May 2, 2018

May 2, 2018 | Midwestern State University | thewichitan.com | Your Campus. Your News. | Vol. 82 No. 28

Vice president of student affairs reaches out to Kappa Sigma national office TYLER MANNING EDITOR

Security Cameras

pg. 6

Newspaper theft raises questions about security camera functionality on campus.

K. Aus

pg. 12

Read about student Kylie Austin’s struggle with cancer and how she used her personal trials to start a business.

finals Frenzy

pg. 14

Join the University Programming Board this Thursday for this semester’s Finals Frenzy.

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fter a student said he was expelled from his former fraternity, Kappa Sigma, for standing against sexual harassment, Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, reached out to the national branch for information and clarification on policies.

“I visited with their national executive director about the membership decision that was detailed in The Wichitan last week and he assured me that as an organization they will look at that particular decision to make sure that due process was offered to the individual, and that they followed their policies and procedures as an organization,” Lamb said.

“For the allegations themselves of misconduct — or any violation of the code of student conduct — that’s where individuals can go through student conduct.”

According to Avery Whaite, the student expelled from Kappa Sigma, he received an email from nationals that stated he can appeal to have his case reviewed, but his expulsion stands as of now.

The university made the decision to investigate the claim, Lamb and Mario Ramirez, interim director for student involvement, met to discuss their roles in the investigation.

Lamb is responsible for direct contact with the national organization and any findings are to be given to Ramirez to handle with Kappa Sigma’s chapter on campus.

According to Ramirez, Lamb took the initiative to discuss with nationals so Ramirez could communicate any information to Kappa Sigma’s chapter on campus. As the assistant director for Greek life on campus, Ramirez supervises and provides administrative support for the Greek Life system.

With that, Ramirez said he works to ensure student organizations operate in accordance with university policies and are held accountable to those policies. According to him, the national organization’s leadership is reviewing activities of the chapter for adherence to their established protocols, values and expectations.

Ramirez facilitates activities concerning budgets for various Greek organizations, advise the councils, train members and advisees and plan programs.

According to Lamb, if administration finds

PHOTO BY BRIDGET REILLY | THE WICHITAN

Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, introduces people at the Open Forum about campus safety in CSC Comanche on March 19. a violation of the code of student conduct, then the individuals responsible or alleged to be responsible, will go through the violation of student conduct process.

“If we find there is a reason to believe that there was an organizational impetus, then it could certainly go through conduct with Greek Life,” Lamb said. “On an individual membership decisions with Greek organization, generally the university isn’t involved in membership decisions, so that’s why we have visited with the national organization so that it is reviewed.”

While the incident is under investigation, if the allegations turn out to be true, Lamb said this would go against campus values and “certainly not something that Midwestern State condones.”

“That is not something that Midwestern State feels comfortable with or good about at all, and this is counter to our values as an institution, so we would not like it if indeed that is the reason [for Avery Whaite’s removal from Kappa Sigma],” Lamb said. “We will let nationals do their process and see if they find otherwise.”

The consequences for the allegations could result in significant ramifications such

as a suspension of the fraternity’s charter.

Lamb said, “If that is found to be true that an individual is speaking up in the right way for the right things and then removed from the chapter for doing so, the university could certainly assert itself, and it could be anything from probation to suspension for the chapter just based on what we find. There is a pretty broad range of potential outcomes, but it is hard to say what that would be until we know exactly what happened.”

According to Lamb, though this type of situation is rare, it is not the first instance of a fraternity facing suspension.

“The last time I was directly involved in something like this was with Kappa Alpha Order. We found Kappa Alpha Order — now this is an example where it would have been a chapter that we found responsible — responsible for hazing incidents,” Lamb said. “We worked with their local and their national organization to suspend the chapter from campus for three years.”

Jessica Wollenberger, Sigma Kappa sorority member threatened with expulsion, said she went through the sorority’s senior ceremony on April 29 and is set to go alum at the end of the semester.

2 | May 2, 2018 | STAF F E DI T O R I A L

Transparency reduces corruption OUR VIEW: Instead of being frustrated at journalists for exposing controversial issues on campus, students should feel angry that organizations aren’t transparent enough to communicate situations that occur and aren’t met with active correction or reprimand.

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ransparency reduces corruption and as a student body, we hold each other accountable for the actions they make. When students enroll, we sign the Midwestern Student Honor Code and assert that we will behave in an appropriate manner or face the consequences of a deviation from it.

While it may sting to realize controversial issues are happening on campus, and sometimes within organizations you may identify with, just because there are more discussions and documentation of these events doesn’t mean there are more issues. Instead, it shows that we are a campus of students dedicated to the safety and well-being of one another and won’t allow something unjust to be left tucked away.

We have to work to fix behaviors rather than cover them up so the negative associations with organizations or groups diminish, because the character and integrity of the students in those organization are unquestioned.

wichitan

the

Vol. 82 | No. 28

Midwestern State University Fain Fine Arts Bldg., Room D201 3410 Taft Blvd.

Wichita Falls, Texas 76308 (940) 397-4704 wichitan@mwsu.edu thewichitan.com @wichitanonline

Wichita Falls has xenophobia, racism problem

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SU and Wichita Falls have a profound issue with bigotry, xenophobia and racism. This is by no means a damning review, since some of the most wonderful, genuine, kind-hearted people I know are Wichitans and MSU students. Caribbean people make an outsized impact on this college and this town. We Damian have made ourselves a valuable asset here, DeSilva not only in tuition and fees, but also in our volunteerism. We’ve raised huge sums of money to benefit the Wichita Falls community, but we nevertheless elicit such deep revulsion in some quarters. We were downtown during the spring of 2015, packing sandbags to curb flooding in the area, when we get word that fellow students say they don’t give a you-know-what about Caribbean students after Hurricane Maria, it therefore elicits a great degree of consternation.

I’m one of the most active people on campus. I’ve spent countless hours volunteering on campus and in the wider community. I was a student ambassador and peer counselor and I’m about to complete my year as student government vice president. I have volunteered to read with elementary

school children, and I was able to graduate magna cum laude with an economics degree.

Unfortunately, I will never be seen by some here on campus and in this wider community as nothing more than a stereotype. I understand why black Americans almost never engage in class discussions on racism. I also understand that my foreign accent gives me a degree of privilege relative to my African-American counterparts when in certain circles. I had to outgrow my own media-influenced disdain for black Americans myself, as well as certain stereotypical views we Caribbean people often have of whites, so this is not just a “you need to change” lecture.

One thing I always encourage my fellow Caribbean students to do is to meet and strike up conversations with people they think they don’t have much in common with, because I see their reluctance to branch out oftentimes. I do understand their uneasiness, since the “you’re not welcome here” cue is abound.

Damian De Silva is a business management graduate student.

READ the rest of the column online at thewichitan.com

Support student journalism, it makes campus better

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t a time when there are constant attacks on news reporting as bias or “fake news,” I unequivocally stand up for journalism and – in particular – the brave undertaking of student journalists here on campus. Both MNG Media and The Wichitan are indispensable outlets of journalism that ought to be supported by all Markell Braxton-Johnson students.

It should go without saying that journalism is an incredibly demanding profession. However, I’d argue that student journalism poses a unique set of challenges that, if met, require the highest form of praise. The relationship student journalists have with their readers distinguishes them from the journalists you may observe outside of campus. They not only have the role of informing the campus community with accurate and relevant news, but they also have the challenging responsibility of being the voice of the student body.

Both forms of journalism are difficult, but I want to focus on why it is important for us students to have real journalists representing us in public and on the record. Freethinking and critical discourse (among other things) are what makes the college experience indispensible. However, without studentled news media, these pillars would face constant degradation.

Student journalists selflessly foster an environment where controversial, valuable or secretive stories are allowed to be revealed. They do it not only for themselves, but, more com-

monly, for the ordinary student who wants his or her story to be heard in a sea of noise.

Students’ voices can further be channeled through the ever-so prominent editorial page. On the back side of every Wichitan front-page, students can express their views and perspectives directly to the campus community through column pieces. Unlike editorial sections you may find in the mainstream news media, this space is explicitly for students. If you have a viewpoint that others may connect with or find interesting, the editorial page is the platform for you.

The importance of student journalism is further exemplified by their adherence to independence. The news media outlets on campus are exclusively run by students just like you and me. They don’t take directives from administrators and their grades are not dependent on if a story is well-received. Given that no MSU staff or faculty member can silence our student journalists, they (student-run outlets) have the ability to be genuine watchdogs over our university.

Because I am not studying mass communication, I was previously apathetic to the journalism at our university. Yet, after witnessing first-hand our journalists’ commitment to fair and accurate reporting, I now have a deep appreciation for the importance of their work. I urge everyone to support student journalists in whatever way you can. Their dedication to independent news media makes us all informed and, most importantly, betters our university.

Markell Braxton-Johnson is a sports and leisure studies junior.

EDITOR: Tyler Manning

Copyright ©2018.

MANAGING EDITOR: Cortney Wood

First copy free. Additional copies 25¢ each.

VISUALS EDITOR: Justin Marquart PHOTO EDITOR: Francisco Martinez ISSUE STAFF: Damian DeSilva, Markell Braxton-Johnson, Andrea Pedon, Tosia Floissac, Brian Lang, Kristin Silva, Makayla Scheck, Keanna Jenkins, Samuel Frederick

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Bridget Reilly, Joanne Ortega, Rachel Johnson, Jacob Smith

ADVISER: Bradley Wilson

The Wichitan is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association and the Associated Collegiate Press. The Wichitan reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication.

Opinions expressed in The Wichitan do not necessarily reflect those of the students, staff, faculty, administration or Board of Regents of Midwestern State University.

The Wichitan welcomes letters of opinion from students, faculty and staff submitted by the Friday before intended publication. Letters should be brief (250 words or fewer) and without abusive language or personal attacks. Letters must be typed and signed by the writer and include a email address, telephone number and address.

| May 2, 2018 | 3 UPCOMING EVENTS Retirement Reception

May 3 from 3 to 4 p.m. | Prothro-Yeager Second Floor Atrium | Retirement reception for Everett Kindig, history profressor.

Finals Frenzy

May 3 from 6 to 11 p.m. | Jessie Rogers Promenade | Take a break from studying for finals with UPB and other campus organizations.

Last Day of Classes May 4

Retirement Reception

May 4 from 2 to 4 p.m. | CSC Kiowa | Retirement reception for Rebecca Dodge, geosciences associate professor.

Red River Reading Series

May 4 at 4 p.m. | Legacy Hall Multipurpose Room | Voices release party with refreshment. Free and open to the public.

Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Wong, and Benedict Cumberbatch in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

Opening Reception

May 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. | Juanita Harvey Art Gallery | Senior students will host their annual senior art exhibition and students will host their annual juried student show.

