Daily Toreador The
TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015 VOLUME 89 ■ ISSUE 99
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Serving the Texas Tech University community since 1925
GOP attempts to repeal Texas in-state tuition law AUSTIN (AP) — State senators are debating a contentious plan to repeal a Texas law granting in-state public university tuition to the children of some people in the United States illegally. Democrats and Hispanic groups champion the law, while Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature have pledged to end it quickly. On Monday, the two sides clashed during a Senate subcommittee on border security meeting. Sen. Donna Campbell defended her bill repealing the so-called “Texas Dream Act.” Student supporters, many wearing graduation caps, countered that Texas shouldn’t wipe out good policy. The bipartisan tuition passed the Legislature nearly unanimously in 2001 and was signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry. But the GOP now largely supports harder-line immigration stances. Campbell’s measure should eventually clear committee. Its chances of passing the full Legislature are less clear.
Texas lawmakers want to close teen abortion ‘bypass’ AUSTIN (AP) — Texas, like many other conservative states, has strived to make it difficult for women to have abortions. Recent state laws have forced dozens of clinics to close and left some regions without a place for women to go. But Texas has one option that makes abortions relatively accessible, and that between 300 and 500 pregnant teenagers use every year. Instead of seeking parental consent to terminate a pregnancy, girls younger than 18 can ask a court for approval under legal conditions less stringent than in many other states. About 20 percent of the abortions performed on minors in Texas in 2013 came through this court process, about double the proportion elsewhere. Soon, though, the so-called “judicial bypass” may become less accommodating. Conservatives are now targeting the teenage cases as part of their latest legislative assault on abortion. New bills introduced in the current session would make it harder for girls to prove they shouldn’t have to seek parental permission and more difficult for courts to give approval. “We don’t want this to be a loophole for the abortion industry to shepherd girls through,” said Elizabeth Graham, director of the Texas Right to Life organization, which helped draft some of the 21 anti-abortion measures now before the Legislature. Courts shouldn’t be used to “exploit pregnant teenagers,” she said.
OPINIONS, Pg. 4
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Southwest Collection houses Lubbock, Western history By KAITLIN BAIN Senior reporter
Beginning officially in the 1950s, the Southwest Collection department at Texas Tech has both helped to preserve the history of Texas Tech and the surrounding areas as well as advance Tech’s research goals. The beginning of the collection goes back farther than that though, Lynn Whitfield, associate archivist and certified archivist with Southwest Collection/ Special Collections Library, said. The collection began with Elizabeth West, she said, the first librarian of Tech as well as the first woman to occupy a Texas department head position. Even before West showed up at Tech, the university started behind, she said, as administration planned for about 400 students but ultimately more than 900 showed up. “So from the first day the classes opened, Texas Tech was suddenly in a hole as far as resources and facilities,” Whitfield said. “When Texas Tech opened in the fall of 1925, our library was in the Administration building and the legislature funded Texas Tech, but they didn’t give it much money beyond that.” West, however, worked with a graduate student and was able to begin collecting old ranching records from the area to serve as primary source documents, Monte Monroe, Southwest Collection archivist
and adjunct professor, said. The student went out to the Spoila Land Cattle Company, Monroe said, and talked with some of the cowboys working for the company and looked at old letters and ledgers attached to the company. “She became so excited about the materials,” he said, “and she came back and talked to Ms. West and ultimately Ms. West worked with Mr. Jones and they created what became the core nucleus of what would become the Southwest Collection.” In addition to the materials gathered from the Spoila Land Cattle Company, Whitfield said, West kept her eyes open for items she thought could be rare and valuable that would help students with research. In 1938, Whitfield said the library got its first freestanding building, as it was originally housed in the Administration building. This building is now used as the Math building on the Tech campus. The Southwest Collection was then moved to the basement of the West Texas Museum, she said, now known as Holden Hall. “In 1952,” she said, “Carl Coke Rister is made the first official head of the Southwest Collection. Southwest Collection existed but it didn’t really come into play until Carl Coke Rister. He was a wellknown historian.” SWC continued on Page 6 ➤➤
PHOTOS BY ZETH ABNEY/The Daily Toreador
TOP: THE LETTERMAN sweater of an early Texas Tech football player Ransom “Hansom” Walker, housed in the Tech Southwest Collection. BOTTOM: A 1688 Coronelli Globe is displayed in the entry foyer of the Southwest Collection along with samples of other collections of the archives.
