The Daily Texan 2020-01-31

Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com

Friday, January 31, 2020

Volume 120, Issue 90

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

LIFE&ARTS

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Panelists discussed methods people use to migrate from Central America to the U.S.

Students need the opportunity to rewrite papers in all of their courses.

Osgood Perkins talks ‘Gretel & Hansel,’ work with Jordan Peele.

Longhorns look to keep momentum at home against the Cyclones.

STATE

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Candidates talk reform

UT Senate advocates for professors’ pronouns in syllabi

Attorney, district attorney and Congressional candidates discuss marijuana policy, cash bail and prosecution of sexual assault at 21st Street Co-op.

By Anna Canizales @annaleonorc

jacob fraga

The first Senate of College Councils general assembly meeting of the semester focused on introducing new legislation, including requesting professors to include their pronouns on syllabi and surveying students on how they would like their tuition money to be allocated.

Assembly members voted on a bill to amend Senate spending and a resolution to change class syllabi requirements. Both pieces of legislation were introduced at the meeting passed unanimously.

Academic policy committee co-chair Isaac James co-authored a resolution in support of professors including their pronouns on class syllabi. James, a plan II and government sophomore, said he worked with the Education Policy Committee from Faculty Council to write the resolution. He also worked with the Texas Queer and Trans Student Alliance.

Last semester, James passed a separate resolution, which mapped all gender-inclusive restrooms on campus.

“Right now, on the recommended UT syllabus template … there’s a place for pronouns, but I have yet to have a single professor use that,” James said. “It’s something super easy that could make educational spaces a lot more inclusive. The aim of this legislation is to encourage professors to do that.”

Senate president Elena Ivanova promoted a survey for students to suggest where the University should allocate tuition money. Ivanova, a public health, government and plan II senior, said the survey was born out of the UT Board of Regents’ vote to increase tuition 2.6% last semester, which will go into effect for the 2020–21 academic year.

She said she wants to receive

/ the daily texan staff

Travis County District Attorney candidate José Garza speaks to UT students at the Criminal Justice Candidate Forum held at the 21st Street Co-op on Jan. 30, 2020.

By Austin Martinez @austinmxrtinez

rogressive Texas candidates for the 2020 election spoke to students Thursday at the 21st Street Co-op about their plans for criminal justice reform.

The Criminal Justice Candidate Forum, hosted by the UT chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America, heard speeches by José Garza, Travis County District Attorney candidate, Dominic Selvera, Travis County Attorney candidate and Heidi Sloan, Texas congressional candidate.

UT YDSA member Evan Hassan said this event introduces students to candidates with progressive interests.

“If these students take the time to listen to their policies, they will find that they agree with them,” chemistry sophomore Hassan said. “They will also see these candidates want the same changes that we want.”

The candidates addressed topics such as the decriminalization of marijuana, ending cash bail and the prosecution of sexual assault.

“We have people who are able to change the system and just refuse to because they haven’t had a friend or a loved one in that situation,” said Garza, who was endorsed by

presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday. “So for me, these issues that I’m running on, the reason I do what I do, is because it has affected me, it’s affected my family.”

All candidates said they are running because they have each struggled with the current criminal justice system.

“One of the things that we all have in common (as candidates) is that through our work, through our personal lives, we’ve experienced what it’s like to be on the receiving end of some of these horrible policies,” Selvera said. “Whether it’s economic injustice, health care C R I M I N A L PAGE 2

S E N A T E PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY

CITY

FAC construction merges UT ID Center, Service Desk for efficiency

By Nataleah Small @nataleahjoy

To boost efficiency and improve the services offered in the Flawn Academic Center, the ID Center and Service Desk in the FAC will merge into one desk.

The ID Center and the Service Desk are located on the first floor of the FAC. The ID Center provides and upgrades IDs and UT EIDs, while the Service Desk answers questions about navigating IT services, such as business processes, services and applications, according to the UT Service Desk website. Currently, the ID Center and Service Desk are under construction and are temporarily located in the FAC basement.

Michael Carmagnola, director of project management and construction services, said the desks are located close to each other, but students or faculty members who want to use either service must wait in separate lines.

“The new situation envisions putting these two functions together within the same walk-up space,” Carmagnola said.

“It will be more contemporary, more conductive (and) more friendly.”

Veronica Trevino, media manager of Financial and Administrative Services, said

the project’s construction will be completed later this semester. Carmagnola said an official completion date has not been announced because the project is currently in the late design stages.

Because demand for the Service Desk and ID Center

The new situation envisions putting these two functions together within the same walk-up space.

It will be more contemporary, more conductive (and) more friendly.”

MICHAEL CARMAGNOLA

director of project management and construction services

peak at the beginning of the semester, Carmagnola said construction will take place during a slower student activity period and should be ready by the fall semester.

The new desk will have a different visual appearance

than the old desks, Carmagnola said. Although they have not determined the exact color scheme, Carmagnola said dark colors, such as brown and dark blue, will be brightened to beige and light blue.

“I don’t know how old the current desk is, but it’s probably more than 10 to 15 years old in terms of when it was redone,” Carmagnola said. “For that time period, it probably worked great.

But the way we provide customer service today is different. So it’s probably due for an upgrade.”

Civil engineering senior Sylvie Higgins said changing the color of the desk may make a difference, but she does not actively notice that detail.

