We hate to say we told you so, but as it turns out, the decision to “repurpose” (read: close) the Cactus Cafe was not the carefully considered, democratically decided, student-guided decision President William Powers Jr. made it out to be at last week’s forum.
Times are tough at UT as financial troubles are rearing their ugly heads all over campus.
It has recently come to my attention that the Texas Union Board of Directors voted to “repurpose” the Cactus Cafe and reassign management of the entity to students.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has never had a stellar reputation.
Our administration has set a potentially ruinous course by letting athletics run up $224 million in debt load (even with excellent bond ratings) while practicing athletics chief financial officer Ed Goble’s “we-eat-what-we-kill” philosophy that leaves a meager year-end positive balance.
Media attention for the Cactus Cafe; The lieutenant governor’s race
A desperate measure; Open letter to the UT campus community
With the start of early voting less than two weeks away, a narrative seems to have cemented itself in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
Currently, the UT budget is a three-legged stool, with the major sources of support from external research grants — the indirect funds from research grants heavily subsidize everything else that UT does — tuition, and direct state support.
My father attended the University of Texas in the spring of 1965. As a junior, he went to an open mic night held in the Texas Union — a predecessor to what would become the Cactus Cafe. He played a couple of songs, and after his set, the manager asked him if he’d like to do a full show sometime.
Matt Hardigree’s firing line of Feb. 4, “Defending the Union Board,” about the workings of the Texas Union Board of Directors, is misleading to say the least. The Texas Union Board has nine voting members (not three as Hardigree states): six students (the Student Government President, SEC president, two generally elected members and two appointees of the SG President) and three appointed faculty members.
Questioning SG’s motive; Defending the Texas Union Board
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, they had to cut the budget of mine.
Recent proposals by the Texas Union to close down the iconic Cactus Cafe have drawn widespread criticism from students and area residents alike.
As we all know, the Cactus Cafe has a culturally and historically storied past.
Most people are aware of layoffs and tuition increases to fund targeted raises at UT, among other things, but they either feel they can’t do much about it or feel it doesn’t affect them directly.
What The Daily Texan Editorial Board wants from the Texas Legislature, University Administrators and the student body
The announcement of the 2010 graduation commencement speaker is causing more criticism than the University probably anticipated.
The way we approach food — what we eat and how we eat it — is a reflection of our culture and of ourselves as participants in that culture.
It’s said that with gay rights — much like any civil rights movement — politics lags behind culture.
This past weekend, thousands of students dressed in caps and gowns and crossed a stage at the Frank Erwin Center in a ceremony marking the end of their undergraduate years.
Reasons for going meatless; A response to failed leadership
As you head towards finals and the holidays, there's an important step you should take to stay healthy: Get the H1N1 flu vaccine.
So I ditched some school. Which is how I found myself not in Texas this past week, but in front of classrooms of high-schoolers talking about the ethics and science of climate change, against the backdrop of a Connecticut that has yet to receive snowfall this winter.
Failed leadership at Virginia Tech; UT launches 'Know'; Governor's race update
Protesting against tuition increases is the college equivalent of saying no new taxes: Regardless of the merit of the argument, most people are going to agree with you.
No citations in cases of emergency; BMI requirement for graduation
Blue about misinformation
College is a time when students not only learn new facets of the arts and sciences but also discover the importance of personal accountability.
Stephanie Taylor
We are graduate students. We are those select few who have volunteered for indentured servitude — um, I mean, we are the select few who have the opportunity to experience one of the last forms of apprenticeship left in the United States. Lucky us.
On Wednesday, a constitutional amendment for Student Government election reform was passed by a student referendum.
The University of California’s recent decision to hike tuition rates by 32 percent next fall will serve as a benchmark in the years ahead — a figure that public universities nationwide, facing budget shortfalls and losses in state financing, will run from as they mull tuition increases while hoping to avoid aggressive pushback from students.
On Tuesday morning, President Barack Obama announced the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Since taking office, Obama has already sent 21,000 additional troops in April and quietly deployed 13,000 more in October.Without a doubt, Afghanistan has become Obama’s war. Perhaps in the near future it will be viewed as his Achilles’ heel.
Do you remember that fateful night when your parents sat you down for “the talk”? You were trapped awkwardly on the opposite side of the dining room table as they rattled off about the birds and the bees. Or that junior high afternoon spent giggling over tampons and condoms as your gym-teacher-turned-sex-educator anxiously tried to explain particular anatomy to a hormonal classroom.
In 2006, I signed a petition to put Kinky Friedman on the ballot for governor of Texas. In his first run for governor, he was running as an independent. Being an independent suited him. When I ran into him on a street corner in Fort Worth four years ago, he was standing alone, wearing all black and smoking his trademark cigar. He shook my hand and said all he needed to say — some snarky comment about Gov. Rick Perry.
In this country, responsibility is shared between a plethora of government-funded institutions, including the responsibility of providing education to the nation’s children.
