1
COMICS PAGE 6
NEWS PAGE 3
SPORTS PAGE 7
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
@thedailytexan
Friday, October 9, 2015
facebook.com/dailytexan
dailytexanonline.com
NATIONAL
UT affordability ranked 40th in US By Rachel Freeman @rachel_frmn
UT ranked 40 out of 179 top American colleges for efforts in economic diversity, according to The New York Times’ College Access Index. UT-Austin placed third of five of other Texas schools included on the list. Rice had the highest rank of schools in Texas, at 28, while Texas A&M University in College Station ranked 29. Trinity University and Texas Christian University were the other two Texas schools on the list, ranking at 117 and 177, respectively. The study includes data from 2011-2015, but weighs
recent years’ information more heavily in creating rankings. Trina Manor, associate director for the Office of Financial Aid, said she believes UT’s financial aid has improved since 2011 and the data from that year might have negatively contributed to UT’s ranking. “We had already seen the writing on the wall in 2011,” Manor said. “Since that year, we have added more scholarships such as the Texas Advanced Initiative and [secured] a commitment from Houston endowment. We can always do more, but we are definitely making the steps to help students pay for their education not just [for] one year but for
multiple years.” The Times compiled the index based on three factors: Pell Grant, net price for middle income students and graduation rate. Only colleges with a five year graduation rate of 75% or higher were included in the rankings. Pell Grants are typically given to families who make less than $70,000. The net price for middle income students is how much the average student pays for tuition, fees, room and board after taking into account federal, state and institutional financial aid. Psychology junior Jalesa Blueford said she felt frustrated with the financial aid office,
because she was given a Pell Grant her freshman year but has not been able to requalify ever since. “I never found out why I didn’t get my Pell Grant again,” Blueford said. “My family isn’t making money so I don’t know why I’m not qualified. I’m having to take out a lot of loans right now just to pay for school. Many of my friends who went to A&M were offered a lot of money. It’s sad UT isn’t able to do more.” Advertising junior Jesus Acosta said he doesn’t get any financial aid, but doesn’t care much about it because he personally doesn’t need any aid. “I have a neutral opinion
COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY RANK (ENDOWMENT PER STUDENT) (28) Rice: $729K (29) Texas A&M: $171K (40) University of Texas at Austin: $64K (177) Texas Christian University: $134k
of the office because it doesn’t really affect me,” Acosca said. “But I do have friends from my home in the [Rio Grande] Valley who have only been able to come to UT because of the financial aid they received.”
FOOTBALL
TX-OU meet for annual showdown By Nick Castillo @Nick_Castillo74 Then-senior quarterback Case McCoy set back to pass and unleashed a floating dagger that found the hands of wide receiver Mike Davis for a touchdown en route to a 36-20 win over Oklahoma in 2013. McCoy’s Longhorns were the last to beat the Sooners and only the second Texas team to win the Red River Showdown since 2009. As Texas prepares for the 110th renewal of the Longhorn-Sooner rivalry game, redshirt freshman quarterback Jerrod Heard remembers the 2013 game. “[My favorite moment] was two years ago, when Case McCoy beat OU, and he threw that deep ball to Mike Davis, and the crowd erupted,” Heard said. “When I look back at that, that’s what I want to do.” Much like McCoy’s Longhorns, Heard and the team enter this season’s rivalry as
HEARD page 7
Daulton Venglar | Daily Texan Staff
Redshirt freshman quarterback Jerrod Heard says his favorite moment of the Red River Rivalry game was former Longhorn Case McCoy’s touchdown pass to Mike Davis in 2013.. Saturday, Heard has a chance to create his own moment.
