Vol. 65, Issue 9
Est. 1981
March 28 - April 4, 2023
THE PAISANO
Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio Community /PaisanoOnline 1 | News
/ThePaisano
@PaisanoMedia
3 | Opinion
Paisano-Online.com 7 | Sports
5 | Arts & Life
Annual march commemorates legacy of revered activist Cesar E.Chavez By Laynie Clark Managing Editor
Members of the UTSA community participated in Saturday’s march.
@ThePaisano
Dustin Vickers/The Paisano
T
he annual Cesar E.Chavez March for Justice celebrates Chavez’s “Si Se Puede Spirit” and the importance of coming together to overcome the injustices and inequalities in the community. Hosted by the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy & Educational Foundation, this year’s march took place in downtown San Antonio at the intersection of Guadalupe and Brazos streets. Members of the UTSA community also participated in the march. “The San Antonio Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice began in 1997 to join folks from diverse backgrounds to march in unity from the Westside to downtown San Antonio to remember Chavez’s fight for equity for all farm workers,” Morgan Gimblet, program manager at UTSA’s Multicultural Student Center for Equity and Justice, said. “Today, the march reminds us how we continue to march on issues such as wage disparities, food insecurity, voting rights, education reform and access to equitable healthcare services.” This year’s speakers included Councilwoman Rosie Castro and her son, HUD secretary Julian Castro. Rosie Castro explained the building blocks of obtaining liberty and justice for all. “For 27 years, we have done this march,” she said. “These folks that put it together have done so out of love for their community, out of an understanding that we have to work
toward choices. Every time we launch, every time we do this, we get closer and closer to having the reality of liberty and justice for all.” She also talked about the Latin community and the values that they share. “I know that a lot of you here are family,” she continued. “We’re a family that is proud of where we’re from, that sticks together, that prioritizes education, that encourages voting. We have made San Antonio the great place that it is.” Her son, Julian Castro, also spoke at the march about the importance of community postpandemic. “We just went through these last three years through time in the United States and the world that we have never seen before,” Julian said. “The pandemic has taken more than a million lives in the United States and many more around the world. I hope that if there is one thing that we’ve gathered for the last three years [it is ] that we’re all in this together.” He concluded by stating the lessons that can be learned from Chavez’s legacy. “All of us are connected, and all of us have a role to play in making sure we lift up every single person,” he continued. “My hope today is that we take the teachings in the legacy, in the passion, in the commitments of Cesar Chavez through the years and that we turn that into action today.”
Admin gives New exoplanet one of two with classroom renovation possible habitable conditions updates at SGA assembly
By William Barnes Assistant Multimedia Editor Kepler-442b is one of two most Earth-like exoplanets discovered to date that “could be within the ‘Goldilocks zone’ that would permit life to exist,” according to AS USA. Discovered in 2015 by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, Kepler-442b is a likely rocky exoplanet that is 33% bigger than our planet and is estimated to be around 1100 to 1200 light years away from Earth. Classified as a “super-earth,” Kepler-442b orbits around a Ktype star that is cooler than our sun, but the exoplanet lies in its star’s habitable zone, where liquid water could possibly exist. Throughout time, experts have discovered a growing number of planets that fit various criteria of what could sustain to life. Still Kepler-442b has been a notable exoplanet, one that has caught the online astronomy community’s attention as a planet more habitable than Earth, according to a study by astronomers at the University of Washington. The Earth Similarity Index (ESI), a scale used to quantitatively contrast Earth with other planets, classifies any planet with a score above 0.80 as an Earth-like planet. The index considers factors such as surface temperature, density, radius and radius escape velocity — but not habitability. Kepler-442b is approximately 0.84 to 0.85 on the Earth Similarity Index. This makes Kepler-442b quite similar to Earth, which scores 1.00 on the ESI. For context, Mars has an ESI of 0.73. When it comes to habitability, based on a study published
By Gauri Raje News Editor
Storm Goodman/The Paisano
in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers found Kepler-442b receives close to enough radiation from its star to sustain a large biosphere. This is important to have because photosynthesis is crucial for developing an oxygen-based atmosphere for facilitating complex biospheres like those on Earth. Furthermore, the possibility
of this planet being habitable is also supported based on a
“Habitability Index for Transiting Planets” made by as-
tronomers at the University of Washington in 2015 that gave
Kepler-442b a higher rating of habitability than Earth.
Read the full article at paisano-online.com
University administrators presented updates about evaluation of UTSA facilities and classroom renovations at the university’s five campuses. Presenters included Vice Provost for Academic Innovation Melissa Vito, the Academic Innovation team and Liz Rockstroh from the office of the vice president for business. Rockstroh began by talking about the maintenance of campus buildings and explained that the university’s Real Estate, Construction and Planning team is working closely with facilities to “assess the facilities on campus.” Buildings will be assessed based on the Facilities Condition Index, which will be used to prioritize any areas that might need attention. The Index will be used to assess UTSA’s five campuses, beginning with older buildings. Components that will be looked at include the exterior and the roof and plumbing. The first report of this assessment is expected to be ready by summer. Once all reports are received, a project list will be created. Rockstroh further touched on classroom upgrades, which are an ongoing collaborative effort with other university areas, including Academic Innovation. According to Rockstroh, 67 classrooms — which is over 40% of those at the university — have been renovated over the last two years. The total cost for the project was $31,731,568. Upgraded classrooms on the Main Campus
spanned several buildings, including the MH, MS, NPB, BB, FLN, EB, AET, SEB and the ART building. Vito explained the collaborative effort that went into this focus on classroom renovations. One of the common points of feedback the team received was the ability to use different modalities for learning. Another point made was moveable furniture. Vito also addressed the goal of making the campus more accessible for students. Finally, the faculty expressed the desire to have predictability regarding equipment and its use. The team tried their best to incorporate these points of feedback, despite limitations such as a lack of moveable furniture in core classrooms. On the other hand, where possible, the team was able to upgrade classrooms to make them “state-of-the-art” with high-level technology. “What we were able to do during this time was build not just the physical environment, but think about what training our faculty were going to need to be able to succeed in these classrooms,” Vito said. Marcela Ramirez from the Academic Innovation team concluded the presentation by discussing the aforementioned training. This training is facilitated through RowdyFlex, which Ramirez described as a “guide for faculty to start incorporating new teaching strategies using the technology in [these new classrooms].”
See SGA on Page 2