A solar panel powers an emergency call box outside the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. Solar energy was decreasing in price, but a new 30 percent tariff on Asian-produced panels might change that. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

The Trump Administration imposed a tariff on solar panels imported from China and other parts of southeast Asia on Jan. 22. With some of the solar energy industry worrying, this could influence parts of the U.S. with the most sunlight — southern states. Despite the diversity of Texas’ energy production, the tariff could be a big problem for the state.

A trio of issues — trade conflicts with Asia, a desire to nudge U.S. solar panel manufacturers and the Trump Administration’s affinity for coal, oil and gas — led to the tariff, which should be in effect for four years and decrease by 5 percent each year.

In large part, Houston’s economy is tied to the energy it produces, especially from oil and natural gas. Houston does have slowly increasing solar industry, but it only contributes less than 1 percent of total Texas power generation.

Natural gases have the most production in Texas with crude oil following. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

Solar growth

Although solar energy accounts for 1 percent of the energy sector, it has been growing steadily over the past decade.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), from 2011 to 2012, the total amount of megawatt-hours, or Mwh, produced by solar energy increased nearly 500 percent. The 15,000 Mwh produced in 2012 contains enough energy to power electricity in almost 5 million homes for an hour.

From 2016 to 2017, solar energy grew even more, this time doubling from 94,000 to 193,000 Mwh. This growth still happened in spite of the push for the coal industry in the last election cycle.

The growth of the solar industry has continued even among the continued use — sometimes increased use — of oil, fossil fuels and petroleum.

In 2016, one out of every 50 new jobs served the solar industry. Over the last four years these jobs have increased 20 percent and have tripled since 2010, according to The Solar Foundation’s Solar Job Census.

Among other states like California and Florida, Texas is one of the top five states that have the most solar-related jobs.

Solar energy has had wide margins of growth, going up nearly 500 percent in the first recordable year. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

Affects on industry

Energy provider NRG, which boasts a Houston headquarters, also produces solar energy, but the firm declined to comment to The Cougar. A spokesperson said NRG is continuing to analyze the tariff’s impacts on the industry. 

“Ironically, the tariffs will hurt the solar industry in the long run,” said Praveen Kumar, a chaired professor of finance at UH. “I say ironically because the justification is that the tariffs will protect the U.S. solar industry.”

With over 90 percent of panels produced abroad, solar panel prices would double, and more than 88,000 solar  — or one in three — sector jobs would be lost across the U.S., according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

In Texas, most of the power comes from natural gas, and after oil production exploded in the early 20th century, that gas became cheap. Without government incentive to create solar-based energy, it already has a hard time to come into the mix, unlike other states, such as California, Kumar said.

The tariff on the solar panels will trickle down into what consumers pay for installation on their homes.

“The cost of this equipment will rise, perhaps forcing many consumers to delay adoption of solar power for their homes,” Kumar said.

MBA candidate Dean Bendele, the president of the student-run Energy Club, thinks otherwise.

“I think the people who are looking into buying solar panels want them and know they are going to be expensive, so they’ll look past that,” Bendele said. Even with the tariff, Bendele thinks nonrenewable energy is key to the U.S. becoming energy independent.

“I think social convention is pushing that along regardless of where anyone wants it to go,” Bendele said.

The tariff won’t affect Houston much, according to Bendele. Solar energy companies will increase prices to maintain profit margins, and hiring won’t freeze as solar continues to expand, Bendele said.

Because solar energy is still new — like all nonrenewables — it will have to work with existing energies that Houston already does well processing and selling.

“Natural gas and renewable supplementing each other to replace coal will lead us to energy independence and reduce carbon emissions,” Bendele said.

features@thedailycougar.com

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“Solar panel tariffs could impact Houston companies” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Monday: Jhumpa Lahiri

Cullen Performance Hall

7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Pulitzer Prize winner and contributor to The New Yorker, Bengali-British author Jhumpa Lahiri will be doing a reading of one of her books. After, there will be a interview from the director of the creative writing program, Alexander Parsons.

Wednesday: “Genderrations” Film and Panel

Student Center South, Heights Room, Room 224

11:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The LGBTQ Resource Center is screening “Genderations” for Gender Pride Week, a documentary about gender and society. It will followed by a panel of gender nonconforming, non-binary and/or gender fluid people. 

