Daily Toreador The
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 VOLUME 87 ■ ISSUE 113
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Obama calls for April debate on immigration bill WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama challenged Congress Monday to “finish the job” of finalizing legislation aimed at overhauling the nation’s immigration system. With members of the House and Senate away on spring break, Obama made his most substantive remarks on the difficult issue in more than a month, saying he expects lawmakers to take up debate on a measure quickly and that he hopes to sign it into law as soon as possible. “We’ve known for years that our immigration system is broken,” the president said at a citizenship ceremony at the White House. “After avoiding the problem for years, the time has come to fix it once and for all.” The president spoke at a ceremony for 28 people from more than two dozen countries, including Afghanistan, China and Mexico. Thirteen of the new citizens are active duty service members in the U.S. military. The oath of allegiance was administered by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
High court takes on new affirmative action case WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s decision to hear a new case from Michigan on the politically charged issue of affirmative action offers an intriguing hint that the justices will not use a separate challenge already pending from Texas for a broad ruling bringing an end to the consideration of race in college admissions. To be sure, the two cases involve different legal issues. The University of Texas dispute, with arguments already completed and a ruling possible soon, centers on the use of race to fill some slots in the school’s freshman classes. The Michigan case asks whether a voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions can itself violate the Constitution. But the broadest possible outcome in the current Texas case — overruling the court’s 2003 decision that allows race as a factor in college admissions — would mean an end to affirmative action in higher education and render the new Michigan lawsuit irrelevant.
OPINIONS, Pg. 4
Reynolds: Black History Month, racism still relevant
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Hance introduces 16th Tech president By MATT DOTRAY STAFF WRITER
Texas Tech welcomed Duane Nellis with a formal introduction and reception Monday. Nellis was appointed to the position of 16th president of Tech and will assume the duties June 15. This is a good time to come to Tech, Nellis said. It is an emerging national research university and his vision is to take it the most prominent level. “This is a great time to be associated with Texas Tech University,” Nellis said. “This institution is truly on a very positive trajectory and I think it’s an opportune time to come to this institution, and I want to work with all of you to continue to elevate this institution to new levels of excellence.” He said there was tremendous support, both from people in Lubbock and Idaho, where he is the current president of the University of Idaho, during his decision to become Tech’s president. It is a privilege to build on the successes that have been a part of the university, he said, and there has been a lot of positive momentum, specifically during the past five years, which led him to the decision to accept the position. Nellis discussed several goals and commitments that he and the university will aim to reach during his presidency. One of those commitments is to be student-centered. “There is a great tradition here at Tech of being very student-centered,” he said, “and we’re going to continue to build on that. It’s a great part of what it means to be here at Texas Tech. It’s a great campus, we have great faculty, great staff, great infrastructure to support our faculty, staff and students.” He said he believes Tech is one of the flagship schools and part of the fabric of
PHOTO BY LAUREN PAPE/The Daily Toreador
NEWLY APPOINTED TEXAS Tech President Duane Nellis speaks at a news conference Monday in United Spirit Arena. Nellis is the 16th Tech president.
Texas. While president, he said he will continue to build the school’s prominent position, within the state, nationally and internationally. Nellis said he also wants to have competitive athletic programs.
“We have a great athletic director in Kirby Hocutt,” he said, “and we want to be very supportive of our athletic programs as well. But also recognize that the Big 12 is more than just an athletic conference.” At Tech, he said he wants to help con-
tinue to increase enrollment, but do it in a quality way by recruiting quality students and supporting them once they are on campus. PRESIDENT continued on Page 2➤➤
Moot court team wins 26th national championship By CAROLYN HECK STAFF WRITER
The Texas Tech School of Law moot court team won nationals in the third annual National Energy and Sustainability Moot Court Competition in Morgantown, W.Va., marking the 26th national championship awarded to the school. Third-year law students Tanner Hartnett, Neal Spradlin and John McIntyre competed against Florida State in the national finals with the guidance of law professor Robert Sherwin, director of Advocacy Programs. About 30 law teams travel nationally each year to compete in advocacy competitions, and Sherwin coaches approximately 10 of those teams. Though Tech has not been to this particular competition before, Sherwin said it has been the school’s biggest win since the 2012 National Moot Court Competition, the largest of its kind in the nation. Practicing was time-intensive for both
