Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
volume69number22
Citation preview
picante
Volume 69, No. 22 March 21, 2013
Online
RGV’s culinary tastes more than a blend of North and South
Valley Food
panamericanonline.com
Stuck in a Rut
Healthy Eating
Anthropology dept. aids EPD in missing
persons case
Live event articles of literary and cultural
festival
FESTIBA at UTPA
Unearthed
UTPA program aims to inform Valley residents
Women’s golf still hoping for end-of-
season improvement
Former women’s basketball head coach Denny Downing was in Hutchinson, Kan., for the NJCAA national basketball tournament when he received a text message Saturday from Athletic Director Chris King. It asked the coach to return to campus for a meeting regarding the just completed season and the future of the program.
Downing said he felt un-
easy because he believes a coach shouldn’t leave the road during recruiting season.
Come 8 a.m. Monday, Downing arrived at King’s office. King told him there was no easy way to do this, and handed him an envelope. The news inside was that Downing’s contract was not being renewed. After four years as women’s coach, he was out, and so was men’s coach Ryan Marks.
Downing was very unhappy with the decision, taken a week after the Broncs finished a 12-
16 campaign with a semifinal loss to Chicago State University in their final Great West Con-ference tournament.
“He said, ‘There’s no easy way to do this,’ but yes there is, just be a stand-up guy,” Downing said of the meeting with the Pan Am AD.
King held a press conference March 18 to address his decision to not renew the contracts.
“I want to wish both Coach Marks and Coach Downing the best wishes. I want to thank them for their efforts the past
four years, as well as their as-sistant coaches,” King said. “Their hard work and dedica-tion is appreciated, but at this time I felt as if after the Great West basketball conference championships it was time for a little interruption, pertaining to leadership...and move in a different direction in both bas-ketball programs.”
The meeting Monday morn-ing had been short and to the point. According to King, now is the best time to make the transi-
tion as the University moves to the more prestigious Western Athletic Conference July 1. The athletic di-rector had the full support of the president, it appears.
“It’s was a very hard decision to make,” University President Robert Nelsen said about King’s decision. “I admire the coaches and what they have done and I have respect for King.”
Marks waited outside of the press conference Monday afternoon to give his thoughts on the situation.
ONLINE CONTENT
By Norma GonzalezThe Pan American
cheetos
hoops coaches’ contracts not renewed
SGA PRESIDENT RESULTS EMERGE AMONG TALK OF RECOUNT
MARGIN
continued on page 7
Stories
Video Coverage
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
OF 12 SEE PAGE 6
Panic! Last March, the McAllen-Edinburg metro area was deemed the most obese, comprised of almost 40 percent fatties, apparently, ac-cording to the Gallup-Healthways poll. That same poll is referenced in Jose S. De Leon III’s article on Valley food on pages 4 and 5 of this issue.
Problem is, the buzzword of the decade, obesity, is not just bad sci-ence, it’s not medical science at all.
A person is classified as obese based off the Body Mass Index; that slanty rainbow chart in the doc-tor’s office that compares a person’s height and weight.
And that formula, the BMI, was carefully calculated and tested on several different body types by scien-
tists and dieticians with many titles following their names, right? No.
BMI’s maiden name is the Que-telet Index, after Belgian mathemati-cian and sociologist Adolphe Que-telet. Right, mathematician, not physician. What’s more, it dates to 1835, and accompanied Quetelet’s theory on the “average man”, which obviously is very useful for speculat-
ing on general populations. Not so much for the lone patient in a doc-tor’s office, though.
In fact, Quetelet did leave the world a bit of guidance on how to use his formula. Specifically, he men-tioned a small caveat - don’t use it to
assess individual health. And...the United States uses BMI to
assess health, and even worse, an in-dividual’s health.
The BMI chart breaks people down into four basic groups: un-derweight, normal, overweight and obese. And to Quetelet’s credit, his wonky formula comparing two picked-at-random human traights
actually does work, most of the time. That is, square a person’s height and compare it to weight and you will, in most cases, be able to tell how much adipose tissue they’re carrying around.
But not always. Classified as
overweight by the BMI are both basketballer Yao Ming and soc-cer player Abby Wambach. And that’s the problem, the BMI’s logic is faulty. See, a person with a high percentage of fat will have a high BMI, but a person with a high BMI does not necessarily have a high percentage of fat. It’s the old square and rectangle riddle.
So, yeah it’s misleading, but how is it harmful? For starters, in the 1970’s, health insurance companies cast about for a way to determine health and longetivity using easy to gather data about people. They land-ed on the 100-year-old, bumbling BMI as the standard. As a result, a higher BMI will now net a higher premium, at least 25 percent more expensive, generally. Remember when the BMI was never supposed to be used for individuals? Yeah.
