panamericanonline.com Volume 69, No. 18 February 14, 2013 Online Pages 4-5 Traveling Profs Sports Updates Homecoming ‘13 Photo album of UTPA parade Proposed addition scheduled for 2017 Online Online Space for Science Faculty receives traveling funds By Lea Victoria Juarez e Pan American Forever Alone Digital Attraction Reporter George Terrazas speaks to students about celebrating Anti-Valentine’s Day Online Francisco Rodriguez/e Pan American CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Page 6 Weekly Events Luke Jackson to be honored Things to do through Feb. 24 Nursing major Sar- ah Christensen’s death brought her and boyfriend Luis Escalante together. Had he not resurrected her, they might have never met. Four years ago, while attempting to complete quests as a character for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Fiesta, Christensen found she was out of her element. “It was my first MMO and I sucked really, re- ally bad,” the 22-year-old recalled with a laugh. “I died so I needed someone to come resurrect me. So he came by, resurrected me and then he left.” An MMO allows peo- ple from all over the world to play the same game and interact with each other in real time. While Chris- tensen was gaming from Morgan Hill, Calif., Es- calante was in Hidalgo. Over the next couple of days, the two met up within the game and began to talk to each other via typed chat. “From there, basically there’s only been a span of about three days that we didn’t talk in the begin- ning because he was busy,” the sophomore said. “But other than that, for four years now, not even a sin- gle day has gone by that we haven’t talked.” After about two years of communicating through phone, video chat and spending a total of three weeks together in person, Christensen moved to the Valley the summer of 2010 to be with Escalante. Since then she has been a resident of Hidalgo, living with 23-year-old Escalante, and his mother. UTPA students share their experiences with online dating Online Basketball, golf and tennis scores
Transcript
panamericanonline.com
Volume 69, No. 18 February 14, 2013
Online
Pages 4-5
Traveling Profs
Sports Updates
Homecoming ‘13 Photo album of UTPA parade
Proposed addition scheduled for 2017
Online
Online
Space for Science
Faculty receives traveling funds
By Lea Victoria JuarezThe Pan American
Forever Alone
Digital AttractionReporter George Terrazas speaks to students about celebrating Anti-Valentine’s Day
Online
Francisco Rodriguez/The Pan American
continued on Page 6
Page 6
Weekly Events
Luke Jackson to be honored
Things to do through Feb. 24
Nursing major Sar-ah Christensen’s death brought her and boyfriend Luis Escalante together. Had he not resurrected her, they might have never met.
Four years ago, while attempting to complete quests as a character for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
Fiesta, Christensen found she was out of her element.
“It was my first MMO and I sucked really, re-ally bad,” the 22-year-old recalled with a laugh. “I died so I needed someone to come resurrect me. So he came by, resurrected me and then he left.”
An MMO allows peo-ple from all over the world to play the same game and
interact with each other in real time. While Chris-tensen was gaming from Morgan Hill, Calif., Es-calante was in Hidalgo.
Over the next couple of days, the two met up within the game and began to talk to each other via typed chat.
“From there, basically there’s only been a span of about three days that we didn’t talk in the begin-
ning because he was busy,” the sophomore said. “But other than that, for four years now, not even a sin-gle day has gone by that we haven’t talked.”
After about two years of communicating through phone, video chat and
spending a total of three weeks together in person, Christensen moved to the Valley the summer of 2010 to be with Escalante. Since then she has been a resident of Hidalgo, living with 23-year-old Escalante, and his mother.
UTPA students share their experiences with online dating
OnlineBasketball, golf and tennis scores
The University of Texas-Pan American is offering its students some SASS to assist them in their classes.
Tips on note-taking, time management and other compo-nents of college work are part of the Strategies for Academic Success Sessions that have been going on since January.
Ten topics that concentrate on improving student learning in class are being taught Thurs-days and Fridays in 20 non-credit sessions until April. The sessions are open to all students, free of charge.
Each session covers a topic meant to give tips and strategies to make passing classes simpler and less stressful. The first was held Jan. 24 and the last will be April 19 in the Health Sci-ence and Human Services West Building, Room 1.404.
The sessions are sponsored by the Office of Undergradu-ate Studies, along with the Learning Assistance Center, the Writing Center, the University Academic Advising Center and the Center for Online Learning, Teaching and Technology.
