The Daily Texan 2022-02-25

DT VOLUME 122, ISSUE 51 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

Student government needs change. Leland and Isabel offer a place to starT. leila saidane

/ the daily texan staff

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The Editorial Board endorses Leland and Isabel for Student Government executive alliance.

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Sanika Nayak (512) 232-2212 editor@dailytexanonline.com

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NEWS OFFICE

Student Government executive alliance platform guide

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By Leila Saidane @leilasophiaaa

leila saidane

UT students can vote starting Monday on who will represent them as student body president and vice president for the 2022-23 school year.

The four pairs of executive alliance candidates are Albert Perez and Raymond Vasquez, Edwin Bautista and Addison Ptomey, Leland Murphy and Isabel Agbassi, and Samantha Burg and Thomas Vahalik. Students can vote at utexasvote.org from midnight on Monday, Feb. 28 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1.

All four alliances gathered Monday night to compare platform points, debate topics from how to support students living in Riverside to sexual misconduct and to answer questions from the student body. Since the last elections, Student Government has dealt with articles of impeachment, executive member resignations and criticism over its lack of financial transparency.

Samantha Burg and Thomas Vahalik: UT for Unity Finance junior Burg and Vahalik, a health and society junior, said their alliance focuses on safety, transparency between SG and students, accessibility, sustainability, and sexual assault prevention.

“Some of our goals include providing school supplies at the UT Outpost, finding more ways to be green, installing ramps around campus, keeping all funds/documents easy to access and

(512) 232-2207 news@thedailytexan.com The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely. If we have made an error, let us know about it. E-mail managingeditor@thedailytexan.com.

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UT professors react to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s plan to remove tenure following critical race theory vote.

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breaking mental health stigmas,” Burg and Vahalik said in an email. “It is impossible to overlook our large number of platform points. Realistically, it is impossible to accomplish every goal, but we have the determination and enthusiasm when the past semesters have contained quite little.”

Albert Perez and Raymond Vasquez: Students Who Give A Sh*t Public relations junior Perez and business sophomore Vasquez said their platform has three pillars: improving the student experience, addressing issues within Greek life and empowering students. Perez said they plan to introduce a job market based curriculum, create partnerships with student organizations, increase student involvement in SG and increase student wages.

“We have to look inwards at the actual system that holds us up first,” Perez said. “For us to set the tone, in the beginning, is to address that awareness issue first, so that way students can be actively involved with what we are trying to do. That way we could also be able to get students’ input way better than previous administrations have.”

Edwin Bautista and Addison Ptomey: Imagine UT Austin Bautista, a community and regional

Director Gerald Johnson Business/ Operations Manager Frank Serpas III Advertising Manager Emily Cohen Manager for Product and Revenue Strategy Marlies Arevalo Are Media Account Executive Chance Weick Design Tillie Policastro Digital operations Jason Lihuang

edwin bautista and samantha burg

planning graduate student, and Ptomey, a public affairs and community and regional planning graduate student, said their platform is based on the three pillars: people, planet and prosperity.

Bautista said they fulfill these pillars through advocating for student wage increases, more affordable housing options and increased student access to University resources.

“We advocate for the reduction of housing costs here on campus because (it is) a real barrier for a lot of students,” Bautista said. “We believe that our educational background is a big benefit because we’re able to understand some of the more nuanced issues that we are currently wanting to address.”

Leland Murphy and Isabel Agbassi: #ByTheHorns Government junior Murphy and public health junior Agbassi’s platform is focused on increasing University worker wages and allocating SG funds to benefit students, Murphy said. “(Our platform) is dynamic and constantly being evolved and open to change,” Agbassi said. “Making sure that what we’re doing is actually relevant and matters … and if there are areas that we’re missing, we should be willing to accommodate for that really thoughtfully and intentionally.”

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News Editor | @THEDAILYTEXAN

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2022

STATE

NEWS

Professors react to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s tenure removal plan UT professors react to lieutenant governor’s plan to remove tenure following vote on critical race theory.