Wednesday: Etiquette Dinner

University of Houston, Hilton Hotel, Shamrock Room

6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Sponsored by Career Services, the University is hosting a fine dining experience to all students to learn about the rules of proper dining. The event is $20 and registration is currently closed but to get on the waiting you can contact Lauren Hermann at lcbrande@central.uh.edu.

Thursday: 35 International Piano Festival

Moores School of Music

2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The Moores School of Music is hosting its annual Piano Festival starting Thursday and ending on Sunday. It will feature performers from around the world doing recitals and masterclasses.

Friday: InfraRED: Jammin’ in Your Jammies

Student Center South, Houston Room

7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Wind down after the week in your most comfortable clothing. Help yourselves to breakfast tacos and a donut bar while dancing to a DJ. Also, there will be a onesie competition.

features@thedailycougar.com

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“Five events that are a must go this week” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Medical practitioners can now choose not to perform procedures, such as abortion, that interfere with their religious beliefs. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

The Trump administration’s Thursday push to protect the rights of healthcare professionals who object to performing medical treatments or procedures due to religious or moral obligations could prevent women in rural communities from receiving adequate reproductive care, according to a UH Law professor.

On Thursday the Department of Health and Human Services created the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in its Office of Civil Rights to ensure medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, have protection when they refuse to perform certain medical procedures, like abortions, on religious or moral grounds.

“What the agency does is it provides an additional vehicle for making sure those protections exist on more than just paper,” said Seth Chandler, a UH law professor who specializes in insurance and health law. “There are a number of protections that Congress has enacted, for better or worse, that give employees — or people working for agencies that receive federal funding — these rights of conscious. In theory, the rights of conscious are broad, but 95 percent of the time it’s about reproduction and abortion.”

Reviving old norms

Rural areas with religious communities could experience a drought of reproductive care if all doctors in the area refused to perform certain treatments and procedures, he said.

“In those areas, it can make it considerably more difficult for poorer women to receive those services,” Chandler said.

These protections have been law for two decades or more, Chandler said. Lawmakers today just made different interpretations of what they mean and how heavily they will be enforced.

“What the Trump regulations do is to push things back away from the way the Obama Administration had interpreted them,” Chandler said, “and go back, at least as far back, as the way the Bush Administration had interpreted them.”

The Bush Administration had enacted a rule in its last year, Chandler said, that discussed how a number of the conscious statutes were interpreted. He said they were more on the side of religious conscious and less concerned with reproductive rights than many would prefer.

The Obama Administration, Chandler said, undid most of that work and basically required employees of federally funded programs to be willing to perform abortions or provide contraception.

“The pendulum has swung again, and now we have the Trump Administration doing, I would say, two things,” Chandler said. “One is undoing what the Obama Administration did, which in turn undid what the Bush Administration did, but then it’s actually gone farther and created this new division…that’s going to be staffed up with people whose job it’s going to be to find institutions that purportedly violate these rights of conscious.”

Not only does this protect doctors and others who refuse to perform certain procedures, it will also fine institutions found to be pressuring staff to perform procedures against their religious obligations, Chandler explained.

Far-reaching effects

Devan Ford-McCartney, the director of the Women and Gender Resource Center at UH, said these new regulations could have other impacts on women’s health.

“As an example, many women use birth control for a variety of health conditions including irregular or heavy menstrual periods, menstrual cramps, PMS, Primary Ovarian Insufficiency, Endometriosis and hormone replacement therapy,” Ford-McCartney said in an email. “Lack of access to get such medication may have a negative impact on their care as well as their health.”

Lorraine Schroeder, the director of the UH LGBTQ Resorce Center, explained that these regulations could potentially have a negative impact on the LGBTQ community as well.

“Many in the LGBTQ community are already denied treatment, mistreated, or just don’t seek out healthcare due to discrimination,” Schroeder said in an email. “Health care professionals that perform gender affirming procedures do this because that is their specialty, but it may influence LGBTQ people having equal access to insurance benefits.”

Schroeder said the new division could worsen discrimination that already exists for transgender people.

