The Mercury 04 03 23

4 CHESS VICTORY WHERE TO NAP? 9

Comet claimed title of 2023 Texas Women’s Champion on her way to higher heights.

GET TO KNOW YOUR CANDIDATES

Stay up all night cramming for that exam? We know just the spot for some shut-eye.

InspireUTD

Vice

Comets United

Computer

Edupuganti is running for president under the ticket InspireUTD, with experience in Chi Alpha Iota, an LGBTaffirming, gender-neutral diaternity, and as SG secretary.

Edupuganti said her leadership involvement on campus allows her to recognize the importance of uplifting the voices of all to

is a data science freshman running under the InspireUTD ticket with an aim to increase inclusivity, accessibility and mental and physical outreach to students.

“How can you help them? How can you make their experience the best it can be?” Sullivan said.

“How do you make people coming into UTD who aren’t entirely willing to go here want to go here as a student repre-

Healthcare management junior Anish Padala is running for Student Government president under the Comets United ticket, prioritizing increased communication and cohesion between the student body, SG and administration.

“As elected officials, we should be more available to the student population, and we should be taking in their side of the story so that we’re able to directly help and give them the changes that they desire for the people of the university,”

Sara Juneja is a neuroscience sophomore running for vice president under the Comets United ticket, aiming to connect students and admin and increase students’ belonging and recognition on campus.

“If I do get elected, I’m hoping I can have a more connected Student Government so that we can actually take everything students are telling their senators they elected and

Independent: Mark Farid

Computer engineering junior Mark Farid is a presidential candidate with the goal of serving students by increasing school spirit and implementing stress-relief spaces and study lounges.

“As your student body president, I will focus on implementing small consistent changes over time to enrich the campus experience,” Farid said.

As a commuter, Farid said he rec -

Composting for a cause

KHAKOO Mercury Staff

UTD’s Office of Sustainability has partnered with Turn Compost to provide accessible compost bins to students on campus.

Starting in 2018, Student Government’s Green Initiative Committee collaborated with the Office of Sustainability, Facilities Management and Housing to establish a composting program for students. In 2022, they collaborated with Turn Compost, an organization that provides resources for people to pick up composting. Since UTD has been making an active effort to improve sustainability on campus, The Mercury checked in on how the program has been working since its inauguration.

Composting is a natural process in which organic materials such as food waste are broken down and turned into soil or fertilizer

high in nutrients. Collecting this organic material separately rather than throwing it out with regular trash can help divert waste from landfills and give back to the Earth.

SEE COMPOSTING, PAGE 5

ognizes that the majority of Comets think UTD lacks a social scene and lacks accommodations for study areas and downtime.

“I started digging down and trying to figure out ‘what do I get from school?’ Because from what I read on Reddit, it seems like a lot of students don’t see the social life here,” Farid said.

Farid’s platform revolves around enhancing student participation in

Upperclassmen waitlisted as campus housing demand soars

organizations and campus events and, in turn, students’ enthusiasm to be on campus and attend their classes.

“I want the idea of less disconnect between students and organizations, and the other goal is finding a place for commuters who don’t have a place on campus,” Farid said. “And when they’re not just dealing with the hustle around them, you can increase class participation.”

Texas bills could target international students

ANDRÉ AVERION Mercury Staff

Texas lawmakers in Austin have introduced a series of bills that could affect university funding, minority groups and higher education.

Restrictions on transgender athletes, bans on certain foreign citizens attending college, bans on election polls on campus, improving mental health, ending tenures and improving teacher retirement plans are

Brent Tourangeau sworn in as chief of police

In late February, campus welcomed former assistant police chief Brent Tourangeau as the newest UTD chief of police Tourangeau’s official coronation was held in the McDermott Room on March 30, where UT System Director of Police Michael Heidingsfield came from Austin to officiate the ceremony.

