The Daily Texan 2017-08-07 Section B

SPTS 13 [B1]

Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900

MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2017

@thedailytexan | dailytexanonline.com

Volume 118, Issue 10

S U M M E R I N R E V I E W see PAGE B6

SECTION B

Here’s what you missed while school was out.

NEWS

OPINION

LIFE&ARTS

SPORTS

SCI&TECH

Students said goodbye to familiar off-campus restaurants. PAGE B3

Columnists examine art, MetroRapid and campus life. PAGE B4

Tejano music in Austin kept alive through venues, bands. PAGE B6

Connor Williams won’t let the accolades alter his outlook. PAGE B6

UT researcher studied lakes in the Himalayas.

PAGE B8

CAMPUS

‘TWINS Project’ to inspire children with science

By Maria Mendez @mellow_maria

UT students will help kids become interested about science this fall in the new “TWINS Project,” a collaboration between the Thinkery children’s museum and UT’s Sciences, or WINS, program.

Students in the WINS program will have the opportunity to train in science

education and outreach with Thinkery staff at the start of the fall semester. Trained students will then volunteer at Thinkery’s community events, such as Chemistry Week, Engineers Day, Nano Day and summer camp for children.

“I think it’s very important for kids to see women role models in the STEM field and for (students) to interact

more with the community,” WINS coordinator Elizabeth Morgan said. “Having young kids connect to college students and especially women in science is really important.” Morgan said students previously volunteered at workshops during Thinkery’s 2016 summer camp and helped children learn about outer space and space exploration by making

solar systems.

“We have found that WINS students are excited to share their knowledge and that, in turn, helps spread more excitement about learning and discovering,” said Katie Kizziar, associate director of research and innovation at Thinkery.

This past July, the Association of American University Women

awarded the WINS program a Community Action Grant to fund the collaboration.

Sumaya Saati, an associate director of corporate and foundation relations for the College of Natural Sciences, said the association has not announced the total grant amount, but the funding will help pay for volunteer trainings and activity supplies.

“With the nature of

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volunteerism, we think it’s free, but there’s a lot behind the scenes that goes into it,” Saati said. “So supporting those types of roles is really important.”

Kizziar said working with children at Thinkery will help UT students improve their confidence in public speaking and communicating science

TWINS page B2

14 SPTS 2 [B2] B2

Monday, August 7, 2017

CITY

CITY

ALU

Lax booting regulations cause Students ride free with annual A headaches for Austin citizens UT, Cap Metro partnership

B

By Paul Cobler

By Claire Allbright

Businessmen, wrecker company owners and students just trying to find a parking spot all agree: Car booting is not a pleasant experience in Austin.

This feeling of discontent from all sides centers around the state laws and city ordinances surrounding the practice. Currently, the City of Austin does not regulate booting, said Detective Thomas Ballard of the Austin Police Department’s Wrecker Enforcement Unit. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation supervises the practice at the state level, but Joe Santiago, owner of Capital Parking ATX, said the current laws are far too lax.

“With TDLR there is no price cap (on fines,)” said Santiago, whose company provides booting services in Austin. “You want to charge $500? You can. You see a Mercedes and want to charge $1,000? You can. They have that rules and regulations structure for towing, but none for booting.”

Santiago said he believes if Austin begins to regulate booting, it will benefit everyone involved by making the practice more legitimate.

“I think you need more regulations, they just need to be the right regulations,” Santiago said. “It’s a problem when you have these guys that can get a license for

Economics junior Kate Dopkin is just one of many UT students who relies upon the city bus system to explore Austin.

“I lived on campus and didn’t feel like I needed (a car) because most of the places I went were near campus,” Dopkin said. “It was intimidating at first, but the Austin bus system is pretty easy to figure out, and the Cap Metro app really helped.”

Of the approximately 50,000 students enrolled in the University, there were only 13,029 parking permits sold during the 2015 school year, according to Parking and Transportation Services, making students like Dopkin, who said she relied on the bus to attend off-campus events like concerts and to get to H-E-B, common.

This is made possible because of an approximately $6 million agreement each year between the University and the Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority, Austin’s public transit provider, that allows all UT students, faculty and staff to use Cap Metro’s services

@thedailytexan

TWINS

continues from page B1 with the public.

“Sharing sciences with the public is also a great way to inspire future scientists,” Kizziar said. “When we connect visitors with individuals who work in science,

@claireallbright

Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan Staff

Current Austin city ordinances do not regulate booting, causing a lack of consistency in booting fines.

$250, then charge $150 per boot. That’s when you start getting the riff-raff out there booting like crazy.”

Capital Towing Austin currently charges $150 for the removal of a boot, according to their website, but Santiago said he is in favor of decreasing his company’s removal fee and increasing the cost to be licensed in Texas to as much as $50,000 to ensure only serious companies are booting.

As recently as three weeks ago, Santiago’s company operated in the parking lot of I Luv Vintage and Spider House Cafe and Ballroom, owned by Conrad Bejarano.

Santiago said his employees would monitor the lots and immediately boot drivers parked illegally.

“As an owner, we get zero compensation for it,” Bejarano said. “It all goes to the

towing or booting company.”

Bejarano said he dealt with people illegally parked in his lots for 10 years before finally hiring Santiago’s company.

“A lot of the responsibility goes to Austin, in fact, it all goes to Austin,” Bejarano said. “There isn’t any infrastructure within the city, and there isn’t any parking because everyone is dependent on driving … I’m the scum for hiring a booting company that monitors it, and they have to pay 150 bucks. I’m sorry it sucks, but I need that parking for my customers.”

Detective Tom Ballard said he and the City Attorney’s office recently submitted a new booting ordinance to the Austin City Council, but it won’t be heard until later in the year. The ordinance would create numerous city regulations on the practice, Ballard said.

engineering, or art, they have a chance to put a human face to the topic.”

Morgan said the collaboration will further the program’s mission to recruit and support more women in science by helping current WINS students and inspiring young girls to

study science.

“Maybe one of the young girls at one of the community nights or events that we do will be really motivated about science,” Morgan said.

“Maybe she’ll apply for WINS one day or move forward with something in science, engineering, or math.”

Capital Metro and the University allow students, faculty and staff to ride public transportation buses for free due to a $6 million agreement.

Joshua Guerra Daily Texan Staff

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for free with a valid UT ID. PTS assistant director Blanca Gamez said in an email the agreement gives students “fare free access to all of Cap Metro’s services” including UT shuttles, cross-city bus routes and the Cap Metro commuter train. The partnership is paid for using funds from the Student Services Fee that each student pays as a part of their tuition, Gamez said.

Dopkin said once she brought a car to campus her second year, she used the bus occasionally to get to her car which was often parked in a lot on the east side of I-35, but mainly used her car to get around Austin. However, having access to the bus services remained helpful, Dopkin said.

“I still take the bus when I’m going places downtown, though, because parking is expensive and hard to find,” Dopkin said. “I take the 40 Acres bus occasionally to get across campus when I don’t feel like walking.”

Mariette Hummel, a spokesperson for Cap Metro, said the University pays a fixed portion of the operating cost of each UT shuttle service hour, which

is around $4.8 million, and UT 58 percent of the base fare er i for all ID swipes on other habit services, but starting Sept.

Alm 1, UT will begin paying er stu 62 percent of the fare for Unive ID swipes. cover Hummel said Cap Metro nels projects 2.8 million rides lines were paid for using ID the U swipes, or approximately 2 on a million student rides and a clas 800,000 faculty rides for at UT the contract year, which “I ends at the end of August. mom “Capital Metro and the tunn University have partnered cool on campus transit issues ing u for almost 30 years,” HumMille mel said in an email. “All ized t of Capital Metro’s services are a good resource for students. Which service works best for you depends a lot on where you live.”

