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Volume 118, Issue 8
MONDAY, JULY 24, 2017
SUMMER EDITION
IN WITH THE NEW
Tom Herman discussed his plans for Longhorn football program at Big 12 Media Days last week.
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Lions, tigers and bears take over Austin for Zilker Theater Productions’ performance of The Wizard of Oz.
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KAYLA MEYERTONS, NEWS EDITOR | @thedailytexan Monday, July 24, 2017
CITY
Guadalupe Street receives extensive restoration By Wesley Story @wesleystory0
Students returning to campus in the fall may be surprised to see certain wellknown and collectively despised features missing from Guadalupe Street. Guadalupe has become notorious among UT students for its visible cracks in the road and bump-inducing potholes, but the Austin Public Works Department is hoping to change that reputation. The Department is currently working to repair Guadalupe and North Lamar Boulevard from 2nd Street to Koenig
Lane. The construction project involves removing the existing asphalt and subgrade material and replacing it with new pavement. Alexandria Bruton, senior public information specialist for the Department, said one of the biggest goals of the project is to make the driving experience smoother and more enjoyable for anyone who has to drive or cycle down “the Drag,” Guadalupe’s common name around the UT campus. “If you’ve ever driven down the Drag specifically, you know that it was a pretty bumpy ride,” Bruton said. “It got to a point to where it just
couldn’t sustain the traffic it received.” The pavement on the outside bus lanes of Guadalupe and North Lamar was failing due to the large amount of bus traffic, according to the Public Works Department website. Bruton said that with the pavement deteriorating at such a fast rate, repairs needed to be completed immediately. The repairs are taking place in phases and will last until the fall. The first phase involved repairs to Guadalupe and Lavaca Streets from 2nd to 18th Streets and was completed in June. The repairs took about two weeks to complete and
have caught the attention of many students who frequently travel down Guadalupe. Government senior Carly Allen said she thought the construction happened overnight because of how quickly the changes were made to Guadalupe and Lavaca. “I take Guad often to get to work,” Allen said. “It seemed like one day the roads were horrible, and the next day they weren’t. It definitely makes for a much more enjoyable commute.” Construction crews are currently working on repairs to North Lamar, which began at the beginning of July.
The daytime repairs began where Guadalupe merges with North Lamar and end at Koenig Lane. Repairs to Guadalupe’s bus lanes also started in the beginning of July. This phase of the project involves repairs on Guadalupe from Martin Luther King Boulevard to 29th Street. The road will remain open to traffic, but drivers should expect delays, according to the Public Works Department website. Nutrition junior Reena Patel said she appreciates that the city recognized the roads were an issue and finally did something about
them. Patel said she hated driving down Guadalupe in the past because her car is small, so she could feel every bump. “The roads have been bad for a long time,” Patel said. “I used to actively avoid driving down Guad because of how terrible they were. It’s going to be a lot more convenient being able to drive down Guad again, even if it did take a long time for something to be done.” Repairs to North Guadalupe Street are expected to begin in August and will begin at 29th Street and end at Lamar.
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Evelyn Moreno | Daily Texan Staff
Fewer students during the summer allows an increase in campus construction. UT plans to complete as many construction projects as possible before the start of the fall semester.
