Shirts with “YA WOO COUGAR FOOTBALL” started appearing soon after the Reddit post. | Courtesy of Michael Olle

What began last week as a rant about parking reallocation on game day has since sparked “#YaWooCougarFootball.”

Starting on the r/UniversityOfHouston subreddit, “YWCF” was a meme pulled from a comment made by a student upset by the impacts the Thursday football game would have on parking. They argued that UH lacks school spirit in comparison to other major universities in Texas, and therefore, there was no need to close off so many parking spots for the game.

The user continued, stating “no one is like ‘YA WOO COUGAR FOOTBALL’ anyways,” later citing permit and tuition costs as enough reason to negate the need to block off certain lots for the game. Users took to refuting the claim that the Cougar football team lacked a fan base, saying that they do have that much enthusiasm about the games.

Claim to fame

Within a few days of the original post, the official University’s Instagram and Twitter accounts picked up on the phrase. The UH Instagram posted a photo to its story with the hashtag “YWCF,” and the UH Twitter tweeted an edit of the meme “it’s Wednesday, my dudes,” replacing this with the text “Ya Woo Cougar Football.”

— University of Houston (@UHouston) October 4, 2018

Kimberly Davis, the senior manager for UH social media, said that a fan account frequently makes edits and tweets them at the official UH twitter. Davis created the edit after a student replied with questions regarding the meme and the origins of “Ya Woo Cougar Football.”

The UH social media staff noticed “YWCF” was circulating on the internet, which lead to the creation of a “YWCF” Instagram sticker for fans to use, Davis said.

“We don’t really take part in creating the memes, but we like to endorse fun things like the Shasta toad,” Davis said. “We saw that there was a t-shirt someone gave to the President (Renu Khator) at the game. It escalated really quickly.”

Surpassing expectations

Fans of the meme and of Cougar football were quick to print out shirts to wear to the Thursday game. Pre-business freshman Michael Olle sported a “YWCF” t-shirt to the game, posting a picture of himself in the shirt to Instagram. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Coogs kept us in suspense, but still pulled out a two score win. #YWCF

A post shared by Michael Olle (@michaelo2) on Oct 4, 2018 at 9:01pm PDT

“I never expected #YWCF to make it any further than the r/UniversityOfHouston subreddit,” Olle said. “Once I saw that the hashtag had been picked up by the official UH Instagram page, I knew it would become something big.”

Many people, Olle included, found themselves surprised by how fast “YWCF” has grown. However, avid football fans find themselves appreciating the momentum this movement has created for UH football, he said.

“I believe that it has had a very positive impact on school spirit, considering that people who might not have cared about Cougar football before might now feel the energy and support the team more,” Olle said.

With a reputation as a commuter school, many believe UH struggles in the realm of school spirit as compared to other Texas universities. Olle said he frequently sees students wearing shirts from other universities, and he hopes the “YWCF” movement can show students that they should be proud of UH.

“Its improbable rise is what draws people to the movement,” Olle said. “I believe that something like YWCF could positively contribute to a shift in thinking among our students to realize this is not just a school with a convenient location.”

Freedom from meme-dom

Almost overnight, “YA WOO COUGAR FOOTBALL” has transcended from a meme into a channel for increasing school spirit.

Arturo Torres, an alum who majored in psychology at UH, thinks YWCF may die out like many memes do, but the impacts of the phrase will be long-lasting. In addition to t-shirts, the phrase has been put on signs and photoshopped onto a variety of things, like the UH website and the first presidential alert.

“YWCF has become so much more than what its original poster meant,” Torres said. “Originally used in a way to express sarcasm and belittle the sport, YWCF has sort of become a battle cry for us fans of Cougar football.”

Atypical of the average meme, YWCF has attained a status similar to that of the classic UH greeting, “go Coogs,” Torres said. In this way, it has managed to shed some of the meme origin while also using the origin as a way of bringing students together and raising school spirit.

YWCF was noticed by the official reddit college football twitter after crossing over to the CFB subreddit. Fans of other college football teams joined in the chant, amused by the origin story as described by another UH fan.

“YWCF will be our student’s new rallying cry on days leading up to and on game day,” Torres said. “I’d like to think of how the Astros’ have their ‘WOO’ yell, that we now have ‘YA WOO’ yell at games.”

“Ya Woo Cougar Football” is becoming a special chant for many as it continues to grow in magnitude. He said the most unique aspect of the phrase is the fact that YWCF was created and spread by students, unlike most other spirit chants.

“I do think YWCF has lost its origins as a meme,” Torres said. “To me, it signifies something special created by our people, our Coogs. It signifies more than a meme, and it represents a new way to express our school spirit.”

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“Social Media Spotlight: #YaWooCougarFootball starts as joke, leads to rise in school spirit” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

UH associate professor of psychology Paul Cirino is researching why students struggle with math. | Corbin Ayres/The Cougar

College math courses are notorious for being incredibly difficult for the unprepared, and many students did not learn the necessary material in high school. They may even suffer from a math disability for a variety of reasons.

UH associate professor of psychology Paul Cirino was awarded a $2.5 million grant by the National Science Foundation to research college-level remedial math students in an attempt to understand where this math disability could come from.

“There’s a bunch of different things that go into how you do in math,” Cirino said. “Some of these are based on your history — how many math courses have you taken? Which math courses have you taken? How was your educational experience? Did you have good teachers?”

Most of the data that has been collected about math disabilities comes from elementary school students, Cirino said. There has been a push to study older students over the last decade or so, but there is still little known about math difficulties in college students, he said.

