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Issue 16, Volume 83
Planting hope in the desert
OPINION
‘Living chapters of history’ on Alabama
This historic street that spans multiple Houston neighborhoods plays host to a variety of cultures. Our columnist writes that taking notice of and absorbing that culture is crucial. | PG. 5
uh.edu/csm
In parts of Houston that lack affordable and fresh groceries, volunteer-run community gardens fill a dire need. | PG. 4
SPORTS
International swimmers continue legacy UH’s swimming and diving team has been dominating conference meets thanks to two particularly successful upperclassmen . | PG. 8
2 | Thursday, January 24, 2018
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Dana C. Jones & Nola Valente, EDITORS
CAMPUS
School closure after storm costs more than just money DREW JONES
The Cougar
thedailycougar.com
ABOUT THE COUGAR The Cougar is published every Wednesday during the fall and spring semesters and online everyday at thedailycougar.com. The Cougar is supported in part by Student Service Fees. The first copy is free. Additional copies cost 25 cents.
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR @DREWKENDALJONES
One three credit hour course typically costs $1,108, but that price tag doesn’t account for all the intangible things students lose when they can’t go to class or what professors have to do when their syllabuses start changing — such as after an ice storm or a hurricane. The experience for all 45,364 students varies based on the courses they’re taking, their classifications and how comfortable their professors are in rearranging content. What doesn’t vary is the loss of tuition money those students paid for which they don’t get a return. Management information systems senior Alzeb Manasia said that when students pay for courses that are canceled, the school should take further action. “They should reimburse students,” Manasia said. The University also loses money when it shuts down. According to the fiscal year 2017 budget, the most recent available on the Department of Administration and Finance website, UH spends about $4.4 million per day. When a closure occurs, it affects the school's ability to pay for major priorities relating student access and success — new faculty, UHin4 and recreation and wellness, among others. In the event that the shutdown interferes with the start of the semester, students are left waiting with nothing to do. Manasia said the delays for spring classes left him feeling forced to do more things in a smaller amount of time to catch up. “Even if they teach you (what's on the syllabus), it’s not good if you don’t understand it," Manasia said. Manasia said he typically has a balanced course load, so he doesn’t feel much pressure when syllabuses start changing. Severe weather events have led to the postponing of the start of the school year for two semesters in a row. Those lost school days have cost students and professors valuable class time. The winter storm last week shut down UH for two days, while Hurricane Harvey shut
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When bad weather hits and forces closures, the University loses not only money but class time that trickles down to the students and professors. Luckily, Genesis Guerrero Gutiérrez, a professor in the Hispanic Studies Department, does not have to change her syllabus by taking into account Martin Luther King Jr. Day. | Thomas Dwyer/The Cougar
down campus for a little over a week. Genesis Guerrero Gutiérrez, a professor in the Hispanic Studies Department, said she has no plans to change her syllabus for Elementary Spanish this semester because the first week was already shortened by Martin Luther King Jr. Day. "I’d be lying if I said I’m not behind the calendar," Guerrero Gutiérrez said. "I’m sure I can catch up fast, so I’m not worried about it." Guerrero Gutiérrez emphasized the need to be flexible and have empathy for students and their safety concerns. "I’m convinced that taking care of yourself and the ones you love takes a lot of time, especially during natural disasters," Guerrero Gutiérrez said. But last semester, when the threat of Harvey felt real, his department asked instructors to remove an entire chapter from their syllabuses. "This was tricky to organize because there are lots of teachers, and we all needed to have the same syllabus,"
Guerrero Gutiérrez said. "That’s how we make sure all the students finish their Spanish lessons having the same level possible." Guerrero Gutiérrez said it's important to go the extra mile when accommodating her students. She rearranged homework, sociocultural assignments and compositions but knew that wasn't enough. "I realized that students needed more than that," Guerrero Gutiérrez. "Some of them had lost everything during the storm, and I could not ask them to be focused on learning Spanish if their basic needs were at stake." Guerrero Gutiérrez considers last semester a success, even though it began under less than desirable circumstances. She had no failing grades in her course and believes her students felt good about what was done for their success. "I was determined to make deals with those students who were in a bad situation," Guerrero Gutiérrez said. "I wanted them not just to complete tasks quickly; I wanted them to learn."
