An overview of the Astroworld Festival crowd during Lil Baby’s performance, hours before Travis Scott took the stage. | Donna Keeya/The Cougar

When you work in journalism you often face the paradox of objectively reporting the history you are living through while you are experiencing it. From hurricanes, to pandemics to tragedies, you often have to dissociate your own feelings from incidents to report on them without bias.

For many media personnel, the most recent example of this is the Astroworld Festival tragedy. Three editorial board members and I were working at Travis Scott’s highly anticipated festival, including Friday night’s fatal show in a crowd with many fellow UH students.

While I’m beyond grateful and privileged to say that none of my coworkers or I experienced any injuries, we’re now, along with tens of thousands of concert attendees, in the midst of processing the mass casualty event that was Astroworld 2021. 

At Scott’s headlining performance, I would say I was in the back to the middle portion of the left side of the crowd. And with an audience of around 50,000 people attending, my range of vision didn’t extend much past directly in front of me. Now retrospectively understanding the luck that came with my location, I was very fortunate to have not experienced extreme shoving or tramplings.

When I came home a little past midnight on Saturday morning, I was completely unaware of the tragedy I had experienced the night before. It wasn’t until 6 a.m. the next morning when I received a phone call from my older sister asking if I was OK that I realized what had happened. 

Immediately after, I fell down a rabbit hole of media coverage, gathering all the information I possibly could find from the night before. By 8 a.m. I had began working on The Cougar’s coverage of the fatal event.

Personally, it has taken me hours to register the magnitude of that night, and still don’t feel like I’m all the way there. While I can disassociate my feelings while covering events, I will never feel desensitized by what happened that night.

As a huge live music fan, it’s so disheartening to process how people died innocently listening to their favorite artists. As someone who grew up 15 minutes from the suburb Travis Scott is from and grew up watching the Kardashians and listening to Drake, it’s so surreal to think about the nightmare that was that concert. This devastation hit close to home to so many people in so many different ways and will continue to impact thousands of people for the foreseeable future.

A day that started out as my first time working a major music festival turned out to be one of the deadliest concerts in U.S. history. But with all that being said, I feel so incredibly fortunate to have been able to safely come out. I feel so incredibly guilty for being unaware of the catastrophe as it happened in the moment. I feel so somber that people lost their lives at an event they just wanted to consume the art at. And mostly, I feel so incredibly heartbroken for those who lost their loved ones at this event.

In the aftermath, I’m still struggling to find the balance of overconsuming media coverage of the concert and protecting my feelings from being overexposed to the tragedy I lived through.

Everyone lives in their own reality, and it will take different amounts of time and methods to digest what happened at Astroworld. To everyone who was there, how much or little you’re feeling is valid, and I hope you are able to heal from the experience.

To everyone personally impacted by the deaths, I am so sorry for your loss and so sorry you are experiencing this. No one should attend a music festival and not make it home. 

Through and through, everyone please take care.

editor@thedailycougar.com

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“Letter from the Editor: Processing the Astroworld tragedy” was originally posted on The Cougar

The second day of Astroworld Festival has been canceled after eight people were killed and hundreds injured at the event on Friday. | Jhair Romero/The Cougar

At least eight deaths and over 300 injuries were confirmed at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival at NRG Park on Friday.

Seventeen people were hospitalized, with at least 11 of them being in cardiac arrest. One of the youngest victims is around 10-years-old, according to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

The second day of Astroworld Festival has been canceled as a result.

“We are focused on supporting local officials however we can,” a statement read on the festival’s social media pages. “With that in mind the festival will no longer be held on Saturday.”

The University released a statement on social media Saturday morning, including a link for campus Counseling and Psychological Services for UH students impacted by the event.

