NEWS: SPORTS: VIEWS:
A Sister’s Love
Denton childcare availability gets a boost Page 2 Volleyball team beats SFA for first time in 15 years Page 6 Student calls for volunteerism on campus Page 7
Student picks major to help autistic sister Page 3
Thursday, September 24, 2009
News 1,2 Arts & Life 3,4 Sports 5,6 Views 7 Classifieds 8 Games 8
Volume 94 | Issue 17
Cloudy 72° / 55°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
21 confirmed cases of swine flu this fall BY CHRIS SPEIGHT Senior Staff Writer
Studio art junior Jared Nay works on a new media project by appearing around campus as a Tetris block.
PHOTO BY KHAI HA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Art student creates ‘life-sized’ Tetris BY T.S. MCBRIDE
Contributing Writer Giant colorful Tetris pieces descended on the University Union on Wednesday afternoon, provoking curious stares, laughter and cell phone pictures. It wasn’t a mass hallucination, but a performance art piece based on the popular video game, created by Caitlin Christian, studio art freshman. “Basically we just wanted to see how people would react when confronted with life-sized versions of their childhood,” Christian said. “I’m sure a lot of us grew up playing Tetris. I know I did.”
The six Tetris pieces were costumes made from cardboard boxes and duct tape, each one worn by a student. They wandered across campus from the Art Building to the Union, occasionally stopping to assemble in various configurations, or sometimes splitting up. Christian supervised the affair, sometimes stopping to repair a piece with more black duct tape. Studio art with a focus in new media is a relatively new major at UNT. It specializes on the influence of computers in art. “We focus more on computers
as an art medium,” said Jenny Vogel, Christian’s new media professor. “It’s kind of interesting to see how we can apply what we’ve learned in the computer and how we can apply that in the real world.” Students pointed and laughed as the pieces bounced into one another on their random trek across campus. Taylor Bond, an undeclared freshman, posed with a yellow cube while his friends took pictures. “It’s the best thing I’ve seen the whole time I’ve been here,” he said. “It made my day.” Christian said she got the idea for the art piece after she and a
friend decided to dress as Tetris pieces for a contest at a Video Games Live concert one year. “We actually ended up winning and every year subsequently we’ve been making Tetris blocks just for fun.” However, life isn’t all fun and games for a Tetris piece. Paul Harder, communications design senior, seemed relieved to take his red T-shaped costume off upon his return to the Art Building. “It’s very hot. I fell over, so now I’m kind of falling apart,” he said. “One person threatened to punch me, but other than that, it was a pretty positive response.”
UNT health officials have confirmed 21 cases of swine flu since the beginning of the fall semester and have given professors the option of excusing student absences without a doctor’s note. The change came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended universities stop requiring doctor’s notes on Sept. 11 to limit the spread of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu. In response to the CDC’s recommendations, Reginald L. Bond, executive director of the Student Health and Wellness Center, said students should talk to their professors and see whether or not they need a doctor’s note for absences. “You must contact your instructor for guidance on how they wish for you to manage your situation,” he said. Bond said students should give careful consideration to the public health issues that are in play at this time. “When possible, please be creative with opportunities to make up assignments or missed classes and weigh the use of disincentives for missing class with the public health needs of the campus as a whole,” he said. A lexandra Ferraris, an English literature senior, said she wondered if the administration could do anything about professors being more lenient for sick students who miss too many classes. “Is it even possible if they can extend their absence policies, or at least double them?” she said. “Teachers are saying if you miss
three classes, you can’t get an ‘A’ in their class.” Luis Tapia, emergency management coordinator, said health officials think there will be more flu cases this fall. “Health officials predict increased flu cases this fall, including of H1N1 and the seasonal flu, so an upswing in the number of flu cases is also anticipated within the UNT community,” he said. The Student Health and Wellness Center has continued influenza surveillance into the fall semester, said Tapia. “Since the start of the semester, the Student Health and Wellness Center has diagnosed only about 90 individuals with flu-like illness and 21 tests for Influenza A have come back positive,” he said. “At this time of the year, a positive test for Influenza A is treated as though it’s H1N1.” The Health and Wellness Center recommends that students practice precautionary health safety measures. “If possible, isolate yourself from others until your fever breaks for 24 hours without the aid of fever reducing medication,” Bond said. Although swine flu is not unusually severe, Bond said, it does have a disproportionate impact on individuals younger than 25, placing college-aged students at a greater risk. Seasonal f lu immunizations have already begun in the health center at Chestnut Hall on the second floor. The cost for students is $12. For additional information please check the Health Center Web site at www.healthcenter. unt.edu.
