march 17, 2005

T h e S t u d e n t N e w s p a p e r o f T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f Te x a s - P a n A m e r i c a n M a r c h 1 7 , 2 0 0 5

THE

PAN AMERICANYoung to speak of RGV’s historical value

see Page 3

Students, faculty worktogether forcommonresearch goal

The UTPA men's andwomen's track teams host theannual Angela ProctorInvitational, their only meet ofthe season, Saturday on thetrack. Track and field is on fireas of late, elevating two athletesto All-American status in meetsover the Break.The Broncs sentthree athletes to the NCAADivision I Regional after Proctorlast year. With their recent suc-cess, the team looks primed toset even more.

See 6

Thanks to the UndergraduateResearch Initiative, a few ambi-tious students at The University ofTexas-Pan American now have theopportunity to work hand in handwith professors conductingresearch, a move which mighthelp put UTPA on the researchmap.

Seventeen students are con-ducting research in varied topics,such as organizational humor andoxygen consumption in sandcrabs, and reaping the benefits ofone-on-one work and cooperationwith their professors.

Each receive a $1,000 awardfor their research activities. Thefaculty mentors also receive a$500 award. The URI program isfunded by the university throughthe Office of the Associate VicePresident for Research.

The students and their facultymentors were selected inDecember to take part in the pro-gram, after submitting a lengthyapplication packet. The packetconsists of a research proposaldescribing the research purpose,an itemized budget that explainsthe basis for estimating the bud-geted amount, and a recommenda-tion letter by the proposed super-visor of the research.

Wendy Lawrence-Fowler,associate vice president forresearch, and URI administrator,believes a critical component ofthis program is that it focuses onundergraduate students and givesthem a peek at what a future inresearch would be like.

“I think this program givesthe students an idea if they likedoing research in an area. It alsogives them an opportunity, insome cases, to find out a little bitmore about a discipline,”Lawrence-Fowler said.

Nature's beauty springs up fromthe earth during this time of theyear, and The University ofTexas-Pan American DanceEnsemble celebrates this idea intheir spring concert, which fea-tures a piece called "Earth."They will perform March 17-19at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2p.m. in the UTPA Fine ArtsAuditorium. Campus professorsand guest artists choreographedthe works in this show.

See Page 7See URI page 11

A town hall meeting hostedby Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, was heldat the Student Union Theater onMonday to discuss the Bushadministration’s proposal to priva-tize Social Security.

The meeting featured a panelconsisting of Hinojosa, Dr. MarkWeisbrot, co-director of the Centerfor Economic and PolicyResearch, Associate State DirectorOscar Luna, and UTPA associateprofessor of finance CynthiaBrown.

Each panelist gave a five-

minute speech assessing and cri-tiquing the administration’s planto overhaul Social Security, whichwas enacted in 1935.

Rep. Hinojosa was the leadoffhitter and he wasted no time ingiving his opinion of privatization.

“We cannot take a chance ona risky, untested, privatizationscheme,” Hinojosa said. “There isenough money to take us 40-50years down the road so there isenough time to look at differentoptions. We know quick fixes donot work.”

Luna, who was employed by

University communitydebates Social Security

GREEN DAY- TheUniversity of Texas-Pan American cele-brated St. Patrick’sDay Tuesday withvarious organiza-tions fund-raisingthroughout cam-pus.

SPEAKING LOUD- Dr. CynthiaBrown, associate professor offinance at The University ofTexas-Pan American, discussesthe local impact of the SocialSecurity debate.See SOCIAL page 11

By DAVID RODRIGUEZThe Pan American

By DAVID RODRIGUEZThe Pan American

Joel De La Rosa/The Pan American

Joel De La Rosa/The Pan American

1201 West University, CAS 170 Edinburg, Texas 78539

(956) 381-2541 Fax: (956) 316-7122

53rd Year – No. 22

http://www.panam.edu/dept/panamerican

The PANAMERICAN isthe official studentnewspaper of TheUniversity ofTexas-PanAmerican. Views presentedare those of thewriters and do notnecessarily reflectthose of theuniversity.

The Pan Americangladly acceptsletters fromstudents, staff andfaculty regardingnewspaper contentor current issues.The Pan Americanreserves the rightto edit submissionsfor grammar andlength. Please limitsubmission lengthto 300 words. ThePan Americancannot publishanonymous letters,or submissionscontaining hatespeech orgratuitous personalattacks. Letters areprinted at thediscretion of theeditor and mustinclude the writer’sname, class/titleand phone number.

Letters policy

March 17 2 0 0 5

Readers with dis-abilities mayrequest an alter-native format ofthis publication atThe Pan American

business office. For special assis-tance to attendany event listed inthis publication,contact the coor-dinator of theevent at least oneweek prior to theadvertised date.

OPINION l e t t e r s n e d i t o r i a l s n c a r t o o n sPAGE 2

EditorClarissa Martinez

[email protected]

News EditorEmma Clark

[email protected]

A & E EditorOmaira Galarza

[email protected]

Sports EditorJoey Gomez

[email protected]

Graphics EditorsDägoberto Pé[email protected]

Ginmarie [email protected]

Photography EditorFranco Caballero

[email protected]

Graphic/Web Design

Eduardo [email protected]

Raul Cervantesracervantes1@

panam.edu

Delisa [email protected]

Reporters

Jacob Alegria

Lylony Cazares

Selene Garza

Claudette Gonzalez

Daryl Gonzales

Joey Hinojosa

David Rodriguez

Photographers

Joel de la Rosa

Marcos Cervantes

Copy EditorJason Chapa

SecretaryDiana Corpus Garza

CAS 170381-2541

AdviserDr. Greg Selber

CAS 154292-7201

[email protected]

DeliveryAnthony Pinal

Thursday noon

THE

PAN AMERICAN

Schedules are now available for Summer 2005 classes, including miniterm class offerings. Seepage 6 for all the information students might find useful over the next coming months.

Remember, mandatory advisement begins March 21 and runs through April 22.

Shedding light on media integrityIf knowledge is

power, then how isit possible that theUnited States isone of the mostpowerful countriesin the world? Aharsh observation,true, but one thingthat the Americanpublic is not knownfor is the ability to

obtain all sorts of public knowledge on awhim.

This is not something that can besolved by pointing fingers. However, agroup of journalists are trying to changethis, one week at a time.

The first national Sunshine Week isin gear. The focus: Freedom ofInformation.

According to sunshineweek.org,Sunshine Week was first deliberated atan American Society of NewspaperEditors meeting. Since the organizationwitnessed success of Sunshine Sundayevents, the editors’ group knew it hadthe potential to evolve into somethinglarger.

Peter Bhatia, executive editor for TheOregonian in Portland, explained thesignificance of Sunshine Week.

“The open hostility to FOI (Freedomof Information) flows from Washingtonand the Department of Justice,” Bhatiasaid. “The actions in our nation’s capitalare mimicked more and more on a stateand local level. It is our fundamentalresponsibility as journalists to be agentsfor the public on these matters and tofight every day to keep access openand information flowing. It has neverbeen more necessary than it is today.”

Media all across the nation are tak-ing part in the initiative. The Associated

Press has launched FOI Web sites ded-icated to showing readers how to findpublic information, while opinion writersfor USA Today have been arguing overgovernment information.

A USA Today editorial wrote aboutthe need for less government secrecy.

“Some information that previouslywas open no doubt needs to be classi-fied now,” the editorial stated.“Terrorism alters perspectives. But theterrorist threat also has provided coverfor bureaucrats who instinctively opt forsecrecy and public officials who wouldprefer to keep the public in the dark toavoid accountability.”

The opposing view said it is impor-tant to balance openness with the legit-imate need for some secrecy.

“What’s required is calibrated trans-parency, a measured, flexible trans-parency suited to the needs of oversightwithout frustrating legitimate limits,” theop-ed noted.

Despite the side the public takes,what matters is that the debate aboutgovernment responsibilities and actionsis explored. Despite the beliefs of “red”and “blue” states, one thing everyonecan agree on is the lack of knowledgeon an individual’s part.

Government has a history of feedinginformation to people through differentforms of media. Propaganda is oftenmistaken for news, but it should be inthe hands of the residents to explorewhere their news is coming from. Froma columnist being paid to promote NoChild Left Behind to embedded journal-ists in Iraq having limited access withorchestrated military press confer-ences, the gatekeeping function shouldbe examined by the public. Peopleshould be willing to ask themselves, “Isthis information I’m receiving true?”

They also need to understand their rightto find the answer to that question, andto know how to do so.

Responsibility also lies in the field ofmass communication. As for journalists,working in the field is a bit alarming. Notonly is it dangerous to travel abroad aspart of the war effort, but also there is afight for access to more information.Due to a little thing called the Internet,anyone can become a pseudo-journal-ist. And who are the new kids on theblock? Bloggers.

It isn’t difficult to create a Web sitethese days. Bloggers are growing soquickly it’s hard to keep up. There areblogs for those who are interested inconservative news, blogs for liberalsand even blogs for those who just don’tcare. Nevertheless, what is the result ofhaving this vast amount of information?Where does the gatekeeping lie?

Bloggers should be held to the samestandards as journalists, if they chooseto take part in the informing function.The outcome is nearly the same.Bloggers use words to inform those whoread them, but unlike news publica-tions, do not have a set standard ofguidelines and procedures.

Sure, there is the right to expressionand the freedom of speech, but if thereis a person who is willing to create aWeb site devoted to their personal pas-sion, shouldn’t they have resources andfacts to back up their opinions? That isthe ethical thing to do.

And this is what is great about thefreedom citizens of the United Stateshave. They have the freedom to believewhat they want to, say what they wantto, and write what they will. Now, it istime for everyone to step up, and usethe access to the information, and beaccountable as gatekeepers.

Clarissa Martinez

Wiggins feature . . . . . . . . 4

Eye for iPods . . . . . . . . 5

Wellness update . . . . . . . . 6NEWSLiving in the Rio Grande Valley

can seem, to the untrained eye,quite a culture shock, with theHispanic population totaling morethan 90 percent. Even though thehistory of the area is deeply rootedin the lives of many youngHispanics, there are some eventsthat can be overlooked. The historydepartment, together with theHistory Club is trying to changethat.

Elliott Young, a history profes-sor at Lewis and Clark College inOregon will be speaking March 18,on his latest book, “CatarinoGarza’s Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border.” This historicalevent took place in the late 1800sand, according to Young, should beincluded as a huge part of SouthTexas history.

“Understanding the historicalroots of this region can help us tounderstand the global world as welive in today,” said Young.

