Serving The University of Texas at Austin Community Since 1900 Monday, September 16, 2019
@thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com NEWS UT adminstrator selected as Texas Commissioner of Higher Education.
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OPINION Forum contributors discuss potential consequences of Senate Bill 21.
Volume 121, Issue 24
SPORTS Longhorns improve their record to 2-1 after beating the Rice Owls.
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LIFE&ARTS Despite having a talented cast, “Goldfinch” is a dissapointing adaptation.
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Former law facilities director defrauds UT of $1.56 million By Emily Hernandez @emilyhernandez
also due to the “prime” location and number of spaces provided to students with a D+ permit. “We all certainly understand that in some cases, a compliant space is absolutely necessary to work for whoever is using it,” Stone said. “In a lot of cases, it’s not really required.” Stone said a wheelchair user or a person with a mobility-related disability may need a compliant space. Currently, the University has 575 D and D+ spaces – 223 of which are in garages. While PTS spokesperson Melissa Loe said in an email that the number of
The former Texas Law facilities director defrauded the law school of roughly $1.56 million, according to a memorandum sent Friday to UT President Gregory Fenves. The memo, which was provided to The Daily Texan, summarizes an investigation by an outside law firm and the Office of Internal Audits. According to the memo, former director Jason Shoumaker stole UT property, made personal purchases through law school accounts and caused the University to lose $1,566,281 because of an “elaborate pattern” of payments to outside vendors. Law school dean Ward Farnsworth’s “lack of oversight” of the school’s finances also resulted in “serious failures.” The the law school will fund a 12-month audit of the Office of Internal Audits’ investigation into the school’s internal business, according to a letter sent Aug. 30 to Farnsworth by Maurie McInnis, executive vice president and provost. According to the letter provided to the Texan, there is no evidence that anyone else in the law school was involved in the employee’s fraudulent activities, but Farnsworth did not respond effectively to signs of trouble. “When (Farnsworth was) alerted of concerns regarding (his) employee’s procurement and accounting practice irregularities, (Farnsworth) did not ensure his compliance with our policies regarding essential documentation and appropriate processes,” the letter reads. According to the memo, Shoumaker, who resigned in 2017, made payments through law school accounts without approval toward personal
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eddie gaspar
/ the daily texan staff
UT’s Parking and Transportation Services has installed D+ parking spaces over the summer to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
PTS adds new D+ permit
Parking added on-campus for students with disabilities to comply with ADA regulation, accessibility. By Trinady Joslin @trinady05
isabled students now have the option to buy a $300 parking permit to access newly labeled D+ spaces, along with D spaces
from last year. Parking and Transportation Services created the D+ parking permit over the summer after the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which oversees handicap parking, said some labeled parking spaces on campus were “not compliant” with Texas Accessibility Standards, PTS director Bobby Stone said. The standards regulate what spaces are compliant based on factors such as the size, shape and location in relation to buildings. Additionally, the standards discourage parallel parking “unless it can be situated so that persons entering and exiting vehicles will be out of the
flow of traffic.” Stone said a number of UT’s spaces were on hills or parallel to streets, causing the department to advise that they no longer be labeled as spaces compliant under the Americans with Disabilities Act. “Those spaces still have a lot of value for the (disabled) community, so we began to think about how we could make them not be ADA spaces but still reserve them for people with ADA needs,” Stone said. Instead of removing the spaces designated for disabled people, Stone said UT created the new permit to preserve the availability for students and faculty who can still benefit
from them. Like the D permit, the D+ permit still requires individuals to display the permit with a handicapped placard, according to the PTS website. D+ permits include all of the D spaces as well as all of the spaces deemed “noncompliant” by the department, Stone said. Stone said the D+ permit is twice as expensive as the $150 D permit, which allows students to park only in technically compliant spaces. Stone said the price increase was affected by a 2013 study done by the University, which proposed increases to food, housing and campus parking rates. He said the difference in price is
UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY
Professor sues UT, alleges pregnancy discrimination By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
joshua guenther
/ the daily texan staff
Adriana Alicea-Rodriguez speaks with attendees during her meeting on Aug. 20, 2019. It was announced through email that she will take on the role as associate vice president and Title IX coordinator.
Adriana Alicea-Rodriguez to serve as new Title IX coordinator By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
Adriana Alicea-Rodriguez will be the new associate vice president and Title IX coordinator, the University announced in an email Friday morning. Alicea-Rodriguez will begin work as the coordinator Monday, according to the University-wide email. She previously worked as UT’s director of Title IX trainings and investigations and at UTSan Antonio in residence life and
student conduct, according to the email. The Title IX coordinator works as the main correspondent for the office and meets with students when they file a sexual harassment or discrimination complaint. Alicea-Rodriguez said in the email that shaping an environment for student academic and personal development forms the core of her work. “(I have) a great desire to create a safe, healthy, inclusive and developmental environment for all students,” Alicea-
Rodriguez said in the email. The previous Title IX coordinator, Krista Anderson, left the position in May to become the UT System Title IX coordinator. Latoya Smith has been the interim coordinator since May while the University evaluated candidates to fill the position. Chief compliance officer Leo Barnes said Alicea-Rodriguez’s career, which also includes membership in various T I T L E I X PAGE 2
In a lawsuit filed against the University last week, engineering assistant professor Evdokia Nikolova said she was discriminated against and denied tenure during the 2018-2019 academic year because of her pregnancy. According to the lawsuit filed in the Western District Court, the University violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sexbased discrimination, including discriminating on the basis of pregnancy. Nikolova took leave due to her pregnancy in the 2015-2016 academic year, and she was up for tenure in the electrical and computer engineering department in the 2018-2019 academic year, according to the lawsuit. During her tenure review, the lawsuit says Nikolova was highly recommended for tenure but was denied by engineering Dean Sharon Wood. Nikolova said she was held to a higher standard because of her pregnancy, according the lawsuit. “The Dean specifically mentioned that Dr. Nikolova became pregnant during the 2015 fall semester and used this fact in a negative manner as part of the Dean’s assessment recommending the denial of tenure,” the lawsuit states. University spokesperson Shilpa Bakre denied a request for comment and said the University does not typically comment on pending litigation. Nikolova’s lead attorney could not be reached for comment. All but three members of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Budget Council, all of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department’s associate professors and
Cockrell’s Tenure and Promotion Committee voted to promote Nikolova to a tenured professor, according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, “professor Nikolova has performed service to the University and the professional community that is significantly above the level of an assistant professor.” Assistant professors are typically considered for tenure in their sixth year, after working for five academic years, according to the lawsuit. At the time Nikolova was being considered for tenure, she had been working as an assistant professor for four and a half years at UT and two and a half at Texas A&M, according to the lawsuit According to the lawsuit, ECE department chair Ahmed Tewfik told Nikolova when she was recruited that her years at Texas A&M would count toward her tenure review period at the University. According to the suit, Wood did not consider the years Nikolova worked at Texas A&M. Wood said in her assessment one of the reasons she denied Nikolova for tenure was because Nikolova was being considered too early, according to the lawsuit. According to UT’s handbook of operating procedures, prior work at other universities does not count toward the time required for tenure. “If this were an up and out case, I would likely agree with the recommendation of the Promotion and Tenure committee,” Wood wrote in her assessment, according to the lawsuit. “However, Dr. Nikolova is being considered for promotion at UT-Austin two years early.” According to the lawsuit, Nikolova is suing for lost wages and benefits and the loss of career advancement because her tenure review period was considered shorter due to her pregnancy leave.