WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 22, 2014 VOLUME 104 ISSUE 30 www.UniversityStar.com
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MADELYNNE SCALES PHOTO EDITOR Sarah Nonaka, physical therapy doctoral, and Jaxsen Day, computer information systems sophomore, discuss concerns Oct. 21 prior to meeting president Denise Trauth for the Student Open Door session in LBJ Student Center.
Trauth opens door to students, addresses community concerns Editor-inMASS COMM WEEK
By Odus Evbagharu MANAGING EDITOR A growing number of students is attending Texas State, but President Denise Trauth believes the mantra of the university’s community is “big but small.” Trauth sat down with students for her 13th annual Open Door session. Students had the opportunity to voice their concerns and present questions to Trauth and Joanne Smith, vice president for Student Affairs, Tuesday in the LBJ Student Center. A range of students brought a variety of questions to the session. Trauth was encouraged by the diversity of questions and people at the session. “I went to a small liberal arts college of about 1,800 (people), and I think it’s really cool that
at such a big university, you can personally meet with the president and the vice president of Student Affairs,” said Sarah Nonaka, a second-year doctoral student in physical therapy. “That’s insane, that it’s that easy to access them.” Trauth believes the university’s ability to retain a small community feel while continuing to grow helps students adapt to Texas State. The “P” in PACE stands for “personalized” because students meet with advisors in one-onone meetings, Trauth said. Brandon Smith, finance freshman, went to the Open Door session to meet Trauth and get advice for his first year of college in addition to speaking with a PACE advisor. “I wanted to know what I was getting into for the next four
years,” Smith said. “I wanted keys to what can make me successful in the future for what is after college. I wanted to know what I need to do now to reach that goal.” Trauth values Open Door sessions because they give her the opportunity to hear about issues on campus directly from the students. “Students have a whole range of issues they want to talk about,” Trauth said. One issue this year revolved around karate. Katie Coy, painting senior, was concerned about the pending removal of the karate course at the university. “Not enough people signed up for Advanced Karate this semester,” Coy said. “This school has a Grandmaster karate instructor, and not very many institutions can say that. I just want to find
out what I can do to stop it.” Trauth explained the number of hours needed to graduate was reduced because of a legislative mandate, resulting in some courses’ removal. She suggested Coy start a formal sports club. A karate club would receive funding, Trauth said. Some students attended without any specific concern and simply wanted the chance to talk to Trauth. Andrew WallaceBradley, mass communication sophomore, attended the event for the second time. He wanted tips on how to become a better leader and to become a familiar face to Trauth and Smith. “I always want to make students feel good about being here,” Joanne Smith said. “I am always interested in giving them good information on how to navigate Texas State.”
CITY
Scientists aim to preserve endangered salamanders By Mariah Simank SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Scientists gathered on the banks of Spring Lake Sept. 23 to do something few people have had the chance to experience. The scientists collected San Marcos salamanders, which are found only in certain parts
of the San Marcos River. The salamanders are a threatened species federally and statewide. Sampling is done in order to study the salamanders further and protect them from extinction, said Valentin Cantu, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The ongoing collection includes 20 sites from Spring
PRESLIE COX STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER A Texas salamander swims Oct. 20 in an aquarium at the Meadows Center.
