The Paisano Volume 48 Issue 9

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S tudent S abr i na Al f aro di s pl a ys ar t at l ocal exh i bi t. p 6

UTSA sof tball team sweeps rival TX State. p7

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Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

{SINCE 1981}

President Ricardo Romo received the Clark Kerr Ward from UC Berkely for his contributions to the advancement of higher education.

San Antonio Texas Education Agency estimates there will be a 5-10 percent reduction in federal education financing due to the sequester, including $51 million cut for special education and $65.4 million for aid to improvised students.

March 26, 2013

Issue 9

{WWW.PAISANO-ONLINE.COM}

Stabbing near UTSA hospitalizes three Matthew Duarte News Editor

news@paisano-online.com Three men were wounded as a result of stabbings at the 6700 block of Pinon Canyon at Aspen Heights, a student-housing complex near UTSA, in the early hours of Sunday, March 9. KENS 5 reported that the altercation allegedly began at around 1:40 a.m. when a group of students tried to crash a party before returning with pans and box cutters. San Antonio Express-News reported that the altercation allegedly began at a separate apartment, where a melee erupted in the living room. Two of the victims were taken

to Methodist Hospital by another partygoer while the third was initially treated at the scene, according to the Express-News. Witnesses told police that when officers arrived at the scene, the 21-year-old victim was lying facedown and bleeding on the couch with what appeared to be a knife in his upper left shoulder. The male victim was treated on the scene before he was taken to University Hospital, Express-News reported. He was released later that day. According to KAAB, police have been called to Aspen Heights more than one hundred times in the past year alone. Some students have reported feeling safe at Aspen Heights. “Crime isn’t that much of a prob-

lem,“ sophomore biology major Morgon Cisneros said. “I go to a big school, bad things are going to happen no matter what.” In March 2012, Leandre “Dre” Vonzell Hill was arrested for the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Randall Perkins that occurred at the former Aspen Heights property on the 6500 block of West Hausman Road, now known as the Estates at San Antonio. Aspen Leasing Manager Sam Hagerty told the Express-News that the move to the new location on Berthound Lane was not a reaction to the fatal shooting, but rather a planned expansion of the complex. Mary Seitz, a member of a nearby neighborhood organization, told KAAB, “Aspen

Will Tallent/The Paisano

UTSA

Volume 48

Police were called to the Aspen Heights apartment complex more than 100 times last year.

Heights needs to step back in and step up security.” “Our number one priority is our residents,” said Hagerty, according to the Express-News. “I feel safe,” Cisneros said. “I

University keeping pace with Texas’ Energy Sector

City Council forums coming to UTSA

Partne rs hip wi t h S h e l l l a t e st i n d u st r y co l l a b o r a t ion

Texas

Sarah Gibbens

The Texas Senate passed a bill that would limit state executives to two terms

Paseo Editor

news@paisano-online.com

History In this week in 1998, UTSA hosted a then-record 120,000 fans to the NCAA Final Four in the AlamoDome.

Sports The UTSA baseball team will host Baylor at Wolff Stadium Tuesday at 6 p.m. before welcoming San Jose State March 28-30. Softball will host San Jose State March 29 and 30.

AP Photo

Nation The Supreme Court will hear arguments against the Defense of Marriage Act on Tuesday and California’s Prop. 8 on Wednesday. Rulings on both cases will have major legal implications towards gay marriage in the U.S.

live at one of the safer student housing complexes.” No arrests have been reported in the case.

UTSA has partnered with businesses in the economically powerful Eagle Ford Shale industry as well as with up-and-coming solar endeavors

Erin Boren Intern

David Glickman News Assistant

news@paisano-online.com On Feb. 23, Shell Oil Company announced a partnership with UTSA to help create jobs in the Carrizo Springs community through municipal training and a project series regarding the Eagle Ford Shale area—one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the United States, which stretches 400 miles from the Texas-Mexico border to East Texas. This is the latest effort by UTSA to work alongside the energy industry of a state that led the nation in energy production in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It is the goal of Shell and UTSA, according to General Manager of Shell South Texas Jan Sherman, “to develop new and innovative pathways for continuing the growth of the Carrizo Springs community that will benefit generations for many years to come.” Eagle Ford Shale energy mining was responsible for $25 billion in revenue and over 47,000 jobs in South Texas in 2011, according to a May 2012 study conducted by the Center for Community and Business Research at UTSA’s Institute of Economic Development (IED). A 2012 follow-up study will be released on March 26. Currently, natural gas production accounts for 3.1 percent of the state’s workforce and 14.9 percent of gross state

product, according to StateImpact Texas, NPR. UTSA’s IED, Rural Business Program and College of Public Policy will work with local government and business owners to enhance the public’s understanding and to address concerns about Shell’s future productions. The UTSA Rural Business Program will also host monthly business workshops. Sherman said, “Shell is focused not only on the business, but the people who make our business possible.” Shell’s desire to expand the community’s awareness of what the company is doing in the Eagle Ford region is in part due to the criticism of hydraulic fracturing—known as fracking—a process used to obtain natural gas from porous rock formations such as Eagle Ford Shale.

