For Kyle Anderson, sophomore secondary education major, it’s about having a good time doing something fun. Sheldon Patton, freshman secondary education major, does it a lot. Brandi Lundgren, senior health promotion major, said that she may be an exercise addict.

“(I would call myself) an exercise addict (instead of a gym rat) because I like to go outside more than I like being in the gym,” Lundgren said.

Working out is the past time of many individuals and two of these student consider themselves to be gym rats.

“People who aren’t basketball players could see (the name gym rat) as a bad thing,” Anderson said. “But when you are trying to play for a team and you are trying to get in shape, it’s good to be a gym rat.”

But for Patton, it’s not an addiction.

“I wouldn’t call it an addiction. It’s just a habit maybe,” he said. “Addiction is a pretty strong word, like you can’t live without working out. I don’t think I would ever become like that.”

Each student claims to work out around five times per week.

“I like being active,” Patton said “Both of my parents are relatively unhealthy. Not only does it give you more energy and make you feel better but I’ve gained muscle and physique.”

While Lundgren and Patton work out to keep in shape, Anderson goes to the gym to play basketball.

“I really only go there to play basketball,” Anderson said. “I meet a few guys when I moved here and they started inviting me. We have 10-15 people who go (to the gym) everyday. We get in some good games of basketball.”

Both Lundgren and Patton have jobs at the places that they work out. Lundgren works at the Emporia State Recreation Center teaching fitness classes.

“Usually I work out alone and I do cardio alone before my class and then I teach my class (at the Rec Center),” Lundgren said.

Patton works at Genesis, formerly Walburns, located at 1007 Commercial St.

“Even if I get bored I go to the gym,” Patton said. “When I have free time I go to the gym. Even if I’m not working out or working, I’ll go to the gym to talk to the people that are working or working out.”

Since Patton works as a personal trainer, he makes up his own workouts.

“I don’t like to work muscle groups more than once a week,” he said. “So I make sure to hit a different muscle group every day. I make sure that I do a lot of cardio because cardio is a great way to burn a lot of calories. It’s really easy cheap way to stay fit. I wanted to work at a gym.”

Anderson said that lifting weights is also a part of his weekly gym routines.

“(I go to the gym) more to play basketball but sometimes I’ll lift weights to help myself stretch out and get warmed up,” he said. “Sometimes I get on a bike for a bit.”

All three students played sports in high school, and Lundgren ran track for ESU.

“In high school I was always really strong but never really ripped so when I started working out at the gym I always concentrated on being ripped,” Patton said.

The strenuous training that Lundgren did with ESU track team during her freshman and sophomore years have made it hard for her to run now.

“I do bike mostly because I can’t really run anymore because my knees are shot,” she said.

Running is an important part of Patton’s workout routine.

“I really enjoy running so the day that I can’t run is not going to be a happy day for me,” Patton said.

Part of many people’s workout routine is a healthy diet.

“I eat healthy,” Lundgren said “I’ve learned a lot about nutrition. I just have a lifestyle of eating healthy. It’s just what I like to do.”

Patton also said it’s more about eating healthy than dieting.

“I eat a lot. I wouldn’t say that I diet to lose weight but I watch what I eat because I know what it’s going to do to my body,” Patton said. “It’s about not wanting to gain weight. According to my BMI, I’m overweight but if you see me in person than you can tell that I’m obviously not overweight.”

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On average, James Elhers, assistant professor of art, gets a score of between 60 and 90.

But that doesn’t deter him from bowling. He uses the sport as a way to bond with his students outside of class.

“It’s a good camaraderie tool,” Elhers said. “And I’m a terrible bowler. It gives the students the opportunity to beat their professor at something. I like doing it. I’m just not good at it – 90 is a good night for me. I’ve broken 100 before, but I’m awful.”

Elhers tries to make group bowling outings a regular occurrence but in reality, he and the art students only go a few times per semester.

“It’s fun and (Elhers) wanted to bring students together and it’s actually fun to do,” said Thomas Fort, sophomore engraving major.

There have been as many as 50 students who come to the bowling outings. Other nights, there are only about 20.

Elhers even created shirts for the art bowling “league.”

“I love (them),” Fort said. “I’m going to go get one.”

Although it’s not an activity that is free to students, Elhers picks night in which the bowling alley offers specials to make it as cheap as possible for the students.