“I don’t think it would be the kind of change that (a lot) of people notice until someone points out that it’s a change,” Higgins said.

“Then they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s actually a good change.’”

Higgins said the times she has used the Service Desk and ID Center have not been memorable. She said she only sees people lining up at the Service Desk at the beginning of the semester and does not know if there’s a real need to make this change.

Accounting junior Preethi Srinivasan said she used CONSTRUCT

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Rescue group shelters strays, reunites pets with owners

mary orms

/ the daily texan file

Melissa Keyes, Caitlin Chapman, Finnegan, Amber Orr, Cupcake, Travis and Amy Lewis display their various trapping equipment at a dog park downtown on Jan. 30, 2020.

TRAPRS recovers lost pets and captures stray or feral animals

By Hannah Williford @HannahWillifor2

A local pet rescue group helps residents recover lost pets and capture stray animals off the streets.

A group of about 25 volunteers formed the nonprofit Trapping, Rescue and Pet Recovery Service in November 2019, TRAPRS secretary Caitlin Chapman said. The group specializes in finding stray or lost dogs and cats in Austin and its surrounding areas. They use livestream cameras to track animal sightings and

establish cage traps with food in public places.

“We’re known for getting a lot of really hard-to-catch strays, skittish dogs (and) feral dogs,” Chapman said.

“People will call us with dogs that may have been out in the country, maybe they’ve spent a few months wandering and no one can get near (them). … We’ll get called in for those kinds of things.”

Although TRAPRS specializes in stray or feral animals, they also help residents who have recently lost an animal. TRAPRS has community members

reach out through a variety of methods, including a hotline, email and Facebook group. Team members help coach callers through actions to take immediately after their pet is lost and send templates for posters to put up around neighborhoods.

“We tell them to put their dirty laundry on the front porch and either their dog’s bed or dog’s blanket,” Chapman said.

“As funny as that sounds, dogs can smell their way home, so that’s the first and T R A P R S PAGE 2

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

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UNIVERSITY

AI helps identify skin cancer at UT Health

By Neha Madhira @nehamira14

FotoFinder uses artificial intelligence to track and identify cancerous moles from photographs it takes of patients’ bodies, said Dr. Adewole Adamson, a UT Health Austin dermatologist. UT Health Austin is one of the only two providers in Texas with this technology, according to a UT Health blog.

“For patients that have a lot of moles, it’s really hard to keep track of how moles change over time,” Adamson said. “It’s hard for your doctor to figure out year-toyear which moles are changing, which moles are new and the different hallmarks of potential skin cancer.”

UT Health Austin attained FotoFinder through funds from Meredith’s Mission for Melanoma, a nonprofit organization that supports melanoma research and raises funds for Dell Medical School and MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Adamson said FotoFinder can map moles over time so doctors can determine what has changed.

“Where AI comes to play is, for really suspicious moles, I could use something called a hand-held dermatoscope, a really, really high-resolution magnifier camera that can take photos of the moles in a rich way,” Adamson said.

“The system can perform an analysis called a ‘mole analysis’ to give me a score as to whether something is concerning for melanoma, which is a type of skin cancer, or not.”

James Tunnell, an associate professor of diagnostic medicine and oncology, said mole analysis can be a

traprs

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foremost thing.”

If a lost dog is chipped, TRAPRS recommend pet owners contact the company they were chipped with and make sure the information is up-to-date.

Chapman said owners should also post to social media and put up flyers around their area.

In addition, TRAPRS takes care of ongoing issues, such as stray and feral animals sitting in the middle of streets, Chapman said. Volunteers take well-behaved strays to Austin Animal Center, a no-kill shelter, and foster the rest, Chapman said.

Undeclared sophomore Brie Celestino, who owns a dog, said she doesn’t think a lot of owners are aware of some of these methods, though she said living in an apartment makes it more difficult for pets to get lost.

carissa davis

lengthy process, especially for high-risk patients who need a diagnosis faster.

“The way it works right now without FotoFinder or an imaging tool, the dermatologist looks over someone’s entire skin and looks for moles that they think are dangerous,” Tunnell said. “For someone that is high risk, they might have many moles, potentially

“When your dog, or whatever animal you have, runs away, there’s really not much you can do except for just be really scared,” Celestino said. “You don’t know where they go. … They just kind of go where the smell takes them.”

Chapman said dogs do tend to start making circles after a 24 to 48 hour period, which allows TRAPRS to track the animals and pinpoint where they are.

“I feel like college students maybe don’t have the best grasp of resources just because maybe they haven’t had a lot of experience handling a dog on their own,” said Emma Pierce, dog owner and English freshman. “It can be overwhelming when you’re alone and you have total responsibility for this animal and it’s lost. … I think it’s best to raise awareness of resources that they can take advantage of in those situations.”

hundreds of them, which is very time consuming. If you have a tool where you can take pictures and have AI, it could potentially speed up the process.”

Geosciences graduate student Emily Carreno said FotoFinder could complete an accurate first screening of a patient.

“There’s always the worry of it missing something,

but I guess in some ways it could even be a better tool than the human eye,” Carreno said. “If it’s programmed for specific shapes of moles or skin discolorations … it could be better than a human eye for looking at someone.”

