SHORT STORIES
California artist and professor Squeak Carnwath’s exhibit debuts at the Mitte Art Complex SEE
TRENDS PAGE 5
STILL SERVING ACES Volleyball coach leads ’Cats for 29th season SEE
SPORTS PAGE 8
DEFENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT SINCE 1911
WWW.UNIVERSITYSTAR.COM
SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
WEDNESDAY
VOLUME 97, ISSUE 10
Universities restrict faculty’s right to freedom of speech
RING FOR A CAUSE
By Kristen Williams News Reporter
Monty Marion/Star photo
Beth Morrisset of the Salvation Army helps Maggie Kukowski, pre-fashion merchandising sophomore, and Brandon Walsh, undecided sophomore, volunteer to ring Salvation Army bells outside businesses during the upcoming Christmas season. For the full story see TRENDS page 5.
GRE’s newest incarnation will be more challenging By Philip Hadley News Reporter Prospective graduate students heading to testing centers in November will face a more challenging exam. The announcement from the Educational Testing Service follows a late April cancellation of a long-scheduled overhaul to the Graduate Record Examination. Tom Ewing, spokesman for the service, said the test will include two new styles of questions in the verbal and quantita-
tive sections, called text completion and numeric entry. “The verbal questions are already very similar to the previous version, but the math questions are very different,” Ewing said. “The verbal section will include a fill-in-theblank question. The math questions are no longer multiple choice and require the testtaker to manually enter their answers.” Katherine Lynn, GRE program manager for Kaplan, said the questions are currently undergoing field-testing and will not be scored, but that does not mean students
should not take the questions seriously. “Students should not take these questions lightly. ETS may give little or no notice when they begin to score these questions or roll out more of them,” Lynn said. She said starting this month students who take the GRE would either encounter one of the new question types or none at all. “The new question types will make the GRE statistically more challenging because they
Many states have endorsed laws that would place restrictions on faculty members’ speech in the classroom. To combat these limitations, the American Association of University Professors released “Freedom in the Classroom,” a report that advocates free speech for college and university faculty. For example, according to an AAUP news release, “someone teaching Aristotle’s views on moral virtue would be justified in asking students to consider President Bill Clinton’s conduct as a case study.” Cary Nelson, the association’s president, said private religious college professors are the most highly regulated in America. “There are plenty of universities throughout the world that put limits on freedom of expression,” Nelson said. “In the U.S., the universities that put the most restrictions on freedom of expression are religious institutions. Some restrict what the faculty say — whether faculty can differ with church dogma is the most common kind of restriction.” In Missouri, the House of Representatives passed a bill that states academic freedom must preserve “the viewpoint that the Bible is inerrant.” A bill was proposed in Arizona that would fine professors $500 for sharing their political views. In many colleges, professors are discouraged from exhibiting any political preference. “An example of an institution is Penn State University,” Nelson said. “They had a statement on the books that stated that if any
student reported that a faculty member made an irrelevant political comment, an investigation would ensue. There are over 20 states where legislation has been proposed to restrict freedom in the classroom.” Tom Miles, political science graduate teaching assistant, uses judgment in his classroom because he realizes historical comparisons are not completely accurate. “You have to be careful about making references,” Miles said. “You can’t draw an absolute between two distinct historical times. The best use of historical reference is to use history as a platform to show how ideas and political climates have developed over the years. It’s much more valid to show how things develop. History is a work in progress; things build on one another. If it’s used in that manner, it’s a very good learning tool. It would be a mistake to view it as absolute.” He said it is important as well for professors to present the facts and let the students make their own opinion. “History depends on how you view it,” Miles said. “You have to give both sides fairly (and) equally — especially in politics. You’ve got to learn not to show your stripes. It’s important for faculty to have a voice as well. There’s got to be a middle ground somewhere.” Currently, there is not an AAUP chapter on campus and Texas State does not have any officers in the Texas Conference, a grouping of Texas university AAUP chapters. Schools that have officers include Baylor University, University of Texas-Austin, and Texas A&M.
