Category: News
An amended city noise ordinance made uncertain progress Tuesday night.
The City Council passed the first reading of the revisions. They were designed to give police clearer guidelines about handling noise disturbances with the understanding that serious work needed to be done before the second and final readings.
An ad hoc committee was created after heated discussion made it clear the ordinance would not pass into law in the current form.
Lori Bergen, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, announced Wednesday she will be leaving Texas State to be dean of the College of Communication at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Bergen’s departure will come in June. An interim director will taker her place while university officials seek a permanent replacement.
Bergen said she told Richard Cheatham, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication, about her decision to accept the position Monday.
A slim majority vote passed the student referendum increasing the LBJ Student Center fee.
Students will now pay $64 each fall and spring towards the center — an increase of $4 per semester.
Approximately 56 percent of the 1,937 students who voted supported the higher rate, which Andy Rhoades, director of the LBJ Student Center, said will generate $235,000 a year to cover increased overhead costs.
Students lingering in Harris Dining Hall will find a diagram strategically placed next to the conveyor belt displaying food waste they and other patrons are accumulating daily.
Chartwells found 1,630 pounds of food is wasted in Harris after one week of students using trays. John Root, director of auxiliary services, said trays may become a thing of the past for the all-you-can-eat dining halls.
Tom Goyles, San Marcos River Clean-Up coordinator, likes getting down and dirty, and hopes students do too.
The 24th annual San Marcos River Clean-Up is looking for volunteers this Saturday to help clean up the entire 90 miles of the San Marcos River in one day.
“We have several different starting times Saturday morning, depending on which section of the river you’re cleaning,” Goyles said.
One group of volunteers is meeting at 8 a.m. below the freeway at Palmetto Park.
Students with warrants might find the police knocking on their doors come Saturday.The San Marcos Police Department is participating in a statewide warrant roundup.
Rusty Grice, deputy marshal of the San Marcos Police Department, is in charge of warrants.
“From Saturday on, we will pick a date and will be looking for you,” Grice said. “We don’t give the exact time that we go out obviously, because people would not be home.”
Free trips to the Student Health Center could become a thing of the past.
Texas Rep. Fred Brown (R-14) wants to replace the college health-care system with a private insurance model.
“College health centers represent one of the last remaining medical institutions that won’t accept private health insurance for medical treatment,” Brown said. “Millions of dollars in state funding could be saved each year by having these centers file private insurance claims.”
If passed, House Bill 103 will take effect Sept. 1.
Week five of the Alkek Library’s 24-hour pilot program is in full swing, but it remains unknown if it will become the designated spot for students to pull an all-nighter.
The six-week pilot program began Feb. 1 and will end on March 11. Nightly head counts and statistics taken during the program will track library usage and ultimately tell if a 24-hour library is a necessary addition to the Texas State campus.
The city has become home to some not so cuddly creatures.
Students in David Huffman’s ornithology class are studying the increased populations of the American black vulture and turkey vulture congregating near Sewell Park.
Huffman, professor in the department of biology, attributes the increase in vultures present in San Marcos in large part to litter and dead animals in the area, which the birds eat.
Huffman, who has lived in the area for 35 years, said the vultures became a nuisance about seven or eight years ago.
Graduate House is showing its hand when it comes to decisions made on the behalf of fellow students.
The Graduate House’s TRACS site is in the third week of operation. The move was made in order to help the Graduate House ‘go transparent.’
“We want students to know everything, from the way representatives voted to every word said in our meetings,” said Daniel Reed, house leader for the Graduate House of Representatives.
Reed said the decision was discussed last fall, but was not actually put in effect until this semester.
