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SPORTS PAGE 6
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What is your favorite children’s sports movie?
Student Event Center president shares his ideal playlist
LIFE&ARTS PAGE 4
Fourth of July weekend picks
THE DAILY TEXAN Friday, July 2, 2010
WEEKEND
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
TOMORROW’S WEATHER
www.dailytexanonline.com
Thinking outside the box
‘Cholas por vida’ Local artist Joey Seeman pays tribute to the cholas, pachucas, rucas and gang girls who have influenced his life’s work with a new art show at Rio Rita’s Cafe y Cantina.
ters and a family friend outside, Jim Sedwick crept through the empty apartment, searching for his stepdaughter. “I began to smell something,” Sedwick said,
HALL continues on page 2
EXPENSES continues on page 2
9 a.m.
Brazil
1:30 p.m.
VS.
Ghana
Uruguay
SATURDAY soberRide
Call 512-657-2999 for cabs offering free rides from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m.
World Cup 9 a.m.
Argentina
VS.
Germany
1:30 p.m.
Paraguay
VS.
Spain
SUNDAY What would Willie do?
The Backyard hosts Willie Nelson’s annual Fourth of July Picnic, featuring Kris Kristofferson, Leon Russell and Los Lonely Boys, among others. Tickets cost $55 and the doors open at 10 a.m.
The great American pastime
The Round Rock Express takes on the Memphis Redbirds at the Dell Diamond at 7:05 p.m. Tickets cost $13.
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Quote to note “[The] tour was great — so great that I decided to write a commemorative haiku for every city we were in. Canada treated us like kings. Chicago treated us like trash. Balance was restored.”
— Taylor Steinberg Student Event Center president LIFE&ARTS PAGE 4
Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff
Fiona Adams, 7, views images at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art on Thursday afternoon.
Victim’s parents grieve at Hall trial By Michael Sherfield Daily Texan Staff After two days of expert testimony and witness recollections, Day Three of former UT student Laura Hall’s resentencing trial for tampering with evidence and hindering apprehension in Jennifer Cave’s 2005 murder was an emotional one. Jim Sedwick took the witness stand with tears welling in his eyes, trying to hold back his emotions as he told the jury about the day he told his children their sister was dead. Across the courtroom, the rest of Cave’s family — who bear the last name Sedwick after Jennifer’s mother, Sharon, married Jim — sat with bowed heads, arms interlocked as tears trickled down their cheeks. Following the replay of recorded calls Hall made while in prison to her family, Jim and Sharon Sedwick told how they found their daughter in 2005, and the aftermath of her gruesome murder the morning of August 17, 2005. Jim Sedwick, who found Cave’s body in the bathtub of Colton Pitonyak’s West Campus apartment, took the stand first. He recounted the family’s concern in not being able to contact Cave and driving to Austin to find her. Pitonyak has been convicted of her murder and is serving a 55-year sentence, while Hall was found guilty of tampering with evidence and sentenced in 2007 to five years before an appeals court maintained her conviction but overturned her sentence.
Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff
Laura Hall stands in court for her resentencing trial at the Blackwell/Thurman Criminal Justice Center on Thursday. Hall was proven guilty of tampering with evidence in the murder case of Jennifer Cave in 2005. After contacting police and failing to get into Pitonyak’s apartment through the door, Sedwick used the frame of a pair of sunglasses to unlatch a window and entered the apartment at 10 p.m. on August 19, 2005. With Sharon Sedwick, one of their daugh-
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Hospitality of strangers, challenge inspire cyclists they are quick to share Stories of cancer victims and their appreciation, hospitalistrengthen riders’ resolve ty and lessons they’ve learned over the years. I remember two to overcome obstacles special situations in particular. Editor’s note: Riders from the I stayed with a couple in FarmSense Corp Texas 4000 for Canington, N.M.: Loretta, who cer will correspond with The Dai- had a heart of gold and never ly Texan through a series of articles hesitated to lend us a helping from the road. Each week over the hand, and her husband Mike, 70-day trek, riders from the Rocky who rode with us the next day. Mountain and Coastal routes will Those few hours alone with describe their experiences along the him taught me so much. He journey, depicting the places they gave me a greater appreciation pedal through and the people they of life and a new perspective. meet along the way. A couple of years ago, he had his colon removed because of By Mariana Fanous precancerous cells. Since then, Daily Texan Guest Columnist he promised to live life to its Coastal Route fullest — dream big, no regrets, SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Ca- always act, always smile. I can lif. — There’s a lot to be said relate everything I’ve learned about hope. Many people in- from him to our trip. terpret it in different ways. I stayed with another couHope is one of the three core ple in South Lake Tahoe who tenets in our Sense Corp Tex- had the same mentality as as 4000 for Cancer mission. We Mike. They lost their 14-yearspread hope through our interaction with everyone we meet, RACE continues on page 2
Group looks into value of a bachelor’s degree at UT By Collin Eaton Daily Texan Staff Just what is the value of a bachelor ’s degree from the 40 Acres? In a time of rising student loan debt and uncertainty in the job market, a report released this week by PayScale, an independent salary and wage research group, attempts to gauge the monetary value of college degrees. The independent research group collected information from hundreds of public and private universities to compare the average costs of college, as well as the 30-year return on investment and the annual return on investment of a degree. In the study, UT ranks 113th with in-state tuition and 136th with out-of-state tuition in national ROI out of 852 tuition plans from private and public universities across the country. The average cost of attending UT for four to six years is roughly $96,000. The return on that investment, seen through salaries a UT alumnus will accrue over 30 years, will average about $696,000 in 2010 dollars. UT students paying out-of-state tuition must fork over about $163,000 when attending school. Their return on investment over 30 years will total $644,000. In Texas, UT has the thirdhighest ROI behind Rice University and Texas A&M University. Compared to only in-state and out-of-state public university tuitions, UT ranks 38th and 52nd, respectively. Rice is ranked 22nd nationally with a 30-year ROI of $1,132,000, and Texas A&M’s instate tuition is ranked 71st with a 30-year ROI of $816,000. UT economics professor Daniel Hamermesh said the issue has been one of the most thoroughly researched over the past 50 years. The study showed the annual return on investment for both in-state and out-of-state tuition hovers at about 12 and 10 percent, respectively. “The fact is, it’s probably a better bet [to attend college] than it has been in many, many years,” Hamermesh said. “Look at the numbers here. The annual ROI is about right at about 11 or 12 percent; can you go put your money in the bank at 11 percent today? No. One
World Cup
VS.
75
82
FRIDAY
Netherlands
Low
High
Campus fountain hours to decrease Streamlined operations save University money, cut back on water usage By Destinee Hodge Daily Texan Staff UT Facilities Services announced this week that they will be reducing fountain operation hours indefinitely to save money. The move comes in the shadow of $30 million in budget cuts and the need for the different University departments to become more economical, Facilities Services spokeswoman Laurie Lentz said. Under the revised schedule, Facilities Services will save $40,000 per year. “We’re shortening the operating hours for the 10 major fountains on the main campus from 17 hours per day to 10 hours per day,” Lentz said. The fountains, which usually run from 7 a.m. to midnight, will be turned on from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. under the new schedule. The University has not reduced the hours of operation of the fountains for the sole purpose of saving money since
Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff
Cassi Williams and Andrew Newell walk by the East Mall Fountain on Thursday. UT Facilities Services is shortening the operating hours for the fountains on the main campus. 2002, Lentz said. “The entire campus has been looking at cost-saving measures, and the facilities group is no exception,” she said. In addition to routine maintenance, the only other time in recent history that the fountains have been turned off was in 2009 to adhere to city regulations for water conservation during a drought. “When we turned off the
f o u n t a i n s l a s t s u m m e r, w e were doing it to support the city’s drought restrictions,” Lentz said. “We are not bound to city policy because we’re a state organization, but we wanted to cooperate and we wanted to support what the city was doing.” In addition to saving money, the department estimated that
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