Swinging into Sea eaS Son Recycle Revolution The women’s tennis team begins its spring season against Prairie View a&m m
Texas state is competing in a recycle competition to see who’s the top green campus
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january 29, 2009
thursday
Volume 98, Issue 44
College Democrats research border fence for protest
House bill gives student regent voting ability, voice
By Brigette Botkin News Reporter
decide if the campus needs a 24-hour library. Heath and Wyatt said no specified number will be used. Heath said extended hours would likely not take effect until fall, if decided upon. The library staff will use a pamphlet to track observations and attendance numbers. “Each night the library staff or guard has been asked to track infor information, some of that is head count, keeping track of how many people are on the floor and of how many of those people are at a computer or how many are studying,” Heath said.
College Democrats discussed organizing a possible protest to the construction of the U.S. Mexico border fence at their first meeting of the semester Wednesday evening. Courtney Strange, former College Democrats president, is spearheading the movement. “We are a nation dedicated to tear tearing down walls,” said Strange, political science senior. “We worked to tear down the Berlin wall for freedom. We shouldn’t be building walls if we’re about tearing them down. It’s a blatant disrespect for equality and Civil Rights.” Fidencio Leija, international studies and relations senior, said he and fellow College Democrat members are interested in the possible protest, but feels more research needs to be done before a commitment is made. “We need to learn more about this before we put the full support of the College Democrats behind it,” Leija said. Edna Duarte, pre-mass communication sophomore, said she is opposed to the border fence saying it is offensive and not functioning properly. “It’s a slap in the face to immigrants,” Duarte said. “And, people are going to get around it one way or another. They already are.” Leija said he feels the fence is a waste of taxpayers’ money. “It’s too much money to spend on something to simply keep people out,” Leija said. “It won’t even cover the whole border. It’s a waste of funding.” Amanda Domaschk, College Democrat president, said protests would be later in the semester or during the summer, though nothing has been scheduled yet. Strange said protests would be focused on halting construction in cer certain areas before they begin. “We’re aiming to protest ground breaks in construction,” Strange said. “We’d like to do sit-ins and gain media attention to stop construction.” Strange said he wants to team up with like-minded groups on campus to organize. “I want to start a group for this and invite all organizations to get involved,” Strange said. He said no commitments have been made on whether a protest will be organized. He said the College Democrats are still considering it and will discuss the issue further in later meetings. Members also discussed working to take action against the carrying of concealed weapons on campus. Domaschk, political science senior, said they are considering lobbying against the idea during the legislative session. “It’d be a big monster to tackle, but there’sopposition,it’sjustnotorganized,”
See LIBRARY, page 4
See PROTEST, page 3
By Allen Reed Assistant News Editor A new bill seeks to interject student representation into the most powerful group of people in the Texas State University System. The Board of Regents is a group reserving the right to enact policy changes and set university tuition and fees. Texas Rep. Patrick Rose (D-45) filed House Bill 712 on Jan. 21 which if passed, would allow the student seated on the board to have the right to vote. “The student perspective is a critical perspective for the board to not only hear, but it’s important for them to be able to exercise a vote,” Rose said. “The decisions of the board impact all aspects of a student’s existence. It’s important that a student is on there making decisions.” The student regent is a yearlong position selected by Gov. Rick Perry from a pool of applicants that span the Texas State University System. The first student regent hailed from San Marcos, but Texas State has not had a presence since. ASG President Brett Baker said five to six students from Texas State apply each year. “They sit at the table with the Board of Regents, and there are some very influential people on the Board of Regents,” Baker said. “That student has a voice and can chime in on how a situation might af affect the students. Even though they don’t have a voting right, it’s still a very powerful position because each one of those regents cares what they have to say, and they will listen to them.” The student’s position on the Board of Regents was created two legislative sessions ago. Rose and Texas Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-25) worked together to get the bill passed for a student to sit on the Board of Regents. Rose said when the bill was originally proposed they were “laughed at.” “It’s hard to explain how impossible this was supposed to be,” Rose said. “We got the first step done in 2005, which was a strong step — to put a student on the board,” Rose said. “We made real progress. What we need to do this session is empower the student with a vote.” Baker said if a student was given the right to vote, he or she must be willing and able to travel and to understand the needs of each of the universities within the system. “There’s a lot of debate right now over whether we’re asking too much by asking for a voting member, See STUDENT REGENT, page 4
Bobby Scheidemann/Star photo illustration ALL NIGHTER: The alkek library is staying open for 24 hours to determine if there is student interest in studying until dawn.
