The Daily Texan 2021-11-19

DT VOLUME 122, ISSUE 36 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

students speak out against tejas Protestors call on Tejas members to resign from positions of power in UT organizations amid the group’s sexual misconduct allegations.

jack myer

/ the daily texan staff

PERMANENT STAFF Editor-in-Chief Sanika Nayak Managing Editor Myah Taylor Assoc. Managing Editors Jennifer Errico, Hannah Lopez Director of Digital Strategy Katya Bandouil Director of Diversity & Inclusion Abhirupa Dasgupta Internal Relations Director Carolynn Solorio External Relations Director Rachael Hatchett Assoc. Opinion Editors Izzy Costello, Sruti Ramachandran, Megan Tran, Julia Zaksek Illustration Coordinators Abriella Corker, Audrey Williams

Newsletters Editor Jessica Garcia Copy Desk Chief Phoebe Hayes Assoc. Copy Desk Chiefs Mantra Dave, Alex Mercadel, Chloe Roman, Andrew Walter Design Editor Megan Fletcher

Life&Arts Editor Fiza Kuzhiyil Assoc. Life&Arts Editor Morgan-Taylor Thomas Life&Arts Desk Editors Dina Barrish, Zoe Tzanis Sr. Life&Arts Reporters Sofia Treviño Senior Film Columnist Noah Levine Sports Editor Nathan Han Assoc. Sports Editor Matthew Boncosky Sports Desk Editor Taylor Hawthorne Senior Sports Writers Ross Fisher, Christina Huang, Hannah Williford Double Coverage Editor Kaitlyn Harmon

Senior Designers Jenny DeVico, Marissa Kapp Digital Designer Ciara Casarez

Senior Photographers Kara Hawley, Julius Shieh Video Editor Anchal Raghuvanshi Assoc. Video Editor Ethan Greeno Senior Videographers Kameryn Griesser, Sofia Reyes Comics Editors Destiny Alexander, Barbra Daly Assoc. Comics Editor Alicia Paz Sr. Comics Illustrators Rocky Higine, Ana Louisa Matzner Social Media Editor Nuzha Zuberi Assoc. Social Media Editors Bernice Chen, Sarah Winch Senior Digital Staffers Lily Kane, Nick Susa Audio Editor Addie Costello Assoc. Audio Editor Carly Rose Senior Audio Producers Mikayla Mondragon, Laura Morales Editorial Adviser Peter Chen

ISSUE STAFF Columnists Hillary Ma

Opinion Illustrators Sheryl Long

Comic Artists Meredith Bowden, Audrie Roeder, Julieta Cruz

L&A Reporters Kaiya Little, Mackenzie Sullivan, Caroline Culberson, Peyton Sims

Copy Editors Andrea Rodriguez, Sage Dunlap, Izabella Zeff, Kamryn Brownlee Designers Sara Kinney, Sam Treviño

News Reporters Sonali Menon Photographers Peyton Sims Sports Reporters Emily Schumacher

AUSTIN WEATHER TODAY Nov. 19

HI LO

68º 45º

08

A group of five theatre productions in Austin to watch this holiday season.

Sports

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Life&Arts

10

Isabel and Monica Hebner are twins who share a cross country bond.

TOMORROW Nov. 20

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76º 49º

not the maggot video...

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Sanika Nayak (512) 232-2212 editor@dailytexanonline.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Myah Taylor (512) 232-2217 managingeditor@thedailytexan.com

NEWS OFFICE

(512) 232-2207 news@thedailytexan.com

UNIVERSITY

UT plans for possible winter storms based on new Austin freeze report

Assoc. Design Editor Juleanna Culilap

Assoc. Photo Editors Hannah Clark, Connor Downs

Beat Reporters Lauren Abel, Tori Duff, Marisa Huerta, Katy Nelson, Kaushiki Roy, Kevin Vu

06

Reinstate Vietnamese to be a foreign language option at UT.

Double Coverage Copy Editor Angelina Braese

Photo Editor Jack Myer

News Desk Editors Samantha Greyson, Sheryl Lawrence

MAIN TELEPHONE

Opinion

Double Coverage Design Editor Jenny DeVico

Projects Editor Neelam Bohra

Assoc. News Editors Anna Canizales, Skye Seipp

04

Students protest outside the Tejas Club following sexual assault allegations.

