The student government at Texas A&M University narrowly passed a resolution on April 20 supporting a controversial bill that would mandate state funded colleges with centers devoted to “alternative” sexualities to provide equal funding for “traditional family values” centers.
The student government bill, in support of the House Bill authored by Republican Rep. Wayne Christian, was passed by a vote of 22-21 after A&M Speaker of the House Hilary Albrecht broke a tie. Rep. Christian was contacted and declined to comment.
“This bill is being perceived as a legislative way to propose an institutionalized homophobia,” said Lowell Kane, program coordinator of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center at Texas A&M.
“This vote is saying that the official stance is 50,000 Aggies agree with this even though half voted against this bill,” said Kane. “Quite honestly I have no idea what ‘traditional family values’ even means.” Kane cites that many gay publications feature same-sex couples striving for the right to marry, and by doing this they are striving for traditional family values.
The house bill would require equal funding for a “traditional family values” center if the “alternative” sexualities center received state funding. The GLBT Resource Center at Texas A&M currently receives some state funding along with the use of student service fees and an endowment. It is not quite certain how this bill would affect Texas A&M, said Kane. “This bill is comparing apples with oranges. Being GLBT is about an identity, this new center is about values.”
The University of Texas at Austin Student Government has not taken a stance on this issue, according to Student Government President Natalie Butler. “Personally I am opposed to the bill; in a time when we're dealing with budget cuts and reductions to core parts of the University, I don't think this is a responsible use of our resources,” said Butler.
The UT Gender and Sexuality Center opened on Jan. 28, 2005 to “build communities, offer resources and strive to promote a greater responsiveness to the needs of women and GLBTQ people,” according to the GSC website. The ‘Q’ in GLBTQ means “queer” or “questioning.”
“The main thing we provide is a safe space,” said GSC Education Coordinator Shane Whalley. “We have the education program with workshops on issues of gender and sexuality, and Peers for Pride, which is a program where students perform monologues to open conversation about GLBTQ issues.” Whalley also stated that the GSC has a library of GLBTQ literature for students to utilize as well as walk-in advising.
News of the controversial bill at first did not worry the GSC because all of the funding it receives is from student fees instead of state money, unlike A&M who receives state funds. “There wasn’t much fear about the bill affecting us, but when we learned about what happened at A&M we thought maybe we ought to be a little more aware,” said Whalley. “I think when Rep. Christian first put the bill in he wasn’t aware of the way we were funded. It’s good for us that he didn’t do his homework.”
Whalley argues that the GSC equally supports family values by supporting loving relationships, people having kids and the right to marriage, although this is certainly not what the supporters of the house bill have in mind when they think of “traditional family values.”
21-year-old UT student Spencer Manka also has a different definition of what it means to express traditional family values. “How many people were raised in a single family home? That’s not traditional. How many people grew up in a home with grandparents? That’s not traditional,” said Manka. “I want people to know that you can’t teach homosexuality.”
Back at A&M there has been some recent news regarding the future of the student government’s vote. According to an article in the Texas A&M student newspaper, The Battalion, on April 26 Student Body President Jacob Robinson vetoed the bill in support of Rep. Christian’s call for traditional family values centers.
According to Ryan Davenport, 20, newly elected A&M Student Government Vice President, the student assembly will vote on whether or not to override Robinson’s veto. Davenport, who serves in the outgoing administration as an education senator, said, “Personally I am going to abstain from voting on whether or not to veto this bill. I do not want my decision to have a negative effect on the next administration. There are legitimate cases on both sides of the argument, and some will be upset either way.”
It is still uncertain how this issue will affect Texas A&M and The University of Texas at Austin’s GLBTQ community. However, this may affect the raking of “GLBT friendliness” that the Campus Climate Index ranks each college based on a scale of one being the worst, to five being the best. Currently, A&M has a ranking of three, and UT a ranking of four. A&M also ranks consistently in the top 20 least GLBTQ friendly schools in the nation, according to the Princeton Review.
“Rankings of GLBT friendliness matter to prospective students and employees when they choose whether or not to come to a university,” said Lowell Kane. “I just hope that this bill does not push away even more GLBT students.”
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Life after an explosion
Frank Roberts is a man who wears many hats.
Any day of the week you may see him traveling to the countryside to collect and inspect rocks to feed his passion for geology. He could be listening to rock- and- roll legends in Studio 6A of the Austin City Limits television show as a broadcast engineer. He could even be making use of his pyrotechnic license and creating explosives for war reenactments.
Roberts never thought any of these things that he holds dear to him could be threatened until his passion for explosives nearly cost him his life.
Roberts was working in his basement on Nov.3 for a World War II reenactment that was to take place the following week for a Veteran’s Day celebration. “I was boiling alcohol to purify the chemicals that go into the fuses for the explosives. A small quantity broke from a beaker and caught fire on the stove. I tried to use my hands to push the pot off of the stove and that is when it exploded,” said Frank.
The explosion cost Roberts his left arm.
Still consciousness and aware of the damage done to his arms that looked to Roberts like “hamburger meat” he rushed up the stairs and locked himself in his bathroom so his wife Shirley would not see how badly hurt he was.