“In Brent Tourangeau, you have somebody with already a successful and storied career at the Richardson Police Depart-

ment,” Heidingsfield said. “I can’t imagine a better day, quite frankly. This is a day to lift up the police, to lift up police chief Tourangeau and his family and welcome him as one of our new leaders.”

Tourangeau swore to protect and serve UTD, its students and its faculty. He hopes to enhance the police department’s partnerships with residential life, student affairs and other student groups. Most of all, he wants to ensure UTD is one of the safest campuses in Texas, especially in light of the Nashville Covenant Elementary School shooting.

Tourangeau has led UTD as one of the first universities in the UT system to train its entire officer team of 25 in immersive active shooter training.

“I know our community worries about that, and we want to make sure that our community knows that we will respond in an appropriate manner,” Tourangeau said. “I want to keep up our successful partnerships and build on with residential life, student affairs, their student government, student

just a few of the bill topics making headlines.

While UTD does not currently have any transgender student athletes, Senate Bill 15 proposes that all current and future athletes attending public universities must compete in teams aligning with the sex they were assigned at birth. The bill follows new guidelines from the National Collegiate Athletes Association, or NCAA, saying female athletes cannot exceed

No

spaces open for non-first-year students

The housing market is already difficult for millions of North Texans, but as summer approaches and enrollment continues to increase, UTD has little availability for on-campus housing.

University Housing announced on March 28 that there were no more spaces available to non-first-year residents for the 2023-24 academic year. As the waitlist reached over 900 names, University Housing was prompted to close the annual nonfirst-year application period.

“Due to the considerable waitlist for fall housing … the new resident application for non-first-year students is temporarily delayed,” the statement read.

As UTD sheds its commuter school designation, housing fills up quickly, leaving Comets with fewer on-campus options.

“It’s certainly difficult to find things close to campus,” Griffin Davis, a computer science graduate student and student government senator, said. “There are houses and some residential single-family areas across from campus, but many of those … are very expensive, and the apartments are a little bit further away.”

Matthew Grief, an associate vice president for student affairs, said that the numbers of housing renewals indicated that this year’s availability would be different.

“[The] numbers were higher this year than they had been in the past, and that’s the first step of our housing process,” Grief said.

About 1,274 students wanted to stay on campus next year or renew their current location, creating a substantial waitlist, according to Grief.

The five residence halls in University Commons are exclusive to first years and house about 2,100 students. Currently, 2,248 beds have been set aside for them, but school policy maintains that after the first year, students must vacate those areas to make room for incoming freshmen.

SEE HOUSING, PAGE 2

UNAIZA

Mercury Staff

Srivani Edupuganti Leah Sullivan

Anish Padala Sara Juneja

science junior Srivani

presidential candidate Leah Sullivan

HARIKA PATCHIPALA Mercury Staff

From left to right: Srivani Edupuganti, Anish Padala and Mark Farid speak at the annual SG candidates debate hosted on March 29 by The Mercury

OLUWASEUN ADEYEMI | MERCURY STAFF

DEBATE PHOTOS BY VIET KHUE VU, HEADSHOTS BY VEDANT SAPRA

SARA JUNEJA | COURTESY

DEVINEE AMIN MERCURY STAFF

ADITI MUNGALE | MERCURY STAFF

Editor-in-Chief Jack Sierputowski editor@utdmercury.com (972) 883-2294

Managing Editor Fatimah Azeem managingeditor @utdmercury.com (972) 883-2287

Graphics Editor Katheryn Ho graphics@utdmercury.com

Photo Editor Viet Khue Vu photo@utdmercury.com

Copy Editor Maria Shaikh

News Editor Manya Bondada news@utdmercury.com

Life & Arts Editor Tejal Dhan life@utdmercury.com

Opinion Editor Shriya Vyasam opinioneditor@ utdmercury.com

Web Editor Trevor Tomer web@utdmercury.com

Distribution Manager André Averion distro@utdmercury.com

Social Media Manager Ruby Bui media@utdmercury.com

Contributors

Oluwaseun Adeyemi

Aafiya Aslam

Martin Friedenthal Vaishnavi Josyula Unaiza Khakoo

Varshitha Korrapolu

Aditi Mungale

Mia Nguyen

Harika Patchipala Rainier Pederson

Andrew Peters Casey Rubio

Rylee Russell

Vedant Sapra

Akhil Shashi

UTDPD Blotter

March 21

• At 7:13 p.m., an unaffiliated vendor had wallet and cash taken from purse.