By Sonali Menon & Hope Unger @sonali_menon15 @imhopeunger

t. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged to remove tenure for professors at Texas public universities Feb. 18 after the Faculty Council voted 41-5 to support an instructor’s freedom to teach critical race theory in their course curriculums.

Critical race theory is an approach to studying how racial bias has shaped American law and society. In recent months, the theory has come under attack from primarily conservative individuals who want to remove it from public school curriculums.

The Faculty Council approved the initiative Feb. 14, following the lead of other major universities, said Andrea Gore, who submitted the resolution.

“We have the academic freedom to teach in areas that not everybody agrees in,” said Gore, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology. “It’s just absolutely fundamental to education and for students to be able to learn from diverse viewpoints.”

UT President Jay Hartzell said removing tenure would make it difficult for the University to recruit and retain faculty and could affect students’ quality of education in a statement Monday.

According to the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, more than half of UT’s 3,814 faculty members are tenured or on the tenure track as of Thursday.

Richard Lowery, an associate professor of finance who opposed the critical race theory resolution, said during the Faculty Council meeting that instructors cannot defend academic freedom by promoting the critical race theory approach.

“This is entirely one sided,” Lowery said. “You’re promoting the idea that academic freedom is the collective right of the facts that decide which ideas are allowed on campus, not the individual right of faculty to express their own ideas. That is not what academic freedom means.”

Elizabeth Gershoff, professor of human develop-

hope unger

/ the daily texan staff

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gives a speech at the Texan Capital on Feb 18. He addressed critical race theory and pledged to eliminate tenure for new hires at Texas public universities.

ment and family sciences, responded to Lowery during the meeting, saying professors will not be required to incorporate critical race theory into their curriculum, but the resolution gives them permission to talk about it.

Mathematics senior Jordan Grant said Patrick’s declaration could threaten the quality of education at Texas public universities because Texas universities could lose professors to universities that do offer tenure.

“The problem with this whole idea of getting rid of tenure is that he’s basically threatening a group of people unless they behave in a specific way,” Grant said. “(It is) essentially taking away the safeguards that academia has to be able to discuss ideas which are controversial or not accepted by the mainstream.”

Patrick said in a press conference Friday that a group of UT professors should not be able to speak for the majority of educators.

“We are not going to allow a handful of professors who do not represent an entire group to teach and indoctrinate students with critical race theory that we are inherently racist,” Patrick said during the meeting.

Mary Beth Schmitt, an associate professor in the department of speech, language and hearing sciences, is nominated for tenure for her research on helping children with language disorders. Schmitt said tenure gives

students protection as they are being taught by trained experts in their field. “(Tenure) is quite a rigorous process where faculty are assessed across teaching, their scholarship and service,” Schmitt said. “To go somewhere that doesn’t have that rigorous process in place and doesn’t have accountability structures built in, I would not personally interview or go to a place like that.”

Karen Willcox, tenured professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, said most university professors could find much more fame and fortune working in the private sector of their field.

“We’re in academia in part because we’re inspired to be educators, but in part because we are inspired to push the boundaries of knowledge,” Willcox said. “We’re all inspired to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. The academic freedom to push the boundaries of knowledge, I think, is absolutely essential.”

Tenured professor Elizabeth McCracken, who holds the James A. Michener Chair in creative writing, said in a tweet she wishes to be the first professor at UT to be fired for teaching topics the lieutenant governor does not like.

“I think that not only when it comes to those of us who are on the tenure track, or tenured … if one of us is unsafe, then none of us are safe,” McCracken said.

SPORTS

HANNAH WILLIFORD

5

Sports Editor | @TEXANSPORTS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Toppled from the top ‘It’s a bit of a wake up and call to arms,’ — Texas women’s tennis head coach Howard Joffe reviews season after winning streak snapped at 30

By Angelina Attaway @AngelinaAttaway

espite their first home loss of the season Sunday, No. 5 Texas women’s tennis has dominated the beginning of their season, with a 7–2 record.

The team has been ranked in the top five for the entirety of the season and includes multiple nationally ranked singles players, but head coach Howard Joffe attributes the record to team play.

“The energy on the team creates an atmosphere where you can grow and perform,” Joffe said.

