Facing a budget shortfall and falling enrollment, Tuesday’s general assembly for fall 2009 highlighted successes of the past year and offered possible solutions for the problems facing Emporia State this semester.

“For ESU to grow, we must think differently,” said Michael Lane, president of ESU. “It’s going to be a challenging year, but we can pull together.”

Lane also said that the university is facing a nearly $4 million budget shortfall. The results of this budget deficit are far reaching.

“We have had to cancel 25 classes, lessen the number of staff positions, provide fewer on-campus jobs, increase general education class size to beyond normal capacity, lower library resources and force lower budgets on all departments,” Lane said. “The reduced course offerings may also impact first and second year retention.”

Lane also discussed plans to offer general education classes online for students living in places far away from campus, like Kansas City, that would not otherwise consider Emporia for school. He also mentioned the possibility of students in China being taught an intensive English course with ESU staff members sent overseas.

While less money is coming from the state, and donations from the ESU Foundation are too small to repair the budget shortfall, increasing the numbers of students enrolling and lowering the number of upperclassmen leaving ESU are some of the means that are being considered for lessening the budget shortfall, Lane said.

“The state of Kansas doesn’t have the revenue it needs to allocate us more funds,” said Amy Sage Webb, associate professor of English and former faculty senate president. “There isn’t really anywhere else you can cut, so we have to provide more options to get students to enroll. The way this budget is filtering down is that the students will have fewer professors and less time with us.”

Numerous achievements of the past year were reviewed with faculty, students and staff who attended. Amongst these achievements were the metal directional signs that are dispersed throughout campus, the cessation of building renovations and the completion of a sound budget in tough economic times.

“There were periods when we were making this budget that we would make three or four different drafts of it in a week,” Lane said. “Thankfully, last year’s faculty senate put us in good position to move forward.”

New staff and faculty were introduced by their respective departments. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Teacher’s College gained the most new staff members.

Associated Student Government Vice President Liz Coffey, junior earth science major, attended the assembly.

“I like Lane’s ideas, and now all we need is for everyone to jump on it,” Coffey said. “The staff here is working hard to solve our problems and students would be glad to know something is being done.”

Josh Johnson/The Bulletin

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Jonathan Sprinkles tells ESU students how they can succeed in college Sunday evening in Webb Lecture Hall. Sprinkles gave advice and motivation to ESU students Sunday as the opening How2ESU orientation speaker. JONATHAN ELLIOT/THE BULLETIN

First year students at Emporia State this semester were guinea pigs for a new orientation program called “How2ESU” with activities that lasted throughout Sunday afternoon and most of the day Monday.

“It was a long and drawn out process,” said Dani O’Keefe, Freshman undecided major. “It was a lot of info that we’ve already been told throughout our lives. It would be okay if we didn’t do it, to that extent at least.”

The orientation was implemented to provide a smoother transition from high school to college for students.

“We started having a lot of discussion last year about trying something new for orientation,” said Jason Bosch, assistant director of student involvement for Greek life. “One of our biggest concerns was our retention rate, which we would like to see higher.”

Retention rate is the number of students returning for another semester at the same school, Bosch said.

Activities for Sunday included a dinner, a series of ice breaker activities at Welch Stadium called “Playfair” and advice mingled with comedy from speaker Jonathan Sprinkles. Sprinkles’ message encouraged self-respect, positive thinking and perseverance.

“My father told me something, and I get chills still – cause it’s like he’s saying it right now,” Sprinkles said. “Don’t let what’s on the outside affect what’s on the inside. Be the best ‘you’ you can be.”

Monday’s orientation activities included a lecture session on study habits, sexual assault and optional “hot topic issues” sessions about subjects like roommate quarrels.

“These sessions have been really effective,” said Lacy Jordan, freshman elementary education major. “I am happy to be at ESU and these sessions have been part of that by helping me make new friends and learn the campus.”

Other students weren’t as enthusiastic as Jordan.

“There were certain things that were useful but other things that I didn’t think were necessary,” said Brittany Ray, freshman sociology major. “(If I had the choice) I would go to some of it but I didn’t think some of the speakers were necessary. It just took up a lot of time.”

The session on sexual assault was lightened up by speaker Bob Hall. Hall used audience interaction and comedy to discuss the touchy subject.

“My favorite speaker was Bob Hall,” said Luke Drury, freshman political science major. “He took a serious issue like sexual assault, threw in some comedy, and still got a point across. It was really effective.”