“We do it on Wednesday night and we start at ten,” Elhers said. “It ends up being about $5 per person so it ends up being a bit more manageable.”

Elhers said that the students in attendance are mainly engraving students and people they may bring along.

“Last time it was only the engravers that were there,”  Elhers said. “But I’ll announce it to everyone.”

However, he offered the invitation to any student who wants to spend an evening with a bunch of art students.

“It hasn’t been exclusively art students,”  Elhers said. “Some of them will bring their boyfriends and girlfriends. If anyone reads this and they want to go bowling with some art students they are more than willing to come with.”

As an incentive in the past, Elhers even offers awards to the student with the highest score and the student who heckles the most.

“I’m really big on heckling,” he said. “I used to give two prizes just to keep it interesting.”

At times, the games can become pretty competitive.

“There are a couple of engraving students in particular who kind of taunt each other,” he said. “I kind of instigate that a little bit. It’s all fun spirited.”

While Elhers is naturally competitive, some of the students are just there to have a good time.

“I’ve felt the need to be competitive,” Fort said. “It’s all in good fun. I’m pretty sure everyone would agree with me on that. Usually it’s just one or two people jabbing at each other.”

Elhers said that he thinks students enjoy seeing him doing terrible at something.

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Being in a band is about more than fame and money. For Eric Murphy, senior English major, it’s about a love of music and a passion for the art.

“We just want to write good songs and play them and record them well,” Murphy said. “There’s the artistic motivation but then there’s the motivation of ‘I hate my job’. So it would be really nice if we could start paying some bills with this. We’re just giving it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll do something else.

Murphy is a guitar player, singer and writer for the local band Radio City.

“A band that a lot of people say we sound like is The Replacements and they were influenced by a band called Big Star,” Murphy said. “They had an album named Radio City but we didn’t know that. The original idea was to make super cheesy ’70s rock and we thought that that sounded completely extravagant and stupid so we used that (as our name). Now people think we did it on purpose because of Big Star.”

Murphy’s favorite part about music is being able to see it all come together from what he originally imagined.

“(My favorite part about music) is writing music and coming up with the arrangement with the band, the first time you play a song the right way, the way it sounds in your head,” he said. “The first time you play a new song live is the most exciting thing.”

Radio City plays all their own music so being able to compose a song is an important part for them.

“I just listen a lot (to get inspiration for my writing), to a lot of other people, all different kinds of music,” Murphy said. “Sometimes listening to music that’s not like what you write will inspire you more. Most of the songs we have right now are all about growing up here. We don’t try to sound like classic rock but we’re influenced by it.”

Radio City has never done a cover of another band because they haven’t found the right one.

“We’re not against (doing covers) and we toy around with it in the basement but we write a lot so we’re always more excited to play the songs we wrote than a cover,” Murphy said.

The band practices in the basement of their lead singer, Matt Kosinski, Emporia resident.

“How often we practice depends on what’s going on,” Murphy said. “For a while, If we weren’t at work or school, we were down there (in the basement) but now since we do shows every weekend and we all have jobs, we haven’t been down in the basement much.”

Since all of Radio City’s band members don’t live in Emporia, that also makes it harder to practice often.

“Everything has to be totally scheduled, band wise and the rest of your life,” Murphy said. “It’s not really conducive to most musicians.”

Radio City will record a full length album in St. Louis this summer. They have played in Kansas City, Warrensburg, Mo., Manhattan and Lawrence. They will soon take up gigs in Tulsa, Okla. and Omaha, Neb.

“We’re going to record a full length album in St. Louis,” Murphy said. “We’ll start with a national booking agent in June. The plan is to get an independent agent. We deal with Sidecho Records in California right now and that got us on ITunes. But the goal is to end up on independent label and tour.”

With the connections that Radio City has, the band could well be on its way to stardom.

“People can give you chances and you can go out and play and if there is a good crowd there and if you have a good show, then that’s good,” Murphy said. “But you to make sure that the people come. There are a lot of factors (affecting our success). We’re thankful for opportunities.”

While he has big hopes for the future of Radio City, being a full time musician has not quite become a serious option for Murphy yet.

