The Daily Texan 2015-03-05

After seven hours in a closed-door session Wednesday, the UT Sys-tem Board of Regents de-clined to name a president or announce the names of the finalists for the UT presidency.

According to a UT System press release, the Board “must vote to name one or more final-ists and then must wait 21 days before making an official appointment.”

The three finalists have met with a small search committee but have not met with the Faculty Council or the System Faculty Council.

Following the meet-ing Wednesday, UT Sys-tem Chairman Paul Foster spoke about the leaked information regarding the candidates for the presi-dency. An unknown source close to the University leaked the identities of the three candidates in late February, although Fos-ter could not confirm the leaked identities.

The source named Greg Fenves, executive vice pres-ident and provost of UT, David Daniel, president of UT-Dallas, and Andrew Hamilton, vice chancellor of the University of Oxford in England, as candidates.

“I’m as frustrated as any-body whenever there are leaks,” Foster said. “The search committee was a broad cross section of a lot of different people, and I don’t know where the leaks came from. I certainly don’t

Gene Vela walked out of the Travis County Courthouse a free man Wendesday after be-ing found not guilty on all charges.

The trial occurred more than a year after the standoff between Vela, a former public affairs graduate stu-dent, and Austin Police Department officers outside Vela’s apartment.

Vela faced charges for aggravated assault against a public servant, making a terroristic threat and unlawful car-rying of a weapon. The jury reached a verdict of not guilty after four hours of deliberation.

After hearing that her son had been found not guilty of all charges, Karen Emerson, Vela’s mother, said she is hap-py the nightmare is over. She said the past year has been hard on her and the rest of Vela’s family.

“Just even from the beginning, just finding out my son was shot and just having to wait all this time while he’s been in jail,” Emerson said. “It’s not easy for him, and it’s not easy for the family for him to lose a year out of his life. I’m very, very grateful that he can resume his life.”

At press time, Emer-son was waiting for Vela to be processed and re-leased before she could reunite with him.

“I’m just grateful that he’s out,” Emerson said. “I’m grateful for the ju-rors and that they took into account all of the

The University Co-op is stocked with green Long-horn shirts, caps and mugs to ensure students don’t get pinched on St. Patrick’s Day, but a good portion of the merchandise will end up on the clearance rack after the holiday ends.

While Jeff Halliburton, vice president of operations for the University Co-op, said there is sufficient de-mand for holiday-themed UT apparel, students around campus disagree.

“You’d be surprised. We sell hundreds and hundreds of pieces across the differ-ent St. Patrick’s Day styles,” Halliburton said. “We have pretty decent demand this year, especially with the head wear.”

Stephanie Del Paggio,

a Plan II and marketing junior, said many of her friends shop at the Co-op a few times a year for clothes or souvenirs for family members, but that’s about it.

“A lot of my friends shop online, where it’s cheaper, or get free shirts from fairs on campus,” Del Paggio said.

Incoming students, fam-ily members, alumni and tourists are most likely to shop at the Co-op,

according to radio-televi-sion-film freshman Aman-da Booth.

“Beyond these groups, I think students use the Co-op for convenience or gifts,” Booth said. “Most students buy clothes from organiza-tions they join.”

The Co-op sells thousands of pieces of merchandise a year for many holidays,

1

Researcher expands map of world characteristics.

OnlineArt and medical schools start joint lecture series.

Online

NEWSA black female student

givers her take on racism.PAGE 3

Racism alive and well in Texas, on campus.

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FORUMGabaldon takes new role

to help Texas softball.PAGE 4

Longhorn legend Manzano overcomes odds.

PAGE 4

SPORTSAlumni launch production

company during SXSW. PAGE 6

Spider House hosts church service on Sundays.

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SYSTEM

Regents defer presidential decisionBy Josh Willis

@JoshWillis35

Graeme Hamilton | Daily Texan Staff The UT System Board of Regents declined to announce the candidates for the UT presidency after a closed-door session Wednesday.REGENTS page 2

Marshall Tidrick | Daily Texan StaffUT music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia performs outside of the 2015 President’s Faculty and Staff Awards. The fraternity sang an array of songs ranging from “The Eyes of Texas” to Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time.”

FRAMES featured photo

POLICE

Gene Vela found not guilty on all counts

By Wynne Davis@wynneellyn

VELA page 2

CAMPUS

LGBT UT students face homelessness from familial rejection and employment discrimination because of the lack of antidiscrimination pro-tections the state government offers, according to Ana Ix-chel Rosal, director of Student Diversity Initiatives.

Familial rejection forces LGBT students to drop out of school in some instances, and discrimination in hiring prac-tices inhibits enrolled students from securing competitive jobs, said Chris Dao, a petro-leum engineering senior and president of LGBT student organization oSTEM.

Most often, LGBT students and youths find themselves without a home after their parents become aware of their sexual orientation, Rosal said.

“We have dealt with students who are homeless and/or on the brink of homelessness because, after the student came out to their family — intentionally or unintentionally — the response from the family did not go well,” Rosal said. “It could mean ev-erything from parental disap-pointment to disapproval, but it can also look like total and complete rejection, including financial support. Then, the students are just out there on their own.”

