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The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texasntdaily.com

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Thursday, March 25, 2010Volume 95 | Issue 35

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Volume 95 | Issue 35

BY LISA GARZASenior Staff Writer

Students in the Construction Engineering Technolog y program said they are stuck in limbo after an e-mail was leaked detailing plans to cut the program.

School officials said the information was an unauthor-ized release from someone in the College of Engineering.

A proposal from Costas Tsatsoulis, dean of the College of Engineering, was attached containing a list of programs and faculty members to be terminated. Mike Newby, an engineering junior who is in the program, forwarded the e-mail to the NT Daily with the original sender’s name deleted.

The e-mail identifies Cheng Yu, Zhenhua Huang and Althea Arnold, all associate profes-sors in the program, as the faculty members who will lose their jobs if the proposal is approved.

“It was frustrating learning the way we did and that we were not going to know until it was a done deal,” Newby said. “Maybe…there ultimately are no other options but it doesn’t seem like phasing this program out would be the best deci-sion.”Uncertain future

The e-mail was forwarded to faculty and students in the college on March 9, two days before Tsatsoulis presented the proposed program cut to Provost Wendy Wilkins, who will ultimately make the final decision.

“We didn’t want to tell the students anything until a deci-sion was made,” Tsatsoulis

Engineering program may be cut

BY SHEA YARBOROUGHSenior Staff Writer

Sparks began to fly after an hour of discussion Wednesday, when Student Government Association candidates for pres-ident and vice president began to disagree on issues facing UNT.

The debate is part of the SGA’s electoral process each spring semester. The election selects student leaders to represent UNT’s 36,000-student popula-tion.

Friends were running against friends, said Dakota Carter, SGA president, which he said fits in with the “incestuous” nature of SGA.

“We struggled to find quality candidates,” Carter said. “To be honest, there were a lot of qual-ified people who couldn’t run because they haven’t had a year of service in the organization.”

The “homecoming fiasco,” Gretchen Bataille’s resigna-tion and spending student fees were debated by Kevin Sanders, a political science sophomore, and Andrew Robertson, also a political science sophomore, both running for president. Robertson said he felt members of the SGA did not handle the election of a same-sex pair to the Homecoming Court the way they should have.

“I panicked like most of the people in the senate,” Robertson said.

About 50 people were at the debate, many of them yawning, stretching and playing with their phones. The audience increased to about 70 people half way through the evening, but many began filtering out when the debate became more heated.

Sanders chose Mercedes Fulbright, a political science

ALEX CHEATHAMStaff Writer

Terry Pankratz has been selected as the new vice chan-cellor of finance for the University of North Texas System.

Pa n k r at z , w ho was unavailable for comment, was selected from 45 candidates by a search committee, and will join the chancel-lor’s cabinet on April 1 for an annual salary of $275,000.

“His years of expe-rience in Texas higher educa-tion will serve the UNT system well,” UNT System Chancellor Lee Jackson said in a news release. “He impressed me with his judgment and character and his work at a major research flagship univer-sity will be critical in helping the system advance.”

The committee’s chairman, Rey Rodriguez, said the position was created because UNT is one of the only major universities without a vice chancellor for finance.

Pankratz, who holds an MBA from Texas A&M University at Commerce and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Texas A&M, has 20 years of finan-cial and administrative experi-ence.

“[He] will oversee our finan-cial reporting to outside agen-cies, guide our budget processes and board presentations on finan-cial matters, and recommend all necessary debt issuance for new initiatives and construction projects within the UNT system,” Jackson said.

Pankratz served as the vice president for finance and chief financial officer at Texas A&M

since January 2008. He was the associate vice president and controller of Texas A&M begin-ning in December 2005.

At Texas A&M, he was respon-sible for financial operations and

administration of the university’s operating budget. His cost-savings init iat ives include the implementation of shared accounting services with the Texas A&M branch campus in Galveston, as well as improving service

delivery to campus depart-ments.

“Terry Pankratz has had expe-rience in all levels of university financial administration, from operating a student union to finan-cial aid to developing residence halls to the budgets and financial reports of two large universities,” Jackson said. “He brings a wealth of experience in Texas higher educa-tion to the UNT System.”

Prior to working at Texas A&M, Pankratz served as Vice President for Business and Administration and Chief Financial Officer for Texas A&M University Commerce beginning in March 2004.

More than a year ago, the UNT System began planning for the position. The UNT Board of Regents approved the position in May.

Jackson said the UNT System is committed to developing the most innovative and efficient ways to reduce costs to meet strategic and service goals.

