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Volume 88 Issue 12 • Feb. 14, 2013

210-486-1773 • Single copies free

PENNY WISE

R.T. Gonzalez

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Students vote on doubling activity fee

Private vs. federal loans Students who apply for loans can get money to help pay for college and living expenses.

A private loan is provided by private banks or credit unions, which may offer more money than a federal loans processed by the U.S. Department of Education.

When students apply for private loans, banks recommend they have co-signers to ensure someone will be liable if the student does not pay.

Some banks, like Wells Fargo, do not require students to be U.S. citizens to apply if they have a cosigner who is, said Joel Rodriguez, a personal banker at Wells Fargo.

A student without established credit will also need a co-signer.

Banks like to see students who are financially stable and will be able to pay the bank back, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said that even if students could afford to pay back the loan in a lump sum, he recommended paying back in increments because it will show borrowers understand the responsibility of making payments.

Some banks, such as Wells Fargo and Discover Bank, offer discounts on loan interest for making payments on time and take off percentages for applying for automatic loan payments.

Though federal loans do not offer discounts, federal lenders take off 0.25 percent of loans when students apply for automatic payments.

An adviser in the financial services office at this college, Belinda Gonzales, recommends students apply for federal loans over private loans because they tend to have lower interest rates.

FAFSA offers students two types of direct loans — subsidized and unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans by the federal government are awarded to students who show financial need, and interest does not accrue until six months after they graduate.

Unsubsidized loans do not require the student to show financial need, but interest does accrue while the student is in school and after they graduate.

Students who apply for federal loans must have applied for financial aid through FAFSA and fill out the federal direct loan request on the Alamo Colleges website at http://mywebdev. alamo.edu/fa/internal-test.

Visit the financial aid office in Room 101 of Fletcher Administration Center or call 210-486-9282.

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Committee approves student trustee seat.

By T. L. Hupfer

thupfer@student.alamo.edu

and family and asked the judge to deny the request that would give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples.

Neel Lane, attorney for the plaintiffs, argued it is harmful to family and children to deny same-sex couples the rights married couples receive in time of need without having to file (wills, power of attorney, divorce rights) for them.

In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed an act known as DOMA Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA states, “No state, territory or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under

Students at the five district colleges will get to vote on whether they support paying a $1 per semester fee to fund study-abroad scholarships and doubling the student activity fee.

Dr. Adelina S. Silva, vice chancellor for student success survey, discussed the survey at meetings of the Academic Accountability and Student Success committees of the board of trustees Tuesday.

On Sept. 17, the board voted unanimously to support the $1 international education fee if a majority vote from students from all five colleges supports it.

However, the name changed to the study-abroad scholarship fee to be clearer on the fee’s purpose.

The fee is estimated to generate $150,000 a year and eligible students could receive up to $1,000 in study abroad scholarships.

The $1 per semester credit hour rise on the student activity fee increase was discussed in a Nov. 8 committee meeting.

Students currently pay $1 per semester hour. If the fee doubles, a full-time student taking 12 hours would pay $24 each semester.

The student activity fee funds activities and other items deemed worthy by a Student Activity Fee Committee at each college.

See STALLS, Page 4

See FEE, Page 5

Attorney Neel Lane, bottom right, answers questions from the media Wednesday outside the John H. Wood Jr. U.S. Courthouse.

The plaintiffs Cleopatra De Leon, Nicole Dimetman, Vic Holmes and Mark Phariss are together in the top center after the court adjourned. M.J. Callahan

Same-sex marriage case stalls in verdict

By M.J. Callahan, Bleah B. Patterson, Pam Paz sac-ranger@alamo.edu A crowd of about 30 gathered Wednesday outside the John H. Wood Jr. U.S. Courthouse awaiting the verdict of a court case that could overturn Texas’ constitutional prohibition of marriage between same-sex couples.

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia did not immediately rule in the case of Nicoles Dimetman and her spouse, Cleopatra De Leon, who were married in Massachusetts in 2009, and Vic Holmes and his life partner, Mark Phariss, both of Plano, who want to marry.

The plaintiffs were asking the court to prohibit the state from enforcing its ban on same-sex marriage while this case winds it way through the courts.

Garcia said gay people are free to marry, just not someone of the same sex.

He said his ruling isn’t important because he realizes either way, the decision will be appealed and taken to the U.S. Supreme Court. He did say when his ruling would be forthcoming.

Chuck Smith, executive director of Equality Texas, worries the reason the judge is taking time to consider his verdict isn’t for the benefit of the people, but because he realizes he’ll be remembered based on the decision he makes and he wants to protect his legacy.

Inside the courtroom Michael Murphy, assistant solicitor general from the Texas attorney general’s office, argued Texas needs to preserve a traditional view of marriage

Learning Framework to benefit training firm Cost of Covey training increases to $3.5 million, according to a town hall presentation.

By Bleah B. Patterson

bpatterson13@student.alamo.edu

In Monday’s town hall meeting called by this college’s Faculty Senate, a slide presentation detailed the history of a core change that has faculty across the district protesting.

The presentation provided fuel to the faculty fire.

Included was the widespread announcement that the Alamo Colleges will serve as a guinea pig for Franklin Covey Co., to expand its market from K-12 into higher education.

Representatives of Franklin Covey met twice in the fall with the Student Academic Success Council, co-chaired by Dr. Robert Vela, vice president for academic and student success, and Dr. Cynthia MendiolaPerez, associate vice chan-

cellor for student and program development.

The district is collaborating with Franklin Covey, the company behind “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey and its extensive line of training and planning materials.

Covey intends to release a textbook specifically for EDUC 1300, Learning Framework, that will be required for every student taking the course.

“I can’t help but think that there’s a skunk in the woodpile when I hear all of this information,” Faculty Senate Secretary Lisa Black said.

Beginning in fall 2014, the Covey Training and Counseling Institute will be using the Alamo Colleges course EDUC 1300 as a model to market to other institutions implementing similar

courses, Chancellor Bruce Leslie wrote in a response to a protest from Northwest Vista College faculty.

Throughout a two-year discussion, faculty members across the district have opposed implementing the course in the core curriculum in place of a humanities class, but the NVC protest centered on Leslie’s circumventing the normal process.

In the meeting Monday, senate President Dawn Elmore said, “Everyone in here has been Covey-ized.

Covey is all about process. If you expect our students to follow the process, then, we, too, must follow the process.”

She continued, “How can we not have an intelligent dialogue just because we may not agree?”

Writing center Director Jane Focht-Hansen was among the nearly 100 people in attendance.

“Where’s the evidence?”

she asked, “I want to see evidence that this will be successful for college students. I want to know this will work.”

“That’s because there isn’t (any),” Elmore responded.

During this conversation, NVC Faculty Senate member Neil Lewis turned to NVC humanities Instructor Carlos Lopez to say “assimilation.”

He referred to numerous decisions Leslie has presented to the board of trustees since his arrival in November 2006 that are aimed at forcing five individual colleges into one.

Under Leslie, the five colleges now share common course descriptions, developmental education offerings, degree plans unless unique to a college, and core curriculum.

Sharing student learning outcomes and textbook selections are in progress.

“The burden of proof

needs to be on the other side,” English and reading Chair Mike Burton said. “We need to know if it’s successful, and unfortunately, that evidence doesn’t exist.”

The presentation also indicated a five-fold increase to $3.5 million in the amount the college district has spent so far on Covey training materials.

Black questioned the level of forethought put into the core change decision.

“It’s like whiplash around here; I feel like I need to be wearing a neck brace.”

English Professor Alex Bernal said, “The chancellor is so insistent that employers want students with leadership skills and that they don’t need English and history students, but every employer I’ve ever met is looking for critical thinkers and people with reading skills — at least any employer I’ve ever met, in my limited experience.”

People

2 • Feb. 14, 2014

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Punching bag Kinesiology sophomore Katherine Bouldin conditions for the Open time Engineering sophomore Jeff Gee guards mortuary science sophomore Bryan Thomas during a game of 21 during recreational hours Tuesday in Gym 1 of Candler. Gee bested Thomas with a 21-15 final score. The gym’s recreational hours are 2:15 p.m.-4 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Friday. Daniel Carde

Golden Glove match Wednesday in the craft room in Loftin. The match benefits the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio. Registration is on Saturday at the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio Eastside Branch, and the matches will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday in Woodlawn Gym. Belinda Hernandez

Quiet space

Kinesiology sophomore Thomas Stillings rests on a couch while liberal arts sophomore Eric Ott listens to The Glitch Mob’s new song “Skull Club” on the second floor of the library while waiting for classes to start Tuesday at Northeast Lakeview College. Stillings and Ott chose this area for its quiet, low-traffic seclusion. Daniel Carde

The Watching shares its first live ‘moment’ on KSYM

By Ian Coleman

sac-ranger@alamo.edu

“I don’t want to make hits, I want to make moments,” John Michael Manzano of The Watching said before the band performed and recorded live for their first time Feb. 5 on “Live on KSYM” hosted by live sound engineer and hip-hop director Liese Segovia.

The band is composed of vocalist Miguel Davila, lead guitarist and songwriter Manzano, bassist Matt Craig and drummer Eric Martinez.

Martinez, 24, radio-television-broadcasting freshman, caught Segovia’s attention with his band’s music at a KSYM staff meeting where Segovia received permission to set up an email, liveonksym@yahoo.com, for local bands to submit music for live

performance considerations.

“He walked over at the end of the meeting and asked me if I’d listen to his music, and if I liked it could he play on the show,” Segovia said.

Segovia and program director James Velten approved The Watching’s music and booked a date for the band to perform on KSYM 90.1 FM. Craig said the band has “the old school feeling, that old vibe of your songs meaning something and telling a story, taking you somewhere.”

The band was scheduled in recording studio 201D for a 30-minute time slot, from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

While on air, The Watching played five of their songs.

They were “Smiles and Cries,” “Constellations,” “Lost Highway,” “Ashes” and one unti-

tled track.

Davila said the band prefers to write and play tracks live and later name them.

“He (Manzano) couldn’t hear what I’m saying at first and then I’m like ‘well what are you calling this song?’ and he throws out a name that’s in the song. Not the words, but the description of it,” Davila said.

Segovia worked alone, running back and forth between the recording and radio studios.

The band hopes to use the live recording to put together an album and EP, with hopes of touring in March. EP stands for extended play. It is a recording that is too short for an album and too long for a single.

“We’d like to try doing some stuff by the end of March. We would like to have

at least a small EP when we go out to play so we can give that out to the people,” Craig said.

For more information on The Watching visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thewatchingofficial.

Segovia welcomes local bands from this college and from the San Antonio area.