“I made sure my wife didn’t see me like that. I locked myself in the bathroom and told her to call 911. I also told her my blood type was A positive in case I needed blood…and I did.”
Roberts was rushed to the hospital where we woke up a few days later. The blast of the impact was so intense that he lost from his left mid-arm down, and much of his right thumb. Other injuries included two missing finger tips on his right hand and a chipped tooth.
“I was really lucky that the blast didn’t do more damage. Before I was trying to push the chemicals off of the stove I tried to blow them out. If the explosion had happened then I would have lost my head,” said Roberts.
The doctors were hopeful however that they could save his right hand through saving the thumb. “The doctors made a point of trying to save this hand because being without both hands I would become pretty useless,” said Roberts.
Roberts had his damaged left right thumb implanted into his torso for two months to regrow the tissue that was stripped away during the explosion. The procedure was successful and Frank now has use of his right hand due to the “re-grown” thumb taken from inside of his stomach.
Roberts is a broadcast engineer at KLRU-TV, the Austin Public Broadcasting Station that produces the popular music series Austin City Limits. “Any electronic equipment in the station has to be maintained and installed, there has to be someone at the station to keep it in tip-top shape. My specialty is the transmitter. I make sure that it keeps running.”
General Manager of KLRU Bill Stotesbery was worried for Roberts’s safety when he first found out about the explosion. “I just felt desperately sad and worried about Frank. It was not clear at the beginning how badly hurt he was.”
During his recovery the staff of KLRU made several trips to the hospital to visit Roberts, and help ease him through the recovery process. According to Stotesberry, Roberts was even able to send emails to his co-workers using a drink cozy slipped over his arm “nub” with a stylus attached to the end of it.
Roberts even made a surprise appearance at the annual KLRU Holiday party where he received a warm welcome. “I heard all of this cheering and I thought someone must have bowled a 300 game or something then I looked up and saw all of these people staring at me,” said Roberts, “That’s probably more than anything what got me through all of this. It was my friends that got me through this.”
Roberts is back at work and continues to be a part of KLRU and Austin City Limits during a time of immense changes not only for himself, but the station as well. Austin City Limits has left its home on UT campus and has moved downtown to the Moody Theatre. “Studio 6A was old and funky; this place is new and sterile, said Roberts, “It’s a great place to listen to music and the set looks great, but something is different.”
Along with a new space for Austin City Limits, he has a new arm. Roberts received a myroelectric prosthesis that is controlled by censors picking up on electrical impulses from his nerves. “I just have to think of moving and I move,” said Roberts.
A new studio and arm are not the only surprises that Roberts has received after the explosion nearly cost him his life. He received a gift that he thought he would never see again. “One of the firemen who responded to the accident called me back after I returned home from the hospital to return my wedding ring,” said Roberts, “He found it embedded in the ceiling.”
Any day of the week you may see him traveling to the countryside to collect and inspect rocks to feed his passion for geology. He could be listening to rock- and- roll legends in Studio 6A of the Austin City Limits television show as a broadcast engineer. He could even be making use of his pyrotechnic license and creating explosives for war reenactments.
Roberts never thought any of these things that he holds dear to him could be threatened until his passion for explosives nearly cost him his life.
Roberts was working in his basement on Nov.3 for a World War II reenactment that was to take place the following week for a Veteran’s Day celebration. “I was boiling alcohol to purify the chemicals that go into the fuses for the explosives. A small quantity broke from a beaker and caught fire on the stove. I tried to use my hands to push the pot off of the stove and that is when it exploded,” said Frank.
The explosion cost Roberts his left arm.
Still consciousness and aware of the damage done to his arms that looked to Roberts like “hamburger meat” he rushed up the stairs and locked himself in his bathroom so his wife Shirley would not see how badly hurt he was.
“I made sure my wife didn’t see me like that. I locked myself in the bathroom and told her to call 911. I also told her my blood type was A positive in case I needed blood…and I did.”
Roberts was rushed to the hospital where we woke up a few days later. The blast of the impact was so intense that he lost from his left mid-arm down, and much of his right thumb. Other injuries included two missing finger tips on his right hand and a chipped tooth.
“I was really lucky that the blast didn’t do more damage. Before I was trying to push the chemicals off of the stove I tried to blow them out. If the explosion had happened then I would have lost my head,” said Roberts.
The doctors were hopeful however that they could save his right hand through saving the thumb. “The doctors made a point of trying to save this hand because being without both hands I would become pretty useless,” said Roberts.
Roberts had his damaged left right thumb implanted into his torso for two months to regrow the tissue that was stripped away during the explosion. The procedure was successful and Frank now has use of his right hand due to the “re-grown” thumb taken from inside of his stomach.
Roberts is a broadcast engineer at KLRU-TV, the Austin Public Broadcasting Station that produces the popular music series Austin City Limits. “Any electronic equipment in the station has to be maintained and installed, there has to be someone at the station to keep it in tip-top shape. My specialty is the transmitter. I make sure that it keeps running.”
General Manager of KLRU Bill Stotesbery was worried for Roberts’s safety when he first found out about the explosion. “I just felt desperately sad and worried about Frank. It was not clear at the beginning how badly hurt he was.”
