WEDNESDAY
September 29, 2010
Vol. 93 • No. 18
www.therambler.org
Theatre Wesleyan puts on Chekhov’s Vaudevilles.
The Rambler The voice of Texas Wesleyan University students since 1917
The Lady Rams sweep their opponents. Sports, page 5
A&E, page 4
Strategic plan adds focus to TWU goals
Bed bugs Bed bugs feed on blood by piercing exposed skin with an elongated beak, anywhere from the face to the legs.
Bed bugs do not transmit any diseases known to man.
Jonathan Resendez
jlresendez@mail.txwes.edu
Bed bug infestations aren’t signs of hygiene or cleanliness problems — even luxurious hotels encounter difficulties with them.
Bed bugs can live for more than a year without feeding.
Bed bug bites often do not hurt but can cause itching, depending on the person.
Bed bugs can hide in slots the thickness of a business card, making them hard to detect.
Photo Illustration by Erica Estrada and Jonathan Resendez
Malicious beast or harmless pest? Jonathan Resendez
jlresendez@mail.txwes.edu
Stella Hall director Harry Krider, senior international business administration major, said giving out the names of residents who reported bed bugs in their room was like giving out the names of people who had diseases. Krider’s misconception that bed bugs are caused by undesirable reasons is one shared by people across the globe. “That’s not the case at all,” said Dr. Ray Thompson, president of Innovative Pest Management Associates. “Bed bugs are totally indiscriminant. They don’t care as long as there’s a food source—and the food source of course is blood.” Bed bugs aren’t the result of poor
hygiene and can affect anyone, anywhere and at any time, according to the Laboratory Identification of Parasites of Public Health Concern. In early September, two female Stella residents reported bite marks. “We had two students come in with some bites, some concern,” said housing director Sharon Manson. “So we sent them to [nurse] Paige [Cook] to make sure it wasn’t anything threatening health-wise.” After a bed bug infestation was identified, Manson said the two students, along with the neighbors above, below and to the sides of them, were temporarily moved to vacant rooms while the rooms were treated. Housing contacted Myers Pest & Termite Services who treated the affected rooms in about four hours al-
though preparation took a week. “In my mind I’m thinking, ‘These kids just got here; they just set up their room; now we’re telling them to get everything they have out of it,’” Manson said. The nine students affected had to thoroughly wash their belongings in hot water before transferring to their temporary rooms for a week. Manson said as much as housing did not want to inconvenience the students, they had to ensure the bed bugs would not spread. IPMA President Dr. Thompson also serves as a consultant to Myers and has studied bugs for the past six decades. Thompson said he kept bed bugs on his desk and let them feed on his own blood while he studied them. “The only saving grace of this particular pest, even though it’s extreme-
ly annoying, is that they do not transmit any diseases, right now, known to man,” Thompson said. “Even if they feed on a person that has HIV and they go feed on somebody else, there’s no transfer.” Bed bugs’ ability to travel almost anywhere are the results of their ability to hide in miniscule spaces paired with their potential long life spans. Researchers have found that bed bugs can live up to a year with no food source, Thompson said. Manson served as housing director for Mississippi State University and Louisiana State University and said this is her first encounter with bed bugs. All the directors conferences she has been to “they say, ‘If you haven’t dealt with it [bed bugs], you haven’t dealt with it—yet,’” she said.
Research demonstrates increase in tolerance Shauna Banks
sbbanks@mail.txwes.edu
Nine years after the events of 9/11, tolerance for individuals of Middle Eastern descent participating in American society has increased at Wesleyan. In 2003, Dr. Sara Horsfall and Dr. Ibrahim Salih of the sociology and political science departments presented results from a study done in Fall 2002 by Horsfall’s Applied Research Methods class. In the study, Wesleyan students were asked a series of questions regarding their feelings about people of Middle Eastern descent. Seven years later, with the help of Tanni Chaudhuri, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice, Horsfall and Salih have completed a similar study with current Wesleyan students. “It’s basically the second part of a longitudinal study that started in 2002 after 9/11,” Chaudhuri said. To measure the social distance between students at Wesleyan and those in the Middle East, an adaptation of the Bogardus scale was used. “The scale has seven measures of acceptance, from excluding the group from the country to accepting them in your family by marriage,” Horsfall said. During the 2010 study, students were also asked a series of questions to measure their knowledge of international current events and issues. Students from various classes offered at Wes-
leyan during the Spring 2010 semester were chosen at random, with an option not to participate. According to study results, 81 percent of students given the questionnaire were between the ages of 18 and 25, 55 percent in a relationship at the time, 47.5 percent white, 74.6 percent female and more than half had an income of less than $25,000 a year. Horsfall said the recent study indicated fewer students said they were against Middle Easterners entering the country than in the 2003 study. This year 59 percent of students surveyed strongly disagreed that Middle Easterners should be kept out of the country, and 64.8 percent indicated that they would approve of a person of Middle Eastern descent marrying into their families. “That speaks toward the diversity on campus,” Chaudhuri said. “That speaks toward our willingness to accept. It speaks toward if we actually do have more international students on campus that can enrich the learning experience.” Although data is still being analyzed, there are plans to present the results of a comparative study done with the results from both studies at the Southwestern Sociological Association meeting in Las Vegas in March 2011. Salih said after that presentation, the researchers hope to get at least five more univer-
RESEARCH, page 3
Wesleyan administrators said they hope to increase educational quality and monetary endowment, among other things, as they forge the university’s 2010-2015 strategic plan. With previous plans in place for more than the past 10 years, the preliminary draft of the new strategic plan submitted to the Board of Trustees at the beginning of the fall term focuses on six academic goals. According to the Aug. 8 draft, the school’s vision is “to be the premier student-centered teaching and learning university in North Texas.” “An educational institution must be forever remembering that their purpose is students,” said Interim President Dr. Lamar Smith. Wesleyan is required to have a strategic plan in place to receive accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. “We’ve always had some plans in place,” said Provost Dr. Allen Henderson. “Over the last 10 years we’ve gotten more detailed with them.” The six broad goals range from developing and supporting excellence among the faculty to providing students with programs that prepare them for their professional career, with specific action plans for each goal. Pati Alexander, Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services, said administrators check in with the Board of Trustees at least once per semester to monitor the strategic plan’s progress and to ensure that goals are being met.
PLAN, page 3
Angie Ruiz | Rambler Staff Mireya Gallegos, junior early childhood bilingual education major and Hispanic Women’s Network scholarship recipient, stands next to Amber Bailey’s painting Embracing Opportunity, which was valued at $350. Portions of the proceeds go toward the scholarship fund.
Network gives scholarships Rachel Peel
rlpeel@mail.txwes.edu
Hispanic Women’s Network shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to three Wesleyan students over the past three years. Cristina Ibarra, Mireya Gallegos and Claudia Gonzalez won scholarships ranging from
$14,000 to $20,000 per year to Texas Wesleyan University from the Hispanic Women’s Network for achieving excellence in high school. The funds were earned by hosting a Latin art show at the Rose Marine Theatre. “[Students] must go through a scholarship
SCHOLARSHIPS, page 3