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Issue 76, Volume 75
thedailycougar.com
Campus heeds warning signs Program instructs how to prevent potential behavioral dangers
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By Darlene Campos THE DAILY COUGAR The city of Houston recently hosted a new federal training program that is being offered to professionals from university campuses. Nationally renowned campus security authorities Steven J. Healy, and former University of Vermont Chief of Police, Gary J. Margolis, led the training program, which took place at the Houston Marriot Hotel on the East Sam Houston Parkway on Jan. 13. Because of the 2007 Virginia Tech and the 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting incidents, many organizations urged university campuses to establish behavioral threat assessment teams in order to prevent any further acts of violence on university campuses. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services developed the first campus threat assessment. Because of COPS funding the program, attendance was free. The UH Department of Public Safety, the Assistant Vice President for Public Safety and Security, and Chief of Police Malcolm Davis hosted the event at UH. “We wanted to address how a crisis on campus can occur. It’s not
necessarily for people who present a threat, but anyone who has a particular kind of crisis,” said Davis, the assistant vice president for Public Safety and Security. “All kinds of threats can happen around campus. We decide how serious the threats are to investigate.” The program offers a person the opportunity to submit a problem anonymously so that there will be less of a chance that someone will hesitate to report a crisis. Davis said it is important to bring attention to someone who has an issue before the campus is in danger. “We’ve had this program at UH for over 10 years to help students who are in an emotional crisis,” Davis said. “To give an example, when someone acts out in class, the professor will notify the dean of students to try and find out what’s going on. “We look for changes of attitudes, such being withdrawn or a drop in grades. We also try to see what caused the problem. We want to know if only one student or the whole school is affected by some sort of problem.” Healy said that collaboration and strong partnerships within the campus community are important in threat assessment studies. “Our model for campus threat
VOLTAIRE ARCHELUS THE DAILY COUGAR
Paying it forward
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he brothers of Phi Betas Sigma Fraternity transformed their monthly themed Hump Day into a relief drive by collecting clothing and canned goods for Haiti on Wednesday. Political science junior Jason Holiday helped collect the donated items. The brothers plan to raise more $500 and around 75 pounds of canned goods. All donations will be sent through the American Red Cross
see THREAT, page 3
Biologist discusses research
Human rights group reconvenes By Moniqua Sexton THE DAILY COUGAR
Chemistry laureate recognized for her accomplishment J
JUSTIN FLORES THE DAILY COUGAR
By Christopher Patronella Jr. THE DAILY COUGAR
2009 Nobel Prize winner Ada Yonath gave a lecture on her research, which mapped the structure and function of ribosomes at the atomic level, Friday at the University.
Ada Yonath, Nobel Prize winner and professor of the Weizmann Institute of Science, visited UH giving her lecture, “The Amazing Ribosome.” The speech detailed the findings of work that spanned more than two decades, and led to her becoming the first Israeli woman and only the fourth woman to be recognized as a chemistry laureate. The lecture was held at the Rockwell Pavilion of the M.D.
Anderson Memorial Library. “I always keep telling our students, the most important thing is that they need passion, and curiosity, and today you’re going to see what that passion and that curiosity can do,” UH President Renu Khator said as she introduced Yonath. Working independently, Yonath received the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry, along with Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz, for solving a mystery once dismissed as a theoretical fantasy. Using X-ray crystallography, they succeeded in mapping the intimate structure and function of the ribosome at the atomic level, revealing the mechanism of peptide bond formation — the bond that links amino acids together in the see NOBEL, page 7
The UH chapter of Amnesty International, a worldwide organization that fights against the abuse of human rights, will resume its activities this spring after being inactive for more than a year. Journalism and pre-law freshman Elize Najm will serve as president of the chapter, which originated in spring 2004. “This semester, our group will dedicate each month to learning about a human rights issue that directly affects our community,” Najm said. “We will also participate in a social awareness service project at the end of each month.” Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by British lawyer
Peter Benenson who wrote an article, The Forgotten Prisoners, in The Observer about two Portuguese students who were imprisoned for raising their wine glasses in a toast to freedom. According to amnesty.org, its mission is to “conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.” There are more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions around the world. Some of the things that they advocate for are stopping violence against women, abolishing the death penalty, defending those trapped in see AMNESTY, page 3