North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 3, 2008 Page: 2 of 10
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Page 1 Thursday Apri 3.2008
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News
Kirk Cooper & Bryan Shettig
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Safety Walk finds areas to light up on campus
By Abigail Thatcher
Intern
Students walking across
campus at night sometimes
choose to avoid dark areas, but
they don't always have a choice.
Dark areas around the main
part of campus were spotted
on a safety walk sponsored
by the Student Government
Association Tuesday night for
students' safety.
While walking around the
university grounds, students,
staff, administrators, a risk
management officer and an
NT police officer searched for
dark areas.
One dark area near the
General Academic Building
will have lighting in place
soon.
Glen Haubold, assis-
tant director of Facilities
Maintenance, said 63 lights
similar to the ones by the
gazebo in the Library Mall
will line the areas around the
Information Sciences Building
and the Administration
Building. Some of these lights
will help light the dark spots
near the GAB, Haubold said.
Although the project is
weather-dependent, facilities
plans to begin work soon and
to use mainly university staff
to keep costs lower.
Keeping the budget lower,
Haubold said, will allow more
money for lights. He said
the project will cost about
$300,000 or about $5,000 per
light pole.
Charles Jackson, the director
of facilities maintenance, said
the area is highly traversed,
poses a general problem from
Masters Hall to Union Circle
and is the central area of
campus.
Jackson added that the deci-
sion also came because an
electrical engineer found the
area to have dark spots with
minimal to no lighting during
a lighting survey.
One dark area was on the
east side of the men's gym
near the Physical Education
Building.
During the hour-long walk,
10 areas where lights were
blinking or burnt out were
found in addition to seven
areas with suggestions of
increased lighting.
"Lighting will always be
an issue," Crime Prevention
Officer Jeff Arrington said. "I
like to see the SGA taking a
proactive approach."
The group began the walk at
the Wooten Hall parking lot.
Lance Thomas, the SGA
director of student affairs, said
students had complained that
the lot is dark when filled with
cars, worrying some female
students.
Haubold said the complaint
surprised him because no one
has spoken to facilities about
the complaint.
Rebecca Finberg, a Dallas
junior who had never previ-
ously attended a safety walk,
wanted to see personally what
many students were concerned
about.
"The lighting at night is not
usually the first thing students
notice about this campus,"
Finberg said. "When you actu-
ally walk around, you can iden-
tify all the areas that need
attention."
Haubold said Facilities
Maintenance pays close atten-
tion to the area and it must
have been a bad coincidence
for the lights not to work at the
time of the safety walk.
Jackson affirmed that the
goal of the safety walks is to
solve lighting problems so
students will have little to no
issues with the lighting on
campus.
The safety walk helps the
facilities department find
problem areas, Jackson said.
Finberg said, "I think the
campus has made great strides
in addressing student concerns
regarding lighting."
In addition to visiting other
areas of campus like Eagle
Point and Research Park,
Thomas said he and SGA
President Josh Ness and Vice
President Trey Connolly will
visit the areas found on the
safety walk to check on the
lighting.
Police Blottek
Student
assaulted
on campus,
drugs found at
Rockin Rodeo
By Holly Horton
Intern
Thursday, March 27
NT police arrested
two suspects in connec-
tion with possession of a
dangerous drug and public
intoxication at the Rockin'
Rodeo bar and club at 1009
S. Ave C around 1:30 a.m.
According to the NT
police report, Amanda
Simpson, 21, and Stephanie
Peteete, 21, were arrested
and transported to the
Denton County jail.
The dangerous drug
in possession was one
white Zanaflex pill, which
was taken as evidence,
according to the report.
Friday, March 28
NT police arrested
28-year-old non-student
James Cody Smithers of
Krum in connection with
driving while intoxicated
in the 100 block of North
Texas Boulevard between
11:45 p.m. and 12:35 a.m.,
according to the NT police
report.
Smithers' 2003 black
Nissan Xterra was
impounded, and he was
arrested and transported
to the Denton County Jail,
according to the report.
He was released the
same day on $2,500 bail,
according to the Denton
County sheriff records
search.
Saturday, March 29
An NT police officer
responded to an assault
that occurred at the Student
Recreation Center sports
field, west of the PEB prac-
tice fields in the 1900 block
of Chestnut Street between
3:45 p.m. and 4:35 p.m.
Victim Husbanbir Pannu
suffered only minor inju-
ries, according to the NT
police report, and was
taken home by friends after
filing a report.
Information on the
suspect was withheld in
the report.
