Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Volume 121, Issue 42
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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Women’s Storybook Project allows incarcerated mothers to read to their children.
WEST CAMPUS
Students need more opportunities to engage with the greater Austin community.
‘Goodenough’ to win: UT Professor wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Longhorns win fourth straight Big 12 match in sweep of Kansas State.
UNIVERSITY
Electrical work delays opening of Insomnia Cookies
Compost costs University University Resource Recovery promotes Zero Waste education after being charged hundreds of dollars per week for contamination in compost loads.
By Sara Johnson @skjohn1999
Insomnia Cookies’ new location on San Antonio Street has delayed its opening until later this semester due to electrical issues during remodeling. The late-night cookie delivery business intended to open by the end of the summer, as previously reported by The Daily Texan. Development permits from the city of Austin show the electrical installation process has been delayed several times since the summer. “Getting the really basic and really important parts of any business laid down is going to be a long process,” said Hazi Ortiz, a call center supervisor for Insomnia Cookies. “Delays happen. We’re doing the best we can to expedite the process and open up.” According to public city permit records, Insomnia Cookies had a continuance of work permit approved Monday. Ortiz said an opening date will be planned and announced once all remaining work is completed and approved. “A lot of people wonder why we haven’t expanded to Austin sooner, so we’re really eager to get this location opened up,” Ortiz said. “Insomnia (Cookies) started in a college dorm room. Student markets are always markets we want to reach, and Austin has a really thriving one.” Insomnia Cookies delivers until 3 a.m., according to the company’s website. Mechanical engineering senior Victoria Do said she was eager for the store to open because she uses a lot of food delivery services. “I definitely don’t eat at the same time a normal person does, even for regular meals,” INSOMNIA
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By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
niversity composting loads are racking up hundreds of dollars in contamination fees per week. University Resource Recovery, which is responsible for reusing campus resources, said students should toss their waste in a landfill bin instead of guessing whether it is compostable. Resource Recovery manager Robert Moddrell said the University Operational Fund, which finances basic facilities maintenance, is paying an Austin compost processor $300 to $400 per week along with the standard $31 per ton. Fees increase because of the non-compostable material in the weekly load, he said, which can cost $500 for three pieces of glass per load. Moddrell said the threshold for what is considered a contaminated load is low. “It doesn’t take much,” Moddrell said. “With things like glass, it can break and end up in the soil they are selling for people to work in their garden.” Moddrell said composting waste is cheaper than sending it to the landfill, but with contamination fees, the cost per week is roughly equal. Moddrell said he suspects the compost fees to rise as the Zero Waste Workplace initiative, which aims to divert 90% of campus waste from ending up in landfills, expands across campus. “Composting is $8 less than landfill (per ton),” Moddrell said. “There is a savings on the overall generation of compost versus landfill, but the fines are eating up that savings.” These fees fund the labor costs to clean out the contamination from the load, said Noelle Bugaj, organics recycling account manager at the compost processing company Organics By Gosh. She said the company has a team go through the compost to hand-pick out non-compostable materials. Bugaj said a small amount of contamination
can affect the whole composting and recycling system. “The cost of contamination in any kind of processing is really high,” Bugaj said. “It is really important people understand the kind of power they have with just the flick of their wrist. When they throw something into one bin versus the other, they can change the entire system.” Moddrell said the University does not face any fees from the University recycling processor and in the past made a $50,000 to $60,000 profit a year from selling recycled plastic to manufacturers. However, Moddrell said the University is no longer making any profit from plastics sales. “Recycling is in a state of flux right now across the country,” Moddrell said. “This is because the value of plastic has gotten lower, and it has become questionable to deal with.” He said Resource Recovery is planning to put clearer signage on composting bins. Resource Recovery is also collaborating with University Housing and Dining on the Zero Waste Hero program, a series of classes to teach people about composting and recycling, Moddrell said. UHD sustainability coordinator Neil Kaufman said the Zero Waste Hero program helps solve the issue of “wishful recycling.” “This is when somebody wants to do the right thing and feels like they are
megan clarke
/ the daily texan staff
recycling more than they are throwing away,” Kaufman said. “They will recycle and compost things that aren’t actually recyclable or aren’t actually compostable. There is a lot more harm than good in that. They mean well, but it’s wrong.”
CAMPUS
CAMPUS
UTPD encourages students, staff, faculty to continue utilizing anonymous tip service
Students wary of class group chats after recent cheating accusation
By Emily Hernandez @emilylhernandez
Anyone on campus can send anonymous tips to the UT Police Department. It is up to UTPD detectives to decide what to do next. Anonymous tip reporting is available to students, staff and faculty through UTPD’s website, where tips are sent via email to the Investigations and Analysis Division. UTPD Chief David Carter said officers look at every tip that comes in and respond based on the amount of information and the severity of the threat. “The vast majority of the tips don’t result in necessarily somebody being arrested, but they actually will help us in terms of awareness,” Carter said. “Sometimes we will get multiple tips that relate to the same thing, so while the information may not be all encompassed within one tip, it gives us an idea
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where there’s some area of concern.” Carter said he hopes that by increasing community contact and trust, students will be comfortable providing information with more details and more directly.
/ the daily texan staff
“The issue of anonymous tips really is that sometimes, especially in a young student community, (students) may be not comfortable in contacting the police,” Carter said. “We hope to break down those kinds of
barriers in the future … so that people are comfortable in sharing information with us … and recognize that we’re not going to run rough shot just because somebody gives a tip.” Many tips UTPD receives concern behavior that could potentially harm someone, Carter said. Lt. Chris Miller, who oversees UTPD detectives and the Threat Mitigation Unit, said it is important for tips to have as much detail as possible. “When reporting anonymously, providing … detailed information about the parties involved is imperative,” Miller said. “An anonymous tip that is too vague or lacks too many details is very difficult to follow up on.” Once a tip is sent to the Investigations and Analysis Division, a detective reviews it and decides to follow-up on it when appropriate by U T P D PAGE 2
By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
After about 70 University students were recommended for failure or expulsion when information about an exam was posted in a class GroupMe last week, students say they are leaving GroupMes out of caution. Anthropology professor John Kappelman sent an email Sept. 20 to the students in his Introduction to Biological Anthropology class informing them that any student in the class group chat would be facing disciplinary action. Since the email has been posted on social media, psychology sophomore Sarah Low said students she know are wary of using their class group chats. “My reaction, just because I’m a really cautious person: I just left all my class GroupMes,” Low said. In the email, Kappelman said students who previously left
the group chat or changed their names would still face punishment because he was able to see the chat’s history. According to Kappelman’s syllabus, students are not allowed to discuss exams or lab assignments through any medium. “Any student found cheating … will receive an automatic F in the course, and their case will be directed to the appropriate University authorities for additional sanctions that may include dismissal from the University,” the syllabus said. Kappelman declined to comment. Mechanical engineering senior Ahmet Selimoglu said about 50 students left a group chat for his American Literature course after the email was posted online. “They were afraid the University was going to crack down on group chats,” Selimoglu said. “When people leave, it makes C H A T PAGE 3