Weekend Winners
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The Lady Mustangs won Friday 2-1 against Texas Woman’s and Sunday 3-0 against Texas A&M Commerce.
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After 9 weeks of practice the University Singers and Midwestern Singers showcased their talent during the fall concert.
wichitan
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Wednesday — October 24, 2012
Pitch Perfect
thewichitan.com — your campus / your news
Higher standards cause lower enrollment University to improve communication with students by December cody parish staff writer
In the wake of recent criticism regarding declining enrollment and retention numbers, President Jesse Rogers said he came to put all concerns at ease at the meeting with SGA on Oct. 16. According to Rogers, enrollment dipped due to an increase in the number of students graduating and the university adjusting recruitment efforts to higher admission standards.
“The reality is two things: mainly they [students] are leaving because they’re graduating,” Rogers explained. “Additionally, we have not had to aggressively recruit students.” To defend his statement about aggressive recruitment, Rogers said previous students have generally found MSU on their own. Furthermore, he said MSU does not want to be a big university because “we want to maintain our mission.” Rogers was most likely referencing, in addition to other university characteristics, the ability for students to engage in more personal communication with
professors due to the low student to teacher ratio held at MSU. The Mission Statement on the MSU website vaguely touches upon this aspect, stating that “through an emphasis upon teaching, augmented by the opportunity for students to engage in research and creative activities alongside faculty, Midwestern State prepares its graduates to embark upon their careers or pursue advanced study.” To help maintain the small size of the university, Midwestern increased admission standards two times in the last eight years. Rogers proceeded to provide a brief history of recent hikes in ad-
mission standards and the effects of those hikes. According to Rogers, the university raised admission standards after surveys in 2005 revealed that 40 percent of freshmen were taking one or more remedial classes. Because many of the freshmen taking more than one remedial class did not finish the year, the university decided to raise admission standards to eliminate the need to provide the extra courses. In turn, the university also hoped that the higher standards would increase the graduation rate.
Politicians BRITTNEY COTTINGHAM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Photo by BRITTNEY COTTINGHAM
Congressman Mac Thornberry addresses security and Romney BRITTNEY COTTINGHAM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Cybersecurity and terrorism are continuing threats to national security according to 13th District Congressman Mac Thornberry. On Monday, the congressman spoke with students during a luncheon about current U.S. issues and then discussed the U.S. defense policy as part of the Prof. Edwards Discussions in Politics Series. Thornberry said the current administration is too reactive when it comes to national security. “As a whole, we just react to events too much,” Thornberry said. “We wait until a problem happens, like people flying airplanes into buildings for example, and then go deal with it.” Thornberry said the country is going to have to be better about predicting and planning ahead for threats to national security. “You can never predict the future, but you can see trends,” he said. “Cybersecurity is a trend. We should have seen terrorism as a trend.” Thornberry recently spoke out against the Obama administration for the terrorist attack in Libya. “There are two questions
about Libya,” he said. “One is what did we know before the attacks and what should have been done to prevent it. The second question is what was done after the attack.” Thornberry sits on the House Intelligence Committee and said he was briefed by the CIA right after the incident. “They were absolutely adamant that it was just caused by the video and a mob that just got out of hand and our ambassador was killed,” he said. “It turns out they had other information about the attack and knew it was a terrorist attack.” Thornberry said it concerns him not knowing whether the administration did not know the reason behind the attacks or if they were using it as political spin. “It is a trend of this administration,” he said. “They have been talking too much for political purpose about national security and that bothers me a lot.” Thornberry is also concerned about cybersecurity, which he has called a direct threat to our economy and job creation, as well as the country’s national security. The government is behind when it comes to developing technology to combat attacks, Thornberry said. “The House passed bills, which was basi-
cally a catch up measure, but the trick is we have so much more work to do,” he said. “In the next two years, I’ll be having lots of meetings with my sub-committee about the Department of Defense’s role in defending security in cyberspace.” Getting the ball rolling on cybersecurity is one of Thornberry’s goals for next session. “In the bigger picture, this country really is at a crossroads on the economics,” Thornberry said. “Getting the economy going again and holding down spending is the centerpiece of what the whole Congress and White House works on regardless of how the election turns out.” The lack of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill was another issue Thornberry tackled during his discussion with students as he described how he has had no problem working with the other side of the aisle. “We are so focused on hearing information that agrees with what we already believe,” Thornberry said. “It is really hard to sort through whether something is accurate or not. I do think that contributes to the bipartisanship in Washington.” On Nov. 6, Thornberry will be fighting for this 13th District Congressman seat against Liber-
THORNBERRY pg. 3
ing class in Midwestern’s history. “That small class gave us fewer freshmen, more graduates, and what happens? Enrollment goes down,” said Rogers. At this point, President Rogers brought in aggressive recruiting as a solution to the enrollment concerns. “We’re going to continue to have the same standards, but we’re going to start recruiting aggressively,” Rogers said decisively. “Our hopes are to raise enrollment to 7,000 students.”
