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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
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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.
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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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Five legislators filed bills in favor of “open carry.” PAGE 2
Start the semester off with optimism. PAGE 4
Longhorn comeback falls three points short. PAGE 6
Student premieres semiautobiographical play. PAGE 8
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Visiting professor lectures on climate and migration. PAGE 3
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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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Maya Amor Alvarado waters her garden with her mother, Blanca.
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Study: Facebook leads to lower grades, better relationships By Ariana Guerra @thedailytexan
Periodically checking Facebook while doing homework negatively affects college students’ grades, but using the website also helps to build and maintain relationships, according to a recent Iowa State University study. Reynol Junco, education associate professor at Iowa State University, con-
dents build and maintain relationships, which is still very important.” Junco categorized Facebook use into two categories: “multitasking time,” when students use Facebook while attempting to study, and “regular time.” Junco said Facebook use while multitasking contributed to lower grades for all students participating in the study, except seniors. Regular Facebook
use, though, only affected freshman’s grades. Junco said the negative effect of Facebook use on freshmen’s grades is offset by the gains in interpersonal relationships. “Freshmen need to use Facebook to maintain their previous group of friends, and they’re also building and maintaining new relationships, which is essential for them to be successful,” Junco said.
“I feel like it may have gotten in the way of learning a little bit because it doesn’t really give you the chance to ask questions on sight,” Cervantes said. “It’s really good to have some-
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thing going on while you’re thinking and just to process information a little better.” Exercise science junior Gabby Mircovich said she experienced a flipped classroom for the first time this semester. “I feel like you get a lot out of it because you’re putting the practice that you learn outside of class into work, and then you’re having the professor help you and work through everything with you,” Mircovich said. Keller said faculty members in various departments are constantly working to redesign the
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continues from page 1 ance by presenting the Holocaust as an example. “Victims of this genocide were not a single group,” Soto Santiago said. “The Holocaust was an attempt against humanity because countless members of other minorities were also murdered. For that reason, the Holocaust will always be a warning sign and prevention for the entire world.” Harden-Cooper said future destinations for the exhibit have not yet been determined, but he hopes to see it displayed at the White House or at UT-Austin. He also said
Psychology junior Yann Garcia said she thinks her personal use of Facebook does not affect her grades. “I use Facebook like no other, and my GPA is fine compared to others who use it less but are bad studiers or [have] harder majors,” Garcia said. Psychology senior Alyssa Salinas said she also thinks Facebook is not a factor in her GPA.
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ducted a survey of 1,649 college students and found that Facebook use, especially when trying to study, negatively impacts the majority of students’ GPAs. “Other research [had] looked at multitasking — how students use Facebook for class and while they’re studying — and found negative relations,” Junco said. “There was a separate study where I found that using Facebook helps stu-
flipped classroom model and said student feedback is a critical element in the retooling process. “It’s really important for the students to talk to the faculty members,” Keller said. “That insight, that suggestion could end up reshaping the whole class going forward.” David Laude, senior vice provost for Enrollment and Graduation Management, said he began uploading lectures online about eight years ago, long before UT dedicated any resources to flipping classrooms. Laude said in addition to improving student test scores,
flipped classrooms make teaching more enjoyable for professors. “It makes teaching an absolute delight, in my opinion,” Laude said. “Instead of simply repeating what’s on a PowerPoint slide, you have the freedom and the time to do whatever you want with a classroom in terms of engaging the students.” Laude said not all class instruction, such as in-class writing or laboratory exercises, can be done online. “I think there are certain classrooms for which it’s ideal, but not for all,” Laude said.
he would like to bring representatives from the organization to speak at UT about the Holocaust. “We’re looking at the opportunity to bring it to the University of Texas at Austin, but we haven’t done the connection yet,” HardenCooper said. At UT, students can study World War II and the Holocaust as part of the Normandy Scholar Program. The program is an intensive World War II studies program that takes place each spring semester and provides an opportunity for students to study the causes, conduct, consequences and contemporary representations of
the war. Program director Charters Wynn said it is necessary to understand World War II in order to understand the modern history. “What education can do is provide an understanding of the complexity of the past and how it influences current events today,” Wynn said. Wynn said it is important to learn from mistakes of the past, but it is also important to remember that the past and present are different. He said it is dangerous for government officials to make policy decisions today based on past events. “The solutions aren’t always so easy,” Wynn said.
