Dan Rossiter [email protected]UT System Chancellor Fran- cisco Cigarroa has added his voice to the growing dissent of Senate Bill 354 (SB 354), which would allow Concealed Handgun License (CHL) hold- ers to carry their firearm on campus. Cigarroa made his concerns known in a one-page letter to Gov. Rick Perry, as well as to legislators involved in the bill’s creation. In the letter, Cigarroa cited “the pressures of academic life, separation from family and relationships” as factors that, when combined with easier access to firearms, could com- pound the already prevalent issue of suicide as the second leading cause of death among college students. In an interview with The Pai- sano, Senator Jeff Wentworth, the sponsor of SB 354, defend- ed the proposed legislation, stating that “those opposed to the bill are misguided.” Went- worth contended that “most of the dissenters don’t appreciate that we’re talking about people 21 and older. This won’t affect the tradi- tional freshman, sophomore or junior, who are under this age limit.” He added that “over 98 percent of Texans do not get a CHL. It’s a real hassle.” Wentworth argued that “if the bad guys aren’t sure if the good guys are armed, then they are less likely to take the chance of facing an armed would-be victim.” In contrast, UTSAPD’s Police Chief Steve Barrera echoed the concerns of the chancellor, saying that his biggest fear if the bill passes is that “it will be very difficult for UTSAPD to tell the ‘good guys’ from the ‘bad.’” Barrera insisted that with the department’s impressive response times of often under one minute, students are much safer with the trained police staff protecting campus mem- bers against armed assailants. Wentworth dismissed Barre- ra’s position, saying, “He works for the chancellor, doesn’t he? I wouldn’t expect an employee to publicly disagree with his boss.” Melanie Canales [email protected]Under the current law in Tex- as, brewpubs cannot sell beer to wholesalers and distributors, can sell only to stores but not on site. For this reason, Texas Beer Freedom, a grassroots effort to support the beer industry in Texas, recently hosted the Texas Beer Freedom Rally to push for the passage of House Bill 660 (HB 660). HB 660, filed by State Repre- sentative Mike Villarreal, would allow Texas brewpubs to sell their beer on site as well as package it for sale in stores. This means you would be able to get beer at a local H-E-B or neighborhood bar from beer- makers in San Antonio such as Freetail Brewing Co., Blue Star Brewing Co., and from brew- pubs in Austin such as Uncle Billy’s, NXNW Restaurant and Brewery and Draught House Pub & Brewery. According to supporters of HB 660, the passage of this bill will provide many benefits for the state. It will provide more jobs for Texans, help small businesses grow, increase tax revenue and consumer choice and open the doors for new pubs and breweries to develop in San Antonio. Associated Press Indiana residents who opted to switch careers and become teachers in hopes of warding off job cuts from the recession are finding employment hard to come by in some school dis- tricts across the state. An Indiana Department of Education report shows less than 40 percent of those who completed the transition-to- teaching programs in 2008- 2009 were working in Indiana schools last year. Rates for those hoping to teach in el- ementary schools were even lower, with just 25 percent find- ing teaching jobs in 2009-2010, the report said. Bruce Spitzer, secondary pro- gram director at Indiana Uni- versity South Bend, said those in the teacher transition pro- gram got caught in a “perfect storm’’ of budget and personnel cuts in school districts across the state. “Every school corporation is reporting either hiring freezes, cuts or hiring limited only to necessary staff members,’’ he told the South Bend Tribune. “It is just not a good time to enter the job of teaching in northern Indiana.’’ The teacher transition pro- grams, which are geared toward those who already have a bach- elor’s degree, have been popu- lar with workers been laid off from other careers and college graduates facing a daunting job market. The programs typically last a year, and students have to meet a grade-point average and pass a state test to get a teaching license. Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio paisano-online.com 03.08.2011 Vol. 45 Issue 9 See TEACHING, Page 4 P6: Cheating at school P10: SLC Tournament preview P8: ‘First Friday’ recap Guns on campus debate continues President Romo receives award for leading UTSA to Tier 1 Transition-to- teaching students find few jobs See BEER Page 4 File Photo Texas ‘brewpubs’ fight for freedom See ROMO Page 2 Photo Illustration: Burk Frey Angela Marin [email protected]CASE (Council for Advance- ment and Support of Education) awarded UTSA President Ricar- do Romo the District IV distin- guished E. Joseph Savoie Chief Executive Leadership Award at the 2011 FUSION Conference, Feb. 21. This award recognizes univer- sity leaders for outstanding ef- forts in promoting and support- ing education and institutional advancement. Romo has served as UTSA’s president since May of 1999. During his tenure he has stra- tegically improved the univer- sity’s stature in the community and has transformed UTSA into a promising prospect for becom- ing the next Tier 1 research uni- versity in Texas. “I was very honored and flat- tered to be given this recogni- tion,” Romo said. “I know that it’s a big region with a lot of re- ally talented people.” “This award really belongs to the many people at UTSA, staff and faculty who work so hard to make our campus one of the best campuses in the region and soon one of the best campuses in the state,” Romo said. Student government unable to decide on handgun issue Dan Rossiter [email protected]In last week’s Student Gov- ernment Association meeting, the organization failed to pass a resolution stating campus opin- ion on legislation that would allow those with a Concealed Handgun License (CHL) to carry their weapon on state college campuses. Though discussion of the pro- posed bill was on the meeting agenda, the meeting ended with the only discussion of the bill be- ing a number of failed attempts at making the proper motions to bring the issue to the floor, ac- cording to Robert’s Rules of Or- der – the universal standard of governmental procedures. Of the four other UT System campuses The Paisano con- tacted, three (Arlington, Austin and Pan American) have made formal resolutions opposing the legislation. One, Permian Basin, has begun to unofficially poll students, but has not reached a resolution yet. The Paisano Laissez les bons temps rouler UTSA, have a safe Mardi Gras and Spring Break! See GUNS Page 4 Melanie Canales/ The Paisano Texans come out to support House Bill 660. President Romo is recognized for advancing education. The possibility of concealed handguns on campus concerns university officials.
UT System Chancellor Fran-cisco Cigarroa has added his voice to the growing dissent of Senate Bill 354 (SB 354), which would allow Concealed Handgun License (CHL) hold-ers to carry their firearm on campus.
Cigarroa made his concerns known in a one-page letter to Gov. Rick Perry, as well as to legislators involved in the bill’s creation.
In the letter, Cigarroa cited “the pressures of academic life, separation from family and relationships” as factors that, when combined with easier access to firearms, could com-pound the already prevalent issue of suicide as the second leading cause of death among college students.
In an interview with The Pai-sano, Senator Jeff Wentworth, the sponsor of SB 354, defend-ed the proposed legislation, stating that “those opposed to the bill are misguided.” Went-worth contended that “most of the dissenters don’t appreciate that we’re talking about people 21 and older.
This won’t affect the tradi-tional freshman, sophomore or junior, who are under this age limit.” He added that “over 98 percent of Texans do not get a CHL. It’s a real hassle.”
Wentworth argued that “if the bad guys aren’t sure if the good guys are armed, then they are less likely to take the chance of facing an armed
would-be victim.”In contrast, UTSAPD’s Police
Chief Steve Barrera echoed the concerns of the chancellor, saying that his biggest fear if the bill passes is that “it will be very difficult for UTSAPD to tell the ‘good guys’ from the ‘bad.’”
Barrera insisted that with the department’s impressive response times of often under one minute, students are much safer with the trained police staff protecting campus mem-bers against armed assailants.
