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LIFE&ARTS PAGE 12
Carts give new meaning to ‘fast’ food
SPORTS PAGE 7
Big shoes to fill on Horns’ offensive line
NEWS PAGE 6
Faculty, students make State of the Union predictions
THE DAILY TEXAN Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
Forum airs ‘fusion’ tensions
TOMORROW’S WEATHER
Rachel Taylor | Daily Texan Staff
Intelligence center draws concerns about civil liberties, profiling By Bobby Longoria Daily Texan Staff After months of speculation and criticism, Austin Police Department officials outlined the purpose of the upcoming Austin Regional Intelligence Center and answered questions during a public forum on Tuesday. The Austin Regional Intelligence Center, referred to as a
“fusion center,” will be a centralized entity led by APD that will gather criminal information from Central Texas law enforcement agencies, including the Travis County, Round Rock and Williamson County sheriff’s departments, as well as the Austin Independent School District, Georgetown, Pflugerville, San Marcos and UT police departments.
There are currently 72 fusion centers across the nation that have developed since 9/11. The centers, funded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, allow various police forces to collaborate in emergency response activities. APD, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office and the Round Rock Police Department will
each provide a full-time data analyst, while the other agencies will provide fewer parttime analysts. Citizens at the forum concentrated their inquiries on potential racial, religious and political profiling by the fusion center. A fusion center located in Collin County
Tepid tuition forum follows raucous funding discussion Quieter, calmer meeting contrasts with energy of previous forum audience By Madeeha Khursheed Daily Texan Staff In direct contrast to Wednesday’s lively exchange, the tone of Tuesday’s second Tuition Policy Advisory Committee forum was subdued, and attendance was minimal. More than 50 students, faculty and staff attended the first forum, which ran 30 minutes past schedule to accommodate audience questions and concerns. Tuesday’s second and final forum lasted under 30 minutes, and only 20 people were in attendance. The forums sought feedback on the 3.95 percent per-year tuition increase recommended for the next two years by the committee in December. President William Powers Jr., who attended last week’s and Tuesday’s forums, will submit his recommendations to the Board of Regents by the end
Maxx Scholten | Daily Texan Staff
University President William Powers Jr. turns to hear people voice opinions about the proposed tuition increase during the second of two meetings with the Tuition Policy Advisory Committee in the Avaya Auditorium on Tuesday. of this week. The regents will vote in March. The proposed increase would also institute a $65 per-semester fee in 2010-11 to fund the Student Activity Center, which is currently under construction. The proposed
increase applies to all undergraduate and graduate programs — excluding professional schools. The fee and increase would add $241 to tuition per semester in 2010-11
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Student-aid plan could reduce debt Proposal offers incentive to take public-service, low-paying occupations
Mary Anderson asks a question at the Austin Regional Intelligence Center forum Tuesday.
Low
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By Priscilla Pelli Daily Texan Staff With the help of a new proposal from the Obama administration, college students may incur less debt if they pursue low-paying or government jobs. The proposal, announced Monday, would minimize debt by forgiving loans sooner and decrease payments for students who intend to take low-paying or publicservice jobs after they graduate. A low-paying job is defined as one that pays an hourly wage less than two-thirds of the national average, which is about $11 per hour, according to the Center for Economic Policy and Research. Teachers, police officers, healthcare workers and government employees are considered publicservice workers. Obama’s new student-aid plan is a modification of the incomebased repayment program created by Congress in 2007. The current program mandates that borrowers with a federally subsidized loan make yearly payments totaling no more than 15 percent of their income after both taxes and personal expenses are deducted. Students under the proposed program would pay no more than 10
percent of their income per year. Loans would be forgiven after 20 years of payment for students with low-paying jobs under the proposal. But loans for those who enter public-service jobs when they graduate would be forgiven after 10 years of payment. Under current law, student debt from federally subsidized loans is forgiven after 25 years. Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, a Web site that provides advice on financial aid, said the new proposal could reduce students’ monthly payments by one-third, providing meaningful financial relief for those who struggle with loan payments. “Students who graduate with debt who are using income-based repayment can rest assured they won’t be paying back loans when their kids graduate college,” Kantrowitz said. Kantrowitz said the proposal also allows students to choose more fulfilling careers rather than simply lucrative ones. “Students want careers, not just a job to pay the bills,” Kantrowitz said. “Working a public-service skill can often be more fulfilling than doing a job just to make money. If you give people a chance, with debt not standing in [their] way, you’re removing an impediment.”
