Accent Issue 5

Teodora Erbes • Staff Photographer

All About the Art Show, pg. 5

April 20, 2009

www.theAccent.org

Volume 2, Issue 5

Austin police out for blood ACC phlebotomy certificates for cops a possibility Trevor Goodchild

Staff Writer

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo backs Senate Bill 261, sponsored by Senator Bob Deuell, which amends laws to allow drawing blood from DWI suspects who refuse a breath test. As of March 31 the bill is in the senate Criminal Justice Subcommittee and has not yet reached the House. If Acevedo’s plan to increase blood draws succeeds, ACC might be used to train Austin police officers to be phlebotomists. The City Counsel and the Austin Police Department are debating the issue right now. “The program would require us to go to Austin Community College; it is one of two phlebotomy training programs that are nationally accredited in the country,” Acevedo said. The phlebotomy program at ACC is a onesemester, stand-alone program. The program can be taken without having a higher degree plan. Eileen Klein, Dean of the Medical Technology and Phlebotomy department and Department chair Terry Kotrla, are aware of the police chief ’s plan to train officers at ACC. “We [department chair and Dean] have been in constant communication about this... this is not set in cement yet. Until they [APD and City Council] have their ducks in a row we’re not going to go for it,” Kotrla said. There are many ducks that need to be in many rows, as Austin’s City Council cannot rewrite Texas law. According to Texas Transportation Code 724.013, taking blood samples from DWI suspects who refuse to have it taken is illegal unless the criteria of death or serious bodily injury have been met. Some of these issues were discussed at a public forum hosted by Texans for Accountable Government (TAG). On March 30 at City Hall a forum was held with a panel comprised of Acevedo, Council Member Mike Martinez, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the TAG Executive Director John Bush.

The moderator, David Kobierowski, presented the Supreme Court case Beeman v. Texas as a possible way around 724.103 to the panel and audience of Austinites. Knowel Beeman appealed the drawing of his blood because his arrest didn’t meet the Texas transportation code’s criteria, but lost. In an aside, Francis Montenegro, a criminal defense lawyer who attended the event called this “judicial activism,” and stated it does not rewrite the Texas Law that is already in place. Bush spoke in detail in the panel about the rights guaranteed by the Ninth Amendment and the right to privacy he felt would not be protected with blood draws. “I know if we continue this practice of forcible blood withdrawals, the city of Austin residents are not going to lay down without putting up a fight,” said Bush. The chief of police had another viewpoint about the drawing of blood authorized under the implied consent laws. “I don’t know how to break it to people, but when you break the law you lose some rights,” Acevedo said. He also justified wanting to train police officers at ACC because hospitals were refusing blood draws from DWI suspects due to liability concerns. Even the jail nurse at the Austin Police Department will not draw blood for the APD to prove if someone is over the legal limit. “When you look at the economic toll, the emotional toll and the toll on our communities...I think personally it’s kind of irresponsible [for nurses to refuse],” Acevedo said. Brackenridge, Seton, and St. David’s hospital were all mentioned at the forum, and identified for refusing to do blood draws when DWI suspects were brought in by APD. Dr. Steven Berkowitz, the Chief Medical Officer of St. David’s hospital’s five locations in Austin shared his perspective on Acevedo’s proposed policy. “A forensic lab has certain policies and procedures...they do a chain of custody.

Everyone signs off on legal documents. Let’s say you were accused of a DWI. How do you know that blood was actually yours? Because we don’t have forensic capabilities, we cannot say in a court of law that that was your blood,” Berkowitz said. The federal grant to train officers at ACC would come from National Highway and Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA). Despite this, hospitals aren’t alone in their scrutiny of this policy. Some of the City Counsel members criticize its price tag. “It is going to cost millions upon millions of dollars to collect and store the DNA and maintain it in a secure process. There are too many questions and until those questions get answered I don’t think the city of Austin should be engaged in taking blood samples and storing them,” Martinez said. Acevedo cited that Arizona has been doing blood testing since the 1990s and claimed

Jana Lelek • Layout Editor

ȩȩ COLLEGE continued on page 3

Interest in teaching drives ACC nursing Administration opposes six drop rule have to drop a class to free community colleges from student back to school after five years Officials ask Leg. to they take care of those responsibili- the burden of the six drop rule. exempt community college students

Jamie Carpenter Campus Editor

Lisa Heap dropped out of school her senior year as a biochemistry major. Five years passed before she returned to college. Since summer of 2007, Heap has worked on her associate degree in nursing at ACC. While attending ACC, she has decided to become a nursing teacher. She credits Professor of Nursing Helen Harkreader as helping to inspire her. “I would like to become a nursing professor and she [Harkreader] formed a lot of my ideas of what a good nursing professor looks like. Nurses can be very particular. There is a very fine line between being too strict and being too lenient. They have to be strict with us because we could hurt someone, but they have to be lenient because we are beginners and we are trying to learn.” ȩȩ nurse continued on page 5

Chris Smith Staff Writer

Kevin Forester • Staff Photographer

Nursing Student Lisa Heap is likely to be found in the learning lab early mornings at the South Austin Campus helping students in need of health science tutoring. Heap recently won the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation’s National Nursing Scholarship.

The ACC administration is asking state representatives to back legislation that would remove community colleges from the six drop rule. “We feel that our students at community college are not just students who pay their full tuition, take a full load and then all the other things they do in their life is study,” said Linda Young, special assistant to the president for External Affairs at ACC. “They are people who work, some of them work two jobs, some of them come part time, some of them take a full load and work full time.” “Students at ACC many times have responsibilities outside of the classroom, like family obligations and jobs, and there will be times when

ties,” said Young. The current policy states that students may only drop six courses throughout their entire undergraduate career. There are some exceptions to the policy. For example if there is a death in the family or there is a change in work schedule, a student can drop a course without it counting against them if they provide the proper documentation. “The key is for students to be successful in their courses, and that is what we really concentrate on,” said Kathleen Christensen, Vice President of Student Support and Success Systems. She feels the six drop rule is unnecessary because ACC already monitors the course completion rate of all credit students and has a policy in place for dealing with students who drop too many courses. Representative Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, has submitted a Bill, HB 3518, that would

“I had an uncomfortable feeling,” said Alonzo of the six drop rule when it was first made part of Texas Education policy. So when ACC’s office of External Affairs asked if he could write a Bill dealing with the issue, Alonzo gladly complied. “For junior college folks it’s kind of a different situation,” says Alonzo. “I think we need to look at helping students out.” The Bill is in the House Higher Education committee, and Alonzo thinks it has a chance at being passed but encourages students who have a strong opinion on the six drop rule to e-mail him and let him know how they feel. “It is important if there are students who feel very strongly about it to let me know,” said Alonzo. “I think it’s right, and that’s why I introduced the legislation, but the more support that you have for it the better.”

