Daily Texan 2016- 02-25

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COMICS PAGE 7

LIFE&ARTS PAGE 8

SPORTS PAGE 6

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STATE

FAC tallies most voters in Travis County

By Forrest Milburn @forrestmilburn

The Flawn Academic Center, UT’s sole polling site, attracted the highest number of voters in the county during the first week of early voting, a vast improvement in turnout compared to previous presidential and midterm elections.

On Tuesday night, Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir released a report filled with unofficial vote totals from all 25 county polling sites, showing

the FAC had seen 3,423 voters compared to 3,083 for the location in second place, Randall’s off of Braker Lane and Research Boulevard.

Leading up to early voting, nonpartisan organizations on campus, including Hook The Vote and UT Votes, worked alongside partisan campus groups to reverse past trends and increase turnout among college voters.

“The more you research candidates, the more you learn about how our government functions and the more

you’re exposed to the issues that affect our daily lives,” UT Votes President Zachary Foust said. “It helps you develop a certain amount of civic character as well.”

In the 2014 midterm primary election, only 1,341 voters casted their ballots early at the FAC in an election cycle featuring an open competitive gubernatorial race that was expected to increase turnout.

The last time students voted in record-high turnout was in the 2008 presidential election, when the FAC saw 7,844

voters enthused about competitive presidential primaries in both parties.

“Anytime there’s an open presidential election ... you’re going to see more people voting in the primary,” Foust said.

“When people see there’s an incumbent president, they’re less likely to vote because they know the incumbent is already going to get the nomination.”

After March 1, the clerk’s office is expecting an overall turnout of 35 percent of

FAC page 2

Mike McGraw | Daily Texan file photo

The FAC had the highest number of voters in Travis county during the first week of early voting.

LEGACY

Pioneer of Kinsolving 1961 sit-in returns to UT

By Elena Mejia @elenamejialutz

On a mid-October evening in 1961, 18-year-old sophomore Sherryl Griffin walked beside two other female African-American students to stage a sit-in at UT’s Kinsolving dorm. The words “white people only” were not written in Kinsolving’s handbooks, yet University officials forced the three black students to leave.

“On my way, I had a lot of thoughts about what would happen,” Griffin, now 72 years old, said. “I didn’t know if my time at the University would be jeopardized, if I would be forced to leave, or if somebody would come and try to arrest me.”

Two months after the Kinsolving sit-in, Griffin filed a lawsuit against UT that led to the integration of its residence halls.

According to “The Time is Now,” a piece she wrote for The Daily Texan in 1961, black female students were only allowed to live at Whitis Dormitory and Almetris Co-op. San Jacinto Dormitory D and an isolated wing of the Brackenridge dorms were the only residence halls available for black male students.

“The fact that the officials fostering a segregation policy believe that Negroes are subordinate and unequal University students to be set off from other students in their ‘own’ living quarters angers me,” Griffin wrote.

The discrimination could be seen from the outside.

Griffin said residence halls for black women were fragile, two-story, woodenframed houses with no more than a 100-person capacity.

TBT page 5

Illustration by Jacky Tovar | Daily Texan Staff

CAMPUS

GSA candidates outline platforms for Spring election

By Cassandra Jaramillo @cassandrajar

Brown-Cicero duo aims Bhandari-Scott partners Cook-Boisjoli combine for more grad-friendly UT listen to graduate voices GSA experience for ‘ACT’ Wills Brown and Francesca Cicero met while at Vanderbilt for an interview last year and reconnected months later as UT graduate students. Now the duo is running for Graduate Student Assembly president and vice president.

Brown and Cicero, both graduate students in the School of Education, said they are using their different backgrounds to bridge the gap they feel exists between graduate students and the University.

BROWN page 2

Sahil Bhandari and Michael Scott compare their campaign’s passion to the likes of Bernie Sanders.

Bhandari, chemical engineering graduate student, and Scott, educational administration graduate student, said they would encourage more graduate student participation if elected GSA president and vice president.

“I likened our campaign to Bernie Sanders because we are trying to give voices

“Hotter than Burning Man. Better than a Rave.

The best party of the year.”

BHANDARI page 2

Architecture graduate student Warner Cook and music theory graduate student Ellie Boisjoli became friends thanks to the Graduate Student Assembly.

The two women running for GSA president and vice president plan to use their five years of combined leadership experience with GSA if elected.

“I think focusing on concrete things that will help graduate students and pushing those

COOK page 2

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BROWN thedailytexan

Volume 116, Issue 108

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FAC

continues from page 1 registered voters, once election night totals are added into early voting numbers, sources at the Travis County Elections Division said.

In the past, student voters have been able to visit the University Cooperative — then a mobile polling site — in order to cast their votes. Once the need for a more permanent location became apparent, a permanent polling site was established at

COOK

continues from page 1

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TOMORROW’S WEATHER

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Can you just make it Megan?

forward slowly from one year to the next, has been really inspiring,” Cook said. “I have really enjoyed my work within GSA. I’m ready for the next step.”

Their platform spells out “ACT” as an acronym and includes: accessibility, community and transparency. Cook and Boisjoli said they swear it was done serendipitously, but nevertheless a representation of what they’d like to do.

Cook and Boisjoli said they want to improve accessibility to important information by updating the GSA website more frequently, facilitate housing and transportation needs for graduate students and increase

the FAC to accommodate growing student enthusiasm during primary elections.

“I think part of it is that the FAC is such a central voting location for all students,” said Ashley Alcantara, Hook The Vote director.

Neurobiology senior Kaitlin Valentine, who voted early at the FAC Wednesday, said she believes students are turning out at higher rates than usual because of the abundance of readily available information and candidate outreach on

social media.

“People just have more information, and they’re getting other people excited to vote,” Valentine said. “If you just sit back and don’t vote, then that’s kind of the free-rider problem of everything.”

