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Campus torn over health care bill By Josh Malone THE DAILY COUGAR As President Barack Obama signed his historic health care reform bill into law Tuesday, he thanked his supporters in Congress and across the country for what he called, “a victory for the United State of America.” Not everyone agrees, including political science senior Nicholas Smith. “I can’t support this bill,” Smith said. “It’s government exercising more control over the people. I don’t like being told to buy health insurance whether I need it or not.” Smith isn’t alone in his concerns. Since Obama’s first call for health care reform in February 2009, which fueled heated debates and furthered partisan divides, conservatives have largely disagreed with the government, “growing out of control.” The health reform bill would require Americans to purchase health insurance, whether through a private insurer or their employer. Low and middleincome Americans, or a yearly income of about $44,000 for one person, would receive government subsidies to help pay for the coverage, and those who don’t purchase insurance would be subject to fines. These guarantees in coverage are a primary reason why UH assistant professor of political science Elizabeth Rigby said the bill is imperfect but a necessary step forward where others have failed. “We’ve seen presidents try to reform health care for 100 years, so while the bill is a huge compromise, it’s long overdue,” Rigby said. She said that the bill would affect students and young adults the most, particularly those who work part-time or for a small business that doesn’t provide health insurance. “Young people often opt not to have health insurance, so this will change their behavior more than any other group. But to the student who spends four years in college, graduates and can’t find a full-time job with health insurance, this bill gives them an see HEALTH CARE, page 9
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SGA candidates square off By Patricia Estrada THE DAILY COUGAR The Student Government Association run-off presidential candidates, Vice President Prince Wilson and Director of Finance Carlos Reyes, met Tuesday to address their agendas and answer questions from students during a debate hosted by The Daily Cougar. Wilson said the three main areas of concern he will focus on are tuition, campus safety and helping the University achieve flagship status. “When we think about tuition,” Wilson said, “we have to understand how the University works, how the budget works, where the money is going to go and what are the priorities.” In his rebuttal, Reyes he will zero in on improving security, educating students on parking options and building school pride.
He said while developing his agenda, he wanted to focus on goals that are attainable and benefit students. “One of the things that we did (before coming up with our agenda), we pulled about 500 students and asked them what their concerns were,” Reyes said. “They said it was security, parking and school pride.” Both candidates addressed parking, but their proposed solutions differ. Reyes said he wants to focus on educating students of the many programs already available to them to alleviate the parking problem. “Parking is a pretty good situation,” he said. “We have all these great parking programs, but people don’t know about them.” Wilson said he wants to create a rental car program for freshmen to help solve parking congestion. He also suggested promoting carpooling and mass transportation.
TRAVIS HENSLEY THE DAILY COUGAR
The Daily Cougar hosted Tuesday’s Student Government Association presidential and vice presidential run-off debate between Carlos Reyes, left, and Prince Wilson, right, for the election that will be held today and Thursday. “Building more parking spaces is just a temporary solution,” he said. For the complete debate, log on
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University investment fund sees growth Administrators see progress despite major drop
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By Sarah Raslan THE DAILY COUGAR
up,” Curl said in a release. “I’m very thankful for the opportunity I’ve had here at the University of Houston. It has been a great fit for me.” Just this season, Curl missed six games, including the Cougars’ season-ending loss to Texas Tech in the WNIT, but it was not his first heart-related health scare. In the fall of 2007, Curl suffered a heart attack and missed the entire 200708 season. After undergoing single-
The UH System Endowment suffered a 25.9 percent drop between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009 but seems to be improving as the market does. “The percentage loss of the University of Houston’s endowment was terribly disappointing but actually not as bad as it could have been,” Regent and former Endowment Chairwoman Carroll Ray said. Ray said this happened during a period that’s considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Almost all investment funds suffered significant losses during this time. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the UH loss was “greater than the comparable percentage declines of the endowments of the Texas A&M University System and Foundations, the Texas Tech University System, the University of North Texas or the
see CURL, page 3
see ENDOWMENT, page 3
DAILY COUGAR FILE PHOTO
After being hospitalized three times in the second half of the 2009-10 season, UH women’s basketball coach Joe Curl stepped down Tuesday to focus on his health.
Citing health, Curl resigns By Phillipe Craig THE DAILY COUGAR When faced with the agonizing decision of whether to continue coaching the UH women’s basketball team or focus on improving his health, Joe Curl ultimately did what was best for himself and the team. Curl, 55, resigned Tuesday, indicating that his recent health concerns, which doctors diagnosed as congestive heart failure, needed
to be addressed. He leaves UH as the winningest women’s basketball coach in school history with a 193167 record (.536) in 12 seasons, also the longest tenure of any coach in the program. Curl led the Cougars to five postseason appearances, including this year’s Women’s National Invitational Tournament. “This season has been really difficult for me to keep up with everything for health reasons, so it’s time for me to step aside and heal