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edress of R Grievances

Accent • April 20, 2009

Forum w w w.the Accent.org

No handguns on college campus

Graduation

Jamie Carpenter Campus Editor

Soon it will be graduation time here at ACC. There is actually a light at the end of the whirlwind tunnel of exams, homework and long lectures. Come the end of the semester, many students will possess an associate degree or a technical certificate. Yet, some will choose not to walk across the stage at the Frank Erwin Center come May 14. According to ACC’s Newsroom Blog Archive, there were 1,800 graduates in the class of 2008. Only about 370 students attended the ceremony. Really? Only about 370 out of 1,800? Granted, some people probably couldn’t attend because of personal or work conflicts with the day and time. However, I am sure that does not explain why all of the over 1,300 missing graduates did not walk the stage. Personally, I am more inclined to believe that most people did not walk the stage for two reasons: 1.) a lack of interest in spending an hour or so sitting down and watching a lot of people they don’t know walk across the stage or 2.) the belief that an associate / technical degree / certificate is not worth walking across the stage for. I strongly and sincerely encourage people to walk across the stage. Yes, you may be bored while you are sitting there waiting for your turn to go up, but almost everything that is fun, interesting or of

importance in life is counteracted with the boredom of waiting. You want to ride The Rattler at Fiesta Texas? Have fun waiting in line. Need to get your driver license? Have fun sitting for hours waiting for your number to be called. Your wife, sister, or aunt is going into labor? Have fun in the waiting room for countless hours. The point is, if you’re not going to your graduation ceremony because you think you will be bored or have better things to do with your time, think again. Aside from getting a diploma, the act of walking across the stage is a tangible way to show your achievement. It is similar to a class ring or the diploma you hang on the wall. For those who think getting an associate degree, or a technical degree or certificate is not worth walking the stage, think again. Many, many students have struggled with higher education. They have started, quit, restarted, or had to go part-time because of financial situations. They are raising children, working full-time, and basically suffer a lot of real life problems that prevent getting an associate degree, being merely two years of their lives. You are successful because of what you have gone through and how you came out of your situation. You deserve and are worth the recognition of having your name called out just as much as anyone getting any other degree. So, walk across the stage and be proud.

Slave to Ticketmaster

Devon Tincknell Staff Writer

Dear Ticketmaster: Hey Ticketmaster, how’s it going? Pretty good, I bet. It’s almost summer and music fans across the country are getting ready to shell out big bucks for outdoor festivals, U2 concerts, and, of course, all the big reunion tours. Can you believe Phish is finally back together after five longs years? I know! But despite being in the midst of a rapidly worsening economic depression, concert tickets are more expensive than ever. The average price for nose bleed seats to see a big name artist is $65, double what it was ten years ago. You guys must be stoked. Unfortunately, a lot of fans aren’t as excited about all of this as you are. Once upon a time, attending a big rock concert was a rite of passage for America’s youth. It wasn’t just the show that was special, it was the whole ordeal. People saved up their minimum wage salary for weeks to buy tickets, camped out in front of the box office to get primo seats, and then handfuls of young entrepreneurs bought more tickets than they needed so they could make a little cash scalping. It wasn’t legal, but it allowed fans to get into those sold out shows for a few extra dollars. Now that ritual is gone. Fans are forced to rapidly click reload on your website, then watch with horror when “SOLD OUT” pops up a mere fifteen minutes after the tickets went on sale. I guess it was inevitable. You saw those sleazy denim clad burnouts hawking tickets in the parking lot and said, “Hey, we should be making that money,” and now you are, in the most suspicious way possible. You’re the number one ticket retailer in America,

but apparently that wasn’t good enough, so last year you bought Ticketsnow. com. Ticketsnow is what is known as a secondary ticketer, formerly called a scalper. They let folks with tickets for popular concerts and events auction them off for several times the price, then charge additional service fees that can exceed $100 per ticket. It might seem like there would be a conflict of interest when the legit ticket retailer is in cahoots with the black market, but you’ve promised repeatedly that there is no funny business going on. Which makes it so weird that when Bruce Springsteen fans tried to buy tickets from Ticketmaster last February, they were rerouted to the Ticketsnow site, despite the fact that unscalped tickets were still available. Those shenanigans not only irked the fans, but the Boss himself, who wrote a letter on his website that said the “abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us... furious.” You swore up and down that it was a computer glitch, but then did the same thing with Leonard Cohen tickets in Canada. And now Canada is pissed! You currently face three class-action lawsuits north of the border. Your legal woes don’t end there. For some reason, a US Senate Anti-trust committee is a little suspicious of your proposed merger with LiveNation, the third largest ticket retailer. If this merger goes through, you will own three out of four of the top ticket sellers. That looks an awful lot like a monopoly. So what are us fans to do? Prince fought back and refused to allow his tickets to be sold far in advance, cutting down on the time in which tickets

Our View

Karen Kuhn • Staff Artist

Staff Editorial

Sarah Neve Editor-in-Chief • David Rodriguez Assistant Editor Jamie Carpenter Campus Editor • Alma Hernandez Photo/Web Editor Jana Lelek Layout Editor • Chris Scott Layout Intern

