Daily Toreador The
MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013 VOLUME 87 ■ ISSUE 107
Tech police continue meth lab investigation
Basketball concludes season of steady improvement By MICHAEL SUNIGA STAFF WRITER
While students were packing up for spring break Friday, Texas Tech police officers were investigating a non-functional methamphetamine lab in Talkington Residence Hall. Tech police officers arrived at Talkington Residence Hall at 10:13 a.m. to investigate suspicious activity and found the equipment and chemicals used to manufacture meth in a student’s room. The alleged meth lab was not operational and the student responsible had not been in the room for several days, nor was the situation a threat to students, said Chris Cook, managing director of the Office of Communications and Marketing. Jeff Obumseli, a junior nutrition major from Dallas, said he was on the third floor of Talkington Residence Hall where police were investigating the situation. No updates were available at press time regarding the ongoing investigation. ➤➤news@dailytoreador.com
Texas lawmakers seek to curtail governor’s power AUSTIN (AP) — Some Republican and Democratic legislators have joined forces on measures aimed at curtailing Gov. Rick Perry’s power, benefits and number of terms. The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday that at least six bills, proposed constitutional amendments and budget decisions would reduce the governor’s power or perks. Perry took office in December 2000 when fellow Republican George W. Bush resigned in order to become president. Perry was elected to four-year terms in 2002, 2006 and 2010. One bill seeks to impose a two-term limit. Another wants the governor to pay his security costs when traveling for personal or political trips. Perry, during his failed 2012 presidential bid, spent 160 days out of state — costing taxpayers $3.7 million. An aide says Perry will review any bill that reaches his desk.
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TEXAS TECH COACH Chris Walker yells out during the Red Raiders’ 71-69 loss agianst the Longhorns March 9 in United Spirit Arena.
Tech AD Kirby Hocutt fires basketball staff, retains interm coach Chris Walker Saturday morning, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt fired all of Tech’s basketball staff, other than interim head coach Chris Walker. The Texas Tech men’s basketball team won three games in the 2012-2013 season, finishing second to last in the Big 12 Conference. Although Walker retained his position as interim head coach, there is no guarantee he will have the same position. Rather, Walker will simply remain in the running for the job. Although fellow coaches in the conference — TCU’s Trent Johnson and Texas’ Rick Barnes — have noted that Walker has done a good job in his short stint at Tech, it was not
enough to convince Hocutt for the time being. The coaches relieved of their duties include assistant coaches Jeremy Cox and Bubba Jennings, assistant athletic director Craig Wells, assistant director of operations Jim Shaw, director of video production Josh Mills, and assistant director of video production Derrick Jasper. By Tech clearing space on the coaching staff, the next head coach will choose his own assistants. The removed staff members will be placed on paid administrative leave until May 31. More details will be provided as the story develops. ➤➤msuniga@dailytoreador.com
After finishing the 2011-2012 season ranked last place in conference standings and following a seven game losing streak, things could not have worsened for the Texas Tech basketball program, until Billy Gillispie resigned from his post, citing health problems. Because of the gaping hole that Gillispie’s resignation left, Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt was left to few options in the appointing of a new coach, therefore, looked to associate head coach (at the time) Chris Walker. After gaining the title of interim head coach, Walker immediately equaled the amount of conference wins from the previous season in his first game at the helm, winning away against TCU. Following his appointment, Walker tripled the amount of wins accumulated the previous season — one win to three — and won a game in the Big 12 Tournament, a feat not accomplished since 2010. Although it is unknown as to why a formal decision is yet to be made on the coaching future for Tech, Walker’s work has not gone unnoticed. Texas coach Rick Barnes was full of praise for the Tech coach after the Red Raiders fell short to Barnes’ Longhorns in overtime, 71-69, March 9. “I think he has done a really good job,” he said. “He has proven from a coaching standpoint that he can coach anywhere. It is not easy.” Following an early win in the beginning of conference play, the Red Raiders began a poor run of form, accumulating four-game and nine-game losing streaks. Although no game is the same, the majority of Tech’s losses had the same contributing factors, like getting outrebounded, turnovers, poor shooting from the free throw line and failing to play strong in both halves of basketball. During conference play, the Red Raiders found themselves down by single digits in the first half in eight of their 15 losses, accounting for an average margin of defeat of more than 14 points per game. “The finishing aspect is what we have yet to achieve of a young team, as an inexperienced team, about finishing and playing for 40 minutes,” Walker said. In his time at Tech, Walker often
