NewsThe Rattler2 09-16-09www.stmurattlernews.com

CalendarInterfaith resource fairSept. 1810 a.m. – 1 p.mInformation available on several Christian denomi-nations as well as Judaism and Islam in the Quad.

“They Killed Sister Dorothy “showingSept. 227:30 p.m – 9 p.mThe start of film series shown by University Min-istry, will be shown in the Media Viewing room on the first floor of the Louis J. Blume Library.

Volunteer fairSept. 291 p.m. - 4p.m.Sponsored by the Service Learning Center in the UC Atrium.

A student looks into a truck of complied shreddings going to be recycled. Students went to Clear Visions Inc. as a part of Richard Pressman’s Ph.D. Corporate Communications class. Photo by Analica Perez

Police Blotter8/19/09Sick/injured person at the Student Health Center. Director on Duty contacted, EMS was contacted for treatment and transported person for further medical treatment.

8/20/08Possession of narcotics in Lot O. Criminal Trespass warnings issued and suspects escorted off campus.

8/27/09Bicycle stolen from bike rack in Flores Hall.

8/28/09Fire alarm in Adele Hall. Alarm activated by student’s hot curling iron.

8/31/09Suspicious person reported near Alkek. Building and surrounding area searched, no suspect found.

9/1/09Secured bicycle taken from bike rack at UC.

9/3/09StMU Traffic Violation off-campus. Involved wanted person. Requesting agency contacted and suspect released.

Damaged property in Lot M. Vehicle window shattered, nothing stolen.

9/9/09Public intoxication off-campus. Suspect arrested; VIA transit police contacted for transport and booking.

IndexNewsCommentaryFeaturesEntertainmentSports

1-56-89-1415-1718-20

NEWS IN BRIEF

Some adopted children in United States victims of kidnapping

Protesters of President Obama’s national health care plan rallied in Washington DC.

The group started a tour in California and toured 30 cities ending in Washington. The tour focused on a decrease in government involvement and going against health care reform.

Source: CNN.com

During the Guatemalan civil war the nation’s army stole more than 300 children and sold them for adoption to other countries.

Some parents were killed so the children could be taken into gov-ernment custody, while others were abducted from their families and sold.

Source: CNN.com

Unsafe water causes big health issues

Tap water in homes near Charleston, W.Va., has been found to contain toxic chemicals.

Residents use special lotion after their showers because the wa-ter causes burns. Lead, nickel, arsenic, lead and other dangerous heavy metals have been discovered in the resident bath water. The citizens blame nine local coal companies for the dangerous materials getting into their water.

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

“Pecan Grove Review” celebrates release

This September, the “Pecan Grove Review Vol. XI” will be published.

The magazine launching will have a reception at Java City on Tuesday, Sept. 29 from 4 p.m. - 5 p.m to acknowledge and honor those who contributed to the latest volume. All students are welcome to attend. Copies of the issue and refreshments will be available.

“The Pecan Grove Review” is St. Mary’s literary magazine and offers a place to display the community’s creative talents.

Submissions for the Volume XII are being accepted from now until Friday, Oct. 16 through the English department. Submissions can be dropped off in Chaminade Tower on the fourth floor and in the Louis J. Blume Library in their submission box. Prose must not exceed six typed pages and poetry must be less than forty lines.

For any questions concerning Volume XII or for those published in Volume XI to get a copy of the magazine, please contact professor Diane Bertrand at dbertrand@stmarytx.edu.

Speaker planned for screening

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 6:30 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.University Center Conf. Room A

Students are welcome to view “The Wall” a documentary fo-cusing on how Congress’s decision to build a wall along the southwest boarder of the U.S. affects the people living along that border.

Director Ricardo Martinez will be the guest speaker.

Career fair coming for those interested in risk managementTuesday, Sept. 22, 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.Alkek Atrium

Representatives from various local companies will be available to talk to students interested in risk management and insurance. Students are encouraged to bring their resumes.

