10 26 2006 by The University Star

HOT TAMALE!

NOT SO WIMPY

First-time tamaleras seek the help of spirits in a bilingual comedy on campus Saturday

Freshman libero rocks out as last line of defense for volleyball team

SEE TRENDS PAGE 7

SEE SPORTS PAGE 16

DEFENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT SINCE 1911

WWW.UNIVERSITYSTAR.COM

OCTOBER 26, 2006

THURSDAY

VOLUME 96, ISSUE 27

Questions arise over candidates addressing ASG By Nick Georgiou The University Star Candidates running against clients of the political consulting ﬁrm McCabe, Anderson and Prather (M.A.P.) are concerned that the Associated Student Government may be getting a one-sided viewpoint of some races. Seven of the 10 candidates who have addressed the ASG

Senate this semester are afﬁliated with M.A.P. County Judge Jim Powers, 428th District Judge Bill Henry, Mayor Susan Narvaiz, district attorney candidate Sherry Tibbe, city councilman John Thomaides and city council candidate Betsy Robertson are all M.A.P. clients who have appeared before the Senate. M.A.P. also represented unopposed City Council Place 6 candidate Betsy Robertson pro

Primetime anchor Quinones brings uplifting message to Mass Communication Week

bono. Only two candidates running against M.A.P. clients have spoken to the Senate. Those two candidates are Anna Martinez Boling, Henry’s Democratic opponent, and Liz Sumter, Powers’ Democratic opponent. Robertson was not on the agenda but spoke during the public forum. As mayor, Narvaiz, who is also running unopposed, regularly addresses ASG. “If your goal as an organi-

zation is to simply provide an unbiased view, then you would want to present both sides of the issue,” said Wesley Mau, Republican district attorney candidate. Mau’s opponent, Tibbe, spoke to ASG Oct. 9. ASG President Kyle Morris said the organization is under no obligation to actively seek out opposing candidates. He said it is entirely up to the can-

didate to contact ASG. “If anybody hasn’t come to speak at ASG, it’s because it wasn’t important enough for them to speak (to students),” Morris said. Jordan Anderson, Texas State alumnus, former ASG president and M.A.P. cofounder, said he always sought out both candidates that were running for city election when he was president. Anderson said each ASG ad-

ministration is free to set its own policy. “It depends on the administration and what they are targeting speciﬁcally as ASG,” he said. “What one administration does to the next isn’t set out in stone. It’s probably going to change from year to year.” ASG Vice President Amanda Oskey is in charge of the Senate’s See M.A.P., page 4

Macabre Mansion

By Marquita Griffin Special to The Star

sophomore in high school. “Me and my buddy tore up Southwest Texas,” Quinones John Quinones, co-anchor of said. ABC Primetime, received more He attended his first semesthan 50 rejection letters before ter of college at then-Southwest his career ever began. Texas State and from there he “I got over 50 letters of rejec- attended and graduated from tion, but I did not and would St. Mary’s University in San not take ‘no’ for an answer,” Antonio. Quinones said. He advised future reporters Quinones was a guest speaker to intern at small places beduring Mass Communication cause, “You can stumble and Week and his lecture, “A Net- make mistakes and it is OK.” work Correspondent’s 20/20 Quinones said he perfected Vision,” attracted an audience his skill while at the small inof students and faculty that ternships where he contributed filled the third-floor lecture seven-second commercial tags room in Old Main. like, “now available at WalMass communication stu- greens.” He also broadcasted dents are attending lectures of the news from the 11 p.m. to 2 guest speakers to receive extra a.m. shift for KKYX. credit for classes, but some stuHe told media students to dents said they would have at- never be afraid to do anything tended the lecture even if extra and to be gutsy. credit was not offered. He said working for Prime“I get extra credit, but I time was a dream come true wanted to hear him anyway,” because there are stories evsaid Dustin Braud, advertising erywhere and that need to be senior. told. Jenna Quinn, broadcast se“I will go to places that peonior, said she ple don’t want went to see to go to,” QuiQuinones nones said. because she He went to wanted to hear Sierra Leone, what he had to Africa, where a say. civil war is oc“He is who curring, and I wanted to covered a story see the most,” on the “blood Quinn said. diamonds,” in Quinones which money described his from diamonds roots as a boy were used to fi- John Quinones who had to nance the war. ABC Primetime co-anchor shine shoes He said stoand pick tories such as matoes to the one on help support the blood diahis poor family. But he said monds are why students are he knew he was meant to be a needed in the media field. reporter because when he was Quinones said if students young, he “would run around have a passion for something the neighborhood to spread they truly believe in, they the news.” should not give up and should He said Geraldo Rivera gave pursue that passion wholehim the inspiration to be a re- heartedly. porter. He credits the Upward Quinones has won eight Bound program at Texas State Emmy awards, “Which is no for giving him the push in the small feat,” said Kym Fox, mass right direction. Upward Bound communication lecturer. is a program that prepares high Quinn said she felt privileged school students for college and to hear Quinones’ lecture. helps them realize their poten“He spoke from his backtials. ground — where he’s from, and Quinones said he came to not where he is at,” Quinn said. Texas State for the first time as “He had great information and part of the program and stayed he gave hope to the students in Butler Hall when he was a going into their fields.”

“I

got over 50 letters of rejection, but I did not and would not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Monty Marion/Star photo A ghoul sitting at a piano made of bones greets visitors to the Mansion of Terror before they move on to brave rooms of medical experiments, chainsaw wielding maniacs and mad scientists. See Trends Page 7

Excessive cadmium levels found in some paints By Brooke Keller The University Star

Cotton Miller/Star photo SEEING RED: Because of alleged high levels of cadmium in the water, some art students are having to dispose of dirty water and leftover paint into buckets instead of pouring down the sink.

The University Risk Management and Safety Department asked the Art Department at the beginning of October to collect all paint containing cadmium after tests conducted revealed higher-than-normal levels of the potentially toxic substance. “We have a wastewater discharge permit with the city of San Marcos that only allows us to have certain levels of cadmium. We were asked to collect samples of the water that is rinsed off of the students’ paintbrushes,” said Lisa Arceneaux, Risk Management and Safety Environmental Health and Safety specialist. “We collected the rinse water and when the test results came back it showed that the levels of cadmium in the water were much higher that what our waster water permit allows.” The university’s waste water permit allows a cadmium dis-

charge of .36 milligrams per liter, but the initial sample collected around the end of September revealed a cadmium discharge of 27 milligrams per liter, Arceneaux said. Cadmium is found in Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow paints that are suggested for students to buy as part of their course materials. Cadmium is a natural element that is used in other products, such as batteries and cigarettes. High intake as well as prolonged exposure to the substance is shown to damage the lungs, irritate the stomach and even lead to kidney disease. “I know a lot of artists who have suffered liver and brain damage just from being in the studio for so long,” said Roxana Tuff, art lecturer. Tuff said a lot of paints previously contained metals and lead See CADMIUM, page 6

State, local politicians gather for League of Women Voters Debate By Zach Halﬁn The University Star Candidates for state and local ofﬁces squared off Monday night at the San Marcos Area League of Women Voters Candidates Debate. Approximately 100 people attended the debate held at the

San Marcos Activity Center to hear candidates from 11 Hays County contested races on the upcoming Nov. 7 ballot. Elizabeth Sumter, Democratic candidate for Hays County judge, used her time to attack Republican incumbent Jim Powers’ political and business history.

Today’s Weather

Isolated T-Storms 86˚/56˚

Precipitation: 30% Humidity: 52% UV: 5 Moderate Wind: SW 11 mph

“If you knew the current leader of the county had ﬁve businesses that failed because of non-payment of taxes, and two of them the comptroller ﬁled tax liens on in Hays County for non payment of state, county and city taxes, would you trust him to manage a $75 million contract?” Sumter asked. “If you

Two-day Forecast Friday Sunny / Windy Temp: 75°/ 50° Precip: 10%

Saturday Sunny Temp: 77°/ 46° Precip: 10%

knew that the current county judge got almost 80 percent of his campaign money from outside Hays County, including 10 states outside of the state of Texas, and that he took contributions from developers and folks who are interested in tax abatements, and then put them on the agenda two to four months

later and voted on those agenda items, would you trust him to manage your roads?” Sumter said Powers attempted to buy Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation while sitting as county judge. Powers said those accusations were untrue and that the debate was not the forum for such is-

sues. “There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed, and that’s what we need to be talking about, not discussing how much chicken I sell to Popeye’s,” Powers said. Candidates for State Repre-

Inside News ..............1-6 Trends ...........7-12 Crossword ....... 12 Sudoku ............ 12

Texas State University-San Marcos is a member of the Texas State University System

Comics ............ 12 Opinions .......... 13 Classiﬁeds ....... 14 Sports ......... 15,16

See DEBATE, page 6

PAGE TWO The University Star

Vote today Today is the last day for early voting in the LBJ Student Center. Students must bring a voter registration card or photo ID.

Thursday in Brief

October 26, 2006

News Contact — David Saleh Rauf, starnews@txstate.edu Texas State University-San Marcos is a member of the Texas State University System

Be aware THURSDAY The Organization of Student Social Workers meets at 12:30 p.m. in the Health Professions Building, Room 234. Simple Silent Sitting Group will meet from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Campus Christian Community Center. An on-campus Alcoholics Anonymous meeting will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. For more information call the Alcohol and Drug Resource Center at (512) 245-3601. The Tennis Club will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. at the tennis courts on Sessom Drive, behind Joe’s Crab Shack. All skill levels are welcome. Contact the Tennis Club President, Chris Harris, with any questions at ch1282@txstate.edu. Every Nation Campus Ministries is now meeting at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall, Room G-02. There will be free food, fellowship and message. The Rock - Praise & Worship will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of the Catholic Student Center. Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship will hold its weekly meeting on 8:30 p.m. in Old Main, Room 320. There will be contemporary worship, relevant teaching and prayer. Everyone is welcome. Call (512) 557-7988 or e-mail mail@texasstatechialpha.com for more information Students interested in becoming involved with the community, making business connections and learning leadership skills can attend the Students in Free Enterprise at 4:15 p.m. in McCoy Hall, Room 113. Overeaters Anonymous will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church, at 130 W. Holland. For more information, call 357-2049.

FRIDAY Texas State women’s volleyball will play Nicholls State at 7 p.m. at Strahan Coliseum.

SATURDAY Texas State women’s volleyball will play Southeastern Louisiana at 4:00 p.m. at Strahan Coliseum

SUNDAY Higher Ground, the LutheranEpiscopal Campus Ministry will meet at 6:15 p.m. for a free dinner, followed by Holy Communion at 7 p.m. Services are held at St. Mark’s Church across from The Tower. Everyone is welcome.

MONDAY A free presentation called “Our Franciscan Family” will take place at 7 p.m. at the CSC.

An on-campus Alcoholics Anonymous meeting will be held from noon to 1 p.m. For more information call the Alcohol and Drug Resource Center, at (512) 245-3601. Sexual Abuse Survivors Group will meet from 5 to 6:15 p.m. Texas State students can call the Counseling Center at (512) 245-2208 to schedule a meeting for this group. Alpha Lambda Omega Christian Sorority will be holding its weekly Bible study at 8 p.m. in LBJSC Room, 3-13.1. Everyone is welcome to attend. Rise ‘N Shine Toastmasters Club meets from 7 to 8 a.m. at Cabela’s in Buda. Please use the Employee’s Entrance on the South side of the building. Visitors and guests are welcome. Practice your speaking, listening and thinking skills; boost self-conﬁdence and develop leadership skills. For additional information call Clark Lyman at (512) 295-7777, e-mail clyman2059@aol.com or visit www.risenshine.freetoasthost. info. Latino Student Association will be having their weekly meeting at 6 p.m. in the LBJSC USAC Ofﬁce, Room 4.9-1. All cultures are welcome to join. For more information log on to www.studentorgs.txstate.edu\LSA\.

TUESDAY A Vigil Mass for the Feast of All Saints will be offered at 5:15 p.m. in the CSC chapel. The CSC will have a free lunch for all students from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CSC lobby. Overeaters Anonymous will meet at 12:30 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church at 130 W. Holland. For more information, call (512) 357-2049. The Hispanic/Latino(a) Support Group will meet at 3:30 p.m. at the LBJ Student Center, Room 3-6. An on-campus Alcoholics Anonymous meeting will be from 5 to 6 p.m. For more information call the Alcohol and Drug Resource Center at (512) 245-3601. The Tennis Club will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. at the tennis courts on Sessom Drive, behind Joe’s Crab Shack. All skill levels are welcome. Contact the Tennis Club President, Chris Harris with any questions at ch1282@txstate.edu. The Rock - Praise & Worship will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of the CSC.

Go to www.UniversityStar.com and click on contact to view calendar and Stars of Texas State submission policies.

On this day... 1774 — The First Continental Congress of the adjourned in Philadelphia. 1955 — New York City’s The Village Voice was ﬁrst published. Jennifer Williams/Star photo Allen Delgado, biology senior (left); Hayat Qurun, geography junior (center); and Nic Maloukis, geography senior (right), all members of the National Association of Environmental Professionals, speak with Aja Davidson, geography senior, about NAEP’s aim to spread environmental awareness.

