Sports
squad helps Scrappy pump up crowd ARTS & LIFE: New Page 3 Classes at Dallas campus threaten student safety VIEWS: Page 7
Soccer team impressive heading into post season Page 5
Thusday, October 22, 2009
News 1,2 Arts & Life 3,4 Sports 5,6 Views 7 Classifieds 8 Games 8
Volume 94 | Issue 33
Cloudy 60° / 45°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Students to vote on Homecoming bill BY CAROLYN BROWN Senior Staff Writer
Students will soon decide whether same-sex or genderneutral couples have the right to run for Homecoming court. A fter weeks of controversy centered on the Student Government Association’s rejection of the same-sex Homecoming bill, the student senate approved a referendum during Wednesday’s meeting allowing students to vote on the issue. “I would like to put faith in the student body,” SGA president Dakota Carter said. “I think this is an issue that needs to be decided by them, because they’ll be affected by it, and I think they need to express their opinions.” The referendum will be held sometime in mid-November. The change comes after Homecoming court winners were announced Saturday. If students vote “yes,” the senate must pass the bill before the end of the spring semester. The referendum would allow same-sex couples to run for Homecoming court in fall 2010. If students vote “no,” the senate will not consider the bill until summer 2010 at earliest. The senate members debated the wording of the resolution,
PHOTO BY MELISSA BOUGHTON / PHOTOGRAPHER
SGA student Sen. Talya Paeglis, an accounting junior, explains why she voted “no” to a bill that would allow same-sex and gender-neutral couples to run for positions on the Homecoming court. Paeglis represents the College of Business in the student senate. but the final version made the students’ vote binding on the SGA. The resolution was approved 22 to 1, but students who attended the meeting expressed mixed opinions. Davlin Kerekes, a social work
senior, said she disagreed with the idea of the referendum. “Equality is not something to be voted on at all,” said Davlin Kerekes, a social work senior. “The rights of a minority should not be put to the vote of the majority.” English graduate student April
to public transportation for faculty, staff, students and visitors, Cocco said. Within one year of signing the purchasing policy, UNT will begin purchasing or producing at least 15 percent of our institution’s electricity consumption from renewable sources. Cocco also said the university participates in the Waste Minimization component of the national RecycleMania competition, and adopts associated measures to reduce waste, and establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standard or equivalent. “Our new stadium will be Gold LEED certified,” Cocco said. This is something UNT administration is proud of because no other Texas college stadiums are built to such high sustainability standards, she said. Charles Jackson, executive director of facilities, said sustainable buildings not only help the environment, but also help the university save some cash.
“I think the goal of sustainability is to do as little harm to this planet as possible,” Jackson said. He said it was his responsibility to run the facilities in the most efficient way possible to save the university money. Jackson said UNT has cut down costs by trading in all gasfueled university vehicles to electricity-run vehicles and is now experimenting with converting cooking oil into biodiesel for diesel-run university vehicles. Jackson said this initiative is in its experimental stage because UNT does not have the equipment that complies with environmental regulations in order to produce large amounts of this new product. Apart from tangible actions taken by UNT, Cocco said there will also be a bachelor’s degree in sustainability offered in the near future, as well as changes in the curriculum to offer the best environmental science classes. “We want students to leave here better equipped and make sure [sustainability] problems don’t exist anymore,” Cocco said.
UNT increases efforts toward a ‘green’ campus BY C YNTHIA CANO Intern
The color green no longer applies only to the heart of UNT pride, but also to the university’s efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. In the “We Mean Green” awareness campaign, UNT officials strive to lead Texas universities in addressing environmental issues. “There’s a joke I tell people,” said Nicole Cocco, communication and outreach coordinator for the office of sustainability. “If you breathe air or drink water, you’re an environmentalist.” Cocco said everyone deserves to have enough of the natural resources Earth has to offer, which is one of the reasons why UNT is committed to its sustainability initiatives. One of the tangible actions that UNT has enacted to become a “green” campus has been to adopt an energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy requiring purchase of Energy Star certified products in all areas for which such ratings exist. Also, UNT has encouraged the use of and provided access
Sale offers costumes to raise money for dance, theater BY BRADFORD P URDOM Contributing Writer
With Halloween only days away, many students are faced with the challenging task of picking out their Halloween costume. But the UNT Department of Dance and Theatre may have a solution to the costume crisis. The UNT Department of Dance and Theatre is having their third annual fundraiser Trash and Treasure: Costume and Accessories Sale Friday and Saturday.
