Issue 137, Volume 75 by The Cougar

1934 – 2009

t h e o f f i c i a l s t u d e n t n e w s pa pe r o f t h e u n i v e r s i t y o f h o u s to n s i n c e 1 9 3 4

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years

WEATHER » hi

81 Lo 69

Forecast, Page 2

The Editor’s Desk discusses the number of e-mails editors receive Friday, April 23, 2010

Issue 137, Volume 75

thedailycougar.com

UH-D inches toward being renamed Regents to revisit possibility of changing institution’s name

By Roland Henshaw The Daily Cougar UH-Downtown is closer to getting a new name. Officials revealed April 14 that two names are being considered for the institution: City University and Houston City University. The primary reason for the renaming of the school is for UH-D to gain its independence and identity. UH System Board of Regents

Chairman Welcome Wilson Sr. said the renaming of UH-D is being considered so that people will not confuse it with the main campus. “We still want it to be associated with UH systems, but the problem is that prospective students, along with others, are getting confused,” he said. “The University of HoustonDowntown runs a lot of ads, but what happens is that people respond to the main campus instead of the downtown campus.” Former UH-D President Max Castillo made the formal proposal five years ago to change the school’s name, and in December 2008, the regents voted to change the name of

the campus. But the two names proposed at the time, Houston Metropolitan University and University of South Texas, failed to catch on. Wilson said renaming the school will help increase state and private funding for the school. UH-D graduate student Shelby Johnson said she likes the idea to change the school’s name because it has “no visibility in the city of Houston.” “Some people feel that UH-D is a small branch of the University of Houston, and it is not,” Johnson said. “UH-D has great programs, such as law enforcement and (an) amazing

risk management program in its school of business.” UH-D interdisciplinary studies student Naima Brown said she doesn’t mind the Board of Regents renaming the school. “People tend to make UH-D seem inferior to the main campus; some say it is not a real institution of higher education,” Brown said. “I think a name change will definitely be a good look for the school. I just a hope that the board lets students have a voice in the decision of the name.” Wilson said the campus will be renamed soon. “We will take whatever time it takes to build a consensus,” he said.

Students lobby bill in nation’s capital

see BILL, page 8

news@thedailycougar.com

UH to offer higher-level courses at Northwest By Josh Malone The Daily Cougar

By Aimee Buras The Daily Cougar The Capital Fraternal Caucus was in Washington D.C. over the weekend, lobbying for a bill that will allow organizations to make charitable donations to non-profit, non-university sponsored housing for college students without losing their tax-exempt status. The CFC is composed of organizations associated with the North-American Interfraternity Conference and the National Panhellenic Conference. The CFC was in Washington D.C. to participate in the 2010 NIC/NPC Congressional visits and lobby for the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009. Representing more than 50 universities nationwide, 100 Greek leaders, including UH business management senior and Phi Mu fraternity member Dawn Winston, requested support for the bill from legislators. “We currently have 185 House sponsors and 28 Senate sponsors for this bill,” Winston said. Winston said that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) are among those already in support of the bill. UH’s Student Government Association also supports the CHIA. Winston, who traveled with her fraternity NPC delegate Donna Stallard, teammate Adam Anderson

“Hopefully we will have a name in a couple of months, but there is no deadline as of now.” Since opening its doors in 1974, UH-D has drawn many students from the greater Houston area and currently has 12,000 students enrolled. That number is expected to increase by 8,000 in the next five years. “UH-D has almost as many students as Baylor University and has been around for 35 years,” Wilson said. “It is a fabulous institution with a lot to offer but just has too little of an identity,”

service projects in the recent past,” Associated Building and Contractors Student Chapter President Katherine Murphy said. The team is partnering with Rebuilding Together Houston. “Rebuilding Together Houston is a part of a larger national group,” Eldin said. “It is Houston’s largest community outreach organization working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize

The UH System will offer classes in a newly built Northwest Campus beginning this summer, an alternative that administrators hope will better serve UH students and residents living in a rapidly growing Houston area. Through a leasing contract with Lone Star College, the Northwest Campus will offer undergraduate, post-baccalaureate and graduate programs from both UH and UHDowntown campuses. Classes in communications, consumer science and psychology, among others, are currently scheduled for the summer and fall semesters. Director of University Outreach Lonnie Howard said the summer and fall schedules are still being “developed and expanded” alongside administrators of the Texas A&M System, Texas State System and Texas Southern University. The curriculum was designed to avoid duplicate classes with an eye towards higher-level programs for students transferring from local community colleges. “Our current plans are to offer high-demand courses that will allow students to complete the upper division of undergraduate degree programs, the full master’s degree programs and certifications,” Howard said. While still offering face-toface classes, Howard said that through a combination of hybrid,

see VOLUNTEER, page 3

see LONE STAR, page 8

jairo razo The Daily Cougar

On the hunt

he Houston Room at the University Center was filled with students as University Career Services held a Summer Jobs for Coogs Fair on Thursday to give students the opportunity to meet with potential employers for opportunities to intern, volunteer or work during the summer.

Students put their skills to work By Jessica Traylor The Daily Cougar UH technology students in the Construction Management program will showcase their generosity by renovating an elderly woman’s house this weekend. “A group of our students volunteered their time over two weekends to power-wash the home, replace all broken windows, rotted trims, broken siding, cracked sealants, as well as scraping and painting

the house siding and the trim. This should make the house more livable and more energy efficient,” Director of the Construction Management program Neil Eldin said. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The project started with a simple idea. “Scott Vlasek, our advisor, suggested that I look into this program as a community service project, as the UH student chapter of ABC has not done a lot of community

2 n Friday, April 23, 2010

The Daily Cougar

G.Y.T.