CRIME BL TTER University Police Department Oct. 23, 2:17 a.m. Theft Under $500/ Alkek Garage An officer was dispatched for a report from a non-student that the gate arm was missing from the parking garage. This case remains under investigation. Oct. 23, 5:46 a.m. Elevator Rescue/Blanco Hall An officer was dispatched for a report of an elevator rescue. A student was rescued from the elevator and did not require medical attention. Oct. 23, 12:21 p.m. Theft Under $50/ Bobcat Village An officer was dispatched for a report from a student that items had been taken from her patio. This case remains under investigation. Oct. 23, 12:56 p.m. Criminal Mischief Under $500/Blanco Parking Garage An officer was dispatched for a report from a student that

her rear windshield had been shattered. This case is under investigation. Oct. 23, 2:49 p.m. Harassment — Telephone/ UPD Lobby An officer was dispatched on a report from a student that stated she had been receiving harassing phone calls. A report was made of this case. Oct. 23, 5:11 p.m. Medical Emergency/ Sessom Lot An officer was dispatched for a report of a medical emergency. A student was transported to Central Texas Medical Center for further evaluation after a car accident. Oct. 23, 6:52 p.m. Displaying Handicap Placard of Another Person/ Alkek Garage An officer came into contact with a vehicle that displayed a placard belonging to another vehicle’s owner. The student was issued a citation.

Crime stoppers: UPD: 245-7867, SMPD: 353-TIPS

1972 — U.S. National security adviser Henry Kissinger declared, “Peace is at hand” in Vietnam.

Library Beat News feeds provide research, notification alerts RSS feeds have been around for years and are useful for keeping up with news and Web logs. RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” Many news sources, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, offer RSS feeds on their Web sites. Once you “subscribe” to the RSS feed, headlines and summaries from news sites are directed to you. More recently, library databases and publishers have started providing research alerts and table of contents services as RSS feeds. Researchers may set up search alerts, or searches that run automatically as databases are updated. The TOC is another common alert that will send you the table of contents of the newly published issue for the journals in your profile. You may also set up citation alerts to receive notification when your chosen articles are cited by newer articles. These are very useful for tracking the direction the research is taking in a given area. Registration is free and required for all types of alerts. To receive RSS feeds, you need a reader. Many readers are

available (www.2rss.com/readers.php), including both desktop readers and Web-based readers, like Bloglines or My Yahoo! If you use the Firefox or Safari browser, the RSS reading capability is built into the browser. Simply click on the orange RSS button and copy the feed’s URL from the displayed page, then paste it into the reader. Some databases and publishers promote document delivery services in their alerts that provide articles for a fee. However, such articles may be available free through the library’s subscription to the journal. If you do not have full-text access via the alert or feed, it is a good idea to check full-text availability in the library’s periodical list (atoz.ebsco.com/Search. asp?id=tsusm). If the article is not available at Texas State, you may obtain a copy of the article quickly and at no cost through an interlibrary loan. If you would like to know more or would like to ﬁnd out whether your favorite journal has RSS feeds or TOC alerts, please contact Paivi Rentz at pr11@txstate.edu or call (512) 245-8613. — Courtesy of Alkek Library

Public service advertisement aims to reduce skin cancer risks Each year, 2.3 million American teenagers tan in tanning salons, despite research demonstrating the risks of indoor tanning, including premature aging, like age spots and wrinkles and, even worse, skin cancer. “Some teens aren’t aware of the risks associated with indoor tanning. Instead, they believe it is safer than tanning outdoors. Others know the risks but are still engaging in this risky behavior,” said dermatologist Dr. Arielle N.B. Kauvar, associate clinical professor of dermatology at New York University

School of Medicine. To help educate teenagers, the American Academy of Dermatology is taking an inventive approach to communicate these health risks by launching a new skin cancer public service advertisement campaign in which teens speak to teens in their own language. “The objective of this campaign is to target teenage girls before they start tanning and educate them in a peer-to-peer manner that will encourage them to avoid this unnecessary health risk,” Kauvar said.

This innovative campaign speaks to teens in a language they can understand: instant messaging. Many teens exchange IMs more frequently than e-mails. It has a language all its own, and the AAD has developed this campaign speciﬁcally for teens who use it. “The Academy is committed to leading the charge to reduce mortality from and the incidence of skin cancer in the next 10 to 30 years,” Kauvar said. “Through this campaign, we are targeting a critical age group to

help motivate them to avoid this dangerous activity entirely and help reduce skin cancer statistics.” The campaign consists of television, radio, print and Internet advertisements that highlight the risk of skin cancer and skin damage that indoor tanning can cause. For more information about the campaign or to view the ads, visit www.aad.org/skincancerpsas. — Courtesy of American Academy of Dermatology

NEWS

Page 5 - The University Star

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Migrant Education center lands grant By Paul Rangel The University Star

Deleigh Hermes/Star photo POLITICAL BLOGGING: Karl-Thomas Musselman, Eileen Smith and Charlie Ray came to Texas State Wednesday and spoke at Old Main about blogs covering Texas politics for Mass Communication Week.

Bloggers quickly becoming new face of political reporting By Emily Newby Special to The Star The creators of three Austinbased Web logs discussed the relationship between blogs and political coverage in the media Wednesday at a Mass Communication Week event. The event, “Blogging & Citizen Journalism: Covering Texas Politics,” featured Eileen Smith, Charlie Ray and Karl-Thomas Musselman as panelists. “We’re publishing things on the Internet that you don’t see in the newspaper,” Ray said. Ray, a healthcare executive in Austin, created the blog PinkDome to share his thoughts about Texas politics. “It was sort of a joke to poke fun at politicians,” he said. He said blogs are a great place to showcase views that might otherwise be ignored. “We each started our blogs to write what our opinions are,” he said. He said the blogs created by the three panelists satisfy a demand not being met in mainstream media, especially because they do not have editors to oppose different ideas. “We’re voters with a voice,” he said. “That’s what citizen journalism is.” Smith agreed, saying blogs are an outlet for progressives in “a red state.”

“What I like best is that it’s such a good platform for discourse,” Smith said. Smith, who has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, started her blog, In the Pink Texas, in 2005. It has since been nominated for various awards and has received state and national acclaim. “Blogs are 24/7 news coverage,” she said. “It’s so much more accessible to everyone.” Smith’s background in journalism has given her respect for the mainstream media, but she said the fast-paced nature of the Web puts blogs at an advantage. “A blog can put up information right when it breaks,” she said. “Nobody has an attention span for news now.” Although blogs offer a quicker source for current events, Smith thinks they go hand-inhand with other news outlets. “There wouldn’t be a blogosphere without the mainstream media,” she said. “We’re injecting opinion into stories, and I think that’s why people read them.” Musselman, 21-year-old senior at the University of Texas, started Burnt Orange Report as a forum for Democratic activists. “We focus a lot on media stories,” he said. “It’s a great combination of activism plus

reporting.” He said blogs help Democrats ﬁnd a community. “It’s a shift that’s counter to the Right’s dominance of talk radio,” he said. “The progressive left has actually taken the Internet.” Although blogs are primarily opinion, he said that his site also has writers that create stories similar to traditional news outlets. He said having a staff allows for an editing process and a news schedule. “On larger, more sensitive stories, we confer before they are written,” he said. Musselman said blogs offer an advantage because they allow for a quicker response. “Every post is like a letter to the editor,” he said. “It can happen in the matter of hours.” Morgan Lawrey, mass communication and English senior, attended the event because she thinks blogs are a new and different medium. “They’re going to reﬂect a lot of what will happen in the future with media,” Lawrey said. She said blogs are important sources of information for college students. “We rely on the Internet more for our news because it’s more entertainment,” she said. “It’s going to change expectations for what’s in newspapers, especially for young people.”

A $2.2 million federal grant was awarded to the Texas State University Center for Migrant Education. The grant received from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Assistance Migrant Program is aimed at assisting students from migrant families pay for their first year of college. The center was notified in early October that it would be receiving federal funds, which would have a five-year lifespan. At the end of the fifth year, the program will be eligible to reapply for funding. Jaime Chahin, dean of the College of Applied Arts, said the program submitted the proposal in mid-April and was competing with universities across the country. “We wrote a proposal stating a clear need for assistance,” Chahin said. “Texas has the highest migrant population in the country, of which most are lower-income families.” Andrea Vasquez, assistant director of the Center for Migrant

Education, said the plan is to enroll 50 students per year. The funds do not take the place of ﬁnancial aid. Instead, they will provide additional help to cover room and board, academic tutors, monthly stipends and an emergency fund for unexpected mishaps, she said. “The program has been helping train teachers and counselors from surrounding school districts,” Vasquez said. “Now we can work directly to help students.” Currently, the program will begin recruitment at the high school level, in various regions around the state of Texas. The center will be taking steps to designate a coordinator and recruiter for the program. The recruiter will be visiting high schools in the surrounding area, attempting to recruit students to apply at Texas State. These students will be subject to the same application process as any other Texas State applicant, Chahin said. “Recently I was given the opportunity to speak with a group of migrant students from the San Antonio area,” Chahin said.

“I told them that they could flip hamburgers for $5 an hour or work the fields with a hoe in hand or come to college and break the migrant lifestyle.” A migrant is classified as persons traveling from one region to another in search of temporary employment. Although students are subject to the regular application process, if accepted, they will receive help through the CAMP program, which is part of the College of Applied Arts. After their initial year in college, students will be monitored throughout their remaining years. One of the goals is to have 80 percent of the participants return for the second year of college, Vasquez said. The students remaining in college will also have access to various resources. Support services will be offered along with library access located at the migrant center. “We will provide transportation for the parents of the migrant students to attend parent and student orientation as well as an end-of-the-year dinner for participants,” Vasquez said.

NEWS

Page 4 - The University Star

M.A.P.: ASG not obligated to contact all candidates CONTINUED from page 1

agenda. “For the most part, M.A.P and associates called me and they were like, ‘Hey, can so-and-so come speak (at your meeting),’” Oskey said. Sumter decided to contact ASG after reading in The University Star that her opponent, Powers, had an opportunity to speak to the organization. Sumter said it would have been fair had she been able to debate with Powers so that both sides would have been presented in the article. Lisa Hanks, campaign manager for Ryan Thomason, Thomaides’ opponent in the Place 6 City Council race, said she had a miscommunication with Oskey that led to Thomason not being able to speak to ASG. Thomason said he later received a brief email from Morris in which Morris said he was going to endorse Thomaides. Morris said he was just doing a gentlemanly thing by informing Thomason of whom he would be endorsing. Although some opposing M.A.P. candidates said it is unfair they were not directly contacted, they also said ASG has a right to follow any policy it wants. Ted Hindson, political science associate professor and a former ASG faculty adviser for 10 years, said he thinks the organization should actively seek the opponents of those they put on the agenda. Hindson said when he was with ASG, the organization would actively seek debates and opposing candidates. “Let’s say a Democrat came, then they would try and get a Republican,” Hindson said. “They didn’t have to come, but at least they should make the effort and vice versa.” Oskey, Anderson and Morris each said every candidate should be aware of ASG and how to speak at its meetings. They are not restricting anyone from speaking, Morris said. “We don’t really inform them that they can come speak, but I mean if they want to, they are welcome to,” Oskey said. “I have not reached out to any candidates except for (State Representative Patrick) Rose.” Sam McCabe said M.A.P. does not work for the Rose campaign. However, McCabe, Anderson, Jude Prather, public administration senior and M.A.P. contractor Eric Heggie all individually support Rose’s re-election bid. All are administrators of the “Students for Patrick Rose” Facebook group. Sumter and Boling said they had to contact ASG to get put on the agenda. Meanwhile, Morris said he contacted Texas Senate District 25 Democratic candidate Jeff Wentworth and unopposed City Council Place 5

candidate Pam Couch. Couch spoke to ASG Monday. Republican Jim Neuhaus, Rose’s opponent for District 45 state representative, said he was contacted by ASG the week after Rose spoke to the organization. He was asked to speak on the same day as the League of Women Voters’ Candidates Debate and had to decline. McCabe is a former ASG senator and serves on Morris’ cabinet as Czar of Student Voter Registration. Heggie, international studies senior, is currently an ASG senator. McCabe said in an Oct. 11 article in The Star that candidates hire M.A.P. to get out the student vote. Oskey said there are advantages candidates have when they hire members of ASG to work for their campaign. “Of course if (McCabe) knows the availability of some people to come speak at our meetings, he’s going to have them come do it,” she said. “Whereas someone else may hire Joe Schmo’s consulting firm. They don’t know about ASG and so they’re not going to be more likely to utilize ASG. You can’t really blame him for it. It’s perfectly fine what he’s doing.” Vincent Morton, associate dean of students and co-ASG staff adviser, said the ties between M.A.P. and ASG “seems a little fishy,” but it is difficult to determine an individual’s true intentions. It is up to each student to draw his or her own conclusions, he said. “Sometimes there are things you look at (and say), ‘that’s not against the law, but that sure doesn’t look good,’” Morton said. “You have to make the decision whether it’s ethical or not.” Morton said he understands Morris’ line of thinking. “If the other person never initiates the conversation, then to me, that may be an opportunity lost, but I’m going to reward the person who wants to spend some time with me and educate me,” he said. Morton said ASG has no obligation to contact candidates. Morton said if ASG was to actively contact candidates, he hopes it would initiate contact with both sides to present a balanced viewpoint. Morton said with 8,000 registered student voters in Hays County, he advises candidates to take notice of Texas State students. “From the time (Councilman) Chris Jones got involved in the local political process, I think the activities surrounding not just ASG but Texas State students have exploded,” he said. “You think there’s just a heightened awareness. The students have banded together and become a political force.”

