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Student activities to expand for Tobin Lofts
This week District celebrates international students International Education Awareness Week will be today through Friday sponsored by the district to spread awareness of the benefits of learning abroad. A reception kicks off the week at 4:30 p.m. today in Killen Center, 201 W. Sheridan St. A study abroad reception for students and faculty will be at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the same location. A luncheon for international students will be at noon Thursday at Koehler Cultural Center, 310 W. Ashby Place. Carol Fimmen, director of international programs, said the luncheon is to celebrate the 400 international students who attend Alamo Colleges, Fimmen said. For information, call 210-4850076.
Jennifer Luna
International Education Week boasts 20 events Twenty events sponsored by the foreign languages and ESL programs and the international student services office are scheduled to celebrate International Education Week today through Friday. Confucius Instructor Yaping Zhang will host a Chinese cooking demonstration 8 a.m.–11 a.m. today in the lobby of Oppenheimer Academic Center and a presentation on Chinese pressure point massage at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Room 220C. At noon today, Dr. Ryan Lozano will have a discussion on “Yogasutra Patanjali” followed by a short yoga lesson in Room 220C in Oppenheimer.. A Japanese study abroad information session will be 9:30 a.m.-11 a.m. Wednesday in Room 128 of Oppenheimer. An open mic poetry session themed “Mother Tongue” will be 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday in Room 220 of Oppenheimer. Students will provide booths and activities showcasing their home countries for “Travel Around the World!” at noon Thursday in the lobby of Oppenheimer. For the full schedule, visit http://alamo.edu/sac/news/international-education-week.
Nicole A. West
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Vol. 87 Issue 8 • Nov. 12 2012
Director is expected to engage more student participation. By FAITH DUARTE
fduarte3@student.alamo.edu
Volunteer Carmen Garcia distributes items to aviation sophomore Cassandra Rios Wednesday at the Phi Theta
Kappa Food Pantry, 602 W. French. The pantry is open noon-3 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. Riley Stephens
Ethnic taunts, threat sparked altercation By FAITH DUARTE
fduarte3@student.alamo.edu
The verbal altercation in Oppenheimer Academic Center Sept. 26, which led to the suspension of one student and the probation of another, began when a student threatened two students Sept. 24 because of their Iranian descent. This information was provided in highly redacted incident reports released by the Alamo Colleges department of public safety Nov. 2 and Nov. 5. College officials had provided no details of the incident, which attracted 10 police officers, including the police chief, and three student affairs administrators, while an investigation was conducted. According to a Sept. 26 police report, a student threatened two students at about 11:15 a.m. Sept. 24 at the entrance to the first floor of the building. One of the victims, a female, told police that she and the other student, her father, were leaving the building when they heard two female students and one male student taunting them about their Iranian descent. One of the three students then threatened in Arabic to run over the two students, according to the report. The two students reported the incident later that afternoon. The reporting officer informed the two students who reported the threat that a campus police officer could escort them between classes and asked them to notify campus police if the victims saw any of the three students. According to a Sept. 28 redacted police report, four students harassed the two victims Sept. 26 in Oppenheimer while the father was calling campus police to identify the student who threatened them two days earlier. At about 11:30 a.m., the reporting officer noticed a crowd gathering in the lobby was yelling at the group “in a foreign language.” The father identified a male student as the aggressor, and the reporting officer then asked the male student to step outside to discuss the Sept. 24 incident. While the male student refused to cooperate, the reporting officer said several individuals told him that the male student did not need to go outside. The reporting officer then asked the male student and another male who accompanied the aggressor to go outside. As the two students walked outside, two female students shouted at the reporting officer and told
District police and college officials gather information on an incident in Oppenheimer Sept. 26. Riley Stephens the two male students not to cooperate with police. The female victim identified the two female students as the other students who accompanied the male student in the Sept. 24 incident. The reporting officer told the two female students to go outside and accompany the male students and the police when a crowd walked toward the group while shouting. The reporting officer asked the crowd to stay inside the building and requested additional police units. One of the female students said she could not talk to police “because of her culture” and two students attempted to leave the scene before an officer could get their information. The reporting officer witnessed the growing crowd and requested backup units a second time. About 10 officers responded to the scene, including Chief Don Adams. Once all of the individuals were separated, the reporting officer wrote that the male aggressor said he did not threaten anybody and called the female victim a liar. Once additional officers arrived at Oppenheimer, campus police and staff cleared the first floor and blocked entrances to everyone but students who had classes in the building. Dr. Robert Vela, vice president of academic and student success; Manuel Flores, student conduct officer; and Emma Mendiola, dean of student affairs, also responded to the scene. Participants were separated into three groups as officials attempted to determine what happened. All names, including the names of the reporting officer or officers, were redacted from the reports. Vela confirmed Oct. 25 that one student was ultimately suspended while another faced probation. The student who was suspended was already on probation from the Sept. 24 incident. No criminal charges were filed.
The role of the office of student life will need to increase to provide more activities after the completion of the public-private partnership Tobin Lofts, Dr. Robert Vela, vice president of academic and student success, said Oct. 29. To increase student engagement upon completion in fall 2013, student life Director Jorge Posadas will be responsible for building a relationship with Campus Advantage, a stuJorge Posadas dent housing management company, in addition to his regular job duties. Vela said Thursday that he has established a committee of faculty and staff to collaborate with Campus Advantage. Student activities specialist Carrie Hernandez represents student life on the committee. “We will need to do more evening- and weekend-type programming in collaboration with Campus Advantage, who will oversee the day-to-day operations of Tobin Lofts,” Vela said. Tobin Lofts will be open to students from any college and include a 225-unit residential space, a 961-space parking garage and 12,000 square feet of commercial space, with Luther’s Café as anchor tenant. “We anticipate that most of those students are going to be from SAC, and they’re going to want programming, they’re going to want activities, and Campus Advantage wants to partner with us to continue to develop this, so that role will get bigger and bigger,” Vela said. Posadas declined to be interviewed concerning exactly how student activities will expand and how the office of student life is affected by the director ending involvement with the Student Activity Fee Committee, which oversees about $400,000 in funds designated for student activities. Posadas resigned from the committee during the summer. Because Posadas is no longer part of the committee, Vela said Posadas would have to ask for student activity funds “in the same proposal format that anybody else will have to do it.” Posadas had been in charge of the committee of five students and four faculty and staff since the implementation of the student activity fee in fall 2006, which is generated through the collection of $1 per credit hour per student. Emma Mendiola, dean of student affairs, was appointed chair of the committee in September. A district procedure allows the college president to appoint someone other than the student activity director to fill that role. According to district Procedure F.2.3.1, “The Director of Student Activities or comparable assignee appointed by the President shall serve as a nonvoting member and chair the committee.”
See STUDENT, Page 4