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FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 134
N E WS
O PI N I O N
S CI E NCE &TE CH
S P ORTS
LIFE&ARTS
Pen pal group connects low-income schools in Austin with UT students. PAGE 2
RateMyProfessor? There are better options for registration. PAGE 4
A discovery from 40 years ago leads to a new, more effective anti-flu drug. PAGE 5
Baseball relies on defensive strength during weekend series with Baylor at home. PAGE 6
Multiracial students reflect on positive and negative experiences at UT. PAGE 8
UNIVERSITY
Committee proposes changes to misconduct procedures By Anna Lassmann @annalassmann
A University committee released recommendations Thursday to change faculty misconduct procedures, two months after an investigation revealed that UT allowed a professor to remain on faculty after pleading guilty to felony charges of domestic abuse. An Austin American-Statesman investigation uncovered pharmacy professor Richard Morrisett’s 2016 felony charges in January. In response, UT President Gregory Fenves requested Jan. 26 that a committee review the policies that allowed Morrisett to remain on campus. The main conclusions the committee found were that the University’s review on an employee’s misconduct off-campus should be expanded to consider if the misconduct violates the University’s mission, core values or code of conduct. Additionally, the committee found no substantive changes to the University’s policies needed to be made except for clarifying an amendment requiring employees to disclose their criminal cases. “These proposed policies and updated procedures focus
STUDENT LIFE
Study: Employers stalk social media Students should be cautious of their digital footprints, research says. By Meara Isenberg @mearaannee
W
hile college students may use social media to share their opinions and experiences with friends, it is now more likely their posts will be viewed by a potential employer as well. According to a 2017 study by the online employment company CareerBuilder, 70 percent of employers are weighing tweets, posts and “likes” in their decision-making process. The number has increased from 60 percent in 2016, and 11 percent in 2006. “Employers are going to look you up,” said Ladan Hayes, a CareerBuilder career advisor. “You can’t be naive about it because the data is there backing it up. It’s your job to be presenting yourself in the way you want to be presented.” David Harrison, a business management professor, said social media can be helpful for students looking for jobs through affiliations with people on platforms such as LinkedIn, which can expose a student to more job opportunities. However, Harrison said with more recreational platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, the risk of a negative impression on a potential employer is high. “Far and away the biggest effect of social media presence
mel westfall | the daily texan staff on the likeliness of getting a job is a negative one,” Harrison said. “What you have on social media will not be a positive part of your portfolio, other than a headshot of you in a nice, sharp looking suit and some humble bragging about what you were able to do in a prior job.” Harrison said companies often use technology to do background searches on potential employees, and some even have software to search for “buzz words” in an
applicant’s social media that may be inappropriate or offensive. Advertising professor Angeline Close Scheinbaum said employers could get the wrong idea about who an applicant is based off their digital footprint. “You’re leaving this digital footprint, posting at the time, not thinking it through, but years later this can come down and it takes on a new meaning,” said Scheinbaum, the author of a book called “The Dark Side
of Social Media.” “Absolutely it can cost people job interviews or jobs themselves.” Nutrition freshman Hyunseo Ju said she often sees things her peers post on social media she considers unprofessional, and she understands why companies would use those posts in their decision-making process. “If I was in their position, I would do the same thing because
EMPLOYERS page 3
MISCONDUCT page 3 CAMPUS
CAMPUS
Students respond to University push toward ‘on-time’ graduation standard
Cockrell offers up to $100 free printing for engineering students
By Bevyn Howard @bevohoward
Although UT is hoping to raise its four-year graduation rate with the Senior Countdown program, not all students want to graduate in four years. The Senior Countdown program provides seniors with guaranteed enrollment to classes, priority access to the Graduation Help Desk and alumni networking and career coaching. To qualify for this program, juniors have to meet with their advisors to commit to graduating the following year. Cassandre Alvarado, executive director of Student Success Initiatives, said there are some myths that need to be dispelled about taking more than eight semesters to graduate. “An extra year at college costs students $150,000 in lost lifetime income,” Alvarado said. “Students also don’t have to know (right now) what they want to do for the next 70 years. There is no connection between majors and careers. Most students can enter into the fields they want with lots of different majors.” In 2017, 34.3 percent of UT students took longer than four years to graduate. Psychology senior Randi Crumblin, who will not graduate “on time,” said she feels pressured by
By Mason Carroll @masonccarroll
mel westfall | the daily texan staff counselors and UT to graduate in four years and does not see what the rush is for. “I don’t like the feeling that I’m here too long,” Crumblin said. “I’m getting things in the mail asking if I want to get my cards for graduation, and I’m like, ‘Who said I was graduating?’ I never said that. I want to do well in my classes and space them out as opposed to just cramming them all together and not doing as well
as I could.” Alexis Bramlett, an English and sociology senior, who is also not graduating “on time,” said she believes people who graduate late are misjudged. “There’s this stigma about students who graduate late,” Bramlett said. “They’re seen as lazy and not as intelligent, which doesn’t make any sense.” Bramlett also said she thinks everyone has their own
timetable to graduating. “To some extent they’ve kind of discouraged me from doing two degrees even though that’s what I want to do,” Bramlett said. “They say it’s really important to graduate in four years because I’m going to have all this loan debt, and I’m like, ‘Well I’m already going to have loan debt,’ so I just want to pursue what I want to pursue.”
When students need to print something on campus, most pay for it using Bevo Bucks with the UT printing system. However, civil engineering junior Hannah Smith has $40 worth of free printing every semester, thanks to a printing quota from her department. “I think it’s really cool that the civil department is able to give us free printing, because not all majors have free printing, and it can get expensive,” Smith said. Within the Cockrell School of Engineering, the civil, architectural and chemical engineering departments offer their students a quota for free printing. They are the only two engineering departments, and two of the only departments or majors across campus, to offer this service. Printing quotas are determined by department heads, and vary from major to major. Civil engineering students in the past have had up to a $100 budget, but Danny Quiroz, senior IT manager for civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, said due to budget cuts around 2008 they had to lower it to $40. “Whether a department offers free printing, or subsidized, is up to the department,” Quiroz said.
“Based on what we heard from students we decided to keep it in the budget.” Quiroz said University-wide budget cuts from 2008 and 2009 could be one of the reasons why other departments and colleges within the Cockrell School decided to not offer printing for students. He said another factor could have been the ability for students to use Bevo Bucks to pay for printing with UT Print, which started around the same time. “I don’t know exactly when UT Print came along, but I would say that having the option to use UT Print played a role in whether departments kept or got rid of their own quota-based printing,” Quiroz said. Randy Rife, senior IT manager for the Department of Chemical Engineering, said students in his department receive a quota of $100 worth of printing. Rife said each year the department surveys students on what they think the school can change to help benefit their education. Ninety percent say printing is important to them, which is why his department provides quota printing. “For me it’s all about doing the best we can and giving the most resources to our students to help them succeed,” Rife said.
PRINTING page 3