Issue 5- March 2, 2011

Hilltop Views S t .

E d w a r d ’ s

U n i v e r s i t y

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Volume 29 | Issue 5

7

FEATURES Texas Professor of the Year award winner Alan Swinkels gives insight into his swagger.

8

ENTERTAINMENT South

by Southwest is right around the corner. See what is available this year.

Martin reaffirms university’s goals

thallma2@stedwards.edu

St. Edward’s University is making swift progress toward achieving its goals for 2015, the university’s president said at the spring president’s meeting.

George Martin’s Feb. 23 presentation touched on a wide variety of topics and was organized around the four tenets of the 2015 Strategic Plan – Holy Cross heritage, resource development, academics and global expansion.

Catholic Character

SPORTS A look at the spirit of Homecoming Weekend embodied in a double-overtime game.

Paul Rocha procha@stedwards.edu

Courtesy of Marketing

Martin said one of the primary goals of the university is to reaffirm the Holy Cross Catholic heritage of the university.

“Going toward 2015, we really want to reaffirm who we are,” Martin said.

The Catholic heritage, however, also includes valuing all human beings as individuals.

Assistant Director of Campus Ministry Larry Atkinson said he was pleased with Martin’s inclusion of Holy Cross values in the 2015 strategic plan.

“To have the values of Holy Cross infused into the SEU

13

University website revamped to be more interactive

Martin said the university added a reciprocal exchange program in Japan.

Tristan Hallman

hilltopviewsonline.com

Mission Statement and in the strategic priorities assures the continuation of the educational values of creating an international community of young adults who are informed, formed, and transformed to create, as Basil Moreau states, …’a better time,’” Atkinson said in an e-mail.

Martin’s attempt to re-emphasize the university’s Catholic underpinnings came one semester after university rejected gay rights advocacy group Equality Texas for Martin | 4

St. Edward’s University is nearing the completion of a nearly three-year-long effort to condense the current St. Edward’s website and its respective microsites into an internal and external site, according to the Marketing Office.

The sites, which were slated for a January 2011 unveiling, are presently on hold for further information-gathering. Some faculty members had expressed concerns that the information presented on the proposed external site, which is meant to recruit prospective students, misrepresents their academic disciplines.

The new launch date has not yet been announced, but Vice President of Marketing Paige Booth says that the site will go live around late spring or early summer.

Formatting of the website will be different in that every site run by St. Edward’s will be connected through the main http://www. stedwards.edu URL. The external site will be geared toward both prospective students and potential donors. The internal site will be for enrolled students, faculty and staff, but can be viewed by others as it is not password-protected.

EdWeb and Blackboard, however, will remain as elements of the site and will be password-protected.

Courtesy of Marketing

The new school website will debut later this year.

“We wanted to create an interactive site for different audiences,” Booth said.

Although it is unclear how accessible the internal site will be from the external site, Booth said a Google search or a search on the external website will yield results from both the internal and external sites.

For current students and faculty, there will be a new tool called OneStop. Booth said that the OneStop tool

will act as a university news home page that users can customize with a variety of content, including Zimbra webmail, calendars and RSS feeds both from St. Edward’s and external sites such as The New York Times.

The incorporation of social media will be emphasized within the infrastructure of the new St. Edward’s website. Links for sharing Information | 4

Page 2 | NEWS

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 | Hilltop Views

Audit about environmental regulations to be held on campus Kristina Schenck kschenc@stedwards.edu

St. Edward’s University is participating in an environmental compliance audit to assess the university’s adherence to federal environmental laws and regulations, as well as Texas state law.

The audit is a part of a program within the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas, a nonprofit association for accredited public and private institutions of higher education in Texas, according to the Assistant to the President for Institutional Relations Cristina Bordin.

President George Martin is the current board chair of the ICUT. “The organization decided …it’d be a whole lot better if simply we created a program where we started to evalu-

ate what we’re doing before the Environmental Protection Agency has to come and work in concert to advance

the EPA Audit Policy, Physical Plant Director Michael Peterson said. A professional auditor and four peer audi-

Martin believes the program will raise awareness among the campus community about compliance with environmental laws. good policies and to assist one another as peers in reviewing how effective we each are and following good policies,” Martin said.

The university informed the EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality of its intentions to conduct a peer audit under

tors from colleges and universities within the ICUT will conduct the audit at St. Edward’s.

“It’s a long process. It takes about a semester,” Martin said of the audit.

Preparation for the audit involved collaboration among different departments within

the university.

“The Physical Plant coordinated information with many departments on campus, reviewed our paperwork, inspected mechanical and electrical rooms and our shop facilities,” Peterson said. “Additionally, select members of the university attended training on how to conduct the audit, and three individuals have conducted peer audits on other universities.”

The auditors will take a number of steps to conduct a thorough audit at St. Edward’s.

“They check facilities, they check reports, [and] they talk to people because they have to make sure the data is true,” Bordin said.

According to the EPA’s website, “The EPA Audit Policy was developed to encourage the regulated community to

review their activities’ compliance with environmental requirements and to proactively take steps to assure they are in compliance.”

The EPA can fine an entity if it is found to be in violation of environmental laws. Since St. Edward’s is undergoing a peer audit, essentially a selfaudit under EPA Audit Policy, the university can avoid monetary fines if it meets certain standards.

“St. Edward’s will receive [a] 100 percent waiver of all gravity-based penalties by disclosing the audit findings and correcting those findings within 60 days,” Peterson said. “Also, to gain the full penalty waiver, St. Edward’s University will implement an Environmental Management System within three years of completing the audit program.”

Martin believes the program will raise awareness among the campus community about compliance with environmental laws.

“When you throw away paint, where do you throw away paint? When you throw out fluorescent bulbs, where do you throw them? All kinds of things like that that people don’t necessarily think of.

As long as people are made aware of it, they’re more than willing to do that,” Martin said. “What you’re doing is working with people on campus saying, look at this, look at that, are you in compliance, or are you not. Again, it just raises awareness to a very positive level.”

Peterson said the university should receive the draft audit around April 1.

Topper Tender gets plucked from another local business Kristina Schenck kschenc@stedwards.edu

Pluckers has plucked Topper Tender from its payment methods.

The wing bar on South Lamar, an “Off the Hill” merchant since August 2007, stopped accepting Topper Tender on March 1.

The reason for the decision was that the South Lamar location does not get enough business from customers paying with Topper Tender to sustain the program, Marketing Director for Pluckers Kate Wollman said.

“Basically, the reason is the fees that are associated with the Topper Tender program,” Wollman said. “To be honest, if we were making some kind of a profit, we would still be accepting it.”

Pluckers earned a total revenue of $13,491.76 from Topper Tender sales between August 2010 and January 2011, according to Director of Auxiliary Services Mike Stone.

Wollman does not believe Pluckers will lose business as a result of withdrawing from the Topper Tender program.

Junior Andrew Harvey disagrees, saying that he will no longer eat at Pluckers.

“Taking Topper Tender away basically ensures that I will never eat there again because, to be honest, that was the main reason I ever went,” Harvey said.

The Pluckers restaurant in Dallas ended its affiliation with the Pony Express prepaid cashless debit program for students of Southern Methodist University on Jan. 1, citing similar reasons for discontinuation. However, the original Pluckers on Rio Grande Street still accepts Bevo Bucks from students attending the University of Texas at Austin.

CVS Pharmacy also stopped accepting Topper Tender for reasons similar to Pluckers’. The CVS Pharmacy on Congress Avenue and Fifth Street stopped accepting Topper Tender because it did not receive enough business from students due to its distance from campus, Stone said.

Other merchants withdrew from the Topper Tender program after they went out of business, including Gar-

Christina Villarreal

Pluckers is the latest merchant to stop accepting Topper Tender off campus.

den District Coffee House, Stompin’ Grounds and The Big Kolache.

The university contracts with BbOne to operate the off-campus Topper Tender

program, and it charges an annual fee, as well as an annual software licensing fee, that totals to about $10,000 a year. BbOne also negotiates a contract with off-campus

merchants and receives a percentage of all Topper Tender sales. The fee varies, and can range from five to ten percent. BbOne then pays the university 10 percent of that

amount.

Commission from off-campus Topper Tender sales go into the university’s general fund, Stone said.

But the program is also meant to benefit the university community, he added.

“The primary purpose of the off-campus program is to provide convenient opportunities and funds for students to enjoy some variety in their dining,” Stone said.