The story is of a Mexican jour-nalist and political activist by the

name of Catarino Garza, whohelped lead a group of Mexicanrebels out of South Texas andacross the Rio Grande after a revo-lution began against the Mexicandictator Porfirio Diaz. After years

of fighting, Garza went into exileand was killed in Panama in 1895.

Almost 100 years later, duringhis second year of graduate school,Young stumbled across the story ofCatarino Garza. Twelve years in themaking, and after extensiveresearch across the nation, 407pages is the result.

Young believes the history ofSouth Texas is vital because theMexican-American war began herein 1846. In his book he focusesmainly on the Texas-Mexico borderbecause Brownsville and Laredowere primary crossing points in the19th century.

Regardless of the current waveof killings and crime along bordercities, the border remains signifi-cant in history, said Young.

“The border is a crucial part ofnot only the U.S. and Mexico, butof a new transnational realityacross the globe,” he said.

“The issue of smuggling anddrug trafficking also goes back tothe 19th century. The difference isthat now the border is much moreheavily militarized.”

With Mexico and the border lessthan ten miles away from Edinburg,visiting the country is easy forAmericans and Mexicans alike. Tosome extent however, Young saidthe importance of the border is for-gotten.

Young also believes that Mexicois important to the U.S. economicmarket as well as its cultural ties.With so many Mexican citizens liv-ing in the Rio Grande Valley, thecontribution to the economybecomes even larger.

Angela Vergara, assistant pro-fessor of history, and the HistoryClub are responsible for bringingYoung to speak at UTPA.

“The history department decid-

Oregon historian visits campus to lecture on RGV rootsBy ANGELA SALAZARThe Pan American

See HISTORIAN page 12

Sponsored by The History Club Department of Historyand Philosophy

“CATARINO GARZA’SREVOLUTION ON THE

TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER.”

Speaker: Dr. Elliot Young

Friday, March 18, 2005Student Union Auditorium

at 1 p.m.

Joel de la Rosa/The Pan American

TELECAST— Faculty and staff were invited to join in a televised news conferenceTuesday at the IT2 building where experts discussed various political topics fromaround the nation.

One more step:Faculty research system demonstration

In keeping with the new mission ofThe University of Texas-PanAmerican, which promises to take theinstitution to a more research-orientedlevel, the Office of Research andSponsored Projects (OSRP) is makingsure faculty and staff won’t be leftbehind.

The OSRP will be hosting ademonstration on the Committee ofScience (COS) system the officerecently purchased. Esther Dominguezof the OSRP, explained that this sys-tem will allow faculty and staff tosearch for grants and funding whichwill finance their research.

The OSRP felt there was simply aneed on campus for such a system.

“The resource was out there. Itserves a purpose,” Dominguez said.

“It’s important that we make facul-

ty and staff aware of those resources.” Dr. Dora Saavedra, a member of

the University Task Force onWorkload, said that she is pleased to beattending.

“Obviously I won’t know until I gothrough it [the workshop],” Saavedraexplained on what she expects thedemonstration to offer.

“But as the university moves for-ward, we are going to have to rely onoutside funding.”

The OSRP has always been effi-cient in making workshops availableto the faculty and staff at UTPA, saidSaavedra.

“As we move towards that goal,they are increasing their efforts inmaking these types of things availableto us,” she said, as a member of thecommunication department facultyand as part of the honors program oncampus.

UTPA as a research institute stillposes a question in the minds of manyfaculty and staff members, following aproposal by the University Task Forceon Workload to reduce the facultyworkload by one teaching hour at theend of 2004. This would leave moretime available for research, but couldpossibly mean much more for studentsincluding yet another rise in tuitioncosts.

Dominguez said that space at theresearch demonstration is limited, andthat those interested should contact herat [email protected] toensure a place.

THE BASICS OFSEARCHING FOR

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

March 22, 2005University Library, Classroom 2

Noon - 1 p.m.

Contact Esther Dominguez at956-384-5004

for more information

Presented by The Office of Research & Sponsored Projects

By EMMA CLARKThe Pan American

With student enrollment at TheUniversity of Texas Pan-Americanup six percent this semester, there isa growing need for new technologi-cal advances both in and out of theclassroom.

UTPA recently hired Dr. GaryWiggins to serve as chief informa-tion officer; his main duties andgoals include keeping the universityup to date technologically. Wigginshas an extensive background in theposition, which he assumed Jan. 1.

Before coming to UTPA,Wiggins was at Oklahoma StateUniversity as vice president forinformation technology and chiefinformation officer. Prior to that, heserved as chief information officerat Texas Tech University for 14years. Texas Tech is where hereceived his undergraduate, mas-ter’s and doctorate degrees

One of Wiggins’ major goals isto make the university more effi-cient for students, faculty and staff.

“President Cardenas wants usto use technology to support teach-ing, learning and research, that’s herprimary interest for technology,”Wiggins said. “She wants our stu-dents to be immersed in technology,because after all, like it or not, nomatter what your major is, you’regoing to be immersed in technologyfor the next 50 years of your work-ing life,”

Making sure that the universityhas the technology to support theuniversity’s plan to become moreresearch oriented is also high in his

list of priorities. Among other things, Wiggins

wants to use technology and theInternet to reach out to prospectivestudents.

“We want to outreach to stu-dent recruiting,” said Wiggins.“There are people all over theValley and all over South Texas andeven beyond who we may want tomake to make sure they learn PanAm’s story and consider coming toPan Am.”

Wiggins also said that theywant to deliver more services overthe Internet to students, faculty andemployees, and mentioned thatOracle and the Banner projects areof great importance to those servic-es.

Oracle will replace the admin-istrative system currently in placethat deals with university payrolland human resources, for example.Banner is the replacement for thesystem that deals with all studentrelated information, such asASSIST.

“Those are both big, complex,long running projects, and one ofthe things we are trying to do is geta good handle on both of those andmove them forward,” he comment-ed.

A project that will definitely beof great use to students is a cam-puswide wireless network and class-rooms equipped for presentations.

“Other things that are going onin technology are equipping 30more classrooms with various tech-nology for presentations and thatsort of things, projectors, podiums,

that sort of thing,” Wiggins said. “We’re getting a campus wire-

less network so that all over thecampus students or others withwireless cards or devices will beable to access networks.”

Freshman Mario Barba, a pre-medical chemistry major, said thatwireless Internet access cam-puswide will be rough at the begin-ning, but should smooth out for thebenefit of the students.

“Before it can be easy theyneed to get things ready for the stu-dents and that might be a bit of ahassle, like getting the right cards tomake sure they are compatible,”Barba said.

“Students will like it becausethey won’t have to go to the library

to get online. It will be more con-venient.”

Computer Science ProfessorAndres Figueroa thinks wirelessInternet access will be a greatadvantage to students, especiallysince many professors give outassignments via the Internet.

“This is definitely a good proj-ect because students can haveaccess to the Internet,” saidFigueroa. “Especially for computerscience, we put homework assign-ments and lab material online andthey’ll have it available everywhere.But they have to be careful, it has tobe secure.”

Wiggins is also looking for-ward to working with an organiza-tion UTPA has recently joined: the

Lone Star Education and ResearchNetwork (LEARN).

“That’s the statewide researchnetwork that’s just forming. Sowe’ll be particularly hoping to par-ticipate in that,” Wiggins said.

As to the environment here atUTPA and how Wiggins seems tolike it, there are absolutely no prob-lems.

“I’m really enjoying it,” hesaid. “One of the really good thingsabout Pan Am, everybody reallywants to be successful and do theright thing for the students.

“People are real committed.They really care about whetherthings work or not. The people whowork here are pretty serious andthat’s nice."

March 17, 2005 NEWS

Joey CortezThe Pan AmericanAT HOME- As a new chief information officer, Dr. Gary Wiggins plans to raise the bar for The University ofTexas-Pan American with a high-tech campus.

UTPA Staff Profile: Dr. Gary Wiggins

New chief information officer:Promising a tech-savvy campusBy NAYELLY BARRIOSThe Pan American

Visit THE

PAN AMERICANWedsite

www.panam.edu/dept/panamerican

NOT JUST A TREND— Afterselling more than 10 million units,Apple’s iPod has remained the mostpopular digital music player, keeping92.1 percent of the market share.

March 177-9 p.m.UTPA Ballroom The Department of Modern Languages andLiterature will host a Faculty Lecture Series todiscuss “Mapping Identities: (Re)defining Spaceand the Construction of National Identity in Cuba”

March 192-5 p.m.The QuadUniversity Program Board Festivals committeepresent the annual Parent/Child Day Picnic.

March 22NoonSBSC 119Dr. Darrin Rogers ”Treatment and PunishmentAttitudes Towards Offenders”

March 24NoonSBSC 119“Neuropsychological Assessment of HispanicAmericans”

March 17, 2005 NNEEWWSS

With the recent rise indemand of music players these

days one word keeps pop-ping up.

iPod.The AppleiPod, intro-

duced in 2001, is fast becoming a fixturewith people who demand a reliable, easy touse, portable music player. The iPodShuffle, the Mini, 20- and 40- gigabyteiPods and now the premium, iPod photo,are all popular products. Prices range dra-matically from $99 to $449, yet thedemand for the iPod seems to grow fasterthan the supply.

So successful is the iPod that, accordingto Forbes magazine, Apple has sold over

10 million units since 2001. Accordingto The NPD Group, a consumer

research company, the deviceaccounts for an astounding

92.1 percent of all hard-drive based music players.

Local electronicsstores are feeling thepopularity surge of the

iPod. Jerry Reyes, asales repre-

s e n t a -t i v ew i t h

CompUSA inMcAllen, said that there is a huge

demand for the iPod. “I’m constantly seeing at least 30 or 40

people a day asking for iPods,” he said,adding that the device has brought about

greater interest in other Apple productsand accessories.

“[They buy] G4 PowerBooks, G5 com-puters and displays,” he said.

The effects can even be seen aroundThe University of Texas-Pan Americancampus. With the telltale white cord hang-ing from a pocket, more students are bring-ing their iPods with them to school.

Melissa Cardenas, a sophomore politi-cal science major, recalls being one of thefirst people on campus with an iPod.

“I remember people would stop me andask what I was carrying,” she said. “I liter-ally would have to explain to them, step bystep, what an iPod was and what it did.”

She said its features are what broughther to purchase her 40-gig iPod.

“I used to go to the Apple Web site andresearch the iPod. I love the fact that it hassuch a large storage capacity,” she related.“It’s basically a portable hard drive that Ican use to store files, not just music.”