Aside from the FAC’s convenient location, Alcantara said turnout on campus is higher because of student voter enthusiasm over the competitive presidential primaries for both parties and over local state legislative seats.

“There’s been a lot of candidates that are running for state representative in [House District] 49 on West Mall everyday,” Alcantara said. “A lot of students walking through West Mall are interacting with the candidates one-on-one, which is pretty unique.”

Final early vote totals will come out Friday night after polls close at 7 p.m., and the final two days of early voting are expected to be the heaviest, an employee at the clerk’s office said.

transparency between the dealings of the University and graduate students.

“While Warner is a professional student and I am an academic student — even though a lot of graduates share the same needs and concerns — we both bring perspectives among the different types of programs where there are also different needs,” Boisjoli said.

Cook is currently the cochair of the Graduate Student Housing Committee, where she acts as a student liaison between the architects, contractors and UT administrators to program and design the future graduate housing project on East Campus. She also serves as a guide for any representative or committee that wants to pass

a bill or resolution but needs help crafting the legislation.

“I see it as we are already doing the work and I know I’m going to keep fighting the good fight next year whether I’m elected or not,” Cook said.

“But I know that I could effect more change in a position where I’d be leading the other graduate students because I’ve been there.”

Boisjoli teaches undergraduate introduction to music theory classes at UT and has spent three years with GSA. She was a representative for two years and served as an alternate for one year. She said she wants to keep the momentum going with successful GSA resolutions.

“The last two administrations have done a lot of good

work in GSA and we want to keep that moving forward,” Boisjoli said.

Vance Roper, graduate student in Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the School of Architecture, said he thinks Cook and Boisjoli’s experience would be beneficial for GSA leadership.

“There’s no learning curve for them and they can hit the ground running,” Roper said.

Roper, GSA vice president, said he was endorsing their campaign as a student but not as a member of the GSA due to campaign rules.

“I’m supporting them because together they have over five years with the GSA,” Roper said. “I have seen them attend every meeting.”

BHANDARI

organization’s session and tell them we have this budget and to please apply.”

Bhandari and Scott met in the the GSA Legislative Affairs Committee. Bhandari said when Campus Carry was being introduced in the legislature he saw the reporting in local media but felt the issue wasn’t being talked about as much in student organizations. So Bhandari took action, along with the Legislative Affairs Committee, and helped draft the Committee’s open letter expressing opposition to firearms in UT classrooms.

Before transferring to UT’s doctoral education policy administration program, Scott taught Spanish at the high school and college level.

Scott said during his time as a teacher, heinteracted marginalized communities and wanted to research the subject in graduate school.

The two said they want to streamline the lengthy process required for students to introduce legislation.

“When you have these systems in place, that’s for silencing the voice,” Scott said.

“These systems are stigmatizing. If it takes 15 to 20 hours to even get on the agenda, then how can we expect students to even participate?”

Anthony Martinez, graduate student in the School of Education, met Scott through a class and said Scott’s experience in education would be beneficial as GSA vice president.

“I know that a lot of his experiences in his high school teaching taught him there was a lot of voices that are marginalized,” Martinez said.

“A lot of times people do see it, but they don’t do anything about it. He isn’t like that.”

Martinez said he is looking for candidates like Bhandari and Scott who are wanting to listen the concerns of graduate students.

“I feel they’re recognizing the gap between GSA and the student body,” Martinez said, “and are wanting to get more students involved.”

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to as many students as possible,” Scott said.

Bhandari and Scott said they consider their campaign as the “anti-establishment” campaign. Their platform focuses on being inclusive and increasing graduate student participation.

“At the core of our campaign is participation,” Bhandari said. “Participation links to finances. The GSA budget is about $100,000 a year.”

Bhandari said money budgeted for graduate student organizations often sees some funds left over. The two believe it’s an indication there’s not enough students participating, or that they don’t know about the resources available to them.

“I think the focus has always been placed on student organizations asking to come and beg for money,” Bhandari said.

“And I think the focus should be the other way around. We should go every week to an

NEWS

continues from page 1 “I don’t think a lot of graduate students know how to get involved in the GSA legislative process,” Brown said. “And we want to make it easier for them,” Cicero added.

Brown and Cicero said they want to make the University a more graduate student-friendly campus for the estimated 11,331 student body population through their four-pillared platform, which they’ve divided into four categories: students, campus, community and future.

Their comprehensive platform includes several goals, including raising awareness on graduate student mental health, increasing hourly wages for graduate assistants who have moved from salary to hourly wages, promoting collaboration with a graduate startup incubator space, adding agencies for women’s and LGBTQ issues and creating dialogue on campus carry ahead of the 2017 legislative session.

Brown, who attended UT as an undergraduate and served as Student Government vice president in 2013, oversaw the Student Services Budget Committee, implemented a 24-hour PCL program during midterms and advocated for Invest In Texas at the 83rd Legislature.

Wills said his knowledge of the University and his connections to administrators will help him as president.

“Serving as Student Government vice president is how I really got into student affairs,” Brown said. “I now want to have this as a career.”

Cicero said her personal and life experiences would shape her role as vice president. Cicero is a firstgeneration American and was the first in her family to attend college. The former trial attorney said her seven years of being in court has prepared her to argue and fight for graduate student concerns.

“I changed careers [from being a lawyer] and moved to higher education administration to help students in college,” Cicero said.

Rachel Gandy said she’s known Brown since ninth grade when they met at J.J. Pearce High School. Now, Gandy is a graduate student in the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Gandy said she felt Brown and Cicero would make the best candidates because their platform goals, like adding incubator space, will effectively benefit graduate students.

“Undergrad is a good time to find your passion,” Gandy said. “Grad school is when you go after it. I think the space would be so helpful for students.”

Gandy said the issues the candidates raised throughout their campaign have earned her vote.