Kristin Croyle, vice provost for undergraduate education, came up with the idea. She said that the sessions were created be-cause many students struggle with the underlying structure of learn-ing, and she gave an example.
“You’ve got this big text-book to read and you’re a strong reader when you read novels,” she said. “But when you try to read an academic textbook, it’s a whole different type of reading.”
There is a session tailored for reading college-level work, for students who have problems that Croyle mentioned.
Marilyn Hagerty, director for the University’s Academic Advising Center, agrees that
college material is not the same thing students may have been used to in the past.
“It’s different reading aca-demic material from pleasure reading,” she said. “What the college faculty expects students to get out of reading is different from what they were expected to get out of it in high school.”
Along with a reading ses-sion, there is one for note-taking, help with essay assign-ments, acing finals, and more
topics that Croyle says students need assistance with.
There will be sessions that cover time management March 28 and 29, which Croyle thinks could really come in handy.
“Maybe a student is very good at managing the responsibilities in their lives but they may not recog-nize all the time commitment that college classes take,” she suggested. “So their time management just falls apart.”
Hagerty added that time
management seems to be a common problem for students of every classification and can take a toll on one’s studies.
“I think that there’s a mis-conception that college means more freedom, so students for-get that the responsibility is on them to map out how they’re going to study,” she said. “It’s not about waiting to study until the day before.”
Hagerty also believes that the sessions can help lower the
amount of students on academ-ic probation of all classifica-tions, especially freshmen. Out of the 3,102 freshmen enrolled in fall 2012 for the first time at UTPA, 544 are on probation.
“A lot of times when fresh-men are coming in, they don’t get a good start at the beginning of the semester,” she offered. “And they find out maybe a month into it that their meth-ods aren’t working and they be-come overwhelmed.”
Croyle believes that the sessions are useful to students because they offer information not normally received in class.
“These are topics that some of the faculty doesn’t cover be-cause it’s not their thing. Teach-ing students how to read a textbook is not something you teach in class,” Croyle said.
She also felt that students deserve solutions for their prob-lems and that these tutorials can give them just that because of the professionals involved, such as UNIV 1301 instructors and the strategies they teach.
“It’s kind of like trying to fix your own car,” Croyle ex-plained. “If you don’t know much about it, you can just try and try and you probably won’t make much progress. But if you have someone who is an expert looking over your shoul-der, that would help you reach your goal much more easily.”
The Pan American is the official student newspaper of The Univer-sity of Texas-Pan American. Views presented are those of the writ-ers and do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or university.
1201 West University, ARHU 170 Edinburg, Texas 78539Phone: (956) 665-2541
Fax: (956) 316-7122
Editors-in-ChiEf: Karen AntonacciDaniella Diaz nEws Editor: Charles Vale sports Editor: Norma GonzalezArts & LifE Editor: Lea Victoria JuarezphotogrAphy Editor: Adrian Castillo dEsign Editor: Karen Villarreal MuLtiMEdiA Editor: Elizabeth Espinosa
soCiAL MEdiA Editor: Ismael Melendez AdvisEr:Dr. Greg SelberAdMinistrAtivE AssoCiAtE: Anita Reyes AdvErtising MAnAgEr: Elva Ramirez wEbMAstEr: Jose Villarreal
The Pan American accepts letters of 300 words or less from stu-dents, staff and faculty regarding recent news-paper content, campus concerns or current events. We cannot pub-lish anonymous letters or submissions contain-ing hate speech or gratu-itous personal attacks.
Please send all letters to:thepanamerican
@gmail.com
Francisco Rodriguez / The Pan AmericanLetters
to the Editor
By May OrtegaThe Pan American
Francicso Rodriguez /The Pan American
COMIC
SASS offered to help pASS clASS
February 14, 20132 opinion
I can’t believe howbeautiful you are in
person.
I just remembered I left the stove on,Uh.. gotta go, bye!
