Campus L ife Proposition 8 hearings
Sports
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Baseball opens regular season
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spark debate
The Rocket www.theonlinerocket.com
Friday, March 29, 2013
Slippery Rock University Student Newspaper
Est. 1934
Volume 96, Number 19
SGA Presidential candidates go head-to-head Candidates debate plans for campus By Jonathan Janasik Rocket News Editor
SGA presidential candidates Ben Motyl of the T.O.G.A. (Together Our Goals Achieved) Party and Rogers (Buddy) Clements of the Distance Party debated Tuesday at common hour in the ballroom of the Student Center. Motyl began the debate by introducing himself and his party. He stated that he tried to create a diverse senate by finding students of a variety of different majors and class rankings. The major tasks that his party wants to address include better representation of graduate students, avocation for club sports, green initiatives, ADA compliance in the classrooms, and scheduling. “SGA needs to be more accommodating and appealing to graduate students,” Motyl explained. “We want to help them as a student organization. A lot of you know from [reading] the Rocket that AGS, the association of graduate students, wanted funding from SGA. There were a lot of things that we couldn’t fund. So we want to help them, be able to accommodate them more, and get them more involved with their organizations and SGA. That way we can help them receive the most beneficial educational experiences to further their careers.” Motyl then explained his stance on club sports. According to him, in 2007 there were eight intercollegiate varsity teams that were cut due to Title 9. As intercollegiate teams, players were granted access to all facilities and fields. Now that these teams are only recognized as club sports, they do not have access to the fields anymore. Motyl hopes to work with SRU administration in order to grant access to the fields for club sports when the intercollegiate teams are not using them. Sustainability was Motyl’s next speaking point. He stated that he wanted to further the green initiatives on campus. In order to do this, Motyl suggested that campus builds a new Greek sign. “Greeks are something that SGA does not always represent as much,” Motyl said. “So we want to reach out to them more and get them
a new sign in front of the entrance of campus by Kiester Road. It’s something that’s sustainable as well as beautiful.” Then Motyl explained his thoughts on ADA compliance. He stated that a lot of thought and money has recently been exclusively put into the new student center. Motyl believes this is unfair because students spend much more time in the classroom buildings than the student center. Because of this, Motyl has been thinking about ways to improve the classroom buildings. “In Eisenberg and Spotts, the doors are both small and they take a long time to open up when you hit the handicap button,” Motyl explained. “So we need to consider getting new doors, or getting a new motor into these systems so they open up faster. ADA compliance is not alright, we need to go above and beyond that to make this a more friendly campus.” The final topic that Motyl talked about in his introduction was the issue of scheduling. “I just want to make this clear upfront, in no way, shape, or form does the T.O.G.A. party or myself want to take away any kind of scheduling privileges from anyone,” Motyl stated. “But we want to tackle this area because scheduling is something that a lot of us don’t like on campus. The idea we had is to reformat the current structure we have and make it based on a merit system and reward the people who have been here longer.” Going by this plan, student athletes and students with disabilities would still be the first to schedule. Then honors seniors would schedule their classes, then seniors, then honors juniors, then juniors, and so on. Motyl explained that this was in order to prevent honors freshmen from taking classes that juniors and seniors need. “It’s something that we would never do without consulting our senate as well as the entire student body,” Motyl said. “We will not make any rash decisions just based on what we believe. We want to consult as many people as possible before making any hasty decisions.
Voting will take place April 1 - 3
SEE SGA, PAGE A-2 PHOTOS BY ALEX MOWREY/ THE ROCKET
APSCUF reaches contract agreement with PASSHE Students and faculty weigh By Catie Clark Assistant News Editor
The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) reached a contract agreement March 20 with The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors after 21 months of negotiations. APSCUF represents both university faculty and athletic coaches, so separate agreements were ratified for each group, which will run through June 30, 2015. Dr. Patrick Burkhart, President of SRU’s APSCUF chapter, said the vote for the contract was strongly in support by the faculty. “The faculty were pleased to have a contract,” Burkhart said. “It followed the pattern of other collective bargaining agreements in the Commonwealth.” According to Burkhart, Governor Tom Corbett described the contract as being fiscally responsible. Burkhart said that this was the first time discussing class size at the negotiations table, which was a big step in the right direction. The contract includes salary increases, which match those provided to other state employee unions. According to a PASSHE press release, under the new
agreement with the faculty, there will be pay increases of 1 percent each in 2012-13 and 2013-14 and 2 percent in 2014-15. Faculty will also receive either annual service increments of 2.5 percent or 5 percent in each of the three years as they move up the salary schedule or annual cash payments equivalent to 2.5 percent of their base salary if they already are at the top of the pay scale. About one-third of faculty receives the increments. The new agreement with the coaches includes salary increases of 2.5 percent in 201213 and 2.25 percent in 2013-14, as well as performance-based merit pools of 3 percent each in 2013-14 and 2014-15. Coaches do not receive annual service increments. Minimum salaries for both head and assistant coaches will be increased effective Jan. 1, 2015, according to a press release by PASSHE. According to a PASSHE press release, faculty will have higher co-payments for prescription drugs as well as for some office and emergency room visits, while coaches will make larger contributions to the cost of their healthcare premiums with the new contracts. “Health care costs are increasing, but everyone faces that,”
"I wish that we could evolve to a different pattern of negotiation." - Dr. Patrick Burkhart
SEE NEGOTIATIONS, PAGE A-3
benefits of early graduation By Kevin Squires Rocket Contributor
With the spring semester in full force, many students find themselves counting down the days until graduation. Entering college, four years can feel like forty and some students want out as soon as possible after they see that first tuition bill. Sophomore public health major Abagail Bartus says she would love to graduate early. “It saves a year of tuition costs and gives me less time to change my mind about my major again!” Bartus explains, having changed her major from biology earlier this year. Daniel Gladis, sophomore history major, also plans on graduating a semester early. Gladis feels that as students the purpose of time at Slippery Rock is to “get a degree and leave with a diploma” and plans to do all the things traditional students do in four years in less time, primarily to save money. Like Bartus, Gladis feels saving money is a huge benefit to graduating early. “The least amount of expense I can have the better” explains Gladis. It is very true that graduating early can save students from paying extra semesters of tuition costs as well as housing and general costs associated with attending Slippery Rock. More bills are the only thing Gladis sees as being lost by graduating early. Gladis plans to use the time off to do things he would not be able to while studying such as traveling abroad and working to collect SEE YEAR, PAGE A-3