Tea Party activists meet at Unites States Capitol

Galveston still recovering from Ike

A year ago, Hurricane Ike came along the Texas shore and de-stroyed many homes and businesses. Currently, Galveston is working on recovery and getting business back on track.

Property damage has devastated the residential economy and the local government has to consider raising taxes within the next two years.

Source: Mysanantonio.com

Saturday, Sept. 19, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.

For $20, residents of San Antonio can experience the Earth-Kind Landscape Series: Residential Turfgrass Management workshop.

Botanical Garden offers living green workshopsContact Us:210-436-3401 (office)210-431-3407 (fax)

Energy waste may be causing students to pay more to live on campus, according to the director of Resi-dence Life, who says energy costs total up to 15 percent of what students pay for on campus housing– almost three times what two other students pay for utilities off campus.

For example, Cremer Hall in the Outback where, according to Residence Life Director James Villarreal, the average student spends $326 for electricity a se-mester - about $20 a week.

In contrast, senior English communication arts ma-jor Kristin Johnson said she spent an average of $6 a week on electricity in an apartment last summer.

“Me and my roommate had air conditioning and everything, we just looked forward to save energy,” Johnson said.

Krystina Irvin, a St. Mary’s staff member, is also conservative with her energy consumption and said the average electricity bill for her apartment last sum-mer totaled $60 a month, and when divided between two roommates, ended up being less than $8 a week for each of them.

Why the difference in the bills – between $12 and $14 each week? It apparently is not a question of the air conditioning system on campus being old or inefficient.

According to St. Mary’s facilities administrator Bill Tam, the university invested nearly $1 million on two high-efficiency chillers last year, and the university was awarded with rebates because of energy conser-vation the past two years.

But the waste of energy is a real problem, said Vil-larreal. Residence hall rooms are often found with lights, TVs and radios on when no one is there. In addition, keeping windows closed and lights on during the day, instead of using natural light, is a common example of poor use of energy on campus, he said.

Villarreal recommends that students and staff

unplug laptop and cellphone chargers when they are not in use. In addition, Tam said, excessively long, hot showers and improper thermostat settings in the dorms are contributing to high energy costs.

Evelyn Mitchell, Ph.D., assistant professor of earth sciences, agreed that there is unnecessary energy us-age throughout the campus.

“On campus, lights are left on 24 hours a day, whether people occupy the buildings or not,” she said. “If we want to save energy, and money, we need to look for the obvious areas of waste.”

In addition to the money spent on elec-tricity, unnecessary energy usage also con-tributes to global warming, according to Mitchell.

“We first have to look at where our energy comes from: coal-burning power plants, which of course cause massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions,” Mitchell said.

Even though some initiatives have already been implemented on campus to reduce pollution, such as re-incorporating washable dining ware in the cafete-ria, there remains much to do, Mitchell added.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Admin-istration, Americans are responsible for 20 percent of world energy consumption and 23 percent of carbon emissions – yet the country has only 5 percent of the world’s population.

University student staff mem-bers received hands-on fire safe-ty training before the 2009 fall semester began.

Residence Life staff went to a local fire department for an up close look at how to respond to a fire and how to stay safe in such incidents. Residents Assistants and S.T.A.R.S. spent the day with local fire safety personnel and practiced putting out a computer generated fire on screen, while some students geared up in fire-fighter uniforms and took turns using a fire extinguisher on a controlled fire.

“It was very interesting to get some hands-on training,” said se-nior marketing major Eric Barrera, one of the two RAs living in Leies Hall. “[The training] allowed the RAs and S.T.A.R.S. to take a dif-ferent approach to fire safety.” In addition to putting out flames, staffers witnessed what would happen to a room if a real fire took place. A typical sized dorm room was replicated and burned in a controlled environ-ment and staff members watched

it burn in astonishment.“The flames moved so quickly

and the room was full of smoke in just seconds,” said graduate public administration major San Juanita Moncada, the RA in John Donohoo Hall. “I don’t think anyone expected it to burn that fast,” she added.