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State lawmakers file campus carry bill
On Monday, state legislators in the House and Senate filed identical bills that would allow university students, faculty and staff with licenses to carry concealed handguns in campus buildings. Under current Texas laws, licensed students, faculty and staff at universities are allowed to keep handguns in cars on campus, but general “campus carry” is illegal even with a permit. The two bills, HB937 and SB11, prohibit university officials from creating rules to ban concealed handguns on campus generally. Each bill does provide some leeway in certain areas and buildings on campus — according to the bill, administrators could still prohibit concealed handguns in residence halls, university-operated hospitals, and on-campus preschools, elementary schools and secondary schools. More than 400 students between the ages of six weeks and five years under are enrolled in UT’s on-campus Child Development Center. The bills also contain provisions that would prevent universities from being liable for the actions of concealed handgun owners. Four Republican members of the House have signed the bill as joint-authors in support of the policy alongside the bill’s primary author, Rep. Allen Fletcher (R-Cypress). 19 of the 20 Republicans in the Senate are listed primary authors of SB11. Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) is the only Republican senator who did not sign on as an author of the bill. Similar concealed carry bills were filed in both chambers during the last legislative session, but no law was ultimately passed. — Eleanor Dearman
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Tuesday, January 27, 2014
CAMPUS
Professor correlates climate change, migration By Vinesh Kovelamudi @thedailytexan
In a lecture Monday, Teófilo Altamirano, visiting professor of social science from the Catholic University of Peru, emphasized the relationship between climate change and forced human migration. At the event, hosted by The Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, Altamirano listed three forms of forced migration — seasonal, temporary and permanent — that occur as a result of climate change. He also said global warming affects those who are not migrating. “Any type of professional will be touched by these global warming situations”, Altamirano said. Altamirano said 80 percent of displaced people prefer to go to cities, and 20 percent relocate to refugee camps. He said the pressures cities will face in the future as a result of forced migration include water and housing shortages. June Gunaratne, international relations and global studies senior, said there is a lack of attention regarding global warming in America. According to Gunaratne, global warming does not simply apply to one region or population but rather all regions and populations. “Global warming affects people much more in other
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continues from page 1 about giving back to the community and making the police force more accessible in general. “When we’re in our kilts, that’s a time that we’re there for the community … just to give back,” Gray said. “It gives people a chance to come talk to you about music. It gives them an opportunity to see that we’re just people too.” Performing at the funerals of officers who are killed in the line of duty is the top priority of police pipes and drums corps, according to Bircher. “I don’t ever want to do that,” Bircher said. “I hope
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continues from page 1 Theater Art in 2000. He has directed plays in the United States, Russia, England and Germany. Urnov has taught in the Master of Fine Arts program at Towson University for five years and works with an experimental theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, in Washington, D.C. According to Urnov, Russian theater is still evolving, in a way Urnov said he hopes audiences will find compelling.
Sarah Alerasoul | Daily Texan Staff
Teófilo Altamirano, visiting professor of social science at the Catholic University of Peru, speaks about the effect of global warming on forced migration on Monday.
regions of the world than in America,” Gunaratne said. “[But] global warming is huge and impacts everyone and everything.” Business freshman Darrell Sung said he thinks global warming is not yet a cause for concern.
we never do it again, but that’s why we’re here — I’m honored to do that.” Bircher said the corps serves to honor fallen officers and provide comfort to those officers’ families. “It helps give clarity and purpose to what would otherwise be a senseless death,” Bircher said. “For a family to see that tribute paid to those officers illustrates the purpose of what they did. They went out and risked their lives to keep the rest of us safe.” Bircher said the band members have various levels of musical expertise. APD officer Geoff Sumner, who joined the group in summer 2013, said he studied music in college before becoming a police
“Global warming is an issue for the future,” Sung said. “As of now, people shouldn’t be too worried about it.” Altamirano also spoke about last month’s United Nations Conference of Partners in Lima, Peru,
officer. He said mastering the bagpipes is a challenge he enjoys. “Everybody honors a fallen brother in their own way, but I feel like, as a musician, the best way for me to do it would be to ceremoniously perform for them with the bagpipes,” Sumner said. The bands also play for civic and holiday events, such as officer graduations, officer promotions and St. Patrick’s Day festivities. “The most fun is probably St. Patty’s Day because that’s the one day a year we’re kind of rock stars,” Bircher said. “Every other day, we’re just guys wearing skirts, playing bagpipes.”
which provided a forum for countries to discuss climate change. In his recap of the conference in Lima, Altamirano discussed the United Nations’ lack of assistance to the forced migrants of global warming.
“The United Nations recognizes victims of war in Syria, but why don’t they recognize environmental migrants?” Altamirano said. “That is a fault of the United Nations.” According to Altamirano, United Nations
officials’ promotion of this year’s UN Summit on Climate Change in Paris is a positive step toward climate change reform. Altamirano said governments would need to meet certain requirements before attending the summit.