Proposed gun legislation is irresponsible, unsafe A Bill written by Rep. Joe Driver that would allow concealed handguns on college campuses just passed out of the House Committee on Public Safety with a vote of five to three on April 15. This is a dangerous plan that will lead to a disrupted and unsafe learning environment. The entire Bill is based on false assumptions, and a complete disregard for the past. The idea behind this Bill is that, if some kind of armed attack on the school, those brave few who bring their handgun to class can protect themselves and others until the police arrive. For every heroic scenario in which a student or professor wards off a deranged gunman and saves the day, there is a terrifying counter scenario in which someone who shouldn’t have a gun is allowed to walk freely around campus. In the event that someone attacks a campus, panic stricken, adrenaline filled students and professors are not the people who should be running around with guns. Campus security and the Austin Police Department are. Students should not be forced to sit in a classroom with armed peers and teachers. It would be unnerving and incredibly distracting. The lawmakers supporting can be resold for exorbitant prices. Another idea being bandied about is to get rid of paper tickets all together. Since all of these transactions are taking place online, why not have fans just line up at will call the day of the show and pick up their tickets with a credit card and a photo ID? It would cut the scalpers right out of the equation. Getting rid of paper tickets would also mean we could get rid of some of these ridiculous fees. When I bought Morrissey tickets

this bill argue that because only citizens over 21 years old can get a license, very few students would have guns. This is based on the archaic notion that most college students are 18-20 years old. In fall of 2008 just over 54 percent of the students at ACC were older than 22. This Bill completely ignores past tragedies. There is no reason to believe that people who have a handgun license are all actually the kind of people one would want carrying a gun around campus. In 1966, right here in Austin, Charles Whitman a University of Texas graduate shot and killed 14 people using an arsenal of weapons, all of which were legally acquired. He was an ex-Marine, and has been described as an ‘all American guy’ by one of the campus psychiatrists he saw. A decade ago this week, most of us remember waking up to see that 12 people were brutally slaughtered at Columbine High School, some of the guns purchased and given to the two shooters were bought at a gun show, without a background check. It’s called the gun show loophole. Two years and one week ago, in the deadliest peacetime shooting on or off of a school campus in United States history,

last week I was charged $15 for shipping, despite the fact that I received my tickets by e-mail. Where are you coming up with these fees anyway? Convenience fees are over $10 per ticket. After you consider the scalpers, quick sell outs, jacked up prices, computer glitches, and class-action law suits, it sounds pretty inconvenient to me. Sincerely, Devon Tincknell

32 people were gun downed by a senior English major at Virginia Tech who bought both his weapons legally and was described by the owner of the gun shop as a ‘clean cut looking college student.’ Incidents like these are actually being used by lawmakers as examples of why guns should be allowed on campus, but the families of those involved in these massacres are often anti-gun. As recently as April 6, Tom Mauser, the father of a boy killed at Columbine High School, spoke to legislators in Maine about the importance of eliminating loopholes that allow some buyers to forgo background checks and waiting periods before being given a gun. Families of Virginia Tech victims worked with NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg on a TV ad released on the two year anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre last week. The ad also came out against laws that make obtaining guns too easy. Theses people have survived first-hand the unimaginable tragedy of a school shooting. No one should use what happened to these families as an excuse to pass shamefully unsafe laws.

C o r r e ctio n s The Asian Spring Festival is April 23, 2009, not April 16, 2008, as previously reported, or April 16, 2009, as it was originally planned. In last issue’s story ‘ACC proposes broad prohibition of smoking’ it was reported that most (ACC) staff were in favor of designated smoking areas. This was based on the information that was currently available from the Classified Employee Association. After the story printed, the Classified Employee Association submitted a much more thorough tabulation of results that found more employees in favor of not allowing smoking on campus. Those results were not available at the time the article was written. In last issues story ‘House Bill, local project fights death penalty’ it was reported that HB 682 was the first Bill on this topic to reach the criminal jurisprudence committee in 30 years. This is incorrect. HB 304 was filed by Rep. Dutton in 2003, and was heard by the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.

ADVERTISING 512.223.3166

EDITORIAL 512.223.3171

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512.223.3086

OFFICE OF STUDENT LIFE RGC, 1212 Rio Grande St., Room 101.1 Austin TX 78701

Editor-in-Chief.........................................................................................................Sarah Neve Assistant Editor............................................................................................... David Rodriguez Photo/Web Editor...........................................................................................Alma Hernandez Layout Editor..............................................................................................................Jana Lelek Layout Intern............................................................................................................Chris Scott Campus Editor................................................................................................. Jamie Carpenter Copy Editor............................................................................................... Julie Gorkowski-Day Accent Adviser............................................................................................. Matthew Connolly Accent Coordinator................................................................................................Lori Blewett Student Life Director......................................................................................... Cheryl Richard Writers Sarah Vasquez, Shawn Hinojosa, Adam Oliphant, Karissa Rodriguez, Lindsay Preston, Devon Tincknell, Christopher Smith, Trevor Goodchild Photographers Teodora Erbes, Kevin Forester, Hanlly Sam, Sarah Vasquez, Shawn Hinojsa Artists Karen Kuhn, Anny Ibarra ACC President Dr. Steve Kinslow Board of Trustees Ms. Nan McRaven– Chair; Ms. Veronica Rivera—Vice Chair; Dr. James McGuffee—Secretary, Dr. Barbara P. Mink, Allen Kaplan, Mr. Jeffrey Richard, John-Michael Cortez, Tim Mahoney, Raul Alvarez

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All rights reserved. All content is the property of Accent and may not be reproduced, published or retransmitted in any form without written permission from the Office of Student Life. Accent is the student newspaper of Austin Community College and is printed by the Texas Student Publications. Accent is published biweekly. ACC students may submit articles for publication in Accent to RGC’s Office of Student Life Room 101.1; e-mail articles to [email protected] or fax submissions to 223‑3086. ACC does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, political affiliation or disability. Accent offers ACC’s faculty, staff, students and surrounding community a complete source of information about student life. Accent welcomes your input, as well as information about errors. If you notice any information that warrants a correction please e-mail accent@austincc. edu. Individual views, columns, letters to the editor and other opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Accent.

