NEWS PAGE 6
Annual marathon unites runners to benefit children
Rescued hoarded cats available for free adoption LIFE&ARTS PAGE 14
SPORTS PAGE 8
Burlesque dancers captivate Austin audiences
THE DAILY TEXAN Tuesday, September 28, 2010
TODAY Calendar More guns, less crime?
Second Amendment and concealed-carry proponent John Lott will argue that looser gun control leads to less crime. School of Law TNH 2.114. 6-7:30 p.m.
Son 5
Group of eight LatinAmerican musicians from five different countries perform at Speakeasy. 9:30 p.m.
Capital Punishment in Texas
The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty hosts a discussion with three unique perspectives on the death penalty. St. John’s United Methodist Church. 7-9 p.m.
Karate Do-Shotokai
UT martial arts group hosts demo night in Quadrangle Room of Texas Union. 7:309 p.m.
Study Abroad
Learn about study abroad opportunities in the College of Natural Sciences. Welch Hall 1.120. 6-7:30 p.m.
Campus watch Aloha, Mr. Hand
Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium Assault: At the end of the game, a non-UT subject and several of his friends stood up to cheer for the Longhorns. An unknown patron took exception to this display of support and demanded the first subject sit down. After the game, the cheerful fan was approached by the not-so-cheerful fan who then proceeded to place his hands around the throat of the cheerful fan. That subject was described as a white male in his 20s, 6’ tall, 200 pounds who “looked like a surfer dude.” —Compiled by UTPD Officer Darrell Halstead
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
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Chancellor stresses more stable funding for future success of System’s institutions
Committee testimonies at Capitol disclose single-use spending by state agencies
By Collin Eaton Daily Texan Staff Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series about how UT spends stimulus funding. UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa urged the Legislative Budget Board on Monday that their top priority should be to replace the federal stimulus funds swirling in UT System institution budgets with more reliable state funding. In fiscal year 2009-10, the state Legislature allotted $132 million in stimulus funds into the general revenue pots of the System’s 16 academic and health institutions — $81 million of which went to academic pro-
By Lauren Giudice Daily Texan Staff Several state agencies testified at the Capitol on Monday about the billions of dollars in federal stimulus money they have spent since last February. The department directors said spending has varied drastically according to the agency’s need over the past year. The hearing in the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding focused on 10 state agencies, including the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said the
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Anastasia Garcia | Daily Texan Staff
Executive staff member Michael Kerker listens at a meeting of the UT Board of Regents on UT’s budget Monday morning.
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Hands-on designs break boundaries Architecture students get out-of-class experiences By Erika Rich Daily Texan Staff Architecture junior Michelle Merritt celebrated Friday when the structure she built with a team of three other students stood in the glow of the West Texas sunset. The next day, the cardboard structure, which fit together like a puzzle with glue and zip ties, collapsed after a heavy rain. “After it fell apart, we were still proud to have succeeded in building something that could stand on its own for one full day,” Merritt said. Last weekend, a class of UT architecture juniors participated in a project that took them out of their on-campus studio and seven hours down the road to Marfa to build large-scale structures. The structures functioned as both temporary shelters and art pieces for two days. Jack Sanders, an architecture adjunct professor and class lecturer, said it is a worthwhile experience that is hard to replicate in a classroom. “There is a moment when the materials come to life and up until that point, students don’t know how the materials bend and
Erika Rich | Daily Texan Staff
Architecture undergraduate students Alex Diamond, Chris Smith (a graduate student), Nick Gregg and Lauren Mays lift up a construction project made of steel wire and ironed plastic bags during a trip for their architecture class to Marfa, Texas. move,” he said. “Part of this style of learning is realizing you won’t always have perfect conditions.” Sanders said his mentor and former professor, an architect named Samuel Mockbee, said stu-
dents should be the architects of their own education. He said the Marfa project succeeded in setting the energy and tone for the rest of the semester, which he hopes the students will bring to their other
Security guard Joey Gassie stands at the Barton Springs entrance to the Great Lawn at Zilker Park, which is closed to the public in preparation for the Austin City Limits Music Festival.
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— Dominika Rogala Adoption counselor at the Austin Humane Society
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Federal stimulus use falls under scrutiny
Quote to note “Both of those conditions are contagious, so as a result they can only be in a single-cat household, so anyone interested in adopting them cannot have any other cats and a lot of people don’t want to commit to just having one cat.”
TOMORROW’S WEATHER
Stephanie Meza Daily Texan Staff
Zilker Park prepares lawn for ACL By Amyna Dosani Daily Texan Staff The northern area of Zilker Park known as the Great Lawn will be closed until around Oct. 15 to prepare for the upcoming Austin City Limits Music Festival, said Victor Ovalle, spokesman for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. The area, north of Barton Springs Road and east of Stratford Drive, closed Monday to begin setting up for ACL, which will take place from Oct. 8 to Oct. 10, he said. After the festival, C3 Presents, the producers of ACL, will tear
down the stages and other structures, and the Austin Parks and Recreation Department will be responsible for cleaning up the land. “They’ll look at the turf and assess the conditions,” Ovalle said. “Once we’ve made repairs to the park and once they go in and aerate the turf, we will try to open it as soon as possible.” Aerating the turf involves putting holes in the ground to make sure it can breathe and is maintained, Ovalle said. Last year, because of rainy weather and throngs of traffic, the
grassy park was decimated as mud came to the surface and left Zilker Park a mess, said chemical engineering sophomore Laura Blohm, who attended last year’s festival. “It was terribly muddy,” Blohm said. “Everyone was dirty. There was no grass. It was disgusting. Mud was oozing through people’s toes.” Austin Parks and Recreation had to close the area longer than planned to clean up and repair it because C3 Presents could not
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class projects. this relates to us is that it is very “The idea is to teach young hands-on.” architects to think beyond deThe students had one day to sign and pursue architecture that build their structures with some serves people,” said architecture junior Wes Haynie. “The way DESIGNS continues on page 7
APD to update dash cams with estimated $15 million
mit the footage, which is stored By Aziza Musa on a card, to the main server sevDaily Texan Staff The city is borrowing an es- eral times a day. Once the officer timated $15 million to update sends the footage, the data will the Austin Police Department’s be erased from the card to prod a s h b o a rd c a m e r a s y s t e m , vide more space, Gay said. After initial assessments, each which is currently operated usvehicle in the 550ing VHS tapes. car fleet will colA P D C m d r. lect approximateTroy Gay said the ly four gigabytes c i t y b o r ro w e d After intial of data on a daily money to pay for basis, he said. the system and assessments, each APD is in the will be under vehicle in the 550process of purcontractual oblicar fleet will collect chasing all of the gations until the equipment for debt is paid. approximately four the implementaPolice save the gigabytes of data on a tion, scheduled dashboard tapes daily basis. for January 2011. for 180 days before The department wiping the footwill perform inage and reusing house tests in them. If the tapes November to capture a criminal offense, they will be turned in as make sure the equipment is evidence and are unlikely to be re- ready for the rollout. Once that is complete, they will test the used, Gay said. The existing system requires functionality of the cameras to officers to manually turn on the ensure the data is transmitting camera to record footage. The from the vehicles to the server. The digital system will mitinew system will include various triggers — including door, light, gate the likelihood of the camera siren, crash and speed sensors — not capturing a critical incident within the patrol car to automati- that could serve as evidence for cally activate the dash cams. APD continues on page 2 Officers will wirelessly trans-