facebook.com/theutdmercury | @utdmercury
February 25, 2019
THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
ATEC dean addresses student petition Concerns raised include large class sizes, lack of job market for graduates
NIKITA BANTEY | MERCURY STAFF
Eight of 10 Chartwells employees who spoke to The Mercury said they did not receive state-mandated food safety training in a timely manner.
chartwells workers allege lack of
FOOD SAFETY TRAINING Management claims all associates receive ongoing training during employment MEGAN ZEREZ Mercury Staff
F PAVAN TAUH | MERCURY STAFF
ATEC Dean Anne Balsamo said she is working to respond to the concerns students mentioned in the petition. ANNA SCHAEFFER Mercury Staff
A group of ATEC students created a petition raising concerns and complaints about their school. The group, called Concerned Students of ATEC, created a website and circulated the petition, calling attention to what it calls the “overall instability and irrelevance” of their school, according to a Feb. 6 press release. Founded in 2015, ATEC — the School of Arts, Technology and Emerging Communications — offers an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree through a program designed to teach students “foundational skills in media studies, cultural theory, computer programming and creative production,” according to the ATEC website. The circulating petition states this degree description is false advertising, and the website for Concerned Students of ATEC lists specific recommendations for its vision of the school. After her appointment as the inaugural dean of ATEC in 2016, Anne Balsamo developed a three-year plan to develop curriculum infrastructure, build culture and market ATEC to the DFW metroplex and the world. She said she understands where the students’ concerns come from and hopes to address their suggestions fully. "I’m excited about engaging these questions,” Balsamo said. “We’re on it, and it actually takes a little bit more behind-the-scenes to get where we want to get to, which is very much in line with what they want." Balsamo said the student petition provides feedback that will help her advocate for their needs to President Richard Benson and Provost Inga Musselman. She said it also shows her that students may not know what ATEC already offers. “There are things for me to clarify, things for me to explain, things for me to bring people up to date and maybe even things for me to suggest that they can do next that would really help the effort,” she said. Concerned Students of ATEC did not respond to requests for an interview, but primary concerns listed in the petition included too-large class sizes and courses dropped from curricula, restricting individual learning. “Design is the backbone of ATEC, and that curriculum has not been as carefully created as it needs to be,” Balsamo said. “It was like patchwork. So we took a step back — and this is part of the ‘dropping courses’ and larger course size — and putting in place kind of foundation courses, eliminating redundancy, which is why some courses went away.” ATEC revamped all sound design
→ SEE PETITION,
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ollowing student concerns about food safety, The Mercury obtained evidence that suggests many Chartwells workers did not receive state-mandated food safety training until earlier this month. In Texas, the certification is considered the responsibility of the employer and is typically administered through a third-party company and must be obtained within 60 days of hire. In a Jan. 16 interview, Chartwells’ Resident District Manager Steven Goodwin said he was unsure of the specific provider Chartwells utilized to certify employees. In a Jan. 23 email, a corporate spokesperson later said the UTD operation utilized a training company called ServSafe. The Mercury compiled a list of 101 Chartwells employees who were employed during the fall 2018 semester. When checked against a public database maintained by ServSafe, only 15 of the employees on the list held valid training certificates, 11 of whom were managers. Eighty-five of the 101 employees worked in jobs in which they were expected to handle food on a regular basis.
→ SEE FOOD HANDLER,
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ALESANDRA BELL | MERCURY STAFF
Student commemorates Parkland shooting victims Freshman paints Spirit Rocks on anniversary of shooting to honor friends killed in tragedy PATRICIA MATHU Mercury Staff
SOUJANYA BHAT | MERCURY STAFF
Political science freshman Katie Silverman painted the Spirit Rocks on the anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
A UTD student spent this Valentine’s Day honoring the lives of those lost in the Parkland, Florida shooting last year. Though Katie Silverman, a political science freshman, attended elementary and high school in Southlake, she went to middle school in Parkland. On Feb. 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people. Last year, as a senior in high school, Silverman heard about the shooting dur-
ing class. Her mom picked her up from school that afternoon. “We both just started hysterically crying because we didn’t know what to do or what was going on,” she said. “This was the high school where my sister and I would have been.” She spent the rest of the night watching the numbers climb as more students were reported missing. “I was in a panic the whole time,” Silverman said. “I just kept reciting, ‘I’m going to know someone. I’m going to know someone.
→ SEE PARKLAND,
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Text to 911 available in Plano New platform to allow access to emergency services without placing phone calls MANSI CHAUHAN Mercury Staff
By the summer of 2019, residents of Plano will be able to text their 911 call center. The software upgrade will cost the city upwards of $350,000. The funding was first approved by the city council on Feb. 11, said Susan Rodriguez, a public information specialist for Plano Public Safety. “The text to 911 system has been in the works for a while, but there are only so many tech projects the city can handle at one time,” Rodriguez said. “It was proposed by the 911 center itself, but they have to go through a pretty strenuous process to get it on the budget.” Text to 911 is still not available in many areas across North Texas, including parts of Collin and Dallas
County. However, other large cities such as Houston and San Antonio do have the technology. Rodriguez said the existing 911 infrastructure, which was built in 1968, is based on traditional landline technology. “It takes a lot of funding to renovate it, which is the main reason the texting system is not yet widespread,” she said. Currently, people who are deaf or hard of hearing use a TTY, which is a telecommunication device for the deaf. It is a keyboard with an attached phone that allows for text communication over a phone line. The message is transcribed onto a teleprinter at the 911 call center or shows up on a digital monitor. “I think this is a move in the right direction,” said Milind Wadhwa, a finance junior and Plano resident. “There are so many dangerous situations where talking
out loud can just make it worse. This will prevent that from happening.” Kortney Sorrell, a community outreach coordinator for The Turning Point Rape Crisis Center, said the new 911 system will be especially useful for sexual assault and domestic violence cases. Perpetrators may become aggressive if they hear the victims talking, she said. “Overall, I think that victims of sexual assault and anything related to trafficking and domestic violence will all find this very useful,” Sorrell said. “The only downside is that only the big carriers like T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon will support it. People (who) either have a prepaid cell phone or don’t have a major carrier can’t take advantage of the service.” Once a 911 call center requests the text to
→ SEE 911,
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LOUISE NILLAS | MERCURY STAFF