October 24 2013

Page 1

VOLUME 103, ISSUE 28

www.UniversityStar.com

THURSDAY

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Defending the First Amendment since 1911

VIDEO | UniversityStar.com

SPORTS | B7

The Soap Box Derby is a Homecoming tradition in which organizations build and race soap box cars in hopes of becoming this year’s champions.

MASS COMM WEEK

Tumblr manager advises students on social media By Michelle Balagia News Reporter

A manager from the social media company Tumblr gave students advice about crafting a professional online presence via Skype interview Wednesday as part of Mass Comm Week. Annie Werner, product marketing and community manager at Tumblr, said she has been working there for three years and has held many different job titles. She said within technology-based fields, every professional needs to be flexible and able to do more than one specific task. Werner said she originally set out to be a journalist, but

I was representing myself online, and that definitely played into my success with Tumblr.” Werner said her professional career began with writing and blogging. After writing for her college newspaper and blogging for Village Voice in New York, Werner eventually found herself applying to work for Tumblr. Through her experience with Tumblr, she has gained knowledge about how people should represent themselves online and how they should professionally promote their personal brands, she said. “You want your online presence to reflect who you are as a person and not just

Madelynne Scales | Staff Photographer Jon Zmikly, adjunct lecturer with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Skypes with Annie Werner, product marketing and community manager at Tumblr, Oct. 23 for Mass Comm Week.

once she started looking for a job she realized there were more opportunities within the technology field. “My online presence played a huge role in my professional development,” Werner said. “I would always try to think about how

who you are to your friends, but you want it to represent the best of the best of you,” Werner said. “Everything on social media is kind of diluted already, so you want to make sure everything you

See TUMBLR, A2

John Parker played football at Southwest Texas State in the late ‘60s and still holds four school records.

First-time freshman enrollment by gender

3,000 3,145

2,000

2,658

2,537

1,801

1,714

1,000

GROWTH

2011

2,036

2012

2013

Female enrollment sees increase By Megan Carthel Special to the Star

A

lthough the freshman female population at Texas State saw a slight increase for the third straight year this fall, the overall female and male populations have remained largely static, resulting in low male retention rates. The freshman female population percentage has slightly increased since 2010, raising one percent this fall from the previous one. The freshman male population dropped from 40.7 percent of the overall student population in 2010 to 39.3 percent this fall. Texas State’s overall student population ratios have remained fairly static over the past year, with a .2 percent decrease in men and .2 increase in women from 2012 to this fall. However, women who attend Texas State are more likely to graduate and have better retention rates, according to Joe Meyer, director of Institutional Research. “Even if (males and females) became equal parts of enrollment, 5050, you’d still expect females to earn more degrees ultimately because they’re more likely to stick around and finish out their degree,” Meyer

said. In fall 2010, Texas State had an 81.4 percent retention rate for females and 74.8 percent for males, said Joanne Smith, vice president of Student Affairs. Traditionally, female students at universities across the state, including Texas State, have higher retention rates and graduation rates than males, Meyer said. In addition, women generally have higher GPAs than males at Texas State. “The strongest predictor of retention and ultimate graduation is academic performance,” Meyer said. “So, if you’re making good grades, your chances of being retained and ultimately graduating are much, much better than if you’re making poor grades.” Smith said since there has been concern about the retention of the male population, programs have been created to help men with academics. Student Affairs holds “First Fridays,” meetings that allow male students to get together and discuss “what is going on,” Smith said. There is also the Male Initiative Committee, a meeting of administrators to discuss what can be done to help men graduate, she said. “We continually try to understand what are those factors that are creat-

ing those (gender) gaps,” Smith said. It is important for males to have men as role models to help them understand the importance of retention rates, Smith said. Traditionally, Texas State has been a teacher’s university, Smith said. She said the population difference “makes sense” if you look at it from a teacher education standpoint. The ratios of males to females at Texas State are on par with the rest of the country, Smith said. However, numbers from universities around the state have lower female percentages than those at Texas State this fall. The University of Texas at San Antonio has a larger male population, with men comprising 51.4 percent of the fall 2013 population and 48.6 percent women. Meredith Fox, senior management analyst for Texas A&M, said the institution’s enrollment profile was finalized Oct. 22 and 55.2 percent of the overall student population at Texas A&M is composed of women, with the remaining 44.8 percent being men. According to University of Texas’ Office of Information Management and Analysis, 50.7 percent of the population is female and 49.3 percent is male.

