The Friday, May 1, 2015 edition of The Daily Texan.
8
It took every ounce of patience Malcom Brown had — but by the end of the night, the former Texas defensive tackle had finally been draſted. “It was just a great feel- ing,” said Brown, who was eating barbecue when he got the call. “Your heart starts pounding real fast; you just got to take a deep breath.” With the last pick of the first round of the 2015 NFL Draſt, the New England Pa- triots draſted the former Longhorn, making him the No. 32 pick overall. Brown, who had been predicted to be a top pick in the draſt’s first round, said he started to feel a sense of disap- pointment as pick aſter pick went by without his name being called. “[My emotions were] a little bit here and there,” Brown said. “I really thought I was going to be a real high draſt pick.” e Patriots lost a sig- nificant number of defensive players during the offseason, including defensive tackle Shortly aſter the chef rolled the final ball of dough into a pizza, Mellow Mushroom on Guadalupe Street closed its doors for the last time. Kitchen manager David Torres, who formally con- firmed the closing, said the restaurant would shut down permanently as soon as it had sold the last pizza. e restau- rant first opened its Guadal- upe location in 1974 and has been serving hungry college students ever since. Earlier this year, Urban Outfitters bought the leases of five neighboring stores on Guadalupe Street, including Mellow Mushroom. “Starting in March, we will begin a renovation where we will add two restaurants, a larger selling space and some other great features,” said Andy Schmidt, Urban Outfit- ters store merchandiser, in a e Texas Senate voted to place certain limits on Texas public universities’ tuition rates ursday. e bill, authored by Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), would set certain “perfor- mance measures” that public universities must meet to raise tuition. ese measures range from four-year graduation rates and the number of un- dergraduate degrees granted to the number of hours taught by tenured faculty and admin- istrative costs. e bill limits tuition increas- es to 1 percent over the cost of inflation until 2018. Aſter 2018, universities could raise their tu- ition by 3 percent, if they meet the performance measures set in the bill. Sen. Charles Schw- ertner (R-Georgetown) added these regulations to the bill in an amendment. Seliger said the bill is in- tended to hold universities accountable for proposed tuition increases. “[e bill] brings together the concepts of accountability and tuition by requiring insti- tutions to prove performance if they wish to increase the costs,” Seliger said. In 2003, the Texas Legisla- ture deregulated tuition costs and granted universities’ gov- erning boards, such as the Board of Regents, control of tuition rates. Since then, tuition has increased across the state. Tuition at UT has risen from about $2,721 to $4,905 a semes- ter since deregulation, although it has remained relatively con- stant for the past several years. Tuition for next school year is set at the same $4,905 for tradition- al, or non-fixed, in-state tuition. University officials have voiced opposition to state tu- ition regulation. Incoming president Gregory Fenves said he thinks the Board of Regents is the best determin- er of tuition rates at UT. “I think the University [and] the Board of Regents working as a public agency has the knowl- edge and the availability to set Over the next two to five years, the Austin Police De- partment will implement plans to equip its officers with body cameras — and in the meantime, 25 APD officers have purchased cameras on their own. Several officers said they decided to buy cameras on their own initiative to be more transparent in their work, and because many of them had dealt with false accusations of misconduct. Aſter experiencing a few in- cidents where citizens threat- ened to make allegations of misconduct against him, APD officer Marcos Johnson decid- ed to get his own body camera approximately a year ago. “is was during the time when they knew our patrol car [camera] wasn’t facing our direction, so, aſter having to deal with someone who was potentially going to make false allegations against me, … I was concerned that there’s always a potential for more of those,” Johnson said. Since purchasing his body camera, Johnson said he and his fellow officers have faced more accusations, but in all cases been exonerated based on footage captured by the body camera. Officers initially tested out the cameras a year ago, More than 50 percent of students, faculty and staff on campus have switched to UT’s new Wi-Fi network, according to an Information Technology Service representative. William Green, director of networking and telecommu- nications, said in spite of some minor issues with the new net- work, the ITS Help Desk has not been notified of any wide- spread problems associated with the changing Wi-Fi. UT introduced the new Wi-Fi network “utexas” in late March in an effort to modern- ize the network’s security capa- bilities. e new network has received mixed reviews from students, and some said they have struggled to get a steady Wi-Fi connection. Geography junior Alex Van Der Colff, who said he has experienced connection problems, said he assumed the spotty service was the result of the transition. “I’ve had a problem with it connecting sometimes,” Van Der Colff said. “It may- be was a little bit slower, but I figured just because it was new.” Mathematics junior Tra- vis Powell said his establishing connection to the new Wi-Fi was easy and hasn’t resulted in any problems. “I haven’t really had any trouble with it,” Powell said. “It just seems like normal on-campus Wi-Fi.” Dounya Alami-Nassif, Mid- dle Eastern studies graduate Sign President Powers farewell and help support student media. Only $10 for students visit farewellpowers.com to find out more Friday, May 1, 2015 @thedailytexan facebook.com/dailytexan Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900 dailytexanonline.com bit.ly/dtvid COMICS PAGE 6 SPORTS PAGE 7 LIFE&ARTS PAGE 8 STATE CAMPUS Senate addresses tuition regulations By Eleanor Dearman @EllyDearman University gradually adapts to new Wi-Fi By Josh Willis @joshwillis35 SENATE page 2 CAMPUS Mellow Mushroom sells last pizza, closes By Nashwa Bawab @nashwabawab Griffin Smith | Daily Texan Staff Workers at Mellow Mushroom clean the restaurant and stack chairs for the last time Thursday afternoon. The closing of Mellow Mushroom comes after their lease ended and was bought by Urban Outfitters, forcing the Guadalupe location to shut their doors. PIZZA page 2 WI-FI page 2 FOOTBALL POLICE Daulton Venglar Daily Texan Staff Malcom Brown, a former Texas defensive tackle, speaks at a press conference Thursday night after the New England Patri- ots selected him as the 32nd overall pick of the NFL Draft. DRAFT page 7 APD officers voluntarily order body cameras to wear on duty By Aaron Torres @aarontl11 By Wynne Davis @wynneellyn Mariana Munoz | Daily Texan Staff Some APD officers, such as APD senior police officer Mar- cos Johnson, have purchased their own body cameras to ensure more transparency in their work. APD page 2 [The bill] brings together the concepts of accountability and tuition requiring institutions to prove performance if they wish to increase the costs. —Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), Author Patriots draſt former Longhorn
Transcript
It took every ounce of patience Malcom Brown had — but by the end of the night, the former Texas defensive tackle had finally been drafted.
