The Skyline Newspaper

Big Bend National Park’s hydrologist/physical scientist and SRSU graduate Jeff Bennett operates the Total Station Survey instrument. Left: Jonathan Dyess contemplates another day on the river. Photo by Adelina Beall

GIS Students Coordinate with BBNP on Research Project

By Madeleine Cantu
Skyline Reporter

This past weekend, six students from the advanced GIS class taught by Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk got to participate in an ongoing research project that is headed by Big Bend National Park.

The trip was a total of four days long, and consisted of surveying, canoeing, hiking, and camping. At the park, they met up with biologist  Joe Sirotnak and hydrologist Jeff Bennett, who have been monitoring the effects of salt cedar eradication along the Rio Grande, particularly in Boquillas Canyon.

Salt cedar is an invasive species that is unwanted along the river banks because it allows sediment to be trapped along the river’s edges, which in turn causes channelization. This response is unfavorable, because it makes the river narrow instead of wide and free-flowing.

The trip was a total of four days long. “On days 2 and 3, we conducted a detailed 3-D laser survey project using a total station instrument,” said Urbanczyk. With the data, they will then produce a 3-D map to help further monitoring.

One SRSU foreign exchange student, Ani Ekweogu from Nigeria, went along on the trip. He is a geology major and will graduate with a masters in 2009. Ani had never canoed before, although he said he has assisted in surveys previously. “It was my first time being in a canoe. I was a little nervous at first,” he admits, “but not after a few paddle strokes. It was also my first time camping along a river. It got really cold the last night; it was like 26 degrees. I woke up to brush my teeth and the water in my bottle was frozen.”

Adelina Beall, who will graudate with a masters in geology in the summer, was another of the six students that went on the trip. She’s a seasoned canoer, with the Colorado and the Guadalupe a few of the rivers under her belt. “I have surveyed in the class setting before, but never for a project like this. It was a great experience for me.”

Projects like this are a great opportunity for students to get their hands-on training. The experience received from volunteer efforts like this look great on a resume, and are excellent ways to become involved with the surrounding area. Not only that, but it heightens your awareness of the environment, as well, which will become more and more vital to us humans in the future.

How Do SR Students Make and Keep Personal Connections?

By Pedro Ojeda
Journalism 3301 Student

In recent years, it has become likely for people to make more friends while spending some hours at home on their computer as opposed to going out and meeting people in everyday situations.

MySpace.com is a popular social networking website where people can access new music, videos, visit old friends, and make new ones. While the number of actual users on MySpace is currently unknown due to deleted profiles, users with multiple accounts, and accounts created specifically for promotion, the fact remains that this website is still frequented by many.

In February alone it was reported that over sixty million people logged in to the online community. The report went on to state rival network Facebook.com gathered up nearly thirty million unique visitors in the same month.

What began as a population made up entirely of college level students, Facebook now allows for users to associate themselves by high school or region. Changes have also been made to make the website more interactive. Many applications are featured on the website to give users more things to do and keep them entertained.

The increasing number of what some users call “junk” has left many opting out of it all together. Shorty after the account has been abandoned the user will likely inform a friend through a sms text message rather than a phone call.

With the increasing forms of communication being offered to us, are people still keeping personal connections? Senior AD Ramirez thinks so: “I usually make calls to my parents and people who I’m close to. It’s just easier to text my friends throughout the day though.” Ramirez has both an account on Facebook and MySpace, yet stays connected primarily through her phone and claims a good portion of her money she makes at work goes to her phone bill. Regarding her online activity, she claims she doesn’t really use email aside from school and signs onto MySpace to check out pictures and comments but only about every other month, “I’m not addicted” she stated. 

Junior Cruz Tovar also says he doesn’t feel the need to check MySpace often: “I log in probably twice a week or whenever I have some free time.” Once a month is when you can find new pictures and updates on this profile if you are on “Smooth Cruz” friend space. 

Tovar, who on occasion gets strange friend requests, has a Top Friends consisting mostly of people from back home and friends from Sul Ross, but keeps it private. While he doesn’t email, he compensates with an average of two hundred text messages daily, while keeping daily phone conversations to about fifteen minutes with the parents.

Also keeping the phone calls restricted mainly to family and close friends is James McCall, sophomore. McCall prioritizes his conversations as text messaging, then MySpace, followed by phone calls. “If they’re not a close friend I’ll probably text. Usually I go through 100 a day, the other day I sent about 200.”

