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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CAKE: SEE STORY PAGE 6
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Marcti4,1997
Volume 19 Number 21
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Jennifer Siu/The Paisano
Women's history month kicked off this weekend and included the international women's day march and rally. The march, which was held Sunday, March 2, started at Hemisfair park under the tower and ended at Milam park, where the rally was held. UTSA has dedicated this week as Women's history week. For a full calender of events, see page 4.
Workers unionizing
Maintenance workers seek better wages, status
By Stephanie Dubick
StoffWriter
A growing number of UTSA main- lenance workers are joining the Na¬ tional Association of Government Employees (NAGE), a national labor union, in hopes of increasing their sala¬ ries and improving their status.
UTSA's NAGE members are orga¬ nizing to move the union on campus; however, UTSA employees are currently prohibited from joining on-campus labor unions. There are no regulations against joining off-campus labor unions.
Texas is traditionally considered a non-union state, which means that while union organiza¬ tions are legal, they are not common.
According to one physical plant employee, who requested his name be withheld, the labor union mostly consists of physical plant employees.
A portion of UTSA personnel have been members of the NAGE for ap¬ proximately three years and currently membership totals 65, according to the same source.
According to David Gabler, the university's external communications
director, there are 176 physical plant employees at UTSA.
UTSA referred all inquiries to Gabler, who said no employees have spoken to Jose Gerardo (Lalo) Gomez, Associate Vice President for Facility Operations and Planning about this matter.
Although the union fights for all aspects of equalized labor, the main
Tara Scottl/The Paisano UTSA employees hope the bargaining power of a union will bring about higher wages and improve status.
concern is pay. "We make about $5.50 per hour. They have taken our cost-of- living raise away. Now, the only way to get a pay raise is by work merit. New people are making the same amount of money as those who have been here 15 years," said the attendant. "There is no opportunity to step up,"
he said.
According to this employee, the university has not favored this union membership. "We are encouraged and advised to get out of the union. The university is against it because the power plant wants to fun things their way. They are afraid of power," he said. The union has helped a few employees on campus. "Pay raise is the main thing. The union is a big insur¬ ance policy for us. It is job security. It is like climbing the cor¬ porate ladder. If the univcrsity falsely ter¬ minates you, the union fights and in most cases, wins. I have also seen favoritism with supervisors and employees. They deny favoritism, but it exists," he said.
He explained the union has helped the maintenance workers secure a day off dur¬ ing this semester's 'We have never had a day off during the break," he said.
The employee said that his griev¬ ance was not with the work itself, but wilh the manner in which certain job related issues were handled. "I love my job. I like the hours 1 work," he said.
spring break.
UTSAPD to implement rape defense course
By Jason Moore
Contributing Writer
This semester UTSA police depart¬ ment will offer a self-defense course. Rape Aggression Defense systems (R.A.D.), for female UTSA students and staff.
R.A.D., will provide self-defense instniction for any female' UTSA stu¬ dents or staff member who chooses to take the course. They can then con¬ tinually attend this course to review techniques and leam new self-defense tactics.
The R. A.D. course was designed hy officer Lawrence N. Nadeau, of the Virginia State Police, to create a bridge between crime prevention lectures and basic self-defense martial arts. Nadeau, executive director for R. A.D. Systems, said that the main objective for this course would be, "To develop and en¬ hance the options of self-defense so they may become more viable consid¬ erations to women who are attacked." Nadeau had his mother perform the
moves taught in R.A.D. to determine which ones to use.
R.A.D. will start at UTSA with a pilot course this semester for faculty. This program will then be available for students in the summer.
UTSA R.A.D. coordinator. Sergeant Virginia Paccione, and police officers Trey Delgado and Elizabeth Varnado are the instructors for the course. Paccione states, "This course deals with very natural, easy moves of self-de¬ fense."
TTie only fee involved for the class is a one-time purchase of the R.A.D. manual, which will costapproximately $10-$15. Students and faculty will be allowed to attend any future courses free of charge.
Paccione describes the moves she learned in R.A.D. as useful enough to help defend against most attackers. "My partners are a 300 pound ex-pro¬ fessional football player and a retired navy seal and I was able, with the instruction of that class, to get out of any moves or holds."
Roadrunners hatch national champion
Jennifer Siu/The Paisano The South Texas Blood and Tissue Center was able to collect 75 usable units of blood Thursday in a drive co-sponsored by the UTSA Ambassadors and Student Health Services.
UTSA rallies behind ailing ambassador
Urban universities help
city centers
By Kim A. Lawton
American News Service
William Breault has lived nearly all his life in what he calls thc "hard- nosed" neighborhood in the shadow of Clark Univcrsity in Worcester, Mass.
But over Ihe last 15 to 20 years, Breault says he has watched the com¬ munity of his youth disintegrate as urban bl ight moved into New England' s second largest city. Businesses clo.sed, row hou.ses were abandoned and crime surged.
' A few blocks away at the well-kept Clark campus, uni versity officials were also watching the same trends with alarm. Security and public safety were growing university concems, as was the threat of declining enrollment and the increasing reluctance of out-of- town parents to leave their children at
Clark.