“According to the 2011 ‘Injustice at Every Turn’ Report, 19 percent of transgender people have been denied healthcare, and 50 percent have had to educate their doctors about transgender care,” Schroeder said.

‘A noose around Planned Parenthood’

The same day the Trump Administration issued the regulations that created the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, Chandler said, it also sent a letter to every Medicaid director in every state.

That letter rescinded an Obama Administration letter from 2016 that disallowed states from de-funding entities like Planned Parenthood that have affiliates that perform abortions.

The Obama Administration’s reasoning was that the Medicaid statute required funding for any medically qualified institution, Chandler said.

“I suspect what that will do is reinvigorate the efforts of states like Texas to tighten a noose around Planned Parenthood in which pieces of that organization provide abortion or services that some people think are abortion,” Chandler said.

The argument here, according to Chandler, is between religious conscious concerns and reproductive rights concerns. He said neither party completely ignores one value in favor of the other.

“I think a lot of Republicans here are saying, ‘Look, we’re not saying you can’t have an abortion, we’re just saying that people who find it religiously offensive to participate in that shouldn’t feel pressured to be complicit in what they regard as murder,’” Chandler said. “Similarly, the Democrats are saying, ‘Yeah, but if enough people say that, then that really makes it difficult for people that need family planning services to get them.’”

news@thedailycougar.com

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“Federal religious freedom office could affect rural Texans’ health care” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Public Health Educator and manager of Houston Community Gardens Joe Icet is standing in front of a soil sifter. This is how the soil is blended and made premium, making the plant resistant to strenuous weather. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

There are no fresh food markets or commercial grocery stores in the Third Ward, making it one of the many neighborhoods in Houston and the United States classified as a food desert. When neighborhoods, usually low-income and ethnic ones, lack access to affordable, nutritious and fresh foods, they fall under that classification.

To alleviate the severe lack of fresh foods in the Third Ward, the community garden on Ennis St. help to supply food sources. Thirteen other community gardens are spread out throughout the city in a variety of neighborhoods.

Food security plans

Most people do not think of the fourth largest city in the United States being the greatest hub for agricultural development. That’s where the expertise of Joe Icet, a public health educator who runs the community gardens, comes in handy. Icet is an urban farmer who has been managing numerous garden and agriculture projects over the course of 18 years in the Third and Fifth Wards.

“I’ve been collaborating with some innovators and local agriculture farmers building what I call ‘food security plans’ for urban neighborhoods,” Icet said.

Food insecurity relates to to other facets of wellbeing, such as housing and household economics.

“Food security to me is being able to look out the window and see food growing or walk or bicycle to a food resource,” Icet said.

But in a large part of Houston, that is not the case.

Food desert neighborhoods lack the ability to afford food — income — and the opportunities to get to food — access. If families do not have a vehicle and there is no supermarket within half a mile, it creates more disparity. The USDA created a map of the U.S. showing where food disparity is most prevalent.

Looking only inside the Inner Loop, almost all households in east, including the Third Ward, are more than half a mile away from the nearest supermarket. However, western portions of Houston, including Upper Kirby, Memorial and River Oaks, only have 10 food desert sections. Eastern Houston has more than 30 neighborhoods that may classify as food deserts.

For scale, the USDA equates half a mile in an urban community to 10 miles in a rural one, meaning a city dweller cannot walk five blocks and find a grocery store.

Cabagges among peppers and collard greens are grown in the community garden at the Sunnyside location. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

Supporting the gardens

The physical garden and harvesting operations are solely based on volunteers who live in the community. Some come in with prior knowledge, and others want to learn about growing food.

That prior knowledge does come in handy when planning for the weather. The crops remained intact through Harvey, thanks to raised beds that allowed floodwater to drain out, and recent freezing weather. Even though the freeze wasn’t foreseen, the crops sustained because of the mixing of plants in the same soil, and mulch also helped regulate the temperature.

After the harvest, residents of the community receive the food. A lot of senior citizens and impoverished Houstonians benefit from the gardens, but some crops also go to local churches. The gardeners themselves also have access to what they grow.

