North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 89, No. 59, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 25, 2005 Page: 1 of 10
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JANUARY 25, 2005
- Tuesday -
Volume 89 Issue 59
North Texas Daily
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas Since 1915
resident considers tenure decisions
JAMES DRAPER
Staff Writer
Several faculty members who
are appealing their tenure denials
lodged complaints with the district
attorney's office this month, claim-
ing university officials have broken
the Texas Public Information Act,
NT policies and their employees'
good faith.
"We explained that we had a
number of complaints [with the
administration] ... specifically, with-
holding information or delaying the
release of information," said Dr. Dan
Peak, an appellant professor from
the computer information sciences
faculty. Most of the appellant profes-
sors have also filed claims with the
Texas Attorney General, he said.
According to Peak, university
officials breached special provisions
in his contract that protected him
from termination.
Peak said administrators also
withheld the reasons behind their
decision to deny his tenure until
too late in his appeal, preventing
him from crafting an adequate
defense. Since then, he added, uni-
versity officials have delayed Public
Information Requests and returned
incomplete information.
Peak said he and other
appellants spoke to the dis-
trict attorney because of a
"severe ethical breach" by
the administration in the
tenure appeal process.
The district attorney's
office declined to comment.
Nancy Footer, NT gen-
eral counsel, said there have
been many requests for
public information related
to the promotion and tenure
appeals and her staff is doing every-
thing they can to respond to the
requests open on the docket.
Footer said some appellants'
Norval
POHL
NT President
concerns about her office's
dual role in fulfilling
their public information
requests and advising
the administration are
unfounded and insulting.
"To infer that there is any
sort of unethical conduct
going on is deeply offensive
to me," Footer said. "We take
seriously our ethical obliga-
tions as lawyers in the office
and believe that we are han-
dling the information requests in
accordance with the law."
Any requests the office receives
are delegated to the person she
believes has the time and the exper-
tise to handle the request, Footer
said, and while some requests may
still be open, they are under consid-
eration and will be addressed.
It has been almost three months
since the University Tenure
Committee turned over its first tenure
recommendation to Dr. Norval Pohl,
but there has been no decision from
the president's office and no word on
when he will make a ruling.
Pohl marks the next step for the
seven professors challenging Provost
- see tenure page 4 -
lose miss ends game
I
ill
JONATHAN WHITNEY/NT DAILY
Junior guard Isaac Mines leaps for a rebound in the Mean Grean 73-70 lost to the Arkansas State Trojans.
Gabriel D. brooks
Staff Writer
The NT men's basketball
team fell 73-70 Saturday
night at the Super Pit as
sophomore guard Calvin
Watson missed a three-point
attempt at the final buzzer
that would have sent the
game into overtime.
With 15.6 seconds
remaining in the game,
Arkansas State senior
guard J.J. Montgomery
connected on a pair of free
throws to give the Indians a
three-point lead. The Mean
Green inbounded the ball
to senior point guard Isaac
I lines, who worked the
ball down the court and
set up an off-balance three-
point attempt by senior
guard Leonard Hopkins.
The long rebound squirted
loose almost to midcourt,
where Watson picked it up,
dribbled in, and misfired
on the three-pointer
Arkansas State guard
Jerry Nichols came off the
bench to score a game-high
21 points on 7-of-10 shoot-
- see game page 9 -
NT acquires $110,000 over break
ANDREW GUNTER
Intern
Two corporations,
Citigroup and Verizon, con-
tributed over $110,000 in
grant money to NT over the
holiday break.
The Citigroup Foundation
donated $50,000 to the
University of North Texas
System Center at Dallas'
Complete the Dream scholar-
ship program in December.
The program encourages
community college gradu-
ates with $2,000 per semester
to continue toward a bache-
lor's degree, if they have suc-
cessfully completed a two-
year program through Dallas
County Community College
"We are excited with
Citigroup Foundation's
investment in the NT
Dallas Campus and the
future University of North
Texas at Dallas," said John
Price, vice provost for the
Dallas Campus, in a pre-
pared statement.
The Citigroup Foundation
offered a total of $88.8 mil-
lion to organizations in more
than 80 countries in 2003.
The Verizon Foundation
honored NT's Texas Center
for Educational Technology
with $61,000 for the "Literacy
for Special Populations via
Technology" project.