Final Examinations Begin May 5

Yard Decor

May 8 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. | Sikes Lake Center | Join the Continuing Education Workshop, Yard Design. All supplies are included. Cost $25-45 depending on project.

Senior Campus Walk

May 10 from 4 to 6 p.m. | Bolin Fountain | Say farewell to graduating seniors who will walk around campus in a parade like fashion.

Live at the Lake Series

May 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. | Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU | Live at the lake 2018 summer concert series will kick off with Cousin Fuzzy.

Board of Regents Meeting

May 11 at 10 a.m. | J.S. Bridwell Board Room | The next scheduled board meeting to discuss different changes for the campus.

Mass Communication Senior Documentaries

May 11 at 3 p.m. | Fain Fine Arts theatre | The department of mass communication will present senior documentary screenings.

Commencement Ceremony

May 12 at 10 a.m. | Multi-Purpose Event Center | Students will walk the stage and receive their diploma.

‘Avengers: Infinity War,’

Marvel’s main event “A

vengers: Infinity War” is finally here. It has been said by many, but the last 10 years of Marvel movies have all culminated to this film. After almost 20 movies dedicated to creating and developing these characters, audiences have grown to love and care about everyone featured here.

When gathering my thoughts about this movie, I realized this is a movie where the surrounding context Tyler matters. You will have a drastically different viewing Manning experience if you were to watch it with the same lens that you would watch any other movie with, because “Avengers: Infinity War” is not a movie, it is an event.

This entire universe is built on a web of interconnected relationships with more than 20 different heroes. The film takes those characters and pits them against their greatest foe and the film executes this premise in the best way it possibly could. I contribute all of this to the meticulous direction from the studio and the directors.

Overall the film does two key things that makes this movie a feat: it focuses on establishing a worthy villain and compartmentalizes the characters into groups so as to not muddle the story.

Marvel has had a reputation of having a “villain problem,” featuring antagonists that have little motivation or impact on the characters or audiences emotionally. However, after the last four films in the series, this is not a problem for them anymore — especially with Thanos.

Without giving plot details away, I will say that Thanos is the most intimidating villain in any comic book movie ever. I would go as far to say he is on par with and in some ways exceeds Heath Ledger’s Joker.

He has a clear motivation, a dominating physical and emotional presence and is fearfully unpredictable. You understand where he comes from, but not enough to justify his sociopathic, harsh actions.

The visual effects for Thanos are brilliant. They capture the essence of actor Josh Brolin and really make the character feel real, even though you know it is a big computer-generated bad guy. The directors

put the majority of the focus of the movie on his character making him a menacing antagonist and one that justifies all the anticipation and build up dedicated to the character in the last 10 years.

Another job directors Anthony and Joe Russo did to make the film work was structure the movie in a way that wasn’t a mess. Marvel has created a sandbox full of more than 20 heroes all being featured in this movie. Rather than featuring them all working together, the film is structured into around five or six different stories all tied together by the shared goal of defeating Thanos. This was a clever way for the film to feature everyone and give them something to do during the film.

My only gripes with the film are small. Upon leaving the theater, I compared this movie to a burger with four patties on it: too much of a good thing. The movie is long. Running in at almost three hours, the movie can feel exhausting considering there is not a break from all the action set pieces and emotional drama. Though I was satisfied with the film, I did leave the theater feeling slightly fatigued.

Other complaints include Scarlet Witch having no accent in this movie despite her having a thick Russian accent in previous films and the visual effects looking awkward in some scenes. These are small, though, and did not hinder my experience.

Overall, “Avengers: Infinity War” really is one of the most ambitious films ever made. It shows a great amount of patience, planning and hard work. This movie works so well because Marvel Studios took every step they needed to get the audience to love these characters and the pay off of seeing them all together feels earned. With movies like “Justice League” and “The Mummy” both failing at creating cinematic universes, it is so refreshing to see the movie that started this trend do it so effortlessly. I have never seen a blockbuster movie have so much emotional impact on its audience. The film is emotional, dark, fun and well crafted. I recommend everyone go see it.

This is an event that will be remembered in film history.

Rating: 8.5/10

4 |Â May 2, 2018 |

CONGRATULATIONS

TO THE 2017-2018 OUTSTANDING STUDENT LEADERS AND SCHOLARS AT MSU OUTSTANDING FRESHMAN MAN Seth Robert Vincent Angelino Tyler Russell Briggs* Mitchel Preston Kipp* Christopher Arren Ward**

OUTSTANDING FRESHMAN WOMAN Arshia Clare* Alyssa Mariah Dimmick Velazquez* Chloe Renee Dunlap Yerasly Duran Jordan Ashley Logan Leslie Nicole Picasio Amanda Renee Threlkeld**

OUTSTANDING SOPHOMORE MAN Shady Nasser Boukhary* Nathan Lewis Conard* Andrew David Coyne Bryon Scott Grays II Kendall Lamond Jones Timon Leon Varner Andrew William Wolf**

OUTSTANDING SOPHOMORE WOMAN Sarah Catherine Graves Kara Lynn Hicks Courtney Brianne Hoover Cynthia Azucena Hubbard Kelsey Elise Lance Greta Lazzarotto* Jocelyn Fernanda Miranda Lauren Cori Ordner Andrea Elizabeth Pedon Kaitlin Elizabeth Raber Shelbi Lee Stogdill** Madelyn K. Williams Micah Elizabeth Wilson Cortney Nicole Wood* Maggie Elizabeth Wyatt

OUTSTANDING JUNIOR MAN Michael Alan Bravenec Joshua J. Buchel** Landon Kyle Cox Christopher Cruz Mondragon Thomas Logan Haddock Jakob Lorenzo Lopez Justin Matthew Marquart Bryson Lawrence Petersen* Nathaniel Steven Shawver Benjamin Joseph Sullivan, Jr. Brendan Lawrence Wynne*

OUTSTANDING JUNIOR WOMAN Federica Bove** Taylor Rene Broyles Allyson Frances Buchanan Emily May Burns Leia Raye De La Garza Shae Lynn Dorsman Amelia Boyd Ecevido Kristy Kay Henderson* Kimberly Nicole Keeter Kendall Nicole Nelms Tam Minh Nguyen Zoe Anastasia Nolan Anika Kisha Proctor Keelie Sharee Ralston Gabriela Maria Russell Kristin Nicolette Silva Mai P. Trinh*

OUTSTANDING SENIOR MAN Hezekiah Onmeje Agbo Cavaughn Xavier Browne Salvatore Capotosto Marc Anthony Ellis Addrian Shontai Gaut, Jr. Luka Ture Gebel** Charles Graham Grissom Treston L. Lacy Tyler David Manning Herbert McCullough IV* Steven William Mitchell George Layton Rabb Parker Haden Short* James Edward Trevino

OUTSTANDING SENIOR WOMAN Ashley Brooke Baird* Kaytlyn Nicole Boyett Kathleen Paige Cagle Clorissa Victoria Callender Samantha Rachelle Daniels Amy Elizabeth Floyd Hanna Gebel** Connie Noelle Ginnings Ashlynn Kathleen Graham Margaret Kathleen Greenhalgh Brandi Nateesh Hobson Mariesam Isles Michelle Renee Lopez Emily Beth McDonald Kara Ann McIntyre Delize Paul Lindsay Faith Rittenhouse Melissa Katelyn Rose * FINALIST ** WINNER

Bethany Ann Russell Catherine Marie Ashley Ryan* Dierrica Arielle Smith Taylor Anne Warren Jaylon Jennell Williams Natalia Zamora Garcia*

HOWARD FARRELL COMMUNITY EXCELLENCE AWARD

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE MAN

JAMES L. STEWART SERVICE AWARD

Jesse Clyde Brown Scott Nicolas Perez* Matthew G. Schenk** Clinton Thomas Wagoner*

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE WOMAN Manju Yadav Akkaraboina* Michelle Ijeoma Anyadioha Clarissa Eugenia Kennedy Melissa Jean Laussmann** Rachel Marie Smith Gloria Guadalupe Villarreal*

MAN OF THE YEAR

Joshua J. Buchel Marc Anthony Ellis Anthony Chisom Enem* Luka Ture Gebel* Prosper Kaseke Matthew David Matlock Juan Mercado III Charles Wayne Reeves Brendan Lawrence Wynne**

WOMAN OF THE YEAR

Veronica Naomi Balderas** Sarah Anne Beaver Nahye Byun Michelle Renee Lopez Kara Ann McIntyre* Kendall Nicole Nelms Joanne Angelina Ortega Kelsey Elizabeth Purcell* Bethany Ann Russell Catherine Grace Stepniak Taylor Anne Warren

VIOLA GRADY LEADERSHIP AWARD Hanna Gebel* Cynthia Azucena Hubbard Greta Lazzarotto Herbert McCullough IV** Andrew Todd McKissick Emily Rebecca Simmons*

Cynthia Azucena Hubbard* Mitchel Preston Kipp** Noah Allan Seigler Amanda Renee Threlkeld*

Sigma Lambda Alpha Sorority, Inc.**

2018 CLARK SCHOLAR Brandan Lawrence Wynne

2018 HARDIN SCHOLAR Alexandra Louise Nelson

DILLARD COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Dr. Jeffrey Stambaugh, Dean

OUTSTANDING ACCOUNTING STUDENT Veronica Naomi Balderas

OUTSTANDING ECONOMICS STUDENT Luka Ture Gebel

OUTSTANDING FINANCE STUDENT Nemanja Krtolica

OUTSTANDING GENERAL BUSINESS STUDENT Brandon Derek Dines

OUTSTANDING MANAGEMENT STUDENT Alicia Lynn Carter

OUTSTANDING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS STUDENT Robert Jakob McCarty

OUTSTANDING MARKETING STUDENT Kiley Jo Beaver

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT IN BUSINESS Michelle Ijeoma Anyadioha

| May 2, 2018 | 5 GORDON T. & ELLEN WEST COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

ROBERT D. & CAROL GUNN COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES AND HUMAN SERVICES

Dr. Matthew Capps, Dean

Dr. Jeffrey Killion, Interim Dean

OUTSTANDING STUDENT IN THE BACHELOR OF APPLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES

OUTSTANDING ATHLETIC TRAINING STUDENT

Emilia Maria Kuczynska

Jiankun Kang

OUTSTANDING ELEMENTARY EDUCATION STUDENT

OUTSTANDING CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDENT

Jennie Lacampuenga Wigen (BSIS Early Childhood – Grade 6)

Ashley Elizabeth Hay

OUTSTANDING DENTAL HYGIENE STUDENT

OUTSTANDING KINESIOLOGY STUDENT

Kathryn Minglinn Miser

Tyler John Anderle

OUTSTANDING EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY STUDENT

OUTSTANDING POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENT Luke Gregory Allen