For college students, the length and consequences of homelessness can vary, said Na-talia Ornelas, program director at Austin nongovernmental organization Out Youth, which two UT alumni founded to pro-vide social and health services to LGBT youths in the area.

“We get many phone calls from students looking for shel-ters,” Ornelas said. “Maybe a student was living with their

parents during college and the situation turned unsafe — they were kicked out and cut off. Maybe a student is living safely in dorms, but the school year is ending and their parents are not accepting of them, so they need to find somewhere for the

LGBT students face homelessnessBy Zainab Callcuttawala

@zainabroo94

LGBT page 2

CAMPUS

St.Patrick’s Day gear may go unsoldBy Rund Khayyat

@rundkhayyat

Illustration by Leah Rushin | Daily Texan Staff

TSHIRT page 2

LGBT FACTSPhysical Violence: Roughly 34% of LGBT youths report suffering physcial violence from their parents because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.Leaving Home: 26% of LGBT youths are forced to leave home because of conflicts with family.Homelessness: 25–40% of youths who become home-less each year are LGBT.

want to point fingers at anybody; I wouldn’t even know who to point my fin-ger at.”

Foster said despite the hushed nature, the presidential search included input from large stakeholder groups. He said even though having a large group means leaks are harder to prevent, the additional input is worth the risk.

“I think the process is a good one. I think the stu-dents, faculty, staff, they all have to be included,” Foster said. “Alumni [and] all con-stituencies need to be includ-ed in the process. One of the risks [is], the bigger a group gets, the more likely you are to have a leak, and that’s just something we have to deal with.”

Foster said candidates were warned that their iden-tities could be leaked because of the high number of people involved in the search pro-cess.

Biomedical engineer-ing senior Anuj Kudva, a member of the presiden-tial search committee, said he felt the search was ef-fective but that students could always benefit from more input.

“I think they handled it re-ally well, but there could al-ways be more student input, but I also understand where they’re coming from in terms of why they didn’t do a town

hall,” Kudva said.In the press release, UT

System Chancellor Wil-liam McRaven said he is happy with the outcome of the search committee’s recommendations.

“This is one of the most important decisions the Board will ever make, and it will have a tremendous im-pact not only on UT-Austin, but on the UT System and entire state of Texas. There-fore, I think it is in the best interest of the University for the Board and me to take a little time for consider-ation,” McRaven said. “And, after what we learned to-day from each of the can-didates, I can say with great confidence that UT-Austin will be firmly poised to ac-celerate its strong trajectory toward preeminence.”

With one day left of voting, Student Government Execu-tive Alliance candidates spent Wednesday tabling in the rain and making final pushes on social media.

Braydon Jones, a govern-ment senior, said he and Kim-ia Dargahi, an international relations and global studies

senior, will be listening to stu-dent opinions until the end of the race.

“We still believe in our plat-form,” Jones said. “We still be-lieve we have a lot of listening to do. It’s not over yet.”

The campaign team for journalism and economics senior David Maly and civil engineering junior Stephen Svatek are working to talk to as many students as possible,

according to Maly. “We’ve absolutely been

busy, just working on last minute outreach efforts,” Maly said. “I feel like with any election, you have to give it all you’ve got, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Xavier Rotnofsky, a Plan II and linguistics junior, said he and Rohit Mandalapu, a Plan II and economics senior, read palms and traded secrets in

the West Mall on Wednesday and said they will table again tomorrow, even in the case of bad weather.

“We’re not expecting a certain outcome. We’re just taking it a day at a time,” Rotnofsky said. “We’ll be out tabling [Thursday] on the West Mall regardless of inclement weather.”

The delay will have no affect on the campus-wide

voting schedule, accord-ing to Election Super-visory Board chair Nick Molina. Voting will still end at 5 p.m., and winners will be announced at 6:30 p.m. In the event that the University cancels classes entirely, voting will be ex-tended to Friday at noon, and the announcement will be made at 1:30 p.m., Molina said.

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Volume 115, Issue 113

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SG candidates prepare for last day of votingBy Samantha Ketterer

@sam_kett

situation involved, and they were very consider-ate and took a lot of con-sideration in making this decision, and I’m grateful for that.”

When the trial began Feb. 24, Vela’s attorney Skip Davis argued Vela did not know the police were outside his apart-ment because they failed to identify themselves.

APD officers responded after receiving a welfare concern call from Vela’s friend Andrew Clark, for-mer president of the Senate of College Councils. Clark said he received a call from Vela after members of the Senate leadership team had left Vela’s apart-ment following a cookout and meeting.

When officers got to the apartment, they said Vela answered the door armed with a gun, causing the re-sponders to scatter before they could to talk to him.

During the trial, offi-cers said they felt Vela was a threat and thought he was targeting them with a laser.

“The laser did not fit Gene’s pistol,” Davis said Friday. “It fell off the gun when I asked the APD ballistics expert to affix the laser to the gun. It fell off dramatically a second time when I handed the

gun back and said ‘try it again.’”

Vela, a former Ma-rine veteran, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and had an emotional episode the night of the standoff, Davis said.

