panamericanonline.com

DIY Halloween DecorationThe Pan American provides jack-o-lantern carving tips

Volume 69, No. 8 October 18, 2012

Page 6

Page 7

Page 3

Luis Roblero

#BaldForNolan

Baseball team shows support for cancer patient

Electro DJ to perform Saturday at Pharr Events Center

Wireless network to connect 5 Texas campuses

Benassi Visits

Page 6

Connect with Eduroam

Education major working to inspire others

MITTBARACK

Continued on Page 4

Position: Position:

Position:

Position:

2012 Promises:

2012 Promises:

Record:

Record:

Record:

ROMNEY

Immigration

Net Worth: $ 5.7 million Net Worth: $230 million

Higher Education

Immigration

Higher Education

For DREAM Act System currently excludes too many that could help grow economy

Current porous border allows illegal immigrants to enter

Should welcome legal immigration

Wants to double Pell Grant fundingCreated the Community College to Career Fund. This builds up community colleges with special grants.

Work with Congress to get the DREAM Act back

Signed new law that makes it easier for college students to pay back student loans, starting with new borrowers in 2014

Proposed a new rule to keep families together by allowing certain undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for legal status from inside the U.S.

With early voting beginning at the UTPA Library Monday, The Pan American staff researched the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates’ platforms and records. This is the first installment of the 2012 Pan American Voting guide.

Voted to add $3 billion to education, training, employment and social services programs in 2007. Federal revenues would rise by $180 million.

Vetoed a bill in 2004 that would have allowed undocumented im-migrants to pay in-state tuition in public Massachusetts universities

OBAMA

DECISIONS... DECISIONS 2012OBAMA vs ROMNEY

Resume: 2009- Present - 44th President of the United States of America2005 -2008 U.S. Senate, Illinois seat 2006 Publishes book The Audacity of Hope2005 Publishes book Dreams from My Father1997-2004 Illinois State Senate1993-2004 Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Chicago Law School

Resume: 2011- Present Candidate for 45th President of the

United States of America2003- 2007 Governor of Massachusetts1999-2002 CEO, 2002 Winter Olympics

1991-1999 CEO, Bain Capital1984-1990 Co-Founder, Bain Capital

1977-1984 Vice President, Bain & Company1975-1977 Management Consultant, The Boston

Consulting Group

Age:51 Age:65Weight:176.4 lbs Weight:197 lbsHeight: 6’ 2”Height: 6’ 1”

Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii Birthplace: Detroit, MichiganReligion: Prostestant Religion: MormonEducation: Harvard Law School ( 1988-1991) Juris Doctor, Law Columbia University (1983) Political Science Occidental College (1979 - 1981) Political Science

Education: Harvard University (1971-1975) Juris Doctor/

Master of Business Administration Brigham Young University (1969-1971) English

In the Blue Corner: In the Red Corner:

Establish college tax credit

2012 Promises:Work with Congress to raise visa number caps

Every foreign student who obtains an advanced STEM degree should be granted permanent residency

Speed up the visa process

U.S. education is spending too much and not getting results.

Control the border via fence, officers and a system to ensure people do not overstay visas

Mandatory employment verification system

Give citizens and legal permanent residents priority in requesting citizenship for family members

DREAM Act immigrants should have the chance to become permanent citizens by serving in the military

Opposed to amnesty

Higher education is both more important and less affordable

For Comprehensive Reform

Pass bipartisan immigration reform

Implemented Race to the Top program. This is to promote an increase in the amount of college graduates.

STC campus

UTPA campus1. Turn on your laptop or wireless device

2. Connect to UTPA-SETUP wireless network

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to connect to the eduroam wireless network

connect at other eduroam

campuses

even globally

2 opinionOctober 18, 2012

The Pan American is the official student newspaper of The Univer-sity of Texas-Pan American. Views presented are those of the writ-ers and do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or university.

1201 West University, CAS 170 Edinburg, Texas 78539Phone: (956) 665-2541

Fax: (956) 316-7122

Editor-in-ChiEf: Karen Antonacci nEws Editor: Daniella Diaz sports Editor: Norma GonzalezArts & LifE Editor: Lea Victoria JuarezphotogrAphy Editor: Adrian Castillo dEsign Editor: Erick Gonzalez MuLtiMEdiA Editor: Dimitra Hernandez AdvisEr:Dr. Greg SelberAdMinistrAtivE AssoCiAtE: Anita Reyes AdvErtising MAnAgEr: Mariel CantuwEbMAstEr: Jose Villarreal soCiAL MEdiA Editor: David Alvarado

thE pAn AMEriCAn

Vol. 69, No. 8

thepanamerican@gmail.com

Next Delivery:Oct. 25 at noon

I stopped to sit outside cause the guy playing his guitar and singing outside the library is playing my favorite song. #UTPA

saraherey@ -‏

Tweet at and follow us @ThePanAmerican

The Pan American accepts letters of 300 words or less from stu-dents, staff and faculty regarding recent news-paper content, campus concerns or current events. We cannot pub-lish anonymous letters or submissions contain-ing hate speech or gratu-itous personal attacks.