Crop choices depend on the season and the volunteers’ tastes.  In the summer, tomatoes and cucumbers thrive, while in the spring, kale and peas grow the best. The Northeast location near East Houston grows mustard and spinach, while the West End location on Heights Blvd. and I-10 grows cabbage and onions.

Capitalizing on diversity

Houston’s diversity plays an important role in what kinds of crops are grown in the gardens. The immigrants who use the gardens often grow the food they can’t find in American supermarkets.

According to the Foreign Agricultural Service section of the USDA, the highest producers of world commodities like grain, corn and rice come from Mexico and countries in Africa and Central America. According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than one fifth of Houston metro residents are foreign-born and ranked fifth for largest immigrant population and third for immigrants coming from Mexico and Honduras.

“We have a sizable group of immigrants from Africa who are some of the most skilled farmers in the world,” Icet said. “If we take that diversity and took seed from different cultures, we could create an awesome urban agriculture in the city.”

Immigrants can bring their customs with them and add diversity to the crops into the gardens. In gardens that serve high Spanish-speaking populations, such as the Southwest and Hiram Clarke locations, local farmers grow carrots, radishes, onions and lettuce, which are used frequently in Hispanic dishes.

The African immigrants Icet worked with would spend their Sundays driving around town trying to find the right ingredients for their dishes. When they found the community garden, they ate what they grew.

“You don’t have to teach them how to farm because they already know how,” Icet said. “You just have to create access to land.”

Dreams of an agriculture district

While managing all 14 gardens and doing other agricultural projects on the side, Icet also wants to create opportunities, especially for the youth and the poor, and to educate.

Creating opportunities for people who do not have any is another goal for Icet. He is working with the city of Prairie View to grow specialty crops that are hard to find so the farmers and residents can then sell them at a market for a premium price.

Icet’s end-goal is to build an entire agricultural district. He wants it to run through some of Houston’s most plighted neighborhoods to both make it more beautiful and to bring cultures together.

“It could run through these zip codes that have the highest crime and diseases to create farming opportunities and bring farming back,” he said. “These neighborhoods would be the lifeblood of a food security plan for Houston by reintroducing farming.”

Icet has ideas to utilize the land of non-profit organizations to create more gardens for the community. He thinks that if the entire city gets behind gardening and agriculture, it could surpass all expectations.

“Imagine waking up one day to Houston having food everywhere from an agricultural district, and it’s why everybody came to Houston because it was absolutely incredible and diverse as Houston is,” Icet said. “We can create an opportunity for everybody to come in and bring their seed, and we build a dinner for Houston.”

features@thedailycougar.com.

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“Community gardens across Houston work to end food deserts’ thirst” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

To get over transfer jitters, you just need to go full force into the UH culture. | File photo/The Cougar

Transfer students who decide to switch schools in the spring come in with a handicap. The campus is less excited than in late August, cliques and friend groups are already established, and  organizations are already planning to capitalize on the progress they have made in the semester prior.

With all of these gears in motion, what are you, the transfer student and glorified new kid, to do?

Since there are few events dedicated solely to transfer students, you will have to take initiative and throw yourself out there. Most of you are either coming from community colleges or transferring from another four-year university for a myriad of reasons.

Some of the best first steps to acclimating are to join organizations and explore the city around you.

By now you should have a sense of what you like to do in your spare time, if not exactly what career field you want to go into. There are clubs catered to hobbies and career readiness. Hobbyist clubs include the air hockey club, badminton club of UH and the billiards league.

If you want to be surrounded by other in your future career field (hint: you do), there are organizations dedicated to law, medicine and human development. You can also find clubs that provide camaraderie among those who share aspects of your identity, like ethnicity, gender or religion.

Another set of clubs are the fee-funded organizations that part of your Student Service Fee goes to. These clubs include the Homecoming Board and the Metropolitan Volunteer Program, which engages in volunteering on this campus and throughout Houston. Then you have Center for Student Media, which covers radio, television and the newspaper that you’re reading right now.

UH is a commuter school, and it is easy to get into the habit of going to class, then going home. If you don’t live in the city, you have to pass through it to get home anyway, so why not look at the happenings around town?

There are two parks within 10 minutes of UH on the same street, Elgin, called Emancipation and Baldwin Park.

