RUNNING DOWN A DREAM
SPLIT SECOND
Track and field cleans up in Southland Conference indoor finale
Linnea Glatt displays the art of stitching
SEE SPORTS PAGE 10
SEE TRENDS PAGE 5
DEFENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT SINCE 1911
WWW.UNIVERSITYSTAR.COM
FEBRUARY 20, 2007
TUESDAY
VOLUME 96, ISSUE 56
Coordinating Board gives engineering school final mark of approval By Nick Georgiou The University Star The new Bruce and Gloria Ingram School of Engineering received the final approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Feb. 9. The board’s decision will become effective June 1. University officials say along with the new school will come research grants, internship and career opportunities and the recruitment of new students. They say these additional resources will bring Texas State more
prominence in the region. “This is obviously a very positive move,” said Debbie Thorne, associate vice president for academic affairs. “It’s reflective of our academic plan and the successes we’ve had within curriculum and academic programs, and we know there is a need within the state of Texas to educate more engineers, so this enables Texas State to have a stronger presence in the engineering field.” University President Denise Trauth said the school of engineering would have taken sev-
eral years to create had it not been for the Ingrams’ $5 million donation in November. “The problem any new program has, whether we’re talking about nursing or engineering, is given the way academic programs are funded in Texas through the formula,” Trauth said. “You’re always two years behind on your funding, and so when you’re introducing a new program like engineering you need to build a bridge and that’s what the Ingram gift does.” There is a high demand for engineers in Central Texas, par-
ticularly within the Austin area. However, the number of undergraduate engineering degrees in the U.S. declined by 20 percent between 1985 and 2004, according to the American Society for Engineering Education. “Engineers work in many different facets of our society and we recognize that as technology continues to improve and expand the need for engineers is always going to be there,” Thorne said. University officials hope the engineering school will attract businesses to the region in ad-
Distinguished alumni honored
dition to keeping students with engineering degrees in the state. “It will give the existing students more options and students often stay in the area where they go to college, and so I think we have a good chance of helping the greater Austin metro area recruit more engineers,” Trauth said. The engineering school will contain the two existing industrial and manufacturing programs, but faculty and administrators hope to add electrical engineering to that list.
Petition assumed to have sparked ASG student referendum legislation By Jason Buch and Paul Rangel The University Star
Jon Clark/ Star Photo DESIGNING WOMAN: Honoree Stephanie Ballard, interior design senior, chats with her boyfriend Taylor Gahm before the alumni awards ceremony Saturday on the fourth floor balcony of the LBJ Student Center.
By Alex Hering The University Star
E
Monty Marion/Star photo MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Texas State alumna Andrea Powell speaks Feb. 15 in the Centennial Hall teaching theater. She discussed human trafficking which is often common in Eastern Europe.
very year more than one million women fall victims to human trafficking. Andrea Powell, activist and Texas State alumna, quoted that figure Friday during her address in Centennial Hall on the efforts of FAIR Fund, an international organization she co-founded that works to end gender violence and human trafficking around the world. She arrived tired and jet lagged from the long flight from Eastern Europe to the discussion. Yet, she was eager to introduce MTV’s Exit, a film dealing with the estimated hundreds of thousands of people who are trafficked in Eastern Europe every year. During the flight, Powell said, she thought about Nina, a young woman she befriended, who fell victim to the forced sexual labor that is common in Eastern Europe. Powell currently is helping Nina find a way to the U.S., while working to get resources to individuals who are most vulnerable to becoming trafficked. “I was working to develop our orphanage program in Serbia and Bosnia to help children who are leaving orphan care to lead them to a successful adult life,” Powell, who spent a month at the orphanages, said. “Basically, to help them stay clear of sexual labor and exploitation by providing education about sexual violence as well as building a commuSee ALUMNI, page 4
Trauth said the electrical program, which is expected to be established in the fall, is central to any school of engineering. “We are creating new degree programs so we can attract additional students,” Thorne said. “The technology and engineering department is a very strong department currently, so we know there is a lot of expertise and a lot of interest.” Because engineering now has its own school, the department of engineering and technology has been renamed to the department of technology.
