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This is Issue #1 for the spring semester of the St. Edward's University student newspaper, Hilltop Views.
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An increasing number of campus organizations are beginning to use social media tools to disseminate information to faculty, staff, students and even prospec-tive students.
This is driven by the pop-ularity of these Web sites, and the frequent use by students, faculty and staff. Currently, Facebook has a network of more than 320 million users and 10 mil-
lion fan pages, while Twit-ter has grown from roughly a million users in 2008 to nearly 25 million at the be-ginning of 2010 in just the United States.
These Web sites have opened up new communi-cation channels for St. Ed-ward’s University to inter-act with its students, staff, faculty and alumni.
“We have been working with a variety of social me-
As the dust settles from the earthquake in Haiti, Campus Ministry has been busy plan-ning event, raising funds and discussing what St. Edward’s University can do to help.
“I believe that it’s our duty as people to come together and help each other in des-perate times of need,” An-nette Balderas, a senior and secretary of Bilingual Educa-tion Student Organization, said. “We welcome any other organizations who would like to get involved, [as well as] any individuals.”
Since the earthquake hit Haiti on Jan. 12, St. Edward’s
has raised approximately $4,200 in aid for the country from collections at Sunday masses, sporting events and student organization events. However, this is only the first step, Assistant Director of Campus Ministry Liza Man-jarrez said.
The next step is a week-long, campus-wide “Hilltop-pers Helping Haiti” event. Though the event is still in its planning stages, Campus Ministry is aiming to reach out to more than 200 student groups, host a benefit concert and sell T-shirts.
Campus Ministry also hopes to partner with local restaurants in a “Dine-Out
for Haiti” night, where a per-centage of the participating restaurants’ profits would go
to relief efforts in Haiti.“The Red Cross is having
trouble getting supplies—ac-
tual things—down to Haiti. We could collect things, but we have no way of getting
them down there,” Manjar-rez said. “We were on a call from the Council for For-eign Affairs, and basically what they said is their great-est need right now is for the people of Haiti to be able to get money.”
Manjarrez said the camps of internally displaced people, like the ones the Red Cross has set up to house Hai-tian refugees, are associated with increased violence and disease. Some people have expressed that they are reluc-tant to live in these camps for those reasons.
“If you’re in a place where
Entertainment: A tour of Austin’s
best milkshakes.
Sports: Super Bowl XLIV, Colts
vs. Saints, kicks off Feb. 7.
Features: Tournées Film Festival comes to St. Edward’s.
8 11
Campus Ministry organizes Haitian reliefJake Hartwell
Christina VillarrealCampus Ministry has been busy planning events to help victims in Haiti.
Replacing Schultz to take time Offices using social media
The sudden passing of Pro-fessor Marilyn Schultz, a prominent member in the St. Edward’s University Com-munications Department, has left the department with an important gap, one that will take some time to fill.
Schultz, 64, died of a brief illness Jan. 10 at St. David’s South Austin Hospital, one day before the start of the spring semester.
Fr. Lou Brusatti, Dean of Humanities said that the Communication Depart-ment is reeling from Schultz’s
death.“The Communication fac-
ulty is still in shock over Marilyn’s death, along with me,” Brusatti said. “It is my belief that the department will band together and con-tinue to do the great work they have done in the past.”
Schultz was scheduled to teach several classes this se-
mester. Lisa Sandberg, who holds a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University and was a report-er for the San Antonio Ex-press-News until 2008, was brought in to teach Schultz’s Media Standard and Practic-es class while Schultz was ill.
Sandberg said that even if Schultz had lived, she was
not surprised to be teaching the entire semester.
“I guess what was so dif-ferent is that I wasn’t sure of what the reactions of the students would be,” Sand-berg said. “I was beginning the class in a real cloud in the midst of a lot of sadness.”
Stephanie Martinez, associ-ate professor of Communica-tions, said Sandberg has been put in a tough spot.
“Lisa had to jump into a class where she thought the person would be back in few weeks and was told on her
Katy Johnson
“I was beginning the class in a real cloud in the midst of a lot
of sadness.”-Professor Lisa Sandberg
HILLTOPPERS | 4
FACULTY | 4 SOCIAL | 2
Bryce Bencivengo
9
Hilltop Viewshilltopviewsonline.com Volume 27 | Issue 2
S t . E d w a r d ’ s U n i v e r s i t y W e d n e s d a y , F e b r u a r y 3 , 2 0 1 0
Page 2 | NEWS Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Hilltop Views
Members of the 2010 fresh-man class will have the op-tion of living in one of three new Living Learning Com-munities.
Residence Life will be add-ing three new LLCs to the list of residence halls begin-ning in fall 2010 after the success of the social justice community and global un-derstanding community this past year.
LLCs are sectioned resi-dence areas where students with a common academic in-terest live together and take at least one class together during their freshman year.
Christy Brown, residence director of Teresa Hall, said there was a noticeable in-crease in student interest and Residence Life had to turn people down.
Between five and 10 stu-dents who applied to live in the LLCs this past year were denied entrance into the pro-gram due to limited space, Brown said.
“I know a couple of people who wanted to be in the
LLCs, but because of space they were turned away or waitlisted,” said Amarette Edmonson, sophomore and resident assistant of the global understanding com-munity.
Junior Laura Sandoval, res-ident assistant of the social justice community, said that the increased interest in the LLCs is partially because of the recruitment of incoming freshman by students in last year’s communities.
“My freshman year, we did not have to recruit students from the next class,” Sando-val said.
The themes of the new communities will be natural science, honors, and business and leadership.
Brown said Residence Life chose these themes after making a presentation to the different schools on campus and by soliciting proposals. The School of Natural Sci-ences, the School of Man-agement and Business, and the Honors program all re-sponded positively.
The School of Natural Sciences wanted to form a
natural science community primarily to aid the schools’ retention rates, said Richard Kopec, professor of comput-er science.
The natural sciences learn-ing living community will be located in Le Mans Hall.
Barbara Filippidis, director of the Honors Program, said that the program chose to form an honors community to create a strong sense of community among students.
“It’s also an opportunity to work with them outside of the classroom,” Filippidis said.
The honors community will be located in Dujarié Hall.
The School of Management and Business chose business leadership as a living learning community theme to follow the mission of the university.
“We want to expose stu-
dents to additional leadership opportunities in the Austin community and elsewhere,” said Helene Caudill, director of New College BBA Pro-gram and associate professor.
If enough students apply for the business leadership community, which will be located in Basil Moreau Hall, the School of Management and Business is willing to cre-ate two communities.
This spring, professors, academic counselors and hall directors will plan the classes and projects the students will partake in next fall.
Brown said that they would plan some parts of the LLCs during the fall semester in or-der to consider the students’ interests.
“We base our speakers on what the students identify as interests,” Jen Wichman,
resident director of Dujarié Hall, said.
Students who live in the LLCs attend class, monthly dinners and service projects together.
Both the natural science and business and leadership com-munities require students to join at least one student life organization.
“The School of Natural Sci-ences is hoping to get the sci-ence students involved with the natural science organiza-tions,” said Brown.
Residence Life has fund-ed the two current LLCs through funds from the Te-resa Hall and Dujarié Hall budgets, but academic affairs will fund the communities next year.
The School of Natural Sci-ences is also seeking funding for the natural science com-munity through a grant from the National Science Foun-dation.
Kopec said that the School of Natural Sciences submit-ted the paperwork for the grant in September and that it would be another two months before they know
whether they will receive the grant.
Residence Life has yet to hire new resident assistants for the new LLCs, because the application process is on-going.
Brown said that many fac-tors contribute to resident assistant selection including the unique qualities of each building.
“Someone might work re-ally well with the global un-derstanding community but not fit into the Teresa Hall community,” Wichman said.
Current students will not be able to participate in the new LLCs because the pro-gram is only open to new freshmen.
While Brown said that an LLC for upperclassmen is not in the immediate future, she did not rule out the pos-sibility.
“We want to get the five communities for the 2010-2011 school year working,” Brown said, “If they are suc-cessful, who knows.”
New Living Learning Communities set for Fall 2010Haleigh Svoboda
The themes of the new communities will be natural
science, honors, and business and leadership.
Social networking popular with campus offices-dia tactics; we have Face-book, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube,” said Marcie Las-seigne, public relations as-sociate of the Marketing Department. “We have just been giving everyone as many mediums to communicate as possible, because everyone likes to communicate differ-ently.”