Even worse, much of the coun-try thinks that makes sense, because using the BMI to calculate general health leads to an even more dan-gerous assumption: that health is totally dependent on weight. It isn’t and it never has been. Sure, the amount of fat in a body definitely has some relation to overall health, but it is far from the only factor. Ad-ditionally, Quetelet’s notion of the “average man” is useful in his fields of mathematics and sociology, but very harmful in medicine. There is no magic ratio of height and weight that makes a body healthy. Saying that there is and that healthy and unhealthy can be separated for ev-eryone by decimal points on a multi-colored chart is beyond ridiculous.
As long as the Valley and the country as a whole continue to be distracted by its “obesity epi-demic,” the real issue of health will get lost in the mess. It’s time to start thinking of medi-cal health as involving the whole person, and not just their waists.
March 21, 20132 opinion
Karen Antonacci Co-Editor-in-Chief
why the bmi is harmful bs
(The bikers) were always such nice people. They
told good stories and they were good clientele. We’re going to miss them.
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
Vol. 69, No. 22
Next Delivery:March 28 at noon
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 American
Tweet at and follow us @ThePanAmerican
#UTPA
Where in the world is the LERC building on cam-pus??? I’m going to have 2 classes there and I have no idea where its located! :/ #UTPA
I seriously hate when vehicles drive through the walkway! #UTPA
Poor pigeons, ever since they covered the ceil-ings outside they panic when they see they’ve lost their homes :’( #utpa #su-persadtweet
Letters to the Editor
Measure of obesity has little to do with health, feeds false paranoia
arts & life
While preparations for Bike-Fest 2013 begin in Corpus Chris-ti, businesses and locals at South Padre Island say they will miss the roar of thousands of motorcycles in the fall.
Every October for the past 19 years, more than 10,000 bik-ers from around the country have attended SPI’s annual three-day festival where they could meet fel-low bikers, find new gear for their bikes, and ride down Padre Bou-levard in one giant rally.
For its 20th anniversary, the newly dubbed Budweiser Cor-pus Christi BikeFest, formerly known as the SPI BikeFest, will be held at Corpus Christi for the first time. The move was made because there was no longer enough space at SPI for the event, according to a press release on the BikeFest website.
BikeFest organizer G.J. Rey-na said that moving from the traditional location to a new one was not an easy decision. After debating whether to hold the festival at places like the Mer-cedes Livestock Showgrounds, the State Farm Arena in Hidal-go, and various other locations throughout the Valley, Corpus was the final choice.
“(Corpus offers) more room, more bands, more venues, more
restaurants and bars and the op-portunity to make our rally bigger and better than ever,” Reyna said.
The organizers of the event are looking forward to the festival Oct. 11-13, but some residents and businesses at SPI aren’t sing-ing the same tune.
According to an article by Fox News, SPI is known across the country for being a popular spring break destination for col-lege students. Last year, the Island raked in nearly $275,000 in sales tax revenue according to online news source The Coastal Current. Since fall tends to be a slower time of the year for the Island due to cooler weather, BikeFest usually helped pick up the pace of things.
Without the festival, many businesses worry about what will happen to SPI’s economy.
“It increases our regular earn-ings by 60 to 80 percent, depend-ing on the weather the weekend of the fest,” said Aldo Vargas, the manager of a bar and grill named Big Boy’s.
Vargas said things will defi-nitely be different without the visitors the festival attracted.
“When there’s bad weather, we don’t have as many bikers, but we still get a lot more money than usual,” he said.
Vargas is not the only per-son who believes that BikeFest is a useful resource for the Island. Owner of the Laguna Bar Tom
Rich is less than happy about the relocation of the financially ben-eficial event.
“We get a bunch of people here in October, which helps the economy,” said Rich, a resident of the Island for 35 years. “The move is taking money away from us when we need it.”
Rich mentioned that SPI
used to be home to other popu-lar events such as Miss USA pageants and boxing matches, but those events were lost to other cities as well.
“Unless we get another event to replace BikeFest, I don’t know where we’re sup-posed to get money from dur-ing the off season,” he claimed.
Rich explained that when business goes down, so do prof-its and this could result in some businesses shutting down.
Although the declining of revenue is a major worry for some, others are upset over the breaking of a tradition.
Gary Tate has been biking for 40 years and has attended every BikeFest, gathering with fellow biker friends.
“I think it’s too bad that they’re taking it somewhere else. It was a good event for South Padre,” the Odessa native said. “It’s a lot more fun to ride around here than in Corpus be-
cause there’s less traffic.”Tate said that his brother and
friends come down from all over Texas for the festival.
