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Chris Smith
Staff Writer
A bill that would allow people witha concealed handgun license to bringtheir gun on campus was discussed inthe Senate State Aairs committee onApril 27. SB 1164 would amend the exasgovernment code to give properly licensedindividuals the right to have their con-cealed handguns with them in class-rooms, dorm rooms and all other campusbuildings.“I don’t want to see exas studentspicked o like sitting ducks by somederanged madman as has happenedon other campuses,” said Senator Je Wentworth, R-San Antonio, at the com-mittee hearing. Wentworth’s Senate billis meant to mirror House Bill 1893 whichmade it out o its committee and is wait-ing or consideration by the ull House. SB1164 is still in committee.“We simply want the same option o sel deense as we already do o campus,”said Michael Guzman the president o Students or Concealed Carry on Campus(SCCC) during his testimony beorethe Senate committee on April 22. TeSCCC is a nationwide organization thatis attempting to inuence legislation toallow people with concealed handgunlicenses to take their guns with them tocampus.“What we want to see done away withis the government guarantee to criminalsthat we are le deenseless, that we’llbe unarmed,” said Guzman during histestimony.o get a concealed handgun license inexas, the applicant must be over 21, be o sound mind, be qualied to buy a gun andmust take a 10 to 15 hour course. In exas,people with a concealed handgun licensecan take their handgun with them to mostplaces such as movie theaters, malls andother public spaces. Organizations like theSCCC would like to add college campusesto that list.“I think it is a terrible idea. I’m noteven sure why they are considering[allowing guns on campus],” said JohnWoods, a University o exas Graduatestudent as he waited or his chance tospeak beore the Senate committee onApril 27. Woods was a student at Virginiaech during the deadly shooting in 2007,and now eels that allowing people tocarry guns on campus would not makecolleges saer.“I’ve spoken to survivors and they haveall said the same thing, ‘Guns would nothave helped. It all happened too quickly,’”said Woods. He eels that when legisla-tors like Wentworth try to nd ways todeal with mass shootings like the one atVirginia ech they should concentrate onprevention and not just reaction.“Mental health I think is a really important component to a sae campus.Te shooter at Virginia ech was actually reerred to seek treatment,” said Woods.“He was triaged and sent away. You haveto ask i we would be talking about thistoday i they [counselors] had done their jobs - i they had had the unds to do their job.”Woods would rather legislators spendmore time on bills that would make itharder or people with mental healthproblems to buy guns than simply allow-ing more people with guns in campusbuildings.Te ACC administration has already made clear that it is against allowingconcealed handguns on campus. In aletter sent to Representative Maldonado,D-Round Rock, Dr. Stephen Kinslow,ACC president, and Nan McRaven,Chairperson o the Board o rustees,urged Maldonado to oppose the HouseBill that would allow guns on collegecampuses.One o the concerns listed in theletter was that ACC campuses oen havecharter schools, early college high schools,numerous dual credit students and early childhood programs with young childrenas young as ve and six years old.
Bill could allow handguns in school
Sixth Street violence ends with atal blow
Former ACC studentNikolas Evans exited theMoose Knuckle bar on SixthStreet Friday March 27 around2 a.m. with his riend HugoLagunas when the two menwere approached by a groupo people on Neches Street,ocials say.Evans was trying to break up a ght when one o the menin the group punched Evans inthe ace, knocking him to theground, witnesses told police.Evans died rom these inju-ries at the University MedicalCenter at Brackenridge onApril 5.“Nikolas was just at thewrong place at the wrong timeand thought he would do theright thing,” said his mother,Marissa Evans.Evans, 21, had been a
Kevin Forester • Sta Photographer