Please send all letters to:thepanamerican

@gmail.com

Francisco Rodriguez / The Pan American

Letters to the Editor

Idk why... But I absolutely love it when I see students at #UTPA viewing the presidential debates online here at the library. #Hope4himanity

CocoIvyBean_11@ -‏

Tweets #UTPAapathetic, angry,

abstaining by Erick Gonzalez

Illustration by: Francisco Rodriguez

With the 57th U.S. presi-dential election just around the corner, I fail to ascribe that much importance to it. There are plenty of reasons for me to care but I just don’t really care what happens and I believe that there are a few of you who feel the same way. So this is for you self-centered people.

The media is constantly bombarding us with their po-sitions, making me feel guilty for disregarding their shower of political information, when they are merely trying to sway me into agreeing with their po-litical standpoints. We know, or at least I do, that the presi-dential elections are a big deal. However, at the end of the day I just want to sit on my couch, have a beer and not think about the possible and not-so-distant future of this country. After all, I have my own problems, and the president, whether the old one stays or we get a new one, is not going to help me deal with them.

Another reason to pay no heed to this bipartisan quarrel is that I have little to no say on the possible outcome. Now if you think your vote matters, then help yourself and grab a copy of The Pan American’s Oct.

4 issue and go to Pages 4 and 5. There it is explained how little influence you have over the presidential election.

Presidential candidates aren’t doing this to persuade people to choose them to run the place, as is commonly imagined (mistakenly) by the unaware masses that think their vote makes a difference.

Presidential elections are merely a time in which a couple of politicians embark on a pop-ularity contest across the country, and even beyond, in order to let the Electoral College (a small group of selected individuals that actu-ally make the decision) know which is the least hated person among the candidates. Then they make a decision, sometimes not consid-ering the popular vote. How do you think George W. Bush got the presi-dency? You live in a republic, not in a democracy.

I have to also take into account that such display of political propaganda is mostly unnecessary. We are fed a con-stant interchange of political stands by two people who, we

are told, will run the country but in the end they are just part of the group who govern the country. We hear ideas they plan to carry out but in order for that to happen they have to go through the Congress, which is comprised mainly of both Democrats and Republi-cans who are constantly bicker-ing with each other, and with the president. So it’s quite dif-ficult for the president to come through with his promises.

Not only that, most of the country is going to vote based on color, red or blue, disregarding the political views of the candidate. The thick-minded will just vote for their favorite team and will ignore everything else, and even con-vince themselves that they are

doing the best for the country. I’m constantly baffled at the sheer stupidity of calling your-self a Republican or Democrat. No one’s political views fall en-tirely on a party that has very contrasting viewpoints from the other.

Inform yourself and form an opinion, everyone has issues in which they are conservative and other issues in which they lean liberal. For example, I’m all for gun rights and regulation;

on that issue I’m conser-vative. On prostitution, on the other hand, I’m liberal. Be a person; don’t mindlessly follow like a bewildered sheep to the person that speaks what you want to hear.

Even though I have no interest in the current political pro-paganda I found it im-possible to ignore com-pletely. I favor Obama.

Ironically enough it isn’t be-cause I strongly agree with most of his policies. I do prefer them over Romney’s nonsense, but the main reason I want Obama to stay in office is be-cause logically he has a better shot at fixing the United State’s current deficit. I use the term “fixing” freely because I really don’t expect a complete fix but more of a “patch up.”

Which leads me to talk about the avalanche of igno-rant critique toward Obama “not fixing the economy” and blaming him for the current state of the country. Like I mentioned before, it is a group effort to run a country and he had to clean up what was

given to him, which was an economic mess made by Bush. Four years isn’t enough time to fix an economy. You all have been in school more than four years, most still don’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re,” and yet still have the nerve to demand results from a public servant.

It will take time to allevi-ate the current state of the econ-omy and bringing a new guy to clean up the last guy’s mess isn’t going to change much. It takes more than just shortsighted critique and crossing your arms waiting for somebody to fix an entire country’s economy. It is a country, after all, a country that we all are part of. What are we doing to fix things? What are you doing to change things for the better?

It is easy to say Bush was useless. It is easy to say Obama is useless. It will be easy to con-tinue to say Obama is useless or that Romney will be. The prob-lem doesn’t rely on the president mainly. There is an underlying problem that we are capable of fixing. The problem is us.

We are part of a culture that values becoming rich overnight more than forming a family based on values and respect toward others. We are a culture that has no conscious-ness or memory about politics or interest in the economy. We only care about these ideas when the candidates are pa-rading around thex country spending millions on cam-paigns to hold our attention, because it reminds us of the illiterate pandering we usually see on TV, since in between campaigns we are too busy voting for American Idol.

If you think a president is going to fix this country, you are far from right. Whether Obama stays or Romney takes his place, they will still have to work with the flawed raw material of this country, its people. Instead of taking our futures in our hands, piti-fully, we are always waiting for someone to show us the way.

“We are a culture that has no consciousness or memory about politics or interest in the economy. We only care about these ideas when the candidates are parading around the country spending millions on campaigns to hold our attention.”