“They probably don’t even know yet, but they’ll most likely be disappointed,” said Tate, who’s been living at the Island for 21 years. “It’s kind of a gathering for our group of friends and it has been for 19 years.”
The festival also annually gave SPI local Amy Salander and her sons a chance to make new friends and catch up with old ones. For the past 20 years, Salander has operated a para-sailing and wave-running station while working as
a waitress at Coconuts, a bar and grill by the beach. She has worked during BikeFest every year and her sons grew up with the festival.
“We had a lot of regulars that used to come in here and we would trade T-shirts. They would bring their biker shirts from the stores they owned and now my sons that are in college are wear-ing them,” Salander explained. “They’ve been coming here for 16 years. They’d see my sons running around and say, ‘Oh! I have shirts for them!’”
She said the bikers she met during BikeFest were not aggres-sive or violent like some people might expect.
“They were always such nice people,” Salander said. “They told good stories and they were great clientele. We’re going to miss them.”
Despite the change of loca-tion, Reyna said that things will only get better at Corpus because there will be more restaurants, venues and other things to enter-tain the guests.
The Corpus Christi Conven-tion & Visitors Bureau said that it expects the festival will bring in over $5.8 million to the city through its shops and attractions.
“It’s going to be what all our bikers expect from the Bike-Fest experience with a whole lot more,” he said.
Roar by a new shoreBikeFest moves from SPI to Corpus Christi after 19 years
By May OrtegaThe Pan American
- @oKarla
- @__juanlopez
- @ellems
- Amy Salander, SPI local
It’s time to start thinking of medical health as involving the whole person,
and not just their waists.
ADVERTISEMENTMarch 21, 2013 Page 3
For more information or if special accommodations are needed, call (956) 665-7989.
The University of Texas-Pan American
Madeleine K. Albright was the 64th and first female to serve as Secretary of State in the United States. In 1997, she was the highest-ranking woman in history of the U.S. government.
As Secretary of State, Albright reinforced America’s alliances, advocated democracy and human rights and promoted American trade and business, labor and environmental
standards abroad.
Today, Albright, also an author, is chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, and chair of Albright Capital Management LLC, an
investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets.
Doors will open at 7 p.m. for UTPA students, faculty and staff with a valid UTPA ID, and at 7:20 p.m. for the general public.
FREE ADMISSION. SEATING IS LIMITED.
View the program live at www.utpa.edu/live.
Madeleine K. Albright
Tuesday, March 26, 2013UTPA Fieldhouse, 7:30 p.m.
First Female U.S. Secretary of State
Economy and Security in the 21st Century
*Portrait by Timothy Greenfield - Sanders.
Page 5
Shimin Cen knows a thing or two about different cultures.
Born in Antananarivo, Madagascar, the general studies major has eaten a lot during her travels, and has nothing but positive comments about Valley food.
“I’ve traveled around the U.S., and I can honestly say that the food down here is the richest I’ve ever had,” the 26-year-old said. “The cultural
mix allows for so many different possibilities in flavor that is able to combine two unique cultures through food.”
Cen, who arrived to UTPA from Bordeaux, France, in 2010, said that among her favorite
Valley foods are raspas, chicharones preparados and
tacos, which she said are different from the tacos she’s eaten during her travels.
Cen has traveled around Mexico (Monterrey, Zacatecas, Guadalajara), and described the tacos there as “plain corn tortillas the size of a person’s palm.”
In the Valley, she was delighted to see flour and different-size tortillas, and said she was “amazed” at the possibility of adding toppings
such as lettuce, cheese and tomato to the tacos.
CULTURES COMBINED Valley food describes
American food products influenced by Mexican cuisine. The food ranges from small snacks like raspas - or snow cones, to meals like barbacoa, a dish made out of the flesh of a cow’s face.
Among the most popular of these snacks is Hot Cheetos covered in nacho cheese, which even local drive-in restaurant Stars has begun to feature on the menu.
According to UTPA anthropology professor Margaret Graham, the affordability and strong flavors of the local fare appeals to the people of the RGV.
She noted that Valley food could be influenced by Tex-Mex cuisine. According to Graham, Tex-Mex is a term used to describe food made popular in Texas restaurants as a way to make Mexican food appealing to a wide audience. Tex-Mex is known for adding cheese to several spicy Mexican dishes such as enchiladas, beans and rice as a way to dilute their spiciness.
“A lot of the Valley food is
derived from Tex-Mex. It’s a reflection of the development in Tex-Mex in southern Texas,” she said. “We see their influence in how Valley food combine regular dishes with spicy condiments, like chamoy or chili powder.”
