Pursuit of perfection ISU gymnast seeks All-American status see the STORY on PAGE 8
March 3, 2010, Volume 204 >> Number 112 >> 40 cents >> iowastatedaily.com >> An independent newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890
WEDNESDAY
Faculty Senate
Horticulture Hall
Board merges memorandum, Section 3.4 By Taysha Murtaugh Daily Correspondent A proposed replacement of Section 3.4 of the faculty handbook will be presented under new business at the Tuesday Faculty Senate meeting. The executive board met Tuesday to construct the agenda for next week and further revise the new document. This provision, entitled “Nonrenewal or Termination of Appointment,” regards the termination of tenured and untenured faculty and elimination of departments. Initially, the proposed change to Section 3.4 hinged on the passage of the Memorandum of Understanding, a document created to be in effect until
see FACULTY on PAGE 14
Ames City Council
City Council approves new zoning motion The Ames City Council approved a motion to establish a new zoning designation for commercial areas located near residential areas. The Convenience General Service area was established as a result of a prospective development of a Casey’s General Store located near a residential area. Because the store will be located near residents’ homes, changes to the structure of the building, including variations in the current code that will minimize noise impacts of the gas station, will be implemented. ™
online
Plants to get new digs Greenhouses to be torn down, rebuilt with new technology By Bethany Pint Daily Staff Writer Horticulture Hall will soon get a facelift. That’s because the 18 greenhouses on nearly a one-half acre area will be torn down and replaced with state-ofthe-art facilities. Peter Lawlor, agricultural specialist in the horticulture department and greenhouse manager, said construction on the site will begin in May and is expected to be completed by fall 2011. “We’ve been talking about it for four years now,” he said. “They’re all approaching 100 years; they’ve all gone past their lifespan.” The project began with a $6 million budget, but due to budget cuts the project has been allocated $4 million. Because of the loss of the $2 million, Lawlor said there will not be a conservatory in the new greenhouse facility unless the money is donated for the project. “It’s going to be about two-thirds of the size of what we have now,” he said. “So we’re going to have less space; no conservatory just because of the budget situation.” The plants inside the existing conservatory will be donated to another
Iowa State’s conservatory located in the greenhouse of Horticulture Hall will not be included in the new greenhouses due to budget cuts unless there is a $2 million donation to help fund it. Construction for the new greenhouses is planned to start in May and is scheduled to be completed by fall 2011. Photo: Joseph Bauer/Iowa State Daily
conservatory, spread throughout campus or sold in a plant sale, Lawlor said. “It’s bittersweet because it’s used as a teaching tool and it gets quite a bit of students walking through that aren’t in horticulture,” he said. “But we’re going
to have new houses so it’s a tradeoff.” Lawlor said the greenhouses will be recycled as much as possible and used in the new greenhouses. “There’s not much we can use though because it’ll be all new equipment,” he said.
Campaign breaks election rules Commission finds e-mail in violation of current code
Peterson - Wilson
Funding for the Sloss House will be debated, for the second time this semester, at Wednesday night’s Government of the Student Body meeting. The GSB initially funded $29,886.99 to the Sloss House, which was matched by the provost’s office. The money from the GSB was to be used to purchase new furniture for the Sloss House, and the money from the provost’s office was going toward creating structural renovations on the building. A new bill, written by Vice-Speaker Jacob Wilson, was written proposing that the funds allocated to the Sloss House carry over to the next fiscal year so it can wait to buy the furniture until its renovation project is underway this summer. If the Senate doesn’t allow the money to carry over, the Sloss House has nowhere to store the new furniture, and will therefore probably not receive the money that was allocated by the senate, or the money from the provost’s office, Wilson said. Wilson said the Sloss House has been examined by facilities planning and management and needs the renovations, or it will most likely have to