CONTACT US

Double Coverage Photo Editor Blaine Young

Editorial Cartoonist Anna Kaminetz

News Editor Brooke Park

News

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DT

Contents:

By Sonali Menon General Reporter

In response to University food shortages during February’s historic Winter Storm Uri, UT plans to release guidelines for how to best operate during power outages that decrease food availability in dining halls.

UT’s renewed focus on disaster preparation addresses points raised in the city of Austin’s Winter Storm Uri After-Action Report & Improvement Plan Technical Report, which evaluated issues the community faced after February’s weeklong storm. In their report, the city recommended creating a food-supply preparedness plan if the city’s greater food supply-chain is affected by a disaster. University Housing and Dining will create new plans on how to maintain ample food and water as well.

When Winter Storm Uri hit Austin, students experienced widespread power outages and limited supply of food and water. The effects of Winter Storm Uri resulted in a record-breaking 6.4 inches of snow and temperatures of six degrees Fahrenheit.

During the storm, dorm residents saw a decrease in food available at the dining halls since delivery trucks were unable to drive on the frozen roads, said Mynor Rivera, director of dining operations. University Housing and Dining also lacked water needed to clean and prepare food.

Now, the dining halls are keeping around 20 bottles of water on site

jamie hwang

/ the daily texan file

Students wait outside of Sip Pho on Guadalupe Street to receive a meal during February’s Winter Storm Uri. UT plans to release a set of guidelines to allow dining halls to continue operation in future similar events.

reserved in case of a similar emergency, Rivera said.

“We started running out after five days. I mean, 7,000 meals,” Rivera said. “That’s kind of crazy.”

Since the plans will not be complete until early December, Rivera said he couldn’t discuss the full details.

“Part of the plan is to bring trucks with cooling packs,” Rivera said. “So if that happens again, we have somewhere to place food.”

In their report, the city also recommended agencies continue to implement public messaging for resident health and safety considerations in disaster scenarios.

While Wi-Fi outages partially disrupted the Counseling and Mental Health Centers’ online services

during the storm, new collaborations with My Student Support Program will allow counselors from across the nation to provide 24/7 mental health services, said Marla Craig, CMHC’s senior associate director for clinical services.

Similarly, University Health Services partnered with the telehealth service MD Live, which can act as an alternative source of help in another emergency situation if local doctors can not be reached, UHS’ executive director Terrance Hines said.

UHS will take relevant city suggestions into consideration, Hines said.

“We want to take into account any best practices,” Hines said. “The city of Austin and Travis County have been great partners, particularly through the pandemic.”

The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely. If we have made an error, let us know about it. E-mail managingeditor@thedailytexan.com.

NEWS

3

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Graduate Student Assembly passes vote calling for Student Government to cede authority over graduate students

By Kaushiki Roy @kaushikiroy3

Members of the UT Graduate Student Assembly will ask Student Government to cede authority over graduate students stating they do not feel well represented.

Once GSA delivers the resolution, which it approved Wednesday, SG leadership could vote to cede its authority over graduate students. GSA vice president Alex Sexton said the Senate of College Councils would still represent GSA. If successfully separated, SG would no longer advocate for graduate students, and Sexton said because there are only three graduate student representatives out of 35 in the Student Government Assembly, little action is taken to benefit graduate students.

“This is a non-binding resolution; it doesn’t actually change anything,” Sexton said. “Student Government continuing to represent graduate students is inappropriate because it provides almost no … programming to graduate students.”

Sexton said he spoke with current SG leadership about more equal representation, but did not receive a satisfactory response. SG did not immediately respond to a request for comment before publication.

“There is a stigma attached to being a graduate student going to SG,” Sexton said. “It is very awkward to (ask for help) in a room full of undergraduates.”

Sexton said graduate students have different sets of problems that a majority-undergraduate assembly cannot represent properly, and it feels uncomfortable for them to approach SG with their issues such as difficulties with child care and graduate housing.

Graduate student Maile Marriott said it makes sense to disassociate

helen brown

GSA from SG. “I think the Student Government and GSA should work together,” Marriott said. “But they serve two very different student groups and I don’t feel like it’s been promoted that Student Government represents graduate student interests well.”

Marriott said she had trouble with the current UT child care policy earlier this semester, and felt SG could not provide the support she needed.

“I just went through my own issue where I needed help and the thought of going to the Student Government didn’t even cross my mind because I knew they probably couldn’t help me,” Marriott said.

It does not make sense for graduate students to fall under SG when there is a separation between the undergraduate school and graduate

school even at the administration level, Marriott said.