Assistant professor of political science Alin Fumurescu teaches a Tuesday and Thursday section of Foundations in American Political Thought. Since only his Tuesday class was canceled due to the cold snap, Fumurescu said this syllabus and his others were not heavily affected. “Usually, if there is only one day of class cancellation due to weather conditions, I struggle to fit all the material in the remaining lectures,” Fumurescu said. In situations where he can’t teach a class, Fumurescu said he manages to fit the missed content in where he can because the information in his course builds on prior sections. Sometimes there’s nothing that can be done when too much time is missed due to disasters, so instructors have to push forward. “If there are several days of cancellation, as with Harvey,” Fumurescu said, “I’m forced to drop some of the material I was planning on covering for that class.” features@thedailycougar.com
The Center for Student Media provides comprehensive advisory and financial support to the university’s student-run media: The Cougar newspaper, CoogTV and CoogRadio. Part of the Student Life portfolio in the Division of Student Affairs, the CSM is concerned with the development of students, focusing on critical thinking, leadership, ethics, collaboration, intercultural competence, goal-setting and ultimately, degree attainment. While our students are engaged in producing and promoting media channels and content, our goal is to ensure they are learning to become better thinkers and leaders in the process. CENTER FOR STUDENT MEDIA
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Dana C. Jones & Nola Valente, EDITOR
FINANCE
Student fees explained: What do they pay for? JASMINE DAVIS
including TDECU Stadium. The increase was put to a @ JPAIGEDAVIS student referendum in February Between funding new 2016, as recommended by the instruments for the Spirit of Committee, and the increased Houston, paying the Counseling fee took effect Fall 2012. and Psychological Services staff The Committee, which and annually securing talent for consists of seven students and the Frontier Fiesta concert, UH's two faculty representatives nearly $23 million in student under a non-voting advisor, fees is distributed widely fields presentations and throughout campus. requests from fee-funded The determination and student organizations and allocation of Student Services campus departments. Fees — the roughly $250 After weeks spent semesterly addendum to every deliberating, the committee UH student's cost of attendance sends a report detailing funding — is recommended each fall recommendations to UH's Vice by the Student Fees Advisory President for Student Affairs Committee, established by the and Enrollment Services, and Texas Education Code. Chancellor and President Renu Most notably, SFAC Khator. recommended in 2011 a $50 Khator then presents her increase in student fees, $45 of recommendations to the which to fund the construction University of Houston System 10-11163_Cougar News January_work copy.pdf 1 1/15/18 11:19 of new athletics facilities, Board of Regents. MANAGING EDITOR
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The Student Fees Advisory Committee heard funding requests for Fiscal Year 2019, which goes into effect fall 2018. The Committee's recommendation marks the first student fee increase since FY 2017, decided in fall 2015. | The Cougar News Services
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Should these recommendations differ significantly from those of the committee, Chapter 4 of the Texas Education Code stipulates SFAC be notified. According to the Code, "the president shall duly consider the recommendations of the student fees advisory committee during the annual budgetary process."
Approved SFAC allocations go into effect the following fiscal year, which begins in the fall semester, according to Chapter 4 of the Texas Education Code. For FY 2019, covering the 2018-2019 academic term, the Committee recommended a $5 increase to the student fee, bringing the total to $260 for full-time students in the fall and spring semesters.
According to the SFAC website, funded units also include the Center for Student Involvement, Campus Recreation, the Dean of Students Office, Homecoming, the Student Government Association and the Student Program Board. features@thedailycougar.com
4 | Thursday, January 24, 2018
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Dana C. Jones & Nola Valente, EDITORS
Cabbage,peppers and collard greens are grown in the community garden at the Sunnyside location. Other locations include Ennis in the Third Ward and Southwest. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar
CITY
Community gardens work to end food deserts' thirst DANA C. JONES
FEATURES EDITOR @DANACJONES_
There are no fresh food markets or commercial grocery stores in the Third Ward, making it one of the many neighborhoods in Houston and the United States classified as a food desert. When neighborhoods, usually lowincome and ethnic ones, lack access to affordable, nutritious and fresh foods, they fall under that classification. To alleviate the severe lack of fresh foods in the Third Ward, the community garden on Ennis St. help to supply food sources. Thirteen other community gardens are spread out throughout the city in a variety of neighborhoods.
Food security plans Most people do not think of the fourth largest city in the United States being the greatest hub for agricultural development. That’s where the expertise of Joe Icet, a public health educator who runs the community gardens, comes in handy. Icet is an urban farmer who has been managing numerous garden and agriculture projects over the course of 18 years in the Third and Fifth Wards. “I’ve been collaborating with some innovators and local agriculture farmers building what I call 'food security plans' for urban neighborhoods,” Icet said. Food insecurity relates to to other facets of wellbeing, such as housing and household economics. “Food security to me is being able to look out the window and see food growing or walk or bicycle to a food resource,” Icet said. But in a large part of Houston, that is not the case. Food desert neighborhoods lack the ability to afford food — income
— and the opportunities to get to food — access. If families do not have a vehicle and there is no supermarket within half a mile, it creates more disparity. The USDA created a map of the U.S. showing where food disparity is most prevalent. Looking only inside the Inner Loop, almost all households in east, including the Third Ward, are more than half a mile away from the nearest supermarket. However, western portions of Houston, including Upper Kirby, Memorial and River Oaks, only have 10 food desert sections. Eastern Houston has more than 30 neighborhoods that may classify as food deserts. For scale, the USDA equates half a mile in an urban community to 10 miles in a rural one, meaning a city dweller cannot walk five blocks and find a grocery store.
