Vol. 86 Issue 18 • Single copies free • April 9, 2012 • 210-486-1773 • theranger.org
Faculty dish on relevance of dystopian novels
This week SGA applications due April 18
Futuristic novels reflect elements of society today, professors say.
April 18 is the deadline for students to submit candidate packets to run for Student Government Association for the 2012-13 academic year. Students must turn them in by 4:30 p.m. in the office of student life in Room 260 of Loftin Student Center. Online voting will begin April 30 and end May 4 for president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and four commissioners. Terms begin Sept. 1 and continue through Aug. 31, 2013. Mark Bigelow, assistant coordinator of leadership and activities, said April 2 about five students have applied. For more information, call SGA adviser Tiffany Cox at 210-4860835. Faith Duarte
Drop deadline Friday Friday is the deadline for students to drop classes with a W. Students must ask the instructor to withdraw them electronically. Students are allowed six drops for the duration of the undergraduate academic career. Time-ticketed registration for Maymester, Summer 1, Summer 2 and eight-week summer semesters begins today for students with 46 or more credit hours, Wednesday for students with 31 or more, Thursday for those with 16 or more and Friday for students with at least one credit hour. Registration opens to all students April 16. For more information, call the admission and records office at 210-486-0600. Faith Duarte
Board committees meet Tuesday The Alamo Colleges board of trustees will conduct committee meetings at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Room 101 of Killen Center, 201 W. Sheridan. To view the agenda, visit alamo.edu and click About Us, Board of Trustees, Meeting Agenda and Click here to access board meeting agendas. Joshua Fechter
/ReadTheRanger
@TheRangerSAC
Scan The Ranger
Kinesiology and dance Chair Bill Richardson takes a dip in the dunk tank during Health Fest Wednesday east of Candler. He and fellow kinesiology faculty members took turns at the dunk-
ing booth. Students were encouraged to participate in healthful activities, such as self-defense and body-fat testing. See story on Page 10. Victoria Drumming
Candidate says he promotes decision-making at ‘front lines’ District 5 candidate Ramiro Nava acknowledges individuality of colleges. A candidate in the District 5 race said as a trustee Many AAUP members questioned Nava on topof the Edgewood Independent School District, he ics that the board of trustees has dealt with, includleft much of the decision-making district rebranding, faculty salary increases, By JACOB ing to the “front line,” teachers the 95 percent vote of no-confidence in Leslie and BELTRAN who knew their schools and communication between the board and faculty. what they needed. English Professor Alex Bernal said the curricujbeltran24@student. “The faculty needs a 70- to lum has been homogenized in favor of branding. alamo.edu 80-percent say-so in the col“We know we’re not all the same, but when lege decisions,” he said. we’re homogenized, we’re saying that we’re all the Communicating with faculty and ensuring they same,” he said. are at the forefront of college deciNava said students pick a colsions was the major concern memlege because of a specific speA candidate forum for bers of the American Association cialty, and it should stay that way. District 5 is set for 2 of University Professors brought English Chair Mike Burton said p.m. Tuesday in the Thursday to Ramiro Nava, candithe board’s theory of education is Lago Vista Room of date for District 5 Alamo Colleges that the best minds create the best Cypress at Northwest board of trustees. courses and each college has anyVista College. Nava served two four-year one teach each course the same. terms on the Edgewood board as a “It becomes like a conveyer belt,” regular trustee 2000-2002 and was board president Burton said. “That really flies in the face of good 2002-2008. Nava ran for re-election a third time in education where the teachers are making decisions.” 2008 but was defeated. Nava said students make the choice to attend a “I saw it as it was an opportunity I had,” Nava college to get more out of their education. “Students said. “I did what I could with it and moved on.” do make the conscious choice whether to come to Nava said District 5 trustee Roberto Zarate’s San Antonio College … Palo Alto or … Northwest stint in the Edgewood district did not overlap Vista based on the programs that are being with Nava’s tenure. Nava said with schools being offered,” he said. rebuilt, the board was able to close old campuses, Burton said, “So to get quality, we’re getting and “recapture” a couple million dollars to give standardization.” employees raises and keep moving forward. English Professor Juanita Luna-Lawhn said the Nava is an elementary school principal at Neil board wants the Alamo Colleges to train a workArmstrong Elementary and a student at University force, but that many students are being trained as of Texas at San Antonio awaiting acceptance to followers and not as leaders. the UTSA doctoral program to specialize in educaSee CANDIDATE, Page 4 tional leadership.
While Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. geared up its hype machine for the March release of the film adaptation of “The Hunger Games,” Suzanne Collins’ best-selling dystopian novel of teens pitted against one other By JOSHUA in a government-sanctioned FECHTER televised death match, the anniversary of the publicajfechter @student. tion of an essential dystopian alamo.edu novel quietly passed. First published in February 1932, Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” depicts The World State, a homogenous world government, in 2540 A.D. Resources are plentiful because the government forbids the global population from exceeding 2 billion. Rather than governing through brute force, the population is kept docile by increasing availability of material goods, drugs and sex. Dr. Thomas Billimek, psychology and sociology chair, said the novel depicts human behavior accurately in that people tend to respond positively to “the carrot,” or incentive, rather than “the stick,” which represents force. “There’s complacency when the carrot is present,” Billimek said. “When needs are being met, one tends to forget about anything other than that.” In the novel, individuality is discouraged. The slogan “everyone belongs to everyone else” is repeated throughout, signifying conformity to societal norms. Billimek said at the time the novel was published, the world was witnessing the rise of communism and fascism in Europe. “The value of the individual was made subservient to the good of the state,” he said. Dystopian novels often function as cautionary tales, taking unsavory elements of society to a logical end to create a vision of future society. English Professor Jane Focht-Hansen said she is more concerned with the world becoming more like the one depicted in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The novel describes the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic regime that has overthrown the U.S. government where men unabashedly oppress women, through the eyes of a handmaid whose only purpose is to bear children. Almost all women are homebound, and forbidden from reading or making decisions. Focht-Hansen likened this to the political debate surrounding birth control and abortion. On March 1, the U.S. Senate voted to defeat a measure that would have exempted religious institutions that object to contraception from providing free contraception coverage to workers in their insurance policies. In May, the Texas Legislature passed H.B. 15, a bill that requires women to undergo a vaginal probe ultrasound before seeking an abortion. The bill does not specify a vaginal probe, although opponents say that is required to get the sounds the doctor is supposed to provide for the patient to hear. The bill was designed to discourage women from seeking abortions. “I don’t think a group should be marginalized for making a medical choice,” FochtHansen said. “When men who don’t have those gonads to make these decisions start making them for women, I’m quite disturbed.”
See DYSTOPIA, Page 5