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LAURA HALLAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | @TexanOpinion Monday, July 24, 2017
COLUMN
Texans deserve better vaccine policy from legislators By Usmaan Hasan Columnist @uzziehasan
“Don’t California My Texas” has become the rallying cry of Texas Legislators and the Texas GOP, often used to deride the avocado-loving, personal-liberty-suppressing, liberal bastion of Austin. The Californication of Texas – not to be confused with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ smash hit – is a trend the Texas Freedom Caucus is avowed to reverse. To preserve personal liberties, the Caucus has taken potshots at making vaccination exemptions easier to obtain. Yet, expanding and utilizing exemptions is playing Russian roulette with the health of countless children. By now the GOP should have learned to be wary of all things Russian. Three types of exemptions are available to parents in Texas — religious, medical, and the catch-all “reasons of conscience.” Children too ill or allergic to bear vaccinations rely on other vaccinated people to prevent illness from taking hold, known as herd immunity. Experts estimate that herd immunity occurs when 95 percent of the population is immunized. The impact of looser vaccination rules is profound for Texans. On July 14th, in the face of a preventable mumps outbreak, UT Austin sent a campus-wide email warning students about the outbreak. Moreover, a Baylor College of Medicine study published in October of 2016 found 10 Texas counties hovering dangerously near losing herd immunity,
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Therein lies the core issue with vaccine exemptions, a relatively small number of people can compromise the health of the many. solely on the basis of conscientious exemptions. The most vulnerable of these counties is Gaines County, which has a dangerous 4.83 percent conscientious exemption rate. These 10 counties include large population clusters such as Travis and Denton, but perhaps the most striking feature of the list is that most of the counties are relatively small with populations around 10,000. Here a lack of herd immunity creates a perfect storm for disastrous outbreaks. For example, in Kent, population 843, only 20 more individuals claiming conscientious exemptions would put the county on the precipice of extreme vulnerability. The fact that 20 people can determine the public health of a county is compelling. Pop-culture icon and part-time politician Kanye West preached in “Power” that “no one man should have all that power.” Therein lies the core issue with vaccine exemptions, a relatively small number of people can compromise the health of the many. Recognizing this, in the 1905 Supreme Court case Jacobson v. Massachusetts the court established that personal liberty does not extend to un-
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dermining public health. Until 2015, the nefarious state of California created laws to make obtaining exemptions much easier. After a massive measles outbreak, legislators quickly removed all exemptions except those for medical reasons. During the 85th Legislature, Texas Freedom Caucus member Matt Krause made an unusual move to mimic California’s prior looser rules. Clearly he didn’t get the “Don’t California My Texas” memo. The debate in Texas over vaccines rarely comes down to the science of the
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matter, which has found that vaccines do not cause autism and are effective. Rather legislators and lobbyists claim that the preservation of personal freedoms is of paramount importance. However, the exercise of liberty comes with natural limitations, and the peace of mind a parent has that their child will not get a rare disease is sacred. California learned its lesson — Texas needs to avoid the mistakes of its rival. Hasan is a Finance and IRG sophomore from Plano.
Fake news has been hurting Texans for years.
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NEWS
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Monday, July 24, 2017
CITY
SAFEline chat provides secure support for abuse survivors By Jenan Taha @thedailytexan
An online chat room is helping abuse survivors reach out and receive assistance from the SAFE Alliance, an Austin abuse survivor resource center. SAFEline chat, a real-time messaging option similar to texting, has helped nearly 400 survivors discreetly contact SAFE about their experiences and has encouraged a number of young people to reach out about their situations. “We’re finding that youth seem to be more comfortable connecting with us that way,” SAFEline director Erin Clark said. “When it can be hard to verbalize, especially after a recent trauma, if they can just type out a message to us, I think that is the most valuable thing.”