The program is designed
to teach students with spe-
cial needs and will include a
total of 140 elementary and
middle school students, with
Denton's Strickland Middle
School as the pilot school
"Many students, includ-
ing children of immigrant
families, have difficulties
with language or the social
interpretation of language,"
said Dr. James Poirot in a
prepared statement. "We
plan to address students'
literacy problems by using
technological resources
such as hand-held electronic
devices, software and curric-
ulum. These wireless devices
have proven economical and
effective in the I<-8 student
age group."
Playing the
book market
MELISSA TOM LIN SON
Staff Writer
Elliot Hirsch and Eric
Haszlakiewicz imagine a
world where textbooks are
virtually free. The two former
college students were tired of
seeing their peers deal with
high bookstore prices and
long refund lines, so they,
along with David Goldbalatt,
decided to create SwapSimple,
Inc. last month.
"We were all college stu-
dents," Hirsch said. "We all
suffered at the bookstore."
On the Web site, http:/ /
www.swapsimple.com, stu-
dents trade textbooks instead
of purchasing them at book-
stores or online auctions.
There is no charge for books
on the SwapSimple site. To
receive a book from the site,
students must post at least
one book to trade. The post-
ing user is awarded "trade
credits" which can then be
used toward ordering a book.
Each user pays a $2 trans-
action fee to the site and must
pay for shipping. According
to the Web site, buyers will
pay about $6 per book.
SwapSimple, Inc. has been
running since late December
with approximately 150 peo-
ple trading on a database that
contains roughly 600 books
WTien users post a book,
they must input a credit card
number. If that user's posted
book is not available when
another user orders it, the
original poster's credit card
is charged with the face value
of the book needed and the
Web site will track down
another copy. According to
Hirsch and Haszlakiewicz,
the purpose is to make cer-
tain that all of SwapSimple's
books are available.
"We are going to make sure
you get it, even if we have to
buy it out of our pockets,"
Haszlakiewicz said.
Once you request a book,
the posting user prints a
Federal Express shipping
label and ships the text-
book. The company is work-
ing to make shipping avail-
able through the U.S. Postal
Service so that shipping costs
will go down.
"What makes it interest-
ing is you don't have to trade
item for item," Hirsch said.
"You aren't trading with an
individual. You are trading
with our database."
The NTStudentGovernment
Association is launching Eagle
Swap, a version of an online
textbook swap
Jesse Davis, SGA presi-
dent, said technical difficul-
ties have slowed the Web
site's completion.
Davis said Eagle Swap
would allow students to make
trades in person and get text-
books faster.
Lindsey Holbert,
Commerce junior, does not
buy textbooks online.
She buys textbooks in
bookstores to avoid problems
with online transactions.
"I worry about the authentic-
ity of the book," Holbert said
Other students, like Ryan
Marrero, Llouston junior,
think SwapSimple.com may
be a good deal.
"I think I would be
interested in doing that,"
Marrero said.
Ex-chancellor dies
TONY GUTIERREZ
Intern
Friends, family and col-
leagues mourned the death
of Frank Vandiver, NT's 11th
president, Monday morning
during a memorial service
held in his honor.
Vandiver, 79, served as the
president of the university from
1979 to 1981. He died Jan. 7 at
his home in College Station.
According to James
Rogers's "The Story of North
Texas," the Board of Regents
appointed Vandiver president
in December 1979 following a
feud between previous presi
dent C.C. Nolen and Regent
E.E. Stuessy concerning mis-
appropriation of funds. Nolen
resigned in April, and by
August, three vice presidents
were fired. After Vandiver's
appointment, all other vice
presidents were asked to resign
by the regents so Vandiver
could hire a new team.
"NTSU was going through
some tumultuous times," said
Richard Rafes, Senior Vice
President for Administration,
at the memorial service. "One
of his legacies is he set motion
to a university that was going
to prosper and grow because
he brought leaders."
Before Vandiver came to
NT, he taught at Washington
University in St. Louis and at
Rice University, where he was
also an administrator. While
at NT, he also served as the
first chancellor of what is now
the NT Health Science Center
in Fort Worth. He was later
hired as President of Texas
- see death
2 -
VIEWS
" • i The Daily pays its respect to
11 ¡S J UC • the King of late night.
LIFE
Visiting fiction author shares
her views in a Q & A.
BEAT
Learn the many talents of
booking agent Glen Squibbs.
SPORTS
Track team excells at OU
classic meet.
WEATHER
High 75 / Low 45
Forecast: Sunny
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 89, No. 59, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 25, 2005, newspaper, January 25, 2005; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145177/m1/1/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.