The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act is a bill that was passed in hopes of changing the unfair practices within the consumer credit plans.

What interested UH Law Center Assistant Professor Jim Hawkins was a revision to the 1970 Fair Credit Reporting Act, which said credit card marketing companies could not get information on anyone under 21 from organizations providing credit reports to offer credit cards. The bill also encourages limits on the promoting done by the companies on college campuses.

Based on Hawkins’ survey of over 500 students, 68 percent of students said they had received credit card offers in the mail within the past year, and 40 percent said they witnessed credit card marketing companies promoting gifts to students since the bill was put in effect in 2010.

“I was surprised that so many students reported they were getting so many offers in the mail,” said Hawkins.

The purpose of the bill was to make it harder for credit card companies to obtain people’s addresses, Hawkins said. He soon found out that wasn’t completely the case.

During his study, Hawkins also examined 300 credit card agreements between college students and credit card issuers. He discovered that about 64% of all the agreements evaluated had not changed since the bill was passed.

“In only two cases in all of the 300 agreements that I reviewed did I observe any mention of regulation as influencing the decision to end the agreement,” said Hawkins in a press release.

Despite his findings, Hawkins said the act is slowly having a bigger impact on credit card marketing companies.

If a student is interested in retrieving a credit card, Hawkins says they should know what they’re getting into.

“Credit cards can be really useful and really dangerous,” said Hawkins.

“It’s really easy to spend money on a credit card, so it’s important to be disciplined and not affect yourself and even your family members.”

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The event will feature live performances, refreshments, a film screening, games and a lecture.

Today’s event will include performances and henna, and will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Philip Guthrie Hoffman breezeway.

Wednesday will feature a showcase of Islamic art and architecture, an observation of Islamic prayer, games and prizes from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the PGH breezeway, followed by a screening of Jihad on Terror at 5:30 p.m. in the University Center Baltic Room.

Thursday will feature a multi-panel lecture titled “Before and After” on Islamic converts at 6 p.m. in the A.D. Bruce Religion Center, and Friday will be open congressional Muslim Friday prayer from 1:30 p.m. in the Religion Center.

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There will be free food and music at the Spacecity Fish Fry to engage UH students to donate to communities in Haiti and Japan.

“This event is not only for the student body, but also for our international Kappa action relief effort,” said Jevani Barron, president of the Eta Lambda Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi.

This is the first event of the semester the brothers of the fraternity are working with International Kappa Action Relief Effort. They have been promoting their event on Twitter and Facebook with hopes to draw at least 300 to 400 students.

They are expecting this to be a fun and laid-back event, but they don’t want the cause to be forgotten. They will be accepting monetary donations throughout the five-hour long event.

“I would appreciate the student body coming out, having a good time with us and donating for the cause,” Barron said.

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“Volunteering has as nothing to do with winning trophies, but has everything to do with being a team,” said Michael Fain, director of the society. “We are a different type of program, where one-third of our activities are competition and two-thirds are voluntary work.”

UHFS hosted a national qualifier for high school debate teams on April 11, and then hosted a middle school tournament Saturday. The hosting of these two events are key factors in what the program does these days.

Of the 300 members, only 35 are involved in competitions with the most recent accomplishment being first year competitors taking fifth place in the National Novice competition.

UHFS is involved in 60 different events year round, whether in competition or some form of voluntary activity.

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There will be several departments and vendors out to engage students about the University’s sustainability efforts including the Corral the Grease program, Green Houston Program and the National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation. Honest Tea representatives will also be at the carnival passing out samples to students as they walk by. Students will be able to enjoy food and games during the festivities hosted by Green UH.

Several UH departments, including Parking and Transportation Services, Dining Services, the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, HRM Green Team and the Division of Administration and Finance, will participate and offer activities in which may students engage. A weather balloon will be launched from students from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

“Our goal is to make this year’s Earth Day Carnival fun and exciting as well as educational for all of the students,” said Billy Garner, Marketing Coordinator for Auxiliary Services.

“We encourage and invite all students to come out to Butler Plaza to have some cake and help us celebrate all of our accomplishments in sustainability this past year. It would be a good break in between classes to enjoy some games and refreshments.”

For more information about Green UH, go to www.uh.edu/green.

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National Day of Silence was created to bring attention to school bullying of LGBT students, said the UH calendar entry on the event.

The freeze will take place at 11:45 a.m., and participants will hold signs promoting “DOS and equality,” the entry said.

“Our silence will represent the voices that are no longer heard because of bullying and harassment.”

Gamma Rho Lambda will also host a table from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the University Center selling jewelry and buttons for the event.