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RILEY BRANDS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / @TexanEditorial Tuesday, January 27, 2015
EDITORIAL
Social Work Dean discusses infrastructure, male enrollment Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of interviews with the deans of the 18 schools and colleges of the University. Social Work Dean Luis Zayas was appointed in 2012. This interview has been condensed. The Daily Texan: So could you start by telling us a little bit about your plans and goals for the School of Social Work as well as some of the successes you’ve had since you were appointed dean in 2012? Luis Zayas: What I had encountered when I first arrived was that it was top heavy at the full professor and associate professor ranks, and at the time when I arrived, there were only two assistant professors in a faculty of 30-something. So, to me that’s not good succession planning. Over the past three years, I’ve been able to fill in more assistant professor level positions and now we are up to seven assistant professors and a dozen each of the other two. Our school really needs new infrastructure, a new building or a well renovated one. Especially if we are to compete with the elite schools of social work. DT: How have you been lobbying for a new
building? Zayas: One of the things we’ve done has been an architectural assessment of our building and they poked it and prodded it an lifted it and looked up the hood, poked the tires, that sort of thing. We hear that it has strong bones but the organs are failing. Lobbying is a good word. It’s helping others to understand our needs and where we should best be positioned. DT: Speaking of the new medical school, how do you see the School of Social Work collaborating with them? Zayas: We’ve already started. One of the things I’ve done in my administration is to appoint an assistant dean for health affairs, Dr. Barbara Jones… One of the things we are doing a lot, and nursing and pharmacy are deeply involved as well, is inter-professional education. How do we get our students talking to each other as professionals early on? You know, you ask any physician who they need on the team and most often they’ll say a social worker. DT: Like certain other programs, including
nursing, the School of Social Work has a low male enrollment. What is it trying to do to increase the number of male students? Zayas: One of the things we need to do is reach out to the average undergraduate male and help them understand what social work is and what we do. DT: Can you say a little bit about the newly established dual-degree program between the School of Social Work and Latin American Studies?
Photo courtesy of Callie Richmond
Zayas: The students will come in and they’ll do half and half at the schools… A student doesn’t just go into [Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies] or social work and then the second year bounce back. Rather, we integrate them early on so that they have a foot
in both schools all along the way. In their field work placements, most of them will start out in local field internships, in organizations that serve large numbers of Latinos. In their fourth semester for the master’s student, they will then do a block placement in a Latin American country…The advantage for the student is that for those that want to work in Latin America will go with two terrific degrees to work there.
COLUMN
COLUMN
Let optimism, not pessimism, determine course of semester
Tone-deaf Common Core rives broken communities yet further By Jordan Shenhar Senior Columnist @jshenhar
Albert Lee | Daily Texan Staff
By Jeremi Suri
Daily Texan Columnist @JeremiSuri
I love this time of year, especially in Texas. While our friends in New York and Boston endure mountains of snow and frigid temperatures, we benefit from beautiful, sunny and mild days. Everything seems possible in this climate at this time of year. Our political moment offers a unique opportunity for new beginnings. In Washington we have a new Congress, with new leadership in the Senate. Our president is entering his last years in office, when he will look forward to his lasting legacy, not another election. In our state, we have a new governor and a new legislature that will be in session for the next half-year. Our University system also has a new chancellor. Many of the leaders who matter most have reason to differentiate themselves from their predecessors, to try new things and to plan for the long game. The American founders anticipated these moments when they designed a system of government that rejected hereditary power and required changes in leadership at regular intervals. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams wanted stability and experience in government, but they also wanted a cycling of talent, of ideas and of virtue. For them, a republic had to remain fresh with seasonal adjustments to established ways of thinking. “Aristocracy” meant dull consistency; “democracy” meant reasonable and experimental reforms in governance. We have the opportunity to pursue reasonable and experimental changes today, inspired by our founders and enabled by the new beginnings all around us. Do not believe the naysayers who claim things cannot change. Their cynicism is shallow and self-fulfilling — if you think change is impossible, it will never happen. Optimism offers a much more productive way forward. That is what separated our nation’s founders from many of their opponents who denied dramatic possibilities. Our current times are another founding moment. Partisanship will not go away anytime soon, but citizens have elected new leaders to help us escape the stunted imagination, low expectations and self-defeating tactics of recent years. We are almost universally frustrated with our insufficient accomplishments as a society, and we are hungry for something bigger and better. This assessment is evident to
me every day when I speak to people around the country, and especially when I look in the faces of my students. I am teaching more than 300 undergraduates this semester, most of whom are freshmen, and they have the nervous energy, steely determination and smiling optimism of people who are ready to pursue ambitious dreams for our society. They are not cynical, despite what they read on their electronic devices. They are hopeful because they are smart and understand the potential in our people. We should encourage precisely this kind of optimism in our University community. Changing the world and seizing opportunities for change are what we are all about. Making our society a better place is the core purpose of a university. There are three steps I would like to see students and faculty undertake in our bright new semester. First, we must become wellinformed about the major issues of our day. For all the intelligence on campus, students and faculty tend to think in narrow, often narcissistic ways. We have strong opinions, but often far less evidence and reflection behind them than we claim. If we want to change the contemporary world, we need to understand it better and that is both a core research and teaching mission. Second, we need to share what we know better. Cynicism has encouraged more shouting and shut ears than conversation and listening. Ask yourself how infrequently you have a real in-depth discussion with someone who sees the world in fundamentally different ways. Those discussions need to occur early and often if we are going to pursue change. Our campus should become a cacophonous town square, crowded with diverse people sharing what they know and what they want. Third, and perhaps most important, we must become men and women who are politically engaged – “In the arena,” to use Theodore Roosevelt’s famous phrase, “it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” In this sunny and mild Texas season, let us devote ourselves to making our new beginnings the start of something big. Let us leave the cold and timid souls behind as we pursue the promise of change, renewal and even greatness. Suri is a professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He writes about foreign policy.
