2014 february 7

A K LEO T H E

FRIDAY, FEB. 7 to SUNDAY, FEB. 9, 2014 VOLUME 109 ISSUE 51

Serving the students of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

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Acrobatics is a fun alternative to regular exercise. Anyone is welcome to join the Acrobatics Club at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, regardless of whether they have experience in gymnastics or acrobatics. If newcomers are interested in learning to do a proper handstand or trying out juggling, there are many skills to be learned and practiced in this club. Members feel the club is important because it adds variety to the campus and encourages students to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Mike Burns, a UH grad and a current student at Honolulu Community College, has been a member of the club for two years. He enjoys ground and high acrobatics, as well as teaching AcroYoga. AcroYoga blends the meditative art of yoga with the more performancebased art of acrobatics. The result is a gravity-defying performance involving multiple acrobats.

Burns said one of the main benefits of being in the group is the people.

“It’s a really positive group in comparison to what you meet on the outside,” he said. “They’re very happy, very cheerful. Everybody is happy to see you.”

Burns said that when he joined two years ago, he had never done acrobatics before, emphasizing the fact that anyone can join and progress as long as they have the motivation and desire to learn.

Report

Nicki Shobert, the student representative for the club, said some of the benefits of joining are that practicing acrobatics works different muscle groups and increases flexibility and balance. Shobert said safety is an important focus of the group. As members progress in their knowledge of the sport, they also learn how to land safely, be a spotter for others and participate in workshops on safety.

USA Gymnastics cites many benefits from practicing activities such as tumbling, including learning to fall safely, which protects you from falls outside of the gym by providing a safe place (a gym mat) to practice falling. Acrobatics also helps immensely with balance, from doing fl ips to balancing on someone’s shoulders, there are many opportunities to train yourself to become more balanced.

The club also offers other activities, such as juggling, slacklining and aerial silks, though the aerial silks activity does not currently have an official teacher. The club has two main focuses: tumbling-based and circusbased acrobatics.

Activities such as doing handstands, fl ips and AcroYoga are in the tumbling spectrum, while slacklining and juggling are geared more toward those interested in circus performance.

Club meetings Where: Studio 4, Stan Sherriff Center When: Wednesday, 8-10 p.m.

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News IN-STATE Act offers tuition assistance to undocumented students Z OE WINBURN Contributing Writer The University of Hawai‘i system may receive federal funding to offer tuition assistance to undocumented students under a bill introduced in Congress last month.

The Investing In States To Achieve Tuition Equity for DREAMers Act of 2014 would provide $750 million during the course of 10 years in need-based fi nancial aid to states such as Hawai’i that have set “equitable in-state tuition rates and offer fi nancial aid to undocumented students,” according to the bill.

According to studies cited by Sen. Mazie Hirono’s office, the bill could reduce tuition for more than 2,000 Hawai‘i students if Congress approves it.

Hirono joined three other democratic colleagues in both houses of Congress to introduce the bill Jan. 16.

Hirono, who emigrated from Japan to Hawai‘i at the age of 4, said she understands the challenges of living in a new country.

“I was able to succeed because of all the opportunities I had,” she said. “I want to ensure DREAMers have the same opportunities to succeed in the only country they call home as I did, and the same access to federal assistance as their American-born peers.”

Hawai‘i is one of 19 states that currently offers in-state tuition for undocumented students.

Undocumented immigrants include people with a wide range of circumstances, including some who illegally entered the country and others who entered the country

legally with their families but ended up overstaying their visas, according to a study done by the University of California at Los Angeles.

Many undocumented youths had no say in their decision to come to the U.S. and were brought along with their families at a young age, according to the study.

In most states, including Hawai‘i, they are unable to receive federally funded fi nancial aid, including loans, grants, scholarships or work study money.

Associated Students of the University of Hawai‘i Senator Ryan Mandado introduced a resolution in late 2012 that proposed giving undocumented students the ability to pay in-state tuition in the UH system.

The resolution was unanimously approved by the both student senate and the Board of Regents, he said.

To qualify for in-state tuition under the new policy, undocumented students must take “overt action to make Hawai‘i their permanent home,” have physically been in Hawai‘i for 12 months prior to enrollment, have graduated from a U.S. high school and started the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Mandado said he fi rst became interested in the issue at a workshop on the topic and decided to do something about it.

“They grew up in the Hawai‘i community, in a place that they call home, so I think that it’s just fair for them to be able to come to the university and pay in-state tuition,” he said. “The arguments that they just shouldn’t come here don’t make sense to me.”

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Sen. Maize Hirono was elected to the Senate in 2013.

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executive offices that are meant to check and counter check executive authority.

“In the Philippines, you have the judicial bar council, the majority of whom are appointed by the president,” Desierto said.

“In reality, it’s a presidential appointee that will give the short list to the president.”