Supporting the gardens The physical garden and harvesting operations are solely based on volunteers who live in the community. Some come in with prior knowledge, and others want to learn about growing food. That prior knowledge does come in handy when planning for the weather. The crops remained intact through Harvey, thanks to raised beds that allowed floodwater to drain out, and recent freezing weather. Even though the freeze wasn't foreseen, the crops sustained because of the mixing of plants in the same soil, and mulch also helped regulate the temperature. After the harvest, residents of the community receive the food. A lot of senior citizens and impoverished Houstonians benefit from the gardens, but some crops also go to local churches. The gardeners themselves also have
Crops can last longer even in strenuous weather by mixing and sifting different soils. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar
access to what they grow. Crop choices depend on the season and the volunteers' tastes. In the summer, tomatoes and cucumbers thrive, while in the spring, kale and peas grow the best. The Northeast location near East Houston grows mustard and spinach, while the West End location on Heights Blvd. and I-10 grows cabbage and onions.
Capitalizing on diversity Houston's diversity plays an important role in what kinds of crops are grown in the gardens. The immigrants who use the gardens often grow the food they can't find in American supermarkets. According to the Foreign Agricultural Service section of the USDA, the highest producers
COMMUNITY GARDEN
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Public health educator Joe Icet in front of a soil sifter. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar
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NEWS
Dana C. Jones & Nola Valente, EDITORS
ADMINISTRATION
'Here, We Go' capital campaign raises $120 million in first year MICHAEL SLATEN
NEWS ASSISTANT @MICHAELSLATEN
More than $120 million has been donated to UH in the first year since the University’s “Here, We Go” campaign publicly launched Jan. 2017. The “Here, We Go” campaign was launched with the goal to raise $1 billion by 2020. The campaign privately began in 2012 and was able to raise $684 million in its first five years from 120,000 donors. 30,000 people have donated since then to bring the 2020 goal within $200 million, according to the campaign’s website. Previous coverage of the campaign by The Cougar reported that this is the first major fundraising campaign UH has done in 25 years.
Donating as “service” Alumna Johanna Thomas, Class of 1968, worked as an educator for 44 years and now donates to her former college, the College of Education. Thomas said she has had initial conversations to donate to the “Here, We Go” campaign, but she hasn’t set up a meeting with the University, which she said they like to do with their donors. Thomas said she and others donate to serve the community and to help the continuing education of young people. She said the rising costs of education plays a factor for why she donates, too. She said when she was in school she worked at the campus bookstore for two weeks at the beginning of the semester to pay for her entire tuition for that semester. “You know most of us, we didn't have all of the financial aid. We didn't have all of these huge
COMMUNITY GARDEN of world commodities like grain, corn and rice come from Mexico and countries in Africa and Central America. According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than one fifth of Houston metro residents are foreign-born and ranked fifth for largest immigrant population and third for immigrants coming from Mexico and Honduras. “We have a sizable group of immigrants from Africa who are some of the most skilled farmers in the world,” Icet said. “If we take that diversity and took seed from different cultures, we could create
scholarships, other than if you were an athlete,” Thomas said. “All of us who did go to college, it was not extravagantly expensive.” President Renu Khator has been able to bring awareness to alumni and put the University on a bigger stage, Thomas said. According to a slide at President Khator’s fall address, annual fundraising has increased by 176 percent from $50 million in 2007 to $138 million for 2017. “Needless to say, we are ahead of our goal,” Khator said at her fall address. “But fundamentally our campaign has been a grassroots campaign. “85 percent of the donors have given $1,000 or less,” Khator said. “Each and every gift is a vote of confidence in the University.” Thomas said creating the cycle of alumni who advocate for the University and come back and donate will be important to grow the University and the city of Houston for years.
The past several years has seen a major increase in professors who are members of the national academies. There are 19 professors who are members of the national academies currently compared to the single professor UH had from 1997 to 2006, according to a slide presented at Khator’s fall address. Jan. 31 there will be events on campus to celebrate the anniversary of the “Here, We Go” campaign launch. The faculty and staff campaign rally will be held in Cullen Performance Hall with President Khator at 2:30 p.m. There will also be a “Here, We Go” live site for students at 11:00 a.m. in Butler to learn more about how the campaign affects students’ education. features@thedailycougar.com
Last year, when the billion dollar campaign launched, it had already rasied $684 million from 130,000 donors and raised $120 million more. | File photo/The Cougar
Attracting students and faculty Money donated to the “Here, We Go” campaign is used to attract students with scholarships or faculty, though donors choose how their money is going to be used exactly. Two of the five campaign priorities listed online are to “attract and retain top faculty” and “increase the amount of merit and need based scholarships” for students. According to a report from the American Association of University professors, University of Houston's average salary for faculty with the title of professor was $149,700 for the 2016-2017 year. The average salary for a university professor nationwide was $102,402, according to the report. an awesome urban agriculture in the city.” Immigrants can bring their customs with them and add diversity to the crops into the gardens. In gardens that serve high Spanish-speaking populations, such as the Southwest and Hiram Clarke locations, local farmers grow carrots, radishes, onions and lettuce, which are used frequently in Hispanic dishes. The African immigrants Icet worked with would spend hours driving around town trying to find the right ingredients for their dishes. When they found the community garden, they ate what they grew.
UH is less than $200 million away from reaching its $1 billion fundraising goal by 2020. | Michael Slaten/The Cougar
“You don’t have to teach them how to farm because they already know how," Icet said. "You just have to create access to land.”
