This year’s Common Experience, titled “A Global Odyssey: Exploring our Connections with the Changing World,” will aim to make students, faculty and staff aware of the ties between Texas State and a larger, global society.

Pam Wuestenburg, co-chair of the university seminar program, said the Common Experience theme is chosen each year from proposals submitted by faculty.

“The world isn’t small anymore,” Wuestenburg said. “Our students will be spending more time interacting with other countries than ever before just because of the immediate access through the Internet.”

Keynote speakers are Kelsey Timmerman, author of the required text “Where am I Wearing?” and Ethan Zuckerman of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an activist and scholar whose work focuses on the role of the media in shaping communities worldwide.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board named Texas State in January the eighth Emerging Research Institution in Texas. The title granted the university eligibility for state funding through the Texas Research Incentive Program as early as 2014.

The university may experience a change in public perception as the end of the semester brings “the end of the beginning” to a close, as University President Denise Trauth told Texas Tribune.

Provost Eugene Bourgeois said emerging research status might be the final step in debunking Texas State’s reputation as a “party school.”

“Now, people will look and see we compare very favorably,” Bourgeois said, citing Texas State’s high-ranking slot — fifth — on the list of Texas public university graduation rates.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ban on gay personnel serving openly in the military, ended last September. Studies show the repeal has not had a lasting negative effect on the U.S. armed forces’ operations.

The policy was the product of a compromise between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans in 1993. It kept gay and lesbian troops from revealing their sexual orientation due to possible discharge from service. The policy was repealed by the Obama administration in December 2010, and was fully repealed in September.

Capt. John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, issued a press release saying any impact on Department of Defense operations is “negligible.”

G.I. Jobs magazine listed Texas State as one of the top military-friendly universities in the country in 2012. More than 1,000 veterans attend Texas State.

Historian, activist, accountant, Texas State junior, journalist and entrepreneur: local genealogist Ollie Giles holds all these titles and more, but she prefers the nickname “Mimi.”

Giles, born in San Marcos in 1933, has worked for decades to ensure the “true history” of the local black community is preserved and remembered.

Inside her home are half a dozen cabinets worth of deeds, death certificates and probate and bank records from all over central Texas. In her living room sits a towering, wall-to-wall shelf full of books on black history and the civil rights movement.

Although Giles attended a segregated primary school in San Marcos, she was enrolled in an integrated school at age 8 when she and her mother moved to Oakland, Calif. There, Giles said she discovered what a world free of discrimination could be like.

The City of San Marcos is making progress toward completing its Advanced Metering and Infrastructure Project, though it won’t be fully automated until the end of the year.

The smart meters allow households to monitor and conserve electricity and water usage each month. While meters have been installed, residents cannot yet measure their electricity and water/wastewater usage. The project’s aim is to allow customers to view their bills online.

Angela Riley, utilities metering manager, said the system will be online no later than December of this year, but there is not a specific date set for the system to go online.

“Just be patient with us,” Riley said. “We’re still testing out the new technology, but we will ultimately provide better customer service.”

City Councilmember Shane Scott could not see the words “infrastructure” and “San Marcos” together without Susan Narvaiz’s name attached.

Narvaiz (R), former mayor of San Marcos received the Pioneer Spirit Award at the State of the City address in January. Scott, Place 6, nominated her for the award in recognition of advancements she made to San Marcos’ infrastructure during her eight and a half years on the council.

Narvaiz said the working relationships she fostered were intangible yet integral parts to advancements made by the city.

“The city had not been involved in regional planning or anything outside of our own little town,” Narvaiz said. “One of my goals was to be available to get involved and let everyone in the region know that San Marcos had an important role to play in the future of the I-35 corridor.” 

A man was killed in a moped collision when he was struck by another vehicle on the corner of Hopkins and North Street Wednesday afternoon.

The victim was pronounced dead on arrival at Central Texas Medical Center, according to Sgt. Jehu Derrickson of the San Marcos Police Department.

The man was traveling East on Hopkins and was hit by a Dodge Durango heading West. Both vehicles collided as they attempted to turn onto North Street.

Alex Phillips, Texas State student and witness to the collision, said the man was thrown off his moped upon impact.

“He was lying five to 10 feet away from his moped,” Phillips said.

Phillips said the man was driving behind another larger vehicle and may not have been able to see the Durango.

Reverent San Marcos residents stood silent as the San Marcos Academy color guard posted the flags during the opening ceremony of the seventh annual State of the City address Thursday evening.

Each councilmember identified a paramount issue on the city’s agenda for the coming year during the address at the San Marcos Convention Center. Former councilmember Chris Jones served as master of ceremonies for the event.

A large crowd of attendees heard updates from their elected officials on topics such as river preservation, city finance and open government, customer-friendly processing for businesses and builders, community health and infrastructure.

John Thomaides, city councilmember place 3, said capital improvements within the city have been reviewed and re-prioritized to reduce city debt and postpone bond purchasing for one to two years.

The City of San Marcos held an open house at the Dunbar Center Monday evening as city leaders continued to seek input from citizens through their levels of service initiative.

At each meeting, city employees, dubbed “dream makers,” hold a short workshop on several areas of the city budget, including police and fire services, parks and recreational service, library funding, infrastructure, water supply and general funds.

Citizens can then choose which features they would like the city to implement, utilizing computer stations at each event, using a rating system analogous to three types of cars for three levels of service: Corolla, Camry and Lexus. These analogies are meant to represent the level of quality present at each configuration. The survey software also displays the property taxes associated with the services they’ve chosen.

Texas State’s research grants funding is at an all-time high, marking a new period in the university’s history as an academically competitive institute.

Researchers, including faculty and students, have collectively received more than $13 million in private and federal grant money since Sept. 1.

Provost Eugene Bourgeois said funding for the last three to four years has been particularly significant in comparison to previous years.

“There was an emphasis placed upon research by the administration that led to a series of initiatives, and resources being pushed out to support them in generating research proposals, and getting them to submit them,” Bourgeois said. “We’ve had a number of proposal development workshops in the last one and a half years.”

The university has actively sought more faculty who are interested in independent research, Bourgeois said, calling it a “continuing nice trend upward.”