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THE DAILY TEXAN Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
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Calendar ‘Just Do It!’
The Department of Art & Art History presents Howard Taylor, the director of the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, to discuss the philosophy of the museum at 5 p.m. in Art Building 1.120.
Band serious about style to play at Forty Acres Fest LIFE&ARTS PAGE 10
SPORTS PAGE 6
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 10
TODAY
SUITE 709
TICKET PRICES
ABSINTHE FOR ALL
Thursday, March 31, 2011
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University expands sale of oil leases UT-owned land sections
$150,001 - $900,000
No bids
$5 mil - $36 mil
$50,000 - $150,000
$190+ mil
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The Scottish-born poet Robin Robertson will be doing a reading in 2.302 at 7:30 p.m.
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‘I Feel Pretty’
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The Bass Concert Hall will be performing the musical “West Side Story” at 8 p.m.
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‘It’s all in your head’
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Red Fez is hosting Jean Claude Van Jamme at 8 p.m.
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‘Roll It Down’
Cactus Cafe hosts Ray Bonneville at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.
Today in history In 1918
Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
Campus Watch Grand Theft Cu
100 block E. 21st Street A UT staff member reported a non-UT subject had entered the PCL and bragged that he had taken a piece of copper piping from inside a UT vehicle. The subject then turned around and left the building. Officers responding to the area located the subject a short distance away. The subject was still in possession of a piece of copper pipe. During the investigation, the officers soon discovered the subject had an outstanding outside agency arrest warrant.
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Quote to note “We’ve been crying about this for years, that we’re crammed. Sometimes when I am giving a tour, I have to point out the storage cabinets in the hallway that the fire marshal hates, but there is no other place for them.” —Mark Bernstein Associate Dean of Student Affairs NEWS PAGE 5
By Matthew Stottlemyre Daily Texan Staff
The Office of Business Affairs, which directs University Lands, sold almost $250 million of oil and gas leases Wednesday during its most lucrative semiannual lease sale in history. The sale included oil and gas leases for 117,000 of the 2.1 million acres of Permanent University Fund land. The Republic of Texas set aside 220,000 acres of public land in 1839 as an endowment for a public university. Oil was first discovered on the land in 1923 in Reagan County, according to the UT System’s website. This sale and the last one in September 2010 collected considerably more money than any previous sales, said Stephen Hartmann, executive director of University Lands, which is dedicated to managing and leasing the lands. The September 2010 sale totaled $207
million, and the highest sale before that came in the ’80s and totaled $52 million, Hartmann said. Other sales have topped at about $40 million. Hartmann said oil and gas, drilling or brokerage companies bid on specific plots of land before the date of the sale based on the amount of oil or gas they think they can get from the area. He said the bidders have no way of knowing information about other bids for the plots they bid on. He said this forces companies to bid in relation to how much they can get from the land. “If you’re bidding on this, you take your best shot because you don’t know,” Hartmann said. “If you really want it, you better make it good. I had one guy say, ‘You ought to at least provide doughnuts for making us go through this.’ I took a look at his bids and said, ‘I should bring Wheaties instead.’”