Dreams of an agriculture district While managing all 14 gardens and doing other agricultural projects on the side, Icet also wants to create opportunities, especially for the youth and the poor, and to educate. Creating opportunities for people who do not have any is another goal for Icet. He is working with the city of Prairie View to grow specialty crops that are hard to find so the farmers and
residents can then sell them at a market for a premium price. Icet’s end-goal is to build an entire agricultural district. He wants it to run through some of Houston’s most plighted neighborhoods to both make it more beautiful and to bring cultures together. “It could run through these zip codes that have the highest crime and diseases to create farming opportunities and bring farming back," he said. "These neighborhoods would be the lifeblood of a food security plan for Houston by reintroducing farming.” Icet has ideas to utilize the
land of non-profit organizations to create more gardens for the community. He thinks that if the entire city gets behind gardening and agriculture, it could surpass all expectations. “Imagine waking up one day to Houston having food everywhere from an agricultural district, and it's why everybody came to Houston because it was absolutely incredible and diverse as Houston is,” Icet said. “We can create an opportunity for everybody to come in and bring their seed, and we build a dinner for Houston.” features@thedailycougar.com
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Dana C. Jones & Nola Valente, EDITORS
NATION
Religious freedom office may affect rural Texans' health care MCRAE PEAVY
STAFF WRITER @MCRAEPV1
The Trump administration’s Thursday push to protect the rights of healthcare professionals who object to performing medical treatments or procedures due to religious or moral obligations could prevent women in rural communities from receiving adequate reproductive care, according to a UH Law professor. On Thursday the Department of Health and Human Services created the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in its Office of Civil Rights to ensure medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, have protection when they refuse to perform certain medical procedures, like abortions, on religious or moral grounds. “What the agency does is it provides an additional vehicle for making sure those protections exist on more than just paper,” said Seth Chandler, a UH law professor who specializes in insurance and health law. “There are a number of protections that Congress has enacted, for better or worse, that give employees — or people working for agencies that receive federal funding — these rights of conscious. In theory, the rights of conscious are broad, but 95 percent of the time it’s about reproduction and abortion.”
Reviving old norms
Rural areas with religious communities could experience a drought of reproductive care if all doctors in the area refused to perform certain treatments and procedures, he said. “In those areas, it can make it considerably more difficult for poorer women to receive those services,” Chandler said. These protections have been law for two decades or more, Chandler said. Lawmakers today just made different interpretations of what they mean and how heavily they will be enforced. “What the Trump regulations do is to push things back away from the way the Obama Administration had interpreted them,” Chandler said, “and go back, at least as far back, as the way the Bush Administration had interpreted them.” The Bush Administration had enacted a rule in its last year, Chandler said, that discussed how a number of the conscious statutes were interpreted. He said they were more on the side of religious conscious and less concerned with reproductive rights than many would prefer. The Obama Administration, Chandler said, undid most of that work and basically required employees of federally funded programs to be willing to perform abortions or provide contraception. “The pendulum has swung again, and now we have the Trump Administration doing, I would say, two things,” Chandler said. “One is undoing what the Obama Administration did,
Medical practitioners can now choose not to perform acts that interfere with religious beliefs. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar
which in turn undid what the Bush Administration did, but then it’s actually gone farther and created this new division... that’s going to be staffed up with people whose job it’s going to be to find institutions that purportedly violate these rights of conscious.” Not only does this protect doctors and others who refuse to perform certain procedures, it will also fine institutions found to be pressuring staff to perform procedures against their religious obligations, Chandler explained.
Far-reaching effects
Places like Planned Parenthood were protected under the Obama Adminstration, which disallowed states from defunding them. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar
Devan Ford-McCartney, the director of the Women and Gender Resource Center at UH, said these new regulations could have other impacts on women’s health. “As an example, many women use birth control for a variety of health conditions including irregular or heavy menstrual periods, menstrual cramps, PMS, Primary Ovarian Insufficiency, Endometriosis and hormone replacement therapy,” Ford-McCartney said in an email. “Lack of access to get such medication may have a negative impact on their care as well as their health.” Lorraine Schroeder, the director of the UH LGBTQ Resorce Center, explained that these regulations could
potentially have a negative impact on the LGBTQ community as well. “Many in the LGBTQ community are already denied treatment, mistreated, or just don’t seek out healthcare due to discrimination,” Schroeder said in an email. “Health care professionals that perform gender affirming procedures do this because that is their specialty, but it may influence LGBTQ people having equal access to insurance benefits.” Schroeder said the new division could worsen discrimination that already exists for transgender people. “According to the 2011 ‘Injustice at Every Turn’ Report, 19 percent of transgender people have been denied healthcare, and 50 percent have had to educate their doctors about transgender care,” Schroeder said.