Norma Beardwood, a dietetics professor at UTPA,
isn’t surprised at a phenomena like this. She also noted that some of the Valley food is high in calories. For example, a 12 ounce serving of a chamoyada, a raspa with chamoy, contains 390 empty calories.
“There may be some idiosyncrasies between American and Mexican culture that allow for some room for both types of food to mix,” she explained. “The culture down here is that people are used to spicy food. If it’s not spicy,
then they’re going to find a way to make it spicy.”
Eddie Villalobos, owner of La Hormiga: El Original, a raspa store located at 1414 N. 23rd St. in McAllen, said he sees Valley foods as a way to make people feel at home north of the border.
“It’s like a local connection
for them. Plus, people don’t have to cross to Mexico for food like this,” he explained.
Villalobos opened his business 20 years ago as a raspa stand, then slowly expanded to include snacks or munchies, as he calls them. He sees his stand as a way to bring people together.
“College students from across the Valley make up 30 percent of the customers,” he said. “The rest are either families or seniors, and they’re all cozy in this environment
with food that they crave.”Beardwood, a native of Rhode
Island, said that every region has a unique spin on food.
She recalled how, at a recent potluck, she brought Boston Baked Beans, a local favorite in her hometown known for being sweet. It wasn’t exactly a hit at the party.
“People were disappointed that it wasn’t salty like it normally is here. It’s not something they’re used to,” she said. “But it’s funny because I wasn’t used to their food when I first came here in 1985.”
As for Valley foods, Beardwood doesn’t find the idea of Hot Cheetos covered in cheese “appealing” because, according to her, the idea of adding cheese on top of spicy cheese doesn’t make sense. She also adds that a lot of the popular food choices can contain health risks.
UNHEALTHY CRAVINGSIn a Gallup poll released
March 2012, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area was found to be the metropolitan area with the highest obesity rate in the country. The results show that nearly 39 percent of people in Hidalgo County are obese.
Beardwood said she thinks Valley foods
contribute to that problem.“Raspas are essentially
drinkable sugar, and foods like gummi bears with chamoy aren’t healthy,” she explained. “Gummi bears cause cavities, and chamoy is an acidic paste that can get in the cavities, it’s not a good combination.”
Among the other effects she included sodium retention, leading to swollen hands and fingers, as well as heart problems.
Graham, a native of Indianapolis, recommended alternatives, including switching a raspa out in favor of a trolebus, which is ice with fruit. Similar to a raspa, a trolebus is made from real fruit rather than mixed with syrup.
Even though she said she finds it unhealthy, Graham found some merit in Valley food, citing it as a possible feel-good food.
“We’re wired to look for comfort in food, not just in eating it, but in the preparation of it and the atmosphere in which we eat it,” she explained. “The food here represents tradition. I may not like the nutritional content, but the food here is unique to the culture and shows how it’s something that future generations will repeat.”
PROGRAM DATES:Session 1 - June 3 - 14
Session 2 - June 17 - 28Session 3 - July 8 - 19
Session 4 - July 22 - August 2
Learn to
PLAY
The UTPAWAY!
PROGRAM HOURS:Monday-Friday
8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. Early Program4:15 - 6:00 p.m. Late Program
For Children Ages 6-11
For more information, visit our website at www.utpa.edu/wellness or call (956) 665-7808.
Register Today!
Chicharrones, chamoy, Cheetos & cheeseTHE PAN AMERICAN March 21, 2013
marranadacorn in a cup
+ + + + + + +
cheetos + + +
Page 4 March 21, 2013 THE PAN AMERICAN
chicharron preparado
RGV’s culinaRy tastes moRe than a blend of noRth and south
-Norma Beardwood Dietetics professor
The culture down here is that people are used to spicy food. If it’s not spicy, then they’re going to find a way to make it spicy. ”“
story by Jose s. de leon iii design by Karen Villarreal
picante+ + + + + +
picante
ADVERTISEMENT
Page 5
Shimin Cen knows a thing or two about different cultures.
Born in Antananarivo, Madagascar, the general studies major has eaten a lot during her travels, and has nothing but positive comments about Valley food.
“I’ve traveled around the U.S., and I can honestly say that the food down here is the richest I’ve ever had,” the 26-year-old said. “The cultural
mix allows for so many different possibilities in flavor that is able to combine two unique cultures through food.”
Cen, who arrived to UTPA from Bordeaux, France, in 2010, said that among her favorite
Valley foods are raspas, chicharones preparados and
tacos, which she said are different from the tacos she’s eaten during her travels.
Cen has traveled around Mexico (Monterrey, Zacatecas, Guadalajara), and described the tacos there as “plain corn tortillas the size of a person’s palm.”
