Vol 48 Issue 1

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

Volume 48 Issue 1January 15, 2013 {WWW.PAISANO-ONLINE.COM}{SINCE 1981}

Dr.Harriett Romo discusses newest ex-hibit at the McNay pg 7

Transfer students don’t save money on student loans , s tudy f indsMatthew DuarteNews [email protected]

Students who transfer to a four-year college will accumu-late an equal amount of student loan debt as those who never transfer, according to a report released earlier this month.

The study, “A Brief Look at Transfer Students and Finan-cial Aid,” conducted by the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG) com-pared the cumulative student loan debt of transfer students with their “native” peers, stu-dents who begin school at the university level.

“People have this idea that they are somehow going to save money because they go to community college,” Carla Fletcher, the report’s author, told the Texas Tribune. “But it looks like people end up bor-rowing about the same.”

According to the report, both transfer and “native” students who graduate from a public four-year university will owe an average of $20,000 in debt. At private four-year institutions, transfer students graduated with more debt than their “native” peers—$27,000 compared to $25,000.

TG was established by the Texas Legislature in 1979 “to provide Texas students and families with information and services to help with the financ-ing of higher education,” accord-ing to the Texas Tribune.

The report considered data only for students whose inde-pendent or dependent income was at or below the median in-come for all students—$88,836

for dependent students and $25,457 for independent ones—because, as the report stated, “One is more likely to capture the transfer students who start-ed at a community college be-cause they intend to spend less money on their college educa-

tion than they would have had they started at a four-year uni-versity.”

The report also found that transfer students were less likely to receive financial aid benefits from a university than their “native” peers, which may help

to explain why students who spend less time at a more ex-pensive school still owe an equal amount of debt.

The difference in median institutional financial aid was most prominent among His-

P l a nned P a r e n t h o o d dropped from W o m e n ’ s Health ProgramCorey FrancoStaff [email protected]

A state district judge on Friday denied Planned Par-enthood’s appeal to retain its government funding as a part of the Women’s Health Pro-gram (WHP).

Judge Stephen Yelenosky said the appeal filed by Planned Parenthood was unlikely to succeed at trial since federal funds were no longer an issue in the case. Yelenosky stated in the rul-ing, “If, as plaintiffs argue, a successor program must be Medicaid-funded then the only legal remedy would be for this court to shut down the state-funded women’s health program, not to order the inclusion of Planned Par-enthood.”

For more than 75 years, Planned Parenthood has op-erated in Texas as a sexual and reproductive healthcare provider and advocate with the help of government sub-sidies provided by the Wom-en’s Health Program. The program has been revamped in reaction to new legisla-tion and has now gone from receiving federal reimburse-ment at a rate of nine federal dollars to every one state dol-lar, to now being funded sole-ly by the state.

“The new state program will provide contraception, cancer screenings and other services provided through the previous program at the same reimbursement rates for roughly 110,000 women who would be eligible for Medicaid if they became pregnant,” according to the Texas Tribune. “The Texas Women’s Health Program will be funded only with state money and will be run by a different state agency, the De-partment of State Health Ser-vices, rather than Health and Human Services Committee (HHCP), which runs Texas Medicaid and the Women’s Health Program.”

Gov. Rick Perry stated in a press release, “This is great news for Texas women and further proves that Planned Parenthood’s case attempting to derail the Texas Women’s Health Program lacks merit.”

Perry said that Planned Parenthood’s appeal was “nothing more than a desper-ate move by an organization more concerned with ob-taining taxpayer money than with helping women get care. With this ruling, our state can continue caring for Texas women.”

Not all state lawmakers shared Perry’s sentiment;

David GlickmanStaff [email protected]

A federal judge has upheld a ruling that gives Northside ISD the right to make its students wear tracking devices in their student IDs.

Andrea Hernandez filed an appeal on Jan. 10 to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to be permitted to stay at John Jay High School while her case against the school’s new ID pro-gram is ongoing, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

Hernandez, a 15-year-old stu-dent at John Jay High School in Northside ISD, through the help of her father Steven Hernandez and the Virginia-based non-profit civil liberties organization Rutherford Institute, filed a law-suit against the magnet school concerning the school’s manda-tory student ID program.

The program, which is also being implemented at Jones Middle School, requires all stu-dents to have their new “smart”

student IDs on their body at all times during school hours. The IDs allow the school to track the location of the students through a “radio frequency identifica-tion,” or RFID, tracking system. The schools, which have a re-corded problem with student at-tendance, as well as having their state funding partially linked to attendance, launched the pro-gram as a potential means to solve the problem.

The district stated that the program allows the school to find students who are on cam-pus but who missed morning roll call. The RFID can deter-mine students’ locations at any time, as well as provide a general electronic history of their loca-tions throughout the day, capa-bilities that will allow the school to increase attendance and im-prove school safety. Hernandez claimed otherwise, however, saying the new IDs were in inva-sion of her constitutional rights, particularly her religious rights.

Orlando Garcia, the federal

Judge allows Northside ISD to keep tracking devices in student IDs

See DEBT, Page 3

See PLANNED PARENTHOOD, Page 4

See IDs, Page 3

{UTSA}UTSA’s Institute for Economic Develop-ment clients generated $1.4 billion of growth in 2012, exceeding $1 Billion for the first

time.

{BASKETBALL}UTSA’s basketball

teams will meet Texas State on Satur-day. The men play in San Antonio at 4pm,

while the women play in San Marcos

at 2pm.

{San Antonio}The Section of Hil-debrand between the San Antonio

River and N. New Braunfels Ave. will temporarily only travel eastbound

due to construction.

{Texas}Google invested $200 million to-

wards a West Texas wind farm, which

will provide enough power for 60,000

homes.