LEGALESE | Opinions expressed in The Daily Texan are those of the editor, the Editorial Board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily those of the UT administration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees.
Public education systems across the United States are plagued with more problems — and more complex problems — than you’ll find on any trendy standardized math test. They perpetuate intergenerational inequality by providing superior resources to wealthier districts. They’re too bureaucratic to adequately respond to student concerns. And, worst of all, their curricula are outdated. Now that the age of assembly-line workers and mid-level corporate hacks has been killed by outsourcing and technology, rote memorization and uniform standards have no place in the classroom. So what’s with the Common Core’s plan, which has now been adopted in whole or in part by 44 states? Replace cold, harsh standardization with colder, harsher standardization. How’s that for critical thinking? For instance, instead of learning to form their own opinions or analyze works of literature in their English classes, Common Corified students will get to parse through informational texts in order to answer multiple-choice and short-answer comprehension questions. That’s because, as Common Core architect David Coleman put it in a 2011 speech to New York state policymakers, “People don’t really give a shit about what you feel or what you think.” Coleman isn’t entirely wrong. In the modern world, data analysis and evaluation have become exponentially more important in everyday life, governing baseball roster selections and political decisions and even opinion journalism, where “because I said so” prognosticators are giving way to statistical brains in the FiveThirtyEight mold. And being able to quickly recognize and evaluate written information is obviously an important skill — especially when scanning the labyrinthine Common Core website for relevant material. The problem with the Core, then, lies more in its implementation than in its construction. In order to evaluate student progress, the program relies on the standardized Smarter Balanced Assessment. And no evidence suggests that students benefit from learning how to fill in bubbles or cram buzzwords into an answer box, which, despite protestations to the contrary from Common Core hoplites, is what invariably follows when a district’s funding and prestige are tied to test scores.
In the modern world, data analysis and evaluation have become exponentially more important in everyday life, governing baseball roster selections and political decisions and even opinion journalism.
SUBMIT A FIRING LINE OR GUEST COLUMN | E-mail your Firing Lines and guest columns to editor@dailytexanonline.com. Letters must be between 100 and 300 words and guest columns between 500 and 1,000. The Texan reserves the right to edit all submissions for brevity, clarity and liability.
That’s the sort of outcome that worries Anne Lutz Fernandez, co-author of the forthcoming book “Schooled” and an English teacher in Connecticut. While Fernandez described the political controversy surrounding the Core itself as “overblown,” she fears that its assessment procedure will lead to a “narrowing and redirection of the English curriculum” in public schools. Overall, Fernandez said, the teachers interviewed in the book share her aversion to the testing that comes along with the Common Core package. At Fernandez’s suggestion, I took an online version of the 11th grade Smarter Balanced Assessment for English and language arts to check out how we evaluate America’s future leaders and innovators. Luckily for me, the computer system the program runs on glitched out on Question 16 out of 99, or else I would’ve spent all afternoon skimming passages on sustainable cotton farming for EPA data and “Life of Pi” excerpts for information on solar still utility and the history of shipwrecks. The multiple-choice questions all include excerpts from the piece presented, which means you don’t really have to read the whole thing to take the test. In that regard, maybe it is a pretty good approximation of high school life. However, the instructions are just vague enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if districts have to devote a significant amount of time to teaching test-taking skills instead of, you know, books that aren’t about sustainable cotton farming. So even if the Common Core isn’t supposed to replace a school’s individual curriculum, in practice it does exactly that. It seems clear, then, that Coleman doesn’t understand kids too well — unless he genuinely believes that his system can convey valuable information in 99-problem doses to millions of different children with millions of different experiences raised in millions of different households across thousands of different districts. If that’s the case, I recommend that he try babysitting. That might show him that his Common Core as it’s currently constructed cannot replace a teacher’s intuition or a student’s creativity. If Texas’ Republican leaders felt equally strongly about individualism, I’d be encouraged by their rejection of the Common Core and by Rick Perry’s declaration that “the academic standards of Texas are not for sale.” But through their willingness to fund religiously motivated charter schools and the Texas Education Agency’s promotion of “alternative” science, it seems as though lawmakers care just as much about getting Bibles into the classroom as they do about keeping bureaucrats out of it. Through its stand in favor of the 10th Amendment, Texas is short-shrifting the First, thereby wasting a great opportunity to develop students who might actually remember which government departments they want to abolish. That kind of nonsense can’t continue, unless America wants its cultural and economic future to hinge on preachers and Dwight Schrute knockoffs. With the likes of Coleman and Perry becoming increasingly influential nationwide, states should pull a lesson from every kid’s standardized test playbook: Sometimes, the correct answer really is “none of the above.” Shenhar is a Plan II, economics and government sophomore from Westport, Conn. He writes about campus and education issues.
