The West Conroe Baptist Church has publicly distanced itself from the Boy Scouts of America after its ban on gay members was lifted.

David Delgado/The Daily Cougar

Since the BSA voiced its support for openly gay troop members in May, more than a handful of organizations decided the kids just aren’t worth it after all. Six other churches broke away from BSA in Conroe alone.

At first glance, the BSA’s choice to allow gays to participate in its organization is just another instance of rocky assimilation. Look a second time around, and it becomes an exercise in acceptance.

It took decades of lobbying for the BSA to lift its gay ban, but the fence on gay scout leaders still stands. The aesthetics of a decision that’s slapped a deadline on the appropriateness of homosexuality stand suspect in its own right, but some of BSA’s more conservative allies have since voiced their stances.

Around 70 percent of the BSA is chartered by religious institutions. The National Catholic Committee on Scouting’s been tentative. The Mormon Church has rolled with the punches. Pope Francis isn’t judging.

Historically, hard-line Christianity hasn’t gelled with the notion of normalization. The Bible Belt takes time to loosen.

Except for the obvious catcalls — from “Adam and Steve”, to “God Hates” — the route from sidelong glances to over-the-counter acceptance hasn’t been the smoothest.

Last month’s Southern Baptist Convention went as far as to suggest the creation of a BSA alternative, deemed the “The Royal Ambassadors.”

From a pragmatist’s stance, resistance makes sense for the Church. When you pull the curtain on gay scouts, you’ll pull the curtain on gay scout leaders.  When you pull the curtain on gay scout leaders, all of a sudden it’s OK to be gay. When it becomes OK for gay people to be gay, it becomes OK for gay people to adopt, build homes and teach your children.

But it hurts the kids. West Conroe’s discord affects more than 180 scouts in Montgomery County, 31 in Fort Bend and 21 in Harris.

The reasons for the break weren’t particularly innovative: Senior Pastor Jay Gross cited homosexuality as “not an approved lifestyle” and “wrong.” He said it’s “disappointing to see where we are heading.” In an interview with KHOU, he found it apt to attack the concept of behavior, rather than the person behaving.

“It’s not a rejection of the person,” Gross said. “It’s a rejection of an activity of a lifestyle.”

That’s a lot like rejecting the taste of apple juice, but not the apples themselves. Or being convinced that the apple, by sheer force of determination, could will itself into a carrot. Or a chicken. Or a shoe. Or, in any case, something that it isn’t and won’t ever be. And even if it could, and the notion of “choice” were a variable in the sexuality question, it introduces a question that’s even less solvent: what is it that’s choosing?

Lorraine Schroeder thinks its “fear.” As director of the campus LGBT Resource Center, she’s seen it more than once.

“Let’s pretend for a moment that homosexuality is chosen, is a lifestyle, and is a sin. I find it queer that certain religious groups zero in on rejecting this particular ‘activity’, this ‘lifestyle’, this ‘sin,’” Schroeder said.

“I know there are plenty of other chosen lifestyles and sins that go against religious teaching, but these religious groups do not stop supporting organizations that accept these types of people. What then is the obsession some religious groups have with rejecting homosexuality?”

It might stem from their role as a family foundation. Any bricklayer will tell you: slip one out, and you’re starting from the bottom up. One would like to think that an institution as long standing as the Church might be even more viable to difference than its counterparts. But, then again, that might by why they’ve stood so tall for so long.

Not that acceptance is strictly a regional issue. It’s anything but. Indiana made applications for same-sex marriage illegal just a few weeks ago.

This is an amendment, in an otherwise civilized territory, that threatens to jail the couples who marry, the judge who’d marry them, his local officials, and members of the clergy. You could face up to a $10,000 fee. You could spend up to 180 days in prison.

And, a little further away, the Russians aren’t faring too well either. Foreigners are now being deported for distributing “gay propaganda.” Gay Russians are jailed, ostracized and beaten. Nearly 90 percent of their country supports it. And Vladmir Putin is smiling in the press photos.

It comes less than a month after Houston’s own Pride celebration. It was hot outside. Westheimer was cordoned. There were whites, blacks, Hispanics, Spaniards, Germans, French, Chileans, Alaskans and Asians. Kids were running around in sandals. And every single attendee provided a different answer to West Conroe’s question of who gets to choose. Their answer was to accept those who’ve made their choice. And to accept that, regardless of their decision, it was their choice to choose.

