Mad for Chad
pg. 5
Mad Chad, a juggler throwing knives and chainsaws, entertained the crowd with his dangerous antics.
Tough Losses
pg. 7
The volleyball team suffered two major losses during Homecoming weekend.
wichitan
ht e Wednesday — October 17, 2012
thewichitan.com — your campus / your news
Faculty Senate rejects proposed salary cuts Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan criticized by faculty Brittney cottingham editor-in-chief
On Thursday, in a roll-call vote, the Faculty Senate unanimously rejected the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan with 23 negative votes and one abstention. The Senate held a meeting open to the MSU community to address the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan presented by University President Jesse Rogers and other senior administrators on Oct. 8.
Vice-chair Kathleen Roberts made the motion to endorse the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan, which led to the panel discussion. Chair James Owen invited members of the audience to address their concerns to the Faculty Senate. According to the Senate minutes, some faculty stated some summer faculty would not teach if the compensation package is not adequate. Others said the math given in Rogers’ proposal on Monday did not add up. “How can $500,000 be split among six colleges and cover a 4
percent raise,” one faculty member asked during the discussion. The senators themselves did discuss the plan – some said the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan was “a shell game with a lot of smokes and mirrors.” Other commentary from the Senate on the Enhancement Plan included an overall lack of faith that the administrators can take the required steps to make the 4 percent pool. At the meeting, many eligible faculty for the Voluntary Separation Program said they felt unappreciated and they were being pushed out. The Senate then voted in favor
of the following position statement: “While the Faculty Senate rejects the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan as written, the Faculty Senate acknowledges the financial needs of the university and wishes to participate in developing alternative plans to meet these needs.” Rogers said he acknowledged the recommendation of the Faculty Senate. “I am pleased that the Faculty Senate clearly recognizes that we need a short-term and long-term financial plan,” he said. “I am pleased they want to work with us on developing it.”
With an open discussion with faculty members, many voiced their concern about the Enhancement Plan, especially involving capping of summer faculty pay. With the $1.7 million deficit this year that must be fixed before November, the senior administrators proposed a professor pay cut for next summer in order to increase the nine-month faculty salary. Many members of the Senate and professors who spoke at Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting were outraged by this suggestion. “I told the faculty that the plan was a draft,” Rogers said. “In fact,
it was recommended by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the deans that meet with the entire faculty to begin discussion of the draft plan.” Rogers said the administration separately intend to visit each college as soon as they can schedule it and then they would work with the Faculty Senate to finalize the plan. “Of course we considered possible backlash from the proposed capping of faculty summer salaries,” Rogers said. “However, I made it clear that we were doing
SENATE pg. 3
Paint the town maroon Photo by HANWOOL LEE
From the lip sync competition to celebrating the sixth birthday of Maverick T. Mustang, the 2012 Homecoming week showcased campus-wide school spirit. The Homecoming Torchlight parade brought students together from various student organizations from Gamma Phi Beta to the men’s soccer team to participate in the annual bonfire – scorching the t-shirts of rival universities.
FOOTBALL pg. 8
Photo by KERRI CARTER
VISUALS pg. 4
Campus gets connected Fraud controversy overshadows Hannah Hofmann Editor-In-Chief
The campus wireless network has been shut down the week of Oct. 15–19 to make Internet available across campus. Information Technology started phase one of the project on Monday, which focuses on upgrading the network core hardware. The hardware controls all the wireless access points around campus, approximately 110 access points, according to Michael Dye, chief information officer. During phase one 10 access points will be added to to campus. Dye said he is hoping by the fall of 2013 the campus will be 100 percent covered, with 225
access points. “You come outside to the courtyard by the fountain, and you go over to Clark Student Center and maybe you have to go over to the Wellness Center and you have a continuous signal all the way through and across that,” Dye said. Dye said the hard part of this process was not having students log-in and out of the wireless Internet network, just because they changed campus locations. “When you left one location and went over to south-campus for instance, you don’t have to put your username and password in again. It’s still going to remember, ‘oh yeah, you’re on.’”
To achieve this goal, the project is still waiting for approval of additional funding for phase two of $250,000 by the Board of Regent, according to Dye. Phase one is also upgrading the Network Access Control. “This is to help prevent somebody from gaining access to that network that really shouldn’t have or doesn’t have authorization to be on that network,” said Dye. To accommodate the lack of wireless signal, the computer lab in the student center is open an additional two hours.
ACCESS pg. 3
Homecoming election outcome Hannah Hofmann Editor-In-Chief
Seniors Lacy Talley and Zach Davis were crowned Homecoming Queen and King Saturday, but by Monday the win was tainted by controversy. Since last week, there had been whispers about if students were using other Mustang ID-numbers to increase the amount of votes for certain candidates. “Obviously it would be very concerning for a student giving out information, where people would have access to their Mnumber and password,” said Keith Lamb, vice president of stu-
dent affairs and enrollment management. But it is possible, he said. Renee DuBois, mass communication senior and Gamma Phi Beta alumna, started to raise awareness about the number swapping. DuBois was on the ballot for Homecoming Queen. “People were just talking to me about it, ‘Hey, have you heard, these people are getting M-numbers,’” she said. “Then I was concerned. I thought winning was a matter of fact that (Sigma Kappa) were cheating, because this was even before we
knew who won or not.” Lacy Talley, a Sigma Kappa, won the election with a total of 254 votes, 104 more than her runner-up. Talley refused to comment on the situation. “Unfortunately I’m not allowed to do interviews per our national policy without a national representative,” she said. Alyssa Parham, MSU Sigma Kappa president, also declined to give a statement. The Sigma Kappa headquarters refused to give an official state-
SCANDAL pg. 3