NATIONAL
bit.ly/dtvid
UNIVERSITY
Professor to withdraw in response to Senate Bill 11 By Nashwa Bawab @nashwabawab
In a recent resignation letter to President Gregory Fenves, a UT professor emeritus said the new campus carry law would diminish the university’s ability to attract new faculty. The new campus carry law, which has received backlash from UT professors and currently has a working group deciding university-specific regulations, will take effect on Aug. 1 2016. According to economics professor Daniel Hamermesh, the new law will lower the quality of higher education in Texas because it will discourage talented professors from teaching at universities that allow guns on campus. Hamermesh had retired in 2014 and agreed with the economics department to teach classes in fall 2015, fall 2016 and fall 2017, but said in his letter he will not return to teach after this semester. “This just makes UT a less attractive place, and people we want to recruit have lots of alternatives,” Hamermesh said. “I think it’s going to make it very much harder to hire faculty, and essentially what the legislature did was worsen the quality of higher education in the state of Texas.” UT spokesperson Gary Susswein said he appreciates that Hamermesh wrote his letter to Fenves because it is important for students and professors to raise their concerns about the concealedcarry law. “The concern we have heard from Professor Hamermesh is similar to what
WITHDRAW page 2
CITY
New FAFSA timeline Whole Foods plans to reduce workforce simplifies financial aid By Lauren Florence Whole Foods Market plans to lay off about 1.6 percent of the company’s more than 90,000 total workers in order to lower prices and invest in technology, according to a Sept. 28 press release.
@laurenreneeflo
By Catherine Marfin @ccaaatheeerineee
For students starting college in the fall of 2017, a streamlined application aims to make applying for federal financial aid easier. On Sept. 14, the Obama administration announced an update to the schedule for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. When the new rules go into effect next fall, students planning on entering college in 2017 will be able to apply for federal aid as early as October and receive their federal aid award information early that same fall. The new schedule aims to alleviate the financial stresses students experience during the college application process. Prior to this updated schedule, students did not have access to
the FAFSA application until January, and did not receive their federal aid information until late spring, long after they had applied to college. The new schedule will allow students and families to view federal aid information much earlier. Carolina Arroyo, a senior at Louis D. Brandeis High School in San Antonio, Texas, said she feels the new FAFSA schedule will help alleviate the already stressful college application process. “It’s already so overwhelming trying to apply to college in the first place,” Arroyo said. “It’s comforting to know that earlier information will prevent students from picking a college and finding out later that they aren’t able to go.” An expanded College
FAFSA page 2
Whole Foods Market, an Austin-based company, plans to cut about 1,500 entry-level jobs to lower prices and invest in technology, according to a press release Sept. 28. According to the press, over the ensuing eight weeks — until the end of November — the company will reduce its workforce as part of its commitment to lower customer prices and advance upgrades in technology while improving its cost structure. “We believe this is an important step to evolve Whole Foods Market in a rapidly changing marketplace,” Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, said in the release. The 1,500 workers who will be laid off represent about 1.6 percent of the
Jesús Nazario Daily Texan Staff
company’s more than 90,000 total workers, according to the press release. Whole Food’s press release stated the company anticipates most of the reductions will occur naturally through attrition, which is the gradual reduction of a workforce when positions lost from
retirement or resignation are not replaced. Plan II freshman Olivia Hartwell said she can’t afford to shop at Whole Foods on her own, but it’s the only supermarket her family shops at in Connecticut. She said the Whole Foods in her hometown has a program to hire people with dis-
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
ONLINE
Nightclubs discuss alternative queer scene. PAGE 3
Check out the video from this week’s Texan Talks about a moderated debate over the campus carry law. ONLINE
Volleyball ready for their own Red River Rivalry. PAGE 6
ACL poster artist Sophie Roach discusses design. PAGE 8
Julia Dyche brings laughter to Texas’ locker room. PAGE 6
alt-J discusses their recent album This Is All Yours. PAGE 8
Follow The Daily Texan’s reporters and photographers as they cover ACL Weekend Two at
Panel celebrates history of Tejano studies at UT. PAGE 3
dailytexanonline.com
abilities for entry-level positions. “If those type of people [with disabilities] were going to get laid off, I’d be really frustrated because I think that’s a really cool program, but I’m for new technology, so I guess it all depends on the other
FOODS page 2 REASON TO PARTY
PAGE 7