March 22

• At 2:46 p.m., an unknown person called the UTD help desk and made a threat.

March 24 • At 2:24 a.m., a student was extorted out of money.

11 a.m on Sunday to 8 p.m on Friday as well as Saturday from 11 a.m to 8 p.m. Comets need an active Comet Card to enter after 10:30 p.m., and the library's assistant dean of public services is named Travis Goode.

Media Adviser Jonathan Stewart jonathan.stewart@utdallas.edu

March 30 • At 5:08 p.m., UTD library staff reported a damaged book on the fourth floor of the library.

VEHICULAR INCIDENT

DRUGS & ALCOHOL OTHER MAP: UTD | COURTESY

EDUPUGANTI CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

ensure students’ well-being.

“I have a clear understanding of what it means to be president, the limitations of the role, and how to best leverage that position to make Student Government in this campus as a whole stronger,” Edupuganti said. “I think I have realistic expectations, but I also have big goals.”

As an international student, Edupuganti also aims to target barriers to student opportunities. She would like to give interna-

JUNEJA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

pull that together to make the changes we need to make,” Juneja said.

Juneja's priorities as vice president include providing menstrual leave to empower women, a program to establish study sessions for neurodivergent students and a forum to allow students to converse with each other about concerns they

tional students with F1 visas the chance to access resources such as summer internship courses for free.

“You will notice problems, and you’ll sort of take them for granted,” Edupuganti said. “When I first learned about the fact that UTD charges international students to take the summer internship course, I was like, that’s a really awful policy … Thinking about what I would do as the president made me look at these assumptions and realize that I don’t know whether or not we can change that policy, but that’s

might have at UTD. She hopes to handle these issues with as much transparency as possible to increase student trust.

“I’m always going to be honest with everybody and communicate every single thing I’m able to get information on … even if it feels like it’s being withheld from them,” Juneja said. “I’m going to do my best to make sure every time they feel like they can at least trust somebody.”

something we can at least try and do.”

Edupuganti stresses the importance of listening to students’ issues on campus and providing them with a system that allows goals to be achieved and requests to be heard.

“I think that it is really important that what the people want should be what the people get,” Edupuganti said. “And I think that recognizing change as a longterm goal is important. We are not going to be able to get instant gratification if we want meaningful long-lasting changes.”

Juneja wants to strive for change and find alternate approaches to ensure students can access critical resources.

“Anish and I both have that goal to make people feel like no matter what kind of people you are, we are taking what you’re saying to administration, and we’ll tell you exactly what everyone has to say about what you’re hoping will happen,” Juneja said.

SULLIVAN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

sentative? What are you doing to make their experience the best it can be?”

As the SG website liaison, a member of SG’s Communications Committee and the academic development director for the Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity, Sullivan has a passion for improving student life and campus involvement.

“There’s a reason I’m so involved in the government,” Sullivan said. “It’s because I’m good at what I do, and I really love it, and I think I will be

PADALA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Padala said.

Padala said his experience with SG gives him the means to establish a better standard of student life by bridging the gap.

“As the chair of Residential Affairs and the Campus Housing Advisory Committee, I realized the depth of the lack of communication,” Padala said. “This is just one area of campus life, but I am sure there are other areas

HOUSING D

“It’s typically the case on most college campuses when you’re here in your first year, you’re connected [with] the residence hall space, you’re around other individuals who [are] maybe in your major,” Grief said. “[They’re] gonna get more involved and become connected to the campus more if they’re on campus that first year.”