GSA’s McCombs representative, Tushmit Hasan, said in an email that this conversation needed to happen among members of GSA, so graduate students could find proper representation at the University.

“It’s important to get a sense of the level of awareness and interest among graduate students regarding the representation they do have,” said graduate student Hasan. “For example, do we know how many graduate students participate in campuswide elections?”

Sexton said the resolution would not greatly impact graduate students as there was minimum representation to begin with.

/ the daily texan staff

B R O O K E PA R K

4

News Editor | @THEDAILYTEXAN

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

STUDENT LIFE

NEWS

UT students protest in front of Tejas Club house Students spoke out against the Tejas club amid sexual misconduct allegations.

By Kevin Vu @Kevin_Vu_

ver 25 UT students gathered around the Tejas Club house Thursday evening protesting the spirit organization’s protection of members with sexual assault allegations.

The group of protesters demanded all Tejas members resign from positions of power in official UT organizations and for all University organizations to dissociate socially and professionally from Tejas, said protest organizer Kaya Epstein.

“Sexual violence has been a continuous problem,” said Epstein, a government and cell and molecular biology senior. “This was sparked by an ongoing incident that Tejas has continually mishandled and tried to sweep under the rug.”

Amanda Garcia, a protestor and a Universitywide representative, said when some SG members asked that their

julius shieh

/ the daily texan staff

Student protestors, holding signs reading messages such as “Tejas needs to go” call for the resignations of Tejas Club members Thursday.

administrative director step down because of ties with Tejas, the Student Government executive board dismissed their demands and said the director did not condone sexual assault allegations within Tejas, despite remaining with the group.

Protestors are not aware of exactly how many Tejas members have sexual assault allegations against them.

“Being part of Tejas already is being complicit in an institution and a system that silences and commits so much harm against

survivors,” said Garcia, a sociology and government sophomore.

“Having somebody in Student Government who claims to stand by survivors and to claim justice and equity for this community, be part of this organization is not acceptable.”

Epstein said it was a brutal hit when members of the SG executive board failed to hold abusers accountable and protect survivors. SG has received criticism from the UT community for failing to act upon sexual assault allegations against the

SG vice president, who has since resigned, Garcia said.

“Once again, (the Tejas Club) showed that people will always choose to maintain their own power at the expense of survivors,” Epstein said. “It’s pretty devastating for us to experience that over and over.”

Protesters walked toward the Tejas Club house at 8 p.m. from the 26th Street Rio Grande food trucks. Initially about 20 people holding signs reading messages such as “Tejas needs to go” and “There is no excuse for violence,”

quickly grew to about 30 protestors. Attendees yelled chants such as, “Hey hey, ho ho, Tejas Club has got to go,” and, “When survivors are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.”

Public health sophomore Divya Nagireddy said although she didn’t expect members of Tejas to come out, the biggest thing about the protest was just bringing awareness to the situation and what they are advocating for.

“Through these flyers, we’ve had … a lot of people (who) are interested in what’s going on,” Nagireddy said. “Even if there’s not an immediate action right now, it’s raising a lot of awareness towards the student body (about) what’s going on, especially since the Student Government impeachment is happening right now.”

Protestors remained outside Tejas Club property during the protest, and Tejas members did not engage with the protest.

“That is something they are not afraid to utilize, considering that these systems (and) institutions support one another and actively engaged to undermine survivors and marginalized voices like this,” Garcia said.

Epstein said the community must prompt change to a system unwilling to reform itself.

“Our only goal is to show that we are here, we see them and we are not going to be silent while they continue to enable,” Epstein said.

NEWS

5

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

RESEARCH

UT researcher studies egalitarian, ecological communities

By Katy Nelson @KatyNel86

A UT researcher examined how two communities incorporate feminism and environmental ideas in their everyday lives to better develop solidarity between the movements.

The Twin Oaks Intentional Community in Virginia and Navdanya’s Biodiversity Conservation Farm in northern India are considered ecologically intentional communities because of how they attempt to meld feminist and environmental ideals into practice.

In an article published Oct. 30, researcher Monica Bhatia studied how these groups understood the connection between gender equality and environmental sustainability. The article found that the groups addressed unpaid domestic work, such as cleaning or caring for children, in their efforts for environmental sustainability.

“For Navdanya, it’s this idea that women are keepers of ecological knowledge and that if we empower women, then that will create more sustainable communities,” graduate student Bhatia said. “At Twin Oaks, their approach is more thinking about how the nuclear family is unsustainable because it’s dependent on (the) unpaid and underpaid work of women.”

