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IR-CHINGI
^tep   sn opens SLC play uilth historic ^^ft3 in ouer UT at Rrlington
Vsv? i SPORTS, page 8
DESIRE FOR R DEGREE
One disabled student's typical day
FERTURES, page 4
MDSIC TO VOUR ERRS
Outdoor concert to sound off Fall euents
RRT & ENTERTAINMENT, page 7
PAi^ARO
Sei3tember19,1995
VoiumelS, Numt}er17
SERUING THE UMUERSITV OF TEHflS AT SflS flNTONIO COMMUNITV
Students urged to vote in elections
By Stophani* Dubick
Contributing Writer
November is still over a inonth and a half away, yet elections are about to be held. On Sept. 27 and 28, students can cast their vote for the following student representatives: three fresh¬ men representatives, one sophomore representative, one graduate repre- ^ sentative, one historian, and one re¬ cording secretary.
The role of the student govem¬ ment is to represent the UTSA com¬ munity, including students, admin¬ istration, faculty, and staff'.
Students running for a position must have a 2.S grade point average and be enrolled in nine undergradu¬ ate semester hours or six graduate semester hours. Some positions re¬ quire additional hours of credit. Stu¬ dents must be free of any academic or disciplinary probation.
To vote for the candidates, stu¬ dents must present their student ID at i a polling station located in the JPL and the HB on election day. Voters may only vote for candidates of their same classification.
Fall elections are primarily meant for freshmen.
"It is unfair to elect the freshmen in the spring because new freshmen come to UTSA during the fall, and that would not give the new freshmen an opportu¬ nity to vote for their representatives,"
said Student Govemment Vice Presi¬ dent James Pinkard.
The spring elections, usually held a few weeks before Spring Break are to elect students to the positions other than the freshmen. During the fall, freshmen representatives are voted in and empty positions are filled.
Those elected in the fall serve until
"It is unfair to elect the fresh¬ men in the spring because new freshmen come to UTSA during the fall, and that would not give the new freshmen an opportunity to vote for their representatives."
- James Pinkard,
Stu. Gov't Vice President
the end of the spring semester when representative elections for the upper classmen are held.
Student Government President Kristi Hall said, "These representa¬ tives serve from September until May. When we have our spring elections for the other positions, the representatives serve from May to May ofthe follow¬ ing year."
Students interested in joining Stu-    tend.'
dent Govemment but do not want to go through the election process can join the Govemment Aides Program. Cre¬ ated last year, it allows students to participate without being elected and holding all the responsibilities of rep¬ resentative.
Pinkard said, "We wanted to pro¬ vide past govemment aides that just helped around the office with a program with structure so they could pick up leadership skills and abilities so that we could train them for future services in student govemment."
The Student Govemment of¬ fice is located in the Student Activities Office in the Univer¬ sity Center and is open from 8 a.m. to S p.m., Monday through Friday and may be reached at 691-4597.
Elected members are required
to attend weekly meetings which
are opened to the public. They
^ssi are scheduled each Wednesday
at 12 p.m. in the UC.
Comments about UTSA can be heard at the Town Hall meetings, spon¬ sored by student government.
Pinkard said, "This semester we have created Town Hall meetings, held once a month. We will confront issues on campus and have constituents ask questions or express concerns or com¬ ments, and anyone is welcome to at-
Eckhatt Von Ellinrieder/The Paisano
Students play hackey sack in between classes in front of the JPL.
Debaters begin competing
By Skip Eno Contributing Writer
They're arguing again! Research, case ideas and a wide range of issues related to our neighbor to the south are the focus of intent scrutiny for Roadru¬ nner debaters as they prepare for an¬ other season of words and ideas. The debate team, composed of nine return¬ ing debaters and seven new members, is currently preparing to debate the new fall topic (Resolved: that the United States should substantially change its foreign policy towards Mexico) in three back-to-back tourna¬ ments.
UTSA's first roadtrip took them to
Winfield, Kansas at Southwestern Col¬ lege for a warm-up toumament. After a day of rest, the Roadrunners headed out to the University of South Carolina in Columbia (SC) for two contests.
The National CEDA (Cross Exami¬ nation Debate Association) Round Robin Debates (Sept. 20-21,1995) will feature a select field ofthe top 16 teams in the nation, an invitation oniy touma¬ ment.
All-America ('95) debater, Doug Roubidoux and his partner, Marco Suarez, will represent the UTSA De¬ bate Team (fmished4th in the nation in 1995). The day after the Round Robin ends, three UTSA teams (Doug Roubidoux and Marco Suarez; Lorena
Donnellan and Robert Jones; Casie Lemaster and John Lemaster) will com¬ pete inthe South Carolina GamecliKks' "Earlybird" Tournament, featuring teams from more than 40 colleges and universities.
The Roadrunners' beginning roster includes Micheile Bailey (Sr). Philip Carney (So. transfer), Lorena Donnellan (Sr.), Richard Hathaway (Jr.), Robert Jones (Ft.), Casie Lemaster (Jr. transfer), John Lemaster (Jr. trans¬ fer), Jonathan Leatherberry (Sr.), Gary Martin (Fr.), Letitia Monelongo (Jr transfer), Ben Mora (So.), Crystal Ragsdale (Jr.), Scott Ramin (Jr.), Doug Roubidoux (Jr.), Marco Suarez (Jr.), and Michelle Vaca (Sr.).