“They form a really great partnership because Wills brings great experience as a former student at UT and then you have Francesca, who worked as a lawyer and knows how to argue to get things done well,” Gandy said. “I think they will ensure to represent all students.”

W&N 3

ELLEN AIRHART, SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Thursday, February 25, 2016

RESEARCH

3

HEALTH

Graduate student tired of jet lag, finds reduction options

By Julianne Hodges @JayHodges2018

Most people wouldn’t make a connection between theatrical design and airplanes. For Andrew Carson, however, combining the two fields offered a solution to a tiresome problem.

Carson, a theatrical design graduate student and lifelong aviation fan, used his knowledge of theater lighting to invent a more relaxing lighting system for airplane cabins in order to reduce jet lag.

Lumen Air, Carson’s final thesis project, uses smooth lighting transitions to imitate natural light, which helps the passengers’ circadian rhythms to match the timezone of their destination.

For example, a passenger who leaves in the afternoon for a flight to Europe might have difficulty with jet lag because of the six-to-nine hour time difference. After the 12-hour transatlantic flight, the passenger will arrive in the European morning, ready for a regular American night’s sleep.

The challenge is to use lighting to influence travellers to stay awake at the right time in their destination.

“It would help move people towards the time that they are arriving,” Carson said.

Passengers experience jet lag because air travel allows for quick movement between vastly different time zones, according to psychology professor Art Markman.

“Of course that will disrupt your day-night cycle,” Markman said. “For the first few days, it’s because you decide that you should be awake; that is, your body decides it ought to be morning by now.”

A person’s bedtime and wake time depends on their circadian rhythm clock, which can be affected by the presence of light, said David Schyner, a psychology professor who studies sleep deprivation.

“Obviously, for certain species like ourselves, being awake during the day is a good thing,” Schnyer said.

“Light is very important for triggering a sleep response or a wake response.”

Carson engineered Lumen

The end of dinner transitions into a sleep period that slowly then transitions into waking up for arrival across the ocean.

—Andrew Carson, Theatrical design student

Air to imitate natural light because the circadian clock responds best to sunlight.

“We adapt to the things that are in our environment,” Markman said. “The very harsh kinds of lights that you can get from different kinds of electric lights, for example, are not things that we would have had much opportunity to adapt to.”

The lighting system eases passengers gradually into these different phases in a natural and less disruptive way than normal cabin lighting.

“The end of dinner transitions into a sleep period that slowly then transitions into waking up for arrival across the ocean,” Carson said.

“So instead of getting these very staccato, very quick transitions, it’s something that’s much more smooth and guided.”

Carson said these lighting transitions are similar to theatre lights that convey story arcs in onstage storytelling.

“What he [Carson] wanted to do was identify the script of a flight,” said Michelle Habeck, a professor in the department of theatre and dance who worked with Carson on his thesis. “Instead of having the lights constantly moving quickly up and down, it creates something that’s more fluid and moves slower.”

So far, Lumen Air is only a full-scale prototype. Carson hopes to patent it and test it on an actual airplane within the next two years.

“My goal for the system is improving the travel experience,” he said. “It was very encouraging to me that the science is there, the technology is there, and it’s working.”

Courtesy of Andrew Carson

Andrew Carson’s lighting system imitates natural light to reduce jet lag.

♲

Illustration by Melanie Westfall | Daily Texan Staff

Neurofeedback trains the brain to relax

By Laura Zhang @_the_laurax3

Step aside, naps and Netflix. Students can now use a cutting-edge technique called neurofeedback to help themselves relax after a long day of exams.

Neurofeedback is a therapeutic method that allows scientists to train patients to focus their thoughts using real-time brain scans and feedback strategies. This innovative field can also help treat various mental illnesses, including anxiety and depression.

In a recent study, UT psychology professor David Schnyer and his team conditioned depressed patients to selectively focus on a neutral scene while ignoring emotionally fueled images, such as sad faces.

While patients viewed the images, the researchers collected the patients’ brain activity and provided feedback. For example, when patients became distracted by the image of the sad face, researchers enlarged it to remind the patients to reorient their attention.

According to Jennifer Schriever, UT alumnus and licensed professional counselor at Austin Biofeedback Center, the positive and negative feedback methods can change depending on the patient’s conditions.

“I don’t offer people a steak if they react successfully, but they might get a simple reward like a green circle to appear on the screen and a bell to ring,” Schriever said. “Patients might also choose a movie — Wes Anderson films are particularly powerful.”

If the patient’s brain waves do not meet a set criteria, the patient will receive negative feedback — the movie will dim.

“When their brain meets the criteria to increase to a more focused brain wave, the movie brightens up enough so they can see it in full technicolor,” Schriever said.

While the efficacy of sessions depends on the severity of the mental condition, most neurofeedback patients reap visible improvements. The make up of patients range from those with mental illnesses to those hoping to better control their attention in daily life.

“The demographic is a lot more mixed than you might think,” Schriever said. “We frequently work with returned veterans, pro bono cases, PTSD, trauma and even UT athletes who want to build up their mental stamina.”

However, researchers still face limitations with neurofeedback therapy. For example, the current method of func-

tional magnetic resonance imaging, which measures brain activity with blood flow, causes a temporal delay.

Schriever said that as neurofeedback gains popularity, regulatory boards need to make sure only licensed health care professionals perform these techniques.

“If anyone is looking at neurofeedback, it’s really important for potential patients to consider that in Texas, to practice, someone needs to be a licensed counselor, a licensed psychologist or a licensed psychiatrist,” Schriever said. “Make sure you’re working with someone who really knows about the brain.”

Schnyer said recent scientific findings could facilitate accessible and effective methods of controlling various mental illnesses, including anxiety, PTSD and depression.

“Imagine if you have this person with a mental illness who’s been feeling out of control and you sit them down and show them that they can alter their mental activity,” Schnyer said. “The sense of self-mastery — you can’t discount that.”