The events concluded with convocation speaker Barbara Love, associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, instead of the “Hornet Walk” convocation of the past. Love’s presentation focused on the diversity that college students bring to their institutions and how they should be open to exploring and accepting the differences that each student has in the university community.

“You have to think about what you want your community to be like,” Love said. “You get to decide whether it is warm, accepting and welcoming – or not.”

Upperclassmen organized the “How2ESU” program, and many believe the program will prove very effective in providing a smooth transition for the incoming class of 2009.

“How2ESU has been a success, especially for a first year,” said Addison Canidy, senior communications major. “I have a feeling this year’s freshman class will have a great graduation rate due to this program.”

Josh Johnson/The Bulletin

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The Villas, 1839 Merchant St., are open and accepting residents. Amenities include a workout room, pool, hot tub, tanning, on-site laundry and free wireless internet. KELSEY RYAN/THE BULLETIN

On the back wall, a sign reads “Your mouth isn’t watering. It’s crying for Jimmy Johns.” Like Jimmy Johns, other businesses have opened in Emporia in the last few months. Tyler Clabaugh, the head manager of Jimmy Johns, was very anxious for his store to open on August 18.

“We’re expecting a lot of business,” said Clabaugh. “We will offer delivery, and we will be open until 3 a.m., with delivery and in-store options until that time as well.”

Jimmy Johns will offer many catering opportunities to other businesses in town, including schools and hospitals. They are mainly here for the college population and intend to cater to their late-night needs.

Jimmy Johns will open daily around 10 a.m. or 10:30 a.m., “whenever the bread comes out of the oven.”

The Villas, a brand-new apartment complex, located at 1839 Merchant St. is open and still accepting residents. Jacqueline Dill, property manager of The Villas, mentioned a few of the features of the complex.

“We have apartments that are two and four bedroom, but each resident is contracted individually, so if one of the renters decides to bail at semester, it will only affect that person,” she said.

The Villas include a workout room, a pool and hot tub, free tanning, on-site laundry and vending, a social room that includes four televisions, two poker tables, a ping pong table and free wireless internet. Outside by the pool they have a sand volleyball court, a basketball court and they are hoping to build some permanent grills.

“We will also be having a pool party that will be open to the public this Friday, the 21^st, at around 4 p.m.,” Dill said.

On August 4, Bravo Salon in the Granada Plaza at 726 Commercial St. They are located in Suite D, with parking off of 8^th street. Shawna Short, one of the stylists at Bravo Salon, talked about the services they offer.

“We offer a full range of services pretty much – cuts, color, manicures, pedicures and facial waxing (for) men, women and children,” said Short.

The two other stylists, Heather Bailey and Aimee Morris, each carry different lines of hair products. Another feature unique to their salon is the hand-held blow dryers that hang from the ceiling. Each dryer is weightless, meaning that when they pull the dryer down, it turns on and stays at the precise length it was pulled to so it won’t fall on your head.

Bravo Salon does accept walk-ins, Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., with Mondays and Saturdays by appointment only.

Flint Hills Laser Expressions is also new to Emporia. They occupy the location where Jock’s Nitch used to be at 912 Commercial St. Rick Robidu does his own granite marble laser engraving, and offers many other kinds of services and merchandise.

Laser Expressions offers athletic apparel for ESU, KU and K-State, as well as other memorabilia. They can also do customized screen printing for t-shirts, unique gifts and glassware engraving for any occasion.

Laser Expressions is open Tuesdays through Fridays 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Some other businesses that have opened within the past few months include Pumpkin Doodles Children’s Boutique, 725 Commerce St. and RuYi, 1113 Merchant St., an Asian restaurant.

Shawna Berry/The Bulletin

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With the overwhelming passage of the Memorial Union renovation fee increase last spring, plans for the March 2010 groundbreaking have begun, are on schedule and are on the $18.5 million budget, said David Hendricks, director of the Memorial Union.

“We spent the summer finalizing the design and we gave the architects permission to move into the next phase,” Hendricks said. “The design took a lot of time and we had many meetings with the construction manager as well as our ESU team.”

The design that was chosen will be a mixture of all three themes that were shown to students, faculty and staff during last semester’s renovation forums.

“We heard pretty loud and clear that students liked bits and pieces of all three (designs),” Hendricks said. “We went after the nicer, larger East entrance, the curved main street concept and the open stair tower in the lobby. We took what we thought were the best components of all three (models).”