In addition to a student’s educational history, their cognitive ability is also a factor of their ability to do well in math, Cirino said. Recollection, concentration and language aptitude are all parts of general cognitive ability, he said.

“The third group of things that go into math are the way we feel about it,” Cirino said. “‘I don’t like math,’ or ‘I’m afraid of math,’ or ‘I’m anxious about math’ or ‘I don’t care.’ Those kinds of things make a big difference.”

Cirino and his research partners are going to measure each of these categories in their sample group. They will measure which of them make the most difference or find out if they are of equal importance to math success, he said.

“Once we know the kinds of things that go into what accounts for math performance,” Cirino said, “then we’ll be in a better position to try and do something about it, whether it’s increasing your motivation or building your basic skills — whatever it is.”

Cirino is working with UH professor of computer science Ioannis Pavlidis, among others, to perform this study. Cirino will use Pavlidis’ lab to test students and measure things like their heart rates, perspiration and other indicators of how a person is feeling while solving math problems.

The study will include about 1,000 Houston Community College students and 100-150 UH students, Cirino said. Recruitment for the study will begin around January.

Cirino is partnering with HCC for the study due to its high number of students who require a remedial math class before they can begin working on their major requirements.

“Because you have to take developmental coursework, it means you don’t have skills that you were supposed to learn in high school, and yet you’ve graduated from high school. It’s kind of difficult to wrap your head around,” Cirino said.

Cirino also pointed out that many math adequacy tests are similar across age groups, so it doesn’t provide a good indicator of where more advanced students actually are in their education.

“Most of our tasks by which we say ‘You have good math skills,’ or ‘You have not so good math skills’ are designed much more generally,” Cirino said. “The same tests that we use to assess a third grader are the same thing that we use for high school and are the same thing we use for an adult.”

One would expect upper-level math courses to be more strenuous. However, a significant number of students struggle with lower-level math courses.

Computer information systems freshman Alice Ho said she struggles in her 1330 pre-calculus course, which proves problematic since math is one of the building blocks necessary for her to succeed in her career field, she said.

Ho entered college with a good background in math due to exceptional high school math teachers. This goes to show that students may still struggle with math despite having the basic skills required to succeed.

“There is a lot of information to memorize, and it’s difficult for me to recognize when I need to use a specific identity or formula,” Ho said. “The class is mostly difficult because of the memorization factor and how it seems to be more concept-based than anything.”

Although students with a well-developed background in math may struggle with these lower-level courses, Ho firmly believes it is these foundations that have the biggest impact on one’s ability to succeed. Without having taken algebra in previous years, it would be extremely difficult to excel in a pre-calculus course, Ho said.

Andrew Hamilton, the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics associate dean of student success, runs a class for students who are on academic warning, usually freshmen who had a bad first semester. He said almost all of his students either didn’t take calculus or took the class and failed.

“It’s the combination of an inability to focus on the course, either because of mental illness or because it takes more time than they anticipated, and then partly it’s that they didn’t know that they weren’t prepared,” Hamilton said. “And then they all cheated on the placement test.”

Hamilton and NSM recently instituted a new placement test to combat the problem of cheating since success in calculus, especially early on, has been statistically indicated to predict whether a student will receive a degree that requires it.

“What has happened for years is that students take an online, unproctored test that they cheat on. We know this because we can see what they’ve done,” Hamilton said. “They can increase their score by 30 percentage points in an hour, which means they didn’t go learn all of pre-cal in an hour, did they?”

Now students take a pre-test before orientation that gives them a topical breakdown of where they’re struggling and then take a proctored test during orientation, Hamilton said. There are modules offered that students can use to study up on subjects they’re having trouble with in addition to math boot camps on campus and online.

“Students are given multiple attempts at the proctored test, so if you came and took the proctored test and failed it, we said ‘Look, go do the modules and get ready,’” Hamilton said. “We want you in Cal I. I’m not trying to keep you out of that class, but I don’t want you to be in there if you’re not ready, ’cause then you’re going to drop it or fail it.”

Since it is the first year this program has been instituted, there aren’t yet any data on student grades in calculus. Hamilton said they do have enrollment patterns that show many more students are taking pre-cal this year compared to previous years.

“Once we understand the combinations of factors that create a math learning disability, we can identify who may be more likely to struggle and by uncovering the nature of that difficulty,” said Cirino in a UH press release, “we can begin to make inroads into how we can meet that need.”

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“Professor researches age-old question: Why do students struggle in math?” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

On Sept. 3, Nike rolled out their ‘Just Do It’ 30-year anniversary campaign, making Colin Kaepernick the face. Kaepernick has reached more than 900,000 likes on his tweet announcing the campaign but has also received criticism from brand supporters, who even went as far as burning their Nike apparel. | Courtesy of Nike

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick gained national recognition after leading the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2013, but his legacy goes far beyond what happens after the first snap.

It comes from not standing during the national anthem and starting a nationwide conversation on social injustice, spreading his name across the country and even as far as the White House.

After inspiring athletes to take a stand, he motivated Nike to do the same. Practicing its ‘Just Do It’ mantra on its 30-year anniversary, Nike made Kaepernick the face of its campaign with a message that urges people to believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.

“I think that Colin Kaepernick is going down in history as the Muhammad Ali and John Carlos of this younger generation,” said Ashley DeWalt, a marketing adjunct at the Bauer College of Business. “When you talk to most young people that are Generation Z, they may not even know who Muhammad Ali was, but they’ll know who Colin Kaepernick is.”

In 2016, Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in protest of racism and the oppression of colored people. This action sparked national discourse on social injustice and put his career on hold. He has been a free agent since March 2017. 