CAMPUS BEAT

APRIL IS STD AWARENESS MONTH

FORECAST

the Health Center is offering affordable STD testing to UH students

Saturday

Sunday

82˚59˚

Monday

82˚59˚

82˚60˚

Men’s Clinic Friday, April 23rd 10:00am to 3:30pm Gonorrhea/Chlamydia, Syphilis, and HIV testing only

Women’s Clinic Tuesday, April 20th and Wednesday, April 28th 9:30am to 3:00pm STD tests as appropriate FREE Cougar Condom Covers to first 100 folks to drop by the WRC or Student Health Center UH HEALTH CENTER: Entrance 6 off Wheeler; Building 525 on campus map. Visit: www.uh.edu/admin/hc

Tests will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Students will pay for the office visit and STD testing at time of service. For more information call 713-743-5156.

WOMEN’S RESOURCE

CALENDAR FRIDAY

Census on campus: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., UC Satellite, University Center and the Center for Public Policy (Heyne Building, Room 104). Census on Campus/Census representatives and CHIP interns will provide assistance and resources about the 2010 Census at various information tables. For more information, contact Mike Angel at 713-743-3976 or mangel2@uh.edu The University of Houston Alumni Association’s Awards Dinner: 6-9:30 p.m., Omni Houston Hotel Four Riverway, Houston, TX 77056. The UH Alumni Association’s Awards Dinner honors the men and women whose professional success, volunteerism, and generous spir-

CO R R E C T I O N S gg

CENTER

Student Publications Committee

4 p.m. MonDAy Apr. 26, 2010 in the Lone Star Room, University Center The meeting is open to the public.

it bring honor to their alma mater. Now in its 56th year, the Awards Dinner has become a tradition for so many Cougars who make it a point to attend annually. This year, the association will celebrate 70 years of red and white with one of its hottest silent auctions and a closing performance by UH’s very own Barbara Padilla. Dress code is black tie. Undergrad the Musical: 7 p.m., Cullen Performance Hall. The Urban Experience Program presents Undergrad the Musical, written and directed by Chris Davis. Members of the UH Marching Band will also perform from 6-6:45 p.m. This event is free. To RSVP for tickets, call 713-7436032.

» Report errors to editor@thedailycougar.com

The Daily Cougar mistakenly reported in a feature photo cutline titled “Helping or hurting the cause?” (News, Wednesday) that members of the UH chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy supported the legalization of marijuana. SSDP does not take a position on marijuana legalization, but rather focuses on drug issues that affect college students. The students in the photo were petitioning for the passage of a Good Samaritan Policy by the Student Government Association while hosting a bake sale Tuesday, not requesting support for marijuana legalization. The Daily Cougar mistakenly referred to Giselle Bueno as the editor in chief of El Gato in “Group launches paper” (News, Monday). Bueno is the Spanish editor of El Gato; Anna Gallegos is the editor in chief.

Newsroom (713) 743-5360

The SPC will hold its April meeting at

» Send event information to calendar@thedailycougar.com

Editor in Chief

Ronnie Turner (713) 743-5362 editor@thedailycougar.com n

Managing Editor

Matthew Keever (713) 743-5361 me@thedailycougar.com n

News Editors

Patricia Estrada Hiba Adi (713) 743-5314 news@thedailycougar.com n

Sports Editors

Phillipe Craig Robert Higgs (713) 743-5303 sports@thedailycougar.com

Life & Arts Editor

Travis Hensley (713) 743-5302 arts@thedailycougar.com n

Special Projects Editor

Jarrod Klawinsky jklawinsky@thedailycougar.com n

Opinion Editor

Alan Dennis opinion@thedailycougar.com n

Photo Editor

Kendra Berglund (713) 743-5304 photo@thedailycougar.com n

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Matt Miller webeditor@thedailycougar.com n

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Abby Lee blogs@thedailycougar.com

about About the Cougar The Daily Cougar is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters, and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer, at the University of Houston Printing Plant and online at http://www. thedailycougar.com. The University seeks to provide equal educational opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability or veteran status, or sexual orientation. The Daily Cougar is supported in part by Student Service Fees. the first copy of the Cougar is free; each additional copy is 25 cents. Subscriptions Rates are $70 per year or $40 per semester. Mail subscription requests to: Mail Subscriptions, The Daily Cougar, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77204-4015. news tips Direct news tips and story ideas to the News Desk. Call (713) 743-5314, e-mail news@thedailycougar. com or fax (713) 743-5384. A “Submit news item” form is also available online at thedailycougar.com. Copyright No part of the newspaper in print or online may be reproduced without the written consent of the director of the Student Publications Department.

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News

The Daily Cougar

SGA Profile

Student senators ready to work Policymaking, college integration top priorities for representatives

By Robert Garcia The Daily Cougar Graduate College of Social Work Sen. Josephine Tittsworth and Sen. Adam Cook of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture have set their Student Government Association agendas and are ready to get to work to represent their respective colleges. Tittsworth was elected to her fourth term as the Social Work senator. She has been very active in campus policy-making positions, having also served two terms as the GCSW Student Association Senator. Tittsworth said she has enjoyed working on policy during her time in SGA, which was one of the reasons she wanted to run again. “I would like to plug gaps between the SGA constitution and the SGA bylaws and also make changes to the SGA election code,” Tittsworth said. Tittsworth, founder of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit, has devoted much of her time and effort to attaining transgender equality not only on campus but in society as well. TTNS coordinates efforts with Texas colleges and universities to change policies to protect transgender faculty, staff and students. The SGA in February officially praised the University’s Jan. 8 release of the “Izzy Lopez” Memo, which seeks to protect the rights of transgender students at UH, a move that Tittsworth considers a great advancement from when she began as a student at UH. Cook said he ran because he wanted to see his college become a greater part of the University. “The College of Architecture is regarded by many as an isolated College on campus. I want to make sure that we are more involved with the University,” Cook said. “The University is in a time of transition and expansion as we aim for (flagship) status. I’d like to see the College of Architecture more involved in that process; there are some really knowledgeable and talented designers in our College that the University should be utilizing.” Cook, a senior, is attaining a degree in Architecture, a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design and also a Bachelor of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship, a triple major. Cook is no stranger to the workings of student associations, having also served on the College of Architecture’s Student Council for the last three years, a position he said is one that acts as a liaison for the College between students and administration. news@thedailycougar.com

