SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900 @THEDAILYTEXAN | THEDAILYTEXAN.COM
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2018
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 84
N E WS
O PI N I O N
LI FE &A RTS
S CI E NCE &TE CH
SPORTS
Students look forward to new food options on Guadalupe Street. PAGE 2
Students benefit from professors publishing their canvas pages earlier. PAGE 4
Graffiti Park’s moving: What does this mean for the Austin art scene? PAGE 8
A UT researcher received a grant to research climate change in France. PAGE 5
Men’s basketball aims for follow-up win against No. 6 West Virginia in Morgantown. PAGE 7
NATION
UNCERTAIN
FUTURES
photographer anthony mireles | daily texan staff
Olga Vargas, left, and Marco Medina, right, face a period of uncertainty at UT Austin, after their temporary protected status came to an end.
The end of TPS puts 200,000 Salvadorans at risk of deportation. By Sami Sparber @samisparber
B
Biology senior Marco Medina and his family have been paying close attention to the TV, shushing each other and
turning the volume up whenever they hear three words: Temporary Protected Status. For months, Medina said they’ve watched in horror as President Donald Trump’s administration ended protections for Haiti, Sudan and Nicaragua, wondering if their home country, El Salvador, would be next. On Jan. 8, after living in the U.S. for almost two decades, their worst fears came true.
Medina is now one of 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants with TPS in the United States — including 36,300 in Texas — who have until Sept. 9, 2019, to either obtain legal residency or face deportation. “Right now we’re all really worried,” Medina said. “We don’t really know what’s going to happen to us.” Medina was only three when two devastating earthquakes
struck El Salvador in 2001. His family fled to Houston that year and received word that the U.S. government had designated El Salvador for TPS. The designation suspends deportation to countries destabilized by ongoing armed conflicts, environmental disasters or other temporary conditions. Immediately, Medina’s family applied for TPS. Medina’s girlfriend, government senior
Olga Vargas, was also displaced by the earthquakes and said her family also applied. Now, Vargas’ oldest brother, still a TPS holder, faces the same dilemma as the Medinas: become a resident or leave. “My brother has built a life here,” said Vargas, who is now a legal resident. “He has a stable job, a home, a mortgage. He
TPS page 2
CAMPUS UNIVERSITY
New courses prepare UT students for end of the world By Brianna Stone @bristone19
Among the new courses offered this semester, many are related to technology and innovation in the digital world — and there’s even a new course about the end of the world. Two new courses, currently wait-listed, are Music/Technology/Culture and Capstone Projects in Journalism. Two other new courses with open seats remaining as of press time, according to the course schedule, are Digital Ethics and Arguing End of the World. Digital Ethics, CMS 332D, is a course exploring ethical issues in the use of digital and online media, and has the ethics and leadership flag. “(The course) covers topics such as the ethics of hacking, fake news, anonymous operations, online privacy, blogging ethics, online shaming and activism, revenge pornography, the ethics of memes and trolling … and online free speech,” associate professor Scott Stroud said in an email. “Throughout all of these topics, I stress the point that issues are ethical issues
COURSES page 2
UTPD, Campus Saftey and Security share crime goals By Tehreem Shahab @turhem
Since the death of dance freshman Haruka Weiser in 2016, UTPD and the office of Campus Safety and Security have collaborated with other University departments and student organizations to create a safer environment on campus, said Jimmy Johnson, interim associate vice president for Campus Safety and Security. “We wanted to be conducive for people to enjoy leisure time, to study, to learn and research,” Johnson said. “We started reviewing and implementing some meaningful measures designed to better serve our campus constituents.” Following Weiser’s death, UT President Gregory Fenves asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to conduct a security assessment of
campus to look for improvements to ensure campus safety. Some of the changes that the Texas DPS recommended included restricting building access, adding better lighting and upgrading video surveillance. According to Johnson, the UT campus has seen more developments over the past two years, such as a stronger SURE Walk program, more emergency call boxes and more buildings equipped with an access and control system that allows UT students to enter with their ID cards. In the long term, he said the CSS office hopes to dedicate its efforts to ensure that the nighttime-campus is as safe as possible. “Some of these programs are the enhancement of lighting, the reduction of foliage, the incorporation of a community policing concept, having an interest in being self-aware and helping your neighbor out,” Johnson said. “Safety awareness and
anthony mireles | daily texan staff UTPD Chief of Police David Carter said UTPD has been working on increasing the number of police officers on campus. education are vital concepts because safety is a shared campus responsibility.” Johnson said one of the safety resources CSS is having difficulty in providing is an effective safety app. He said students want resources like safety apps, however, Wi-Fi coverage has to be excellent for the apps
to work. “With Wi-Fi connectivity on campus we have several hurdles we have to get through,” Johnson said. “Certainly our Information Technology Services department is continuing to evaluate our Wi-Fi coverage and
CRIME page 2
UNIVERSITY
UT consistently tracks student suicide deaths By Maria Mendez @mellow_maria
UT has tracked student deaths by suicide for years, but a January investigation by the Associated Press found that about half of U.S. public colleges do not consistently track student suicide deaths. After requesting student suicide statistics from 100 of the largest U.S. public colleges,
6623/The Media Den; Process color
AP identified differing tracking practices, even among universities in the same state. Along with UT-Austin, seven public universities in Texas currently keep statistics on student suicide deaths, according to AP’s list. UTSan Antonio and Texas A&M were also listed as having inconsistent data, and UT-Arlington only provided limited data about deaths by suicide
SUICIDE page 3
Suicide tracking in higher education Based on the Associated Press’s survey of the United States’ 100 largest public universities
IN THE NATION
IN TEXAS
Texas Universities that don’t track suicide UT San Antonio Texas A&M
54%
Don’t track
46%
Do track
Texas Universities that track suicides UT Austin UT El Paso UT Rio Grande Valley University of North Texas Texas State University
Rate of suicides at UT, 2016-17
7 deaths per 100,000 people. In the 2016-17 academic year, there were 1,549 calls to UT’s Crisis hotline. Of those calls,
28% were urgent or emergent.