RECYCLE | Please recycle this copy of The Daily Texan. Place the paper in one of the recycling bins on campus or back in the burnt-orange newsstand where you found it. EDITORIAL TWITTER | Follow The Daily Texan Editorial Board on Twitter (@TexanEditorial) and receive updates on our latest editorials and columns.
CLASS 5
LIFE&ARTS
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015 After spending eight months in a coma, Brian Beavers underwent months of rehabilitation and therapy to overcome severe brain damage. Despite his disabilities, Beavers holds a job as a server at Teji’s.
Ellyn Snider Daily Texan Staff
TEJI’S continues from page 8 mat, and he careened headon into a truck. Beavers remembers waking up from a coma six months later. Disoriented and afraid, he ripped out the tubes connecting him to life support systems. This reaction caused life-threatening blood loss and sent him into another coma. He woke up two months later strapped down, weighing in at half his original
weight. Doctors told him he would never walk or speak again. Beavers worked diligently to prove them wrong. He dedicated himself to rehabilitation and visited therapists, specialists and pathologists — until the money ran out. Luckily, by that time in his recovery, Beavers could head to work. Beavers’ friend offered him a job at her newly
Find us anywhere
opened restaurant, despite his disabilities. And so he took a job waiting tables at Teji’s. Hovering behind the register, soft-spoken and reserved, Beavers manages to pass along a few kind words to every customer he helps. Even though the left side of his body is partially paralyzed, Beavers holds doors open for strangers, smiles at passersby and plans to
donate his hair to a nonprofit organization that makes wigs for chemotherapy patients. “Bad stuff happens to good people all the time, but it’s what those good people let that bad stuff do to them that determines their happiness,” Beavers said. “And I’ve learned you’ve just got to love life, not hate life and not be angry. I could be so angry, but every day I choose not to.”
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HEARTBREAKS continues from page 8 a city about music, so to do it here makes a lot of sense.” Hutchinson said she developed interest in the production after hearing Garner perform one of the songs from the show in a class. The two decided to collaborate to bring the show to Austin stages. “[Garner] said something about this honkytonk musical she had written, and I was immediately intrigued,” Hutchinson said. “Then I heard her play ‘One Man Closer to Nashville,’ which is one of the big cornerstone songs in the play. I was hooked by the song, by the quality of it, by her playing it.” The Austin-version of the show features a group of actors and musicians from UT and Austin, including theatre and dance senior Alexander Villarreal, who plays the band’s bass player. He said working on the show combines his passion for music with his passion for theater. “I love the authenticity that is portrayed in the story,” Villarreal said.
I love the authenticity that is portrayed in the story. The fact that music is so vital to the show is wonderful to me. Music is a huge part of my life, and getting to use that to tell stories is amazing. —Alexander Villarreal, Theatre and dance senior
“The fact that music is so vital to the show is wonderful to me. Music is a huge part of my life, and getting to use that to tell stories is amazing.” After the Austin run closes Feb. 14, Garner hopes to tour “100 Heartbreaks” nationwide and showcase the play in New York. The ultimate goal: to produce a movie. “I’ve had so much fun with this rehearsal process,” Garner said. “I feel so artistically satisfied and so excited every night to be working on it.”
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GARRETT CALLAHAN, SPORTS EDITOR | @texansports Tuesday, January 27, 2015
SIDELINE
MEN’S BASKETBALL
(19) TEXAS
VS.
(15) IOWA ST
NCAAB
As shots fall short, so do Horns By Evan Berkowitz
After a disappointing 89-86 loss to Iowa State, the Longhorns’ chance at claiming the Big 12 title is in jeopardy.
