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Volume 71, No. 17 February 5, 2015
Pages 4-5Masked Rider Open
Track and field in Lubbock
panamericanonline.com
ONLINE CONTENT
Sword Art Online review
Anime Blog
Cancelled
International match removed from schedule
Nancy Larson Scholarship awarded
The Quran, or the sa-cred text of Islam, tells of the Prophet Muham-mad’s trials in sev-enth century Saudi Arabia. Verse 5:32 says “Whoever kills a soul … it is as if he had slain man-kind entirely.”
Yet terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram have been ramping up violent acts in the name of Islam. The latter is a Nigerian militant or-ganization that gained notoriety after kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls last April before mar-rying them off. The group car-ried out its deadliest attack Jan. 9 leaving as many 2,000 dead, as reported by CBS News. Boko
Ha -ram, which
roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden” in the region’s language of Hausa, now controls part of northeast Nige-ria as part of its effort to over-throw the government and create an Islamic state.
Nour Alanbari, a 19-year-old Muslim and president of the Muslim Students’ Association at UTPA, recognizes the damage these groups do to his faith. He referenced the Jan. 7-9 attacks in Paris that ended with 17 fatali-
ties as an example of what true Mus-lims should never do.
A pair of Muslim broth-ers initiated a shooting spree at the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo as retaliation for drawings it had previously pub-lished of the Prophet. Rendering representations of Muhammad, or any prophet, is forbidden in Islam because it is believed to encourage the worshipping of idols. BBC reported witnesses claiming they heard the brothers shouting they had avenged the Prophet Muhammad.
When ex-tremists dedicate ruthless moves like these to Islam, peace-ful followers of the faith groan in frustration. Alanbari, whose par-ents hail from Syria and moved to the U.S. before he was born, feels the pair of men greatly botched any attempt to please the Prophet.
“The way I see it and the way many Muslims see it is that if the Prophet was alive today and somebody drew him, that
would be the least of his con-cerns. He wouldn’t care because there are so many other worse things happening,” said Alanbari, a pre-med biology student. “In
light of these tragic events that have happened, those people
who call themselves Mus-lims, what they did was
absolutely wrong and they shouldn’t have retaliated like that. If
anything that puts fuel in the fire. They had nothing to gain out of that. The only thing that happened because of it is that people hate Muslims even more.”
ISLAMOPHOBIA
Misrepresentations of Islam stir the anti-Muslim pot. Some media reported that anti-Muslim senti-ment has been rising along with
CONTINUES ON PAGE 3
By May OrtegaThe Pan American
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February 5, 20152 opinion
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Letters to the editor
Before television sets and radio shows were invented reading was one of the most common forms of enter-tainment. When publishing house Penguin Books first opened in 1935 and offered paperback novels at afford-able prices they sold over 3 million copies within the first year, according to smithson-ianmag.com.
Today, the average person only reads four books a year according to persistenceunlim-ited.com and 25 percent of the adult population isn’t reading at all. Reading is widely con-sidered too time-consuming and movies or TV shows are favored as an easier and faster
form of entertainment. This is an unsettling development.
Watching television is a good way to pass an hour or two of free time in between doing your work or going out, but those who spend an entire day binge watching should ex-ercise some restraint.
An online article by ESLBee.com warns that the amount of time anyone spends watching TV - a quarter of their day, ev-ery day - can be detrimental to brain development.
Meanwhile, persistenceun-limited.com insists that there are at least 26 advantages to reading on a regular basis. Whether you’re reading ro-mance novels or factual work-
related manuals, any kind of reading will flex the muscles of your mind in several areas such as vocabulary, problem solving and memory.
It is easier to pick up on at an early age, which is why edu-cators at Evangelina Garza Ele-mentary School in Peñitas have
made an extra effort to encour-age reading in their students, according to valleycentral.com. It is especially important that we raise literacy rates in the Rio
Grande Valley because, the ar-ticle states, we have the lowest ranking literacy in the entire state of Texas.
Young or old, reading for pleasure should be a priority. No matter where you work or what school you go to reading is a part of your everyday life. You read questions on tests, assignment instructions in ev-ery classroom; you read work memos and paperwork. Being an active reader and spend-ing at least one day a week on pleasure reading can help you increase your speed and fluency in all of these mundane tasks.
So find a book that catches your eye and remember that reading will do more than en-tertain you, but will also lead to an increase in overall perfor-mance that cannot be denied.