The St. Edward’s Marketing Department has also begun using Facebook, Twitter and Flickr in hopes of connecting with students and alumni for the 125th anniversary of the university.
“Our 125th anniversary Web site will be an aggrega-tor of all of these social me-
dias,” said Lasseigne. “You can find all of our pages very easily and link from there and post images on Flickr or videos on YouTube.”
Lasseigne also said the de-partment began a Facebook fan page at the end of the past fall semester in hopes of reaching out to more people.
“Facebook has been the most successful, with our page now having over 1,400 fans,” said Lasseigne.
One of the key features of these outlets is the ability to connect organizations that, up to that time, may not have been able to network. The Marketing Department has also been using these medi-ums to increase the universi-ty’s prominence in the Austin
community. “For Twitter, we have been
following a lot of local new media [pages] to get our stories out, not the least of
which is about our 125th an-niversary,” Lasseigne said.
This has allowed members of the Marketing Depart-ment to share story ideas, of-
fer sources and connect with local media outlets in ways that were previously unat-tainable.
Individual schools have also begun using Facebook and Twitter to connect with stu-dents and to let them know about key dates and events within their school.
“I post whenever faculty ask me to post,” said Adam Pyles, administrative coor-dinator for the School of Humanities. “Whether it be a Humanities event, or infor-mation about advising, I post whatever is relevant to our school’s students.”
Pyles also said he believes the ability to connect with students through Facebook has increased the awareness
students have of what is go-ing on in their school, though he admits that he really has no way of measuring how man students use the infor-mation. One problem that each group of new media us-ers is running into is judging the effectiveness of each of these mediums.
“It’s often difficult to tell how effective we are in com-municating with our stu-dents unless we get a direct post back,” said Pyles. “I do believe we are reaching more students than we would by just e-mailing them.”
Continued from page 1
Hilltop ViewsSt. Edward’s has made a fan page on Facebook.
NEWS | Page 3 Hilltop Views | Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Notre Dame professor visits for discussion on race
Police BlotterDate Time Incident Location Resolution
Jan. 20 2:16 p.m. Criminal trespass East Woods Case Closed
Jan. 14 9:51 p.m. Criminal trespass Moody Hall parking lot Arrest made
Jan. 18 5:30 p.m. Theft Hunt Hall Inactive
Jan. 16 4:04 p.m. Credit card abuse Hunt Hall Under investigation
Jan. 14 3:24 p.m. Harassment On-campus Under investigation
Jan. 14 12:14 a.m. Public intoxication Physical Plant Arrest made
Jan. 13 1:49 p.m. Criminal trespass Parking garage Under investigation
Jan. 13 9:30 a.m. Harassment Parking garage Under investigation
Jan. 6 6:49 p.m. Possession of drug para-phernalia
Apartments Referred to Department of Safety
Agustin Fuentes, a profes-sor and anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame, explored the logic behind how race is defined today.
Fuentes, whose presenta-tion was entitled “What Race Is and What It Is Not,” ad-dressed a crowd of approxi-mately 200 while visiting St. Edward’s University Jan. 28.
“Race is real, it is important, and we need to talk about it,” Fuentes said, as he explained that discussion of race is still considered to be taboo by many.
A bulk of the presentation was focused on the argument over whether race is biologi-cal or social in nature. Even today, many consider race to be a biologically-based con-struct. Fuentes’ presentation, however, sought to refute this assertion.
The assumption that, for example, a white man is ge-netically different from a black man, can be rebuked quickly by the fact that not only do all human beings possess the exact same genes, but the variance within those genes is so relatively tiny, said Fuentes.
“A deer from North Caroli-
na and a deer from Nebraska are nearly 20 percent more genetically diverse than it is physically possible for any two humans on this planet,” said Fuentes. “Humans are stunningly alike.”
However, in terms of ap-pearance, the fact that hu-man beings are remarkably distinctive is indisputable, Fuentes said.
“It is almost ingrained in our subconscious to make assumptions on what some-one’s ethnicity may be based on their looks,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes also said that, his-torically, there were three de-fined groups of race—black, white and Asian. Being His-panic wasn’t considered be-ing of a different race, but of another ethnicity. Even today, this vague method of categorizing people is com-mon, Fuentes said.
Fuentes said assumptions
made upon our preconceived notions of these three seem-ingly distinct groups are of-ten proven to be far off base.
“Skin color, for instance, is undoubtedly one of the most critical facets of race,” Fuentes said. “But one’s skin color isn’t necessarily a telling point of where exactly they can draw their lineage to—rather, it
only gives a hint as to its proximity to the equator.”
As humans evolved and migrated over the years, the way melanin was distributed in their skin changed in cor-relation to their exposure to harmful UV rays. The
more exposure the popula-tion withstood, Fuentes ex-plained, the more even the layer of melanin would be; hence, the emergence of dark skin. The melanin in those with comparatively less expo-sure to the sun’s rays would cluster differently, making skin appear lighter.
“All humans have the exact
same amount of melanin in their body; the only variance from one person to the next is the pattern in which it is clustered in their skin,” said Fuentes. “So, someone who may appear to be of Afri-can descent in terms of skin color could actually be, for instance, Asian—so long as their ancestors’ populations had evolved within a rela-tively close proximity to the equator.”
This fact, along with an ex-tensive global history of peo-ple migrating, intermarrying people from those areas and migrating again makes the idea of being able to easily categorize people into three clearly defined divisions seem utterly out of the question.
Despite these facts, Fuen-tes doesn’t deny the impact that race has had on our so-ciety. Biologically speaking, the idea of race is seemingly obsolete. But as a social con-struct, it is absolutely real.
“We are a very racial soci-ety,” Fuentes said. “Biologi-cally, we’re one race—the hu-man race—but socially, we’re many races.”
Fuentes brought up the assumed race of President Obama as a prime example of race being socially based. Despite Obama’s father be-ing of African descent and his mother of European de-scent, when the subject of his
race comes up, Obama is, by and large, referred to as being black.
Fuentes said that this sort of social assumption is be-ing even a fraction of African heritage, or even possessing some physical characteristics, are enough to make someone be considered black in the eyes of our society.
The reasoning behind this perplexity is debatable; however, this phenomenon is certainly rooted in society rather than biology, and it is fully subjective. Fuentes said that, in Indonesia, the direct translation for “race” is “bang-sa,” and instead of categoriz-ing people into black, white or Asian races, “bangsa” clas-sifies people by their religion, be they Muslim, Christian or Hindu.
Race is still undeniably a worldwide dilemma, and Fuentes’ presentation aimed to help its audience under-stand the construct’s origins and work to resolve the issues surrounding it.
“It’s important to talk about race to understand it,” Fuen-tes said.
The American Anthropolo-gist Association, an organiza-tion with which Fuentes is affiliated, has been working on a considerable project in-volving the same subject mat-ter that Fuentes’ presentation covered.
The organization presented their research to the U.S. Congress in October 2009, and its findings are currently on a museum tour around the country. Although the tour will not be coming to Austin, its findings will be presented in Houston’s Health Muse-um in October 2011 through January 2012.
More information on the project can be found at http://understandingrace.org.
Jessica Skok
Courtesy of Notre DameProfessor Agustin Fuen-tes spoke on Jan. 28.
“Race is real, it is important and we need to talk about it.”
-Professor Agustin Fuentes
Page 4 | NEWS Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Hilltop Views
IT scholarship awardedfirst day that Marilyn had passed away,” Martinez said. “It is a very difficult po-sition for anyone to be in. I give her a lot of credit.”
Martinez added that the department has really come together to take some of the course load left behind.
Communication faculty members Kim Livingston and Natacha Martin have volunteered to take Schul-tz’s advisees. Assistant Pro-fessor Corinne Weisgerber and Martinez also volun-teered to teach two sections of internship classes.
Professors taking on extra courses traditionally earn overload money for the higher course load. The de-partment has asked that any overload money received from the internship class be donated to the Marilyn Schultz Memorial Fund, which was started on cam-
pus. There have also been some
concerns that graduating seniors may be affected by Schultz’s death due to the cancellation of Ad-vanced Broadcast. Martinez stressed that the cancelation not hurt anyone’s plans to graduate.
“One misperception is that Advanced Broad-cast was canceled because of Marilyn’s death,” she said. “It was canceled be-fore her death due to lack of enrollment.”
For the past year, the de-partment has made a few decisions to fill Schultz’s position. For now, the de-partment is bringing in Kate Weidaw-West from KXAN-TV to teach Broad-cast Journalism in the fall 2010 semester.
