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Thursday, September 1, 2016
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UNIVERSITY
UT implements new safety policies By Katie Keenan @KeenanArroyo
UT President Gregory Fenves emailed the University community Wednesday afternoon about the Department of Public Safety’s completed campus safety evaluation. In his email, Fenves highlighted several safety suggestions from the DPS report, including updating video surveillance, increasing the
amount of patrol officers, legislating policy regarding the homeless population near campus and providing greater visibility. The DPS report comes five months after freshman Haruka Weiser’s death last semester. “There weren’t any real surprises in their findings, but what was very impressive was the level of detail,” Fenves said, adding that DPS included the Pickle campus
and residential areas as part of their evaluation. Fenves added in his email that the full DPS report has sensitive information that could jeopardize campus safety, and therefore will not be released. Although University updates released in the past five months regarding increased patrol officers and bike patrol units have reiterated the greater police presence on or near
campus, design sophomore Sara Wong isn’t convinced. “I think if the school adds that stuff it would help, but to be honest they should just stick a police station like right at the corner where the Art Building is, because they don’t really patrol there,” Wong said. The eastern end of campus, where Weiser’s body was found, includes the fine arts buildings and the Waller Creek area. This area, among other
sections of campus, presents unique challenges due to their landscape, said a Campus Safety and Security update. Fenves said the University is in the process of modifying vegetated areas of campus to fix this issue. “We will be looking at all the areas around the creek,” Fenves said. “We want to have an opportunity for people to enjoy the creekside habitat, and
SAFETY page 2
CITY
Nonprofit aids pregnant women of color By Mae Hamilton @thedailytexan
Recently graduated, working part-time jobs and unexpectedly pregnant, former Longhorn Michelle Mejia had no idea how to prepare for the birth of a baby. So she turned to Austin’s Mama Sana/Vibrant Woman for support. Mama Sana/Vibrant Woman is a non-profit, community organization founded in 2012 by Kellee Coleman and Jeanette Monsalve. The organization doesn’t follow the standard protocols of a traditional clinic but rather follows an older structure of community support and midwifery. Initially Mejia planned to deliver her baby in a hospital but felt uncomfortable with the highly medicalized environment. The fact that the United States has a high infant and maternal mortality rate that affects
SANA page 8
Carlos Garcia | Daily Texan Staff
Bianca Flores (left), Paul Rojas (upper left), Michelle Mejia (middle), Lourdes Kaman (uper right) and Jeanette Monsalve (lower right) are members of Mama Sana/Vibrant Woman, a local nonprofit that provides midwifery services.
CAMPUS
bit.ly/dtvid
STATE
New voter outreach program launches By Forrest Milburn @forrestmilburn
Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos had his first stop in the Vote Texas campaign Wednesday morning at the UT campus to encourage voter participation and educate students on changes to the 2011 voter identification law. The voter education outreach program from the Texas secretary of state’s office is aimed at increasing turnout among some of the lowest performing registered Texans, including millennials and college students. In March, Texas voters defied a longstanding tradition of staying at home on election night by voting in record numbers for the 2016 primaries, when around 4.2 million Texans cast their votes for president and downballot races – the most in state history, according to the secretary of state’s office. Despite the jump, Texas still lagged far behind other states around the nation in turnout during the primary season. “We’re going to be happy with Texas as number one in a lot of things, but are we going to be content with Texas being near the bottom when it comes to votes?” said Cascos, a UT alumnus. “That’s not something to be proud of.” After a federal appeals court ruled in July against the state’s law, which required specific forms of ID in order to cast ballots, any registered voter
VOTER page 2
UNIVERSITY
New app streamlines emergency contacts Lack of funding stalls By Katie Keenan
Guardian Circle is an app that alerts up to 10 friends in case of an emergency. “Guardians” are alerted to an emergency situation and added to a group text automatically.
@KeenanArroyo
Instead of relying on student programs, 911 or law enforcement, UT students in dangerous situations can now send an emergency alert to a group of 10 friends through an app called Guardian Circle. In March, Guardian Circle released its latest version of the app, which includes at most 10 “guardians” who would be notified of an emergency once a member of the circle sends out a signal detailing the level of danger, location and situational circumstances he or she is trapped in. Each guardian is required to approve their commitment to assist their friend if he or she needs help. A map pops up revealing where guardians are located relative to the person in danger, and a group chat is immediately created. This enables automatic communication, even if guardians don’t already have each other’s contact information. “When I looked through the app stores, I saw that
In addition to its timereducing aim, Jeffrey said the app provides a more fitting alternative for calling 911 under certain circumstances. If caught in a bar with someone who won’t leave you alone, Guardian Circle provides an easy out as opposed to the outdated emergency response system that is currently in place, Jeffrey said. “In the United States, 911 is actually terrible,” Jeffrey said. “In LA if you call the cops, the average response time [is] three hours. If you’re in a situation where you see some scratches
By Van Nguyen @nguyen__van
GUARDIAN page 2
The Counseling and Mental Health Center may not be able to offer their services immediately due to a lack of funding. According to Terri Bohuslav, executive assistant to the associate vice president for student affairs, CMHC’s budget for the 2016–2017 fiscal year is around $3.7 million from the tuition allocation from the student services committee. But this is still not enough to meet the needs of all students. During the spring semester of her freshmen year, government sophomore Sarah Herzer was involved in student organizations on campus, did research, interned and took five classes. As the semester went on the stress started to wear her down and she sought assistance from CMHC. But when Herzer tried to schedule an appointment with CMHC she discovered
Daulton Venglar Daily Texan Staff
there were a lot of panic button apps … but all they did was text emergency contacts with your location,” said Guardian Circle founder and CEO Mark Jeffrey. “None of them have thought about the second half of the problem, which is organizing the response.” After his girlfriend collapsed in November 2014 and was physically unable to use her phone, Jeffrey said he realized the need to create an app that would bring together at most 10 emergency contacts in one streamlined setting.
mental health services
on your front door, you’re kind of screwed.” Guardian Circle chief technical officer Chris Hayes said the app was created with a wide variety of users in mind. In compromising situations where flagging down help would only contribute to the danger already present, or if it is physically impossible to conduct multi-step operations on one’s phone, Guardian Circle comes in handy, Hayes added. “A thing we have to be aware of in terms of design
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Veteran student talks adapting to campus life. PAGE 8
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Students attend annual Party on the Plaza. PAGE 5
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Banks & Steelz album fails to blend rap, rock sound. PAGE 8
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that the times offered for counseling did not fit her schedule as a busy student. “I didn’t have time to carve out a time in my schedule that week to do an appointment,” Herzer said. “I didn’t want to go to the crisis line because it wasn’t a crisis. I just wanted to talk to someone about how to deal with stress. I found the [services] completely inaccessible and really frustrating.” Herzer did not seek further assistance after learning of the wait time. The process to schedule an appointment with CMHC starts off with an over the phone or in-person assessment from one of the counselors. The student is able to talk to the counselor right away. If the counselor believes that you are experiencing a crisis, CMHC will see you right away. Otherwise, they will evaluate that student’s needs and point them in the right direction whether that be a
CMHC page 5 REASON TO PARTY
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