“It was just a great feel-ing,” said Brown, who was eating barbecue when he got the call. “Your heart starts
pounding real fast; you just got to take a deep breath.”
With the last pick of the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft, the New England Pa-triots drafted the former Longhorn, making him the No. 32 pick overall. Brown, who had been predicted to be a top pick in the draft’s first round, said he started to feel a sense of disap-pointment as pick after pick
went by without his name being called.
“[My emotions were] a little bit here and there,” Brown said. “I really thought I was going to be a real high draft pick.”
The Patriots lost a sig-nificant number of defensive players during the offseason, including defensive tackle
Shortly after the chef rolled the final ball of dough into a pizza, Mellow Mushroom on Guadalupe Street closed its doors for the last time.
Kitchen manager David Torres, who formally con-firmed the closing, said the restaurant would shut down permanently as soon as it had sold the last pizza. The restau-rant first opened its Guadal-upe location in 1974 and has been serving hungry college students ever since.
Earlier this year, Urban Outfitters bought the leases of five neighboring stores on Guadalupe Street, including Mellow Mushroom.
“Starting in March, we will begin a renovation where we will add two restaurants, a larger selling space and some other great features,” said Andy Schmidt, Urban Outfit-ters store merchandiser, in a
The Texas Senate voted to place certain limits on Texas public universities’ tuition rates Thursday.
The bill, authored by Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), would set certain “perfor-mance measures” that public universities must meet to raise tuition. These measures range from four-year graduation rates and the number of un-dergraduate degrees granted to the number of hours taught
by tenured faculty and admin-istrative costs.
The bill limits tuition increas-es to 1 percent over the cost of inflation until 2018. After 2018, universities could raise their tu-ition by 3 percent, if they meet the performance measures set in the bill. Sen. Charles Schw-ertner (R-Georgetown) added these regulations to the bill in an amendment.
Seliger said the bill is in-tended to hold universities accountable for proposed tuition increases.
“[The bill] brings together
the concepts of accountability and tuition by requiring insti-tutions to prove performance if they wish to increase the costs,” Seliger said.
In 2003, the Texas Legisla-ture deregulated tuition costs and granted universities’ gov-erning boards, such as the Board of Regents, control of tuition rates. Since then, tuition has increased across the state.
Tuition at UT has risen from about $2,721 to $4,905 a semes-ter since deregulation, although it has remained relatively con-stant for the past several years.
Tuition for next school year is set at the same $4,905 for tradition-al, or non-fixed, in-state tuition.
University officials have voiced opposition to state tu-ition regulation.
Incoming president Gregory Fenves said he thinks the Board
of Regents is the best determin-er of tuition rates at UT.
“I think the University [and] the Board of Regents working as a public agency has the knowl-edge and the availability to set
Over the next two to five years, the Austin Police De-partment will implement plans to equip its officers with body cameras — and in the meantime, 25 APD officers have purchased cameras on their own.
Several officers said they decided to buy cameras on their own initiative to be more transparent in their work, and because many of them had dealt with false accusations of misconduct.
After experiencing a few in-cidents where citizens threat-ened to make allegations of misconduct against him, APD officer Marcos Johnson decid-ed to get his own body camera approximately a year ago.
“This was during the time when they knew our patrol car [camera] wasn’t facing
our direction, so, after having to deal with someone who was potentially going to make false allegations against me, … I was concerned that there’s always a potential for more of those,” Johnson said.
Since purchasing his body camera, Johnson said he and
his fellow officers have faced more accusations, but in all cases been exonerated based on footage captured by the body camera.
Officers initially tested out the cameras a year ago,
More than 50 percent of students, faculty and staff on campus have switched to UT’s new Wi-Fi network, according to an Information Technology Service representative.
William Green, director of networking and telecommu-nications, said in spite of some minor issues with the new net-work, the ITS Help Desk has not been notified of any wide-spread problems associated with the changing Wi-Fi.
UT introduced the new Wi-Fi network “utexas” in late March in an effort to modern-ize the network’s security capa-bilities. The new network has received mixed reviews from students, and some said they have struggled to get a steady Wi-Fi connection.
Geography junior Alex Van Der Colff, who said he has experienced connection problems, said he assumed the spotty service was the result of the transition.
“I’ve had a problem with it connecting sometimes,” Van Der Colff said. “It may-be was a little bit slower, but I figured just because it was new.”
Mathematics junior Tra-vis Powell said his establishing connection to the new Wi-Fi was easy and hasn’t resulted in any problems.
“I haven’t really had any trouble with it,” Powell said. “It just seems like normal on-campus Wi-Fi.”
Mellow Mushroom sells last pizza, closesBy Nashwa Bawab
@nashwabawab
Griffin Smith | Daily Texan StaffWorkers at Mellow Mushroom clean the restaurant and stack chairs for the last time Thursday afternoon. The closing of Mellow Mushroom comes after their lease ended and was bought by Urban Outfitters, forcing the Guadalupe location to shut their doors.PIZZA page 2 WI-FI page 2
FOOTBALL POLICE
Daulton VenglarDaily Texan Staff
Malcom Brown, a former Texas defensive tackle, speaks at a press conference Thursday night after the New England Patri-ots selected him as the 32nd overall pick of the NFL Draft.
DRAFT page 7
APD officers voluntarily order body cameras to wear on duty
By Aaron Torres@aarontl11
By Wynne Davis@wynneellyn
Mariana Munoz | Daily Texan StaffSome APD officers, such as APD senior police officer Mar-cos Johnson, have purchased their own body cameras to ensure more transparency in their work.
APD page 2
[The bill] brings together the concepts of accountability and tuition requiring institutions to prove performance if they wish to increase the costs.
—Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), Author
Patriots draft former Longhorn
February interview with The Daily Texan. “We hope to be 100 percent complete with the additions by fall.”
French sophomore Rena Moreno and chemistry soph-omore Richard Schroer com-memorated the pizza restau-rant’s closure by having a date at the location for the last time.
