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Wednesday, October 23, 2013
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SYSTEM
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Litigants give testimony in Hall case
On-campus post office to continue operations
By Amanda Voeller @amandaevoeller
The House Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations met Tuesday to hear testimony on the possible impeachment of Regent Wallace Hall. The committee is considering impeaching Hall because — among other reasons — he
has filed multiple broad open records requests with the University, supposedly placing a burden on the University and requiring the University to hire more people to deal with the large capacity of requests. Some Texas legislators have called Hall’s requests a “witch hunt” with the goal of removing UT President William Powers Jr. On Aug. 15,
Hall’s lawyers sent a letter to the co-chairs of the committee, defending Hall’s actions and claiming Texas lawmakers had unduly influenced UT student admissions. On Tuesday, members of the committee questioned Kevin Hegarty, UT vice president and chief financial officer, along with open records coordinator
Carol Longoria. Hegarty said prior to Oct. 5, 2012, the open records office employed one full-time person and one part-time person, but Hall’s requests increased the office’s workload so much it had to hire more employees. “Now, on any given day, we could have as many as seven people,” Hegarty said.
“We have three [who] dedicated 100 percent of their time, and I might say we never had an attorney in the group, and now we need [one]. Attorneys are more expensive than other folks.” Hegarty said the open records office was not able to keep up with Hall’s requests
TESTIMONY page 2
POLICE
Man’s best friend helps maintain safety By Alberto Long @albertolong
Two of UTPD’s most valuable resources are also the furriest. UTPD currently has two canine officers on the street — Spike and Maatje — and senior K-9 handler Jason Taylor said the department is working toward adding a third before the year ends. The department’s canine officers are trained to detect explosives and bring down criminals, and according to their handlers, playtime and crime-time are one and the same. Taylor works with Spike, a Belgian Malinois who has been with the department for three years and typically works the day shift. Taylor said Spike usually responds to suspicious package or vehicle reports throughout the day. “Belgian Malinois are like hot-rod German Shepherds,” Taylor said. “They’re
K-9 page 2
Jarrid Denman / Daily Texan Staff
Spike, 7-year-old canine officer, and his senior K-9 handler, Jason Taylor, have been partners for three years. As the newest addition to UTPD’s pack of Belgian Malinois police dogs, he also helps officers at other law enforcement agencies.
By Anthony Green @AnthonyGrreen
The lease for UT’s oncampus post office has been extended through February 2016 after representatives of University Operations, University Mail Services and the United States Postal Service met on Oct. 17. The lease, initially set to expire in September, was extended through February of next year to give involved parties time to work out the details of the office’s future. It was then extended for two additional years to provide time for the University and the post office to work in tandem on analyzing the mailing needs of the campus. “We don’t want to be pressed for time to make long-term plans, and [the lease extension] gives us time to plan further into the future with all the changes coming to the University,” University Operations spokeswoman Cindy Posey said. “We want to meet the mailing needs of the campus community. We very much value what the post office provides in meeting those needs.” Posey said, through conversations with the postal service, UT has found students make up the majority of the campus branch’s customers. “Part of our planning is to conduct surveys from our customers and find out what their needs are,” Posey said.
POST OFFICE page 2
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CAMPUS
Panel focuses on open access benefits for UT By Lizzie Jespersen @LizzieJespersen
A panel of open access experts asked attendees to consider why open access should be an issue on the forefront for University faculty and students as a part of UT’s Open Access Week. In the world of research, open access would allow the public to read academic journals without paying for a subscription. In 2008, the National
Institutes of Health implemented an open access policy for its research, requiring all of its affiliated researchers to publish their findings where they could be accessed by the general public. Since then, similar policies have become more widely adopted, and there has been a stronger push for open access research journals. At the “Open Access & The University” panel hosted by UT
BENEFITS page 2
Debby Garcia / Daily Texan Staff
Georgia Harper, UT librarian and copyright law attorney, speaks at the “Open Access & The University” panel hosted Tuesday.
Undocumented student resolution passes By Madlin Mekelburg A resolution regarding undocumented students was passed by a vote of 18-9-2 at the Student Government Assembly meeting Tuesday, where over 50 students were in attendance in the gallery. The resolution in question, entitled AR 16 — “In Support of Undocumented Students and Undocumented Longhorns Week” — outlines SG’s recognition of the importance of all undocumented students at UT and Undocumented Longhorns Week, which took place last week. It was first introduced on Oct. 8, when it was referred to the Legislative Affairs Committee. The resolution was re-referred to the committee at the meeting the following week. Leaders from Young Conservatives of Texas, Longhorn Libertarians and Republicans of Texas submitted a letter to SG representatives asking them to vote against AR 16 in order to provide a voice to the “silent majority” on campus. During debate, Andrew
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Student government representative Stephen Vincent voices his concerns regarding the AR 16 resolution at the Student Government Assembly meeting Tuesday evening.
@madlinbmek
Jonathan Garza Daily Texan Staff
Houston, architecture and urban studies senior and chair of the rules and regulation committee, moved to amend the resolution and change the title to “In Recognition of Undocumented Students and Undocumented Longhorns Week.” The amendment failed by a vote of 11-20. “I believe that there are other ways to support undocumented students, both within the resolution itself and by actions taken by student government,” Houston said. Government freshman
Kallen Dimitroff said she thinks the assembly would be supporting an impassioned portion of the community if the resolution passed. “I think saying ‘yes’ speaks a lot louder of us and our character as student leaders than saying ‘no’ does,” Dimitroff said. Christopher Jordan, McCombs representative and business and English major, said he thinks representatives opposed to the legislation support undocumented students, but not the wording of
the resolution. “I support this cause,” Jordan said. “What I don’t support is this resolution — this alarmingly partisan resolution.” Jordan said he attended the Legislative Affairs Committee meetings discussing AR 16, and members of the committee and authors of the resolution did not allow representatives opposed to the bill to make any amendments. Economics junior
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