Kiefer Shenk, a finance and sports management senior, worked with Vela on the Senate leadership team and said he hoped Vela’s PTSD would be taken seriously during the trial.

“It’s not taken as seri-ously as it needs to be,” Shenk said. “People, espe-cially those with more se-vere cases of PTSD, strug-gle to live a normal life. Paranoia, suspicion and mistrust are hard things to control. These are peo-ple that spend their lives fighting for our country, yet our country won’t fight for them.”

Shenk said he had a good time working with Vela in Senate and that Vela always spoke about the campus issues and how to resolve them.

“I’m just really relieved he now gets the oppor-tunity to get the help he deserved and needs,” Shenk said. “Whereas if he was found guilty, wherever he would have gone for any numbers of years, you’re not treat-ed the same way when you’re incarcerated.”

summer until they can get back into their dorms.”

Being an outstanding employee will not protect an LGBT employee in Texas from discriminatory ter-mination because the state does not extend those pro-tections to them, said Kei-sha Martinez, clinical ser-vices director of Out Youth.

“For a lot of minorities, there is this thought that ‘I have to work ten times hard-er in order to be recognized or seen as an equal,’” Marti-nez said. “But this is not part of the thought process for many LGBT youth because getting an education will not protect them from be-ing discriminated against. If an employer wants to get rid of them, their education would not even matter.”

The conservative nature of the oil and gas indus-tries poses problems dur-ing recruitment season for LGBT students studying to be petroleum engineers, Dao said.

“Petroleum engineering is steeped in tradition,” Dao said. “As a result, there are a lot of cultural practices that are passed down that make oil companies very conser-vative. Baker Hughes, Hal-liburton and Schlumberger have Corporate Equality Index ratings at about 15 percent.”

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation uses the Corporate Equal-ity Index to rate Ameri-can workplaces on LGBT equality, according to the foundation’s website.

The extensive focus on marriage equality led to the neglect of other pressing LGBT issues, public health junior Tyler Grant said.

“Marriage equality is definitely something that is important, but the queer community as a whole has ignored other urgent issues like LGBT homelessness,” Grant said. “It’s frustrat-ing because we have not given the same amount of effort to those causes, and it shows in our politics, law and society.”

including Halloween, Christmas and Indepen-dence Day, according to Halliburton.

“We like to get be-hind every holiday,” Halliburton said.

Nobody really buys holiday-themed items, according to exercise science sophomore Helen Haile.

“College students don’t have the money to blow on temporary things,” Haile said.

While some of the green gear will still likely end up on clear-ance, most merchan-dise for other holidays does get sold, according to Halliburton.

“Traditionally, after markdown, almost every-thing is sold,” Halliburton said. “Then we’ll make donations [if need be].”

Radio-television-film freshman Julian Alvara-do believes that students generally won’t spend money on St. Patrick’s Day clothing.

“Money is tight. No-body will spend that much money on UT clothes for a specific event.” Alvarado said.

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STUDENT GOVERMENT

REGENTS continues from page 1

This is one of the most important decisions the Board will ever make, and it will have a tremendous impact not only on UT-Austin, but on the UT System and entire state of

—William McRaven, UT System chancellor

2 NEWSThursday, March 5, 2015

Sixty-five years ago this summer, Heman Sweatt — following an order of the U.S. Supreme Court — became the first African-American admitted to the UT Law School. It was the be-ginning of the end for much of Jim Crow’s del-eterious legacy throughout this school and this state. Unfortunately, all these years later, racism

is still an elephant in the room at this Univer-sity. As exemplified by the recent offensive bor-der control-themed Texas Fiji party, prejudice and intolerance are sadly alive and well in some corners of the 40 acres. This week’s Forum page examines its pervasiveness and what might be done about it.

Brands is editor-in-chief. Forum Edi-tor Amil Malik is on a leave of absence while she runs for the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees.

RILEY BRANDS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / @TexanEditorialThursday, March 5, 2015

3A BIWEEKLY PUBLICATION OF THE DAILY TEXAN EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

By Riley BrandsEditor-in-Chief

@ribran

Racism still a clear problem at UTEDITOR’S NOTE

An issue that seems to have been “dis-cussed” and “exhausted” in Austin news and in this very paper is the Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) Border Patrol- (or Western-) themed party. Thoughts, opinions and hurt feelings have become the central focus of the dis-course surrounding this offensive party and the negative University culture that fostered it (and several other incidents), but very little has been said by those who are actually edu-cated on this subject about the real reason why it was wrong.

The truth is that most people’s understanding of oppressive forces is extremely simplistic and limited. Racism is so entrenched in the very fab-ric of American society that it manifests itself at every level, whether intentionally or not.

The organizers of this party singled out Mexican culture and decided to make a mockery of it. Incidents like this contribute to the constant marginalization of Latino/a people and all people of color. It is why I, a black woman, can sympathize with the stu-dents who were hurt the most by Fiji’s ac-tions and decided to protest. The thing that unifies all people of color is a shared history of colonization and oppression brought on by capitalist, white supremacist forces. After spending centuries suffering through this, and having our very existence defined by it, we manage to form safe cultural spaces and build up a sense of pride, only to have aspects of our culture appropriated and denigrated.