“It’s not really hard to make a CD anymore,” Murphy said. “We don’t really know about it being a ‘career’ career. It’s something we’re toying with. At some point I realized that the caliber of the song writing and the performances are about as good as other people that are doing it. So it’s like ‘shot we should do it then.’”

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Out of a total of 689 Emporia State students who voted in Associated Student Government elections, 502 voted for Jonathan Rivers, junior secondary social sciences education major, and Ashley McCullough, senior communications major, as president and vice president, respectively.

“I’m really shocked and excited to know that we will have the chance to implement all of the ideas that we have,” McCullough said. “I’m just really shocked.”

Voting started on Monday and ended at 4:30 p.m. yesterday. Results were posted at 5:20 p.m. on the Center for Student Involvement’s doors.

“One thing that I really hope to accomplish is to bring as many leaders, new voices to the table than at any time before,” Rivers said. “We want to make sure that we are reaching all of the students. We want to make sure that everyone knows that ASG is here for them.”

Students who had opted out of communications from the university may have had trouble getting theballot by e-mail.

“Everything went well but we did have a little bit of an issue today with finding out that not everyone got the survey but we got that taken care of as soon as possible,” said Lauren Leif, election commissioner for ASG and junior communications major. “We had a couple of paper ballots that had to be done but no major issues.

The first order of business for Rivers and McCullough when they begin next semester will be the Big Event.

“Our planning for the Big Event is going to start off right at the beginning of the year,” Rivers said. “We’re basically trying to pull all of the students together and starting the year off right.”

While the voter turnout was not as high as it was last year at 20 percent, Leif was satisfied with the outcome.

“The voter turnout was around 11 percent which was really good for a year that didn’t have any big issues attached to it,” Leif said. “I’m just really impressed with the amount of students that took the time to vote to make sure that they had their say in the next senate.”

To help Rivers and McCullough adjust to their new positions, current ASG President Jonathan Krueger, senior political science major, will work with the duo along with current ASG Vice President Liz Coffey, junior earth science major.

They will receive a packet with all of the information they could need to do the job. They will also be invited to attend meetings and ask questions, Krueger said.

One of their main goals is to expand communication throughout the university by creating positions on ASG to foster diversity.

“We really want to get some more diverse opinions and student voice through the multicultural chair and the international chair (positions that we will create),” McCullough said.“Overall, (we want to) try to make the communication across campus a lot better.”

They will also try to expand communication by having more opportunities for students to voice their opinions, something they hope to start at the beginning of the year.

“We want to get the ball rolling on the President’s forum,” Rivers said. “If anyone has any beginning of the year questions, what their expectations are, things that they foresee us accomplishing (they would say that here). We need to make sure to meet those needs right off the bat.”

For those that voted, McCullough was grateful.

“Thank you for entrusting us with the next year at ESU and I really hope that we can fulfill (the students’) expectations and help ESU to grow and improve,” McCullough said.

While Rivers said that he was excited for the opportunity to lead the campus, he feels that he and McCullough have some “big shoes to fill.”

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Peterson

Every student from Emporia State that begins a student teaching assignment in a high school or middle school classroom has been placed there by Sue Peterson, director of Professional Education Services.

“Placing the student teachers is very time consuming,” Peterson said. “When I first came I placed all (of the students). Now I do not place the elementary education students but I do everything else for them like their student teaching certificate comes from (our office).”

Not only does Peterson do the job of several people, she trains a therapy dog in her spare time and is a cancer survivor.

“It comes easy for me to be interested in dog training,” Peterson said. “I’m an avid dog lover.”

She is currently training a lhasa Apso/Shih Tzu name Zoey. Previously, Peterson trained a service dog named Ravine.

“After I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, I probably had that cancer a long time but they just didn’t catch it because they thought it was fibromyalgia, I had chemo therapy,” Peterson said. “I had a little dog named Darling and Darling was getting very old. I kept praying ‘dear God, don’t let Darling die before I finish my chemo. I just can’t take that.’ I finished my treatment and Darling died about six weeks after I finished my treatment.”

Knowing that she was grieving over the death of her dog, a neighbor offered to give Peterson one of her puppies.

“I said ‘oh no, I can’t do that,’” Peterson said. “I was just so fatigued.”

She decided to take Zoey and train her to be a therapy dog to visit nursing homes and hospice patients.

“Zoey means ‘life,’” Peterson said. “I named her Zoey Amor. And Amor means ‘love’ so backwards that means ‘love of life.”’

