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THE DAILY TEXAN LIFE&ARTS PAGE 12
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Committee recommends tuition hike By Viviana Aldous Daily Texan Staff A committee of students and administrators recommended Tuesday that the University increase tuition by slightly less than 4 percent per year over the next two years. Including a $65 per semester fee for the construction of the new Student Activity Center, the increase translates to about $240 more in tuition each semester for UT undergraduates. According to the recommendations, without a tuition increase, the University would face budget shortfalls of more than $17 million during the 2010-2011 school year and more than $14 million the following year. The increases will not generate new funds to pursue President William Powers’ goals of hiring top faculty and graduate students and retaining current employees. Limited growth in state support and declining payouts from the Available University Fund Endowment has led to the shortfalls in the projected budget. The Tuition Policy Advisory Committee, which is composed of four student leaders and five faculty members, made its annual recommendations after three months of weekly meetings and discussions. The committee will host
two open forums on its proposals Jan. 20 and Jan. 26 before Powers makes his recommendations to the UT System Board of Regents on Jan. 31. Committee members said the recommended increases strike a balance between funding UT’s growth and maintaining affordability. The committee has recommended that the University increase tuition by 3.95 percent per year for the next two years. Including the new fee, the average semester tuition for a Texas-resident undergraduate student would increase from $4,468 to $4,709 next year. In 2011-2012, tuition would cost $4,895. Nonresident undergraduates who entered UT after the spring of 2006 could pay up to $714 more next fall. Resident graduate students, who now pay on average $3,882, would pay $218 more next year and another $162 in 2011-2012. Nonresident graduate students who enrolled after spring of 2008 could pay an increase of up to $379 next fall. Tuition increase recommendations for four graduate student programs are decided by the Office of the Provost: Master in Professional Accounting, MBA,
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Average Undergraduate Tuition Rates per Semester Average Flat-Rate Tuition (in dollars)
Source: TPAC
Illustration by Thu Vo & Olivia Hinton | Daily Texan Staff
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City supports AIDS victims
Photos by Tamir Kalifa | Daily Texan Staff
Above, Sydney VanBerg hangs a bell on the AIDS Bell Banner in honor of AIDS/ HIV victims at A Service of Remembrance and Hope held at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Below, J.J. Lara Jr., listens as Caitlin Morris reads personal messages by clients of The Care Communities, a non-profit organization that supports individuals living with AIDS.
Austinites promote awareness, celebrate World AIDS Day By Molly Triece Daily Texan Staff Enduring the rain and cold, runners gathered by the Mopac pedestrian bridge for the first World AIDS Day 5K Fun Run on Tuesday. The race was organized by Capital City Front Runners, a gay and lesbian running group, and was one of the many events that took place around Austin in honor of World AIDS Day. Among others were the 12th annual Service of Remembrance and Hope, hosted by the Care Communities at the Austin Presbyterian Seminary, and the third annual World AIDS Day Conference, organized by students and professors at UT. “We’re hoping it can become an annual event and become more interesting in terms of current development,” said conference coordinator Neville Hoad. The panels addressed issues ranging from HIV in the transgender population to how volunteers care for persons with AIDS. In addition to professors and students, there were also speakers from AIDS Services of
Austin, the Care Communities and Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services. “The aim of the conference is to bring different faculty members working on different facets of the problem into the conversation. It’s truly interdisciplinary and we’re presenting stu-
SG focuses on minority recruitment By Viviana Aldous Daily Texan Staff Student Government members collaborated with student leaders of two organizations that serve underrepresented communities Tuesday to improve their representation within the governmental body. SG’s Underrepresented Student Recruitment and Retention Agency invited about 80 organizations to the Underrepresented Student Leaders Study Break, which allowed leaders of the different organiDaniela Trujillo | Daily Texan Staff zations to discuss projects. SG Amanda Lopez, Chair of the Finance Committee, speaks Tuesday reminded the organizations night at the Underrepresented leaders meeting. The meeting to apply for SG’s early spring covered issues such as the campus-wide referendum vote. funding and to vote in this week’s University-wide refer“A lot of these organizations “We can do so much more if endum that would amend the have similar missions,” said we all come together as one.” SG constitution. agency director Cecilia Lopez. The agency is compiling a
guide of resources, programs and organizations for underrepresented students. “[Information for] the programs is scattered all over the place,” Lopez said. “It’s hard to find, especially for firstyear students.” Berenice Medellin, social work and sociology senior and member of Kappa Delta Chi, a service-based sorority that mostly serves Hispanic communities, and government senior Jose Torres of the University Leadership Initiative were the only two non-SG members in attendance. Medellin said most Kappa Delta Chi members did not know about the referendum. “A lot of our members are
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dent research,” Hoad said. “We want to publicize the materials we have.” Students organized their research findings onto posters and displayed them at the conference. FACE AIDS president Sydney VanBerg created a
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Former Aggie takes adviser, A&M to court By Jordan Haeger Daily Texan Staff When Jennifer Temple, a former Texas A&M University student, failed two classes her freshman year, her hopes of transferring to UT were lost. Now, Temple is suing A&M and the academic adviser who suggested she fail those classes as part of the University’s first-year grade exclusion policy. The policy permits freshmen who fail a class to exclude that failing grade from their grade point average. When Temple expressed to her A&M adviser, Sofia Fuentes, that she was having difficulty in two classes because her instructors did not speak English clearly, Fuentes suggested she
take advantage of the policy. It is unclear whether or not the adviser knew of Temple’s intention to transfer to UT to pursue a degree in interior design, a major A&M doesn’t offer. The grade exclusion policy is exclusive to A&M, and Temple’s GPA was too low to transfer to UT because of the failed classes, the suit claims. Fuentes, a defendant in the suit, told Temple if she dropped the classes, she could be removed from her parents’ insurance policy, which Temple’s attorney, Gaines West, said is not true. Representatives from A&M’s General Academic Programs advising office did not return phone
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