For about half an hour a day McCall will log in to check out his profile, but he states that he won’t really spend time going through other people’s pages. When not reading comments, he finds other uses for the online network. “Me and my friends are starting a band so we created a profile to promote ourselves and get out work out there.”

When asked if he found the “Grade My Professor” Function on Myspace useful, he answered as the others did, saying he never actually used it. Presently Myspace still has more users than Facebook, while both see declining numbers. 

Chinatis Exemplify Restored Natural Environment

By Mark Glover
SRSU Alumnus

Below Chinati Peak, in the Chihuahua desert, San Antonio Canyon cuts through the rocky terrain, spilling rounded rocks and occasional run-off water into a dry Rio Grande, about five miles to the south.

A Red Tail Hawk glides high  above effortless in the winds along the south flank of the third tallest peak in Texas. Dr Brad Butler and the writer watch the half circles of flight, the spread wings tilting slightly to dive, then rolling up, accelerating, attacking the air like a jets’ wings at forty thousand feet. We’re standing at a precipice perhaps a thousand feet below the peak, surrounded by jutting chocolate brown rocks. We watch the hunting bird, now just a dark speck in the blue sky, disappear behind a cluster of steeple-shaped rocks we call the City of Oz.

Texas Parks and Wildlife hopes to open the Chinati Mountains State Natural Preserve to the public soon. The preserve is the former 40,000 acre Mesquite Ranch once owned by Heiner and Philippa Friedrich,  who sold it to the Mellon Foundation in 1996. As they did with the Christmas Mountains land, the Mellon Foundation in turn donated it to the State of Texas.

The first thing the Friedrichs did when they bought the ranch in the 1970’s was to take all the livestock off. Today in the high elevations of the preserve, native grasses are abundant. Gamma, Side Oats and Stipa in hues of brown, yellow and gold cover the high terrain. Lechuguilla, sotol and prickly pear bounce their greens in the tapestry while cat claw, ocotillo and mesquite lend shades of gray. Veins of vermiculite, a soft, light, tope mineral, mixes in a purplish hue.

Heiner Friedrich, who converted to Islam in the 60’s, built prayer stations throughout the ranch. In the Koran, Mohammed gives instructions to his followers on how to address Allah. Four times a day prayer is required, and for God to truly hear, one must bathe before placing your spirit in Allah’s presence. Pilas were constructed of natural stone and filled with spring water to serve as baths. A few feet away, ramadas with stone floors and steel roofs protect against the elements while prayers pray. And in the near distance of each of these seven praying stations are rock walled cabins with electricity, running water and kitchens.

“We only need to hire six people to run this place,” Mike Hill, West Texas regional director of Texas Parks and Wildlife, said.

The three of us had stayed the night before at one of the seven cabins on the preserve. Twenty-five miles away, the yellowish lights of Presidio and Ojinaga twinkled in the night sky. A sliver of a moon lay to the west and Orion’s Belt glimmered as if it too were only down the road.

That morning Hill had looked out over the lower elevations of the preserve and said, “The goal of  Texas Parks and Wildlife is to restore this land. And some day I hope to stand here and see it just the way Cabeza de Vaca did.”

The high elevations of Chinati Mountains State Natural Preserve are pristine. At the rounded top of Chinati Peak oak trees dot the skyline and the grass is plentiful. But the lower elevations show much sign of earlier over-grazing.

“People got a little carried away with stocking,” Hill said.

The Mohair subsidy of 1936 encouraged depression-struck ranchers to raise goats and sheep. For the grass, the FDR legislation was a death warrant.

“Goats and sheep eat the roots. Obviously propagation doesn’t occur under those conditions,” Hill said. “The great plains of knee high grasses of the last century are pretty much gone.”

Except for a few prickly pear and ocotillo, a mono-culture of creosote cover the low elevation of the preserve.

“There’s very little top-soil,” Hill said. “We need a good fire, seed, then strong rain. Eventually the grass will come back if the livestock are kept out. We can speed it along with a seed-planting program, but that takes money.”

The preserve has been closed to the public since its acquisition in 1996. Under three successive state republican administrations, budgetary constraints continue to plague Texas Parks and Wildlife. Conservatives value private property while public ownership and management of land is in many cases contrary to their fundamental beliefs.