Adamson said he is trying to study AI more to see if it can actually help patient outcomes.

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injustice, housing injustice. These issues affect us and that’s why we’re all fighting.”

Garza said the current criminal justice system heavily disadvantages the working class, people of color and women. He told students he loves working with the fellow candidates to advocate for change in the system.

“It has been so powerful to see the collective movement that we have all been building together,” Garza said. “This county, this community is on the verge of seismic change. And all of us are at the forefront of change.”

Selvera said he wants to start a new conversation on progressive criminal justice policies. He told students they have the power to change this system and

that the candidates are there to support them.

“We can’t rely on the older generations to take care of us or manage our problems, so we have to vote,” Hassan said. “We should be taking an active role in politics. We should be taking an active role in shaping our future, because otherwise we’re leaving it up to people who may not have our best interests at heart.”

Sloan said she is running because she has seen the power of people who are directly affected by the current criminal justice system. She said she wants to continue to fight for those affected.

“Our policies come from … organizers across the country, organizers right here in Austin,” Sloan said. “It comes from our lived experience standing shoulder to shoulder with people who are fighting for their lives.”

“AI has taken a while to make its way in (health care), but now with better computing power and a lot of electronically available data, some of the power from AI can now come to bear in health care,” Adamson said. “I’m still in the studying phase and I hope that as I develop my clinic, I can find ways to use it in a beneficial manner.”

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the ID Center when she received her student ID as a freshman and remembers waiting in a long line during orientation. If merging the two desks will make things more efficient, she said it could positively impact incoming students.

“It is nice to have a nicer looking area just because that’s one of the first impressions that students have of campus, especially the ID Center,” Srinivasan said. “That’s one of the first things you do as a UT student.”

Two Semesters (Fall & Spring) $120.00

One Year (Fall, Spring and Summer)

/ the daily texan staff

construct

One Semester (Fall/Spring) $60.00

Summer Session $40.00

NEWS

RECYCLE your copy of

destiny alexander

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NEWS

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

CAMPUS

Harvard professor discusses Black activism, US education system’s relation to white nationalism

miller filla

/ the daily texan staff

Khalil Muhammad, a professor of history, race and public policy professor at Harvard University, speaks at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs on Jan. 30, 2020, about the past patterns of racism in the United States and how those patterns are still present.

By Alexander Mansky @thedailytexan

A Harvard professor of history, race and public policy spoke Thursday at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs about the United States’ history of racism and the American educational system’s relationship to white nationalism.

Khalil Muhammad delivered the lecture, which was hosted by Peniel Joseph, a public affairs and history professor, in the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Muhammad’s speech, titled “The Descent of Democracy and the Promise of African American History,” was the inaugral

presentation of the William C. Powers Jr. Speaker Series.

Joseph said Muhammad is one of the nation’s leading scholars on the function of race in America, with a specific focus on criminal justice and the democratic process.

Muhammad’s speech addressed the American economy, education system and criminal justice system. He said the American education system’s lack of addressing slavery and Black activism has contributed to the current rise of white nationalism and populism.

Muhammad said he believes the right direction to change this pattern is to acknowledge the contribution of Black Americans to the economy, culture and democracy within America.

He said Americans must face current and past state-sanctioned violence against Black Americans. “(We must) embrace the progress from the past history of Black activism,” Muhammad said. “(We have) to accept the past and not become it.”

Muhammad is the great-grandson of Elijah Muhammad, a leader of the African American religious and political movement Nation of Islam, according to The New York Times.

About 50 students, faculty members and members of the public attended the lecture.

Ja’nell Ajani, an American studies graduate student and an organizer at the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, said she was

thrilled to have Muhammad speak at the University.

“He is one of the foremost thought leaders in America,” Ajani said. “He is diverse in scholarship between his work at Harvard, at the Museum of Modern Art and at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.”

Sahand Yazdanyar, a global policy studies graduate student, said he was very excited for Muhammad to speak. “(Muhammad) is one of my favorite academics,” Yazdanyar said. “It’s important to have speakers like him.

These talks are really important, especially in a big public institution and (a) big state like Texas. If we’re going to address race, we have to address our past.”

CAMPUS

UT panel discusses Central American migration to US

henry howard

/ the daily texan staff

Senate of College Councils president Elena Ivanova adjourns the general assembly meeting on Jan. 30, 2020.

s e n at e

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jack myer

/ the daily texan staff

Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative, addresses the experience of Central American migrants alongside Gordon Dee Smith, Manuel Orozco and Sister Norma Pimentel in the Texas Union building on Jan. 30, 2020.

By Jasmine Lopez @jazzilo99

Panelists discussed the state of emigration from Central America during a panel presented by the Cátedra Ernesto Cardenal, a UT initiative which sponsors an annual event highlighting Central America.

Speakers included Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative in the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances and Development Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, a nonprofit that supports democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The history of the world is migration,” said Gordon Dee Smith, panel facilitator and advisory council member of the UT Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies and the Benson Library. “You will never stop migration, period.”

Leutert said those who

decide to make the journey from Central America through Mexico decide whether or not to hire a smuggler, referred to as “guides,” which can cost between $5,000 and $8,000.

“Hiring a guide within Central America probably means faster, safer transportation and paying off the appropriate officials and police officers,” Leutert said.

