David Tushaus, associate professor of legal studies, likes the benefits of the Missouri Court of Appeals coming to Missouri Western. Tushaus feels that it is especially valuable to criminal justice and legal studies majors.

“It’s important for students to get out and see how one aspect of the legal system works,” Tushaus said.

Tushaus stated that other benefits to having the court come to Missouri Western is that students don’t have to travel to attend and that it does not cost the university anything to bring the court here.

Missouri Western sophomore, Jacob Scott, legal studies major, says he plans on attending the hearings. Scott stated that being a declared legal studies major makes it mandatory for him to attend.

When asked how he felt about the Missouri Court of Appeals coming to Missouri Western, Scott said, “It’s a good opportunity for students to get out there and see how the criminal justice system works first hand. I am glad to have it come to Missouri Western.”

In between cases, students will have the opportunity to ask the three-judge panel any questions they may have, as long as it does not directly relate to a case. Students are encouraged to attend, even if it is not required of them.

The court will convene at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 13 in Potter Hall Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

The committee will be co-chaired by Athletic Director Dave Williams and Director of Athletic Facilities Mike Halloran, but President Robert Vartabedian is still in the process of designating committee assignments.

“There’s a lot to talk about,” Williams said. “First of all, it’s a very unique building. It’s unlike any other on campus.”

Unique not only to Missouri Western’s campus, says Halloran, but for any school of Western’s size in the state of Missouri. The university boasts the only indoor sports facility of its kind, which is what drew the Chiefs training camp there last summer.

“Literally a day after we were handed over the building the Chief’s camp started,” Williams said, “So for about 45 days we were 100 percent committed to running the Chiefs.”

After training camp ended, the fall semester started and left the university without the time to discuss guidelines for use of the facility. “We’re still trying to work out the details of how this thing works,” Williams said.

Currently the building is not available for open use by students, meaning students can’t go and use the facility without being a part of a university organization. The committee plans on discussing this issue, and designating days that the building will be open to student use. Halloran says that Tuesday and Thursday afternoons will most likely be designated as these “open-rec” times.

Halloran said that no one benefits from the building sitting empty, and if there is no group scheduled then he would prefer to have students using the practice field and indoor track.

“If it’s available and there’s nobody using, we want them to use it,” Halloran said.

Before that happens though, the committee needs to decide the rules for the students, along with who is going to handle security during these times, funding, insurance, and other issues.

Although the facility is not currently available for open use, it is used by students in other ways including intramural athletics and classrooms that use the building’s auditoriums and viewing rooms. Wonda Berry, campus recreation director, is in charge of intramural athletics and says that Halloran has been very open in allowing an intramural flag football league to use the indoor practice field.

“We’ve had some dates that we’ve had to cancel due to weather outside with thunder and lightning and he’s been really good so far to work with us on those dates,” Berry said.

If the intramural league was unable to use the facility it was because of scheduling conflicts, not out of worries of damage to the facility.“They are very adamant on making sure they take care of the facility, and I don’t blame them in that,” Berry said. She says that enforcing rules and responsible use is key to maintaining the quality of any athletic facility on campus.

Another big issue that the committee will discuss is the rental fee charged to non-university organizations that are using the building. Halloran said the projected operating budget of the indoor sports complex is $400,000-$450,000 per year, and as an auxiliary funded building he is responsible for covering these funds through rental fees. Currently the fee is $1,500 per day, but Halloran says the committee will review this number and make changes if it deems them appropriate.

Northwest is the second leading transfer school for fall 2010. It is located in Maryville, Missouri, which is 45 minutes away from Saint Joseph.

Ashley Smith, transfer student from Northwest said, “I transferred here because I was homesick and missed my family. I like being able to go to school and live at home.”

“I’ve had much better luck with the tutoring program at Missouri Western; I don’t remember hearing much about tutoring at Northwest and tutoring is important to me,” Smith said.

Katelyn Glasco, another transfer student from Northwest, said that her professors at Missouri Western are much more concerned with getting to know her and that cost of tuition played a part in her transferring.

Graph | Andy Inman

According to Tyson Schank, associate director of admissions, students just want a more affordable education due to the economic times or simply want to be closer to home.

“Transfer students are up across the board,” Schank said. “In general we are up significantly partially due to the partnerships we have with other schools to help get students here.”

According to Schank, there is a 38 percent increase of students enrolling from the Kansas City area and an 18 percent increase in getting students who came for a campus visit enrolled.

The top transfer schools for fall 2010 are Metropolitan Community Colleges. There are 81 transfer students which is 72 percent increase from fall 2009.

There are 42 transfer students from Northwest Missouri State, which is a 61 percent increase from fall 2009.

North Central Missouri College has 31 transfer students and that is a 48 percent increase from fall 2009.

Highland Community College has 26 transfer students, a 30 percent increase from fall 2009.

Missouri Western will be requesting a waiver from the state government to increase tuition in response to state cuts and increased costs.
University President Robert Vartabedian said at a faculty senate meeting last week that the university will be asking for an increase of up to ten percent. First the proposal must be approved by Western’s Board of Governors before sending it to the state.
“We’re hopeful that we can justify a reasonable increase, as the governor put it, and that we will be successful at those various steps along the way,” Vartabedian said.
Gov. Jay Nixon has outlined a list of such justifications, essentially requirements that institutions must meet before a waiver can be passed.
“I think we’re certainly in the ball park,” Vartabedian said. “As I looked at the list I thought we were well qualified with that request.”
Vartabedian said that the extra money from the increase would be primarily used for maintaining the quality of education that Western offers.
“Probably the biggest thing we’re going to do with the money is offset the cuts we’re going to receive [from the Missouri Appropriations Committee],” Vartbedian said.
For three years, Western’s faculty and staff have not received a raise while dealing with an increased cost of living. Vartabedian hopes to return raises for faculty and staff as well as helping Western grow.
“There are just so many things we would like to do,” Vartabedian said. “We would like to offer more programming, we would like to do more with summer school, we would like to do more with distance education, there’s just a lot of things we would like to do on our campus.”
According to Mel Klinkner, vice president of financial planning and administration, the exact purpose of the money is still yet to be determined.
“We don’t even know what the governor’s budget is yet, so we don’t know what the university’s cut is going to be.” Klinker said.
Klinker said that the university might be experiencing any where from a 5-25 percent cut from the State Appropriations Committee, on top of increasing expenses.
If the state comes back with a low cut, such as five percent, Klinker said the ten percent increase would be used to offset the past few years of drawing from reserve funds as well as increasing the quality of Western’s education.
Even with an increase, Vartabedian assures students that Missouri Western is “still a major bargain” for students.
“There’s some schools where you’re talking about $40,000 or $50,000 a year for tuition,” Vartabiedian said.
Freshman Michael Smith was shocked to hear that the university may be increasing tuition.
Smith said that large class sizes do not bother him but also sees the benefits in smaller class sizes, but either way would not consider dropping out.
“I’m just going to have to find more money,” Smith said.

A $35 fee per student is being assessed to those who have classes that use the lab between eight and 23 hours during the semester and a $45 fee for those courses who use the lab 24 hours or more during the semester.

Previously there was only one fee of $4.13 charged to each student per credit hour. Dr. Gordon Mapley, Dean of Western Institute, said that the old fee wasn’t enough to keep the technology that students and faculty need.

“When I first arrived here one of the first things that I noticed was that the university did not have a large enough technology fee to maintain the technology that we need to have to appropriately instruct our students,” Mapley said. “We are trying to link the cost to those who actually are using those specific things.”

Potter Hall boasts a new state of the art music lab that includes 16 Yamaha digital pianos, nine Macintosh stations, four Mac Book Pro computers and a full complement of software for composing and producing music and digital audio for stand-alone use, or for video and film productions. This is a good example of what the new technology fee can bring to certain fields according to Mapley.

Mapley said that the money generated from the new fee will go directly towards improving the technology for the students who paid the fee.

“My promise when I asked for this new fee is that I promise to use the money to support the courses from which the money comes from” Mapley said.

Last spring there was a technology and recycling fee proposed by the student government association, but it was voted down by a vote of 309-299 by the students. The proposal was for everyone to pay four dollars and fifty cents per credit hour for the technology fee.

Dillon Harp, Student Government Association president, said that the previous proposal didn’t address everything that it needed to.

“It could have been utilized in a way that reached out to the whole student body and it needed to be more specific.” Harp said.

Dr. Jeanne Daffron, provost of and vice presidetn of academic affiars, said that not everyone will have to pay for things that only a few use.

“In this case it is those who are using the technology who will help to pay for that cost.” Daffron said. “There is a general academic computing fee that pays for the lab but not the specialized software that is needed for individual courses.”

Both Harp and Mapley said that they have yet to hear any complaints about the fee being an issue from students or faculty.

“We are excited by the number of students enrolling at Missouri Western and we want students to have a lot options when choosing their future career,” Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said.

These programs were added at Western because of a growing need in the local region for qualified applicants in these fields. In addition to local needs, these three undergrad programs are in demand nationwide Daffron explained.

Early childhood education is one that the State of Missouri has put a lot of emphasis on.

“There is a real need in the region, state, and nation for early childhood teachers that have four year degrees,” Susan Claflin, assistant professor of the department of education said.
Claflin feels that the high demand for people with degrees in early childhood development will give them an edge in finding a job.

“National education initiatives are requiring them [school districts] to hire teachers with Bachelor degrees in early childhood education,” Clafin said.

Digital animation is another one of Western’s new undergraduate programs. Peter Hriso, assistant professor in art, was hired three years ago to help with developing and teaching these programs.

“There are a lot of job opportunities for people with a degree in digital animation,” Hriso said.

Hriso feels that digital animation will become a very popular degree choice in the near future.

Hriso also stressed how supportive Western has been in providing his department with the necessary equipment to make this digital animation program successful.

“Missouri Western has provided us with MAC [computer] lab and plenty of space for us to work.”

Health informatics is a new undergrad program that should see a lot of growth in within the next few semesters. “Health informatics is a new major that is already receiving a lot of interest” Daffron said.

Daffron explained that with so much emphasis by the government on the health care industry, it will not be very surprising if we see an increase in people choosing to go into that type of field in the future.

While Missouri Western continues to grow in student enrollment every year, it is refreshing that they continue to expand undergraduate programs. Each one of the new departments that added these new programs is very excited for Western, as well as the future students that will now have even more degrees to choose from.

Halloran was selected out of hundreds of applicants and four finalists to supervise the maintenance, scheduling, and day-to-day operations of Western’s athletic facilities.

“With the new facility being built we needed to have somebody that was physically in that building all the time managing that facility,” said Patsy Smith, associate athletic director and a member of the panel that interviewed the nominees.

The four applicants went through an interview process and gave presentations that were open to the campus community highlighting how the indoor sports complex could best benefit Western. Halloran, who was formerly senior recreation supervisor for the St. Joseph Parks and Recreation Department, was selected out of the four finalists.

The selection was made in late May by Athletic Director David Williams and President Robert Vartabedian with advisement from Smith’s panel.

“Mike was selected partially because of his work with the community already,” Smith said. “We just felt like he had a good handle on recreation overall and what that building needed: to have somebody to contact [and] to be able to bring in things to make money off of that facility.”

Therein lays Halloran’s number one responsibility: being sure that the indoor sports complex generates enough revenue to pay for itself. As an auxiliary building the facility receives no funding from the university budget. Halloran is responsible for drawing in community events to the facility in order to raise these funds. Some of the ideas so far are for youth soccer, flag football leagues and trade shows.

“Those are opportunities for us to generate revenue that will help pay for the daily operations as well as develop a comprehensive maintenance program for the facility,” said Halloran.

So far the biggest investor to the complex has been the Kansas City Chiefs, who hosted their training camp in the indoor sports complex this summer. The Chiefs received $10 million in tax credits from the state of Missouri to move their training camp back to the state. In turn they donated these funds to Missouri Western, pending the construction of an indoor practice facility.

“We wouldn’t have the facility if the Chiefs hadn’t been able to the tax credits through the state to build it,” said Smith.

Halloran’s first duty as athletic facilities director was to make sure that everything at training camp went smoothly.

“Really, during camp I left the indoor sports complex very rarely. I dealt with football operations so I dealt with players, coaches, security, medical and equipment,” said Halloran. “That opportunity was pretty unique, and for somebody that likes sports, and particularly football, it was a pretty cool opportunity to have that interaction on a daily basis.”

Halloran has high hopes for his new position and is excited about the new Griffon Indoor Sports complex and how it is going to promote the university and community in the future.

“I think the bigger picture of what it’s going to do to morale and pride and what it means to Missouri Western and St. Joe is something that’s going to be very difficult to measure. But I think it’s going to be very noticeable as well,” said Halloran. “I think it already can be noticed.”

In light of the decision at our Maryville neighbor to implement a no-smoking policy campus wide on August 1, several faculty and staff members were asked to weigh in on the issue.

Lonnie Johnson, director of facilities, thinks that the students will have to push this issue—if it’s going to happen in the near future.

“I think it’s a good thing [Northwest going smoke-free],” Johnson said. “When I got to Western in 1990, taking us to a smoke-free building campus was one of the first things I was involved in, and it’s been that way ever since.”

Johnson said that this issue [smoke-free campus] has come up several times since that occurred, and he believes that the students will have initiate a move to a smoke-free campus to make it happen.

Grpahic | Andy Inman

Johnson said that the smoking shelters have been discussed in the past, but he feels it’s a better policy to totally eliminate it and just have and end date set.

“I’m an ex-smoker and I always think cold turkey is the best way to go,” Johnson said.

Evan Noynaert, assistant professor of computer science, chaired an Adhoc committee for the faculty senate in 2008 and they discussed the smoking policy then. At the time they looked at the possibility of shelters at an approximate cost of $10,000 per shelter.

“I really don’t think that the shelters are necessary, the idea is that we want to discourage smoking not facilitate it,” Noynaert said.

Noynaert said that the majority of the committee did not want to go to the expense of the shelters, with the likelihood of Western going completely smoke-free in the future.

SGA President Dillon Harp feels “an issue of this magnitude” should come from the students, so that the policy reflects the wishes of the students.

“If student input on this is strong enough, there is no reason why this wouldn’t deserve a place on the ballot come spring time,” Harp said.

Harp feels that designated areas on campus would help to ease the transition to a totally smoke-free campus. Harp feels that shelters, similar to the one near the sand-volley ball court could be built as smoking shelters in the most populated areas.

“With the budget that student government has I think that is an issue that we can address,” Harp said.

Harp feels that if done properly SGA could facilitate this and said that in the future these shelters could be used for other purposes.

Harp thinks this will be something the state will eventually will force colleges and universities to implement as the push to be healthier increases.

“If a petition with 10% of the students signatures on it came forward, I would say that would be enough to put it on a ballot and take it to a vote,” Harp said.

Acting Director of the Office of Residential Life Sean O’Reilly shared his views on how he feels students will react to the new residential halls that will be built.

“I believe that students will want more housing just like it,” O’Reilly said. “While many students want to be independent and have some control over their own space, students living on campus have the advantage of being included in the camaraderie everyone feels when they living with lots of people they know.”

Construction on the new residential halls has already begun and it is expected to be completed next August.

There will be three new residence halls built in one central area, located in the rear of Scanlon Hall. The three new residence halls will be an apartment like suite – four students will share a kitchen and two residents will share a bathroom. The costs of the new residential halls are estimated at $15 million.

Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Esther Peralez hopes more students will be drawn to Western due to the new residence halls.

“We were losing a lot of our upperclassmen,” Peralez said. “We need more juniors and seniors on campus to be positive role models for the incoming freshmen.”

This is due to the cost of design, construction and furnishing a building such as this is paid for with Auxiliary funds and not university funds, O’Reilly said.

“The cost of building will not have a negative impact on the university budget,” O’Reilly said. “It can positively impact the university by allowing more students to attend each year.”

Residential Assistant Deraan Washington shared her views on the new resident halls.

“I think that the new residence halls will be very beneficial to Missouri Western,” Washington said.

Washington’s experience over the summer made it clear that the new residence halls are needed.

“While working the commons desk over the summer, there were a lot of students who needed housing that we had to turn away because there was no room,” Washington said.

Residential Hall Director of the Suites Marqita Jones hopes that the new halls will bring back students that are no longer on campus due to a waiting list that exceed 100 each fall.

“Hopefully it will bring students who may have moved off campus back,” Jones said.

Jones feels the new resident halls will make student more independent and O’Reilly agrees.

“Off campus housing and apartment complexes offer privacy and a sense of independence,” O’Reilly said. “Many find it a lonely place to live also. Too many people keep to themselves. I get the feeling the new building will fill quickly, and remain full throughout the years.”

Peralez assures students that the new residence halls will not have any effect on the school’s tuition.

Their graduate school offers several Master’s degrees in applied science, media, communication and nursing. Missouri Western’s graduate school is growing fast both in degrees offered and student enrollment. In 2009 the school had 70 students compared to 129 in 2010.

Brian Cronk, interim dean of graduate studies, is pleased with the dramatic increase in student enrollment. “The school is very excited about the number of students enrolling in our programs” Cronk said.

Missouri Western’s graduate school is perfect for people who currently have a full-time career and/or degree.

One goal of the graduate school Cronk said was to schedule all the courses after 4:30 p.m. so if someone is working they will still be able to attend.

“In addition to afternoon classes, we try to schedule the graduate courses just a couple nights a week,” Cronk said.

Cronk said how this was aimed at accommodating people who may be traveling from out of town or have a full-time job and family.

The school is leading the way in offering graduate degrees that can be used in the Saint Joseph area. Requests from local businesses can often determine what graduate programs will be offered.

“This process can be very lengthy and it is not uncommon for it to take 1-2 years for an approval from the state,” Provost Jeanne Daffron said.

A lot of planning goes into determining what graduate programs will be offered. One thing Missouri Western strongly takes into consideration is having a professor that is currently on staff and qualified, run the graduate program.

This should be beneficial to current undergraduate students planning on attending Missouri Western’s Graduate school because they will already have a familiar relationship with the professor.

Students wanting to attend graduate school should be pleased with the affordability of Missouri Western’s cost for graduate school. The cost is $285.00 per credit hour, which is only a 32.5 percent increase from the undergraduate cost of $215.00 per credit hour.

Students thinking of graduate school in the future may want to look into Missouri Western’s programs and see if they have anything available in their field of study.

The Parking and Security Services department has seen a 13 percent increase in the number of first-time permits since last fall, increasing from 4,516 to 5,100. The number of general parking spaces available to students has only increased four percent or 94 parking spaces.

Despite these drastic differences, Police Chief Jonathon Kelley assures students that parking spaces have been available during peak periods during the week days.

“More general decals are issued than spaces available because not all students are on campus at the same time and they’re not here the entire day,” Kelley said. “This does not cause a problem as evidenced by our hourly lot counts that show there are available parking spaces across campus throughout the day.”

Graph | Dave Hon

Kelley said that the revenue is primarily used for operating the Parking and Security Services office
Director of Facilities Lonnie Johnson is also aware of students’ concerns about the parking situation.

“We have more than adequate parking,” Johnson said. “[It’s] the same issue we have every year. People want to park right in front of the door where they have classes.”
Johnson said that the parking lots that fill up first are usually the lots in front of Eder, Popplewell and Hearnes.

“All three of those buildings are grouped together very closely,” Johnson said.

A new problem that students have encountered this semester is a back up of traffic on the public roadways.