Though the program is targeted primarily at students, faculty and staff also have the ability to load funds onto their Topper Tender accounts.

In addition, participating merchants can benefit from the program. Since deposits into the Topper Tender fund exceed $800,000 each school year, merchants “Off the Hill” can compete for additional business from St. Edward’s students, staff, and faculty.

The university also earns commission on Topper Tender sales on campus.

A complete list of vendors that accept Topper Tender is available on the St. Edward’s website.

Hilltop Views | Wednesday, March 2, 2011

NEWS | Page 3

Students remember fellow classmate Anna Whitney awhitne@stedwards.edu

Mario Nicolas Bandiera, an exchange student from Buenos Aires, Argentina, died in his room in Teresa Hall the morning of Feb. 21, according to university spokeswoman Mischelle Diaz. He was 21.

Paul Rambaud, a freshman student from France and friend of Bandiera’s, said Bandiera died of appendicitis and was sick for about a week leading up to his death.

Bandiera was remembered at a candlelight vigil held at Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto Feb. 21 at 9 p.m.

This semester was Bandiera’s first at St. Edward’s University. He was a computer information science major who was planning on returning to his university in Buenos Aires, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa, by next fall semester.

Erin Garcia, Bandiera’s international advisor, said Bandiera touched the St. Edward’s community during his short time here.

“He was at that stage where he was just starting to make those connections…

No one really got a chance to know him that well be-

sides the few people he got to know right away,” Garcia said. “He affected both the international community and the community here.”

Rambaud was one of the people Bandiera met soon after arriving in Austin.

Rambaud and Bandiera became friends when they met at the Austin airport in January. Both were just beginning their study abroad experiences in Austin.

“We became very good friends very fast,” Rambaud said. “I was his best friend here, and he was mine.”

Rambaud remembered Bandiera as a kind and understanding person. “[He was] helpful, caring, and very patient. He was passionate about soccer.

He really loved going out on Sixth Street and sharing good moments with his friends. He was just discovering Austin, and he really liked it,” Rambaud said. “I remember spending all my Sundays with him remembering the night before.”

Matt Maitland, a junior exchange student from Scotland and another person Bandiera became friends with soon after arriving in Austin, lived in Teresa Hall with Bandiera.

Both Maitland and Ram-

Study finds college not right for all Abe Clabby aclabby@stedwards.edu

Christina Villarreal

Students attended the candlelight vigil for Bandiera

baud said that Bandiera was generally a shy person, but was always ready to go out with a small group of close friends.

“He was really quiet, but he was really nice. He would never say anything bad about anyone,” Maitland said.

Maitland remembered playing pool tournaments with Bandiera in Teresa.

“He would never let me win. He was too good,” Maitland said.

POLICE BLOTTER

Location

Bandiera is survived by his parents and twin sister in Buenos Aires.

Rambaud said Bandiera’s sister called Bandiera an “angel,” saying that “nobody can be that kind.”

“I’ve never met a guy like this before…[he was] helpful and understanding—he was a good person,” Rambaud said.

Date

Time

Incident

Resolution

Feb. 18

1 p.m.

Vehicle burglary

University apartments

Closed

Feb. 21

1:30 a.m.

Investigation

Teresa Hall

Closed

Feb. 21

3:57 p.m.

Graffiti

LeMans Hall

Closed

Feb. 23

2:29 p.m.

Conduct violation

Doyle parking lot

Disciplinary referral

Feb. 25

11:50 a.m.

Conduct violation

St. Edward’s University

Disciplinary referral

Feb. 25

11:34 a.m.

Vehicle burglary

Parking garage

Open

Feb. 25

1:50 p.m.

Accident

Theater parking lot

Closed

Feb. 25

7:45 p.m.

Theft

Hunt Hall

Closed

Feb. 25

8:47 p.m.

Agency assist

Johnson Hall

Disciplinary referral

Feb. 26

3:09 p.m.

Possesion of drug items

Visitor lot

Closed

Not every student should attend a college or university, according to a Harvard Graduate School of Education report issued in January.

The “Pathways to Prosperity” report calls for more vocational training in high school.

In other words, less “To Kill a Mockingbird” and more job skills.

But the report’s biggest claim is that colleges like Harvard might not be right for everyone.

“Pretending that everyone is headed for a college degree is just not fair to those for whom college is not a good

The United States already has some support for fulltime vocational schools, which are available in all 50 states.

Vocational schools teach people how to work in a niche. Instead of majoring in engineering, for example, here they could specialize in becoming an electrician or car mechanic.

The U.S. government only funds these schools indirectly. The trade schools accept federal money for education, such as Stafford loans and Pell grants.

The report also looked to several European countries for answers.

In Germany, for example,

Less than 60 percent of students working towards bachelor’s degrees get their diploma within six years, the report said. fit,” Ronald Ferguson, the project’s co-chair, said in the report. “They need other options.”

Fewer than 60 percent of students working towards bachelor’s degrees get their diploma within six years, the report said. This is the highest rate of college drop-outs in the industrialized world.

College was less of a necessity in the 1970s, when 70 percent of jobs didn’t require a degree. This number has shrunk to 41 percent. Only one-third of Americans have a degree by the time they are 25.

Fifty-nine percent of teachers support the idea of providing an alternative to college. One St. Edward’s University professor believes this with a passion.

“Putting everyone on the track to get into college,” St. Edward’s education professor Kris Sloan said, has led to “a watered-down curriculum.”

over half of students sign up for an education that’s partinternship, part-coursework.

Most of their work consists of instruction and practice work in the workplace, and the other day or two in class is spent learning about the career itself. Companies even fund this system of education as much as the government.

The Swiss education system allows students and their families to start studying a career path in 10th grade.

This doesn’t replace all higher learning, but it does give students a chance to learn what their field of work would be like.

Even if the U.S. didn’t mimic Europe, colleges and universities could still teach more job skills in class, the report said.

Page 4 | NEWS

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 | Hilltop Views

Martin seeks to reach goals of university’s 2015 Strategic Plan are awaiting approval from the host countries to which they applied.

Global Expansion

Martin also reiterated plans to “expose our students to other parts of the world” and prepare students to be part of an international community.

St. Edward’s recently added a reciprocal exchange program in Japan. Martin said the university is in talks to create similar relationships with universities in Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Dominican Republic, England, Ghana, Indonesia and Spain.

Other facts from Martin

Courtesy of Marketing

Martin outlined the four tenets of the 2015 Strategic Plan in his spring president’s meeting on Feb. 23.

Continued from page 1

its support of gay marriage, which goes against Catholic teachings.

Resource Development

St. Edward’s is still raising funds for phase two of the John Brooks Williams Natural Sciences Center, which will be built adjacent to the existing phase one building and is tentatively slated to open in the fall of 2012. Thus far, the university has raised $16.9 million.

The university is also nearly

one-third of the way to a $3 million renovation of Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel. The original plan had been to build a new chapel for a price tag of about $8 to $10 million.

“It became clear for a number of years as we attempted to do fundraising for a fully new chapel that it wasn’t going to happen,” said Tony Weber, a director in the Advancement office who is overseeing fundraising efforts for the chapel. Those reasons, Weber added, included donor disinterest in a new cha-

pel and an assessment that said a renovation could increase attendance capacity.

Martin said that there will also be renovations to the outside areas surrounding the chapel, including a walkway and meditation spaces.

Academics

Martin touted the accomplishments of faculty in improving the university’s academic prestige, but cautioned against complacency. “(The academics) are really good, but they have to get better,” Martin said. “And we

always have to get better to fulfill our mission.”

One way that academics can imrpove is to look into reorganizing some academic schools. For example, Martin said, Fr. Lou Brusatti, the dean of the School of Humanities, has to evaluate 60-plus faculty members.

That number, Martin said, is excessive, and will need to be changed in the future.

Martin also honored individual students’ academic achievements during the year.

Currently, the university has six Fulbright finalists who

•Retirement benefits at St. Edward’s have been improved. The employee contributes 5 percent to the account while St. Edward’s matches with 7 percent. In addition, retired employees need only wait a year to receive the benefits.

•St. Edward’s is concerned that the Texas Equalization Grant will be cut by the state legislature. Texas is facing between a $15 and $27 billion budget shortfall.

Martin encouraged the university community to write legislators in support of the TEG Grant.

•Martin announced the 2011 Unsung Hero Award recipients: Melodee Lujano, administrative coordinator for the Center for Teaching Excellence; Jose Gonzalez Vera, technical support administrator for the Office of Admissions; Edwin Reggio, administrative program coordinator for Auxiliary Services; and Kate Rosati, the administrative coordinator for Humanities and the Center for Ethics and Leadership.

