Tuesday,September 11, 2012 // Issue9,Volume78 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
THE DAILY COUGAR
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H O U S T O N
SGA against campus smoking ban Amanda Hilow Assistant managing editor
Smokers have had their run of campus for a long while, but as of summer, their in-between class lights have been extinguished — and they are not happy about it. “I think it’s a little extreme, since most smokers already keep a respectful distance from non-smokers,” said physics and chemistry freshman Zachary Bone, a smoker. The updated policy is the cause of much controversy across campus, particularly since it was approved during the summer without much representation from the student body. “The fact that something like this is being passed — and during the summer while no one is here — is flabbergasting,” said Student Government Association Sen. Eduardo Reyes. “Students have the right to smoke. I actually think it is an infringement on students’ rights to limit their choices and decisions after they get out of class.” On July 7, SGA officials authored “A Resolution on an Updated Tobacco Policy” as an expression of their absolute opinion and disapproval of the updated policy. According to the resolution, the
SGA seeks to protect non-smokers from the health hazards of unwanted secondhand smoke but supports students’ rights to smoke. The SGA Senate does not advocate a campuswide ban. “In the foreseeable future, I don’t see the student body and the student government ever agreeing to this bill or policy,” Reyes said. However, UH Health Initiatives and the campus Tobacco Task Force say the new policy is not only required in order to receive grant funding from Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas for the University’s cancer research program, but necessary for the health of non-smoking students. “UH’s tobacco-free policy is a positive and health-directed initiative,” said Kathryn Peek, assistant vice president for UH Health Initiatives and co-chair of the Tobacco Task Force. “It is part of UH’s commitment to providing a healthy and sustainable environment for everyone in the UH community.” With the lack of legitimate information sent to students about the new policy, though, it seems students will continue smoking in undesignated or smoking-prohibited areas and remain unaffected by the bill.
Assistant sports editor
Kathryn Griffin-Townsend’s phone is always buzzing, even late at night. Griffin, the founder of “We’ve Been There, Done That,” is a victims’ rights advocate, specializing in the aid of women in the Houston community who are caught in the cycle of prostitution, drug abuse and human trafficking. “I deal with the healing and trauma. My phone hardly ever stops. I come to wherever they are,” Griffin said. Griffin will come if the victim is willing to receive help. “In the faces of human trafficking, the veins run deeper than people know,” Griffin said. “A lot of prostitutes who are adults have aged out and were put into the sex industry as juveniles. They end up not knowing anything else but to go into the sex industry, and it leads to criminal behavior.”
In recognition of her efforts, Griffin was appointed to the Blue Ribbon Committee, a 10-person task force assigned with finding solutions for and bringing awareness to human trafficking. The formation of the Blue Ribbon Committee was announced in a press release at the beginning of September, the city’s sixth annual human trafficking awareness month. Susham M. Modi, a supervising attorney at the UH immigration clinic, said the problem of trafficking is two-fold. “Getting to the authorities is problem one. I think the second problem is if they’re undocumented, like our cases are, they don’t know that they can go through a process in which they may be able to get valid immigration status if they cooperate with law enforcement,” she said. If victims of trafficking cooperate with authorities, they may qualify for a U Visa or T Visa, which provide temporary legal status.
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OPINION
Free speech isn’t so free Music performance junior Lucia Aparcio and industrial construction managment senior Julian Zavala stop to take an e-smoke at the Technology Annex on campus. | Samantha Wong/The Daily Cougar “Students are heavily inconvenienced by this bill,” Reyes said. “But I think it will be very difficult to enforce majorly because students haven’t even been informed.” The SGA’s resolution suggests the tobacco policy — instead of prohibiting smoking — should designate specific smoking areas on-campus to accommodate smokers in inclement weather, properly relocate all cigarette receptacles at least 25 feet away from building entrances and erect “Tobacco-free Zone” signs near CPRIT-funded buildings, access ways and parking lots. Under these guidelines, the resolution says, students would be saved from right infringement as well as protect from health risks.
The resolution also calls on new student orientation programs to inform incoming freshman of the on-campus tobacco policy, encourage students to utilize specifically designated smoking areas and notify them of the free, University-provided cessation services for tobacco users. Despite the implementation of the new smoking policy, the University has barely succeeded in informing its students or developing and understanding with on-campus smokers. “I think we need more communication,” said economics sophomore Tao Tao, a smoker. “Smokers and the school have to be on the same page.”
According to a Department of Justice report, Houston and El Paso play a prominent role in human trafficking because of their position on the I-10 Corridor and proximity to Mexico connection to much of the southern portion of the US. “The Department of Justice declared the I-10 corridor as one of the main routes for human traffickers in the United States. It is estimated that 1 out of 5 U.S. trafficking victims will travel through Texas along the I-10 corridor,” said Human Rescue and Restore Coalition in a fact sheet. “It’s hard to drive on I-10 after knowing this information,” said Terence O’Neill, the manager for the Office of International Communities “It’s an eye opener. One of the things you start to realize as you move down I-10 is that you’d never know as you sit there in traffic, idling in you car, that there could be a victim of human trafficking in the truck next
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Houston, a hub for human-trafficking Christopher Shelton
S I N C E
to you,” O’Neill said. Some are not aware that human trafficking is an encompassing banner that includes more than the sexual slavery of young girls and boys. “There is also labor trafficking, where the victim could be of any age or nationality,” said Maria Trujillo, the Blue Ribbon Committee’s chair and executive director of Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition. “It could be the maid or nanny that lives next door. It could be the person who’s knocking on your door selling magazines or CDs. It could be the guy working at the construction site near your house or business. It could be the person doing your nails or braiding you hair at the braiding studio,” Trujillo said. From sexual slavery to labor slavery, the faces of the traffickers shift from pimps and gang members in shady motels to 24-hour massage parlors, and even to the homes and HUMAN continues on page 3
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