“We are selling costumes from past productions,” said Suzanne Shockley, costume shop supervisor. “We have a lot of historic costumes from medieval and Elizabethan, ancient Greek and Roman stuff.” Annell Brodeur, a theatre arts senior and shop assistant, said the sale will offer a wide variety of costumes. “If you don’t have an idea for what you want to be for Halloween, or you want to get something just to have, it’s really nice to come in and explore every option,” she said.
“The students that work the sale will help try to guide you to something that you might want.” The sale will provide an alternative to large costume outlets such as Party City. “We have some things that are just specifically Halloween related, lots of period garments, but also some fantasy things, like a large dinosaur tail,” Brodeur said. “We have some really fun stuff and then some kind of weird things too.”
See DEPT on Page 2
Murphy spoke up several times at the meeting and said she was pleased with the senate’s decision. “We came here with a lot of disparate groups with a lot of tension, and we opened up a discussion and dialogue, and
through it we came to a solution that we can agree with,” Murphy said. Speaker Pro Tempore Jessika Curry was the only student senate member to vote against the referendum. Curry said she didn’t agree
with its binding condition. “There’s a lot of student body turnover,” she said. “There will be thousands of students gone and thousands more come before we can consider any new legislation and I don’t think that was the best way to achieve the same result, but I do encourage everyone to vote.” Sen. Meghan Hudec for the college of public affairs and community service voted for the resolution, and said she would work to get her constituents involved. “It gives students a chance to say what they want, which is what we’re here for, to be their voice,” she said. The senate also confirmed Jerrod Ballard, a criminal justice junior, as an SGA Supreme Court justice. The SGA supreme court struck down a bill on Oct. 20 that made it more difficult for students to vote senators out of office. The senate complicated the removal process at a previous meeting after outraged campus groups protested the rejection of the same-sex Homecoming bill.
Opinion
See the editorial on Page 7
PHOTO BY SUSAN MISKA / INTERN
(From left) David Van Compernolle, a senior majoring in radio, television and film, and Drew Jacoy, an entrepreneurship senior, work together at the KNTU studio Wednesday for the radio station’s upcoming 40th anniversary.
KNTU to celebrate 40 years BY A MBER A RNOLD Senior Staff Writer
For 40 years, UNT’s radio station KNTU-FM, 88.1, has supplied the airways with sultry sounds of smooth jazz and brought the news to the Denton community. The station that churns out future radio broadcasters will celebrate its history with a radio reception and concert on Nov. 6 at the Gateway Center. “One of the main goals and driving forces is for students to learn about broadcasting,” general manager Russ Campbell said. “The students over the years have gotten a good foundation of what its like to work in a broadcasting facility.” KNTU’s history is full of accomplishments, struggles and even a few mishaps. On Monday, Nov. 3, 1969 — the day the station aired — the first word to hit the airwaves was a curse word, according to, “KNTU: A History.” The station also managed to
survive a massive fire in 1989 that destroyed most of its electrical equipment. KNTU was only off the air for one day. With its share of misfortunes, 88.1-The One has persevered and grown from a station broadcasting at only 440 watts to one that reaches everyone within a 60-mile radius at 100,000 watts. In 1970, KNTU only aired from noon until 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. on Saturday. Today, the station broadcasts from 6 a.m. until midnight every day of the year, according to its Web site. The station is established throughout the North Texas area as a primarily jazz-format station almost completely run by student volunteers. Ilan Goddard, who now works for KERA, began as one of these volunteers. “I went in and auditioned, and the first question they asked was if I’d like to be a news anchor. The second question was, would
I like to be lead news anchor?” Goddard said. Goddard, who graduated from UNT in 1998 with a degree in fine art sculpture, submitted a newscast to the Broadcast Education Association and got an award for being the best in the nation. “About 14 months after I first went on the air, I got a job at the only station I ever wanted to work at,” Goddard said about being hired at KERA. KNTU’s anniversary celebration will begin at 6 p.m., and costs $30. To RSVP for the event, visit www.kntu.com. “It gives us a way to celebrate all the people who helped start up the station and the people that did their part to keep it going including station managers, engineers, administration, and everyone in the RTVF department,” Campbell said. “The glue that holds it together is that it gives the students a way to learn broadcast and it gives them a voice.”