Monday morning, while on my way to the airport at the conclusion of another successful, artery-choking Thanksgiving, I was listening to “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” the most tolerable sports radio show on the air. When I tuned in, they were discussing the Tiger Woods situation.
In the Nov. 25 article, “City to get its hands Dillo Dirt-y,” my comments were not primarily relating to wastewater. When asked about Austin Water Utility’s environmental record, I spoke about relatively token efforts of conservation compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars to be wasted on a new water (not wastewater) treatment plant. My comment about flat demand was also in reference to water treatment.
Numbers can be deadly. Everyone knows that six is afraid of seven because seven ate nine. Me? I have a degree in math, and I'm still getting over my arithmetic traumas.
On one of my most glorious of days, I won a breakfast sandwich from the Monopoly game at McDonald's.
Direct lending; Winning trees; Another arrest; Keeping Austin livable
Editor’s note: We can be a little preachy here on the opinion page. If we aren’t raging about budget cuts, we’re probably demanding equality on campus or criticizing the administration, the Board of Regents or Texas’ ever-erring politicians.
No fat tax I; No fat tax II
Recent revelations regarding Uzbekistan and the CIA should serve as a reminder that there is a high cost to our country’s policy on human rights. The disturbing truth is hidden underneath euphemisms like “aggressive interrogation methods” and “coerced statements.”
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I started thinking about all the gifts of life I am able to thoroughly enjoy every day – a readily available food supply is definitely something that deserves such attention. In fact, most Americans, but certainly not all, enjoy this commodity of readily available food on a daily basis.
Nov. 2 turns Mexican cities into ghost towns. Día de los Muertos — Day of the Dead — is perhaps the quintessential Mexican celebration, the day the spirits of departed relatives and friends return to party with the living. It’s a nationally recognized holiday, like Independence Day or Revolution Day. Public schools, banks and offices all close so people can spend the night in graveyards visiting with the dearly departed.
UT administrators must have been watching closely as chaos erupted on University of California campuses last week.
If there were ever doubts about the negative effects of established factions in American politics, the current state of the country’s two major political parties should be front-and-center.
The heartbreaking, even brutal truth of the matter is that we're all working within a world of limited resources.
Unjustifiable bonuses; Voting against politics; A mediocre commencement speaker
In case anyone has figured out exactly how college football’s Bowl Championship Series works, there’s a new challenge for puzzle fans: the 2010 Texas gubernatorial race.
The Speedway Project is a plan to completely renovate Speedway Street from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Dean Keeton. In a broad sense, the goal is to transform that area into a “student activity space” on par with the West Mall and Main Mall. Some of the changes include altering the bus circle on West 23rd St. and creating an outdoor amphitheatre, making the area more bicycle and pedestrian friendly and reducing impervious cover so it is more aesthetically and environmentally friendly. Peter Walker, the architect behind the World Trade Center Memorial and the space surrounding the Blanton Museum of Art, will design the project at a cost of $130 million.
Everyone is on their feet, and you’re yelling so loud that your head is starting to hurt. The opposing team has to move the chains deep inside the closed end of Darrell Royal Texas Memorial Stadium. You should be yelling. Everyone else is yelling. LOUD NOISES!
When UT decided to raise tuition 5 percent last year, students were upset. The University Democrats organized Tuition Relief Now! to protest the hike with rallies and lobbying campaigns.
UT students are active. We’re outspoken. And, for the most part, we want to improve the world. But we have a much easier time speaking in unison at football games than we do when it comes to addressing issues of equality on our campus.
It’s an interesting time to be young and gay in America.
Intramural sports can be an absolute joy to participate in. There really is nothing better in the world than getting together with friends and throwing the football around or shooting some hoops. Come to think of it, in my experience here at the University, some of my better memories involve doing those very things.
Fighting for women; Putting pressure on Israel
No Trail of lights; UDems Ride-N-Register; Shami throws his hat into the ring
The petroleum world is at war with itself, and the stakes of the quarrel are high for all of us. The debate concerns the concept of peak oil — the term used to describe a global limit of oil production — its timing, and its implications.
In the shadow of the national buzz over women’s reproductive choices, Austin has its own reproductive battle to fight. In the last month, the Travis County Healthcare District board meetings have been fraught with controversy over abortion.
Obscuring the true cost of public education; Answer the question
When Melinda Nickless, a Texas elections official, was asked at a recent training session for county election chairs about Spanish-speaking voters, many attendees were irked by her flippant response.
When it comes to pressing problems facing the country, higher education seems to be on the back-burner in the average American’s mind. After all, higher education is an area in which the United States still shows a strong performance. However, the competition overseas is getting tougher, and new perspectives must be considered when observing the functionality of higher education in the U.
It seems to be common knowledge that UT liberal arts faculty have a decidedly liberal bias and business faculty, a conservative one. I haven’t heard as much about the stereotypes for the other schools. I guess one can only be so liberal or conservative about chemistry.
Storing Wind Energy; Now Who’s Missing the Point?