Andy De LlanoCopy Editor
1201 West University, ARHU 170 Edinburg, Texas 78539Phone: (956) 665-2541
Fax: (956) 665-7122
The Pan [email protected]
ediTors-in-chief: Andrew VeraMay Ortega sPorTs ediTor: Marco TorresarTs & Life ediTor: Nerio CelayaPhoTograPhy ediTor: Jon Nutt design ediTor: Francisco Rodriguez muLTimedia ediTor: Michael AguilarsociaL media ediTor: Nathaniel MatacoPy ediTor: Andy De Llano adviser:Dr. Greg SelberadminisTraTive associaTe: Anita Reyes adverTising manager: Verónica Rodríguez
The reason we need more readers
Vol. 71, No. 17
The Pan American is the official student newspaper of The Univer-sity of Texas-Pan American. Views presented are those of the writ-ers and do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or university.
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Book lovers dying out
Reading is widely consid-ered too time-consuming and movies or TV shows
are favored as an easier and faster form of entertainment. This is an unsettling development.
Corrections: Jan. 29, 2015An article printed on Thursday about a rally held at the Whole Women’s Helath Clinic in downtown McAllen misstated the reasons behind the rally as well as its organizers’ roles. The rally was organized by South Texans for Reproductive Justice and was set as a counterdemonstration against local Catholic churches who marched on that day in opposition of abortion rights. In addition, the story misstated that there were 25 attendees at the event; the number of attendees was more than 50.
@mrigs32Only a little more than one week until opening day! Can’t wait to put that jersey on and represent with my new brothers. #utpa #broncsbaseball photocred- @seanpkinder
the frequency of Islamic terror at-tacks. Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West or-ganized a march against Muslim immigrants in Dresden, Germany Jan. 12 and attracted 25,000 pro-testers, according to The Wall Street Journal. There has always been a far-Right fringe in Europe with racist or xenophobic ideas and the increase of Islamic terror has given members an opening to propagate their ideologies, which are often against immigration. Alanbari, who attended an Islamic school in Dallas from pre-K through the fifth grade, said negative percep-tions of his religion don’t surprise him.
“A lot of people don’t really un-derstand when it comes to Islam, or any religion for that matter. There’s a good and bad for every group and people fail to realize it because of their ignorance or their hate,” the New Jersey native said. “Sometimes it’s understandable because they don’t know where to begin learning about Islam and the media is filling them with im-ages of extremists and things like that. It’s kind of reasonable that the default image is that Muslims are bad.”
According to The Associated Press, Islam is the second most popular religion in the world with about 1.6 billion followers, or 23 percent of the world’s population. While 61 percent of Muslims live in the Asian-Pacific region that includes India, about 2 percent reside in Europe where freshman Ameera Khan said Islamopho-bia is prevalent. In 2010 France passed a law which made the cov-ering of one’s face in public illegal, effectively banning burqas and niqabs - which Muslim women wear for modesty.
Two years later France’s National Ob- s e r v a t o r y of Islamo- p h o b i a reported an- ti-Muslim attacks had risen by 34 percent in 2011. B e t w e e n Janua r y and Octo- ber 2012 there were 175 such inc idents r e p o r t -ed, up 42 percent from the s a m e period the p r e v i -
ous year. Tell MAMA UK is a national
project that keeps track of anti-Muslim incidents in Europe. It reported 51 occurrences in France one week after the Charlie Hebdo attack; 20 of them were vandal-ism and another nine cases in-volved the use of firearms. Khan, the parliamentarian and historian of the Muslim Students’ Associa-tion, explained how the January shootings worsened the plight of French Muslims.
“What they did in those two days messed up everything that Muslims in France have been working toward for years or centuries,” said Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and moved to the U.S. at the age of 6. “I feel so bad for them because they’re trying to progress and become more integrated into society so people see we’re not that differ-ent, but then one thing happens and all the Muslims are taken back like 100 steps. We work so hard for nothing.”
As an opportunity to give stu-dents insight on this religion, the University offered an introduc-tion to Islam course this semester, but it was cancelled because only five students enrolled. Ken Grant, who teaches various courses at UTPA such as history of religion, was set to lead the class. He said this was not the first time the course had fallen through due to lack of student interest.
“Most people in the United States have no idea about Islam generally,” said Grant, who has been lecturing at UTPA since 2006. “And because Islam is in the news so much and so much of the way in which it is reported can be distorted by political agen-das, (the audience is) not getting a real sense of its history, develop-ment, theology, and philosophical outlook. So people don’t know what Islam is. These introductory courses are designed to address that very central issue.”