A Hispanic friend of mine pointed out to me the importance of highlighting that it’s not just that the partygoers wore outfits that were offensive, but that when they were done having their fun they were able to take the clothes off. They could put on their sombre-ros and ponchos and pretend to be Mexicans crossing the border, but when they stumbled home drunk that night and removed their party attire, they still have all of the rights and privileges that go along with being white in America.

Guess what? People of color can’t remove their skin. We can’t step out of the physical features that align us with our socially constructed and assigned race. Mexican people are Mexican, all day ev-

ery day. They deal with the all the structural racism that goes along with that. That’s why we are so upset when marginalized people’s culture gets appropriated — the appropria-tors never have to deal with the repercussions of actually belonging to that race.

White people don’t deal with racism, point blank. They may face prejudice from other people based on being white, but they absolutely do not have a system of power that supports that prejudice, in-fringing on their every right, making it hard for them to move or even breathe. People of color have to walk around this campus every day dealing with the stares, knowing that many view us as undeserv-ing, unintelligent outsiders. That thought process still exists, and situations like Fiji’s party, bleach bombings in West Campus, etc. are living proof of that.

We have honored this author’s request for anonymity given the sen-sitive nature of the subject matter.

What the Fiji party, other incidents mean to a black woman on campus

COLUMN

COLUMN

Party part of larger racial issues

Illustration by Lindsay Rojas | Daily Texan Staff

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.

SUBMIT A FIRING LINE | E-mail your Firing Lines to [email protected]. 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.

RECYCLE | Please recycle this copy of The Daily Texan. Place the paper in one of the recycling bins on campus or back in the burnt-orange newsstand where you found it.EDITORIAL TWITTER | Follow The Daily Texan Editorial Board on Twitter (@TexanEditorial) and receive updates on our latest editorials and columns.

Supporters of the Fiji party perpetu-ating harmful stereotypes of Mexican immigrants claim that the party was to have had an “innocent” “Western theme.” This claim is accurate — except the innocent part. The panoramic cel-ebration of white heroes combating sav-ages of various kinds is a staple of the American imagination and deeply rac-ist, nonetheless. I understand this as a white woman.

In Texas, the Western theme was epito-mized by the Texas Rangers, a small corps of state-empowered, white vigilantes lion-ized in Texas history books even as they persecuted and murdered both Native Americans and Mexicans at will through the 1800s. They repelled Mexicans fight-ing against the Texan occupation of Mexi-can territories in 1846. They fought for the confederacy during the Civil War.

After the South’s defeat, the Rangers went on to conquer what the Texas state history website describes reverently as a Texas “‘overrun with bad men,’ with In-dians ravaging the western frontier, with Mexican bandits pillaging and murder-ing along the Rio Grande.” In 1916, they killed at least 5,000 Mexicans during civil unrest across the border.

The Rangers defended Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan and were openly rac-ist and sexist, forbidding the enlistment of women and minority groups. When charged in the 1970s with not having any Hispanic members, Rangers replied that there weren’t any qualified Hispanic of-ficers available: “I don’t see any Japanese here,” said one. “I don’t see any China-men. We can’t hire every doggone breed there is in the United States.”

The Rangers are in their twilight years, their traditions and purposes given over to modern priorities. However, the mythol-

ogy about them and the pervasiveness of their ideas about the presence of Mex-

icans in our state — the wild, racist West — remain.

So, indeed, the Fiji party, a tru-ly disgusting spectacle of racist stereotypes, did have a “Western theme” in the same way that the law students’ party had a “ghetto theme” in 2006. However, the Fiji party is only the most recent ex-pression of a pattern of ongoing injury at UT against its students, faculty and staff of color.

Fraternity parties are not the exception to the rule of rac-ism at UT. Statues of Confeder-ate leaders greet visitors to our Main Mall. Two years ago, it

was revealed that Sim-kins Dormitory

was named after a Grand Dragon of the KKK. There is a monument to the Texas Rangers in the form of the “Littlefield Home” at the corner of 24th Street and Whitis Avenue.

Off-campus racism is common as well. Over the past year, black students have reported being targeted by West Campus residents who threw balloons full of (the symbolically pointed) bleach. In 2013, Young Conservatives of Texas called off a terroristic “immigrant hunt” to challenge the “threat” of undocumented students and workers following pressure from the campus community and the community at large.

The Fiji party was given a pass by the University because it occurred “off cam-pus.” In not sanctioning the organization, the University administration commits another agression against its students of color and the broader Austin community.

We cannot expect the University to take meaningful action against racism. Now, as in the past, civil rights gains have emerged from struggle from below. Centers for Mexican and Mexican American studies, black studies, Asian and Asian-American studies and women’s and gender Studies did not appear as gifts from the adminis-tration. The pressure put on the Univer-sity during the civil rights movements in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in gains in representation and voice for minority stu-dents. Budget cuts in the ever-more-cor-porate, lean, mean neoliberal university roll back those victories — making it even less likely that students will be educated in the truths rather than the mythology of Texas expansion.