{History}In this week in 2008

UTSA earned $15 million towards

what would become the Park West sports

complex

{Quotes}“[This] is nothing more than a des-

perate move by an organization more

concerned with obtaining taxpayer money than with

helping women get care.” -Rick Perry on Planned Par-

enthood’s lawsuit against Texas

{Numbers}2 - The percent of Republicans who

would support Perry in a hypothetical 2016 presidential

primary, according to a Public Policy Polling survey re-leased on Jan. 10

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Students are more likely to receive a student loan if they did not transfer into their four-year college

Northside ISD made national headlines when it inserted tracking devices into student IDs

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UTSA Men’s basketball let down by

weekend’s game pg 8

{{

NEWSJanuary 15, 2013

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panic transfer students who re-ceived just $1,400 or $3,300 less than their “native” peers. The report also found that the differ-ence in debt between Hispanic transfer and “native” students was wider than any other mar-gin.

“Transfer students receive less grant money than ‘native’ stu-dents, especially at a four-year private university, likely contrib-uting to an increase in borrow-ing to make up the difference,” the report stated. “Universities may be able to help transfer stu-dents by providing them more grant and institutional aid.”

“Many students have tradi-tionally been guided to follow

the transfer route with the assumption it will help them

save on certain college costs,” stated Fletcher. “Unfortunately, we found this to be untrue, and, in fact, the transfer route may end up creating significant bar-riers for some students,” Fletch-er said, according to the website.

Steve Johnson, spokesman for the Texas Association of Com-munity Colleges, believes that universities should create more effective financial aid policies for transfer students. The re-port “points to the disconnect we have in financial aid policy at the state and institutional level for transfer students,” Johnson told the Texas Tribune.

judge in the case, disagreed, cit-ing safety concerns over Andrea Hernandez’s claims. Further, the judge agreed that the dis-trict had the right to transfer Hernandez to Taft High School if she chose not to wear the ID, which Hernandez has done as a form of protest since the pro-

gram went into effect.As the case and appeal are

ongoing, so too are the costs to the district and taxpayer, which are currently estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. The district has stated to the Express-News that they plan to recuperate the costs through the plaintiff.

From Page 1

From Page 1

IDs: ‘Smart’ IDs can still track student whereabouts on campus

DEBT: Transfer students less likely to receive f inancial aid

Matthew DuarteNews [email protected]

UTSA was ranked second in the country for its participation in the Campus Vote Challenge, which dared colleges and stu-dents to become more active in the 2012 elections. UTSA finished ahead of schools such as Purdue University and the University of Michigan and was bested only by George Washing-ton University. Twenty schools participated in the Campus Votes Challenge.

Campus Votes Challenge was sponsored by groups such as Rock the Vote and USA Today. The program asked schools not only to register voters but also to seek voter involvement efforts such as voter education and de-bate watch parties.

Danny Khalil, who serves as a Legislative Affairs Director for UTSA’s Student Govern-ment Association (SGA), said he is proud of the recognition from Campus Votes Challenge, although he admits it was not easy. “A lot of the problems we had were with voter apathy, and you’ll see that with a lot of youth

voters,” Khalil said. A poll released by the Pew Re-

search Center showed that only 50 percent of eligible voters age 18-29 were registered to vote, down 16 points from 2008. To combat voter apathy, Khalil said, much of UTSA’s efforts went toward making issues relevant to otherwise disinterested stu-dents.

The effort was a collaboration by a host of student and com-munity organizations, includ-ing SGA, Black Student Union, College Democrats and College Republicans. Working together, they were able to register 3,007

voters—about 10 percent of UTSA’s student population—as a part of the UTSA Votes proj-ect.

“Our team was amazing,” said Khalil. “We had leaders from College Democrats and College Republicans who were working hand-in-hand to get people reg-istered to vote.”

Campus groups will continue to reach out to student voters. For example, city council can-didates will visit the campus so that students will be able to make informed choices in May’s municipal elections.

UTSA places second, nationally, in Campus Votes Challenge

Want to write News for the Paisano?

Contact [email protected]


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Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) told the Texas Tribune that Perry’s opponents will continue to support Planned Parenthood’s arguments. “This represents a one-two punch to women’s health, as the legisla-ture’s cuts to family planning have already resulted in the clo-sure of numerous clinics,” How-ard stated following the judge’s ruling. The new WHP seems to lack the provider base to cover all qualified women,” Howard said.

Junior sociology major Tia Robertson is offended by the funding cuts. “They provide necessary service to all women, mostly those who are of low income and lack health insur-ance. We should be looking at the positive impact of Planned Parenthood instead of getting trapped into these political agendas—agendas that actively harm the lives of individuals

and fuels the war on women,” said Robertson.

The ruling is the latest in a long line of roadblocks that began with a law passed in the 2011 legislative session that re-quired the HHCP, which runs the Women’s Health Program, to ban medical providers “af-filiated” with abortion providers from participating in the pro-gram.

With this new legislation, Texas is no longer eligible for federal funding for women’s health. Groups like the Wom-en’s Health Program previously received roughly 90 percent of their funding from the Social Security Administration and other federal funding.

Planned Parenthood sued Texas because the organization believed that the Texas law that cut its funding was violating its rights to free speech. Texas At-torney General Greg Abbott countered by stating that law-

makers may decide which orga-nizations receive state funds.

On Aug. 21, 2012 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state could terminate funding to these health clin-ics because of their association with abortion, and a federal court lifted an injunction that had protected funding until its trial in Oct.

In Oct. State Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary restraining order that allowed a portion of the clinics to retain their funding.

On Dec. 31, 2012, a state dis-trict judge refused to grant a re-straining order that would have allowed them to participate in the Texas Women’s Health Pro-gram that launched in place of the old Women’s Health Pro-gram on Jan. 1, 2013.

The Texas Tribune reported that Pete Schenkkan, a lawyer representing Planned Parent-hood, maintained that “because

48,000 of the 110,000 women participating in the program cur-rently receive services from Planned Parent-hood clinics, ex-cluding the orga-nization’s affiliates from would dras-tically affect women’s access to health services.”