News

April 20, 2009 • Accent

To Be Brief El Centro informs Riverside

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w w w.the Accent.org

More food options at new campus

The third annual Dia de la Familia, sponsored by the ACC Latino/Latin American Studies Center (El Centro), will be held on April 25 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Riverside Campus. The event aims to inform the community about ACC and El Centro in particular. El Centro is an interdisciplinary collegewide center that hopes to educate and provide understanding of the Latino and Mexican American impact on culture and society. The event is free and open to the public.

Cypress Creek hosts art show This year’s Spring Art Fling will be held at the Cypress Creek Campus from April 25 through April 30. The opening reception is on April 25 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The exhibit will showcase art from ACC students and faculty as well as the Cedar Park community and Leander ISD. Singer/songwriter Kevin Haywood will perform. The featured artist, Isabelle Olivier, won the 2008 Spring Art Fling for “Favorite Work of Art” for Poppy Field in France. According to Linda Haywood, the Cyprus campus manager, the art work will remain on display the following week.

Student Life honors involvement The Student Life celebrates student involvement and achievement event with Nite in the Life: A Red Carpet Affair, on April 24 at the Monarch Event Center. The event will run from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The celebration includes a reception, awards ceremony and after parties. Winners of awards such as Servant Leader Award, Extra Mile Award, and Outstanding Club Contribution to Campus will be announced. Reservations are required and can be made by visiting the Student Life web page.

Registration begins early for fall Early registration for the Fall 2009 semester begins May 18 and continues through June. Students can register as early as May depending on how many hours they have, including those in progress. The Fall printed schedule will be made available on June 8, but students can view the online schedule now. The purpose of the early registration, according to the ACC’s website, is to help insure that students who are nearing graduation are able to take the courses needed before they fill up. Contact your campus Student Services office with questions or concerns.

Hanlly Sam • Staff Photographer

Simon’s Café employee Lee Sang takes a student’s order at the Rio Grande Campus location. A contract is being worked out for the Round Rock Campus which is also taking bids from other businesses. The new space has room for a full kitchen and all food to be prepared fresh on-site .

Specifics for food vendor contracts in the works

Adam Oliphant Staff Writer

Besides being the newest ACC campus, with an expected enrollment of 10,00 students, the Round Rock Campus will also have the freshest food and more dining space. Simon’s Café and other businesses are competing for a contract to sell food at the Round Rock Campus that will be awarded by May 1. Currently, food service is contracted out to Simon’s Cafe, which serves preprepared meals and drinks. Hot food served at Simon’s is usually toasted or microwaved because the space provided to them does not have adequate

ventilation systems to allow for cooking meals on-site. “ACC is interested in providing a full service food concessionaire at the Round Rock Campus. Food cooked to order at two different counters would add variety and can be geared to servicing the needs of the students and faculty,” Reed Stoddard, certified professional public buyer director procurement and materials management (interim) said. As the contracts are being reviewed for Round Rock, student concerns about Simon’s Café, owned and operated by Simon’s president Jae Park, range from lack of biodegradable take-away dishes and cups to food quality and

pricing. “I don’t see why a hamburger at Simon’s cost twice as much as one at Jack in the Box,” student Larry Williams said. “The prices seem pretty high for what you get for some items.” ACC closed bids for a food service contract for the Round Rock Campus on April 16. Food service will be ready when the Round Rock Campus opens in August of 2010. The new contract stipulates that all food must be fresh and prepared daily on site. ACC will provide the vendors with the necessary space and ventilation to run a high quality food service operation for students.

The contract will also include some changes to address current issues with Simon’s, including eliminating the minimum amount for credit card purchases, as well as extra charges for forks, napkins, plates, cups, bowls, ice and condiments. Simon’s hopes and plans to paint all campus locations a uniform color scheme matching RGC’s scheme, update menu boards to be uniform and include pictures of more menu items “so students know what they are ordering,” according to Park. Park stated that “ (Simon’s) wants to grow with ACC. We are willing to step service up a notch to better serve the needs of the students.”

Proportionate funding laws could cost students Christopher Smith Staff Writer

Higher tuition and fees might be necessary if ACC does not receive more money from the state of Texas for employee health care. Members of the board of trustees, the president of ACC, and the Office of External Affairs have all taken the time to call, send letters and talk face to face with central Texas state representatives about the issue of proportionality. Under the current policy, institutions of higher education receive funding for employee health care that matches or is proportional to

the state funds the institution receives. Community colleges across the state receive much of their funding from local sources, so they receive a smaller amount of state funds than larger four-year institutions. Therefore ACC and other community colleges do not receive the same amount of money for employee health care that larger four-year institutions do. “Proportionality is being applied unfairly,“ Linda Young, special assistant to the president for External Affairs at ACC said. If proportionality is once more included in the budget bill, it could cost ACC

$2.6 million in the coming two years. The money for employee health care has to come from somewhere said Young, and that could mean higher tuition or more fees in the future. In a letter sent to local state representatives, the administration asks representatives to exclude proportionality from the budget bill and to support bills in the House (HB 2080) and Senate (SB 41) “which would resolve the proportionality issue.” “Those bills would say that this formula for figuring how we support benefits for faculty in higher education would not apply to community colleges

which don’t get the same amount of funding that the four-year (universities) do,” Young said. “For our students to be successful, we have to have top notch educators, and we do. We want to continue to attract and retain our faculty and our administrators and professional staff,” Nan McRaven, Chairperson of the ACC Board of Trustees said. “For ACC to attract and retain faculty and staff, the college needs to be able to offer things like health care to its employees...the issue of proportionality affects employees, students and the wider ACC community.”

