The University of Texas at Austin is
restructuring departments in the
College of Liberal Arts.
The decision was announced today,
but it's a move that students and
staff have been worried about for
months. We're gonna have more about
the departments affected,
and police in Austin are still using
license plate reader data, months
after city council ended using the
technology on grounds of privacy
concerns.
How and when APD says they're using
the data and the tech's future use
here in Austin, that is coming up
on today's show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Plus, 30,000 people
are gearing up for this weekend's
Austin Marathon.
It's gonna be an especially big deal
for one man who was left paralyzed
after a snowboarding accident.
Come hear his story.
That's coming up next, right here on
Austin Signal.
Howdy out there, this is
Austin Signal.
Thank you for tuning in to listener
powered public radio.
This is KUT News.
I'm your host, Jerry Kikano.
It's Thursday, February 12th.
Thank you, for making us part of
your day.
The city of Austin ended a
controversial program last year that
had cameras up across the city,
helping to find people by reading
license plates.
But months later, the Austin Police
Department still has access to
the technology.
KUT's Andrew Weber reports that
one city council member wants to
close this surveillance loophole.
Austin ended its license plate
reader program after a lot of
pushback from residents.
They said the cameras made by Flock
Safety constantly scan license
plates and those scans are
accessible to any law enforcement
agency with access.
They argued that could enable
deportations by immigration
authorities or lead to wrongful
arrests.
Mackenzie Rine, an attorney and
privacy advocate, likened the system
of cameras across the city to a
mouth that constantly needs
feeding. And the only way to protect
protect us, is to refuse to feed the
surveillance system entirely.
She and others urged the city to
end its contract with Flock, and it
did. The Austin Police Department
removed the dozens of cameras around
the city. It was the largest city
to do so.
Cut to last week.
Concern tonight from Austinites over
government surveillance and how
federal law enforcement may be
using local tech.
Thanks so much.
That's a KXAN piece on concerns
about, you guessed it, flock cameras
in North Austin.
Those cameras are operated by the
Texas Department of Public Safety on
its North Lamar campus.
The city can't regulate those, but
it got me curious whether data
from those cameras could be shared
with the Austin Police Department.
The answer is yes.
But that's not something the
department told Mike Siegel.
He's the Austin City Council member
who pushed APD to end its license
plate reader program.
I think it's a violation of the
intent of council policy.
When the city started its program,
it required APD to divulge who
it was sharing its data with and
when it requested data from other
departments.
That's important, Siegel says,
because those guardrails prevented
the Austin police department from
sharing data in certain situations.
You couldn't search the system for
abortion crimes, right?
You couldn't search it for
possession of marijuana offenses.
It seriously curtailed
how the tool could be used, so that
should be respected.
But Round Rock and Sunset Valley
police shared data from their flock
cameras with Austin Police within
the last month, according to their
publicly available logs, without
the oversight the city intended.
APD told KUT that they do request
access from other law enforcement
agencies for investigations.
But after KUT asked about the data
sharing, the department said it may
re-evaluate its policy.
For Siegel, the incident highlights
the need for a more comprehensive
policy on surveillance technology.
Siegel and other council members
passed a measure called the Trust
Act last week that would require
formal agreements on data collection
and some city approval for
APD.
After speaking with KUT, Siegel said
he plans on closing the gap
in the city's current regulations
requiring APD to better document
how it requests data from other
agencies.
So I expect the council will clarify
this issue when we adopt a
final surveillance use policy to
ensure that our police are not
relying on a loophole to use
surveillance tech that our community
has clearly projected.
Mackenzie Ryan, the activist we
heard earlier who spoke out against
flock cameras way back last June,
said the department's loophole was
inevitable.
I mean, I can't say it's, like,
surprising to me at all.
This constantly happens.
This is the inherent problem with
surveillance.
Ryan says surveillance firms like
Flock often ask for forgiveness,
not permission, and that opaque data
sharing like this is commonplace.
She says cities and counties are
often on their back foot when it
comes to ensuring people's privacy.
