Serving The University of Texas at Austin Community Since 1900 Thursday, September 12, 2019
@thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com NEWS Texas Performing Arts names Tony award winner as new executive director.
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OPINION Mandatory racial geography tour at orientation would contextualize racist landmarks.
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Volume 121, Issue 22 LIFE&ARTS New star-studded “Hustlers” tackles complexities of female empowerment.
SPORTS Football coordinators reflect on Ingram and Sterns’ mistakes after LSU loss.
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SYSTEM
CITY
Employees cope with UT System’s limited family leave policy
community guide provides tools for survivors
By Areeba Amer @areeba_amer
lauren ibanez
School for Social Work develops new guide for trauma-informed approach to sexual assault survivors. By Emily Hernandez @emilylhernandez
new community guide published last week aims to improve the way survivors are reengaged in their cases after their sexual assault kits have been tested. “Notification for Victims of
Assault,” developed by UT’s Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, contains five steps with 13 supporting tools for communities to assess their capabilities in handling sexual assault cases. The guide also features examples of how communities in Houston and Detroit use the guide. The steps focus on how to create a multidisciplinary, trauma-informed approach to reinvolving survivors in their cases, especially when cases are years old. “What we’ve been able to do is explain … how to integrate the science of the trauma and the science of neurobiology and the institute’s 19 years of experience working with survivors, so police and (community members) have that resource with them so they can even do their jobs better,” said Melanie Susswein, Notification for Victims of Assault
researcher and the institute director of marketing and communications. “It offers (tools) from assessing your community … and if you’re ready, all the way to being ready and moving forward and reading a supplemental reading that you might want to do in your community to be better prepared.” Susswein said the institute researchers decided to undertake the three-year project while conducting their 2016 Houston Sexual Assault Kit Research, which aided Houston police and survivors with testing kits. “We realized that survivors had a need for communities to have a guide so that they would feel like … reporting was something that they were happy that they did and that they were treated in a way that it was not regretful. Also, so that they remained engaged in the process,” Susswein
By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
Students can get their student records, financial aid and tuition services all in the same place starting in the spring of 2020. The Texas One Stop for Enrollment Services center will offer the student services of the Office of the Registrar, Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid and Student Accounts Receivable in one place, said Jennifer Love, director of the center. These three offices are currently located in separate parts of the Main Building and Student Services Building. While those offices will remain operational, the services for students will all be located on the first floor of the Main Building. “This is transformational,”Love said. “Having a space in (the Main Building) O N E S T O P PAGE 2
said. “We wanted to be able to create a tool for communities to use that opened the door rather than shut it.” The Austin Police Department are the primary handlers of sex crime cases in Austin, working together with the Stop Abuse For Everyone Alliance and hospitals to perform sexual assault forensic exams and sending sexual assault kits to the Texas Department of Public Safety for testing. While Susswein said IDVSA sent the guide directly to APD, Sgt. Jason LaDuque of the Violent Crimes Area Command said it has not yet been fully processed or adopted by the department since it is so new. APD updated its victim notification system in 2018, and LaDuque said it is currently under review. G U I D E PAGE 3
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STUDENT GOVERNMENT
UNIVERSITY
Main Building to serve as one-stop shop for student resources at UT
/ the daily texan staff
When Dr. Gurur Biliciler-Denktas was planning to have her second child while working in the UT System, she didn’t opt to use the 12 weeks of unpaid family leave provided by the system. Instead, she saved her paid vacation and sick leave. “You have a new child and you have another child at home. And even though you’re a physician, you still need to pay bills, right?” said Biliciler-Denktas, chair of the UT System Faculty Advisory Council. The Family Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993, allows all eligible employers to acquire 12 weeks of unpaid leave for circumstances such as medical emergencies or new children. However, UT System employees must use all available paid leave while taking the FMLA leave. The UT System does not have additional maternity or paternity leave, which Biliciler-Denktas said leads to some eligible faculty saving up vacation time and sick leave in anticipation of a new child. “We lost a lot of female faculty to other institutions,” said Biliciler-Denktas, a pediatric cardiologist at UTHealth Science Center at Houston. In an emailed statement, UT System spokesperson Karen Adler said the policies are maintained by each individual UT institution and are guided by the UT System Board of Regents’ Rules, which comply with federal law. “The Chancellor and Board of Regents always look forward to hearing the (Faculty Advisory Council’s) findings and recommendations related to policies and issues of concern,” Adler said in an email. Adler said the Faculty Advisory Council was established to identify issues among faculty, analyze those issues and share recommendations for action with the Chancellor and Board of Regents. She did not provide further comment. The Faculty Advisory Council hopes to make recommendations to change the faculty family leave policy following complaints from faculty on other UT System campuses, Biliciler-Denktas said.
SG to release weekly, opt-in newsletter for student body By Neelam Bohra @_neelam_b
When first joining Student Government, members such as university-wide representative Kerry Mackenzie struggle to find current information about SG. Starting next week, SG will release an optin newsletter for the student body to make information easier to find, SG communications director Jacqui Briddell said. The newsletter will contain weekly meeting agendas, a summary of the last week’s meeting, representatives’ work and other highlights or achievements, Briddell said. She said she hopes to eventually include a form to receive student feedback about SG’s performance. Currently, students can subscribe to an email list in the UT List Server to receive SG meeting agendas from the speaker of the
assembly. These emails do not contain context or explanations of legislation. “Anyone can find out what happens (in SG) online or on Twitter, but not a lot of people will go out of their way,” journalism senior Briddell said. “A newsletter is a modern-day resource for people to just check their email that night or that morning and figure out if there’s something that’s going to affect them or that they want to speak about.” Briddell said SG’s decisions impact the whole campus, but not enough of the student body knows what happens during meetings. “We want to make this sound appealing because people might not understand why they would want to opt into something like this,” Briddell said. “I’m hoping to be able to convey the importance of it to the S G PAGE 3
steph sonik
/ the daily texan staff