Peterson views hundreds of Emporia State student files every semester to determine where to place students and to decide if they are ready to move on to working with students.

“The parts of my job that are not done by the book are empowering teacher candidates to be successful,” Peterson said. “Once I place the student teachers out there I can’t just forget them. When I send those teachers out, I don’t really know them because I haven’t taught them. It’s almost like I’m selling a product that I don’t know.”

Peterson sits on two admissions committees where she consults with professors and advisors to determine if students are ready to be placed at work sites.

“They’ll say ‘this teacher candidate is having some problems. Attendance is terrible. They were not reliable,’” Peterson said. “I go through and I write down notes. I know that I don’t know that student and I have no way of getting to know that student before they are placed.

Peterson works with a very small staff in the office of Professional Education services.

“I enjoy working with her,” said Shannon Hall, licensing officer for the teacher’s college. “She offers good advice to me as a colleague.”

Although she no longer teaches, she enjoys the minimal interactions that she gets with the students whose files she handles constantly.

“I go to each of those (introductory) classes and I talk to the students,” Peterson said. “I give them my ‘3-Ds’ lecture.”

Peterson’s 3-Ds lecture consists of information about how they must disclose any potential harmful information that could prevent them from becoming teachers, that they have a right to due process and they should assess their disposition.

“(With due process) they have a right to be told what they need to do to fix inappropriate behavior,” Peterson said. “We remind them that they are different and they must think as professional from that day forward.”

While some of the work she does can be frustrating, the best part of her job is seeing students who have been struggling succeed.

“One of the most challenging aspects of my job is knowing when to call in the troops (to help struggling student teachers),” Peterson said. “We don’t want to rescue the student teacher. Our whole goal is always empowering. I tell my student teachers ‘don’t you dare fail because if you fail, I fail.’ I hate to fail. The best part of my job is when a student who has fallen down and skinned their knee says ‘I can do this.’ Then you will see some of the best teaching out them that you ever saw.”

Hall said that Peterson is professional in her work with students.

“I see how well she works with students in understanding their circumstances but she is still very professional in what we need for the requirements for the teacher’s college,” Hall said.

Peterson graduated from Florida State University with a degree in elementary education. She went on to get masters degrees in rehabilitation services and rehabilitation counseling from Auburn University in Alabama. She finished her education with a doctorate in higher education administration from Auburn University.

Peterson said that the reason that she has stayed at ESU all these years is because of the university’s emphasis on students.

“I just love my job so much,” Peterson said. “Working with the students, I just enjoy that, even the ones with the bad attitudes. After I’ve done this job for 12 years I wouldn’t think of going somewhere else and I wouldn’t think of doing another job. The students are such good investments. I thought I was going to save the world and save all the students but there are some students that are not meant to be teachers. There are some that simply did not have that gift.”

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Parkour is the art of trying to get from point A to point B as fast and efficiently as possible using your body to get over any obstacles, said Austin Schopper, senior secondary education major and avid parkour participant.

However, parkour also has a life philosophy that trainers follow. Schopper said that trainer is the correct term for a person who does parkour because that acknowledges that there is both a physical and a philosophical aspect.

“When you limit parkour to just physical than you ignore the philosophy side of it,” he said. “You use whatever you have at hand to try to overcome obstacles in your personal life. I have a lot of problems with math. I just have to take every resource that the college gives me to overcome that obstacle.”

Other trainers said that while parkour is extremely physical, there is a lot more than just jumping off of things.

“If you just run at a wall, you’re going to run into a wall,” said Nathan Brown, senior English education major. “You have to think about every body movement that you put into it. You are constantly thinking of what you are doing.”

According to Schopper, parkour started in the 1980s in Paris when a group of teenagers got bored.

“The founder’s father worked in the military and part of their training was to do parkour,” Schopper said. “After his father taught him, (the group) took it further and started applying it to everyday activities.”

Scopper said that parkour means “obstacle course” in French.

“To me it’s a like a martial art,” he said. “It’s kind of a personal thing but it’s like any other exercise or sport you might be involved in. I use it to try to better myself physically.”

Although there is a large physical component, Schopper said that anyone can participate.

