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Volume 87 Issue 11 • Feb. 11, 2013
210-486-1776 • Single copies free
Senate voices concerns to board member
Heads up Condom supplies low Peer Educators are ready if students need to talk to someone. They promote safe sex, drug abuse prevention and peer counseling in general. Their office was always a place students could drop by to pick up a few free condoms. Unfortunately, during National Condom Week — not to mention Valentine’s Day — that student resource is running low. “We don’t have an unlimited supply,” Peer Educators adviser Patricia SanchezGorentz said. The organization’s remaining supply of one box of about 85 condoms is supposed to last through the rest of the semester. The Peer Educators’ supplier, Hope Action Care, a health promotion and education agency, faces budget cuts like everyone else, making them unable since October to donate their excess supply of condoms to the campus group. “It’s really hard to try to find someone else because they’re paying for it out of their budget,” education sophomore Mariana Solis said. Music business freshman Jesus Interiano said the group has not passed out any condoms this semester. The group will not hand out condoms at their upcoming HIV/ AIDS testing event 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday in the nursing complex. The B.E.A.T. Coalition Trust, or B.E.A.T. Aids, will perform the confidential testing. Solis said the group hopes to continue to provide free testing two to three times per semester as usual. On top of the low condom supply, Peer Educators choose not to distribute condoms at the testing sessions for moral reasons, Solis said. “Due to the respect of other’s beliefs, we don’t go out and hand out condoms,” she said. Sanchez-Gorentz cites the presence of underage students on campus as another reason they don’t hand out condoms. “No, we’ve never handed them out on campus,” Sanchez-Gorentz said. “People get offended.” Students are welcome to pick some up in the Peer Educator’s office, she said. Although few people know about the resource, Interiano said there are more people willing to come in and pick up condoms for themselves. “Faculty can also get them,”
See CONDOMS, Page 4
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Senators will meet at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday. By Faith Duarte
fduarte3@student.alamo.edu
Cooper Wildman ponders over a piece of pig meat. He must identify what part of the pig he is looking at if he wants to place in the top five at the Swine Skillathon in the swine barn during the 64th Annual Stockshow San Antonio
Rodeo and stock show. Kids ages from 9-18 were tested on swine knowledge. Students from Palo Alto College monitored the test and answered questions. See story on Page 10. Carlos Ferrand
Weapons resolution passed 2-1 By Rebecca Salinas
rsalinas191@student.alamo.edu
The Legal Affairs Committee voted 2-1 Tuesday to pass a resolution to oppose legal carry of concealed weapons on district campuses. District 8 trustee Gary Beitzel opposed the measure. District 6 trustee Gene Sprague and District 3 trustee Anna Bustamante voted to recommend the resolution to the full board of trustees during the regular board meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 19 at Killen Center, 201 W. Sheridan. The committee passed the resolution in response to the introduction of HB706 and SB182, under consideration in the 83rd Legislature. Chancellor Bruce Leslie said the resolution will seek legislation to permit each local jurisdiction to make their own decision. The topic was first discussed at the Jan. 22 regular board meeting, when Leslie said he will research the resolution the board adopted in response to a similar bill in the 82nd Legislature. The previous motion opposing guns on campus was specific to HB954, so the new resolution was made to oppose gun laws on campus in both present and future legislative sessions. Beitzel said he is not in favor of the resolution because mass shootings occur in “gun-free zones.” “I think what we’re doing here, we’re advocating putting our faculty and our students at risk,” he said. He said if employees and students are not armed, then they will not be able to protect themselves. Although police work as fast as they can, they still cannot get there in time to save lives, he said. “These cases, these shooters pick, so called ‘gun-free zones’ that violate the law, and they know that there isn’t going to be anyone there to attack them,” he said. He said the ratio of square
footage of a campus to officers will make it “almost impossible” for first responders to get to the scene of a shooting without someone being shot. He said if employers and students have weapons on them, they will be able to protect themselves. District 9 trustee James Rindfuss said he does see Beitzel’s viewpoint because people should be able to protect themselves, but the district does not have the “capacity to offer a safe environment.” Rindfuss, who is not a member of the legal affairs committee, said places such as courthouses and airports have safe environments because officers conduct screenings upon entrance. “Unless we can offer a safe environment, then perhaps we should reconsider that issue,” he said. He said he would agree with allowing guns on campus if there were metal detectors to detect who is carrying a gun. He said the campus does not have the resources to house a metal detector or extra police officers, unlike courthouses and airports. Beitzel said one possibility district police Chief Don Adams proposed was keeping a record of who at each campus carries a gun. “The problem is not concealed carry, people,” Beitzel said. “The problem is people who don’t have concealed carry, that don’t obey the laws, and those are the ones that today could be on our campuses.” He said a college in northern Texas lets faculty members carry a concealed weapon, but only the administration knows who is carrying. He said those faculty members even get bonuses after receiving training and carrying a gun. The superintendent of Harrold Independent School District said the school took the unusual measure because its distance from the Ingrid Wilgen
See WEAPONS, Page 4
District 1 trustee Joe Alderete said open communication between the colleges and district is imperative to student success during a Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday. “I decided that one of the main things I was going to do as a board member, if nothing else, was to stay completely focused on student success,” Alderete said. “And nothing was going to deviate me from that.” Alderete encouraged members of the senate to feel free to voice their concerns throughout the meeting. Tenure was a major topic among senators. Nursing Adjunct Toni Scialdo said she has noticed morale in the nursing department has decreased as full-time faculty become overloaded. “I just want to know how the college, as a leadership, think they’re going to go ahead and get full-time, dedicated to the mission, committed (faculty) if they’re going to continue with no tenure,” she said. “We’re getting people that are committed to XYZ hospital, and they come in and work maybe two days a week here at SAC. Government Professor Suzanne Martinez said district administration should be responsible for granting tenure to full-time faculty. “What’s interesting to me is that we’re focusing on tenure and whether it’s good or bad,” she said. “Tenure is a good thing. Job security doesn’t mean you get to do whatever, and we’re all very aware of that, but it’s a responsibility on behalf of the administration to faculty members.” A district policy concerning tenure was delayed at a May 23 regular board meeting. Alderete said that he favors tenure and would like a tenure policy to ideally combine visions of both Chancellor Bruce Leslie and faculty from across the colleges. He said he would want to “make sure it’s something that has value for an institution and really satisfies all of the concerns that you bring.” English Chair Mike Burton said faculty members should be able to apply their various strengths to create wellrounded curriculum for students rather than Chancellor Bruce Leslie’s approach. “It seems to me that what he sees is that if we get the best minds to design the curriculum, anybody can teach,” he said. “What tenure does — and what we kind of value in the San Antonio College culture — is you get the best people, show them the standards that we want, and let them operate according to their strengths to reach that.” Tenure is a protection of faculty
See SENATE, Page 4