t h e o f f i c i a l s t u d e n t n e w s pa p e 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
THE DAILY COUGAR
®
GET SOME DAILY
thedailycougar.com
88 LO 70 Monday HI
Cougar comeback stuns Bulldogs, keeps perfect season intact
September 19, 2011
Museum day lets in the learning
Issue 16, Volume 77
ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE
University given B+ on water usage Infrastructure improvements in campus plumbing put UH alongside Rice in ranking Brian Jensen
THE DAILY COUGAR Rice University’s recent announcement of a new air condensation recycling system, which, along with similar projects, will save 12 to 14 million gallons of water a year, has received some good publicity in the local media. UH’s similar system, however, has gone
largely unnoticed. The College of Natural Science and Mathematics’ cold-distilled air conditioning condensate conserves water by being redirected to cooling towers and also helps save on chemical treatment due to its purity. UH, which was ranked B+ along with Rice on GreenReportCard.org, will also soon begin working on integrating low-flow (water efficient) plumbing fixtures. These improvements will compliment the recently-installed leak monitoring system. According to a Daily Cougar report that
ran earlier this month, this system “allows for the detection and notification of leaks and the automatic cutoff of the irrigation control system in that area.” A 2009 Green UH report said UH spent about $2.5 million on 358.3 million gallons of water and the treatment of about 236.2 million gallons of waste water. Approximately 122.1 million gallons were lost to evaporation in the cooling towers of the Central Plant, about 30 million gallons were used for landscaping and about 185 million gallons were used in buildings. About 1 percent of the system’s water
came from recaptured steam and condensate from heating and cooling processes. The report goes on to say that each building and groundskeeping zone should have its own meter to determine trends and reduce extravagant spending with the city by renegotiating the water utility contract. The two risks of this strategy, according to the survey, are that “the City of Houston may demand a higher rate for water utilities in return for the reduction in water usage being paid for by the University” and “the actual cost of installing the meters WATER continues on page 3
CAMPUS
Career services hosts series of workshops to aid students University Career Services will be holding a slew of workshops this week, with focuses ranging from resume building to campus recruitment. An interview workshop scheduled for 10 a.m. today will help students prepare for formal interviews and hone job search techniques. UC Services is also offering an internship workshop at 10 a.m. this Tuesday as well as a job search workshop beginning at 2 p.m. Workshops are held in Student Service Center, Building 1, Rm. 106. For more information about these and other workshops please visit http://www.career.uh.edu. — Jennifer Postel
Volunteers helped by constructing furniture for a client with the Halo House Foundation, an organization that rents apartments to cancer patients. | Robert Z. Easley /The Daily Cougar
CITY
Do Good Bus charity tour makes stop in Houston
CAMPUS
Novelist speaks at Inprint creative writing craft talk American novelist and journalist Francisco Goldman will be giving a short craft talk today as a part of the Inprint speaker series, in association with the UH Creative Writing Program and the UH Honors College. Goldman, an Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at Trinity College, will be reading from his new book “Say Her Name.” The reading will be held from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the UH Honors College commons and is free and open to public. For more information, contact Inprint at 713.521.2026 or at info@inprinthouston.org. — Jennifer Postel
Nationwide trip tries to help foster volunteerism Joshua Mann
THE DAILY COUGAR
Excitement in Greek Park UH Panhellenic Council welcomes 126 women into six sororities — Alpha Chi Omega, Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, Delta Zeta, Phi Mu and Zeta Tau Alpha — during Bid Day on Sunday at Cougar Field. Celebrations lasted into the night at Bayou Oaks and weekly meetings for new members begin tonight and will continue for a semester. | Jack Wehman/The Daily Cougar
About 20 passengers sat cheerfully in a bus Saturday, but not a single one of them knew exactly where they were going or what they would be doing once they arrived. The Do Good Bus is a charity organization that was founded in Los Angeles by Stephen Snedden and Rebecca Pontius and has partnered with the band Foster the People in order to give first-time volunteers an easy way in to charity work. “Our friend have always asked, ‘How do I get involved? I want to help but I don’t know how,’” Pontius said.
“Eventually we said, ‘What if we just got a bus, put all of our friends on the bus and we showed them how to do it?’” One of the unique things about the Do Good Bus is the fact that volunteers have no idea where they are going or what they will be doing until the bus arrives at its destination, partially because “everyone likes a surprise,” but also to help eliminate any hesitation that first-time volunteers may have, Pontius said. “(We don’t want) anyone to have any preconceived notions about whatever we’re doing, so ... we just show up to an activity and they jump right in; they don’t get to think about it, they just have to do it,” she said. After playing a couple of games DO GOOD continues on page 3