Friday, April 23, 2010 n 3

Gang member reforms after converting to Islam By Abby Lee The Daily CougaR A former Latino gang member told a story to a group of UH students Tuesday of how converting to Islam saved his life, and he described why Latinos are more likely to convert to Islam. As part of Islam Awareness Week, the Muslim Student Association welcomed Mujahid Fletcher, who moved to Houston from Colombia at age 8. Starting in middle school, Fletcher led a troublesome life after he began his own gang based on self-defense. “If it weren’t for Islam and their rehabilitation of the Islamic lifestyle, I don’t even know if I’d be here today,” he said. “I may be in jail, or I may be dead. I used to have people calling my house and telling my mother at three in the morning that they were going to kill me.” Mujahid said that these phone calls came when he was between 13 and 16 years old. Believing Fletcher’s future was

VOLUNTEER continued from page 1

neighborhoods. It provides home repair and renovation services at no cost to low-income homeowners in need, such as (the) elderly, veterans, (the) disabled and people impacted by natural disasters.” Students working on the project said it is about helping the community and not what this project will do for them. “Our students decided to get involved in some work that confirms that the pleasure of giving is more than the pleasure of taking,” Eldin said. “They wanted to help, awaiting no monetary or tangible benefits.” There are about 390 students in the Construction Management program, including 350 undergraduate and 40 graduate students.

in peril, his mother sent him to school in Colombia. Surrounded by a different group of people, Fletcher excelled in school. When he returned to Houston years later, he longed for the slower pace of life in Colombia. However, he soon began to fall into the same habits that got him in trouble many times before. He knew it was time for a change. After many years of living a fastpaced life, Fletcher began reading about Kabbalah and Buddhism and even his own religion, Catholicism, but he said he found “holes” in them. With his father’s encouragement, he began searching for life’s meaning. “He never put an ideology on me. He only told me there was one God, and how ever I would find that God was up to me,” Fletcher said. After questioning followers of multiple religions, he became more attracted to Islam for the clarity of the answers an Islam expert provided him. “The person would always deal with me with etiquette, with wisdom. He wouldn’t argue,” Fletcher said. “He wouldn’t try to pin me down.

He would just give very plain, open answers and say, ‘Just go look at an Encyclopedia Britannica.’” After a long time of studying the religion, Fletcher finally accepted Islam at a Muslim convention in Florida, where he spoke to a Colombian Muslim for two hours and said he learned ways Islam ideology could offer solutions for Colombia. “That’s when I learned the real meaning of submission,” he said. “When you surrender to something, it’s something you can’t argue. The only thing I knew was I felt clean.” Fletcher admits he had some doubts in converting to Islam because, similar to other religions, he witnessed hypocrisy among some. “Some of the people say they’re Muslim, but their actions may not be Islamic, the same way a Christian may say he’s Christian and his actions aren’t based on Christianity,” he said. Fletchers said after converting, he didn’t have the desire to return to his old ways. So great was the impact

he had on others that, a month later, his girlfriend converted and, years later, his parents and mother-in-law also converted. Fletcher said Latinos embrace Islam more because of Islamic roots that exist in Latin America’s history. Fletcher said many Latinos have ancestors from Spain who were Muslim. “We have so much from Islam that we don’t understand, (that) we don’t know,” he said. “The natural family values that Latinos have come from Islam. When they realize that it’s not contradictory and so far-fetched from their background, many of them are becoming Muslim.” Today, Fletcher runs a non-profit organization called Islam In Spanish, which provides multimedia material in Spanish to inform people about Islam. Fletcher also opened the Andalusia Social and Educational Media Center, a center that facilitates interaction between people of all religions and backgrounds by holding discussions and workshops.

“The characters of our students tend to be outgoing, movers and shakers, team players, willing to help and enjoying the touchy feely work environment,” Eldin said. The elderly woman set to receive help was chosen by the Rebuilding Together Houston organization. The opportunities for these types of projects are brought up based on the amount of available volunteers. “In this instance, the Construction Management students voiced their willingness to commit their time, offer their tools and volunteer their expertise in the art and science of construction,” Eldin said. To qualify for assistance, the property must be a detached, singlefamily dwelling in Harris County that is in need of repair. The owner or occupant must be elderly or disabled and within the income guidelines. All repairs must be necessary, and

the owner or occupant must be financially and physically unable to complete them on their own. The woman whose house was chosen for this project was a longtime bus driver for HISD and had also worked at the Veterans Affairs hospital. “In her youth, she did her share of contributing to the society, and now it is time to be recognized and dignified by the society,” Eldin said. This weekend’s project will be a benefit to the homeowner, the students helping her and UH as a whole, Eldin said “At UH, we focus on building characters as much as we focus on building technical expertise,” Eldin said. “This exercise/event serves both. As good citizens, our students are experiencing first-hand the joy of caring for the community of which they are a part. At the same time, their

volunteer work provides additional opportunities to further sharpen their skills and knowledge. “In addition, this event and similar exercises raise the UH banner high in the local community and indirectly in the whole nation. For the lady that was recognized, it is an affirmation of the feeling of belonging to our great city and state.” Murphy said the opportunity to work in this weekend’s project will give participants valuable field experience, as well as the joy of helping the Houston community. “It’s a booster to our chapter and our Cougar pride to get our name out there in the community that we will eventually be working in,” Murphy said. “We have the opportunity to better the lives of our neighbors and add to the rich culture of this city.”