Bhatia said Navdanya focuses on supporting women and sustainable indigenous practices as opposed to large agricultural businesses. Bhatia said during her time in the community, she learned how Navdanya has a large seed bank where they preserve varieties of indigenous plants.

“As our agricultural systems become more monoculture and more chemicalized and more corporatized, then we are ending up with everyone using the exact same variety of seeds that have

been genetically modified,” Bhatia said.

“In that process, you lose all of the different local varieties that are adapted to their environment.”

While at Twin Oaks, Bhatia said the community focused on the effects of consumerism and individualism and how that impacts the environment.

Valerie Renwick, outreach manager at the Twin Oaks Intentional Community, said everyone in the community shares resources such as cars and living spaces to reduce their ecological footprint.

“Everyone here has equal access both to decision making power and … to our financial resources,” Renwick said. “Traditionally women’s work, like cleaning and child care, that’s all valued equally here, unlike in the mainstream, where you have to work a full-time job and then … do unpaid labor on top of their paid labor; none of that is an issue here.”

Renwick said people at Twin Oaks pay for domestic labor typically assigned to women in contrast to the outside world where women usually take on a full-time job in addition to unpaid domestic work.

“We have much more equitable gender labor roles here,” Renwick said. “We have women working by cutting down trees with a chainsaw and men changing diapers and women changing diapers and men with the chainsaw and non-binary people and trans people doing all those things as well.”

Bhatia said she hopes the study causes people to think about intersectionality and how different forms of oppression may be connected.

“I’m hoping to just be able to move the needle a little bit in terms of these sustainability solutions to be thinking about how those solutions impact people who have different positions in society,” Bhatia said.

illustration by sylvia asuncion-crabb

/ the daily texan staff

CONGRATULATIONS UT GRADUATES!

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6

Editor-In-Chief | @TEXANOPINION FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

COLUMN

OPINION

Reinstate Vietnamese as a foreign language option

Vietnamese should be added back to the Department of Asian Studies to represent the Vietnamese community at UT.

By Hillary Ma Columnist

s a kid, my family rarely traveled to our native country of Vietnam.

I always dreaded anything remotely close to Vietnamese culture because of the dissonance between my hometown in a predominantly white community and my family.

In other words, I lacked the space to explore my own cultural identity.

Coming to UT, I hoped for courses that could bridge my language gap, but instead, I learned that Vietnamese was cut from the Department of Asian Studies in 2010.

The Vietnamese-American community in Austin is nearly 800,000 people, and our presence here on campus is strong and prominent.

To represent the growing Vietnamese-American community, UT must reinstate Vietnamese as a foreign language option.

Advertising sophomore Zak Pham, a Vietnamese American, also felt distant from his own culture growing up. Pham was excited to form a closer relationship with his cultural roots and connect with students from the same background.

“I was not exposed much (to Vietnamese),” Pham said. “I

really didn’t have an opportunity, and I really want to take advantage of it now.”

Pham is an avid member of the Vietnamese Student Association, a student organization that aims to celebrate and spread Vietnamese culture through holding community-centered cultural events, workshops and socials.

One of the organization’s top agenda items is to urge the Department of Asian Studies to reinstate Vietnamese courses as a foreign language option. “(Having Vietnamese) as a language at UT would help a lot of students on campus, especially ones who can’t really connect as much as to their relatives or their native language of their own family,” Pham said. “I think it’d be really important to them — and also me, especially.”

However, implementing this decision is not easy. Donald Davis, chairman of the Department of Asian Studies at UT, noted that funding difficulties and other Asian studies program commitment issues make it hard for the department to expand Southeast Asia’s cultural sphere.

“On behalf of our department, we understand that Vietnamese is an important language in the state of Texas,” Davis said. “It makes sense that a major state

LEGALESE | Opinions expressed in The Daily Texan are those of the editor, the Editorial Board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily those of the UT administration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees.

sheryl long

university like UT would be a good fit to offer it.”

Davis also said that the department is continuing to explore the possibility of offering Southeast Asian courses to supplement the language.

“Offering Vietnamese courses would happen as part of a wider strategy to kind of expand the presence of Southeast Asian Studies. … You have to think about (other Southeast Asian) languages like Indonesian, Thai, Tagalog and Malay,” Davis said. “Then on top of that, … you might want to have cultural and historical aspects

SUBMIT A FIRING LINE | Email your Firing Lines to editor@dailytexanonline.com. Letters must be more than 100 and fewer than 300 words. The Texan reserves the right to edit all submissions for brevity, clarity and liability.

of Vietnamese history or Southeast Asian culture more widely, so all of a sudden, you start talking about a much bigger and more ambitious project.”