•St. Edward’s is above the national average in 11 of 12 areas in a student satisfaction inventory survey.

•The Business Office will be going paperless by the summer.

•Freshman applications were up 4 percent in the fall, and the percentage of the applicants who are minorities has also increased significantly.

•The number of out-of-state applicants to the university has increased 50 percent.

•St. Edward’s six-year graduation rate is now 68.3 percent, which is four points above the national average.

Information on new website upset some faculty members Continued from page 1

specific content on Facebook or other social networking sites will be available on every page of the site, Booth said.

The future St. Edward’s site will also contain “Think” pages.

“These pages are for faculty to customize for their students,” said Marcie Lasseigne, a public relations associate in the Marketing Office. “They can edit content and provide news that is pertinent to their specific departments.”

The “Think” pages will contain much more extensive in-

formation on specific schools, departments and courses as opposed to the external site that will have more of a general overview.

Other microsites that exist now will be dissolved into sections on the new site, such as the section for prospective students, which is currently hosted at http://www.gotostedwards.com/. This page will soon be on the St. Edward’s home page and will include more extensive multimedia, video and photos.

In conjunction with the St. Edward’s 2015 Strategic Plan, Booth said that a tab on

the home page called “Faith and Service” will lead to a section displaying information on the Congregation of the Holy Cross and Campus ministry.

But the changes haven’t pleased everyone. Behind the scenes, faculty has expressed concerns about the content on the external site, which, at first, was written primarily by the Marketing Office with some direction from Elliance, a Pittsburgh-based Web consulting firm hired to help build the website. Philosophy professor Green Musselman said that the philosophy de-

partment is misrepresented in the information provided on the external site.

“The way the pages do reflect on the practice of philosophy at St. Edward’s will do more harm than good and, as a result, have the unintended effect of damaging our reputation in the eyes of potential students,” Green Musselman said.

Mary Rist, president of the Faculty Senate and a professor in the Humanities department, also said she worried that prospective students would consider the website content as a reflection of in-

structors’ own thoughts.

Some faculty were also worried that some academic minors were not listed on the external site, which could confuse prospective students.

However, Booth said the minors will be listed on the recruiting pages.

The issues were brought to the attention of the Market-

ing Department by both the Faculty Senate and deans in November 2010. Booth said that the deans are now assembling more in-depth and accurate information for Marketing and IT to incorporate into the site. IT will also transfer some of the existing internal content to the new site, Booth said.

Correction In the Feb. 23 edition of Hilltop Views, the photo in the page 6 story “Seniors share a wide variety of creative projects at exhibition” is incorrectly attributed. It should be credited to Nicole Ryder.

Hilltop Views | Wednesday, March 2, 2011

GAMES | Page 5

games

Look for the answers to both games in next week’s issue!

Answer to last issue’s Sudoku:

Page 6 | Hilltop Views Wednesday, March 2, 2011

OkCupid points its arrow at students Holly Aker Caroline Wallace haker@stedwards.edu cwallace2@stedwards.edu

Our generation shops online, socializes online, and generally wastes a lot of time online. But until recently, we did not really date online, at

Austin Community College student Cameron Heikkila, who has a profile on OkCupid, was initially skeptical about the idea of online dating.

“I thought it was kind of weird, like it was only used by creeps to attract young women/men,” Heikkila said.

www.okcupid.com

OkCupid makes dating as easy as clicking a mouse.

least not through traditional dating sites.

Memberships to sites like Match.com and eHarmony were thought to be reserved for the divorcees from our parents’ generation, and most college students’ online dating efforts consisted of Facebook-stalking attractive people they saw around campus.

Like many college students, junior Fred Tan is not comfortable with starting a relationship over the Internet.

“I think it’s shallow,” Tan said. “Personally, I can’t ever know somebody online.”

But OkCupid, a free dating site launched in 2004, has started to change this view.

With an easy search system that led the site to be billed as the “Google of online dating,” and member-created quizzes, OkCupid’s success has been so intimidating to paid competitors that it was acquired

by InterActiveCorp in February, an umbrella corporation that runs Match.com.

But eventually, OkCupid got his attention for one key reason.

“The main difference, [between OkCupid and other online dating sites] I think, is the fact that it’s free,” he said. “I’ve never tried Internet dating before now. I thought it would be fun. And also, I don’t usually have a lot of time to meet girls.”

After creating a profile and interacting on the site, Heikkila discovered the site is not creepy, as he had originally thought.

“Now the [negative] stigma is more or less gone,” he said. “I’ve met a few really nice girls who I’ve stayed in contact with. Nothing really happened, but we’re still friends.”

Although Heikkila still has his profile, he acknowledges that the site is not perfect, and some experiences have made him contemplate getting rid of his profile.

“I thought about deleting

it because while I’ve met a few nice girls, a vast majority [of them] seem stuck-up and shallow,” he said. “It’s like high school again. It started to seem like it was just a faster, easier way to get rejected.”

OkCupid’s success with the younger demographic is something that is not lost on its users.

“For some reason it has attracted sort of the nerds and hipsters, more so than eHarmony or Match,” Heikkila said.

While the dating service is attracting more college students, some still prefer classic dating routes.

“I think it’s stupid,” junior Justin Welsh said. “I think if people want to meet other people they need to get out there and do it. [Online dating] is the lazy way of making a relationship.”

But OkCupid is doing more and more to create a customtailored experience for users.

OkCupid’s patent-pending matching system is based on different surveys that users can take. When users take a survey, they not only answer the questions, they also specify how they would want their match to answer and how important the question is to them.

OkCupid applies a point system to each user’s answers, and with the help of their own mathematical equation, determines how compatible two users’ answers are. While there is some margin for error, the more surveys users truthfully fill out, the higher chance they will have of being paired compatibly.

The surveys available to users range from classic personality tests to more outlandish surveys like the “Would You Have Been a Nazi” test and the “What Color Would Your Lightsaber Be?” test.

Users may not find their true love, but they may still meet interesting, fun people.

FEATURES ‘Tique of the Week

[Tops: The Magazine of Magic ]

Wendy Cawthon Matthew Frazier wcawtho@stedwards.edu mfrazie2@stedwards.edu

‘Tique of the Week is an Austin-wide search for unique and interesting antiques. With dozens of antique shops around Austin, one-of-a-kind items from the past are not in short supply.

Each week we’ll find a new favorite item and feature it as our “’Tique of the Week.”

The search for this week’s ‘Tique took us to Uncommon Objects on South Congress, the same location where we found our very first ‘Tique of the Week back in September of 2010. The store proved to be a lucky one, because we found a magical new (to us, anyway) ‘tique straight out of the 1930s-50s.

Tops magazine was created in January of 1936 as “An Independent Magazine of Magic.” The monthly publication offered tips

Wendy Cawthon

The original magazine ran from 1936 to 1957.

on tricks, gags and illusions as well as articles on news in the magic industry and magician history.

Subscribers only paid a dollar a year to have Tops sent to their mailboxes, until the mid-1950s, when the magazine was discontinued following a drastic drop in sales. The last issue of the original version of Tops magazine was pub-

Wendy Cawthon

The magazine offered tips for gags and illusions.

lished in March of 1957.

Four short years later, the magazine was revived when editor and magician Neil Foster started “The New Tops” in 1961. The magazine continues today as an online publication with reviews from magic shows and profiles of local and national magicians.

Perhaps the best part of the magazine can be found in some of the original issues of Tops from the 1940s. In the back pages of each issue, there are several ads for magic supplies. Had you been a subscriber to Tops in the ‘40s, you could have been the proud owner of X-Ray Eyes or a rubber chicken. If that didn’t suit your fancy, you could have ordered instructions on “How to Saw a Man or Woman in Half,” all for about a dollar per order.

Uncommon Objects carries a collection of Tops ranging from as early October 1944 to the early 50s, which was after Houdini but before Siegfried and Roy. But the art of illusion still remains a staple of the entertainment industry, making Tops a pretty magical ‘Tique of the Week.

Hilltop Views | Wednesday, March 2, 2011

FEATURES | Page 7

“Texas Professor of the Year” had confidence on his side Sara E. Sanchez ssanchei@stedwards.edu

When one imagines that the office of someone who has won the Texas Professor of the Year might look like, shelves lined with preserved eyeballs, skulls, and other interesting artifacts might not top the list of probable décor.

