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Thursday, February 4, 2010
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Volume 95 | Issue 11
Rainy 40° / 36°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Proposed tuition increase to go before Regents BY LISA GARZA
Senior Staff Writer President Gretchen Bataille announced a proposal that could increase tuition and fees for the next two fiscal years at a public hearing Wednesday. The proposa l comes on the heels of a request from Gov. Rick Perry that all state agencies submit a plan for a possible 5 percent reduction from the state revenue budget. Bataille will present the plan before the Board of Regents next week. “At the end of the day, we’re raising tuition,” she said. “The Board of Regents expects us to provide them with a realistic and legitimate spending plan for how we’re going to keep this university operating.” Bataille said t he money from the federal government for this year and next year was
expected to run out by 2012, leaving a shortage of about $3.4 million. “There are a lot of competing issues that we are trying to deal with right now,” Bataille said. Among those issues are the definite costs of maintaining the Business Leadership and L ife Science bu i ld ings as well as their potential utilities costs and the hiring of 19 new faculty members a year for the next two years. “I would love to be able to say that the federal government a nd t he state is so generous that we don’t have to raise tuition,” Bataille said. “I know from experience that at the end of the day, students want a quality education.” Despite the growing number of students, costs continue to rise. Bataille said there is a
need for more teachers, library space and computers, and the state doesn’t cover the costs. “Those are very expensive items, and the state doesn’t prov ide t hat much,” she said. Bataille also said that one of the goals is to maintain a student facu lt y rat io of 22-to-1. The Faculty/Staff Excellence Pool will increase by 1 percent. The pool is f unding a llocated to department heads for raises. “We’re not increasing salaries at anything like we would like to keep people here,” Bataille said. “A lot of people won’t get salary increases next year. It will be a very minimal pool.” T he 5-percent i ncrea se will cost students an additional $192 for 15 credit hours
next year. The following year, tuition will not only increase again but a student-approved at hletic fee w ill a lso ta ke effect. The administration expressed concern during t he hea ring t hat students w i l l not u nder st a nd t he various reasons for the tuition increase. “It’s not obvious what the numbers mean,” said Wendy Wilkins, vice president for academic affairs. “Students need to be well informed.” The SGA members present at t he hea r i ng ex pressed i nter e st i n l au nc h i ng a public campaign to explain to students t hat proposed increases are necessary. “It is information like that we need to pass along,” SGA president Dakota Carter said. “We need to say that it’s not
leaving us stranded.” W i l k i n s s a id she a l so believes that the proposed increases w ill benef it t he students. “The things that will go up in terms of investments are only things that students need,” Wilkins said. “We’re not asking students to invest in something that we can’t honestly say makes the everyday experience better.” Bata ille sa id she recognizes that students are facing increasing financial pressures, but there is not an alternative option to an increase in tuition. “Right now, we need to face the reality that we have,” she said. Carter said later at the SGA meeting that the increased tuition is a “necessary evil” and that Bataille has the student’s
Proposed Increases • Current Tuition For 15 Credit Hours: $3,856.65 • Fall 2010, Spring 2011: $4,049.48 • Fall 2011, Spring 2012: *$4,356.95 *includes $105 athletic fee
best interest at heart. “That’s higher education, y’all,” he said. To read more about this issue, see the Daily’s editorial on Page 6
Marimba student shapes talent at UNT BY GRACIELA R AZO Senior Staff Writer
W hen Noriko Tsukagoshi was 12 yea rs old liv ing in Saitama, Japan, she discovered the marimba while she was performing at a pia no concert. She sa id t he inst r ument fascinated her with its warm, deep percussion beats and the persistence it took to master it. “When I first saw someone playing the marimba, I thought ‘That’s really awesome. That’s the instrument I want to play,’” Tsukagoshi said. The Japanese native decided to take lessons and entered a music high school to sharpen her skills. Two years ago, Tsukagoshi came to UNT to receive her a r t i st per for m i ng cer t i f icate. Now 26 years old, she will graduate in May. She ha s a lso become a world-renow ned ma r i mba player and has played around the world, including Poland, France and Switzerland, her favorite country to play in. T he Ja pa ne s e i mp er i a l family chose the musician to play a personal concert at its home in 2006. Tsukagoshi said
