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Thursday, April 6, 2017
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POLICY
Senate talks ending top 10 percent rule in Texas By Claire Allbright @claireallbright
UT President Gregory Fenves said for 20 years the top 10 percent rule has sent a clear message to Texas students: “Perform well in high school, and you can go to the flagship university of the state.” Senate Bill 2119, authored by state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, would get rid of this law established in 1997 and allow public state universities to determine their own admissions criteria for all their applicants. Although no action was taken on the bill during the Higher Education Committee meeting Wednesday, a vote from the committee could come as soon as next week. Current law says a student who graduates in the top 10 percent of their Texas high school class is granted automatic admission to any public institution of higher education across the state. Seliger said in actuality this law has mainly applied to UT-Austin and Texas A&M University.
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WHAT’S INSIDE NEWS Advocates lobby at Capitol for abortion services. ONLINE
Students speak on Planned Parenthood By Lisa Dreher @lisa_dreher97
While sitting in an examination room for a regular checkup, Courtney Naquin spotted anti-abortion rights stickers covering her hometown doctor’s laptop, making her feel uneasy when she should feel the most comfortable. “I’m an 18-year-old girl in my hometown,” said Naquin, a sustainability studies junior. “If I have to talk about my sex life to this extremely pro-life, rightwing, Catholic doctor, I’m go-
ing to feel so uncomfortable.” Last Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence broke a tie within the U.S. Senate to pass a bill which would allow states to defund Planned Parenthood, a service Naquin has used for years. Naquin said she has used Planned Parenthood since she was 18, because it was the only place which would accept her insurance for services such as an intrauterine (IUD) device, which provides birth control. Naquin is from the conservative, middle-class city of
Campus event sheds light on sexual assault By Kayla Meyertons @kemeyertons
On Wednesday evening, psychology senior Jasmine Bell read her poem about sexual assault to a crowd on the Main Mall. “For the first time, I saw my body was a cigarette and he had been burning me for years,” Bell said. Voices Against Violence’s Take Back the Night is an annual interactive event for survivors of sexual assault to express themselves in a supportive community. The event is gender-inclusive, and this year’s Take Back the Night was hosted by VAV in conjunction with UT Theatre & Dance students. In addition to dance performances, the event included free food, poetry, an open-mic opportunity for survivors, a resource fair, an interactive art installation and keynote speaker Wendy
Jordyn Caruso | Daily Texan Staff
The Take Back the Night event was held on Wednesday evening, Wendy Davis spoke about sexual violence and rape kit VAV page 2 backlog. Take Back the Night was hosted by Voices Against Violence.
LECTURE
HEALTH
State Sen. Kirk Watson seeks to improve psychiatric care
Pluto still falls short of planetary status. PAGE 4
By Van Nguyen
SPORTS
@nguyen_van
Softball falls in extras to Texas State. PAGE 6
Austinites run urban farm along Boggy Creek. PAGE 8
REASON TO PARTY
PAGE 7
ONLINE Catch up on how former Texas stars are doing in the NBA at dailytexanonline.com
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Rachel Zein | Daily Texan Staff
Service sustainability junior Courtney Naquin uses the services of Planned Parenthood due to its affordability.
CAMPUS
OPINION
LIFE&ARTS
Orange, Texas, which she said has limited women’s health services. In Naquin’s own backyard, a federal judge in February blocked Texas lawmakers’ attempts to defund Planned Parenthood from the state’s medicaid program. The bill has yet to be signed by President Donald Trump, and it would reverse the former administration’s regulations requiring state and local governments distribute funding among women’s health providers, regardless if they
Illustration by Geo Casillas| Daily Texan Staff
University hosts severe weather training event By Catherine Marfin @catherinemarfin
As part of its larger weather safety initiatives, the University is hosting a Basic SkyWarn Severe Weather Recognition and Safety training session on campus next Thursday for members of the UT community. The National Weather Service, a federal agency under the Department of Commerce, is tasked with protecting life and property in the event of severe weather. The NWS has 122 field offices nationwide and utilizes Doppler radars to keep track of local weather patterns. “We need help during weather events, and the help comes in the form of weather
reports,” said Paul Yura, warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS in Austin and San Antonio. “As far as what size hail is falling or tornadoes that are on the ground, those things have to come from eyewitness reports.” To close this gap, the NWS established the SkyWarn program in the late 1960s. SkyWarn is a volunteer program with 290,000 severe weather spotters who are trained to recognize severe weather in their counties and report it to the NWS, using specific hashtags and phone numbers. The NWS then sends out weather watches, advisories and warnings to local media outlets.
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State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, has partnered with the Dell Medical School to innovate psychiatric care in Central Texas and replace the Austin State Hospital, which was built in the 1850s. The Texas Brain Health Center, as he refers to it, is Watson’s vision to replace the state psychiatric hospital with a center for brain health care, research and education. ASH, located on 41st and Guadalupe Streets, currently serves Travis County and 37 other counties in Central Texas. But according to state agencies, its old infrastructure can be replaced. “Our objective is to create a brain health center of excellence that will both improve access to care in Central Texas and be a destination for world-class care for brain health,” Kate Alexander, Watson’s policy director, said in an email. In 2014, a report released by the state Health and Human Services Commission concluded five of the 11
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state psychiatric hospitals were beyond repair and needed replacement. ASH is one of the five. According to the report, the infrastructure at ASH is not suitable to support the needs of contemporary care. The current number of beds for patients at ASH is 257, but the report recommends 350 beds, HHSC spokesperson Christine Mann said. “This isn’t just about building another building,” Watson said to the Austin American-Statesman. “This is about taking an opportunity. We have an energized mental health community and I think if we spend some time planning, yes, we end up with a model that can be replicated nationally.” Last Spring, Watson reached out to Stephen Strakowski, Dell Medical psychiatry chair, asking him to lead the group in charge of the planning surrounding ASH. Strakowski said school officials have been in stages of pre-planning and are consulting with outside sources to plan their next steps for ASH. Currently, the Dell Medical School is waiting
We have an energized mental health community and I think if we spend ... time planning ... we end up with a model that can be replicated. —Kirk Watson, State Senator
for funding from the Texas Legislature. Strakowski said one of Dell Medical’s goals is to look at how to provide care where it meets the patient’s needs more directly. One problem with current psychiatric care is patients may be spending more time in hospitals than they need to, Strakowski said. As they redefine the current model, Strakowski said he believes the cost of care will go down because they will be able to treat patients more efficiently. “Part of redesign is to look at not only more of
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