According to both Schnyer and Schriever, neurofeedback not only gives individuals the opportunity to take control of their emotional states, but also has the potential to revolutionize the way the public thinks about the difficult treatment of mental illnesses.

“To me, emphasis on underlying biological causes is a given, but that’s not what it’s been for the public,” Schnyer said.

“So the more we emphasize it, the more people will realize that these mental health illnesses are really biological disorders, like a virus or a cancer we need to treat.”

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4 OPINION CLAIRE SMITH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | @TexanEditorial Thursday, February 25, 2016

4

A WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF THE DAILY TEXAN EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

FORUM

FORUM

Share your story, be the Dimitroff-Guadiana: foundation for change Running for students

By Binna Kim & Kevin Helgren

Executive alliance candidates @KevinBinna_2016

Editor’s Note: In this week’s Forum, the candidates for Executive Alliance were invited to submit 300-word candidate columns. Only light typographical and grammatical changes were made.

Our names are Kevin Helgren and Binna Kim, and we’re running to be your next student body president and vice president. Our campaign is centered around the power of storytelling. We, as students, come from various backgrounds and from different walks of life, but we all have one very simple thing in common: a story.

Your stories serve as the foundation upon which our platform is built. In listening to the stories students have already shared, we’ve decided to focus on five key issues. First, we promise to actively combat sexual assault on campus and in the surrounding area. One in five women have been sexually assaulted during their time here — it’s time to face the facts.

Next, we want to highlight the importance of belonging. There are so many ways to make a big campus feel intimate — it’s time to build a home. Third, we hope to create greater access to healthier lifestyles. A healthy student is a good student, so let’s bring more options for wellness to the table — it’s time to commit to health. Next, we want to foster an inclusive campus climate for all students. Regardless of race, religion, class or creed, your identity deserves inclusion — it’s time to represent our reality.

Lastly, we pledge to fuel conversations about mental health. As students, we struggle with mental health a lot more than we talk about it, but we’re n o t alone.

We want to eliminate the stigma — it’s time to normalize what’s normal.

For more information on the tangible solutions we hope to implement, visit our website at www. kevinbinna2016. com.

We believe that every story can and

By Jesse Guadiana

We believe that every story can and should spark positive change on our campus. This is more than a campaign for two candidates — this is a movement for thousands of students. should spark positive change on our campus.

This is more than a campaign for two candidates — this is a movement for thousands of students.

Join our movement by sharing your story.

Helgren is a psychology and neuroscience senior from Austin. He is a candidate for student body president.

Kim is a marketing junior from Plano. She is a candidate for student body vice president.

Student body vice president candidate @KallenJesse16

I believe in starting tough conversations, that’s why I have dedicated my time on the 40 Acres to being a leader in the Multicultural Engagement Center.

That’s why I joined Kallen Dimitroff as part of an executive alliance for Student Government president and vice president. That’s why we will not shy away from discussions that move our university forward.

It is clear that the University is failing a large portion of our student body. Our conversation at a town hall with Riverside residents Tuesday showed us they often don’t feel safe, integrated or empowered. For instance, a student in Riverside without a car may find it difficult to participate in SG, as meetings often con-

clude after bus services end.

Failures like these are why we carefully created our platform with diverse student input. We are advocating for a first-generation camp, an idea that arose from personal experiences and was solidified after speaking to organizations that are heavily represented by these trailblazing students.

We also plan to work with City Council to incentivize responsible leasing practices, so that students aren’t continually pushed farther away from campus because of predatory rent increases. These platform points will help to solve these pervasive problems voiced by underrepresented students, as well as every Longhorn.

On March 2 and 3, you have the opportunity to choose your next student body president and vice president. Know that we are running to work for students who do not believe they have a voice in our Student Government.

On March 2 and 3, you have the opportunity to choose your next student body president and vice president. Know that we are running to work for students who do not believe they have a voice in our Student Government. Our hope is that everyone on campus will come to see SG for what it can be — a place for progress and advocacy.

We want our campaign to go yearround.

You may notice that candidates always come to student organizations when they need your vote, but where will they be when you need them?

Guadiana is a Latin American studies and government senior from Irving.

He is running with Kallen Dimitroff for executive alliance.

Illustration by Mel Westfall | Daily Texan Staff

FORUM

FORUM

Turn Up Texas: Engaging This SG election, vote for students from DKR to SAC the alternative choice

By Jonathan Dror & Delisa Shannon

Executive alliance candidates @drorshannon

We are Jonathan Dror and Delisa Shannon. From DKR to the SAC, we bring together two very different student experiences on these 40 Acres in hopes of benefitting current and future Longhorns.

Our main goals that we hope to execute through our platform are simple: to engage students and make life easier on and off campus.

Student engagement begins with encouraging each and every student to be involved on campus. With a population of over 50,000, there is no doubt that each student creates a unique journey during their time on the 40 Acres. This is what we had in mind when developing our initiative — Longhorn Fever. Longhorn Fever is an incentive-based program that rewards students for actively participating in everything UT has to offer. From sporting events to educational speakers, we believe that developing your unique Longhorn experience starts here. We also want to engage students through our Campus Plug initiative. Through Campus Plug, different student groups will have the opportunity to connect and discuss campus issues. Imagine a campus where the Asian Pan-Hellenic Council hosted philanthropy

By Daniel James Chapman & Austin James Robinson

We have a lot of goals, but we are ready to accomplish each and every one of them — we’re ready to Turn Up Texas, are you? events with the Interfraternity Council — we want to make this a reality.

Making students’ lives easier starts with our initiative, Students 4 Students. We want to simplify already hectic student lives by accomplishing things like simplifying the class registration process. Registering for classes would be a lot less stressful if you were given information such as class size, spots remaining and wait list size. Beyond class registration, we want to make the SAC 24/5 to give students more options of places to study as well as improve transportation for students in West Campus, North Campus and Riverside.