OUTSTANDING PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT Catherine Grace Stepniak

OUTSTANDING SOCIOLOGY STUDENT Elyssa Dorathea Henderson

VINSON AWARD IN CREATIVE WRITING Whitney Brooke Atkinson

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Jennifer Dawn Sidlauskas

OUTSTANDING NURSING STUDENT

McCOY COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS AND ENGINEERING

OUTSTANDING RADIOLOGIC SCIENCES STUDENT

OUTSTANDING BIOLOGY STUDENT

Samantha Ann Mitchell

Carson Parker Barnard

OUTSTANDING RESPIRATORY CARE STUDENT

OUTSTANDING CHEMISTRY STUDENT

Melanie Chang Walker

Thomas Michael Lesperance

Kristen Alexandra Aduddell

OUTSTANDING SOCIAL WORK STUDENT

OUTSTANDING COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENT

Delize Paul

Anthony Chisom Enem

LAMAR D. FAIN COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT IN HEALTH SCIENCES AND HUMAN SERVICES

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE STUDENT

OUTSTANDING SECONDARY EDUCATION STUDENT

Melisa Ann Doo

Chad P. Marqui

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENT

Claudette Muma Ngum

Connie Noelle Ginnings (BSIS Early Childhood – Grade 6/All Level Special Education)

OUTSTANDING SPORT AND LEISURE STUDIES STUDENT Markell Markavius Braxton-Johnson

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT IN EDUCATION

Dr. Martin Camacho, Dean

OUTSTANDING ART STUDENT Kevin George Appiah-Kubi

OUTSTANDING MASS COMMUNICATION STUDENT Kara Ann McIntyre

OUTSTANDING MUSIC STUDENT Nahye Byun

OUTSTANDING THEATRE STUDENT Shannon Edward Howerton, Jr.

VINSON AWARD IN JOURNALISM Chloe Phillips

Laura June Estrada

Dr. Margaret Brown Marsden, Dean

Alexandra Louise Nelson

OUTSTANDING GEOSCIENCES STUDENT Kurlon Sanelle George

PROTHRO-YEAGER COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Dr. Samuel Watson, Dean

OUTSTANDING ENGLISH STUDENT Whitney Brooke Atkinson

OUTSTANDING STUDENT IN WORLD LANGUAGES AND CULTURE Taylor Anne Warren

OUTSTANDING MATHEMATICS STUDENT Sachithra Ishani Weerasooriya

OUTSTANDING MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT Kevin M. Tracy

OUTSTANDING PHYSICS STUDENT Sachithra Ishani Weerasooriya

OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT IN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS Hannah Marie Richards

OUTSTANDING HISTORY STUDENT Benjamin Brian Chance

OUTSTANDING STUDENT IN HUMANITIES Yolanda Ja-ne’e Perfecta Torres

OUTSTANDING GLOBAL STUDIES STUDENT Natalie Zamora Garcia

EURECA RESEARCH SCHOLARS Calvert George Aaron, Jr. Nchetachukwu Constance Anih Dareem Kyle Antoine Frida Guadalupe Arredondo Carson Parker Barnard Alaska Carrillo-Bell Jedeshkeran Chandrasegaran Kerdell Cuffy Anthony Chisom Enem Montserrath Garay Hanna Gebel Luka Ture Gebel Rojitha Goonesekere Gayal Kanishka Alahakoon Hewakuruppu Jenna Michelle Horn

Garrison Walker Horton Ali Khalid Camille Marie Khan Denzel Martin Theuri Kinyua Crege Elisha La Ronde Brianna Lindsey Manning Shayne Tinotenda Matambanadzo Herbert McCullough IV Taylor Addison Morrison Vongai Faith Nyikayaramba Mpathi Zizwe Nzima Anahi Guadalupe Palacios Shanley Hudson Paul Natalie Renee Ragland Abigail Reyes Trejo

Zeltzin A. Reyes Trejo Lane Marie Riggs Melanie Kandie Ronoh Melissa Katelyn Rose Bethany Ann Russell Kaushik Sunil Shah Sheri Cain Speegle Paytan Tiphon Katelyn Stubbs Rumelia Eris Thomas Chiedza Sandra Tokonyai Yenifher Valenzuela Kelton Andre Vidal Joshua Ryan Washington Don Menuwan Manujitha Wijesinghe Natalia Zamora Garcia

6 | May 2, 2018 |

Newspaper theft raises questions about camera functionality TYLER MANNING EDITOR

A

fter last weeks edition of The Wichitan were stolen in bulk, the campus police were notified on April 25 of thefts in the Clark Student Center, Moffett, Dillard and Bolin, in which around 200 newspapers valued around $50 were taken.

In an email sent by Patrick Coggins, university police chief, it said, “On April 25, 2018, MSU PD was notified of a theft in which numerous copies of the recently-published The Wichitan newspaper had been taken from the Clark Student Center. Approximately 200 copies of the Wichitan were reported taken from four racks within the CSC, and the value of the missing property is estimated to be approximately $50. MSU PD Case Report #2018000098 for Theft was filed by the responding officer. This case is currently under investigation.”

When those in charge of the investigation went to review footage from cameras, Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, and Dail Neely, director of student conduct, said they were unable to retrieve camera footage because the two camera near Maverick’s Corner were not there.

According to Neely, with the renovations made to Mesquite Dining Hall and the addition of Maverick’s Corner made around Fall 2017, the cameras in the area were removed

without being replaced.

“When they [constructed] Maverick’s Corner, those [cameras] were taken out because of the renovation,” Neely said.

Although Kyle Owen, associate vice president of facility services, said campus personnel and facility services reviewed the plans to ensure it was in accordance with building codes, Owen said he was unaware of the cameras’ absence when asked on May 1.

“This was the first I had heard of them being removed,” Owen said. “If I had realized they were being removed, I would have asked somebody, ‘Are you sure these need to come out?’ [Though] they might have made the call, that we don’t really need them [and that] there is not a security risk from them not being there. My bet is, it wasn’t until after all the work was done, that they realized they [the cameras] were not there anymore and by then the money was spent.”

Neely also described how the footage system in the CSC is outdated, and there are requests to update it along with adding new cameras.

“We have requested money through student allocations, so I don’t know if that has been approved yet,” Neely said. “We usually do not find out until the end of this month [May] whether our allocation was approved.

The system is old, it’s extremely old, like it’s [from] 1999 - 2000, with updates in 2005. We put in a request to replace the entire system

PHOTO BY BRIDGET REILLY | THE WICHITAN

Patrick Coggins, chief of police, explains what the clergy report is at the Open Forum about campus safety in CSC Comanche on March 19. and add new cameras.”

Though there are pushes to make improvements to the camera system in the CSC, those improvements would only be made to the system in that specific building. According to Lamb, different areas around campus have their own camera systems separate from each other.

To Lamb, a solution could be to standardize the feeds for the police to have access to all the feeds to be aware of their functionality.

“To have the police be able to see all of the camera feeds, we have to standardize the system, which will take significant resources,” Lamb said. “We should probably start doing

it a little bit at a time, whatever we can afford each year until we get there. It will probably take a period of years without a significant capital investment.”

Because of the scattered nature of the system, Lamb said it is the responsibility of each college to keep records of the cameras.

“Right now, we don’t have a centralized office for our system. Each building is kind of responsible for their own. So after the years, you have a ‘hodge podge’ of camera systems on campus and nothing is standardized,” Lamb said. “It would make a lot for sense to have a place for a type of control over that and, frankly, a budget associated with that so that they can get it fixed.”

Those who find out whether a camera is not working is to make a report, in which Owen said would go through facility services and be replaced.

When someone notices a camera isn’t working, Owen said they are supposed to report it him so he and his department can fix it.

“If we know something is broken like that, we are going to fix it,” Owen said. “We are not going to leave it down intentionally,” Kasey Brunskill, management information systems junior, said he felt the affects of not having working security cameras when he said his bike was stolen.

READ more online at thewichitan.com.

S GA STAFF MEMBER OF THE YEAR | VELIA L OZ ANO

PHOTOS BY JOANNE ORTEGA | THE WICHITAN

As she continues to dedicate herself to her job the students of MSU, Velia Lozano, custodian and services member, gets her cleaning supplies ready for the next task of her routine. | After a joke is said Lozano grabs Luz Garcia, nursing freshman for a long hug in the Clark Student Center on April 10. | Lozano makes sure that the Clark Student Center is ready for the students. Lozano was named student government association staff member of the year at the SGA banquet.

| May 2, 2018 | 7 FACULTY/STAFF SALARY STUDIES

Variety of factors determine salary Four factors directly affect faculty and staff salaries KEANNA JENKINS REPORTER

$71,718.86

M

arilyn Fowlé is a busy person. As the vice president for administration and finance, she has her hands in almost every financial decision at the university — including salaries.

But she doesn’t have time to research the market data for the salaries of all 678 employees. Nor does she just pull a number out of a hat.

Indeed, she and other administrators use a variety of factors, including outside consulting groups, when determining salaries of new employees and changes in salaries for current employees.

Dawn Fisher, director of human resources, said, “Recently, for the staff side, we had an external company do a compensation study. They reviewed all of our different job descriptions and the titles that we had,” Evergreen, the company used for the compensation study, looks at the tasks of each staff member and compares them to similar organizations in the area, peer institutions and market to set a pay plan for the staff.

Saying this, titles are compared to each other. For instance, the study would look and compare all secretaries, not secretaries to presidents. They both carry on different responsibilities and cannot be compared equally.

There is a minimum, midpoint and maximum for pay. Each staff member will start at the minimum pay that is in their grade developed by Evergreen and then after time spent at MSU, their salary will gradually increase.

“Over 15 years, [the staff member] should be at midpoint. This means [staff] should be getting pay raises,” Fowlé said.

“After 30 years, [staff members] should be at maximum.”

Unlike staff, faculty members’, individuals who are educators, salaries are not based off of a pay plan.

According to Fowlé, there are at least

$65,957.50

$40,888.01 $34,339.50

Faculty PHOTO BY RACHEL JOHNSON | THE WICHITAN

Marilyn Fowle, vice president for administration and finance, discusses with other attendees at the Board of Regents meeting Nov. 15, 2015. five major factors included in the determination of salaries of faculty.

“I think that the top five factors include job level, years of service, market demand, cost of living, and merit,” Fowle said.

JOB LEVEL

Whether an individual is a lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor or a full professor is dependent on one’s salary.

Jeff Stambaugh, dean of Dillard College of Business Administration, said whenever faculty members get promoted from assistant to associate professor, it is a $5,000 pay raise and associate to full professor is a $10,000 pay raise.