“We’ve had a few dates here, and we’ve come here on
double dates with our friends,” Moreno said. “It’s just a special place; it’s really cool, and it def-initely represents Austin.”
Schroer said he would miss the restaurant’s quirky atmo-sphere after it closed.
“I don’t know if there is an-other pizza place like this one anywhere nearby, which is kind of sad,” Schroer said. “It’s definitely different from all the other pizza places here.”
Moreno said she was origi-nally surprised by the restau-
rant’s unconventional pizza toppings, but later came to enjoy them.
“My first time here I re-member thinking, ‘I don’t know how that’s going to be on a pizza,’ and then I re-ally enjoyed it, and it kind of opened me up to trying new things,” Moreno said. “Before we came here, I was probably one of the pickiest eaters ever, but, three years later, we’re still coming here, and now it’s the last day.”
Neurobiology junior Rich-ard McCuller said he first started frequenting the Mel-low Mushroom shortly after he started college.
“Some of the best memo-ries I’ve had from here is coming here with my col-lege friends and getting large pizzas and sharing them together,” McCuller said. “This place just seems like something that really be-longs in Austin. I’ll just miss it for that.”
student, said she often has to try multiple times to get con-nected to the Wi-Fi.
“For some reason, it doesn’t let me connect automatically sometimes,” Alami-Nassif said. “It’ll just show limited [connec-tion] occasionally, but then, if I just disconnect and then
reconnect real quick, it works out fine.”
Aerospace engineering se-nior Amritpreet Kang said con-necting to the new Wi-Fi was easy and that connection has been solid.
“I haven’t seen any prob-lems with the new Wi-Fi,” Kang said. “I’ve been using it on my phone; it’s really easy to connect to it. I just followed
the directions on the website.”Green said if students are
having difficulty maintaining a connection on the new net-work, they should make sure to delete the old Wi-Fi con-figuration, “restricted.utexas.edu,” because having both confuses the device and causes the connection to bounce back and forth between the two networks.
“Restricted.utexas.edu,” will no longer be available for use beginning May 26.
Currently, ITS is nearly two-thirds of the way done with a project that will up-date half of the wireless access points around campus, Green said. Campus members with up-to-date devices could see Internet speeds double when the project is complete.
hoping to implement them de-partment-wide, but found the technology did not perform as well as they would have liked, according to assistant police chief Jason Dusterhoff.
The department is currently looking at 17 different vendors for the cameras, which Dust-erhoff said he hopes will ul-timately improve both police and civilian behavior.
“We also think we’re going to have expedited resolution of complaints and lawsuits,” Dusterhoff said. “When you’re able to have video or audio of something, it’s not this per-
son’s word against another’s — it’s very concrete.”
Questions of police mis-conduct have been thrust into the national spotlight over the course of the last year with a number of high-profile cases involving police officers ap-prehending and, at times, injuring African American men. Last August, white po-lice officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an African-American teenager, in St. Louis, Missouri. Though Wilson was not indicted, Brown’s death sparked nation-wide protests. In November, officers in Cleveland, Ohio, killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice at a public park. Earlier this
month, a white police officer, Michael Slager, shot and killed Walter Scott as Scott tried to run away, in an incident cap-tured on film by a bystander. This week, nationwide pro-tests have focused on Freddie Gray, who died of spinal cord injuries while in police cus-tody two weeks ago in Balti-more, Maryland.
“If a situation like that were to occur, I assume that hav-ing the body cameras … then all the officers on the scene would have different angles and points of view, and then they could get down to what happened and why this per-son lost his life and what led up to the incident,” Johnson
said. “With incidents like that, body cameras are go-ing to come into play and definitely going to help with a better understanding of what took place.”
UTPD Chief David Carter said he considers the idea of body cameras a “no-brainer,” but said many police depart-ments are still trying to solve issues related to data storage and funding.
“The camera is relatively inexpensive, and that’s not an issue in terms of cost,” Carter said. “The technical back-end issues and solutions and how to retrieve the data and how to make sure it’s secure [are] fairly expensive.”
the right tuition level to provide the revenue to the University for a quality education,” Fenves said. “I think that’s the governance structure that will get the best outcome — balancing the public purpose of the University and the needs of the University to provide a quality education.”
John Brown, co-director of the Invest in Texas campaign, a nonpartisan lobbying effort made up of governing student bodies, said he was surprised a tuition regulation bill passed in the Senate. He said Invest in Texas and SG members plan to meet with representatives about the policy.
“The whole sentiment is that college costs are just skyrocket-ing, so the Legislature response is, ‘Well, let us have that, and we’ll cut everything down and make your degree nothing,’” Brown said. “Well, when you cut tuition down, you forget that that’s your allotment — what the University spends on its operating budget.”
analyzed the data and believe it can be helpful, they should have the ability to [prescribe it],” Hamborsky said.
CBD products are con-sidered unapproved drugs by the Food and Drug Ad-ministration, which issued warning letters in February to several companies that advertised CBD products, including Canna-Pet and Canna Companion.
“It is important to note that these products are not approved by FDA for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, and, often, they do not even contain the in-
gredients found on the label,” the FDA said in a report re-leased March 3.
Brandon said she never intended for Canna Com-panions to become an FDA approved drug and immedi-ately made changes to com-ply with wording restrictions.
“It’s just a supplement,” Brandon said. “We saw a product that had the potential to help a lot of animals without causing a lot of side effects … and wanted people to discuss the medical benefits of trying these compounds as well as the negatives.”
Morgan Ehmling, a Plan II and biology freshman, has a Boxer dog with hip problems. Her dog has been on steroid injections, and her veterinarian
is contemplating using laser therapy to relieve the dog’s pain further, Ehmling said.
“Taking a natural cannabi-noid supplement would be bet-ter than shooting my dog with some lasers,” Ehmling said.
Ehmling said she would ap-proach this option cautiously.
“I feel like if I knew some-one close enough to me who [used CBD for a pet], I’d go for it full force, but I’d do a ton of research first,” Ehmling said.
Hamborsky said she would also consider giving her cat CBD products as long as there are sufficient studies about the compound’s safety.
