THE
PAN AMERICAN
T h e 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 Te x a s - P a n A m e r i c a n
April 26, 2007
Campus unites to support Va. Tech
Clues from writing may Students use Facebook to ID potential connect with one another shooters
By SANDRA GONZALEZ The Pan American
Roughly 150 students, faculty and staff at The University of Texas-Pan American met in the Quad April 19 to honor the 32 people killed as a result of the shootings at Virginia Tech University April 16. Gathering together in a time of grief is not a new concept. It’s what college students around the country are doing when they’re not actually in the company of others that is paving the way for a new outlet for coping and closure.
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Onydia Garza/The Pan American GRIEVING - At a memorial ceremony held on the Quad April 19, (from left) President Blandina Cardenas and Provost Paul Sale joined students, faculty, staff and administrators to honor those killed in the Virginia Tech shooting April 16.
FACE(BOOK) to FACE(BOOK) Since news broke of the massive killing of students and faculty at the Blacksburg, Va., university, students flocked to popular Web site Facebook.com to make tribute groups and honor those who died. One group, titled “A tribute to those who passed at the Virginia Tech Shooting,” has reached 372,054 members from all over the world, including Canada and Greece. Sarah Goodman, a biology graduate student, recently created her own group, “UT Pan Am Supporting Virginia
Tech,” in hopes of creating a meeting place for students wanting to express their condolences to the school. “When you’re a college student, you’re part of a community, and when students in another college community fall, it’s important to be there and honor them,” she said. “If students can’t count on fellow students to honor them, who will?” Goodman said she also hopes to use the group as a way to spread the word about other ways students can help those affected by the shootings. She said she, like many others, has contacted both CNN and FOX asking where donations for credible memorial funds can be sent. She hopes to use Facebook to distribute that information once it becomes available. In addition, Goodman said the group, which currently has 72 members, is a good way to unite and prevent events like this from happening at UTPA. “We need to make sure no one feels unloved or alone,” she said. “I think coming together is the best tool we have in preventing these things from happen-
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By SANDRA GONZALEZ The Pan American Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho continues to give clues into his psyche even after taking his own life and those of 32 others last week. That glimpse into his pre-massacre mind is coming from writings he completed as class assignments, leading some to believe that if read with a critical eye, they could have helped predict and maybe even prevent the Blacksburg, Va., shooting. Jose Skinner, an assistant professor of creative writing at The University of Texas-Pan American, said a friend of his, a creative writing professor at Virginia Tech, had Cho as a student. In an e-mail, the professor, who Skinner chose not to name, said while troubling, Cho’s work was “not much to go on.” “It wasn’t because of the writing per se, it was all kind of other behavioral problems he had shown that raised the
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High school curriculum questioned by university professors By KRISTEN VILLEGAS The Pan American While the state of Texas may have a program emphasizing and outlining education standards for high school students, college professors have questioned whether or not students are being prepared with the information that will be most beneficial in a college setting. High school teachers follow state
learning standards to teach their students in the classroom, but according to a 2005-2006 National Curriculum Survey reported by USA Today, some professors feel there is a “gap” between the course outline in U.S. high schools and college expectations. The result is that high school teachers focus on certain aspects, and college professors on others. And student caught in the middle of this difference in philosophy are the ones who suffer.
SCIENCE “People are not ready when they walk through that door,” said Zen Faulkes, a biology professor at The University of Texas-Pan American. Faulkes said some students do show up well prepared, but adds that those students are coming particularly from “magnet schools,” or public schools that offers innovative courses and specialized training. These students, according to Faulkes, have standardized
test scores that are often above those of the general student population. Moreover, about 65 percent of college professors believe that state standards prepare students “poorly” for collegelevel work, according to the study carried out by ACT, an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides assessment, research, information and program management services in the broad areas of education and workforce development. Jorge Hutchinson, a chemistry
teacher at McAllen Memorial High School, said that he focuses on both the basic facts and processes in chemistry as outlined by TAKS. “I don’t think professors have any idea of what is expected of high school teachers,” Hutchinson said. He said there is a massive amount of material that a student has to master. He is given 36 weeks to complete his teachings and six of those are spent focusing on the
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