Kaepernick’s actions weren’t without catalyst. It was a response to what was going on in the country at the time: white supremacists protesting outside of the NAACP’s Houston headquarters, teenagers being forced to remove Black Lives Matter apparel and the killing of an armed black man, according to the New York Times.

On Sept. 3, Nike supported Kaepernick’s message by making him the face of their ‘Just Do It’ 30-year anniversary campaign, causing a divide between Kaepernick’s supporters and critics — reaching over 900,000 likes on Kaepernick’s Twitter but also receiving responses varying from written disapproval to the burning of Nike apparel.

Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt pic.twitter.com/SRWkMIDdaO

— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) September 3, 2018

‘Smart move’

Although the NFL and President Donald Trump changed the narrative of the protest into one of disrespect to the American flag, DeWalt said Kaepernick intended on addressing social injustice.

Kaepernick initially sat during the 2016 NFL preseason but transitioned to kneeling to put an end to talk of disrespecting troops and the flag after consulting with former Green Beret and NFL player Nate Boyer.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said in an interview with the NFL in 2016 after sitting during the anthem. “To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Even with the opposition Kaepernick faces, DeWalt said support differentiates Kaepernick from past civil rights leaders, like Muhammad Ali and John Carlos.

Ali, a professional boxer, and Carlos, a track and field athlete, were civil rights leaders in the 60s and 70s. Ali protested the Vietnam War, while Carlos made the Black Power salute at the winner’s podium during the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

These civil rights leaders garnered international attention for the issues going on in the country at the time, DeWalt said, but neither had the support of a company like Nike.

Nike amplifies Kaepernick’s message, he said.

“Not only does he have Nike, but other athletes, like LeBron James, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, who are global stars,” DeWalt said.

DeWalt doesn’t think of it as Nike profiting from the situation, he said, and it helps Nike get behind an athlete and justify the movement’s purpose.

“It was a really smart move by Nike,” DeWalt said. “It will definitely motivate brands to fall in line with Nike, supporting athletes that stand for something.”

The NFL and President Trump responded to Nike’s campaign shortly after release.

In a statement, Jocelyn Moore, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications and public affairs, said “the social justice issues that Colin and other professional athletes have raised deserve our attention and action.”

The NFL has released a statement on social justice, saying the issues that Colin Kaepernick and others have raised deserve attention and action. pic.twitter.com/QfmEUkXdjT

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 4, 2018

In a tweet, Trump cited the NFL’s declining ratings and compared them to the criticism received by Nike.

Just like the NFL, whose ratings have gone WAY DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts. I wonder if they had any idea that it would be this way? As far as the NFL is concerned, I just find it hard to watch, and always will, until they stand for the FLAG!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018

‘Not a hard decision’

Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, a public relations professor at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, said social media is nearly everything.

“It’s where a lot of audiences are,” Vardeman-Winter said. “The attention span is shorter than it’s ever been before, but that’s where most advocates of any kind of issues are.”

Since social media has less regulations than other mediums, Vardeman-Winter said it gives groups the ability to call other people out.

“The ability of other people to make you feel stupid is kind of what holds people accountable,” Vardeman-Winter said.

There’s also an unprecedented amount of outside opinions, she said, where it’s OK to “be that jerk on social media.”

Kaepernick represents what Nike’s customer base believes right now, she said, and Nike wouldn’t spend money if they didn’t think they would make a profit.

In addition to their customer base, Verdeman-Winter said she thinks a lot of the decision makers are from the same demographics and share the same opinion on Kaepernick.

“I think, in this instance, it was not a really hard decision, because they knew it was going to be not only a good financial move, but it was going to be something they, as a company, believe in,” she said.

Nike wouldn’t pay out that money without a proven track record, she said. There’s a history of taking risk and doing work that brings them rewards.

Vardeman-Winter said the more they study the campaign, the less she thinks there was a huge risk of losing customers and the alignment of Nike’s brand with social issues isn’t going away anytime soon.

“Consumers are feeling that they want to not just pay more for a good product, they want to pay to a company that’s doing good,” she said.

Even though people posted negative feedback, she said Nike received more positive reinforcement.

“In the social media environment, even negative publicity like that is still an example that Nike is still relevant,” she said. “People still care enough to post about them even if it’s negative.”

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“Social Media Spotlight: Nike supports Kaepernick’s message in latest ad” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Following the oil bust of 2016, the College of Engineering experienced a drop in enrollment for petroleum and subsea engineering. Undergraduate petroleum enrollment dropped from 963 in Fall 2015 to 532 in Fall 2017. Undergraduate subsea enrollment also dropped from 68 in Fall 2015 to 20 in Fall 2017. | Corbin Ayres/The Cougar.

Houston’s energy sector has continued to recover from 2016’s oil bust as prices rise to $70 per barrel from the $25 range seen two years ago, incentivizing companies to resume offshore drilling and improving the industry’s outlook from the perspective of academia.

According to Union Pacific and Forbes, crude oil prices dropped to around $25 per barrel in 2016, resulting in the loss of around 4,300 jobs in Houston. A similar drop can be seen in enrollment numbers for petroleum and subsea engineering students at the University of Houston in the past two years — but faculty believe rising oil prices signal a change in the industry.

“The rise in oil price is a positive for our students,” said Christine Ehlig-Economides, a professor at the College of Engineering. “I think companies are back trying to hire, but not at the crazy level before the downturn.”