For Frank Calvillo, a junior English andjournalism major, his introduction to theiPod came about through a class assign-ment a few years ago.

“I had to do a project for an Englishclass where we had to find a new gadgetthat everyone was into,” he said. “I did asearch and it was one of the first thingsthat popped up.”

Calvillo also agrees that the iPod’s fea-

iSeller: Bringing digital music to the massesBy ENRIQUE REYNOSO

The Pan American

CALENDAR

See IPODS page 12

Miniterm

RegistrationMarch 28 – May 16

Classes begin May 16

Summer I

RegistrationMarch 28 – May 16

Classes begin June 1

Summer II

RegistrationMarch 28 – July 5

Classes begin July 1

New to Miniterm

*HIST. 3350.1MTAmerican Military

Expert*MUS. 2301.1MTMusic Literature I

Check out

*ENG. 6390.02South Texas Writers

*PHIIL 2390 Professional Ethics

*SPAN 4329.01Mexico’s

ContemporaryLiterature

*CRIJ 2328.01Police Systems

Practices

Check out

*EDUL 6338.01School Principalship

March 17, 2005 TTHHEE PPAANN AAMMEERRIICCAANN

With the passing of the wellness-recreational bill onMonday through a Senate subcommittee, the legislativeapproval needed for center is only weeks away.

Senate Bill 527 would approve the estimated $20 mil-lion budget to begin construction of the 100,000-square-foot wellness-recreational center and the $75 fee persemester for students. Once approved construction willbeing in 2005 and the facility will we open for student usein fall of 2007.

“There is a companion bill that still has to go throughthe House and the Senate,” Dean of Students Jerry Pricesaid. “It also needs to go through a subcommittee on thehouse side and once its there it will go to a full vote in thehouse. Just like the senate bill that has passed needs to gothrough a full vote in the Senate, and once it passes bothplaces we have secured out legislative approval.”

The bill was approved by the Senate subcommittee onHigher Education with a 5-0 vote and will now be sent toa Senate Committee on Education, then to the full Senate.

Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen authoredSenate Bill 527, and said in a recent article in The Monitor,“Physical activity is also an important part of academicsuccess, part of education is not just sitting on your behindstudying, it also helps to exercise.”

On April 2004 a total of 1,411 students approved the feefor the Wellness-Recreational Center.

The Wellness-Recreation Center will allow students tohave access to workout facilities and recreational useswithout having to share with athletes or classes.

The center will include a weight room four times largerthen the current available university weight room, cardio

room, climbing wall, gymnasium with multipurpose courts,racquetball courts, two dance studios, student lounge andoutdoor recreational swimming pool. The latest layout ofthe facility will be available on March 24, Price said.

Price explained how several challenges arose with theplanning of the center due to the budget increases anddecreases, along with different layout options of the facili-ty.

“The architects have done a great job of providing dif-ferent options for us to consider,” Price said. “We also hada difficult time deciding on where the main entrance shouldbe and so we have gone through lots of different designs.”

The center will be located on the southwest corner ofSugar and Schunior roads and will be located in place of ornear the current recreational fields.

By LYLONY CAZARESThe Pan American

www.utsa.edu

STATE WELLNESS— The University of Texas-San Antoniocompleted the Wellness/Recreation Center on the SanAntonio campus in 2002. The project cost approximately$19 million.

MINITERM & SUMMER SCHEDULE/MANDATORYADVISEMENT MARCH 21- APRIL 22

For more information visit: http://assist.panam.edu

UTPA wellness state priority

he soft blue and pur-ple hues against the backdrop

emphasize the beauty of thedancers’ coordinated movement. They

move about on stage in billowy dresses thatflow just as gracefully as they do to the live cello

music. Debra De La Rosa, senior dance major,moves around the stage with eclectic movement,

accenting the sound of the music as she, and several otherdancers express themselves on stage.

The University of Texas-Pan American DanceEnsemble will be presenting its Spring Dance Concert March

17-19 at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee Sunday starting at 2 p.m. inthe UTPA Fine Arts Auditorium.

For De La Rosa, who will perform with 28 other students,this is her fourth concert with the Dance Ensemble Company.She has been dancing for nine years, four with the company. DeLa Rosa will perform in three of the six Spring Dance Concertpieces. One of her favorites in the show is “Earth,” which wasput together by guest choreographer Wade Madsen of Seattle.

“This dance is in response to my own experience grow-ing up in New Mexico, and the culture there,” Madsen

said in a press release to UTPA. He also said that the landscape of New Mexico,

such as the mountains, valleys and plains, areexpressed in “Earth” through an abstract form.

This form works beautifully as the

dancers fall suddenly onto the ground, stand still and move aboutslowly, sometimes without music. After a period of slow move-ment they dramatically break into dance as the tones of the lightchange, portraying the life placed back into the still dancers.

De La Rosa enjoys this piece because of the origins of thedance.

“Its foundation is modern dance,” De La Rosa said. “Andit’s got a lot of variety, such as flamenco, hip-hop, postmodernand ballet.”

She also said that each piece in the concert shows a varietyof things modern dance can be, which is more than just an

abstract form. Erika K. Silva, senior dance major, agrees with De La Rosa

that modern dance allows the dancers to express themselves invarious manners. For Silva, the best part of dancing with the com-pany is when guest choreographers work with the students, con-tributing new movements and ideas. With these individuals visit-ing, something artistically new and different is brought to the RioGrande Valley.

UTPA dance instructor and director Melinda Blomquist

encour-ages everyone tocome to the concert.

“Dance as an art form is ameans of expression,” Blomquistsaid. “Anyone can come and enjoy theconcert, and something in the works present-ed.”

Dance professors Fred Darsow and DanaShackelford are also directing. Blomquist choreo-graphed one of the six pieces for the concert, in which sen-ior music major, Lorena Lopez, will collaborate with thedancers as part of her senior concert. Lopez will play the celloand perform “Suite No. 1 in G Major: Sarabande,” “Minuet I”and “Minuet II.” The sound of the live cello adds an extra touchof energy to the piece.

“It is important to experience different forms of art, andways of looking at life,” Blomquist said.

The concert offers several different art forms as well, a vari-ety of everything from ballet to improvisation. The concert isintended for everyone, no matter what genre one might prefer.It allows the audience to experience nearly all dance founda-tions, and the dancers are intent on doing their best to pres-ent a beautiful concert.

“There are many different approaches to move-ment, and ideas in this concert,” Blomquist said.“There is something different for everyone.”

Bollywood . . . . . . . . . . . .8 & 9

Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Music Television . . . . . . . . . . 10

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A&E

“It is important to experiencedifferent forms of art, and waysof looking at life.”

-Melinda BlomquistUTPA dance professor/ director

Dancing onStory bySelene Garza

ELEGANCE - Janet Bernal,senior dance major, is in three ofthe six pieces in the SpringDance Concert by the UTPADance Ensemble: “Son of SoleaPor Bulerias,” choregraphed byFred Darsow; “Intertwined,”choreographed by DanaShackelford; “Earth,” choreo-graphed by Wade Madsen.

Photo by: Joel de la Rosa

T

‘Earth’

BOY MEETS GIRL.

They fall in love and passion is emitted fromevery facial expression and words uttered bythe pair. Family and friends disapprove, therelationship goes awry, but they finally decidethat the heart’s desire cannot be denied. Theymagnetically move in for that monumentalkiss. As their lips are about to join, a momentwhen cupid would be unable to refrain fromgrinning, everything turns dark. The world hasfallen into an eternal midnight and no light canever make the moment visible.

To a true romantic, this would be moretragic than the denouement of “Romeo andJuliet,” but in Bollywood, it’s the norm.

In the United States sex sells, and movie-goers would grumble if Hollywood said good-bye to bedroom scenes. Yet, South Asian (pri-marily Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka andBangladesh) cinema has crossed over success-ful with films like “Bend it Like Beckham” byGurinder Chadha (“What’s Cooking”) in 2002.

“[Bollywood] movies are very sexual andsensual, but without nudity, without sex,” saidGeorge McLemore, associate professor ofcommunication at The University of Texas-PanAmerican.

McLemore, who has traveled to India twiceon a Fulbright award, explained that inBollywood cinema there is tremendous sug-gested sexual interaction between males andfemales, but in traditional films it is nevershown: actors never actually kiss.

No, they have not perfected the art of teas-ing. Instead, Bollywood filmmakers haveremained true to cultural traditions with mini-mal violence and almost nonexistent sexualcontact. Seems like Bollywood doesn’t stand achance in a battle for screen time withHollywood blockbusters. But according toScreen Digest, Asian groups make twice asmany films as Hollywood.

According to McLemore, there are otherelements that make these films appealing toWesterners, such as happy endings, love sto-ries that formulate around family issues, danc-ing, music and an innocence that is absent inmany Western movies. This is probably why“Bend it like Beckham” spent four weeks inthe Top 10 at the box office.

Chadha’s latest film “Bride and Prejudice,”which is a Bollywoodized version of JaneAusten’s “Pride and Prejudice,” ranked 20th atthe box office in its first week, and it has onlybeen released at 32 theaters versus the top-ranking movie “Hitch” that was running at3,575 theaters. “Bride and Prejudice” starAishwarya Rai’s beauty could be the reasonthe film has received a good turnout, since shewas crowned Miss World in 1994.

The Bollywood queen will star next to

Hollywood queen Meryl Streep in the film“Chaos.” Rai has been questioned about herwillingness to loosen her movie morals as anactress in order to transition from B-town to H-town. In an interview with The New YorkDaily News she said that she is not willing toshow skin, but she is prepared to do kissingscenes.

“To a large degree [the success of acrossover] will depend upon how much adjust-ment is made in the movies,” McLemore said.

He also explained that a successfulcrossover will require more than implied sex.Not necessarily R-rated, but at least PG-13.

The Bollywood FactorThat does not mean that Hollywood’s R-

rated movies can’t dabble in the Bollywoodflavor. Indian cinema created its name by com-bining the B from Bombay—where mostmovies are made—with Hollywood, which isthe movie capital of the world. So, Americanshave followed suit by adding a taste ofBollywood to their movies, but with an extradash of curry that heats things up enough toearn more restrictive ratings.

The United States had its most notoriousintroduction to Bollywood with Andrew LloydWebber (“Phantom of the Opera”) and hisstage production of Shekhar Kapur’s “BombayDreams,” which had an eight-month run onBroadway in 2004.

According to a correspondent on a recentedition of ABC’s Nightline, this marked thetrue arrival of Bollywood in America.

