THURSDAY MARCH 3, 2016
VOLUME 105 ISSUE 46 www.UniversityStar.com
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CITY
Toyota Rattler Stadium: A year after the $18.4 million investment By Kelly Dunn NEWS REPORTER @kelldunn101
rants currently on file at the San Marcos Municipal Court stands at 11,862. San Marcos municipal court administrator Susie Garcia said the monetary value of warrants on file, including late fees and court costs, amounts to $3,813,369. “If the case the warrant is associated with has not been adjudicated, then the fine and court costs may be vastly different than what is projected,” Garcia said. Last year, UPD reported making 313 arrests around campus. “We had a fairly light number of arrests last year,” Lattie said. Lattie said UPD typically
After the $18.4 million Toyota Rattler Stadium was opened in Sept. 2014, San Marcos High School’s students and faculty feel the investment has paid off in terms of pride. “It has increased school pride as well as community pride and involvement,” said Mark Soto, athletic director and head football coach of SMHS. “It’s been a positive thing for both the kids and the community.” The athletic stadium, funded by school bonds, is built to hold 8,000 spectators with a total of 5,000 seats reserved for supporters of the purpleand-white Rattlers. The arena is still being paid off. With the addition of a new stadium, the Rattlers’ 20142015 scores almost doubled in losses over wins. However, the team made a substantial comeback this past season. Jaime Perez, a 2015 alumnus of SMHS and head athletic trainer, said the team has improved since the opening of the new stadium. “I think a lot of our success just comes from the feeling of being at home in the new stadium,” Perez said. The fall football schedule
See POLICE, Page 2
See SMHS, Page 2
Local law enforcement are joining a state-wide initiative to round up those with outstanding warrants.
Local law enforcement prepares for statewide warrant round up By Cristina Carreon NEWS REPORTER @Ccarreon90
San Marcos Police Department and the City Marshal’s Office will join 300 law enforcement agencies across Texas for the 2016 Great Texas Warrant Roundup. The roundup, which will begin March 5, is a concentrated effort to locate citizens with outstanding arrest warrants. Tracy Balusek, deputy city marshal, stated in a city news release that the roundup is an opportunity for San Marcos residents to avoid a driver’s license renewal hold or arrest by addressing unpaid tickets or active warrants.
This year, Texas law enforcement is seeking outstanding warrants extending beyond serious crimes to delinquent traffic, parking and misdemeanor Class C citation tickets. “In Hays County, there are 1,893 active warrants as of (Feb. 29),” said Shonah Stephens, Warrants Department clerk with Hays County. Warrants are typically served by individual jurisdictions, but the roundup is an attempt to initiate a statewide prerogative in which Central Texas counties ask city and university police to join the effort. “In the past with other warrant roundups, (Hays county) has asked our staff
to assist before,” said Capt. Rickey Lattie of the University Police Department. Although the SMPD has confirmed its participation in the warrant round up, UPD has not yet been asked to take part. “If Hays County is involved, they will probably call us to assist,” said Sgt. Christopher Cost of UPD. “We’ve gone out and worked with them—not necessarily here on campus—but helped them throughout the county and city.” Residents seeking to find out if they have active warrants will have a hard time getting access to their records from local police departments, particularly those filed through UPD.
San Marcos residents who commit crimes will have their warrants transferred from local police departments to the Hays County municipal court to be put in the county’s database, Cost said. “Anybody that runs you off of a driver’s license check or a name and date of birth check, that warrant would come back if it’s something other than a local warrant,” Cost said. “We wouldn’t have records of everybody in Hays County that has a record, or just students on campus that have warrants because they’re not filed that way—we have to actually run a particular person to find out if they have a warrant.” The total amount of war-
CITY
Lower Purgatory Creek reopened, other areas remain closed By Lesly De Leon ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR @leslyd28
Residents may now enjoy sunshine while hiking trails in the lower Purgatory Creek Natural Area as San Marcos recovers from historic flood-
ing last May and October. Trails in lower Purgatory Creek Area will open March 5, but crews are still repairing massive damage from the floods. According to a March 2 city press release, the park is open but certain areas are
closed to the public until crews and volunteers finish repairing the trails. “The closed areas suffered major damage in the flood and present many hazards,” stated Bert Stratemann, parks operations manager. San Marcos Greenbelt Al-
UNIVERSITY
liance officials are “working in the closed areas and will be rerouting some trails to bypass the most heavily damaged areas.” Visitors should “expect rough conditions on the open trails” and exercise caution. According to Feb.