@Evan_Berkowitz
A late-game rally gave No. 19 Texas a chance at a comeback, but, eventually, the hole was too much for the Longhorns to overcome in their game against Iowa State Monday night. No. 15 Iowa State manhandled Texas most of the way in Ames, Iowa, giving the Longhorns their second straight conference loss. Iowa State had no problem tearing apart the Longhorns, whether Texas was in zone or man-to-man defense, in the Longhorns’ worst defensive performance of the season, and the Cyclones went on to a 89–86 win. The Longhorns (14–6, 3–4 Big 12) started the game in a zone defense that head coach Rick Barnes has relied on recently. That strategy collapsed as the Cyclones picked it apart in the first half on their way to a 36-point half — the most Texas had allowed in a half up to that point. “We were way too conscious of the 3-point line,” Barnes said at halftime. “We didn’t make the adjustments, and we let [Georges] Niang get in the middle. We can guard them in the zone, but we got to be quicker.” Iowa State had its way with the zone, working a smooth high-low between juniors Georges Niang and Jameel
@petersblendorio
The Longhorns trailed by as many as 20 points with less than 7:30 remaining in the game, and they almost came all the way back. Texas got red hot from beyond the arc late, connecting on 7-of-8 from deep between the final 7:24 and 0:23 marks in the second half. That, coupled with an aggressive press defense, allowed Texas to close the game out on a 35–18 run. Sophomore point guard Isaiah Taylor was the catalyst for the late comeback attempt, scoring 12 points in the final six minutes of the game. It was too little, too late, however, for a Texas team that trailed by as many as 21 points in the second half. Iowa State torches the Texas zone Iowa State, on the other
For the past 10 years, No. 9 Kansas has sat at the top of Big 12 basketball. However, after a non-conference 72–40 blowout loss at the hands of No. 1 Kentucky, many thought the Jayhawks looked vulnerable. But two months later, Kansas looks like its usual self. The Jayhawks traveled to Austin this weekend and defeated Texas, 75-62. Kansas Freshman forward Cliff Alexander had a teamhigh 15 points and nine rebounds to help put the Jayhawks back atop the Big 12 standings. “We just wanted it more than them,” Alexander said. With a one-game lead over in-state rival Kansas State, the Jayhawks will return to action to take on unranked TCU on Wednesday. Wildcats bounce back Before Kansas reclaimed the Big 12 throne, Kansas State was on top of the
MAGIC
PELICANS
TIMBERWOLVES Daulton Venglar Daily Texan Staff
McKay, as the Cyclones had 13 assists on 16 first-half field goals. By the end of the half, and after more than three games in zone defense, Barnes reverted back to his normal man-to-man defense. That approach didn’t work much better. The Cyclones (154, 5-2 Big 12) had their way with that too, tallying 53 points in the second half. Despite a vulnerable defense and lopsided loss that all but diminished Texas’ hopes of a Big 12 title, the Longhorns’ offense did finally start to look
to the post. In the early goings, Texas remained patient with the ball as it let its big men post up inside — unlike in Saturday’s game against Kansas. The Longhorns relied heavily on 6-foot11 freshman forward Myles Turner, who turned in his best performance in a half against a highly ranked opponent. Turner finished with 16 points, showing off his quick release and good touch, and drawing the double team on almost all his touches. Texas eventually turned away from that strategy in the
final 30 minutes, partly because of its defensive woes and surprising accuracy from deep, and it was the sharpshooting that gave Texas a fighting chance in the end. After going 0–7 from deep in the first half, Texas made 10 of the last 15 en route to a 61-point half — its highest of the season. Junior guard Javan Felix also turned in his best performance of the year off the bench, going for 20 on a perfect shooting night behind the arc. Sophomore point guard Isaiah Taylor added 17 points, with 15
coming in the second half, while senior forward Jonathan Holmes also added 17. Iowa State had five doubledigit scorers, as it claimed its fifth Big 12 win this season. Niang, McKay, senior forward Dustin Hogue, sophomore guard Monté Morris and senior guard Bryce Dejean-Jones all hit the double-digit mark, with Niang leading the way with 19. The Longhorns will look to get back in the win column in another Big 12 game Saturday at Baylor.
hand, played a cohesive game offensively. The Cyclones had little trouble weaving through Texas’ 2-3 zone, consistently getting around the Longhorns’ perimeter defenders and into the lane for high-percentage looks at the basket. The Cyclones’ penetration into the lane forced Texas’ big men out of position to play help defense. This led to four dunks in the first half alone for Iowa State, including three by redshirt junior forward Jameel McKay. Remarkably, the Cyclones racked up 13 assists on their 16 made baskets in the first half. They got any shot they wanted for much of the game and finished with 20 assists as a team.
the Cyclones. The Longhorns opened the game just 1-of-9 from the field and trailed 10–2 after less than three minutes of play. Iowa State double teams greeted junior center Cam Ridley and freshman forward Myles Turner every time they touched the ball down low, leading Texas to once again settle for outside jumpers. It didn’t get any better for the Longhorns in the first half. They trailed 36-25 going into halftime, connecting on just 10-of-31 shots from the field. Taylor failed to make any of his five shot attempts in the first half, and senior forward Jonathan Holmes went just 2-of-8.
Rough start for Texas Fresh off a lifeless second half performance against Kansas on Saturday, Texas picked up right where it left off to start Monday’s game against
It’s officially time to worry With their back-to-back losses, the Longhorns slipped to 3–4 in conference play, dropping 2.5 games behind of first-place Kansas — But
conference. However, a 77–71 loss to Iowa State last week dethroned the Wildcats. Kansas State struggled to keep up with the Cyclones early but rallied to get within 1 point of Iowa State at halftime. But, in the second half, the Wildcats couldn’t overcome the deficit and received their second Big 12 loss of the season. After the loss to the Cyclones, Kansas State stayed within striking distance of the conference’s top spot with a 63-53 bounce-back win over Oklahoma State. Senior forward Nino Williams led the Wildcats with 20 points and seven rebounds. “It’s a good team win,” said Williams, who was 10of-13 from the field. “Like Coach [Weber] said, everybody played well, everybody did something.” Mess in the middle of the pack Nearing the midpoint of the season, the Big 12 is making an argument for the toughest conference in
CELTICS
JAZZ
TOP TWEET John Burt @burticus21
Officially commiting [sic] to University of Texas (for good ) see yall on the 40!!