Although the issue is complex and will take more than just University funds to reinstate Vietnamese in the next few years, the demand is still strong here on campus and it’s only going to grow stronger. We need a curriculum that bridges the culture and the languages that connect their own culture to their own identity. We need a space where Vietnamese students can fully

RECYCLE | Please recycle this copy of The Daily Texan. Place the paper in one of the recycling bins on campus or back in the burnt-orange newsstand where you found it.

/ the daily texan file

understand the nuances of our mother tongue.

Thus, it is imperative that UT provides the proper funding to the Department of Asian Studies to fulfill these demands.

The smooth articulation of the Vietnamese language will soon flow out of our mouths and help reclaim the lost culture from our childhood.

Reinstating Vietnamese is not just to help us express ourselves to our relatives — it’s a symbol of acknowledgement from the institution of our strong presence on campus.

Ma is a Journalism and Chinese junior from The Woodlands, Texas.

EDITORIAL TWITTER | Follow The Daily Texan Editorial Board on Twitter (@TexanOpinion) and receive updates on our latest editorials and columns.

LIFE&ARTS

FIZA KUZHIYIL

7

Life&Arts Editor | @TEXANARTS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

CRIME

UT community reflects on West Campus shooting Students discuss resources they turned to for information following the shooting on Halloween.

By Mackenzie Sullivan & Kaiya Little @macksully @kaiyalittle

emoving her attention from her friend, Aliza Gomzin’s phone flashed with chat notifications. Chaos rising with each minute, her screen filled with rumors of possible gunshots on different West Campus streets and panicked students wondering if they should seek shelter.

Spending Halloween night in Dallas, Gomzin realized from afar that her friends could be in the line of fire.

“Our group was going to go out that night,” the psychology freshman said.

“I thought, ‘We could’ve been there.’

That’s what goes through my mind every time something happens like shootings or armed robberies.”

As Twitter surged with theories, the UT Police Department issued a single report of an active shooting investigation on 22nd Street and Pearl Street at 11:45 p.m. on Oct. 31. Without any further communication from UT, students looked to one another for updates, utilizing crowdsourcing apps and police scanners.

Prompted by the events, Gomzin discovered the personal safety platform Citizen, a service where users upload location based safety alerts.

Others turned to dedicated forums for incident reporting on chat apps like GroupMe and Patio.

“I got (Citizen) the night of the incident and it’s pretty useful, but sometimes you get so desensitized,” Gomzin said. “You’re like, ‘Oh, so many things are happening,’ and you stop checking.”

After SafeHorns president Joell McNew received word of the shooting, she opened Twitter and scrolled through an onslaught of concerned tweets from students, sensing the rising panic.

“It was tangible,” McNew said. “You could feel the fear of the people that kept posting over and over.”

SafeHorns, a nonprofit organization advocating for UT to improve student safety through increased policing, spreads awareness about risks around campus and fosters community conversations about minimizing harm.

McNew said she always notices Longhorns trying to keep each other safe by sharing information.

“Students have always been communicating with each other and telling each other, ‘Okay, avoid this area,’” McNew said. “(Group chats) became their communities (and) the way they receive information and feel connected. I think that is something they all rely on.”

For students worried about security, UTPD’s acting Police Chief Don Verett said West Campus is one of the safest areas in Austin. He said his department hopes to alleviate community stress through increased patrolling and a Halo camera system on Guadalupe Street.

“When any city gets bigger, there’s going to be more crime because there’s more people,” Verett said. “We try to deal with not just the crime, but … the perception of (un)safety.”

After the Oct. 31 shooting, students began to share concerns about the timeliness of UTPD, which many believed responded too late to the incident. Verett said incident warnings rely on a set of standards defined in the Clery Act and depend on

jack myer

/ the daily texan file

Police officers Nov. 4 after a shooting was reported on 24th street in West Campus.

After a month of increased crime, students report increased levels of anxiety, and have been heavily reliant on crowdsourcing apps as a source of information.

the discretion of campus authorities.

While UTPD can’t publicize incident information until receiving notification from the Austin Police Department, Verett said students can trust that UTPD will alert them of any verified, relevant news.

“We have an obligation to put out factual information,” Verett said.

