Horns Down: Gerrymandering aimed at minorities
A federal panel of judges ruled Friday that the voting maps adopted by the Texas Legislature this summer will be used in next year’s primary...
Horns Up: After a great deal of controversy and debate, the San Antonio City Council voted 8-3 to include the LGBT community in its list of classes protected from discrimination. Although Austin,...
As reported by the Texas Tribune on Sept. 4, the Texas Supreme Court might rule this month on Rodriguez v. Boerjan: a case that seems straightforward, but highlights a gray area in the legal status afforded...
Horns Up: Cornyn shows restraint on Syria
On Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News reported that Sen. John Cornyn had stayed silent throughout a meeting between President Barack Obama and congressional...
Last week, Texas’ voter ID law was put into practice for the first time when early voting began for a special election in Edinburg. The law was passed in 2011 but had been prevented from taking effect...
In an Aug. 15 address to the Texas Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion organization, Texas Railroad Commission chairman and Attorney General candidate Barry Smitherman gave quite a speech. The best sound...
On Friday, before Americans began their three-day weekend, President Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced that he would seek congressional approval for U.S. military action against...
Horns Up: Prison guards stand with inmates
The union representing Texas’ prison guards declared its support for lawsuits filed on behalf of convicts against the lack of air conditioning in state...
Last week the Austin American-Statesman reported that Austin Independent School District leaders, including Edmund Oropez, the district’s associate superintendent of high schools, want to start Austin’s...
Horns Down: Manziel's non-punishment
The NCAA has said that it can’t prove that Texas A&M University quarterback Johnny Manziel was paid thousands of dollars for signing autographs. Consequently,...
Horns Up: The Trail of Lights Returns
The Trail of Lights is coming back. After a few years of unreliable illumination, the Austin tradition will now include better parking and multiple paths through...
Horns Up: Flip-flopping on its earlier decision to withhold additional aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared West, the town devastated by a fertilizer plant explosion in April, a disaster...
Congratulations may be in order for the Texas Legislature for finally sealing up this session’s last official item of business: transportation funding. While nothing is set in stone yet, on Friday...
HORNS UP: The city of Austin has developed an ambitious water treatment system that will give customers the option of purchasing cheap, though non-potable, reclaimed water for purposes other than...
Horns Up: The University of Michigan Board of Regents voted Thursday to allow students living in the U.S. illegally to pay in-state, rather than out-of-state, tuition. Texas has done so since 2001,...
For nearly two years, the students of UT have been waiting to see how the UT System Board of Regents’ $10 million investment in the course-scheduling and now job-matching service MyEdu.com...
On Friday, July 12, after more than nine hours of discussion on the Texas Senate floor, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 2, an omnibus abortion bill by Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (R-Murphy) that criminalizes...
On October 15, 1971, this newspaper ran an article headlined “Fems to Rally for Abortion, March Ends at Capitol.”
Two years before the Supreme Court would vote in a 7-2 decision to...
Horns Up: The governor has all but said that he won’t place the issue of tuition revenue bonds on the second special session call, but that didn’t stop state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, from...
In last week’s chaotic news cycle, you might have missed the proclamation from Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, expanding the purview of the House Transparency Committee to include...
On June 24, the Supreme Court voted 7-1 to kick back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals the case of Fisher v. Texas, which pitted Abigail Fisher, a white woman who was denied admission to UT-Austin,...
Cheers went up across the country Wednesday as the LGBT community and its supporters celebrated the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to strike down the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which denied...
If you voted in last November’s election, you are likely aware of the geographic topsy-turvy that a panel of San Antonio judges imposed on Austin’s congressional districts last year. Part of...
Recently, The Texas Tribune uncovered an open records request made on June 6 by Regent Wallace Hall directed at the office of President William Powers Jr. The extensive request called for “any and...
Last Friday, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed Senate Bill 15, a piece of legislation by Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) that would have limited the power of governing boards of Texas public universities by, ...
The fate of funding for more than 60 campus construction projects across the state, totaling more than $2.5 billion, rests in the hands of Gov. Rick Perry, who can choose to either add the issue of tuition...
The trailer for Homo Erectus, a 2007 movie written, directed by and starring Adam Rifkin, lasts two and a half painful minutes and features a montage of women being clubbed over the head, one naked butt...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
On Monday at 12:15 in Sid Richardson Hall room 3.122, the Robert S. Strauss Center for International...
The first lawsuits have been filed against West Fertilizer Co.’s parent company Adair Grain, Inc. following the deadly explosion on April 17. The blast killed 15 people, injured up to 200 others...
On Friday, April 26, Gov. Rick Perry announced that he was willing to call a special session of the Legislature this summer to get his biggest priorities passed. Those priorities include about $3.7 billion...
The Question: State funding currently makes up 13 percent of the University’s operating budget. It made up 47 percent of the budget in 1984. To make up for decreasing state support, the University...
Going to school in the center of an exciting and growing city makes the UT experience unique among Texas’ public universities. But along with growth come growing pains — traffic, most notably...
Most Texas public high school students take Algebra II when they are 16 years old. The class’ curriculum covers a wide range of topics, offering an intentionally superficial survey of complex ideas...
