Fest of Culture
pg. 5
The MSU community celebrated a day filled with culture during the annual Caribfest.
Bringing Heat
pg. 8
The cross country team placed second during Cross Country Carnival.
wichitan
ht e Wednesday — October 10, 2012
thewichitan.com — your campus / your news
Rogers, faculty respond to anonymous letter Brittney cottingham editor-in-chief
According to the Wichitan faculty survey sent to department heads on Oct. 8, open communication with faculty, staff and students is how President Jesse Rogers could improve his performance. Seventy faculty members replied to our survey. Rogers’ performance came under question after an anonymous email was sent to all faculty and staff criticizing his administration. The letter, from “A Representative Sample of Your Faculty,” condemned Rogers’ relationship with the faculty, the increasing cost of tuition, increasing admission standards and his lack of support for distance education. “One never likes criticism, but certainly one in a leadership position has a lot of responsibility,” Rogers said. “The faculty is at the
top of my list to take care of, but I can’t fix everything at one time. I think over time people will see I will be successful in taking care of the university.” The letter accused Rogers, who has been university president for 11 years, of being a status quo president. Yet, 39.3 percent of faculty surveyed disagreed with that statement. Rogers said he found the comment an unusual criticism. “I interpreted status quo to be someone who keeps things as they are, but I’ve seen more changes in this university in the years that I’ve been here more than I’ve ever seen before,” Rogers said. “I am anything, but a status quo president. In fact, I will probably take risks to make this university better that I’m not even comfortable with.” Charles Bultena, associate professor of management, said he
was surprised by the anonymous letter, but did not feel it in any way a representative sample of the faculty. “My perception as a long-time member of the Faculty Senate is that the faculty are generally supportive of Dr. Rogers,” Bultena said. “Most feel he has done his best to navigate the challenges of the past few years in such a way as to minimize the impact on students, faculty and staff.” Bultena said the anonymous letter wasn’t a productive way to communicate with the administration. “Every faculty member has representation on the Faculty Senate to voice any concerns they have,” Bultena said. “The Senate addresses faculty concerns brought to its attention and brings these issues to the president and
ROGERS pg. 3
Q.: Jesse Rogers supports the university as much as he should.
Fifty-five faculty members responded to the above question in a campus-wide faculty survey conducted by the Wichitan. To view all results from the survey, as well as detailed answers from faculty about changes necessary at MSU, visit www.thewichitan.com Graph by HANNAH HOFMANN
Admin discusses budget downfall Faculty salaries to increase despite hard budgetary times Brittney cottingham
MAKAYLA KINNEY RUTH FITZGERALD-BLACK Staff WriterS
Joey Greenwood, dean of university wellness and director of recreational sports, did not normally attend Board of Trustee meetings, but a meeting in August of 2009 was different. A man dressed fully in an army uniform made his way up to the podium with the help of a young man pushing him in a wheel chair. This Vietnam veteran spoke about the battle and how he fought for the right as Americans to consume tobacco products at one’s free will. He was a smoker. An MSU alumnus took the stand next. She smoked her first cigarette outside a dorm on campus during the stress of finals and proceeded to smoke for 20 years. She was a quitter. After hearing both people speak, the fate of the tobacco policy on campus seemed to be up in the air. Greenwood said he was pleased to hear the votes were in favor of a tobacco-free campus. He said he looked forward to providing a healthier and safer environment for students, faculty and staff to live, to work and to learn. “If we are going to be a tobacco-free campus, it was our responsibility to promote a healthy campus,” Greenwood said. That day, Aug. 7, 2009, MSU became the first four-year university with a tobacco-free campus policy. It became effective in Jan. 1, 2010. Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, stated the intentions for the smoking ban are
to promote a “safe, healthy and pleasant environment for the campus community.” The original proposal was made by Lamb based on the 2006 Surgeon General’s report that stated: 1) Second-hand smoke has adverse effects on non-smokers who share the same space with smokers. 2) There is no safe level of cigarette smoke, a Class A carcinogen. 3) Bans are more effective than restrictions on decreasing the initiation of smoking, promoting tobacco cessation, and limiting exposure to tobacco. (Prop. 4.163, Appendix D, Sect. D) According to the smoking ban, it is the responsibility of all staff, faculty and campus community to enforce the MSU smoking ban. Since the ban was implemented in 2009, students, staff and faculty have had mixed emotions on the protocol for which the smoking ban is supposed to encompass. Even with knowledge of the policy, students are still seen smoking on campus outside of buildings or walking to class with a cigarette in hand. Sophomore radiology major Kevin Ruddy said people are going to rebel no matter what the rules are. “I see people smoking all the time and no one does anything about it. There’s no easy way to enforce it,” Ruddy said. Greenwood acknowledges that there are still those who do smoke on campus, but he said that there is a greater consciousness about the issue. “There has been a greater awareness that we are a tobacco-free campus,” he said. “We