Wentworth dismissed Barre-ra’s position, saying, “He works for the chancellor, doesn’t he? I wouldn’t expect an employee to publicly disagree with his boss.”
Under the current law in Tex-as, brewpubs cannot sell beer to wholesalers and distributors, can sell only to stores but not on site.
For this reason, Texas Beer Freedom, a grassroots effort to support the beer industry in Texas, recently hosted the Texas Beer Freedom Rally to push for the passage of House Bill 660 (HB 660).
HB 660, filed by State Repre-sentative Mike Villarreal, would allow Texas brewpubs to sell their beer on site as well as package it for sale in stores.
This means you would be able to get beer at a local H-E-B or
neighborhood bar from beer-makers in San Antonio such as
Freetail Brewing Co., Blue Star Brewing Co., and from brew-pubs in Austin such as Uncle Billy’s, NXNW Restaurant and Brewery and Draught House Pub & Brewery.
According to supporters of HB 660, the passage of this bill will provide many benefits for the state. It will provide more jobs for Texans, help small businesses grow, increase tax revenue and consumer choice and open the doors for new pubs and breweries to develop in San Antonio.
Associated Press
Indiana residents who opted to switch careers and become teachers in hopes of warding off job cuts from the recession are finding employment hard to come by in some school dis-tricts across the state.
An Indiana Department of Education report shows less than 40 percent of those who completed the transition-to-teaching programs in 2008-2009 were working in Indiana schools last year. Rates for those hoping to teach in el-ementary schools were even lower, with just 25 percent find-ing teaching jobs in 2009-2010, the report said.
Bruce Spitzer, secondary pro-gram director at Indiana Uni-versity South Bend, said those in the teacher transition pro-gram got caught in a “perfect storm’’ of budget and personnel cuts in school districts across the state.
“Every school corporation is reporting either hiring freezes, cuts or hiring limited only to necessary staff members,’’ he told the South Bend Tribune. “It is just not a good time to enter the job of teaching in northern Indiana.’’The teacher transition pro-
grams, which are geared toward those who already have a bach-elor’s degree, have been popu-lar with workers been laid off from other careers and college graduates facing a daunting job market. The programs typically last a year, and students have to meet a grade-point average and pass a state test to get a teaching license.
Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio
paisano-online.com
03.08.2011Vol. 45Issue 9
See TEACHING, Page 4
P6: Cheating at school
P10: SLC Tournament preview
P8: ‘First Friday’ recap
Guns on campus debate continues
President Romo receives awardfor leading UTSA to Tier 1
CASE (Council for Advance-ment and Support of Education) awarded UTSA President Ricar-do Romo the District IV distin-guished E. Joseph Savoie Chief Executive Leadership Award at the 2011 FUSION Conference, Feb. 21.
This award recognizes univer-sity leaders for outstanding ef-forts in promoting and support-ing education and institutional advancement.
Romo has served as UTSA’s president since May of 1999. During his tenure he has stra-
tegically improved the univer-sity’s stature in the community and has transformed UTSA into a promising prospect for becom-ing the next Tier 1 research uni-versity in Texas.
“I was very honored and flat-tered to be given this recogni-tion,” Romo said. “I know that it’s a big region with a lot of re-ally talented people.”
“This award really belongs to the many people at UTSA, staff and faculty who work so hard to make our campus one of the best campuses in the region and soon one of the best campuses in the state,” Romo said.
Student government unable to decide on handgun issue Dan [email protected]
In last week’s Student Gov-ernment Association meeting, the organization failed to pass a resolution stating campus opin-ion on legislation that would allow those with a Concealed Handgun License (CHL) to carry their weapon on state college campuses.
Though discussion of the pro-posed bill was on the meeting agenda, the meeting ended with the only discussion of the bill be-
ing a number of failed attempts at making the proper motions to bring the issue to the floor, ac-cording to Robert’s Rules of Or-der – the universal standard of governmental procedures.
Of the four other UT System campuses The Paisano con-tacted, three (Arlington, Austin and Pan American) have made formal resolutions opposing the legislation. One, Permian Basin, has begun to unofficially poll students, but has not reached a resolution yet.
T h eP a i s a n o
Laissez les bons temps rouler UTSA, have a safe Mardi Gras and Spring Break!
See GUNS Page 4
Mel
anie
Can
ales
/ Th
e Pa
isan
o
Texans come out to support House Bill 660.
President Romo is recognized for advancing education.
The possibility of concealed handguns on campus concerns university officials.
P2 The Paisano March 8, 2011
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For the Kids (FTK) Dance Mar-athon at UTSA organized a two-hour Zumba marathon, “Zumba For The Kids”, Mar. 4 at the UTSA Campus Recreation Center. FTK has its final, main event—a twelve-hour dance marathon—coming up on Saturday, Apr. 23
The dance marathon will Ball-rooms 1 and 2 in University Cen-ter Phase III, from 10a.m. to 10p.m. The event will be free to guests.
“‘Zumba for the Kids’ was the first Zumba event at UTSA and we are tremendously happy with the result,” Co-Vice Overall Chair of FTK, Cesar Lopez said. “Cam-pus Recreation and its Zumba instructors were extremely help-ful in making this event happen.”
FTK was founded in 2009 to raise awareness on childhood cancer as well as to provide fi-nancial and emotional support to those affected by childhood
cancer and to their families. Last semester, FTK carried out
the “Fashion out Cancer Show”; a fashion show in which child-hood cancer patients and their siblings strutted down the run-way, proving that cancer is so out of style.
FTK followed up this semester with “Zumba for the Kids” which was a success, with over 150 participants attending the event.
The FTK Overall Committee has been working on final prep-arations for the dance marathon to culminate the year’s worth of hard work.
“FTK is more than just a ser-vice project,” Ryan Zapata, Overall Chairperson of FTK, commented.” It’s about making a difference in the life of those who sometimes aren’t able to raise their voices.”
FTK’s Dance Marathon will give dancers the opportunity to show the kids that they can stand for them against cancer for twelve-hours.
“Our mission is to provide love, hope and support to the children and families battling cancer and bring a smile to the face of a child,” Liliana Ramirez, FTK family relations co-chairper-son, said.
FTK’s Dance Marathon fea-tures a group called “FTK Danc-ers” from all across the UTSA community, who will participate by standing for twelve hours while interacting with the kids and families and enjoying the performances prepared for the event.
FTK encourages different stu-dent organizations, faculty and staff departments to participate as teams of dancers.
FTK has also planned to have performances by different regis-tered student organizations and students of UTSA. Other San An-tonio entities like the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hematol-ogy/Oncology department, as well as Business Careers High School and Clark High School
have expressed interest in par-ticipating by showing off their kids’ talents, drum line and even state baton twirling champion.
“Our dance marathon gives the children an opportunity to put aside their illnesses and just have fun,” Ramirez said, ”We hope to positively impact the lives of the children.”
The FTK Overall Committee hopes that the dance marathon will grow exponentially as UTSA has in the past years and also hopes to strengthen the link spirit of the UTSA community, as
well as to provide means to in-tegrate UTSA more prominently into the San Antonio community.
“We will continue to dance [for the children] year after year until one day we can dance in celebration of a cure for child-hood cancer,” Zapata said.
“Until that day, we dance…for the kids! Together, we hope to make every wish come true…one dance at a time!” Ramirez said.
For more information about FTK and how you can participate visit danceforthekids.org.
FTK prepares to end year with a 12-hour dance marathon
ROMO: Enrollment during president’s tenurehas increased by 50 percent
From page 1
From the start of his career with UTSA, Romo has centered his ef-forts on enhancing the student experience and building a strong foundation to promote success.
