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1900
FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2019
volume
119,
issue
NEWS
OPINION
LIFE&ARTS
SPORTS
Senate holds special election to select new president and vice president. PA G E 2
Students required to attend lectures need guaranteed admission. PA G E 4
Unusual dorm residents force students to take pest control into their own hands. PA G E 7
Texas cuts down the nets in New York, defeats Lipscomb to win second NIT title. PA G E 8
CAMPUS
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UNIVERSITY
Q&A: What does Texas Cowboys suspension mean for UT?
Defense class
By Lisa Nhan @lmhan24
With the recent news of the Texas Cowboys six-year suspension, there are a lot of questions about what this means for the future of the Cowboys and what it means for the rest of the campus community. Here is a compiled list of questions the Daily Texan is consistently getting. Who will fire Smokey the Cannon at football games now? We don’t know yet, and it may take a while to find out as the Cowboys still have until April 10 to accept, appeal or request a formal hearing. J.B. Bird, University Media Relations Director, said Smokey the Cannon is owned by the Texas Cowboys Alumni Association. However, Texas Athletics is in charge of “calling the shots” during any football game. The two groups will have to work together to reach a joint decision, but nothing can happen on the field without the approval of Texas Athletics. Bird said though the Silver Spurs had it during the last suspension, it does not mean they will have it again. The Spurs did not respond to requests for comment when asked if they will fire the cannon. Has the University (or anyone else) addressed what’s different this time? What is this six-year suspension going to do that the five-year suspension couldn’t?From Sarah Jane Ross during our AMA. This is a really complex question where the answers really differ on who you ask. Let’s start with the University’s opinion. Bird said the University recognizes, as said in the final investigation report, that the Cowboys have shown “a disturbing, long-standing pattern of behavior that directly
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reaches few men blaine young | the daily texan staff Rape Aggression Defense classes offered by UTPD are only available upon request for men, some of whom have said they feel embarrassed to request one.
UTPD has not held a men’s self defense class in over five years. By Emily Hernandez @emilylhernandez
hile the UT Police Department has offered scheduled Rape Aggression Defense classes for women twice a semester since 2001, RAD classes for men are only available upon request. There have only been two classes taught since UTPD began offering RAD for men in 2012. The RAD Systems of Self Defense offer different self-defense programs nationally
for children, adults and seniors, according to the RAD website. UTPD hosts 12-hour classes split over three days, which focus on risk avoidance for women and on controlling aggressive behavior for men. UTPD detective David Chambers, a RAD instructor, said men are not allowed in the women’s classes and vice versa, and people can take the class as the gender they identify with. One reason for this separation is some attendees may be sexual assault survivors and would feel unsafe with a person of another gender in the class. “In (RAD systems’) vision, it’s more likely going to be someone of the opposite sex for the women that’s going to be attacking them, so they don’t want to allow men into that program so they can see what a woman is going to do,” Chambers said. “They don’t want to train a potential attacker of what’s going to happen.” Humanities sophomore Jack Higgins
said it makes sense why the men’s classes are only available upon request, but it seems unfair, as men are still vulnerable to sexual assault. “It seems like many men wouldn’t take it on request because they wouldn’t want to be the person requesting that. They might feel embarrassed,” Higgins said. “I would imagine one feeling that would lead people to not request it would be, ‘If I need to request it, it would make me less masculine, less of a man, I’m supposed to be able to defend myself, etc.’” Chambers said he believes it is important for society to break the stigma that men cannot be victims or that it makes them less of a man if they are, but is unsure whether RAD classes for men would help accomplish that goal. “I do believe that there’s a belief within the general culture that men aren’t
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TEXAS LEGISLATURE
CAMPUS
Controversial bill passes in Senate
Venezuelan student receives grant to fund last semester
By Chad Lyle @lylechad
The Texas Senate passed a proposal Tuesday that would prevent state agencies from revoking the licenses of workers who refuse service to certain customers based on “sincerely held religious belief(s),” drawing criticism from activists in the LGBTQ community. Authored by state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, Senate Bill 17 also stops state agencies from punishing workers in other ways. Every Republican with the exception of state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, voted in favor of the bill, while every Democrat with the exception of state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, voted against it. Mary Elizabeth Castle, a legislative analyst and public policy adviser for Texas Values, an organization advocating for biblically based family values, said SB 17 was designed to protect religious liberty rather than discriminate against anyone. “The bill is mostly about the fact that people have been coming to the Senator and saying that they’ve been attacked, they’ve had their licenses at
By Cynthia Miranda @cynthiamirandax
joshua guenther | the daily texan staff Texas Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, claps to honor Christian Giadolor for his service as a legislative intern before leaving the legislative session on Thursday, April 4, 2019, to continue studying political science at Stanford University.
risk of being taken away because (of religious views),” Castle said. “This is about the First Amendment. It’s about people being free to be who they are, free to believe in what they believe, and that’s something that our country was founded on and I think we should protect.” Joshua Blank, the manager of
polling and research at The Texas Politics Project, said the phrase “sincerely held religious belief,” has an explicit purpose in legislation such as Perry’s, though critics have called it ambiguous. “It has been the term of art in recent
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Santiago Castellanos, an international student from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, recently received a grant from the Institute of International Education to pay for his final semester at UT. The group is a nonprofit organization focusing on providing aid for international students. During his college career, Castellanos said there were two times when he considered dropping out of school because of financial problems his family was experiencing back home. He said the first time was in 2016, when his father lost his job due to an unstable government, and the second time was this school year. “My dad was like,
‘This is impossible,’” Castellanos said. “Things back home are just so bad and you’re on out-of-state tuition.” In January, Castellanos received one of 59 grants awarded to international students from Venezuela who are currently studying in the United States. The grant was a part of Institute of International Education’s Emergency Student Fund, which supports students who are at risk of dropping out of school due to hardships, such as political unrest, in their home countries. Castellanos said he visited Venezuela over a year ago, and the situation is difficult to see. “Last time I went there, I saw people in the corner of my street just digging food out of the garbage, just to
have breakfast or lunch,” Castellanos said. Castellanos said financial resources are limited for international students. “If I hadn’t gotten (the grant) I wouldn’t have been able to finish school for this semester,” Castellanos said. Sarah Akbar, a radio-television-film senior and friend of Castellanos, said he always has a smile on his face despite the difficulties of being away from home and working while studying. “He handles it with such grace and you wouldn’t even know if you didn’t talk to him,” Akbar said. Jeffrey Marsh, Castellano’s former academic adviser, said Castellanos is an
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