In the Valley, she was delighted to see flour and different-size tortillas, and said she was “amazed” at the possibility of adding toppings
such as lettuce, cheese and tomato to the tacos.
CULTURES COMBINED Valley food describes
American food products influenced by Mexican cuisine. The food ranges from small snacks like raspas - or snow cones, to meals like barbacoa, a dish made out of the flesh of a cow’s face.
Among the most popular of these snacks is Hot Cheetos covered in nacho cheese, which even local drive-in restaurant Stars has begun to feature on the menu.
According to UTPA anthropology professor Margaret Graham, the affordability and strong flavors of the local fare appeals to the people of the RGV.
She noted that Valley food could be influenced by Tex-Mex cuisine. According to Graham, Tex-Mex is a term used to describe food made popular in Texas restaurants as a way to make Mexican food appealing to a wide audience. Tex-Mex is known for adding cheese to several spicy Mexican dishes such as enchiladas, beans and rice as a way to dilute their spiciness.
“A lot of the Valley food is
derived from Tex-Mex. It’s a reflection of the development in Tex-Mex in southern Texas,” she said. “We see their influence in how Valley food combine regular dishes with spicy condiments, like chamoy or chili powder.”
Norma Beardwood, a dietetics professor at UTPA,
isn’t surprised at a phenomena like this. She also noted that some of the Valley food is high in calories. For example, a 12 ounce serving of a chamoyada, a raspa with chamoy, contains 390 empty calories.
“There may be some idiosyncrasies between American and Mexican culture that allow for some room for both types of food to mix,” she explained. “The culture down here is that people are used to spicy food. If it’s not spicy,
then they’re going to find a way to make it spicy.”
Eddie Villalobos, owner of La Hormiga: El Original, a raspa store located at 1414 N. 23rd St. in McAllen, said he sees Valley foods as a way to make people feel at home north of the border.
“It’s like a local connection
for them. Plus, people don’t have to cross to Mexico for food like this,” he explained.
Villalobos opened his business 20 years ago as a raspa stand, then slowly expanded to include snacks or munchies, as he calls them. He sees his stand as a way to bring people together.
“College students from across the Valley make up 30 percent of the customers,” he said. “The rest are either families or seniors, and they’re all cozy in this environment
with food that they crave.”Beardwood, a native of Rhode
Island, said that every region has a unique spin on food.
She recalled how, at a recent potluck, she brought Boston Baked Beans, a local favorite in her hometown known for being sweet. It wasn’t exactly a hit at the party.
“People were disappointed that it wasn’t salty like it normally is here. It’s not something they’re used to,” she said. “But it’s funny because I wasn’t used to their food when I first came here in 1985.”
As for Valley foods, Beardwood doesn’t find the idea of Hot Cheetos covered in cheese “appealing” because, according to her, the idea of adding cheese on top of spicy cheese doesn’t make sense. She also adds that a lot of the popular food choices can contain health risks.
UNHEALTHY CRAVINGSIn a Gallup poll released
March 2012, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area was found to be the metropolitan area with the highest obesity rate in the country. The results show that nearly 39 percent of people in Hidalgo County are obese.
Beardwood said she thinks Valley foods
contribute to that problem.“Raspas are essentially
drinkable sugar, and foods like gummi bears with chamoy aren’t healthy,” she explained. “Gummi bears cause cavities, and chamoy is an acidic paste that can get in the cavities, it’s not a good combination.”
Among the other effects she included sodium retention, leading to swollen hands and fingers, as well as heart problems.
Graham, a native of Indianapolis, recommended alternatives, including switching a raspa out in favor of a trolebus, which is ice with fruit. Similar to a raspa, a trolebus is made from real fruit rather than mixed with syrup.
Even though she said she finds it unhealthy, Graham found some merit in Valley food, citing it as a possible feel-good food.
“We’re wired to look for comfort in food, not just in eating it, but in the preparation of it and the atmosphere in which we eat it,” she explained. “The food here represents tradition. I may not like the nutritional content, but the food here is unique to the culture and shows how it’s something that future generations will repeat.”
PROGRAM DATES:Session 1 - June 3 - 14
Session 2 - June 17 - 28Session 3 - July 8 - 19
Session 4 - July 22 - August 2
Learn to
PLAY
The UTPAWAY!
PROGRAM HOURS:Monday-Friday
8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. Early Program4:15 - 6:00 p.m. Late Program
For Children Ages 6-11
For more information, visit our website at www.utpa.edu/wellness or call (956) 665-7808.
Register Today!
