Introducing the Hollingsworth- Patterson Party >>See page 4
New campus housing plan raises questions Travis Dorman Staff Writer The housing master plan to place the majority of on-campus residence halls in the heart of campus aims to foster a stronger sense of community, Director of Housing Frank Cuevas said in a meeting with the UT Diversity Matters coalition on Tuesday. A Daily Beacon article in February contained housing data that showed students of color are unevenly distributed among residence halls on campus. Some students said they feel these disparities create a divided campus climate in which halls with higher numbers of minorities, like Clement and Massey, are stigmatized. Cuevas said in an interview two weeks ago that while these criticisms were not considered when the master plan was originally drafted, he does think that resolving this problem could be a byproduct of the plan to demolish old residence halls and build new ones. See HOUSING on Page 2
Volume 131 Issue 43
UT business grad enjoys successful music career >>See page 5
Women’s Basketball ready for Sweet 16 >>See page 10
Counter-protesters stand outside the humanities building voicing their stance to the anti-abortion protests. Will Clifft • The Daily Beacon
Anti-abortion displays rally student protesters Alahnah Ligon Asst. News Editor For Indigo Jones, he was in the right place at the right time. Jones’s 9 a.m. class was cancelled yesterday morning, but on his way to the Humanities steps where he frequently meets the sun, he saw the rudiments of what was to be an expansive anti-abortion display instead. “I sat down and saw a dozen or so people erecting this monument of antiabortion,” Jones said. “I wanted to sit down, ignore it and enjoy my time, but a couple of minutes went by and I just couldn’t.” Pro-Life Collegians, a UT student organization, invited The Center for BioEthical Reform to set up the anti-abortion
displays on Pedestrian Walkway yesterday and today. UT administrators permitted the national pro-life organization’s visit. “We’re out here to show (students) the truth about what abortion is and what it does,” Fletcher Armstrong, director for the southeast branch of Center for BioEthical Reform, said. “A lot of people think abortion just makes you ‘not pregnant,’ but in reality, it destroys a living human being, and these pictures make that clear.” Jones, a freshman in psychology, said he was worried he would be protesting the group alone, but by 11 a.m., over 20 students joined Jones, holding cardboard signs with counter-protest messages, flowers and condoms. “I was really worried that I was going to make a fool of myself and stand out there by myself for a couple of hours until I had
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to go to class,” Jones said. “Thankfully, some people decided to stand with me. I think they got the message. “A lot of different people showed up. I didn’t know who they were. They just wanted to voice their opposition and they wanted to do it in their own way.” Andrew Wynn, junior in plant science, said it angered him to see the large display on campus and triggered harmful memories from his past. “I myself am a childhood abuse victim. To come here with PTSD and see bloody pictures on my campus infuriates me,” Wynn said. “It is not acceptable in a learning environment for a public university to have a private group that’s funded to come in here and traumatize students.” See PROTESTS on Page 3
Thursday, March 24, 2016