Under Romo’s leadership UTSA’s student enrollment has increased nearly 50 percent, the physi-cal presence of the campus has grown from two million to four million square feet, and the num-ber of advisors has nearly tripled.
“Dr. Romo’s impact on UTSA in the 12 years he has been presi-dent has been profound,” John Frederick, provost and vice presi-dent for academic affairs said.
“He has been a visionary presi-dent and has significantly raised the positive trajectory of the uni-versity and pointing it toward Tier 1 status.”
Through the addition of nu-merous research initiatives, aca-demic facilities, and campus life enhancements, Romo has worked
to promote institutional advance-ment in a number of ways.
“I have served under 10 presi-dents in 40-plus years in aca-demia and Dr. Romo is the best I have encountered in promoting team work and instilling a true passion for excellence,” Vice Pres-ident for Research, Robert Gracy said. “[He] has guided this univer-sity through a tremendous meta-morphosis in only a little over a decade. This doesn’t just happen – it takes real leadership.”
Gracy said Romo has and will continue to focus on what he con-siders the most important thing about UTSA – students.
“His profound leadership is what keeps our university moving in the right direction, which makes me proud to be a Roadrunner,” junior public relations major Ann-Marga-ret Gonzales said.
“It’s exciting to see that be-cause of his efforts, UTSA is mov-ing up,” junior education major Abigail Medina said. “This is yet
another thing to add to our devel-oping campus.”
A former student of Tier 1 re-search universities, UCLA and UT Austin, Romo earned a bachelor of arts in education from UT Austin, a master’s degree in history from Loyola Marymount University, and a Doctorate in history from UCLA. He is a widely-renowned urban historian and author of “East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio.”
UTSA’s business faculty recently completed a nine-month research study on the financial preparedness of Hispanic business owners in San Antonio.
Contrary to previous studies, they found that San Antonio’s Hispanic business owners have considerable knowledge of financial planning for their businesses.
However, many of these business owners needed further training in or-der to implement this knowledge.
“There has been a lot of research or information in the popular press saying that Hispanics don’t know about finance for example, Ben Ber-nanke, the chair of the Federal Re-serve, has given speeches showing that Hispanic high school students know less about finance and have less financial literacy than Anglo high school students. Given the growth in the Hispanic population we’re ex-pecting, he expressed concern that this might affect the economy,” Dr. Dianna Stone, a professor in the de-partment of management said.
Hispanics account for more than half of America’s population growth (50.5 percent) and currently make up 15 percent of the total population (Pew Hispanic Center, 2010). San Antonio has approximately 37,000 of the 224,000 small businesses owned by Hispanics in Texas (www.gover-nor.state.tx).
Studies by Mass Mutual in Hous-ton and Avalos & Peterson in Central
California both showed that Hispan-ics had limited knowledge of finance or less knowledge of finance than Anglos.
UTSA’s business department worked with SAHCC and Mass Mutual to see what San Antonio’s Hispanic entrepreneurs knew about finance.
The results were inconsistent with previous studies, showing that knowledge of finance had little to do with ethnicity.
According to the UTSA study, 85 percent of Hispanic business own-ers recognized that financial plan-ning is a top priority. However, only 46 percent of those owners actually used financial services. The results showed a correlation with revenue and financial services rather than ethnicity. Having more revenue logi-cally allows any business owner the financial freedom to hire outside help for financial planning. Of those sur-veyed, 57 percent wished they were
more in control of their finances and 46 percent feel that they do not have time to manage all their investments.
“I didn’t expect that our Hispanic business owners in our community would be less knowledgeable than anybody else. My assumption was that not everybody knows about fi-nance in life, and not everybody uses financial services. We all know that we need to plan for retirement, but a very small segment of the population does that,” said Stone.
“Hispanic business owners in our community were somewhat to ex-tremely knowledgeable about finan-cial planning 65 percent, so that was really very inconsistent with what the previous studies had argued,” said Stone.
Virginia Balderas, a UTSA alumnus and owner of the very successful Da Vinci Gelato and Café. After graduat-ing with a BFA in art, Balderas de-cided to study abroad in Italy to earn
her MFA in art from UTSA. While in Italy, she was introduced to her tasty newfound passion which became the art of gelatos.
“When I was in college I always wanted to have my own business even though I didn’t know in what” Balderas said. “I loved the arts, and I went to school for art because that was my passion I found out about gelatos while living in Florence Italy gelatos are all over Italy, and they’re so refreshing, healthy and very pop-ular among American tourists.”
After training with local gelato shops in Italy, she was able to bring her newfound knowledge back to San Antonio. In June 2004, she opened her first location off Stone Oak Park-way.
She’s opened another location in H-E-B Plus off Blanco and they wholesale to local restaurants, hotels and eateries.
In 2008, Balderas was awarded the “Latina Business Excellence Award” by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, UTSA and Telemundo. Balderas encourages all students to learn as much as possible and take advantage of their current opportuni-ties.
“Take advantage of the really good (UTSA) faculty members. Take time to study abroad, because for me that was one of the main things that I re-ally loved and influenced me,” Bal-deras said.
“UTSA is always growing and of-fering great opportunities to inspire their students.”
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When President Obama took office in Jan. 2009, one executive order on his agenda was the closing of Guanta-namo Bay.
Guantanamo Bay is a US detainment facility in Cuba. It was established by the Bush administration in 2002 to hold detainees from the Afghani-stan and Iraq wars.
The detention facility re-ceived a lot of criticism due to the questionable treat-ment of the prisoners. Former detainees upon their release claimed to have experienced vicious beatings, gang-rape and electro-shock therapy.
With the release of this in-formation, human rights activ-ists started protesting against the legal status and physical conditions at the detention facility.
The criticism that followed this executive order was the absence of a location to transfer the detainees.
Many political figures claimed Obama’s one-year goal to be unrealistic.
Obama ordered all detain-ees to go through a review but due to the complexities in some detainees’ legal status, the facility remains open.
On Jan. 7, Obama ordered the resumption of military tribunals at Guantanamo. High-profile detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a co-conspirator of the Sept 11 attack, still await prosecution at Guantanamo Bay.
Guantanamo Bay trials back
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Business department composes nine month study on the financial preparedness of Hispanic business owners
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P4 The PaisanoNEWS March 8, 2011
From page 1
The Department of Education says 684 students completed transition-to-teaching programs statewide in 2008-09.
“Most people who come to me had been in manufacturing in general or business, and they had been laid off,’’ said Ralph Stutzman, program director at Bethel College. “They decided this was an opportunity. They decided teaching was where they really had their passion. It is a noble profession.’’
Stutzman said the average age of a transition-to-teaching student at Bethel is around 40, though the program also gets recent college graduates. Those students “tend to be at a little bit of a disadvantage,’’ he said, because they lack some life skills.
“One of the great things about transition-to-teaching is that we expect people to have had life experiences to bring to the table,’’ Stutzman said. “That is an important piece because they have been out in the world
and can speak to what is in the world.’’
That doesn’t deter Nick Garstka, who joined the IUSB program after graduating from Trine University with a bache-lor’s degree in mathematics.
Garstka said he expects to find a job as a math teacher after completing his student teaching at Penn High School.
“It seems that especially in math there are many opportu-nities in local schools,’’ he said.
“Business education and the foreign languages also tend to be in high demand,” Stutzman said, “but jobs in the social sci-ences are typically the most difficult to find.” Some students have had to leave the state to find jobs.
Jennifer McGhee hopes to find something closer to home.