Grant had planned to dedicate about a third of the course to studying the Quran with his students because of t h e importance of u n - derstanding the
text. Interpre-
tation, he said, is key when it comes to any literary work. This is where violence in the name of Islam comes into play.
MISINTERPRETATIONS
According to The Associated Press there are two branches of Islam, formed after the Prophet’s death in 632 AD; they are Sunni and Shiite. At the time his follow-ers were divided on who to choose as the caliph - the spiritual and temporal leader of Muslims.
Shiites believe Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law and cousin, should’ve risen as the caliph due to his bloodline. He eventually became the fourth man to take the po-sition before being murdered. Sunnis consider themselves tradi-tionalists and believe the first four caliphs rightfully took this title as their faith’s leaders.
The Sunni make up 85 percent of all Muslims worldwide. Within this branch is a subgroup of peo-ple called Wahhabi Muslims. Ac-cording to AP, Muslims who have a strict adherence to the Quran are part of the Wahhabist sect. The Merriam-Webster Encyclope-dia indicates that these individuals “advocate a return to the original teachings of Islam as found in the Quran (sic).” Some individuals who fall on the strict end of the spectrum, such as members of ISIS and al-Qaeda, believe people who do not practice Islam as aus-terely as they do are considered enemies. These groups seem to be working toward a global caliph-ate, meaning a single caliph would rule the entire world.
UTPA’s Grant explained that every religion has followers who take their holy text literally and those who are “more willing to allow broader interpretation.” He said the Quranic literalists are those who modern individuals
may call “Islamic fundamen-talists,” reading the text in one specific, rigid way. This rigidity, he said, results in a stringent belief system.
“They look at the Quran and all of them believe this is the sacred text, that doesn’t change. But how they read it and understand its context does,” the Lu-theran School of The-
ology at Chicago alumnus said. “Can things be altered slightly depending on (their) current conditions? The literalist will say, ‘No, there’s one reading and one reading only and that never changes.’ There are other Muslims who say: ‘This is what Muhammad said, but we are open to the possibility that it can be interpreted with some variation.’”
Grant clarified that strict lit-eralists’ interpretation of the Quran are influenced by their worldview which is largely against modern ideas like gender equality and gay rights.
“The Wahhabism movement is an anti-Western movement. They believe that Western ideas of freedom, equality and open-ness are dangerous because that chips away from control,” he said. “So think of societies that want to maintain religious, political and social control. They tell you what to wear, what you can do and can’t do.”
Although Boko Haram col-loquially translates into an anti-Western phrase, the group’s full name explains their intent more thoroughly. When translated into Arabic, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad means “People Committed to the Propa-gation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad,” according to BBC News Africa. National Geograph-ic explains that Jihad is Arabic for “struggle” as in a struggle for self improvement, but it also means fighting back against oppressors.
Boko Haram members live by a distortion of the latter definition and go so far as to punish non-believers. Grant said that these types of Muslims are very insular and intolerant, reacting violently against things that don’t match their ideals. This mentality has been observed within a number of radical movements through time, and recently has fos-tered high-profile beheadings, shootings and other bloody acts.
ISIS recently made head-lines after kidnapping two Japanese men - includ-ing journalist Kenji Goto - in northern Syria. In a video released Jan. 20 a masked man demanded
a $200 million ransom from the Japanese government within 72 hours. However, the bill was left unpaid and the group released two videos confirming each pris-oner had been beheaded before February.
“Their violence is so over the top and so excessive. What is it in modern society that scares them so much that they’re willing to kill, maim and destroy to get what they want? I think they’re afraid of modernity, the West and equality,” Grant said. “It scares them because they can’t control it. People who are afraid of a dia-logue just want to be in charge and how do you get people to do what you want? You scare the hell out of them or you kill them.”
Osama bin Laden was one ter-rorist who devised several plans, including 9/11, to get his way. U.S. News and World Report wrote that he disliked the States’ close relationship with Israel. He also held a grudge against the U.S. for imposing sanctions against Iraq resulting in hundreds of thousands of Muslim children succumbing to starvation or ill-ness. In a March 1997 interview with CNN, bin Laden explained his distaste in having American soldiers in “the country of the Two Holy places,” referring to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. He claimed Islam does not permit non-Muslims to live within the country and consid-ered them infidels for occupying the area.
However, the clash between Middle Eastern and Western people goes as far back as the days of the Holy Crusades. This series of battles began in 1095 when Muslims and Christians fought for control of Jerusalem, which is known as the Holy Land. Accord-ing to History.com, the Muslims fought back to keep that sacred ground in their possession.