Before that full-length saturation of Indianentertainment, it was sprinkled into Hollywoodfilms.

In 2001, “Moulin Rouge” made greatstrides in bringing back the popularity of musi-cal films in the United States, but seems to bea little more Bollywood and a little less “TheSound of Music.” It used songs such as “HindiSad Diamonds” that have obvious Indian influ-ences; this one was altered with a techno beat.

The lure of these entrancing group dancescenes has not died down. Recently, the influ-ence can be seen in 2004’s “Vanity Fair,”where Reese Witherspoon led a pack ofdancers in a provocative number for the king.

However, a true crossover of these filmscan be seen as more than just an infusion ofIndian culture in America. In essence, there areinfluences of an even larger scale of culturesand ideas. Bollywood-style dance alone infus-es styles from across the globe such as salsa,hip-hop, jazz, ballet and of course Indian clas-sical, folk and contemporary forms. What soc-cer is to sports, Bollywood is to entertainment,according to the Nightline episode. InAmerica, its popularity is not as widespread asthe iPod, but worldwide it’s huge. Combinethat appeal with the esteem of Hollywood, andBollywood can only grow.

March 17, 2005 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT March 17, 2005 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Page 9St

ory b

y

Om

aira

Gal

arza Picture the ultimate love story. Let it be

newly invented or take form as thememorable characters Romeo andJuliet from Shakespeare’s timeless playor Big and Carrie from “Sex and theCity.”

Top Ten Bollywood Films of 2004

Rank Title Director10 "Yuvi" Mani Ratnam9 "Hum Tum" Kunal Kohli8 "Veer Zaara" Yash Chopra7 "Raincoat" Rituparno Ghosh6 "Phir Milenge" Revathy5 "Khakee" Raj Kumar Santoshi4 "Ek Hasina Thi" Sriram Raghavan3 "Swades" Ashutosh Gowariker2 "Maqbool" Vishal Bhardwaj1 "Main Hoo Na" Anu Malik

(Above from left) - “Bride andPrejudice” is predicted to be thefirst successful Bollywood toHollywood crossover film. Thehit Bollywood film “BombayDreams” was adapted for theBroadway stage by AndrewLloyd Webber.(Left) - “Bend it LikeBeckham,” which had strongSouth Asian film themes, was asuccess in American cinema.(Below) - The notorious musi-cal motion picture “MoulinRouge” had a large-scaleIndian style dance scene.

Bollywood undressed

BOY MEETS GIRL.

They fall in love and passion is emitted fromevery facial expression and words uttered bythe pair. Family and friends disapprove, therelationship goes awry, but they finally decidethat the heart’s desire cannot be denied. Theymagnetically move in for that monumentalkiss. As their lips are about to join, a momentwhen cupid would be unable to refrain fromgrinning, everything turns dark. The world hasfallen into an eternal midnight and no light canever make the moment visible.

To a true romantic, this would be moretragic than the denouement of “Romeo andJuliet,” but in Bollywood, it’s the norm.

In the United States sex sells, and movie-goers would grumble if Hollywood said good-bye to bedroom scenes. Yet, South Asian (pri-marily Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka andBangladesh) cinema has crossed over success-ful with films like “Bend it Like Beckham” byGurinder Chadha (“What’s Cooking”) in 2002.

“[Bollywood] movies are very sexual andsensual, but without nudity, without sex,” saidGeorge McLemore, associate professor ofcommunication at The University of Texas-PanAmerican.

McLemore, who has traveled to India twiceon a Fulbright award, explained that inBollywood cinema there is tremendous sug-gested sexual interaction between males andfemales, but in traditional films it is nevershown: actors never actually kiss.

No, they have not perfected the art of teas-ing. Instead, Bollywood filmmakers haveremained true to cultural traditions with mini-mal violence and almost nonexistent sexualcontact. Seems like Bollywood doesn’t stand achance in a battle for screen time withHollywood blockbusters. But according toScreen Digest, Asian groups make twice asmany films as Hollywood.

According to McLemore, there are otherelements that make these films appealing toWesterners, such as happy endings, love sto-ries that formulate around family issues, danc-ing, music and an innocence that is absent inmany Western movies. This is probably why“Bend it like Beckham” spent four weeks inthe Top 10 at the box office.

Chadha’s latest film “Bride and Prejudice,”which is a Bollywoodized version of JaneAusten’s “Pride and Prejudice,” ranked 20th atthe box office in its first week, and it has onlybeen released at 32 theaters versus the top-ranking movie “Hitch” that was running at3,575 theaters. “Bride and Prejudice” starAishwarya Rai’s beauty could be the reasonthe film has received a good turnout, since shewas crowned Miss World in 1994.

The Bollywood queen will star next to

Hollywood queen Meryl Streep in the film“Chaos.” Rai has been questioned about herwillingness to loosen her movie morals as anactress in order to transition from B-town to H-town. In an interview with The New YorkDaily News she said that she is not willing toshow skin, but she is prepared to do kissingscenes.

“To a large degree [the success of acrossover] will depend upon how much adjust-ment is made in the movies,” McLemore said.

He also explained that a successfulcrossover will require more than implied sex.Not necessarily R-rated, but at least PG-13.

The Bollywood FactorThat does not mean that Hollywood’s R-

rated movies can’t dabble in the Bollywoodflavor. Indian cinema created its name by com-bining the B from Bombay—where mostmovies are made—with Hollywood, which isthe movie capital of the world. So, Americanshave followed suit by adding a taste ofBollywood to their movies, but with an extradash of curry that heats things up enough toearn more restrictive ratings.

The United States had its most notoriousintroduction to Bollywood with Andrew LloydWebber (“Phantom of the Opera”) and hisstage production of Shekhar Kapur’s “BombayDreams,” which had an eight-month run onBroadway in 2004.

According to a correspondent on a recentedition of ABC’s Nightline, this marked thetrue arrival of Bollywood in America.

Before that full-length saturation of Indianentertainment, it was sprinkled into Hollywoodfilms.

In 2001, “Moulin Rouge” made greatstrides in bringing back the popularity of musi-cal films in the United States, but seems to bea little more Bollywood and a little less “TheSound of Music.” It used songs such as “HindiSad Diamonds” that have obvious Indian influ-ences; this one was altered with a techno beat.

The lure of these entrancing group dancescenes has not died down. Recently, the influ-ence can be seen in 2004’s “Vanity Fair,”where Reese Witherspoon led a pack ofdancers in a provocative number for the king.

However, a true crossover of these filmscan be seen as more than just an infusion ofIndian culture in America. In essence, there areinfluences of an even larger scale of culturesand ideas. Bollywood-style dance alone infus-es styles from across the globe such as salsa,hip-hop, jazz, ballet and of course Indian clas-sical, folk and contemporary forms. What soc-cer is to sports, Bollywood is to entertainment,according to the Nightline episode. InAmerica, its popularity is not as widespread asthe iPod, but worldwide it’s huge. Combinethat appeal with the esteem of Hollywood, andBollywood can only grow.

March 17, 2005 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Page 8 March 17, 2005 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Stor

y by

Om

aira

Gal

arza Picture the ultimate love story. Let it be

newly invented or take form as thememorable characters Romeo andJuliet from Shakespeare’s timeless playor Big and Carrie from “Sex and theCity.”

Top Ten Bollywood Films of 2004

Rank Title Director10 "Yuvi" Mani Ratnam9 "Hum Tum" Kunal Kohli8 "Veer Zaara" Yash Chopra7 "Raincoat" Rituparno Ghosh6 "Phir Milenge" Revathy5 "Khakee" Raj Kumar Santoshi4 "Ek Hasina Thi" Sriram Raghavan3 "Swades" Ashutosh Gowariker2 "Maqbool" Vishal Bhardwaj1 "Main Hoo Na" Anu Malik

(Above from left) - “Bride andPrejudice” is predicted to be thefirst successful Bollywood toHollywood crossover film. Thehit Bollywood film “BombayDreams” was adapted for theBroadway stage by AndrewLloyd Webber.(Left) - “Bend it LikeBeckham,” which had strongSouth Asian film themes, was asuccess in American cinema.(Below) - The notorious musi-cal motion picture “MoulinRouge” had a large-scaleIndian style dance scene.

Bollywood undressed

This is the second in a four-part gam-ing series.

In the last couple years, peoplehave started to notice that games arenot only for young kids, but havebecome for many, an essential part ofentertainment. Video games have sur-passed television and the sales of CDs,according to the EntertainmentSoftware Association.

In 2004 video games, PC gamesand handheld games raked in $7.3 bil-lion, causing many to take notice of thegrowing industry, even newspapers.Print media columnists explain theever-evolving world of gamers andtheir communities to readers.

Emerging from the variety ofgames available is the interactionbetween gamer enthusiasts, as gamersare coming together to share a com-mon interest and form communitiesthrough forums, Web sites, Local AreaNetwork (LAN) parties and messageboards.

“A gaming community is basical-ly a group of people who share a loveof a certain game,” said MarkLagunez, senior computer sciencemajor at The University of Texas-PanAmerican. “Community implies a kindof familial bond, but today the gamingcommunity is more of a demograph-ic/market that businesses try to sell to.Like being part of the gay communityor the teaching community, justbecause you're part of this group does-n't automatically reveal everythingabout what you really are, besides agamer.”

Gaming communities have

evolved from LAN parties to onlinegames with guilds and clans—groupsof players who always fight side-by-side. The introduction of multiplayer,first person shooter games (FPS) suchas “Quake,” “Rainbow Six” and“Unreal Tournament,” along with real-time strategy games such as Blizzard’sseries of “StarCraft” and “WarCraft”helped bring gamers together in a vir-tual environment to play with oragainst people in various locations.

“Mostly all online games havecommunities,” said Rudy Gomez, aUTPAjunior majoring in computer sci-ence. “Although there are games thatare not online but still have onlinecommunities which allow players toshare ideas and strategies. Also gamesthat are multiplayer, online or off, usu-ally have local communities that gettogether to socialize or just have funplaying the game.”

Gomez described how he wouldinvite 10 to 16 of his friends to play“Halo,” an FPS for the XBox, at hisapartment on the weekend.

“We would have LAN parties orplaying on XBC (XBox connect),which is an Internet network tunnelthat simulates a local LAN,” Gomezsaid. “We formed our own clan andwould play at different tournamentsacross the Valley.”

However, with the sequel to“Halo,” Gomez and his clan, ArtificialIntelligence (AI) Constructs, now meeton XBox Live.

