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Volume 96 | Issue 14
Sunny 94° / 74°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Organization leads way in DNA profiling BY TIM MONZINGO Senior Staff Writer
More than 14,000 human remains sit in medical examiner offices across the U.S., waiting to be returned to their loved ones. It is a number that grows every day. The cases, gone cold, are a challenge that law enforcement officers call America’s silent crisis. At the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, scientists and students work side-by-side with officers building a database that gives authorities across the U.S. the tools to open and close investigations on missing persons around the country. “We have a mission to identify the missing and the murdered and return them home,” said George Adams, the founder of UNT’s Center for Human Identification and program manager of the Forensic Service Unit. To date, the center has identified the remains of more than PHOTO BY CHAZZ MORRISON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER 535 victims — more than all other agencies performing the Spence Fast, a graduate student at the UNT Health Science Center, sorts through some DNA from tissue and blood samples of prostate cancer. same work around the country combined, Adams said. face to face with those probment centers around t he and education. place in forensic research. The nearly $4 million in grants When Jan Smolinski’s 31-year- lems. “We are the epicenter for country are problematic for received by the center allows it to forensic DNA research in the families with missing members, old son, Billy, disappeared six M i sh a nd le d DN A a nd use cutting-edge technology that entire United States,” he said. something that the center is years ago from his home in evidence, along with a lack has vaulted it into a prestigious Deficiencies in law enforce- working to fix through research Waterbury, Conn., she came of response from the police,
Center to have first open house BY STEPHANIE CHAN Contributing Writer
FORT WORTH — The UNT Health Science Center will have its first Forensic Genetics Open House from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. Part of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science, the heavily lab-based program began in 2000 with its first graduates in 2002. “What the students learned back then is similar, but in a lot of ways, we’ve added a lot more to the program to keep it updated,” said Joseph Warren, assistant professor of the program and adviser of the Forensic Investigation Research and Education organization. In previous years, recruiters have t r av e l e d t o o t h e r universities to promote the program. “We’re t r y i ng to go out there and actively seek out and tell about it, instead of just letting people learn about it,” sa id R honda Roby, a n
associate professor of forensic and investigative genetics at the center. Classes Accepting 12 to 14 students per year, the forensics program begins with a core curriculum that includes classes such as molecular biology, cell biology, biochemist r y a nd immunology. “What made them so challenging was that they were very accelerated and they presented a lot of information,” said Marc Sprouse, a forensic graduate student. A one-year class, such as biochemistry, is taught to the students in six weeks. Students are also expected to do a six to eight week internship at an external lab. “It wasn’t like what is portrayed on TV,” Sprouse said of his first autopsy. “She just looked like somebody that was just sleeping. They have a hard job to do, and it’s quite a bit, so they don’t
waste any time, they sort of just get to it.” Internships From Las Vegas to Puerto Rico, students work on projects at the crime lab at which they intern. Afterward, each student writes a research practicum report along with a public presentation and defense. Not only do the students learn much during the internships, but networking also gives them a huge advantage, said Meredith Turnbough, forensic and investigative genetics lab manager. Eighty-one percent of graduates found jobs within the first year while 13 percent pursued higher education. The other graduates already had jobs. FIRE UNT students are also encouraged to join the Forensic Investigation Research and Education organization, also known as FIRE. Including staff, faculty and
students, there are about 30 to 40 members in FIRE. Created by students in 2005, the organization focuses on genetics, DNA and biological testing. Students also bring in guest speakers from other fields of forensics that are not covered in the curriculum, such as trace evidence, to expand their knowledge. The trace evidence unit analyzes hair, fibers, glass, paint, gunshot residue and other substances outside of the forensic genetics field, according to the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. The organization also does communit y outreach, like demonstrating how a crime lab would test for bloodstains. During the holidays, the group organizes food and clothing drives. For more information, visit w w w.hsc.unt.edu/gsbs. To RSVP for the event, e-mail GoToGradSchool@UNTHSC. edu.
caused Billy’s case to fall through the cracks. It took four years for law enforcement to obtain, and keep, viable samples of DNA from her son’s truck, Smolinski said. The original samples taken from her and her daughter were lost. There was no forensic record for investigators to use in their investigation. Smolinski found Adams at UNT, who helped her understand the problems faced by law enforcement personnel. “I reached out into the Internet and I found George Adams from the University of North Texas,” she said. “He really educated me and has guided me through the years.” She believes other families will be better off in the search for their missing loved ones because of the work the center does, Smolinski said. Smolinski, with the help of politicians, formed a response to those problems: Billy’s Law, a bill offering incentives for law enforcement agencies to train officers to better handle cases of missing adults, is being considered by the U.S. Senate.
See STAFF on Page 2
PHOTO BY CHAZZ MORRISON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior staff writer Tim Monzingo turns the tables on the Forensic Service Unit program manager George Adams by getting a Buckle Sample, also known as a mouth swab.
Financial aid could decrease
Going To War
BY ERIN LIPINSKY
Contributing Writer
PHOTO BY RYAN BIBB/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Mean Green’s four captains: Senior linebacker Craig Robertson, junior cornerback Royce Hill, junior running back Lance Dunbar and senior defensive tackle Kelvin Jackson are expected to lead the team into battle against Army on Saturday in West Point, N.Y. See ‘INJURIES’ on page 3
A potential decrease in the amount of financial aid available could affect Texas college students starting when they register for aid in September 2011. In June 2010, Gov. Rick Perry asked public institutions of higher education to produce a budget showing a 10 percent cut in spending for the two-year period of 2012 and 2013. With about $1 billion approved in the past two years for financial aid, a 10 percent budget cut could mean a $108 million slash in state-level financial aid. In the 2008 to 2009 school year, 30,105 UNT students applied for financial aid from the university, and 26,611 students received it, totaling about $238 million paid to recipients, according to the UNT fact book online. Along with public colleges,
agencies such as the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board were ordered to project possible budget cuts, said Raymund Paredes, the Texas Com m issioner of Hig her Education. The board allocates money in its budget for programs, scholarships, loans and grants to make higher education more accessible and could possibly experience hardships with a 10 percent budget cut, Paredes added. “We won’t know [more] until we are in the legislative session,” Paredes said. “We have been told that financial aid will be protected, but we cannot be sure until late May, early June.” Republican Texas Sen. Craig Estes, who serves District 30 — which includes the northern half of Denton County — said he believes financial aid is essential for the success of Texas college graduates.
“Student aid is important to me and a top priority to make sure there is adequate financial aid, because it is very important for the future of our state,” Estes said. “That’s one of the things we will work hard to keep from cutting.” Sopia Som, a behavioral analysis sophomore, said she would have a hard time paying for school and textbooks if her financial aid was cut. “I would have to have less hours each semester, which would delay my graduation,” she said. Som hopes the lawmakers will come to an agreement with Estes.a “They should most definitely protect financial aid,” she said. “If they invest in their students, it would yield a greater return in the long run.”
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