“Different faculty members, when you get the salary data from the university, you have to consider how much work a faculty member does,” Adam Lei, Bridwell distinguished professor, said. “You have

to consider if faculty teaches summer classes. If you teach extra, you get extra.”

Looking deeper into the topic, it depends on the field a faculty member might work in. For instance, an engineering professor is going to make more than an art professor. The more difficult the tasks, the more one will get paid.

“I am in finance. People in finance, their salary will be higher,” Lei said.

Years of service: Over time, the amount of money a faculty member may make will increase due to a pay raise.

Fowle said, “If you’ve been here longer, you should be making more than someone who just got hired.”

Faculty is compared by title to title.

For example, someone who has worked longer as a full professor in music is going to make more than a newly hired full professor in music. But, this also depends on market demand.

FO U R FA CTO RS O F SA LA RY

Staff

n Average n Median SOURCE: Office of Administration and Finance

MARKET DEMAND

When a specific job title is needed, the university will look to see what the basis is for that position and then possibly add more money to the salary because they are in need. This means that sometimes the university will have to reach out a little more, and even pay more, to get that position filled.

“If there is a market demand for that position or that skill set, we’re going to change what we pay them, but we’re not changing the pay plan,” Fowlé said. The university pays more for what they need.

Even if an institution has a long-time working employee, the market can still demand that a newly graduated assistant professor make more money than the long-term hired employee.

“It really just depends on what happens to MSU’s pay raises,” Stambaugh said.

The market fluxuates and salaries can vary and change based on the market.

see FACTORS pg. 10

JOB LEVEL | MARKET DEMAND | COST OF LIVING | MERIT

8 | May 2, 2018 | FACULTY/STAFF SALARY STUDIES $73,500 $59,322

$57,001.50

$49,018

Eighty-seven percent of the individuals employed on campus are white accounting for all three maximum $310,000, minimum $13,250 and median $47,922 salary for employees.

$40,223.00

$35,697 $26,610

$30,414 $20,956

n=8 (1.3%)

n=21 (3.5%)

n=29 (4.9%)

n=52 (8.7%)

n=7 (1.2%)

n=3 (0.5%)

n=475 (79.8%)

American Indian Alaskan Native

Asian

Black or African American

Hispanics

NonResident Alien

Two or More Races

White

female

male

Gender

FULL-TIME FACULTY AND FULL-TIME STAFF SOURCE: Texas Tribune

Median salaries by race SOURCE: Texas Tribune

Campus data shows that, on average, associate professors make $75,279 annually and men hold 31 of the top 50 spots.

Expertise key factor in determining salary Faculty discuss gender and ethnicity in salaries

TASIA FLOISSAC REPORTER

A

white male and an American-Indian woman are sitting at a table in the Mesquite Dining Hall – both are staff on campus. They both teach.

They both hold office hours. They both advise students. They do the same job and the casual observer might assume they are paid the same. However, one makes more than the other. But not for the reasons that might come to mind.

While stereotypes of gender and ethnicity pay gaps exist in the workforce, both have little bearing on campus salaries according to some faculty, although data obtained by the MSU Office of Administration and Finance do show some differences.

“The key factor is our area of expertise,” Ronald Young, associate professor of accounting and management information systems, said.

Young, who joined campus staff in 2015, tops the list of highest paid associate professors in the accounting department not serving in an administrative role, making $134,653 annually. His female counterpart, Susan Anders, makes $127,442 and also joined staff that same year.

Some faculty members said younger faculty members were being hired at higher salaries than those who had been here for a long time, sometimes decades.

In fact, newer employees do tend to make more than those employed at MSU for decades. Only 35 percent of the time did longevity correlated with salary.

“Midwestern was wanting to add a

program in energy management and there just are not many accounting professors who know a lot about the oil and gas industry. I happen to be one of the few that does. And so well at the end of the day, basically I’m getting paid as much as I can get out of them,” Young said.

Some gender differences were apparently. The median female salary is $40,223 annually while the median male salary on campus is $57,001. However, many more males have been employed at MSU for a longer period of time explaining at least part of the difference.

Young said, “I’m sure Susan is getting paid as much as she can get out of them. Her area of expertise is tax and while that’s also a specialty area, it’s one where there are more people so, I think it’s mainly just that area of expertise that makes the difference.”

Young said a person’s title should also be taken into consideration. And, for both faculty and staff, those with higher ranks were paid more, often significantly more.

“The professorship contributes a chunk of our salary and so the professorship I’m under may have been better funded than the one she’s under. I don’t know that but that’s certainly a possibility,” he said.

Campus data shows that on average, associate professors make $75,279 annually and men hold 31 out of the top 50 spots.

But Young said in higher education, especially in accounting at the university level, salary inversion or situations in which the starting salaries for new re-

PHOTO BY FRANCISCO MARTINEZ | THE WICHITAN

Adam Lei, bridwell distinguished professor of finance, answers Eric Gamboa, finance junior, question about bonds before class at Dillard on Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Lei, a full professor, is one of the highest paid employees at the university, making $124,599. cruits to an organization increase faster than those for existing employees is also another important factor.

“If you compare our salaries to people who’ve been here a long time, they are higher. When you go out and hire people in you have to pay a competitive market salary and people who have been here a long time tend to fall behind. I’d been at my previous school 24 years and I was one of the lower paid people in our department. I would not have come here for less than I was offered.”

While Anders stands as the highest paid female faculty member, Jeffrey Stambaugh, dean of Dillard College of Business Administration and associate professor of management, is the highest male faculty member, racking up $149,988 annually after 10 years of employment.

Laura Peterson, assistant director of UVI development for donor services and scholarships, has the female yearly median salary of $45,775 for assistant directors on campus.

see EXPERTISE pg. 10

| May 2, 2018 | 9 FACULTY/STAFF SALARY STUDIES

Course evaluations have no influence on faculty salaries SAMUEL FREDERICK REPORTER

W

hile faculty are required to hand out course evaluations to students to review the class and the instructor at the end of each semester, they have little to no effect on the professor’s payroll.

According to Rico Quintero, sports leisure junior, he said students view evaluations as a good tool for pay raise and others think they can be biased and should be used carefully.

“If a teacher is good, then there should be some benefits,” Quintero said. “If they are continually bad, then I think eventually they need to be replaced. I say the word continually because sometimes students simply do not like the way a professor teaches and others do. Sometimes there will be bad reviews.”

One student said she believes there should be some sort of incentive for positive reviews.

As an incentive for instructors to earn positive reviews, Justice Lee, nursing senior, said payroll should reflect that because evaluations matter “for sure” but not “messed with too much.”

“Maybe if it doesn’t affect the payroll then the positive ones should carry benefits,” Lee said. “I don’t think negative ones should affect payroll because some of them can be biased based on the grade the student made.

A professor’s pay helps them take care of their families, so I don’t think it should be messed with much.”

Bryan Cooper, mechanical engineering sophomore, said he believes evaluations don’t do justice because they can be solely based on the students performance in the class.

“I feel like the evaluations really don’t matter because students may hold grudges or may not put forth the effort and blame the teacher,” Cooper said. “Some professors said they believe student evaluations should be taken seriously across campus and lead potentially to promotion; however, if a professor’s evaluations are consistently bad, that professor should be brought up to relevant authorities.

According to Claudia Montoya, associate professor of Spanish, stressed the importance of the evaluation and

said they are “excellent tools of assessment.”

“If you, as a professor, take your students seriously then they are going to take you seriously,” Montoya said. “My experiences have taught me that if I show respect to the students then they will show it in the evaluations. I do think they should count toward potentially getting a raise or not getting a raise.”

Montoya said she thinks evaluations should be taken seriously by the chair of the department as well as the dean, when it comes to salary increase.

“It is important for the chair to see them as well as the dean,” Montoya said. “It has to be a tool used across campus and it has to be regulated so that it is fair if it’s going to affect pay.”

There has to be the same standard used by every college on campus if the evaluations are going to be used as a direct tool for salary increase, Montoya said.

“For instance, if in one department a professor has one bad semester and their pay is lowered, while on the other hand in another department a professor is constantly getting negative reviews, but there if no consequence then it would be highly unfair,” Montoya said. “So the same standards should apply as far as using them across the university.”

There are many factors in payroll and student evaluations are a small part of that according to one of the highest paid professors on campus.

Emily Labeff, sociology professor, is making more than six figures a year.

As one of the highest paid professors on campus, Labeff said more than teaching goes into her salary.

“I do get good evaluations, and I have for most of my career,” Labeff said. “I don’t know how much they influence pay grade because there are so many other factors. Evaluations alone are not going to raise pay.”

As far as one evaluation goes, Montoya said the evaluations should be looked at over a time period instead of each individual one.

“One single evaluation has to be taken with a grain of salt because teachers may have one bad semester,” Montoya said. “However, if constantly you are receiving bad evaluations

then it should eventually be brought up to the chair.”

Montoya said she believes course evaluations don’t necessarily act as popularity contests..

Montoya said, “Some professors may say it’s just a popularity contest, but I don’t believe that. I believe if you respect your students and show them that you care then it will reflect in your evaluations. It does not matter the subject, because even if they don’t like the subject, if they see the teacher really cares and tries to work with them they will write a good evaluation.”

The importance of course evaluations may be determined on how long a professor has had his or her job.

Montoya said, “The problem is some instructors who are tenured don’t care any more. As a professor you should always want to learn from the feedback of the students so you can continually improve.”

According to Labeff, a lot of things go into the determination of a professor’s salary beyond their ability to teach. She said some of the things that lead to getting a good salary are professional work, involvement on campus, being apart of the faculty senate, sponsoring organizations and academic advising.

Labeff said a big reason evaluations do not play a big role is because people tend not to trust them.

“A lot of professors see the evaluations as a popularity contest, but I don’t,” Labeff said. “I think they are very useful and should be taken seriously because without the feedback you don’t know how students are doing.”

Evaluations can carry a lot more emphasis if the professor is not yet tenured. Newly hired professors are more heavily judged on their course evaluations. They do not affect pay, but they do factor into whether the professor is kept or dismissed.

Labeff said, “If you are being rated poorly and you are not yet tenured, then it makes a big impact on whether you are rid of for those who are early in their careers.”