“Some Planned Parenthood clin-ics — potentially three of four

clinics in Hidalgo County, for example — would be forced to close immediately if they were not allowed to participate,” he said, “because the majority of their patients are enrolled in the Women’s Health Program. All Planned Parenthood clinics would have to begin charging for services currently provided to poor women for free,” the re-port said.

“The law is that if a program changes its funding source and is redressed under different rules, it’s a different program,”

said Kristofer Monson, the state’s lawyer. On Friday, he told the judge that patients would retain the same rights under the Texas Women’s Health Pro-gram, but because it is funded by the state, Texas is allowed to dictate which providers are eli-gible to participate.

“It is shocking that once again Texas officials are letting poli-tics jeopardize health care ac-cess for women. This case isn’t about Planned Parenthood — it’s about women like Marcy Balquinta who rely on us for ba-

sic, preventive health care,” Ken S. Lambrecht, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, stated in a press release.

“Regardless of what happens in the courts, Planned Parent-hood will be here for our pa-tients. Our doors remain open today and always to Texas wom-en in need. We only wish Texas politicians shared this commit-ment to Texas women, their health and their wellbeing.”

From Page 1

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Clinics may close without federal funds

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The ruling was a victory for opponents of abortion and ends months of litigation

{The Paisano}Editor-in-Chief: Katy SchmaderManaging Editor:Stephen WhitakerNews Editor:Matthew DuartePaseo Editor:Sarah GibbensArts Editor: Jennifer AlejosSports Editor: Sheldon BakerPhoto Editor: Will TallentWeb Editor:Natalie FrelsAds Manager: Kevyn KirvenBusiness Manager: Jenelle DuffSenior Copy Editor:Alyssa Torres

{Staff Writers}Daniel Crotty, David Glickman, Corey Franco, Valeria Rodriguez, Mag-alieh Acosta, Amanda Dansby, Valeria Perez, Bridget Gaskill, Christina Coyne, Randy Lopez, Lic-tor Prianti, Alex Camacho, Shelby Hodges

{Staff Photographers}Ruth Olivares, Alyssa Gonzales

{Contributing Writers}Julian Montez, Ethel As-berry, Leann Acuna, John Poplawski, Council Royal, Eliana Briceno, Marialuisa Bianchi, Ross Hutchin-son, Erin Boren, Rachel Corbelli, Philip Taele, Eric Mondragon

{Contributing Photographers}Scott Cochran

{Advisor} Diane Abdo

{Advisory Board}Steven Kellman, Mansour El Kikhia, Jack Himelblau, Sandy Norman

The Paisano is published by the Paisano Educational Trust, a non-profit, tax exempt, edu-cational organization. The Paisano is operated by mem-bers of the Student Newspa-per Association, a registered student organization. The Paisano is NOT sponsored, fi-nanced or endorsed by UTSA. New issues are published ev-ery Tuesday during the fall and spring semesters, exclud-ing holidays and exam peri-ods. All revenues are gener-ated through advertising and donations. Advertising inqui-ries and donations should be directed towards:

© The Paisano14545 Roadrunner Way San Antonio, TX 78249 Phone: (210)690-9301 Fax: (210)690-3423 E-mail: [email protected]

5OPINION

A solution to cut down on the high number of drunk-driving fatalities in TexasEditorial

What happens when the band doesn’t showT h e

Roadrun-ner men’s basketball team is not off to a

flying start in its first-and-only season in the Western Athletic Conference.

They have been defeated in each of their first six games in conference. Aside from losing the first conference game by four points and the sixth and most recent game by two, the Roadrunners have been beaten by 13, 20, 25 and eight points, respectively.

Also starting out slowly was the support of our fans. The game against San Jose State had a listed attendance of 825 people. I was at that game and that estimate is generous at best. What I took from that game wasn’t the lack of people, (lets face it, we rarely fill the Convocation Center,) but the fact that there was not a single member of the school band in attendance.

A case could be made that because it was New Year’s Eve, members of the band weren’t available to make the game. But that is not a good reason.

The game was at 2:00 p.m. It was over by 3:45, giving every-

body ample time to leave the Convocation Center and return home in time to ring in the New Year.

The absence of the band re-flected poorly on our univer-sity. I spoke with some of the San Jose State fans who were sitting in our student section (there were too few UTSA stu-dents—another issue) and they asked me if I knew why we had no band in attendance.

I had no answer. For a group of fans who make

only one trip to San Antonio, they left with the impression that the UTSA student-athletes did not have the support of the entire university behind them.

If we are going to continue to talk about UTSA’s ambitions of becoming a big time univer-sity both academically and ath-letically, we are going to have to step up our efforts as fans and supporters.

I know there are enough stu-dents living in San Antonio-who could have attended the game against San Jose State. I am sure the band has members who could have taken a few hours out of their holiday break to support the basketball team. The cheerleaders and pom squad were there, but the music wasn’t there.

Before attending the game against San Jose, I was watch-ing a college basketball game on ESPN2 between the Univer-sity of Minnesota and Michigan State from the Williams Arena in St. Paul, Minn. Not only was their arena full, but they also had a portion of their band, cheerleaders and pom squad, most of whom had probably just returned the day before from their football team’s bowl appearance against Texas Tech in Houston.

We, as a university, will soon be entering Conference USA, and in future years the uni-versity hopes to put a 10,000-12,000-seat basketball facility at the Park West Athletic Com-plex.

It is up to us to prove to our adminstrators that we warrant an arena with that big a capac-ity. Our history of attendance would prove otherwise uncon-vincing, but we can change that by showing up to support the orange and blue, win or lose.

And maybe the band will be there too.

Stephen WhitakerManaging Editor

Commentary

Over the holiday season, San Antonio Police Department made 274 DWI arrests.

In 2010, Texas was ranked highest in people killed involv-ing a drunken driver, placing the state above California by almost 500 fatalities with 1,259 deaths.

College students are going to drink—instead of chastising drinking, we should advocate safe drinking.

San Antonio is the fifth “drunkest city in America” ac-

cording to a report by the U.S. Daily Beast. Obviously, there is a problem. While ultimately al-cohol related accidents are pre-ventable by the driver, UTSA could set an example of safe drinking by providing students with a shuttle service to keep our classmates from getting be-hind the wheel.