There’s time to catch up.

Bryan Washington is an opinion columnist and an English junior and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

Celebrities are everywhere. We see them on TV, advertisements and magazines. Young people tend to flock to them in some way. I know that I’m guilty of it myself. There’s something comforting and liberating about reading about celebrities misfortunes and troubles.

Rolling Stone magazine has done something controversial yet again — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, allegedly involved with the Boston Marathon bombing, is on the front cover, and Bostonians are outraged.

Callie Parrish/ The Daily Cougar

Even worse, according to the New York Post, Tsarnaev has a cult following of teen girls. Some took to the internet to defend Tsarnaev, whose nickname is “Jahar,” by tweeting #FreeJahar on Twitter. Others went so far as to get tattoos of Tsarnaev’s tweets.

Many people are upset because they feel that the Rolling Stone cover places Tsarnaev in a positive light, giving him celebrity status.

“They are just trying to get into the news,” said journalism professor Charles Crixell. “The actions of Rolling Stone magazine should be condemned.”

Instead of being entertained by the cover, people should try to learn from the tragedy. We should realize that the bizarre behavior that seems to earn a lot of media coverage is not normal and shouldn’t be glorified.

Charles Manson also served as a Rolling Stone cover boy in June 1970, which was similarly distasted by the public, proving that the media’s continuous coverage of bad behavior doesn’t start or end at Tsarnaev.

According to Psychology Today, celebrities who are noticed for their harmful behaviors, “end up in these predicaments as a result of self-loathing stemming from childhood trauma and abuse.”

Young people are seeing celebrity behaviors and are associating them with mainstream. If you’re an avid reader of celebrity gossip, you’ll notice fairytale-like marriages. Only to see them break up, in Kim Kardashian and Chris Humphries’s case, 72 hours later. You’ll also see stars that seem to have it all, fame and fortune and then they proceed to throw themselves into drugs and alcohol. You’ll also see celebrities suffer from eating disorders and yo-yo dieting. Seeing that on an everyday basis, you can lose grip on what’s normal and what’s not.

According to Pew Research, 40 percent of those polled say celebrity news get too much attention from the news media.

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure that the amount of celebrity-watching had increased over the years after the boom of TV’s in American homes. But with that increase also came thirst for celebrity gossip. According to proliteracynet.org, the shift came when Entertainment Tonight began offering daily entertainment news in 1981.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know the latest scoop in the celebrity world. Just remember that what is being reported isn’t always the norm. It’s hard to imagine that sometimes because of how much negativity is broadcasted, but it isn’t impossible.

Callie Parrish is a mathematics and art senior and can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.

Callie Parrish/ The Daily Cougar

Students who comprise the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at UH may eventually see Texas transform in their favor in the upcoming years because of two landmark cases which took place this summer.

The first case concerns California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state.

The second case involves the Defense of Marriage Act, a bill signed into law by former President Bill Clinton that defends traditional marriage between a man and a woman and excludes everything else.

Because the Supreme Court dismissed the Prop 8 case, the verdict of a lower court was upheld, and gay marriage was reinstated in California.

What is particularly interesting about the DOMA and Prop 8 cases is although they regard the same core topic of same-sex marriage, their rulings can have different effects.

Lorraine Schroeder, director of the LGBT Resource Center, sees the Supreme Court’s dismissal of Prop 8 as giving validation to young people in the LGBT community.

“Any state or federal law that promotes equality for LGBT people helps to validate any young LGBT person’s identity and experiences. This results in less stress, less depression and increased self-esteem,” she said.

Marriage is not mentioned in the Constitution. It is a power reserved for the states. On that account, this makes DOMA, a federal law, unconstitutional. At the same time, it upholds Prop 8 because it was a state decision.

“More concretely, any LGBT Texan can go to California (or any other state with legalized same-sex marriage), get married and benefit from the federal benefits that the repeal of DOMA just allowed,” Schroeder said.

Proponents of same-sex marriage often cite Section One of the 14th Amendment as support for their cause. The quoted section reads:

“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The Supreme Court was justified in upholding the lower court’s decision concerning Prop 8 because if marriage is limited to a man and a woman, that is not equal protection for these same-sex couples’ rights. The Declaration of Independence says everyone is entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Opponents of same-sex marriage use religious appeals and quote studies that show that same-sex parents cause their children psychological and social damage. The first argument is invalid because religion is theoretically — thought not always in practice — supposed to be separate from law. However, the second argument would merit some value if it were true, but because of conflicting studies supporting and opposing these “findings,” that is also not a valid argument either.

