Volume 60 Issue 4 March 28, 2018 DATELINE: DOWNTOWN Photo by Naomi Cardwell Harvey 6 Months Later Page 5 Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Islamic Cultural Event Rehmatulil Alamin: “Mercy to the Universe” Page 8 March For Our Lives: Houston Astros Aim to Repeat The Call for Gun Control Page 11 EDITOR- IN- CHIEF Kara Moore 2 [email protected] Staff 713-221-8192 ASSISTANT EDITOR Jesse Uppal Got a Story? [email protected] Breaking SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Chris Joseph www.uhd.edu/student-life/ News? dateline Suggestion? [email protected] BUSINESS MANAGER Comment? Mykal Peterson [email protected] Contact 713-221-8275 Dateline: STAFF REPORTERS Angel Lopez Archie Gayle www.facebook.com/DatelineDowntown Newsdesk Delia Leal 713-221-8192 Helen Martinez Jasmine Major Submit a form on our Michael Case website Naomi Cardwell Paula Cano or EMAIL: ADVISOR editordatelinedown- Dr. Joseph Sample [email protected] SUBMISSION POLICY Dateline Downtown welcomes submissions to the editor from any member of the UH system. Submissions should Sales be no more than 800 words, include the author’s full name, www.instagram.com/ phone number or email address, and affi liation with the datelinedowntownhtx & University, including classifi cation and major. Writers Advertising Guidelines are available on the UHD/dateline webpage or Dateline-Downtown.comAnonymous submissions will not be published. Sales Desk Deliver submissions to room S-260, email them to 713-221-8275 [email protected] or fax them to (713) 221 8569. Letters to the Editor and reader submissions may be edited for space, content, spelling, grammar and mali- cious, vulgar, or hateful statements. Submissions must be the original work of the writer and must be signed. All sub- missions become property of Dateline: Downtown and will not be returned. Dateline: Downtown is the offi cial student-run newspa- per of University of Houston-Downtown. Editorials, car- toons, columns and letters are the opinions of the individ- ual authors and do not necessarily refl ect the opinions of other student writers, editors, advisors of the University www.twitter.com/TheDateline of Houston-Downtown, its administration or students. Is the “Austin Bomber” a Terrorist? by Jesse Uppal 3 You open your door after hearing a knock from the roommates were arrested and were simply ques- Editors your mailman. You see on your stoop there is a pack- tioned overnight about the matter. It is currently un- age with no name on it. You do not remember if may- known if they are complicit in the attacks as of yet. Desk be you ordered something from Amazon and maybe Many media sources jumped straight to the just forgot what it was. You open it and boom, you are idea that the bombings were race related even before dead. Many opened packages just like this in the last the bomber was identified. Many of these same news few weeks in Austin, Texas and suffered this horrid fate. agencies posted a photo of Corbitt from when he was Mark Anthony Conditt, a self-proclaimed in high school. The photo, which shows him smiling psychopath, targeted a series of random homes in and clean-shaven, does not match the significant dif- the southeast Austin area with his package bombs. ference that is exhibited in his current photos where The neighborhood was widely inhabited by minori- he has grown a beard and looks disheveled. The me- ties, with both the fatalities of the attacks being Afri- dia goes as far as to posts quotes from his confes- can Americans. sional where T h e he portrays no bombings be- remorse for his gan March 2, attacks next to 2018 and were his happy high designated in a school photo. small neighbor- While it is hood roughly highly possible ten miles from and plausible the assailant’s that the attacks home. The first were race-mo- of the victims tivated, lack was Anthony of definitive Stephan House, proof have left who simply the issue wide brought the open for spec- package bomb ulation. What is into his home currently true and opened it, is that the vic- leading to its tims of the at- Mark Anthony Conditt; Facebook detonation. The tacks were all second was a 17 year-old boy who was a mere high minorities, and the assailant had access to a wide school student at the time of the murder. Two oth- array of firearms and weaponry before choosing ers were injured in the bombings, both minorities to resort to explosive attacks. The US has not cur- with one of them being a 75 year-old woman. The rently declared him a terrorist and most media out- bombs utilized by the assailant were pipe bombs that lets will not name him a mass murderer being that were crafted from everyday household materials. there were only two deaths. The current definition Corbitt’s license