Because Texas is one of only 12 states that do not mandate DWI roadblocks, San Anto-nio Police Department Deputy Chief Anthony Treviño urged

legislators to allow sobriety checkpoints and “make a cul-tural change in the state of Texas when it comes to driving under the influence of alcohol,” according to the San Antonio Express-News.

However, rather than scar-ing intoxicated drivers off the streets by focusing on costs and consequences of DWI ac-cidents or arrests, both UTSA and San Antonio should pro-vide shuttles, an alternative so-lution, or more effective public

transportation to get students home safely.

“Our challenge is to stop people from driving drunk,” Rep. Pete Gallego stated in a past legislative session. “Pun-ishing them afterwards doesn’t bring back the victim or make the family feel better. The idea is to stop the DWI before it hap-pens.”

Many schools have already taken the initiative. At Texas Tech, student fees pay for “Safe Ride,” a taxi service that will

pick them up anywhere within the city limits of Lubbock. Fur-ther, students at the University of Texas at Austin, can ride the city busses that transport to and from bars around town at all hours, free of charge.

If we were to follow suit and offer such an alternative, it would stand as evidence that the safety of our classmates and community is, indeed, a high priority at UTSA.

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Vulpes Vulpes

After hearing about the cam-pus shooting at Sandy Hook El-ementary School, Connecticut, I was shocked and felt furious on the brutal killing of inno-cent children and adults. This was “America’s second-deadli-est campus shooting incident which left 28 dead including 20 children”, according to Eco-nomics Times. Over the last 20 years, over 100 people have died and about two-dozen in-jured in the campus shootings across the US with the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 being the deadliest claiming 33 lives.

We have to prevent these tragedies from happening again since campus shootings not only cause tremendous casu-alty but also threaten our pub-lic security. Several approaches might be effective to prevent campus shooting, including gun control, better training for staff and students, improv-ing infrastructures, and hiring more security guards.

Gun control is no doubt the best solution for preventing campus shooting. David Hem-enway argues “a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries” If the shooters can-not get weapons easily, the inci-dence of shooting will decrease dramatically. Australia has be-come a good model for the U.S. Between the mid-1970’s and the mid-1990’s, Australia had several mass shootings. After a particularly horrible massa-cre in 1996, a new prime min-ister, John Howard, declared that enough was enough. He instituted a severe crackdown on gun ownership, and forced would-be gun owners to submit to a rigorous application pro-cess, and to document why they would need a gun. Howard’s government also implemented a rigorous buyback policy, to enable the government to pur-chase guns already owned by the public. His policy worked. Although violent crime has not ended in Australia, murders are down, and, even more dra-matically, there has not been a single mass shooting since 1996 in which three or more people died (the definition used in many studies of mass shootings). According to Jeffrey Sachs, “before the crackdown, there had been 13 such massa-cres in 18 years.”

However, gun lobbyists would argue that gun owner-ship constitutes a vital protec-tion against government tyr-anny. This thought was based on the fact that put forth by Sachs that “The US was born

in a citizens’ revolt against Brit-ish imperial power. The right of citizens to organize militias to fight government tyranny was therefore a founding idea of the new country”. Furthermore, gun lobbyists also argue that most criminals and shooters with psychological problems don’t obey gun laws. John R. Lott argues “Limiting the right of legal gun ownership by pass-ing harsh gun laws would dis-arm more law-abiding citizens more than the criminals, which meant criminals have less to fear from potential victims.”

Another approach is to pro-vide basic lessons on WHAT to do when a campus shooting happens. At University of San Francisco, campus police gave a very important lesson that open to all faculties, staffs, and students right after the Virginia Tech shooting. In this lesson, five basic strategies are taught. The basic strategies for surviv-al are as follows: “1. Escape! 2. Take cover. Get behind some-thing that will stop a bullet and look for chances to escape, such as when the shooter is reload-ing his weapon. 3. Hide. Then look for a chance to escape. 4. Play dead and then look for a chance to escape. 5. Attack the attacker as a last resort. Best to catch him by surprise or strik-ing a blow from behind.” Since the beginning of the training, over 100 lessons have been conducted. Not only the police staffs but also the university community benefit from at-tending this kind of prevention lesson. Besides, the campus police also were trained in the best practices for responding to these incidents and purchased equipment, including shields to protect themselves from bul-lets.

Hiring more armed security guards in school could be a so-lution for preventing campus shooting. However, James Fox argued that “the presence of security guard only give a short term impact by making the stu-dents feel more safe. But in the long term, the universities and the school boards have to raise tuitions to pay for the extra se-curity.”

In conclusion, to prevent campus shootings is not easy at this moment since we don’t have strict gun control in the US. However, we still can do something to prevent massive casualties when campus shoot-ings happen by providing train-ing to the staff and students, campus police, and hiring more security guards.

Zhiyong FanJunior biology major

What do we do with gunsLetter to the Editor

by: Christopher Garcia

CorrectionOn Dec. 4, 2012, The Paisano reported that Northside ISD planned to fully integrate a system of tracking chips in their stu-dent ID cards into all NISD schools in 2013. This was an incor-rect statement and the Paisano regrets the error.

January 15, 2013

January 15, 2013 PASEO

Sarah GibbensPaseo [email protected]

The New Year brought with it many uncertainties. Supersti-tious people from around the globe prepared themselves for what some contended would be the end of humanity. A similar kind of dread was developing in Washington D.C. The impend-ing fiscal cliff received copious amounts of attention in the media and, while most people were at least vaguely aware of

its existence, they were confused about the conse-quences of going over the cliff.

With the end of 2012,

the Bush Tax Cuts set in place by the second Bush Adminis-tration, and extended in 2010 by President Barack Obama, were set to expire. These tax cuts came in the form of two bills: The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconcilia-tion Act of 2003.