These community members take migrants across the river into Mexico and transport them in a taxi to pass state police checkpoints. Leutert said people who speak indigenous languages generally do not follow the same transit paths because they need different guides.

“Every step of the way at a local level, there are people making money at each stop, and they’re all involved in the community,” Leutert said.

Orozco said migration can affect well-being, as families do not know when they are going to reconnect. However, economic reasons urge

Central Americans to make the journey to the United States, Orozco said.

The pull factor of job availability within the U.S. and the push factor to seek higher paying jobs are examples of globalization, Orozco said. Immigration reform should focus on developing Central America.

“Whatever we try has to be rooted in a more local way,” Orozco said. “If we don’t address the problem in the original country with the problem, nothing will change.”

Emma Kyme, international relations and global studies freshman, said she attended the event for extra credit in her Introduction to International Relations and Global Studies class.

“It really shed a light on the immigration issue that the media doesn’t cover and what I previously didn’t know from textbooks or anywhere else,” Kyme said.

“I like how it covered the whole situation, the paths they take and the difference in routes.”

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10,000 student responses on the survey.

“We just formalized our (tuition) survey,” Ivanova said. “We’re collecting responses from the student body until the middle of February. Then we will create reports based on that and put

together a presentation at the beginning of March to relevant UT administrators.”

Senate policy director Hussain Alkhafaji said Senate wants to increase access to textbooks, video recordings of classes and resources for research.

Alkhafaji, a public health and journalism senior, said Senate is working closely with UT Libraries. Alkhafaji said textbooks are prohibitively

expensive in many cases, so Senate wants to minimize extra fees through consolidating tools used across classrooms, such as iClicker and Squarecap.

“One of the things that we’re constantly trying to improve, but is often really difficult to achieve, is creating an organization that is more reflective of the University as a whole and the diversity that Texas brings,” Alkhafaji said.

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4

SPENCER BUCKNER

Editor-In-Chief | @TEXANOPINION

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

COLUMN

gianna shahdad

OPINION

/ the daily texan staff

Students need opportunity to rewrite papers in all courses

By Abhirupa Dasgupta Associate Editor

I’m a writing and literature kid masquerading as a STEM student.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been saying to people, “I love math and science. It’s so much better than literature because there’s always a correct answer!”

However, my proudest academic moments have always had to do with writing. A sheet full of math equations has never inspired me as much as a particularly interesting essay prompt, but math has never struck so much fear into my heart, either.

As interesting as writing can be, good writing is always subjective.

It doesn’t help that in many college classes, your grade is almost completely dependent on what your professor thinks of your essays, and different professors expect different things from their students. Perhaps one professor prefers concise prose while another appreciates figurative language. Students need a grace period to get used to each professor’s expectations and use their feedback to construct a better paper.

In order to better facilitate students’ growth as writers, professors should allow rewrites in any class in which papers make up the majority of the final grade.

Writing Flag courses already have this requirement. Personally, this policy has not only boosted my grade in several classes, but it has also made me aware of my shortcomings as a writer and helped me

improve. I think it’s important that all essay-based courses employ this policy, regardless of whether there’s a Writing Flag associated with it.

Of course, this would mean more work for the instructor. Philip Yoo, a lecturer in the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts & Ideas, only incorporates rewrites in his Writing Flag courses. In his upper-division writing courses, he finds that it can be quite difficult to provide his students with the sufficient feedback they need to justify rewriting a major paper.

Students need a grace period to get used to each professor’s expectations and use their feedback to construct a better paper.”

“It comes down to how much time an instructor has to grade carefully.

There sometimes just isn’t enough time in the week,” Yoo said.

However, he does acknowledge the merits of the policy. “It’s just pedagogically sound to give students the opportunity to rewrite a paper,” Yoo said. “I think it’s important for students to learn that good, solid writing takes time.”

GALLERY

Government sophomore Alejandra Maldonado is a former student of Yoo’s, and she finds that she has learned much more from classes with rewrite policies. During her first semester, she took a class that didn’t allow rewrites and found it to be a poor experience.

“The feedback (on the papers) was totally vague and not descriptive enough, which didn’t help me as a writer,” Maldonado said. In contrast, Yoo provided her with copious amounts of feedback and the opportunity to rewrite a paper, which made his class as a much better learning experience.

Students should have every opportunity to improve upon their skills, and that improvement should be encouraged and rewarded. A rewrite policy does just that — it encourages students to spend more time on their writing and reflect on their work. It also forces instructors to thoroughly engage with their students and provide them with ample constructive criticism. This may mean that they need to spend more time grading the first drafts, but it should take a significantly shorter time to grade a rewrite than a completely new paper.

All in all, the ability to rewrite a paper affords students a powerful learning opportunity and rewards them for putting in the hard work to improve a skill. It’s a policy that makes writing a little less daunting and therefore, a lot more inspiring.

Dasgupta is a neuroscience and biochemistry sophomore from Frisco.

COLUMN

Professors need to consider lower stakes grading system

By Sam Thielman Columnist

gianna shahdad

LEGALESE | Opinions expressed in The Daily Texan are those of the editor, the Editorial Board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily those of the UT administration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees.

/ the daily texan staff

Ah, the new semester. People aren’t stressed out of their minds yet, classes are still fresh and interesting and there’s a sense of excitement around campus.