Schroeder said some arguments made by the Texas legislature are delaying progress for more than just the LGBT community.

“At the state level, I feel the issues regarding LGBT people as well as women are being held back. For example, the legislature frequently works on bills that will abolish LGBT resource centers on college campuses,” Schroeder said.

Without the allowance of same-sex marriage, same-sex couples would only be left with civil unions, which do not provide the same benefits as a marriage.

Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the DOMA case is a same-sex widow who was forced to pay $363,000 in inheritance taxes when her wife died, a fine a heterosexual couple would not have to pay.

According to glaad.org, other benefits previously unavailable to same-sex couples include but are not limited to “military family benefits, social security benefits, multiple areas of tax categories, hospital visitation rights and healthcare benefits.”

According to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted from May 31 to June 3, 52 percent of those polled support same-sex marriage while 41 percent oppose it. Likewise, of the 52 percent of supporters, 61 percent want a national decision rather than a state-by-state approach.

These numbers give hope to homosexual couples in Texas who are looking to wed.

Mónica Rojas is a print journalism sophomore may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.

Wikimedia Commons

MOOCs offer UH an opportunity to evolve
By Jessica Crawford

For those who think that massive open online courses are sure to lead to an academic “I, Robot” scenario, in which there is a lone professor out battling against the computers to save the virtue of old-school academia, you could be right.

As times change, people change — in the superficial sense.

In 2013, we have the same fundamental needs as cavemen, but because of evolution and the discovery of fire, we now enjoy a much higher quality of life than they did.

With that being said, I’m sure that even back then, there was the one “hater” caveman who just couldn’t stand fire. Perhaps he thought it would ruin the integrity of the caveman life style. Or maybe, he just didn’t like it because it was new.

There’s a possibility that if UH listened to its detractors in consideration of MOOCs, which offers large-scale availability of online higher-education to anyone who has a computer, we’d be stuck in the dark ages.

“Universities are learning and evolving, and new technologies are constantly being developed and explored,” said Jeff Morgan, interim associate provost for Education and Technology Innovation.

“Online courses have taken shape over the past 15 years, and the Internet, learning management systems, streaming videos and online textbooks are now widely used in many forms of course delivery.”

Though many MOOCs are currently free, Provost Paula Short said in a press release that they could eventually become an additional source of revenue for UH as administrators continue to evaluate how the courses fit with the University’s Tier One goals.

The online courses not only have the possibility of improving UH’s financial status, but they can also offer students previously unheard-of learning opportunities. These opportunities come in the form of working at one’s own pace, enjoying the benefits of open enrollment and saving time and money.

“Georgia Tech recently created an entire online master’s degree as a MOOC that students can purchase for $10,000,” Morgan said.

Still, anyone who is skeptical about the effects MOOCs could have on UH can rest easy at night. Morgan said that traditional education is here to stay for a while.

“There is no plan to replace face-to-face, hybrid, Distance Ed or other online courses at UH with MOOCs,” he said.

We adapted fire to fit our needs. We’ll do the same for education. Neither is going anywhere anytime soon.

Jessica Crawford is a senior broadcast journalism major and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

Don’t let MOOCs take over the college experience
By James Wang

While MOOCs may help UH keep its promise to Hugh Roy Cullen that we remain “a college for working men and women,” it will also cheapen the college experience for those working people by giving them a reason to be away from the classroom.

According to Jeff Morgan, interim associate provost for Education and Technology Innovation, although there are few for-credit MOOCs, students are able to take an exam for course credit, which would allow them to receive enough credits to graduate without ever stepping foot in an actual college classroom.

While this is a financial bonus for students, this is not so great for universities like UH which are trying to establish a proper college environment.

We as a University have always been looked down on for being the “commuter school” of Texas universities. We lacked the infrastructure, we lacked the athletics, and most importantly, we lacked the vibrant student body that other universities had.

While we’re working on building the University up more and more each year, MOOCs are a potential problem if we are trying to be successful in building that strong student community.

College isn’t about just education. It’s about arguing with peers before and after class about a topic that you intensely care about. It’s about the growing experiences of leaving home and being on your own surrounded by new people in a new place. It’s about putting up with the Greenpeace activists harassing every Jim, Jane and Joseph that pass by the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library.

