SPORTS
FOOTBALL
HEALTH
Keenum keeping up with Texans’ quarterbacks
Packing prevents added pounds
Former UH athlete competing for more playing time this season SEE PAGE 6
Students who bring their own snacks from home have healthier habits for eating between class SEE PAGE 8
CALENDAR CHECK:
SEPT.
2
Labor day. If only every week of the semester was rewarded with a day off.
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 PA P E R
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Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Issue 2, Volume 79
H O U S T O N
S I N C E
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ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT THEDAILYCOUGAR.COM
ACADEMICS
UH ranked among nation’s best Hadiya Iqbal Staff writer
Through its continual rise as a Tier One institute, UH has now been ranked as one of the nation’s best universities for undergraduate education and was featured in the 2014 edition of the annual Princeton Review’s college guide, “The Best 378 Colleges.”
“In order to be ranked in our book, the school has to be academically excellent and we have to know the students’ sentiment verifying what we know as academic excellence,” said David Soto, content director of the college guide book. Rather than ranking the colleges academically from one to 378, the
Princeton Review reports the book features 62 ranking lists of 20 colleges in various categories. Each ranking list reports the top 20 colleges — of the 378 in the book — in a specific category. The lists are entirely based on the Princeton Review’s survey of PRINCETON continues on page 11
Bonnie Dunbar retired in 2005 after spending roughly 30 years as a researcher, pilot and astronaut with various organizations, including the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Now, she works at UH as the founder of the STEM Center and head of the Aerospace Engineering program. | File photo/The Daily Cougar
ENGINEERING
Astronaut leads program to infinity and beyond Laura Gillespie Assistant news editor
There’s no place like home Whether moving out of their parents’ homes for the first time or unpacking for their last year of college, students moving on campus experience a busy and emotional moving day. Isabella Serimontrikul/The Daily Cougar
ORGANIZATIONS
Center creates student media hub Laura Gillespie Assistant news editor
From video to news, entertainment to education, UH’s studentrun media covers it all. Now, the Student Video Network, Coog Radio and The Daily Cougar have come together in one entity to create the Center for Student Media. “One thing we all want to provide is an unparalleled student learning experience,” said CSM director Matt Dulin.
“That means we have to be just as passionate about education as we are about finding innovative ways to raise funds and sustain these media organizations.” While the three organizations still run independently of one another and they have sparsely collaborated in the past, they will now be working together more than ever under the greater umbrella of the CSM. “SVN, TDC and Coog Radio could easily collaborate. ... However, I
don’t see the collaboration stopping there. I believe it can go beyond the three organizations,” said advertising senior Samantha Wong, the Coog Radio station director. “Under CSM, the three organizations can easily collaborate with almost every organization on campus — whether it be utilizing SVN to produce video content, having Coog Radio DJ an event, asking TDC to cover an event in the paper, MEDIA continues on page 11
Bonnie Dunbar became a member of the NASA Space Group 9 in 1980 and spent roughly 50 days in space over the course of the next 18 years, but to students, she is most well-known as the head of the Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Teacher Professional Learning – and now the director of the Aerospace Engineering program. “We won’t have an aerospace program without STEM graduates. In fact, we won’t have much of an industry without STEM graduates,” Dunbar said. “The rest of the world is challenging us right now. We need to make sure we have enough engineers to meet that challenge, and hopefully, we will continue to have space exploration, but if we don’t have the engineers that’ll build the rockets, the vehicles...or even the sensors that are monitoring the Earth, we won’t be very successful.” Dunbar first came to UH as a doctoral candidate while employed at NASA. After retiring in 2005, she went on to serve as president and CEO of
the Museum of Flight, a nonprofit air and space museum in her home state of Washington. When Dunbar came back to UH this year, she founded the STEM Center, a program that works to improve K-12 students’ capabilities in science, technology, engineering and math. Her newest appointment is within the interdisciplinary aerospace engineering program, which offers both Master of Science and doctoral programs under the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The program was directed since its inception 20 years ago by professor Karolos Grigoriadis, who led the program until he stepped down this year. “The intention is that we teach the students to design and understand the next generation of vehicles that operate in the atmosphere of the air, as well as in space,” said professor Pradeep Sharma, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “(The program) deals with things such as materials; engineering that is specific to airspace; electronics; the control systems; how you control sensors, actuators and all those parts; SPACE continues on page 11