Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Volume 121, Issue 57 LIFE&ARTS
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
International players have helped bring women’s tennis back into contention.
‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ is plenty entertaining, but not groundbreaking.
PAGE 2
PAGE 4
PAGE 7
PAGE 8
Students ‘Break the Silence’ by sharing stories of interpersonal violence.
UT should allow students to add their pronouns to the online directory.
CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY
Pi Kappa Phi shuts down
UT responds to sit-in, concerns about faculty misconduct
After hazing new members to eat soup laced with cat food and milk mixed with laundry detergent, the Pi Kappa Phi chapter at UT is being suspended with chance for appeal. port June 12 from Student Emergency Services about a group chat where Pi Kappa Phi’s new member educator and other student leaders discussed hazing fall 2018 pledges, according to the disposition, which was obtained by The Daily Texan through a public information request. “We are working with the University of Texas at Austin with the reports on the chapter,” said Victor Tran, the assistant executive director of communication for the Pi Kappa Phi national organization. “As the investigation is ongoing, we are not able to comment further.” Members reported hazing activities such as active members forcing pledges to wear black bags on their heads and listen to “disturbing music” while driving them around campus for up to two hours as part of an induction process, according to the disposition. Pi Kappa Phi did not return a request for comment before publication. According to the disposition, new members were also placed in a room in
By Emily Hernandez @emilylhernandez
T’s Pi Kappa Phi fraternity chapter hazed pledges by forcing them to eat soup laced with ghost pepper and cat food, according to a recent University investigation. The Office of the Dean of Students recommended a four-year suspension and a subsequent two-year probation last week for UT’s Pi Kappa Phi chapter for hazing violations. The fraternity still has the option to appeal the Dean of Students’ recommendations. Fraternity members admitted to hazing during the fall 2018 and spring 2019 new member induction processes, including forcing pledges to stand in ice while being interrogated by active members, according to a Student Conduct and Academic Integrity administrative disposition. Student Conduct received a re-
the fraternity house called the “Hazement,” a “small closet-type room void of light,” to do 30-minute wall sits and planks and complete a 500-piece puzzle while listening to loud electronic dance music under strobe lights. Pledges also participated in “Hell Week,” during which pledges had to run relay races between the fraternity’s house and an apartment building while chugging milk laced with substances, including laundry detergent and vinaigrette, according to the disposition. Other hazing activities included active members requiring pledges to run laps around the house, carry tobacco products and a green pen in University Coop bags and clean the fraternity house, according to the disposition. According to the disposition, the University’s Pi Kappa Phi chapter has been suspended for hazing violations twice in the past eight years. In 2011, the chapter entered a two-year mutual resolution agreement with the University after it was found to have subjected pledges to
forced physical activity, forced consumption of alcohol and servitude, according to the disposition. The chapter also served a year of probation in September 2016 after Student Conduct found members subjected pledges to forced physical activity. “Through the terms and conditions of the Mutual Resolution Agreement, the university provided the Pi Kappa Phi with the opportunity to create long-lasting change and prove that its inclusion as part of the Longhorn community could bring value to the campus,” the disposition reads. “Pi Kappa Phi, however, failed to incorporate the Mutual Resolution Agreement’s best practices into its culture.” After the chapter serves its cancellation term, it can be reinstated as a registered student organization if it completes current sanctions, including presenting future pledges with its history of hazing behavior and disciplinary actions and requiring future pledges to complete a hazing prevention education program.