Photo by Samuel Gonzalez / Contributing Photographer
Campus police try to get Jason C. Waite, who was protesting the Iraq War and recruitment, to leave the front of the
ROTC recruiting booth in front of the University Union Wednesday afternoon. Waite founded United Aid, which is an
umbrella group that counters recruiting and informs students of other options to enlisting for service in the military.
NT requests money for more advisers
Budget request
to be sent to
Board of Regents
By Courtney Roberts
Copy Assistant
As enrollment time for the
summer and fall semesters
approaches, students may
or may not be lucky enough
to visit their adviser before
logging online to make
their class selections. That's
because NT has less than
half of the academic advisers
on staff of what it actually
needs.
"At UNT Denton, we have
49 advisers in total, which
includes all undergrad-
uate advisers," said Celia
Williamson, vice provost
and associate vice presi-
dent of academic affairs.
"These are advisers that are
classified as being on the
advising staff, not including
the faculty advisers."
The part of the budgeting
process, Williamson said,
includes considering
advisers based on the univer-
sity's income, enrollment
and resources, and then
submitting a request to the
Board of Regents next year.
"The two primary budget
requests for advising that
were addressed to the Board
of Regents were hiring more
advisers to reduce the
student to adviser ratio,"
she said, "and raising the
salaries of advisers because
they are somewhat low
compared to our peer insti-
tutions. We want to raise the
level of salaries so that we
are competitive with other
schools."
The student to adviser
ratio varies from college to
college. Williamson added
that NT ranges from a low
of about 400 students per
adviser to well over 500
students per adviser.
"At NT Dallas, the lowest
is 262 students per one
adviser," she said. "The
lowest at NT Denton is in
the College of Education
with 363 students per one
adviser."
The College of Education
isn't the only department
where advisers are direly
needed. In the International
advising department, there
are only four advisers.
"I think we could use one
more adviser," said Dotty
Horton, the director of inter-
national advising and assis-
tant director of International
Programs and Studies. "We're
pretty well organized, but we
do process a lot."
According to the fall 2007
statistics summary on the
international advising Web
site, there are 2,241 inter-
national students, in total,
with 116 countries repre-
sented.
"We do immigrant docu-
mentation, reporting for
international students and
advising," Horton said.
"We also serve as liaisons
between attorneys, depart-
ments and applicants."
In addition to the six-
drop penalty rule, where
a student who started out
as a freshman in fall 2007
can drop six classes without
academic penalty, advisers
m i
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v
Local economics
Continued from Page 1
Denton housing
market feeling
slump
"The general consensus is
that the U.S. is in the dumper
in relation to foreclosures,"
Roddy said. "But Texas has
weathered the storm better
than most other states."
Roddy said North Texas
foreclosures have been going
up since 1999 and have since
broken many records.
Postings of foreclosed
Denton County homes have
risen 572 percent in the last
eight years, according to a
statement from Foreclosure
Listing Service, Inc.
Many people cannot afford
their mortgages, Roddy said,
because the cost of living
has grown significantly. The
mounting price of gas, util-
ities bills and credit card
interest rates, combined
with poor lending practices
pushed many people over
what they could afford.
But Roddy remains opti-
mistic.
"The Texas market in
general is in pretty good
shape regardless of the high
foreclosures," Roddy said.
"Some areas are affected
worse than others, but
overall it's still doing pretty
well."
Weinstein said the number
of homes foreclosed in the
DFW area is still only a frac-
tion of a percent of its total
2 million housing units. He
said median home values
remain 9 percent lower than
the national median.
"But it's still no solace to
the people facing foreclo-
sure," Weinstein said.
Students' wages
on campus
could see rise
"We could talk to depart-
ment heads and see how we
could get our students more
money," Thomas said.
Clower said many of the
jobs on campus are meant to
have an educational training
component and are a learning
experience.
Clower said the university is
always conscious of wanting to
be fair to students.
"There will be avenues for
wages to increase for students,
and when we have general wage
increases among staff, student
wages usually raise as well."
Photo by Chase Martinez / Staff Photographer
College of Visual Arts and Design adviser Nancy Kelly helps Seymour sophomore
Katie Gregg choose classes Wednesday afternoon in the Art Building.
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need to keep track of Texas
legislation dealing with how
many hours a student needs
to complete a degree so they
can graduate on time.
Students agree that NT
needs more advisers to
keep in contact with them
throughout the semester.
"I think they do an
adequate job, but they don't
really prepare students
when they first enter UNT,"
Houston senior Luke Martin
said. "When you do need
them, they're hard to get a
hold of. I think it should be
mandatory to meet with the
counselor to be promoted to
the next class."
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 3, 2008, newspaper, April 3, 2008; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145568/m1/2/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.