STC campus

UTPA campus1. Turn on your laptop or wireless device

2. Connect to UTPA-SETUP wireless network

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to connect to the eduroam wireless network

connect at other eduroam

campuses

even globally

news 3October 18, 2012

roam the net with eduroamK

aren Villarreal/Th

e Pan American

Having gone live in early Au-gust, a new wireless Internet ac-cess service called eduroam is now available for use by students at the University.

The idea behind eduroam is that students, faculty and visiting scholars to the campus will be able to easily access the wireless Inter-net without having to mess around with network settings, as long as they come from another institu-tion that also uses eduroam.

Likewise, UTPA students vis-iting other institutions with edu-roam will be able to easily access their wireless connection.

After students register with the network using a username and password, eduroam stores the data so that when they visit an-other participating eduroam insti-tution, the login info is instantly recognized and access is granted.

“We hope this is going to be a real convenience for our students,” said Anne Toal, technology assess-ment officer with the Office of In-formation Technology. “Especial-ly those that are dual-enrolled or transfer.”

However, students are advised to use their school emails when do-ing the initial setup. When visit-ing another institution, they will find that the network will use a student’s email address to identi-fy what university they hail from and send their credentials for ver-ification.

“It’s not anonymous connec-tion,” Toal said. “If someone from another eduroam school comes on, we have a record of them log-ging in. It gives us an email address. You’d be leaving little electronic footsteps so the system knows who you are.”

The University is a part of the University of Texas System, which in turn is a member of the Lone-star Education and Research Net-work, an association comprised of various academic and research in-stitutions. Lonestar Education Re-search Network is a member of In-ternet2, another association much like Lonestar.

Lonestar focuses on support-ing the research, education and economic development of institu-tions through statewide network-ing and access to global resources.

Internet2 focuses on the devel-opment of advancements in soft-

ware, security, network research and performance measurements to further the progress of Internet applications. The cost of eduroam is paid for by Internet2, and thus made available to any institution in the UT System that wants to use it.

Like UTPA, South Texas Col-lege has also started using edu-roam. As part of a joint project, it went live for both campuses at the same time, at the start of the semester.

Ideally, this will help students enrolled at both campuses, or those who’ve transferred to UTPA look-ing to continue their education.

“We first became aware of edu-roam in March 2012,” said Jeffery Graham, chief information officer with the OIT. “We actually started working with STC to acquire it in May 2012.”

There are currently 76 insti-tutions in the United States using it. The five in Texas include STC, UTPA, Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, Texas A&M Uni-versity, and the University of Texas System offices in Austin.

UTPA was the first school in the UT system to adopt eduroam.

“This is really good for Pan Am,” Toal said. “This really shows

us as technology leaders, and for us to be the first in the UT system to use it is really great.”

A change with eduroam is how one logs in to the domain. There is no difference in performance. Now, instead of having to know the name of the Service Set Identi-fier in order to connect, which was Student2010 for students, the edu-roam service is broadcast so that connection is instant.

“We still have the student SSID and the faculty SSID, but we are trying to go over to eduroam,” Graham said. “Our long term goal is to replace the other two with

eduroam.”Since the network has gone

live on campus, students have been able to test out the service and get a feel for how it preforms.

“The service is fast and it doesn’t mess up for me,” said Vale-ria Rios, a 19-year-old communi-cation disorders major. “It’s also good that you can just go (to an-other campus) and use it without having a problem.”

Other students, such as 22-year-old Bryanda Garcia, told of their rocky start with the service.

“I had overheard that some students have had problems, and in the beginning of the semester I was experiencing issues connecting with my phone, but it’s fine now. I use it almost every day,” she said.

Part of the reason eduroam was adopted was in the hopes that it will allow students to continue their education if they choose to move beyond the University, be-yond the state and even outside the nation.

“It allows our students to ven-ture out into the world and not have to worry about figuring out how to get on the Internet,” Toal said.

Wireless network access on 5 Texas campuses

Unlocking the WRSC student storage situation

By Charles Vale The Pan American

By Jose S. De Leon III The Pan American

-Ohireime EromoseleUTPA senior

It felt like the WRSC acted autonomously

in making the decision to do this without giving out any warnings to the students.800

$20 lockers

70 free lockers

Student Government Associa-tion President Matthew Garcia met with Travis Hughes, the director of the Wellness and Recreational Sports Complex, Oct. 4 to discuss a student’s complaint regarding the lockers at the fitness center.

The student, Ohireime Ero-mosele, attended the SGA meet-ing Sept. 28 when, at the begin-ning of the semester, he noticed several occupied lockers miss-ing doors and no one supervis-ing the men’s locker room. Con-cerned about how there was no warning given to students regard-ing the locker doors, the 19-year-old senior attended the meeting to bring up the issue.

“It felt like the WRSC act-ed autonomously in making the decision to do this without giv-ing out any warnings to the stu-dents,” he said.

At the meeting, Garcia be-came interested in the situation and expressed concern when he heard many students were also talking about a locker fee of $20 to rent a locker for the semes-ter, so he decided to meet with Hughes to discuss both concerns.

THE PROBLEMThe reason for the lack of

doors on lockers, Hughes ex-plained, was that lockers were being upgraded with a new lock style, a process that required the doors to be removed so that a new lock could be installed.

