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WHAT’S INSIDE
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CNN’s Paul Begala speaks on campus. PAGE 3
OPINION Electronics ban proves unnecessary. PAGE 4
SPORTS D’Onta Foreman impresses at Pro Day. PAGE 6
LIFE&ARTS ATX Barrio gives followers taste of old Austin. PAGE 8
REASON TO PARTY
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ONLINE For more stories, read online at dailytexanonline.com
CITY
US Census errs 2015 Austin population By Lisa Dreher @lisa_dreher97
The U.S. Census released a revised report last Thursday saying Austin officially exceeded 2 million residents in 2016, and not 2015. A report released last June by the Census Bureau said Austin surpassed 2 million residents in 2015, but the report prematurely estimated the growth by about a month, according to city demographer Ryan Robinson. Robinson said Austin’s rate of growth is more significant than just its population size. “The total gain from 2015 to 2016 was about 58,000 and that’s actually the largest in total terms since 2010,” Robinson said. “Austin is singular in how much growth it has experienced.” The Census measures only the metropolitan statistical areas made up of five counties: Williamson,
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CAMPUS
Fenves gives campus safety updates By Catherine Marfin @catherinemarfin
NEWS
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
In preparation for the oneyear anniversary of the death of dance freshman Haruka Weiser, UT President Gregory Fenves emailed the campus community to announce a vigil in her honor as well as provide a detailed report of updated security measures on campus. Shortly after Weiser’s murder last spring, Fenves requested the Texas Department of Public Safety conduct a security vulnerability assessment of the main campus and J.J. Pickle
Research Campus. At the end of the four-month review, DPS recommended providing campus areas with additional lighting, increasing police presence, adjusting campus landscapes to improve visibility and addressing the transient population, among other recommendations. “The DPS report is one data point for us,” said Gerald Harkins, associate vice president of Campus Safety and Security. “There’s been communications from emails, community meetings, talking with staff on campus and dialogue with members of the community that also
provided data points.” Some changes, such as updating building access and increasing police presence, have already been implemented. Of the 164 buildings on campus, 80 have been updated to require a UT ID for access after certain hours, Harkins said. As of this week, 34 of the general-purpose classroom buildings now have this feature. Additionally, the UT Police Department has implemented more officers patrolling campus on foot and on bikes.
Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan Staff
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UT President Gregory Fenves emailed the campus community Tuesday morning to provide a detailed update on security.
CAMPUS
Wendy Davis explains ‘Pussy Hat Economics’ By London Gibson @londongibson
Wendy Davis, former Texas state senator and gubernatorial candidate, said in a lecture Tuesday that supporting women’s reproductive rights puts more women in the workforce, and in turn, boosts the economy. Davis’ economic concept, which she named “Pussy Hat Economics” after the knitted hats popularized during the nationwide women’s marches in January, is based on the fact that women make roughly 80 percent of the buying decisions in the U.S. When women have more control over their reproductive rights, they’re able to take a larger role in the workforce, Davis said. She said because women are the primary consumers in the country, more money being made by women means more money going back into the economy. “When we create a workforce that includes women and we pass policies that make sure that women have an opportunity to have a vibrant part in our workforce, then our economy does well for everyone,” Davis said during a press conference. Davis, known for her work
Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan Staff
Former Texas State Senator Wendy Davis spoke to the media Tuesday evening at the LBJ Library. She did a lecture on women in the workforce and equal opportunity.
on women’s reproductive rights and gender equality, spoke to an audience of hundreds at the LBJ Auditorium in this year’s Dean Jack Otis Social Problem and Social
Policy Lecture. During the lecture, she touched on her struggles as a woman in the government, and encouraged young women to take a larger role in advocacy.
CAMPUS
She said the best way to make women’s voices heard is to ensure there are enough women in government. “When there aren’t women in the room … these issues are,
of course, going to lag,” Davis said during the lecture. Davis has also campaigned for women’s safety, particularly
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STATE
SURE Walk sees increased Senate bill decreases requests, seeks to expand university funding By Mikaela Cannizzo
By Catherine Marfin
@mikaelac16
@catherinemarfin
Two years ago, government junior Isaiah Carter spent an entire semester volunteering with SURE Walk and only received one call to walk a student home over the course of four months. Students United for Rape Elimination, or SURE Walk, was founded in 1982 by then Student Body President Paul Begala as a means to provide students with a walking buddy to-and-from campus. Before the murder of dance freshman Haruka Weiser early last April, the organization was widely underused and unnoticed, Carter said. “It’s good that campus safety is now on the forefront of the campus dialogue, but it’s a little concerning that it takes instances like (the murder) to remind students how important
Infographic by Maya Haws-Haddock | Daily Texan Staff
campus safety is,” Carter said. “The end goal is to make students use the service despite instances like that.” When he was appointed Student Government chief of staff just three weeks after Weiser’s murder, Isaiah Carter made vamping up the service one of his top priorities. Two years after he first volunteered as a freshman,
when the organization would receive at most 10–15 requests each week, it now receives hundreds to thousands of requests each month. Last month, SURE Walk received 2,827 requests from students. In the two months prior, nearly 1,000 walks and rides were requested,
Name: UT Athletics; Width: 60p0; Depth: 2 in; Color: Process color; Ad Number: -
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The Texas Senate unanimously voted on Tuesday to pass the finance committee’s proposed budget, which decreases state funding for many colleges and universities by 6 percent to 10 percent. Senate Bill 1, which determines the state’s budget for the next two years, passed with $217.7 billion in total funding, up $4 billion from the original amount proposed at the beginning of the session. Despite this slight increase, legislators still had to cut higher education funding in order to allocate money to other priorities. According to the Texas Tribune, UT would lose almost $48 million, about 10 percent of its current budget.
“Decreases are always unfortunate and we regret that, but please keep in mind this is a tough budget,” Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, said during the Senate meeting. “We were told we only had so much money to work with.” While institutions of higher education will suffer some loss of funds, SB 1 increases financial aid for college students by providing an additional $45 million for the TEXAS Grant program. Additionally, it changes the process of funding for special items such as research centers and startup projects. The Senate’s budget originally lowered funding reserved for these special items by approximately $1 billion, which Seliger said would have potentially cut 46 percent to 51 percent of funding for some institutions.
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