Monday 9-week beer pong tournament Win a vacation for 2

Wednesday 1.00 Dom draft/2.00 well

news@thedailycougar.com

Thursday Rib eye steak $1 per ounce w/fixings $200 karaoke competition

Friday & Saturday Karaoke nights

book parties @ christianstailgate.com

Wii Sports Dress code enforced

2000 Bagby St Houston, TX 77002 in Midtown

4 n Friday, April 23, 2010

The Daily Cougar

OPINION

COMING MONDAY: Are online job search sites such as Monster and Career Builder a waste of time to use?

EDITOR Alan Dennis E-MAIL opinion@thedailycougar.com ONLINE www.thedailycougar.com/opinion

THE DAILY COUGAR

EDITORIAL CARTOON

editorial B oard Ronnie Turner, Editor in Chief Matthew Keever, Managing editor Patricia Estrada, News editor Hiba Adi, News editor Phillipe Craig, Sports editor Robert Higgs, Sports editor Travis Hensley, Life & Arts editor Alan Dennis, Opinion editor Jarrod Klawinsky, Special projects editor

STAFF EDITORIAL

Failing classes isn’t fun, but lessons can still be learned

usbicef

Quality care requires competition The root of America’s health care problem is not quality but cost. Health care procedures are too expensive, and rises in costs make proper health care inaccessible to individuals who aren’t insured. Brandon Wynn Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care system will be reformed so those who don’t have insurance coverage will. The government insists that adding 32 million additional people into the market — along with Medicare reform — will help reduce the costs of medical treatment. Its assumption is that people who weren’t previously covered would now go in for regular check-ups, which would help prevent them from having catastrophic medical emergencies that require highercost emergency care. This solution, however, only throws more money at the problem, because it does not address the underlying issue of why medical costs are out of control — the over-utilization of health insurance itself. The actual problem lies within the existing insurance mandate from the government. The government gives tax benefits to employers that provide employees with health insurance. If you earn wages, your employer can give you a portion of that income tax-free in the form of health insurance. As it stands, the employer gives this benefit to its workers and both receive a tax benefit by participating. Of course, workers are going to want to

have every medical expense covered and paid for by the insurance company. This causes the over-utilization of insurance in common health care procedures that should be paid out-of-pocket. Insurance is supposed to only cover catastrophic events such as heart attacks or cancer treatment. By already having government involvement in the distribution of insurance and insurance policies, free market forces are not allowed to function. As competition is effectively eliminated, this leads to a rise in cost. Individuals don’t care about the costs because, with insurance, they do not directly pay for treatment. Having someone else pay causes prices to spiral out of control because individuals only care about the service with no regard for the cost. As a result, private practices and hospitals can raise costs, mainly to cover bad tort law policy, with little resistance. This prices out individuals with no insurance who are forced to pay the actual cost, or it leads to lesser care for those on Medicare because of price fixing. Ideally, individuals would be allowed to shop for noncritical health expenses and compare costs. Doctors would be forced to compete with one another to provide quality, cost-effective treatment. A comparable structure can be seen in health practices not covered by insurance, such as elective procedures or Lasik eye surgery. People care about the price of Lasik because they pay out of pocket; when they go in for a checkup at the family clinic, they aren’t concerned with the price of a procedure or whether they really need it

because it’s covered. The easiest solution to the health care problem — aside from tort reform — would be to completely eliminate the government’s involvement with the insurance industry. If state governments repealed regulations on what portion of costs insurance companies had to cover and the federal government allowed employers to give employees health care benefits in the form of cash, tax-free, most people would take the tax-free payment and buy a cheaper insurance policy that only covered what they needed. Such insurance policies would most likely cover less with higher deductibles and much lower monthly payments. Under this system, going to the doctor for a routine visit would exclude insurance entirely, and people would be able to shop around for doctors who charge reasonable amounts. By introducing competition, costs would plummet as they would in any facet of the economy where free markets are allowed to function. Also, by removing mandatory health insurance from jobs, the issue of preexisting conditions would be eliminated, as people wouldn’t need to qualify for new insurance policies if they changed jobs. Disconnecting insurance from government regulations accompanied by tort reform is still not a perfect fix. It is, however, a fix that actually addresses the fundamental flaw in the cost of medical care, and it could be enacted immediately. Brandon Wynn is an engineering junior and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

Letters to the editor

Daily Cougar misrepresented truth This commentary is a response to a feature photo with the headline “Helping or hurting the cause?” which ran in The Daily Cougar on Wednesday. Susan Robbins As the faculty advisor for the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, I was dismayed to see the picture of the bake sale that they held on Tuesday, 4/20,

accompanied by text claiming that they were “UH students supporting the legalization of marijuana.” If the person who wrote the text had taken the time to speak to any of the students involved in SSDP, they would have learned that they were petitioning for a Good Samaritan Policy at UH, which is totally unrelated to the legalization of any drugs, including

marijuana. Fabricating a story line such as this is irresponsible journalism, and the Cougar owes SSDP both an apology and formal retraction of the story that was printed. Susan Robbins is an associate professor at the Graduate College of Social Work and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