Dopkin said for next year, she plans to take the shuttle to and from her off-campus apartment, and that her good experiences with the bus system encourage her to ride more frequently.

“Depending on where I’m going, it can be easier and faster drive my car, but the bus system is cheaper and more environmentally friendly, so I feel like I should make an effort to use it more,” Dopkin said.

SPTS W&N 15 [B3] 3 B3

2017Monday, August 7, 2017

ALUMNI

Alumnus reflects on illicit UT tunnel adventures

By Wesley Story @wesleystory0

, and UT alumnus Kevin Mille fare er is a self-proclaimed other habitual trespasser.

Sept.

Almost 20 years ago, Millaying er stumbled upon a well-kept e for University secret. Miller discovered a network of tunMetro nels containing key utility rides lines that run underneath g ID the University while working ely 2 on a photography project for and a class during his third year s for at UT. which “I remember the specific ust. moment of following this d the tunnel and feeling a blast of nered cool air above me and lookssues ing up and seeing the sky,” HumMiller said. “I suddenly real“All ized that I was in a tunnel that vices r stuworks a lot

connected one building to another.”

In 1928, UT engineering professor Carl J. Eckhardt Jr. oversaw construction of UT’s underground tunnel system.

According to the Texas Tribune, the system is still used today to transport energy across campus.

Miller said he continued to explore the tunnels for the rest of his time at the University and even returned a few times after graduating in 2001.

While still in school, Miller made a map of the tunnels and posted it on his personal website. Williams said initially nothing ever came of the map, but then people found it, and it started spreading.

Miller later appeared in “Subterranean City: The UT Steam Tunnels,” a 2005 documentary about the tunnels.

When news of the tunnels spread after the documentary, UT officials warned students not to try to access them.

“Anyone caught trying to enter the tunnels, anyone caught in the tunnels — they will be arrested and they will be put in jail,” University spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said in an interview with KVUE. “If they’re a student, they will no longer attend the University of Texas at Austin.”

Miller said there are door triggers and motion detectors throughout the tunnels but that he never got caught and was never contacted by

UT. By the time people knew what he had done, the statute of limitations had passed, Miller said.

“People down there aren’t going down there to cause trouble,” Miller said. “They’re going down there to explore and answer their own curiosity. Urban explorers want to discover things for the sake of discovery.”

In addition to a habitual trespasser, Miller identified himself as an urban explorer, someone who explores manmade structures often abandoned or hidden from the general public.

Corporate communications senior Alyssa Hollander said she doesn’t think many students currently attending

UT know about the tunnels.

“I’ve heard lots of conspiracy theories about the tunnels but wasn’t sure if they even existed,” Hollander said. “I would be thrilled to see them in person, but it’s just not worth the risk.”

Today, people can find Reddit threads online full of speculation about the tunnels, including theories about why they exist and how to access them.

Miller said the tunnels were one of the highlights of his college experience.

“I had this maybe selfish feeling of knowing that in this busy place, with thousands of people coming and going, that, as far as I could ever tell, I was the only one who knew

Anyone caught trying to enter the tunnels, anyone caught in the tunnels — they will be arrested and they will be put in jail. If they’re a student, they will no longer attend the University of Texas at Austin.

—Rhonda Weldon, University spokeswoman

about the tunnels,” Miller said. “It was exciting to have this secret that I could share with people.”

next e the her ment, expesysride

where easier r, but eaper ntalike I rt to aid.

Illustration by Albert Lee | Daily Texan Staff

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4 OPINION

B4

LAURA HALLAS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

@TexanOpinion

Monday, August 7, 2017

COLUMN

COLUMN

CNS B.S.A. degree plan lacks Social enclaves benefit new upper-level science courses students, encourage diversity

By Holly Hodge

By Rohan Batlanki

Most students can agree they picked their major because they wanted to learn material related to their future career. However, the College of Natural Sciences’ B.S.A. degree plans, offered since 2014, don’t have strict upper division major requirements for students, causing students to lack science classes their junior and senior years and therefore failing to fully prepare them for the work force.

For example, UT’s biology degree requirements show a huge discrepancy between the number of upper division biology classes needed to graduate under the B.S. vs. the B.S.A. plans.

The B.S. degree plan requires double the amount of hours of upper division biology classes than the B.S.A. degree plan. Upper division requirements for the B.S.A. are just six biology upper division classes and one lab. This number of classes is shockingly similar to UT’s minor requirements, consisting of five or six classes. The fact that students end up spending the same amount of time on a minor as on advanced classes shows a lack of major-specific education which is needed to be successful in future careers in the sciences.

B.S.A. students have major-specific introductory classes that they must go through to take upper division classes. Many of the additional science class requirements for natural science students, such as math, chemistry and physics, dominate the first two years of an average student’s four year degree plan. The suggested fouryear plan fills the last two years with English and history classes. These last two years at the University should be spent refining field knowledge with some humanities interspersed, not as the dominant percent of classes students take.

The structure of the B.S.A. degree plan requires students to only take one biology class every semester with only two biology labs interspersed throughout their four years at UT. CNS students only need 40 percent, or 48 of their 120 hours, to be science classes in order to graduate with a B.S.A. If a biology or chemistry student chose a minor in liberal arts, they could theoretically take more College of Liberal Arts than CNS classes during their time at UT. The biology degree plan is not the only B.S.A. natural science degree with this issue; neuroscience, for example, only requires students to take six actual neuroscience classes to fulfill their

Picture the opening of any ’80s highschool drama. Recall how the camera pans across all the cliques — the jocks, the cheerleaders, the goths, the skaters. Don’t just read the words. Seriously. Picture it. Did each of your envisioned social groups accurately represent the demographics of the United States? Mine didn’t either. So where were minority students— hidden within their own very necessary, albeit highly criticized, socio-ethnic enclaves.

As the exercise proved, social groupings are forever a part of the settings in which young people find themselves. These designations help young people find like-minded individuals with whom they can grow, giving them a sense of belonging in which they can find comfort.

But how do adolescents from minority backgrounds, who have already grown into a society that inadvertently makes them feel other, find a group that can resonate with their own backgrounds and pop-cultural proclivities? In response to this weighty question, minority students on college campuses have formed their own variant of “ethnic enclaves,” giving rise to organizations such as Black/South Asian/Asian fraternities, sororities, activity groups and cultural associations.

Ayushi Sharma, former UT Nach Baliye dancer and UT Indian Cultural Association membership director explains, “At home you’re always surrounded by your culture, but being in a place where you’re thrown out to so many different people it’s harder to feel comfortable. ICA and Nach Baliye

Columnist @thedailytexan

Columnist @RohanBatlanki

Illustration by Rachel Tyler | Daily Texan Staff

degree plan. This means out of the 120 hours needed to graduate, only 15 percent of the classes neuroscience students take under the B.S.A. degree plan are neuroscience classes.

Most of the 11 B.S.A. degrees have the same structure of only needing to take one major specific class per semester. The University should have higher standards as to what awards a student a major in a field. The excessive non-CNS requirements detract from B.S.A. students becoming experts in their chosen field. UT can be an exciting new leader in the B.S.A. degree plan but they still have to ensure their CNS students are leaving the 40 Acres as scientists.

The vision of the B.S.A. program is not a bad one. There is much more to learn outside of CNS that is beneficial because everyone needs to learn to write and know about our government but the standards for science education has been jeopardized under the current B.S.A. plan. I thinks that one class per semester of just major-specific classes for four years is not enough to adequately prepare natural science students to be proficient in their field of study and excel in their careers once they leave college.

