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9 Issue Vol. 4, 2009 Nov. 25,
‘Goodbye to A&M’
p. 12
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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Arlington campus set to ban smoking Restrictions to take effect early August; UT-Austin not likely to follow suit By Lena Price Daily Texan Staff All tobacco products, including cigarettes, will be banned from the University of Texas at Arlington campus starting Aug. 1, 2011. The ban that’s unlikely to reach the UT-Austin campus in the near future. In the months leading up to the ban, UT-Arlington officials say they will place a heavier emphasis on resources to help students who are interested in ending their tobacco use. The campus police department will also be more vigilant in enforcing the current policies, which prohibits smoking within 50 feet of any campus building. UT-Arlington is the first four-year public institution in Texas to implement a ban on smoking, although the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio is already smoke-free. More than 350 colleges around the country have already adopted the policy, according to an October study by the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. In March, a committee of 15 students and staff members reviewed the current smoking policies at UT-Arlington and found that approximately 61 percent of the school’s students would support a tobacco ban on campus. The committee recommended making the campus tobacco-free. In a letter to the UT-Arlington student body released Friday, University President James Spaniolo said he agreed with the committee’s findings. “It is time for UT-Arlington to take the next step forward in protecting the health of our campus community,” Spaniolo said in the letter. According to the current UT-Austin policy, smoking on campus is not permitted within 20 feet of any building entryway or ventilation system or inside any building. Smoking is allowed outside as long as waste is properly disposed of. UT spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said she was not aware of any upcoming changes to the UT-Austin campus policy, and could not recall any changes to the policy since she started working at the University in 2001. Radio-television-film junior Travis Cooper called the UT-Arlington smoking ban a “ridiculous idea.” “I smoke on campus everyday, and I’ve never had a complaint,” Cooper said. “It’s my choice, and it should be a fundamental freedom to smoke outside.” Cooper said he would not enroll in any type of University-sponsored class to quit smoking. University Health Services offers a free “Quitters Stop Smoking Class” to all students. The class meets four times per semester and has already had its final meeting for the fall. UT-Arlington spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said the lag time between announcement and the date of implementation will give some students a chance to quit.
Photos by Sara Young | Daily Texan Staff
Above, Bill Gorro, an Austin Water Utilities employee, operates a machine that sift sticks and other debris from the finished product of Dillo Dirt at Hornsby Bend Tuesday afternoon. Below, Dillo Dirt is created using biowaste and undergoes a multi-stage process of treatment and testing.
City to get its hands Dillo Dirt-y By Molly Triece Daily Texan Staff The city of Austin plans to use a $31.8 million loan from the Texas Water Development Board to finance the waste management systems at Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Facility. Hornsby Bend specializes in treating and reusing Austin’s biosolids, which are made of “sewage sludge” left after Austin’s water treatment plants purify wastewater. Jill Mayfield, spokeswoman for the city of Austin, said the loan is intended to enable the facility to increase its capacity to treat biosolids and turn them into the fertilizer Dillo Dirt through a process of composting. “We will improve our digester system, so we can run more biosolids out of it because we really don’t want a landfill,” she said. Mayfield said Hornsby Bend also harnesses methane gases that are released during the process of treating biosolids, and that a large variety of bird life is attracted to the facility’s pond system, which is squeezed from the biosolids. Jody Slagle, compost and biosolid reuse manager for Hornsby Bend, is managing the expansion of the Dillo Dirt and biosolid treatment projects funded by the loan. “The net effects [for Austin] are going to be in energy savings, renewable power generation and re-
ductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” Slagle said. The expansion of these projects is scheduled to begin in February 2012 and will take about two years. Hornsby Bend plans to reduce its use of diesel fuel by 30,000 gallons during that time by treating more biosolids at the base as opposed to off-site treatment centers. Also, Slagle said, the facility will be able to decrease its power needs. “We expect to produce enough electricity using digester gas to offset all of our plant’s power needs, as well as additional power that will be fed to Austin’s power distribution grids,” Slagle said. There won’t be major changes made to the way Hornsby Bend operates, Slagle said. Changes will be focused on increasing the facility’s capacity. “The Dillo Dirt composting process will increase in size but will use the same technology we use now,” she said. Austin’s consumption rate of treated wastewater has stayed flat in recent years, said Chris Lehman, Austin Sierra Club chairman, but the city is embarking on multiple projects to increase its capacity to manage waste. He said the city is only expanding Hornsby Bend because it was ordered
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MeMoRiAM: GAyLoR JenTz (1931-2009)
UT business law professor remembered for his service was recruited to teach at Gaylor Jentz was valued man, the University by Jentz in 1980 faculty member, served and said Jentz’s passion made it to walk away. as ‘institution-builder’ impossible “You could tell he loved the
By Shabab Siddiqui Daily Texan Staff Former UT business law professor Gaylor Jentz died Monday morning at a local hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest. Jentz taught at the University for 34 years and was a Herbert D. Kelleher Centennial Professor Emeritus in Business Law after his retirement in 1999. He helped assemble and served as chairman of the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management at the McCombs School of Business. Robert Prentice, the department’s current assistant chair-
into the second best undergraduate business law program in the nation, but made major contributions to the business school and the University as a whole. University of Texas, he loved “He was a real institutionAustin and he enjoyed being a builder,” Prentice said. “He was professor here a wonderful classroom teacher, every single but he was so much more. He day,” Prentice did every administrative task, said. “By his he sat on every committee. He actions and was a guy willing to do the dirty his model, he work.” won me over Jentz served on the Faculty c o m p l e t e l y. Senate, the Faculty Council, the I knew him Graduate Student Assembly and for 30 years, the Women’s Athletics Council, and I never gaylor as well as many other commitsaw him not Jentz tees. smile.” In 1997, Jentz became the firstPrentice ever recipient of the Civitatis said Jentz was not only instruJeNTZ continues on page 2 mental in turning the department
Austin job woes still affecting some By Rachel Platis Daily Texan Staff Although Austin’s unemployment rate remains lower than the rest of the country’s and may show signs of improvement, some are still struggling to find work. The greater Austin area, encompassing Bastrop, Hays, Williamson, Caldwell and Travis counties, has maintained a 7.2 percent unemployment rate this year from September to October, according to a report by the Tex-
as Workforce Commission. If seasonally adjusted, that number will actually increase to 7.5 percent. The city had a 6.5 percent unemployment rate in October and recorded its sixth straight month that the Austin metro area saw job levels fall further below 2008 levels, said Beverly Kerr, vice president of research at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. The report is the first indication that the unemployment rate in the five-county area is leveling
since jobless rates started to rise. In October 2008, the Austin area’s unemployment rate was 4.6 percent. The area’s unemployment rate is lower than the state and national average. Seasonally adjusting data accounts for events that occur on a seasonal basis, including hiring for the holiday season or school letting out. “The numbers are not a
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UT endowment showed 15 percent drop By Hudson Lockett Daily Texan Staff UTIMCO financial reports show UT’s investment manager lost about $2.6 billion — 15 percent of the University’s endowment value — during the last fiscal year, but still outperformed
other, larger academic endowments such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton. UTIMCO CEO Bruce Zimmerman and advisers to the company said fewer investments in riskier alternative assets and smaller required payouts of en-
dowment returns to campuses softened the blow. Losses for university endowments averaged around 19 percent as of the end of June, according to Wilshire Associates,
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