'A noose around Planned Parenthood' The same day the Trump Administration issued the regulations that created the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, Chandler said, it also sent a letter to every Medicaid director in every state. That letter rescinded an Obama Administration letter from 2016 that disallowed states from de-funding entities
like Planned Parenthood that have affiliates that perform abortions. The Obama Administration’s reasoning was that the Medicaid statute required funding for any medically qualified institution, Chandler said. “I suspect what that will do is reinvigorate the efforts of states like Texas to tighten a noose around Planned Parenthood in which pieces of that organization provide abortion or services that some people think are abortion,” Chandler said. The argument here, according to Chandler, is between religious conscious concerns and reproductive rights concerns. He said neither party completely ignores one value in favor of the other. “I think a lot of Republicans here are saying, ‘Look, we’re not saying you can’t have an abortion, we’re just saying that people who find it religiously offensive to participate in that shouldn’t feel pressured to be complicit in what they regard as murder,’” Chandler said. “Similarly, the Democrats are saying, ‘Yeah, but if enough people say that, then that really makes it difficult for people that need family planning services to get them.'” features@thedailycougar.com
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SPORTS
sports@thedailycougar.com
Peter Scamardo, EDITOR
Former track stars Akuoma Omeoga, Seun Adigun and Ngozi Onwumere are the first ever bobsled team from an Africa nation to qualify for the Winter Olympics. | Courtesy of Seun Adigun/Under Armour
OLYMPICS
Nigerian bobsled team with UH track roots headed to Olympics BAILEIGH SHEFFIELD
STAFF WRITER
@IM_OSO_BAI
Breaking barriers and taking the world by storm while making history. In a little over two weeks time, three Nigerian women, will have those opportunities at the Winter Olympics. UH track & field alumni Seun Adigun and Ngozi Onwumere and Minnesota track & field alumna Akuoma Omeoga are making history as the first team from Africa, as well as the first women’s team, to qualify for bobsledding at the games. Following in the footsteps of "Cool Runnings," the film about the first Jamaican Olympic bobsled team, but also carving their own path, the three have become a media sensation as they bring awareness to the sport and women in bobsledding. “The biggest motivation for the entire process is that this is really bigger than me,” Adigun said. “It’s to help grow a sport and promote women and put Africa on the map.” The team, so far, has done that. When they arrive in Pyeongchang, South Korea, they will become the first-ever team from Nigeria to compete at the Winter Olympics for any sport. The team has shown that its journey is about more than winning medals -- it’s about pursuing your dreams against all odds.
A year and a half ago the team had little, if any, bobsledding experience. But after channeling support from friends and months of practice, the three became a team. On Nov. 16 the team finished its fifth qualifying race, the minimum needed for the Olympics, and was ranked No. 44 in the world by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, making Nigeria the highest-ranked African nation and sending them to the Olympics. “You never know you can succeed unless you try,” Onwumere said in an interview with SheLeadsAfrica.org. “When you try, give effort as if you already have. We say this often because it’s true. We are just three regular girls who have now made history.” It is safe to say that while making the Olympics has been a dream for all three, bobsledding is relatively new to them. All three originally competed in track & field on the collegiate level in the United States and internationally. Adigun and Onwumere are alumni of the Cougar track & field program. As a sprinter, Onwumere was an NCAA Regional Qualifier in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay in 2014. Adigun was a Conference-USA champion in the 60m hurdles and 100m hurdles in 2008. She went
Ngozi Onwumere, along with Seun Adigun, is one of two UH alums on the bobsled team who are making history as the first team to represent Nigeria at the WInter Olympics in any sport. | Courtesy of Seun Adigun/Under Armour
on to win the 100m hurdles at the 2010 African Championships and represent Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She is the most recent Cougar to compete at the Summer Olympics. Omeoga was a NCAA Preliminary qualifier in the 100m for the Minnesota Golden Gophers during her collegiate career. She and Onwumere both knew Adigun from their track & field careers, and she recruited them to join her team. All three athletes had more-orless reached their peaks in terms of track & field competition. But Adigun, who competed for a time with the USA bobsled team, was the mastermind who came up with the idea of creating a bobsled team for Nigeria.
“I had a few friends in track and field when I was competing, and they had gone over to bobsled," Adigun said. "I thought hey, maybe this is something I can get into.” Adigun, Onwumere and Omeoga were using a makeshift bobsled that had been created out of their garage in order to train, but they did not own their own bobsled. During their qualifying races they borrowed a bobsled from the Utah Olympic park. The crew set up a GoFundMe account to pay for the equipment they would need on their journey, ultimately reaching the goal of $75,000 in 14 months. That GoFundMe account led to a sponsorship with Team Visa. The fundraising, coupled with
their success, helped promote the team. As a result the trio has been interviewed by People, CNN and the Washington Post. The three were even guests on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. They explained how popular they have become and how hard they worked. “The entire experience is humbling, and it’s an honor to know that I can be used as a tool on this earth by God,” Adigun said. “It’s an honor to know that this entire unit is going to be considered historic.” For the Cougar fan base who will be following their progress next month, Adigun said they should be proud because UH represents diversity, excellence and achievement. UH taught them to take on the fear of the unknown, and so far they have persevered through their challenges. Adigun encourages students to take that big leap of faith. Regardless of whether they leave the games with a medal or not, these three women have paved the way for others to follow. “This is really about opening doors when you don’t know what’s on the other end and driving yourself and motivating yourself,” Adigun said. “Even if it feels uncomfortable, in the end it’s worth it for the greater good.” sports@thedailycougar.com
8 | Wednesday, January 24, 2018
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Peter Scamardo, EDITOR
Eleanna Koutsouveli overcame a 6,000 mile move and a language barrier to become a team captain and holder of two school records in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke. | Thomas Dwyer/The Cougar
INTERNATIONAL ATHLETES
Swimmers living in legacy of Olympic alumni PETER SCAMARDO
SPORTS EDITOR @PLSCAMARDO2
Imagine being thousands of miles from the only place you had ever called home, handling the stress of collegiate athletics as well as adjusting to a radically different setting. This is the situation for two members of the swimming & diving team: junior and team captain Eleanna Koutsouveli and senior Ksenia Yuskova. The two athletes are just the latest of a long line of international athletes who have come to Houston and found success with the swimming & diving program.