While the process was going

on, two staff members were sup-posed to be watching the lock-er rooms at all times and they “should not have left the room unsupervised,” Hughes said.

However, Eromosele said that he saw at least 20 lockers without doors and that the on-ly staff members he noticed were those removing the locker doors.

As for the $20 fee that stu-dents were questioning, Hughes believed that there was a mis-communication between the WRSC and University students regarding the locker fee.

Hughes explained that the WRSC has always had a semes-ter rental fee, while also pro-viding students with the op-tion of one-day use lockers that are free to check out.

The reason why more stu-dents noticed the locker fee, Hughes theorized, was because students rented out the one-day lockers available in the lock-er rooms. However, the one-day lockers, 70 in total, are now only available on the gym floor due to the new lock system not making them compatible for one-day use.

Hughes stated that new locks on the lockers is the solu-tion to a problem that the com-

plex has had since it opened.The director explained how

a common problem with the one-day lockers was that a lot of students would lose their keys. Whenever this happens, complex employees change the lock to en-

sure that if the key to a locker is found, it can’t be used.

Hughes and the WRSC ad-vising committee were looking for the most inexpensive way to solve the issue. Ultimately, they found a new lock style that re-quired a combination instead of keys, and the cost to retrofit all 800 spaces was $10,000.

The advisory committee, composed mostly of students, ad-vises the WRSC administration.

According to Hughes, the decision to get new locks was an administrative one taken with feedback from the WRSC ad-visory committee back in the spring semester, when the idea was first proposed.

Since the committee wouldn’t meet again until the fall, Hughes decided to start ret-rofitting the lockers in the sum-mer, without telling the adviso-ry board.

“We like having things ready by the start of the new school year,” he explained.

The decision to not go to the advisory board with the decision, Hughes said, was mostly due to the fact that he didn’t think this issue would be important.

“Any time we want to make a big change, we like to get the input from the advisory com-mittee,” he said. “But in our minds, this wasn’t a big issue but based on the reactions from stu-dents, it was.”

The director also admitted that, had the complex not have rushed this decision, more students would be aware of the change.

Garcia agrees.“A lot of the students, myself

included, hadn’t been aware of the

rental policy that had been around for five years,” Garcia said. “Since it wasn’t heavily promoted, it came off as something new.”

Garcia doesn’t mind the fact that the one-day lockers aren’t in the locker room.

“The explanation for the new locks and the changes seem rea-sonable and temporary lockers are still available for students,” he said. “And it’s not much of a burden to have them far from the restroom. I know some students will see it as an inconvenience, but I don’t think it’s that bad.”

Hughes will attend the SGA meeting Friday to answer any questions about the new lock-er policy, said Garcia, who add-ed that the SGA and WRSC are planning to conduct a survey at the gym to see how many stu-dents who use the WRSC are aware of the new lockers.

Hughes wants to remind UTPA students that he has their best interests in mind.

“We follow the best practic-es of other institutions and see what other schools are doing and try to do what we think is best for us,” he said.

available in WRSC

THE PAN AMERICANTHE PAN AMERICAN October 18, 2012 October 18, 2012 Page 5Page 4

REDISCOVER CHURCH!

There’s a new worship service for people like you – people looking for a meaningful way to connect with God.

We now offer contemporary worship on Sundays at 9:45 a.m. Here you will find upbeat music, relevant messages, and casual dress.

Jeans and sneakers expected. No halos required.

Join us. We’ll save a seat for you!

9:45 am – NEW Contemporary Worship Service 11:00 am - Traditional Worship Service

F i rs t Un i ted Method is t Church o f Ed inburg 3707 West Un ivers i ty , Ed inburg

www.ed inburgfumc.org

Position:

Record:

Foreign Policies/National Security

For drawing down troops in Afghanistan

In 2008, Obama voted on a bill that approved of the US-India Agreement for Cooperation on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. In 2010, President Obama announced an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials in four years

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Health Care

Will issue an executive order that paves the way for the federal government to issue Obamacare waivers to all 50 states. He will then work with Congress to repeal the full legislation as quickly as possible

Against Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) Opposes privatizing the VA

Version of Mass. health care bill included requiring every citizen who can afford health care to buy it or face tax penaltiesVetoed part of health care bill that would have placed a fee on businesses with fewer than 11 employees that did not provide coverage

2012 Promises

Record:

Eliminate certification requirements that discourage new teachers

Strengthen and simplify the financial aid system

Supported English immersion classes for students that cannot speak English and opposed bilingual education.

Welcome private sector participation

Replace burdensome regulation

Higher Education... cont.

