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Clashing Values & The Bigger Event are to be held after Spring Break. Dates are to be announced by Texas A&M University-Kingsville Student Government Association.
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
TheSouthTexan
SOUTHTEXANNEWS.COM
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VOLUME 91, ISSUE 18
Tears, stories mark vigil Dakota Roberts Opinion Editor Hundreds of Javelinas, community and family members gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of College Hall Tuesday night to mourn the deaths and celebrate the lives of Ebenezer “Tosin” Oloba and Oscar Fuentes. The evening was to help people grieve in unity as well as tell stories of the departed. The vigil was videotaped so that Tosin’s family in Georgia could see that Texas A&M UniversityKingsville was grieving for its lost friend. The vigil was put on by the students of TAMUK and hosted by Student Government Association president David Barrera. The solemn ceremony began with a prayer from a pastor at Tosin’s church in Corpus Christi followed by a moment of silence. Dr. Terisa Riley, TAMUK senior vice president for fiscal and student affairs, was the first speaker of the night. “There truly are no words that convey the pain and the sorrow and the loss that we are feeling. Don’t lose [empathy] ever, don’t let tonight be the only night you remember,” Riley shared. Oscar’s high school principal, Les Dragon, from Santa Gertrudis Academy, attended the vigil to talk about Oscar’s high school life. “Four years ago I met a young man in the hall, he was Oscar… This young man helped his other; he put things in a certain way that
SEE VIGIL, PAGE 3
Photo by Pablo Villanueva
Student Government Association senators joined hundreds of students and community members Tuesday night to mourn the weekend deaths of two students. Oscar Felipe Fuentes, 19, and Ebenezer “Tosin” Oloba, 23, died after their vehicle plunged into the San Antonio River Saturday along U.S. Highway 77 near Refugio.
Two students, hailed as leaders, killed in weekend car accident Dakota Roberts Opinion Editor
Oscar Fuentes and Ebenezer “Tosin” Oloba, two Texas A&M-Kingsville students, were killed Saturday when their car ran off the highway and plunged into the San Antonio River about 20 miles outside of Refugio. Officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety reported the crash happened around 2:08 p.m. on Saturday. The two students were northbound on U.S. Highway 77 to the Conference of Student Government Associations, an annual student government event held at College Station. Oloba was driving a rent-
ed Chevrolet Cruze when it veered off the road moments before reaching the San Antonio River Bridge. Sgt. Nathan Brandley, a DPS trooper, said the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
“There was no damage to the structure of the railing, side walls of the bridge. [The car] had fallen off the road prior… Right now, we don’t have any information that points to speed or intoxication.” Fuentes, 19, of Kingsville, and Oloba, 23, of Snellville, Ga., were both well-known, active members of
the TAMUK community. Both students participated in TAMUK’s Student Government Association as senators. Oloba was acting chairman of the Social Justice and Advocacy Committee. Fuentes was acting
Courtesy photo by the Student Government Association
OSCAR FUENTES
1997-2017
EBENEZER “TOSIN” OLOBA
1993-2017
chairman of the External Affairs committee as well as an intern for the Kingsville Chamber of Commerce. Tosin and Oscar’s accident immediately impacted the TAMUK community when their identities were finally revealed. Erik Perez Renovato, political science major and Tosin’s coworker, said, “You couldn’t ask for better qualities in a person. He was giving, he was kind, he was a man of God. He was a person that you aspired to be; his characteristics exemplify what a person is supposed to act like, how he carried himself was just inspiring.”
SEE TOSIN & OSCAR, PAGE 3
HB1 proposes $12 million in TAMUK budget cuts
Tallant: Special items funding cut could lead to job losses
Staff Reports @thesouthtexan
AUSTIN—The Texas House of Representatives is considering legislation that would slash funding of Texas A&M University-Kingsville by an estimated $12 million for the 2018-2019 biennium. The budget cuts are being proposed as part of the state’s general appropriations bill, House Bill 1, which was filed Feb. 10. SB 1, the state Senate’s version, proposes $26 million dollars in funding cuts,
or 37 percent of TAMUK’s current operating budget. TAMUK President Dr. Steven Tallant was in Austin and testified on the impact of the House legislation last Friday before the Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing state higher education funding. He said he anticipated a decrease in formula funding—a proposed reduction of $11 million in general revenue funding—but not a 4 percent cut in special items funding amounting to an additional $839,119. “We are taking a sig-
nificant cut this year of $11 million based on formula funding, which we planned for,” he said. “We were not expecting a 4 percent cut in special items.” He said the special item cuts would reduce faculty and put $2.5 million in critical research dollars at risk. John Sharp, Texas A&M System Chancellor spoke on special items. “Basically, when you take regional universities that are under 6,000, or just started, [the universities] have 3 special items that they depend on until they get to where they’re big
enough in order for them to get fordable funding and one of those is downward expansion.” According to a handout of Tallant’s presentation, an $11 million reduction in general revenue funding would cost the university v47 full-time positions, 25 fewer faculty lines, 222 fewer degrees awarded and 2,481 fewer students served. “Reducing state funding would cause serious damage to our reputation and the public trust we’ve built over man years,” he told subcommittee members.