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HOSA was recently introduced to the University by UH Chapter President David Pham who was involved with the group in high school. This was the chapter’s first time competing in the state competition.

“I felt really good going into this competition,” Pham said.

“Not only would (the members) learn so much to develop their own leadership skills, but I thought it would be great exposure for the University of Houston as well.”

Alonso Marron, Jesna Kurian and Tony Roshan participated in Biomedical Debate section and won first place; Pham was honored with the Barbara James award and won first place in the Extemporaneous Writing portion.

Yasameen Nazemi won first place in Prepared Speaking, and Nam Nguyen won second place in Pathophysiology, which is a knowledge-based exam, and became a part of the top 10 percent of students who had taken the Health Care Issues exam.

Before the competition, members held multiple fundraisers, which Pham said helped a great deal in covering the costs.

They also volunteered at various organizations such as the Houston Food Bank and Walk for Alzheimer’s.

Members involved participated in a CPR class, leadership workshops and tours of different medical centers.

Pham said anyone interested in a career in health care should be a part of HOSA.

“I think HOSA would benefit (students) a lot because we volunteer, we provide a lot of community service opportunities, we also provide them more exposure to the medical field,” Pham said.

“Not only can they participate in competitive events and gain practical skills, the leadership workshops help provide professional development as well.”

The chapter currently has more than 30 members.

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Club Theatre will sell home cooked muffins, cupcakes and cookies, along with other treats, said member Sarah Dyer.

The bake sale proceeds will go towards funding the lighting and sound for future productions, as well as improvements to the organization’s stage and other equipment.

“This is the only time that Club Theatre does any fundraising, so we appreciate it when people come out,” said leader of the club, Lindsay Slavin, “because we offer them free theatre.”

Club Theatre is an Honors College organization that puts on student-written, directed and acted short plays once a semester.

The next club theatre shows will be April 26, 27 and 28 in Taft Street Coffee House at 2115 Taft Street.

— Cougar News Services

Students took a sledgehammer to a car Monday in front of the University Center to raise money for “Push America,” a charity for severely handicapped people.

The car smash was part of a week-long fundraising event by fraternity Pi Kappa Phi called Push Week. The next event is a wheelchair basketball tournament from 6 to 8 p.m. in Cullen Oaks, in which the Rollin’ Coogs will play against a team made up of members of a sorority and Pi Kappa Phi.

Push America was founded in 1976 by members of Pi Kappa Phi and has remained exclusively the fraternity’s charity.

Assistant Librarian Irene Ke instructed the workshop, which was held Friday in a basement classroom in the M.D. Anderson Library.

“Our goal is to give students the skills so they can further develop themselves,” Ke said.

“Whatever skills I have, I want to give that to students so they can carry on and be really successful in their careers.”

The class began by incorporating clickers and a slide show of hypothetical situations to determine what students were specifically struggling with. Ke then moved on to exploring the differences between APA, MLA and Chicago citation styles.

She emphasized the importance of being able to properly read all forms and distinguish between the different types of sources being cited by looking only at the citation itself.

“Scholarship is built on clarity and consistency so that we can all understand each other,” Ke said.

“You are only one scholar out of this entire field, so you need to communicate clearly.”

Ke then covered the differences between direct quotes, paraphrases and summaries. She stressed the importance of limiting the amount of direct quotes in academic work and the benefits of paraphrasing when done correctly.

To further illustrate her point, she used a soup and salad analogy, where the soup represented paraphrasing and the salad direct quoting.

With a soup, you take different flavors and add them to the soup, but it cooks and is more of your creation, said Ke. Whereas with a salad, anything you add in is exactly what it was — a carrot is a carrot and a tomato is a tomato.

There were exercises that required the students’ participation throughout these different topics. Environmental engineering student Aparna Balasubramani found the information valuable.

“I’m in grad school and there’s going to be a point where I start writing papers, so I need to know how to cite things properly,” Balasubramani said.

“Specifically, now I know what to cite and what not to cite.”

Psychology student Louis Berg also thought the class was beneficial.

“I wanted to have a better understanding of how to incorporate citations,” Berg said.

“There were some things she explained, such as the paraphrasing and summaries, that was very interesting and helpful.”

The Discovery Workshop series is a part of the Learning Through Discovery initiative that began in 2008 as the University was applying to be re-accredited, said Veronique Tran, director of the Quality Enhancement Plan for undergraduate research.

“We are trying to make research more accessible as well as show the practicality of it so that students will embrace it and understand it’s something they really need,” Tran said.

“We are trying to bridge that research and education mission together.”