“We’re never going to be as fast as Twitter or GroupMe because that’s instantaneous. … And I know there was some consternation that we didn’t send more follow-ups, but for us, the incident was over.”

On the night of the shooting, Ashley Diaz said she listened intently to police scanners in search of information. The next morning, the theatre and dance sophomore still struggled to find answers. She joined a GroupMe

chat dedicated to notifying students about incidents on and off campus but then quickly muted it despite the chat’s good intentions.

A few days after the incident, Diaz walked around West Campus with her roommates and saw fireworks popping in the sky. All of a sudden, the GroupMe kicked up again. She said she understands the need for heightened caution after frightening events, but false information shouldn’t interfere with experiencing life.

“People just kept on fearmongering in (the GroupMe),” Diaz said.

“They’re really scared so they’re trying to be overly cautious, but at the same time, by thinking (the noises are) gunshots, they miss out on the fireworks they could have looked up and seen.”

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FRIDAY, NOVEMER 19, 2021

LIFE&ARTS

FILM

Celebrate holiday season, return of live theater with these 5 performances

By Caroline Culberson @greatercaroline

As the temperature drops, the chill in the air calls habitual theatergoers to return to long aisles and hallowed halls for their favorite holiday classics.

With theater companies returning to their typical operations schedules, step back into old traditions — or make new ones. The Daily Texan compiled five live performances to usher eager audience members toward the most magical theatrical experiences available this holiday season.

“Bollywood Twelfth Center, Nov. 18-21

Night”

at

the

Long

Join Austin Shakespeare for the end of their run of a Bollywood twist on the Shakespeare classic at the Long Center’s Rollins Theatre. The opulent romp will surely attract fans of the bard, but the reframing of the setting and gorgeous styling should offer even skeptical patrons a fresh perspective on a long-standing classic.

The Moth Mainstage at The Paramount Theatre, Dec. 10

The famed storytelling nonprofit, The Moth Mainstage, comes to Austin’s Paramount Theatre, platforming five bold creatives to perform their stories. Over the years, The Moth has shared over 40,000 stories around the world. Literary lovers will be dazzled by the skill and poise of the performers, and the universal themes chosen to guide the stories will speak deeply to most every heart. Check out their hit podcast, “The Moth,” wherever you get your podcasts for a taste of the magic that awaits.

“Hamilton” at Bass Concert Hall, Dec. 7-19

For those who haven’t yet seen the national phenomenon in person, now’s your chance.

Already close to sold out, the curious and the devoted can snag single seats between spellbound groups and families as they take in the show. The critical acclaim and tremendous hype lend a breathlessly exciting feeling to attending a show of this magnitude — one that can’t be matched on the couch in front of Disney+.

copyright zach theatre, and reproduced with permission

“A Miracle on 34th Street Classic Radiocast” at Old Settlers Association of Williamson County, Dec. 9-19

Penfold Theatre’s stylized retelling of “Miracle on 34th Street” as a 1940s radio broadcast, performed live in front of theater audiences, returns as a time-honored tradition in Austin. Like a scene from a Norman Rockwell Christmas painting, the costuming and sets of the jolly production will appeal to students and their families, perhaps as a lovely way to celebrate finishing finals.

“ A Christmas Carol” at The Topfer in ZACH Theatre, Nov. 24-Jan. 2

The most famous Christmas story of all time returns to ZACH Theatre. The spooky classic offers heartwarming moments as well as spine-tingling frights in a show most probably know the plot of. Returning once more to a ubiquitous classic, whose lessons feel more and more salient with each passing year, feels deeply comforting.

With finals looming, the pressures of the holiday season can feel intense. The breath of escapism and magic that live theater can offer provides a welcome respite from the realities of the end of the semester.

LIFE&ARTS

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

MUSIC

Student musicians pursue passion, embrace Austin music scene at UT

By Peyton Sims @peytonjsims

After a week of back-to-back classes, government freshman Sydney Skinner strums her guitar at a local coffee shop.

Dedicated to her craft, Skinner said she believes one of the biggest misconceptions about creating music lies in the amount of effort it requires. She knows her aspirations can only be achieved with hard work.

“The thing that separates the ones that succeed and the ones that fail is consistency,” Skinner said. “You have to be willing to put in blood, sweat and tears every single day.”

When Skinner was 4 years old, she’d lay on her bedroom floor listening to music instead of playing with toys. Now, as an active member in UT’s choir and the chair of songwriting at UTalent Records — the University’s student-run label — Skinner is paving the way toward her dream.

