CV Welcomes New Dean

HARIKA PATCHIPALA Mercury Staff

The Hobson Wildenthal Honors College welcomes a new dean with the beginning of the spring 2023 semester, introducing expansion of the Collegium V program and more honors initiatives.

in his career and a second spot in the d3hoops.com team of the week, which is a national recognition amongst Division III players.

Poerschke's incredible 43 points against the Yellowjackets beat the tied program record of 40 points, between Martin Salinas in 2005 and Raphael Farley in 2015. Poerschke shot a personal record of 68.2% accuracy for field goals, 70% accuracy for three and 85.7% accuracy for free throws in his longest gameplay of 37 minutes. On top of that, all in the Jan. 14 game, Poerschke managed to beat his personal career record for field goals made, field goals attempted, three pointers made, three pointers attempted, free throws made and three throws pointers attempted.

“Luckily my shots were falling through,” Poerschke said, “I was able to make a bunch of shots, and I give credit to my teammates. They just put me in the position where it's easy to do what I do. Being [able to] put the ball in the basket is the easy thing to do. A lot of my teammates do a lot of the dirty work and the

With most of the team returning — including senior Suzuka Nishino, an All-American honoree last season — the team has everything in place to chase a fourth consecutive championship. However, expectations go beyond chasing the ASC championship, as the perennial champions hope to make a stronger push at the DIII national tournament, having never advanced past the second round. With DI and DII teams on the schedule this season, Nishino and the women’s team hope to sharpen their skills against stronger competition.

“I think our team has good depth,” Nishino said, “which helps us both in practice and in competition, so even if we don’t have one specific really good player or something, we have six people that can outcompete the six from the other team. That’s what we’re hop - ing to build in this preseason and before we get to playing these conference matches, because that’s where it really matters.”

With expectations high for both the men and women’s teams this year, the programs hope they can both bring home ASC championships – something they haven’t achieved in the same year since 2019. With both teams playing their first home games on Feb. 5, Nishino hopes a strong home crowd can help raise support for the tennis program.

“A lot of people don’t know that we have a tennis team here,” Nishino said. “I think that the best way that we can grow our tennis program into the future, for both men and women, is just to get more awareness.”

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UNAIZA KHAKOO Mercury Staff

Spill the Tea The Galerstein Gender Center will be hosting a series of sessions dedicated to hearing student perspectives on how to better support the student body at UTD. Students will be able to discuss important topics such as inclusion and equity with provided tea and snacks. There will be four different sessions on Jan. 31, Feb. 7, Feb. 21 and Feb. 28.

Donuts With Dallas and Richardson Town Halls Working with Comets for Better Transit, the Legislative Affairs Committee of Student Government will be hosting two town hall meetings where students can speak with government officials and candidates from the Dallas and Richardson areas. Attendees include Mayor Eric Johnson and various council members from both cities. Additionally, volunteer deputy registrars

On January 17, 2023 the national search for a new Honors College Dean concluded when Donal Skinner was chosen for the role. Skinner enters UTD with a precedent of high ranking academic positions and accomplishments across various colleges. These include being the honors dean at both the University of Wyoming and Ohio University in Athens, engaging in junior research at Cambridge and winning research grants.

Donal Skinner

“I am thrilled that we can welcome Doctor Skinner as our new dean,” previous Interim Dean Douglas Dow said. “He comes to UTD having already been a dean of honors colleges at two different universities. So, he comes with a lot of experience and a lot of great ideas.”

Skinner said that study abroad and access to research opportunities helped shape his journey as an undergraduate, and that he wants to expand those programs at UTD. He hopes to make these programs more advanced and accessible for students. Skinner also aims to use his dean position to target

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