THE WICHITAN The Student Voice of Midwestern State University
Wednesday Feb. 21, 2007
Library fines skyrocket to nearly $75,000 in 2006 THE WICHITAN STAFF Fines at Moffett Library soared to nearly $75,000 last year, most of it uncollected. The library racked up record fines totaling $74,728.59 for 2006. Of this amount, only $20,251.74 was collected. Fines include checked-out property that either has been lost, stolen or not returned. This amount compares with fines of $19,985.35 in 2005. The library collected $18,609.87 of that amount. Jason Brezina, circulation department manager of Moffett Library, said he found the difference alarming. Brezina said he has tallied 682 double-sided pages of fines going back to the year 2000. About 40 stu-
dents are listed on each page. “All this adds up to a lot of money,” Brezina said. He attributed part of the problem to the administrationʼs policy of no longer allowing the library to put holds on registration if fines are not paid. It used to send holds to the registrar, where a hold would block the student from registering for classes. The library is the only place that doesnʼt do holds anymore. Holds are still placed on a student if he has an unpaid parking ticket. “A lot of them (students who owe fines) ignore their (overdue) notices,” Brezina said. “Students think they can borrow books and keep them. Without our ability to put a hold on them, they just leave and donʼt have to worry about it.”
Brezina said the library was ordered not to put holds on anyone anymore, which in the past could prevent them from enrolling or graduating. “Kind of a touchy subject right now this semester,” he said. The library circulation department keeps tabs on every student who checks out books, movies, music and electronic equipment. Everything in the library is documented on a database. The library even has inventory days where the workers go through shelves to make sure every book in the computer is actually on the shelf. If a book is missing then the database can track it to the last person and levy an appropriate fine. Library fines range from 25 cents
a day for books to $1 a day for media items. A default price of $25 has been set for books whose purchase price is unknown. The price for losing a digital camera ranges from $200 to $900. The price for a projector is $3,000. When a student loses an item from the library, additional fees are added to their total payments. The student must pay the price of the item, the maximum fine and a $15 processing fee. There has been no official decision yet on how the uncollected fines will be handled. Police Chief Michael Hagy said his office would not be involved in the collection of fines.
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ADRIAN MCCANDLESS | THE WICHITAN Jason Brezina looks upon the stacks of library fines that have been accumulated throughout 2006.
Rec center update given KONNIE SEWELL COPY EDITOR
Joey Greenwood, kinesiology instructor and director of the future Recreational Sports/Wellness Center, made an appearance at the Student Government Association meeting Tuesday night to tell the senators how progress on the new athletic facility is going. A student referendum was held in 2004 and Greenwood said 84
percent of students said yes to the Wellness Center. The current Vinson Health Center will be moved into the Wellness Center facility, as well as all recreational sports, the weight room and fitness classes. Greenwood said construction will begin in about two and a half months. The facility will be ready in fall of 2008. Greenwood played a video with an interactive model of the building.
“This video can show you a thousand times better than what I could explain,” he said. The video showed a large, twostory building situated at the intersection of Midwestern Parkway and Louis J. Rodriguez Drive, between Sikes Lake and the practice soccer field. A dominant architectural feature of the center will be the large glass windows. “All of the windows are on the
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Profs say hang up or get out ROBERT FOX FOR THE WICHITAN No, they donʼt want to know how cool your ring tone is. Amidst the ever-present distractions and challenges of teaching, cell phones are one distraction professors are taking a stand against. Dr. Roxanne Gooch, associate professor of accounting, and Dr. George Diekoff, chair of the psychology department, stand at the more forgiving end of the spectrum. They said they remind students on the first day of class to keep phones on vibrate and quietly excuse themselves from class for truly important calls. “Most students remember (to put
phones on silent) and everybody at some point forgets,” Diekoff said. “Itʼs not just the students; itʼs me too. I can hardly throw stones.” Gooch said she has forgotten to t u r n down her
ringer v o l ume too. But, when cell phones go off, the person shuts the ring off as quickly as possible
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Wrestling with words
HERSHEL SELF | THE WICHITAN
Roderick Hawkins and Jamell Yarbrough hustle the airwaves with their musical beats.
Pavement 2 Platinum
KRYSTLE CAREY MANAGING EDITOR
But for 21-year-old business major Roderick Hawkins and 20-year-old Jamell Yarbrough, the music industry ou can hear the two MSU is more than just a game. Itʼs a “husstudents rap nightly over tle.” musical beats and adver“Every day is a hustle,” Hawkins tisements among the main- said. “The harder you work the more stream rotation of 103.9 FM, you will receive.” Wichita Fallsʼ hip-hop influenced raThe words of wisdom were passed down from Scarface, a Houston rap dio station. Their independent hit single “Hat- legend, when the pair of cousins erblockers” has even garnered radio opened a concert for the icon last spins on stations in Dallas, Miami spring. Not only did the relatives acand Arizona. Plans for a video shoot quaint themselves with “Face,” but are also in the works and solo proj- they also established connections ects from the duo are soon to pop at a See Platinum page 6 party or car trunk near you. IGNACIO CRUZ STAFF REPORTER
Y INSIDE
and is generally embarrassed, she said. She said it is distracting when one goes off, but so is constant coughing. They agree when a cell phone goes off, the best plan is to plow forward and avoid causing a scene. At the polar opposite end of the spectrum, Dr. Michael Vandehey, associate professor of psychology, and Dr. Jim Sernoe, chair of the mass communications department, reserve the right to embarrass careless cell phone owners. All Sernoeʼs syllabi have a paragraph on cell phones which ends “I reserve the right to embarrass you mercilessly if your cell phones/ beepers/pagers make noise during class.”
ADRIAN MCCANDLESS | THE WICHITAN
Some students have difficulty in math, others in science, but for some students, their struggles lie in how they speak. Whether they cannot pronounce certain letters or make proper use of pronouns, the students most concerned with such problems are education majors. If these students cannot speak correctly, they are likely to pass their bad habits down to their future pupils. One woman, however, is ready to help. Anita Beeks, speech-language pathologist, is on contract with the Education Department to help students working toward teacher certification. Beeks works with these students in three different areas: speech therapy, accent modification and grammar improvement. “It isnʼt all just speech therapy,” she said. “A lot of people think all I do is speech therapy, but I address all three areas.”
Anita Beeks helps students who are working toward teacher certification.
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‘Ghost Rider’
‘Marie Antoinette’
Ultimate Frisbee
This Nicholas Cage film does not give the comic justice.
New DVD release is not what Sofia Coppola fans might expect.
Group of students play frisbee to relieve stress.
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