Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio
11.09.2010 Vol. 44 Issue 12
The
Paisano
Celebrating Thirty Years of Independent News with a Brand New Design
SOUTHLAND
CHAMPIONS
Weekly Beak
Author, artist and storyteller Xavier Garza MA ’07 will give a talk on “Telling Your Stories: Crafting Family Legacies through Writing and Art” at 6p.m. on Nov. 9 at the John Peace Library (JPL), 2nd Floor. The event is free and open to the public. Garza will discuss the creative process behind great storytelling, with an emphasis on how writing and art can provide a vehicle for the young and young-at-heart to explore and preserve their own heritage. He will also read from his latest book, Kid Cyclone Fights the Devil and Other Stories (Pinata Books, 2010). Garza’s work focuses primarily on his experiences growing up in the small border town of Rio Grande City, Texas. He has written and illustrated several bilingual books for young people, including “Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask” (Américas Award Commended Title), “Zulema” and the “Witch Owl,” Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid and Creepy Creatures and Other Cucuys. Garza’s personal papers reside in and are available through UTSA Libraries’ Special Collections. A number of his illustrations are included in The UTSA Art Collection, and a selection will be on display at the event. The event will take place in a newly renovated wing of JPL’s second floor, now home to the Writing Center and two units of the Tomás Rivera Center— Supplemental Instruction and Tutoring Services. The wing represents one more milestone in the library’s 3-year renovation project, continuing its transformation into a 21st century library befitting an emerging premier public research university. This event honors the integration of these three key academic support programs into the library, effectively creating a one-stop shop for student learning engagement. For more information, contact Anne Peters at anne.peters@utsa. edu or 210-458-4863.
Pornified Culture The UTSA Counseling services will be having a seminar on pornography and its effects on society. The seminar will begin Wednesday Nov. 17 at 3:30 p.m. in the recreation center’s wellness center classroom. Telling Your Stories article: Anne Peters Source: UTSA Counseling Services
Burk Frey / The Paisano
Telling your stories
The senior soccer girls hoist their championship trophy after beating defending champ Southeastern Louisiana in overtime. Next, UTSA goes to the NCAA tournament, where they are scheduled to play top-seeded Portland. For more details, see page 9.
Student Government Association denounces plus/minus grading Dana Messer
paisanonews@sbcglobal.net The UTSA Student Government Association (SGA) responded quickly to the administration’s plan to switch to a Plus/ Minus grading system beginning Fall 2011. If the registrar and the Office of Information Technology can implement the new system, UTSA students may experience a change in their GPA as final grades are submitted next year. In response to the news of the plus/minus grading policy, the SGA called an emergency meeting to compose a formal resolution to show discontent with the decision to change the grading system. SGA vice president Nicole Munoz said that the SGA’s rapid response was prompted by the lack of communication between the Faculty Senate and the SGA. “In the previous spring semester, we were briefly told that the plus/minus grading system was a topic that Academic Affairs might be researching, but that was the extent of any type of notification we received,” Munoz said. “Like many other students,
SGA found out about this enactment through the article in The Paisano. This was unnerving to many of our senators. As a result, 23 of our senators drafted a resolution in opposition to the passage of the plus/minus grading system.” The resolution that the SGA drafted will be signed by SGA president Derek Trimm and sent to the Office of the Provost. Trimm explained that the SGA, much like the Faculty Senate, is only an advisory body to the provost; however, the provost is likely to listen to recommendations that the SGA has to make about major changes at UTSA. “We’re going to be getting some kind of feedback from the student body on the issue, so we can start making recommendations,” Trimm said. “Instead of just striking it out completely, we can make recommendations on how we can make this something that doesn’t hurt the students.” The SGA resolution, the Subjective-Objective Grading Act of 2010, lists the grievances that student government has against the impending policy. These grievances range from SGA not being informed properly of the change to the possibility of
grade disassocation between professors who use the plus/minus system and those who do not. The resolution ends with a stout ‘we don’t support this’ message to the provost. Although the new policy is slated for implementation next fall, there are still ongoing discussions among faculty and administration—and now the SGA—which may result in the revising of the plus/minus system at UTSA. “The Faculty Senate has passed it; the provost and president have approved it, but there are still a lot of questions,” Dr. Lawrence Williams, vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies, said. “We just got around to informing the faculty a couple weeks ago.” Williams explained that the majority of questions surrounding the new plus/minus system are focused on how the different departments are going to react to the policy. “If a department’s going to decide, ‘well, I’m going to go to the Faculty Senate and say our requirements should not default to C- or better, they should be C or better,’” Williams said. “We need to flesh out some of that before we go to the students
and say this is our new policy.” The change of grading policy for a university the size of UTSA has historically not been an easy transition among Texas universities. In 2005, The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) had attempted to shift to the plus/minus system; however, the proposal was met with inconclusive evidence in research conducted by faculty and opposition by their student government. Senior vice provost for UTA, Dr. Michel Moore, stated the reasons behind UTA’s abandonment of the plus/minus. “There was a belief that some schools around the country had plus/minus and that it would allow faculty to give more refined grades,” Moore said. “After we examined it, there was no compelling argument for moving in that direction.” In addition to the lack of compelling evidence for UTA, the student government composed a resolution denouncing the use of a plus/minus system. They cited an attempt by Eastern Kentucky to change to the plus/minus system, which was later overturned in favor of the original grading system for that school. Moore warned that making the See PROVOST, Page 2
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