Surveillance cameras all over campus are in the process of being upgraded. The projected expense for the upgrade is estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

A number of surveillance cameras around campus are in the process of being updated and installed.

A popular statistical analysis program may be phased from campus computers this fall, raising concerns from faculty members who depend on the software.

Licenses for SPSS Statistics, a software program used for analysis by many professors, have become more expensive since IBM bought the program in 2010. The least expensive version of the SPSS Statistics Standard bundle costs $2,320 per license, according to the IBM website. As a result, Instructional Technologies Support may drop SPSS by next fall and begin searching for an alternative program for faculty members and students to use.

Milt Nielsen, associate vice president of Instructional Technologies Support, said SPSS was once offered at “beneficial” prices to all Texas colleges. He said the cost shot up to “outrageous” levels after the software was bought by IBM. Texas State is now required by IBM to purchase a separate copy of SPSS for every computer on campus that uses the software.

Communication design students will soon be subjected to higher academic standards.

The department will be implementing a portfolio review of each student’s work at the end of the first year, said Timothy Mottet, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication. There will be an increased emphasis on internships and a more challenging curriculum. The proposed changes have passed the department and college levels but still await approval from the University Curriculum Committee.

The strain on resources and infrastructure in the School of Art and Design is prompting these changes, Mottet said. There is an ideal number at which to cap communication design students, but Mottet does not yet know what that limit is. There were 780 communication design students in fall 2012, and 725 enrolled currently, according to Institutional Research.

Texas State students march in the Quad in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The group marched Jan. 22 from Old Main to the LBJ Student Center.

As the sun set behind Old Main Tuesday night, hundreds of students and faculty members gathered to remember the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some members of the crowd held white candles as they set out on a trek toward the LBJ Student Center. Others crooned old gospel hymns or carried signs reading phrases such as “The Dream Lives On.” The Freedom March had begun.

Rosanne Proite, Director of Housing and Residential Life, discusses how she is responding to Texas State’s growing population and what effects the student increase will have on campus living.

JC: If any new dorms are built, what kind of accommodations can we expect them to have?

RP: We just broke ground on a brand new building, and it will have 578 beds. It will be for freshmen, some sophomores, juniors and seniors. There will be two adjoining rooms, so it’ll have two double bedrooms and a bathroom in between. We’re now planning the next building and two more after that, and those will all be traditional-style residence halls. We will not be building any apartments.

JC: How is your department responding to the increase in student population?