editor-in-chief
Nicole Kutzer smokes on campus. Photo by KERRI CARTER
didn’t want to be abrasive to the students but more peer educational.” Sydney Flynn, an undeclared sophomore, said she was unaware of campus being tobacco free. She said she sees students smoking on campus on a daily basis, but it does not affect her. “It doesn’t bother me either way, but I understand why they would want it to be tobacco free,” Flynn said. Breanne Sill began her trek at MSU in 2009, the same year the smoking ban was implemented. Sill suffers from both an allergy to tobacco in general and has severe allergies that cigarette smoke infuriates when she is in close proximity to the source. According to Sill, she has never really been bothered by the presence of smokers, even those
that sometimes congregate at the entrances to buildings. “As long as they aren’t blowing smoke in my face, I couldn’t care less,” Sill said. “Even so, I would be smart enough to not walk in the direction of a smoker, so it’s never really been an issue.” Sill also said she believes students should be allowed to smoke, if not only in designated areas, because they are going to do it anyway. “They have an addiction,” she said. “I don’t think it is right that the university has implemented a ban on smoking all together.” Not all students are as laid back about being tobacco-free and not all comply with the rules.
SMOKE pg. 3
On Monday, university president Jesse Rogers told faculty members that Midwestern is not in great budgetary times. From budget cuts from the state of Texas to the increasing of unfunded mandates and the drop of enrollment that cost the university $2.5 million, Rogers said MSU has lost $12.6 million over the last two years. A lot of things have changed since August when the administration developed the university budget. The drop of enrollment has forced Rogers and his administration to create alternatives to balance the budget. “Perhaps I’ve made a mistake in trying to encourage you too much in where we are going because I’ve had these [budget] fears all along as I watched the action in Austin,” Rogers said. “I knew it was going to be difficult.” He said what the university is currently faced with budget-wise is significantly worse than what he expected. MSU is faced with a $1.7 million deficit this year that the administration has to fix before November. Despite the dramatic drop in financing, Rogers said he does not want faculty looking over their shoulders. The university has plans to increase the faculty base salary while balancing the budget. “I want [faculty] to keep a belief in this university,” he said. “Keep belief in me and the administration that we can operate this university in a high-quality way, but there is no doubt that we have a lot of thinking and planning to do.” The 2010-2011 academic year was the last time the faculty had a salary increase of three percent. Compared to other master level intuitions, Midwestern is below
average in professor and associate professor salaries. The average professor salary is $82,184 and $66,376 is the associate professor average salary. The assistant professor salary is above average with $60,629. “It’s great, but it needs improvement,” he said. Rogers said the key is reducing university funds this year by delaying facilities projects, using gift funds and slowing staff hirings all by $200,000 each. About $500,000 is needed a year to balance the $1.7 million budget and Rogers presented faculty salary enhancement plan proposal. The first plan to increase faculty salaries, professors who teach next summer will be given a pay cut. “The funds would be probated over existing salaries in each of the colleges and the deans would be asked to distribute the program share of that money with the faculty of the college,” Rogers said. “It will be based on the rank and equity.” The total savings based on summer 2012 would be $400,000. “The money from the cut is going back into faculty-base salaries, but the first year the $500,000 is going to come out of the current summer budget,” he said. “We are asking [the faculty] for support. We are in this together. Our objective is to try and raise the nine-month salary and go to predictable summer rate.” Rogers said professors who are depending on summer classes and overloads aren’t in a good situation. “I’d rather see larger ninemonth contracts that [the faculty] can count on,” he said. “In addition, there will be summer and overload work, but don’t forget we’re adding $1.5 million to the pool of money in order to balance the budget by immediately putting it into next year’s salary. ”
FACULTY pg. 4