Clark said younger people traditionally are not comfortable with using their telephone hotline. Some survivors tried reaching out through email, which was far less safe than the chat room, where messages between survivors and responders are not accessible to anyone else. Survivors can access the chat room from SAFE’s website, where live representatives will respond to messages within 30 seconds. Accessing the shelter through chat can be the first step in dealing with a traumatic experience, Clark said. Leah Leeds, Voices Against Violence clinical coordinator, said students may not reach out immediately after a traumatic event for various reasons. Leeds said the chat option
of reaching out lessens the anxiety someone may feel from making a phone call or speaking out in person. “A lot of people are more comfortable using a chat feature as opposed to making a phone call,” Leeds said. “It’s not always safe for a survivor to use their phone to call. You might be sitting in public and wouldn’t feel comfortable having that phone conversation.” UT sociology professor Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez has worked with women who have experienced sexual violence as a licensed therapist and said the chat can help survivors talk about their situations. “We don’t have the social training to talk about it,” Gonzalez-Lopez said. “It’s very difficult for people — there’s a lot of shame, doubt, confusion
(and) self-blame. (The chat) is an avenue that people are exploring, and as long as it is safe, professional and respectful, it may work for people.” Gonzalez-Lopez said sexual violence occurs in all contexts and settings, whether it is in the workplace or at school. According to a 2017 study by UT’s Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, 8 percent of UT students in a relationship reported being psychologically abused by their partner, while 10 percent reported being physically abused. The study also found that 15 percent of female students have experienced rape since beginning college. However, 68 percent of students who had experienced sexual harassment or interpersonal violence did not
POLICE
APD warns of scammers posing as authorities By Jenan Taha @thedailytexan
The Austin Police Department warned the public Thursday about an Internal Revenue Service phone scam in which the scammer used a caller ID that was identical to an APD number. Several people received the call and were threatened with arrest, deportation and other consequences if they did not pay off a debt immediately. When those who received the call called back, they found APD on the other line. “The IRS does not call you and make these kinds of arrangements to make immediate payment,” APD Commander Pat Connor said. “APD does not call anyone soliciting money. If somebody were to ever receive a
phone call from APD saying anything along the lines of ‘you have a ticket, you need to pay it now over the phone,’ we don’t do that.” Connor said this kind of phone scam is widespread across the country, and some scammers are able to mimic numbers that look local, even if the scammers themselves aren’t in the United States. “There’s always some type of phone scam going on,” Connor said. “The scary thing is there are (scammers) from all over the world. When you see the caller ID saying it’s an Austin number, they may be in Canada or somewhere else.” Of the Austinites who were called by the scammer Thursday morning, none fell victim to the plot, Connor said. Cindy Posey, director of
internal and campus safety communications, said in a statement UT Police Department is aware of these kinds of scams and warns students not to give away information over the phone. “Do not fall for this scam, or any scam, where someone is requesting money via a phone call, even if the phone number appears to be legitimate,” Posey said. “Always hang up, ignore their threats, and if you feel unsafe, dial 911 and tell law enforcement about the incident.” UT alumna Sherry Tucci said she gets similar scam calls at least three times a week. “Sometimes it’s really bad and they’ll call me three times a day,” Tucci said. “They try to ease you into giving them information about you. Nowadays I just ignore the call.”
Tucci said she can usually recognize the signs that a phone call is a scam. “I can tell when someone is trying to sell me something,” Tucci said. “If they’re kind of dodgy or they’re not specific about things, you can tell that they’re trying to make you feel like you’re getting what you want, but in reality they’re just getting your information.” Connor said it’s important to remember that a government office will never call a citizen directly to demand something from them. “The most important takeaway from this is that the IRS or the police department are not going to call you or call anyone to demand money over the phone and threaten to arrest you,” Connor said. “We’re not going to ask for payment over the phone.”
Illustration by Jacky Tovar | Daily Texan Staff
tell someone about it before the survey. “When we’ve experienced a recent trauma, sometimes we want to talk to our friends or take some time to process that,” Leeds said. “Most people are going to reach out to what
feels safest to them. Sometimes that means not reaching out.” SAFEline chat is currently open for 12 hours on weekdays and 10 on weekends, but Clark said SAFE will expand to a 24/7 chat room service this year.
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COVER
Monday, July 24, 2017
A NEW
ERA B Texas linebacker Edwin Freeman tries to tackle Oklahoma wide receiver Dede Westbrook at the Cotton Bowl on October 8. 2016. Texas lost to the Sooners, 45-40. Zoe Fu | Daily Texan Staff
The four biggest storylines from Big 12 Football Media Days By Drew King
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@drewking0222
ollege football season is still a few weeks down the road, but fans are already buzzing with excitement over the upcoming season. Coaches and players from each Big 12 school — along with Commissioner Bob Bowlsby — were on full display at The Star in Frisco on Monday and Tuesday for Big 12 Media Days, giving insight into their expectations for the 2017 season. Here are the top four storylines from Big 12 Football Media Days.