“They have quickly elevated this team to (that level of competing at a national level)," head coach Ryan Wochomurka said. "Both in their athletic performances and from the perspective they bring abroad.” Wochomurka said the UH program is committed to constantly having an international flavor with its roster, adding that not one team in the NCAA Top 25 is without at least one international athlete. Other recent international successes include Yulia Pakhalina (2001-03) and Anastasia Pozdniakova (2006-10). The two Russians were NCAA Champions in the 1-meter dive and went on to represent their country at the
Olympics in 2008 and 2012 – two of 19 non-American Olympians produced by the program. Koutsouveli and Yuskova have already broken enough school records to place their names alongside the legacy of those international Cougar swimmers. Yuskova is a member of the record-setting 200, 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays, while Koutsouveli owns the top times in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke (53.74s and 1:55.97 respectively).
Change of scenery The two swimmers found their way to UH while the program was
Ksenia Yuskova and Eleanna Koutsouveli have broken seven school records in the last year. | Thomas Dwyer/The Cougar
going through a transition phase. Koutsouveli, originally from Athens, was a highly touted recruit in the backstroke and was being recruited by a previous UH coach. As Wochomurka assumed his position at UH in 2015, he spoke with and reassured the school's commitment to her. When she first joined the team, a language barrier divided Koutsouveli and the other swimmers, she said. But other international students who were already on the squad helped her adjust to her new surroundings. “I wasn’t as fluent back then,” Koutsouveli said. “My accent is still pretty heavy, but back then it was horrible. (The other non-English speakers) were patient and willing to help me with everything from taking me to (get) groceries or explaining something for school. But in the pool, I handled it pretty well. I saw what the others were doing and followed them.” Yuskova, a Moscow native who swims freestyle, had initially committed to the University of Miami. According to Wochomurka, she was looking for a place to reinvent herself. A mutual friend connected the two, and he made sure Yuskova saw that Houston was a place that she could benefit from. Yuskova said she had to adjust to the change of setting. “It was like being freshman again,” Yuskova said. “It was a little stressful. I had to adjust to a new culture. Houston is very different from Miami: People are different. I
had to make new friends. But that was not a bad experience; it was not a big change.”
Keys for success Both swimmers had key roles in the program's first conference win last season. Thanks to that performance, Koutsouveli was named a team captain prior to the start of this season. “I wasn’t sure whether they were going to vote for an international student to be a captain,” Koutsouveli said. “But it helped me a lot in my personal swimming because I was more focused on my teammates and how they did. It took stress off my personal goals." Wochomurka said he has found international students often appreciate American-based athletic programs' team-driven, rather than self-driven, focus. The result is that the athletes buy in to the culture of the team and help erase any sense of entitlement from the squad. The coach said Koutsouveli and Yuskova have done everything and more he could ask from them as student athletes. “We’ll go across the world to get the folks that feel this place gives them the best opportunity,” Wochomurka said. “We’re the fourth largest city in the country, the most diverse country in the world, one of the most diverse campuses in the world. It fits our program, it fits our university and it fits this city.” sports@thedailycougar.com
Wednesday, January 24, 2018 | 9
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Peter Scamardo, EDITOR
TRACK & FIELD
Barbados' fastest man leading track to NCAA titles PETER SCAMARDO
SPORTS EDITOR @PLSCAMARDO2
Junior Mario Burke became the fastest person in Barbados last summer. Then he raced more of the world's fastest men before returning to UH having lived many track athletes' lifelong dreams. After helping the Cougars win the NCAA 4x100m national title last spring, Burke returned to his home nation of Barbados and won the 100m at the Barbados National Championship. This earned him the right to represent Barbados at the IAAF World Championships in London that August. “I’ve traveled a lot for track before, but I’ve never ran at a stage that big,” Burke said. “I was nervous, but I said, 'Just come in there and get the experience.' (So) I just focused, blocked out the crowd and ran as good as I can.” While he may not say so himself, Burke has become an international ambassador for UH Athletics. Before every race, he throws up the Cougar paw to the camera. In just two years, Burke has made himself arguably the most prominent Cougar on the international stage. One year ago he was
in Poland winning a bronze medal at the IAAF U20 World Championships, which marked an honor for his country but not the height of the track & field world. But one year later, he was at the Olympic Stadium in London, standing among the world’s top sprinters: Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Justin Gatlin of the United States. “It was a good experience to know I’m able to compete with the world’s best,” Burke said. “It pumped me up for 2019 and the 2020 Olympics, to know that in those two years I could be at the top.” Burke hails from Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados. It was a place that allowed him to roam the streets and get to be a boy and enjoy life -- to be free, he said. He said one day, he was running with his friends and realized he was faster than the others. His parents soon convinced Burke to try track & field, and the rest is history. In terms of how he came to UH, he did not need much convincing. “I was looking at a lot of other schools, but I was amazed at the fact we have Olympic-level coaches like Carl Lewis, Leroy