The first step you should ever have
before you're implementing any of
this should be,
how do you ensure that this
is not abused?
How do you insure that people's
data is protected, that their
privacy is protected?
Ryan says she supports the city's
trust act.
She says it's a step forward to
protect Austinites from unwanted
surveillance.
But she hopes the city keeps asking
questions of security firms like
Flock.
I'm Andrew Weber.
And Andrew is joining us now here
live on the show for more discussion
about this story.
Welcome, Andrew. Thanks for having
me, Jerry. So I know we were talking
a little bit about Austin police
here, but I wanted to ask and circle
back to the flock cameras being used
by the Department of Public Safety
up on North Lamar.
What do you know about those?
What did you find through your
investigation?
Yeah, I reached out to DPS about
those because they're on the DPS
campus, like I said in the story.
It's part of a big network of
these flock cameras that
DPS maintains across the city.
And the way they sort of, the
preemption that they have is that
these are state-owned roads.
North Lamar Boulevard is a state
road. So they're allowed
to put these cameras up there.
It's not exactly where that data is
going because, like this,
like can share that with
any department.
It's not immediately clear if
they're sharing it with APD they
told me that I had to file a
public records request to
get that list of Agencies
that they share with and I filed
that and we're waiting on it and
we'll report when I get that.
Yeah
Yeah, yeah, if you if and when you
get that back we will bring it here
on Austin signal Okay, I wanted
to turn now to City Council We
had a KUT City Hall reporter Luz
Modena Lozano in a few weeks ago
Maybe last week talking about
something similar has council
considered any use of any other
technologies like this prior to
these flock cameras
Yeah, I was actually talking with
Ben, our editor, about that.
Today, it's sort of same genre,
different artists.
Luz has been covering live view
cameras. Those are AI cameras
that can sort of
predict behavior and log it.
And that's a big, big,
sort of sticking
point with a lot of folks is that
there's a lot going on here and
there's lot of data.
And it's not necessarily secure
data.
That's one thing that they're
looking at. They're looking biometric
stuff as well within the trust
uh, and these sort
of sites that are these sort of
devices that mimic, um,
like a cell tower.
So it pings somebody's phone and
then police or investigators can
get, get somebody's data from, from
a phone.
Okay, I want to circle back lastly
to Councilmember Mike Siegel and the
trust act Obviously, this is
something that is constantly in
conversation here in Austin and in
other places across the country
Should we can expect these kinds
of conversations to continue at
City Hall?
Yes, uh, this, you know,
this came after a week after the
trust act passed and Siegel said he
wants to sort of fast track a
sort of correction to this loophole
in that as they go forward.
Alrighty, we have been speaking with
Andrew Weber.
He is KUT's Government
Accountability Reporter.
We're gonna have a link to his
reporting in today's podcast, Show
Notes, and at kut.org
slash signal.
Andrew, thank you very much.
Thank you, Terry.
Higher education has been in the
crosshairs of Texas politics for
several years, with the state laws
being passed targeting DEI
and education, and an effort
from Governor Greg Abbott, who said
in October to, quote,
end indoctrination and return to
education fundamentals, end quote.
This morning, the University of
Texas at Austin announced its
restructuring the College liberal
arts, a college that was home to
ethnic and gender studies.
For more about this, we are speaking
with QUT's education reporter,
Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez.
Greta, thanks for talking with us.
Thank you for having me, Jerry.
So tell us a little bit about what
this consolidation looks like and
about these affected departments.
Yeah. So seven departments were
affected in total.
And I want to be clear that these
departments will no longer exist.
So it's the African and African
diaspora studies, American studies,
Mexican, American and Latina
studies, and women's gender
and sexuality studies will be, those
four will be consolidated into a new
department of social and cultural
analysis. And then there's other
three, which is French and Italian.
That's one.
Germanic Studies and Slavic
and Eurasian Studies, those will
become the Department of European
and Eurasian Studies.
This information was given
to
the heads of departments this
morning, and we first heard it from
faculty from those departments, and
then UT President Jim Davis sent
an email to the community announcing
these changes later in the day.