Natural Gas in Texas

Fracking, which involves sending down highly pressurized mixtures of water and various chemicals into the ground in order to force oil and natural gas to the surface, is still not formally regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Overall, Texas has been highly supportive of natural gas production. According to StateImpact Texas, “Texas leads the nation in natural gas production, holding around 23 percent of the nation’s natural gas reserves.” Texas also led the nation in

natural gas production, accounting for 28 percent of the nation’s total in 2011, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Associate Professor of Research at the Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute Afamia Elnakat said the natural gas extraction “could be done to minimize environmental impact… and maximize efficiency in natural gas harvesting.” “Energy independence at a national level creates better security for us and for our children and the future and promotes economic growth for us,” Elnakat said. “There is a big natural gas movement down south in Texas, and it provides economic growth [locally].” However, there have been accusations of chemicals being used in the process seeping into the groundwater, making it hazardous for human consumption and even flammable. The New York Times has also reported that new criticisms of fracking have emerged, such as that the process makes the ground unstable, causing earthquakes in the surrounding area, along with the fracking process depleting the water supply of the already droughtstricken state; these have led to fracking being banned in some areas, such as Tulsa, Okla. and the majority of New York. Gov. Rick Perry supports fracking and said to ABC News in 2011 that “There is no scientific proof hydraulic fracturing has contaminated groundwater.” That same year, Perry

signed into law a bill that required natural gas companies to disclose chemicals used in the fracking process. According to StateImpact Texas, “The act of drilling and fracturing itself” is not a cause for concern, “but rather the disposal wells.” Scientists at both University of Texas and Southern Methodist University (SMU) have found “conclusive scientific evidence that the injection of [fracking] fluids is causing quakes in the U.S.” Cliff Frohlich, associate director with the UT Institute for Geophysics, told StateImpact Texas the easiest way to explain the earthquakes connection to disposal wells is what he calls the “air hockey table model.” “You have an air hockey table, suppose you tilt it. If there’s no air on, the puck will just sit there. Gravity wants it to move, but it doesn’t because there’s friction [with the table surface]. But if you turn the air on for the hockey table, the puck slips,” said Frohlich. “Faults are the same. If you pump water in a fault [which acts as the air in the hockey table], the fault can slip, causing an earthquake.” Frohlich stated, “If disposal is causing earthquakes, you can find a different way of disposing of it. You can dispose of the stuff in a different well, or you can even take it to a fluid treatment plant.” The most recent earthquake occurred in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with a magnitude See ENERGY, Page 2

On March 27, UTSA’s Student Government Association (SGA), in conjunction with the San Antonio League of Women Voters and the San Antonio 20/20 Organization, will be hosting a City Council Candidate Forum at UTSA’s main campus, and again at the downtown location on April 13. These events will give students the opportunity to have their voices heard by future leaders of San Antonio. SGA President Xavier Johnson believes this is an event, “that UTSA has a vested interest in.” Students may wonder how exactly City Council elections will impact their daily lives, Johnson said, when, in fact, many San Antonio residents are directly affected by decisions made at such a local level. City Council makes decisions that impact zoning and, subsequently, building construction. As a university on a trajectory for growth, building laws will be of vital importance to UTSA’s future, according to Johnson. Building laws are also of importance because they affect many of the relationships between UTSA and the city of San Antonio. For example, the Alamodome, built and funded by the city, hosts UTSA football games and, beginning this spring, graduation ceremonies. According to Johnson, “There are many different rules and regulations that [City Council] has within the city and those all affect the students that go here. Every student interacts with them on a daily basis.” SGA’s motivation to host the forum is to “give our involvement and give back to the city as a whole,” said Johnson. A positive relationship between SGA and City Council would be beneficial to UTSA, Johnson stated, and with three new candidates in this year’s race he See CITY COUNCIL, Page 2


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