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YOU ASKED, WE ANSWERED: UT POWER OUTAGE 2015
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 8
SPORTS PAGE 6
NEWS ONLINE
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Wednesday, February 18, 2015
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CAMPUS
STUDENT GOVT.
By Samantha Ketterer & Eleanor Dearman
SG releases upcoming candidates for election
Power outage affects UT campus @thedailytexan
Despite a campus-wide power outage that lasted nearly two hours Tuesday, University administrators did not cancel classes. Power went out across campus at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday. Eventually, power returned building by building, until the last building regained electricity at around noon. University spokesman Gary Susswein said classes
were not canceled because University officials thought they could resolve the outage quickly. “Had we canceled classes, that would have had an effect throughout the day with people not showing up to classes,” Susswein said. “We are a university. Students are here to learn, faculty are here to teach, so we wanted to hold off on canceling classes hoping it could be resolved quickly. And it was.” Psychology sophomore Alejandrina Guzman, who
uses an electric wheelchair to get around campus, said she thinks the outage was an inconvenience for students who rely on elevators, door openers and other Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations to get to class. Guzman said she was ultimately able to find an alternate route. “I don’t think the University really did anything to help,” Guzman said. “Yeah, they fixed it eventually, but the fact that classes were still
POWER page 3
By Samantha Ketterer @thedailytexan
Marshall Tidrick | Daily Texan Staff
Students, staff and faculty wait for the lights to come back on at the entrance to the PCL on Tuesday morning.
UNIVERSITY
UT fails to notify students of bomb threat By The Daily Texan Staff @thedailytexan
University administrators waited more than three hours to notify students of two bomb threats reported in West Campus Tuesday morning. When the University finally acknowledged the bomb threats, it was through a single tweet sent from the University’s official Twitter account. Students never received a campus-wide email or text alert about the bomb threats. A man being treated for a psychiatric disorder made two bomb threats at 7:11 a.m. Tuesday — one to the North Austin Muslim Community Center at 11900 North Lamar Blvd. and another to the Shawarma Republique food trailer on 24th Street — prompting the Austin Police Department to block off the surrounding West Campus area, according to APD Cpl. David Boyd. University police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said APD did not immediately notify UTPD of the situation because there was no immediate threat to campus. “APD is the lead agency,” Weldon said. “In retrospect, probably, what we would have liked to have done is have sent out something that said avoid the area, but there was never a situation where APD
Marshall Tidrick| Daily Texan Staff
The Austin Police Bomb Squad investigates a bomb threat at Shawarma Republique food trailer on 24th Street. A man being treated for psychiatric disorder called in two bomb threats in the West Campus area Tuesday morning.
was communicating any kind of danger to the safety of campus or to students beyond that immediate area.” Weldon said UTPD Police Chief David Carter notified her around 9 a.m. of the threat. At that point, UTPD was on
the scene to assist APD with the investigation. “One of the reasons [APD did not contact us] is that [West Campus is] outside the Clery reporting area, which is where they normally would give us a call,” Weldon said.
The Jeanne Clery Act requires universities to inform their campus communities about crimes happening on and near campus and publish an annual security report. Boyd said officers investigated the neighborhood thoroughly
SYSTEM
but found no suspicious devices. He said APD is considering charging the man with making a “terroristic threat.” “We take all threats seriously, so we had officers respond to both locations,”
BOMB page 2
Four groups of candidates filed to run for Executive Alliance in this year’s Student Government elections. The candidates for president and vice president are government senior Braydon Jones and international relations and global studies senior Kimia Dargahi; Plan II seniors Xavier Rotnofsky and Rohit Mandalapu; David Maly, economics and journalism senior, and Stephen Svatek, civil engineering junior; economics junior Baylor Morrison and electrical engineering senior Matthew Normyle, respectively. Campaigning began Wednesday morning at 12:01 a.m. Jones is the current SG speaker of the assembly. Rotnofsky works at the Texas Travesty. Maly is currently the editor-inchief of The Horn and The Odyssey. Morrison is involved in Camp Texas. The Election Supervisory Board, which oversees all campus elections, held a meeting Tuesday night to discuss the rules of running for student-voted positions. The Board is asking for a financial disclosure form from each candidate, in which each candidate will indicate the amount of money they plan to spend on their campaign and for what expenses as well as any donations they receive. Candidates also had the option of paying a $10 fee, which the disclosure form indicated, to make their campaigns registered student organizations.
STATE
Abbott puts higher education as top priority Alcohol prevention By Eleanor Dearman & Jackie Wang Gov. Greg Abbott made higher education research an “emergency item” in his first State of the State address Tuesday. In his speech at the Capitol, Abbott urged lawmakers to prioritize legislation related to funding higher education research initiatives. He also said the state should work to create more tierone research institutions to benefit Texas’ economy. “My budget jump-starts the process of elevating Texas higher education into the highest echelons by committing a half-billion dollars to enhance research programs and attract nationally
recognized researchers and Nobel laureates to Texas universities,” Abbott said. Abbott’s budget, released Tuesday, allocates about $56 million to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to attract prominent researchers to state universities. He also allocated $40 million to current and emerging research institutes. The budget does not go into detail on how the money will be distributed between different universities. Additionally, Abbott’s budget allocates between $400 and $540 million to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas for cancer research at higher
education institutions and about $532 million in tuition exemptions for veterans and their families. Abbott said he also plans to sign a law that will make Texas the 45th state to allow the “open carry” of guns. “It is a basic second amendment right for citizens in that it allows them to carry their handguns visibly,” Bridget Guien, College Republicans communications director and economics freshman, said. Abbott said he is looking to deploy 500 new state troopers and double border-security spending. Ashley Alcantara, Plan II sophomore and communications director of University Democrats, said she disagreed with Abbott’s
plans to increase border security, although she appreciated his focus on early and higher education. “I think it’s a lot more effective to work with immigration reform instead of simply throwing money at the border,” Alcantara said. State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) said he appreciated that Abbott made an effort to reach across the aisle in his speech, but said he found Abbott’s support of open carry troubling. “The devil is always in the details,” Ellis said. “The question is whether open carry in Texas is a throwback to the ‘Wild Wild West,’ or something which is far more reasonable, which I’m convinced most of those [44] states probably have.”
NEWS
OPINION
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LIFE&ARTS
Regents approve funding for alcohol education. PAGE 3
Pay attention to campaigns. PAGE 4
Basketball blows a late lead in Oklahoma. PAGE 6
Two students produce short film about love. PAGE 8
SG votes on anti-campus carry resolution. PAGE 3
Local homeless people deserve respect. PAGE 4
Barrera’s big day sparks baseball in home opener. PAGE 6
Humans of the Forty Acres launches Facebook page. PAGE 8
@thedailytexan
funding approved By Josh Willis @joshwillis35
The UT System Board of Regents approved $2.4 million at a meeting Thursday to support the expansion of alcohol prevention, education and recovery programs at all UT System schools. The funds will be used over the next three years for campus recovery centers and to provide services such as a web-based alcohol education program and early intervention screening programs, according to a System press release. UT Austin leads the UT System schools in alcohol
ONLINE
education, according to Chris Brownson, UT associate vice president for student affairs and director of the Counseling and Mental Health Center. The system-wide implementation of the programs began in 2012 after the Board of Regents approved an initial $1 million. “The UT System is the only system of higher education in the nation to make this level of commitment to students by funding comprehensive programs at each academic campus,” Brownson said in the statement.
ALCOHOL page 2 REASON TO PARTY
To read about Energy Week visit: dailytexanonline.com PAGE 7