We have a lot of goals, but we are ready to accomplish each and every one of them — we’re ready to Turn Up Texas, are you?

Dror is an economics junior from Houston. He is a candidate for student body president.

Shannon is a journalism junior from Houston. She is a candidate for student body vice president.

LEGALESE | Opinions expressed in The Daily Texan are those of the editor, the Editorial Board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily those of the UT administration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees.

Executive alliance candidates @WeGiveAShit2016

Every Student Government election cycle the same pattern repeats: debate over who has the most SG experience, candidates pandering to voter bases they never talked to in the past and infeasible platforms that lack detail. This year, you have a choice in choosing an executive alliance that is the real alternative in this race. This March 2 and 3 at utexasvote.org, vote for Daniel James Chapman and Austin James Robinson for SG executive alliance.

Who are we? We’re just two ordinary guys who decided to enter this race, not only because our moms made us, but because we want to serve this school and amplify the voices of students who have been alienated by SG. Who are we? We’re just two ordinary guys who decided to enter this race, not only because our moms made us, but be-

SUBMIT A FIRING LINE | E-mail your Firing Lines to editor@dailytexanonline.com. Letters must be more than 100 and fewer than 300 words. The Texan reserves the right to edit all submissions for brevity, clarity and liability.

cause we want to serve this school and amplify the voices of students who have been alienated by SG. We are the most serious candidates running in this race, and our platform reflects that. We have four main issues we want to address: preventing sexual assault, strengthening mental health resources on campus, making your college experience more affordable and creating real inclusivity at UT while acknowledging the school’s racist legacy. You can visit our website at http://www.wegiveashit. school/ if you want to find out more about our platform. Yes, there is indeed a .school domain name.

We won’t lie, Austin and I won’t be able to accomplish our entire platform all on our own. That’s where you, the student body, come in! Don’t just vote in this election, but get involved in campuswide and local political activism, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Socialist, Monarchist or crypto-anarchist. Vote for Daniel James Chapman and Austin James Robinson, because we give a shit!

Chapman is an economics and mathematics senior from Katy. He is a candidate for student body president.

Robinson is an English, UTeach and youth and community studies junior from the geographical center of Texas, Brownwood. He is a candidate for student body vice president.

RECYCLE | Please recycle this copy of The Daily Texan.

Place the paper in one of the recycling bins on campus or back in the burnt-orange newsstand where you found it.

EDITORIAL TWITTER | Follow The Daily Texan Editorial Board on Twitter (@TexanEditorial) and receive updates on our latest editorials and columns.

CLASS 5

LIFE&ARTS

5

Thursday, February 25, 2016

ANTS

continues from page 8 often find their natural enemies and better understand what controls them there,” Plowes said.

Phorid flies, which are about a millimeter long, turn fire ants into living incubators for their offspring. A fly injects an egg into an ant’s thorax. The egg hatches and the larva wiggles into the ant’s head, where it grows.

Eventually, the larva manipulates the worker to abandon its nest and find a dark, moist place suitable for the fly’s development. The ant finally dies, and the fly decapitates its host before emerging in two weeks to repeat the cycle.

The deaths of individual workers aren’t important in terms of population control, since a fire ant nest may contain 100,000 or more workers underground.

“Because of their social behavior, ants are difficult to think about as individuals,” Plowes said. “It’s helpful to think about them like leaves on a tree. If you pick off a few leaves, the tree won’t

be harmed. You need to limit resources that can weaken the entire tree.”

Plowes said that the way ants react when they notice hovering phorid flies is important.

“Ants are aware of the flies, just as we’re very aware of mosquitoes buzzing around,” Plowes said.

Food-gathering workers reduce foraging activity when they notice flies nearby, limiting the colony’s growth.

The presence of one fly can control the behavior of several hundred ants and impact the wellbeing of several hundred thousand.

“We want to stop the ants from feeding,” Plowes said.

“Imagine you were sitting at a restaurant and someone pulled the fire alarm.”

Effective pest biocontrol is better than chemical alternatives because it is less harmful for the environment. Pesticides are rarely species-specific, but parasitoids such as phorid flies are, according to Nathan Jones, UT Research Associate. Texan flies never attack South American fire ants.

“The flies are very much a

TBT

product of coevolution,” Jones said. “This had to be a pretty tight relationship.”

Phorid flies are able to eavesdrop on some ants’ pheromones, the chemicals they use to communicate.

“That chemical language is very host-specific,” Jones said.

“Particular species of flies are able to tap into the communication lines of particular species of ants.”

Researchers have released some South American fly species in Texas and have studied their effect on ant populations over the last five years. Plowes said it’s still too soon to tell if they’ve had a significant effect.

“Given the lifespan of a colony, it could be 12 or more years before we can measure the flies’ impact,” Plowes said.

Ideally, the flies will put environmental pressure on South American fire ants, potentially reducing their population growth rate.

“We’ll never eliminate them; we’ll never eradicate them,” Plowes said. “At best we can hope to control them using a combination of natural enemies including parasitoids and pathogens.”

Cat Cardenas Life&Arts Editor

I was willing to try and willing to be heard so that those people that are behind us can have it better and have a door open for them.

continues from page 1 The Kinsolving dormitory, however, would fit about 750 people in multiple stories built with brick or stone.

In the midst of the 1962 lawsuit, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited campus to deliver a speech at the Union Ballroom to discuss ongoing segregation in the southern states. At the time, only .9 percent of the student body was black, but a full-capacity crowd of 1,200 came to hear the speech and gave King a standing ovation when it ended.

“Old Man Segregation is on his deathbed,” King said. “The only question is how expensive the South is going to make the funeral.”