Ehlig-Economides said companies encouraged academia to increase numbers. In 2011-12, the University focused on meeting the industry’s demand, increasing undergraduate petroleum enrollment from 224 in Fall 2011 to 963 in Fall 2015, according to enrollment figures. Similarly, undergraduate subsea engineering enrollment rose from 10 in Fall 2011 to 68 in Fall 2015.

Enrollment numbers for undergraduate petroleum engineering dropped from 963 in Fall 2015 to 532 in Fall 2017, according to enrollment figures. Subsea engineering enrollment also dropped from 68 in Fall 2015 to 20 in Fall 2017.

Subsea engineers specialize in offshore petroleum exploration. UH opened the first graduate subsea engineering program in the country, according to the college’s website, and University students founded the first subsea engineering organization — the Subsea Engineering Society.

“You get a bubble,” Ehlig-Economides said. “I would say last year, this year and next year there will be more graduates than is probably going to be the sustainable number.”

As a result, graduates have a hard time finding employment, she said, but hiring percentages will improve from last year.

Enrollment numbers dropped in Ehlig-Economides’ class following 2016’s oil bust. Last spring, she had around 180 students, a 40 student drop from two years ago.

Since it’s been difficult to find jobs, Ehlig-Economides said students opt to enter graduate programs if they can afford it — sometimes petroleum, sometimes another direction.

“I think far bigger numbers are still going to be hired,” Ehlig-Economides said.

Companies paused offshore drilling projects after the bust, Ehlig-Economides said, but production in the Permian Basin — located in East Texas — and Bakken remained high.

While operation costs regularly range between $100-300 million for offshore drilling, Ehlig-Economides said oil well prices in the Permian hover around $5 million, “undermining the competitiveness of deepwater offshore (drilling).”

Offshore drilling has a capital barrier that the Permian doesn’t experience, she said, but large companies prefer this method, as it has a higher potential upside.

Deepwater offshore also demands electrical, civil and mechanical engineers, not just petroleum and subsea engineers, she said.

Increasing demand likely caused higher prices, she said.

Ed Hirs, an economics lecturer in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, said U.S. producers are “high-cost players.”

“They’re unable to profit at the prices that OPEC pushed on the industry,” Hirs said. “The U.S industry lost over $250 billion in capital, lost over 250,000 direct jobs and there were more than 300 bankruptcies.”

Hirs said offshore drilling is resuming because of increasing prices.

Adeyinka Aremo, a graduate student at the College of Engineering and secretary of the Subsea Engineering Society, said being a subsea engineer is a rare opportunity.

“I think the rise of oil prices is good, because a lot of projects are coming up,” Aremo said. “UH being the only school having subsea engineering has made it a good opportunity since most of the projects coming up are offshore.”

Ehlig-Economides said she expects hiring percentages to keep improving.

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“As oil prices rise, industry outlook improves” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Jevh Maravilla (right), a media production senior, and Christian Toledo noticed the lack of Asian models in the advertising of a Pearland McDonald’s, so they edited the company’s logo and graphics into a picture of them holding the fast-food chain’s food and placed it on an empty wall at the Pearland location. A tweet sent out by Maravilla, which explained how the poster had been up for 51 days,  went viral on Twitter, generating 400,000 likes in the first 24 hours. |  Courtesy of Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo

As Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo took the final bites of their Snack Wraps at a Pearland McDonald’s, they noticed none of the restaurant’s posters had Asian models, so the pair formulated a plan to fill an empty wall with advertising of their own.

They edited a photograph of themselves taken at their neighborhood event center — where they modeled with a McDonald’s burger and fries — and put it up as a poster with the help of a group of friends and UH students.

After noticing the franchise had kept the poster for 51 days, Maravilla tweeted about it, generating more than 1 million likes and 252,000 retweets as of Sept. 9.

i noticed there was a blank wall at mcdonald’s so i decided to make this fake poster of me and my friend. It’s now been 51 days since i hung it up. pic.twitter.com/5OTf5aR4vm

— JΞVH M (@Jevholution) September 2, 2018

“If you haven’t noticed, there isn’t a lot of Asians represented in media,” said Maravilla, a media production senior, in a YouTube video he made about the experience. “And hopefully one day I can see someone like me on the big screen.”

‘Highlighting diversity’

According to Marketing Week, minorities constitute only 19 percent of people in advertisements, and 35 percent of the people surveyed feel that Asians are underrepresented — a discussion Maravilla brought to light on social media following the tweet, which reached 400,000 likes within 24 hours.

Although he was born in Texas, Maravilla’s parents are from the Philippines, according to coverage by CNN. Toledo moved here from the Philippines a few years ago.

“We both can’t believe how much attention this has been getting,” Maravilla said to CNN. “I hope this can open the eyes to not just McDonald’s, but other major companies can embrace different ethnicities.”

Maravilla and Toledo edited the fast-food chain’s logo and other graphics used in their posters into a picture of themselves modeling with the company’s food. That same night, they paid $84.99 to print the poster and $6.48 for a McDonald’s uniform at a thrift store, according to the YouTube video.

With a group of friends, they staked out the establishment and waited for employees to clear the area. Then Maravilla, wearing a fake McDonald’s uniform and regional interior coordinator badge, hung the picture of him and Toledo with the help of his friends

Equipped with the uniform and poster, the group pulled off their mission of diversifying advertising at their local McDonald’s.

“We take pride in highlighting diversity in every aspect of our restaurants,” said Mariselle Quijano, owner of the Pearland franchise, according to coverage by CNN. “We applaud these students’ creativity and hope to see them in our restaurants again soon.”

The Pearland franchise has not removed the poster, and McDonald’s corporate communications said they support the franchise’s response, according to CNN.