However, that’s just what adorns the walls of Behavioral and Social Sciences Professor Alan Swinkels, recipient of the 2010 award from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching/ Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Swinkels said the stuff in his office is a collection of knickknacks and other unusual things he received over the years from students and various people. Absent from this collection is the award itself – unless you ask to see it.

The award, which has been issued for 30 years, honors four professors from univer-

...he integrates jokes that make classes more interesting, especially in the mornings.”

-sophomore psychology major Jasmine McNeely sities across the nation, as well as one professor from a research institution, bachelor’s institution, master’s institution, and a community college. There are also state winners, like Swinkels, but not every state has professors who apply.

Swinkels had confidence on his side when he applied for the award.

“It’s [intimidating] to see all the other professors who apply; but I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t think I could get it,” Swinkels said.

However, the award has not affected the number of students in his classes.

“Everyone was already signed up for classes by the

time I got the award, so there was no real difference in enrollment,” said Swinkels. He added that on the first day of the semester, one student asked him if he had gotten “some big award.”

Swinkels’ second grade teacher sent him a congratulatory greeting after he received the award.

When he was a student, Swinkels had a professor he looked up to.

During his undergraduate education at the University of San Francisco, Swinkels worked with a professor on research projects. A few months ago, he found out she passed away.

“I wish I would have told

JOIN

her how much that project meant to me and how much it impacted what I do now,” says Swinkels.

Swinkels also has students who look up to him here at St. Edward’s University, where he has taught since 1994.

“He’s really nice, and he integrates jokes that make classes more interesting, especially in the mornings,” sophomore psychology major Jasmine McNeely said. “I didn’t even know he had the award until the first day of class.”

Swinkels has taught a variety of courses, including statistics, research methods, and industrial and organizational psychology.

As for his hopes for the future of his students, Swinkels said he would like them to be “smarter at the end of the semester than they were at the beginning, be better consumers of education, and to be better critical thinkers.”

Sara E. Sanchez

Alan Swinkels, a professor in the department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, helps a student.

Get paid to write and take photographs!

Hilltop Views

Come to the weekly meetings Wednesdays in Trustee 104 at 4:50 p.m.

Page 8 | Hilltop Views Wednesday, March 2, 2011

SXSW EVENTS

ENTERTAINMENT

Free parties make it possible to do SXSW on the cheap Ryan Lester rlester@stedwards.edu

For those who aren’t lucky enough to have the badge or the wristband for SXSW, there are still plenty of opportunities to see great bands throughout the festival.

During the last few years, free day shows put on by different organizations and media outlets have become just as much a part of the festival as the evening showcases that only badge holders and wristband wearers can attend. This year, there are several day shows with amazing lineups slated to hit Austin throughout the week. Here are some of the best that have been announced so far: eMusic Day Party

March 16th | The Beauty Bar at noon The indie friendly download store eMusic will highlight its day party with a solid lineup featuring one of the biggest names in the genre over the last couple

Caroline Wallace

The French Legation Museum’s day party was popular at last year’s festival.

of years. In anticipation of its new album, Belong, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart will headline the party with its catchy brand of noise-infused twee-pop.

Joining the band will be Obits, comprised of former members of Hot Snakes,

Drive Like Jehu and Edsel, as well as the garage inspired raucous of Ty Segall, and JEFF The Brotherhood.

This day show is shaping up to be one that will give festivalgoers a loud start to their SXSW experience,

so be sure to bring earplugs and an open mind.

Pitchfork #Offline

March 17-18 | Each Side Drive-In at noon While the ubiquity of their influence is often a point of contention, the

people at Pitchfork know how to get great bands to play their day parties.

Thursday’s lineup includes the fresh faced power-poppers of Chicago’s Smith Westers and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. fame, as well as the hippie-era vibes of San Fransisco’s The Fresh and Onlys. Friday is the day to be at the East Side DriveIn, as the chillwaver-thatcould, Toro y Moi, headline that day.

Friday’s lineup also includes the always astounding Owen Pallett, the group of UK upstarts Yuck, the exuberant beats of Baths, and the pop-genius of Diamond Rings. Friday’s show will also be webcast live, so attendees can have video evidence years later when they say, “I was there!”

Windish Agency’s Austin Day Party

March 18 | Emo’s at noon Competing with Pitchfork will be the ultra-impressive lineup that public relations firm The Windish Agency has assembled for its day

party. In addition to proven successes Toro y Moi and the UK’s Friendly Fires, the lineup features several bands that have already received the attention of major labels, including Foster the People (who have already been compared to MGMT) and Cults, a group recently signed with Columbia Records.

However, the two biggest reasons to add this party to your list are performances

by Braids and Twin Shadow.

The beautiful soundscapes of Braids are exclaimed by the heavenly voice of lead singer Raphaelle StandellPreston, whose voice is one of the main reasons their debut, Native Speaker, is one of the boldest statements by a new band in 2011. Meanwhile, George Lewis Jr. of Twin Shadow managed to single-handedly improve on the ‘80s template with last year’s Forget, and his live full band setup should have no trouble bringing that experience to life.

Interactive panels showcase new technology, social media Fremen Deruvo aderuvo@stedwards.edu

Going to SXSW Interactive? If you can get your hands on an Interactive, Gold or Platinum Badge, the five-day sister conference to SXSW Music and SXSW Film runs March 11-15. SXSW Interactive features the latest in Web technologies, innovative business models, and social media. So, what should be on your must do list?

How To Not Be A Douchebag at SXSW

Friday March 11 | ACC Room 10AB at 2pm Ed Hunsinger

A humorous conversation shares how to live up to designed to helped you get your potential and achieve the most out of SXSW. the “triple double:” 2x ProfLearn what’s cool, where the it; 2x Productivity; 2x Fun. best parties are, and how to Perfect for: The “Keep Aushave fun while meeting in- tin Weird” entrepreneur credible people.

Perfect For: The douchebag Diggnation Live! Special Guests Brian Brushfriend/The intrepid newbie

The Personal MBA: Mastering Productivity, Happiness, and Wealth

Friday March 11 | ACC Ballroom G at 4pm Josh Kaufman There’s what you learned (or didn’t learn) in business school, and then there is the actual, complicated and delicate act of running your own business. Kaufman

wood, Bad Veins & DJ Mike Relm

Saturday March 12 | Stubb’s BBQ from 8pm – 1am Internet rock stars Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht host the weekly show Diggnation, where they comment on the latest and craziest stories on the social news site Digg.com. The best part? They do it while

drinking beers and the occasional tea. This will be the third year they do a SXSW show and their live shows are legendary. No Badge needed, so get there early.

Also follow @SXSWBadgeless, @SXSWPartyPatrol, and @SXSWPartyList on Twitter for the latest party updates.

Perfect for: The technophilic socialite Moot Keynote

Sunday March 13 | ACC Ballroom D at 2pm You may not have heard of 4chan, but you have certainly heard of the memes that start there – from the Rickroll to LOLCatz,

to Anonymous. Founder Christopher “moot” Poole will talking about founding 4chan.org and his newest project Canvas, an image sharing destination.

Perfect for: The eternal geek

Interactive Awards

Tuesday, March 15 | 6th floor of Hilton Austin Downtown at 6pm With 18 categories, including anything from activism to business to student-made, the Interactive Awards showcase the best new developments in Creative Industries in the last year. The preshow party starts at six and doors close

at 7 p.m. Finalists include Conan O’Brien Presents Team Coco: Most Awesmest Thing Ever, and The Johnny Cash Project.

Perfect for: The digital polymath Job Board

There are hundreds of companies at SXSW and many of them are looking to add to their teams. Stop

by Stands 105 and 106 of the Tradeshow in the Austin Convention Center for more information and job postings.

Perfect For: The qualified applicants

Hilltop Views | Wednesday, March 2, 2011

ENTERTAINMENT | Page 9

Festival draws music lovers to West Campus co-op shows Anna Whitney awhitne@stedwards.edu

The talents of local bands, including some St. Edward’s University students, were showcased at a pre-South by Southwest event that drew a large crowd with diverse musical tastes.

Bands played at House of Guys Co-Op, 21st Street Co-Op, and Eden House in West Campus on Feb. 26 and Seneca Falls Co-Op on Feb. 27 at an event called West by West Campus.

This was the second year the family of co-ops had hosted a pre-South by Southwest event, according to Tessa Hunt, one of the founders of WXWC. “There’s nowhere for (local bands) to play. And it’s February—there’s nothing to do.

