As the campus community continues to react to the startling resignation announcement by MSU President Michael Nietzel, one can’t help but wonder what role the upcoming budget crisis had in his decision.

In any case, we need the leader of our college to have his or her full attention and energy directed toward the difficult situation ahead. While it would have been easy for Nietzel to sit back and collect on that big paycheck, I respect him for recognizing that his head was not in the game.

You know the budget situation is looking grim when the school is going as far as eliminating a $300 expense for an entry fee normally given to the intramural flag football champions to compete at a regional tournament (see page 7).

Scrimping, saving, and doing without will no doubt be some of the job requirements for the new president.

With all of this cost-cutting, we can’t lose sight of the primary mission of any institution of higher learning; sports, obviously.

Like a butcher, we have to be careful to avoid the bone as we cut the fat out of the budget.

It seems the first instinct usually is to gouge the students. Increased tuition. Increased cost of parking permits. More tickets and fines.

Unfortunately, I am sure we will see plenty of these measures to go along with budget cuts.

Instead, I think we need to be more creative. Here are a couple ideas I had just off the top of my head.

Remember that grain elevator Missouri State bought for $1 a few years back but haven’t done anything with? I think it would make a great billboard. Businesses pay decent money for an average billboard. Imagine what they’d pay for a giant one like that.

What about that fancy new arena everyone seems to think is costing too much to maintain?

Why don’t we put JQH to good use and generate some revenue. I look on the event calendar and besides sports, I only see four special events through March. None of them are big draws in my opinion.

The Eagles came to JQH to open the place up with a bang. Why can’t we get more acts like that. Maybe someone like Bob Dylan? Oh, yeah, he performed at the Shrine Mosque when in Springfield instead.

JQH is an awesome, state-of-the-art arena. I’ve been to arenas in big metropolitan areas and I have to say, besides its smaller size, JQH was just as nice.

We are lucky to have an arena like that for a city this size. We just need to better utilize it.

We have a great university. Let us hope our new president can keep it that way through thick and thin budgets.

I took my wife to the Bob Dylan concert last night at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield and left entertained by the historic performer, but highly disappointed with the Shrine Mosque venue, staff, and the strong smell of smoke that left my wife with a migraine still this morning.

I say I took her, but the truth is that she gobbled up the premium tickets online as soon as she heard about it. She’s only probably the biggest Bob Dylan fan in the world, but somehow it was I and not her who heard about the show right here in town. Last time, we drove all the way to Nebraska to see him. Before that, Kansas City. Jenny has been to I believe eight or nine of his concerts and this was my third.

We had probably about as good of seats as you are going to get at the Shrine Mosque (which looks kind of like the ancient high school gym from Hoosiers, only with a stage at one end). I wish they would actually put seats on the floor, though, as these expensive seats were in the bleachers so we had to turn sideways the whole time.

As it was, people with general admission tickets stood (or poorly danced) right in front of the stage on the basketball floor. They could also sit in the non-reserved seating sections. They packed quite a few people on the floor, although beyond reserved areas, less than half of the bleachers were filled.

It was a bit sad to think they couldn’t fill this relatively small venue when a legend like Bob Dylan was performing (the other concerts of his we attended were always sold out), but we soon found out that anyone who has been to a concert at the Shrine Mosque before will never come back.

Quite frankly, unless you are a smoker or entirely unaffected by second-hand smoke, DO NOT GO TO A CONCERT AT THE SHRINE MOSQUE!

Maybe the word is already out, because it seemed over half the audience was lighting up. While the gym had signs posted that smoking was prohibited, many rude individuals smoked anyway. The event was staffed with plenty of ushers and security, but when I pointed out that someone was smoking right behind one of them in the middle of the gym and that my wife is highly allergic to it, the usher looked over, looked at me, acted like he didn’t see it and said nothing. I saw another disgruntled guest inform a security guard about a woman smoking, but he just waved it off and did nothing as well.

However, if anyone one was using their digital cameras or cell phones to take pictures, then look out. Those guards were all over that. Apparently, one guest must have taken a few too many pictures and wouldn’t be taken quietly. As we left, a security guard was lying on the floor with an injured knee and medics were providing care. If the story I overheard as we left the building was correct, a guest being escorted out by him apparently injured him before escaping and taking off back into the crowd to see the rest of the concert.

The whole placed had a haze of smoke. It was bad enough that they allow smoking in the bar area (which is just outside the gym and quite easily seeped into the rest of the place), but it is even worse when they allow people to smoke right in front of your face at a supposedly non-smoking venue. It felt like I was in a bingo hall.

It takes a lot to ruin a Bob Dylan concert for my wife, but last night the smoky venue pretty much did that. Jenny had a horrible migraine by the end of the night, and even I started to get sick from the fumes.

As for Bob Dylan’s performance, it was good. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan, but I’ve learned to enjoy him. Jenny didn’t particularly like his song lineup, especially early. He seems to play a lot of his more obscure songs, when we’d rather hear the most famous ones. He also alters the musical arrangement of his songs greatly from how they appear on his albums. As an entertainer, he doesn’t exactly interact with the audience much, either (that is just not his thing, Jenny told me).

He is obviously a very talented musician, with excellent skills on the keyboard, guitar, and of course harmonica. His lyrics are interesting, too, if you can decipher them. Listening even to his early albums, it is obvious Dylan never had much of a singing voice. At the age of 68 and through years of smoking, he now utters and growls the words to his songs more than sings them.

Still, he’s Bob Dylan. He’s a living musical legend. It’s pretty amazing he still can even perform at his age, let alone at a high level. He definitely entertained and gave the audience their money’s worth with a roughly 2-hour performance.

While Bob Dylan did not disappoint on this night, a legend such as he deserves a better place in which to perform. I truly believe they could have sold this thing out at the much larger (but infinitely nicer, non-skanky, and smoke-free) JQH Arena. Even Bob Dylan could not counteract the headache left by the smoky Shrine Mosque.

Everybody wants to be a rock star. But most of us just keep our performances relegated to the car with the radio loud so no one else is seriously afflicted. Technology is changing all that, now, and with the power of YouTube you can let the whole world hear your feeble skills in the hopes of getting famous. Without further ado, I present some of the worst “musical” performances I could find on YouTube.

I Will Always Love You – Made famous by Whitney Houston, performed here by some kid named Asif.

Perhaps Asif should realize that he is twelve, his voice just changed, and picking a woman’s song to broadcast to the world was just not the best idea at this stage of his life.I applaud the effort, but cringe at the high notes.

McDonald’s Rap – Performed by Garden City Stud

You got to love the handmotions that go with this “freestyle” rap. We could be looking at the next Vanilla Ice.

Blowin in the Wind - Made famous by Bob Dylan performed here by Wonnep

Not sure what country this dude is from, but his accent makes this one strange rendition of Blowin in the Wind.

We Are the World - Made famous in 1985 for USA for Africa, performed here by a bunch of nobodies.

This webcam version of the superstar-filled 1985 performance is, well, creative, I guess. I think this is actually a parody, but I’m not sure.

Love Story – Made famous by Taylor Swift, performed here by Ryan Ferr

This pre-pubescent 12-year-old’s performance really isn’t that bad, but man, he’s making it too easy. He may clarify that this is the guy version of Taylor Swift in the title, but that doesn’t change the fact that he sounds like a girl. This will make some great black mail in a couple years.

No Place that Far – Made famous by Sarah Evans, performed here by Ashley Heslop

Ashley, just cause you have a camera doesn’t make you famous. Good luck with the Sara-oke contest (where she hopes to sing onstage with Sarah Evans), but you might want to get in key first. Painful.