HP 2539/5873
HP 3093/3974
AMAZOn4467 Wizzarrd 007
I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. I’ve been thinking about you all day baby xoxo <3
ME too, let’s beat this level quickly so we can meet up for our date tomorrow :)
Strategies for Academic Success Sessions to fill gaps in student progress
Our dearest readers,
COrrECtIOn:
Happy Valentine’s Day! Some people go for flowers, or choco-late, or giant teddy bears, but not us. We made this for you. Because
...well this is a bit embarrassing... we love you. Like, kind of a lot. Yeah. A lot.But who could blame us? Look at you! You’re beautiful, charming, funny and
super interesting. It makes us so happy when you mention us to your friends or watch the videos we make for you every day. We just wish we could be a little closer to you. We wish you would notice us.
We watch you all day and spend our nights thinking of how to make you happy. We just want to be there for you, all the time, whenever
you need us. But I mean it ’s not like we’re obsessed or any-thing. I mean, that would be creepy, right?
Anyways, today, this Day of Love, we just want-ed to let you know we adore you and we ’ll
always treat you right. Someday, we just hope you notice us. But if
not, we ’’’ll still be here - the old standby.
Love, The Pan American Staff
Tweet at and follow us @ThePanAmerican
#UtPA
Everyday the time gets closer and closer until I’m college bound. Couldn’t be more excited either. #UTPA
- @chrismckeehan13
One of the few perks of the McAllen teaching center is the parking & #utpa is quickly over-crowding it.
- @IMJuanted
#UTPA had their first homecoming parade nd I have to admit I actually liked it :D #kuddos
- @MichelleDee_
In Vol. 69, No. 17’s story “The Thrill of the Seasons,” The Pan American reported that Dr. Who travels via Tardis, a “portal potty.” T.A.R.D.I.S, or Time and Relative Dimen-sion in Space, is the correct acronym and is a public police call box. Also, the correct name of the show is Doctor Who. The Pan American dedicates itself to re-porting facts and the staff apologizes for the mistake in last week’s article.
How to Study to Pass Your Midterm ExamsFEB 21-22MAR 7-8
MAR 28-29MAR 21-22
APR 4-5APR 11-12APR 18-19
Choosing a Major
Note Taking Inside And Outside the Classroom
Time Management
What do ‘A’ Students do?
Got an Essay Assignment? Here’s Help!
Acing Your Finals
THE PAN AMERICANFebruary 14, 2013 Page 3
THE PAN AMERICANTHE PAN AMERICAN February 14, 2013 February 14, 2013 Page 5
After it received the OK Jan. 23 by the University of Texas System board of regents, a new science building could be in the works for UTPA to help accommodate the growing number of science students.
If funding is approved by the Texas Legislature at the end of May, the new facility would be completed by De-cember 2016 and available for students January 2017. The $98 million project would be funded by tuition rev-enue bonds, funds generated through state-issued bonds with future tuition as security.
The 162,600-square-foot annex would support science,
technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, in-cluding biology, chemistry, health sciences and environ-mental studies.
John Trant, dean for the College of Science and Math-ematics, said the proposal for a new facility resulted from an increase in science majors.
“The number of majors in my college are growing faster than the University,” Trant said. “The UT System considers a building fully occupied when it’s 80 percent full. Our current science building is filled 110 percent of its capacity.”
WHAT’S IN STORE
In a presentation given at the board of regents’ meeting
last month, UTPA President Robert Nelsen called for an addition to the new Science Building that would add three auditorium classes to seat a combined 450 students, plus the following: 30 research labs, 19 instructional labs, five specialized labs (imag-
ing, instrumentation, tissue culture, herbarium and radio-isotope), two biosafety level-3 labs, six environmental cham-bers and a vivarium (an ani-mal care facility). Office space for additional faculty will be included as well.
UTPA’s current $26 mil-lion building, 156,700 square feet in shape of the letter ‘U,’ was completed in 1997. With the $98 million funding pro-posal, the existing edifice would receive an addition, or annex, that would turn it into a rectangular facility. The De-partment of Physics and Geol-ogy would also be moved into the annex, while the planetari-
um is expected to be enhanced or replaced.
With a new facility, Trant said students will have access to new specialized bachelor’s programs such as biochemis-try, as well as more Ph.Ds.
Along with The University of Texas at Brownsville merg-er, Trant said the new science building will be an impor-tant step to helping place the University as an emerging re-search institute.