“My only concern is the psychoactive potential of THC, but there are other marijuana derived sub-stances like CBD — canna-bidiol — that deal with pain relief,” Hamborsky said. “But I would definitely consider that for my cat.”
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I feel like if I knew someone close enough to me who [used CBD for a pet], I’d go for it full force, but I’d do a ton of research first.
—Morgan Ehmling, Plan II and biology freshman
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Over the course of their campaign to lead Student Government, Xavier Rotnof-sky and Rohit Mandalapu had several joking goals, includ-ing renaming the West Mall the South Mall, reducing the hours the Perry-Castañeda library is open and bringing a Chili’s Grill & Bar to campus, just to name a few.
A few weeks into their term, the West Mall still faces west, and the library has remained open — but when it comes to Chili’s, the duo have actually made some progress.
Although Chili’s hasn’t es-tablished a restaurant at UT, the sit-down food chain is of-fering a coupon to UT students specifically in honor of the Rot-nofsky-Mandalapu win.
“After learning they landed the top positions, we knew we had to do something special for those hungry Longhorns who wanted to bring a Chili’s restaurant to campus,” a Chili’s spokesperson said. “To cele-brate the win, we put together
an exclusive offer, so all UT students could raise a chip to the new student body presi-dent and vice president.”
That’s meant to be taken lit-erally — the coupon offers UT students free chips and salsa, guacamole or queso if they purchase an adult-sized entrée.
“[Chili’s is] really excited that we included them in our play-ful platform during the cam-paign,” Rotnofsky, a Plan II and linguistics junior, said. “Stu-dents seem like they love it.”
Rotnofsky said he’s seen a lot of feedback from students about the coupon.
“On the Facebook post that we made, a lot of people were tagging their friends in what seem like invites to go to Chili’s,” Rotnofsky said. “I’ve been get-ting a lot of Snapchats and texts of things of people who are at Chili’s using the coupon.”
Chili’s also started an ad campaign about the coupon. They purchased sponsored advertisements on Facebook, with slogans such as, “Your new student government promised you Chili’s & they delivered. Sort of.”
Journalism junior Karla Martinez said she’s enjoyed seeing Chili’s’ interaction with the alliance. Following Rot-nofsky and Mandalapu’s win, Chili’s congratulated the two on their Facebook page.
“I was definitely impressed by the way that Chili’s respond-ed to the RotMan campaign,” Martinez said. “I didn’t think [Chili’s] would do anything.”
Other Texas universities, including Baylor University
and UT-San Antonio, have a Chili’s-to-go on their cam-puses. Mandalapu said there are no current plans to bring an actual Chili’s to UT.
“Chili’s embodies the American spirit,” Mandalapu
said. “It’s universal in Amer-ica. We really just joke about it. … There are a lot more is-sues that are pertinent on campus to address, but, in our spare time, we’d love to make something happen.”
As the Texas Legislature continues to debate legalizing medical marijuana for humans, people do have the option of purchasing related products for members of their households — specifically, their pets.
Websites such as Canna-Pet and Canna Companion sell cannabinoid (CBD) products for pets, claiming they benefit animal health. These products do not have enough THC, a compound attributed to the “high” users get from can-nabis, to have a psychoactive effect, said Sarah Brandon,
Canna Companion founder and veterinarian.
Canna Companion also monitors CBD to THC ratios to determine what balance benefits animals the most, Brandon said.
“The [CBD to THC] ratio of six to one in the human world tends to be the golden ratio,” Brandon said. “When we went above five to one, dogs and cats had more side effects, and we weren’t seeing a corre-sponding effect in benefits.”
Stephanie Hamborsky, a Plan II and biology sopho-more and president of the UT chapter of Students for Sen-sible Drug Policy, said the idea
of CBD products for animals makes sense.
“In all mammals, we have cannabinoid receptors,” Ham-borsky said. “It would make sense that dogs are prescribed marijuana because they prob-ably respond to it similarly [to humans].”
SSDP, a national organiza-tion, works toward more sen-sible policies on drug use and abuse in the U.S., Hamborsky said. She added that experts should be able to make the call on whether to prescribe CBD or medical marijuana products.
“If professionals have
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NEWS Friday, May 1, 2015 3
Chili’s gives out coupons in honor of SG leaders’ winBy Samantha Ketterer
@sam_kett
Marshall TidrickDaily Texan Staff
As part of their executive alliance cam-paign platform, President Xavier Rotnofsky and Vice President Rohit Mandalapu promised a Chili’s on cam-pus. While there are no plans for a restaurant, the sit-down food chain is offer-ing a coupon to UT students in honor of the Rotnofsky-Man-dalapu victory.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
HEALTH
Illustration by Isabella Palacios | Daily Texan Staff
By Jackie Wang@jcqlnwng
CANNABIS page 2
Cannabis companies sell medical marijuana for ailing pets
On April 15 workers in 236 U.S. cities went on strike to promote raising the nation-al minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The strike was organized by the #Fight-For15 movement, which is made up in large part by fast food workers and other mini-mum wage earners.
Support for the movement, and for raising the minimum wage in general, has grown significantly since the global financial crisis of 2008.
Even in the Texas Legislature, last month a bill was proposed to raise the state minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The economy as a whole has recovered as the stock market hits record highs, but wealth has yet to trickle down in the form of increased wages.
In fact, real wages have fallen since the 1970s while the infamous top 1 percent and 0.1 percent control an increasingly greater share of the wealth. The current levels of in-equality have not been seen since the Gilded Age more than a century ago. Meanwhile, worker productivity has doubled since the mid-20th century.
Raising the minimum wage would have a significant impact on college students as well. Many students hold low-wage jobs. Working a part-time job for $8 an hour, 20 hours a week, brings in about $8,000 a year. Less than a year of tuition at UT.
At $15 an hour we could take out less stu-dent loans and enter the workforce without so many years of debt ahead of us. At $15 an hour a family of three could live above the poverty line.
As President Barack Obama said in his 2013 State of the Union Address, “In the
wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in pov-erty.”
We should live up to the American notion that with hard work anyone can make a bet-ter life for themselves. With a higher mini-mum wage, poor Americans would be less dependent on food stamps or other social programs.
