09/25/09

THE DAILY TEXANwww.dailytexanonline.comServing the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900Friday, September 25, 2009

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By Alex GeiserDaily Texan Staff

Despite the protests of neigh-bors and other Austin activists, Austin City Council passed, on first read, a developer’s plan for a 20-acre construction project along Lady Bird Lake Thursday night.

The development, proposed by Grayco Partners, a Houston-based real estate firm, could be the first to be approved by the City Council as an exception to the height building limitations near the water, causing concern among local activist groups such as Save Town Lake and the East Riverside/Oltorf Connection Neighborhood.

The project will include a wa-ter treatment facility, a police substation, space for non-profits and day cares, 1,200 apartments and a minimum of 30,000 square feet for commercial use, among other features. The company will

also offer $25,000 to Capital Met-ro to refurbish bus stops in the area and participation in Austin CarShare.

“This is an area where we

should have density,” said John Dosini, an attorney for Grayco. “It will bring the needed spark of

By Lena PriceDaily Texan Staff

UT President William Powers singled out the Cockrell School of Engineering last week in his State of the University address when pointing to the tough bud-getary decisions facing colleges across campus.

The school began making cuts to its Information Technology Group and Career Assisting Cen-ter in the late spring to free up money for priorities like faculty recruitment and merit pay pools.

For the 2009-10 school year, the engineering school reallocat-ed $1.6 million — approximately 8 percent — of its $20 million op-

erating budget, which was set on Sept. 1, from the IT group and ca-reer services.

Cockrell Dean Gregory Fenves said the money cut from the IT and career service departments will be used to sustain research funding, recruit new faculty members and provide targeted merit pay increases to about a third of professors based on reg-ular performance reviews.

“These are three of our highest priorities within the school of en-gineering,” Fenves said.

The IT group in the school of engineering provides students and faculty with technological support, and the career advising

office introduces students to po-tential employers.

State appropriations rose slightly during the spring legis-lative session, but lower perfor-mances from UT endowments have contributed to a flat bud-get across the University. Colleg-es across the campus are seeking to add faculty despite the tight-er budget.

Because of the reallocations, the IT department saw a 20 per-cent reduction to its operating budget. The equipment-loan pro-gram, a service that allowed for the rental of laptops and projec-tors to students and faculty, was eliminated over the summer.

Student technician Chase Co-ney said the IT staff has dropped from 17 positions to 13 since he began working there in May.

“I think everyone who uses the IT services will see a change if they haven’t already,” Coney said. “We are slightly under-staffed, especially because we are in the process of training some people who don’t have as much technological background.”

Fenves said students will not notice the changes.

“The students may see some evidence of these budget reallo-cations,” Fenves said, “but we are trying to protect them from the majority of it.”

Like other career service cen-ters across the University, the en-gineering career center has had to reconsider some of the servic-es available to its students. Sev-eral job fairs normally held on campus for Cockrell students were cancelled this year.

Michael Powell, director of the career center, said if students no-tice the changes, the center has failed at its job.

“We haven’t had to cut any-thing,” Powell said. “But we have had to evaluate some of the work-shops and events we hold. Our focus is to make sure the students are still receiving the same quality of service they always have.”

The center did not cut any counseling positions, but it was unable to fill one administrative position after an employee left.

Research will not be affected by the reallocations. The majori-ty of research funding for the col-lege comes from outside grants won by professors.

“Research is a central part of what we are trying to accomplish at the Cockrell School,” Fenves said. “We will also continue to re-cruit some of the best graduate stu-dents from around the country.”

The engineering school has obtained funding for 10 new

By Bobby LongoriaDaily Texan Staff

Within three hours of each oth-er, emergency personnel respond-ed to two chemical spills Thurs-day evening in the engineering area of campus.

A student was transported to University Medical Center Brack-enridge with minor injuries after dropping a container at a chem-ical lab in Robert L. Moore Hall at about 5 p.m. A second spill oc-curred at about 8 p.m. at the SW7 psychology and natural sciences lab building and was cleaned up without any injuries.

Emergency Health and Safety officials, in cooperation with Aus-tin Fire Department and the UT Police Department, responded to the incidents, which were within two blocks of each other.

“[A student] put something in a container,” said AFD Division Chief Dawn M. Clopton, about the first incident in RLM. “It was

capped, and it caused the contain-er to break, so he was [injured] with chemical [burns] and glass cuts.”

She said the container that ex-ploded caused a domino effect, impacting other bottles under the fume hood. Two gallons of an acidic liquid were spilled, but Clopton said the substance was “not anything bad.”

AFD responded with about 35 members that later turned the scene over to Emergency Health and Safety and UTPD officials, she said.

AFD had little time to pack up and head home, because shortly be-fore 8 p.m. a second chemical spill occurred at the SW7 psychology and natural sciences lab building.

“It was a release of a gas that is flammable and caustic,” Clop-ton said. “[Building clearance] de-pends on the concentration of the gases in there and what the gases turn out to be.”

Clopton said a diffusing bag

with an ampule holding a gas was dropped by a “person” work-ing with it. She said no one was injured and that it would be re-solved within an hour or longer.

UT spokeswoman Rhonda Wel-don identified that gas as ethylene oxide.

UTPD Sgt. Wayne Coffey was on scene of the second incident and said UTPD’s strategy was to setup a perimeter, prohibiting any pedestrians or vehicles from en-tering the scene and to set up a command post.

“We are not exactly sure [what happened],” Coffey said. “Some-thing to do with some janitors, some type of chemical spill.”

Two janitors who may have been involved were being held aside to check for contamination Thursday night, he said. EHS scanned the area for contamination and cleared the building once it was deter-mined to be safe. The RLM had al-ready been given clearance.

By Lena PriceDaily Texan Staff

After 15 years as the director of Texas Student Media, Kathy Law-rence announced her retirement in an e-mail to TSM staff and student managers Thursday.

“I have some health issues, and this just seems to be the right time,” Lawrence told The Daily Texan.

TSM board member and clin-ical journalism professor Wan-da Cash said the board will dis-cuss possibly hiring an interim or replacement director during to-day’s board meeting. Both Cash and Juan Gonzalez, vice president for student affairs and Lawrence’s boss, did not know why Lawrence chose to resign.

Texas Student Media consists of The Daily Texan, KVRX 91.7 FM, the Texas Travesty, the Cactus Yearbook and Texas Student Tele-vision.

Cash said all facets of TSM will continue despite the absence of a director. Until a decision is made,

Lawrence’s position will be filled by a triumvirate of assistant direc-tors, including Frank Serpas, Mer-ry Tillman and Jalah Briedwell.

“We expect operations to con-tinue as usual,” Cash said. “We have good leadership in place with our student and staff manag-ers, and all systems are go.”

Gonzalez said Student Affairs Assistant Vice President Jennifer Hammat has assisted him with TSM matters in the past. Hammat may be asked to do so again in Lawrence’s absence, he said.

“I may ask her to step up in a sort of interim role,” Gonzalez said. “She may be helping out a little more on a very short term basis.”

Gonzalez said he hopes to open up conversations with the TSM board concerning a replacement early next week.

During her time as TSM direc-tor, Lawrence fought for The Dai-ly Texan to not come under prior

By Hannah JonesDaily Texan Staff

Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, sat in the Oakland Auditorium in 1962 where he was first inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful ideas about how to fight racism in the United States.

Nearly 50 years later, Seale got the chance to speak at the 10th Anniversary MLK Jr. Statue Re-dedication Ceremony on cam-pus Thursday night.

“He was the activist of activ-ists for me,” Seale said.

Seale spoke in the Black Power Movement class taught by pro-fessor Leonard Moore earlier in the afternoon. Seale has written several books, including “Seize the Time,” which he wrote from jail between 1969 and 1972. In

1963, he ran for mayor of Oak-land and lost.

The event was sponsored by African-American Affairs, a stu-dent agency within the Division of Diversity and C o m m u n i t y Engagement’s Mul t i cu l tur-al Information Center, as well as the Distin-guished Broth-ers of the Epsi-lon Iota Chap-ter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraterni-ty, Inc. King was an Alpha along with many other prominent black men, including Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall and W.E.B. DuBois.

Kheri Henderson, agency co-director of operations, said the group worked to plan a special event for everyone, not just the black community.

“This is for all people; we can all learn from each oth-er,” she said.

Senior Larry Chapple, presi-dent of the UT Chapter of Al-pha Phi Alpha, said he wants to do something to impact his com-munity as pre-vious fraternity

members before him have. “I’m coming here with open

ears,” he said. “I’m trying to

soak everything up.”The event featured perfor-

mances from UT students and groups, including the Student African American Brotherhood and Umoja.

Liberal arts sophomore and SAAB member Nick Poole recit-ed a poem entitled “And We Re-member,” emphasizing the leg-acy of Dr. King. Gregory J. Vin-cent, vice president for diversi-ty and community engagement, and Student Government Presi-dent Liam O’Rourke also spoke at the ceremony.

“[King] wasn’t an idealist, he was a realist,” O’Rourke said, “He wasn’t asking anything of anyone that shouldn’t have been expected.”

Engineering cuts tech, career services

Groups rededicate a ‘Dream’

Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff

Bobby Seale, co-founder and chairman of Black Panthers, speaks about his experience in the party at Jackson Geological Sciences Building auditorium Thursday afternoon.

TSM supervisor steps down, citing ‘some health issues’

Council OKs high-rise plan amid protestOne injured a� er chemical spills

ENGINEERING continues on page 2

Bruno Morlan | Daily Texan Staff

Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Assistant City Manager Sue Edwards listen to Grayco Town Lake Investments’ application for a planned unit development for the Town Lake area.

Sara Young | Daily Texan file photo

Kathy Lawrence, center, listens to former TSTV station manager Brandon Farmahini at a Texas Student Media board meeting last spring. Lawrence resigned as director of TSM on Thursday.

TSM continues on page 2

MLK continues on page 2

COUNCIL continues on page 2

‘‘He was the activist of activists for me.”

— Bobby Seale co-founder of the Black

Panther Party

TH1A11

NEWS Friday, September 25, 20092

TODAY’S WEATHER

High Low

81 66Goodbye, Kathy

COPYRIGHTCopyright 2009 Texas Student

Media. All articles, photographs and graphics, both in the print and online editions, are the property of Texas Student Media and may not be reproduced or republished in part or in whole without written permission.