The special item cuts would impact Institutional Enhancement funding, the university’s engineering doctoral program, Veterinary Technology program, Citrus Center, Wildlife Research Institute, South Texas Archives and Conner Museum. The largest impact would be in Institutional Enhancement, with proposed cuts of $540,390. Institutional Enhancement funding mostly goes toward faculty salaries, Tallant has said.
SEE HOUSE BILL, PAGE 3
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THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017 SOUTHTEXANNEWS.COM
Entertainment
Pharmacy students get messy, race to support program
Photo by Pablo Villanueva
Pharmacy students embrace after a hard-fought race during the annual Ties and Tennis Shoes Memorial Fun Run. Frankie Cardenas Managing Editor Texas A&M University-Kingsville blocked off it’s streets as students, staff and community members united to run for the betterment of one of the university’s recognizable programs. The fourth annual Ties and Tennis Shoes Memorial Fun Run was filled to brim with participants down Ave. C, to raise money for scholarship opportunities for the students at the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy.
Founding Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Dr. Indra Reddy, said that the race is a fun and great way to raise money not only to help the students it will support, but is also the best way to honor the memory of the late Dr. James Robertson Jr., who laid the cornerstone for program on campus. “In memory of [Dr. Robertson’s] legacy, the students rallied and created this opportunity, so every year this can be an annual event for us,” said Dr. Reddy. “We come together and
celebrate and the students raise lots of money, and our faculty and staff embrace this philosophy that this has become a community event now,” Reddy continued. Ties and Tennis Shoes was first created after the passing of Dr. Robertson in 2012, and since then, has been a student lead program and effort from more than a dozen volunteers. “The students volunteer and sign up to put on the event,” says Lead Office Associate and representative of the Race Eva Bennett.
“We have a committee that works really hard to put the event together. [The staff] just works on the background details of it, but the students do such a good job of putting [the event] together.” This year’s event, they were fortunate enough to provide three separate scholarships for students worth $1,000 each; two of which are in the name of the Dr. Robertson: The Dr. James Robertson
Jr. Make a Difference Scholarship, and the Dr. James Robertson Jr. Memorial Endowed Scholarship. Aside from the race at hand, the event also featured a rock climbing wall, a friendly kid zone with activates where children were able to win prizes, and also included booths supporting good health. Individuals were able to go through simple health screenings, and visit booths whose mission was to spread
awareness on the importance of living an active lifestyle. When all was said and done, the community sponsored 5K/10K helped raise approximately $45,000 in support of the Rangel College of Pharmacy’s programs. “It’s an amazing event,” said Dr. Reddy. “[The university] embraced it and the community loved it, and I think we’re going to have it back, yet again.”
Legendary comedy troupe to perform
Photo courtesy of the Second City
Bobby Puentes Reporter Kids line up on the starting line for the mile run during the annual fun run.
Photo by Pablo Villanueva
The famous sketch and improv comedy group Second City will entertain Javelina Nation Mar. 8 in the Jones Auditorium. A part of the university’s Presidential Performing and Visual Art Series “The Best of Second City” is a public performance free to anyone in the mood for comedy. The performance begins at 7 p.m. and doors open at 6:30 p.m. with seats firstcome first-serve. Sophomore Matthew Ortiz, a Biomedical science major has a little experience of sketch comedy from watching “Whose Line is it Anyway?” but is excited to
see a well-known comedy group perform their own material live. Junior Adriana Cisneros, an English and education major said, “I like that the school does things like this for the students. It’s nice to have something different around here otherwise we wouldn’t be able to see an event like this.” Bringing culture to the campus is something strived for by The Presidential Performing and Visual Arts Series at Texas A&M Kingsville. Not only focused on the students the series aims for community audience entertainment. Junior David Bautista, a Biomedical science major
was unaware of the performance from The Second City until he was shown the online article. “I think this is fun for the students and the whole community in general. Just promote it a little more since I hadn’t heard about it” Bautista said. The Second City is a legendary comedy club that was opened in December 1959. 55 years of star-filled comedy history, it has fostered big names such as Tina Fey, Bill Murray, Steve Carell, and Stephen Colbert. Today The Second City performs shows every night with locations in Chicago, Toronto, and Hollywood.