A prevailing stereotype of welfare recipi-ents mischaracterizes poor Americans. Cer-tain media outlets would have you believe that impoverished people do nothing but collect a government check. A large majority of Americans living in poverty are employed, working low-wage jobs. Poor Americans don’t feel entitled to handouts, they feel enti-tled to earn a living wage for their hard work.
Many criticize poor low-wage workers for relying on government assistance programs, but corporations are making taxpayers foot the bill. The minimum wage has not kept up with inflation or productivity, and the gov-ernment has borne the cost to keep people above the poverty line while corporate prof-its have soared. It is the responsibility of the corporations to pay a socially acceptable wage. Working full-time while living in pov-erty is wage slavery.
From our perspective as college students, the #FightFor15 cause may seem irrelevant. With bachelor’s degrees, most of us don’t plan to work for minimum wage for the rest of our lives. But raising the minimum wage would push professional wages higher too. In order to keep quality employees and pre-serve wage structure, employers will have to raise wages for the middle class to remain competitive.
As demands have grown for raising the minimum wage, some conservative policy-makers have claimed that raising the mini-mum wage would increase unemployment and raise prices. However, spreading out minimum wage increases gradually over the next few years would reduce the shock to employers while bringing millions of low-wage workers out of poverty.
Raising the minimum wage would allow millions of Americans to work their way out of poverty. Raising the minimum wage provides workers and young people with op-portunity for success instead of subsidizing the cost of labor. Raising the minimum wage would benefit the 99 percent of Americans who were hit hardest by the recession and have yet to feel the effects of the recovery.
Burchard is a Plan II and international re-lations and global studies senior from Hous-ton.
4RILEY BRANDS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / @TexanEditorialFriday, May 1, 2015
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Early Rotnofsky, Mandalapu moves don’t quite shake things upEDITORIAL
By Nathan BurchardDaily Texan Columnist
@nathburch
The current levels of inequality have not been seen since the Gilded Age more than a cen-tury ago. Meanwhile, worker productivity has doubled since the mid-20th century.
COLUMN
Raising minimum wage good for all
ONLINE
Last month, the originally satirical Xavi-er Rotnofsky and Rohit Mandalapu were swept into office as student body president and vice president, respectively. In doing so, they pledged to shake up Student Gov-ernment and offer a much-needed respite from the “more of the same” complacent attitude that has admittedly plagued SG for many years.
However, in the brief time since taking office, Rotnofsky and Mandalapu have done their best to assimilate into the unique SG atmosphere and continue many of the troubling traditions of their predecessors. This was put on full display when the new administration recently made their new staff picks. Nearly all of those selected are, like Rotnofsky and Mandalapu, students in the Plan II program. If SG was exclu-sive before, now it is a downright private club. And while we admire the open-mind-edness in bringing on former supporters of the Jones/Dargahi ticket — Taral Patel, specifically, as chief of staff is perhaps the one smart pick — the new administration appeared to simply pluck its appointees straight from that same, predictable group of sycophants that the majority of the Uni-versity’s electorate evidently dislikes about Student Government.
This same appropriation of historic Stu-dent Government norms was also evident recently when the new Student Govern-ment Assembly considered A.R. 3, the con-tentious divestment from Israel bill that ul-timately failed. Rotnofsky, who would have had the power to veto the bill should it have passed, was totally silent on the topic and offered no leadership, guidance or sem-blance of his own position on the contro-versial topic. As opponents of the asinine resolution, we would have preferred for him to oppose it, but any position would have spoken louder than his silence.
The University elected Rotnofsky and Mandalapu in order to shake things up and move in a constructive new direction from the failures of previous administrations. Undoubtedly, that new direction includes being willing to take a stand on issues in-stead of trying to equivocate and please ev-eryone. Rotnofsky and Mandalapu rightly chastised one of their opponents for waf-fling on the important campus carry issue; it is the height of hypocrisy for them to en-gage in the same tactics after taking office.
While the new administration joked on the campaign trail about forcing out Presi-dent William Powers Jr., the reality is that a new president — Gregory Fenves — will
be taking the reins in just a little more than a month. Rotnofsky and Mandalapu were elected in a unique position to be a force to be reckoned with by the University ad-
ministration, but only if they hold fast to their key tenet of being different. Right now, they just simply seem like more of the same.
Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan StaffRohit Mandalapu and Xavier Rotnofsky, Student Government vice president and president, respectively
On Tuesday, Student Government approved A.B. 3, which amended certain provisions of the University of Texas Student Government Code of Rules and Procedures. Most of the changes within A.B. 3 acted as clarification of internal rules and procedure, but a specific clause that mentioned The Daily Texan was altered and could be interpreted as an attack on the publi-cation.
As an active proponent of the change, I am writing to ensure the Daily Texan staff, and the paper’s readership, that the action was not intended to be defamatory toward the paper whatsoever.
Previously, Chapter Two, Article III, Section 3.2 of The Code of Rules and Procedures for UTSG read as:
“The Communications Director shall be the primary media contact for Student Govern-ment and shall manage its interaction with The Daily Texan and other media outlets.”
The passage of A.B. 3 altered the wording of the clause, and removed the Daily Texan as a specific example of a media outlet, but this change will not serve to hinder the relationship between the publication and Student Govern-ment.
After lengthy debate over the issue, I led a
charge to accept the change to remove the Tex-an from the clause, and I am writing to explain why.
As an avid reader of the Texan, I fully sup-port the paper and view it as an official student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin. I know that I share this view with many members of Student Government, including Communi-cations Director Thomas Mylott, and I am con-fident that the Student Government will contin-ue to have a great relationship with the Texan.
The only reason that I voted to remove the Texan as a media example in the rules is that I do not see an advantage in the special mention of one publication when there is a diverse group of student-run media outlets on campus. In the interest of transparency, it would not be fair to promote a relationship with the Texan simply because of its reputation as the official paper, and I want all media (student-run, local and national) to feel like we are an accessible body.
During my campaign, I pledged to the stu-dents of UT that if elected, I would fight to make Student Government more transpar-ent, and I believe that making media feel more comfortable approaching us is an important step to furthering communication with the student body.
Schredder, a university-wide representative, is an international relations and global studies and economics junior from Bloomfield Hills, Michi-gan.
Daily Texan clause alteration is a move to promote transparency
Jonathan Garza | Daily Texan File PhotoThe William Randolph Hearst Building houses Texas Student Media.