As the countdown to the end of the semester starts, some students will be reminded that simply paying for a class doesn’t mean they will pass it. It’s not the same environment as McDonald’s, where there are no marks made on a transcript every time a customer fails to finish a Big Mac. There is nobody at Taco Bell telling patrons to start with the bean burrito before they can move on to the $5 box. College is one of those few things in life a person can pay Giving up to fail at. Having to pony up is the only for a class again and again and then explaining to your parents way to why you didn’t succeed can be a ensure the pretty hard thing to do. It is also one of the most permanency important lessons one can learn of failure in college. While this might be the last time you ever have to write a 20-page research paper, dealing with letdowns will always be a constant. Some hard-earned money will always go toward fixing mistakes. Dealing with those who are disappointed will always be tough. The lesson to learn from these events is that they don’t signify the end of the world; life goes on after failing a class. There is no happiness to be found in dwelling on past mistakes. The only way to minimize the pain is to try again. Giving up is the only way to ensure the permanency of failure. Use these mistakes as a guide for things not to do and nothing else. Students who learn this lesson in college will always ensure they have given their best effort when striving to accomplish their dreams. When something doesn’t pan out, they’ll know they did not back down. They don’t allow what others say about them to be testament of what they can accomplish. Strange as it may sound, it’s good that college is a place where students can pay to fail. Disappointment will follow all of us everywhere we go. It is how people use that experience that determines a person’s true character.

E D I TO R I A L policy STAFF EDITORIAL The Staff Editorial reflects the opinions of The Daily Cougar Editorial Board (the members of which are listed above the editorial). All other opinions, commentaries and cartoons reflect only the opinion of the author. Opinions expressed in The Daily Cougar do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Houston or the students as a whole. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Daily Cougar welcomes letters to the editor from any member of the UH community. Letters should be no more than 250 words and signed, including the author’s full name, phone number or e-mail address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major. Anonymous letters will not be published. Deliver letters to Room 7, University Center Satellite; e-mail them to letters@ thedailycougar.com; send them via campus mail to STP 4015; or fax them to (713) 7435384. Letters are subject to editing. ADVERTISEMENTS Advertisements published in The Daily Cougar do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the University or the students as a whole. GUEST COMMENTARY Submissions are accepted from any member of the UH community and must be signed with the author’s name, phone number or e-mail address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major. Commentary should be kept to less than 500 words. Guest commentaries should not be written as replies to material already printed in the Cougar, but rather should present independent points of view. Rebuttals should be sent as letters. Deliver submissions to Room 7, University Center Satellite; e-mail them to letters@thedailycougar.com; or fax them to (713) 743-5384. All submissions are subject to editing.

Friday, April 23, 2010 n 5

The Daily Cougar

SPORTS

COMING MONDAY: See how the football team shaped up in this weekend’s Red-White Game

EDITORS Phillipe Craig, Robert Higgs E-MAIL sports@thedailycougar.com ONLINE www.thedailycougar.com/sports

baseball

Coogs attempt to get back on track By Tristan Tippet The Daily Cougar The Cougars have routinely had to bounce back from rough games this year, but their resolve will be tested when they begin a three-game series at 6:30 p.m. today against Conference USA foe Southern Miss. in Hattiesburg, Miss. The Cougars will try to put the memory of Lamar pinch hitter Kevin Roebuck delivering a walk-off tworun homer Wednesday behind them and not let that 7-6 loss affect them moving forward. “They get a win with one swing of the bat; that’s probably the toughest way to lose a game,” head coach Rayner Noble said. Noble said the key to handling this situation is to not let it affect you in the next game. “What you do is try and put it behind you and you try to move on. It’s all about what you do in the next ball game,” Noble said. “You just try and get past this. Things happen, you try to settle this with a good attitude and you go on. That’s what you do.” The Cougars have had their

struggles, and preseason favorite Rice played inconsistently during the first part of the season. But the most disappointing C-USA team this year has been Southern Miss, which is 18-17 overall and 2-7 in league play, good enough for last place. Last year, Southern Miss went 40-26 and wound up losing 8-6 to Rice in the championship game of the C-USA tournament. In the NCAA super regional round, the Golden Eagles swept Florida and made it to the College World Series. Even though it lost both games to Texas and North Carolina, Southern Miss was the surprise of the tournament. This season, the Golden Eagles hired Scott Berry, who served as pitching coach for nine years under former head coach Corky Palmer, who retired after last season. For the first month of the season, the Golden Eagles picked up where they left off. The Golden Eagles went 12-4, including a five-game winning streak. Since that streak ended March 17 against Louisiana-Monroe, Southern Miss has gone 6-13. When that happens, the culprit

justin flores The Daily Cougar

Austin Gracey and the Cougars hit the road with a bad taste in their mouths after Wednesday’s walk-off loss to Lamar and will now have to contend with a Southern Miss squad intent on finishing the season strong. is usually pitching, and that was the case with the Golden Eagles. Southern Miss allowed at least 10 runs in five games during the latter stretch. The Golden Eagles have allowed fewer than three runs only three times. Despite hitting .311

and 40 home runs and posting a .973 fielding percentage, the Golden Eagles’ team ERA is 5.76. Still, Noble expects Southern Miss to bring its ‘A’ game this weekend. “I think it’s going to be a

knock-down drag-out,” Noble said. “They’re in last place in the conference right now, and they know they need to start picking up the pace.” sports@thedailycougar.com

softball

golf

Cougars aim to sink Pirates

Plenty on the line for UH at C-USA tourney

By Chris Losee The Daily Cougar

It’s been two weeks since the Cougars last hit the links, ending the regular season with a 10th place finish at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate in Columbus, Ohio. UH finished with a team score of 904, led by junior Clark Mitzner, who shot a 224 in his three rounds to finish 33rd, including two rounds in the 70s. The C-USA Tournament begins Sunday in Orlando, Fla., and runs through Tuesday.It is hosted by Central Florida at the Red Tail Golf Club. “We know a little bit about the golf course,” head coach Jonathan Dismuke said. “We’ve just been trying to prepare ourselves for what we’re going to face. The golf course has been very scorable in the past,” The Cougars head into this weekend’s C-USA Tournament on a bit of a slide, having placed 10th, 16th, ninth, 12th and 14th in their last five tournaments to end the regular season. Dismuke knows his team has to turn it on. “We’ve been working hard on a lot of different stuff trying to better prepare ourselves for Red Tail. We’ve got, I think, three guys that have seen the gold course before,” Dismuke said.