“I come onto the campus from Farron, and turn right on James McCarthy Drive, and one of the biggest hassles for me is just the traffic congestion coming onto the campus,” said senior Clay Minchew.

Johnson said this isn’t the first time he has heard of this problem but that he and his department haven’t heard any complaints thus far into the semester, but realizes that traffic back-up occurs.

“That’s just the nature of the beast, especially when everyone tries to leave at one time,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that improvements to roadways have alleviated this problem in the past 5-10 years and that further improvements to Mitchell Ave. would help.

It was only until the beginning of this semester that an solution to the vacant position was found. Normally only one interim Dean would be placed in the role. In this case two people, Brenda Blessing, professor in the health and physical education department and Murray Nabors, Dean of Liberal Arts will be filling in for Estes.

According to Jeanne Daffron, Provost of the University, Estes stepped down for personal reasons.

“[Estes’] wife has also been a professor and an administrator in the same kind of area and really hasn’t been able to find employment here that she wants really,” Daffron said, “So she’s currently employed in Colorado.”

Daffron said that Estes wished to have more time to spend with his wife than he did as the Dean of Professional studies.
University President Robert Vartabedian agrees that splitting the role into separate responsibilities is not ideal, but given current conditions, works well.

“I think a lot of what we’ve tried to do is because of the tight finances,” Vartabedian said, “we’ve initially tried to expand people’s responsibilities to get thought the summer, and now we’re ready to announce on how the position will be filled.”

The duties that Nabors will handle are personnel related. This includes faculty evaluation and tenure review. Blessing will handle the more day-to-day operations of the role.

Another reason for splitting the roles includes the fact that blessing served as interim before Estes was hired, making her very qualified in the role in the eyes of Daffron.

“We still want [Blessing] to handle her duties as chair of the Health Physical Education and Recreation department,” Daffron said.
Daffron recognizes that this model cannot hold for the long term, for any position. With that said, A search will begin immediately and Daffron expects to have someone hired by the end of next semester.

I have a lot of confidence in those two individuals and everyone in the college of professional studies we have very strong leadership in the chair positions in that college,” Daffron said, “I’m not concerned. I have confidence that things will get done correctly and well.”

Robert Vartabedian, President of Missouri Western, investigated the situation thoroughly before reinstating Williams.

“I was convinced that it was in the University’s best interest to reinstate him with some pretty strict guidelines,” Vartabedian said, “I think he understands, I think he gets it and I’m hopeful we can move in a positive direction in the future.”

Currently, Williams contract only lasts until the end of 2010. Vartabedian said that this contract was established to assure that Williams continues to move in the right direction.

“I wanted to send a message to [Williams] and others that this is a very serious matter,” Vartabedian said. “We believe he deserves a second chance, but I wanted to reserve the right to reassess things after six months.”

Dan Nicoson, current Vice President of University Advancement, served as interim Athletic Director During Williams reinstatement.

“I enjoyed it to a great extent,” Nicoson said commenting in his period as interim, “It took me back to my background. My first college job was in athletics, so from that standpoint it reunited me with some old interests.”

Not everyone agrees that Williams should have been reinstated. Alum and former student athlete Cody Tipton believes that Williams should no longer be able to serve in his position.

“No one is going to take the guy seriously,” Tipton said. “How can he discipline students on DUIs when he just got one?”

Currently, the same policy is applied to student athletes. If they receive a first time DUI, they must complete hours of community service and a time of suspension.

Williams believes that he learned something from the incident, not just personally, but also how he disciplines students in the future, but understands that he may have lost some creditability.

“Hopefully one incident isn’t going to ruin creditability either on campus, with boosters or with student athletes,” Williams said, “I’m working everyday to make sure that I have creditability earned back.”

Williams new perspective on student discipline includes empathy, something he believes that he couldn’t do before last Spring.

“I’ll know exactly what they’re going through now,” Williams said. “I don’t know what I’ll say to them before, like I said before every discipline situation is different but I’ll be better about giving them advice. Discipline is not about punishment, discipline is about behavioral change.”

Vartabedian remains hopeful that Williams has changed his behavior and

“I don’t necessarily think that mistakes should be capital crimes that should destroy your career, I think people make mistakes,” Vartabedian said.

At the end of December Vartabedian will evaluate Williams and determine if a full one-year contract can be signed.

According to Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western’s president, the cabinet decided it would be a good idea to open the commencement speaking role to students and to faculty members, rotating with May being a faculty member and December commencement a student speaker.

“For this May’s commencement the committee came up with three very good names and given all that she had done, Carol Roever will be this May’s commencement speaker,” Vartabedian said.

Carol Roever worked as interim Dean of the Craig School of Bussiness, stepping down this year.

“What you’re going to see is an exceptional commencement address by Carol Roever who has significant academic history with Missouri Western,” Heider said. “She will be talking to students about the pride they should feel about their accomplishments, the opportunities in front of them and the pride all of us at Missouri Western feel.”

Roever, who will retire June 30, began her career at Missouri Western in 1986. She had planned to retire for several years, but instead she vowed to stay on board as the interim dean of the Craig School of Business to see through the accreditation process.

“She is really an extraordinary woman,” Vartabedian said. “We’ve been able to talk her out of retiring several times and she has said to us repeatedly she wouldn’t feel right retiring until she saw this AACSB accreditation through and that’s exactly what she did.”

According to Vartabedian, Roever had wonderful faculty members assisting her who had very good credentials to make it a reality but it really was Roever who provided the leadership.

“She is a wonderful, dedicated, organized role model in higher education,” Vartabedian said. “We are very sorry to see her leave but she certainly has deserved it and she did what she said she was going to do.”

Heider agrees that it was Roever’s leadership that allowed Western to receive AACSB accreditation.

“Her role of the last three years to make sure we were on track set the tone of the report and the interactions with the teams that came to Western, Carol is a masterful at doing all that,” Heider said. “I think you are seeing the results of that; initial accreditation on the first try.”

“Carol is so gracious,” Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president for academic affairs said. “She would say the team did it [accreditation] and that is accurate; however, the team worked through Carol’s leadership.”

According to Daffron, throughout Roever’s career she has been awarded very prestigious awards. Roever is the recipient of the Jesse Lee Myers Excellence in Teaching Award in 1993 and 1999, Distinguished Professor Award in 2005, Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teaching Award from the Association of Business Communications in 2007 and she was selected for the 2008 YWCA Women of Excellence Award for Women in the Workplace.

Roever is not only a role model for Western but also for the St. Joseph community. She is actively involved with the YWCA and Heartland Health where she serves on the board that demands many hours a week of her personal time.

“Many people don’t know how much she does for the community. She is an absolutely wonderful board member on very important boards,” Vartabedian said. “Outside of academia I don’t think that most people know that she has a double life. She does a lot for the university but she also does a lot for the community.”

Vartabedian believes that Roever’s involvement and respect within the community helped with the AACSB accreditation process. According to Vartabedian, the accreditation team made note of the high level of involvement from the community, which is directly related to Roever’s leadership and level of respect.

“When she came in [my office] to tell me the school had received accreditation she couldn’t even speak, it had been such a long journey for her,” Vartabedian said. “She couldn’t get the words out; I knew it must be good. With the school’s accreditation it lifts the entire University.”

According to Heider, although Roever is retiring from Missouri Western, she is not retiring from her volunteer work in the community.
“She will still be a wonderful community resource,” Heider said.

The budget cuts made to the fiscal year 2010 for the athletics department total to $118,355. The majority of this total comes from a reduction in the amount that certain athletic scholarships offer to new students.

These cuts represent 2.7 percent of the athletic department’s $4.3 million in expenses in 2009. Currently, the university as a whole is facing a 5.2 percent cut from the State Appropriations Committee.

Brian Cronk, interim dean of graduate studies, feels that the athletic department should be cutting more to reflect the amount that academics has made to adjust for the next fiscal year.

“Many of the cuts and new revenues have come from the academic affairs side of the institution,” Cronk said. “Honestly, that’s a little discouraging.”

The other major area of reduction that the athletic department has made is not replacing an assistant football coach, saving the department $23,660.

While the department reduced costs by cutting the position, the athletic department decided to keep a video production position. Dave Williams, Missouri Western athletic director, said that his department has taken criticism in regards to this position.

“I feel that that position is a benefit to every department or sport, [it] is vital to where we’re going with the Kansas City Chiefs, vital to where we’re going in the future of technology,” Williams said. “Two weeks later we had a football coach leave and we’re not getting any credit for that one.”

Williams said the position is vital to public relations for the athletic department and the university as a whole.

“These are the types of things students look for on a new college,” Williams said. “When students go to our web site we want them to see technology.”

Even with these cuts, Cronk feels that Western’s athletic department still may not be cutting enough, especially with the construction of the spring sports complex and the Chiefs Facility. But the revenue brought in by the Max Experience fee can only be used for the spring sports complex and the Chiefs facility is separate from the athletic department’s budget.

There have been other areas of athletics that have increased over the years that are not associated with the Max Experience fee. According to the 2007 and 2008 Fiscal Years’ NCAA financial reports, Western’s team travel expense increased by 32 percent or $64,369.

Info Graphic | Dave Hon

“The trip to Las Vegas was paid for completely by fundraising,” Smith said.

The Athletic Department does raise money in fundraising and contributions, but 69 percent of their revenue still comes from the University or $3,045,869 according to the 2009 fiscal year NCAA financial reports.

If the Budget situation worsens over the next few years, University President Robert Vartabedian said that the university might need to resort to zero-base budgeting in regards to the Athletic Department or any other department.

“I think it comes down to priorities,” Cronk said. “Is it more important to graduate students who are more educated or to win an extra football game?”

Western may add an Engineering Technology Management option and a Teachers of English to Speakers of other Languages option, in which students can earn English Language Learners (ELL) certification.

“It has not been passed yet,” said Kay Dickerson, part of the ESL/TESOL program. “(But) it does have the Missouri ESOL certification. It is also available in the undergraduate level.”

The purpose of the TESOL option is to prepare individuals “to teach, support and otherwise assist English Language learners or those for whom English is not their native language,” according to the brochure. “It is designed for teachers of all levels and all disciplines. It also serves professionals who work with organizations whose mission includes assessing and improving English skills among non-native speakers.”

TESOL option core courses include Methods of Teaching Second Language Students, Second Language Acquisition, Materials and Assessment for TESOL, Language and Culture and Research in ELL. Each of these is available online.

The TESOL certification courses include Second Language Acquisition, Methods of Teaching Second Language Students, Materials and Assessment for TESOL, Language and Culture, Research in ELL, Linguistics and ELL Practicum, which add up to the required total of 21 credit hours. Each of these courses—except for the practicum—is available online.

Students with additional questions about this program can contact Stacy Turner at 816-271-4109 or turner@missouriwestern.edu.
The degree in Engineering Technology Management is also pending approval from the Department of Higher Education.

“The proposal has been approved by the Graduate Council at MWSU,” said George Yang, professor and chair for the department of Engineering Technology. “It is now pending approval at DHE.”

He said this degree option should start this fall, and will hopefully be approved by the end of this month.
“(The option) consists of 33 graduate credit hours. Eighteen are so-called ‘management’ core. Fifteen are graduate core,” Yang said.
According to the proposal, graduates of this option in the MAS program are expected to fill positions such as assembly line supervisor, job supervisor, shift supervisor, maintenance manager, shop manager, plant manager, group leader and project leader.
Major courses related to management in ET undergraduate programs consist of CET 360, construction management and EGT 370, financial aspects of engineering projects.
“This is an enhancement of the Engineering Technology undergraduate programs. Our undergraduate students have the pre-exposure to some management courses, for an example, in MET 112 we talk about shop-floor management, and inventory control,” stated the proposal compiled by Dr. Yang.

The proposed 5.2 percent cut from the state appropriations proposed to universities in exchange for a pledge of not increasing tuition leaves Western with $1.2 million dollars less from the state Department of Higher Education. Western also has to make up for an $800,000 mandatory expense increase. These expenses include increased health insurance costs and utility costs.

Vice President of Financial Planning and Administration Melvin Klinkner, who is also the chair of the Budget Advisory Committee, has been charged with closing the shortfall.

“It’s a difficult period of time for the university,” Klinker said. “The difficulty is worse in my opinion because we’re growing.”

Aside from the state’s cut to Missouri Western’s lean budget, Western and other Missouri universities also have their tuitions frozen by a deal cut by Governor Jay Nixon. The deal promises university presidents that if the institutions do not increase tuition costs for undergraduate students, then the state will not cut their budget more than 5.2 percent.

Unable to recover the lost revenue to tuition has forced Western to cut from the budget limiting the growth possibilities for the future.

“You just can’t run a university without raising tuition at some point,” Klinkner said. “Especially when you’re cutting the state appropriation part of it.”

With Western’s main sources of income frozen and cut, the administration and the Budget Advisory Committee have saved money by cutting from Western’s budget and attempting to increase revenue in other places.

The university has cut the operating budget of all departments across campus by 20 percent, a policy that will hold into next year. Other cuts include eliminating faculty sabbaticals and awards. Students will also endure increased class sizes as some non-essential faculty positions remain empty and new teachers are not hired.
President of Missouri Western Robert Vartabedian understands the risks involved in cutting the budget back and limiting Western’s growth.

“Specific vacancies whether they are faculty we are taking them on a case by case basis,” Vartabedian said. “If they can be justified in discussions in cabinet, usually, then we are pursing them and filling them but if not we’re not filling them and hopefully we can save a fair amount of money from doing that.”

To generate revenue Western has proposed to raise the tuition on graduate and out of state students, which is not affected by Senate Bill 389 or Governor Nixon’s Deal. Future increases in revenue include creating general fees for certain programs at Western including nursing, education, business, and engineering and technology programs.

Even these adjustments to the budget may not be enough because of a $720 million decline in state revenue. The Senate has been charged with cutting even more from the state budget. Governor Jay Nixon has proposed that the further cuts come from eliminating private schools from the Missouri Access Scholarships.

Brian Cronk, Interim Dean of Graduate Studies, is currently serving on the Budget Advisory Committee.

“It’s a little up in the air still,” Cronk said, “The legislature could cut more money from our budget.”

The Missouri Senate’s final proposal is due May 7. If the Senate cuts the budget further then the university will have the ability to raise undergraduate tuition by 2.7 percent.

“That still not enough to cover it,” Klinker said. ”The best case scenario is that if they are going to be cutting us that we would be able to raise tuition to the level we are being cut, then be able to still do the inflationary increase.”

The 2011-2012 fiscal year may not yield improvement for Western with larger cuts from the state being discussed in Jefferson City.

“For what we’re anticipating in cuts [for this year] we have it covered,” Vartabedian said. “Beyond next year we may have to resort to zero-base budgeting.”

This would include starting budgets from scratch and looking at what is essential rather than cutting what is not needed.

“It’s a tough climate,” Vartabedian said. “One of the disadvantages that no other state has, that I’m aware of, is that our hands are tied.”

On March 20, Western officially announced the search for a director, with a job description posted on several publications and Western’s Human Resources web site. The opening ended on April 9, with in excess of 75-80 applications turned in to Human Resources.

With the accepting of applications complete, it is now up to the search committee, headed by Associate Athletic Director Patsy Smith, to review the applications, rank the applicants, do phone and or face to face interviews, bring the finalists to campus, and make recommendations outlining the strengths and weaknesses of each finalist to Athletic Director Dave Williams. From there, Williams and President Robert Vartabedian hope to make a decision by late April/early May.

“We’re going to make sure we get the right person but [we’d like to make a decision] as quickly as possible after the deadline,” Williams said.

Smith states that she is nearly finished with reviewing the applications and is planning to meet with the search committee very soon to get the ball rolling. Other members of the committee include Volleyball Head Coach Cory Frederick and Grounds Supervisor Bruce Whitsell.

According to Vartabedian, the position of director of athletic facility is interesting primarily due to the fact that it’s a new osition created specifically for the indoor athletic facility.
“It was unique in terms of what other universities or even the NFL ever did,” Vartabedian said.

Williams explains that whoever is selected for the position of director of athletic facility will be responsible for a wide range of duties. “They’re also going to be in charge of the outdoor field as well, so they’re going to have to know outdoor maintenance,” Williams said. “They’re also going to be responsible for generating a significant amount of revenue within the facility.”

The duty of generating revenue within the facility will be particularly important for whoever is selected for the position, because said revenue will be the source of the director’s salary and the paying of the facility itself.

“Whatever salary that person makes is not an extra position that is being created and funded through the university’s money,” Williams said. “It’s a revenue producing building that is completely auxiliary. It’s all coming through the revenue generated by the facility and the events.”

While the selection process is only in the early phases, the interest the director of athletic facility position has generated gives those involved hope that this will bring about nothing but good things for Missouri Western and the indoor athletic facility.

“I know a few individuals who have told me they’re applying,” Vartabedian said. “There’s a lot of interest in that position. I wouldn’t be surprised if…we [end up with] over 100 applications for that position.”

As a result of the historic health care legislation the federal governments passed recently, new monies were made available to higher education. The Pell Grant was one of those higher education programs affected and will make additional money available immediately.

Obviously, this won’t apply to you if you didn’t use all of the available Pell to begin with. In that case you would just use whatever was left over to attend the summer semester.

Marilyn Baker, interim director of financial aid at Missouri Western State University, is excited about what this opportunity represents for the students to accelerate their education.

The exciting aspect is that in better times, the ability for students to receive additional money might present MWSU with the need to make more courses available in the summer semester.

“This could potentially promote a lot of growth for summer enrollment, at least that’s our hope,” Baker said.

Baker feels that if the students understand that more money is available to them, then more students will try to take advantage of it and finish their degrees quicker. And that is really what these additional funds are meant to do.

At this point, the financial aid office has sent out emails to the approximately 2,000 Pell recipients that there have been regulatory changes to the Pell allowing them to use more money.

The biggest obstacle for the financial aid office has simply been getting the word out and getting students to understand that more money is available to them, even if they had used their maximum allotment.

Baker went on to say that the current expected family contribution [EFC] number of 4,617 would be increased to 5,273 making the Pell available to more students.

Shelby Rulon, a freshman studying nursing, is a work-study student that will be taking advantage of these new funds being made available this summer. Rulon is enrolling in 7 credit hours for this up-coming summer session.

Rulon said that the additional money available through Pell affected her decision on how many hours she would be taking this summer. Rulon lives on campus, qualifies for the full Pell Grant and also uses scholarship money to attend MWSU.

Rulon thinks that these additional funds will help a lot of students. “Especially with nursing there are so many classes to take and only four years, that being able to take the summer classes and having the financial aid to back you up, makes it a lot easier,” Rulon said.

Many students face issues similar to Rulon’s and having the ability to take summer courses helps, but only if classes that you need to take are available in the summer sessions.
Susan Bracciano, registrar, said that during registration, enrollment is being observed and the option to add more sections of high-demand courses is available.

“As students end the first two to three weeks of priority registration, we will be able to tell if there are any additional course needs that exist,” Bracciano said.  

Some of the criteria to qualify for summer Pell money are: having a complete 2009-10 FAFSA on file; meeting the general requirements for Pell Grant funding; enrolling in a minimum of six credit hours (excludes CED and audited courses); enrolling in at least one four week and/or one eight week course; and making satisfactory academic progress.

You may have noticed that intersession classes were not mentioned and that is because they do not qualify for these additional funds.

According to an article printed in the St. Joseph News-Press last week there are still approximately $300 million in cuts needed to balance the State Budget.