“In my opinion the best learning experience is experi-ential,” Trant said. “Our best opportunity to provide that ex-periential learning is through undergraduate research.”
According to the UT Sys-tem website, emerging re-
search universities are eligible for the National Research Uni-versity Fund established by the 81st Texas Legislature in 2009. The funding program finan-cially assists emerging research universities who spend at least $45 million in research.
As of now, the Texas
Higher Education Coordi-nating Board has designated seven institutions in the state as emerging research univer-sities. The three that are the most recognized are Univer-sity of Texas Austin, Texas A&M and Rice University as Tier One, or high-perform-ing, nationally competitive research institutes.
District 40 State Rep. Terry Canales said the UTPA science building would be an asset to the University’s pro-
posed merger with UTB and the creation of a new medical school in the Valley, also up for consideration this Legisla-tive session.
Because the new building proposal and merger between UTPA and UTB are two dif-ferent projects, a science fa-cility can still occur with or without the unification, Ca-nales explained.
He also said a new struc-ture will be a benefit to stu-dents and the Valley.
“In general, the new fa-cility will have cutting-edge technology to empower UTPA students with the re-sources needed to compete
nationally in the field of sci-ence,” Canales said.
The new building would contribute to the UTPA ad-ministration’s goal of enrolling 30,000 students by fall 2021. With a new science facility to compliment a medical school in the Valley, the number of students interested in a health career will double, according to Trant.
“There is no question in my mind that the programs, degree plans and research will
be bringing more students from the region and across the state to study here,” he said.
WORD ON CAMPUS
Martha Salazar, a senior biol-ogy major, hopes the new annex will address classroom capacity issues in the current building.
“In my cell biology lecture we had about 50 students, some would end up sitting on the floor due to the lack of chairs and space until they moved us to another room,” Salazar said.
The 22-year-old Brownsville native expressed enthusiasm re-garding the bachelor’s program for biochemistry that could re-sult from the construction.
“There’s not much you can do with a biology ma-jor besides teach or work for
wildlife research,” Salazar explained. “Biochemistry is more industrial, it’s a great complement to pharmaceu-tics, dentistry, pre-med and research. I’m actually reading about that right now.”
Although the completion of a new science annex along with its new programs might come in late for Salazar, she said more research labs may convince future students to stay closer to campus.
“Professors are really selec-tive when it comes to choos-ing students’ assistance in re-search,” Salazar said. “But with more research labs available, students won’t have to leave to other universities to gain the experience they need.”
Adrian Guerrero, a junior chemistry major currently working on cancer biology research at the Edinburg Re-gional Academic Health Cen-ter, believes in the importance of adding more research labs on campus.
“I used to work with Dr. Banik along with 20 other stu-dents in a large lab, but at the same time it was too small for all of us,” the 20-year-old from Sharyland said. Bimal Banik is a chemistry professor at UTPA.
Guerrero, who came to UTPA with the hopes of ma-joring in biochemistry, said he’s glad the University is pushing more specialized sci-ence programs.
“The idea of adding bio-chemistry as a major has been around for quite a while,” he explained. “This is actually really exciting news. A larger science building will bring a larger science community.”
Mayra Olivarez, a pre-den-
tal biology major, said a new science home will be a great addition to the possible medi-cal school. The Hidalgo native also hopes more lab courses will open as a result.
“This semester I didn’t get the chemistry lab on the day I wanted, it got canceled,” the 18-year-old freshman ex-plained. “It would be great if more labs are available at times that are the most convenient for students.”
Junior biology major Es-thela Jimenez said although the new science building may not affect her by gradu-ation, it will be a good pros-pect for students.
“I think it’s going to be great for the Valley. It will bring a lot of opportunities and recognition in the fields of science,” the 18-year-old McAllen native said. “Creating a larger facility will encourage more people to study here.”
Page 4
Story by Karen Perez Design by Karen Villarreal
The Pan American asked students what they thought about plans to spend $98 million on the addition to the Science Building.
Samantha Champion, 21, senior, biology
I think it’s good. The science majors are growing, and they need more equipment to accommodate for the number
of students. I know they run out of equipment so that
students can’t do their experiments.