APD has increased police presence downtown as a result o numerous serious altercations as shown here at the corner o Sixth and Neches. Former ACC student Nikolas Evans wasmurdered at this corner in the early morning hours o March 27 while trying to break up a ght. Detective David Fugitt warns students to be aware o their surroundings.
Kevin Forester• Sta Photographer
All eyes are on the capitol as SB 1164 sits incommittee awaiting House vote.
cont.
ȩon page 6 
cont.
ȩon page 7 
student at ACC in 2006 and2007. He took his prerequisiteclasses at Riverside beoretranserring to U. He wastaking lm classes through Uand the Austin Film Festival.“He had a interest in writ-ing,” said Marissa Evans.“Nikolas was a writer at a realyoung age: he always kept a journal, wrote poems.”“He didn’t see color inpeople. He wanted the wholeworld to get along and hethought that he could makethat happen through his docu-mentary lms.”According to his mother,Evans was not the kind o manto cause trouble.“He was not a big drinker.He had just turned 21, andhe was having some un. Buthe never got carried away orstupid.”Te night o the incident,Evans was trying to stop analtercation.“He was always the onewho thought that maybe by telling a joke or doing a silly dance it might help to diusethe situation. He used to callit his dorky little white dance.He thought that they’d think itwas unny but obviously they didn’t.”Police reported that video-tape ootage rom businessesin the vicinity o the alterca-tion show a dozen or more wit-nesses, however, the suspecthas not yet been apprehended.“We have received someleads which we are ollow-ing up now. It is part o anongoing investigation,” saidDetective David Fugitt romthe Austin Police Department.Te APD homicide Divisionwebsite contains a descriptiono the suspect, and police are
Chris Smith
Staff Writer
Joshua Michael Bacak waselected the new student body president or ACC. Bacak wasa senator or the South AustinCampus beore running orPresident and also organizedand led “Black Out,” a studentgame night, and one o the big-gest student led events.“I eel that I have the toolsand experience rom the veyears in the Marine Corps,actually leading people, toexcel,” said Bacak o his quali-cations or the position asPresident.“Tere are big issues I wantto ocus on,” said Bacak. Toseissues include parking, theproper reporting o campuscrimes, the creation o desig-nated smoking areas and theproper enorcement o smokingrules, tax-ree text books orstudents and getting rid o thesix drop rule. Bacak also sayshe would like ACC and StudentGovernment to be moreinvolved at the State Capitol.“Te capitol is at our rontdoor. I want to see AustinCommunity College take amore proactive approach orall community colleges,” saidBacak. “I would love to be ableto start going to the capitolon a regular basis pushing thestudent’s agenda.”Student Government’s maingoal will be to ght or whatstudents want and need, saidBacak. “You let us know what’swrong and we are going to ghtor you.”
New SGA President elected
Constituency Senators:
Veteran Student Senator -
James Sutter
International Student Senator–
 Yassiel Caballero
Distance Learning Student Senator–
Sophia Downing
Executive Council:
Parliamentarian –
Avy’Gonzalez
Treasurer –
Wendy Holder
Secretary –
Brice Gump
Vice-President –
Michael Reid
President –
Joshua Bacak 
Camps Senators:
South Austin –
Alex Pugh
Riverside –
Scott Weaver
Rio Grande –
Benjamin McWilliams,Ian Steel
Northridge –
Nicholas Ro
Eastview –
Rhea Fluker
Cypress –
Monica Jones
Alma Hernandez • Photo/Web Editor
Senate is debatingchange to gov. code
Joshua Bacak, ACC’s newstudent body president
Former ACC student Nikolas Evans murdered in downtown Austin
 Teodora Erbes
Staff Writer
Wanted
or the murder o Nikolas Evans
Suspect is described as
A black maleApprox. 20 – 25 years old5’10” – 6’0” tallMedium buildWearing a dark dress shirtwith solid white or silvernecktie (loosely worn)
Homicide Tip Line:
 (512) 477-3588
Capital Area Crime Stoppers isofering up to $1,000 reward or inormation leading to anarrest and indictment 
Crime Stoppers
-(512) 472-8477
New StudentGovernmentOcers
?
May 4, 2009 www.theAccent.org Volume 2, Issue 6
  P  h o  t o   I  l  l u s  t r a  t  i o n   b  y   H a n  l  l  y  S a m
Asian Spring Festival on page 5
 
