Issue 29, Volume 81

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Issue 29, Volume 81

Houston takes a rain check

With storms causing problems throughout the city, UH suffered from heavy rain that closed campus for two days. | PG. 2

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2 | Wednesday, April 20, 2016

NEWS

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Rebecca Hennes, Editor

The Cougar

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ABOUT THE COUGAR

CAMPUS

With flooding prevalent, students take advantage of days off BRYCE DODDS &

TREY STRANGE

SPORTS EDITOR & ASSISTANT COOGLIFE EDITOR

When the University canceled class Monday due to an incapacitating city-wide flood, students took the extra time to work on projects and homework. But some, like Jazden Skala and his Delta Upsilon brothers, jumped at the opportunity to have a little fun.

Last October, when heavy rains fell just before Halloween, the mechanical engineering sophomore Skala helped to bring kayaks from a fraternity brother’s house in Sugar Land and waited in anticipation of the next heavy rainfall.

“Originally, we planned to float down the bayou,” Skala said. “But then, we kind of saw how quick it was going and how rapid it got when it hit the bridge.”

Skala paddled around a makeshift pond in front of Bayou Oaks with three other Delta Upsilon members and his girlfriend, Sheila Berenji, who is part of

i

Floods hit the city Monday and Tuesday with rain over | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar

Phi Mu. As cars drove by them, drivers honked and cheered.

“The pond wasn’t dangerous, but the water was dirty,” Berenji, a biochemistry sophomore, said.

“Probably the most dangerous thing was the bug bites I got.”

Following the intense storms around the city of Houston, other students found themselves with excess time they aren’t accustomed to having in the final weeks of the semester.

Abel Rocha, a vocal per-

formance and American Sign Language senior, viewed the extended weekend as a blessing by many students.

“I’m totally happy with the cancellations,” Rocha said. “It’s giving me some much needed catch-up time.”

Rocha, an employee at The Nook, said that he saw a drop in the number of customers on Tuesday compared to a normal week.

“It was actually less busy than

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it would have been normally, which I was surprised about,” Rocha said. “Being one of the only things open, I thought more people would have been here.

It’s catching up now, but it was pretty quiet in the morning.”

For violin performance senior Rachel Warden, the cancellations came at a critical time in her semester.

“I had a pre-recital jury yesterday, which means if I didn’t pass the jury, I couldn’t do my recital in two weeks, which is for my degree,” Warden said. “I was really worried about it because I wasn’t prepared at all, so now I have more time to practice.”

But while many students greeted the floods with excitement, psychology sophomore Tatiana Brisco expressed concern.

“My first reaction was to call people to see if everyone was alright,” Brisco said. “I got a few calls from my friends to see if everything was good.”

This close to the end of the semester, Brisco said she thinks the break could be detrimental to students.

“I think it kind of throws your rhythm off,” Brisco said.

“Especially if we don’t open back up pretty soon because I think we only have two more weeks of class left. I don’t know if it’s going to disturb the finals schedule or anything like that.”

Piano performance senior Sonya Bandouil and graduate music student Elena Bokova said they had difficulty in fulfilling basic needs on campus during the flood on Monday.

“One of the hardest parts was probably getting food,” Bandouil said. “Yesterday, everything was shut down except for the dining halls.”

While she took time to relax, Bokova said she did take advantage of the time off to prepare for the end of the semester.

“I got up and saw that there’s no school and went back to bed and got up at 11,” Bokova said. “I have an exam on Friday so I did do some studying, but mostly just stayed in bed or read.”

But after a lazy Monday, Warden said she’s going to use the cancellation of classes on Tuesday as a chance to catch up on what she needs to do.

