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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
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Volume 100 | Issue 13
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Universities mark long collaboration A NDREW FREEMAN Staff Writer
PHOTO BY JAMES COREAS/VISUALS EDITOR
Fry Street’s newest additions, Chipotle, Macdaddy’s and Potbelly, have siphoned some business from older restaurants.
Fry Street business fluctuates ELEANOR SADLER Staff Writer
Grand openings, new buildings and new businesses mean change. They mean new options for dining and fresh competition for established businesses. Fry Street’s newest additions
have disrupted the status quo at Denton eateries that have been around for years, business managers and employees said. New franchise businesses that opened earlier this month are starting to affect the older restaurants on Fry Street by
impacting sales and increasing property value, Jimmy John’s general manager Hiro Miyata said. “Customers have more choices, and business is more evenly distributed,” Miyata said. “They aren’t going to just one
place anymore.” The openings of Chipotle, Potbelly and MacDaddy’s near UNT campus has given students more options during lunch breaks.
See FRY on page 2
Oct. 12 will mark the 10-year anniversary of UNT’s collaborative partnership and friendship with the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México in Toluca, Mexico. To celebrate, 12 of the university’s administrators and professors, including its president, will visit Denton. “For UNT, this is a very i mp or t a nt pa r t n e r sh ip based on similarities within the school and friendship,” UAEM-UNT Academic Liaison Office Director Manuel Goël said. “We’re both willing to work at the same level.” A luncheon will be held at the Diamond Eagle Suite in the Union, and later that night, artwork brought over from UAEM will be set up for an exhibit at UNT on the Square. “We’ve had hundreds of trips, and many people know each other,” Goël said. “There is true friendship between us.” The two campuses share research in a huge number of fields. Although the focus is mainly on environmental science and biology, collaborative research in education, political science and even music has been growing. “I’ve been to Toluca, Mexico, five different times now,” said Bruce Hunter, acting director
“We’ve had hundreds of trips, and many people know each other.”
-Mauel Goel Academic Liaison Director
of the UNT Institute of Applied Sciences. “We’ve worked on waste water treatment, and I’ve taught several [Geographic Information Systems] courses.” Hunter is currently working on a project with a graduate student from UAEM. “Mexico is a fascinating place, and I have forged several personal friendships,” Hunter said. “They have many hardworking faculty and students over there.” Over the last 10 years, the two universities’ partnership has grown considerably because of similarities between the schools, including respective size. Goël said the partnership will continue to thrive. “We are looking at another 20 years,” he said. “We’re planning on larger projects, a greater number of exchanges and more faculty mobility.”
See MEXICO on page 2
Professors research, study whistle-blowing reactions NADIA HILL
Senior Staff Writer
Fou r U N T accou nt i ng professors recently conducted and presented the first ever resea rch st udy about how people perceive wrongdoers and the whistle-blowers who report misconduct. P r e v i o u s s t u d i e s h ave focused on the reporter or lawbrea ker, not t he t h i rdparty observer. “Whistle-blowing is a big dea l because a ver y sma l l amount of people do it,” said accounting professor Mar y Cu r t i s, a me m b e r o f t h e research team. “One of the reasons they don’t is a fear of retaliation from peers. We wanted to know why peers h ave a n opi n ion a nd why people ostracize.” Mary Curtis, Jesse Robertson, Cameron Cockrell and Dutch Fayard conducted the research from 2009 to 2010, using 139 anonymous students who read specific scenarios such as cheating on an exam or selling term papers, and then responded to them. Curtis and her colleagues measured the students’ reactions toward the wrongdoer and whistle-blower based on likeabilit y and non-con formance, or the level that the reporter adheres to societal norms. “We understand third-party perceptions come about but wanted to know how people influence these,” Curtis said. “Originally we thought likeability and non-conformance wou ld b e e qu a l ly i mp or-
“[Whistle-blowers] are rarely treated the same in society, even though they chose to do something right...”
