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PAi^AnO
January 13,1998
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Volume 21 Numberl
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JPL renovation to malce enrollment management services more user-friendly, promotes one-stop shopping
Rsglna Hurtado
News Editor
Reconstruction of the lower level JPL will begin in four weeks and involve renovation of the area of student advising to create an expanded area for the bursar's office, the "University All Card" pro- i^——i^^^^^— gram, and the creation of "one- stop" shop¬ ping.
"Students have been very favorably impressed. I think, with the one-stop shopping area downtown. Of course, downtown is sort ofa model of what we are going to do here. It has been so well received by students, we think we can suc¬ cessfully implement that model out here and provide better stu¬ dent services."
-David Gabler, director of external communications
"The focus of the con¬ struction is to make Ihe enrollmenl manage¬ ment re¬ lated ser¬ vices more u s e r - friendly," said David Gabler, di¬ rector of external ^~'"^~" communications.
According to Gabler, conslrue¬ tion was sel lo begin during the holidays, but was delayed due to relations involv¬ ing developing a bid and having a con¬ tract signed wilh Ihe construction com¬ pany.
"We issued a bid package on the 6th of January. Next week on Ihe 13ih there is to be a conference for conlraclors to come in and discuss the issue. Some- lime by the 21 st or 26th of January, at Ihe latest, we will award a contract,"said Gabler.
Lalo Gomez, associate VP for —.^^^^^^^^ facilities operation planning, slated that the budget for the reconstruction of the JPL isjust under $600,000 and the All Card system is to stay just under $130,000.
"We bid once, bul it was above budgel, so we are rebidding it," said Gomez.
Funds for this $730,000 project are coming from state moneys and will not cost Ihe stu¬ dents anything, said John Root, direcior ¦"""^¦^¦^"^^ of business services. The reconstruction ofthe studeni advising area will include providing new space wilh transaction windows for Ihe bursar's office and Ihe University All Card syslem. This
new card syslem will replace Ihe currenl sludeni ID card and enable students to ac¬
cess services around campus.
"Construction encompasses the facilities for the new Universiiy All Card operation which will replace, eventually.
the currenl identification cards Ihat stu¬ dents use and provide improved access lo campus-wide services for siudents," Gabler slated.
A "one-slop" shopping area will include Ihe entire first floor which means
continued on page 3
Nathan Lambrecht/The Paisano
The Tomas Rivera Center for Academic Advising has been permanently moved to the UC because of construction in the JPL. The renovation is to create a one-stop shopping system for students enrolling.
New busline direct link between downtown, main campus
A more direct VIA express bii^ connecting UTSA's two campuses and i new VIA stop adjacent to UTSA Down town is streamlining Ihe daily cdmmut. for many UTSA faculty, staff and stu dents.
VIA's new route #94 Universiiy Park & Ride/FiestaTexas/UTS A Express which began operating Jan. 12. transport passengers between downtown and north west San Anionio without the stopover .ii Crossroads Mall made by the #93 Cross roads-UTSA Express.
Unlike the #93 route, which opoi ales Monday through Friday, the #94 e\ press bus operates daily, with outbounU trips leaving downtown as early as 6;2(i a.m. Monday through Friday and inboun.i trips leaving UTSA as early as 7 a.m.
The last outbound trip Ieavc> downtown at about 10 p.m., while the lasi bus leaves UTSA for downtown at aboiii 10:34 p.m. Schedules for Saturday aiui Sunday begin aboul Iwo hours later th.n' for weekdays, according to Bill Hamiitori. UTSA parking and transportation num ager
"Riders on the 94 Express also will be able to get on or off the bus ai a new stop located on South Frio Street adjacent to the Downtown Campus." continued on page 3
New weather hotline to inform of campus closures
College newspaper wins access to campus crime statistics
Racliael HiU
Managing Editor
A new service has been added al UTSA which will inform siudents, ^"^
ings on the new phone line.
David Gabler, director of exter¬ nal conununications, staled lhal Ihe phone line was created as a way lo clear up any
facully and slaff of university   Jf^Q pQ^ fipe f^QS a 56 CallOr
weX' '" "" °''""""' capacity, so callers may have to Acombined effort between try moro than ooco to roach the
the office of universiiy communica¬ tions and Ihe office of informaiion technology has resulted in the cre¬ ation of a new weather hodine: 458-SNOW (458-7669).
Class or event cancella-
recording, which will be updated continually as weather conditions change. "David Gabler, director of lions and office closures at the extomal communlcations
UTSA main campus, downtown ¦
campus, Cypress Tower and the In¬ stitute of Texan Cultures will be an¬ nounced by continually updated record-
coniusion over the cancellation of classes. "Sometimes T.V. and radio give
.confusing messages, so we wanted an ad¬ ditional source of information for students to double-check," Gabler said. He rec¬ ommends lhal studenis still watch and lis- ¦^^ ten for school closure reports on t.v. or the radio when ice, snow or olher bad weather occurs in addition to consulting Ihe weather holline.