Amendments making more students eligible to run for Associated Student Government President along with expanding and reapportioning the Senate will go to a student referendum. The Senate passed legislation Monday calling for both amendments. The student body will vote on the items in March. The Senate’s move to change the qualifications for president was apparently spurred by the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council circulating a petition calling for a similar referendum. The legislation, authored by Sen. C. J. Morgan, calls for a student referendum to remove an amendment to the ASG Constitution requiring presidential candidates to serve two terms in student government before running. Meridith Pumphrey, Panhellenic Council President and healthcare administration senior, and Brett Baker, Interfraternity Council President and marketing sophomore, began collecting signatures Monday for the petition. Pumphrey and Baker said the amendment creating the eligibility requirements was packaged with a series of
constitutional amendments when the student body voted on it. They estimate only 40 people met the requirements to run for ASG last year and few, if any, presidents of the more than 300 student organizations on campus are eligible this year. “For us it seems like this is what’s best for the student body,” Baker said. “It’s something that’s been out there and we realized it’s something that needs to be changed and now, we’re coming forward with it and trying to propose a change.” ASG President Kyle Morris made an attempt to quash the petition. In an email sent just after midnight Monday to Dean of Students John Garrison and copied to The University Star as well as various students and administrators, including Pumphrey and Baker, Morris said he was invoking an item in the student affairs policy addressing student referendums. The policy reads: “Students attempting to initiate a referendum will begin coordination with the Dean of Students at least 20 class days prior to the event. If the call for a referendum originates with the students, the Dean will review the request and explain the “Student Referendum Request” (Form 05.08 A) to the student group (Appendix I).” See REFERENDUM, page 4
ASG: Updated housing policy
will give students more options By Paul Rangel The University Star As student government members petitioned for the recently passed fair housing policy, they received news last week of changes made to the existing legislation. “This has been a very exciting week for us as we have found out about changes made to the policy,” said Sen. Alexis Dabney, “We have been working very hard to accomplish this.” The housing policy was changed to now allow student with 46 to 51 hours the opportunity to live in university-affiliated apartment complexes. It would also give students who are 21 years old or have 52 hours the option to live off campus without submitting an exemption form prior to the contract period.
In other business Vincent Luizzi, philosophy department chair, was appointed as the new faculty adviser to the Associated Student Government. His help and interest in ASG was greatly appreciated and he received compliments from senators and administration during their reports. Fire Marshal Ken Bell spoke to the Senate about single-family zoning and addressed questions about the enforcement of those rules. “This is a zoning effort on behalf of the city of San Marcos,” Bell said. “There were 24 cases (of zoning violations) last semester and have been seven cases this semester so far.” He said that their goal was to engineer solutions to problems and educate See ASG, page 4
Accounting students, volunteers offer free tax preparation By Alex Hering The University Star Texas State accounting students have joined with a volunteer organization to offer members of the university and community the opportunity, beginning Feb. 27, to get free tax assistance. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and student accounting volunteers will be available in McCoy Hall, Room 206 from 5 to 7 p.m. The groups have scheduled Feb. 27, March 6 and March 20 to assist in tax preparation. VITA has been performing the service for eight years.
Participants are asked to provide a form of identification, social security number and W-2 forms. Bank information is not required unless the participant wants to use direct deposit. R.J. Salome, accounting graduate, helps with the preparations and said this year there has been a boom in the number of students and community members who have come in to e-file, a quick process used by VITA to file taxes. “There has been a huge amount of people who have come in, a lot from off campus,” Salome said. Roselyn Morris, accounting
Today’s Weather
AM Showers 77˚/52˚
Precipitation: 30% Humidity: 57% UV: 5 Moderate Wind: WSW 9 mph
department chair, said the number of e-files made since the start of the program has not been stagnant. “Over the last three years, we have done more than 250 e-files, and last year the IRS said people who filed at our site received $280,000 in refunds,” Morris said. “It’s a great opportunity for our accounting students to get hands-on experience with doing tax returns, and at the same time, they are helping their peers, students and the community in getting tax returns done by a tax professional in a timely manner.”
Two-day Forecast Wednesday Sunny Temp: 76°/ 49° Precip: 10%
Thursday Partly Cloudy Temp: 77°/ 59° Precip: 10%
The learning experience with VITA, Morris said, is priceless. “It’s been fun to see this thing grow,” Morris said. “When you are teaching students about taxes they’re reading from a textbook. The book says ‘oh, well you take the W-2s and the W-4 and get this information and that information.’ But the book doesn’t show what the forms look like or how it’s going be detailed. With VITA, students who’ve taken the class say ‘oh that’s what the book was talking about.’” Salome said a large turnout could mean a wait of 20 to 30 minutes. There will be eight peo-
ple preparing tax forms. Estimated time of preparing tax forms is between 15 and 20 minutes. Chelsea Coverly, criminal justice freshman who plans to have her taxes prepared through VITA Tuesday, said she appreciates the convenient opportunity. “It is really great that they offer this, with all the stuff we as students have going on in our lives,” Coverly said. “It’s good to have an option to go somewhere nearby that’s fast and free. Besides, we need that information to renew our FAFSA application.” Morris said the VITA program
provides help with tax preparation to future Texas State students. “The students will help at the college fair at San Marcos High School,” Morris said. “Admissions, financial aid and the VITA students go out to the high schools and seniors from any of the area high schools.” Morris said VITA tries to reach out to future students. “We help with the tax returns, because students and their parents need their tax returns to fill out the FAFSA, and financial aid is there to help with FAFSA,” she said. “So, we try to reach out to future students as well.”
Inside News ..............1-4 Trends .............5-6 Crossword ......... 6 Sudoku .............. 6
Texas State University-San Marcos is a member of the Texas State University System
Comics .............. 6 Opinions ............ 7 Classifieds ......... 8 Sports ........... 9,10
To Contact Trinity Building Phone: (512) 245-3487 Fax: (512) 245-3708 www.UniversityStar.com © 2007 The University Star