Hodge is a neuroscience sophomore from Austin.

How do adolescents from minority backgrounds, who have already grown into a society that inadvertently makes them feel other, find a group that can resonate with their own backgrounds?

—Rohan Batlanki Columnist

were my way of making UT home.”

Critics of this phenomenon argue that it’s an act of self-segregation. They say that in purportedly diverse environments, these enclaves seem to propagate a feeling of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ But these critics fail to recognize that such enclaves actually help students identify with their counterparts in parallel social spheres.

To these critics, Dr. Sharmila Rudrappa, the Director of the Center for Asian American Studies counters, “coming to a university like UT, they (students) find a racial identity. In that sense, these kind of spaces help students understand the kinds of commonalities we have. I think it’s not self-segregation that’s going on, but a particular kind of self-discovery that leads to an understanding of who we are as Americans.”

Gradual assimilation is the best way for students to intermingle and exchange cultural ideas. A great example of this is the “Tri-Fam” alliance between the fraternities Omega Phi Gamma and Delta Epsilon Psi and sorority Sigma Phi Omega. Both fraternities are national fraternities founded at UT through the help of the sisters of SPO. OPG brother Shen Tan agrees. “I found people who share my background through the Omegas,” Tan said. “And as I developed, I was able to find people from different backgrounds that I relate to like some of my tri-fam brothers from DEPsi.” Ethnic enclaves are nothing new, and neither are their ensuing criticisms. But to those who find themselves a part of such an environment, it’s an invaluable part of personal growth. Individuals align themselves in their respective niche in these safe spaces where they feel more understood by their peers. Enclaves allow students to retain their uniqueness and not drown in forced assimilation. After establishing themselves, they are better suited to seek out peers who match their personal interests rather than their backgrounds.

These relationships between analogs build more on personal interests than backgrounds.

In this way, cultural exchanges are primed to form organically. Universities must encourage development of these safe spaces if they seek to become truly diverse.

Batlanki is a neuroscience sophomore from Flower Mound.

COLUMN

MetroRapid expansion puts UT in the fast lane

By Ryan Young Senior Columnist @OldRyanYoung

Just in time for the fall semester, Capital Metro is making it much easier to get around Austin. Improvements to the agency’s flagship MetroRapid service are arriving Aug. 20, and UT students and staff stand to benefit the most.

Even if you’re new to the 40 Acres, you’ve probably already noticed the bright red, bendy MetroRapid buses making their way up and down Guadalupe Street Route 801 runs via South Congress and North Lamar and route 803 runs via South Lamar and Burnet. Both MetroRapid routes have two UT stops on the Drag, and route 803 also stops at the Pickle Research Campus.

On Aug. 20, CapMetro plans to increase the

number of buses on MetroRapid so that passengers will spend less time waiting to catch one.

On weekdays, a MetroRapid vehicle will arrive every 10 minutes (down from 15). On weekends, every 15 minutes (down from 20). Just like a train or subway, there’s no need to consult a schedule; just show up to a MetroRapid station and wait for your ride to arrive.

Noah Giese, a recent UT graduate now living near the Crestview MetroRapid stop and working for the Department of Chemistry, said he is looking forward to the increase in service.

“It would mean that I wouldn’t have to leave extra early and wait at the bus stop, because I have to be at work at a certain time,” Giese says.

When MetroRapid comes more often, Giese will be able to take a later bus, giving him some extra time to himself in the morning.

Also starting on Aug. 20, both MetroRapid

routes will start running until 2:30am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. CapMetro currently provides late-night service to UT on its E-Bus and Night Owl routes, but those services only go to 6th Street and the E-Bus does not operate in the summertime. Late-night MetroRapid will give UT students access to Austin nightlife away from downtown while also serving students staying in Austin for the summer.

One of those students is Jocelyn Whistler, a civil engineering junior who uses MetroRapid to go to bars on 6th Street, shop at The Domain and attend special events such as Blues on the Green. Later MetroRapid service would be “really helpful, because usually I’m not going back that early if I’m going to 6th Street,” Whistler said.

Riding an 801 or 803 MetroRapid bus is a viable alternative to get around town. You can

keep up with friends on the free Wi-Fi or even make new ones on the bus. Thanks to dedicated bus lanes downtown and the ability to manipulate traffic signals, taking MetroRapid is sometimes faster than driving to your destination and then struggling to find parking.

Riding public transportation reduces your greenhouse gas emissions and relieves congestion on crowded streets, and when the semester begins anew, Austin’s will be even more convenient and easy to use. Lastly, you can’t beat the price. MetroRapid, like all CapMetro services, is free with your ID card for all UT students and staff.

So the next time you’re looking to explore the very best of Austin, ditch the car — and Uber — and let MetroRapid do the driving.

Young is a computer science senior from Bakersfield, California.

COLUMN

Jeremiah ‘The Innocent’ deserves more recognition

By Audrey Larcher Columnist

Painted on the corner of 21st and Guadalupe, a frog mural decorates white brick wall, greeting all that pass by, “Hi, How Are You?” There’s nothing outstanding about technique, nor the muted black-and-white color scheme, that draws pedestrians’ gazes to this mural.

But the simple smile — the wild eyes wide with something genuine and friendly — are enough to capture the attention of tourists and locals alike.

Unlike many of Austin’s other photo-worthy locations, such as the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue or Mount Bonnell, no plaque accompanies this mural. Consequently, no one thinks of the work as more than just another piece of quirky Austin street art. Although we’re quick to take pictures and ask the frog “How are you,” most people don’t really stop to ask “What are you?”

A long history surrounds the street art, and the friendly face is just a fraction of it all. The frog was commissioned in 1993 by the Sound Exchange record store that once operated out of the building. This amicable amphibian’s name is Jeremiah the Innocent, and he is the album art on a record called ‘Hi, How Are You?’ by Texas-based artist and musician Daniel Johnston.

Johnston, similarly to his friend Jeremiah,

is mostly unrecognized by name. But his influence on both Austin and national music cultures runs deep. His clunky yet endearing lo-fi recordings inspired artists from Kurt Cobain to the Flaming Lips in their deeply emotional and illustrative songwriting. Johnston is also widely regarded as one of the foremost artists of New Sincerity, an immensely impactful collective of Austin musicians.

Due to various turns of events and mental illnesses (Johnston lives with schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder), Johnston’s art never saw the big-screen-and-flashinglights recognition enjoyed by those he later influenced. Knowledge and appreciation for his artistry is now mostly confined to fringe groups and musical sub-cultures.

But everyday, Jeremiah the Innocent sits and waits and smiles at us, and everyday, people admire him and take pictures with him. And everyday, the ‘Hi How Are You?’ mural remains a globally recognized symbol of Austin, Texas.

Johnston deserves a plaque next to Jeremiah to summarize the story of the mural and his music. This iconic piece represents Austin’s unique musical landscape and its importance for artists around the world.

If people admire Jeremiah enough to take pictures with him, our community is doing them a disservice by not sharing more about how he came to be.

Students familiar with the frog mural on the corner of 21st and Guadalupe may not be aware of its link to Austin music history.

Joshua Guerra Daily Texan Staff

Sitting on some of the most coveted real estate in Austin today, Jeremiah shoulders many burdens to continue living on Guadalupe Street and has earned the right to recognition. When the mural’s original owners could no longer afford rent and Baja Fresh moved in, it was only the innumerable calls urging management not to paint over Jeremiah that saved the day.

In 2013, a woman who felt Jeremiah was insulting her spray-painted obscenities across his face, warranting restoration.

These efforts to preserve the mural would be honored by a plaque.

