Students had a chance to snag bikes for sweet deals Wednesday evening at the ningth annual BikeUT bi- cycle auction. The auction takes more than 200 bicycles impound- ed throughout the year and sells them for prices starting as low as $3. Sam Cortez, bicycle coordinator for Parking and Transportation Ser- vices, said between 150 and 200 bikes end up be- ing impounded every year. Most of the bikes come from the summer break when students leave their bikes behind, sometimes on purpose. “Some students leave them out there, unlocked, for us to take, because they don’t want them anymore,” Cortez said. If a bicycle is found abandoned or improperly parked, it may be impounded. Cortez said if the bicycle is registered, Parking and Transportation Services will contact the owner before taking it. “However, only about 50 percent of bikes on campus are registered,” Cortez said. Parking and Transporta- tion Services hopes to raise this number through adver- tising initiatives. If a bicycle is impounded, the owner has 90 days to Austin focal points, such as Barton Springs, Livestrong and Dell Com- puter, would not be what they are today without Lee Walker’s leadership. Walker, a senior research fellow at UT, helped lead civic projects such as Save Our Springs in the early 1990s and a project in the early 2000s to prevent the state from constructing a conventional strip mall in- stead of developing what is now Triangle Park. Walk- er also is a co-founder of Livestrong and was the pres- ident of Dell Computer for four years. “Those kinds of quixotic ventures really appeal to me,” Walker said. “I love things that have no chance.” Though Walker said he valued his work with the diverse array of projects, he also views his experiences as a useful foundation from which he can teach. Walker will teach two classes in the spring semes- ter: Pathways to Civic En- gagement, a class for Plan II students, and Civic View- points, which will be open to all students. “[The] class I teach is at the intersection of entre- preneurship and justice and place,” Walker said. “It’s just important to get out into the field and see what’s going on.” Walker’s students go on field trips to meet members of the Austin community who are working to improve citizens’ lives. “I think that’s the beauti- ful part of civic engagement, that over time you have the opportunity to develop Thursday, September 12, 2013@thedailytexanfacebook.com/dailytexanServing the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900dailytexanonline.com bit.ly/dtvidSPORTS PAGE 6COMICS PAGE 7LIFE&ARTS PAGE 8CAMPUSPowers talks funding, technologyWORLDUT students, faculty torn over Syrian controversyVictor DePaulo / Daily Texan StaffPresident William Powers Jr. delivers the State of the Univer- sity Address at the B. Iden Payne Theatre on Wednesday. WORLDStudents connect to Syrian conflictRead about Watan and local activists / Page 3Check out our video interviews / onlineFor a small community of Syrian students at UT, the Syrian civil war is more than just a heated political debate. On Monday, Syrian For- eign Minister Walid Moal- lem told reporters in Mos- cow that Syria will consider placing its chemical weapons under international control. They would do so in hopes of averting a U.S. military intervention prompted by an alleged poison gas attack that killed thousands of Syrians last month. According to the Univer- sity’s Office of Information Management and Analysis, 207 former Syrian students were enrolled at UT in 2012. Lana Baumgartner, a Mid- dle Eastern languages and culture junior who has fam- ily in Damascus and Homs, said the issue is deeply per- sonal and said she feels alle- giance to both countries. “People don’t realize they’re asking me whether I think the country my grand- ma lives in should bomb the country my other grandma lives in,” Baumgartner said. “It’s weird and I don’t know what to think. What’s going to happen if we bomb Syria? Who will be affected? What will we do next? We know so little, it’s hard to pick a side.” Lama Nassif, a Syrian foreign language education graduate student, said the consequences of an Ameri- can strike on Syria cannot be controlled or predicted because of the complex situation her country finds itself in. “There is no side [in Syria] SYRIA page 3By Alberto Long@albertolongBy Jacob Kerr@jacobrkerrPOWERS page 23,000 American flags line South Mall for 9/11. ONLINEExpress lanes and bicycle facilities coming to MoPac. ONLINENEWSTexas’ congressional delegation’s views on Syria. PAGE 4Point-Counterpoint on Syria intervention. PAGE 4OPINIONTexas football must adjust to new defensive chief. PAGE 6Amy Neal finding stride for Texas volleyball. PAGE 6SPORTSBitch Beer blog breaks gender stereotypes. PAGE 8Science Scene explores 9/11 conspiracies. PAGE 8LIFE&ARTSCheck out our video illus- trating the Science Scene in Life&Arts about 9/11 conspiracy theories. dailytexanonline.comONLINEREASON TO PARTYPAGE 10CAMPUSStudents seek great deals at bike auctionBy Anna Daugherty@daughertyannaAUCTION page 2Professor’s experience inspires his teachingCAMPUSBy Amanda Voeller@amandaliz94WALKER page 5Charlie Pearce / Daily Texan StaffTheater and rhetoric junior Danya Gorel shops around at the BikeUT annual auction Wednesday afternoon. The auction included more than 200 bikes starting at $3 each. President Barack Obama has called for Congress to delay its vote on his request for permission to make a limited strike against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria in response to the regime’s use of chemical weapons on civilians. The conflict hits close to home for three UT students — one Syrian immigrant and two Syrian-Americans — who have focused their attention on humanitarian relief and activism efforts in response to the conflict. Mouna Hashem Akil, Shiyam Galyon and Nadia Husayni / Photos by Zachary Strain / Daily Texan StaffPresident William Powers Jr. listed funding and tech- nology integration as two of the biggest challenges the University will face in the coming years in his annual State of the University Ad- dress on Wednesday. Though Powers empha- sized UT’s status as a “world university,” he said the Uni- versity will have to overcome budgetary issues and contin- ue to implement technology into its teaching to remain so. Although the Texas Leg- islature increased UT’s fund- ing by $25 million this year, Powers said the University is still trying to offset a $92 mil- lion decrease in state funding from the previous two years. “The bottom line is that we continue to operate on a very thin budget,” Powers said. Student Government Pres- ident Horacio Villarreal said UT has to balance staying competitive among top uni- versities with affordability. “The fact that we are a public school [makes it] tougher because a lot of [funding] is coming from tax dollars,” Villarreal said. After identifying the fac- ulty as one of the reasons for the University’s success, Powers said the University will risk losing its quality fac- ulty if it does not consistently increase salaries. In July, Powers informed UT faculty and staff there would be no centrally funded salary in- creases at the University for Texan AdDeadlinesThe Daily Texan Mail Subscription RatesOne Semester (Fall or Spring) $60.00Two Semesters (Fall and Spring) 120.00Summer Session 40.00One Year (Fall, Spring and Summer) 150.00To charge by VISA or MasterCard, call 471-5083. Send orders and address changes to Texas Student Media', P.O. Box D, Austin, TX 78713-8904, or to TSM Building C3.200, or call 471-5083. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Texan, P.O. Box D, Austin, TX 78713.9/12/13Business and Advertising(512) 471-1865 | advertise@texasstudentmedia.comDirector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jalah GoetteBusiness Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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Need to have your wisdom teeth removed? breckenridgeWWW.UBSKI.COM 1-800-SKI-WILD • 1-800-754-9453COLLEGE SKI & BOARD WEEKVail • Beaver Creek • Keystone • Arapahoe Basin20 Mountains. 5 Resorts. 1 Price. plus t/sFROMONLY2NEWSThursday, September 12, 2013Main Telephone(512) 471-4591EditorLaura Wright(512) 232-2212editor@dailytexanonline.comManaging EditorShabab Siddiqui(512) 232-2217managingeditor@ dailytexanonline.comNews Office(512) 232-2207news@dailytexanonline.comMultimedia Office(512) 471-7835dailytexanmultimedia@ gmail.comSports Office(512) 232-2210sports@dailytexanonline.comLife & Arts Office(512) 232-2209dtlifeandarts@gmail.comRetail Advertising(512) 471-1865joanw@mail.utexas.eduClassified Advertising(512) 471-5244classifieds@ dailytexanonline.comCONTACT USVolume 114, Issue 21COPYRIGHTCopyright 2013 Texas Student Media. All articles, photographs and graphics, both in the print and online editions, are the property of Texas Student Media and may not be reproduced or republished in part or in whole without written permission. The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely. If we have made an error, let us know about it. Call (512) 232-2217 or e-mail managingeditor@ dailytexanonline.com. TOMORROW’S WEATHERHighLow10073Closer. The Closer? Charlie Pearce / Daily Texan StaffStudents walk through the intersection of Dean Keaton and Whitis Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. FRAMES featured photo POWERScontinues from page 1reclaim it and must pay a $25 fee. “I think that policy is fair as long as everyone knows about it and knows the con- sequences,” finance senior Clay Olsen said. Olsen was one of the stu- dents at the event who was able to win the bidding war for his favorite bike being auctioned. He described the auction as being full of fran- tic energy. “The bike went into a bid- ding war,” Olsen said. “That was pretty exciting, I’ve nev- er done that before.” Not everyone was able to win at the auction, though. Electrical engineering fresh- man Justin Curewitz, had his eyes on one of the most ex- pensive bikes at the auction. “I was hoping no one else would notice it,” Curewitz said. The bike went into a bid- ding war, going up to $265. Curewitz had to back down at that point. “I have bids on some of the other bikes here so it’s OK,” Curewitz said. The event was so crowded, Meg Kareithi, assistive tech- nology lab manager for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, said she used her phone to browse the bikes’ pictures online rather than try to move through the crowds. Kareithi said she wants to begin bicycling around cam- pus as an easier and faster way to get around. “The goal of the event is to get more people on bikes and divert bikes from the land- fill,” Cortez said. AUCTIONcontinues from page 1check outONLINEstoriesvideosphoto galleriesdailytexanonline.comthe fifth fiscal year in a row. “Our budgetary chal- lenges will affect our ability to recruit and retain our best faculty,” Powers said. “Other universities are strengthen- ing their balance sheets as the economy improves. They will be targeting our faculty. Strengthening our own abil- ity to attract and retain fac- ulty in a very competitive world needs to be our high- est long-term priority.” Powers discussed funding for future facilities at the University and criticized the state’s system for funding construction projects. “The feast-or-famine ap- proach we currently have in Texas for funding capital proj- ects makes it difficult to plan, and it’s not keeping up with the state’s needs,” Powers said. UT failed to receive state funding for the planned En- gineering Education and Research Center because of a disagreement between the House and Senate during the final days of the legislative session earlier this year. The UT System Board of Regents is scheduled to discuss fund- ing for the building in a spe- cial meeting Thursday. Powers also addressed the University’s continued ef- forts to implement technol- ogy into courses, including blended learning efforts by faculty and UT’s MOOC program with online educa- tion provider edX. “Surely, technology will change the way we teach,” Powers said. “We have used these opportunities; indeed, UT is seen as a leader in this field … When we get the business model right — which right now is a chal- lenge — it can help lower the cost of a degree.” Although supportive of technology in higher educa- tion learning, Powers said UT and all other major re- search universities should remain residential. Andrew Clark, Senate of College Councils president, said he supports Powers’ position on implementing technology in the residential college setting. “More technology in the classroom is necessarily not a bad thing,” Clark said. “If we can produce something that is of high quality [and] can complement and add to the residential experiences of coming to school here, that is something that could be pos- itive for the campus down the road.” Powers, who will soon serve a one-year term as chairman of the Associa- tion of American Universi- ties, also praised efforts over the past year to establish the Dell Medical School, which is scheduled to welcome its inaugural class in fall 2016. that is 100 percent good and another that is 100 percent bad,” Nassif said. “Radical ex- tremists have taken over the Syrian upris- ing, turning it into a largely jihadist war with factions proclaiming allegiance to al-Qaida, drawing extremists from around the world. U.S. military action will only make things more complicated. Syrians do not need more bombs and weapons sent their way.” Government professor Zoltan Barany said he is wary of seemingly “innocuous” man- dates that have proven disastrous in the past, citing the United State’s decision to invade Iraq under similar circumstances. “The first steps in Afghanistan and Iraq were innocuous and didn’t look so omi- nous,” Barany said. “And these were the first steps that led to wars that cost human lives and trillions of dollars.” J.D. Newsome, vice president of Refugee Services of Texas, said Syrian refugees have not been approved for resettlement in the United States, although the state department