“Nobody starts being a professional,” he said. “I’ve worked with people that were not physically fit at all and I’ve worked with people that are in the best shape that I’ve ever seen. It’s really for anybody. You just have to know where you are at and where you are comfortable starting with. There is no minimum level that you have to be at.”

And parkour can be done almost anywhere.

“If you are willing to get creative with it there is really nothing that is off limits,” Schopper said. “You get people that will say that they can’t come up with anything to do but you just have to get creative.”

Sometimes their training can draw a crowd.

“A lot of people gather when we fall,” Brown said. “When we do it on campus, the people that live on campus will watch for a little while. If we are doing something extremely dangerous they will watch for a little longer. If they are interested they are interested. If they are not they are not.”

Both Schopper and Brown have different reasons for their interest in parkour.

“I do it because I like to see how far I can push myself and where my limits lie,” Schopper said. “To me it’s almost religious. I feel like you are given this body and if you don’t use it then you are spitting in God’s face.”

The skills that Schopper has gained from parkour are unique.

“The hardest move that I can do it a double kong,” he said. “A double kong is a vault where you have to push yourself off with your hands twice.”

Brown has also gained some interesting skills from parkour.

“I can wall run,” he said. “I can probably go up to 10 feet in length. I’ve gotten to the point where I just coast. It’s not something you can just do.”

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Since the 25 percent drop that Emporia State’s Foundation suffered in its endowment last spring, the fund has seen an increase of 8.7 percent as of Feb. 28.

“We’re seeing improvement just like the economy,” said Judith Heasley, director of the ESU Foundation. “We’re slowly recovering along with everybody else.”

The endowment hit an ultimate low of less than $44 million less than a year ago but finished out Fiscal Year 2009 at $49 million. The endowment currently rests at $53.7 million which is closer to its total from the beginning of FY2008, July 1, 2008, of $57.5 million.

“It has a direct correlation with the economy,” said Trisha Ott, chief financial officer for the ESU Foundation. “As you see the Dow going up, our investments will also go up. We have recovered some and I do anticipate that it will gradually keep going up.”

As of Dec. 31, 2009, 19 percent of the funds that are used to give scholarships are underwater, which is up from 36 percent on Dec. 31, 2008.

“The good news is, it’s only 19 under,” Heasley said, “but it’s better than 36 under. That shows that we are slowly rising. This is close to being as bad as it was in 1929. To recover in 12 months is (not going to happen).”

Funds that are underwater cannot pay out scholarships unless the original donor can give an additional gift to pay the scholarship amount.

“When a fund is underwater, our options are to not make an award or to ask our donors, who are only in a position to make an outright gift, if they would consider making a donation equal to what their scholarship normally is,” Heasley said in a previous interview. “If a scholarship normally is a $500 scholarship and the fund is underwater so it’s not going to pay out, (we would ask that donor) would they be willing to contribute $500 to us so that it could be allocated directly to financial aid.”

The exact amount that will be available for student scholarships is still to be determined.

“That number is changing as we are (giving) donors calls and asking if they are able to give an outright gift for those that are underwater,” Ott said. “We’re still trying to gather unrestricted scholarship funds. We’ll have a better idea on May 1.”

Donor contributions are an important part of the scholarship monies that students will receive.

“Last year we came very close to what our average allocation was to the institution” Heasley said, “because of the generosity of the donors. We are shooting for the same type of result.”

Ott said that money is only being solicited from donors whose funds are currently underwater.

Heasley said that while many of the improvements can be attributed to the stock market, donor gifts have also played a role.

“There is a decline in giving this year,” Heasley said. “People are being more cautious with their dollars and they’re not giving as much. They may still be giving but the amount of the donations are lower. They still love us. They still want to give to us but they don’t have the disposable income to be able to make that gift on the level that they used to.”

The good news of a basketball championship, Heasley said, can bring additional donors.

“It creates an interest in ESU,” she said. “Our alumni office was getting emails from alums because (the alumnus) are so excited. Any type of interest, any good news out of ESU helps us fundraise.”

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Ben Williams, senior theatre major, has been one of two students to win national recognition at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in the last three years. The other winner is former student Susan (Samuelson) Williams, May 2009 Emporia State graduate. Ben and Susan were married last summer.

The first place winning design was for the two one-act plays, “Lone Star/Laundry and Bourbon.”

