North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 39, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 28, 2012 Page: 1 of 8
eight p. : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Sunny
66° / 42°
Back to Basics
Men's basketball team looks to defeat UTA
Sports | Page 3
Wonder ill Li e
Holiday classic comes to life on stage
Arts & Life i Page 6
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Volume 100 I Issue 39
□
ntdaily.com
J\Tq £ j 11 Texas Dally
News 1, 2
Arts & Life 5,6
Sports 3,4
Views 7
Classifieds 8
Games 8
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Denton voted best small town in the country
H. Drew Blackburn
Staff Writer
For the second year in a row,
mapmaker Rand McNally and
national newspaper USA Today
teamed up to discover the best
small town in the country - and
the winner was Denton, Texas.
Small towns competed in
five categories: most beautiful,
most patriotic, friendliest, most
fun and best for food. Only
places with a population of less
than 150,000 could qualify for
the contest. Denton squeezed
by with its 117,187 residents,
according to a 2011 U.S. Census
estimate.
More than 2,500 people voted
online for Little D, which edged
out towns such as Danville, Ky.,
and Lewiston, NY.
Denton was also voted the
friendliest town, the most fun
town, the fourth-best town for
food and the ninth most patri-
otic town.
Advertising senior Randy
Romero said that he wrote to
Rand McNally and USA Today
explaining why he thinks
Denton is a great small town.
"It definitely puts a spot-
light on Denton," Romero said.
"Creative people come out of
Denton, and the music scene
is great."
Dan's Silverleaf owner Dan
Mojica said that Denton's
eclectic mix of music venues
and restaurants appeal to a
broad range of people.
Photo by Nicole Arnold/Staff Photographer
Rand McNally and USA Today recently named Denton the best small town in America. More than 2,500 people voted online for Denton's friendliness, food, fun
and patriotism.
"The quality of life here
is pretty good. Even though
we're growing, we still have
a small-town atmosphere,"
Mojica said. "We have the
beautiful downtown Square,
and you can drive ten minutes
and be in the middle of the
country."
Mojica has been visiting
Denton since the 1960s, taking
up permanent residence in
1984.
Mayor Mark Burroughs
said that he got the news of
Denton being crowned the
nation's best small town from
the mayor of another city, and
as one would expect, he was
pleased.
"I'm very proud of this city
for wanting to do more than
the minimum," Burroughs
said. He praised Denton's
environmental sustainability,
noting that 40 percent of the
city's energy is generated by
turbines at the Muenster Wind
Farm about 45 miles to the
northeast. Burroughs said that
Denton is arguably the greenest
city in the country.
With its two universities,
proximity to a major metro-
politan center in Dallas, and
rapidly booming popula-
tion, some are skeptical about
Denton's small town creden-
tials.
"In my personal opinion,
there is a line somewhere
when a town becomes a city,"
Burroughs said. "I tend to clas-
sify Denton as a small city."
Creative writing senior Max
Cohen said that he does not
think Denton counts as a small
town,
"It's a college town. It doesn't
feel like it should qualify as a
small town," Cohen said. "I've
been to other college towns.
I don't see where Denton is
above them. It all seems pretty
similar to me."
IJNT alumnus Graham
White, a bartender at Cool
Beans, one of Denton's most
popular Fry Street bars, said
that it was nice for the city to
get recognition.
"There's a good music scene,
good art scene, good food scene
and just really good people,"
White said. "There's a lot of
local businesses and a lot of
small businesses up here, and
people really like to support
that. That's one of the really
good things about this town."
n Memoriam
f
X i
Photo by Zac Switzer/Senior Staff Photographer
Friends and family gather at the Shrader Pavillion on Tuesday evening for a candlelight vigil to remember UNT
student Ryan Schutze. Schutze, an English major and a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, was killed in a
car accident Sunday.
UNT's clean air efforts
praised by commission
Brief
Daniel Bissell
Staff Writer
The North Texas Commission
has named UNT the best
university in its eighth annual
"Working for Clean Air" compe-
tition, citing exemplary prog-
ress in improving air quality
throughout the region. UNT was
up against 30 organizations in
the competition.
The commission, founded in
1971, is a nonprofit organiza-
tion that works with businesses,
schools, airports, cities and coun-
ties in the region to improve
infrastructure and economic
activity. The Working for Clean
Air competition recognizes
efforts to improve air quality.
Office of Sustainability
Outreach Coordinator Nicole
Cocco said the university has
taken steps to encourage the use
of public and alternative means
of transportation. Partnerships
L
Photo by Michelle Heath/Senior Staff Photographer
The three wind turbines at Apogee Stadium power a third of the stadium's energy needs
and produce clean, renewable energy. The 121 -feet-tall turbines are part of UNT's clean
air efforts, which earned the university recognition by the North Texas Commission.
with the Denton County Transit
Authority and the Dallas Area
Rapid Transit provide the UNT
community with a more envi-
ronmentally friendly alterna-
tive to cars.
"DCTA owns all of the UNT
buses, but the university oper-
ates them, so students and
faculty members are provided
with free bus transportation,"
she said. "We also have a part-
nership with DART, which
provides students and faculty
with a discount for the A-Train
to Dallas."
See AIR on page 2
Willis Library gets exemption from university hiring reeze
Jason Yang
Senior Staff Writer
A hiring freeze preventing
UNT from taking on new
faculty and staff has tempo-
rarily thawed at Willis Library,
which is looking for someone to
fill a recently vacated position.
Dean of Libraries Martin
Halbert said he proposed a lift
on the hiring freeze to UNT
because of the void left by the
departure of Annie Downey,
the former head of research and
instructional services at Willis.
"We are solely focusing
on finding a replacement for
Downey's position," Halbert
said. "We are not creating new
positions or looking to expand
existing positions."
UNT Provost and Vice
President of Academic Affairs
Warren Burggren said that
student fees cover most of the
library's costs, so a lift on the
hiring freeze wouldn't affect
UNT's budget.
"We can't collect fees and not
use it, so we decided there was
no justification with the library
staff," he said.
Fifty-five librarians and
81 full-time staff members
administer the Willis Library,
according to the UNT Fact Book.
The university hiring freeze
has been in place since August.
Andrew Harris, vice presi-
dent for finance and administra-
tion, said the university doesn't
have a set date for the end of the
overall freeze.
"We are making regular
assessments and aligning the
pace of hiring new employees
with total enrollment and
revenue from other sources,"
Harris said.
He said the university would
make exceptions for vital posi-
tions, but stressed that any deci-
sion to make new hires would
ultimately be determined at a
vice presidential level.
"It's important to note that
the freeze is a prudent prac-
tice to be engaged in the reflec-
tion of the overall situation in
leveling enrollment and finan-
cial expenses," Harris said.
Halbert said UNT Libraries'
budget has dropped in recent
years, coinciding with a decline
in student enrollment.
Although the library is
exempt from the hiring freeze,
Halbert said the library's main
concern involves the library
budget, which has been coin-
ciding with the decline in enroll-
ment.
Halbert said the library has
been working with a deficit for
the last year and has had to
make cuts to get by.
Each semester, students
pay $16.50 per semester hour
- capped off at 12 hours - in
library fees, unless the students
have waivers or are on scholar-
ships, Llalbert said.
See FREEZE on page 2
Inside
Students get job advice
News I Page 2
RTVF to move from film to digital
Arts & Life Page 5
Lottery fever dreams
Views Page 7
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Stratso, Chelsea. North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 39, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 28, 2012, newspaper, November 28, 2012; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth291818/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.