John Garcia, 23, senior, biology
“They should put more money in different programs, like special fields. We are a real generalist university for some fields.”
instructionallabs19
researchlabs 30
environmental chambers 6
Auditorium to seat 450
$98millionCost:
Ramon Bermejo, 21, senior, engineering
“There are still other things they should be pushing on. They’ve been talking a lot about the lighting around
school. They still haven’t fixed that. As of right now, especially
parking, as you can see there isn’t enough parking for everyone.”
Octavio Ocampo, 18, freshman, engineering
“Well why just the science building? I’m pretty sure there are other colleges that need more funding to. For
example, the physics building is really small. The LAC is small.
It’s not fair.”
120,44 ft2
Completion date: December 2016
Occupancy date: January 2017
5 specialized labs
Environmental Studies
Biology
Health Sciences
Math
Chemistry
The UT System considers a building fully occupied when it’s 80 percent full. Our current
science building is filled 110 percent of its capacity.
- John TrantDean, College of Science and Math
THE PAN AMERICANTHE PAN AMERICAN February 14, 2013 February 14, 2013 Page 5
After it received the OK Jan. 23 by the University of Texas System board of regents, a new science building could be in the works for UTPA to help accommodate the growing number of science students.
If funding is approved by the Texas Legislature at the end of May, the new facility would be completed by De-cember 2016 and available for students January 2017. The $98 million project would be funded by tuition rev-enue bonds, funds generated through state-issued bonds with future tuition as security.
The 162,600-square-foot annex would support science,
technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, in-cluding biology, chemistry, health sciences and environ-mental studies.
John Trant, dean for the College of Science and Math-ematics, said the proposal for a new facility resulted from an increase in science majors.
“The number of majors in my college are growing faster than the University,” Trant said. “The UT System considers a building fully occupied when it’s 80 percent full. Our current science building is filled 110 percent of its capacity.”
WHAT’S IN STORE
In a presentation given at the board of regents’ meeting
last month, UTPA President Robert Nelsen called for an addition to the new Science Building that would add three auditorium classes to seat a combined 450 students, plus the following: 30 research labs, 19 instructional labs, five specialized labs (imag-
ing, instrumentation, tissue culture, herbarium and radio-isotope), two biosafety level-3 labs, six environmental cham-bers and a vivarium (an ani-mal care facility). Office space for additional faculty will be included as well.
UTPA’s current $26 mil-lion building, 156,700 square feet in shape of the letter ‘U,’ was completed in 1997. With the $98 million funding pro-posal, the existing edifice would receive an addition, or annex, that would turn it into a rectangular facility. The De-partment of Physics and Geol-ogy would also be moved into the annex, while the planetari-
um is expected to be enhanced or replaced.
With a new facility, Trant said students will have access to new specialized bachelor’s programs such as biochemis-try, as well as more Ph.Ds.
Along with The University of Texas at Brownsville merg-er, Trant said the new science building will be an impor-tant step to helping place the University as an emerging re-search institute.
“In my opinion the best learning experience is experi-ential,” Trant said. “Our best opportunity to provide that ex-periential learning is through undergraduate research.”
According to the UT Sys-tem website, emerging re-
search universities are eligible for the National Research Uni-versity Fund established by the 81st Texas Legislature in 2009. The funding program finan-cially assists emerging research universities who spend at least $45 million in research.
As of now, the Texas
Higher Education Coordi-nating Board has designated seven institutions in the state as emerging research univer-sities. The three that are the most recognized are Univer-sity of Texas Austin, Texas A&M and Rice University as Tier One, or high-perform-ing, nationally competitive research institutes.
District 40 State Rep. Terry Canales said the UTPA science building would be an asset to the University’s pro-
posed merger with UTB and the creation of a new medical school in the Valley, also up for consideration this Legisla-tive session.
Because the new building proposal and merger between UTPA and UTB are two dif-ferent projects, a science fa-cility can still occur with or without the unification, Ca-nales explained.
He also said a new struc-ture will be a benefit to stu-dents and the Valley.
“In general, the new fa-cility will have cutting-edge technology to empower UTPA students with the re-sources needed to compete
nationally in the field of sci-ence,” Canales said.
The new building would contribute to the UTPA ad-ministration’s goal of enrolling 30,000 students by fall 2021. With a new science facility to compliment a medical school in the Valley, the number of students interested in a health career will double, according to Trant.
