1
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 8
SPORTS PAGE 6
COMICS PAGE 7
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
@thedailytexan
facebook.com/dailytexan
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
dailytexanonline.com
bit.ly/dtvid
CAMPUS
SYSTEM
Bomb threat prompts UTPD confusion
Regents to consider Hall’s Kroll requests
By Eleanor Dearman @EllyDearman
Butler Music Hall and Bass Performing Arts Center were evacuated Monday after a bomb threat was reported to the Butler School of Music. UTPD responded to a call that reported a bomb threat in the Butler School of Music area around 8:50 p.m. The Performing Arts Center and then the Butler Music Hall were evacuated completely in response to the threat. This event is the second
threat to UT this semester — the first being to a food trailer in West Campus this February. There was also a threat in September 2012 resulting in the evacuation of the entire campus. In both cases, UTPD did not properly notify students. UTPD did not send out an email notifying students of Monday’s potential threat, but the official UTPD Twitter account sent out two tweets about the threat. Although both buildings were cleared for entry,
there was confusion among UTPD regarding the location of the threat. “The PAC was also evacuated,” UTPD Lt. Darrell Birdett said. “Originally, the PAC got evacuated, and then we came over here. There was some confusion, I think, about what building the actual threat came into.” Birdett said he was not sure how many people were evacuated in the threat, although UTPD mandated a
BOMB page 3
full evacuation of all possible buildings. Attendees of a concert at the Performing Arts Center were evacuated to the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for 30 minutes. James Ellerbock, an attendee and teacher at Bowie High School, said there were armed police officers on the scene. “We were watching a show, and this woman came
in and said there was a serious threat, and we were asked to leave,” Ellerbock said. Students rehearsing and preforming in the Butler building were asked to leave, as well. While most were evacuated, UTPD failed to notify music performance sophomore Adam Lundell of the threat. Lundell said he was rehearsing in a practice room Ellyn Snider | Daily Texan Staff
UTPD ordered an evacuation of Bass Concert Hall on Monday night because of suspicious activity and a bomb threat.
LEGISLATURE
Senate bill threatens DREAM Act tuition By Eleanor Dearman @EllyDearman
UT students, many of whom wore graduation caps and gowns, testified at the Capitol against a bill that would eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students. If passed, SB 1819 would repeal Texas’ version of the DREAM Act. Currently, undocumented students who have lived in Texas for at least three years and graduated from a state high school may qualify for in-state tuition at public institutions, a policy passed in 2001 and supported by Governor Rick Perry. Additionally, students must sign an affidavit agreeing to apply for citizenship if the opportunity arises. The bill was heard in the Senate Subcommittee on Border Security on Monday. Sen. Campbell (R-New
TUITION page 2
Carlo Nasisse | Daily Texan Staff
Karina Alvarez (left), an alumna of Texas A&M International University in Laredo, and Mirla Lopez, a UT alumna, go over their speeches before testifying at the Capitol against a bill that would eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
By Josh Willis @JoshWillis35
The UT System Board of Regents will meet Wednesday to consider facilitating requests from Regent Wallace Hall Jr. to look into information gathered about controversial UT admission practices. In early March, Hall asked to meet with Bill Nugent, senior managing director for Kroll, an investigation company, regarding a report released in February. The report, which the UT System commissioned, came in response to an investigation into admission policies at UT-Austin. The investigation undertaken by Kroll found that UT-Austin President William Powers Jr. had pressured admission officials to admit a “select handful” of applicants each year. McRaven defended the admission process because no laws or rules were broken, but McRaven said he would attempt to institute changes in the future. The UT System commissioned Kroll to conduct an external investigation of the admissions process after Hall alleged that UT-Austin administrators were admitting under-qualified applicants with connections to prominent legislators. A few days after his request to meet with Nugent, Hall requested an opportunity to read through “any and all information, confidential and otherwise, that is related to the Kroll investigation that was originally slated for destruction,”
REGENTS page 3
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Rady/Strickland’s platform incomplete By Sam Ketterer
During their time as Student Government executive alliance, vice president Taylor Strickland (left) and president Kori Rady completed 13 out of 28 of their platform goals.
@sam_kett
Marshall Tidrick | Daily Texan file photo
Yik Yak promotes the new photo feature for its app on select college campuses.
Yik Yak tests photo feature on campuses By Caleb Wong @caleber96
Yik Yak is piloting a photo-sharing feature on select campuses after receiving a number of requests from users, according to Yik Yak CEO Tyler Droll. “Yakkers have told us
that they’d love the option of adding a picture to their yak, so this is something we’re currently testing out on a handful of campuses,” Droll said in a statement to Mashable last week. “There have been some great photo
YIK YAK page 2
In Kori Rady’s and Taylor Strickland’s time as Student Government president and vice president, the executive alliance completed 13 out of 28 of its total platform points. The remaining 15 initiatives are still in progress, Rady said, although he said he expects them to be implemented in the coming semesters. “When you see the final product you work on, it’s a nice feeling, and you know you’re helping people,” Rady said. “It’s unfortunate that some of the things we worked on, we won’t be around to see.” Rady and Strickland are still working to finalize oncampus student tailgating for football games, which they said will occur for the upcoming football season. Other platforms they list online as incomplete are in-
Marshall Tidrick Daily Texan file photo
creasing student parking on campus, increasing branding at the University, and seeing the use of student ID as a form of voter IDs. The legislature has not yet voted on the final issue. “We’ve lobbied effectively on our end, but I’d really like to see that — not only for UT, but for the state of Texas,” Strickland said.
Rady said he thinks he and Strickland succeeded in representing UT’s diverse population as well as completing their most important platform points. “There’s the larger umbrella that Student Government doesn’t always live up to, which is representing a lot of students and actually getting tangible things done,” Rady
Name: 3626/House Ads; Width: 60p0; Depth: 2 in; Color: Process color, 3626/House Ads; Ad Number: 3626
said. “We’ve done almost everything we’ve wanted to do. … It proves that Student Government is really effective.” One of the first initiatives Rady and Strickland completed was the SafeRide/uRide program, which provides students free rides on weekend nights from downtown
PLATFORM page 2