TOP HIGHEST PAID FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES SOURCE: Office of Administration and Finance

• Suzanne Shipley, president, $310,000 • James Johnston, provost and vice president for academic affairs, $190,000 • Marilyn Fowle, vice president, administration and finance, $185,283 • Keith Williamson, medical director, Vinson Health Center, $179,403 • Anthony Vidmar, vice president, university advancement and public affairs, $163,216 • Keith Lamb, vice president, student affairs and enrollment management, $161,994 • Jeffrey Stambaugh, interim dean/associate professor, $149,988 • Terry Patton, associate professor/chair, $146,605 • Matthew Capps, dean/professor, $139,686 • Robert Forrester, assistant professor, $135,000 • Ronald Young, associate professor , $134,653 • Barry Macha, general counsel, $133,475 • Samuel Watson, dean/professor, $131,890 • Kyle Williams, athletic director, $130,000 • Jeffrey Killion, interim dean/professor, $129,348

TOP HIGHEST PAID MALE FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES (EXCLUDING TOP ADMINISTRATORS) SOURCE: Office of Administration and Finance

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Jeffrey Stambaugh, interim dean/associate professor, $149, 988 Terry Patton, associate professor/chair, $146,605 Matthew Capps, dean/professor, $139,686 Robert Forrester, assistant professor, $135,000 Ronald Young, associate professor, $134,653 Samuel Watson, dean/professor, $131,890 Jeffrey Killion, interim dean/professor, $129,348 Martin Camacho, dean/associate professor, $124,860 Yung-Chou Adam Lei, professor, $124,559 Paul San Miguel, assistant professor, $121,200 Bobby Thomas, associate professor, $117,822 Shih Yung Chou, associate professor/chair, $113,500 Scott Manley, assistant professor, $112,211 Rajendra Desai, associate professor/chair, $112,211 William Scott MEddaugh, professor, $111,437

TOP HIGHEST PAID FEMALE FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES (EXCLUDING TOP ADMINISTRATORS) SOURCE: Office of Administration and Finance

• Susan Anders, associate professor, $127,442 • Margaret Marsden, dean/associate professor, $124,860 • Kathryn Stewart (Zuckweiler), graduate dean/associate professor, $121,200 • Kathleen Williamson, associate professor/chair, $114,151 • Catherine Gaharan, associate professor, $113,945 • Ranette Halverson, professor/chair, $107,723 • Qian Li, associate professor, $107,723 • Jamie Grigsby, assistant professor, $105,000 • Elizabeth Rincon-Zachary, professor, $104,980 • Thuy Nguyen, assistant professor, $102,826 • Guoying Zhang, associate professor, $100,786 • Niyati Kataria, assistant professor, $100,480 • Robin Lockhart, assistant professor, $99,957 • Jie Zhang, associate professor, $99,256 • Emily Labeff, professor, $98,672

10 | May 2, 2018 | FACULTY/STAFF SALARY STUDIES from EXPERTISE pg. 8 “At MSU it’s really hard to compare jobs even with the same title as assistant directors because responsibilities can vary so greatly [and] I think responsibilities would play a role in that,” she said.

Trey Reed, assistant director of athletics for sports information, is the highest paid male assistant director with $53,076 after joining faculty in 2007. Crystal Boyle, assistant director for continuing education, is the highest paid female assistant director with an annual salary of $54,000. She began in 2005.

Peterson, who joined faculty in 1996, said, “A department may have more budget available than another department, but I really think it’s probably more on the job than the available budget that each department has...overall we have a pretty lean budget for MSU not just for salaries, just we don’t get much from the state than we used to.”

Admissions Assistant Director Hugo Erazo who has the median male salary of $42,221, said, outdated job descriptions can greatly affect a salary.

“A salary analysis for every employee [was conducted and was] supposed to take into consideration our duties and years in the position of what we do in order to establish a better salary which at the end didn’t change that much for anyone because the job descriptions are not updated.”

Ruth Morrow, Bolin distinguished chair of piano and professor of music, said sometimes it’s hard to tell if gender is a factor because every hire is individual and there has been a change in administration on every single level.

“There are probably different philosophies of how to hire. I would say that there’s one person who came in and I was surprised to find out how much they were making. I don’t know in terms of genderthat’s one isolated incident. I do know that there are faculty, who got what for a raise…I just can’t be bothered with that.

You know life’s too short.”

Morrow who makes $79,059, said her concern is with compression or the small difference in pay between employees re-

gardless of their skills or experience.

“I’m already full professor, there’s nowhere for me to go and yet when I had each of my promotions…I got half as much money as the people are now getting and so we’re going to be leap frogged by people. Also the last time and I can’t remember, it was at least 15 years ago that there was a compression, [which is people] coming in at higher pays and there’s also inversion when people come in at a lower grade actually making more money than you do.”

While faculty and staff shared views on gender, the idea of ethnicity influencing salaries was not popular.

Eighty-seven percent of the individuals employed on campus are white accounting for all three maximum $310,000, minimum $13,250 and median $47,922 salary for employees. Neither of the highest paying salaries for each ethnicity in the remaining thirteen percent reach half of the highest salary for white employees.

Morrow, said, “There are things besides ethnicity that are a more primary factor for salaries. Such as experience and how long their contract is nine months or 12 months.”

Morrow who is the highest paid American Indian with an annual salary of $79,059, said her doctorate, performance on the job and overall experience is what earned her her salary.

The highest paid American Indian / Alaskan Native is political science lecturer, Kyle Keel, who is paid $40,000 annually.

“People just assume the highest paid person would be a white male,” Treva Clifton, assistant to the president, said. Clifton makes the median salary for all white employees of $47,922 annually. She assists University President Suzanne Shipley, the highest paid person on campus who earns $310,000 annually.

Clifton said she earned her salary because of her experience. She started as secretary II, following which she became administrative assistant, the dean of students’ assistant, the vice president’s assistant and now the president’s assistant.

from FACTORS pg. 7 COST OF LIVING

The consideration of how much money a faculty member needs to make to be able to live efficiently is a huge factor. Without the cost of living, the university employees would not be able to live off of their paycheck.

“We look at the cost of living because costs are going up,” Fowlé said.

The university has to be able to keep up with inflation to ensure salaries stay competitive.

MERIT

PHOTO BY RACHEL JOHNSON | THE WICHITAN

Magaly Rincon-Zachary, biology professor, talks with her students, Mi’Kaila Billinger, biology and Spanish junior, and Alaska Carrillo-Bell, biology junior, about the EURECA research project they are working on and about the results they’ve gotten so far and possible directions they could go forth with, April 11, 2018.

“I am good where I am. Everyone wants a raise but the budget has been set for the year although the benefits outweigh a higher paying job without those benefits,” Clifton said.

Nelson Haggerty, men’s basketball head coach, is the highest paid AfricanAmerican male earning $119,658 annually, while Michaelle Kitchen, associate professor of counseling, is the highest paid black or African-American female earning $79,075 annually.

The highest paid Hispanic male is Martin Camacho, dean of Fain College of Fine Arts and associate professor of music, who makes a yearly salary of $124,860. Highest paid Hispanic female is Magaly RinconZachary, biology professor and director of undergraduate research, who makes a yearly salary of $104,980.

Adam Lei Yung-Chou, Bridwell distinguished professor of finance, said, “The professors discipline area is the most important factor for determining salaries.

We all have a PhD. It’s about where your

Merit is based on how well or how poor an employee is. This is where pay raise comes into play. This pay raise comes from a pool of money that is a set percent of the total of all the faculty employee salaries filled. It is then divided dispersed evenly to the deans.

Fowlé said, “The deans will then decide who deserves merit and who doesn’t.”

The merit pool is a sum of money that is provided by the increase of student tuition and fees.

PhD is at.”

As the highest paid Asian staff member on campus, Yung-Chou earns an annual salary of $124,599. The faculty in the finance department has some of the highest paid faculty on campus.

He said his ethnicity has not affected his ability to teach and although his accent has created some difficulty from time to time, students have gotten accustomed to it.

But Assistant Director of Admissions Hugo Erazo said ethnicity does have some impact on salaries. ”I started here and other universities would pay way more for somebody that’s bilingual to have in their office. I’m paid the normal and there’s no way for [for that to change]. In other offices with caucasians, I have seen people males especially, that they have a master’s degree and they get a salary increase for that. Here for me I got a master’s degree, I requested [a raise] and they said no and it happens for females too.”

Stambaugh also includes the starting salary was the most important. When applying for a position as a faculty member, Stambaugh said to negotiate the highest possible starting salary because everything else is based off of that.

“Every pay raise you get after [the starting salary], with the exception of the two promotion pay raises, are going to be functioned off of what was made last year,” Stambaugh said.

| May 2, 2018 | 11 FACULTY/STAFF SALARY STUDIES

Median faculty/staff salaries lowest of Texas schools in LSC Despite her statement, the data shows that out of the 1,267 employees at Tarleton 727 of them are women and yet the hen talking about football, MSU holds the top spot female median salary is almost $15,000 less than that of the in the Lone Star Conference. The Model United Na- median male salary. This seems to be a recurring pattern with tions team took home the most awards of any del- each of the other schools.

In spite of the data shown, Romero said, “Wage gaps can egation in MSU history while competing in New York City. But when it comes to salaries, MSU has the lowest median salary exist due to a number of reasons. The fact you have fewer men of $46,313 in comparison to five other Lone Star Conference can be one indicator why men are paid more. Supply and demand can be key in what drives the salary market. It is also schools.

Dawn Fisher, director of human resources, said, “Compen- known that men usually make higher salaries than women.”

Although the data shows a significant wage gap, Fisher said sation at MSU is contingent upon availability of funds and based on internal and external market equity. In addition to salaries are not based upon gender or ethnicity.

“Salary surveys and comparison rankings are used to deterbudget availability, faculty salaries are dependent upon the discipline of the individual and faculty rank at the beginning mine market equity based on peer institutions and the local area,” Fisher said. and throughout his or her career.”

Men In 2016, Evergreen Solutions According to the data pulled Men $62,791 Men Men $61,240 $60,495 $60,000 LLC completed a compensation from Texas Tribune in 2016, Men Men $57,002 $56,652 and survey analysis of staff posithe median salary for MSU was tions at MSU. $46,313. In comparison, the meWomen Women Women $46,826 Women $45,800 $45,609 Women Fisher continued and said, dian salary for Tarleton State was $43,860 $43,244 Women “This study was conducted to en$52,000, Texas A&M-Commerce $40,223 sure that the staff position titles $53,450, Texas A&M Kingsville accurately reflect responsibilities $50,337, UT Permian Basin and salary ranges are equitable $48,172 and West Texas A&M and competitive within out em$51,596. ployment markets.” “[The] market helps drive The results from the survey our salaries. Demand for certain are listed under Compensation disciplines can be a driver for and Classification Study on the higher salaries. Working closely Midwestern Tarlenton State Texas A&M Texas A&M UT Permian West Texas University Commerce Kingsville Basin A&M Human Resources web site. with compensation managers to State University When considering the public Median salaries by school ensure salary equity is also critiSOURCE: Individual Schools market, the Evergreen Solutions cal and stays in line with the job classification,” Edward Romero, chief diversity officer at Texas LLC outreach summary said, “MSU is approximately 6.4 percent below the market minimum and is about 2 percent below A&M Commerce, said.

