SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900 @THEDAILYTEXAN | THEDAILYTEXAN.COM
MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2018
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 130
N E WS
O PI N I O N
LI FE&A RTS
SPORTS
Dockless e-scooters may soon be coming to Austin, in addition to dockless bikes. PAGE 3
Students protest the removal of Fine Arts Library resources. PAGE 4
Donating blood might be intimidating, but truly saves lives. PAGE 8
Distance medley and shot put highlight 91st Texas Relays for Longhorn men. PAGE 6
UNIVERSITY
UT power plant saves University $15 million annually By Mason Carroll @masonccarroll
With a team of about 140 people and a single power plant that has been serving UT for decades, Juan Ontiveros said his team holds the power on campus. Ontiveros, the associate vice president for Utilities, Energy and Facilities Management, said the plant has a budget of $60 million a year to keep all 20 million square feet of campus running smoothly. The power plant saves the University $15 million annually, compared to Austin Energy prices, Ontiveros said. “We exist so you don’t have to pay the $15 million more,” Ontiveros said. “It’s a source of pride for us to say, ‘Campus, you have more money available to you because we’re efficient,’ and it gives us the satisfaction that your tuition does not go up because of what we do.” Ontiveros said his team is constantly looking at how they can reduce cost because each dollar they spend is a dollar the University could be using. “We do our own maintenance, our own programming,
CAMPUS
Be the Match to come to campus Bone marrow donor program addresses myths about transplants. By Grace Speas @gracespeas
B
e The Match, a worldwide registry matching cancer patients to donors for bone marrow transplantation, will swab cheeks on campus in six different locations during April 9–11. “If you are called and told you are a match, it means that out of the 14 million people on the registry, you are the best match for this patient,” said Samuel Hillhouse, a community engagement representative for Be The Match. “You are their best shot at life, and we will do everything in our power to make it easy for you to donate.” The registration is in co-sponsorship with multiple groups on campus, including UT Athletics, and is an effort to dispel donation falsehoods, Hillhouse said. Mike Thompson, who had cancer on four separate occasions, is a two-time recipient of the transplant. “I’m 32 now, I wasn’t supposed to live to 18,” Thompson said. “I’m alive because of it.” When a patient needs a transplant because their blood is producing dysfunctional cells, they are given high chemotherapy doses and the donor’s blood stem cells, which reproduce quickly in the body, Hillhouse said. Matched donors often believe there is another available match
jacky tovar | the daily texan staff for the cancer patient, which is not true in most cases, Hillhouse said. Other false beliefs include that the donation process is painful, invasive and has long-term effects. Be The Match has done this campus event for five years and 13 donations have resulted since then, Hillhouse said. College swabbings are ideal because campuses contain people of the
(Being a match) is not a common thing, but that’s why it’s so important to be committed if you are a match. You could get that phone call one day.” Samuel Hillhouse,
be the match community representative
BE THE MATCH page 3
POWER PLANT page 2 CITY
CITY
CapMetro unveils vision for high-capacity transit
been waiting months.” The project, if fully implemented, will likely cost $6-8 billion over the @chasekaracostas course of several decades. CapMetro asked the city to contribute $15 million After releasing a few details eartoward engineering and environmental lier this month, CapMetro has unanalysis. A CapMetro representative veiled its near-complete vision for intold The Daily Texan in an email that creasing high-capacity transit routes the support is crucial and “the agency throughout the Austin area. Some does not have the capacity to undertake Austinites hope this brings the potenthe full scope of work at this time.” tial for a rail line to be built right next The money could come from a possible to campus. The plans feature 11 routes, including bond election in November, or it could be pulled from existing transportation several proposed paths for what Capbond funds. Metro calls “high-caMayor Pro Tem pacity transit,” which Kathie Tovo said she will either be light would like the monrail lines or “rapid” ey to come from the buses on their own latter or see if Caplanes free from othMetro can find the er commuter traffic. funds themselves. The path nearest UT “It’s important is the orange line, to me that the city which runs from shows strong supNorth Austin down port, and if it means Lamar into Guadaallocating some monlupe and past UT ey to get it moving to Republic Square. forward, then I’ll From there, it is met likely support that by the blue line which path,” said Tovo, who goes across the rivrepresents parts of er into the Riverside West Campus on the area, and the brown Kathie Tovo, City Council. line which runs down mayor pro tem Compared to South Congress. past attempts to Specifics on which improve public transit in Austin, lines will be rail or bus have yet to be Tovo said she appreciated how there decided. Scott Morris, a representative has been a focus on helping stufor the Central Austin Community Dedents get to campus and other parts velopment Corporation, said he was of Austin. disappointed to see the decisions for “That kind of thinking about how our which routes would receive rail have really significant student population not yet been made. The Central Austin gets in and around the city is really imCDC is a nonprofit that advocates to portant, and I don’t recall there being improve public transit in the area. such a focus in past plans on that stu“Lines on a map are not something dent perspective,” Tovo said. that can give the public a whole lot of material to discuss the (changes to public transit),” Morris said. “And we’ve
By Chase Karacostas
copyright josie maclean, and reproduced with permission SEAL accepts applications at the beginning of every semester. The organization was made up of 24 members its inaugural year and now has more than 95 participants.
Student organization-turnednonprofit pairs tykes with teens By Sara Schleede @saraschleede
Every classroom at marketing senior Roger Lam’s elementary school had iPads and an interactive white board, but when he starting volunteering at local elementary schools in college, most of the schools he visited did not even have projectors. “It opened my eyes to a lot of things,” Lam said. Students Expanding Austin Literacy, or SEAL, allows students a chance to both mentor and educate elementary-aged kids in schools with low resources in the East Austin
area. Now, they are also an official nonprofit organization. “Being able to be both a student organization and also a recognized nonprofit feels like a next step into expanding and having a bigger reach,” SEAL vice president Angela Park said. SEAL will use this new status to widen their influence to other areas such as Houston and Dallas, Lam said. Lam founded SEAL as part of a Liberal Arts Honors project his freshman year. Currently, SEAL is comprised of 97 student volunteers who are paired with a single student from one of 10 elementary schools
for a semester or longer. They spend one hour per week together reading books and establishing relationships. “We don’t use flashcards or any really professional literacy tactics,” Lam said. “We just hope the kids fall in love with us and in turn fall in love with reading.” Of Austin Independent School District’s 84 elementary and pre-kindergarten campuses, 61 fall under Title I classification in the 2017–18 academic year. Title I schools are defined by the Texas Education Agency as campuses with a student population in which at least 40 percent are low income.
SEAL page 2
That kind of thinking about how our really significant student population gets in and around the city is really important.”
CAPMETRO page 2