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Smith selected
as Texas Tech’s new chancellor
LUBBOCK (AP) — Texas Tech’s
Board of Regents on Wednesday tapped David R. Smith to become the
West Texas university’s second chancellor.
Smith
was the sole finalist selected from what regents said were numerous
candidates.
The
regents must wait a required 21 days — until March 24 —
before offering Smith the job, which would allow him to be in place
for the final board meeting of the school year on May 9.
His
salary and other details were not immediately available.
Smith,
48, was named interim chancellor in July, taking the reigns from
John Montford who stepped down in September to accept a post as
senior vice president of external affairs for SBC Communications
Inc. in San Antonio.
Smith
was selected then because, regents said, he could continue a successful,
first-ever capital improvement fund-raising effort which Montford
began. That ability played prominently in regents choosing Smith
for the post permanently.
Smith
said he wants to focus on improving all aspects of the university
and to continue stoking the fund-raising fires. Continuing Montford’s
fund-raising legacy is vital to the university maintaining the national
recognition that Montford built.
Local
plant fire causes evacuation of businesses
FORT WORTH (AP) — A two-alarm chemical
plant fire prompted evacuations at several nearby businesses Wednesday
morning, but no serious injuries were reported.
Twenty-six
people were decontaminated and transported to area hospitals as
a precaution after a fire erupted at the Crompton Corp. chemical
plant, spewing naphthalene sulfate into the air.
As
many as 30 others were decontaminated at the scene, located about
a mile south of the Fort Worth Stockyards, fire department spokesman
Lt. Kent Worley said.
Worley
said the chemical, used to assist absorption of other chemicals,
was a nontoxic irritant.
The
fire was extinguished about 10 a.m., and evacuees were allowed back
to their offices by early afternoon as strong winds helped dissipate
the vapor.
Worley
said the fire was sparked by an equipment malfunction in the plant.
Five
people hospitalized when car hits school bus
FORT WORTH (AP) — Four students
and one adult were hospitalized Wednesday morning after a school
bus was clipped by a car and crashed
into a ditch.
The
driver of the car was blinded by the rising sun while rounding a
curve, hitting the front end of the Azle school district bus, officials
said.
The
bus veered into a roadside ditch on a county road near Eagle Mountain
Lake dam in northwestern Fort Worth, according to broadcast reports.
Investigators
said the injuries to the children appeared to be minor. The condition
of the adult was not immediately available.
Lawsuits
filed over outcome of academic decathlon
LUBBOCK (AP) — Brainy bragging rights
are on the line for two Texas schools on opposite ends of the state.
Both
Lubbock High and Pasadena’s J. Frank Dobie High have claimed
victory in the Texas Academic Decathlon, a scholastic competition
in which nine-member teams match wits in subjects such as language
and literature, art and economics on written tests, essays and oral
exams. At stake are college scholarships for the winners.
Two
lawsuits naming the state’s academic decathlon association
as a defendant are the first filed against the 18-year-old state
organization, coordinator Shonna Distefano said.
Shortly
after the state meet ended last month, Dobie’s coach realized
that one of student Kevin Ho’s score sheets was misplaced and
excluded from his school’s final tally, which would have pushed
his team into first place. But decathlon officials declared that
the sheet was not turned in properly, meaning Lubbock had won.
The
U.S. Academic Decathlon says it has certified Lubbock as Texas’
entry for the national competition with 36 other states’ winners
next week in Phoenix.
Dobie
took its case to court in Houston last week, with coach Richard
Golenko arguing that Ho’s test should have been counted and
at least one other test was not tallied correctly. Also during testimony,
questions were raised about whether a Lubbock student had a missing
score in a portion of one test.
As
a result, a Harris County judge found “serious issues in the
validity of the scores” of both schools and ordered a retest.
Ho’s
score sheet since has been shredded as part of the decathlon association’s
standard procedure.
Two
days later, the Lubbock school district went to court in Lubbock
and was granted a temporary restraining order to keep the decathlon
association from retesting and certifying those results.
State
District Judge J. Blair Cherry of Lubbock was scheduled to hear
evidence Wednesday afternoon to decide whether to make his injunction
permanent.
UC
Berkeley ends Israel study abroad program
All students currently studying in the
country have been encouraged to come back to the United States immediately.
The
decision Tuesday to suspend the program was prompted in part by
an escalated warning from the U.S. State Department.
Students
have been told they can stay — but at their own risk. Next
semester’s Education Abroad Program in Israel also has been
placed on hold pending a future assessment of the risk the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict poses to students.
John
Marcum, director of UC’s Education Abroad Program, had decided
earlier in March not to suspend the program “with the hope
that U.S. intercession will result in a cease-fire and resumption
of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.”
But
the increased unrest in the region prompted the university to reverse
last month’s decision.
UC
already has provided students currently studying in Israel with
travel arrangements to return to the United States.
$16,000
spent on campaigns by U. of Okla. government
NORMAN, Okla. (U-WIRE) — According
to the University of Oklahoma student government Election Board,
UOSA president and vice president campaigns, combined with the Campus
Activities Council chairmen and chairwomen campaigns, have accumulated
a total of $16,622.58 in spending, an average of $2,374.65 per campaign.
Candidates
had to turn in disclosure sheets, detailing how much they spent,
on what they spent it and where they spent it. Those sheets were
due March 27.
Leading
the campaign spending was the Derrick Ott and Erin Elder campaign,
with $4,955.66 spent. One thousand forty-nine dollars were spent
on T-shirts, and $2,960 were spent on media advertisements. Ott
said the amount seems so large because of padding to ensure no overspending
would occur during the election.
Second
in spending was the Alex Yaffe and Mary Millben campaign, with $2,490.33.
Most of the money went to media ads, $1,141.90, and the rest was
spent on campaign materials, such as T-shirts, buttons, fliers and
signs. Yaffe said the costs were low because the company he went
to, Moisant Promotions, has worked with him since he was in high
school.
At
the bottom of the president and vice president campaigns were Andy
Lehman and Chris Grossman, with $1,904.76, and Andrew LeGrand and
Julius Odom, with $1,345.33. Lehman and Grossman made a campaign
promise two weeks before Spring Break that they would spend no more
than $2,000.
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