Let’s fix that. Time to talk about grades!

Grades are a huge source of stress for most college students. After all, they can drastically alter your future opportunities, whether that means career options, graduate schools, scholarships and more. However, it seems like there’s never a good grading format. Either you have a few assignments that are weighted too heavily, or you have many smaller assignments that generate hours of work each day.

There’s another option, though. Specifications grading is a system of grading designed to be less stressful for both students and professors, and it should be employed by more professors at UT. Religious studies professor Jennifer Graber uses the specifications grading system in class.

“Really, it’s grading everything on a pass/ fail basis,” Graber said. “Students will have a certain number of assignments or tests, and if they want credit they just have to complete them in a satisfactory manner.”

Every assignment has a detailed outline of what “satisfactory completion” looks like. If students meet those requirements, they get full credit — it’s as simple as that.

This addresses problems with more conventional grading systems, such as their subjectivity. There will never be a perfect essay, so what do professors do about that? Should they just never assign 100s to reflect this? I mean, they can, and some do, but I’ve yet to meet a student who likes this system. What counts as “good enough?” It can vary from professor to professor, TA to TA and sometimes even day to day. With specifications grading, that subjectivity gets removed from the equation.

SUBMIT A FIRING LINE | Email your Firing Lines to editor@dailytexanonline.com. Letters must be more than 100 and fewer than 300 words. The Texan reserves the right to edit all submissions for brevity, clarity and liability.

Students know exactly what they need to do to receive the grade they want, and professors know exactly what to look for when assigning grades. It’s easier on everyone involved.

Having every assignment be pass/fail may sound stressful too, though. If you misinterpret the instructions, you don’t get partial credit, you don’t get a B — it’s like you didn’t even complete the assignment. In specifications grading, though, that’s covered too. Each student has a certain number of “tokens” that serve as their “get out of jail free” cards.

“Tokens come in as a way to deal with the fact that we’re all humans, and life is full of funny obstacles and unexpected things,” Graber said. “The tokens can be used, for instance, to revise a paper. If you turned in something that wasn’t satisfactory, you can use a token to have the opportunity to revise it and make it satisfactory.”

Tokens prevent students from being punished for the occasional off day. They can even completely take the place of smaller assignments. Plenty of professors excuse a certain number of absences, but don’t allow assignments due during that time to be submitted late or via email. With tokens, students don’t have to suffer any penalties for missing a day of class.

“I think in that sense they’re super helpful,” said Annie Scroggs, a government freshman who is taking Graber’s class. “If you need to miss class for a day you can still get grades for your assignments, which is really helpful because those zeros can add up.”

The specifications grading system is an efficient way to address a number of problems with current grading systems, and can easily be incorporated into plenty of liberal arts or social science courses. It makes assignments less stressful for students and easier to grade for professors, allowing that beginning-of-semester feeling to stick around for a little while longer.

Thielman is a history and rhetoric and writing sophomore from Fort Worth.

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LIFE&ARTS

5

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

FEATURE

Artist alum continues to find support in UT community

By Katya Bandouil @kat392

When she was little, UT alumna Alex Guillen recreated the designs from Disney movie posters, which her mom would later copy and send to friends. Years later in college, she would be asked to design movie and theater production posters for fellow students.

Three years after graduating, Guillen continues to pursue her independent art career in New York running an Etsy shop, participating in pop-up art exhibits and promoting her work on Instagram. Her art portfolio ranges from digital illustrations to vibrant stickers and earrings.

While studying at UT, Guillen said she learned the most from having a tight-knit community of artists, which continues to be her support system long after she’s left the Forty Acres. This support system was her original customer base on campus.

“I was friends with a lot of theatre (and dance) majors and my friends would write plays and put on shows,” Guillen said. “They would need posters for the shows, and I did my very first one. From there, it was through the grapevine people were asking me to do their posters. Then it went from theater posters to posters for short films in the (radio-television-film) department.”

Being a part of the UT arts community didn’t stop when Guillen graduated. Classmates and coworkers from UT continue to support and reach out to Guillen, even when they are 1,700 miles away.

“I follow her on every social media possible

and share her posts all the time,” UT alumna Jordan Joyce said. “My collection of Alex’s art grows all the time too. I have a couple prints hanging on my walls, some stickers on my laptop and water bottle and even two pairs of earrings that she made.”

When UT alumnus Erik Martinez was looking to commission an illustration as a gift for his friend, Guillen was his first choice.

“Artists in the (post-graduation) world undergo a weird phase of being lost because they have no set path to follow, so I think just cheering them on and giving them some funding can go a long way,” Martinez said.

Joyce hired Guillen as a graphics designer for her website.

“Her illustrations are whimsical and nostalgic while being super relatable,” Joyce said.

Although pursuing an art career in New York has come with uncertainty and financial challenges, Guillen said she is certain it is worth it for her.

“It feels like the dream option is to just work for yourself,” Guillen said. “I didn’t want to pick a major based on job security.

I wanted to pick a major I was passionate (about) and knew I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Guillen encourages other recent art graduates to be spontaneous in their career, as she believes she has been.

“Force yourself out of your comfort zone because you could continue to go back and forth forever,” Guillen said. “If I had not moved to New York, I would have been full of regret. Once I decided to do it, that was really all it took.”