The Cougars will play their last home Conference USA series of the regular season this weekend when they match up against East Carolina for a three-game set at Cougar Softball Stadium. The performance delivered in Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Texas State, in which freshman righthander Bailey Watts went nine innings and recorded nine strikeouts, gave the Cougars their first road victory of the season. UH head coach Kyla Holas said it was one of the season’s best performances. “I thought it was by far one of the best games we have played recently,” Holas said. “To be able to mentally stay in there pitching and those timely hits we got at the end against a real good pitcher ... it was a good day.” East Carolina is returning from posting a 40-15 record in 2009. The Pirates are 30-17 this season and are coming off a doubleheader sweep of instate opponent North CarolinaWilmington earlier in the week. This is the seventh consecutive year that the Pirates have won 30 or more games. The Cougars

By Keith Cordero Jr. The Daily Cougar

kendra berglund The Daily Cougar

After posting their first road win of the season, the Cougars will try to defend their home turf when they host East Carolina for a three-game set this weekend. (24-21, 8-9 C-USA) are hoping to come out of this weekend’s conference series with some wins. “We have to find a way to get something,” Holas said. “Especially when you are going against a team that has never won in the conference, you have to make a run for it if you want to be considered for anything postseason.” ECU is stacked with experience this year. The Pirates boast seven seniors along with junior pitcher Toni Paisley, the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week, so they will

not make it easy for the Cougars. UH leads the all-time series against ECU, 17-10. “ECU is probably going to be the best they are going to be,” Holas said. “This will be their year if they are going to do something.” The Cougars focused on offense and on a bit of defense before heading into this weekend’s matchup. The series kicks off with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and Sunday’s finale will begin at noon. sports@thedailycougar.com

Mitzner, Jackie Lindsey and Matt Eschenburg have led the Cougars this year, with at least 11 tournaments, 29 rounds and a scoring average below 76.06. “All three of them would be nice,” Dismuke said with a smile. “When we’ve played well, we’ve had multiple guys finish in the top 20, and this semester it’s been awhile since we’ve had a real solid performance from multiple guys.” The Robert Kepler Intercollegiate Golf Invitational was UH’s last warm-up tournament of the year. A berth to the NCAA Tournament will be on the line this weekend. “I think there were so many things we did well (at the Kepler Invitational). We kind of grinded rounds out. We weren’t playing well at all,” Dismuke said. “We got off to some rough starts … if we ever get off to a good start, typically we play pretty well.” Putting has been an issue for UH this season and Dismuke hopes his team is aware of that. “If we can have a great putting week, that’s the fastest way to be competitive,” Dismuke said. “If you want to single out one particular thing, I think that’s what you would love to have — our best putting week.” sports@thedailycougar.com

LIFE & ARTS

6 n Friday, April 23, 2010

The Daily Cougar

b-side

Coheed and Cambria pleases fans with album By Ben Muths The Daily Cougar Coheed and Cambria is one of the few popular bands these days that understands the importance of conceptual albums. However, Coheed takes it a step further. Its entire existence is based upon The Armory Wars, a comic written by front man Claudio Sanchez. The Armory Wars is a five-part comic series, with a story line that follows Coheed and Cambria’s lyrics and two main characters that rightly serve as the band’s name. Before the newest album, Coheed released its albums in order, beginning with The Second Stage Turbine Blade and completing the series with No World For Tomorrow. Their new album, Year of the Black Rainbow, is based on the first part of the comic series and follows a graphic novel by the same name. For veteran fans of Coheed and Cambria, the release of this album on March 13 acted as a resolution to its conceptual catalog. Coheed manages to take conceptual writing to an entire new level, combining various artistic forums and creating a full musical and

visual experience. Those that enjoy Coheed’s classic metal feel and Sanchez’s vocal technique will view this album as a perfectly acceptable addition to their catalog. Year of the Black Rainbow contains the same formula as the other albums; a typical four or five solid tracks, with a few hardcore (and far less catchy) songs in between. In order to fully understand where this group comes from, audible research is necessary. Its past four albums have brought outstanding consistency to the effect that Sanchez is trying to portray to his listeners. Others who don’t care for this style may think differently. Out of that context, this may be seen as just another album fresh out of the easy-bake Coheed oven. Yet, what these critics fail to recognize is the level of difficulty that goes hand-in-hand with their musicianship, in both vocals and instrumentation. With each new album, Coheed and Cambria manages to better perfect its full-bodied metal sound that can be enjoyed equally by fans of the genre and those who think Metallica is for tools. The fifth installment of the

COHEED AND CAMBRIA

The band Coheed and Cambria released its fifth studio album, Year of The Black Rainbow, which builds upon the foundation that it had already established with fans. series starts out with a couple of strong, heavily rhythmic tracks that may discourage continued listening. Though these are disappointing, the album immediately improves from there, starting with the single, “Here We are, Juggernaut.” I tend to be skeptical towards album singles, because of the somewhat cheesy radio feel they present. Coheed tramples upon that stereotype and instead showcases the most lyrical chorus of the

album. From there, only excellence proceeds. “Far” is one of the best mellow songs Sanchez has written yet, along with “Made Out of Nothing,” the album’s heavy downtempo track. Coheed continues its trend of implementing more complicated meter into its music with “In the Flame of Error,” which will be welcomed by fans of “The Willing Well” tracks off of Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness.

