WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 15, 2014 VOLUME 104 ISSUE 27
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FOOTBALL
VIDEO
Football: The Texas State football team lost 34-10 to Louisiana-Lafayette Tuesday night on ESPN2.
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SPORTS Page 5
Sophomore quarterback Tyler Jones gets tackled Oct. 14 by Louisiana-Lafayette at Bobcat Stadium.
MADELYNNE SCALES PHOTO EDITOR
CAJUNS TOO HOT TO HANDLE
STATE
Texas State students, faculty weigh in on textbook controversy By Karen Munoz SPECIAL TO THE STAR The State Board of Education will approve textbooks in November to be used as part of Texas’ public school curriculum but met with much adversity from constituents. The State Board of Education met Sept. 16, to hear testimony from the public regarding concerns about the proposed textbooks to be approved by the board in November. Once ap-
proved, the textbooks will be available for use as part of Texas’ curriculum. Elizabeth Bishop, history associate professor, Holly Doyle, public administration sophomore, and James Carneiro, journalism junior, were three members of the Texas State community among the testifiers. Each testifier had two minutes to state what he or she thought was wrong in the proposed textbooks. A Q-and-A portion followed each two-minute testimony, giving the
individuals a chance to make their claims, Bishop said. Most of the testifiers spoke of the “bias” and “factual error” in the social studies textbooks being proposed. Little concern was raised about other areas of study, though the board allowed time for citizens to voice concerns. “The mathematics books were up for review,” Doyle said. “The language arts books were up for review. There was one person that testified about
the language arts books, and the rest of the time was spent on the social studies books.” Bishop said Texas State has an “important role to play” because education is so important to the university. She was proud to see the Texas State community represented at the meeting. In her testimony, Bishop referred to Texas State as “formerly Texas State Teachers College” and said many teachers in the state have been trained
GOVERNMENT
Some veterans, students, faculty react positively to airstrikes against ISIS By Houston York NEWS REPORTER The terrorist organization ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has gained a significant amount of attention in the global media for its crimes and acts of terrorism. The United States recently used airstrikes against the group after a video of an American journalist’s beheading by the terrorists went viral online. Islam does not motivate ISIS as much as a radical rejection of western influence, said Jeremy Wells, political science professor. “The Islamic State is not so much about ideology as it is a revolutionary political, economic and social order,” Wells said. “Their motivation is to create a primarily new, different, conservative political and social order that is grounded in Islam, but Islam itself is not
the motivation.” Airstrikes and supporting and arming Syrian rebels and other militant groups are two strategies the U.S. is using against ISIS, while civilians are caught in the middle, Wells said. “What you are doing is creating stronger groups against stronger groups and making the situation much worse,” Wells said. “With both groups trying to gain some advantage over the other, their ability to control the support and allegiance of the civilian population becomes that much more important. You start seeing a lot more brutal treatment of the civilian population caught in the middle.” ISIS’s motive is ideological, but the murder and bloodshed occurring in the region is a more immediate threat, said Dennis Fivecoat, retired army veteran and legal studies graduate student. “Christians are chased out
of their home, murdered and put in mass graves and told they will swear allegiance to their ideology,” Fivecoat said. “I’m going to fall short of calling that Islam or Muslim. It’s almost inevitable that people who don’t want allegiance to ISIS but were forced are probably going to get hurt. Kids become fighters because they are orphans. People can’t feed their families, and ISIS will pay them and give them a gun to protect their family.” The U.S. will have to decide collectively what it is willing to do to end the violence, Fivecoat said. “Sometimes any step in any direction is better than what you have,” Wells said. “That is how I feel about bombing ISIS. It is bad—there might be some people that we don’t want to get hurt do—and then we have to ask ourselves, ‘Is that better than letting ISIS decide whether
they get hurt or not?’” Josh Martinez, events coordinator for the College Democrats at Texas State, agrees with the U.S. airstrikes. Martinez said he thinks ISIS’s goal is to set up a state to create “their version” of legitimacy and rule of law. “If you disagree, they’re just going to kill you,” Martinez said. “I would rather be on the side that tried something than the side that just ignored it while journalists are being beheaded. Thousands are being displaced from their homes, and civilians are murdered in genocide. You have to do something even though it may be bad news because not doing something is bad news also.” No group in the world is as bad as ISIS, Martinez said. “I don’t think we should lose sleep at night, and we should
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through the university. “Many of our alum, who are now teaching, tell us the struggles that they encounter when they have a text and they’re trying to square the circle,” Bishop said. “The teachers are telling us that the text, as it stands, doesn’t offer them the support they need.” Bishop spoke specifically about the “lack of balance” one textbook shows when telling about the conflict over Palestine and the “outdated in-
See TEXTBOOKS, Page 2
UNIVERSITY
Texas State dining halls ban Styrofoam, support environmental policy By Exsar Arguello NEWS REPORTER The Human Environmental Animal Team (H.E.A.T) organization has worked with Chartwells to implement a ban on Styrofoam that began last year. Such efforts have led to the ban on Styrofoam in campus dining facilities. Colin Iliff, H.E.A.T. subcommittee leader and environmental studies senior, led the initiative to ban Styrofoam on campus. “The thing about Styrofoam is that it’s a petroleumbased product that doesn’t degrade at all,” Iliff said. Styrofoam also has chemicals that can leak into the ground with adverse effects on fish, wildlife and people, Iliff said. Styrofoam containers become water-soluble when liquids are heated in them, which causes certain chemicals to leach into drinks and food, he said. Iliff’s initiative to ban polystyrene, the substance that chemically composes Styrofoam, on campus is being implemented in dining halls, said John Root, director of auxiliary services of the Food Service Committee. The ban has been executed on campus with some exceptions. “Our agreement was to use the Styrofoam until it was completely used up,” Root said. “We still use the Styrofoam on emergency cases when the dish
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UNIVERSITY
New initiative will turn Bobcat Stadium gold for final home game By Jake Goodman NEWS REPORTER Gold Rush is a new tradition and theme Student Government is promoting that will coat the student section in a sea of gold. The event will include gold rally towels distributed to the student body attending the games and will encourage Texas State athletes to promote the university to other schools and national audiences while on the road. “We want this to be something that sticks out about Texas State,” said Austin Anderson, author of the Gold Rush resolution and director of programs for Student Government. “We’re hoping this will be something that gets us more attention in a positive way.” Anderson said Gold Rush will be a tradition for the last home game of every athletic team. “One of the tiers of it was to get students more involved in all of our athletic events, not just football,” said Christian Carlson, Student
Government senate president pro tempore and sponsor of the Gold Rush resolution. Gold Rush will use a social media initiative to get the student body to wear gold shirts, Anderson said. “We want people to ‘gold out,’” said Megan Trexler, chief of staff of the Student Government. “We also want to work with the bookstore to potentially have the rally towels and other hype-up promotional items be gold. We really just want a gold flood for all of our athletic events.” Student Government wants Gold Rush to eventually replace the “Pack Bobcat Stadium” promotion, which began last year to increase attendance at the football games, Carlson said. Dominique Jackson, athletic liaison for Student Government and sponsor of the Gold Rush resolution, said the theme differs from “Pack Bobcat Stadium.” Gold Rush will be a continued tradition, not a promotion.
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