The 13th data point has arrived
The Big 12 has been held out of the College Football Playoff twice in the past three seasons, in large part due to the lack of a conference championship game. But now, the conference will add a 13th game to its schedule in 2017 with the return of the Big 12 Championship Game. “The decision was made 100 percent on our ability to optimize the likelihood of getting a team into the CFP,” Bowlsby said. “Playing a full round robin and having our two best teams play each other on the last day of the season is the right way to conduct our championship.” Bowlsby also stated he is not worried about the possibility of the Big 12 Championship Game being a rematch. He noted that 33 conference championship games have been rematches.
Lincoln Riley expects consistency
The Sooners’ offensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016 was hired as the heir apparent to Oklahoma legend Bob Stoops after Stoops’ sudden retirement in June. And in his first Big 12 Media Days appearance, Riley noted how easy the transition has been from OC to head coach. “What made this so unique, I think, was the continuity that was kept with the decision,” Riley said. “Not having to hire 10 new coaches, not having to get to know new players and develop those relationships, I think Coach (Stoops) said it best. He didn’t want to derail that.” One spot Oklahoma may find inconsistency, though, is at the running back position. The Sooners lost Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine in the NFL Draft this year.
Riley said he plans to keep an open mind when deciding who the starter will be, hinting that he may go with a running-back-by-committee approach.
Where did all the Texas players go?
No Texas school ended the season last year in the AP Top 25, marking the first time that happened since the establishment of the conference in 1996. TCU head coach Gary Patterson attributed this problem to the Big 12’s decline in recruiting prospects from the state of Texas. “We’ve got to keep players here,” Patterson said. “I think the internet and everything else has led to that because kids go anywhere now to look at a school. We’ve got to do a better job of keeping them in the state.”
Tom Herman finds familiarity in Austin
Texas’ new head coach was a graduate assistant for the Longhorns in 1999 under Mack Brown. Two years prior, the Longhorns went 4–7, eerily similar to the 5–7 season Texas suffered last year. Herman said his current situation is not unlike his first at UT. “I think they are very comparable,” Herman said. “Coach Brown’s first full recruiting class kind of turned the tide a little bit in terms of bringing in the necessary talent to compete. Then Moncrief Neuhaus, our new facility, had just been finished. So that attracted a lot of players and, again, made Texas kind of the cool place to go. And we’re doing the same with our facilities now. So I think there are some parallels.
STORY
Monday, July 24, 2017
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BEGINS Last week, UT’s players and coaches, including new head coach Tom Herman, looked ahead as they discussed their hopes and expectations for the fall.