In comparison, out of the other six colleges, Texas A&M the market midpoint.”

Regarding the research done with how employees felt about Commerce has the highest median salary.

Romero said, “Over the last 10 years, [Texas] A&M Com- their jobs here on campus, the survey showed that many of merce has received a merit increase each year that averages 2 them enjoyed working for Midwestern.

The survey said, “Employees widely cited the work environpercent. Permanent merit increases can help drive increased ment, mission, stability and benefits as positive characteriswages.”

In correlation to the median salary at MSU, Romero said tics. They were committed to serving students, appreciated the different programs can have an effect on the overall compen- opportunity to grow and develop, and enjoyed the workplace environment and their co-workers. sation for employees.

Along with the positive aspects of their job, employees also “Another point for consideration is the type of program where these faculty work. Programs in business and engineer- expressed what concerns they had about working on campus.

The survey continued and said, “Employees cited instances ing tend to have higher paying salaries that can in fact skew of different level positions which require highly similar work the average,” Romero said.

Along with having the lowest median salary, there was a having inequitable pay differences relative to work performed. wage gap between genders on campus. More particularly, it [Additionally] employees generally cited that pay is better at was evident that at each of the universities, men make much other educational institutions.”

As a result, Evergreen Solutions proposed a pay plan that more than women despite there being a higher amount of feincreased the minimum, midpoint, and maximum salary male employees.

Cecilia Jacobs, interim assistant vice president of market- range for employees. It also provided two implementation oping and communications at Tarleton, said, “Tarleton reviews tions for their proposition.

“Salary is just one piece of the total compensation packcompensation annually by race, salary grade, job family and seniority. We follow all state and federal laws, along with Texas age at MSU. Our additional benefits add more value such at A&M University System guidelines, regarding compensation retirement, insurance, paid leave, and educational assistance,” Fisher said. and hiring to provide equal opportunity for all employees.”

ANDREA PEDON REPORTER

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Highest paid by college/department NAME..................................................................................... GROSS COLLEGE Suzanne Shipley, President................................................ $310,000 Administration Barry Macha, General Counsel......................................... $134,277 Administration Deborah Barrow, Director, Board & Govt Relations...... $115,330 Administration Cindy Ashlock, Executive Asst to President.................... $63,036 Administration Nelson Haggerty, Head Coach.......................................... $194,430 Athletics Bill Maskill, Head Coach..................................................... $124,813 Athletics Jeff Ray, Head Coach/Life Skills Coach........................... $94,258 Athletics Noel Johnson,Head Coach................................................ $92,392 Athletics Marilyn Fowle, VP for Business Affairs/Finance............ $180,631 Business Affairs Kyle Owen, Associate VP, Facilities Services................. $113,304 Business Affairs Valarie Maxwell, Director, Budget & Management....... $102,753 Business Affairs Randy Kirkpatrick, Chief Information Officer.................. $98,217 Business Affairs William Percy, Director, Construction Services............. $86,420 Business Affairs Alan Dubinsky, Professor................................................... $122,157 Dillard Adam Lei, Associate Professor......................................... $120,800 Dillard Yoshikazu Fukasawa, Professor/Chair............................. $119,600 Dillard Catherine Gaharan, Associate Professor........................ $117,499 Dillard Martin Camacho, Dean of College/Assoc Professr....... $122,000 Fine Arts Jim Sernoe, Associate Professor/Chair........................... $86,530 Fine Arts Don Maxwell, Professor..................................................... $81,846 Fine Arts Gary Goldberg, Professor................................................... $79,715 Fine Arts Elizabeth Lewandowski, Professor/Chair........................ $77,965 Fine Arts James Johnston, Dean of College/Professor................. $144,909 Health Sciences Natha Moran, Professor/Chair.......................................... $132,914 Health Sciences Karen Polvado, Associate Professor................................ $121,665 Health Sciences Kathleen Williamson, Associate Professor/Chair.......... $110,500 Health Sciences Robin D Lockhart, Assistant Professor............................ $103,703 Health Sciences Betty Carraro, Director - Museum.................................... $77,911 Museum Mary Maskill, Director - Museum Public Programs...... $41,117 Museum Danny Bills, Museum Curator,Collections....................... $39,358 Museum Connie Jan Nolen, Administrative Assistant................... $25,764 Museum Brianna Lynn Satterfield, Museum, Collections Mgr..... $25,113 Museum Pamela Morgan, Dir, Cont, Prof, & Dist Educ.................. $101,141 Provost other Michael Mills, Director, International Education........... $94,327 Provost other Clara Latham, University Librarian.................................... $93,966 Provost other Roland Glean, Director, International Services.............. $86,115 Provost other Sam Watson III, Dean of College/Professor.................... $126,756 Prothro-Yeager Beverly Lynn Stiles, Professor/Chair................................ $119,577 Prothro-Yeager George Diekhoff, Professor/Chair..................................... $113,175 Prothro-Yeager Emily LaBeff, Professor....................................................... $105,008 Prothro-Yeager Harry Hewitt, Professor/Chair........................................... $98,495 Prothro-Yeager Keith Williamson, Medical Director,Vinson Health........ $173,679 Student Affairs Keith Lamb, VP Student Affairs/Enrollment Mgmt......... $154,418 Student Affairs Joey D Greenwood, Director, Rec Sports/Wellness...... $98,540 Student Affairs Jay Dan Williams, Chief of Police..................................... $95,067 Student Affairs Matthew Park, Assoc VP Student Affrs/Dean Stdn....... $93,415 Student Affairs Rodney Cate, Professor...................................................... $123,499 Science and Math Ranette Halverson, Professor/Chair................................. $108,679 Science and Math Sheldon Wang, Professor................................................... $106,354 Science and Math Mark Farris, Professor........................................................ $105,104 Science and Math William Scott Meddaugh, Professor................................ $104,650 Science and Math Matthew Capps, Interim Dean College/Assc Prof......... $125,142 Education Michaelle Kitchen, Interim Dean College/Assc Prof..... $95,124 Education Edward Karl Schultz, Associate Professor...................... $90,555 Education Phillip Blacklock, Assistant Professor............................. $81,900 Education Pamela Lyn Whitehouse, Assistant Professor................ $77,108 Education Source: Texas Tribune

12 | May 2, 2018 |

The ‘chaos’ that is K. Aus: the story of cancer survivor Kylie Austin TASIA FLOISSAC REPORTER

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or the average 18-year-old, it would seem that college life is about enjoying new-found freedom, homecoming and bonfires, cringing at cafeteria food and struggling to make that 4.0 GPA or not sleeping through class. But it definitely wasn’t the story of the vibrant history senior, Kylie Austin. Instead, it was doctor’s appointments, needles and surgery and two rounds of radiation for thyroid cancer.

“I was 18 coming in to play soccer at Midwestern, and I got the call literally about 15 minutes before I got to Wichita Falls, moving in for pre-season training camp,” Austin said.

Thyroid cancer is a form of cancer that develops from the tissues of the thyroid gland loKylie Austin cated in the front of the throat. The National Cancer Institute said thyroid cancer represents the 8th most common cancer in the United States.

However, for Austin, this isn’t her identifying factor. This isn’t the story she will be known for.

The story is that this Houston, Texas, professional soccer player has gone from sleeping on her friend’s couch, struggling to maintain an undergraduate degree to launching her own T-shirt brand and is soon to be a Graduate student in sports administration on campus.

But it didn’t come easy. On Sept. 5, 2014, Austin underwent thyroid cancer surgery at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

“I was like, ‘All right, I have to be in class for like a week and a half and then drive down to Houston, have surgery, recover for a couple weeks and then you know I’ll be working my way back to playing,’” Austin said.

After slowly recovering from her surgery and working her way back into working with the team, Austin’s life flipped again, literally. On her way to MD Anderson Cancer Center for a routine checkup, she got into a serious car accident in which her car flipped three times.

Following that near-death experience, Austin underwent her first round of radiation treatment during the first week of Christmas break in 2014.

During the holidays, teens are watching their weight in preparation for spring break. Instead, because of her cancer she didn’t get to decide. Austin had to undergo two weeks of intense dieting before her rounds of radiation.

“I had to go on a low iodine diet, which is the worst diet I have ever been on. I’m not a huge crier, but I would go to the grocery store to try to find something that would work and I would just cry. It was harder to do than the tests and radiation,” Austin said.

She said it was “too much” to deal with at that time, and she hit an ultimate low.

“I was the least happy person. I am very upbeat and energetic and, some may say, in your face. And it was just one of those things where I went from that and I just shut down because if you talk to me the wrong way and I caught a tone, I was snapping on sight,” Austin said.

She went through a second round of testing and radiation in spring break 2015. She thought after her first round of radiation, she was done. But reality hit hard when they realized the didn’t get all of the cancer out then.

Because she did everything by the book, Austin said she thought she would have been in the clear. She did the diet, she did the treatments, but yet the cancer was still there.

“Well, I get a call back a couple weeks later, January 2015 now and they were just like, ‘Hey, you know something wasn’t right, we need to do another round,’” Austin said.

For two years, she continued her schedule. She was holding her grades up while living life as a collegiate soccer player. But then she got the call.

“One day I had to run up to a local hospital to do some tests, and I get a call from my endocrinologist,” Austin said.

She heard two things over the call.

“You need to come home,” the specialist said to Austin.

“Hi, well, I’m living my dream right now,” Austin said to her endocrinologist.

She didn’t want to face anything more.

“No, Kylie, your cancer came back, you need to come home and handle this,” the specialist said.

So in March 2017, just when she thought she was in the clear, her cancer was back.

Despite the fact that she had cancer, she did not return to Houston and continued to play until it began to take a serious toll on her body. After a series of tests, Austin decided to listen to her doctors.

She returned to Houston, walked into the hospital and got the shock of her life.

When she returned to the surgery counsel on June 22, 2017, Austin said the surgeon told her she could be treated in another way besides surgery.

“Why are you even here,” the surgeon asked Austin.

“What do you mean why am I here?”

Austin asked confused. “You know everything.” He had all of her notes, her files, her test results. He should know why she was there.

“You don’t need surgery for this we can do this another way,” the surgeon said.

When Austin heard this, relief flooded her body.

Austin was prescribed pills to suppress the cancer and in September 2017, was certified cancer-free. After multiple other tests this year, she is still cancer-free and with the battle scars to prove it.

The 22- year-old is now an entrepreneur, having started a new business making colorful earrings, and in January 2018, she launched her new T-shirt line ‘K. Aus.’ After dealing with so much in

her 22 years, Austin wasn’t okay settling.