Erecting some sort of informational marker might be legally tricky. The mural only still remains because the businesses that lease out the building respect its history and decide not to paint over it — Jeremiah is not protected by the city or state. Qualifying for certain historical landmark protections would be difficult if not impossible for this mural. But if ever a current business owner collaborated with local government or simply placed a plaque on the wall by themselves, I’m sure Jeremiah would feel more at home in Austin.

Larcher is a Plan II sophomore from Austin.

17 L&A[B5]

B5

MICHAEL SHAPIRO SPORTS EDITOR

@texansports

Monday, August 7, 2017

MEN’S GOLF

FOOTBALL

Frittelli finds groove prior to PGA Championship

Longhorns kick off 2017 campaign with week one of preseason practice

By Trenton Daeschner @TrentDaeschner

It was around 8:25 a.m. when Dylan Frittelli stepped onto the first tee for the opening round of the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 20. And the nerves of playing in his very first major had come full circle for the former Longhorn.

Not doing him any favors to help quell those nerves, a camera went off before Frittelli could even take the club and begin his backswing.

He backed off, regrouped, then stepped back in.

Just as he readied to begin again, a golf cart drove by, forcing Frittelli to back off once more. Maybe it was bad luck, or maybe the golf gods were trying to remind Frittelli that this was his first major, a culmination of everything he had ever worked for in his golfing life.

“It was tough to get that first tee shot away,” Frittelli said.

“I was pretty nervous. I managed to steady myself and get it off the tee.”

In the past year, Frittelli has found a groove on the European Tour. After a near-victory at the Volvo China Open in April — which Frittelli lost in a playoff to finish second — the South African won for the first time in June at the Lyoness Open in Austria.

“It’s just a culmination of probably two-and-a-half years of hard, diligent work,” Frittelli said. “It’s just a matter of time before you figure out what to do. You put yourself in that situation enough, you’re gonna figure out a way to win.”

A tied-14th finish at the BMW International Open two weeks later secured Frittelli a spot in the Open Championship. But Frittelli’s major debut was forgettable. He missed the cut after shooting rounds of 73

It’s just a culmination of probably two-anda-half years of hard, diligent work.”

—Dylan Frittelli, Golfer

and 75 in difficult weather conditions, while his former Longhorn teammate Jordan Spieth delivered an epic performance to capture his third major.

It was just five years ago when Spieth and Frittelli led Texas to its third men’s golf national title, with Frittelli drilling a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole to seal the deal for the Longhorns. Since then, Spieth has risen to superstardom on the PGA Tour, while Frittelli has played all across the eastern hemisphere and grinded his way to a No. 84 world ranking.

Spieth will bid for the career grand slam next week at the PGA Championship in North Carolina, and Frittelli will make his second career start in a major. It will also mark the first time Frittelli has played a professional tournament in the United States.

Frittelli says his goal is to eventually move back to the United States and play on the PGA Tour. He believes he’s only “two or three” years away.

But golf is a next-shot game; dwelling on the past or looking too deep into the future is not a recipe for success. Frittelli’s focus at the moment is to shoot a solid score at the PGA Championship, then finishing out the year strong on the European Tour.

“Just a little bit of good golf can go a long way to setting myself up for next year,” Frittelli said.

By Michael Shapiro @mshap2

With a little less than a month remaining before opening day, the Longhorns opened preseason practice this week, culminating in an 11-on11 scrimmage Saturday morning. Here are three things we learned from week one of Tom Herman’s first preseason camp.

Buechele’s taking the reigns By most metrics, sophomore quarterback Shane Buechele had a stellar freshman campaign in 2016. He started 12 games for the Longhorns, setting freshman records for yards and touchdowns.

By season’s end, Buechele became the first Texas quarterback since Colt McCoy to have at least 2,500 passing yards and 20 touchdowns in one season.

As Buechele enters his second season as the Longhorns’ signal caller, Herman and offensive coordinator Tim Beck have implored him to take a greater leadership role.

Buechele often let others on the team do the talking last season, taking a back seat to the veterans on Texas’ roster. But that’s no longer the case through the first week of preseason practice.

“We heard (Buechele) scream, which was really cool,” Herman said following Saturday’s scrimmage. “Both in enjoyment, and in disapproval … His voice is really powerful, and it can have a dramatic effect on the way that we

respond, whether it’s to success or to failure. What you say and how you say it should have an effect, and he’s taken that to heart.”

Longhorns looking slimmer Herman noted the improved conditioning he’s seen from the Longhorns throughout the week. And on Monday, he disclosed some impressive statistics

mentioned their improved state, including junior offensive lineman Patrick Vahe. The freshman All-American in 2015 said he’s shed nearly 6 percent of his body fat since the winter, losing 15 pounds of fat and gaining eight pounds of muscle. Vahe praised McKnight for reshaping the Longhorns in the offseason.

“We heard (Buechele) scream, which was really cool. His voice is really powerful, and it can have a dramatic effect on the way that we respond, whether it’s to success or to failure.”

—Tom Herman, Head coach

compiled from strength coach Yancy McKnight.

“We’ve shed 500 pounds of body fat and added 380 pounds of lean muscle mass as a team since January,” Herman said. “It’s noticeable out there. (We have) much more stamina, and I don’t mean that from a lung standpoint.

When you are strong, you can go and bend and change direction.”

Numerous Longhorns

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“He pretty much has everybody accountable,” Vahe said. “So if he asks you to do something a lot of players respect him so we’ll all do it … We trust him in that, and that’s why we’ve all progressed to where we are.”

Skill positions still crowded While Buechele holds a firm grip on the starting-quarterback spot, the depth chart at Texas’

skill positions is murky.

No running back on the roster tallied more than 500 yards last season, and while junior Chris Warren is the likely starter, there’s no guarantee he’ll earn a lion’s share of the carries.

Sophomore Kyle Porter should test Warren, as will a pair of freshman backs, Toneil Carter and Daniel Young. Carter was a fourstar recruit coming out of high school per 247Sports, arriving in Austin as the No. 10 running back in the nation.

The crowd is even larger in the wide receivers room. Sophomore Collin Johnson has emerged as Texas’ primary weapon, leaving a slew of receivers to fight for time below him on the depth chart.

The Longhorns return five receivers who caught 20 or more balls in 2016, and Texas may also rely on a few youngsters to make key contributions early in the season. Herman praised redshirt freshman Reggie Hemphill-Mapps early in the week.

Junior Jerrod Heard is one receiver looking to separate himself from the pack. The Denton product converted to wideout in 2016 after starting 10 games at quarterback the year before, tallying 24 catches and three TDs. Heard is currently listed as Texas’ emergency quarterback, but he said he’s focused solely on his duties as a wide receiver.

“I’m a receiver now,” Heard said. “I don’t even claim (to be) a quarterback anymore.”

18 COMICS [B6] B6

Summer R

Monday, August 7, 2017

SCIENCE&TECH

TOP STORIES

Summer

in Review School’s out, sun’s out — here’s what you missed while away from UT campus.

Neuroscience professor pioneers new way to repair damanged nerves Neuroscience professor George Bittern’s research lab delved into the world of nerve repair — Bittner has spent decades working on a simple but incredibly effective method for repairing severed nerves in the peripheral nervous system, which includes the nerves in arms and legs. His team uses a molecule called polyethylene glycol to reattach the outer membranes in animal nerves in seconds, allowing for recoveries of up to 80 percent.