College program could certify police to draw blood ȨȨ continued from page 1

they’ve had great results with only one lawsuit, which the plaintiff lost. When asked what his recourse was if the blood draw policy didn’t pass, he brought up another tactic to decrease DWIs in Austin. “I think we have to continue to work on the education component of it. We have to keep trying to educate the public,” Acevedo said. Recent cases involving people such as Jesse Owens, Sophia King, and Daniel Rocha have brought APD’s use of force policy to the forefront of the public’s eye. ACLU Central Texas Chapter President Debbie Russell questioned what would happen if someone physically refused a blood draw. “What hasn’t been brought up yet is the use of force issue when getting that blood from a person who is unwilling to

give up their most precious identifier,” Russell said. Acevedo addressed this after confronted by panel members and multiple Austinites that spoke at the podium and yelled out from the crowd regarding APD using physical restraints to obtain blood from a person who might be intoxicated. “We’re not going to beat on somebody to get a blood test out of them,” said Acevedo. APD does not call their policy forced blood draws, they call it “non-consensual testing.” The chief has initiated no refusal weekends on holidays when APD estimates there will be a lot of drinking. Acevedo concluded that there was a way to avoid the entire situation, “Bottom line is if you take a taxi, walk home, have a designated driver, call dial-a-ride, or take the bus you’ll never have to worry about us.”

Trevor Goodchild • Staff Photographer

APD Cheif Art Acevedo spoke with Accent about phlebotomy training at ACC. He advised students not to drink and drive..

Campus News

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Heap wins national nursing scholarship for nursing ȨȨ Continued from page 1

According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics website, registered nurses constitute the largest healthcare occupation with 2.3 million jobs. So, it is no surprise to see interest in an career that is recession proof. Heap warns that the job might be more than students bargain for. “What a non-nurse thinks of nursing is that they take care of sick people. Nursing really goes a lot deeper than just taking care of sick people. You also want to prevent. There is an element of seeing into the future. I will be held responsible if something happens that I should have seen coming. The thing I tell a lot of future or perspective nursing students is that no matter what you have going on in your life, nurses just have to make it work. Whether you have six kids, or a full-time job, it is always going to be something. If you can just decide to make it work, then you will find a way.” For those who do decide to become a nurse, ACC has a proven track record of success. ACC Graduate Nurses have a 98 percent chance of passing the NCLEX (National Council Licensure ExaminationRegistered Nurse) the first time to become a RN. That success rate is seen with students like Lisa Heap. Heap recently won the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation’s National Nursing Scholarship. The scholarship, which is based on the contestant’s ability to correctly answer quizzes at the CKSF website,

rated their answers on a point system to determine a winner. With an almost 100 percent score, Heap scored higher than students all across the United States. “A lot of the material I covered at work …because I am a tutor, so I didn’t really need to prepare for the quiz exactly,” said Heap. Heap also strongly encourages students to take advantage of tutoring here at ACC. She is a tutor for various subjects at South Austin Campus. “I would want more students to come to the learning lab. There are not many schools that will give you free tutoring seven days a week, for almost any subjects. I just don’t see anything better than that.” “I started out as a pre- med student years ago, that never went anywhere. I wanted a career where I could affect the world positevely. I didn’t want to affect the world negatively, like selling bad loans. I wanted to have a job that I could be really good at. I wanted to have a positive influence on the world. All nurses teach. Whether we teach our parents about the drugs they are going home with, the morbidity of their diabetes, or how to care for their incision when they go home. I wanted to teach. And hopefully, I will teach nurses how to be nurses. I plan to go directly to UT, finish my bachelor’s. I don’t know if I will go for a masters or doctrates. But I’m not going to stop until I get one of those. I had five years from school, so I just don’t want to stop again, I’m afraid of how long it would be before I started.”

Accent • April 20, 2009

e f i L s u p Cam w w w.the Accent.org

Northridge where to: Story and Photos: Sarah Vasquez

Capstone Comics

2121 W Parmer Lane, #107

Shop?

This place requires a little drive or a hike to this comic book store. Located in a strip mall, this place is easy to pass because the small storefront gets lost with the surrounding stores. Just keep an eye out for the comic book wallpaper on the outside glass of the store. As soon as you walk in, Iron Man and a fellow employee immediately greet you. Fans of various types of comics have a variety of books to choose from including recent graphic novel adaptations such as Watchmen and Wolverine, as well as plenty of eye candy action figures in display cases.

Canary Roost

11900 Metric Blvd # D

Hang?

Located right next door to Bevo’s ACC Bookstore, this bar is a convenient hangout for students to relax after a day of classes and studying. This place may seem small, but there is plenty of seating for everyone to enjoy the drink specials and karaoke. This is not a place to study as the lighting is that of a typical bar, but football fans can enjoy the game as every University of Texas game is broadcast on the many large screen television sets. The crowd seems to pick up around 10 p.m. when karaoke begins.

Café Java

11900 Metric Blvd # K

Eat?

Also located in the same strip mall as Canary Roost, this coffee shop not only offers students their morning cup of joe, but also serves high quality dining for a college student’s budget. The staff immediately welcomes patrons when they walk in the door and are ready to serve giving the café a friendly atmosphere. Students have plenty of tables to choose from for studying or doing homework in between classes or just hanging out with some friends. Although, what seemed to be lacking here is wireless internet.

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NEXT ISSUE:

33rd annual exhibit displays talent at Austin’s Dougherty Arts Center, students win cash awards, still have work up for sale Karen Kuhn Staff Writer

Student artists were given the opportunity to display and sell their work in the 33rd annual ACC Student Art Exhibit, held each spring. The reception and awards ceremony took place on April 7 at the Dougherty Arts Center. Eighty eight students’ work was on display this year in a broad range of mediums. Each piece was classified in one of six different categories: Painting, Drawing, Printmaking/ Photography, Ceramics, and Sculpture and Jewelry. During the awards ceremony, first through third prizes were awarded to exemplary student work

from each category. ACC also purchased six pieces to be displayed on campus as part of the permanent collection. “I was really excited about the Purchase Prize Award which is a scholarship in its own right,” said Cloyd Dowling, an ACC art student whose 4’x6’ woodblock print was named Best in Show. “I don’t get to keep the piece but I get money in my pocket.” His print sold for $500. The exhibit is open to the public at the Dougherty Arts Center from April 2 through April 29 where several student pieces are still available for Karen Kuhn • Staff Photographer purchase. Cloyd Dowling works on sketches in the art studio at RGC. Cloyd’s art was named Best in Show at the current ACC student art exhibit.