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BUS DRIVER NEEDED for private school in Museum District. Class B license required. Short distance driving (around the Museum District) for a private school. Call 713-520-0738

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This album perfectly justifies why I’ve kept up with these guys since my sophomore year of high school. Compositionally, Coheed and Cambria remains one of the most unique groups of this genre; it has the ability to combine intensity and melodic beauty in perfect balance. Year of the Black Rainbow is the icing on this massive series’ cake. Coheed and Cambria fans, rejoice.

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COMICS & MORE

The Daily Cougar

COUGAR COMICS

Find more daily strips at thedailycougar.com/comics

Robbie and Bobby by Jason Poland

The Hot Dog Stand by Mishele Lamshing

today’s sudoku How to play

Each row must contain the numbers 1 to 9; each column must contain the numbers 1 to 9; and each set of 3-by-3 boxes must also contain the numbers 1 to 9.

Previous puzzle solved

Friday, April 23, 2010 n 7

today’s crossword ACROSS 1 Shopping center 5 Garage service 9 Keeps fit 13 Ess molding 14 Winter warmer 15 Major — Hoople 16 Trendy 17 Wahines’ dances 18 St. John’s — (herbal remedy) 19 Bwana’s trek 21 “Exodus” hero 22 Struts along 23 Vegas rival 25 Floor model 27 Coming into view 31 Spoiled 35 And then —! 36 Elite Navy diver 38 Kid or rib 39 Indy 500 sponsor 40 Psyched up 42 Taxi 43 Room under a roof 46 Entice 47 Pronto 48 Vacillated 50 Art of arguing 52 Like Beethoven 54 Himalayan sighting 55 Moon goddess 58 Pie container 60 On the other side 64 Coup d’— 65 Outlet inserts 67 — -Aid (drink mix) 68 Yield 69 Ms. Lauder 70 Pound or Cornell 71 Slide downhill 72 Lie down 73 Regard as DOWN 1 Beaded shoes 2 Turkish official 3 Explorer — Ericson 4 Spy novelist (2 wds.) 5 Grammy winner — Rawls 6 Bruins 7 Daily meals 8 Less trouble

23 27

29 36

42 47

51 54

9 Maxilla or mandible 10 “Typee” sequel 11 Trail mix 12 Former JFK arrivals 14 Takeout order 20 Gas-pump abbr. 24 McEnroe’s ex 26 Wrestler’s pad 27 Prose work 28 Slogan 29 Meaningless 30 Touch base (2 wds.) 32 Saguaros 33 Hayes or Asimov 34 Mortgages 37 Bad, bad Brown of song 41 Set free 44 Treated salt 45 High note 47 Looked smug

32 38

53 58

52 55

4 9 Snazzy 51 Catchall abbr. 53 Like some alarms 55 Drumsticks 56 Mo. bill 57 Wheel hub 59 Fanatics 61 Move like lava 62 Feeling miffed 63 — dunk 66 Earn

2009 United Feature Syndicate INC.

Previous puzzle solved G R A S

L U N T

N C E A W I S N Y E

O R D O

P A R K A O S R S H OO N T

R U N K A L E L Y N X ME A T

S HO L L I T E E E T N E DOG T E T U T A H B R A S Y OUWE P S A V A K N E S C I S AMO K RO S A ON L Y MOO S

D R A C H OO M B E R E E C E D N O T E S

S A K E

A S A I A T E N H E R E L I P F E E T A RG A N R I B E A G L E H I E D

Teaching Opportunities in Pasadena ISD Plan to attend our Career Choice Seminar:

SATURDAY, May 1st 2010 @ 10AM at the Beverly Hills/Challenger Location:

11111 Beamer Houston, TX 77089

The Pasadena ISD Alternative Teacher Certification Program is offering Career Choice Seminars for anyone interested in becoming a Texas certified teacher. Potential candidates must have a bachelor’s degree or above by May 2010 and must have an overall GPA of 2.5 on the 4.0 system in ALL semester hours attempted or a 2.7 GPA in the last 60 hours attempted. The application deadline for the 2010-2011 academic year is May 14, 2010 The seminars will provide an opportunity for potential candidates to learn about our program and the areas of certification offered.

For more information, please call:

(713) 740-0029

also, visit our website at: www.pasadenaisd.org/atcp

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Applications are available in Room 151 Communication and online at www.uh.edu/sp/jobs. Positions are paid. E-mail questions to editor@thedailycougar.com.

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C A B R N E A N T WS

LIFE & ARTS | NEWS

8 n Friday, April 23, 2010

The Daily Cougar

Jack’s Facts

No one puts Nicolas in the cage for good By Jack Wehman The daily cougar Only one actor embodies our nation’s true spirit to its fullest. We’ve seen him give his all — his heart, his passion and his hair — to make films great, and we’ve seen him give nothing, preferring to take his money and leave. He’s one of the highest paid movie stars of all time, yet he stays true to the common man by owing millions of dollars to the Internal Revenue Service. No one else straddles the line between creative genius and absolute idiot so closely. I’m talking about Nicolas Cage. He can be a brilliant actor — his portrayal of an alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas makes you never want to drink again, and he is absolutely dead-on (and hilarious) as the misfit “father” in Raising Arizona. No one else makes movies that are as fun to watch, either. Even though The Rock didn’t win or deserve any Academy Awards, it’s still one of the best action movies of the past 20 years, and Con Air is too over the top to not love (well, that and it has John Cusack.) And when it comes to dual roles, Matchstick Men proved that The Cage is