“There is no question in my mind that the programs, degree plans and research will
be bringing more students from the region and across the state to study here,” he said.
WORD ON CAMPUS
Martha Salazar, a senior biol-ogy major, hopes the new annex will address classroom capacity issues in the current building.
“In my cell biology lecture we had about 50 students, some would end up sitting on the floor due to the lack of chairs and space until they moved us to another room,” Salazar said.
The 22-year-old Brownsville native expressed enthusiasm re-garding the bachelor’s program for biochemistry that could re-sult from the construction.
“There’s not much you can do with a biology ma-jor besides teach or work for
wildlife research,” Salazar explained. “Biochemistry is more industrial, it’s a great complement to pharmaceu-tics, dentistry, pre-med and research. I’m actually reading about that right now.”
Although the completion of a new science annex along with its new programs might come in late for Salazar, she said more research labs may convince future students to stay closer to campus.
“Professors are really selec-tive when it comes to choos-ing students’ assistance in re-search,” Salazar said. “But with more research labs available, students won’t have to leave to other universities to gain the experience they need.”
Adrian Guerrero, a junior chemistry major currently working on cancer biology research at the Edinburg Re-gional Academic Health Cen-ter, believes in the importance of adding more research labs on campus.
“I used to work with Dr. Banik along with 20 other stu-dents in a large lab, but at the same time it was too small for all of us,” the 20-year-old from Sharyland said. Bimal Banik is a chemistry professor at UTPA.
Guerrero, who came to UTPA with the hopes of ma-joring in biochemistry, said he’s glad the University is pushing more specialized sci-ence programs.
“The idea of adding bio-chemistry as a major has been around for quite a while,” he explained. “This is actually really exciting news. A larger science building will bring a larger science community.”
Mayra Olivarez, a pre-den-
tal biology major, said a new science home will be a great addition to the possible medi-cal school. The Hidalgo native also hopes more lab courses will open as a result.
“This semester I didn’t get the chemistry lab on the day I wanted, it got canceled,” the 18-year-old freshman ex-plained. “It would be great if more labs are available at times that are the most convenient for students.”
Junior biology major Es-thela Jimenez said although the new science building may not affect her by gradu-ation, it will be a good pros-pect for students.
“I think it’s going to be great for the Valley. It will bring a lot of opportunities and recognition in the fields of science,” the 18-year-old McAllen native said. “Creating a larger facility will encourage more people to study here.”
Page 4
Story by Karen Perez Design by Karen Villarreal
The Pan American asked students what they thought about plans to spend $98 million on the addition to the Science Building.
Samantha Champion, 21, senior, biology
I think it’s good. The science majors are growing, and they need more equipment to accommodate for the number
of students. I know they run out of equipment so that
students can’t do their experiments.
John Garcia, 23, senior, biology
“They should put more money in different programs, like special fields. We are a real generalist university for some fields.”
instructionallabs19
researchlabs 30
environmental chambers 6
Auditorium to seat 450
$98millionCost:
Ramon Bermejo, 21, senior, engineering
“There are still other things they should be pushing on. They’ve been talking a lot about the lighting around
school. They still haven’t fixed that. As of right now, especially
parking, as you can see there isn’t enough parking for everyone.”
Octavio Ocampo, 18, freshman, engineering
“Well why just the science building? I’m pretty sure there are other colleges that need more funding to. For
example, the physics building is really small. The LAC is small.
It’s not fair.”
120,44 ft2
Completion date: December 2016
Occupancy date: January 2017
5 specialized labs
Environmental Studies
Biology
Health Sciences
Math
Chemistry
The UT System considers a building fully occupied when it’s 80 percent full. Our current
science building is filled 110 percent of its capacity.
- John TrantDean, College of Science and Math
“I can’t imagine anything without him. My entire future is planned with him,” Christensen said of her junior biology major boyfriend. “We’ve gone through a lot of stuff together. Living with him has made us closer.”
NEW TERRITORYWith this generation’s popu-
larity of social media and online gaming, human interaction has extended throughout different mediums. Online dating is a means of meeting people when the girl next door has been whisked away or the eligible bachelors at the club have lost their luster.