“With ‘Halo 2’ you get to playalongside your friends and level uptogether as a team,” Gomez said. “Ilove online play. I get to play againstthe best players in the world and seehow I match up with them.”

Gomez was one of the top 10“Halo 2” players on XBox Live for themonths of January and February, whilehis clan is still climbing to the top ofthe leader boards.

“My clan is just like any othercommunity,” Gomez said. “It givespeople a chance to spend time withtheir friends and have fun playinggames at the same time. Our goal is tobe known as one of the best clans in theworld.”

“World of WarCraft” (WoW) isalso an extremely popular massivemultiplayer online role-playing game(MMORPG) in which the essence ofgaming communities thrives throughguilds.

“In a clan/guild people can bandtogether to help each other out and,most importantly, make friends,”Lagunez said. “That's where you see areal sense of 'community' develop. It'slike an extended network of friends,and for some people it's a second fam-ily.”

According to WoW’s gamedeveloper, Blizzard, more than twomillion players worldwide have sub-scribed to the game since its Novemberrelease; a number that still falls short of

the millions of people who play otherMMORPGs like Lineage 2 orEverQuest.

“WoW lets people connect fromalmost all over the world to quest andfight with and against each other,”Lagunez said. “Acommon misconcep-tion is that people who play thesegames have no life, which is complete-ly untrue. We have jobs,girl/boyfriends, and, of course, school.We still hang out, play basketball, ten-nis, pool, et cetera. For millions outthere like us, gaming is just a part ofeveryday life, not all of it.”

Like Gomez, Lagunez started hisguild, Delu Naith, which is Sindarin(Elvish) for “The Deadly Spear”because many of his friends playedWoW and wanted to play together.Seven of the Delu Naith guild mem-bers are from UTPA while the other 40come from different parts of the worldsuch as Australia and Canada.

“The ultimate goal of our guild isto have as much fun as possible in thegame in whatever way we see fit,”Lagunez said. “If someone wants tohave the best gear, kill enemy players

or just explore the virtual realm, wework together as friends to make thathappen.”

Online games have a large andenthusiastic following and have helpedform new societies within a virtualworld. However, there are some whochoose not to be part of a gaming com-munity for one reason or another.

Ricky Trevino, from Weslaco,pays the $50 to play on XBox Live fora year with his friends, but does notplay WoW because of its monthly fees.

“A lot of online games have

monthly charges,” Trevino said. “Idon’t mind paying to play on XBoxLive because I can also play all theother Live games such as ‘MechAssult’and ‘Madden.’But I won’t playWoW because of the $14.99 monthlyfee, just to play one game; I also thinkmy computer wouldn’t be able to sup-port the game.”

The gaming industry has openednew realms of possibilities for gamersby creating new societies in the virtualworld, and its profits have shown thereal world a new source of entertain-ment that’s not just for kids anymore.

March 17, 2005 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Video games: A group effortBy LYLONY CAZARESThe Pan American

The majority of the seniors atThe University of Texas-PanAmerican who turn 22 this semes-ter weren’t even born when MTVhit the airwaves in 1981. Somehow,in nearly 25 years the network orig-inally known for the innovation ofmusic videos has managed tobecome completely different.

Sherry Berryman, supervisorof recreation at the Palm ViewCommunity Center, is a member ofthe 30-something generation thatvividly remembers MTV’s debut.She was in junior high.

“It was unique, different, we’dask ourselves, ‘Oh my gosh, whatare they doing?’” Berryman said.“I remember watching DEVO inthose huge hats. It was all music.”

MTV launched the video gen-eration with “Video Killed theRadio Star,” by The Buggles, onAug. 1, 1981. That song had been ahuge hit in England in 1979, andMTV used it to launch the network.However, much has changed in thepast 23 years.

MTV began primarily as amusic video channel that drewattention to music with visuals thatwere catchy and unique then butbegan to seem hokey years later.Tune in today, and reality televi-sion rules the time slots. Showslike “Newlyweds” and “The RealWorld” are aired repeatedly, and

videos seem to have been demotedto “after hours.”

The media company Viacomthat owns MTV also owns MTV2,VH1 and VH1 Classic. Both VH1and VH1 Classic were created tofill the music video craving MTVhad created in its viewers. But theytoo are now plagued with realityTV.

However, MTV2, created in1996, plans on bringing back themusic video. During halftime ofthe Super Bowl in February, MTV2unleashed its new beast. The sta-tion has created a two-headed dogmonster as the new logo of therevamped station. MTV2’s inten-tions are not to go back to the“primitive MTV,” but rather bringback the music video, without theVJ (Video Jockey). Is it possible?

Berryman remembers vividlythe personalities of the pioneerVJ’s.

“They didn’t know what theywere doing, and now it seems likethe VJ’s are groomed, so stereotyp-ical,” Berryman said. “They usedto put up ads for VJ’s in schoolsand then people would audition.No one knew what exactly a musicvideo was going to be, not even theartists.”

The original early ‘80s musicvideo was not only a new conceptfor the public, but for bands aswell. It was their opportunity toexpress not only their audio music,but their ideas visually, comple-

menting the music. Younger generations were

never exposed to the “old ways” ofMTV and know nothing more thanreality TV.

Edgar Lopez, an eighth-graderfrom Brown Middle School inMcAllen, said, “I started watchingMTV when I was 10 in 2000. Iguess if they are going to makeMTV the way it used to be theywill just cheapen the graphics.”

Far from cheaper graphics,MTV2 plans on unveiling a newvideo every Tuesday and running itmore than 15 times a day. Theirfirst song to premier was GreenDay’s latest single, “Boulevard ofBroken Dreams.”

Now that music video produc-tion is down to an art, which can beseen through cable shows like,“Making the Video,” will Viacom’sattempt to reinvent music televi-sion be successful? When musicwith pictures began in 1981 theartists had no precedent to follow:it was all creativity and originality.Now music videos seem to beflash, camera, and derivative“bling.”

“They can’t make it go back,but it would be nice,” Berrymansaid.

Music is still a means of massexpression. The audio and visualcombination MTV invented over20 years ago has the chance tomake a comeback. Let’s see whathappens.

Reality TV killed the video starBy SARAI GARCIAThe Pan American

All images courtesy of google.com

SOCIAL continued from page 1 URI continued from page 1

“Some of these students may not bedoing research in their major so theymight discover they are not really inter-ested in this or they don’t like the idea ofresearch and would rather have a moreapplied career, ” she added.

Senior finance major Robert Weston,who is helping Dr. Eric Romero of theCollege of Business collect data throughquestionnaires, is one student who hasgleaned a bit about the future of this area.

“I have learned how to convince busi-ness owners or managers to let theiremployees fill out the questionnaire, andit has given me a good feeling what itmust be like to be in sales and whether itis for me or not,” said Weston.

“I have learned that I prefer to be theperson that uses others’ applicationsinstead of developing them.”

According to. Romero, his experi-ence with the URI program has been a

positive one that has helped him teach astudent research skills through real-worldexperience.

“This program has helped me teachresearch skills, or at least methodology.Overall, it works pretty well, especiallysince I choose the student,” Romero said.

Lawrence-Fowler agrees that faculty,as well students, benefit from the pro-gram. She explained that when a studentworks closely with a professor it has ahuge impact on the learning ability of thestudent.

“It gives the faculty an opportunity toget students involved in their research andpotentially make greater strides in theirresearch efforts. There is an intrinsicvalue added,” she noted.

“That is something that a lot of facul-ty feel good about when they have anopportunity to do that; to really touch astudent’s life in a positive way.”

the Social Security Administration in theDallas Region for 29 years, questioned whatwould become of today’s Social Securitybeneficiaries under the new plan.

“If young workers invest their money,they must pay current retirees as well asinvest,” Luna said. “The administration hasgiven no specifics so we cannot address thedetails.”

Although each panelist gave statementsand answered questions from the audience,the meeting seemed more like a staged eventthan a dialogue with the people. KRGV-TVtelevised the meeting live and sandwichedeach panelist’s presentation with filmedpackages and interviews. Michael Brooks ofAction 4 News moderated while DavisRankin of KURV-710 Talk Radio read audi-ence member questions that had been sub-mitted to Hinojosa’s press secretary.

Despite the distractions, many cameaway from the meeting with a new perspec-tive on Social Security.

UTPA senior Alex Salazar, a financemajor, believes we should all keep a closereye on what the current administration isdoing.

“What we know about Social Securitytoday is not what the administration is por-traying, so it is important for us to do a bit ofbackground work on what the system actual-ly is, what our options are and what is goingto be the best solution in the long run,”Salazar said.

“It seems now that we do have a bit oftime to decide what the future of SocialSecurity is going to be like.”

Hinojosa said time is the student’s besttool to use in addressing their own SocialSecurity situation.

“Students should set up a separateinvestment portfolio to supplement yourSocial Security,” said Hinojosa. “When youare young you have the opportunity to dowhat I have done, and that is to build a diver-sified portfolio.”

March 17, 2005 NEWS

March 17, 2005 NEWS

HISTORIAN continued from page 4

ed to invite Elliott Young to UTPA because heis a young and promising scholar who haspublished important works about the historyof the Rio Grande Valley,” said Vergara

Through various fundraisers, the UTPAHistory Club is making a tradition of bringingguest speakers to campus to discuss the histo-ry of the Valley. Young was one of the firstspeakers, and the club is in the process ofinviting Teresa Paloma Acosta to speak nextsemester.

“It’s extremely good that he wrote aboutSouth Texas history,” said Mark Lopez, a

social studies major and president of theHistory Club.

“It’s important for students to come sothey can get a sense of identity. There’s notenough Hispanics getting their PhDs in histo-ry.”

Even though Young is not a native ofTexas his enthusiasm for Mexican-Americanhistory does not waiver. Young said theimportant thing is for the history of the Valleyto be shared. He looks forward to exchangingideas about Garza’s revolution and what lifeis like on the border today.

IPODS continued from page 5

HISTORY CLUBBOOK SALE

March 23-24 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.The Quad

Please contact Mark Lopez at(956) 746 - 1357

[email protected]

Books can be dropped off at the HistoryDepartment Office

Franco Caballero/The Pan American

IN HIGH DEMAND— Gas prices jumped this week througoutthe Rio Grande Valley, ranging anywhere from $1.96 - $2.05per gallon.

Calvillo also agrees that the iPod’s fea-tures set it apart from other music players.

“Convenience. It’s a lot easier to carrywith you than a CD player, ” he said.

Not everyone is ecstatic about the iPod,however. Jacob Mancha, a senior politicalscience major, can’t see what all the hypeis about. -

“I just don’t understand why people willpay so much for what is essentially a glori-fied Walkman,” he said.