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faculty member positions this year, part of which came from the reallocated funds. Some of the po-sitions were created this year, and other professors were recruited to

Seale, has only fond thoughts of King, although he never had a chance to shake his hand. While King was one of Seale’s greatest in-fluences, other Black Panther mem-bers disagreed with his nonviolent approach to social change.

Seale explained that the Panthers did not believe in sitting back and letting police barge in on peaceful protestors.

“[King] did criticize us for our self defense rights,” he said in an interview with The Daily Texan. “If we are getting shot at, I’m going to shoot back.”

Seale also did not view the Black Panthers like other radical groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan.

“We never stoop to the low-level mentality of the racist,” he said.

The MLK Sculpture Project’s Web site says students began plans to erect the statue in 1987. It was fi-nally unveiled in the fall of 1999.

“We should think about UT’s role,” Vincent said. “This is a shining example of UT changing lives.”

review by the newspaper’s adviser and oversaw the sale of the Texan printing press and the outsourcing of printing operations to the Aus-tin American-Statesman. Under prior review, Richard Finnell, The Daily Texan’s adviser, read all sto-ries before they were published.

“The greatest achievement of my career was the elimination of prior review,” Lawrence said. “When I got here, I had no idea that practice was still going on at the University of Texas. I had no idea it was going to take 12 years to eliminate, and I was completely elated when I found out the [TSM] Board eliminated it.”

Lawrence was responsible for making sure that all the students involved with TSM had the re-sources they needed.

“On a day-to-day basis, my job probably sounds pretty damn boring,” Lawrence said. “But ev-ery time I interacted with a stu-dent, I felt like my jobs was com-pletely rewarding.”

Lawrence also had an active

role in last year’s renovation and renaming of the William Ran-dolph Hearst Building, formerly the Texas Student Media Building. Before the $750,000 donation from the Hearst Foundation in 2008, the TSM building had not been reno-vated since 1972.

“She helped us make signifi-cant progress with the renaming of the Hearst building,” Gonzalez said. “She made plans and moved it forward.”

Although Lawrence was not in-volved in the day-to-day opera-tion of The Daily Texan, Editor-in-Chief Jillian Sheridan said the lack of a director was disconcerting.

“Especially because the media industry as a whole is so fragile right now, to be without a director makes me a little nervous,” Sheri-dan said.

For now, Lawrence said she will continue teaching part time at the University of Phoenix Online and will look for more job opportuni-ties in the future.

“I really don’t feel ready to put up my feet and watch soap operas all day,” Lawrence said.

Fourth year electrical engineering Mesele Bedasa listens as Bobby Seale speaks at the Jackson Geological Sciences Building auditorium Thursday afternoon.

Mary Kang Daily Texan Staff

MLK: Speaker reminisces of time with PanthersFrom page 1

I want that one

Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff

Caterin Sarseriemto, 4, looks at piñatas while her mother Marita Diaz and store owner Monica Lee speak about renting party supplies at Jumpolin, located on Cesar Chavez and Navasota on Thursday afternoon.

From page 1

revitalization to the area.”Concerned citizens took is-

sue with the height exception, explaining how this would set a precedent for future planned-unit developments. Patty Sprin-kle, member of the Glendale El-ementary Neighborhood Associ-ation, said even though Grayco has offered an array of commu-nity benefits, the city needs to be respected.

“I feel that it’s very critical for the future of Austin,” she said. “The lake belongs to all of us, the view belongs to all of us. It sets a precedent. It opens a door, a foot-hold, if you will.”

The Waterfront Overlay or-dinance places multiple limita-tions on developments in cer-

tain zones along the lake, includ-ing height restrictions, to protect the lake and increase accessibili-ty. The Grayco development will include three buildings that ex-ceeded the area’s restrictions.

Councilwoman Laura Morri-son said the council has recent-ly decided to grant Planned Unit Development exceptions to the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance on a case-by-case basis. If passed, the Grayco development will be the first to override the ordinance. The Council will go through two more readings before the devel-opment is approved.

Steve Drenner, another attor-ney for Grayco, said at the meet-ing, the proposed 90-foot build-ings should not be an issue, de-spite the 60-foot restriction.

“We do not think that giv-

en our particular facts that the 90 feet in height creates a prob-lem for the water overlay,” he said. “This project meets the very goals of the Waterfront Overlay particularly in regard to access of the lake.”

Austin resident Ed Alexander, a local activist with the Riverside Farms Neighborhood, said he was upset by the lack of public input earlier in the approval pro-cess. He said long before Thurs-day’s vote, there was a general understanding that city staff rec-ommended an approval of Gray-co’s proposal.

“Clearly they have ignored the planning process,” he said. “I would almost call it criminal. It’s certainly not democratic.”

From page 1

COUNCIL: Possible plan would befirst to bypass local ordinance

TSM: Former director had active role in renovations

ENGINEERING: Reassigned fundsto create more faculty positions

From page 1

RECYCLEyour copy of

THE DAILY TEXAN fill vacated teaching slots in the school.

Tad Patzek, chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems En-gineering department, said his department needs about two or three new faculty members to reduce its student-to-facul-ty ratio.

Despite the changes to the IT department and career service center, Fenves said the engi-neering school was not hit hard-er by the flat University budget than the other colleges.

“Everyone got the same bud-get increase this year, and that was exactly zero,” he said. “The pain is equally distributed be-tween all of the colleges.”

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breckenridge ‘DILLO SERVICE WILL BE SUSPENDED OCTOBER 2, 2009

THE DOWNTOWN ‘DILLOS ARE GOING AWAY, BUT DON’T DESPAIR.

Capital Metro will still have plenty of routes to choose from to get

around Downtown. You’ve probably noticed not too many people

are riding the ‘Dillos — just two per trip and only eight per hour.

That’s among the lowest ridership of all routes in the system. So

we’re suspending the ‘Dillos as part of our balanced budget for the

new fiscal year. To learn more, please visit capmetro.org or

call the Go Line at 474-1200.

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09/25/09

AdvertisingDirector of Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jalah GoetteRetail Advertising Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brad CorbettAccount Executive/Broadcast Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carter GossCampus/National Sales Consultant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joan BowermanAssistant to Advertising Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C.J. SalgadoStudent Advertising Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kathryn AbbasStudent Advertising Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ryan FordAcct. Execs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lauren Aldana, Anupama Kulkarni, Ashley Walker, Natasha Moonka

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Student Media.Permanent Staff

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jillian SheridanManaging Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stephen KellerAssociate Managing Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David R. Henry, Ana McKenzieAssociate Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeremy Burchard, Dan Treadway, David Muto, Lauren WinchesterNews Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sean BeherecAssociate News Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pierre Bertrand, Austen Sofhauser, Blair WatlerSenior Reporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viviana Aldous, Bobby Longoria, Rachel Platis, Lena PriceEnterprise Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew KreighbaumEnterprise Reporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hudson LockettCopy Desk Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert GreenAssociate Copy Desk Chiefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cristina Herrera, Nausheen Jivani, Matt JonesDesign Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thu VoAssistant Design Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shatha HusseinSenior Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Taylor Fausak, Lynda Gonzales, Olivia HintonPhoto Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May-Ying LamAssociate Photo Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bryant Haertlein, Peter Franklin, Caleb MillerSenior Photographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Karina Jacques, Mary Kang,Tamir Kalifa, Peyton McGee, Sara YoungLife&Arts Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leigh PattersonAssociate Life&Arts Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brad Barry, Francisco Marin Jr.Senior Features Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Audrey Gale Campbell, Lisa HoLung, Ben Wermund Senior Entertainment Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Doty, Mary Lingwall, Robert RichSenior DT Weekend Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber GenuskeSports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Austin TalbertSenior Sports Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Will Anderson, Wes DeVoe, Blake Hurtik. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dan Hurwitz, Laken Litman, Michael Sherfield, Chris TavarezComics Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carolyn CalabreseWeb Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Annika ErdmanAssociate Web Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Erik ReynaMultimedia Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Juan ElizondoAssociate Multimedia Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kara McKenzie, Rachel SchroederSenior Videographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dane HurtEditorial Adviser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richard Finnell

Issue StaffReporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex Geiser, Jordan Haegar, Hannah Jones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shabab Siddiqui, Nihas WagalPhotographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jordy Wagoner, Shelley Neumann, Derek Stout, Jesus MontelongoLife & Arts Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Allistair Pinsof, Gerald RichVideographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Paul te la CerraSports Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jordan Godwin, Matt Hohner, Tara DreyerCopy Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Megan Gottlieb, Carolyn Webb, Kelsey CrowSports/Life&Arts Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vicky HoWire Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Emily ChandlerComics Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jermaine Affore, Rachel Weiss, Ryan Heiley, Michael Cormier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katie Smith, Amelia Giller, Gabe AlvarezDesigners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Veronica RosalezColumnists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dave Player, Meg Susong

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THE DAILY TEXAN

WORLD&NATIONWire Editor: Emily Chandlerwww.dailytexanonline.com Friday, September 25, 2009

3

By Daniel Lovering & Michael Rubinkam

The Associated PressPITTSBURGH — Police fired

canisters of pepper spray and smoke at marchers protesting the Group of 20 summit Thurs-day after anarchists respond-ed to calls to disperse by rolling trash bins and throwing rocks.

The march turned chaotic at just about the time that President Barack Obama and first lady Mi-chelle Obama arrived for a meet-ing with leaders of the world's major economies.

The clashes began after hun-dreds of protesters, many advo-cating against capitalism, tried to march from an outlying neigh-borhood toward the conven-tion center where the summit is being held.

The protesters banged on drums and chanted "Ain't no power like the power of the peo-ple, 'cause the power of the peo-ple don't stop."

The marchers included small groups of self-described an-archists, some wearing dark clothes and bandanas and carry-ing black flags. Others wore hel-mets and safety goggles.

One banner read, "No borders, no banks," another, "No hope in capitalism." A few minutes into the march, protesters unfurled a large banner reading "NO BAIL-OUT NO CAPITALISM" with an encircled "A," a recognized sign of anarchists.

The marchers did not have a permit and, after a few blocks, police declared it an unlawful assembly. They played an an-nouncement over a loudspeaker telling people to leave or face ar-rest and then police in riot gear moved in to break it up.

