April 6, 2021

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TUESDAY APRIL 6, 2021 VOLUME 110 ISSUE 9

www.UniversityStar.com

DEFENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT SINCE 1911

Local restaurant promotes healthy eating one bowl at a time

Brotherhood and 'Hierarchy': Alumni triad produces feature film set to debut in 2022

Opinion: Mental illness is not a detriment, it can be a gift

Softball sweeps Coastal Carolina to win 17th straight game

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INCLUSION

ELECTRICITY

'TEXAS STATE IS NOT AN EXCEPTION' Asian students reflect on lack of campus representation, inclusion By Sarah Hernandez Assistant Life & Arts Editor Timia Cobb Assistant News Editor

Lights illuminate the UAC Arch, Monday, March 29, 2021, at Texas State. PHOTO BY JEFFREY HALFEN

THE PRICE OF POWER

Why Texas State spends $7 million annually on electricity By Payton Russell Life & Arts Reporter At the end of a long school day, after whiteboards are wiped clean and students return home, Texas State's buildings continue to stay bright overnight. While campus walkways stay lit during all hours of the day, it comes at a higher price than one might think. Electricity puts a 5% dent in the university’s annual operating budget. It costs the university nearly $7 million dollars annually to keep buildings running 24/7. However, with campus constantly buzzing with activity, Texas State’s Chief Financial Officer Eric Algoe sees no time for making the switch from power to total darkness. "Altogether, there is still quite a bit of activity in many of our buildings overnight," Algoe says. "We also do most of our custodial work and some maintenance work during the overnight hours to stay out of the daytime rush in buildings." Electricity on campus also powers Texas State's heating and cooling which, due to the age and sizeable square footage of many campus buildings, must stay on even at night. Algoe says heating and cooling each building takes an exorbitant amount of time, meaning if the temperature swing is too great, the university runs multiple risks. "If we were to let buildings heat up or cool down in those overnight hours too much, we would not be able to get them back to comfort in time to reopen," Algoe says. "Furthermore, large temperature swings inside buildings runs the danger of humidity condensation creating flood-like conditions." Jim Vollrath, Texas State's director of Utilities Operations, manages the production of these 24-hour heating and cooling systems within buildings through a number of power plants across campus. These systems reach each building through pipes that run beneath the floors of the university. “Steam is used in the buildings and then converted to heat with large furnaces; they're massive,” Vollrath says. "Then we make chilled water. We distribute it under the buildings at 45 degrees, and they use that instead of refrigerants in the buildings’ A/C systems.” Texas State's Star Park, containing research wet labs, which are research labs used for handling chemicals, liquids or gaseous substances, ranks as one of the highest energy consumers due to its HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems designed for those purposes. Some of the largest buildings on campus like Alkek Library, the LBJ Student Center and the Student Recreation Center also top the energy consumption list due to their abundance of square footage. When the pandemic hit, the cost to heat and cool these large buildings shot up dramatically. Utilities Operations placed a strong emphasis on student and staff safety. With early scientific theories warning the

Heather Tran was walking near The Square when she was confronted by three male students pulling at their eyelids to mock her monolid eye shape. While being mocked and told “This is what white privilege looks like,” Tran got an unnerving feeling and the reassurance that racism was not a hallucination. “I have faced racism [like] every other minority,” Tran says. “I have faced racism from adults to kids, to people my age and I've experienced it here at Texas State...Texas State is not an exception.”

SEE INCLUSION PAGE 2 AMAZON

City residents debate need for Amazon delivery station By Timia Cobb Assistant News Editor

The LBJ Student Center's star shines at night, Monday, March 29, 2021, at the LBJ Student Center.

A new Amazon facility will soon make its way to San Marcos, with hopes of creating more jobs and revenue in a city with over 100 years of long-running family trees and prosperous small businesses. However, residents are on the fence about whether a town with such history needs a trillion-dollar corporation to sustain economic growth.

PHOTO BY JEFFREY HALFEN

The Amazon Fulfillment Center, Monday, April 5, 2021, at 1401 E. McCarty Lane. PHOTO BY DOUGLAS SMITH

Lights illuminate Jones Dining Center, Monday, March 29, 2021, at Texas State. PHOTO BY JEFFREY HALFEN

Texas State students walk around campus at night, Monday, March 29, 2021, at Alkek Library. PHOTO BY JEFFREY HALFEN

virus could be contracted by airborne spread, Vollrath's department prioritized allowing fresh air into the buildings, regardless of cost. “It takes more energy to air condition or heat outdoor air than it does to circulate air,” Vollrath says. “Because safety is our first priority, last year we made a decision to sacrifice energy.” Despite this, Vollrath and the Energy Conservation

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Amazon's new delivery station, set to reside at 1346 Fortuna Road, is expected to arrive by the end of 2021. The 1.1 million square foot delivery station will deliver larger luxury items, such as couches and televisions, to homes. With the delivery station, the company will have two facilities in town, the other being its fulfillment center located at 1401 E. McCarty Lane. Residents like Jessica Robinson believe the increase in warehouses in addition to Texas State has made it more expensive for locals to reside in the town. Robinson, a mother and San Marcos native, purchased her first home in San Marcos in 2008 for $117,000 before deciding to move due to a change in her marital status. She says the same home now goes for twice the price. “I feel like local people who have families here, who have not just their own children but have their aunts, their uncles or cousins, there's a lot of us here where, you know, it's people I grew up with going to high school and a lot of them don't live here anymore but did come back to visit those aunts, uncles, parents, and it's great to have these new businesses to have more to do, but as far as it being family-friendly, [San Marcos has]

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