NO LOVE IN LUBBOCK
KEEPING TEXAS TUNES ALIVE
Soccer handed first loss in four games after shutout at feet of Red Raiders
Songwriter Circle nurtures local talent and offers every performer an attentive audience
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DEFENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT SINCE 1911
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OCTOBER 11, 2006
WEDNESDAY
VOLUME 96, ISSUE 21
Student-run consulting corporation rallies voters By A.N. Hernández The University Star
ment among students. It was the idea that students really can make a difference,” said Three Texas State students McCabe, math sophomore. are using their love of politics “Although we do all aspects to spearhead a handful of local of consulting, our niche is campaigns. They are also trying creating a new ways to apto churn apathetic college stuproach students who might dents into voters. seem as though they are apaEntrepreneurs Sam Mcthetic voters.” McCabe Cabe, 23; Jordan Anderson, 24; They worked together as and Jude Prather, 24, created colleagues on previous camMcCabe, Anderson and Prather, or paigns, including Chris Jones’ highly M.A.P., a political consulting corpora- publicized City Council victory last year tion that represents a who’s-who of city and the three officially formed M.A.P. and county elections, including Mayor in June. Susan Narvaiz and Hays County Judge M.A.P. endorses a bipartisan group Jim Powers. of candidates — not based on each per“Last year, there was talk about move- son’s political alignment, but whether a
“ Breast
candidate’s ideology works best for students at Texas State. “We want to stay true to ourselves and where we came from,” Prather, public administration senior, said. “We live it and we breathe it. It’s a fulltime job and when someone like the mayor calls, you just have to answer.” Other clients include Democratic candidate for Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe and incumbent Place 6 City Councilman John Thomaides, to name a few. “How we balance campaigning for a Democratic candidate may often hurt a Republican candidate and vice versa, and we have to take that into account,” McCabe said. McCabe, a Democrat, said it was a
“hard choice” for him to endorse the Republican candidates such as Powers, but that he eventually “felt he was the right one for the job.” He acknowledged that Powers’ campaign was the “most controversial one right now” because of the fallout of Eric Heggie, former president of College Democrats who resigned amidst controversy last week. Heggie worked for the Powers campaign with M.A.P. and violated the College Democrats of America charter when he sent out an email to Texas State’s College Democrats telling them they could earn $10 an hour by block walking for a candidate, who later turned out to be Powers. “I think Heggie stood up for what he believed in and rather than changing
who he supported,” McCabe said, “he resigned and he stayed with a candidate he believed in.” With Election Day nearing, it is crunch time for M.A.P. Anderson, former student body president and Texas State graduate, said he has been working fulltime directing the corporation’s public relations. “We just want to keep those in office who are really willing to work on the community. It’s a delicate bridge that we have between the university and its students and city officials,” Anderson said. “We want to work together and keep the lines of communication open.”
”
See M.A.P., page 4
It was the idea that students really can make a difference.
Student body strengthened by five new scholarships
Cancer
Awareness Month
By Katie Reed Special to The Star
Mayor hopes to make free examinations available to uninsured women By Rudy Rico Special to The Star Mayor Susan Narvaiz has declared October “National Breast Cancer Awareness Month” in San Marcos. To promote the annual Pink Ribbon Campaign, 100 free mammograms will be offered to women without health insurance. “After becoming mayor in 2004, I learned of how a mayor can bring awareness to an issue,” Narvaiz said. “One such issue is the awareness of breast cancer and the need to help uninsured women find a way to be examined for early detection.” The city of San Marcos, in collaboration with the Central Texas Medical Center Community Action Agency, will offer the free mammogram exams. In 2005, approximately 211,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2006, an estimated 213,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed, in addition to 61,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. “Our hope is to bring awareness to this issue by using city media,” Narvaiz said. “In the case of breast cancer, it strikes a part of the body that is very visual and because society has focused on a women’s shape or
Bridgette Cyr/Star photo SHOWING SUPPORT: Zack Maldonado, undecided freshman, pins a pink Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon to his backpack that was given to him by the ZTA sorority during the first week of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
physique this can sometimes add the additional emotional burden for a woman.” Michael Wilkerson, Health Education Coordinator at Texas State’s Student Health Center, said the impact is minimal at the university where most students are in their 20s. “While young women could be diagnosed with
