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Soccer team heads out of Houston for next four matches LAW CENTER
Attorneys talk eyewitness procedure in Huntsville A number of our area’s best legal minds, including UH Law Center professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, met last week to discuss eyewitness identification procedures at the Eyewitness Identifications Working Group Meeting at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Thompson, Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the Law Center, along with about 50 of her colleagues, worked on drafting a new eyewitness procedure policy that will help reduce wrongful convictions. In January 2012 a new law will be passed that will include the new policies discussed in last week’s meeting. — Jennifer Postel
CAMPUS
Women’s studies to host ‘Living Archives’ series UH Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies program will be hosting interviews with Tina Knowles and Joanne Herring for the UH “Living Archives” series this fall. The “Living Archives” series documents oral histories on prominent Houston and Texas women who have had an impact on the community. The series will hold its first interview session with Tina Knowles from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Monday at the Rockwell Pavilion in the M.D. Anderson Library. Houston Chronicle’s fashion editor Joy Sewing will be conducting the interview. Admission is free for UH students and Friends of Women’s Studies members and $10 for the general public; seating is limited. RSVP to wost@uh.edu. — Michelle Casas
GREEN UH
Sustainability Task Force looking for green student The Sustainability Task Force at UH is looking for an eco-conscious student to serve a year-long term. Interested students should submit their answers to the following questions to volunteer.greenuh@ gmail.com. 1. What is your understanding of the role of the Sustainability Task Force? 2. How would it benefit from your participation? 3. In what ways do you expect to benefit from your participation? Answers are due by Monday, Oct. 3. — Cougar News Services
Death penalty cruel, should be stopped
September 29, 2011 Issue 23, Volume 77
FACULTY
Panel advises junior faculty Discussion gives guidance, mentorship Michelle Casas
THE DAILY COUGAR Panelists addressed junior faculty frustrations at a mentoring discussion hosted by the University Commission on Women on Wednesday in the Honors Commons. The event focused on the methods and organization of successful department-implemented mentoring programs throughout campus.
“Several junior faculty expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of mentoring in their departments and programs,” said Holly Hutchins, chair of the Faculty Advancement Task Force, a subcommittee of the UCW. Mentoring programs are designed to foster professional development by connecting a senior professional with a junior protégé to increase employee performance and commitment to the organization, and to share knowledge and experience. UH does not have a program to address all areas of the University, but the UCW, which focuses on the
concerns and issues of women on campus and gender equality, has a strong interest in addressing this cause. “The UCW realizes that there is real concern among junior faculty that there is no formalized University-wide mentoring program,” said Faculty Co-Chair of the UCW Lisa Alastuey. Volunteers from departments with mentoring programs discussed how their programs were organized to ensure that their junior faculty will succeed in the years to come. Vera Hutchinson, the department
chair of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education, said that when she first became an administrator she found several assistant professors were struggling to identify their support structure. “This gave me an immediate charge to become more involved with our new faculty,” Hutchinson said. The goal for her mentoring process is to help people become productive in their performance within the University’s culture by building FACULTY continues on page 10
LAW CENTER
Students tackle green law issues Environmental society convenes for first meeting Zahra Ahmed
THE DAILY COUGAR George Murr, a lawyer and partner of Murr Yanochik liability company, said that e-discovery, energy and environment — the “three E’s,” as he called it — are “hot issues in the courts today.” Murr spoke to a group of law students at the Bates Law Building during the Energy and Environmental Law Society’s first meeting of the semester this Tuesday. He discussed the issues of petroleum and natural gas drilling and its effect on the environment. In his presentation, he said the US is in the middle of a 21st century gold rush motivated by the discovery of gas found deep underground. Murr touched on the topic of hydraulic fracturing, a form of drilling in which creating fractures in the ground releases subterranean petroleum and natural gas. “Hydraulic fracturing is beginning to change the landscape of MEETING continues on page 3
Erika Zabre punches Moussa Diarra as the two spar in a training exercise. Their instructor, Deddy Mansyur, started the club back when he was an industrial distribution technology student at UH in 1978. | Brianna Leigh Morrison/The Daily Cougar
ORGANIZATIONS
Cougars kick off semester with karate Traditional Shotokan martial arts club begins 33rd year of instruction Juliana Olarte THE DAILY COUGAR For over 30 years, the UH Shotokan Karate-Do club has trained Cougars in traditional Japanese Shotokan under the direction of the chief instructor, Sensei Deddy Mansyur. The club was founded by
Mansyur in 1978 when he enrolled at UH to pursue his degree in Industrial Distribution Technology, starting the Shotokan Karate-Do Club while he attended class. Mansyur has continued to maintain the Shotokan Club and has taught many students the art of karate-do. He decided to fund the club to share his knowledge with other people, providing service to the community and training together. “I founded the club when pursuing my degree at University of Houston,” Mansyur said. “The
purpose of the club is to train together, serve the community and share my knowledge with other students.” Mansyur has more than 48 years of martial arts teaching experience. He began his karate-do training in the ’60s as a child and later enrolled in a local Shotokan Dojo in Jakarta, Indonesia, led by Chief Instructor of the Karate-Do Institute of Indonesia, Sensei Sabeth Muchsin. The club has been around for over 30 years and each semester KARATE continues on page 3