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THE DAILY TEXAN Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
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Friction arises over future of Cactus Cafe Three separate entities propose varying shifts in venue’s management
Tamir Kalifa | Daily Texan Staff
Mathematics junior Michael Schwartz and five other community members discuss the possibilities of organizing public events to bring attention to the issue of domestic partner benefits at UT and other Texas public universities. A lack of support at Monday’s meeting stalled attempts to organize a rally for domestic partner benefits at the upcoming Board of Regents meeting.
GLBT group pushes for benefits
By Gabrielle Cloudy Daily Texan Staff Campus issues including proposed tuition hikes and the closure of the Cactus Cafe may have been the reason a Monday public meeting aimed at organizing a March 4 protest in support of domestic partner benefits saw such a small turnout. “It’s been kind of slow,” said Michael Corwin, meeting attendee and UT’s LAN administrator, at the meeting in Mezes Hall attended by six people. “It’s not on the radar of what people have been talking about so far.”
Though the organization didn’t officially organize a protest at the meeting, Corwin said joining forces with other advocacy groups on campus, including those who focus on tuition hikes, would help his group’s cause. The University currently does not provide a faculty or staff member’s domestic partner, who is of the same or opposite sex, with the same benefits it offers a faculty or staff member’s spouse, including insurance and sick leave. In order for the state to pro-
vide an employee’s spouse with domestic partner benefits, the spouse must be legally married to the employee. Under Texas law, marriage is defined as a heterosexual relationship. The state does not recognize samesex marriages performed legally in another state. Dana Cloud, associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies, is an active member of the Pride and Equity Faculty and Staff Association, an organization that promotes equality for the GLBT community.
“It’s really an issue,” Cloud said. “My spouse can’t get benefits.” No public schools in Texas are allowed to provide domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples, making it illegal for the University to grant domestic partner benefits. According to the faculty and staff association’s report, five private universities in the state offer benefits to same-sex couples: Baylor College of Medicine, Southwestern University, Trinity Uni-
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UT upgrades facilities to save water, finances By Audrey White Daily Texan Staff The University is stepping up its water conservation efforts with a series of ongoing initiatives that would save UT hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of gallons of water, UT officials said Monday. Programs range from the replacement of showerheads and faucets with low-flow units in campus dorms — a process that began in 2007 — to the installation of a reclaimed water pipe on campus, set for completion in spring 2011. These and other developments represent what Jim Walker, UT director of sustainability, called a change in campus consciousness. “UT recognizes that we are not in a wet part of the world, and water awareness is going to be a big deal,” Walker said. “We could always do more. Shorter showers in the dorms would have a visible impact. It takes students, faculty and staff to all be more water conscious. For us, it means more efficient irrigation and upgrading our equipment.”
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Austin musician laments closure of historic venue Songwriter Slaid Cleaves recounts early days of playing, working at cafe
The University uses about 800 million gallons of water provided by the Austin Water Utility per year, Walker said. Although some large, local commercial companies, like Samsung, use more water than the University, Austin Water spokesman Kevin Buchman said UT is one of the utility’s top 10 clients in overall water use. “We have a good relationship [with the University],” Buchman said. “They’re a good steward of our water, and we work very closely with them.” When Austin went under Stage 2 mandatory watering restrictions during fall 2009, UT complied with many aspects of the regulations, even though it was not required to because the University is a state rather than city entity, Buchman said. To minimize water usage during the height of the drought, the University did not run its eight landmark fountains. This is significant, Walker said, because the fountains use about 9 million
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By Ana McKenzie The Daily Texan Members of the University and Austin community cannot seem to agree on propositions that would maintain the Cactus Cafe, in some form or another, since the Union Board announced on Jan. 29 that it was phasing out cafe operations and informal classes. The proposal that Student Government President Liam O’Rourke addressed in his University-wide e-mail would shift management of the Cactus Cafe. His plan has some questioning the venue’s authenticity if put into the hands of the suggested student committee. O’Rourke and members of the Student Events Center board are proposing that the cafe remain open and still feature a stage and bar structure but fall under the management of an SEC committee. O’Rourke did not say who would serve on the committee but compared it to an SEC committee, similar to the Texas Union’s Film Committee that brings movies