He added that Ihe new line has a 56 caller capacity, so callers may have lo Iry more lhan once to reach Ihe recording, which will be updated continually as weather conditions change.
Gabler said lhal Ihe new phone line was previously unused, so there
  was virtually no budgel involved in
the weather hotline's creation. Weather hodine updates will be made by the office of communications.
All-American athlete abruptly quits women's basketball team
Matthew Golightly
Sports Editor
The word came down jusl hours before lip off. Only days before UTSA was scheduled to play Stephen F. Austin (SFA), Tameka Roberts, seven-time All- American Track athlete, quit the UTSA basketball leam she had a been a part of since Ociober 1997.
Ironically, Ihe contest against Ihe SFA Ladyjacks Ahould have pit Roberts
against the team for whom she had played guard three years before. Bul that's not all. The reason for her resig¬ nation may have had more to do with
Tameka Robert*
food than basketball.
Roberts, who had played in all
12 games this season after making the
squad as a walk-on in October, declined lo confirm or deny Ihat the reason behind her decision was the lack of a formal meal after a 70-80 loss to Northeast Louisiana on Jan. 5. She said only that Ihere was an- "incident" lhal prompted herdecision and Ihat it was "not personal."
"I hate thai I didn't finish the sea¬ son," Roberts said Thursday nighl. "I've never quit a spon before. I'm not the type of person lo quit anything but sometimes continued on page 3
A&E:
They're back!
Hall & Oats in 	
Houston performance   pg7 6
College Press Service
OXFORD, Ohio—While her classmates were focusing on final exams recently, Miami Universiiy studeni newspaper edi¬ tor Melissa Baker was preparing to study their disciplinary records.
Without comment, the U.S. Su¬ preme Coun on Dec. 8 let stand a mling from the Ohio Supreme Court lhal forces Ihe universiiy lo release ^^^^^^^ disciplinary records — with students' names and addresses attached —lo The Miami Studeni.
The case is an ex¬ ample of how growing in¬ terest in campus safety and protests by campus news¬ papers are chipping away at the notion that sexual as¬ saults, hazings and olher violent acts should be dealt with quiedy by student ju¬ diciary panels or by univer¬ sity administrators. ~~^~^~
Cntics of such closed-door poli¬ cies said ihat the reporting o campus crime has been hindered by privacy rules that allow adminisu-aiors to withhold in¬ formation aboul such incidents. At the heart of the debate is the Family Educa¬ tional Rights to Privacy Act, also known as FERPA or Ihe Buckley Amendment. Under FERPA, colleges are prohibiied from disclosing "personally identifiable informaiion derived from educalion records" wilhoul a student's consent.
In Ihe Miami case, sludeni jour¬
nalists said Ihey wanted access to disci¬ plinary records lo track crime on campus and have fought since 1995 to get it. Mi¬ ami administrators argued that records of siudent disciplinary hearings were "edu¬ cation records" as defined by FERPA.
In July, Ihe Ohio Supreme Court mled lhal most records of campus disci¬ plinary hearings are subject to disclosure under the state's open records law and or-
Disciplinary records could come back to haunt students later. Caught cheating or sneaking into the dorm after hours? Guilty of vandalism? Even ifa violation doesn't surface in the Student newspaper, such infor¬ mation is fair game for everyone. -Richard Little, senior director of communications
dered Miami to release the documents. However, the Departmenl of Education told Miami University officials in Septem¬ ber lhal they may be violating federal law if ihey complied with the ruling and re¬ leased the records.
Miami Universiiy officials, feel¬ ing "caught between a rock and a hard place," refused to release the infonnation until they received direclion from the courts, said Richard Little, senior direc¬ tor of communications.
"Ohio stale law said the infor¬
mation should be released, but federal law dictated that it shouldn't be.!' said Little. "The university has never taken :i position on the matter. It simply wanlci' greater clarity."
After the Supreme Court Icl stand the lower court ruling, Miami ol ficials said in December they would be gin releasing the disciplinary records lo the student newspaper The slate couil's ________    decision opens the disciplin¬ ary records of all Ohio uni versities and colleges to pub lie review.
Nationwide, the Su¬ preme Coun's refusal to heai the case hasn't settled the debate because courts in two other stales have issued con tradictory opinions. In 1993. the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that student disciplin ary records are not exempt under FERPA. The following year, a district cotrt in Loui- ~"~^"^~    sjana decided they are.
"So far. It's Iwo stati s against one," Baker said. "I hope we set this con¬ tinue because siudents aren't exempt from the law just because the; 're stu dents. And if they break a [university] value code, they can be held accountable for that, too."
Campus crime experts have said the disciplinary reports without names, addresses or other vital informa¬ tion are of little value because it's im-
continued on page 3
Sports:
Final Four Preview pg,
Features:
'Wiii worl( for food' Paisano Recruiting pg. 4
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