plates were eventually identi- of a mass murder is any single person or group that fied when he was seen by a security camera purchas- commits more than 4 murders either at the same ing packages at a FedEx store. He was slowly chased time or under the same motive. The current defini- by undercover vehicles from the store until he even- tion of domestic terrorism is an internally thought- tually realized that he had been found out. Conditt out ideology that directs an individual to attacking was rammed off the road in a close-in maneuver by either a person or a group/agency for the purpose SWAT teams and proceeded to detonate his final of enlightenment or change. As the motive of the explosive, killing himself. One officer was thrown attacker is not currently known, and the number back by the explosion but was not seriously injured. of deaths remains low, law enforcement maintains The ATF searched the suspects home fol- the idea of simply calling him ‘The Austin Bomber’. lowing his death and found a significant number of unfinished explosives, signaling to the intention to introduce more targets. The assailant owned oth- er weaponry, and lived in a house with two other males who had their own collections of firearms and other potentially dangerous objects. Neither of Tuition Increase and Study Abroad Fee by Paula Cano Th e proposed tuition increase is “a strate- higher education institutions in Texas. 4 gic plan to move the university forward” says Da- On a second note, the International Educa- vid Bradley, Vice-president of Finance. Th e tuition tion committee failed to deliver their presentation increases that promise to take the university onto a regarding their proposed four dollar increase to the progressive path totals to 161$ per year, this encom- international study abroad fee that is currently four passes both tuition and advising fee increases. Th e dollars. Th ere were several members of the Senate, Provost remarked the amount of change happening who expressed opposition to this, Senator Diana Pla- at the University of Houston – Downtown during the tas and Speaker of the Senate Alan Modrow voiced last fi ve years, and the institution’s transition from an out their concerns under the basis that students who open admission campus to a more competitive one. are not eligible to travel abroad should not carry the Th e University of Houston–Downtown also expe- economic burden of four dollars. Speaker Modrow rienced the highest six-year graduation rate in the erroneously stated and included that DACA stu- last four years, coming from 13% to 28%. Th e re- dents are not to be imposed upon the increase be- tention rate of transfer students is also up, according cause they cannot study abroad and because they do the statistics presented by the Provost, and fi nance not qualify for the study abroad scholarship. While VP Bradley, fragments the amount of growth the this is partially true, that DACA students should not institution has undergone. Th e University has been travel abroad under the current political climate, he recognized in two various fi elds earning the Texas failed to conclude that DACA students are eligible Higher Education Coordinating Board STAR Award for the study abroad scholarship. Using and includ- in December 2017, and UH system board of Re- ing DACA to oppose a four-dollar increment to the gents Excellence Award in May 2017. “To continue study abroad fee was a fallacious move by the speaker. implementing the strategic plan, additional resourc- luckily, the remaining student body representatives es will be required,” according to the VP of fi nance, voted yes to put this proposal on the ballot for stu- who emphasized the importance the tuition raise is dents to vote on it. Th e petition is currently collecting to take the University forward. Th ere was also an signatures in S380 (Study Abroad), and S405 (Learn- institutional improvement in the graduate student ing Connection) for the proposed increase. Th e in- Headcount for the fall of 2013 graduate students only crease has also been changed to only a three-dol- fi lled 271 enrollment slots, a number that went up lar increase bringing the total up to seven dollars. in fall 2017 totaling 1,514 headcounts. Th e proposed tuition raise will not aff ect anyone who is in the fi xed tuition plan. Th e presidential objective will face a 2% budget cut; about 1.5 million dollars will be used to off set enrollment relat- ed revenue allotted by the tuition raise. Th e initiatives the administration will put into play is to improve advising by $270k, Faculty/Academic by $716k, and fi ll key staff positions by $316k, and the left over $329k will be used for non-sal- ary initiatives, amount to $1.63m in revenue from the increasing tuition.