“The tragic deaths and injuries that occurred during the Astroworld Festival are heartbreaking,” UH said in a Twitter post. “Our thoughts are with all who have been effected by this incredible loss, including the families and friends of the victims.”

news@thedailycougar.com

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“Astroworld: 8 dead, over 300 injured after crowd surge” was originally posted on The Cougar

The Cougar’s editorial board has found it difficult to ignore the array of issues consuming the SGA. | Juana Garcia/The Cougar

As an organization meant to serve and represent the UH community by holding those in power to account, The Cougar’s editorial board has found it difficult to ignore the issues that have engulfed the Student Government Association in recent weeks after the SGA Senate initiated the recall process against embattled President Arsalan Darbin.

What started as the SGA and the student body performing their civic duty has devolved into a mess that has crippled an organization that is supposed to represent the UH student body and act in its best interest.

When former SGA President Cameron Barrett pioneered the constitutional recall code during the 55th Administration, he designed the provision as “a way for students to directly hold elected leaders accountable.”

Three years later, with Darbin facing severe accusations of bigotry and hostility, the code was put to the test. 

Darbin recently faced the student body in the recall election — and lost, convincingly.

Yet Darbin will remain president, albeit suspended until the end of the fall semester after the SGA Supreme Court effectively overturned the will of the student body.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court and SGA Attorney General Nadiia Hutcherson, who is supposed to be on a “leave of absence,” have upended the organization. Hutcherson, abetted by the court’s judicial power, suspended 15 senators, including Senate Speaker David Paul Hilton, until Dec. 19 for supporting an amendment to the election code that would have allowed them to campaign in the recall referendum.

Hutcherson, granted new powers by the Supreme Court, has since removed three senators from office, including recall leader Abraham Sanchez.

The SGA’s legislative body, instead of focusing on students’ needs, won’t meet again until the spring and is essentially out of commission because of the suspensions and removals.

In the executive branch, Vice President Maryam Alghafir, the de-facto acting president, has been left in the unusual position of being the top officer of an organization in freefall.

Of all the student organizations at UH, the SGA is among the most powerful. It has seats at many tables around UH, including in committees that oversee the distribution of student fees across campus, housing, dining and even the University Hearing Board. 

It is allotted a $160,000 budget by the Student Fees Advisory Committee that is supposed to enable it to advocate for students and meet their needs. 

But instead of using the SGA’s powers and money for the good of the student body, many members have spent the semester weaponizing their elected or appointed positions against each other and ignoring their responsibilities to the student body.

So, when the leaders that students elected to advocate for them can’t perform those representative duties, who can be trusted to do so?

Much like The Cougar and the Student Media Advisory Committee, many organizations and departments around campus are overseen by some sort of advisory board.

But the Student Government, despite its influence and financial power, escapes accountability. 

Its president has been deemed unfit by the electorate but will remain in office because the Supreme Court and attorney general effectively ignored the student body’s will. The SGA Senate, meanwhile, has been completely sidelined because its members couldn’t follow the code for a recall election they initiated in the first place.

This lack of oversight has harmed the SGA’s reputation and corrupted the organization. In turn, students who deserve advocacy and representation in administrative decisions, a duty the SGA would normally perform, have been ignored in favor of the faux-political squabble that has taken the organization over.

Entrusted with self-governance, the SGA has failed. 

It has been made more than clear that those running the organization need to be put in check. The absence of some form of oversight will continue to be detrimental to the student body and the SGA itself.

editor@thedailycougar.com

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“Lack of oversight leaves SGA incapable of representing UH students” was originally posted on The Cougar

A Houston Police car chase has led to a stand-off between an HPD suspect and police behind Pink’s Pizza and Azza Cafe. The suspect is now in police custody.

Part of Calhoun Road and Spur 5 have been shut down as a result, with UHPD on the scene and student bystanders watching the altercation. 

A domestic violence case from earlier this morning developed into a car chase, according to HPD in a press conference. The armed suspect’s vehicle was disabled and stopped near campus. He was threatening violence towards HPD and a negotiation with their SWAT commanders began.