McGhee worked in business for 20 years but decided on a career change after her family moved to South Bend. She’s en-rolled in Bethel’s transition-to-teaching program and hopes to be licensed in business educa-tion.
She acknowledged being ner-vous when she first started the program because the job mar-ket for teachers looked grim.
“I started hearing about teachers getting laid off,’’ she said. “I had thought teaching jobs would always be around, and I wondered if I should be worried. But this is something I wanted to do.’’
McGhee, a student teacher at Washington High School, said she hopes to get a job at Wash-ington when she completes her program.
Stutzman urges students to be realistic about their expecta-tions in the current job market and to be willing to take jobs as permanent substitutes or even paraprofessionals to get a foot in the door.
“That first job is going to come out of that place you least expect it,’’ he said. “It is probably going to be a late hire, probably going to be after school has started, and may not even happen the first year you are looking.’’
From page 1
“As the brewpubs get larger, they’ll have to hire more employ-ees and distributors to distribute the beer,” Lou DiCello from Uncle Billy’s said. “We’re gonna help more people buy milk and bread, basically, by giving them jobs.”
Allowing Texas brewpubs to grow and sell across the state would also increase revenue through sales tax. In addition to improving the economy, founder and owner of Freetail Brewing Co., Scott Metzger, also mentioned the possibility of providing his beer to UTSA to sell on campus and at football games since UTSA is be-coming a wet campus.
“I think it’ll only be natural to have local San Antonio beers at our local football games. It’ll be an incredible atmosphere for the games. They definitely go hand-in-hand,” Metzger said.
New brewpubs will also arise if the Texas beer laws are reformed because of decreased restrictions. Johnathan Vielmann, a gradu-ate from St. Mary’s, agreed the passage of HB 660 would inspire more Texas beermakers to open brewpubs and breweries. Viel-mann brews his own beer and is currently anticipating opening his own business.
“Drinking local beer creates a small community, a culture in San Antonio. If this bill gets passed I will try more [to start my busi-ness],” Vielmann said.
One of the main problems facing the passage of HB 660 is distribu-tors’ skepticism. Some believe the
middlemen will be cut out com-pletely, and brewers will gain too much freedom.
“Change. There’s one whole-saler group that does not want to work with us, and they don’t like change,” DiCello said. “[They think] things are going good right now, why rock the boat?”
Contrary to distributors’ beliefs, members of Texas Beer Freedom believe the bill will actually ben-efit them because of the agree-ment between brewpubs to use distributors for the sale of its beer. Therefore, distributors will, in fact, gain more clients.
“We have a lot of momentum going for us, but there’s still a lot of fighting for the bill,” Metzger said.
Recently, the Beer Alliance, a lobbyist group in Austin, has signed on with the bill.
“There’s no reason in the state of Texas that a small business cannot sell its beer outside its brewpub, when small businesses in states like California can sell their beer in Texas. In the end, it’s going to take people power,” State Representative Mike Villarreal said. “Like I like to say, change is brewing in Texas.”
To learn how to support House Bill 660, visit http://texasbeer-freedom.org/about/.
TEACHING: Transition-to-teaching jobs offer new career opportunities
GUNS: More guns on campus could lead to ‘friendly fire’
BEER: Growth
of Texas
‘brewpubs’
could help
economy
From page 1
He went on to say, “I’ve spoken with campus security members who disagree with the chancellor, but they’re not going public with it because the chancellor has al-ready announced the policy of the UT System.”
Barrera is not alone in his con-cern regarding the bill. Robert Fuhrman, Chair of UTSA’s psy-chology department, when asked about the new bill, said, “I don’t know if it makes it more danger-ous, but it doesn’t make it more safe.”
Fuhrman is not convinced that the age requirement for getting a CDL would decrease the added potential for handgun abuse. “The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for impulse con-trol, does not fully develop until the mid- to late-twenties.”
In addition, Fuhrman fears that having more guns on campus would lead to greater incidences of “friendly fire” where both campus police and other well-intentioned campus members with guns may end up shooting the one confront-ing the criminal shooter, resulting in more deaths.
Fuhrman went on to say that the argument that non-criminals car-rying guns would deter the crimi-nals is invalid. He feels that “in instances of campus shootings, the shooter has some idea that he won’t make it out alive.” He con-cludes by saying that “if I were a parent, I would be concerned.”
Villarreal speaks at the
downtown event.
March 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Army ROTC will be collecting bags of coffee and new / slightly used UTSA t-shirts to send to service members serving overseas. Help provide a little bit of good old home brew (Starbucks, Dunkin Dounts, or any other brands / fla-vors) to those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. All items will be col-lected at the Army ROTC Burger Burn in front of the JPL.
Iota Delta Chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity at the University of Tex-as at San Antonio are hosting their first annual Clothes Dive event. The
event will be held at the Outpost Apartments located across from University Oaks on March 10 from 3-7 p.m.
This event is open to the entire UTSA community and guests are asked to bring clothes that will be donated to Haven for Hope, a local non-profit organization that offers goods and services to the home-less here in San Antonio. Sigma Pi is teaming up with many vendors to make this event possible. Musical entertainment will be provided by DJ Gumby.
Donating opportunities on campus
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March 8, 2011 The Paisano OPINION P5 Editorial
Letter to the Editor Student laziness is not the uni-
versity’s problem, and it shouldn’t be front page news for the Paisano. The fact that students are more willing to spend 15 minutes driv-ing in circles looking for a parking spot than spend 10 minutes walk-ing from one of the farther lots is, in most cases, just plain laziness.
I know that if I arrive on campus after 8 a.m. I drive straight to lot 10A and walk because even if there are one or two spaces out there, my time is better spent studying than driving in circles looking for that elusive spot. As I walk from the Rec Center to the Biotechnology, Science and Engineering building I watch a dozen or more cars drive
up and down the lanes wasting time and gas looking for that one spot that will put them 50 yards closer to their destination than if they simply parked in 10A and walked.
Some people will argue that be-cause we pay for a parking permit we are entitled to parking close to our classes, but with a school this size it is impossible to give every student up front parking, so get over it.
I see the same laziness when someone takes an elevator up or down one flight, especially in the BSE where the stairs are in the middle of an open atrium. Again, someone is more willing to spend two minutes waiting for an eleva-
tor than spend those two minutes walking up or down one flight of stairs.
And while I know that there are some situations that limit a persons ability to take the stairs, 90 percent of the time it’s just plain laziness. At best, last weeks story about the parking lot changes should have been given no more space than the little snippet you included about Libya, which is a front page news.
So, can we please move on from whining about parking to more im-portant issues?
Staff: Eric Becerra, Samantha Burns, Dylan Crice, Brianna Cristiano, Graham Cull, Kristoffer Hellesmark, Victor H. Hernandez, Kayla Larsen, Megan Lovelady, Dana Messer, Cliff Perez, Katy Schmader, Marie Ullrich
Contributing Staff: Kristen Acosta, Maritza Avelar, Robyn Bramwell, Paty Castro, Matt Dargan, Micheal Gardiner, Nina Hernandez, Charles Horvilleur, Mark Muniz, HeeSun Park
Advisor: Diane Abdo
Advisory Board:Steven Kellman, Mansour El Kikhia, Jack Himelblau, Sandy Norman, Matt SternThe Paisano is published by the Paisano Educational Trust, a non-profit, tax exempt, educational organization. The Paisano is op-erated by members of the Stu-dent Newspaper Association, a registered student organization. The Paisano is NOT sponsored, financed or endorsed by UTSA. New issues are published every Tuesday during the fall and spring semesters, excluding holidays and exam periods. All revenues are generated through advertis-ing and donations. Advertising inquiries and donations should be directed towards:
Last Sunday, CBS’ 60 Min-utes ran a story about homeless children in the United States. Apparently, the US economy is starting to re-
cover. However, children in the United States don’t seem to be seeing any of this recovery. To date, 7.5 million jobs have been lost in what some call, the “Great Recession.”