Our View
Staff Editorial
Sarah Neve
Editor-in-Chief 
 
•
David Rodriguez
 
 Assistant Editor 
 Jamie Carpenter
Campus Editor 
 
•
 
Alma Hernandez
 
Photo/Web Editor 
 
Jana Lelek
Layout Editor •
Chris Scott
Layout Intern
Editor-in-Chief 
........................................................................................................Sarah neve
Assistant Editor
..............................................................................................David Rdriguez
Photo/Web Editor
..........................................................................................Alma Heradez
Layout Editor
.............................................................................................................Jaa Lelek
Layout Intern
...........................................................................................................chris S
Campus Editor
................................................................................................Jamie carpeer
Copy Editor
..............................................................................................Julie Grkwski-Day
Accent Adviser
............................................................................................Mahew clly
Accent Coordinator
...............................................................................................Lri Blewe
Student Life Director
........................................................................................cheryl Rihard
Writers
Sarah Vasquez, Karissa Rdriguez, Dev tikell, chrispher Smih, trevrGdhild, Ay Ibarra, tedra Erbes, Rusy tlliver
Photographers
tedra Erbes, Kevi Freser, Hally Sam, Sarah Vasquez,chris Smih, Rusytlliver, trevr Gdhild, Sheli Harris,
Artists
Kare Kuh
ACC President
Dr. Seve Kislw
Board of Trustees
Ms. na MRave– chair; Ms. Veria Rivera—Vie chair; Dr. JamesMGuffee
—
Sereary, Dr. Barbara P. Mik, Alle Kapla, Mr. Jeffrey Rihard, Jh-Mihaelcrez, tim Mahey, Raul Alvarez
All righs reserved. All e is he prpery f Ae ad may  be reprdued, published r
retransmitted in any form without written permission from the Ofce of Student Life. Accent is the student
ewspaper f Ausi cmmuiy cllege ad is pried by he texas Sude Publiais. Ae is
published biweekly. ACC students may submit articles for publication in Accent to RGC’s Ofce of 
Sude Life Rm 101.1; e-mail ariles  ae@ausi.edu r fax submissis  223-3086. Accdes  disrimiae  he basis f rae, reed, lr, aial rigi, geder, sexual rieai, age,
political afliation or disability. Accent offers ACC’s faculty, staff, students and surrounding community
a mplee sure f ifrmai abu sude life. Ae welmes yur ipu, as well as ifrmaiabu errrs. If yu ie ay ifrmai ha warras a rrei please e-mail ae@ausi.
edu. Individual views, columns, letters to the editor and other opinion pieces do not necessarily reect
he views f Ae.
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In the article “More ood options at new campus…” in the April 20, 2009 issue, a sta writer or Te Accent reported that,“Te contract will also include some changes to address current issues with Simon’s, including eliminating the minimum amount  or credit card purchases, as well as extra charges or orks, nap-kins, plates, cups, bowls, ice and condiments.” While the new Round Rock ood contract does include these stip-ulations, there was no conrmation that these terms are related to any issues Simon’s Caé was having at the time the article was printed. Simon’s president Jae Park said that “It is clearly against (our) company policy to have a minimum amount or a credit card purchase.” 
coRREctIonS
page 2 Accent • May 4, 2009
www.theAccent.org
Forum
In a proposed amendment in HB3518, community college students wouldno longer be subject to the six coursedrop limit. Te ACC Board o rusteescame out in support o this and otherlegislation that helps college students.It was never reasonable to expectcommunity college students to stay within this limit. Tis law should beamended to exempt students not attend-ing a our year college.Students, and especially community college students, are becoming lesstraditional by the year. Just over hal o the students at ACC are older than 22.Almost 75 percent are part time stu-dents. We are not all recent high schoolgraduates, living at home, where we canocus on school, and have someone elseoot the bill or tuition.Another problem with the six droprule is that i community college stu-dents are punished or droping classeswhile at a two year, those drops hauntthem at a our year when they transer.So, i someone drops our classes at ACCand transers to a university where theclasses are bigger, ace-time with yourteacher is harder to get, and the work load is even more overwhelming, they will only have two drops le beore allsix o their drops turn to ailing gradesand their GPA tanks.Tere are exceptions in the cur-rent version o the six drop rule thatallow students to apply to avoid beingpenalized or dropping i they have apersonal emergency like a death in theamily. However, as students are orcedto take on more responsibilities outsideo school, it will become necessary orthem to drop classes, not because o emergencies, but because the work loadbecomes too much to balance with therest o their lives.Tis new bill was led on March11, and read and reerred to the highereducation committee on March 19, buthas not moved orward since. Studentsshould contact their representatives andtry to get this bill moving so that it hastime to be heard this session. Waitinganother year to make these changescould severely damage the records o students orced to continue to comply with six drop rule.
 R
edress
 