Just five minutes away, two of Houston’s historic the most popular city and nationwide restaurants are located on or near Scott Street. Cream Burger is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant with quality but affordable homemade burgers and shakes. A few blocks down, you’ll find the original Frenchy’s Chicken. Visit soon: Solange and Beyonce’s go-to restaurant will be moving locations this spring.

Just visit a few of those places and you haven’t even left Third Ward, which you should probably get a history lesson about.

Unfortunately, unlike freshmen, you don’t have so many guides and mentors to show you around this big school. However, you cannot be afraid to take risks and go full throttle. Besides, that’s what we do here at the powerhouse.

editor@thedailycougar.com

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“Staff Editorial: Transfer students need to go for it” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Big Fish Theory – Vince Staples

1. Bagbak – Vince Staples

Long Beach native Vince Staples created an album with electronic-inspired beats paired with political gangsta rap. This fast-paced song features distorted synth and rapid 808s.

Run the Jewels 3 – Run the Jewels

2. Legend Has It – Run the Jewels

Southern hip-hop artist Killer Mike and producer EI-P form one of the most visceral rap duos by creating music that is simply physical. This song on their last full-length project “Run the Jewels 3” comes with rhymes that are paced perfectly over a truly modern beat.

4eva Is a Mighty Long Time – Big K.R.I.T

3. Big Bank – Big K.R.I.T. ft. T.I.

After three years, Mississippi rapper Big K.R.I.T. released his first album after leaving his previous Def Jam record label. In this song, he boasts about how his focus outshines other rappers and leaves him on top.

No One Ever Really Dies – N.E.R.D

4. Lemon – N.E.R.D ft. Rihanna

The band has been on the cutting edge of music, especially with producer Pharrell at the helm. With the help of the princess of pop, Rihanna, this New Orleans bounce beat can make anyone ready to sweat.

My beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West

5. Power – Kanye West

From one of the bluntest personas in music comes this just-as-blunt song about making it OK to feel yourself. Along with the encouraging lyrics, the beat has a constant clap to push you through that last rep.

good kid, mA.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar

6. Backseat Freestyle – Kendrick Lamar

Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar is known for thought-provoking lyrics. But this single off of his debut album shows that he can showboat like the rest of them, and with lyrics like his, he’s earned it.

The Chief – Jidenna

7. 2 Points – Jidenna

The suavest rapper writes a song about striving for excellence. Jidenna is almost screaming on this horn-filled beat with minimal but fierce primal drums holding up the instrumental.

Underground Kingz – UGK

8. Int’l Players Anthem – UGK and Outkast

This is one of the greatest songs in music, but definitely for southern rap music. The most iconic duos (UGK, comprised of Rice University Professor Bun B and Pimp C, and Outkast having Andre 3000 and Big Boi) come together in this song that combines a church choir and some clean drums.

Because the Internet – Childish Gambino

9. Sweatpants – Childish Gambino

Multi-hyphenated artist Childish Gambino combines his quirky and witty bars with a congruent upbeat instrumental. The bridge saying, “I’m winning” is just enough to ignore the pain for that summer body.

Tha Carter III – Lil Wayne

10. A Milli – Lil Wayne

We love Lil Wayne because of his metaphors. He definitely brings those to “A Milli,” but that repetitive “A Tribe Called Quest” sample will make anyone ready to run.

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“Back to the Rec: The Cougar’s spring workout playlist” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

There are hundreds of student-run organizations at UH, but only a handful are directly funded by feeds paid by all students. These groups, which primarily plan programming for UH, also focus on creating media and providing volunteer opportunities for students.

Student leaders from four fee-funded organizations answered our questions about their goals for spring 2018 and how students can get involved in their activities.

The Cougar: How does your organization serve the students?

Courtesy of Lisa Menda

Lisa Menda, Director of Metropolitan Volunteer Program: Our mission is to provide service opportunities for students by collaborating with campus and community partners. Our goal is to make sure MVP is offering plentiful service opportunities at varying times  to accommodate any student at the University of Houston. We average around 15 events a month for this sole purpose.