Participants were then in-structed on how to properly escape a smoky area and save themselves from smoke inhala-tion. According to the National Fire Protection Association Web site, in 2008 a civilian fire related death occurred every 2 hours and 38 minutes. Every 82 seconds a home structure fire was reported.

In previous years, fire safety training was completed on cam-pus and hosted by the University Police Department.

St. Mary’s University is the only campus in San Antonio to broaden their fire safety train-ing and take student staff to a fire department and witness the simulation.

Resident students said this training is important and hopes it continues in the future.

“As residents we do look to our RAs to help solve problems,” said criminology senior Jocelyn Robles, who lives in the Outback. “It’s good that our RAs get all this special training.”

News The Rattler 309-16-09www.stmurattlernews.com

Energy waste on campus raises cost

Payton Reiff, an RA in Founders Hall, and Livia Spilotro, an RA in Dougherty, look on as firefighters prepare to simulate a fire in a dorm room. Courtesy of San Juanita Moncada

Fire safety training

By Roberto DumkeWeb Editor

By Ari RiveraNews Editor

University’s Residence Life student staff learns first hand fire safety.

Average US Fuel Prices

Source: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov

Natural Gas

Heating Oil

Electricity

Propane

$13.67

$3.38

$11.36

$2.51

$11.92

$2.51

$11.64

$2.16

$11.56

$2.78

$11.40

$2.07

1000 cu ft

Gallon

Killo-hr

Gallon

2008 2009 2010

Fuel Actual Forecast

Per Unit

The RattlerAre you a writer, photographer or news junkie?

Then The Rattler wants you!

Keep an eye out for our next story assignment meeting or contact us today at our e-mail rattlernews@stmarytx.edu.

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Mandatory blood draws may occur more frequently in Texas due to a new state law which allows law enforcement to question anyone convicted twice for drunk driving without a warrant.

Until this month, only those arrested for intoxication manslaughter and intoxication as-sault have been required to give a sample of breath or blood. But under the new law, man-datory draws will be required of anyone fac-ing a third DWI charge and anyone accused of driving drunk with a passenger who is a child. A driver may also be required to have blood drawn if the responding officer believes any-one other than the suspect was injured or taken to a hospital for medical attention.

“This is a change from the previous law, it broadens the categories,” said Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed. “This new law is another example of the movement across the country to use all means available to establish the defendant’s guilt for the jury.”

A Texas Department of Transportation da-tabase shows that in Bexar County alone there were 2,256 traffic collisions last year involving driving under the influence –33 of them fatal. Reed says it is statistics like these that pushed state officials to enact the new law.

“We need to keep our streets safe,” Reed said. “We have 1.6 million people in Bexar County, and every time someone drives drunk, that’s a life at risk.”

For those who already have DWIs on their records like Adriana Salinas, 23, a student at Texas A&M San Antonio, or Jacob Hernandez, 24, a student at Northwest Vista College, the mandatory blood draws seem unfair.

“I don’t think it will necessarily help,” Her-nandez says. “Even though I refused a sobriety test, I was still taken in and charged with DWI, so it seems like a waste of money to assume that people are drinking and then taking them downtown.”

But local law enforcement is welcoming the bill. They say it could help prevent injuries and death on Texas roads—something the SAPD and DWI Task Force hopes will make college students think twice before drinking.

Detective Mike Davis, chairman of the DWI Task Force, said college students “take their time to plan what they’re going to wear and where they’re going to go, so why not also plan how your friends are all going to get home safely?”

Prosecutors from the District Attorney’s Of-fice have been meeting with the SAPD and the DWI Task Force to educate officers about the new law and to coordinate enforcement. While some Texas cities allow officers to draw blood from DWI suspects, San Antonio police have announced they’ll take a different approach.

