Women’s rights march held in downtown

By Laynie Clark Managing Editor

On March 7, Mujeres Marcharán Coalition (MMC) organized a march and rally in celebration of International Women’s Day. The march took place in downtown San Antonio at Milam Park. Assisting MMC were members of San Antonio’s chapter of the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and Autonomous Brown Berets de San Anto. The rally supported organized and independent speakers.

Ruby Jimenez — a member of PSL — spoke on the importance of International Women’s Day and its impact on her.

“International Women’s Day is something that shows that the struggles that affect so many different people in different regions have a root because there’s an underlying theme of oppression, of being treated as a secondclass citizen,” Jimenez said.

“It’s usually a revolution in women that are the trailblazers for civil rights movements. I see people banding together to protect not only ourselves but the future of this planet.”

Krystal Howard — an independent local organizer — described that the term “women’s rights” is problematic. For Howard, rights should be universal.

“I don’t really like the term ‘women’s rights,’ I think it’s problematic in itself. I feel like fundamental values are what’s really important,” Howard said. “Every person that is born should have fundamental rights. Women’s rights, to me, are just everybody’s rights — it shouldn’t even be a discussion.”

Howard details how youth voter turnout is important. They believe that active participation is needed for the future.

“I predict, and I would hope for a future where people just don’t feel left out anywhere,” Howard continued. “We just all get to exist in peace and happiness and not have to worry about not being allowed to be who you are. We just kind of get rid of all the bigots and fascists. I really have a lot of faith in the younger generation that we are reaching. I’m hoping the kids will change it.”

As speakers started sharing their stories, the UTSA chapter of Students for Life showed up to counterprotest. Galaxy Acton — president of UTSA Students for Life — shouted a variety of statements regarding abortion and the dangers it poses to women.

“28 women have died from legal chemical abortions in the United States,” Acton said. “Abortion is violent.” field, there was a lack of understanding of the biomedical properties of materials used. immediate effects, the patient’s health can deteriorate over a period of months.

PSL and the Brown Berets linked arms and circled the protesters to create a barrier and minimize the distraction from the rally. The speakers continued on, ignoring the protestors, and the march began.

Today, the field of biomedical sciences looks very different, with the emergence of “advanced biomaterials, modified biological structures, intracellular delivery [systems]” and bionanotechnology.

Drawing on his own experience of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Peppas recounted taking intramuscular injections as a treatment for the disease. While the diagnosis was incorrect, the experience impacted his research approach.

“I submit to all of you that what we learn in undergraduate and graduate [school] is one possible solution,” Peppas said. “It doesn’t mean we have to stop there and say, ‘Because we have a way to [treat a disease], there is no better way.’”

PERIOD partners with SGA to stock bathrooms with menstrual hygiene products

By Naydine De La Fuente Staff Writer

Peppas then shifted focus to discuss autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and macular degeneration.

In an autoimmune disease, the body’s immune system attacks its own cells. For all of these diseases, treatment is administered through an injection which can be painful for the patient, sometimes making the patient reluctant to receive treatment.

In the case of multiple sclerosis, treatment involves an intramuscular injection once a week. While skipping an injection for a week does not lead to

“For me, better ways are important because it [helps] patients lead a better life,” Peppas added.

Peppas highlighted the importance of treatments available for autoimmune diseases while also discussing the importance of how these drugs can be administered.

“Don’t tell me [the best way to administer these drugs] is by shots [or] an IV in a hospital once a month,” Peppas said.

“We are active citizens [and] we want to continue being active. We are sorry that we have the disease, but you can not tell us that your best solution is [an IV or similar methods].”

PERIOD at UTSA and the Student Government Association (SGA) collaborated to provide accessible feminine products in various restrooms across campus. SGA is a sponsored student organization that serves as the official advocate and voice of the student body, and PERIOD is an established group that plays an integral part in the menstrual movement— its main focus is to bring awareness to menstrual inequity and destigmatize menstruation in San Antonio.

A lack of access to necessary menstrual products was the motivation for SGA and PERIOD to collaborate in an attempt to provide students with the feminine hygiene products that they need.

Since the project began in 2019, some of the many obstacles members faced included the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the scarcity of funds required to obtain all necessary products needed to fulfill the project’s main objective.

“It was halted, of course, because of COVID[-19],” Yobana Solorzano, former President of PERIOD at UTSA, said. “People weren’t coming to cam- pus; therefore, the dispensers weren’t being filled because, at the time, it didn’t feel like they needed to be because no one was there.”

Once students were back on campus almost a year later, PERIOD continued its work to provide students with access to menstrual products on campus.

PERIOD partnered with Womxn in Leadership to create surveys for students to get feedback about the placement of future dispensers on campus. They were even able to have multiple dispensers placed in different restrooms, including the Student Union women’s restroom on the second floor and the family restroom on the building’s first floor; however, a monumental change in this project occurred when SGA reached out to PERIOD and informed them of the Leader Fund grant.

PERIOD was awarded the grant, which gave the organization approximately $3,300 worth in funds to purchase menstrual products to be distributed in various restrooms around campus.

“There has been a lot of communication in seeing who will be filling what dispens-

Utsa

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded UTSA’s ScooterLab $1.7 million to deploy the university’s first set of data-collecting e-scooters on both the Main and Downtown campuses. The battery-operated scooters will include sensors, remote communication enhancements and control capabilities that will help researchers gather data related to the riders’ mobility, context and environment. The project aims to transform how we think about micromobility and create new opportunities for sustainable transportation.

Texas

A woman from Forney, Texas, was taken into custody on Friday night for the alleged murder of three children after a Child Protective Services caseworker ordered that the children be removed from the home. The New York Times reports that the 25-year-old suspect, Shamaiya Hall, was charged with three counts of capital murder in connection to the killings of a six-year-old boy and two five-yearold twins. Two additional children were wounded during the incident and were taken to the hospital.

Texas Tech University has suspended the head men’s basketball coach, Mark Adams, after an “inappropriate, unacceptable and racially insensitive” comment during an incident with a player. According to a press release from the university, Adams encouraged the player to be more receptive to coaching while referencing Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents and slaves serving their masters. CNN reports that athletic director Kirby Hocutt decided to suspend the coach in order to conduct a more thorough investigation into the matter.

U.S.

On Monday, federal agriculture officials proposed a set of new requirements for labels on meat, poultry and eggs that would limit the use of the phrase “Product of USA.” Currently, this label can be used on products from animals that have been imported from a foreign country and slaughtered in the United States. The proposed changes, however, would require that the product come from animals “born, raised, slaughtered and processed” within the United States. The label proposal is open for public comment before it becomes final, ABC News reports.

World

On Saturday evening, nations reached a historic agreement to place 30% of the seas into protected areas by 2030, as reported by BBC News. The High Seas Treaty was agreed upon at the UN headquarters in New York after years of negotiations which had been previously delayed over disagreements on funding and fishing rights. The agreement, which aims to protect marine biodiversity and international water access, will limit how much fishing can take place and the routes of shipping lanes and exploration activities.