The main concern about MOOCs isn’t whether it will provide a quality education for cheap. It’s about whether students who use MOOCs will be able to learn the things that can’t be taught inside of a lecture hall.

There’s no doubt that UH will continue to offer MOOCs through Coursera, and Morgan said that there are no plans “to replace face-to-face … courses at UH with MOOCs.” I hope that it stays that way.

Substitute textbooks with MOOCs, and continue to offer MOOCs for free, but never let them get in the way of true face-to-face lectures. While it’s fine to revolutionize and evolve, it’s still important to understand how the old ways benefit us in ways that can’t be shown on graphs and charts.

James Wang is a junior history major and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

Houstonians gathered in protest of the opening of the Planned Parenthood on Gulf Fwy. in 2010. | File photo\ The Daily Cougar

The Texas Senate finally gave in and passed one of the strictest anti-abortion bills in the U.S. on Friday. The bill is said to ban abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and uphold abortion clinics to the same standards as an ambulatory surgical center.

This would cause many clinics to close their doors. The clinics that meet the strict requirements of the bill are only in major cities, although other clinics have the opportunity to continue performing abortions if they meet those standards.

“This is very much a class issue, for the moment at least,” said Elizabeth Gregory, the director of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at UH.

“People without the resources to go to one of the five remaining clinics, or out-of-state, will largely be poor women — forced to either bear children they don’t want or can’t afford, or to attempt to abort them themselves.”

According to The New York Times, Gov. Rick Perry applauded lawmakers for passing the bill.

“Today the Texas Legislature took its final step in our historic effort to protect life,” Perry said.

Unfortunately, the means of lessening the number of places in which women can get abortions may not constitute the ends of protecting life.

Cutting off access to abortion clinics around the state will not change the fact that some women will still seek abortions. Women who cannot travel may be among those who rely on lesser-regulated abortion methods, which may wreak havoc on a woman’s health.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that researches sexual and reproductive health, 47,000 deaths each year can be attributed to unsafe abortion practices.

Women seeking abortions should have the option of going to a near-by clinic that can safely address their needs.

According to Gregory, the new regulations on clinics could make the amount of women seeking abortions after the 20-week mark rise significantly.

“Currently only 1.4 percent of abortions occur after week 20 – cutting the option to abort between 20 and 24 weeks largely affects people with problem pregnancies or people who didn’t know they were pregnant or were afraid to tell someone,” Gregory said.

The bill could negatively impact women just learning that they’re pregnant in their 20^th week.

The possibly fewer clinics that offer abortions could lead to women being wait listed. As other clinics close, clientele will likely increase for those that remain open.

The question as to whether women who are wait listed past the 20-week mark will still be able to undergo the procedure hasn’t been answered.

Right across from UH is a Planned Parenthood facility, which also offers services such as pelvic exams and pregnancy counseling.

House Bill 2 may intend to make stricter regulations on clinics that offer abortions, but it may have a wider impact. It has the capability of becoming a threat to women’s health. What the bill is doing is aborting abortion clinics and disregarding Roe v. Wade.

Callie Parrish is a mathematics and art senior and can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.

If you were planning on dropping the race card with your application at the school’s admissions office —hold off, it may not have value in the diversifying world of education.

In 2008, Abigail Fisher was denied automatic admissions into the University of Texas at Austin because she did not meet the Top 10 percent program requirements.

Facing rejection from her dream university, Fisher decided to play the only card she felt was left — the race card. Although she did not meet the school’s academic expectations, Fisher claimed that the school practiced racial discrimination in favor of African-American, Hispanic and other minority students with lower test scores and grade point averages than their white counterparts.

In 2012, a lower circuit court ruled in favor of the competitive Texas school and enforced the guidelines established by Grutter v. University of Michigan Law School in 2003.

The Grutter decision ruled that colleges and universities supported, entirely or in part, by federal or state funds have the right to use race as a “plus factor” in reviewing student applications.

David Delgado/ The Daily Cougar

The judges acknowledged that race was a factor in the school’s admissions process, but that it was not the dominating one. The court felt that the school’s affirmative action policy was compelling for the greater interest of the state and effectively assisted in diversifying the school’s student body.

In June 2013 the Supreme Court, under Justice Anthony Kennedy, ruled indecisive on Fisher’s case. Apparently, the road to common good was not as smoothly paved this time around.

