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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
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CAMPUS
CAMPUS
Students unaware of allocation of tuition
Protest criticizes UT contract with Nike
By Rajya Atluri @rayjaatluri
The cost of attending a public university has been closely examined with the recent passage of Senate Bill 19 out of the Texas Senate. The bill, if approved, would stop increases in college tuition for the next four years. UT tuition increases in 2016– 17 and 2017–18 will go toward Student Success Initiatives, faculty salaries and other programming, but many students are still unaware about tuition raises and its allocation. According to the University budget summary for the 2016–17 school year, $610 million — 21 percent of the budget — came from tuition. The other 79 percent of the budget came from other resources. In a February 2016 letter to the UT System, President Gregory Fenves addressed a decision from the UT Board
TUITION page 3
WHAT’S INSIDE NEWS UT student patents oil spill prevention device. PAGE 3
OPINION UT should implement mandatory sex education. PAGE 4
SPORTS Texas pitchers continue to impress. PAGE 7
LIFE&ARTS Planet Longhorn unites international students. PAGE 8
REASON TO PARTY
PAGE 6
ONLINE Professor studies rise and fall of cities. Read more online at dailytexanonline.com
By Chase Karacostas @chasekaracostas
Students gathered on the steps of the UT Tower at noon Monday to protest the University’s contract with Nike, accusing the multinational footwear company of letting human rights abuses occur in their Hansae Vietnam factory. United Students Against Sweatshops, Native American and Indigenous Collective and three other student organizations demanded an audience with President
Gregory Fenves to insist the University end its contract with Nike. The Hansae factory — located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — produces the University’s Nike-branded athletic apparel. Mass fainting of workers, unsafe spraying of toxic solvents and working conditions exceeding 90 degrees are some of the alleged human rights abuses at the factory, according to the Worker Rights Consortium. USAS has met with university leadership for the
past two years to discuss these issues. Fenves attended one out of approximately five total meetings, chief communications officer Gary Susswein said. USAS member Aileen Bazan said their talks have still not amounted to enough and that she’s been “disheartened” by the University’s lackluster response. “It’s extremely frustrating,” said Bazan, a Mexican-American studies and history sophomore.
NIKE page 2
Angel Ulloa | Daily Texan Staff
Psychology senior Andi Flores leads a chant in a group of protesters advocating against UT’s promotion of Nike on Monday afternoon at Main Mall.
POLICE
UTPD plans to increase number of officers By Catherine Marfin @catherine marfin
The UT Police Department is gearing up to hire nearly two dozen new officers to begin working on campus by next fall, almost three years after chief of police David Carter first began pushing for an increase. Before Carter began as chief of police in 2013, UTPD was authorized a maximum of 67 officers and had been at that number for more than 40 years. Carter has since worked to authorize 99 officers for the department, UTPD Recruiting Sgt. Jimmy Moore said. While the increase in personnel was officially approved more than a year ago, hiring new personnel can take up to a year or more, Moore said. UTPD has increased to 78 officers since 2013, all of whom are currently operating on campus. Thirteen new cadets, who will begin next fall, are
Current breakdown of UTPD officers UTPD hires new officers to up patrol Current UTPD officers
78
Cadets in training
13
to begin Fall 2017
Lateral Transfers
8
Source by UTPD officer
OFFICERS page 2
Infographic by Rena Li | Daily Texan Staff
CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY
Award honors students’ battles with adversity
Mellon foundation donates $3 million to support arts
By Lisa Nhan @lmnhan24
Seniors Dana Le and Maria Suarez-Magana received the Mike Wacker Award from Texas Parents earlier this month as a reward for their positive mindsets during times of hardships in college. Texas Parents director Susie Smith said the award, which started in 1985, is only given out when the committee feels a student’s story has “embodied the spirit of the award.” Named after former UT basketball player Mike Wacker, the award goes to a student for persevering through adversity. “In my case, adversity has meant a fight you’re about to face,” said Le, a finance senior. “You have to decide what creates your character in those moments.” Throughout college, Le said she has been in the hospital a number of times because of multiple reasons, such as a moped accident and recurring health problems. In her sophomore year, she suffered a
concussion during a car accident, which she said led to problems with her cognitive ability. With a lack of support from her estranged family, Le said she learned to take care of herself from a young age. Le said the friendships she’s formed at UT have made her journey a positive one, despite the hardships. “I’ve made a UT family here,” Le said. “Since I didn’t have a great support system at home, (it) has really redefined what support means to me.” For Suarez-Magana, a sociology senior, growing up with her mom and brothers taught her to be independent and how to support those around her. For a period of time, she was homeless in high school but knew she had to keep persevering. Throughout college, she’s had to pay for everything independently while trying to support her family back home. “I have my mom and brothers who need me,”
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By Meraal Hakeem @meraal_hakeem
The University of Texas at Austin received two grants totaling $2.7 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation this month to strengthen, promote and defend the contributions of the humanities and arts departments. The grants were received April 13 and consisted of $2 million to support The Engaged Scholar Initiative, a Texas Model to help thirdyear humanities graduate students develop research skills. The other $700,000 grant will help preserve and digitize human rights archives in Latin America. Esther Raizen, associate dean for research at the College of Liberal Arts, said the grant will allow graduate students to write a different kind of dissertation that involves multiple graduates, undergraduates, post-doctoral fellows, faculty and community members. “The project itself will be a growth project as opposed to one person working on their own,” Raizen said. “We’re
Name: UT Athletics; Width: 60p0; Depth: 2 in; Color: Process color; Ad Number: -
Courtesy of Mellon Grant
This month, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation donated $2.7 million in two grants to UT for third-year humanities graduate student research and digitizing human rights archives.
thinking in terms of reshaping, to some extent, the way dissertations and education in the humanities are perceived, because what starts here changes the world.” Richard Flores, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Liberal Arts, said the grant equips humanities students with the proper tools and research experience to pursue different career options. “Our students, for the most part, are going into academic jobs, but some of them want
to go into other careers where academic training at the Ph.D. level is still important,” Flores said. “This allows them to explore those avenues while they are still doing their graduate work and shape their work in that direction up front.” The $700,000 grant was given to the LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections project to preserve rare and fragile archives relating to human rights,
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