During his recovery the staff of KLRU made several trips to the hospital to visit Roberts, and help ease him through the recovery process. According to Stotesberry, Roberts was even able to send emails to his co-workers using a drink cozy slipped over his arm “nub” with a stylus attached to the end of it.
Roberts even made a surprise appearance at the annual KLRU Holiday party where he received a warm welcome. “I heard all of this cheering and I thought someone must have bowled a 300 game or something then I looked up and saw all of these people staring at me,” said Roberts, “That’s probably more than anything what got me through all of this. It was my friends that got me through this.”
Roberts is back at work and continues to be a part of KLRU and Austin City Limits during a time of immense changes not only for himself, but the station as well. Austin City Limits has left its home on UT campus and has moved downtown to the Moody Theatre. “Studio 6A was old and funky; this place is new and sterile, said Roberts, “It’s a great place to listen to music and the set looks great, but something is different.”
Along with a new space for Austin City Limits, he has a new arm. Roberts received a myroelectric prosthesis that is controlled by censors picking up on electrical impulses from his nerves. “I just have to think of moving and I move,” said Roberts.
A new studio and arm are not the only surprises that Roberts has received after the explosion nearly cost him his life. He received a gift that he thought he would never see again. “One of the firemen who responded to the accident called me back after I returned home from the hospital to return my wedding ring,” said Roberts, “He found it embedded in the ceiling.”
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Disney college program comes to UT
A little bit of magic ascended on the UT campus when Disney came to recruit for its Disney College Program.
Nearly 100 student met recruiters and former Disney College Program graduates Tuesday to discuss a paid internship at one of the company’s two theme parks: Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
“One of the reasons that we come to Austin is because of the great talent thriving at the university. The students are talented and goal oriented,” said Erica Nowak, a recruiter for Disney. The Disney College Program is unusual in that Disney travels from eight to ten major cities in search of college student to fill their parks positions, according to Nowak.
The program allows students to take college classes online, at a university nearby, or at Disney University, which offers college classes for credit through the Disney program. Along with these classes, interns will work anywhere from 35 to 40 hours a week at their internship at one of the parks.
The internships that could include positions in: lifeguarding, custodial, food and beverage, merchandise, attractions, costuming, and hospitality. There are also a few entertainment internships that students must audition for.
Doug Baker, 21, a Disney rep who attended the program in 2008, interned in transportation and drove the monorail, a train system that runs around Walt Disney World. “The greatest part about my experience was getting to meet people and keeping up with them. I would see over 100,000 people a day,” said Baker.
The internships are starting level positions, but Disney provides many opportunities to move up in the company. Erica Nowak started at Disney as an attractions host, and now travels the country recruiting for Disney. Many other success stories were shown in video clips, where interns started off at low paying jobs and end up in upper-level management positions.
The perks for being an intern in the Disney College Program are not bad. Students participating in the Disney College Program get free admission to the parks, discounts on merchandise, and sneak peeks of new attractions coming to Disney. The housing options for interns include fully furnished apartments, utilities included in rent, and free transportation, according to Erica Nowak.
“This college program really helped me come out of my shell, and the internship opportunity opened doors I never knew existed,” said Baker.
If you would like to learn more about the Disney College Program you can visit their website at disneycollegeprogram.com. The application is open now for next fall and spring semester.
Nearly 100 student met recruiters and former Disney College Program graduates Tuesday to discuss a paid internship at one of the company’s two theme parks: Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
“One of the reasons that we come to Austin is because of the great talent thriving at the university. The students are talented and goal oriented,” said Erica Nowak, a recruiter for Disney. The Disney College Program is unusual in that Disney travels from eight to ten major cities in search of college student to fill their parks positions, according to Nowak.
The program allows students to take college classes online, at a university nearby, or at Disney University, which offers college classes for credit through the Disney program. Along with these classes, interns will work anywhere from 35 to 40 hours a week at their internship at one of the parks.
The internships that could include positions in: lifeguarding, custodial, food and beverage, merchandise, attractions, costuming, and hospitality. There are also a few entertainment internships that students must audition for.
Doug Baker, 21, a Disney rep who attended the program in 2008, interned in transportation and drove the monorail, a train system that runs around Walt Disney World. “The greatest part about my experience was getting to meet people and keeping up with them. I would see over 100,000 people a day,” said Baker.
The internships are starting level positions, but Disney provides many opportunities to move up in the company. Erica Nowak started at Disney as an attractions host, and now travels the country recruiting for Disney. Many other success stories were shown in video clips, where interns started off at low paying jobs and end up in upper-level management positions.
The perks for being an intern in the Disney College Program are not bad. Students participating in the Disney College Program get free admission to the parks, discounts on merchandise, and sneak peeks of new attractions coming to Disney. The housing options for interns include fully furnished apartments, utilities included in rent, and free transportation, according to Erica Nowak.
“This college program really helped me come out of my shell, and the internship opportunity opened doors I never knew existed,” said Baker.
If you would like to learn more about the Disney College Program you can visit their website at disneycollegeprogram.com. The application is open now for next fall and spring semester.
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