There are three workshops left in the spring 2012 series. The next will be the “Developing Effective Power Point Presentations” workshop on April 10, an online webinar led by head of Information and Access Services Lee Hilyer. Students can register at www.uh.edu/discovery.

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The University of Houston Filipino Student Association hosted and won the annual GoodPhil festivity at the Stafford Centre.

GoodPhil is a weekend event which began in 1991 where FSA groups from universities across the state, including the University of Texas, Texas A&M and the University of Texas at San Antonio among others, convene to celebrate their culture through dance and sports.

“It’s something that every participating FSA in Texas looks forward to every year,” President of UHFSA Christian Santos said.

“On a competitive note, every school prepares and puts in work to represent their school in every competition. In the end, it’s just about getting everyone together as one.”

The competition draws in students who watched the events as kids.

“Some of us have followed GoodPhil since we were in high school at a young age and had older brothers, sisters or friends who were involved with GoodPhil, and we just were there along for the ride in some way,” business sophomore and dancer Richard Ocampo said.

The preparation for the event spans over months with grueling schedules the students juggled along with school, work and family obligations. Students participating in sports met various times each week to prepare for the football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and dodgeball competitions.

“We practiced everywhere on-campus,” kinesiology major Wesley Vu said. “Aside from team practice, we had individual practices at the UH Recreation Center with our coach two times a week, each lasting about one to three hours long.”

Santos said team chemistry was an important factor among the athletes and that new members of the group worked very well with the other dancers.

“Every single athlete and dancer put their heart and soul into the preparation of GoodPhil to the point where these ‘rookies’ played and performed like seasoned veterans,” Santos said.

One of the highlights of the event is the dance competition on opening night, where three dances are presented: cultural, spirit and modern.

The dancers practiced in the University Center Underground since late January three days per week, until March when they practiced every day.

There are about 35 dancers for the modern dance, and practices for the group lasted from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Closer to the premiere, the dancers had practices that lasted until midnight or after.

“Nothing gets me more motivated than to rep UH and compete for Houston. As much as we practice and as talented as we are, the energy when we get on that stage is unreal. Our friends and families screaming and chanting ‘UH’ so loud that we can’t even hear the music,” management information systems junior Sadiq Amir said.

“The last song from our modern dance was an emotional one for all of us. It wasn’t about performing or trying to win at that point; it was about emotion and heart. Some of us couldn’t hold back tears while performing that final song.”

UHFSA placed first in dance as well as a majority of the sports competitions, including football, and won the GoodPhil first place overall prize.

“I always made it a point for everyone to leave with something memorable from GoodPhil, dance or sports related,” Ocampo said. “And I feel like we did just that.”

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The competition helps students develop energy entrepreneurship skills and awards the winning team with a $200,000 grand prize.

“The competition, more or less, teaches you how to get your product to market,” said UH mechanical engineering student and competitor Eduardo Jasso.

The UH team, named Envir Energy, is also the only one made up of undergraduates.

“We initially saw the purpose of the competition for us as undergraduates, a way to network jobs,” team member Mario Laposse said.

All teams are required to enter into one of three categories — Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Deployment & Infrastructure — in which the winner receives $20,000. The UH the engineering students choose to compete in Deployment & Infrastructure.

The competition requires all semi-finalists to become incorporated and publicly traded by April 29 — when the competition is to be judged — to be eligible for the grand prize.

The team was originally comprised of eight members: two MBA students and six mechanical engineering students; however, over time, the team dwindled to its current size.

“We had been developing a business plan since August, and we conducted a feasibility analysis with all of our ideas, and this had the most potential for us to do well in the competition.” Laposse said.

The group came up with six different ideas for the competition, but choose to focus it’s efforts on carbon sequestration.

“Burning natural gas to generate electricity, we are looking at capturing the CO2 and storing it underground,” Jasso said.

Having secured a spot in the semi-finals, Envir Energy will be matched with three mentors, each mentor coming from a different background: legal, entrepreneurship and engineering. All three mentors have extensive experience with carbon sequestration.

“We are focusing on natural gas plants,” said UH team member Andres Paez.

“Natural gas generation is cheaper right now, and forecasted to stay cheaper. We tailored our carbon capture system for that.”

The four students are in the process of starting their own clean energy competition in the mold of MIT’s called Clean Energy Initiative

“We saw the need for students to get real life experience, unless you get an internship,” Jasso said.

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Coached by Amy Vandaveer, the team competed against 116 contestants from 58 different schools.

“I was extremely nervous,” said marketing and finance senior Sonya Brooks.

“The competition is so nerve-wracking knowing that you are competing against so many other students and the people you are selling to have been doing this professionally for years.”