Brusatti said the next steps in finding a long term replacement will be to de-velop a job description and
then post the position for a nation-wide search.
Brusatti said he is con-cerned that it may be too late in the hiring cycle for fall 2010 to get a qualified pool of candidates and said that he will need input from other Communication pro-fessors.
“[There is] a need to consult with the Commu-nication faculty to assess the [department’s] needs,” Brusatti said. “Marilyn de-veloped her position into something more than she was hired for eight years ago.”
Martinez said that the long-term is up in the air.
“We have not even begun to think about replacing Marilyn in the long-term” Martinez said. “We know it is something we do need to do, but we are still in mourn-ing in many ways.”
there are between three and four hundred people on their lawn, it’s a lot more difficult to get those donations to them,” Manjarrez said. “Do you take people out of this place, where they feel really safe, but you’re struggling to provide for them? Or do you send them to internally dis-placed people’s camps?”
Hoping to solve these in-frastructural and safety problems, Campus Ministry is corresponding with the Holy Cross Congregation stationed in Haiti. All dona-tions will go directly to Holy Cross brothers, sisters and priests currently working in the country.
To keep students dedicated to helping Haiti, Campus Ministry plans to include periodic updates in St. Ed-
ward’s Student E-News and other newsletters. E-mails from the congregation mem-bers in Haiti may be featured in a “Spotlight of Holy Cross on the Ground.” An Alterna-tive Spring Break delegation could also be dedicated to rebuilding homes and busi-nesses in Haiti.
“We’ve never really gotten it right in Haiti as an interna-tional community,” Manjar-rez said. “From this terrible experience can come a really amazing rebirth for the coun-try of Haiti, and we can be a part of that. Every little bit will help, so get out there and be a part of the change.”
Senior Elba Moise had family in Haiti at the time of the earthquake.
“I remember calling every-one that I knew, asking for people to help out in some way,” Moise said. “Simply
spreading the word that peo-ple need to come together for a good cause is helpful.”
Manjarrez said that devot-ing a week to helping Haiti is a start, but not enough on its own. She hopes that students will stay mindful of the situ-ation even after the attention begins to fade in the media spotlight.
“We [the Holy Cross Con-gregation] have people who have been in Haiti since 1944, and all of our brothers [in Haiti] are Haitian except for three of them,” said Man-jarrez. “They’re not going any-where. This is their home.”
Continued from page 1
Continued from page 1
Two St. Edward’s Univer-sity students received the first William Hartley Cahill Memorial Scholarships last week, almost a year after the passing of the former Vice President of Information Technology Bill Cahill.
On Jan. 28, junior Naema Showery and freshman Dal-las Hudgens were presented as the inaugural recipients of the new annually-funded $2,500 awards in an event in the Mabee Ballroom. The scholarship is named after Cahill, who died suddenly last March at the age of 55.
Cahill designed the finan-cial aid calculator used by prospective students on the St. Edward’s recruiting Web site.
Hudgens said she was shocked and excited to win the new scholarship. Show-ery could not be reached for comment.
Cahill’s family, including
his son Matthew Cahill, a senior student at the univer-sity, and widow, Hazel, were on hand to present the award to Showery and Hudgens in the ceremony in the Mabee Ballroom.
“I couldn’t be happier and I think it’s a great scholarship program,” Matt Cahill said.
He added that he was grate-ful for everyone involved in the scholarship’s creation and funding.
Technology Area Coordi-nator Patrick Inglehart said that Hazel Cahill set the minimum grade point aver-age at 3.5. The other criteria for the awards included dem-
onstrated financial need. Ser-vice in departments related to technology at the univer-sity was also preferred.
Hudgens and Showery were selected from a list of eight nominees, which was generated by Student Finan-cial Services. The two final-ists were selected based on length of service in IT, hours worked per week and written comments from supervisors.
The idea for the award came from senior Blaise Re-stovic. Restovic said that he came up with the idea while working as a summer intern for Media Services.
“One day, just me and my boss Patrick [Inglehart] thought it would be a good idea to have a staff-funded scholarship for IT students,” Restovic said.
The idea moved forward from there, and the schol-arship will now be a yearly award at the university.
Tristan Hallman
Hilltoppers help Haitians
Faculty look to fill void
Courtesy of MarketingBill Cahill
GAMES | Page 5 Hilltop Views | Wednesday, February 3, 2010
HilltopCheck Out
OnlineToday
Views
hilltopviewsonline.com
Hilltop Views is offering the St. Edward’s University community a newway to find out about campus news and events. Hilltopviewsonline.com
will offer the majority of what is available in the print edition and so much more. Online you will find additional stories, photos, podcasts, videos
and interviews.
Answer to last issue’s Sudoku:
gamesLook for the answers to both games in
next week’s issue!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 ENTERTAINMENTPage 6 | Hilltop Views
Political humor, impres-sive magic and comical music numbers are the backbone of an Esther’s Follies perfor-mance, and that’s only the first act.
The show opened with “Esther’s News Medley,” and the audience quickly became aware that no public fig-ure would be spared, as the cast poked fun at a range of people from Tiger Woods to Gov. Rick Perry.
In traditional “you only
laugh when it isn’t happen-ing to you” fashion, audience members quickly glanced downward in hopes of avoid-ing eye contact with magi-cian Ray Anderson, who appeared on stage with an ominous smirk. Many audi-ence members had the chance to assist in his mind-boggling act, which included the time-honored saw-a-woman-in-half trick as well as escaping a fiery, spiked trap.
If you are interested in be-ing separated from your legs or being “seduced” by in-
teresting body doubles, the front row is for you.
Notable in Anderson’s per-formance were his levitation skills. When one assistant lay in an inflatable pool and was lifted by streams of water, jaws dropped and applause thundered at the unexplain-able feat.
The costumes needed to match the eccentric nature of the performance and did not disappoint. Hair as big as Texas and enhanced parts of the human anatomy made it difficult to turn away from
the stage. Most impressive was the fact that nearly all cast members managed to change their costumes within seconds to portray yet anoth-er character.
The show itself never seemed to lose steam, and kept everyone laughing throughout its entirety.
For anyone in search of quality entertainment, look no further than Ester’s Fol-lies. It might be the best $20 you’ve ever spent.
Matt Fraizer
MOVIE REVIEW
Legion abandons logic
Movies, like armies, need a group of people working for them—a ‘legion,’ if you will. And “Legion,” directed by Scott Stewart, is missing ex-actly that, as well as a smooth plot.
Centered on the concept of God sending angels to cleanse the earth of the hu-man race, and starring Paul Bettany (“A Beautiful Mind,” “A Knight’s Tale,”) the movie looks promising.
The trailer alone shows impressive special effects, in-cluding a possessed old wom-an who crawls on the ceiling and a montage of remarkable angel effects. This is not sur-prising, since the director has done the effects for films like “Harry Potter and the Gob-let of Fire” and “Iron Man.” However the movie lacks substance.
The plot follows a group of people who are stranded in a diner in the middle of no-where during the apocalypse. God has lost faith in the hu-man race, and the angel Mi-
chael (Bettany) has come to earth to try and stop God’s army of angels. The fate of the human race rests in the survival of a waitress’s baby.
The movie leaves viewers with a number of plot holes to navigate, as well as many questions about the movie’s characters. What’s so impor-tant about the baby that he can save mankind? Why do people possessed by angels turn into beings more like demons? Why in the world is the main human protagonist named Jeep?
While Bettany possesses considerable acting talent and—fans will agree—looks heavenly as the angel Mi-
chael, he cannot carry the entire movie. Even Dennis Quaid and Charles S. Dut-ton (“Secret Window”) get lost in the muddle of me-diocre writing. It seems that every thing the movie does right gets overshadowed.
All in all, the film makes grand, cosmic gestures that hint at the good ideas behind the film’s conception. Yet its ambition falls flat in the end, lost in a wash of soap opera dialogue and confusing state-ments about angels that are sure to make at least some religious figures unhappy.
Amber Burton
Fans say adios to BettyFour years ago, the show
“Ugly Betty” began. As a shining light for gays and Hispanics alike, the show rose from the depths of 2006.
Based on the popular Co-lombian soap opera “Yo Soy, Betty La Fea” (I am Ugly Betty), “Ugly Betty” brought a new group of characters and ridiculous storylines to the already familiar plot. Moving the storyline from the depths of Colombia to the concrete jungle of New York City gave the show its own voice.