From Feb. 11-13, Texas took on its first large-scale challenge of the year in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Up until the tournament, the team held a No. 1 national ranking and 30-game winning streak but shattered those stats in a second round loss to Oklahoma. Despite the team entering as the tournament favorite, Joffe said he “did not have expectations.”

“I was not the slightest shocked or disappointed that we got beat,” Joffe said. “If anything, the tournament was very good for us to open the eyesof our players.”

While the players were disappointed with their perormance, Joffe was hopeful that this tournament would prepare them for toughermatches ahead.

“The competition in the next two weeks is going to be every bit as ferocious,” Joffe said. “We’re going out to play Stanford and Cal next week. We are definitely going to see how the young team responds to that.”

Despite the high expectations for the team, asthe Longhorns inch closer to their conference season opener against Texas Tech on March 11, Joffe said his main focus is the overall health and well-being of the players.

“I’m very involved in the teaching and strategy, but I like to see myself more as a conduit to helping them grow as

people,” Joffe said.

Joffe said maintaining this mental and physical well-being would continue to be the key to success if Texas makes a run in the playoffs. Joffe said he sees his own self-awareness and goals for this season to be the guiding force behind his coaching style for the Longhorns.

“In order to become a champion of any realm, aside from the skill, there has to be a person behind it who has a well-defined sense of who they are and what they want,” Joffe said.

The road to the Big 12 and NCAA championships will be long, with 12 gamesremaining in the regular season that require the youthful team to step up.

“That is the challenge ahead of us: the relative health of the team and the youth and inexperience, for sure,” Joffe said.

After falling to No. 2 NC State on Sunday, the team will again go head-to-head with challenging opponents this weekend, playing Stanford this Friday and California on Sunday. However, Joffe remains hopeful in his players and their own abilities.

“It’s all just really about practicing well and trying to perform at your best level,” Joffe said. “The winning and the losing, it takes care of itself.”

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/ the daily texan staff

Head coach Howard Joffe talks to the Texas women’s team. Despite losing a 30-game winning strek, the No. 5 Longhorn are still confident in their abilities.

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Editor-In-Chief | @TEXANOPINION FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

EDITORIAL

OPINION

For best chance at structural change, vote Leland and Isabel Student Government has a lot to make up for, and we hope it starts with Leland and Isabel

By Daily Texan Editorial Board @texanopinion

ditor’s note: This endorsement reflects the opinion of the Daily Texan Editorial Board and not necessarily the opinions of The Daily Texan staff as a whole.

It’s the most miserable time of year again, when the UT student body has to sit through flowery promises, misinformed platforms and naive guarantees of a better future. It has always been the job of the Daily Texan Editorial Board to endorse a Student Government alliance, and this time around, we’re going to start with a fundamental fact: SG does not need to exist. It doesn’t effect any actual change on campus, nor does it provide an avenue to uplift students. Student activists, organizers and coalitions are the groups doing the real work to create much needed progress.

Even the Senate of College

Councils is significantly more effective at passing resolutions and tangibly helping students than SG has ever been.

Like many students, we don’t believe in SG, and we don’t see that sentiment changing drastically in the near future. It’s an institutional tradition (like many things at this University) that is unnecessary but can’t be removed without the backing of administration. That brings us to the present situation: SG is ineffective, but it exists, and therefore an alliance will be chosen to represent the student body.

If two candidates have to fill the position of president and vice president, respectively, those candidates should be Leland Murphy and Isabel Agbassi.

Although the SG campaigns generally failed to be entirely impressive, it’s clear that Leland and Isabel are far above the rest. We’ll briefly discuss each alliance below based on their platform materials, our endorsement interview and their performance at the SG debate.

LEGALESE | Opinions expressed in The Daily Texan are those of the editor, the Editorial Board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily those of the UT administration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees.