Texas is extraordinarily well-positioned with respect to two of the most talked-about ways of reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere: wind generation and carbon capture and storage.
Getting lost is one of the most underappreciated parts of life.
Monroe's DWI; Disrespect for the First Amendment; Confused campaigning
Irrational arguments; Missing the point; Denying human rights violations
Did you know President Barack Obama hates Texas, and he’s hell-bent on making America socialist?
The wall erected by the Palestinian Solidarity Committee on the West Mall calls for UT students to boycott Israel. We at Texans for Israel would like to help interested students boycott Israel properly.
As synonymous with the college experience as lounging on the quad or late-night keg parties, a good political protest is a staple of any university. Young people, full of energy and enthusiasm, have a natural propensity to make signs, yell chants and generally be outraged. UT is blessed with a politically active student body ready to lend its voice to any worthy cause.
Texas State encourages thought; Texas State encourages thought II; SG serves itself, not students; SG relies on student involvement; SG’s big problem
Blindly siding with aggression; In government we do not trust; Voting complexities;
ST. LOUIS — Dozens of American pit bull terriers netted in the largest dogfighting raid in U.S. history are finding homes, despite some who predicted aggression or trauma would make them unsuitable as pets.
The Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice held a hearing yesterday to talk with the Texas Forensic Science Commission’s new chairman, John Bradley. They discussed, among other things, whether or not Bradley is serving as a political pawn for Gov. Rick Perry and whether Bradley plans to resurrect the commission’s controversial investigation into the science used to convict and execute Cameron Todd Willingham.
It’s assumed, it’s a given, it’s sacred. We all have understandably bought into the belief, as so many generations before us have done, that our career choices after graduating college will be aplenty, that our college education will serve us well and that in the years to come — after accumulating wealth and rising up in corporate, academic and creative institutions — we will be able to provide for our children, ensuring that they will have it better than we ever did.
On Saturday night, the country finally saw success in the struggle for health care reform on Capitol Hill.
The American way; Student Government’s misplaced priorities; Shortchanging The Boss
In these times of skyrocketing tuition rates, it might surprise some to learn that a group of students on campus does, in fact, have a say in the tuition-setting process.
One particular problem plaguing the nation, and especially Texas, is being widely overlooked: Kids are getting dumber.
Texas’s public school endowment is looking into funding charter schools, the Austin American-Statesman reported last week. The money would be used to reward charter schools with high educational outcomes and help them expand.
Defending SG’s resolution; Thanks to Loyd Doggett
Developing countries need to commit to limiting the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions.
With the recent defeat for gay marriage advocates in Maine, there is likely to be an increase of articles about gay marriage for the next month or two.
Tea parties
Considering the recent tea party movement in America conjures up images of anger, flamboyant signs and in one notable case, secession.
Congratulations, everyone
At 5 a.m. on May 11, Austin police officer Leonardo Quintana approached a Mercedes-Benz station wagon parked at an East Austin apartment complex.
Love is a battlefield, and so is TV. The latest skirmish features the CW network’s hit show “Gossip Girl” against the Parents Television Council, a conservative media watchdog.
I remember the first time I used one of those new forks to attack my Jester eggs. The 100-percent biodegradable forks are made of some sort of biomass mash, according to the signs placed around the cafeteria that remind me not to worry about their environmental impact as I throw them away.
UT and the private option
Dear Austin: I give up.
You have bested me at every attempt to be frugal. I now have $100 and 87 Bevo Bucks left to my name. What do I have to show for the money I’ve forked over to you? Peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread and several parking garage receipts.
Ask anyone the simple question “How much did your shoes cost?” and you will most certainly receive a simple monetary answer: “Oh, about $35.” Follow that up with the question “And where did those shoes come from?” and you will almost always receive the same answer: a store.
College Councils speak up;Capital Metro raises fares;The Free Flow of Information Act
Government and the free market
At Butler University, junior Jess Zimmerman is learning first-hand what it’s like to face coercion and castigation at the hands of the school administration to a degree that would make Joe McCarthy proud.
Partly due to abundant West Mall solicitation, students here at the University are quite cognizant of the various ills that exist in our imperfect world. Face AIDS, Save Darfur and Invisible Children are only some of the multifarious organizations on campus that have become sexy for college students to rally behind.
Last week, students claiming to represent the ideals and perspectives of both major American political parties debated the merits of the proposed health care reform bills in Congress. While College Republicans and University Democrats mostly relayed arguments that their respective parties have been making throughout the year, something about this debate struck me as interesting.
Whether you support a single payer system, a robust public option or no government intervention, I ask: What sense does it make that in a state with some of the world's best medical and research facilities, the uninsured women of Texas can only dream about receiving preventive treatment or maternity care from these institutions?
I was having a good wander around Austin the other night, hoping to get some advice from the silent city.
Protesting layoffs; Right-wing gay panic; The Houston Chronicle sues
Cut cruelty out of your diet
and 