Campus
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THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017 SOUTHTEXANNEWS.COM
Wildlife institute welcomes new director
Alex Guerra Chief Reporter
Dr. David Hewitt, professor and Stuart Stedman Chair in white-tailed deer research, is now serving as the new director for the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute (CKWRI). Hewitt has been involved with the institute since 1996 and now has the opportunity to further progress the program with the help of supported funding. “I’ve always had an interest in wildlife since childhood. I grew up with a grandfather who was a wildlife biologist…that solidified my passion for the outdoors. I’m happy that the institute is work-
ing towards conserving and perpetuating goals,” said Hewitt. Numerous variations of conservation research are conducted at the institute, both indoors and out. In the lab, scientists work with quantitative data to analyze the biology of animals. Outside of the institute, students and faculty study the behavior and nutrition of captive animals, as well as observe those in their natural habitat. Through the use of techniques similar to those seen on Animal Planet, students manipulate transmitters to monitor the migration patterns from a molecular to a continental level, Hewitt shared. Hewitt’s goal is to lead the institute with as much care and pride as
former director Dr. Fred Bryant. Bryant stepped down in November 2016 for unknown reasons. The South Texan reached out to Bryant, but did not hear back. The institute is making connections with private landowners. Building these trustworthy relationships help consolidate connections outside of the South Texas region and Texas itself. Growing the ability to help conserve wildlife in other states allows students to gain valuable expertise on multiple types of terrain. One student who often utilizes Hewitt’s epertise is Nicole Alonso, range and wildlife science major. “Dr. Hewitt is dedicated and hardworking. He always makes time to
Dining with potential
TAMUK will host semi-annual dinner for students to practice their dining etiquette
Interviews are one of the final hurdles in the job application process. The location for an interview can range from a business office to a restaurant setting and be held in the presence of multiple interviewers. Potential candidates are evaluated based on their answers, resume, and even their dinner etiquette manners. Do university students have the proper etiquette knowledge to face their future employers through a full course meal? The Career Service Center at Texas A&M University-Kingsville will be hosting an Etiquette Dinner on
March 2nd. The event will take place at the Student Union Building Ballrooms from 5:30-7:30 p.m. For a fee of $15, students will learn the proper use of utensils, different dinning styles, and dinner table tips. The dinner is composed of an upscale, four course meal. The Etiquette Dinner has been held once every semester for over 10 years. At the event, students receive the opportunity to meet professionals from different industries. This year, the Etiquette Dinner invited Cathleen Franke, Talent Acquisition Manager from Enterprise, to give a special presentation. Paige de Vaudrecourt, Assistant Director of Internships at the Career Services Center, explains that the
HOUSE BILL,
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“Institutional enhancement represents $10 million from hiring faculty to teaching a classroom,” he said. A $540,000 reduction would cost seven full-time faculty positions and potentially 7,811 fewer student
credit hours, according to Tallant’s presentation. The second largest proposed special item cut, of $105,471, would impact the Citrus Center. Such a reduction would cost one full time position at the
America Quintero Reporter
TOSIN & OSCAR,
“I stayed in his apartment. Even in his own apartment, when he was alone, like he always reminded himself; he had post-it notes on his wall: Did you pray today? Do something good? Give a compliment? Make a new friend? Things like that, he was humble, but always reminded himself to be humble,” she continued. Yomaira Flores, a science and disorders major and a friend of Tosin’s, told the South Texan, “I think anyone that met Tosin, he would automatically become your favorite person… It was such a tragic lost, you can just see how much everyone loved him, and I hope he knew that he had a lot of people that loved him.” Oscar, a Kingsville local, was a freshman, but made just as much of an impact. Joey Raya, a chemical engineer major and a senator of the engineering college, said, “That dude was a 100 percent in everything he did, I mean you want to talk about organized.” Benjamin Chi, a personal friend of Oscar’s, will also remember the times he had with his buddy. “Have you ever had a friend where you could
event goes beyond correcting dinner habits. “It gives students the confidence needed to network and provides them with the skills needed for nontraditional interviews.” TAMUK Associate Director in Employer Relations, Lori Urbanovsky, encourages students to attend more than once. “Every time you attend, you learn something new… After leaving this presentation, you will be more comfortable with the idea of dinning with potential employers.” For more information on the Etiquette Dinner, visit bit.ly/EtDinner or contact the TAMUK Career Service Center.