The first bill mentioned low-ered the estate and gift tax rates, and also lowered the income tax rate for middle and upper

class Americans by an

av -erage

of 30 percent. The Act s impl i -

fied re-t i r e m e n t

plans for seniors with

money in 401K investments.

The second of the tax cuts served

to expedite the pro-cess of l o w e r i n g taxes from

the first set of cuts and, in ad-

dition, lowered taxes on capi-tal gains and dividends. These

cuts were extended in 2010 when President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unem-ployment Insurance Reauthori-zation and Job Creation Act of 2010.

The end of Bush-era tax cuts gave cause for many upper and middle class Americans to worry that they would see a significant increase in taxes on income and capital gains. With Senate and House Republicans demanding a reduction on the federal deficit, the expiration of the 2012 budget would

have also

mandated automatic spending cuts across

various programs, with significant cuts to

departments such as Defense and Transportation.

With impending tax increases and

automatic spend-ing cuts, going over the fiscal cliff would have caused dissatisfaction with both Democrats and Re-publicans. Various bud-get proposals were draft-ed in Congress, only to be rejected by the Democratic Senate and Republican House of Representatives.

On Jan. 1, 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. The Act addressed is-sues created by the end of the Bush-era tax cuts. Had the Act not been signed into law, taxes would have been raised signifi-cantly, with upper class income earners paying an increase of seven percent in income taxes.

The new law will raise taxes, but at a considerably lower rate. According to the Urban Brook-ings Tax Policy Center, the top one percent of income earners will pay a tax increase of 4.5 per-centage points. The top 20 per-cent’s taxes will increase by 2.5 percentage points, middle class earners will pay 1.3 percentage points more and the bottom 20 percent of income earners will pay only an increase of 1.1 per-centage points.

This means that single in-come earners making over $400,000 and couples earning $450,000 will pay 39.6 percent of their income in taxes in 2013,

as opposed to the 35 percent they paid in 2012. The Act is also set

to phase out credits and tax deductions for those earning over

$250,000. Aside from the ex-

piration of the Bush Tax Cuts, a major

source of concern was the automatic $110 mil-lion in spending cuts to de-

fense if a compromise between the House

and

Senate not been reached. In

preparation for significant bud-getary cuts, the Department of Defense preemptively noti-fied more than 800,000 civil service employees that they faced the possibility of unpaid leave. With the passing of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, Congress agreed to delay the billions of dollars in spending cuts for two months to allow budget negotiations to continue.

Shortly after passing the bill through the Senate, President Obama announced in a press conference, “While neither Democrats nor Republicans got

everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country and the House should pass it without delay.”

Bryant Andrade, a freshman political science major, shared similar sentiments about the deal.

“The plan that was agreed upon in Congress was more of a compromise than a plan, where both Republicans and Demo-crats alike were left unhappy with the results. One of the scariest parts of the entire plan is that the extension of the pay-roll tax was not passed, which just again means that the poor are getting poorer. This could have been a much better plan if there wasn’t so much partisan bickering,” Andrade said.

The cuts to payroll taxes from- 4.2 to 6.2- percent can be a cause for concern to the aver-age middle class income earner. According to Businessweek, the increase in payroll taxes will result in smaller paychecks. A wage earner making $50,000 a year can expect to take home $1,000 less than what he or she made in 2012.

While there was dissatisfac-tion among both Democrats and Republicans, the New York Times reported that the

American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 could be “considered a win for Democrats” and Presi-dent Obama who promised to increase taxes on the wealthy in his run for reelection.

The American Taxpayer Re-lief Act may have kept Wash-ington from falling over the fiscal cliff; however, many fi-nancial concerns remain in Congress. Questions over rais-ing the debt ceiling and by how much have been concerns.

Undeclared freshman Cyrus Huncharek expressed frustra-tion over many of the ineffi-ciencies shown by Congress before a fiscal cliff compromise could be reached. “The deal is simply a band-aid that is just prolonging the serious tax re-form debate this country needs to have,” Huncharek said.

In a press conference on Jan. 14, Monday morning, President Obama announced, “Repub-licans in Congress have two choices here: They can act re-sponsibly and pay America’s bills or they can act irresponsi-bly and put America through another economic crisis.”

Discussions and debate will, as always, continue in Congress until a comprehensive plan can be agreed upon to address the nation’s deficit. According to the Wall Street Journal, the most prevalent issue that Congress now faces revolves around the debt ceiling and whether it should be raised. Republicans in the House and Senate stand against raising the debt ceiling as a way to force Democrats to cut back on spending. Not rais-ing the debt ceiling, however, would cause the U.S. to default on its loans, possibly plunging the country into another reces-sion.

The Fiscal Cliff: sending the economy over the edge

“The deal is simply a band-

aid that is just prolonging the serious tax reform debate this country needs to have.”Cyrus HuncharekUndeclared, Freshman

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The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 embraces progressive tax rates with top income earners being taxed at higher rates than those of low incomes. This data was compiled by the Urban Brooking Tax Policy Center which claims to foster economic and social welfare.

Tax Increase as a result of American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012With the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, Americans will see their taxes increase, some more than others. According to the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, a non-profit bipartisan public policy research center, some Americans will see their taxes increase by as much as 4.5 percentage points.

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Katy [email protected]

Dr. Harriett Romo sits at her desk, a book featuring prints from “Estampas de la Raza: Contemporary Prints from the Romo Collection” on her lap. She describes in detail the moment she and her husband bought their first piece of art.

“One of my colleagues in-vited Ricardo and I to dinner at her house. The whole evening, I saw this beautiful piece on her wall behind the dining room table and I said, ‘Where did you get it? Where do we find Mexi-can art like this?’”

And so began a lifetime of art collecting. The Romos’ collec-tion of over 200 prints inspired “Estampas de la Raza,” the most current exhibit at the McNay. The show is a beautiful display of more than 60 prints by 44 artists that celebrate the rich Mexican-American culture.

Romo and her husband, President Romo, were work-ing in inner-city schools in Los Angeles when a colleague told them about a Beverly Hills gal-lery that specialized in Mexican Art.

