Daily Toreador The
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013 VOLUME 87 ■ ISSUE 137
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Tubby Smith announces hiring of assistant coach The first addition to Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith’s staff was announced Monday evening in a news release. Former Tulsa point guard and TCU assistant coach Alvin “Pooh” Williamson will join the staff as an assistant. “He has the ability to be a floor coach, teacher and develop players and that stems from the fact the he was a player who had to work hard and earn everything he has gotten,” Smith said in the release. “Pooh enhances every aspect of our program.” Williamson spent last season as an assistant coach at TCU and one year before that at SMU in the same position. He assisted at Texas A&M from 2007-2011, where he coached future NBA players DeAndre Jordan and Donald Sloan. Williamson played Division I basketball at Tulsa for four years, finishing his career ranked No. 7 in school history for total assists and No. 10 in total steals. ➤➤zdischiano@dailytoreador.com
AG: Same-sex marriage benefits unconstitutional AUSTIN (AP) — Local governments and school districts that offer marriage benefits to same-sex partners are violating the state constitution, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott stated in an opinion Monday. The cities of Austin, El Paso and Forth Worth already have offered some benefits to domestic partners, while Pflugerville, outside Austin, became the state’s first school district to extend similar benefits. Tea party-backed state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston asked Abbott, a fellow Republican, to review the matter in November. Patrick argued that Texas amended its constitution in 2005 to define marriage as between one man and one woman, while prohibiting government entities from recognizing anything similar to marriage. In a six-page opinion, Abbott found that the constitution “prohibits political subdivisions from creating a legal status of domestic partnership and recognizing that status by offering public benefits based upon it.” He said city governments and school districts constitute political subdivisions. In a statement, Patrick said the measure, known as the Marriage Amendment, was passed by “an overwhelming majority of the Texas legislature and ratified by more than 75 percent of Texas voters.”
OPINIONS, Pg. 4
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Budget cuts nix $90m in federal college aid
WASHINGTON (AP) — Schools near military bases and tribal lands will face a $60 million shortfall between now and September and aid to college students will be cut by almost $90 million, according to the Education Department’s plan to carry out the automatic spending cuts mandated by Congress. In all, the Education Department lost $2.6 billion as part of failed budget negotiations that forced deep spending cuts to reduce the nation’s debt. Every corner of the federal government has been slashing services to comply. “Budgets are never just numbers. They reveal our values. They reveal our value choices,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters on Monday at an event to discuss prekindergarten programs. “You do not see our high-
performing competitors defunding education and innovation via sequestration. Other nations, our international competitors, they keep their eye on the prize and they don’t let dysfunctional politics create a man-made mess.” Taken as a whole, the cuts could force fast changes at the end of the school year. For instance, areas where large portions of land are owned or managed by the government, such as military or tribal areas, receive more than $1 billion in federal aid annually to make up for the lack of land subject to property tax. Under the automatic budget cuts, that sum is being slashed about 5 percent. Students who work in college libraries, dining halls or elsewhere on campus will see a collective $51 million in work study aid cut. Separately, grants for needy
students will be cut $38 million. Some $1.6 billion in college aid will remain, however. Most of the Education Department’s cuts will translate to fewer dollars to pay salaries at the state and local levels. For instance, the department’s plan cuts $20 million from a program designed to help students who move between states or countries during the school year catch up. Often, those students are children of migrant farmers who require additional help to get on the same page as their classmates. Separately, programs to help students learn English were slashed by $38 million. As implemented, the spending plan also will cut $28 million from the administration’s “Race to the Top” com-
petition that rewards states for implementing changes in how schools teach and students learn. Some $520 million, however, remains in that pot for states to try new approaches to boost student performance. An additional $13 million for charter schools and $5 million for magnet schools were expected to be cut, according to the budget outline. And the budget cuts would reduce student counseling services, school safety and community development efforts by $13 million. Across all agencies and departments, the reductions total $1.2 trillion over 10 years. The first-year cuts are $85 billion but many programs are exempt from the cuts such as Social Security and Pell grants.