The judges questioned whether school administrators could objectively calculate the value of an applicant’s race and ethnicity with a neutral bias and consistent fairness.

The Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiff’s case needed to be sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit to be reviewed again because of failure to exercise strict scrutiny of UT’s admissions process.

“The reviewing court must ultimately be satisfied that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity,” Kennedy wrote in his statement summarizing the rationality of the ruling.

Ultimately the court’s virtual indecision will have little to no direct effect on current affirmative action laws. Although the public was anticipating a decision on affirmative action from the court, the hearing left both parties feeling optimistic.

“We remain committed to assembling a student body at the University of Texas that provides the educational benefits of diversity while respecting the rights of all students and acting within the constitutional framework established by the court,” University of Texas President Bill Powers stated in a press release.

Should the Fifth Circuit judges rule in favor of Fisher following their re-evaluation and race is eliminated as a plus factor for admission committees, it will most likely have little effect on UH students.

Diversity has become a proud staple of UH’s reputation. UH is tied with Stanford University as the second most diverse school in the nation, has surpassed the qualifications for a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education and is home to a variety of organizations that reflect the ethnically colorful landscape of the university.

Naturally, education is the foundation of the country because of its direct impact on the workforce. Although in a legal sense affirmative action policies influencing admissions at public schools have no ties with the hiring practices of private corporations, in a moral capacity it could raise questions about affirmative action laws across the board.

Affirmative action has become a sweeping topic amongst lawmakers, educators and academic institutions. There is general agreement that diversity is beneficial for classrooms on any level, but some would like to broaden the implications of school affirmative action policies to meet parallel agendas.

There are no notable cases challenging the constitutionality of racial quotas. A press release sent out by the Republican Leadership Committee states that the party has decided to embrace employment racial quotas in order to reach demographics that have been isolated by the GOP in the past.

Michael A. Olivas is a UH Law professor and a proud proponent of affirmative action policies. In an essay published on the Inside Higher Ed website days following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fishers case, Olivas expressed faith in the enduring functionality of affirmative action policies and the decision of moderate Justice Lewis Powell.

Justice Powell was the serving Supreme Court judge in the landmark affirmative action case Bakke vs. Regents of University of California back in 1978. Following the height of the civil rights movement the Bakke decision made it illegal to use racial quotas and racially discriminative practices in college admission reviews.

“There is no evidence that whites are displaced in the process, and those few who are affected likely have many alternatives, as Abigail Fisher did when she was admitted into Louisiana State University after she failed to get into the University of Texas at Austin,” Olivas wrote.

Olivas criticizes Fisher for portraying herself as a helpless white female avalanched by the desperate needs of the growing African-American and Hispanic population, but contradicts himself by rationalizing the needs of “minorities with real grievances.”

Race-based affirmative action policies are prejudice by nature, they promote victim mentality and herald specific minority groups as opposed to others.

These policies are blanket solutions that undermine the personal experiences of the individual. Experiences shape individuals and create aspects of their character that should be considered in college admission processes instead.

Olivas states in his piece that: “…over half the Top 10 percent admits are white, in a state where half the school children are not white.”

This raw statistic doesn’t reflect a bias or conservative admissions committee. However, it is a reflection of problems developed earlier in education that should be addressed in secondary schools, not at the doors of universities.

Ciara Rouege is an advertising junior and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.

Correction: The headline originally spelled Affirmative as Affirmatice

A bill addressing college costs sneaked itself into law books last month. Gov. Rick Perry, temporarily forgoing his policy of noncompliance, signed off on a document that gives the class of 2017 another means of compensating funds.

Mahnoor Samana/The Daily Cougar

It all comes down to tuition. Freshmen can opt for the “wheel-of-fortune payment plan,” allowing for courses of questionable scope and importance to ring up at varying prices at all points in the year; or a fixed rate alternative, an option that has an allure of certainty.

Under the latter, the cost of tuition is frozen during the course of exactly four years. This is the good news. The bad is exactly the same: The cost of tuition is frozen during the course of exactly four years.

Provost and senior vice president of academic affairs, Paula Short, thinks predictability is worth the compression.

“A four-year fixed tuition and fee option sends a strong signal to students that we expect them to graduate in four years, (providing) them with a powerful incentive to do so,” Short said. “Incoming freshmen who select the fixed-rate option, complete 30 hours per year, and graduate in four years will be rewarded with a lower price for their college degree.”