Khan, a double major in pre-med biology and English, believes that what to her is an amicable religion is be-ing muddied by present-day Wahhabists bent on getting their way.
“If those extremists honestly be- lieve they’re Mus-lims for kill-
ing all these people for trying to spread some religion, they’re not Muslims because they literally destroyed the meaning behind Is-lam, which is peace,” she stressed.
Even if these Muslim extrem-ists believe they have good inten-tions, Grant feels they are going about it all wrong.
“It’s people who say, ‘I’m right, you’re wrong. You must do what I tell you to do and if you don’t I’m going to take care of that. I will make you obey and do what I want you to do,’” he said. “They don’t see the harder they grip their hands, the more chaos they’re ac-tually creating.”
Boko Haram is leaving an ex-cessive trail of blood in its path to control, using tactics such as sending young girls out as suicide bombers Jan. 10-11, as reported by CBS News. Since last Janu-ary the group has killed between 6,717 to 13,180 people, accord-ing to The Washington Post. In comparison, the ISIS death count for the same period ranges from 4,000 to 9,000 people.
Still, Alanbari advises against turning to the media in hopes of alleviating false perceptions about violence stemming from Islam. Instead he recommends looking into the religion’s holy text.
“Don’t look at what all these bad Muslims are doing. You have to look at the source, the Quran, and see what it preaches. It also helps to read the sayings of the Prophet and if you come into both those things with an open mind, a lot will make sense,” he said. “Then you’ll see that these people who were doing these hor-rid acts that claim to do it in the name of Islam and the name of Allah, they’re wrong and they’re a bad representation of Islam.”
Alanbari and Khan said if students are curious about Is-lam they are welcome to join the Muslim Students’ Association at UTPA, which will m e e t Thursday, Feb. 5 in the Science building room 3.212 at noon. The group can also be reached via its Facebook page.
3news February 5, 2015
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
THE PAN AMERICAN THE PAN AMERICAN Page 5Page 4
Story by Kevin LaraPhotos by Jon NuttThe Pan American
February 5, 2015February 5, 2015
The Bronc men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to the Athletic Training Center in Lubbock to compete in a two-day session at the Masked Rider Open Jan. 30-31. UTPA was one of 27 teams that competed in the event. The Bronc teams com-bined to achieve seven top-10 finishes.
Highlighting the event was 6-foot graduate stu-dent Erika Anderson in women’s weight throw. Her best toss reached 16.01 meters, earning a third place finish. A Dal-las native and criminal justice major, Anderson has been a member of the track team since her freshman year in 2011.
“I have learned to al-ways go out and compete
to the best of my abilities no matter what,” Ander-son said. “I’m able to build upon that because I know that I’m capable of so much more and my hunger to compete and win has only made things so much better.”
Her performance fell short of her career best of 16.78 meters, posted in 2014 at the Western Athletic Conference In-door Championships; that throw earned her fourth place.
“One of the major ob-stacles I must overcome is competing with my-self,” she said. “I do that by perfecting my tech-nique as best I can, and winning has only made things so much better. My goals for the indoor season are to throw 17 meters or more and place top three at conference.”
She was joined in the event by sophomore
Cristina Santiago Bravo who finished 10th with a throw of 14.34 meters.
Also notching a third-place finish was senior thrower Trey Taylor on the men’s side. Tay-lor was able to improve
from his performance last year by throwing 17.2 meters, beating his previous throw by 1.05 meters.
After transferring to UTPA in 2014 from North Iowa Area Com-munity College, Tay-lor posted a career-best throw of 18.10 meters at
the WAC Indoor Cham-pionships in Moscow, Idaho, good enough for second place last Febru-ary.
Capping the field events, sophomore Ja-vier Carretero had a
career-high day, finish-ing right behind Taylor and earning a fourth place nod with an effort of 16.73 meters. Dur-ing his career, Carretero has finished in the top five in all of his indoor meets. Joining the pair was junior Grady Young with an 11th place finish
(15.04 meters). Freshman Jennifer Za-
pata competed in her second career event and came in sixth place in the women’s mile run with a time of 5:15.04. The time beats her previous best she recorded at the Texas A&M Invitational in College Station Jan. 16, by about four sec-onds. Edinburg native and graduate student Robin Galloso earned an 11th place finish with a time of 5:19.86.
Rounding out the women’s performanc-es, Galloso was able to achieve seventh in the women’s 3,000-meter run in 10:32.88. Hav-ing not competed in the competition run since her sophomore year in 2012, Galloso has earned two seventh place fin-ishes this indoor season including a career best time of 10:18.93 at the
Texas A&M 13-Team Invitational.
