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SXSW INSIDE
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Friday, March 13, 2015
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ROTNOFSKY/MANDALAPU
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STATE
Legislature to prioritize education this session By Eleanor Dearman @EllyDearman
Marshall Tidrick | Daily Texan Staff
Supporters of the Rotnofsky-Mandalapu campaign lift up Student Government president-elect Xavier Rotnofsky after the runoff election results were announced Thursday evening. Rotnofsky and vice president-elect Rohit Mandalapu received 59.2 percent of the vote.
President-elect: ‘We need a baby to kiss’ By Samantha Ketterer @sam_kett
Xavier Rotnofsky and Rohit Mandalapu won the Student Government executive alliance race Thursday with 59.2 percent of the vote after three weeks of intense campaigning against Braydon Jones and Kimia Dargahi. Rotnofsky and Mandalapu, whose platform was largely satirical in nature, ran the most successful humor campaign
the University has seen in decades. Their platform included items such as asking that SG officers wear all-cellophane outfits — to increase transparency — and a promise to open up an on-campus Chili’s. “It’s a bizarre feeling, but it’s so validating,” Rotnofsky said. The race between JonesDargahi and Rotnofsky-Mandalapu generated significant student interest. In the runnoff election, 9,445 students cast votes, besting last spring’s
overall election turnout by about 1,600 votes. Jones said he and Dargahi ran a strong campaign, and said he looks forward to seeing what the pair will accomplish in office. “I’m so proud of everything we did in this campaign,” Jones said. “I know [Rotnofsky and Mandalapu] have a big learning curve, but they’ll do great.” Although most of their campaign materials were humorous in nature, the cam-
paign became more serious as it gained momentum, and Rotnofsky and Mandalapu gave substantive answers to certain questions. “We strongly oppose Campus Carry and would work with students and administrators to show that the university is strongly opposed to such legislation,” the team wrote in a University Democrats questionnaire.
RUNOFF page 2
RESEARCH
BY THE NUMBERS 9,445 total votes 1,623 more than 2014 59.2% voted for Rotnofsky–Mandalapu
Multimedia
Check out our video at dailytexanonline.com
As last-minute bills rush in before the 6:00 p.m. filing deadline Friday, House and Senate committee chairs said they consider higher education funding to be this session’s legislative priority. Members are allowed to file bills through the first 60 days of the legislative session. After those 60 days are up, the session becomes more fast-paced, Rep. John Zerwas (R-Richmond) said. Bills go in and out of committees and can come up for a vote on the Senate or House floors. Zerwas, who is chair of the House higher education committee, said there is typically an increase in the number of bills filed in the legislature as the deadline nears. “The deadline always brings a flurry of activity,” Zerwas said. “There are interest groups out there that realize, all of the sudden, that they don’t have anything and they come in desperately asking to get something in.” While the number of bills filed is increasing, Zerwas said he does not anticipate the filing of any major new pieces of legislation. “I think we have seen most everything that is kind of highprofile or a high-priority issue among the members of the house,” Zerwas said. Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) said his committee is not looking to take on any more higher
BILLS page 2
STATE
Worms aid in anti-alcoholism research By Sebastian Herrera @SebasAHerrera
A team of UT neuroscience researchers found a way to create mutant worms that can resist the effects of alcohol, a discovery that might one day lead to improved treatment for people who suffer from alcoholism. Neuroscience assistant professor Jon Pierce-Shimomura discussed the research, which was published online in July, earlier this week in a podcast for The Academic Minute. In the podcast, PierceShimomura, who oversaw the project, said his team found a way to mutate a worm’s molecules so that alcohol that usually sticks to a molecule on a brain cell is blocked. This means when the mutated worm is later given alcohol, it won’t show effects of intoxication. While the research is still in the testing phase and it will be many years before it can be applied for practical use, it might eventually lead to a drug that counteracts the addictive and intoxicating affects of alcohol, Pierce-Shimomura said.
Anybody that works in research on nonhumans — there are going to be problems and obstacles.
Andy Nguyen | Daily Texan Staff
Government junior Rachel Osterloh was appointed as the president of the Senate of College councils on Thursday night.
—Sarah Nordquist, Neuroscience graduate student
The research for the project began about five years ago and has involved rigorous testing, according to Luisa Scott, a University research associate who worked on the project with Pierce-Shimomura. “Alcohol has a lot of protein targets, and we’re interested in understanding how some of those targets contribute to intoxication, with an overall goal of being able to treat people with alcohol abuse,” Scott said. “A better understanding of how these proteins work can enable us to design a drug or some other variety of manipulation that would be able to prevent people from getting intoxicated.”
Illustration by Victoria Smith | Daily Texan Staff
Scott said if a drug one day exists that combats the effects of alcohol, people might be able to drink without getting drunk. Scott said medication that can better assist alcoholics in this manner is still years away. Worms are useful for medical research, because structures of the relevant molecules are identical across all organisms, according to Sarah Nordquist, a neuroscience graduate student who witnessed the study. Still, more research on the factors that impact an individual’s reaction to alcohol — a person’s tolerance level, for example, or the way they
deal with cravings — will ultimately be necessary for the research to have practical medical applications. “Anybody that works in research on non-humans — there are going to be problems and obstacles,” Nordquist said. If the research eventually leads to a medication that helps alcoholics, that would be a major scientific development, biology and psychology sophomore Kalisi Logan said. “Though we’ve mapped the human genome, if we’re able to transfer a mutation from a worm to a human to treat a disease, that would be great,” Logan said.
Senate elects members to next executive board By Vinesh Kovelamudi @trippyvinnie3
Following a few weeks of campaigning within the Senate of College Councils, the Senate appointed members to the 2015–2016 executive board Thursday night. Rachel Osterloh won the presidential race; Meagan Abel was elected vice president; Grace Zhang was elected financial director. Osterloh, a government junior who is currently
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Students learn languages through roleplay. dailytexanonline.com
president of the Liberal Arts Council, was elected president with 10 votes out of a total 14 votes cast. Three voting members abstained. Osterloh said she hopes to reach out to students across the University during her time as president. “I want to ensure that all students have the opportunity to be heard by Senate and know that they have advocates that will fight for them and their interests,” Osterloh said.
SENATE page 2
REASON TO PARTY
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