Burrell, Debbie Ferguson, Floyd Heard,” Burke said. “I was like, 'You have to go here.' (They showed me) to be an Olympian and to represent my country at the biggest stage. So far I’ve done it so the dream came true.” Burke is continuing to improve on his coaches' commitment to him every year. He won the Barbados 100m National Championship with a personal-best time of 10.17s, following the progression Lewis, the team’s assistant coach, hoped to see in him. Even after a long summer of competition, Burke is already back competing strong in the NCAA. Individually he owns the 27th best time in the 60m (6.71s), but in the relays he has also continued to succeed. Burke, along with Amere Lattin, Quivell Jordan and Khamari Montgomery, broke the school record in the 4x400m relay at the Corky Classic, currently the third time in the country. Burke has had a history of running well in relays, first winning a silver medal for Barbados at the IAAF World Relays in March, then winning the 4x100m NCAA title. It is just another tool in his skill set. Now that Burke is a defending NCAA champion, he expects
The 59 points scored by the Shockers is their lowest this year. | Marissa Reilly/The Cougar
Mario Burke became the fastest man in Barbados this summer, making him an international ambassador for the track program. | Peter Scamardo/The Cougar
another big year from himself and his teammates. “We have a squad this year,” Burke said. “(We showed) that even though we’re not a Power 5 school, we can still win a national
championship. And honestly I believe we’ll win it for the rest of my time here. We’re ready for this year.” sports@thedailycougar.com
Corey Davis Jr. scored 17 and led the team with eight assists. | Marissa Reilly/The Cougar
Basketball gets revenge at home against Shockers On the 50th anniversary of The Game of the Century, UH's historic victory against the undefeated UCLA Bruins at the Astrodome, the Cougars made history again, this time at H&PE Arena. In front of a crowd of 5,708 people, the Cougars beat the No. 7 ranked Wichita State Shockers by a score of 73-59, redeeming their 63-81 loss at Wichita State earlier this year. This is the team's first win against a Top-10 opponent since it beat the No. 3 Memphis Tigers in 1996. Redshirt senior guard Rob Gray Jr. led the team with 24 points and was second in assists with four. The Shockers were held to only 33 percent shooting as star guard Landry Shamet was held to seven points on 2-10 shooting. In his fourth season as head coach of the men's basketball team, Kelvin Sampson has finally earned a signature win in his attempt to revive the historic basketball program.
10 | Thursday, January 24, 2018
OPINION
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Anusheh Siddique, EDITOR
ACADEMICS
EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR IN CHIEF
Emily Burleson MANAGING EDITOR
Jasmine Davis
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Sonny Singh WEB EDITOR
Marialuisa Rincon CAMPUS EDITOR
Nola Valente
FEATURES EDITOR
Dana C. Jones
CHIEF COPY EDITOR
Morgan Horst
SPORTS EDITOR
Peter Scamardo COOGLIFE EDITOR
Julie Araica
PHOTO EDITOR
Thomas Dwyer OPINION EDITOR
Anusheh Siddique ASSISTANT EDITORS
Michael Slaten, Drew Jones, Andres Chio, Erin Davis, Maya Dandashi, Brianna Myers
STAFF EDITORIAL Campus may have looked beautiful in mid-January with a layer of ice and snow, but if professors leave material out of their courses again as they did after Harvey, the missed education will be less pretty. Deleted chapters or entire books can contain a world of education. | Thomas Dwyer/The Cougar
Did these icy temperatures freeze our schedules? A series of weather incidents that perspectives. immensely difficult to cater such a kicked off the fall and spring semesters Many friends of mine in different variety of students, especially on — Hurricane Harvey, majors, such as biology, engineering and a campus with such an immense then our icy cold accounting, felt a similar impact on their commuter presence like the University snap — has robbed education as a result of this stolen time. of Houston. UH students of Professors should have attempted to Naturally, the vacation days were several school condense their schedules as opposed provided as a result of the unsafe days and countless to just removing content. The missed conditions present in both situations. opportunities. days could have been supported by Just as students could not get to campus The lack more concentrated class time, allowing in the wake of Harvey, the danger of ANUSHEH SIDDIQUE of academic students to receive just as full an driving on the iced roads for this mainly OPINION EDITOR accommodations education. commuter campus was too great, and as for these days and An average three credit hour class is a result we missed two days. the countless missed priced at $1,108, and most students Safety is more important than opportunities they presented are are taking 9 to 15 credit hours a week. education, but the tuition students paid serious. to attend UH should be honored. During the vacation Professors who cut material from days for Hurricane Harvey, their courses in the fall should syllabuses and curricula reverse those mistakes and be took serious hits as many sure to provide opportunities to professors removed comprehend any missed content chapters and assignments to this time. accommodate the shortened These two vacation days class time. Instead, they led to an incredible lost of should have made the instructional time, but that changes transparent and does not mean they cannot be given students ample caught up. While it may pose a opportunity to learn the challenge to