SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900 @THEDAILYTEXAN | THEDAILYTEXAN.COM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 83
N E WS
O PI N I O N
LI FE &A RTS
SPORTS
SURE Walk and Ride introduce wheelchair accessible vehicles. PAGE 2
Thoughts on how to overcome racism and slow internet speeds. PAGE 4
Will Dunkin’ Donuts knock out the other breakfast spots on the Drag? PAGE 8
Kerwin Roach returns as the Longhorns take down No. 8 Texas Tech. PAGE 6
UNIVERSITY
‘We Heard You’ Student feedback led Fenves and CMHC to subsidize the $10 fee. By Stephanie Adeline @stephadeline
U
T President Gregory Fenves announced on Wednesday that the University will no longer charge students $10 per counseling appointment in the Counseling and Mental Health Center. Psychiatry services will also be reduced from $15 to $10 per session, lowering to the same fee as other medical appointments. Both
changes are subsidized through the University’s partnership with ESPN on the Longhorn Network. This change comes after Fenves received feedback from students when a Daily Texan article last semester revealed that UT-Austin was one of the only top schools in Texas to charge students for counseling and mental health services. “Last semester, I heard from many students about the charges for counseling appointments at the Counseling and Mental Health Center,” Fenves said in an email to the UT community. “I am concerned that these charges have been a barrier for students seeking needed care.” Fenves also emphasized mental health should not be overlooked
COUNSELING page 3
illustration by victoria smith | daily texan staff
UNIVERSITY
Latinx admission, graduate rates don’t match up
NATION
Department of Justice seeks Supreme Court review of DACA injunction By Chase Karacostas @ chasekaracostas
The Department of Justice announced Tuesday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review last week’s federal injunction that temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from rescinding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the injunction on Jan. 9 stating that the Obamaera protections for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as minors must remain in place while lawsuits against Trump’s decision are pending. Officials are not, however, required to accept new applications for the program. If the Supreme Court takes on the case, the Department of Justice will be bypassing the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which would traditionally handle the next round of the appeals process for Alsup’s decision. For now, the Department has filed an appeal of the injunction with the Ninth Circuit. “It defies both law and common sense for DACA … to somehow be mandated nationwide by a single district court in
DACA page 2
By Maria Mendez @thedailytexan
More Latino students are enrolling at UT and U.S. universities, but they are still not graduating at the same rate as white students. A December report by The Education Trust highlighted a 10-percent gap between the national graduation rates of Latinx and white students in 2015. The report also found a 13-percent gap at UT-Austin and similar gaps at other UT universities. In 2015, 63.3 percent of white college students graduated from U.S. universities within six years, but only 53.6 percent
of Latino students graduated, according to report author Andrew Nichols. “If university leaders believe in the inherent potential for all students to succeed, regardless of race or ethnicity, then there is no way to justify that kind of gap,” Nichols said in an emailed statement. The 2015 national Latinx graduation rate remains higher than that for black and Native American students, but the report states that this improvement is slow compared to the recent growth in Latinx enrollment. Enrollment for Latinx students nearly tripled between 1999 and 2016, according to
LATINX page 2
Latino graduation rates at UT
How UT’s 2015 grad rates stack up to the national average 83% 70% 63.3% National average: 59.4%
53.6%
White
Latino
infographic by rena li | daily texan staff
SOURCE: The Education Trust
CAMPUS
Flu season expected to get worse as spring semester starts By Stephanie Adeline @stephadeline
Students returning to campus after winter break run the risk of getting the flu after more than 8,000 people in Texas have tested positive for influenza since October — more than six times as many as last year’s flu season — according to the Department of State Health Services. University Health Services has seen a relatively high percentage of influenza and influenza-like illness diagnoses out of the total number of primary care visits in the
Athletics FS; Process color
past two weeks, according to Kathy Mosteller, UHS director of nursing services. Mosteller said UHS expects the numbers to increase in the next few weeks as students start the spring semester. “(Students) come back to campus, they’ll be around other people who have the flu, people who are worried about missing class so they’re going to class and coughing,” Mosteller said. “Next week we’ll start getting a lot of phone calls … but this is very predictable. It’s nothing unusual about this year’s flu, so far.” According to the Center for Disease Control, this season’s
flu vaccine is predicted to be around 30 percent effective, similar to last year’s vaccine. Jiwon Lee, a postdoctoral fellow researching on flu vaccine, said flu shots are sometimes ineffective due to the nature of the influenza virus as a rapidly evolving virus. “Every year, three or four different flu strains are selected to be included in the seasonal flu vaccine,” Lee said in an email. “Sometimes, there are mismatches, meaning the virus strain widely circulating during the year is different from the ones included in the vaccine, leading to ineffectiveness of the vaccine.”
illustration by mel westfall | daily texan staff Despite getting a flu shot in October, Leo Angulo caught the flu the day after Christmas. Angulo, a biochemistry and psychology junior, said he also saw a number of his friends and family members getting the flu. “You think sometimes your friends are like pulling your
leg or make excuses to not hang out but no, people actually were sick,” Angulo said. “Then people ask me like do you want to do something … and I’m like no, I’m sick.” Angulo said he caught the flu because getting the vaccine
FLU page 2