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UNIVERSITY
Geosciences school receives grant By Eleanor Dearman @ellydearman
The University announced Wednesday that the Jackson School of Geosciences received a $58 million grant to study methane hydrate, a frozen compound that could be
used as an energy source. The U.S. Department of Energy provided $41.2 million of the grant, with the remaining funds coming from research partners. UT is working with Ohio State University, Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory, the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and the U.S. Geological Survey over the next four years on the project. Geological sciences professor Peter Flemings said while methane hydrate is a distant and currently expensive potential
solution, the goal of the research is to drill for and study naturally forming methane hydrate to learn about its behavior, how it is formed and how to produce it. “Dr. Flemings’ work has incredible potential for the energy sphere and
reinforces the Jackson School and UT’s internationally recognized role in groundbreaking research,” UT spokesman Gary Susswein said. Flemings said there is compacted methane and
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Ellyn Snider | Daily Texan Staff
Business sophomore Sachin Chondiromani studies in the Architecture Library in Battle Hall on Wednesday afternoon. The School of Architecture is currently raising money to renovate Battle Hall, which houses the first library on campus.
the various building codes Battle Hall currently violates in its current state, including some which could limit access in times of emergency. “Battle Hall is one of the most important buildings in Texas; it’s over 100 years old,
By Jackie Wang
RENOVATION page 2
By Josh Willis
of Battle Hall — which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places — is important to the University as a whole. Aside from enhancing the building, Steiner said the project will also address
Meet the District 3 City Council candidates
and, so, it’s facing preservation issues as well as disability access issues, and it also has issues with its fire safety,” Steiner said. Steiner said when the
Architecture school raises renovation funds
Texas to preserve the great architectural heritage that we have,” Dunlap said. “The other thing that it will allow us to do is create a unified School of Architecture complex within the UT campus.” Steiner said the preservation
CITY
With early voting underway in the first Austin City Council election under its 10ONE structure, many student neighborhoods — such as West Campus and Hyde Park — are located in District 9, but Riverside also has a notable student population located in District 3, where 12 candidates are vying for its seat. Under 10-ONE, which divides the city into 10 geographic districts, District 3 covers parts of East Austin and Riverside. Among the 12 candidates running for the seat, two, who are related, Susana Almanza and Sabino “Pio” Renteria, did not respond to The Daily Texan before press time. With District 3 boasting the largest amount of candidates in a City Council race among the 10 districts, candidate Kent Phillips said campaign tension has been relatively low. “I think there are many of us who do play nice, and many who have had no problem getting their hands a little dirty,” said Phillips, who works as a pharmacy technician. “There have been some ethics questions about properly putting the paid-for signs [and] things of that nature. A lot of candidates have not been afraid to push people around, and there is a brother and sister in the race, which highlights the possible family conflict there.” Phillips said Almanza and Renteria, who have both served on city boards and commissions, have garnered a good amount of support. During her campaign, Almanza said she wants to raise
GRANT page 2
UNIVERSITY
Working toward a major renovation project, the School of Architecture is in the midst of a fundraising campaign to raise money for the project, which is currently in the planning stages. The project seeks to preserve Battle Hall, renovate the West Mall Office Building and construct the Chase Building. Fritz Steiner, School of Architecture dean, and Luke Dunlap, the school’s director of development and external relations, were in Dallas on Wednesday to meet with former first lady Laura Bush to report on the progress of the project, according to Steiner. “Battle Hall is certainly a very important resource for the School of Architecture, but it’s also a really important resource for the University,” Steiner said. “It was the first library, which is why Mrs. Bush is interested — because of its history as a library.” Dunlap said the project is vital to preserving historical architecture. “It’s important to the University and the state of
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CITY
FILM Public relations junior Hillary Hurst works in the Austin Film Festival headquarters Monday afternoon. She and other interns help organize the festival each year.
Griffin Smith Daily Texan Staff
Student interns help organize upcoming Austin Film Festival By Emily Gibson @emgeemtee
After she arrives at the small house on Salina Street and signs into the book dubbed the “Intern Bible,” public relations junior Hillary Hurst is ready to begin her day as an intern for the Austin Film Festival. Since mid-August, Hurst
has worked with a team of interns, board members and volunteers to organize the 21st annual Austin Film Festival, which will begin Oct. 23 and run through Oct. 30. It is the first film festival devoted to writers and filmmakers and celebrates the work of those behind the camera, through movie screenings at
different theaters around the city and panels with writers, producers and directors from around the world. Working with the festival’s executive department, Hurst has completed research projects about funding, read scripts for the movies being presented and
INTERNS page 2
Women’s center to open in Austin By Eleanor Dearman @ellydearman
After working to establish a women’s center at the University 10 years ago, Carrie Tilton-Jones will open a women’s center for the city Saturday. The Women’s Community Center of Austin, founded by Tilton-Jones, has been operating by hosting educational events since Jan. 2013, but it has existed without a building and full services. Now, with its new building on the San Antonio Street opening, Tilton-Jones said the center will serve as a centralized space for women in the Austin community. According to Rocío Villalobos, one of the center’s board members, the new center will provide educational workshops and have computers, printers, workspaces, a library, a children’s play area and a catalog of community resources for women, among other services. “You have different groups that focus on different services that people may need, and
Daulton Venglar | Daily Texan Staff
Carrie Tilton-Jones is the founder of the Women’s Community Center of Austin, which will open Saturday.
what the women’s community center is trying to do is be a hub for some of those resources and some of that information,” said Villalobos, who is also the program coordinator at the Multicultural Engagement Center at UT. Tilton-Jones, who took time off from pursuing a graduate degree at UT to work on the center, said she got the idea to open a women’s center while working as the co-director of
the UT Women’s Resource Center, which later became the Gender and Sexuality Center. “[The Gender and Sexuality Center] became a home base for all types of women, from [the Rio Grande Valley], from Dallas, from Houston, from all around Texas,” said Tilton-Jones, who is also a founding board member of GSC. “And seeing the power
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NEWS
FORUM
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
ONLINE
REASON TO PARTY
Former USDA official calls SNAP successful. PAGE 3
Students debate the direction Texas should take in this year’s state elections.