“We started looking at the pieces that were there, and he (the gallery owner) spent some time with us and explained it. Every time we had some time, we’d go over and just kind of wander around the gallery,” Romo said.

“Finally, he said, ‘You like this art. Why don’t you all buy a piece and you can pay me in monthly payments, and you can take it home.’ So, that’s what we did.”

The Romos’ first print, a

Rufino Tamayo lithography, cost $300. The Romos were living in an unfurnished, $90 a month apartment. The piece repre-sented a little over three months’ rent.

“We paid him $25 a month and we had our books in orange crates and table with two chairs and our Ru-fino Tamayo litho-graph,” she said.

Romo then opened the book on her lap to Sun Raid, one of the prints on display at the McNay. The silkscreen print by Ester Hernan-dez depicts the maiden from the notable Sun-Maid Raisin box as a skele-ton. She discussed the deporta-tions that were going on at the time during “Great American Boycott” and how the piece re-flects an ideology of the people during that time.

Romo seems attached to the many migrant workers who were angered by the farming companies that, without con-cern, sprayed pesticides over their fields while families and children were working. The im-age displayed creates a clear, vivid argument, supporting the migrants.

Romo continued to flip through pages of the book and pointed to example after ex-ample of prints that bring at-tention to the exploitation of the laborers who were working very long hours and earning

very little and of the refusal to let them organize labor unions.

“I was teaching elementary in a very low-income area and many of their families were mi-grant workers. We were both very much experiencing what these students were experienc-ing,” she said.

“It spoke very much to the kind of situation we were in-volved in, and as I became a so-ciologist, these definitely spoke to me. He’s (Ricardo) a histo-rian, so we were interested in the history of these movements and the way they were charac-terized in art,” she continued.

After a couple of moves around the country the Ro-mos settled in San Antonio. It was then that the McNay asked them to be co-chairs of their Mexican print exhibit.

“We realized that they (the McNay) had a big collection of Mexican Prints and they re-ally collect works’ on paper. We invited Lyle Williams (Curator of Prints and Drawings at the McNay) to come over and see what we had – and see if they would be interested in them. He was very excited about what we had.”

Romo and her husband gave the McNay 200 pieces and from that Williams selected the 67 in the exhibit. Romo smiled as she said, “Some of our favorites are not in this exhibit, so, hopefully, they will do something else as well.”

Williams grouped the exhibit by themes, identity, tradition, memory and culture in order to help the exhibit flow from one issue to the next. As a result, the

show is a cohesive body to help individuals identify with Mex-ican-American culture. The exhibit is not only a beautiful collection of art, but also an ex-cellent educational tool.

“We want other people to re-alize that these artists are out there. That is what was so excit-ing about having an exhibit at the McNay- a lot of people do not know about this art, they do not know about these art-ists, they are not usually found in museums,” Romo said. “We like the artists, we like the art and we are just very excited that they are getting that kind of at-tention.”

“Estampas de la Raza: Con-temporary Prints from the Romo Collection” is on display at the McNay until Jan. 27.

Estampas de la Raza: Contemporary Prints from the Romo Collection

Jennifer AlejosArts [email protected]

“Cats” has everything a Broadway show is made of—theatrics, drama, marvelous costumes and scandal.

The hit musical, which first opened in London in 1981, has now been shown in over 20 countries and in 250 cities. After much success and a tele-vision film, “Cats” is back at the Cameo Theatre with Jonathan Pennington and Jovi Lee Gon-zales directing the production.

“Cats” is not only lightheart-ed and fun but it also offers a serious look into the life cycle and the contemplation of what waits for us in the afterlife. The play opens with the cats gath-ered around a junkyard where they are waiting for their leader, Old Deuteronomy, to arrive. Once the cats learn that the audience is present, then intro-ductions are made.

Two minor flaws exist within the Cameo’s play, although one is unpreventable due to the the-ater’s small size. The stage is too cluttered, making it hard to see every character onstage with an atrocious amount of props in the background. At times, the play became overwhelming due to the poor use of props and the close-knit proximity between the characters and the decora-tions. Normally, most produc-tions of “Cats” feature over 50 actors in the performance, but in this case, the roughly 20 cats performing on stage felt as if it were too many. However, the

actors were able to work well in the limited space they were given.

Most of the dialogue was lost in the first act of the play. The actors’ singing was muffled through the speakers, making it almost unrecognizable to the audience. It was not until the second or third song that the sound technicians were able to get it right. This is unfortunate since the first few songs are cru-cial to the plot of the play, espe-cially for those seeing it for the first time. Also, there appeared to be a slight lighting problem on the actors in the foreground. Only the audience that was seated in the front were able to see the feistiness from some of the characters that were not necessarily involved in the key musical numbers.

Besides the minor produc-tion problems, the musical was wonderful. “Cats” is able to pull away from its shortcomings be-cause of its dedicated cast and excellent performances. You will be cheering for your favor-ite feline to jump back onstage once it is over, and you will be hit with a wave of nostal-gia once you leave the theater. “Cats” delivers what hard-core fans of the musical franchise crave—beautifully sung bal-lets, character dedication and an overall spectacular perfor-mance.

“Cats” follows a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and their decision to choose a head cat to follow in the sacred ritual of going to the Heaviside Layer. In the ritual, a lucky cat is given the opportunity of being reborn

in the Heaviside Layer to start a new life. This decision tends to make all of the cats competitive in gaining the respected privi-lege.

Based on the book of short poems titled “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T.S. Elliot, the play is split into two acts. The first act consists of the introduction of the cats and their greetings to the audience. It is within this first act that the Jellicle Ball takes place and the cats discuss who will be chosen to ascend to the Heaviside Lay-er. In the second act, the cats must foil the plan of Macavity when Old Deuteronomy is cat-knapped and the audience dis-covers who will be chosen to go to the Heaviside Layer.

