Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Friday, November 22, 2019
Volume 121, Issue 73
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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UT alumna and longtime donor was honored at the White House on Thursday.
For students’ sake, professors should stop scheduling exams during odd hours.
Students discuss exploring gender identity and expression in college.
Men’s basketball falls to Georgetown in New York City for season’s first loss.
UNIVERSITY
TEXAN
Immigrant students aided by program
A message from The Daily Texan’s managing editor By Catherine Marfin @thedailytexan
Each week, Texan staff members spend countless hours working to keep the UT community informed. We strive each day to make sure the stories we publish are accurate and balanced. We’ve always tried to be as transparent as possible in our reporting. In standing by this goal, I want to let our readers know about a situation that came to my attention this week regarding two of our stories. On Tuesday, the Texan staff was contacted by a spokesperson from the city of Austin with concerns regarding an article that had been published about sidewalk improvements in West Campus. Richard Mendoza, Austin Public Works director, and Karla Taylor, chief of staff for the Austin Transportation Department, were both quoted in the article, but both of these officials told our staff that they had never given an interview to that reporter. After an internal investigation into these allegations, our staff confirmed the reporter fabricated the quotes in that article and at least one other. That reporter, senior news reporter Sara Johnson, has been let go from the Texan effective immediately. In addition, our staff will be working diligently to verify all of the quotes in her published articles. The following articles have been retracted in print and online, and have been removed from our website: Nov. 5, 2019: “Planning Commission approve proposal for more high-frequency transit routes” Nov. 19, 2019: “Sidewalk ramp improvements coming to northern end of West Campus” Fabricating quotes — or any information in an article — goes against everything we stand for as journalists and as Texan staff members. From staffers’ very
Monarch Program looks to expand resources to undocumented high schoolers across Texas. By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
he Monarch Student Program, part of the Longhorn Center for Academic Excellence, is revitalizing its efforts to reach out to high school students. The program aims to help students brought to the United States illegally as children apply for college, financial aid and housing. Nong Xiong, the Gateway program coordinator at the Longhorn Center for Academic Excellence, said the program will offer guidance and resources to overcome the barriers students face because of their citizenship status.
Security number,” Xiong said. “Oftentimes, students are told they should be quiet about their status to not put themselves in situations where they could get deported. They have a lot of uncertainty with the future, and we are here to help guide them through that.” The program has worked with Austin high schools and is looking to partner with UT Outreach, a college readiness program, to aid schools across Texas. Patrick Patterson, assistant vice president at the Longhorn Center “Some students find out they for School Partnerships, the center has are undocumented when they said collaborated with the apply to college and realize Monarch Student Prothey don’t have a Social gram to guide students Security number.” at Juan Navarro High School in North Austin. NONG XIONG “As far as the college gateway program coordinator application process is concerned, the process is similar to all oth“Some students find out er students in terms of filling they are undocumented when in the application,” Patterson they apply to college and resaid in an email. “Of course, alize they don’t have a Social families are wary of submitting
information to government entities, so that is a major obstacle.” These students lauren ibanez / the daily texan staff are not able to apply for federal financial aid be updated every single month or study abroad. Those stuor year about their status is dents also don’t have a credit something that can make them score, which is often required feel hopelessness.” to lease an apartment. The Jamie Turcios-Villalta, only time they can get a job health and society senior, is or study abroad is if they have working with the Monarch protected status under TemStudent Program. She is also a porary Protected Status or the DACA recipient and said some Deferred Action for Childhood high school students she has Arrivals program, also known spoken with are under the imas DACA, which grants them pression they cannot go to cola two-year renewable work lege because of citizenship barpermit. These challenges have riers. She said being able to talk been even more pressing as about their status can be helpful the courts decide the fate of for students who have felt the DACA, which is involved in a need to hide their citizenship. federal case that was argued “We are meeting to talk at the U.S. Supreme Court last about this difficult conversaweek. Xiong said the students tion to have and how do we do she works with can feel isolatit without being too invasive ed on campus on top of all of but also allowing the students these obstacles. that autonomy to decide if this “The political climate is also is something they want to talk very bad for their mental health,” Xiong said. “Having to about,” Turcios-Villalta said.
MESSAGE
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UT SENATE
CITY
UT Senate unanimously passes resolution in support of renaming RLM building to PMA
Trudy’s on West 30th to remain closed for weeks following kitchen fire
By Neelam Bohra @neelambohratx
By Graysen Golter @graysen_golter
UT Senate of College Councils unanimously voted to support renaming Robert Lee Moore Hall to the Physics, Math and Astronomy building at its meeting Thursday. Robert Lee Moore, a former UT math professor, vocally supported segregation at UT and discriminated against black students during his nearly 50-year tenure at the University. The Senate resolution encourages all students, faculty members and staff to refer to the building as the PMA in official documents, such as class syllabi, to dissociate Moore’s well-documented racism from the building S E N A T E PAGE 2
eddie gaspar
/ the daily texan staff
Natural Sciences Council member and resolution co-author Rory Malek explains a resolution to rename the Robert Lee Moore Hall to the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Building.
Trudy’s Texas Star on West 30th Street is closed for several weeks due to a fire earlier this month. An accidental kitchen fire caused the restaurant to close two weeks ago. It will remain closed for at least another week, general manager Kris Peterson said. “We’ve been at that location for 42 years, so we’re like a staple landmark there,” said Peterson, who is also the operations manager of the Trudy’s company. “Lots of memories have been had there. People come back with their kids and show them where they went to
school. It’s very special to a lot of people. By the phone calls and all the emails that we get, we’re greatly missed, and we’re working fast to get back so we can be operating normally.” Peterson said he is not completely sure why the fire happened since the location is up to date on all regulations, but he suspects a spark ignited a buildup of grease in the restaurant’s smokestack and spread through the vents and to the kitchen. He said the damage could have easily been much worse had the Austin Fire Department not responded as quickly as they did. Peterson also said he will be working closely with the restaurant’s cleaning company to prevent T R U D Y ’ S PAGE 2