Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Volume 121, Issue 25
NEWS
OPINION
LIFE&ARTS
SPORTS
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President Fenves announced an initiative affirming the University’s commitment to ethics.
Texas Athletics should not pressure athletes to change their majors.
Tom Herman and Longhorns seek first win against Cowboys since 2014.
Students commuting from as far as San Antonio share their experiences.
CAMPUS
CAMPUS
UT Faculty Council talks new Title IX reporting policies By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
To address concerns surrounding the penalties and impact on students created by new Title IX policies, the UT Faculty Council met Monday to discuss how Senate Bill 212 will be implemented at UT. Faculty Council meetings are monthly discussions between faculty and staff which delve into campus issues. On Monday, chief compliance officer Leo Barnes led a presentation at the first meeting of the semester on the new Title IX reporting policies outlined in SB 212, which went into effect Sept. 1. Barnes also formally introduced Adriana Alicea-Rodriguez as the new Title IX coordinator, who officially began work on Monday. “I’m looking forward to what we can do to continue to further the Title IX program on campus,” Alicea-Rodriguez said. Under SB 212, failure to report a Title IX incident as a college employee is a criminal misdemeanor, and the University is required to terminate employees who fail to report or file a false report. Barnes said University Compliance Services would work to make sure all faculty were informed of the change. “We’re fully aware that some of this is just going to be different,” Barnes said. While SB 212 went into effect in early September, the new reporting obligations and penalties go into effect in January. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will determine how this is enforced and will use the next few months to add specific statutes to clarify certain T I T L E I X PAGE 2
eddie gaspar
/ the daily texan staff
Dance senior Atticus Griffin practices for a Fall for Dance performance on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. The lack of men in the dance industry creates a gender imbalance where opportunities for men are higher than women due to less competition.
Gender bias in dance
Student discusses competitive nature of dance, stigma among genders due to lack of male representation in Department of Theatre, Dance. By Mackenzie Dyer @mackdyerr
hispers followed Atticus Griffin. They chattered about his color guard performances and chuckled when he said he wanted to perform for the rest of his life. In the dance studio, the whispers fell silent. Now, as he roams the
Forty Acres, dance senior Griffin said the stereotypes he faces as a man in dance are not what bother him — it’s the implications they have on women. While male dancers may be perceived as an underrepresented group by the rest of the world, he said men are more marketable as dancers because there are fewer of them. Because of this demand, Griffin said another
paramount problem arises. Men are more likely to get jobs than their female counterparts due to limited competition. “I have to be better than the other men in the room,” Griffin said. “That’s what they’re going to compare me to, but there’s less men. I know a lot of female dancers get frustrated because they feel like they’re good enough but they’re not getting parts because there’s way more female competition.”
This dynamic is reflective of Western culture, said Dorothy O’Shea Overbey, theatre and dance assistant professor of practice. To combat this, Overbey said the department is focused on social justice and creating equal opportunities for everyone. Dance sophomore Lindsey Ball said even though diversity and inclusion is D A N C E PAGE 3
FOOD
‘Iconic’ restaurant El Patio reopening in late September By Sara Johnson @skjohn1999
Local restaurant El Patio will reopen its doors in late September, two months after the owners announced its closure in late July. Kristyn Ciani, the granddaughter of El Patio’s original owners, said she, her cousins and restaurant industry contacts joined together to reopen the Guadalupe Street restaurant by the end of this month. “We’re going to be the same restaurant,” Ciani said. “Don’t come in and expect to see a bunch of changes. We’re trying to preserve the history and the tradition of it.” Ciani said memories of working in the restaurant as a child came to the front of her mind when she heard the restaurant was closing. She said hearing the news from her extended family, who had owned and operated El Patio for 65 years, was “devastating.” “It was something that (my father) poured his heart and
soul into for so long that I understood him wanting to take a step back and shift gears,” Ciani said. “I thought, ‘You know, maybe it is time.’” Ciani said seeing the lines of people visiting El Patio in the days before it closed reaffirmed the group’s decision to reopen the restaurant. “Here are all these men and women of all ages coming in,” Ciani said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this place is really something special.’ It was a place to go to feel like you were around family.” Restaurant critic Rob Balon said the atmosphere and quality of the restaurant make it a staple of the Austin food scene. “The family-friendly atmosphere is certainly one thing,” Balon said. “You go there, and you almost never get a bad meal. It’s a short, simple menu, and it’s enough to keep people coming back.” Ciani said the menu will remain almost exactly the same, with only an expanded drink menu, when El Patio reopens. “It’s really important to
kirsten hahn
/ the daily texan staff
El Patio co-owner Sled Allen works to reopen the Tex-Mex restaurant on Guadalupe Street after closing in July. Allen is a cousin of the original owners of the restaurant. preserve the traditions … and introduce a new generation to it,” Ciani said. “If you’re from Austin, you (already) know, but we want to get more in with UT
students and our neighbors.” Joe Vilches, a computer science and mathematics senior, said he has visited El Patio multiple times. He said having El
Patio back means having another place students can get together outside of classes. “The people there were always really nice,” Vilches said.
“It just felt like a good place to be, like you were welcome, and you could just chill and have a good time.” Balon said El Patio’s return showed the success of their business practices, from their simple menu to their welcoming atmosphere in their time as a long-standing Austin restaurant. “The word ‘iconic’ gets thrown around a lot,” Balon said. “They understand what a lot of chain restaurants don’t. Lots of these places have been dropping like flies. They’ve got a good enough thing going to keep it up when they come back.” Ciani said when the restaurant does reopen, she’s looking forward to carrying on a family tradition for years to come. “It takes on my granddad’s legacy,” Ciani said. “He would call everybody a cousin because everybody was to him. It’s a special situation for me now. I could probably think of a better word than special, but that’s what comes to mind. I don’t even know how to put it into words.”