University Lands oil/gas leases County
Winning bid
1
Andrews
$50,414
2
Upton
$52,400
3
Ward
$134,918
4
Winkler
$519,440
5
Schleicher
$649,102
6
Pecos
$893,836
7
Crane
$ 5,037,009
8
Ector
$ 5,266,078
9
Reagan
$ 35,399,122
10
Crockett
$193,864,094
SALE continues on PAGE 2
Source: UT System University Lands
Travis County statistics, UHS student assessment report high health rating Services assesses similar health factors using the American College Travis County is one of Texas’s Health Association’s National Col10 healthiest counties, according lege Health Assessment, said UHS to a study release by the University coordinator Sherry Bell. In the spring 2010 assessment, of Wisconsin. In a study from the universi- 62 percent of students self-reported ty’s Population Health Institute their health as very good or excellent, released Tuesday, Travis Coun- and 91.7 percent self-reported their ty ranked sixth in overall health health as being good, very good or outcomes and ninth in health fac- excellent. Despite the sometimes untors among the 223 Texas counties healthy lifestyle of a college student, it doesn’t often surveyed. lead to sickness, The institute said radio-televidetermined oversion-film senior all health outLindsay Hejl. comes by looking “I live alone, at levels of morand I don’t like bidity and mortalto co ok s o I ity and assessed a eat a lot of fronumber of health zen meals,” she factors, including said. “I’ve only smoking, obesibeen sick once ty, binge drinking this semester, and access to prithough. I got mary-care providers, said Kate — University of Wisconsin Population the flu, and that was it.” Konkle, an outHealth Institute A c c o r d i n g reach specialist to the assesswith the institute. ment, 65.7 per“We really look at this as an opportunity to check up cent of students reported never havon communities,” she said. “That’s ing smoked a cigarette, and 21.1 perwhere people are affected by and can cent reported smoking, but not in affect these health factors the most.” Every two years, University Health RANK continues on PAGE 2
Bill to require every student get vaccinated for meningitis By Melissa Ayala Daily Texan Staff
Illustration by Josh Barajas & Clai re Cardona
‘A Painted Field’
82ND LEGISLATURE
Jamie Schanbaum gave a tearfilled testimony before the Texas Senate Committee on Higher Education on Wednesday, recounting her sophomore year at UT, when bacterial meningitis left her hospitalized for seven months. She told senators how she felt flu-like symptoms one day that escalated to be life-threatening by the next. Sen. Wendy Davis, DFort Worth, filed a bill that would mandate all incoming students receive a meningitis vaccination prior to being able to register. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bacterial meningitis is a contagious infection that causes inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It can have severe effects, including brain damage, hearing loss, loss of limbs and death. Current law, passed last legislative session and inspired by Schanbaum’s experience, only re qu i res i nc om i ng stu d ent s who will live on campus to get the vaccine. “Now, I’m here pleading for those who don’t live on campus,” Schanbaum said. “For those who disagree, maybe they just don’t realize what you go through.” Davis said her motivation to file the bill came after the CDC released recommendations that college-aged individuals — those 17-21 years old — get a meningococcal vaccine because they are most at risk to contract bacterial meningitis. New language added to the bill last week would add exemptions for students enrolled only in online courses and those over 30
LEGE continues on PAGE 2 A recent study has found that more attractive people are generally happier given all the economic and social benefits that come with a pretty face.
By Allie Kolechta Daily Texan Staff
6
th
Out of 223 counties, Travis county ranks 6th for overall length and quality of life.
Photo illustration by Ryan Edwards
Study finds attractive people happier By Allison Harris Daily Texan Staff
Beauty may be more than skin-deep, according to a recent study finding that attractive people are also happier than their homelier peers. Attractive individuals are generally happier than their less-attractive counterparts in large part because of economic benefits resulting from their good looks, according to a research analysis two University economics professors released Monday. The top-15 percent of goodlooking people are more than 10 percent happier than those ranked in the bottom 10 percent of looks, according to a study conducted by Jason Abrevaya and Daniel
Hamermesh, the latter of whom is also a women’s and gender studies professor. Hamermesh said the results of the research comparison, published on the Germany-based Institute for the Study of Labor’s website, should not be overestimated. “It is important to know the size of the effect, that it’s there — not tiny but not huge,” he said. “This should make less-than-good-looking people feel better about themselves — be happier.” Hamermesh and Abrevaya analyzed five studies involving more than 25,000 people in the U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K. Interviewers asked participants about their overall life satisfaction and rated participants’ attractiveness. Hamermesh said the subjec-
tive nature of interviewers’ rankings of participants’ attractiveness is not a problem. “Of course, beauty is subjective, but people tend to agree on who’s good-looking and who isn’t,” he said. Economic benefits that come with beauty — such higher salaries, better-looking spouses with higher salaries and better terms on loans — account for the majority of this effect, according to the study. The total effects of beauty on happiness were similar for men and women. The direct effect of beauty was larger in women, accounting for 50 percent of their increased happiness, while the di-
STUDY continues on PAGE 2