First Copy Free
March 28, 2011
Volume 13, Issue 10
theAccent.org
Students give to cancer patients pg. 5 Read about crimes on campus pg. 7
Discover our SXSW Rewind issue inside Meet ACC’s rock star professor Pg. 10
News → Crime and Safety
Legislature takes aim at arming students Concealed carry campus bills
Dana Manickavasagam•Lead Photographer
STANDING ROOM ONLY — A group of students wait for their turn to testify for or against Senate Bill 354 concerning concealed handguns on campus. SB 354
was heard by The Criminal Justice Committee on March 22 at the Capitol. UT students passed a petition around the room for people to sign in opposition to the bill.
Students, community testify at legislative hearings for, against bills allowing concealed carry on campus Karissa Rodriguez
Editor-in-Chief
Despite an abundance of testimonies from the public opposing guns on college campuses including Austin Community College students, Texas state senators appeared poised on March 22 to approve a controversial bill that would permit students to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. Five “yes” votes were not present at the Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing, so a final vote was not taken and Senate Bill 354 remains in pending status. Previously, a similar measure, House Bill 750, was approved with a 5-3 vote split on March 16 by the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee and is headed for a vote in the full House. ACC student, Cody Jarmon, a Student Government Association (SGA) Senator testified at both the House and
Senate committee hearings on his own behalf. Jamon drew a lot of attention from committee members and the audience when he pulled out a cardboard gun at the beginning of his testimony to illustrate his opposition to concealed carry on campus bills. “My point was that how many people could I have shot if that had been a real gun? Just because you have a weapon on you doesn’t make you any safer,” said Jarmon. “I still could have killed as many people as I wanted to until someone finally acted. The amount of people I could have killed is one too many. So CHL or not, you’re not safe with guns on campus,” said Jarmon. Jarmon opposes SB 354, HB 750, and other similar legislation, because he feels that having guns on college campuses do not make them a safer environment. “I believe it would be unsafe voting more guns on campus whether it be for a cause of good
Under current law, concealed handguns are prohibited in Texas college and university buildings. However, several legislative bills have been introduced in the Texas Legislature to allow college students who are Concealed Handgun License owners the right to carry concealed handguns on college and university campuses. One of the bills, Senate Bill 354, “is an effort to aid students, faculty, and visitors on college campuses in protecting themselves not only from mass shootings like those that occurred on Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University campuses, but from other lifethreatening situations, such as the recent firearm discharge at The University of Texas,” according to the bill analysis from the Senate Research Center. All of the bills are similar except for House Bill 1167 which would specifically allow concealed carry on public junior colleges. The following bills would legalize concealed carry on campus: House Bill 750 Passed 5-3 on March 16 by a committee, to be voted on in the House House Bill 1167 Left pending in committee
Dana Manickavasagam•Lead Photographer
FOR SB 354 — Texas Legislative Director for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, Scott
Lewis, testifies for the right to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. Lewis was one of many speakers for and against the bill to testify at the hearing on March 22 at the Capitol.
or not. Its just escalation,” said Jarmon. Fellow ACC student Scott Lewis testified at the hearings as well and supports concealed carry on campus laws. “The point of concealed carry is not being able to protect
ourselves in places where danger is likely imminent. It’s to be able to protect ourselves in case danger finds us in places where we didn’t expect it,” said Lewis. Lewis, who is the Texas legislative director for Students
for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), believes that college campuses are a perfect example of that. “While [college campuses] are typically safe, they do play
House Bill 86 Left pending in committee House Bill 1356 Left pending in committee House Bill 2178 Referred to committee Senate Bill 354 Left pending in committee
See Guns, pg. 4
News → Student Government Association
SGA president, Student Life address policy concerns
Hilary Shepherd
News Editor
Policies and procedures that were implemented at the beginning of the fall 2010 semester have caused the Student Government Association (SGA) to experience “speed bumps” when organizing events, according to SGA President Sophia Downing. Proposed by the Office Student Life last fall, the new guidelines follow a system aimed to make clubs and organizations more efficient. However, according to Downing, the guidelines are acting as roadblocks to SGA carrying out its duties to serve the students of ACC. “How things are laid out right now is really not fitting into the expeditious tasks
we have,” she said. “The procedural and policy changes have put SGA to a halt because we need to be able to respond immediately to the students’ needs regarding different issues, and it’s all being hung up with paperwork and rules.” Downing said one of the biggest preventative measures of the new system includes the event proposals they must fill out months beforehand – a rule that, according to her, is wasteful. “We have a $16,000 budget that takes an arm and a leg to access,” Downing said. Due to the delay in accessing their budget, SGA has had to have senators use money out of their pockets for events. “Right now we have senators who are purchasing food for board forums and meetings, with the money coming out
of their pockets because of the time frame involved to fill out an event request or food budget request.” Before holding an event, SGA – and all other clubs and organizations – must fill out a food budget request, which is done via a “grocery list” that includes everything from plastic forks to potato chips. SGA members are required to fill out the quantity of each item needed, and then an appropriate Student Life employee goes shopping at one store to pick up the needed items. The problem with such a list, Downing said, is anticipating which items – and how many – will be needed for an event scheduled for the future. “If I say that for all my meetings I’m going to provide
food for 50 people, but 50 people don’t show up at the meeting, I just wasted the students’ money. How am I supposed to know the outcome of the number of people who are going to show up to events?” But Cheryl Richard, director of Student Life, claims the grocery list is a more effective way to plan because the Student Life employee will be able to shop at the same store for other organizations and other events. “We wanted to create something that wouldn’t cause the [employee] to always be out shopping,” said Richard. “We were trying to consolidate a bit.” Richard said the new system, which Student Life began working on last May, was not implemented simply because they “like rules.”
“We’ve created a system that shows how an activity develops, from the time a student proposes an event all the way to the end, when the evaluations are done. It’s all the way through. We’re trying to be more efficient while also taking care of the money, students, business, and learning opportunities at the same time. It’s kind of a tricky road, but we’re really trying hard to do a good job at it.” Richard said backlash from clubs and organizations was expected, but Student Life is doing its best to make changes and improvements to the evolving system. “We know there are bugs. There were huge ones in the first semester, and we fixed them as much as we knew how. Now we’re in the second semester and people are
observing the things that are working for us and the things that aren’t,” said Richard. “This summer, we will upgrade again to make it even better. We’re trying our best to make sure that we are upgrading it each semester so that, eventually, we’ll have a great product.” Despite Student Life’s efficiency-focused intentions in implementing the system, Downing said she firmly believes the process “simply isn’t working.” However, one thing both sides can agree on is the importance of catering to the students. “It’s important for us to work together,” said Downing. “It’s nothing intentional from either side. It’s just a procedure-related frustration about how we are going to represent the students.”