capable of being simultaneously hilarious and serious. But his acting prowess is not the only thing that makes The Cage great. No other actor (or creature, for that matter) has the hair styling abilities he has. Need a clean-cut military haircut? No problem — The Cage has you covered. A platinum blonde, foottall pompadour? Not even close to being a problem. Dirty redneck stubble with greasy, stringy long hair? He’s got that, too. What about a fro? Once again, The Cage is prepared and at the ready. He’s Hollywood’s hair chameleon, always ready to beat his hair into submission at a moment’s notice for the sake of the script or, at least, the paycheck. So, he’s brilliant. But he’s also terrible. Anyone who has seen Ghost Rider knows how shoddy that movie is — and that’s Citizen Kane compared to the abomination that was Next. His worst movie, though, is the remake of The Wicker Man that came out in 2006. This movie at various points has (seriously) all of the following: The Cage beating up women of all ages; The Cage in a bear suit beating up women of all ages; The Cage screaming like a child as bees get poured onto his

face; The Cage stealing a bike from a school girl at gunpoint; The Cage getting set on fire as an entire village sits and prays. And that’s just from one movie — you could fill books with terrible Nicolas Cage quotes, using only movies he’s made in the past 10 years. There is something special about The Cage’s cinematic failures, though. They’re a special kind of bad that can be tolerated and even enjoyed in small doses. Even if he’s not giving his all, he’s still more fun to watch than 90 percent of the other actors in Hollywood. It’s definitely the reason he can still command $20 million roles, left and right. However, The Cage’s greatest asset is his debt itself. Because he chose to buy not one, not two, but nine Rolls-Royce Phantoms, an island and 15 different places to live around the world, he’s now millions in debt and is flooded with lawsuits — which means he’s got to continue acting in anything and everything that comes his way to keep paying the bills. That only means that we can continue to look to The Cage as a beacon of acting excellence for many years to come. arts@thedailycougar.com

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Log on & take the survey today! Every 50th student who completes the survey will receive a $50.00 gift card! (up to $3,000) the information that you provide will be of great value and benefit to the University of Houston. student satisfaction survey is administered by Measurement and evaluation center, Learning & assessment services.

courtesy of dawn Winston

Business management senior Dawn Winston traveled with U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas’ 32nd District to Washington D.C., to lobby in favor of a bill that would allow groups to make charitable donations to non-profit, non-university sponsored housing for college students.

BILL continued from page 1

from Chi Phi fraternity at Texas A&M and Chi Phi National Fraternity Executive Director Michael Azarian, were chosen out of 500 applicants who hoped to represent their schools and organizations at the Congressional visits. “Students were chosen on the basis of their involvement in their school, their organization and their interest to improve Greek life for students nationwide,” Winston said. Current law allows only organizations that give charitable donations to university-sponsored housing to remain tax exempt. If CHIA passes, it will allow for more donations to be given to nonuniversity housing. The donations are needed to fund safety and structural renovations such as the installment of automatic fire sprinkler systems or security alarms. Non-university housing is often not equipped with the same safety features that university housing offers. “This is important because it directly affects over a quartermillion students nationwide,” Winston said. UH is home to more than 40 fraternities and sororities. Some of those organizations reside in nonuniversity housing off campus. In 2004, the Phi Kappa Theta house caught fire, killing its German shepherd, Nila. Winston said that fraternities and sororities rely on

LONE STAR continued from page 1

online and weekend classes, the Northwest Campus hopes to develop more programs that don’t require students to travel to campus. Located adjacent to Lone Star College’s University Park, the Northwest campus will include 15 classrooms, along with enrollment services for academic advising, recruiting and IT support dedicated solely to UH students. Howard said the Northwest Campus wasn’t developed to solely benefit UH students in terms of traffic or parking, although he anticipates some students will use the Northwest Campus as a substitute. “The opening of the Northwest Campus is really not about added value to the UH main campus,” Howard said. “What is really important to understand is that this venture is about added value

private donations to make the renovations that prevent incidents like this. “These donations, however, are not tax deductible, unlike a donation made to a university; therefore (they) are less common,” Winston said. In addition to making nonuniversity housing safer, Winston said that the bill would make it cheaper to go to college. “This also will keep college housing costs down and, therefore, make college more affordable,” Winston said. “Students will be able to have the option of having affordable and safe housing without discriminating on the non-profit organization.” Winston said that the bill is anticipated to pass this year. “It is such a small bill that it needs to be passed with a bigger bill as a vehicle to make it to the House and Senate floor,” she said. If CHIA passes, Winston said that it would provide $1 billion in planning and construction, and this in turn would create jobs. “Nationally, from what’s already been documented, over $1 billion are needed in renovations and safety upgrades alone for current fraternity and sorority housing,” Winston said. Winston also said that while CHIA would enhance living situations for fraternities and sororities, all students would benefit. “It’s not just for Greeks,” Winston said. news@thedailycougar.com

to the residents and UH students who live in the northwest region.” UH will offer an open house at the Northwest Campus for interested students in June, and as construction on the site continues, students who enroll for the summer may attend in the adjacent Lone Star College classrooms. Howard said opening the Northwest Campus is a tremendous opportunity to serve the 1.5 million people living in northwest Houston and encouraged students to visit uh.edu/northwest for classroom locations and course schedules. “(Opening the Northwest Campus) is about staying true to our institutional mission,” Howard said. “Our faculty and staff are very excited about augmenting UH’s footprint, increasing educational access and helping the income and employability of future students.” news@thedailycougar.com