Nazir Pandor, Director of Council for Cultural Activities: Our organization serves students by providing the student body with events that are centered around representing and celebrating the various cultures from around the world. We focus on giving the student body experiences of traditions and cultures without having to leave the University to acquire them. We pride ourselves on giving the University the outlet it needs to celebrate the beauty of cultures that our student body itself represents.

The Cougar: Why should students get involved with your organization?

Courtesy of Soheil Nanjee

Soheil Nanjee, Executive Producer of CoogTV: Our organization provides an opportunity to students regardless of degree or experience to network with other passionate and creative students on campus while learning new skills that will hopefully get you a job after graduatation. College is about finding yourself and what you really want to do, and I believe CoogTV really helps with that.

Michelle Benjamin, Vice President of Membership for Student Program Board: There are so many ways to get involved with SPB. You can volunteer for several of our super fun events, such as movie premieres like “Get Out” and “Justice League” or Winter Wonderland, while earning service hours. Once you become a more involved member, you get to help plan your own events and see those come to fruition.

Menda: Students should definitely get involved with MVP because we aim to supply our community with able and excited volunteers. If you have a love for service, need service hours, or want to serve alongside your organization members, then MVP is for you. MVP offers a carpool to all service events, and bus transportation for annual events. MVP tries to make volunteering as easy as possible. All we want is more students.

The Cougar: What are some of your goals for this semester?

Menda: A big goal for MVP is to be a helping hand in long-term Harvey relief. It’s been a few months since the hurricane, but we understand that the impact will be felt for years. With the introduction of a temporary committee to disaster relief, we are hoping to be a better crutch for our community. In addition, a general goal MVP has is to increase the number of unique volunteers. We want to make sure that we are reaching out to as many students at UH as possible.

Courtesy of Michelle Benjamin

Benjamin: We are working to program events that are inclusive to all of UH. Of course, that is a lofty goal with 40,000-plus students to reach out to, but we want to maximize the number of students that know about and come to our events.

The Cougar: What’s your biggest event for the spring semester?

Nanjee: We have a couple block parties planned with the other awesome organizations at the Center of Student Media. CoogTV members are also working on a lot of cool projects that will hopefully surprise you. Stay tuned!

Courtesy of Nazir Pandoor

Pandoor: Our biggest events this Spring are Cultural Marketplace and Carnival of Cultures. Both events are extremely important to us at CCA and their success is pivotal to our progress for the future. Cultural Marketplace is currently being planned right now and will be hosted on February 20 and will entail providing different cultural organizations with the ability to market themselves and sell any items of their choice in order to raise funds for the organization and exposure, which is highly important to them. Carnival of Cultures will be held on April 5 and entails bringing the continents of the world right to our university.

Menda: Rock the Block is our biggest event of the academic year and falls on Keep America Beautiful Day. At Rock the Block we break up into two shifts with approximately four groups in each shift and serve in different areas of Houston—with a concentration in Third Ward. After each individual service site, all the volunteers meet up in the Third Ward to host a block party for the kids of the community.

Benjamin: We have a couple big ones this semester. In February, we are bringing back Stuff-A-Bear on the 12, in partnership with MVP, who will be collecting stuffed animals for a toy drive to a local children’s hospital. Later in the semester is Coog-Chella, which will be on April 19, with live music from several performers, food, and art.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“Q&A: Student leaders strive for new members, inclusivity in 2018” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church engaging in praise and worship at their 11 a.m. service. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

Historically in the United States, there has been white domestic terror targeting people of color, especially Black Americans. Different tactics, like migrating to the North to flee southern terror, have been used to seek refuge and find safety. But for those who couldn’t, safety was found in the black church.

Dating as far back as the burning of the 1822 Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, there have been strategic attacks on the black church, all leading up to the to the most recent attack of the vandalism and burning of the Hopewell Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi in 2016.

Going on 200 years of black church attacks, this is far from a coincidence. The question is, why?

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, the Church Business Administrator for the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Maurice Carr, has first-hand experience with church attacks. In 1963, the most infamous church bombing happened in Birmingham at the 16 Street Baptist Church.

“I didn’t go to [16 Street Baptist]. I went to 22 Avenue Baptist Church, which is only about 10 blocks from there,” Carr said.

A 15-year-old Carr could feel the tremors when the bomb exploded.