Noriko Tsukagoshi will graduate from UNT in May and has been playing the marimba since she was 12 years old. it was one of the most memorable and nerve-racking experiences in her music career so far. “It was ver y specia l for me, but I was so ner vous,”
Tsu k agosh i sa id. “It w a s wonderful for me to play in front of them.” She met UN T music professor a nd perc ussion coordinator Mark Ford while
Latino Interest Group honors UNT alumnus BY MORGAN WALKER Senior Staff Writer
Many people have been honored throughout the years for being the first person to do something admirable. However, one UNT graduate is able to say he came in first twice. UNT held a reception on Wednesday for Victor Rodriguez, a 1955 UNT alumnus from Edna. He was the first MexicanAmerican school superintendent in San Antonio. He also lettered three years in track and field at UNT and was the first Mexican-American student to receive an athletic scholarship here. “I was completely floored by it,” Rodriguez said. “I never even thought I’d go to college, and it was one of the defining moments of my life.” The reception was part of the Latino Interest Group’s presen-
tation of events commemoratingthe 162nd anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty was signed on Feb. 2, 1848, ending the Mexican-American War. Rodriguez worked in San Antonio schools for 36 years after he graduated. He worked his way up to superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District. He retired in 1994. Robert Calderon, associate professor in the department of history, said he met Rodriguez in February 2008 when he attended a conference in San Antonio. Rodriguez was a member of the panel at the conference, which presented a documentary about the Supreme Court case Hernandez v. Texas called “A Class Apart.” The 1954 decision allowed Mexican Americans and
other racial groups in the U.S. to have equal protection under the 14th Amendment. It was also the first court case argued by Mexican-American lawyers before the U.S. Supreme Court, Calderon said. Rodriguez was a witness to the murder that led to Hernandez v. Texas. “I was actually waiting to get a haircut in this building where the front was a barber shop, the middle was a restaurant and the back was a saloon,” Rodriguez said. When the barber did not arrive for the haircut, Rodriguez said, he went in the saloon to get a soda when he heard arguing between two men. Pete Hernandez left and came back with a gun and shot Joe Espinosa, Rodriguez said.
See LIBRARY on Page 2
he was teaching a marimba workshop in Belgium in 2007. Ford said he saw a distinctive talent in Tsukagoshi and knew she would benefit from transferring to UNT.
PHOTO BY INGRID LAUBACH/PHOTOGRAPHER
“I knew she was going to have a career in music. She has a beautiful sound on the marimba,” Ford said. “Noriko has a beaut if u l, g racef u l approach to the instrument.”
When she decided to move to Denton, Tsukagoshi said the transition from life in Japan was difficult for her. She transformed her sleeping schedule and had to get accustomed to a different diet. The stress of regularly practicing from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, breaking only to eat, catches up with her she said, but she finds ways to relax, including baking and hanging out with friends. “When I feel really stressed from practicing the marimba so much, talking to friends or my parents helps a lot,” Tsukagoshi said. “I get all of my energy from them.” Liv ing so fa r away from her family does not bother her as much now, she said. She usually catches up with them a few times a month through Sky pe, an Internet chat program. But the everyday strains of practicing pay off for the musician as soon as she steps on the stage to perform, she said. Tsukagoshi said she still feels a n x iet y before ever y concert, no matter the size of audience or performance hall.
See STUDENT on Page 3
Students fill with ‘Glee’
PHOTO BY CRISTY ANGULO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Lee Hillmon, a pre-music freshman, sang “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys in front of a panel of Glee Club judges.
To read this story, see Page 4. To see multimedia for the story, visit ntdaily.com