On top of the departments being
consolidated, Davis also said
curriculums will be reviewed and
they will determine which minors
majors and courses will be
offered once this restructure
is done.
Okay yeah, lots of department names,
we're going to have a link to the
reporting in our show notes, it's at
kut.org slash signal as
well. So they gave this news about
what was changing, what was their
reasoning behind the changes.
So faculty from the affected
departments told us they kept
hearing it was a matter of
efficiency and fragmentation and
in his letter later in the day,
Davis also said that the
restructuring was needed or is
needed because an evaluation
of the college revealed that there
was quote, significant
inconsistencies and fragmented
across the college's departments.
He has also talked a lot
about balanced and challenging
educational experience for UT
students and that was something else
that was mentioned in this letter.
Okay well this news was
announced today but this is
something that department chairs and
students in these programs kind of
had they seen this coming correct.
Yes, yes.
They saw it coming. Back in October,
the UT system began auditing
courses related to gender studies.
And that same month, department
chairs were sent,
they got an email saying that there
was a new committee had been created
that would help a potential
restructure of the college.
And they were told that some units
would lose autonomy, but they didn't
have many details.
And the committee that was created
was not allowed to talk about what
was happening behind closed doors.
Okay, well, this is a process that's
going to be playing out over months
into the future, but there
are still students who are in these
programs. What does it mean for
those students?
So faculty say at least 800
students will be affected,
and they say because of bureaucracy
and their attention will
be taken away from students.
And David said in his letter that
students currently enrolled will
be able to continue their degrees as
changes are happening, but
it's still unclear what will happen
after.
Okay, well again, we have more on
this story at KUT.org.
A lot has been unfolding this
morning. Greta, you've been
reporting a lot, speaking with a lot
of people from the university as
well as a lot faculty members.
What have you been hearing from
them?
Yeah, so I've been talking to
faculty in the last few months since
October leading up to this
announcement, and they have been
worried about what this means, of
course, for students.
That's their main reason of being
here, but also their
research in terms of bureaucracy,
how much more staff will have.
And of course they're also worried
about this means in terms
in terms of potential layoffs.
Also this morning I talked to Karma
Chavez, who teaches in the
Department of Mexican American and
Latina studies and
this is what
she told me.
So we're seeing a nationwide trend
in attacks on
ethnic and gender studies and
attacks on American studies
departments that those on the
political right view as
providing a view of
both history and contemporary
society that they don't like because
it provides an analysis of
this specifically around issues like
race, gender, sexuality,
ethnicity.
Okay, you got the last question
before you get out of here.
This move was announced today.
Is this a done deal, or is there any
recourse for students and faculty in
these departments?
This seems to be a done deal.
We don't know the exact timeline of
this. UT said they don't have an
exact timeline.
As I said, UT has not been very
communicative regarding these
changes up until now.
So staff, faculty,
students, they don't know a lot,
and they're feeling the uncertainty.
We've seen protests in the last few
months, and I can imagine we'll
continue to see them now that the
announcement is official, and we'll
keep an eye.
Okay well we will have this story in
our podcast show notes so you can
find more at KUT.org slash Signal.
I know you have an interview after
this interview right now to continue
reporting on this story so we will
continue to bring you that reporting
here on Austin Signal and
everywhere that you get news from us
on the KUT app online at Kut.org
all these good places.
This is listener powered public
radio and we have more Austin Signal
coming up after this break.
Stay with us.
This is Austin Signal, welcome back.
30,000 people are expected to
run in this Sunday's Austin
Marathon.
People of all ages and all abilities
testing themselves on the
notoriously hilly course.
And for one 24-year-old runner,
it's an especially big deal.
KUT's Katie McAfee has
his story.
Max Crone was never a big runner.
He grew up in Wisconsin playing
football and basketball with his
older brothers.
But all of that changed four years
ago.
Crone, was about to start his junior
year in college.
He was on track to graduate with a
finance degree, but something about
that didn't feel right.
He decided to take a break from
school. He moved out to
Breckenridge, Colorado.
Not a whole lot of people were
in favor of that decision,
but I guess in
some way they ended up
right.