There had long been a certain amount of suspicion between Clark and its neighbors, but finally, said Breault, people realized "it was in every body's interest" to work together.
And so in 1995, the uni versity joined with community organizations in an ambitious project that has already be¬ gun to transform the neighborhood and bridge the divide between campus and commtinity.
In the past, urban colleges such as Clark have come under sharp criticism for allegedly keeping lo their ivory towers, or'venturing out and making matters worse in the community. While those conflicts remain, more universi¬ ties are seeing their fates linked to those of their surrounding communi-
Contlnued on page 3
By Gary Wright
Photography Editor
Several members ofthe UTSA com¬ munity came out Thursday, Feb. 27, in support of one of its own. The UTSA Ambassadors, in conjunction with the UTSA Student Health Services, spon¬ sored a blood drive to raise donations for Jason Block, ajunior clinical lab sciences major and a UTSA Ambassa¬ dor, who suffers from hepatitis A.
Block was diagnosed on Jan. 2 in his home town of Glenrose, Texas, admitted to Methodist Hospital on Feb. 9, and has since been moved to the Prinkle transplant ward at University Hospital.
Dr. Patricia Graham, the ambassa¬ dors faculty advisor, informed the group, including its student coordina¬ tor Sunny Tai, of Block's condition on Monday, Feb. 24. The next day, the gtoup went to work organizing the blood drive. According to Tai, Gra¬ ham, along with Pat Berlet, coordina¬ tor of student health at UTSA student health services, arranged for a mobile unit from the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center to be on campus that Thursday to receive donations. The Ambassadors printed posters and set up tables in the HSS and JPL on Wednesday and Thursday to create
awareness and encpurage students to participate in the blood drive.
"The (UTSA) community really came together." Tai said. "It (the blood drive) was supposed to run from 8:00a.m. to 12 p.m., but because ofthe overwhelming respon.se wc had to ex¬ tend it to 4:30 p.m." In the end, 75 units of usable blood were collected.
For every unit of O positive blood that the tissue center receives, the cost of that unit is stricken from Block's medical costs.
"The fact that people came out in support of me, it made me cry," said Block. "Most importantly, people came out to donate the gift of life."
Block contracted hepatitis A while on a trip to Piedras Negras, Mexico, in mid November of 1996. The disease is a viral infection that causes the liver to become tender and swollen and biliru¬ bin to accumulate in the bloodstream. When red blood cells die, hemogioben is relea.sed, converted to biliruben in the blood stream and broken down by the liver.
Since Block's liver is not function¬ ing properly, the biliruben is not being broken down which causes the jaun¬ dice (yellowness of the skin) that is associated with the hepatitis A vims.
Continued on page 3
By Matt Golightly
Sports Editor
As if Tameka Roberts didn't have enough accolades already, she battled a cold while knocking almost a full second off her previous indoor best in the 200 meters to became UTSA's first national track and field champion Sat¬ urday in Atlanta, Georgia.
"I had a really bad headache and was congested," said Roberts. "I even felt a little weak all day long. I just thank God I did well becau.se I was prepared for anything."
Roberts finished the race in a lime 23.27 and beat out second place fin¬ isher Michele Brown of Kentucky by .07 seconds and third place finisher Chryste Gaines ofthe Nike Track Club by .13 seconds. The top two finishers qualified for the World Championships in Paris; however, Roberts will com¬ pete in the NCAA Indoor Champion¬ ships in Indianapolis this weekend in¬ stead.
"I talked to coach (Max) Dillon, and he thought the best thing for me to do at this point in my career would be to go to Nationals so that's were I'm going," explained Roberts. "Mavbe
somewhere down the road I'll be fortu¬ nate enough to qualify for the World Championships again."
This is not the first time Rob¬ erts has caused a stir. As the 1996 .SLC "Outstanding Track Athlete" in both indoor and outdoor competition, she was the only athlete to compete in three separate events at the 1996 United States Olympic Trials. TTiis two-time AII-American took part in the l(K)m. 200m, and the long jump in Atlanta last year. However. Roberts says thing:, have been rather mellow since Saturday's unexpected distinction.
"It's been kind of low key since Saturday's race. I did a phone inter¬ view withthe Express News and talked to a guy from the Corpus Chrisii paper and that's about it." recalls Roberts. "I kind of like it that way. I'm a litlle shy."
A kinesiology major in her junior year, Roberts transferred here from Stephen F; .Austin for the 1995 track season and. since that time, has helped UTSA to consecutive second place fin¬ ishes at Ihc SLC Championships in 1996 and 1997. TTiis season she corn- Continued on paqe 8
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Tamaka RolMrts made UTSA hiatory on Saturday, Mar. 1
Inside this issue...
Features:    Women's
History Week calendar, pg. 4
A&E:            'Donnie Brasco' review, pg. 7
1   Sports:        Lad/Runners '                         Stan post¬ season play Mar. 5, pg.9
Photo Poll: What do you think of the new business buikling?