Illustration by Victoria Smith Daily Texan Staff

NEWS

Rising rent prices on the Drag drive businesses away This summer, both the Taco Cabana and the McDonald’s on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard closed their doors, and during the last school year, at least three different West Campus restaurants closed or changed locations, including Kismet Cafe and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. Many believe rising rent prices are to blame for these changes. Rent prices have significantly increased in the past few years and in the last three months, the rent per square foot of commercial property has increased over 10 percent, according to reports from the Austin American Statesman. Students have taken to the “UT LONGmemes for HORNSy Teens” Facebook page to collectively jest about the all too familiar feeling of seeing a beloved off-campus eatery close.

Illustration by Mel Westfall | Daily Texan Staff

SCIENCE&TECH

SCIENCE&TECH

New club promises safety, recognition for UT LGBTQ

UT researchers find mass matters when it comes to star brightness UT astronomers discovered that stars must have a mass equivalent to 70 Jupiters to shine at all. This means that smaller stars, called brown dwarves, must be sniffed out using infrared technology, rather than traditional optics. The team plans to continue to use multiple telescopes around the world to give their findings more weight.

LGBTQ+ communities are still small in science, technology, engineering and math fields, but a new UT club called CNS-Q will work with students and faculty to create safe, healthy research environments for students on campus. The club, which will start this fall, plans to host networking activities, meetings and Sunday brunches.

NEWS

University Health Services warns of mumps outbreak On July 11, University Health Services emailed multiple students to warn of a possible mumps exposure from a student in their classes. The UHS email said, “I am writing you to let you know that you may have been exposed to mumps because a UT student in one of your classes has been diagnosed with mumps or has symptoms of mumps.” The contagious disease caused by the mumps virus spreads through the air when a person coughs or sneezes.

UHS currently reports a total of 11 mumps diagnoses since June 19. UHS will continue to contact individuals who are identified as having potential exposure as they track reported cases at UT.

Illustration by Lexi Acevedo | Daily Texan Staff

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DINKY 19 [B7]

er Review

B7

SPORTS

Runner finishes UT career ready for championship win The last time Chrisann Gordon dug her spikes into the track donning burnt orange, she was at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. In the final meet of her collegiate career, Gordon saved her best for last, winning the 400m in 50.51 seconds. She led from start to finish, becoming just the seventh Longhorn to win the event in school history.

Gordon graduated from Texas in the spring.

Now, she’s eyeing victory on a greater stage: the 2017 IAAF World Championships, beginning on Aug. 4 in London, England.

SPORTS

Cornerback establishes leadership in preseason A forgotten water bottle in the players’ lounge during summer practice appeared to be little more than a harmless mistake by junior cornerback P.J. Locke III. But he quickly learned to never make it again.

As Locke reported to the practice facility the next morning, he knew a full day of work was ahead of him.

And the punishment wasn’t without purpose. It was all part of head coach Tom Herman’s bigger message.

“You can do it another way, you really can,” Herman said. “You can go party all you want, you can go enjoy Austin, enjoy college... But don’t come to me and say you want to win a championship then.

Those two can’t coexist.”

NEWS

LIFE&ARTS

Tejano music finds home in Austin scene amid adversity Through venues, radio stations, bands and enthused fans, the spirit of Tejano music lives on in the heart of Texas.

Though the endemic music genre now boasts several festivals and celebrations, its visibility in the Austin music scene did not come easy. The battle to increase the frequency of Tejano music events in Austin has been a battle fought by some of the genres most ardent fans to both encourage its appreciation by younger generations and get the city to devote more of its budget to preserving the cultural art.

Kendrex White declared competent to stand trial UT stabbing suspect Kendrex White was indicted for murder and three counts of aggravated assault on July 17 and will be put on trial, according to courtroom documents. White, who has been in jail since May, claimed he does not remember the stabbing incident.

However, he was found competent to stand trial and cannot use the defense of insanity. White stabbed four students outside Gregory Gym on May 1, including freshman Harrison Brown, who died from his injuries.

A month after the stabbing, Brown’s father passed away after a long battle with ALS.

Evelyn Moreno | Daily Texan Staff

Tejano Band Da Krazy Pimps performs at the Texas Club.

Zoe Fu | Daily Texan Staff

Junior cornerback P.J. Locke III was punished after leaving a water bottle in the UT locker room.

NEWS

Legal strategist in Abigail Fisher case files second affirmative action suit against UT Another lawsuit against UT’s affirmative action policy was filed June 27, a year after the Fisher v. University of Texas case upheld the University’s approach to admissions. Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions and a major architect of the case, filed the suit, claiming it went against the Texas Equal Rights Amendment’s clause that states it is illegal to discriminate based on “sex, race, color, creed or national origin.”

“It is our belief that the Texas Constitution unequivocally forbids UT-Austin from treating applicants differently because of their race and ethnicity,” Blum said in a press release.

Maurie McInnis, UT executive vice president and provost, stands by UT’s policy and said the University will take action if its policy is challenged again.

Rachel Zein | Daily Texan Staff

Esteemed artist and activist Ai Weiwei designed the Forever Bicycles statue at Waller Creek.

LIFE&ARTS

Chinese artist unveils latest art piece featuring Austin staple

Matthew Adams | Daily Texan Staff

Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, filed another suit against the University a year after the Fisher case.

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The work of prominent Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is now on display at Waller Creek. The towering Forever Bicycles statue appeared on the lawn by Lady Bird Lake’s Waller Creek Boathouse on June 3. On hot summer days, its hundreds of silver cycles glisten in the bright Texas sun.

Though bicycles are a common sight on the nearby bike trail, the statue glorifies their significance in our everyday lives.

What’s more: the piece seeks to reminds us of simple freedoms afforded to us that we must fight to preserve—like the movement and independence afforded to us by the bicycle.

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20 - DINKY [B8] B8

Monday, August 7, 2017

KATE

RESEARCH

continues from page B9

For 15 years, UT engineering professor Daene McKinney researched Himalayan lakes and flooding risks for nearby communities.

Texan’s doorstep, my first few weeks were filled with the prejudiced destruction of oxford commas and the forced migration of paragraphs. But I felt safe here, and after getting the hang of it found myself able to talk to anyone and about anything with confidence and elegance.

During my time as a reporter, I wrote about apps that fight cancer, canyons on Jupiter’s moons and using lasers to fight depression. I talked to people who really care about what they are doing and who are using their time to make a difference in the world.

As an associate editor, I worked with the ever-kind and competent Eva Frederick and Zia Lyle to help other reporters present this information to our school and the world.

As department head this summer, I had the privilege of editing four new reporters from fields across the college of natural sciences, and the joy of three returning reporters.

At the Daily Texan, excellence is the baseline — we are here because we want to be better, stronger journalists. I like to think that we have helped bring this mindset to the SciTech department.

In the end, though, it was the family created here that convinced me that engaging with the world is far better than hiding from it.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Fi aq

Courtesy of Daene McKinney

UT researchers study flood risk in Himalayas

By Jennifer Liu @jenn_liu98

A June report from UT researchers measures the risk posed by lakes in the Himalayas in order to protect nearby communities from flooding.

UT engineering professor Daene McKinney worked over the course of 15 years with a team of researchers to build a new method of assessing risk to glacial lakes over large regions in Nepal.

McKinney said this allowed the main disaster planning agency to decide which lakes pose the greatest flood risks.

“The aim of this study is to conduct a holistic hazard and risk assessment of all the glacial lakes in the Nepal Himalaya,” the study, published in Remote Sensing, stated. “To accomplish this goal, a remote sensing glacial

lake survey for the Nepal Himalaya was performed for 2000 and 2015 using Landsat satellite imagery.”

According to the study, 11 lakes in the Himalaya are at very high risk of flooding, and 31 lakes are at high risk.

