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Monday, March 2, 2020
NEWS
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MOVE Texas hosts Party at the Polls to encourage voter turnout at early voting.
The Daily Texan editorial board endorses candidates for tomorrow’s primary elections.
Volume 120, Issue 111 SPORTS
Male members of Orange Squad talk challenging stereotypes and translating masculinity.
Longhorns creep closer to NCAA Tournament bid with upset win in Lubbock. PAGE 6
WEST CAMPUS
CITY
The Project connects UT community with East Austin By Andrew Zhang @andrewczhang
Armed with paint brushes, gardening tools and hammers, members of the UT community volunteered on Saturday in St. Johns, an Austin neighborhood, on Saturday as part of The Project, UT’s largest annual day of service. UT students started The Project in 1999 as a way to serve the Austin community. This year, the St. John’s neighborhood in East Austin hosted The Project for the first time since 2010. Over 700 students signed up to complete a variety of beautification projects, including painting, gardening and building in different areas of the neighborhood, such as Northeast Early College High School. The Project’s purpose is to foster closer ties between UT and its neighboring communities, especially underserved communities, said Karan Bahl, an outreach committee member for The Project. “There’s a lot of places (throughout Austin) that could use a bit of upkeep and beautification,” finance junior Bahl said. “We really wanted to give these people what they deserve — bright clean spaces to live their lives every day.” Jillian Merritt, a Plan II and chemical engineering freshman, helped mulch soil beds and weed gardens around the high school. Merritt said she appreciates what the event has set out to do. “UT, with all its students, has a lot of influence in the community,” Merritt said. “It’s really important that we use (that influence) for good, especially in these communities that need more help.” S E R V I C E PAGE 2
UTPD to increase off-campus security
West Campus safety measures will increase with surveillance cameras, extra patrolling officers after $8 million approval by UT System Board of Regents. steph sonik
By Brooke Ontiveros @brookexpanic
he University of Texas Police Department said they will increase safety measures in West Campus after the UT System Board of Regents approved $8 million for off-campus security on Thursday in response to citywide increases in crime. The $8 million will be equally divided among the next four years to fund security cameras, a small police station on Guadalupe, 13
additional officers and a new 7th district under UTPD’s jurisdiction that encompasses West Campus. All of these additions will go into effect in the coming months, UTPD Chief David Carter said. “It’s clear we need to have additional police presence in those areas where people are walking,” Carter said. “I can envision in the future us pushing out more permanently … (but) this is where we’re looking to start west.” Carter said he hopes to identify and create the six initial locations for security cameras by this summer and expand from there. The
camera system will eventually be linked with Austin Police Department’s system so both departments can monitor the video, he said. “The idea (works) just the same way the HALO camera system works downtown, we hope that private sector folks will be able to plug their cameras and share that information with us as well,” Carter said. “It’s really about partnership.” Boundaries have not been finalized for the new 7th district, Carter said. This new district plans to have at least one mobile officer patrolling at all times.
/ the daily texan staff
“We’re actually looking to create a pair of two officers that focus on that area to gather information working with the student community,” Carter said. West Campus will also see an increase in bike patrols, Carter said. Carter said he hopes to have a storefront substation, where students can come in to make reports, created in the next three months at Walter Webb Hall. “What we want to do is to create a visible presence in that particular area so that S E C U R I T Y PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY
CITY
UT students, alumni work to create biodegradable sanitary pads
Hackathon tackles climate change By Noah Rose @noah_rose_
By Nataleah Small Students, professors and community members used software engineering to develop tools that would counteract the adverse effects of climate change in Austin communities on Saturday. At Hack for Resilient Communities, a hackathon put on by seven different Austin organizations, students collaborated with Austin professors and environmental experts to design tools that could help Austin communities disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change to withstand their effects. The event focused specifically on Dove Springs, an East Austin neighborhood at severe risk for flooding and pollution. Carmen Llanes Pulido, a representative for Go Austin/Vamos Austin, spoke about the inequities associated with pollution and climate challenges at the hackathon. Pulido said climate change and systemic inequities during Austin’s development has disproportionately increased the risk of flooding in southeast Austin. “As we address climate risks, the quality of life of (Austin) gets bigger,
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yining qian
Sanitary Aid for Everyone, an alumni and student-led research group, is working to create a biodegradable sanitary pad to help women without access to adequate facilities and menstruation products. The organization is competing in the Texas Student Research Showdown to win grant money to fund this project, said member Iann Karamali, a mechanical engineering and humanities senior. The group has already created three prototypes for the biodegradable pad, said member Amanda MacFarlane, a public relations and textiles and apparel senior. Once they develop the fourth, they plan to move onto trial testing, said MacFarlane.
/ the daily texan staff
From left to right, Matthew Frankel, Tongren Zhu, Lina Sela, Lu Xing, participate in the Hack for Resilient Communities at the Perry-Castañeda Library on Saturday. This group discussed their software solutions to the pollution issue in Austin. and the risk of displacement is also higher,” Pulido said. “We are looking at not just mitigating displacement but getting ahead of it and looking out for unintended consequences.” Students split into teams, where they identified areas of interest,
formulated research questions, searched for relevant data sets and created visuals mapping the most at-risk areas in Southeast Austin. Several members of Texas Convergent, a UT student H A C K A T H O N PAGE 3
Sanitary Aid for Everyone is a sister organization to the Women’s Relief Initiative, a group Guinean UT students founded in fall 2018, said group member Fatoumata Diallo. The initiative wants to bring menstrual products to women in developing countries, according to its website. “I’ve always had an interest in helping women and girls around the world,” said Diallo, a health and society senior. “Especially because I grew up in Guinea. I lived a very privileged life, … and most of my friends didn’t have that privilege.” In 2019, the initiative raised $1,500 in a GoFundMe campaign and sent sanitary pads to women in three villages in Guinea, Diallo said. However, one group member, Mamadou Balde, wanted to create a more sustainable solution for women in
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