“Officers knew he was armed with a weapon so they just held what they had and tried to establish communications and requested additional resources,” said Commander Megan Howard, director of technical operations at HPD.

Law enforcement was able to deescalate the situation, recover a weapon and took him into custody.

“When UHPD became aware of this off-campus incident we retweeted HPD as they were the best source of information,” said UHPD Capt. Bret Collier. “When we saw that a road closure was affecting traffic to and from a portion of campus, we sent out an informational email message to advise the community to avoid the area. There was never any threat to the campus that would have required an emergency alert.”

More information will be added as the case continues to develop.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“HPD: chase ends near UH campus; negotiations with armed suspect ongoing” was originally posted on The Cougar

UH previously received 1,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 in late February and distributed them at an on-campus mass vaccination clinic. | Juana Garcia/The Cougar

UH has been allocated 1,170 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from the Texas Department of State Health Services and will begin distributing them at the Student Health Center on Wednesday and Thursday.

Students, faculty and staff who fall under Texas’ Phase 1A-C and federal education and childcare guidelines are eligible and can book an appointment for the on-campus mass vaccination clinic.

Many within the UH community have already begun to receive emails and campus communications with instructions on how to book an appointment for the vaccine.

This marks the second time since the Student Health Center was approved as a distribution site in January that UH has been allocated vaccine doses.

The University received a shipment of 1,000 Moderna vaccine doses in late February and distributed them in early March. UH, which had spent some time searching for a corporate partner to aid in the mass distribution process, partnered with Walgreens in its most recent vaccination event.

Although current qualifying requirements target those more at risk of COVID-19, President Joe Biden recently directed all states to open eligibility to everyone over 18.

UH, under the assumption that most of the campus community will be vaccinated or have access to a COVID-19 vaccine by then, has already paved the way for classes and activities to return to pre-pandemic formats by fall.

For more of The Cougar’s coronavirus coverage, click here.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“UH receives shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses” was originally posted on The Cougar

UH residential life director Antonio Pee was fired from a similar post at Michigan State University in February 2017 after making inappropriate and sexual contact with MSU student residents, according to disciplinary records recently obtained by The Cougar.

Pee, who worked at the University of Cincinnati for two years after his firing from MSU before ultimately landing at UH in December 2019, was first disciplined in April 2016 after making “contact of a personal nature, including sexual discussion … and contact” with a student on a dating application, the documents show.

Then an assistant director for residence education, Pee was put through several prohibited harassment, sexual misconduct and relationship violence training programs by Michigan State after the initial incident.

Pee remained employed for months afterward before harsher discipline fell on him in early 2017. In the early morning hours of Jan. 20 of that year, Pee again made “contact of a personal nature” with a student resident through a dating application.

Michigan State suspended Pee without pay a week later as it investigated the incident. A month later, on Feb. 27, 2017, Pee was fired from MSU for “sexual misconduct, failure to maintain reasonable standards of professionalism and off-duty misconduct.”

“The University just learned of the situation today and we are still reviewing the matter,” said UH spokesperson Chris Stipes.

Pee, 36, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

UH “will not tolerate any form of sexual harassment,” per the school’s staff policy, adding that it “can damage the educational atmosphere for the entire University community.”

As one of Student Housing and Residential Life‘s highest-ranking officials, Pee oversees “the daily operations of Residential Life in support of the educational goals and objectives of the University of Houston,” said a news release announcing his December 2019 hiring.

He has worked in housing and residential life for nearly 14 years at schools like Texas Christian University, Texas A&M University and Coastal Carolina University.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“Housing director Antonio Pee previously fired for sexual misconduct, documents show” was originally posted on The Cougar

Despite the many screenshots circulating throughout the UH community on Wednesday afternoon, the University’s interim grading policy has not yet been reinstated and is “still under consideration,” spokesperson Shawn Lindsey said.

The UH website on Wednesday said the interim grading policy that was in place in 2020 would be reinstated for Spring 2021 after the winter storm shut down campus and forced classes to be canceled for a week. The change, Lindsey said, was made in error.

