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LIFE&ARTS PAGE 14
MFA playwrights put their work onstage
Men’s baseball shakes off rough start NEWS PAGE 6
Irish president pays UT a visit
THE DAILY TEXAN Friday, February 26, 2010
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
Cafe conflict drives editor into SG race By Audrey White Daily Texan Staff Presidential candidate Austin Talbert and his running mate, Joe Zimowski, have never had any connection to Student Government, but they said this is exactly what makes them the best option for students. The recent Cactus Cafe controversy inspired the pair to file for candidacy, Talbert said. He said he considers the lack of student representation in that process and other recent decisions unfair and frustrating. “The longer you are in SG, the more disconnected you are from
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City condemns attack on gays
normal students,” Talbert said. “SG does do good things, and there are good people in it, but it needs to be more open.” As a result, the team has built a campaign platform based almost completely on open communication between students and SG so that representatives can work with the University administration and Legislature to accomplish things students care about, he said. “I want to communicate with the students and educate them on how SG can use their ideas to make this campus a better place,”
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Inspired to run in the upcoming student government elections because of the Cactus Cafe’s closing, Austin Talbert and his running partner Joe Zimowski believe they will make a good President and Vice President because of their close connection to students.
Danielle Villasana | Daily Texan Staff
Senior marketing major Emmanuel Winston, left, and Matt Morgan were victims of a hate crime early Saturday morning in the parking garage of City Hall.
City leaders speak out for tolerance as APD begins investigation By Alex Geiser Daily Texan Staff An alleged attack, which left two gay members of the Shady Ladies softball team battered and bruised, prompted an outcry against hate crimes in the city. It began as a night of preseason revelry for a softball team looking to start the season off on the right foot, but UT senior Emmanuel Winston and Matt Morgan, members of the openly GLBT-friendly team, were alledgedly beaten by four unknown men because of
Danielle Villasana Daily Texan Staff
Problem-solving Web site opens to alumni, students Service aims to collect input from past, present scholars on the 40 Acres
and faculty and staff. While Spigit has implemented similar programs at companies such as Cisco and Southwest Airlines, UT will be its first university. By Shabab Siddiqui Tso said the platform allows not Daily Texan Staff only ideas to be posted, but also Students may get the oppor- the best ideas to come forward. tunity to have their ideas imple“Each person has [his or her] mented at the University through own reputation score based on a Web outlet designed by the Of- their quality of contributions and fice of the President. if [the contribution] gets a lot of The University will launch a thumbs up on it,” Tso said. “Ultistudent and alumni version of mately, you get a 360-degree feedthe Ideas of Texas Web site on back into the platform itself.” Monday. The platform, which allows people to share ideas that will help advance the University, mirrors a faculty and staff version that was implemented Everybody’s looking in October. The Ideas of Texas site states at ways to increase the purpose of the site is to “stimefficiency.” ulate and recognize creative problem-solving at UT Austin” — Paul Walker through “discussion, review and UT presidential assistant voting.” Categories range from curriculum and teaching to student life and University funding. After a student posts his or her idea, other students and alumni Students on the Web site can will be able to rate and discuss it. check the top-ranked ideas any The number of votes and amount time they log in. At the end of of discussion help determine the the semester, the top ideas will be popularity of an idea, as well as sent to the president’s office and the credibility of the poster. then distributed to the appropriThe software was created by ate departments. The administraCalifornia-based IT firm Spig- tion has two weeks to respond it. Director of marketing Richard to the poster of the idea with eiTso said the company was ap- ther a promise to implement it or proached by President William a reason as to why they will not Powers Jr. over the summer to de- be able to. velop a way to increase collabora“It’s useful to have a way to tion between the administration comment and evaluate ideas,”
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said Geoff Leavenworth, special assistant to the president and Web site administrator. “It forces the institution to relook at the issue and [if the idea is not implemented] provides an opportunity to answer why it can’t be.” The faculty and staff version of the software will be separated from the student-alumni version. Leavenworth said it is important to keep the interests of the two different groups separate. The two entities also have different categories. As of press time, more than 260 ideas have been posted on the faculty and staff site, and about 4,000 faculty and staff have viewed the suggestions. Currently, the top ideas are providing free gym membership for faculty and staff and increasing staff vacation time. Some ideas posted by faculty and staff have already been approved. A suggestion to grow native plants in the flowerbeds by Garrison Hall and Hogg Auditorium by Jackie Dana, sociology advisor and vice president of the Staff Council, was approved last month. The University will start implementing the changes in the fall. Paul Walker, special assistant to the president, said he believes the Ideas of the Texas platform could help the University during a harsh economic climate. “Everybody’s looking at ways to increase efficiency,” Walker
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their sexual orientation on Saturday morning outside of City Hall. At a City Hall press conference held Thursday, City Council members Laura Morrison and Randi Shade — who is openly gay — spoke out against the violence in an attempt to raise awareness of hate crimes in the community. “This is an opportunity for heightened awareness and dialogue within the community,” Morrison said. The attack is being investigated as an assault and could only be elevated to hate-crime status after suspects are charged said Dennis Farris, a spokesman for the Austin Police Department. He said he wasn’t
Attack shocks Austin softball team; players involved in protest
aware if investigators had any potential suspects. Chuck Smith, interim executive directory of Equality Texas, said many hate crimes continue to go unreported or lack the evidence needed for prosecution. “It’s important for the city of Austin to take a stand and say that we are not going to tolerate bias crimes in the city,” Smith said at the conference. Despite being victim to an attack that he believes was motivated by his sexuality, Winston, a marketing senior, said he will not let this incident control the way he lives his life and instead will try and use it as an opportunity
By Kate Guerra Daily Texan Staff Athletes from the Shady Ladies gay softball team were confident that they were safe in a city as diverse as Austin — a confidence which was badly shaken last Friday when the team found out about an attack on their fellow teammates. Two softball players from one of the teams were attacked last Friday night outside of City Hall garage while wearing their team jerseys. Emmanuel Winston, a UT
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Law school symposium explores how border walls affect liberties
By Shamoyita DasGupta Daily Texan Staff Multidisciplinary professors from across the U.S. and around the world joined University professors at the UT School of Law on Thursday in a symposium about the building of walls and their effect on human rights. The symposium, which continues today with a series of panel discussions with the professors, is the sixth annual conference hosted by the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice and the Texas International Law Journal.
The conference began in the Eidman Courtroom of the law school with the keynote speech by Wendy Brown, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. “There is a paradoxical phenomena that we see,” said Yishai Blank, a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Faculty of Law. “The more globalization actually proceeds, the more we see construction of walls all over the world. [With] globalization, everything is opening up and the world is becoming one big village, and then you see the
complete reversal of that by walls appearing everywhere. The more we see globalization, the more we see the dark side of globalization, in a sense.” In her speech, Brown discussed globalization and how the idea relates to the walls that have been erected, whether between the U.S. and Mexico, Israel and Palestine or in other countries around the world. “What we have come to call globalization harbors fundamental tensions between opening and
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Daniela Trujillo | Daily Texan Staff
Hart Murphy stands in the foyer of the Eidman Courtroom at the UT School of Law. The school hosted an event discussing border walls and their effects on human rights.