The US government constitutes an impoverished family by the in-come of a family of four being less than $22,000 a year. Based on this figure and government projections for unemployment, soon 25 per-cent of all children in the US will be below the poverty rate. That would be the largest American generation raised in such meager conditions since that famous American suck-age called “The Great Depression.”
These numbers would shock and sadden anybody with the slight-est heart in the United States, but now more than ever, our politi-cians have turned a blind eye to such atrocities. There’s a growing opinion amongst a certain party that believes that government is too big and needs to have taxes
cut in order to help bridge the gap of this recession (can you guess which one?).
Apparently, cutting the largest revenue stream for the national government (taxes) will somehow magically cut the deficit. Never mind that February 2011 marked the highest monthly deficit in his-tory with a teency weency figure of $223 billion dollars and the 29th straight month that the govern-ment has run in the red.
Last month’s federal deficit is four times as large as the spend-ing cuts that the House Republi-cans have passed in their spending bill. In case you didn’t know, there aren’t enough programs to cut in order to bridge the gap between the deficit and government rev-enue (gasp!). What could this all mean…?
Can I tell you a little secret about our current politicians and govern-ment? They know a little some-thing that people our age can’t seem to figure out. They can pre-tend like they care about the well-being of our economy and country, but the truth is that many of them will be long gone from the public eye when many of the worsening problems in our state and country come to pass.
Can you guess who will have to
deal with the problems? Oh yeah, that would be our generation and those that follow.
We have been overtly screwed by our grandparents and par-ents who have allowed the tab of America to run up, always thinking that later on somebody will make a deposit for the hot checks they’ve been writing (or over-drafting their bankcards – for people who are unaware of check kiting). Yet, our generation was the least rep-resented at the voting polls in the 2010 elections. I guess this means that I should start lubing up for some more deficit love.
So just remember this time in life when we all allowed our politi-cians and government to get away with such irresponsible behavior. Remember that you were more concerned with the Spurs/Lakers game.
Remember these happy days when your parents and grandpar-ents would support you with free cash to pay your college expenses. Be assured, they will have no cash to give us when we all have to realize that they were defrauding us all along. Thanks grandma and grandpa.
As UTSA continues to strive for national recognition, some campus entities remain behind the curve, namely the Student Government Association (SGA).
In this past week’s meeting, SGA made it clear that they intended to discuss the issue of guns on cam-pus - then they didn’t.
When the issue of the gun legisla-tion finally came up in the meeting, almost two hours in, a good 10 to 15 minutes was spent, not on the actual issue, but on how to word the issue in a way that would meet the requirements of Robert’s Rules of Order - the almost universal ba-sis of parliamentary procedure.
The officers attempted to word
Chairman John Boone’s proposal to discuss the issue of “concealed carry of handguns on campus,” eventually giving up, the issue still untouched.
The complete incompetence of the entire SGA, including President Derek Trimm and Vice President Ni-cole Muñoz, is frankly disturbing.
As the third largest campus in the UT System, we should be at the cutting edge in all areas, both aca-demic and extracurricular.
When the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, with a student body of less than four thousand, is faster to react when controver-sial legislation hits the Senate floor, there is a problem.
Even if an SGA official came into their position not knowing every-thing about proper parliamentary procedure, the meeting took place in the second to last week of the term. This means that, in an entire year in office, they have failed to gain even a basic understanding of what it takes to run a student gov-ernment.
Yes, we are college students. We are all here to learn. However, as the official representatives of the student body, with almost fifty thou-sand dollars of our tuition going to-wards their budget, SGA should be held responsible for their actions.
How many times have you seen someone cheat? Just google “pla-giarism in college” and you may be shocked to see how many articles come up.
Brittney Barham, senior commu-nication major, feels that plagiarism will never get you anywhere in life.
“It is not going to get you far in your career and especially in your major,” Barham said.
Plagiarism isn’t confined to the classroom. For example, KENS-5 weatherman and news columnist for The Express-News, Albert Flores, was fired from his job when the story
broke that he had been copying his weather columns from Tom Grazulis, owner of TornadoProject.com.
“I think plagiarism is wrong, if you don’t know about the subject, do your research and give credit to the original author,” Misha Sterling, se-nior information systems major said.
In England, students are copying application essays to get accepted in to prestigious British universities.
The United Press International re-ported that “almost 30,000 students copied their personal statements verbatim from internet sites.”
The truth is that most of us have cheated a time or two, whether it was looking over our shoulder at someone else’s math problem or copying an essay verbatim.
Some students feel that cheating is bad, but if you are in a bind, then it is okay.
“I think cheating is bad, but if it is necessary to pass a class, then just do it,” Sierra, sophomore, said.
Some students have been down-right dumb when it comes to cheat-ing, according to Dr. Ellis, head of the French Department.
“One student cried when I showed her the email that was mistakenly sent to me by her boyfriend who had written her essay for her,” said Ellis. “They were just shocked to get caught because they assumed teachers have better things to do than worry about academic dishon-esty.”
Marguerite Newcomb, associate
director of the Writing Center, says that just last semester she had to refer students to Judical Affairs.
“I actually had to turn two people in just last semester,” Newcomb said. “They both admitted their careless-ness, but the cases were just too blatant to ignore. I wanted to make sure the lesson was hard learned so they would remember.”
Some students find plagiarism to be nothing more than pure laziness.
“I’m very much against plagiarism. It is lazy, unprofessional, disrespect-ful, and unoriginal,” Fellicia Cisner-os, sophomore English and Mexican American studies major, said.
March 8, 2011P6 FEATURES The Paisano
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Breakups are hard, especially the healing process. You are feel-ing a million different emotions at once and don’t really know how to deal with them.
First, you CANNOT be friends with your ex! You need time to get over him. Being friends will just be confusing and not help you to heal.
With that said, you should block your ex from your Facebook and delete him from your phone. This way you’re not tempted to con-tact your ex or look at their page and see what he or she is up to.
Keep yourself busy so you don’t think about the other person or drive yourself crazy thinking about why you broke up.
Don’t lock yourself in your room and listen to sad country music or watch “The Notebook.” Go out with your friend and have fun!
Don’t immediately post what you’re doing on Facebook. Some-one your ex knows is bound to report your activities and make it seem as if you are trying to make your ex jealous.
Working out and eating choco-late will also make you feel better. Chocolate releases endorphins in the brain that make you feel good. What is a better medicine than chocolate? Try dark choco-late – it’s healthier.
Exercise also releases endor-phins. Once you start seeing the changes to your body, your self-esteem will improve, and you’ll feel ready to jump back into the dating game.
How to handle a breakup
Joey
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According to the Chronicles of Higher Education, 75 percent of students have admitted to cheating. More than 1,000 instructors use TurnItIn.com
There’s a secret to share. Want to know what it is? Listen up. It’s how to manage your time.
One of the keys to being a suc-cessful college student is to be-come an expert in time manage-ment. It goes without saying that college students are pretty much always on the go.
Students taking 12-15 hours, holding down a job and maintain-ing other personal responsibilities have no choice. They must be dedicated.
Where do they find the time to eat and sleep? How do they man-age everything on their plate and still get decent grades?