-Philosophy Department Chair Trish Glazebrook
tant and only apply to the reporter.” Their research found pa r t ic ipa nt s were more willing to ost racize the repor ter t h a n t he w rongdo er, a nd l i keabi l it y a nd non-conformance were equal factors in judging both the reporter and wrongdoer. According to the report, fear of peer retaliation had nothing to do with whether or not reporting the act was the right thing to do. I n s t e ad, p e e r s fo c u s e d more on how much they liked the wrongdoer and the way t he reporter con for med to society. “People who whistle-blow are rarely treated the same in society, even though they chose to do something right and, in many cases, required by law,” sa id Accou nt i ng Department Chair Don Finn, a whistle-blower researcher. “In almost every case, whistleblowers are branded as being disloyal by coworkers.” Finn said that was notable, because in most cases, those who choose to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing should be deserving of criticism. The research sheds light on how people view ethical dilemmas. From WikiLeaks to movies
about the tobacco industry, whistle-blowing is an issue in business ethics and a societal phenomenon. “The wh istle-blower did their civic and public duty but are st ill out of a job,” Ph i losophy Depa rt ment Chair Trish Glazebrook said. “It’s often not people at the bottom of the barrel, either. It’s people who have access to more information and can see cover-ups.” Glazebrook said the way wh i st le -blower s a re of te n shunned seems to go against the ethical standards people strive to meet. “They become heroes but are outcast in their own line of work,” she said. The tea m subm it ted t he r e p o r t, p r e s e nt e d at t h e Ethics Research Symposium in August, to several journals for possible publication. Each tea m member a lso conducts separate research relating to ethics. “T he r e i s a n e nor mou s a mou nt of et h ica l responsibility embedded in every s i n g l e p r o f e s s i o n ,” Fi n n said. “We all have professional, ethical responsibilities, and from that perspective it becomes one of those i ng redients t hat makes us successful or not successful.”
PHOTO BY NICOLE ARNOLD/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
For the Johnson family, their chickens have become more than just a source of fresh eggs. Their oldest son, Carlos, plays with the hens in their backyard Monday morning.
Denton takes look at urban poultry policy JASON YANG
Senior Staff Writer
Move over cats and dogs, a new flock of backyard pets might be coming to town. The Denton City Council plans to vote in the next few weeks on a new ordinance that could rework the rules of chicken ownership at homes in the city. The ordinance, if passed, would allow up to eight hens in a yard, and would reduce the current 150-foot limit between a coop and a neighbor’s yard to 50 feet. No ro o ste r s w i l l b e allowed because of the animals’ noisy habits. “The new ordinance is set up where it allows flexibility,” city councilman Dalton Gregory said. “If passed, we have coded
en forcement and a police department to enforce the rules.” De nton r e side nt Daw n Paradise first proposed the ordinance in 2010. The Paradise household has always lived in an environmentally friendly home setting. Her backyard has a large, raised garden bed and fruit trees, and the possibility of homeg row n orga n ic eggs e ncou rage d he r to pu sh for t h e n e w or d i n a n c e. As for the noise concern, Paradise said her neighbor’s dogs bark much louder than chickens, sometimes at 3 a.m. “The chickens eat bugs, weeds – and homegrown egg has a higher level of omega3s, so they’re significantly healthier than store-bought,” she said. “The lifestyle of
slaughterhouse chickens is abysmal for ethical and health reasons.” Gregory said the new ordinance would require residents interested in chicken ownership to register with the city. There won’t be any additional fees after registration, and the city will provide literature on keeping chicken odor to a minimum to be courteous to neighbors. Corinth homeowner Sandra Joh n son ow n s fou r hen s. Growing up in Philadelphia where urban birds are a rare sight, she wasn’t initially warm to the idea of keeping hens in her backyard. Seven months after taking in the chickens, her opi n ion has cha nged completely.
See HENS on page 2
Inside NAACP registers students to vote News | Page 2
Autism center selects artwork Arts & Life | Page 3
“Starving Artist” not that sad Views | Page 5