“This is my second chance,” Warden said. “I feel guilty about not doing anything yesterday so now I’m like ‘I have to do everything’.” news@thedailycougar.com

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With storms causing problems throughout the city, UH suffered from heavy rain that closed campus for two days. —Justin Tijerina/The Cougar

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Wednesday, April 20, 2016 | 3 thedailycougar.com/news

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NEWS

Rebecca Hennes, Editor

HEALTH

Students fight for removal of McDonald's in hospitals ANDREW CARLSON

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Students are pushing to create a healthier environment for the next generation of children.

Students have added momentum to nonprofit group Corporate Accountability International’s campaign, called "Value [the] Meal," to stop Texas Children’s Hospital from renewing its contract with McDonald's.

The Value [the] Meal campaign's goal is to end junk food marketing aimed at children. The group's ultimate goal is to end McDonald's' contract with Texas Children's Hospital and Ben Taub Hospital.

“University of Houston students are integral in building the movement to challenge corporate abuse (and) to call out McDonald's on its targeted marketing directed at children that many of us experienced growing up,” said anthropology senior Victoria Estes, one of three UH students interning with the Value [the] Meal campaign.

The three interns, Estes, sociology junior Claire McCown and business management senior

J'Lynn Cravanas-Sasser, have varying roles with the campaign, ranging from grassroots tactics to volunteer recruiting and media outreach. All work toward the goal of ending the presence of junk food marketing in kid-friendly environments.

“This campaign organizes to end aggressive junk food marketing to children in trusted places such as schools and hospitals,” Estes said.

“With cases of Type 2 diabetes having tripled in the past 30 years, it just doesn’t make sense to have our leading health institutions promoting the world’s most recognized junk food brand.”

McCown worked with volunteers to acquire over 1,000 petitions.

"I also built relationships with several volunteers and organizations throughout the campaign to build community support," McCown said. "This campaign is incredibly important because our food system is broken. It's making people sick and refusing communities the nutrients they need."

Students aren’t just signing petitions. They are also getting actively

involved in the campaign.

"UH volunteers have provided much of the support we've needed with various tactics on the campaign," McCown said. "From petitions to generating phone calls to training community members, UH students and Houstonians have contributed greatly."

Even though the campaign’s main goal is to convince Texas Children’s and Ben Taub to remove McDonald's from their premises, it also hopes to have a long lasting impact on the youth of the community.

“This campaign has taught me that health education and holding food corporations responsible for the abusive way they market their food to hook children as lifelong customers is so much easier than treating a diet-related disease,” Estes said.

According to a 2015 study performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 18 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are obese, while more than 33 percent are either overweight or obese — a drastic increase compared to 1980's figure of 7 percent of children being

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The organization hopes to convince the CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital to not renew its contract with McDonald's. | Andrew Carlson/The Cougar

obese.

Dr. James Hoyle, a pediatrician and Medical Director of Clinical Operations at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic's Main Campus, said educating the public is paramount to making a positive difference in the fight against fast food and childhood obesity.

“It is no coincidence that the rates of childhood obesity are increasing as fast food companies aim more and more of their advertising at youth,” Hoyle said. “I have

worked here for over 40 years, and from my personal observations, childhood obesity has been trending upward nearly the entire time.”

Daphne Hernandez, an assistant professor of health and human performance, explained that this increase in obesity rates has to do with the nutritional value of fast food.

“The concern with fast food is

MCDONALD'S

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Rebecca Hennes, Editor

MCDONALD'S

CITY

Continued from page 3

Heavy rain takes its toll on campus, students Storms lasting from Sunday night through Tuesday resulted in closures for two days.

The "Origin" sculpture at Cemo Hall got its day in the rain Tuesday.

ARE YOUR MIGRAINES AFFECTING YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE? Have you had 4 or more migraines in the past month?

If you answer YES to these questions, you may be eligible to participate in study being being conducted at a research study Baylor College College of of Medicine.

Medicine. the Baylor

Puddles formed throughout campus, including this one in front of the E. Cullen building and the fountains.