Breaking stereotypes

Larry Kelley, a professor of advertising at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, said it makes sense to highlight all of a business’ customers.

“The more diverse your customer base, the more that should be reflected in the communication,” Kelley said. “Much of selecting people for advertising is to portray the brand in a positive light, usually by offering an aspirational target.”

Like Nike’s recent campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, companies wanting to improve their image need to “jump on pop culture and become a part of the conversation,” Kelley said.

“The UH guys caught ‘lightning in a bottle’ with their effort,” Kelley said. “It resonated since it was a positive message and eventually supported by McDonald’s since it was an offshoot of their core values.”

Though they had nothing to do with the viral tweet, Kelley said it worked out for McDonald’s since they’re getting free publicity and the opportunity to embrace diversity.

The advertising industry started improving in terms of diversity as the country’s diversity increased, he said.

Brands do the unexpected and push boundaries to include various groups, he said, and that helps break down stereotypes, like in Guinness’ commercial featuring a gay rugby player.

Maravilla said all groups deserve recognition.

“To this day, I can say the poster has been up since, and I really hope they’ll never take it down,” Maravilla said in a YouTube video.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“Social Media Spotlight: Tweet prompts talks of inclusion in advertising” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Ryan Marquez (left), a professor of practice at the Law Center, will lead the Hurricane Consumer Assistance Program, where he and law students will provide legal assistance and information to Houston residents dealing with issues ensuing from Hurricane Harvey. | Michael Slaten/The Cougar

The University of Houston Law Center launched its Hurricane Consumer Assistance Program July 12 with a $205,000 grant from the Greater Houston Community Foundation to provide legal information relevant to future disasters and assist with Houston consumer issues ensuing from Hurricane Harvey.

According to the Texas Tribune, Hurricane Harvey cost a total of $125 billion – the second most expensive disaster after Hurricane Katrina. Houston residents have experienced landlord-tenant issues and contractor disputes — among other consumer issues — while trying to rebuild. The University of Houston Law Center launched the Hurricane Consumer Assistance Program to provide legal services and information to people dealing with similar problems and prepare them for future disasters.

“We’re trying to get legal information or legal services to at least 1,000 individuals,” said Ryan Marquez, a professor leading the program at the Law Center. “In Texas, there’s very little protections, so you have to be more vigilant than maybe you would have to be in other states.”

Marquez and a group of students will provide legal services to eligible individuals, such as sending demand letters, and offer community presentations around Houston to explain the rights of Texas residents.

Harris County and Houston residents qualify to receive help from the program as long as they have a case, Marquez said. The Greater Houston Community Foundation also set six preference categories: low income, LGBTQ, elderly, undocumented individuals, households with students or children and residents who didn’t qualify for FEMA.

Although they’re prepared to help Houston residents across the city, Marquez said they’re focusing on Third Ward residents.

The Law Center began the program by helping around 25 people draft demand letters, Marquez said.

“I mean, sometimes demand notices can only get you what the person has,” Marquez said. “You can’t squeeze water out of a rock, but I think the main help is helping people know where they stand with different things.”

Sometimes people have no legal recourse left, so the information helps them decide whether they want to continue pursuing the matter, Marquez said, and they’ll understand what their rights are for future situations.

People will know how to apply for FEMA, spend insurance money, deal with landlord-tenant issues and more with the information the program provides, he said.

Common misconceptions

A lot of questions immediately after Harvey dealt with FEMA applications, Marquez said, but clients are now primarily dealing with repair and contractor issues.

Marquez said there’s no warranty of habitability in Texas, meaning people’s leases aren’t automatically canceled because of damage.

The repair statute set specific guidelines for repairs. For example, if a residence is completely uninhabitable, then tenants have the right to terminate their lease, but they must first send a written notice to the landlord. Tenants also have to clear the residence on the day of the termination.

Landlords hold the right to refuse a tenant’s written request in a case of complete inhabitability, but tenants can take their case to court, Marquez said.

Though people have a right to terminate in these cases, Marquez said it’s not automatic. Tenants still have to pay rent until the lease is officially terminated, but they’re entitled to a refund from the date of termination since rent is usually paid in advance.

In cases with partial inhabitability, tenants can petition for rent reduction if they file a lawsuit, making it more difficult than cases of complete inhabitability, he said.

Individuals who cease paying rent as a response complicate the process, he said. Under the repair statute, landlords have no obligation to repair a residence if their tenant hasn’t paid rent, and tenants can now face legal consequences for violating their lease.

Landlords who have insurance also have no obligation to begin reparations until they receive funds from their insurer, he said.

“An adjuster would have to come out, approve it, cut the check and then the time line would start for the landlord to make repairs,” Marquez said.

‘Your one shot’

Marquez said people misinterpret their rights when dealing with contractors. In cases where contractors fail to meet set standards, individuals have to send a written notice explaining what’s wrong for them to rectify the problem.

People have to specify the set standards in writing, not verbally, if they want legal protection, Marquez said.

“All that matters is what’s on the contract,” Marquez said. “This is usually your one shot to repair things with the money you’ve got, whether it’s FEMA money or money in your bank.”

While it’s less expensive to pay one contractor for the entire job, Marquez said it’s safer to hire a contractor project by project. If a contractor can’t efficiently complete a smaller project, then they likely won’t do a good job on your entire house, he said.

Marquez said law students learn how to give legal advice to clients — even if it’s difficult to hear.

Students learn how to draft demand letters, formulate strategy and learn how to communicate with their clients, he said.

Janet Heppard, a clinical director at the Law Center, said the program helps law students gain the knowledge they’ll need to help people in the future.

