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Thursday, October 8, 2015
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CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY
Number of reported rapes rises at UT
UT to switch from outdated mainframe to cloud system
@zainabroo
UT saw a spike in reported instances of rape that involved a member of the University community and occurred either on or off campus during 2014, according to the University’s Annual Security Report. The increase in reporting was in large part because of increased national media attention on sexual assault prevention and reporting, as well as campus efforts, such
as the Not On My Campus campaign, which encourages students to stand up against sexual assaults on social media, according to Paul Liebman, chief compliance officer for University Compliance Services — the agency responsible for ensuring the University’s conformity to all state and federal human resources laws. Liebman said the programs have made survivors of assault more comfortable in reporting their experiences
to Student Judicial Services and the police. In 1990, Congress passed the Clery Act, which requires all colleges and universities that participate in the federal financial aid program to keep and disclose records about crimes committed on and near their campuses. As part of UT’s compliance with this law, University Compliance Services releases the Annual Security Report filled with
REPORTS page 2
31 2013 2014
Number of cases
By Zainab Calcuttawala
21
By Nashwa Bawab @nashwabawab
13 8 4 0 UT non-residential properties
UT residential properties
Non-campus, adjacent property
Graphic by Lillian Michel| Daily Texan Staff
WEST CAMPUS
Council delays vote to save historic home By Jameson Pitts @jamesonpitts
Deep in West Campus, uncertainty continues to surround a simple 1920s bungalow as property owners and officials preapre to decide its fate. During a meeting last Thursday, The Austin City Council postponed the decision to save the house of champion UT track coach Clyde Littlefield from demolition. The house — not to be confused with the Littlefield Home on UT’s campus — is situated on Shoal Cliff Court behind the Regents West apartment community on 26th Street. The Austin Historic Landmark Commission reviewed the owner’s demolition permit and recommended the house instead be preserved under landmark status — a dispute that requires a supermajority vote in city council to resolve. Steve Sadowsky, Austin historic preservation officer, said
HISTORIC page 2
Gabriel Lopez | Daily Texan Staff
Hidden deep in West Campus is the house where track champion Clyde Littlefield used to live. The Austin Historic Landmark Commission is currently attempting to delay the demolition of the house and ultimately preserve it as a landmark instead.
CAMPUS
UT hopes to complete its move from an outdated mainframe system to a modern cloud system by 2020. The mainframe computer system, primarily used for processing bulk data for a large entity such as a university, was popular in the 1980s and 1990s, according to Brad Englert, chief information officer and information technology systems chief operator. The cloud system refers to a computing system that relies on the Internet for storing and accessing data, rather than a hard drive, Englert said. “The programming language that was used to develop the administrative system is not widely used anymore,” Englert said. “As people move more things to the web and cloud computing — meaning not having the equipment on site, but relying on equipment at other places — the toolsets that were used turn out not to be as flexible and good as new toolsets.” Englert said the case for change was made after former UT president Bill Powers established an information technology advisory committee in 2008 to map out UT’s information technology strategy for the next five years. An administrative system master plan was developed in 2012, and the transition to the cloud system began last summer, Englert said.
CLOUD page 3
CAMPUS
American universities Female enrollment in Cockrell increases attract Chinese students By Matthew Adams By Ashley Tsao @tsaoashley
China has been the number one contributor of international students at UT for the past four years, with Chinese international students comprising 23 percent of all international students at UT during the 2014-2015 school year, according to UT’s International Student and Scholar Services. There are many top-tier colleges in China, such as Beijing University, but they are extremely competitive to get into, according to UT professor Huaiyin Li, director of the Center for East Asian Studies. Chinese parents look to colleges in the U.S. because second and third tier schools in China have decreased
in quality because of university expansion efforts, Li said. “You can build more campuses and recruit more students, but the quality of faculty cannot catch up,” Li said. “Ordinary institutions cannot compete with U.S. colleges, so why not go abroad?” As a result, Chinese students are looking toward universities such as UT that combine quality with affordability, according to Li. There are also benefits of the American application system, said Jiayi Sun, journalism freshman and Chinese international student. “In China, colleges decide if they want you based only on the scores of one exam called the Gaokao,” Sun said.
UT STUDENTS page 3
@MatthewAdams60
An initiative from the Cockrell School of Engineering continues to progress toward the goal of increasing the number of women in the program. Tricia Berry, director of the Women in Engineering Program, said the school saw an overall increase to 30 percent women in this incoming class — the highest ever for the school. Berry said to increase diversity within the school, the Women in Engineering Program is working to recruit potential students and get them interested in the program. “What we are doing is trying to communicate to admitted students and encourage them to come,” Berry said. “We are trying to get more female students to apply to engineering.”
The Women in Engineering Program was developed in 1991 to recruit and train female engineering students, increase the percentage of female graduates and provide a support structure for the students to succeed. Another step taken by the School of Engineering includes the 35-in-5 initiative, which aims to increase the percentage of female students enrolled in mechanical engineering to 35 percent in the incoming class of freshmen in five years, said Carolyn Seepersad, engineering professor and faculty involved in the initiative. In only two years, Seepersad said the mechanical engineering department has seen the incoming class of women grow from 19 percent to 25 percent of the department’s student population. Seepersad said this is also double the national
Jesus Nozario | Daily Texan Staff
Chemical Engineering senior, Kimberly Magnus, studies for an exam at the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering building.
average for mechanical engineering departments, at 12 percent. Part of the reason why the national average number of females in mechanical engineering is low is because of misunderstanding about the term ‘mechanical engineering’, Seepersad said.
“The name mechanical makes people imagine mechanics … but that does not appeal to as many women as other applications might,” Seepersad said. “One of the things we have to get across to people is that it is very broad. It encompasses bio-
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COCKRELLpage 2