President Robert Vartabedian is keeping a close watch on the legislative session and is very aware what is likely to happen in the upcoming months.

“We talked with a couple of senators from this region late last week and I asked them point blank: How likely is this to stick?” Vartabedian said, “At least one, who is in a considerable position of power, he said it was very unlikely that it would stay at 5.2 percent.”

If the Senate decides to reduce appropriation levels further, Western can seek approval from the Board of Governors to implement a 2.7% tuition increase based on the current Consumer Price Index (CPI), this is allowed for in Missouri Senate bill 389. This would translate to about $500,000 in additional revenue to help offset the current and potential reductions.

The fate of Western’s tuition is directly linked to what the Senate decides to do.

“If the additional cuts are more than $500,000, then we would likely seek a tuition waiver (to the 5% penalty for raising tuition),” Vartabedian said, “If the cuts are $500,000 or less, we might be able to handle that through the CPI request.”

Currently Western is in the wait and see mode, and Vartabedian said that he had preliminarily talked to some of the member s of the board about the possibility of applying for a waiver if needed.

“We just can’t continue to be cut without some extra money coming in,” Vartabedian said.

Mel Klinkner, vice president for financial planning and administration, also said that in the event the cuts go higher, we would immediately seek to implement the 2.7% CPI tuition increase.

Klinkner and Vartabedian both expressed frustration because they said they feel we have a good product and are forced to sell it at a price that is not conducive to maintaining that product.

“Here we are growing for five consecutive years, have all this potential, in the business world we’d be considered a real success,” Klinkner said. “And a successful business could raise the price of its product, expand facilities or do whatever they needed because they were successful and we don’t have that option.”

As much as the thought of tuition going up stings a lot of people, especially the students, look at your professors and know that they’ve had no raise in two years.

Understandably students are concerned, asking themselves questions like: ‘Will I be able to pay for these potential increases?’ because right now it’s unknown what those increases might be.

Mary McIntosh, a junior biology major, works full time while living with her parents—pays for school out-of-pocket.

“It’s really scary, I mean I only have two semesters left but if they do a major increase I might not be able to pay for it or I might end up staying an extra two years,” McIntosh said.

Vartabedian said that morale is surely suffering when staff and faculty who’ve invested so much time and energy to the university see so little reward for that hard work.

McIntosh said she understands the need to give the faculty a raise to reward them for their service, but that it’s hard looking at it from the student viewpoint.

Western’s institutional appropriation is about $22.4 million as was reported in the St. Joseph News-Press, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. In a document on Missouri Department of Higher Education’s Website, Western—for fiscal year 2010—was slated for a 10% increase to state appropriations and would be looking at an amount around $24.4 million.

Currently the administration isn’t just standing pat as they wait for the axe to fall; they are trying to be as proactive as they can by pursuing all possible streams of revenue, up to and including the possibility of leasing some of Western’s land.

Retention numbers are calculated by looking at how many incoming fall freshman return for their sophomore year the following fall. Since the fall of 2000, Western has seen nearly a 12 percent increase, with this year’s numbers down by two percent to 65.6 percent.

According to Judy Grimes, dean of student affairs, retention is an important measure; however there are other factors that indicate an institutions success.

“We don’t like to talk so much about retention because we see retention as the byproduct and if students are successful then they will stay and they will graduate,” Grimes said. “If you just focus on retention then you can get lost in that battle because for some students the best thing for them is to transfer if we may not have the program they want or they have too much going on in their life.”

Through an unstable economy, Grimes is confident that Western’s two percent drop in retention numbers is not significant.

Graphic | Dave Hon

Missouri Western continues to work with a Noel Levitz consultant, Tim Culver, to assist with recruitment and retention plans.
According to Grimes, the Enrollment Development Team met with the Culver in November at which time he suggested Western could profit from looking at students in the middle.

“We have pretty good support services that work with admitted with conditions students but we also need to look at students in the middle,” Grimes said.
With this year’s budget cuts and tuition freeze, according to Grimes retaining all students is equally important.

“Retention is labor intensive but the reward is significant, for students and the institution because with the state budget cuts increased revenue is our best shot,” Grimes said. “The budget is going to be a challenge this coming year and certainly the year after that. The state is telling us that there are going to be some major issues.”

With Culver’s recommendations to focus on students in the middle, as well as student affairs’ concern for sophomore dropouts, Esther Peralez, vice president for student affairs, is working on a program that focuses on Missouri Western sophomores.

“I wanted to initiate a Sophomore Jump program because nationally, one of the highest dropout rates for students is from the sophomore to junior year.  While I do not know if that is the case for Western, I think it is important to provide academic and career resources at any level in support of retention,” Peralez said.

According to Grimes, Western’s goal is to continue to work with students from the very beginning through freshmen seminars, Griffon Edge and learning communities.

“We hope to get students on the right path, Grimes said. “Our retention rate looks pretty good compared to other institutions that we fit under, but not where we would like it to be.”

According to freshmen Sam Clough, the VIP’s personalities, confidence in themselves, contributed to her starting off on the right track.

“Griffon Edge helped me meet a lot of people,” Clough said. “Griffon Edge created a friendly atmosphere so you wanted to do your work. It’s a lot easier to do your work if you have friends to do it with.”

Clough believes that living in a freshmen dorm contributes to freshmen not doing well or not returning.

“I have to go somewhere besides my dorm to study,” Sam said. “It gets really loud and unless the quiet hours are enforced, students are not going to do very well.”

According to Angela Beam, former acting director of financial aid, “the federal government requires schools to have a policy in place that ensures students begin attendance in every course for which they are enrolled. The financial aid office is required to return 100 percent of funds for students who never attend any of their courses, required to prorate funds for students who begin attendance in some, but not all of their courses.  They are also required to return up to 50 percent of the money Western receives from the federal government for students who stop attending all of their courses during a term.”

“The federal government disburses more than $113 billion annually in financial assistance. As of Feb. 10, 2010, Western disbursed almost $40 million in financial assistance from all sources (federal grants, loans, work study, state grants and scholarships, Western funded sources and private financial aid sources).  Attendance verification and satisfactory academic progress policies continue to surface as topics that may need more standard (and stricter) regulation,” Beam said.

Cindy Conrad, acting associate director in the financial aid office, takes these regulations very seriously. “If we lose our financial aid, then we [students] lose the opportunity to attend classes,” Conrad said. Conrad, along with Deana Wennihan, who is the Default Prevention Coordinator of the same office give a College 101 presentation to all incoming freshman that cover the details of receiving financial aid.

“Young people coming out of high school typically don’t have anyone telling them what to do, but tend to learn life lessons,” Wennihan said. “Going to class and getting good grades are the job of the student, and federal government aid is their paycheck.”

When a student’s GPA slips below federal standards, or stop attending classes after receiving any type of assistance financially, they are required to attend a seminar in which they have to sign a contract stating they will attend classes, use the Center of Academic Support and tutoring among other requirements. During this time, the student is on academic probation until they improve their grades and comply with the attendance policy. This can be accomplished in as little as one semester, but can extend for multiple semesters until such requirements are met. The student runs the risk of losing all types of aid available such as Pell grants, Stafford loans or scholarships.

Wennihan is very passionate about the success of the student who has to rely on assistance in order to attend classes.
“We care about every student and don’t want them to lose the opportunity since they are the future of the world,” Wennihan said.

She also prepares the SAP or Satisfactory Academic Progress seminars.

“Any time a student is considering dropping a class, or withdrawing can stop by the financial aid office and ask questions to see how this affects them,” Conrad said.

Wennihan also encourages students to go to the financial aid webpage and read up on all the information, rules and regulations that govern any institution of higher learning who offers financial assistance. The web address is: www.missouriwestern.edu/finaid/.

Population growth at Western, along with construction on campus, has made parking spaces a prime piece of real estate.

Senior business major Chelsea Taylor thinks something needs to be done.

Graphic by Sara Baum

“Parking is miserable, especially when it snows because people can’t see the lines so they take up almost two spots to park,” she said.

Snow has also made overflow parking in the grass unavailable for students this semester.

Western’s Chief of Police Jonathan Kelley disagrees.

“There is typically plenty of parking available across campus throughout the spring semester,” Kelley said. “This spring we have seen available parking across campus.”

This semester Parking and Security Services issued 4,175 first vehicle general parking stickers for the 2,140 general parking spaces.

“It is my professional opinion, based on the number of available spaces across campus currently, that another parking lot would be underutilized most of the time,” Kelley said.

Still, during peak times, students scavenge the lots for an open space. As Western shows continuing growth, a student committee led by Student Governor, Dillon Harp, has been working on recommendations for parking.

Dean of Student Affairs Judy Grimes, who meets with the committee, assured that Western is looking forward.

“There is a need for both additional commuter parking and for residential parking,” Grimes said.

The committee is discussing a variety of options to develop a long-term solution.

Grimes added that completion of construction projects will help alleviate some of the parking problems.

“When the new Chiefs facility opens, there will be additional spaces available,” she said. “As we work towards a new residence hall complex, there will be an additional parking lot built as well.”

These new lots may be the only relief students see in the near future.

Vice President of Financial Planning and Administration Mel Klinkner explained. Budget cuts from the state and tuition freezes make it hard to find funding for construction.

“The only way to get additional parking is to have revenue come in for that area [parking],” Klinkner said.

“We charge minimal… [for parking],” Klinkner said.

Student parking passes are included in the facilities access fee.

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Jeanne Daffron presented the following numbers to the board. The number of students at Western this spring went up 8 percent, totaling over 5,100 compared to last spring. The number of credit hours being taken also went up, totaling over 61,000 — a 7 percent increase from last spring. Final numbers will not be available until mid February.

Board of Governors’ Vice chair Kylee Strough gave some reasons for this continued growth.

Graphic by Sara Baum

Student Governor Dillon Harp gave other possible reasons for the continuing growth.

“The graduating classes in the area around Missouri Western have been increasing every year,” Harp said.

He explained that the number of students who choose Western because of its location, combined with Western’s affordable costs have made an impact.

“At $166.50 per credit hour Missouri Western is the fourth most affordable university in the state,” he said.

Tuition is currently frozen making affordability a double-edged sword.

“The increased enrollment is awesome because it does generate some additional funds,” said Vice President of Financial Planning and Administration Mel Klinkner.

Unfortunately, this added revenue does not cover all of the cuts in funding from the state, and the rising costs associated with insurance and retirement for faculty, along with the increasing costs of utilities.

“With no tuition increase, or state appropriation increase, it doesn’t take very long for you to be looking at some short comes,” Klinkner said. “It’s sad that we can’t be supported, at the level we need to be supported at, in order to really deal with the growth.”

Continued growth of this caliber can cause a variety of other problems — problems that students are dealing with already.

“The Western administration is well aware of the fact that as we continue increasing our student numbers, it fully realizes that [we} cannot look at the increase in isolation,” Vice President of Student Affairs, Esther Perález said.  

Parking, housing and growing class sizes are among the concerns of administrators and students alike. Perález and Dean of Student Affairs Judy Grimes assured that these concerns are being addressed.

“There is a need for both additional commuter parking and for residential parking,” Grimes said.

Grimes explained that a student committee, led by Student Governor Dillon Harp, has been working on recommendations for parking. The committee met to discuss a variety of options that will lead to a long-term solution.

Plans for additional housing are already in the works.

“The Housing Committee has recommended a new housing complex to be constructed, hopefully by the fall of 2010,” Grimes said.

Long-term planning is also being done to prepare for future growth.

“Administrators across campus are having discussions about where we would like to be in … five years,” Perález said.

Infrastructure is not the only area that Western must evaluate to accommodate future growth.  Examining future needs for additional faculty, police, maintenance and organizations to keep students engaged are just a few of Perález’s concerns.

“I believe that Western not only wants to grow its population, but it also wants to ensure the matriculation and graduation of the many deserving students it serves,“ she said. “If we do not begin engaging students when we have a smaller population, we lose an opportunity to prepare a strong infrastructure as we continue to grow.”

Western is now the third university in Missouri to become an All-Steinway school.

The ceremony began with a showing of a documentary called “Note by Note,” which showed the process in which a Steinway concert grand—#L1037—was created and assembled. The actual piano was unveiled on stage afterwards, and played by pianist Robert McDonald—a faculty member of Juilliard in New York City—later in the evening.

Jim Hoover, district sales manager for Steinway & Sons, answered questions from audience members. Subjects ranged from basic piano care to how humidity affects the instruments.

“When you have a cold room and a cold instrument, you can feel and hear the results,” Hoover said. “If you’re comfortable as a person, the piano is comfortable.”

He offered a special thanks to music professors in the audience.

“You are the ones who inspired me,” Hoover said.

From left to Right: Mathew Edwards, associate professor and director of keyboard studies, Matt Gilmour, professor and chair of the music department and Nathanael May, assistant professor, accept the All-Steinway certification. Photo by Matt Fowler

“No matter how well you play, you become an extension of it, and it becomes an extension of you,” Hoover said. “I think the world would be in much better shape if we had more musicians.”

A special video acknowledgment from Sally Coveleskie, National Director of Institutional Sales for Steinway & Sons, was shown shortly after Hoover made his closing remarks. She was not able to be there in person, but wanted to recognize the students and faculty of Missouri Western.

“Missouri Western has provided (its students and faculty) with the best instruments possible for the study of music,” Coveleskie said.
President Vartabedian shared a few words as well.

“It’s been an eight-year institutional goal of ours (to become an All-Steinway school),” Vartabedian said. He believes this upgrade will help the university to grow.

“I think we will really be able to recruit and attract students we wouldn’t normally get,” Vartabedian said. “Art may be our only, truly universal language.”

Dr. F.M. Gilmour, chairperson in the music department, noted that all music faculty members were involved in the decision. He thanked the major contributors with a token gift from the university as a whole.

“Here’s a little bit of Missouri Western to take home with you,” he said.

Students were impressed with the upgrade on campus. Caitlyn Carter, a junior at Missouri Western, attended the ceremony and was pleased with Western’s decision to become an All-Steinway university. She is not a music major, but believes this will make Western look more prestigious.

“It kinda shows that Missouri Western is improving,” Carter said.

Heider, associate provost and vice president of academic and student affairs, was on of the committee members who chose Sipp. Other members of the committee included the Faculty Senate President, Dean of Professional Studies, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Interim Dean of the Steven L. Craig School of Business.

Sipp was selected from Western faculty members who received the James V. Mehl Award, Jesse Lee Myers Award or the Governors Distinguished Professor Award during the last three years.

Sipp had no idea he would get this award.

“It caught me completely by surprise, ” Sipp said. “Of course I’m extremely flattered people felt that I was deserving of such consideration.”

Sipp will accept his award at a ceremony to be held in Jefferson City on Wednesday, Feb. 10. The ceremony is sponsored by the Council on Public Higher Education

Sipp has worked in many different mediums and has had his artwork displayed in several galleries.

“One of the great things about my job is that I get to bounce around the studio and work in different media,” Sipp said ” I paint, draw, make prints, I like being conversant in diverse media.”

Department chair Allison Sauls was happy for Sipp.

“We were thrilled,” Sauls said “Geo is an easy person to work with, he gets things done.”

Sauls also praised Sipp on his teaching skills

“Geo is a really good teacher,” Sauls said “He is a self starter.”

Past Missouri Western recipients include Dr. Michael Cadden, Dr. Ben Caldwell, and Dr. Ann Thorne

Thorne who received her award in 2007 was happy for Sipp.

“I am really glad for Geo, He is a great guy, and does wonderful work,” Thorne said “he had his work displayed at the Albright about a year ago”

Sipp has been a professor in the art department at Missouri Western since 2001. Before he came to Missouri Western he spent nine months as the visiting professor of art at Georgia Southern University. Sipp also has real world experience working as an illustrator in both New York and Atlanta for the 15 years before that.

The fourth candidate, Phillip Nitse, professor and former chair of the Idaho State University College of Business, was invited to interview with key members of Missouri Western’s administration. With the Steven L. Craig School of Business in the process of accreditation with The Association of Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business, candidates were asked to give a presentation to students, faculty, administration and members of the community on the challenges of AACSB schools and how to address them.

“We wanted to give students, faculty and members of the community an opportunity to provide feedback to the committee,” Cynthia Heider, associate provost and vice president for academic and student affairs said. “We strongly encouraged everyone to attend the presentation by each candidate.”

Interim Dean of the Steven L. Craig School of Business, Carol Roever, announced her retirement last July, allowing the university a year to find the her replacement. Immediately following, a committee was formed to begin the search for her replacement. The eight-member committee includes representation from the faculty of the Steven L. Craig School of Business, external faculty members, the St. Joseph community, as well as administration.

“All positions are important; however, we wanted to make sure we had all representation across campus,” Heider said. “We identified individuals that could provide leadership, input and direction.”

Although the committee was put together to find the right candidate, according to Kylee Strough, vice chair of the board of governors and search committee member, the committee does not make the final decision.

“We will meet again as a committee following the fourth candidate’s visit to discuss weaknesses and strengths, as well as pros and cons,” Strough said. “The search committee’s decision is purely a recommendation, administration makes the final decision.”

Phillip Nitse, the fourth candidate for the Craig School of Bussiness Dean, presents information on AACSB accredidation

“It would be nice when the accreditation team is here to say we have a new Dean,” President Robert Vartebedian said. “We are hopeful the fourth time is a charm.”

According to Strough, despite the business school’s position with the accreditation process, the committee will not propose a final candidate selection to administration until they are confident in their decision.

“We don’t want to hire anyone just to say we did it, we want longevity and the right fit,” Strough said. “We will not sacrifice the quality of a Dean.”

According to Heider, a July 1 appointment date for a new Dean is still expected, despite a candidate withdrawal late in the interview process. The candidate pulled out of contention following a campus visit for unknown reasons, resulting in the committee’s search for a fourth candidate.

“We originally decided to start small but we knew we may need to bring in five or six candidates,” Strough said. “The whole way along we weren’t set that we would find perfection in the first three candidates.”

The convocation will take place on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 9:30 a.m. in the Looney Complex and will be free and open to the public. In addition, Gingrich will speak at the annual Convocation Dinner, which will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. at the Fulkerson Center in Spratt Hall.

Founded in 1993, the Convocation on Critical Issues was designed to be an oral presentation platform through which students and the community at large could hear from a high-profile speaker on a timely issue in modern society. Past speakers have included Steve Forbes, Colin Powell and Bob Woodward, among many others.

According to Dan Nicoson, vice president for university advancement, Western works with the Washington Speakers Bureau every year, looking at a list of potential speakers and trying to match the speaker with current pressing issues in the nation. From his perspective, Gingrich is a perfect fit for the convocation.

“First of all he is … staying well informed on current issues,” Nicoson said. “Furthermore, his reputation is that he presents an intellectually challenging presentation. Both of [these attributes] fit our needs well.”

Following a career as a college professor at the University of West Georgia and Kennesaw State University, Gingrich ran for a congressional seat in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. After two unsuccessful runs in 1974 and 1976, Gingrich won, holding the seat from 1979-1999. During this time, Gingrich also succeeded Dick Cheney as House Minority Whip from 1989-1995.

Gingrich became a household name in 1994 as a co-author of “Contract With America,” a document outlining the Republican Party’s plans, were they to win the majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. When the Republican Party won, Gingrich was made the Speaker of the House, a position that he held from 1995-1999.

Following his career in Congress, Gingrich has remained a prominent figure in the political spectrum, authoring 19 books and serving as a political analyst.