More than twice as many couples that married in 2009 met through online dating ser-vices than at a club or social event, according to a 2010 ar-ticle in The Washington Post.
“It’s something different and a whole new experience,” said Alamo native and senior Randy Garcia, who had a two-year re-lationship with a girl he met online. “I wanted to see what the fuss was about and gain the knowledge of something that I thought I would never do...curi-osity got the best of me.”
The 25-year-old used web-sites such as Myspace, Plenty of Fish and Facebook. Although a relationship blossomed from his online endeavors, he knows cau-
tion must be taken.“There are always down-
falls to things like that,” Garcia said. “Sometimes you have to be aware about people who are cat-fish and that’s creepy.”
The term “catfish,” a person who creates a false online iden-tity, was
coined in 2010 when a documenta-ry by the same name came out. It followed a relation-ship between a man and a woman who met online, but after investigation the man found the woman had fabricat-ed her identity.
While Garcia’s relationship ended, he admits he would give online dating another shot, un-like 20-year-old McAllen native Doris Valdez, who flatly said never again.
“I met a few people, but it’s not the same as real-life dating.
In meeting face to face, you had to have a social connection first,” said the senior art educa-tion major who signed up with site OKcupid. “(With) online dating, these people are pre-sented to you without context. You’re meeting a total stranger with no social connection and that’s not a good way to meet someone.”
Biol-ogy and t h e a t e r
performance major Karen Rice has a vastly
different opinion than Valdez. Rice is a 29-year-old
Springfield, Ohio, native who found a relationship through the MMORPG World of Warcraft in 2008. Like Christensen, Rice began a relationship by chance with someone out of state through the gaming world.
After about four months of flirtation, Rice and her now
former boyfriend made their relationship official and were together for two years. Though the couple could only initially interact through technological outlets, Rice believes it was an experience that person-to-per-son interaction couldn’t grant.
“I think it’s better to not meet someone face to face at first because then you’re going off of somebody’s personality and not what they look like,” she said. “If you don’t know what someone looks like then I think you get to know them a little better because you’re not wrapped up in the looks of someone. You actually get to know their personality.”
As far as what it’s like when finally meeting up with the person who has been primarily composed of pixels on a screen, Christensen went through her own battles with Escalante.
No longer able to hide re-actions, facial expressions and mannerisms, she was taken aback after first moving in with Escalante and his mother, but found a better outcome.
“You have to kind of get to know them all over again be-cause the way you are online is a little more selective,” she said. “It’s like your perfect vision of that person is not there, but the reward is that you get to actu-ally know the person that you’re with for who they truly are.”
February 14, 20136 arts & lifeLove Continued From Page 1Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day Dinner
Roosevelt’s at 7
Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day DanceCypress Lounge
Feb. 15 Valentine’s Dance for Immigration Reform
San Juan LUPE office
Morrissey Concert PostponedDate TBA
Reservation Required
Feb. 17
Feb. 20 Craft the next Blue Moon
Feb. 21-24
Fiesta EdinburgEdinburg Municipal
Park
Feb. 22 “Past the Checkpoint” operaEdinburg Conference
Center at Renaissance
CA
len
DA
R o
F e
ve
nTs
Awesome at IMAS: Engineers Week 2013
Feb. 15
7 p.m.
9:30 p.m.
7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Roosevelt’s at 77:30 p.m.
- Karen Rice Ohio native, 29
if you don’t know what someone looks like then
i think you get to know them a little better because you’re not wrapped
up in the looks of someone. You actually get to know their
personality.
January 31, 2013February 14, 2013 7
It will be an uphill battle to the final showdown with Utah Valley University for the Bronc baseball team. And they are determined to get there and conquer.
Not only are the Broncs out for revenge against UVU, but they will have to endure the first month of play on the road and face tougher competition, includ-ing three NCAA top-ranked schools.
“It’s going to be real hard,” said senior catcher Christian Torres. “Ob-viously we want to play on our home field. That’s where we practice, that’s where we’ve been since August, that’s where we’re comfortable, but it’s go-ing to be a big test for us.”
After playing away for so long and battling some tough competi-tion, the Broncs will get their shot at a comeback - closing the season with a home series against the UVU Wol-verines before heading to New Jersey for the Great West Conference.
