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The Daily Texan Friday, February 5, 2010
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
Committee votes to raze ‘tin shacks’
By Shabab Siddiqui Daily Texan Staff Future students will most likely not experience the tin-shed classrooms that comprise part of UT’s nationally recognized top-10ranked engineering school. Plans to demolish the Academic and Computer Science Annexes – temporary classrooms students call “Shack 1” and “Shack 2” respectively – passed unanimously in committee at the Board of Regents meeting Thursday morning in Dallas. The full Board will vote on the demolition, part of the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Strategic 13-year Master Plan, during today’s board meeting. If approved, the $290 million construction project will start in 2011 and be completed by 2015. Other engineering buildings, including the Engineering-Science Building, Service Building and W.R. Woolrich Labs, could
also be raised as part of the plan. If the proposal passes, any money used to finance the project will have to come from private donors and other forms of state and system funding. Having the plan approved by the Regents is the first step in a long process. If passed, the plan will be added to the UT System Capital Improvement Program, a six-year forecast of all major projects adopted by the System. Engineering Dean Gregory Fenves said the plan will introduce new facilities while increasing the total square footage of the school by almost 38 percent. Fenves said the current buildings place UT’s engineering school at a competitive disadvantage in comparison to other schools. “We are not in the ball game, and we risk falling further behind,” Fenves said.
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Student-generated iPhone application faces legal trouble By Audrey White Daily Texan Staff Two conflicting iPhone applications designed to serve UT students and alumni spurred a legal dispute that may lead to the removal of one of the “apps” from the Apple Store. Computer science junior Michael Miller developed the iTexas app over the course of 2009 and sold it to Mutual Mobile, an Austin company founded by two UT alumni. Mutual Mobile released iTexas on Jan. 5 — the same day UT launched the official University of Texas at Austin app. Wendy Larson, an attorney at Pirkey Barber LLP, filed a complaint with Apple on behalf of the University on Feb. 1 requesting Miller rename iTexas. Larson refused to comment to The Daily Texan. The inclusion of “Texas” in iTexas violates University trademark rights, which guarantee UT ownership of the brand “Texas” when used in reference to the University. Craig Westemeier, UT assistant athletics director for trademarks and licensing, said that the name could cause confusion among consumers who think the University produced the iTexas application. “The app could communicate incorrect information or provide recommendations that do not fall within what the University would [offer],” Westemeier said. Tarun Nimmagadda, Mutual Mobile’s co-founder, said around 2,000 people have downloaded the iTexas app. About 50,000 people have downloaded the official UT app, said John McCall, the associate vice president of the University
Development Office. The applications have very distinct features. The official UT application is focused on alumni and guest needs, providing resources such as sports news, a guide to campus landmarks and access to President William Powers Jr.’s blog, Tower Talk. Nimmagadda said the iTexas app is more focused on day-to-day student needs such as campus maps, schedules, grade access and meals that the dining halls are serving. Both provide access to the UT directory. “The iTexas app was built by students for students, and it allows students to access features relevant to their UT activities,” Nimmagadda said. The University first began looking at applications as a source of trademark violations two months ago and has since investigated five to 10 applications, Westemeier said. He said that the production of such applications has the same function as selling non-licensed T-shirts with the UT brand: decreasing the value of University trademarks. Another application Miller developed, UT Directory, was removed from the application store at the end of November after a trademark debate regarding the application’s burnt-orange color scheme. Miller said he hopes the legal questions surrounding the iTexas application can be resolved without removing it from the store. “I started this project because, as a student, I wanted an app that could do things like show my grades,” Miller said. “I think it’s
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Have your cake and eat it, too
Maxx Scholten | Daily Texan Staff
Austin residents Betty Bright and J.D. Allen parade through the dining hall of Continental Gracious Retirement Living during an early Mardi Gras celebration on Thursday. Allen was declared King of the Mardi Gras celebration. The first day of Mardi Gras begins on Fat Tuesday.
Democratic candidates plan to address education By Alex Geiser Daily Texan Staff As the gubernatorial primaries draw near, Democratic candidates Bill White and Farouk Shami are gearing up for their first debate Monday. The debate, hosted by public broadcasting station KERA, will begin at 7 p.m. and will be held at a CBS studio in Fort Worth in front of an audience. White, a former mayor of Houston, and Shami, a self-made businessman, will take questions from viewers through social-networking Web sites, reporters and live audience members. Sherri Greenberg, economics lecturer and former mem-
ber of the House of Representatives, said education, jobs and environmental issues will dominate Monday’s debate. Greenberg said the idea of fresh leadership will underscore both Shami’s and White’s answers. “Both [candidates] are positioning themselves as agents of change,” Greenberg said. “Shami will say that he’s an outsider, and White will say that we need new blood in the governor’s office.” Ally Smith, spokeswoman for White, said the candidates will probably focus more on debating the issues, not each others’ reputations, which happened during the Republican primary debate on Jan. 29 between Gov. Rick Per-
ry, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina. Viewers should also expect to hear candidates addressing a more student-friendly topic, Smith said. “You didn’t hear anything about education in Friday’s debate, yet it’s the most important role of state government,” she said. She said the long-term economic growth of Texas is dependent on having an educated workforce, which can be done by increasing high school graduation rates and reducing financial obstacles to higher education. “We need to bring down the skyrocketing tuition increases,”
White said in an interview with The Daily Texan. “We need to make sure young people are not prevented from going to college for financial reasons.” Greenberg said Shami is not favored to win the Democratic nomination, but that hasn’t kept the underdog candidate from campaigning. “I feel confident that after this debate, the Democratic primary will receive significantly more attention as people in Texas realize I am the only candidate who is not a career politician and who has real-life experience solving significant problems on a large scale,” Shami said in a prepared statement.
Caleb Bryant Miller | Daily Texan Staff
Former Mayor Bill White shakes hands with Rep. Mark Strama after a rally for his gubernatorial candidacy at Sholtz Garten in December.
Eric Gay | Associated Press
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Farouk Shami makes a phone call during a campaign stop in San Antonio in January.
State program reports misleading job growth
Study shows business incentive fund did not create guaranteed jobs
sustainable jobs as originally anticipated, according to a Jan. 27 report by Texans for Public Justice. The Austin-based nonprofit found that more than one-third of By Alex Geiser the jobs that were supposed to be Daily Texan Staff created by the fund never actually The Texas Enterprise Fund — a materialized and that job creation 7-year-old business incentive pro- reports were misleading. gram supported by taxpayer sub“When we are quoting numsidies — may not create as many bers on job growth and a third
of these jobs don’t exist, I think that gives people a false sense of security,” said Melanie Schwartz, vice president of College Republicans at Texas. “I’d like to see the governor own up to the fact that the Texas Enterprise Fund isn’t functioning as well as we would have hoped.” The Texas Legislature started
the fund in 2003 at Gov. Rick Perry’s request. The fund provides a monetary incentive for businesses to come to Texas in order to stimulate the state’s economy. In exchange, the companies sign a contract guaranteeing they will create a certain number of new jobs for Texans in a specified
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