Facing political heat from the lawsuit and visit from King, Chancellor Harry Ransom told Griffin to withdraw the suit in spring 1964, two months before President Lyndon B. Johnson gave the com-

Charles Liu

— Sherryl Griffin, Alumna

mencement address at graduation. The University wanted to avoid legal battles and “voluntarily” integrate the dorms on its own.

“That was part of the reason why the University wanted to integrate as fast as possible,” Griffin said, “So that when the President of the United States came, the University would not still be involved in the punitive legacy of our lawsuit.”

UT kept its promise and made its official announcement to integrate all residence halls on campus during the Board of Regents meeting held May 16, 1964.

According to the official minutes of the meeting, “the Board completed its task of ‘integration

Cameron Osmond

Film Writer

with all deliberate speed’ as promised, and without troops, marshals, violence or bloodshed.”

Fifty-five years later, in celebration of Black History Month, Griffin returned to UT as a panelist for an event called ‘EnGENDERing Power on the 40 Acres: The Story of Integration’ on Feb. 24.

She joined a conversation as a leader who paved the way for women of color to be integrated at UT. “It’s like a relay. The relays are decades of various generations and various movements as progress is made,” Griffin said. “I was willing to try and willing to be heard so that those people that are behind us can have it better and have a door open for them.

This continues today.”

Sebastian Sada

Life&Arts Writer

Film Writer

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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Lang leads Longhorns to win in Lubbock

SIDELINE NBA CAVALIERS

By Tyler Horka @TexasTy95

The Longhorns entered Lubbock with a confidence boost. Texas dismantled West Virginia — winner of 20 games this season — by 23 points on Sunday.

But Texas Tech (11–16, 2–14 Big 12) gave No. 8 Texas an early battle on the southern plains Wednesday night. The Red Raiders grabbed a seven-point lead towards the end of the first quarter.

Still, the Longhorns withstood the storm and hung on to win 76-55.

The victory gives Texas 25 wins in a season for the first time since 200304, and the Longhorns still have two conference games to play before the conference tournament in March.

The Red Raiders rattled off 16 straight points in the first quarter after Texas scored the game’s first seven. Tech took a 23-16 lead into the second quarter after shooting 64.3 percent from the field in the frame.

But the momentum that Texas (25–2, 14–2 Big 12) brought out west reappeared in the final three quarters.

Sophomore guard Ariel Atkins drilled a jumper early in the second. Junior guard Brianna Taylor then drew a charging foul

HORNETS

WARRIORS

HEAT

THUNDER

MAVERICKS

TOP TWEET Chiaka Ogbogu @cchiakaa11 Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan Staff

Junior center Kelsey Lang scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds in the Longhorns’ victory over Texas Tech. Texas outrebounded the Red Raiders 41-27, a major reason Texas outscored Tech 42-14 in points in the paint. In her third season as a Longhorn, Lang has played in 27 games this year, averaging over seven points and just under five rebounds per game.

on defense, which led to a layup from senior center Imani Boyette at the other end.

The basket pulled the Longhorns to within one, with 7:32 left in the half.

The sequence of plays set the tone for the second quarter — a much different period than the first one.

Texas outscored the Red Raiders 22-5 in the

second quarter. Junior center Kelsey Lang scored six points consecutive points as Texas ended the half on a 12-1 run.

The spurt gave Texas a 38-28 lead at halftime.

The Longhorns were quick to forget their poor first quarter, outscoring the Red Raiders by 38 points after the opening period.

A trio of Longhorns ended the game in double

BASEBALL

figures. Atkins lead the way with 13 points and seven rebounds. Lang added 12 points and sophomore guard Brooke McCarty had 11.

The Longhorns shot 50.8 percent from the field in addition to 41 rebounds.

Texas hosts TCU on Saturday night in the Longhorns’ last regular season home game.

Tipoff for senior night at

the Erwin Center is set for 7 p.m.

Atkins told 104.9 FM after the game that she’s looking to send the seniors out the right way.

“It means absolutely everything to us,” Atkins said. “They’re the ones that sparked this program when coach Aston came in. It would mean the world to me to send them out big.”

SOFTBALL

Newcomers fuel Texas’ early-season success

By Claire Cruz @clairecruz5

Jenna VonHofe | File Photo

After a successful freshman season, redshirt sophomore Morgan Cooper missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He has appeared in one game in 2016.

Redshirt Cooper fights to return to mound after elbow surgery

By Michael Shapiro @mshap2

Morgan Cooper’s 2015 season was over before it started.

The redshirt sophomore looked to be the future of the Longhorns’ pitching staff following his 2014 campaign, in which he posted a 2.89 ERA. Cooper threw 56 innings for Texas, giving up 53 hits and surrendering just three home runs.

But in November of 2014, Cooper’s plans for a sophomore season were slashed as the young right hander underwent Tommy John surgery; it would take him nearly a year to get back on the mound.

“It was tough” Cooper said.

“It’s real frustrating when you have to take a step back and regroup. But it makes it that much sweeter when you can make it back to where you were before.”

The Longhorns ended 2014 thinking they’d enter the following season with a stellar 1–2 punch. Along with Cooper was then-senior Parker French, who excelled as the Longhorns’ ace in 2015. French was named to the All-Big 12 second team after ending the year with

a 2.57 ERA in 91 innings of work. However, a collection of young arms behind French failed to form a reliable pitching staff.

Last year began with the promise of a College World Series contender, but without Cooper or a consistently producing lineup, the Longhorns floundered. Texas ended the year just three games over .500 at 30–27, losing to Dallas Baptist in the NCAA Tournament.

“It really gets down to how we respond to the things that go wrong,” head coach Augie Garrido said. “The good teams are motivated and inspired to be better when things aren’t going well. I think we now have a good attitude.”

But now Cooper is back.

Cooper threw with a vengeance in his first game back as a Longhorn on Sunday.

