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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2019
volume
119,
issue
NEWS
OPINION
LIFE&ARTS
SPORTS
Newly proposed legislation would allow students to vote with their student ID. PA G E 3
Undergraduate students with children need priority registration. PA G E 4
A Student Government bill aims to make first-years more financially literate. PA G E 5
Texas baseball improves to 3-1 on road trip with convincing win over Rice. PA G E 6
CITY
103
CAMPUS
Campus living hotspots receive fewer affordable housing units
‘I had no idea what I was doing’
By Jackson Barton @Jackson_Brton
Tess Finnerty and her roommates signed a lease at a large apartment complex in West Campus earlier this year. She wasn’t surprised the cost came out to over a thousand dollars each month. “It was kinda expected that it would be in the thousands, or around a thousand to have housing that is close as well as accessible,” said Finnerty, a textiles and apparels freshman. “It was expected that if you’re living in West Campus, it’s not going to be affordable if you’re on a budget.” Austin City Council District 9, which encompasses West Campus, North Campus, downtown and a portion of the Riverside neighborhoods, will receive 3,635 new affordable housing units, according to the Austin Strategic Housing Blueprint presentation last Tuesday. Sixty-thousand new housing units will be distributed across the 10 council districts. The interdepartemental team behind the project distributed the affordable units across Austin based on four factors: gentrification, access to bus routes, upward economic mobility and a lack of exisiting affordable units. Districts with a high prevelence of these factors were slated to receive more units. Jonathan Tomko, the city’s housing policy and planning manager, said District 9 did not receive as many units because it did not score as high in the key areas as other districts. Tomko said another reason why District 9 might not be receiving as many units is because of how many affordable units are already installed. Young people between 15 and 24 made up over a third of District 9’s population in 2016, according to the City of Austin Office of the
HOUSING
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hannah simon | the daily texan staff Bailey Abramowitz, a junior journalism student, has been in a wheelchair, on crutches or in a boot since her freshman year at UT. Despite her chronic injury, the University has not made any accommodations to assist Abramowitz in navigating campus.
UT lays plans to help students with disabilities get around campus.
transportation accommodations she could get. She said she was told there were none. “They said ‘If it’s raining, maybe you can call the UT police, and they can drive you to class,’” Abramowitz said. “I’m not calling the police to drive me to class. I’ll get a friend to drive me at that point. But it was crazy that they had nothing to help me, and I literally cannot walk. I had just gotten into a wheelchair, and I had no idea what I was doing.” In the University Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan launched in 2017, two items address campus accessibility and transportation for temporarily and permanently disabled students. One of the items outlines the Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan to make sidewalks and paths more accessible, and this plan is actively in progress, according to the action plan. Jennifer Maedgen, UT’s ADA/Section 504 coordinator, said ADA coordinators work with UT’s Project Management and Construction Services to update and complete projects within the transition plan. “Our goals for the next year or two
By Emily Hernandez @emilyhernandez
fter tearing ligaments in both of her legs while in club team gymnastics her freshman year, journalism junior Bailey Abramowitz has been in and out of using medical walking boots, crutches and wheelchairs to navigate campus. She has yet to find a quick or painless method of transportation, Abramowitz said. In 2016, when she used a wheelchair as a freshman, Abramowitz said she called a University employee, who she believes worked within Services for Students with Disabilities, to see what types of
include broad accessibility improvements in three campus buildings — the (Ernest Cockrell Jr. Hall, Engineering Teaching Center, and Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Building),” Maedgen said in an email. “We are also collaborating with PMCS (Project Management and Construction Services) on a path of travel project that addresses the need to connect (Inner Campus Drive) to 21st Street, and we hope to have that project in the construction phase this summer.” The other item outlines a plan to implement a program called “Longhorn Lift” which would include one or two drop-deck wheelchair golf carts to allow for faster on-campus transportation for students with temporary or permanent mobility issues. The initiative is still in the planning phase, according to the action plan. According to action plan, student leaders and representatives have discussed the program with the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, but Jess Cybulski, the assistant director of
DISABILITY
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CAMPUS
Fanucci-Ivanova campaign focusing on more student support By Nicole Stuessy @nicolestuessy
Izzy Fanucci and Elena Ivanova, student government executive alliance candidates, both hope to “recreate” some parts of UT’s campus and the way student government is viewed through their campaign. Because many student government initiatives take longer than a single year to implement, Fanucci, a speech pathology and psychology junior, said they want to continue the work from previous leadership, such as extending Thanksgiving break and reinstating the Texas A&M rivalry game. “If an administration does not agree with certain changes that the executive alliance
wants to make, they will try and wait out that student’s position,” Fanucci said. “In the event that we are elected, just because we are new in office doesn’t mean those issues will disappear.” Along with continuation of previous efforts, Ivanova, a Plan II junior and the current vice president of the Senate of College Councils, said they are passionate about preventing sexual assault because of their work with Not On My Campus. One way they want to achieve this is by increasing the number of confidential advocates students can speak with on campus. “There are 50,000 students on campus and currently only two people on campus that are properly trained,” Fanucci said. “That’s not acceptable. You can’t have two
people for a population where 15 percent of women report experiencing rape.” Fanucci and Ivanova’s platform includes expanding the Counseling and Mental Health Center services to include virtual counseling. Their campaign platform also centers around peer inclusion efforts, such as adding gender-inclusive bathrooms to more buildings on campus and creating an easier way for students to change their names online in the UT system. In order to increase accessibility on campus, the duo would also like to see changes from the 2013 Campus Master Plan implemented near the East Mall fountain. “Currently, that is one
CAMPAIGN
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JOIN THE TRADITION! February 18–22 • 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Etter-Harbin Alumni Center texasexes.org/rings
COMPLETED HOURS REQUIRED: Undergraduate, 75; Graduate, 16
katie bauer | the daily texan staff Izzy Fanucci, left, and Elena Ivanova are running for SG executive alliance this spring. Their platform focuses on interpersonal violence prevention and peer inclusion efforts.