“Terry Pankratz will have an important role in leading discussions to achieve inno-vation, efficiency and greater effectiveness,” he said.

Committee selects new vice chancellor

SGA president, VP candidates debate issues

PHOTO BY MELISSA BOUGHTON/ASSIGNING EDITOR

Andrew Robertson, SGA senate speaker, and Kevin Sanders, SGA speaker pro-tempore, debated hot issues surrounding each of their campaigns for SGA Presi-dent.

Voting starts Monday, March 29 and ends Friday, April 2 at 5 p.m.

Vote at www.unt.edu/sga

sophomore, as his running mate, while Robertson chose Cameron Jean, a marketing sophomore. All four weighed in on the topic of parking permits, while the audi-ence smiled and laughed.

“If the price of the parking permit is too high, use other ways of transportation,” Sanders said. “Ride a bike or take the bus.”

As to the $180 price of a UNT parking pass, Robertson said he did not know what the money went toward other than parking.

“Is the parking equal to $180? Probably not,” Robertson said. “Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is.”

Both candidates agreed that most students’ ignorance of the SGA is a problem. However, they disagreed on what to do about it. Robertson suggested adopting Texas A&M University’s campus comment boxes. Sanders was strongly opposed to the idea.

“We are not Texas A&M, we are not the University of Texas,” Sanders said. “We are the

University of North Texas.” All the candidates had prob-

lems keeping their answers short, despite the moderators’ repeated requests to do so.

Sanders continued to pull from his sustainability platform, and said he wanted to cut down on paper use wherever possible. Instead of using comment boxes, Sanders proposed a weekly five-to-seven-minute video with the SGA president updating students on issues.“It’s all about utilizing the World

Wide Web,” Sanders said. “Using paper for comment boxes is not fiscally responsible.”

All four candidates, who said they have been friends since their freshman year, said nothing was going to stop them from being i n v o l v e d with SGA or from being friends.

O f t h e 10 students polled after the debate,

seven said they would be casting their vote for Fulbright and Sanders. Two said they were undecided, and one was voting for Robertson and Jean.

This was helpful to see the plat-forms of both sides, said Lauren Dollarhide, a hospitality manage-ment junior.

“Kevin and Mercedes won the debate,” Dollarhide said. “I don’t feel Cameron and Drew have a solid platform and I don’t feel they will fairly represent the UNT campus like Kevin and Mercedes could.”

Sean Smallwood, a political science freshman, said he felt reassured in a vote for Robertson and Jean because he said they have the most logical explana-tions on how to get things done.

“I think they can do this in an effective manner,” Smallwood said.

Two referendums will also be on the ballot, Carter said. Robertson wrote a bill to add two justices to UNT’s Supreme Court, bringing the total to seven. Robertson said UNT’s large student population required the change.

The second referendum was headed by Carter to allow non-members of SGA to run for presi-dent and vice-president.

“SGA are not the only people who have the right to run the student body,” Carter said. “If you’re a leader, you’re capable and can get people to vote for you, by all means.”

Mike Newby, a construction engineering technology junior, just found out that the CNET program he has been enrolled in for two years is in the process of being phased out. The termination of the CNET program at UNT would a� ect about 130 students who are currently enrolled.

PHOTO BY AUGUSTA LIDDIC/PHOTOGRAPHER

TERRYPANKRATZ

said.Students said the notice imme-

diately caused them to worry about the program’s status.

“I think what happened in this case that some people acted overly quickly before the plans had even been shared with me,” Wilkins said.

Newby said that since the program at UNT is the only of its kind in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, eliminating it would displace 131 students in an industry that is projected to grow within the next eight to 10 years.

“We are not really sure if we are going to be fine or not because we don’t know the outcome,”

Newby said. “I don’t know that we can find out if we’ll be OK until ABET makes their deci-sion. That’s a long time to be in limbo for schooling that you are paying for.”

Newby said the biggest concern among students in the program is that if it is eliminated, their degrees won’t be worth as much because the program won’t be accredited. Currently the program is not accredited, but students expected it to receive accreditation by the time they graduated.

Tsatsoulis said the program would still seek accreditation as planned in fall 2010. Wilkins said her understanding was that

eliminating the program would not affect its eligibility for accred-itation.

“The accreditors aren’t going to be asking what’s happening in the future, they are going to be looking into what’s happening now,” she said.

According to ABET’s criteria listed on their Web Site, accredita-tion may be granted for a shorter period of time, usually two years, if the future “appears precarious or definite weaknesses exist.”

Newby said the dean told the students that accreditation is not the only factor that matters when applying for a job.

See CNET on page 2