Students have called for the policy, which acted as insurance for students struggling academically due to the coronavirus pandemic, to be reinstated for months.

One petition, which garnered  over 7,000 signatures, began circulating in late January and asked for the policy to be reimplemented “until the pandemic shows signs of regression, or until students and professors have had adequate time to adapt to the new ways of learning and teaching”

“Though contracting the virus does likely remain the leading reason for students needing to utilize the policy, the effects that the global crisis also has on mental health mustn’t be overlooked,” the petition said.

The Student Government Association on Tuesday penned an open letter to Provost Paula Myrick Short in an effort to get the policy on the books for Spring 2021.

The policy “is going to help students who need compassion now,” the letter read. “The policy will help students who work as essential workers and put their health at risk every day and who continue to work hard academically despite their circumstances.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“UH interim grading policy ‘still under consideration’” was originally posted on The Cougar

Update 6:15 p.m. Wednesday: Class cancellations and campus closure will run through Saturday, with UH opting to extend the emergency measures as much of the Houston region continues to battle power and water outages.

Many residential students had to be relocated on Tuesday and Wednesday after water outages in the city impacted the UH Central Plant’s ability to provide heat and hot water to campus.

12:10 p.m. Tuesday: UH extended its campus closure and class cancellations through Thursday, it announced Tuesday afternoon, due to the ongoing power and operational outages caused by the unprecedented winter storm that has hit Texas over the past three days.

Much of campus, including residence halls and the Cougar Woods Dining Commons, was hit with power and water outages. As of 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, at least 4.2 million customers in Texas are still without power after the storm caused widespread power grid failures across the state.

AccessUH and Blackboard, which were offline after the UH website went down on Monday, have since been restored.

Original: Classes are canceled and campus is closed Monday and Tuesday, the University announced Monday morning, as the unprecedented winter storm hitting Texas continues to affect Houston and UH.

Many parts of campus, including residence halls and the Cougar Woods Dining Commons, have been impacted by power outages. Blackouts, which began late Sunday night and early Monday morning, have become widespread after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas declared an emergency and triggered rolling outages across the state.

has declared an EEA 3. Energy conservation is critical. Rotating outages are underway to reduce demand on the electric system. We urge Texans to put safety first during this time. Traffic lights and other infrastructure may be temporarily without power. 01:25:40 150221

— ERCOT (@ERCOT_ISO) February 15, 2021

“University of Houston is experiencing much of the same winter storm related issues the rest of the region is experiencing, including the rolling blackouts that Centerpoint is conducting throughout the Houston area,” UH said in a statement. “Residence halls do have backup generators that run essential functions including emergency lighting, elevators and alarm systems. Facilities crews are on campus addressing issues that arise.”

With ice and snow covering roads throughout the city, many streets “are certainly not safe for passage,” according to the Texas Department of Transportation’s Houston district.

Most roads are certainly not safe for passage and many signals are also not operational due to power outages. This is I-45 at FM 3083. pic.twitter.com/quIoah4Ury

— TxDOT- HOU District (@TxDOTHouston) February 15, 2021

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo suggested it may not be safe to drive until later in the week in a Monday morning Twitter post.

“It may look pretty with the snow, but underneath is ice,” she said. “Do not expect improvement in road conditions anytime in the next two or three days.”

UH Information Technology systems have also been impacted by the weather, cutting off access to the University website. Services like AccessUH and Blackboard are also down.

UH originally announced on Friday it would move to remote operations  during the storm.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“UH extends campus closure, class cancellations” was originally posted on The Cougar

UH tennis head coach Helena Besovic watches on as her team practices at the Winston Tennis Facility. Besovic, who grew up in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, still uses the lessons she learned during and after the Bosnian War in her life. | Courtesy of UH athletics

Somewhere in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the early 1990s, a little girl’s life was about change.