To prepare, the team role-played not only amongst themselves and their coach, but also with other students in Program for Excellence in Selling, alumni, corporate partners, directors and managers of the UH sales program and the UH students who competed and won last years NCSC.

“The team last year was instrumental to our success,” said Grace Moceri, marketing senior.

“They practiced with us and coached us every single week we prepared.”

The group tried out in Dec. 2011 and, after placing, immediately began training.

“NCSC allowed me to see just how incredibly fortunate I have been to be a student, and now a staff member, in the Program for Excellence in Selling,” said marketing senior Markee Johnson.

“The curriculum and experiences we gain throughout our time with PES is so far above any other program that there is not a word to embody how much better our program, staff and students are. I have always known our program was one of the best, but now I can say with full confidence that we are the best.”

The team didn’t officially find out that they won until the awards banquet, although when it was announced that two UH competitors had won first and second place in the finals, they knew the team had enough points to be the winner.

“We all saw each other at our finest and at our weakest,” said Bryan Hentges, a corporate communications senior.

“My experience was very similar to the sales program. It’s a lot of work.

“It’s easy to feel discouraged and there are days you feel like you’re beating your head (against) a wall, but the rewards and the experience that comes from it, no amount of frustration or exhaustion could overshadow.

“I would do it all over again in a heart beat.”

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The event has two main focuses: The voter registration event, “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People,” and “Shirt off my Back” clothing drive.

The fraternity will also provide free food, music and games for students.

“I’m excited to have the block party and renew some of the genuine fun on campus while at the same time providing awareness politically and socially to the UH student body. We do everything for the people,” said Elliot Wright, vice president of the Eta Mu chapter.

“Shirt off my Back” is a movement the fraternity has been involved with for three years. Clothing collected during the block party will be donated to the OOEIM Orphanage in Accra, Ghana. Their campaign has spread awareness about disparity in Ghana and has aided kids since 2010.

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“You can’t knock it until you try it. I’ve done a lot of mission trips in a religious capacity. I’ve always wanted to do an ‘alternative Spring Break,’” said graduate student and Instructional Assistant for Leadership Development Courtney Reynolds, who organized the trip.

“Making an impact and seeing the difference on just one person’s face is way worth it. Yes, there are other things I can do, but those things can wait.”

Reynolds and the group worked in conjunction with Head Start, a program that provides educational and health services to children of low-income families.

“Most ‘alternative Spring Breaks’ consist of building and cleaning up things.

“I was surprised how much this group wanted to work with more of a person-to-person capacity,” said Reynolds.

Some of the activities included work projects every morning at the schools and tutoring in the afternoons. The group also took one afternoon off to explore the culture of New Orleans.

New Orleans was one of several cities that were selected for this project. Reynolds said New Orleans was a very attractive place for the participants to go because of the early-childhood education. The only requirement for the trip was that the students should be completely invested in helping the children.

“We just put out what we were doing. People who were passionate applied for it. We didn’t have to use any gimmicks or anything like that. If we can get students who are passionate about it without any gimmicks, I think that says a lot.”

Reynolds plans to continue “alternative Spring Breaks” every year in even bigger cities.

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Frontier Fiesta is preparing to bring some new things to the carnival that may surprise some people. This year, students can expect more than the two rides featured last year, belly dancers and theme days.

Thursday’s theme is “diversity,” with a comedian whose name is undisclosed for the time being, a mariachi performance and Russian belly dancers. Friday is “Cougar red,” and Saturday is “family fun day” during the morning and afternoon and “Joe Koppel military appreciation” in the evening.

Some fraternities and sororities will put on shows this year, including Delta Zeta’s “Silver Spur,” Pi Kappa Alpha and Delta Gamma’s “Crow’s Nest,” and Sigma Chi’s “Bella Union.” The UH Cheerleaders will also make an appearance. A few other organizations that are participating are Bayou Oaks, Cullen Oaks, Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Cougar Red Friday and the Children’s Learning Center.

No major performers are expected to take part this year, and specific details of performances haven’t been announced yet, but Frontier Fiesta will bring one of its first Latina performers in almost 20 years to the stage.

Local artists will be more of the focus this year, but there will be no battle of the bands.

Frontier Fiesta is also bringing back the “Beard Growing Contest” which was a major event from 1940 to 1959.

There are over 17 participants involved in six different categories: Most unique beard, scrawniest beard, funniest beard, reddest beard, fanciest beard and best all-around beard.

Students can still expect the annual cook-off, which is already full of applicants competing to make the best chili, beans and fajitas.

