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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
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Legislators, activists honor Holocaust survivor By Eleanor Dearman @ellydearman
Members of the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace unveiled a plaque honoring Holocaust survivors in the Texas Capitol on Monday. Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville) and his son, Rep. Eddie Lucio III (D-Brownsville), presented Holocaust survivor Leon Horn with the plaque, which featured the handprints of his family members. Lucio Jr. said the Embassy’s mission is to educate
audiences about the consequences of World War II. “[The Embassy’s] mission promotes peace to strengthen the principles of love through life, respect for human dignity, tolerance, equality, justice and solidarity, in addition to emphasizing the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” Lucio Jr. said. The plaque is part of the “Traces to Remember” exhibit, which was previously housed at UT-Brownsville and will eventually move to different states throughout the country to promote world peace.
Bruno Harden-Cooper, regional coordinator of the Embassy, said the Holocaust are used to represent all acts of genocide. “There are many aspects for things that you can bring out, and people can learn from [The Holocaust],” Harden-Cooper said. “We put it as a symbol for intolerances, disrespect, racism, lack of love.” William Soto Santiago, global ambassador of Activists for Peace, said the exhibit plays a role in educating people about the harmful effects of intoler-
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By Josh Willis @JoshWIllis35
Alexa Ray | Daily Texan Staff
Bruno Harden-Cooper, regional director for the Global Embassy of Activists of Peace, speaks at a press conference Monday afternoon at the Texas State Capitol Building. The program was held in honor of Holocaust survivors, including Leon Horn.
POLICE
APD Pipes and Drum Corps serves Austin police By Wynne Davis @wynneellyn
When taking a break from the daily responsibilities of policing, a group of Austin Police officers play drums and bagpipes in funerals, parades, festivals and community events. After listening to bagpipes artists at an officer’s funeral, APD Detective Todd Bircher began practicing the instrument on his own. Five years later, he formed the Austin Police Pipe and Drum Corps. Bircher said the police community did not immediately celebrate the idea of a departmental pipes and drum corps. “You know, down in Texas and the South, [bagpipes are] not around — that’s northeast stuff,” Bircher said. “It was a little bit of a sell, especially among the more traditional Texas officers.” Once the idea of bagpiping caught on, the group quickly expanded to include firefighters and emergency medical technicians, as well as members of police departments from across the state. All together, the statewide group calls themselves the Emergency Ser-
Carlos Nasisse | Daily Texan Staff
Detective Todd Bircher of the Austin Police Department is the founder of the Austin Police Pipe and Drum Corps, an organization of bagpipers and drummers. Bircher started the band in order to play at the funerals of officers killed in the line of duty.
vices Pipe and Drum Association. Bircher plays as a pipe major for the APD corps and a bagpiper for the state association. James Gray, a Fort Worth Police officer and member of the state association, said his
interest in playing bagpipes stemmed from a visit to the national police memorial in Washington, D.C., where he watched live performances from other pipes and drums bands. Gray said he purchased a set of bagpipes and
Professors give mixed reviews for flipped classrooms
began practicing to join the association as soon as he returned to Fort Worth. Gray said the performances are about more than just the music — they’re
CORPS page 3
Multimedia To see Detective Bircher and the APD Pipe and Drum Core check out our video at dailytexanonline.com
Students and faculty don’t always flip out over flipped classes. In a “flipped class,” professors provide online video lectures to students prior to class. The professor then uses classroom time to ensure students have a deeper understanding of the material. Flipped classrooms have increased in popularity at UT since the concept was first introduced in a course transformation initiative by administrators in 2009. Harrison Keller, vice provost for Higher Education Policy and Research, said using online tools both in and outside of the classroom has increased with the rise of newer online teaching platforms, such as Blackboard and Canvas. “We definitely have more requests from faculty who are interested in incorporating technology into their classrooms,” Keller said. “The change from Blackboard to Canvas has been a catalyst for some of this.” Keller said not every professor wants to flip the classroom, and he acknowledged not all classes would benefit from the change in format. “I would say there’s people who use lectures very effectively in combination with all kinds of things,” Keller said. “So we shouldn’t be too dogmatic. This is a time when we want to encourage experimentation and innovation.” Petroleum engineering senior Danny Cervantes said in his experience, flipped classrooms make learning more difficult.
FLIPPED page 2
CAMPUS
Russian director discusses theater, politics since Cold War By Matthew Adams At a talk Monday, Russian film director Yury Urnov said post-Cold War Russian theater differs from American theater in several key ways — and said Americans are much more likely to experiment with their source material. At the talk, which the Center for Russian hosted, East European and Eurasian Studies, Urnov said there are five categories in which theaters in Russia and the U.S. differ. According to Urnov, the main differences are the relationship between money and power, the
society’s attitude toward art and how power operates in the respective cultures. “Since the Cold War, the theater can answer a lot of our differences,” Urnov said. “Some of it is the geographical and historical attitude.” Urnov said in the U.S., unlike in Russia, there are collaborations on plays, and actors understand their characters. He said more emphasis is placed on the director, and scripts have to be interpreted from their original text. Over the next three weeks, Urnov will be presenting a spin-off of “Three
Sisters,” a play originally created by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, at the Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin. “Jenny Larson, an artistic director at Woolly Mammoth, had a student who wrote a different version of the play,” Graham Schmidt said, one of the play’s directors. “It takes the zombie film genre and meshes it with the plot of ‘Three Sisters’ and then steps back and criticizes the play from a feminist standpoint.” Katya Cotey, assistant instructor in the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, said he is looking for-
ward to the production of “Three Sisters.” “I am excited to see the addition of zombies to the
play and seeing the new interpretation that is attracting a younger audience,” Cotey said.
Urnov graduated from the Russian Academy of
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REASON TO PARTY
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Student premieres semiautobiographical play. PAGE 8
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Visiting professor lectures on climate and migration. PAGE 3
Common Core is a bum deal all-around. PAGE 4
Kansas continues its Big 12 basketball domination. PAGE 6
Student-created origami is used for therapy. PAGE 8
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Russian film director Yury Urnov says American and Russian cinema differ but are not disparate from each other.
Sarah Aleraoul Daily Texan Staff
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RUSSIA page 3
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