“Cats” is filled with charac-ters with colorful personalities. Dwight Robinson does a bril-liant job of portraying the fee-ble-handed cat Asparagus, sim-ply known as Gus, who is the “washed-up” character of the bunch. Grizabella, the glamour puss, played by Twyla Lamont, was splendid to watch as well. Thad Payne also successfully captures the sensitivity and gentle nature of the head cat, Old Deuteronomy.

In the Cameo Theater’s pro-duction, there are definitely some actors that stand out more than others. Two notable mentions are in order for Josias Bermea and Yudith Burton who play Mungojerri and Rumple-teazer. Both actors share great chemistry, which translates well on stage. It would appear as if the actors have known each other their whole lives.

Jaime Goldman who plays Rum Tum Tugger, takes his role to a whole other level with his over-the-top banter and flamboyant dance moves. The audience loved his gyrating on stage and cheeky personality.

Each cat is delightful in its own way, but Lana Tucker of-fers a certain vulnerability to the role of Demeter that can be appreciated. Tucker manages to stay in character throughout the entire play, from the way she moves her hands to her in-nocent cat-like glances to the audience. Her voice is perfect for the role, with excellent con-trol of her pitch level and per-fectly sung high notes. She was easily an audience favorite.

Twyla Lamont, who plays Griza-bella in the feature, shines onstage in her drab, shaggy costume with se-quins peeking underneath and runny mascara. Lamont, a well-known theater actress, has many performances un-der her belt. Her resume is quite im-pressive with roles in many high-re-garded musicals including Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeny Todd,” Lily in “An-nie” and Yente in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Lamont proves that she is the most experi-

enced actor in the bunch with her flawless cover of “Mem-ory.” As she belts the melody onstage, chills were felt when the actress poured her heart into the performance, creat-ing a breathtaking rendition of the musical’s most memorable song.

“Cats” was originally sched-uled to conclude on Jan. 13, but due to a wide-spread turnout, the play has been extended until Jan. 19. For more information, visit their The Cameo Theatre’s website at cameocenter.com.

Meow! Cats is back in full feline force The Andrew Lloyd Webber classic graces the Cameo Theatre for a limited run

Guests look at work from “Estampas de la Raza,” an exclusive exhibit featuring pieces from the Romos’ personal collection.

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Tuesday, Jan. 15.10 a.m. Exhibit: Aphrodite and the Gods of LoveThe San Antonio Museum of Art (200 W. Jones St.) presents “Aphrodite and the Gods of Love,” an exhibit featuring 125 statues, vases, jewelry and other valuables from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Admission is free on Tuesdays.

Wednesday, Jan. 16. 12 p.m. Exhibit: TransitiosArtpace (445 N. Main Ave.) presents Transitios, a group show that highlights on the themes of culture, economy and miscom-munication. Artists for the exhibit include Ricardo Cuevas, Miguel Monroy, Jose Antonio and mem-bers of the Changarrito Project.

Thursday, Jan. 17.7 p.m. An Evening with Vincent Valdez & the AMtonesThe McNay Art Museum (6000 N. New Braunfels Ave.) presents an intimate evening with artist Vincent Valdez & the AMtones. The event will include food along with a look at Valdez’s exhibit, “America’s Finest.” Tickets are $25-$45. For more informa-tion, visit <mcnayart.org>.

Friday, Jan. 18.6 p.m. Dreamweek Arts MixerCome celebrate the active art community in San Antonio at the Dreamweek Arts Mixer presented by Blue Star Contemporary Art Center (116 Blue Star). Appetiz-ers and drinks will be served while guests can view the latest work from the Justin Randolph Thompson exhibit. For more infor-mation, visit <bluestarart.org>.

Saturday, Jan. 19. 2 p.m. Theater: “The Cat in the Hat & Other Tales”This rendition of the beloved Dr. Seuss classic is playing exclu-sively at the Magik Theatre (420 S. Alamo). Director Katie Mitchell brings the tale onto the stage in the form of a one-act play. Tickets are $9-$10.

Sunday, Jan. 20. 12 p.m. Exhibit: Mummies of the WorldThe Witte Museum (3801 Broad-way) presents “Mummies of the World,” a showcase of mummies from 21 different museum collec-tions that span seven countries. The exhibit features real human and animal mummies along with other preservations. Tickets are $18-$22. For more information, visit <wittemuseum.org>.

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{Local Events}

{for the weeks’s full calendar visit: paisano-online.com}

Dr. Harriett Romo shares a lifetime of Mexican-American art collecting

January 15, 2013ARTS&LIFE 7

Sheldon BakerSports [email protected]

What is a basketball team to do when one of its best players goes down with an injury? In UTSA’s case – play with more urgency.

Unfortunately, however, for the Roadrunners, urgency wasn’t enough to secure a vic-tory. On Jan.12, the UTSA Roadrunners lost 73 - 71 to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in one of the most exhilarating games of this season.

“This one hurts. We’ve got

some hurt guys over there. There’s no doubt about it,” Head Coach Brooks Thompson said.

In a season marred by losses and untimely injuries, the Road-runners played well against the WAC’s best team.

“They made a little run, and our guys came right back at them,” Thompson said.

“The guys knew they had to step-up; it was no either/or, they had to step-up. We all had to step-up,” said senior guard Kannon Burrage.

The Roadrunners had three players score in double figures: junior forward Jordan Sims

(16), junior guard Hyjii Thomas (14) and senior guard Burrage (29).

Burrage’s 29 points were both a career and team high.

“He played well…he’s capable of doing that night in, night out,” said Thompson of Burrage.

Offense wasn’t really the is-sue for the Roadrunners. On the other hand, LA-Tech guard Kenyon McNeil was. McNeil scored a game high of 34 points on 11 of 19 shooting from the field and 9 of 15 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.

“We made a few defensive mistakes on McNeil, and he

made us pay,” said Thompson.Towards the end of the game,

UTSA fought back. Michael Hale III, Sims and Burrage nailed some big shots, which

gave the ‘Runners a two point lead, but down the stretch, Mc-Neil was too much. With seven seconds left in the game, Mc-Neil hit his ninth 3-pointer. The

‘Runners had one last chance to win, but Hale lost control of the ball at half court, which forced Thomas to shoot a desperation 3-pointer that clanked off the back of the rim—giving UTSA its sixth consecutive loss.