I felt that this needed to happen,” Hunt said.

Some bands included members who attend St. Edward’s, including bands such as The Eastern Sea and Lost Catz.

Lost Catz is comprised of sophomore Jess Buie on guitar and vocals, sophomore Jonathan Cantu on drums, and St. Edward’s graduate Manny Codina on vocals and keyboard.

Buie said Lost Catz found out about WXWC after attending last year. They e-mailed Hunt with some demos and were approved to play at the event.

Other bands came from cities surrounding Austin, including San Antonio-based band Kites. Frontman Jesus Pizaña, a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said his band was asked

to play through Austin-based band Sorry About the Mess (formerly known as Whale Watch) because the organizers of WXWC needed a band with strings.

A goal of WXWC was to provide a diversity in genres, which can be heard while walking in between the coops on the street.

“It’s really, really incredible to witness all of these musical acts that are entirely different. You walk across the street and see something that’s not even in the same realm of music,” Jacob Weber, a member of the Austin community, said.

Diana Naya, a resident of 21st Street Co-Op, said each co-op featured a particular style of music.

“Eden House has the indie rock, House of Guys is more

Anna Whitney

A member of the crowd got on stage to freestyle during Karmatron’s set at the 21st Street Co-op.

hard rock and 21st Street is funk and party music,” Naya

House played in a small room outside of the co-op’s kitchen, and fans stood in an adjacent living room to see the bands through the doorway. Twenty-First Street CoOp, the largest of the three main co-ops, had the largest dancefloor, with House of Guys having the most energetic atmosphere.

“Playing at WXWC was a great experience,” Buie said.

“They treated the bands very cool — gave us a green room to hang out in and gave us all this free stuff to eat and drink, and a secure place to keep all of our stuff in…we had a great time playing there. The whole festival was put together and run really well.”

said.

Bands playing at Eden

Weekly ‘Flix Fix Zom-Com is dead funny Caroline Jones cjonesh@stedwards.edu

Weekly ‘Flix Fix takes the legwork out of wading through thousands of film choices on Netflix, bringing you the most truly bizarre, quirky and outright amazing gems instant streaming has to offer.

‘Boy Eats Girl’

“Boy Eats Girl” is the classic story of the boy trying to get the girl—only this time, there are zombies and Irish accents.

Directed by Stephen Bradley and released in 2005, the movie follows Nathan, a 17-year-old boy just trying to take his relationship with his friend, Jess, out of the “friend zone.” After she fails to show up to their secret meeting place where he plans to ask her out, he is convinced that she is seeing another guy and goes on a drinking binge.

Wikimedia Commons

“Boy Eats Girl” is an Irish zombie comedy.

Unfortunately, this ends in his accidental death.

However, his mother is able to bring him back to life. While at first he does not realize that he is one of the undead, he finally figures it out after his mother gives him the “your body is going through some changes” speech as he discovers that he craves human flesh and bites off part of the school bully’s face. Thus, the giant army of zombie high

school students is born.

The movie begins with some pretty dark scenes depicting Nathan’s death.

However, the hilarious one-liners between his two best friends and the zombie footage (especially the scene where one guy is bitten to death in a rather compromising position) make the movie a funny high school spoof.

And even though the movie never explains why of the all zombies except the protagonist are mindless or whether snakebites cure soullessness or hunger for human flesh, all is forgiven as soon as the discussions of flying zombies or Diggs’ former feelings for a now armless zombie girl begin.

This movie deserves three out of four hooves for hilarity, accurate depictions of zombies, a Gossip Girl-esque depiction of high school, and, again, Irish accents.

Page 10 | ENTERTAINMENT

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 | Hilltop Views

Hot spots for star-watching at South by Southwest 2011 Baillee Perkins

Adele reaches new emotional depth on sophomore album Adele [21]

bperkin4@stedwards.edu

Austin may be more than 1,000 miles from Hollywood, but that does not stop it from being a premiere destination for celebrity watching, especially for the 10 biggest days of the year.

Friday, March 11 kicks off the 25th year of Austin’s South By Southwest music and film festival.

This event draws in wellknown musical and acting talents, even just off the St. Edward’s University campus.

South Congress Avenue is a hot spot for tourists, even tourists of the celebrity variety.

South Congress is full of local businesses and restaurants that make Austin stand out in comparison to other Texas cities.

The street also leads directly into the heart of downtown, making it a frequent pit stop for anyone travelling through the city, including famous people in town for SXSW. Magnolia Café is one such location. Its location on South Congress and 24-hour service makes it good for celebrity spotting. Actors such as Jack Black and Stewart Townsend have been spotted eating there during previous festivals.

Texas has always been known for cowboy boots and

ALBUM REVIEW

Danny De Los Santos ddeloss4@stedwards.edu

Anyone who is suffering from post-Valentine’s Day heartbreak can find solace in Adele’s sophomore album, “21.”

The London native reached mainstream success with her first album, “19.”

If it’s not already obvious, Adele’s albums are anthologies of her life experiences at certain ages. In 2009, Adele won two Grammy’s for best new artist and best female pop vocal performance. “21” was released in the U.S. on Feb. 22 and debuted at No. 1 simultaneously in nine countries. According to the Official Charts Company, Adele is the only artist to achieve the feat of two top

Wikimedia Commons

Perez Hilton is confirmed to host an interactive panel on the appeal of Lady Gaga at this year’s festival.

cowboy hats. Even though most Texans do not consider this average daily attire, tourists frequently stock up on all their favorite southern accessories when visiting Austin.

Allens Boots, another

2011 Anticipated celebrities •Perez Hilton will be hosting an interactive panel called “What would Gaga do?” on Friday, March 18 at the Austin Convention Center.

•Yoko Ono will be playing the Chimera Music showcase on Saturday, March 19 at the Elysium •Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s latest film, “Hesher” will be screening at the festival.

•Jake Gyllenhaal will be present for the premiere of his latest film “Source Code.”

•Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page are supposed to be on hand for the premiere of their new film “Super.”

South Congress favorite, is a great spot to find celebrities expanding their wardrobes.

Downtown Austin’s mix of high-class hotels and unique establishments also make it a must-explore place when searching for celebrities.

Most of the famous festivalgoers stay at four or five star hotels. The Driskill, Four Seasons and Stephen F. Austin Hotel are three of the main places that celebrities stay during SXSW, especially because these hotels all host various official and unofficial panels, parties and other events.

Whatever time of day, these hotels’ bars will be likely celebrity hang outs.

And, as always, SXSW parties are ideal for running elbows with the rich and famous.

Associated Press

Adele’s new album “21” is in stores now.

five hits in both the Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964.

“21” documents the dynamics of Adele’s most recent romantic relationship. The album is deeply influenced by blues, R&B and country. “Rolling in the Deep” is Adele’s first single off “21” and sets the tone for the entire album. On-

eRepublic front man, Ryan Tedder, produced “Rumour Has It” and co-wrote “Turning Tables.”

What is most appealing about “21” is the great lyrical depth. The emotion in Adele’s voice is most evident on the ballads “Don’t You Remember” and “Someone Like You.” Adele’s interpretation of The Cure’s “Lovesong” is flawless and adds a fresh perspective to the lyrics.

“21” is a great listen for anyone who has been in a serious relationship. The album discusses love, heartbreak and vengeance so it has something in it for everyone. Adele’s performance on this album is superb and will guarantee her a “23,” “28” and beyond.

Hilltop Views | Wednesday, March 2, 2011

ENTERTAINMENT | Page 11

CONCERT REVIEW

Mother Falcon plays CD release show Kadence Hampton

Laura Werthmann

khampto2@stedwards.edu

Austin natives Mother Falcon recently performed at Central Presbyterian Church on 8th Street to celebrate the release of their first fulllength album “Alhambra.”

The album demonstrates a progression from the band’s “Still Life EP,” released just over a year ago at the same location. Though now, the band featured a wider variety of musical ingredients such as the vocals of Beirut’s Zach Condon, Owen Pallett’s viola expertise, and DeVotchKa’s fusion of folk and Eastern European elements.

