1 THE DAILY TEXAN Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900 Bands begin to descend on Austin Austin-based company TIKKER showcases at in anticipation of SXSW trade show StyleX LIFE&ARTS PAGE 13 LIFE&ARTS PAGE 14 >> Breaking news, blogs and more: www.dailytexanonline.com @thedailytexan facebook.com/dailytexan Tuesday, March 6, 2012 Judge to determine status of SG election ...candidates TODAY By Jody Serrano porary restraining order for at firms that Gardner believes SG can- The source requested to remain voluntarily submit Daily Texan Staff least 14 days against the SG exec- didates give up certain rights to free anonymous because of fear of retali- utive alliance elections on Feb. 27 speech during an election. ation from the Gardner campaign. themselves to the A Travis County judge may de- to review Gardner’s case and de- Gardner filed a lawsuit against the “Candidates who wish to run for Election Code when Calendar termine whether former Student termine whether he and Guevara University of Texas and the Univer- office voluntarily enter into the agree- Government presidential candidate were wrongfully disqualified from sity of Texas Student Government ment created by the Election Code,” running for office, and Madison Gardner and running mate the elections. The Daily Texan re- claiming the Election Code that the the document stated. “The Election thus, give up certain Victoria Bynum Antonio Guevara will be allowed ceived information from an anony- Election Supervisory Board and the Code is an established set of rules that hosts lecture back on the election ballot by Mon- mous source on Wednesday in re- SG Judicial Court used to disqualify governs campus election processes rights to speech. Dr. Victoria Bynum, professor day, March 12, according to the Tex- sponse to Gardner’s lawsuit against him and Guevara is unconstitutional and certain stipulations do limit the — 2010 SG Election as Attorney General’s office. emeritus at Texas State UT. The source claimed a docu- because it violates their constitution- Documents University, presents the first Judge Tim Sulak issued a tem- ment Gardner signed in 2010 af- al rights to freedom of association. ELECTION continues on PAGE 2 of two Littlefield Lectures, titled “The Free State of Jones: Community, Race, and Kinship in Civil War Mississippi.” The lecture will be at ACE 2.302 Groups debate from 4-6 p.m. HE EPARTING FTERNOON T D A quality, profit Tuition and Bud- in universities get Town Hall By Elizabeth Farmer hosted by deans Daily Texan Staff Budgets and tuition rates are Cost. Affordability. Four-year grad- the topic of a College of Fine uation rates. These buzzwords con- Arts town hall meeting. Dean tinue to fly around in the state higher Douglas Dempster and the education debate. One group is look- chairs of the Department of Art ing to turn focus to another buzz- and Art History and Theatre and word — excellence. Dance, as well as the director The Texas Coalition for Excel- of the Butler School of Music, lence in Higher Education met for will be in attendance. The town its first in-person meeting Friday. hall will be in DFA 1.01 starting The group formed in June as a re- at 6 p.m. sponse to the higher education de- bate and to critics like The Texas Public Policy Foundation. Austin Poetry TPPF is a conservative think tank that has criticized the importance of Slam research at state universities and em- The Austin Poetry Slam is a phasized the importance of teaching weekly event that showcases in efforts to get students through the 12 original spoken-word artists University at a faster rate. This debate in a free-for-all competition for has alarmed some faculty and admin- prize money. Located at 29th istrators at universities like UT Aus- Street Ballroom at Spiderhouse, tin and Texas A&M, who worry about doors at 7:30 p.m., poet sign- maintaining tier-one research status. up at 8 p.m., show at 8:30 p.m. Jaime Grunlan, Texas A&M me- Admission is $5. chanical engineering associate profes- Jorge Corona | Daily Texan Staff sor, spoke at the members-only co- A hostess and a waitress at Justine’s Brasserie converse before the restaurant opens Monday afternoon. Located on the East side of Austin, alition meeting and with The Daily Justine’s prides itself on serving authentic, simple French cuisine in a quaint yet comfortable setting. EDUCATION continues on PAGE 2 On the web Event emphasizes sexual consent In News By Hannah Jane DeCiutiis might result in intentions becoming not only intercourse, but also situa- Queer People of Color and Daily Texan Staff unclear, a situation that could be dan- tions such as when one person wishes Allies held their 3rd Annual gerous if both partners are unable to to practice safe sex while their part- Drag Ball Monday evening in Consent in sexual situations can openly discuss their consent. ner does not. Consent to one type of the SAC. be complicated to navigate, especial- ly for