Believe it or not, it is possible to have numerous responsibilities and be stress free. Alumnus Emily Spurgin offers her advice on how she handled her busy schedule while attending UTSA.
“Take everything one step at a time. If you think about each task as a singular event, rather than a list of many things to do, you are more likely to get each done, as
well as do them more quickly,” suggests Spurgin.
Junior Air Force ROTC Cadet, Lo-gan DiBiasio, agrees. He says it’s important not to mix everything you have going on. There should
be a time slot for school, work, family, etc.
A planner is a useful tool for many students. You don’t have to write down every minute of your day, but by writing down substan-
tial tasks such as working out and studying you are more likely to do them than if you were to just make a mental note.
Junior communication major Bernadette Butra admits that her calendar is a must-have for surviv-ing college.
“I write down everything I need to get done. I’ll color-coordinate if I have to depending on the urgen-cy of the task; red for high priority like studying for a test,“ Butra said. “I also set my calendar alerts on my Blackberry and have little post-it notes for extra reminders (this is handy for meetings).”
Spurgin says keeping yourself busy is important.
“When you have more things to do, you are more likely to get ev-erything done because you realize the value of time,” said Spurgin.
She also claims that it’s no co-incidence that the most successful people in the world are also the busiest.
DiBiasio agrees that as long as you get your tasks done at the times your schedule says, you’ll be less stressed.
This time management stuff
seems pretty easy, so why do stu-dents add stress to their life by procrastinating?
DiBiasio says that procrastina-tion puts more emphasis on the task because you have to get it done as soon as possible. Maybe students do it because they work better under pressure.
Butra admits to procrastinating on work that she apathetic about.
“It’s really just about doing the work when it needs to get done, even if it means losing sleep,” Bu-tra said.
All students have experienced “all-nighters.” Whether it’s cram-ming for finals or writing that 10-page paper that you’ve known about since the first day of class, “all-nighters” happen, but are ex-tremely unnecessary.
If you study a little everyday, then pulling an “all-nighter” won’t be needed and you can get that much needed sleep.
Now that the secret is out, it’s time to get to work.
So take your planner and do it.
Time management should be a part of a students curriculum
The Paisano is always looking for new writers.Don’t be afraid... We won’t bite, just edit.
Editor’s spring break plans:Joseph (Editor-in-chief): Going home and to Austin for South by Southwest.Vanessa (Managing editor): Going home and to the beach.Jenelle (Business manager): Work, duh!Alli (News editor): Going to Australia!Joey (Features editor): Training my new puppy!Ruben (A&E editor): Going to Austin for South by Southwest.Steven (Sports editor): Pretty much bouncing around the state of Texas!Burk (Photo editor): Spear fishing in South America.Robert (Graphics editor): Going to Houston, the lake and the beach.
March 8, 2011The PaisanoARTSP8
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Alamo Street in downtown San An-tonio is one of America’s most visited tourist destinations, and with good reason. However, the neon lights of the Riverwalk set against the historic landmarks and twentieth century ar-chitecture serve as the perfect back-drop for a different kind of attraction, First Friday Art Walk.
First Friday in the art district of San Antonio is perhaps the city’s best so-cial block party.
On the first Friday of every month, as the name implies, four blocks of South Alamo St. between Pereida St. and St. Mary’s St., transform into a stage for local artists, musicians and entertainers.
In between the live music and the cold beers, San Antonio’s cultural di-versity is on full display at the festive event that features everything from folk blues bands to hand-crafted beaded work, to vibrant portraits of Frida Kahlo and her furrowed uni-brow.
“First Friday is like Fiesta, except that Fiesta only happens once a year,” John Melendez, 53 said. “For me, it’s a perfect time to enjoy good ol’ San Antonio.”
With plenty of outdoor seating, live bands and affordable drink spe-cials, places like the Friendly Spot Ice House and Tito’s Mexican restaurant invite on-lookers to indulge and peo-ple-watching.
Mad Hatter’s Tea House and cafe on Beauregard St. is another must-stop as the quirky restaurant fea-tures an appetizing full menu and a
variety of drinks in a more intimate setting - perfect for lovebirds, young and old alike.
The arts, ranging from full flo-ral pieces to hand-blown glass, are also as diverse as the dining and the crowd.
Places like The Jewelry Box, Jive Redfried Vintage and Art, Inter Arti-san and a few dozen street vendors highlight San Antonio’s growing art community.
“We try to promote the Hispanic culture in San Antonio,” Carlos Mur-guia, owner of Pulquerios Art Gallery said, “which is evident in the artwork fusing Mexican tradition and contem-porary urban influences.”
“My paintings are a combination of European religion and Hispanic cul-ture,” said First Friday artist, Alejan-dra Martinez, 48.
Contrasting against the old world art, only a few feet away, two young-er artists draw inspiration from a dif-ferent source: electronic music.
Carlos Flores, 27, spray paints his freeform art in between two large speakers playing the repetitive beats of trance. “I draw my inspiration from music,” he said. “I just tune in, ignore the crowd and let the music do the work.”
Cristo Jesus Salazar, 19, an urban artist from Monterrey, Mexico, also creates his artwork on demand.
“The [younger First Friday attend-ees] like my customized paintings. They seem to enjoy watching me customize their skateboards in front of them,” Salazar said.
Tracey Ashenfelter, a local art-ist who has been featured in Stash magazine and in Jump Start at the Blue Star Arts Complex, draws inspi-ration from the historic city itself.
“The scenery in San Antonio is very romantic,” Ashenfelter said. “It’s like San Francisco, New Orleans, maybe Manhattan...they are fun places, rich with history.”
If the local bands, eclectic paint-ings and street pedicars are not your taste for the night, First Friday also hosts a running (and drinking) tour of the King William district and downtown San Antonio bars.
The pub run begins and ends in the heart of San Antonio’s art district. A few hundred individuals navigate the streets of downtown San Antonio in search of their next drink in a va-riety of biker, local and tourist bars.
“Where else do you get to go out in running shorts, drink, buy cool art and get your daily cardio?” said Jaime Adler about the Run-a-Tap Pub Run. “This event rivals Austin’s social scene, and everyone knows Austin is the Mecca of arts and music.”
Whatever the case, whether the night is spent in the cozy, hole-in-the-wall restaurants along Alamo street, in the buzzing bars and street-vendor shops, or jogging in search of the next stop (and drink), expect to savor the taste of a night out in good ol’ San Antonio.
A local band performs during First Friday on the porch of the Blue Star Brewing Company in Southtown.
The Drew/Walker advertising agency, which recently moved from the Blue Star Art Complex, is one of many locations where local artists display their work.
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Hookah bars seem to be a dime-a-dozen nowadays, as is their gen-eral vibe: a superficial exoticism that seems to be presenting the venue as something it’s truly not; a com-forting joint for college kids that are behaved enough to not partake in worse vices.
So it’s nice to see a place that doesn’t try to copy the Arabian Nights theme from Party City and tries to gear itself towards the local art/music crowd.
One such place is Studio 13, at 7218 Blanco Rd. & 410. What you’ll notice is that there’s no fluff or food to the place; there’s bar stools, glass tables, a pool table in the back, a stage in the corner for live music and a loaded bar with over 40 selections, including more peculiar drafts like Woodchuck and Black Butte.
The hookah (in compact form rath-er than the cumbersome ones seen in most joints) is pleasantly varied. It’s a pinch pricier than other places, running around $13, although you aren’t charged for mixed patches so you can mix and match to your heart’s content. Some interesting flavors are Pink, Code 69 and some-thing called “Snickelfrits.” You’ll just have to take my word on it.
