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Volume 8, No. 4 March 5, 1987
2nd rate future for UTSA
Newsline
Peruvian students and police clasli
LIMA — One week after poUce carried out extensive antiterrorist operations at three Peruvian universities, student unrest shows no sign of dissipating.
Students plan another major demonstration for tomorrow, although tliree demonstrations staged last week involving some 8,000 people provoked tear gas and the arrests of dozens of students.
A major focus of the protests is the continued detention pf some 273 students arrested after 4,000 police officers conducted a sur¬ prise early morning raid on the three schools Feb. 13. The operation was so secret that not even university officials were advised. The universities are known for student populations that identify with Peru's leftist parties.
Some 793 students were rounded up while police searched for guns, explosives, and "subversive" materials leaving extensive damage to university facilities.
Chinese student exercises freedom with U.S. press
NEW YORK - When Chinese student Che Shaoli called a news conference in New York to press for the release of her husband from a Shanghai jail, she was exercising a new-found freedom.
Her husband, Yang Wei, also educated in the United States, was one of the demonstrators arrested in China s recent crackdown on political dissent. Ms. Che demanded that Chinese authorities either prove Mr. Yang's alleged "counterrevolutionary crime" and grant liim a fair trial or free him.
Chinese authorities disHked the convictions Yang took back last year, along wjth his master's degree in molecular biology from the University of Arizona. After taking part in the Shanghai student demonstrations in December, Yang was arrested by public security officers Jan. 11. So Che, who left China for the first time last November, decided to agitate on ber husband's behalf.
Soviet students riot
KAZAKHSTAN — Riots in the Soviet state of KazakhsUn, on Dec. 17-18, involved nearly 3000 students, the Soviet news agency TASS said in a recent report. The student uprising began after the ethnic party leader was replaced by a Russian outsider. The Soviets blamed the riots on a false sence of national pride inspired by Din- mukhamed Kunaev, the ousted Kazakh leader. The Soviets claim the students, armed with rocks and sticks, burned 17 cars, and in the ensuing chaos caused 2 deaths and 200 injuries.
by Monty Sullivan Staff Writer
The select legislative commit¬ tee on higher education recom¬ mended downgrading UTSA to a second rate university and upgrading- other universities to first class institutions in every other region of the state except
South Texas. The committee issued a report containing a sec¬ tion entitled "Role and Mission Statements." According to the report, each state university will have a mission or function by which it will fulfill the .state's educational priorities.
Originally, only two major in¬ stitutions were to be declared first rate institutions: the Univer¬ sity of Texas at Austin (Central
Texas), and Texas A&M Universi¬ ty at Galveston (East Texas), and Texas Tech University (West Texas).
Each institution has been granted special professional degree programs. The mission statements for each of these say that the "emphasis will be on ex¬ cellence in teaching and research. Research endeavors... shall be conducted with emphasis on maintaining a nationally and in¬ ternationally recognized research institution.
UTSA has been granted an ar- ra.v of baccalaureate and master's degree    programs    with    the primary emphasis on excellence in teaching. The statement con¬ cludes  that,  "research with the academic strength of the institu¬ tion and addressing the economic needs    of    the    San    Antonio metropolitan region and the area it   serves   is   encouraged."   The statement also recommends that | UTSA have "doctoral programs g meeting unique needs of the area | served hy  the institution which | are        not        unnecessarily 5 duplicative."
Amnesty International group defends International humanity
Skip Eno, director of UTSA's speech team
Lloyd WaJsh PAISANO
Dr. Bonnie Lyons, associate professor of Knglish at UTSA
"If UT Austin has it and Texas
A&M has it, UTSA is not going
to    have    it,"    declares    Skip
Eno,   the   UTSA   debate   team
coach.   Eno   adds,   "Theres   no
question in terms of tone that this
is relegated to a secondarv  posi¬ tion."    Dr.    Bonnie    Lyons.
associate professor of the ICnglish
division, believes, "If we accept
this    then    that's    what    well become second rate. "
Dr. Lyons explains that the mission statement contradicts UTSA's original goal statement of 1969 which signified intcniions of UTSA becoming a first class university. Lyons states. "It makes us aim at mediocrity. ' She adds. "This statement it.self will make the academic strength of the institution limited."