Chicharrones, chamoy, Cheetos & cheeseTHE PAN AMERICAN March 21, 2013
marranadacorn in a cup
+ + + + + + +
cheetos + + +
Page 4 March 21, 2013 THE PAN AMERICAN
chicharron preparado
RGV’s culinaRy tastes moRe than a blend of noRth and south
-Norma Beardwood Dietetics professor
The culture down here is that people are used to spicy food. If it’s not spicy, then they’re going to find a way to make it spicy. ”“
story by Jose s. de leon iii design by Karen Villarreal
picante+ + + + + +
picante
ADVERTISEMENT
Thirteen days and 12 votes decided the Student Government Association presidential elections yesterday, as McAllen natives Aaron Barreiro and Erik Sanchez were declared the winners.
“We knew it would be by phone call, but we weren’t ex-pecting to find out the results today,” Barreiro said Wednesday. “We were completely caught off guard.”
The results for the initial elec-tion were released March 1. Presi-dential candidate and incumbent Matthew Garcia and his running mate Yadira Mejia lost the elec-tion and a runoff election was held between Barreiro and Me-lissa Vento.
Barreiro, a 19-year-old senior pre-med biology and psychology major, and former senator, and Sanchez, a 20-year-old senior pre-med biology major, received 962 of the votes while Vento got 950. Vento said Wednesday night that because of the close margin, she and running mate Ruben Delga-do plan to request a recount.
“I don’t know how the process would work, and I feel like that has been the case for this entire election,” said Vento, a 21-year-old junior civil engineering major and Edinburg native. “We plan to inquire what it would take to get a recount, and I’m not sure how it would work since it was all (an electronic vote) but we hope something gets done.”
Barreiro and Sanchez stated that if a recount is announced, they would comply.
“(Regarding a recount) If she wants to, she wants to. We aren’t against it. That’s fine.” Sanchez said.
If a recount happens and Bar-
reiro and Sanchez are affirmed as the winners, they will begin their term as executives April 15.
“We are going to enjoy it for now,” said Barreiro. “We are still trying to get our heads around it. There are over 19,000 students on campus and we have to make sure their concerns are met.”
Not only did the SGA elec-tion undergo a runoff election after the general election: there were complaints made against some of the campaigns, which delayed results.
THE COMPLAINTSOver spring break, the judi-
cial committee, composed of the associate justices and the faculty justice in SGA, met March 11-13 and spoke with the people who had made the complaints. The Dean of Students’ Office de-clined Wednesday to release the contents of the complaints to The Pan American, according to Re-becca Gadson, the assistant dean of students.
The purpose of the meetings was to understand what the prob-lems were and try to come up with solutions.
Gadson and Maria Fuentes-Martin, the dean of students, were the only people who knew the results of the runoff before they were announced Wednes-day, according to Gabriel Torres, the SGA chief justice.
“The reason that we post-poned (the results) is we wanted to avoid electing a vice president and president, find out they were guilty and have to tell them the next day, ‘We are sorry. Even though you got elected, you have to step down,’” Torres said.
According to Torres, the complaints were mostly about some of the candidates’ actions during the runoff elections but some were made about behavior
during the initial elections as well.The nature of the complaints
revolved around misconduct on the part of candidates, such as violating poster guidelines and rules against campaigning within UTPA buildings.
According to the UTPA Handbook of Operational Pro-cedure policy on free speech, ex-pression and assembly, no person or organization may use a Univer-sity facility for any purpose other than in the course of the regular mission of the University
Barreiro said one of the com-plaints filed against him and his running mate involved a rule stating that no damage could be done to the pillars lining the covered walkways. The complaint stemmed from concerns over how the kind of tape they were using to hang posters and flyers might leave residue.
“Throughout the process, we tried to be as compliant as pos-sible,” Barreiro said. “We were pretty confident that disqualifica-tion wasn’t going to happen.”
Along with the recount, Vento said that she and Delgado also want the full contents of the complaints against the campaigns released to the public.
“Even since the beginning, we’ve felt like everything seemed sort of contradictory...it’s just ev-erything was very (sic) untrans-parent,” she said. “People should have an idea of what exactly went on. We are still unaware of the complaints that were filed; we only have what is rumored.”
ROLE ON CAMPUSIn the event the results stand,
one issue Barreiro and Sanchez plan to tackle is to make amend-ments to the SGA constitution, focusing on areas that they say need to be fixed or changed. These include making senator po-
sitions available for students with disabilities, international students and honor students, which is not specified in the current constitu-tion.
Barreiro and Sanchez also aim to enact plans that were fea-tured in their Recognize, Initiate, Solve and Execute platform. One of these is an off-campus outreach program where SGA members will be sent to area high schools to promote the University.
Along with their outreach program, Barreiro and Sanchez want to set up a Quad Side Chat in the University Quad once a week where SGA members will set up a table to talk to students about campus issues.