According to President Robert Vartabedian, the process of selecting a speaker for the convocation consists of four phases: determining who is available with the Speaker’s Bureau, who is affordable, who is available within the time frame and whether or not there is a critical issue at hand that is compatible with Western.

Western’s President Vartabedian feels that Gingrich meets the University’s criteria and then some.

“He offered us eight different alternative topics,” Vartabedian said. “That’s kind of unheard of; usually there’s just a basic speech. I think that was very attractive to some of the people in on the decision.”

From Vartabedian’s perspective, there were two other key factors in the decision, the first of being the need to balance the convocation out politically, as last year’s convocation featured a democratic speaker, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Another factor that makes Gingrich unique is swirling rumors about his future in politics.

“He may be a candidate for the presidency in 2012,” Vartabedian said. “This is the first time in the 17-year history of the convocation that we have someone who very well maybe running for the presidency in two years.”

As of now, it is unknown as to what subject Gingrich will speak about. According to the Washington Speakers Bureau website, www.washingtonspeakers.com, Gingrich’s main speech topics include how to improve America’s economic standing, the Obama administration and leadership lessons.

Regardless of what topic he chooses, it can be assumed from his prolific background and experience that Gingrich will provide the students of Missouri Western a critical take on a timely issue that is important to all.

“[Gingrich]…has an experience and insight into critical issues which I think he can bring to [Western],” said R. Dan Boulware, the former Western regent for whom the convocation is held in honor of. “We like people who speak on college campuses and who are well received by students; that’s very important to me and Newt Gingrich fits that criteria.”

“We’re bringing the synergy of having the [means] to…create a sort of can do attitude about animal health and what it takes to move ideas to products across the globe,” said Ed Robb, vice president of research and development.

Founded in 1885, BIVI is a subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. With interests in both human pharmaceuticals and animal health products, the goals of BIVI and those of the incubator went hand-in-hand, so much that the company actually served on the board of the Institute for Industrial and Applied Life Sciences, the joint public/private organization that manages the incubator.

When the incubator was being built, President and CEO Dr. Gary Clapp spoke with Dr. George Heidgerken, president and CEO of BIVI, about occupying the incubator in the near future. According to Clapp, IIALS and Missouri Western were looking at spending nearly a million dollars to finish the second floor; simultaneously, BIVI had doubled in size and was in need of a new facility to accommodate their growth.

Stock Photo

“Boehringer Ingelheim will benefit from being an integral part of the incubator and our community and Missouri Western will benefit from the student and faculty interaction,” Clapp said. “Overall, the community will benefit significantly from the continued job growth and the ability to keep these jobs right here in St. Joseph.”

Heidgerken is quick to concur, noting that it is his passion to bring higher quality science education to the community and he feels this agreement will achieve that.

“We get to do day-to-day business, but we also get to meet and work with students and the faculty,” Heidgerken said. “We have that opportunity to share ideas.”

With plans to move into the incubator by April, BIVI will occupy the second floor of the incubator for the next four years with an option to extend the lease for another year. With the signing of the lease, BIVI will bring 40 new jobs to the incubator and will spend approximately $750,000 on finishing the second floor. Once BIVI leaves the incubator, however, those improvements won’t be going with them.

“When they leave at the end of four years, those improvements will become property of the university and those then become accessible to the enjoyment of new clients,” Clapp said.

From the perspective of Western President Robert Vartabedian, the joint agreement between Western, IIALS and BIVI is a win-win situation for all involved.

“They are huge players in the Animal Life Sciences Industry worldwide and to have an affiliation with them is a major development for the incubator,” Vartabedian said. “This will make for a stronger bond between us.”

After a national search for the right person, many on the administrative staff feel that they could not have made a better selection. Judith Grimes, dean of student affairs, certainly agrees.

“We are absolutely delighted that she chose to come out here,” Grimes said. “It was a priority of the presidents that he had someone to work with him at the cabinet level to represent students. She has a significant background in student affairs in many different areas.”

Grimes believes that the job before the new VP is a large one, but one that is made for the right person.

“We have been having regular staff meetings. She is very personable. It was time to add this position and we are thrilled to have her, Grimes said.”

The position was at the special request of the University President, Dr. Robert Vartabedian.

“We are very pleased to have Dr. Perález join us,” Vartabedian said. “She has a wealth of experience in student affairs. She already has a lot on her plate here with fairly pressing issues associated with student housing, student organizations and student engagement.”

Of course, the students may ask many questions, like where did she come from?’ Dr Perález is very open with her own origin story.

“I wanted to be an elementary education teacher and did do that for a couple of years,” Perález said. “However, when I returned to Montana from Oregon, there were no teaching positions so I took an advising job at a local college.”

After teaching and advising began to settle into her lifestyle, she saw new potentials.

“I began to realize that to impact student success, I needed to advance in my career and to do so I needed a doctorate,” Perález said. “I completed it and accepted a position as a dean of students.”

So what exactly does it mean to be vice president of student affairs?

“My position is to ensure that all voices are heard and that everyone was acknowledged,” Perález said. “This requires that the VP educate the community about the role of student affairs and its contribution to student development.”

There is a great use for someone in her position here at Western. She even feels there are areas of concern that she can help address.

“I heard some of the concerns students have about Western relative to diversity,” Perález said. “As our world and Western becomes more diverse, we need to prepare our students for a different world. As a person of color, I have traversed two cultures my whole life and my experience working at a variety of institutions has given me the opportunity to do that.”

It stems largely from the rising costs of running a University and an agreement made by the presidents of Missouri Presidents of Higher Education and the state governor.

Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president for academic and student affairs, paints a simple picture for students to understand.

“It is agreement between the governor and the university presidents where he said I won’t cut your budgets if you agree not to raise tuition,” Daffron said. “The difficulty with that is that the dollars are constant but there has been an increase in things that are mandatory to make the school run; health care costs and increases in utilities. There are increased costs with no new money coming in.”

Melvin Klinkner, vice president for financial planning and administration, is another person who has to deal with the puzzle of how to stretch the university’s budget. “What happened is that we are in year one of the governor’s agreement, which starts July 1 through June 30 this Fiscal year 2010. The agreement with the school presidents was I won’t cut you as long as you don’t raise tuition.” Klinkner said. “The agreement for this fiscal year is he will only cut 5.2 percent as long as we agree not to raise tuition.”

Klinkner suggests a reason that this deal was made.

“Last year the legislators bought into it because there was a federal stabilization fund to fill the short fall of revenues,” Klinkner said. “Soon, the stabilization funds will be gone, and we will have to make up for them with a 5.2 percent cut.”

Considering that it has been years since Missouri Western raised their tuition, it may have been hoped that budget cuts would not be made at all. “Western has a reputation for not raising their tuition,” Klinkner said. “For the last three years we didn’t and we thought maybe that would leave us in good standing, like they would say ‘gosh, look at Western, they are keeping a tight budget and setting a good example.’ But the fact now is we should have raised tuition while we could because now we can’t.”

So, the real problem comes when we consider the needs of a rapidly growing university.

“We are in a phase now when you have to ask, how do you grow a university, how do you hire staff, expand classrooms, all that kind of stuff, when you have tuition caps,” Klinkner said. “Suddenly you can’t add staffing or give raises.”

University President Robert Vartabedian considers it better than nothing at all but sees the potential for future problems.

“Given the various alternatives, it was our best option,” Vartabedian said. “Of course, without the added revenue of a tuition increase, Missouri western will need to do a lot of belt tightening.”won’t cut you as long as you don’t raise tuition.” Klinkner said.

“The agreement for this fiscal year is he will only cut 5.2 percent as long as we agree not to raise tuition.”

Klinkner suggests a reason that this deal was made.

“Last year the legislators bought into it because there was a federal stabilization fund to fill the short fall of revenues,” Klinkner said. “Soon, the stabilization funds will be gone, and we will have to make up for them with a 5.2 percent cut.”

Considering that it has been years since Missouri Western raised their tuition, it may have been hoped that budget cuts would not be made at all.

“Western has a reputation for not raising their tuition,” Klinkner said. “For the last three years we didn’t and we thought maybe that would leave us in good standing, like they would say ‘gosh, look at Western, they are keeping a tight budget and setting a good example.’ But the fact now is we should have raised tuition while we could because now we can’t.”

So, the real problem comes when we consider the needs of a rapidly growing university.

“We are in a phase now when you have to ask, how do you grow a university, how do you hire staff, expand classrooms, all that kind of stuff, when you have tuition caps,” Klinkner said. “Suddenly you can’t add staffing or give raises.”

University President Robert Vartabedian considers it better than nothing at all but sees the potential for future problems.

“Given the various alternatives, it was our best option,” Vartabedian said. “Of course, without the added revenue of a tuition increase, Missouri western will need to do a lot of belt tightening.”

Sandy Rogers, co-adviser of WAC, said the committee is far enough into the process that they have been conversing with the middle agent, but have not found an entertainer just yet.

“The ones we’ve talked about are either out of our price range or unavailable for the date we need,” Rogers said.

She said that she, Don Willis—the student engagement director—and the rest of WAC, have been working on the project since October or November. As far as money goes, WAC is not looking to spend any certain amount.

“We have a figure that we can’t go beyond,” Rogers said. “We have a ceiling that we can’t exceed.”

An announcement date cannot be predicted, but this is not necessarily bad news.

“It will depend on how quickly things move; it could be two weeks from now … It could be in March,” Rogers said.

“We wish we could say the minute (an artist is decided).”

However, nothing can be announced until contracts are signed and the details are worked out.

This year’s rotation of genres is rock.

“We have looked at a lot. We’ve had students giving us suggestions. The students have been very involved—which is how it should be,” Rogers said.

She added that even more suggestions were made by students over Christmas break, which WAC is taking into consideration.

“The last rock (performer) we had was ‘Switchfoot.’ They were really popular,” Rogers said.

Students are excited for this year’s concert, whether they are incoming freshman or seniors.

Freshmen Heather Martin and Erin Jackson said they will most likely attend.

“We like going to concerts,” Martin said.

Jackson was glad to hear that this year’s performer will be of the ‘rock’ genre.

“That’s the kind of music we listen to,” Jackson said.

Seniors Kelsey Wear and Stacy Saythany are excited about this year’s genre rotation as well.

“We went to ‘Switchfoot’ freshman year. It was fun. If it could be anybody (this year), I think it would be cool if we could get ‘Muse’, but it’s pretty much impossible,” Wear said, making the point that it would be pretty expensive.Last year’s concert performer was Blake Shelton.

“That was our most successful concert to date. So, we’ll try to get this year to top it,” Rogers said.

A celebration and ribbon cutting was held Jan. 19, dedicating the building to Wes and Pasty Remington for their contribution of $5 million towards its construction. The remainder of the over $35 million project was funded by individual donors and by the state’s Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative Fund.

The building was delivered on time and within the budget, Jim Madden, project manager for Lawhon Construction, said.

“We had a couple of last-minute details, but it has all come together,” Madden said.

This fall students and faculty may need just a little more patience as they find themselves strewn about campus during the Agenstein remodel. The new Remington Hall is primarily lab and research space and only contains one lecture hall. Students will have their lab portions of the class in Remington, but the lectures will take place in other buildings. Faculty offices are located in modular trailers in front of the halls.

Madden explained that there has not been any space gained yet, but by next fall the space will be doubled.

“We are well underway with demolition on the other side,” Madden said. ”They’ll move back in Christmas vacation next year.”

Dr. Robert Vartabedian cuts the ribbon to the new Remmington Hall.

“We basically got what we wanted, and we don’t take that for granted,” Eckdahl said. “From the very beginning they asked us what we wanted and they listened.”

Six new labs make up the majority of the building. Prep labs divide the lab classrooms, giving room for storage now, and eventually additional research space.

“In the old building we had to cross list labs,” he said. “Now we can be more dedicated with space. Experiments can be up, and we can leave them.”

Eckdahl added that when Agenstein is finished there will be two more instructional labs, making eight total.

Each classroom is equipped with brand new audiovisual equipment. New computer systems and document cameras broaden the possibilities for lectures. The document cameras have the ability to look in any direction and can be used on a split overhead screen with the computer.

All classroom windows on the south side of the building are equipped with internal blinds that allow teachers to dim the room during presentations.

The math and science departments also received $678,000 from the Western Foundation Capital Campaign to purchase new supplies for teaching and research purposes.

“Each department received about $30,000,” Eckdahl said.

Each floor of Remington is devoted to a department. Mathematics and physics are located on the first floor. Biology is on the second, and chemistry is on the third.

Remington and Agenstein halls are connected by a large atrium. An open-air stairway, reflective lighting and several windows make the new space inviting.

Eckdahl explained that they wanted an inviting space.

“Agenstein didn’t have too many places to hang,” he said.

Each of the three floors in Remington has places for students to study with comfortable seating and wireless Internet.

Along with the new hall came a new dining option on campus. Einstein Bagels is located in the rear of the atrium area.

Jim Mades, Aramark dining services director, said when he was asked about having food in the new hall he said yes right away.

“You look at Einstien in that new building and it screams class, professionalism and a very sharp look,” Maides said.

Einstein Bros Bagels will be open for breakfast lunch and dinner.

in other buildings. Faculty offices are located in modular trailers in front of the halls.

Madden explained that there has not been any space gained yet, but by next fall the space will be doubled.

“We are well underway with demolition on the other side,” Madden said. ”They’ll move back in Christmas vacation next year.”

Dr. Todd Eckdahl, professor and biology chairman, gave details on the new space.

“We basically got what we wanted, and we don’t take that for granted,” Eckdahl said. “From the very beginning they asked us what we wanted and they listened.”

Six new labs make up the majority of the building. Prep labs divide the lab classrooms, giving room for storage now, and eventually additional research space.

“In the old building we had to cross list labs,” he said. “Now we can be more dedicated with space. Experiments can be up, and we can leave them.”

Eckdahl added that when Agenstein is finished there will be two more instructional labs, making eight total.

Each classroom is equipped with brand new audiovisual equipment. New computer systems and document cameras broaden the possibilities for lectures. The document cameras have the ability to look in any direction and can be used on a split overhead screen with the computer.

All classroom windows on the south side of the building are equipped with internal blinds that allow teachers to dim the room during presentations.

The math and science departments also received $678,000 from the Western Foundation Capital Campaign to purchase new supplies for teaching and research purposes.

“Each department received about $30,000,” Eckdahl said.

Each floor of Remington is devoted to a department. Mathematics and physics are located on the first floor. Biology is on the second, and chemistry is on the third.

Remington and Agenstein halls are connected by a large atrium. An open-air stairway, reflective lighting and several windows make the new space inviting.

Eckdahl explained that they wanted an inviting space.

“Agenstein didn’t have too many places to hang,” he said.

Each of the three floors in Remington has places for students to study with comfortable seating and wireless Internet.

Along with the new hall came a new dining option on campus. Einstein Bagels is located in the rear of the atrium area.

Jim Mades, Aramark dining services director, said when he was asked about having food in the new hall he said yes right away.

“You look at Einstien in that new building and it screams class, professionalism and a very sharp look,” Maides said.

Brett Esley, assistant athletics director, said that depending on whom a person talks to, they still say that they are about five weeks behind.

“I think that most construction folks, especially in the Midwest, know what our winters are like. The key thing is once they get it enclosed, they can work all the time,” Esley said. “I feel good about it, as well as most people do, that it will be ready to go on time, at least usage wise, for what the Chiefs are going to need.”

The cold weather is having an effect on the outside workers—especially the roof construction workers strapped to the building. A lot of times the construction workers are not able to work under the freezing point, depending on the windshield factor. The large pieces of sheet metal are difficult to handle in the wind.

Sports Information Director Trevor Berneking said that he trusts the weather should not affect the completion date of the facility.

Photo by Ryan Richarson

Crossland Construction Co., Inc, the general contractor for the indoor practice facility, has not changed their commitment in any way, but the weather has pushed back some of the sub contractors and the pace at which they most work and their work schedule.

Dave Williams, Western’s athletic director, said that he is looking forward to the end result of the Chiefs facility.

“They are commited to do everything in their power to get it done on time which means turning over the facility to us in time for the Chiefs to have their camp here in July,” Williams said.

According to Lonnie Johnson, director of facilities, the addition of space to Western since 2000 includes, but not limited to, the following: 25,000 square feet for the incubator, 66,000 square feet for Remington Hall, 12,500 square feet for the addition of the Fulkerson Center in Spratt Hall, 95,000 square feet for Scanlon Hall, and 70,000 square feet for Murphy Hall.

Remington is expected to cost roughly $35 million, while the ultimate price tag for the indoor athletics facility appears to be in the range of $10 million.
President Robert Vartabedian feels that the ongoing construction/renovation process is intrinsically connected with the five consecutive years of record enrollment.

“The most logical explanation is growth,” Vartabedian said. “We need the extra space; we’ve been expanding at the undergraduate level and even more at the graduate level. Expansion [of facilities] is part of that process.”

Mel Klinkner, the vice president for financial planning and administration, sees the process of creating and expanding space on campus as fitting perfectly into Missouri Western’s objectives.

“Our number one priority is students,” Klinkner said. “The expansion of facilities has allowed us to enhance that.”

Western hopes to keep that expansion process going. According to Klinkner, expansion of Potter Hall is the top priority in Western’s capital request to the state. There are also discussions taking place on expanding residential housing.

Vartabedian also has construction plans of his own, hoping to oversee the construction of a presidential residence, which would serve as both his own personal home and a place for hosting campus events.

Even with projects like Remington and the indoor athletics facility still in progress, Western administration is already seeing a positive impact campus wide.

“It makes Western an attractive option for future students,” Klinkner said. “We now have more facilities and opportunities for our students.”

When it comes to growth, there will inevitably be some growing pains and Western has had its pains.

According to Johnson, the university hasn’t been able to do much in terms of job creation for the new facilities, specifically janitorial and management.

Klinkner agrees, noting that the university needs to address the issue, but feels that, with the uncertainty in state funding, it will be a challenge for Western to keep up with staffing needs.

“We ask our staff to do a lot,” Klinkner said. “We’re going to have to do something, but in these economic times, it’ll be tough.”

Despite these challenges, Johnson feels that the overall impact of Western’s construction/renovation process over the past several years will ultimately prove to be a positive experience for the university and the student body.

“Anytime you add facilities, it shows that the university is growing,” Johnson said. “People notice you when you’re growing.”

Statewide, $560 million was spent on higher and secondary education for this fiscal year. Only $109 million will be left for the 2011 fiscal year. Wagner said that most colleges across the state at which he has spoken have just begun to deal with the budget news.

“Most of the time when I give these presentations, it’s kind of like the cold water in the face,” Wagner said. “And they’re more just coming to grips with the situation as opposed to having worked through many of these problems.” Wagner detailed the subject during his presentation November 10th in Kemper Recital Hall.

What this means for Missouri Western is a reduction of possibly 5 percent in the overall budget for 2011 fiscal year—potentially $200 million dollars less for Western’s budget during that school year, according to Missouri Western President Dr. Robert Vartabedian.

Vartabedian said he and others at Western have anticipated the budget woes, and have already begun making some adjustments. “We’ve suspended faculty, staff and administrative awards as well as sabbaticals, which is only a $200,000 savings but it’s a start,” Vartabedian said.

In addition to the earlier freezing of pay raises for faculty in the ‘09 to ‘10 school year, Vartabedian said they have a number of options left. He said that, due to a shortage of further large cuts, they would look at many smaller areas to save money.