The result is accountability on all fronts. Newcomers pay a single rate per credit hour, giving them the means to map more than 1,400 days worth of funds on their phones — a biblical offering for long-term planners.

The only way the University could further outdo itself is to pay the money for you.

But, if things stay the way they are now, less than half of the student body will graduate in four years.

UH sports a six-year graduation rate of 46.1 percent and a four-year graduation rate of 16.2 percent. 

This isn’t classified information. The University suggests that students take at least 15 hours, and not simply because it looks better on your schedule bracket. Taking any less lowers your probability of making it out in a timely manner, while a consistent nonchalance aggravates your prospects even further.

The news about the graduation rates is discouraging.

What is also discouraging is that the fixed rate option is as nonnegotiable as it sounds. There’s no adjustment to account for the inevitable rising and falling of our economy.

Simplicity doesn’t necessarily equate stability. Knowing exactly how much you have to pay isn’t always helpful when it comes to accounting for the unaccountable, and less so once you’ve come to terms with the fact that these prices are locked in. Keep in mind that, in Texas, tuition costs have risen more than 90 percent in the past 10 years; and that’s something no one could’ve planned for.

Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph E. Stiglitz, deems curbing student debt tantamount to increasing social and economic opportunity.

“America — home of the land-grant university, the G.I. Bill and world-class public universities from California to Texas — has fallen from the top in terms of university education. With strangling student debt, we are likely to fall further,” he wrote in The New York Times. “What economists call ‘human capital’— investing in people — is a key to long-term growth. To be competitive in the 21st century is to have a highly educated labor force, one with college and advanced degrees. Instead, we are foreclosing on our future as a nation.”

The student debt situation only becomes worse when student loans are added to the equation. With Congress’ inability to come to terms in June, the student loan interest rate hit 6.8 percent last week. That’s twice what you thought you’d been paying beforehand, and it’ll stay there until both parties agree on a feasible consensus.

The average amount of debt for seniors graduating stands around $26,000. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York claims that nearly 13 percent of student loan borrowers owe more than $50,000, with nearly four percent of that group owing more than $100,000.

The figures aren’t changing any time soon. As unendurable as it seems to sit through another article about university payments, it’ll stay that way until the topic has been broached again and again. The solution box sits vacant until its presence becomes undeniable. In order for student debt to become a problem relevant enough to solve, the scenario will have to get worse.

More so than its accessibility, its simplicity, and its promotability, it’s the promise of “no good news fast” that makes the fixed rate option appealing. It knows the situation is bleak. It accepts that you know it too. And it’s from this knowledge that you’re given an alternative.

Bryan Washington is an English junior and can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.

On June 19, I spent the day at the National Association of International Educators office in Washington, D.C., as a participant in the discussion on the impact that the new commonsense immigration process will have on our international or study abroad programs and students. This discussion was facilitated by Connecting Our World Grassroots Leadership program, which mobilizes communities in support of international education by communication with elected officials around the world.

As a member of the team of international educators selected from institutions around the country participating in the 2013-14 cohort in the GLP, the goal is to keep the conversation going in support of international education by communicating with our elected officials and advocating in our communities.

We are honored this year to be advocates of the new commonsense immigration process that will simplify the process for more than 11 million new Americans who are seeking a roadmap to citizenship.

I am excited to share that while writing this, I paused to celebrate the news that the Senate had passed the Historic Immigration Bill. The bill is sure to affect the international community of UH.

To quote from a statement posted by president and chair of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers board of directors, Fanta Aw:

“The bill contains several provisions that are important not just for the country, but particularly for students and for higher education. The H-1B provisions in the bill permit the U.S. higher education community to bring many of the best minds from across the world to our campuses to teach our students and conduct critical research. We also support dual intent for foreign students and the restoration of the Secretary of State’s authority to waive personal appearance for visa applicants that present no security concerns.”

Texas is one of the top three states for hosting international students, with UH being home to more than 4,000 of these students.

Grace Semple-Paul, J.D., is an international student counselor and can be reached at gpsemple-paul@uh.edu.

When you ask a person on the street what two colleges come to mind when you mention the state of Texas, the most common answers will be The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M. UH is trying to change those answers.

David Delgado/The Daily Cougar

Because of a number of factors ranging from its recent Tier One classification in research to its position in a city with a flourishing job market, UH is beginning to gain an edge among other Texas schools.