Cut cable severs services
Phone lines and cell phone services were cut off in Hays County Tuesday afternoon after a construction worker accidentally cut a fiber optic cable. According to a Hays County Sheriff’s Office news release, a construction company in Kyle was drilling holes near the HEB at the intersection of FM 1626 and I-35. Apparently a construction worker on a tractor was attacked by a swarm of bees. As the worker jumped off, he or she accidentally hit a lever that triggered an auger to drill into a fiber optic line. Phone lines across the county went down and 911 services to San Marcos and other areas were cut off. Tina Schultz, director of Telephone service was restored in Hays County around 8 p.m. the Office of Disability Services, spoke on the matter as — Complied from various sources well, saying “Derrick Hall is the most difficult building on campus for our disabled students.” “They identified many areas of concern,” Schul“Derrick Hall was built before the Americans tz said. “We target higher-priority projects first.” with Disabilities Act, so we have been doing a Schultz said there has been talk of getting rid number of things to it,” Schultz said. “We have of Derrick Hall altogether. installed automatic doors, updated restroom “There have been discussions about demolfacilities and adjusted counters to comply with ishing Derrick Hall,” Schultz said. “Would the height requirements.” modifications be worth it?” She said the funding for some of the probJoanne Smith, vice president for student aflems, specifically the travel of the building, is fairs, recently attended a Faculty Senate meeting simply not available. to outline how the university complies with ADA. “That sort of problem is one that would take “We take seriously the law and feel that we a massive amount of money to correct,” Schultz make every effort to comply with it,” Smith said. said. “We assure that our buildings are reasonably “We work around the best we can in these accessible to those who need accommodasituations,” Schultz said. “If students come in tions.” with issues, we try and address them on an imSmith said the university receives an almediate basis.” location of $75,000 each year in Higher She said the university had an outside consult- Education Assistance Funds to address ADA ing firm come in to look at the Architectural AcSee ADA, page 3 cessibility compliance of the campus in 1992.
See GRE, page 3
ADA compliance remains hot-button Senate issue By Matthew Champion News Reporter
Monty Marion/Star photo
NO WAY DOWN: The elevator in Derrick Hall provides no access to classrooms for those with disabilities because it only leads to offices on the 2nd and 3rd floors. To reach the classroom level, the disabled must go outside and around the building.
The Faculty Senate has recently shown concerns Texas State is not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act in certain areas of campus, most notably Derrick Hall. “I’m not exactly sure how we got to be champions of the university’s failure to comply with ADA,” said Faculty Sen. Donald Hazlewood, mathematics professor. Hazlewood said the only issue he had been concerned with was Derrick Hall and the planning required for a person in a wheelchair to travel in the building. “Try to go from any floor of the office wing of Derrick to the classroom wing in a wheelchair,” Hazlewood said. “The only floor you can reach without going outside is the first floor of the classroom wing.” Hazlewood said he is unsure if this breaks any rules of ADA. “I’m not sure that this meets the definition of non-compliance,” Hazlewood said. “It’s just a little inconvenient.”
Hispanic leaders will showcase criminal justice careers By Jeff Turner News Reporter Texas State students will have the opportunity to attend a panel discussion Thursday and listen to a variety of viewpoints involving Hispanic issues in the criminal justice field. “Hispanic Leaders in Criminal Justice” is presented by the department of criminal justice and will include panelists Jeffrey M. Cancino, assistant professor of criminal justice, Geraldine Garcia, deputy chief of the San Antonio
Police Department, Rudy Gonzales, assistant chief of the SADP and Robert Hernandez, Lt. patrol supervisor of the Austin Police Department. The panelists will discuss research opportunities in criminal justice, how Hispanics who work in criminal justice are viewed, experiences of adversity that panelists have encountered and what criminal justice students can expect as they enter the field. A USA Today study published last month said the most popular degree students in the U.S. are currently pursuing
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is criminal justice, specifically forensics. Amy Villarreal, graduate assistant, said this has a lot to do with what young people are seeing in the media. “All the shows like ‘CSI,’ ‘NCIS’ and ‘Bones’ interest people to look into what the programs offer and what they can get themselves into,” Villarreal said. “A lot of it has to do with media.” The panel is the second in a three part series designed to showcase diversity in the field of criminal justice, said Gini Deibert, assistant criminal justice professor. Last March, Deibert orga-
nized the first panel discussion that dealt with women in the criminal justice field. Another panel is planned for February and will showcase black leaders working in criminal justice. Deibert will be moderating the discussions as well. Deibert said the theme for this panel is designed to coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month. In addition, it aims to fulfill the university’s requirement to be considered a Hispanic Serving Institution, and it is a way for criminal justice students to make contacts with people
working in the field. The department of criminal justice has approximately 800 undergraduate students enrolled in the program and offers graduate and doctoral degrees. The department further offers resources such as hostage negotiation, justice court training and a health and criminal justice work group. The discussion will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Hines Academic Center in Room 205. Students will be invited to ask questions of the panelists after their initial discussion.
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