1894 Daultion Venglar | Daily Texan Staff
Freshman forward Myles Turner’s 16 points weren’t enough for the Longhorns to take down conference foe Iowa State on the road.
more alarming is the way they’ve been losing. The Texas offense has been inconsistent since the start of Big 12 play, and the Longhorns have struggled to take advantage of their size and get the ball inside. The defense hasn’t been much better, as opponents found holes in the Texas 2-3
zone with ease in the last two games. And the season won’t get much easier for the Longhorns. Six of their remaining 11 games are against ranked opponents. For any chance of getting back into the conference title race, they’ll need to make drastic changes in a hurry.
After beating the Longhorns in Austin on Saturday, Kansas returned to its spot atop the Big 12 standings.
Daulton Venglar Daily Texan Staff
college basketball. While Kansas currently leads the league, second- through seventh-place teams all have a shot, if any of them have a late season run. The middle of the pack contains seven teams jockeying for position, including Kansas State, West Virginia, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. The Cyclones and Longhorns faced off Monday, and Kansas State could separate itself from the pack with a win over No. 17
THUNDER
TODAY IN HISTORY
Jayhawks reclaim top spot in conference @Nick_Castillo74
NBA
76ERS
BIG 12 BASKETBALL
By Nick Castillo
(13) N. CAROLINA
GRIZZLIES
Texas comeback fails, Big 12 chances in danger By Peter Sblendorio
SYRACUSE
West Virginia on Tuesday. Baylor and Oklahoma State will meet Tuesday for a game that will help the winner’s NCAA tournament chances. Oklahoma, on the other hand, has the easiest upcoming game, taking on Texas Tech, which sits at the bottom of the Big 12. With the NCAA tournament looming around the corner, the teams in the middle of the Big 12 will be looking for every opportunity to make a
statement and improve records. Polls kind to Big 12 The Big 12 had six ranked teams — Kansas, Iowa State, West Virginia, Texas, Baylor and Oklahoma — in this week’s AP poll. The conference also had five teams ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll — Oklahoma was excluded from the top 25. The Big 12 was tied for the most teams in the AP poll with the ACC.
The University of Chicago beats Chicago YMCA 19-11 in the first game of college basketball.
SPORTS BRIEFLY Wide receiver Burt commits to Horns
Four-star wide receiver John Burt made it official Monday morning: He is going to be a Longhorn. “Officially commiting [sic] to University of Texas (for good) see yall on the 40!!” Burt tweeted, including a picture of himself with the Texas coaching staff at what appeared to be his home. Head coach Charlie Strong, Shawn Watson, assistant head coach for the offense/quarterbacks coach, newly minted wide receivers coach Jay Norvell, and defensive backs coach Chris Vaughn stood by his side in the picture he posted. Burt, a 6-foot-3 Tallahassee, Florida, native chose Texas over Auburn, Alabama and many other Florida schools. According to 247Sports, Burt is the 14th-ranked wide receiver in the nation. Burt decommitted from a verbal with Texas in January, leading many to think he was headed Auburn’s way. Burt joins four-star prospect DeAndre McNeal and three-star Gilbert Johnson, also a Florida recruit, as next year’s Longhorns’ freshman receiving corps. —Evan Berkowitz
COMICS 7
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
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3 1 5 4 6 2 7 8 9 Arrr matey. This scurrvy beast is today’s answerrrrrr. 6it out, 2 or7it’ll be9the8the fishes 1 4for ya!5 3 Crop 5 82 96 47 39 51 73 18 64 2 8 43 59 25 64 16 91 87 32 7 1 74 87 33 52 28 49 66 95 1 4 18 62 99 73 37 86 25 41 5 6 55 71 64 18 42 37 93 29 8 9 27 43 11 86 95 54 32 78 6 2 91 38 86 27 74 65 59 13 4
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KAT SAMPSON, LIFE&ARTS EDITOR | @thedailytexan Tuesday, January 27, 2015
THEATER
Grad student writes, stars in ‘100 Heartbreaks’ By Emily Gibson @emgeemtee
Charlane Tucker, the protagonist of Joanna Garner’s latest play, thought it would take 100 broken hearts to write the perfect country ballad. It only took 43. Garner’s new show tells the story of aspiring country star, Charlane Tucker, who tours dive-bars around the country with her band in pursuit of enough heartbreak to write authentic country music. Inspired by her own series of unsuccessful firstdates and her love for oldschool country music, the Master of Fine Arts graduate student began writing the country musical “100 Heartbreaks” in 2006. “I started writing it at a time in my life when I was going on a lot of unsuccessful dates,” Garner said. “A lot of artists write from that place of heartbreak. Country music, especially, is all about taking that pain and suffering and channeling it into music. So I was thinking about – if I was going to go on all these dates – how I could put them to use.” Tuesday at Sahara Lounge, Garner will star as Charlane Tucker, with fellow Master of Fine Arts student Jess Hutchinson in the director’s seat. Garner decided to write the role of Charlane Tucker for herself after frustrations she faced while
Daulton Venglar | Daily Texan Staff
Joanna Garner, a Master of Fine Arts graduate student, rehearses for “100 Heartbreaks” on Friday evening in the Laboratory Theater. Garner started writing the play in 2006 and performed it in 2008 as a one-woman show.