Volleyball breaks home win streak record. PAGE 6
TBT compares homeless population from 30 years ago. PAGE 8
Rowing set to begin new season with new coach. PAGE 6
Christopher Nolan’s film “Interstellar” causes stir. PAGE 8
Check out The Daily Texan’s website and keep up with all the latest campus news. We won’t give your computer any viruses. dailytexanonline.com
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University Health Services to end flu shots Thursday. PAGE 3
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Thursday, October 23, 2014
FRAMES featured photo Volume 115, Issue 51
CONTACT US Main Telephone (512) 471-4591 Editor-in-Chief Riley Brands (512) 232-2212 editor@dailytexanonline.com Managing Editor Elisabeth Dillon (512) 232-2217 managingeditor@ dailytexanonline.com News Office (512) 232-2207 news@dailytexanonline.com Multimedia Office (512) 471-7835 dailytexanmultimedia@ gmail.com Sports Office (512) 232-2210 dailytexansports@gmail.com
Griffin Smith | Daily Texan Staff
Brian Kufahl fixes an issue with UT’s Wi-Fi Wednesday afternoon.
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the local minimum wage. “I would work for establishing a living wage of $15 an hour,” Almanza said at a candidate forum in September. “That’s very important and that would take thousands of people out of poverty.” Phillips, who has previously ran for Texas Senate and House seats as a Libertarian, said he does not think she would be able to do so if elected to the Council. “They certainly have their followings as voters go,” Phillips said. “I put them most up there in probabilities of winning this election. There is certainly a tension there and things which I agree with Ms. Almanza and Pio and things I would not. I don’t like there being lies being used to get votes.” According to Shaun Ireland, who ran for a council seat in 2012, other than a few missing yard signs, the race has been going smoothly. “It’s been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done,” Ireland said. “I’ve been knocking on doors since May. Most of my action plan comes from talking to average people on buses or in stores.” Ireland stressed that he was running to represent all of District 3. “We have a lot of candidates
architecture school moved into the West Mall Office Building more than a decade ago, it was made for offices instead of classrooms. “The space is configured for offices, not teaching,” Steiner said. “We really need to renovate that space for our teaching needs. What we really need is
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Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Riley Brands Associate Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amanda Haight, Noah M. Horwitz, Amanda Voeller Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elisabeth Dillon Associate Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reeana Keenen News Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jacob Kerr Associate News Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anderson Boyd, Nicole Cobler, Antonia Gales, Madlin Mekelburg Senior Reporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eleanor Dearman, Natalie Sullivan, Jackie Wang, Alex Wilts Senior Investigative Reporter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julia Brouillette Copy Desk Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brett Donohoe Associate Copy Desk Chiefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Liza Didyk, Taiki Miki, Cameron Peterson Design Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Omar Longoria Senior Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hirrah Barlas, Bria Benjamin, Alex Dolan Multimedia Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dan Resler, Shelby Tauber Associate Photo Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johnathan Garza Senior Photographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarah Montgomery, Lauren Ussery, Jenna VonHofe, Amy Zhang Senior Videographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carlo Nassise, Bryce Seifert Forum Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Amil Malik Internal Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richard Sparr Editorial Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samantha Ketterer Senior Opinion Columnists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Olivia Berkeley, John Daywalt, Clay Olsen Life&Arts Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lauren L’Amie Life&Arts Associate Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kat Sampson Senior Life&Arts Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brigit Benestante, Kate Dannenmaier Sports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Garrett Callahan Associate Sports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evan Berkowitz Senior Sports Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nick Castillo, Jori Epstein, Jacob Martella, Peter Sblendorio Comics Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hannah Hadidi Associate Comics Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shannon Butler Senior Comics Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cody Bubenik, Albert Lee, Connor Murphy, Digital Projects Coordinators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeremy Hintz, Sarah Stancik Senior Technical Staff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jovita Ezeokafor Social Media Coordinator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Bosworth
Issue Staff Reporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adam Hamze, Wes Scarborough, Sebastian Vega, Josh Willis Multimedia. . . . Brianna Holt, Madison Richards, Nadia Sadri, Claire Schaper, Griffin Smith, Ellyn Snider, Daulton Venglar Sports Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drew Lieberman, Jamie Rodriguez Comics Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nathan Burgess, Honney Khang, Victoria Smith, Ervin Ting, Melanie Westfall Copy Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tyler Paige, Blanche Schaefer, Kailey Thompson Life&Arts Writers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Emily Gibson, Alex Pelham, Robert Starr Page Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sujaan Lal Columnist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katherine Adams, Alexander Parker, Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez Editorial Cartoonist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shannon Butler
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studios and lecture halls.” In addition, Steiner said there are plans in place to build on an existing parking lot and loading dock. The building, as planned, would be named after alumnus John Chase. “While we were doing all that, it was thought that doing a modest addition would be wise since there was a lot of construction going on anyway,” Steiner said. Steiner said the project is estimated to cost about $80 million, with much of that money going toward fire safety and accessibility improvements. In September, the Stillwater Foundation donated $1 million to the campaign, which hopes to raise $10-15 million. However, Steiner said those costs cannot be covered completely by donations. “It’s really something that we can’t ask for from philanthropy,” Steiner said. Steiner said the UT System Board of Regents must approve the project in its Capital Improvement Plan in order for the project to proceed with design, which he hopes will happen February. Spanish junior Berkeley Mashburn passes by Battle Hall when she gives tours to prospective students. Mashburn said preservation of the building means a lot to her. “It’s one of the only places I can go and remove truly from my mind everything but my studies,” Mashburn said. “Battle Hall is one of my most treasured places on campus.”
Jenna VonHofe | Daily Texan Staff
Shaun Ireland, City Council candidate for District 3, is one of 12 candidates currently running for the position.
who are mainly interested in Montopolis and Cesar Chavez area,” Ireland said. Candidate Julian Limon Fernandez said he was asked to run by the four farms of the East Austin Urban Farms, which grow organic vegetables, raise chickens and sell to local restaurants. Fernandez said Almanza has been calling for putting affordable housing on those properties. “It shouldn’t even be an issue because there is plenty of property that the city owns in District 3 that can be used and never has been used for affordable housing,” Fernandez said. “How can someone come and tell me to move my home because I live on a corner and have two lots and sell my property to have affordable housing? You can’t bully people.”
The demographics of District 3 make it one of the most diverse in Austin, with Hispanics making up 60 percent of the district. Fernandez said while the Hispanic population dominates the demographics of District 3, their voter turnout is much lower than the white population. “If you look at the voting, 20 percent of Hispanics vote,” Fernandez said. “In the Govalle neighborhood, 60 percent Anglos voted [while] less than 30 percent voted of the Hispanics.” Other candidates in the race are paramedic Mario Cantu, graduate student Christopher Hoerster, ACC professor Fred McGhee, teacher Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla attorney Jose Valera and former council candidates Jose Quintero and Eric Rangel.