Most agree that if UT at Austin and Texas A&M were the only- two to   receive   a   first    class
status that the mission statement would have recei\-etl no opposi¬ tion. The select committee added the other four universities to the first class list after witnessing some strong lobbying by those universities. Why should they be gi\en more fjlamour." ask.s Dr. Lyons.
UTSA may still have a chance of lieconiing a first rate institu¬ tion representing the South Texas region. Skip Kno believes "if a hu):i- slink ar. se. something certainly woukl happen." Eno speculates that "time will disprove this." He adds. "1 don't think this thing is particularly worth the paper it is written on." Most do helieve that In lobbying or protesting. U I'S.A can gain a first class status. Dr. Lyons believes "we re in danger and should scream real hard."
by Alexandra N. Bemdt Contributing Writer
In the past few weeks the world has watched Soviet dissident Josif Begun's struggle for freedom in the U.S.S.R. "Begun was freed because of media pressure, not out of kindness or sympathy of Soviet
government," says Devon Woodard, president of the newest organization at U.T.S.A. The name is Amnesty International Campus Group (A.I.C.G.) and is formally recognized by Amnesty International. "When a govern¬ ment is aware that the public is concerned with their repressive action, they have a tendency to ease their abuses," Woodard con¬ tinued."
"The A.I.C.G. is strictly non¬ partisan and works for the release of prisoners of conscience. "That is to say we represent men and women detained for their beliefs, color, ethnic origin, sex, religion or language, provided they have neither used nor advocated violence," explained Woodard. One of the group's goals is 'o fur¬ ther campus awareness of human rights violations that occur in foreign countries.
The A.I.C.G. receives frequent bulletins from Amnesty Interna¬ tional, in which specific cases of such violations of individuals are explained in detail. From there, the group begins a letter writing campaign to protest the illegal detention of these people. The let¬ ters are directed to the officials of the aforesaid government in an attempt to gain a trial or perhaps even freedom f3r the prisoner. The letters continue until the group is notified of the prisoner's
Teachers condemn Contra attacks
by Aaron Adams Editor
Amnesty International campus group promotes humane treatment.
trial or release.
The A.I.C.G. adheres to the United Nations declaration of human rights. They believe that every human being has a right to life, regardlet i of that person's crimes, alleged or otherwise. The organization vehemently opposes the death penalty. "We believe it to be an assault of human dignity and a violation of human rights," stated Woodard.
Woodard,    a    second   year
political science student at U.T.S.A. said that his desire to create the A.I.C.G. stemmed from his "firm belief in human rights." Woodard has spent much of his life living abroad, attending schools in both Italy and West Germany. When asked about the general student response to the A.I.C.G., Woodard said that he was pleased with the interest in- membership expressed by his fellow students.
UTSA played host to two members of the literacy move¬ ment in Nicaragua on Monday, March 2.
Nestor Munoz Lopez and Noelia Caceres Escoto were the two representatives of the Nicaraguan Teacher's Tour who visited UTSA. Both of these peo¬ ple represented a side of Nicaraguan life which is not nor¬ mally represented. Both are campesinos, members of the rural community in Nicaragua.
This presentation, sponsored hy MEChA, was intended to br¬ ing to light the efforts of the Nicaraguan people in reducing the rate of illiteracy in their coun¬ try.
The two representatives to UT¬ SA were attempting to present the struggle of the non-urban areas in the midst of a conflictive situation. They stressed that their perspective is not a political one.
According to Lopez and Escoto, in the eight years since the take over of the Samoza government by the Sandinistas, the illiteracy rate has been reduced from 52% to approximately 13% Currently, nearly one million people, almost one-third of the population, are enrolled in the educ-ation pro¬ gram.
Much of the presentation was devoted    to   the    personal   ex¬
periences of the two repirsiMi- tatives. Both work in small villages in the mountainous regions of Nicaragua. Since these villages are located in rural areas to the north of the country, their inhabitants have suffered greatly from Contra attacks. The representatives reported that these attacks are not limited to Nicaraguan nations. The attack on a Swiss educational outpost was highlighted.
Both speakers re.narked upon their astonishment at how- little
the United States citizenry knows concerning the current situation in Nicaragua. They had assumed that this situation was generally known and realized that most of the problem steins from how little the population of the U.S. is being told.
Lopez closed his remarks with his wish that the international community might conic to a mutual understanding with Nicaragua, especially the United States.
Neater Munoz Lopez, a teacher in Nicaragua.
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