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Beatdown by Baylor eliminates Horns SPORTS PAGE 7
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THE DAILY TEXAN Friday, March 12, 2010
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SXSW stays course, continues growth
Mary Heard | Daily Texan file photo
Brothers Alejandro and Javier Escovedo reunited with the other members of True Believers at South By Southwest in 1994.
Founders of entertainment festival reflect on past as Austin gears up to host events Joe Buglewicz | Daily Texan file photo
worker Roland Swenson and booking agent Louis Meyers. The four of them worked together to put on the first SXSW in March 1987. Although they were only expecting around 150 people to participate, Black said more than 700 came. “It was meant to be a regional event for five or six states,� he said. “But it was national almost immediately.� Black suggested they name the festival after Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,� though he gave no reasoning behind his decision. Although Meyers left Austin in the early ’90s to head the Folk Alliance in Nashville, Tenn., the other three are still involved with the event. Swenson, who The Beginning had previously managed bands and Louis Black, editor and co-founder of music clubs, became the managing diThe Austin Chronicle, launched SXSW rector for SXSW and continues to be one with Chronicle publisher Nick Barbaro SXSW continues on page 6 in 1986. The men got the idea from coBy Alex Geiser Daily Texan Staff Hundreds of people will hit the streets of downtown Austin this weekend for South By Southwest, the 10-day festival showcasing music, film and interactive conferences held in mid-March. What started as a music-only festival has since expanded to include film and interactive events. People and artists in the three industries can mingle and learn from each other during the conferences held in the Austin Convention Center and showcase their work at the festivals held throughout Austin.
Irish dancers ‘step’ toward St. Patrick’s Day festivities By Priscilla Totiyapungprasert Daily Texan Staff Donning black jazz pants and a T-shirt with a Celtic design, microbiology senior Katrinia Donnellan practiced her dance steps with 15 other people Thursday evening at the Irish Dance Center. Her mother, who is also the instructor, guided them through the rehearsal, her Irish accent resonating in the studio.
Donnellan, the president and founder of UT’s Inis Ealga Irish Cultural Organization, said Irish dancing has always been a part of her life, thanks to her mom. Every St. Patrick’s Day, performing traditional Irish step dancing makes up most of her holiday festivities, and next week will be no different.
IRISH continues on page 2
Above, Kathryn Calder of The New Pornographers performs at Stubb’s BBQ during SXSW in 2006. Below, Jack Antonoff, lead vocalist and guitarist of Steel Train, plays the last song of the set at Auditorium Shores during SXSW in 2007.
How it all started... November 1986 Friends Roland Swenson and Louis Jay Meyers approach Austin Chronicle editor Louis Black and publisher Nick Barbaro with the idea of holding a music conference and festival.
March 1987 Swenson, Meyers, Black and Barbaro hold the first SXSW on Thursday, March 12. Thanks to an advertisement and story in Billboard magazine, 700 people show up — 550 more than expected.
Check out more SXSW history on page 6 Jason Sweeten | Daily Texan file photo
Drilling technique may cause quakes By Aziza Musa Daily Texan Staff A plausible connection exists between the oil-drilling wastewater disposal processes and a series of 19 earthquakes that occurred nearly a year ago in northeast Texas, according to a study released Wednesday. Four researchers, two from UT and two from Southern Methodist University, studied the earthquakes, which occurred near
the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area. The earthquakes took place between October 2008 and May 2009. Residents could feel the impact of eight earthquakes, the other 11 were “non-felt.� The strongest earthquake recorded had a relatively small magnitude of 3.3. The disposal process refers to water used after drilling for oil. In order to extract oil from the ground, engineers use hydraulic
fracturing, in which a high-pressure fluid — usually water — is pumped into a well. After the high-pressure water is pumped in, it will push fluids such as oil and gas back up to the well, said Paul Bommer, senior lecturer in the UT Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. Bommer said wastewater from oil wells is composed of fresh and salt waters as well as residue from gas and water
mixtures. Because the wastewater is too salty to drink and would be considered pollution if dumped into rivers, engineers have drilled other wells in geologic formations that already have saltwater and dispose of it at these formations. In more than 150 years, there have been no local earthquakes felt by the people of Dallas in
OIL continues on page 2
Senate withholds support on 10-semester limit
Bobby Longoria | Daily Texan Staff
Middle school students Kimberly Corser, left, and Emma Matus practice dance drills during a performance rehearsal at the Irish Dance Center on Thursday.
By Rachel Burkhart Daily Texan Staff The Senate of College Councils voted unanimously Thursday to not support a task force recommendation that would impose a 10-semester limit on students pursuing most undergraduate degrees. In December, the Second Task Force on Enrollment Strategy was charged with finding ways to improve the University’s graduation rate. The task force presented its recommendations to President William Powers Jr. in February. The University currently has no policy regarding the number of semesters a student may take to complete a degree. The average time for degree completion at the Universi-
ty is eight and a half semesters whereas the national average is only eight semesters, according to a 2003 report. The University’s six-year graduation rate of 70.5 percent is equivalent to the four-year graduation rate of its best competitors, according to the Senate resolution. Lauren Ratliff, president of the Senate, co-authored the Senate resolution with Senate Policy Director Drew Finke and Curriculum Committee Chair David Liu. She said most of the resolution’s language was generated by presidents of the University’s 19 college councils. Maxx Scholten | Daily Texan Staff “We acknowledge that there’s a problem with the graduate Yijiao Zhuang, administrative director of the UT Senate of College Councils, addresses Senate members in the Glenn Maloney Room of LIMIT continues on page 2 the Student Services Building on Thursday.
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