HOLY CHUTE!

news@thedailycougar.com

‘

A swamp developed in front of Cougar Woods Dining Hall. | Photos by Justin Tijerina/The Cougar

UH-D student Angel Leal walks toward CBB to study.

that it is calorically dense,” Hernandez said. “Overall, the majority of fast food options are high in fat, salt and sugar. These factors are the main reason you are seeing a rise in obesity rates as people consume an increasing amount of fast food.”

However, no matter how much they educate the community, the campaign needs the cooperation of the hospitals to make their vision a reality.

According to a 2013 report by NPR, there are 22 hospitals in the nation that still contain a McDonald's. Two of those hospitals are in Houston.

The campaign is currently gathering 50 hand-written letters addressed to the hospitals in hopes that they will take the community's concerns into consideration.

"We are invested in the cause to end aggressive junk food marketing toward children in hospitals in order to stop the epidemic of diet-related diseases," McCown said. "We are here to demand that the very hospitals that keep our children healthy create an environment that is filled with fresh food at an affordable cost."

Volunteers will be Volunteers will be compensated for compensated for participation!!

Call ext. 10282 10282or oremail email Call 713-440-4400 713-440-4400 ext. chuddles@bcm.edu to chuddles@bcm.edu todiscover discoverififyou you are eligible eligible If we are unable to answer your call, please

If we are unable to answer your call, please leave a message and we will return your call leave a message and we will return your call promptly. promptly.

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Anthony Torres, EDITOR

OPINION

FLOODING

Houston needs a reality check or next time will be worse FRANK CAMPOS

destroyed, lives lost and families displaced. he heavy rain started There has been a lot of buzz this Sunday and just kept about the flood all over the getting stronger as thunder Internet and news stations. With and lightning shook the city and the focus on viral videos such as surrounding area. Although the horses nearly drowning and the next morning brought lighter rain, video of a reporter saving the life of the night's downpour brought a man on live television, it’s easy to death and disaster to the Houston forget the devastation this storm is area. causing to the city and its people.

With over 1,000 flooded homes So, the big question looms: could Brays Bayou, along with other sections of the city, was affected by the Monand over 1,500 flooding emergenthe damaging effects of the flood day's flooding. | Dailey Hubbard/The Cougar cies, Gov. Greg Abbott announced have been prevented or managed a state of disaster for Southeast better? taste of the killer storm, compared nothing compared to what a hurriTexas on The clear answer is yes. to the coverage it could have cane could do to this area.

Monday.

Although weather is unpredictgotten in today's fast-paced world The Texas Tribune did a simulaLike many able, disaster relief should be a top of live news updates. tion of what would have happened natural disaspriority considering the looming Almost 2,000 people died as to the Houston area if Hurricane ters, sadly, effects of climate change. Sadly, a result of the hurricane which Ike didn’t change course at the last some people disaster relief seems like less of a affected more than 90,000 square minute in 2008. If it had landed just who get caught priority and more of a non-issue miles and left thousands of people 30 miles to the southwest or had in the storm for Texas' conservative lawmakers, unemployed and homeless in Loubeen 15 percent stronger, it would FRANK paid with who have done nothing to make isiana, Mississippi and southeast have killed thousands in Houston CAMPOS OPINION their lives. Six hurricane protection a priority Texas. and crippled the economy.

COLUMNIST people have since Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Although it happened 11 years It's 2016, and I feel no safer in the died and many This is nothing new. Social ago, the effects of Katrina show Houston area than I did eight or others are injured or still missing. media sites like Vine, Twitter, and just how devastating a storm can even 10 years ago. The reality that The scarier part is the effects of Instagram didn’t even exist for be for an unprepared area like one day the city will be underwater this storm are just being felt and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, so our Houston. This most recent storm doesn’t seem as far-fetched as it 10597-Cougar News March 30 Brand Ad Half Page-AD#1_PRINT.pdf 11:58 AM we already have countless homes Internet history books only got1a 4/19/16 may be historic and deadly, but it's once did.