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Foreign Policy/National Security

Increase Navy shipbuilding rate from nine to 15 a year

Reverse Obama defense cuts

The U.S. cannot be weak because it would usher in a dangerous era of uncertainty

Passed “Welcome Home Bill” in 2006, giving those National Guard soldiers called to duty after Sept. 11, 2001 a bonus

Unclog and Expand the VA

Grant all veterans using the GI Bill in-state tuition

Opposes privatizing the VA

Prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Federal Budget

Use savings from ending war in Iraq to pay down debt and invest in infrastructure

Eliminate tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas

Cut taxes by $3,600 for the typical middle class family making $50,000 a year over his first term

Signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 into legislation to cooperate with House amendments and pass a bill that raised the national debt limit and established discretionary spending limits

Return millionaire tax rates to what they were under Clinton’s presidency

Position:

Record:

Health Care

For “OBAMAcare,” or The Affordable Care Act

Obama agreed to override a veto, in 2008, on a bill that would extend and expand Medicare coverage for a variety of programs and would amend regulations about Medicare fee-for-service programs. In turn this would raise the yearly amount covered by Medicare of health care costs connected with mental, psychoneurotic, and personality disorders until 100 percent of related costs are covered in 2014.

Position:

Record:

Social Issues

Supports same-sex marriage Supports right to choose when it comes to abortion issue

Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2010. President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Social Issues

Will appoint an attorney general who will defend the Defense of Marriage Act but he will also champion a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Overturn Roe v Wade and make abortion a states’ issue

Opposed same-sex marriage while governor of MassachusettsIn 2005, Gov. Romney vetoed a bill authorizing an emergency contraception drug

Will overturn Roe v Wade and end federal abortion advocates like

Against Same-sex marriage Opposes privatizing the VA

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Federal Budget

Curb federal spending by repealing Obamacare

Reduce federal spending on entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security

As governor presided over the elimination of a projected $1.2–1.5 billion deficit through a com-bination of spending cuts, increased fees, and the closure of corporate tax loopholes

Cut the corporate tax rate to 25 percent

Eliminate “the death tax,” a tax on inherited estates

Fix the tax code to encourage job growth

Regulations burden the economy

Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Legal Services Corporation

Reduce subsidies for The National

Reduce federal employee compensation

Reduce the federal workforce by 10 percent

THE PAN AMERICANTHE PAN AMERICAN October 18, 2012 October 18, 2012 Page 5Page 4

REDISCOVER CHURCH!

There’s a new worship service for people like you – people looking for a meaningful way to connect with God.

We now offer contemporary worship on Sundays at 9:45 a.m. Here you will find upbeat music, relevant messages, and casual dress.

Jeans and sneakers expected. No halos required.

Join us. We’ll save a seat for you!

9:45 am – NEW Contemporary Worship Service 11:00 am - Traditional Worship Service

F i rs t Un i ted Method is t Church o f Ed inburg 3707 West Un ivers i ty , Ed inburg

www.ed inburgfumc.org

Position:

Record:

Foreign Policies/National Security

For drawing down troops in Afghanistan

In 2008, Obama voted on a bill that approved of the US-India Agreement for Cooperation on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. In 2010, President Obama announced an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials in four years

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Health Care

Will issue an executive order that paves the way for the federal government to issue Obamacare waivers to all 50 states. He will then work with Congress to repeal the full legislation as quickly as possible

Against Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) Opposes privatizing the VA

Version of Mass. health care bill included requiring every citizen who can afford health care to buy it or face tax penaltiesVetoed part of health care bill that would have placed a fee on businesses with fewer than 11 employees that did not provide coverage

2012 Promises

Record:

Eliminate certification requirements that discourage new teachers

Strengthen and simplify the financial aid system

Supported English immersion classes for students that cannot speak English and opposed bilingual education.

Welcome private sector participation

Replace burdensome regulation

Higher Education... cont.

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Foreign Policy/National Security

Increase Navy shipbuilding rate from nine to 15 a year

Reverse Obama defense cuts

The U.S. cannot be weak because it would usher in a dangerous era of uncertainty

Passed “Welcome Home Bill” in 2006, giving those National Guard soldiers called to duty after Sept. 11, 2001 a bonus

Unclog and Expand the VA

Grant all veterans using the GI Bill in-state tuition

Opposes privatizing the VA

Prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Federal Budget

Use savings from ending war in Iraq to pay down debt and invest in infrastructure

Eliminate tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas

Cut taxes by $3,600 for the typical middle class family making $50,000 a year over his first term

Signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 into legislation to cooperate with House amendments and pass a bill that raised the national debt limit and established discretionary spending limits

Return millionaire tax rates to what they were under Clinton’s presidency

Position:

Record:

Health Care

For “OBAMAcare,” or The Affordable Care Act

Obama agreed to override a veto, in 2008, on a bill that would extend and expand Medicare coverage for a variety of programs and would amend regulations about Medicare fee-for-service programs. In turn this would raise the yearly amount covered by Medicare of health care costs connected with mental, psychoneurotic, and personality disorders until 100 percent of related costs are covered in 2014.

