Photo and design by Tonya Torres: The Signal.

Mark Bownds

The Signal

On a hot day in August back in 1966, Charles Whitman, an engineering student at the University of Texas and a former Marine, climbed to the observation deck of the university’s tower and opened fire upon the students below.

Before getting shot and killed by an Austin police officer, Whitman killed a total of 14 people and wounded 32.

It was just last year at the University of Texas when a student, armed with an AK-47, fired shots in the air while on campus. This time the only one killed was the gunman after he ran into the school’s main library and committed suicide.

It is incidents such as these, including the Virginia Tech massacre April 16, 2007, that has Texas legislators pushing for a law that would allow college students, faculty and staff to arm themselves for protection. Currently there are three bills pending that, if passed, would allow individuals to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. They are House Bill 86, House Bill 750, and Senate Bill 354.

These upcoming bills have become a concern primarily dividing the two major parties. Many Republicans argue that properly trained citizens on a college campus should have the right to defend themselves and protect others at the same time, while the majority of the Texas Democratic Party call for “weapons-free institutions of higher learning.”

Texas State Representative Chuck Hopson (R-Jacksonville) said that although the gun bills are controversial, they are something that need to be put into law.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Hopson said. “The downside is that if there’s a big shootout and a lot of people are involved with it, law enforcement people could have the difficulty of determining who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. The good side of it is that you have people that are mature; they have passed their concealed weapon license, and they’re there. So if something bad happens on campus, they’ll be there with a weapon, and they don’t have to wait until the law enforcement people get there.” Continue Reading

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Natalie Epperley

The Signal

If passed, the new proposed state budget will eliminate funding for TexShare, which provides Texas state libraries with databases as well as e-books.

Fourty nine databases are at risk. These databases include Lesis Nexis, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete and Legal Collection.

The Texas Library Association plans a lobbying effort and a major rally at the state capital in April during its annual conference.

“We don’t know what TexShare will look like if funding is lost,” said Gloria Meraz, director of communications at the Texas Library Association. “The one thing we do know is it will be a completely different entity and have less access for students.”

The Texas Library Consortium’s website states that “TexShare enables libraries to offer a broader range of materials and services than any single library can provide for its constituents.” Continue Reading

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Photo courtesy of UHCL.

Ashley Smith

The Signal

“Two, four, six, eight. Who do we appreciate?”

That question will soon be answered by the UHCL community because the search for an official college mascot began Feb. 11.

The hunt for a mascot has been broken into five phases. The first phase, already in progress, invites all students, faculty, staff and alumni in the UHCL community to submit their mascot ideas to the Mascot Leadership Team. The online survey, located on the UHCL website, will be available until March 11.

“It is important to consider the unique culture of UHCL when choosing a mascot,” said Ashley Harral, graduate business major and Mascot Advisory Team student representative. “It needs to portray to the world what UHCL has to offer.”

The university has put together two teams that will aid in the search for the new mascot. The Mascot Advisory Team is comprised of students Ashley Harral, Corey Benson, Sam Sedai and Samantha Noronha, who represent each of the schools on campus. The team also consists of faculty representatives James C. Benson and Chris Ward, staff representatives Katie Wallet and Ali Albrecht and alumni representatives Nida Ajaz and Michael A. Reeves. Continue Reading

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Sophia Stewart

The Signal

Fighting words echoed the walls at the University of Houston-Clear Lake Feb. 9 when Bob Mitchell, president of Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, announced NASA’s stance on the upcoming budget.

In Mitchell’s “NASA & Clear Lake: The Impact of the Space Industry on the Area’s Economy” lecture, he told listeners that he plans to fight the layoffs for the upcoming 2011 budget.

“Prior to Feb. 1, 2010, we thought we would lose 750 to 1,000 jobs,” Mitchell explained. “After Feb. 1, those 750 to 1,000 jobs just went to worst-case-scenario – 7,000 jobs. That’s no exaggeration.”

In response to the newly announced budget, Terry Feagin, professor of computer science, explained the importance of NASA.

“People are educated about the universe through such programs of research as those supported by NASA,” Feagin said.

Mitchell advised the community to fight the layoffs using a specific message: “Encourage Americans to fight for America’s leadership in space.” Continue Reading

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It’s 2 a.m. After five hours working on a 10-page research paper due at 8 a.m., the realization comes that one more source is needed to complete the assignment.

Currently, students in this situation can easily log on to the Alfred R. Neumann Library website, click on a database and research virtually any given topic, but if the Texas legislature passes the proposed Texas budget, those databases could disappear. If TexShare funds are cut, then libraries will lose access to more than 40 databases, which in turn will hurt students’ ability to gather information for research.

The proposed budget currently in the Texas senate will cut all state funding to TexShare, a resource-sharing program for public and academic libraries. Right now TexShare receives $8 million from the state, $3 million from federal funds and another $3.1 million contributed by libraries through fees.