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Cheney endorses drowning-simulation as interrogation tactic By Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called “waterboarding,” which creates a sensation of drowning. Cheney indicated that the Bush administration does not regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. “It’s a no-brainer for me,” Cheney said at one point in an interview. Cheney’s comments, in a White House interview Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration’s view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism. The U.S. Army, senior Republican lawmakers, human rights experts and many experts on the laws of war, however, consider water-boarding cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that is banned by U.S. law and by international treaties that prohibit torture. Some intelligence professionals argue that it often provides false or misleading information because many subjects will tell their interrogators what they think they want to hear to make the water-boarding stop. Republican Sens. John Warner, R-Va.; John McCain, RArk.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have said that a law Bush signed last month prohib-

“W

aterboarding, in my opinion, would cause extreme physical and psychological pain and suffering, and it very much could run afoul of the War Crimes Act.” —Lindsey Graham military lawyer

its water-boarding. The three are the sponsors of the Military Commissions Act, which authorized the administration to continue its interrogations of enemy combatants. Graham, a military lawyer who serves in the Air Force Reserve, reafﬁrmed that view in an interview last week with McClatchy Newspapers. “Water-boarding, in my opinion, would cause extreme physical and psychological pain and suffering, and it very much could run afoul of the War Crimes Act,” he said, referring to a 1996 law. “It could very much open people up to prosecution under the War Crimes Act, as well as be a violation of the Detainees Treatment Act.” A revised U.S. Army Field Manual published last month bans water-boarding as “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” “There is a disconnect be-

tween the president and the vice president, and on the other side leading proponents from their own party and leading experts on the laws of war,” said Neal Sonnett, the chairman of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Treatment of Enemy Combatants. Lee Ann McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, denied that Cheney had conﬁrmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding or endorsed the technique. “What the vice president was referring to was an interrogation program without torture,” she said. “The vice president never goes into what

may or may not be techniques or methods of questioning.” The interview transcript was posted on the White House Web site at www.whitehouse. gov/vicepresident. CIA spokeswoman Michelle Neff said “While we do not discuss speciﬁc interrogation methods, the techniques we use have been reviewed by the Department of Justice and are in keeping with our laws and treaty obligations. We neither conduct nor condone torture.” — McClatchy correspondents James Rosen and Marisa Taylor contributed to this report.

Bush admits accountability for Iraq war failures By Mark Silva Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Bush may be making his last, best case for the war in Iraq, but to growing ranks of skeptics it’s the same old argument. Heading into midterm elections in two weeks with his party’s control of Congress at stake, the president faced a news conference Wednesday with a humble acknowledgment that “I owe an explanation to the American people.” He admitted miscalculations in the invasion of Iraq, and disappointments after more than three years there, and offered a rare acknowledgment of the American body count in this, the deadliest month for U.S. forces in a year. But Bush’s explanation that Iraq is central to a broader war against terrorism, and that a withdrawal from Iraq would invite greater danger at home, remained unchanged from the “stay the course” argument that he had made for

months. What has changed, along with the president’s new rhetoric about “flexibility” in adapting to the changBush ing dynamics of the war, is a political environment in which Republicans once conﬁdent of long-term dominance in Washington now fear loss of power. With respected leaders within his own Republican Party increasingly speaking publicly and privately of alternative courses for the war — and Democrats vowing that a bipartisan consensus for change is coming should they gain control in Congress on Nov. 7 — the president in effect is making a last-ditch argument for giving him and the GOP a chance to prove the war is winnable. Asked who should be held accountable for failures in the

war, the president pointed to himself. “The ultimate accountability … rests with me,” Bush said in an East Room news conference — his second in a month, a rarity of its own. “That’s the ultimate,” Bush said. “You’re asking about accountability … Rests right here. It’s what the 2004 campaign was about … If people are unhappy about it, look right to the president.” While acknowledging misjudgment, including bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq cited as a rationale for the U.S.-led invasion and “overestimating” the ability of Iraqis to maintain “essential services” afterward. He also issued a somber report in terms that even the military tries to avoid: “This month, we’ve lost 93 American service members in Iraq, the most since October of 2005.” Yet Bush maintained that Iraq has not fallen into “fullscale” civil war and he pledged that American soldiers will not sit in the “crossfire” of such a conflict. He also insisted that the war the U.S. is waging, with a goal of making the Iraqi government capable of securing and managing its own nation and preventing terrorists from taking their fight to American shores, is winnable. “Absolutely, we’re winning,” Bush said, citing al-Qaida operatives and a “mastermind” of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, who now await trial by U.S. military tribunals. “I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation in Iraq,” the president said. “I’m not satisfied, either … But we cannot allow our dissatisfaction to turn into disillusionment about our purpose in this war.” Abandoning public appeals to “stay the course,” once intended as a demonstration of his resolve for victory, the president now is attempting to underscore an openness to

changing tactics. “As the enemy shifts tactics, we are shifting our tactics as well,” he said. “Our commanders on the ground are constantly adjusting our tactics to stay ahead of our enemies.” But analysts say that nothing really has changed in the Bush administration’s strategy of supporting a government that appears unable to manage the warring factions of a riven country. “There was no change in strategy that was at all apparent in this speech,” said Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, of Bush’s news conference. “The American people want to hear that he understands (mistakes were made),” he said. “Otherwise they will think he’s loony. But they want to hear not only the mistakes that were made, but Here is how we are going to ﬁx them.’ It’s that part of the story that he didn’t give.” The challenge for Bush, in the remaining time of the midterm campaign, is averting any Democratic takeover of either House or Senate. And, after acknowledging disappointments in Iraq, his mood at the news conference shifted to undaunted optimism when he was asked about the election. Too many people in Washington have declared the contest already ﬁnished, Bush warned. “We’ve got some people dancing in the end zone here in Washington, D.C.,” Bush said Wednesday. “They’ve got them measuring their drapes … They just haven’t scored the touchdown. You know, there’s a lot of time left.” Yet, with his own admissions about setbacks in Iraq, and with a determination of Democratic opponents and perhaps Republican leaders alike to plot a new course, there may be little time left for the war the way that Bush is waging it.

NEWS

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

Migrant Education center lands grant By Paul Rangel The University Star

NEWS

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CADMIUM: Department refunding, replacing some students’ supplies CONTINUED from page 1

but students exercising caution should not be harmed. Risk Management placed two large plastic drums in the painting room on the fourth ﬂoor of the Joann Cole Mitte Art Building and hung signs over each sink instructing students to dispose of all rinse water into the drums. Arceneaux said their rapid response to the test results might have shocked the students. “As soon as we got the data we kicked into action,” Arceneaux said. “We came in and we put drums in to collect the rinse water and it looks scary like hazardous waste. I do wear a white lab coat, which I guess could look scary.” Faculty from the Art Department asked the students to turn in their cadmium paints to

comply with the Risk Management Department’s request but have not yet collected all of the paint. “They haven’t seized everybody’s paint yet,” said Amy Aiken, digital photographic imaging senior. “I know some of us still have ours, but they told us that we would be reimbursed.” Neal Wilson, art and design professor, said a list was made of all students who have cadmium paint so that it could be collected. The Art Department will be voluntarily reimbursing or replacing the paint for the students. Erik Nielsen, department of art and design chair, said students will not be affected by the collecting of the paint. “It wasn’t the students’ fault,” Nielsen said. “We decided to volunteer to stop using it. Whenever we are alerted that something we are using could be harmful,

we try to come up with an alternate method.” The University Bookstore has also removed all cadmium paint from its art supply section. “I took the cadmium red and yellow paint off of the shelves while I was waiting to ﬁnd out more information and they asked me to keep it off of the shelves,” said Karen Anderson, University Bookstore art supply sales assistant. “However, we do carry cadmium hues that do not contain cadmium.” Anderson said students can return any tubes of cadmium paint that are unused. Risk Management expects to continue testing the rinse water for a few more weeks to monitor the levels of the cadmium. “We are still doing conﬁrmation sampling,” Arceneaux said. “We are still waiting on new data and collecting rinse water to see if the levels have dropped.”

Thursday, October 26, 2006

DEBATE: Council candidates promise better relationships with Texas State CONTINUED from page 1

sentative District 45 addressed the issue of growth in Hays, Caldwell and Blanco counties. Incumbent Patrick Rose, DDripping Springs, said some restrictive measures must be taken to control growth. “We are at a very precarious time right now in the Hill Country. Our water is short; if we continue to allow San Marcos to pump from the Edwards Aquifer, our springs here in San Marcos could very well go dry,” Rose said. “We need to make sure we give counties the authority they need for permanent development, and not allow development unless the water is there.” His challenger, Republican Jim Neuhaus, former San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District president, said Rose had failed to give counties adequate control. “Patrick has had four years to do something about giving the county more control,” Neuhaus said. Neuhaus said property taxing is a major campaign issue. “One of the biggest problems we are facing today is, of course, property taxes,” Neuhaus said. “It is not reduced this year, nor will it be next year. I think there has to be some permanency and some hard ﬁxes on property tax.” Betsy Robertson, candidate for San Marcos City Council Place1, discussed what some of her priorities would be if elected. “We need a new source of water. We need economic development, to lower our tax rate, by increasing jobs and career opportunity,” Robertson said. “I would like to continue to improve relationships with Texas State.” Ian Skiles, City Council Place

1 candidate, did not attend the debate. John Thomaides and Ryan Thomason, candidates for San Marcos City Council Place 6, were questioned about their support for rainwater collection incentives. Thomaides, the incumbent, said he supports a variety of water saving techniques. “In terms of tax incentives, if we could set it up to where these homes were completely off the city water system, that might be one way we could look at offering incentives,” Thomaides said. “I think there is other ways of saving water where the city could partner without it costing a lot of money.” Thomason said he would support incentives but would never support mandatory rainwater harvesting. He said the relationship between increased building costs and specific roofing material needed for rainwater collection could possibly curb economic growth. He said only metal roofing can be used for rainwater collection. “Metal has continued to rise (in price) much faster than shingles,” Thomason said. “I do believe there should be some avenues to where we can provide incentives for rain water collection, but there should never be a mandatory system.” Candidates for 428th District Judge responded to questions that focused on making citizens more willing to participate in jury duty. Anna Martinez Boling, former president of the Hays County Bar Association, said making the process easier would increase interest in jury duty. “Making it a comfortable place for the people to come to so they know and understand the processes so they can be educated

and proud to serve, because this is a great thing,” Boling said. “We can all work together to get people motivated to serve.” Bill Henry, appointed as 428th district judge in 2005, said the current system was working. “(We will) continue what we have done, and that is be efﬁcient with the court’s time and the time of the citizens,” Henry said. Hays County criminal district attorney candidates Wesley Mau and Sherri Tibbe both agreed the rights of not only the victims of crime, but also the accused, must be respected. The three candidates for State Senate District 25 seat discussed the Edwards Aquifer Authority’s need for additional authority to regulate water use. Libertarian Bob Thompson said some controls over water use are needed but should be limited. “There is a limited amount of water. We can’t keep punching holes in the ground and sucking it out because eventually it will run dry,” Thompson said. “There should be some more regulation. They just need the adequate authority to do their job, nothing more.” Democratic candidate Kathi Thomas said the EAA needs additional authority in order to protect water. “EAA has to have the authority to keep the water safe,” Thomas said. “This is a drinking source for so many people. Water is precious, we must not only conserve it, we must preserve it.” Incumbent Republican Jeff Wentworth said the Edwards Aquifer Authority has adequate power to do its job. “I believe the law is clear as it stands with the EAA so that it has adequate power to regulate,” Wentworth said.

TRENDS THE UNIVERSITY STAR

Thursday, October 26, 2006 - Page 7

happeningsof the weekend

Thursday

Cheatham Street Warehouse Wade Bowen Lucy’s San Marcos Five Dollar Friend/Blowing Trees The Triple Crown Carlton Pride & Zion

Friday

Saturday

Cheatham Street Warehouse Cheatham Street Warehouse Bruce Robinson with Robyn Ludwick Darryl Lee Rush Lucy’s San Marcos Lucy’s San Marcos Flametrick Subs/Turbo 350 Oceanus/Word Association The Triple Crown The Triple Crown Apse Afﬁnity/Every Other Fate/Prom Nite Rebecca Creek/Subtle Creeps

Trends Contact — Maira Garcia, starentertainment@txstate.edu

Putting their

SCARIEST FACES forward

Mansion of Terror workers give yearly makeover to famous haunt By Leah Kirkwood The University Star Halloween is a unique holiday because, instead of focusing on feelings of patriotism, thankfulness or peace on earth, we all go in search of one thing — a good scare. Haunted houses are a large part of the Halloween tradition. For decades, Americans have paid good money to test their nerves in attractions designed to spook and terrify. The Lion’s Gate Film Competition named the Mansion of Terror Austin’s No. 1 haunted house. The line to get in Saturday night wrapped around the Round Rock shopping center, and many people were turned away when ticket sales ended at midnight. Norm Glenn has owned the Mansion of Terror for three years, and he has 16 year’s worth of haunted house experience. Glenn says the attractions are never the same as the year before. Props may be used repeatedly, but each room is re-themed and the scares are always reworked. “We’re passionate haunters,” Glenn said. “We know what we like when we go into a haunted house, and you don’t want to go back to a haunted house and see the same thing year after year.” A group of more than 60 people is needed to build and work the Mansion of Terror. Although the haunted house is only open in October, planning meetings begin ﬁve months beforehand. The Mansion of Terror feature two haunted houses at one location. This year, the Asylum of Darkness is back and Pitch Dark replaced the 3-D attraction from 2005. Glenn said what keeps people coming back to the Mansion of Terror is the unique element at the heart of each house. The Asylum of Darkness requires patrons to solve a puzzle before they can leave. “They’re given clues throughout (the house), and it kind of builds to the last room,” Glenn said. “We thought if we could put a simple puzzle through the house that you have to

Monty Marion/Star photos FACE PAINT: Most actors in the Mansion of Terror, located in Round Rock, wear makeup to accentuate the feeling of uneasiness in visitors. BEHIND BARS: A large, horned beast stands waiting in a corner to startle unsuspecting visitors while a disembodied skull hangs from the ceiling in the Mansion of Terror.