Scott Watson, a doctoral student at the University of Leeds, studied glacial lake outburst floods in Bhutan for his masters degree. Watson said he initially became involved with the project through David Rounce, one of McKinney’s former Ph.D. students, after they met on Khumbu Glacier in Nepal while they were both doing fieldwork.

“The collaboration came about after that chat on the glacier,” Watson said. “I knew (Rounce and McKinney) had a huge amount of field and remote sensing experience, so it was the perfect project to be involved with. They are

also a great bunch of people, which makes collaborations especially worthwhile, and we’ve since met several times in Nepal.”

According to the study, glacial lake outburst floods can be triggered by avalanches that enter the lake and cause a tsunami-like wave.

“The sudden release of stored lake water ... can have devastating socioeconomic consequences, including loss of life, buildings, bridges, transportation routes, arable land and hydropower systems,” the study stated.

McKinney has studied river basin management around the world since 1995. In 2008, the United States Agency for International Development approached him to provide technical support in Peru.

This opened the floodgates on his work with high mountain water issues,

such as floods and droughts, in Peru and Nepal, McKinney said.

But in light of the environmental threats of climate change, McKinney said his research is vital to not just the scientific community, but also to the rural communities in Nepal and urban communities in Peru that it directly affects.

“The investment in our research has aided rural communities in Nepal, rural and urban communities in Peru and governments in both countries,” McKinney said.

Agencies and programs such as USAID, the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Scholar Program and the Mountain Institute have aided McKinney to help these communities deal with concerns of insecurity and unreliability in their water resources.

The investment in our research has aided rural communities in Nepal, rural and urban communities in Peru,” —Daene McKinney, UT engineering professor

McKinney said the team plans to work with researchers in other fields to study the relationship between people and water systems.

“We are now engaged in interdisciplinary work with geographers and anthropologists to understand the socio-hydrology involved in these critical human and natural systems,” McKinney said. “This is a new area of research and we will continue in this direction.”

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21- [B9]

2017

B9

KATE THACKREY SCIENCE&TECH EDITOR

@thedailytexan

Monday, August 7, 2017

BIOLOGY

30 COLUMN

Fishes of Texas project aids the future of Science editor discovers people aren’t as scary as aquatic biodiversity research ventures previously believed

By Jace Klein

By Kate Thackrey

@thedailytexan

True to its name, the Fishes of Texas project aims to introduce UT researchers to the wide world of scaly creatures swimming in the Lone Star State.

The goal of the project, which is housed at the Pickle Research Campus, is to collect and document all known fish species in the state of Texas. It’s continually updated by the Hendrickson Lab, led by curator Dean Hendrickson.

The project, which started in the 1950s, will soon include an online database that can be easily accessed and features a physical ichthyology — or fish — collection, available at the research center.

“More and more, I find myself learning about data management, web publishing and bioinformatics, as I work to make the data about the specimens I curate and the Fishes of Texas database useful to others,” Hendrickson said in his lab biography.

The database contains information on when, where and how the fish were collected. According to Gary Garret, research biologist in the Hendrickson Lab and former Texas Parks and Wildlife employee, this data could be useful in determining where to focus conservation efforts.

“A lot of our native fishes don’t quite have the range they did at one time,” Garret said. “Parks and Wildlife is using (the database) to help identify some of the last strongholds in the state for native fishes, where the

@kate_thackrey

Editor’s note: A 30 column is a chance for departing permanent staff to say farewell and reflect on their time spent in the The Daily Texan. The term comes from the old typesetting mark (-30-) to denote the end of a line.

Illustration by Rachel Tyler | Daily Texan Staff

best areas for them are, or where the best areas are for them to be restored and where conservation should take place.”

Ichthyology collection manager Adam Cohen said reservoirs that block rivers pose a major problem for fishes that need long flows of river to complete their lifecycles.

The group has also done research on Barton Springs and its biodiversity, according a June 2015 paper published by the group in Environmental Management. Using the data from the Fishes of Texas project, the researchers were able to predict what species should be currently present and found Barton Springs had a lower level of biodiversity than predicted.

“Yes, we have definitely noticed declines in fish diversity in Texas,” Cohen said. “Reservoirs are a big

part of it, but it’s probably many factors: human development, changes in flow regime, overfishing in some cases and pumping of water (especially in West Texas).”

According to Garret, the Fishes of Texas project includes every Texas fish collected by UT researchers since the 1950s. Data comes from collecting trips done by the lab and information from past researchers and museums all over the world.

The fish are also georeferenced, making it possible to find where each fish was collected on a map.

“The purpose of (the project) is to become a one-stop shop for everything about Texas fishes,” Garret said. “It could be used by researchers, resource management agencies, like Texas Parks and Wildlife, the general public (and) public schools.”

The physical ichthyology collection contains more

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than 1 million fish specimens preserved in jars of alcohol, according to the ichthyology collection website.

Cohen said different fish have been studied at different levels, from fish simply preserved in alcohol to others undergoing genotyping.

“Most of the specimens that end up in the collections are collected by researchers or Parks and Wildlife, and they all have different preservation histories,” Cohen said.

According to Garret, having the collection is vital to verifying the presence of a fish species at a certain place and time period.

“A lot of people understand, and some don’t, that it’s very important to actually have that fish preserved in a jar,” Garret said. “It’s useful for research; it’s been used in lawsuits and to make determinations on endangered species status.”

A letter to: Ellen Airhart, who started this crazy thing; Eva Frederick, who for her kindness and compassion deserves sainthood; Zia Lyle, whose love of chacos and genuine friendship will always be remembered; Peter Chen, who is the only person I will allow to call me a “little shit;” Jack Stenglein, whose humor I will probably get in a few years; Aditya Singh, whose energy is infectious and Julianne Hodges, who will be an excellent department head and an even better astronomy reporter.

It might surprise you all that before I decided to go into journalism, I was terrified of talking to other human beings.

For most of sophomore year, I huddled in my Kinsolving dorm room with

the blinds drawn, stuck my nose in neuroscience textbooks and otherwise isolated myself from the world to avoid the chance of being rejected by it. I spent days without talking to a single person. At my worst point, I only went outside for class or to buy food from the convenience store downstairs.

You guys were my salvation. After adding on a journalism degree, I met professors who pushed me beyond my comfort zone, classmates who became fast friends and a profession which became a passion.

Eventually, I stopped debating for hours about what to put in an email, made phone calls without a wavering voice and soothed panic as it bubbled up before face to face meetings.

It was the Science & Technology Department, though, that made all the difference.

Over the past two years, the people here have built a home of a caliber that is both rare and precious.

As with most reporters who show up, blinking, at the Daily

KATE page B8

Juan Figueroa | Daily Texan Staff

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20 L&A [B10]

B10

MORGAN O’HANLON LIFE&ARTS EDITOR

@thedailytexan

Monday, August 7, 2017

CITY

Mayor’s office takes action to reduce homelessness

By Jose Gonzales @Jose_thewriter

As downtown Austin’s waistline expands beyond the belt of I-35 — a symptom of the city’s exponential growth — the issue of homelessness has been ever-growing. Pressure from all sides forces the city to seek the near impossible: a solution that works for everyone.

The sometimes-contradictory needs of downtown’s homeless population and businesses located near the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless on 500 East Seventh St. has prompted the City of Austin’s Innovation Office on Fourth Street to collaborate with several entities in the downtown area to aid the homeless. Between complex issues such as mental illness and drug addiction, their solution was to create street teams to assist individuals on a more personal level.

Paul Hayes has frequented the ARCH on and off in the last four years and has struggled with homelessness since 2010. Hayes said

In su

the ARCH has been a big help in his recovery from alcoholism and has given him peace of mind.