Edwin Bautista and Addison Ptomey

While Edwin and Addison’s intentions and commitment to student advocacy is admirable, their platform suffers from a lack of feasibility. They seem genuine in their concern for students, with plans to increase transparency by selecting their executive board based on a town hall and donating their stipends. Despite their commendable past work in housing, their plans for SG to partner with the city of Austin would not be actionable within a one-year term. Aside from housing affordability, Edwin

SUBMIT A FIRING LINE | Email your Firing Lines to editor@dailytexanonline.com. Letters must be more than 100 and fewer than 300 words. The Texan reserves the right to edit all submissions for brevity, clarity and liability.

and Addison seem to have limited knowledge on other issues affecting the student body like sexual misconduct, mental health support and even the SG budget. Their policies in these areas are not viable or well informed. Additionally, we feel that we cannot endorse any campaign that does not fully commit itself to abolishing The Eyes of Texas, a sentiment which Edwin said outright that he did not support.

Albert Perez and Raymond Vasquez

Albert and Raymond are, in our opinion, easily the worst

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alliance on the ballot. This was not only made clear by our endorsement interview, but reinforced by Albert’s lack of decorum during the debate. Albert unprofessionally argued with audience members during the live Q&A and preached about lack of engagement as the cause of systemic issues in SG (when, in fact, the true cause is a lack of accountability).

Albert and Raymond also fail to understand that leading SG would mean representing students outside of Greek life, an often problematic institution on which their entire platform is centered. Albert is the president of a fraternity and has yet to implement many of the policies he suggests in his own organization. Their response to supporting survivors was abysmal, as they wanted to simply comply with UT guidelines, facilitate “peer conversations” in Greek life and push interpersonal violence prevention onto Not On My Campus (who they did not bother to reach out to before using them as a part of

EDITORIAL TWITTER | Follow The Daily Texan Editorial Board on Twitter (@TexanOpinion) and receive updates on our latest editorials and columns.

7 their platform). This oversight, along with other non-inclusive policies and an odd focus on unimportant issues like cryptocurrency, makes them completely unsuited for the positions.

Samantha Burg and Thomas Vahalik

Samantha and Thomas want to tackle an array of issues: safety, accessibility, sexual assault prevention and transparency, to name a few. However, their uninformed outlook on these issues is shocking. Samantha and Thomas’ survivor justice platform hinges on survivors coming forward to share their stories in order to emotionally appeal to an audience. Not only is this objectively harmful, it is also a potential violation of Title IX policies on campus.

Samantha and Thomas were not able to fully answer how they would mitigate mandatory reporting with this method.

During the debate, Samantha also stated that, as a finance major, she did not believe in raising student wages, citing fear of tuition rising as a result of jobs becoming automated.

Her statement not only showed disregard for student workers, but also a misunderstanding of funding reallocation.

Though they were both courteous during the debate and the interview, their platforms are misguided and their focus on positivity entirely evades any commitment to accountability.

Leland Murphy and Isabel Agbassi

Leland and Isabel distinguished themselves from the other alliances in many ways. Firstly, they were the only candidates to overtly condemn The Eyes of Texas during the debate, recognizing the harm it can cause to Black students. If elected, they clearly dedicated themselves to advocating for the removal of the racist school song. In addition to this, they were the only alliance to bluntly commit to a zero-tolerance policy within student government when it came to sexual misconduct allegations.

The two candidates also acknowledged and recognized issues of interpersonal violence on campus, but decided not to include it in their platform as the work is already being done by advocates. Frankly, this is the only way to actually address survivor justice on campus, as the structure of SG does not foster a safe space for survivors. They came to

our interview prepared with detailed policy plans, all of which seem feasible. Leland and Isabel also said that if elected, they will implement trackers for each of these plans which all students will be able to view. This at least gives a chance at establishing the accountability that SG so desperately needs.

Lastly, they were the only alliance to acknowledge their positionality — meaning that they understood that SG is not necessary, and the best it can do is amplify existing student voices and the work already being done. Leland and Isabel want to work with student organizers to create change, donate

their stipends and reallocate the budget, and are willing to do away with unneeded SG agencies in favor of already existing groups. It’s this kind of structural change (and more) that SG needs, and Leland and Isabel offer a place to start.

Join us in voting for them in the campus-wide elections from Monday, Feb. 28 at midnight to Tuesday, March 1 at 5 p.m.