And then there is the attack on affir-mative action. Since the Hopwood deci-sion banning attention to race in 1996, and in spite of more recent partially cor-rective decisions (like the top 10 percent rule), the proportion of black students at the University remains at less than four percent in a state where black people comprise 13 percent of the population. Latino/a representation is also vastly dis-proportionate to the demographics of our state. Abigail Fisher’s recent challenge to a perceived but completely false discrimi-nation against white applicants sends yet another message to students of color: You are not welcome here.

What can we do now to combat this pervasive, taken-for-granted racism on and off campus? I propose that we under-take a sustained, multi-racial, agitational movement to educate the campus and broader community about the realities of racism and to hold the administration ac-countable for offenses committed in the Tower’s shadow — including off-campus racist fraternity parties.

An embrace of a multi-racial movement may be controversial among activists who

rightly want members of their particular communities —

those most heavily impact-ed — in the lead. It also might be controversial to analogize anti-Mex-ican and anti-Mexican-American racism with

anti-black racism. However, the great abo-

litionist Frederick Douglass’ adage, “They divided both to

conquer each,” applies here. The capitalist society that

depends upon inexpensive immigrant labor (which, in turn, perpetuates the category of the hyper-ex-ploitable “illegal” immi-grant) also depends upon the scapegoating of black

people, resulting in mass incarceration and police

murder of black men, women and children. We have seen the

eruption of a national conversa-tion about race since movements in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country (including here in

Austin against the police murder in 2013 of Larry Jackson, Jr.) forced the broader society to take notice.

White people like me should stand in solidarity with the op-pressed to contest efforts of the establishment to “divide both” to “conquer each.” What happens when we all stand to-gether? We should find out, because both black and brown lives matter.

Cloud is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Department of Rhetoric & Writing. She is also a member of the International Socialist Organization.

By Dana CloudGuest Columnist

4

4GARRETT CALLAHAN, SPORTS EDITOR | @texansportsThursday, March 5, 2015

SOFTBALL

Gabaldon embraces starting role

BASEBALLWHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Daulton Venglar| Daily Texan StaffSenior outfielder Marlee Gabaldon makes contact during a February game against Colorado State. Gabaldon has become an everyday player for the Longhorns after coming off the bench for the first three years of her career.

SIDELINETODAY’S SCHEDULE

Softball @ North Carolina3:30 P.M.

Baseball @ Stanford8 P.M.

Radio — AM 1300

Men’s swimming and diving — Ameri-can Short Course Championships:

Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming

Center 9:15 A.M./6 P.M.

MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING | RACHEL WENZLAFFPREVIEW

After Olympic medal, alumni races on Longhorns look to recover from sweep

Six Longhorns earn Big 12 recognition

Six members of the Texas women’s basketball team earned spots on the Phil-lips 66 All-Big 12 Women’s Basketball Teams.

Junior center Imani McGee-Stafford is on the All-Big 12 First Team. She averages 8.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per 40 minutes.

Sophomore center Kelsey Lang received second-team honors.

Two members of the Texas team — junior guard Brady Sanders and senior forward Nneka Enemkpal — received honorable mentions.

Freshman guards Ariel Atkins and Brooke McCarty were named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team.

—Claire Cruz

SPORTS BRIEFLY

By Daniel Clay@dclay567

After two losses in a doubleheader Sunday, head coach Augie Garrido had a brief explanation for what happened.

“I think we played with a lack of discipline,” Garrido said.

In the two games against San Diego, the No. 13 Long-horns managed to go 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and scored only two runs, both of which came on sacrifice flies.

In the field, Texas com-mitted two errors, both of which led to big innings for the Toreros.

“To be consistent, it takes discipline and it takes confidence,” Garrido said. “And, for me, that’s what was missing.”

The Longhorns look to turn it around in time for a four-game series beginning Thursday against a formidable Stanford team.

Until the setback on Sun-day, the Longhorns’ season was off to a good start, with a split against Rice in the open-ing weekend and a four-game sweep against Minnesota last weekend.

“It humbles you when you come out and don’t play so well, especially at home,” senior pitcher Parker French said.

But fixing what Garrido called “a common problem” won’t be easy.

“First of all, you have to

make them aware of it,” Garri-do said. “Secondly, you have to put them in situations in prac-tice, force them to practice at a level that is highly competitive and get them to perform in an environment that you create that simulates as accurately as you can to a game.”

However, correcting the problem in practice and not making the same mis-take again in a game are two separate things, especially against Stanford.

The Cardinal comes into the weekend series unranked in the NCBWA poll, although they managed to take two of its four games against No. 15 Rice in Palo Alto, Cali-fornia, this weekend. They also won two of their three games at perennial power-house Cal State Fullerton the weekend before.

Additionally, all of Stan-ford’s starting pitchers, most of whom are sophomores, re-turned this season.

“They’re a physical team,” junior outfielder Ben John-son said. “[Their pitchers] are going to have a year under their belt. They’re going to be really experienced.”

But even with the stiff com-petition ahead of the Long-horns this weekend, they are confident they will find a way to overcome the losses from this past weekend.