Violence had just broken out in the capital city after Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, sparking the Bosnian War. With uncertainty and fear clouding the air, 7-year-old Helena Besovic and her family were unable to flee her hometown.

Instead, the Besovic family hunkered down, living in a basement as the city around them was bombed and besieged for 1,425 days.

“We didn’t think it was going to last that long,” Besovic, the now-36-year-old UH tennis coach, said. “We were basically stuck there.”

Nearly 25 years after the Siege of Sarajevo ended, the lessons Besovic learned during the war and since ring throughout her life.

Lockdown

When COVID-19 began surging last March and the pandemic tightened its grip on the world, the coronavirus pandemic gave Besovic an unsettling reminder of how quickly — and drastically — lives can be upended.

“These things, you never expect they can happen to you,” she said. “Now, with what we’re experiencing, it’s happening on a large scale.”

As lockdowns spread, Besovic was brought back to when she herself was forced to stay indoors in the early days of the war, as it was too dangerous to leave her house.

Like many Bosnian children at the time, she couldn’t go to school or play outside with other kids.

She stayed at home with her family, and without electricity, running water, or the ability to buy groceries, they relied on foreign aid to get by.

But she found a silver lining, and it’s driven her to get where she is a quarter-century later.

Opening doors

Besovic played many sports growing up, but after being introduced by a friend, tennis stuck.

Once the war and siege were over and it was safe to go outside again, Besovic quickly fell in love with the sport.

“When it all ended, I was so excited to be able to be outside and to play tennis,” she said. “I started doing well, so I took that as an opportunity to do something with my life.”

As her talent in the sport grew, so did the realization that after all the years of conflict, tennis could offer her a path to a better life elsewhere.

So when the opportunity presented itself, she took it.

Besovic moved away from Sarajevo in the late ’90s to study at Ausias March High School in Barcelona, Spain. From there, she moved to the United States for college, landing at Division II Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. After two seasons, she transferred to TCU in 2004 and became one of the most decorated players in Horned Frogs history. 

“Tennis opened a lot of doors, and I know it opens a lot of doors for my student-athletes,” she said.

Understanding

Having traveled the world playing tennis, Besovic understands how international student-athletes feel being in another, sometimes extremely different, country.

When it comes to recruiting and making players feel at home, she’s used it to her advantage.

With players from places like Belgium, Argentina, Australia and Serbia, the Houston tennis team is among the most culturally diverse programs at UH.

And it’s not by accident.

“One of the reasons I came to Houston was how much they value diversity,” Besovic said. “I want to have diverse teams, and we want to continue having student-athletes come from different cultures.”

For senior Phonexay Chitdara, who is from Belgium, Besovic’s coaching philosophy makes playing at UH comfortable for international student-athletes.

“In the team, since we’re all international … (coaches) just understand us,” she said. “It’s just easier like that.”

Besovic, who has used her experience during and after the war to shape her, believes her focus on diversity and understanding goes beyond tennis.

“We’re better prepared for the world,” she said. “It makes me really proud to see my student-athletes get along and work hard on understanding each other.”

sports@thedailycougar.com

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“For UH tennis coach Helena Besovic, lessons of life after the Bosnian War resonate” was originally posted on The Cougar

A woman’s body was found Monday morning behind the Science and Engineering Classroom Building across the street from Fertitta Center.

UH police officers received a call about the body near Cullen Boulevard at around 9:30 a.m. Monday.

The cause of death is not yet known, but homicide detectives have responded to the scene, according the ABC13.

Update: The woman isn’t believed to be a student or affiliated with the University, according to a Houston Police Department official.

The woman, identified as an older Black female, appeared to be homeless, according to HPD assistant chief Sheryl Victorian.

There appeared to be no signs of physical trauma, Victorian said.

A UH maintenance worker first notified UHPD about the woman’s body, who then contacted HPD.

This story is developing and will be updated when more information is available.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“Body found across street from Fertitta Center” was originally posted on The Cougar