“The first shirt I thought of says, ‘be good do good.’ That’s what I say when I coach my kids, and I was sitting there and said I couldn’t just drop one shirt. It didn’t feel right. I’m coming to graduate and I can do a, b and c, but I wasn’t okay with settling.

Having grown up in a family business, she knew there was more she could to with her business idea.

“I grew up in a family business watching my dad and watching him grow the business. Ever since I was about 5-yearsold, I asked questions any time I could so I grew up business-minded,” Austin said.

Austin went to work. She created shirts with phrases she uses to coach children and anything she found inspiration in.

Austin said the new line was something she constantly prayed about until one day she knew it was time. She explained the meaning behind ‘K.Aus.’ READ MORE online. In addition read the previous story titled Women’s soccer player battles cancer.

| May 2, 2018 | 13

Hundreds participate in 10th undergraduate research forum FROM THE PRESENTERS

Gayal Hewakuruppu, computer science junior, “Using the Fourth-Order Runge-Kutta Method to Determine the Dynamic Response of a Free Vibrating Laminated Composite Shallow Shell Panel” | “(We were) determining how steel panels work and to see as many applications in the real world what we did is got some data on how it behaves to apply it in the real world. We documented certain frequencies and we wrote a paper so whoever that wants to look at it can dip into our data and use in the real world so there is no real conclusion (more like a reference). A set of data we laid down so anyone can have access to. It is the first time it has been done so I’d say it’s a big step in the science community. (It is) more theoretical because it’s all numbers done on a computer simulation. Which is why I personally chose this because it was related to computer science.”

Natally Chavarria, business management junior, “The Tragic End of Your Internet Freedom: Net Neutrality” | “I chose to participate because of my professor, Dr. Kataria. She was giving us a challenge in our special topics class, #THINK, to go beyond and pick net neutrality as our group project topic. We were mainly challenged to go get signatures and educate students on campus about the repeal of net neutrality- if they know what it is and how to save our internet.”

Patrick Rowland, radiology technology junior, “TSA Implementation of Computed Tomography” | I had heard some kerfuffle about [them] implementing CT scanners in carry on baggage [and] so I looked into it and that’s when I started realizing this stuff is really dangerous and there’s almost no training, almost no monitoring and no oversight. When they previously implemented it in the early 2000’s they found that this stuff was spewing radiation and as far as I could find, there’s been no further research. It was never followed up on and the TSA never corrected it.”

“One of the things it made me think about is that at the airport, when you’re checking your carry on, I don’t really wanna push my hand through there anymore. So it’s gonna change my behavior a little bit and definitely going to alter the way I travel.”

Don Wijesinghe, mechanical engineering sophomore, “Puerto Rico Power Restoration Using Renewable Energy” | “It actually feels good [to present] because our project is for a charitable cause, as in, what we are trying to do here is build a device that can help out people in a disasterstruck zone. People who do not have electricity after something like Hurricane Maria that affected Puerto Rico, you don’t have anyone that you can run to, but a device like this could power your basic essentials.”

UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS • McCoy College of Science, Math and Engineering, Best Poster | Carson Barnard, Exploring the Medicinal Effects of Smooth Sumac; Faculty mentor: James Masuoka • McCoy College of Science, Math and Engineering, Best Oral Presentation | Jocelyn Brown, Brett Scheffe, Duli de Alwis, Increasing the Pressure Tolerance Limit of a Plate Heat Exchanger; Faculty mentor: Salim Azzouz • Dillard College of Business Management, Best Poster | Taylor McCreary, Graciela Ruiz, Rolando Diaz, Natally Chavarria, Joe Hankins, The Tragic End of Your Internet Freedom: Net Neutrality; Faculty mentor: Niyati Kataria • Dillard College of Business Management, Best Oral Presentation | Kiley Beaver, Ghislaine Bigot, Anni Scholl, Sarah Moore, A Mixed Method Study of Factors Influencing Student Enrollment at MSU Texas; Faculty mentor: Thuy Nguyen • Lamar D. Fain College of Fine Arts, Best Poster | Katherine Pendergrass, Effects of Music on the Listener’s Moods and Emotions; Faculty mentor: Ruth Morrow

FROM THE AUDIENCE

PHOTO BY FRANCISCO MARTINEZ | THE WICHITAN

Chloe Dewberry-Hanssen, art freshman, listens to Rachel Wilson, art senior, speak about her gallery of single parent portraits during the Undergraduate Research Endeavors and Creative Activity Forum Kickoff at Clark Student Center on April 26.

Garrison Horton, English senior, “Decadence Across Cultures: England, France, Russia, And Central Europe” | “I chose to participate because I got an email from my professor one day saying ‘would you like to participate in this project with me?’ and I thought it was a great and fun opportunity. As an English major I got a lot of research skills out of this project.”

Kelsey Lake, kinesiology senior, “Reimagining the Elementary Classroom: Implementation of the Kinesthetic Classroom” | “I’m applying for grad school this next semester and [participating in the forum] looks good on a resume. I’m actually applying for jobs including student teaching. People are really interested when they see you do undergraduate research. This was my first time to present something like this so it’s a good experience to talk in front of people and be able to explain what you saw in the field. This is what I’ll be working with everyday.”

Kiley Beaver, marketing senior, “A Mixed Method Study of Factors Influencing Student Enrollment at MSU Texas” | I really learned how to do research because i’ve never really done it this in depth before. We learned a lot about students perceptions of MSU and how they are concerned with the feel of a college town as well as the traditions and events that the university holds. That will be something interesting to see if the university actually implements.”

• Lamar D. Fain College of Fine Arts, Best Oral Presentation | Cortney Wood and Brendan Wynne, Going Behind the Scenes; Faculty mentor: Bradley Wilson • Robert D. and Carol Gunn College of Health Sciences and Human Services, Best Poster | Meagan Sissom, Cassandra Gomez, Katelyn McQuerry, Next Generation MRI Scanning; Faculty mentor: Jessyca Wagner • Robert D. and Carol Gunn College of Health Sciences and Human Services, Best Oral Presentation | Camille Khan, Detection of Child Abuse in Medical Imaging; Faculty mentor: Robert Comello • Prothro-Yeager College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Best Poster | Garrison Horton, Decadence Across Cultures: England, France, Russia, and Central Europe; Faculty mentor: Kirsten Lodge • Prothro-Yeager College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Best Oral | Jennifer Holt Reviewing Parent-Child Interaction Therapy as a Treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder; Faculty mentor: David Carlston

Cierra Scott, marketing sophomore | “I attended because I needed extra credit . I learned more about the research here at Midwestern state and the students trying to make the world a better place trying to make the world a better place.”

Bryce Martinez, business management sophomore | “I’m hoping to learn some new things and see something that I’ve never seen before.”

Anthony Onwuegbuchu, mechanical engineering junior | “I need this for credit in [my] Foundations of Business class. We just visit an event for business with your passport, write notes, bring it class and you get a grade.”

William Besong, accounting junior | “It’s worth attending. There’s this one guy who presented on DNA. He designed a program that could calculate DNA faster than what it is right now. It’s important because the world is changing, everything is moving faster [and] people need to get results right now. Presently it takes a while for you to get DNA results but according to what we saw, it’s going to give you the information...like that...instantaneous.”

Jessica Newman, nursing freshman | “The [standouts] to me was the [presentation regarding Sudden Infant Death Syndrome]. [Students are presenting] to get their point across, to show undergraduates that their research projects matter and they probably can make a difference.”

Alex Morgan-Anderson, economics sophomore | “It really sheds light on the work that our undergraduates are putting in to these very distinct and unique research projects of their own. It is really cool because my economics professor offered for me to work on something like this with him. Looking at the research and the data they put into these project, sheds light on ideas that I could use for my own.”

Kylan Harrison, sports leisure freshman | “I needed to come to the forum for extra credit and because I attended, I was able to learn new things that I didn’t previously know about.”

Ola Ayodele, applied science junior | “I came to this event for extra credit in my history and biology class. This event was worth attending, because I’ve learned a lot of new things.”

Zach Nemcek, psychology junior | “I was actually just walking on through and I noticed this really cool artwork.

All the stuff just kinda caught my eye. I was just on my way to class honestly. It’s super worth attending because research such an important part of going to school here and what we do in college and if we aren’t doing research or learning how to do research from each other we are wasting our tuition and our time.”

• Gordon T. and Ellen West College of Education, Best Poster | Sheri Speegle. Rapping Up Math Fluency: A Multi-Sensory Approach to Improve Math Fact Fluency; Faculty mentor: Emily Rutherford • Gordon T. and Ellen West College of Education, Best Oral Presentation | Frida Arredondo, Montserrath Garay, From Margin to Center: Multicultural Picturebooks in Math, Science and Social Studies; Faculty mentors: Kelly Medellin, Dittika Gupta • Best Interdisciplinary Project | Frida Arredondo, Montserrath Garay, From Margin to Center: Multicultural Picturebooks in Math, Science and Social Studies; Faculty mentors: Kelly Medellin, Dittika Gupta • Most Creative (tie) | Jocelyn Brown, Brett Scheffe, Duli de Alwis, Increasing the Pressure Tolerance Limit of a Plate Heat Exchanger; Faculty mentor: Salim Azzouz • Most Creative (tie) | Elam Lazo, Kenia Rodriguez, Emily Stewart, Mireya Victoria, Using AI and MRI to Evaluate Children with Hearing Loss; Faculty mentor: Jessyca Wagner

GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS The day before the undergraduate research and creative activities presentations, graduate students and faculty presented research. Two of them received recognition.

• Best Graduate Student Podium Presentation | Tricia Neptune, “Divergence of a physiological phenotype: variation in metabolic rate among Anolis oculatus ecotypes on Dominica”; Faculty mentor: Charles M. Watson • Best Graduate Student Poster Presentation | Ibtissem Derouiche, “Cell Surface Hydrophobicity of Candida albicans Upon Release of Cell Wall Protein by Dithiothreitol Treatment”; Faculty mentor James Masuoka

14 | May 2, 2018 |

Finals Frenzy to relieve students of finals stress ANDREA PEDON REPORTER

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tudying for finals means staying up late, not getting enough sleep and stressing about passing classes.

To give students an opportunity rest from all stress that comes from finals and to have some fun, the University Programming Board is hosting a Finals Frenzy May 3 in the Jesse Rogers Promenade.

Ruby Arriaga, UPB adviser, said, “It’s free for students to de-stress before they take their finals. And it’s also a way for the campus to come together. A lot of the organizations or offices have come together for Finals Frenzy to put this activity on for the students.”

Arriaga said this semester’s Finals Frenzy doesn’t have a theme, however, the name is self-expressive because of all the different activities being hosted.

“The point is, there are a lot of different activities going on like a frenzy,” Arriaga said. “It’s for students to have a wide variety of de-stressing events for them to have fun.