solve it would kind of add to that element of not only claustrophobia but, ‘Am I going to find my way out?’” Pitch Black is a totally dark haunted house. Each group of up to five people is given one flashlight to navigate the narrow hallways from room to room. “There’s a lot of psychological dynamics that happen with that that, we’ve found, where if you’re not the one holding the flashlight, there’s some apprehension there,” Glenn said. But the flashlights aren’t always reliable — they can “short out” at the most inconvenient times. Jennifer Fielding, actor and director for Mansion of Terror, roams the houses in costume

to make sure the operation is running smoothly and offers scare techniques to other actors. Fielding explained why she enjoys scaring haunted house patrons. “It’s addictive; it’s an adrenaline rush. If they scream and then laugh, that’s my favorite because I know they had a good time,” Fielding said. Glenn and his crew allowed me to work in the haunted house so I could get a feel for their line of work. My ﬁrst stop was the wardrobe room to be transformed into a haunter. Stephanie Ehlers is the makeup artist and costume designer for the Mansion of Terror. She See TERROR, page 8

‘Suggestive symbols’ reflected in Graciela Iturbide’s work By Jessica Sinn The University Star World-renowned photographer Graciela Iturbide invites viewers to explore ethereal pictures of birds in flight, whimsical self-portraits and iconic images from her worldly travels. Her new book, Ojos Para Volar/Eyes to Fly With: Portraits, Self Portraits and Other Photographs is a montage of stark black-and-white photos of published and previously unpublished works. The book reveals Iturbide’s fascination with indigenous cultures of her native Mexico and symbolic depictions of landscapes, animals and objects from all over the world. Connie Todd, curator of special collections, said the book reveals Iturbide’s exceptional eye for the camera. “Her photos really capture the essence of Mexico,” Todd said. “She’s very instinctive about the way she takes her photographs. She brings her whole self to the process.” Iturbide, along with co-writers Alejandro Castellanos and Frabienne Bradu, will attend a celebratory reception and book signing Saturday hosted by the Wittliff Gallery on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library. Guests will have the opportunity to meet Iturbide and view the portraits and self-portraits that line the gallery walls. With her camera, Iturbide’s first priority is to participate and communicate with foreign cultures and exclusive societies. The book contains an assortment of snapshots depicting the strong, proud culture of the Zapotec women in Juchitán and the Seri Indians in the Sonora desert. According to Michele Miller, coordinator of marketing and promotions for Alkek Library, Iturbide used her camera to intermix with other cultures. “She didn’t want to be separate from the people; she wanted to participate and interact with them,” Miller said. “You can tell just by looking at the people in her photos that she had a dialogue with them.” Eyes to Fly With showcases Iturbide’s unconventional self-portraits. One selfportrait displays a group of snails oozing down her face and shoulders; another portrays a jumble of black snakes slithering out of her mouth. According to Todd, Iturbide’s soulful self-portraits convey symbolic messages that allow the viewers to make the artwork their own. “These are very suggestive symbols — like little poems,” Todd said. “They are whatever the viewer sees in them. She creates infinitely suggestive portraits.” Iturbide has pursued her passion for photography for well over three decades. Her artwork currently hangs in fine-art galleries all over the world. With over 200 prints in its archives, the Wittliff Gallery houses the largest collection of her photographs in the United States. The book reception and gallery exhibit, sponsored by the Austin AmericanStatesman and Time Warner Cable, is free and open to the public. Event coordinators ask anyone interested in attending to R.S.V.P. at wittliffgallery@txstate. edu.

High schoolers learn tricks of the trade Laredo students make the trek to campus for Mass Comm Week By Leah Kirkwood The University Star Texas State welcomed a group of more than 30 Laredo high school students on Wednesday to tour the campus and attend Mass Communication Week events. Kym Fox, head of the newspaper sequence, coordinates the trip every year. “The main point of this is to expose Laredo students to higher education,” Fox said. This is the fourth year students from Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts have visited during Mass Communication Week. Members of the magnet program attend one of three Laredo Independent School District high schools for half of the day and VMT for the other. VMT broadcast instructor Carrie Robaina explained the mass communications programs available to students of the school. “The communications has print journalism and photojournalism,” Robaina said. “Then we also have the broadcast sequence where students learn television, and we have

our own radio station, 90.5 FM The Magnet Connection, and (students) actually get to be DJs and write news and broadcast on a low-power station.” Lauren McClendon, public relations senior, has an independent study with Fox. She worked all semester to help plan the high school students’ visit. “We are just making sure they’re getting excited about college,” McClendon said. “We’re trying to show them that what they’re doing (makes them) ahead of the crowd.” The students toured The University Star newsroom, KTSW and the Bobcat Update broadcast studio. Jason Mendiola, junior at VMT, said his favorite part of the day was visiting The University Star ofﬁce. “I was just amazed by all the higher technology they had,” Mendiola said. “College students get (the paper) out so fast.” The high school students also heard presentations by co-anchor of ABC Primetime, John Quinones; Jennifer Rodriguez, communications director for a state representative; and Tracy Leigh, coordinator from the ﬁ-

nancial aid ofﬁce. Senior Jorge Negrete said his favorite part of the day was hearing Quinones speak. “I’ve seen him on TV and to see him today was really cool,” Negrete said. “He rose from nothing and now he has so much.” The trip is made possible by a grant from the D.D. Hachar Foundation, which offers $2,000 scholarships to Webb County students to attend any university in Texas. Texas State provides an additional $2,000 to every student. “We have something like 30 of those scholarships every year, and some of those go unclaimed because we just don’t have Webb County students to claim them,” Fox said. Today, a group of 45 students from United South High School will have their turn to visit the campus and hear presentations from professional journalists. Alyssa Garza, VMT junior, writes a column called “The Local Scene” on Laredo bands for VMT’s monthly newspaper, The Magnet Tribune. She visited Texas State last year and was glad to be back. “We get to meet a lot of peo-

Jennifer Williams/Star photo FUTURE PLANS: Ana Torres (left), broadcast senior, shares her experiences as a summer intern at New York 1, a television news station, with students from Laredo High School visiting campus for Mass Communications week.

ple that have a lot of advice and tips to give us,” Garza said. Fox said the students should be commended for their enthusiasm about the trip. “The students are champs for getting up at ﬁve o’clock in the morning in Laredo and taking a long bus ride. It takes them three to four hours to get up here,” Fox said. Last year, Fox used extra grant money to pay for a charter bus to transport the students in-

stead of the school bus. Fox said the charter bus made the trip shorter and less tiring. Garza, who is also president of her school’s journalism club, held a fundraiser this year when the school found out they couldn’t afford charter buses. “We said, ‘Let’s just do this.’ We were pretty sure we could raise the money, and we had tons of fun and learned lots of stuff last year,” Garza said. “We really wanted the sophomores

of this year to experience it as well.” The club came up with an idea for a plate sale to raise the money. The television and broadcast sequence helped with the event, and the students covered all but $250 of the bus expense with the money they raised. “This is really their trip,” Fox said. “We’re doing something, but they’re really supporting themselves, which is really cool.”

TRENDS

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

To pose or not to pose

TERROR: Preplanning essential to show off SMU, Baylor send mixed reactions to Playboy mansion’s scariness CONTINUED from page 7

also acts in the haunted houses as “The Crazy Girl.” “I walk around banging a bloody baby on the ground with screws in her head,” Ehlers said. “I made someone vomit a couple of days ago.” After I put on some bloody scrubs, Ehlers covered my face in fake blood, and then I was ready to scare. I was assigned to an area in Pitch Dark called “Andy’s Room.” Andy Baker explained his design, which looks like a scene out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Bones and limbs hang from the walls around a demolished corpse, and a refrigerator full of body parts doubles as a fog machine. “I like realistic, freaky stuff,” Baker said. To avoid giving away the surprise, I’ll just say the scare involves Baker in a rubber mask with a pitchfork. Visitors try to exit a closed screen door, but Derek Carrington and his chainsaw block their path. “People fall on the ﬂoor with terror, running and tripping out the exit door when

they see me coming behind them with the chainsaw,” Carrington said. Baker gave me some gloves and a bloody hatchet and instructed me to hide behind a wall near the room’s entrance until a group of patrons came around the corner. My timing was a little off on the first scare. Even though I was the one doing the scaring, I felt anxious waiting for the first group, and I popped out too soon. The next one went a lot better. The teenager holding the group’s flashlight jumped, and I suddenly knew why the haunters enjoy their jobs. Baker would randomly yell out, “I smell barbecue,” right before a new group arrived. With each group my timing got better. By my third or fourth scare, my screams were really scary and one girl fell to her knees at the sight of me. After working for about an hour, the fake blood on my face was getting itchy and my throat was sore from shouting. I snuck out an exit door, changed my clothes and thanked Glenn before I headed home.

By Michael E. Young The Dallas Morning News Separated by 100 miles of interstate, the Southern Baptists’ Baylor University and the United Methodists’ Southern Methodist University seem even farther apart when it comes to students posing in states of undress in a men’s magazine. SMU’s approach is decidedly hands-off. When Playboy magazine photographers set up temporary shop next week near SMU for a “Girls of Conference USA” pictorial, they’ll do so without university opposition. “SMU is not a participant in or a proponent of this project, which is sponsored by an offcampus publication,” said Kent Best, director of media and communications, in a prepared statement. “Any student’s decision to participate is strictly between that student individually and the publication.” Playboy “will not be on campus,” Best added. “It’s an individual student’s decision” whether to pose. Not so at Baylor. When Playboy ran a photo of four bikini-clad coeds and much of the membership of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity four years

ago for a “Girls of the Big 12” spread, Baylor’s administration quickly responded. School ofﬁcials suspended the fraternity for a year and required the 50 or so students to perform community service. One student, who posed individually, was suspended. Playboy returned to Waco this spring for another Big 12 shoot. This time, Baylor made a pre-emptive strike. Dub Oliver, vice president for student life, sent out a university-wide e-mail warning that posing for “a magazine that is clearly antithetical to Baylor’s mission” would violate the school’s code of conduct and be penalized accordingly. That could mean anything from a warning to expulsion, depending on the circumstances. It worked so well that the Big 12 became the Big 11, generating at least one complaint from a reader who felt shortchanged by Baylor’s absence. That couldn’t be helped, Playboy responded on its Web log. “When administrators heard we would be coming to Waco, they threatened to expel any student who posed,” the magazine stated.

A few seniors did contact Playboy since they’d have graduated before the photos appeared, “but we thought it wasn’t worth them risking their degrees,” Playboy wrote. SMU’s stand, leaving the decision to individual students, provides no such difﬁculties. So when Playboy publishes its intimate look at the “Girls of Conference USA” in its May 2007 issue, chances are the women of SMU will be fully represented, if not fully clothed. However, the visit has generated some attention and a bit of controversy. In 2004, an editorial in SMU’s Daily Campus newspaper said 2003 graduate Amber Campisi embarrassed her alma mater by appearing in Playboy’s 50th anniversary model search. The upcoming shoot, too, was criticized in an opinion column and letter to the editor in the Daily Campus. Austin Kilgore, editor in chief of the Daily Campus, wrote about Playboy’s plans in the Oct. 17 edition. “I think before my story, nobody really knew about this,” Kilgore said. “The only reason I knew about it was because (Playboy) took out an ad in the

paper, and whenever there’s an ad that’s a little risqué, I’m asked to approve it.” So he set off across campus to see what people thought. No one condemned it, though some hoped the school’s female students wouldn’t be interested in that kind of exposure. “But when I talked with students,” Kilgore said, “it wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God.’”

“W

hen

administrators heard we would be coming to Waco, they threatened to expel any student who posed.” —Playboy magazine

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

Austin Film Festival panel details the leap from writer to director By Charlotte Almazan The University Star To aid aspiring filmmakers, the Austin Film Festival offers interactive events and screenings designed to personalize films to the audience. The film festival is built around conference panels by day and interactive screenings by night. Usually an hour in length, the conference panels allow audiences to ask specific questions in a small-room setting that relate to the panel topic. During the writer/director panel, three filmmakers, Shane Black, Susannah Grant and Amy Talkington, joined together to discuss making the leap from writer to director. The pairing of Black, Grant and Talkington gave the audience an opportunity to ask questions about filmmaking that ranged from beginner to blockbuster level. Black, the 2006 recipient of the festival’s Distinguished Screenwriter’s award, emphasized the importance of keeping the focus on his craft. “You have to be prepared and committed to be the example for everyone else,” said Black. “It’s about serving the picture. The (personal) concerns should not come out on the set.” When the panel was asked about getting started in screenwriting, Talkington, the young-

est and newest filmmaker on the panel, talked about film school and learning the craft of writing. “I put myself through film school writing a music column for Spin magazine,” said Talkington. “For me (a screenplay) was difficult. I went to film school to really study writing.” Susannah Grant, known most recently for In Her Shoes and 28 Days, offered advice on keeping confidence and enjoying the film craft. “(Filmmaking) is my way of sharing. I decided that if I was going to work hard, it was going to be for something I believed in,” Grant said. At a question-and-answer session following the Dobie screening of the film Special, director Jeremy Passmore and the film’s lead actor Michael Rapaport shared equal sentiment about filmmaking process with the audience. Special follows the character Les Franken (Rapaport) who, as a side effect from a drug study, believes he has developed super powers. “For me, it started as an idea. By the time we started filming the final shot, I felt like it was all of our journey. I feel like it was me in this movie,” Passmore said. True to the festival’s intent, the atmosphere at the Special screening remained casual and personal. The event’s moderator,

Photo courtesy of www.specialthemovie.com DRUG POWER: Michael Rapaport believes he is a superhero in Special, a ﬁlm by Jeremy Passmore.

Ryan Williams, was pleased with the audience participation. “I think it went great. The audience asked a lot of interesting questions,” Williams said. After the question-and-answer session, Rapaport and Passmore

remained in the theater’s concession area to casually meet and greet the audience. “I’m glad we came. I’m really glad that we did this. It was cool,” Rapaport said. For ﬁlms that do not incor-

porate filmmaker discussions, participating theaters such as the Alamo Drafthouse at Lake Creek provided a themed menu to accompany the film. For their first Alamo Drafthouse visit, Austin residents

Libby Anderson and husband attended a screening of Ben Meade’s American Stag. “We just moved to Austin a week ago. We wanted to try something new, something different,” Anderson said.