“When you start drinking, it starts (to) take a heavy toll, and it ruined me,” Hayes said. “I was fortunate that the ARCH gave me something to grab onto.

I’d say I’ve improved, but

I was fortunate that the ARCH gave me something to grab onto. ... What keeps me going is knowing I at least have a place to sleep, and that’s a real blessing.

—Paul Hayes

when things start to feel hopeless, what keeps me going is knowing I at least have a place to sleep, and that’s a real blessing.”

In June 2016, Kerry O’Connor, chief innovation

Brittany Le | Daily Texan Staff

The Austin Resource Center for the Homeless is just one of many programs collaborating with the City of Austin’s Innovation Office to help decrease homelessness in the area.

officer for the City of Austin, teamed up with Downtown Austin Alliance to initiate what is called the Homeless Outreach Street Team (HOST). The program

FEATURE

Small-town native flourishes as mentor typically go untold.

The move from the quiet border town of Mission, Texas, to the “Live Music Capital of the World” wasn’t easy for Brianna Gonzalez. Leaving her small-town comfort zone,

By Acacia Coronado she was now going to be only @acaciatree18 one of 50,000 students at UT. “It was an adjustment.

Editor’s note: In 300 words or fewer, this series spotlights people You are not in your safe little in our community whose stories bubble anymore,” Gonzalez

said. “I started learning like everyone does and it got easier, better.”

Now a public health junior, Gonzalez has grown accustomed to walking the 40 Acres, living in a big city and being exposed to a variety of cultures. As a first-year interest group mentor, her mission is to help other students do

300 page B11

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is still on its test run, but its purpose is to tackle different problems that lead to homelessness.

“We have two community health paramedics, two

mental behavioral counselors, two Austin police officers and one downtown community court case manager,” O’Connor said.

Because each agency

oversees different sides to homelessness, O’Connor said it is difficult for HOST to assess how much

ARCH page B11 Public health junior Brianna Gonzalez, once intimidated by the large size of UT-Austin, now helps other small-town natives with the transition to college in her role as a FIG mentor.

Gabriel Lopez Daily Texan Staff

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L&A 21 [B11] B11

Monday, August 7, 2017

CAMPUS

Informal class educates community on sustainability through chicken keeping

By Lisette Oler @LisetteOler

Theresa Zelasko’s five chickens spend their days doing the things chickens do best — picking at food scraps in the compost pile, laying eggs and squawking to their heart’s content. The benefits of owning such a coop are plentiful, but for Zelasko, they can be boiled down into just two: environmental stewardship and companionship.

Zelasko, a librarian at Southwestern University, teaches a course called “Backyard Chicken Keeping” through UT Informal Classes. The course, which covers the basics of keeping chickens, will be held in October, the 14th time Zelasko has taught the course.

After returning from the Peace Corps in 2010, StaffZelasko’s roommate, Mary on Ellen Chrzanowski, wanted to raise chickens after seeing international farmers raise them. When Chrzanowski moved out, Zelasko decided to keep the feathered animals because she’d become attached to them.

“I was discovering all these things about their personalities (including) the cuddle factor,” Zelasko said. “I really enjoyed

having them around. They made me smile. They made me happy.”

Through trial and error, Zelasko learned the best practices for keeping chickens and in 2014 she was asked to teach a small, introductory course at Southwestern. After seeing the positive response to her first class, she reached out to UT Informal Classes and applied to teach a longer version hoping to aid new chicken farmers with the process.

“We didn’t have anybody to talk to at the time,” Zelasko said. “My whole goal is to help people really get a good idea of what exactly they are getting into if they want to go this route and have chickens in their backyard.”

The class is three hours long and covers everything from where to buy chickens to how to build a chicken coop and what to do if they become injured.

All the logistics aside, Zelasko said the best part about keeping chickens is watching them develop their personalities.

“I used to think, ‘Oh, all chickens are the same’,” Zelasko said. “That’s just not true, some chickens are sweet and some are mean. I had one chicken last year she just pecked me every time I

came outside.”

The chickens will chase each other, get really excited and even scare off cats who get to close to their eggs. Though Zelasko treats them as pets, she also sees the environmental benefits of keeping chickens, including them helping turn compost piles.

“Part of sustainability is being able to keep my waste in a cycle that produces something else,” Zelasko said. “By putting my compost out in the backyard and letting my chickens turn it, they add to the soil out there and add to their own health and happiness by eating the parts they want.”

According to Jim Walker, director of the Office of Sustainability, the basic core of the term sustainability is a stewardship over the resources we have and living more consciously. He said students are aware of that and are embracing it individually.

“The local food movement over the past few years is national,” Walker said. “Students these days are certainly part of that.

They are more concerned about where their food is coming from and how it’s processed. All of that is appealing and not just because universities are

doing it.”

Vaishali Jayaraman, a computer science and Sanskrit junior, decided in September 2016 to live more consciously by choosing to live a zero-waste lifestyle, where she produces little to no waste in a year. Jayaraman, now the education and outreach coordinator for the Campus Environmental Center, said after years of trying to help the environment this choice was the next step.

“I was still going to Walmart and getting Chips Ahoy!, which has film plastic,” Jayaraman said. “After I finished eating all the cookies, I threw something away that’s going to be in the world for 15-20 years.

I felt like I was being a hypocrite.”

Sustainability encompasses zero waste lifestyles, chicken keeping and much more. Walker said there is something everyone can do to help themselves live more sustainably.

“Whatever they’re interested in there is a way to get involved,” Walker said. “(There is) recycling at the football stadium, bees, or biking groups. If any student has any interest in any of (sustainability) then there is a way to get involved.”

aff

Angel Ulloa | Daily Texan Staff

Theresa Zelasko, a librarian at Southwestern University, teaches “Backyard Chicken Keeping” through UT informal Classes.

The course is aimed to teach new chicken farmers the basics of chicken keeping.

300

continues from page B10 the same.

“I wanted to show first-year students that it is OK to struggle,” Gonzalez said. “Whether they express it outwardly or just think about it, everyone struggles emotionally, physically, mentally.”

Last year, Gonzalez had her first group of students to mentor and said she enjoyed it so much she will be returning as a mentor this year. Gonzalez said she liked walking the students through their first semester, teaching them to study, become organized and relating to

them as she reminded them it was normal to not get straight A’s right away.

As a mentor, Gonzalez created study groups and tried to do activities and answer questions for her students to help them feel secure and independent. She said the main piece of advice she gives is to not be afraid to look and act like a freshman by asking questions and approaching mentors, TAs and professors for help.

“It is OK to not do the normal,” Gonzalez said. “It is about finding your own path and excelling in that path. At the end of the day, we are all just trying to succeed.”

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continues from page B10 overall progress they make or what the specific causes are to the issue. However, the benefit of cross-referencing data is that they do find gaps where their efforts can improve.

“We would find that there are certain patterns that make bridging the gap into services difficult,” O’Connor said. “Someone with an addiction may go into a 90-day treatment program, but once they leave to enter a longer-term program there’ll be a couple of days where there’s no housing

APPLY to work at

for them. That’s a gap.”

In order to fill in those gaps, O’Connor said they look to local shelters such as ARCH and create community teamwork. Mitchell Gibbs, executive director of homelessness services nonprofit Front Steps, said new programs have been implemented to address prominent issues of homelessness that were previously ignored.

“We created a medical program that directly connects with the homeless that are in hospitals in order to attend to their ongoing medical needs,” Gibbs said. “Otherwise they may

Illustration by Mel Westfall | Daily Texan Staff

30 COLUMN

Scientists discover cave creature that can survive without sunlight: Life and Arts Editor

By Mae Hamilton

An underclassman with no idea what to do with an English degree or her life and with no journalism experience whatsoever, I was really determined to just not make a fool of myself during tryouts. That is, if I could find the office first. I probably circled the block three times trying to find the entrance to the Daily Texan office all the while nervously apologizing to the then-copy chief on the phone for being late. Looking at those dark, dank and slightly mildewy basement steps from the top of the staircase off of Whitis Avenue, I knew I would be having to say goodbye to the beautiful Texas sunshine and fresh air for awhile.

Starting off as a copy editor, learning the finer points of AP style and fact checking, I never imagined that I would end up writing for the Texan, much less be trusted enough to edit other people’s stories. Leaving the basement in the wee hours of the morning to make the mad dash back home on the other side of campus as a copy editor left me with a thrill. Though, it could’ve just been the adrenaline of having to run through West Campus in the dark. But really, I think I must have left my cold, clammy heart in a rolly chair there.

First of all, a very heartfelt and humble thank you to Elizabeth, Cat and Katie for trusting me

enough to a) give me the position of being a senior writer b) believing I could make the jump from senior writer to editor. Another heartfelt and humble thank you to Daisy and Morgan for listening to me moan and groan during the length of said editorship.

Thank you to Akshay and Peter for having the good patience to answer all of my incessant questions and the warm and positive feedback. Special thanks to Eva for just being the sweetest.

And of course, thank you to all of the beautiful Austinites that entrusted me with their stories enough to tell them.

My time in Life and Arts has been unreal. I got to read, write and talk about some of the coolest music, movies and events happening in Austin with some of the most driven and passionate budding new writers the city has to offer.

I’ll never forget getting to cover SXSW with my fellow cave dwellers and seeing some of my favorite musicians. It more than made up for the blisters.

I don’t know long that copy of Cyanu Reeves has been in the basement, but I like to think that we’ve grown old and faded together. In my time at the Texan, I’ve not only grown as a writer, but fundamentally as a person. Sitting here typing this during a typhoon on the other side of the planet, I know that I wouldn’t have been able to get this internship had it not been for my time at the Texan.

Here’s to the lovely future Life and Arts cave creatures, Morgan, Justin and Daisy, and the many more that will come after them.

Take it easy, but take it!

be discharged back into the streets.”

Though local businesses and their employees don’t want to appear indifferent to the struggles of homeless people, some say they still have a fear of being harassed if nothing is done.

“I’ve been assaulted several times, (so have) my co-workers,” said Ashley Avey, the owner of Smoking Caterpillar, a pipe shop on Sixth Street. “There’s no way around talking about it without appearing to have disdain for the homeless.

We want things to get better, but there’s backlash to honesty as well.”

There has been a significant decrease in homelessness over the last year, but there is still a visible homeless population that some property owners say is unappealing to their businesses. Gibbs said this sentiment hints at a larger societal problem.

“The visibility and the fact that we have homeless people in our community and our society should make us all feel uncomfortable,” Gibbs said. “With additional resources and more community effort, that would be a big step in eliminating homelessness from our street view.”

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Editor’s note: A 30 column is a chance for departing permanent staff to say farewell and reflect on their time spent in the The Daily Texan. The term comes from the old typesetting mark (-30-) to denote the end of a line.

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Monday, August 7, 2017

LIFE&ARTS

Senior Life&Arts reporter departs Texan with gratitude in her heart

By Lisette Oler @LisetteOler

Emmanuel Briseno | Daily Texan Staff

In her five semesters with the Texan, journalism senior Kasey Salisbury has served as copy editor, associate copy desk chief and copy desk chief. She credits her time here for her growth as a writer and losing the fear of others reading her work.

COPY

Copy desk chief finally gets first, last byline, reflects on memorable tenure

By Kasey Salisbury @thedailytexan

While I’ve never really doubted my choice to study journalism in college, when it came right down to it, I was a little terrified of working for a newspaper, albeit a student one.

So when I applied for the Daily Texan, I was drawn to the copy department because I thought I could do my work behind the scenes and avoid public scrutiny while still getting some experience. In reality, my five semesters here challenged me to be a better writer and reporter while helping to push the Texan toward its full potential.

In the (probably) over 1,000 hours I’ve spent holed up in the basement, eating way too much pizza and arguing about em dashes, commas, word choice, hyphens, titles and headlines, you would think things would begin to feel a little trivial. But in

a time when journalism as an institution has become constantly under scrutiny, and even The New York Times is cutting back its copy department, publications have to fight to be taken seriously, and each little mistake or misstep degrades that reputation we’ve worked so hard to achieve.

It was difficult to admit that I was scared of having others read my work, but I’ve also come to realize the copy department was still a perfect fit for my passions for thorough, informative writing and generally being nitpicky about things. I’ve learned to have difficult conversations when our work just hasn’t been good enough or we have things to reevaluate. And, best of all, I’ve found a community on campus.

Last semester, I finally got the courage to (gasp) go to my college’s internship fair and apply for editorial internships. When I landed interviews, I found my formative experience with

the Texan was a huge talking point because I had so much to say about it. And in the end, I got not one, but two internships for the summer and fall, fact-checking and editing while actually doing some of my own writing that people would actually read and enjoy.

I used to hate the idea of having something with my name attached to it if it could never be perfect, but now I’m not feeling that much anxiety about it. I couldn’t thank everyone at the Texan enough for that.

I strongly advise anyone looking to get more involved on campus to consider the Texan, even if journalism isn’t your passion. You might just find another one.

To all my copy editors, and the future ones: Never doubt the importance of the work you’re doing. Keep fighting the good fight for, you know, the truth – and Oxford commas.

–30–

Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as saying, “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do—not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”

I put this in my Facebook quotes section long before I ever got to the basement of the Daily Texan, but as my time at the Texan comes to an end, I find it rings truer than ever before.

When I applied to be a permanent staff member for the fall 2016 semester, I had recently returned from Russia and had no idea what ‘p-staff ’ entailed, but I applied for News, Life&Arts and Sports anyway.

Elizabeth, then-editor of the Life&Arts section, interviewed me via FaceTime. I knew as soon as I realized we were both doing this interview in the back of our respective cars that this was the section that I wanted to be a part of.

She took a chance on me that no other editor that semester did. She never gave up on me, even when I got very flustered at having to repitch week after week. Plus, she fully supported me in trying to find an urban forager, which finally paid off with the only ‘good’ Peter has ever given me. Thank you, Elizabeth.

I didn’t think by the end of that semester the journalist’s life was for me, so I didn’t return. I took

Illustration by Rachel Tyler | Daily Texan Staff

time to get some perspective. When I was finally ready to return in summer 2017, Mae welcomed me as if I’d never left. Thank you, Mae. Working with Morgan and Justin this summer was a little weird at the beginning because they were brand new issue writers when I first joined the staff in the fall. Both younger than I was and both editors now, it was truly humbling to see how they had progressed and how they could help me improve in every aspect of my process. Thank you, Morgan and Justin.

Eva was a ray of sunshine in that drab basement. The minute I met her I was grateful I said yes to writing that last minute LGBT Flag listicle. She always had a smile on her face and a positive attitude that

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was infectious. Thank you, Eva. Finally, I can’t think about the Daily Texan without thinking about my sister, Vanessa. She was there to read every story, even the crappy ones. She was there when deadlines stressed me out and I needed story ideas. She was there to remind me that working at the campus paper was actually a viable option all along. For that, I am the most grateful. Thank you, Vanessa.

I’ve learned how to write faster, pitch better and see broader. My power to take on the whole “Daily Texan” thing became stronger with every published story. I know I can persist no matter my final career path and with that I bid the paper adieu. Thank you, The Daily Texan.

–30–

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