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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Issue 139, Volume 75
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Law Center dean pushes vision By Sabrina Lloyd The daily cougar Having the UH Law Center becoming one of the top 40 nationally recognized law schools is just one of Dean Raymond Nimmer’s goals. Nimmer, who was interim dean from 2006 until that label was removed in April 2008, began his
academic career in Indiana and went on to become a research attorney at the American Bar Foundation. After teaching at several different universities, he ended up at UH in the late 1970s. “I came to UH because the law school was expanding and trying to achieve a national reputation,” Nimmer said. “I had choices to come
here or go other places and thought the (UH) law school and the city were perfect places to be.” Nimmer has been approached with an offer for dean position on two occasions. “Once 16 years ago, I was acting dean for two years, but I declined the invitation to stay on permanently because I had more academic stuff
that I wanted to do,” Nimmer said. “The second time, we had a dean that left abruptly, and I was asked to take over almost four years ago and (then) became permanent dean two years ago.” He has also has been the author of more than 20 books. “One of my books in the 80’s won a national book award as the
best new book in law. It was called The Law of Computer Technology,” Nimmer said. Four years ago, Nimmer was distinguished chair in international commercial law, which involved teaching and participating at a Catholic university law school in see DEAN, page 8
Health course joins CLASS By Michelle Villarreal The daily cougar The Department of Health and Human Performance will move from the College of Education to the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences in the beginning of fall 2010. “What HHP is doing, has evolved over the last few years into areas of research and training that are closer to Psychology and Communications Science and Disorders,” Provost John Antel said. The decision for the move was for more than one reason. “I was initially somewhat surprised, but upon learning more about the programs in the department, I could see various reasons for the fit with CLASS,” CLASS Interim Dean Cynthia Freeland said. Freeland said they would arrange all the details for the transition in the summer. The COE and CLASS both associate with research concerning health, which is a contributing factor to the transition. “Some of the HHP faculty do research on health issues in relation to quality of life and social factors … they will find common interests with some of our faculty,” Freeland said. “Faculty in kinesiology already have a relationship with the Houston Ballet to study movement issues for professional dancers, and they will have a good fit with members of our faculty in the School of Theatre and Dance.” With the move, the HHP may undergo some minor changes. “Whether (CLASS) will have a unit with the same name depends see HHP, page 8
TRAVIS HENSLEY The Daily Cougar
Final words
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s the Spring 2010 semester winds down, students are stressing about completing their final projects and studying for exams. For The Daily Cougar staff, this means handling schoolwork while completing the final newspapers for the semester. The Cougar’s final day of printing is Friday, and the editors will then take a break before preparing for the summer session.
Advertising students win first place District triumph guarantees spot in national competition gg
By Ashley Evans The daily cougar Cougar Concepts, the UH student advertising agency, made history by winning the district National Student Advertising Competition for the first time in 16 years. This win means that UH will be
one of 17 schools participating in the national competition June 1011 in Orlando, Fla. The NSAC is sponsored by the American Advertising Federation and is the world’s largest advertising pitch with more than 150 colleges and universities representing 15 districts. UH is part of District 10, which is one of the most competitive regions in the competition. For the NSAC competition the students were given a product, a target market and a case study to
use in order to create an inventive campaign book. The product was State Farm Insurance, and the target ages were 18-24 years old. Students were challenged to sell the product to this particular age group. For the campaign book, students had to come up with a ‘big idea.’ The Cougar Concepts team chose to use the slogan ‘life starts with State Farm’ to conceptualize the idea that the age demographic targeted were ‘transitioners,’ or those young
adults who are moving from financial dependence to financial independence. “When we were coming up with our big idea, we tried to think of the reasons why we would choose a slogan and then dig deeper into the emotions behind our decision,” team member Maria Prachyl said. Prachyl said she believes the win came from the fact that the team went in depth in their research. The campaign book was see ADVERTISING, page 3