As students plan their schedules for another semester and navigate the often stressful registration process, they use the variety of course-planning tools at their disposal. They book advising appointments,...
On April 12, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin rejected the Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ efforts to get the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles board of directors’...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
On Monday, April 22 at 4 p.m., students can attend a conversation with Dr. Paul Farmer of...
Just a handful of UT students grew up in West, but hundreds drive through the town on weekend trips home and excursions north. The tiny town clings to several miles of I-35’s eastern edge, just north...
The Question: Early news reports about the deadly explosions in Boston and West, Texas were characterized by misinformation. Did you follow news about the tragedies? If so, how did the dissemination ...
Austin is a city that likes to drink. It’s no coincidence that the nightlife, music festivals and hot weather for which Austin is known go so well with a cold beer or mixed drink. In fact, a 2012...
Last Thursday, Texas Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, filed Senate Joint Resolution 1, a proposal to spend $2.5 billion on water supply projects and $3.5 billion...
What exactly is a Tuition Revenue Bond (TRB)? The Texas Senate’s website offers a mouthful of a definition: “TRBs are bonds that have their debt serviced by the revenue of the project for which...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
From 7-9 p.m. on Monday, marine toxicologist Riki Ott, who has written extensively about...
On April 9, the Texas Senate passed SB 1530, a bill filed by Higher Education Committee Chairman Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo. The bill would maintain the cap on students admitted under the Top Ten Percent...
James Madison, a founding father and our fourth president, once wrote, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
On Monday from 4-5 p.m., UC-Irvine professor Soroosh Sorooshian discusses the future likelihood...
On April 4, the Texas Senate Higher Education Committee voted to send SB 1530 to the full Senate with a favorable report. The bill, written by Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, the chairman of the Higher...
Despite recent rain storms in Austin, Texas is in the throes of a long-term drought. Forecasts for the next decades warn of scarce freshwater and soaring population growth, which is not a good combination.
Last...
Yesterday, The Texas Tribune published a revealing story about UT System Regent Wallace Hall Jr.
These days, Hall is best known on campus and at the Capitol for his apparent mission to unseat...
Here’s an arithmetic problem: While back-to-school shopping, Dave gives his son Pete $10 to buy a calculator. The next year Dave gives Pete only $5 for the same model of calculator, and Pete can’t...
On March 27, state Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, filed SB 1467, a bill formally establishing economic and tax incentives to American gun manufacturers, in an attempt to encourage them to move their...
What are the perimeters of the power of the UT System Board of Regents, and have the regents overstepped them? These days that question — posed amid speculation that the regents are actively attempting...
These days, some 50,000 UT students wander this campus with headphones in their ears, faces glued to their screens and often, their uncertain futures on their brains. They are largely unaware of the lightning...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
On Tuesday from 12:15-1:45 p.m. in SRH 3.112, the Robert S. Strauss Center for International...
The Question: What do you know about the Board of Regents’ conflict with President Powers? How do you feel about what you know?
Well, I actually just got out of a little discussion with [President...
If UT students visit the White House’s College Scorecard, web page, they will find first that the average cost of attending UT as an in-state undergraduate runs about $14, 629 a year — a price...
It may be hard to believe for some and easy for others, but after three months we’ve passed the halfway point of the 83rd session of the Texas Legislature. At this juncture, we have the opportunity...
Members of the General Faculty, which comprises most (but not all) of the professors on this campus, vote today on two proposed amendments to the University’s academic calendar. The first would institute...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
This afternoon, the General Faculty will meet in the Hogg Memorial Auditorium to vote on...
The Question: Do you think women are equal to men on this campus?
I am a feminist, so naturally I always think that women are equal. But whether or not women are treated equally and viewed as being...
Rick Perry has been governor of Texas longer than Vladimir Putin has been president of Russia. When Perry was first sworn in, most UT seniors were 10 or 11 years old. The nation had just survived Bush...
On March 12 the Texas House Education Committee approved HB 5, a bill sponsored by Rep. Jimmie Aycock, R-Killeen, that would reduce the number of standardized tests Texas high school students are required...
Bev Kearney, former UT women’s track and field head coach, has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Texas Workforce Commission discrimination charge against the University. Kearney,...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
Tonight, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will speak at the LBJ School of Public...
In an hours-long session on March 14, the Texas House’s Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee heard arguments both for and against concealed carry on college campuses. The debate about four...
Spring break is approaching. By Friday evening, the UT campus will resemble something like a West Texas ghost town as thousands of students embark on their seasonal week-long exodus. Others will stay and...
Texas lawmakers from all political parties are paying an unprecedented level of attention to Texas’ declining water resources. In addition to a host of smaller bills, both houses of the Legislature...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
The SXSWedu Policy Forum takes place Monday and Tuesday at the Hilton Austin Downtown. Speakers...
A new arrangement between Austin Community College and UT-Austin will grant students meeting minimum eligibility requirements at ACC automatic admission to UT, starting fall 2013. The program, called the...
When the Texas Student Media board of trustees meets today, its members should not curtail the number of days The Daily Texan is printed, as has been proposed. The Texan may be financially fragile at present,...