“Music for me has always been an escape,” Skinner said. “I started writing music when I was 14, after my best friend moved to Florida. I feel like every song that I’ve written so far has just been me trying to heal from things that happened within the last year.”

Every time Jackson Cox, an international relations and global studies sophomore, listens to Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay, he thinks of car rides to school with his mom, the sounds from the CD filling the vehicle with feelings that are now memories.

“It’s that type of album where if I hear any snippet, I immediately know exactly what song it is,” Cox said. “It was the first album that I was super passionate about.”

After receiving a guitar for Christmas in sixth grade, Cox began to experiment with music. He developed an alternative rock style inspired by favorites such as Coldplay, The Killers and The Strokes.

“During the pandemic, I really took

(music) as my main hobby,” Cox said. “I’ve found that concerts are some of the best places to connect, especially around campus. I’m not necessarily trying to build a career out of it, (but) it’s something I’m very passionate about.”

A couple of months ago, Nathaniel Ogren became the lead singer of a band called Yardsale! Performing at gigs around Austin, the sociology and rhetoric and writing sophomore continues to explore his indie-rock style.

“Part of the reason I chose UT was

because there was such an amazing live music and student life scene,” Ogren said.

“We’ve been developing a relationship with the city.”

Coming from a musically inclined family and showing his own interest at 6 years old, Ogren said his family always supports him.

Besides being his number one fan, Ogren’s father also influenced his music taste.

“I started writing (my own) songs when I was 13,” Ogren said. “My dad took me to my first Bruce Springsteen show when I was 5 years old. He’s always been who I’ve

looked up to in terms of songwriting and onstage performance.”

While Yardsale! thrives on performance, Ogren said balancing school and finding time to do what they love can be a hassle, especially when most of the members are engineering majors.

“Coordinating schedules and finding time to work together can be difficult, but part of the blessing about it is that music is restorative and rejuvenating to us,” Ogren said. “Being in the band is a way to care for myself.”

peyton sims

/ the daily texan staff

Government freshman Sydney Skinner performs a song from her own EP at Neptune Coffee in Austin, Texas. When Skinner was 14, she started writing music as a way to heal and proces things she was experiencing.

N AT H A N H A N

10

Sports Editor | @TEXANSPORTS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

FEATURE

SPORTS

Best friends, twins, rivals: Cross country runners Isabel, Monica Hebner take long way around to Texas Twin sisters Isabel and Monica Hebner run cross country together at Texas.

By Emily Schumacher @emilyschu7

or as long as they can remember, twins Isabel and Monica Hebner have shared everything: the same childhood bedroom, the same friends, the same food and the same passion for Texas cross country.

Though the sisters describe having a

twin as having a built-in best friend, they still remain highly competitive with each other. While dealing with injuries these past few months, the twins commonly ran side by side, clocking in with season bests of 21:12.7 for Isabel and 21:32.4 for Monica in the FSU Invitational 6k.

Isabel and Monica are each other’s biggest competitors and greatest supporters. They’re also inseparable in races: searching for each other’s ponytails to see who gained a better start, stepping on each other’s heels when they run extremely close and often talking on the course as they warn each other about wind up ahead or placement in the race.

“If Monica can do it, I know I can do it, because I work out with her every single day,” Isabel said. “We want the best for each other, and if she’s going to beat me in a race, she’s going to beat me in a race. The drive (for success) is internal but it’s also because you have somebody

who’s just as good as you with you all the time.”

Burnt orange ties run deep within the Hebner family — their grandfather, Robert, is a research professor and director of the Center for Electromechanics at the University, and their older brother, Thomas, graduated from the Forty Acres in 2020.

But the Hebner twins took their own circuitous route to get to Texas.

After their high school graduation, the sisters went their separate ways for the first time as Monica ran at Duke University and Isabel started at Penn.

“It was kind of weird truthfully because growing up there was no Monica and no Isabel, it was just the Hebner twins … because we did everything together,” Monica said. “Being able to navigate the world in our own way was definitely necessary in our relationship with each other and for our

copyright texas athletics, and reproduced with permission

future because we were able to identify ourselves finally.”

Transferring to Texas wasn’t anything more than an afterthought until Robert attended the 2019 NCAA finals in Austin to watch Monica compete in the 10,000-meter race.

When he thanked Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte for putting on the event, Del Conte asked if his granddaughters ran as Longhorns.

