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friday november 13, 2009
volume 91, no. 49 www.theshorthorn.com
since 1919 inDeX News Calendar Opinion Sports Classifieds
First and Final Challenge
Your Candidates
3,8 2 5 4 7
Movin’ Mavs play Illinois and professor will give students extra credit if they can fill Texas Hall for the 8 p.m. game. sports | page 8
Fall student elections start Monday and the platforms can help you pick. neWs | page 6
facilities
Events center a go, receives final approval
The Board of Regents passed the designs and new funding structure without questions.
fast facts: • Seats 6,500 • 218,000 square feet • Finishes January 2012 • Costs $78 million
By Joan Khalaf The Shorthorn senior staff
The university sealed the deal on the planned special events center, a new home for indoor athletics at UTA. The UT System Board of Regents passed the final designs and funding structure for the project Thursday. The Regents didn’t have any questions concerning the project, said John Hall, administration and campus operations vice president. “I didn’t really have a doubt that it would pass because we had done our homework,” he said. “It’s a project that will serve the
university quite well for many, many years.” The $78 million project will be paid with $68 million in system bonds and $10 million in UTA savings. Private donations are still sought and anticipated for the project. The center will host indoor athletic events, like basketball and volleyball, convocations and concerts. The center will be about 218,000 square feet and seat SEC continues on page 3
Courtesy: HKS, Inc.
The Shorthorn: Andrew Buckley
Business management sophomore Cody Price, left, gets hit by aerospace engineering junior Tim Hunt on Thursday during Sigma Chi’s 22nd annual Fight Night at Cowboys DanceHall in Arlington. The fight lasted three complete rounds with Hunt getting the victory.
Clash of the Titans Sigma Chi’s event brings rivalry both in and outside the ring
The university released final renderings of the recently approved special events center this week. The $78-million, 218,000-square-foot facility, which will house events such as volleyball games and convocation, will seat about 6,500.
The Shorthorn: Stephanie Goddard
With six wins, Sigma Chi won the belt at the annual Sigma Chi Fight Night on Thursday evening at the Cowboys DanceHall in Arlington.
By anDreW plocK
Dining services
The Shorthorn staff
Cafeteria set to go meatless Monday Cafè works with PR students to promote healthy eating and environmental awareness. By chase WeBster The Shorthorn staff
Don’t expect to find a hot slice of pepperoni pizza in the Connection Café on Monday. Dining Services will serve vegetarian breakfast, lunch and dinner in the café as part of a President’s Sustainability Committee initiative. The menu will showcase meat-free meals, featuring items
like angel hair pasta, cheese ravioli, vegan quesadillas and artichoke pesto pasta. The goal is to teach the importance of knowing not only how to care for the environment but also how to care for the self, Dining Services director Elizabeth Cheong said. “We believe in the importance of self-sustainability,” she said, “and hope to open the minds and taste buds of our guests to the fact
The room is quiet. About 20 men are in their own world, listening to blaring headphones or fidgeting around as they prepare to try and knock out one another. But as the fighters for the 22nd annual Sigma Chi Fight Night left the back room and took to the ring, the script flipped. The nearly 3,000 attendees urged the boxers on. The loudest roars came between one of the night’s biggest rivalries — Sigma Chi versus Phi Gamma Delta — even though the event only had two matchups between the fraternities. “It’s crazy watching this,” said nursing freshman Amanda Guevara, who
came to support Phi Gamma Delta. “It’s for charity, but I think it’s an excuse to fight each other.” The event, held at Cowboys DanceHall in Arlington, was set to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club of Arlington. Fight Night chairman David Hall said he didn’t have a total count of money raised Thursday night, but said it seemed more than last year. Charity aside, the rivalry action began as Sigma Chi member Sean Ellis battled Phi Gamma Delta member Chris Shumate. As the two entered, cheers and boos exploded from the crowd, start-
more coverage Page 8 • Check out more photos of Fight Night. Online • Watch a video of the event. • View a list of the winners. • Read more stories about the event, including a feature on a boxing trainer and statistics of all the fighters.
NigHT continues on page 8
“I’ll do it until I can’t do it anymore.”. ” Levi Armstrong, Sigma Chi fighter
PSC continues on page 3
entertainment your vieW “I don’t believe that the world will end in 2012, people are always coming up with theories about anything” Jason Hinshaw,
mechanical engineering sophomore “When 2000 rolled around everyone felt the same way but it turned out to be another year” Rachel Parsons,
undeclared freshman
2012 film propels doomsday discussion revival According to Sony’s movie and Cusack’s character, the end of times approaches. By Bryan BastiBle The Shorthorn senior staff
In 1,133 days, the world will end. That’s the plotline for Sony Pictures’ new movie 2012, which comes out Friday. The movie is based on the Mayan calendar, and follows a group of earthlings fighting for their lives against cataclysmic events leading to world destruction.
Biology freshman Paris Rohanni said she wants to go see the movie’s special effects, but she doesn’t think the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012 like the movie says. “People always said the world will end on certain dates, and it hasn’t yet, for example in the year 2000,” she said. “If the world will end eventually, it’ll be not from the outside such as space but from the inside with human issues, like war or starvation.” The media uses the Mayan calendar to capitalize on the 2012 concept and the world end-
ing, she said.
The Mayan Calendar History lecturer Kimberly Breuer said the Mayan Calendar does not end on Dec. 21, 2012 — it is the Great Cycle in the Long Count calendar that ends, and a new cycle begins the next day. She said there is no reason to worry because the movie refers to an obsolete calendar. The Mayans don’t use that calendar anymore. “The Mayans that did use this calendar never said the world was going to end when the Great
Cycle ended,” she said. “All of this end of the world stuff, the way they are showing here for 2012, is more of a Western mindset than the mindset of a MesoAmerica.” She said the idea of a new cycle starting would be an exciting time for the Maya if the modern Mayans still used that calendar, but it hasn’t been used since the 9th century. “This idea of an end with no beginning is Western,” she said. She said Mayans think in cyclical terms, unlike the common 2012 continues on page 3