15
Women’s tennis team serves up victory
Trinity causes a racquet and defeats McMurry University
11
Trinity’s BSU visits Sam Houston High School
Students discuss commonalities and struggles about coming to college
12
Walker digests the San Antonio Book Festival
A&E columinst Mason Walker offers up novel ideas about the literary festival
theTrinitonian Volume 111, Issue 24
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www.trinitonian.com
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Serving Trinity University Since 1902
• April 11, 2014
No static: KRTU fundraising drive sets records
The station receives the majority of its funding from individual donors by Luke Wise
NEWS REPORTER KRTU, the radio station of Trinity University, held its bi-annual membership drive to raise funds and spread awareness of the station. This spring, the drive helped ensure future advancement of the station with a record day of giving, with donors giving close to $17,000 in one day. The radio station, formed back in 1976 by students, is a non-commercial format, meaning the majority of funding comes from individual donors in the San Antonio community. The station is a unique hybrid model that combines student interaction with professional work in a nonprofit setting. Laura Calo, Development Director for KRTU, notes that while some of the station’s funds are generated though business promotion called underwriting and from the university itself, the majority is from donors who participate in the drive.
“We get some of our dollars though our underwriting, and about 15-20%, depending on how much we raise, from Trinity,” Calo said. “All the rest of the funds we have to generate ourselves.” The drive allows members to participate and help out the station, while also spreading awareness to those who may not know about KRTU in hopes that they may come to support it as well. “The goal for the membership drive is to share with the listening audience that we are listener supported and they can become a member and support us financially,” Calo said. “The drive lets us not only bring in funds, but also raise awareness of the station.” KRTU is looking for more student involvement here at Trinity as well, in the form of student memberships as well as more student engagement. “What we are trying to do now is get more students involved outside of our interns and our student hosts,” Calo said. “We are trying to engage students more not only as student members, but also as volunteers who we can engage with and teach more about the station.” Likewise, to junior and
photo by Nayeli Perez Photo stations are set up near dry-erase boards that record member name, method of payment, pledge amount, and status/type of member.
KRTU intern Joseph Erik Montano the station is a not only a chance for students to get involved and have fun, but also to learn about music. “Even if you don’t know about jazz, you can listen in to people’s shows that are essentially teaching you what is going on in jazz and indie,” Montano said. “We also try to do lots of local events, have bands come in and record
them, sponsor events, things like that; it’s that kind of community involvement that we want to have the students here on campus a part of.” With a push for further student engagement, the station and those involved are excited for what possibilities the future may hold with more students involved here on campus, outside of working interns and hosts.
“We are looking to put on more events come next fall if students are interested, particularly more indie events,” Montano said. “We are hoping to put on some sort of festival or shows and bring in more local bands here on campus in the future.”
faculty and student affairs makes a recommendation; and then the president makes the final decision,” Fischer said in email. The commission makes recommendations for each level of promotion or granting tenure based on these recommendations and the materials included in each candidate’s “box,” composed of teaching materials, research, published work and other resources. While the majority of promotions to associate professor occur at a faculty’s sixth year, exceptions do occur, such as with Maria Paganelli, who was recently promoted to associate professor of economics and awarded tenure. “I taught before so they recognized the fact that I came with experience, and they packed my previous year experience in my tenure clock, so rather than having a six year
clock I had a four year clock,” Paganelli said. “The process was easy in a sense and painful in a sense. You are putting yourself in the hands of others and being judged by others, so there’s always anxiety if everything is okay... On the other hand, you are not alone. Everybody is willing to help.” Aside from anxiety, faculty members interviewed did not have critiques of the promotion and tenure process, even those who had been through it at another institution, such as Aaron Navarro, associate professor of history and director of the Mexico, the Americas and Spain (MAS) Program who was recently granted tenure. “I gave up tenure [at the University of North Texas] to come to Trinity because I am from San Antonio, because of the MAS program that existed and because of the students,” Navarro said. “Basically every year you get feedback on how
your year has gone, if you’ve published or not published, if you’re teaching evaluations are good or not so good, you sort of know along the way what you have to work on. Compared to my previous institution, it was much clearer here what exactly we had to do.” According to Fischer, this process of evaluation and compilation of work is a vital step in determining tenure. “Awarding a professor tenure is one of the most important decisions a university can make, which is why we make sure that our review process is thorough and careful,” Fischer said. Navarro was the only faculty member in this group of promotions who was granted tenure independently of position because he had already gained the title of associate professor.
see KRTU Page 4
Tenure awarded, but process generates apprehension in some Pressure to gain tenure a reality for professors; tenure seen as recognition
by Faith Ozer NEWS REPORTER On Friday, March 28, Trinity University announced nine assistant professors who were promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure, one associate professor was granted tenure and eight faculty members were promoted to full professor. According to Michael Fischer, vice president for faculty and student affairs and chair of the promotion and tenure commission, faculty members who are promoted or considered for tenure are expected to demonstrate excellence in teaching, research and university
service. The review usually begins in each department with recommendations from tenured faculty members. “[After receiving recommendations] the candidate’s case is then reviewed by the promotion and tenure commission,” Fischer said in an email. “Teaching is primarily assessed by reviewing course materials and student evaluations. Excellence in research is demonstrated in part by candidates’ publishing their work in rigorously peerreviewed outlets. We also send samples of a candidate’s work to experts at other universities and ask them to comment on its quality.” According to Fischer, the faculty and tenure commission is composed of seven elected faculty members from a variety of disciplines. “The commission makes makes a recommendation; then the vice president for
see TRINITY Page 4