center and put $1.4 million in research funds at risk. A proposed $87,758 cut at the Wildlife Research Institute would cost a full time position and put $1.1 million in research funds at risk.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
sit down and have a long, heartfelt discussion on anything – Oscar was that friend.” David Barrera, SGA president, also lamented the loss of his colleagues. “The University could not have asked for better sons, teammates, leaders, better students… They gave you the opportunity to lead, and more importantly they loved.” The two students were reported missing around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon after they failed to report for COSGA’s role call. A car crash was reported near Farm-to-Market Road 239, 90 miles north of Kingsville the same day. Terisa Riley, senior vice president for fiscal and student affairs, released a mass e-mail on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. containing the sad news informing the student body of the loss of two students. No witnesses have stepped forward that saw the crash, but the splash was spotted; prompting authorities to be called. According to the DPS, the water in the San Antonio River was higher than usual; around two-three feet higher with a stronger
current. The vehicle had to be located with sonar and recovered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dive team. The car is estimated to have been submerged roughly 10 to 14 feet deep. After receiving the news, SGA held a private meeting to grieve and decide how to proceed with the projects both Tosin and Oscar were responsible for. Tosin and Oscar have been remembered in SGA’s Senators of the Week, to honor all the things they have done and were planning to do in the months coming. A GoFundMe page has been set up in Tosin’s name to help pay for funeral costs. The page has almost reached its goal of $2,000, holding around $1,800 Tuesday. Oscar’s funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. at St. Martin’s Catholic Church, March 4, to be followed by his burial at Chamberlain Cemetery in Kingsville. TAMUK will remember these two community leaders and all they had personally accomplished in their lives, continuing to wave the black fabric that Javelinas fly when members of the pack go missing.
help his students. His outof-the-box thinking has been critical in solving all problems that have come our way,”Alonso said. The CKWRI is credited with hosting a large number of students and faculty in such a specialized subject area as conservation. One staff member, familiar with Hewitt’s work ethic and personal attributes is Dr. Shad Nelson, interim dean for the Dick and Mary Kleberg College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences. “Hewitt is highly respected at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. I know he will continue on the successful heritage since he’s always been someone so committed to conservation…
vigil,
it was a logical choice,” Nelson said. Hewitt represents a high caliber of ethics and integrity that the CKWRI expects in our leaders, Nelson added. Dr. Fidel Hernandez, Alfred C. Glassell, Jr., Endowed Professor for Quail Research, personally collaborated with the new director. Hernandez has worked alongside Hewitt for 17 years and credited him with a go-getter attitude and helpful disposition. “David is the type of guy who always takes time for bouncing ideas around. His personality allows him to build trust with private landowners. There’s so much territory that could be managed properly and conserved.
He’s well respected as a scientist,” Hernandez said.
Courtesy photo
Dr. David Hewitt has been with CKWRI for 20 years. He plans to push for an increase in funding and make more connections outside of South Texas.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
his classmates understood. He made us better.” Dragon mentioned he was proud of Fuentes for making the dean’s list in his first semester and never believed he would be meeting to talk about his life so soon after graduation. Barrera then allowed friends and coworkers of Tosin and Oscar to come forward and tell stories about the two students. Oscar’s sister, Victoria Fuentes, and friend Benjamin Chi
spoke on his behalf. “He wasn’t only incredibly smart and talented but he was always there, even when you didn’t want him there… all because he cared,” said Chi, describing the kind of person Oscar was in life. Victoria Fuentes shared the strong bond she had with her younger—by only 14 months—brother. “No matter what, we will remember Oscar, because like I said he wasn’t
just my brother, he was my best friend,” she said. Tosin’s friend Rachelle Mian spoke a lot of the same kind of bond between Tosin and herself. “Never in a million years had I thought I’d lose my best friend … he was my brother.” The final words of the night were spoken by Barrera, as lanterns were released into the night sky. “How beautiful do the first flowers bloom after the fire.”