The editorial board is composed of associate editors Mia Abbe, Faith DuFresne, Sruti Ramachandran, Julia Zaksek and editor-in-chief Sanika Nayak.

copyright leland murphy, and reproduced with permission

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

NEWS

UNIVERSITY

UT to limit Google account storage to 5GB starting Nov. 1

By Hope Unger @imhopeunger

UT will start limiting storage for all UTmail accounts starting Nov. 1. Current students, faculty and staff will need to reduce their Gmail and Google Workspace storage to 5 gigabytes and will not be able to send or receive emails until the storage is reduced.

The storage reduction is due to a change in the G Suite storage policy, according to Information Technology Services. By the beginning of December 2022, the pooled storage limit will be 545 terabytes.

UTmail has accumulated over 6.4 petabytes, or over 6.4 million GB, of pooled storage as of November 2021, according to ITS. Mario Guerra, senior project manager of the Google storage reduction plan, said ITS is not removing any access to UTmail.

Alumni, former students and retirees will be limited to 1GB and their accounts will be deleted if inactive for a year, according to an email sent by ITS. Guerra said there are around 275,000 to 280,000 accounts in the UT Google tenant, but only

6% are over the limit because they store larger files like videos.

“Given the number of users in our environment, the amount of overall (or pooled) space made available to UT-Austin by Google and the average amount of data used by each person, these limits will preserve usability and stability of the service for all users,” Guerra said in an email.

Recently, ITS started to create Microsoft accounts for students, which have 25TB of storage per user, Guerra said. Guerra said the University will provide both UTmail and Microsoft accounts to all students, faculty and staff.

Neal Makwana, an electrical and computer engineering sophomore, said his friends and family encouraged him to apply for internships using his UTmail account, and his Google account has accumulated 15GB of used storage space holding essays, notes, engineering codes and design work.

“Sharing is pretty easy on a lot of the Google applications, especially in college,” Makwana said. “If you’re working on essays for a project or something with a group of people in the class, you can just send them a Google link, and you

fabiana olmo

can work in real time with other people.”

Makwana said switching over to Microsoft might be difficult for students who are not comfortable with the software.

“It’s going to be tedious to move all the files over,” Makwana said. “Sometimes fonts and stuff kind of translate weird whenever moving them over to a different application.”

Justin Phan, a psychology and sociology senior, said Google Drive is convenient, and he has used it since middle school.

“The user interface and user experience is so much better not only with Google Sheets, but honestly Google documents too and everything overall,” Phan said. “(Microsoft) is not really easy at all.”

Phan said he has used 130GB during his time at UT, and the limit of 5GB on his Google account would only last him one semester.

“I definitely understand where UT is coming from. …

It takes a lot of space on the internet and storage to have all of this stuff,” Phan said.

“If we’re able to consolidate it and keep our things more organized, it would be a lot cheaper for UT.”

/ the daily texan staff

LIFE&ARTS

jackson stublar

ZOE TZANIS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

/ the daily texan staff

UT junior Carrington Mauro reaches for a product inside of Omart on February 20, 2022. Mauro has worked at Omart for the past eight months.

By Joe Freedman @joefreedman_

t’s a Friday night in West Campus.

As UT students return from classes, the sidewalks fill with murmurs of nighttime plans while music bounces off the exteriors of apartment buildings. The bright lights of Orange Market act as a guiding beacon, inviting students in and illuminating their path home.

“Orange Market is the hub of West Campus,” said Carrington Bond Mauro, a finance junior and Orange Market employee. “The store has everything a UT student might need, whether that be food, drinks or school supplies. For me, the store has an environment of fun because I’m able to catch up with people I know and see what they’re up to.”

Orange Market, known colloquially within the UT community as “Omart,” is a family-owned convenience store open 24/7. It is located on the corner of San Gabriel and W. 25th streets, and it supplies a variety of goods to students living in the area.

Since its opening in 2010, the store, a community success, spawned a second

location in 2020 on the corner of San Gabriel and W. 24th streets, just one block away. While the market now stands as an essential landmark of the area, employees said the path to becoming a West Campus landmark involved both trials and tribulations.

