Cyclones can’t shut Cowboys down see SPORTS on PAGE 10
THURSDAY
Tickets go on sale Saturday
for several bands, including Owl City, that will be coming to the Ames and Des Moines area see AMUSE on PAGE 12
February 18, 2010, Volume 206 >> Number 103 >> 40 cents >> iowastatedaily.com >> An independent newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890
Student Government
Cyclone Cinema
Bill passes for campus map installation By Paige Godden Daily Staff Writer Wednesday night’s Government of the Student Body meeting featured the passing of a single bill. The bill was originally written to allocate $7,000 to Facilities Planning and Management to update and install campus directory maps, which hasn’t been done since 2006. The bill was amended down to $3,000 after the group found they were able to fund $3,000 through other means. The goal is to have the maps up before this year’s Veishea. The Finance Committee report, given by Tom Danielson, mentioned that the ISU Sports Club Council will receive $5,000 extra in order to accommodate the 45 groups that asked for more than $200,000 from regular allocations. The University Affairs Committee report, given by Sagar Chawla, said the committee is still working to deal with bike safety on campus. Former Senator Jacob Johnston shared his thoughts on the Varsity Theater with the senate during open forum. After his calculations, he expects the Varsity Theater to lose about $500,000 in five years. Johnston said the negative of this project is that it will be losing money that could be spent on funding groups to go on trips and different activities, and the benefit would be to watch a movie and eat popcorn. “The benefits don’t outweigh the negatives ... you should show the student body you are still good stewards of public funds, and the words fiscal responsibility still applies at this institution,” Johnston said. During closing announcements, Vice President Chandra Peterson said that Second Annual Sustainability Symposium registration forms are due Feb. 19.
Department of Transportation
$8.5 million grant to build transport hub The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this morning that it was awarding a grant of nearly $8.5 million to help build an intermodal transport hub in Ames. Sheri Kyras, director of CyRide, said that Ames was one of 50 applicants chosen from a pool of about 1,400. “We really are pleased,” Kyras said. “To be one of 50 around the natation that is seen to have a project in our community that is worthy of this federal stimulus money, I think, is awesome.” “It really is a good first step toward meeting some of the needs of the intermodal facility in Ames.” The grant, however is only a portion of the funds requested. “We had requested 39 million in federal funding,” Kyras said. Planners will consider building the facility in phases or scaling down the project because of the difference in requested allocated funds. “Probably over the next several months we’ll be trying to figure out exactly what the project will look like,” Kyras said. Kyras said the first step lies with understanding exactly which pieces of the grant were approved. “We don’t know how they came up with the number that they did,” Kyras said. “Were there parts of the facility that they wanted to fund 100 percent? If they only wanted to fund certain portions of the facility, then we might need to alter the project.” Due to the terms of the grant, the portions of project funded by stimulus money are required to be “substantially complete.” But with a smaller vision than before, the project will be less pressed for time. “It really does give us some time to kind of take a step back,” Kyras said. — Daily Staff
The screen that the Student Union Board uses to project its semester-annual outdoor film sits on the rooftop of the Memorial Union parking garage. This is the most attended film that the SUB hosts. Courtesy photo: Aerielle Smith
Critique continues Students, group leaders ruminate about potential future of finances, impact of Varsity Theater purchase for Iowa State By Alexander Hutchins Daily Staff Writer The proposal to reopen the Varsity Theater, which passes the GSB senate 28-2, is not without its critics. Jason Covey, president of the ISU College Republicans, said that money going into the project now will not create money for Iowa State in the future. “I don’t think we need to spend more of our tuition money on something that won’t turn a profit,” Covey said. Covey was displeased that the theater proposal did not seem to represent the student body of Iowa State. “Why are they voting at 2 a.m.?” Covey said, noting that his GSB Senator Bridget Wedemeier, had told him she would vote no on the proposal before voting yes. Wedemeier declined to be interviewed for this article. Covey said the GSB did ask students if they would like a theater on campus, but the method did not include explaining the costs of the theater project to those who were questioned. One projection has the theater running at a $60,000 deficit. Covey said the theatre is a fundamentally good idea, but that it won’t be properly implemented. He would rather see a program promoting ticket subsidies to the theatres currently operating in Ames. Eric Cooper, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State and Libertarian party candidate for governor, said that presumably the GSB held hearings prior to the vote and thus gave students an opportunity to voice their opinions. “There will always be the other side of the vote,” Cooper said.
Cooper said that if the GSB thinks the theater is the best use of its funds then he supports the idea. “It’s why they have a budget,” he said. Corey Becker, executive director of the ISU College Republicans, did not feel the theater vote reflected the student body’s decision. “My concern is a financial issue,” he said. Becker said that for the theater to reopen it would mean the GSB would lose money and incur legal liability as a public institution running a business that competes with commercial ventures. Aerielle Smith, president of the Student Union Board and Connor Nolan, vice president of SUB, both supported the GSB’s plan to reopen the Varsity Theater. Smith and Nolan said the new venue would help SUB screen films in a better venue and would allow for greater options in movies for students on campus. SUB is currently funded by the Memorial Union and also receives funds from the GSB to gain the rights to show films Thursdays and Saturdays. This is the first semester SUB has received funding from GSB, Smith said. “I don’t see it as a big fundamental difference,” Smith said of the new venue for films. Nolan said that SUB would still be involved in selecting and promoting the films the Varsity Theater would show. He said SUB gave its support to the Varsity Theater project and that SUB would be doing much of the coordination for the new venture. Coverage of the issue in the Iowa State Daily was either informational or letters to the editor with little real discussion of the issue, Becker said. He agreed with the GSB’s goal of providing students entertainment options, but said that giving credits to businesses to open near campus or subsidizing ticket prices would be better options than opening a theater. Becker said that the wishes of the SUB films program to have a better venue for films could be better addressed by finding a way for the group to screen its movies in theaters in town. The GSB can still find ways to benefit the student body without taking on projects like this, he said.
Handbook
Faculty discusses policy By Taysha Murtaugh Daily Correspondent The typographical error in the Senate Faculty handbook’s new open meeting policy sums up the discrepancy the issue has generated among ISU faculty. This revision, approved at the Faculty Senate meeting on Feb. 9, stated that “although the university promotes the principle of open meanings, state law does not require that university committee meetings be open to the public.” The word “meaning” where “meeting” should be “is kind of hilarious, because in a way, what we’re arguing about here is that this policy could be open to lots of different meanings,” said Executive Director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition Charles Davis. “Three or four or five different people could read this document and come up with three or four or five different meanings for this docu-
Owen
Bugeja
ment.” The new wording replaced a longer version that required all Iowa State meetings to be open to the public and the press unless a majority voted to close for confidential reasons. These reasons were specifically listed. The old policy also required university councils and committees to provide the Iowa State Daily as well as Iowa State’s University Relations Office with the date, place, agenda and minutes of each meeting. Some members of the senate considered
these requirements unnecessary and thought a revision was in order. Faculty Senate President-Elect and professor in agronomy Mike Owen said the previous language was confusing, and “the best answer is the simplest answer.” One of the framers behind the new policy was professor in civil, construction and environmental engineering Max Porter. “It was the combination of length and being out of date as well as being unmanageable,” Porter said. “And it wasn’t being followed. That’s the bottom line; it wasn’t being followed anyway.” This reasoning created tension among faculty members, and the majority of the opposition came from the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Although the new policy passed with a 38-20 vote, Joel Geske, associate professor of journalism
see POLICY on PAGE 3