International society Japanese club gives diversity to campus Page 3 Tuesday, March 1, 2011
News 1, 2 Arts & Life 3 Sports 4 Views 5 Classifieds 6 Games 6
Volume 97 | Issue 21
Sunny 70° / 40°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Rawlins explains proposed tuition increase BY ISAAC WRIGHT
the limit of what the university can handle. One problem Rawlins UNT President V. Lane Rawlins noted during his presentation presented the university’s plan was that faculty growth has not to deal with proposed state kept up with growth of students budget cuts at a special session at UNT, and Rawlins hopes the of the Student Government tuition increases can address. Rawlins said the $7 million Association Monday. Rawlins proposed a Fall 2011 would also go to a number of areas tuition increase of 2.8 percent the state budget reductions would that would total about $118 impact. He sees the increases as for 15 semester hours. The increase would be added to the 3.9 percent tuition increase that was already approved by the UNT Board of Regents last year. The tuition hike comes at a time when bills proposed in both the Texas House of —Tori Kuhn, Representatives and Texas State Senate could cut anywhere from Senator for the $3.7 to $9.4 million from the College of Business general revenue UNT receives from the state. Rawlins said an an investment in the quality of approximate 3 percent growth in education at UNT, he said. enrollment, when coupled with “If we move forward with this the addition 2.8 percent increase 2.8 [percent increase in tuition], in tuition, would generate around we’ll put it right here,” Rawlins $7 million in added revenue. said. “We’ll put it into financial Rawlins said without that addi- aid. We’ll put it into teachers. We’ll tional funding, the quality of the put it into space.” university could suffer. SGA is the student-led govern“I think we can survive at that mental body at UNT. Tori Kuhn, a level, but survive is what we’re senator for the College of Business, doing,” Rawlins said. “It means said she thinks the university is that the reductions are not very on the right track with the tuition big, but the crowding just gets a increase. Kuhn said the increases little worse.” that UNT students are looking Rawlins said a 3 percent at pale in comparison to those increase in enrollment is near under consideration at other Texas Senior Staff Writer
ARTS & LIFE: Student volunteers assist reading program Page 4
SPORTS: Men’s basketball team notches senior night win Page 4
“ ... The increases
he proposed are definitely going to be for a better UNT.”
PHOTO BY JAMES COREAS/SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
President V. Lane Rawlins speaks to SGA members about a proposal for an increase in tuition Monday afternoon. schools, such as the University of Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. “They are handling [the cuts] to the best of their ability,” Kuhn said. “Strategically, we’re on the right track. We’re not overspending. We’re at our bare minimums right now, and the increases that he proposed are definitely going to be for a better UNT.” Patrick Hopkins, a senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, said UNT’s tuition is one of the lowest in the state. Hopkins also said the state doesn’t provide as much money per student to UNT
about “white privilege” BY M ATTHEW CARDENAS
Staff Writer
BY ISAAC WRIGHT Senior Staff Writer
Movie plots need to become more original Page 5
ONLINE: Mean Green completes comeback
Follow the North Texas Daily
his hand during Rawlins’ presentation and called into question the size of Rawlins’ three-yearcontract. Hayes also questioned the $100,000 the university paid George W. Bush to speak last semester and said such expenses should be the first things that are cut when UNT faces budget cuts rather than considering hikes in tuition. “I don’t understand why the costs of the budget cuts have to fall on the backs of the students, faculty and staff, and not on the backs of those who are already immensely wealthy,” Hayes said.