Teodora Erbes • Staff Photographer

Richard Sanchez, featured ACC student artist, looks at pieces presented at the ACC Student Art Exhibit 2009 reception on April 7 at the Dougherty Arts Center.

Culinary Arts program serves up spring events 35th Birthday celebration in the works, news menu, and new season of Austin Cooks Jamie Carpenter Campus Editor

Le’Bistrette, sponsored by the American Cuisine Restaurants class in the Culinary Arts Department, will be serving lunch on wednesdays through May 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 3000 Eastview Campus Building.The restaurant is run by students with the supervision of program faculty members of the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Departments. Reservations made at least 24 hours ahead of time are encouraged. As well as hosting the restaurant, the Culinary Arts department is also hosting

Le’ Bistrette

Spring 2009 Menu

a 35th Anniversary party for ACC on April 23 at the Eastview Campus at 6 p.m. .This will benefit the ACC foundation Presidential Scholarship Fund. Austin Cooks, the in-house cooking television show, will begin filming the third season’s show in June and the episodes will begin airing in September of 2009. The episodes feature Chef Brian McCormick and Chef Brian Hay, both of whom teach at ACC. Past episodes can be viewed by visiting the Austin Cooks website at http://www. austincc.edu/cooks/ and the show is also available on Time Warner Channel 19.

Soups and Salad s

Fresh Chicken Tortilla Soup

Marinated chicken grilled, shredded and combined with a rich chicken stock, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and finished with crisp tortilla strips. $4

California Fusion

Marinated shrimp sautéed with garlic, ginger and peppers and finished with our homemade vegetable stock and fresh cilantro. $4

Chicken Caesar Salad

A large version of our homemade Caesar salad served with grilled chicken and our own homemade dressing. $5

Sandwiches and Entrees Atlantic Style Fish and Chips

A generous portion of hand battered cod, deep fried until golden and served over our French fries. $7

Blue Cheese Burger

A burger covered with Brazos Blue cheese and brown sugar bacon. $7

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Authentic deep dish pizza filled with generous portions of meat and cheese. Big enough for two. $10

Grilled Chicken and Bowtie Pasta served in a Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce

Chef Brian Hay helps culinary student Raegane Richey prepare a pastrami sandwich at La Bistrette restaurant at Eastview campus on Wed. April 15. La Bistrette is open every Wed. from 11:30-1 p.m. until May 6.

Marinated chicken tossed into bowtie pasta with sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and prosciutto and covered with a roasted garlic cream sauce. $7

Grilled Chicken Club Wrap

Grilled marinated chicken served with Brazos Rosemary Garlic Jack Cheese, Black Forest ham and bacon. $7

Pastrami Sandwich

Our version of a New York Deli Style Sandwich. A pile of homemade pastrami and coleslaw stacked on our homemade bread. $7

Alma Hernandez • Photo/Web Editor

Life& Arts

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Accent • April 20, 2009

e n tertai n me n t

Austin remembers good ol’ boy intellectual, Perryman Lindsay Preston Staff Writer

Local Texas actor, Lou Perryman, was tragically murdered in his south Austin home on the first of April. He was 67 years old, and survived by his daughter, Jennifer. Unless you belong to the small, but proud, group of independent film aficionados, many of you may never have heard of Perryman, although it is likely you have encountered his performances along the way. He was often hired to play quirky characters throughout the years, and though the roles were small, his performances are as colorful and memorable as the man himself. Some of his roles include an ornery redneck in The Blues Brothers, the affable, moochy construction worker in Poltergeist, and the sheriff in Boys Don’t Cry, and most recently a gentle pastor in When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. Perryman developed a small cult following after his role as the endearing L.G. McPeters in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. However, his most notable performances occurred early in his career as a result of his work with the late great filmmaker, Eagle Pennell, a fellow indie pioneer who is often credited with inspiring Robert Redford to create the Sundance Film Festival. Perryman starred in three of Pennell’s movies: A Hell

of a Note (1977), The Whole Shootin’ Match (1978), and Last Night at the Alamo, all of which are wonderfully scrappy, funny, and poignant films well worth checking out. The Whole Shootin’ Match has been recently and lovingly restored (by Mark Rance of Watchmaker Films) as an ongoing project to save important independent films from the threat of obscurity. The film premiered this year at SXSW alongside The King of Texas, an excellent documentary tracing the tumultuous life and career of Eagle Pennell (directed by Claire Huie and Rene Pennell), which can be found as a special feature on the recent DVD release of The Whole Shootin’ Match. Perryman had long professed to be most proud of his work in The Whole Shootin’ Match and has described it as a fundamental evolutionary event in his journey as a creative artist. Perryman had a broad range of interests, careers, and talents. He was part philosopher, part prankster, and all heart. He was particularly captivated by Robert Bly and Joseph Campbell, and in many ways his life followed the arc of the hero’s journey. He was employed as a steelworker before joining the US Army, and then eventually found his way into the world of filmmaking as a cameraman, assistant director, and screen/

stage actor. When roles were few and far between, this Renaissance man worked as a cab driver among other creative means of supporting himself. When roles were scarce and times were hard, he would reach out to his friends for help. A mutual friend recently commented to me that “Most people try to keep their lives secret, hide. But Lou had a rare honesty and openness, a true dignity,” Across the years, Perryman never lost his infectious passion for life, embracing all its joys and complexities. He felt deeply, and lived big, throwing himself into the world with a boldness and humor that inspired many of the lives he touched. Perryman was voraciously proud to be a Texan, and in many ways, captured the soul of the Lone Star State through his larger-than-life personality, generosity, rambunctiousness, and willingness to laugh or philosophize over a round of beers. Among all his warm and steady qualities, he could also be impulsive and unpredictable, described by a friend as “a bit of a tornado” (he has a reputation for being the only person to ever punch Pennell in the nose). Nonetheless he was also a deeply reflective and insightful man, a fiercely devoted father, a member of the Jung Society, and deeply involved and motivated by Austin’s local men’s movement.

Photo courtesy of Marcia Zwilling

From left to right: Richard Linklater, Tobe Hooper, Mike Simpson, John Dwyer, and Lou Perryman in front. Perryman, an enthusiastic actor and filmmaker, was murdered at his home in south Austin on April 1.