Crone had an easy routine at West.
Wake up, go to work at a local
Mexican restaurant, clock out,
and hit the slopes.
He spent a lot of his free time
skiing and snowboarding.
I just, I always wanted to be a ski
bum.
Then he had an off day.
It was sunny and unseasonably
warm.
Cron was snowboarding with some
friends down a blue diamond.
That's a tough course.
They hit a fork in the road.
And they went right,
I went left, and we
just kind of lost each other.
I saw them kind of disappear
behind a big wall of trees.
Krohn was alone, racing 40
miles an hour down the mountain.
Then he tried doing a trick, one
where you pop off the nose of the
board and catch some air.
It's called a nollie, but
it didn't work.
The nose of my board stuck into the
snow because it was a
warmer day.
The snow was a little bit softer.
It grabbed the front of my bird as
I was propelling off the nose.
And yeah, I just, I went flying.
Felt like I was in the air forever.
He flew maybe 100 feet and
landed on his neck.
The first thing that went through my
head was did I just die,
you know, because from
that point there was no sensation,
no function, no nothing.
Krohn doesn't know how much time
passed while he was lying in the
snow.
He tried calling for help, but no
words came out.
Eventually, he says someone found
him.
They tended to me and
they got ski patrol involved
and from that
point it was just going to a bunch
of hospitals.
He was brought to the intensive care
unit.
Doctors confirmed he was paralyzed
from the neck down.
My mom called me on the phone.
I was like, okay, jeez.
I wish she didn't call me right now,
but because I knew that she was
devastated.
Crone spent eight days in the ICU.
He did start to regain some feeling,
but the doctors were careful not to
say if he'd ever be the same again.
There's a video from the day after
the accident.
Can you squeeze my fingers?
A physical therapist asks him
to spread his fingers out.
I have a harder time on this side.
Yeah, really hard time.
He can't.
But Crohn says he stayed positive.
He developed a mantra while he was
recovering.
Goal or highest potential.
What can I do every single day
to grow and
to try to get the best
possible odds for a good recovery?
Months of physical therapy followed.
First, he practiced sitting in a
wheelchair and propelling his legs.
Then he practiced standing.
Then standing with his eyes closed
without falling over.
Once he could do that, he was ready
to learn how to walk again.
He'd put on a big, bulky harness
attached to a track on the ceiling,
then one foot in front of the
other. He says it was like being
right-handed and having to write
with your left hand.
For the rest of your life until you
perfect writing with your left hand.
After three months, Cron was walking
again, mostly supervised
trips from the couch to the fridge,
but he kept improving, more and
more each day.
He was learning how to move again,
and he didn't want to take that for
granted.
He got an idea.
I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
do a triathlon.
He signed up for a sprint triathlon.
It's a half mile of swimming, 12
miles of biking, and a little over
three miles of running.
It's generally considered a
beginner-friendly race, but
remember, Crohn is still deep in
recovery at this point.
I asked him why he signed up.
I really don't know why other than
just to prove to myself that I
can.
A year and a half after his injury
in Breckenridge, he finished the
sprint triathlon.
After that, he says
I kind of got the runner's
bug.
He signed up for a marathon in
Madison, Wisconsin.
His friends and family weren't
really supportive of this.
He had never run more than four
miles before.
A marathon is 26.2
miles.
Everybody was kind of convinced me,
well, you've never even ran a half
marathon before.
You've never done this, you never
done that. And I was like, well,
like, the point is it to do
something that I know I can do.
His goal was to finish.
That was his conservative goal,
anyway.
I had in the back of my mind, I
would love to go sub four.
I ended up with four hours
and nine seconds.
Now Krohn is determined to break
four hours in the Austin Marathon.
He signed up for it after moving
here in November.
He trains almost every day after
work and he has sort of an unusual
way of training.
Typically, marathon runners run four
to five days a week.
One of those is a long run.
You start around six miles and then
build your way up to at least 18
miles before race day.
Not Krohne.
He mostly does strength training.
The farthest he's run before this
race is 13 miles.