Position:

Record:

Social Issues

Supports same-sex marriage Supports right to choose when it comes to abortion issue

Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2010. President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Social Issues

Will appoint an attorney general who will defend the Defense of Marriage Act but he will also champion a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Overturn Roe v Wade and make abortion a states’ issue

Opposed same-sex marriage while governor of MassachusettsIn 2005, Gov. Romney vetoed a bill authorizing an emergency contraception drug

Will overturn Roe v Wade and end federal abortion advocates like

Against Same-sex marriage Opposes privatizing the VA

2012 Promises

Position:

Record:

Federal Budget

Curb federal spending by repealing Obamacare

Reduce federal spending on entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security

As governor presided over the elimination of a projected $1.2–1.5 billion deficit through a com-bination of spending cuts, increased fees, and the closure of corporate tax loopholes

Cut the corporate tax rate to 25 percent

Eliminate “the death tax,” a tax on inherited estates

Fix the tax code to encourage job growth

Regulations burden the economy

Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Legal Services Corporation

Reduce subsidies for The National

Reduce federal employee compensation

Reduce the federal workforce by 10 percent

Indistinct conversations, rus-tling of leaves in the wind, and the voice of his mother speaking in his ear and describing the sur-roundings. This is everyday life for Luis Roblero, a 19-year-old blind student at the University.

“I was born blind with Leb-er’s Congenital Amaurosis, a ra-re genetic disorder that usual-ly accompanies mental disorders and deafness,” the McAllen na-tive said. “But I was lucky to on-ly be blind.”

LCA is an inherited retinal degenerative disease caused by both parents being carriers of the defective gene. This disease affects three in every 100,000 newborns and is one of the most common causes of blind-ness in children, according to the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.

“I was diagnosed at 5 months old with LCA,” said Roblero, who went to McAllen Memori-al High School. “Both of my par-ents were devastated when they found out I had this condition but did everything they could do to find people to help me through this.”

His childhood consisted of being taught to focus on the teacher without being distract-ed by other noises. Throughout elementary school, Roblero was treated just like everyone else. He attended regular classes and participated in gymnastics, pia-no and swimming lessons. He al-so learned how to ride a bicycle, rollerskate and skateboard.

Special accommodations were made during Roblero’s mid-dle school and onward to allow him to participate in extracurric-ular activities.

In middle school orchestra, he had an assistant to translate notes on the sheet music into Braille to allow him to read the music.

“For sight reading, they made an arrangement to give my assistant the music ahead of time,” Roblero stated. “I was only allowed to have the music one night ahead in advance to memorize it.”

Roblero has to do more than just show up and take notes to succeed in class. An extensive amount of time goes into prepar-ing for the next school day.

“I have to work two to three times harder than the average student,” Roblero said.

He uses a home computer enabled with the JAWS Screen Reading Software, a program that reads text aloud and pro-vides a Braille display. He then uses his BrailleNote Apex note-

book to write papers. Each in-dividual letter that is typed uses a combination of six keys. Once done, he saves it on a USB drive and takes it to the writing cen-ter where employees help add the footnotes, bibliography and other necessary items.

Roblero’s mother, Ana Ma-ria, goes with him and helps take down notes for class. Ro-blero completes his elementa-ry mathematics homework by touch, feeling the graphs his mother copied down in class that are then retraced in Tu-lip puff paint she bought from Walmart.

Nemeth Code, a branch of Braille, allows him to un-derstand mathematical sym-bols such as parabolas, items not included in the nor-mal Braille alphabet. Devel-oped in 1946 and accepted in 1952 by the Braille Authority of North America (BANA), it is the standard code to express mathematics and scientific ex-pressions as explained by The University of Washington. Textbooks for class are convert-ed into Braille.

“Books can become up to three to four feet tall for one book and take an enormous amount of time and hard work to produce,” said Reynaldo Reyes, an assistant at the Uni-versity’s disability center.

The center offers many ser-vices such as interpreters and any other accommodations for handicapped individuals. Its members also work to translate books and documents to Braille for visually impaired students.

Books can also be convert-ed and stored on an external hard drive and then plugged into his Apex machine, allowing infor-mation to be read aloud. For tests, professors have to send the document to Marissa Martinez, a worker at the disability cen-ter, who uses a program to con-

vert documents into Braille and ensure that they make sense.

Despite all of the hard work and chal-lenges that Ro-blero faces dur-ing coursework, the sophomore has maintained a 3.85 grade-point average and is currently taking 16 hours. His major is in ele-

mentary education with a minor in special education.

“I want to become a teacher for the visually impaired because that’s my passion. I want to help blind kids learn what they need

to learn to have a successful ed-ucation and a better life,” Roble-ro said. “That’s why I’m studying here, because I want to do every-thing I can to reach that goal.”

His main drive is to show other blind students in the ar-ea that they too can succeed at any university.

“My hopes are that peo-ple can understand that just be-cause you’re blind, (it) does not stop you,” Roblero said. “(It) is

not really defined as a disabil-ity because it doesn’t really stop you from what regular people can do.”

Roblero believes that with-out his parents’ help, he wouldn’t be where he is today.

“I thank God that I have some parents that really sup-port me and really motivate me to keep going and to reach my goal,” he said.

October 18, 2012 arts & life6

By Bryony CastilloThe Pan American

It is not really defined as a dis-ability because

it doesn’t really stop you from what regular people can do.

- Luis RobleroSophomore education major

Luis Roblero attends class with his mother Ana Maria Roblero, who takes notes for him during his classes while he takes notes with the BrailleNote Apex.