Kent Heier, Western’s Assistant Director of Public Relations and Marketing said many options are being considered. “I think we’ll be looking at ways to cut costs as well as increase revenue—and enroll–ment growth is one way to increase revenue,” Heier said.

He pointed out Western’s record enrollment the last five years, a trend that will likely continue as a reverse effect of poor economic times. Heier said many more people will likely be seeking extra training and returning to school as the result of lean times and unemployment.

As far as the effect on students, Heier said there should be few inconveniences. “Some things we’re looking at are expanding online classes, making summer classes more efficient, offering incentives for faculty to retire or simply analyzing the further need for a staff position when it becomes vacant, rather than re-hiring for it,” Heier said.

Heier said Western’s course offerings and small classroom sizes would be very unlikely to be affected by shortages. Dr. Vartabedian further pointed out the fact that tuition increases were currently not on the table, or even an option under state law. “State law prevents any college or university from increasing tuition rates by a percentage higher than the cost of living increase,” Vartabedian said.

Any schools wishing to do so would have to go through the process of receiving a waiver from the state. Vartabedian and Heier agreed with Wagner in that the situation is still new however. Heier cautioned that any decisions made about budget cuts, whatever they may be, would not begin consideration until May or June of 2010.

Cynthia Heider chairs the committee that works through the process of choosing the dean.

“After Ms. Roever indicated that she would be retiring, we quickly put together a description of our campus, our community, the requirements of the position and then placed that in the [Business Education] journal,” Heider said.

The committee initially had 58 applicants for the position. The committee of eight faculty members narrowed it down three candidates.

Heider says the decision to narrow it down to three candidates was very difficult.

“Very well qualified individuals and we’re just very delighted about the response we received from the posting,” Heider said. “Again, it was a look at what was the best fit for Missouri Western.”

The last three candidates will have separate days where they will be flown into St. Joseph to meet students. The selection committee also included the different business related student organizations to meet the candidates.

Michael West, advisor for Students in Free Enterprise, had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Ernest Hall, the first of the candidates to come to Missouri Western’s campus.

“I am interested in the intangibles related to interpersonal skills and what might shape the candidate’s strategic direction for the [Craig School of Business],” West said. “For example, Western’s mission is somewhat unique in that we emphasize applied learning; I want to get a sense of how the candidate can hold true to that mission while simultaneously pursuing greater research and publication requirements that come with university status.”

Heider also believed that the new dean should have the ability to communicate well to students and faculty about the goals of the Craig School of Business.

Roever leaves some parting advice to whomever gets the position she leaves open in retiring in the spring.

“Appreciate the great opportunity that you have to provide leadership in an academic unit that is committed to creating unique opportunities for our students,” Roever said. “Many constituencies outside the School of Business support our program:  the University community, our Advisory Council and our donors including our benefactor Steven L. Craig.”

The last of the interviews was conducted on Wednesday and the chance for students to meet the candidates has passed.

The process of discontinuing these programs began in 2005 which just happens to be the same year that Western made the transition from college to university.
According to Cynthia Heider, associate provost and vice president, it was this very transition that brought about the discontinuation of the four programs.
“As a part of legislation authorizing Missouri Western as a university, we agreed to review our two-year degrees and determine if they were essential or duplicative,” Heider said. “We spent two years looking internally at these programs.”

The four programs that have been discontinued are the following: Associate of Science in construction engineering technology, electronics engineering technology, and electronics and computer engineering technology and an Associate of Applied Science in paramedic technology.

The six programs that will be continued are Associate of Applied Science degrees in health information technology, physical therapist assistant and manufacturing engineering technology, and Associate of Science degrees in legal assistant, business and criminal justice.

According to Heider, the discontinuation of the programs was based on a review that either identified duplication of an existing program or low enrollment within the program; fewer than five students were enrolled in the paramedic technology program and fewer than 20 students in the other three put together.

While said situation is an obvious problem for those students, Heider assures that Western has developed a solution that will prevent any problems for those students. Any student who is currently enrolled in one of the four programs will be able to complete their degree at Western.

“We wanted to protect our currently enrolled students,” Heider said. “All advisors were notified last spring and asked to double check with their students. Some decided to declare [while] other students decided to go for four-year degrees.”

Of the four associate programs being discontinued, all three engineering programs can be found at Western in four-year degree programs.

Steve Estes, dean of professional studies, notes that this will give students an opportunity to go the extra mile and get the full degree, which he feels is an opportunity a lot of students are already taking.

“Many of the students stay and complete the program,” Estes said. “They decide to plug away and get that four-year degree.”

As for those in the paramedic technology program who would otherwise feel left behind, Heider reveals that the problem has already been solved. In May this year, Western entered into a partnership with North Central Missouri College and Metropolitan Community College to deliver two-year degree programs, with the paramedic technology program now being offered at both colleges.

Beyond that, Heider notes that Western has formed a three-way articulation with their partners. The business and criminal justice associate programs, two of the six that are still being offered by Western, can also be taken at either North Central or Metropolitan. Furthermore, the health information technology and physical therapist assistant programs will be transferred to the community colleges at some point in the future.

Heider stresses that throughout the whole process, the intention was to make the change in a way that wouldn’t negatively impact the student body in any way, shape or form.

“If I thought there would be any disruption to our students, I would’ve opposed,” Heider said.

Beth Wheeler, director of external relations, agrees citing that the approach they have taken will bring about positive changes for Western and especially the students.
“We’ve made an improvement rather than a sacrifice,” Wheeler said. “The change is going to be invisible to students.”

When it all comes to a conclusion, Heider feels that the discontinuation of the four associate degrees is not a loss; with the steps they have taken to protect those students and the agreement put in place with North Central and Metropolitan, the situation will be a benefit for all involved.

“It’s an opportunity for us to continue offering our most popular associate degrees while giving us more resources to focus on four year and graduate degrees.”

Except this time, Vartabedian will be having his cabinet with him during the Q & A session to also answer questions that students have concerning the university.
“I thought it might be helpful for the university community, particularly students, to meet some of the front line administrators. I don’t even know if they know who the vice president for academic and student affairs is… ”

The two topics that Vartabedian believes that students will be the most concerned about are the parking issues and housing.

“We have long wait list initially for student housing and eventually we dealt with that and we had some problems with parking early in the semester now I think things have sorted out okay.”

Vartabedian has held forums like this in the past with a small turnout. Last year, only forty students attended.

“There wasn’t a huge number of students there, but they were asking good questions,” Vartabedian said.

Recently elected Student Government Association Senator Jacob Scott believes students should attend the Q&A with Vartabedian and cabinet.

“This is a great opportunity to inquire about specific areas Dr. Vartabedian talks about,” Scott said.

Scott said that the main concern that the SGA has for Vartabedian is unifying the university and the community in St. Joseph.

SGA president Josh Todd also believes that students should attend the forum to become acquainted with the administrative staff.

“It’s important to know what’s going on and if you don’t know to find out,” Todd said. “That’s we’re allowing students to ask these questions gives the ability to get out there and truly understand the background of some of the issues that they might have questions about.”

SGA senators will be able to participate in this forum and will be asking what Vartabedian and his cabinet plan to bring the campus and the local community together.
“We want to bring MoWest to the community and unify the student government,” Scott said. “Most students don’t realize that WAC, the residence council, and SGA are all one body.”

On the other hand, Todd believes that every student has a separate concern and that the forum will allow students to voice those concerns.
“The issues I hear about are smoking, parking, housing…but there are issues that students have, topics they want to talk about that I don’t get to hear everyday,” Todd said.

Vartabedian believes that it is important for students to attend the Q & A to become more informed on key issues facing the administrative staff.
“If they have questions or frustrations or concerns or if they have good things they want to talk about it’s a great forum to air those,” Vartabedian said.

Currently, Missouri Western is facing a small budget crisis as expenses for the university have been increased but revenue has not.

Beth Wheeler encourages students and anyone involved at Missouri Western to attend Paul Wagner’s presentation at Spratt Hall.

“Sometimes, it’s very different audiences,” Wagner said. “It depends; sometimes it’s just faculty, sometimes it’s the entire university. When I went to Maryville, there were approximately 200 people in the audience.”

Wagner looks forward to coming to St. Joseph to deliver his presentation and inform the students on the budgetary problems.

“We hope that students, faculty, staff, administrators, out board members and citizens from the community will come and hear the presentation aim to have a better idea of what is going on with our education not just in our state, but specifically at Missouri Western,” Wheeler said.

After the presentation, Wagner will have a question and answer forum for students to ask question regarding the state budget and its impact on Missouri Western.
“About 45 percent of the revenue for the university comes from state revenue,” Wheeler said. “The other comes from tuition and interest rates from other investments.”

President Robert Vartabedian also recognizes the effects that the recent downturn in the economy is having on the university in respects to revenues and expenses.
“My sense is that at the very best we will have another flat budget year,” Vartabedian said. “But, of course, when the budget is flat because our costs increase, it’s not really flat; we’re actually being cut from the previous year.”

Photo | Marty Ayers

Kennedy, who is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, described how rivers are being compromised by damaging amounts of mercury caused by our nation using an abundant amount of coal.

According to Kennedy, coal may be inexpensive to use but the long term effects of coal outweigh its cost, such as producing high levels of mercury in fish along with an increase in health problems among children.

“Our children are going to pay for our joyride,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy, who also serves as senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, said America is lagging behind as an environmentally aware nation compared to other nations, such as the United Kingdom and Israel. He described America as being addicted to oil and that the nation needs to cut ties with our oil-providing countries. Until then, America is funding both sides of the war.

Dan Boulware, a St. Joseph trial attorney and for whom the convocation is named, introduced the speaker as the Kennedy who has taken the torch. Boulware assured the audience they would hear something that they have not considered or contemplated.

“This is the first time we have considered issues of the environment and the impact of the world’s economy,” Boulware said. “He is unique to previous speakers and unique for me as I had the opportunity in 1963 to hear his father speak three months before his assassination. That event promoted me to be an avid supporter of the convocation so students could have and enjoy this as part of their education.”

Boulware said that he heard the same passion in Kennedy’s voice when he spoke as he did in his father’s voice. Kennedy used that voice to explain how global warming and other pollutants are affecting our nation while giving alternatives to improve our environmental state.

“Global warming exists, it is upon us now and the effects are going to be catastrophic,” Kennedy said.
Audience members like professor of communications Shawna Harris were able to take away suggestions on how they too can be a part in preserving our nation’s energy.

“Although I felt that the speech could have been better organized, as well as less promotional plugs for his company, the speech made me realize how many unnecessary items I leave plugged in does impact our energy use,” Harris said. “I never thought about unplugging my electric toothbrush, cell phone or my computer after it has charged.”

According to Kennedy, in 15 years Americans will all be driving electric cars because that is where the market is headed, which is also pushing our nation into making changes within our daily lives.

Missouri Western Student Melea Youtsey said, “I never really thought about how much money America spends on coal when we have the natural resources for free to provided energy. It really made me think about things I could do differently to conserve energy.”

Boulware wrapped up the convocation by reminding the audience that our nation is facing many critical issues.

“We must come together as Republicans and Democrats; black and white and as citizens to work together,” Boulware said. “We must work together to serve our society and the world at large. We cannot solve our problems if we cannot come together. “

Photo | Mathew Fowler

“We need a new industry to pull us out of this recession,” Kennedy said. “That new industry is going to be the Green Tech industry.”

Among subsidizing to a new industry, Kennedy emphasizes the need for our economy to remove our addiction to oil.

“The biggest economic tragedy in our country today is our deadly addiction to oil. We are borrowing $1 billion a day in order to import $1 billion of oil a day.”

Kennedy’s facts included that $1.3 trillion a year goes to the oil industries. Among that we have a deadly addiction to carbon. Also, Kennedy, who was named Time Magazine’s Heroes of the Planet, pointed out that the mercury that poisons our fish also greatly affects the fetus of pregnant women and can lead to autism, brain damage or asthma for a newborn baby.

“We poison our fish in this country with mercury,” Kennedy said. “The fish are almost certainly contaminated with mercury which is very damaging to the fetus for children and for adults.”

However, our nation is the third highest nation with the most solar resources and the second highest nation for geothermal resources. This implies that as a nation we can make some significant changes to save our environment.

“The main thing that people need to do is get involved in the political process so we can stop subsidizing the carbon cronies. Good environmental policy is equivalent to economic policy.”

Part of this environmental policy also includes an electric grid that provides selling and buying of electricity at consistent prices all over the nation, according to Kennedy.

Janet Gorman Murphy McCarthy, previous Western president of 17 years whom Murphy Hall is named after, introduced Kennedy at the dinner and explained her honor in presenting him.

“When they asked me to introduce Kennedy, I asked was it because I had volunteered to be an assistant for Robert Kennedy [Sr.] when he was running for president,” McCarthy said.

This allowed McCarthy, who was present when Kennedy’s father was killed in California in 1968, to reminisce back on the influence of Kennedy’s father while working for him many years ago. The dinner allowed McCarthy the opportunity to see the future of Kennedy’s father through the voice of his son. McCarthy then continued to explain Kennedy’s many attributes.

“He has the reputation as the resolute defender of the environment,” McCarthy said.

Dinner members included alumni, students, faculty, and many leaders of the St. Joseph community. Missouri Western sophomore Steven Wichern expressed the experience he had at the dinner.

“Just getting to familiarize myself with people in the community is a great experience,” Wichern said. “I really enjoyed the fact that they invited students to the dinner. It’s a great opportunity. It creates an intergenerational atmosphere that represents the whole spectrum.”

In addition to the dinner, at a post dinner press conference, Kennedy directed environmental concerns toward the Missouri Western campus. Kennedy, who also authored three books, concluded that instead of focusing on local issues such as recycling programs, students could do greater things.

“College students can run for office,” Kennedy said. “I encourage them to do it. Make sure we get rid of the political leaders who are essentially indentured servants to the carbon industry and the big polluters.”

Over the past fews years freshmen enrollment has increased. Campus offials credit this not to a falling econmy but to the hard wor and dedication of the faculty and teachers

“There’s an energy when you have an organization that’s growing,” Daffron said. “[Record enrollment] adds to that energy and enthusiasm.”

Aside from the enrollment numbers, the number of credit hours being taken is up by 5.6 percent from 63,382 to 66,922; the number of graduate students has increased from 65 to 70 and the overall freshmen enrollment is 2,575. 4,090 of the enrolled students are full-time, with 1,645 part-time and, in terms of male and female, 3,330 female students compared to 2,405 male students.

Daffron feels that Western’s success can be credited not so much to the failing economy but rather the many things the university has to offer to students.

“Geographically, we’re in a very good place. For our undergraduate students, being in a city this size is an advantage because there are part-time jobs,” Daffron said. “Our emphasis on applied learning is important to people; it prepares them to be immediately productive in the workforce. As students are looking at universities, that may be something they’re thinking a little bit more about.”

Accompanying those sentiments, Director of Admissions Howard McCauley feels that the current status of the university is helping attract students to Western; in particular, McCauley feels that the graduate programs being developed on campus and recent projects such as the Incubator, Remington Hall and the Chiefs Camp are all adding to the university’s prestige.

“Western is a hot university,” McCauley said. “Western is right at the front [of the pack] and we’re not going to take a backseat to anyone.”

While much good is coming out of the increased enrollment, some on campus are witnessing the negatives firsthand. Bob Griffin is a history major who commutes 40 miles to campus everyday and, for the first time in three years, is seeing a major problem with the parking situation on campus.

“Parking is severely inadequate,” Griffin said. “It’s frustrating having to park halfway across campus and then walk one-third a mile to my class. I don’t totally fault the university. I understand it’s all affected by the influx of students but, in the three years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a problem as bad as it is now.”

McCauley, while sympathetic, is quick to note that in comparison to universities and colleges like Northwest and Central Missouri, Western is much better off in the parking situation. However, parking isn’t the only growing issue to stem out of record enrollment.

In a previous story, President Robert Vartabedian expressed his concerns that the faculty and staff had been stretched in terms of dealing with the increased number of students on campus and feels that Western will probably have to hire new faculty and staff members in the near future.

Daffron couldn’t agree more, stating that the faculty and staff have done as much as they can without sacrificing that which is most important; a quality education. Nevertheless, she feels that Western, now and in the future, can face those problems down and come out on top.

“You always hate to think about those things as problems,” Daffron said. “They’re [real challenges] and it affects people’s lives on a daily basis. However, we can be creative and figure out what to do about those things.”

The career fair is held every year: one held in the fall semester and one is also held in the spring semester. For those who miss this fair, Western also sponsors a career fair in Kansas City.

The Career Development office is the sponsor for this event. Linda Garlinger, career services director encourages, all students to come, she especially encourages freshman to attend.

“I think everybody should go,” Garlinger said.

All students as well as the public are invited to attend. The event is held free of charge. Students who do attend are to dress professionally and bring several copies of their resumes to distribute to recruiters. There will be many opportunities available for students to meet with company representatives and recruiters. Various organizations will be in attendance to discuss internships that are available to currently enrolled students, seasonal work, graduate school and career positions.

Garlinger tells students to meet with all the companies in attendance and not just a select few because there may be opportunities that were not previously known about. Typically, students only go for the name brand companies that they recognize and they completely miss the other companies. Seeing different companies may give students, especially freshmen the opportunity to see what majors go with what opportunities. It is also an opportunity to make an impression on a recruiter, who may follow students through college and extend a job offer after finishing college.

Sophomore, Shane George, who plans on attending this year’s fair, thinks that everyone should go if they want a job.

“With jobs being scarce, it’s nice to know there is a place where we have choices,” George said.

George hopes to find a company that he will be comfortable with.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol will be just one of many companies in attendance.

Lieutenant Eric Tilford, who is the recruiter for Troop H, which is headquartered in St. Joseph said we are always looking for the best recruits.

“We are trying to be a diverse organization and get good qualified people,” Tilford said.

Many other companies will be attendance, with several of those being local. Many of the other companies will be from the surrounding areas such as Kansas City. For a complete list of companies attending see the career development office Web site which is www.missouriwestern.edu/careerdevelopment.

For students who are new to the job arena or those who are experienced, there are many opportunities available at this year’s career fair. Even for students who are not looking for a job there, may be internships available which could help secure a job after graduation.

The grant comes as one of the many provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. As Buchanan County Clerk Pat Conway explained, many of the recommendations under the act centered on technological upgrades and the phasing out of older procedures such as the punch-card style ballots that caused many problems in the 2000 elections.

As a result of these upgrades, he said students with little or no knowledge of the electoral process shouldn’t be intimidated if they’re interested in becoming a poll worker.

“Many of the duties include using laptop computers to check voter rolls and direct voters to their proper polling locations, as well as counting ballots with electronic ballot scanners, which most younger people are a lot more experienced with and comfortable using than older, more experienced poll workers,” Conway said.

Conway also added that another benefit for college students working elections is that they’ll become more knowledgeable about politics. He said this would help ensure younger people become more politically active in the future, which is the trend Conway said he’s seen in recent years.

“September 11th was the turning point,” Conway said. “Before that point, the attitude of young people toward politics was kind of lackadaisical. But after that, with the events following in the years after 9/11, young people began to see politics as something they may want to be more involved in.”

Theresa Grieshaber is a criminal justice-legal studies major who took part in the program last year. She explained some of her duties as a poll worker.