“I think there is a lot of talent out there and any way that I can, I help get their music out there. It’s nice to help musicians that deserve recognition,” Segovia said.

Apart from “Live on KSYM” she also hosts “Hidden Traxx,” a show that features local hiphop artists.

Segovia enjoys playing local music, because radio today doesn’t air local artists.

Apart from The Watching, Segovia has had other memo-

The Watching bandmates drummer Eric Martinez, lead singer Miguel Davila, lead guitarist John Michael, and bass guitarist Matt Craig anxiously await their first live performance on KSYM 90.1 FM Feb. 5.

Belinda Hernandez rable artists perform on the show.

“I had this guy Goatcraft in here,” Segovia said. “He was this huge metal guy, but he plays the piano. As soon as he touches the piano, it’s like

Mozart appears.”

Segovia said Goatcraft classifies himself as a necropianist because of the dark undertones in his music.

For more information, call Segovia at 210-486-1373.

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Feb. 14, 2014 • 3

Zeigler cites process in objections to EDUC 1300 Assessments director to College Council: Limiting humanities exposure smacks of racism.

By Bleah B. Patterson

bpatterson13@student.alamo.edu

During Tuesday’s College Council meeting, President Robert Zeigler said it isn’t the course being added to the core curriculum that’s causing a rift between district officials and faculty, but the lack of process followed during implementation of the course.

EDUC 1300, Learning Framework, is being added to the core curriculum in place of a second humanities course beginning in the fall.

“The college position at SAC was that we thought the course was important,” Zeigler said.

“We thought it would be helpful to students, but we thought the course ought to be outside of the core, in the 18 hours they take outside the core … there were differences of opinion on that.

The chancellor (Dr. Bruce Leslie) thought that it ought to be in the core.”

Faculty maintain they had no voice in the decision-making concerning curriculum.

The Super Senate and the five Faculty Senates of the district are circulating a letter of protest to Leslie. It was sent Wednesday at 5 p.m.

In a response to the Northwest Vista College Faculty Senate, the chancellor wrote that the decision was made by the PVC, shorthand for presidents and vice chancellors, because if not made quickly, the change could not be implemented until fall 2015.

Zeigler said he did not think it was appropriate to sign a letter from the Super Senate,

and instead said he would gather the college executive team to review the issue and send a response to Leslie and, eventually, to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

“The executive team, shares the faculty’s concern about the process,” Zeigler said. “We think that if we’re going to have principles of operation and we’re going to have values then we ought to also live by the same values and the same rules.

Essentially, that is our position with which we will frame the response and let you (Faculty Senate) see what we come up with. We already have a draft written that I will circulate to the CET team.”

If the chancellor does not respond within a reasonable amount of time, the Super Senate and the executive team will approach the Coordinating Board with their letters, Zeigler said.

The Northwest Vista Faculty Senate sent a protest Jan 29 directly to the Coordinating Board and were chastised by the chancellor for not following procedure.

Elmore stressed that time is of the essence because the Coordinating Board will be making its final decision by Feb. 28 and will announce it on March 1.

“I want to give the chancellor a chance to respond before approaching the board,” Zeigler said. “It doesn’t need to be six months, but a reasonable amount of time.”

Adolph Lopez, director of assessments, spoke up to tell College Council that he worries with three out of the five Alamo Colleges serving minorities, there may be racism involved in the core change decision.

“It smells like racism to me. If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, it is a rat, and it

looks and smells as if we’re being discriminated against,” he said.

This college and Palo Alto College are designated as Hispanic-serving institutions by the U.S. Department of Education and St. Philip’s College is designated for serving black students.

Both of these designations qualify the colleges for federal grants targeted to increasing success rates of minority students.

While a group of faculty was consulted on particular learning outcomes for a hypothetical course, they was no faculty input in the direct decision to implement the course, Zeigler said.

Dr. Robert Vela, vice president of academic and student success, co-chaired the Student Academic Success Council tasked with developing learning outcomes for the course and for student development courses.

“No discussions were made about who would teach EDUC 1300, how many hours it would be, where it would be placed in the core, or even what it would be categorized with,” Vela said to College Council. “The only thing discussed were the student learning outcomes, and that was the extent of the faculty involvement.”

Vela continued, “Our charge was not to make those recommendations. Dr. (Jo-Carol) Fabianke asked me and Cynthia MendiolaPerez (associate vice chancellor for student success) to coordinate a cross-college team to work on student learning outcomes for SDEV and the new Learning Framework course.

“We made this very clear to the group that our position at that point was not to deal with the where-it-lives, or who-does-this or who-does-that,” he said. “Our mission was to

develop those SLOs because they’re two distinct curriculums. One is SDEV, one (Learning Framework) is more meta-cognition, more theory. It was very clearly two different courses.”

In the process of developing student learning outcomes for the course, Vela’s team wanted to embed Covey’s principles outlined in “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

“As a result, Covey came in and said, ‘we’ll help you facilitate this discussion,’” Vela said.

There were no designated discipline-oriented faculty present to represent the colleges, Vela said.

“And we have yet to see the final product. We still need to look at it and see if it makes sense.”

Fine arts Chair Jeff Hunt said, “I don’t think that the faculty at large believe that was enough input.”

“And I agree,” Zeigler said. “And that’s the real issue.”

“What I’m wondering is if that’s what Dr. Leslie is using that committee as saying there was faculty involvement,” Hunt said.

“That’s exactly what he was talking about,” Vela said.

Zeigler said, “It seems to me that in this case, there were concerns of expediting this. That the concern about going through the process, we wouldn’t get it done in time. Surely, we can find ways to follow policy and procedure and still expedite things that need to be expedited … still having time for discussion.”

Vela said, “I think the problem that we’re facing right now is that we don’t have a mechanism, whether it’s a policy, procedure or a process with which we can expedite these types of things.”

Institutes to prevent students entering as undeclared Chairs Council questions core course structure.

By Cassandra M. Rodriguez crodriguez719@student.alamo.edu

The implementation of the Alamo Institutes was discussed at the Alamo Colleges Chairs Council meeting Monday at Northeast Lakeview College. The Chair’s Council is composed of three department chairs from each of the district’s five colleges.

“It sounds like a decision that has already been made and that we are going to do these institutes,” Dr. Ellen

STUDY

Marshall, early childhood studies chair, said.

All degrees and certificates will be divided into six institutes, and part of the purpose is to prevent students from entering the college with undeclared majors. Many students are taking more classes than necessary, Marshall said, and the classes don’t count toward the degree they finally choose.

Northwest Vista College already has a policy where students have to declare a major.

Some students declare liberal arts as their major while still unsure of what they actually want to major in.

“The focus is to make things easier for students so they don’t take multiple courses that they don’t need for their particular pathway,” Marshall said.

The institutes will have students consider the job opportunities that exist for the degree they chose with software showing the jobs and salaries available.

“But to me, and I think a

Get smarter in study spots

By Cassandra M. Rodriguez crodriguez719@student.alamo.edu

Discover great places to study on campus in between a hectic class schedule and distractions at home.

If a student likes a snack while studying and background noise is not a problem, the cafeteria in Loftin Student Center provides the necessary nourishment, tables and desks for students to comfortably lay out their nibbles and notes.

For students wanting a view while studying, try heading up to the second floor balcony of Loftin before heading home for the day.

Moody Learning Center offers seven floors of computers, study rooms, couches and tables for students to spread out their study materials.

Study rooms are available for at least two students to take advantage of the quiet and undistracting space.

Students can check out markers to use with the dry erase boards in the study rooms.

Students who prefer serious silence will appreciate the spacious and quiet

study area on the fourth floor of Moody.

Students can grab a light snack at Café Moody and settle into one of the tables on the veranda surrounding the building. Students can stay close to the library while getting fresh air and begin a study session.

When warmer weather comes, an enjoyable courtyard between situated among Loftin, Gonzales and McCreless halls has tables for students to study in virtual seclusion.

Join the study atmosphere in Oppenheimer Academic Center and take advantage of study rooms.

However, students frequently occupy the tables on each level catching up on homework or studying with friends and classmates.

Getting ready for an exam? Try studying exam reviews and correlate them with notes in an empty classroom in the same building class is located.

Plenty of great study areas are available or waiting to be discovered on this campus. For more information, visit www.alamo.edu/sac/library/.

John French contributed to this story.

lot of folks, what is the point of doing this? If we don’t reorganize, basically, all this is, is a plan on a piece of paper,” Patrick Lee, mathematics chair at Palo Alto College, said.

The institutes are intended to prevent students from spending more money and taking extra classes by helping them focus early on a particular degree.

“How do we try to get people focused where they need to be but at the same time encourage people to explore a variety of options?” Charles

LIVING

Hinkley, humanities chair at Northwest Vista College, asked. Students should have the opportunity to see the variety of interesting things they can study, Hinkley added.

“If we are going to have this kind of focus, let’s have as part of our advising sessions on what kind of majors are out there.

The Alamo Institutes Committee is supposed to develop an advising structure formatted for each institute to guide students. Advisers will be assigned to each institute

and will only advise for that institute.

Students still take their core requirements, but the Chairs Council wanted to know if core courses, such as English, would be formatted specifically for each institute.

They also wanted to know the direction the implementation of the institutes will take the colleges.

“It sounds like the bottom line here is it’s a question about the impact of this shift on the structure of the colleges,” Hinkley said.

Clubs promote friendship, networking

By Ansley Lewis

sac-ranger@alamo.edu

Joining a campus organization can create a solid foundation to build social networks and get more involved in life on campus.

“Clubs reinforce your passions and other people’s passions. They confirm that you’re on the right track,” said fine arts sophomore Juan Anselmo, a member of the Art Guild.

Mark Bigelow, assistant coordinator of student leadership and activities, said there are 42 active student groups on campus.

“Organizations help with retention. Students involved are usually more active around campus,” Bigelow said.

On Jan. 29 the office of student life held an organization showcase.

Students were able to visit with the campus’ various organizations.

Student Government Association is a campus organization.

“The SGA gives you the opportunity to represent yourself in a way that matters,” President Andrew Hubbard said. “Meetings are like focus groups where students can share ideas, concerns and be a part of a student-initiated network.”

The SGA meets at noon on the first three Mondays of every month in the craft room of Loftin Student Center.

The Art Guild is another organization that is active on campus as well as the community.

“Clubs offer a greater experience of going out into the world.

They are a good way to see and meet different people,” said Patrick Hawbecker, fine arts sophomore and Art Guild member.

The Art Guild meets 2 p.m.-3 p.m. on Fridays in the visual arts center in Room 204.

