University cuts spending in response to State of Texas money crunch

In the coming months A&M-Commerce should learn just how bad the impact of the state deficit will be on the next two annual University budgets.
President Keith McFarland and other administrators already have come up with a plan for giving back 7 percent of its state funds for 2003—somewhere between $2.1 and $2.5 million. Texas’ deficit for this fiscal year has been estimated at $1.8 billion, and Gov. Rick Perry has told state colleges and universities and most state agencies to reduce FY 03 spending by an amount equal to at least 7 percent of their FY 03 general revenue appropriation.
Last month, Dr. McFarland initiated a “reduction in force” within the Division of Marketing and Resource Development. Under the reorganization, a net of 4.5 full-time positions were eliminated with an estimated total savings, including salaries and fringe benefits, of more than $444,000.
The next step is to submit a biennial budget reflecting a 12.5 percent cut for FY 04 and 05, which means A&M-Commerce will have to develop scenarios for cuts of more than $2.5 million for each of the next two years.
“There will be some challenges, but we will meet those challenges,” McFarland told employees at a meeting in January where he outlined the state spending freezes. He added that any A&M-Commerce cuts would be guided by putting the academic needs of students first.

Now Texas has a good reading chair
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has named Geraldine“Tincy” Erwin Miller (MS ’82) to chair the state’s Board of Education. Tincy, a reading specialist known for her work with dyslexic children and for championing phonics reading programs, has served on the board since 1984. School funding and the tougher testing program called TAKS face Tincy and other members of the board.

Celeb chef takes on ZaZa
Stephan Pyles, who schooled here from 1970-’73 and founded Star Canyon restaurant in Dallas, has tackled yet another new Big D project: Dragonfly. Dragonfly resides within Hotel ZaZa, Dallas’ first “boutique” or “urban lifestyle” hotel. Stephan, who is known as a founding father of Southwestern cuisine, has signed an agreement to develop Dragonfly as well as place his culinary imprint on the special events and catering menus. He is the author of four cookbooks and is the star of the Emmy-award winning national PBS television series “New Tastes from Texas.”

A&M-Commerce does the honors, enrollment springs up
Thanks in part to an emphasis on recruiting community college students, especially those in Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, enrollment at A&M-Commerce has climbed to a 23-year high. Spring semester enrollment is 8,131, up 7.94 percent compared to a year ago and the highest since 1980. Total undergraduates are 4,548, while graduate students stand at 3,583. A&M-Commerce has been wooing honor transfer students, who, as members of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, earned at least a 3.5 grade point average in their community college courses. The University currently has about 160 PTK students compared to about 20 this time last year and will probably have 300 in the fall.

KFC: Keep Feeding those Coeds?
A KFC Express has opened within the Lion’s Lair. From 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. and 5:50-9 p.m., the colonel will be serving chicken strips and chicken strip sandwiches. Something to KFC (Keep in the Front of your Cranium) the next time you’re on campus.

Dos alumni, mucho progress
The efforts of two Alumni in Dallas ISD mean that hundreds of teachers in the district will get training in basic Spanish. DISD Superintendent Mike Moses (Ed.D. ‘80) and Paula Grier (MA ’99) have hooked up to get four teachers from A&M-Commerce to teach in the Spanish for Teachers Program in DISD. Mike instigated and Paula is coordinating the new program designed to increase the number of teachers who can converse in Spanish with students and parents.

With a loving hand, Alumna tries to brush away a bit of family’s loss

Debora Schubert Lytle (BFA ’87) has spent the last few months of her life bringing a dead man to life.
It’s a job she volunteered for after learning about a nationwide call for artists to paint portraits of firefighters killed on 9/11, then donate their work to victims’ families.
The man Debora would paint was Dennis McHugh, a 34-year-old father of three small children who had quit his job in financial investments to pursue what he had said was his calling of becoming a firefighter.
Debora was introduced to Dennis through his brother, who had been given her name through the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, the group organizing the portrait project.
From his brother Debora learned that Dennis was the quintessential big brother of a large family clan, the sibling who could be counted to take care of everything. She found out his youngest children were twins who hadn’t yet celebrated their first birthday. They, in fact, were a big part of the reason Dennis’ brother had contacted Debora; he wanted them to have a portrait of their father since they would never know him.
Her own research of the tragedy would tell her more about Dennis — details such as it was three weeks before searchers found his body in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Despite the fact that she only knew him because of his death, ultimately Debora says she got a sense of Dennis as “a very positive person — you could see it

in his eyes.”
When she finally put brush to canvas, without thinking about it, she painted his eyes blue. It wasn’t until a few of Debora’s art students who had seen Dennis’ photos questioned her choice that she realized how much her own visualization of the young firefighter had colored her perception. A little embarrassed, she nevertheless made a quick call to his brother, only to learn that she was right.
Painting the face of someone she knew was dead and who had died so tragically “was very hard, especially at first,” Debora says. In fact, reveals Debora’s husband, she choked up almost every time she started to work on it.
“But it was what I wanted to do,” Debora says. “I’d found I couldn’t give as much money as I wanted, but the one thing I could do was paint.”
In February, she received a note from Dennis’ wife. “Thanks so much for the breathtaking portrait of my husband, Dennis. …You were able to capture the beauty my husband had. He was an incredible person. He could walk into a room and everyone would look and feel touched by his blue eyes and charming smile. As handsome as he was, his inner qualities are what made him extra special. My children and I will always cherish the portrait.”
Debora confesses to the tears she shed in January as she packed up the portrait to send it to Dennis’ family, “I knew I would miss him,” she says. “Of course it only made me think of how much more his wife must be missing him.”