“I came in from 6 that morning to 6 that night,” Grieshaber said. “I helped with absentee ballots and registered incoming voters. I was also just basically there to help any voters that may have come in and found that they were in the wrong polling location, and I would help them locate their proper voting precinct.”

She added that working elections is also a paying job, and a good way for students to make extra money.

Overseeing the program is David Tushaus, chair of the Criminal Justice and Legal Studies department at Missouri Western. He stresses that, despite many of the past participants–criminal justice or law majors–the program is open to all students.

“Our goal is to have around 30 students participating in the program this year, which will basically depend on the number of workers required by area polling places,” Tushaus said.

Any Missouri Western student interested in taking part in the program is encouraged to contact Tushaus by calling (816) 271-5627 or by sending an e-mail to tushaus@missouriwestern.edu.

As the economy continues to spiral downward, students’ need for financial assistance grows. From the 2008-2009 aid year to the 2009-2010 aid year, Missouri Western State University saw a 51 percent growth in the number of completed FAFSA forms. With more need than ever, some of the scholarships offered at Western have changed to provide the most possible assistance.

Eligible Western students may receive scholarships from either Missouri Western or privately donated funds paid through the university’s foundation. Scholarships paid through the foundation remained unchanged this year. Scholarships awarded by Western were forced to adapt to the current economic conditions.

“Our administration is still very committed to trying to provide the scholarship dollars we had available in the past,” Assistant Director of Financial Aid Angie Beam said. “It allows us to help more students.”

Beam explained that the changes made to the institutional scholarships were made to ensure that Western can continue to award as many scholarships as past years, if not more.
This year, these changes only affected the first-time freshman scholarships.

“We had to make some tough decisions,” she said. This year, the Golden Griffon Scholarship dropped from $10,500 to $7,500. In addition to lowering the amount of the scholarship, the criteria were changed to make sure deserving students receive the award. Beam said other freshman scholarships made similar adjustments.

A new Provost’s Scholarship was also added this year to help bridge the gap between the President’s and Governor’s awards.

Students will also be checked mid-year for grade point requirements if they are receiving these scholarships. This change will take place next year. Beam said an estimated $130,000 can be saved by making sure students are still qualified for the awards.

Scholarship awards paid by the foundation remained unchanged this year. Vice President for University Advancement Dan Nicoson explained that there are two types of foundation scholarships.

Endowed scholarships are funded with the interest growth from the original donation.

“The earnings are down,” Nicoson said. “If the economy doesn’t get better pretty fast, possibly next year, we’ll be giving out less money… not by a lot, but it won’t be growing.”

The second type is a current fund scholarship. This fund is not invested but paid at the donors requests until the fund is exhausted.

“This depends on how generous people are being and how much they continue to give. The economy has slowed its giving a little,” Nicoson said. “So far we have not seen a major impact, but, within the next year or two, we could.”

This year the foundation has distributed $690,000 in scholarships to students. This includes endowed and current fund scholarships.
It is not likely that foundation scholarships will see changes in criteria. The requirements for these scholarships are set by the donors.

Senior music major Tim Thomas considers himself lucky to receive scholarships.

“I am very thankful to have scholarships to help pay for my education,” Thomas said. “It’s a real relief when everything outside of school starts adding up.”

The number of students applying for financial aid this year is higher than ever. Job loss for students or parents has created an enormous amount of need for assistance. Last year, 80 professional judgments requests were processed for students experiencing special circumstances. This year 768 professional judgments were processed.

Students can begin applying for scholarships for next year this October. Scholarship applications must be submitted by March 1, 2010 for the 2010-2011 aid year.

“We just didn’t have the money to work with at any possible rate this year,” said President Robert Vartabedian. “We’re not able to do that and every president I’ve talked to in the state of Missouri was under similar circumstances.”

Last year, the State Department of Higher Education asked all four-year colleges and universities in Missouri for statements that would detail how their operations would be altered by reductions in state funding ranging from 15 percent to 25 percent.

With hints of increases in tuition and reductions in staff/faculty positions in these statements, Gov. Jay Nixon cut a deal in which the state would agree not to cut the budgets but, in return, the colleges and universities would not be allowed to raise tuition during the fiscal year.

Mel Klinkner, the vice president for financial planning and administration, explains that all economic indicators so far point to the situation getting worse before it gets better.

“I think [the government is] really concerned about getting through 2011,” Klinkner said. “There are still some federal stabilization funds that help us through 2011, but if the economy has not improved by fiscal year 2012, it could be devastating in my opinion.”

Western administration is already thinking about future concerns. According to Klinkner, the biggest concern facing the university is the effect the 0 percent pay increase will have on recruiting and retention of faculty and staff.

“After a period of time, [if] there’s not anything done as far as the salary increase, it could [be a problem],” Klinker said. “Fortunately from what I’ve heard and seen, we have some very committed, long term professors who love Western and are committed to it and the students. There could possibly be retention issues down the road.”

Vartabedian is quick to echo Klinker’s concerns. During his time at other institutions, Vartabedian witnessed up to three consecutive years in which faculty and staff were not given a pay raise and he knows just how devastating this turn of events can be for Western faculty and staff.

“If it continues, it will be very demoralizing to faculty and staff,” Vartabedian said. “It’s tough on morale in terms of them being discouraged by and in terms of them possibly looking elsewhere. If it’s at all possible to do something for faculty and staff next year, we’d sure like to do that.”

According to Klinkner, the possibilities are limited. As of May 2007, Senate bill 389 prevents colleges and universities from raising tuition beyond the level of the consumer price index.

“When you don’t have any new source of revenue (state appropriation or tuition), there’s no money to do [increase salaries],” Klinkner said. “It’s just been prudent fiscal management to look at can we or not. Would we love to do that? Absolutely.”

Out of this difficult situation, however, there has been some good. Recently, the board of governors at Missouri Western decided, based on an evaluation of his first year, to offer Vartabedian a pay raise of roughly 3 percent. However, the president had other ideas.

“I talked to [Dirck Clark], the chair of the board, and he asked me about my raise situation,” Vartabedian said. “I said, ‘well in this climate, no raise would be fine but if there’s any raise I’ll be donating it back to the university.’ I just wouldn’t feel right accepting anything like that.”

Unable to dissuade the board, Vartabedian donated his pay raise to the Missouri Western Foundation, a move that took Clark and the board by surprise.

“I thought it was extremely generous,” Clark said. “It was a great gesture on his part and I think it was designed to send a message that he is very concerned about the university over all.”

For Vartabedian, paramount among his concerns are the challenges the faculty and staff are dealing with not only in terms of pay, but also in dealing with the increase in enrollment.

“I think that we’ve probably stretched our faculty [and staff] as far as they can be stretched at this point,” Vartabedian said. “Both our faculty and staff are working very seriously to deal with increased numbers we’ve been experiencing for five consecutive years. We will need to increase the size of our faculty in the near future.”

Debbie Hargis has been a receptionist with the Registrar’s Office for the past five years. Having just learned a few months ago that she would not be receiving a pay raise, Hargis is concerned but remains optimistic.

“I guess we just have to adjust,” Hargis said. “The whole world is having to adjust to a worse economy, and I have hopes it will get better.”

Klinkner is quick to agree, stating that he hopes things will soon improve. However, like everyone else involved, Klinkner is being realistic about the situation and knows that the faculty and staff at Missouri Western are in for a tough year.

“Through August the state’s general revenue is 5.6 percent behind what they budgeted. Not a very good start to the year,” Klinkner said. “All we’re hearing is negative at this point. There are not any positive indicators coming out so far. If those indicators do not change, I would not expect appropriations to increase.”

The attendance policy, which was implemented in the fall of 2006 and only applied to 100-level classes, has positively impacted student attendance in the classroom and academics. Judy Grimes, dean of student affairs, also agrees that the policy has been helpful for both students and faculty.

“There were concerns from the federal government about trying to track attendance of students who were receiving federal dollars,” Grimes said. “The research shows that students, who attend class, do better.”

Now expanded to include both 100-level and 200-level classes, the policy states that any absence a student wishes to be excused from requires documentation. A funeral can be accompanied by a service program; a trip to the emergency room can be excused with a doctor’s note. But with the sudden outbreak of the H1N1 virus and a few reported cases on campus, the administration has changed certain aspects of the policy.

“We didn’t waive the attendance policy; we just temporarily modified it to this particular incident,” Grimes said. “We are asking faculty, in this instance, to not require documentation from a doctor or a nurse or from the health center that they are indeed at home with the flu.”

The Center for Disease Control has asked that universities adopt this policy in regards to attendance to prevent the spread of the H1N1 strain of influenza to other students and faculty. Provost Jeanne Daffron commented.

“Students should still notify their faculty (preferably by e-mail) that they are ill and they will not be required to provide a doctor’s note to have the absence excused,” Daffron said. “Excused absences do not impact the attendance policy. Students are expected to complete all work missed and are responsible for all course content.”

Students are expected to also e-mail their advisers before they miss the class. Once self-diagnosed, students should isolate themselves for at least 48 hours.

Students that are self-isolating on campus can request to receive food through Aramark so they do not have to leave their room. Residence hall assistants have also been trained in certain healthcare procedures, such as how to read disposable thermometers, to reduce the amount of contamination and to inspect the health of students.

Tim Kissock, risk manager for the university said that there have been three confirmed cases of H1N1 strain of influenza on campus. Kissock also stated that the symptoms, in some cases, are so mild that students may not even know they have it.

“It is also our understanding that the incubation period on this is somewhere to an excess of three-to-four days,” Kissock said. “So chances are that by the time your roommate has it, you’ve probably been exposed to it by the time your roommate knows it.”

Jason Baker, professor of biology, believes that the H1N1 strain of influenza is being over exaggerated by the media. He still feels that influenza in general should be a concern regarding the attendance policy.

“Just like for any influenza, isolation is an excellent approach to limiting spread,” Baker said. “Most influenza cases are self-limiting with plenty of rest and hydration.  Therefore, it is unlikely medical documentation will be obtained by all students, regardless of the influenza strain.”

The administration offices assured that the changes made to the attendance policy regarding the CDC guidelines will remain in effect as long as the H1N1 strain continues to be a problem.

“Like all influenza virus transmission, we are certainly likely to see higher incidence in the winter months as people are spending more time indoors and face-to-face,” Baker said.

Even though the H1N1 strain seems to be an outbreak and is affecting regular campus activity, Kissock said that the university is not considering making the vaccine mandatory for all students and faculty.

“We are in discussions with the county health department that if the flu vaccine becomes available and if we get enough of them, we would like to offer flu shot clinics,” Kissock said.

than the battalion’s total number of cadets enrolled back in 2007—a 450 percent growth in numbers in two years. Made up of students from Missouri Western, as well as 8 other area colleges and universities, the battalion welcomed 22 cadets into the fold during their contracting ceremony held Thursday afternoon, September 3rd, at the Kemper Recital Hall in Leah Spratt Hall.

The battalion was made up of only 13 total cadets when its present commander, Lt. Col. Marcus Majure, started his
career at Missouri Western two years ago. Majure says one contributing factor to the increase is a newly added incentive bonus of $5,000, which the ROTC started offering last year.

Photo by Matthew Fowler

“Other than that, they were getting around $800 or $900 for going. But now, they get that $800 to $900 dollars, plus a $5,000 bonus check for going. So it’s not bad. They get the check, and they go to school for free,” Majure said. He said the cadets are the best recruitment agents though, and he always encourages interested students to just ask the person wearing fatigues that they see in class or pass in the hallways.

One of those people now wearing fatigues is Cadet Chris Grady of Lansing, Kan. He’s one of the newly contracted cadets, and a freshman criminal justice major at Missouri Western. He said he had always considered military service after high school.

“Lt. Col. Majure came and spoke to me, and said that ROTC would be a better route to start a career in the Army,” Grady said. Before he started this semester, he said he had wondered if it would be difficult juggling being a student and cadet.

“For PT, we’re only required to do three hours a week, at 6:00 in the morning. But since I’m on the Ranger Challenge Team, it’s every day. I thought I was going to be swamped, but it’s really not as bad as I’d thought,” Grady said. He said his goal is to eventually serve in the infantry or military police.

Not all contracting cadets are new to military life. Cadet Aaron Craig is part of the Simultaneous Membership Program, where National Guard and Army Reservists are also enrolled in the ROTC. Craig joined the National Guard at age 31. The St. Joseph native and sophomore business management major is the son of a veteran and the grandson of a local WWII vet that saw combat in North Africa and Sicily. Craig’s father and grandfather both went through ROTC.

“I served with the 129th Field Battalion of Maryville and was deployed on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, and when I came back from that, I knew I wanted to follow in my dad and my grandfather’s footsteps,” Craig said. He said he plans on making the military his career. Other Missouri Western students contracting as cadets that afternoon included Brittany Bauman, Thomas Hutton, Eduardo Silva, Cierra Why, Cody Hatheway and William Moore II.

University President, Robert Vartabedian, made the suggestion to the board of governors at the last closed session.

“We were very happy to make this ‘official’ as of our board meeting on Thursday, August 27th,” Vartabedian said. “I was quite pleased that she was willing to accept our position as provost at this particularly important time in the university’s history.”

Vartabedian is quick to demonstrate why Daffron is the person for the job.

“Dr. Daffron has served Missouri Western extremely well for 32 years,” Vartabedian said. “She has held numerous, important administrative positions here. She has been heavily involved in our community including serving as the past chair of the St. Joseph Area Chamber of Commerce. Finally, she has been the recipient of an impressive list of teaching, administrative and community awards.”

Daffron has worked in a number of positions at Western, including faculty in the nursing program, department chair of nursing and dean of the College of Professional Studies. She has even served as interim provost before Joseph Bragin was selected and again after his recent departure. In some sense this job could be old hat to her.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it old hat,” Daffron said. “I do have some advantages from knowing who to call, or who knows about what. I know how this university works.”
So how does the new number two feel about the job?

“I guess I would just like to say that I am honored to be the provost at Western,” Daffron said. “I am so proud of Western and look forward to playing a role in the exciting future of our university. The support that has been expressed by many students, faculty and staff is truly appreciated. There are so many who give so much every day to make this a great place to learn and work.”

On Oct. 17, Robert A. Vartabedian will be officially installed as the new president of Missouri Western. The installation ceremony will be held in the M.O. Looney Complex at 1:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. This event is considered the centerpiece of a series of events that have been planned for this momentous occasion. Said events include a student town hall meeting with the President in the Nelle Blum Student Union on Oct.16, at 4:00 p.m.; an 11:30 a.m. luncheon for delegates from regional and non-regional universities alike on Oct. 17; and a post-ceremony reception with refreshments.
Dan Nicoson, vice president for university advancement, is the chairman of the inauguration steering committee that has been working closely with faculty, staff and the administration in planning the inauguration. He considers the timing of the inauguration to be of particular significance for Missouri Western.

“I think the major significance is [that] it’s just another demonstration of Western’s maturity as an academic institution,” Nicoson said. “It’s kind of exciting to see it happening…this is just more evidence that we’re at that point.”

One of Nicoson’s tasks was to send out invitations to universities across the country, as well as the community, students, staff, faculty, and the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce.
“We sent…over a thousand invitations to other institutions to send a delegate, which is also part of the tradition,” Nicoson said. “We have several universities [that] are sending people to march in the processional as their delegate at this inauguration. We also invited a student delegation, an alumni delegation, primarily from the list of past winners of the distinguished alumni award, to march in the processional…”

According to Roger Swafford, the director of the public relations and marketing department, 90 universities from around the United States have sent their congratulations and a total of 57 universities will be represented by a delegate in full academic regalia as of Oct. 6.

Swafford is quick to credit not only the committee, but also nearly every department on campus that has been intricately involved in the planning of the inauguration ceremony.

“It’s been amazing, all of these people coming together and doing a…year-long project in three months,” Swafford said. “The cohesion of seeing people come together to get this launched is amazing and very impressive.”

One of the more specific aspects of the inaugural ceremony is the Inaugural Ball, which is being held at the St. Joseph Country Club starting with a reception at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m.; music and a dance will also take place.

“…The other events are early day events and they [the committee] thought, ‘well we need to have some kind of evening event,’” Vartabedian said. “Our folks in the Advancement Office have a flair for entertaining well and in an interesting way; they thought it would be a great way to cap off the day of events. I think they thought anything else would seem anti-climatic.”

While the event is sure to be entertaining, the $75 per person price tag sounds anything but pleasant in such faltering economic times. Such concerns are not at all lost on administration.

“The ball itself is planned to be self-supporting and use no institutional funds of any kind to support it,” Nicoson said. “In order for it to be self-supportive, the admission charge has to be at approximately that level.”

Vartabedian is particularly sympathetic on the subject.

“That was something that I was aware of and talked to people about in terms of is this the right thing to do,” Vartabedian said. “…Their feeling was the expenses were considerable and we’re a state-funded institution; we can only go so far and not charge for these kinds of events. I share…the concerns of others, but we’d hoped that we’d offer something for everyone if they didn’t want to spend that kind of money or [couldn’t] afford to spend that kind of money.”

Nevertheless, any issues over the formality of the Presidential Inauguration ceremony are easily overshadowed by the long-term effects such as historical event in Missouri Western’s rich history can have on the university and the community.

“I would hope that because of its academic nature and because of the interest expressed by faculty members in having one, that it will be a source of new pride,” Nicoson said. “I would hope this is just one more reason for us to be proud of our institution and show that it is maturing and becoming a reputable, very high-quality university.”

Vartabedian echoes these statements; having spent more than 20 years in teaching and administrative roles at distinguished universities such as: Wichita State University, West Texas A&M University and Eastern New Mexico University. He sees his time at Missouri Western as the best of his career and the ceremony as a milestone for both himself and the university.

“It’s the capstone [of] a long career for me and it’s a meaningful time in the University’s history as well,” Vartabedian said.

It’s obvious to anyone who has been part of Missouri Western for the past few years that there have been changes for the better. Whether it’s gaining the status of a university or the continued growth of the student body, this institution has earned its reputation and this inauguration ceremony is not only another feather in Western’s top hat but a symbol of its astonishing prosperity that should make students, staff, faculty, administration, and the community of St. Joseph all proud of Missouri Western State University.

For more information on the Presidential Inauguration please visit http://www.missouriwestern.edu/inauguration/. For more information on Vartabedian, please visit Western’s library in the Hearnes Center where a display of his career is available.

Biden, who is fresh off his debate with the Republican vice president candidate Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, will speak to a crowd of 500 at the Looney Complex’s reserve gym at 9 a.m on the topics of the economy and health care. He will then head to Liberty and Jefferson City on a tour to help Missouri go into the Democratic column on the Nov. 4 election.

Missouri is still one of the closest battleground states with polls showing the race is a virtual dead heat right now. The head of the Buchanan county Democratic Party, Bill Caldwell, said that the tour is what is needed to put the Obama ticket on top in Missouri.

“Pundits are saying that McCain can’t win the national election without carrying Missouri,” Caldwell said. “Biden has the charisma and knowledge related to the campaign and it will be apparent who has the edge after Thursday.”

This is the first visit from a national candidate to Saint Joseph since 2004 when incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney addressed supporters at the Civic Arena. The incident was marred by protests but campus officials are not expecting the same problems. Beth Wheeler, director of external relations, said that the Secret Service is working with local officials to ensure the campus will still run smoothly.

“Public safety officers will be at their [Secret Service] disposal,” Wheeler said. “The Looney complex and J lot will be closed and classes in the building will be moved or cancelled at the teacher’s discretion for Wednesday and Thursday. We are excited for this excellent opportunity and to put this feather in our cap and we will do everything that we can to make this go smoothly.”