Robert said the girls hadn’t been recruited. But from that moment on, Del Conte made sure they were, putting the Hebner twins in immediate contact with head coach PattiSue Plumer, who pursued the girls for her team.

That summer, Isabel made the move to Texas while Monica transferred to UCLA. It wasn’t until Monica saw how well Isabel was doing in Austin that she also decided to transfer again to run alongside her sister as a Longhorn.

“Texas is a great place to grow, and you can see a difference after just one year,” the twins’ dad, Tom Hebner, said.

“We all saw it (with Isabel), and Monica wanted it, too. The draw was very strong: Monica said, ‘I don’t know if it’s the magic of Austin or what, but I’m going there, too.’”

The girls have truly found their stride within the women’s team, as they have figured out the dynamics of each team member, who pushes who competitively and how each athlete runs their individual race for the overall success of the team. Isabel and Monica have formed a tight-knit group with freshman Eva Jess and senior Beth Ramos that keeps everyone’s paces competitive.

“Full circle” is the main phrase used by the twins when describing how it feels to finish their collegiate careers side by side at the same university. Many years after they first started running competitively, Monica and Isabel are still watching for each other’s red hair during races.

“We grew up together, we started the sport together, then we were able to go our separate ways but to come back and finish together,” Isabel said. “It’s hard to put into words how meaningful that is to the both of us. Knowing that every day I get to run and (represent) Texas on my chest with my best friend next to me is one of the most special feelings ever.”

SPORTS

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

FEATURE

Jordan Whittington’s return to field is bigger than football

By Nathan Han @NathanHan13

Since Jordan Whittington’s father passed away in October, the Texas wide receiver said returning to football has been a tough, back-and-forth decision.

The redshirt sophomore suffered a broken clavicle against Oklahoma on Oct. 9. But last week, Whittington said his decision regarding his return to football was bigger than showing out on the field.

“Do I think I could come back and play?” Whittington said Nov. 11 in his Orangebloods Youtube show. “Physically, yes. Mentally, where I’m at, I’m not sure.”

One week later, Whittington made his decision. On Thursday, head coach Steve Sarkisian said the wideout would play in this Saturday’s game against West Virginia but didn’t offer any further details.

It’ll be the first time Whittington plays since the passing of his father, Quincey, on Oct. 29.

“I’ve kind of found peace in it because the weekend of the Oklahoma State game, he came down here. My family came down here,” Jordan said to Orangebloods. “We all got to spend time together. It was kind of like the timing of it was right.”

Jordan comes from a long line of football players.

The redshirt sophomore from Cuero, Texas, less than two hours southeast of San Antonio, was the latest Whittington to star at Cuero High School, where his father, along with uncles and brothers, played.

One of his uncles, Arthur, won a Super Bowl as an Oakland Raider in 1981.

Jordan brought his family’s football legacy to the Forty Acres, where he arrived in Austin as one of the Longhorns’ highest-rated and most hyped recruits in recent history.

blaine young

Do I think I could come back and play?

Physically, yes.

Mentally, where I’m at, I’m not sure.”

JORDAN WHITTINGTON wide receiver

It wasn’t just his athletic ability that generated all the buzz.

“He’s very smart,” redshirt junior quarterback Casey Thompson said. “He even can tell other receivers what to expect and how to line up and all that. He really does a good job of having a high football IQ and seeing the defense. Somehow, he always ends up running the right routes and getting open.”

His intelligence and penchant for finding soft spots in zone defenses made Jordan a reliable third-down target for Thompson.

In his six games this season, he’s converted nine third downs on 11 receptions for 194 yards.

But the wide receiver, who switched positions to running back his freshman year before switching back outside the next year, has spent more time injured than not in his Texas career. A re-aggravated groin injury took him out during his freshman year. Hip and knee issues only let him play in five games his second year.

Then, it was the broken clavicle. And most recently, it was the passing of his father that potentially delayed his return to the football field.

“A lot of football is mental,” Jordan said to Orangebloods.

/ the daily texan file

“That’s the most important piece of it.”

According to his teammates and coaches, Jordan is one of the top players on Texas when it comes to the “mental” side of football.

But no matter whether he plays one snap or jumps back into his near-every down role on offense, it’s the mental side outside of football that’s the most important for Jordan.

“I want to make sure I’m good up here before I try to go out there and do something,” Jordan said, pointing to his head. “That’s been my main focus, really. It’s been tough, but I’m getting there.”

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D E S T I N Y A L E X A N D E R & B A R B R A D A LY

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2021

COMICS