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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
volume
119,
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NEWS
OPINION
LIFE&ARTS
SPORTS
Bond proposals would address affordable housing, environment, and city libraries. PA G E 2
Students should turn off social media to make the most of their study breaks. PA G E 4
Students jump into Littlefield Fountain despite possible consequences. PA G E 8
Coordinators evaluate team progress, areas to work on as season continues. PA G E 6
CITY
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UNIVERSITY
UT announces New York based program beginning next Fall semester By Gracie Awalt @gracieawalt5
The city that never sleeps will become a new home for selected students in the Moody College of Communication, McCombs School of Business and College of Fine Arts through the new UT in New York program. UT is working with the New York State Board of Education to gain approval for the UT in New York program to host its inaugural class next fall. The online applications will be open throughout November to students within the three colleges, with limited spots available for students outside the three colleges. Students can expect to earn 12 hours of course credit while living and interning in New York. “Our tagline is, ‘If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere,’” said Michael Wilson, assistant dean of external relations in the Moody College of Communication. “New Yorkers are faster-paced than Texans, but both people are proud of their states, cities and cultures.” Wilson said the program is modeled after the existing UT in Los Angeles program, which allows UT students in the Moody College to work and study in LA and has hosted 1,600 students since 2005. New York City might
eilish o’sullivan | the daily texan file West campus apartments are advertised as being bigger and nicer than what is usually leased. Students sometimes may feel obligated to sign leases quickly to secure apartments without touring.
Leasing proves problematic campus fill up within the first month of school,” Pruitt said. “The websites always make the apartments out to be bigger and nicer than they actually are. We were told that my apartment’s appliances were recently updated, but when we got there the dryer didn’t work and only two of the four burners functioned.” When looking for an apartment, Pruitt said her leasing agent made promises they could not keep. “My roommate and I got to
By Jessica Regan @jessicareganUT
est Campus offers close proximity to campus, Greek life, restaurants and stores, but living there often comes at a steep price. For some students, the apartment hunting process is a challenge. Journalism sophomore Hannah Pruitt said she felt like she had to sign a lease quickly to secure an apartment. “Most of the nicer apartments that are close in proximity to
preference which rooms we would like to sign a lease for,” Pruitt said. “The American Campus leasing agent made us confident that we would get either our first or second preference, so we put down a random apartment with the same floor plan in a different building (for our third choice). We ended up getting the random apartment, which ended up being significantly smaller than the other two.”
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@ultravioletmegs
In light of a movement pushing employers to “ban the box” regarding prior criminal history questions on job applications, the U.S. Senate launched a similar effort to ban similar questions for college admissions. On Sept. 13 Sens. Brian Schatz, Dick Durbin and Cory Booker introduced the Beyond the Box for Higher Education Act, which would encourage colleges to remove criminal history questions from their admissions applications and give more students a chance at higher education. Based on three national survey, conducted from 2009-2014, 55 percent of public institutions require undergraduate applicants to answer criminal history questions in the admissions process, but UT does not. “Undergraduate students apply for admission (to UT) … through either the ApplyTexas application … or the Coalition for College application,” said Miguel Wasielewski, executive director
of admissions, in an emailed statement. “Both applications are used by other institutions and do not include questions related to criminal history.” While employers typically limit their questions to felony convictions rather than arrests, colleges commonly ask about all convictions, including misdemeanors and juvenile arrests. Criminal history information may also affect financial aid. In 1998, Congress added a new question on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to prevent applicants with prior drug-related convictions from receiving federal financial aid. The scope of this FAFSA question was reduced in 2007 to only include offenses that occurred while a student was receiving federal student aid. Ian Sims, co-president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy at UT, said
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UT admissions does not discriminate against students with criminal record By Megan Nguyen
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Prolitfic provides writing platform for community By Zoë Howard @zoehoward51
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jeb milling
| the daily texan staff
Junior Nicole Sun, who helped found online peer-review community Prolitfic, said she believes all writers at UT should be given the opportunity to share their voice regardless of their majors. “There are so many people who are good writers, they just get buried in all the noise,” said Sun, a business honors and Plan II junior. Sun and three other UT students founded Prolitfic, an online writing community, in January. Co-founder Dan Tran says they have garnered more than 150 users since then. The website is similar to online writing communities like Wattpad, but with quality control. For example, Sun said many other writing communities do not have a way of filtering spam comments, but Prolitfic is currently looking for a way to only show relevant comments. “Writers are able to view analytics of interests to help them improve, like where readers drop off reading or
Writers are able to view analytics of interests to help them improve, like where readers drop off reading or where they get confused.”
NICOLE SUN
BUSINESS AND PLAN II JUNIOR
where they get confused,” Sun said. “We’re all aspiring writers and readers, so we wanted a site that would basically combine the accessibility of self-publishing with the quality of traditional publishing.” Sun, the head of strategy and marketing for the site, said she was inspired to create Prolitfic through one of her business classes. “Our professor instructed us to do this very
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