1
The Daily Texan Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
@thedailytexan
facebook.com/dailytexan
Monday, February 25, 2013
INSIDE
Photographer opens studio in downtown Austin.
NEWS Robert Bullard lectures on environmental quality disparities along racial lines. PAGE 5
dailytexanonline.com
Thornhill brilliant as Longhorns sweep Huskers. SPORTS PAGE 6
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 10
SYSTEM
Austin is the happiest city in Texas based on tweets, according to a study from the University of Vermont. PAGE 5
Chairman denies regent misconduct
SPORTS
Capping off a week of drama between the Texas Legislature and the UT System Board of Regents, board chairman Gene Powell released a statement saying Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s remarks that the regents are
Myck Kabongo’s career-high 24 points not enough as Texas dominated by Kansas State once again in 81-69 loss. PAGE 6
By Joshua Fechter
allegedly micromanaging UT “surely had to be the result of misinformation and were either incorrect or inaccurate.” “I know my fellow regents; they are outstanding individuals and I stand behind them fully,” Powell said. On Monday, the Legislature passed three resolutions honoring UT President William
Powers Jr. in response to a Feb. 13 regents meeting during which regents intensely questioned him on a number of topics. During a ceremony on the Senate floor, Dewhurst offered an emotional defense of Powers and said he received numerous complaints that the regents were subverting
Powers’ authority, disrupting the System’s governance structure and engaging in “character assassination” against him. Powell said he and Dewhurst met several times over the past few days to address Dewhurst’s concerns. “I join him in the desire to move forward constructively on these issues, and we
have agreed to keep in close contact in the days and weeks to come,” Powell said in the Friday statement. Powell’s statement comes two days after Dewhurst announced that he and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus will relaunch a joint
BOARD continues on page 2
Blaire Luna tosses eight scoreless innings and Gabby Smith delivers walk-off hit in the Longhorns’ tournament-clinching win. PAGE 7 Brittney Griner drops 30 points on Texas as top-ranked Baylor pounds the Longhorns by 20 points. PAGE 7
LIFE&ARTS Ballet Austin offers Videodance series in which students learn popular music video choreography. PAGE 10
POINTCOUNTERPOINT Designated smoking areas on campus will disappear by Friday March 1. In a pointcounterpoint, Daily Texan columnists Roy Cathey and Zach Adams weigh in for and against the ban. PAGE 4
TODAY Research postermaking workshop Poster-making workshops are open to any undergraduate who is in the process of creating a research poster. Emphasis is on drafting and revising. Previous attendance at a poster design class recommended. RSVP to uresearch@ austin.utexas.edu or call 512-471-5949. The event will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m at the Flawn Academic Center (FAC) 328, and is free and open to any undergraduate. “Zero Dark Thirty” & torture in America Dr. Ramzi Kassem, associate professor of law and director of the Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, CUNY Law School, focuses on how the Oscar-nominated film “Zero Dark Thirty” has reignited the controversy about the place of torture in American policy. The event will be held from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the School of Law 3.127. The event is free and open to the public.
Debby Garcia | Daily Texan Staff JESSICA FAITH CARTER, SPECIAL EDUCATION GRADUATE STUDENT
REPRESENTATION REFRESH Gov. Rick Perry will appoint a nonvoting student to the UT System Board of Regents at the end of the academic year to serve a one-year term. Jessica Faith Carter, a special education graduate student, and history senior Joshua Tang are two UT-Austin students among the seven finalists from across the UT System vying to replace the current student regent, Ashley Purgason, a doctoral student at UT-Medical Branch at Galveston. The Daily Texan obtained information about the student regent applicants through the Texas Public Information Act.
By Christine Ayala
Jessica Carter seeks victory for education
Joshua Tang promotes equality, diversity
Jessica Faith Carter, a special education graduate student, said her experience at four universities throughout her studies and experiences as a middle school and high school teacher have provided her with well-rounded knowledge of education to convey student and faculty concerns to the board. “Being able to work and serve not only UT but the other institutions that make up the system would give me a unique opportunity to use my background in education to advance the needs of the students here as well,”
History senior Joshua Tang said his experience as a transfer student from Ashland University and working to promote diversity and equality in various organizations has prepared him to express the concerns of a variety of students on the various system campuses. “A lot of the work I’m interested in on campus is centered around making sure the University is as safe and open to students who are not typically represented in higher education,” Tang said. Tang is Students for Equity and Diversity’s director of operations, a student
Carter said. “My background is pretty much 99.9 percent in education, but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.” Carter is a multicultural special education doctoral candidate, a campus facilitator of undergraduate students in special education and a member and undergraduate mentor in UT’s Black Graduate Student Association. Carter is an education policy intern for state Rep. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, and she holds degrees from Rice University,
CARTER continues on page 2
CAMPUS
leader at the Multicultural Engagement Center, Teach for America recruitment intern and was in Washington D.C. during the Fisher v. Texas Supreme Court hearing to rally for National Leadership Council on Human and Civil Rights. Ana Ixchel Rosal, director of the Gender and Sexuality Center in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, said Tang has been a dependable student leader at Multicultural Engagement Center.
Conference discusses sports and identity links By Jeremy Thomas Academia scholars from across the nation presented their reports on various aspects of sports and identity as part of the New Agendas in Communication series on Friday and Saturday at the Belo Center for New Media. The conference presents different topics that link together research and studies by a group of scholars from the collegiate rank. At the conference, scholars give a glimpse
TANG continues on page 2
STATE
of the research and work they studied. Eventually, those studies are collected for a book publication produced by the College of Communication as part of the New Agendas in Communication book series. There were 14 sportsrelated studies presented at the two-day conference. The studies linked sports with identity topics such as gender, fandom, identity management, politics and race. Lecturer Luke Winslow
SPORTS continues on page 2
Today in history In 1963,
The Beatles release their first U.S. single, “Please Please Me.”
Gabriella Belzer | Daily Texan Staff JOSHUA TANG, HISTORY SENIOR
Marshall Nolen | Daily Texan Staff Scholars from around the nation discussed various topics relating to the culture of sports Friday.
Houston’s Sharpstown International School senior John Baffoe leads a chant at the third annual Save Texas Schools March and Rally in front of the Capitol on Saturday afternoon.
Maria Arrellaga Daily Texan Staff
Texans protest for school reforms By Alberto Long A multicolor sea of homemade picket signs and the sound of marching bands and protest chants flooded Congress Avenue on Saturday as thousands of concerned students, parents, educators and advocates marched to the Capitol in support of enhanced public education in Texas. The third annual Save Texas Schools March and Rally, organized by Save Texas Schools, a statewide volunteer coalition demanding an end to financial cuts and a reevaluation of standardized
testing, began at the Congress Avenue Bridge and converged at the steps of the Capitol. Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, Diane Ravitch, former assistant Secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush, and other guests delivered lively disaffected speeches on the benefits of quality public education, the state’s negligent management of its funding and standardized testing procedures. Chief among the day’s concerns was the Legislature’s $5.4 billion budget cut to public education in 2011. The crowd demanded the Legislature tap into the state’s Rainy Day Fund to replenish the budget.
“[The Legislature is] sitting around like some litigious, deadbeat dad, waiting for an even higher court to force them to meet their responsibilities,” Watson said in his speech. “When our kids have a test, we expect them to show up and do well. It’s time to demand as much from this legislature as we demand from a child.” The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, also called the STAAR exam, was a hot topic among the participants and speakers. At the rally, protesters
SAVE continues on page 2