OPINION COLUMNIST

T

Looking at the hashtag #houstonflood on Twitter will show you just how serious this storm was for some Houston residents.

The number of people who waited hours for rescue and who never received help at all is outrageous if you consider how much worse it could be. There are currently five shelters in place and countless brave first responders trying to rescue as many people as possible, but the lack of funds and oversight are obvious.

The United States is advancing in science, technology and ingenuity, yet our government still shows how unprepared it is for what seems like anything above a light sprinkle. The response time and organizational skills of those responsible for keeping us safe is just not cutting it, and next time it's going to cost much more than a few lives if we don’t do anything to fix it.

Opinion columnist Frank Campos is a media production senior and may be reached at opinion@ thedailycougar.com

66| |Wednesday, Wednesday,April April 20, 20, 2016 2016

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Assist in record keeping, accounting (minor), organizing, filing, minor tech support, run errands. Variable/flexible hours. Email jim@encoreins.com IT’S HARD TO FIND GOOD HELP these days, but not with The Cougar Classifieds. One ad can reach thousands!

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HELP WANTED NOW HIRING ALL POSITIONS. STEAK 48, A FINE DINING STEAKHOUSE NEW TO THE HOUSTON AREA, IS NOW HOLDING OPEN INTERVIEWS FOR THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS: LINE COOK,FOOD RUNNER, HOST, SERVER ASSISTANT, SERVER, BARTENDER, BARBACK. PLEASE NO CALLS OR EMAILS REGARDING THESE POSITIONS. PLEASE APPLY IN PERSON ONLY. MONDAY APRIL 17TH - TUESDAY MAY 10TH (INTERVIEWS WILL NOT BE CONDUCTED ON SUNDAY) 11:00 A.M. - 7:00 P.M. RIVER OAKS DISTRICT, 4444 WESTHEIMER RD., BUILDING G, SUITE 301 (WESTHEIMER @ WESTCREEK) INTERVIEW SITE IS LOCATED IN THE BUILDING TO THE RIGHT OF EQUINOX GYM. EMAIL JENNIFER@MDRESTAURANTS.COM

ACROSS 1 Hindu wise man 6 Jerseys, e.g.

10 Lad’s partner 14 Dress designer Donna 15 Cookie since 1912 16 Camp Swampy pooch 17 Hard to combine 18 Don’t raise 19 Curling implement 20 Researcher’s task 23 Its product names may contain umlauts 24 Intoxicating, as a brew 25 Orville Redenbacher’s unit 28 Less hampered 31 Skin lotion additive 32 Holey utensil 33 Easily fooled sort 36 Allied summit of February 1945 40 Futbol fan’s cheer 41 Partners of hills 42 Like unassisted triple plays 43 Malta money 44 Chris Kyle, notably 46 Place to cyber-shop 49 In vogue 50 South American capital

56 TV serial, perhaps 57 Basalt source 58 Cookie trayful 60 Russian-born Deco designer 61 Word of agreement 62 Wed, say 63 Basic requirement 64 Karaoke delivery 65 Smart-alecky DOWN 1 Snowmobile part 2 Harry Potter accessory 3 Part of BART 4 Taskmaster 5 What’s consumed 6 Apres-ski treat 7 Paperless, in a way 8 Drawing place 9 __ amandine 10 Hang around .11 Skylit areas 12 Awaited the anthem 13 The hotheaded Corleone 21 Animated film unit 22 Pep rally sound 25 Fight ender, informally 26 Carrier whose name means “skyward” 27 Thespian’s resume item 28 Kangaroo court penalties 29 Sports officials, briefly

30 Poetic time 32 Like some home runs 33 Start of a grid play 34 Ranch unit 35 Use a spyglass 37 Imago, in the insect world 38 Caboose, for one 39 “Hulk” star 43 Split to 62-Across 44 HBO alternative 45 Rain cloud 46 Clampett player 47 “Sicko” director 48 Shooting marble 49 Trolley sound 51 “A pity!”