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THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
Opinion
SOUTHTEXANNEWS.COM
Character is Destiny: Will vs. Fate
Dakota Roberts Editorial Editor
In our modern times, we have a romanticized idea of fate. The idea that way, way in the future something is waiting for us; a moment where our destiny becomes recognized. As students, it is in our nature to feel like we are just waiting for those days to come, all of us are currently trying to achieve the best of all those possible futures; rolling the dice that our day-by-day work will one day count for something. On the other side of the aisle is the idea of free will. Now obviously, this seems ingrained in us. Every single moment of our lives seems to tell us that we have the absolute ability to pick and choose our own personal paths. The choice to choose is our gift, sentience our instrument to do it. Now of course there is always a future, and when that future comes it becomes set in stone and filed into the past; simple enough. Now the question then becomes, which is true, do I have free will or does destiny predetermine everything. This was the debate of a new experiment called the Bell Test. Imagine this however, fate in a different perspective; one that still allows for a sense of free will. The Big Bang, the idea that there was a beginning and that the Universe is actually not infinite. From gluons, pairs of quarks were
created, those quarks almost immediately began interacting with other quarks, forming new pairs. Antimatter and Matter began forming and converting back to energy at a ridiculous rate. In a moment that may be considered prodigious, matter outmatched the creation of antimatter by a miniscule margin (an amazing 1,000,000,000 antimatter particles were formed with every 1,000,000,001). After this time, the singular force split up into the four fundamental forces that we observe in the Universe today: Gravity, Electromagnetism, Strong and Weak Nuclear Forces. In mere seconds, the Universe expanded to a billion kilometers in diameter. With that mass expansion came a considerable cooling, causing the cycle of quarks being created and destroyed to end; the universe begins working with what it has formed. The Quark pairs began forming particles that we know today; our lovely protons and neutrons. The Universe by this time is only a second old and now about 100 billion kilometers across; becoming cool enough to allow the neutrons to decay into protons and form Hydrogen. No light could shine through the thick plasma clouds, no light had even been created; stars were yet to form. The Universe was complete darkness. Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, and Beryllium’s nuclei
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were formed; beginning the era of nucleosynthesis. After 300,000 years, the Universe was cool enough for these nuclei to attract electrons and form the first true atoms. The Universe went through another round of cooling, the Hydrogen gas began clumping together under the pressure of gravity; forming the very first massive stars, so luminous that it ionized and heated the surrounding gases in all the galaxies. Light had finally been created, with no eyes around to perceive it. Elements were dispersed by this epochal event that eventually led to the creation of nebulas. When these stars collapsed, and combined it formed the first supermassive black holes, the first major power sources for the quasars. These nebulas
formed stars, galaxies, planets, and eventually people. Over time, our planet was formed, passing through every great Razor that destroys early life on our planet. Life didn’t just miraculously spawn, it survived; survived long enough to eventually evolve and evolve and evolve to eventually you have sentient life. Sentient life that questions and wonders whether or not they choose. All these events eventually led to you picking up this paper and reading this article and that’s the rub of it. The probability of all these things happening aren’t just literally cosmologically unlikely, they are miraculous. According to Harold Morowitz, a Yale professor in biology, the chances of the smallest and
simplest organism to form is one in ten to the 340,000,000 power (that is a one with 340 million zeroes after it). Sir Fred Hoyle, a famous British astronomer once stated the chances of the Big Bang were best described in an analogy. Imagine a blind man working on a Rubik’s cube. With no direction, he has to randomly move the cube to eventually solve the puzzle. Now imagine that the odds of the big bang were 10^50 blind men working on Rubik’s Cubes and they all have to solve it. That is the miracle, that is fate. Every step that we just went over were considered incredibly impossible and yet they just happened. Perhaps then fate is something else; perhaps it is our situation; our situation of just existing in an ever-ex-
Last week’s poll results! Do you believe that life is predetermined or unplanned? FATE
43%
FREE WILL
57%
panding universe that for all intents and purposes wasn’t supposed to be here. To exist as star dust that came from nothing, only to one day return to nothing; fate. Free will then is what we decide to do with this fate, what we make of it and how we let it form us.
God’s Demagogue: Pope Francis’ cult of personality Former Alumni Contributing Writer
Last Monday, Donald Trump’s presidential term turned one month old, during which time we all know he has generated a lot of controversy. These criticisms of Trump are generating a very important discussion—policy aside, how should a leader speak and act. Perhaps we don’t approve of populism or isolationism or deregulation, but what many Americans really hate about Trump are his ranting, his egotism, and his eagerness to label others his personal enemies. When we look at these qualities, we find an unlikely parallel to the president from the other end of the political spectrum—His Holiness, Pope Francis. Let me preface this by saying that the president and the pope are two very different people. My point isn’t to claim that the pope is Donald Trump in disguise, or vice versa, but only that when we look at their styles of leadership, some very obvious and very disturbing similarities emerge. Like Trump, Francis has a distinctive way of speaking—direct, generalizing, not particularly artful. That’s fine when talking about loving one’s neighbor and serving the poor, but much like the president, when His Holiness strays even a little off the beaten path, his foot ends up in his mouth—like when he called drug violence in Argentina “Mexicanization,” for example. And not all of his gaffes are so innocent. Who could forget his apparent defense of the Charlie Hebdo terrorists? “One cannot provoke; one cannot insult other people’s faith. ... If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It’s normal. It’s normal.” To be fair, the Vatican press The South Texan is a student publication produced by Texas A&M University- Kingsville students. The views, opinions and commentary do not necessarily reflect the views of the Texas A&M University system. The South Texan uses student fees in part to publish. The South Texan is part of the Art, Communications, and Theatre Department (ACT), The Javelina Broadcast Network (JBN), and the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA).
