Monday, April 20, 1998
Community Briefs
UT students hope for Hopwood case appeal
As UT System officials push for an appeal of the Hopwood ruling
to possibly reinstate affirmative action in Texas higher education,
many UT students said Thursday the appeal is long overdue.
"I really wonder why it took so long to appeal this. There’s
been a major change in attitude," said Carl Villarreal, spokesman
for Students for Access and Opportunity and microbiology
senior.
"Last semester they told us there was nothing they could do,
that their hands were tied. Now we see that their hands aren’t
tied, that they were never tied," Villarreal, also a columnist at
The Daily Texan, said.
In a letter Tuesday, UT System Chancellor William Cunningham
asked Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to appeal the Hopwood
settlement issued March 20 by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks.
An appeal of the settlement ruling to the 5th Circuit could open
the door for a re-evaluation of affirmative action in Texas and put
the University on the same playing field as others that are allowed
to use race as a factor in admissions and financial aid, UT System
attorneys said.
Villarreal said the administrators’ initiative is a result of
politics rather than policies.
"I think they’ve seen the new admission numbers and they
realized the ways they were trying to tweak the system just weren’t
working," he said. "The bad publicity couldn’t have helped."
Microsoft, Hughes out of CSU partnership
Two of four high-tech giants are no longer partners in the
unprecedented, $365 million deal to upgrade the California State
University system’s technological infrastructure.
Microsoft and Hughes will not be partners in the California
Education Technology Initiative because financial arrangements
could not be worked out, CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said
Thursday.
Reed confirmed what many student and faculty groups had been
predicting for months: that Microsoft Corp., under investigation by
the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged antitrust violations,
would either pull – or be kicked – out.
However, CSU spokesman Ken Swisher denied Microsoft’s current
image problem as a reason for Microsoft’s removal.
"There were different factors," Swisher said.
Swisher asserted CSU is still working with Microsoft on an
"appropriate" relationship, one "that we can agree on and that
works for both parties."
"We will continue to work together on other projects, and remain
committed to providing the best technology and thinking," said
Microsoft spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis.
Officials from Hughes could not be reached for comment.
This is the fourth delay for CETI since December. It may not be
finished until "well into the next academic year," according to
Reed.
Lizard protein found to stop Lyme disease
Lyme disease in juvenile ticks can be eradicated when they feed
on lizards, decreasing the chance that they spread the infection to
humans, a UC Berkeley professor has discovered.
Robert Lane, a professor in the College of Natural Resources’
division of insect biology, has been studying the western
hard-shelled, black-legged tick for 14 years. In California, the
tick is the main carrier of the bacterium that causes Lyme
disease.
Lane discovered that a protein in the blood of western fence
lizards eliminates Lyme disease after a tick attaches itself to the
reptile’s body. The lizard is a common form of reptile in
California.
"(The protein) cleanses the guts of ticks," Lane said. The
disinfecting effects of the protein are permanent for juvenile
ticks.
Complied from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.