Central Presbyterian Church provided the perfect acoustics for Mother Falcon to perform a truly awe-inspiring show. A few songs were played from the band’s “Still Life EP” before their informal leader, Nick Gregg, announced that they would perform “Alhambra” in its entirety. Haunting chords and dark vocals filled the main chamber with despair, while

lwerthm@stedwards.edu

Sam Grenadier

Mother Falcon played at Central Presbyterian Church Saturday, Feb. 26.

staccato string pieces layered with thick brass sounds incited nostalgia for anyone who has ever known the beauty of childhood and love, and finally undulating cadences lifted the audience into the church rafters before leaving them suspended in ringing silence.

Just as impressive as the album’s beautiful metaphor for the joys and sorrow of life is the sheer amount of talent

concentrated within Mother Falcon. Through the first third of the band’s set, Gregg exchanged instrument after instrument for each song, and many of the other nearly 20 group members played a sort of musical chairs with their respective instrumets and placements about the pulpit. Band members disappeared into the jungle of bodies and brass only to reemerge somewhere else upon

the stage. This talent was further enriched by the group’s stage presence, free of exhibitionism and full of personality, from a multitude of the members in its verbal song introductions and anecdotes.

The only regret one could have leaving this show is that the church pews made it very difficult to fully and physically engage in the performance.

Simple foot-tapping would simply not suffice.

ENTERTAINMENT COMMENTARY

As Sheen crashes, door is open for Estevez Proctor Anderson panders2@stedwards.edu

In the year 2000, America made a terrible decision.

Michael J. Fox had to leave Spin City, and the show’s creators hired Charlie Sheen to take over as the show’s male lead. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong brother.

Whether we like it or not, famous siblings have always been a struggle for Americans. Whether it’s Owen and Luke Wilson, Joan and John Cusack, or even Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, we very rarely choose a favorite sibling.

Alec Baldwin is the only celebrity that comes to mind who has successfully squashed the fame of a sibling. And he did not settle for just one of them either – Alec had to

Sorin Reel seeking new submissions

fight off his brothers Daniel, Stephen and William.

Before his career took off in the late 1960s, Martin Sheen and his wife had four children.

One of those children grew up and became a famous, overpaid sitcom star, Charlie Sheen, and the other became the less famous, but way more talented, Emilio Estevez.

The two brothers started working in film at a young age and both became famous in the 1980s. Charlie Sheen rose to fame for his roles in dramatic films like “Wall Street” and “Platoon.” Estevez quickly became a teen heartthrob and an unofficial leader of the Brat Pack in films like “The Breakfast Club,” “The Outsiders” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.”

Sheen started to fall off the radar in the 1990s as he took

on a string of forgettable roles in movies like “Money Talks” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.”

Estevez on the other hand, spent the 1990’s winning over the hearts of millions and teaching the world about the difference between Greenland and Iceland while portraying defense attorney-turned-hockey coach Gordon Bombay in “The Mighty Ducks.” After the groundbreaking teen hockey trilogy debuted in 1992, Estevez began moving behind the camera including directing the 2006 drama “Bobby.”

Charlie Sheen wound up revitalizing his career with two seasons on “Spin City” and then started his run of “Two and a Half Men.” Somehow America fell

Associated Press

Emilio Estevez used to have it all. He can again.

in love with the unfunny comedy and decided that $1.8 million an episode was a perfectly reasonable amount of money.

Now, 36 hours and a briefcase full of cocaine later, America finally hates Charlie Sheen. Now would be a perfect time for the magical Emilio Estevez comeback we’ve all been waiting for.

On any typical Friday night hanging out with your friends, you might think, “wow, someone should make movie of our lives.”

Now imagine premiering your film on a huge screen in front of a live audience that is fidgeting in their seats, waiting for the push of the play button. All of this is possible if you just submit a film to the Sorin Reel Film Festival.

Every semester the amateur film festival showcases work from students at St. Edward’s University.

Director of the Festival and President of Sorin Reel Film Society Jon Wayne Martin, a senior, said the festival is a “good place to start and get creative” because it “gives filmmakers a chance to show their films on a big screen in front of an audience.” That, according to Martin, can make a huge difference on the film’s reception.

The Sorin Reel Film Festival started in 2008 and has been gaining a lot of attention and recognition ever since.

The other festival director, alumnus Marc Sherman, said most of the winners have gone on to do bigger and better things in the film industry.

The festival also allows for creativity. Films of all genres are accepted.

“The fun part about these events is that everyone who makes a movie has a different style and approach,” Sherman said. “Every festival has had a great variety of genres.”

This semester the Sorin Reel Film Festival will be held on Friday, March 25 at 7p.m. in Jones Auditorium, and everyone is welcome.

Austin has a growing film community and has had many big name films pass through.

Sherman said that Sorin Reel will borrow judges

Courtesy of Jon Wayne Martin

This year’s festival will be held March 25.

from the Austin Film Festival for the big event.

Because many of the previous winners have graduated, Sherman said the playing field will be leveled for new competitiors.

“There are a lot of kids with fresh ideas on this campus who can bring something really great to the table, and I look forward to seeing what the new kids can do,” he said.

Martin said prizes in the past have been gift cards to the Alamo Drafthouse and passes to the Austin Film Festival.

The film festival will serve popcorn, cupcakes and other movie snacks for starving artists or just anyone who is starving.

The event is put on by the Sorin Reel Film Society that meets every last Monday of the month at 5:30 in Ragsdale 301.

The society promotes the school’s film community by watching and discussing movies in an academic manner. In this case they’re serious about what they do.

Submissions are due Monday, March 21. The submissions must be under 15 minutes in DVD format with a menu.

Interested students can contact sreel@stedwards. edu for more information.

SPORTS

Page 12 | Hilltop Views Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Hilltoppers spring sports teams battling WOMEN’S TENNIS

BASEBALL

Junior Audrey Tompkins.

Senior Landon Patterson pitches during a recent home game.

Kelli O’Donnell kodonne3@stedwards.edu

The St. Edward’s University baseball team lost 6-2 to the 23rd ranked Abilene

Christian University at home on Feb. 24. However, the team followed that loss with a doubleheader sweep over Heartland Conference rival UT-Permian Basin on Fri-

day, winning the first game 9-0 and the second game 15-1. The next day, the team dropped the final game of the weekend series again UTPermian Basin, 11-5. The

Emily Blasdell

Hilltoppers will next take on Tarleton State at home at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

On Friday, the St. Edward’s University women’s tennis team (0-6) lost 6-3 to Florida Tech. The Hilltoppers dropped a 4-5 decision to Florida Southern the following day, and lost to Rollins College 9-0 on

Sunday.

The Hilltoppers return to conference play on Mar. 3 when they take on Dallas Baptist in Dallas at 2 p.m.

MEN’S TENNIS

SOFTBALL

Junior Ned Boone.

The St. Edward’s University softball team currently stands at 9-6.

On Saturday, the St. Edward’s University softball team dropped two games against the the number two

Sports Information

team in the nation, Angelo State, 5-4 and 2-1. Following the doubleheader on Saturday, the Hilltoppers spilt a

doubleheader with Abilene Christian Sunday afternoon, winning the first game 7-1 and losing the second game

Cory Hahn

in the last inning 6-3. The team’s next home game will be March 12 versus University of Texas Permian Basin.

The St. Edward’s University men’s tennis team came up with a win against Laredo Community College 5-4 on Saturday. However, following their win, the men lost against Division

Sports Information

I Lamar 6-3 after an 8-3 doubles competition victory from senior Mick Walter and junior Ned Boone. The Hilltoppers will take on Dallas Baptist on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Dallas.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 | Hilltop Views

SPORTS | Page 13

SPORTS COMMENTARY

ATHLETE PROFILE

Despite loss, fans prove that spirit triumphs Emily Blasdell eblasde@stedwards.edu

After a week of school spirit and friendly competition among student organizations, the St. Edward’s University Homecoming weekend had some pretty special moments. Classes of alumni reunited and honored, parents visited their children and student groups put forth one last effort to claim the Topper Cup at the Homecoming Tailgate.

But the most special moment of the weekend came Saturday. No, it was not the announcement of Mr. and Mrs. SEU, the iPad raffle or the tailgate barbeque – but you do have to love free food.

Nor was it the $500 Pluckers gift card won by a student in a game of knock-out.

It was not even the shocking result of the basketball game when the Hilltoppers lost to UT-Permian Basin after a buzzer-beating in double overtime, although that played an important part.

The best moment came when former, current, and future Hilltoppers united to support their basketball team.