“Ugly Betty” broke con-ventional boundaries for comedies and dramas alike and became an instant cult classic for a large group of American viewers.
Sadly, four years after its pilot episode, the show is coming to a screeching halt. ABC announced Jan. 28, that the show’s fourth sea-son would be its last.
Next to Conan’s booting from “The Tonight Show,” this is the most upsetting news in the world of televi-sion over the past month.
And on top of cancelling Adam Lambert’s appear-ance on “Good Morning America” in November 2009, this is the worst thing ABC has done in respect to the gay community.
“Ugly Betty” represented the right mix of campy and noir comedy for a sitcom. The only show that can match this approach is the fan-favorite “Glee.”
It would be foolish to criti-cize ABC of being homo-phobic, since the gay-cen-tered show “Modern Family” is still running. However, when one of the most open-ly gay shows on TV gets the boot it does leave something to say about American cul-ture today.
Throughout its course on the network, the show was moved from one day of the week to another, and it would also be foolish to pretend that its end was not imminent. But nobody guessed it would come this soon.
Perhaps “Ugly Betty” will become the next “Fam-ily Guy” and be revived by DVD sales. Such a rebirth would prove to ABC what
was proven to FOX back in 2005: Whether ratings are low or at an all-time high, there is still a following.
Now a few questions re-main: What will become of Betty and the whole Suarez family? Will Betty finally find love? All we can do is watch the series finale this April on ABC. Who knows, maybe a “Sex and the City” type of movie reunion is in the foreseeable future.
Daniel Salazar
Matt FrazierNo one’s spared during Esther’s Follies’ comedy bits.
UPB’s trip to Esther’s Follies a laugh riot
Associated Press
“Betty” will end in April.
ENTERTAINMENT | Page 7 Hilltop Views | Wednesday, February 3, 2010
4
Moviegoers looking to re-live the heartfelt romance of 2004’s “The Notebook” will find some comfort in anoth-er film based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks.
While many fans are ex-pecting another “Notebook,” Amanda Seyfried said that while the two bare similari-ties, “Dear John” is a darker, different film—the kind that isn’t released often enough.
“Dear John,” starring Chan-ning Tatum (“G.I. Joe” and “Step Up”) and Seyfried (“Mean Girls” and “Mamma Mia”), tells the story of two young lovers who fight to stay together despite being separated by John’s deploy-ment overseas.
“Dear John” unfolds over the course of seven years, during which the couple re-mains largely separated, stay-ing in touch through a series of letters.
Tatum said he admired couples that stay together despite being separated by obstacles like time and dis-
tance. “I can’t imagine being away
from the person I love for that long,” he said. “I am se-riously awed by people who do it.”
Playing the role of a soldier was not a new experience for Tatum, who also played an enlisted man in “G.I. Joe” and “Stop-Loss.” But while he has experience playing the part, he said he doesn’t pretend to know what it would be like to really live that life.
“It’s in no way, shape or form in my head that what I do makes me understand a soldier because me or any-body else that is not in the armed forces will never know what it’s like to be a soldier,” he said.
Seyfried agreed, adding her gratitude for deployed men and women.
“I really appreciate the sac-rifices they’re making and also leaving their loved-ones, as well,” she said. “That’s a whole other story. Not only are you risking your life, but you’re risking what you have here in the states.”
Both recognized the chal-
lenges that come with long-distance relationships.
“When you have that much time away from somebody it’s hard to stay connected in each other’s lives, so that’s the one thing you’re really fight-ing,” Seyfried said.
Tatum agreed, and elabo-rated on the challenges.
“It’s painful, and it’s funny, the things that it does to you,” he said. “You start fight-ing over stupid things. All of a sudden you’re having an argument about nothing, and it’s really just that you miss the person so much.”
But Tatum does offer a message of hope.
“I absolutely think these relationships can work,” he said. “You just got to really want it. You can’t just give up on them.”
To see if love can conquer all for the young couple in the film, check out “Dear John,” in theaters Feb. 5.
[email protected]@stedwards.edu
Caroline WallaceHolly Aker
Dear John not Notebook
Wikimedia CommonsChanning Tatum and Amanda Seyfried star in “Dear John,” which opens Feb. 5.
Page 8 | ENTERTAINMENT Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Hilltop Views
Spoon plays free Waterloo show
The people of Waterloo Records could not have made a better selection than Spoon for the inaugural outdoor installment of their in-store sessions.
On Jan. 25, Spoon, one of the biggest bands to come out of Austin, played a set that effortlessly demonstrat-ed why they have continued to release quality work for almost 15 years.
The most satisfying thing about Spoon’s Waterloo outing was how good they sounded on stage. The band went through their set with-out a hitch, and the major-ity of the songs sounded like they do on their respec-tive albums. Britt Daniel’s unique vocal style lost none of its luster, sounding just as raw and organic as it always has. Additionally, songs like “Don’t Make Me A Target” and “Is Love Forever?” per-fectly exemplified the skill and finesse each member has with his instrument, giving each of the songs their edge. The band’s performance was a testament to Spoon’s excel-lence as a group, and to hear a
band this tight at an in-store session was a real treat.
Playing in support of their latest album, the very good “Transference,” the set list consisted mostly of songs from it and 2007’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.” These albums con-tain some of the bands best songs, such as “Don’t You Evah,” “Rhythm and Soul,” and “Written In Reverse,” all which were present.
If there is any criticism that can be levied from the overall show, it’s that the band’s ear-lier albums were severely un-der represented. Of course, when you are a band with as deep of a back catalog as Spoon, and when your last two albums are what most people know you by, choos-ing songs for a 45 minute set is an arduous task. Omis-sions were bound to occur.
In the end though, this did nothing to dampen the sheer quality of the set. You can ex-pect nothing less from Spoon. They are a band who thrives on doing one thing and doing it right, and that is making top-notch music while mak-ing it all seem easy.
Ryan Lester
nau’s enfield drug store: 1115 west lynn st.
katz’s deli & bar: 618 west sixth street
24 diner: 600 north lamar blvd.
p. terry’s burger stand: 404 south lamar blvd.
The milkshake—a key component of the quintessential, American meal alongside burgers and fries—is part beverage, part dessert and entirely delicious. Austin’s milkshake scene is varied: from the classic, hand-blended diner shake to fancy, innovative blender concoctions. Here’s a list of the five best milkshakes south of the University of Texas.
Swiveling around on a barstool in the back of an almost 60-year-old drug store puts you in the ideal state of mind for the perfect chocolate milkshake, and Nau’s doesn’t disappoint. While you drink the shake—a thick blend of Blue Bell ice cream, chocolate syrup and milk mixed lovingly with an old-fashioned milkshake mixer—it’s easy to feel like
Austin is a small town, and you just hopped into the neighborhood corner store. More important than the atmosphere, and equally impressive, the shake tastes just right. With a consistency you expect at a price you can afford, Nau’s milkshakes ring in at $3.50, unless you splurge for banana or pineapple ($4). And if you want a real challenge, you can go extra thick for $1.50 more. Soda Fountain and Grill hours are Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Grab a delicious burger while you’re at it.
alamo drafthouse: 1120 south lamar blvd.The Drafthouse, with multiple locations around town, gets bonus points for atmosphere. As members of a gen-eration that grew up eating dinner in front of the television, most of us are suckers for chowing down while watch-ing the latest feature film. The shakes here are kind of a splurge if you go vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, so I went for the Midnight Espresso Shake. At first sip, it seemed more like an iced latte, but I got sweeter on it as the movie went on. Topped with chocolate covered espresso beans, the milkshake delivers taste alongside a caffeine kick. At a hefty $5, this may not be the place for a milkshake with a meal, but it works as a snack with a matinee.
If you’re looking for a milkshake to fit into the dessert part of your meal, bring a friend and grab dinner at Katz’s. Their Strawberry Cheesecake Milkshake—or heart attack in a glass, as they lovingly refer to it—is as delicious as the combination of words implies. It’s one of those rare sweets that you can finish so quickly you don’t have time to think about the repercussions of your quick-drinking actions. So bring a friend to keep you honest and split the
bill. Ringing in at $7.50 and featuring an entire slice of cheesecake, this is not a milkshake to be conquered alone.