8 University Star article, upper Purgatory Creek Natural Area is also open. According to the press release, visitors should remain on “marked trails to avoid hazards and off-limits areas.” City officials encourage residents to visit Spring Lake
Preserve or Ringtail Ridge Natural area. Thompson’s Island and Cape’s Camp are still closed due to flood damage. All other city parks are open, but some still need repair or are being repaired.
CAMPUS
TSUS Board of Regents approves Environment, sustainability committee Digital Media Innovations major planning campus contest By Jacob B. Lock NEWS REPORTER @jacobboydlock
The Texas State University System Board of Regents approved a Digital Media Innovations degree plan Feb. 18, which will focus on technological expertise and communications skills. According to a release on the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s blog, the DMI major will be specifically designed to focus on skills required for 21st-century jobs. These industries include news app development, data, social media analysis and other media-focused careers in communications and beyond. Approval from the TSUS Board of Regents was the last of the internal step proposals
for new major programs in order to become an official degree plan at Texas State. Now, Cindy Royal, associate professor and head of the DMI project, and her team are awaiting approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board after a hearing sometime this May. “The major grew out of the need for people to work in the field of digital media,” said Kym Fox, head of the journalism sequence. Fox believes the DMI major will help produce “data journalists” or graduates who will find new ways to marry media communication and programming. If approved by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas State will be the seventh university to develop and add a major of this kind in the state, said
Debbie Thorne, associate vice president of Academic Affairs. “It is a major growth area for schools and we need to keep up with changes in society and needs of the university,” Thorne said. Royal wrote on her SJMC blog that the degree program will provide a new and innovative approach to media education. The school already offers a number of classes that teach students basic skills utilized by online media outlets. New courses are being developed that will expand on topics and skills such as coding and data visualization. “(We) want students to come out with a number of important skills, and digital media competency is one of
See DIGITAL, Page 2
By Lesly De Leon ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR @leslyd28
The Environment and Sustainability Committee hopes to encourage environmentally friendly practices on campus by organizing an Earth Day competition. At the Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday night, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, English senator and committee co-chair, discussed the committee’s plan with senators. “It’s a competition for offices, individuals, departments and student groups to be acknowledge for their best practices,” BellMetereau said. The goal of the competition is to encourage student organizations and faculty departments to complete environmentally friendly tasks,
such as recycling and using reusable coffee mugs instead of cups. Students and faculty can also turn off lights when the building is empty and buy eco-friendly products. To participate in the contest, student organizations and faculty departments can submit an application listing their environmental initiative via SurveyMonkey. There will be three contest categories—one for departments, administrative offices and student organizations. The other two categories are faculty incorporation of environmental learning strategies and the most improved office, curriculum or program. Bell-Metereau said committee members would like to announce the winners at River Fest. Members are trying to get a booth at River Fest and possibly get Boko
the Bobcat to attend. “We really want to try to get have this happen so that we can give awards on Earth Day,” Bell-Metereau said. Winners will receive gift cards to places such Half Price Books and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment glassbottom boat tours. Members of the committee plan to meet with Eric Algoe, vice president for Finance and Support Services, to identity possible participants and discuss national competitions that could reward university officials’ environmental efforts. Bell-Metereau said the competition is still in the draft stages and the committee is open to suggestions. One of the committee members’ goals is to
See CONTEST, Page 2