office clarified—as they so often have - that His Holiness wasn’t really saying the thing he was so obviously saying. Still, this isn’t the only time he’s made controversial statements favoring Islam—he has long insisted that Western powers accept Muslim refugees and migrants. It’s not obvious, but underneath this apparent altruism is a kind of exploitation of Muslims, which runs parallel to Trump’s determination to exclude refugees. When the president speaks about Muslims, he’s not talking about them as individuals or even as a religious group—he’s invoking them in the archetype of the “other.” They’re the “them” to our “us;” they’re the people who are separate from us and different from us. Never mind that they have names and faces and all kinds of features, which make them distinct and unique and different from each other. In casting Muslims as “other,” all their true features—good and bad both—get thrown out, and they become a trope against which America can define itself. When the pope speaks about Muslims, he too casts them as “other.” They aren’t an “other” to be excluded, surely, but they are an “other” nonetheless. Francis received a strong backlash in 2016 when he said, “If I speak of Islamic violence, I should speak of Catholic violence” (for what it’s worth, this was hours after the murder of a Catholic priest, Jacques Hamel, by Islamic extremists in France). He said in the same interview that people are forced to commit terrorist acts because of unjust economic structures, which can read like another excuse for terrorism (“It’s normal. It’s normal.”). This attitude towards Muslims boils down to fetishization. Maybe fetishization is more palatable than demonization, but to essentialize Muslims
as Muslims—that is, to see them one-dimensionally and not as their own complex people, people who can’t be lumped into a homogenous bloc—should be disturbing to us whether one wants to bring that bloc in or not. This is a part of a larger effort to construct new definitions of identity. Both the pope and the president have very intentionally constructed cults of personality for themselves. We’re all familiar with how Trump went about this—by casting himself as the outsider candidate running against a powerful, entrenched “establishment,” he made himself stand apart not only from Hillary Clinton but also other Republican candidates. Francis has also worked to build a cult of personality. From the beginning of this papacy, fans of the pope have pointed to his simple style of dress and laid-back attitude toward ritual. These, everyone assumes, mean that he is humble and Christlike, but there’s something else at play. Many readers will recognize a phrase from the Gospels which reads: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). For Francis, it’s the opposite—by downplaying the symbols of the papacy, he eliminates competing definitions of his person and gives center stage to his own personality. Italian Catholic intellectuals Allesandro Gnocchi and Mario Palmaro explain this as “the location in the background of the impersonal concept of the papacy and the simultaneous rise to prominence of the person who embodies it.” This is supremely ironic; the pope is praised as humble for what is in fact an intensely egotistical ploy. It’s another great irony that the Holy Father has condemned populism, because by cleverly building this image of himself, the pope has become a more successful populist
Staff
Crystal Zamarron- Editor-in-Chief Frankie Cardenas - Managing Editor/Reporter Sebastyon Spencer- Advertising Manager Bobby Puentes- Circulation Manager Travis Demas- Sports Editor Dakota Roberts- Editorial Editor Siddharth Tuplondhe- Cartoonist Alex Guerra- Campus News Ed-
itor/Chief Reporter Robert Breedlove- Entertainment Editor America Quintero- Reporter Clarissa Madrigal- Reporter Ashley Gonzalez- Online Editor Pablo Villanueva- Online Editor Jenny Barroso- Page Designer Dr. Manuel Flores- Adviser Matthew Ward- Adviser
First Amendment Right Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances.
