Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Volume 120, Issue 99
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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A faculty panel shared their experiences as first-generation students.
UT should improve road safety to prevent serious injuries from transportation accidents.
Lucy Hale and Jeff Wadlow talk working on Blumhouse’s “Fantasy Island.”
Women’s basketball shoots 26.9% in 18-point loss to Iowa State on Wednesday night.
NATION
UNIVERSITY
UTRGV has lowest student debt of any national public institution By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
the Coalition Against Sexual Misconduct released in December. Social work professor Noel Busch-Armendariz is leading the restorative justice subcommittee and said its goals would focus on faculty interactions with the University community. “I look forward to this opportunity to engage in and expand meaningful conversations and to include faculty voices in
UT-Rio Grande Valley has the least graduate debt of public institutions in the nation, while UT-Austin graduates have double the amount of debt UTRGV has, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 rankings. UTRGV is fourth in the list least amount of student debt of national universities behind three private universities with an average $10,054 of debt per graduate owed to the U.S. Department of Education, according to data collected in 2017 for the ranking. UT-Austin graduates have an average debt of $21,500, according to the U.S. News and World Report’s 2020 rankings. UTRGV spokesperson Patrick Gonzales said the low debt can be attributed to a guaranteed tuition rate for four years. UTRGV caps tuition at a fixed amount for students taking over 12 hours and at a low tuition rate of $4,066.16 for 12 hours. UT-Austin has similar policies and programs in place but a higher average tuition rate of $5,485. “When (students) graduate from UTRGV with little to no debt, they can fully benefit from their career earnings instead of spending years trying to pay off their debt,” Gonzales said. UTRGV will implement the Tuition Advantage grant next fall, which covers the cost of tuition and fees for students with an income of $75,000 or less. UT-Austin implemented a similar program, the Texas Advance Commitment, which covers the same costs for students with an income of $65,000 or less. Joey Williams, director of communications for the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, said cost of living must also be considered in the cost of attendance. Williams said UT-Austin is a larger
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jackson gray
/ the daily texan staff
In response to student and faculty concerns, the Faculty Council Executive Committee has started a Task Force on Developing Community Standards for Faculty. Their goal is to create guidelines for faculty on community standards.
Faculty develop task force Student protests against faculty sexual misconduct spur faculty to create The Task Force for Developing Community Standards for Faculty to implement goals and values. By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
aculty members will meet this Thursday to discuss their ideal campus environment and will work throughout the coming months to achieve that climate by implementing goals offered by faculty. The Task Force for Developing Community
Standards for Faculty is a Faculty Council group created in late January to establish values for the faculty community and work to implement those values into University policy. The protests against faculty sexual misconduct last semester acted as a catalyst to form a task force and develop a higher standard for the campus climate, said Brian Evans, engineering professor and Faculty Council chair. Evans said faculty want to
make campus safer just as much as students do. “We have widespread concern,” Evans said. “I hear it in my department, I hear it from my students.” Evans said the task force was formed in response to multiple ethical issues on campus. A goal for Evans is to eliminate sexual misconduct on campus. “That’s an aspirational goal,” Evans said. “It’s a big one, but it’s a good one to go for.” Instead of amending
policy regarding appropriate punishment, Evans said the task force will analyze whether it is helping the University achieve its aspirational goals. “Let’s flip this … (and) look at the opposite of this. What would we like to be in a positive sense?” Evans said. “What can we strive to be?” One of the subcommittees is focusing on restorative justice, which was included in the demands of last semester’s protesters, according to documents
STATE
UNIVERSITY
ProPublica releases offender database
UT provides resources in response to housing instability, food insecurity
By Hannah Williford @HannahWillifor2
Twenty-two clergy members from the Diocese of Austin were named in a ProPublica database of credibly accused Catholic clergy members in late January, after the original list was published last year. ProPublica‘s database includes 178 different dioceses and 6,754 names of accused clergy members. The majority of Austin clergy members on the list are deceased or have been removed from the church. Three members are listed as retired, and one is now a priest for the Archdiocese of Kingston, Jamaica. Despite Catholic churches nationwide releasing the names, there is no clear definition of what churches consider
credible accusations. The Rev. Larry Rice, director of the University Catholic Center, said there is inconsistency between diocese reports because churches have not agreed upon a standard of credibility to use when someone is accused. “The lists that the diocese have published are people that are credibly accused,” Rice said. “That does not mean that those people have been indicted (or) arrested. … Usually what that means is somebody within the structure of that individual diocese found that accusation credible, meaning it could have happened. That is not an admission or an accusation of guilt.” Rice said bishops in the United States put together the Dallas Charter PROPUBLICA
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By Nataleah Small @nataleahjoy
Homelessness affected 17% of “surveyed” college students in the past year nationally, according to a Hope Center for College, Community and Justice report. “In the United States, we have a history of shame attached to need and that means that a lot of the time, folks are not as likely to see themselves as deserving of care and support,” Sara Kennedy, director of strategic and executive communications for the Office of the Dean of Students, said. UT does not know the exact number of students who are homeless because many students don’t report to the University when they are experiencing homelessness, Kennedy said. Petroleum engineering
christiana peek
senior Mirka Mendez experienced homelessness when she was in high school. Mendez said she grew up in Mexico with her parents and
then moved to El Paso, Texas, when she was 15. Mendez said she didn’t know English and struggled to adapt because she did not
/ the daily texan staff
receive support at home after she moved. She went to school and worked part time H O U S I N G PAGE 2