10 17 2007 by The University Star

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KAMP KATRINA Documentary screening brings New Orleans

Texas State women’s basketball star represents Nigeria in Olympic bid

tragedy to life at Texas State

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OCTOBER 17, 2007

WEDNESDAY

VOLUME 97, ISSUE 24

BLACKOUT disrupts campus By Sophia Stenis Special to The University Star

Karen Wang/Star photo POWER PROBLEMS: Students resume their daily schedules in the LBJ Student Center despite a circuit short out at the Strahan substation that caused power outages on campus Tuesday morning.

Cell phones became flashlights as students tried to navigate their way around the pitch-black halls of Evans Liberal Arts Tuesday morning. A blackout occurred across half the campus at approximately 8 a.m., causing classes to be canceled and leaving students to wander aimlessly about The Quad. Power was lost because of a fault in a major circuit. This caused a short out and all the circuits on one of the campus’ two electrical buses shut down. All but 28 buildings were without power. But it was not just students who were stranded out in The Quad as they tried to figure out what was going on. University Police Department officers were celebrating the swearing in of five officers despite the blackout when a call was received from an elevator in J.C. Kellam through the department’s 911 system. Joanne Smith, vice president for student affairs, and Mark Hendricks, assistant director of the University News Service, were stuck in an elevator between the first and second floors of JCK. “The comforting part is that we do

have the phone system in place, and the police are well trained to do these rescues,” Smith said. She said this was not the first time she had been stuck in an elevator on campus and that she was not panicked or concerned. “Fortunately, I’m used to dealing with crises,” she said. “I knew we would get out, and people would get there quickly.” UPD Capt. Paul Chapa said the department was short-handed for the crisis as the chief and another captain were not available. “When we get this type of call, we get officers out on the street immediately,” Chapa said. “Some people are claustrophobic, so we immediately call fire EMS.” Power in some buildings was quickly restored, but Blanco, San Saba, Canyon and San Marcos Halls were without electricity until after 2 p.m. The campus’ electrical panel gets feed from two sources, Strahan and Hilltop substations. When the power went out on campus, JCK, Nueces and the LBJ Student Center immediately switched to the alternate substation. Pat Fogarty, associate vice president of facilities, said these three buildings

Lecturer explains origin of gender violence

Karen Wang/Star photo TYPICAL TERMINOLOGY: Jackson Katz writes out stereotypical gender word associations during his lecture Tuesday night at the LBJ Ballroom.

By Carline Schwartz News Reporter Jackson Katz witnessed the role gender violence played in the lives of teenage boys when he worked as a counselor at a juvenile detention facility. He said gender violence in the homes of the young men in the facility aﬀected them emotionally in addition to their behavior. Katz described how the teenagers would sob in his oﬃce as they talked about witnessing violence in their homes while growing up, and would then turn around and put on a tough guy image when they were in front of their peers. He attributed such behavior to the media’s role

in promoting gender violence in U.S. society. This was all part of a discussion Katz, an antisexist activist, had with Texas State students Tuesday night at the LBJ Ballroom. The focus of the speech was on the pressing issue of men’s violence toward women, which is referred to as gender violence. “Focusing on the girls and women is not prevention; it’s risk reduction,” he said. “If individual girls or women do everything they are supposed to do, even then they might be vulnerable. But if they successfully reduce their risk, then the girl or woman next to them is going to get it.” Katz said macho ideals in sports and entertainment play a role in promoting violent acts

committed by men in American society. He went on to describe how the image of men has changed overtime and how that has affected the way society views men. He gives an overview of this in his film Tough Guise. For example, he said the physical appearance of Batman from the 1960s changed from a slender superhero to the muscular built Batman of the 1990s. In the film, he showed how the masculine physiques of action figures have changed over time. He said while the physical appearances of men in the media are becoming more muscular and larger over the years, the physical appearances of women have become smaller and weaker. After showing clips from his different films, Katz said American culture has become desensitized in regard to how women are portrayed in the media. He further said terminology affects the way issues are viewed by people. “All those issues that are referred to as gender violence issues have historically been considered women’s issues ... I think the act of that is part of the problem,” Katz said. One of the last clips Katz showed from one of his films was the world of professional wrestling. He said the sport publicly abuses women physically and sexually, contributing to the promotion of a culture that disregards women. Christopher Morales, vocal education junior, offered his perspective on this element of Katz’s speech. “I think many people were shocked by the wrestling segment … with all those clips of women being degraded,” Morales said. “In many ways it was awful. It’s more shocking that you take a passive approach to it in everyday life.” He dissected stereotypical words such as “feminazi” and “male-basher” while showing how they affect women and their stance toward the issue of gender violence. He then went on to describe the importance of men taking a stand regarding the issue of gender violence and how becoming apart of the solution can affect the way the issue is viewed. He said people can take a stand on the issue by becoming critical consumers.

are considered highly critical facilities because JCK is the hub for administration, Nueces Hall is where the police department operates and LBJSC is densely populated. “We have flexibility to pick and choose what we’ll power up, and we power up the critical buildings first,” Fogarty said. It took longer than expected to restore power to some buildings because after reenergizing the power and beginning to load circuits, they were tripped again. An additional problem was diagnosed when a loose connection between San Marcos Electric Utility and Texas State’s high voltage power was discovered. Fogarty said the utility company responded quickly to the malfunction, and that workers mobilized immediately to replace the faulty connections and tighten up others. “I was very pleased with the way our (co-generator) staff and electrical shop went about systematically restoring the power, and I’m really happy with SMEU,” Fogarty said. He said that 350 feet of high voltage cable will have to be replaced in the next week.