Poets to show off ‘rock star’ skills at Southwest Writers Collection By Todd Schaaf The University Star Rock star poets are coming to Texas State. Two poets, C.D. Wright and Forrest Gander, will be reading some of their poetry on campus Thursday. The two Rhode Islandbased poets are award winners and highly acclaimed for their experimental poetry. Michael Noll, Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center resident, said that C.D. Wright is not the average poet. “Wright writes ‘rock star poems’ — meaning that some of her poems are truly amazing,” Noll said. Not only will the readings be entertaining to those who attend, Photo by Forrest Gander POETRY READING: C.D. Wright, well known for her experimental poetry, will be visiting campus Thursday afternoon in the Alkek Library to read samples of her work.

they will also be insightful. “Writers of the caliber of C.D. Wright and Forrest Gander can teach student writers a tremendous amount about craft and the writing process,” Noll said. Noll offers another reason to attend the reading; he explains that it is a rare opportunity. “To hear and see two people with the audacity to call themselves poets — and earn the title — is a rare chance and should be taken advantage of,” Noll said. Michelle Miller, media relations coordinator for the Special Collections at Alkek Library, is pleased that the Southwest Writers Collection is hosting the reading. “This particular reading is part of a series that we’ve been col-

laborating with the English department on for a couple of years now. Now there is a stage here that supports the literary world,” Miller said. Miller said she understands the relevance to hosting an event like this on campus, where it is accessible to many people. “When the readers come here, we sort of get a nice cross inter-

est between the students and the public who are interested in what we have going on here,” Miller said. The reading will be held at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Southwestern Writers Collection, on the seventh ﬂoor of Alkek Library. The poets will also visit the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Kyle.

TRENDS

Page 10 - The University Star

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Local ghost hunter, novelist investigates San Marcos By Jessica Sinn The University Star The Halloween season is upon us. It’s a time for pumpkin carving, candy corn munching, costume parties and spinning tales of ghosts and legends. This is the most wonderful time of the year for horror enthusiast Scott Johnson. Johnson is a horror-genre novelist and Texas State media technician who loves to tell tales of things that go “bump” in the night. Johnson and his wife Tabby recently formed Cold Spots Paranormal Research, a nonproﬁt ghost-hunting organization. Johnson created CSPR in order to investigate hauntings and to help those who are victimized by ghostly manifestations. Members of CSPR recently ventured into the legendary Pike House, located on Belvin Street. Legend has it, this dilapidated structure houses a plethora of forlorn souls and malevolent spirits. Throughout the years, the Pike House served as a boys’ military academy, a dorm for boys, a hospital and a frat house. According to rumor, people who venture into the Pike House will hear disembodied voices and will see the ghostly apparition of an old woman who resides on the third ﬂoor. Clint McRocklin, Texas State alumnus and CSPR member, said that he was physically chased by some-

thing on the third floor. “I heard somebody walking down the hall; I didn’t know what it was and it definitely wasn’t the wind,” McRocklin said. “We started walking down the hallway and then we heard it again. I sat down in the corner with my video camera, then — all of a sudden — I saw something running toward me.” Johnson said that he’s not certain whether or not the Pike House is haunted; however, the ghostly voices that the CSPR team caught on tape indicate that they might have encountered paranormal activity. “There are things that happen there to which I have no depth of explanation,” Johnson said. “I hesitate to call it 100 percent haunted because there might be explanations for some of it, but I couldn’t find any. There certainly are not any explanations for the voices we caught on tape.” According to Johnson, the rumor claiming that Lyndon B. Johnson’s ghost roams the halls of Old Main is a complete fabrication. But Johnson said that Old Main could quite possibly be haunted by a young girl who plummeted to her death from the third floor. “There’s a story of a young woman who wears 19th century-style clothing, who tends to roam the halls of Old Main holding her books as if she’s going to class,” Johnson said. “I can’t find any record of her or

any record of any deaths occurring in that building, but people are still talking about it, and I know people who have seen her.” The next stop on the CSPR investigation list is The Blue Goat Gourmet, a bakery and café located at 310 Mary St. The Blue Goat is the second-oldest building in San Marcos and was once a home. According to Johnson, the Blue Goat’s former residents were terrorized by shadowy figures. “The people who once lived in the home reported waking up to finding a large shadow figure standing over them — scared the hell out of them,” Johnson said. “One girl that works there talks about hearing voices, seeing things, having things move and she’s afraid to work there. We plan to find whatever it is and put her mind at rest.” Co-owner of the Blue Goat David Shelton said there have been unexplained sightings in the kitchen, tabletops mysteriously unloosened and otherworldly voices emanating from empty rooms. “We’ve seen a strange mist appear in the kitchen, then after taking a second look at it the mist goes clear,” Shelton said. Karen Wang/Star photo “Also, a girl who comes in at night to make the muffins said SPOOKY STORIES: Texas State media technician and horror-novel that she has heard voices when author Scott Johnson researches ghostly activities with Cold Spots she’s in the building all by herParanormal Research, a nonprofit group that works to help those self.” This self-proclaimed horror troubled by possible hauntings.

fanatic has published numerous books along with a wide variety of macabre short stories that have been printed in magazines and journals. Johnson has two new books that are in the process of being published: The Journal of Edwin Gray and The Mayor’s guide to the Stately Ghosts of Austin. When he’s not writing novels, he’s busy cranking out articles for Cold Spots, a column on the Dread Central Web site. Nine of his articles from Cold Spots were recently published in Weird Hauntings, a book that compiles stories about America’s scariest places.

“I

hesitate to call it 100 percent haunted because there might be explanations for some of it, but I couldn’t ﬁnd any. There certainly are not any explanations for the voices we caught on tape.”

— Scott Johnson Cold Spots Paranormal Research cofounder

Japanese play Rashomon a tale of justice, human perspective By Krystal Castaneda The University Star The department of theatre and dance brings to us their second studio theatre show, Rashomon, a Japanese play revolving around a murder mystery. Through the directing of second-year graduate student Jiraporn “Kelly” Vuthikarn, the cast of nine students and a production crew of twelve

constructed the play by Fay and Michael Kanin. The timeless Japanese tale is about justice and perspective. Vuthikarn said it is a good opportunity for the student population to appreciate human weakness and Japanese sword ﬁghts. “It’s not every year we would get a chance to see a Japanese play,” Vuthikarn said. “It’s also a good chance for the combat instructor and students to get to

do Japanese sword ﬁghts.” Rashomon is based on Akira Kurosawa’s legendary movie, which was taken from two short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The play is a Japanese tale based on the death of a samurai and the rape of his wife by a notorious bandit. In the tale, while stuck in the rain at the Rashomon Gate, a priest, a woodcutter and a wigmaker recount a horrible crime; however, all the partici-

pants have a different version of what happened. At the trial, both of the eye witnesses offer different versions of the course of the crime. The plot revolves around who is telling the truth and what really happened. Ashley Duncan, theatre graduate student, is in charge of assisting the director by researching the play and combing the information to make the world of the play. “The Asian elements of the

play are not something you see on stage very often,” Duncan said. “It was written by Americans and originally produced here on Broadway, but is based on short stories by a Japanese short story writer.” One of the main characters, theater senior Jason Harris, who plays the part of the priest, adds that the essence of Japanese culture is one unique to Texas State. “It is a great opportunity to

see the stories and plays from a different culture,” said Harris in an e-mail. “But I did encounter a small setback: I had to shave my head.” The play will show at the Studio Theatre in the Theater Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $8 and student tickets are $5. Because of the violent nature of the show, it may not be appropriate for all audiences.

TRENDS

Thursday, October 26, 2006

The University Star - Page 11

Las Nuevas Tamaleras humorously depicts Latin American heritage By Jeffery D. Hooten The University Star In celebration of San Marcos’ Hispanic heritage, Texas State, in conjunction with the San Marcos Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, will present the bilingual comedy Las Nuevas Tamaleras Saturday. The play, which is written and directed by San Antonio playwright Alicia Mena, is the story of three contemporary Latinas attempting to make tamales for the ﬁrst time. “The cultural signiﬁcance of making tamales is very strong in this part of the country,” Mena Photo courtesy of Texas State Fine Arts said. “(Many people) can remember that happening in their HANDMADE TAMALES: The bilingual comedy, Las Nuevas Tachildhood.” maleras, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Evans AuditoAt the onset of the play — berium through a partnership with Texas State and the San Marcos fore starting the tamales — the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

he cultural “T signiﬁcance of making

tamales is very strong in this part of the country. ”

— Alicia Mena playwright

three women half-jokingly light a candle of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and are then unknowingly visited by spirits from earlier generations of Latin-American women. Though the three modern women cannot see them, the spirits help guide them through their project.

The humor of the play thickens as two spirits, one a woman from the early twentieth century and the other from around the 1950s, cannot agree on how the tamales should be made. “A lot of people today don’t take the time to make tamales by hand anymore,” Marilu AbiRached-Reyna, media contact for the touring production of Las Nuevas Tamaleras, said. “Through years of progress (and the invention of things like the blender), we don’t have to do that anymore.” Lizette Reyes, criminal justice sophomore, said that tamale making has always been a part of the way her family celebrates the Christmas season. “It’s something that’s just always been there — a few days before Christmas, my grand-

mother would spend a day making tamales,” Reyes said. The play will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in Evans Auditorium. Free parking will be available in the Pleasant St. Parking Garage. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for students. All seats are reserved.

✯FYI Tickets may be purchased by calling the Texas State Box Ofﬁce at (512) 245-2030 or (877) 842-8978. For more information, call the evens coordinator at (512) 245-3501.

Mari Omori — Sculptural Installation

Thursday

Friday

Ojos Para Volar/Eyes to Fly With: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide

Time: Noon.

The exhibit includes self-portraits, portraits, famous works and never-before-exhibited images by one of Mexico’s greatest photographers from the Wittliff Gallery’s major collection of Iturbide’s work. This show coincides with publication of the ninth volume in the Wittliff Gallery Book Series from the University of Texas Press.

Treasures of the Southwestern Writers Collection: A 20th Anniversary Celebration

Location: Psychology Building, Room 132

Mari Omori — Sculptural Installation

The music will host an aria competition in the Music Building recital hall. Call (512) 245-2651 for more information.

The exhibition is located in the Witliff Gallery of Southwestern and Mexican photography on the seventh ﬂoor of the Alkek Library.

Philosophy Dialogue: Liberation Theology

Time: 5 p.m.

Lecturer: Jonas Rosenthal, Texas State alumnus

The event is free and open to the public.

Exhibit hours: Monday/Tuesday/Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday/Thursday: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Call (512) 245-2313 for more information.

Time: Noon.

Philosophy Dialogue: India: A Country in Transition Lecturer: Catherine Hawkins, social work professor

Carole Greer — 10times3 Exhibit This exhibit is a retrospective and celebration of Professor Carole Greer’s 30 years at Texas State. Professor Greer will retire at the end of the fall 2006 semester. The exhibit is located in Gallery II of the Joann Cole Mitte Art Building. Gallery hours: Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday/ Sunday: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call (512) 245-2664 for more information. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Carole Greer — 10times3 Exhibit

Location: Psychology Building, Room 132 Rashomon Salsa Night Texas State’s Salsa del Rio Band will perform under the direction of John Lopez at George’s in the LBJ Student Center. Call (512) 2452651 for more information. Time: 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Saturday

Mari Omori — Sculptural Installation A native of Japan, Houston artist Mari Omori makes sculptural installations that revolve around the notion of identity, self and cultural memory through a variety of materials and media.

Ojos Para Volar/Eyes to Fly With: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide

The exhibit is located in Gallery I of the Joann Cole Mitte Art Building.

Carole Greer — 10times3 Exhibit

Gallery hours: Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday/ Sunday: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call (512) 245-2664 for more information. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Rashomon Rashomon is a classic Japanese tale about perspective, greed and savagery that explores different degrees of truth in human behavior. A samurai has been killed and his wife raped by a notorious bandit. At the trial, both the participants as well as eyewitnesses offer different versions as to what happened during the course of the crime. Based on stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Written by Fay and Michael Kanin and directed by Jiraporn “Kelly” Vuthikarn. Call the theatre department box ofﬁce at (512) 245-2204 for more information. Time: Thursday/Friday/Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets: $10 general admission, $5 for students. Mass Communication Week Featured events: Multicultural Marketing: Lisa Skriloff, Multicultural Marketing News, New York; 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Old Main, Room 320. “Adjusting to the Workplace” Recent Graduate Panel Discussions; 11 a.m.; Electronic Media in Old Main, Room 320, print journalism in Old Main, Room 232, advertising/public relations in Old Main, Room 234. Philosophy Dialogue: Religion and Revolution in Latin America Lecturer: Mike Miller, Campus Christian Community director. Time: 11 a.m. Location: Psychology Building, Room 132. Philosophy Dialogue: Why Religion Won’t Go Away Lecturers: Sean Batura and Andy Trevino, Philosophy Dialogue students

Treasures of the Southwestern Writers Collection: A 20th Anniversary Celebration

The 13-year-old event celebrates the importance of narrative storytelling in film and screenwriters’ contributions to film and television. The conference takes place at the Driskill Hotel, and films will be screened at Austin theaters. Visit www.austinfilmfestival.com for a schedule and more information. Tickets: $95 badge, $35 film pass.