Alumni, faculty, staff, students and families packed into the Recreation and Convocation Center for the game. The fans came hoping that their Hilltoppers could overcome the struggles of a losing season to defeat University of Texas Permian

Tennis Player Pedro Bronstrup Emily Blasdell eblasde@stedwards.edu

Freshman Pedro Bronstrup is an international student and tennis player from Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Emily Blasdell: How did

Emily Blasdell

Hilltopper fans cheer on St. Edward’s at the men’s basketball homecoming game Saturday.

Basin.

The Hilltoppers maintained a lead throughout the game until UTPB tied the score with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. After two more shots from both teams, the second half ended in a 68-68 tie. During overtime, both teams battled back-andforth, and after five minutes, the two squads were again fit to be tied. During the second overtime, the Hilltoppers remained in the lead until a three-pointer put the Falcons up 91-90 with 55 seconds left.

With 23 seconds left in

the second overtime, UTPB was still up by one point, but St. Edward’s had the ball.

After stalling a bit, senior Jeff Miner went for a shot with 5 seconds left. The shot missed but was rebounded by junior Remy Boswell, who immediately jumped back up and made the shot while getting fouled. Boswell then made his free throw, giving the Hilltoppers a two-point lead and seemingly providing fans with some assurance that the game belonged to the Hilltoppers. After all, how could UTPB come back with only two seconds left

on the clock? Fans got ready to rush the floor to celebrate the imminent victory.

Then, the impossible happened – the heartbreak that every sports fan fears deep down. The Falcons threw the ball into play and right before the buzzer rang, UTPB’s Elijah Jordan chucked the ball at the goal from the half court. Fans watched helplessly as the ball sailed into the basket. The game was over. UTPB had won.

Hilltopper fans froze.

Jaws dropped. The Falcons stole the Hilltoppers’ moment, rushing the floor and dogpiling right in front of them.

But the St. Edward’s fans didn’t leave in disgust. They stayed. A few seconds later, Hilltopper fans continued to cheer for the home team that had just played one of its best games of the season, even though it was a losing effort.

The fans stood with their team, letting them know that they continue to stand up with them even when they are knocked down.

At that moment, the fans showed that win or lose, they are all still Hilltoppers, and they always will be.

you end up in Texas at St. Edward’s University?

Pedro Bronstrup: There is a big company in Brazil that finds athletes that are doing pretty good in tournaments and puts them in contact with universities they believe they will do well at.

EB: What was it like coming to Texas for the first time?

PB: I thought it was going to be more different. I thought I would see more cowboys and horses.

EB: What are you studying?

PB: International Business EB: What do you want to be when you grow up?

PB: I’ve been thinking about going back to Brazil to work in a big international company, but I don’t know exactly what I want to do.

EB:What is your all time favorite drink?

PB: Watermelon juice fresh from a watermelon.

EB:What is your favorite restaurant?

PB: Fogo de Chao. You guys have it here. It is from my city. It’s a Brazilian barbeque and steakhouse.

EB: If you had to live in only hot or cold weather, which would you choose?

PB: Hot weather.

EB: What is your favorite spot in Austin?

PB: Mount Bonnell. It has a beautiful sunset view, and I had a good experience being there with all my friends last semester.

EB: If you could play any sport besides tennis, what would it be?

PB: Maybe soccer just because it’s really famous in my country. People really

Sports Information

Pedro Bronstrup

care about it.

EB: What is your favorite movie?

PB: Into the Wild. It’s a really smart movie.

EB: Do you have a favorite quote from it?

PB: “Happiness is only real when it’s shared.”

EB: What is your best tennis moment?

PB: In the spring of 2010 I won two national tournaments in a row in Brazil.

EB: What kind of music do you listen to?

PB: Reggae. My favorite band is Slightly Stoopid.

EB: What do you do to destress or relax?

PB: It depends. If I’m stressed because of tennis, I am not going to play tennis. I really like to talk to my friends. If it’s about school though, I like to play tennis.

EB:What’s something most people don’t know about you?

PB: I’m an open book.

There is nothing people don’t know about me.

EB: What do you like to do when you are not in school?

PB: I spend a lot of time with my friends back home. I have a beach house in Brazil so I spend most of the weekends there.

VIEWPOINTS

Page 14 | Hilltop Views Wednesday, March 2, 2011

OUR VIEW

Traffic fine bill a step in the right direction Last week State Rep. Naomi Gonzalez introduced a bill that would raise the Texas state traffic fine from $30 to $45.

If passed, the increase could generate around $85 million in state revenue over the course of the next two years.

A portion of the $85 million would help fund state hospital trauma centers.

At time when the state is trying to save money by cutting back on important programs education, health and human services and Medicaid, it’s refreshing to see an idea that generate new revenue, even if it will only make a small dent in the state’s massive cuts.

If passed, the bill would also increase fines for offenses such as reckless driving,

failure to pay toll fees, and driving without a license. The bill additionally increases fines for less common crimes such as attempted murder, bringing glass onto specifically designated state-owned rivers bed and illegal transport or sale of certain desert plants.

While we might all be more familiar with the state’s traffic laws than we are its laws about botanical transportation, one thing remains the same about all these fines: they are punishing people for committing an act that the state has deemed illegal.

Texas, and Austin more specifically, is often cited as having some of the worst drivers in the United States.

While traffic deaths dropped nation wide in 2008, Texas’s

numbers remained constant.

On top of that, the Texas Transportation Institute recently ranked Austin as being the city with third-worst traffic in the country.

Some of these problems stem from road issues and the city’s increasing size without an infrastructure that can accommodate the growth, but an overall increase in safe driver could positively affect these numbers.

A $15 increase in traffic fines alone will not stop people from speeding or rolling stop signs, but it could help raise driver’s awareness of the law. If that $15 then goes to help save a state funded education program or provide medical assistance to the state’s trauma centers, then the state will take a step for-

Wikimedia Commons

Interstate 35 in Austin is known for heavy traffic.

ward while deterring those who drive recklessly.

Of course, state legislators have tried to squeeze unsafe drivers for more money before and failed, critics might charge. The state’s Driver Responsibility Program, which

assigns points and fines to drivers for traffic violations and car accidents, has been a disaster. In fact, 60 percent of the drivers who racked up fines couldn’t pay them, leaving the state $1.1 billion short of money that it is

owed. However, the program has recently been reformed to hopefully avoid these problems. A few small increases in traffic fines shouldn’t have those Herculian issues.

Unfortunately, the Texas Legislature is going to have to do some serious cutting in order to balance the budget. However, just cutting back is not the best strategy.

Small fine increases such as those in Gonzalez’s bill have a minimal effect on the dayto-day lives of Texans, but are useful.

The bill is a small step in the right direction in a state where driver safety and the state’s fiscal planners have both been heading the wrong way down a one-way street for far too long.

AmeriCorps worth the cost, even in midst of national deficit Rina Gandhi rgandhi@stedwards.edu

In the United States, we have this idea that hard work, persistence and determination will grant us the American Dream. But there is a bigger difference between those who have and those who have not than cannot be accounted for by work ethic.

Those who have are better educated and have higher paying jobs, lower rates of unemployment and generally better health. Those who have not are stuck with bad schools, inadequate health care, poor housing and a general sense of hopelessness.

Certainly there are wealthy people who have not worked for what they have and there are those in poverty who are not working toward moving out of it. But many struggling to make it are hardworking people stuck in the cycle of poverty.

In poorer regions, like the Mississippi Delta, schools are understaffed and have in-

...is it more important to increase our already excessive defense budget at the expense of programs like AmeriCorps? credibly high dropout rates.

There is a high rate of teenage pregnancy and few people are able to move away. Organizations like AmeriCorps work with these people to help them improve their own lives.

AmeriCorps is made up of full-time volunteers who are paid the basic amount they need to live. While this organization focuses on helping impoverished communities, it also gives volunteers some money to put toward college. It prepares and trains them—typically fresh graduates from both high school and college—to lead, organize and help.

AmeriCorps is a large, na-

tion-wide organization created in 1994 to essentially act as an army of volunteers working on critical social issues like poverty, education, public safety and the environment. AmeriCorps contains within it thousands of other organizations such as Teach for America and Public Allies. It also supports and provide manpower for many groups including the American Red Cross and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The services provided by AmeriCorps members are numerous and include teaching and tutoring at-risk children, assisting in emergency situations like Hurricane Katrina, working at home-

less shelters, fundraising for organizations and working for extended periods of time in communities to address their specific needs.

Considering how varied the work is and how much AmeriCorps does for this country, it is shocking that last week Republicans in the House were able to pass a bill to stop funding for it. The justification is that we need to slim our budget down.