“The city has hired nurses that will be on stand-by at the magistrate’s office,” Davis said. “The procedure here is efficiency—to get offi-cers back on the streets as quickly as possible, so we don’t plan on having our officers do blood draws anytime soon.”

According to the Center for Disease Control

and Prevention, one in 10 binge drinkers got behind the wheel after the last bout of heavy drinking. This included patrons at bars, night-clubs and restaurants. And Salinas, who was charged with DWI in 2007, said it happens of-ten in the night scene in San Antonio.

“I see a lot of people who should not be driving leaving bars and clubs,” Salinas said. “I know I thought that I was going to be okay, but then I got pulled over and it’s one of the biggest regrets of my life—no kidding.”

Texas Department of Transportation Traf-fic Safety Specialist Linda Tomasini says the new law is encouraging safety precautions, especially in dealing with those who think they’re invincible.

“We have to be stern with people who just don’t get it,” Tomasini said. “Would you rather take a cab for $15 to $20, or take a cop ride and end up paying from $15,000 to $20,000?”

And while Hernandez says he isn’t happy with the new law, he also is not happy with his decision to drive while intoxicated.

“It ruined my record for a long time,” he said. “Even though I don’t like this law (be-cause it makes me scared), I know I’ll definite-ly be as cautious as possible the next time I go out drinking.”

Volunteers wishing to prevent drunk driv-ing through Mother’s Against Drunk Driv-ing (MADD) may sign up at www.MADD-FriendsInDeed.org.

NewsThe Rattler4 09-16-09www.stmurattlernews.com

By Jennifer TobiasStaff Writer

Every day we see exam-ples of waste in San Antonio: peoples drawing a paycheck without working, corrupt poli-ticians using taxpayer money to fund their own extravagance, and poorly constructed infra-structure that will soon require reconstruction. But sometimes, sometimes, money is spent in an efficient manner and for a legitimate purpose. One such purpose is the restoration and preservation of historical mon-uments. This supports the prin-ciple that history should be val-ued highly in every society, not just for educational value but for its present day application.

For the next three months, Old Spanish Missions Incor-porated will be restoring the interior of Mission Concepción as part of the Las Misiones campaign. Concepción is one of four 18th Century missions, built under the Spanish to serve as a post to convert Native Americans to Roman Catholi-cism. Our city has the largest concentration of Spanish colo-nial buildings in the U.S.

Work on Concepción will include the restoration of origi-nal paintings and wall designs. Portions of the original walls along with original paint from the church’s mid-1700s con-struction were found under lay-ers of 19th Century plaster ear-lier this year, aiding in the res-toration process. Concepción, which still currently serves as a church, will be closed during the restoration and is scheduled to be reopened by Christmas.

$325,000 will be spent on this project, a sliver of the $15.5 million budget of the privately funded Las Misiones. Thank-fully, the federal government is not funding this restoration, of a federal monument, or else the project would most likely not be adequately financed due to the current administration of the budget in Washington.

Exposure to the Missions will increase when their likeness is featured on Texas’ next state quarter in 2019 as part of the “America the Beautiful” series. Unfortunately, many of these structures are not in the greatest condition, and all of them, with the exception of Concepción, no longer display their original dome architecture.

The representation of our city’s earliest foundation is in these monuments. We must strive to return them to their original states or else their origi-nal meaning will be lost to time.

Those with DWIs on their records will have to give blood without the police needing a warrent.

DWI StatisticsOver 12,000 individuals die in an alcohol re-lated traffic crash involving a driver with an illegal BAC rating (.08).

About three in every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives.

Over 1.46 million drivers were arrested in 2006 for driving under the influence of alco-hol or narcotics. This is an arrest rate of 1 for every 139 licensed drivers in the U. S.