of 
 
G
rievances
Lets ace it, MySpace isdead. Te social networkingsite is no longer the leader,and more and more users areheading over to Facebook andwitter whose sites are thelatest craze right now.MySpace had 124 millionmonthly unique visitors lastmonth, a decline o two per-cent, according to the market-ing research company com-Score. Facebook, by contrast,racked up 276 million unique visitors, an increase o 16.6percent.witter alone has rackedup millions o new users.“U.S. trac growth has been just as dramatic, with witterreaching our million visitorsin February, up more than1,000 percent rom a year ago,”comScore reported.I have ound mysel ol-lowing the trend and deletedmy prole on MySpace justlast week. Why? Well, person-ally I just don’t use MySpaceanymore. What’s the point o going out o my way to updatea prole I don‘t use?I’m tired o the upkeepMySpace requires. It seemslike you constantly have tocustomize your prole or elseyou get bombarded with com-ments about why you haven’tupdated your prole in a longtime.I’m a busy person. Withschool, writing and takingpictures or the Accent, andraising my kids, I just don’thave the time to maintain aashy prole on MySpace.Te simplicity o thedesigns o witter andFacebook are why I opted touse their sites over MySpace.Besides, how is MySpace a“social” site anyway?MySpace has very littlesocializing integrated intotheir design. Te site eels
Karissa Rodriguez
Staff Writer
In September o 2008 Iattended the all orientationor the Accent. Although Ihad been a student at ACC orabout six months by then, Ihad yet to participate in any student activities.When I heard about theopportunity to be able tocontribute to a newspaper, Iwas pretty excited. I had beenon my high school’s newspaperand missed being able to write.Fast-orward to ninemonths later and my columnor the Accent, Redress o Grievances, is ending.I took the name o my column rom the line in theFirst Amendment, which isthe holy grail to anyone inthe newspaper business. Weas United States citizens havethe right to be able to say whatwe want, and that is a rightthat I think is seldom usedeectively.Now that I am graduatingrom ACC, this 12th columnwill be last. As I becameCampus Editor with Accent,I became increasingly moreinvolved and concerned withthe issues we as ACC studentsace.School is not merely just aplace where classes are held. Itis a melting pot o activities,controversy, hopes, disap-pointments, inspirations andhard work. I am glad that Itook the opportunity to get outo my shell and try somethingthat ACC had to oer.In researching this column,it appears that most writerstake the time to thank peoplewho have had an impact ontheir writing at their paper.Who am I to buck tradition?I would rst like to thank Matt Connolly, the news-paper adviser here. He hasgiven me a greater regard orthe amount o tedious eortthat goes into writing (edits,edits, more edits), has neverailed to correct me when Idid something wrong (passive verbs, then vs. than, check APstyle) and is amazingly goodat what he does. He keeps hisears open to the suggestionsthat all the editors make andgives pertinent and practicaleedback, and I highly respecthis opinions.Sarah Neve, the editor-in-chie, I remember rom whenI wasn’t on sta last semester.She is very well-versed in themost eective ways to writean editorial. As the writer o all the sta editorials (I highly recommend you check themout i you haven’t already),she clearly knows her stu.She cares enough about whatwriters put in their articlesto give honest eedback, andshe is never patronizing. Tis,combined with her incessantneed or coee and great tastein shoes, makes her