Other efforts to reach out to students include creating pod-casts on Facebook and getting students involved with UTPA sports by approaching students in the Quad and Student Union with invitations to athletic events.
“We want to establish a UT-PA-SGA experience,” Sanchez said. “We really want to spread the word that SGA is important and that we really are for the stu-dents.”
As for Vento, if Barreiro is reaffirmed as the new SGA presi-dent, she said she doesn’t plan to return to the governing body as a senator for the College of En-gineering and Computer Science.
“Actually, when we first de-cided to run - and I can’t speak for Ruben - I said even if we lost, we would still come back to the organization and we’re still going to push for the ideas we had,” she said. “But the entire (election) ex-perience has opened up my eyes to things I didn’t see before, and even after the recount, I probably won’t come back to SGA again.”
House Bill 1000, that would merge UTPA and UTB as well as create the new Valley medical school, was unanimously passed by the Texas House of Represen-tatives March 19.
House Representatives still have to look over the bill once more before an amended version can be move to the Texas Senate for consideration.
The bill is authored by Rep. Rene Oliveira, Rep. Terry Cana-les, and three others.
Senate Bill 24, an identical but separate bill to House Bill 1000, was passed by the Texas Senate, March 13. That bill has been pushed forward to the House of Representatives.
According to Jerry Polinard,
political science professor at UTPA and pre-law adviser, before bills can be passed to Gov. Rick Perry, they have to be unified as one. This involves members of both the House and the Senate working out whatever compro-mises need to be reached with both bills through a conference committee involving members of both chambers.
If both bills that pass are com-panion bills, meaning they are identical, one of the bills can be substituted for the other, accord-ing to the Texas House of Repre-sentatives website.
“We are very positive about both bills. Our delegations have worked so well together. They will now take the next step towards governor’s signature,” UTPA President Robert Nelsen, told
The Pan American March 18. “Still, they have to decide which one of the bills will move forward. They are separate bills and at some point they have to be the same.”
Once the completed bill reaches the governor, Polinard said he believes the process will pretty much be over.
“Since he has already indi-cated his support, I think we can assume that the legislative part of the merger will be completed,” he said. “Then the real challenge, once you’ve left those procedural hurdles, the challenge is to address where the devil is in the details.”
However, Polinard pointed out that how the merger will actu-ally be implemented is unknown.
“That (the details of the merg-er) has been the one consistent refrain with all the cheerleading
going on with the two presidents, from the chancellor and even from the regions,” he explained. “How many times have they been asked, ‘OK, how is this going to work? And how is that going to work?’ The answer has been, ‘Well, we haven’t worked those details out yet.’ If this appears to be the case, that the legislative procedures have been taken care of, we turn to the heavy lifting of the details.”
The merger would allow the new university access to the state’s $13 billion Permanent University Fund, or money from West Texas oil lands distributed to members of both University of Texas and Texas A&M University Systems.
“The most important part will be getting the governor’s signature because that makes the bill a law,” Nelsen said.
February 7, 20136
Adrían Castillo/The Pan American
March 21, 2013
MERGER BILL PASSED BY TEXAS House of Representatives
By Charles Valeand Jaime LealThe Pan American
SGA continued from page 1
By Charles ValeThe Pan American
Current SGA president Matthew Garcia, (top) and presi-dential candidate Melissa Vento and her running mate Ruben Delgado (bottom) both lost the election to Aaron Barreiro and Erik Sanchez (Page One).
The most important part will be getting the governor’s signature
because that makes the bill a law.
- Dr. Robert S. NelsenUTPA President
January 31, 2013March 21, 2013 7
“My math is not great, but I had a four-year contract and I knew it was ending,” said Marks, who won 39 games in four seasons after replacing Tom Schuberth in 2009; his club took 16 victories this season, an improvement of five wins over 2011-12. Of the 16-player roster, eight made the AD Honor Roll and four also earned Dean’s List honors, based on fall grades. “Again, if you look at our body of work on the court, what our kids have done academi-cally, in my mind, it does seem like a bit of an odd decision.”
WACMarks also said King, who ar-
rived in 2009, is a strong-willed AD who came to UTPA with an agenda. He and Nelsen facilitated the move to the WAC and have a vision for how they want the future to go.
“So I think more than any-thing, our vision of where we both wanted to go was very similar,” Marks said, speaking of King in particular. “But I think the paths and maybe the way we thought we would get there was different, and obviously he’s certainly entitled to have someone that he is comfort-able with in the way they are going to reach those goals.”
However, Downing is con-cerned that the Athletic Depart-ment may be blinded by the
WAC name, forgetting that it’s not the brand it used to be. It was a conference that used to be known for football before all the conference realignments, and is now reeling from the massive loss of most of its old schools.
