In full bloom
Dallas Arboretum springs to life See insert
Friday, March 25, 2011
News 1, 2 Sports 3 Classifieds 4 Games 4 SCENE see insert
Volume 97 | Issue 32
Sunny 84° / 64°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Bleachers installed, seats sold, stadium nears completion Mean Green Stadium opening set for June BY DREW GAINES Senior Staff Writer
NEWS: Local high schools encourage bilingual education Page 2
SPORTS: Softball team hosts Golden Panthers Page 3
ONLINE:
There are 169 days separating the UNT football team from its first home game at the new Mean Green stadium, and the structure that months ago was just dirt and concrete now resembles the playing field that is promising the university and its athletes renewed exposure. “We are finally at a point where the stadium is starting to look like it will in the fall,” said Eric Capper, the senior associate athletic director of media relations. The lights that will soon flood the turf field — set to be one of the last pieces to be installed in June — now tower over the stadium’s bowl, and the bleachers that could house some 30,000 spectators are nearly all installed. Workers from Manhattan Construction are concentrating on the “finishing touches,” Capper said, as they prime the walls and trim, and mount shelves in the six-figure priced suites from which the university’s high donors will watch the games. Across the field from the towering glass windows of the suites and press box is the student section, where workers were busy Thursday installing handrails and
PHOTO BY DREW GAINES/SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The west side of the new Mean Green stadium was the backdrop for a pair of runners Thursday afternoon. The outside of the structure is near completion as workers concentrate on the finishing touches in the press box and suites. the last bricks that will support the east side of the structure. Nearly half of the stadium’s $78-million price tag is coming from student service fees. The grounds around the stadium are starting to resemble the planned park that will host tailgaters and game day festivities. New trees have been planted and retaining walls have been
erected around the site, keeping in harmony with the green image that project organizers expect will set the stadium apart from others. The amenities and progressive design by from HKS Architects, the firm that designed the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, are attracting ticket buyers, Capper said.
Walking the line
Vote on keeping, removing or relocating UNT beehives
Sales of club-level seats, which cost anywhere from $3,000 to $12,000, are being made nearly every day, Capper said, and very few are left. This is partly because of the publicity work of the athletics department and head football coach Dan McCarney, who have been hosting social and community events to rally prospective
License surcharge program under fire Suspended Texas drivers owe $1 Billion BY ISAAC WRIGHT Senior Staff Writer
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PHOTO BY BERENICE QUIRINO/VISUALS EDITOR
Mike Sanderson, a business computer and information systems junior, practices slacklining outside the Auditorium Building Thursday afternoon. Slacklining is similar to tightrope walking, but the line is less taut and has more of the feel of a long, narrow trampoline. Sanders and coworker James Baker, a history graduate student, have practiced slacklining on and off for about six months. “It’s a good focus and balancing thing,” Baker said. “It’s challenging and fun.”
SGA and Glad fundraise for youth BY JESSICA ST. A MA Contributing Writer
UNT’s Student Government Association and Glad: UNT’s Queer Alliance are co-hosting a fundraiser for Youth First Texas, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization that advocates for North Texas’ lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth. The fundraiser will help support Collin County’s Youth First Texas program, an organization that is lacking in funding. Donations and proceeds from T-shirt sales and a silent auction of UNT student artwork will aid the group in finding a permanent meeting location and help provide emergency funds for
youths in crisis. “Supporting programs like Youth First Texas Collin County is a small but effective way to help someone else,” said Julie Leary, a political science junior and the vice president of Glad. “It’s easy for anyone who isn’t LGBTQ-identified to forget that the world can be a pretty unwelcoming place to be yourself.” The Dallas-Ft. Worth area is home to more than 50,000 LGBTQ adolescents, according to the Youth First Texas website. While some of these children are fortunate to have an accepting home environment, most live in isolation and fear, according to the website.
‘Youth First’ When: Sunday 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. Where: Banter, 219 W. Oak St., Denton TX Cost: Free admission, donations accepted Activities include an art auction, T-shirt sales, and DJ Secret Squid
See PROGRAM on Page 2
ticket buyers, many of whom are UNT faculty and staff who have never before held club seats or season tickets, Capper said. Naming rights to the stadium are still up for grabs as the university waits to partner with a corporation or individual who wants that $30-million privilege. Until then, it will be known as Mean Green Stadium.
The Texas Legislature is deciding the fate of a program that stripped more than 1 million Texas drivers’ licenses in the past eight years. The Te x a s Driver Responsibility program was created in 2003 and imposes large annual surcharges to deter certain offenses, such as driving while intoxicated and driving without insurance or a valid license. The money raised by the surcharges was intended to pay for highway construction projects and hospita l trauma care, but more than 60 percent of the surcharges have gone unpaid, and violators owe the state about $1 billion. Each driver who does not pay the surcharges within 30 days of conviction will face suspension of his or her driver’s license. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee has ca lled the number of uninsured and unlicensed drivers this program has caused “unacceptable.” “These laws have not generated t he f unds t hey were designed to, serve no public sa fet y pur pose, a nd have in fact added thousands of uninsured drivers and thousands without a license to our st reets,” sa id Senator John Whitmire, D-Houston, the chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, in a press release issued Tuesday. The surcharges are in addition to initial fines and court fees incurred by an offense.
Driving under the influence carries the highest surcharges at $1,000 a year for three years a f ter t he f irst conv iction, $1,500 a year for a second, and $2,000 a year for a conviction of driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.16. Driving without insurance and driving with an invalid license both carry surcharges of $250 a year for three years.
“These funds have not generated the funds they were designed to.”
— John Whitmire, D-Houston
While the Senate Criminal Justice Committee primarily called for the elimination of the surcharges for DWI offenses, a bill in the House would eliminate the Driver Responsibility Program entirely. Supporters of the bill maintain the charges are too high and often force lower-income Texans to choose between renewing a suspended license and paying for other necessities. The House bill, authored by Representative Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, proposes an increase to the cigarette tax by 24 cents a pack to make up for the revenue that would be lost by eliminating the program. “This program is a severe and unjust blow to Texans already struggling to keep their heads above water,” Burnam said in the press release.
See DPS on Page 2