CENTER
resource for them besides the GSC or the [Multicultural Engagement Center] where they can meet folks that are interested in doing great things in the community.” Marilyn Adams, an intern at the center and psychology senior, said that in addition to giving her peers resources in the community, she thinks the center could offer students a new study space. “There’s also going to be computers there, so it could give students the opportunity to study off campus as opposed to a coffee shop where they would have to pay,” Adams said.
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in the women coming together and working together to make cool things happen was so inspiring.” The center, located at 17th and San Antonio Street, is completely privately funded. The space will also provide another community space, which, Tilton-Jones said, is lacking in Austin. “There aren’t as many public places where people can gather, and I felt it was important to have a non-commercial space,” Tilton-Jones said. This center is not Austin’s first. In the 1970s up until the early 1990s, Tilton-Jones said Austin had a women’s center, but it closed for financial reasons. “I was kind of surprised Austin didn’t have a women’s center of any kind,” Tilton-Jones said. “Most other large cities do.” While Austin does have many services benefiting women, Tilton-Jones said the center serves to concentrate those community efforts and the center’s own efforts in one location. “There’s a lot of great stuff going on for women in Austin, but it’s kind of hard to find,” Tilton-Jones said “There’s not really been a home base for the women’s community.” Villalobos said she hopes the center will give University students connections off campus. “I think it’s easy to stay in a UT bubble, especially as a student,” Villalobos said. “And we want to make sure that the center is another great
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How Clay Johnston Became Dean of the Newest Medical School in the Country:
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NEWS
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Thursday, October 23, 2014
CAMPUS
Guest lecturer discusses food stamp program By Adam Hamze @adamhamz
Kathleen Merrigan, former USDA deputy secretary of agriculture said at a lecture on campus Wednesday that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was one of the most successful products of the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Obama administration. During the lecture, hosted by the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Merrigan — who worked for the USDA from 2009 to 2013 as the deputy secretary and the chief operating officer — said the Obama administration has done an “above-average” job to avoid improper payments. “An improper payment can be giving more money than someone deserves or less money than someone deserves — that’s the definition of improper payments in government,” Merrigan said. “They are doing really, really great, and, at the same time, doing better outreach in the program.” The SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps, serves approximately 47 million people in the United States, according to the Washington
Post. Merrigan said the federal government aims to have less than a 4 percent error rate when avoiding improper payments. She said the SNAP program currently has an error rate of 3.8 percent. Although Merrigan praised the way the USDA executed the SNAP program, she listed what she believed to be failures by the department. Among these was ensuring that there was an adequate amount of competition in the agricultural market. Rajeev Patel, who is a research professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, also spoke at the lecture. He said he believes it is important to remember the circumstances in which the Obama administration was formed in context to the country’s approach to food topics. He said the department’s relationship with the private sector is something that should be taken into account when discussing the administration’s approach. “Often, it’s forgotten that while the beneficiaries of SNAP are invariably poor people in the United States … it’s also important to remember that one of the largest beneficiaries of SNAP is Walmart,” Patel
Madison Richards | Daily Texan Staff
Kathleen Merrigan, former USDA deputy secretary of agriculture, discusses certain policies under the Department of Agriculture that the Obama administration accomplished at Richardson Hall on Wednesday afternoon.
said. “18 percent of the $80 billion spent on SNAP is spent at Walmart.” Public affairs graduate student Cristian Villalobos, who attended the lecture, said he believes the USDA should focus on educating parents on proper nutrition for
children in the first 1,000 days of life. According to Villalobos, SNAP has been one of the more crucial programs since the recession in 2009. “On a public perception level, it seems to have less of a stigma than other forms of welfare,”
Villalobos said. “SNAP seems to be less politicized and conflated as a burden to the government.” Merrigan said she believes there was an effort underway nationally to vilify the traditional SNAP beneficiary, driven by Republican budget
cutting purposes. “We were really trying to protect the image of the SNAP recipient and to maintain their dignity,” Merrigan said. “There was a notion that poor people can’t take care of themselves, and we tried to push back.”
HEALTH
UHS to offer last chance for flu shots Thursday at SSB By Wes Scarborough @westhemess13
With flu season underway, University Health Services will be offering flu shots Thursday for the last time this year. UHS has administered the vaccine at locations such as the McCombs School of Business, Gregory Gym and the Facilities Services Building. According to Sherry Bell, UHS senior program coordinator, the clinic at McCombs vaccinated 976 people within one four-hour period. She said the clinics have vaccinated almost 10,000 people on campus this year. “I can say that when we have these clinics, we take a large group of people to make sure the process is efficient,” Bell said. “We’ve done everything to reduce the barriers to get the flu shot,” Bell said. If the University accepts their insurance, students can receive the vaccine for
free. Without insurance, the vaccine costs $10. According to Bell, if students are walking on campus without the cash in pocket, the cost can be added to their “What I Owe” page. “I feel like [the vaccine] is still a virus that they inject into you,” accounting junior Danlei Xiong said. “I did have side effects with the last shot I had, and, with the Ebola virus getting serious, I’m just really fearful of having another virus in my body.” Xiong said even though she knows Ebola is not an airborne virus, she still feels hesitant going to highly populated areas. She said she feels that the purpose of the vaccine is to initially weaken the immune system and later strengthen it, but, knowing that, she does not want to take a chance. Communications senior Alex Powell said he believes there should be wider promotion in support of the
Charlotte Katzin, nurse manager of the Allergy Immunization Clinic at University Health Services, administers a flu shot at the Facilities Service Building on Wednesday afternoon. UHS has vaccinated almost 10,000 people on campus this year.
Ellyn Snider Daily Texan Staff
flu vaccination. “It’s better to be safe then sorry,” Powell said. “It’s unfortunate. Some who are new parents and are against the flu shot choose not to
give their kids the flu shot either. They’re missing out on the protection they can be giving them.” According to Bell, the flu vaccine is a dead virus and
CAMPUS
PayPal cofounder encourages new ideas By Sebastian Vega @sebantoniovega
Peter Thiel, PayPal cofounder and early Facebook investor, spoke at the LBJ Auditorium on Wednesday about innovation, entrepreneurship and his new book, “Zero to One.” At the discussion, hosted by Gregory Fenves, executive vice president and provost, and sponsored by the Innovation Center at the Cockrell School of Engineering, Thiel said innovation comes with originality. “Every moment in the history of business [and technology] only happens once,” Thiel said. “The next Mark Zuckerberg will not be starting a social networking site. The next Bill Gates will not be starting an operating system company. If you are copying these people, there’s some sense that you are not learning from them. Science always starts with a number two.”