~ Professor

Professor Diane Desierto kicks off Colloquium Series

Diane Desierto kicks off Colloquium Series

~ A LDEN A LAY VILLA Crime Beat Reporter The Center for Philippine Studies kicked off its fi rst lecture of its Colloquium Series on Wednesday as associate professor Diane Desierto discussed the Philippine pork barrel scandal.

“The entire system of pork barrel distributions to Congress amounts to billions and billions of pesos every year,” Desierto said. “The development consequences of how those funds are used, and how they have been used and abused and misused, explains a lot of the growth deficit in the Philippines.”

THE PRIORIT Y D E V E L O PM E N T A S S I S TA N C E FUND

According to Desierto, for years, under the pork barrel system, all congressmen or senators needed to do is give a list of projects — so long as a non-governmental organization applies funding for a project — that’s covered within that descriptive list, then the senator or congressman signs on it.

Janet Napoles, alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scan-

AN ASPECT OF HYPERPRESIDENTIALISM

ALDEN ALAYVILLA / KA LEO O HAWAI‘I

dal, ran 20 dummy non-governmental organizations.

According to Desierto, Napoles’ daughter posted her extravagant lifestyle on social media.

“She had the cars, she had Beverly Hills’ lifestyle and she was 20 years old,” Desierto said.

“In social media, everyone was getting angry at this woman because she was posting a very excessive lifestyle.”

This led to an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation.

“Napoles set up NGOs with her driver as president of an NGO, the other with her house helper,” Desierto said. “ The Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t really scrutinize the registration of NGOs to really find out where they find out the capital.”

According to Desierto, Napoles was able to market $6 billion worth of public funds.

THE UNIQUENESS OF THE PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION According to Desierto, unlike the U.S. Constitution, there are specific constitutional duties that afflict the governmental structure and the way the Philip-

of institutionalized corruption. “ The Philippine Supreme Court is more activist than the US Supreme Court because it has the explicit mandate of the expanded power of judicial review,” Desierto said. “Cases for which a government branch commits a grave abuse of discretion (misuse of power), and this is why individuals can go straight to court to challenge these government abuses. The Philippines empowers the court system to make decisions.”

pines construe public office. “ The 1987 constitution was born out of the post-colonial, post-dictatorship experience,” Desierto said. “If you look at the text of this constitution, it’s not like the U.S. Constitution. ...

This is a purposely-universalistrights-oriented constitution. It is intended to entrench accountability; it explicitly provides for that as a positive duty on government officials. It tried to dismantle the notion of strong, executive power.”

However, according to Desierto, for a document that was supposed to guard against executive abuse, there were many areas of executive discretion and executive power that were left adrift.

“It left presidents such as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a position to manipulate that residual executive power to her benefit,” Desierto said. “That’s a term we call hyper-presidentialism: when your president takes efforts using residual powers, administrative powers, budgetary powers to be able to dismantle traditional checks and balances and constitutional controls.”

Desierto said there are key

According to Desierto, any appropriation must be made by law and the president’s role allows him to propose an appropriation, but in the end it is still Congress that must pass that appropriation.

“The president has a vast power to reorganize the government, and that power only happens by executive order,” Desierto said.

“There’s no control, no criteria for reorganization, so long as the president invokes the magic phrase ‘administrative efficiency.’”

Desierto said presidents give money to senators and to congressmen who have bulk appropriations.

“Senators get P$200 million each, congressmen get about P$70 million each — that’s just the minimum — the vice president gets P$200 million; and then there are projects (discretionary funds) from the Malayampaya Fund, and also the Presidential Social Fund (revenue from legalized gambling from Pagcor casinos),” Desierto said.

THE PHILIPPINE SUPREME C O U R T F I G H T S B AC K The pork barrel system was the concern of senior associate justice Antonio Carpio.

“During the (investigation) arguments he kept asking, ‘does the constitution permit lump sum appropriation?’ He argued, ‘President’s constitutional duty is to submit a line item national expenditure program — item for item, without lump-sum expenditures, and Congress has the constitutional duty to enact only a lineitem budget,” Desierto said.

Desierto said the Philippine Supreme Court is managed by abolishing the PDA F system — to neutralize most of the sources

The Center for Philippine Studies was established as a program in 1975 by an act of the Hawai‘i State Legislature to “recognize the contributions of Filipinos to the history of Hawai‘i, and to highlight of the academic expertise the Philippines at UH Mānoa,” according to its website.

It was subsequently established at UH as Philippine Studies under the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.

According to its website, the center runs a regular Colloquium Series, which has hosted at least 500 speakers since its inception.

The center also publishes the Philippine Studies Occasional Papers Series and has institutionalized the Philippine Studies Newsletter and Pilipinas Journal as outlets for Philippine scholarly writing and current information on the state of Philippine Studies.