append syllabuses material on their own. It's and calendars to allow for these Just after sunrise, campus residents awoke to a dusting of not too late to make this condensed lessons, it is a much untouched snowfall. | Thomas Dwyer/The Cougar semester different. greater obstacle for students to The extent of dismissed comprehend the information on lessons can be far more vast than we This tuition money is paid under the their own. realize. For example, in one of my most impression that students will receive The decision to cancel class was an adored classes last semester, Intro a full education and be compensated attempt to extend us a more flexible to Political Theory, the professor had academically for missed days. schedule, but it might come at the to remove an entire novel from the Concerns for student and faculty expense of the student body's learning. syllabus. The class maintained its value safety must be weighed relative to the Anusheh Siddique is a finance to me educationally, but I have no way cost of losing educational time. This freshman and can be reached at of knowing how this dismissed content issue is aggrandized by the diversity opinion@thedailycougar.com. could have shaped my learning and of college student schedules. It is
The Staff Editorial reflects the opinions of The Cougar Editorial Board. All other opinions, commentaries and cartoons reflect only the opinion of the writer. Opinions expressed in The Cougar do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Houston or its students as a whole.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Cougar welcomes letters to the editor from any member of the UH community. Letters should be no more than 250 words and signed, including the writer’s full name, phone number or email address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major. Anonymous letters will not be published. Deliver letters to N221, Student Center North or email them to editor@thedailycougar.com. Letters are subject to editing.
GUEST COMMENTARY Submissions are accepted from any member of the UH community and must be signed with the author’s name, phone number or email address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major. Commentary should be limited to 600 words. Guest commentaries should not be written as replies, but rather should present independent points of view. Deliver submissions to N221, Student Center North or email them to editor@thedailycougar.com. All submissions are subject to editing.
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Thursday, January 24, 2018 | 11
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Anusheh Siddique, EDITOR
CARTOON
COMMUNITY
On Alabama, two historic worlds coexist just an intersection apart
Senate Wars: Revenge of the Trump
Ennis St. marks a halfway point between the Cuney Homes, a public housing complex, and a stretch of historic mansions, two of the many worlds situated along the city-crossing Alabama St. | Thomas Dwyer/The Cougar
H
ouston is home to oil and gas home to opportunity home to opportunity and most of all, home to diversity. To find this, you just have to take a casual stroll to Midtown. If you turn right on Wheeler, you’ll see dozens of large, aged MIA VALDEZ OPINION trees shooting COLUMNIST up into the sky on Cullen Blvd. Trees on one side of the street are beautiful; they flourish with health and color. On the other side of the street, equally tall trees exist, though their recent exposure to the winds of Hurricane Harvey has stripped them of their leaves and their color. Their branches seem decrepit, close to falling apart. These trees, in contrast to their neighbors, display the true and stark disparity of inequity. Well, through a certain lens, the same effect can be observed while driving on Houston’s Alabama St., out of the Third Ward and into Montrose. A lot of assumptions might be made about the people who live on either side, of this one street. The folks who live on our side of Alabama, live in the Cuney Homes, an apartment built by the Housing Authority in 1938. This area feels like it came alive from the pages of history books, like it carries the burden and heartache and victories and memories of its residents. Cars line the sides of those streets, and men and women can me observed socializing,
laughing, talking and playing with their children. On the weekends, and especially on Sunday mornings after church has ended, you can see young people in this small park, looking happy, busy and joyful. The culture bursts forth from the very cracks in the pavement. Not too far down that very street, the homes look stronger, larger, more expensive, and more likely to appear in an episode of Modern Family in a wide shot. Just as many assumptions can be made about the people who live in those neighborhoods. The people who live there are wealthier, more likely to be educated. Young parents walk with their children, their purebred dogs leashed and running ahead of them. I can’t say that a lot of the folks who live on this other, more enriched side of Alabama St. are not ethnically diverse, in fact, they likely boast more diversity than Houston’s mostly African American Third Ward. Houston is home to oil and gas and its affluence. Houston is home to residents that are living chapters of history books.
Houston is home to Alabama St. and all of its stories. I hope that one day you get to walk underneath them, these beautiful trees. But I also hope that you never forget that, often, just across town or perhaps just a
Tamor Khan/The Cougar
street or perhaps just a corner, you realize that there are landscapes so rich in the culture of their own people. That there is an enormous sky, sliced apart by the
branches of trees strong and healthy or bare and colorless. Mia Valdez is a creative writing junior. She can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.
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