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Friday, September 10, 2010
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Volume 96 | Issue 10
Sunny 90° / 75°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Students face graduating in wrecked economy
Mean Green Hopes To Fry Rice
BY TIM MONZINGO & SARA CORWIN
Senior Staff Writer & Intern More t ha n 14 m i l l ion Americans are unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With 2.9 percent of the country’s population looking for steady employment, college graduates face a bleak job market. When Thomas Wild graduated with a psychology degree from UNT, he, like other recent graduates, was challenged to find a job in his field. For many, turning to graduate school offers the hope of better opportunities. “There is plenty of research out there that shows that … when the economy suffers, people begin to look for either new careers and … new kinds of training they might need, or they look to improve the skills they have,” said James Meernik, the acting dean of UNT’s Toulouse Graduate School. Wild realized the difficulties for psychologists with a bachelor’s degree, he said. “It’s frustrating and disenchanting at first, but I knew what I was getting into,” he said. “Every [job] would require a master’s degree.” People across the nation are experiencing the same problem. The “labor market is still kind of treading water ...,” said Joshua Shapiro, the chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc., in an article by the New York Times. “It’s better than sinking, but it’s certainly not surging ahead.” Though Wild needed a master’s to work in his field, his degree helped land two part-time jobs while he figured out what to do next, he said. “I [would] prefer a job in the field, but when needing a job, it’s more general,” Wild said. “You take what you can get.”
PHOTO BY GREG MCCLENDON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior in business economics, Gwen Crockrell working at the front desk at the Career Center located at 1800 West Chestnut Street, which offers group and individual advising, and workshops to help grads find jobs. He is taking a year off to find the next step, but other students faced with the same decision have chosen graduate school with the hopes of more options. Adrienne Ortega graduated in December of 2009, but limited options forced her to rethink her post-graduation plans. “It wasn’t as easy finding a job that I wanted straight out of graduating as I thought it might be, although it seemed like I had all of the qualifications they wanted,” she said. “I applied to a lot of places that
I wanted to work, but I didn’t really get many responses.” Ortega’s job hunt landed her an administrative job at UNT, but she decided to seek a graduate degree to get into the field of nonprofit and nongovernmental organization work. She is now a graduate student in women’s studies and hopes it will help her work with organizations like the Peace Corps or Oxfam. With a wider range of knowledge, Ortega said, she thinks her prospects will be better.
PHOTO BY RYAN BIBB/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Junior wide receiver B.J. Lewis grabs a deep pass from redshirt senior quarterback Nathan Tune during Thursday afternoon’s practice at Fouts Field. The Mean Green will host the Rice Owls at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The last time UNT played Rice, the Mean Green was embarrased 77-20 in 2008. Both teams are coming off week-one losses and will try to avoid an 0-2 start. This will be the first of six home games for the Mean Green during Fouts Field’s final season. See UNT on Page 3
See OUTSIDE on Page 2
Chemistry professor brings international outlook BY BRIANNE TOLJ Design Editor
UNT has opened its doors to inter nat iona l ly recognized computational chemist Jan “Gershom” Martin this semester, adding to the chemistry department’s growing faculty. Martin, a self-confessed “computer fanatic,” was until recently the Baroness Thatcher Professor of Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. He conducted research and taught graduate classes at the multidisciplinar y research institution for 14 years.
Martin, a native of Belgium and nat ura li zed Israeli citizen, is glad to be a new member of the UNT community. JAN “ U N T MARTIN is bu i ld i ng a center of excellence,” said Martin. “The chemistry department is trying to position itself as a strong department and is attracting a lot of students to UNT specifically.” The Center for Advanced
Scientific Computing and Modeling, a lso k now n as CASCaM, approached Martin about joining the department, he said. The center is a group of faculty who pursue research, training and education projects with the use of advanced scientific computing, according to its website. The federally funded center focuses on applications in the fields of chemistry, materials science, biology and engineering, according to a news release by the UNT System. Martin will be a member of the center.
until it all runs out or they get tired, then they head home. “I’ve been coming out here about twelve years,” said vendor and Pilot Point resident Travis Wilson. Wilson sits in a plaid lawn chair behind an 8-foot assortment of bright green and yellow produce, some of which he grew himself. “I’ve got cantaloupes, potatoes, green beans,” he said. Wilson is one of three vendors at the market this morning, the others trucked-up an equally eye-catching display of produce from nearby Ponder. “They are all just cooking
away, especially with the yellow squash. We used to have some spaghetti squash but we sold all out,” said Milley Hardin, a Ponder native. Sept. 31 will mark the end of this years’ season for the Farmers. They will be out selling their crops three days a week from 7a.m. until sell-out around 1 p.m. “I come here so I can get locally grown stuff. I’ve been coming here for years to get fresh stuff and just to get out and get some fresh air, “said Martha Pannell of Denton.
“CASCaM has led to computational chemistry being a big emphasis of the department,” Martin said. Computational chemistry is a field of chemistry that uses computer quantum physics principles and computer science tools to solve chemical problems. Martin’s other research interests include developing methods for computational thermochemistry, the study of energy in chemical reactions, and applications of chemistry to solve catalysis and renewable energy problems, according to the UNT system news release.
Martin has won worldwide acclaim for his development of the W-1 through W-4 methods for doing what are the most accurate possible calculations of the energies of molecules, said Wes Borden, a fellow chemistry professor and Welch chairman in an e-mail. Martin is the fifth professor hired at UNT with a background in computational chemistry research. The department is searching for a sixth member. The addition of these professors is part of the university’s goal to increase research and achieve Tier One status.
“The chemistry department professors’ research allows students to participate in such research opportunities, especially undergraduate students who wouldn’t have an opportunity otherwise,” said Dalton Jojola, a chemistry senior. Martin has won multiple awa rds including t he Outstanding You n g Scientists Award of the Israel Chemica l Societ y a nd t he Dirac Meda l of t he World Association of Theoretica l and Computational Chemists, a c c or d i n g t o t h e n e w s release.
Local farmers sell home-grown produce on corner BY DREW GAINES Staff Photographer
It’s 7 o’clock on a windy Thursday morning. At the intersection of Mulberry Street and Carroll Boulevard, a group of local farmers are tying down their tents and spreading out their season’s crops in preparation for another day at the Denton County Farmer’s Market. The farmers rise early every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and make the drive to Denton with their pickups filled with fresh fruits and vegetables. They busy themselves in the parking lot shelling okra, arranging greens and selling their spoils
PHOTO BY DREW GAINES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
See DENTON on Page 2 A customer at the Denton County Farmer’s Market selects a basket of okra from an array of fresh fruits and vegetables.