Thiel said society tends to underestimate new innovators and label people who do not succeed as “lackadaisical” or “unimportant.” “We normally think of the losers as the people that are bad at competing,” Thiel said. “[We say] the people who aren’t competing intensely enough are the people that lose.” According to Thiel, a common perspective is that all possibilities have already been explored or discovered. “We figure, everything has already been thought of by someone else … or it’s impossibly hard, [and] it’s a mystery,” Thiel said. In order to continue innovation and entrepreneurship, Thiel said society needs to continue researching topics that are incomplete, rather than science and technology. “[I think] in our time, science and technology is in some sense the real counterculture in our society,” Thiel said. “The idea that we could be
Daulton Venglar | Daily Texan Staff
Peter Thiel, a cofounder of PayPal, spoke about his new book at the LBJ Auditorium on Wednesday afternoon.
doing a lot more is very much at odds. We wouldn’t even try at this point, I think, to declare a war on Alzheimer’s even though one out of three people at the age of 85 suffers from dementia. There is a subtle language … where if you haven’t succeeded, your expectation about what you can do gets commensurately reduced.” Silvia Gia, an Austin resident who attended the lecture, said she appreciated Thiel’s outreach to less-re-
searched fields. “When you talk about innovation, you think right away about computers or software, but people must understand that technology is all over the place,” Gia said. “Having [Thiel], who has technology-based software, say that we should pay attention to this other kind of innovation that is holding back … really called my attention and makes me to say that people are thinking about it, and we should study and write more about it.”
will not cause illness. “The flu shot should not restrict anybody from doing anything that they want to do,” Bell said. “The best thing to avoid the flu is to get the
flu shot.” From 12-4 p.m. Thursday, UHS will be at the Student Services Building administering the flu vaccine.
GRANT continues from page 1 water in oceans that creates the methane hydrate. “If you combine methane and water, and you raise the pressure a lot, or you lower the temperature a lot, it turns into this solid structure that looks very much like ice,” Flemings said. “And what actually happens is that the water molecules form a structure that encloses methane molecules.” According to Fleming, at atmospheric temperature, the methane is released and produces energy. He said there is estimated to be enough methane hydrate to power our current lifestyles for 200 years just in the Gulf of Mexico. “The reason it’s important as an energy supply is because there’s a potentially large volume of it,” Flemings said. “That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be economically easy to extract it or that we are going to use it in the near term.” Kris Darnell, a geological sciences graduate student who researches lab-created methane hydrate with Flemings, said recreating
the compound is difficult and expensive. “So if we can go out to the field and bring it back to our laboratories, then it’s the best way to validate what we already think we know about the material,” Darnell said. Dylan Meyer, another one of Flemings’ graduate students, said this money will broaden the University’s current research in the area. “The field of hydrates is so new right now that there’s almost unlimited possibilities of where the research can go,” Meyer said. “So getting this sort of funding will give us the opportunity to explore all sorts of avenues.” While the field of research is relatively new, Flemings said that methane hydrate itself and the type of energy being produced is not. “At the end of the day, the energy source is natural gas, but it’s a new source for natural gas in the sense that we have not used it to heat our houses with, or we haven’t produced it yet,” Flemings said.
AMIL MALIK, FORUM EDITOR / @TexanEditorial Thursday, October 23, 2014
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A BIWEEKLY PUBLICATION OF THE DAILY TEXAN EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
GALLERY
November 4 offers new options By Amil Malik Forum Editor @amil_malik94
Those of you who have lived in Austin for a while have probably noticed our city’s recent growth. This year’s election, which will take place Nov. 4, will usher in a new governor for the first time since Rick Perry assumed that office upon George Bush’s resignation in December 2000. The ballot will feature Republican State Attorney General Greg Abbott and Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, both of whom were elected in the party primaries on March 4, as well as Libertarian Party candidate Kathie Glass and Green Party candidate Brandon Parmer. Texas’ executive offices are up for grabs as well, as is a United States Senate seat and all 36 of Texas’ seats in the United States House of Representatives. With early voting already underway,
this week’s Forum page focuses on educating the University community about the two main gubernatorial candidates, with one piece from the College Republicans and another from the University Democrats. The page also discusses the role advertising has played in this election. Texas has historically ranked in the bottom few states for voters turnout. A recent study by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at the University of Texas at Austin, for instance, showed that Texans are significantly less engaged in politics compared with other states. We ranked 42nd in voter registration, 49th in the number of citizens who contact public officials, 44th in the number of people who discuss politics a few times a week or more and last in voter turnout. While it’s easy to approach election season with apathy, it’s important to remember that being able to cast a vote in an election and have it count is not a privilege shared by all across the globe. It’s something unique and special, so I encourage you to vote in this upcoming election. Early voting ends Oct. 31. Malik is a business honors, Plan II and finance senior from Austin.
Illustration by Shannon Butler / Daily Texan Staff
COLUMN
COLUMN
Political ads, though annoying, are here to stay Davis offers hope for Texas By Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez Guest Columnist
If you have yet to see a television advertisement from the Wendy Davis or Greg Abbott campaign, you are in an unlikely minority. According to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political TV advertisement spending, $56 million has been spent in Texas statewide elections so far this election cycle. Second to spending in Florida, Texas has seen the highest amount of spending in the nation over the last year. This is attributable to the large amounts spent so far in the race for governor and two nasty Republican primaries for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Over 45,000 television advertisements have been run in the campaign for governor, totaling $26.3 million. These figures also do not include the money spent on other ubiquitous campaign advertisements such as those pesky yard signs and direct mail. Political advertising is especially expensive in Texas because of the geography of the state. Texas has 20 media markets, with Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston in the top 10 most expensive media markets in the country. An advertising point (one single ad) in the DFW media market costs roughly $750. While other markets are much less expensive (an Austin point costs roughly $180, and a point in the Rio Grande Valley
costs roughly $130), the number of media markets makes running a statewide advertising campaign expensive. Campaign operatives believe that advertising works. Indeed, recent comments from Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, also indicate she believes her ad buys have been valuable as well. Speaking to the Texas Tribune following a controversial advertisement her campaigned aired about Abbott, her opponent and the current Texas attorney general, Davis said, “What we know from testing this ad with voters is that it is an incredibly effective ad because it drives home the point, a point that we’ve been making throughout this campaign, that Greg Abbott is in this for himself and for his insider friends.” The Abbot campaign in turn strongly condemned the ad. Good political advertisements are extensions of the overall message campaigns intend to communicate with voters. Davis’ recent ad reflects her characterization of Abbott as an insider looking out for his own benefit, while Abbott’s most recent ad “Governor Obama” reflects his campaign’s message that has mostly ignored Davis and focused on the policies of President Barack Obama. While public polling has shown the race tightening in the last few weeks, according to the Real Clear Politics average of major polls, Abbott is generally a 9 to 10 point favorite to win the election. It is important to note, however, that polling universes usually
only include likely voters and an increase in voter turnout could close or widen the margin dramatically. Both campaigns hope their television ads make up the difference. Yet despite the millions of dollars spent on advertising and the amount of media attention directed toward analyzing these ads, scholars of political communication have challenged their perceived efficacy. Steven E. Finkel of the University of Pittsburgh found the party identification and racial composition of an electorate could predict a large majority of the votes in an election. Most other scholars conclude that television ads have a marginal effect on a race, possibly swinging the decision 2 to 3 percentage points. In addition, data remains inconclusive on the effect negative advertising has on voter turnout. So yes, Texas voters may be tired of seeing political advertisements and the ads may not actually change the course of an election, but it should be clear ads will be here to stay. In addition, as people increasingly move from watching content on TV and gravitate toward online viewing platforms like Hulu, Netflix and YouTube, expect more political advertising in between episodes of “Orange is the New Black.” And without a doubt, we are on track to experience one of the most expensive statewide elections in Texas history. Soto-Vásquez is a media studies graduate student from El Paso. He is also a member of the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees, which oversees The Daily Texan.