Wheeler also said that the Obama handlers were here last week and that a major factor in their choice of going on campus was the Convocation speaker series which recently hosted political pundits James Carville and Mary Matalin.

“They were impressed with our repertoire of speakers,” Wheeler said. “This goes to show that what we actively do on campus helps future endeavors and events come here. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we will do our best to shine.”

The Obama campaign is also using this opportunity to bring its message of change to thousands of young voters in the midland empire. The Press secretary for the Missouri Obama campaign, Justin Hamilton, reiterated the purpose for the speaking tour during the waning days of the campaign.

“Obama thinks that the young voters are changing the electorate,” Hamilton said. “Our message of change speaks to everyone, young and old, but the young voters have an imperative need to understand that their voice is heard and their issues are being addressed.”

Hamilton also did not rule out the possibility of Obama coming to campus.

“Obama still has plans for Missouri,” Hamilton said. “He does not have concrete speaking dates yet for Saint Joseph, but he is still open to the opportunity.”

The McCain-Palin campaign has also been offered the opportunity to speak on campus but has yet to respond to the invitation.

Each year’s Convocation allows for a special dinner the night before that allows patrons to meet the guest speaker.

The married political pundits, James Carville and Mary Matalin, spoke to a capacity crowd at the Fulkerson Center Monday night for the 15th annual Dan Boulware Convocation on Critical Issues dinner that helps fund each year’s speaker. The dinner, which was the fastest selling in Western’s history, sold out in a matter of days and had a nearly 200 person waiting list. According to Dan Nicoson, vice president of university advancement, this can be attributed to the impact it has on the surrounding area.

“I am convinced that this Convocation, series in its fourteen years, now fifteenth year, has brought more national experts for our community to be exposed to than any other event,” Nicoson said. “This just isn’t a university event, it is a community event.”

Carville and Matalin addressed the crowd during dinner and spoke on several issues, including the market panic that had occurred earlier that day. Even though the couple takes residence in separate political camps

their message was the same.

“We are American,” Carville said. “Married, young, old, Republican, Democrat. We are all Americans and we can work through our differences.”

Matalin also reiterated that it was our duty to be involved politically, to understand the events that are happening now, and to believe in the country.

“There’s so much that we [the public] don’t know what’s happening,” Matalin said. “We didn’t know about Georgia coming, we didn’t know about people flipping on energy with the moratorium on offshore drilling being lifted last week. That sometimes we think that people are going to go into a panic. I don’t think we will. I have faith in our country.”

The dinner also helped spotlight the community businesses and donors who helped fund the Convocation.

“The foundation is very proud of this event,” Nicoson said. “Having said that, it still would not be possible without our thirty-one corporate sponsors. This dinner also is a way to thank them.”

At an invite only reception at the Missouri Theater Sept. 16, President Robert Vartabedian, former President James Scanlon and Vice President for University Advancement Dan Nicoson stood on stage and announced two large contributions to the Achieving Greatness campaign.  The two gifts were made known four days apart after the event had been planned.

“We were very surprised,” Vartabedian said. Vartabedian was made aware of the $1 million gift four days before the kick-off event while the Spratt gift was announced the afternoon just before.

“This campaign will do very positive things for current students and future students in years to come,” Vartabedian said. “We are all about transforming the lives of students.”

Associate Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs Jeanne Daffron attended the campaign event.

“I think [this campaign] brings new opportunities for us to do things that will move Western forward,” Daffron said.

The pledges will support the renovation and expansion of Western’s math and science facilitates including the construction of Remington Hall named in honor of Wes and Patsy Remington’s $5.5 million pledge to the campaign last October.  

“These contributions say a lot about other people and other organizations and businesses and their confidence and appreciation of our outcomes…the students and their achievements,” Daffron said.

Though the donor of the $1 million pledge wishes to remain anonymous, the gift is specified to be used to create an endowment to support activities in Remington and Agenstein halls after the expansion and renovations are complete. 

“The exact use of this annual endowment income may vary from year to year and the University will have to determine each year how the funds can best be used in support of science and mathematics,” Nicoson said.

The Leah Spratt Charitable Trust was named in honor of a 1921 St. Joseph Junior College graduate.  Joyce Rochambeau and Rene Rochambeau-McCrary are the trustees who made the $250,000 pledge administered by US Bank Wealth Management. 

The $1 million gift was the third seven-figure pledge in the campaign and the reported fourth largest gift in Western’s history.  

 

According to Linda Garlinger, the director of the MWSU career development office, about 95 percent of the students here work in the area.

“The perception is, that students and graduates can’t get jobs in the local community,” Garlinger said. “We are going to dispel that myth because it’s just not true. Last year alone we advertised over 1400 job opportunities for our students and graduates.”

There are many new programs on campus to help students land that most needed job. There is a new policy concerning the work study program on campus that is designed to increase the number of positions on campus and therefore increase on campus student employment.

Unlike the previous semesters, when 25 percent of the student’s paycheck came from the operating budget of the department, the paychecks now come, 100 percent, from the federal work study program’s monies.
Departments don’t get a complete free ride however.  They are responsible for the paychecks after the federal money runs out. Details are still being worked out on just how the departments may get advance warning when the funds begin to get low.

With the new “Hire a Griffon” campaign, the career development office is informing local employers of ways that their office can advertise a job opening for free on the MWSU web site and that hiring a griffon makes sense for their business.

Matthew Gregg, the new coordinator of career development, explained the purpose of this.

“This part of our office’s campaign is to benefit employers by educating them about the benefits of hiring our students and the benefits of using our campus,” Gregg said. “It was also developed to assist our graduates in finding careers locally.”

Garlinger elaborated on  what this will do for potential employers.

“We can accommodate the needs of potential employers such as resume books and space to facilitate on campus interviews,” Garlinger said.

One of the things that compound the perception that our students are not being employed locally is the notion that all of our students come from the immediate area.

After graduation it seems that most leave for jobs outside the local area.

“This is not the University of St. Joseph, it is a regional state university,” Garlinger said.

Her office holds statistics showing about 25 percent of incoming freshmen come from the St. Joseph, Missouri School District. Garlinger says that even if a percentage of incoming freshmen from outside the local school district wish to stay here after graduation, most graduates would rather return to their home area to start their careers.

So, if they come from St. Louis, Chicago, Springfield or wherever they are most likely to return.
This gives a false perception that our graduates cannot find a career here.

“In actuality,” Garlinger said, “we are just spreading the wealth.”

Seventy-eight percent of Western graduates stay in the state of Missouri according to Garlinger’s data.

“That shows how well we serve the community and state. When you use state money from the community and give back well trained and educated people, that says a lot about what this university has to offer,” Garlinger said.

All in all, about one third of the graduates of MWSU find careers in the local five county area around St. Joseph.  That is a higher percentage than the percentage of freshmen coming from St. Joseph each year. The top two areas of success are nursing and education.

Gregg started a new series of three workshops called “Hire Learning,” which started Monday, Sept. 16, in the student union.

The workshops are designed to help those students who are still looking for employment in the area get the jobs they seek.

The workshop activities include a guest speaker during the second week and a panel discussion of local employers on the third week.

For more information about the workshop, students can contact the office of career development (816) 271-4205 or e-mail Matthew Gregg at matthewgregg@missouriwestern.edu.

Gregg has been networking lately with his contacts of potential employers to locate job openings in the area that students can fill.

“I have been working with the St. Joseph Area Chamber of Commerce for years,” Gregg said. “They are a great source for businesses and employees to get together.”

The once congested hallways and lounge area of the union, formerly teeming with students, barely resemble the area today.

Greg Nikes, the manager of the bookstore on the first floor of the union, has noticed a big change in the union.

“You can tell the difference,” Nikes said. “It’s a lot quieter…for better or worse.”

The lack of noise and congestion is the result of an extensive construction and renovation process that is currently taking place within the union.

Aspects of this plan include the construction of a student information desk on the first floor, a re-design of the school cafeteria doors and windows, the creation of a side opening to the staircase and the construction of a new office for Student Development on the second floor.

The process first sprung out in the spring of 2008 when the Administration decided to implement an overhaul on the way the space is used.

Harold C. Callaway III, president of the student government association, explained that the construction was designed in order to make better use of the union.

“What we did is try to break the union up into sections,” Callaway said. “[We’re] taking out the leisure furniture [and] putting that in the food court where it could be accessible to students; we tried to replace it with some other stuff that would make it more of a study-type atmosphere and also break it up with an informational desk.”

The purpose of the information desk is to help give students, primarily first-year students, a more direct way in which they can get help finding their way around the university and accessing information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain.

Callaway stated that other avenues could be explored in the future.

“There [are] some other ideas that are being thrown around,” Callaway said. “We’re just working on a plan right now for that.”

Kathy Kelly, the administrative coordinator for student development, feels that this renovation will make the building more accessible and efficient not only to students and faculty but to anyone else who comes into the union.

“We would like to be able to answer all questions and not send people to several different offices to get questions answered,” Kelly said. “I believe [this process] will keep a positive environment in the union.”
Lonnie Johnson, the director of facilities for the physical plant, is overseeing the construction/renovation of the union.

He currently estimates that the downstairs construction will cost $40,000 and the upstairs construction will fall somewhere in the area of $28,000 to $30,000, making for an estimated grand total of $68,000 to $70,000.

The re-design of the school cafeteria doors and windows in the union is intended to clear the lounge area as much as possible.

Construction is currently underway in the hallway between the food court and the cafeteria, where the tile floor is being replaced with carpeting and the cafeteria doors are to be moved around the corner.
Duane Bruce, associate dean of student development, explained what is being done in those areas and why.

“The cafeteria doors are being moved from here to around the corner right down the hallway,” Bruce said. “The hallway is being carpeted. We’re doing that because we want to move the traffic from the cafeteria out of the reception. “

Bruce is also involved with the construction of a new office for student development, which started in June. Bruce feels that the current office, located at the back of the union, lacked accessibility for students.

“I didn’t feel like the…office belonged in the back of the union,” Bruce said. “I feel like it belonged in a place where students would have access to it. Obviously, visibility for this office is going to change dramatically.”

Other changes that have been made or are being made include the reconfiguration of the second floor into a study lounge, the addition of artwork in the area, more greenery in the building, and painting of the school colors in the hallways.

Bruce hopes that this new design will make the union more inviting and friendly to students and make them want to use the area that was designed for them.

The overall construction was supposed to be completed during the summer, so the students could have these new opportunities available to them in the fall.

However, Callaway explained how a few problems came up and put the project on hold.

“The project was put off for university administration issues that we had to get worked out with contracts…just typical stuff, nothing real big,” Callaway said. “They…are supposed to be done with it before the end of September. We’ll see if that comes to fruition.”

Regardless of these minor issues, the construction and renovation of Blum Union will ultimately serve the better interests of Missouri Western State University.

With a more accessible information center, student development office and more study-oriented lounge areas, these re-designs will make the union a friendly, more inviting place for students to study, be with friends and get help with student-oriented issues in a way they never could have

Due to newly passed illegal immigration legislation in Missouri, there will be an extra step in the loan disbursement process from now on. Students must provide proof of citizenship prior to the disbursement of funds.

“The benefits will truly outweigh the inconvenience for the students, providing them with additional funds that do not have to be repaid,” Kathy Feith, director of student financial aid said. “In a time when money is critical and tuition and fees are overwhelming at times to college students, these funds will provide relief for many students.”

The new law House bill 1549 went into effect August 28 and directly affected the state’s higher education and Missouri Access by revising laws regarding illegal aliens and immigration status verification.
According to Cynthia Spotts-Conrad senior coordinator of the financial aid office, as of Sept. 13 funds had been paid to 1,434 students amounting to $1,642,922 in funds.

However there are still 187 students who have not completed the process that will enable them to collect their financial aid. The pending funds are estimated to be at about $187,000 for the fall term. By state law, the students must provide the required documentation prior to disbursement.

Other than the end of the award year, there is no formal deadline to collect financial aid. Students should be aware that state funds are limited and should complete the process as soon as possible.

“Although there are some requirements implemented by the state, once the requirement is met the student will not have to provide this again, so the inconvenience is short-lived,” Feith said.

Most students became aware of the policy change because of an e-mail in their Groupwise accounts. It stated, “The state of Missouri recently passed legislation requiring ALL recipients of state financial assistance to provide proof of United States Citizenship prior to disbursement of funds.”

Students whose loans have not been applied to their accounts are encouraged by the Financial Aid office to check their e-mail for the notification to verify citizenship.

For Missouri Western this meant requiring all students to present “affirmative proof” prior to disbursement of scholarships or state grants.

Students without Missouri identification or a driver’s license could submit other forms of identification including a birth certificates, US passport, etc.

The verification process can be completed at the Business Office, Student Services or Student Development.
For many students the consequences of the new bill simply means longer lines in the financial aid office as they wait to have their proof of citizenship photo copied for verification. Some students even went so far as to delay the verification process in hopes that lines would lessen as more students completed the process.
Angela Clay, a social work and sociology major tried on three different days to complete verification in order to ensure the award of her funds.

“Have you seen the lines? Just to make a copy. Shouldn’t the FAFSA weed things out?” Clay said.

Despite the fact that all students who receive state aid must first complete a FAFSA, an application process which includes data matches with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

According to the Missouri Department of Education it “Forbids the use of the citizenship match process for any purpose other than determining eligibility for Title IV assistance. The statute specifically asks for documentation that confirms aliens’ lawful presence in the U.S. The majority of students for whom an ISIR is created are not aliens.”

Recipients of the Missouri Access program were among the students affected. Other programs affected include: the Bright Flight Scholarship, A Plus Program, Marguerite Ross Barnett Scholarship, Public Service Survivor Grant, Heroes Act Waiver, Vietnam Veteran’s Survivor Grant, Gear Up Scholarship, and Teacher Education Scholarship.

Starting June 30, Scanlon plans to move to North Carolina where he can be close to the beach every day. 
Scanlon began his career at Brown University in 1966. 

He taught at the University of Illinois and Southeast Missouri University. Having a Ph.D. in English, and by being an aficionado of Shakespeare, Scanlon has decided to write mystery novels upon retire­ment. Scanlon said Shakespeare’s plays show the meaning of life played out and he finds it fascinating that centuries after Shakespeare’s time, we still can’t figure it all out.

“When you confront mysteries, sometimes you can ultimately find the answers or solutions and sometimes you can’t,” Scanlon said.

Since Scanlon’s tenure began in February 2001, there have been many positive changes to Western.  Though Scanlon can not take credit for it alone, he believes the greatest accomplishment of his term was when Western became a university in 2005.

“Any accomplishment at Western is accomplished by we, not I,” Scanlon said.

Becoming a university topped Scanlon’s list of memorable accomplishments, but he said the greatest accomplishments are those of the students.  Scanlon said it is the success of the students while they are obtaining their degrees and what they do after they have them that have been the greatest accomplishment of his time.

“I am very proud of what happens here at Western,” Scanlon said.  “And we do it, I don’t do it.”
Dan Nicoson, vice president for University Advancement said, “I hope Scanlon has the opportunity to do exactly the things he intended to do during in his retirement.”

Nicoson has worked with Scanlon since he joined Western in 2004 but has had over 30 years experience working with upper administration.

“I’ve enjoyed working with [Scanlon] more than any other president in my career,” Nicoson said. “I have never met a man more committed to the achievement of quality at the institution or personally to ethics.”
Scanlon says he has no regrets as he approaches retirement but feels there is one goal that was left unaccompanied. 

“We have worked very hard over the past seven years to deal with the question of equitable funding for Western, and there is a wide difference in funding per student provided by the state of Missouri to the universities in Missouri,” Scanlon said. “We have worked to try to right that disparity.”

Scanlon said though they have chipped away at the problem and have lessened the disparity by about $2 million, there is still work to be done to have total equality.

“As they say, ‘justice delayed is justice denied,’ so justice is still denied,” Scanlon said. “But there has been progress.”

Western’s Provost Joseph Bragin said Scanlon has been a good leader in this institution.

“He had led the university into fulfilling its duties to its students, staff and the community it serves,” Bragin said.

Scanlon’s going away thoughts for the campus are for students, faculty and staff to “believe, truly believe this is an exceptional university.”  He said that when students see the accomplishments of others, that those accomplishments should be motivation for themselves.

“Students should believe in themselves that they can do that, or things similar to that,” Scanlon said.
In 1985 Scanlon became the Dean of the College Arts and Sciences and professor of English at Clarion University in Penn.  In 1993 Scanlon was named provost at Youngstown, Ohio.

Several systems were looked at and the university ultimately chose this one.

“This system will allow for a more timely notice to the campus community in the event of an emergency that might impact the community,” Kelley said.

Griffon Alert is designed to send urgent messages to the cell phones and e-mail addresses of students, faculty and staff members who wish to sign up for the service.

Situations in which a message will be sent include:

-Ongoing safety threats in which an armed or dangerous criminal is on campus
 
-Major facility emergencies or evacuations such as fires or gas leaks

-Severe weather or illness

-Timely notification of crime
On account of the limitations of text messaging, these messages will be brief and contain only vital information.
It requires no fees—only the regular charges made by each individual’s mobile phone provider for text messaging.
“We are hopeful that all campus community members will take advantage of the texting/e-mailing notification option,” Kelley said.

Dean of Student Services, Judith Grimes, said it is very critical to let students and faculty know that the service is there for them.

“The challenge with Griffon Alert is to get people to sign up for it,” Grimes said.

She encourages any students to make suggestions to help publicize this.

Students and employees are free to sign up at any time.

Those interested may visit www.missouriwestern.edu/griffonalert and follow the instructions for creating an account.
Each individual’s Western e-mail user name and password should be used.

After registering, a verification text message will be sent to each phone.

Signing up for e-mail alerts is an option, and one may choose to only sign up for an e-mail alert. Users are allowed to list up to two cell phone numbers and two e-mail addresses on their Griffon Alert account. The discussion about having something like this on campus started quite a few years ago, according to Grimes.

“It’s a huge monetary investment,” Grimes said.

“It shows the commitment of the institution.” In the future, some added element to the Griffon Alert emergency notification system may consist of indoor emergency beacons with audio and visual alarms, LCD text displays and text-to-voice enunciators.

There will also be various options for students with disabilities such as blindness or hearing loss.

For example, there may be flashing lights to alert students unable to hear a fire alarm.

The text/e-mail aspect of Griffon Alert is a big deal, but, “it’s just part of the bigger puzzle,” Grimes said.

These evaluations are taken during the last two weeks of each semester. By this time a student should have a good understanding of their instructors and how well they teach. Keep in mind however that this time when the bubbles are filled out it is for the MWSU Web site. Considering Senate Bill 389 signed by Gov. Matt Blunt the next evaluations may be the first to be published on the Web site for any student to check out before enrolling in fall ’09 classes.

“I am not comfortable with posting the evaluations on the Web site,” said Western senior Magen Mann.

“It seems like the information should be private and for instructors use. If I were an instructor I wouldn’t want everyone to know what my students thought of me.” The state of Missouri may be drifting along with the changing times. Not too many years ago a university with a Web site was rare. Now most every institution has their home page on the Web.

The idea of rating professors on the Internet is not new. Sites such as rateyourprofesor.com have been a part of the ever-changing landscape of technology since facebook became popular.