“It happened, they didn’t want it to happen, and they don’t want it to happen again,” Garrido said. “I have to count on that, and I do count on that.”

By Jacob Martella@ViewFromTheBox

Joshua Guerra| Daily Texan StaffJunior outfielder Ben Johnson knows the Longhorns need to be ready for Stanford’s experienced pitching staff.

Beginning Thursday night and continuing into Saturday, the American Short Course Champion-ship will give lesser-known Texas men’s swimmers a moment in the spotlight.

Many of Texas’ most ac-complished swimmers, such as sophomore Jack Conger and junior Kip Dar-mody, won’t be making ap-pearances at the meet, but 16 other Longhorns will. The championship, hosted

at Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, serves as a last chance to qualify for the upcoming NCAA Championships.

The meet is mostly com-prised of short-distance races. The only long-distance event in which Texas is competing is the 1650-yard freestyle. Se-niors Nicolas Munoz and Jacob Ritter and sopho-more Cory Loria will rep-resent the Longhorns in

this lone distance race. Former Texas swimmer Michael McBroom will also compete in the 1650-yard freestyle race.

The bulk of the Long-horns will race in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke events. In the 200-yard freestyle, the six competing Long-horns will have to finish with a time of 1:33.62 or better to qualify for the NCAA “A” standard, which

guarantees them a spot in the NCAA Champion-ships. Ritter’s seed time of 1:34.93 is not far off. In the 200-yard breaststroke, junior Liam Lockwood has Texas’ best chance of achieving a qualifying time if he can improve by 2.3 seconds.

Preliminary rounds be-gin at 9:15 a.m. The top eight men will advance to the finals, which begins at 6 p.m.

When senior outfielder Marlee Gabaldon came to Texas in 2011, she expected to walk into a big role.

Gabaldon was a stand-out, four-year letter-winner at Permian High School in Odessa. She won consecu-tive Permian Athlete of the Year awards in 2010 and 2011 and was a two-time District 3-5A Offensive Most Valuable Player.

But in her first season with the Longhorns, she saw limited action in just 21 games, primarily as a pinch hitter. She earned eight starts her sophomore year and seven as a junior.

“It was really hard at first,” Gabaldon said. “I tried not to let it be a nega-tive thing. I realized there are a lot of roles to a team, and I needed to fill what-ever one was needed.”

This season, however, Gabaldon plans on be-ing a consistent fixture for the Longhorns.

“Something hit her this year as a senior because she’s taken hold of that starting job,” head coach Connie Clark said. “She’s got a strangle hold on it, and she’s not about to give it up, and I just love that.”

In Texas’ first game this season, Gabaldon notched a career-high three RBIs against UC-Santa Barbara. She boasted a .429 batting average during the Texas

Classic tournament, and she hit a three-run double in the seventh inning to carry Texas over then-un-beaten Georgia.

Through 20 games, all of which Gabaldon has start-ed, she boasts a .281 batting average with nine RBIs, the fourth most on the team. But her impact is about more than just statistics.

“She’s a great voice in the clubhouse,” Clark said. “She’s just one of

those people that, when she’s got something to say, people listen.”

Gabaldon also sees her-self as a secondary leader. As one of just two seniors on the team, she provides veteran leadership for the young group.

“I don’t want to be that person that talks all the time, so I let every-one do their part,” Gab-aldon said. “I want to be one of those players that’s

not always heard but is always respected.”

Going from a bench player to a starter hasn’t fazed Gabaldon.

“It wasn’t much of a tran-sition,” she said. “I was al-ways prepared to take on this role. I’ve done it my whole life.”

Gabaldon learned to be ready to do anything her team needs during her first three seasons. She plans on using that lesson to achieve

her goal of being consistent for Texas.

“I just want to be there for my team in ev-ery way,” Gabaldon said. “I want to help my team achieve their goals, which is anything that concerns a championship.”

Gabaldon hopes to con-tinue her success this weekend as the Longhorns (13–7) compete in the Car-olina Classic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

By Claire Cruz@claireecruz5

Leo Manzano had never even run eight miles before the Texas track and field team recruited him in 2004.

“He hadn’t had the con-ditioning program that he was going to have at the University, lets put it that way,” said Bubba Thornton, former Longhorn track and field head coach. “[Former distance coach Jason Vigi-lante] had said we knew that Leo was going to be really good. We weren’t for sure that he was going to be great.”

But eight years and four NCAA championships lat-er, Manzano stood upon an Olympic podium in Lon-don clad in a silver medal after a closing surge in the 1500-meter final.

“He’s not a quitter,” Man-zano’s coach John Hayes said. “That helped him get that silver medal. He could have easily quit in that race.”

Manzano, who gradu-ated from Texas in 2008 with Spanish and Portu-guese degrees and a minor in business, ended the sum-mer of 2012 by medaling in the most important race of his career. But just a few months later, his future was thrown into jeopardy.

Manzano was unable to renegotiate his con-tract and lost his running sponsorship with Nike in November 2012. He was

left scrambling to find the resources necessary to travel to races and hire an Olympic-caliber trainer.