COLUMN
Republicans better manage the Texas economy By Alexander Parker Guest Columnist
There are two gubernatorial candidates who support expanded gun rights, the death penalty, and Governor Rick Perry’s surge on our southern border. Only one of them, state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, has been ranked Texas’ second most liberal state senator. The same senator who has fought against guns in the state senate now has come out in support of open carry. We’ve witnessed a retreat by Davis from the fundamental values that her and her party have supported in the past. I don’t blame her. It’s hard to argue against Republican leadership that has seen Texas outpace the rest of the nation in job growth 2 to 1, bring in hundreds of businesses with high-paying jobs, and welcome thousands of Americans from other states excited to move to Texas. Unfortunately, Davis has been willing to emulate a Republican platform on many issues except where it truly counts. Davis and Attorney General Greg Abbott still have deep disagreements on the economic future of this state, an issue that has huge ramifications for students here at UT as we look toward the future.
It’s hard to argue against Republican leadership that has seen Texas outpace the rest of the nation in job growth 2 to 1, bring in hundreds of businesses with high-paying jobs, and welcome thousands of Americans from other states excited to move to Texas.
One of the most heated parts of this debate is weighing the success of the “Texas Miracle.” Perry has said before that Texas created 40 percent of all jobs added in the United States during the recession. FactCheck notes on their website that the governor was mistaken — Texas actually accounted for 47 percent of all jobs created during the recession. In terms of providing jobs, Texas’s record is indisputable. The debate has now shifted to the quality of jobs here in Texas. Davis brought this issue to the forefront of the debate when she announced her intentions of raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. This is admittedly a critical issue, especially for students. It’s simply not enough that Texas creates jobs regardless of pay or quality. Davis alleges that Texas’ growth is currently sustained by low-income jobs. The reality in Texas is about the opposite of what Davis claims. If there is anything Texas has done better than raw job creation, it’s creating high paying jobs. Davis is partially right, we do create more lower-wage jobs than the nation on average. From 2001 to 2012 Texas increased lower-wage jobs by 12.6 percent while the nation gained only 5.6 percent on average. What Senator Davis leaves out is Texas has seen unprecedented growth for higher-wage jobs as well. During the same period upper-middle wage jobs (jobs that pay in the 50th to 75th percentile of wages) increased by 25.6 percent while the nation actually saw a 4.1 percent decline of jobs in the same category. Texas saw similar gains for all jobs above the 25th percentile of wages. All of these statistics are summed up nicely by the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher: “The notion that Texas only creates minimum-wage jobs is a myth.” The most compelling argument against raising the minimum wage is that it is one of the worst ways to attempt to alleviate poverty. Joseph Sabia of San Diego State University and Richard Burkhauser of Cornell University found in a study on the federal minimum wage that a raise to $9.50 resulted 1.3 million jobs lost. Worst of all, these layoffs typically target the people a minimum wage is supposed to help the most. In
Education — not an artificial raise in minimum wage — is key to creating sustainable high-paying jobs. another study on raising the minimum wage in New York State the two economists along with Benjamin Hansen of the University of Oregon found that the raise resulted in a “20.2 to 21.8 percent reduction in the employment of younger less-educated individuals.” Education — not an artificial raise in minimum wage — is key to creating sustainable high-paying jobs. Abbott recognizes this and has made it a major part of his platform. For Republicans this election is not going to be about resting on the laurels of previous economic success, as impressive as it may be. The economic growth that Texas has seen over the past decade needs to be translated into real opportunities for students studying here at UT and for many other young Texans. That’s why Abbott has devoted almost half of his platform for governor to education. His plan includes proposals to increase the accessibility of education in the state such as increasing student access to the Texas Virtual School Network, a digital platform designed for high quality education. Abbott’s plan also intends to increase the quality of education with proposals such as increasing research funding by $40 million to Texas universities. We have a clear choice in this election. We can resign ourselves to economic policy that flies in the face of both experts and the success this state has experienced or we can go a different route for opportunity. Greg Abbott’s strategy of innovative education reform tempered by a proven economic track record is what this state needs. Alexander Parker a Plan II and business honors sophomore from Plano. He is the communications director of the UT College Republicans.