SGA pg. 3
campus Democratic Senate candidate showcases his political ideologies
Congressman Mac Thornberry.
The university accepted fewer students the next year, and graduation rates began to rise. This led to another increase in admission standards in 2011. “We took a smaller class in, and we turned away about 400 applications,” Rogers said. “That worked so well that we raised tuition standards again in 2011.” Rogers provided statistics supporting the graduation rate increase, saying Midwestern graduated approximately 900 students in 2004. Last year the university graduated 1,339 students, and this year the university is on pace to have the second highest graduat-
Texas has not had a Democratic senator since 1994, but despite the odds, former congressman and democratic candidate Paul Sadler is campaigning against tea party Republican candidate Ted Cruz. On Oct. 18, Sadler came to Midwestern to discuss health care, education and the economy. “I ran because we deserve an effective government,” Sadler said. “I have the qualification and experience. Right now we have an obstructionist government and a Congress than can’t agree to do anything. That’s hurting every single one of us.” Sadler is known for being fiercely independent and not letting this party define him. At a rather impromptu meeting in the Atrium with only 20 or so people, Sadler said his track record proves that he can do bipartisanship. Sadler, who was chairman of the Texas Public Education Committee for eight years, said the most important thing he can do
to keep university tuition down is to maintain the Department of Education on a federal level. “We must maintain the Department of Education on a federal level to have a real balanced student loan program to help with the cost and keep down interest rates,” Sadler said. Cruz defended a policy to abolish the departments of education, commerce and energy. “The most effective thing I can do is making it an effective loan program with low interest rates and any program that can help students deal with the high price of tuition,” he said. Sadler said from the protection of Social Security to women’s health rights, he differs from Cruz on almost every issue. “I’m for allowing women to make that decision themselves and he wants to take it away from women,” he said. “He has what I view as a very extreme view of the world – a very different view of the world. He has a real tea party and extreme views.” Sadler said marriage equality is another issue where it greatly disagrees with Cruz. Sadler said marriage equality is a matter of discrimination and non-discrimination. “A marriage license is issued by the state,” he said. “Religion
Paul Sadler, democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. Photo by KERRI CARTER
may choose to bless a marriage or not, but the policy of the state should be non-discriminatory.” Sadler said current laws discriminate against people based upon sexual preference or sexual orientation. “I’m not asking anyone to change their faith or religious beliefs, but it’s a matter of should we as a government discriminatory or not and I don’t think we should be,” he said. When it comes to the economy, Sadler said everything is in place for the United States to have a great economic recovery if only the Congress would act. “What the business community wants more than anything is stability and predictability,” he said. “They want stable tax policy and to be able to predict where [the economy] is going.” Sadler said uncertainty by business owners is one way to explain the current job market. “We have an unprecedented amount of capitol in corporate America today, but it is not being unleashed because of the uncertainty,” Sadler said. “We simply put those two things in place, we’d see this economy continue to rebound. All of this has to happen to create a larger job market.”