Show me the money Quantitative-based majors earn more straight out of school By Bradley Childers Special to The Star The numbers are in and the ones making the big bucks straight out of college are still the math and science majors. The summer 2006 salary survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that students graduating with math and science degrees are likely to have a higher starting pay than those graduating with liberal arts degrees. Laura Morsch, career adviser for CBcampus.com, a studentfocused extension of CareerBuilder.com, said the difference in the salaries could be $20,000 or more. “The reason that employers like math, science and quantitatively-focused majors is because it’s very easy to put them into
a particular job,” Morsch said. “If you’re an accounting major and have spent the last four years making spreadsheets and that kind of thing, it’s very easy for the employer to sit you down and say ‘I want you to make a spreadsheet of X, Y, Z.’ You’ll be able to do it with a minimal amount of training.” Zhe Zhu, accounting senior, said business majors take a lot of courses with a narrow focus. “In accounting, there’s such a specific focus,” Zhu said. “Liberal arts, on the other hand, tend to be a more broad and general study involving writing many papers and such.” Topping NACE’s list are chemical engineering students, reporting an average starting salary of $56,335 a year. Second are computer science majors at $51,305 a year. Accounting graduates are typically offered about
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$45,656 and economics and finance majors averaged $45,112. Qijun Gu, computer science assistant professor, suggests that the high pay rate for computer science majors is appropriate considering that computer science is still a relatively new industry. “It boomed around 1980, and the whole industry is less than 30 years old,” Gu said. “So, the demand is still more than the supply, but I doubt it will grow in the future because it looks to me like the IT industry is saturated with the current new students coming out.” Despite quantitatively-thinking students’ high starting-pay rates, Morsch said liberal arts majors will eventually catch up in terms of salary. “People who are so narrowly
See AWARENESS, page 4
Selected Data from NACE’s Summer 2006 Salary Survey NACE National Association of Colleges and Employers Salary Survey: Starting Salary Offers - National Averages Discipline
Current Average
Chemical Engineering Computer Engineering Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering Computer Science Information Sciences & Systems Civil Engineering Accounting Economics/Finance Business Administration/Management Marketing/Marketing Mgmt. History Sociology English Psychology
$56,335 $53,651 $53,552 $51,732 $51,305 $48,593 $46,023 $45,656 $45,112 $42,048 $37,851 $32,697 $30,944 $30,906 $30,218
All data are for the bachelor’s degree level. Source: Summer 2006 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers. Reprinted with the permission of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, copyright holder. All rights reserved.
See MONEY, page 3
Two-day Forecast Thursday Isolated T-Storms Temp: 78°/52° Precip: 30%
breast cancer, the risk increases after age 40,” Wilkerson said. To promote awareness and provide students with more information on the issue, the Student Health
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Texas State has added five new scholarship opportunities totaling $146,000 for future incoming freshmen who have shown academic excellence. The scholarships will be awarded to students who have earned certain academic honors and those who have achieved high test scores and high school rankings. Christie Kangas, director of undergraduate admissions, said along with the new scholarships comes the hope of strengthening the university and its student body. “First and foremost, these scholarships will give students the funds to pay for their educations,” Kangas said. “But furthermore, they will attract very strong students to the university. We’ve had nice scholarships in the past, but these will definitely extend the base.” Three of the newly offered scholarship programs are categorized as National Scholarships and the other two are classified as Assured Scholarships. The National Merit Scholarship, the National Achievement Scholarship and the National Hispanic Scholarship will be offered through the National Scholarships program. Each is a $40,000 scholarship to be used throughout four years at $10,000 per year. In order to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship, applicants must be National Merit finalists, and the National Achievement Scholarship will only be awarded to those who are National Achievement finalists. The National Hispanic Scholarship will be awarded to students who are National Hispanic Scholars. The President’s Honor Scholarship and the Texas State Achievement Scholarship are the two Assured Scholarships that Texas State now offers. They are reserved for students who have specific academic qualifications such as a high class rank and high SAT and ACT scores. The President’s Honor scholarship is a $16,000 four-year scholarship with $4,000 annual awards. Eligibility requirements are minimum scores of 1400 on the SAT or 31 on the ACT. Students must also be in the top 15 percent of their class or have earned an international baccalaureate diploma. The Texas State Achievement Scholarship is a $10,000 program that awards students over a four-year period with $2,500. In order to qualify for this scholarship, students must have a See SCHOLARSHIP, page 4
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