Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Monday, November 4, 2019
Volume 121, Issue 59
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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Hispanic Business Student Association hosts its first Día de los Muertos celebration.
UT must expand food bank resources to ensure all students have access to healthy meals.
Austin Powwow celebrates American Indian heritage with dance.
Outside hitter Logan Eggleston aids Longhorns in WVU takedown.
UNIVERSITY
CITY
Transport rental service brings 1,000 mopeds to Austin area By Graysen Golter @graysen_golter
roxanne benites
/ the daily texan staff
Title IX office reviews new bill
University administration looks into SB 212, which mandates faculty to report violations. By Emily Hernandez @emilylhernandez
tudents, staff and faculty are working toward improving the University’s Title IX policies to better inform the University community about Senate Bill 212 and further support survivors. Adriana Alicea-Rodriguez, UT associate vice president and Title IX coordinator, said the
University’s Title IX Office’s SB 212 committee is currently reviewing the draft of SB 212 rules and enforcement as determined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. SB 212 imposes criminal charges and job termination against faculty and staff who do not report Title IX violations promptly or who make false reports. “(The) SB 212 committee is looking at all of the policies in place that could be impacted by this law and reviewing those to develop the implementation plan to make sure all campus community members are aware of the new reporting requirements,” Alicea-Rodriguez said. Faculty Council chair elect Brian Evans said he is working with Alicea-Rodriguez to create a Title IX training session for students and another for staff and faculty on SB 212, which will be enforced Jan.1. Title IX is the
federal law banning discrimination on the basis of sex at any institutions receiving federal financial assistance.
The more information that we put out there about faculty and staff members being mandatory reporters, the better it is for students” ADRIANA ALICEA-RODRIGUEZ title ix coordinator
“Title IX training is best done by a whole department,” engineering foundation professor Evans said. “The way we’ve been doing it at the University is, you just sign up for it if you want to,
NATION
@toricmay
Hours before the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration Friday, Beto O’Rourke announced he would be dropping out of the presidential race. Saying his campaign did not have the means to continue, former U.S. Rep. O’Rourke also announced his resignation from the race on Medium, an online publishing platform. According to an email to his supporters, O’Rourke said he will not be running for office in the Senate either. “We have to clearly see at this point that we do not have the means to pursue this campaign successfully and my service will not be as a candidate nor as the nominee for this party for the presidency,” O’Rourke said to an audience before the dinner. O’Rourke ran on a campaign centered around immigration reform, mandatory gun buybacks and a new healthcare program. “Let us continue to fearlessly champion the issues and causes that brought us together,” O’Rourke said
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CITY
Beto O’Rourke announces end of presidential run By Victoria May
but you really need to retrain an entire academic unit. That’s how you change the culture.” Alicea-Rodriguez said while there has been a spike in the number of daily Title IX reports made by faculty and staff since Sept. 1 in comparison to last year, she could not provide data or say it is only because of SB 212. Delaney Davis, president of the sexual assault prevention student organization It’s on Us, said the organization is working on a bill with the UT Senate of College Councils that would require professors to disclose they are mandatory reporters on their syllabi beginning in Spring 2020. She said the bill would help students understand that if they share information that could be a Title IX violation, the professors are obligated to report it. “The more information that
A moped rental service activated 1,000 mopeds in Austin Friday as part of a partnership with the Austin Transportation Department. Frank Reig, the CEO and co-founder of the New Yorkbased transportation company Revel, said the company wanted to bring the mopeds to Austin after finding success with the program in New York and Washington D.C. He said licensed drivers over the age of 21 will be able to rent two-person mopeds through an app after passing an initial background check. “We’re excited to be doing the same thing here in Austin (as New York and Washington) to make sure that everyone who has the opportunity, if they want to ride our vehicle, can,” Reig said. According to a press release, rides will cost $1 per rider to start, 25 cents per minute while riding and 10 cents per minute while parked. The vehicles’ speed will be capped at 30 mph, and riders will be required to follow local traffic and parking laws, according to a press release. Reig said unlike electric scooters and bicycles, the mopeds will not be allowed on sidewalks. He said the company will provide free lessons to new riders to help them learn to use the vehicles, but they will be focused specifically on how to use the vehicle rather than how to deal with scenarios such as traffic accidents. “This is a lesson to learn the vehicle,” Reig said. “This is not a lesson in hypotheticals.” In an email, Blanca Gamez, the associate director of transportation for University Parking and Transportation Services, said drivers can use Revel’s mopeds on campus streets and must follow current University rules while using and parking them. She said this will include obtaining a Class M parking permit to use campus parking spaces designated
UT partners with city to study how greenery impacts children’s health
on Medium. “Whether it is ending the epidemic of gun violence or dismantling structural racism or successfully confronting climate change before it is too late, we will continue to organize and mobilize and act in the best interests of America.” O’Rourke raised over $6 million within the first day of announcing his campaign, according to The New York Times. However, fundraising for O’Rourke’s campaign slowed down considerably in the following three months, and the campaign was spending more than it was taking in. O’Rourke said he had also noticed a steep decline in his rank in the polls. According to recent polls by The Washington Post, O’Rourke had been polling at 1% prior to his resignation. “I decided to run for President because I believed that I could help bring a divided country together in common cause to confront the greatest set of challenges we’ve ever faced,” O’Rourke said on Medium. “I also knew that the most fundamental of them is fear … I knew, and I still know, that we can reject
The city of Austin and the University are collaborating to study how green spaces in schoolyards impact children’s health and activity. On Thursday, Austin City Council approved an agreement allowing the University to study schools with “green features,” including trees, patches of grass and trails. The City of Austin Parks and Recreations Department and the University of Texas Health Science Center created the agreement in May and began the study in September, said Kevin Lanza, health science center lead researcher. Melody Alcazar, an Austin Parks and Recreation Department program coordinator, said the study focuses on areas of the city that lack access to natural ammenities such as parks and gardens. She said the results of the two-year study will show how infrequent
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By Laura Morales @lamor_121
rocky higine
/ the daily texan staff