Owner Wes Johnson said that he wanted a place where art and music could gather as a way to help the as-piring San Antonio scene. Tuesdays are the Live Revive sessions, where artists are encouraged to bring their respective mediums and get to creat-ing art.
Along the walls are art pieces from local artists, ranging from lith-ographs, paintings and drawings. Wednesdays are Almost Open Mic for amateur musicians and performance artists and Sundays are Open Mic Comedy Nights.
There’s a genuine purpose to what the owners are trying to accomplish, and it’s comforting to see them act upon it and even encourage the cre-ation of art.
If you’re on a budget, Thursdays might be the best night to go. On the 24th of February there was a lineup comprising of three local rock bands: the kinetic-rock band Trainwrecked, the one-man act Honey Son and the mega-octane rocking The Danger-fields.
Trainwrecked provide a variety of covers ranging from 80s pop rock to alternative 2000s. They have a right amount of spirit, bringing a high ki-netic energy that takes covers to unexpected results. Not extraordi-nary, but definitely gets everyone in a chipper mood on a nippy evening.
Honey Son, a one-man band lead by Mars Wright (currently in “The Cure” over at the Woodlawn The-atre), was a truly genuinely unique live musical act. His “band” is com-prised of a utility platform that allows him to sound mix his songs, which sound like a postmodern Radiohead, leading to something that qualifies as performance art moreso than a live music act. Wright stated that it’s not the song itself, by the creation of the song that keeps him going.
Ending the night with a bang were The Dangerfields, an apocalyptically-high octane band that cranks up the volume and the rock with such feroci-ty they don’t even allow the audience to applaud until the end of a set, al-lowing the energy to overwhelm the senses. Powerful stuff for a hookah lounge, where one would expect to unwind.
Studio 13 backs up its aspirations with a lounge that functions both as a place to loosen up with some Snickelfrit smoke and Woodchuck draft and a place where local art and music genuinely meet up for the sake of art rather than superficial hype.
Local artists rock Studio 13
As people settle down with their beer and hookah, Mars Wright of the one-man band Honey Son mixes a new tune on the spot.
“The Adjustment Bureau” is a ro-mance thriller with science fiction elements.
When David Norris (Matt Damon), an ambitious politician, loses the greatest election of his career, he in-advertently stumbles across a char-ismatic ballet dancer named Elise (Emily Blunt). The two immediately fall in love but are quickly separated. Following this brief encounter, Nor-ris is inspired to give a speech that captivates all of New York City mak-ing him a front runner for a future seat in the Senate. When Norris at-tempts to re-establish his relation-ship with Elise, he diverges from his pre-established destiny and is quickly confronted by “The Adjust-ment Bureau.” This shadowy organi-zation believes that Norris’ relation-ship with Elise will compromise his future. They are relentlessly deter-mined to make sure that Norris will never be with Elise.
The film features a reliable cast although most of the characters are underdeveloped. Damon’s politi-cian is an easily likeable protagonist whose impulsive behavior often hin-ders his political lifestyle.
His character Norris is a puppet that has finally been allowed to see who is pulling his strings.
The Adjustment Bureau has shaped every aspect of his life and Norris reacts with indignation over his lack of control. His love at first sight encounter with Elise may be a little contrived but the couples on screen chemistry is what makes the film worthwhile.
Blunt is able to balance her char-acter, Elise, with a rebellious nature and grace. Her passionate relation-ship with Norris is integral to the heart of the film, and their interper-sonal dynamics are well executed in
the film. The members of the Adjustment
Bureau are not as fleshed out as the films leads. These architects of fate use their telekinetic powers to make and unmake reality. They are not necessarily bad guys, but they of-ten use their otherworldly powers to frustrate Norris throughout the film.
Their mission is to make sure that Norris follows his plan and reach-es his full potential by any means necessary. Anthony Mackie is ser-viceable as Norris’ primary follower Harry Mitchell. Mitchell’s main job in the movie is to fill the audience in on exposition that explains the sci-fi elements of the story.
Terrence Stamp is also solid as Thompson, one of the meaner Ad-justment Bureau members. Most of the other members are card board cut out villains without any defin-ing traits. The film would have been better if it had more complex villains that audiences could root against.
The film features a strong first and second act but quickly falls apart at the conclusion. While the third act is not bad, it comes across as poorly thought out and sloppy. Plot devices like magic hats and inter-dimension-al door knobs pull viewers out of the pseudo-realism that the rest of the film followed. The film also features way too much exposition to explain what’s going on. Rather than tell-ing a story through the character’s actions, it often falls upon Mackie’s character to explain the ridiculous logic it wants the viewer to be-lieve. However, the film also fea-tures kinetic chase scenes and truly thought provoking material when it’s handled well.PaisanoratingscoreC+
This week, Work in Progress takes a break from sports to celebrate an important birth-day.
No it is not my birthday, thats not until October.
The birthday this week is that of my grandfather, Dr. Thomas N. Whitaker. On Thursday he will celebrate his 90th birthday.
An alumnus of Rice Univer-sity, he worked as an electrical engineer in the Navy during World War II. Following the war, he went to work as an electrical engineering profes-sor at the University of Hous-ton.
Upon earning his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Aus-tin, my grandfather went to work at NASA as an electrical engineer.
In a way it was my grand-father who got me inter-ested in sports, one of my first memories is hearing his stories about the Houston Buffs baseball team in the Thirties. It was these stories that con-nected me to sports’ past.
I hope that your grandfather has had as big an impact on your life as mine has. Wheth-er it is influencing us in picking a major, or even a college, they always play a big part in our lives. All the things we have in some way come from grandfathers. Grandfathers make it happen.
So in closing, Happy Birth-day Granddad.
Happy birth-day granddad
paisano-online.com
Melvin Johnson III has drained some timely three-pointers this year
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UTSA sends Men’s and Women’s teams to Katy for fourth consecutive year,Women make appearance in Conference Tournament for 11th time in a rowStephen [email protected]
For both UTSA basketball pro-grams, making a March trip to Katy for the conference tournament is becoming an annual occurrence.
For the women of the hardwood, it is an 11th straight trip to the con-ference tournament. In the time that the UTSA women have made the tournament, it has gone from the days of each game being held at the home gym of the higher seed to a major event held at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.
The Roadrunner women had their greatest success in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons when they won the Southland Conference tournament championship and earned a berth in the NCAA women’s tournament.
A chance at a three-peat was lost when the Roadrunners fell in the first round to the UT-Arlington Mavericks, the very team they had knocked off the year before in the tournament final.
Now the Roadrunner women are three wins away from their third conference title in four years.
The men’s program has a smaller but no less impressive appearance streak. Since Devin Gibson came to campus before the 2007-08 sea-son, the men have made it to the conference tournament every year. This year it came down to a must win game at UT-Arlington, which the Roadrunners won 68-63 Saturday.
In previous years, the Roadrun-ners have had an up-and-down per-formance in the tournament. The Roadrunners won the Southland tournament in 1999 and 2004, earn-ing a 16-seed in the NCAA tourna-ment each year. They fell in the first round of the conference tournament in 2005 and 2006 and missed the tournament in 2007.
In the 2007-08 season, the Road-runners entered the tournament as the eight-seed but fell in the open-ing round to top seed, Stephen F. Austin, 71-60.
The following season the Road-runners made a miracle run as the six-seed. In the opening round they knocked off the three-seed, Sam Houston State Bearkats, 83-74, and the two-seed, Nicholls Colonels, 57-55 before falling to top seed Stephen F. Austin, 68-57 in the tournament final.