The Gay, Ally and Lesbian Association is another active group. GALA’s mission is to educate people about lesbian, gay,

bisexual, transgender and queer life, as well as advocate for LGBTQ rights, according to the organization’s orgsync profile.

GALA invites everyone to participate in meetings and events and provides a safe place for students.

The group meets at 3 p.m.4 p.m. Wednesdays in Loftin Student Center.

A new organization, the Photography Club, meets for the first time at 11 a.m. today in Room 207 of Loftin Student Center.

The group welcomes anyone interested in photography.

Orgsync allows students to stay informed about organizations as well as events and activities happening on campus.

Students can join clubs on the website and get notifications on meeting dates.

For more information on campus organizations, contact Bigelow at 210-486-0134 or mbigelow2@alamo.edu.

News

4 • Feb. 14, 2014

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Middle school teacher signs on as flight director of Scobee center

By M.J. Callahan

mcallahan7@alamo.edu

A local middle school science teacher, Jennifer Becerra, hopes to help this college soar as the new academic program coordinator and lead flight director for Scobee Education Center.

Becerra was hired before Thanksgiving but did not begin until Jan. 20 because she wanted to finish the semester as science department coordinator at Earl Rudder Middle school, where she has taught since 2013.

She also taught science at Shepherd, Zachry and Briscoe middle schools and as distance learning teacher at Education Service Center, Region 20.

She worked at NASA as an aerospace education specialist 2004-2008 and in various other capacities 2009-2010.

“My passion to work at the center comes from my passion for space science,” she said in

STALLS from Page 1 the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.”

In 2011, however, President Obama instructed the Department of Justice to no longer defend DOMA. On the courthouse steps, Pandora Burnett, who recently moved here from Kansas with her partner, Pamela Huerta, doesn’t understand why the state does not change its constitution.

“It would save them a lot of trouble — they wouldn’t have to keep spending our money to bicker,” Burnett said. “It should be a person’s decision whether or not they care what some ‘god’ thinks about it.”

Patrick Von Dohlen, a member of San Antonio Family Association, worries changing the definition of family

an interview. “I am fascinated with space flight, the work being done in space and the things we can learn from research being done on the international space station.”

Becerra graduated from the University of the Incarnate Word with a with a bachelor of arts in interdisciplinary studies in life and earth science in 1997, and she received a master of arts in curriculum and instruction in science education in 2002 from Our Lady of the Lake University.

Becerra shared some moments from her past working with the NASA educational office in Houston.

She worked with teachers such as Barbra Morgan, who was the alternate for Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who lost her life with the astronauts of the Challenger along with Cmdr.

Frances “Dick” Scobee for whom this college’s center is named.

The educator astronauts allowed students

will change the definition of Texas, saying “one man and one women build a family.” “We’re the state who believes natural laws need to be abided by,” he said.

Waiting anxiously for a peek inside of the courtroom, homeschooling mom Darla Richter brought her five children, including her 7-month old son, to view the process for the older children’s civics lesson. “We’re here to support traditional marriage between a man and a women,” Richter said, “I wanted my kids to see the process of how decisions like this are made.”

Her son, Joshua Richter, 18, is a senior and says he wanted to see what was going on.

“I’m against homosexuality, not the people but the act. I just wanted to see what they were going to do and

to get excited about science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, fields. Allowing students to communicate with the astronauts in space brings the experience to life, she said.

“I was very proud to work with Barbra Morgan and inspired by the other educator astronauts and others to keep working in the field of education and space science,” she said.

Becerra shared some of the plans for Scobee Education Center. Visitors will get to use some equipment just like in the space station.

Students will be in teams at mission control.

The teams will work together to solve different scenarios.

Students might have warnings flashing on the computer screens either in mission control or in the space station section areas.

They will need to figure out how to solve issues in front to get the mission done, she said.

A unique part of the program is the experiment glove boxes. The glove boxes are in the

I wanted people to know I’m here standing for what I believe in,” he said. “In popular culture, they seem to want the public to believe all of the old people are conservative and all of the young people are liberal.

But I’m not and neither are any of my friends.”

Burnett has four children and worries about her children’s rights in Texas if something happens to her.

Marcus Shaw, president of the Permian Basin Pride from Midland, a group celebrating the diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community, drove five hours.

“Inevitably, we want equal rights, but in the state of Texas, that will be challenging,” Shaw said.

A group of Shaw’s friends, who

space station area that simulates the kind of experiments conducted in space. The students will take instructions from mission control to conduct the different experiments in these glove boxes.

Becerra said the simulators that are being installed are similar to the ones at Johnson Space Center that are used to train astronauts before they go into space.

“We will be the first to get all this new technology and layout, but eventually they hope to work it through to the other centers,” Becerra said.

There will be a flight simulator with screens showing them taking off just like one would see out the windows of a transporter, Becerra said.

The center will offer activities for students as young as pre-K with the Micronauts program and as old as adults in corporate retreats and training.

call themselves “heterosexual allies,” joined him in support of same-sex marriage.

Shaw said he will be “following the case continuously.”

Jennifer Falcon, Leader of the Get Equal movement, said, “Our friends are family are children are all LBGT. Allies are the most important to start in the fight because just like the civil rights movement when white people joined in, that’s what really pushed the movement forward, every little step.” Falcon came with her daughters, Kayla, 9, and Alan,6, sporting faces painted with the letters NOH8 from the Get Equal rally held the night before.

NOH8 is a charitable organization whose mission is to promote marriage, gender and human equality

through education, advocacy, social media, and visual protest.

“I just keep thinking if this was my daughter I would want her to have everything. I fight as hard as possible to make sure she would have the same rights that I have,” Falcon said.

Amy Bonham and her mother, Mary Schultz, also attended the proceedings. Bonham and Schultz are not gay, but Bonham’s 17-year-old daughter is gay and they were there in support of her. Bonham’s daughter is a senior at Roosevelt High School and is the president of Gay Straight Alliance Club.

Mary Schulz also noted the reason gay marriage is not accepted is because it goes against tradition.

“What’s traditional anymore these days?” she asked.

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Feb 14, 2014 • 5

Campus police trained to respond to active shooters Police work with conduct officers to identify students with distressing behavior.

By Neven Jones

njones4@student.alamo.edu

Campus police recommend students follow three steps if they are in an active shooter situation — get out and call for help, hide and, as a last resort, resist.

This is the advice of district police Chief Don Adams from a Jan. 29 interview.

Although this has not happened in any of the five Alamo Colleges, 28 incidents have occurred in 2013, and 14 occurred this year at other schools around the country.

There have been notable incidents across the country since the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007.

This incident prompted educational institutions to increase training and seek programs to identify and help students with serious behavior problems.

Most recently, on Jan. 21, a teaching assistant was shot to death at Purdue University inside the electrical engineering building.

An average active shooter

incident lasts 12 minutes; 98 percent of the time the offender is a single shooter and 43 percent of the time the crime is over before police arrive, according to the FBI website.

It is important to remember active shooters are coming to kill, Adams said.

People often huddle together in a room in that situation, making it easier for the shooter to kill more people, he said.

Instead, it is better to separate and fight the shooter, he said.

If the shooter is outnumbered, attack or fight the shooter.

All district police officers are trained to respond to an active shooter situation, Adams said.

The officers go through advanced law enforcement rapid response training, or ALERT. The training teaches the officers how to confront and contend with that type of threat, he said.

The active shooter response training is a 30-minute video called “Active Shooter Training Video.”

The video is available for employees through Alamo Learn but is not yet available to students, Adams said.

The video is presented

by DPS, Enterprise Risk Management and the Center for Personal Protection and Safety.

Campus police are working on getting it online this year so students can go through the training, he said.

The police department works closely with this college’s conduct officers and can access the same database used to track repeated student problems, Adams said.

The police officers do not go into the database and start looking at student activity unless they are notified there is a problem with a particular student, Adams said.

Alamo Colleges use strategies of behavioral intervention, or SOBI, to help students with behavior problems who may need inter-

vention.

An incident report form is available on the student affairs webpage for faculty, staff or students to fill out to alert conduct officers that a student may need help.

Student conduct Officers Tracy Floyd and Manuel Flores explained SOBI at a seminar Jan. 15.

SOBI began as a result of the Virginia Tech shootings.

The shooter had problems documented all over campus and each incident was handled as a separate issue, but departments were not talking to each other, Floyd said.

SOBI teams formed all over the country to funnel information to one location so patterns of behavior could be examined, Floyd said.

Distressing student behavior can come from many causes such as life stress or a psychiatric illness, Floyd said.

It may be difficult for some teachers to ask students if they are having thoughts of hurting themselves or someone else, she said.

“It’s better to risk offend-

ing a student than not responding to distressing behavior,” Floyd said.

Faculty and staff can take a mental health first aid class, offered through the Murguia Learning Institute to learn how to have these conversations with students, Floyd said.

In the event of an emergency, Floyd recommends calling campus police instead of the San Antonio Police Department because they know the campus better and can get here faster, she said.

“When you call SAPD, what you are going to get is someone saying ‘OK, give me the cross-streets of the Nail Technical Center, I’m five blocks away,’” Floyd said.

SAPD is not as familiar with this college as the campus police are, she said.

Campus police are fully licensed and available 24 hours a day to help students, Floyd said.

The campus police department is located at 1601 N. Main. Call 210-4850911 for emergencies.

Old ‘glory hole’ resurfaces Maintenance superintendent requests everyone immediately report vandalism.

By Neven Jones

njones4@student.alamo.edu

A hole was cut between stalls in a men’s restroom in Room 148 of Chance Academic Center.

The Ranger first noticed it Feb. 3.

Known by the slang term “glory hole,” the hole was cut in a partition of adjoining toilet stalls to enable sexual acts.

According to the housekeeping log, the bathroom was regularly cleaned this month by maintenance yet the hole was not reported or repaired until The Ranger notified facilities Superintendent David Ortega Monday.

Ortega was out last week and could not be reached until Monday.

The hole was cut with a drill and a hole saw, Ortega said. After examining the hole, Ortega informed The Ranger it was an existing hole and a metal plate covering the hole had been removed.

Ortega could not tell if the hole was “active,” but there were no signs it was used recently, he said.

Maintenance was able to cover the hole and remove the explicit pencil drawing with wet paper towels he said. A sexually explicit message was also removed from the restroom door.

It is costly for this college to repair the holes

FEE from Page 1 Silva said they will send an email to all students about the opportunity to vote. She said the email will be similar to, “here’s the link, find out what’s happening.”

She said there will also be an email sent to all employees so they know where to get information if they are asked.

The Alamo Colleges website will also have a banner and the colleges social media sites will display the proposals.

Silva said there will be two weeks of information and then one week of student voting.