has indicated that a number of Syrians will arrive this year. “The indication [from the state depart- ment] that we’re hearing is that a limited number of Syrians are going to be eligible for resettlement this coming year,” Newsome said. “When I say limited, we’re talking a few thousand. I think that they are hinting that in 2015, assuming that the war is going on, it might become a much larger resettlement.” Earlier this week, members of the Inter- national Socialist Organization spoke to stu- dents in the West Mall about the Syrian cri- sis. Computer science junior Mukund Rathi said his organization wants to gather public support to oppose any military intervention by the U.S. government in Syria. “We found over and over again — Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen are the best examples — that invading other coun- tries and bombing the populous of those countries only increases extremism and only increases threats to national security,” Rathi said. “If President Obama and the rest of the federal government actually care about these things, they should be very strongly opposed to any military strike on Syria.” Ultimately, the potential for another war is real, Barany said. “[Another war] is something your generation will have to pay off,” Barany said. “Is this our na- tional interest? We have far more to worry about in our backyard. We shouldn’t be isolationist by any means, but nobody wants a war … Let somebody else, for once, send the missiles.” Nassif said the Syrian people deserve peace after “paying dearly” in all aspects of life for the past two and a half years. “Syrians … would like their peaceful country back with hopeful eyes on a future with more freedoms, democratic reforms and prosperity,” Nassif said. Mouna Hashem AkilFor senior Mouna Akil, the war in Syria gives significance to the degrees in business and psychology she’s pursuing. Akil, a Syrian immigrant, said she hopes to use her educa- tion to help Syria rebuild after the war. In the meantime, she’s leading humanitarian efforts from the U.S. When protests first broke out on the streets of Syria in 2011, Akil said she wanted to take action and help in any way she could. Two years later, Akil is now the director of Watan-USA. The organization focuses on long-term civil and humanitarian work that will benefit the Syrian people, Akil said. “We try to rebuild the country, empower women and men and adults [and] those who are refugees,” Akil said. With her education at UT in tow, she plans to return to Syria once the war ends and work with children affected by the turmoil. “I want to focus on the children, [the] child psychology aspect, so when I go back, hopefully, I can help those thousands and thousands of kids who are refugees and or- phans who lost their families and homes due to the shelling,” Akil said. Akil said the hardships of those suffering abroad help her overcome the hardships she faces at home leading a humanitarian effort while still in school and raising two boys. “You cannot compare this to what people are going through inside Syria,” Akil said. “That’s what drives it, [what] drives me to keep up the work and continue with what I do.” Shiyam Galyon A Syrian-American, Shiyam Galyon was born and raised in Houston. Her parents im- migrated to the United States from Homs, Syria, more than 30 years ago. Following her graduation from UT last year, Galyon decided to involve herself with relief efforts in Syria (Galyon is a former Daily Texan staffer). “All I could think about was Syria and I just wanted to get over there,” Galyon said. But no nonprofit would accept her offer to teach English at the Syrian border for free be- cause of liability issues. Galyon’s family and networking led her to the UK-based human- itarian group Watan. Galyon found herself in a war-torn coun- try and involved in relief work on the Syria- Turkey border. “We spent the night with shells hitting our neighborhood,” Galyon said. While working with a civilian council in Aleppo, Galyon said she realized the turmoil in the area had become an inescapable aspect of everyday life for the individuals she met there, including a student from the Univer- sity of Aleppo named Mohammed. “By the end of that week, I could step out of that area and I could go, but he couldn’t,” Galyon said. “And I think that’s the funda- mental idea behind privilege.” Since returning to the U.S., Galyon continues to work with Watan and the Houston chapter of the Syrian American Council as a media rela- tions officer while taking classes at the University. The chemical attacks have pushed Syria into the media spotlight. While Galyon said the rhetoric surrounding the crisis in Syria has improved, she said there isn’t a clear un- derstanding of the current situation. “I always try to think what a non-Syrian might feel,” Galyon said. “There is still a lot of education to do.” After the chemical weapons attack, Galyon and the council have organized rallies in re- sponse to the anti-war rallies that broke out across the country. “We don’t believe those rallies are organized behind a rhetoric that fully understands the Syrian situation,” Galyon said. “Everybody is talking politics about a humanitarian crisis and the people who are going to lose out at the end of the day are the Syrian people.” Nadia HusayniBusiness senior Nadia Husayni’s roots and extended family are based in Syria. Traveling to Homs every summer meant family reunions and days spent in the mountains and beaches. But most of her extended family fled to Sau- di Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Dubai when protests broke out in the area in early 2011. “When the conflicts first happened, my parents told me, ‘Don’t post anything on so- cial media,’ because whenever someone would post about social media, the government would go and find the family [and] either ha- rass them or invade their home,” Husayni said. A mutual friend connected Husayni with Akil. Since then, she’s been involved in activ- ism efforts on campus. Two days after students of University of Aleppo were killed in a bombing on Jan. 15, Husayni participated in a vigil held in front of the UT Tower. Husayni has helped Akil table in the West Mall where they talked to other students and helped raise awareness for the crisis in Syria. “I strongly do encourage people to look at the facts, to look at the numbers, look at what’s happening over there [because] the violence is not acceptable,” Husayni said. Moving forward, Husayni said she hopes to continue working with Akil because the activism work has helped her develop her perspective on the situation in Syria. “She kind of helped me voice out my opin- ions,” Husayni said. “Before, I was really afraid just because my parents told me, ‘You need to watch out.’” SYRIA 3 Salt water pool converts to giant hot tubFitness Center overlooks downtownFloor to ceiling windowsFido Friendly all sizesGranite countertopsLive life above the rest. 2101 Rio Grande Suite 1001 Austin TX 78705 500 off $ 1st Month’s