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Calendar of
EVENTS Wednesday
Texas State Alcohol and Drug Resource Center classes meet from noon-1 p.m. in LBJSC, Room 4-1.9. Pre-registration is required.
Saturday SWAT, the organization that provides free rides back to campus, operates from 11 p.m.-3 a.m.
Sexual Assault & Abuse Services meets at 4:30 p.m. at the Texas State Counseling Center. For more information, call 245-2208.
SWAT operates from 11 p.m.-3 a.m.
Dealing with Dysfunctional Families meets at 5:15 p.m. at the Texas State Counseling Center. For more information, call 245-2208.
Career Services offers a seminar to assist undecided students on discovering major and career goals at 5 p.m. at LBJSC, Room 5-7.1.
Career Services offers “Making Steps Into Human Resources,” at 6 p.m. in the LBJ Student Center, Room 3-15.1. Crosstalk meets at 8 p.m. in the Alkek Teaching Theater.
Thursday
Southwestern Writers Collection presents “Texas As The Scene of The Crime” from 6-9:30 p.m. on the 7th floor of the Alkek Library.
Monday
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Hours of Operation
Albert B. Alkek Library Monday - Wednesday 7:30 a.m. - 1 a.m. Thursday 7:30 a.m. - midnight Friday 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Student Recreation Center Monday - Thursday 6 a.m. - midnight Friday 6 a.m. - 10 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday Sunday 1 p.m. - 1 a.m. noon - midnight Golf Course Open daily 7 a.m. - dusk
Documentary retells story of Alamo battle
By Jennifer Warner Senior Reporter
Students were given the opportunity Thursday to preview an American Experience documentary titled Remember the Alamo before the f i l m ’ s debut on NAVARRO PBS. T h e 1795-1871 film included interviews by historians and anthropologists including Texas State’s own Jesus “Frank” de la Teja. The documentary is a retelling of the famous story of the battle of the Alamo from the perspective of the Hispanic culture. It centers primarily around former San Antonio mayor, Jose Antonio Navarro. “Probably his single greatest feat is at the convention of 1845 because there is very serious debate to denying the Tejanos citizenship,” de la Teja said of Navarro. “They were going to be cast with the black population and the Indian population and left out of Texas citizenship. So he’s an important character, generally, not just for the Tejano population but one who doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves.” The film shows how Navarro was injured as a child. He more than made up for what he could not do physically by throwing him-
self into his studies. Navarro was not at the battle in 1836 when a Mexican army of 4,000 attacked the 200 volunteers defending the Alamo, but his influence was great nonetheless. “He not only participated in Texas’ separation from Spain during the Mexican war of independence and Texas’ separation from Texas Mexico in the Revolution, but he also participated through his sons in the separation of Texas from the United States in the Civil War,” de la Teja said. “Both his sons were Confederate officers. It just portrays the turbulent time that it was.” De la Teja was asked to interview for the film along with a number of other historians and anthropologists from across the country. “The cast of characters is, for the most part, credible,” de la Teja said. “There are always differences of opinion, especially of interpretation, and there are some things I wouldn’t have done the way he did. But I think the purpose of this film is to give you a sense of not only the native Tejano participation in the struggle for Texas independence but how they got there.” The viewing of the documentary took place in the Taylor-Murphy History Building after being moved, because of technical difficulties, from the Centennial Teaching Theater. The film’s director Joseph Tovares was also supposed to have been on campus for the event but a scheduling conflict prevented his appearance. Tovares is also the writer and producer of the film. The hour-long American Experience documentary will air Feb. 2 on PBS. De la Teja, as a historian, believes that Tovares could have covered more information in the documentary, but he understands that there is only so much that can be covered in such a short amount of time. Linda Sullivan, history senior, said she enjoyed the film despite some artistic camera angles. “The documentary was definitely trying to focus on the Tejano influence,” Sullivan said. “The names we remember are Travis and Bowie, but the names we often forget are the ones of Navarro and other Tejanos.”
News Briefs
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Fake guns find way to streets, have grave consequences
The mean streets of Philly have become a battleground for a new wave of weapons. Would-be thugs and gangsters have started arming themselves with guns that fire blanks. Police report the pistols look, feel and sound like the real thing. Capt. Gregory Malkowski of the Philadelphia police's gun-violence task force says police rushed to the scene of a reported shooting recently and discovered a teenager carrying a fake gun, which he had ordered on the Internet. The guns, which are legal to carry, cost less than a bullet-shooting firearm. Malkowski says police have information that indicates some robbers have taken to using the guns and some people flash the harmless gun to look cool. “This type of gun is going to be widespread,” he said. “I'm trying to get the word out because of how realistic this thing looks. You get guns that look realistic; it's unreal.” Police warn that poseurs face a potentially lethal encounter with a real shooter.
Links found between multiple sclerosis, sun, vitamin D Scientists have long suspected that sunshine and vitamin D may protect against the development of multiple sclerosis; now they have additional evidence. Oxford University researchers hypothesized that if solar radiation is protective, multiple sclerosis patients probably would have less solar exposure — and thus lower rates of skin cancer. They then examined skin cancer rates among more than 432,000 Oxford-area patients treated by England's National Health Service from 1963 to 1999. Among the more than 5,000 patients with MS, the prevalence of skin cancers was significantly lower than average. The authors suggested that a minimum amount of sun exposure might guard against the neurological disease, perhaps by damping down the immune system. The study, published in the February Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health , follows a
report in the Jan. 13 issue of the journal Neurology that women who took vitamin D supplements of at least 400 international units per day reduced their risk of developing MS by as much as 40 percent. There are two basic ways to get vitamin D: by taking supplements or by exposure to sunshine, which helps the skin produce it.
Shareholders hold nominations over directors’ heads
WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed, in a regulation titled “Security Holder Director Nominations,” new rules to make corporate directors more accountable to shareholders through new nomination procedures. When the SEC proposes these things, there's always a comment period, when interested folks can opine on the proposal. Sometimes the responses come from pointy-headed academics not knowledgeable in the ways of the world. But one academic, Wendy Gramm, formerly chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and now director of the regulatory studies program at the Mercatus Center at suburban George Mason University, is wellversed in these issues. And Gramm thinks the new regulation is a bad idea: “While some boards of directors have acted contrary to the interests of shareholders” she wrote in her comments, “the SEC has provided no quantitative or even qualitative data to support its assertions that this problem of misalignment (of interests of the board and the shareholders) is widespread enough to warrant a federal regulation or that the proposed rule will address the problem.” One can only hope the SEC listens to Gramm, since she is well-versed in the failure of corporate boards to represent shareholder interests. She joined the Enron Board of Directors in 1993 — after helping draft new CFTC rules that exempted some of Enron's more creative dealings from regulation. She also served on its famous audit committee. From 1996 until its demise, Enron donated $50,000 to the Mercatus Center. Briefs are from wire reports.