“I feel that I have im-proved greatly since I have started running here at UTPA,” Galloso said. “It has taken me a while to get where I am at, but I feel like I can push myself more and run faster with hard work.”
The men’s team capped off with a 10th place finish by junior Jose Juan Wells in the men’s 3,000-meter run (8:59.24).
The Broncs’ next event will be Feb. 13 for the Houston Tune Up at the Yeoman Fieldhouse, on the campus of the Uni-versity of Houston.
This is the final event until the WAC Cham-pionships Feb. 26-28 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Both squads are aware of the competitive factors involved in competing
at such a high level. “I think the work that
I have been doing with my coach has given me confidence to compete more aggressively,” Gal-loso said. “It is about strength, mental tough-ness and the will to hang on to a pace no matter how much it hurts.”
Alyssa Canul Erika Anderson
I think the work that I have been doing with my coach has given me
confidence to compete more aggressively.
- Robin Galloso Long distance runner
Justin Gonzalez Trey Taylor
Rebekah Rodriguez Leocajuan Williams
THE PAN AMERICAN THE PAN AMERICAN Page 5Page 4
Story by Kevin LaraPhotos by Jon NuttThe Pan American
February 5, 2015February 5, 2015
The Bronc men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to the Athletic Training Center in Lubbock to compete in a two-day session at the Masked Rider Open Jan. 30-31. UTPA was one of 27 teams that competed in the event. The Bronc teams com-bined to achieve seven top-10 finishes.
Highlighting the event was 6-foot graduate stu-dent Erika Anderson in women’s weight throw. Her best toss reached 16.01 meters, earning a third place finish. A Dal-las native and criminal justice major, Anderson has been a member of the track team since her freshman year in 2011.
“I have learned to al-ways go out and compete
to the best of my abilities no matter what,” Ander-son said. “I’m able to build upon that because I know that I’m capable of so much more and my hunger to compete and win has only made things so much better.”
Her performance fell short of her career best of 16.78 meters, posted in 2014 at the Western Athletic Conference In-door Championships; that throw earned her fourth place.
“One of the major ob-stacles I must overcome is competing with my-self,” she said. “I do that by perfecting my tech-nique as best I can, and winning has only made things so much better. My goals for the indoor season are to throw 17 meters or more and place top three at conference.”
She was joined in the event by sophomore
Cristina Santiago Bravo who finished 10th with a throw of 14.34 meters.
Also notching a third-place finish was senior thrower Trey Taylor on the men’s side. Tay-lor was able to improve
from his performance last year by throwing 17.2 meters, beating his previous throw by 1.05 meters.
After transferring to UTPA in 2014 from North Iowa Area Com-munity College, Tay-lor posted a career-best throw of 18.10 meters at
the WAC Indoor Cham-pionships in Moscow, Idaho, good enough for second place last Febru-ary.
Capping the field events, sophomore Ja-vier Carretero had a
career-high day, finish-ing right behind Taylor and earning a fourth place nod with an effort of 16.73 meters. Dur-ing his career, Carretero has finished in the top five in all of his indoor meets. Joining the pair was junior Grady Young with an 11th place finish
(15.04 meters). Freshman Jennifer Za-
pata competed in her second career event and came in sixth place in the women’s mile run with a time of 5:15.04. The time beats her previous best she recorded at the Texas A&M Invitational in College Station Jan. 16, by about four sec-onds. Edinburg native and graduate student Robin Galloso earned an 11th place finish with a time of 5:19.86.
Rounding out the women’s performanc-es, Galloso was able to achieve seventh in the women’s 3,000-meter run in 10:32.88. Hav-ing not competed in the competition run since her sophomore year in 2012, Galloso has earned two seventh place fin-ishes this indoor season including a career best time of 10:18.93 at the
Texas A&M 13-Team Invitational.
“I feel that I have im-proved greatly since I have started running here at UTPA,” Galloso said. “It has taken me a while to get where I am at, but I feel like I can push myself more and run faster with hard work.”
The men’s team capped off with a 10th place finish by junior Jose Juan Wells in the men’s 3,000-meter run (8:59.24).
The Broncs’ next event will be Feb. 13 for the Houston Tune Up at the Yeoman Fieldhouse, on the campus of the Uni-versity of Houston.