“The tight budget makes it hard for us to open this place, but once we do, people are going to love it,” Hill said.

Humane Society Offers Enlightened Alternative

By Shanna Elmore
Journalism 3301 Student

Eat, sleep, play, go home with a new family. It’s a doggone good life for animals at the Jeff Davis County Humane Society.

Located three miles outside of Fort Davis, the facility looks more like a home than an animal shelter. Executive Director Laura Langham has converted a three bedroom house into a secure, therapeutic environment where dogs, cats, and humans can live and work together.

Unlike traditional shelters, which feature individual animals in separated kennels, the animals at JDC Humane Society spend their afternoons chasing toys around the office or lounging in their fenced patio area. This family setting provides vital human contact for many animals that have been abused and abandoned, as well as a comfortable environment for prospective pet owners.

“Many people are apprehensive about traditional shelter facilities because they leave depressed,” Langham said. “With our pioneering concept in sheltering, people get to experience the animals in a home setting and view the product in their actual environment.”

Construction has begun on a new adoption center, located in downtown Fort Davis. The new building will house up to 20 dogs in four “suites,” each complete with heated, well-lit office, playroom, crate room, and fenced-in patio areas. Two cat rooms will be included, with a raised catwalk for extra feline fun. The new facility will also feature an intake holding area and an exam room where Langham, a registered veterinary technician, will be able to provide routine vaccinations and testing, as well as tend to injured or sick animals.

Concrete has been poured on the building site and the frame of the facility is up. Money is currently being raised to begin phase two of the center. “We have wonderful people and awesome support,” Langham said. “We’re not quite there yet, but we hope to be in the new facility by the end of this year.”

Last year, 174 animals were rescued from the JDC Humane Society. They maintain an 84 percent adoption rate. All animals are examined by a veterinarian, spayed or neutered, de-wormed, vaccinated, and micro-chipped before being placed for adoption. Langham and her staff provide unlimited post-adoption support and encourage correspondence with new pet owners.

Recently, the JDC Human Society decided to change its name. Langham smiled as she recalled all the time spent throwing suggestions back and forth, before deciding on one. “Our new name is Paws for Joy. It defines what our work is all about; a bond between humans and animals.”

Student Attends Tejano Music Awards

By Jason Hennington
News Writer

SRSU had the only representative from the West Texas area at the 28th annual Tejano Music Awards, held Mar. 6 in San Antonio.

Dominic Leal, Dallas, a junior political science major, attended the prestigious event on behalf of SRSU campus radio, KSRU.

“If I wasn’t there, there wouldn’t have been anybody from West Texas,” Leal said.

Winners at this year’s awards included: Elida Reyna for Song of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year; Jay Perez for Male Vocalist of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, and Show Band of the Year; Ruben Ramos and the Mexican Revolution for Album of the Year-Tejano; and Tex Mex Kadillakz for Most Promising Band.

Tejano music is popular in the West Texas area, but there was no one to cover the event.  Leal was allowed to go backstage with the artists and award winners, as well as other media personnel.  Dr. Keith West, assistant professor in Communication and Theatre, was able to obtain media passes and the necessities for Leal’s trip.

Leal enjoyed the experience and got a chance to meet artists that he listens to as well as new up-and-coming artists.

“This was my first time for the Tejano awards, so I didn’t know a lot of artists, but I do now,” Leal said. 

Leal got to rub shoulders with Tejano Music legends Sunny Sauceda, Ruben Ramos, Little Joe, and a host of other superstars in the Tejano music world.

“Sunny (Sauceda) was one of my favorites to meet.  He plays the accordion, and really puts on a good show,” Leal said.  “I was looking forward to meeting him.”

Leal was also excited to meet another one of his favorite artists, Elida Reyna.

“It was a blessing that I got to meet them,” Leal said.

Along with Tejano Legends, Leal met new up-and-coming artists who included Tex Mex Kadillakz, Da Krazy Pimpz, and Megan Leyva.

“Megan (Leyva), can really sing,” Leal said.  “The future of Tejano has talent, and they can all sing.”

Many people believe that Tejano music is dying, but according to Leal Tejano music is far from dead.

“From what I saw it is alive and well,” he said.  “The media is what’s killing it.  There is talent out there and they deserve to be heard.”

