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Friday, April 3, 2015
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MEN’S BASKETBALL
Smart will be next basketball coach By Peter Sblendorio @petersblendorio
Texas men’s basketball reached a deal Thursday to make Shaka Smart its next head basketball coach, according to multiple reports. Smart, 37, has spent the past six seasons as the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth. He burst into the national spotlight in 2011 when he led the Rams to the Final Four.
He’s won at least 26 games in each of his six seasons at VCU and made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last five years. Although he never won a regular season conference title in his time at VCU, Smart boasts an impressive 163–56 career record in his six seasons as a head coach and is 7–5 in the NCAA Tournament. According to multiple reports, Smart accepted the position at Texas after
meeting with his team late Thursday night, launching him into what is only his second head coaching position. Athletic director Steve Patterson was rumored to have had his eyes on Smart from the start, flying to Richmond, Virginia, earlier Thursday for a meeting. The deal-making hit a bit of a hitch after Smart’s team meeting got delayed for two hours, but, at the end of the day, Texas got
its guy. Before his stint with the Rams, Smart spent time as an assistant coach with California University of Pennsylvania, Akron, Clemson and Florida stretching back to 1999. Texas football head coach Charlie Strong also served as an assistant coach for the Gators’ football team while Smart was with the basketball team.
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Faux golden eggs cause confusion at Co-op hunt @laurenreneeflo
Shaka Smart
Future head coach
Lawmakers debate age of legal responsibility By Eleanor Dearman @ellydearman
Under Texas’ current legal system, 17-year-olds accused of crimes are usually tried as adults — but lawmakers are working to raise that age by one year. On Wednesday, the Juvenile Justice and Family Issues subcommittee heard three bills that would raise the age at which youth are tried as adults to 18. The bills were left pending in committee. Texas is one of nine states that places 17-year-olds in the criminal justice system rather than the juvenile justice system, according to Rep. Ruth McLendon (D-San Antonio), who was a juvenile probations officer for 17 years before she was elected to office. “From my observations, one thing is clear, and that is a juvenile may be large enough and tall enough and strong enough to look and talk an adult, but there is no assurance that they Illustration by John Pesina | Daily Texan Staff
RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY
By Lauren Florence
LEGISLATURE
MINORS page 2
bit.ly/dtvid
About 40 students searched campus Thursday morning hoping to find a golden egg and win a semester’s worth of free textbooks in the process, but were misled by the presence of “fake” eggs that weren’t part of the official hunt. As part of an egg hunt organized by the University Coop, students followed clues posted by Co-op officials on Twitter and Snapchat to search for three eggs hidden on campus. The winner was promised free textbooks for a semester, and the two runner-ups would receive $100 Co-op gift cards, said William Kelleher, promotions manager at the Co-op. Before the hunt began, someone placed “fake” eggs, not sponsored by the Co-op, around campus, leading several students to believe they had won the free textbooks. “Some students have too much time on their hands,” Kelleher said. “[I’m] bummed someone did it, but that stuff happens. I felt bad for the students that found [the fake eggs] — it put them on an emotional roller coaster.” He said he doesn’t know who planted the fake eggs. The Co-op put on the hunt to increase its social media presence, according to Kelleher. This is the first time the Co-op has used Snapchat in an event to attract students. Biology freshman Brodi
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CAMPUS
Panelists discuss the Jewish organizations prepare for Passover power of social media By Sebastian Herrera @SebasAHerrera
By Katie Keenan @thedailytexan
Social media has increased global awareness of revolutions and made the expression and spread of ideas easier, according to a panel of social media experts. A group of experts spoke on campus Thursday about the impact of technology and new media on political revolutions and regimes, especially in nondemocratic countries. James Stratton, international relations and global studies senior, said he thinks social media helped him spread awareness of the 2010 Arab Spring revolutions. “I am very interested in the Arab Spring, [and] before social media, if I wanted to tell people in my social network about the protest, I would have to physically find them or make something on paper, post it up,” Stratton
said. “Hopefully, they’d see it. Now I could just whip out my phone.” After former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011, governments caught on to the potentially drastic effects of social media campaigns and learned how one dissenting tweet can lead to a widespread political movement, according to Bahaa Ghobrial, a radio-television-film graduate student who studies social media. Ghobrial said when traditional governments acknowledge the power of social media to cause unrest, they begin to worry about political dissidents who before did not pose an obvious threat. “[To cause a revolution], it has to be everything all together,” Ghobrial said. “So there’s the social movement,
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Five cooks chopped carrots. Forty-five pounds of brisket sat in the refigerator, waiting to be cooked. Among the piles of ingredients lining the kitchen counters, bread — in fact, all products that contain yeast — were conspicuously absent. This was the scene inside the kitchen at Texas Hillel, the Jewish student organization, Thursday afternoon. Community members prepared for one of the biggest holidays of the Jewish calendar, Passover. Passover, which commemorates the liberation of Israelite slaves from Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus, is an eight-day holiday during which Jews around the world celebrate freedom and renewal. As part of the holiday,
which begins Friday, Texas Hillel is hosting a seder, a ceremonial Passover dinner where scripture readings will take place, and traditional Jewish food will be served. Margo Sack, Texas Hillel director of Jewish student life, said anyone is welcome to come to the seder. “We welcome all students to this ceremony,” Sack said. “It’s especially incumbent of us at a place like UT to Griffin Smith | Daily Texan Staff understand and learn about Texas Hillel cooks prepare food for the organization’s annual each other to promote dia- Passover celebration Thursday afternoon. logue and understanding. These seder nights will in the Hebrew Bible and Chabad will host, accorddo that.” from the legendary story ing to Rabbi Zev Johnson. Sack said one of the of Israelites not having Johnson said Passover is most iconic Passover foods, enough time to let their a holiday from which evmatzah, demonstrates the bread rise when they were eryone can draw meaning. meaning behind all aspects fleeing Egypt. “This holiday is all about of the seder. Matzah is a Less than 600 feet from freedom,” Johnson said. flat, cracker-like version Texas Hillel at the Chabad “Freedom not just for the Jewof bread, made under spe- House, another Jewish stu- ish community, but freedom cific regulations and with- dent organization, students that we try to find for every out any yeast. Sack said its and staff were preparing for community, as we remember significance derives from a crowd of about 100 people not only our suffering but the the commandments found for the first of two seders
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