A year following their miracle run to the final, the Roadrunners found themselves yet again as the six-seed. The miracle run would not be repeated as they fell in the opening round to the three-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 78-66.
This year the conference tour-nament yet again finds both UTSA programs in play. For the women, it is the chance at a third title in four years; for the men, the chance to send Devin Gibson out with a ring.
Before either team can cut down the nets, they will have to get through three rounds of tough com-petition. For the women, the road back to the final begins with a first
round game against the five-seed Sam Houston State Lady Bearkats Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. If they get through Sam Houston, the winner of the matchup between number one seed McNeese and eight-seed Southeastern Louisiana awaits. Mc-Neese boasts a 15-1 conference re-cord for their first outright regular season title in school history.
A win in the semi-finals for UTSA would mean their ticket to the con-ference final friday night would be punched. The four possible oppo-nents in a final would be two-seed Lamar, three-seed Central Arkansas, six-seed Stephen F. Austin or seven-seed Northwestern state.
Should the women win the tour-nament, they would receive an au-tomatic bid in the NCAA women’s tournament. In their last trip to the big dance, the Roadrunners became the first 15-seed to take a two-seed to overtime and nearly became the first 15 to beat a two in NCAA [women’s] tournament history.
The UTSA men are also three wins away from their first trip to the big dance since 2004.
They enter the tournament as the seven-seed and will open the tourna-ment at noon on Wednesday against the two-seed Northwestern State Demons. If the Roadrunners are able to pull out the victory against Northwestern State, a matchup with the winner of three-seed Sam Hous-ton vs. six-seed Stephen F. Austin would await on Thursday. A win in the semifinals would place the Roadrunners in the final on Satur-day afternoon against one of four opponents. Possible opponents in the final would be either one-seed McNeese, eight-seed Nicholls, four-seed Texas State or five-seed South-eastern Louisiana.
Should both teams win the con-ference tournament, it would be just the second time in Southland history that a school won both men’s and women’s conference tournaments.
UTSA is one of six schools to send both men’s and women’s programs to the Southland tournament, but none of those schools boast consec-utive appearance streaks for both teams at the level that UTSA does.
When the dust settles on the Southland conference tournament, it will end the second-to-last season in the Southland for UTSA.
Whether the Roadrunners send both back next year will be decided on the court next season. This week will decide a ticket to the big dance.
Southland Conference tournament scheduleTuesday March 8Women’s Quarterfinals#2 Lamar vs. #7 Northwestern State. Noon#3 Central Arkansas vs. #6 Stephen F. Austin. 2:30 P.M.#1 McNeese State vs. #8 South-eastern Louisiana. 6 P.M.#4 UTSA vs. #5 Sam Houston State. 8:30 P.M.
Wednesday March 9Men’s Quarterfinals#2 Northwestern State vs. #7 UTSA Noon#3 Sam Houston State vs. #6 Ste-phen F. Austin. 2:30 P.M.#1 McNeese State vs. #8 Nicholls.
6 p.m.#4 Texas State vs. #5 Southeastern Louisiana. 8:30 P.M.
Stephanie Hughes is weeks into her first head coaching job. She took time from the field to talk to the Paisano about the life of a softball coach.
What is the best part about coaching for UTSA?
UTSA is an up and coming school so it is exciting to see the campus grow and the students evolve. It is also my first head coaching position after being here seven years, so I am excited to see what the future holds.
When and how did you decide to become a coach?
I knew I wanted to coach when I was a freshman at Texas State. Both my father and grandfather were coaches, so it was just natural for me to follow in their steps. Af-ter playing softball for Texas State, I took my first coaching position there after graduation.
If you weren’t a coach, what profession would you choose?
P11The PaisanoMarch 8, 2011 SPORTS
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Alysse Davis six-of-ten three point shooting led UTSA to a blowout win
Time out with the coaches:Stephanie Hughes
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of stories on UTSA coaches.
I would be a history teacher. Every-one in my family is either a teacher or a principal and I just feel it is very similar to coaching.
Who is your biggest influ-ence?
My dad is definitely my biggest in-fluence. He is the one who got me into athletics at a young age. He was always encouraging and moti-vating and still is today.
What is your favorite travel spot?
I went to California and visited the University of California at Santa Bar-bara campus and really enjoyed it because the campus was just amaz-ing and beautiful; you could literally throw a ball into the ocean.
What is your favorite moment in sports that you were a part of?
My senior year at Texas State, I had a pitcher who threw a perfect game. I was playing center field and got to be a part of something so rare and one of the hardest things to do. There were 21 batters and 21 outs. The funny thing is, it was a perfect game against UTSA.
When you are not coaching for the Roadrunners, you are...?
I am doing anything outdoors. I love to be outside, from being at the river or taking my dog to the lake. I think that is why I love being a coach of an outdoor sport.
What is your favorite baseball movie?
“Bull Durham” with Kevin Costner is the best. It is an 80’s flick with some of the best one liners of a baseball movie I have ever heard.
Stephanie Hughes
Softball coach steps up to the plate as interim Head Coach
Next Week: “Coaches” is off for the next two weeks.
For the five UTSA seniors, Satur-day marked their final home game at the Convocation center. It was one last chance to put on a show in front of the home crowd. They didn’t disappoint as they used a 33-3 run in the second half to fly past the UT-Arlington Mavericks, 77-53.
For Alysse Davis, her final game at the Convo was one of her best yet. Davis went 6-of-10 from be-yond the arc to set a school record for three pointers made in a game. Those three pointers contributed to Davis’ career high 22 points
“We won, that’s what counts for me,” Davis said. “It’s the last time playing in the bird’s nest.”
The early stages of the game were a back-and-forth contest between the two schools before the Roadrun-
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ners used a 16-2 run in the first half to take the lead for good.
“They were playing to get in the tournament,” Head Coach Rae Rip-petoe-Blair said. “We had to play a great game and we did.”
The Mavericks would get as close as four in the second half before the Roadrunners went on the run that ended the game and the Maverick’s season.
“This gives us a lot of confidence going to Katy,” Rippetoe-Blair said. “It was good to get the bench play-ers in and get them minutes.”
Davis’ 22 points were joined with Amber Gregg’s 13, Ashleigh Frank-lin’s double-double (16 points, 13 rebounds) and Lyndi Thorman’s 11 points to propel the Roadrunners to Katy on a blowout victory.
The win against the Mavericks marked the final home game that
Davis, Amber Gregg, Kameisha Johnson, Kelsey Ansley and Ash-leigh Franklin would play at the Con-vocation center.
“I don’t get real emotional about that; we are going to miss them,” Rippetoe-Blair said. “I don’t know of many places that have five seniors who contribute.”
UTSA earns the four-seed in this week’s Southland Conference Tour-nament at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. The Mavericks needed to win to get in.
“We have a lot of basketball left to play,” Davis said.
The Roadrunners, who are mak-ing an 11th-straight trip to the con-ference tournament, will open the tournament against no. 5 seed Sam Houston State Lady Bearkats Tues-day at 8:30 p.m. in Katy. It will be the third game between the schools this season.
1. McNeese State
2. Lamar
3. Central Arkansas
4. UTSA
5. Sam Houston State
6. Stephen F. Austin
7. Northwestern State
8. Southeastern Louisiana
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Southland Tournament
Women’s seeds
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Roadrunners run Mavericks out of Convo, 77-53UTSA earns four seed in Southland Tournament
Five Roadrunner seniors end home career in victory
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