Protesters split into smaller groups. Some rolled large met-al trash bins toward police, and

a man in a black hooded sweat shirt threw rocks at a police car, breaking the front windshield. Protesters broke windows in a few businesses, including a bank branch and a Boston Market restaurant.

Officers fired pepper spray and smoke at the protesters. Some of those exposed to the pepper spray coughed and complained that their eyes were watering and stinging.

Police were planning a news conference to discuss their re-sponse. Officers were seen taking away a handful of protesters in cuffs.

About an hour after the clash-es started, the police and pro-testers were at a standoff. Police sealed off main thoroughfares to downtown.

Twenty-one-year-old Stephon Boatwright, of Syracuse, N.Y., wore a mask of English anar-chist Guy Fawkes and yelled at a line of riot police. He then sat cross-legged near the officers, telling them to let the protesters through and to join their cause.

"You're actively suppressing us. I know you want to move," Boatwright yelled, to applause from the protesters gathered around him.

Protesters complained that the march had been peaceful and that police were trampling on their right to assemble.

"We were barely even protest-ing," said T.J. Amick, 22, of Pitts-burgh. "Then all of a sudden, they come up and tell us we're gathered illegally and start using force, start banging their shields, start telling us we're going to be arrested and tear gassed. ... We haven't broken any laws."

Bret Hatch, 26, of Green Bay, Wis., was carrying an American flag and a "Don't Tread on Me" flag.

"This is ridiculous. We have

constitutional rights to free speech," he said.

The National Lawyer's Guild, a liberal legal-aid group, said one of its observers, a second year law student, was among those arrested. Its representa-tives were stationed among the protesters, wearing green hats.

"I think he was totally acting according to the law. I don't think he was provoking anyone at all," said Joel Kupferman, a member of the guild. "It's really upsetting because he's here to serve, to make sure everyone else can be protected. ... It's a sign that they are out of control."

The march had begun at a city park, where an activist from New York City, started it. off with a speech through a bullhorn.

"They are not operating on Earth time. ... They are accom-modating the devil," he said. "To love democracy and to love the earth is to be a radical now."

The activist, Billy Talen, trav-els the country preaching against consumerism. He initially iden-tified himself as "the Rev. Bil-ly from the Church of Life After Shopping."

The G-20 summit was begin-ning Thursday evening with a welcome ceremony at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gar-den and ends late Friday after-noon after a day of meetings at the David L. Lawrence Conven-tion Center.

Dignitaries were arriving in waves and were heading to a city under heavy security. Po-lice and National Guard troops guarded many downtown inter-sections, and a maze of tall met-al fences and concrete barriers shunted cars and pedestrians.

Hundreds of police in riot gear were seen massing at Phipps, but only a handful of demonstrators were there.

Escape from Tikrit jail triggers manhunt

Anarchists march in protest of U.S. capitalism

NATION BRIEFLY

By Brian MurpheyThe Associated Press

BAGHDAD — U.S. aircraft and Iraqi patrols combined in a mas-sive manhunt Thursday after the escape of 16 prisoners — includ-ing five al-Qaida-linked inmates awaiting execution — who ap-parently crawled through a bath-room window in a makeshift jail on a former compound of Saddam Hussein.

The jailbreak in Saddam’s hometown Tikrit highlighted the struggles for Iraqi authorities to maintain control over an over-crowded prison system and ab-sorb thousands of detainees turned over by U.S. forces as part of a broad security pact. At least two senior officials were fired af-ter the late Wednesday escape.

Few details on the fugitives were provided by Iraqi security chiefs. But five were Iraqis who were sentenced to death for ter-rorism-related crimes and links to al-Qaida in Iraq, said a Tikrit po-lice officer, said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the opera-tion with media.

The other 11 escaped convicts were jailed on charges that in-clude kidnapping and murder, and some were awaiting sentenc-ing, the officer said. At least one — a 19-year-old inmate — was re-captured early Thursday and the others remained at large.

A full-scale curfew was im-posed on the city of 250,000 af-ter the escape and eased before sundown on Thursday. Soldiers, however, expanded checkpoints and displayed wanted posters with photos of the fugitives. Mil-itary units also sharpened their watch on Iraq’s borders — par-ticularly the western frontier with Syria — as the dragnet widened over sparsely populated regions

outside Tikrit.At the request of local author-

ities, the U.S. military in the area provided search dogs and aeri-al surveillance, spokesman Maj. Derrick Cheng said.

Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has recently boosted his

claims that Syria continues to har-bor Iraqi insurgents. On Thurs-day, al-Maliki said chances were “nearly hopeless” to resolve dis-putes with Syria over claims it is providing refuge for Saddam loy-alists blamed for bombings in Au-gust that killed about 100 people

in Baghdad.Iraqi Interior Ministry spokes-

man Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf would not comment on the inmates’ possible links to al-Qaida, saying only that some of the escaped convicts are consid-ered “dangerous.”

The breakout came about 45 minutes before midnight in one of Saddam’s former pal-ace compounds in Tikrit, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Inmates were housed in a former school of Islamic studies.

Bassem Daham | Associated Press

Iraqi police stand guard at a checkpoint in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad on Thursday. A curfew was imposed on the city after 16 prisoners escaped Wednesday night in Tikrit and the U.S. military offered sniffer dogs and conducted aerial patrols as part of the search for the fugitives.

Jacqueline Larma | Associated Press

Police in riot gear redeploy after confrontations with protestors in Pittsburgh on Thursday. Protestors were against the G-20 summit.

Attempt at smuggling illegal immigrants ends in shooting

SAN DIEGO — Two men were charged Thursday with smuggling illegal immigrants in a failed attempt to rush the nation’s busiest border crossing in vans packed with suspected illegal immigrants.

One defendant, Sergio Guz-man, was shot in his “lower ex-tremities” when U.S. author-ities fired on the van he was driving, according to a state-ment of probable cause. Guz-man allegedly agreed to drive a blue Ford Econoline van with 25 people inside in exchange for free passage into the Unit-ed States.

The other defendant, Jose Ja-ramillo, agreed to pay $4,000 to be smuggled to the coun-try. The complaint does not de-tail his alleged role in the failed crossing but says he was previ-ously arrested 28 times on im-migration-related violations.

It was unknown if either man had an attorney.

Guzman was one of four peo-ple injured when U.S. authori-ties opened fire on one of three vans that allegedly tried to storm through the San Ysidro border crossing connecting San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday, according to San Di-ego police. One other person was struck by gunfire, and two were hurt when the van hit a truck. None of the injuries was life-threatening.

Alberto Diaz, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in San Diego, said one of the two who were shot was released from the hospital Thursday and the other was expected to remain hospitalized for sever-al days. He did not know their names.

Another driver ran back to Mexico and was captured there, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That driver will be prosecuted in Mexico. The whereabouts of the third driver was unclear.

U.S. authorities found 58 men, 15 women and five chil-dren in the vans, all of them suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Diaz said 66 have been re-turned to Mexico.

Authorities release inmates from Guantanamo Bay WASHINGTON — The Obama administration says at least 6, and as many as 8, Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay will soon leave the prison for freedom on the tiny Pacific nation of Palau.

Word of the transfer came in a letter released Thursday by U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Kagan con-firmed Palau has agreed to accept all but one of the 13 Chinese Mus-lims, or Uighurs, who remain at Guantanamo.

The administration is trying to fend off Supreme Court review of the Uighurs’ case.

Six of the Uighurs have agreed to the transfer and attempts to per-suade two others are continuing, Kagan wrote. The exact date of de-parture is classified, she added.

In a letter to the court, one of the 13 had not been offered a chance to resettle in Palau.

Compiled from The Associated Press

Pesticides in French Carribeanlead to ban on fishing in rivers

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique — This French Caribbean island has banned fishing in all its riv-ers and some coastal areas for the next year after finding high levels of a controversial pesticide.

Recent studies by local health officials found more than double the accepted amount of kepone — also known as chlordecone — in 96 percent of samples taken at 40 locations across Martinique, a

government statement said this week.

Concerns over chlordecone sur-faced in 2007 after a French med-ical researcher suggested it may have affected cancer rates in Mar-tinique and neighboring Guade-loupe. Last year, France pledged $51 million to monitor and elimi-nate high levels of the pesticide as it warned residents to watch what they ate and drank.

Guadeloupe already imposed a five-year ban on fishing in cer-tain rivers and coastal areas after recording high levels of chlorde-cone, which was used on banana plantations until its ban in 1993.

Earlier this year, the pesticide was added to a U.N.-sponsored treaty aimed at combating highly dan-gerous chemicals.

Thierry Touzet, director of Mar-tinique’s veterinary services, urged islanders to buy fish from legal vendors to avoid possible contamination.

Local fishermen decried the ban, saying it strips them of a livelihood already hurt by high oil prices and foreign competition.

It’s unclear how much the ban will affect commercial fishermen because the industry has been largely unregulated.

— The Associated Press

WORLD BRIEFLY

3 W/N

We encourage any community member who has any kind of temporary or permanent disability to contact Texas Student Media beforehand so that appropriate accommodations can be made. Anyone is welcome to attend.

FridaySeptember 25, 2009

2:00 P.M.

TSMBOARD

MEETING

College of CommunicationL.B.J. Room, CMA 5.160

2600 Whitis Ave.Austin, Texas 78712

Visitors Welcome

Fall 2009 Fellowship Awards

Paul Abel

Hertz Foundation Fellows

Graduate Fellowship Award of up to $240,000

University of Texas at Austin

CONGRATULATIO

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www.HertzFoundation.org

Friday, September 25, 2009 OPINION4THE DAILY TEXAN

GALLERY

Editor in Chief: Jillian SheridanPhone: (512) 232-2212E-mail: [email protected] Editors: Jeremy Burchard David Muto Dan Treadway Lauren Winchester

VIEWPOINT

By Meg SusongDaily Texan Columnist

Using a new code

LEGALESEOpinions expressed in The Daily Texan are

those of the editor, the editorial board or the writer of the article. They are not necessari-ly those of the UT administration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees. All Texan editorials are writ-ten by the editorial board, which is listed in the top right corner of this page.

Have someting to say? Say it in print, and to the entire campus community. The Daily Texan Editorial Board welcomes submissions for guest columns. Columns must be between 500 and 700 words. Send columns to [email protected]. The Texan reserves the right to edit all columns for clarity and liabil-ity if chosen for publication.

