Wednesday, November 28, 2012
94th year • Issue 15
Rockets victorious in Reno tourney / 8 Serving the University of Toledo since 1919
Inside
www.IndependentCollegian.com
Financial worries
UT facing budget cuts Administration looking for ways to balance next year’s budget By Danielle Gamble News Editor
Students ready to put on their dancing shoes for Yule Ball / 3
The University of Toledo could be facing deep cuts as administrators look to close a projected shortfall in next year’s budget that could be as high as $36 million. President Lloyd Jacobs said the shortfall is due to the current hard economic times
and predicted increases in cost of living and inflation. He said he is assuming inflation will be about 2.5 percent next year. “All we can do is try to reduce our cost base and increase our revenue,” he said. “I don’t believe this to be terribly different from what we do every year. We’ve been in
this boat of trying to hold costs down for a decade in the state of Ohio, and this is sort of tougher. I think 2014 is going to be a difficult year, but it’s not something completely unusual.” Jacobs said he hopes UT can bring in more revenue by increasing enrollment, but the school is also going
through the hard process of looking at cuts. In addition to the work on next year’s budget, administrators say they may need to trim $13 million in the second half of this fiscal year. “You want to remember that budgeting is not about arithmetic, it’s not about adding up columns,” Jacobs said.
Relay for Life 2012
Men’s basketball splits games in tournament play / 8
UT rallies to fight cancer
UT professor may be in top 10 for award
Repairs to the roof of the Student Union Building should be finished within two weeks, according to the university facilities and construction department. Maintenance work manager Tim Kreft said repairs that began early this month were necessary to stop leaking in Rocky’s Attic. He said repairs were scheduled this month to prevent harsh winter weather from worsening the already damaged roof.
Open forums
Students voicing opinions at forums this week Staff Reporter
In brief
Student Union Building roof construction scheduled to be finished in two weeks
See Budget / 7
By Michael Gammo
It’s not just about the exams / 4
University of Toledo business professor Clint Longenecker appears to be in the top 10 for an international award. Longenecker was nominated by several former students for the Business Professor of the Year award, sponsored by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which is connected to The Economist magazine. According to the contest’s website, business professoraward.com, votes are still being verified and the list of finalists will be announced the week of Dec. 17. But the current tally on the site shows Longenecker in ninth place, with 1,555 votes.
“It is about making difficult decisions, and we’re at a place where we have to make difficult decisions between things that are good and deciding which to prioritize.” Jacobs said the highest budgeting priority will be on
Bob Taylor / IC
Brandi Conners, a senior majoring in nursing and volunteer for Relay for Life, sells a T-shirt to Eslon Caswell, a sophomore art education major, yesterday in the Student Union Building.
Students raise funds for Friday’s Relay for Life By Nell Tirone Staff Reporter
Students and community members will walk to fight cancer in the annual Relay for Life event starting 6 p.m. Friday at the track course in the Student Recreation Center. This year’s event, called the “Relaylympics,” begins with an Olympic-themed opening ceremony and ends 12 hours later. The theme will continue with an Olympic-style march of the teams and the five Olympic rings will also be displayed. Other events at Relay for Life will include volleyball, a basketball activity, broomball tournaments, a danceoff and a costume contest. Sixty teams of about 800
participants from Greek, student and religious student organizations have signed up so far, but Joshua Smith and Tyler Moore, cochairs of UT’s relay, expect that number to rise to 1,000 to 1,200 people. “Being college students, it is somewhat uncommon for people of our age group to have gone through a battle with cancer themselves,” Smith said. “However, it also surprises me how many students have been affected by cancer in some way. I believe it is important to get involved in relay in order to advance the fight against cancer for our generation and future generations.”
File Photo by Dean Mohr / IC
Participants form a lap around the track in the 2010 Relay for Life.
Students are not the only ones who can participate in UT’s Relay for Life. Residents of the greater Toledo area are also invited to join the event, as are UT faculty and staff. A faculty, staff and alumni relations committee was formed this year to increase staff participation in the event. “Faculty has been involved in the past, but not as much
as we would like them to,” Smith said. One special lap featured in the event is the survivor lap, meant to honor those who have battled cancer and won. The second special lap featured is the luminaria, a ceremony held in the dark. Participants can decorate a See Relay / 6
Dean of Students Michelle Martinez is hosting open forums this week for all students who wish to voice opinions or make suggestions about how the student experience at UT could be improved. Martinez said the goal of the sessions is to get the views of a diverse sample of UT students. Martinez said she came up with the idea for having open forums after students raised objections earlier this semester to the proposed relocation of the Sexual Assault Education and Prevention office. This indicated the need for more dialogue between students and UT administrators, she said. Forums have been occasionally held at UT in the past, but Martinez said they were mainly topic-specific. “There are town hall meetings held in residence halls, but since more than 75 percent of the student population are commuters, those meetings do not get the full spectrum of UT student opinions,” she said. Martinez said she plans to hold this type of forum every semester and hopes it will become a UT tradition. One of the topics being discussed this week is the implementation of a onestop shop for information on ways for students to get involved at UT. The idea, proposed by Martinez and Virginia Speight, interim director of residence life, involves a kiosk or information station that could provide students with details about various internships, study abroad programs and student organizations. Martinez said she and Speight are looking for student input about how the information station should be designed and where it should be located. Students at Monday’s forum discussed campus safety and improving communication on campus between students and administrators, as well as communication between student organizations See Forums / 7