1A 1
THE DAILY TEXAN SPORTS PAGE 7
Horns might find their best from the bench Wednesday, November 18, 2009
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 12
Art you can really sink your teeth into
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
TOMORROW’S WEATHER High
Low
73
59
www.dailytexanonline.com
Research: job crunch affecting graduates Sara Young | Daily Texan Staff
Anthropology professor Kamala Visweswaran, UT Press office assistant Dawn Bishop and McCombs School of Business academic adviser Briana Mohan, holding her daughter Mallika, listen to a discussion during the Teach-In forum held Tuesday evening in Painter Hall.
Budget situation ‘a perfect storm’ By Hudson Lockett & Lena Price Daily Texan Staff Despite his confidence in the security of his position, Texas State Employees Union organizer James Rubarth-Lay lost his job as a senior software analyst for UT’s Information Technology Services during a round of layoffs in late October. Although he thought he would recover and find another job, he said there aren’t any openings that match his skill set or salary requirements in Austin. Soon, he’s going to have to start accepting unemployment checks. Rubarth-Lay was one of six
speakers at the Union’s teach-in held on campus Tuesday. The goal of the forum was to educate students and staff about the University budget situation and to put a face on some of the recent cuts that have been made across the school. Thomas Palaima, a classics professor and member of the Faculty Advisory Committee on Budgets, opened the forum by giving a brief presentation about the budget. Palaima said the budget situation was worse than he or anyone else had initially expected. “This is a perfect storm,” Palaima said.
Impact on students The speakers at the forum discussed budget reallocations and explained to the 50 students and staff who attended how the changes could affect them. During the event, a petition was circulated that called for a stop to any further layoffs within the University. Psychology sophomore Caroline Taylor said she told most of her friends about the cuts, but they either don’t know about them or don’t care. “It’s kind of frustrating because students should care,” Taylor said.
“It’s hard to get a good undergraduate education with fewer classes and fewer teachers.” Anne Lewis, a lecturer in the Department of Radio-TelevisionFilm, questioned the need to reduce the size of UT’s teaching staff. She said that in order to make an impact on where the cuts are coming from, faculty and staff need to be fully included in the decisionmaking process. “What happened in Liberal Arts and with these petitions gives me a lot of hope,” Lewis said.
TEACH-IN continues on page 2
10 years later, Aggies remember victims of bonfire tragedy By Jordan Haeger Daily Texan Staff Ten years ago, Texas A&M University and UT set aside their rivalry when 12 students were killed after the collapse of A&M’s annual bonfire. Students grieve after the Aggie Bonfire collapse in 1999. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.
Matt Hempel Daily Texan file photo
The long-lived tradition ended abruptly when the 59-foot tower of 5,000 logs collapsed, injuring 27 people, including several students. A&M will hold a memorial this evening followed by a candlelight vigil at 2:42 a.m., the time at which
the bonfire collapsed. School spokesman Tom Hughes said it’s important to remember the tragedy and the Aggies lost, as well as those who helped to save the lives of their fellow students. He said he remembers football players desperately trying to move logs off the pile to free students trapped underneath. “It was a very, very trying day,” Hughes said. Ruth Wetherington was a freshman in 1999 when the bonfire collapsed. She said she was excited to attend her first bonfire as a student because it was one of the reasons she chose to attend A&M. Fifteen minutes after the bonfire collapsed, Wetherington and some friends arrived on campus and heard the news. Wetherington’s older friends wanted to go help, but
some thought it wasn’t a big deal as the bonfire had collapsed a few years ago, and no one was hurt. When they arrived, they could immediately tell something terrible had happened, she said. “When we pulled up it kind of hit me how sad they were,” Wetherington said. “We heard people crying and screaming.” Wetherington said her male friends immediately ran to wake up friends who could help move the logs off the students. Mark Gold, Wetherington’s brother and the former student body president, said the bonfire collapse has affected the University more than anything else in its history. Gold said he received the opportunity of a lifetime when he was able
By Jordan Haeger Daily Texan Staff Hiring for new college graduates is down 40 percent from the previous year, according to a recent survey. Large employers a year ago anticipated to hire an average of 114 college graduates with a bachelor’s degree per company. They ended up hiring 64, said Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, which conducted the survey. “That’s a lot of ground loss,” Gardner said. The survey collected information from more than 1,800 companies nationwide, including large Fortune 100 companies and small Austin-based consulting and accounting firms, Gardner said. He said the projected labor contractions for last year were greater than he expected. “Last year, we thought labor would contract by about 8 percent,” he said. “When November rolled around and things really got bad, it contracted another 35 or 49 percent.” Gardner said graduates will have to bring more than a degree to the table when looking for a job in coming years. Employers are looking for employees who have critical-thinking skills, the abilities to work with a team and to work on a project without
JOBS continues on page 2
Austin food banks report increases in client needs By Molly Triece Daily Texan Staff Despite Austin’s economic stability, some residents, including many students, are sometimes forced to eat unhealthily in an effort to make ends meet, according to officials in Austin’s food bank industry. According to a 2006 survey conducted by the Basic Needs Coalition, 74 percent of Central Texas food providers reported an increase in requests for food and 24 percent of the agencies had to turn away some of those requests because of a lack of resources. El Buen Samaritano, a food pantry in Austin, has seen a 55 percent increase in patrons since the last fiscal year, which food pantry spokesman Ivan Dávila said does not reflect data from BusinessWeek magazine that names Austin as the second-strongest economy in the nation.
HUNGER continues on page 2
MEMORIAL continues on page 2
Study abroad event highlights UT’s global presence By Shabab Siddiqui Daily Texan Staff Germany and Australia are not neighbors, hummus and Chex Mix do not share origins in any culture and the Peace Corps is not a country. But at the Students for Study Abroad Student Mixer, pretty much anything goes. “This is just more laid back,” said organization President Lisa Khan. “It’s just a way for mentors and potential study abroad students to meet each other.” The Tuesday evening social was held at Gregory Gym as part of UT’s International Education Week. Entertainment and food were provided at various study abroad program booths, and former study abroad students shared their stories. Natcha Techachainiran, a sophomore electrical engineering ma-
jor from Thailand, said she hopes to study abroad in Germany. “I plan to go there, so I got to talk to people who have already been there,” Techachainiran said. “You also get to know more people.” The event is one of many attempts by the University to increase its presence internationally. According to the most recent UT study abroad statistics, the University ranked third in the country behind only New York University and Michigan State University in the number of students studying abroad during the 2004-05 school year. The most popular destination that year was the United Kingdom, followed by Italy, Spain, France and China. Almost 60 perEric Ou | Daily Texan Staff cent of the students took part in UT faculty-led programs, as opposed to Katrinia Donnellan leads students in an Irish céilí dance at a mixer held by Students for Study Abroad at Gregory Gym. This event is one of the many ABROAD continues on page 2 events that will be held for International Education Week.
Jordy Wagoner | Daily Texan Staff
Food pantry coordinator Rosa Carroll gives Olga Psamaniego items from the El Buen Samaritano Food Pantry in South Austin on Tuesday afternoon.