FOUR YEARS RUNNIN’
WRAPPED UP
Junior Brown and others play for Lucy’s anniversary
Women’s b-ball eliminated in first round of Southland Conference tournament
SEE TRENDS PAGE 5
SEE SPORTS PAGE 10
TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS
www.UniversityStar.com
MARCH 7, 2006
TUESDAY
VOLUME 95, ISSUE 60
Reinstatement of five suspended fraternities debated By Clayton Medford The University Star A resolution supporting the reinstatement of five suspended fraternities was the subject of lengthy debate at the Associated Student Government meeting on Monday. The resolution was adopted, but only after an hour and a half debate between senators and more than two-dozen mem-
bers of three of the suspended fraternities. More than 20 members of Tau Kappa Epsilon and a handful of members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Pi Kappa Alpha crowded into the ASG meeting to voice their support of “Fairness for All,” a resolution authored by Senate Clerk Kyle Morris. Several members of ASG are members of Pi Kappa Alpha. Morris added fra-
ternities Delta Chi and Phi Sigma Kappa to the legislation since last week’s meeting. The extensive resolution contains a number of suggestions including a request for the “Interfraternity Council, the office of Campus Activities and Student Organizations, the Division of Greek Affairs, the Dean of Students and the Division of Student Justice review, revisit, reanalyze,
and reassess” the suspensions of the five embattled organizations. Morris reiterated throughout the debate that his legislation was only a suggestion to the administration and the fraternity governing bodies. “Ultimately, it’s the Dean of Students, ultimately it’s Student Justice and ultimately it’s IFC that will decide about their reinstatement,” Morris said.
The legislation not only calls for the review of the fraternities’ cases, but also accuses the administration of irresponsibility in dealing with the problem fraternities. After the fraternities were suspended, CASO created a new position of Coordinator of Risk Management. This position being created immediately following the suspensions, the legislation states, “can be equated
with an institutional admission of irresponsibility on behalf of the university.” Numbers presented in Morris’s legislation show an overall decline in membership and recruitment among IFC member organizations as a whole. The loss of the three larger fraternities, TKE, SAE and PKA resulted in a 34 percent See ASG, page 3
Mock crash aims to discourage students from drunken driving
Life after Nutt
By Eloise Martin The University Star
Men’s basketball coach resigns after losing season
Students witnessed first-hand the repercussions of drunken driving on Monday morning. The smell of alcohol and sight of blood on the cracked windshield of a car in The Quad told spectators the driver of one vehicle had not survived. The body was removed from the scene in a hearse while the victim’s mother cried in a police officer’s arms. The staged crash was part of the fourth annual “Know your Dreams, Know your Limits, Know the Consequences,” an alcohol awareness program coordinated by the University Police Department Community Awareness and Resource Team. Officer Jason Moreno is the program coordinator, charged with giving on campus presentations to raise drug and alcohol awareness. Moreno said the event is put on to provide students with a visual of a true-to-life drunken
By Miguel Peña The University Star A void has been left in the men’s basketball program following the team’s 86-67 loss to Nicholls State — the end of the season marked the end of the line for former head coach Dennis Nutt. His resignation was announced on Thursday morning after Wednesday night’s loss to Northwestern State. The bench-clearing brawl early in the second half was the culmination of a season in which a young team never managed to find their groove. “When I found out that coach resigned it hurt me simply because I got attached to him,” said junior forward Charles Dotson. “I have always been attached to my coaches from junior high and high school through junior college. The only time I have parted from any of my coaches is when I was graduating or when I was leaving school. This is the first time that the coach actually left me, and that is hard because I wanted to finish here with Coach Nutt.” Before the onset of the 2005-
QUITTIN’ TIME: Dennis Nutt resigned Thursday as Texas State’s men’s basketball head coach after a disappointing 3-24 season. A search committee has been formed to find Nutt’s replacement.