challenged his players to be “the best team we can be at the end of the season,” which he and his players cited in multiple press conferences. Despite going through a four-month long season unsure of his future and whether or not the interim tag would be removed, Walker never gave up on his team, which was apparent from the sidelines. In his last regular season game with the team, Walker could be seen arguing with officials and having one-on-one talks with players walking off the court as they were getting subbed off. “I like Coach Walker,” Tech junior forward Jaye Crockett said. “He knows how we feel every day. We are all comfortable with each other.” In the upcoming season, the Red Raiders also will need to focus on their inability to keep possession of the ball and stop turning the ball over. During conference play, Tech had more turnovers than its opposition in 11 of its 18 games, accounting for 15 losses in the season. “Those turnovers kill you,” Crockett said. “It is like we are giving the ball to them. They do not even have to work sometimes.” If Tech plans to turn the tide, the Red Raiders will have to grow up fast and turn around six seasons of losing records in conference play, including 2012-2013. The last time Tech’s basketball program posted a winning record in the Big 12 was the 2006-2007 season where the Red Raiders went 9-7 in conference play. Although the Red Raiders have faced three different ranked opponents in conference play, Walker said he did not want to attribute his team’s losses to poor play, rather, their inexperience, as he explains their losses will not continue forever. “You are going to take your lumps,” Walker said. “You know you are not going to take your lumps forever, but while you are going through this process you have to stand up and take it like a man and understand that it will not always be that way, but today it is.” Although three of Tech’s losses this season were single digit margin of defeats, Walker was reluctant to call them moral victories; rather, he can praise their effort. BASKETBALL continued on Page 8 ➤➤
El Paso School of Medicine receives full accreditation Lange: Reality television creates unrealistic expectations, still entertaining
By EMILY GARDNER STAFF WRITER
The Texas Tech Health Sciences Center’s Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso announced it was approved for full and unrestricted accreditation March 8. The accreditation, Dr. Jose Manuel de La Rosa, vice president for health affairs, said, makes the school one of the seven schools in the HSC system, but separate from the Lubbock campus. According to a Tech news release, the accreditation has been approved
for eight years. The process to become fully accredited took five years, and was long and difficult, de La Rosa said. “We first got visited in 2008 and got approved,” he said. “We recruited our first class in 2009, and at that point we got preliminary accreditation, and that allowed us to recruit our class, and then in 2011 we got another site visit, and that gave us provisional accreditation and then now, in 2013, we got full and unrestricted accreditation.” Accreditation is awarded by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education,
de La Rosa said. The committee is comprised of members of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association. A preliminary accreditation, he said, gives the program the ability to recruit medical students, provisional shows the school has made progress and full and unrestricted accreditation gives the school and its officials permission to graduate students. “Full accreditation, and in particular, unrestricted accreditation,” de La Rosa said, “full and unrestricted accreditation, gives you permission to
graduate students in your own right without any hesitation or any restrictions at all.” He said students cannot apply for specialty education, including internships and residencies, if the institution is not accredited, and the accreditation allows the institution to create a different approach toward medical education. The school offers a different curriculum than the Lubbock school, de La Rosa said, and allows the education to be conducted in a different way. EL PASO continued on Page 2 ➤➤
Author, entrepreneur to speak at Chief Executive’s Roundtable Tech songwriter plans tour for summer -- LA VIDA, Page 3
INDEX Classifieds................7 Crossword......................6 Opinions.....................4 L a Vi d a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Sports.........................7 Sudoku.........................2 EDITORIAL: 806-742-3393
By EMILY GARDNER STAFF WRITER
The Chief Executives’ Roundtable will host a luncheon with Kathy Freeland as the speaker Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the Lubbock Country Club. Freeland is the fifth speaker for the series this year, said Jim Wetherbe, the Robert G. Stevenson chaired professor in information technology. Members of the Chief Executives’
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Roundtable are invited to attend the luncheon, he said, but undergraduate and graduate students in Rawls College of Business Administration can attend the luncheon on a limited basis. “First of all, she’s an entrepreneur and she’s written a book on navigating your way to business success,” Wetherbe said, “and it’s an entrepreneur’s journey, which she’s going to be speaking basically about her book, and then she’ll be signing copies of her book for those that
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will be attending.” He said he thinks Freeland was recommended to speak because Lance Nail, dean of Rawls College, knew and suggested her. The graduate students also will have a breakfast event with her at 7:30 a.m., and Freeland will speak to an undergraduate level class, Wetherbe said. Freeland, he said, will be speaking about her entrepreneur story, he said, which he believes will be fascinating.
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“I think this’ll be a particularly exciting program because Ms. Freeland started out working in federal government positions and she got passed over for some promotion and turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” he said. “She decided to go out and start her own business.” According to Freeland’s website, Freeland is founder and former chief executive officer of RGII Technologies, Inc.
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