In 1990, the center established an Academic Exchange Program with the University of the Philippines. It still maintains this program.

News Editor Noelle Fujii contributed to this sidebar.

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Games

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

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ACROSS 1 __-de-sac 4 Consumes 11 Privately keep in the email loop, briefly 14 New START signatory 15 Unexpected result 16 Bit of cybermirth 17 Upper-bod muscle 18 With great energy, in music 19 Gp. that declared obesity a disease 20 Natives who met Lewis and Clark near modern-day Council Bluffs 22 Scent 23 Puts one’s feet up 25 Go the distance 26 Desire 27 Stopper, with “the” 28 Pretended to be 30 Bow tie preference 31 Likely to tax one’s budget 32 Corrida cry 33 Greenskeeper’s supply 34 Topographic feature represented in this puzzle’s circles 39 Inflate 42 Hyde’s birthplace?

43 Less furnished 47 Not good for a pro, usually 50 Traditional process for hammock making 52 “The Canterbury Tales” inn 53 Geometric fig.

54 Moderate pace 55 Dimwit 56 Small opening 57 Exobiologist’s org.

58 Voice actor Castellaneta of “The Simpsons” 59 Foolishness 62 Cotton __ 63 Storied vessel 64 Cheyenne allies 65 “Middle of Nowhere” director

DuVernay 66 Ed.’s pile 67 First, second or third person?

68 Pinch for Pépin DOWN 1 Domelike structures 2 Be diplomatic 3 1920s tennis great René 4 “__ tree falls ...”

5 Noritake headquarters city 6 Moves smoothly 7 John of pop 8 Hang-glide, say 9 Word of disdain 10 Impassive 11 Displays publicly 12 Opens one’s eyes 13 Butted heads 21 Direct 24 First Japanese prime minister born after WWII 27 “The Goldfish” painter 29 Print resolution letters 30 Clerical wear 32 Moon, e.g.

35 “The Impaler” who inspired Dracula 36 “Who hath a story ready for your __”: Shak.

37 2014 Olympics airer 38 Moves quickly 39 1945 Big Three city 40 Online game icons 41 Proves fallacious 44 Xenon, for one 45 Soul-stirring 46 __ scan: ID method 48 Knock 49 Assembly-ready 50 Sister of Moses and Aaron 51 Big name in soul 53 Two-door vehicle 56 School gps.

60 __ Pacis: altar of Peace 61 Thither

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Opinions Humanizing the immigration conversation K EN R EYES Senior Staff Writer Giving benefits to immigrants is pervading the political conversation nationwide, as it remains one of President Barack Obama’s top priorities, yet one of his most significant broken promises.

Hawai‘i offers substantial diversity of ethnicities, and while we all reside on these islands, it is important to recognize that not all of us possess the same privileges and freedoms.

A P E R S O N A L AC C O U N T Twenty-seven-year-old Leeward Community College student Gabriela Andrade emigrated from Brazil to Hawai‘i when she was 15 to pursue a brighter future. But due to the inefficient immigration system, she was the only one in her family who remained undocumented, leaving her unable to work, learn or feel safe in the place she calls home.

It was not until Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order of August 2012 that Andrade was finally able to gain access to legal identification and work permits.

S E N AT O R H I RO N O A N D D R E A M AC T Andrade’s future grew more optimistic when Sen. Mazie Hirono announced her support for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. This bill would allow undocumented youth to become conditional permanent residents upon completing a college degree within

a six-year allotted period. This would then give opportunity for affected students to apply for permanent residency and start down a currently nonexistent path toward citizenship.

The DREAM Act would not only provide students with the opportunity to pay tuition at resident rates, but it would also give these students access to federal financial aid. Currently, youth in America who would qualify under the DREAM Act often pay out-of-state tuition in their home states and have no access to public and federal financial aid.

According to a press release on Hirono’s website this January, she is looking forward to continuing the fight. Hirono stated that Hawai‘i is shaped by “generations of immigrants, like (her)self, joining our multicultural melting pot.”

Hirono is one of the strongest champions for comprehensive immigration reform in Congress. The first DREAM Act was introduced in 2001, and more than a decade of close calls, momentum and subsequent disappointment leave DREAMers wondering when true reform will be passed by the legislature.

“The consistent support from Sen. Hirono on the DREAM Act is inspiring,” said former UH student April Bautista. “She uses her personal story and privilege to improve the lives of immigrant families and fix the broken immigration system.”

UH SUPPORTS IMMIGRANTS The conversation around immigration is increasingly elevated to one about access to education, human rights and an ideal society.

COURTESY OF SEN. MAIZE HIRONO

Sen. Maize Hirono, a supporter of the DREAM Act, emigrated from Japan to Hawai‘i when she was a child.