By Spencer SchredderGuest Columnist
COLUMN
Our commentary doesn’t stop on the page. For more of our thoughts on the issues of the day, check out our blog, A Matter of Opinion, at dailytexanonline.com.
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When Sam Acho gradu-ated from McCombs School of Business Honors Program in 2010, he had a long list of ac-colades on his résumé.
But Acho, now a pass rusher for the Chicago Bears, had more than GPA points and in-ternship experience.
“Sam defines champion in every way — on the field and off the field,” former Texas head coach Mack Brown said. “He works as hard as anybody I’ve ever been around.”
As a student on the 40 Acres, Acho was charged with balanc-ing the work necessary to be a starting defensive end for the Longhorn football team while undertaking an honors course load. But he met the challenge head on.
Acho won the William V. Cambell Trophy, known as the “academic Heisman,” and played well enough for the Arizona Cardinals to take him with a fourth-round pick in the 2011 NFL draft.
Acho, who is quick to share the credit, said he recognized that he could not have suc-ceeded at Texas without the help of others.
“The first thing I say is I had some good mentors,” Acho said. “I remember there was a professor in the business school named Herb Miller — he taught marketing. We would meet up
once every couple weeks … and try and make sure that it was all being balanced.”
In addition to dishing out life advice, Miller guided Acho in an independent study that culminated in a 35–40-page research paper on how to build and maintain your brand as an athlete. Miller said Acho has all the right attributes to be a good leader.
“I think he’d be a great chief executive for a company,” Miller said. “He will be and is already a great ambassador for the University of Texas and the McCombs School of Business.”
Most NFL players in Acho’s position might relish the chance to be done with school and fo-cus on football — but not Acho. After one offseason of relaxing, he enrolled in the Arizona-based Thunderbird School of Global Management, which has been a constant fixture in the top three of the U.S. News and World Report international business program rankings.
Acho is on track to graduate with an MBA in August, but his first offseason as a free agent complicated the path to gradu-ation. Acho was put in the un-certainty of where he would play
next, which led to significant emotional strain on him.
“One recommendation I have to anybody who wants to really test the limits emotionally, physically, whatever … test free agency,” Acho said. “You really find out a lot about yourself.”
Acho was relieved when Bears coach John Fox called with a contract offer earlier this month, but the move north and the beginning of offseason workouts complicated his plan to take classes in Arizona.
“There’s a couple weeks over-lap,” Acho said. “What I decided to do to counter that is a lot of
the assignments we had to do — I did a lot of those early.”
The balancing act that began at Texas will not end when Acho receives his degree. The former Longhorn still participates in his family’s annual summer medi-cal mission trip to Nigeria and is currently in the process of rais-ing $2 million for the construc-tion of a hospital there.
There is also a new challenge waiting for Acho at home.
“I’ve been married for about a year; I have a four-month-old son, so I think this offseason might be just spending time with them,” Acho said.
Before the season be-gan, the Longhorns thought they had a starting rotation certain to get them back to Omaha, Nebraska.
Senior pitcher Parker French was coming off of a year with a 2.41 ERA and 62 strikeouts. Sophomore pitcher Josh Saw-yer and junior pitcher Chad Hollingsworth were coming off injuries, and sophomore pitcher Kacy Clemens, son of Texas pitching legend Roger Clemens, was looking for his first start on the mound after playing first base last season.
Two months later, as the team heads into its last Big 12 home series against Texas Tech this weekend, the Texas rotation looks far different from the one that started the season.
Clemens is out for at least a month with an elbow injury. Hollingsworth has battled in-juries, and Sawyer has been relegated to starting the Tues-day games. Of the four, French is the only player left in Fri-day’s starting rotation.
“When you start talking injuries, you start making ex-cuses, and you don’t try to find solutions,” head coach Augie Garrido said. “We’re trying to find solutions.”
Garrido’s solution, at least for this weekend, will be to put junior pitcher Ty Culbreth and freshman pitcher Connor Mayes into the starting rotation.
Culbreth started last Sat-urday at TCU in place of Clemens, and, although he got the loss, he pitched six innings, gave up just three earned runs and struck out six to give the Longhorns a chance in the game.
Mayes came out of the bull-pen in Sunday’s series finale,
shutting down the Horned Frogs for four innings before giving up two runs in the sixth.
“He came in, grabbed the ball and threw it to the mitt with no fear,” Garrido said of Mayes after Sunday’s game. “That’s the way he pitched in high school, and that’s what made him one of the top pitchers in the entire state.”
But the new arms in the ro-tation might be too little, too late for the Longhorns.
The sweep Texas received at the hands of TCU all but closed the door on the Long-horns’ hopes of receiving an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns still have a shot at getting into the 64-team field by winning the Big 12 Championship next month, but that would require winning a minimum of four games in five days.
The games won’t get easier this weekend as Texas Tech rolls into town. The Red Raiders sit fourth in the con-ference — two games above the Longhorns — with a 10–8 Big 12 record and were ranked in Baseball America’s College Top 25 before los-ing their series to Oklahoma State last weekend.
Texas pitchers will face off against Red Raiders sopho-more Stephen Smith, who’s tied for second in the conference with eight home runs, and ju-nior Eric Gutierrez, who has belted 13 doubles this season.
Still, even with all the losses and the changes in the rota-tion, junior left fielder Ben Johnson said the team is keep-ing an upbeat attitude.
“Whatever happens, hap-pens with the tournament,” Johnson said. “It’s out of our hands at this point. We just have to go out there and com-pete every day and try to win as many games as you can.”
Whether she’s in the class-room, on the softball field or thousands of feet in the air, junior catcher Erin Shire-man excels.
Erin is an aerospace en-gineering student and four-time Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll selection. Dur-ing her freshman season, she was named to the Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team. On the diamond, she has played four different positions for the Longhorns, spending most of her time as a catcher.
But what sets her furthest apart from most utility players is her private pilot’s license.
Erin’s father, Kirk, worked for NASA, so aerospace en-gineering has always been an interest of hers, she said. A few years ago, Kirk started fly-ing again, and that prompted Erin to take lessons and earn her license too. The skills she uses when she flies carry over to other aspects of her life.