He will compete in national festival in April with an all expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. Williams’ set design was set up as an ally stage, where the audience was positioned on both sides of the set.

“The space in which I designed in is a black box theatre, so I could set up the seats however I want,” said Ben Williams said. “Because of this, I chose to do something less common.”

The ideas were a collaboration of other designers of Theatre Department and Williams.

“Ben’s design was one that was developed over several months and was very well thought out and executed,” said Jim Bartruff, director of Theater. “What that says about Ben is that he works very hard and he has great problem solving skills.”

Before the idea was decided, Williams came up with several different design ideas for the show. Working with two directors made the choosing a design that they both liked a little more difficult.”

“(Ben) did a lot of research about the set design,” said Amada Devine, senior theater major. “He is very good at set design, and always kind to help other students for learning.”

Devine said that Williams’ miniature model of the set design was very realistic and very detailed.

In addition to his first place performance, Williams was also the runner-up set design competition for “Into the Woods.”

Last year, Williams also entered the festival with his design.

“When I went to the festival last year, all the designers seemed better than mine and I had no chance of winning,” Williams said. “So winning one first place and one second place is quite an improvement.”

Williams now is preparing for the trip to Washington D.C. for the National Festival in April where he will explain his display and go to workshops.

“I have never been to D.C. so it will be an experience in itself,” Williams said.

Williams thinks it is true that “great minds think alike.” Susan Williams was the winner of the costume design of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in ESU’s region last year. She presented her costume design of ESU’s production of “Rabbit Hole.”

“I spent nine months devoted to that one production,” Susan Williams said. “I thought about winning (the regional competition) before it happened. At the awards assembly, I squeezed Ben’s hand the entire time. That was the longest two hours in my life.”

Before last year, she had no experience with Costume Design Competitions and she had been to the same festival for acting, but never for design.

“I was really happy to win because this is the first ‘real’ design I had ever done,” Susan Williams said.

With the experience of last year, Susan Williams helped her husband prepare for the festival by giving him another look at the design.

“She also had pictures of the national festival that helped me prepare for it,” Ben Williams said.

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Photo Illustration by Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin

For Tricia McKenzie, senior nursing major, when the sun comes out, tanning becomes a part of her routine.

McKenzie started tanning as a high school student who was preparing for the prom.

“Now I (tan) about two times per week,” she said. “I usually tan in the spring and the summer. Usually in the fall and winter I don’t tan as much. I’m a lot busier and the sun’s not out. There are days when I want sun and I will go but it’s not a regular thing for me to do in the winter.”

When McKenzie does tan, she doesn’t use any additional bronzers.

“I usually a tanning lotion from the salon that I go to,” she said. “It’s just a moisturizer. It has silicon and cocoa butter so it’s really good for your skin.”

McKenzie said that the average tanning beds allow for 12-15 minutes of ultraviolet rays.

“I usually go for 12 minutes but there are 15 minute beds,” McKenzie said. “I’ve been going for quite a while but I just can’t go the (entire 15 minutes). I just get too tired in there. The first time I ever tanned I started out with five minutes so I wouldn’t burn.”

That extra time serves as down time for McKenzie.

“It’s just time for me to relax and get away,” she said. “If I’m feeling kind of depressed, when I go to tan, I come out feeling refreshed. It could be the people at the salon that I go to or it could be that I get that warmth. I just feel refreshed.”

While in the tanning bed, McKenzie can usually fall asleep but is not concerned with getting burned.

“If I feel asleep and stayed in there for 45 minutes, the bed would turn off after the scheduled amount of time,” she said.

She never worries about the down sides for tanning.

“I know that most skin cancers like melanoma are actually more in people who don’t get enough sun,” McKenzie said. “Tanning is okay in moderation. I don’t go excessively or every day.

As a nursing student, she does understand the medical aspects of tanning.

“Being in the health care profession, I’m more aware of (health risks) and it makes me more skeptical,” she said. “I don’t want to listen to media because they sometimes only say one thing. But I also don’t want to just listen to people who tan because they only say one thing. So I do my own research, look at studies, stuff like that.”

As the warmer times of year are approaching, more and more people are going to the tanning salon.

“I don’t typically see the person they show on TV with the wrinkly (leathery) skin,” McKenzie said. “I’m sure they are out there. They weren’t aware when tanning started back in the ‘70s that it wasn’t as safe. They continued unsafe practices.”