By Katherine Adams Guest Columnist
Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat as governor in two decades. On Nov. 4, we will have the ability to change that track record when we choose between a woman who has consistently stood for the needs of Texans and a man who wants to continue policies that value Texas’ future so little that his party slashed $5.4 billion from public education. The conventional wisdom is that a Democrat can’t win a statewide office in Texas. But this is the November that we’ll buck the trend. It’s no secret that the campaign of state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, has faced enormous obstacles. Decades of Republican leadership have cultivated an environment in which likely voters are white men, districts are gerrymandered along racial lines and voters accept Republican victories as inevitable — to the point of apathy. Let’s set the record straight: Texas isn’t a red state. It’s a nonvoting state. Texas ranks 51st in voter turnout. We’re not participating in our democracy, and the result is a slate of politicians that doesn’t reflect the diversity of our state. The result is politicians who create a framework of barriers to voting that keeps the status quo in power, despite Texas’ rapidly shifting demographics. The latest Lyceum poll shows only a singledigit split between Abbott and Davis. This survey was conducted in mid-September and sampled likely voters. The thing is, though, that when a Democrat gets elected governor in Texas, it’s going to be because of unlikely voters. Organizations like Battleground Texas have embraced this. Over the past year, the organization has been working tirelessly to engage with people whom Republicans would rather be left out of the democratic process. On our own campus, organizations like University Democrats, Students for Wendy, Hook the Vote, UT Votes and Texas Freedom Network have registered thousands of students. On the deadline to register, Travis County alone registered between 8,000 and 10,000 people. This influx of voters has the power to transform the outcome of the November elections. Abbott and his campaign know this. Their recent release of an attack ad in September demonstrates that they’re beginning to feel threatened by the strides Davis’ campaign has made. If you’re comfortably in the lead and confident in your impending victory, there is absolutely no reason to go negative with your ads. Candidates go negative when they’re worried about their chances. Davis has built a strong campaign around a central idea: that where you come from shouldn’t affect how far you will go. She’s looked around at a state where 1 in 4 Texas children will grow up in abject poverty and 1 in 3 Texans can’t afford basic health insurance. She sees a state where the bottom 20 percent of wage earners have seen their purchasing power lower by 10 percent in the last decade. This is a state where the debate is not about how much we can improve our schools, but about how many teachers we’ll have to lay off. And this is a state where women still average 77 cents for every man’s dollar. This is a state that is failing its promise to its citizens. Davis knows intimately about the transformative power of education and is the only candidate who has demonstrated a desire to fight for the right of all Texans to access it. And despite the smear campaigns and the cynical skeptics, Texans realize this. More Texans than ever before will be able to participate in elections this November, and they’re going to vote for the candidate who will make sure that the Texas promise of opportunity, freedom and equality for all can be fully realized. Adams is a mechanical engineering senior from Dripping Springs. She is the communications director of the University Democrats.
CLASS 5 5
Thursday, October 23, 2014
INTERSTELLAR continues from page 8
the filmmakers envisioned, even if it leaves theaters that have dismissed their film projectors at a disadvantage. “If this is the way the director wants [the film] to be seen, I’ll be happy to show it in the way it was meant to be seen,” Dahms said. “It’s up to the theaters to present the movie the way it was meant to be shown from the director’s vision.” However, radio-television-film professor Thomas Schatz disagrees with the notion that theaters should be forced to use film when
INTERNS
continues from page 1 ran errands. After working with C3 Presents, a larger event planning company, she said her first year with AFF has been an interesting change from a large company to a smaller one. “It was interesting going from C3 to a small nonprofit, where operations are out of a house,” Hurst said. “But since it is a small nonprofit, no one is divided, and everyone is warm and welcoming, which creates a really good environment.” For radio-television-film sophomore Shelby Merritt, another AFF intern, the small house setting made her feel more welcomed. “In a way, I feel like it makes everyone working there closer,” she said. Students working with AFF read scripts, watch new films and experience what it takes to make a festival run.
HOMELESS
continues from page 8 who lived on the Drag, both of whom said they would not be interested in what the city had to offer them if the plan were to go through. Santos Luna, who, according to the article, had spent most of his life on the streets, said he would take advantage of some city facilities, but not on a permanent basis.
more advanced formats are available, even though it goes against the sensibilities of directors who are loyal to celluloid. He said that the use of actual film to screen motion pictures will eventually become an obsolete process. “Practicality-wise, it’s ridiculous,” Schatz said. “It’s easier to convert a digital file onto the screen. The celluloid image is superior in some ways, but celluloid is toast. It’s over. We’re getting to a point where digital is advancing to where it’s nearly indistinguishable from film to most people.” Schatz said that movie
theater attendance is dipping lower and lower, and that, while some filmmakers may use film as a means to achieve perfection in their movies, it may not even matter due to decreased attendance rates and the need for theaters to adapt to digital equipment to shave costs. As the release date draws closer, Paramount Pictures is preparing for the debut by holding several special advanced screenings on Nov. 5 at various venues in Austin. The film will also be screened digitally starting Nov. 7, which is the movie’s official release date.
“I get to do so many things — it isn’t really just one job,” Merritt said. “We get to meet people in the industry and experience running a festival firsthand. It’s exciting feeling the energy of it.” Though AFF is a filmmaker’s festival, there are internship opportunities for a variety of departments that appeal to more than just film majors. “They are so multifaceted, especially for interns, because they have a lot of different departments,” Hurst said. “And everybody is welcoming and nice; no one is snobby, and they don’t look down on you, which has been nice for me since it’s my first year.” Elaine Holton, volunteer coordinator for AFF, said the interns are the driving force of the festival. “I feel like we are the internship for RTF students,” Holton said. “You are completely immersed in
the industry.” This year’s festival will include a wide array of guests. Volunteer coordinator Elaine Holton is most excited for Jenny Lumet, granddaughter of Lena Horne and writer of “Rachel Getting Married,” while Hurst is most excited for the opportunity to talk to Matthew Weiner, who is the creator, executive producer, director and writer of the series “Mad Men.” As the festival begins and attracts crowds to the movie screenings, panels and parties, the interns will continue their work to keep the operation running. For Hurst, this is the most exciting part of her internship. “I’m really excited for the festival to start because I know they are going to debrief us about our duties and what we are supposed to do, but I feel like we are just going to get thrown into the middle of this chaotic awesomeness,” she said.
The article ends with a quote from an Austin Police detective, Sgt. Tom Schafer, who said the real victims of this situation, were the residents and merchants of Austin. “I don’t think a lot of [transients] want help,” Schafer said. The article ends on a note which indicates that even if the plan were to pass, no one, not even representatives of the city
or the transients themselves, thought it would do any good. This attitude still seems to linger in talks about how to address the problem of homelessness today. The homeless population near the University has been a visible issue for over 30 years and is not easy to fix, but, no matter what year it is, there always seems to be people trying to help.