Cooper pitched two innings in Texas’ 7–0 romp of University of Nevada Las Vegas, looking every bit the pitcher he was prior to surgery. His short stint on the mound yielded no hits and two strikeouts, with the last one clocking in at 94 mph.

“I’ve been looking forward to [coming back] for a long time,” Cooper said. “So to be

on the mound again, it was real exciting. My heart was pumping a little bit. I had that adrenaline going.”

2016 brings a new hope for both Cooper and the Longhorns. After a successful appearance against UNLV, Cooper will look to continue his strong start against Stanford. The Longhorns begin a four-game series against the Cardinal on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Austin.

“I’m only worried about my arm feeling good, and it feels good right now,” Cooper said “I just have to do what I’ve always done and focus on throwing to the mitt.”

“It’s real frustrating when you have to take a step back and regroup. But it makes it that much sweeter when you can make it back to where you were before.”

—Morgan Cooper, Pitcher

Head coach Connie Clark consistently praises the depth of her 2016 roster, and it’s becoming evident why.

Sixteen players on the No. 21 Texas squad have at least one RBI, and six different Longhorns have homered in the first two weeks of the season. The veterans that have become staples of the program are performing well, but it’s the newcomers that have everyone talking.

Junior transfer Celina Felix, along with freshmen Reagan Hathaway and Christina Bardwell, are a few of the new names making a big impact. They own the top three batting averages for Texas and have found immediate success on the 40 Acres.

“If you don’t know who they are yet, I suggest you start looking at our stats,” senior second baseman Stephanie Ceo said. “It takes all nine players to carry this team to the World Series.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman or senior, we’re all going to step into the box and be ready to play.”

Felix earned Co-Player of the Week honors from the Big 12 for her four-home run, and nine-RBI performance in the Houston Hilton Plaza Invitational last weekend. She leads Texas

with a .448 batting average and has the top spot in four other offensive categories.

Hathaway’s 10 RBI and .440 batting average are both second on the team to Felix.

Bardwell is third-best with her .412 batting average and has filled several roles for Texas.

As the newcomers continue to find success on the field, they’re becoming more confident and comfortable with the team.

“When I first started out I was a little bit nervous,” Hathaway said. “You want to impress the girls and show that you’re worthy of being here. I started seeing success and it’s really helped with my confidence when I go to the plate.”

Texas will attempt to achieve its best start in program history with a potential 6–0 weekend in the Texas Invitational at Red and Charline McCombs Field.

The Longhorns will kick off the tournament against Abilene Christian on Thursday night. They’ll play the Wildcats and Tulsa twice, as well as one game against Illinois and Weber State, respectively.

“We all individually have our own confidence, but starting off hot has boosted it more,” Felix said.

“We’re able to play loose and free, and good things happen when you have more fun.”

Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan Staff

The Longhorns will look to improve on their 10–0 record as they play six games this weekend at the Texas Invitational.

“Trust level: Young Metro”

SPORTS BRIEFLY Texas takes day one of Big 12 tournament Carol Capitani, Texas women’s swimming and diving head coach, raised both hands in the air in excitement. The Longhorns’ 200-yard medley team eclipsed a two-yearold record and claimed a victory in the race.

The win was one of five wins for the Longhorns Wednesday in the first night of the Big 12 championships at the Lee and Joe Jamail Swimming Center.

Texas’ dominant performance in the 200-meter medley relay was enough for the No. 8 fastest time in the nation this year, as junior Karosas Jordan Surhoff and sophomores Mimi Schneider and Rebecca Millard posted a time of one minute and 36.32 seconds.

“My strategy was just to hit my walls and come off with a lot of power, and I hit my walls really well,” said Surhoff of her breaststroke leg. “I wanted to make sure I hit my wall perfectly so Mimi [Schneider] would have a good start.”

The men and women took the 200-yard medley and the 800-yard freestyle relays, while the men also took the one-meter diving event.

No. 1 Texas’ effort in the 200-yard men’s medley marked the seventh fastest time in the nation and the No. 9 all-time mark at Texas.

The medley gave the Longhorns its twelfth straight Big 12 win in the event.

“Our 200 medley relay was really good, and our “B” medley relay was very good,” said men’s head coach Eddie Reese. “The 800 free relay was probably the best I’ve seen with four unshaved guys. I’d love for them to go a lot faster, but it’s not the right time to do that. We know we’re a lot better than that.”

Senior Cory Bowersox took his second Big 12 title in the one-meter diving event, with junior Sean O’Brien following closely behind in second place.

Texas finished the night with a win in the 800 freestyle relay in a time of 6:25.93, earning the fourth fastest time in the country and the third fastest time at Texas.

Despite the strong opening night, the men trail first-place West Virginia by 13 points going into the second day of competition. The women currently hold a 12-point lead over second place Kansas.

—Adair Odom

COMICS 7

COMICS

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Thursday, February 25, 2016

Isabella Palacios

SUDOKUFORYOU

Today’s solution will appear here next issue

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CAT CARDENAS, LIFE&ARTS EDITOR | @thedailytexan Thursday, February 25, 2016

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CAMPUS

ESL students find friendships, challenges in learning

By Nour Ghraowi @thedailytexan

In a country where the language is unfamiliar, smart phones become the closest thing to a best friend for international students.

The ESL program, offered through the International Office, assists international students learning English as a second language so they can continue their education in the United States.

Each student goes through a series of tests that decide the level needed to enter either the general English or academic English program.

ESL student Pascal Keronga moved to the U.S. in 2014 with an economic science degree from the Democratic Republic of Congo. When he arrived in Austin hoping to pursue a master’s degree, Keronga said he used Google Translate to communicate with the people around him, a difficult but manageable task.

“Where there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity,” Keronga said. “When challenges grow, opportunities grow as well.”

From the moment they apply online until they reach the U.S., ESL students are faced with many challenges, from filling out forms

to finding a ride to their new home.