This is the final event until the WAC Cham-pionships Feb. 26-28 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Both squads are aware of the competitive factors involved in competing
at such a high level. “I think the work that
I have been doing with my coach has given me confidence to compete more aggressively,” Gal-loso said. “It is about strength, mental tough-ness and the will to hang on to a pace no matter how much it hurts.”
Alyssa Canul Erika Anderson
I think the work that I have been doing with my coach has given me
confidence to compete more aggressively.
- Robin Galloso Long distance runner
Justin Gonzalez Trey Taylor
Rebekah Rodriguez Leocajuan Williams
February 05, 20156
In no particular order Paula Si-erra is a student, mother, wife and full-time police officer at UTPA.
The criminal justice major and veteran of the Marine Corps hails from the small town of Mertzon, Texas near San Angelo, 458 miles from Edinburg. It has a population of 781 people.
“I lived in a small town and part of me just wanted to break out,” the 34-year-old said. “Ever since I was young I’ve liked challenges and joining the Marines was the most obvious choice.”
Sierra enlisted in 1999 and fin-ished her service in 2003. While serving, she met the man who would become her husband, McAl-len native Juan Sierra. Before she became a police officer at UTPA, Sierra enrolled at the Mission Po-lice Academy in 2013. She then received certification to become a peace officer and learned basics such as knowledge of the law and physical skills that are required of peace officers.
“It was like boot camp and I liked the training” Sierra said. “It comes naturally to me, the chal-lenges especially, who I am, it’s my calling.”
The criminal justice major, who has been married for 15 years, said going to school and working while managing her off-campus life is
challenging and requires constant attention. However, the discipline that she was taught in the Marine Corps and police academy has helped in all aspects of her life.
“My responsibilities in enforcing the laws have definitely helped,” she said. “The discipline as a police officer has helped me as a student, making sure everything is done as far as homework.”
She’s currently taking 12 hours as a student and her busy schedule is something that her four children, ages 7 to 11, came to understand and have no problem with. Si-erra hopes that the discipline she’s taught them will help them in their adult lives.
“I have four kids and it can get quite hectic and chaotic some-times,” the senior said. “Now they’re starting to get involved in sports and attending sport practices … but if the Marine Corps has taught me anything, it is that dis-cipline accomplishes many things.”
Being a full-time student and a police officer on campus has helped Sierra attain a better understanding of how students feel toward law enforcement and vice versa. The mother of four said students are sometimes curious about UTPA Police policy and procedures.
“Sometimes they’ll ask me ques-tions about why things are done a certain way,” Sierra explained. “When I have conversations like those it helps me better understand
them and it helps me become a better police officer by seeing both sides of the spectrum.”
PATROLLING UTPAWhen Sierra enrolled at UTPA
last semester she went through the typical experience most fresh-men go through while getting ac-quainted with a new campus, from getting lost to asking for directions. Now in her first semester as a police officer at the University, Sierra has learned all about UTPA’s locations and amenities.
“When I first started as a stu-dent I really didn’t know much about campus and how much it offers,” she said. “Now I’m more aware of my surroundings.”
Her early morning shifts patrol-ling campus start at 6 a.m. and run to 2 p.m. Sierra credits her success with making it through the so-called graveyard shift to good qual-ity coffee as well as the only thing that’s open early mornings: donut shops. Her children poke fun at her for that, admittedly.
“They love it and they make jokes about the coffee and the do-nuts tradition,” Sierra said with a smile. “They understand that my calling is to help the community and I’m hoping they get something from it. My husband also helps me immensely with them, my work and school; he’s like my backbone.”
Her husband, also a Marine Corps veteran, is proud of his wife’s determination and micromanaging skills all while keeping everything together on the home front.
“I’m very proud of my wife and everything she has accomplished,” the 38-year-old said. “She’s a won-derful mother, student, police offi-cer and above all a great role model for our children.”
During her time assisting mo-torists on campus, helping students open their cars and patrolling the University, Sierra has discovered her love for helping others. She plans on becoming a social worker after graduation.
“Being a police officer on cam-pus has made me realize that I want to further help young men and women, especially those that suf-fer from physical abuse,” she said. “They should know that they have many resources available to them.”
For the time being Sierra is con-centrating on the tasks at hand: her family, her job and keeping up with school work. However, she does miss the country life of her roots and plans on moving to a small town like the one she grew up in.
“In the future I would like to move a rural community,” Paula Sierra said. “I’m used to the quieter and simpler lifestyle.”
By Ramiro RiosThe Pan American
UTPA Marine veteran tackles school life Love was the theme at UTPA’s Distinguished Speaker Series Monday night. Nine-time Gram-my Award winner and philanthro-pist John Legend spoke of love and how it can make a difference in the world.