“It helps with softball and school a lot,” Erin said. “When-ever you’re flying, you have to constantly look at the instru-ments, make quick decisions, assess things and respond —
kind of like catching. When I’m working on problems for different classes, I look at the formulas and sample prob-lems, and stuff actually comes into play when I’m flying or in the wind tunnel, too.”
Erin’s versatility has helped her grow into a key fixture for Texas. She has played in 45 games this season, including 44 starts, as a catcher, third baseman and designated hit-ter. Head coach Connie Clark said she appreciates the intelli-gence Erin brings to the game.
“It couldn’t be better that she’s a catcher for us — that field general who just has a really good, big-picture sense about things,” Clark said. “She’s got a tremendous work ethic and a competitor’s men-tality. She comes in early and works and is really a student of the game.”
That work ethic has helped Erin improve her offensive output. Early in her career, Erin struggled with chasing balls outside of the strike zone. She finished last season with a .284 batting average, three home runs and 16 RBIs in 34 games played. She currently boasts a .307 average, tied for third-best on the team, and eight home runs and 39 RBIs,
both the second-best records on the team.
Erin put significant work into improving her hitting during the offseason. She said she believes her time as a catcher has influenced her of-fense as well.
“My whole job is to catch pitches and read the release out of a hand, so I think that comes into play, and it helps a lot with being able to rec-ognize the spins quicker and know how pitchers think,” Erin said.
As Texas (32–14, 7–5 Big 12) prepares for a three-game road series against Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State (20–28, 3–10), Erin and Clark both want to focus on the little things, while improving on consistency, to get the victory.
“I don’t know that we’ve hit on all cylinders yet,” Clark said. “We’ve had some great pitching outings and just didn’t get the timely hitting. Other times, we didn’t get the pitching, but we got the great offense, so I’d like to see it all come together.”
The series takes flight at 7 p.m. on Friday in Stillwa-ter, Oklahoma, followed by afternoon games Saturday and Sunday.
COMICS 7
7GARRETT CALLAHAN, SPORTS EDITOR | @texansportsFriday, May 1, 2015
FOOTBALL SIDELINEAcho finds success in business, football
By Jacob Martella @ViewFromTheBox
SOFTBALL
By Claire Cruz @claireecruz5
By Daniel Clay @dclay567
Starting catcher flies under the radar for Longhorns
Texas adds two arms to new-look rotation
BASEBALL
Daulton VenglarDaily Texan Staff
Junior catcher Erin Shireman, right, has suc-
ceeded both on and off the field,
batting in 39 runs this season
while earning her private pilot
license.
Derek StoutDaily Texan file photo
Former Long-horn Sam Acho made a name for himself at Texas with 21 sacks and eight forced fumbles in four seasons on the 40 Acres.
Track and Field set to host Austin meet
The Longhorns will stick around Austin for the Longhorn Invitational on Saturday to compete in the last regular season meet before the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in Ames, Iowa. As the third event at Mike A. Myers Stadium, the invitational will give the Texas team one last shot to qualify for the Big 12 Championships and pre-pare for the national meets that will follow the confer-ence event.
At last year’s event, head coach Mario Sategna’s team claimed a number of wins in Austin. Senior Edu-ardo Rodriguez grabbed the men’s 3000-meter title with a time of 8:45.91. Junior Alaina Perez, also a long-distance runner, nabbed the top spot in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:31.31.
Big names and fan favor-ites, such as juniors Court-ney Okolo, Ryan Crouser and Morolake Akinosun, will display their talents at the Invitational. The event might also be the final meet in Austin for several Texas seniors, including Craig Lutz, Ashley Spencer and Morgan Snow.
The meet begins at 12 p.m. on Saturday and is free to the public.
—Bradley Maddox
NCAA BASEBALLLSU
MISSISSIPPI ST
ARKANSAS
ALABAMA
NCAA SOFTBALLOKLAHOMA
NORTH TEXAS
THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS
Baseball vs. Texas Tech
Friday 6 p.m., Saturday 2 p.m.,
Sunday 1 p.m.TV: LHN
Radio: 1300 AM The Zone
Softball at Oklahoma State
Friday 7 p.m., Satur-day 3 p.m., Sunday
12 p.m.
Rowing vs. San Diego
Saturday 9 a.m.
Track and FieldTexas InvitationalSaturday 12 p.m.
Good luck to all the Longhorns over the next few days! It was a pleasure
coaching you guys last season.
#HookEm
Charlie Strong
@Strong_TexasFB
TOP TWEET
SPORTS BRIEFLY
DRAFTcontinues from page 1Vince Wilfork, leaving a hole in the team’s defen-sive line. Brown said he would not let his late selec-tion cast a shadow on his new opportunity.
“I’m just going, and I’m going to work, and I’m just going to compete for the job as if it’s mine,” Brown said.
Brown is the first
Longhorn drafted since the Arizona Cardinals drafted defensive end Alex Okafor in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft. No player from Texas was drafted last year.
Brown played three sea-sons at Texas and was a two-year starter on the defensive line. He emerged as one of the best defensive tackles in the nation during his junior campaign at Texas.
“This is a good player,”
ESPN analyst Jon Gruden said. “He can shed, get off blocks and make tackles … and he has some pass rush.”
As a backup in his fresh-man year, Brown didn’t have much of an impact on the de-fensive end. But he improved in the following years, start-ing all 13 games in his final season, and was recognized as a consensus first team All-American.
“Production over the last
three years improved every year in the program,” ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said. “I thought he was the 12th best player in this draft.”
Draft experts predicted Brown would be drafted by the Detroit Lions, who had the 23rd overall pick, but, instead, he will be headed to the defending Super Bowl champions and to a team that has been to seven Super Bowls since 2001.
“He’ll be a success be-cause of his work ethic,” head coach Charlie Strong said in a statement. “He works hard and comes to work each and every day. It doesn’t matter who he’s going against; he’s always looking to get better.”
Brown said he doesn’t feel any added pressure, despite heading to the Patriots.
“I’m just going to go in there and contribute whatev-er I have to give,” Brown said.
Hot Sauce Guy and Mr. But-ter-Side-Up may not have su-per strength or super speed, but these underdogs will attempt to save the city of Brighton from darkness in the SAC Black Box Theatre for the next four days.