School of Law helps students relax before finals By CAROLYN HECK STAFF WRITER
The Texas Tech School of Law hosted its biannual Finals Fiesta on Monday, where students came to eat and relax before final exams. Julie Doss, the assistant dean for external relations with the law school, said the school has events such as these every semester, and they are a hit. “It’s a fun event to motivate and encourage our students before they start exams,” she said. During the fall, the law school hosts a Breakfast for Dinner event before finals, Doss said, where students are served breakfast burritos. During spring semesters, though, it hosts Finals Fiesta. Finals start Friday, she said, and will last two weeks. More than 150 students went Monday night for free fajitas and chips from Abuelo’s restaurant, and free five-minute massages given by massage therapists from the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center, Doss said. Cassandra Hernandez, a third-year law student from McAllen, said she went to relax and have fun. “Well, it was the law day of my law school classes,” she said, “and I thought a massage would be an amazing end to it.” She said she has one paper and one final to complete, and while the workload is lighter than it was during her previous years, she is still stressed about doing them. Other students came out for the free food and good company, such as second-year law student John Merculief from Austin. The event gave Merculief and his friends a chance to socialize, he said — something
PHOTO BY EMILY DE SANTOS/The Daily Toreador
BUKKY OYEWUWO, A law student from Houston, gets a free massage from Kay Nash, an employee of the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center, during Finals Fiesta on Monday inside the School of Law.
they are not able to do often with their regular schedules. “We smile and nod at each other when we see each other in the hallway,” he said, “but that’s generally the extent of it. We don’t have the time for anything else. So this is just kind of a nice chance to shoot the breeze, have a little free
food, and just kind of bond over the experience that we’re all kind of enjoying in law school.” Merculief said he enjoys the different events the school hosts such as the Finals Fiesta, and he tries to take advantage of them when he can. “On the one hand,” he said, “we pay for events like this, so if we don’t avail ourselves
of the opportunity to come out and enjoy this, that’s our own fault.” While he is nervous about finals, Merculief said he considers himself a good student and is prepared for what is to come. “It’s not my first rodeo,” he said. ➤➤check@dailytoreador.com
Saudi Student Association hosts Saudi Awareness day DuPont II: Gay athletes: What does it matter?
Seniors reveal secret identity as Raider Red -- LA VIDA Page 3
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By MIKAEL GONZALES STAFF WRITER
Combatting common misconceptions about the Islam religion was the focus of the Texas Tech Saudi Student Association Saudi Day hosted from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday in the Library. The event was divided into six tables: energy, Islam, education, tourism, women and traditional food. Misfer Almarri, a graduate student from Saudi Arabia, and president of the Saudi Student Association, said the purpose of the event was to educate people about the different aspects of Saudi culture. He said the Saudi Student Association is comprised mostly of foreign students. “We’re all foreign students,” Almarri said. “We’re here to do our studies and to do some casual exchange.” Lubbock residents are not usually aware of his home country, he said. “I wouldn’t generalize, but many people have no idea about Saudi Arabia,” Almarri said. “It’s kind of awareness for people and ADVERTISING: 806-742-3384
to show the people different aspects of Saudi Arabia.” There are many misconceptions about Saudi Arabia, he said, because of recent events in the news. “There are a lot of misconceptions,” Almarri said. “After some sad tragedies all throughout the world, Saudi Arabia somehow got some bad image from the people and the media. We’re here to show the people the real Saudi people.” Ghazi Alqahtani, a third-year graduate student from Saudi Arabia, and a member of the Saudi Student Association, said the goal of the event was to expose Tech students to the culture of the Saudi people. To achieve this, the event had a station where students could wear traditional Saudi clothing. “The guys here are wearing traditional dress and they are also offering it to the visitors to try it as showing respect to the culture that we have,” Alqahtani said. One of the biggest misunderstandings of the country is how Saudi Arabians treat women, he said. “Women are part of the society in Saudi Arabia, in the education and
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KHAZNAH ALI GIVES Katherine Galely, assistant to the director at the Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, a henna tattoo at the Saudi Day Event hosted by the Saudi Student Association on Monday in the Library.
medicine and different aspects of how the country is developed and are a very important part of the moving wheel for
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our civilization,” Alqahtani said.
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SAUDI DAY continued on Page 2 ➤➤ EMAIL: news@dailytoreador.com