The paisano Volume 52 Issue 9

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Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

UTSA The College of Business has received a $1 million gift from real estate legend Walter M. Embrey, Jr. to go toward real estate education for graduate students. The program will be named The Embrey Real Estate Finance and Development Program.

Texas A group of UTAustin students have devised a unique way to protest the state’s concealed campus carry legislation effective Aug. 1, 2016. To draw attention to what society deems appropriate, students are openly carrying dildos and using #CocksNotGlocks.

U.S. A recent investigation by the New York Times finds that just 158 families have provided nearly half of the early money to capture the White House. Both Democrat and Republican families are represented in the donor list, but the 138 Republican contributors far outpace the 20 supporting Democrats. The 158 families each contributed $250,000 or more in the campaign through June 30, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings.

World Nearly 100 people were killed at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey as a result of a bombing. The rally was in opposition to the violence between the Turkish government and the militant Kurdistan Worker’s Party. The terrorist attack is the deadliest in Turkey’s history.

Science National Geographic, in collaboration with MentalFloss, will air the first ever live broadcast of a brain surgery on Oct. 25 in the Brain Surgery Live with Mental Floss special. The patient will be awake throughout the procedure and undergo deep brain stimulation surgery (an elective surgery used to treat tremors related to Parkinson’s disease).

{SINCE 1981}

Volume 52

Issue 9

October 13 - October 20, 2015

FACULTY AIMS FOR A GUN-FREE CAMPUS Annette Barraza, Paisano

Alex Birnel

News Assistant

@alexbirnel news@paisano-online.com Three UTSA professors have organized a peaceful demonstration for a Gun Free UT and a Gun Free UTSA. The demonstration is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15, 1:30-4:30 p.m. on UTSA’s Main Campus near the Rowdy statue. The demonstration was planned to protest the passage of SB11, the controversial campus carry legislation to take effect Aug. 1, 2016. The three professors – Dr. Ritu Mathur (political science) , Dr. Walter Wilson (political science) and Dr. Jackie Cuevas (English) – have a number of expectations for Thursday’s demonstration. The trio wants to “em-

phasize President Romo’s authority to establish rules that can keep our classrooms, labs, offices and dorms gun-free,” a reminder to the public of a provision in SB11 that grants university presidents the discretionary power over where guns are allowed on campus. “We want to foster and nurture a culture of open engagement and dialogue amongst faculty, students and staff to work in gun-free environments, and without the unnecessary threat of accidental and unintentional gun violence,” the group states. The three organizers believe the new legislation will discourage open dialogue and hinder the learning environment as “universities are places of learning, to reason, debate, listen, even as we agree to disagree. Universities seek to empower

students with words and not weapons.” Valuing weapons over words has tremendous social implications and will foster “an unhealthy environment which will compel each of us on this campus to view each other as a potential threat,” according to the professors. The group observes “SB 11 protects the rights of those that want to exercise their right to campus carry but ignores and marginalizes the rights of other to work in a safe environment.” In addition to negative social consequences, there are potential economic outcomes to the campus carry policy to consider. The professors claim that, “SB11 and those that pushed through with this bill have deliberately practiced discrimination in the education and learning environment between public and private universities in Texas. Public

universities are compelled to follow SB11 unlike private universities.” The professors identify the public-private divide as discriminatory stating, “It is common knowledge that families with limited resources send their kids to public universities while wealthy families have the options to send their kids to private universities.” Under the current law, only public universities are mandated to implement campus carry, so, the stigma and discrimination of public and private university education will only be reinforced. The professors articulate that despite the aforementioned consequences, “These conversations and insights have strengthened the resolve of faculty and students at UTSA to demand gunfree classrooms and offices.” Such conversations have

led and emboldened faculty and students to mobilize peaceful demonstrations. Dr. Mathur, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Cuevas encourage students to attend and participate in the peaceful demonstrations, join Facebook groups (Gun Free UTSA) and use organizations to take a stand. The professors insist on the importance of involvement no matter what their field of study is. To sign the gun-free UTSA petition visit: https://www.change. org/p/president-ricardoromo-keep-utsa-learningareas-safe-and-gun- free free?recruiter=3960556 28&utm_source=share_ for_starters&utm_ medium=copyLink.

‘CLASSROOMS CANNOT BE GUN-FREE ZONES’ Matt Frost Staff Writer

@ThePaisano news@paisano-online.com The law has passed, and starting in August 2016, concealed handguns will be allowed on campus. The university cannot control whether or not they will be on campus, but it does have some control over where specifically the guns will be allowed. Senate Bill 11, commonly known as the campus carry bill, mandates that while guns may be carried on public campuses by Concealed Handgun License (CHL) holders, the university president is allowed to designate some areas as “gun-free” zones in which firearms may not be carried. On Monday, Oct. 5, a meeting was held on campus allowing faculty to discuss what areas should be designated as gun-free zones. This meeting was led by three members of the campus carry task force – a group assembled with the objective of determining gun free zones and making sure student safety is not compromised. Faculty Senate President

Karen Daas led the meeting. Task Force Chair, Kathy Funk-Baxter, and Task Force Vice Chair and UTSA Police Chief Steve Barrera were present as well. Daas made it clear in the beginning of the meeting that the meeting’s purpose was to talk about the gunfree zones, not to voice one’s issues with the law. “Whatever you think about the law is perfectly fine,” Daas continued, “but we are not going to debate it in here.” Daas then explained the criteria for selecting the exclusion zones. Chief among those criteria is that the task force may not make any rule that generally prohibits carrying concealed weapons. A prohibitive measures must be made to ensure and enforce campus safety. Several areas are already under heavy consideration by the task force to be designated as gun-free zones. Medical areas are likely candidates to remain gunfree, as are laboratory classrooms due to the highly flammable chemicals stored in many labs. The climax of the meeting, though, was the announcement by the task force that classrooms could

AIS, failure or success? Alyssa Gonzales News Assistant

@ThePaisano news@paisano-online.com

not be gun-free zones, with the exception of laboratory classrooms. “We have basically been told we can’t [make classrooms gun free], because that is the vast majority of campus,” said Daas. Because classrooms make up a large portion of campus and are the areas in which a university’s central function (teaching) is carried out, designating classrooms as gun free would be a general exclusion rule as it would keep a student from engaging in university classes, explained Daas. Many of the faculty and staff present were unhappy with this, claiming that allowing guns in classrooms is unacceptable. The task force again stated that they could do nothing but suggest ideas to the University of

A course in its third semester, Academic Inquiry and Scholarship (AIS) was designed to ease the shift from high school to college for incoming freshmen, a positive but idealistic intention. Among the students involved, the course is anything but popular. Part of the First Year Experience (FYE) program, AIS was designed to teach freshmen the necessary

Texas System. However, the task force urged staff with any suggestions of gun-free zones to email the task force at campuscarry@ utsa.edu with the area and a compelling reason that it should be gun-free. For any students who wish to provide input on the gunfree zones or other policies

tools to navigate the world of higher education. The objectives of the course aim to foster critical thinking skills and develop strong study habits, research skills and the ability to work well in groups. The class is interdisciplinary in nature; activities involve formulating researching questions, mastering the writing process, identifying scholarly resources and

surrounding the university’s implementation of SB 11, there will be a student listening session in the Denman Room of the University Center (UC 2.01.28) on UTSA’s Main Campus from 4-5:30 p.m. on Oct. 14.

Kat Joseph, The Paisano

allowing students to explore the three academic disciplines: natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities. Nonetheless, students overwhelmingly unenthused about their being required to complete the course. Most freshmen did not expect to have a mandated course other See AIS ,Page 3


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