than Trump ever could. We know all about Trump lambasting the media and firing Sally Yates, the acting attorney general, for example. But are we also aware of the pope’s abusive style of leadership? He, too, has condemned members of the media, saying that reporters who cover scandals and “nasty things” are in danger of “becoming ill from coprophilia and thus formenting coprophagia”— those are polite terms for becoming sexually aroused by, and for eating feces. What about the Curia, the administrators who keep Francis’s Vatican running? In 2014, he used his Christmas address to the Curia to accuse them of fifteen spiritual sicknesses including the “terrorism of gossip” and “spiritual Alzheimer’s.” In 2016, he used the same address to accuse his opponents within the Vatican of “malevolent resistance” which “presents itself when the devil inspires bad intentions.” These administrators, Crux’s John Allen says, “[work] for low pay, no fanfare and at considerable personal sacrifice, and once in a while, they’d like to hear something encouraging from the boss about the value of their labor.” And what about the young priest Francis mocked in a homily last September for purchasing a hat? Did he deserve to be called “rigid and worldly?” And what about the other young priests of whom Francis disapproves? Does the generational gap justify Francis accusing them of mental illness, of being “psychologically unstable” and of “[needing] strong structures to support them?” I can’t list all the times His Holiness has spitefully maligned his enemies. The point is that, just like Trump, the pope uses his bully pulpit to delegitimize any and all opposition. “Theological niceties bore him,” writes The Spectator’s
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Damian Thompson, “[but] personal loyalty obsesses him.” In the same article, “Why More and More Priests Can’t Stand Pope Francis,” Thompson also writes that Francis is understood by those who work around him as “simultaneously combative, charming, bad-tempered, idealistic and vengeful,” and he asks, pointing to the president, “Does that remind you of anyone?” Indeed, the pope’s leadership should remind us of Trump’s. Just as the president with Yates, Francis has forced a number of prelates who don’t share his ideology out of the Curia— most notably, in late 2014 he removed the Raymond Burke, an American cardinal who was close with Pope Benedict XVI, from the Apostolic Signatura (the Vatican’s high court). But in fact, Francis’s strongarming goes even further than Trump’s, because at least Trump hasn’t forced any sovereign heads of state to resign. Francis has - I’d encourage all readers to read up on the pope’s unprecedented violation of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Trump and Francis are cut from opposite ends of the very same cloth. The Trump presidency is giving us an opportunity to define what kinds of conduct are appropriate for leaders, regardless of their politics. Left or right, we should all be repulsed by the president’s callous and irresponsible understanding of power, and the past months have seen people with very different political views coming together to denounce him. But if we’re willing to speak out against the president when he does wrong, we should be equally willing to resist Pope Francis’s abuse of power and profound disrespect for his those he has marked as his enemies. Anything else would be hypocrisy.
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Sports
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THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017 SOUTHTEXANNEWS.COM
Hogs show potential in loss Lisa Carvajal gets another win as women’s tennis loses to the St. Edwards Hilltoppers Travis Demas Sports Editor @travisdemas Lisa Carvajal (5-1) gets her fifth win of the season as the Javelinas (4-3) fall to No.37 St. Edward (5-2) 7-2 this past Sunday. Carvajal would pick up two wins in the match, the first against No 49 Anjali Sampath 7-5, 6-2 in singles No.1. Carvajal would teaming up with teammate Tabata Lua to get her second win, as they would defeat Sampath and Valentina Martinez of St. Edwards 8-4 in doubles No.2. “I felt equally nervous and excited to play, especially since the girl I play against is a former rival of mine,” replied Carvajal. Going into the first singles match Carvajal was ranked No. 17
in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) South Central Region, while her opponent Sampath was ranked No.5. “I felt equally nervous and excited to play, especially since the girl I play against is a former rival of mine,” replied Carvajal. Other key matches of the day were singles No.2 between Victoria Romanovskaia and (No.8) regionally Laura Galvan, in which Galvan would win in a tight contest 6-3, 6-4. Vivian Ortiz nearly came away with the win in singles No.6 against Martinez in a match that would have to be decide by a tiebreaker 7-6, 4-6, and 6-3. Head Coach Autumn Williams had a lot of positives to take away from the matches by saying things like this team is “bonded,” and that they “keep fight-
ing for each other.” Most importantly Williams pointed out the fact that the team is better than than the previous year. “The positives are definitely the improvements we’ve made from last year,” said Williams. The Javelinas have seemed to become more comfortable with one another, and is a huge key to their success this season. When asked about the team chemistry Carvajal responded with, “We all come from different places around the world with different customs and backgrounds, but we’ve become a family because of tennis.” The next matchup for the Javelinas will not be until March 9-11, as they enjoy a week off before going to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin Tournament.
Photo By: Juan Turrubiates
Lisa Carvajal sets up to swing.
Javelinas ride momentum into LSC Tournament
Photo by Robert Breedlove
Bailey Blezinger gets ready to put on the green.
Just tap it in
Staff Reports -
Golf heads to Corpus Christi to compete in Islander Classic Robert Breedlove Entertainment Editor @breedlovecam The Javelina women’s golf team made the short trek down to the Islander Classic held at the Corpus Christi Country Club. The team finished last among a field of 12 teams with a team score of 1008. Freshman Reanna De La Cruz lead the team with 236-stroke score through three rounds, good for 30th place overall. Bailey Blezinger followed behind in 58th with a 254-stroke score, then Rachelle Nielsen with a 251, Ana Coy with a 260, and Brittany Rodriguez with a 282. On day one, De La Cruz got as high as 11th place with a 74-stroke first round and finished the day eight over par and 14th overall. The weather was perfect for golfing; unseasonably temperate with temperatures in the mid 70s with very little wind, “Honestly it’s the best weather in Corpus Christi for this tournament in years”, Coach Stefanie Gray said, “I’ve been playing here for years and it’s always 40 degrees and cold.” The tournament featured nine Division I teams from as far away as Wyoming as well as the number two ranked Division II South Central Region team, Dallas Baptist University. Although the freshmen lead the roster in scoring, Gray said Coy is the backbone of the team. “She’s taken her leadership role very seriously and she’s worked hard the last couple of weeks to get back into playing shape.”