At first Leal said he was nervous, but soon became comfortable when he saw how friendly the artists were.

“I got to see how artists reacted to media,” Leal said. “I didn’t get any rejections for interviews.  I was impressed at how they acted toward the media.  They treated me really well.”

Leal works as a DJ on KSRU and is also the studio supervisor and primary production person.  His shows are primarily Spanish, with a mix of R&B and Hip-Hop.

“I do radio shows, but I like to go out and represent Sul Ross,” he said.

This was Leal’s first visit to the Tejano Music Awards, but not his first time at an award show.  Last year he represented SRSU at the Latin Hip-Hop Awards, and it was a big success for the campus radio station.

“In addition to being a great on-air DJ, he has a natural sense for what people want to know about artists,” West said.  “He was the natural choice to send.”

Leal said he would love to represent SRSU at other awards shows; possibly a BET (Black Entertainment Television) award show, a Hip-Hop, or an R&B award show.  His ultimate goal is to cover the Latin Grammys.

“That would be a dream,” Leal said.

Leal is putting together an extensive  résumé of award shows including his recent tenure in San Antonio.  He hopes to attend the Tejano Convention in his hometown of Dallas in August.

“I want to give a lot of credit to Dr. West, he’s helped me out a lot,” Leal said.  “He’s a good guy.”

West supported the idea of Leal attending the Tejano Awards for experience, and for what he could bring back to KSRU.

“This is the type of programming and events I would like to see on KSRU Campus Radio,” West said.  “KSRU can provide the back story to the music; artist interviews, concert dates, new emerging artists, and classic favorites.  I encourage anyone that has an interest in finding out the ‘real story’ and telling others to contact Dominic at the station.”

For Leal’s photos and an exclusive video of his trip, visit  www.myspace.com/dlealksru.

Meet the College Republicans

By MaryAshley P. Gredell
Skyline Reporter

“I want people to understand that all of what we do isn’t all about being a Republican, or a Democrat for that matter. You don’t have to be one or another,” said Jessica Balencia, speaking about  the newly-formed Sul Ross College Republicans.

The Republicans began meeting approximately three weeks ago and have expanded interest and membership with each passing meeting. They gather at 5 p.m. on Tuesday evenings in UC room 210. Any interested parties are invited to stop by a meeting.

“To me, this organization is more about having an opinion over what you feel is right. I try to look more at what a politician’s stance is, not what they call themselves,” said Balencia, who is newly-elected chairman of the club.

The sophomore education major from LaVernia might surprise the liberal faction on campus with such open viewpoints, but her goal in spearheading the new College Republicans is more about driving voting numbers and voter interest up in Alpine.

“The major issue for us is that we want to get people registered to vote. A lot of people don’t know how; especially students. We want to spread the word about voting and how easy it is to register, and help them do that,” said Balencia.

Other officers include vice-chairman Juan Garcia, secretary Danny Ferris, and treasurer Debbie Hamrick. Justin Badgerow serves as faculty advisor.

The Republicans already have big plans for the two months left of school. The group has already challenged the equally-new Young Democrats to a campus debate, to be held sometime after Spring Break.

The notion of doing a campus “canvas” survey to find out students’ political motivations and beliefs is also being discussed, as well as fundraising ideas and voter registration drives in the months before the race for the presidency comes to an end.

Balencia’s interest in the Republicans sparked from her personal acquaintance with Lyle Larson, a Bexar County Commissioner.

Hal Craig, the Republican Chairman of Brewster County, encouraged Balencia to help form a campus organization supporting the GOP. Craig has attended the meetings thus far, finding a faculty advisor and drawing on resources from the National College Republican website to generate activity at Sul Ross. The club also hopes to bring in more republicans from Austin for discussions and speeches on-campus.

November’s approaching election has truly peaked political interest on campus; Political clubs have booked both Monday and Tuesday evenings in the University Center to hold meetings developing, in part, strategies for the upcoming presidential race.

“We need to help people to understand the issues so that they will care. If you don’t vote, you can’t be angry with what’s going on:  your vote does matter, we do matter, even in a little town of Alpine... We want people to know how important it really is to understand the candidates,” said Balencia.

Chairman Jessica Balencia can be reached at jbal323@sulross.edu in regards to College Republican meetings or activities.