Graffiti and a “glory hole” mark a toilet stall Feb. 3 in the men’s restroom in Room 148 of Chance. A vandal drew a sexually explicit depiction of a woman and wrote “(Expletive) your professor (stripper) from SAC and get a A+.”

The hole was patched and the image removed Monday. Daniel Carde because a panel costs about $200, Ortega said.

GCA, the company also contracted to clean the nursing complex and Nail Technical Center, cleans Chance, he said.

After The Ranger spoke with Ortega, he told CGA to immediately report any vandalism, he said.

As soon as facilities learn about the holes, they are sealed, he said.

The vote will be on two separate items, the study abroad scholarship and the student activity fee, and is set for March 1-7 by student email.

At the March 18 committee meeting, trustees will discuss the results of the voting.

District 2 trustee Denver McClendon worried if students wanted the increase to the activity fee.

“I wanted the students to have a voice on how their money is being spent,” McClendon said.

Silva said the students are proposing the activity fee increase and assured him the students will be voting on this before being voted on

“If we don’t know about it, we can’t fix it,” Ortega said.

The Ranger previously reported on “glory holes” in 2006, which were found in men’s restrooms on the sixth floor of Moody, McCreless Hall and the chemistry and geology building.

Students and faculty are urged to report any type of vandalism at this college to facilities. Call 210-486-1235.

by the board.

Silva said the Student Government Associations from all five Alamo colleges collectively agreed to see the campaign through.

Whether the students vote for the increase, they are in charge of deciding how it’s spent.

The Policy and Long-Range Planning Committee approved the idea of adding a student trustee to the board of trustees. The full board will decide whether to add a student to their ranks.

The student will serve as a nonvoting student and will receive a $600 scholarship.

Applications to apply for the position are through the colleges’ SGAs. Applicants will be interviewed Feb. 19-March 31 and one will be selected from each college.

The board will spend April reviewing the applications. The student trustee will be sworn in at the regular board meeting May 13.

This college’s SGA president Andrew Hubbard, liberal arts sophomore, said he is excited for this because it was one of his goals to fulfill during his term.

The next meeting of the full board is at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Room 101 of Killen Center.

IN THEORY

A student almost sets his sweater on fire with the satellite dish designed by Society of Physics Feb. 13, 2013. File

MESA kicks off STEM week Extended hours available to STEM students.

By John D. French

sac-ranger@alamo.edu

Students majoring in science or mathematics might find themselves spending more time in Room 204A of Chance Academic Center. That is the MESA center, and it will host several events.

The Mathematics Engineering and Science Department was first established in Oakland, Calif., with a technical high school more than 40 years ago, and started at this college in 2007, making this the first MESA center in Texas.

The MESA center is open to students of any major 8 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math can use the area 7 a.m.-10 p.m.

“We also give priority computer usage to our members,” MESA Coordinator Analisa Garza explained.

“But we will still tutor any student (from this campus), and any major.”

Garza started working at the center in 2012. Student organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers, Society of Physics Students, Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists, and the Society for the Advancement of Chicano Native Americans in Science take advantage of the MESA center by meeting there.

Feb. 17 starts STEM Week, sponsored by Title 5-Adalante Tejas.

A faculty meeting will be noon-2 p.m. Monday, allowing students to get to know the faculty associated with STEM. STEMulate will take place 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday in the mall.

Garza said the event is going to “showcase a lot of hands on STEM activities (and) it’ll showcase our STEM departments and bring in more student organizations from the community.”

MESA also will have a program allowing students to submit original ideas for research projects.

Accepted proposals will be awarded up to $1,000 and a faculty adviser will overview the project.

Though the deadline has not been set, students should turn in proposals to the MESA office center in Room 204A of Chance or electronically to agarza872@alamo.edu.

Students looking for events and organization meeting times can find information on MESA’s calendar on the college website. Click “Student Resources”, then MESA in the left side bar.

65th San Antonio Sto

6 • www.theranger.org/premiere

Architecture sophomore Jose Sierra fights being thrown from the mechanical bull at Rodeo Round-up Wednesday in the mall. The mechanical bull was rented by the office of student life for four hours at a cost of $1,150. Daniel Carde

A buckin’ good ol’ time Organizations raise funds and awareness.

By M.J. Callahan and Brenda Carielo sac-ranger@alamo.edu

It was a rootin’ tootin’ good time as the local Willburn Brothers Trio band set the mood for the Wild West Rodeo Round-up Wednesday in the mall.

The office of student life created a Western atmosphere for students while the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo is in town.

The office of student life spent $1,150 with Parties Picnics and Promotions to provide a mechanical bull for students to try their hand at bullriding, said Carrie Hernandez, senior specialist of student success.

More than 45 students rode the bull in the first hour.

Architecture sophomore Jose Sierra was determined to stay on for more then an 8-second ride.

“It was harder then it looked,” Sierra said.

The mechanical bull was on an inflated bed to ensure a soft landing when the bull bucked the rider.

The office of student life set up a basketball hoop on the south side of Loftin.

Twenty-four campus clubs and organizations gathered to sell rodeo-style concessions to raise money and awareness for their orga-

nizations and causes.

Included in the list of 24 organizations, the Christian Student Association set up a deep fry station and sold “krispy dogs,” or fried hot dogs, for $1 and $3 meals which included two krispy dogs and a soda.

The Army ROTC organization grilled and sold burgers for $2, and the Psychology Club brewed hot chocolate for $1.

SAC Boxing Club sold bottled water for $1 and took pre-orders for Valentine’s Day balloon bouquet arrangements. The balloon bouquets will be available for pick up today along with requests for personalized bouquets in the atrium area near the stairs on the first floor of Loftin.

Balloon arrangements are $4 for a half dozen and $1 for a single balloon.

While the roundup served to entertain, it also served to inform students of events on campus.

The Student Government Association conducted a survey of student opinions on the: EDUC 1300, Learning Framework, course; etextbooks; graduation; and the proposed four-day class schedule.

The whole event cost $1,600, Hernandez said.

For more information about the Student Government Association survey, visit Room 260B of Loftin or call 210-486-0133.

Emmanuel Rodriguez Jr., 18 months, son of Emmanuel Rodriguez Sr., reaches out to two baby chickens in Animal Adventures at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Saturday. The family traveled from Corpus Christi for the toddler’s first rodeo. Mandy Derfler

Professional rider Brent Gubbels rides Little Bow Peepto in the Mercuia World Series Open. Cattle cutting is the practice ting” or separating a cow from the herd then keeping the cow from re-entering the herd for 2 1/2 minutes. Melissa Perr

Batting away myths about b Humans are more dangerous to bats than bats to humans.

By Cassandra M. Rodriguez crodriguez719@student.alamo.edu

The Bat, Mysteries, and Myths exhibit sponsored by the Organization for Bat Conservation at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo was an eyeopener for people to learn the truth about bats.

“This is an opportunity for people to see them up close and see what they are really like and learn the truth about bats instead of all those myths,” education specialist Michelle Maust said.

One myth is bats attack people, but the truth is that bats avoid people because they are afraid of them. People think bats are dirty and have rabies.

Bats actually groom themselves like cats and are very clean. Fewer than 1 percent of bats have rabies.

“Very few bats actually have rabies,” Maust said, adding that most people are surprised to learn “that they are pretty friendly and only bite in selfdefense.”

Another misleading popular myth is bats suck blood. There are more than 1,250 species of bats, and only three species of vampire bats feed on blood. Don’t be alarmed: They only feed on blood from cows, chickens, goats and pigs. They live in Mexico, Central America and South America.

The most common species in this area are the Mexican free-tailed bats, seen at the Bracken Bat Cave in Mobile Dairy Instructor Cody Lightfoot and Cow 16, demonstrate to curious children the milking process Monday in the Dairy Center sponsored

by H-E-B. Lightfoot is a member of the Southwest Dairy Farmers, who travel across the Southwest demonstrating the milking process to elementary age children.

Catharine Trevino

Russel Kott trims Marian, a Rambouillet, before showing her in competition Saturday in the livestock area on the grounds of Freeman Coliseum. Kott says he brings in his sheep every year and hopes this year Marian will win first prize. Riley Stephens

Ryan Lyssy, 8, listens while his sister, Rachael Lyssy, 13, yells into artific to demonstrate amplification of bat hearing in the new Bats, Mysteries Saturday. Ryan and Rachael and their friends, Bella Dzurk, 13, and Layne from Falls City with their family to watch bullriding. Mandy Derfler Comal County and the bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, and the big brown bat that was displayed at the exhibit.

The biggest threats to bats are humans and habitat loss. The development of the land around the Bracken Cave could severely disrupt their migration pattern, Maust said.

White-nose syndrome is a threat to North American cave-dwelling bats’ hibernation. It causes them to wake up weeks early resulting in dehydra-

tion and starvation be is frozen.

Since 2006, almos have died because of and caves that used 10,000 bats are now em mon brown bats are no gered species list.

People left the bat e found truths: Bats are they are actually kind o For more informa batconservation.org.

ock Show and Rodeo

Feb. 14, 2014 • 7

Lupe Garcia and daughter Alexis smile and dance in the food court while several hundred others enjoy good eats and drink Saturday. He said, “It’s my dream to be dancing with my daughter.” Paula Christine Schuler

e of one rider “cutreault

bats

Rounding up money at the rodeo Using the same dirt for 26 years saves money.

Addison Goldenberg, 9, smiles widely when she learns she won first for her age group in brown Swiss dairy cattle Saturday. Later, she won Grand Champion and a $10,000 scholarship for college as the best of the breed for all age groups, the result of her first appearance in San Antonio. Her father, Adam Goldenberg, said he was surprised and pleased. She won $2,000 cash at the McLennan County Fair, and $1,000 cash in Fort Worth, which goes into her college savings as well. Goldenberg’s first year in 4-H shows great promise. The family keeps the cow as breeding stock. Paula Christine Schuler

cial bat ears meant and Myths exhibit e Gisle, 7, traveled

ecause the water

st 6 million bats f the syndrome, to house about mpty. These comow on the endan-

Jacob Friedrith, 13, cleans his calf Maya, a Simmenta, Saturday before showing her in a judging contest. The San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo continues through Feb. 23. Riley Stephens

exhibit with newnot harmful and of cute. ation, visit www.

Roper Joseph Piccolella guides Roy Medrano, 8, in his first roping experience in the Rodeo Discovery area of the Expo Hall Saturday.

Rodeo Discovery, in its first year, is made available to children to teach them to rope using a safe hay-dummy alternative to an actual cow. David Guel

Tony Porker, Dwight Soward and Hamu Ginobli tie for the lead, leaving Dirk Nopigzki in last place at the Swifty Swine Swimming and Racing Grand Prix.

