Wednesday, September 19, 2012 // Issue 14, Volume 78 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S P A P E R
O F T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
H O U S T O N
Khator attends leaders lunch
S I N C E
1 9 3 4
OPINION
The University president and chancellor sipped tea at a reception held for student notables Cougar News Services UH President and Chancellor Renu Khator sipped tea as student leaders from the Student Government Association, the Multicultural Greek Council, The Daily Cougar and other organizations asked questions during a roundtable discussion Monday. Between questions and answers, Khator also shared her thoughts on football, the current state of UH and the next steps for the University.
“We are in Houston. It’s a shame, Dallas too — these major Texas cities don’t have public Tier One universities,” Khator said. “We became Tier One in Carnagie, but there’s so much more.” Khator said one of her next goals for the University will be to boost the graduation rate to at least the national average. Regarding alumni, Khator urged soon-to-be graduates to stay involved in UH. “Take interest. Participate,”
Khator said. “How can you help recruitment? Would you give a lecture? Would you come back and mentor five students?” When a student asked about problems with state funding, the president said that negative connotations associated with higher learning weren’t helpful in Texas. “Our responsibility is to explain to the state why we need funding,” Khator said. “We are still getting very little. I testified about the Tier One funding we’re receiving, but
it’s small potatoes. This current attitude towards higher education, this ‘Is college worth it?’ atmosphere, it does hurt.” Khator also said the number one issue on the minds of students, even beyond parking and financial aid, is slow on-campus wireless internet. Khator is set to speak at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Texas Tribune Festival.
To ban or not to ban LIFE+ARTS
news@thedailycougar.com
MAN ON THE STREET
Q: How do you feel about Romney’s recently released
statement about Obama’s voter demographic?
West brings cool beats SPORTS
Students were shown this quote by Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney and asked for responses: “There are 47 percent of people (in the United States) who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
A:
I think this is pretty ironic because his company went bankrupt, but before that, he outsourced most of his jobs to China. And then I feel like, ‘This is America. We’re all Americans. What’s the issue with helping each other out?’ -Lucio Rubio, biomedical engineering sophomore.
A:
I think that the government does have a lot of responsibility and that they owe their people. There are certain things that the government should give us and that we should depend on the government for but it’s not the government’s responsibility to maintain our way of life. The people who believe they are entitled to those things are taking the easy way out.
Baseball sneak peak GET SOME DAILY
-Shabelee Bowie, educational psychology sophomore
thedailycougar.com It sounds just like big government again, kind of like another Bush era where the top 1 percent are taking care of each other. That’s what it makes me think.
:A
CORRECTION:
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-Salem Naser, mechanical engineering junior
I feel like if you want to be president, then you can’t only care about the 50 percent who are going to vote for you. You have to care about the whole country because that’s what the president does. It’s pretty mean.
-Asmaa Shahin, chemical engineering sophomore
A:
Well, it looks like he doesn’t have hope. He sees them as ignorant or lazy. He should probably be trying to change their vote. That’s probably a reason why that group of people doesn’t like him, and they won’t vote for him. -Carolina Velasquez, public relations junior
A:
I think he was talking about tactics. On the one hand, he’s making it somewhat clear that he considers a lot of Americans to be against his idea of how to run America because they’re, to him, entitled or dependent. He was saying that behind closed doors. I thought a lot of it was just him tactically speaking. But at the very least, it can be construed or will be constructed as a he-doesn’t-like-these-people sort of thing. -David Bianchi, undeclared sophomore
Quotes and photos compiled by Ellen Goodacre
Tuesday’s front-page headline read that a student was “held at gunpoint.” This should have said the student was “held up at gunpoint.”
COUNTDOWN
3
Days until the autumnal equinox.
Autumn is coming...