“We still don’t have foot-ball, there isn’t a fraternity/soror-ity street row and we don’t have a marching band,” he explained. “Just because it’s the WAC and they can pay people lots of money, the pool of candidates is going to grow, but who knows if they’re go-ing to like it here and enjoy it here. I hope they thought of that.”
PLAYING THE GAMEDowning claims he’s had
a strained relationship with King for years now, even call-ing the AD a bully, and said he was surprised at Monday morn-ing’s meeting because he said he still had one more year. And he thought he understood the situ-ation between the AD and him-self.
After completing his first sea-son as the women’s head coach in 2010, Downing received a phone call from King, during which they discussed adding another year to the contract, according to the coach. But nothing was ever writ-ten or signed: it was just a verbal agreement, Downing said.
“We had a gentleman’s agree-
ment and now he’s denying it. I’m even willing to take a lie detector test,” Downing said. “I was really surprised.”
Although King doesn’t deny that a conversation occurred with Downing, he added that the con-tract is still set to expire at the end of March and will not be renewed.
“I did look to add an extra
year on to each contract a few years ago, but Dr. Nelsen said no because he wanted to familiarize himself with the personnel and the University before agreeing to any changes in contracts,” King said. “Dr. Nelsen said it could be considered in the future, but we never revisited the topic.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Jim Board is an ac-tive Bronc Athletics supporter and UTPA alum/fundraiser who said contracts are just part of the game. Although Board didn’t re-ally know details about the deci-sion, he said he was disappointed
a little. “It is what it is. There must
be something that we don’t know about, behind the curtain,” Board said about King’s decision.
Board, a member of Pan Am’s 1964 NAIA runner-up team, un-derstands that these types of deci-sions aren’t necessarily personal; it’s business, what the admins feel
is best for the program. And he knows the coaches will do well wherever they go next and the University will move on to some-one new, having to live with the decision.
As of now, Tim Anderson and LaToya Howell have become the interim men’s and women’s basketball coaches until replace-ments are found. However, the assistants’ positions are not guar-anteed, according to King.
“It’s up to the next head coach whether they retain them,” King explained. “Most of the time head coaches want to bring their own
assistant coaches in, but they do have the opportunity to try, and I will ask the head coach to inter-view each one of them.”
The search began immediately and King hopes it takes no longer than 30 days. The WAC will defi-nitely be the selling point for can-didates. The department will be unavailable for further comment until the new coaches are chosen.
“I really want to see us have what I would consider a CEO of a program,” King said. “Some-one who’s a right fit to this de-partment, the University, as well as this community.”
THEN AND NOWDowning, who came to the
area from Texas A&M-Com-merce, stated that he has come to love the Valley. He said that the new Bronc coaches will face a dras-tically different situation than he and Marks did when they began.
UTPA has had trouble fol-lowing the rules in the past, and is one of just four schools nation-wide that have been on probation five separate times, three times since the 1990s. The latest stint of sanctions ended summer 2012. King knows that the job was tough for anyone to do.
“Particularly Ryan (Marks), with the probation that he in-herited back in 2009 when he arrived as well, that was a tough
situation so I commend him for that,” King added.
Marks said he believes in the old saying that one must leave the campsite better than he found it. He was aware of what he was getting himself into then and is proud for what he has been able to accomplish with the program.
Marks’ record has steadily improved since his first season at the University. His Broncs fin-ished 2009-10 with a 6-27 record (.182), the 2010-11 season 6-25 (.194), the 2011-12 season 11-21 record (.344) and the 2012-13 season 16-16 (.500). This was the first time the men’s basketball pro-gram was at .500 or better since 2007-08. Overall, Marks’ record at UTPA was 39-89 (.304).
Downing’s overall mark to UTPA was 51-68 (.429), mak-ing him the winningest among current head coaches in all sports. His teams played .500 basketball in the GWC over that span.
“I was obviously hired by one group of administrators to meet those challenges and hopefully, I feel strongly, we did a good job of that. Now we have a new set of challenges,” Marks said about inheriting the suspension. “Obvi-ously Chris King and Dr. Nelsen want to move in a different direc-tion for that and I have to respect their wishes.”
Coaches continued from 1Chris King (center) announces that the contracts for men’s and women’s head basketball coaches Ryan Marks (left) and Denny Downing (right) will not be renewed March 18. King also said the search for new head coaches is under way.
My math is not great, but I had a four-year contract
and I knew it was ending.- Ryan Marks Former men’s head basketball coach
Adrián Castillo /The Pan American
ADVERTISEMENTMarch 21, 2013 Page 8
(21+)
