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Monday, November 25, 2019
Volume 121, Issue 74
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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First annual Werk.Go.Slay women’s summit gives students professional advice.
Thanksgiving narrative represses indigenous history, glorifies colonialism.
Welcome to the neighborhood: Mr. Rogers Biopic is a charming view of private life.
Seniors wear white uniforms for the final time this regular season in loss to Baylor.
FOOTBALL
STATE
Bearers of Bad News
UT professors present Hispanic Equity Report to Texas reps By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
Eight Hispanic professors held a public presentation with three members of the Texas House’s Mexican American Legislative Caucus Friday to report on issues of disparity that they say they face at the University. The Independent Equity Committee released a report analyzing representation and compensation for Hispanic professors on Oct. 8. The report found that “various inequities undermine Hispanic faculty at UT.” After the report was released, State Reps. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, and Art Fierro, D-El Paso, reached out to the committee and asked them to present the findings in a conference room in the Texas Capitol. Alberto Martinez, history professor and chair of the committee, said Hispanics are underrepresented in the student body and faculty. He said the faculty are underpaid compared to counterparts with similar job titles and publications. “You can work and swim as hard as you want, but it is a nearly-zero correlation,” Martinez said during the presentation. “Whatever salary you get is a process that has to do with random things, such as your tone or how much you wave your hand when you talk.” Some University professors were in the crowd of around 30 people, including Victor Sáenz, chair of the Education Leadership and Policy Department. Sáenz said, as one of the six Hispanic department chairs on campus, he has a unique responsibility to ensure the University addresses the inequalities. “I recognize my role to ensure we could hold our leadership accountable,” Sáenz said. “We are not only paying attention, but we are also acting upon these inequities for faculty and even for our students.” R E P O R T PAGE 2
joshua guenther
/ the daily texan staff
Junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger is tackled by Baylor defensive end James Lockart and another Baylor defender at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas Saturday. Ehlinger was sacked five times in Texas’ 24-10 loss to the Bears.
Baylor squanders Longhorns’ final hope for Big 12 Championship appearance as offense falls flat. By Donnavan Smoot @dsmoot3D
owever you want to put it, Texas’ season is over. Technically, there is still one more game: a rather meaningless matchup between a pair of reeling Texas teams. Texas had an opportunity to save its season on Saturday, with winning being the first domino Texas needed to fall to keep its already small chance of making it back to the Big 12 Championship Game alive. As Baylor continued to dominate throughout the late November afternoon, Texas proved it never really had a
grasp on this opportunity or this season. They understood the magnitude of the game. They knew winning was the only way to stay above water. That’s why head coach Tom Herman slammed his head into senior defensive lineman Malcolm Roach’s helmet four times during a pregame speech. “I used to do that, as a coordinator at Ohio State and as a head coach at Houston,” Herman said. “In my old age, I kind of stopped doing it a little bit. But I just felt it inside of me in this game because I knew we had to play physical, we had to play with strain, and I just felt like the young coach Herman.” For Texas, the loss comes in two parts, much like its season. During the first half, offense wasn’t as inept as it was in Ames, Iowa the week prior, but the team still couldn’t find a pulse, only scoring three points at the end of the half following a 68-yard run from sophomore running back Keaontay Ingram that began at the two-yard line. Despite the last-second points the Longhorns put on the board before halftime, it didn’t serve as any type of spark for Texas, as the offense continued on a downward trend in the second half.
