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Volume 99, Issue 2
Rock On Global Golfers
Bar One41 is bringing back its life music roots, page 7
Two men’s golf team players compete in internationally known tournaments, page 10
H1N1 reports halt campus social events By Clay Thorp News Reporter Social events have been put on hold because of fear for the possibility of a H1N1 flu outbreak. The student organization fair scheduled for Monday and Tuesday and several greek life events have been postponed. Dr. Emilio Carranco, director of the Student Health Center, said social isolation is the most effective means of combating H1N1. Greek life has been put on a five-day isolation period, which will end Wednesday. Carranco said a sorority, which was not identified, saw a high number of H1N1 infections, which went down significantly after the sorority disbanded social events. “They had a lot of cases in the first week,” Carranco said. “As soon as the implemented that social distancing, it worked. The number of cases went down.” Carranco said social distancing, which calls staying home rather than being in a public setting, is the model in which students infected with the flu need to operate under. Members of the Texas State Emergency Planning Committee are preparing for what could be Jenny Polson/ Star Photo Illustration a dramatic increase in student FLU SEASON: Texas State officials are preparing for a potential H1N1 flu outbreak. Any students exhibiting flu-like symptoms should hospitalizations because of the report to the Student Health Center immediately. H1N1 flu. Commonly know as ‘swine flu,’ H1N1 has made its way back into headlines follow- paring to launch a campus-wide and plans to disperse them to ral immunity to this virus,” Car- immunity, there is going to be a ing a Center for Disease Control campaign to educate students state governments are under- ranco said. “Whenever you have lot of death.” and Prevention report, which and faculty about how to pre- way. Texas State is expected to a brand new strain, there is the Carranco said students showincluded an increase of the es- vent a possible pandemic on the receive a shipment in October. potential for that strain to be ing flu-like symptoms will be intimated number of nation-wide Texas State campus. Vaccines to “The thing that concerns a very deadly. So far H1N1 is not deaths caused by the swine flu. combat the new strain of flu are lot of the medical community proving to be that way, but if the see “ FLU,” page 4 University officials are pre- currently being manufactured is that we don’t have any natu- virus mutates ... with no natural
ASG leaders, senate promote Texas State adds new communication for upcoming doctoral program year, create new positions By Lora Collins News reporter
Bobby Scheidemann/Star photo SPEAKING OUT: ASG held their first meeting of the semester Monday night in the LBJ Teaching Theater. University President Denise Trauth and Emilio Caranco, Student Health Center director, addressed the newly sworn in ASG senators.
By Gabrielle Jarrett and Travis Hord The University Star ASG held their first meeting of the semester in the LBJ Teaching Theater — marking the only of its kind. “It feels great to have a full senate this year,” said Tommy Luna, ASG vice president. “I am really excited that for the first time in some time we have more senate applications than we have senate seats.” Senators sworn in during the meeting came better equipped because of Luna’s Senator Training Camp. “I designed the Senator
Training Camp to be an opportunity for all the new senators and the senate leadership to get together and get engaged in team-building and other constructive activities,” Luna said. “We taught them all they need to know about authoring legislation and the legislative process to really get involved and make their own mark on the ASG.” A new bill that would clarify and increase the role of the senate pro-tempore was introduced and a new position called the athletic liaison was created. “What we envision is creating a connection with the
athletic department and its administrators that will facilitate meaningful communication and cooperation,” Luna said. “We want to get a better feel for what’s going on in our athletics department here at Texas State, and we feel like this connection will strengthen and grow our student athletes.” The vote to create the office of the athletic liaisonwas passed unanimously by the senate. Luna and Covo announced see “ASG,” page 4
The criminal justice department will begin to see advancements in students, faculty and staff because of the addition of a doctoral program in the College of Applied Arts. The board of higher education approved the doctoral program in July. One month later students were enrolled. Mark Stafford, director of the new Ph.D program within the criminal justice department, came to Texas State in June of 2008 from the University of Texas. Stafford emphasized the need for a doctoral program in the middle regions of Texas because of the growing population in the field of criminal justice. “There is only one other criminal justice doctoral program and that is at Sam Houston State,” Stafford said. “While it may serve a need to the Houston area, San Antonio and Austin are not really served at all.” According to Stafford, there are roughly 35 doctoral programs in the country but not enough to serve the number of people working in the criminal justice system. “There are far more jobs than there are programs, and so there is a national need as well as a state need,” Stafford said. The program requires applicants to have a 3.5 GPA with a master’s degree in the criminal justice field or in a related field. “If they have a master’s degree in sociology, political science, economics or even a law
degree, that would suffice,” Stafford said. Applicants are expected to score a preferred minimum of 1,000 on the Graduate Record examination and submit a personal letter explaining why the doctoral program would be beneficial. Stafford said the program will help promote the criminal justice program and draw in better master’s students. Jennifer Carreon, graduate research assistant in the department of criminal justice, was recently admitted to the doctoral criminal justice program. She received her undergraduate degree in criminal justice in 2007 and her master’s degree in August. Carreon said the program has been in development since 2005 and will add to the further academic excellence within the criminal justice department. “It will help Texas State a lot because our main competitors are Sam Houston and through the grapevine, what I have been hearing, is their quality of students they are producing has gone somewhat downhill and our faculty is growing at an immense rate,” Carreon said. “We are hiring one or two professors every semester.” Carreon assists for geospatial analysis Kim Rossmo in the criminal justice department and is taking a full 12 hours of doctoral classes, and teaches a section of forensic evidence. Carreon said students in the new Texas State doctoral program will have advantage over students at other institutions. see “Ph.D.,” page 4
Today’s Weather
84°/70° Mostly Cloudy Precipitation: 20% Humidity: 48% UV: 9 Very High Wind: ESE 8 mph
Wednesday Mostly Sunny Temp: 98°/71° Precip: 10%
Thursday Partly Cloudy Temp: 98°/72° Precip: 10%
INSIDE THIS ISSUE News…..Pages 1-4 ASG committee takes charge of Bobcat tailgating tradition Trauth speaks on university advancements Opinions…..Page 5 Main Point: Hazing Academic freedom questioned Legislators need ‘compromise,’ to follow Kennedy’s example Trends….Pages 6-7 Bike Cave sponsors sale for cyclists this week Scooter store thrives in downed economy, doubles as retail shop Bar One41 opens doors to live music Diversions…Page 9 Classifieds…Page 9 Sports….Page 10 Soccer out of sync during California weekend games Two golfers compete in prestigious golf tournaments Volleyball incurs close losses at weekend tournament