Lecturers: Emily Kelliher and Jake Kidd, Philosophy Dialogue students. Time: 12:30 p.m. Location: Psychology Building, Room 132 Paul Schneider

Rashomon Las Nuevas Tamaleras Written and directed by San Antonio playwright, Alicia Mena, Las Nuevas Tamaleras is a one-act bilingual comedy that captures three contemporary chicanas in an uproariously comical attempt at making tamales for the ﬁrst time. The show erupts when the spirits of Doña Juanita and Doña Mercedes appear on the scene to invisibly guide the younger generation of women. The situation becomes even more outrageous and entertaining when the experienced tamaleras disagree on the proper way to make the perfect tamale. The new tamaleras blunder through the daunting task, frustrating their spiritual guide and delighting the audience at Evans Auditorium. Time: 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $10 general admission, $5 for students Junior Recital Program Jennifer Davis, student of Cheryl Parrish, will perform in the Music Building recital hall. Call (512) 245-2651 for more information. Time: 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Sunday

Rashomon Faculty Recital Adah Toland Jones will perform on the ﬂute in the Music Building recital hall. Call (512) 245-2651 for more information. Time: 8 p.m. Tickets: $2 general admission, $1 for students.

Time: 8 p.m. Austin Film Conference and Festival

Philosophy Dialogue: Death

The event is free and open to the public.

Mari Omori — Sculptural Installation

The event is free and open to the public.

Mari Omori — Sculptural Installation

The event is free and open to the public.

Carole Greer — 10times3 Exhibit

Music lecturer Mary Ellen Cavit will deliver the lecture “Building Habit Strength in Your Instrumental Music Program” in the Music Building recital hall. Call (512) 245-2651 for more information.

Carole Greer — 10times3 Exhibit

Time: 2 p.m.

C.D. Wright and Forrest Gander

Music Lecture Series

Treasures of the Southwestern Writers Collection: A 20th Anniversary Celebration

Time: 2 p.m.

Voice Studio Recital

Location: Psychology Building, Room132.

The event is free and open to the public.

Ojos Para Volar/Eyes to Fly With: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide

Students of Cary Michaels perform in the Music Building recital hall. Call (512) 245-2651 for more information.

Mari Omori — Sculptural Installation

Ojos Para Volar/Eyes to Fly With: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Tuesday

The author will retell the tale of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in Brutal Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America at the Southwestern Writers Collection on the seventh ﬂoor of the Alkek Library. Co-sponored by Texas State’s Southwest Regional Humanities Center, the Center for the Study of the Southwest and the SWWC. A book sale and signing will follow.

Time: 12:30 p.m.

The authors will read as part of the English department’s Therese Kayser Lindsey/Katherine Anne Porter Series at the Special Collections Gallery on the seventh ﬂoor of the Alkek Library. A book sale and signing will follow.

Aria Competition

Monday Ojos Para Volar/Eyes to Fly With: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide Treasures of the Southwestern Writers Collection: A 20th Anniversary Celebration Carole Greer — 10times3 Exhibit

Wednesday Ojos Para Volar/Eyes to Fly With: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide Treasures of the Southwestern Writers Collection: A 20th Anniversary Celebration Carole Greer — 10times3 Exhibit Mari Omori — Sculptural Installation Philosophy Dialogue: Dia De Los Muertos Lecturer: Roque Mendez, psychology professor. Time: 11 a.m. Location: Psychology Building, Room 132 First Wednesday Reading Texas State MFA Creative Writing students read their poetry and ﬁction at the Southwestern Writers Collection in Alkek Library, seventh ﬂoor. Time: 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

TRENDS/DIVERSIONS

Page 12 - The University Star

RIX’S

TECHNOLOGY FIXES

BILL RIX Star Copy Chief

Embedded spyware takes the fun out of EA games I’ve ﬁrmly established my distaste for Electronic Arts’ business model back in March, but now that Battleﬁeld 2142 is actually on shelves, I can add another tick mark to the ever-growing list of reasons to loathe EA. The invasive, data-collecting software, which Kotaku has already labeled as spyware, made by IGA Wordwide, is used to personalize

the already monumentally lame in-game advertising. It’s a known fact that EA Games played on Xbox Live are monitored heavily, but what kind of data do they collect? On their Web site, the EA games privacy policy lists the following: “… your name, e-mail address, phone number, mobile number, home address, birth date

SU DO KU

and credit card information. In addition, we may collect demographic information such as gender, zip code, information about your computer, hardware, software, platform, media, Internet IP address and connection, information about online activity such as feature usage, game play statistics and scores, user rankings and click paths and other

data that you may provide in surveys or online profiles, for instance.” Yeah. Wait, credit card? What kind of information could they be looking for there? Aside from this being a heinous act of privacy invasion, you can’t just say no to it. Well, you kind of can — if you want to avoid the data mining, you can play offline. And by that, I mean unplug your Cat 5 cable from your computer. Keep in mind, though, that with games like Battlefield 2142, playing offline is about as fun as playing Super Smash Bros. solo. But you can’t stay offline forever — at some point you’ll need to write an essay. And until Wikipedia reaches print form, you’re going to have to hop on the Net. The “click paths” mentioned in the list mean IGA’s software

Thursday, October 26, 2006 will monitor what sites you go to and what links you click on. This will determine in-game advertising: Say you go to Chickﬁl-A’s Web site. Now you’ll see those omnipresent cows hanging from a billboard behind a giant mech. Nothing is more futuristic and dystopian than EAT MOR CHIKIN. The whole thing about monitoring raises a point question, though: Let’s say you “accidentally” click a link that leads to a pornographic Web site. You might just inadvertently boost the game’s ESRB rating from “T” to “AO” — who knows what business deals EA has and how far they are willing to go in order to provide custom-tailored content to users? “Game Experience May Change During Online Play.”

No fooling. Oh, and by the way: Let’s say that you bought Battleﬁeld 2142 at GameStop. You open up the game, the notiﬁcation informing you that you are installing what is basically spyware falls out, and you decide that you don’t want to install the game after all. Whoops! You can’t return it now because you’ve opened up the case, which means that you absolutely wrote down the serial number and or gave it to www. serials.ws or something completely reprehensible like that. So, that’s fun. It’s good to know EA games loves its customers enough to heist their personal information and then maybe or maybe not give it to another company to do with it what they please. Good old Electronic Arts, always setting the bar.

Complete the grid so that every row, column, and 3-by-3 box contains every digit from one through nine inclusively.

Yesterday’s solutions:

OPINIONS THE UNIVERSITY STAR

onlineconnection What do you think of the Associated Student Government not contacting candidates from both sides of a race to speak at their meetings? Go to www.UniversityStar.com to vote in our online poll. Results will be published in next Thursday’s issue of The University Star.

Thursday, October 26, 2006 - Page 13

*This is not a scientiﬁc poll

Opinions Contact — Emily Messer, staropinion@txstate.edu

THE MAIN POINT

ith Election Day a little more than a week away, media outlets are stepping up their push to get Americans to the polls.

TACKY TACTICS DON’T TANTALIZE

Pushing votes with sexual innuendoes should not be effective

Kyle V. Morris economics senior and Associated Student Government president

Online Poll Results Zoning ordinance

The Main Point is the opinion of the newspaper’s editorial board. Columns are the opinions of the writer and do not necessarily reﬂect the opinions of the full staff, Texas State University-San Marcos Student Media, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication or Texas State University-San Marcos.

Pat Stark/Star illustration

LEGAL GUY: Extra classes may equal extra money

The University Star 601 University Drive Trinity Building San Marcos, TX 78666 Phone: (512) 245-3487 Fax: (512) 245-3708

Campus presence of candidates has been adequate I am writing to respond to several “Main Points” that have suggested that local candidates running for ofﬁce in this election cycle are not very considerate of the student voting power. I disagree with this position. I feel as though the local candidates have made a great effort to embrace Texas State students. Throughout the entire election cycle, the Associated Student Government has been willing to host any political candidate who desired to speak at our meetings and many have come. They are open to the public, and no candidate has been turned away. Furthermore, I believe that the candidates in this election cycle have been highly visible in The Quad and throughout the university community. They have spoken to classes, student organizations and shaken thousands of hands at Texas State since the early weeks of September. I please ask that your board reconsiders its position on the efforts of local candidates to reach out to our student body.

“Women’s Voices. Women Vote.,” a nonprofit organization recently released an advertising campaign called “Remember your first time.” The public service announcements feature Felicity Huffman, Angie Harmon, Rosario Dawson and other actresses speaking candidly about their “first time.” Huffman says she likes to do it in the morning. Regina King wondered, “What will my mother think?” when she decided to do it. The fact that these women are referring to voting is a punch line at the end of the commercial. It’s common knowledge that sex sells. Hollywood knows this better than anyone, which might explain why the WVWV chose well-known actresses for the ads. But is labeling voting as “sexy” the best way to get women to the polls? Paris Hilton tried to sex up the vote in 2004 when she lent her name and “That’s hot” catchphrase to the “Vote or Die” campaign. But on Election Day, Hilton apparently found something hotter to do and failed to cast her vote. Eileen Smith, political Web logger for In the Pink Texas, encouraged single women to vote because it is a good way to find a husband. Despite the obvious sarcasm in the post, the idea suggests that women need extra incentive to vote and that contributing to society isn’t enough motivation. Another commercial by the WVWV emphasized the fact that 20 million women did not vote in the last election, which makes a bigger statement than the previous ad. CNN.com reports that only 54 percent of eligible female voters turned out for the 2004 election. But compare that with the 46 percent of eligible males who voted, and it appears women aren’t doing such a bad job. When encouraging women to vote, the focus should be on political issues instead of witty marketing. Many issues specifically affect women, and it’s important to know where candidates stand on issues such as abortion rights. The WVWV Web site says women often fail to vote because they don’t feel informed about the issues. Perhaps commercials educating women on the political issues debated in this year’s campaigns would be more effective. The WVWV should be commended for striving to increase the number of women voters. But encouraging women to vote based on sex appeal instead of political knowledge paints a picture of voting as trendy, and that trend may soon go out of style.

Thinking of adding currently not enrolled that extra elective to with a high classificayour spring semestion as a freshman, ter? You better think then you’re grandfaagain. thered into the old law. Students are facing Shannon Fitzpatrick, new difficulties with attorney and legal ada little-known tuition viser for the Attorney CARSON GUY law that can restrict for Students Office, Star Columnist the classes a student warns students about can take without being charged the bill. The offices give free out-of-state tuition. Now more advice to help students navigate than 30 hours of electives can their ways through uncertain equal more money spent on legal waters. tuition if you’re a freshman. “The risk of harm is substanIn 2005, the Texas Legislature tial,” Fitzpatrick said. “Educapassed House Bill 1172, which tion is a lifelong process that is aims to limit students at a pubnever lost. It can only add value lic college or university from to that individual.” taking excessive hours, but few Fitzpatrick said more hours students know about it. The old can be beneficial for some stuTexas law limited an in-state dents. student at a public university or “I have 300 college hours. college from taking exceeding If you look at (my transcript), 45 hours required for complemaybe somebody would contion of the degree program in sider me a slacker.” which the student is enrolled. Some students are leery of This law affects in-state stuthe bill. Chris LeVrier, criminal dent who take 30 hours more justice junior, said the bill will than required by their major hinder learning experiences. and enrolled as freshman in the “It takes some people more fall of 2006 or later. If you’re time than others to figure out

Letter to the Editor

what they want to do with their lives. When freshman students are taking their required intro courses like philosophy, communications, political science or psychology, they are exposed to new things that they may want to try out,” LeVrier said. “I could see why freshmen might be mad about this law.” Not all students agree. “I think it’s a good bill to have because it keeps people from taking a bunch of useless courses rather than getting their stuff together and getting on to the real world,” said Nate Chacona, pre-psychology sophomore. But the bill does need more clariﬁcation. It states that “An institution of higher education may charge,” which seems to indicate that universities have the option to charge any amount of tuition that they want. H.B. 1172 was authored by Rep. Fred Brown of Bryan and sponsored by Sen. Judith Zafﬁrini of Laredo. Gov. Rick Perry signed the bill June 18, 2005 and it took effect completely for all

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students enrolling in Fall 2006. Legislators passed the bill to promote a timelier graduation process for higher education students. A brief reading of the Senate Committee’s bill analysis reveals the intention of the author and the sponsor: “This 45 credit hour limit represents substantial costs to the State of Texas and contributes to the length of time it takes the student to graduate. The intention of C.S.H.B. 1172 is to save the state money and decrease the length of time which it takes a student to graduate.” The House Committee’s bill analysis of H.B. 1172 goes further when describing the intent of the bill when it states, “The Legislative Budget Board reports that changing the provision for excess credits from allowing an excess of up to 45 credit hours … will save Texas approximately $50 million in General Revenue Funds for the 2011-2012 biennium.” However, Fitzpatrick said the amount of money the state will

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save on the bill will not add up. “For this to say that we’re going to save $50 million in general revenue funds for 2011 to 2012; that’s chump change,” Fitzpatrick said. “Texas is the richest state in the nation. We spend billions on highway toll roads.” Legislators are aiming to prevent students from taking egregious amounts of hours, but students need to be aware of the ﬁnancial ramiﬁcations of this bill.

ho should be responsible for informing Think you have something to say? Log on to www.universitystudents about star.com and click on the letters link to read old letters and subthe singlemit newcity’s ones. family zoning ordinance? Landlords

58% The city of San Marcos

32% The students

8% Not sure/I don’t know

Carson Guy is a political science junior. His column tackles legal quandaries. E-mail questions to Guy at staropinion@txstate.edu. The content and opinions contained herein are in no way meant as legal advice. All information is general in nature. Do not rely on information within this article when trying to resolve a speciﬁc legal issue. All situations are unique and require speciﬁc legal advice from competent counsel.

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Results compiled from The University Star Web site online poll. This is not a scientiﬁc survey.

