Staff, administration work to even, raise pay

By Jaime Walker
Senior News Editor

Despite staff concerns that their recent merit-based salary increase would be based on popularity rather than necessity, Chancellor Michael Ferrari said Thursday the $1 million discretionary portion of the increase will be distributed based on a complicated formula, designed to combat salary compression.
“That money was set aside so that Human Resources could individually evaluate each job on campus and figure out where the need was,” he said.

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Weekend set for senior reunions
Older graduates to revisit Fort Worth and campus

By Julie Ann Matonis
Staff Reporter

Fadie Beckham, Jarvis Hall residence hall mother in the 1930s, used to tell women that they shouldn’t wear red because it made them look like ladies of the night.
Beckham’s advice will be resurrected Friday in a monologue at the “Nostalgia at Noon” luncheon by theater students taking part in Alumni Weekend. The theme for the weekend is “Reflections and Expectations.”

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British minor new to campus

By Reagan Duplisea
Skiff Staff

What initially began as a discussion group among faculty in various disciplines on campus has now resulted in a new minor. British and Colonial/Post-Colonial Studies came to fruition as a collaboration of several faculty members from art history to English who spun their visions at professors’ homes and appropriately, a local pub.

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Ferrari encourages bonds programs

By Jonathan Sampson
Staff Reporter

Chancellor Michael Ferrari encouraged local government and business leaders Thursday to begin or increase participation in the U.S. Savings Bonds Program.Ferrari, 2001 campaign chairman of the Fort Worth Geographic Center, launched the center’s U.S. Savings Bonds Campaign during a luncheon at the Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center.

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New dean of education ready to restructure
Tate plans to incorporate research into classroom, develop community leaders

By LaNasha Houze
Staff Reporter

William F. Tate, the new William L. and Betty F. Adams chairman of education, said he plans to help restructure the School of Education into a first tier program by incorporating his research of mathematics education in school districts of the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
“I’m not coming for a job,” he said. “My whole idea is to take the School of Education to another level concerning program quality. TCU has this potential.”
Tate previously held the position of a tenured professor of mathematics in the Department of Curriculum at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. TCU administration said it believes Tate’s experience with curriculum and projects at a top education facility may help TCU’s School of Education implement new ideas.y

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No moratorium
Bill lengthens suffering of victims

It’s always painful to lose a loved one, especially at the hands of another person. The family members work to get over the loss and, eventually, are able to move on with living their lives, while keeping the memory of the loved one.
This “eventually” comes after justice for the family has been served. The trial, sentencing and, for some, death of the convicted, can leave the family emotionally drained. Often, you hear the family say that only now, since the death of the person who killed their loved one, can they begin to collect their lives and start over again.

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Wrongful death
Capital punishment needs revision

The death penalty not only dehumanizes, but it also perpetuates the cycle of violence. For every seven persons executed nationwide, one innocent man or woman has been released from death row.
In 1972, the Supreme Court declared that under then existing laws “the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty ... constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and 14th Amendments.”

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Shooting for the stars ... or not

By Laura Head

Having read the Skiff for the past four years (and by “read” I mean “flipped to the crossword puzzle”), it’s come to my attention that graduating seniors either a.) write fru-fru crap about the wisdom they’ve gained in college, 2.) bitch and rant about everything they hate or d.) confess some dark, hidden secret.

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Baseball, cards leave memories

By Danny Horne

You know, it’s funny. For five years I’ve done this college thing. For five years I went through the daily routine. No, not the one of the regular student. My degree plan wouldn’t allow me to lead the life of a normal student. I cluttered my spare time with seemingly endless hours spent producing a newspaper for this student body, faculty and staff.

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Letters to the Editor

Tennis eyes third trophy
Team’s final chance to win WAC championship

By John Weyand
Staff Reporter

The No. 4 men’s tennis team will try to bring home its last Western Athletic Conference Championship trophy this weekend.
TCU, who has won two of the last three conference titles, is playing its final season in the WAC before it joins Conference USA next season.Sophomore Antonio Gordon said a WAC title would be a pleasant goodbye to the conference.