Texas head coach Tom Herman addresses members of the media at Big 12 Media Days on Tuesday, July 18, at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Stephanie Martinez-Arndt | Daily Texan Staff
Herman sets course for future of program By Michael Shapiro
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@mshap2
ead coach Tom Herman held his first meeting with the Longhorns in December and asked how many players on the team had experienced a winning season in their time with the burnt orange. Just three raised their hands. The Charlie Strong era in Austin lasted three years and yielded zero winning seasons. There were a litany of woes on each side of the ball, from the failed quarterback combo of Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard in 2015 to the demotion of defensive coordinator Vance Bedford in 2016. The string of disappointments came to a head with an overtime loss to Kansas in November of last year, leading to Strong’s dismissal a few weeks later. Now, Herman is looking to revitalize the program from the top down. He hired a new social media team to rebrand the Longhorns’ image, and began a renovation of the Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletic Complex within weeks of his hiring. Those cosmetic changes should help the Longhorns’ standing on the recruiting trail, though Herman knows they will have little impact without
success on Saturdays. A culture of losing has set in at Texas over the past half decade, and Herman must take steps to turn the tide. “I think losing has to be awful, and you can never get used to losing,” Herman said. “That is one of the biggest maybe downfalls of a lot of teams is you get used to losing. No, losing is awful. It’s awful. It’s not just, ‘oh, well, we’ll get them next week.’ No, this is like the sky-is-falling-type stuff.” For a team coming off three consecutive losing seasons, the cupboards aren’t exactly bare heading into 2017. Five Longhorns were named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team. Three were named to the Maxwell Award watch list, which honors the top player in college football each year. And while losing leading rusher D’Onta Foreman from last year’s squad will deal a blow to the burnt orange ground game, Texas returns its top two receivers and top three tacklers from last year. And that’s not to mention the return of sophomore quarterback Shane Buechele. The Arlington native shined as a freshman, bringing much-needed stability to a position that has featured a carousel of failed signal callers over the past five seasons. Buechele ended the 2016 season with 21 TD’s and nearly 3000 yards passing. That’s the most for a Longhorn
QB since Colt McCoy threw for 3521 yards in 2009. However, it wasn’t Buechele’s passing prowess that most impressed Herman during offseason workouts. Rather, it was the sophomore’s increased leadership, and his ability to rally the team from under center. “Shane has done a marvelous job of coming in this summer and really trying to be more of a leader,” Herman said. “We’ve explained that for (Buechele) to take the next step in his growth, one of those things is going to have to be to continue to lead the culture of the team.” A combined 16–21 record during Strong’s tenure marked the Longhorns’ worst three-year stretch since the late 1950s. Texas has fallen from a consistent contender for the national title to a middling player in the Big 12, searching for its first bowl win since 2012. But despite the team’s recent struggles, Herman believes this year’s group will be the one to reverse the course of the program and open a new chapter of Texas football. “I feel good that these guys are willing to do whatever we ask them to coming off the three-year stretch that this program has had,” Herman said. “They don’t want that to be their legacy. They want to be remembered as the team and the group that turned this thing around. I think we’re well on our way.”
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MORGAN O’HANLON, LIFE&ARTS EDITOR | @thedailytexan Monday, July 24, 2017
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THEATER & DANCE
‘Wizard of Oz’ comes to Zilker Hillside Theater By Acacia Coronado @acaciatree18
Flying monkeys, a sparkling witch and an iconic Kansas sweetheart in red ruby slippers are taking audiences on an adventure through Emerald City. For its annual summer musical, Zilker Theatre Productions brings the story of “The Wizard of Oz” to life each Thursday through Sunday until Aug. 12 at the Zilker Hillside Theater. Presented in conjunction with the City of Austin, each show offers a free journey over the rainbow as the sun sets in the City of the Violet Crown. For J. Robert Moore, director of the production, directing this show is important on professional and personal levels because of the influence the story had on his childhood. “When I was a kid, my brothers would sit me in front of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” Moore said. “I remember just being entranced by some of the outtakes. Watching it again as an adult, there is so many little moments that have stuck with me or have influenced me artistically. I really wanted to give people things that they know and love, while also giving them a new look at a
story that they already know one way.” Hannah Roberts, who plays Dorothy, said she’s excited to play the role of a character she’s idolized since childhood. “It is the role of a lifetime,” Roberts said. “I love how sincere Dorothy is, the songs she gets to sing, the different characters she meets. I was really drawn to the role because she is similar to me in a lot of aspects — always dreams of a bigger better world.” As she prepares to go to college, the 18-year-old said she relates to Dorothy because of the definitive journey she’s about to take. “Zilker Park feels like my home because I have basically grown up there,” Roberts said. “I am about to go on a journey to a far away land and hopefully transform into a young woman just like her.” Jordan Barron, who plays the Tin Man, is a lifelong fan of his character and said he has always admired his character’s nature. “I feel like I had a very special place in my heart for the Tin Man,” Barron said. “He was sort of a shy but loving character, and I was a soft-spoken kid who was really an extrovert when I was in a theater setting.”