The University Star is the student newspaper of Texas State University-San Marcos published Tuesday through Thursday during the fall and spring semesters. It is distributed on campus and throughout San Marcos at 8 a.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with a distribution of 8,000. Printing and distribution is by the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. Copyright October 19, 2006. All copy, photographs and graphics appearing in The University Star are the exclusive property of The University Star and may not be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the editor in chief.

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Thursday, October 26, 2006 - Page 14 Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - Page 33 ANNOUNCEMENTS

1990 CHEVY LUMINA. Good condition. Great car for student or in town use. High miles. $500 cash. (512) 878-4210 or dr1103@txstate.edu.

FOR RENT A FULL MONTH FREE, NO APP. FEES!! We have what you are looking for! 2BD/2.5BA with a study, 3BD/ 2.5BA, or a 3BD/3.5BA...all have 2 car garages and full size W/D, located on Sagewood Drive. Get in now before prices go up. CALL TODAY! VJE, (512) 353-3002. HISTORICAL MANSION, A PLACE TO CALL HOME! A cozy 1BD/1BA space available. Hardwood ﬂoors & a big cast iron tub to relax the day away! Newly remodeled, call for more information. VJE, (512) 353-3002. ROOMS 4 RENT. New 3BD/2BA in Buda. $500/mo. ABP. (361) 676-3780. PLANNING A JAN. 1 MOVE? See 5 very beautiful & very different 2BD duplex possibilities in one stop near W. campus. Various features; Quiet neighborhood, 16’ Vault, Skylights, Crown Mold, Tile, Fans, Drapes, W/D, DW, Microwave, New Kitchens & Baths, Storage, Courtyard, Decks, Walk-ins. Fenced Wooded Yards. Exceptional at $575 to $650. Non-smoking, No dogs. (512) 353-8384. 1/1.5 LOFT. 700 sq. ft. 2BD/1.5BA, has backyards, includes W/D. Apartment Experts. (512) 805-0123. $0 DEP., $345, MOST BILLS PAID. Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123. APARTMENTS & HOUSE NEXT TO CAMPUS: 1BD, 2BD, 3BD, house. Wooden ﬂoors, upgraded. Roommate matching available (for 2BD, 3BD, house), $275-$375 per room. (512) 757-1943. Available November, January, May, August. BIG 2BD 900 SQ. FT. $585! Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123.

FOR RENT

OK! OK! LISTEN! Bills paid, located in the historical district, move into 605 W. San Antonio Street today! 3BD/1.5BA, W/D, pets welcomed, very private! Call VJE, (512) 353-3002. BIG DOGS OK! 1BD/1BA - $450 & 2/2 - $450, pay partial water, free cable. Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123. $199 TOTAL MOVE-IN! 1BD, $460. 2BD, $525. Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123. PRIVATE BEDROOM AND BATH AVAILABLE, W/D & computer accessible, 2 meals furnished, $375/mo. Call (512) 396-0748. HOT GOSSIP! WE’VE GOT IT! Live in a place that everyone is talking about...”The 605!” Plastic surgery was performed and she’s a beauty! Bills paid, new sexy stainless steel appliances, be the ﬁrst to live here, right next to campus where all the action is! Call Stacey, (512) 396-2673. APTS. OR HOUSE next to campus, roommate matching, wooden ﬂoors, good condition, free internet and cable, $250-$350 per person. Call (512) 757-1943. 736 CENTRE 2 BD/11/2BA with covered parking for $750 per month. Visit legacyrealestate.biz and call Legacy (512) 665-0350. ROOMMATE NEEDED. 2BD/2BA trailer in San Marcos mobile home park. Furnished, covered parking, 10 min. from campus. $300/mo. plus half of bills. $100 refundable deposit. Available December 1. Call (281) 639-8048. IT’S ALMOST HOT TUBBING SEASON! Langtry Apartments are steaming hot with it’s new look! We offer 2BD/2BA and 1BD/1BA spaces, located on the TXState shuttle route. Call for all the juicy details! Stacey, (512) 396-2673.

All classified ads are charged 20¢ per word. Ads may be emailed to starclassifieds@txstate.edu. Check your classified ad for accuracy. Any changes must be made by the second day of publication. The deadline for all classified ads is noon two business days prior to publication. Classified ads must be paid in advance unless credit has been established. Refunds will only be given when a classified ad has been paid by credit card. The Star reserves the right to refuse, edit, and discontinue any classified ad at any time without prior notification. Classified ads will be edited for style purposes. Classified ads that do not note heading, will be put under the appropriate heading. All classified ads are published free, on-line at www.universitystar.com. Since this is a free service, posting is not guaranteed. While The University Star attempts to screen ads for misleading claims or illegal content, it is not possible for us to investigate every ad and advertiser. Please use caution when answering ads, especially any which require you to send money in advance.

E-mail eds at starclassifieds@txstate.edu Email Classifi Classifieds starclassifieds@txstate.edu

FOR RENT

TOWNHOME 4BD/2.5BA, All bills paid, W/D included. Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123. 0 DEPOSIT, 0 APP. FEE. 1month FREE! Cable, internet, water, trash paid. W/D included. Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123. NO DEPOSIT! FIRST MONTH FREE! 1BD/1BA apartment close to campus. $460 per month. (281) 546-8857. $1-1 $375. 500 sq. ft.! Some bills paid. Cheapest in town. Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123. $149 TOTAL MOVE IN! 1BD, $420. 2BD, $525. On TXState shuttle. Apartment Experts, (512) 805-0123.

FOR RENT-APTS WALK TO CAMPUS/ SQUARE. 2BD/1BA. 323 Hutchison. $850 furnished or $800 unfurnished. (512) 809-1626 or (512) 466-1253. APARTMENT IN WIMBERLEY. Spacious 2BD/1BA, 1,000 sq. ft. , built in 2002, with ﬁreplace, large kitchen, balcony, sunset hill country views, and free health club membership, available ASAP. Ideally suited for professor, married couple or grad student who appreciates beautiful, quiet, serene surroundings. Quick easy access to Austin and San Marcos, near RR12 on RR3237. $875/mo. Call (512) 560-6761, e-mail ironsarah@aol.com. APARTMENTSTOGO.COM. Free list of apartment prices and amenities or visit our ofﬁce on The Square! (512) 353-FREE. 1BD AVAILABLE FOR JAN. (512) 393-6000. www.MetropolitanSanMarcos.com

FOR RENT-DUPLEX

239 CRADDOCK FOR LEASE. 2BD/1BA with W/D included. $545/mo. Extra large closets and on the shuttle route. Visit legacyrealestate.biz and call Legacy, (512) 665-0350.

FOR RENT-DUPLEX

BRACEWOOD CIRCLE has large 2BD/1BA with W/D connections beginning at $475/ mo. Call Legacy Real Estate for particulars at (512) 665-0350, and visit legacyrealestate.biz for viewing. 612 MILL STREET. 2BD/2BA duplex with W/D included. On the shuttle. $700 per month. Visit legacyrealestate.biz and call Legacy, (512) 665-3321.

FOR RENT-HOUSES KYLE-PLUM CREEK. 3BD/2.5BA/ 2LA. 1,750 sq. ft., with huge kitchen and master. 15 min. from campus. No dogs/no smoking. $995+HOA. Call Mike at (512) 695-6117. AVAILABLE NOW! Awesome new 3BD/3.5BA house. Marble counters, stainless appliances, huge porch. No pets. Must see. (713) 882-9069. AVAILABLE JANUARY 1. Beautiful new 3BA/3.5BD. 1495 N. LBJ, (512) 665-6500 or (512) 396-4488. No pets. 1405 RANCH ROAD 12: HOUSE FOR LEASE. 3BD/1BA with converted garage that would be a great recreation room. $775/mo. Call Legacy Real Estate, (512) 665-3321. GATED. 2BD/2BA, ﬁreplace, W/D, yard, cable, phone, internet, and water included. (512) 396-4488 or (512) 665-6500. 1499 N. LBJ.

FOR SALE MATCHING DRESSER, CHEST, AND NIGHTSTAND. $125 or better offer. Call Karina (210) 875-0230. JAPANESE MADE POWER SCOOTER, 50CC engine, fully automatic, 55/60 mi/gal., top speed 55/60, used 2mo. (512) 392-6742.

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HELP WANTED

TUTOR/NANNY POSITION available in San Marcos through May 18, 2007. Prefer Interdisciplinary Studies/Education Generalist 4-8 major with GPA of 3.0 or greater. Nonsmokers only. Pays $7+/hour depending on experience plus bonus opportunities. Call (512) 787-7609 for an application. More info on Jobs4Cats #5123. Interviewing now! EXTREMELY GIFTED NEEDS HIGHLY SKILLED WRITER FOR PRESS RELEASES. Please email portfolio to shannon@extremelygifted.com or call (512) 396-4438. STUDY BREAKS MAGAZINE is now hiring account executives/advertising sales. Great pay, ﬂexible hours. (512) 480-0894. ATTENTION STUDENTS! POSITIONS AVAILABLE •$13 Base Appointment •Flexible Schedules •Customer Sales/Service •No Experience Needed, will train •All Ages 17+ •Conditions Apply Call today (512) 392-7377 www.workforstudents.com NOW HIRING. Experience preferred. Breakfast Host, Housekeepers, Housemen, Front Desk Associates, Night Auditor, Maintenance. Apply within. (512) 353-7770. PT. Flexible. Perfect job for student. ATHLETIC, OUTGOING MEN for calendars, greeting cards, etc. $75-200/ hr. No exp. needed, (512) 684-8296. SALES ASSOCIATE. Team-oriented, energetic, fun-loving sales person with at least 6 months experience wanted for an exciting, comfortable, awesome sportswear clothing line. Must love color! This position is for the holiday season and varies from 5-20 hours per week with the potential to stay on seasonal status even after the holidays are over. Please stop by and pick up an application at Fresh Produce Sportswear Prime Outlets Suite 1370 or email it to Denise Cole at HYPERLINK “mailto:Cole...sanmarcos@fpcolor. com” sanmarcos@fpcolor.com UPSCALE RESTAURANT IN KYLE seeking experienced server with up-scale dining experience and wine knowledge. Also, PT expediter w/ light kitchen prep. ($8-10/hr.). Evenings only. (512) 268-3463 or www.Bordeauxs.net BOBCATSNEEDJOBS.COM. We need Paid Survey Takers in San Marcos. 100% FREE to join. Click on Surveys. WIMBERLEY ATHLETIC CLUB. Open 7 days a week. PT positions, front desk, must be working on a related degree, $6/hr. Ideally suited for kiniesology/physiology majors looking to develop into a full time professional ﬁtness trainer upon graduation. E-mail resume to ironsarah@aol.com and call (512) 560-6761. EARN $800-$3,200/ MO. to drive brand new cars with ads placed on them. www.DriveAdCars.com ATHLETIC MALE MODELS WANTED for physique photography in Austin. $200-$1,000 per session. Call Wu at (512) 927-2448.

WANTED

PT HELP WANTED at Tommy Kids at Tanger Outlet Mall. Please call (512) 805-0100 for more information. HOLIDAY HELP WANTED!! Off Sak’s 5th Avenue. Pick up application in person at Outlet Mall, 3943 HWY 35S, Suite 800, San Marcos, TX 78666. Send to Rita Casanova or Erica Peterson (512) 392-8040. !BARTENDING! Up to $300/day. No experience necessary. Training Provided. Age 18+ OK. (800) 965-6520 ext. 157. PAPER BEAR - A downtown gift shop hiring for following shifts: 9-7, 9-2, 1-7. Starting pay $6.50/hr. Pick up application in person. Must be able to work minimum 30 hrs. per week, Mon.-Sat. PHOTOGRAPHER NEEDS FEMALE MODELS FOR FASHION AND GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY. $20/hr. No exp. needed. Call (512) 395-8972.

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTED IN MEDIEVAL ARMORED COMBAT, FENCING, ARTS AND CRAFTS, BELLYDANCING, OR MUSIC? Check into the local chapter of the SCA at http://ffynnon-gath.ansteorra.org AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE! http://www.CathleenCranford. mynetquotes.com.

SERVICES WWW.STUDENTATTORNEY.COM

SUBLEASE THE RIDGE SUBLEASE, 2BD/2BA, Nov. 06-Aug 07, no deposit, $439 mo, all bills paid except elec., pets ok. (512) 715-2157 or fo1003@txstate.edu

WANTED USED CARS, TRUCKS, VANS. Any condition, running or not. If you have something to sell please call Willis Mitchell. (512) 353-4511. COME WORK FOR THE STAR! Are you interested in learning how a newspaper is made? Do you have a writing talent none of your friends appreciate? Would you like to see your name in print? The Star is currently hiring for the following positions: •News reporters Must be able to gather information, conduct interviews and come into the newsroom to have stories edited. •Sports writers Must be able to attend games, interview coaches and players and come into newsroom to have stories edited. •Opinions columnists Must be able to write well-organized and thought-provoking columns about on-campus and local happenings. Must be able to work with the editorial staff to create editorial cartoons and story illustrations as well as bring original ideas to the table. Pick up an application at the Trinity Building, or download one at www.universitystar.com.

SPORTS

Thursday, October 26, 2006

The University Star - Page 15

Tennis team fails to turn out qualifier in ITA Regional By Gordon Taylor The University Star

Deleigh Hermes/Star photo PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE: The men’s club soccer team sets up goal drills where the coach kicks balls at each line to team members who have to make ﬁve in a row.

SOCCER: Players noticing larger fan turnout at games CONTINUED from page 15

team this year. Overall, it’s faster with better decision making,” Rodarte said. “It’s just smarter play with a lot less attitudes on the team.” Despite the club’s conﬁdence and skill, the team members know the challenge they face in advancing past the regional phase of the tournament. Sophomore sweeper Ryan Svehlak recognized what they’re up against.

