The City of San Marcos approached the university to purchase a 43-acre piece of land owned by Texas State on Highway 21 next to the airport, which now holds the Traffic Safety Center and Horticulture Center.

Bill Nance, vice president of finance and support services, said the city has been interested in the property for a number of years. The city has outsourced management of the airport, and approximately six months ago he received inquiries about the property again. He said they expressed interest in purchasing the property to use it for more “airport friendly” development.

Nance said university officials were invited to a meeting at San Marcos City Hall about a month ago to discuss the property. The purchase of the property could aid in the city’s goal to improve and expand the airport.

Data from the Institutional Research Office shows Texas State students tend to excel academically during the summer semesters, earning more A’s and fewer failing grades. 

During the 2010-2011 academic year, 34.2 percent of students enrolled at Texas State made A’s in the fall and 34.5 percent made A’s in the spring. Comparatively,  42.9 percent of students enrolled in Summer I and 39.6 percent enrolled in Summer II earned A’s. During the same year 5.4 percent of students in the fall and spring earned failing grades. Only 2.4 percent and 2.9 percent earned failing grades during the Summer I and II semesters, respectively.

Joseph Meyer, director of the institutional research office, said students taking summer courses might be stronger and more dedicated academically, since for many students summer is an optional semester.

Jon Smith, English senior lecturer , said he finds grades tend to be higher in the summer courses he teaches.

Baskets filled with Girl Scout cookies and other donations line the walls, temporarily taking up residence under desks in the Veterans Affairs office to be packaged and sent to troops.

The Supporting Our Troops Donation Drive, run by social work students, Veterans Initiative interns and social work professor Katherine Selber, began eight weeks ago and has collected a multitude of items with the help of the Texas State and San Marcos communities. They are working to collect items to make care packages for Texas State troops and their units deployed overseas.

The color preferences of species of fish have been one of the latest subjects of research conducted at Texas State.

The Amazon molly, an all-female species of fish found in South Texas, Northern Mexico and the Gulf Coast, reproduces unisexually by eliciting sperm transfer from the parental species. The research aimed to answer whether the mollies’ visual attraction to certain colors correlated to that of their parents. 

Caitlin Gabor, associate professor of biology, and psychology senior Pablo Gonzalez-Bendiksen conducted research on the Amazon molly and its parental species, the Atlantic molly and sailfin molly. Their findings show the Amazon molly shares sensory genetics with both parents, which results in its being able to respond to the same colors as the parental species. 

Gabor said her most recent project began in summer 2011 after a colleague from Canada asked her to lend a hand in researching the fishes’ vision.

Excelencia in Education ranked Texas State No. 17 out of the top 25 schools in the nation for awarding bachelor degrees to Latinos.

Excelencia in Education is an organization aimed at accelerating Latino student success in higher education. According to their website, the organization provides data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students, and looks into education policies and practices supporting Latino academic achievement.

“We need to show an asset-based approach in looking at Latinos in higher education,” said Deborah Santiago, co-founder and vice president for Policy and Research at Excelencia in Education. “We need to show that not only are we enrolling, but graduating.”

The organization reports that in 2009-2010, Texas State awarded 5,293 total bachelor degrees, 1,098 of which were to Hispanics, comprising 21 percent of the total degrees awarded.

As enrollment increases, so does the workload for staff, particularly in the office of financial aid and scholarships.

The amount of aid processed by the financial aid and scholarships office has more than doubled over the past five years, from $138,745,434 in 2007 to $281,456,165 in 2011. This has in turn increased the workload for staff. 

Michael Heintze, associate vice president for enrollment management, said this is directly tied to the growing enrollment of the university. 

Chris Murr, director of financial aid and scholarships, said the amount of financial aid processed is typically an indicator of workload within a financial aid operation. 

The university is preparing for another record number of freshmen expected to attend Texas State next fall.

Michael Heintze, associate vice president for enrollment management, said as of March 5 approximately 19,471 freshmen had applied for admission.

“We’ve already surpassed last year’s end of cycle total,” Heintze said. “Based on present trends, we expect our total number of freshman applications to be somewhere around 21,000 by the time summer has arrived.”

Heintze said the university has received 14 percent more applications and have offered admission to 27 percent more students than last year. However, he said many students apply to more than one school. Therefore, the number of students who enroll will be less than the number the university offers admission to.

“We feel that by growing at no more than 5 percent, we will be able to add enough sufficient faculty positions, housing and academic facilities to meet that need,” Heintze said.

Texas State has entered into an agreement with American Express to reduce costs and enhance efficiency for the university as federal and state funding shrinks.

The American Express Commercial Card Program was recently presented to the Board of Regents by William Nance, vice president of finance and support services, and University President Denise Trauth at the Feb. 16-17 Board of Regents meeting at Texas State.

Terrance Ondreyka, associate vice president of financial services, said the program was approved by the board at the very first opportunity.

Ondreyka said the American Express corporate purchasing card will help the university be better cash managers. He said it will also improve and expedite payment by moving the university to electronic means of paying, and allowing the purchasing department to negotiate better pricing with preferred vendors.

Texas State officials are pressed for space and are concentrating on building upon land the university already has as programs grow and enrollment increases.

The 2005 through 2015 university master plan advised the university to employ land already owned by demolishing current buildings to build more efficient ones instead of calling for the acquisition of more land.

Cynthia Opheim is taking the experience she has gleaned through the political science department to her new position as associate provost, after being a faculty member at Texas State for more than 25 years. 

Opheim took over the position Jan. 2, and said her first month on the job has been interesting.
“I think I’m learning something new every hour,” Opheim said. “Every day something new has come up.”

Opheim said she oversees the faculty records office, is the liaison to the Faculty Senate and deals with many other issues concerning Texas State employees.