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SG reforms left off meeting agenda Vice President Shara Ma tables resolution that would have split her job By Audrey White Daily Texan Staff After Student Government Vice President Shara Ma did not include legislation authored by 11 representatives that could restructure SG meetings and the role of the vice president on the agenda, authors and supporters of the bill informally raised the item at Tuesday’s SG meeting. The 11 representatives proposed a bill that would call for a student-body election to create the position of speaker of the assembly. Members of the assembly, which consists of the 40 elected representatives, would select from among them a speaker, who would assume some responsibilities currently held by the vice president. The speaker would lead SG meetings and sit on the executive board — which consists of seven officers, including the president and vice president. In addition to the 11 authors, 15 representatives have also officially confirmed support for the legislation. “The position is something
Maxx Scholten | Daily Texan Staff
Student Government Vice President Shara Ma leads the first Student Government meeting of the new decade and 2010 semester in the Glenn Maloney Room of the Student Services Building on Tuesday night. new for us, but it’s not unprecedented,” said University-wide Representative Carly Castetter, a co-author of the bill. “Most large public universities and peer institutions have [two vice presidents or a speaker], and it works well for them. We need a bridge between the old and new and between the executive and the assembly.” According to the authors’ research, the University of Kan-
sas is the only university comparable to UT that operates on the single-vice-president system. The bill’s authors hope to include the proposal in the March 4 student-body general election, said Liberal Arts Representative John Lawler, a co-author of the bill. It must be introduced to the assembly at the next meeting or it will not meet subsequent
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After delays, commuter rail will be ready in March Minor problems stand in way of MetroRail’s public availability
Meredith Marceau | Daily Texan Staff
Doug Allen, the interim president and CEO of Capital Metro, is questioned on the progress of the MetroRail, scheduled to open in early March.
By Rachel Burkhart Daily Texan Staff After a series of delays, setbacks and readjustments, Capital Metro announced Tuesday that the Capital MetroRail will be ready for public use in mid- to late March. The final passenger line will cross 32 miles — from Leander to downtown Austin — and will operate on weekdays during morning and afternoon commute hours.
Doug Allen, Capital Metro’s interim CEO and president, and Elaine Timbes, the group’s executive vice president, described the remaining tasks facing Capital Metro at a media round-table discussion Tuesday morning at the transit authority’s headquarters. The transit authority still has to reprogram some of the track’s signals and crossings, repair damaged rail lines and complete a new test of the entire line. “It’s small things,” Timbes said. “We are not talking about major construction.” When the plan for the Metro-
Rail was originally endorsed in a November 2004 referendum, Capital Metro set the opening date for early 2008. The launch date was then pushed back to the summer of 2008. After more delays, the rail line’s launch was pushed back again to March 30. In mid-March, however, the opening was put on indefinite hold, due to problems with track signals and crossings, as well as incomplete construction at two stations. Allen, who replaced former president and CEO Fred Gilliam in mid-October, is determined to correct the MetroRail’s safe-
ty and mismanagement issues, which caused the series of delays in launching the passenger line. “We have to run things more as a business,” Allen said. “We have limited financial resources, and we have to manage those resources.” Capital Metro recently increased bus fares and doubled the proposed fare for the MetroRail from $1 to $2. UT students, faculty and staff as well as seniors, disability-fare cardholders and children under 6 will still be able to ride the passenger line for free.
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