What the church can do

In the ’50s and ’60s — a time when racial tension was even more severe than it is now — there were even fewer places where Black Americans could truly be safe. One place was the black church.

In addition to being a place of religious worship, the black church also served as a place for meeting to discuss topics that were pertinent to the community.

The black church is also responsible for creating some of the early private historically black colleges and universities. Morehouse College was first known as Agusta Institute, which started in Springfield Baptist Church. Carr himself went to Lane College in Jackson, TN.

“You look at most of the private black schools, they came out of a church, so it’s essential,” Carr said.

Black churches provide after-school programs and financial aid, and they help the community through food drives and homeless shelters.

Two of the biggest Civil Rights leaders were religious figures as well. Martin Luther King Jr. was a reverend, and Malcolm X was a prominent Muslim figure. They often referenced God and Allah, respectively, in their speeches galvanizing black people during the Civil Rights era.

Disrupting the safety

This two-century tactic of destroying churches is an effort to shake the integrity of the last safe place black people can go. With enough bombings, vandalism and shootings, domestic terrorists can eradicate the concept of strength in numbers and limit the comfort of being around like people.

Dylan Roof, the gunman of the Charleston shooting, took advantage of the hospitality that black churches show. Just because a church is predominately black does not mean that it is for blacks only. The main mission of the church is to bring people closer to God no matter who you are.

Roof was probably a newcomer. All first-timers at Baptist churches are asked to stand at the beginning of service to be recognized. This tradition also happens at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.

Reports say that he sat for an hour in the church before opening fire, killing nine people.

The fact that there were no worries about an outsider coming into the church shows the foundation of safety that the church provides. This is true especially in a city like Charleston, which has historic racial tension from the slave trade, Jim Crow and the Civil War like other southern cities, not to mention its own bouts of police brutality and the removal of Confederate symbols along with the rest of the nation.

The leaders and representatives of black churches have to ease the minds of the congregation when these attacks happen.

“First, you tell them God’s in control,” Carr said. “It’s happening because there are still people who don’t believe that we are all created equal and we are all created in the image of God.”

These kinds of attacks are continuing the implementation of fear: making black people afraid to vote, afraid to go to certain places at night, afraid to meet in masses to praise their God. It’s the old and sadly effective tactic of suppressing the disenfranchised.

“When the bottom starts to rise, and you have nobody else to fill the bottom then you have to keep the bottom down,” Carr said.

But it’s not all grim. With this current generation, we are different than our ancestors that came before us. We do not become afraid easily, and with the rise of social media, we are aware of what is going on through the willful spread of information.

“It’s not going to be as easy to inject fear into this generation as it was the last, because it’s a different era,” Carr said.

In this ongoing fight for equality and freedom, we must maintain the few places in which we can make our own freedoms and create our own roles of power. The black church must be protected and continue to be held sacred.

These opposing forces will eventually end.

“I think they need to just chill, forget about it. It’s not gone work. They are going to lose the battle,” Carr said.

The thing about the church is that it’s a symbol. No matter how many vandalisms, shootings or burnings, you can’t destroy a symbol.

Features editor Dana C. Jones is a print journalism junior. He can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.

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“We must safeguard the refuge offered by black churches” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

Calvin Chen is a UH powerlifter whose best event is deadlifting, where he is able to lift more than 500 pounds. | Courtesy of Calvin Chen

Many students have health-related goals, especially as we go into the new year. While some tend to procrastinate in college because of lack of time or practicality, other students go above just being healthy by putting their hard work on display in the sport of powerlifting.

Kinesiology senior Calvin Chen has been powerlifting for two years and has been doing moderate strength training. Chen got into powerlifting to merge his interest in strength training and athletics.

Powerlifting has been a sport since the early 1800s, with everyone competing to have the title of “Strongest Man Alive.” Each country had its own standard of testing strength, like kettle ball weights for the Russians and barbells for the Germans.

There was not a standard until the 1928 Olympics.

When Chen started powerlifting he was 155 pounds. He now sits at 185 pounds, after gaining 30 pounds of mostly muscle. Chen can squat more than twice his body weight at 450 pounds, deadlift over three times his weight at 567 pounds and benches at a maximum of 315 pounds.