Zain, a longtime Orange Market employee who wished to keep his last name private, said since opening, he and his family aim to make Orange Market both an early morning and late-night resource for UT students.

“We were trailblazers in West Campus,” Zain said.

“The campus area looked very different 12 years ago, and there were only a handful of convenience stores.

These stores would close at night, making it difficult for students with late classes or work to get what they needed. We decided to keep our store open throughout the night to serve those in the area.”

This “rain or shine” mentality proved crucial in emergency situations. Just as it had during the winter storm in February 2021, the store remained open throughout the recent ice storm in Austin, acting as a reliable option for necessities when iced over roads made it difficult to travel.

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Life&Arts Editor | @TEXANARTS

WEST CAMPUS

Orange Market: ‘Trailblazers in West Campus’ Family-owned Orange Market opened in 2010, has Newstudents.

York Times Syndication Sales Corporation becoming a landmarkTheto

Orange Market also helped the community stay hydrated throughout Austin’s recent boil water notice by preventatively stocking up on cases of bottled water.

“It was super stressful,” Bond Mauro said. “The lines were crazy. It felt like 100 people outside of the store. But even when the power’s out and people can’t drink water out of their taps, we’re going to stay open. It is important that we are able to supply people with our products because we want to make sure that everyone at UT is okay.”

Throughout its years of operation, the main thing that has kept Orange Market running is the student-dominated community of West Campus.

By offering free coffee in the mornings and flexible hours for student employees, the store strives to give back to those who frequent the store and keep them in business.

“I go to Omart almost every day,” said Isaac Hendler, an applied learning and development freshman. “They have all the essentials that I need, and the people there are friendly. You can tell that they value their customers and the residents of West Campus.”

620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Monday, February 21, 2022

Crossword 30 Marx’s collaborator on “The Communist Manifesto” 34 Clown accessory that’s often bright red 37 Skin soothers 39 Furniture megastore 40 Insignificant amount … or hint to this puzzle’s shaded squares 44 Genuine 45 Actress Rigg of “The Avengers” 46 “___ sells seashells …”

47 Rachel of MSNBC 50 Sign of fire 52 Places where the cucumbers aren’t for eating 54 Dragonlike creature of fantasy 58 Big-dollar electioninfluencing grp.

ACROSS

1 ___ and downs 4 John or John Quincy 9 Off-the-wall

14 Org. for the Flyers and Red Wings

15 First toy to be called an “action figure” 16 Congresswoman ___ Omar

17 Teenage military leader canonized in 1920 19 Country singer Patsy 20 ___ Domini

21 Not inclined to reveal one’s feelings 23 “Goodness gracious!”

26 Sign of an old wound

27 Word before trap or prize

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE S E I Z E S

S M U R F S

M A H O M E S

A G E O U T O F

C L A M S

H E A W I V I N E S B E E B U T U P A C

K E R B

D O Y O G P A O T E T E E L R M O O K R A E Y

A W O M A N D I C T U

B L U B B E R T H E N O R M

A M E I N S L T E O T O A N T H E M

S O N G W R I T E I R T S H B O A L D D

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62 Smoothie berry 63 Deadly nerve gas 64 “Tell someone who gives a hoot” 67 Use a stencil on 68 Instrument in Hindustani music 69 TV remote button 70 Turned white 71 Major pipes 72 Rap’s Dr. ___ DOWN 1 Dislodge, as printer paper 2 Bogus 3 “Tea” for “gossip,” e.g.