On the treadmill.
Without music.
But he has a good reason for this.
My C3 and C4
vertebrae are now fused,
and if you fall and
that breaks, that could be
a full sever of the spinal cord
and that could put you in
a wheelchair for good.
Looking back at videos from Krohn's
recovery, it's hard to believe he's
the same guy taking on a 26.2
mile race.
In one video, he tries taking a
step down a flight of stairs.
No, that'll hurt.
Alright, we'll try that again.
It's painfully slow.
Watching him on the treadmill now,
you would never know he once
struggled with that one step.
I always tell people my
snowboarding injury was the most
important thing that's ever happened
to me. And I've learned more
from that than I've
learnt from anything else.
I'm Katie McAfee in Austin.
It is Black History Month all
February long, and Myles
Bloxdon from our sister station KUTX
has been telling the stories of
Black excellence here in Austin.
Today we're learning more about a
life insurance salesman and former
college football who became
a chronicler of Black Austin
life.
Tommy Lee T.
L. Wyde was born on July 27,
1937, in Point Blank,
Texas.
He grew up playing football,
excelling at the sport and earning a
scholarship to Bishop College in
Marshall, Texas, where he graduated
with a degree in business
administration.
But Wyde's education extended far
beyond the classroom.
He came of age during the height of
the civil rights movement, a period
that shaped his understanding of
collective strength and the
importance of community.
And in 1962, Two
years before the Civil Rights Act
was signed into law, he moved to
Austin, Texas, carrying with
him both formal training and lived
experience that would soon shape
his life's work.
Upon arriving in the capital city of
Texas, Wyatt recognized the
beauty of East Austin as a thriving
hub of black businesses, culture,
and community.
He felt compelled to tell the
stories of the people who built and
sustained this vibrant area.
At a time when positive media
coverage of black life was rare.
Motivated by that vision, he
founded the Villager Newspaper
in 1973 alongside
his then-wife Barbara and a close
friend with a mission to spotlight
the positive stories of Black
Austin.
Accessibility was central to that
mission. From his very first
publications, the Villagers was free
to the community.
Wyatt also believed the newspaper
should be a platform where the
community could speak for itself.
So over time, he hired black
reporters.
Students, and community members to
help tell these stories, documenting
black life, leadership,
culture, arts, and politics across
Austin and Central Texas.
The Villager quickly became the
go-to newspaper for Austin's black
community.
While its circulation numbered in
the thousands, its reach extended
far beyond the printed page.
The newspaper was passed
hand-to-hand through barbershops,
schools, grocery stores, and
black-owned businesses.
The newspaper became one of the most
influential voices in black
Austin.
Wyatt often said the community
needed a voice, and he made that
belief his mission.
His community work even extended
outside of the villager.
Over the years, he didn't just cover
East Austin, he became a civic
leader, serving on multiple boards
and commissions, including the East
11th Street Village Association.
He launched initiatives like the
Youth Brigade to support children's
education and became a trusted
advocate for East Austin residents.
More than 50 years later,
The Villager remains a light in the
community.
Even as technology transformed the
journalism landscape, Wyde
remained committed to print, once
saying, people still keep scrapbooks
of articles.
We continue to do the work for the
people.
And that work continues.
The Villagers still covers
everything connected to Black Austin
and continues to play a vital role
in shaping the city's music scene,
spotlighting local musicians and
national artists. From neighborhood
events all the way to the Grammys.
Tommy Lee T.L.
Wyatt passed away on January 10th
of this year at the age of 88,
but his presence remains,
living on in the stories he
preserved, the voices he amplified,
and the community he believed
deserved to be seen, heard,
and remembered.
His legacy continues on through
The Villager, the newspaper he
founded to ensure Black Austin
would always have a voice.
Bad self Say
it loud
For more on Tommy Lee T.L.
Wyatt, visit KUTX.org.
I'm Miles Bloxson.
This is Austin Signo.
And I'm your host Jerry Kehannel,
thank you for being with us.
We'll be back with you tomorrow at
one o'clock.
This is Austin Signal.