VOLUME 103, ISSUE 77
www.UniversityStar.com
WEDNESDAY
Defending the First Amendment since 1911
APRIL 9, 2014
TRENDS | Page 3
SPORTS | Page 5
Riverfest: Ricardo Soliz, SACA pride and traditions coordinator, discusses what students can expect from this year’s event.
Softball: The team will look for its first road victory of the season Wednesday night against the UTSA Roadrunners.
TRANSPORTATION
Parking officials implement solutions to alleviate debt By Taylor Tompkins News Editor
Every parking space on campus will be monetized beginning next fall in an effort to alleviate Transportation Services’ debt and avoid raising permit prices, officials say. Nancy Nusbaum, interim director of Transportation Services, said the changes have been devised because the department “cannot continue operating in the red.” The changes will affect commuters, residents, faculty and staff. No permit fees will be raised for the upcoming academic year. “It’s getting pretty tough trying to stretch our dollar,” Nusbaum said. “You can’t keep everybody happy, but we’re trying our best to accommodate people the best
ENVIRONMENT
we can.” A special event fee will be applied to parking garages in order to bring in revenue through avenues other than permits, Nusbaum said. The special event parking fee will be $5 per car in both the LBJ Student Center Parking Garage and Edward Gary Street Parking Garage. Departments will have the option to either pay for the fees itself or have its guests pay in cash to park the day of the event. Commuters will see changes to their permit availability. Residents will not be allowed to purchase purple commuter permits because of over crowding in the commuter lots. “A lot of our residential students bring their car and
See PARKING, Page 2
Andrew Smith | Staff Photographer Duy Le, sustainability studies graduate student, assembles a bin April 7 for the “Bobcats Go Green” project.
Stadium recycling program looks to expand By Scott Allen
News Reporter
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student-run recycling program hopes to expand efforts for green initiatives after its pilot season in Bobcat Stadium ended. “Bobcats Go Green” is an initiative that aims to get students more involved with recycling by
implementing programs at Texas State football games, said Duy Le, sustainability studies graduate student. Le coordinated the initiative designed to cut down on the amount of trash in and around the stadium by promoting recycling. “‘Bobcats Go Green’ was originally a recycling program but has evolved into a call to action,”
Le said. “Think of ‘Bobcats Go Green’ as a challenge to students to become more environmentally aware about the impact they each have on the planet.” Bobcat Stadium workers sold more than 8,000 plastic bottled beverages and 6,000 drinks in dis-
See GREEN, Page 2
Star File Photo
DINING
Chartwells to replace Pizza Hut with Papa John’s in The Den By Raquel Kimm News Reporter
Chartwells Dining Services at Texas State has announced the Pizza Hut Express in The Den Food Court will be replaced with a Papa John’s in fall 2014. The addition is another initiative by Chartwells to provide healthier options in dining halls, said Abel Valencia, Chartwells senior marketing manager. Chartwells has officially decided construction for the new Papa John’s will be done over the summer. It will be built in the Pizza Hut Express’ current location and will accept meal trades, dining dollars and Bobcat Bucks. “It will be the big summer project,” Valencia said. “We need to
keep up with our students growing needs, and the trend right now is to be healthy so we will provide those options with this Papa John’s.” The catering service has added numerous options to all of their dining halls such as the gluten free food available in the Jones Food Court, Valencia said. Papa John’s is the first of possible brands to be added to dining halls throughout campus, he said. “Chartwells has partnerships with many popular brands,” Valencia said. “Papa John’s being all about fresh and never frozen ingredients really helped with our push to provide not just more choices, but more healthy options.” Papa John’s is the third largest national pizza brand in the world,
said Brannigan Goguen, a Papa John’s manager in San Marcos. The chain has more than 4,000 restaurants internationally and is known for its ongoing commitment to quality, according the Papa John’s website. “Our dough and our ingredients all come to us fresh,” Goguen said. “That’s what gives it the right flavor and the chewy, crisp crust.” Kelsey Eidson, psychology freshman, said she is excited about the options being added to dining halls on campus. “The dining halls are always pretty good about providing us different stuff to eat,” Eidson said. “I’m moving off campus next se-
See PAPA JOHN’S, Page 2
Madelynne Scales | Assistant Photo Editor Papa John’s will replace Pizza Hut in The Den in fall 2014.
UNIVERSITY
Administrators developing background check system for summer camp workers to comply with state law By Juliette Moak News Reporter
Texas State officials are creating a new certification program to perform background checks on summer camp workers. The new certification was created in an effort to protect the youth participating in on-campus programs and to remain in compliance with state law. In 2012, the Texas legislature mandated that institutions of higher education conduct training, testing and background checks for employees of certain programs for minors held on their campuses, said Ronald Brown, assistant vice president of Academic Services. Texas State met these requirements for the past two years by contracting with a third party background screening company. However, university officials decided to develop their own
program when the company stopped providing the service, Brown said. “We have to be approved by the state,” said Joanne Smith, vice president of Student Affairs. “We’ve been working with the university system to develop a plan similar to theirs and we’re getting ready to submit the application for approval.” The program is modeled after the youth safety policies, which were adopted by Texas A&M University and Southwestern University, and focuses mainly on child sexual assault and misconduct prevention, Smith said. The background checks will be conducted through the Texas Department of Public Safety, said John McBride, director of Human Resources. Running the checks through the DPS is much faster and more cost effective than the national vendor the university used, which could take several weeks to return and cost $39 per
background check, McBride said. “(The national vendor) is much more thorough, goes back many years, covers in some cases nationally and at a minimum regionally,” McBride said. “The DPS check is almost instant and it only costs a dollar, which is why the decision was made to use the DPS for the camp employees.” The third-party company used by the school for the past two years included criminal records both in Texas and outside the state and charged $5 for each of their background checks, Smith said. “Potentially, things like drug use or theft might not be picked up if it happened in another state,” Brown said. “But all sex offenders who live here are registered through the state
See BACKGROUND, Page 2
TRANSPORTATION
Some commuter parking spaces to be eliminated to make way for construction projects
By Taylor Tompkins News Editor
About 700 commuter parking spaces will be eliminated over the next year due to construction. Stephen Prentice, assistant director of Parking Services, said the Speck Street surface lot, which contains 442 commuter spaces, will be lost to construction on a new residence hall in May. Some of the lost parking spaces will be replaced near the new residence hall, Prentice said. A 172-space lot will be constructed in January near Canyon Hall and will
contain residential, faculty and staff spaces. “It’ll be hard to access,” Prentice said. “You’re going to have to come in from the back of Blanco (Hall) to get there, but that’ll be returned to green for the residence hall.” An additional 267 commuter space from the Strahan Coliseum and Bobcat Stadium East parking lots will be eliminated in January due to construction of the Loop 82 Overpass Project, Prentice said. Construction on the project is estimated to begin anywhere from August 2014 to January 2015.