and advanced and special screenings to the University. The cafe’s bar could only be opened for certain events and whenever cash donations are available. O’Rourke and SEC officials will present their plan to the Texas Union Board meeting on Feb. 26. Wiley Koepp, creator of the “Save the Cactus Cafe” Facebook group that had 22,457 members as of press time, says removing the current professional management would challenge the “essence” of the landmark music venue and would potentially repel out-oftown performers. “If [the proposal] means wiping the slate clean and departing from the musical offerings ... then that’s what’s destroying the brand, and [it] doesn’t make sense,” Koepp said. The group’s Web site, savethecactuscafe.org, filed legal documents Monday that would establish a nonprofit group called Friends of the Cactus Cafe to use donations to finance Cactus Cafe operations. Student involvement would still be possible under this organization, Koepp said, and
By Ben Wermund Daily Texan Staff Before singer-songwriter Slaid Cleaves moved to Austin from Maine in 1991, he knew three things about the city: it was the home of “Austin City Limits,” South by Southwest and the Cactus Cafe. “When I told someone I was moving to Austin, they said ‘You have to go play the Cactus,’” Cleaves said. “I sent a demo tape before I even moved down — didn’t get a gig for a long time after that. It was the one gig I knew about before I hit town.” Soon enough, Cleaves was opening for acts including Butch Hancock, before becoming a regular headliner himself. “It’s been a venue that I’ve played when I first got here and was a nobody and still play now that I have an audience,” Cleaves said. “I even worked as a sound man there — partly because I
wanted to work and partly because I wanted to insinuate myself into that scene.” The Texas Union Board is shutting down operations at the Cactus Cafe and phasing out informal classes as part of a request by UT President William Powers Jr. that all UT departments cut their budgets to accommodate a 2-percent merit raise for faculty. The Cactus Cafe was Cleaves’ introduction to Austin’s live-music world, so the decision to close the venue came as a shock. “I went through a series of emotional reactions when I heard the news,” he said. “Anger at the University and anger that they don’t seem to understand the value of the place — value to a lot of people who look to the Cactus as the center of the songwriting community. Honestly, I was really depressed, too. I remember thinking — why live in Austin? It’s one of the jewels of the Austin music scene.’” Cleaves said his initial attraction to the Cactus Cafe was its historical
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Fanny Trang | Daily Texan Staff
UT fountains use roughly 9 million gallons of water every year. The University is currently working to conserve water and cut costs.
Student prepares to enter graduate school at age 17 By Priscilla Totiyapungprasert Daily Texan Staff While other teenagers are fretting about college choices this time of year, UT student Cynthia Gonzalez, 17, is looking forward to attending graduate school. After graduating a year early from Homer Hanna High School in Brownsville, Texas, Gonzalez began studying communication sciences and disorders in fall 2009 — the beginning of her first and only year as an undergraduate at the University.
In the fall, she took 21 hours, though this semester she is giving herself a “break” by taking 19. Most people who don’t know about her college plans are shocked when they find out. “I didn’t really want to graduate early [from high school], but junior year, my counselor told me there was nothing really left for me to take, so I might as well graduate and go to college,” Gonzalez said. Despite the protests of friends and family who wanted her to study close to home, Gonzalez
moved more than six hours away to Austin, where dual-enrollment classes, AP credit and summer school at UT-Brownsville allowed Gonzalez to enter the University with enough hours to be considered a junior. Gonzalez can recall being impressed with the speech pathologists who helped her in her formative years and decided to pursue a career in the field. “Nowadays, colleges are seeing students come in with a lot more hours because they take advantage of the resources they
have while they’re still in high school,” said Lorena Dominguez, Gonzalez’s adviser in the College of Communication. Every day, Gonzalez makes the 30-minute drive to campus from her apartment in South Austin. Gonzalez said she finds little time for activities outside of her classes, homework, Sunday Mass at the University Catholic Center and events hosted by the National Student Speech Language
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Courtesy of Slaid Cleaves
Austin singer and songwriter Slaid Cleaves has played shows at the Cactus Cafe since his arrival to the city in 1991.