During his memorial service this past Thursday at Scholz Beer Garten, a man took the microphone and declared “A good ol’ boy can become an intellectual… but an intellectual can never become a good ol’ boy. My friend, Lou, was a true good ol’ boy intellectual”. Perryman’s memorial service was crowded with friends, family, and people from the film community, all wishing to pay tribute and celebrate a life and a man that was truly a gift to our world. After viewing a short

homage to some of his more outstanding film moments, many people took turns relating their memories and stories of an unforgettable character. While the grief was palpable, the gathering often carried a playful energy and ease that seemed to honor Perryman’s approach to life. I last saw him only a few short weeks ago, at the SXSW screening of Eggshells, (1969) the first feature film of Tobe Hooper. As we chatted, I was deeply impressed by his wit, warmth, vivacity, and charm. Perryman was the assistant

director of Eggshells, and neither he nor Hooper had seen it on the big screen since production, 40 years ago. During the screening, Perryman could not contain his enthusiasm, frequently whooping and clapping, and letting loose with his huge heartfelt laugh. It was a joy to experience the film this way, vicariously reencountering his past as well as the past of Austin. I feel privileged to have known Lou Perryman, as I know many, many others do as well. He will be sorely missed.

m u sic re v iews

Chief Rival projects post west sound

Shawn Hinojosa • Staff Photographer

Plain White T’s perform at Antone’s on April 7 on their Three Part Harmony Tour. Cruiserweight of Austin and the electronic/emo/dance/punkers Danger Radio also performed.

Three Part HarmonyTour in discord Shawn Hinojosa Staff Writer

Sarah Vasquez • Staff Photographer

Vocalist Christian York from the Austin band Chief Rival performing at Momo’s during SXSW 2009. Upcoming Chief Rival shows include The Parlor at 8 p.m. on April 20 and Mohawk at 10 p.m. on April 22.

Youthful quartet tells a story with their sound Sarah Vasquez Staff Writer

Austin’s Chief Rival could easily be identified with more prominent names such as Explosions in the Sky and Black Angels, but what makes this band stand out from the rest is their age. With the youngest member being 14 years old, these musicians haven’t graduated from high school yet. Listening to the self-titled EP, the songs are not written in a conventional song format, such as verse, chorus, verse, and then chorus. Instead, they are presented like orchestra movements where every song is structured to be a part of

one main themed composition. This album could easily be an accompanying soundtrack to a young Clint Eastwood western movie as Chief Rival incorporates characteristic melodies usually found in these types of films. With this album, the songs seem to tell a story. For example, in the intro of “Three Coffins,” the use of crickets chirping along with the building wavering tremolo sets the scene for a midnight journey. This effect is repeated again with the addition of gunshots and church bells to illustrate a confrontation at a

Photo courtesy of Chief Rival

church. The last song, “Like We Were Buffalo” is the subdued finale of the story as the expedition comes to a tranquil end. As these musicians are still in their always-evolving adolescent years, the future albums will only improve as they mature and gain life experience with age.

I’ve got to give Plain White T’s credit. It’s hard for a band who’s built their career on being imitative to truly come up with an inventive concept for their tour, and they did. The hour and a half set was split up into “acts”, called the Three Part Harmony Tour. They did their best to divide their catalogue into upbeat punky bits, restrained acoustic songs, and an only-Godknows-what second encore, but with so many interchangeable songs, they were really inconsistent. In the second set, singer Tom Higgenson played harmonica horribly, and guitarist Dave Tirio donned an accordion for a whole 10 seconds. I hate to say it, but the two songs that stood out were their one annoying radio hit about the girl in New York who looks so pretty (“Hey There, Delilah”), and that other cheesy track about the three words lovers say to one another (“1, 2, 3, 4”). Couples embraced each other, had their moments, and the band sounded great. Even I, with my black heart and no expectations, felt a little connected after their performance of “1, 2, 3, 4.” It’s a little difficult to be

dating someone who is on the complete opposite musical spectrum as you. When date night comes around, and one of you is buying tickets to the show of his or her choosing, the other person is left a little out in the cold. That other person was me, but I put on a smile and enjoyed the company at Antone’s on April 7 for the Plain White T’s, Cruiserweight, and Danger Radio show. Austinite pop-punkers Cruiserweight opened with a short, yet energetic set. Five or six years ago, I saw them a few times at the now-closed Backroom, and they sounded and performed exactly how I remembered them. The band’s chemistry with each other is evident, as the four-piece is comprised of three siblings. Singer Stella Maxwell, the youngest of the three siblings, has a little bit of an ego, but it’s endearing. She challenged the mostly teenage-girl crowd to a dance-off by getting in the middle of the crowd with them, and upon returning to the microphone, proclaimed that she “won, like always.” It was probably the most entertaining part of the night. I haven’t paid any attention to them since my junior year in high school, but I did

recognize that they played one of their first singles, “Cautionary Tale.” Danger Radio made my ears hurt. I asked a girl next to me what they sounded like and she described them as “electronic-dancey-punk,” and I was intrigued. She then said that his voice “was divisive,” which I didn’t mind, since I tend to like that type of vocalist. They sounded promising. But then she said his voice was “also, kinda whiney”, and I was lost soon after that. Their opening electronic beats were pretty groovy, but when the actual music started it sounded atrocious. Singer Andy Brookins has a voice that makes you want to kill yourself, he whined and screamed, and ran from side to side, trying to imitate the emo-punk stars he grew up watching (he lists Saves the Day, Finch, and Taking Back Sunday as his favorite bands). Thankfully, the guys are all relatively young (ages 21 to 24), and hopefully they can grow out of this stage in their career and do something a little less derivative. Despite their horrible cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” I actually heard a hint of originality hidden somewhere in their noise.