UH Adaptive Athletics program will host “Wheelchair Basketball Rugby.”

“I think the major difference between this year and last year is more student organization participation,” said Director of Productions Terry Chung. “It is more UH-centric.”

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Originally founded within the Honors College, the chapter has attained most of its current members from that community, naturally. Mathematical biology sophomore Kendall Mills, the chapter’s president, says it is difficult to organize campuswide events with so few roots among the overall student population.

“We’ve been trying really hard to make this a university-wide chapter,” Mills said.

“We’re listed under the organizations, and we try to do things at PGH, but it’s harder than we thought it would be to get people to realize that we’re here.”

Invisible Children was founded in 2004 to promote awareness of and activism against the actions of the Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony. Its programs focus on eliminating the threat of the LRA and rebuilding affected communities through education, rehabilitation and economic growth.

The UH chapter is part of the organization’s Schools For Schools Program, which focuses on the construction and renovation of 11 secondary schools in some of the most war-torn regions of Uganda.

“Our chapter is in the Pabbo Secondary School cluster,” Mills said. “Ninety percent of the money we raise goes directly into the construction of the school for things like maintenance, hiring teachers and giving scholarships to students.”

Members are given the chance to help make a difference and see the benefits of the funds through bake sales and events like their fall semester Pie-A-Thon.

“I love that we can see directly what our money is doing,” Mills said.

“We can see pictures of the school. Francis, the student that came to speak last year, actually went to Pabbo Secondary School. I think that’s really great.”

Invisible Children was brought to UH in 2009 by history senior Joshua Ellis, who was involved in high school. Ellis saw the organization as one with a pure message that was easy to support.

“A lot of organizations have good effects on students when they join them. I feel like a humanitarian one would have one of the better effects,” Ellis said.

“That was a lot of the motivation — to have something to support that had a greater cause and something we could contribute to.”

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The 50th annual American Advertising Federation Houston ADDY Awards recognized Jack J. Valenti School of Communication students, taught by Larry Kelley and Rosario Laudacina at UH with a total of seven gold and silver medals.

The school ranked eighth overall, ahead of 52 others.

Inspired by the show “Mad Men,” the Feb. 25 event was titled Madfest.

The National Student Advertising Competition team at UH won two gold and two silver medals for their work for JC Penney, Kelley said.

The gold medals were awarded to the overall mixed media campaign as well as the magazine category, and the silver medals went to the television and collateral categories. Keith Houk and his Television II class collaborated on the television campaign.

Senior advertising majors Isabelle Chabrier won a gold medal in the nontraditional advertising category while Joe McKinney won silver for the television category.

Jaime Alvizar and Matt Whiteley were also awarded silver Addys for the magazine category, Kelley said.

Gold and silver medalists will go onto the District 10 competition in Shreveport, Louisiana, to compete with 21 other schools from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

If UH wins at District 10, in June they will move on to the Nationals Competition in Austin. At the Nationals Competition last year, UH took home a silver medal, Kelley said.

Kelley, advertising professor at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, has participated in the competition for four years.

Kelley is also the head of the advertising sequence.

Advertising majors interested in participating in next year’s competition can submit their projects for $50.

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University of Houston students brought home the gold in the 2012 Rice MBA Marketing Case Competition.

The team competed with eight other teams from around the state including Rice University and University of Texas.

Team members Raj Baskaran, Kim Phan, Trey Bhutta and Iryna McKenzie had only 12 hours to prepare for the presentation.

“The group did know that Cameron was the sponsor and the case was most likely related to their operations,” Baskaran said. “So the extent of our research was to look at the company website, marketing and annual reports.”

The team’s goal was to do well and gain experience, but they were also hoping to finish in the top three.

“Heading into the competition, I felt confident in my team as well as the qualifications that each member brought with them,” Phan said.

“With the marketing knowledge I attained through my MBA career as well as my undergrad, I felt that we were prepared competitively.”

After scrapping their original idea shortly after midnight, the team could not finish by their original goal of 3:30 a.m. Some teammates took an hour-long nap, while others were forced to go home, freshen up and battle commuter traffic back to Rice in the morning.

“I brushed my teeth and slept at the same time, it felt like,” Phan said.

With a bachelor’s degree in finance, Bhutta seeks an MBA in the same field. Baskaran received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and is studying finance for an MBA, while McKenzie is studying accounting. Phan is the only marketing MBA team member.

“UH’s MBA program has been so enriching for me,” Phan said. “My personal goal going into the competition was to display the knowledge and insight that I gained from my educational tenure at UH and apply it to the best of my knowledge to the competition.”

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