Students who were on the committee had the chance to give their opinions on the remodeling effort.

“Student input on the committee was highly valued,” said Jonathan Krueger, senior political science major and Associated Student Government president. “I think (the design) reflects a lot of what the students said during the vision sessions.”

Krueger was positive about the design the architects came up with.

“Its going to be one of the first buildings that students see when they step on campus and I think it’s going to provide a more vibrant lifestyle,” he said.

Although original remodel plans did not leave room for changes on Main Street, the remodeling team decided to make those changes as well.

“We realized that we were making dramatic changes to the East and significant changes to the West – why live in the status quo?” Hendricks said. “The architects presented us with a concept that really opens up Main Street. We’re gaining a lot space for student lounge space.”

Bidding will be awarded to contractors in January or early February of next year, Hendricks said. Construction will start with the addition to the East end of the Union.

“A little bit of the East part of the bookstore will be walled off so that they can begin to knock through that wall,” Hendricks said.

That portion is expected to be finished in November 2010.

“The biggest hurdle for us to overcome is going to be the phases in which they go through the renovation,” Krueger said. “It’s going to be something that requires everyone’s support. It’s going to take a lot of work.”

At the beginning of the fall 2010 semester, the bookstore, the Hornet Express and the information center will all be closed so that construction can start in those areas. The bookstore will be moved to the Heritage Room while the Hornet Express will move to the Hornet’s Nest, downstairs in the union.

“We’ll create a temporary information center somewhere in the west lobby so that we can continue to do all the things that we do there, check cashing and postal services,” Hendricks said.

The next steps will include moving and remodeling the cafeteria and relocating and renovating the services on Main Street, including the Center for Student Involvement.

“The last part of the process will be to renovate the Hornet’s Nest to get it ready for the Office of International Education and Career Services,” Hendricks said.

Any additional changes will rely on the fundraising efforts of the ESU Foundation.

“If we are successful in raising private moneys, we will come back on the tail end and renovate some of the meeting rooms,” Hendricks said.

Hendricks said that the target goal is about $2.5 million. This would allow the meeting rooms on the second floor of the union to be renovated.

“We are currently working with a number of potential donors,” said Mike Crouch, development officer of special projects. “A private fundraising effort like this takes some time to work through but we are well into the process.”

One way that they are trying to raise money is by allowing donors to name rooms. The square footage of a room would determine the price of the naming rights.

“Our projections are that we will meet our goal,” Crouch said. “There are a number of naming opportunities available from rooms to offices. That does include students.”

The cheapest rooms that are available for naming are $5000. The most expensive room, the Center for International Education is $1 million.

Rumors surrounding the idea that the naming rights for the Union were for sale as well were quelled by Hendricks.

“We’re always going to be the Memorial Union,” Hendricks said. “I don’t imagine there is anyone out there who has the money it would take to change the name. It takes a lot of money to do that.”

Ashley Peaches/The Bulletin

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SHEPARD

For senior outside hitter Arica Shepard, personal goals and team goals are completely interchangeable.

“My personal goal is pretty much the same as the team goal – we want to make it to Nationals,” Shepard said. “It would be great to do it my senior year.”

Shepard is no stranger to success. Coming off an impressive 34-3 record, Shepard and the Lady Hornets look to repeat as MIAA Champions again this year.

But being a champion doesn’t always translate to perfection. Self-improvement is always on Shepard’s to-do list.

“Blocking’s probably not my best ability, so I want to improve my blocking this year,” she said.

A native of Rossville, Shepard’s admiration for volleyball blossomed at an early age.

“I started playing volleyball when I was in sixth grade and I fell in love with it,” she said.

However, she said she understands the difficulty of balancing athletics with school. Her major is business marketing.

“It does take quite a bit out of you,” Shepard said. “I mean, you’ve got practice everyday and then you still have to study for your classes and read all of the books that your teachers want you to. Sometimes it seems hard to micromanage it all.”

Head volleyball Coach Bing Xu enjoys having Shepard on the team.

“She’s really athletic and also really smart,” Xu said. “She has a lot of passion and heart for the sport.”

Xu also has high expectations for Shepard, who earned Third-Team All-American honors this past season.

“She’s not a captain, but she has a leadership role,” he said. “For her, I want to see more leadership.”