“Being able to do these training classes in the hopes that when these students get out, they’ll feel more comfortable jumping in and volunteering,” Heppard said.

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“Law Center launches consumer assistance program for Harvey victims” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

The University of Houston Law Center fosters diversity by providing resources to underrepresented, low-income and first-year students. | Corbin Ayres/The Cougar

Tiffany Tucker isn’t your stereotypical lawyer, but she didn’t let that stop her from succeeding at an old-fashioned New York law firm. She’s energetic and gregarious, not stoic. At least that’s what a first-year law student of Indian descent told her at orientation after realizing she, like Tucker, could practice law without changing her own unique personality.

The assistant dean for career development wants similar underrepresented students to know everyone is welcome, and she isn’t alone. Faculty and students at the University of Houston Law Center work to promote different perspectives by making sure all students get their foot in the door.

“I mentored a lot of students who were unrepresented in the field, who didn’t feel like they had a place, who didn’t feel like they could walk into a majority establishment and be taken seriously,” Tucker said. “We want everybody walking in the door to understand they have a place in the legal field.”

UH founded the Law Center, one of its 13 academic colleges, in 1947. Since then, faculty have implemented programs such as student organizations and career development programs to help underrepresented students enter the legal field.

Changing dynamics

Assistant Dean for Admissions of the Law Center Pilar Mensah said diversity covers more than just racial and ethnic differences. They look at prospective students’ sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, place of origin and more.

“One of the reasons I think it’s so important in the law school setting, even more than other programs, is because of the dynamics and the way classes are taught,” Mensah said. “If we have a very homogeneous class of the same type of person, you wouldn’t get those different perspectives, you wouldn’t be able to have those debates.”

Law school professors don’t lecture the entire class period. Students have open ended discussions where they learn to argue both points of view — an essential skill for a successful lawyer, she said.

Though diversity is not a deciding factor, only a contributing one, Mensah said the Law Center is committed to reflecting Houston’s diversity.

Cody West, president of the Black Law Students Association at the Law Center, said having students with different perspectives adds more to the conversation.

When people hear about the Black Law Student Association, West said they think it’s mainly for African Americans. That’s not the case.

“We’re an inclusive organization who have members who are white, Asian, middle easterners, who don’t believe in Jesus Christ, who believe in Allah and who believe in no god,” West said. “I think that’s important, because whenever you have an organization and have people of different backgrounds, that also can kind of allow you to gauge things from another view.”

‘There’s a place for them’

Tucker said the Law Center helps unrepresented groups by giving them the resources they need to advance professionally.

“We got quite a few programs that are focused on different areas of underrepresented students in the legal profession to help get their foot in the door,” Tucker said.

The Career Development Office is accomplishing this through the Lavender Career Fair and Conference, Sunbelt Minority Recruitment Program, IMPACT Career Fair and Houston Bar Association Minority Opportunities in the Legal Profession.

The Houston Bar Association MOLP program, for example, allows students to apply for positions reserved for underrepresented minorities by connecting them with potential employers during their first summer.

Although the Law Center made progress by implementing different programs, Tucker said the biggest change has been the attitude of incoming students. She wasn’t asked to scrub away things that make her different, Tucker said, and new students are coming in believing they don’t have to.

“They’re starting to believe there’s a place for them no matter who they are and no matter where they want to go,” Tucker said.

Though the Law Center wants to promote diversity, West said they have to do more than just seek out a diverse pool of applicants.

“The law school can want to improve diversity as much as they want, but they can’t expressly say they’re only going to consider race,” West said.

The Law Center attracts applicants of color, but if their GPA and LSAT scores don’t meet the requirement, there’s not much the University can do, he said.

However, the Law Center can make sure these unrepresented groups have the resources necessary to prepare for law school, he said. One way the school has done this is through the Pre-Law Pipeline program.

In its fourth year, the pipeline program gives low-income, underrepresented and first-year students a better shot at being accepted into law school with prep courses aimed at raising their GPAs, LSAT scores and introducing them to the profession.

Tangible benefits

Tucker said employers always had an incentive to promote diversity: money.

“Legal employers typically see how diversity affects their bottom line,” Tucker said. “Their clients want to see themselves in their products, their business, and they want to see that their service providers understand them.”

Clients push for members of their legal teams to reflect the diversity seen in their own customers, she said.

Diversity impacts their bottom lines, Tucker said, because people from “every walk of life” are making and spending money.

Businesses want to maintain a sense of loyalty with their customers, and they achieve this only by showing that they understand them, Tucker said. The demand for diversity has been there for companies, but the benefits go far beyond monetary ones.

“When you don’t have people in those places to enact change, to understand the law, how it impacts people differently, then it’ll stay the same, and you may never understand how it could be applied in a different way by different people,” Tucker said.

To get the full objective of the law, Tucker said a wide variety of people need to pay attention to it.

Different perspectives help communities by fostering honesty and ensuring an even application of the law, she said.

In a press release, Leonard Baynes, dean of the Law Center, said the school’s alumni have historically pioneered in their communities.

Justice Ruby Kless Sondock, who graduated in 1962, became the first women to serve in the Texas Supreme Court. Raul Gonzales, a product of the 1966 graduating class, went on to be the first Latino in the Texas Supreme Court.

“Our important legacy of diversity and inclusion, along with our forward-thinking programs and initiatives, work to make the Law Center a thriving community for individuals of all backgrounds,” Baynes said.

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Promises are pledges that do more than just guarantee the promised something. It holds the person doing the promise accountable. The Supreme Court has kept the promise — the Constitutional amendment of religious freedom — since the framers penned what is now an almost 227-year-old basic right.