Last spring, UH’s Board of Regents unanimously passed a policy that allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition.

This is how students like Andrade were able to enroll in school and afford tuition. “(Without) the change of policy, college would never be an option for me,” Andrade said.

Carolina Torres Valle, a student who worked and testified for the BOR policy, said that “these individuals will add to the diversity of our campus. We know that when there is diversity there is educational excellence.”

Claudia Lara, a junior in ethnic studies and political science and program assistant for Undocumented Student Outreach at the Office of Multicultural Student Services, contested that while she has been lucky enough to become a citizen, some of

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her family and friends have not received the same opportunities.

“These are students who are star athletes,” she said. “They are on the honor roll. They are in student government. They are musicians. They are talented artists and writers. They are our neighbors.

They are my friends. “ They are the reason I support this. They represent all this country aims to be.”

Amy Agbayani, director of Student Equity Excellence and Diversity, said the university has an obligation to reach out to the students who want to study and contribute to their community.

“These initiatives are in the self-interest of Hawai‘i and the nation because getting more students to obtain college education will develop talent of these young people,” Agbayani said.

FEDERAL REFORM

Entire communities will undoubtedly benefit from providing opportunities and access to affordable higher education to more of our youth, and the DR EA M Act will do just that.

We can raise awareness by educating ourselves, attending community events and connecting with local organizations such as the Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigration Reform.

“Our student body can learn a lot from DREAMers — about hard work, dedication, perseverance, a commitment to education and leadership,” Lara said.

As the fight for immigration reform continues, advocates remain hopeful that this act would come to pass and praise the DREAMers for their determination in pursuing an education and a better future for themselves.

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Sports

REVAMPED WARRIORS LOOK TO AVOID REPEAT OF LAST YEAR'S SLUMP Senior swingman Brandon Spearman has scored in double figures in UH’s past six games.

JESSICA HOMRICH KA LEO O HAWAI‘I

NICK HUTH Senior Staff Writer @NicksHoops

Would you believe that this impressive start from the Rainbow Warrior men’s basketball team has happened before? And that the last time it happened Hawai‘i dropped six of its last nine games to eventually fall out of title contention?

Well, that scenario played out last season for the Warriors.

After starting the season 15-9, Hawai‘i eventually slid to 17-15, with the team’s downward spiral continuing through conference play as it finished with a 10-8 league record after starting out 8-4 against the Big West.

However, every season is a fresh start, and the downfall of last year’s Warriors has no particular bearing on their chances of repeat-

ing that fate this season. There are some differences between the two squads that may shed some light on how the ‘Bows (15-6, 4-3 BWC) will avoid the same problems that plagued them last season.

THE HEAD OF THE SNAKE If point guards are the machines that drive a basketball team, then the eligibility of Keith Shamburger allowed the Warriors to upgrade from a moped to a Mustang.

Jace Tavita started last year for Hawai‘i and averaged 3.2 points per game, which pales when compared to 9.2 from Shamburger so far this season. That disparity continues on the other side of the court as Tavita’s 15 steals through the entirety of last season compares meekly to Shamburger’s 28 on the season with nine games remaining.

The leadership of Shamburger has also revved up the tempo of the Hawai‘i offense. This year’s Warriors are averaging 4.5 more shot attempts than their opponents. In contrast, opponents outshot the Warriors by almost two per game last year.

The combination of pace and leadership has the Warriors averaging 82.4 points per game, compared to 73.3 at this point last season.

A NEW FOTU On his way to becoming the Big West Co-Freshman of the Year, Isaac Fotu averaged 10.1 points per game while shooting 62 percent from the field.

This year, his shot attempts have increased along with the attention he receives from opposing defenses. Despite facing double teams every night, the sophomore

forward is averaging 15 points per game this season with almost identical efficiency to last year.

S T E A DY S E N I O R S As seniors on this year’s squad, Christian Standhardinger and Brandon Spearman have continued to supply the Warriors with their range of skills. Although the team has changed players, schemes and strategies, this veteran duo has adapted to give the Warriors a balanced core of scoring and defense.

Standhardinger led the Warriors in scoring last year, which he has continued to the tune of 17.6 points per game. The senior from Germany has also maintained his ability to rebound and rack up steals as he continues to lead those categories for the second season in a row. His consistency

has allowed the Warriors to survive the challenges that came with a plethora of off-season changes.

Spearman’s contributions have never been truly quantified in a box score, as the senior swingman continues to be responsible for guarding the best perimeter players on the opposing team and swinging the tides of games with hustle and athleticism. Spearman has improved his efficiency from the floor, along with an increased scoring and rebounding load as he continues to perform almost any task asked of him by head coach Gib Arnold.

The Warriors have a pivotal stretch of games ahead as the regular season comes to a close, but it seems that they are better equipped to face those challenges compared to those of last year.