Amy Byfiel, senior health promotions major and libero, has known Shepard since joining the team four years ago.

“She impacts the team in a big way,” Byfiel said. “She’s one of the most competitive girls on the team.”

Shepard attributed teammate personalities and an aggressive attitude on defense to the team’s recent success.

“We (the team) have really good chemistry together,” Shepard said. “Bing always tries to recruit people that have the same personality as the rest of us so that we mesh well as a team.  And defense, too.  If we don’t have our defense, we’re screwed.”

For Shepard, Emporia seemed to be a good fit, both academically and athletically.

“I originally chose Emporia State my junior year – I verbally committed here because I wanted to be a teacher, but I ended being a business major.  I wanted to be far enough away that I could still come back home if I wanted to incase I got homesick,” she said.

The ESU Volleyball team opens the season at the Nebraska-Omaha Showcase on Aug. 28 in Omaha, Neb.  The team’s home debut is Sept. 18 against Missouri Western.

Shepard said she hopes the team’s high level of play will draw more spectators to White Auditorium this season.

“I hope we get a lot of support this year from our fans,” she said. “We’d like to see more of the student body come. That would be nice.”

Shane Wilson/The Bulletin

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PAGE

Newcomer La’Darrian Page, junior physical education major, is no stranger to success on the gridiron. After rushing for 1,254 yards and 14 touchdowns as a freshman for Missouri Western, and rushing for 1,340 yards and 10 touchdowns at Hutchinson Community College, Page said he looks to improve on his numbers as a Hornet.

“He brings great work ethic,” said Gary Manuel, co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach. “That’s the reason why he’s been a successful football player at every school he’s been to. At Missouri Western, he was a good football player there.  At Hutchinson Community College, he was Offensive Player of the Year for the Jayhawk Conference.  Everyday he comes ready to work, regardless of how he feels.”

Page was optimistic about the start of the season.

“As long as we start off fast and on the right track, once we get going we should have a pretty successful season,” Page said.

Ben McKaig, sophomore offensive lineman and secondary math education major, said he enjoys throwing blocks for Page and what Page brings to the team.

“He’s got a great personality and is a fun-loving guy,” McKaig said. “As far as on the field, he’s a great player and explosive athlete. He’s fast.”

Page does not believe that mediocrity will be on the team’s agenda.  Page and the rest of the Hornets have set the expectations high for themselves this year.

“Obviously we want to win a conference championship and go deep in the playoffs,” Page said. “We feel like we have a different team than last year.  As far as myself, I want to have a successful season.”

Page is confident he has what it takes to lead not only himself, but his team to victory.

“I want to rush for 1,000 yards and help the team win,” he said.

Although it took some time, Page found his niche at Emporia. The coaches and the school itself played a major role in bringing Page to ESU.

“I felt confident in the coaches. I felt like they would keep their word.  I felt like they were the coolest group of coaches that I visited with,” Page said.

It would also appear that the transformation from a junior college to a Division II school was a walk in the park.

“For the most part, it’s been successful,” he said. “I like Emporia. It’s a great school and a great program.  It’s a notch up from the JUCO level.”

Page, however, is not all business.  He does enjoy kicking back and relaxing when he can.  In his free time, Page enjoys picking up the “sticks” and playing an occasional video game or two.

“I like playing Call of Duty and NBA 2K9,” Page said. “I’m an Xbox guy.”

The Hornets look to improve on last year’s 2-7 MIAA record, along with their 4-7 combined record.

The team opens the season with a home game against the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Aug. 27 at Welch Stadium.  Coaches and players said they encourage all students to come out and show their support for the Hornets this season.

Zac Burt/The Bulletin

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Class scheduling dates

The last day to withdraw from classes will be Oct. 28. However, students who wish to drop a class and have no record of it on their transcript need to do so within the first 10 days of classes, according to the Registration Office.

To add a course within the first five days of classes, an add/drop slip with an adviser’s signature needs to be submitted to the Registration Office. After the fifth day of classes, students will need the instructor’s signature in addition to their adviser’s. Students cannot add courses after the tenth day of classes.

The Bulletin Online

The Bulletin Online has a re-designed Web site with new features available at www.esubulletin.com. Although anyone can view our web content, users must register on the site to leave comments, which will reduce the amount of spam on the Web site. Registered users can also create Gravatars (Globally Recognized Avatars) that will be displayed with any their comments.