“They get to play our game at our park which doesn’t fit for some teams,” said Shane Klemcke, a team
leader. “But I think we’re a little deeper in the bull-pen this year and we’ve got more depth everywhere. So I think this is a good year we can upset UVU.”
Last season, UVU took home the conference ring and went undefeated in the GWC last season (28-0). The Broncs have lost every game against UVU.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
This year’s schedule includes No. 13 Texas Christian Univer-sity, No. 24 Texas A&M Uni-versity and No. 26 University of Texas, as ranked by the NCAA Jan. 28. The season begins Feb. 15 and the first home series begin March 15 against Lamar University.
Last year the Broncs lost a close game to UT, but were able to split the two-game series against No. 8 A&M Aggies.
“I want to stick it
to Texas because I have a buddy that plays for that team,” said Shane Ammon, a transfer from Grayson County College. “I can’t wait for it. I heard A&M gets pret-ty bad with the crowd.”
The Broncs dropped the first game, but pulled a big upset last year when they beat A&M 5-2 the fol-lowing day. The Aggies went on to finish their season 43-18 (.705), the Longhorns went 30-22 (.577) and the TCU Horned Frogs were 40-22 (.645), while the Broncs recorded a 30-22 (.577) season.
Besides these top dogs, the team will be playing stronger teams overall.
“We’re definitely playing a bet-ter schedule,” infielder Klemcke said.
“The teams we played in the pre-season last year right before con-ference weren’t...as strong.”
Torres believes the Broncs have a great mentality on the field and will do what’s nec-essary to win against these schools - take hits, run harder and take extra bases.
“Just being blue-collar people, we’re not like UT,
we’re not like A&M,” said Torres, a Miami native. “We’re not schools that are going to win be-cause it says Texas A&M Aggies on our jerseys.”
RIVALRY
Last season, after having their best start in years and starting conference play 8-0, the Broncs headed over to Utah Val-
ley, who also had the same record at that time. It was going to be a test to see who the big dogs of the GWC would be.
As fate would have it, the Wol-verines beat the Broncs, sweeping the series. This year it is one of the team’s most anticipated match-ups and the guys hope they can turn the tables on their rival.
“We were both 8-0 going into that series and they put it to us,” said Torres, also a team leader chosen by Coach Mantrana. “That’s probably one of the worst feelings I’ve had. They just put it to us and I want to return the favor now when they come to our place.”
Besides finishing with a winning record, the Broncs placed second in conference, but this year that won’t be good enough for them, accord-ing to Torres. As the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics prepares to move over to the Western Athletic Conference July 1, the Broncs want to end this conference on a high note – as GWC champions.
“We’re going to go out with a bang,” Klemcke said excitedly. “I think everybody wants to win, espe-cially going into the WAC next year. It’ll be awesome for the program to get that under their belt going into the WAC.”
Making the transition with the Broncs to the WAC is, once again, UVU. The Broncs will close the regular sea-son with a home
series against that school May 16-18.“Obviously UT’s cool and
A&M’s cool, but at the end of the day, those games mean nothing to us,” Torres said about the difference between non-conference and con-ference games. “You know they’re big-time programs so, when we beat them, it’s going to be a big thing for the school because we are beating a very big opponent, but if we lose to them or if we win it’s not going to make a difference when it comes to conference.”
Torres is prepared to go out fighting and expects the same from his teammates. They are ready for the anticipated matchup and believe this is the year they can trample over the Wolverines, even if it proves to be a difficult task.
“We may be down 10-1, but we’re going to keep pushing and pushing ourselves,” said Torres about the mentality the coaches have been instilling in the players. “We either tie the game or we lose, but we’re not going to lose by lay-ing down.”
Because both UTPA and UVU will be making the transition into the WAC next school year, Torres hopes the rivalry will only get better in the years to come.
“I want our guys to see how bad we want to beat them,” Torres said. “And then when we leave they want
to beat them and the team af-ter that sees that and then we become a rivalry.”
GoinG out with a banG Photos and StoryBy Norma GonzalezThe Pan American
We may be down 10-1, but we’re going to keep pushing and pushing
ourselves. We either tie the game or we lose, but we’re not going to lose by laying down.
- Christian TorresCatcher
Baseball team hopes to finish final GWC season on top