Juan A. Rodriguez

Polo player Quique Garcia, 14, knocks the ball into the air while riding pony Teapot Saturday in the Expo Hall.

Garcia has been playing polo for four years and riding since he was 3. He is the youngest polo player of the San Antonio Polo Club. David Guel

By Cassandra M. Rodriguez crodriguez719@student.alamo.edu

Great weather Saturday and Sunday packed the grounds with big spenders at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo at Freeman Coliseum and the AT&T Center and grounds.

“After being closed in with cold weather, and it turns out to be a nice day they are all going to come out,” Sharron Arnold, merchandise and marketing coordinator, said, referring to the two chilly and rainy days leading up to the rodeo’s first weekend.

Guests usually spend most of their money on food, shopping and the carnival.

Last year, the rodeo sold $1.6 million on the grounds and $187,000 on the middle Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013.

The stock show and rodeo makes the most money from exhibitors and those there for days at a time because they have to eat.

After that, it is the people who come in for the day, spending money at the carnival and with vendors.

The rodeo staff coordinates year-round with Spurs Sports and Entertainment and Bexar County Community Arena Board to ensure that the activities and events begin smoothly.

At 5 a.m. after the San Antonio Spurs’ last home game, volunteers were already working to spread 80,000 pounds of dirt on the floor of the AT&T Center to make the horse arena.

It would cost the rodeo $25,000 each year to replace the dirt, but they save money recycling the dirt.

The dirt is treated so it’s safe for the animals to be around, and they have been using the same dirt since 1988.

Last year, the stock show and rodeo raised $11.3 million for scholarships, grants, junior livestock auctions, a calf scramble and show premiums paid to youth.

The event has raised $134.6 million to date.

“It’s crazy to see the transformation,” communications Director Jenny Nagelmueller said of the grounds surrounding the AT&T Center that are transformed into rodeo arenas, exhibits and the carnival.

It takes a whole lot of work to build and set up the areas necessary for the rodeo to commence, and most of the work is done by volunteers.

Planning the rodeo is a year-round task, but most of the work takes place in January and the first day of February.

SAConnected

8• Feb. 14, 2014

www.theranger.org/calendar

TODAY SAT MON TUES WED THUR FRI SAC Event: Balloon bouquet sale 9 a.m.-2 p.m. by the stairs on first floor of Loftin. Half dozen $4. Call 210486-0125.

SAC Transfer: Texas A&M University-San Antonio 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on first floor of Chance.

Call 210-486-0864.

Event: Romance on the River 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Free. Wine and beer samples for 21 and over. Double feature of Patrick Swayze movies at Arneson River Theatre, 418 Villita. Call 210-207-8614.

Performance: “Into The Woods” 7:30 p.m. at the Woodlawn Theater. $10-$23.

Visit www.woodlawntheatre.org.

SAC Performance: “When You Coming Back, Red Ryder?”

7:30 p.m. in McCreless theater.

Continues Saturday and Feb. 20-22 and 2:30 p.m.

Sunday and Feb. 23. $2 with Alamo Colleges ID, $8 for other students and $10 general admission. Call 210486-0454.

Concert: The Lumberjack Heart Attack 6 p.m. at The Korova, 107 E. Martin. $10 or $8 with a flannel shirt on.

Event: Build It handson activities and live demonstrations 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway. Cost included with admission. Call 210-357-1900.

Event: Swing Night 7 p.m.-10:45 p.m. at Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson. Dance lessons by the San Antonio Swing Dance Society 7 p.m.-8 p.m.

Continues Mondays through December.

Call 210-223-2830.

SAC Event: Hot Potato Presentation sponsored by Methodist Student Center 12:15 p.m. at 102 Belknap. Topic is undecided. Continues Tuesdays. Call 210733-1441 or visit www. saumcm.org.

Event: Family Fun Day with Grover 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at South Park Mall, 2310 S.W. Military. Visit earlyon-sa.org.

SUN SAMA Event: “Mrs. Brown” (UK, 1997) 3 p.m.-5 p.m. in the auditorium of the San Antonio Museum of Art. Free admission with Alamo Colleges ID. Call 210-978-8100.

Event: McNay Art Museum 60th Anniversary 5K Run 10 a.m. at 6000 N. New Braunfels. $30 McNay members, $40 non-members. Call 210805-1718. Visit www. athleteguild.com.

Event: Informal chess games for all ages and all levels of play 6 p.m.-7:45 p.m. at the San Pedro Library, 1315 San Pedro.

Continues Tuesdays.

Call 210-207-9050.

Event: Tai Chi 12:45 p.m.-1:30 p.m. in meeting room of Memorial Library, 3222 Culebra. Call 210-2079140.

OLLU Event: Zumba classes 5:45 p.m. at the International Folk Culture Center, 411 S.W. 24th.

Continues Wednesdays and Tuesdays and Thursdays with Aqua Zumba at 6 p.m. First class free. $20 for 10 classes or $30 for 20.

Call 210-867-0692.

SAMA Event: Printmaking workshop celebrating Eldzier Cortor 4 p.m.-7 p.m. in the Stables Studio at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Call 210-9788100.

SAC Transfer: Texas A&M University-San Antonio 9 a.m.-4 p.m. in mall. Call 210-4860864.

SAC Transfer: Sam Houston State University 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on first floor of Chance. Call 210-4860864.

SAC Event: Bible study and free lunch sponsored by the Methodist Student Center 12:15 p.m.

Continues Wednesdays.

Call 210-733-1441 or visit www.saumcm.org.

SAC Event: Chaplet of Divine Mercy and lunch at 12:15 p.m. at the Catholic Student Center, 312 W. Courtland. Call 210736-3752.

Tutoring: eReaderU tutoring 6 p.m.-7 p.m. at the Central Library, 600 Soledad St., Call 210-207-2500 or visit guides.mysapl.org/ ereaders.

SAC Transfer: Our Lady of the Lake University 9 a.m.-noon in foyer of chemistry and geology. Call 210486-0059.

SAC event: STEMulate Science showcase 8 a.m.-3 p.m. in mall.

Call 210-486-0085.

Rodeo: College Night at Stock Show and Rodeo at the AT&T Center. Free grounds admission with college ID. Call 210-225-5851 or visit www.sarodeo. com.

SAMA Event: Homeschool student workshop with portraits, still-lifes and landscapes 9:30 a.m.noon in the Stables Studio at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Advance registration required. Call 210978-8138.

SAC Transfer: Our Lady of the Lake University 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on first floor of Chance. Call 210-4860864.

SAC Event: Game night sponsored by the department of American Sign Language and interpreter training 6 p.m.-9 p.m. in Room 120 of Nail. Call 210486-1106.

UTSA Event: Lyric Theater: “Mikado” sponsored by the department of music 7:30 p.m. in Buena Vista Theater at UTSA downtown campus. $15. Continues Sunday. Visit music. utsa.edu.

UPCOMING Feb. 22 Concert: Cantos Chicanos y Chilenos En California sponsored by Esperanza Peace and Justice Center 8 p.m. at 922 San Pedro. $8 at the door or $5 presale. Call 210-228-0201 or visit www.esperanzacenter.org.

Event: 36th Annual CineFestival 7 p.m.-midnight at Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe.

Tickets $8-$12. Call 210-271-3151 or visit www.guadalupeculturalarts.org/cinefestival.

Feb. 26 SAC Event: Transfer Fair 9 a.m.-1 p.m. in Fiesta Room of Loftin. Call 210-486-0864 or visit http://alamo.edu/sac.transfer.

Feb. 27

SAC Transfer: Texas A&M University-San Antonio 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. in transfer center and first floor of Chance. Call 210-4860864.

SAC Workshop: “I Don’t Do Legal… or Do I” sponsored by department of American Sign Language and interpreter training 6 p.m.-9 p.m. in Room 121 in Nail. $10 for students and $30 for interpreters. Call 210-486-1106.

Illustrations by Franchesca Ruiz

SAC Transfer: Texas State University noon-4 p.m. in transfer center. Call 210-4860864.

SAC Event: Second annual graduation rally 9 a.m.-1 p.m. in the mall. Call 210-486-0880 or visit alamo.edu/sac/GradPushWeek.

Trinity Performance: World Music Symposium 7:30 p.m. in Ruth Taylor Recital Hall and Parker Chapel, One Trinity Place.

Tickets $15 and up. Call 210-716-0414 or visit www.benissimomusic.org.

Feb. 28 SAC Event: Wear SAC red in mall. Call 210-486-0880 or visit alamo.edu/sac/ GradPushWeek.

SAMA Event: “Angel on the Right” presented by the Global Film Initiative as part of the Global Lens Series 7 p.m.-9 p.m. in the auditorium of the San Antonio Museum of Art. Call 210-978-8100 or visit www.globalfilm.org.

March 8

Phi Theta Kappa honor society seeks members Deadline to apply for induction ceremony is March 6.

By Jay Regalado and R.T. Gonzalez sac-ranger@alamo.edu

Students have the opportunity to receive scholarships, earn volunteer hours and get a chance to go to a Florida conference by joining the Beta Nu chapter of Phi Theta Kappa honor society for two-year colleges.

This college’s chapter has sent more than 1,500 letters inviting qualified students to join the society.

Students who think they qualify for the society but did not receive invitations can contact the lead adviser, Roger Stanley, program coordinator of chemistry, earth sci-

ences and astronomy.

Stanley said students must apply online at www.ptk.org or respond by March 6 to be in the induction ceremony scheduled for March 20.

Students who apply after March 6 and before March 20 can join but will not be inducted, he said.

To qualify, students must have completed at least 12 semester hours of college-level coursework applied to an associate degree, be enrolled in at least six semester hours and have a cumulative gradepoint average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.

After acceptance, students must

maintain a 3.0 GPA. The moral standard of the society was meant to coincide with the student code of conduct, chapter President Kim-Briana Lorine said.

The members go above the student code by participating in community service, she said.

The society offers scholarships, opportunities to travel as a group and priority admission when applying to a university.

The society is sending students to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., for the international Phi Theta Kappa convention April 24-26. Stanley did not know how many students would be on the trip.

Aside from being recognized

as a member of the largest honor society for community colleges in the nation, students gain access to the organization’s college website, Stanley said.

The website has scholarship opportunities, an online university scouting program and leadership development studies.

Students can also join in volunteer activities and participate in service learning projects, he said.

The fee to join is $95.

Science sophomore Mike Olson said the fee is not bad because the benefits awarded would be greater than the cost.

Stanley can be reached at 210486-0058 or gstanley@alamo.edu.