The Government of the Student Body Election Commission found that presidential-hopeful Luke Roling and his running mate, Nate Dobbels, had violated a section of the 2010 Election Code in a violation hearing Monday. The commission found that an e-mail sent out on behalf of the Roling-Dobbels campaign early Monday morning by Inter Residence Hall Association President Jason Boggess to the approximately 9,000 students living in the residence halls and Schilletter and University Village was in violation of the code. Since the e-mail was sent at 12:14 a.m. Monday, it violated the election code that prohibits communications through ISU list servers within 24 hours of the vote. Dan Porter, GSB election commissioner, said he was approached by the Roling–Dobbels campaign for approval to send out an e-mail to the IRHA listserv Thursday night. “They followed the code on that — I had to approve that e-mail,” Porter said. “At that point, it was still permissible.” Porter said every group that endorses a candidate is required to sign a form stating that they have read and understand the GSB election code, and that Boggess signed such a form. If the e-mail had been sent Thursday, Friday or Saturday, Porter said no rules would have been broken. Porter was forwarded the e-mail Monday morning and met with Dione Somerville, dean of students, later that afternoon to discuss the matter. “We agreed that this was something we needed to handled sooner, rather than later, because it did have such large implications for the way the election could turn out,” Porter said. Porter called a meeting of the election commission for 9 p.m., which he said was the earliest time that the group could reach quorum. Both sets of candidates were brought in, starting with Roling and Dobbels. “We let them defend themselves before we heard Peterson and Wilson,” said Nick Davis, election commission member and sophomore in po-
see GSB on PAGE 14
see VIOLATION on PAGE 14
— Daily Staff Writer
Pick up tomorrow’s paper and check online for the rest of the City Council story at iowastatedaily.com
Student Government
Sloss House future funding under scrutiny By Paige Godden Daily Staff Writer
By Kyle Peterson Daily Staff Writer
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see GREEN on PAGE 3
Student Government
Chandra Peterson, Government of the Student Body presidential candidate, said after seeing Inter-Residence Hall Association President Jason Boggess’ e-mail, she had hoped the election commission could level the playing field. Peterson “We were really looking for an opportunity to make it fair,” Peterson said. “A third of the students received this e-mail. We’re talking 7,000 [or] 8,000 students.” Because the e-mail was sent in the first 15 minutes of voting, Peterson said she doesn’t feel like Wilson her campaign had a chance to reach students. “I talked to so many people Monday morning who had already voted for the other people,” Peterson said. “They didn’t even have an opportunity to see what we had done — we had sidewalk chalked everywhere, we were out in our booth.” Peterson said the last election was decided by approximately 200 votes, so if even 5 percent of the students who received the e-mail voted for Luke Roling and Nate Dobbels, her campaign will have a hard time making up the difference. Peterson said she still has questions about the Roling and Dobbels campaign’s plausible deniability in the affair, because of apparent connections between Boggess and the Roling and Dobbels campaign unrelated to his role in Inter Residence Hall Association’s endorsement. “It’s not a secret, he’s actually campaigning for them,” Peterson said. And given the gravity of the endorsement, Peterson said it seems unlikely the Roling and Dobbels campaign would simply part ways with Boggess without following up. “If I knew somebody was going to be e-mailing 9,000 students for me, telling them to vote for me, I would make sure they did it,” Peterson said. If the election does not go in favor of Peterson and Wilson, the campaign can contest the decision and appeal to the GSB supreme court — but Peterson said they haven’t discussed whether or not they’ll take that road. “We’ll have a tough decision to make,” Peterson said.
There’s more:
The newly constructed greenhouses will feature Web-based controls so Lawlor will be able to check on the greenhouses while off campus. Alarms, fans, a floor heating system
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Roling - Dobbels
Government of the Student Body presidential candidate Luke Roling said he knew an e-mail was being sent on behalf of the InterResidence Hall Association endorsing his campaign, Roling but he didn’t find out that the e-mail was sent within 24 hours of the election — a violation of GSB election code rules — until 10 a.m. Monday. About 14 hours later, the Roling and Nate Dobbels Dobbels campaign found out that the e-mail would cost them up to $900 if they lose — and potentially more, if they win. Roling said he was in touch with GSB Election Commissioner Dan Porter “throughout the day” and he “kept the election commission quite informed” as he learned of developments. The e-mail was sent by IRHA President Jason Boggess. The violation occurred not because of the e-mail’s content, but because of the time at which it was sent — around 12:15 a.m. Monday. According to election code, campaign communications through ISU listserv is prohibited within 24 hours of the vote. Boggess declined to comment for the story. Roling received approval from Porter for the e-mail to be sent to the IRHA listserv Thursday night. However, that approval was contingent on adherence to the “24hour rule.” “We just failed to notify Jason of that,” Roling said, adding that he didn’t want to speculate on whether or not Boggess was aware of the rules when he sent the e-mail. Roling and Dobbels said they will wait until after the election results are released to discuss whether they will take any further action regarding the decision. “Luke and I are focusing on the election first and foremost,” Dobbels said. — Daily Staff Writer