When told that the iPod mini went downin price recently to $199, he said, “That’sabout $160 more than I would want tospend on a ‘music player.’”

True enough, there are some downsidesto the iPod. Cardenas says that Appleupdates software and hardware so oftenthat older iPods become obsolete.

“There seems to be a new one out everyother month. I have a third generation iPod

and battery life is one of the biggest issuesI have with my iPod,” Cardenas said.

Calvillo says that his dislikes are some-what minimal. “I guess the fact that I haveto use an adaptor to play it in my car wouldbe one [thing],” he said, “But it’s really notthat big of a deal.”

Despite these concerns, the iPod hasbeen extremely successful, and other digi-tal music players have not fared so well.NPD reports that Creative music players,the closest selling competitor to the iPod,only account for 3.7 percent of the market.Hewlett Packard initially attempted tocompete with the iPod by selling its ownversion, but lackluster sales prompted thecompany to ditch the effort and jump onthe Apple bandwagon.

Reyes agrees. “People don’t really buy the other digi-

tal music players anymore,” he said.

NAME

PRICE

BUILT-INMEMORY

STORAGECAPACITY

BATTERY LIFE

TYPE OFBATTERIES

AppleIPod Mini

AppleIPod

CreativeNomad

AppleIPod Shuffle

CreativeMuVo

$199.99 $399.99 $189.99 $149.99 $149.99

4 GB 40GB 30GB 1GB 512MB

1,000 Songs in128-Kbps AAC

10,000 Songs in128-Kbps AAC

500 hrs. (MP3) /1,000 hrs. (WMA)

240 Songs in128-Kbps AAC

4 hours of MP3 /8 hours of WMA

Up to 18 hrs. Up to 12 hrs. Up to 14 hrs. Up to 12 hrs. -

Built-in lithium ionbattery

Built-in lithium ionbattery

Re-chargeablelithium ion battery

Integrated USBbattery

1 lithium ionbattery

PRODUCTIMAGE

Source: Circuitcity.com

MP3 COMPARISON: IS IT WORTH IT?

NEW ADMISSIONS DEPARTMENT CREATED

A rising enrollment means a jump in uni-versity infrastructure. The university recentlycreated a new department — the Office ofUndergraduate Admissions — that will dealexclusively with undergraduate admissions.

The department, which was once the Officeof Admissions and Records, is now split intothe Office of Records and Registration and theOffice of Undergraduate Admissions.

In a university press release, NormaGonzalez, associate director of admissions,said that higher enrollment, along with tougheradmission standards, necessitated the develop-ment of the office.

Admissions office personnel work closelywith prospective and applied students, parents,high school counselors, in addition to othercolleges and universities to effectively com-municate UTPA’s undergraduate admissionspolicies and procedures, Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez, who will head the new depart-ment, said she will continue to work closelywith the Office of Records and Registration aswell as the Office of New Student and VisitorServices.

The new undergraduate admissions officeis located on the third floor of the StudentServices Building, while the records and regis-tration office is temporarily located in theXotchil Room next to the cafeteria while reno-vations for its permanent location are under-way.

MODERN LANGUAGES SERIES The Department of Modern Languages and

Literature will host a Faculty Lecture Series onthe topic: "Mapping Identities: (re)defining

space and the construction of national identityin Cuba," from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. tonite in theUTPA Ballroom. Dr. Glenn Martinez will giveopening remarks, followed by two panels.

One panel will start at 7 p.m., with ElviaArdalani and Dr. Héctor Romero from theDepartment of Modern Languages, along withDr. Jose Llanes of education and RobertoCortina of UT Brownsville, scheduled tospeak.

The next session begins at 8:45 p.m., withDr. Douglas La Prade, Department of English,speaking, and closing remarks by RodrigoPereyra of Modern Languages

LEADERSHIP FAIR NEXT WEEKThe dean of students and Student

Leadership Academy will sponsor a free work-shop Tuesday, March 22. The LeadershipOpportunities Fair will be in the Student UnionTheater from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The fair will allow students to connect withseveral campus organizations as well as withUniversity departments and offices, to makeconnections and learn about leadership posi-tions available across campus.

Among the student organizations recruitingwill be the Student Government Association,University Program Board, Residence Life,Residence Hall Association, StudentAmbassadors, University StudentOrganization Council, Bacchus and Gamma,Judicial Peer Advocates, Campus LifeCommittee and Student Leadership Academy.

For more information or to obtain a com-plete list of fair participants, call Amy Martinat 956/381-2260 or visit the Dean of StudentsOffice in UC 104.

CAMPUS BRIEFS

UTPA SPORTS

Track & Field

NCAA DIVISION I INDOORCHAMPIONSHIPS

MEN

WEIGHT THROW: 1, Spyridon Jullian, Virginia

Tech, 76-00.75. 2, Cory Martin, Auburn,

72-08.50. 3, Garland Porter, Tennessee,

72-05.75. 4, Candon Powell, Arkansas

State, 72-03.75. 5, Karim Chester,

Nothern Arizona, 69-11.00. 6, Coby Cost,

Kansas State, 69-06.00. 7, Issac Ybarra,

Texas-Pan American, 69-02.50. 8, Nick

Owens, North Carolina, 68-05.75. 9,

Sheldon Battle, Kansas, 68-01.50. 10,

Robb Pfrank, Western Illinois, 67-07.50.

11, Adam Trainor, Colorado, 65-03.25. 12,

Bryan Duby, Ohio State, 64-07.00. 13,

Jason Carruthers, Indiana State, 62-

05.25.

WOMEN

WEIGHT THROW: 1, Candice Scott, Florida,

79-03.75. 2, Loree Smith, Colorado State,

74-03.75. 3, Jenny Dahlgren, Georgia, 70-

09.25. 4, Jennifer Leatherman, Penn

State, 69-09.75. 5, Kimberli Barrett, Miami,

69-08.00. 6, Amy Moses, Texas-Pan Am,

69-06.00. 7, Laura Gerraughty, North

Carolina, 69-00.75. 8, Rachel Longfors,

Florida, 68-08.00. 9, Brandy Blackwood,

Arkansas, 68-06.50. 10, Amarachi

Ukabam, Southern Illinois, 66-10.00.

MARCH/APRIL SCHEDULE

MEN

3-19-05 Angela Proctor Invitational

3-24-05 Stanford Invitational

3-25-05 Texas Invitational


4-01-05 Rice Bayou Classic


4-07-05 Texas Relays



4-14-05 ASU David Noble Invitational


4-16-05 Spira Invitational

4-30-05 Rice/Runsport Twilight

WOMEN

3-19-05 Angela Proctor Invitational

3-24-05 Stanford Invitational










4-16-05 Spira Invitational

4-30-05 Rice/Runsport Twilight

Golf

ST. CROIX COLL. CLASSICWOMEN

1. Notre Dame 307 309 303 919 +55

2. Xavier Univ. 312 319 323 954 +90

T3. UTPA 325 318 313 956 +92

T3. Wofford 327 321 308 956 +92

5. Barry Univ. 321 330 327 978 +114

6.Cincinnati Univ. 329 324 326 979 +115

7.Eastern KY. 333 330 321 984 +120

8. Marshall Univ. 330 331 341 1002 +13


MEN

4-11-05 Cowboy Classic

4-12-05 Cowboy Classic

4-16-05 Boilermaker Invitational

4-17-05 Boilermaker invitational

4-22-05 Andrea Brotto Cavalier Classic

4-23-05 Andrea Brotto Cavalier Classic

WOMEN

3-24-05 Baylor-Tapatio Spring Shootout



4-04-05 Bobcat Invitational

4-05-05 Bobcat Invitational

Tennis

ST. LOUIS UNIV.MEN

SINGLES:

Salvo (UTPA) def. Larzac (SLU) 7-6, 6-3.

Porter (UTPA) def. Welnetz (SLU) 6-0, 6-

3.

Steil (UTPA) def. Wilson (SLU) 6-1, 6-3.

Esmail (UTPA) def. Feder (SLU) 6-4, 6-2.

Cantu (UTPA) def. Rineberg (SLU) 6-3,

6-4.

Pacheco (UTPA) def. Balcer (SLU) 6-3,

3-6, 10-5.

DOUBLES:

Salvo/Esmail (UTPA) def. Larza/Welnel

(SLU) 8-6.

Wilson/Feder (SLU) def. Cantu/Porter

(UTPA) 9-3.

Pacheco/Steil (UTPA) def.

Rineberg/Balcer (SLU) 8-3.


MEN

3-19-05 Columbia

3-20-05 Texas-Arlington

3-22-05 Laredo Community College

4-02-05 Southeastern Louisiana

4-03-05 Lamar

4-08-05 Grambling State

4-08-05 Prairie View A&M

4-09-05 Texas Southern

4-16-05 Trinity (TX)

4-22-05 Southland Conference Tourn.



WOMEN

3-22-05 Laredo Community College

4-02-05 Southeastern Louisiana

4-02-05 Lamar

4-08-05 Grambling State

4-08-05 Prairie View A&M

4-09-05 Texas Southern

4-16-05 Trinity (TX)

4-22-05 Independent National Tourn.



Baseball

FEB. 25-27CREIGHTON SERIES

GAME 3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E

Creighton1 0 0 1 0 0 7 2 0 - 11 9 2

UTPA 3 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 7 13 0

Win - Ogilvie (1-1). Loss - Gordon (0-1)

Save - Bird (1)

E - Wellwood 2. DP - CU 2. LOB - CU 5;

UTPA 7. 2b - Dutton; Norquist; Daeges,

Zach 2; Hinrichs; Flowers; Gordon; Eichel.

3B - Norquist. HBP - Daeges, Matt 2;

Rodriguez, M. SH - Roth; Hinrishs;

Rodriguez, R. SF - Shockey. SB -

Flowers; Jones. CS - Alamia.

Attendance: 268

GAME 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E

Creighton 4 2 0 0 2 2 0 1 0 - 11 10 1

UTPA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 2

Win - Daneff (2-1). Loss - Gomez (1-1)

Save - None

E - Roth; Flowers; Gutierrez. DP - CU 5;

UTPA 2. LOB - CU 7; UTPA 3. 2B - Roth

2; Lapito; Gordon. 3b - Hinrichs. HBP -

Shockey; Daeges, Zach. SF -

Daeges,Zach; Odenreider. SB - Shockey.

CS - Lapito.

