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THE DAILY TEXAN LIFE&ARTS PAGE 12 LIFE&
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Texan’s top 10 rankings make it to week five
The art of brownie-baking Wednesday, October 7, 2009
ITS office lays off 25 staff members By Hudson Lockett Daily Texan Staff The Information Technology Services central office laid off 25 employees Tuesday in a move officials say will increase efficiency and make up for the loss of contracts within the office, which left more staff than existing positions. Kevin Hegarty, UT vice president and chief financial officer, said it is difficult to tell if further cuts will be made in the central office, which is distinct from the many departmental ITS services throughout campus. Hegarty said the reductions were mainly in management positions and were partially the result of changes suggested by a report delivered to UT President William Powers and released in August by the Strategic IT Advisory Committee. Hegarty said ITS will have to review what roles it plays in the University. “Each of the units of ITS will consider what business it ought to be in and how it ought to be in those businesses,” he said. Hegarty, who is also chief information officer for Information Technology, said three of the 25 laid off employees were offered other positions in ITS. He said the layoffs were a result of a decrease in possible staff positions following the loss of key contracts for providing desktop support at larger colleges. “I presume that there was anticipation that additional business would materialize, and it hasn’t,” he said. Hegarty said one of the big issues from the August report was deciding which divisions of ITS would provide which services. He said the reduction in positions was also a result of reorganizing
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Finding a way to make ends meet
Tamir Kalifa | Daily Texan Staff
Ruth Rocha and volunteers from Dell’s corporate sales department organize donated food at the Capital Area Food Bank. The non-profit corporation provides food to more than 350 partner agencies and distributed more than 17 million pounds of food in 2008.
Food bank copes with supply decrease during economic downturn By Molly Triece Daily Texan Staff The Capital Area Food Bank of Texas has seen a 40 percent increase in demand for food since 2008, serving many firsttime clients who found themselves below the poverty line or living paycheck to paycheck. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, released last week, rising costs and stagnant wages
put as many as 144,336 people below the poverty line in Travis County alone. The change in economic conditions is due to the recession, which also affected the amount of supplies the food bank received. “It’s more difficult for people to give,” said food bank spokeswoman Karri Qunell. “We’ve seen an increase in volunteers though. People are giving their time instead.”
Qunell said although donations have not gone down significantly, when a slight decrease is balanced with an increase in demand, supplies get tight. “Most of the families served are working poor families, not homeless.” Qunell said. “If they get laid off, they’re just one paycheck away from going to a food pantry.” Various steps were taken to ease the pressure off the food
bank so it can provide enough food for its food pantries and soup kitchens. Qunell said the food bank increased the direct distribution of food to the hungry instead of allocating resources to other organizations to do the job. The food bank also increased the efforts of its mobile food pantry and formed relations with retailers to
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UT institute director wants to solve energy problems By Shabab Siddiqui Daily Texan Staff Raymond Orbach, the director of UT’s Energy Institute, spoke Tuesday evening about the goals of the institute, including his hopes the University will become a leader in solving energy problems. The lecture, hosted by the Texas Advanced Computing Center, kicked off the Austin Forum, a lecture series featuring leaders from a numerous backgrounds speaking about “the confluence of science, technology and society in the 21st century.” “Our goal is to encourage the collaboration of different sectors to come together and talk about the issues that are relevant to all of us,” Raymond Orbach, director of The Energy Institute at UT, spoke Tuesday evening about the importance of using university resources to further research on energy security.
Lauren Gerson Daily Texan Staff
said forum spokeswoman Faith Singer-Villalobos. Before coming to UT, Orbach served as a director and chief scientist for the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as a two-year tenure as the department’s first undersecretary for science. He said he took the position at the University to foster relationships between different departments both within and outside UT. “The question is can we bring members of the government, the public and the private sector together to solve the energy problem,” Orbach said. “I want this campus to be a leader in this area.” Orbach, also the former
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UT students line up for flu vaccine By Jordan Haeger Daily Texan Staff A line of UT students, faculty and staff snaked through Gregory Gymnasium, and out the door at times, as people waited for more than an hour to receive a seasonal flu vaccination Tuesday. “We have never had a turnout like this,” said Sherry Bell, Univeristy Health Services senior program coordinator. “Usually people only have 15-minute wait times.” UHS has 11,500 doses of the vaccine, a figure based on the number of people who received shots last year. Bell said she expects all of the doses will be used. “There may be a higher demand this year because there is so much flu information in the media,” she said. Of the 1,900 doses earmarked for distribution Tuesday, 1,808 doses were used. UHS staff
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Daniela Trujillo | Daily Texan Staff
Desire Taylor, a graduate psychology student, and Sarah Hunter, a mathematics senior, study while waiting in line for flu shots at Gregory Gymnasium on Tuesday.
Review of police investigation reveals bias By Bobby Longoria Daily Texan Staff An independent review by a group hired by the city found some Austin Police Department internal investigators showed bias when reviewing the actions of officer Leonardo Quintana leading up to the May shooting of 18-year-old Nathaniel Sanders. Much of the report, including its justifications, remain redacted until Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo decides whether or not to discipline Quintana. A Travis County grand jury
cleared Quintana and two supporting officers of any wrongdoing Aug. 5. An internal investigation conducted within the police department was completed and sent to the police monitor’s office Aug. 11 to determine if Quintana used excessive force. According to the report, the incident began at 5:07 a.m. on May 11, when Quintana noticed a Mercedes-Benz station wagon traveling on Springdale Road. The vehicle had allegedly been linked to a series of violent robberies and to complaints of gunfire outside the Walnut Creek
apartment complex May 9. Quintana stopped the vehicle in the complex and detained driver Michael Franklin. Officer John Alexander Hitzelberg entered the complex while Franklin was being detained. He was the only officer who activated his dashboard camera. According to witnesses and Hitzelberg’s camera, neither he nor Quintana had their emergency lights activated. Officer Mohammad Siddiqui followed moments after and also did not activate his emergency lights. At 5:08 a.m., the officers in-
vestigated the vehicle and determined Sir Smith, who was also in the car, and Sanders were sleeping. Quintana and Hitzelberg attempted to awake Sanders from the back seat, and at 5:09 a.m. Quintana said, “Oh, pistol, 32! 32!” He retreated and fired two shots. The first struck Sanders in the shoulder. A third shot struck Sanders in the back of the head, killing him. Quintana later said that he had found a handgun in
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