1
COMICS PAGE 6
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 8
SPORTS PAGE 5
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
@thedailytexan
facebook.com/dailytexan
Friday, March 28, 2014
dailytexanonline.com
CITY
STATE
Council to review SXSW security By Nicole Stiles @NicoleStiles42
On Thursday, Austin City Council approved a resolution to conduct an in-depth review of South By Southwest activities as they relate to city safety and capacity. According to City Councilman Mike Martinez, who drafted the proposal, the SXSW crash that resulted in the deaths of four and injuries of more than 20 others was the catalyst for the proposal.
“The tragic incident that occurred during this year’s festival touched a nerve … and frankly it felt to me and many others I’ve heard from like a warning signal,” Martinez said. SXSW Music spokeswoman Elizabeth Derczo said the organization is in full support of the council’s resolution. “It’s a terrific initiative, and we’re eager to incorporate the results to produce the best possible event for all SXSW attendees — global and local
alike,” Derczo said. “We look forward to the discussion and ongoing collaboration.” According to Martinez, nearly 400,000 people flock to Austin to attend SXSW. Martinez said a comprehensive analysis of the event should involve the entire Austin community. “[This] conversation needs to include everyone — SXSW officials, venue owners, hoteliers, musicians,
SXSW page 2
Equal pay key issue in race for governor By Alyssa Mahoney @TheAlyssaM
Gubernatorial candidates state Sen. Wendy Davis, DFort Worth, and Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott and their student supporters have settled on equal pay and wage discrimination as the next key issue of the 2014 campaign. Abbott said that as governor he would veto a state version of The Equal Pay Act or Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Davis has attacked Abbott’s position by arguing that existing equal pay laws are insufficient. The Equal Pay Act was a federal law signed in 1963 to prevent wage discrimination based on gender. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was a federal statute which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and stated that a person has 180 days to file a lawsuit for pay discrimination from when they received their paycheck. Abbott said the Lilly Ledbetter Act, the Texas Labor Code and the Texas Government Code have adequate provisions for equal pay already. “If there are ongoing issues about equal pay, I don’t think the question is whether we need more laws. The question is whether those laws just need to be enforced better,” Abbott said in a statement. Amy Nabozny, history sophomore and College Republicans vice president, said she thinks current equal pay laws are sufficient because it’s already illegal to discriminate based on gender. “It’s a waste of our legislature’s time and resources to be passing redundant legislation,” Nabozny said. “If there’s any issue in how the federal courts process these
Sam Ortega / Daily Texan ffile photo
Austin Police Department officers form a human barricade down Sixth Street during the last Saturday of SXSW 2014.
UNIVERSITY
— YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH IS VACANCY —
Grand outside, hollow within
THE UT TOWER
657 available rooms
Because of safety concerns, UT turns Tower into storage
381 (56%)
276 (43%)
210 171
182
are in use
By Bobby Blanchard
offices
@bobbycblanchard
The loudest noise on the 13th floor of the UT Tower is the minute hand of an old clock. More than half of the floors of the UT Tower are empty, classified formally by the University as either “vacant” or “future storage space.” Furniture and unused computer monitors are the only occupants in some of the abandoned offices. The few employees who still work in the upper floors of the Tower won’t be there much longer, because of safety concerns involving evacuation policies. Though the outside of the Tower is ornately decorated, and instantly recognizable, UT’s most iconic building is largely hollow. “The Tower is really, really cool,” said Dan Slesnick, the senior vice provost for resource management. “The views up there are just spectacular. Losing tens of thousands of square feet of office space on a campus that is short of space is very, very difficult. But we have to keep people safe.” Of the 657 available rooms in the Tower and Main Building, only 57 percent are currently in use. Of those rooms, just under half are not occupied by people and are instead used as break rooms and for storage. Seventeen of the Tower’s 32 floors are unoccupied. Slesnick said his office is nearly finished moving people out of the Tower’s upper floors. The University considers the space less safe than lower floors because of the Life Safety Code, a nationwide set of fire safety rules, which requires buildings have multiple exits in the case of a fire. From the 13th floor up to the top of the Tower, an area where there are still 20 occupied offices, there is only
are empty
other
storage, break rooms, conference rooms
future storage spaces
94
other
17
There are floors of the tower that are entirely empty.
Methodology
The Daily Texan obtained this information through the Texas Public Information Act. The data in this story comes from an excel spreadsheet provided by the University dated Feb. 13, 2014. The University notes there are 977 rooms in the Tower, but that 320 are nonassignable. Those 320 rooms are not included in the data. For an interactive graphic showing a breakdown of the Tower by floor, go to the story on www.dailytexanonline.com.
TOWER page 3
bit.ly/dtvid
WAGES page 3
Illustration by Aaron Rodriguez / Daily Texan Staff
CITY
For Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole, education is familiar issue By Alyssa Mahoney @TheAlyssaM
Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole has spearheaded numerous projects since she was first elected to Austin City Council, but she said the moment that had the most impact on her political career came when she was PTA president of her sons’ elementary school. “I always say that my start in politics began as PTA president,” Cole said. “When you’re
balancing the interests of parents, teachers and the community at large, you learn how to bring people together.” After Cole became the PTA president, the school superintendent asked her to co-chair a school bond campaign. Cole said her two co-chairs encouraged her to visit school campuses to see their conditions. “When I saw those schools, they were in such bad shape — leaky roofs, rodents, I mean rats everywhere,” Cole said. Cole said many of the
schools didn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and needed restroom and gym repairs. “I got really mad, so I started telling every person I knew, especially the PTA moms,” Cole said. She said the school bond was not predicted to pass because similar bonds proposed in several other cities in the region had failed to pass. “On the night of the bond election, when I saw the ticker go across the screen at 60
percent, that’s when the political bug hit me,” Cole said. “That’s what government is supposed to do — provide funding and solutions for people.” As the first person in her family to graduate from college, Cole said education is an issue that is important to her. “I knew that education was the path for [my sons] to have a successful future, so I was determined to make sure that
COLE page 2
Helen Fernandez / Daily Texan file photo
In 2006, Cole became the first African-American woman to be elected onto the Austin city council.
an adve
rtising spec
Find the latest news on the lives of longhorns in a Today special addition to the Daily Texan. November 28
APRIL
ial editio
n of The
27, 2012
Daily Texa
n
Thro
wing
Inc
luding adua ... Tio BY PER n ParTy SON
a gr
alT gr
ad Pro
NAME
BY PER graMS SON NAM E
grad
Pro BY PER graMS SON NAM E
TEST PREP ...and
Much
More!