Other new features include podcasts on news, sports and opinion, student blogs and photo galleries streamed from Flickr. Students can also access stories from previous semesters through the online archives. If a story has not yet been archived, The Bulletin staff can look it up for you. Please email archive requests to news@esubulletin.com

Ramadan events

In honor of the Islamic holiday Ramadan, the Muslim Student Association will be hosting Community Breakfasts at the Islamic Center of Emporia. The Islamic Center, located at 1125 Mechanic St., will host breakfasts every weekend and a few times throughout the week, said Wasem Eszl, doctorate student in Library Information Management and President of the Muslim Student Association. Breakfasts will continue throughout Ramadan, which is from Aug. 22 to Sept. 20.

The Muslim Student Association will also have a promotional table on Main Street. For more information about these events, email the Muslim Student Association at msa@emporia.edu.

Parking permit reminder

Students who have been granted parking permits need to report to the parking office to pick up said permit. If students do not pick up their permit by August 28, unclaimed permits will be released to students who are on the waiting list, said Chris Hoover, public service executive.

Students can buy green, violet and grey permits. Green and violet permits are $75 per year and $50 per semester. Grey permits are $50 per year and $30 per semester.

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A car drives through Kellogg Circle in front of Plumb Hall on Wednesday evening. The construction is projected to be complete by mid-September. KELSEY RYAN/THE BULLETIN

While most of the student body was away for the summer, University Facilities was working on several projects that have made visible changes on campus.

“These were things that really needed to be worked on and I’m always for improvement,” said Shanda Hendricks, front end supervisor for the Memorial Union bookstore.

The most noticeable of the more than six projects was the resurfacing and repair of Kellogg Circle in front of Plumb Hall.

The project was started several weeks before classes ended last spring and will continue until mid-September due to rain delays.

“We are nearly complete with the street part of the project,” said Mark Runge, director of facilities. “We started the project about three weeks before school ended last year because we knew we would be in a time crunch.”

Throughout the summer, Runge said that the contractors lost nearly 15 days due to excessive rain.

“If (the weather) had been more cooperative, we probably would have been done,” Runge said.

The project, which will end up totaling about $250,000, has been in the works for the last 5-6 years, Runge said. Kellogg Circle will be complete after the sidewalk around it and new light fixtures, similar to the lantern shaped ones used downtown, are added.

“If it all works out, we’re hoping in three to four weeks, we’ll have those sidewalks all finished,” Runge said. “The lights we had in Kellogg Circle weren’t very bright so we’re also adding new lights to the sidewalks.”

“The improvements that they’ve already made look good,” Hendricks said.

A much larger task Facilities undertook was the remodeling of the library which totaled about $2 million. The final inspections for the library were made on Monday and Runge expects everything to be moved back into the library by September.

“We completely gutted the second floor and redesigned the spaces and areas for the library services departments,” Runge said.

A better emergency exit, costing about $150,000, will also be added to West side of the library.

Building signs will be placed near every building to help newcomers find their way around campus. Runge said that a few signs still have to be put up but he thinks that they will be a big help to people on campus.

“I’m new on campus this year,” said Abdul Hamid Maassarami. “(The signs) have been helpful for me. When I had to be in Plumb Hall, I just followed the signs.”

Another project that Facilities completed was repairing the foundation underneath Roosevelt Hall, which cost the University nearly $175,000, Runge said. Unsettling and shifting in the foundation were making cracks on the interior of the building.

“We got tired of patching the cracks,” Runge said. “We had people come in and take a look at the structure. They recommended us on what action to take.”

Among other things, Morse Drive was resurfaced and repainted, HVAC systems were replaced in several buildings, a new drainage system was added to the pool and King Hall got a new electrical distribution center.

“We had a lot of work,” Runge said. “It was probably more than average but there have been other times when we were busier.”

Projects that students will see in the future will be the replacement of water lines that are more than 60 years old, a new roof for the science hall and several projects that will be funded by federal stimulus money.

The stimulus money distributed must be used for certain projects, including plans that will increase energy efficiency. These projects are fully funded by the stimulus money and will be audited at the end the year. Three jobs, including new fume hoods in science hall, new double paned insulated windows across campus and new light fixtures will total nearly $1.2 million, Runge said.

“(The stimulus money) was a blessing,” Runge said. “We got some projects getting done here that it would take a while to do if we didn’t (have the money).”

Ashley Peaches/The Bulletin

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