awesome.Alma Hernandez is my avorite person to mess withhere in the oce. As the photoeditor o the paper, I have noidea what she does, or even i she does anything at all. But Ido know that the pictures inthe paper always look great, soI guess she must be workingwhen she is in the oce givingme the evil eye and puttingher earphones in her ear thesecond I say something.Speaking o having no ideawhat they do, Jana Lelek andChris Scott, our layout people,are amazing. I give theman idea o what I want, and,although I speak gibberishwith the ideas, they seem tounderstand gibberish as wellas being abulously talented.As an aside, Chris is denitely the sweetest guy in the placeand has the patience o anangel when I tell him there hasbeen a change o plans.And this brings me toDavid Rodriguez, our enter-tainment editor. David amazesme with his ability to write sointelligently and with so muchdetail consistently in every single issue. He doesn’t speak much, but whenever he talks,I love to listen because healmost always will enlightenme.For the sta writers,photographers, and illustra-tors, I really appreciate you.We wouldn’t have a paperwithout you. You are our nutsand bolts. Although I will notmention anyone by name,because the contributorschange rom issues to issue, wedo have a group o y’all that Icall “our old reliables” becauseo your constant devotion toour paper, and you know whoyou are.Working on the Accent hasbeen more than just merely educational, humorous and achance to get my writing pub-lished. For me, it has becomea chance to develop moreexperience. Although peoplemay not like everything Iwrite, I know that at least I amwriting. At least I am giving ita go. I encourage every studentto remember that you have a voice and that you deserve tobe heard.
~30~
more like a place to postpictures and share music thanbeing a place to converse withothers.Sure you can commenton one another’s prole, butFacebook allows you to chatwith one another rather thanbroadcasting your conversa-tions to everybody.Also, why does MySpacebombard its users with giantadvertisements on every page?According to the site’s HelpCenter, “MySpace is supportedsolely by advertising.”Despite being the solesource o revenue, I don’t think MySpace should be a placewhere ads dominate the siteover actual people’s proles.People use social network-ing sites to connect to otherpeople, and I think Facebook and witter are on the rightpage while MySpace hasdetached itsel rom whatmakes social networking sitesso popular.Te company is a greatplace to nd bands and learnwhat big blockbuster moviesare coming out, but socializingis denitely on the bottom o the list o reasons to remain auser or join the site.In order to save the site andbring users back, MySpaceshould overhaul its website andocus more on entertainment.Rather than trying to revampcustomization o proles, they should put all their eorts intomusic proles.While there are hundredso sites that provide inorma-tion about bands and singers,I love the personalization thatcomes with visiting a band’sMySpace prole.Users are able to actu-ally converse with the bandand listen to their songs atthe same time. I think that’sbrilliant.Nevertheless, MySpace haslost its wow actor and is onthe decline.
Jamie Carpenter
Campus Editor
-30- columnMySpace vs.
Facebook
 
K
arissa
 
Explains
 
it 
 
all 
Commnity College shold be exempt
Amended bill cold save stdents from six drop rle
Reporters traditionally put -30- at the end o their work to signiy that the story was done.Tis is not common practice anymore, but asa result the nal piece a journalist submits isofen called their -30- column
Sta Artist • Karen Khn
 
