The Guardian 4-12-17

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ISSUE NO. 25 VOL. 53

Wright State basketball player critically injured Saturday Blake Sutherland Sports Writer

Sutherland.21@wright.edu

Education First Collation protest board meeting Sarah Cavender News Writer Cavender.8@wright.edu On April 7, around 200 students and faculty joined together and marched across campus. Holding signs demanding transparency and the release of the audit, the group protested how the university administration had handled the growing debt. Education First was formed less than a month ago when a few students began talking to faculty about how angry they were. Protesters arrived in Millet Hall from all different colleges with a common goal. Ryan Oates stated, “I saw a serious problem with administrative bloat. One of the ways to deal with the budget was to cut teachers. That’s something I’m kind of passionate about. I wanted to make sure they took our education into consideration when making these cuts.” Brittany Andrews stated, “I’m here to support the local student body and to fight back and get what we deserve. I feel like my favorite professors are being fired or quitting, and that kind of sucks because they’re good people. I want to see really good professors that care and teach.” Tyler Willis said, “I’m here for education. The financial issues on campus result in teachers, courses and classes being cut. That affects a lot of the students, it creates a longer graduation time now because they can’t take the classes they need to graduate.” Joshua Keeton said, “I’m here for the future of the school. There’s faculty here that I have come to love and respect that are directly being affected; my programs, and the resources that I use are all directly being affected its something that I feel very strongly about.” Willis gave a speech before the demonstration, “Our teachers are worried about their jobs. And the school is in a budget crisis. And you know the people who have burnt the blunt of this financial crisis are the ones who have nothing to do with it at all. The teachers. And that affects all of us to the students, faculty and alumni.” As the students walked into the Board of Trustees meeting they were greeted by one of the board members. The audit was approved to be released later that day.

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Wright State University basketball player Ryan Custer was critically injured following an accident at a house party near the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Saturday afternoon. According to a Facebook page set up by Custer’s family, the athlete fractured his C5 vertebrae jumping into a makeshift pool. When he was admitted into the University of Cincinnati’s hospital he underwent a surgery to widen his spinal cord column and fuse vertebrae together to repair the damage. “Our hope is as the spinal cord swelling decreases, he will get more feeling in his extremities,” the Custer family posted. “As of Sunday night, he has feelings to the touch from his shoulders down his arms to his fingers. He can also bend his arms at the elbows and shrug his shoulders.

As of right now however, he has no feeling from his waist down. The doctors hope in time he will continue to get his feeling back, but there is a long road ahead of him.” Oxford Fire Chief, John Detherage, noted the makeshift pool, was created by using straw bales and blue tarp, contained six to 10 inches of water and had a slide contraption. Wright State’s men’s basketball coach, Scott Nagy, spent most of Sunday with Custer and his family in the hospital. “I’d rather not paint that

picture,” Nagy said. “You can talk to (Custer’s family) about their reactions and as you can imagine it’s just not an easy thing for anybody to deal with.” While the men’s basketball team was supposed to hold a meeting on Monday together, many of the players wanted to see Custer. Despite the severity of Custer’s situation and the hard hit an incident like this could bring to the Wright State basketball team, athletic department and community, Nagy wants to look at the situation

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Photo by Tim Zechar

Open forum held by interim president Kristin Baughman Baughman.25@wright.edu News Editor An open forum was held by interim president Curtis McCray on April 5 to give faculty and staff an opportunity to share their thoughts on the current state of the university. “All the energy in this room, I think we could solve any problem in the world,” McCray began at the forum. “It would seem to me that somehow the institution in recent years has been spending more than it takes in. That somehow expenses are running way ahead of revenues, and you can’t do that in any institution.” Addressing the current formation of the budget, McCray informed the public he has never presented an unbalanced budget to a board. “I knew the magnitude of the financial problem, but what I did not know was how deeply the issues of the budget would go through out the institution,” McCray said. “The degree to which almost every element of the institution

would be touched.” McCray shared the struggles of trying to put together budget in a few months, with then end of the fiscal year on July 1. “We have developed a loss by overspending of over $30 million dollars, and that’s with no reserves left. As I suggested, they may be below zero,” McCray said. “These are hard times for you, and I realize that. If I could convey to you in any way what’s in my heart, I’m sorry. I recognize the contribution that you and your colleagues make to the institution on a regular basis. I want to be responsive to that, and be sure that I’ve done everything I can for you. In so many ways, you are the heart and soul of the institution, I know that.” Questions posed to McCray dealt with the fear of the impending cuts, how administrative positions will be handled, as well as who will be held accountable for putting the university in this current position. McCray shared part of his contact with the Board of Trustees.

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“There was one thing in this letter of agreement the board send me, and that was that I would do nothing that would diminish the prospect and the current condition of division one athletics. I think that was foolish.” One unclassified staff member gave a statement rather than a question. “The elephant in the room, that you have alluded to but not actually said, is that we’re the ones on the block. Unclassified and classified staff are the ones really on the block. Faculty are unionized, other entities on campus are unionized,” the staff member said. “Unclassified staff are completely unprotected. Everyone in this room, whether they’re saying it or not, is concerned that we’re losing our jobs in three weeks.” Another staff forum will be held on April 13 at noon in 120 in the Medical Sciences building.


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