SUBMIT A COLUMN

By Dave PlayerDaily Texan Columnist

Address overcrowded busses

While the social climate of the

U.S. would not drastically change

immediately if the bill passed, it would serve

as a crucial step toward eradicating

discrimination.

Fighting discrimination

THE FIRING LINE

Let police focus on important tasksThe strangest thing happened to me on the

way to a meeting the other day. I was riding my bike up the big ramp to the education building and I heard a shrill whistle, the kind cowboys use in the movies to turn cows from cliff edges. I looked around for the cow. I heard the whistle again. A cop was staring at me from about 50 yards away. I stopped and looked back, con-fused. He pointed at my bike, making walking motions with his fingers. Oh. Walking on the sidewalk. Right. I walked up the deserted ramp, passing another biker pedaling the other way. “Watch out,” I said. Seconds later, a whistle.

Leaving the meeting, I turned east toward the football stadium, passing Gregory Gymnasium. It was noon, and students were everywhere doing the cellphone-lemming-walk-to-class-

without-ever-watching-where-I-am-walking walk. Three undergraduate women quite liter-ally stepped into traffic directly in front of me. I braked hard enough that my rear bike tire left the ground. The car behind me chirped rubber while stopping. I stared at the women. Absorbed in their phones, they still hadn’t seen me. No cow whistles. No cops. They walked right past me into the traffic going the other way. I get it, though: There are tens of thousands of us. There is neither room nor time for roads and sidewalks.

Only about 200 cars actually fit on cen-tral campus. Kick them out completely. Let the other 51,289 of us get from class to class biking and walking however we like. The undergraduate pedestrians are doing that already anyway, ticketless. Release the cops from bike duty. Let them focus on preventing assaults (62 in 2008), thefts (611), DWIs (191) and rapes (2).

It’s the last thing you want to see on a rainy weekday morning: an orange and white UT shuttle packed full of students zooming right past you without so much as a pumped brake. What was once a rare occurrence has become all too common this semester, especially on the system’s West Campus bus route, on which students are likely to find longer waits, more crowded buses and oc-casional fly-bys when buses are already too crowded to stop and let anyone else on.

The West Campus bus route snakes through the neigh-borhood, making seven stops before returning to drop off students across campus. According to Capital Met-ro, which runs the UT shuttle service, four buses cur-rently operate on the route during peak morning hours, making it the sixth-most-used UT shuttle in terms of the number of buses simultaneously en route.

Over the years, Cap Metro has made adjustments to the number of buses on specific routes to addresses fluc-tuations in ridership. Over the past five years, for in-stance, the number of buses serving Intramural Fields and Far West routes has risen. Why, then, have the over-flowing West Campus buses not been addressed?

One possible explanation is the sudden influx of new apartment complexes into the neighborhood and with them, a dramatic boom in the area’s student population. In September 2004 the city revised the zoning codes for West Campus to allow buildings to exceed the previous three-story limit. This change has opened the door for the construction of such new corporate developments as The Block, The Quarters on Campus and Jefferson apart-ments, all of which have multiple properties in West Campus. Since 2004, 20 new complexes have gone up, each with hundreds of bedrooms, bringing in hoards of

students to their closest West Campus bus stop. What may have been an adequate number of buses in past years, or even this past spring, is suddenly not.

The West Campus shuttle is not the only bus route feeling the crunch of the now densely populated neigh-borhood. The popular Cap Metro Eating and Entertain-ment Bus, or “E-Bus,” which shuttles students to and from the downtown district on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, has increased in popularity in recent years. The service operates a West Campus route that has also come to feel the strain of too many passengers and not enough buses.

With the neighborhood student population not ex-pected to dip anytime soon, adjustments must be made. Cap Metro is a taxpayer-funded municipal en-tity that works to serve the public transportation in-terests of local citizens. As such, the organization often seeks community input in order to provide the most ef-fective and efficient service possible. The question then becomes how best to voice those concerns to a large government bureaucracy.

Luckily, as members of the UT community, we have a vessel for that expressed purpose: Student Government. SG first initiated the push for the E-Bus, which began service back in 2002. The popular program was the by-product of student involvement in SG, which engaged Cap Metro and the Austin Police Department.

As an organization, SG is fundamentally limited by the amount of support and involvement it receives from the student body. The E-Bus initiative was a prime ex-ample of students voicing their concerns and actively taking control of their own quality-of-life concerns.

Hopefully, it can happen again — before we miss the bus.

Player is a plan II honors junior

Amid criticism from the LGBT community that the Department of Justice and Congress have largely ig-nored LGBT concerns since the election of President Ba-rack Obama, both the House and the Senate have intro-duced a bill to forbid workplace discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The House Education and Labor Committee heard testimony Wednesday on the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which is currently pend-ing in the Senate. If passed, the bill would become the first federal ban on employment discrimination of LBGT workers in the private sec-tor (religious organizations ex-empted). Such protections are al-ready available to employees of the federal government.

The first bill that targeted dis-crimination on the basis of sexual orientation was introduced in Con-gress in 1974, with the first using the current “Employment Non-Dis-crimination Act” title introduced in 1994. Until 2007, gender identi-ty — whose inclusion continues to stir controversy — was excluded from the provision and ultimately dropped in past bills in an attempt to ease their passage through Con-gress. The current version of ENDA is thus extremely significant.

The bill has garnered attention in part because of its focus on several high-profile LGBT issues, including the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the continuing fight for marriage equality. Additional-ly, a recent report by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT lobbying group, found that, despite advances in employment policies at major U.S. corporations, a ma-jority of LGBT workers continue to experience a range of struggles arising from sexual orientation and gender identity issues.

Considering the present drive of the gay rights move-ment, coupled with increasingly visibility and contin-ued discrimination, ENDA is a significant step in the

right direction and a bill that must be passed. Currently, federal law provides legal protection

against employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, age and disability — but not sexual orientation or gender identity. In 29 states, it is still legal to fire employees based on sexual orienta-tion, and in 38 states it is still legal to fire someone for being transgender. Texas, unsurprisingly, does not cur-rently provide any means of protection against discrim-ination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The city of Austin does not require that companies that submit bids for city contracts have LGBT non-discrimination policies in place, and while UT prohibits discrim-ination on the basis of sexual orienta-tion, the University does not offer do-mestic-partner benefits for employees.

The LGBT community needs ENDA. Though much work would remain for LGBT activists if such an encom-passing and significant bill passed, it would add to the current encouraging climate in the private business sector.

While the social climate of the U.S. would not drastically change immediately if the bill passed, it would serve as a crucial step to-ward eradicating discrimination.

“We’ve found that inclusive non-discrimination policies and equal benefits are the essential first step to-ward cultivating a productive and en-gaged LGBT employee,” said Daryl Herrschaft, director of the Human Rights Campaign’s workplace out-

reach project. “But they are not the last step.” More important than an enforceable law, ENDA

would provide legitimacy of sexual orientation and gender identity in American politics. This would mark the first time gender identity has been federally recog-nized in any regard, and along with LGBT individuals, transgender individuals would gain political respect.

Hopefully, in the process, ENDA can open the door to additional discrimination concerns that risk being hit by the door on the way out.

Susong is women’s and gender studies sophomore

On Tuesday, UT’s Student Government approved a new election code that makes necessary changes to the organization’s operation.

The code now allows any UT student to apply for a position on the Election Su-pervisory Board, the entity that oversees campus elections processes.

Previously, the board was composed of students selected by the supervisory board chair, a position that was appointed by the SG president. Now, leaders of organizations that use the election code will choose the nine board members, and those members will then appoint a chairperson.

This policy change, while laudable, will only be effective if students who are not members of SG apply for a position on the board so they can bring an outside per-spective and critical eye to an organization that has suffered under cronyism and poor decision-making.

The Daily Texan reported last spring that Election Supervisory Board Co-Chair-man César Martinez Espinosa and then-SG President Keshav Rajagopalan used their official titles when sending out e-mails campaigning for executive alliance Liam O’Rourke and Shara Ma — a violation of election code in Rajagopalan’s case.

The board was also criticized when it imposed a draconian punishment on Phillip Tau and Sarah Michelle Stearns, candidates for president and vice president, when the name of a popular Facebook group, “Texas did beat OU 45-35, lest we forget,” was changed to “VOTE PHILLIP AND SARAH MICHELLE FOR SG President and VP! :).” Tau and Stearns denied any involvement with the name change but were hit with a $100 fine and were suspended from campaigning for two days, which would have prohibited them from attending the SG debate. The punishment was lessened when Tau and Stearns appealed the decision to the judicial commission.

The new election code now limits the judicial commission to settling disputes only about the SG constitution. Appeals to the board’s decision will now be di-rected to the appellate court, which consists of a faculty member and two UT law students.

The code also defines “campaigning” and “endorsing” in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the controversy that arose in the spring.

“Endorsing is expressing your or an organization’s support for a candidate,” said University-wide Representative Alex Ferraro at the meeting. “Campaigning is di-rectly soliciting votes for a candidate. Endorsing usually falls under campaigning, but not all campaigning is endorsing.”

Organization members in leadership positions can show support for candidates, but only if they include a disclaimer stating that their views do not reflect the views of the organization.

But these reforms to the code and constitution are not without flaws. There are no built-in consequences for SG and Election Supervisory Board officials who vio-late the election code. When this point was addressed at the SG meeting, Universi-ty-wide Representative Carly Castetter said the president, for example, could hy-pothetically be impeached. We would feel more confident, however, if the possible consequences were enumerated in the code. SG failed to even pass a resolution con-demning Rajagopalan’s violation of the election code last spring, which would have been the legislative equivalent of a slap on the wrist. It seems unlikely that SG mem-bers will take it upon themselves to impeach any erring member.

We hope that an influx of skeptical outsiders will help prevent and punish elec-tion code violations in the future, but without willing students, the efficacy and im-partiality of the new board will be compromised.

