Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017
@thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Volume 118, Issue 80 CAMPUS
CAMPUS
New FAFSA verification requests cause issues for students By Maria Mendez Senior News Reporter
carlos garcia | daily texan staff
For more than six years, law professor Ariel Dulitzky spent his days teaching as professor of the Human Rights Clinic while also working as a representative on the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Professor passes on UN lessons Law professor Ariel Dulitzky uses knowledge from UN work to teach students By London Gibson Senior News Reporter For more than six years, law professor Ariel Dulitzky would pack up his things and head out after office hours — not to go home and relax, but to begin work on his second job as one of five representatives on the United Nations Human Rights Council‘s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Dulitzky studied kidnappings and enforced disappearances as the U.N. representative for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2010 to this year. He spent the maximum amount of time an appointed expert can spend — two three-year terms — and was elected chair of the group from 2013 to 2015.
Positive change takes time, and in human rights, positive change even takes longer. … So we need to be very, very aware of how to protect what we achieve.” —Ariel Dulitzky, Law professor The native Argentinian completed his final term in the spring, but he continues to transfer the lessons he learned as a U.N. representative to his law students in the Human Rights Clinic and published a report with them on kidnappings in Mexico last month. “Positive change takes time, and in human rights, positive
change even takes longer,” Dulitzky said. “And it’s very easy to destroy achievement in a second, and it’s very, very difficult to reconstruct those achievements once they are destroyed. So we need to be very, very aware of how to protect what we achieve.” For years, Dulitzky persisted on a mission that may seem
thankless to others; it was unpaid work with a slim chance of closing a case. Dulitzky said since the creation of the council in 1980, representatives have only been able to solve or receive information on about 20 percent of over 55,000 cases. Dulitzky said his main role as representative was to serve as a channel of communication between grieving families, government and other organizations as well as provide emotional support. “Imagine that your husband disappears and you don’t know what happened, you don’t know if that person is alive or dead,” Dulitzky
LAW page 3
UT and universities across the U.S. are reporting increased FAFSA verification requests from the U.S. Department of Education, complicating the financial aid application process for students. The Department of Education regularly asks about a third of student applicants to submit additional government tax records and documentation to prove income and identity. But recent changes to the FAFSA process are leading to more verification requests. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators reported that verification requests this October increased threefold, according to the Washington Post. For the current 2017–2018 academic year, UT’s Financial Aid Office has also seen small increases in verification requests. Trina Manor, associate director of UT’s Office of Financial Aid, said verification requests have increased at UT in part because of changes to how the University works with the U.S. Department of Education. Through an agreement called the Quality Assurance program, UT’s financial aid office could verify fewer FAFSA applications if they helped the Department of Education analyze common issues in student applications. With the end of the program in 2016, more students have had to verify their information, Manor said. “With … the program, they allowed us to not verify every file coming through,” Manor said. “Now we have verify every request from the Department of Education.”
FAFSA page 2 CAMPUS
ALUMNI
New research journal sheds light on Latinx oral history, voices in US
Restaurant owner named on Forbes 30 Under 30
By Tehreem Shahab News Reporter
John Trevino, Austin’s first Mexican-American city council member, can be seen pictured on the cover of the first issue of the US Latino & Latina Oral History Journal, the first professional academic journal of its field. Thursday evening, the Center for Mexican American Studies hosted a celebration of the launch of the journal, which is a research publication exploring experiences of Latinas and Latinos in the United States through interviews. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, journalism professor and founding editor of the journal, said the significance of the journal relies on its emphasis of oral storytelling. “Oral history is one of the most
JOURNAL page 2
By Emily O’Toole News Reporter
Alumnus Grant Pinkerton made Forbes’ 2018 30 Under 30 list for his Houston restaurant Pinkerton’s Barbecue and credits much of his success to his liberal arts degree. But despite now having a booming barbecue business, Pinkerton’s future plan wasn’t always to own a restaurant. “When I was in school I pretty much thought I’d come out, get into the business world, maybe working in some sort of oil and gas field,” Pinkerton said. “After thinking about things, I kind of prioritized chasing a passion.” Pinkerton said he strives to maintain quality within his shop while sticking to the basics. “We’re building an experience here — from the food, to the staff, to the hospitality to the building itself,” Pinkerton said. “My motto is to do the common thing uncommonly well … Do the basic thing better than everybody else.” Pinkerton’s style on the pit is to keep things simple and old fashioned, he said. “No gas, no electricity, I think it’s
better that way,” Pinkerton said. “If you do it the hard way, it’s gonna be the best. When you try to cut corners, inevitably the food deteriorates … I knew that the way to (make good barbecue) was to use really high quality products and to go back to cooking the real way, the old school way.” Pinkerton said his rhetoric and writing degree from UT has been essential to his success. “My rhetoric degree has been instrumental in getting me to where I am,” Pinkerton said. “One of the most important (advantages) that I have had over other people in the same business is my ability to wordsmith. I raised a half a million dollars in capital as a 24-year-old, not because I had a degree from a business school, but because I could write extremely well and convince people in what I was doing and in what I believed in.” @PinkertonsBBQ on Twitter has more than 2,700 followers, which Pinkerton uses to promote his restaurant. “We live in an era dominated by 140 characters,” Pinkerton said. “If you can use those 140 characters to
FORBES page 3
illustration by madi beavers| daily texan staff