 “The problem with rateyourprofessor.com is that people can be brutal,” said Western freshman Robin Geniuk. “But the faculty still could use the information to improve as teachers.”

The Coordinating Board for Higher Education approved the filing of an administrative rule to implement these provisions of the new law at its Oct. 11, 2007 meeting. The rule has been filed and requires that institutions post general course information by Aug. 1, 2008 and that institutions post faculty evaluations to inform students registering for fall ’09 classes.

“Posting the faculty evaluations is not a bad idea but I prefer talking with other students that I trust to give me an honest opinion,” Willett said.

Those who have had classes for a while are very familiar with the process of filling in the appropriate bubbles with a number two lead pencil. The question is, do students understand how this piece of paper with its bubbles is used? On the front of the faculty evaluation form is a note to the student which reads:

“Student evaluation of instructors is used for improvement of instruction. The numerical ratings are used and the written comments may also be used, at the instructor’s option, for reappointment promotion, and tenure decisions. It is important that you answer fairly and honestly. Written comments are particularly helpful to your instructor. Your evaluation will not be seen by your instructor until course grades are determined. Your signature on the form is optional.”

Students often misread this note to the student. It may be interpreted as though the information is used “at the instructors option” and many instructors wish that were the case. It is a lie. These numerical ratings are used by administration to evaluate an instructor.

“We are expected to keep student faculty evaluation numbers at an average of between one and two,” associate professor Kenneth Dagel said. This rating is at the exceptional or above average level on the form.

The written script that is to be read by the instructor officiating over the evaluation process is not clear either.

It says the evaluation of instructors is used for improvement of instruction and for reappointment, promotion, and tenure decisions.

It doesn’t say who is using the information. Students may complete the form with the idea that they are helping the  instructor go for tenure, when actually these forms are used by administration not faculty.

The proposed 5.2 percent budget increase for Western’s next fiscal year will only slightly offset the equity deficiency. The offset, however small, is because Western’s increase is higher than the average state increase of 4.2 percent. State funding for Western was $5,301 per student last year, $641 below the state average of $5,942. Missouri Southern comes in behind Western at $4,887. With 3,999 FTE students, that $641 loss is equal to over $2.5 million.

Bruce Speck, president of Missouri Southern, feels that the only way to change the problem is for state legislature to realize the need for change.

On the other end of the spectrum is Truman, which receives $7,367 per FTE and Lincoln with $7,335.

This equity issue has been a problem for Western since the state changed the funding methods in the early 1980s.
Until the early 1980s, public higher education was funded by using a formula that totaled the number of credit hours generated by each institution and dividing that number by 12 (full time load); the result is called full-time equivalent (FTE) students. The percentage per school from the total number of FTE’s in the state was the percentage of funding received from the total higher education budget, excluding accommodations for universities with graduate programs and expensive medical schools.

Then in the early 1980s the legislature and the department of higher education decided to freeze the amount of funding at the last amount generated by the FTE percentage. That core amount would then only increase by a percentage instead of on an FTE basis. Thus, institutions that added many students would receive less per student, essentially dividing the pie into more and smaller slices.

“In 1980 Missouri Western was 12 years old and we were growing, as was Missouri Southern. Our numbers took off, but our core was set,” said Beth Wheeler, director of external relations at Western.

“We have grown much more consistently. In fact, some of the institutions who were frozen have decreased greatly, but their appropriation has stayed the same.”

That means the institutions that have decreased in numbers are now receiving a much higher per FTE slice of the pie. For example, the Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly the University of Missouri-Rolla) had 6,684 FTE students in 1981, and by 2004 that number had decreased to 4, 594. Dr. James Scanlon has been trying to resolve the equity issue since he became president of Western.

“I came here in 2001 and with the help of a lot of people, I’ve been working on that issue once it became clear to me that it was an issue,” Scanlon said.

“Probably the most significant result being wha the governor proposed in his three year plan, because that became an official recognition by the department of higher education, the governor and the general assembly that there was this issue.”

It is because the state recognized the issue that Western’s proposed increase is one percent higher than the state average. That one percent amounts to roughly $210,000. Rick Gilmore, interim vice president for financial planning and administration, is encouraged by Scanlon’s efforts. “Dr. Scanlon has been very diligent in getting equity for Western through all six years he’s been here. I don’t think anybody could have done a better job than Dr. Scanlon,” Gilmore said.

Twenty-five years after the core was frozen, Western has recovered about half of the loss caused by the freeze. “We have made progress since Dr. Scanlon has been here; he’s focused on it and encour aged legislators and we are getting closer. We were at more than $5 million, we’re now at $2.5 million,” Wheeler said.

The Missouri General Assembly passed Senate Bill 389 with an effective date of August ‘07, which requires all institutions of higher education to include faculty names, credentials and student ratings on their Web sites.

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed the bill in May of last year and is quoted on his office’s home page saying, “I applaud Senate members for taking this bold step to … introduce accountability measures … ”

“I don’t know if you have any more accountability,” said associate professor Kenneth Dagel. “We are still responsible to administration to achieve certain (student evaluation) numbers and if they do not believe we are doing a good job we probably won’t be here. That’s our accountability.”

The bill also requires institutions to list course schedules with the name of each instructor. Some campuses already comply with this part of the bill. The only thing that will be new is the faculty evaluation information. Students can use this new information to help select future classes based on fellow student’s approval ratings of instructors.

“Students don’t realize that instructors are not the same,” Dagel said. “They have to come up with different strategies for different professors. We talk about active learning; the students need to be actively involved.”

It is not clear what faculty evaluation information will be posted on the Web site. When our system is brought into compliance students may only find how many number three bubbles were filled in on the faculty evaluation sheet. This might tell you how many students thought the instructor was average.

The other end of the spectrum of possibilities is the tabulation of all the bubbles filled in each category along with any written comments from students.

“One of the things that is missing from the faculty evaluations is the GPA of the students doing the evaluation,” said professor Patrick McLear. “If you have a high GPA among students in a class you probably will have a higher evaluation.”
In some cases, the student evaluations are kept in personnel files. Sharing information that is held in instructor’s personnel files might be a violation of a professor’s employment agreement.

“There is little else to share in those files,” said Dagel. The only thing left that is not public knowledge is the annual written review generated by the department chair.

“If the integrity of teaching hasn’t already been undermined, this will do it,” McLear said.

Not everything about Senate bill 389 is controversial. Some of the other topics covered by the bill are increased funds for scholarships and provisions for tuition stabilization. The bill also enacts the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative.

The bills language also insist that the Web site include information about whether a professor or student teacher is instructing the course.

“That is a good thing,” said Dagel. “Students need to have that information.”
 

While construction of the new incubator is underway and a spring groundbreaking is scheduled for the math and science building, fine arts students and faculty want some upgrades, too.

Potter is on the priority list for capital improvement from the state of Missouri; however, it may be there a long while.
“The best we can hope for is four or five years,” said Beth Wheeler, director of external relations at Western. Wheeler feels it could be several years before state funds for the proposed renovations and expansion of Potter Hall are available.
“Capital is not high on the list when operating expenses cannot be met,” Wheeler said.

The cost attached to the Potter Hall proposal is $26 million, money the state is not able or willing to invest in capital improvements right now.

“There has been very little capital money from the state of Missouri in the last decade and very little beyond that,” said Dr. James Scanlon, Western’s president.

The last Western project funded through state capital dollars was the renovations to Murphy Hall and Eder Hall in 2000.
Built in 1969, Potter Hall houses the growing departments of music, art and theatre.

The building is bulging at the seams because enrollment has escalated beyond capacity.

“We’ve got double our choir and band enrollment from those in 1969 and majors have grown by 38 percent,” Wheeler said.
Western has now added a master’s program that will require even more unavailable space.

“We don’t have the space or the technology or the configuration of the building to accommodate those,” Wheeler said.

According to students, faculty and administration, Potter Hall is in need of renovation and expansion, especially because of the new master’s program.

“Until we can get a renovation and expansion, we’re doing a small renovation that will enhance art, theatre/video and music undergrad programs and provide space needed to begin the new master of applied arts degree,” said Dr. Matt Gilmour, chairperson for the department of music.

Students are also excited about the proposed renovations and expansion. “The biggest issue is room, said senior music major Javier Sanz. “Renovations will be completely awesome,” Sanz said.

Teachers, such as associate professor of art Geo Sipp, are looking forward to any renovations possible. “We’re just very eager to get going,” Sipp said. “We need to provide adequate current technologies for grad students and renovations this summer will provide us the opportunity to give our students the best instruction available.”

The renovation would include new classrooms, some with acoustic and soundproofing treatments, new lighting and sound systems, a new stage and new restrooms.

The expansion would include more seating in the performance hall, addition of art and music teaching studios, a large ensemble rehearsal hall, additional music practice rooms and space for exhibition of student artwork.

Some much needed storage space will also be added so the band instruments will have an inside room. The band has stored expensive instruments in a rented trailer for nearly a decade, which means moving the instruments in and out of Potter Hall every day for rehearsal.

More practice rooms would mean the end of rehearsals in stairwells.

While Potter Hall is a priority, Western’s campus would benefit from other capital improvements as well.

“There are an enormous number of things we could improve as capital projects. We would like to see more recreation facilities,” Provost Joseph Bragin said. Bragin would like to see more exercise facilities and facilities for students to hold major events.

“The students need to do something we could call co-curricular,” Bragin said.

While Western waits for capital funds for Potter Hall, there are other projects to appreciate. The Christopher S. Bond Technology Incubator, built with funds from a federal grant, is currently under construction, as anyone driving by can see, and the groundbreaking for Remington Hall is scheduled for this spring.

The roughly $38 million needed for the Agenstein renovation and Remington addition is not from state capital funds. The money is coming from a generous $5 million donation from Wes and Patsy Remington and from the Lewis and Clark Initiative.

“It (the Lewis and Clark Initiative) comes from the sale of selected assets of Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA),” Scanlon said.

The Research Park will lease the incubator from Western and manage it on behalf of the university by subleasing it to entrepreneurial tenants.

A master lease will outline the incubator’s conditions of use and explain how the Research Park Corporation benefits those it leases to. Also, the master lease would require the subleases to have stipulations regarding the profits of the tenants. Briggs explained that this structure was very common when looking at other incubators and research parks already established by universities.

“Should somebody hit on a project or an idea, the university will benefit. And that’s our quid pro quo for providing the incubation, or space, for them to develop these ideas,” Briggs said.

Once the MWSU Research Park Corporation is established the university will apply to the IRS on behalf of the not-for-profit organization for a 501c3, allowing businesses and individuals to make donations to the research park for a tax deduction. Getting the approval for a 501c3 takes between 6 and 8 months, but this will not hold up the entrepreneurs from entering into of any leases. Lining up prospective tenants and marketing the building continues to be the work of the steering committee.

The not-for-profit organization aims at facilitating student and faculty research, and developing business and economic opportunity in the region.

The management of the Research Park Corporation is presently designed to be a committee of seven members, four appointed by the board of governors and three appointed by the Institute of LifeSciences.

“Should, and hopefully this will happen, the next Google occur in the Bond Incubator, the university, through the foundation, will receive a percentage of the success,” said Steve Briggs the university attorney.

Also in light of the incubator’s opening and anticipated success, the board discussed a potential change in the school’s alcohol policy. The policy amendment would create a three-person committee that would approve the presence of alcohol at some social events.

Board member Dan Danford pointed out that Western has been passed over for some banquets and receptions because it did not allow alcohol and suggested that this change would signify that Western was growing up as an institution.

This is not a new issue, as senior board member Patt Lilly pointed out. The idea had been brought up during the planning of Western’s Fulkerson Center, before its intended location was changed and the building was constructed closer to classrooms.

Lilly is concerned with the proximity of the alcohol to student classrooms and the kind of message it sends to the campus.
“I don’t consider myself a tea-totaler when it comes to the discussion of this issue,”

Lilly said, “but I think what we ought to take baby steps, start off with a fairly narrow policy regarding where alcohol is served and then expand it if necessary.”

University attorney, Steve Briggs, was placed in charge of drafting a policy for the board to consider. Possible suggestions for members of the three person committee included a member of the board of governors, a faculty member and the campus police chief. Potentially, the responsibility of the decision would rest on the title of the person on the committee rather than the committee member themselves. Both the University of Missouri and the University of Central Missouri already have in place similar policies on alcohol.

Construction of the incubator is on schedule and is scheduled to open before president Scanlon leaves in the spring.
 

Change is coming to Missouri Western’s campus with the addition of Remington Hall. One change that has been up in the air for sometime is the Einstein Bagel, which is to be put in the new atrium, and the existence of the hot dog cart in downstairs Agenstein.

In charge of the Einstein Bagel addition is a company on campus called Aramark. Aramark is in charge of handling the schools catering and food sources. Jim Maides, head of Missouri Western’s Aramark, has been seeing out the entire operation.

The choice to go with Einstein Bagel was one that Maides felt would be both fun and beneficial to our campus in the new Remington Hall.

“Einstein offers food for every meal, you get breakfast through dinner items there which is convenient for the students,” Maides said.

One other option for a food venue was Chic-Fil-A which to Maides didn’t seem as good due to the more lunch and dinner oriented menu.

“Besides, the idea of an Einstein Bagel in a science hall is a fun idea,” Maides said.

The plans for the Einstein Bagel have been coming along well. The school has already received its store number from Einstein Bagel and the franchising fees, which cost Aramark about $10,000, will be paid for in full this month.

“With bringing a restaurant to a college campus you have to weigh out your cost benefit, sure you have franchising but your students are busy and on campus monday through friday where they can use these establishments,” Maides said, “for a college campus your worst time for business is on the weekend when students are eating out. Now for a business off campus your slow time is the weekdays till the weekend, these are all things we have to consider when bring an establishment to our campus.”

Besides the questions arising about the new Einstein Bagel, the other question is what about the hot dog cart? Students in Agenstein Hall have grown accustomed to the hot dog cart and the friendly face of Linda Gentry, who runs the hot dog cart. While no one really knows where the hot dog cart will end up after Einstein Bagel is up and running, they do know the hot dog cart will just be relocated to a different area of Agenstein for now. Linda Gentry has created many great relationships with students over the years and with the new addition to the building, she doesn’t want that to stop her from creating the lasting relationships she is known so well for.

“If they move me to Einstein, it will be a big step for me, but I’m going to do my best to grow and use it to meet new kids and build these relationships,” Gentry said.

Maides and the rest of the staff in charge of this renovation understand that keeping students happy and helping the campus grow is very important. Maides is very confident that Einstein Bagel will bring nothing but good things to this campus.

As for the hot dog cart, he assures us that it’s not going anywhere and neither is Linda Gentry.

Williams will start May 1 at the latest and said he expects to be on campus much sooner. The seven-month process that started over once and reached another dead end, is finally concluded by the Friday press conference and contract agreement.

Williams received his bachelor’s in physical education and his master’s in educational administration at North Dakota State. 

Williams has the credentials to potentially be a very good leader for Westerns athletic department. He has sustained roles as the AD at UW-P since 2001. Williams was an assistant basketball coach at Augustana (S.D.), North Dakota State and Parkside, before entering administration.  

In addition, Williams has been the president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.  Williams also stressed in previous interviews that as the head of the DII athletic directors association, he has seen a variety of examples  and similarities that he can adapt to working at Western.

 Scanlon and the committee a found many similarities between William’s previous AD position with University of Wisconsin- Parkside and Western.  Both schools accommodate about the same number of non-traditional, minority and full-time students, and are Division II universities. 
“We had an especially strong group of finalists, and Dave certainly represented he was worthy of the title of Griffon,” Dr. Scanlon said.

“It’s really eerie how similar the two universities are,” he said. “The one big difference is Western has more campus life. That’s one of the big reasons I took this job,” Williams said.

Williams said Western was going to make Spratt Stadium “a great place to watch a game” and promised VIP seating and other upgrades. During his press interview, he added he will sit down with members of every Western program to figure out each sports’ current needs. He  will do whatever it takes to fulfill them. Then Williams followed with a promise to shake as many hands, eat as many fundraising meals and make as many phone calls as necessary to raise money for those improvements including fundraising for Western’s Max Experience.

Nicoson, Western’s vice president for the university advancement and screening committee chair felt the Max Experience is important to Western and Is confident Williams will take it in stride.

“The Max Experience produces approximately $400,000 a year, and we cannot make improvement to the stadiums for that amount of money,” Nicoson said.  “We have to take some time until the funds cover it, and fundraising is a major role.”
Last season, Parkside ranked 58th in the Director’s Cup Standings. This was a ranking of the university’s success in all of its sports. Missouri Western ranked significantly lower at 128th.

The recommendation must be approved by the House, the Senate and the Governor to guarantee the 5.2 percent budget increase for fiscal year 2009. 

If signed, the increase will be the second of three appropriations increases; the first 5.5 percent increase was part of the budget for fiscal year 2008, which runs from July 1, 2007-June 30, 2008.

Western will receive nearly $23.52 million in state appropriations, slightly less than originally anticipated.

Dr. James Scanlon, Western’s president, is pleased with the increase compared to other universities.

“We’re getting one percent above what the average increase in funding is for the public four year universities; 4.2 is average, we’re getting 5.2,” Scanlon said.

Even with the increase last year, Missouri ranks 47th in the nation in appropriations per capita for higher education, followed by Colorado, Vermont and New Hampshire.

“The state of Missouri cannot build a strong economy or a strong society going forward funding higher education at the level of 47th in the nation,” Scanlon said. “When you are funded at the level of 47th in the nation, it’s hard to be anything else but very lean. So, when the cuts come, you’re not cutting fat, you’re in the bone.”

Budget cuts are very likely in the future for Western. “It does appear that similar clouds are on the horizon that ultimately dominated the horizon in 2001 and succeeding years,” Scanlon said. In those years, there was a 10 percent budget cut, and then a two percent increase and then it did not change for three years.

The following year (FY2008), the increase was 5.2 percent. Richard Gilmore, associate vice president for financial planning and administration at Western, recalls cutting into the bone. “We took a very large hit in fiscal year 2002 when  they withheld money we were suppose to get then the very next year we took a 10 percent cut,” Gilmore said. “Missouri took one of the biggest hits in the nation.”

Total appropriations in FY 2002 were $21.9 million, and then with the 10 percent cut appropriations dropped by more than $2 million. With the proposed 5.2 percent increase for next year, Western would barely move beyond where it was in FY 2002.

Western survived the cuts by using reserve funds, wisely. “Dr. Janet Murphy left us with good reserves that helped us enormously manage the cuts we received,” Scanlon said.

The reserve fund will be necessary should the budget fall under the axe again. “We maintain a strong reserve so that, it is not an if, it is a when, when the next downturn comes, the university is in a position, we’ll be able to manage the financial situation,” Scanlon said.

In anticipation of potential cuts, Western has built its reserves up to approximately $7.8 million. Provost Joseph Bragin feels reserves are necessary to prepare for another set back. “We are going to have to plan for a bad situation,” Bragin said.
If state appropriations were cut 10 percent as they were in 2002, the loss to Western would equal $2.35 million, a lot of bone. To alleviate the cut, Western could increase tuition. However, because of Senate Bill 389, tuition could not be increased by more than the current Consumer Price Index (CPI), which most of us know as inflation. The current CPI is 4.1 percent; each one percent increase in tuition equals about $120,000. That adds up to about $500,000 to make up for the $2.35 million cut.

State appropriations and tuition comprise 97 percent of Western’s total operating budget of roughly $46 million.