— Lauren Winchester for the editorial board

GALLERY

— Josh HollandAmerican studies graduate student

EXPOSURETHE DAILY TEXAN

E-mail: [email protected]: (512) 471-8618www.dailytexanonline.com Friday, September 25, 2009

5

Months of preparation lead to a single day of competition for the young women who participate in beauty pageants. Workshops educate contestants about proper

makeup, attire and stage etiquette. Traditional pageants aim to build the self-esteem of young women by emphasizing morals, personality and talents. Throughout the pag-

eant process, contestants’ mothers play an integral role in preparing their daughters for competition. The winner of each pageant earns a crown and represents the title for one year.

— Sara Young

&

5 UNIV

Hailey Wegner, a 13-year-old contestant, waits for her mother after the preliminary to the Texas United America Pageant held in The Woodlands, Texas. As for many contestants, this was Wegner’s first pageant.

Above, Krista Garvis stands backstage to regain com-posure as the pageant comes to an end. Left, Contestants practice stage etiquette with a fashion con-sultant at a pre-pageant workshop. Pageant direc-tors and former contestants often bring their daughters to workshops and competi-tions to expose them to beauty pageants.

Top, 15-year old Shelby Davenport prepares backstage with her mother for the “eve-ning wear” segment. Middle, 13-year old contestant Kayla Coleman rehearses an opening dance routine minutes before the pageant begins. Bottom, Jen Burnes is crowned winner of the “Mrs.” division at the finale of the pageant.

poise perfection

NEWS Friday, September 25, 20096

By Jordan HaegerDaily Texan Staff

While Austin’s tourism econ-omy is not invincible, it is main-taining stability compared to the rest of the country.

The U.S. Bureau of Eco-nomic Analysis released a re-port Wednesday demonstrat-ing the slowing decline of tour-ism spending across the coun-try. While the national numbers still aren’t climbing, they aren’t falling as quickly as in the first quarter of 2009.

After falling 8.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, nation-al figures on travel spending dropped by only 1.4 percent in April through June, according to the report.

“While Austin is not exempt, we have been able to main-tain some stability,” said Beth Krauss, spokeswoman for the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Austin attracts about 19 mil-lion visitors annually and earns $3.5 billion on tourist spending, according to a 2006 Convention and Visitors Bureau report.

Austin hotels are not at full occupancy, but they’re doing better than hotels in competitor cities like Phoenix, Denver and Dallas, Krauss said.

Hotels citywide are 65 to 68 percent full compared to 72 to 75 percent in previous years.

“We’re only down 7 or 8 per-

cent, while our competitor cit-ies are down 10 or 20,” Krauss said.

Like Austin, competitor cities attract a lot of business conven-tions, Krauss said.

One reason for the higher ho-tel occupancy is Austin’s smaller size, Krauss said.

“We’re a smaller city so we don’t have as many downtown hotel rooms – it’s easier to fill them,” Krauss said.

Alvin Cantu, the general man-ager of Texas Rowing Center, said his business hasn’t seen a drop in customers. Most of Can-tu’s customers are Austin resi-dents, he said, but the number of tourists visiting the center hasn’t decreased.

“It’s been great actually,” Cantu said. “It’s been our best years.”

Michael Danks of Austin Duck Adventures said his cli-ents are about half tourists and half Austin residents. He said the number of clients has re-mained steady.

Krauss said Austin’s afford-ability is the reason the city has been able to maintain a stable level of tourism, particularly in the compact downtown area that allows people to walk instead of paying for transportation.

Austin has a great conven-tion center and high-tech hotels, which is why it is an ideal des-tination for business meetings and conventions, Krauss said.

“When AIG crashed, people were cancelling meetings ev-erywhere, but not in Austin,” Krauss said.

By Nihas WagalDaily Texan Staff

Record-breaking use of pub-lic transit in 2008 caused Texans to save 115 million gallons of gas-oline, equal to the amount con-sumed by 200,600 cars in one year.

Capital Metro experienced a 69 percent increase in usage during the summer, said Capital Met-ro spokeswoman Misty Whit-ed. She said the increase is due to the better-than-average weath-er Austinites experienced during the summer.

“During summer months, gas prices also tend to be higher, and with the way our economy is, people are taking approaches to save money by using public tran-sit,” Whited said.

In 2008, increased nation-al transit ridership saved more than 4 billion gallons of gaso-line, which is the equivalent of the fuel that nearly 7.2 million cars — almost as many passenger cars that are registered in Flori-da — consume in one year, said Gerri Witthuhn, a spokeswoman for Environment Texas.

According to the statewide cit-izen-based environmental advo-cacy organization, a number of initiatives are being taken by ma-jor cities throughout the state to

reduce private vehicle usage and increase public transit. San Anto-nio is looking to increase rider-ship with its Smart Way San An-

tonio transportation plan. The plan will examine different city corridors in order to implement high-capacity transit.

Environment Texas is also push-ing for full provisions of CLEAN TEA, or the Clean, Low Emis-sions, Affordable New Transpor-tation Equity Act. The legislation, proposed by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., would reinvest 10 percent of money saved from climate bill al-lowances into clean transporta-tion efforts that will save oil and reduce emissions.

“Since America has the great-est number of cars per capita in the world, and the use of those cars is contributing to one-third of the global warming pollution our country emits, it is refresh-ing to know that more Texans are turning to public transporta-tion. Green transit connects our communities, boosts our econo-my and helps protect our envi-ronment,” Witthuhn said. “In or-der to increase these benefits, our congressional representatives must increase federal investment in the public transit system.”

Public transportation gains popularity, saves gas

Kari Rosenfeld | Daily Texan Staff

Suede Kam rides the bus to class Thursday afternoon. She uses public transportation to save money, time and to stay dry on rainy days.

‘‘During summer months, gas prices tend to be higher,

and with the way our economy is, people are taking approaches to save money by using

public transit.”

— Misty Whited Capital Metro

spokeswoman

Austin’s tourismremains steadyin shaky economy

Kari Rosenfeld | Daily Texan Staff

Esther Van Hout guides a tour group around the Capitol on Thursday morning. Van Hout said that she has not noticed any change in the number of tourists at the Capitol and thinks it could be due to its free admission and educational value.

Federal analysis report indicates that city ranks well with competition

6 S/L

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Sports Editor: Austin TalbertE-mail: [email protected]: (512) 232-2210www.dailytexanonline.com SPORTS

THE DAILY TEXAN

7Friday, September 25, 2009

Wee

kend

Pr

evie

ws SOCCER

WEEKEND: Texas (3-5) at Oklahoma (5-3-1); Texas (3-5) at Baylor (4-1-2)WHERE: OU Soccer Complex Norman, Okla.WHEN: Today and Sunday at 7 p.m,

By Shabab SiddiquiDaily Texan Staff

The only thing bugging the Texas women’s golf team right now is the flu.

“We have a couple players feeling a little under the weath-er,” said head coach Martha Rich-ards. “Normally, I don’t travel six, but this way we can be safe.”

The Longhorns tee off today at the Mason Rudolph Invitational

By Jordan GodwinDaily Texan Staff

As the second-ranked Texas women’s volleyball team heads into Nebraska, they are reminded that it’s been a while since Texas won in Lincoln — a long while.

So long that in his eight seasons as Texas’ head coach, Jerritt Elliott has never won in Cornhusker ter-ritory.

“We want to play in some

By Laken LitmanDaily Texan Staff

The Longhorns will have to turn all of their injuries, inexpe-rience and mistakes into posi-tives if they want to survive the weekend.

The Texas women’s soccer team (3-5) begins Big 12 play

By Tara DreyerDaily Texan Staff

The University of Texas men’s swimming and diving team will hold its annual Orange-White Classic today at 3 p.m. at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. This will be the first chance fans will have to take a

By Matt Hohner Daily Texan Staff

Editor’s note: This is the first in a se-ries profiling the people that work be-hind the scenes to make the game-day experience at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium possible.

Darrell K Royal-Texas Memori-al Stadium set a stadium and Big 12 Conference record this past Sat-urday with 101,297 screaming fans packed in the stadium.

What those fans probably do not know about, however, is the hun-dreds of people and their intense efforts which are required to make a Saturday game-day experience

memorable. Jim Baker, Texas’ associate ath-

letics director for events and op-erations, en-sures that re-cord crowds can enjoy Longhorn games. Baker oversees it all: g ro u n d s k e e -ping, mainte-nance, suite op-erations, ticket operations, con-struction, se-curity and concessions. He’s ev-erywhere in and around the stadi-

um, and more than likely, you have never seen him.

“I stay organized as much as I can,” Baker said. “[I'm] just trying to anticipate your problems and making sure everybody has the in-formation they need to provide a successful game day.”

It’s the small things that Bak-er worries about. His responsibili-ty is to make sure all the little piec-es are accounted for and fit into the larger equation of everything that makes game days relaxing.Toilet paper stocked in the bath-room? Check — Baker does that. Enough workers to serve con-

cessions at the stand? Check — Baker makes sure of that. Securi-ty to ensure your safety? Check — Baker takes care of that.

A primetime game like against Texas Tech last week, creates add-ed chaos for Baker — chaos which requires a lot of coordination.Baker likes to arrive eight hours before kickoff on Saturdays while staying for a couple hours after the final play of the game.

“Game days are always hectic days,” Baker said. “The first game is usually the most hectic, and as we go in it gets a little smoother.”

Preparation for game day

doesn’t happen overnight. Unlike a typical college kid cramming be-fore an exam, Baker must plan year-round for the football sea-son and examine what areas need improvement and what already works well.

Baker, having been at Texas for 19 years, is not new to the pro-gram. He has endured countless Saturdays and numerous stadium renovations to make Darrell K Roy-al-Texas Memorial Stadium one of the finest college football venues in the nation.

“Our facilities are as good as [anybody's] now,” Baker

said. “When I got here in 1991, they weren’t very good. It’s certainly in the top three. I think we’re as good as anybody. Everything we’re do-ing is for the athletes; we’re try-ing to give them the best of every-thing. That’s our job, and that’s what we’re here for.”

It’s not the “The Jim Baker Show,” though, as he doesn’t take all the credit for everything that oc-curs on Saturdays.