52 44-Across garb, for short 53 Place to use a mitt 54 Answer to “That so?”

55 Performs a 27Down 59 “You there!”

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Bryce Dodds, EDITOR

CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT

Proposed collegiate football scheduling overhaul BRYCE DODDS

SPORTS EDITOR

@ BRYCEJDODDSTC

Following the 2013 season, when college football moved from the Bowl Championship Series to the new College Football Playoff, fans and pundits alike lauded the move as a step in the right direction. While installing a playoff system was the right choice, a four-team playoff simply isn’t sufficient for the new world of college football.

There's a lot of debate about which teams should and shouldn't make it into the college football playoff, and with five power conferences and four spots, it creates potential for major problems to occur.

Last week in the conference realignment series, we laid out the four conferences and the 72 teams that populate them.

This week, we’ll be taking a closer look at the organization of the conferences and how

scheduling would work in the regular season.

How it works: regular season

Last week, we talked about how the 72 teams were organized into four conferences with 18 teams per conference. Those are further broken down into two divisions of nine teams per conference in the West, Central, East and South.

While conferences in this situation are much larger than what we’re used to, scheduling works pretty similarly to how it does now.

Each team plays the same 12 games they play now, as well as a conference championship game in each conference.

The biggest difference in this system, as opposed to how conferences schedule now, is that we’re doing away with the traditional out-of-conference scheduling in favor of a more NFL-style, round-robin approach.

Graphic by Courtney Williams

The schedule is broken down into three categories of games: inter-division games, intra-division games and intra-conference games.

The first category is inter-division play. Each team plays the eight other teams from its division to determine the winner of that division every year.

The second category is intra-division play. This means

REALIGNMENT

Continues on page 8

8 | Wednesday, April 20, 2016

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REALIGNMENT

Continued from page 7 that each year, a team from Division A of the West, say the University of Washington Huskies, plays two teams from Division B of the West on a rotating schedule, like in the graphic on page 7.

This continues until they’ve played each team from the other division, and this loops every five years, with the fifth year being Washington playing Missouri, West-Division B, and Utah again.

The third category is intra-conference play. This is a pair of games where a team from one conference plays teams from two other conferences, like in the graphic on this page.

This goes on until they’ve played each team from each other conference and continues to loop.

The intra-division and intra-conference play acts as the four out-of-conference games you might see on a typical schedule, offering a chance to see varying opponents from all over the country.

The locations of these games are broken down evenly: six home games and six away games each season with four

Graphic by Courtney Williams

inter-division home games, one intra-division home game and one intra-conference home game each year, and the same for away games.

When it comes to inter-division games, since you play all the teams in your division each year, it acts as a home-and-away series, as it does in conference play now.

At the end of the 12-game season, the winners of each division play each other in a conference championship game.

Divisional winners are determined by the best record in the division. If there is a tie, then it moves to head-to-head result.

In the Big 12 during the 201415 season, Baylor beat TCU in head-to-head play, but TCU beat

West Virginia, who beat Baylor.

Each team had an identical conference record, and in the end, the Big 12 decided they were co-champions.

It may seem short-sighted, but I don’t believe in going through a long string of tie-breakers.

It may create some issues, but pleasing everyone is hard, and in the case of the 2014-15

Bryce Dodds, EDITOR

season, it can be argued the Big 12 missed out of the College Football Playoff because of lack of commitment to one champion.

So, the winners of each division, under these criteria, play each other in the conference championship, which has big implications.

The winner of the conference championship game for each conference earns an automatic bid into the college football playoff.

While that might seem like a divisive issue for some fans, I believe automatic bids reward conference champions the best, and expanding the playoffs to eight teams still allows for some strong one or two-loss teams to play for a national championship.

Next week, we’ll dive into the expanded eight-team playoff system and look at what a hypothetical playoff would look like using rankings for the 2015-16 season. sports@thedailycougar.com

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