Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Volume 120, Issue 117
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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UT System approves $1 million annual funding increase for Archer Center.
UT must be proactive in outreach to ensure students access disability accommodations.
UT cross country alumnus talks proposing at Austin Marathon, future plans.
Women’s golf struggles in a fifth-place finish at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.
UNIVERSITY
CAMPUS
Fenves talks coronavirus
Students unite to support female-led protests in Mexico
After Rice moves classes online because of COVID-19, Fenves discusses plan for UT classes. By Anna Canizales @annaleonorc
By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
ice University has canceled in-person classes for a week to prevent the spread of coronavirus after an employee tested positive. We sat down with President Gregory Fenves to see what UT’s plan would be if the University had to follow suit.
Fenves said the University will not prevent students from traveling but encourages students to not go to countries with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Level 2 or 3 travel health notice and hopes students choose to go home instead of traveling abroad. He said students traveling internationally for spring break and returning to Austin raise
Women in Mexico disappeared from the public eye Monday in a nationwide demonstration called “A Day Without Women.” For Mexican women, “A Day Without Women” was a strike against femicide, or the killing of a woman based on her gender, by staying in their homes to show Mexico how the country would function without them. Meanwhile, students at the University passed out purple ribbons and pamphlets to stand in solidarity with those women. Journalism sophomore Jimena De la Mora and social work sophomore Maria De Los Angeles Villarreal organized a protest to demonstrate their frustration with the killings in Mexico and to honor the women who were striking. About 10 women are killed each day in Mexico, according to the Mexico office of United Nations Women. “Women are outraged due to the inactivity or lack of response the government has (about) the femicide and killings of innocent girls and women that’s happening in the country,” Villarreal said. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been criticized for his response and lack of action regarding femicides. In February, Obrador said the protests were a distraction against his social programs and condemned earlier protests. “This issue has been manipulated a lot in the media,” the president said, according to the Associated Press. “I don’t want the issue just to be women’s killings.”
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DT: What events would prompt the University to transfer to online classes?
Fenves said as of Monday morning, since there are no confirmed cases in Travis County, classes would not go online earlier than spring break. “One confirmed case is probably not enough to transition to online classes,” Fenves said. “If we had multiple confirmed cases, that would be a strong indication that we need to move to more isolation.” DT: Would switching to online classes prevent COVID-19 from spreading at UT?
“(Isolation) is not going to totally solve the problem because we’ll still have students living together … which we don’t have any direct control of,” Fenves said. “It’s not just such a simple thing. The virus is still there. Students are still interacting with others. (Isolation) in itself doesn’t protect the student very much.”
DT: What is the University doing now to make sure students stay safe?
Fenves said the administration has been preparing to potentially move classes online for two weeks. The University sent an email out to all faculty Sunday night to prepare them for a potential switch to online classes. “We have been working every day on this in planning for those contingencies,” Fenves said. “It’s
rocky higine
a massive operation for students and faculty and instructors to move online. We’re not ready to make that decision, but if we do have to make that decision, we want to have as much preparation as possible.” The University is working closely with the city of Austin and Travis County’s public health departments in planning. Fenves said UT is not specifically subject to gathering restrictions from the city because it is a public state university, but is following similar guidelines.
DT: How feasible is it to switch all classes to online?
/ the daily texan staff
DT: Is the University restricting spring break travel?
Fenves said many classes already have material online, and it would not be too difficult to switch. “We have a pretty solid infrastructure for many courses,” he said. “What we’re working on is adding capacity for video. There will be decisions over whether classes are delivered synchronously … or recorded and available when students are able to take the course.”
C O R O N AV I R U S
STATE
SYSTEM
US Democratic senatorial runoff candidates to face off in May
Students at UT colleges waited up to two hours to vote on Super Tuesday
By Hannah Williford @HannahWillifor2
United States senatorial candidates Mary Jennings “MJ” Hegar and Royce West entered a Democratic primary runoff following Super Tuesday, narrowing a field of 12 candidates to two. The runoff will culminate in an election on May 26, where the winner will face incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn in November. According to her website, Hegar is advocating for lower rates for student loans and a grace period of a few months after graduation before students begin paying off loans. West’s website said he is focusing on debt relief programs for Texans and creating an easier pathway from a community college to a four-year university. Hegar served as a combat search and rescue pilot in Afghanistan, where her helicopter was brought down by the Taliban, said Amanda Sherman, communications director for MJ for
Texas. Although Hegar has never served on a government body, Hegar petitioned the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to open ground combat roles to women following the helicopter incident, Sherman said. “She’s proven what you can do as a private citizen,” Sherman said. “She’s shown she can be effective in those ways, and she can accomplish large-scale change.” Hegar’s campaign emphasized health care, supporting a public option for Medicare, opposing any cuts to the current system and lowering the price of prescription drugs. “(Hegar) has traveled tens of thousands of miles across the state talking to Texans about what’s on their mind,” Sherman said. “The number one issue that always comes up is … making health care affordable and accessible to every single Texan.” West has served in the Texas Senate since 1993 for Dallas County. During his time as senator, he has stood for a R U N O F F PAGE 3
By Austin Martinez @austinmxrtine
Arriving at a UT polling location 10 minutes before it opened, business honors freshman Michelle Zhang thought she would beat the large crowd of voters on Super Tuesday. Instead, Zhang said she was greeted with a long line of students waiting to vote and had to wait about half an hour before doing so. Students at UT-Austin and UT-San Antonio said they waited up to two hours on March 3 to vote in the primary election. Meanwhile, UT-Arlington did not have any on-campus voting locations on March 3. The Flawn Academic Center and the Perry-Castañeda Library were UT’s two Super Tuesday, on-campus polling locations, open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Zhang said she was shocked to see a line of voters wrapped around the building at 6:50 a.m. “I didn’t expect it to be that busy,”
alice liu
/ the daily texan staff
Students wait in line to vote in the primary election on March 3, 2020, at the Flawn Academic Center. Zhang said. “They had to process a lot of people, and there were only three to five people processing (IDs), so it took some time.” Zhang said she skipped early voting to avoid voting for a candidate who would drop out before Super Tuesday.
Because she lives on campus, Zhang said voting at UT is most accessible for her. “If you live off campus near an off-campus voting center, go there V O T I N G PAGE 3
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