Lea Victoria Juarez/The Pan American

Lea Victoria Juarez/The Pan American

Luis Roblero, studentEducation major working to inspire others

Benassi to visit Valley

Electronic DJ Benny Benas-si will make his first appearance in the Valley Saturday, as part of his Rough Road Bus Tour. The appearance will take place at the Pharr Events Center.

“He is simply one of the most requested artists of the genre and a true pioneer in the world of electro…he was one of the first ones to use electro in the industry” said Frank Salinas, ad-ministrative assistant at Global Groove Events.

Ranked No. 27 in ‘DJ Mag-azine’s Top 100 list of 2011, Be-nassi, a Milan-born Italian DJ, is regarded as one of the most inter-nationally respected artists in the music industry.

Best known by his club hit “Satisfaction” which went gold in 2002, Benassi has headlined per-formances around the world such as the Ultra Music Festival in Mi-ami and Coachella Music Festi-val in Indio, Calif. These festivals have been performing grounds for artists such as David Guet-ta, Florence and The Machine, Snoop Dogg and Rihanna.

Local musician Danny (DJ Beethoven) Montalvo, 26, will serve as one of the opening acts for the Oct. 20 show.

“When I first saw him at Club Rio in San Antonio, it was something else,” the Mission na-tive said. “He played banger af-ter banger and several bootlegs that were instantly crowd favor-ites. The crowd went crazy.”

Special guests will be DJ’s Krewella and Pink is Punk. Krewella, is an electronic group from Chicago. The group con-sists of Jahan and Yasmine Yousaf and Rainman. Pink Is Punk is Andrea Mazzantini and Nico Vignali a DJ and producers duo based in Milan.

In the last nine months, the RGV has hosted EDM art-ists Skrillex, Afrojack, Avicii and more. Only time will tell where the Valleyites rank Benassi among the other artists who have performed in the area.

“I recommend everyone to see him. He is a part of electron-ic music history,” Montalvo said. “His musical journey, embarks you on a melodic ship that in-cludes vocals and hard hitting bass. I’d say it’s like a roller coast-er that just keeps climbing, and then drops you into a sea of vo-cal tunes. It’s simply amazing.”

By Dago MartinezThe Pan American

Adrian Castillo/The Pan American

7October 18, 2012

Fifteen Major League Base-ball scouts stopped by the Edin-burg Baseball Stadium Wednes-day morning to watch UTPA baseball players.

Scout Day was originated in 2009 by Bronc coach Manny Mantrana. What started with just one scout visiting has developed into 15 scouts, from MLB orga-nizations such as the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Toron-to Blue Jays.

“So people and especially pro-fessional scouts are beginning to realize that we’re getting good play-ers,” Mantrana said. “For them to see our players, to expose our play-ers to them, it’s a win-win situa-tion for the program, for the play-ers and for the professional scouts.”

The scouts got to see the play-ers participate in different events, such as the 60-yard dash, infield and outfield practice, batting prac-tice and a quick intrasquad game.

“It’s a chance in the fall to eval-uate all the players on the team, see what they can do,” said Ray Corbett, who has been a scout for 25 years and is starting his eighth year working with the New York Mets. “It looks like their team has improved and is getting bet-ter. There’s a couple of young men that we’ll be following and see how they do in springtime.”

Mantrana knew this practice session was more stressful than others, and could cause players to try too hard, but pitcher Dusten Knight and catcher Chris Torres, among others, were able to catch Corbett’s eye. The Mets scout has been visiting the University every year to watch some games, scope out some players and plans on coming back in the spring.

“Last year, with Angel Ibañez signing, Michael Zouzalik sign-ing, they’re realizing this is a good place to come and find players,” Mantrana said of the two players he’s had drafted into Texas orga-nizations in the short time as the University’s baseball coach.

After receiving updates with photos through email about No-lan Naranjo, who recently lost his hair due to chemotherapy, base-ball Head Coach Manny Mantra-na brought up an idea to his team leaders: go bald for Nolan.

Nolan is currently in Houston and has been stress-ing over his treatments.

“We put up Nolan’s pictures on the practice board,” Mantra-na said. “So the last two pictures that he sent us were after his radi-ation and chemo. He had lost big portions of his hair. Then the next picture he shaved all his head. We were kind of shocked.”

Mantrana asked Andy Fortu-na, Chris Torres, Derek Hagy and Shane Klemcke, four team leaders, if they wanted to support Nolan by showing him that if he didn’t have any hair, then neither would they. Readily they agreed. The vet-erans quickly spread the idea to the rest of their team who didn’t hesi-

tate to jump aboard. The 5-year-old Brownsville

native, who was diagnosed with leukemia (MDS) earlier this year, met the Bronc baseball team last season when the players traveled to Brownsville for the Battle of the Orange with UT-Brownsville. Af-ter watching the players in action, Nolan became a fan. When the players met him and learned of his condition and the hardships his family faced, they gained a desire to change his life.

Klemcke, a senior market-ing major, met Nolan last sea-son and says that it makes him sad to see that Nolan isn’t hav-ing a normal childhood.

“We want him to get bet-ter so that he can enjoy the little things in life that he is missing out on right now,” he said. “That kid is going through a lot and he is a strong kid. I hope this helps in any way possible.”

