By Tealy Dippel staff reporter The Student Government Association took this week to prepare for upcoming officer elections as campaigning begins midnight Saturday, and students planning to run in the Nov. 3 and 5 election must submit their applications to the SGA office by that time. The Elections and Regulations Committee held an information session Tuesday and Thursday to inform prospective candidates about the available SGA positions and to educate students about the rules of campaigning. Candidates will be campaigning for five student body offices, which include SGA president, House of Student Representatives vice president, vice president for programming, treasurer and secretary. "If you're considering a position, you should be planning because if you haven't campaigned before, it's a lot more than you bargained for," House Vice President Sarah Burleson said. As of Thursday evening, almost 10 applications had been picked up from the SGA office, and two of those had already been completed and turned into the Election and Regulations Committee box. Burleson said she thinks advertising the election has helped contribute to students' interest in running. "Quite a few people who are not a part of House have asked for applications, so I think the word is out there," she said. Jason Cordova, chairman of the Elections and Regulations Committee, will be electing an Election Appeals Board comprised of 10 people who will govern in the event of an election violation. The board will include Cordova, the House parliamentarian, a representative from the Office of Campus Life, three students outside of House and four members of House but nonmembers of the Elections and Regulations Committee. Those interested in serving on the board can pick up an application from the House office Tuesday. Since the decision was recently made to begin voting online, the House has had to reconstruct the election code to comply with new voting rules and Internet procedure. With online voting being this year's biggest change, Cordova said he is hoping things run smoothly. "This year I hope to see a bigger number in terms of the voter turnout by using the new online system," he said. The votes will be tallied by La Forge Digital Enterprises, the company providing the online service. Paul Kanitra, chairman of the University Relations Committee, said advertising will play an even larger role in the online voting portion of the election process. "With online elections, we want a large, well-informed (part of the) student body to turn out for elections," he said. Kanitra said his committee members will use several advertising methods, including Channel 47 and the electronic message bulletin located in The Main. Kanitra said he hopes the information will run on both Channel 47 and the bulletin each day and be updated as new information comes in. Flyers will be posted to advertise for both the Election Appeals Board application process and the election. Kanitra also said there will be an campus-wide e-mail message to advertise debates in the event several candidates run for the same positions. SGA President Ben Alexander said next week is an important week for candidates to share their ideas and hopes for the coming year with the student body. "Running for office is a big job, but those getting into it will love the opportunities they will have in the coming year," he said.
Tealy Dippel
By Justin Roche staff reporter Aaron Cisar donned his security guard uniform for the first time Wednesday night as the newest addition to the TCU Police Department. Hiring Cisar, a senior English major, helps TCU Police increase night security on campus and also aids Cisar in his aspiration to become a police officer. "It's a step I have to take to get where I want to be later on," Cisar said. When one security guard resigned earlier this semester, retired postal worker Don Kimberling was the only night security guard for the entire TCU area. Recent thefts and criminal activity on campus have also called for a larger security force, TCU police officials said. Chief Steven McGee said he has been trying to hire more security guards for some time but found it difficult because of the nature of the job. "We haven't had much luck getting people to work those kind of hours," McGee said. The security guards are required to work from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Cisar said the hours are the part of the job that intimidates him the most. "My biggest fear right now is lack of sleep," said Cisar, who is taking 17 credit hours. McGee said he is planning to hire two more applicants, and three additional openings could be filled later. Before they are hired, applicants must complete a physical test and a criminal background check by Human Resources. McGee said being a security guard is a good stepping stone for those who are looking to work in law enforcement. "The people we've been able to hire wanted to become police officers and were able to move into that field because they were good security officers," McGee said. The opportunity for future employment is one of the reasons Cisar took the job. There are six policemen in Cisar's family, including his father. He said working night security will help him to have necessary experience for the future. "This is kind of like a trial period where I could get hired on here as an officer," he said. "It's a benefit for them because they would know who they're hiring and it's easy for me because I know where I'm going." McGee said security guards are instrumental in preventing crime on campus and making the area safer. "It helps protect other areas of campus with more eyes and ears, and it's less expensive than a police officer," McGee said. "It's more cost efficient, but you get the same level of security." TCU security officers patrol the campus throughout the night, armed with radios used to alert officers of problems or call for help. They are required to make sure buildings are locked and secure and keep an eye out for anything suspicious, McGee said. When hired, one security guard will be stationed strictly in the Moudy Building because of students working late hours, with others patrolling the main campus area, McGee said. Molly White, a senior studio art major, said she has spent many late nights in Moudy working on projects. She also said having a security guard is a good idea. "It's comforting to know someone is there late at night when you're working," she said. "I'm still going to have to watch out for my stuff but every little bit helps." McGee echoed White's statement about student responsibility toward security. "Just because there's a security guard there at night doesn't mean thefts will stop during the day," he said. "People are still going to have to watch their things very carefully." Cisar said students are part of the reason he wanted to work the night security shift. "The way I see it, I could be waiting tables, serving people I don't know," Cisar said. "But now I'm trying to serve people I do know."
