MULTITUDE OF MUSICIANS Bands, fans will flock to Austin for next week’s SXSW SEE TRENDS PAGE 7
TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS
www.UniversityStar.com
MARCH 9, 2006
THURSDAY
VOLUME 95, ISSUE 62
Real race realizations SMPD free of racial profiling, new report says
play a role in law enforcement’s actions. “Our policies prohibit racial profiling,” Williams said. “You simply cannot take enforcement action against people based on their race or ethnicity. That’s not acceptable.” Hassan Tajalli, a statistician and associate political science professor, reviewed the data for SMPD. “Basically, what we want to know is if whether the proportion of ethnic groups in the data that was provided to me is significantly different than the proportion of ethnic groups in the general population,” Tajalli said. According to the report, 7,026 traffic stops were cited by the SMPD last year. Of those stopped, 4,360 were white, 132 of whom were searched and two of whom were arrested. Police stopped 2,318 Hispanics, conducted 104
By David Rauf The University Star Data released by the San Marcos Police Department indicates officers did not use racial profiling when making traffic stops in 2005, but did search Hispanics more often than whites or blacks. SMPD Chief Howard Williams issued the department’s annual racial profiling report last week. The report evaluated the total number of traffic citations issued, Armando Sanchez/Star photo searches performed and arrests made related to those searches RACIAL REPORT: A recent report regarding racial profiling in the San Marcos Police Department during 2005. The purpose, Wilfound that officers did not participate in racial profiling. However, it also found that if pulled over, Hisliams said, is to evaluate whether panics were more likely to be searched than other ethnic groups. race, ethnicity or national origin
Presentation of new GRE test postponed from Fall 2006 until Fall 2007 semester By Carl Norberg The University Star The introduction of the newly reconstructed Graduate Record Exam will be postponed until Fall 2007. Originally scheduled to debut in October 2006, the Educational Testing Service has delayed the unveiling of the new GRE for another year, saying it will allow more time to develop the new Internet-based testing system that will take place of the current test, thus allowing a smoother transition. “Once we had made the decision to delay the test a little bit, we decided that we just had to wait an entire year,” said David Payne, executive director of the
GRE Program at ETS. Receiving its largest modification in 57 years, and the single largest change of any standardized test, including the SAT, the new GRE is a primary requirement for admission to the majority of graduate programs across the country, including Texas State. According to a Feb. 8 ETS press release, “higher education and graduate communities are excited about the revised GRE.” Experts at The Princeton Review said changes in testing format are financially motivated. Liz Wands, national director of Graduate Programs at The Princeton Review said ETS will only makes changes that will help the
organization financially. “It’s a shame that ETS is masking these changes — student interest is not at heart,” Wands said. The new test will take approximately 90 minutes longer and contain a largely different testing format than the current GRE’s variable format, in which a computer chooses test questions based on how well previous questions were answered. While ETS feels the current format is highly efficient, it is also very unfamiliar to test-takers. Each section of the new test will contain approximately 50 questions, but the exact number is still yet to be determined. “We just collected our last set
San Marcos residents expressed approval of city services, according to the findings of a recent survey. The city service survey, distributed in randomly selected utility bills, rated the city’s services and listed the priorities of San Marcos residents. Political science associate professor Hassan Tajalli worked with the city in compiling the survey results. Tajalli has worked with the city on the surveys for six years and said the results are “very scientific.” “We randomly sent out the questionnaires and collected them,” Tajalli said. “We test
tudents broke Sopinions from the of non-
students in several categories, but most notably in their opinion of local police.