“We lost to Utah State by four and tonight by two; we have a better confidence,” said Bur-rage.

The Roadrunners have four days off before they play Texas State on Jan 19. The game will be played at the Convocation Center, at 4 p.m.

UTSA off to 0-6 start in WAC playUTSA guard Hyji Thomas walks off the court after missing the potential game-winning 3-pointer while Jordan Sims looks on dejectedly. The Roadrunners lost to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, 73-71, on Saturday Jan. 12. The Roadrunners will return to action against Texas State on Saturday Jan. 19.

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“At the end of the day, it’ s still a loss. I don’t really believe in moral victories.”

Kannon BurrageShooting Guard, UTSA

SPORTS January 15, 2013

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Doug RitcherContributing [email protected]

After a tough home loss against Lake Erie on Thursday (Jan. 10), the Rampage split the weekend Friday (Jan. 11), de-feating the Monsters 4-2. The victory also evens the season series 2-2-0-0.

The Rampage scored first. 12:28 into the first period, af-ter recovering the puck deep in Monster territory, Rampage center James Wright launched a shot beneath the Lake Erie goalie, giving the Rampage a 1-0 lead. twelve seconds lat-er, Rampage right wing Jon Rheault broke loose for a power play goal with 7:20 left in the period, extending San Anto-nio’s lead, 2-0. It was Wright’s fifth goal and Rheault’s 12th goal of the year.

Lake Erie started the second period much more aggressive-ly than the first. Pouncing on a loose puck in the Rampage zone, right wing Dean Strong put the Monsters on the score-board at the 1:40 mark. Less than two minutes later, Matt Tassone tied the game with a blast from the right wing.

With renewed energy to open the third period, the Ram-page scored less than two min-utes in. After a scuffle deep in the Monster zone, Drew Shore outmuscled two Lake Erie play-ers for the puck and fired a shot into the net at the 1:42 mark. Shore’s 10th goal of the season reclaimed the lead for the Ram-page, 3-2.

Less than two minutes later, at the 3:29 mark, right wing Jon

Rheault ex-tended San Antonio’s lead with a blast, giv-ing the Rampage a 4-2 advan-tage, a lead they would p r e s e r v e until the final buzz-er. It was R h e a u l t ’s 13th goal of the year.

“I took it person-ally after last night’s g a m e , ” R h e a u l t said after the victory.

I n d e e d he did. With two goals in Fri-day’s game, Rheault is tied with teammate Greg Rallo for the most R a m p a g e goals this season.

On Jan. 10, in front of 3,389 fans at the AT&T Center, the Lake Erie Monsters defeated the San Antonio Rampage, 5-1. The home loss was San Anto-nio’s first since Dec. 16.

“We had a couple bad bounc-es...but we left too much to chance. We need to come out and be prepared to work. The team on the other side of that ice works hard,” Rampage Head Coach Chuck Weber said after

the loss. The Rampage took 29 shots

on goal to the Monsters 25, but the Monsters power play of-fense compensated for the dif-ference in goal attempts. Lake

Erie scored on 50 percent of their power plays (2-for-4), while the Rampage were held scoreless (0-for-5) when hold-ing a man advantage on the power play.

The game was tough for the Rampage offensively, but it was particularly tough on the Rampages goal tender, Jacob Markstrom, who gave up five goals against the Monsters. Markstrom had given up only six goals in his previous four contests.

The Rampage will return to home ice against the Texas Stars at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 25 at the AT&T Center.

San Antonio Rampage split Weekend action, 1 - 1

“I took it personally after last nights game.”John Rheault

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{WAC Rankings}

{Mens Basketball}Utah State 5 - 0

Louisiana Tech 5 - 0

Denver 5 - 1

New Mexico State 4 - 2

UT Arlington 3 - 2

San Jose State 3 - 2

Idaho 2 - 3

Seattle 0 - 5

UTSA 0 - 6

Texas State 0 - 6

{Womens Basketball}

Seattle U 5 - 0

Louisiana Tech 3 - 2

Idaho 3 - 2

Utah State 3 - 2

New Mexico State 3 - 3

UTSA 3 -3

Denver 3 - 3

San Jose State 2 - 3UT Arlington 1 - 4

Texas State 1 -5

The San Antonio Rampage made their playoff debut last season before losing to the Oklahoma City Barons in the American Hockey League’s Western Conference Semifinals. This season, the Rampage are 16-20-0-4 through 40 games. Their 36 points are five shy of the eighth and final playoff seed.

Rae Rippetoe-Blair is the winningest coach in UTSA women’s basketball history.

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Sheldon BakerSports [email protected]

UTSA’s head women’s basketball coach, Rae Rippetoe-Blair, did not travel with the team to UT-Arlington on Thursday, Jan. 10, or to Louisiana Tech Saturday, Jan. 12, because of medical reasons. The Roadrunners won both games in her absence.

In a press release, UTSA Athletic Director Lynn Hickey said, “Medical commitments have prevented Rae from the making the trip. We look forward to having Rae back with the team as soon as possible.”

Coach Rippetoe-Blair’s medical is-

sues, ostensibly, surfaced after she missed the second half of the New Mexico State game on Jan. 3. She also missed the entire game against Den-ver University on Jan. 5.

In a statement, Rippetoe-Blair said, “I would like to thank the UTSA fam-ily and my staff for their support dur-ing this time. I am taking steps to en-sure that my health improves and that I can return to the team as quickly as possible.”

At this point, the university doesn’t know when Rippetoe-Blair will return to the sideline. In her place, Associ-ate Head Coach Lubomyr Lichonczak will be acting head coach.

SPORTSJanuary 15, 2013

Rippetoe-Blair out for undetermined time because of medical issue

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Vol 48 Issue 1