CA: When I first started us-

ing it I experimented with fabric dying, but then trying to get it to stick to paper and work with paper is a learning process. It’s like a lot of trying new things. It has this range, this charge, as opposed to using something like beets (which) are the same color, (but) it’s a completely different charge even though they’re both natural. This felt more alive through the whole process, everything from the smell to the clean up, to the way it rotted.

DT: You said you inhabited this

space as your art studio. So, how did creating this piece at UT and watching students coming and going in the building affect your process?

CA: When I was using the

copyright alex guillen, and reproduced with permission

UT graduate Alex Guillen discusses her postgraduate experience as an artist and staying in touch with the UT community.

review

continues from page

copyright osgood perkins, and reproduced with permission

APPLY

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use cochineal and other natural materials?

FILM REVIEW | ‘GRETEL & HANSEL’

Holda (Alice Krige) pulls hair out of her throat in ‘Gretel & Hansel.’

art

continues from page

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ered, decaying wood. Emphasized smoke effects and colored lighting create a fantasy world shrouded in beautiful mystery with luminescent oranges and blues. The visuals are endlessly captivating and consistently immersive.

Although the story of Gretel and Hansel is a tale as old as time, the film manages to portray it in a new light, interweaving themes of adolescence and uncertain fate. The general trajectory plays out in the same way, with an old witch luring children into her delicious-smelling home, but the execution is much more harrowing and explicitly horrific. The film remains tense and intriguing for almost all of

‘Gretel & Hansel’ GENRE

Thriller PG-13

R AT I N G SCORE

space it was winter break, so I didn’t have much traffic. It was interesting that first day of students being back. It was interesting for me to be able to see how the piece functioned and how people were receiving it and looking through the glass and coming in. I’m hoping it can be used as a starting point to build conversations about everything from revealing gravity to abstraction to material charge. I think the potential for expanding conversation in this context is really exciting.

DT: What kind of advice would

you have for prospective artists?

its runtime, although it idles at the midway point.

Regardless, the adventure culminates in some truly wonderful final sequences that express cathartic and mysterious themes.

“Gretel & Hansel” is a beautifully packaged piece of period horror. The performances, set design, cinematography and score work together to transport audiences to a nightmarish variant of a childhood tale.

CA: Something that I’ve no-

ticed in thinking about education and art education is that I think back and I realized that I didn’t know what kind of artist I was going to be. Follow your gut, think with your body and let yourself be surprised. Don’t try to have all the answers before you start a piece because it’s impossible. If you have all the answers before you start a piece it’s not going to be super interesting.

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A L E K K A H E R N A N D E Z & B A R B R A D A LY

Comics Editors| @THEDAILYTEXAN

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

SUDOKUFORYOU

Today’s solution will appear here next issue

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PUZZLE BY SAM TRABUCCO

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54 Brit. military honor

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

16 ___ Smith, player of the Doctor on Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

“Doctor Who” 13 Goes down

How many Longhorns drank 0-3 drinks the last time they went out?

Perception: 4 in 10

Reality: 6 in 10

@UTBruceTheBat 2019 UT Austin National Social Norms Center Survey

7

MARCUS KRUM

Sports Editor | @TEXANSPORTS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Longhorns hope to stay hot

After picking up critical win on the road against TCU, Texas looks to pick up more momentum.

By Wills Layton

@willsdebeast

o say Texas’ backs are up against the wall would be an understatement.

The Longhorns have entered mustwin territory as they head into Saturday’s crucial home matchup against Iowa State.

Texas really entered the danger zone last week after going on a three-game losing skid, but a string of late defensive stops allowed the Longhorns to get back in the win column with a 62-61 win over TCU on Wednesday.

“We knew we didn’t want to lose four in a row,” junior guard Jase Febres said. “Losing those three really hurt, so we wanted to come out here with extreme effort (and) extreme aggressiveness, and that’s what we did and it showed off.”

Texas’ struggle to win a big game on the road has been evident this season, outside of an early upset

joshua guenther

/ the daily texan file

Junior guard Jase Febres drives to the basket against a Kansas defender during the Jan. 18 matchup. Febres caught fire against TCU, draining five 3-pointers shots to lead the team in scoring during the victory. over then-ranked Purdue.

To pick up a win against a top-three team in the Big 12 standings does wonders for keeping the team’s NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

“It’s a huge point for us in the season to win a game like this, especially coming off of our last few, so we knew this was a

I think it’s just our will to win. We want to make the tournament.

That’s our biggest goal here.”

JASE FEBRES junior guard

really, really big game,” head coach Shaka Smart said.

“But regardless, there’s always work to do and improvements to make.”

The Longhorns were far from perfect against the Horned Frogs, but they didn’t need to be perfect.

With defensive effort previously unforeseen and a sense of cohesiveness as well as clutch shots down the stretch, Texas fought off a late TCU surge to start a key stretch of games.

With the Cyclones heading to Austin, the Longhorns must focus on mitigating key mistakes. Iowa

State ranks second in the Big 12 in turnover margin and first in assist-turnover ratio. Against TCU, the Longhorns found a way to overcome some sloppy play.

“We certainly made our share of mistakes, but I thought our guys really responded to that,” Smart said. “They kept playing with the togetherness that you need to have to win on the road.”

