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TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
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NEWS
OPINION
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Texas Senate to hear bill that would combat censorship on Facebook, Twitter. PA G E 3
UT needs to raise student workers wage to a living wage of $15 per hour. PA G E 4
Austin beverage company provides scholarships to people battling addiction. PA G E 8
Longhorns secure fifth Big 12 title after defeating rival OU in season finale. PA G E 6
STATE
FEDERAL
Trans student’s scholarship revoked i
anthony mireles | the daily texan staff Former U.S. Army ROTC cadet Map Pesqueira is one of the estimated 15,500 transgender individuals affected by the Trump administration’s ban on transgender service members that went into effect on April 12. In response to the administration’s new policy, the Department of Defense has voided his three-year scholarship, severely impeding Pesqueira’s capability to afford to attend UT-Austin.
Student’s future uncertain after military transgender ban. By Emily Hernandez @emilylhernandez
ap Pesqueira said he came to UT to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker and serving in the army. He was awarded a national three-year Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship to help fund his studies. However, Pesqueira is a transgender man, and under President Donald Trump’s new policy banning transgender people from serving in the military, effective last Friday, Pesqueira is not allowed to serve in the military. Therefore, the U.S. Department of Defense voided his scholarship, Pesqueira said. He may not be able to continue his education at UT because he cannot afford it. According to the U.K.’s National Health Service, gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. Trump’s ban prohibits people diagnosed with gender dysphoria who refuse to identify as their birth gender or who have already
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I really do see it as a waste of resources, money, time and personnel. It’s made figuring out my future education so much harder.” MAP PESQUIERA STUDENT
begun transitioning medically from serving in the military. “Since I’ve already had top surgery, hormone replacement therapy, gender marker and (a) name change, I can’t go in under this policy,” Pesqueira said. “I’d automatically be discriminated. I really do see (Trump’s policy) as a waste of resources, money, time and personnel. It’s made figuring out my future
education so much harder.” Lieutenant colonel Matthew O’Neill, UT’s army ROTC department chair and Pesqueira’s military science professor, tried to salvage Pesqueira’s scholarship by attempting to get Pesqueira “grandfathered” under the Pentagon’s 2016 policy, which lifted the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, Pesqueira said. O’Neill declined to comment for the story, saying The Daily Texan must refer questions to the Defense Department, which did not respond to a request for comment. According to the Defense Department website, anyone serving or under contract to enter the military who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria before April 12, 2019 is grandfathered under the 2016 policy. “Unfortunately, this policy is so new, waivers (and) exceptions haven’t been determined,” Pesqueira said. “(O’Neill) wasn’t able to salvage it, but the fact that he tried — it’s more than I can ask for.” Despite having his scholarship voided,
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Senate bill could prevent election fraud, create voter restrictions By Katie Balevic @KatelynBalevic
The Texas Senate passed a bill Monday that would require both electronic and paper ballots during elections by the 2024 general election. State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, said he authored Senate Bill 9 to prevent election hacking by leaving a paper trail of how a person voted and increasing the penalties for voter fraud, but critics say the bill would create more voting restrictions. “The paper-backed (system) is more secure because it would require a bad actor to simultaneously hack the electronic record and the paper record,” Hughes said on the Senate floor. “Changing one or the other would be hard, but it could be done. Changing both in the same way that would alter the results of an election is close to impossible.” SB 9 would increase the penalty for voter fraud from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony. A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000, while a state jail felony is punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, voiced concerns that the bill could create criminal penalties for people who fill out a provisional ballot if they are unsure of their voter registration status, a practice that currently has no penalties. “(Hughes is) telling us it’s about voter integrity, but we could actually be jeopardizing this by potentially criminalizing voters who cast a provisional ballot,” Menéndez said. “(Provisional ballots) allow voters to follow up with the county to make sure their ballot was counted, and the law explicitly refers to provisional voting as fail-safe voting.” Menéndez said Texas counties
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CAMPUS
UT determines registration times based on degree progress By Nicole Stuessy @nicolestuessy
Seconds matter when registering for classes, and assigned registration times can be the difference between getting into a course and getting put on a waitlist. While it is a common misconception that registration times are based on the total number of hours a student has taken, they are actually determined based on how close a student is to completing their degree. Students can track their progress through the interactive degree audit system, said Kendall Slagle, communications coordinator for UT’s Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. Slagle said academic advising is recommended for all students before registration, and some majors require academic advising before a student is allowed to register for classes. “If advising is required, a student’s registration information sheet
will show a bar,” Slagle said. “A student will not be able to access the registration system until the major department has cleared the advising bar on the student’s registration information sheet.” Because students in the School of Undergraduate Studies are not yet on a chosen degree path, their degree audits are based only on core and flag course completion. These students are required to meet with an academic adviser before registration, said undergraduate academic adviser Adriana López. “(UGS) students are required to meet with their adviser to ensure they are staying on track and for internal transfer purposes,” López said. “The registrar’s office runs what’s called a ‘slotting audit’ to determine their times.” Undeclared students who fail to meet with their adviser before the time listed on their Registration Information Sheet will not be able to register for classes, López said. “We try to avoid that as much as possible,” López said. “It’s
detrimental to the student because some consecutive classes could be restricted at that point, and there is much less availability for core classes.” Slagle said the University encourages students to utilize the online UT Planner service to help search for, create and save preferred schedule options before their registration times. Because registration is stressful for many students, computer science sophomore Sriram Hariharan designed UT Registration Plus, a free Google Chrome extension designed to make the registration process easier. “Usually during registration, you end up with a ton of tabs open and it can be super overwhelming,” Hariharan said. “Combining those things, like course instructor surveys and a visual schedule, into one page and adding extra stuff like conflict highlighting just simplifies the whole process.”
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