Getting jazzy Arts and Jazz Festival takes over Denton See insert Friday, April 29, 2011
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Volume 97 | Issue 47
Windy 84° / 64°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Windham bests Hill Gas prices expected to climb costs could in close SGA election Fuel harm trucking companies
BY M ATTHEW CARDENAS Staff Writer
NEWS: Denton residents recreated pre-17thcentury living Page 3
SPORTS: Softball team’s season on the line against Trojans Page 4
ONLINE: Poll: What are you doing to save money as gas prices rise?
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PHOTO BY KALANI GORDON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Blake Windham, a biology senior, and Edwin Chavez, a mechanical engineering junior, have been elected as the new president and vice president for the 2011-2012 school year. BY ISAAC WRIGHT Senior Staff Writer
By a margin of only 30 votes, Blake Windham and running mate Edwin Chavez won this week’s run-off election for Student Government Association president and vice president. Three percent of UNT st udent s vote d i n t he run-off election held from Monday to Wed nesday. Windham, a biology senior, and Chavez, a mechanical engineering junior, came out on top with 702 votes. Kellie Hill, a marketing junior, and running mate Monica Saunders, a business junior, received 672 votes. Windham and Chavez begin their one-year term in office June 1. “Since it’s a close margin, I k now t here a re some students that obviously don’t support us,” Windham said.
BY DREW GAINES Getting a Texas college education seems to be all the rage as more and more outof-state students are being admitted to Texas public universities. But while their numbers have risen during the years, the admission rate of college-bound Texans has not kept up, and some fear in-state students are being shoved aside. UNT is posit ioned a mong t he Universit y of Texas, University of Texas at A rling ton, Texas Tech University and at least twothirds of all state universities whose admittance of out-ofstate students has outpaced that of Texas students, sometimes by more than twice as much. Undergraduate enrollment by Texas students at UNT rose 7 percent between
PHOTO BY CORRISA JACKSON/STAFF WRITER
Prices for regular unleaded gas are close to $4 and are expected to rise during the summer. Not only will the gas crisis take a wealth of jobs, it is going to cause shipping problems. “This is a supply-and-demand issue,” Pohlen said. “The cost to move goes up and so does the gas.” And shipping companies are already trying to cut the costs of moving goods. “Labor costs in China are good, but shipping is expensive,” Pohlen said. “We are starting to see labor shifts to South America.” Poh len s a id w it h t he increase of global economies in China and India, there was an increase in demand for oil
and gas. “Ou r economy i s a l so growing out of the recession,” Pohlen said. “We need more fuel, too.” Pohlen said instability in the Middle East has greatly affected gas prices. Local gas stations have felt the impact of the gas issues as summer inches closer. “People just are not driving as much,” said Darrell Patterson, the site manager of an Exxon gas station in Denton. “We’ve seen a single-digit drop in sales.” See SUMMER on Page 2
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Out-of-state students flood Texas colleges Senior Staff Writer
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“Now, we’re leading those students, so we have to keep in mind their wishes.” Windham said he was upset by the low turnout for the election. He said one of the top priorities in his administration would be getting more students involved in the SGA. “I’m saddened by the low voter turnout,” Windham sa id. “We wa nt to see greater participation. [The low turnout] means we’ve failed as an organization and haven’t gotten the word out.” Chavez agreed that the SGA needs to promote itself more and, as vice president, said he will work to make the organization more visible. “A lot of people don’t know [about] the SGA — it shows in the voter turnout,” Chavez said.
Hig h ga s pr ices across the country are expected to continue climbing as the spring semester ends and summer begins. The lowest gas price in Denton on Thursday was $3.69 at Murphy USA, Circle K and Allsups Convenience Store near Lake Dallas, according to gas tracking websites. “Fuel prices are going to go up as we get to the middle of the summer,” said Terry Pohlen of the business faculty. “We are reaching the peak of fuel demand.” Pohlen said the high price and demand of gas would affect the market of everyday materials because 80 percent of all commodities are transported by truck. “Virtually everything you buy will go up in price,” he said. In the U.S., there are over 600,000 trucking companies, most with only one or two trucks, Pohlen said. “These are very small companies,” he said, who explained that it takes 200 to 300 gallons of fuel to fill up most tractortrailers. “[The high prices] are going to force a lot of small trucking companies out of business,” Pohlen also said it’s difficult for trucking businesses to get loans because of how easy it is for them to go out of business.
2006 and 2010, while out-ofstate enrollment grew by 12 percent. “I don’t think there will be more competition,” said Rebecca Lothringer, UNT’s director of undergraduate admissions. “North Texas has always been set up to serve the students of Texas.” With no current enrollment cap, UNT has been able to admit any student who meets the requirements whether they live in Texas or not. So as more out-of-state students apply, more will be admitted, until 2015 when UNT caps its enrollment. G r o w i n g o u t- o f- s t a t e enrollment in Texas is a result of some universities’ desire to cultivate accredited research programs and improve campus diversity.
See HIGHER on Page 2
PHOTO BY STACY POWERS/SENIOR STAFFER
Fang-Ling Lu of the speech and hearing department faculty, and Donna Ledgerwood of the management faculty received the President’s Council Teaching Award in the Lyceum Thursday afternoon. This is Ledgerwood’s third time receiving the award.
UNT honors outstanding teachers BY STACY POWERS Senior Staffer
Two UNT faculty members were recognized for their outstanding teaching at the spring faculty meeting and awards ceremony Thursday afternoon in the Lyceum. Fang-Ling Lu of the speech and hearing faculty, and Donna Ledgerwood of the management faculty were awarded the President’s Council Teaching Award. This was Ledgerwood’s third time receiving this award, she said. “I am the only one to my knowledge that has done that. It’s not only the first time for someone to win it three times, it’s the first time in two centuries and two millenniums,” joked Ledgerwood, “which makes me sound really old.”
Ledgerwood has been teaching at UNT since 1978, and she said this is her calling. “I really do care for my students, and I am very, very happy with my job,” she said. “I like applied research, and I really enjoy the students.” She said students are given three shots to do well on their tests: one when they study, one when they take the test and one they go back over the test and correct their answers to receive half a point back for each question. “My tests are harder, but I’m really not thought of as being unfair because they’re really learning for themselves,” Ledgerwood said. Chalesia Johnson, an organ i zat iona l behav ior a nd human resources senior, said
she is in Ledgerwood’s human resource capstone class and said Ledgerwood is “one of the most memorable professors” she has had. “She’s more caring, more dedicated, and she wants us to get a job right out of college,” Johnson said. “She’s committed to her students. I think that’s one of her best aspects as a professor.” Lu has been teaching classes in medical speech pathology at UNT since 1997 and this is her first time receiving the award, she said. “This is a very clinical-oriented field so my specialty is more to do with medical, so I teach a lot of voice, speech, swallowing, and we use a lot of gadgets,” Lu said. See PROFESSORS on Page 2