Flex 2 deadlines approaching

By Marie Sullins

sac-ranger@alamo.edu

Students who missed application deadlines for registering for classes this semester may apply for the Flex 2 session.

Flex 2 classes begin March 24 and end May 17, the last day of exams for the spring semester.

The deadline to pay for Flex 2 registration between Feb. 7 and Feb. 27 is Feb. 27.

For students who register for Flex 2 between Feb. 28 and March 20, payment is due March 20, the deadline for students to register online for Flex 2.

The deadline to withdraw from classes online and receive a full refund for Flex 2 is March 16; the deadline to withdraw in person and receive a full refund is March 21.

All payments can be made in person until 5

p.m. or online in ACES until 11:59 p.m.

The deadline to receive a 70 percent refund for Flex 2 courses is April 2.

The enrollment management period for Flex 2 begins March 17 and ends March 23. Students cannot add or drop online in ACES during this period.

Enrollment during this period must be done through departments and is up to the discretion of the department.

Students who want to make a schedule change to their Flex 2 semester will be able to do so until March 27.

The payment for these changes in person will be available until 5 p.m. or online until 11:59 p.m.

March 27 is the final day to pay for Flex 2 schedule changes.

Students should be aware any acquired

tuition and fee balances because of a schedule change must be paid in full.

Failure to comply with tuition deadlines will result in being dropped from all courses.

The census date for Flex 2 in March 31.

This is the last day a student can drop a course without a W on their transcript, a concern for students approaching the six drops they are allowed in undergraduate courses in public colleges.

For more information, visit the office of admissions and records on the second floor of Fletcher Administration Center or call 210-4860200 and ask for admissions.

For additional information on the process, visit www.alamo.edu/sac/admissions.

Information on the office can be found at http://alamo.edu/main.aspx?id=6989.

SAC Event: ASL Storytelling sponsored by the department of American Sign Language and interpreter training 2 p.m.-3 p.m. on the fourth floor of the library. Continues every second Saturday of the month until April. Call 210-486-1106.

March 27 SAC Event: Meet the Majors 9 a.m.-noon in Fiesta Room of Loftin. Call 210-486-0152.

March 31 PAC Event: Women in policing symposium 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in auditorium of the performing arts center. Call 210- 486-3122.

April 15 ACCD Meeting: Regular meeting of the board of trustees 6 p.m. in Room 101 of Killen Center, 201 W. Sheridan. Call 210-485-0000 or visit www.alamo.edu/district/board.

April 16 SAC Event: Outstanding Student Leadership Awards Banquet sponsored by the office of student life 6 p.m.-9 p.m. in the cafeteria of Loftin. Call 210-486-0128.

!

For coverage in SAConnected, call 210-486-1773 or e-mail sac-ranger@alamo.edu two weeks in advance.

Pulse

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GYM SHORTS Final Scores Wednesday Men’s basketball Northwest Vista 86 San Antonio 63

Tigers apply pressure to grab 74-64 victory over Cardinals Anthony and Williams combine for 37 points.

By Carlos Ferrand

cferrand@student.alamo.edu

St. Philip’s 74 Incarnate Word 64 Victoria 86 Northeast Lakeview 75 Women’s basketball Northwest Vista 54 San Antonio 37 Incarnate Word 66 St. Philip’s 47 Lackland 63 Victoria 61

Upcoming games Wednesday Men’s basketball Victoria at San Antonio 8 p.m. at Gym 1 of Candler.

St. Philip’s at Northeast Lakeview 8 p.m. at the wellness gym.

Women’s basketball Victoria at San Antonio 6 p.m. at Gym 1 of Candler.

St. Philip’s at Northeast Lakeview 6 p.m. at the wellness gym.

Feb. 14, 2014 • 9

Both the St. Philip’s Tigers and the University of Incarnate Word Cardinals started their contest with similar strategies Wednesday in the health and fitness center at St. Philip’s.

The strategy was to score far beyond the arch and get ahead early.

When the strategy broke down for both sides, it was the Tigers who changed to attacking the post and secured a 74-64 victory.

In the first half, neither team stood out as the dominant squad.

The Cardinals maintained a lead through most of the first half but never led by more than 8 points.

When Incarnate Word sank a big basket, St. Philip’s would answer with a big basket of their own. At the half, the score remained close with the Cardinals holding a slight edge 38-35.

Criminal justice sophomore Mark Anthony played a major role in the Tigers close, scoring 10-points in the first half.

Anthony finished with 21 points.

In the second half, the Tigers came out more aggressive and

increased the tempo of the game.

Instead of taking low percentage shots from outside, St. Philip’s started charging into the paint.

Criminal justice sophomore J.J. Williams drove through defenders again and again during the second half. Williams scored 10 points in the second half with four points coming from the free throw line.

Williams finished with 16 points.

With less than 11 minutes left in the game, the Tigers finished the Cardinals by applying pressure and forcing turnovers and bad shots.

“We tried to put a little more pressure on them,” St. Philip’s coach Jimmy Alcala said. “We started making them force the ball.”

St. Philip’s took the lead with an 8-0 run and never looked back.

“Our game is uptempo and putting pressure on the ball,” Alcala said. “In the end, it was the pressure and turnovers that helped us takeover the second half and win the game.”

St. Philip’s improved its standing to 5-3 for the season.

The Tigers will take on the Palo Alto College Palominos at 8 p.m.

Wednesday in the wellness gym at Palo Alto.

Cardinal guard Will Covington fouls criminal justice sophomore Mark Anthony when his block attempt becomes a mid-air collision. Anthony went 1-2 at the free throw line, and finished the game with 21 points during St. Philip’s 74-64 victory Wednesday over Incarnate Word in the health and fitness center. Carlos Ferrand

Lady Cardinals tame Lady Tigers 66-47 St. Philip’s unable to stick to game plan.

By Carlos Ferrand

cferrand@student.alamo.edu

Kinesiology Instructor Medin K. Barreira takes class role Feb. 5 while pedaling his bike during KINE 1180, Indoor Cycling 1, in Room 126 of Candler. Riley Stephens

Spin bike now ‘indoor cycling’ to avoid copyright infringement

By J’son Tillmon

bike with thin tires, Richardson explained.

“So you can go fast on them like people The kinesiology department changed the on the road bikes versus a kid on a bicycle or name of cycling courses in the fall to avoid a mountain bike with thick tires,” he said. copyright infringement claim.

There is a crank on the bike to tighten it up KINE 1180, Spin Bike 1, and for resistance. Students can KINE 2180, Spin Bike 2, became ride with little resistance in low You’ve got to suck Indoor Cycling 1 and 2. gear or crank it up to Gear 6 or it up and feel a lot Mad Dogg Athletics, an 7 to simulate going up hills. of pain for a while. equipment manufacturing Cranked up very tight, the Bill Richardson, company, copyrighted the student would have to do what kinesiology chair term “spin bike” in 2013.

Richardson called, “stand up “Unless the instructors in the saddle,” which is pedalare certified under their (Mad ing standing up.

Dogg Athletics) program, you can’t use the “The notion with anything like that (indoor term,” Chair Bill Richardson said Jan. 29. cycling) is to elevate the heart rate enough so Richardson added, “It’s probably better any- it develops cardiorespiratory endurance,” way. Bike tells you something, but spin bike Richardson explained. This is the ability to do what’s that? Indoor cycling, what else could prolonged exercise at different levels of intensity. that be?”

Richardson said the feedback from students Richardson said the kinesiology department is good. “They’re not knocking down the door officially changed the name in the fall by seeking saying it’s great, but they’re not saying it’s bad approval from the College Curriculum Council. either.”

The name changed, but the course stayed Richardson gave advice for students in the the same. Instructors Brad Dudney and Medin course, “You’ve got to suck it up and feel a lot of K. Barreira teach indoor cycling. pain for a while. That’s the only way you’re going Students ride a stationary bike with a nar- to build up that endurance and get stronger.” row seat that resembles a 10-or 20-speed road For information, call 210-486-1010. sac-ranger@alamo.edu

’’

Low percentage shots gave the University of Incarnate Word women’s team an easy victory over St. Philip’s College Lady Tigers 66-47 Wednesday in the health and fitness center at St. Philip’s.

From opening tip-off, the Lady Cardinals seemed to have the answer to defeating the Lady Tigers.

With each possession, the Lady Cardinals would pass the ball around the perimeter, forcing the Lady Tigers’ defense out of the paint and opening the inside for easy baskets.

The biggest advantage of clearing the paint was a nearly empty post for Incarnate Word to rebound.

Incarnate Word center Joelisse Galarza dominated under the basket, snatching more than eight rebounds in the first half.

Galarza accounted for most of the Lady Cardinals’ defensive rebounds.

On offense, Incarnate Word guard Kelley Moreno wasted no time getting to the basket, scoring 18 points in the first half.

Despite Moreno’s individual effort, she said the key to victory was a team effort.

“No selfishness,” she said.

Moreno finished with 22 points.

Despite being double-teamed, business sophomore Toni Barnes is able to get above Lady Cardinal guards Yessenia Velazquez and Alana Valdez, and score 2 points Wednesday in St. Philip’s 66-47 loss against the University of Incarnate Word in the health and fitness center. Barnes scored 14 points in the game. Carlos Ferrand “We got away from the game plan,” St. Philip’s coach Elwood O. Plummer said. “The plan was to go inside because they couldn’t defend our post.”

Plummer said the team got off the game plan by taking too many outside shots.

“We made one or two, but we missed quiet a bit,” he said. “We also got a little fatigued in the end.”

One bright spot for St. Philip’s was business sophomore Toni Barnes, who finished with 14 points and more than eight rebounds.

St. Philip’s fell to 0-8 for the season.

The Lady Tigers will take on the Lady Palominos of Palo Alto College at 6 p.m.

Wednesday in the wellness gym at Palo Alto.