Creative Arts + Theatre’s student-produced musical, “How To Be Super,” premieres Thursday and runs until Sat-urday. Written and directed by psychology and English senior Sandy Lam, the story follows amateur superhero Lightning as she struggles to join the town’s elite hero conglomerate, the Superhero Syndicate.
When a citywide blackout traps the Syndicate in its head-quarters, Lightning and other amateur heroes, whose pow-ers include spicing up food and perfectly buttering toast, must save the day.
“It’s a very silly show,” Lam said. “The characters say some really ridiculous things, but, behind the comedy, they’re real people with real conflicts.”
Lam said her inspiration for the play grew from her own experiences attempting to join organizations — as a senior on
the job hunt.“I’ve had a lot of rejections this
school year with not getting jobs I want,” Lam said. “People in this organization have supported me. In some ways, the script can be seen as a ‘thank you’ for the people who have helped me.”
In “How To Be Super,” a live band will accompany the cape-clad characters as they dance and sing to original songs, in-cluding “I Should Have Peed,” “What Makes a Hero” and “We Can Do It Together.” Lam said Creative Arts + Theatre has students create the music and choreograph the dance numbers in order to promote leadership development.
“We have a lot of people who have never directed and never taught anything before, but they want to learn, so we are developing those skills,” Lam said.
To give students even more opportunities to foster creative
talents, Creative Arts + Theatre members added a new ele-ment to the musical-planning process this year — a costume department. Instead of asking actors to come up with their own costumes, as the group has done for past musicals, this year, a student costume direc-tor made the superhero capes and masks.
“I think ‘How To Be Super’ is a really big step in rebuilding our organization and offering new opportunities,” Lam said.
Auditions for the roles were open to students of all majors. Electrical engineering fresh-man Belana Torres plays Light-ening, the lead. Torres was in-volved in theater in high school and said getting to be a part
of this play has allowed her to have a creative outlet in college.
“It’s nice to break way from the engineering side and come to theater,” Torres said. “It’s a new environment, and you get to meet a lot more people who aren’t in engineering.”
Adriana Tapia, show direc-tor and corporate communica-tions sophomore, said she thinks
students will be able to relate to the underdog characters in the play.
“You get worn down and tired, and all you want to do is give up,” Tapia said. “I think ev-erybody feels that way in college sometimes because of all the stress, but, with good friends and good community around you, you can get through what-ever. Anybody can be a hero.”
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THEATER & DANCE
‘How To Be Super’ saves the dayBy Marisa Charpentier
@marisacharp21
NIGHTLIFE
HOW TO BE SUPER
When: April 30 – May 2 at 7 p.m.Where: SAC Black Box Theatre (2.304)Admission: Free
Five local comics gather in the weight room of the Taos Co-op basement. On the other side of the door, a saxo-phonist in a black turtleneck croons atop a rickety stage.
The lights are dim, and the crowd is eager as radio-tele-vision-film sophomores An-drew Clarkston and Andrew Dismukes and a group of Aus-tin comedians walk onto the stage, kicking off their weekly comedy show, Chortle Portal.
“The vibe has sort of a house-party feel,” Dismukes said. “It’s like going to hang out with your friends, but one of them has a microphone.”
Founders Clarkston and Dismukes host Chortle Portal every Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Taos Co-op basement. Each show features five eight-min-ute performances from local stand-up comedians.
The show’s lineup changes week to week and features a range of amateur come-dians whom Clarkston and Dismukes have met through their time in the Austin stand- up scene.
“It’s a pretty curated show,” Clarkston said. “We bring in people that we think are fun-ny. We’re not just bringing in people willy-nilly.”
After each show, Clarkston and Dismukes record, edit and upload each performer’s set to the
Chortle Portal YouTube ac-count. Dismukes said comics are attracted to Chortle Portal because they can submit these recordings to festivals.
“There’s a lot of great com-ics in Austin and not a lot of recognition, so we thought if we record it and put it up on YouTube, maybe we can get some recognition for these people who are really good,” Dismukes said.
The duo has been a part of Austin’s stand-up scene for more than a year, per-forming at open mics several times a week. Clarkston and Dismukes met while writ-ing for Texas Student Televi-sion, chasing their dreams of becoming staff writers on a TV show.
“We were both named An-drew, so that was an imme-diate connection,” Dismukes said. “We have sort of comple-mentary looks. He is short and blonde; I’m tall and dark. I’m a Cancer; he’s a Scorpio.”
After TSTV and a year of open mics, Dismukes said they began to think of ways they could contribute to the Austin stand-up scene by creating a show of their own. They gathered a crew of sev-eral other radio-television-film students to help make it happen.
Clarkston and Dismukes said they are only five shows in and already have to ask audience members to stand in
the back because all the seats are full.
“When you pack [an event] full of raw talent and sexual charisma, it’s pretty easy to get it off the ground,” Dismukes said.
Clarkston said Chortle Portal will continue into May. Starting in late sum-mer and going through the fall, Clarkston and Dismukes will launch TOURtle Por-tal — a series of comedy shows across Texas cities that will feature Austin comics and comics from the given towns. They said they plan to make a documentary of the entire process.
Kent Juliff, local comic and radio-television-film junior, said he met Clarkston and Dismukes on the night of his first open mic show about a year ago. He performed at Chortle Portal’s first show on March 28.
“It feels like everybody is friends; everybody likes each other and is happy to be there,” Juliff said. “The vibe [of the show] re-ally just comes out of the fact that these dudes are so passionate about getting this done.”
Chortle Portal highlights local comedians By Katie Walsh@katiehwalsh_atx
CHORTLE PORTAL
When: Saturdays at 7 p.m.Where: Taos Co-op basementAdmission: Free
Mariana Gonzalez Daily Texan Staff
Religious studies freshman Sara Di Diego plays the character “Rayne” in Creative Arts + Theatre’s stu-dent-produced musical, “How To Be Super,” which runs until Saturday. The play follows an amateur super-hero, “Lightning,” as she struggles to be a part of the town’s elite hero team, the Superhero Syn-dicate.
Griffin Smith | Daily Texan StaffRadio-television-film sophomores, from left to right, Andrew Clarkston and Andrew Dismukes host a weekly comedy event at Taos Co-op. The event features a variety of comedians from around Austin.