Petition created for Timothy Cole to earn medal By AMY CUNNINGHAM newS editor
A petition has been created online for President Barack Obama to posthumously grant a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Timothy Cole, a former Texas Tech student who was wrongfully convicted of rape and died in prison while serving a 25-year sentence. Fred McKinley created the petition, which is hosted on thepetitionsite.com, on March 14, and said he saw a news clip in 2009 about Cole and his family’s journey to having him exonerated of the crime. Cole’s story hit close to home, he said, because McKinley’s son and Cole had similarities: both were around the same age, went into the army and were honorably discharged because of medical reasons. “Then Timothy Cole of course went to Lubbock,” he said, “and we basically know the story
behind his arrest and unjust conviction, and my son was able to go on to a successful career. It struck a nerve.” McKinley wrote a book about the Cole case, he
said, and he created an online petition for Cole to receive an honorary degree from Tech. COLE continued on Page 2 ➤➤
Burkhart Center brings fun to autism awareness By MICHAEL CANTU Staff writer
Opinions May Vary Miller vs. White Indiana religious law
INDEX Crossword.....................3 Classifieds................7 L a Vi d a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Opinions.....................4 Sports.......................8 Sudoku.......................7 EDITORIAL: 806-742-3393
April is Autism Awareness Month, and Texas Tech’s Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research is planning interactive ways to bring more public awareness to the disorder. “I just think of 15 or 16 years ago when I came into this field, you might have two or three people in a room who have never even heard of autism,” Wes Dotson, assistant professor and researcher for the center, said, “much less knew someone with autism, could tell you what autism meant or what it might be.” The public’s awareness of autism has changed dramatically in the last decade, Dotson said. Most people know someone with or know of someone with autism, so a need for more awareness is important. ADVERTISING: 806-742-3384
This month the center will be having three separate days for Lubbock’s Papa John’s Pizza, Capital Pizza and Chick-fil-A to donate part of their proceeds to the center, Janice Magness,
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interim co-director of the Burkhart Center and director of the transition academy, said.
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AUTISM continued on Page 5 ➤➤ CIRCULATION: 806-742-3388
Smith wins second Big 12 weekly award The Big 12 Conference announced on Monday afternoon Texas Tech senior lefthanded pitcher Cameron Smith has earned his second Big 12 Pitcher of the Week SMITH honor of the season. Smith is now the second all-time Red Raider pitcher to receive the award twice in one season, as the only other pitcher was Shane Wright in 1998, according to a Tech Athletics news release. For the first time since 2006, Tech has had multiple players earn Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors in the same season, according to the release. Tech is now the first program since 2013 to have a weekly award winner in four consecutive weeks. Smith had a career outing in the second game of the series against No. 2 Texas Christian this past weekend. In the 5-1 victory, he threw a career-high 134 pitches for his second career complete game. He allowed one run on five hits and struck out six batters. Smith limited the Horned Frogs to a .176 batting average with two outs. His first career complete game came against No. 3 Miami in the Regional Final last season. The senior has 12 career wins, which is the most of any current player. Smith is 4-2 with a 2.74 ERA and one save in eight appearances this season. “I just have to come out here and be able to throw strikes and let my team have the opportunity to win the game,” Smith said after the complete game. “The offense picked us up, picked myself up after I gave up that one run. I was just able to keep throwing strikes and it worked.” ➤➤@JeremyK_DT
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