Content about Social Issues
In order to discover and address systemic problems facing men of color in higher education, the Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights continues the legacy of one famous African-American.
Editor’s note: A 30 column is a chance for departing permanent staff to say farewell and reflect on their time spent in The Daily Texan’s basement office. The term comes from the old typesetting mark (-30-) to denote the end of a line.
Recent controversy surrounding an acclaimed racist cartoon published by The Daily Texan and the creation of a black student publication on campus has people labeling the Texan as “self-selected” and “racially biased,” but the world I stepped into when I submitted my first application was anything but.
BEIRUT — Syrian forces stormed student dormitories during an anti-government protest at Aleppo University Thursday, firing tear gas and bullets in an hours-long siege that killed at least four students and forced the closure of the state-run school, activists said.U.N. truce observers toured other restive parts of the country, and residents told them of being too terrified to walk on the streets after dark as the 14-month-old uprising rages on. The U.N.
Students getting rid of used items can consider contributing to a campus-wide drive that is looking for donations ranging from pairs of gently worn shoes to notebooks and household goods.
Editor’s note: This story is the eighth in a series exploring race, racism and diversty on the UT campus.
The following stories are meant to be historical snapshots of the University of Texas at Austin through the stories of students and alumni. Their narratives do not serve as a comprehensive look at the University’s history, but instead are meant to remind us of the University’s racial context and to help us progress as a campus and a community.
Hillary-Anne Crosby is a woman undoubtedly assured of her prerogative. She is a sprightly, pixie-haired 22-year-old. She is a second-week graduate school dropout. She is witty but not sarcastic, and confident but not a snob. She is not ashamed or embarrassed to share with the world that she already has a bachelor’s degree and has never had sex. She is waiting for the right man and the right time, and neither are up for negotiation.
As more people and businesses move to Austin, the city will encounter challenges and opportunities that come with an increasingly dense urban environment, say business leaders and academics.
Forbes magazine recently ranked the Austin metro area as the fastest growing city in the United States for the second year in a row. The publication rated cities using economic and population growth projections from Moody’s, an economic analysis agency.
BEIJING — The blind Chinese dissident who boldly fled house arrest and placed himself under the wing of U.S. diplomats balked Wednesday at a deal delicately worked out between the two countries to let him live freely in China, saying he now fears for his family’s safety unless they are all spirited abroad.
A year after he led the mission to apprehend Osama bin Laden, Adm. William H. McRaven returned to his alma mater to advocate for legal assistance for returning service women and men.
McRaven was the keynote speaker at the Champions of Justice Gala Benefiting Veterans Tuesday evening. The Texas Access to Justice Commission hosted the gala to raise funds for free civil legal services for low-income Texas veterans.
The Daily Texan sat down with associate professor Ben Carrington to discuss a variety of topics, including UT’s slow integration process to the Rooney Rule, to what the University athletic department can do to separate itself as a beacon of diversity. Carrington’s research interests include the politics of race and sport, African diaspora studies, masculinity and national identity formation and the nature of cultural resistance within the arena of popular culture.
Laborers and activists around the world, including in Austin, acknowledged the first day of May through political demonstrations on Tuesday.
International Workers Day, or May Day, developed from rallies in Chicago in the early 1900s that called for eight-hour workdays. The event is now a global holiday recognizing workers and labor unions.
José Garcia, a graduate student in the College of Education, waves a red flag in front of the Texas State Capitol during the May Day protest Tuesday afternoon.
After two semesters and a summer of planning, a new online African-American UT publication will launch in the fall.
Cheyenne Matthews-Hoffman, editor-in-chief of the publication and a journalism sophomore, said the student organization Black Ink Association is attempting to launch a publication similar to the “The Griot,” which was an African-American print publication at UT in the ’80s and the ’90s.
Everyone remembers the player that breaks the color barrier.
But what of the coach? The most famous African-American to defy a color barrier in the world of sports is the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson. For the Texas football program, it’s Julius Whittier, a lineman who became the first black Longhorns football player in 1970.
As the semester draws to a close, and as students and faculty focus on exams, grading and the pending summer break, it is important not to forget the controversy that briefly engulfed the UT campus and The Daily Texan earlier in the semester following the publication of a cartoon about the Florida shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.
Although a commitment to a diverse campus has been at the forefront of discussion of inclusion at the University, another less-known program also works to make sure minorities are given equal opportunity to obtain UT service and production contracts.
A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting funds through the state’s Women’s Health Program — a decision the state immediately appealed.
A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting funds through the state’s Women’s Health Program — a decision the state immediately appealed.
MISSOULA, Mont. — The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the way Missoula police, prosecutors and the University of Montana responded to reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment.
The federal investigation was disclosed Tuesday after the agency received complaints that the allegations were not properly handled.
It will look at all 80 sexual assaults reported by women in Missoula over the past three years. Eleven sexual assaults involving university students have been reported in the past 18 months, agency officials said Tuesday.
The number of Texas children in schools for those previously expelled because of disciplinary problems declined by nearly 40 percent over five years, a top juvenile justice official told lawmakers Monday.
Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs — or schools for students expelled from their home districts — currently operate in 27 counties that include hundreds of school districts and three-fourths of the state’s juvenile population, said Cheryln Townsend, executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
NEW YORK — A New York man was convicted Tuesday of plotting an aborted suicide mission against New York City subways in 2009 — a case that featured the first-time testimony from admitted homegrown terrorists about al-Qaida’s fixation with pulling off another attack on American soil.
A jury found Adis Medunjanin guilty of all counts for his role in a terror plot that federal authorities say was one of the closest calls since Sept. 11, 2001.
Medunjanin could be ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 7.
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama slipped into Afghanistan Tuesday night on the anniversary of the killing of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and signed an agreement cementing U.S. commitment to the nation after American combat troops leave.
Alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama declared, “Together, we’re now committed to replacing war with peace.”
PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy is the underdog, and he knows it. Not a single poll has predicted he will win re-election on Sunday, and leading figures in his government are already lining up new jobs.
In televised interviews, Sarkozy’s on the defensive and paints himself as a victim. At campaign rallies, he’s boxer-like, punching the air, torso soaked with sweat within minutes of taking the podium. He relishes the combat, but after he leaves the stage, his face drains of color, his features lined with fatigue.
Growing up, I was taught to work harder because I was a black female and things wouldn’t be handed to me. I knew that people wouldn’t want to see me succeed because of the color of my skin. My mom told me at a very young age that I was different because I was black, but I needed to be proud of my culture and my ancestors who fought so that I could have a better life.
SAN FRANCISCO — May Day protests may disrupt the morning commute in major U.S. cities Tuesday as labor, immigration and Occupy activists rally support on the international workers’ holiday. Demonstrations, strikes and acts of civil disobedience are being planned around the country, including the most visible organizing effort by anti-Wall Street groups since Occupy encampments came down in the fall.