Dorms alter bathrooms for ‘sex-transitioning students’ BY MELISSA BOUGHTON Senior Staff Writer
Female students rushing to the restroom in a residence hall may be taken aback when they find that someone left the toilet seat up. The Residence Hall Association General Assembly passed a plan at its Tuesday night meeting to allow unisex bathrooms in most of the dorms. The plan will allow the university’s single-seat bathrooms with locks in the residence halls to become unisex, meaning anyone can use them. The process of implementing the change still requires a vote of approval from the director of housing, Elisabeth Warren, and the director of dining services, Bill McNeace.
Dor ms t hat cou ld be affected are West, Maple, Clark, McConnell, Mozart, Legends, Bruce, Traditions and Santa Fe. The cafes in Maple and Clark could also see a restroom change. Residence Hall Association president Hunter Nelson, who got the idea from a conference he attended during the summer, presented the plan to the association. “I got to take part in a program presentation that dealt with sextransitioning students in residence halls and what we can do as an organization that promotes community and a safe environment for students to excel,” Nelson said. Nelson said that he felt it was necessary to bring the informa-
tion back to UNT and promote it, leading to the unisex bathroom idea. After doing research, Nelson said he learned the university is five years behind in creating an environment for the gay lesbian bi-sexual transgender community. “We also had other universities that were, in 2004, moving toward gender neutral restrooms, so it’s definitely a step that we needed to take to catch up with the rest of the nation,” Nelson said. Five executive officers from each hall come together to make decisions regarding housing issues at the Residence Hall Association General Assembly meetings.
See HOUSING on Page 2
PHOTO BY MELISSA BOUGHTON / PHOTOGRAPHER
Hunter Nelson, Residence Hall Association president, stands by the unisex bathroom in the Crumley Hall lobby. Nelson hopes to have unisex bathrooms in all the dorms with single-seat restrooms by next semester.
UNT releases enrollment numbers, shows growth BY CAROLYN BROWN
Senior Staff Writer UNT recently released its fall 2009 enrollment numbers, showing increases in categories including diversity, graduate and transfer students. The numbers are the unofficial head count results taken after the 12th day of classes. The total enrollment is 36,206 for UNT, which is UNT’s highest enrollment ever, said Troy Johnson, associate vice president of enrollment management. Overall, fall enrollment increased by 1,508 students — 4.3 percent — compared to last fall. UNT’s graduate student enrollment increased by 11 percent,
totaling 7,658 graduate students. UNT now has 5,159 freshmen, a 0.9 percent increase from last fall. Diversity also increased with an 11 percent increase of Hispanic students, an 8.2 percent increase of black students and a 9.3 percent increase of Asian students. These changes can be attributed largely to UNT’s growing reputation, Johnson said. “As our Hispanic and African American enrollment increases, our reputation gets carried back to communities of all kinds,” he said. “That positive reputation carries influence back and positively impacts UNT’s diversity.”
UNT’s transfer student population increased by 4 percent, totaling 4,023 new transfer students. UNT works to attract more transfer students by sending admissions employees to other campuses and maintaining partnerships with community colleges to make the transfer process easier, Johnson said. Economic troubles may also account for some of the growth, as more people decide to head back to school, Johnson said. “You see people making investments in themselves to get through difficult economic times,” he said. The overall increase in enroll-
ment came as a surprise to some administrators. “ We w e r e ple a s a nt l y surprised,” Donna Asher, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs, said. The Office of the Provost had expected a 2 percent enrollment growth, and had not made plans to hire new faculty, she said. However, the office has not gotten any requests for new hires because of crowding. Individual departments typically use their own strategies, such as increasing class sizes or opening new sections to deal with growth, she said. The enrollment statistics will remain unofficial until the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board verifies the results later this semester. UNT’s First-Year Experience program, which works to help new students’ transition to UNT, is affected by the growth, Laurel Dube, coordinator for orientation and First Year Experience, said. The program hired 11 student leaders instead of last year’s six to reach a larger number of students, she said. This year, the program assigned leaders office hours at specific dorms so they can reach students more effectively. The leaders are also working with new ways to reach students by Facebook and Twitter, she said.
So far, the program has seen an enthusiastic response from new students, she said. “We’re finding that these students are very engaged, and it’s helping that we go to them with our programming,” Dube said. About 470 students attended the program’s kickoff party on Sept. 10, about 150 more than they had expected, Dube said. Matt Gwartney, an accounting freshman, chose UNT for its cost and close proximity to home, he said. “I think that UNT does a really good job of providing a lot of resources to help students succeed,” he said.