DEFENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT SINCE 1911 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018
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LIFE & ARTS San Marcos community fights for Monarch butterfly conservation |PAGE 3|
Volume 108, Issue 07
Texas State Title IX rules may change under DeVos
New club investigates the paranormal |PAGE 4|
OPINIONS
Students should have more say over tuition fees |PAGE 5|
U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos.
PHOTO BY GAGE SKIDMORE
Conservatives for the college mind |PAGE 6| By Brittlin Richardson | Senior News Reporter
SPORTS Weekend Recap |PAGE 7|
Coaches scratch heads after Saturday against ULL |PAGE 7|
Residents, city officials work together in crime prevention By Keller Bradberry Life & Arts Contributor San Marcos residents and law enforcement are working toward building rapport through chili dogs and cake walks. On the first Tuesday of every October the San Marcos community comes together to recognize National Night Out. San Marcos has been participating in this event for 35 years. National Night Out is a community-police awareness night. It is an opportunity for suburban communities to interact with city officials such as police officers or fire fighters. Law Enforcement officers and community members met at El Camino Real Park 6:30-8:30 p.m. The friendly gathering included lawn chairs, food and festivities. Bean bag tosses, cake walks and tours of police cars and firetrucks entertained guests. The event is a celebration of trust and familiarity between public service and the community. It focuses on the revival of the old school of thought: knowing your neighbors. Nahum Melendez, Police Chaplain, said he lauded the gathering for bringing the community together. SEE COMMUNITY PAGE 4
Editor's Note: the Title IX victim's name has been changed to Jane Smith to protect their identity. Editor's Note: the Title IX victim's name has been for formal complaints filed through the official complaint changed to Jane Smith to protect their identity. process, and the definition of sexual harassment would U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' be narrowed. Lastly, the incident must have occurred on unofficial proposal for new Title IX regulations could school property for the school to investigate. change how sexual misconduct reports are handled at In 2011, the Office for Civil Rights published a "Dear public schools including Texas State. Colleague" letter lessening restrictions on standards Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in of evidence, transforming the mandate. Under Devos' education programs or activities operated by recipients of proposal, the rule changes would allow schools to choose Federal financial assistance. their standard of evidence as a "preponderance of the According to proposal documents obtained by the evidence," meaning the event is more likely than not to New York Times, schools will be able to choose which have had happened, or "clear and concise," meaning the type of evidence to use when determining fault in Title event is highly probable. SEE TITLE IX IX cases. Additionally, schools would only be responsible PAGE 2
Student Service Fee revenue balloons to all-time high By Sawyer Click Managing Editor Texas State's revenue from the Student Service Fee has ballooned to nearly $7 million due to years of recordbreaking enrollment and an increasing reserve fund. The Student Service Fee is a mandatory fee that students pay in conjunction with tuition and 13 other fees. Its primary purpose is to allocate funding to student services, which are “separate and apart from the regularly scheduled academic functions of the institution and directly involve or benefit students," according to Section 54.503 of the Texas Education Code. Out of these 13 fees, the Student Service Fee is the only one where students actually serve on the advising committee – and as a majority.
The Student Government president appoints six Student Government members to the Student Service Fee Advisory Committee, including an alternate member who would vote in the instance of an absent member. As mandated by the university’s policies and procedures for the committee, four administrators make up the rest of the committee, including the dean of students as the chair. The fee begins at $10 per credit hour and caps at $90 for nine credit hours and up. The only students who don’t pay the fee are those exempt from tuition, like students utilizing the Hazlewood Act, a 1943 act that provides Texas veterans, spouses and dependent children with an education
benefit up to 150 hours. The fee supports a range of campus initiatives, student organizations, scholarships, travel accounts, operations, faculty salaries and operations. The Counseling Center, a Texas State office that provides group, individual and couples counseling to students, is projected to receive $1.18 million in
permanent funding from the fee for fiscal year 2019, totaling at nearly a sixth of the entire fund. Director of the Counseling Center Kathlyn Dailey said a majority of the Student Service Fee allocated toward the Counseling Center goes to salaries, nearing almost $1.1 million. The remaining amount, $80,000, is allocated as operating costs. SEE FEES PAGE 2
Award-winning author and poet joins Texas State faculty By Brittlin Richardson Senior News Reporter Author and poet Naomi Shihab Nye has joined Texas State's creative writing faculty as a creative writing professor for two years to share her expertise with students. For nearly 20 years, Nye read manuscripts for master's of fine arts candidates and has conducted many workshops and readings at Texas State. She has published 35 books and currently resides in San Antonio. According to the Poetry Foundation, Nye has received the Lavan Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Carity Randall Prize, and multiple Pushcart
Prizes, and has served in fellowships for the Lannan Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Witter Bynner Foundation. She also served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets for five years. Her most famous volumes include Fuel (1998), 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (2002), which talked about the Middle East and her experience as an ArabAmerican, and The Same Sky (1992) which represents 129 poets from 68 countries. "I've always had a really positive feeling about [the creative writing] program at Texas State," Nye said. "I'm very happy to be a visiting writer
this year and get to do workshops." In the past, Nye has taught classes at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas in Austin for over 23 years and is currently conducting a seminar open to multi-genre creative writing students at the Katherine Ann Porter House in Kyle. "[In these workshops], we have discussions and we look at people's work they bring," Nye said. "Depending on how many people come, we look at as much work as we possibly can and discuss it while I make suggestions and talk about things (that matter) to me in the field." SEE WRITING PAGE 2