“Especially recently, I would say the Court has been very sympathetic to religious freedoms,” said Emily Berman, an assistant professor at the Law Center.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees free exercise of religion and prohibits the government from establishing one — an amendment the Supreme Court regularly reviews to clarify its limits.

Two clauses protect freedom of religion: the establishment clause and the free exercise clause, Berman said. The former prevents the government from giving preference to one religion over another, while the latter protects people’s ability to practice their preferred religion, she said.

The Supreme Court is the head of the judicial branch – one of the three branches of government. The court is made up of nine justices, all appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Justices serve for life unless they retire or Congress impeaches and convicts them.

Past decisions

Berman said religious liberties don’t excuse compliance with government regulations that affect everyone in a general manner.

In Employment Division v. Smith, the plaintiff, a Native American, said smoking peyote was part of his religion and that a restriction violated his religious liberties, Berman said. But the regulation applies to everyone, not a specific group, she said.

The Court said rules don’t infringe on religious liberties if they don’t intentionally target specific groups, she said.

To implement regulations targeting specific groups, the Court said the government needs to prove a compelling government interest, she said.

In Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, the city passed a rule prohibiting people from sacrificing chickens, Berman said. Though it applied to everyone in a general manner, it primarily impacted only members of the church because of its focus on their religious customs, she said.

Courts examine regulations intentionally imposing limits on religious practices with strict scrutiny – the most difficult standard to meet, she said.

“Long story short, the government’s intention becomes important,” Berman said.

In Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd.  v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Court dealt with a rule of general applicability that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation, she said.

The plaintiff said the rule burdens the ability to freely exercise religion, Berman said.

Although people expected the Court to establish precedent on how to deal with similar cases, the Court treated it like the chicken case, she said.

“When the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled against the baker, someone in that commission made statements that were derogatory of religion,” Berman said.

They treated the rule as if it targeted religion because of the individual’s statement, she said.

But the Court gives deference to the executive branch in matters of national security, Berman said.

In the case involving President Donald Trump’s travel ban, the Court decided that national security concerns justified Trump’s actions, she said. The Court has less leeway to enquire on the government’s motives in these situations, she said.

Core values

Berman said religious freedom was one of the reasons colonists came from England.

“You could say free exercise and the establishment clause were sort of reactions to things that the framers objected to under English rule,” Berman said. “It was sort of one of the founding ideas of the United States.”

Caryn Tamber-Rosenau, an assistant professor of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies, said humans have a desire to find meaning and that they find it in the idea of a higher power.

“Life can be really confusing and scary and terrible at times, and the idea that everything happens for a reason can be helpful to people,” Tamber-Rosenau said.

Religion helped people understand the natural world, and it’s a system for organizing life, Tamber-Rosenau said.

Belief creates a sense of comfort for people, and ritual and practice help organize their lives, she said.

“It’s a way of connecting you to your ancestors,” Tamber-Rosenau said. “If you’re a Muslim and you’re observing Ramadan, and you know that your ancestors have observed Ramadan, that has to be really powerful.”

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While in graduate school in the ’70s, Nicolás Kanellos, director of Arte Público Press, scoured the libraries at the University of Texas at Austin for Latino literature but found nothing in one of the top 10 largest public collections in the country.

He has worked to change that for the past 44 years, publishing the work of Latino writers and recovering records of Latino heritage.

“We knew that there was a long history of Latino thought and Latino writing in the United States,” Kanellos said. “But not all of that material was available in libraries, classrooms, archives, and our whole written heritage was being lost.”

In Chicago, 1972, Kanellos started a magazine, Revista Chicano-Riqueña, after realizing that a lot of Latino writers didn’t have an outlet to publish their work. Kanellos founded Arte Público Press in 1979 after the magazine’s success in classrooms, and he brought the magazine and publisher with him to the University of Houston in 1980.

Arte Público Press is the oldest and largest U.S. publisher of contemporary and recovered U.S. Latino literature. APP launched the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project to recover records of Latino literature and created Piñata Books, a division focused on children’s books.

Preserving Latino heritage

Kanellos said institutions responsible for safeguarding our national heritage were not accessible to Latinos.

He wanted to find records of Latino literature, history and culture but found nothing. Kanellos always knew Latino heritage existed, but it was absent from his education, he said.

Americo Paredes, a Mexican-American author and Kanellos’ professor at UT, directed him to century-old newspapers where he found records of Latino history, Kanellos said.

He’d have to wait 20 years for adequate funding, modern technology and a core of professors able to focus on safeguarding Latino heritage, Kanellos said. Then he found 20 scholars in the field and created the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project.

Foundations, like the Rockefeller Foundation, began supporting the project soon after, he said. The project is self-sustaining because they sell databases of recovered texts.

Latinos participated in almost every movement in American history, ranging from abolition to women’s suffrage, Kanellos said.

“We have material evidence, texts, documentation and about 2,000 different newspapers that were published before 1960 that are evidence of our thinking, of our contributions, of our literature, of our art and of our politics that our students and scholars around the United States can access,” Kanellos said.

APP launched the careers of most of the important Latino writers in the United States, like Sandra Cisneros, he said.

There’s no other recovery program in the United States nor a publisher focused on Latino literature as large as APP, he said.

Promoting Latino writers

Gwendolyn Zepeda, Houston’s first poet laureate, said her work wasn’t stereotypical enough for New York publishers, so she published her work with APP.

“When I was contacting agents, they were like, ‘I would rather have a story about your family crossing the border’,” Zepeda said. “It occurred to me that whoever published Sandra Cisneros first was the right person for me.”