Town meeting held to address fee increase
By Lindsey Rausch
Acting News Editor
In order to address the student fee increase issues, the Student Govem¬ ment held aTown Meeting on Wednes¬ day, Sept. 13 at 12 p.m. in the Univer¬ sity Center Lounge.
The meeting gave the opportunity for students and faculty to express their views and concems over the issue. Dr. Walker, Vice President for Student Affairs and Karen Whitney, Assistant Vice President for Student Life were the guest speakers.
Walker stated that UTSA is the fastest growing public institution in Texas. With that, UTSA is among the bottom five public institutions to be funded in Texas.
"Because ofthis, we have to look at different sources of revenue in orderto fund the University," Walker said.
The legislature has about 15 per¬ cent of (heir budget for higher educa¬ tion and other areas. Walker said of that IS percent, about 89 percent goes towards higher education. When an area in the budget is cut, it usually comes from higher education because there is so little going into the other areas.
"We have formula funding and ther: is a recommended formula by the state, but yet the University and Higher Edu¬ cation does not get the ftill amount of
the formula, even what the state says we ought to have," Walker said.
When the University does not get the full formula funding, an altemative funding must be found.
"Any institution that has good aca¬ demic programs and a developmental program for students, then you have to be able to pay for the faculty and the support services that go along with that to make the institution," Walker said. "Then provide the degree program and a degree for the students who graduate from there that they can be proud of."
Walker also stated UTSA does not want to be a second grade nstitution because that is not why students go here. They want to keep the programs progressing. Since there were no funds for UTSA and, in order to meet the short fall, the legislature decided that thc general use fee could be raised to the amount of tuition.
'Tuition at UTSA is $30 per semes¬ ter hour. The general use fee was $12 and was raised to $20, but it could have been raised to $30," Walker said. "We are very aware ofstudents having tight resources and the needs that students have, and we try to be cognizant of that. But, in order for us to operate within a budget that is feasible and even with that increase, it is going to be very tight."
The general use fee goes toward building maintenance, creating com¬
puter infrastructure, equipping labs, and other areas on campus. Walker said with the four new buildings com¬ ing and a $500,000 budget cut in utili¬ ties some ofthe fee increase will cover this loss. UTSA also plans on using the money to upgrade the programs avail¬ able for students.
the fee, evaluate the effectiveness and provide the services or programs that are upon which are in that fee," Whitney said.
The Texas Legislature has made a decision to shift the way it funds higher education, away from state appropri¬ ated funds to other sources, Whitney
"Not the fact that I disagree with the decision to raise fees, because that is clearly necessary, but a 68 percent increase is what concerns me. It is the fact that we can just go from almost nothing to exploding our fees."
-Kevin L. Boiin, Junior
"The institution remains in the leg¬ islature and so when we look at a budget, we put it together in order to pay for those programs," Walker said.
Whitney said all the fees students pay at UTSA go through evaluations. The university set up committees in¬ cluding faculty and students to review the fees on an annual basis.
"Whether we are talking about tu¬ ition, student service fees, general fee. University Center fee, the health fee.. . I think each of those fees goes through a process on campus, rather extraordi¬ nary.  The process is meant lo review
said.
"The effect is that we are getting less and-less money in a time really when we need it the most, because we are tempting to grow to meet the students' demands," Whitney said.
Because the fees are a very difficult situation, Whitney said they went to great lengths to try to answer students' questions about the increase, as well as inform the students.
"We withheld sending out fee bills later than we planned because we were not sure what our tuition fee situation would be," Whitney said.
Included in the information students received, was information about the scholarship office, and UTSA reori¬ ented institutional funds to open up emergency loans.
"We attempted administratively to do two things at the same time which are very difficult. To act responsibly to do the job and at the same time create a situation where those students who are put into a crisis situation could manage the issue as best as possible," Whitney said.
When asked about Student Government's viewpoint on the fee issue, vice president James Pinkard said they try to be unbi¬ ased. The goal is to inform the students, and let them know what is occurring, and how they can change situations by voting.
"All the legislators A'ere elected by students and parents who pay taxes every year. A simple act of voting can help students make a change in Texas and in their university," Pinkard said. Walker feels students and parents will be expected to pay more and more for p college education.
"1 don't see more money coming to higher education and not only voting, but tai king to your legislators and voic¬ ing opinion at Student Govemment is one way to voice concems," Walker said.
Junior Kevin L. Bohn said he felt the administration should have con.sid- ered the full impact ofthe decisions on the student body, and considered in¬ creasing the fee over time.
"Not the fact that 1 disagree with the decision to raise fees because thai is clearly necessary, but a 68 percent increase is what concems me. It is the fact that we can just go from almost nothing to exploding our fees," Bohn said.
One ofthe things that attracted Bohn to UTSA had nothing to do with ils material resources, but rather the people involved like the professors and stu¬ dents.
"In this push to get more and more money, I am afraid we are going to lose that very impyortant aspect." Bohn said.
In response lo Bohn's concerns. Walker said students were involved in the decision-making process along with administrators going back and forth to Austin to make this very important decision. Legislators also came to campus to get student input on the situation.
"We want the legislators to see what is going on, and we feel like being here on campus they get opportunities to talk to students," Walker said. "I like to think that is something we are trying to do, because we are as concemed as students are."