University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

Page 11 text:

- . i fi 3L Patrick Oegerle volunteers as a ballroom dancing teaching assistant Q: Hou ' did you get started with ballroom dancing! A: 1 learned how to two-step in middle school; growing up in southwest Texas, going country danc- ing was fairly common. When I was an undergradu- ate, I took more country and ballroom lessons in order to impress a certain lady. Once 1 got the hang ot It, 1 just continued. Q: You ' ve been a teaching assistant in the ballroom danc- ing class for five years. What ' s kept you at it this long? A: I love being a teaching assistant. Not only do I get to be helpful, but it ' s a good opportunity to learn about people and how to effectively communi- cate. Also, being a TA has enabled me to meet many great people and to stay connected with the university as a whole. Q: How do you balance the dance classes and outi7 gs with law school? A: My first year, I didn ' t do a very good job of man- aging my time. These last two years I ' ve been better at scheduling everything. However, since I ' ve been m law school, I haven ' t had the time to take lessons or practice as much as I used to. Thus, I haven ' t learned anything new in awhile, and I ' xe completely forgotten a few things. Q: Have you seen any other law students take the class or teach while you ' ve been here? A: A friend of mine and his wife took the class the first year. They seemed to enjoy it, and it was some- thing they both could do together. Q: Do you see any similarities between dancing and law, or is this something you do as an escape? A: 1 suppose they both require a certain amount of practice and talent. But dancing is a lot more fun than doin ' . legal research. CJ: I ' ll i)i( have a favorite dance? A: I wiuild have to say your typical two-step. I love the music, especially if it ' s in the 85-100 beats per muiute range. Austin has many venues at which to go two-stepping as well. Q: An ) funny dancing stories? A: None that I want immortalized in print. •

Page 10 text:

2L Paige Pattillo juggles law school and one, two, three batons Paige Pattillo, a second-year law student who grew up in Nacogdoches, said she had been twirling as long as she can remember. Her mom was a feature twirler and drum major in high school and taught her daughter the twirling basics at a very young age. We always had a couple of batons in the hall closet, Pattillo, the Longhorn Band feature twirler, said. She started taking dance classes at age 2 and quickly began learning how to incorporate baton work into dancing. Patillo signed up to play the flute in mid- dle school, but it didn ' t take. The directors all knew my love was the baton, not the flute, she said. But when PiUtillo got to high sch..ol, the band didn ' t include ,i twirler n its show. 1 talked to the high school director, and he asked, ' Which do you like better, baton or flute? ' Pattillo said. Of course, I chose baton. The director allowed Pattillo to perform baton on the field. She began creating her own routines, many with multiple batons, and won awards for her twirling abilities. There are a few tricks I always do, Pattillo said. But there ' s not a limit on the different harder. Pattillo earned her undergraduate degree at Stephen F Austin State University and performed with the SFA band. Her dream, though, was to become a member of the Longhorn Band. Pattillo said she lived her dream during every football game. It ' s an adrenaline rush, Pattillo said. I know nothing that can describe how I feel when 1 see all tho.se people hanging over the tunnel doing ' hook ' em horns. ' It takes my breath away. This place is awesome. In the past, the U)nghorn Band had multiple feature twirlcrs performing at the same time, but positions had been filled since the students graduated. Longhorn Band director Rob Carnochan said that unless more than one outstanding perfomer tried out, the band would probably keep only one feature twirler in the future. Like other band members, Pattillo would also ha ' e to try out again to keep her p.isition. Though not part iif a particular section, Pattillo said she felt right at home and was proud to con- sider herself a part of the Longhorn Band. I love them, she said. There ' s nothing like having 50 band members around you on the field. There aren ' t many places where they ' re as supportive as they are in LHB. — adapted from t )c Ocin vr 4, 2002 Daily Texan story icks Th always ways to make

Page 12 text:

The man behind all those Daily Texan quotes shares his passion for civil liberty law and his commitment to students The sigtxatures of presidents and senators adorn Douglas Laycock ' s office walls. Too much sunlight from a window facing south has dark- ened his reproduction of the Bill of Rights to a chocolate brown almost as dark as its frame. Considered one of the nation ' s two leading scholars on religious liberty law, he testifies regularly before Congress about issues of religious liberty, and has argued many cases in the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Laycock, a soft-spoken constitutional law professor, went to Michigan State University in the late 1960s, an era known for its social activism, and was inspired to study law as a way to work toward the greater good of the nation. Here in Texas, he chaired the Task Force on Assembly and Expression organized in 2002 to revise the campus speech policy. He also served on the legal team representing the university in Hopwood V. Texas, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals prohibited the School of Law from using race as one of many admissions criteria. He continues to speak about the case, decided in 1996, and his name appears almost daily in tbe campus newspaper as a source of legal com- mentary on issues in the news. This Q A offers a snapshot of the man many students read about but few know. Professor Laycock joined the UT Law staff in 1982. He earned his J.D. in 1973 from the University of Chicago, where he taught before coming to Texas. Q: How did you get mtu studying bw? A: I guess I was always interested. I went to college back in the ' 60s, when it looked like lawyers could do a lot of good in the country. That ' s kind of opposite of now, but that was the mood, generally. Q; What do you think is the current reason is, if not that? A: I ' m sure it ' s partly that, but the kinds of good that motivated a lot of people to go to law schools in the ' 60s - the courts have gotten out of that business. There ' s not nearly as much sense of ... thinking we can make the country work better racially, politically, the civil liberties, poor people. There ' s some of that. Some of tis are still chipping away. The naive view that lawyers go out and save the world, 1 don ' t think has survived 40 years of politics and 40 years of experience. Q: Vbur specialty is religious liberty. Can you tell me a little more about that? A: Well, we have an enormously diverse population, religiously, and we have - compared to the rest of the world, an enor- mous degree of religious tolerance but still a fair amount of intolerance between both ends of the spectrum. The vast middle of the American population are low-intensity theists. They ' re suspicious of people whose religion is too intense, and they ' re suspicious of people who don ' t believe. The goal of the religious liberty clause [in the U.S. Constitution] is to enable all these folks to live together in relative peace in the same society. I ' m sort of a swing guy in the middle. 1 come at it as a lib- erty issue rather than as a religion issue. Q; Youve testified before Congress. What does that entail? A: It ' s a strange process. It ' s kind of a game. Occasionally you can make a difference if you ' re persistent and if you ' re work- ing in tandem with groups that can follow up and see people in their offices and such. The hearings themselves are often kind of for show. The senators and congressmen wander in and out - plenty don ' t shov ' up at all. You fly to Washington, and during the hearing they give you 10 minutes to tell them what ' s going on, and send yuLi 25 follow-up questions you ' re supposed to answer in writing. It ' s not a good activity to engage in if you ' re concerned about your dignity. If you ' re willing to be used and abused a bit in the hopes of trying to explain all this good stuff, sometimes it matters. 8 0 Douglas Laycock