Rent500$ Southwest Airline Gift CardLimited time offer/ subject to change21Rio.com512.391.1991NEWSThursday, September 12, 20133Syrian students reach out SYRIAcontinues from page 1By Zachary Strain@thedailytexanPhoto courtesy of WatanMouna Hashem Akil visits refugee children inside the rebuilt Gen- eration Freedom School in Qah, Idlib, Syria, on May 25. The school’s restora- tion was funded by Akil’s hu- manitarian group Watan. I want to focus on the children, [the] child psychology aspect, so when I go back, hopefully, I can help those thousands and thou- sands of kids who are refugees and orphans who lost their families and homes due to the shelling. —Mouna Hashem Akil, business and psychology seniorI strongly do encourage people to look at the facts, to look at the numbers, look at what’s happening over there [because] the violence is not acceptable. —Nadia Husayni, business seniorCLOSERtoconflictPhoto courtesy of Shiyam GalyonKafranbel activ- ists meet with Shiyam Galyon, center, and discuss their activism work after one of their weekly protests. Kafranbel, Syria, is renowned for its political signs and cartoons. 4A OPINIONLEGALESE | 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 firingline@dailytexanonline.com. 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 (@DTeditorial) and receive updates on our latest editorials and columns. 4LAURA WRIGHT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / @TEXANEDITORIALThursday, September 12, 2013COLUMN: COUNTERPOINTCOLUMN: POINT“It is now your turn Doctor…”, read the graffiti on the outer wall of a school in the southern city of Dara’a. That graffiti sparked the Syrian revolution. The phrase that had been written, in reference to Syrian President Dr. Bashar Al-Assad, was spray-painted by school- boys in early 2011 in protest of the rough- ing up of their school principal by the Mukhabarat secret police for the princi- pal’s stand against corruption. The kids were then unlawfully detained and tor- tured. When the parents protested and requested their release, the president’s cousin told the parents to forget about their children. Two-and-a-half years later, one of those children has yet to return home. In response to the incident, Syrians pro- tested peacefully throughout the country for six months. But their protest were met only with a brutal campaign of killing, torture, arbi- trary detentions and the denial of basic human rights. As the regime’s crackdown reached unprecedented levels of brutal- ity, soldiers who refused to carry out the orders to shoot at demonstrators started defecting and eventually took up arms to protect their families. This led to the rise of the Free Syrian Army, a moderate force that is fighting to protect the people of Syria in the struggle to build a democrat- ic and pluralistic society under the rule of law. However, the continued lack of interna- tional condemnation and the continued sup- port given to the Assad regime by Russia, China, Iran and the terrorist organization Hezbollah eventually led to the militariza- tion of the entire process and the introduc- tion of some extremist forces. Unlike how it is being portrayed in the media, this is not a civil war. This is a cor- rupt regime intent on killing its people and silencing any and all opposition. In just over 30 months, there are over 120,000 documented civilian deaths — of whom 11,000 were children — hundreds of thousands of wounded and maimed, over 6 million displaced refugees and the destruc- tion of 80 percent of the major cities. There is not a single family in Syria that has not been directly impacted by this revolution and no one is more war-weary than the Syr- ian people. To allow the regime to massacre the civilians with impunity and without any international intervention will only lead to more death, more destruction and eventually an increased threat to the U.S. and its allies. This is evidenced by the lat- est brazen use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Government, which occurred on Aug. 21 in the suburbs of Damascus, where more than 1,400 unarmed civil- ians, mostly women and children, were killed in one day in a chemical attack. The only true “anti-war” strategy is hold- ing the Assad regime accountable for its crimes and putting an end to this cycle of violence. It is only with the leadership of the United States that the world will act to stop this injustice, and so the U.S. must send the message to Assad and all other dictators, tyrants and terrorists around the world that they must obey interna- tional laws or face the consequences. Syrians have risen against a brutal dic- tatorship and have thus far paid a grave price for their fight for democracy and freedom. I ask that you support Mr. Obama’s call for a limited strike on Syria and to not forget about the innocent children who are dying every day on our watch. Akil is a psychology senior from Damascus, Syria and the Director of the Watan Organi- zation, a non-profit that seeks to help Syrian children. If you are interested in the organiza- tion, you can contact Akil at mouna.hashem@ watansyria.org. Unlike how it is being por- trayed in the media, this is not a civil war. This is a cor- rupt regime intent on killing its people and silencing any and all opposition. Diplomatic solution is no solutionat all for struggling Syrian peopleQUOTES TO NOTE: SYRIAPoint, Counterpoint: U.S. intervention in SyriaRecently, debate has swirled around a potential strike on Syria to “punish” the regime of Bashar Al-Assad for an alleged sarin-gas attack on the Syrian rebels that killed 1,429 people. Although U.S. Presi- dent Barack Obama claims the authority to strike, he decided to put the decision to a vote in Congress, before announcing on Tuesday that he would seek a potential dip- lomatic resolution instead. Recent comments by Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian government opened the door for a tentative agreement with Syria requiring them to place their chemical weapons into international hands, destroy them and sign a chemical weapons ban. Despite those positive diplomatic de- velopments, armed conflict is still not out of the question. UT students should write their Congress- man to voice their opinion on this critical is- sue. I wrote Republican Lamar Smith of the 21st district, which includes part of Austin, asking him to oppose the strike and call for the president to respect Congress’ decision. Smith’s office’s response confirmed that the majority of his constituents are opposed and that he is skeptical of intervention. Smith is right to be skeptical. Obama failed to make his case in Tuesday’s address to the nation. He failed to explain how an interven- tion, which certainly risks making the situ- ation worse in the short term, will provide long-term stability to the region or advance U.S. objectives. In his speech Tuesday night, Obama made clear he did not want regime change, nor the responsibility for the chain reaction that would cause. Although some allude to the