Attendance: 350

GAME 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E

Creighton 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 - 4 11 3

UTPA 1 0 4 0 0 0 2 0 x - 7 11 2

Win - Guerra (3-0). Loss - Bilek (1-1)

Save - Haines (5)

E - Dutton; Lapito 2; Flowers 2. DP - CU

2; UTPA 2. LOB - CU 9; UTPA 7. 2B -

Shockey; Gordon; Eichel 2. 3B - Daeges,

Zach. HR - Alamia. HBP - Daeges.Matt.

Attendance: 350

2005 SCHEDULE

3-18-05 Oral Roberts



3-22-05 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

3-29-05 Texas-San Antonio


4-01-05 Coastal Carolina



4-05-05 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

4-08-05 Louisiana-Lafayette



4-15-05 Dallas Baptist (DH)

4-16-05 Dallas Baptist



4-22-05 Western Kentucky

4-23-05 Western Kentucky




5-03-05 Texas

5-13-05 New Orleans

5-14-05 New Orleans

5-15-05 New Orleans

5-17-05 Arkansas

5-18-05 Arkansas

Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees

2005 REMAINING SCHEDULE

3-17-05 @Corpus Christi

3-18-05 Austin Ice Bats

3-19-05 San Angelo Saints

Note: Home games in Bold.

FOR THE RECORD

Senior duo named All-American Ybarra and Moses recognized on the national spectrum

After the first day of competition at the NCAA Division I IndoorChampionships, The University of Texas-Pan American named its firstnational competitor. Then, at the end of the second, it added another.

Isaac Ybarra was the program’s first All-American, as he placedseventh in the weight throw at the indoor event with a heave of 69-2.25. Ybarra, who owns all top five marks on the UTPA record booksfor the weight throw, also has 13 individual crowns, seven of themindoor titles.

On the next day, UTPA welcomed its second All-American inprogram history when Amy Moses placed sixth, firing off a career bestof 69-6 in the weight throw. She also became the first female to scorea point at the indoor national competition.

Ybarra and Moses have been in the spotlight all season as theyconsistently dominate wherever they compete. The senior duo has aplace in the top ten at every meet this season.

FUTURES golf tour visits ValleyWorld’s best set to compete in McAllen

The FUTURES Golf Tour will stop in McAllen on April 22-24. Thegolf tournament will take place at the Palm View Municipal GolfCourse and is a first for the city. FUTURES, the largest internationaldevelopmental tour in the world, is the official developmental tour forthe Ladies Pro Golf Association. The tour has grown in its 25-yearhistory, with over 300 golfers from 27 different countries, compared tothe 150 North American players in the old days.

The tour travels around the United States with some of the bestwomen’s players in the world. This year they will have 18tournaments in 13 states, with the third stop of the FUTURES 2005schedule being local. At the end of the tour, the top six money listleaders get an automatic invite for the 2006 LPGA Tour. Many of theFUTURES Tour alumnae have gone to win LPGA titles, including 30major championships.

The event will feature 144 professional women golfers, who willplay 54 holes. All the proceeds from this tour will go to the McAllenHispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Among other things open to the public, this year’s event will have afashion show, a four-hole shootout and a junior clinic. For moreinformation about this even, contact the Palm View Municipal GolfCourse at (956) 688-3444 or the McAllen Hispanic Chamber ofCommerce at (956) 928-0060.

Cardinals set to play game in MexicoNFL game to be played in Mexico City

The NBA made it possible for Chinese fans to see their hero, YaoMing, in person when China hosted the Houston Rockets andSacramento Kings in a regular season game last season. Now itseems the NFL is joining the trend by playing in an internationalregular season game south of the border.

The Arizona Cardinals will play a regular season game in MexicoCity against the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 2 at the Azteca Stadium.

The Cardinals will be giving up one of their home games in Tempeto play in Mexico on the condition of promised monies allotted for theforfeit of the early-season game.

Mexico City has hosted NFL preseason games in the past, and theDallas Cowboys have played there more than once. Some of the mostrecent NFL games played at Azteca Stadium have drawn crowds ofmore than 88,000. In comparison, the Cardinals normally draw anaverage of 37,000, lowest home game attendance in the NFL.

The 2005-06 season will be the team’s last at Sun Devil Stadium inTempe. The Cardinals will be moving to a new $450 million homeafter the 2006 season.

March 17, 2005 SPORTS

SPORTSCLIPBOARD

The NCAA basketball tournamentsare set to begin today, with openinground matchups featuring some of thecountry’s best collegiate players. MarchMadness, as it is often referred to, isexpected to be one of the best. Althoughmany college students are alreadywreaking havoc on South Padre Island

others are set to create their own memories on the court. In the words of ESPN announcer Dick Vitale “super,

scintillating, sensational” can sometimes describe thetournament games. There have been many exciting end-ings in previous games such as Christian Laettner’s last-minute jumper off a court-length pass in a region final in1990.

This is the time when not only memories are createdbut legends are born. Some of the NBA’s greatest playershave there own moments of glory during March Madnessincluding guys like Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing,Clyde Drexler and David Robinson. Jordan won the titleas a freshman in 1982 when his 15-footer in the finalminute handed the North Carolina Tar Heels the win overGeorgetown in New Orleans.

And since the Big Dance unfolds during college springbreak, tradition has developed that students party downand watch the tournament games in style.

THE SKINNYThis year’s tournament figures to be one of the most

unpredictable in recent history. The elite teams this areIllinois, North Carolina and Duke, although only Illinoiswas consistent all year, losing just once. Duke and NorthCarolina are two of the more storied programs in collegebasketball. They enter the tournament as favorites andthis is nothing new for coaches Roy Williams and MikeKrzyzewski. For Krzyzewski and the Duke Blue Devils

the season has been one of great accomplishments.Many college basketball analysts are calling this sea-

son the finest coaching performance of Coach K’s career,because they do not have the deepest team around andthey usually lose stars to early entry into the NBA.

The Blue Devils are coming off a win against GeorgiaTech to earn the ACC Conference Tournament title andwill be one of the four No. 1 seeds. But for the BlueDevils want to make some noise they will need someoneelse other than J.J. Reddick to hit big shots in the clutch:there is no “I” in team.

On the other hand North Carolina and Coach RoyWilliams are going into the tournament on a sour noteafter suffering an upset loss to Georgia Tech in the ACCTourney. The Tar Heels however managed to get a No. 1seed in the tournament because they have been near thetop of the nation all year. Sean May has delivered for theTar Heels with some stellar post play to wrap up the sea-son. May recorded six straight double-doubles, as theHeels were one of the highest scoring teams in the USAand also shot 50 percent from the floor as a team.

Guard play will need to be more consistent in order forthe Tar Heels to make a run.

Illinois has been this year’s surprise team, winning 29straight games before losing the season finale to OhioState. The Fighting Illini were given the No. 1 overallseed after finishing the regular season and will need tocontinue their dominance now that they are not anunknown sleeper. The Illini have an athletic, confidentteam that plays great defense and can hit the three.

The last team earning a No. 1 seed in the tournamentis the Washington Huskies, but they figure to be a longshot of the four top seeds, to win the national champi-onship. But with only five losses the Huskies could turnsome heads in this year’s tournament, especially withoutstanding 5-foot-8 Nate Robinson running the show.

So the tourney is set to begin and that means hundreds

of thousands of people have already filled out their tour-ney brackets and paid their money for the Fan’s versionof the Big Dance. Trying to predict who will win it all hasbecome a favorite pastime along with watching games,getting people interested who didn’t necessarily payattention to college basketball in the past.

Valley hoops fans do not have a team in the race, asthe UTPA team finished 12-16 and out of the running. Butthe state of Texas has several options, including theUniversity of Texas-Austin, Texas-El Paso, Texas Tech,and the National Invitational Tourney group of Houston,Rice, Texas A&M. Bronc fans can also root for or againstOklahoma, which defeated UTPA earlier in the season.

The 8-seed Longhorns are at the Chicago Regional,taking on No. 9 Nevada today. They join 2-seedOklahoma State and no. 1 Illinois at that Midwest site.

Texas Tech, No. 6, is at the Albuquerque Regionalagainst 11th-seeded UCLA.

Austin is home to one of the four regionals startingtoday, as Oklahoma, a third seed, takes on 14th-seededNiagara, in the Dance for the first time since the CalvinMurphy era back in the early 1970s. Also at the ErwinCenter, UTEP, at No. 11, gets a tough first-rounderagainst Utah today. Duke is the one seed in Austin whileKentucky, always a threat to win it all, is two with OUthird.

The women’s NCAAs have become increasingly pop-ular, and there are several teams from Texas in this year’smix. Rice, Texas, Houston, TCU and Texas Tech havehorses in the race. The UTPA women’s team is hoping toget there someday, after winning more games than anyteam in school history this season.

The women’s title game is April 5 in Indianapolis,while the men finish April 4 in St. Louis. From openingtip to closing buzzer, millions of fans – including collegekids on their Spring Break – will be watching as the col-lege basketball season comes to a head.

The quest for collegiate hoops dominance begins March 17, 2005 SSPPOORRTTSS

By JACOB ALEGRIAThe Pan American

In South Texas, football is everything. But to somelocal youths another sport is drawing attention from allover the nation. Racewalking has long been considered tobe the “funny-looking” sport in the Olympics that no onereally watches or knows about.

Nine years ago, A.C. Jaime, former major of Pharr,began coaching racewalking with his grandson in hopesthat he would pick up the sport. Little did he know that ayear later two others would join him in qualifying for theAAU Junior Olympics in Charlotte, N.C., and later startthe South Texas Walking Club.

Since then, Jaime has given workshops to 5,000 kids ayear and has about 100 kids participate competitivelyduring the summer. In Texas, the best competition comesfrom a group in Houston but not many can compete withthe talented group from Pharr. The group now boastseight national champions and two national record holders,Claudia Ortiz from Mission and Robert Vergara fromEdinburg.

Jaime visits about 15-20 elementary schools a yeartalking to third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders to give them anidea of what racewalking is about. After this age there isa tendency for kids to start haggling because of themechanics of the sport.

“It hurts our chances of picking up more children forracewalking,” Jaime said about why the Valley has yet tointegrate racewalking into schools. “Maine and New Yorkalready have racewalking in their schools, and NewJersey has already been approved and will begin teachingracewalking next year.”

Although Pharr has begun to have some competitionbetween schools, Jaime said it isn’t enough. He said it canbe discouraging to kids if they don’t see participationaround them.

Persistence has been the real key factor in the successof the program drawing attention from Olympic coachesand athletes in the sport. Tim Seaman, a 2000 and 2004Olympian, has been especially influential in coaching thegroup by making several trips a year to hold clinics.