driving accident. The event takes place each year during the week before Spring Break; and Moreno said he hopes students will remember the presentation when they are on vacation. “If they see the accident scene, the police, fire and EMS responding with the Jaws of Life, and they are put in the situation of a drunk driver, hopefully when they are put in that situation in their own lives, they will give it a second thought,” he said. Moreno said the event has one main goal: “We want to get the message out that drunk driving is not acceptable; it could cost you your life.” Moreno said the event took place at 10:50 a.m. because that is when students are in The Quad between classes. He said it is a coincidence the police code for car accidents is 10-50. Students gathered to watch as the sound of a car crash from See CRASH, page 3
Monty Marion/Star photo HARSH REALITY: The University Police Department Community Awareness and Resource Team exposed students to a staged crash scene in The Quad on Monday morning as part of the fourth annual “Know your Dreams, Know your Limits, Know the Consequences”event to promote drunken driving awareness.
See NUTT, page 10
Monty Marion/Star photo
BGI hosts AALC open forums with students Influential local women By Kirsten Crow and Clayton Medford The University Star
Brown Group International, a Houston-based consulting firm, furthered its independent investigation on Thursday of the events surrounding an afterparty at the African American Leadership Conference that ended in three students’ arrests and the use of Tasers by police on students. Students who attended the sessions answered questions asked by BGI representatives regarding the events of Sept. 11, 2005 and their former and current perceptions of the University Police Department. The investigation was spurred by conflicting accounts given by law enforcement officers and students. BGI Senior Associate C.O.
“Brad” Bradford set the tone of the forum, posting a large outline in the meeting room that posed five basic questions concerning how students felt about UPD, what personal experiences they had with UPD and how students felt about the incident on Sept. 11 and the manner in which the police on the scene reacted. About 18 students came out to the LBJ Student Center to speak at the open forum sessions throughout the day, Bradford said, in addition to eight faculty and staff members who participated in a closed-door staff session. Some students came because they wanted to discuss the events they witnessed. Others came to check on the progress of the investigation or air concerns for next year’s scheduled conference.
Today’s Weather
Partly Cloudy 84˚/59˚
Precipitation: 10% Humidity: 59% UV: 7 High Wind: SSE 6 mph
Primary discussion topics included what the students and the police could have done differently to avoid the situation, as well as ways to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. Several students offered diversity training and a greater diversification within UPD as solutions to prevent an incident from happening again. Jarad Davis, president of Black Men United, was the first of the students to speak in the open forum, and said diversity training is needed at UPD. Davis, communication studies senior, said one police officer’s use of “y’all” led himself and other students to believe the officer meant “black people.” “We as African-Americans are very sensitive to that term,” Davis said. Davis conceded that a few of the party attendants had “alco-
hol in their system” despite the fact that the party hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity did not serve any alcoholic beverages on site. He said that a few attendants were being “loud and obnoxious” but said they weren’t doing anything to warrant being thrown out of the party. He also said that students should not have interfered with the arrests, and that they had a responsibility in upholding the peace to their fullest capacity. Bryan Ware, pre-mass communication junior, said the situation was poorly handled by both the police department and the university. He cited a lack of an apology or the initiation of an independent investigation by the university as reasons that the situation had not been resolved, pointing out that it was
Thursday Partly Cloudy Temp: 81°/ 49° Precipitation: 20%
By Anna Heffley The University Star About 50 people gathered in the LBJ Student Center Ballroom at noon on Thursday to honor women in the Texas State community. The “Women: Builders of Communities and Dreams” luncheon honored seven Texas State women, including one faculty member, one staff member, one graduate student, one undergraduate student and three alumnae as part of Women’s History Month. “March is national Women’s
See BGI, page 3
Two-day Forecast Wednesday Isolated T-Storms Temp: 82°/ 58° Precipitation: 20%
honored as ‘builders of communities and dreams’
Inside
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History Month, and this is our opportunity to honor outstanding women of our own at Texas State,” said Sandra Mayo, director of the Women’s History Month Committee. Nelwyn Moore, one of the alumnae honorees, received her bachelor’s degree in home economics in 1951 and her master’s of education in 1966. “Since 1947, Texas State University has been the most significant force in helping me achieve both my professional and personal dreams,” Moore See WOMEN, page 4
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