Feb. 14, 2014 • 10

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Editor Mandy Derfler Managing Editor Katherine Garcia News Editor Cassandra Rodriguez Premiere Editor Adriana Ruiz Opinion Editor Bleah B. Patterson Social Media Editor T.L. Hupfer Web Editor Carlos Ferrand Web News Editor Neven Jones Staff Writers Kathya Anguiano, Manuel Bautista-Macias, Brandon Borrego, Brenda Carielo, Casey Coggins, Ian Coleman, Maria Duran, Mandi Flores, John D. French, Marina Garcia, Imani Gayden, R.T. Gonzalez, Marco Horta, Ty-Eshia Johnson, Ansley Lewis, Pam Paz, Juan A. Rodriguez, Marie Sullins, J’son Tillmon, Adrian Yancelson Photographers Daniel Carde, Belinda Hernandez, Riley Stephens Photo Team Nathan J. Fox, David Guel, Siobhan O’Donnell, Melissa Perreault, Paula Christine Schuler, Addison Simmons, Catharine Trevino, Eric M. Valdez, Roberto Villarreal Video Team Daniel Arguelles, Robbin Cresswell, Steven C. Price Illustrators Alexandra Nelipa, Franchesca Ruiz Production Assistant M.J. Callahan Alexandra Nelipa

Advertising Manager Patricia McGlamory ©2014 by The Ranger staff, San Antonio College, 1300 San Pedro Ave., San Antonio, TX 78212-4299. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

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METAMEDIA

We report; you decide Death and destruction happen everyday all over the world and entertaining celebrity debacles happen on a regular basis. It is the media’s responsibility to report the news regardless of the significance and it is up to the reader to choose what they read and what they believe is going to benefit them.

There are an abundance of news sites that include a variety of subjects like music, art, international news, celebrity gossip and even video games.

Choosing what to read is a lot like choosing what to eat. Sometimes, the public would rather indulge in their favorite guilty pleasure rather than pick something that is going to be beneficial for them.

News sites rely heavily on the number of views they can receive on their site; views equal money. The media realize that the public enjoys indulging in entertaining celebrity gossip.

As a result, it is likely that news sites will post trivial news on the front page to attract their audience.

For example, in August 2013 pop sensation Miley Cyrus made top news after her scandalous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards even in the midst of devastation in Syria.

According to a report by USA Today, Outbrain conducted a survey that shows Americans were 12 times more willing to read about Miley’s antics than Syria.

While the media do not wish to increase the popularity of celebrities, these stories bring views to websites.

After indulging in trivial stories, readers may then choose to read hard news.

The media do their best to report all aspects of news. Unfortunately, celebrity gossip tends to triumph over all.

As a result, news outlets tend to promote entertainment stories more often.

While it’s up to the reader to decide what is more important, just remember to stay informed with what really matters.

Success requires resources As paying customers of the college district, students expect to have the necessary resources.

Resources — like a clerk sitting at a desk ready to answer phone calls, not a machine full of unanswered student messages — are essential to students’ academic success.

It’s really irritating not being able to have a simple question answered by telephone or to find information on a website because the information has not been updated or is sparse to begin with.

Students are left with two options: run over to the office between classes or before you dash off campus on the way to work praying someone can answer your question, or just forget all about it.

Students unable to connect with assistance because no one is available to answer the

phone should at the very least be able to leave a message.

We are told we are moving into a new era of technology with the decision to switch to e-books, the next step after instituting a onetextbook policy.

But how are we supposed to trust in technological advancement when the absolute basics like the college website, voicemail and ACES cannot be depended on.

Everyone, we are told, will have a textbook the first day of classes.

But if students don’t have a laptop or computer at home or doesn’t have — read: can’t afford — Internet access, they are immediately at a disadvantage.

Here’s a message for the district: Before moving on to new heights of technology, attend to the basic resources first.

Cure self-help addiction The district and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board have approved the replacement of a humanities credit with EDUC 1300, Learning Framework, in the core curriculum.

In spite of protests from faculty across the district, the change is set to become effective in fall 2014. EDUC 1300 is a 16-week course based on a non-college-level student development course.

To qualify the course to be in the core curriculum, it had to be dressed up with learning theory. It will feature Stephen R. Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” a self-help bestseller published in 1989.

Another phrase that has entered the discussion is “Principle-Centered Leadership,” another of Covey’s titles.

An entire semester of this?

The lessons are meant to be fully realized in seven weeks.

The faculty is being trained in 2 ½-day seminars.

Elementary schools also teach it.

If district administrators think these habits are effective enough to spend a reported $3.5 million — and counting — on training and supplies, they should seek to include it in the current student development course.

That course — which does not count as a college-level class — is aimed at students who demonstrate need.

Don’t dumb down the curriculum for students who are doing just fine with their own

habits.

Meanwhile, the trustees and chancellor have certainly developed a habit of questionable spending while tacking on a new fee or tuition hike each passing year.

This is the third core change since fall 2010.

They first removed kinesiology hours and a science lab. Ironically, the science labs are precisely what complicates a degree plan at the university level.

Students are often required to complete eight hours of one science. That means labs included.

Exclude kinesiology? In one of America’s more obese cities? Good thinking.

The second core change turned literature classes, once a required core credit, into a humanities choice.

What’s next? “Think and Grow Rich” for business classes?

Replace science credits with Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” of laws of attraction?

“Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus” or “He’s Just Not That Into You” in place of courses on marriage and family or human sexuality?

If you are not in the classroom, you don’t know who the students are or what they need; you have no business dictating changes.

Perhaps the trustees and the chancellor need some self-help schooling of their own.

We suggest the No. 1 best-selling self-help book of all time, Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People.”

Opinion

www.theranger.org/opinion

Skype saved my Valentine’s, relationship I met my boyfriend while waiting tables in May 2011. He was one of the neediest guests I’ve ever had, but after a short conversation with him, he assured me it Viewpoint was only to capture my

by Brenda attention. After he visited Carielo me frequently at work, I finally agreed to a date. sac-ranger@ alamo.edu I didn’t know he was on leave from the Army, so our blissful summer hit a speed bump. We pushed through and survived many deployments, even during the holidays. Longdistance relationships are always the hardest during the holidays, especially serotoninfilled Valentine’s Day. Many traditions are associated with Valentine’s Day, such as candlelit dinners, romantic movies and chocolate coveredstrawberries. But what about couples who cannot share in these moments because of distance?

When my boyfriend was serving in Afghanistan, my day-to-day routine consisted of checking my email and iPhone for messages from him.

Living in different time zones made catching each other difficult. So was plan-

ning any face-to-face time on Skype because of his unpredictable schedule.

At times, I would be in the middle of studying for an exam when a notification popped up on my screen causing me to stop whatever I was doing and talk to him because I never knew when I would have the chance again. Birthdays and winter holidays were easier because I was surrounded by friends and family, but that wasn’t the case with the holiday I’ve learned to dread.

Everywhere I looked, the world was painted in reds and pinks, and women flashed their newly gifted jewelry, stuffed animals and chocolates. I couldn’t escape it.

I was constantly reminded that I was alone. I felt abandoned.

Working as a waitress and bartender made things even worse. Couples were constantly sharing intimate moments and exchanging words of adoration over a romantic dinner.

Luckily for my relationship, we live in a time of constant technological innovation where communicating with someone halfway across the world is now possible through Skype, Face Time, email or Snapchat.

Through the use of these technologies, I found a way to spend Valentine’s Day 2013 with my significant other. We planned a Skype video chat somewhere between midnight and 3 a.m.

After work that night, I dressed to the nines and decorated the room with candles, streamers and balloons. Then I waited. And waited.

By 4 a.m. I realized that I probably wasn’t going to get the chance to spend the time I wanted with him so I became creative and made a Valentine’s Day video greeting card. In it I talked about my day, how I felt about him and how the small things in our relationship had gotten us to that moment in life.

Although he was not able to chat, I sent the video card by 6 a.m. I was proud that I did not allow myself to sink in loneliness and used my creativity for an alternative Valentine’s Day for my long-distance relationship by following a few simple rules.

Think outside the box because sometimes the gift your significant other would rather have than material gifts is the knowledge that you are the only thing on their mind that day.

Be thankful for what you get because although this is one of the biggest consumer driven holidays, it is all about love in the end.

I started to feel gleeful as I reminded myself how truly happy I was having someone like him in my life, and I learned that I shouldn’t define our entire love for each other on just one day — even if it is Valentine’s Day.

Pete Seeger kept the ‘folk’ in folk music Singer and activist Pete Seeger is dead at 94, and establishment figures are saying (for a change) nice things about him. In this era of Miley Cyrus, it’s tricky to explain why Pete mattered. But somebody should try.

On the Internet, you can watch and listen as Pete plays his banjo and sings with pop stars like Guest Bruce Springsteen. Watch Pete singing “Worried Viewpoint Man” with Johnny Cash, and it’s clear that the

by Stephen man in black knows he’s the disciple and Pete’s Badrich the master.

But click away too soon and you can imagine that Pete himself was just some old-timey pop star.

And that’s not quite right. Pete was better than a pop star — and Pete wanted you and me to remember something about pop stars, too.

I remember Pete from the Civil Rights era, and although we never met, we had friends in common. In print, Pete described my friend Luci Angel as having “the voice of an angel,” and he was right. I was socialized by civil rights people. Years later, Luci summarized in a few words the attitude that many people had back then: “Look, nobody is gonna make fun of you if you get up and attempt. So get up … and attempt.”

I remember running into Luci when we were teenagers at the march where Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. The next year, at an interracial meeting in Baltimore, I heard another charismatic African-American teenager, Pam Jones, play and sing the folk classic “The House of the Rising Sun.” It gave me chills.

I never saw Pam again. But I re-encountered her last year in the pages of Bruce Watson’s book “Freedom Summer: The Summer Season of 1964 Made Mississippi Burn and Made America A Democracy.” Pam and friends, black and white, risked or gave their lives to make a nonviolent revolution.

In 1964, most fans of folk music weren’t thinking about music as a possible road to money and fame. Instead, we thought this music might help us bust through the 1950s style conformism to reconnect with more durable elements in American culture. We knew this music brought us together — and we hoped that, together, we could make some changes.

This sounds pretty crazy today, but Pete devoted his long life to making music to build community and to hearten ordinary people. His banjo playing wasn’t all about Pete. It was, ultimately, about you and me and our common world.

Pete Seeger, above center, leads a sing-along with Bruce Springsteen at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., during the 2009 presidential inauguration. Left from top, a tribute album to Woody Guthrie; marching with participants in Occupy Wall Street; encouraging a concert audience to join in. AccuNet/AP In 1964, racial integration was “controversial.”

TV executives didn’t want performers messing with it. In 1968, it was “controversial” to believe that (although millions had died) something had gone wrong in Vietnam. For network execs, Pete was radioactive.

Today, powerful forces don’t want us joining the cause to which Pete and his wife, Toshi, devoted the last decades of their lives, up at their homestead on New York’s Hudson River: cleaning up and preserving our common environment.

So don’t knock the Keystone XL super-pipeline.

My friend Luci could have been a superstar — if, like Pete, she hadn’t cared more about justice and community than she did about money and fame. “It’s hard to get anybody to pay you a dime in this country,” Luci said to me one time, mildly, “for doing anything worthwhile.”

If Pete were somehow with us now and we could talk with him, Pete wouldn’t know what to tell us about pop stardom. Stardom wasn’t why Pete picked up that banjo.

