Snowpocalypse Weather provides winter playground for students
Page 2 Tuesday, February 8, 2011
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Volume 97 | Issue 10
Sunny 54° / 36°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Traditions Hall flood leaves students out to dry BY ISAAC WRIGHT Senior Staff Writer
ARTS & LIFE: Student known as world’s best Astrojax performer Page 3
SPORTS: Weather cancels Lubbock track and field tournament Page 6
Freezing temperatures caused a sprinkler head to burst in the upper floors of Traditions Hall Saturday morning, flooding dorm rooms and hallways and causing significant water damage to parts of the building. Just after 9 a.m., the fire alarm sounded in Traditions and residents were evacuated after a frozen pipe caused a sprinkler head in the attic to burst. The ensuing cascade of water affected the three floors of the building’s north wing. Thirty-six rooms in the dorm received serious damage from the water. The 37 residents of those rooms met with university officials to find alternate housing. Tom Rufer, associate vice president of auxiliary services, said some of the students who live nearby decided to go home rather than seek other housing on campus. Rufer said the university worked with those who decided to stay and has housed them all in residence halls where there were vacancies. “We met with them individually and tried to come up with a situation that was best for them,” Rufer said. “By [Sunday] afternoon, everyone that was impacted was taken care of.” Power and water were both shut off at Traditions after the pipe broke, Rufer said. He said the south wing of the building was found to have not sustained any damage from the broken pipe and utilities were restored to it later Saturday afternoon. Around 6 p.m., unaffected
PHOTO BY BRIAN MASCHINO/INTERN
A frozen fire alarm sprinkler broke Saturday, flooding the north wing of Traditions Hall. Thirty-six rooms were seriously damaged by water, causing 37 residents to find another place to stay. residents were a llowed to return to their rooms. Rufer said the university hired an outside restoration company, Restoration Specialists, to assess and repair the damaged areas of the hall. Repairs are expected to take about a week, he said, but costs are not yet known. “We hope to have a pretty good idea by the end of the day,” Rufer said. “We’ve not put a cost to it at this point. We
probably won’t have a dollar value on this until the majority of things are taken care of.” Residents in Traditions were first evacuated outside after the fire alarm went off and were soon moved into Santa Fe Square next door. Many residents were confused. “The last time we had a fire drill, they told us it was a drill and that next time, it would be real,” said Dewayne Smith, a hospitality management sophomore. “I
thought it was an actual fire.” Smith said his room was not affected by water. However, he said the work going on to repair the hall can be seen in the lobby. “There’s a ton of work,” Smith said. “They have fans in there, chunks of the ceiling are gone. The paneling on the wall is damaged, too.” John Ramirez, a kinesiology freshman, was also at Traditions early Saturday morning but said
he left shortly after residents were evacuated. He said his room was not affected by the water, but Traditions Hall resident assistants told him that many students had to be relocated because their rooms were full of water. Ramirez said the high water damaged any belongings left on the floor at the time of the flooding.
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TAMS budget could lose $850K Dean requests UNT ‘back us up’
VIEWS: Students need to look at the labels in the grocery store Page 4
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BY DREW GAINES Senior Staff Writer
PHOTO BY DREW GAINES/SENIOR STAFF WRITER
People slid across Fry Street early Thursday morning. Another four inches of snow is expected to blanket Denton Wednesday.
School closures likely as snow moves through BY M ATTHEW CARDENAS Staff Writer
Just as students begin to thaw from their icy break last week, it looks like the winter weather isn’t over yet. The forecasters predict another snowstorm to hit the North Texas area late Tuesday night that will continue through Wednesday afternoon. “We are expecting ice,” meteorologist Jennifer Dunn said. “We are expecting a widespread travel impact, si m i la r to la st week .” Last week, two snowstorms hit the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The first storm was on Monday night, bringing the North Texas area four or five inches of snow and coating area roads in ice, Dunn said. The second storm hit Friday morning, dumping an additional two to four inches. An arctic cold front will hit
North Texas early Wednesday mor ning. The Nat iona l Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch. Dunn said the highs on Wednesday will be in the mid 20s, and the temperature will decrease throughout the day. The lows will be in the teens, with a wind chill below zero. Denton could receive up to four inches of sleet and snow, Dunn said. The storms may cause more school closures, which comes as a mixed blessing for some. “I liked missing class,” criminal justice sophomore Jamal Freeman said about last week’s weather. “But I don’t look forward to missing more classes.” By the weekend, the sun will be shining. Temperatures will start in the mid-40s on Friday and get up to the mid-60s by Sunday, Dunn said.
Two weeks ago, President Barack Obama hammered the nation about the importance of math and science education during his annual State of the Union Address. Today, Richard Sinclair, t he dean of Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at UNT, is unsettled about t he f uture of UNT’s prem ier resea rch prog ra m as it faces its biggest budget cut yet. TAMS is a two-year program that allows high school sophomores to conduct research in the science, engineering and mathematics fields at UNT while attending college classes and living on campus. T he n at ion a l l y ac c re dited institution is facing an $850,000 budget cut beginning Fall 2012. The cuts, which will remove about 17 percent of TAMS’ budget, come as Texas leg islators slash educat ion spending in an attempt to dig up the estimated $27 billion needed to balance the state’s mounting budget deficit. “These are scary numbers,” Si ncla i r sa id, refer r i ng to the record-setting shortfall. “There is no intention to hurt TAMS. We are just part of that $31 billion everyone is trying to find.” TAMS’ operation relies on two forms of state funding: special items, which are funds a llocated to t he universit y by state officials for special prog ra ms, a nd for mu la
funding, which is money given to a school based on its enrollment, credit hours and demographic needs. Specia l-item f unding for Texas schools may be cut by as much as 25 percent beginning next year, Sinclair said. That means a loss of $300,000 for the TAMS program. Formula
keep TAMS students at full strength.” Si ncla i r a lso considered upping tuition for students next year. The proposed cost would be $8,200 a semester. However, he is leery of such price increases because he sa id it cou ld d i sr upt t he desired diversity and demo-
“I’m afraid [the cuts] will affect the future of TAMS and strain the incoming class.”
—Avia Weinstein TAMS student and Students Council member
funding, which provides the major it y of TA MS budget, i s ex pe c te d to be c ut by 13.5 percent for a l l Tex a s schools. T he pr og r a m w i l l a l s o receive less money from the university next year, as UNT imposed a 5 percent budget cut. Sinclair also cites 2012’s rise in tuition price as a factor that will cost TAMS money. “I’m afraid [the cuts] will affect the future of TAMS and strain the incoming class,” said Avia Weinstein, a TAMS student and Student Council member. T here a re 378 st udent s cur rent ly attending TA MS. The program’s faculty considered dwindling down 2012’s entering class enrollment after news of the cuts, but Sinclair says cutting the enrollment just isn’t possible. “The way it looks right now, TAMS is at full enrollment, or it will be cut,” Sinclair said. “The only answer really is to
graphics of the program. “TAMS offers a smaller environment with more opportunities to be involved. It’s a way to get a head w it h classes,” Weinstein said. Many of the TAMS students go on to elite universities after graduating from the program. Some have gone on to w in prestigious scholarships and work for agencies like NASA. The students’ contribution to science research is a key reason to keep the program at UNT, Sincla ir sa id. The ot her reason is t he money the program gives back to the university. “If TAMS left today, UNT would lose $7 million,” Sinclair said. He based the figure off of UNT housing costs for TAMS students and their extreme number of credit hours that the state compensates for. “I feel very confident UNT sees t he va lue of TA MS,” Sincla ir sa id. “My pitch is going to be, ‘back us up.’”