4 In the past 5 “What’s the ___?”

6 Cracked, as a door 7 Glutton’s demand 8 Religious offshoots 9 One who worships the Triple Goddess and Horned God 10 Itchy, say 11 Keep this up when you’re down 12 Philosopher Immanuel 13 Number on a foam finger 18 Beginner, in modern lingo 22 Rocks, in a drink 24 Dove or Dial 25 Hindu festival of colors 28 “___, James ___”

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PUZZLE BY EVAN MAHNKEN

29 Himalayan cryptids 31 Scrapes (out) 32 Jacob’s first wife 33 Reasonable 34 In the 70s or 80s, say 35 Bit of inspiration 36 Mortarboard tosser 38 Bogus 41 Male grooming brand 42 Sufficient, to Shakespeare

43 Describing chardonnay, e.g.

48 Uncorked

58 ___ Lee (dessert brand)

59 Russian river 49 Mindless twoplayer card game 60 Home to the Hang Seng 51 Emergency and Nikkei 225 relocation of indexes people, for short 61 Commercial 53 Twitch prefix with bank 55 Digital holiday greeting 63 Indy 500 sponsor 56 Like uranium 65 Aid on a hot vis-à-vis carbon summer day 57 Aunt and uncle’s little girl 66 1040 org.

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

LIFE&ARTS

FEATURE

UT student creates Locket to help teens, young adults get access to birth control

By Alishba Javaid @alishbaj24

Growing up, Alyssa Le never shied away from talking about the birds and the bees.

With her dad, a practicing gynecologist, in her corner, Le always felt comfortable asking questions about her body.

“I’ve had a space and an outlet where I can get accurate information about the millions of questions that I have about my body,” said Le, a business honors and management information systems sophomore.

“That was something I really valued.”

Hoping to share that space with others, in 2020, Le started Locket, a Texas-based social venture aiming to provide minors and young adults with a safe space for information about and access to birth control with or without parental consent. Born out of the Social Entrepreneurship Learning Lab, a fellowship program that allows undergraduate students to create social ventures for their community, Locket provides free, virtual consultations and an anonymous chat line.

“Being able to know your birth control options or how things work, even if you don’t even want it, is something extremely empowering,” Le said. “You’re recognizing that you do have a choice and options when it comes to reproductive health. We allow people to take ownership over their bodies.”

According to Kristine Hopkins, project lead of the UT Austin College Health Study, Texas policies, such as Texas being one of the few states that requires parental permission for minors to seek contraceptive services, make birth control and education on reproductive health inaccessible.

While Le didn’t struggle with a lack of access, finances or familial support when seeking out birth control herself, she said she recognized her experience didn’t represent the norm and wanted to help others in different situations.

“That’s where my passion really started,” Le said. “Just wondering about what other (people) feel when they’re in this position,

and they don’t have nearly as great circumstances as I do.”

Sruthi Ramaswamy, a sophomore chemical engineering and Plan II major and member of the eight-person Locket team, became more passionate about reproductive rights and health after taking a class called “Sex and Society.” “(It was) super eye-opening for me, and it made me really angry about what the (current) climate is,“ Ramaswamy said.

“I wanted to be more involved and have a more tangible role in finding a way to make a difference.”

Locket does not give medical advice but instead offers information regarding birth control and contraceptive concerns.

“Google doesn’t always give you consistent answers,” Le said. “There’s a lot of power (in) young adults being able to aid teenagers. There’s something scary about talking to a 40-year-old about issues that you’re facing that you feel like they’re leagues away from understanding.”

Locket’s clients include UT students, but its main target demographic is high school students in Texas. Le and her team are currently working to create a sex ed curriculum for high schoolers, by young adults.

“You’re recognizing that you have a choice and options when it comes to reproductive health,” Le said. “Especially when the education system has clearly failed when it comes to a lot of aspects of sex ed, including contraception.”

Le said she ultimately hopes to achieve a larger mission of helping young people to be more conscious about their sexual health.

“The broader impact is that people are more confident in asking questions about their body. It’s not a hush-hush situation, (or) something they should be ashamed of,” Le said. “If they have questions, it’s something that should be welcomed, especially in the new generation. Hopefully, in the future, that feeling of body autonomy is something that they can pass on to their kids.”

copyright locket, and reproduced with permission

BEYOND THE

FR AM E

Featuring the best from the photo department.

julius shieh

| daily texan staff

Management junior Iris Chang cuddles with Dunes at Norwood Estate Dog Park. Chang visited the park to celebrate the fourth birthday of Eevee, a Shiba Inu.

COMICS

B A R B R A D A LY

Comics Editor | @TEXANCOMICS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

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