Justin Roche
By Alan Melson staff reporter Conference USA Commissioner Mike Slive has no plans to give TCU the boot from the conference anytime soon. In fact, TCU, who will join C-USA in 2001, gave Slive a boot instead - two of them, in fact. Slive, the featured speaker at Thursday's Frog Club luncheon, received a pair of cowboy boots in a special presentation made by Justin Industries President and Chief Operating Officer J.T. Dickenson. The luncheon's objective, however, was for Slive's discussion of C-USA, and where he feels the conference is going. Slive, speaking to an audience of about 275 Frog Club members and guests, said he was happy the member schools of C-USA had voted to accept TCU. He also said that TCU will bring many positives to the conference. "I've seen some of your facilities when Eric (Hyman, TCU athletics director) drove me around," Slive said. "The first thing I said to him was that I would send our championship person down here because you've got some wonderful facilities, and we want to bring some conference events down here as soon as we can." Slive said C-USA has positioned itself to be a major player in Division I college athletics. "Football grew very quickly," he said. "This is only our fourth football season, and we've got the television deal, so now I feel we're playing very competitively. On the basketball side, I think it speaks for itself. We have had 25 appearances in four years in post-season basketball competition, between the NCAA and the (National Invitational Tournament). We've also put four or five women's basketball teams in the NCAA tournament each year." Slive, who has been the commissioner of C-USA since its inception in 1995, said the conference came into being mainly as a result of how televised college football has evolved. "I remember being in New Orleans in December 1993, sitting and reading in the newspaper that CBS had lost the rights to broadcast NFC (a division in professional football) games to the Fox network," he said. "CBS then had an opportunity to make some deals with some conferences to broadcast college football instead, and thus, the TV deals ended up moving towards conferences. "At this point, schools operating independently realized that, in order to receive any television exposure, they were going to have to develop a conference. I think that was the time that Conference USA was born." Slive, 59, came to C-USA after a four-year stint as commissioner of the Great Midwest Conference, a conference that included several notable basketball programs. When C-USA was formed, several Great Midwest schools moved into the conference, including Cincinnati and Marquette. Most of the other original member schools came from the Metro Conference, another basketball-based conference of mostly eastern schools. Slive said C-USA administrators started with definite plans in mind on how to build the conference. "We had four strategic goals when we started this conference in 1995," he said. "First, we wanted to develop a viable football conference. Second, we wanted to preserve and improve the high-quality men's and women's basketball programs our schools brought to the conference. Additionally, we wanted to form a league that provided maximum opportunities for men and women in all sports. Ultimately, we wanted to find a way to play a role - and have a voice - with other important people about how we direct intercollegiate athletics into the next millennium." Slive said the conference has, in a relatively short time, achieved a significant amount of success. "No matter how you measure us, I think we have really achieved our short-term goals," he said. "We have a great television package, with a wonderful partner in Fox Sports, which reaches about 65 million homes now, on par with ESPN. We also air games on ESPN through our affiliation with East Carolina (University), and we've had our games on CBS as well. We have also started to compete at the level of football that we knew we could. We've got two teams in the Top 25 in both polls right now." Slive said he feels the conference has the foundation now to go even further. "Our vision is to be as good a Division I-A comprehensive athletic conference as there is," he said. "Our goal is to make sure the name Conference USA is known and recognized throughout the country."
Alan Melson
By Carey Hix staff reporter Audience members attending Monday night's faculty flute recital will have the opportunity to hear a variety of music from several different time periods. The performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday in the PepsiCo Recital Hall. It will feature Karen D. Adrian, an adjunct professor of flute, accompanied by TCU alumnus Shields-Collins Bray on the piano and harpsichord. Adrian, who has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1978, said she has taken measures to make the recital interesting. "I do my best to get a lot of variety in the program," she said. "What I've done is put an unaccompanied piece to start Then we go into this gorgeous piece from an opera. " One of the beauties of the flute as an instrument is that it's not just one sound. You can do many, many different kinds of sounds, so I always try to program things that will give me a little bit more freedom." Bray, who has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1986, said not playing the songs in chronological order helps to vary of the music. "(There are some) pieces that were written in 1700 that will be immediately followed by something written in the 20th century," he said. "So there's just a lot of variety." Performance faculty members are expected to give recitals at least once a year, Adrian said. "You should be playing for the students because they have to go out and do this," she said. "This is what a lot of my students will be doing in the world when they leave here, so they have to see and hear it live all the time. So basically, it's my responsibility." Jennifer Shults, a junior music education major, said everyone will be able to benefit from Monday night's performance. "There's going to be a lot of different kinds of music," she said. "She's a wonderful player that so I think it will be wonderful for everybody to come out and hear her."
Carey Hix |
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