So there’s not really a theme and it kind of helped because there’s so many things going on for different types of students.”

In comparison to the other main events hosted by UPB, Arriaga said Finals Frenzy is one of their most popular events by far.

“This is one of our biggest events so we anticipate 200 to 300 students that attend,” Arriaga said.

After the success and turnout from the previous years the event was hosted, members of UPB have made Finals Frenzy a tradition.

“It’s always going to be something. I think [people] always wait for this event because it’s the last hurrah before finals,” Arriaga said.

Paige Cantrell, education freshman, said she attended the Finals Frenzy last semester.

“I had a lot of fun at the Finals Frenzy last semester, but I wish that it was more spread out, so instead of being just one day, it could be an entire week of activities,” Cantrell.

Christopher Sun, pre-med freshman, said he isn’t going to be able to attend Finals Frenzy because he has an exam at that time.

“I didn’t go to the Finals Frenzy last semester because I had an exam and I won’t be able to go this semester for the same reason,” Sun said. “It would be cool if they had it on a Saturday whenever there isn’t any classes.”

PHOTO BY RACHEL JOHNSON | THE WICHITAN

Students line up to make their own Lucky Bamboo as a part of Finals Frenzy in the Clark Student Center Atrium on Dec. 7, 2017.

Students help elementary students prepare for Lemonade Day KRISTIN SILVA REPORTER

Boys & Girls Clubs of Wichita Falls

Available Scholarships Martha and Graham Ball Memorial Scholarships

Renewable

Alumni and Friends Scholarships

$750 a semester, renewable for 4 years

James Lane Memorial Scholarships

$1250 a semester, renewable for 1 semester

Keith & Barbara Summers Memorial Scholarship $750 a semester, renewable up to 2 years A.C. Christine Clark Memorial Scholarship

$1000 a semester, renewable

Eligibility  



Must have a GPA of 2.5 Must be a former youth member or athletic participant Must attend MSU

You can pick up applications up at the Main Office at 1318 6th St or online at www.bgcwf.org 9:00 am -5:00 pm

For more information call 940-322-2012

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he cool air of a spring day blows across their faces, a smile is on their lips and their eyes are beaming as customers walk up to purchase a class of ice-cold lemonade. It’s Lemonade Day. Around 300 elementary students have been preparing for the event for a month with the help of students in the entrepreneurship and management of small enterprises class.

Students will be assisting elementary students from City View Elementary, Zundy Elementary and Sheppard Elementary with their small-business lemonade stands on Saturday, May 5 from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.

According to Simon Ospina, finance and economics junior, there will be 50 different lemonade stands posted around Wichita Falls ready for business.

“Lemonade Day is a community program specifically set up to teach kids how to become entrepreneurs by having their own business,” Ospina said. “They get to pick what kind of lemonade they sell, their prices and how their stand will look.

All of these choices are up to them.”

Scott Manley, assistant professor of

management, said this is the third year the school has been involved with this youth program and it is teaching students the value of service learning.

“The idea for our students [is] that it is service learning,” Manley said. “Not only does it help them [students] to learn the material better, to teach the stuff they’ve learned over the course of the semester, but it is also to teach them the value of giving back.”

Ospina said some of the locations will include Frank & Joe’s, Raising Canes, Sam’s Club, Michael’s, Petco and Goodwill.

“We’re going to try and make a route to put on our social media,” Ospina said.

Awards will be given at the wrap-up which will be hosted at the Texoma Community Credit Union.

“We’re going to give three awards to the participants,” Ospina said. “One is for the best tasting lemonade, another one is for the best looking stand and the last is the people’s choice award. People can go to our Facebook page and click the link provided to vote for the stand they liked the best.”

READ more online at thewichitan.com.

| May 2, 2018 | 15

‘Sex Signals’ encourages discussion with comedy BRIAN LANG REPORTER

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bout 30 people attended the “Sex Signals” presentation in the Legacy Multipurpose Room on April 30 to build confidence for genuine discussions about sexual misconduct. Although there were some smaller groups that attended, a vast majority of the audience was comprised of members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

The interactive show tackles issues that many students face on campus. Students and hosts discussed topics like sexual interactions, harassment and assault in an honest and funny way. The hosts main goal was to give students tools they need to feel confident and safe in the complicated world of a college campus.

Attending the event was a mandatory component of the sanctions placed on the fraternity last semester for grades, but it also was a time of bonding and shared learning for the fraternity according to Excellence Shakra, radiology sophomore and Kappa Sigma member.

Michael Gonzales, criminal justice sophomore said, “I came because I feel like I’ve had a few friends who’ve gone through sexual harassment and that I didn’t know the right steps to stop it when I see it, but I know that I need to do something.”

The presentation was filled with audience interaction and the actors allowed the students to direct the conversation and bring their own experiences into the discussion, a technique that students said resonated with them.

“It was actually fun,” Shakra said. “The actors were great and involved everyone in it.”

Besides being entertaining, presenters at “Sex Signals” gave many students practical tools on how to stay safe and keep those around them safe as well.

“It gave me reassurance about what to do, what might happen and how to get out of dangerous situations,” ShaDera Bryant Williams, athletic training sophomore, said. “I feel like we should have more events like this on campus but maybe more talks pertaining to different aspects of sex on campus.”

Other students agreed that this type of presentation, and the comedic methods it used, would be beneficial for students on campus.

“They should do a talk like this for the freshmen from now on. I feel like people should keep learning as they go along, maybe once or twice a year. I would say ‘Think About It’ is not working because I didn’t get a lot out of it,” Gonzales said. “The interactions we have with the speakers are more beneficial and I think that we should do more of those. The audience interactions with the students made this event better.”

Call the Counseling Center on campus at 940-397-4618 or stop by the Counseling Center on the corner of Hampstead and Louis J. Rodriguez Drive in if you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual harassment or assault.

Players from both teams prepare for a ground ball hit back to the pitcher in the faculty and staff Softball Tournament in Mustang Park on April 28.

Faculty bond through friendly softball game TYLER MANNING EDITOR

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he warmth from the sun energized the faculty as they stretched in preparation for the tournament.

There was a sensational energy in the air as children and spouses of faculty members rooted on their loved ones in a game of softball.

To give faculty on campus an opportunity to bond over a friendly game of softball, staff from the wellness center invited various staff around campus to participate in a softball tournament.

Angie Reay, director of wellness center, said, “We wanted to do something for the faculty and staff to get them out and be a little competitive and have something for us.

We thought it would be a good way for faculty and staff to come together and get to know each other a little bit better. We always see each other at work and thought this would be more of a social, fun event to hang out with everybody.”

According to Mike Richardson, assistant director of the wellness center, the staff had this idea in their minds since last semester, just a few weeks after he had been hired.

“You get to know people on campus wherever you work, but some of the best ways to meet new people, bond and just have a good time is to come out and to participate in some kind of recreation,” Richardson said. “We just wanted a chance for some of the faculty and staff to come out and take a day or a few hours, have some fun and really just to have a good time out here.”

Those who participated divided themselves into three teams. Staff from the wellness center, the athletic departments, the political science department and housing joined forces to make a team while the staff from faculty services divided themselves into two additional teams.

“I love playing softball, and I haven’t been able to play much since I have kids because they play sports, so I have to go to their sports [games],” Jeremy Duff, associate professor of political science, said. “It’s a beautiful day and it’s

PHOTOS BY JACOB SMITH | THE WICHITAN

A player from the Janitorial staff’s team smashes a pitch from his opponent sending it into the air. good to be out and active.”

Kelvin Smith, groundskeeper at facility services, said he went to the event as a way to boost morale. “[I came out today] for fun and [to boost] morale [with my coworkers]. You get to interact with your coworkers outside of work. It’s fun,” Smith said. “I told the guys [at work] yesterday at practice that this will be something that we’ll be talking about on Monday, how much fun we are going to have. That is what it is all about; it is about fun.”

To Duff, this was a fun way to bond with coworkers and to maintain his health.

“Everyone needs to at least do some kind of exercise to stay healthy and fit, plus softball is what we would call a ‘lifetime sport,’ so it’s something you can play throughout most of your life,” Duff said. “It’s good to get out and spend time with the other staff because most of the time we’re just in our offices. [It’s nice] to do stuff and have fun and get healthy.”

16 | May 2, 2018 |

Tennis Team pose with medals after their win over Metro-State at MSU Tennis Courts on April 30.

PHOTO BY MAKAYLA SCHECK | THE WICHITAN

Men’s tennis moves on to Sweet 16 MAKAYLA SCHECK SPORTS REPORTER

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his is the sixth time both men’s and women’s tennis teams will move onto the national championship. The women’s team will be traveling to Surprise, Arizona to face Hawaii Pacific University on May 8. The men’s team will go to the national championship in Surprise, Arizona from May 9—12.

“We are feeling really good going into nationals, regionals was a good test for us emotionally. To make sure we are strong and ready to fight. We just need to work on staying healthy and being in the right mindset,” Ashley Ramirez, marketing sophomore, said.

The men’s tennis team took down Metro-State in the NCAA II Regional game on Monday, April 30.

The final score was 5-1, winning two out of three doubles and three out of six singles matches. The team had reached the 5-1 score toward the end of the continuing three matches, which left them unfinished.

“We have the right mindset, finishing this match is pretty big going into nationals. There is definitely stuff we could work on, we are going to try to get ready for nationals and hopefully take it

Men’s Tennis team huddles up with coach after winning the NCAA II Regional title . home this year,” Nolan McCaig, criminal justice freshman The doubles matches ended with only one loss.

Vasudev Vijayaraman, computer science senior, and Denney Norrie, business sophomore, won their match 8-5. Dillon Pineda, biology/pre-med junior, and McCaig, were the first ones to finish

their match but did not win. Alex Martinez-Roca, mechanical engineering freshman, and Angel Palacios, business management sophomore, finished their match last with a score of 8-2 whiched help the team win the doubles section of the game.

“I feel good, and even though I didn’t finish, I know the guys are doing their best. It’s a great win before we go to nationals, we are all looking forward to it. There are no words to describe it right now, it’s an amazing feeling,” Pineda said.

The team won three singles matches, leaving three unfinished. Palacios, Pineda, and Vijayaraman were not able to finish their matches, but they were all ahead of their competitor. Jean Muniz, undecided freshman, and Martinez-Roca won their singles matches, and were the first to finish. McCaig finished his singles match last completing the win for the team and gaining the championship.

“The opportunity to play against the best teams in the country is great, and I think these student athletes worked extremely hard all year long. They have earned the right to go to nationals, and that’s what I look forward to. Them going playing at nationals and believing they should be there, and maybe going farther than have before,” Head coach Scott Linn said.