CNN journalist recalls struggles Activist writer speaks Soledad O’Brien talks about identity, diversity
VIEWS:
as they do at other universities in the state, something Rawlins called on SGA to address when senators speak to the Texas Legislature later this week. “In this economy, the last thing we want is increased anything — taxes, tuition,” Hopkins said. “But, the state’s just not picking it up, and it’s pretty much our obligation as students to see that our university is well-funded.” Not all students at the meeting were in favor of the tuition increases. Kevin Hayes, a philosophy and sociology senior and a member of the International Socialist Organization, raised
CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien spoke about her experiences pushing for more diverse reporting in the news Friday morning as part of the Multicultural Center’s Equity and Diversity conference. O’Brien opened the 11th annual conference with a speech that highlighted her journey into the newsroom and her experiences with diversity in the media. “The stories that I do are really about identity,” said O’Brien, who hosts CNN’s “In America” documentaries. The critica lly acclaimed series focuses on the lives and accomplishments of Americans from diverse backgrounds that are making a difference in their communities. “No one really does these stories, but identity is interesting to everybody, and we’ve been successful,” she said. O’Brien began her speech with her story of entering the journa lism industr y. A f ter dropping out of the pre-med program at Harvard, O’Brien took an unpaid internship at WBZ-TV in Boston, a position that she said mostly involved removing staples from bulletin boards around the station. As she progressed through the industry, O’Brien said she soon came to discover the power and importance of working in journalism. “As I grew as a human being, and as I grew as a journalist, what I really began to appreciate the most was the opportunity to leverage the power of the position to bring about change,” she said. O’Brien’s parents are an interracial couple who married
PHOTO BY KALANI GORDON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien gives the keynote speech at the 11th annual Equity and Diversity Conference Friday. O’Brien is currently the host of the “In America” documentaries. in 1958. Her mother is black and Cuban, and her father is a white Australian. While the couple lived in Baltimore, O’Brien said, they were forced to get married in Washington, D.C., because, at the time, interracial marriage was illegal in Maryland. O’Brien said her mother encouraged her and her siblings to hold on to their heritage. “Her whole point was don’t lose your identity,” O’Brien said. “I think that’s a good message for everybody. It’s not necessarily a black or Latino message. It’s sort of this message of embracing your identity, understanding it, holding onto it and being proud of it.”
O’Brien said America has come a long way since her parents living at the height of segregation. But, she cautioned, there are still professional minefields out there. O’Brien said she encountered moments where her race prevented her from getting jobs. She said her name posed a problem to some employers, who even asked her to change it to something that viewers would find easier to swallow. Other employers told her they only had room to hire one minority staff member.
To read the full story visit ntdaily.com
Anti-racism writer and educator Tim Wise was greeted with a standing ovation Friday night when he spoke as a keynote speaker in the 11th annual Equity & Diversity conference. “I have not said a thing, and you are all standing,” Wise said. “If that’s all I have to do to get you riled up, this will be easy.” Wise has spoken in 49 states, on over 600 college campuses, and to communities across the nation on the issues of comparative racism and race in education, mainly white privilege. White privilege is the idea that white people benefit on the disadvantages of minorities. Wise said the issue has been embedded into America’s politics and way of life for decades. The injuries of racism, he said, have carried on from generation to generation. “People can’t move on,” Wise said. “We cannot move on because past legacies affect us now.” Being a white male, Wise said he sometimes receives angr y mail from people m isi n for med about h is motives. “Generally, they think I do this for people of color,” Wise said. “They could free themselves from whites. They don’t need my help. But these issues are infecting my community. I’m doing this to survive.” Wise said racism hasn’t changed since he first started speaking out. “The conversation has changed a lot,” he said. “When I started, there wasn’t a lot about whiteness. People didn’t talk about how it helps
PHOTO BY JAMES COREAS/SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist and writer, lectured Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the Silver Eagle Suite. white people.” The issue has become more complicated and more important now that children are the target of media, he said. “We need to teach kids to be media literate,” Wise said. “We need to show kids how to be critical consumers of media.” Wise sa id racism a nd sex ism are problems on college campuses, but the problems are behind closed doors. After the speech, attendees were ushered into the Golden Eagle Suite for a book signing and refreshments. Servers buzzed around with trays, ser v ing food to g uests. Groups of people gathered around Wise for pictures and to buy one of his five books. Director of Multicultural Services Uyen Tran said the Multicultural Center had been planning the event for a year and a half.
To read the full story visit ntdaily.com