Sherwin and the students, he said. The students met four to five times a week and trained for an hour to two hours, practicing their arguments in front of different panels of judges, comprised of volunteer professors from the law school and lawyers from the community. “In a moot court round, you never know what’s going to happen,” Sherwin said. “You never know what kind of questions you’re going to get from the judges in an actual round, so the whole point of practice is to give the students exposure to as many different people as we can so that they can hear all of the questions they might get in the actually competition and start thinking about how they might want to answer those questions.” To prepare arguments for the oral advocacy, he said the moot court team had to do research on this year’s topic, hydraulic fueling. Initial research on the topic included studying laws, statutes and case studies. The team then had to write a brief and
send it in a month before the competition, Sherwin said. The brief’s score is factored into the oral argument’s scores in each round, starting out as 40 percent’s worth of the preliminaries. As the rounds progressed, the percentage grew smaller until it was discarded entirely in the final round. McIntyre was responsible for writing the brief, though his team members assisted in editing. “It was a big time commitment,” Spradlin said, “but it was worth it. All those practices got us well prepared for the competition.” Competing with 23 of the best teams in the nation was an intense experience, Spradlin said, but one he was eager for. “Being at the final round,” he said, “it was pretty intense because the panel of judges were all very distinguished. It’s almost intimidating. But the thing is, is that we’re so well trained and well practiced that it was second nature to us.” Hartnett said the work was nearly double for her because she took the position of swing
speaker on her team. “For me, competition was very hard this time,” she said. “I was what they called a swing speaker, so I spoke on both sides of the argument, so I had three rounds a day. Each round is an hour plus a 20-minute critique, so it was a little bit of a marathon for me.” Despite the long days, Hartnett said she enjoyed competing and watching the other teams work in their various methods. “You see a wide variety of abilities and different types of styles,” she said. “It’s really interesting to see that people from the Northeast talk really fast and they notice that we talk really slow – talking slower is actually beneficial when it comes to advocacy programs.” Although Florida State was a fierce competitor, Sherwin said Tech came out on top. “I felt like we had the stronger arguments and that we were the stronger team,” he said, “and fortunately, the judges agreed.” MOOT COURT continued on Page 2 ➤➤
Tech Formula SAE team reveals 2013 formula-one car By LIANA SOLIS STAFF WRITER
Brother Jed’s visit to campus sparks religious debate-- LA VIDA, Page 3
INDEX Classifieds................5 Crossword......................5 Opinions.....................4 L a Vi d a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Sports.........................5 Sudoku.........................2 EDITORIAL: 806-742-3393
After spending countless hours during the course of nine months perfecting the details and fixing the problems, the project was finally done. The Texas Tech Formula SAE team revealed its 2013 formula-one race car model at the Livermore Center. Matthew Candler, a senior chemical engineering major from Midland, is the president of the club and said this is the first year the team has done an unveiling for its car. “We wanted to finish the model faster this year so that we would have more time for test drives and to make necessary changes,” he said. The unveiling had a turnout of about 50 to 60 students, faculty, staff and friends who showed up to support the team, Candler said. “I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of ADVERTISING: 806-742-3384
people that showed up at the event,” he said. “It’s nice to know we have all that support, though.” The ceremony started with a presentation of the previous years’ cars and then the cover was pulled for the viewers to see and ask questions about it, Candler said. Bill Turner, a local mechanic and formula-one fan, said he went to the event to be able to talk to the people who built it. “I’ve been to hundreds of races, but have never gotten a chance to talk to someone who actually built one,” he said. “I had so many questions to ask.” The SAE team builds a new car every year to take to competition, Candler said. “Each year we have to have at least 20 percent of our car made up of new things that weren’t on the car the previous year,” Candler said. The team has been in existence at Tech for four and a half years with about 20 active members
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this year, he said. Cason Carroll, a senior mechanical engineering major from Brownwood, is the chief engineer for the club and said the first car was built in 2005. “The original car that was first build had a lot of problems, but still ran pretty well,” he said. “We’ve tried to improve them every year but haven’t always been successful.” The car built in 2011 was not one of the club’s best models and didn’t do well in competition, Carroll said. “Lots of things just went wrong and broke during the competition,” Candler said. “The car was far too bulky and unorganized to do well.” There was a significant change in design and performance from the 2011 model to the 2012 model, he said. “We had a complete new design of our model appearance and duration wise,” Candler said. “We did the same to improve this year’s car as well.”
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The team’s biggest competition is May 8 in Michigan, he said. “We have a contest in the summer too, but this is still usually our biggest competition,” Candler said. “We’re hoping to place in the top 50 this year.” Sponsors for the club include organizations such as Cameron, Go Engineer and Keizer Aluminum Wheels, he said. “Our sponsors don’t just help with money, they also provide things like parts and services,” Candler said. “The better we do, the more sponsors we get.” The cars made each year are completely designed and built by the students on the team, he said. “We’re really the only technical organization left on campus,” Carroll said. “The members come done to the shop and work their butts off to perfect these cars.”
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