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THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2019
volume
119,
issue
NEWS
OPINION
LIFE&ARTS
SPORTS
Proposed legislation aims to improve resources for students who are parents. PA G E 2
UHD needs to create a wider variety of meal plans to meet students’ needs. PA G E 4
NPR’s TIny Desk brought the series’ alumni to Austin for a show. PA G E 8
Texas uses home-field advantage to tuneup before the start of conference play. PA G E 6
CITY
CAMPUS
CapMetro bus driver charged with manslaughter
Delay affects student housing Renewal contracts for university housing came a month late this year.
By Emily Hernandez @emilyhernandez
UT Police Department detectives arrested the Capital Metro bus driver who fatally struck a cyclist in January on a charge of manslaughter, said UTPD Chief David Carter at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Carter said the driver, 40-year-old Mindi Taylor Stafford, was booked in the Bell County Jail in Killeen, Texas, after her arrest at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, with a bond set at $80,000. More charges may follow if more information is found, Carter said. The charge of manslaughter is based on the detectives’ finding Stafford was driving recklessly and caused the death of 39-yearold cyclist Anthony “Tony” John Diaz, Carter said. Manslaughter is a second-degree felony, punishable by two to 20 years in prison with a fine not to exceed $10,000, according to the Texas Penal Code. “We understand Tony’s family and friends suffered a great loss, and the arrest alone will not remedy their grief,” Carter said. “But we sincerely hope it will eventually lead to closure. Our thoughts and prayers continue to extend to all those who Tony touched.” Both the bus and Diaz were traveling northbound on San Jacinto Boulevard with Diaz next to the bus. Carter said Diaz was doing “everything possible to ride safely.” He was wearing a reflective helmet, operable lights on the front and back of his bicycle, and was riding in empty parking spaces as close to the curb as possible, Carter said. At some point, the bus left its lane and drifted to the right before the front of the bus collided with Diaz, Carter said. The bus traveled approximately another 110 feet before stopping, dragging Diaz under, Carter said.
By Lauren Grobe @grobe_lauren
niversity Housing and Dining sent out renewal contract offers for on-campus housing almost a month late, affecting nearly 1,700 current students. Renewal contract offers were supposed to be sent out Feb. 1 for returning students who applied before the priority deadline on Jan. 31. Instead, the offers were sent out March 1 — the same time offers were sent to incoming freshmen. Returning students who applied after Jan. 31 were not given an offer and were put on a wait-list. Mylon Kirksy, director of residence life, said this delay was caused by the department taking longer than expected to edit and finalize contracts, as well as holding space for incoming freshmen they later determined was unnecessary. “I wasn’t able to get both things done to release the contracts,” Kirksy said. “We needed to adjust based on the fact that we didn’t meet the first offer date.” The department’s marketing manager Cynthia Lew said one factor in the delay was the addition of an unlimited meal plan to the contract offers. Kirksy said he could not recall any other significant changes to the contract offers from last year. The 2018-2019 freshman class was the largest incoming class with 8,960 students, according to a UT News article. Kirksy said the large incoming class did not affect the availability of housing, and the University has approximately 7,400 beds for on-campus
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housing, which has previously been a satisfactory amount. “We get the sense that if we were able to have more beds on campus, then we probably could house more students,” Kirksy said, “We don’t necessarily get complaints or concerns from students.” Kendall Slagle, Office of the Provost content strategist, said in an email housing availability is one factor considered in admission decisions. The University has also changed the automatic acceptance rate from the top 7 percent to top 6 percent to adjust for the large incoming numbers, Slagle said. Slagle said the increasing graduation rate has allowed the University to accept more students, as
more students are graduating on time and opening spaces for new freshmen. The graduation rate has increased by approximately 20 percent over the past 10 years, according to data from the University’s Institutional Reporting, Research and Information Systems. Theatre studies freshman Indira Rampersad said she was put on the wait-list after applying in February, but her roommate, who applied before Jan. 31, was also put on the wait-list. She said both were informed they would be offered a contract in June or July. “My anxiety would not let me (wait),” Rampersad said. “I went looking off-campus immediately.” Rampersad’s roommate was able to find both of them a lease
| the daily texan staff
off-campus and Rampersad said it was fairly easy to find off-campus housing, especially because she already had a roommate. “I definitely think I got lucky in terms of the circumstances,” Rampersad said. “I don’t think it would’ve worked out as quickly as it did if I didn’t have that immediate connection.” The housing wait-list never closes, so University Housing and Dining will send offers to students on the wait-list throughout the summer, Kirksy said. “Our waitlist is fluid, we don’t ever really shut it down,” Kirksy said. “Typically students who are on the wait-list, and they still want housing with us, we were able to house them.”
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NATION
UNIVERSITY
O’Rourke announces presidential bid, will begin campaign in Iowa
Initiatives of Project 2021 remain after program is cut
By Chase Karacostas @chasekaracostas
Former Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke told an El Paso TV station on Wednesday that he is officially running for president. The announcement came via text, according to the station. O’Rourke will be competing for the Democratic nomination against nearly 10 others, including Julian Castro, former housing and urban development secretary who hails from San Antonio. “I’m really proud of what El Paso did and what El Paso represents,” O’Rourke said in the text. “It’s a big part of why I’m
running. This city is the best example of this country at its best.” Previously, O’Rourke ran against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2018 midterm election and lost by three points, the closest of any statewide race in more than a decade. The race was also the nation’s most expensive U.S. Senate race in history. O’Rourke raised nearly $80 million and spent most of it during his campaign. O’Rourke said during the race that he would not run for president, but later, after his loss, began traveling around the country to the Midwest, including Wisconsin, to speak with voters. In the coming days, he will make a series of visits in Iowa, an important
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early voting state. The months leading up to his announcement were filled with intense speculation, and he told Oprah Winfrey in a February interview in Times Square that he would make his decision by the end of that month. Then, two weeks ago, he said he and his wife, Amy, had made a decision about how they can ”best serve (their) country” and that they were “excited to share it with everyone soon.” Experts previously told The Daily Texan that O’Rourke’s best chance at the presidency would be in 2020 rather than launching a second Senate bid, this time against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. He is the upper chamber’s second-highest ranking Republican.
pedro luna | the daily texan staff file While running for U.S. Senate in the 2018 midterm elections, Beto O’Rourke speaks to students at Spider House Patio Bar & Cafe on Aug. 28, 2018.
chelsea purgahn | the daily texan staff file Project 2021 goals remain despite the program ending. UT is investing in an Experiental Learning Initiative program.
By Savana Dunning @savanaish
What was initially supposed to be a five-year plan to rethink education at UT has officially been abandoned. But, its goals remain. Project 2021 was launched in 2016 to revamp undergraduate education by producing more online classes, researching innovative teaching techniques and adding experiential learning to degree curricula, among other things. To do this, the project utilized pre-existing resources, such as the Faculty Innovation Center, UT’s Extended Campus and the Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services Development Studio. It also created a central administration unit to oversee the
project’s progress. After the $16 million project fell through in June 2018, UT got rid of the administrative team, the only leg of the project UT has cut. The different pieces of the project — the innovation center, online course production and degree innovation — have just been decentralized, allowing each resource to work more closely with faculty to meet their differing needs. “Project 2021 was one administrative approach,” UT provost Maurie McInnis said. “The project did a really good job of articulating some of our goals of where we want to end up, but what we realized is there was a more cost-efficient approach administratively to accomplish these
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