UCC closes two bordering lots
Area reserved for competition; some students frustrated by loss of spaces

By John Weyand
Staff Reporter

Students may find themselves yelling even more at the car in front of them, fighting even harder for a parking spot and leaving for class even a little bit earlier because they will no longer be able to park at the University Christian Church.
Since the beginning of the month, parking has decreased substantially in two lots bordering UCC. A chain-link fence now divides one of the lots, reserving those parking spaces for members of UCC. The other lot is temporarily closed this week for the Van Cliburn Piano Competition.

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Additional faculty a priority for university
School committed to more research, graduate programs

By Jillanne Johnson
Staff Reporter

Adding faculty is key to raising TCU’s level of research while maintaining the university’s commitment to teaching, said Bill Moncrief, senior associate dean of the M.J. Neeley School of Business.
Moncrief said TCU has always been a strong teaching university, but he said increasing research is necessary. He said more faculty allows the university to have research faculty while still teaching classes.

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Cultivating communication
Corporate workshop to teach better interaction, networking

By Julie Ann Matonis
Staff Reporter

A two-day workshop will be held in the Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center to help professionals and students strengthen their abilities to interact in the business environment.
The Center for Professional Communication at the M. J. Neeley School of Business is presenting its fourth annual Corporate Communication Workshop today and Friday.

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High costs keep students at home
More students qualify for college, can’t afford tuition, panel says

By Greg Toppo
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — More low-income students are qualifying for college these days, but rising costs, inadequate grants and a shift from need-based financial aid programs are keeping them out, a congressional advisory panel said Wednesday.
The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, which oversees financial aid programs, said increasing numbers of low-income students are graduating from high school academically prepared to enter college, but facing a system that is focused on middle-class students.

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‘Tis the season for sneezin’
Students visiting Health Center, specialists
to cope with flaring seasonal allergies

By Chrissy Braden
Staff Reporter

As students renew memberships to tanning salons and gyms to get their bodies in top condition for Spring Break, they are also visiting the Health Center and local allergists to ease their suffering from spring allergies.
Cedar and elm pollen levels are in the high to medium range this week, which can affect most people who suffer from seasonal pollen types, according to the Allergy Alert Web site (www.pollen.com).

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Setting priorities
Professors shouldn’t focus on research

Out of 385 professors at TCU, 236 are considered to be tenured.
Hiring more faculty would allow professors to stay fresh and more involved in their research, some professors say. More research would then entail possible publications, which is a way of considering a professor for a tenure position.

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Credit card companies soliciting debt
College students need to beware what a card-holding status could truly mean

By Kristin Delorantis
Skiff Editorial Writer

Last week, USA Today reported that the average college undergraduate has more than $2,000 of credit card debt. For anyone who spends more than a couple hours a week on a college campus, this statistic isn’t very startling.
College is the time of transition for teen-agers from dependent high school students into responsible adults. Credit cards require responsibility and many students believe they are mature enough to possess the plastic money. Debt, however, provides them with a rude awakening.

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Professors deserve great respect
Teachers have own personalities, own life outside university setting

By Jack Bullion
Skiff Editorial Writer

It’s mid-February, and if you’re not totally stressed out by now, you’re probably either saying one of two things:
“I’m a freshman!” (Don’t worry, your time is coming.) or “What do you mean, second semester?”

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Bush’s plan doesn’t help working class

By Sarah Turner
Skiff Editorial Writer

During the 2000 Presidential Campaign, George W. Bush accused his opponent Al Gore of using “class warfare” politics to discredit his tax-cut plan. Rather than assuage the fear that he would sell America’s working families down the river to further the interests of the super rich, Bush instead made those fears a reality by assaulting the rights of organized labor under new executive orders quietly passed last Saturday.
Bush’s executive orders included repealing regulations that denied federal contracts to companies that break pollution and labor laws and removed a federal provision that rewarded federal contracts only to businesses cooperative with labor unionization. Bush effectively closed off government employment for organized workers with collectively bargained contracts, while opening the door to law-breaking corporations.

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Frogs lose to Miners
Team remains atop WAC; Porter scores 21

skiff staff

Texas El-Paso’s Heidi Walker scored 22 points as the Miners defeated the Frogs, 79-76, Wednesday night at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso.
TCU battled back from a 19-point deficit with 9:35 remaining, but the Frogs couldn’t complete the comeback as shots by freshman forward Tiffany Evans and senior guard Amy Porter missed in the waning six seconds.
“I’m proud of the last 10 minutes, but by the looks of it, I’m disappointed in the first 30 minutes,” head coach Jeff Mittie said on KTCU, 88.7-FM. “We’re a good basketball team, but this is evidence that we weren’t ready to play.”

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Opinion
College players should not be paid to play ball

by Jordan Blum

To cope with the poor quality of play and rapidly dwindling profit margins, NBA Commissioner David Stern said top college basketball prospects should be paid a yearly sum to persuade them to stay in school. This is wrong on so many different levels.
With too many teams, too few marquee players, too little depth and too many young players with no polish, it’s painfully obvious that something needs to be done with the NBA.

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Caravan of Dreams

by Victor Drabicky

When rumors that Caravan of Dreams was shutting its doors surfaced a few years back, local musical acts were outraged.
Caravan of Dreams was the premier, and maybe only, music venue in Tarrant County that seemed to have any self respect. The atmosphere was always good, the facilities were always clean and the business was always professionally handled.
So why would it close?
With nobody giving reason for the closing, local artists packed the room for its last few days of life, each vying for the crucial last night on stage. Somehow, amid of all the scrambling for the shows, the closing date came and went, and the rumors of the closing disappeared.

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The Morning People
Review by Jack Bullion