As regulars return to the Zilker stage, Boo Bear, a rescue mutt from Austin Animal Center (and good boy) who plays Toto, is just beginning his artistic career. Natalie Haddad, Boo Bear’s owner and handler, said this is her first major role in a production. “She was in a musical once before,” Haddad said. “She was never professionally trained or anything. We were all really shocked at how accustomed she got to the basket (Dorothy carries Toto in.)” Like a true professional, Haddad said Boo Bear has surprised his owners, co-workers and audiences with his quick learning and calm nature. With everyone preparing to follow the yellow brick road to the stage, Barron said he encourages audiences to go see the play because it is an important story for everyone to experience. “It is a story that really applies to everybody,” Barron said. “Whether you grew up watching theater or just seeing the ‘Wizard of Oz’ occasionally on television, it is something that has messages that we can apply to any aspect of our lives, whether we are adults or children.”
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Karen Pinilla | Daily Texan Staff
Hannah Roberts and Jordan Barron perform as Dorothy and the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz,” which runs until Aug. 12 at Zilker Hillside Theater.
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LIFE&ARTS
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Monday, July 24, 2017
STATE
After-school unicycle program builds self-confidence, teamwork in students
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By Jose Gonzalez @Jose_thewriter
After challenging himself to become a unicyclist, a local schoolteacher kept a one-track mind and used this skill to teach students to balance self-confidence and team building. In 2009, Jimmy Agnew started an after-school unicycle club at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School called Uni-Saders. Two years ago, Agnew expanded his program into a nonprofit called One Wheel Many Children that reaches a wide group of kids across Central Texas f and beyond. Though Agnew quit teaching at St. Andrews to run the nonprofit full time, he still helps out with the Uni-Saders program, teaching students values and skills beyond unicycling. “Learning to unicycle is about balance of cognitive thinking and physical awareness, and we teach kids to learn together as a team,” Agnew said. “It’s the same thing we want to teach kids in the classroom, to problem-solve and challenge themselves.” As both the programs continue to grow, Agnew said his mission is to create a network of communities for children from different schools to participate in unicycling together and build confidence in one another. “By teaching the kids to unicycle and then have them teach other kids, we empower them,” Agnew said. “What’s really nice is when we have joint practices at different schools, and they all come together for the same practice on
Name: CLASSIFIEDS; Width: 19p4; Depth: 6 in; Color: Black; Ad Number: Angel Ulloa | Daily Texan Staff Jimmy Agnew’s nonprofit One Wheel Many Children teaches children how to maintain balance on a unicycle and in life. Agnew plans to share OWMC’s mission by traveling from school to school starting on Aug. 1.
the weekend.” Once Uni-Saders started gaining more attention from other public schools, Kama Bruce, the head of the Lower School at St. Andrews, began discussing with Agnew how to move forward with the nonprofit and make unicycling accessible to all school children. “We started to think about how we could grow the idea of getting kids together across different socioeconomic lines, across racial and ethnic lines, all through the common experience of play,” Bruce said. In 2015, OWMC approached the public school KIPP Austin Comunidad to include unicycling as part of their curriculum. Principal Justin Scott said he had no real expectations that first semester, but Agnew’s focus and
enthusiasm helped steer a partnership between KIPP and OWMC. “Jimmy literally came in with unicycles and brought out some volunteers and dedicated his time to just ignite excitement with the students,” Scott said. “At the end of the year, most of the kids were riding unicycles by themselves. It was amazing to see how their confidence had grown.” The students also perform exercises outside of physical activity, such as journal entries to better their writing. Bruce said programs like OWMC are important not only because they enhance skills used in the classroom, but also because they provide an escape from the things that hinder child development. “A lot of our students are exposed to high-stakes testing, and if they don’t
do well they are seen as less than,” Bruce said. “So to have something where you can try again without judgment or pressure other than the pressure you put upon yourself, that is a great experience.” Agnew said the best way he knows to educate students is through their innate sense of fun. Starting Aug. 1, Agnew is turning a school bus into a mobile unicycle gallery and driving around from school to school as a way to share OWMC’s mission for the coming school year. “When kids are able to dedicate some unstructured time in their day to play with something challenging and learn through curiosity, it’s a whole different world,” Agnew said. “It’s not even about unicycling, it’s about all the skills that come with it.”