Iowa State University, for example, found that first-year students who lived on campus had a 34% higher retention rate, a 38% four-year graduation rate and a 5% higher GPA. However, UTD’s prioritization of freshmen has created competition for upperclassmen.

Current University Housing residents

have to go through two processes to get a spot. First, if they live in University Village or Canyon Creek Heights, they can renew to stay in the same room for the summer and the following academic year, according to UTD. Comets who did not fill out a renewal application in time can go through sign-up, which consists of a sign-up stage, roommate group registration and roommate self-selection.

Grief said that students who go through the sign-up process are automatically put on the housing waitlist. If spaces become available, housing offers will go out to students based on their priority number, Grief said.

The highest level goes to National Merit and McDermott scholarship recipients, who are assigned numbers 1499, respectively. Below that are current

University Commons residents, between 500 and 3,500. The next four descending levels are sophomores through graduate students.

“People want to live on campus, [and] we’re really happy about that,” Grief said. “But it’s also challenging too because we don’t really have the space available to meet everybody’s needs.”

Davis, who is also a member of the advocacy group Comets For Better Transit, said the university had a role in the increased demand for housing.

“This didn’t just happen,” Davis said. “[UTD] is advertising and marketing and trying to expand enrollment.”

The administration needs to be able to support that hike in numbers with the proper infrastructure, he said. This was a concern for Davis, who noted a “Campus

able to carry that into the role of vice president if I get elected.”

Sullivan said she ventures into candidacy with an immense dedication to representing marginalized groups and hearing students’ voices. She wants to show Comets that SG is truly there to help and should be used as a resource for all.

“We all want to hear student voices,” Sullivan said. “Everyone wants to know what students are thinking. We can do things for students. And we want them to come to talk to us about their thoughts.”

where the disconnect is prominent. These issues won’t be solved in one year, but they need a constant and collective effort.”

Padala states that he intends to work tirelessly with the rest of SG to create a better experience for current and future Comets.

“I hope that with my priorities, I can allow [students] to see what Student Government is really doing and that we truly, genuinely care about the students and that we are working for them,” Padala said.

Master Plan” which projected UTD to be at a 35,000 enrollment by 2030. Davis pointed out that UTD had built new residential housing consistently every two to four years but stopped in 2017 with the unveiling of Canyon Creek Heights and its 800 new beds.

“Of course, enrollment has continued to grow throughout all that time,” Davis said.

The school’s housing plan did recommend redeveloping Phases 4-9 of student housing, but Davis fears some of that might be going toward academic buildings. He advises the school to replace Phases 1-3 with higher-density housing.

FOCUS signs vandalized

Comets vandalized a Christian organization’s recruitment signs, sparking debate online.

On March 8, the Instagram meme account @utdbruhmoments featured a slideshow of images depicting a series of vandalized signs from a UTD student organization called the Fellowship of Christian University Students, also known as FOCUS. The post sparked a slew of heated religious debates between students in the comment section, and according to Peter Young, assistant director of FOCUS, this is not the first time people have tampered with the organization’s advertisements.

Junior chemistry major Paul Micus and political science alumnus Peter Young said that FOCUS leadership implemented a new initiative called the Blitz Team this semester. The team’s primary role is updating FOCUS ads around campus every Friday, including the signs that were set up near McDermott Library prior to spring break and eventually vandalized.

Young said that prior to the vandalism posted on Instagram, the signs had been stolen two separate times. Eventually, the sign thefts turned into students altering the signs from questions posed by FOCUS like, “Does Jesus care about women?” to simply reading “Does Jesus women?” The combination of theft and vandalism resulted in the involvement of UTDPD.

“Campus police got involved, and there were a number of people who got caught in the act of stealing these signs,” Young said. However, FOCUS decided not to press charges.