In 2007, the rate of alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes was four times higher at night than during the day

Alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost the public an estimated $114.3 billion in 2000, including $51.1 billion in monetary costs and an estimated $63.2 billion in qual-ity of life losses. People other than the drink-ing driver paid $71.6 billion of the alcohol-related crash bill, which is 63 percent of the total cost of these crashes.

A 2008 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety poll measuring the traffic safety culture of Americans, found that 80 percent sup-ported requiring drivers who have been convicted of DWI to use equipment that tests them for alcohol, i.e. an ignition in-terlock device. In addition, 88 percent felt that drunk driving is a serious traffic safety concern.

Source: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/

Repeat offenders get testedRiver City UpdateBy Chris Childree

Check it out!Go to our web site and view this story or others like it! Also check out other exclusive content that you will only see online!

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News The Rattler 509-16-09www.stmurattlernews.com

recovery sooner, added Vasquez. The person needs to stay in bed for 24 hours, or until fever subsides. Drinking lots of fluids and taking aspirin for aches will also aid in a quick recovery.

Vasquez said if a resident is diagnosed with the virus, Residence Life will be notified and the univer-sity will take the proper action to help the student. This would include keeping the student quaran-tined, having food delivered to their dorm room and giving them a “flu kit.”

“We are working with Aramark to create a box of food a sick person would want and be able to make in their room. It has soup and Gatorade and would be picked up from hall directors offices by the sick person,” she said.

According to the San Antonio Metropolitan Dis-trict newsletter, the high-priority groups within the population are people between the ages of 6 and 25, pregnant women, people who live with or care for infants under 6 months, health care providers and anyone with a chronic medical condition.

College students are susceptible to swine flu be-cause of their frequent and close contact to others, Vasquez said.

Vasquez said it is also important to know that the seasonal flu vaccine some faculty and students may have received will not protect them from the H1N1 virus. H1N1 vaccines are distinct from the seasonal flu vaccine and need to be taken separately.

It is still highly recommended that faculty and students get the seasonal flu vaccine because after Oct. 1, the beginning of flu season, physicians will no longer be able to distinguish whether positive flu re-sults are from the seasonal flu or H1N1, Vasquez said.

Senior psychology major Christian Gutierrez gets her flu shot every year and plans on getting the H1N1 vaccine once it is available.

“Most of the cases [H1N1] they’ve found are within our age group so I just want to be careful,” Gutierrez said with concern.

The distribution of the H1N1 vaccine is still very limited but the health center will be notified if the shipment will be arriving, said Vasquez. There is no specific date of when the health center will be informed.

In the meantime, university officials will join to-day with the director of the San Antonio health de-partment in a continuing effort to keep the campus a step ahead of the swine flu.

Members of the St. Mary’s Critical Incident Re-sponse Team will be joined by Dr. Fernando Guerra, director of San Antonio’s Metropolitan Health De-partment for the meeting of the university group, for which swine flu has been a main topic. Guerra will be visiting partly because the school’s preparation has been one of the most proactive in planning, ac-cording to Vasquez.

The CIRT is composed of St. Mary’s administra-tors and faculty. The group takes initiative when faced with events of a serious nature - and that, of late, has been the swine flu, according to CIRT mem-ber Bessler.

“We’re making sure that the Physical Plant staff and Residence Life staff along with others are all work-ing together to keep St. Mary’s moving forward,” Bessler said.

Swine flu: Campus continues its preparations

Media classes available at AMC

With technology always changing, the Academic Media Center must continue to develop in order to keep pace. Recently the AMC began offering assis-tance with laptops.

“We are now integrated with the IT department,” said Lehman-Meyer. “We are here to prepare you for fixing your laptop yourself.”

The AMC is located on the first floor of the Louis J. Blume Library.

Servicing the department are: Director Kathe Lehman-Meyer, Yolanda Ramirez and Lisa San-chez, as well as the AMC’s work-study students. Their mission is to “expose multimedia to use during and after your four years at St. Mary’s University,” said Lehman-Meyer.