The newest 24-hour diner on the Austin scene has an entire section on their menu devoted to milkshakes. They have the basics but add some flair, including a roasted banana and brown sugar milkshake ($4.95). The bananas are roasted fresh daily, and the shake includes five scoops of ice cream in addition to the brown sugar. Despite the heavy load, it tastes deceptively light and healthy; surely the bananas are guilty for this crime. It sounds terribly unhealthy, but it is a milkshake, and you can’t ask for much more than the delicious flavor this innovative concoction provides.
With possibly the only truly cheap ($1.85/$2.45) shake that maintains a delightful flavor and a traditional con-sistency and texture, P. Terry’s is the perfect place to go for a burger, fries and shake. The small milkshake at P. Terry’s, whether you opt for vanilla, strawberry or chocolate, doesn’t make you too full to finish off your burger and fries and leaves you satisfied. Other diners around town keep their milkshakes cheap at the expense of flavor
and texture, but P. Terry’s gets everything just right.
I’m almost certain Amy’s Ice Cream has made every “best milkshakes in Austin” list ever compiled. However, this reviewer was sorely disappointed. I understand the appeal of make-your-own shakes, but I was not a fan of the overpriced (nearly $7, with a St. Edward’s University discount), over-blended, soupy shake that came as a result of me trying to get creative. Perhaps a little less milk and would have moved this local, deeply loved ice cream shop up the list. It belongs here, because despite the disappointing consistency, the shake’s flavor was top-notch.
honorable mention: amy’s ice cream: 3001 south congress ave.
Jonathan SchwartzbachSpoon’s live performance was as good as the album.
top fivemilkshakes in austin
Melissa Martinez
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 FEATURES Hilltop Views | Page 9
Haleigh Svoboda
Fest exhibits culture
TV 5 Monde
Students who enjoy the Tournées Film Festival and want to continue to learn about French cul-ture may not even have to leave campus. St. Ed-ward’s is working to bring French television station TV 5 Monde to campus televisions.
The station offers music, news and shows from dif-ferent genres.
Penant said students who want to experience French culture and lan-guage should attend the film festival and watch TV 5 Monde, but that it is essential to do so in a French speaking country.
Evans said TV 5 Monde and the film festival are possible due to the uni-versity’s partnership with the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, France.
“[The partnership has] opened all the doors,” Ev-ans said.
Films can entertain, inform and sometimes even offer in-sight into the culture from which they came.
To facilitate understanding of modern French culture, St. Edward’s University will hold a French film festival Feb. 2 - 25.
“It is one opportunity for those studying French to hear the spoken language, and to those who aren’t, to give them a form of entertainment that gives a level of global un-derstanding,” Tom Evans, associate vice president for Professional Education and Global Initiatives, said.
St. Edward’s is holding the Tournées Film Festival to of-fer insight into French culture
and language. The festival is free and open to the public and will screen “I’ve Loved You So Long,” “The Class,” “The Secret of the Grain,” “A Christmas Tale” and “Azur and Asmar.”
Evans said he hopes the films will offer students an international perspective.
Although the French fac-ulty had a limited list of films to choose from, they wanted to choose films suitable for all ages. The quality of the films, however, also deter-mined their choices.
“We looked at the awards they have received, and most [of the chosen films] had re-ceived awards,” Annick Pen-ant, a French instructor in the School of Humanities, said.
The General Consulate of France in Houston intro-duced St. Edward’s to the film festival, which is spon-sored by the French Ameri-can Cultural Exchange and the French Ministry of For-eign and European Affairs.
These sponsors allow St. Edward’s to host the festival without paying copyright fees. Penant said these fees could have otherwise pre-vented St. Edward’s from hosting the festival.
Both Evans and Penant said that they would like the Tournées Film Festival to be-come an annual event.
For more information, con-tact Martha Rankin at [email protected]
“Il y a Longtemps que je t’aime”Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. in Mabee Ballroom C
“Il y a longtemps que je t’aime,” which translates to “I’ve loved you so long,” follows a woman’s difficulty re-joining her family and society after spending 15 years in prison.
“Entre les Murs”Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. in Mabee Ballrooms A and B
“Entre les Murs” (“The Class”) is about a literature teacher who has trouble connecting with his students at a middle school in Paris.
“La Graine et le Mulet”Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. in Mabee Ballrooms A and BIn “La Graine et le Mulet” (“The Secret of the Grain”),
an aging immigrant dreams about opening a successful restaurant in order to provide his family with an inheri-tance.
“Un Conte de Noël”Feb. 15 at 7 p.m in Fleck Hall Room 305
“Un Conte de Noël” “(A Christmas Tale”) focuses on a family’s strained relationships during the holiday sea-son.
“Azur et Asmar”Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. in Mabee Ballroom CThe tale of the Djinn Fairy reunites two foster broth-
ers who were separated at a young age.
Page 10 | FEATURES Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Hilltop Views
St. Edward’s University stu-dents, faculty, and staff could be found on Jan. 22 coloring fake $100 bills to raise money for the FUNDRED Project.
The project was created by Operation Paydirt, an organi-zation created in response to the high levels of lead content in American soil. According to the Operation Paydirt Web site, 86,000 properties in New Orleans alone are es-timated to have unsafe levels of lead in the soil.
The FUNDRED project emerged on the St. Edward’s campus in October 2009 when Hollis Hammonds, assistant professor of Art, invited Operation Paydirt’s founder, Mel Chin, to be the
Kozmetsky Center highlights immigration issuesAmber Burton
Not everyone wants to be in the United States.
In his documentary, “The Other Side of Immigration,” Roy Germano tackles the controversial topic of immi-gration from the perspective of the immigrants them-selves.
At the first Kozmetsky Center event of the semester, Germano screened his film in Jones Auditorium and held a question-and-answer session about the documentary.
Germano created the film during the process of his re-search for his doctorate in government. The film grew out of his desire to share in-formation and try to make a difference.
“The level of inequality in Mexico is out of this world,” Germano said. “You have an interesting situation here in Texas because you have a long history of migration.”
Germano said most Ameri-cans view Mexican migrants as people who want to come to live in the United States
permanently. However, many of the
people he interviewed spoke of migration to America as a temporary situation—a means to an end—and a way to provide for their families.
One migrant can make $70-80 for a day’s work in the United States, versus $13 per day in Mexico. Many of the migrants come from ru-ral towns where agriculture and other industries can no longer support the economic demand. In some of these towns, over half of the popu-lation has migrated to the United States at some time or another.
In the film, Germano says, “To understand Mexican im-migration, we must under-stand towns like these.”
Many of the people inter-viewed in the documentary are former migrants or peo-ple whose family members are currently in the United States trying to earn money to support them.
“Really a lot of these people just want to go home and be with their families,” Germano
said. “But they don’t want to go home empty handed.”
One woman in the film, Carolina had six children in the United States and her husband had also migrated several times.
“I haven’t seen my daughter in seven years,” she said.
Carolina once received a phone call from her daugh-ter, who said she was afraid to come home because it was so dangerous.
Smugglers tend to require $2,000-$3,000 to take some-one to the United States, even after migrants have walked up to eight days through the desert to arrive at the border.
Many migrants wish a temporary work program ex-isted that would allow them to spend six months work-ing in the United States and six months living in Mexico, but such a program would require cooperation between the governments of both countries.
“I want this film to help people realize that we can get past [language barriers and misunderstandings],” Ger-
mano said.Viewing the film influenced
some students to raise ques-tions about immigration.
“Why could [the U.S. gov-ernment] not just spend the money [it’s] spending on the border fence on the very is-sues this film talks about?” asked Freshman Rian Lowe.
“It’s possible,” Germano said, “but there has to be a political will.”
One student asked Ger-mano what he would do if someone at the White House
saw his film.“I’m working on it,” Ger-
mano said. “If I had the chance to sit down with Obama and Congress, I would love it. We need to work on a way to cooperate with the Mexican government on this issue.”
The film hasn’t yet made it to DVD, but Germano travels around the country and holds screenings. More information about the film and Roy Germano can be found at http://www.theo-thersideofimmigration.com.
Film news can also be found on Facebook on “The Other Side of Immigration” fan page.
“I’m encouraging people to write their Congress work-ers,” Germano said in part-ing. “There’s so much value to information and under-standing the shoes people are walking in. Deep down we are all just human beings try-ing to get by.”
Associated PressCarlos De Oses, from Santa Fe, N.M., with Somos Un Pueblo Unido, leads chants outside the New Mexico State Capitol during an immigration reform rally led by Somos Un Pueblo Unido Jan. 20 in Santa Fe.