Chen is not concerned about transitioning into a bodybuilder.

“Bodybuilders are cut to three or two percent body fat,” Chen said. “But you need body fat for your hormones so they don’t act up and I kind of don’t want to go through that phase.”

Chen is more into being an athlete, which is also why he does not want to be a bodybuilder.

“Bodybuilding is more of displaying your body and more focused on physique and aesthetics,” Chen said.

This is why bodybuilding shows have the competitors greased up and in swimsuits to better show the build of the body.

Powerlifting is more focused on the competition of who can lift the most weight in squats, deadlifts and bench among weight classes. The weight classes are further broken down by age and sex.

Along with lifting heavy weights, for the body to be able to do that the other half of the battle is regulating a proper diet. As opposed to bodybuilders, Chen has a little bit more freedom concerning what he can eat.

“It depends on the person, but for me, I can eat almost anything I want. But you (still) have to eat a lot of protein,” Chen said.

To ensure that the lifters make weight, fasting starts 18 hours before weigh in. They can’t eat and are dehydrated because the water still adds weight to them. After making weight they can eat to gain their weight back.

After the warm-ups, the rounds go in order of squat, bench then deadlift.

Because Chen is in a heavier weight class, he usually performs in the afternoon session along with the possible 200 or even 1000 other lifters that day. One competition day won’t end until 8 or 10 p.m., creating a 14 to 16 hour day.

“Being able to be there with your friends cheering you on and cheering them on is the best feeling, and afterward you get to hang out and go eat,” Chen said.

Because most of the day for an individual lifter is cheering, it shows that the community of powerlifting is for the growth of everyone.

“It is really a good community to motivate each other to do better and help new people coming in to help get them to where we are,” Chen said.

editor@thedailycougar.com

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“Powerlifters of UH embrace health, community spirit” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar

The first two days back to school didn’t go as the University planned. A nearly record-setting winter storm brought a hard freeze and icy conditions to Houston’s highways on Tuesday, forcing millions to stay home until roads dried out early Wednesday afternoon.

While some Cougars where snuggled up in their homes, some were stuck on an unusually empty campus.

We spoke with three campus dwellers and talked about their experiences during the delayed start to the spring semester. Although different, they had three things in common. They have experienced extreme cold before, they are new to the University and they don’t have social media.

Computer engineering freshman Nate Judas. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

Computer engineering freshman Nate Judas said he stayed tucked into the “quiet” Cougar Village residence halls. It was especially quiet for Judas because his roommate had yet to return to UH, forming the perfect setting for reading.

Judas is no stranger to cold weather. “My folks are from Iowa, so this is not uncommon,” Judas said. He doesn’t even consider this a real winter. This week, Iowa experienced weather as low as -6 degrees Fahrenheit.

With not much to down on a big, empty campus, Judas said he was starting to feel the effects of cabin fever just hanging around the dining hall and bonding with his other roommates.

Computer science doctoral candidate Qixi Deng. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

Computer science doctoral candidate Qixi Deng is an international student from China. When news broke that classes were canceled, Deng said he checked to see if the International Student and Scholar Services office as open. When he saw that it wasn’t, Deng stayed at his apartment in Cullen Oaks.

The cabin fever didn’t get to Deng because of the “very nice environment” at Cullen Oaks and his luck with a “very nice” roommate, he said.

Deng’s first week in the United States was nothing out of the ordinary.

“This is not very cold for me,” Deng said. “I’m used to it.”

Geology freshman Leonardo Collier. | Dana C. Jones/The Cougar

We found geology freshman Leonardo Collier and his friends LARPing, or live-action role playing, in Lynn Eusan Park. Collier said he spent most of time on Tuesday in Cougar Village 2. He said his stay was fine since the heating, electricity and hot water were all working fine.

“Everybody’s joking saying this is the second Harvey coming around, but it should be cleared up by tomorrow,” Collier said.

Collier was born in England and used to live in Canada, so the weather is “a walk in the park for him, he said.

To pass the time, Collier played video games and “hung out with these nerds,” pointing to his friends.

features@thedailycougar.com

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“Man on the Street: How students coped with canceled classes” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar