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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2017
@thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Volume 118, Issue 70
UNIVERSITY
INNOVATION
Suspension lifted in sexual misconduct trial By Will Clark Enterprise Reporter
A student accused of sexual misconduct in the case of John Doe v Gregory Fenves is no longer suspended from the University. In April, Fenves decided that the student broke the University’s sexual misconduct policy by
having sex with another intoxicated student. Fenves suspended him for five semesters. In a court document filed Nov. 20, the University wrote that John will be reinstated as a student. The document also said UT “will route the appeal to a third-party other than President Fenves
for adjudication.” Doe is suing on the grounds of lack of due process. The University claimed in the document that a hearing is no longer necessary. It is not clear what prompted the University to file this document other than to “avoid this litigation’s disruption to the university,” according to
the document. Brian Roark, the plaintiff ’s attorney, clarified that although John’s suspension is lifted, it doesn’t mean he’s able to go back to school since he’s been suspended all semester. “All this sham gesture does is give some unnamed third party the opportunity to suspend
Mr. Doe at some point next semester, thus harming him even more than their unconstitutional actions already have,” Roark said. “In addition, this would violate their own rules for these types of proceedings. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to avoid
TRIAL page 2
EXAM page 2
ROBOT page 2
By London Gibson Senior News Reporter
Minimum Uninsured Charges for Women’s Health Exams Across Texas Universities
Increases to UT Exam Charges in the Past Year
*200
$36
180
Fall 2016
160
Cost ($)
The minimum cost for a woman’s annual health exam at UT’s Women’s Health Clinic in the past year has more than tripled for uninsured students, increasing from $36 last fall to $126 this August. This recent hike made UT-Austin one of the most expensive women’s exams offered by the state’s top ten largest schools, second only to the University of Texas at Arlington, which charges around $200. The University Health Services policy determines charges based on a variety of factors influenced by insurance billing and the Medicare reimbursement rate, Director Jamie Shutter said. When Medicare and insurance reimbursement rates go up, exam charges must also go up for
140
124
120
$79
126
Spring 2017
*100
100
85
80 59
60
0
60
40
40 20
60
$126
20
Fall 2017
Texas A&M University
The University of Houston
UT Texas State San Antonio University
Texas Tech University
UT El Paso
UT Dallas
University of North Texas
UT Austin
UT Arlington
University
*estimate
SOURCE: Student health services offices Jamie Shutter, Executive director of UHS
infographic by mallika gandhi| daily texan staff
the department to maintain its revenue. “I am a very strong advocate for students and affordability, and we don’t like to increase our charges, and if it were up
to me we would have much lower charges,” Shutter said. “But we have to participate in insurance billing because of the way that we’re financed. We rely on that money.”
ENERGY
Senior News Reporter
Shutter said there are thousands of codes taken into account when determining service charges, including
Women’s health exam cost tripled 200
By Chase Karacostas
The School of Nursing is now using a “robot nurse” to give students more experience in the growing field of telemedicine, over-the-phone or online interactions with health care providers. The Robo-Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (RoboAPRN) came out of a $9,764 grant from the UT-Austin Faculty Innovation Center. RoboAPRN allows students to experience interacting with patients without being in the same room as them through videoconferencing. “In layman’s terms, it’s an iPad on a stick that you can drive around,” said Valerie Danesh, assistant nursing professor and co-principal investigator for RoboAPRN. RoboAPRN is a form of remote presence, a type of telemedicine that allows health care providers to evaluate patients regardless of distance separating them. The robot is about the same height as the average person so as to give the appearance and feel of speaking to a health care provider as if they were in the same room, Danesh said. In rural areas, remote presence is quickly growing in importance because of the low access to health
HEALTH
Uninsured women students face higher cost of health coverage
Robotic nurse will expand telemedic healthcare
CAMPUS
Student awarded scholarship donated by Trevante Rhodes By Tehreem Shabab News Reporter
illustration by mel westfall| daily texan staff
UT System’s West Texas lands grow greener with solar energy By Maria Mendez Senior News Reporter
The UT System’s West Texas lands could become a hub for renewable energy through new solar and wind energy projects. University Lands, the entity that manages 2.1 million acres of state land benefiting the UT and Texas A&M University systems, is working
on leasing land to multiple solar energy companies. Alyssa Ray, associate director of University Lands, said two developers were recently awarded permission to build solar farms, and at least three more contracts for solar farms are currently in the works. These will be the first solar energy farms on University Lands property. “The sun is really great
out there, and there’s a lot of lands that a lot of people don’t want, so it’s kind of perfect for solar,” Ray said. University Lands has long profited by leasing land to oil and natural gas companies for drilling, but Ray said solar energy companies first began approaching University Lands about
WEST TEXAS page 2
While applying for the Gail McKay Student Support Award, Calep Smith did not know the $20,000 scholarship was donated to UT by Trevante Rhodes, Oscar award-winning actor and UT alumnus. Corporate communications senior Smith found out about the donor during his final interview of the application process. Before Smith was awarded this scholarship, which covers rent and tuition for the 2017-2018 year, he said he struggled to fund his education. “I was always thinking ‘Well, I got my tuition covered, but what am I going to do about rent?’ or ‘What am I going to do about food?’” Smith said. “So I wasn’t able to actually focus on, ‘I’m here at UT to learn.’ I was kind of out here trying to survive almost, on my own.” Rhodes said he hopes the scholarship helps students realize their purpose, according to the 2016–2017 Impact Re-
copyright calep smith, and reproduced with permission
Corporate communications senior, Calep Smith is a recipient of the Gail McKay scholarship, a donation made by Oscar winning actor and UT alumnus, Trevante Rhodes.
port by the Division of Student Affairs. “I was told life is about how you make people feel,” Rhodes said in the report. “My time at UT Austin gifted me the opportunity to find purpose. I hope to help others find theirs.” Smith said now that his basic needs are covered, he can plan for the future. “I have already put some
up in a savings account for when I do graduate and have to start paying off loans,” Smith said. “I have something … I can fall back on, which I didn’t have before the scholarship. It has put me in a very comfortable place as a student.” Smith found out about
SCHOLARSHIP page 2