The Question: What would you like to see in the daily texan?
“To be perfectly honest I don’t read The Daily Texan ... Do you talk about environmental outreach programs at all? I know they...
Editor’s note: The editorial board sent questionnaires to Student Government Executive Alliance candidates and those seeking positions as University-wide representatives. Their answers were reviewed...
Today at 11:30 a.m. at the UT School of Law (TNH 3.127), Ramzi Kassem will host a discussion about the place of torture in American policy and the film “Zero Dark Thirty.” Kassem is a professor...
Pflugerville ISD became the first school district in Texas to allow employees to add a domestic partner to their health care plan in December 2012. But that victory for LGBT Texans may be short-lived,...
The Question: Who should have the most power over what happens at UT-Austin — The board of regents, the legislature, or the University’s administration?
Marysabel Guillen, undeclared freshman...
Prominent members of the Texas Legislature filed measures this week to protect the University of Texas’ autonomy from the UT System Board of Regents. The lawmakers’ actions follow a public...
If the UT System Board of Regents attempts to unseat President William Powers Jr., UT students will rattle their noisemakers and howl in objection. Powers commands wide appeal among a student population...
INBOXES BEFORE ORANGE BOXES
Like many newspapers, The Daily Texan is misunderstanding the public’s switch to “digital” news. Newsprint is expensive, silicon is almost free.
But...
The Daily Texan, a 113-year-old campus institution, faces life-or-death financial troubles. The newspaper’s student staff and the Texan’s readers and supporters must step up and take the newspaper’s...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
“Good Hair,” a docu-comedy featuring comedian Chris Rock that explores societal...
The Question: do you believe online classes will replace physical classes in your lifetime? Should they?
Austin Smith
History senior from Houston
I don’t think that they will, and I don’t...
Editor’s note: UT professor Allen Bard recently received a National Medal of Science. On Feb. 1 at a White House ceremony, President Barack Obama presented the award to Bard and to the 11 other recipients...
Earlier this month, state Representatives Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, introduced twin bills initiating an amendment to the Texas Constitution. If passed, the bills would reverse...
Editor’s note: The following editorial first ran in The Daily Texan on May 8, 1957, written by Nancy McMeans, then editor-in-chief. McMeans must have known she had a national news story on her hands...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
“When I Rise” (2010) is playing at the Violet Crown Cinema downtown at 7 p.m....
UT’S STAKE IN SCHOOL FUNDING WAR
On Feb. 4, John Dietz, a state district judge from Austin, ruled in favor of more than 600 Texas school districts, claiming that the state does not adequately...
The Question: How do you feel about the UT System Regents’ putting what the Austin American-Statesman called a “gag order” on President Powers, which prohibits him from discussing Inappropriate...
On Tuesday, UT announced that Thomas Edgar, a chemical engineering professor, will be promoted to interim director of the research-scandal-plauged UT Energy Institute. We hope Edgar will bring fresh air...
Kimberly McCarthy, the first woman scheduled to be executed in the United States since 2010, won a reprieve when a state district court halted a lethal injection on Jan. 29, only hours before it was scheduled...
Yesterday, UT announced four new financial aid pilot programs, worth $5 million total, notable because the resulting handouts will be tethered to a student’s ability to graduate in four years. In...
UT President William Powers Jr. is “under a gag order of sorts when it comes to speaking publicly about the issue of inappropriate relationships between university employees and students,”...
Historic moment for South Texas
On Monday, Feb. 3, two bills filed in the Texas House and Senate detailed plans for the creation of a Rio Grande Valley university by joining UT-Brownsville, UT-Pan...
If you plan to spend the rest of your life in Texas, plan to do it without water.
Gov. Rick Perry acknowledged the need to invest in water resource management in his State of the State speech last week.
But...
Recent events in the athletics department show that UT desperately needs clearer rules concerning student-staff romantic relationships.
Last Friday, UT men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds, UT...
At the beginning of every week, we provide a list of opinion-worthy events to expect during the coming week.
From 2-4 p.m. on Wednesday, Lee Mun Wah, an acclaimed diversity trainer, will conduct a workshop...
The Question: Do you support providing a path to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already in this country?
Alfredo Vasquez
Bilingual education junior from Brownsville
Yeah,...
Stand on the Drag during rush hour traffic and watch the drivers parade before you, playing with their phones as they go by. Yesterday, over the course of 10 minutes, we counted (approximately) 14 drivers...
At 10 a.m. yesterday morning, UT President William Powers Jr., sporting a burnt orange tie and a no-nonsense look, gave a 36-minute address about the future of the University’s finances. Powers introduced...
Editor’s note: This afternoon Texas Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to give his State of the State Speech to Texas lawmakers. Rushing from the Mansion to the Dome, he might not have time this morning...
Can you please make the crossword bigger in your newspaper? Today is Monday — the day I have the best chance of completing that rascal, and I would appreciate not needing to strain my eyes.
I...
From 6-7 p.m. today, several members of the state Legislature are holding a panel discussion titled “The Texas Water Crisis: Finding and Funding a Solution.” The discussion will take place...