U.S. bombing of Kosovo in 1999 as a precedent, the poten- tial strike would bear more resemblance to past U.S. interventions in which we militarily supported a relatively unknown opposition only to receive blowback later. According to CNN’s Peter Berger, while only account- ing for 10 percent of the opposition forces in Syria, foreign fighters, many of them Al- Qaeda affiliates, are among the rebels’ most skilled fighters. Arming them could prove disastrous in the long term. Support of the rebels would echo CIA support for Islamic rebel groups in the 1980s during the Soviet occupation of Afghani- stan, militants we are still fighting today. More recent controversy surrounds our support for the Libyan rebels in 2011. A year after our overthrow of the old regime, then-President Mohammed Magarief admit- ted that security forces were likely infiltrated by extremist groups, paving the way for the 2012 attacks on the Benghazi consulate that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens. Intervention would likely be ineffective. With the president having ruled out regime change, what exactly is his plan? How can he avoid putting boots on the ground? Practi- cally speaking, how would Obama’s limited strike be any different from Clinton’s hapless 1998 bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan or Israel’s ineffective 2006 campaign against Hezbollah? As editorials invoke the memory of Bosnia, what are the differences and similarities between the ethnic conflicts in those two regions? Most importantly, to what degree can we positively affect the out- come? Until these questions are answered, our focus should be on seeking diplomatic so- lutions, and protecting those minorities persecuted by both sides in this conflict. According to an August NBC report by Ammar Cheikhomar and Henry Austin, many of the 2 million Christian Syrians, mistrusted by both sides, have been forced to flee to neighboring countries since the conflict began. Whatever you think, civic action is key. Although Syria is far away, our congressmen are close. The stakes are high and the poten- tial to sway your local lawmaker is real. Check your ZIP code, find your congres- sional district, visit your congressman’s web- site and finally call or email your congress- man (Democrat Lloyd Doggett for the 35th Congressional district, Republican Roger Williams for the 25th and Republican Lamar Smith for the 21st district). I wrote Lamar Smith as a concerned U.S. citizen, but also as a UT student who believes in civic engagement. If we as students fail to inform ourselves about the activities of our government, especially in times of conflict, then we cannot complain about the conse- quences of their action — or inaction. Knoll is a first-year masters student in Lat- in American Studies from Dallas. By Mouna Hashem AkilGuest Columnist By Travis KnollDaily Texan Columnist @tknoll209k Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston: “While demonstrating conviction and resolve, President Obama also has acted wisely in listening to the American people and consulting their repre- sentatives in the Congress and in his willingness to explore diplomatic solutions to this crisis. I support him in this effort and I remain committed to reviewing all of the classified information before I make a decision on behalf of my constituents who have been very vocal in their concern about our country entering into another war. I agree with them.” “The President’s credible threat of military force has led to the unprecedented acknowledgment by the Assad regime that it possessed chemical weap- ons and its expressed willingness to sign and comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention. I think the delay on a Congressional vote is a wise and effective decision which will enable all of us to work toward peace which should be the final objective of all sides involved.” - Sept. 11 press state- ment, in response to Obama’s speechWhy I wrote my congressman: to ask that the U.S. stay out of SyriaEditor’s Note: President Barack Obama’s proposal last month to launch a missile strike at Syria in response to a sarin gas attack that killed over 1,400 civilians has met a vocal response from Texas politicians in Washington. In a televised speech Tuesday night, Obama expressed his support for a Rus- sian plan to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. Below, we have selected several quotes from the Texas congressional delegation that repre- sent the range of opinions on both plans. Texas political leaders’ views on Syria crisis“I cannot support an operation that is so poorly conceived, so foolishly telegraphed, and virtually guaranteed to fail.” —Wednesday on the Senate floorSen. John CornynR- Texas“We should never give weapons to people who hate us, and the United States should not support or arm Al-Qaeda terrorists.” —Monday editorial in The Washington PostSen. Ted CruzR- Texas“[The administration] should heed the old Russian proverb made famous by President Reagan in his dealings with the former Soviet Union: ‘trust but verify.’” —Response to Obama’s speech on TuesdayRep. Jeb HensarlingR- Dallas“I think the delay on a Congressional vote is a wise and effective decision which will en- able all of us to work toward peace.” —Response to Obama’s speech on Tuesday Rep. Sheila Jackson-LeeD- Houston“The President is right to explore inter- national control of Syria’s chemical weapons and to postpone any Congressional action.” —Response to Obama’s speech on Tues- day, reported by the Houston ChronicleRep. Lloyd DoggettD- Austin“[It’s] disheartening to see Russia’s presi- dent appear to be replacing our president on the world stage.” —Tuesday response to Obama’s speech, re- ported by the Houston ChronicleRep. Kevin BradyR- The Woodlands“President Obama did not lay out a com- pelling case that Syria represents a clear and present danger to the U.S.” —Response to Obama’s Tuesday speech, reported by the Houston ChronicleRep. Bill FloresR- Bryan“President Barack Obama’s decision to go to Congress has allowed time for a possible diplomatic solution to materialize.” —Tuesday Twitter response to Obama’s speech. Rep. Joaquin CastroD- San Antonio CLASS 5Magnum Photos was the first cooperative agency to be established and operated by photographers. This exhibition explores the evolution of the collective from print photojournalism to the digital age. Free public tours on Tuesdays at noon, Thursdays at 6 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. 21st and Guadalupe StreetsFree admission, donations welcomewww.hrc.utexas.edu512-471-8944Jonas Bendiksen, Russia. Altai Territory. Villagers collecting scrap from a crashed spacecraft, surrounded by thousands of white butterflies. Environmentalists fear for the region’s future due to the toxic rocket fuel, 2000. © Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum PhotosTHROUGH JANUARY 5Presented by TEXASSTUDENTMEDIAvisit us at WWW.UTEXAS.EDU/TSMThe Daily Texan • TSTV • KVRX • Texas Travesty • Cactus YearbookCarter Goss Broadcast Manager & Sponsorships P 512.475.6721 E cartergoss@austin.utexas.eduFOR MORE INFORMATIONNEXT TAILGATE: SEPT. 14thSPECIAL THANKS TO: LOOK FOR THE DAILY TEXAN TENT AT THE CORNER OF MLK & BRAZOSCLASSIFIEDSADVERTISING TERMS There are no refunds or credits. 