anthony mireles
By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
The University responded to student concerns about classes taught by faculty found guilty of sexual misconduct in a statement released on their news website Wednesday. Maurie McInnis, executive vice president and provost, said the University will be hiring an outside expert to review the University’s Title IX policies. She also said UT will release reports on Title IX matters more than once a year starting in January 2020 in accordance with state law. “We hear your concerns that faculty members who pose a safety threat to students should be removed from teaching,” McInnis said in the statement. “The students have raised many other concerns. We agree UT can do better.” McInnis said faculty who pose a safety threat to students or who engage in certain violations will be fired in accordance with University policies, and the University’s actions are tailored to reflect the violation. “Not all violations rise to a level that would justify termination,” McInnis said. “These sexual misconduct policies include a wide range of behaviors including the use of inappropriate of offending language.” Students organized a seven-hour Sit in for Student Safety on Friday in response to English associate professor Coleman Hutchison and Sahotra Sarkar, integrative biology and philosophy professor, being listed on the spring 2020 course schedule after both were found guilty of misconduct by UT. A University investigation in 2018 found Hutchison violated UT’s sexual misconduct policy for making sexual comments to students and failing to disclose a relationship with a graduate student. Sarkar was suspended for one semester in 2017 after a University investigation found he violated UT’s Title IX
/ the daily texan staff
L E T T E R PAGE 2
After a recent University investigation found allegations of hazing, UT’s Pi Kappa Phi fraternity to be suspended with a chance to appeal. Pending the option, the Office of the Dean of Students is recommending a four-year suspension with a two-year probation period. UNIVERSITY
FOOD
Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations to build new lab
43-year-old Mediterranean cafe to close permanently before Thanksgiving
By Neha Madhira @nehamira14
To celebrate the five-year anniversary of naming the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations, the school will add a student advertising and public relations workspace to the Belo Media Center’s fourth floor. Construction on the agency, called The Lab, will begin this summer and will be completed in January 2021, according to a press release. Every student who graduates with an advertising or public relations degree must complete a capstone project in The Lab within their field of study, according to the release. The Lab was funded by Stan Richards, who contributed to a $10 million fundraising campaign in 2014 that funds the school that now bears his name, according to an older press release. “It is a great pleasure for me to be a part of this,” Richards said. “Being around the kids who are the future — there is this excitement and this energy that you all generate that is not available in any other place, at any other time and at any other school.” Joanna Sciarrino, school of advertising and public relations director and chair, said Richards collaborated with her on The Lab starting in early 2018 to give
public relations and advertising students more experience. Students in The Lab will complete work for clients, Sciarrino said. Sciarrino said the student agency will have a collaborative working space with open seating and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Richards said The Lab will purposely reflect the look of the Richards Group’s office, a
Being around the kids who are the future — there is this excitement and this energy that you all generate that is not available in any other place, at any other time and at any other school.” STAN RICHARDS
founder of the richards group
Dallas-based advertising and public relations agency owned by Richards. Meredith Macnoll, marketing and advertising junior, said S C H O O L PAGE 2
By Sara Johnson @skjohn1999
A Mediterranean cafe just north of campus will close its doors after 43 years. Miltos Mediterranean Cafe, located at 29th and Guadalupe streets, serves pizza, Italian food and Greek food. Co-owner Edie George announced on Instagram last Wednesday the restaurant will close before Thanksgiving due to a downturn in customers. “We have had some very dedicated regular customers,” George said. “Making regulars out of customers, making them feel welcome, that’s always been an important part of the restaurant ... but we haven’t been able to maintain business the same way we used to.” George said the restaurant, owned by her family since 1977, always tried to stay connected to the area it served. She said the restaurant not only hosted live performances from local artists, but the restaurant also catered campus events. “The students have been the most enthusiastic group of people we’ve served,” George said. “People come back years later and bring their own kids here. We become a family tradition to them like the food here is for us.”
casey crowe
/ the daily texan staff
Miltos, a popular Italian and Greek restaurant in North Austin, will be shutting down in November after 43 years of serving the Austin community. Along with pizza, Miltos also offers a full menu of Greek and Italian entrées and appetizers, according to the menu. Lecturer Bella Jordan said she teaches a European culture course and said serving the two cuisines helps students understand the relationship between Greek and Italian culture. “When most people think of Mediterranean food, they might have a vague idea about a pasta dish or meats, like lamb,”
Jordan said. “Greek food and Italian food are linked because of the cultures’ connections to the Roman Empire in history, but they are two different cuisines with their own elements of taste.” Radio-television-film junior Austin Rader said he has eaten at the cafe multiple times after someone first recommended it to him. “You can’t top a good pizza, and they definitely have good
pizza,” Rader said. “This was one of the places I went to with some people I met when I first came here, and even though those people have graduated and gone away, I was still able to go back and take younger students I made friends with there.” Rader said he felt disappointed that the restaurant will be closing, and he thinks whatever business ends up in C A F E PAGE 2