“There was a lot of self-doubt [and] a feeling of in-adequacy just because you know that you’ve accom-plished one of the most im-portant highlights of your career, winning a medal for the U.S.,” Manzano said. “It was very difficult.”

The “never quit” attitude Hayes saw in London kept Manzano on the track for a year and a half without a sponsor.

Manzano’s business minor paid handsome dividends in his quest to return to the top of this sport.

After almost a year with-out a sponsor, Manzano used T-shirt sales to fund his training and balanced busi-ness administration with the task of maintaining Olym-pic-level fitness.

Finally, in April 2014, sponsorships from French shoe company Hoka One One and watch company Ti-mex brought stability to his career.

Manzano now views his rough year as a period of growth.

“It was an experience that I wouldn’t change for the world,” Manzano said. “I really do think that it made me stronger as a person.”

The new sponsor-ships also brought new challenges, however.

Now, Manzano has to

balance attending sponsor-ship events, working as a celebrity ambassador for the Marathon Kids char-ity and even attending movie premieres on top of the huge time commit-ment and rigorous training regiment being a top-flight Olympian requires.

“There’s a lot more that comes with being a silver medalist,” Manzano said. “I am very fortunate and always very grateful that I was able

to accomplish that, but there has been a lot more work that has come with it as well.”

With new sponsorships in hand and a new coach, Manzano has his sights set on the Olympics — this time the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“That’s my next goal,” Manzano said. “I studied Portuguese at the University of Texas, so I’m hoping to use it wisely if all goes well and I make it to Rio.”

Photo Courtesy of Leo Manzano Former Texas track star Leo Manzano overcame setbacks to get back on track for a 2016 Olympic games appearance.

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COMICS Thursday, March 5, 2015 5

When UT alumnus and documentarian John Fitch saw his first amateur film on the TV, he fell in love with filmmaking. Recently, Fitch’s films have taken a backseat, as he shifted his focus toward helping other documentarians foster their love of filmmaking as well.

Fitch, along with three friends, hopes to accomplish this with Dox — a documen-tary filmmaking company that will launch at South by South-west this year.

Dox co-founders Fitch, Alex Milan, Andrew Miller and Brett Bowlin met when they were radio-television-film students at UT.

Although they separated after college, the four kept in touch and reunited last year to start Dox. The com-pany intends promote and fund documentarians to make their films a reality and a success.

Familiar with the struggles that come with making a docu-mentary, the founders wanted Dox to be a tool for filmmakers to overcome those problems, from finding funding to find-ing an audience.

Fitch said he believes that when filmmakers don’t have to worry about those things, documentary-making can become their career — not their hobby.

“When you’re in a creative field, you’re often told that you

won’t be able to make a liv-ing,” Fitch said. “We don’t see it that way. We want the stories they film to be valuable. We don’t want to provide them with a formula; we want to give them the means to make something authentic.”

The co-founders each be-lieve today’s networks doesn’t give enough control to film-makers, forcing them to ap-proach nonfiction in the same repetitive way. Fitch said net-works, whether it’s Fox News or reality TV, play up contro-

versies in order to keep their viewers watching .

“The news, for example, has become all about scare tactics,” Fitch said. “We don’t want our filmmakers to feel like they have to do that. The films that we want to promote should be genuine, whether they’re about music or sports or politics.”

The co-founders said they intend to change more than the way films are produced. They also want to change the way the public consumes them as well.

The company will host the documentaries on its website and ask their viewers what kind of content they would like to see next.

“We will allow our view-ers to participate in our future programming,” Fitch said. “Our audience should be ac-tive and participate in the programming they watch. They’ll help us decide what to make next or what to focus on.”

The co-founders, who started college when YouTube

first came out, said they saw the digital era grow before their eyes — a change one of their professors told them to embrace.

“We’ve entered a renais-sance period for documen-tary filmmaking,” Milan said. “With the advent of high-quality video recording, non-fiction filmmaking has never had so much momentum. Dox is here to direct that en-ergy in the best way possible and create a new reality for the talented filmmakers around

the world.”Although UT students may

hear the University’s mantra on a daily basis, Dox’s found-ers said they strongly believe in the phrase, “What starts here changes the world.”

“If I was talking to my 20-year-old self about what I’m doing now, there’s no way I would’ve believed it,” Fitch said. “When you’re in college, you need to fail and experiment and zone in on what you love. That’s what we did, and that’s how we got here.”

A typical visit to Spider House Cafe usually includes slam poetry, open mics or local bands, but Sunday af-ternoon, the sounds of worship ring through the coffee shop and bar.

Husband and wife Chris and Crystaline Lopez founded the Bella Eden church in January 2013 after previously holding sermons in their apartment. They hold an open church ser-vice in the Spider House Ball-room at 1 p.m. Sundays.

Bella Eden is a Christian-based congregation of about 50 members that preach-es the importance of an inclusive community.

Callen and Stephen Hus-band said they have been attending the church for a year and a half and feel right at home.