“To advance, we’re going to have to pretty much beat all of the big teams,” Svehlak said. “We’re going to have to play really, really well.” As with most club teams, the players have to be involved in a lot of self-promotion to get the word out to the student body about home games. This year, however, they have seen an increase in the amount of fans coming out to support their games. Midﬁelder Akwasi Adomako-Mensah (“Junior” to his teammates) has noticed the im-

proved turnout. “There have been more fans coming out to the games this year than before. It’s mostly former soccer players and friends of players that come out to watch, but there have been more people,” Adomako-Mensah said. Students are encouraged to come out and enjoy some topnotch soccer at the West Campus sports fields, where the Bobcats take the field for their first playoff match this weekend.

Women’s golf concludes season, men face final tournament By Carl Harper The University Star The men and women’s golf teams both finished tournaments this week, with the fall season-end looming. While the women wrapped up the fall season on Tuesday in the SHSU Ellingson Invitational with a seventh-place finish, the men placed sixth in the UTSA Invitational and now have their eyes set on the last tournament, slated for November. Freshman Corey Roberson shot his best performance in round two with a 70, and led the Bobcats with total score of 219. “The team is getting better each week,” Coach Bill Woodley said. “Showing a team score under par is always good.” Roberson tied for 12th with Troy Hawkins from Western Kentucky, whose school grabbed a fifth-place finish, three strokes ahead of Texas State. “I was happy with the way I played,” Roberson said. “The greens were in great shape, so I putted very well. I hit my driver really well in this tournament. Now I just want to get my ball striking a little more precise.” Woodley was flattered by the beauty of the green course, as his squad concluded with a final three-day score of 874. “The team was inspired by the golf course,” Woodley said. “The

greens are bent grass, which is unusual, so I believe the guys were motivated by how perfect the greens were.” Tyler Barnes-Wolf and Bobby Hutcherson posted 73s in their third round, as they finished with scores of 219 and 220, respectively. “We did a lot better as a team in this tournament,” Hutcherson said. “I’ve been working on my mental game. I made some swing changes early in the season and now I’m getting used to it and learning to trust it.” Behind Hutcherson was sophomore David Drake, who shot a 69 in round one to lead the team, but finished with a final score of 221. Carson Gibson finished with a final score of 228. Peter O’Keeffe led Southeastern Louisiana to a tournament victory with a team score of 846, nine strokes ahead of Sam Houston State. O’Keefe finished in a three-way tie for first place with a score of 208. The Bobcat men will finish up the nonconference fall schedule at the Battle of the Bend in Many, La. Nov. 7-9. “This course in Many is a tight track and we must drive the ball straight there,” Woodley said. “It’s something we have to work on because it has been our downfall so far this year.” Christine Brijalba carded a

76 on Tuesday in Huntsville to lead the Bobcat women to a seventh-place finish. Texas State landed six strokes behind the Sam Houston white team, with a final count of 977. “It was a good sign that we were in second after round one, but now we need to work on being mentally and physically ready for three rounds,” Coach Mike Akers said. “It’s a challenge to be out on the course for over 10 hours. It requires endurance and concentration.” The Sam Houston orange team finished first at 927, 22 strokes ahead of second-place Lamar. Brijalba entered the last round tied for 11th, but shot her best outing for the tournament in the third round, tying overall for seventh with a three-round score of 235. “She finished very strong and I was proud of the way she played,” Akers said. “She is working hard in getting back to her normal game, which is around par.” Sarah Glass ended the tournament tied for 19th with a score of 245, while Jennifer Crawford finished tied for 23rd at 246. “Everybody wasn’t happy with the way we finished but we know what we need to work on,” Crawford said. “I need to improve on my short game because that is where I lost a lot of strokes.”

The Texas State tennis team was in tournament action this past weekend at the ITA Southwest Regional Tournament, held in Fort Worth. The tournament began on Thursday with the first two rounds of the qualifying main draw of singles and is one of 18 regional qualifying tournaments held throughout the country. The contest ran through Monday, where the finals for singles and doubles took place. The winner of each automatically qualified for the National Indoor Championships, set for early November. The Bobcats did not turn out a national qualifier. Freshman Ashley Ellis was the only Bobcat to automatically qualify for the “main draw,” due to her record prior to the tournament, but stumbled in the first round of play. “I was really nervous and played a little uptight, and that showed in my performance,” Ellis said.

Ellis and her sophomore doubles partner, Sumarie Muller, came away with a 2-1 record each after a first-round loss to Texas Tech. Freshman Andrea Giraldo lost in the last round of “main draw” qualifiers. Partners Giraldo and sophomore Elaine Chafitz qualified, losing in round16 to No. 1-seed Texas A&M after beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas-Arlington along the way. Muller also compiled a 2-1 mark in singles play, defeating UTA’s Marissa Brown in the first round. “We had a very good showing in this past tournament, and it was against some very good competition,” Plunkett said. “The top 23 schools in our region brought only their top players to compete, but every time we came up against conference competition, we beat them.” Plunkett wasn’t the only one satisfied with the team’s overall effort. “We gave a good effort,” Giraldo said. “We did our best against the best schools in the region, and we played well against big-

ger schools.” The team practiced this week in preparation for its last date on the fall schedule, the UTSA Invitational. “We make sure we have endurance for three set matches; we do plyometrics and sprints,” Plunkett said, “but we also work on the mental side of the game. In tennis, if a player isn’t doing well mentally, the coach can’t sub her out. She has to stick it through. We work on playing through not playing well, dealing with bad calls and how to close out a set when we’re up 5-2.” The team will be in action at the UTSA Invitational beginning Friday. Plunkett said she is excited about the opportunity to end the season with some momentum going into the spring. “We’re going to see six different teams; some of them will be in our conference. This tournament is going to give a good indication of how strong we are,” Plunkett said. “We have a lot of depth, and this tournament is going to show us exactly where we stand.”

RUNNERS:

Focus is on building preexisting talent, not importing athletes CONTINUED from page 15

performances from McCartin and teammate Alex Escontrias; the two finished just a second apart. This week’s race will be another challenge, especially for the men’s team. “The men’s field is very tough this year,” Viniar said. “Lamar in particular has three great runners who are at the top of list nationally.” Lamar, which brought in runners from Kenya, is not the only team that poses a significant challenge to the Bobcats this week. SFA and conference newcomer Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will also bring talented competition to the course. A particular challenge will be the extended distance of the

women’s course. “I really don’t know what to expect from the race because I’ve never run a six (kilometer) race. I’ve done 5Ks, but I can imagine that the extra 1,000 meters will make a difference,” freshman Heather Bullin said. “With that in mind, my game plan is to try and stay with Tenley and Whitney (Perkins) as long as I can because they have run this race before and I trust them.” Throughout the course of the season the top three women’s runners have done well grouping together. Overall, there has been a strong sense of unity among teammates. “It’s been a blessing to run for all of these girls because we are all friends and that has allowed us to run stronger,” Bullin said. “Our team is very close and I be-

lieve we can all only get better.” The development of talent has always been a priority of Texas Sate track and ﬁeld. Rather than bring in international talent like other schools in the conference, the Texas State program has improved on what they already have. “All our runners came here as walk-ons or low-proﬁle athletes,” Viniar said. “They’ve really progressed and are doing very well.” With the majority of runners returning for spring track, the future is bright for the program. “This year we’re closer as a team; we’re together,” Escontrias said. “Next year we’ll be an even stronger and faster team. We’ll be smarter and more experienced.”

SPORTS

demon destined

THE UNIVERSITY

Bobcat football goes on the road this week, heading to Natchitoches, La. to face Northwestern State. The Demons, 3-4, head into the weekend 1-2 in Southland Conference play and are coming off a 9-0 win at Nicholls State. Northwestern State leads the league in

Thursday, October 26, 2006 - Page 16

offense, averaging 370 yards per contest. Texas State returns home Nov. 2 to host Nicholls State at 7 p.m. in the “Battle for the Paddle.” The game will air on FSN Southwest/Fox College Sports.

Sports Contact — Chris Boehm, starsports@txstate.edu

Headbangers Ball: Wimpy brings spark to team after libero position vacated don’t like “I to lose. I play expecting By Robyn Wolf The University Star

With the departure of Bobcat alumna Amy Ramirez, Coach Karen Chisum turned to a headbanger to lead her defense. For the past few years, upperclassmen have dominated the defensive starting positions for Texas State volleyball. This season, however, freshman libero Kacey Wimpy has emerged as one of the top defensive players on the squad. “She is very intense, but has a sense of humor,” Chisum said. “She knows how to have fun, but is a very competitive player. We’re very different people. Kacey is into that ‘head-banging’ stuff. It amazes me that we can be so different and still have the relationship that we do.” With the closing of the 2005 season, the Bobcats lost Ramirez, who ﬁnished the year ranking second all-time in single-season digs. The Bobcats seem to have found Ramirez’s successor in Wimpy, who has seen play in 88 games this season and has racked up 304 digs, the most on the squad. “Kacey is a passing machine,” Chisum said. “Wimpy’s passing ability is what originally attracted the Bobcat volleyball program to her. Passing is what she does.” Wimpy’s teammates also admire the success that she has already had. “I’m very proud of her,” said Haley Speyer. “This sounds really cheesy, but her name doesn’t do her justice.”

The program also had some familiarity with Wimpy’s former volleyball program, the North Dallas Volleyball Club, as sophomores Danna Melito and Speyer were alumnae of the same club. “I had watched her play before,” said Speyer. “I knew she would come here and step up.” During the recruiting process, there were some natural ties between Wimpy and the Bobcat volleyball program. Her older brother, Kevin, also attends Texas State. “She has some Bobcat blood in her,” Chisum said. “She recruited us as much as we recruited her.” Wimpy agreed. “My brother made we want to come by telling me good things about Texas State and how much fun it is,” Wimpy said. As an underclassman, the Arlington native fought hard to gain and maintain the level of play that is seen on the court. “I’ve been playing since I was 11, so I knew what I had to do,” Wimpy said. “I just worked hard in two-a-days and preseason.” The past two Bobcat teams have featured senior liberos, but Chisum was forced to go a different route after witnessing Wimpy’s skill. “She forced us to put her on the court,” Chisum said. “She works hard and loves volleyball, and that’s really important.” Because the Bobcats are lacking upperclassmen on defense, competition is tough between the underclassmen to gain playing time. The underclass-

to do good. If someone’s not doing their job, I get mad. - Kacey Wimpy

freshman libero

men work hard and challenge each other to get time on the court. “They keep Kacey on her toes,” Chisum said. Chisum said the key to Wimpy’s success lies in her personality, and the freshman shared her coach’s assessment. “I don’t like to lose,” Wimpy said. “I play expecting to do good. I’m excited about getting to play. If someone’s not doing their job, I get mad. Everything revolves around defense.” Chisum is conﬁdent that Wimpy has a bright future ahead of her. “She can only get better,” she said. “She needs to learn to extend and get longer. She needs to not only dig the ball that is three feet away, but dig the ball that is ﬁve feet away.”

✯FYI Wimpy and company host Nicholls State 7 p.m. Friday and then face off against Southeastern Louisiana 4 p.m. Saturday.

David Racino/Star photo KEEPING THE RALLY: Freshman libero Kacey Wimpy has started for the Bobcats from day one since arriving at Texas State.

Young soccer club nixes egos, shoots for regional title By Gabe Mendoza The University Star The Texas State soccer club team heads into the regional tournament this week with a good feeling about its chances. The men’s club recently ﬁnished up its eight-game regular season with a record of 3-2-2. The players are now preparing for the regional competition, to be held at Texas State beginning Friday. Texas State rounds out a bracket that includes Texas A&M, North Texas, Texas and Southern Methodist. The format of the league had each team play one another twice

during the regular season, with the top three teams advancing to the playoffs. Being the host school, Texas State received an automatic bid to regional play, but that doesn’t mean the team took it easy, nor does it expect anything short of a winning run all the way through the national tournament at Arizona State. Midﬁelder and club president Sean Harrison has high expectations for the team and likes the development they’ve shown this year. “This is a young team, but we’re really good,” Harrison said. “We’ve always had good

individual skills, but there have always been big egos that go along with it. This younger team is a lot more willing to work together.” With a starting lineup consisting mostly of sophomores, the team has a good mix of fresh legs and experience that make for a winning atmosphere. Right back Alan Rodarte, the team’s only senior, has been with the club all four years and has noticed a difference in this team from teams of the past, both on the ﬁeld and off. “This is a different kind of See SOCCER, page 15

Cross country prepares to make a run for Southland Conference titles By Gabe Mendoza The University Star

After a regular season that saw a young Texas State cross country team make strides towards the elite conference contenders, the Bobcats are poised to turn some heads at the upcoming Southland Conference Championship. The conference ﬁnale will take place Friday at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches. The SFA course is nothing new to this team, having run it in early September during the Lumberjack opener. The men’s eight-kilometer race will have runners loop the 2K course four

times, while the 6K women’s race will have the ladies take three laps around. “None of us are all that excited to be running the same thing four times, but on the plus side, it will be very easy to pace ourselves,” said sophomore runner Andrew McCartin. “I expect some very fast times on this course.” The distance runners have focused all year on their ability to group their top runners with a solid pace. That focus could pay dividends at Friday’s race. “Every week the gap between our number one and number ﬁve runner has been getting smaller and smaller,” McCartin said. “If

we can get that gap as small as we can in Nacogdoches, we have a good shot at surprising a lot of our rivals.” Coach Grigori Viniar’s team is coming off an impressive showing at the Texas Invitational two weeks ago, with the women winning the overall event. The Bobcats finished with three of the top four times, including sophomore Tenley Determan’s first-place finish. The accomplishment earned her the SLC Cross Country Athlete of the Week honor. The men’s team brought in a fourth-place finish behind strong See RUNNERS, page 15

The University Star

Published on Oct 26, 2006

10 26 2006

Published on Oct 26, 2006

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