Photo By; Robert Breedlove
Analysa Coy displays her follow-through as she follows ball through the air. With less than two months until the Lone Star Conference Championships, Gray likes the progress her team has made so far this season, “They’re thinking better, hitting better shots, and they’re more versatile on the golf course.” Next week the Javelinas will travel down the road to McAllen to compete in the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley Women’s Collegiate on March 6-7.
LAST WEEK’S GAMES
Mens Baseball
Mens Basketball
Texas A&M International 2-26 W 16-2 2-26 W 14-4
Western New Mexico 2-23 W 74-61 Eastern New Mexico 2-25 W 53-51
Softball
Womens Basketball
Midwestern Western New Mexico 2-24 W 9-1 2-23 L 67-75 2-25 W 5-1 Eastern New Mexico & W 6-5 2-25 W 85-71
Basketball teams get into rytyhm just in time for the Lone Star Confrence Tournament The Texas A&M University-Kingsville men’s and women’s basketball teams will take a head full of steam into each of their respective Lone Star Conference Tournaments, after completing their seasons in winning fashion. The women (13-13, LSC 8-12) were able to pull off the unthinkable, as they upset No. 18 Eastern New Mexico 85-71, where the Javelina offense was clicking on all cylinders and was able to put points on the board when it mattered most. The Hogs were down early after the first period of play, but came back with a vengeance before the half was up, outscoring the Greyhounds 21-12. Heading to the locker room at the half, the blue and gold were up three and were able to keep it close before exploding in the fourth, and pulled away for the upset. The Javelinas shot 80.6 percent from the charity stripe, racking up 29 points in the process, the most they were able to knock down all season. The shooting also came in bunches, as the Javelinas shot 52 percent from the floor, and scored 38 points from inside the paint. Four different players for the Javelinas were in dou-
ble figures, lead behind Tee Moore’s 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting, with four boards and three assists. Following in her path was Meesha Wade with 14 points, six rebounds and two dimes, and Kaylin Roher and Angelica Wilson both with 13 points apiece. Roher made history in the third, as the senior drained a three that put her in fifth alltime for three-pointers made in Javelina history with 116. The Javelinas will now gear up to face the Greyhounds in their third matchup in the season in the LSC tournament, in a battle of the first and last seeds in the conference. Game time will be at 6 P.M., from Allen, Texas. The men (17-10, 10-8 LSC) were in a tight contest throughout, but were successful in knocking the ENMU Greyhounds out of tournament contention, winning in a thriller 53-51. The Javelinas began the game on a 12-3 run, kick started by junior Elliot Taylor. However, ENMU would not let up, and fought to keep their scoring deficit to under seven points as time expired in the first stanza. The Javelinas would lead 29-25 at the end of the first half. In the second half, both teams struggled tremendously on offense, both
shooting between 34 and 35 percent from the floor. As time trickled down to the latter half of the final twenty minutes, the Hogs did not allow a field goal in the final nine minutes of play to the Greyhounds in order to secure a victory. Duan Wright was at the charity stripe with an opportunity to go up one, with nineteen seconds remaining in the game. After nailing both free throws, the scoreboard read 51-52. The Hoggie defense was powerful, and held its’ own on the ensuing play, as the Hounds would toss a ball from across court, which would be taken by Calean Neal and and seal the win. Leading the charge for the Javelinas would be Derrick Byrd, who scored 11 points on 71 percent shooting from the field. Trey Sumpter followed suit with eight points and eight boards and two steals. Also with eight points were Will West and Marcus Frazier. The Javelinas as the No. 6 seed, are looking forward to playing conference rival and No. 3 seeded West Texas A&M in Allen, Texas, for the LSC tournament. The season series is split between the two, and the Javelinas will look to break the tie on March 3, tip-off time at 2:30 p.m.
UPCOMING GAMES
Tennis
Mens Baseball
Mens Basketball
Softball
St. Edwards 2-25 L 2-7
@UTPB 3-3 at 3 P.M. 3-4 at 1 P.M. & 4 P.M. 3-5 at 1 P.M.
West Texas A&M @UTPB 3-3 at 2:30 P.M. 3-3 at 3 P.M. & 5 P.M. 3-4 at 1 P.M.
Womens Basketball
Tennis
Eastern New Mexico 3-2 at 6 P.M.
Texas Wesleyan 3-9 at 10 A.M UTPB & North Central Texas 3-10
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THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017 SOUTHTEXANNEWS.COM
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