Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Volume 121, Issue 36
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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UT students create CultureX, a coed spirit group for black students.
Students should try meditation to regulate anxiety and improve emotional health.
UT alumni discuss ditching corporate jobs and starting travel business.
Molly Phillips finds her place with Texas volleyball and fills holes in front court.
UNIVERSITY
CAMPUS
University reports decrease in overall enrollment
Farm-to-Work future unclear Produce delivery service Farm-toWork continued operations to be decided on Thursday.
By Areeba Amer @areeba_amer
By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
meeting this Thursday between a student health organization and a local produce distributor will determine the fate of a weekly UT program which provides produce to the UT community. Acccording to their website, Sustainable Food Center is a nonprofit group based in Central Texas that focuses on local food systems and the health of local residents. The nonprofit has delivered locally-grown produce for more than ten years as part of the Farm-to-Work program to 40 locations across Austin, including the University, acccording to their website. Sergio Torres, the center’s farm direct coordinator, said the center recently decided to turn over ownership of the Farm-to-Work program to Farmhouse Deliveries, which will take over the program fully on Oct. 14. He said UT’s HealthPoint Wellness, which ran UT’s Farm-to-Work program for six years, will meet with the center on Thursday to decide whether UT will continue the program once the ownership changes. Torres said the decision came after an internal analysis revealed the center does not have the capacity to continue making significant profits for the farmers they partner with. Farmhouse Deliveries has more storage and delivery capacity to continue the operation and cater to the customers whose dietary habits are outside of just produce, Torres said. “We have seen there is a downward trend in our sales for the past
rocky higine
few years,” Torres said. “It is very difficult for folks to eat seasonal. They wanted to have more fruits, more things they were familiar with, in their baskets. By making it a little more customer centric, (Farmhouse Deliveries) can appeal to those eating habits.” HealthPoint Wellness manager Nosse Ovienmhada said the department coordinates Farmto-Work by sending out forms to anyone on UT’s emailing list who can order a $22 box that includes a selection of available produce. Sustainable Food Center gathers the items in a basket, and the customers come to a designated pickup location on campus every Wednesday to collect their order, according to the website.
Ovienmhada said Farm-toWork helps increase access to produce and prioritized health in the faculty’s busy schedules, but she had no comment on the future of the program at UT. When Farmhouse Deliveries takes over the program, Torres said the item selection will now include locally made grocery items such as honey, eggs, cereals and yogurt, instead of just produce. Torres said Farmhouse Deliveries is committed to purchasing from local vendors and will continue to purchase from the local farmers with whom the center was previously doing business. “We wanted to be able to attract more customers so our farmers can make more profits,” Torres said.
/ the daily texan staff
“The folks at Farmhouse Delivery do a great job at doing just that.” Anna-Maria Escherich, a project manager for the Department of Neuroscience, said she orders from Farm-to-Work and has volunteered to help distribute produce in North Campus since summer 2019. In her experience as a volunteer, Escherich said she saw the customers form a community and exchange recipes and cooking tips as they picked up their weekly baskets. She said the program is a valued part of campus for the UT community. “I feel very fortunate to have been able to volunteer,” Escherich said. “Farm-to-Work provides a great opportunity to support local farmers, try new things but also to talk to people.”
Mediterranean restaurant MezzeMe opens new location on Guadalupe By Sara Johnson @skjohn1999
evan l’roy
/ the daily texan staff
The newest addition to The Drag, MezzeMe, opened this Tuesday. The restaurant features customizable Mediterranean bowls, wraps and appetizers. more people than I could have hoped for.” Ugur said he makes the dishes customizable be-
ENROLLMENT
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SG
WEST CAMPUS
Local Mediterranean restaurant MezzeMe opened a new location on The Drag on Tuesday at the former location of at least three other Mediterranean restaurants. Restaurant owner Mahmud Ugur said the new location, which is located near the intersection of Guadalupe and Dean Keeton streets, will focus on customizable bowls, wraps and appetizers called “mezzes.” After opening the first MezzeMe in the Triangle State neighborhood in June 2017, Ugur said he was eager to expand the presence of Mediterranean dishes to the entire city. “I was so surprised at how much people enjoyed the food when we started,” Ugur said. “I feel like I’ve found something that lets me do what I love and bring it to
Overall University enrollment decreased by 1.4% since last year — from 51,832 to 51,090 students, according to a press release published last week. “Overall student population is always going to cause small fluctuations,” said Joey Williams, director of communications for the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. “(It’s) not a large decrease. Overall enrollment numbers … are consistently around that level.” UT spokesperson JB Bird said the University would like to keep enrollment in the range it’s been at the past two years, from about 51,000 to 52,000. To do so, he said the University held the automatic admissions rate at the top 6% for high school students graduating in 2020, instead of decreasing it further. However, Bird said there are factors out of the University’s control that affect enrollment and automatic admissions, such as the demographics of the state’s population. “We don’t want (the) University to be too large because we want to have a good student-faculty ratio,” Bird said. “We’re always trying to get to a certain number of (first-time) freshmen … that we think is the best number to run the University.” Along with the decrease in overall enrollment, the press release said the percentage of white undergraduate students also dropped 1.3% to 38.8%. However, while overall enrollment and enrollment of white undergraduate students
cause he liked the idea of customers building their own meals. The bowls can be customized with pro-
teins, such as kofte meatballs and braised lamb, M E Z Z E M E PAGE 3
SG proposes UT student IDs add Suicide Lifeline
emotional distress, according to the hotline website. Nursing school representative Holly Ainsworth auUT student government thored the resolution and proposed adding the Na- said this proposal would add tional Suicide Prevention the lifeline to the back of all Lifeline to student IDs at new student IDs. She said its meeting she startTuesday. ed working The curwith the rent student ID center ID design to see if includes the We should provide the design UT Police could inpeople with as many clude the Department phone numnumber on resources as ber, inforall new stupossible and let mation on dent IDs. them know those how to re“Considturn lost IDs ering the resources are there.” prevalence and the Behavior Conof mental cerns Advice illness in HOLLY AINSWORTH nursing junior Line (BCAL), college stuwhich students, this dents can use to report any would be a good addition,” concerning behavior, accordnursing junior Ainsworth ing to the BCAL website. The said. “We should provide suicide lifeline can provide people with as many reconfidential support 24/7 for people in suicidal crisis or S G PAGE 3 By Neelam Bohra @_neelam_b