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Breckenridge • Vail • Keystone Beaver Creek • Arapahoe Basinplus t/sFROMONLY530 Travel-Transportation790 Part TimeEMPLOYMENTPICK UPDOUBLE COVERAGEEVERY FRIDAYVISIT DAILYTEXANONLINE.COM790 Part Timerecycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recycle recyclerecycleREMEMBER! you saw it in the TexanNEWSThursday, September 12, 20135friendships and connec- tions with just extraordinary souls,” Walker said. “It’s a wonderful thing.” Erin Larson, business honors and Plan II junior, said Walker’s class taught her to challenge the status quo and break the cycles of problems. “The movers and shakers of the Austin community … not only went about to solve the existing issues or challenges they saw within their communities, but they went upstream, to the very origin of the issues, to attempt to eliminate the problem instead of merely treating the symptoms,” Larson said. Each year, Walker spends the fall reinventing the class with his teaching as- sistant. Holland Finley, business honors and Plan II senior, was Walker’s teaching assistant for last spring’s class. “I think the overarching theme of his mentorship has been to give me and others the confidence that no mat- ter what pathway my life takes, I am able to transform the world for the better,” Finley said. Walker grew up in Three Rivers, a town in Southern Texas, and as a student there he visited Austin for athletic and academic contests. “[Austin] was the epicen- ter of our universe,” Walker said. “We’d come here for the state finals or whatever, and go, ‘Someday, somehow, some way, I will live here be- cause it’s the greatest place on earth.’ There was nothing else like it.” Upon his 1963 graduation from Texas A&M Universi- ty, where he studied physics on a basketball scholarship, he received a doctoral fel- lowship in nuclear phys- ics from NASA. Two years into Walker’s doctoral program, he visited NASA and realized he didn’t want to continue researching cosmic rays. “I saw what I would be do- ing and what my colleagues were doing and came out thinking, ‘That is incredibly boring,’” Walker said. On a whim, Walker de- cided to apply to Harvard Business School. Though he did not have a business background, or any specific interest in business, Walker said several people encour- aged him to give the school a shot. Walker said he felt ter- rified and unprepared when he finally arrived at Harvard. “My classmates just seemed so sophisticated and worldly and knew a lot about business already,” Walker said. “You really weren’t sup- posed to go there unless you knew business.” It was at his first job out of business school that Walker was first introduced to entre- preneurship. While working at Union Carbide, a compa- ny that works in chemicals and polymers, Walker met a man who identified as an entrepreneur. “He started talking about entrepreneurship … and I think I just cocked my head, like, ‘What a funny word,’” Walker said. Walker said the trajectory of his career accelerated after he quit his position at Union Carbide. He said he quit because he felt the company was prejudiced against one of his Jewish coworkers. In response, the company of- fered him a chief financial officer position at a com- pany in which they had minority ownership. “Carbide said, ‘First of all, you won’t be working for us,’” Walker said. “‘You’ll be working for this little com- pany.’ That moral choice probably accelerated my career by 10 years because [chief financial officer] is not a job you get when you’re out of school.” Walker has four children and two grandchildren and spends each summer in Italy with family, but said he has no plans to retire. “I’m 72 now, and I fully intend to keep [teaching],” Walker said. “I will, when I’m 100, re-evaluate, but I think I would like to con- tinue even then.” WALKERcontinues from page 1Gabriella BelzerDaily Texan StaffSenior research fellow Lee Walker co-founded Livestrong, served as president of Dell for four years and helped lead Save our Springs and other civic projects. The last few days have been a perfect storm of issues for Texas football. After a devastating loss to Brigham Young University, head coach Mack Brown made the emotional decision to de- mote defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and bring in Greg Robinson as his replacement. In five days, the Longhorns have gone from a hopeful national title contender to a team that was embarrassed by an unranked opponent. “[I’ve] never done this be- fore,” Brown said. “Obviously I’ve changed coordinators at the end of the year on both sides of the ball. Never done it during the season.” But Robinson has a slight leg up in his monumental task of making his defensive changes in less than a week. The veteran coach of 36 years has been with the team since July 1, when he was brought in as an analyst. Robinson also worked with defensive backs coach Duane Akina as co-defensive coordinators for the team in 2004. “It is easier because Duane and Greg have worked to- gether and Greg has been doing nothing but studying us since July,” Brown said. “So this isn’t like bringing someone in from the outside as much as it is someone that I trust with knowledge of us, that’s been watching us the last three years, who has been studying us every day since he came onboard July the first.” Robinson arrived in Austin from his Los Angeles home on Sunday as soon as he heard the news. He came straight from the airport in shorts and got right on the field to practice with his new defense. The players have no choice at this point but to welcome Robinson with open arms. While they might still be unsure of what new schemes and alterations he’ll make, they’ll have to adjust. But no one has to lecture them to trust in this new coach. “We have to buy in, re- gardless,” junior cornerback Quandre Diggs said. “This is our team and it really doesn’t matter. We know what we did wrong on Saturday, and we know what we have to exe- cute. We just have to put it on ourselves to play better.” Most coaching changes occur at the end of the sea- son, which gives a team at least a few months to learn the procedures of its new coach. Texas has five days. “You adjust to it,” senior cornerback Carrington Byn- dom said. “That’s the only thing you can do. We know [Coach Robinson] is going to come in and may implement some of his stuff, but you just have to adjust to it. Nothing we can do but continue to play for whoever’s coaching.” Saturday’s game will reveal what has been happening on the practice field for the past week. All that can be seen right now is if the players be- lieve in their new coach. “It’s known that he’s a very, very smart guy football- wise,” senior linebacker Jor- dan Hicks said. “There