“It’s the University of Texas athletic department and the guys who work for me who get the job

FRIDAYPREVIEWTexas swimming and diving open season with Orange-White Classic

SWIM continues on page 8

Horns begin conference games without handful of valuable playmakers

SOCCER continues on page 8

Longhorns look to end Nebraska’s 82-game winning streak at home

V-BALL continues on page 8

Richards heads to old stomping grounds with young, ambitious team

GOLF continues on page 8


Above left, captain Erica Campanelli looks up to pass as she takes possession of the ball. Above right, UT swimmer freestyles in 2008’s Orange-White Classic. Bottom left, Megan Rosenfeld takes a swing at the Duramed Cougar Classic. Bottom right, Juliann Faucette spikes the ball in their most recent home game. These four UT teams will all show their competitive edge in this weekend’s myriad of events.

Paul Chouy | Daily Texan file photo

WOMEN’S GOLFWEEKEND: Mason Rudolph Women’s ChampionshipWHERE: Vanderbilt Legends Club, Franklin, Tenn.WHEN: Today and Saturday at 8 a.m., Sunday at 7:30 a.m.

VOLLEYBALLSATURDAY: No. 2 Texas (8-0, 3-0 Big 12) at No. 6 Nebraska (9-3, 2-1 Big 12)WHERE: Nebraska ColiseumLincoln, Neb.WHEN: 1 p.m.

MEN’S SWIMMINGTODAY: Annual Orange-White ClassicWHERE: Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming CenterWHEN: 3 p.m.

WOMEN’S CROSSCOUNTRYTODAY: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islander SplashWHERE: West Guth Park, Corpus ChristiWHEN: 6 p.m.

Derek Stout | Daily Texan file photo

Freshman Bailey Webster and senior Ashley Engle prepare for a set a few weeks ago against Iowa State. Webster, Engle and the Longhorns will seek Texas’ first win in Lincoln, Neb. this weekend since 1988.

� anks to Baker, UT fans enjoy their Saturdays at DKR

Derek Stout | Daily Texan Staff

DKR continues on page 8

Jim Baker


7 SPTS

SPORTS Friday, September 25, 20098

tonight as it travels to Norman to face off with heated rival Oklahoma (5-3-1). Despite the season’s rocky start in playing nonconference op-ponents, conference games are seen as the real start of the season.

“There’s no easy game in the Big 12,” said junior captain Erica Cam-panelli. “But I think more than fo-cusing on a particular game, we’re focusing on us as a team because we haven’t gotten off to the best start. Conference [play] is a whole new chance for us, and we’re go-ing to get to be able to build off from where we left off in noncon-ference play and hopefully turn this around into a great season.”

After playing Oklahoma to-

night, the Longhorns will head to Waco for another conference game at Baylor (4-1-2) on Sunday. After the way things have started for Texas, it’s not ideal for the first two conference games to be away. The Longhorns’ first two games of the season, however, were at home, and ended in a win and a loss.

One thing the Longhorns can definitely look forward to, heading into the weekend, is the return of their first teammate off the injured reserve list. Junior Niki Arlitt, who was out for three games due to a concussion, will be back in the line-up just in time for the first two con-ference games.

Another perk for this weekend is the anticipation of facing ex-teammates. Campanelli explained

she has played with and against a number of players from Oklahoma and Baylor back during her precol-lege club days.

“It’s always fun to face old oppo-nents and teammates,” Campanel-li said. “They know a little more about you, and you know a little more about them, but whether you know them or not when you step on the field, you’re not going to act like you know them.”

Although the Longhorns have more numbers in their losses col-umn, they have been going back to their drawing board and learning from their mistakes all week.

“Every time we give up a goal, we go back and watch the film to see where we made a mistake,” Campanelli said. “Keeping posses-

sion is a big thing we’re working on [as well as] taking advantage of scoring opportunities. We’ve been good at creating [scoring opportu-nities], but we just need to finish.”

The Longhorns have been put-ting in an exceptional amount of work to make up for the ab-sence of players due to injury. The team’s losses aren’t coming from a lack of skill, mentality or work ethic but rather a lack of experi-ence on the field.

“It’s not easy,” Campanelli ex-plained about the team’s progres-sion and winning games. “The freshmen were thrown into the fire very, very quickly, but they’ve done a great job. We’ve just got to start getting results as a team now.”

Seven out of the 11 starters are

freshmen, but because so many of them have had to step up and log a lot of minutes, the team doesn’t really see their freshmen as fresh-men anymore.

“I don’t think freshman, soph-omore, junior, senior means any-thing to our team anymore because we’ve all played so many minutes with the injuries we’ve had,” Cam-panelli said. “That’s actually one great thing we’ve gotten out of it ... that every single person all the way down the bench has gotten significant minutes.”

The Longhorns will play the Sooners tonight at the OU Soccer Complex in Norman, Okla at 7 p.m. and the Bears on Sunday at the Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field in Waco at 7 p.m.

look at this year’s team. The Orange-White Classic is

the first competition of the year in which the team is divided in half in order to compete against each other.

“We try to split the team as evenly as we can so that it’s competitive,” said Kris Kubik, the men’s swimming and div-ing assistant coach who will an-nounce the event.

For each event, they pair the athlete who they think will finish first with the person they think will finish third. The swimmers whom they think will finish sec-ond and fourth will compete against them on the other team so that each event is as competi-tive as possible.

The team will participate in all of the same events that they will face during the regular sea-son, so the Longhorns will get an accurate look at the team they have.

“So basically, it’s a dress re-hearsal of what’s to come later in the year,” Kubik said.

This meet will help prepare the swimmers for their major dual-meet season that starts in Janu-ary. In January, they will compete against the defending national champion, Auburn University, to whom Texas finished second last year in the NCAA Champi-onship. Along with Auburn, Tex-as has Georgia and Arizona on the schedule for January, and in February, the Longhorns will face Texas A&M and SMU.

“[The Orange-White Classic] is our initial groundbreak meet: a) to familiarize the new com-ers to what college dual meet should be like, and then b) for everyone to race and kind of get a feel for college competition,” Kubik said.

At the event, fans can see about 13 swimming events, the 1-meter diving event, the 3-me-ter diving event, and then a free-style relay to conclude the meet. Teams will be scored, and a win-ner will be declared.

Among the swimmers com-peting today are Olympic gold medalists Ricky Berens and Dave Walters, Olympic finalist Scott Spann and two-time Big 12 Champion diver Matt Cooper. Kubik says the team is very close day in and day out throughout the year as teammates, but dur-ing this event they will not like each other depending on what team they represent.

“The orange team is definitely a team, and the white team is def-initely a team. And then… [after the meet concludes] we sing ‘The Eyes of Texas,’ and then we are once again the University of Tex-as swimming team,” Kubik said.

in Nashville, Tenn. and will com-pete in a tightly contested field. The tournament, located at the Vanderbilt Legends Club, fea-tures a surfeit of ranked oppo-nents including the nation’s top four teams — Arizona State, USC, UCLA and Oklahoma State.

“This is just an outstanding field,” Richards said. “It’s just about an NCAA [end-of-the-year tournament] preview. With a young group, we just need to go play hard.”

The three-round, 54-hole tour-nament also shapes up to be a homecoming of sorts for Rich-ards, who spent seven years as head coach for Vanderbilt be-fore spending the last two at the 40 Acres. Richards guided the

previously post-seasonally ab-sent Commodores to four NCAA tournaments, including an SEC Championship and a school-best fifth-place finish in the NCAA Championship, both in 2005.

“It’s fun for me to coach on a golf course that I know really well,” Richards said. “I get to see a lot of people I know. It’ll be fun to have this young group with a lot of energy competing out there.”

The Longhorns are coming off a top-10 finish in their last tour-nament, the Duramed Cougar Classic in Charleston, S.C. fresh-

men Madison Pressel, Desiree Dubreuil, Katelyn Sepmoree and Haley Stephens all made their college debut with Pressel lead-ing the team with a 5-over-par

221 at the end of the tournament.

“I think they did a great job,” Richards said. “I think Madison had one bad hole the entire tourna-ment. For a lot of them, it was the first time they played 36 holes

of golf in one day as well as play-ing in a shotgun setting. I thought we were able to settle down as a team.”

Along with the freshmen, the team travels senior Shannon Fish

and sophomore Nicole Vander-made. Vandermade started off slow before shooting a team-best 3-under-par 69 in the second round and finished tied for 45th.

“Her mentality is to keep com-peting,” Richards said. “I think she’s always trying to build on every thing and get better. She’s also excited about the energy this team has.”

Richards goal for the weekend is for her team to compete.

“I want to see us come in here and shoot some good numbers,” Richards said. “What I really love about this group is that they love to compete. And in golf, it’s difficult because everyone’s trying to win, but it’s really about us playing the best golf we can. It’s really got to be about us stepping up to the plate and taking care of our business.”

adverse situations and see how our team responds,” Elliott said. “We’ll definitely get that at Nebraska with their crowd. It is obviously a big task, and they have a long winning streak in the Coliseum.”

As it turns out, it’s been a long while since any team won in Nebraska. Their 82-match win streak dates back to 2004. But Texas’ Lincoln blues dates back much further than that.

Nov. 4, 1988 was the last time Texas had a victory over Ne-braska in Lincoln. Only four Horns were even born in 1988.

Texas is 2-19 all-time in Lin-coln, but the Longhorns will have the upper hand Friday. Texas won its last match 3-1 in November, and this season fea-tures a very nontraditional Ne-braska team.

At 9-3, Nebraska is off to its worst start in decades. Last weekend, they lost to Texas A&M in College Station for a rare Big 12 Conference loss. De-

spite their shortcomings, the Cornhuskers still rank sixth na-tionally.

“It’s still Nebaska, and it’s still a huge rivalry,” said senior libero Heather Kisner. “We’re ready to go up there for an ex-citing game and compete.”

Wanting that first victory in Nebraska, Elliott is stressing to his players that Nebraska can’t be underestimated.

“Nebraska is never weak,” Elliott said. “They always have players that can play very well and can beat anyone on any given night. They play with a lot of confidence at home, and they will have a great crowd. It’ll be sold out, and it’ll be very loud from the moment we step into that gym.”

Still, Texas’ coach is opti-mistic that his team will end its Nebraska losing streak and give the Cornhuskers their first home loss in over five years.

“I think we’re a better team,” Elliott said. “We’ll see how good we are once we face some adversity in Nebraska.”

done,” Baker said. “They are the ones doing the heavy lifting, and we have a great staff that do excel-lent work and love their job.”

For Baker, along with Athlet-ics Director DeLoss Dodds, Sat-urday is a working business day. Like any other business, the two want to provide a prod-uct that will keep the customers coming back.