Jennifer Schrauth
St. Edward’s participates in environmental projectkeynote speaker at the Texas Association of Schools of Art’s Art and Community Conference.
“We wanted Mel because his work is really socially con-scious,” Hammond said. “He asked us to participate in this [FUNDRED Project] and we readily agreed.”
To participate in the FUN-DRED Project, students draw on and color blank $100 bill templates. Every FUNDRED represents $100 in money or services that will be donated to Operation Paydirt by U.S. Congress.
Chin, along with scien-tists, estimated $300 million would be needed to treat the soil in New Orleans alone, Hammond said. Toxicolo-gist/Urban Environmental
expert Howard Mielke and research scientist Andrew Hunt both have extensive experience in lead contami-nation.
St. Edward’s FUNDRED organizers set a goal of 7,000 FUNDREDs, and have col-lected about 1,000 so far, Hammond said.
“It’s a community service project, an environmental project, a social project, an art project—it’s all of these things,” Hammond said.
Junior Nicole Ryder has been working to spread the
word and get more people to participate in the project.
“I’ve contacted Garden District and Amy’s Ice Cream and am going to be contact-ing high schools and middle schools in Austin, as well as Texas universities,” Ryder said.
Ryder said students who want to participate can pick up FUNDREDs at the Scar-borough-Phillips Library, Andre Hall, Student Life or the Fine Arts Building.
Senior Megan Carney said she heard about the FUN-
DRED Project from Ham-mond, saw posters around school and knew friends who were participating.
“I think it’s an interesting approach to raise money for a cause that’s not super ge-neric,” Carney said.
Sophomore David Hernan-dez, heard about the event from a friend.
“It gets everyone together and drawing and having fun for a good cause,” Hernandez said.
“This is a project for all ages,” Hammond said. “It can be done in groups of friends, church groups, no drawing skill required.”
An armored truck will be making a journey across the country collecting FUN-DREDs and will be on the
St. Edward’s campus the first week of March. Until then, it’s a race to meet the goal of 7,000 FUNDREDs.
The TASA conference will be held April 8-10 and will explore the theme of Art and Community with a shared dialogue on green art, social activism, collaboration and community art.
The fee for students is $20; however, students who vol-unteer at the conference can get in for $5. Students inter-ested in attending the confer-ence should contact Hollis Hammonds at [email protected].
“It gets everyone together and drawing and having fun for a
good cause,” Hernandez said.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 SPORTS Hilltop Views | Page 11
Five years after New Or-leans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, leaving the New Orleans Saints without a stadium and with an uncertain future, the team will be attending its first Su-per Bowl.
Super Bowl XLIV will be held on Feb. 7 in Miami’s Sun Life Stadium. The New Orleans Saints will be taking on the Indianapolis Colts.
The New Orleans Saints entered the National Foot-ball Conference playoffs with a 13-3 regular season record. After beating the Arizona Cardinals 45-14 in the divisional playoffs, it all came down to the NFC championship game against the Minnesota Vikings.
After a 40-yard field goal by Saints’ kicker Garrett Hartley, the game ended in overtime. The Saints won 31-28.
The Indianapolis Colts ended their regular season in the American Football Conference with a 14-2 re-
cord. By beating the Balti-more Ravens 20-3, the Colts landed themselves a spot in the AFC Championship against the New York Jets.
At the end of the first half, the Colts trailed by five but came back, scoring 17 points in the second half and win-ning the game 30-17.
More than half of India-napolis’ points were scored by quarterback Peyton Manning’s three touchdown throws. The Colts are going to the Super Bowl for the second time in four years and for the fourth time in franchise history. The Colts’ last Super Bowl appearance was in 2007, when they beat the Chicago Bears.
As for this year’s halftime show, legendary rock band The Who will be perform-ing. According to an inter-view by Billboard with The Who’s Pete Townshend, the halftime performance “will feature a ‘compact medley’ of their signature classic-rock anthems.”
The Who consists of origi-nal guitarist and principal
songwriter Pete Townshend and founding member and singer Roger Daltrey. Town-shend and Dalrey also have solo careers apart from The Who.
Like the halftime show, commercials are another be-loved part of the Super Bowl. CNNMoney.com provides a preview of this year’s ads that will be played during the Super Bowl broadcast.
Anheuser-Busch, the mak-er of Budweiser, will have the most commercial time this year during the Super Bowl, with a total of five minutes of advertising.
Frito-Lay took a new ap-proach this year by creating a contest for consumers to create and submit their own commercials. The winning ad will air during the Super Bowl.
Also, Dr. Pepper will be making its first Super Bowl appearance this year with its “Calling Dr. Love” ads fea-turing Gene Simmons.
One commercial that has already gained some atten-tion is an ad for Focus on the Family. This Christian and
anti-abortion group says its controversial ad is about the “issue of life” and will feature Heisman Trophy winner and former Florida Gator quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother.
CBS has recently come under fire for allowing the anti-abortion commercial to air, while recently rejecting a controversial advertisement from a gay dating site called ManCrunch.
The advertisement took a humorous route in featur-ing two men touching hands and kissing.
The New York Times re-ported that ManCruch’s advertisement was rejected because CBS deemed it in-appropriate for prime time.
Other companies that paid up to $3 million to adver-tise during one of America’s most watched television pro-grams include Volkswagen, Denny’s and Boost Mobile.
The Super Bowl will air on CBS at 6 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Central.
Emily BlasdellPlaces in Austin to watchSuper Bowl XLIV
Instead of burgers, this saloon presents seafood options
for all to enjoy. But don’t come with a Colts jersey; this
place is owned by Saints fans.
SHOAL CREEK SALOON
Shakespeare’s is the place to go for the best pub atmosphere. With
drink specials and many plasma screen TVs, everyone can watch
and yell together.
SHAKESPEARE’S PUB
The non-sports fans will appreciate this place, which offers pool,
foosball and even shuffle board, and there is a recreation room
for those who actually want to watch the game.
BUFFALO BILLIARDS
If the weather heats up, Crown and Anchor Pub has beautiful
outdoor seating that students and adults can enjoy while watch-
ing the big game.
CROWN AND ANCHOR PUB
In traditional sports bar fashion, the numerous 61-inch TVs
here make sure you don’t miss a moment of the big game. Re-
viewers say it has one of “the nicest atmospheres” in Austin.
LOGAN’S ON 6TH
This bar is the closest to campus and entices customers on their
Web site with a single picture of their cheeseburger. Here, you
will be able to watch the game on 14 different HD TV screens.
AUSSIE’S GRILL AND BEACH BAR
Super Bowl Sunday means one thing at Champion’s: All Day
Happy Hour. You are guaranteed to be well-fed and entertained
by the 24 HD plasma TVs at your disposal.
CHAMPION’S SPORTS BAR
With wings that have been a long time favorite of St. Edward’s
students and a television in every direction, every seat is the per-
fect seat. There’s even one in the men’s bathroom mirror.
PLUCKER’S WING BAR
Forty HD TV’s surround you at this open location. Get there
early if you want to watch here though, as tables are expected to
fill quickly.
THIRD BASE
Though the location is a bit small, the atmosphere will have any
sports fan screaming his or her lungs out, and you can get one of
the best burgers in town.
THE TAVERNAssociated Press
Compiled by: Matthew Frazier
Formerly unbeaten Saints and Colts to meet in Miami
Associated Press
The New Orleans Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees is bringing his team to their first ever Super Bowl appearance.
Associated PressThe Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Man-ning is going for his second Super Bowl win in four seasons.
Page 12 | SPORTS Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Hilltop Views
The Colts and the Saints will suit up for one of the most exciting events of the year: the Super Bowl.
And there are many fans who plan to watch the game, but they are far outnum-
bered by the people who plan to watch the commercial breaks than the game itself.
All across the nation, people plan parties, buy enormous amounts of food and certain game day beverages, slip into their oversized La-Z Boy and prepare for a day full of entertainment, but not football.
I, myself, am to blame. Neither the Saints nor the Colts are anywhere near my
ideal pick for Super Bowl XLIV, even if this is the first time in over a decade that the number one seeds are meeting in the Super Bowl.
And no matter how much each team deserved to make it to the big game, I’m honestly not that interested.
So I have no choice but to follow millions of others across the country in watching what is most likely going to be a mediocre game and to enjoy what the sponsors bring to the event—com-mercials.
Billions of dollars are spent on a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl. Billions, which could be spent much more responsibly, are wasted on a company’s half-minute of glory.