24-HOUR LIBRARY By Amanda Venable News Editor
Slumber parties are about to get more scholarly. Beginning Tuesday, the Alkek Library will be open 24-hours Sunday through Wednesday for the following six weeks. The pilot program, which ends March 11, will gauge library usage during ex extended hours and provide officials with estimated costs. “It’s a six week pilot to see what kind of usage there is at the library if the hours are extended over night,” said Joan Heath, assistant vice president of the university library. “It will also give us feasibility to see what it would cost, how the library is
used, where the areas are that are used.” Van Wyatt, vice president of Information Technology, said ASG spearheaded the idea. A 24-hour library was a platform issue last spring when ASG presidential and vice presidential candidates Court Courtney Strange and CJ Morgan advocated the need for an all-night study spot. ASG is footing the cost of flyers and table tents to get the word out that study studying into the wee hours will be easier. “The idea ASG had of working together to do a pilot is helpful,” Wyatt said. “If we talk this up a lot and the students really get behind it and will sustain a pat pattern of usage, that makes the decision very easy.” Officials will use attendance results to
students, faculty, staff react to adding Friday courses By Lora Collins News reporter
David Schmidt/Star photo ANTSY STUDENTS: With the new 80-minute classes, students anxiously wait to get out in order to make it to their next class on time.
Fridays are no longer considered part of the weekend for Texas State students. The university went from having 25 Monday, Wednesday, Friday courses in spring 2008 to 486 this semester. Michael Heintze, associate vice president for enrollment management and marketing, said the system was created to meet policies put in place by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. “By Coordinating Board policy, classes must meet prescribed contact-hour requirements,” Heintze said. “Based upon the number of days in our semester, 80 minute and 50 minute classes were needed to be in compliance.”
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mostly sunny Temp: 68°/44° Precip: 0%
Contact hours refer to the length of time a class needs. Faculty Sen. William Stone said in Wednesday’s meet meeting that the university has not been in compliance with the coordinating board’s policy for 10 or 15 years. Texas State held 95 Friday-only classes and labs, and totaled 619 MW-F courses in 2006. The number of Friday courses decreased in fall 2007 and increased in spring 2008, when the university totaled 25 Friday courses. Heintze said the system is likely to become permanent, which will affect faculty, staff and students. “Making the changes required faculty to restructure their lectures and examinations,” Heintze said. “Bus schedules were updated. Campus activities, in some cases, had to be rescheduled.”
Heintze said there have been no complaints against the new system, and professors are adjusting to the revised schedules. “Most faculty liked the (former) schedule, which focused most classes on Monday through Thursday, but they also understand the issues that required the modifications,” Heintze said. UPD Officer Phillip Holden said there has been no change in security with the addition of Friday courses. “I don’t believe that prior to cancelling the Friday courses, which the university only did for two semesters, we did not decrease any of our tactics or security measures or staffing lev levels,” Holden said. Caitlin Kinkade, interdisciplinary studies junior, said the change
in class times negatively affects her schedule. “I started taking education classes (last semester) and they could really go into detail about examples in the classroom,” Kinkade said. “Now they hardly got through the syllabus and class was over.” She said the 50-minute classes make it hard to focus, and put an added strain on the professors to finish on time. “Knowing that class is 50 minutes long, it is harder to concentrate because it’s like, ‘OK, time is going by, it’s almost time to get out,’” Kinkade said. “I would prefer longer classes. It’s not so much that it is on Friday, but that it is shorter.” John Wren, music studies junior, See FRIDAY CLASSES, page 4
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