“We gotta compete against other people,” Baker said. “If we can’t do everything we can for people such as park and get here to do their thing, then they might not come back. [Dodds] has that foresight to do everything we can for our fans and patrons to make it as best as we can.”

One of Baker’s biggest obsta-cles to overcome is the security and safety of the campus and spectators of the 40 Acres.

“When you got a small city of 100,000 people here, you’re go-ing to have problems,” Baker said. “Game day is all about responding to problems.”

Baker has seen it all during his tenure here.

“When Ricky Williams broke the [rushing] record, the electricity around the stadium was unbeliev-able,” Baker said. “It was after the five years of mediocre football and him breaking the record and win-ning the Heisman. So that A&M game was pretty special.”

But at least recently, the newly installed FieldTurf has made Baker ’s job a bit easier. “We’ve gotten green,” Baker said jokingly. “We don’t have to wa-ter it as much, or fertilize it, put pesticides on it. With Bermuda [grass] when October hits, it goes brown. We used to spray paint the grass green to make it look good.”

Baker has seen everything from toilet overflows to spectator injuries to the cricket invasion of 2007, but he and his band of workers are the reason why the stadium is always as ready to go as the Longhorn football team is on game days.

SWIM: Annual meet serves as warm-up for UT

From page 7

SOCCER: Team sees Big 12 games as new seasonPeyton McGee | Daily Texan file photo

Junior Niki Arlitt heads the ball in the team’s first home game against TCU. After sitting out for the last three games, Arlitt is healthy and ready to play this weekend.

From page 7

Women’s cross-country team travels to Corpus for meet

Today, the women’s cross-country team ventures to Cor-pus Christi to compete in the Tex-as A&M-Corpus Christi Islander Splash, their second meet of the year. They look to continue the trend of early-season success.

On Sept. 5, the team opened the year with its fifth straight Tex-as State Invitational win. All nine of the team’s runners placed in the top 10, and senior Allison Mendez, sophomore Anne Jones and freshman Jenny Swan took first, second and third place, respectively.

Texas hopes to mirror its last Islander Splash finish in 2007, where it took first-place honors. Among the eight runners com-peting for UT will be returning senior leaders Allison Mendez, Betzy Jimenez, Lauren Salisbury and Asia Myrland. The latter three runners were statistical leaders for the Horns last season. In addition to its veteran experience, the team will heavily rely on freshmen Jen-ny Swan and Melissa Mahoney as well as sophomores Anne Jones and Ginny Simon to give them a boost in today’s meet.

— Ryan Betori

DKR: Football game day is no game for Baker

VBALL: Longhorns have advantage over Huskers

GOLF: Texas to face top-ranked teams in TennesseeFrom page 7

SPORTS BRIEFLY

From page 7

From page 7

‘‘I want to see us come in here and shoot

some good numbers.”

— Martha Richards head coach

8 SPTS

9041 Research Blvd., Suite 240 (Austin)Hwy 183 @ Burnet Rd., above Black-Eyed Pea

732-2211

UNIVERSITYFriday, September 25, 2009 9

By Shabab SiddiquiDaily Texan Staff

John Stossel, a 19-time Emmy Award-winning correspondent, gave his opinions about Pres-ident Barack Obama’s health care reform to a group of about 200 at the AT&T Executive Ed-ucation and Conference Center Thursday.

Stossel, a former ABC 20/20 co-anchor who recently took a job with Fox Business Network, is a self-proclaimed supporter of

free-market enterprise. He em-phasized during his speech the need to put health care back in the hands of private industry, an opinion that opposes Obama’s proposal that would create a government-supported system to compete with private insur-ance companies.

The luncheon was hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foun-dation, a nonprofit with goals “to promote and defend liber-ty, personal responsibility and free enterprise,” according to its Web site.

Stossel elaborated on his most recent television special, “Sick in America,” stating his opposition

for the much-debated health care reform bill in Congress.

“President Obama says the current system is unsustainable, and he’s absolutely right,” Stos-sel said. “Not that Obama-care is better. Obama-care will acceler-ate health care inflation.”

While most of the attend-ees applauded Stossel’s stances, one Houston-based doctor said some patients who work full time cannot afford health care. When asked if Obama’s pro-posed health care bill was harm-ful, Stossel said although some of the parts of the legislation were “well-intended,” he dismissed the notion that it would do any-

thing to change the current health care system.

Earlier this month, Stossel re-signed from his half-decade-long post on ABC to start his own show, called “Stossel,” on the Fox Business Network.

“I just wasn’t free to do these stories that I wanted to do,” he said. “While health care was go-ing on, they were doing stories on the Jackson family week af-ter week. I just couldn’t stand the climate anymore. I was very lonely.”

Stossel is also a best-selling author of the books “Give Me a Break” and “Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity.”

University staff attempts to avoid in�uenza spreadBy Jordan HaegerDaily Texan Staff

The UT Staff Council informed staff members Thursday to stay home if they are infected with in-fluenza.

“One of the most dedicated things you can do for the Univer-sity right now is to stay home if you’re sick,” said Julien Carter, associate vice president for hu-man resource services.

The council held a forum to ad-vise its members on how to pre-vent and treat the seasonal flu as well as the H1N1 virus in the fall. Carter advised staff not to return to work for at least 24 hours until after their fever breaks.

With the start of the fall semes-ter came an increase in the spread of all forms of the flu, said Dr. Theresa Spalding, associate di-rector of University Health Ser-vices.

This reflects an increase in in-fluenza — especially the H1N1 virus — that college campus-es are experiencing all over the United States, Spalding said.

H1N1 and the seasonal flu have the same symptoms, in-cluding fever and a cough, Spal-ding said. The H1N1 flu strain is one most of the population has never been exposed to, she said.

People who had asthma, car-diovascular disease, were mor-bidly obese or pregnant made up most of the deaths caused by H1N1 in 2008, Spalding said. People with autoimmune disor-ders are also at a greater risk.

Staff members can apply for emergency leave after they have returned to work if their sick leave for the year won’t cover their absence, Carter said. An-other solution is staff members can work from home through telecommunication, he said.

The University has a set of uni-form written plans to deal with

infectious disease outbreaks, said Bob Harkins, the associate vice president for Campus Safety and Security. In the event of a large

outbreak, such as last year ’s HIN1 pandemic, Harkins said school closures are not practical because students won’t self-iso-

late. But the possibility of closing the University exists.

“We do not anticipate any clo-sure of the University with this

flu, but we have plans for that,” he said.

UHS has requested 13,000 dos-es of an H1N1 vaccine from the

government. If they receive the doses, the University will give students and staff vaccinations for $5 each Nov. 2–6.

News vet wary of health care changes

Anne-Marie Huff | Daily Texan Staff

Dr. Theresa Spalding, associate director of University Health Services; Julien Carter, associate vice president of human resource services; Bob Harkins, associate vice president of cam-pus safety and security, and Dennis Nolan, assistant director of the office of Environmental Health and Safety, address questions and concerns during the UT Staff Council’s forum on influenza and H1N1.

Former 20/20 co-anchor talks about reform billat nonprofit luncheon

Caleb Miller | Daily Texan Staff

John Stossel speaks at a luncheon held at the AT&T Executive Center on Thursday. Stossel criticized President Barack Obama’s health care plan, though he acknowledged that the current system is broken.

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COMICS Friday, September 25, 200910

10 COMICS

Yesterday’s solution

8 3 54 6 5 7 5 4 8 6 4 8 5 6 47 2 12 3 4 8 5 8 2 1 8 7 3

3 2 4 8 9 1 6 5 76 9 7 2 3 5 4 1 85 1 8 4 6 7 3 9 21 4 6 7 2 8 5 3 97 3 9 6 5 4 2 8 18 5 2 3 1 9 7 6 44 8 5 9 7 6 1 2 39 6 3 1 4 2 8 7 52 7 1 5 8 3 9 4 6

understand that Keats is a man of substance — what that substance is, she doesn’t quite know.

As Brawne, Cornish carries this section of the film. Her soft fea-tures juxtaposed against her dis-cerning eyes allow her charac-ter to play both the socialite minx and the love-stricken woman. Whishaw gives an adequate per-formance, but his faraway glances cannot hold a candle to Cornish’s nuanced character.

But while watching them come together is enchanting, watching them torn apart is merely trying. As obstacles mount, both Keats and Brawne grieve the loss of

love, but the obstacles seem mea-ger to the modern intuition. All you need is love, right? I under-stand it was a different time, but tradition just doesn’t mean what it once did. All in all, the separation is long and painful, but more the former than the latter.

There’s a lot to like in “Bright Star” — Cornish’s near-perfect performance, Campion’s won-derful insights into falling in love. But as the film reaches its climax, it feels forced. The tears flow out of characters we don’t relate to anymore. We wish them the best in their troubles but don’t quite know what the fuss is about.

LIFE&ARTSFriday, September 25, 2009 11

ly go further. Guys see it very prag-matically, but to girls it’s just like a novelty. It’s really nice to take some-one who really needs a ride, but for the most part it’s taking someone from, like, the West Mall to the UTC. I really do like it when I get the op-portunity to take someone further, like one time I took someone from Jester to 33rd and Guadalupe.

I give rides at night because I’m really concerned about peo-ple walking home at night by themselves. One dude ran up to me; he was dripping with sweat. And he said, “Oh, my God. I was literally just praying that you would show up, and I know you don’t give rides at night, and I just heard your bell…”

I said, “What’s the problem?” and he said, “This girl just called me, she needs help on her calcu-

lus homework.” I was like, “This is an emergency, hop on.” I took him really far and the whole way I was giving him the pep talk.

I once built a bike and had it for, like, a week, and I took it to a restaurant, and then I left to go buy some tickets and came back, and the bike was gone. The week that followed was the worst week of my life. One day I was walking, and this guy was on the bike. I walked over to him — wasn’t even mad — and just said, “I think we understand each other,” and he got off and walked away.

If you want a ride, whistle. Actually, that wouldn’t be loud enough, don’t do that. Just say, “Hey, ‘free rides’ guy.” Or Face-book me. I do appointments. I love appointments because peo-ple always expect you not to show up.

From page 12

Peyton McGee | Daily Texan Staff

Spencer Scorcelletti plays piano in his room on Wednesday. “Music, for me personally, is the most important thing in life,” Scorcelletti said.