Zepeda’s work doesn’t deal with assimilating to American culture because she’s already American, she said.

She was afraid APP wouldn’t want her work because she wasn’t Latina enough, but they liked it and said she should make it longer, she said.

APP understands that while Latinos have things in common, there’s individual and artistic differences, Zepeda said. They try to promote as many different voices as they can, she said.

“They’re not just looking for the border story or just looking for Dirty Girls Social Club,” Zepeda said. “I believe that no minority in America can be truly respected until we are seen as individuals.”

Jasminne Mendez, a UH alumna and author, said APP’s focus on Latino writers ensures their work gets into the right hands.

Mendez first published with APP while studying at UH when her professor selected her work to be part of an anthology, she said.

“Because of their dedication to only Latino authors, they really are thoughtful in the editing process, marketing and the care they take with your work and your words,” Mendez said. “It was important to me that they would consider my story and honor my story, not try to whitewash it.”

Humble beginnings

Kanellos said UH covers some of APP’s indirect costs, such as financial accounting, personnel and facilities, but he didn’t always have these resources available.

“When we started at Revista Chicano-Riqueña, we were scrounging for paper at the university (in Chicago),” Kanellos said. “We would be selling them out by hand during community festivals.”

It started as a grassroots effort, Kanellos said. Now APP works with wholesalers, distributors and movie agents, he said.

Marina Tristan, assistant director of APP, said the agency had only four full-time employees when she started in 1986 compared to the current 10 full-time and 10 part-time employees.

They had offices in three different buildings at one point: a trailer behind the law school, Agnes Arnold and the library, she said.

“Our warehouse was literally closets and classrooms,” Tristan said. “We’d have a 10-minute window to get in the classroom, haul out the boxes that we needed and not disrupt the class.”

They regularly sent out students, and one of them missed the 10-minute window, Tristan said. He had to hide in one of the closets until class ended, she said.

One of their closets located in the basement of Agnes Arnold flooded during tropical storm Allison — a problem they haven’t dealt with since moving to their new office in 2012, she said.

Tristan and other APP employees now have easy access to books without having to walk across campus, worry about rodents or climb over toilets, she said.

Kanellos said APP employs graduate students who oftentimes choose their research topics from the recovery program.

Universities and libraries across the country subscribe to their databases, Kanellos said.

“We’re especially targeting the eight largest school districts with Latino enrollment in the country, like Houston, Dallas, San Antonio,” Kanellos said. “(We’re) getting our books, our heritage into the hands of kids, especially Latinos who haven’t had access to this material in the past.”

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The Law Center accepted three students from the law and undergraduate dual degree program into the class of 2021. Mason Malone, left, and Stephanie Nweke start law school this fall. | Corbin Ayres/The Cougar

Three years after UH launched its 3+3 undergraduate and law dual degree program, the Law Center will receive the program’s first cohort as part of the class of 2021.

The Honors College, Law Center and College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences formed a partnership in 2015 to create an undergraduate and law dual degree program, where students major in liberal studies — a degree consisting of three minors. They receive a minor in phronesis, one in the subject of their choice and their law degree counts as the third.

“We have an opportunity within the Honors College for exceptional students to potentially complete their undergraduate studies in three years,” said Alison Leland, director of Honors Pre-Law and Public Service. “Then in what would be their senior year, they begin their studies at the UH Law Center.”

To take part in 3+3, Leland said students must first be admitted into the Honors College and then apply to enroll into the program.

Those accepted into the program receive their bachelor’s degree only after their first year of law school, she said. Some students within the program decide not to enroll in law school and graduate in four years instead of three.

Law school applicants accepted by the Law Center tend to have at least a 3.5 GPA and a 159 on the LSAT, Leland said.

The Law Center accepted all three students who applied from the program’s first cohort into the Class of 2021.

Those interested in attending other law schools, or those deciding not to attend at all, are free to complete their degrees in four years.

Mason Malone, the first 3+3 student accepted into the Law Center, said he benefited most from the mentorship and exposure available in the program.

Leland introduced students to people within the legal community, Malone said, in addition to exposing them to the different ways they can use a law degree.

She also gave Malone advice whenever he needed it. Leland even helped him land an internship with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, he said.

Students in the 3+3 program get additional preparation because the program allows them to see the different career paths available, he said.

Although the summer classes they took at the Law Center lacked the intensity of an actual law class, Malone said the opportunity gave them a preview of what it would be like.

“Probably the greatest help has been maybe just fully understanding that nothing in undergrad can fully prepare you,” Malone said. “It’s just so hard to be prepared, because from what I’ve heard, it’s just nothing like what you’ve ever had before.”

Though law school waives his third minor, Malone is majoring in economics and minored in public relations and Phronesis, the study of moral philosophy, classical literature, political theory and ethics.

The program also allows students to build close relationships with their peers, Malone said. He’s good friends with the other two students in his group, and they mentor students in other cohorts.

Stephanie Nweke, one of the students in the program’s first cohort, said she minored in psychology and Phronesis, with law school counting as her third.

“I think what I see improving is the directors of the program creating a safe space for the students and the program to explore what they want to do, even if that doesn’t involve going to law school early,” Nweke said.

Being around people with similar ambitions and qualities, like Malone, makes it easier to get through potential obstacles, she said.

Nweke is the only female student in this cohort, so she said her experience differed from Malone’s. But being female hasn’t taken away any of the opportunities available to her.

“It helps you kind of sit back for the ride and enjoy it rather than focusing on getting to the final destination,” Nweke said.

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