May 4, 2009 • Accent page 3
Broadband Buccaneers
Devon Tincknell
Staff Writer
Tis spring was a toughtime to be a pirate. On April16, the French Navy captureda Somali pirate mother ship,striking a harsh blow againstthose scourges o the AdriaticSea. Te ollowing day, aSwedish court ound the ourmen behind the inamousPirate Bay le sharing web siteguilty o contributory copy-right inringement, levying aheavy ne and a year in prisonagainst all our.For the Somalians, piracy is soon to be a thing o thepast. Te international com-munity is sick o having theirships commandeered and theircitizens’ lives placed at risk,and so they are cracking downwith the vast armada at theirdisposal. Te Somalians don’tstand a chance. Te Swedes,well that’s a dierent matter.Even though the ver-dict was in their avor, theMotion Picture AssociationO America hasn’t won. Tey can’t win because what they’reghting isn’t Swedish web siteoperators, peer to peer users,CD burners, or album leak blogs. What they’re ghtingis change, and they’re doing itpoorly.Aside rom Metallica, theMPAA and the RIAA havebeen the biggest opponentsto online le sharing sinceShawn Fanning’s Napsterblew the doors o digitalmusic back in 1999. Tey have lobbied Congress orstricter copyright laws,litigated against everyoneunder the sun, and doneeverythingin theirpower toresist thechangetechnol-ogy haswrought, all tolittle avail.Fighting the spreado inormation on theInternet is like battlingthe mythical Hydra.For every web site youshut down, or every le sharer you sue,another dozen spring upin their place. Te day Napster died, Limewire,Gnutella, and Kazaa wentonline to supply the stillpresent demand. By the timethe music industry got aroundto suing Kazaa, le sharingon peer to peer networks wasoutre and obsolete. Bitorrenthad developed a craier, moreecient means o sharingmedia and dozens o web siteswere hard at work linkingtorrentors together. Pirate Bay was on it’s way to becomingthe most popular torrent siteon the net.While proponents o copy-right enorcement continueto champion the legal victory,the verdict has yet to aect theounders,Pirate Bay or the sitein any nega-tive way. All ourdeendants are appealing the verdict and the web site hasremained online since theservers were relocated, spreadout over our nations, aerthe 2006 raid on Pirate Bay’sheadquarters. Sweden’s PirateParty, a politi-cal party dedicatedto redesigning Swedish copy-right and intellectual property laws, membership doubledin size, swelling rom 15,000members toover 35,000in just a ewdays. Atthe core,it’s anideo-logicalbattle,and theiGen-erationcurrently coming o age has very little qualmsabout digitalpiracy.Te MPAA and theRIAA remains rmly entrenched in the old ways,having hardly made theslightest eort to change withthe times. For good reasontoo, both organizations rep-resent corporations whoseentire business model isnon-compatible withthe changing medialandscape. For a longtime producing records,distributing lms, andhyping it all up with adver-tising took a lot o money, andrecord labels and lm studioswere the only ones who couldpony up the cash to make itpossible. Now, any idiot with alaptop and a video camera canbecome a Youube celebrity 
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over-night, orscore a 9.1on Pitchork and havethe top selling album the ol-lowing week. Neither artistsnor ans need the industry anymore, and the industry knows it.Aside rom invoking com-mandment number eight(Tou Shall Not Steal or thosewho skipped Sunday school),the crux o the MPAA/RIAA’scampaign has been that i thepirates win, creative artistswon’t be able to make money,and we’ll be orced to livein a world without music ormovies. Fortunately, that’s nottrue at all. Tey may be rightin one aspect: i the pirateswin we might end up in aworld without HEIR moviesor music. But is that really abad thing? Was “Waterworld”that much better than RobertRodriguez’s $7,000 studentlm, “El Mariachi”? Is themusic Britney Spears makes o higher quality than the heart-elt guitar standards pluckedout by the destitute bluesmeno the Mississippi Delta? Teanswer is pretty clear. Sincethe birth o modern media,the creative process has beenstolen away rom the every-man and locked away like aprincess in an ivory tower. Butnow, as we leave behind theconsumption o the IndustrialAge in avor o the collabora-tion o the Inormation Age,it appears a pirate has comealong and set her ree.
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