“I loved the space and the people so much,” Callen said. “Chris and Crystaline even married us in the ball-room at Spider House on a

church Sunday.” With Bella Eden, the Lo-

pezes said they wanted to break away from traditional church norms and create a commu-nity that focuses on building authentic relationships.

“We’re not here to build a brand or even our name,” Crys-taline said. ”We genuinely want authentic, organic relationships to be formed within the com-munity and with God.”

Bella Eden recently added a new element to its main ser-vice called “Love Feast.” On the first and third Sundays of each month, the church offers food to those who attend. Crystaline said the best way to build health-ier relationships is by inviting people to dine.

The couple plan to make “Love Feast” a weekly part of the service.

“We want to have the nor-mal staples of church: worship and preaching,” Chris said. “But we want to experiment and figure out where you build community.”

The couple said their loca-tion on Guadalupe Street is

exactly where they need to be. “We want to build [a]

healthy community with col-lege students,” Crystaline said.

The Lopezes said they use their mutual passion for mu-sic to worship. They both have musical backgrounds and are in a worship band together that plays at nurs-ing homes, prisons and homeless shelters.

Chris said he likes to write original songs. He encourages others to not be weighed down by the music already out there.

“We want the church com-munity in Austin actually sing-ing Austin’s songs,” Crystaline said, “There is a sound from Austin that can be heard too.”

Ultimately, the couple said they want the church to add to their members lives.

“We don’t want you to cater your life around what we’re do-ing at church,” Crystaline said. “If you are connected to our community, we genuinely want you just to flourish in who God created you to be. Your dreams, your passions — that’s where we want your time to go.”

1920s stage performer Harry Kahne, “The Man with the Multiple Mind,” had an act in which he would write five words on a chalkboard simul-taneously, using chalk in both hands, both feet and his mouth.

Most humans are not Kahne. Still, many students try emulating his abilities during class as they text a friend, browse Reddit on their laptop and play footsie with their neigh-bor while listening to the

professor at the front of the room.

Communication studies assistant professor Dawna Ballard, who studies time and how it relates to multitasking, says those students are doing at least one of those activities poorly. Every activity takes up a certain amount of men-tal space and unnecessary tasks can take some of this space away from absorbing the material.

A 2013 study found a significant correlation be-tween laptop use and poor performance in class, but it didn’t establish a clear cause and effect. Another paper attempted to demon-strate that laptops led to the poor performance.

The study separated stu-dents into randomized groups. In one, researchers asked students to use a pen-cil and paper. In another, the

researchers told students to use a computer but only the word processor. Participants in the third group could use their computer however they wished.

That experiment was a failure, as only 57 percent of participants actually followed the simple instructions. It’s not that the students didn’t understand; rather the temp-tation of opening up Google Chrome or pulling out a phone was too great, and that affected the results.

“In a multitasking age, we’re never giving all of our attention to anything,” Ballard said.

And multitasking doesn’t get better with practice. A study comparing “heavy me-dia multitaskers” to “light me-dia multitaskers” found that the former performed worse at ignoring distractions, switch-ing from one task to another

and keeping things in mem-ory. In fact, the researchers couldn’t find anything heavy multitaskers did better.

But that does not mean diligent students should sit in their seats, eyes fixed open a la “A Clockwork Orange” to do well in class. The brain needs a certain amount of stimula-tion to stay involved — just not too much. Instead of checking email or Snapchatting your bored face to a close friend, try doodling.

Another experiment tested participants’ ability to recall information from a dull tele-phone message. Those who were told to shade in shapes while listening to the messages recalled 29 percent more in-formation than those who just listened. Doodling is a simple enough task keep the brain active enough to prevent day-dreaming without distracting too much.

But if doodling’s not enough, Kahne developed a “Multiple Mentality Course” before his death. It’s a step-by-step guidebook filled with exercises designed to teach the same skills Kahne demon-strated on stage nearly a centu-ry ago. The course is available for free on the Internet, but proceed with caution.

According to Kahne, those who attempted his exercises experienced “shortness of breath, headaches, pains in the chest and abdomen, nau-sea, weakness in the back, spots before the eyes, stom-ach troubles, constant fatigue, palpitations of the heart — and faintness.” It’s a large price to pay to tweet during lecture.

6

Saturday, March 7, 201511 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Free. No registration required.

exploreut.utexas.edu

experience a world of discovery. encounter something new. explore ut!

see a complete schedule of events in friday’s daily texan.

KAT SAMPSON, LIFE&ARTS EDITOR | @thedailytexan 6Thursday, March 5, 2015

FILM

UT alumni to launch filmmaking companyBy Cat Cardenas

@crcardenas8

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

CITY

By Mackenzie Palmer@mackenziepdaily

Multitasking, distractions cause brain to process less information

Spider House church breaks norms

Illustration by Sarah Alerasol | Daily Texan Staff

By Robert Starr@robertkstarr

Rachel ZeinDaily Texan Staff

From left, UT alumni and Dox co-founders Brett Bowlin, Alex Milan, John Fitch and Andrew Miller stand in the Dox office space downtown. The company, an Austin-based group that pro-vides filmmakers the resources to create and pro-duce documen-tary films, will launch at South by Southwest this March.