The AMC provides free work-shops on multimedia software such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, DVD Studio Pro and OneNote. They also give work-shops on podcasting, Web page creation, poster design and print-ing, electronic portfolios and on

the use of data projectors and sound systems.

The AMC allows students to use and borrow both their soft-ware and hardware. With proper certification, students can check out digital and video cameras. Students can also borrow a pro-jector even if it is just for personal use. These are helpful for a movie night in the residence halls. Stu-dents take the data projector workshop, check the equipment

out, and set up to show a huge movie on their room wall for the evening.

The training offered at the AMC can benefit students af-ter graduation as well. The

knowledge gained can be used to impress future employers.

“Two of my former students were at a business meeting and their bosses had a problem with the data projector,” said Lehman-Meyer. “My former students were able to fix the problem instantly and convinced their employer that they were ready for more re-sponsibilities in their jobs.”

In a world constantly using technology and in a market that uses YouTube and Twitter as ad-vertising tools, students need to be prepared on how to efficiently use electronic media and under-stand how it will benefit their work life. The AMC is available to teach students need-to-know information about multimedia and technology for free.

“If I could wave a magic wand, everyone would take workshops and spend time at the AMC,” said Lehman-Meyer. “The big-gest challenge is to carve out time for the AMC and go to the work-shops and follow up with the AMC education.”

“If I could wave a magic wand, everyone would take workshops and spend time at the AMC”

- Kathe Lehman-Meyer Director of the Academic

Media Center

By Austin NewtonStaff writer

Cont. from PG. 1

When the World Health Or-ganization signaled this summer that an H1N1 epidemic might be underway, the university’s Criti-cal Incident Response Team (CIRT) began meeting to create plans to respond.

“When the H1N1 virus started getting a lot of attention, that com-mittee was basically called to-gether to have people start work-ing on a plan for responding to the virus,” said André Hampton vice president of academic af-fairs. He said the CIRT “is there to prepare us for responding to emergencies.”

An all-university policy, which Hampton said will likely be fi-nalized by the end of the month, will include a plan as to how the university will function academi-cally in the event of a shut-down, a system of how to monitor student, faculty, and staff absences and the identification of important on-campus administrative tasks that still need to run regardless. Once the policy is finalized, all faculty and staff will get a copy, he said.

The policy will cover all aspects of campus life, from academics to student development. The policy’s approval is still pending but plans are already in effect, evident by clicking on the Flu Advisory link on the university’s Web site. A pol-icy covering academic functioning of the university was approved and circulated to academic affairs areas on Friday.

The Flu Advisory link on the university homepage outlines four response levels, and notes that St. Mary’s is already at level two- the “minor” stage. This stage indicates

confirmed cases of H1N1 in Bexar County and/or minor cases within the St. Mary’s community. The link also outlines a current plan of action and emergency notification procedures.

In the meantime, Hampton said, precautions are underway. The link’s “Current Plan of Action” suggests an array of basic hygiene practices to keep from spreading germs, including thorough hand washing, using alcohol-based hand cleaners and staying home if you get sick.

“Don’t feel that you have to drag yourself to campus or class if you’re not feeling well,” Hampton said. “We don’t want to encour-age students to show up if they’re sick.”

With all the planning and pre-cautions taking place, there is no definite sign that an epidemic will happen here – or whether the university would shut down if a widespread outbreak were to occur.

“If that happens, I think we would suspect that it would probably be for about a week or less,” said Vice President Hamp-ton. “I think we’re ready for any-thing that will happen. It’s not like we haven’t been in a spot where the university has to shut down before.”

The university shut down for a short period of time dur-ing Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and when the campus experienced electrical problems.

“If the worst of all possible things happened,” Hampton con-cluded, “we would be able to func-tion with respect to these essential items until it’s time to come back.”

Flu epidemic results in response teamBy Melanie MorenoStaff Writer

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