Vol 119 | Issue 11
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Publishing since 1913
Independent Student Newspaper of Sam Houston State University
Taking Back Sunday gears up for Sammypalooza, pg. 5
KAT Links For more information about Sammypalooza ‘11, visit sammypalooza.com.
Social Media Policy creator defends project, pg. 2
INDEX Viewpoints ...... pg. 2 A&E ................. pg. 5 News ................ pg. 3 Sports ............... pg. 6 Special .............. pg. 4
Curiosity made the Kat
Rather talks journalism, optimism By Stephen Green Associate News Editor
Jessica Gomez | The Houstonian
THE PRODIGAL SON RETURNS. Dan Rather, Sam Houston State Teachers College Class of 1953 and long-time anchor of CBS Evening News, returned to SHSU for one night only to “Mingle with the Media,” hosted by Priority One and the President’s Office.
A young man came to Huntsville to attend Sam Houston State Teachers College on what he “believed to be” a football scholarship. In the fall, the coach called him to his office and said, “They tell me you’re interested in journalism.” Then the coach said, “I’m here to tell you, you should go with that.” Sixty-one years later, Dan Rather came back to his alma matter to share his knowledge and opinion on that career his coach jokingly urged him to pursue. He was the guest for the Mingling with the Media event hosted by Priority One and the President’s Office Wednesday night. “My most indelible memory from my time at Sam Houston is how much the teachers cared,” Rather said. “They cared first and foremost about molding you as a person…and — See DAN, page 4
Lagoon offers SGA reserves right to approve Blue “Bearkat Wednesdays” By McKinzie Brocail Senior Reporter
The university’s Student Government Association passed two legislations during Tuesday’s meeting in response to the recent social media policy hype. Senators voted to pass the Fair Policy Review Act (FPRA, F11-01) and the Senate Resolution F11-02. The policies state that in regards to topics with an academic nature, the university must consult the Faculty Senate and SGA. Kris Ruiz, SHSU’s Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communication, spoke at the meeting for approximately 40 minutes about the new Social Media Policy. She stressed that the policy is proposed, and that it is not approved, however, they are making groups sign contracts for something that is supposedly only in a “beta test mode.” “If you agree to the Facebook guidelines, then you’ve basically agreed
to our policy, a lot of [Facebook’s rules] we don’t even address in the policy,” Ruiz said. She spoke of the benefits of joining the proposed Sam Houston social media community. “We have over 30,000 active monthly users [on Facebook]. This benefits the community because it gets a more diverse conversation and gets [groups] listed in a public-use directory, access to trademarks and marketing help. The more buzz we can build, the greater number of people we can use. The SCVNGR [gaming platform] will be available to users. [This all] increases relevancy of content, we don’t want to be boring,” Ruiz said. When asked repeatedly by a senator if the marketing team would write an article to be published in The Houstonian regarding the policy and clarifying its content for readers, they said they were working on a draft. “This has nothing to do with personal freedom of speech. If
group [that joins our social media community] says something negative about SHSU, we can’t touch that either. Threats, pornography, and copywritten material [is what we would remove]. Facebook’s list is more extensive than ours. “ Ruiz will be meeting with the Faculty Senate today. Joseph Le, a former SGA candidate for president and senator was denied entry into the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 138-10 (13 positive votes, 8 negative votes, and 10 abstentions). To become a senator requires 2/3 approval of the Senate. At last week’s SGA meeting quorum was not met, leaving the association unable to do business, resulting in the possible impeachments for senators that have not been attending meetings. In Tuesday’s meeting, five senators were named as having the 10 necessary signatures on their petitions against them for impeachment. These five senators have the option to resign
or fight the charges in front of the entire Senate. In old business, Student Body President Tyler Eberhart readdressed his dedication to the Texas wildfire relief. SGA is still collecting water and meat vouchers for the firefighters as well as items for the victims who have lost their homes. SGA recently drove down 120 cases of water (nearly 3,000 water bottles) for the firefighters. “If there is something we can do, we should be doing it,” Eberhart said. SGA has partnered up with SHSU’s Greek Week for their donations to aid the wildfire relief as well. In new business, to become more involved in the community, SGA will have at least one senator at all Huntsville City Council meetings from now on. Senator Dylan Staton, a freshman of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, was appointed for the Election Commissioner for homecoming.
McKinzie Brocail | The Houstonian
AT THE OASIS.
The Blue Lagoon in Huntsville off of I-45’s exit 123 hosts “Bearkat Wednesdays” offering discounted admission to students with a Bearkat Card. This oasis in Huntsville has two lakes and multiple beaches where students can scuba drive, swim and camp. “This place could be like the San Marcos River. It’s secluded and beautiful,” said Mike Ruggeri, an SHSU business major. The Blue Lagoon offers a one-week scuba diving class that counts as a Kinesiology credit at SHSU.
Sam Houston Village closing By McKinzie Brocail Senior Reporter
File Photo
UNDER REPAIR. About 265 students will be relocated in the spring when SHV closes for repairs.
The Sam Houston Village (SHV) dorms will completely shut down in the upcoming spring semester for repairs and renovations. Currently, SHV is only half occupied because of the need for repairs, the other half is offline. SHV’s construction was completed in just under a year in Aug. 2004 and has periodically had problems since then. The facility needs to replace individual HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) condenser units throughout the building,
waterproof the walls of the parking garage and it needs to meet certain American with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. Officials say the building poses no danger for residents. The construction was supposed to begin Sept. 1, but currently has not. According to Julia May, the assistant director of SHSU’s Communications Office, the university is in the process of securing a contractor for the necessary repairs. Sam Houston will find a place on campus for residents currently living in the SHV to live in the spring. At halfcapacity, there are roughly
265 students in SHV. Typically, SHV houses freshmen only, however, this semester, it was open to all students. Each suite is twobed and two-bath and has a living area and a kitchenette with a microwave and underthe-counter refrigerator. The original builder of the SHV facility was Capstone Building Corporation and they will not be the company doing the renovations. Repairs are to be finished Aug. 2012, in time for students to move in for the fall semester. The Houstonian will update this story as information is made available.