“Our kids compete at a national level and doextremely well,” Jaime said. “Everyone wants to knowhow we train and what we do, it’s a great thing to have

people like Timshow suchdevotion to thesport andespecially to ourkids.”

Although thekids travel allover the UnitedStates to variousn a t i o n a lc h a m p i o n s h i p sand qualifyingraces, there is nooutside fundingsave for donationsfrom businessesand raffles andbarbeques theclub holds. Jamiehas asked forassistance fromseveral citiesthrough theire c o n o m i cd e v e l o p m e n tprograms butsince the kids arenot from any onecity, officials havenot been open togiving out money.

The next majorraces are in New York and Maryland for the NationalScholastic Indoor Track & Field Championships and theNike Indoor Championships, respectively. Jaime ishopeful that six kids will go from the high school group,four have already qualified. Chris Diaz, Adrian Jaime andtwins Robert and Ricardo Vergara are all previous AAUNational Champions.

These indoor races determine standing for the topracewalkers in the nation. The STWC has the chance torepresent five of six spots with a strong showing. Lastyear, Robert Vergara missed setting the national indoor

record by one second but was also the youngest tocompete, being an eighth-grader racing in a high schoolmeet.

“Chris and Robert will do extremely well fighting forthe top spot,” Jaime said. “ I’m looking forward to a greatrace and a new record.”

Adrian Jaime and Diaz are seniors and have beenoffered scholarships to walk in Wisconsin and New Jerseyat some of the top racewalking schools in the nation.

With such promise from these Valley youngsters,racewalking should be a sport to watch. After all theseValley kids very might well be at the 2008 Beijing

March 17, 2005 SSPPOORRTTSS

The University of Texas-PanAmerican Bronc baseball teamhas been slowly changing itsways having won four of theirlast seven games. Now that theBroncs are playing moreconsistently, they have to keep itgoing against Oral Roberts thisweekend.

Bronc fortunes turned aroundduring spring break after threewins and the title at the OgletreeClassic. The team won nail-biters against UT-San Antonioand Birmingham Southern, andblew past Sam Houston State.Their only loss of the tournamentcame against Illinois, 3-0.

Next, in the Creighton series,they won the first game butdropped the last two; the finalgame was a close one, the firsterrorless outing for the Broncsthis season, and Coach WillieGawlik noted that the team isimproving in this area.

“That is a big plus for ourteam, we’re excited about that,”he said about the flawless game

against Creighton. “We’re tryingto improve our defense, and allphases of our game.”

Despite the great fielding,UTPA still lost 11-7. But theBroncs bats showed sparks oflife throughout the game. ZachGordon, Matt Eichel, JacobJones and Louie Alamia kept theBroncs in it, combining for 10 ofthe Broncs’ 13 hits.

“They’ve had a good week,and that’s great to see,” Gawliksaid. “They’re capable of doingthat, and hopefully they can do iton a consistent basis.”

On Tuesday, the Bronc gameagainst Texas A&M-Kingsvillewas canceled due to bad weather.

This weekend, the Broncswill be traveling to Oklahoma totake on a tough Oral Robertssquad in a three-game series.They will have Aaron Guerra, anEdinburg native, on the moundstarting one of the three gamesagainst ORU.

Last season, the Broncshosted the Golden Eagles, takinggame three, but dropped the firsttwo, 1-0, and 12-10. The Golden

Eagles finished last season withover 50 victories, making theman NCAA Regional contender.

The Golden Eagles areexpected have another good runthis season, as they are currently9-6 on the season, four of thosevictories at home.The seriesbetween the two schools isdeadlocked at four games apiece.

Guerra has been the Broncs’top pitcher this season, sportinga 3-0 record.This type ofperformance will be needed asthe Broncs take on the GoldenEagles who come off a recentwhipping of top ranked Baylor.

In Guerra’s last visit to themound, he put out a strong eight-inning performance againstCreighton in game one, onlyallowing four runs. He struck outsix batters on the night, leadinghis team to a 7-4 victory.

“He pitched eight stronginnings, and that is the type ofpitching that we need for us to besuccessful,” Gawlik said. “Hehas been pitching veryconsistent, and he is doing agreat job right now.”

Broncs face Oral Roberts

Valley racewalkers set for Big Apple meetBy DELISA GUADARRAMAThe Pan American

Delisa Guadarrama / The Pan American

WALKING TALL - (From left) Ricardo Vergara, Neto Vergara, Ruby Perez, Chris Diaz and RobertoVergara at a practice on Sunday afternoon training for the upcoming Indoor Nationals in New York.Enthusiasts in the Valley seek to promote the sport.

By DARYL GONZALESThe Pan American

Marcos Cervantes/ The Pan American

COMING HOME - Bronc outfielder Louie Alamia slides into home plate ina series at home in February. UTPA seems to have turned it aroundrecently as the team heads out to Tulsa for a series this weekend againstOral Roberts.

The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees willbe wrapping up their season this weekendwith the three remaining games on theirschedule. RGV (17-37-3) has had a roughseason, enduring winless streaks of 10games in November and 11 in January-February.

Last weekend the team played two homegames at the Dodge Arena. On Friday theBees were able to shut out the AustinIceBats, 4-0, but lost the next evening to theCorpus Christi Rayz, 6-3.

RGV will be looking to win its final roadgame tonight in Corpus Christi, and theirfinal two home games on Friday andSaturday.

Killer Bees Head Coach Tracy Egelandfeels that there was a lot of effort put forth byRGV in their previous two home games.

“We played well. I can’t fault the effort ofthe guys,” said Egeland. “For the most partthey’ve acted like pros since being eliminat-ed and I expect nothing less out of them inthese next three games.”

It has been a frustrating season for a teamthat had 10 guys returning from last year’splayoff team that won 32 regular seasongames. Egeland admits that the results fromthis year’s squad were not what he had inmind.

“I’m very disappointed. Obviously theplan was not to be done this weekend and weare. Now we have to re-evaluate our situa-tion,” said the Lethbridge, Alberta native.

“The effort is not faulted. We’ve had badgames, and for the most part our effort hasbeen there. It is just very disappointing theway we’ve lost games.”

Despite the losing record Egelandbelieves there were some positives that cameout of this year.

“I think that our young guys have come along way. I really like the way that(Daymen) Bencharski, (Justin) Dziama,(Matic) Kralj, and (Calle) Aslund (are com-ing along). I think that they’ve taken steps inthe right direction in their careers,” saidEgeland. “Some of our older guys, Ryan

Shmyr, Darcy Smith, Sean Gillam haveshown some leadership. It has been a roughyear on them, but they stuck with it andthey’ve given it their all, day in and dayout.”

Egeland definitely wants to finish the sea-son strong, and wants the fans to know thatthe team is still playing hard.

“Our goal is to win every game, and fin-ish hard here,” said Egeland. “Especially thelast two games we want to finish well infront of our home crowd, and give themsomething positive to take into the summer,and a reason for them to spend their hardearned money to buy season tickets andcome back in the fall.”

The players, like Egeland, are hoping tofinish the 2004-2005 season strong. KillerBees forward Joe Guenther is focused on fin-ishing well in the final three games.

“We’re looking at it like we are in theplayoffs,” said Guenther. “We want to finishthe season hard. We want to play for ourpride, so that’s what we are looking to dohere.”

RGV blueliner Darcy Smith also feelsthat the team is playing with a sense ofurgency as they head into the final weekendof the season.

“I think we are doing well. Our workethic is more consistent now. We are playingmore consistently,” said the Killer Beesdefenseman. “We’re playing for pride. Comedown to the wire, I am pretty sure there isgoing to be three teams playing for pride,and playing for jobs next year. I guess wewill see what happens.”

Sports Clipboard . . . . . . . . 13

NCAA Tourney . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Racewalking . . . . . . . . .15SPORTSThe Bees set to conclude one rocky seasonBy JOEY HINOJOSAThe Pan American

The UTPA track team finally comeshome.

Despite the fact that thehomecoming will be short-lived, thisyear’s Angela Proctor Invitationalfinds UTPA squaring off against TexasA&M-Kingsville and Angelo State ina full day of multi-event competitionSaturday.

The annual outdoor competition isthe home competition of the year, andthe second outdoor meet of the season.The Proctor invite follows a two-dayheptathlon event at Angelo State thatends today.

“I think we do really well at home,”said track coach Ricky Vaughn. “Notravel, players sleep in their own bedsand they compete in front of theirfriends and peers.”

The Broncs enter the meet riding onthe recent successes of senior All-American throwers Isaac Ybarra and

Amy Moses, who placed seventh andsixth, respectively, at the IndoorNationals last weekend.

Vaughn said there is an element ofexcitement on the team after Ybarraand Moses’ performance, along withthe team’s success at the BorderOlympics in Laredo earlier this month.

Despite wretched weather the LadyBroncs’ Adriana Herbert and DeonMarquis finished with a time of 12.83,good for the one and two spots in the100-meter race. Herbert would alsofinish second in the 200-meters with a26.72 run.

In Laredo, senior distance runnerWestly Keating placed first in the1,500-meter race with a time of3:51.61.

Vaughn said that the team’sdistance race is one of the Broncs’strongest events along with throwersYbarra and J.C. Crosby.

“We’re really coming along insprints and hurdles,” Vaughn added.

For this weekend’s competition,Vaughn said that both visiting schoolshave good teams but singled outAngelo State for having a “well-balanced team,” that is successful inmany events.

At last year’s Angela Proctorinvite, three UTPA athletes qualifiedfor the NCAA RegionalChampionships.

Rashaad Ben tied his previously setschool record of 14.17 in the 100-meter hurdles, Ybarra recorded aphenomenal 193-9 in the hammerthrow, and Moses threw the hammer184-6, breaking her previously setrecord by 15 feet.

Last year the men’s team placedfirst in six events, placed five playersin the history books, broke a schoolrecord and tied another.

The women’s team placed first infour events, added seven players to theschool’s top 10, and set two schoolrecords.

Daylong UTPA meet Saturday By JOEY GOMEZThe Pan American

UTPA Athletic Department

WHOOSH - Record-breaking weight thrower Amy Mosesgets set to let one fly in a recent workout.

Joey Hinojosa/The Pan American

WARM UP - Killer Bee goaltender Jeff Levy warms up before Friday's game at the DodgeArena. Levy stopped all 25 of the Austin IceBats' shots last Friday helping RGV claim a4-0 victory. It is the tenth shutout in Levy's career.

march 17, 2005

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