I plan on being bombarded with beer commercials and, between those, advertise-ments for cars that I can’t even come close to affording. And, oh yeah, did I mention beer commercials?
Although your beer commercials are quite hilarious, most of the people who actu-ally understand the highly innuendo-filled advertisements are people under the age of 21.
While I’m sure there will be plenty of pro-Haiti help that will come out of this year’s Super Bowl, the real point of the game itself is lost.
How many people can remember the last four Super Bowl winners? Not me. Very few people can remember the winners.Now, how many people can remember the funniest commercials from a few years
ago?I certainly do. Even farther back than a few years. I remember that “Wazzz-
zuuuuup?!?!?” commercial in 2000 and before that the “Doo be, doo be doo” one with the penguins.
But last year’s MVP? Not a clue.The Super Bowl has turned into a comedy club for couch surfers and lackluster
fans whose teams didn’t make it. Nowhere else will you find this much sponsorship money: not the World Series,
not the Final Four, not even the Olympics. The solution? Just enjoy the billion-dollar commercials that make up the Super Bowl, because
they are not going away anytime soon.
Super Bowl: It’s all about the advertising
The Hilltop Views’ column, ‘Courtside Chronicles,’ appears every other week in the sports section and is written by Hilltop Views contributor Nolan Green.
Nolan GreenSports Commentary
COURTSIDE CHRONICLES
SPORTS | Page 13Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Hilltop Views
Heroes have been around since the recorded beginnings of history. From Gilgamesh to Tiger Woods, they exem-plified the values of their so-cieties and the most desired qualities of the citizens.
The problem is Gilgamesh never had droves of paparaz-zi, publications and Web sites watching and reporting his every move. Gilgamesh built walls and slew demons gen-erally free from inquiries into his private life, but those days are over. The development of modern society has rendered the hero impossible.
Now we have Woods’ scan-dal. Almost everyone knows that Woods has had more women than major champi-onship wins.
The National Enquirer broke the story; it traveled
around the globe in less than a day and was generally ac-cepted as fact by Thanksgiv-ing morning.
Endorsement deals are the remnants of a long history of hero-worship. Woods made his fortune by exemplifying everything companies want to project in their image. Precision, agility, consis-tency—these qualities could be immediately associated with a product in the minds of the consumers by slapping Woods’ face on it.
Those companies don’t want to project moral fail-ure, which was inevitably ascribed to Woods’ recent ac-tivity. As soon as Woods be-came a symbol of immorality and faithlessness, he lost the endorsements.
Of course disappointed consumers around the world would later discover, to their
dismay, that Nike golf clubs aren’t enough to make you a “player”—in more respects than one.
The hero-based endorse-ment concept was plausible until the 21st century. Most of us remember the circum-stances of Mark McGwire’s retirement, by which he nar-rowly escaped the oncoming public relations scourge re-garding his steroid use.
McGwire’s steroid use was almost unquestionable, but during his career the Internet was still in its fledgling stag-es. It wasn’t yet commonplace for people to track every min-ute of celebrities’ lives. The birth of the gossip Web site and the establishment of our generation as one that derives its meaning by being a con-temptible peeping-tom did not crown rampant celebrity-stalking as convention until
this century.If you fast-forward to Barry
Bonds’ retirement in 2007, the changes become obvi-ous. Bonds committed the same offense as McGwire, but when he retired, every-one knew he was a fraud. His record is forever stained because people had the tech-nological means and societal reinforcement to investigate every aspect of his life.
The speed and ease with which the Woods story broke clearly shows that we have the technology and demand to spy on stars every minute of the day. Where there is no mystery, and nothing but truth, the hero cannot ex-ist. Traditionally, it was the duty of the poet to describe the hero, and the hero was revered because the poet reported the better half, ex-cluding the seamy details of
the character’s shortcomings.Now the poet has been
usurped by the paparazzi. Devoid of spirit and ethics, he or she reports every detail and is happy to indulge in so-ciety’s new fascination with
discovering the failures of its prominent figures. We have truth, but at what cost? Our heroes are dead, slain not by the sword but by the pen.
Jake Hartwell
Associated PressTiger Woods has recently taken an indefinite leave from golf after allegations of infidelity.
SPORTS COMMENTARY
Gossip culture driving Tiger Woods scandal to fore
VIEWPOINTSWednesday, February 3, 2010
Page 14 | Hilltop Views
The other day as I was walking to my apartment on campus, I noticed a fa-miliar landscaper with a leaf blower. The two or three leaves scurried around the sidewalk until they found their rightful place in the grass, and at that moment I wondered is this truly nec-essary?
St. Edward’s University has a beautiful campus. I know this. The number one response when I tell some-one I go here is something along the lines of “That sure is a beautiful campus, truly amazing.” I appreciate walk-ing to classes and enjoying the great view.
What I don’t appreciate is the constant whir of an edge trimmer right outside of my window, waking me up, to make sure that every single blade of grass is in place and standing straight and pretty.
Landscaping is essential, albeit in moderation. Is it necessary that every acorn be raked? I am sure the squirrels can empathize with this; it must cause them mass confusion. The high priority of landscaping on campus is apparent with the constant John Deere traffic on campus walk-ways.
There must be a hedge-trimming emergency ev-eryday or a stray acorn or leaf that needs immediate attention because these vehicles slow down for no one. Maybe they should invest in some lights and sirens, just so people will be warned and move to the right side of the lane.
St. Edward’s has a won-derful campus, no doubt. However, I think I could sacrifice a rough edge or a stray leaf for a few extra dollars in financial aid.
UT plans to close legendary Cactus CafeEditorial
Megan Ganey
Somewhere in America, someone probably had the thought, “Gee, that iPhone is mighty nice, but it would be really great if it was eight times bigger, did the same things my phone is capable of doing without the whole making phone calls thing and could set me back at least an-other $500.”
That same person prob-ably fell out of his chair when Apple announced the release of the iPad Jan. 27. The iPad is the company’s newest gad-get that took every bit of that fleeting thought bubble to heart.
Touted as Apple’s answer to both the netbook and Amazon’s Kindle, the awk-wardly named iPad features a 9.7-inch touch screen, and like almost all Apple prod-ucts, it is an aesthetic wonder. Then again, if you have seen an iPhone, you can basically imagine what the iPad looks like.
In terms of software, the iPad runs the same operat-
ing system as the iPhone. It supports almost every single application that can be found on the phone, and many have been tweaked to take advan-tage of the iPad’s bigger dis-play.
One of these applications is iBooks. As with the Kin-dle, you can download the e-books online from Apple’s bookstore and read them directly on the device, which organizes your books on a nice digital bookshelf. Of course, this will never replace the tactile feel of a real book,
and your chances of getting eye strain from reading James Joyce are a lot higher from a backlit screen than they are on a slightly yellowed piece of paper. You also never have to charge a book.
The iPad can also run iWork. This means you can write entire essays on the touch keyboard if your fin-gers and patience are up to the task, making the iPad somewhat practical. But without the benefits of Mac OS—and a hard drive that maxes out at 64GB—the
iPad is no replacement for a laptop.
One of the biggest selling points is that the iPad will have both Wi-Fi and 3G ca-pabilities. Of course, for 3G you have to shell out an extra $130 compared to the Wi-Fi only model and pay $30 per month for an unlimited data plan. Since many of the iPad adopters will also own an iPhone, this is AT&T’s dream come true.
The most basic model starts at $500, with a 64GB, 3G enabled model topping out at $829. For that price, you would be better off pay-ing the extra $170 for a Mac-Book. It does everything the iPad does, but with the add-ed benefit of actually being a computer.
Undoubtedly, iPads will sell like hotcakes. But with lim-ited functionality and a lack of features that differentiate the iPad from the iPhone or a laptop, you would do better to save your money.
Ryan Lester
Jobs unveils iPad; many skeptical Landscaping far too costly
Associated PressSteve Jobs showing off the iPad on Jan. 27
The University of Texas has announced that, after more than 25 years as one Aus-tin’s most beloved musical landmarks, the Cactus Cafe is closing its doors.
The closing of the Cactus Cafe is part of a series of cuts that UT officials announced Friday, according to the Aus-tin American-Statesmen.
Although the university’s overall budget has increased 2.8 percent since Sept. 1, state officials including Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. Da-vid Dewhurst urged state agencies to reduce their bud-
gets by Feb. 15.In accordance with the
state-wide reductions, UT plans to cut 5 percent from the state-funded portion of its two-year budget.