28-year-old Abdullah Almudyfir came to the U.S. in 2015 after graduating with a business administration degree from Saudi Arabia. Almudyfir said after finishing the ESL program, he plans to get a master’s degree and start his own company back home, where he can share everything he learned and experienced with his family and friends.

“I came to Austin very late, and I didn’t have a place to stay and did not know anybody,” Almudyfir said.

“However, the staff in ESL helped me a lot. They became like a family to me.”

Shaikha Al Harthy, an 18-year-old high school graduate from Oman, was granted a chemical engineering scholarship by her government. Although she won’t start classes here until the fall semester, she said she decided to enroll in ESL courses in the meantime.

Al Harthy said she lived in Houston for four years as a kid, but it wasn’t long enough for her to gain a higher degree. She said she learned the language and other things she wasn’t used to doing such as cooking and cleaning.

“When I started taking

Maddox Price | Daily Texan Staff

When international students Pascal Keronga, from left to right, Abdullah Almudyfir and Shaikha Al Harthy came to the U.S. they struggled to learn the language.

classes in the ESL, I realized how much I didn’t know when it came to English,” Al Harthy said.

The three students said they matured and became responsible after moving to a different country on their own.

However, they said a huge

FILM

part of the transition process was thanks to ESL staff, who acted like family to them.

Priscilla Lee, a senior office assistant in the international office, said it is exciting to be part of the students’ journey.

“All the students who come through our program are

wonderful and hardworking,” Lee said. “I always ask students if they were scared when they first arrived in the U.S. — if they got homesick. They always say ‘of course,’ but in the end, they know they came here for more than just their temporary happiness.”

Keronga said ESL has helped him stretch himself as a person and try new things.

“Because of [ESL], I discovered my ability to live in a different environment with a lot of awesome people,” Keronga said.

RESEARCH

Disney artist animated about role in creating ‘Zootopia’ film

By Charles Liu

@CharlieInDaHaus

In Disney’s latest animated feature, “Zootopia,” rookie rabbit cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) doles out parking tickets on car after car. Though each ticket briefly appears onscreen before she pulls out another, each of their numbers and license plates are unique, thanks to the work of the film’s Environmental Look Supervisor, Lance Summers.

One of the many artists who helped “Zootopia” achieve its level of realism, Summers visited UT Tuesday to deliver an in-depth look at the production of the film, which comes out March 4.

Summers’ job was to translate the art department’s 2-D images into 3-D, supervising the texturing and shading of characters and environments. He started working at Walt Disney Animation at 20 years old after applying through the studio’s Talent Development Program, and his resume includes credits for “Tangled, “WreckIt Ralph,” “Frozen” and “Big Hero 6.”

He and Disney’s top artists and animators crafted the titular city, Zootopia, a bustling metropolis populated by millions of lifelike, anthropomorphic mammals. The city contains zones that feature different biomes — including a desert, rainforest and tundra

— each rendered with enormous attention to detail.

Summers said he recalled making sure the film’s environments had residues on windows and walls, so the world would feel less computer-generated. Fog, lighting, shadows and backgrounds rendered in 3-D also add depth and scale to the various locations. In shots with foliage, the plants noticeably sway. He said the more subtly complex the shots, the stronger their illusion of reality.

That same attention to detail was applied to the development of the characters.

Whereas Mickey Mouse and the eccentric dog Goofy are the same size, the animals of “Zootopia” match the sizes of their real-life counterparts.

Judy is dwarfed by elephants, and mice and shrews are so small they need to live in a miniature city. Summers said this was done to make the world more relatable.

“One thing John Lasseter [founder of Pixar and a creative officer at Walt Disney Animation] wants us to keep in mind is truth to reality,” Summers said. “You don’t want to stray too far off from what could be reality. It has to work. It has to feel like it could exist.”

To help make the animals realistic, Disney animators visited the San Diego Zoo and Kenya to conduct research and consult with

scientists. Because mammals are more complex to animate because of their fur coats, Summers said the artists had to reference various aspects of 60 different species to nail their appearances in the film. Behavioral quirks for each species were also added into the picture, lending the characters and the world greater personality.

Though most viewers won’t pick up the little details, they all help make “Zootopia” a more absorbing picture.

Unfortunately, because the film’s art was developed concurrently with the script, some story changes rendered certain locales unusable and caused weeks of labor to be scrapped. Summers estimates 40 percent of the developed content was ultimately cut.

While this may sound disappointing, cutting large portions of content is common for production of animated films.

Summers said these hard decisions must be made in order to make the best film possible, and the studio does its best to account for that.

“That’s one thing about Disney — we’re so agile and nimble that we’re able to change on the fly,” Summers said. “We want the story to be able to make changes up until the end, and that’s what’s most important. We want it to be as solid as it can be.”

Gabriel Lopez | Daily Texan Staff

Lance Summers, left, “Zootopia”’s Environmental Look Supervisor, answers questions asked by electrical engineering sophomore Jasser Masood and others at the BMC auditorium Tuesday evening. Summers previeiwed an in-depth look about the production of the film.

Mariana Gonzalez | Daily Texan Staff

In an effort to control the fire ant problem in Texas, the state releases phorid flies to help control the population.

UT researchers extinguish fire ant problem, fight to stop bites

By Maluly Martinez Benavides @thedailytexan

UT researchers are shaking the ants out of Texan pants.

UT’s invasive species research program introduced South American phorid flies to control invasive fire ant populations in Texas, with

the help of other research labs — including the USDA and Quilmes University in Argentina.

These flies are the fire ants’ natural enemies, and they may hold the key toward reducing the use of pesticides.

Fire ants cost the state of Texas over $1 billion per year, according to a study at Texas A&M University.

Bringing the flies from South America could help control the fire ant pests and reduce costs, according to Robert Plowes, a research scientist at Brackenridge Lab. “If you go back to the home ranges where these invasive pests come from, you can

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