Life&Arts

April 20, 2009 • Accent

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w w w.the Accent.org

Unprecedented move by Google hopefully enriches

David Rodriguez Assistant Editor

Google, the ubiquitous presence that every scholar, college student, and layman has grown to depend on and utilize will soon be the largest rights holder of copyrights our civilized existence has ever known. Google Books began scanning and then digitizing books in the University of Michigan’s library in 2004 which set off an alarm for the Authors Guild (AG), Association of American Publishers (AAP), and a small band of authors and publishers. They filed a class-action lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement in September of 2005. The AG and AAP, acting on behalf of every author and publisher ever, reached a settlement agreement in October of 2008 that “will establish a new not-for-profit organization controlled by authors and publishers, the Books Rights Registry, which will collect and distribute revenue from Google and maintain a database on rights holders,” according to a statement released by the AG in December of 2008. Google will provide a digitized database to libraries and universities and “All licensing

revenues go initially to Google, which keeps its 37% share and forwards the remaining 63% to the Books Rights Registry. The Registry then forwards the appropriate amount to rights holders, keeping an administrative fee,” according to the aforementioned statement. In the uber corporate legalese jargon of the Google Book Settlement, there are many different categories and subcategories that determine who receives what revenues. The Books Rights Registry is an arm of Google meant to act as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) does for the recording industry, and while we all would like to trust Google’s unerring moral fortitude, how is a subsidiary going to objectively set prices, dole out revenue, and maintain good business practices? What Google essentially has accomplished is a monopoly of information that will affect everyone that reads, publishes, or collects information. This includes public libraries those beacons of public interest that are so necessary and vital to our society’s progression. While public libraries will receive untaxed access at one computer inside of their respective buildings to all texts within Google’s digital library, individuals will also have the option to buy online access to certain books. What is viscerally at stake with this settlement is the public’s interest. Google Books will now dwarf the Library of Congress, all libraries combined eventually, and any information collecting agency that has ever existed,

concerning intellectual property. On one hand, this could be great for students and scholars to have somewhat unprecedented access to obscure and out of print tomes for study and enlightenment, but on the other hand what if Google’s rates become too high for Austin Community College, for instance, to afford subscriptions to their service. We would just get cut off from information that was maybe once obscure and unattainable, no big loss, but we could also be severed from basic amenities our library used to provide to us for the base fee of enrollment, like those wonderful search engines leading us to a wealth of scholarly material. Google is a publicly traded company with interests, and a responsibility to their shareholders. Are those interests going to conflict with the publics interests? Google has now placed itself in a position to own a stranglehold on the information world or usher in a revolutionary, undiscriminating and responsible dawn of a new age, the age of digitalization and concentration of once unavailable material to the greater public. The frightening and binding language of the settlement will make it virtually impossible for those books under Google’s copyright to ever be undone, and while it is projected that Google will be able to offer access to almost 20 percent of books ever copyrighted, that is a ridiculous amount of information for one private company to own rights

to exclusively. In The New York Review of Books on Feb. 12, Robert Darnton explained that “As the authors of the Constitution knew, copyright was created in Great Britain by the Statute of Anne in 1710 for the purpose of curbing the monopolistic practices of the London Stationers’ Company and also, as its title proclaimed, ’for the encouragement of learning.’ ” I don’t feel, but I would like to think, that Google has enrichment and education at the core of its motivations, considering they are now in the same position, overtly, as Standard Oil was at the turn of the 19th century and the London Stationers’ Company was at the turn of the 17th

century. But these are not railroad rebates and inflated taxes that Google could possibly juke. No, this is public information brought to us by the tool that was supposed to champion and aggrandize unregulated information sharing, the Internet, not constrict and confine that information as a covertly trade-able commodity. While the final ruling will come this summer, it looks inevitable that not much will be altered in the agreement and not ot mention that it will take years for Google to scan and digitize the wealth of books it projects to annex under its banner. We as students, readers, consumers, professors, and

Karen Kuhn • Staff Artist

writers are witnessing a move that is unprecedented in the publishing world, and Google could be a boon to institutions of learning or a bane to our inherent right to educate ourselves and consume intellectual property. Only time will tell. Albert Camus; “The aim of art, the aim of a life can only to be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.” The Google Book Settlement can be found at www.googlebooksettlement.com

Notable, New and Live in Austin David Rodriguez • Assistant Editor Nobody Move is extraordinary novelist Denis Johnson’s latest, an American crime story with an assortment of lowlifes. Published by Farrar, Straus and Garrar. To be released April 28. Kick-ass throwback stoner rock, Eagle Claw, will be performing April 22 @ The Hole In The Wall with Woodgrain (the show is FREE). Austin favorite Devin the Dude will be performing with his group The Coughee Brothaz and Sistaz Jean Grae, putting it all in the air April 25 @ Scoot Inn & Bier Garten (before 10 p.m. $10 for ladies and $15 for men, after 10 p.m. $20 for everyone, doors open at 8 p.m.). My favorite Scientoligist musician right behind the late great Isaac Hayes, Stanley Clarke, will be doing what he does with the bass April 26 @ The One World Theatre (2 show times, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., tix start at $50). Stoned cold innovators and groove champions George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic will be partying and playing April 29 @ Stubbs outside (doors open at 7 p.m. and tix $25). The ridiculously detached, vapid and intriguing world of Brett Easton Ellis (BEE) is coming to the big screen again with his and Nicholas Jarecki’s adaptation of The Informers, a collection of short stories that are intertwined loosely. The Informers will be opening April 24 @ select theatres. BEE wrote Less Than Zero and American Psycho (both were turned into major motion pictures), but both films were a little shy of a direct adaptation. The Informers looks to be blow by blow with an all-star cast including Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. Writer and director James Toback will be bringing us a seriously candid documentary, Tyson, about the infamous boxing wunderkind. Mike Tyson is a fascinating subject and the film has already received great praise, opening April 24 @ select theatres. Legendary cult and revolutionary writer and director Jim Jarmusch has a new film, The Limits of Control set to premiere May 1 @ select theatres. X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be slashing through screens May 1 @ select theatres. Wolverine being by far the most interesting X-man, this addition to the Marvel film library should be entertaining. Writer David Benioff did the screenplay for the 25th Hour, a well done drama, so he should make a good author for Wolverine’s tumultuous and mysterious origins.