OUIJA
continues from page 8 world beyond our own. This is an extreme case of what is known as facilitated communication, wherein a person or group of people provides words to the speechless. And so, before addressing the question of whether the activity allows people to talk to the dead, one should answer the question of whether facilitated communication allows people to speak with the living. Many claim that, in addition to ghosts, facilitated communication can allow family members to speak to loved ones who are in comas or who are severely autistic and unable to express themselves using more conventional means. In order to do this, the “facilitator” takes the other person’s arm, which serves as the planchette, and helps them communicate by pointing to letters on a keypad. Like with the Ouija board, it’s unclear who’s doing the
bulk of the movement. It could be the communicator — spirit or otherwise — but, just to play it safe, it’s best to double check. To test this, a study recruited students to facilitate communication with “Jackie,” a man who is mute as a result of a developmental disability. In preparation, the students watched two videos explaining how facilitated communication works and read a one-page document with information about Jackie’s life. The twist was this: Jackie was not actually developmentally disabled. In fact, he was very capable of communicating on his own, but he was playing a role for the sake of the experiment. Additionally, the information on the document was completely fabricated. However, the researchers made sure that Jackie did not have access to this information, which they changed every time they ran the experiment. As a result, any details produced through facilitated communication that matched the provided materials could not have come from the
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student playing Jackie. The process brought out information that corresponded to the biographies that the students read. In other words, the information was not coming from the communicator: It was coming from the facilitator. They were responsible for the bulk of the arm movements without even realizing it. This is what is called as the “ideomotor effect,” the phenomenon in which a subject makes motions unconsciously as a part of facilitated communication. It’s a surprising illusion as the unconscious movements really make it feel like the subject is acting through the facilitator. In the case of the living, those who promote facilitated communication are trying to communicate effectively with each other. In the case of the nonliving, facilitated communication creates the illusion which can provide a spooky thrill. A piece of plastic on top of cardboard will not allow us to cross over into the realm of the afterlife, but it sure is fun to pretend.
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GARRETT CALLAHAN, SPORTS EDITOR | @texansports Thursday, October 23, 2014
VOLLEYBALL
Horns break home win streak record By Nick Castillo @Nick_Castillo74
In front of a raucous crowd of 2,827, the Longhorns made history Wednesday by winning their 34th straight game in Gregory Gym, with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-22) victory over TCU. “[The win streak] is very impressive,” head coach Jerritt Elliott said. “It means a lot in regards to the program that the players and the alumni have created here. They’ve bought in. We have a rich tradition, but, more importantly, it’s very hard to maintain being at the top all of the time. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do.” Despite a rocky third set, No. 2 Texas (15-0, 7-0 Big 12) was able to race past the Horned Frogs (1210, 2-6 Big 12) as it had
43 kills, 41 digs and finished with a .309 hitting percentage. In the first set, Texas battled back and forth as TCU tied the game at five early in the set. But the Longhorns were able to go on a 5-0 run and separated themselves from the Horned Frogs. TCU fought valiantly to remain in the game, but Texas was too much to handle as it claimed the opening set 25-14. Although the Horned Frogs fell in the first set, they continued to give the Longhorns a challenge. In the second set, Texas opened up an 8-3 lead, but TCU fought its way back into the game and eventually tied the set at 13. The second set featured four ties and two lead changes, but the Longhorns came out on top with a 25-16 win.
After the intermission, TCU gave the Longhorns their biggest trouble in the third set. The Horned Frogs raced out to an 8-3 lead, but Texas rallied back and tied the set at 10 after going on a 7-2 run. The match went back and forth as there were 12 ties and five different lead changes. The Longhorns managed to break away from the Horned Frogs after the set was tied at 22 and won the set 25-22 and the game 3-0. Senior outside hitter Haley Eckerman led the team in kills with 12, followed by sophomore outside hitter Pilar Victoria’s eight. Victoria led the Longhorns with 10 digs. Texas’ leading assist was sophomore utility player Nicole Dalton with 19 assists. While the Longhorns made history Wednesday and remained undefeated
Claire Schaper | Daily Texan Staff
Sophomore outside hitter Pilar Victoria racked up eight kills and an ace as the Longhorns won their 34th straight match at home -- a program record.
this season, Elliott wasn’t happy about the team’s performance. “I was a little disappointed tonight in the way that we prepared and the way that we performed and
the level we played at,” Elliott said. “The way that we played last Saturday, the energy we brought, we sustained a very high level. I thought tonight we got pretty comfortable … we
felt like we were going to win the game.” The Longhorns will try to extend their home winning streak against Oklahoma (14-6, 5-2 Big 12) on Saturday at 5 p.m.
ROWING
Texas rowing set to open season under new head coach By James Rodriguez @jamie_rod
When the women’s rowing team takes to Lady Bird Lake on Saturday to compete in the Head of the Colorado regatta, it will mark the first race in the program’s history without former head coach Carie Graves, who helped start the program in 1998 and announced her retirement in May. Instead, the team is now in the hands of Dave O’Neill, a fresh face in Austin but a familiar sight at the NCAA Championships every spring. During his 16 seasons as the
head coach at UC-Berkeley, O’Neill won two NCAA team titles and led the Golden Bears to the NCAA Championships every year, earning him two National Coach of the Year awards. Given his success, O’Neill said he was ready for a new challenge once the top job opened up at Texas. “I felt the timing was right,” O’Neill said. “I had great success at Cal. I was really proud of everything we accomplished, and I worked with some wonderful, wonderful people, but then the last few years I started thinking, ‘Could there
be something bigger and better?’ I don’t think it was necessarily a mid-life crisis, but I think I was certainly at a point in my career where it’s like, OK, I’ve been at Cal; I did a great job, and now I think I’m fortunate that I’m young enough that I can maybe go somewhere else and make a big mark and do something special.” O’Neill said women’s athletic director Chris Plonsky’s commitment to raising the profile of Texas rowing, in addition to the size and resources of the University, is ultimately what drew him
to Texas. “One of the things that Chris Plonsky said to me was, ‘We know we can be good at this sport. We know we should be good at this sport. We want to be good at this sport and good in terms of amongst the top programs in the country,’” O’Neill said. “And that’s entirely why I came.” Texas won four consecutive Big 12 championships from 2009 to 2012, a streak that ended when Oklahoma edged out the Longhorns to capture the 2013 title. After a fourth-place finish for the
Longhorns in 2014, O’Neill said he plans on using the races in the fall, which do not count toward the team’s ranking, to prepare for the more important regattas in the spring. “Something that guides me every day is, ‘The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing,’ and the main thing is go fast on May 17, the Big 12 Championship,” O’Neill said. “So the fall is entirely about preparing for the spring. There’s three things we have to do: We have to get fitter physically; we’ve got to get better
technically; and then we’ve got to improve the culture of the team.” O’Neill’s résumé also includes stints as the head coach for the U.S. Women’s Under-23 National Team and coaching at the 2012 London Olympics. However, he said he most enjoys the aspects of competition that are unique to collegiate rowing. “The Olympics are super cool, but the NCAA regatta is the only championship regatta in the world where every boat is dependent on every other boat for their own success,” O’Neill said.