TexShare is only one of several programs in danger to lose all of its state funding. Other library programs include the K-12 Database Program which gives Texas schools access to thousands of online full-text education resources, Loan Star Libraries and other statewide library programs. The State Law Library is also in danger of losing its state funding. Continue Reading

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Jessica O’ Rear

The Signal

My mornings are hectic. No matter what time I get up or how many things I do the night before to get ready, I can almost guarantee that I will be running behind schedule.

I wake up exhausted because I stayed up until 1 a.m. the night before trying to finish an assignment that is already a day late. It’s hard to get everything done when I’m taking 15 hours of classes. Do I sound like the typical college student? Add on a full-time job and a small child; then you get a clearer picture of my life.

During my senior year of high school, I was in the top 10 percent of my class and in the top choir at Clear Creek High School. I was accepted early to Texas A&M University. I thought I had everything carefully planned for my future. Life, on the other hand, was about to deal me a different set of cards.

About a month after I graduated high school, I found out that I was pregnant with my son, Branson. Not only was I scared about what the future would hold, I was also confused. My closest friends and even my sister insisted I get an abortion. They didn’t think I could support a child on my own. Continue Reading

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The Dec. 6, 2010 editorial, which Mr. Marinos accuses of ‘reflecting opinions and conclusions based on very faulty and erroneous assumptions,’ was not intended to serve as a treatise on American immigration policy since 1924 – the year Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, nor was it intended to proliferate hatred or racism. It was intended to reflect the opinions of an editorial board who felt Texas legislators would not be acting in the best interests of Texans by enacting state immigration laws. Immigration laws, really, are the purview of the federal government.

The Immigration Act of 1924 established the quotas to which Mr. Marinos refers and were especially unaccommodating and discriminatory to immigrants from Asian countries. These quotas, however, were enacted within the last century. The Southern Poverty Law Center discussed immigration myths in its spring 2011 Teaching Tolerance. “For about the first 100 years, the U.S. had an ‘open immigration system that allowed any able-bodied immigrant in.’” In the years since, however, the U.S. has allowed immigrants to enter from different nations at different points throughout its history based largely on its need for skilled labor.

Mr. Marinos’ statement “The immigrants then learned our language, studied for citizenship, worked hard, paid taxes and accepted no entitlements unless they were destitute; not today’s picture,” is not only unabashedly vitriolic, but also inaccurate. What Mr. Marinos is referring to is called assimilation. It is the process by which a group takes on the cultural traits of a larger group. And, due largely to education and media, immigrants today both assimilate and learn to speak English much more quickly than “the immigrants of yesteryear.” “The discovery of America was followed by possibly the greatest demographic disaster in the history of the world,” said professor William Denevan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in S. Dale McLemore’s Racial and Ethnic Relations. McLemore also notes that the American Indian population declined from at least 2 million to one-eighth of that. Today, American Indians have among the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the country.

We appreciate feedback to our work and encourage educated, reasoned discourse – it is after all what democracy is built upon. We stand by our assertion that state laws do little, if anything, to prevent illegal entry into the United States.

Corey Benson, Carla Bradley, Dana Lizik
Editors emeriti

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Roberta Cowan

The Signal

February brings Black History Month, Valentine’s Day and the third UHCL production of author Eve Ensler’s 1994 play, “The Vagina Monologues.”

This year the provocative play is co-hosted by the Office of Intercultural and International Student Services and the Office of Student Life’s Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement.

“Ninety percent of all proceeds go to Bay Area Turning Point to provide services for victims of sexual violence within our community,” said Julie Smith, coordinator for IISS’s Women’s and LGBT Services. “Ten percent of the proceeds will go to the V-Day Campaign to help build safe houses for the women and girls still suffering in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti last January.”

The all-female cast consists of volunteers from UHCL and surrounding areas who champion V-Day’s mission “that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world, helping them to continue and expand their core work on the ground, while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence (including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, sex slavery) against women and girls.”

“I like how the play stands for the empowerment of women,” said Fallon Lockett, adjunct instructor for finance marketing and cast member. “[It] brings awareness of violence towards women.” Continue Reading

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David Miller

The Signal

Currently on display in the UHCL Art Gallery is the Faculty Art Exhibition, an annual show of art submissions from faculty on campus.

On exhibit are multiple art pieces ranging from paintings and sculptures to digital images.

Professor of Fine Arts Nick de Vries’ pieces include multiple clay sculptures in different forms and shapes, all of which are preparation and material intensive. His works also have unique influences; The sculpture titled “Frisian Horse” is a sculpted reaction to the military defense mechanisms outside an embassy in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, during the Velvet Revolution in the 1980s.

Another of de Vries’ pieces is a tetrahedron, or triangle-based pyramid, with a theme based on natural elements.

“It sort of takes on a Japanese rock garden theme, with the shards surrounding the structure in the middle, almost like a transition,” de Vries said. Continue Reading

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