SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900 @THEDAILYTEXAN | THEDAILYTEXAN.COM
THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 113
N E WS
O PI N I O N
LI FE &A RTS
SPORTS
Race for Congressional District 21 heats up one week before primary election. PAGE 2
Columnists give advice on civic engagement, Student Government and studying. PAGE 4
UT students from around Parkland, Florida, take a stance on gun control. PAGE 8
Texas run-rules Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in five-inning, 8-0 victory over the Islanders. PAGE 6
CAMPUS
CAMPUS
Center forms community for MexicanAmerican students By Mason Carroll @masonccarroll
As a first generation student from Laredo, Texas, Ilse Colchado felt out of place when she began her college journey. She felt underrepresented and lost — until she found her home at the Center for Mexican-American Studies. The Hispanic population makes up 20 percent of UT’s student body, according to UT’s 2017–2018 Statistical Handbook. Colchado, Mexican-American studies and anthropology junior, said her transition was difficult because she came from an environment with a majority Hispanic population to an environment where she was in the minority. “I didn’t feel represented as a brown student, and so I added Mexican-American studies after my first year,” Colchado said. “That was where I felt like I belonged on campus, especially with having professors of color who integrated their own stories of survival.” Center director John Morán González also came from a majority Hispanic background. “Me personally, it goes back to the story of where I grew up, Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville,” González said. “There, it was normal to see (Mexican-Americans) as professionals and at every level.” Of the 3,162 faculty members at UT, 257, or 8.1 percent, are Hispanic, according to UT’s Statistical Handbook. Last spring,
CENTER page 2
nikita sveshnik | the daily texan staff “DREAMers,” members of UT’s Jolt Committee, students and others march on Gregory Plaza on Wednesday in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This comes amid recent decisions in Washington D.C. to end DACA.
UT students rally in support of DACA Protesters march from Speedway to Capitol to advocate for DACA. By Tehreem Shahab & Eilish O’Sullivan @turhem, @ evosullivan
A
crowd of about 50 UT students marched from the Speedway Mall to the Texas State Capitol to show support for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and
encourage Austinites to vote in the primary midterm elections. “My parents brought me to the United States when I was two years old,” said Berenice Ramírez, a health and society junior, while standing on the steps of the Texas State Capitol. “Texas is all I have ever known and it is the place that I call my home. And I didn’t know what it meant to be undocumented until I came to high school. I graduated at the top of my class, but I was always made to feel inferior by my classmates.” Ramírez is one of nearly 700,000 immigrants across the U.S. who is a
recipient of DACA, an Obama-era immigration policy that temporarily prevents the deportation of immigrants who arrived in the country as minors. Ramírez is also a member of UT’s chapter of Jolt Texas, a civic engagement organization with the goal of empowering Latinos across the nation, which helped organize the event. The event came two days after the Supreme Court denied to review the Trump administration’s DACA appeal. The decision allows for DACA recipients to renew their application past the original March 5 deadline.
UNIVERSITY
Though she thought this decision was good news for DACA recipients, Ramírez said more progress needs to be made. “We still have to fight,” Ramírez said. “There’s family members of these ‘DREAMers,’ these DACA recipients that are still unprotected so we need a clean DREAM Act now.” As part of the event, the Jolt Make Art Committee created a pan dulce butterfly art installation to bring to the state capitol. The words “Migration is sweet” were painted on the installation.
DACA page 2
UNIVERSITY
UT attempts to address Texas’ growing population By Bevyn Howard @bevohoward
mel westfall| the daily texan staff
Four-year myth: Why students take time away from school By Sol Chase
@ solchaseforsure
Graduating college in four years is considered the norm, but it is not a reality for everyone. According to a 2014 study by Complete College America, only 36 percent of students at flagship public universities graduate in four years. UT’s numbers are far higher, at 66 percent of students graduating
in four years, according to a fall 2017 UT News release, but still, many students take longer because they take time off during school. Psychology sophomore Cassandra Csany, who transferred to UT-Austin from UT-El Paso after her freshman year, said she took time off of school because the stress of leaving her hometown caused her grades to drop. “I was very unhappy last semester,” Csany said.
By the year 2050, state officials expect Texas’ population to nearly double, so UT is embarking on its first grand initiative challenge to research the effects of population growth on the Texas environment. The project, called Planet Texas 2050, is a Bridging Barriers initiative aimed at integrating a vast array of data from multiple UT colleges. Katherine Lieberknecht, assistant professor in the School of
Architecture, said that after UT President Gregory Fenves introduced the program under Bridging Barriers, more than 120 theme proposals were submitted for the challenge, with Planet 2050 winning out. The project began in January and is projected to last eight years, with a new theme annually. “Imagine Houston with 10 million people instead of 4.5 and imagine Austin with twice its population, with all its infrastructure issues it currently has,” Richard Corsi, architectural and environmental
engineering professor, said. “Austin was already barely able to get out of the last drought, so imagine what would happen with double the population.” The project will infer realistic scenarios based on the integrated data about Texas’ future concerning water resources, energy resources and climate change, such as with Hurricane Harvey. Lieberknecht said these scenarios can then be used as a “toolbox” to help communities find solutions to local population and
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“I just wasn’t meeting the expectations I was hoping for.” Csany decided last-minute not to enroll in spring semester classes and has since taken up EMT training at Austin Community College, as well as a job at Home Depot. She said she loves training as an EMT but feels isolated from academia and her friends at UT. “I don’t really like to go to campus,” Csany said. “I feel
MYTH page 2
geo castillas| the daily texan staff