Texas will host an Iowa State team on Saturday that is also desperate for a road win. The Cyclones have lost all five games they have played on the road, and are tied

with Kansas State at the cellar of the Big 12 standings, only ranking above Oklahoma State.

While Iowa State has struggled this season, Texas has yet to prove it can run away with winnable games. Saturday’s matchup is a chance for Texas to gain momentum and position themselves for a potential late-season run.

With only 11 games left in the season, including several tough road games against ranked opponents, the Longhorns can’t let this game slip away.

The defensive aggressiveness that defined Smart’s VCU era has returned, if

only for a moment. That, along with a twinge of desperation, could be a recipe for a push. Yet with the gauntlet of Baylor, Texas Tech (twice) and Kansas still remaining, it must start now.

“I think it’s just our will to win,” Febres said.

“We want to make the tournament. That’s our biggest goal here. Starting in the second half of the LSU game we showed that aggressiveness and we showed that fight, and you want to carry that onto the next games. We’ve got to go back home, get the win against Iowa State and continue rolling.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Texas rides win streak into matchup with No. 2 Baylor

By Robert Trevino @robtrev22

In the last four weeks, the Texas women’s basketball team has played eight games. That averages out to two games per week on top of practices and school obligations. Five of the past seven have been on the road, testing the Longhorns’ endurance over the last month.

After starting off conference play with a 1–2 record, the team has given itself a huge boost to its tourna-

ment hopes with a five-game winning streak, the most recent of which came against rival Oklahoma. However, the team has had little time to rest.

“It’s been a long month,” head coach Karen Aston said.

“We were just talking the other day about the TCU game, which was our opener in Big 12 play, and one of the coaches said that seemed like two years ago. It’s been a month of a lot of games. We’ve had a lot stuffed in here a few days apart.”

Friday’s game will mark

the last of nine games Texas will have played over a 28-day span. That gauntlet will end with the Longhorns’ greatest conference test yet, as the No. 2 Baylor Bears will enter town with an 18–1 record.

The Longhorns have not had much success against Baylor in recent years, losing 19 of the last 20 meetings. To their credit, no one else in the Big 12 has either. In the last decade, the Bears have dropped just seven conference games, having gone undefeated in conference play

joshua guenther

/ the daily texan file

Senior guard Sug Sutton attacks the basket during a matchup against Texas Tech on Jan. 15. Sutton has played a leading role in the team’s hot stretch.

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four times. Texas will have to look past the past to prove themselves in the present.

“We don’t talk about the past a whole lot.… That’s not the same team that it was, nor is this the same team that played last year,” Aston said. “We have a lot of players that haven’t played Baylor or anybody else in our league for that matter.… It’s almost a teaching lesson every time we go out in Big 12 play.”

All hope is not lost, however, as Texas has the ability to take down top teams. They’ve proven it on multiple occa-

sions this year with a road win at then-No. 17 Tennessee and an upset of then-No. 1 Stanford at home.

“Us beating Stanford, playing against Stanford, competing against Stanford, it made us realize that we can compete against top teams,” senior guard Sug Sutton said. “(In) women’s basketball, everyone’s pretty equal, so we’re coming into the game (Friday) with a huge mindset and just trying to be aggressive from the jump.”

The Bears boast a balanced team scoring-wise, with five

players averaging at least 11.7 points per game, and are deadly in every facet of the game. They received all possible first-place votes in the Big 12 preseason poll. But for the Longhorns, Friday’s matchup is just a test between two teams positioned for postseason runs.

“I think that you’re just really trying to build towards tournament play,” Aston said.

“Are you trending up, down?

Are you getting in a position where you know how to prepare yourself for those tournament games?”

8

T R I N A DY J O S L I N

Life&Arts Editor | @TRINADY05

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

Q&A

LIFE&ARTS

Director talks ‘Gretel & Hansel’ Oz Perkins dishes on new movie, directing Jordan Peele’s upcoming ‘Twilight Zone’ episode.

ored (it) so nicely and didn’t apologize for (the story of the original Hansel and Gretel) that we all love and have all loved for so long. It was faithful. I thought that was brave and was going to really allow a lot of room for originality and design. As long as we stayed with the narrative, we’re going to be able to build our world.

DT: How do you go about

By Noah Levine

crafting a scary sequence?

@ZProductionz

n a reinterpretation of the original Grimm tale, director Osgood Perkins (“The Blackcoat’s Daughter”) has brought fairy tale nightmare “Gretel & Hansel” to cinematic life.

The Daily Texan sat down with the director to discuss the process behind his new terrifying film and his upcoming project with Jordan Peele.

What draws you to directing certain projects?

The

Daily

Texan:

It’s different for everything, obviously. But I guess the one thing that resonates with me on an irresistible level in the case of this was the fact that (the script) honored the original material and honOsgood Perkins:

OP: There’s lots of times

when I don’t bother to play off dread with a jump scare.

I feel like it’s fun to sort continue to suspend dread. So there are a lot of times I’ve found in the movies that I made, at least so far, that the scare aspect is cumulative. It’s like the sum total (of dread) as opposed to peppered throughout.

DT: How do you approach

working with child actors? Especially within the horror genre.