But Pete would definitely want to know about lives and communities, and how we’re contributing, or could contribute. Pete would be sympathetic. He’d be listening intently. But it’s worth thinking hard about what we’d tell him.

Stephen Badrich is an English professor and freelance journalist.

Feb. 14, 2014 • 11

Black History Month is every day for blacks My 10-year-old son is biracial; I am Egyptian and my husband is black. I want my son to know the history of his races, the good and the bad. He didn’t really notice we were a biracial family until he was about 6 years old.

Viewpoint Someone in his class pointby Neven ed out his skin was darker than Jones theirs. When he came home, he put his arm up to mine and asked njones4@student. alamo.edu me why my skin was a little lighter than his. I told him he was a mixture of his father and me.

For the first time in his life, he was noticing skin color.

When Martin Luther King Jr. Day came around that year, I wanted my son to learn from his father and me who King was before he went to school and heard about him from his teacher or classmates. We read a book together called, “The Story of Martin Luther King Jr.,” by Johnny Ray Moore. The board book had detailed illustrations of broken playground equipment for the “colored” children to play on, separate drinking fountains and restaurants for whites only.

As he began to process this new information, he realized he would have a different life if he had lived during segregation.

The books we read up until that point were typical happy children’s books. This was a harsh dose of reality.

It was difficult for me to watch my son process this, but it was much more difficult for his ancestors to live through.

I want him to know that his grandmother ­ — someone he loves with all his heart — was forced to ride in the back of the bus.

When she was a child, the Ku Klux Klan marched through the streets of her hometown, Plainfield, N.J. If she wanted to go to the theater, she could only sit in the balcony.

When she visited her grandmother in Savannah, Ga., she couldn’t sit on a public park bench to listen to the birds sing because she was black.

I don’t want my son to feel hatred in his heart when he hears these stories. Instead, he should know his grandmother took action.

When she was 16 years old, she was the head of a youth group of the Plainfield NAACP. In 1954, she went to San Francisco to the annual NAACP meeting. Roy Wilkins was the executive director.

She heard Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, King and civil rights activist Rosa Parks talk about integrating schools.

That was the beginning of the civil rights movement.

I want him to speak up when he sees injustice around him and do something about it like they did, like his grandmother still does.

My son is lucky to have two fantastic black role models, his father and grandmother. His grandmother, a single mother, raised my husband alone in New York City.

She made sure he got a good education and stayed out of trouble.

She worked hard to make advancements in her career. She began as a receptionist for television host Merv Griffin and, eventually, worked her way up to a management position at the NBC network.

I’m so proud of what my mother-in-law accomplished. She raised my husband to be a responsible man who went on to medical school and became a surgeon.

We don’t wait until February to talk about black history in our family. It’s part of our lives every day.

Feature

12 • Feb. 14, 2014

Art Guild heads to New York again after seven years Members raised $5,150 to match activity fee funds.

By Ansley Lewis

sac-ranger@alamo.edu

Members of the Art Guild are once again packing their bags and heading to New York City.

Hearts set on visiting the Big Apple, 10 members raised more than $5,000 through fundraisers.

“We felt as a group that New York City was the perfect place to visit because the city offers so many different types of artwork as well as museums and galleries that we would have unlimited choices of places to visit,” Art Guild President Stephanie Solis said.

“New York shows where art is right now and where to get more exposure for your art,” Historian Maria Ramirez added.

The Art Guild previously traveled to New York in May of 2007, funded by the student activity fee. This time around the Student Activity Fee Committee approved a grant of $5,150.30 for the trip, but members had to match the funds given, bringing the overall cost to $10,300.60.

Solis said she looked for ways to cut costs for the trip.

“I work with the Marriott, so I was able to get a discount on the hotel. I also made sure that we would have passes for the subway,” Solis said.

Solis and Ramirez said members worked on at least 15 fundraisers during fall 2013.

Avitua said the group helped with last year’s King William Fair during Fiesta.

“We also do fundraising events like the upcoming King William Fair, where students who are in the Art Guild and in art classes get a chance to sell their work,” Avitua said.

Solis explained the purpose of the trip.

“Traveling to New York is going to give the Art Guild members, and myself, an idea of what it takes to be a successful artist in an extremely competitive city,” Solis said. “Also, visiting different museums and galleries will give each member an opportunity to be inspired by different artists and techniques that they could apply to their own work.”

Members plan to visit the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New Museum of Contemporary Art as well as several galleries.

“I’m looking forward to visiting the Museum of Modern art. I’m excited to see artwork that is not here — art that is different than the art in Texas,” Ramirez said.

The Art Guild meets 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Fridays in Room 204 of the visual arts center.

For more information, visit their Facebook page or join them on Orgsync.

www.theranger.org/news

The spirit of the Buffalo Soldiers

By Manual Bautista-Macias sac-ranger@alamo.edu

Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers visited Rodeo Roundup in the mall Wednesday and shared artifacts and history of the original unit 1866-1891.

Artifacts that the Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers displayed were utilitarian items such as toothbrushes, cookware, and soaps.

More valuable artifacts were saddles, uniforms and weapons.

“The most treasured artifact we hold is the spirit of the Buffalo Soldiers,” Clarence Thompson, event coordinator, said.

Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers came to San Antonio on April 4, 1867, but the unit was established in Louisiana in 1866.

The Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers went from Brownsville to Canada.

Cavalries assumed duties for a wage of $13 a month.

They protected borders and telegraph wires.

The 9th and 10th Cavalries were composed of black slaves but led by white officers and white chaplains. The chaplains taught the soldiers how to read and write.

During 1866-1868, the cavalries obtained the first black female soldier despite the prohibition of women in the military.

Cathay Williams was involved in military assistance, and when she found out only men could enlist in the Army, she changed her name to William Cathay.

Cathay’s enlistment ended rather quickly when she got sick and at the hospital her true gender was known.

On 1872 the soldiers found out Native Americans were calling them Buffalo Soldiers because they had seen only white soldiers.

Native Americans compared the soldiers with the buffaloes because of their skin color, wooly hair and the

Computer science freshman Hector Ocasio asks representatives Oscar Vicks and R. Russell Wednesday for background information on the Buffalo Soldiers for a project he has in his history class. Riley Stephens fighting spirit.

That same year, soldiers took the name officially because it felt an honor to be compared to an animal Indians cherished.

Oscar Vicks, a Vietnam veteran who graduated from this college in 1971 with a degree in radio-television-broadcasting, became a member of the Buffalo Soldiers in 2004.

Vicks always wanted to be a cowboy, and when asked to join the Buffalo Soldiers, he thought of it as a close enough.

Joining the Buffalo Soldiers also made him feel embarrassed because he did not know much about black history, Vicks said.

There are 30 members in the Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers, and each represents one of the

18 Medal of Honor soldiers.

Oscar Vicks represents Gorge Jordan who received the Medal of Honor in April 1980 and May 1981.

Apart from the artifact exhibits and storytelling at schools, Buffalo Soldiers also hold a three-day campout for about 40 boys to experience the outdoors each year.

After 10 years of being a member of the Buffalo Soldiers, the most important thing Vicks has learned is the value of being in the cavalry.

That gave black men an opportunity to do something after being released from slavery, Vicks said.

“It gave them something to do, something to be proud of and wear a uniform,” Vicks said.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH Today SAC Event: Eighth annual “Dating Game” 11 a.m.-noon on first floor of Loftin.

Tuesday SAC Event: Fourth annual “A Taste of Soul” 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in Loftin.

Thursday SAC Festival: African festival 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Fiesta Room of Loftin.

Feb. 25 SAC Event: 25th annual read-in 11 a.m.12:05 p.m. in the craft room of Loftin.

Feb. 27 SAC Performance: Michael Jackson impersonator 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Fiesta Room of Loftin.

Call 210-486-0126.

Through the ‘Snake’s Skin’ comes a documentary A 27-year production culminates in San Antonio.

By Brandon Borrego sac-ranger@alamo.edu

Racism wasn’t the only thing that happened in the South in the 20th century. In the documentary “I Don’ Been Through the Snake’s Skin and Come Out Clean,” filmmaker Ada M. Babino demonstrates that.

An audience of about 75 people gathered Feb. 4 at Central Library to view Babino’s documentary.

This was an event for the library’s African-American Heritage Month.

Babino, who grew up in San Antonio, is an AfricanAmerican producer, director, writer and founder of Jezebel

Filmworks — a production service company that was the impetus for her “Middle Passage –N- Roots” documentary, which aired on Showtime.

Jezebel has supported other companies by providing work as an assistant director, producer/editor, scriptwriter, field producer, production manager and camera operator. Babino has also developed an internship program from her company that benefits local university students.

Dr. Laguana Gray, American studies coordinator at University of Texas at San Antonio, and D. L. Grant Jr., Carver Branch Library assistant manager and former

student at this college, introduced the film and led a discussion afterward.

With technology becoming more central to society, Babino’s family-oriented documentary aims to bring the importance of history back into everyone’s conscious.

“Learn your history,” Babino said.

The documentary expresses the beauty and importance of knowing history. Babino’s grandmother, simply called Ma, reflects on her times as a young girl with the help of Pa, Babino’s grandfather.

They sit around the dinner table spinning tales ranging from slave stories to what the children of today should be learning.

At one point in the film, Ma looks to a young Babino and says, “Children should be told stories about rivers.”

Babino explained when children hear gossip, it confuses them.

Instead, children need to be filled with imagination and wonder to fuel them creatively for the future.

Babino said her grandmother, the central character of her documentary, helped her overcome adversity.

“She was present plenty of times. I have a lot of her in me because I always listened. She is part of who I am.”

Her grandmother was the daughter of a slave, and despite this, she saw herself as a decent member of society who lived a

virtuous, or clean, life.

Grant and Gray can appreciate this because they know the film itself is a part of history.

Grant was with Babino when the film was first being shot 27 years ago.

“In 1987, I asked a camera person to sit down and talk with me,” Babino said. “The film just sat under my bed for years.”

With help from online resources such as Kickstarter, the film is now a complete work with footage spanning over three decades.

Kickstarter is a community of artists who petition for funds to develop their creative projects.

Grant said Babino was his

elementary school friend and Sam Houston High School fellow alumni, saying that “she has been through the snake’s skin herself, and she has come out a beautiful person.”

Babino said “coming out of the snakeskin clean” means that you have lived a respectable life.

Grant had the same praise for his lifelong friend, Babino, who describes life as mucky and grimy as snakeskin but who at the end will not just come out clean but will be known for contributions to African-American culture.

Babino has screened her film in several festivals and it is now available on DVD through her website jezebelfilmworks.com.