Lake and two more immediately below Spring Lake Dam, he said. "For the San Marcos Aquatic Research Center, all of the sampling we do is in an effort to prevent the extinction of endangered and threatened salamanders," Cantu said. “Generally, collection efforts are limited to the fall and spring, when additional salamanders are needed to maintain a viable population.” Declines in spring flows can cause irreversible damage to the salamanders’ environment, Cantu said. These types of situations require extra monitoring. “When the San Marcos spring river flow drops below 105 cubic feet per second (CFS), the Rare Threatened and Endangered Species Contingency Plan directs the San Marcos Water Resource Center to increase our salamander collection efforts if the specified numbers defined in the plan have not been collected,” Cantu said. Dianne Wassenich, program director of the San Marcos River Foundation, said flow is currently stable. “We’ve stayed above 100 CFS this year,” Wassenich said. “That is mainly because of that big flood we had last Halloween, which really recharged the aquifer right here around San Marcos and helped keep our river flow stable all summer.” Divers must be able to collect the salamanders in most cases. “With San Marcos salamanders, we generally have to get a scuba team set up to sample from all the different sites in Spring Lake,” Cantu said. “Some sites can be up to 20 feet deep.” The San Marcos salaman-
ders, unlike most varieties, remain in a primitive stage for their entire life cycle, Cantu said. “Terrestrial salamanders can develop lungs, but the San Marcos salamanders retain their gills and are completely aquatic all of their life as a result,” Cantu said “This makes them dependent on the flow of the water.” Cantu said the salamanders’ sensitivity to their environment makes ensuring the water is pristine and free of sediment buildup even more important. “They probably get about 80 percent of their oxygen through their skin, which is one reason they are very sensitive to toxins in the water,” Cantu said. “I would say they are the perfect species to kind of gauge what’s happening in the environment.” H.E.A.T. (Human Environmental Animal Team) member Ivy Martinez said her organization works to help endangered species by advocating for a clean river. “We try to educate the community about how important it is to keep our river clean,” Martinez said. “I think that through public education people will start to appreciate the river more, and as a result they will be protecting endangered species.” Cantu said the effect the drought will have on the threatened species cannot yet be determined. “The overall health of these salamanders is still to be determined,” Cantu said. “Currently there are federal and state agencies, universities and consulting firms that are researching the effects of the drought on various listed species.”
chief, CEO talks state of Texas politics By Alexa Tavarez NEWS REPORTER A slew of students brought their best questions to Centennial Hall Tuesday in a Q&A session with Evan Smith, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Texas Tribune. Smith opened the session by stating his career in journalism was purely “accidental.” “I went to Washington D.C. thinking, ‘(Congressional work) is what I’m going to do when I get out of college,’” Smith said. Smith described his congressional work for a representative of Minnesota and the Federal Election Commission as “mindnumbing” and “a soul-sucking experience.” “I came back really kind of lost—lost academically and lost in terms of what I was going to do when I got out of school,” Smith said. “I never even gave thought to journalism.” Smith’s love for journalism was ignited after he wrote his first political column. He then attended the graduate journalism program at Northwestern University and went on to hold positions at Texas Monthly. This magazine features contemporary pieces on Texas politics and industry. In 2009, Smith co-founded The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan media organization centered on the climate of state politics. Regarding Texas politics, Smith said, “I’m often moved to tell people that in this state, this shit writes itself.” All Texan citizens are affected by the policy the Capital legislates, Smith said. “Our job is to get people to participate in this participatory democracy of ours,” Smith said. “The reason we started the Tribune five years ago was the coverage of public policy in state government was in deep decline.” General elections in Texas are “nonexistent,” Smith said. He describes the political system in Texas as broken. “I love Texas,” Smith said. “I love living in Texas, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any areas that we need to be working on. The game is rigged.” Smith discussed the importance of voting. “The simple act of voting would be an improvement of where we stand right now,” Smith said. “If you don’t bother to vote, then you forfeit the right to complain about the results.” People need reliable, unbiased information to be thoughtful and productive citizens, Smith said. “We don’t want to tell people what to think,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, we have to tell people to think. We aren’t activists on behalf of one issue or another. We are activists on behalf of Texas.” Positions for many media organizations are scarce, and print journalism is dwindling. However, Smith respectfully challenged a student’s notion that the number of jobs in journalism is turning downward. “The world of journalism has blown up,” Smith said. “There are opportunities in journalism that have never existed before. There are so many more types of media than those that existed five years ago.” High-quality journalism is often unconventional, and journalists must learn to think outside the box, Smith said. “You all are basically Swiss army knives,” Smith said. “You have all these skills you can deploy coming out of a program like this.”