While the sun bathing may be a viable option for those who want to tan, McKenzie said that indoor tanning offers benefits as well.

“(Employees of tanning salons) do a skin type (test) to find out how easily you burn,” she said. “If you go outside to tan, you don’t know how much actual exposure you’re getting. If you fall asleep outside the sun isn’t going to shut off. It’s going to be there constantly and you are more likely to damage your skin when you are outdoors.”

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The Budget Development and Tuition Committee decided in a meeting held yesterday afternoon to approve the Student Health Center’s request for a fee increase but could not decide whether or not athletics should receive an increase as well.

A fee increase of 2.4 percent was approved unanimously for the Student Health Center, which would amount to $64.85 per full time student, up from $63.35.

However, the measure that was approved is only a recommendation because the increase would still need to be approved by Emporia State President Michael Lane and the Kansas Board of Regents.

In the original fee increase request, Jaque Schmidt, director of student wellness, provided a breakdown of why they were requesting the fees and for what the additional income would be used.

Carol Russell, associate professor of elementary teacher education and president of faculty senate, said that the Health Center’s requests to get new furniture in order to expand services to students was within reason

The Athletic Department is requesting an increase of 6 percent which would bring their full time student total to $130.28 per student, up from $122.87.

“We have courses for summer that are full that we can’t sponsor,” Russell said. “We have to cut a full class because we don’t have funding. I can’t justify giving a 6 percent increase to athletics. I understand it’s a different pot of money but I’m still having difficulties with it.”

However, in the request submitted by John Rich, chair of the Athletics Advisory Board, there was not a detailed listing of what additional fees would be used for. This caused some uneasiness among the members of the committee.

“I think they should be held accountable as to where that money is going,” Russell said.

Along with the rest of the university, athletics had to cut their budget in order to make up for money they would not be receiving in state funding.

“I would struggle with 6 percent,” said Joella Mehrhof, professor of health and physical education. “I’m close to athletics so it’s difficult for me to say that. It’s pretty difficult to say that we’re going to raise athletics when the faculty is not going to get another raise for two to three more years.

The Budget Committee denied a request from Athletics for an increase for FY2010.

“I’m doubting that any department will get a 7 percent increase,” Meherhof said. “I know that athletics is different but I have to say that as a representative of the faculty.”

A main concern was the number of scholarships athletics would be able to give out.

“They are already decreasing the number of scholarships that they are giving out,” said Mary Mingenback, controller for ESU. “They gave out over 100 scholarships (last year) and this year they were able to give out 90.”

Another concern was whether or not income received from a fee increase could be used toward increasing salaries.

“A little bit of it would be going towards the salaries that are not financed through general use,” said Raymond Hauke, vice president of administration and fiscal affairs. “Head coaches are likely funded through general use. If they have assistants that aren’t covered they have to fund it out of here.”

The possibility of instituting an additional fee for off campus and online students was also discussed.

“The bigger question is if we are trending away from on campus enrollment do we have to start looking at the fee structure sooner,” said Jonathan Krueger, senior political science major and president of Associated Student Government. “If we are having to increase on campus fees to make up for a difference in the online presence, it also brings the question that we also have to consider some change. I don’t know how I feel about every time we have a decrease in on campus students piling an increase on on-campus students when other students can benefit from it.”

Although the committee met with members of athletics at a previous meeting, with all of the unanswered questions, the committee decided to table the issue until they had a chance to meet with Kent Weiser, athletic director.

“I wouldn’t be comfortable making a cut to the recommendation that they’ve made without hearing back from them but I’m also not comfortable accepting what they’ve presented,” Krueger said.

The next meeting will be held at 12 p.m. on March 31. The meeting is open to the public but those who are not on the committee may not be allowed to speak during the meeting.

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“We’re just gay. We’re not space aliens,” said one Emporia State student. And for other students, the sentiment was the same.

“It’s not a big deal for me because I don’t feel like (my sexuality) is most people’s business,” said Eric Fox, senior secondary education major. “I want to stress that it’s not like I feel the need to tell everybody.”

Joshua Smith, mental health counseling graduated student, has known that he was gay since 6th grade but did not “come out” until his freshman year of college.