The Cactus Cafe, as well as the university’s informal class program, were deemed expendable because they are primarily used by non-stu-dents. University officials intend to use their budget to better benefit students enrolled full-time in regular classes.
But that neglects the fact that both the Cactus Cafe
and UT’s informal classes have been heavily attended by Austin residents for nearly three decades.
The Cactus Cafe is prized by locals because of its unique setting (the venue seats roughly 150 people), which is ideal for intimate acoustic performances.
The nationally-recognized venue is located on the bot-tom floor of the Texas Union Building on the main drag of Guadalupe Street. Since it opened in Feb. 1979, it has been host to renowned mu-sical artists such as Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Ani DiFranco and Townes Van
Zandt, among many others. It has also been a jumping-off place for many successful music careers.
Tuesday night, UT’s budget was the subject at a univer-sitywide town hall meeting which was open to the pub-lic. The closing of the Cactus Cafe was expected to be dis-cussed and heavily debated.
The news of UT’s decision came as a shock to the music community since the Cactus Cafe is an iconic and defining part of Austin’s music scene.
Though UT is saving mon-ey in its budget by closing the
venue, they are arguably los-ing something priceless.
In shutting down the Cac-tus Cafe, the university is doing away with one of the great treasures of Austin’s music history in a city that prides itself on its musical heritage.
Certainly something not as beloved nor as defining as the Cactus Cafe could be sac-rificed in order to meet the university’s budget cut.
Though UT is saying money in its budget by closing the
venue, they are arguably losing something priceless.
VIEWPOINTS | Page 15 Hilltop Views | Wednesday, February 3, 2010
3001 S. Congress Ave.#964, Austin, TX 78704Phone: (512) 448-8426 Fax: (512) 233-1695
Hilltop Views
Bryce BencivengoClaire CellaEditors-in-Chief
Jen ObenhausTristan HallmanNews EditorsProctor AndersonRachel WinterViewpoints EditorsHolly AkerCaroline WallaceEntertainment EditorsPhillip BradshawAmber BurtonFeatures EditorsKayla MeyerSports Editor
Shaun MartinHead Designer
Blair HaralsonAlyssa PalomoDesigners
Eloise MontemayorPhoto Editor
Daniel De Los SantosAssistant Photo Editor
Sharla KewVideographer
Melissa M. MartinezCopy Chief
Arianna AuberAnna WhitneyJake HartwellMary HennessyCopy Editors
Christy TorresAdvertising Manager
Jena HeathFaculty Adviser
Hilltop Views is a weekly student newspaper published by the School of Humanities and serving the community of St. Edward’s University. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the university, whose mission is ground-ed in the teachings and doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Letter Policy: Hilltop Views welcomes all letters to the edi-tor. Letters may be edited for space, grammar and clarity. Letters will be published at our discretion. Anonymous letters will not be printed.
Following last week’s elec-toral “thumping,” President Barack Obama and congres-sional Democrats need to refocus.
After months of misdirect-ing their attention towards a now most likely defunct health care bill, voters sent a clear message: Stop out-of-control government spending and focus on jobs.
Obama began with high hopes and now faces a grim reality. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, his recent approval rating is at a record low (43 percent strongly dis-approve compared to 25 per-cent that strongly approve).
Obama can turn around his doldrums by coming out strong on the economy. He needs to speak plainly and extend his hand to Republi-cans, and together they need to address the issues facing
all Americans: out of control spending, jobs and economic recovery.
After a year of bailouts, it’s time to rollback the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The much-criticized program continues to have little ac-countability, jeopardizes tax-payers and exacerbates the “too big to fail” mentality. TARP continues to be a re-volving door as banks repay loans while others receive more. Obama has correctly tapped into the populist de-mand for financial institu-tions to return taxpayer dol-lars swiftly.
However, his proposed “bank tax” is punitive and fails to address the complex-ity underpinning the crisis. Obama’s tax will jeopardize balance sheets and discour-age future lending. Instead, Congress needs an exit strat-egy with TARP. Banks that can repay need to do so, and
quickly. Banks that cannot repay should be forced to file for bankruptcy.
Additionally, the govern-ment needs to liquidate its ownership of General Mo-tors to shield taxpayer liabili-ties.
With much talk of Stimu-lus 2.0, voters are growing increasingly skeptical of out-of-control government spending.
Only 21 percent believe that an additional stimulus spending will be effective. Af-ter a year of stimulus spend-ing, unemployment has risen from 8 to 10 percent, and much of the stimulus has been criticized for “creating or saving” non-existent jobs.
Furthermore, 62 percent of voters favor tax cuts over increased government spend-ing, citing in a poll that “tax-payers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their own money.”
Obama should end the in-effective stimulus and enact an across-the-board tax cut. Unleashing the power of the free enterprise system will undoubtedly be more effec-tive than any government jobs program.
As households and busi-nesses receive more of their own hard-earned money, they will begin to purchase more, hire more and invest more.
Obama rode into Wash-ington because many vot-ers trusted him to deliver a sound economy, not resur-rect the old Left; he would do best to align as a centrist, heed voters and focus on re-storing economic prosperity.
Sometimes I go to Game-Stop to sell back used video games. They will pay as much as $15 for recent ones. The next day, they put my games back on the shelf, priced at twice the price they gave me. This is normal profit. This is forgivable.
However, obese, ridiculous profits only belong in the most questionable areas of global finances. They are usu-ally accompanied by pyramid schemes and shareholder fraud. They certainly do not belong in university book-stores.
Recently, I tried to sell back one of my books at the uni-versity bookstore. It was a
wonderful book called “Ger-man Essays on History. “
The book was in almost flawless condition with a strong binding, and the hard-cover had a texture that made you just want to hold it. It cost me around $50. I was disappointed to part with it, but my financial status al-lowed nothing else.
That was until I got to the counter, where I was offered $3. The joy at being able to keep my book was marred by my irritation at such an in-sult. I knew it would be back on the shelf at $30 tomorrow, the same used charge for it as last semester.
A 1,000 percent profit is unjustifiable. I spent as much on books this semes-
Jake Hartwell
ter as some would spend on a decent used car. At least, I would have spent that much if I had not employed other means.
When a company fails you, it is your duty as a patriot and capitalist to help that company realize the error of its ways.
Thus I feel that I should do whatever is possible—within the law—to reduce the book-store’s profits and help my fellow students. Hopefully, the bookstore will return to reasonable methods of con-ducting business after losing a considerable percentage of their consumer base, so I will provide you with methods
for doing so.The Internet is indispens-
able. Make an effort to find your textbooks online, used and in older editions. You can save anywhere from 20 to 80 percent—usually closer to 80.
For most of us, previous editions are completely fine. Brand new editions are a scam. Publishers print new editions, which only have a few pages and some technical errors changed, and sell them new for the full price. New editions are not essential to your education.
If you are majoring in the Natural Sciences or some other fast-paced field, the
changes in new editions are crucial. I have pity on your debt-ridden soul; if it’s any consolation, you will prob-ably have a higher salary than the rest of us.
Some textbooks cannot be found online, shipping can be unreliable, and some dis-tributors take weeks to ship books. In these instances, I suggest that you buy from the bookstore and share with a classmate.
Sharing books with a class-mate has several benefits. You save an immediate 50 percent by splitting the costs. It also forces you to plan your studying ahead of time to accommodate your col-league—always a good thing. On top of that, you will get to know your colleague bet-ter and perhaps make a new friend.
Using the Internet, buying earlier editions, and sharing books can drastically reduce
the money you spend on textbooks. This is better for you and everyone because ev-ery purchase is a vote.
Each time you succumb to a company’s ridiculous fees, you are essentially saying, “Please continue to make destitute paupers of my fel-low consumers and me. We don’t mind. We were only going to use the money for foolish things like food and clothes anyway.”
If every purchase is a vote for a company, you shouldn’t vote for companies with faulty business practices; and if you must, at least cut your vote in half by sharing books.
You, using the methods above, can send a message. Together we can coerce the bookstore into accommodat-ing its customers.
I spent as much on books this semester as some would spend on a decent used car.
Christopher Duke
Obama should focus on economy
Campus bookstore shakes down students for cash
Page 16 | PHOTO ESSAY Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Hilltop Views
Dyan Cannon explored the Austin Farmers’ Market at Fourth Street and Guadalupe. Every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the market offers unique items like natural soap and organic food.
Farmers’ MarketAustin
Photos by Dyan Cannon
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