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It’s intensity time for Carril
Commentary

By Danny Horne
Skiff Staff

On every high school sports team there is that one person, male or female (whatever the case may be), who is responsible for such things like uniforms, equipment and the crucial water supply.
The other day, while watching the men’s tennis team practice, I found myself thinking about the person who was responsible for keeping track of our uniforms and some of the various equipment when I played high school baseball.

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Top players carry men’s golf team into WAC tournament
No. 8-ranked Horned Frogs look to improve on last season’s 3rd-place finish

By Jennifer Koesling
Staff Reporter

The men’s golf team captured third place at last year’s Western Athletic Conference Championship without this year’s top golfer sophomore, Adam Rubinson.
After redshirting last year, Rubinson is back and he said he is expecting nothing less than a first-place finish at this year’s tournament.

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Federal government to execute first inmates in more than 38 years

By Alisha Brown
Staff Reporter

It has been 38 years since a convicted criminal was put to death by the hands of the federal government, but May 16 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh will go down in the history books as the first to die by lethal injection in the 21st century.
McVeigh also holds another record for the shortest amount of time spent on death row — just less than four years — since he waived his right for appeals after being convicted in 1997 for killing 168 people in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in 1995.

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No Middle Road
Huntsville student interviews inmates, examines pros, cons of death penalty

By Jaime Walker
Skiff Staff

For Ashlye Hylton, Huntsville isn’t just the town where the state executes a death-row inmate every two weeks — it’s the town where she goes to school.
When she decided to leave her home in California to get a journalism degree from Huntsville’s Sam Houston State University, she knew she was in for a culture shock. She didn’t know how much the move would change her life.
“This is a bizarre little town,” she said. “There are things I like about living here, but I will never get over the fact that the prison employs most of the people in town.

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Pro

By James Zwilling
Opinion Editor

When the federal government executes convicted murderer Timothy McVeigh by lethal injection May 16, he will become the 34th person killed by the government since 1927 and the first since 1963.
His death will mark the end to an all-too-long U.S. hiatus from federal executions.
McVeigh, surrounded by controversy since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, where 168 people died and nearly 700 were left wounded, dropped all appeals and said he welcomes his death.

Con

By Brandon Ortiz
Skiff Staff

Capital punishment.
They say it is fairly administered.
But overwhelmingly it kills minorities. It even kills the mentally ill.
They say it deters crime.
But it has killed the innocent on more than one occasion. It makes martyrs out of monsters.
They say it helps families grieve.
But it has never brought a victim back to life. It never will.

‘Twas the night before finals...
and all through the dorms,
not a student was sleeping not even a one.

Story by Natasha Terc
Art by Correy Jefferson

It’s April at TCU, and the stress is on full blast. Brains are flying wild with visions of term papers and finals soon to come, and droopy-eyed students clad in plaid pajama pants and flip flops seem to be the trademark for lecture classes.
While hopping to a local bar may to many seem the natural stress-buster from cramming and pounding out term papers, for some students, numbing anxiety with alcohol should not be an alternative to effective time management, nutrition and exercise, said Monica Kintigh, licensed professional counselor at TCU.

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Just around the river bend

Photos and Story
By Chad Carey

A winding, lazy river cuts 1,500-foot-deep canyons through limestone rock. A vast desert, which can reach temperatures of 120 degrees in the summer, stretches as far as the horizon will allow. And 8,000-foot jagged mountains shoot out of the ground, seemingly touching the sky.
Tucked away in southern Texas along the Rio Grande is still one of the nation’s most beautiful national parks. Big Bend, as the Apache Indians called it, features some of the most stunning natural scenery in the United States, as well as some of the best hiking in the Southwest.
The park, located in the Chihuahuan Desert, runs along the Rio Grande, the southern border between Mexico and the United States. As the river winds southward, it suddenly veers north in a horseshoe curve before it continues its voyage to the Gulf of Mexico. Inside the horseshoe lies the area known as Big Bend.

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Semester Flashback
Remember when . . .