The last time city leaders put a hold on hiring was six years ago at the Austin Fire Department. That was after the Justice Department found hiring practices at AFD were discriminatory.

"He was really thankful for all the donations that people gave in the last two years of his life so he could remain in his home," Volma said. "He wanted to thank them and have this so that they could come see."

Students have formed a coalition to demand transparency and accountability from the University regarding professors guilty of sexual misconduct.  Students planned the third Sit-In for Student Safety outside the Provost’s office on Nov. 20. to protest the University’s employment of two professors found in violation of misconduct policies: English associate professor Coleman Hutchison and Sahotra Sarkar, integrated biology and philosophy professor. The coalition, called The Coalition Against Sexual Misconduct, grew out of the sit-in, said Lynn Huynh, a member of The Coalition Against Sexual Misconduct. “The Coalition has become all of us encompassed,” said Huynh, an advertising and women and gender studies junior. “We started meeting with the first sit-in organizers. This is becoming a movement. It’s not just sit-in (after) sit-in. We need this united front.” Huynh said the group is planning a fourth sit-in this Friday because, following their biweekly timeline, because more students have joined the movement.  “It’s kind of our last hoorah before break, and we don’t want to lose momentum over the break,” Huynh said. “We’ve only just started to see some progress with our demands.”    #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;} /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Want more content like this in your inbox every morning? Huynh said the group is working to achieve structural change, which includes University transparency, a restorative justice program and faculty and staff training regarding what constitutes sexual misconduct and how to prevent it. “This is about a system and (a) power imbalance,” Huynh said. “We would love to see Sarkar and Hutchinson fired, but you fire one person, and that doesn’t address the amount of faculty and staff who are guilty of sexual misconduct but just haven’t been outed yet.” On Tuesday, UT President Gregory Fenves and Maurie McInnis, executive vice president and provost, committed to attending a student-led forum at the beginning of next semester where students can voice concerns about sexual misconduct policies and violations, according to a Coalition press release. Huynh said they have filed an open records request with the University and will receive a summary of all misconduct violations from November 2017 until the present, but she feels this information should already be free to the public. “You shouldn’t have to make a request,” Huynh said. “It should just be publicly available.” The Coalition has also received about 1,300 signatures on a petition, which was published on Nov. 27 and calls for the University to hold a forum, release a report of professors guilty of misconduct and establish a restorative-justice program, among other requests. “I became involved because I have two friends in Sarkar’s class right now,” said Lindsey Asis, a government and sustainability junior and Coalition member. “They came to me when this started unfolding about how upset they were about the whole thing. As someone who has the ability to make a difference, as someone who isn’t part of that class, … I wanted to be here for them.” Simone Gabriela Harry, another student organizer of the third sit-in, said she became interested in the movement when she wanted to register for a class to fulfill degree requirements but realized Hutchison was the professor. “I’m also a survivor, and I have a lot of emotional ties to this cause, so devoting myself to it has been difficult, but it’s very necessary,” said Harry, an English and black studies junior. “I have like eight papers and two exams and I don’t sleep, but this is where I need to be.”

Financial aid, student records and registration information are now all available on one website.   The Texas One Stop website, finished on Nov. 21, consolidates information from the Office of the Registrar, Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid and Student Accounts Receivable websites, said Jennifer Love, director of Office of the Registrar. She said the website includes “Bevo Bot,” a chatbot which answers question with information from each of the offices. “This really puts all the enrollment services in one spot,” Love said. “Whether you are trying to pay your bill, or utilize finical aid, or a combination, all of this information is in one place, and you have one user experience in the Texas One Stop website.”   #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;} /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Want more content like this in your inbox every morning? Love said the new website comes as construction on The Texas One Stop For Enrollment Services center in the Main Building prepares to finish in spring 2020. She said this is part of a larger effort to make the University services easier for students to access. “This is really center to our bigger vision, which is putting the students at the center,” Love said. “We made sure it was built for a student and not from an institutional perspective.” Carolyn Connerat, associate vice provost for Enrollment Management, said she helped with the design of the website and conducted student focus groups before the website launched. She said they are still making improvements based on what users say in the feedback form.  “Many staff members on campus who have found that something was not easy to understand, or we needed a link to a different page, have contacted us and we are making those changes,” Connerat said. “If the bot does not have the information the students are looking for, then we go back to the site and make sure to add it.” Business freshman Brittany Given said she relies on scholarships to pay for her tuition, and she has to use these offices to renew her scholarships. She said as a freshman, using the website to find information about financial aid was confusing and said she plans to use the Texas One Stop website when she applies to other scholarships in the future.  “I feel like they relate a lot, especially if you need financial aid,” Given said. “The (financial aid) website is really confusing when looking for scholarships. It would be more convenient if everything were placed together.”