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KATE THACKREY, SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Monday, July 24, 2017
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PSYCHOLOGY
The Body Project aims to prevent, treat eating disorders By Jace Klein @thedailytexan
A treatment and research program called the Body Project helps women learn to celebrate their bodies while delving into the neuroscience behind eating disorders. Started in the 1990s, the Body Project aims to provide a preventative therapy that intervenes and stops the onset of eating disorders beforehand. It is found at over 100 universities across the nation, including UT. “The Body Project treatment is a two eight-week dissonance-based eating disorder intervention,” said Amber Borcyk, UT Body Project coordinator for the past two years. “We collect self-reported data as well as neuroimaging and genetic sampling from participants. The groups undergo verbal, written and behavioral activities in which they discuss the costs of pursuing the thin ideal and the behaviors they use to pursue this ideal.” While therapy does exist today to help treat eating disorders, the Body Project is different in that it serves to prevent eating disorders in women that show signs of developing one, according to project founder Eric Stice, a clinical psychologist from the Oregon Research Institute. “The Body Project allows young women who are pursuing an unrealistic body type personified in the mass media … basically to talk themselves out of it,” said Stice, who is also a UT psychology adjunct associate professor. According to the Evolution of the Body Project report by Stice and Trinity University
psychology professor Carolyn Becker, up to 15 percent of women will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime. Of those, only 20 percent will receive treatment, and 27 to 45 percent of patients will then go into remission. Many of the group activities strive to challenge unhealthy eating behaviors and the “thin ideal,” which is an unattainable body standard set by society, according to Stephanie Oleson, psychology graduate student and group instructor. “The thin ideal is this pursuit of the perfect model-thin body,” Oleson said. “It’s kind of like this ultra-thin but also busty woman that really is unobtainable and also the idea that people go to extreme behaviors to achieve that thin ideal.” To challenge the thin ideal, instructors promote the “healthy ideal,” providing women with knowledge on exercise and living a healthy lifestyle, Oleson said. Aside from the group sessions, researchers with the program also study member brain images and genotypes, collecting a vast array of psychological, neurological and genetic data, Stice said. “We were able to identify some really nice predictors of weight gain using (neuroimaging),” Stice said. “Give people a chocolate milkshake in the scanner and look at reward region response to that to predict future weight gain, and the predicted facts blow everything else out of the water.” These techniques have also been used to verify the success of the Body Project group sessions, Stice added. “We’ve done brain imaging work and shown that
basically before women do the Body Project, when we show them pictures of supermodels and then average-weight women, there’s really strong recruitment of reward regions when they see a supermodel compared to average-rate women,” Stice said. “And after they do the Body Project, its reversed.” According to Stice, the Body Project is following a group of women to see how results vary between women who received the traditional group therapy, women who received therapy from a peer educator, who is an undergraduate delivering the Body Project to other undergraduates, and women who received therapy from an online instructional video. The third trial will begin shortly, and the lab is looking to find women interested in receiving free treatment. This is meant to be a treatment, not a preventative therapy, and is for women who already have an eating disorder, Stice said. “Roughly, there (are) probably over 5,000 young women attending the University of Texas today that have some kind of eating disorder that they could be treated (for),” Stice said. “It’s just totally mind-boggling if you think about the numbers that way.” Stice said he expects to continue seeing growth to different universities, high schools, middle schools and certain sororities. “Body image issues are one of the most significant problems with young women in college,” Stice said. “Having a good intervention that helps resolve problems is really fantastic … it’s exciting to have a program that works that anybody and their mother can implement.”
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