undergraduate students who Jane Morgan Bost, Counseling and activity does not guarantee consent to may not have much experience with Mental Health Center associate di- others, and participants must under- physical intimacy. rector, said she created the Voices stand their own boundaries before Consent requires both parties in Against Violence program because being put into sexually charged situ- a sexual encounter give explicit per- people don’t typically discuss the is- ations as well as know how to clearly mission for a particular sex act to take sue of consent in an open manner. articulate those boundaries. place, students learned during a pre- “People in general find it very dif- Lynn Hoare, Theater for Dia- sentation Monday called “Get Sexy. ficult to really address and it’s at the logue specialist for Voices Against Get Consent.” Voices Against Vio- heart of a lot of interpersonal vio- Violence, created the “Get Sexy. Get Batli Joselevitz | Daily Texan Staff lence, a program of the Counseling lence,” she said. Consent.” program. She said the Linda Neavel Dickens Ph.D. met with faculty and students to discuss and Mental Health Center, hosted the In order for there to be consent, program is targeted at younger col- change through competency based education and critical thinking. performance, where actors demon- both partners must be able, both lege students because of their lack of strated cases in which sexual consent physically and emotionally, to directly exposure to the issue. might become an issue. express their comfortability with sex- “It’s really [targeted] at all un- Student assessment stresses For example, a one-night stand in ual activity taking place without pres- dergraduate levels,” Hoare said. which partners have only just met sure from their partner. This includes CONSENT continues on PAGE 2 importance of competency By Samuel Liebl data help to answer the question Daily Texan Staff of whether the University fulfills its mission. She said assessments As higher education in the indicate UT’s institutional effec- United States shifts to become tiveness and therefore do not ef- more student focused, UT stu- fect specific departments. dents stand to gain greater com- “Assessment has nothing to do petency in essential skills, while with faculty productivity or evalu- academic departments are en- ating faculty, though the term ‘in- couraged to discard their old par- stitutional effectiveness’ is some- adigms of success. times wrongly interpreted as that,” WATCH TStv ON Since 2008, UT has been re- Dickens said. CHANNEL 15 quired by its regional accredit- Linda said the assessments she ing agency, the Southern Associ- has initiated go beyond GPAs 9 p.m. ation of Colleges and Schools, to or course grades to measure the collect data regarding the compe- competency of students. Videogame tency of its students. To that end, Bobby Sterling, an assistant Hour Live Linda Dickens, director of the of- professor in the school of nursing, fice of institutional accreditation said the focus on competency is a We’ve got the latest in video and program assessment, held an game reviews, industry news, paradigm shift for students. open forum with staff on Monday “There’s a big difference be- and trailers. We’ve also got to develop assessment strategies. 30 minutes of live gameplay tween students that come to col- “Assessment is about identifying lege to earn a degree and students of the just released game what you want students to do and Mass Effect #! Tune in for that come to gain competen- measuring how well they are able to cy,” she said. “Students that only trivia, to chat with the hosts, Batli Joselevitz | Daily Texan Staff do that,” Dickens said. “It’s a way of want a degree are interested in just tweet us @VGHL, and for a Rechna Korula, Andrew Townsell and Sydney Monroe-Williams help demonstrate the importance of communi- making evidence-based decisions.” first look at the game! cation during physical intimacy during “Get Sexy, Get Consent”, a presentation in Calhoun hall Monday evening. Dickens said the assessment ASSESMENT continues on PAGE 2 2 2 NEWS Tuesday, March 6, 2012 importance of competency in THE DAILY TEXAN higher education. ASSESMENT “The School of Journalism is Volume 112, Number 131 implementing a new curriculum continues from PAGE 1 as a result of student demand,” he said. “Journalism is explod- CONTACT US passing a class; students that want ing in so many ways and stu- competency ask, ‘How do I work dents have come back demand- Main Telephone: with others to achieve my goal?’” ing that they be trained in new (512) 471-4591 Director of the School of media, so we’re trying to teach Journalism Glenn Frankel said both critical thinking and skills Editor: — to think like journalists and Viviana Aldous his program has been espe- (512) 232-2212 cially effected by the growing to practice journalism.” [email protected] Managing Editor: talking about it,” Joy said.