FACES: Local offers free rides at night, by appointment

From page 12

her work as an artist.The ‘90s saw Escobar ’s de-

cision to start a family, quit dancing with other companies and create her own work. Un-like many dancers who leave the profession when they have children, Escobar integrated her family into her work and brought her children backstage and to rehearsals.

She created original works for the performance groups M’word!, Reza Abdoh’s Dar a Luz and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, among others.

REVIEW: ‘Modern intuition’ thwarts gravity of film’s outdated obstacles

From page 12

By Gerald RichDaily Texan Staff

The Undergraduate Writing Center isn’t just for those last-minute revisions on papers. To-night the center will host a pan-el in its “After Hours” series on comic book writing.

“Yes, we help students with papers, but our larger mis-sion is to establish a stronger community of writing,” said event moderator Andrew Friedenthal.

The panel will include four writers and essayists: Matthew Sturges (the award-winning “Jack of Fables”), Alan J. Porter (historian/writer), Paul Benja-min (“Marvel Adventures” and video games) and Rick Klaw (“Geek Confidential: Echoes

from the 21st Century”). Addi-tionally, most of the writers are local Texans.

Comics have been around since the early 1900s and saw their first boom during World War II. Since then, the genre has evolved and reflected numerous cultural zeitgeists in its pages.

One of the most noticeable ex-amples is Batman’s shift toward the darker, gritty Dark Knight. Previous incarnations featured simple stories of the masked hero fighting crime.

But the ‘80s saw growing radicalism abroad as well as the punk renaissance. That’s when Frank Miller and Alan Moore stepped in and rewrote the comic, completely shifting it from the “biffs” and “pows” of yesteryear to a lone vigilante

engaged in urban warfare with criminals.

Besides appealing to comic book fans, the UWC hopes the panel will draw in a variety of different writers.

“It’s probably most akin to playwriting or screenwriting,” Friedenthal said. “You’re writ-ing a visual language.”

Unlike those other medi-ums, though, comic books are unique. Their writing is bound to separate frames rather than uninterrupted visuals. It’s then up to the audience to active-ly read and unite these distinct bits of information.

Despite these differences, the most important thing Frie-denthal suggests to all aspiring writers is that they write about what matters most to them.

DANCE: Profession requires blend of art, lifestyles

Panel appeals to comic book writers

11 ENT

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By Robert DotyDaily Texan Staff

“Bright Star,” written and di-rected by Jane Campion (“The Piano”), chronicles the tumul-tuous love affair of John Keats (Ben Whishaw), the Romantic poet, and Fanny Brawne (Ab-bie Cornish), a bold, intelligent woman who lives next door.

It’s a tragic love story about the rigid social codes of the era. But all the conventions of eti-quette, traditions, archaic yes-es and no’s fail to resonate in our age in which “love con-quers all.” We understand the impediments in an intellectual sense but cannot integrate them into our emotions. In the end, we see the wreckage but can’t grasp how inevitable it all was.

A poor man with no com-mercial skill — yes, even then poetry made no money — Keats lives off the good graces of his wealthy friends, eager to

promote his poetic ambitions, while simultaneously caring for his ailing younger brother. One friend in particular, Charles Brown (Paul Schneider), allows Keats to live and write with him. It is at Brown’s summer home where Keats first encoun-ters the married Brawne.

On first meeting one anoth-er, they mix like oil and water. Keats considers Brawne a hol-low socialite, and Brawne, ever the realist, deems poetry to be an exercise in vanity. However, watching Keats care for his dy-ing brother convinces Brawne to look deeper.

Watching these two fall for one another is a wonderfully enthralling dance. Brawne re-gards Keats with an inquisi-tive eye; he is unlike anything she has seen before, and she has the innate intelligence to

Life&Arts Editor: Leigh PattersonE-mail: [email protected]: (512) 232-2209www.dailytexanonline.comLIFE&ARTS

THE DAILY TEXAN

12Friday, September 25, 2009

Every morning, Spencer Scorcelletti wakes up at the “House of Guys,” a self-described “fauxterni-ty” that sits at the corner of MLK and Rio Grande Street. He gets out of the lofted bed he built and ex-its via a pole stretching from floor to ceiling — also built by him. He gets ready, exits the house and takes a deep breath before mounting the tandem bike he rides to school. He’s the “free rides” guy, energeti-cally riding around campus day and night offering rides to needy students.

When he talks, it’s clear he’s capable of hitting it big, discovering the next important philanthropic project that changes the world. And like all great ini-tiatives, you have to start with a little freedom.

I was the only person in the house, and I was just so bored. One of my roommate’s brothers had a tandem bicycle, and he left it at the house. I got to thinking about how bored I was and how fun it would be to fix up the bi-cycle — because it was broken — and just ride around town and ask people if they wanted a ride home, because it’s funny for one person to be on a tandem bicycle.

After I fixed it, it just hit me: free rides. I got on there and rang that bell and said, “Free rides,” and the whole sort of philosophy was made known to me.

It’s totally pointless; it’s stupid, I know. I’ve given about 120 or so rides. That’s less than, like, a thousandth of a percent of campus. But everybody sees it — half of campus at least. I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said, “You just made my day.” The philosophy is to spread this idea of freedom and break people out of their shells.

I feel like everyone around us is always on their cell phone or always texting, and it both-ers me. We’re surrounded by beautiful, attrac-tive, funny people. We’re at the right age, and we’re sitting here, and we’re not enjoying each other.

No tips accepted. No sexual favors; that’s disgusting. I’ve been offered both. I think if I ever did accept them it would be, for example, to buy a helmet — but someone already donat-ed one. All my passengers have to wear the hel-met. I care a lot about my passengers.

I give slightly more rides to girls, but guys usual-Peyton McGee | Daily Texan Staff

Spencer Scorcelletti, a Czech language and literature senior, stands in front of the House of Guys on Wednesday. Scorcelletti offers free rides to students around campus on his tandem bicycle.

Cyclist in tandem with students ‘Bright Star’ fails to shine in telling tragic love storyBy Robert Rich

MOVIE REVIEW

FACES continues on page 11

REVIEW continues on page 11

By Rachel MeadorDaily Texan Staff

There is something about Mbe-we Escobar that is both comfort-ing and intimidating. Her slender figure and perfect posture reveal her profession at a glance. She ex-udes a sense of calmness and wis-dom that makes her audience feel at ease.

Her face is striking and, for many, familiar but difficult to place. To dance students and fac-ulty, she is a woman to be ad-mired for her work as a perform-er, teacher and choreographer, but to the average pop culture con-sumer, this graduate student is a living piece of the dance film that has served as the template for all others: “Fame.”

“It happened at the perfect time. It came out of a moment in our performance history and the dawn of the AIDS epidemic,” Escobar said. “All this history that doesn’t apply anymore.”

The remake of the 1980 film chronicling an aspiring teenage performer’s journey through an arts high school comes out in the-aters today. Escobar is most com-monly known for her role of 16-year-old Phenicia, the best friend of main character Coco, but her work off camera is what distin-guishes her as an artist.

After 30 years in dance, Escobar made the decision to explore her deep interest in dance history and the anthropology of movement and performance at UT, and she’s currently seeking her master’s de-gree in performance as public prac-tice at UT.

Escobar was born in Honduras where dance was a part of her fam-ily life. They immigrated to New York when Escobar was 6 years old, but her family kept the tradi-tion of movement a central part of life in the United States.

“In my culture, family comes together frequently to strength-en bonds, celebrate milestones, to play music, eat and dance,” she said. “But our gatherings are espe-cially important when we come to-gether to remember our ancestors. Honoring meant dancing.”

After a couple of years in col-lege, Escobar dropped out.

“I just couldn’t continue where I was,” she said. “I realized that I just had to dance. Dance as a the-atre art was unacceptable to my family — it was primarily a spir-itual practice for us, and they ex-pected me to become a doctor or lawyer. Once I made the decision to pursue dance I was really on my own.”

In the mid-1970s, Escobar was introduced to Loremil Machado and Jelon Vieira by theatre friends. Credited with introducing the ex-plosive Afro-Brazilian martial arts dance form, capoeira, to West-ern audiences, Machado and Vie-ira were in residence at The Clark Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

They invited her to work with them, and she spent 10 years in the company as a performer, teach-er and rehearsal director. At the same time, Escobar began her for-mal dance training after meeting Louise Roberts, the center’s direc-tor, and receiving a scholarship to study there.

“It was an important opportu-nity for me,” Escobar said. “I was not frustrated to begin my training at 20. I was motivated, curious and ambitious to make up for lost time. I worked endlessly.”

At the Clark Center, Escobar met Marjorie Perces, who served as her mentor outside of her de-manding classes. Perces suggest-ed Escobar continue training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance

Center. Perces introduced Es-cobar to Ailey, one of the most well-known and respected men in dance, who made it possible for her to enter the school.

”Mr. Ailey asked me what I wanted to do,” Escobar said. “He said, ‘Do you want to be a dancer and be used or be an artist and cre-ate?’ At the time, I couldn’t under-stand completely, but it revealed it-self to me.”

In 1978, she was approached by Louis Falco, choreographer for the then-upcoming film “Fame,” about being in the movie. She didn’t even audition.

“When my family understood that I was in a feature film, they re-alized that I was doing something significant,” Escobar said. “It was a level of professionalism they could relate to.”

Though she loved working with Falco, Escobar recalls clashing with director Alan Parker.

“There is a dilemma when one thinks of oneself as an artist, not just an entertainer, and has per-sonal standards” Escobar said. “I wanted to do the best job I could on ‘Fame,’ but there were social expectations I did not want to be a part of.”

Much of Escobar’s work was left on the cutting room floor. With the film complete, she hid in the concert dance world for several years, focusing fully on

Shelley Neuman | Daily Texan Staff

Mbewe Escobar, dance graduate student, played ‘Phenicia’ in the original 1980 version of the movie Fame.

Artist best known for ‘Fame’ continues exploring dance

DANCE continues on page 11

Courtesy of Apparition Pathé Distribution

“Bright Star,” a drama based on the romance between 19th-centu-ry poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, opens today.

12 LIFE

FROM THE FIRST GAME TO THE FINAL EXAM

09/25/09

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