Sure, UT and A&M have had more exposure because of their successes in sports on the national stage, but UH has more to offer than a quarterback that can scramble when the game is on the line.

UH was granted Tier One classification in research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in its most recent classification of universities, issued in January 2011. A Tier One school is recognized for its world-class research, academic excellence, an exceptional student body and the highest levels of innovation, creativity and scholarship.

With this recognition, UH joins UT and A&M as the only public schools in Texas that have achieved Tier One status.

Jordan Sass, assistant director for Transfer and International Admissions, believes that Houston has a lot to offer that cities like Austin and College Station cannot.

“UH is located minutes from downtown Houston, the fourth largest city in America,” he said, “and that is a great opportunity for our students to acquire jobs straight out of college or work on internships during the school year thanks to the short commute.”

According to CNN Money in 2011, Houston was home to 22 Fortune 500 companies. That rank was good for second in the nation, trailing only New York, and far ahead of Dallas in third with 10.

Going to college is a great opportunity for students to meet and socialize with a new group of people, whether that is from the other side of town or the other side of the world. At least that’s the case when you attend UH, maybe not so much for UT or A&M.

Collegeboard.com shows that racial diversity is one of the many things in which UH continues to lead the state. Along with an almost equal population of White and Hispanic/Latino students attending the school, it also has a higher population of Asian and African-American students than Longhorns of UT and Aggies of A&M.

“Diversity is one of the things we pride ourselves on at UH,” said Sass, who was formerly an admissions counselor at Texas A&M. “We are the most diverse university in Texas and second in the nation. Part of gaining an education is working with people that are not like you. When you walk across our campus, you will see many different nationalities and hear so many unique languages.”

Another aspect that UH has been working to improve is its campus living and atmosphere. New dorms, which will completed by the time the fall 2013 semester begins, will make on-campus living available to more students than ever before and will lift UH into the top two schools in Texas in relation to how many dorm rooms they can offer students. In addition to the new dorm rooms being added, students can also look forward to more parking space becoming available just across from the Welcome Center.

And if that’s not enough, UH is remodeling the University Center with Phase 1 opening in January 2014 and Phase 2 starting sometime after that. Couple that with the new, $105 million football stadium that is being built for the 2014 season, and it sounds like there will be a lot more for students to look at every day as they walk across campus.

Every school in Texas can say they are making changes to enhance student living and campus environment in order to entice new students to attend their certain college, but UH is one of the few that is actually getting the job done and showing its students that it wants to improve for them. Along with the Tier One status in research and student diversity, UH is quickly becoming a hot spot for students within the state, within the nation and all over the world, and it’s only going to get bigger and better in the coming years.

Euan Leith is a journalism junior and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com.

If you’re like me, you don’t live in Downtown Houston. It’s where I work and socialize, but I pay a heavy price to get down there every day because I commute.

My experiences in using the Metro transit system go like this: If I can do it, you can do it.

I live more than 28 miles away from campus and taking my car to work can take between 90 and 120 minutes on a bad day. After much thought about the issue, I knew that there had to be a better way.

I started asking people questions about commuter options and I found out about the Park and Ride system. Metro has 29 Park and Ride lots throughout our sprawling city and there should be one on your side of town.

This cushy tour bus offers nonstop service straight into downtown for a fee that is cheaper than gas, and to make the price even better, students pay half-price.

UH also offers staff a cash incentive if you join the commuter club and agree to give up your parking tag. The day that I relinquished my parking tag was monumental and I’ve never looked back.

Now, while my bus driver is handling all the dirty work by taking the high occupancy vehicle lanes and bypassing the gridlock, I am reading my book, playing on my phone, catching up on Netflix or even taking a quick nap. I feel absolutely spoiled with my door-to-door service that involves no traffic stress whatsoever. The bonus part about it is that I’m saving my car from wear and tear and I’m contributing to a greener environment.

The future is looking even brighter with the light rail being built, as it will be connecting downtown and UH. Although I currently take a city bus from downtown to UH — a quick 15-minute ride that is free for Park and Ride users — soon, we will also have the option of taking the train to campus.

I encourage you to give mass transit a chance. Like anything new, it will take a bit of adjustment to find the schedule that works for you. Once you do, you’ll be glad you made the switch.

Nicolette Solano is an administrative secretary in chemical engineering and can be reached at nsolano2@central.uh.edu.