This isn’t the first time that the baseball team has unified to sup-port Nolan. In May 2012, the Broncs had a blood drive in his honor. However, having had over

70 blood transfusions, Nolan and his family discovered that what he required was bone marrow.

The team decided to gather together and host Match Nolan, a bone marrow drive held Sept. 12 at the UTPA Library. Two hun-dred people registered on Nolan’s behalf. None were a match.

STANDING OUTThe new bald heads around

campus did not go unnoticed. Professors and classmates have asked the players about their new ‘doo. Facebook posts and tweets started surfacing Sunday night with pictures of their new look, hashtagged Bald for Nolan.

Although cutting his hair isn’t that big of a deal for in-fielder Klemcke, he under-stands what Nolan must be go-ing through.

“He’s a little kid, you feel like everybody’s looking at you, pick-ing on you and messing with you,” Klemcke said about Nolan losing his hair. “That’s only amplified, es-pecially if they don’t know what he’s been going through. There’s

bullies and there’s mean people and everybody is trying to be the popular kid in school. A little kid

with a bald head isn’t going to be looked at the same as the athlete with a lot of hair.”

- Jeremy LinGuard

customized bronc apparel coming

Norma Gonzalez/The Pan American

Athletic Department to offer wide variety of school-affiliated items on new websitescoutedBroncs get checked out

By Norma Gonzalez The Pan American

In a few weeks, the Athletic Department will launch an on-line apparel and merchandise store for UTPA Broncs merchan-dise, UTPABroncsgear.com. The website aims to offer customers more than 800 items and give them the chance to get creative with school spirit.

“You’re going to see a wide variety of items, be it from can-dy dishes to chairs to short sleeve shirts to camouflage shirts to hats to just across a wide spectrum of things,” said Andrew Haring, se-nior associate athletic director for external operations. “And that’s something, honestly, that I think our fans, supporters and alumni have really been asking for and wanting for a long time.”

The online store, provided by Advanced-Online, will allow people to pick any item to have the Broncs logo applied to. This will eliminate inventory prob-lems because the logo application isn’t processed until a purchase is made, according to Haring.

“They order it online, the company applies the lo-go right there in their facility and ships it out within the next day directly to the consumer,” he explained.

The project, which has been in the works for about 10 months, was originally intend-ed to launch in time for Mid-night Madness, but was slowed down to make sure all bases are covered.

The department has been working with the vendor, UT-PA’s purchasing department, plus the University’s Office of Gen-eral Counsel and the UT Sys-tem. There are regulations and requirements that need to be ac-counted for, according to Har-ing, and the department reps feels they have to pay due diligence to their partners.

“We don’t want to launch this until it’s absolutely ready to go. There are some issues- we’ve got to be very protective of peo-ple’s credit card information and their personal information,” Har-ing said. “We’ve got to make sure the vendor’s ready with the

quality merchandise ready to go and, what’s exciting, when we do launch it, it will be up and run-ning 100 percent from day one.”

Haring doesn’t believe the new website will cause competi-tion with the University Book-store, which also offers UTPA

apparel. The site is just for on-line sales; there will not be a physical store.

“The bookstore will still be the place where logo apparel and items can be purchased in per-son,” Haring said.

The site will not be eliminat-ing or replacing anything, it will just be adding to the amount of UTPA-related items available, ac-cording to Haring.

“The bookstore has great merchandise but of course they’re a national company that is deal-ing with their buyer on kind of a regional basis,” he said. “Where-as this company Advanced-On-line is dealing with our fans kind of directly.”

Because the University hasn’t had a website like this in the past, it is new territory, making it hard to predict a starting point or amount of revenue made. Har-ing believes people’s buying hab-its are constantly changing so sta-tistics about online sales from a few years ago are no longer rel-evant today.

The University, however, will not need to pay anything upfront. All revenue will come from licensing fees and purchase of items.

Although more students could be seen wearing UT-PA-affiliated shirts during this year’s Spirit Week, the website

is looking to spread Bronc spir-it throughout the Valley. Haring believes there is definitely diversi-ty in the Valley in terms of differ-ent communities, but also thinks there’s an element of ownership and pride.

“There are other schools - Brownsville, South Texas Col-lege- but I think most people would say UTPA is the Valley’s university,” he said. “That’s ex-citing regardless of where you want to draw the borders, be it anywhere from Corpus Christi to Laredo.”

Haring also explained that one of the core missions of UT-PA Athletics is to represent the University through proudly wearing a University shirt.

“It’s important for us to have our merchandise and ap-parel available for our fans, stu-dents, alumni, all of our con-stituents, to be able to purchase and wear proudly around the Rio Grande Valley,” he said. “I think that’s something that our fans and people want. We want our Bronc logos all over the Valley.”

By Norma Gonzalez The Pan American

#BaldForNolaNBronc baseball players show support for cancer patient by shaving their heads

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By Norma Gonzalezand Jaime Leal The Pan American

Outfielder Derek Hagy shaves infielder Shane Klemcke’s head in honor of Nolan, a 5-year-old leukemia patient.

New York Mets’ scout Ray Corbett observes the Broncs Wednesday morning.

the pan american October 18, 2012Page 8