However, is it more important to increase our already excessive defense budget at the expense of organizations like AmeriCorps? No. Cutting AmeriCorps means losing jobs. More than that, it means this group of people who willingly volunteer to work in low-income areas and take on social problems will no longer be working toward solutions. The people they should have helped will remain unassisted, and the communities they were supposed to bring back from the gutters will stay where they are.

It’s a matter of worth. Yes, Americorps requires spending federal money that we do not really have. But the wide range of people and issues that AmeriCorps addresses, while requiring relatively little funding, makes it worthwhile. Americans volunteer an impressive amount of time, but only 10 percent of these recorded hours are spent on those in need and less than 4 percent are spent on at-risk children.

It is unreasonable to think that, without AmeriCorps, the void left by it would be filled with other volunteers.

From small projects, like raising money for a battered women’s shelter, to larger projects, like spending two years as a high school teacher in a depressed inner city, these volunteers are qualified people who do the jobs that others will not—all for little pay. They get paid to do valuable work, work that would otherwise cost much more to do or never get done at all.

Federal funding keeps the or-

ganization alive so that it can adapt to new situations and continue to provide quality care.

The government is supposed to be working for the people, and Change.org’s successful petition to save AmeriCorps should be proof enough that the people support this program. Within a week, the petition gathered over 100,000 signatures, and that number continues to grow.

People want and need this organization. Social problems, when ignored, are costly to taxpayers, and AmeriCorps effectively works to tackle these problems. Without AmeriCorps, these issues would not be addressed and would end up costing us more. Furthermore, the organizaton creates strong leaders, gives low-income people the education and assistance they deserve, gives volunteers money to go to college and provides so many more services for our country. AmeriCorps is worth it.

Hilltop Views | Wednesday, March 2, 2011

VIEWPOINTS | Page 15

In a fit of Bieber Fever, “Rolling Stone” asks sick questions Meagan Solis msolis6@stedwards.edu

A controversial Rolling Stone interview featuring singing sensation Justin Bieber recently hit news shelves Bieber, who turned 17 on March 1 but was 16 at the time of the interview, addressed issues like abortion, health care, pre-marital sex and rape during his talk with Rolling Stone.

Bieber is not known for being wise beyond his years, so his responses weren’t especially articulate or enlightening. In the interview, Bieber said of abortion in the case of rape, “Um. Well, I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason…

I guess I haven’t been in that

Associated Press

Justin Bieber answering questions on “The Ellen Degeneres Show.“

position, so I wouldn’t be able to judge that.” The pop star seemed to remain collected during the interview, but it was inappropriate and unusual for Rolling Stone to ask someone so young about

Hilltop Views 3001 S. Congress Ave.#964, Austin, TX 78704 Phone: (512) 448-8426 Fax: (512) 233-1695 seuhilltopviews@yahoo.com www.hilltopviewsonline.com Proctor Anderson Tristan Hallman Editors-in-Chief Arianna Auber Haleigh Svoboda News Editors Wendy Cawthon Jake Hartwell Viewpoints Editors Holly Aker Caroline Wallace Entertainment Editors Amber Burton Rachel Winter Features Editors Emily Blasdell Kelli O’Donnell Sports Editor Shaun Martin Head Designer

Nicole Ryder Advertising Designer Daniel De Los Santos Christina Villarreal Photo Editors Chris Bourke Videographer Stephanie Grogan Kristina Schenck Anna Whitney Copy Editors Giovanni Reyes Business & Advertising Manager Jena Heath Faculty Adviser

Andrew Hatcher Blair Haralson Designers Hilltop Views is a weekly student newspaper published by the School of Humanities and serving the community of St. Edward’s University. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the university, whose mission is grounded in the teachings and doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Letter Policy: Hilltop Views welcomes all letters to the editor. Letters may be edited for space, grammar and clarity.

Letters will be published at our discretion. Anonymous letters will not be printed.

such weighty political matters. The magazine should not have put him in a situation that asked him to offer up his moral ideologies.

Bieber’s audience, consisting of primarily pre-teen girls, has hardly any clue about the issues he discussed and have impressionable minds.

Whether Rolling Stone’s intention was to portray the singer as a mature young adult or to ignite controversy, the magazine should not have asked questions that were entirely unrelated to Bieber’s cultural relevance. As with every teenager, Bieber is still maturing, and his sense of morals and ethics are still developing.

However, the truly disturbing issue here is not Justin

Bieber’s moral compass, but Americans’ overwhelming propensity for turning to celebrities for ethical guidance and associating success and beauty with political sense.

Rolling Stone’s discussion topics were especially controversial because of Bieber’s age, but journalists regularly ask celebrities questions that are irrelevant to their professions.

Bieber’s interview is only one example of celebrities being asked questions that they shouldn’t be expected to discuss, and, unfortunately, much of his audience (especially his more obsessive fans, known as “Beliebers”) will assume his opinions are well developed and ethically sound.

Although his opinions should be treated with respect, Rolling Stone should have recognized that Bieber’s area of expertise is definitely not politics. Yes, celebrities can offer interesting viewpoints on world issues, but their area of expertise is entertainment. Bieber should have been asked questions about music or his personal life.

It’s dangerous when audiences look to their favorite celebrities for information outside of the entertainment sphere. We need to discover our own virtues, not have them suggested to us. Celebrities are extremely influential people, capable of easily persuading members of the American public to adopt

their opinions regarding what’s right and wrong. If the media continues encouraging celebrities to share their ethical views—whether they are sophisticated opinions or not—we will be one step closer to the loss of independent thought.

Credibility is everything, and people should remember that beauty does not equal virtue. Rolling Stone, as well as the rest of the media, needs to stop treating celebrities as if they were politicians or philosophers. Let celebrities remain outside of the political and ethical realm, and let members of the American public turn back to themselves (or at least away from Bieber) for moral authority.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Hilltop Views, Ms. Gandhi makes some good points in her criticism of pending legislation regarding pre-abortion sonograms. I would agree that requiring women to pay for these suggested mandatory sonograms is ridiculous, considering that it is not necessary for any health reasons. However, I would adamantly contend that it is fallacious to say that this bill has anything to do with taking away rights. This legislation does not take away the abortion option. Women will still have the right to

Dear Hilltop Views, Having been a former student at St. Edward’s, I felt complied to respond to this editorial which I feel misses several important points.

The writer argues that a woman’s right to know is being taken away. This is not the case of the bill by any means the overall attempt of the bill is let a woman know more about the life that she is caring

abort their fetus. The bill would simply require those seeking abortions to take an additional step: to look, objectively and concretely, at what is growing inside of them.

I think it is a stretch to try to use a personal rights or pro-choice argument.

This is simply missing the point and arbitrarily throwing around the word “rights,” which I believe does a disservice to real claims of injuries to civil and personal liberties. If a woman seeking an abortion feels guilty after a sonogram or changes her mind because of it, chances are

she was not certain about her decision in the first place. If more information changes her mind, then perhaps the sonogram kept her from making a decision she would regret later.

However, chances are that this legislation, if passed, will have little impact on those whose minds are already made up.

Also, I disagree with Ms. Gandhi’s assertion that this legislation could only be supported by a religious argument. Whether you regard a fetus as a life probably determines how you feel about terminating pregnancy, and this under-

standing of whether it is a life or not is a biological and scientific matter, not a religious one. Chances are, if you think it’s life, you don’t think anyone has the right to decide to end it. This may be a moral argument, but has very little to do with religious dogma. As an atheist, I am somewhat offended by the notion that my reasoned, ethically-based, moral convictions are synonymous with dogmatic religion.

and possibly changing her mind about carrying through with an abortion.

I totally disagree with the writer on the stance that was taken.

Having sonograms makes sense to me. Abortion is an evil no matter how you look at it so if more lives can be saved by having a requirement for sonograms then so be it. Also your writer misses another point too in that the Republicans are leading the effort

against abortion both in Texas and nationally.

On the national scene, the House of Representatives recently voted to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. This is the nation’s largest provider of abortions which attempts to masquerade itself as a family friendly organization when its really purpose is being in the market to take innocent unborn life. All life is precious from the moment of

natural conception until natural death.

Daniel Short Student St. Edward’s University

Michael W. Guillory Former student St. Edward’s University Former “Hilltopers For Life” President, 1999-2003

Page 16 | PHOTO ESSAY

Lucida [ Photocommunications Senior Show Preview]

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 | Hilltop Views

Photos by Ashley Watson