Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Friday, February 21, 2020
Volume 120, Issue 105
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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Texas THON held its semiannual Pancake Night to raise money for a children’s hospital.
Unforgiving attendance policies are classist and rascist, and they need to be rewritten.
Student business teaches affordable langauge lessons to others via Skype.
Herman’s new coordinates don’t make Texas a national contender.
STATE
Texas HBCUs underfunded A Center for Public Policy Priorities study found that in 2019, public historically Black colleges and universities in Texas received less funding per student than flagship universities. By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
istorically Black public colleges and universities are funded $2,500 less per student than the most prominent institutions in Texas, according to a Center for Public Policy Priorities study of the 2019 Texas Public Higher Education Almanac. In 2018, the average state revenue per student for two Texas flagship universities, Texas A&M University and UT-Austin, was $12,958, according to the report. The report said the average state revenue per student for the two publicly funded HBCUs, Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University, was $10,506. Ashley Williams, the public policy analyst at the center who authored the report, said when the state does not invest in education in HBCUs, the burden falls on students to make up the difference. She said although state investment is not the only factor that contributes to student debt, it does impact it. “When you are investing less in a group of students, how are they going to afford college?” Williams said. “They are going to borrow, and so they are going to have higher levels of debt. That limits their social mobility.” The report said the two historically Black universities invest more in students than the flagship universities
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despite not having the same level of state funding. According to the study, Prairie View spent 21% and Texas Southern University spent 16% of its total funds on student services and scholarships. UT-Austin spent 8% and Texas A&M spent 12% of their total funds on student services and scholarships, according to the study. Laylan Copelin, communications vice chancellor for the Texas A&M University System, said the report’s comparison between the flagships and the smaller universities is not accurate because it does not include
other revenue. “Bottom line: The study paints an inaccurate, incomplete picture,” Copelin said. “Once you add Permanent University Fund proceeds, the A&M System spends more per student at Prairie View than at the flagship.” The average student debt at Prairie View A&M is $42,103 and at Texas Southern University is $42,699, as compared to $33,710 at Texas A&M and $38,344 at UT-Austin, according to the almanac. The Student Borrower Protection Center, a research nonprofit focusing on student debt, also
/ the daily texan staff
released a study two weeks ago that shows Hispanic and Black students are charged more for loans when they come from minority institutions because they often graduate with more debt. Moira Vahey, director of communication for the Student Borrower Protection Center, said this perpetuates racial inequality in class structure. “The use of education data in credit (loaning) decisions is particularly concerning given the pattern of dispaSTUDENT
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STATE
WEST CAMPUS
Student loan assistance program aims to recruit educated officers
Large fraternity parties in West Campus use security to keep peace By Brooke Ontiveros @brookexpanic
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By Laura Morales @lamor_1217
UT Police Department officer Dustin Farahnak responds to 911 calls between attending Texas Law classes, interning with the Travis County District Attorney, studying for the bar exam in July and caring for his
9-month-old daughter. Farahnak is a veteran and received the Hazelwood exemption, which waives his law school tuition fees. Farahnak said he amassed a significant amount of debt from undergraduate school and paid it off in full, but he said a loan assistance program would have helped
significantly in managing his situation. A student loan assistance program, which will start accepting online applications in September, will provide peace officers hired after Sept. 1, 2019, with up to $20,000 in aid over five years. The program aims to recruit more educated
/ the daily texan staff
officers and encourage existing forces to pursue an education, state Rep. Lynn Stucky said. Senate Bill 16, passed in the 86th Texas Legislature session last year, mandates that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating create the program. Stucky sponP O L I C E PAGE 2
Large West Campus parties occasionally hire private security, such as UT alumni-run VSI Secure, to resolve safety concerns. “‘Mo Bamba’ came on, and this guy was on top of the basketball hoop dancing and accidentally brought the whole basketball hoop crashing down into the middle of the party,” VSI Secure COO Lucas Lostoski said. “Our guards had to run him down before he got out of the party.” This was the only arrest VSI Secure has ever made at a West Campus party they worked, Lostoski said. UT’s Interfraternity Council uses private security for events such as Roundup, an annual weekend of events in the spring, to ensure the safety of their members, executive vice president Mitchell Meyers said in an email. “During these events, we hire the security not just to man the entrance, but to also roam around the event to ensure everyone in attendance is safe and healthy,” Meyers said in an email. Since UT alumni run VSI Secure, it has knowledge of the West Campus party scene and is one of the resources fraternities go to for security needs, Lostoski said. They provide bartending and security guard
services and focus on de-escalating any potential problems that could occur at parties, he said. They charge $25 per guard per hour and $20 per bartender per hour, and parties typically only hire security if more than 200 people attend, Lostoski said. “Mainly, we make sure that nobody’s overdrinking and that there are no real threats,” Lostoski said. “Our guards would escort them out if that’s the case.” Lostoski said four to five partygoers are escorted out of each event they patrol, typically for overdrinking. Individuals have also been escorted out for property damage and jumping over the fence to drink for free, he said. “We see (people climbing over fences) at almost every party in West Campus because if people just hear a party in the middle of a campus, they’re a lot more likely to try to break in and party for free,” Lostoski said. VSI Secure monitors the amount of alcohol someone has consumed and prevents minors from drinking. One guard will float around the crowd to ensure only those with wristbands have drinks and those who have been cut off do not receive drinks from friends, Lostoski said. Those who cannot drink will have black X’s F R A T PAGE 2