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THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
Issue 10, Volume 79
N E W S PA P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
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ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT THEDAILYCOUGAR.COM
NATION
Students don’t want another Iraq After weeks of debate, Syria may have come to agreement with US to keep war at bay Mary Dahdouh News editor
Four thousand, three hundred and eighty days have passed. Yet the haunting memory of 9/11 still weighs on American hearts year after year. As many struggle to shake off the lingering chill, the 12th anniversary is embraced with a suspenseful sigh of relief as people around the world carefully watch Syria momentarily escape a potential war with the United States. Tuesday morning brought a diplomatic opportunity that put everything on hold — the Syrian government accepted a Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons under international control in a bid to avoid a possible U.S. military strike, according to news agency Interfax. The civil war that is shattering the Arab nation day by day began more than two years ago by protesters and rebels in an effort to push Bashar al-Assad out of the presidential
seat, a power that has been held by his family since 1971. On Aug. 21, the clash escalated as a Damascus suburb was suffocated by a chemical attack, believed to have been released by the Syrian people’s own government. “They unleashed hellish chaos and terror on a massive scale,” said U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Monday at the New America Foundation. “Innocent civilians were jolted awake, choking on poison. Some never woke up at all. In the end, more than 1,400 were dead — more than 400 of them children.” Ten days after the August attack, President Barack Obama addressed a waiting nation. “Now, after careful deliberation, I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets,” Obama said. “This would not be an openended intervention. We would not put boots on the ground. Instead, our action would be designed to be limited in duration and scope.” Yet the president’s careful rhetoric could not outweigh the exhausting heaviness America has carried for the past 12 years, despite his reassurance in his Sept. 7 weekly address that Syria “would not be another Iraq
or Afghanistan.” The joint statement on Syria, released the day before the president’s address by 11 nations, including the U.S., France, Turkey and the United Kingdom, bore words that eerily resounded with remembrance. “More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict, more than 2 million people have become refugees and approximately 5 million are internally displaced,” the joint statement said. “Recognizing that Syria’s conflict has no military solution ... we are committed to a political solution which will result in a united, inclusive and democratic Syria.” Nearly 10 years earlier, former President George W. Bush told anti-war protesters that “we will help the Iraqi people establish a peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the Middle East.” The echoing promise of democracy in a foreign nation brought about a swell of hesitancy, which Secretary of State John Kerry addressed from the White House a week before the Joint Statement was released. The two controversial wars with Afghanistan “We know that after a decade of conand Iraq after Sept. 11, 2001 have made many flict, the American people are tired of war Americans hesitant to enter another foreign conflict in Syria. | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons SYRIA continues on page 3
CAMPUS
ORGANIZATIONS
UH makes WTC beam its home
Science workshop brings focus outside of laboratory Sabrina Lloyd Contributing writer
Laura Gillespie Assistant news editor
The debris from the World Trade Center towers became symbols of the attack. All across America, these pieces remain in memorials. UH became one of two Texas locations to receive a piece, after the Student Government Association applied for it in 2009. “Back in 2009, the president at the time was Kenneth Fomunung. A student came up to him from the Student Video Network and said, ‘Hey, I heard we can get a piece of the World Trade Center. I heard that they’re giving them out to different organizations and things of that nature. You should look in
UH will feature a piece of the World Trade Center in a memorial outside of Phase One of the NEW UC, which opens in January. | Courtesy of Keith Kowalka to it,’” said SGA President Cedric Bandoh. “Long story short, they applied for a piece in the New Jersey Port Authority, and after going through a series of paperwork and other things, they got the assistance of the then-vice president of Student Affairs, Dr. Elwyn Lee. And we were eventually approved for a piece of the World Trade Center, which was very, very exciting news.”
The artifact, a large piece of steel that was broken off during the Sept. 11 attacks, will be turned into a memorial at the New UC. “The Student Government Association really led the effort. They wanted to have it as a site of history, of the country, and also they wanted it to take place adjacent to a large student traffic BEAM continues on page 3
UH is leading the way in Texas by holding the first National Science Foundation Innovation Corps workshop this Thursday and Friday, presented by the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Cullen College of Engineering and Division of Research. The I-Corps workshop is a set of activities and programs that prepare scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory by working on projects that accelerate research that the NSF has been promoting, said Lisa Robertson, executive director of external relations at the Cullen College of Engineering. “The NSF program is a few years old, and funding is available to faculty who currently are, or have
received, funding in the last five years in the engineering, math or science departments,” Robertson said. I-Corps is a public-private partnership program that enables students to receive guidance from entrepreneurs in a particular set of curriculum. In order to apply, one has to be eligible and must construct a team. “Teams consist of three people and include a student, an academic researcher and a business mentor, which is someone from the private sector who has experience with start-ups,” Robertson said. “Mentors can be very broad, but they must understand the process of commercialization.” The first day of the workshop will WORKSHOP continues on page 3