are not many people that know about football or have the experience that he has. So that’s very exciting, knowing what he brings to the table experience-wise and men- tally. He’s excited to be back. You could tell. We’re excited to see where he takes us.” By Garrett Callahan@callahangarrettSophomore outside hitter Amy Neal didn’t see the court much last year. She had the occasional service substitu- tion, accumulated some of the garbage time minutes and started one match. But when the games mattered most, she was just a spectator. Neal didn’t play in the championship game sweep against Oregon, nor in the semi-final nail-biter against Michigan. “It was hard not playing,” Neal said. The lack of playing time is especially difficult when you consider her decorated high school career. Neal was the 2011 Gatorade Volleyball Player of the Year for Texas, a high school All-American and the best player on a 50-0 Lake Travis team her senior year, a group that ended the season with a No. 2 national ranking. Neal was ranked as the 18th best player in her class by Prep Volleyball in 2012. All of these accolades only managed to earn her a spot on the bench last season. Fast forward a year. Despite losing only one player from the 2012 na- tional championship team, Sha’Dare McNeal, this group isn’t the same team that swept Oregon to claim the school’s first national championship since 1988. “It’s a whole different team, with freshmen and people playing at different positions,” junior outside hit- ter Haley Eckerman said. “It’s a whole different dynamic.” Neal is a major part of the new dynamic. Texas no longer has the powerful opposite to comple- ment Eckerman and Bailey Webster — two of the best outside hitters in the country. But head coach Jerritt El- liott isn’t looking to replace power with power. “We got a unique situation with two of the best outsides in the country, and we need ball control around them from smaller hitters,” Elliott said. “We developed a system to give us more ball control.” No one fits that role better than the all-purpose Neal. She can hit from the outside, she can hit opposite and she can play defense. “I can play multiple positions, so wherever they put me, I’m fine with,” Neal said. Now, with more time on the court, Neal believes she can perform on the stage. “I have more confidence this year on the court and it helps a lot,” Neal said. “Con- fidence makes me play better.” Neal worked diligently this summer to improve her game, recognizing the oppor- tunity to emerge as a starter. “This spring and sum- mer, I worked hard on confidence,” Neal said. “The coaches pushed me. I learned to communicate better and that’s something I also needed to work on.” More than anything, though, she loves playing in front of the sold-out crowds in Gregory Gym. “I love playing at home,” Neal said. “I think our crowd helps us and give us a lot of momentum.” So after one start in 20 matches her freshman year, Neal has already had five starts in five matches. And that’s all she wants. “I just want to be out there playing,” Neal said. 6 SPTSutrecsports.orgSIGN UP FORINTRAMURALS NOWTEAMWORKSTARTS HERE6CHRIS HUMMER, SPORTS EDITOR / @texansportsThursday, September 12, 2013VOLLEYBALLBy Evan Berkowitz@eberky94FOOTBALLRobinson takes over as defensive coordinatorShelby TauberDaily Texan StaffSophomore Amy Neal has emerged as an offensive force for the second- ranked Long- horns. Neal has started all five games this year after notching just one start last season. Neal finds groove in second year COMICS 7Use promo code DailyTexan$150 to save $150 on classroom prep. 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FINANFor answers, call 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5554. Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes.com/mobilexword for more information. Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords. ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556575859606162636465 6667SEISABJECTARECYSTPRAGUETARARLORINGEDSINREALMONEYITEMSEENYKUWAITCHINAUMAMIZOOMLENSESSTNSALTOLOOSETOUTREAMINNAMEONLYESTEEXFILESCONCEPEALQUITEKILLMENOWURNNEWDADMACHASKELAINEOSHADESSINGERNASTThe New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550For Release Thursday, September 12, 2013Edited by Will ShortzNo. 0808Crossword Today’s solution will appear here tomorrowArrr answerrrrrr. t1 64 27 49 53 88 35 76 92 12 8 7 1 9 5 6 3 45 9 3 2 6 4 1 8 74 6 1 8 7 3 5 2 97 4 6 9 2 1 8 5 38 3 2 5 4 7 9 6 11 5 9 6 3 8 7 4 29 2 5 4 1 6 3 7 83 1 8 7 5 2 4 9 66 7 4 3 8 9 2 1 5 4 3 9 9 1 8 3 27 6 4 1 5 6 7 5 1 28 75 2 76 8 4 7 3 8 9 6SUDOKUFORYOUSUDOKUFORYOUCOMICSThursday, September 12, 20137 There’s a stereotype about women and beer: The two don’t mix. Meet the Bitch Beer women. These seven funny, laid-back women want to change that ste- reotype. They have been tight- knit since their college days at St. Edward’s University and now stay connected through their collaborative blog, Bitch Beer, which they started in 2012. The women blog about all things related to craft beer and have created quite a follow- ing in the process. “We went to a tasting room at Thirsty Planet together and kind of looked around and noticed that we were the only group of girls there,” said Car- oline Wallace, Bitch Beer co- founder and writer. “A lot of women were there with their husbands, but there was still a very low percentage of women there. Most of us worked on the paper at St. Ed’s together, so we knew what it was like to run a publication together, and we had a few beers and came up with the idea of Bitch Beer.” In January, The History Press reached out to Bitch Beer asking if the women would be interested in a book deal. After only eight months, the women will release their first book, “Austin Beer: Capi- tal City History on Tap.” “We registered with Austin Food Blogger Alliance and were invited to write a vignette about craft beer in Austin in their blog,” said Shaun Mar- tin, Bitch Beer co-founder and writer. “Their publisher is now our publisher. They said, ‘We’ve been looking for someone to write a book about Austin beer, and we really like your voice,’ so they actually approached us about writing a book after our vignette.” Once writing a book be- came a reality, the women had a lot to do in a short amount of time. Their hope was to get the book published by October 2013 to coincide with Austin Beer Week. “We did more than 60 in- terviews with brewers and beer community members, bar managers, festival orga- nizers — and then we did a lot of extensive archival re- search,” Wallace said. Wallace said the first Aus- tin brewery opened in 1860, but there was a 100-year gap in which almost no brewer- ies opened — this was before prohibition, and lasted up until the 1990s. Because of this, the girls were into the ‘90s by chapter three. “That’s the pretty cool thing about this history book,” Wal- lace said. “It has some pretty cool older contextual stuff, but it’s a very new history book. We’re kind of living in the history right now.” And of course, there is a Bitch Beer spin to the new book. “It’s not written in a text- book or history book voice,” said Holly Aker, Bitch Beer co- founder and writer. “It’s defi- nitely written in our voice. It’s a modern voice, not just, ‘Here are the facts.’ It’s very fun.” Despite the research and expertise the Bitch Beer wom- en have developed since start- ing the blog, they still struggle with people who make gen- der-based judgments. Aker said men will tell them, “Women like this beer because it’s sweet, and it’s really easy on your taste buds.” This judgment of what type of beer women like is the main reason behind the blog’s name. “There’s this thing called ‘bitch beer,’ and it’s that drink that ladies are supposed to drink and that frat boys think girls want,” Aker said. “Well, girls want to drink all beer, so why not change that term?” The Bitch Beer women feel the craft beer community is more open than most. “I think in the craft beer community itself we’ve never been patronized for being women,” Martin said. “Al- most all the brewers say, ‘We love your mission. We love what you’re doing,’ because they want women to drink their beer; they’re not trying to alienate people.” And neither is Bitch Beer. “Most people don’t know that there’s this super vibrant com- munity,” Aker said. “By writing about it, we’re showing other people who aren’t involved and aren’t aware that this exists, and you can be a part of it too.” 8 L&A The Silver Spurs honorary service organization is currently accepting applications. Visit www.utsilverspurs.com to learn more about one of the oldest and most recognizable groups on campus. • Applications due this Friday – login to www.hornslink.org and visit the “documents” section of the Silver Spurs page to view the application • Questions? Email president@utsilverspurs.com SARAH GRACE SWEENEY, LIFE&ARTS EDITOR / @DailyTexanArts8Thursday, September 12, 20139/11 conspiracies inconsistentThere were a number of questions on everyone’s minds on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, but most of them weren’t related to en- gineering. Planes hit tall buildings and then, later that day, those two buildings collapsed. The devil is in the details, and since then, questions about the physics of the situa- tion have led to many doubt- ing the official story and writing a new one involving massive conspiracy. Accord- ing to these 9/11 truthers, planes did not cause the Twin Towers to collapse. In- stead, the destruction came from a controlled explosion planted by the government to provide justification for a military invasion. On nearly every level, the premise is almost as flawed as it is offensive. How many people would it take to or- chestrate a controlled ex- plosion without alerting those who weren’t in on the secret? And who could en- sure that they would all stay quiet? And how could an extremely divisive president organize such an elaborate plan without his enemies uncovering it? Never mind those nit- picks: The truthers fixate on specific anomalies related to the attacks, demand to know the answers and then refuse to believe the answers they’re told. One of the biggest ele- ments of their conspiracy focuses on World Trade Center Building 7, a 47-story building north of the Twin Towers, which collapsed in the afternoon on 9/11 even though no planes collided with it. How could this happen? According to the official report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), debris from the North Tower ignit- ed fires on at least 10 of the floors in WTC 7, damaging its structural integrity. The lower floors’ fire sprinklers, which relied on city water, failed since the collapse of the two towers damaged the underground pipes. The fires spread out of control, ulti- mately leading to the build- ing’s collapse. What much of the truther literature does — and there’s little to no consistency be- tween claims from one in- dividual to another in the movement — is confuse in- formation by taking it out of context or misrepresenting it, while relying heavily on early or testimonial information that was later invalidated. When it comes to the ac- tual verifiable facts, the pro- ponents make assertions that could easily be debunked by first-year engineering stu- dents. For instance, during part of WTC 7’s collapse, the building was in or very near free fall — and this is true. According to truthers, this could only happen from a controlled explosion — this is not true. In fact, free fall is completely consistent with a tower whose fire-weakened structure provided negligible resistance during much of its collapse. Truthers jump on the NIST report, which cites damage occurring because of the different expansion rates of concrete and steel, even though both have simi- lar coefficients of expansion. But there are two issues here: the first is that although the two materials expand by the same amount in response to heat, they don’t expand at the same speed, and rapidly expanding steel could dam- age more slowly expanding concrete. Additionally, with long beams, such as those in the tower, even a small dif- ference in expansion can be- come magnified. Similar assertions flow throughout the 9/11 truther literature: Fire isn’t hot enough to melt steel, the debris contained explosive residue, one can supposedly see smoke from individual bombs, etc. These points are raised in long articles and books full of confusing and technical-sounding lan- guage, which can’t be easily or quickly refuted (the NIST’s description of the probable destruction sequence goes on for more than 700 pages) and most of the finer details can’t be offered at a level that a layman can understand. What is clear, though, is that based on the informa- tion that is understandable, a little bit of research reveals the story offered by the 9/11 truthers to be inconsistent with itself and reality. Addi- tionally, no members of the movement have provided any sort of positive evidence that even suggests the gov- ernment was behind it, even if this somehow was a con- spiracy. We may never know ev- ery detail of what led to the events of 9/11 or if there’s anything we could do to pre- vent a similar tragedy from occurring in the future, but jumping to absurd conclu- sions does a disservice to the memories of the victims, not to mention our quest to un- derstand the truth. Cody Bubenik / Daily Texan StaffBy Elena Keltner@DailyTexanArtsAustin bloggers beer up, challenge gender-based stereotypes SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYCITY SCIENCESCENEBy Robert StarrPhoto courtesy of M. Balaa and J. FerrerThe ladies behind Bitch Beer blog about the craft beer scene while breaking down female stereotypes. They will be at a book release on Friday and the Texas Book Festival in October. By Robert Starr @RobertKStarrAlmost all the brew- ers say, ‘We love your mission. We love what you’re doing,’ because they want women to drink their beer; they’re not trying to alienate people. —Caroline Wallace, Bitch Beer co-founder and writer