FACULTY SENATE

Officials to determine allocation of leftover budget funds By Nicole Barrios News Reporter

University officials are determining how to allocate leftover revenue after basic budget needs were met in designing the fiscal year 2014 budget this month. There is a certain amount of funding available to “potentially” be spent on new things, after factoring in money for faculty and staff raises, funds to cover increases in utility costs, benefits and insurance costs, said Provost Eugene Bourgeois. He said administrators are waiting to receive the finalized number of credit hours taken by students this semester to deter-

mine the amount of tuition money received and subsequently determine the uncommitted amount of funds. According to the Texas State Budget Allocations report, 20 percent of the fiscal year 2014 operating budget will be spent on staff salaries, 22 percent on faculty salaries, 23 percent on other operating costs, 12 percent on benefits, 11 percent on capital improvements, 6 percent on utilities and 6 percent on financial aid. According to the presentation, 53 percent of the university’s operating budget revenue will come from tuition and registration fees. Bourgeois said some of the left-

over funds will go toward academic department operating expenses. He said another portion of funds will allow the university “to be able to hire and pay for” new adjunct faculty including lecturers, senior lecturers, clinical assistant professors and others. Bourgeois said President’s Cabinet administrators will discuss how to spend the rest of the amount of money leftover or “uncommitted.” He said they may add funding for new staff positions, add more money to fund faculty and staff merit raises or have an option to set aside funds for tenured and tenure-track faculty positions. He said setting aside addi-

tional funds to hire new graduate assistants is another option. Some of the extra funds may be used to cover the summer instructional salary needs. Lastly, they may put funds into “other research expenditures,” he said. Academic Affairs wishes to use leftover money to increase the salaries of graduate assistants, which have not seen a raise in the last four or five years, Bourgeois said. Graduate instructional assistants receive $10,152 for a nine-month employment, he said. “(President Denise Trauth and I) have been hearing from academic departments that, outside of faculty and staff raises, prob-

ably the most consistent plea for new funds would be to use them to address the graduate assistant salary issue,” Bourgeois said. Michael Hennessy, dean of the college of Liberal Arts, said new staff positions, new faculty to cover enrollment growth and increasing graduate assistant salaries are his priorities for the leftover funds. “(Increasing graduate assistant salaries is) important because it enables us to recruit top quality students and get more graduate students here,” Hennessy said. “That’s a priority because it strengthens our research reputa-

See BUDGET, A2

UNIVERSITY

Program adopts changes to expand community outreach efforts By Jorge A. Vela

Special to the Star

The Discover Texas State program will expand next year from a one-day event to a series in hopes of improving community outreach, according to university administrators. The amendments to the program were recommended by a task force committee created to oversee the program’s effectiveness this semester. According to the committee’s report, the San Marcos community is not large enough to support a one-day event to acclimate students and parents to the town. The report indicated the program could not be supported in its original format by academic, support staff, faculty and alumni, who were not

attending in sizeable numbers. The committee consisted of seven members from different areas of the university and used student input from those who participated in Discover Texas State before, said Kim Porterfield, director of Community Relations. “The purpose of Discover Texas State, which is to help people get an opportunity to discover all the stellar and high-level world class programs that are here in Texas State, has not changed, but the way we are delivering it has changed,” Porterfield said. Porterfield said the committee aligned its recommendations for the program with the strategic goals and endeavors of the university. The extension of the program is intended to satisfy the goals of university advancement, alumni relations, community re-

lations and student engagement, she said. “We think this will be more convenient, and we will have different audiences and be able to reach out to more people to tell the story of Texas State,” Porterfield said. The community relations task force committee kept the Downtown San Marcos Wine Walk in the series of next year’s events, according to the committee’s report. The wine walk has proven successful in the past and met the committee’s expectations this year as well, she said. More than 350 Texas State family members are reported to have attended the event this fall. The wine walk consists of 14 stops along The Square where attendees taste different types of wines at participating downtown

businesses, according to the committee’s report. Discover Texas State program officials partnered with the San Marcos Main Street and Downtown Association programs to host the event in recent years, said Main Street Manager Samantha Armbruster. “I think we will continue to partner with Discover Texas State for wine walks each year,” Armbruster said. “If the Family Weekend events grow, from one weekend to multiple weekends throughout the year, I envision us partnering even more and creating some other exciting events.” Armbruster said the new Discover Texas State program format will enhance opportunities to partner for future events, showcasing the community. Porterfield said despite the program changes, the cost of the pro-

gram will stay the same as previous years or eventually decrease, since the events are separate and no emphasis will be placed on a particular day. An estimated cost of the program’s annual budget is $7,000, she said. The program benefits from the support of volunteer staff, the City of San Marcos, and different associations that cooperate with sponsorships to keep many of events free to the public, Porterfield said. Reyna Caraveo, work-study student for Community Relations said he began volunteering for the program last year and currently helps coordinate the event and recruit other volunteers. “(The Discover Texas State program changes are) still pretty new, so were just testing the waters as we go with it,” Caraveo said.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.