OP: There’s a lot of stuff that

hasn’t happened for them (yet), and their understanding about things is pure in a way, so it’s easy for me as a director to blow their minds a little bit. To be able to do that before you work on a scene and to sort of reveal to the kids, “This what this is really about.” Or like, “You’ll

copyright osgood perkins, and reproduced with permission

Director Osgood Perkins joins Sophia Lillis (Gretel) on the set of ‘Gretel & Hansel.’ discover this later in life.

This s--- really happens like this or this is what people are like.” I think you get a certain wonder from kids and certain curiosity, which is so film-ic, right? So, as long as you can kind of stir curiosity in your cast, I think you’re in good shape.

Advice filmmakers?

DT:

for

student

OP: My advice (to) student

filmmakers is probably the oldest piece of advice there is, which is just do what you know — and it can be any genre. The great thing about the horror genre is that it kind of permits all things.

Like, magic is allowed. It’s such a direct route to human emotion and human experience, what it means to be alive and what it means to be, like, one day not alive. So

By Noah Levine @ZProduction

If Jack and Jill tumbling down a hill wasn’t harrowing enough, Gretel and Hansel are here to live among a cannibalistic witch.

“Gretel & Hansel” is a twisted fairy tale horror film from director Osgood Perkins (“The Blackcoat’s Daughter”). The grim adventure follows a pair of siblings, Gretel (Sophia Lillis) and Hansel (Samuel Leakey), who fall under the care of a mysterious old woman in this dark retelling of the classic fairy tale. Perkins and screenwriter Rob Hayes twist and mutate the original tale to embrace a new and terrifying identity.

The macabre fairy tale only features three explicit main characters, but the actors’ performances are strong enough to keep things afloat. Horror prodigy Lillis leads the titular duo with her performance as Gretel.

For most of the film, Lillis’ Gretel is the strong and cautious big sister, contrasting greatly with Leakey’s impulsive Hansel. Lillis’s

performance is nuanced yet evocative. Her facial reactions emphasize the harrowing situations her character finds herself in, offering insight into her emotion.

She delivers dialogue with supreme naturality, breathing life into an otherwise fictional storybook character.

The same goes for Leakey, who brings an optimistic innocence to Hansel in the film’s dark world. His childish quips land gracefully, often providing a glimpse of comedy during the tense story.

Alice Krige dials up the terror with her portrayal of Holda, a mysterious old woman who allows the children to reside in her A-frame cottage.

Krige, looking through a sea of off-putting and uncanny makeup, is incredibly hard to read.

This is not a negative thing, as her character appears

unpredictable and morally gray. She delivers dialogue with edge and is consistently unsettling.

One of the most immersive aspects of the film is its beautifully haunting score

by Robin Coudert. His elegant and harrowing synth melodies cast a foreboding ambiance across the entire film. The eerie tracks heighten the dizzying and confining world of the film while characters explore perilous woods and dimly lit rooms. The music adds a whimsical tone to certain visuals that wouldn’t be as effective without it.

The set design and cinematography feel as if they are ripped from fairy tale illustrations. Holda’s residence juts into the foggy sky with its pointed roofing, set against fog-cov-

DT: What’s next for you?

OP: I wrote and I am di-

recting an episode of “The Twilight Zone” for Jordan (Peele) and that gang. Jordan Peele’s company and I have been looking into something together for a while. I think I’m the only person who’s written and is directing their episode in an authorship kind of way. So I’m going to do a really kind of bananas meta “Twilight Zone” episode. It’s pretty good.

ART

FILM REVIEW | ‘GRETEL & HANSEL’

Fairy tale retelling embraces horror, takes on dark twist

whether it’s the horror genre or any other genre, you kind of gotta start with what’s true for you, what you know (and) what you’ve experienced. I think when people try to start out by thinking like, “I want to write a World War II epic,” you know, it’s fine, but make the protagonist yourself. My protagonists (embody) myself, even if they’re women.

VAC shows alum’s art piece made of lemon juice, insects

By Ariana Arredondo @arixgraciela

Cochineal insects and lemon juice dripped down the wall as artist Carmen Argote worked on her piece in the Visual Arts Center.

Argote’s work, titled “Me at Market” is an abstract piece made from lemon juice, linen, paper and cochineal insects, which can be ground up and boiled to make a natural dye called carmine. Argote worked on “Me at Market” throughout the winter break from Jan. 4

until opening on Jan. 24. Argote used the Visual Arts Center as her art studio to work on the piece. The exhibit will be open until March 6.

The Daily Texan spoke with Argote about the process and inspiration behind “Me at Market.”

The Daily Texan: Where did

the inspiration for the title, “Me at Market” come from?

Carmen Argote: A lot of my

thinking process comes from walking. I had been thinking about how an artist is con-

sumed. I had been reading about the economics of how artwork is bought and sold.

How do you keep the artwork, with integrity, how do you make work that functions as artwork in all these different contexts and how does the market eat up artists? I was thinking about this idea of a meat market when I saw a sign (that said ‘Meat Market’). I saw the spacing was just a little off and I was like, “Oh, it’s ‘Me at Market.’”

DT: How did you learn how to

A R T PAGE 5

R E V I E W PAGE 5

(Osgood) Perkins and screenwriter Rob Hayes twist and mutate the original tale to embrace a new and terrifying identity.

christina ke

/ the daily texan staff

Carmen Argote’s “Me at Market,” using insects and lemon juice, will be displayed at the Visual Arts Center until March 6.

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