It was a major reversal of the offense that was on the field at the beginning of the season. That offense was viewed as the strength of this team, with playmakers and speed complimenting a Heisman hopeful quarterback. Now it is a team that, in a game to save its season, didn’t reach the red zone until the final moments and didn’t score a touchdown until one second was left in the fourth quarter. But Texas’ defense did its job in the first half. It held one of the top offenses in the country to only one touchdown. The problem was that the results weren’t matched on the other side — the story of Texas’ entire season. It has been on rare occasion that the Longhorns have played complimentary football. Early in the season, the defense gave up points as easy as the offense got them. In the last three games, the roles have been reversed. “It’s very frustrating,” junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger said. “Our defense is doing a great job of playing hard, and we’re not handling our side of the bargain and take a lot of ownership and try to fix it.” Toward the end of the game, when all
of McLane Stadium knew the Bears were going to leave victorious, chants of “BU” broke out among the crowd. Then senior offensive lineman Zach Shackelford was hit with a personal foul penalty and senior offensive lineman Parker Braun was hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty, signs of the built-up frustration from the game finally to boiling over. Braun was then seen escorted off the field. Shackelford said that he was “playing through the whistle” postgame, and Braun was unavailable for comment. However, Herman addressed the situation, since Braun was thought to have been ejected and didn’t return to the game. “Obviously, (Braun will) be dealt with from a punitive standpoint,” Herman said. Texas’ performance was a point of embarrassment for this team. Both teams struggled in the first half, but Baylor was able to breakthrough in the second half and get the offense flowing. Meanwhile, Texas’ offense had as much flow as a tangled water hose. “These guys want to win,” Herman F O O T B A L L PAGE 3
UNIVERSITY
STATE
Harrison Brown’s mother settles lawsuit over 2017 on-campus stabbing incident
Texas higher education commissioner promises statewide improvements
By Lauren Girgis @laurengirgis
By Graysen Golter
The mother of Harrison Brown, a student who was fatally stabbed in 2017, has reached a settlement in a lawsuit against Kendrex White and his family. Harrison was stabbed two and a half years ago outside Gregory Gym by former biology junior White, who was found not guilty of the murder by reason of insanity. Harrison’s mother, Lori Brown, filed a lawsuit in May that named the White family and Kendrex’s medical caretakers for negligent failure to control. “I wanted to continue fighting for Harrison,” Lori said. “I was a little disheartened after the outcome of the criminal case, and I was determined to keep fighting and doing whatever I could to fight for Harrison.” The suit argues that the defendants knew or should have known White’s schizoaffective disorder could cause him to potentially harm himself or others. The lawsuit states White’s caretakers and parents had a special relationship with and duty to control
Higher education commissioner Harrison Keller used his first State of Higher Education Address Thursday to highlight higher education shortcomings and how institutions can improve. “Today, the state of Texas higher education is uneven but with tremendous potential,” Keller said. “Although we face serious challenges — and in truth, what we’re seeing in the data isn’t where we want to be — we know there are many examples of Texas institutions that have been making great progress.” Less than two months after replacing former commissioner Raymund Paredes, Keller said it is more important than ever to pursue secondary education for a future career. He cited a Georgetown University study that found that 99% of job growth since 2016 went to workers with at least some higher education. Keller also cited a United States Census study that found that unemployment
@graysen_golter
juan figueroa
/ the daily texan file
Harison Brown’s mother, Lori Brown, has reached a settlement with Kendrex White and his family over a lawsuit with White’s medical caretakers for negligent failure to control. Lori is focusing on legislation to improve campus safety and raise ALS awareness. White’s conduct and breached their duty. Lori’s lawyer, Sean Breen, said after settling with White’s family, Lori declined to pursue suing the medical caretakers further. White’s lawyer in the criminal case, Janam Ortega, and AdventHealth, which was named in the suit, did not respond to a request for comment.
“Because of the way Texas law works, it’s so very, very difficult to proceed against medical professionals when you’re not their patient,” Breen said. Breen said the lawsuit was settled out of court, but the amount of money that was settled upon is confidential. He said they hoped to bring some exposure and advocate for changes to the state’s
mental healthcare system through the lawsuit. “Kendrex White had fallen through the cracks in that system, and that was one very big cause of Harrison’s death,” Breen said. “It was important to the family to achieve some sense of justice and accountability for Harrison.” H A R R I S O N PAGE 3
among people with only high school diplomas was more than 80% higher than those with bachelor’s degrees. Keller said most Americans and Texans believe postsecondary education is important, but studies show that many people without college degrees are concerned about going into student debt without the means to pay it off. “Our response must be an even greater commitment to our public mission,” Keller said. “Today, students, families, employers and policymakers are asking pointed questions about cost and value. The intensity of this criticism is not going away. It will more than likely increase, especially given the ways higher education issues are being framed in national debates and political campaigns.” In 2015, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board made 60x30xTX, a group of state leaders with the goal to have 60% of Texas’s young population gain postsecondary credentials by 2030. Keller said some strides E D U C A T I O N PAGE 2