auditioning for other people’s shows. “I was thinking, ‘What should I do with my life, and how can I be artistically satisfied?’ so I decided to write a play for myself to perform – sort of selfishly,” Garner said.
“I decided that if no one’s going to give me the parts I want, I’ll just create them for myself.” Originally, Garner performed the musical in 2008 as an hour-long, onewoman show. After a successful three-week run at
300
the Capitol Hill Arts Center in Seattle, she chose to adapt the show to feature more actors and songs. She then decided to go to graduate school and brought “100 Heartbreaks” to Austin, where she thought the show would
be well-received. “It’s non-traditional and site-specific, so the audience in the bar is like the audience at this country show,” Garner said. “I think that’s very ‘Austin.’ It’s such
HEARTBREAKS page 5
“100 HEARTBREAKS” Who: Written by Joanna Garner / Directed by Jess Hutchinson Where: Sahara Lounge When: Tuesday - Feb. 14 Cost: $15.00
CAMPUS
Origami club helps students alleviate stress through art By Estefania de Leon Care, a foundation that aids @estefaniadeleon
Ellyn Snider | Daily Texan Staff
When Brian Beavers woke up from a coma after a car accident, doctors told him he would never talk or walk again. Today, despite brain damage, Beavers talks, walks and works at Teji’s Indian Restaurant.
Despite trauma, waiter serves up kindness By Briana Zamora @whaterwillbri
Each day, hundreds of students flood Teji’s — a narrow, dimly lit restaurant — and place their order with Brian
Beavers. No one knows that the quiet, polite man filling orders day after day suffers from irreparable brain damage, memory loss and crippling injuries. “Guess you could say
I’m damaged goods, huh?” Beavers said. Years ago, on a quiet road, Beavers’ accelerator pedal got stuck under his floor
TEJI’S page 5
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For many students, papers lead to late nights full of frustration, but, for members of UT’s Healing Origami club, paper offers an escape from the everyday stresses of student life. Since 2007, the group has gathered once a week to socialize, craft different designs and learn new patterns. “I feel like any type of hobby someone enjoys, and takes pleasure in doing, and makes them feel happy, is important,” co-president and biology junior Jiahui Qi said. “Personally, for me, origami has been my de-stressor, and I really wanted to help show other people that they can do the same thing.” Healing Origami consists of about 15 students, who gather to create elaborate figurines by folding paper. Healing Origami also volunteers with different organizations in which the members can share their particular means of unwinding. According to Samuel Lau, co-president and petroleum engineering senior, the group has collaborated with nursing homes and organizations such as Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas and China
Chinese orphans who have developmental or mental disabilities. “The main goal is to help them reconnect with their Asian culture because they are adopted,” Lau said. “What we did was make different crafts that represented their culture — simple things like paper cranes.” Qi said this semester, the group is searching for additional organizations with which it can partner, but, for now, the members are focused on internally developing the club. “Our people range from people who have never done origami before to people who have done it for life,” Qi said. “We want to preserve the closeness of our group, but we also want to get other people interested in the club.” Lau said the group’s name emphasizes both helping individual members and doing volunteer work with the community. “Sometimes, whether it is a stressful week or something goes wrong in [our members’] lives, [Healing Origami] is something to cheer themselves up,” Lau said. “It’s kind of a way to get away from all that. The other part [is] where we teach children and people who are interested.”
I feel like any type of hobby someone enjoys and takes pleasure in doing and makes them feel happy is important. —Jiahui Qi, Healing Origami co-president and biology junior
Ruoxi Wu, computer science sophomore and member, said origami exists in various forms and is not necessarily an Asian practice. “There are a lot of Americans and Europeans that are experts in this area,” Wu said. “I think a good example is Robert Long. He collaborated with NASA over a satellite that uses a folding technique related to origami, and it is also not just a type of art. It relates to math because of the geometry.” Qi said she acknowledges members have busy schedules but believes in the importance of taking time to de-stress. “I think that speaks out that origami can be used as something to alleviate stress just by being in a space folding together,” Qi said. “Our finished product is the finish line.” Healing Origami is a group dedicated to alleviating students’ stress. They meet once a week to fold, chat and relax through this unique art.
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Marshall Tidrick Daily Texan Staff