Touching on topics such as the 2012 Trayvon Martin case, last year’s influx of Central American refugees and issues concerning the U.S. prison system, Legend made connections between loving one’s neighbor and helping friends and strangers alike.
“Love means we don’t count American lives more than we count Iraqi lives. It means we don’t see Trayvon Martin as a stereo-type, a walking threat; we see him as a boy who deserves the chance to grow into a man,” the Teach for America board member said. “It means we don’t see young refugees fleeing violence in Central Amer-ica as someone else’s problem or as draining our resources, but as children in crisis who need care.”
Legend joins Lisa Ling as part of UTPA’s 11th season of the Dis-tinguished Speakers Series.
Monday, a day after having performed at the Super Bowl in Arizona, Legend spoke for a half hour, putting emphasis on educa-tion and how it can challenge peo-
ple to be passionate about a good cause, whatever it may be.
“With your education you will be equipped with the tools to suc-ceed in life,” Legend said. “And that’s something that you should not take for granted.”
While talking about love, Leg-end noted fear as its direct oppo-site, saying it can hold people back from reaching their full potential.
“Fear is what blinds us. Fear is corrosive. It whispers to us, tells us that we will fail. It tells us that our differences are too much to overcome,” the Ohio native said. “It tells us that we can’t when we know we want to say ‘Si se puede.’”
Legend also made ties between education inequality and the growing prison system, calling it the “Civil Rights issue of our gen-eration.”
“Instead of getting a new edu-cation many of these kids will find themselves channeled out into what is often called the school-to-prison pipeline,” the 36-year-old said. “They may end up a part of a system that keeps well over 2 mil-lion people locked in cages, often for nonviolent offenses.”
Legend’s list of accolades and programs he supports make his passion for education and help-ing others clear. Aside from be-ing awarded the 2010 BET Hu-manitarian of the Year Award and the 2009 Bishop John T. Walker
Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award from Africare, he also supports education initiatives through Samsung and is part-nered with Product (RED), an organization that helps the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Legend has also started an organization called the Show Me Campaign, which he said is “dedi-cated to breaking the cycle of pov-erty” and invests “in solutions that (are) proven to improve people’s lives.”
“We worked to give people around the world opportunities not only to survive, but to thrive,” Legend said.
After his speech to UTPA students, faculty and staff, Leg-end made his way to a piano on stage and played his greatest hits, including his 2014 hit single “All of Me.” Before the nearly 40-min-ute performance, he left a personal message for the crowd, also saying he hoped UTPA would invite him back.
“I’m looking out across this amazing crowd and I see potential in you,” Legend said. “You have at your disposal power, the privilege and, hopefully, the passion that only an education can provide.”
By Andrew VeraThe Pan American
John Legend talks love, sings hits in UTPA Field House
Juanita Renee Rivas/ The Pan American
Mrs. multitasking
Words from a legendarts & life
Jon Nutt/ The Pan AmericanUTPA police officer Paula Sierra, a Marine veteran, stops for a picture before going on patrol. A decade after leaving the Marines, officer Sierra enrolled into the Mission Police Academy in 2013.
7sports
UTPA women’s tennis is ap-proaching the road-heavy por-tion of their schedule with a stretch that only features three home appearances at the Orville Cox Tennis Center; two in Feb-ruary.
The Broncs traveled to Waco Jan. 30 for a contest against the Intercollegiate Tennis Associa-tion No. 9 Baylor. The matchup saw the Bears sweep the Broncs in straight sets in every match-up. Despite the 7-0 scoreline, Broncs Head Coach Stepha-nie Vallejos saw positive tactics from her team when facing the top 10 national competitor.
“They came out very strong in doubles. They hit through their shots, played unafraid, were willing to be a little bit risky when they needed to be,” said Vallejos, who is on her fourth year as a Broncs coach. “It was great to see them step up and become better players when they saw better competition. Now our job is to really play at that level all of the time.”
The Broncs held on for a 4-3 win against Texas A&M-Kings-
ville University in the last home game until Feb. 27 set against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi University.
In the match against the Ja-velinas, the doubles point went to UTPA’s teams of Dominique Esparza and Mariana Ranzahuer 7-6 (7-1), Christel Amsallem and Lison Le Biavant 6-4 as well as Katia Stavroulaki and Nata-cha Minc 6-4.
In singles matchups the Broncs earned wins by Stavrou-laki, 6-4, 7-5, Amsallem 6-2, 6-2 and Le Biavant, 6-4, 7-5 to clinch Sunday’s win over the Ja-velinas.