FOOTBALL
After slow start to the season, Swoopes’ confidence grows By Drew Lieberman @DrewLieberman
During his junior season in high school, quarterback Tyrone Swoopes tallied 560 rushing yards and seven touchdowns against Tom Bean High School. The performance had people raving about his potential impact as a dual-threat quarterback at the collegiate level. Through his first three games as a starter, Swoopes’ impact on the ground was minimal, failing to rush for more than 11 yards in any of the contests. “I guess going into the season, I hadn’t really got too much of kind of what it feels like to go out there and play, so I was a little bit timid, kind of when I ran the ball a little bit,” Swoopes said. Against Oklahoma, he had a long run negated by a holding penalty and entered the fourth quarter with only 15 yards on the ground. But down 31-20, that all changed. Swoopes ran for 33 yards on the 52-yard scoring drive,
including a 12-yard zone read keeper that he highstepped into the end zone to bring the score within five. “I just kind of decided to just let it loose and kind of just thought, ‘What’s the worst that can happen if I was decisive?’” Swoopes said. “I decided to just kind of get upfield and do something.” The apparent threat of a Swoopes run adds another dimension to the offense for which opposing defenses must prepare. “The defense has to have that in the back of their mind,” senior running back Malcolm Brown said. “They can’t just expect him to chill in the pocket the whole time, so it opens up a whole lot.” In Texas’ 48-45 victory over Iowa State on Saturday, Swoopes ran for a careerhigh 95 yards, 55 of which came in the fourth quarter. The 95 yards represented the most yards any Texas player has run for this season. “He took over that offense in the fourth quarter, and it was actually unbelievable,”
senior wide receiver John Harris said. “He was getting some yards after the run, so that did surprise me. You know, he’s not very fast, but, when he gets out of the pocket, he gets going, and most people don’t want to hit him.” With a 4.77 40-yard dash, Swoopes is not going to outrun many players, but senior cornerback Quandre Diggs said his massive size makes him a force on the ground. “He’s 6-foot-5, 250-260 [pounds],” Diggs said. “Nobody wants to tackle him.” Starting recently, Swoopes started to open up his playbook, holding the ball on zone-read plays. While head coach Charlie Strong said he had the ability to call his own number for a while, there is a reason for the increased emphasis on quarterback runs. “We felt like it would just help his game more, and it would take some pressure off him, having him just sit back there and just release the ball where people can load the box,” Strong said.
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LAUREN L’AMIE, LIFE&ARTS EDITOR | @thedailytexan Thursday, October 23, 2014
THROWBACK
FILM
On the Drag, homelessness still an issue 30 years later
Nolan film sparks quality debate
By Brigit Benestante @BBenestante
The homeless population on Guadalupe Street is a static characteristic of West Campus. They can be seen at all times of day walking up and down the Drag and have almost become a part of the University’s character. According to a 1986 Texan article, “Transients a Drag for Merchants,” homeless locals have been on that stretch of land for quite some time. The article, written by Gina Sopuch and David Eldridge, centers around the Council’s issue in putting in place a plan that will try to address the problem of homelessness in Austin. According to the article, the transient and homeless population that resided on the Drag was raising problems for West Campus merchants in the area. “University-area merchants say they are furious with the Austin City Council for dragging its feet on a plan to get transients off the streets and into the workforce,” Sopuch and Eldridge wrote. “The Guadalupe Street merchants say the transients are ruining their business and destroying their property by spitting and urinating on the storefronts and breaking windows.” At the time, there were about 1,300 homeless people living in the city. According to today’s Homeless Management
By Alex Pelham @TalkingofPelham
Christopher Nolan, the director of “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy is a vocal advocate for shooting movies on celluloid film, which has been the traditional method used to make movies since the creation of motion pictures. His choice to release his latest film “Interstellar,” a science fiction epic, on celluloid rather than screening it through a digital projector has fed the heated debate about which format is the best to shoot movies. John Lewis, the theater operating manager at the Bullock Texas State History
Museum, said that the museum will host the screening, especially since the museum will be changing its IMAX film projector to a digital projector in January. “We strive to make sure any presentation of a Hollywood screening is shown at the best quality,” Lewis said. “We have held off on replacing the film projector for this event. We’re proud to be showing it on film.” Lewis said that while film possesses better quality than digital, it is more expensive to produce and appears to be losing favor in the industry. Nevertheless, he thinks that by presenting “Interstellar” on film, Nolan is trying to send
a message that filmmakers should still use the medium. “Film shows the best picture when the projector is maintained by a skilled professional,” Lewis said. “But I think the industry prefers digital because it’s cost-effective. I also understand that the main moviegoing public doesn’t have the untrained eye to see the difference, but, as an IMAX manager, I want to present a film in the highest quality possible.” Richard Dahms, general manager of Galaxy Theatres Highland, believes that films such as “Interstellar” deserve to be shown the way
INTERSTELLAR page 5
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Research study debunks Ouija boards
Carlos Moreno | Daily Texan File Photo
Even 30 years ago, homeless people, such as Santos Luna, wandered the streets of West Campus.
Information Systems, there are about 2,300 on any given night on the streets, but that number could be as high as 5,800. Although the 1986 article and some of today’s discussions run in circles about how to address the Austin homeless population, Mayor Lee Leffingwell took a new pledge last week to end veteran homelessness by 2015. According to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, the number of homeless veterans has already gone down by 66 percent since 2011. According to then City Manager Jorge Carrasco, Austin
was under financial strains at the time and could not get funding for the project, which would open up more city facilities for homeless residents. D.M. Sheftall, owner of a jewelry shop on the Drag at the time, said the city often ignored the University area. “The [City Council members] don’t really care that much about the University area,” Sheftall said in the article. “It’s just an ignored part of town.” Sopuch and Eldridge went on to interview two transients
HOMELESS page 5
By Robert Starr @RobertKStarr
With the iOS 8 update this week, UT students can now use their new iPhones to purchase snacks at vending machines across campus, and this is in addition to the set of features that allows owners to communicate instantly with another person from across the globe. The phone can seemingly do anything — short of communicating with the dead. A phone cannot do anything like that, but
Illustration by Shannon Butler | Daily Texan Staff
maybe a game from Parker Brothers can. Ouija, which Hollywood has adapted into a movie that comes to theaters Friday, is a game where friends
place their hands on a small, mystical piece of plastic called a planchette and summon spirits from the
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OUIJA page 5