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THE DAILY COUGAR thedailycougar.com
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newsline CRIME
Student robbed Monday, no suspects or injuries reported A student was robbed Monday evening when he was approached from behind at Farish Hall, according to an alert issued by the UH Department of Public Safety. The alert stated the robbery occurred in the exterior restroom at Farish Hall. The student said the suspects placed a metal object against his neck and demanded his wallet. He said he heard at least two voices. There were no other witnesses and no descriptions of the suspects are available. No one was injured. The UHDPS’s safety tips say students should use one of the 70 emergency call boxes in the event of an emergency. They also encourage students to walk in groups when possible. This is the first security alert issued since November of last year. For more information, go to http://www.uhemergency.info/go/ doc/1093/1016703/. — Nick Regan/The Daily Cougar
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
Prelaw speakers provide application and resume info Students interested in attending law school can attend a free event for information about applications, resumes and transcripts. Helen Godfrey, from Career Services, and Nakia Alexander, the prelaw advisor, will present tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the UC Big Bend room 279. “This is a great opportunity for anyone thinking about going to law school to find out more information about the application process,” Vicky Cantu, director of communications for Phi Alpha Delta Pre-law, said. For more information, email info@uhpadprelaw.org.
CORRECTIONS Report errors to editor@thedailycougar.com. Corrections will appear in this space as needed.
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February 16, 2011 Read. Recycle. Repeat daily.
CAREER
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Issue 95, Volume 76
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EVENTS Men’s Basketball The Cougars are hosting SMU tonight at Hofheinz Pavilion. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and student admission is free. Free Instructor-Led, Hands-On Computer Training Computer classes are being offered to students, alumni, faculty and staff. A class introducing database applications will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in room 110-6 of the Social Work Building.
FOR MORE EVENTS, CHECK OUT
thedailycougar.com/calendar
Alumni face tough market More than one quarter of new hires are temporary Tess Livingston
THE DAILY COUGAR Job seekers hunting for jobs need to prepare for a different type of job environment which focuses on temporary positions and is project oriented. Marilyn Wade, assistant director of alumni career services, gave advice to job seekers yesterday in the Women’s Resource Center. “The current job market is very different from the job market of generations past.
One of the things that have contributed to that is that US manufacturing has been significantly reduced over the past 40-60 years,” Wade said. “We’ve gone from a productbased economy to ! Wade a knowledge-based economy. This is the information age and many businesses are outsourcing to other countries.” The job market has become increasingly competitive, making it harder for everyone, especially new graduates, to get and retain jobs.
“Work has become more project based. That is why businesses are more apt to hire temporary workers. Over 25 percent of new jobs are temporary jobs,” Wade said. “It used to be that all you would have to do is get good grades, graduate and you would have a job waiting for you.” A change occurred in the job market that has caused employers to train employees for a longer amount of time in order to keep them for the long run. “Now there is no implicit contract between the employer and the employee,” Wade said. “Employees can’t expect to be taken care of by employers. It used to be that CAREER continues on page 3
RESEARCH
Contest develops mobile prototype UH competes among top research schools Elize Najm
THE DAILY COUGAR Nokia selected UH, along with several other universities, to join a worldwide research competition with a $30,000 grant and 15 Nokia N900 cellphones. The Nokia Open Innovation Award is a worldwide competition between university research centers. Each university team collaborates with one of the existing Nokia research centers to submit their proposals to an internal review, which will then go through a selection process. The UH team is being led by Zhigang Deng, assistant professor of computer science and the founding director of UH computer graphics and interactive media lab. “I hope to use about nine months to design and develop the research prototype system,” Deng said. “We will use three months to perform a preliminary user study at UH campus to validate the usability and effectiveness of the system to be developed in this project. We will post campus advertisements to recruit students and staff members who are interested in testing the research system.” Deng, along with his team GRANT continues on page 3
A presentation led by Scott Alexander and Lynn Mitchell discussed influences of the media in Islamic and Muslim misconceptions | Anam Ghias/The Daily Cougar
RELIGION
Media blamed for misconceptions Speaker explains portrayal of Muslims in America Anam Ghias
THE DAILY COUGAR Scott C. Alexander spoke to a room full of people about “Islam, Muslims, and the Current Global Context: Moving beyond Media Sound Bytes” Saturday evening at the Turquoise Conference Center. His speech was organized by The Institute of Interfaith Dialogue and it centered on how the media is the sole source of information about Islam and Muslims for many and how this is the reason for many misconceptions about the religion. “Some things that go on in our world are too complex to be treated fairly and adequately in the media sound byte,” Alexander said. “And if you overlay on top of that certain prejudices and stereotypes and ignorance that get sometimes perpetuated in the context of the
media sound byte, the problem then becomes compounded.” Alexander showed two pictures to the audience, one of Shirin Ebadi, a Muslim Nobel Peace Prize winner, and another of Osama bin Laden. Everyone recognized the Muslim terrorist, but nobody recognized the Nobel Peace Prize winner. This highlighted the role media plays in forming our perception of Islam and Muslims. “So we have a perception problem, a very serious perception problem, which sometimes the media sound byte doesn’t help us get beyond,” Alexander said. “As my friends in the media tell me, ‘If it bleeds, it reads.’” Alexander is an associate professor of Islam at the Catholic Theological Union. He graduated from Harvard and then went to Columbia University for his Masters and Ph.D. in the history of religions with an emphasis in Islamic Studies. Professor Lynn Mitchell, Resident Scholar SPEAKER continues on page 3