Serving the University of Texas at San Antonio Community
TUESDAY
November 16, 1993
Volume 16, Number 17
Texas* ONLY Independent Student Newsfpaper
Recreation center vote declared void
RSO ballot officials accused of influencing voters at tfie polls
By Brian WhMlar
News Editor
In an emergency meeting of die Stu¬ dent Govemment (SG) on Nov. 12. SG president Matttew Stem declared die Recreation and Wellness center fee vote teld on Nov. 9 and IQ lo te nunified.
Tte $8.5 miUion recreation coiter was unofificially defeated in a two to one deciskm. Slighdy over 10 perceni of tte student body voted last Tuesday and Wednesday. 560 voting for and 1226 against. If die recreation center had passed, it woukl have meant a new $30 per semester fee to fund tte project.
"Ttey were not just insignificant peoplecampaigning within 25 feet Ttey were, in fact, people working tehind tte tables at Ite booths (polling bootfis) influencing Ite vote," said Stem.
He stated dial grievances filed in¬ volved two separate polling booths, one atdieUCaiidoneattfieHB. Ttebootfis were teing woiked by various pakl reg¬ istered student organizations. Stem slated tfiose wganizations implicated in
There have been three separate written grievances filed with me as elections administrator. They have been investigated and substantiated."
-Matt Stern
student government president
tte grievances woukl not te paid die $ 100 stipend and would face restriction fiom participation in future elections.
According lo Stem an investigatkm tegan Wednesday night by Barbie Kamm, assistant director for student leadership and activities, and Stem him¬ self. He would not release die names of tte students charged witfi influencing tte vote, citing possible disciplinary ac¬ tion by tte university.
He explained dial te had consulted numerous sources on tte cnrect proto¬ col for diis circumstance. Stem admit¬ ted dial while he is a known suppcMler of tte recreation center te had consulted Kimberly Doody, die SG parUaroenlar-
ian. Doody, whoadmitted voting against the recreation center on procedural grounds, concurred witfi Stem's deci¬ sion to invalidate the vote.
After Stem announced tte vote was void, the SG passed a motion to recast die ballot five weeks into Ihe spring semester. Stem suggested tetter public¬ ity in an effort to reach more students including non-traditional night students. The SG also discussed ways to tetta' monitOT the election next spring.
Stem said, "The weeks leading to the election in die spring will te signifi¬ candy different ftom tfie weeks preced¬ ing die vote this semester."
UTSA Age Comparison
Enrollment 10,000
8,000
, 6,000
4,000
^  2,000
J
l5.9tX
20.47«
Fan 1993 UTSA Ag« DistrHMition S.06J
SS.S9II
n    Fail 1992 ¦    Fall 1993
Age      24 and below        25-30
30-40
40+
Senior speech team places first in IHouston
Rachel OupnHt
Contributing Writer
UTSA's speech team brought home pretigious winnings fiom Ite Texas In¬ tercollegiate Forensic Association's State Champkmship Nov. 5-7 at tfie Univenity of Houston. Tte senior de¬ bate team of Mktelle Bailey and Doug Roubidoux took first place at the touma¬ meni, defeating tte University of Hous¬ ton in die final round.
Bailey and Roubidoux are stale cham¬ pions in cross- examination debate. Bailey also ranked first speaker in tte open division, and Roubidoux ranked third. Bailey is officially tte U^ debate spetker in the state.
Tte senior team of Sundey Buder and Davkl Bowman took Ihinl in Ite tournament
In Ihe novice category,- Richard Hathaway and Susan Romanow lode second and the team of Kimterly Forsberg and Lorena Donnellan took diird. Fbnterg also took diird speaker.
In dieUncobi-Douglas diviskm, Scott Ramin took fifth in tte slate.
Tte speec h team also attended a tour¬ nament Nov. 12-14 at die University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. Director Skip Eno said, "Wten we go out. we win tournaments. I dunk we did real w^L I was pleased widi our results.'
As forensic directOT, Eno handles Ite budgeting, scheduling, coaching, and paper woik fw die team. "I do practices witfi them, lake tfiem on tfie road, and do aU die dungs duu a coach does."
Eno said dut die amount was good initiany. "It was good for die start up of die program... but we are becoming so successfid. We have a kMmore debaters and speakers now duui we originally
had. Wten we started, we were running aboul six people. Now there are ateut 15 OT 16 people. So. it [funding] is adequate at die present time, but we are really growing."
The speech team is open toall univer¬ sity students. Eno said that enrollment in die univasity is all Ihat is needed to qualify fOT Ite leam. "Tha, s one of tfie tilings I really value. It's an educational program. We start with some pec^le witfi no debate experience at all. And it is not just speech majors, we have math majors, English majors, biology ma¬ jors... we have some people who have never tidcen a speech class."
Eno explained Ihat having a mixed group telps die team as a whole. "I like peapXe from a lot of different areas te¬ cause ttey Ining different knowledge levels to the activity."
Speech team memter Scott Ramin said, "Now Ihat I am in college I am leaming a lot more aboul debate and it is telping me in my classes. You leam a lot aboul getting things done qukkly- researching, speaking. I Ihink it telps me as a student, and it's training that you reaUy can't get anywhere else in die curriculum."
