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.

Being a columnist is rarely easy. There are the writers who do puff pieces, maybe drawing a smile but never really making anyone think about anything, and there are those of us who tow the line to make our points.

Mark Whicker, a columnist of 22 years, is the latest to draw national ire for a recent column in the Orange County Register telling kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard what she missed in the sporting world during the last 18 years.

Critics say Whicker was insensitive. What was a sports writer even doing writing about Dugard, who was kidnapped at age 11 and held captive for 18 years before recently finding freedom? In that time, she was virtually cut off from the world.

It does not take but a quick reading of the column to see that Whicker was not being cruel or insensitive. He was merely putting 18 years in perspective. Sports analogies are the rage. The media and our government officials love to use sports analogies because most of us can relate to winning the big game or getting the big hit.

Part of the column is a list of some of the bigger stories in the last 18 years. Barry Bonds, Tiger Woods, Magic Johnson. I know these stories because I have had access to the world all of my life. Still, I had forgotten how big these stories were in their time. They seem like ages ago. If a simple news story seems to have happened decades ago, how long must have those 18 years in captivity felt to Dugard?

Whicker is experiencing another American pasttime. Running the mouth (or in this case fingers…probably most often with anonymous emails and comments) without really thinking about what is being said. Yes, the column at first reeks of bad taste. If you stop there, Whicker probably deserves some hate mail. But if you actually read the column, and you have the ability to think, you begin to see that Whicker’s unique column simply puts 18 years in perspective more than the faux emotional reporting from the networks could ever do.

Not bad for a sports writer.