them for statistical significance using chi-square.” The chi-square test measures the significance of statistical data. Tajalli said writing the surveys was a cooperative effort
between himself and city officials, but the officials did most of the work. Surveys were mailed to 2,716 utility customers in November and 11.8 percent of residents that received the survey responded. Library programs, garbage pick-up, fire services and parks and open spaces services received the highest scores on the five-point scale. Perpetual poor performers continued to be street maintenance, traffic signs and signals and downtown parking. Texas State students made their voices heard through the surveys; 22 percent of the total respondents indicated they were enrolled at the univer-
See RACE, page 3
Company to oversee conference center project selected by City Council
of pilot data, and we’re in the process of making final decisions as to the number of items,” Payne said. The new testing format will be linear, and all test-takers, on any given day, will receive the same set of questions. They will also be able to go forward to preview questions, as well as backward to view previous questions and their answers. “It’s a more familiar format,” Payne said. According to a press release, The Princeton Review has challenged the array of questions used in the new testing format. “We suspect that the new test,
By Clayton Medford The University Star The San Marcos City Council approved an agreement with Broaddus and Associates to act as the city’s eyes and ears throughout the construction of the San Marcos Conference Center project at Interstate 35 and McCarty Lane on Tuesday. The $20 million project will connect to a 10-story luxury Embassy Suites hotel to be built by John Q. Hammons Hotels. Representatives from JQH Hotels; Lohmeyer-Russell, the architecture firm that will design the project; and Broaddus and Associates were on hand to field questions from council members. Broaddus will receive no more than $482,400 in the course of 25 months from funds allocated to the construction of the conference center, according to the contract. City Manager Dan O’Leary said the city is required by law to hire a firm to oversee the construction of the project on the city’s behalf. “We’re using what’s called a design-build concept, and that’s the way we are constructing this conference center,” O’Leary said. “The procedures for constructing that way are lined out for us in the state law, and state law requires that we
See GRE, page 4
Non-students happier than students with city services By Clayton Medford The University Star
searches and made three arrests. They stopped 321 blacks, conducted 11 searches and made two arrests, while 26 Asian Americans were stopped with one search and no arrests. Based on the analysis of the raw data, Tajalli answered two questions for the SMPD. When it came to traffic stops there was no discrimination against blacks, Hispanics or others, Tajalli said. In fact, the report showed that fewer ethnic minorities were stopped. “We came up with two different conclusions,” Tajalli said. “With regards to stops, there was no racial profiling against minorities. As a matter of fact the opposite was correct — whites were disproportionately pulled over.” Tajalli said there was no racial profiling against blacks and that
sity. Students broke from the opinions of non-students in several categories, but most notably in their opinion of local police. Only 45.5 percent of students gave their approval of the police, while 60 percent of all respondents approved of the police service. Students also split with non-student residents in their disapproval of the city’s environmental protection and garbage pick-up and students were slightly more disapproving of the city’s street maintenance than non-students. According to the city’s press release, the information collected through the surveys “helps See SERVICES, page 3
hire an owner’s representative to oversee this project.” James Broaddus, owner of Broaddus and Associates, described a part of his firm’s duties. “There will be a point when you reach the design development stage where there will be a guaranteed maximum price set for the project,” Broaddus said. “You’ll want to be sure that that guaranteed maximum price is a fair price and includes everything that you are looking for in the project, and we are quite skilled at doing that.” Council members questioned Broaddus about the nearly $500,000 price of his firm’s services. “This project isn’t a fixed amount for $482,000 or $400,000. We are charging our services on an hourly basis —that’s a not-to-exceed price,” Broaddus said. “So every hour we spend on this job will be accounted for at the rates that have been specified in the contract.” Council member John Diaz asked the consultant for specifics of the firm’s responsibility to the city in the case of problems with the project. “If you’re asking whether we are replacing the architect’s See CITY, page 3
SPRING CLEANING
MtvU wants to turn Spring Breakers into action-makers By Ashley Richards The University Star The typical college Spring Break has been painted in the minds of young people for more than a decade based on documentaries from MTV’s Cancun getaways. Venturing from that stereotype, mtvU, the network’s university-affiliated station, will be following students next week as they spend their break time in Austin at workshops during the third annual Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break, hosted by Texas Students Against the Death Penalty. “(MTV is) interested in the
Spring Break alternative,” said Hooman Hedayati, TSADP president. “They were interested to come to see what other students are doing rather than spending their time at the beaches. It’s going to be kind of like a reality show.” From March 13 through 17, high school and college students are welcome to participate in the anti-death penalty event for free, Hedayati said. However, to make organizing the event easier, he asked that participants pre-register online. “I think a lot of students are interested in doing things that make a difference in the world,”
Today’s Weather
Sunny 80˚/48˚
Precipitation: 20% Humidity: 22% UV: 7 High Wind: W 22 mph
said Scott Cobb, Texas Moratorium Network president. “They’d like to have that fun, like at the beach, but they’d like to use their time for something more meaningful. We’ve noticed there’s a demand for things.” If students require housing for the week, they can register to pay $25 for five nights in a residence hall on Guadalupe Street, across from the University of Texas campus. “It’s just five days where we have activities about the death penalty, workshops on media relations, resolutions, student government and how to organize direct action,” Hedayati
said. Hedayati said his organization started several months ago, so the Texas Moratorium Network, which put on the event the first two years, decided to transfer sponsorship of the alternative Spring Break to TSADP. “It’s definitely been a successful event,” Cobb said. “We started out having just Rice University students, just as an experiment, and we’ll probably have about 50 participants this year.” Cobb said Hedayati attended the event last year while he was a See BREAK, page 3
Two-day Forecast Friday Sunny Temp: 87°/ 58° Precipitation: 0%
Saturday Partly Cloudy Temp: 90°/ 59° Precipitation: 0%
Brynn Leggett/Star photo SPRING CLEANING: Accounting junior Robin O’Hara (right) and finance junior Cynthia Klein, members of the Chi Beta Delta sorority, help remove water hyacinth, an exotic species living in Spring Lake, at the Aquarena Center on Saturday.
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