Debaters spettA a tot of time prepar¬ ing fOT die semester. Bailey explained, "At die beginning of Sqitemter we get our topic area. We start doing a lOT of research and dien we go to toumamoits. Tten we practke debates and research more. We do aU we can to stay on top of diett^."
This semester die topic area is die media. Ranun said. "We get togedier and talk about whatit going on so duu everyone on die leam is familiar with die cases. I may have heard a case on how die media influences children and if
someone else didn't hear it. but ttey have infonnation on it I can help Item by explaining what 1 heard. That's how we really prepare, by getting different information from everybody."
Eno compared tte speech team's ac¬ tivities to Ihat of an adiletic team. "It's a competitive representation of UTS A's intellectual and academic legacy. What tte speech team does is it goes out on the same kind of playing field that basket¬ ball and other sports do. It does it on an intellectual playing field so it represents UTS A toother schocds around die coun¬ try in terms oi academk ability."
At one point last year, the UTSA speech team ranked sixth in tte nation. Their final ranking was number 16 in the :ountry. The rankings for tfiis year are not yet available.
Eno said, "This is Ite hardest woik¬ ing group I've ever had on a team, and I think that tteir early results last year. What they' re doing tfiis year really proves it. People aU over tfie slate of Texas have been shocked by our return. On a nalKMial level people are really amazed at how quickly we've climbed."
RSO workers were busy counting votes on Nov. 10 for the RWC. The vote tally was unofficially two to one against the proposal. That vote was declared void due to t)allotlng violations.
Federal financial aid renewal form being mailed to returning students for next academic year
By Brian Wheeler
News Editor
Students who applied for federal fi¬ nancial aid last year will te seeing a Renewal AppUcation in Ihe mail soon for tte '94-'95 academic year.
Tte U.S. Department of EduratVMi estimates that nearly seven million stu¬ dents will receive the form. Previously only schools that used tte Electrunic Data Exchange offered studenis use of tte Renewal Applkation.
Mary Tumlinson, assistant director of fmancial aid, said, "This year tte federal govemment is trying to make the applkation process easier by mailing studenis who were here and applied for financial aid tfie previous year an appli¬ cation called Renewal."
Students who completed tfie Free Application tor Federal Student Aid (F.   'SA) should receive the Renewal
Application in Novemter or Decemter The Renewal Application looks like part two of tfie Student Aids Report (STAR).
Tumlinson said, "BasicaUy what this renewal application will have is most of tte information that was included on tteir application for '93 - '94. They (govemment) will duplica?'^ the infor¬ mation on the form and studenis will only need to change items tfiat have changed such as income, assets ot house¬ hold me'mters. Ifeverythingelseisthe same ttey do not have to change it."
Ai^oximately 75 percent of tfie ques¬ tions will have answers pre-printed on tte application.
The application is also designed to reduce opportunities for errors since less information is required of studenis. The Renewal Application can also te pro¬ cessed quicker than the FAFS A tecause of tte leduced amount of information needed. Students should spend less time
filling out the form and tfie govemment less time making and processing correc¬ tions.
The applications will te mailed 10 students at the latest address on file with tte Department of Education. Students who recently transferred will still re¬ ceive the form. If students have changed tteir address since their last ^plication ttey should contact tte office of finan¬ cial aid for infoimation on how lo up¬ date their address.
Tumlinson said, "The most impor¬ tant thing here is for the studenis to read tte instmctions very carefully. Make tte corrections and mail tte form after Jan. 1. If anyone mailsorsignstheform tefore then, it will te returned.
"We're really excited aboul this change. It's going to make life a lot easier on the students. I think more students will te more aware they have to apply early."
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"^ii> •• •
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student govemment president, Matthew Stem, standing ready to speak at the dedication of the HIV/ AIDS memorial garden to which the student government donated $500 to help construct.
school applications Increased 39 percent
By College Press Service
CHICAGO — Tte number of ^^li- cants to medkal school continues lorise despite die fact that many physicians express dissatisfaction witfi practking medkine, accOTxling lo an artkle pub¬ lished in die Journal of die Amerkan Medical Associatipn.
Between 1989 and 1992 die number of medical school applicants climbed 39 percent
Tte growing numterof aqiplicants is not congruent witfi die current survey ir 'ar- mation dial practking physicians are dissatisfied with medkine and unsure about die outcome of tfie health system reform, officials say.
"Tte new healdi care syst«n wiU mean more managed care," said Dr. Hany Jonas of Ite American Medical -^Association. "If you latt to dK average physkian diey're appretensive about tte paperwOTk and bureaucracy."
Jonas said the increase in applicants may just te due to lack of opportunities elsewhere. He said die economic secu¬ rity of becoming a physician may te attracting people to medical school.
Tte last surge o. nedical school ap¬ plicants occurred in 1974. It was around tfial time tfiat tfie federal govemment declared a shortage of physicians, Jonas said, and die number of medkal schools increased fiom 80 lo 127. Tte numberof medkal school graduates soon doubled
fiXHn 8,000 to 16,000.
In additkm to an overall an>licant increase, there was also an increase in tte number of minorities and women teing accepted into medical school. There was a 12 percent increase in die numterofnunorities accrued intomedi- cal school in 1991. Tte percentage of women in tte 1992 entering class in¬ creased fiom 31.6 perceni in 1982 to 41.8 percent