ROAD WARRIORS The Broncs’ road to their first
Western Athletic Conference contest will include eight in-state matches as well as a week-end in Tulsa Feb. 21-22. They will face foes from five different conferences: Sunbelt, South-land, Summit League, Missouri Valley and Conference USA be-fore WAC play starts March 20 in Las Cruces, N.M.
The first stop on the three-week road swing will be in the coastal bend to face a familiar
opponent at Texas A&M-Cor-pus Christi.
Sophomore Stavroulaki knew that winning before heading back on road matches would be important.
“For sure we feel more con-fident going into that game, which will actually be tough,” said the Rethymno-Crete, Greece native ahead of the Cor-pus Christi matchup.
The match with the Islanders was scheduled for Tuesday after-noon but due to a high proba-bility of rain the match was re-scheduled for Feb. 8.
“In the season as we play more matches we learn what we have to fix and to improve so for sure we are getting bet-ter,” Stavroulaki said. “The most important thing is the team at-mosphere that we have in ad-dition to coach. We’re trying to feel comfortable in another en-vironment, so I think the most important thing is the team. We have good communication (and a) good relationship with every teammate. For this reason we have these results.”
The Broncs will try to string together consecutive away wins
for the second time this season and improve to 4-2 in Corpus Christi at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center.
Vallejos downplayed the difference between a home and an away match as the team heads off until a Feb. 26.
“I don’t really think that road games or home games are real-ly a factor for us. We’re so used to the travel. It’s just about go-ing there playing our own game, home or away,” she said. “If we get some wins on the road it’s great and motivating to be able to go to someone else’s home court and be really strong.”
‘The Broncs stand at 3-2 in the season and will play five away matches, the next being against the Isanders in Corpus Christi Feb. 8.
“To win at home of course means a lot because this is where we train and sweat every single day in practice,” Vallejos said. “But competition is competi-tion it’s going to be the same wherever we go”
By Nathaniel MataThe Pan American
February 5, 2015
Katia Stavroulaki pumped after winning her match against University of Maryland Baltimore County Jan. 21 at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
Michael Aguilar/ The Pan American
Renee Alicia Rangel/ The Pan American
By Kristela Garza The Pan American
8sports February 5, 2015
The UTPA women’s bas-ketball team took a hard loss against New Mexico State Uni-versity with a score of 74-71 Jan. 31. It was a match of rivals as both teams hold two of the best records in the Western Athlet-ic Conference, making the loss a tipping point for the Broncs.
Though they started the sea-son with the best 19-game start at 11-8, this second confer-ence loss placed them behind the University of Bakersfield in third place spot.
The Broncs now stand sec-ond in the WAC with a 4-2 conference record matching Ba-kersfield while New Mexico is undefeated at 6-0. The season rankings “though only a few games into the conference sea-son” are closing up, according to Head Coach Larry Tidewell.
This is why the closeness of the three-point game left Tidwell at a loss as the Broncs failed to catch up to the New Mexico State Aggies. He said opportunities were missed and that is what cost them the game.
“The mindset of the team is that we got to finish at the rim,” Tidwell said. “We shot at 29 percent on the court. At 29 per-cent you aren’t going to win any game. Then we get the ball game into a one-point game and … we don’t block out on the free throw to have a chance to win. I got to have other people step up, I just don’t know.”
Agreeing with her coach, sophomore Guard Shawnte’ Goff thought there were some issues in their game play. She felt that this was ultimately an important win which could have helped the Broncs stay near the top of the WAC standings. She said the team does not plan to let a win slip through their hands again.
“It doesn’t matter if we are down the whole game, we don’t give in,” the Copper Grove na-tive said. “We had a couple of key things to do on defense that didn’t get done, but we are not going to dwell on it. We are go-ing to move forward.”
There are eight more games left in the conference before the WAC Tournament is set to take
place March 11, starting the season up once again with top-ranked opponents.
Their next chance to make up the recent loss will be two back-to-back home games. The first is against the University of Mis-souri–Kansas City Feb. 5. The Kangaroos are ranked second-to-last in the conference and have a 2-4 record. Following the Missouri game is a match against Chicago State Universi-ty Feb. 7. They are placed last in the conference with a season re-cord of 1-5.
Sophomore guard Shawnte’ Goff drives the lane for a layup in the 80-58 win Jan. 15 against Seattle University. She is averaging 15.3 points per game.
Jon Nutt/ The Pan American
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Graphic by Juanita Renee Rivas
