VOLUME 102, ISSUE 21
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WEDNESDAY GO NE ONLI NOW
OCTOBER 10, 2012
Foster Parents of the Year
Lionel and Cornelia Cheatham are the winners of the Foster Parents of the Year award. To learn more about the Cheathams, visit UniversityStar.com
Emergency procedures to be improved after UT bomb threat By Nicole Barrios News Reporter Texas State is enhancing and updating its emergency alert procedures in light of recent threats made to universities across the country. Joanne Smith, vice president for Student Affairs, said the university recently developed procedures for a campus-wide evacuation in light of a Sept. 14 bomb threat made to the University of Texas. She said the information about the procedures will be sent out within the next two weeks. Evacuation plans are already in place for individual buildings, but the bomb threat at UT sparked the effort to ensure Texas State would be able follow similar procedures. Smith said she could not speak about the specifics of the new emergency procedures, but the university is making sure all department heads are aware of what should happen if the school receives a bomb threat. “We’ll be ready in the event that we have to make that decision,” Smith said. A new emergency guidebook created by the University Police Department details procedures to follow in the event of different kinds of threats, including fires, lockdowns and national disasters, among others. Smith said “essential personnel” will receive the emergency guidebook, because only a limited number were printed as prototypes. The guidebooks may be distributed throughout campus after they reach the essential staff. Starting in January, an emergency procedures poster will be placed near all building entrances, said Sgt. Robert Campbell, emergency management coordinator. The poster will outline detailed responses to different emergencies. Campbell said the university already utilizes several emergency alert methods, such as the Rave Mobile Safety
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FOSTERING HOPE
Local parents recognized for helping children By Megan Carthel News Reporter When Cornelia Cheatham was given six months to live after being diagnosed with breast cancer 21 years ago, she decided to give the little time she had left to a good cause. “I was real young and I wanted to do something to give back,” Cornelia Cheatham said. “I made a promise to God that I was going to help children.” The Texas Council of Child Welfare Boards recently named Kyle residents Cornelia and her husband, Lionel Cheatham, Foster Parents of the Year. Shannon Ireland, executive director of the board, said the Cheathams deserve the honor because they have fostered 61 children over 15 years. “It’s a great honor,” Lionel Cheatham said. “There’s so many deserving foster parents out there in the state of Texas, and we’re just fortunate enough to have been selected.” Cornelia, now cancer free, said about 15 years ago she and Lionel began watching “Wednesday’s Child,” a television program about children in the foster care system finding permanent homes. The program prompted their decision to become foster parents. “Kids need love,” Lionel Cheatham said. “They need guidance. They don’t need screaming at. They don’t need punishing. That has happened to them all their life. That’s why they’re in foster care. They need to see that the way they were brought up might not be the only way to live.” Marques, 13, has been in the foster care system since he was five years old, and with the Cheathams on and off for about three years. Marques said he feels comfortable with his foster family. “This is one of my favorite houses because there’s a lot of stuff we get to do, like play sports and go places,” Marques said. Academics are important in the Cheatham household, along with any extracurricular activities the children want to do. Every Sunday the entire family at-
Adriana Candelaria, Staff Photographer
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Lionel and Cornelia Cheatham have shared their home with 61 foster children in the past 15 years and were awarded “Foster Parents of the Year” by the Texas Council of Child Welfare Boards last month.
University exploring options for new engineering building By Colin Ashby News Reporter
John Casares, Staff Photographer
There is a proposal to fund construction of a new engineering building due to the influx of students in recent years. Enrollment to the College of Science and Engineering is being limited due to space constraints.
A new building may be constructed in order to house the influx of students in the College of Science and Engineering. Harold Stern, director of Ingram School of Engineering, said University President Denise Trauth is requesting a debt service from the legislature to construct a new building. He said the new engineering and science building would better accommodate the growing number of students in the school. Stern said enrollment is increasing in the school because the demand for engineers in Central Texas is not being met. Stern said Trauth recently announced the school would cap enrollment at 675 students because of space limitations. As of the 12th class day this fall, there were 599 engineering students in the school. Robert Habingreither, professor in the College of Science and Engineering, said while 675 is a good estimate
of the number of students the program can hold, the term “cap” is being used too freely. “A cap is something that says we will not let enrollment grow beyond (a point),” Habingreither said. “We have no cap. We are limited by our space.” Stephen Seidman, dean of the College of Science and Engineering, said the construction of a new science and engineering building has been discussed for about eight months. The building would be constructed between Vista and West Woods Streets. The university-owned Campus Colony apartments currently occupy the space. The new building would consist of eight biology research labs and a structural engineering lab. Construction depends entirely on whether any revenue bonds are approved to finance the project, Seidman said. The new building is needed to house an upcoming master’s program in engineering. As
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Grant allows Hays County to improve prison cell monitoring By Taylor Tompkins Assistant News Editor Hays County commissioners accepted a grant from a U.S. Department of Justice program during their Oct. 9 meeting. The commissioners submitted an application May 8 for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant and unanimously approved the $11,128 award. The grant was originally intended for a fingerprinting device that would save time in the sheriff’s office, Grants Administrator Jeff Hauff said.
The grant money will now go toward an electronic prisoner tracking system to be used within the county jail. “We found the usage wouldn’t be as anticipated,” Hauff said. “It had less capability, actually, than we thought it did.” The county notified the Department of Justice of the finger scanner’s inadequacies, Hauff said. The department allowed the county to change the grant request to be used for the electronic prisoner tracking system instead. The system will help log required cell
checks, Hauff said. This system will save time and manpower within the Sheriff’s Office. The total cost of the system is $16,759. The amount not covered by the grant will be made up by the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office budget was appropriately amended to include additional support for the tracking system. The amendments included a server dedicated to the housing of the system in the Information Technology department, Hauff said. According to court documents, the cell
checks are required by the state and are currently hand written, which is time consuming. “The Sheriff’s Office needs to make rounds every hour to determine where those prisoners are,” Hauff said. “This is an electronic data recording device. It works through a series of censors.” The new system will replace a logbook, the documents said. Data will be downloaded, once a cell check is completed, into
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