“I was around a new set of people that I was more comfortable being around,” Smith said about coming out. “I was more comfortable being myself and not living up to a pretense.”

Fox came out in high school.

“I was 16 and I was well adjusted by the time I came to college,” Fox said. “I started out by telling my family and then I told a really close friend. I was okay with it so nobody else really had that big of a deal with it.”

Amanda Bullard, senior information resource studies major, considers herself to be bisexual, although she doesn’t like restricting herself to one label.

“I started out with an interest in guys and came to college and realized that girls were a pretty good option,” she said. “I forgot about guys entirely for a year. When I really started to put things together I realized that I had an attraction to both males and females in a different capacity.”

For those who are coming out, telling family members can be tough.

“My father is okay with it but my mother still thinks it’s a phase,” Smith said. “(It’s hard) sometimes but me and my mother don’t really talk about it.”

While Fox’s family is accepting, the news still came as a shock.

“I had tried telling them once before but they thought I was too young to know something like that,” he said. “I actually told them the second time when I was sixteen. They still thought that I should be careful. My mom’s big thing was that she didn’t want me to get hurt.”

Bullard’s family and friends were also supportive.

“My mom was very supporting, ‘whatever you are I’m cool with but don’t feel you have to take a label yet,’ (is what my mom said),” Bullard said. “I’ve let it change over time.”

For them, being gay is just a part of life.

“I don’t really think there is a difference (between my college experience and that of students who are not gay),” Smith said.

Bullard has never faced difficulties because of her sexuality.

“There is a difference between every student’s experience,” she said. “I haven’t really run into any issues because of my sexuality but there have been people who have. Discovering your sexuality, straight, gay, bi, is a personal journey that everybody goes through to some extent.”

All three are a part of ESU’s awareness group PRIDE.

“(Being in PRIDE) makes it easier,” Fox said. “It makes me feel like a part of the community because I have that outlet. My high school didn’t have a gay-straight alliance or anything like that and I feel it really needed one. It’s important that people have a welcoming family and that people know that they are going to be accepted no matter what the rest of society says. A lot of people have a misconception that it’s about waving a flag or marching in a parade.”

Coming to a more conservative state like Kansas was not a far stretch for Smith, from Nebraska, or Fox, from Virginia.

“I knew that Kansas was conservative but at the same time I didn’t feel like my behavior should change,” Fox said.

For Smith, it was important that the university had a Gay-Straight Alliance group.

“You read in the papers and the conservative attitudes are not necessarily expressed directly towards you,” Fox said. “You know that people are sometimes downright hateful but for the most part, I’ve never had anyone (say anything) directly to my face.”

Legislation in other states has left impressions on the gay population at ESU.

“When looking for a job here that is one concern I have and with (the changing of discrimination laws) in Virginia I think I’m going to stay on the west coast after I leave (Emporia),” Smith said.

Fox echoed Smith’s feelings.

“There are people that will make decisions off of something insignificant like that,” he said. “It is kind of scary. I’m going to be a teacher. I’m well aware that I have to be very careful of what I say or do and how the parent’s might perceive anything that has to do with sexuality at all. The wrong person finds out and you’re out of a job.”

Bullard said that she had mixed feelings about legislation in other states.

“When Iowa passed gay marriage we were all elated but then you hear about discrimination things coming up and sometimes you wish that the world would just grow up and realize that we are all people. It’s been a long journey to get this far and we have a long way to go,” she said.

The lack of support for homosexuals in many legislatures makes some feel as if they are the forgotten minority.

“We do get overlooked,” Smith said. “Most states are just now getting around to the gay and lesbian communities. We’re a couple of decades behind.”

Fox summed up some of the biggest issues that the gay community’s face.

“A lot of people can say that we’re not a minority,” Fox said. “A lot of people can negate the status of the rights of gays and lesbians because they think that it’s a choice. People can say that we are not a real minority because ‘we can change if we want to.’ In legislation all across the nation, the opponents of it don’t see the big deal because they don’t really understand the people who are gay and lesbian.”

All three gave similar advice to individuals who may be questioning their sexuality.

“Talking to people that have been through the coming out process may be insightful, do research and don’t be pressured to be any one thing,” Bullard said. “If one label doesn’t fit you, find another one. There isn’t one meaning for gay. It doesn’t matter what label you choose to apply to yourself. Feel free to explore.”

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