Students on academic probation have new option By Kristen Williams News Reporter Students on academic probation may receive help from a new voluntary program designed to assist them in problem areas. The program, called Partners for Academic Student Success, will begin in spring 2008. Since its development in the College of Applied Arts and College of Science, the students involved have improved academically. In spring 2007, 82 percent of applied arts students who completed the program showed progress whereas 54 percent of students who did not participate showed academic growth. Students are placed on academic probation when their grade point average falls below 2.0 at the end of a semester. Jennifer Beck, director of retention management for student affairs, said almost half of the students who go on probation drop out. A large number of these are freshman. “When we look at students on probation, a lot of the students are transitioning for the first semester,” Beck said. “There is a big chunk of freshman and the other group is transfer students. A lot of that is attributed to adjusting, knowing where to go for help, being willing to ask for help (and) learning more about independence.” Students in the program will attend one overview seminar and three workshops of their college department’s choice to help raise their GPA. The workshops have individual themes such as career, stress, financial aid, health and leadership. “Academic advising centers will be heavily involved,” Beck said. “They can modify (the program) to complement what they have going on. It gets them involved and connected with resources on campus. All the workshops are open to the general student body. The workshops are promoted through college Web sites, e-mails, flyers and presentations.” Laela Wilson, the program’s coordinator and academic adviser for the College of Applied Arts, said it is a great idea to put the program into practice throughout the university. “With the College of Applied Arts, we see that numbers of students on probation are going down faster than students who do it on their own,” Wilson said. “We get very positive feedback about it. Most students who complete it find it beneficial in some way.” Beck said academic probation is more likely to happen to students who are paying more attention to their jobs than See ACADEMIC, page 3

Changing face of atheism offers new understanding of beliefs Sean Batura News Reporter Atheism has historically been used in the West as an epithet against those who profess beliefs radically dissimilar from established religions. Though they did not profess to be atheists, and the evidence suggests they were not, Socrates, Democritus and Epicurus were called atheists by their opponents, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Even the early Christians were labeled atheists by Roman polytheists. Though truly atheistic religions such as Taoism, Buddhism and Jainism have ﬂourished in the Far East for more than 2,000 years, it has only been in recent

times people in the West have openly asserted Gods do not exist. Last month, U.S. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., publicly admitted his lack of belief in a supreme being, making him the ﬁrst member of Congress to openly identify as a nontheist. “Coming out” as a nonbeliever may be risky for U.S. politicians, as the results of a Gallup Poll published earlier this year indicated a qualiﬁed atheist candidate would get fewer votes than a homosexual, a woman, a person over 72 or a Mormon. According to the poll, 45 percent of respondents said they would vote for an atheist, while 53 percent said they would not. Yet atheism may be on the rise in the

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U.S. if recent bestsellers and polls of religious identification are any indication. According to a report published by the Pew Research Center last year, “One-in-five members of Generation Next say they have no religious affiliation or are atheist or agnostic, nearly double the proportion of young people who said that in the late 1980s.” A 2004 report commissioned by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research found the proportion of Americans who identify with no religion “has grown substantially in the last 10-12 years.” At least five books propounding an atheistic perspective have made the New York Times bestseller list in the last two years. Sometimes referred to

as “the unholy trinity” by their opponents, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens have written popular books highly critical of religious faith. Philosophy professor Jeﬀ Gordon said he thinks the popularity of Harris’ book is indicative of a change in elite circles of opinion. “This was sort of a public intellectual saying, ‘It’s time to stop giving faith a pass,’” Gordon said. “That was really (Harris’) cry, and I think that and I think that Dawkins and D.C. Dennett are doing the same thing. They’re saying, ‘It’s time for the intellectual who has long since given up belief in God to just say so publicly.’ And why? Well,

it’s no accident this is coming out after 9/11. They’re thinking, ‘Religion does positive harm.’” Gilbert Fulmer, philosophy professor, was cited in a recent the New York Times bestseller God: The Failed Hypothesis: how Science Shows that God Does Not Exist, by physicist Victor Stenger. Like Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens, Stenger advances the idea many religious claims, including existence claims involving certain conceptions of God fall under the domain of science, and may therefore be subject to disproof. Other notable atheists, like the See BELIEF, page 3

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