“We want what’s best for the university and for the students that come here,” Young said.

As soon as the images were posted on @ utdbruhmoments, the signs quickly became a topic of debate between the account’s followers. Comments ranged from citing the vandalization as a denial of religious freedom to others arguing that changing the signs was a harmless joke.

ATEC alumnus Nicholas Provenghi shared his own thoughts on the long thread of com-

menters under the Instagram post.

“This isn’t a dig against Christianity, it’s a dig against an organization that uses evangelical tactics to harass members of the UTD student body,” Provenghi said. “They deserve all the vandalism and criticism that comes their way.”

Young said that the group’s intent with the signs was to start a conversation on campus and create a space to talk about their beliefs and religious convictions. Young stated that the initial questions posed on the signs were meant to draw a reaction from the student body.

“We really wanted to hit home with hot topics like anxiety and depression and even politics,” Young said.

Following the vandalism, Micus talked about new opportunities to communicate with fellow students using the signs. At the suggestion of a non-religious classmate, the next rounds of signs from FOCUS were answers to the questions that were initially vandalized. The new signs read similarly to the signs before but also contained an answer.

“Does Jesus care about women? Yes.”

ECO HUB BlOOms fOr spring

In the face of global warming, ozone depletion and rampant deforestation, UTD’s Eco Hub, run by student volunteers and monitored by Professors of Instruction Scott Rippel and Christina Thompson, adopts sustainable practices to support future generations.

Research from the U.S. News and World Report shows that the best time to instill sustainable habits in people is during university, as students who adopt environmentally-friendly practices in college are more likely to maintain them for the rest of their lives. One way of getting involved in sustainability is through an on-campus farm. The Eco Hub was estab lished in 2021 to teach students how they can better take care of the planet on an individual and community level. It is a 20,000 square foot piece of land that includes an apiary for honey bees, a farm with a variety of produce, flowers, fruits and onsite composting facilities.

Eco Hub members are currently try ing to find optimal soil conditions and farming methods compatible with Richardson land. According to Avery McKitrick, UTD’s sustainability coordinator, it is essential to use farming practices that maximize crop growth and soil productivity, leading to a healthy produce output.

In order to reach these desired conditions, the Eco Hub experimented with cover crop ping and nitrogen fixation in fall 2022. Strat egies including using cover crops and organic fertilizers like MicroLife to minimize soil com paction and erosion.

“We planted a variety of different cover crops, and we experimented with four different combinations of cover crops,” McKitrick said. “Each seed combination had one nitrogen fixer and one ground breaker. The idea behind that was to figure out which of those cover crops worked best in our soil.”

Most of the produce that is harvested is donated to the Comet Cupboard food pantry for students in need. Food is harvested during work days, then labeled and packaged with

compostable bags and delivered to the Comet Cupboard the following week.

“We try to plant varieties that are recognizable because what we donate to the Comet Cupboard might not come with a label,” McKitrick said. “People might not know how to use something that they don’t recognize from a grocery store. So we try to keep the varieties really basic, really easy to understand.”

In an attempt to be more efficient and sustainable, members are also trying to establish a greenhouse. “We are in the process of making some final selections for a greenhouse,”

seeds. Vegetable transplants are very expensive, and it’s more cost effective for us to grow them ourselves. So we’re really excited about the idea of getting a greenhouse.”

Moreover, there are also plans to diversify the fruit trees to provide more options for people who utilize the Comet Cupboard.

“Another future project that’s planned is expanding our orchard by planting more fruit trees,” McKitrick said. “So right now we have three peach trees, all of different varieties, planted in our orchard. We’d love to expand in November of this year to add three plum trees.”

Chemist advances cancer research

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, or CPRIT, has awarded UTD $6 million as part of a recruitment grant to hire world-class synthetic chemist Rudi Fasan from the University of Rochester.

ing honey over the summer for the students to harvest and sell, to use that money to further community projects and student sponsored projects,” Rippel said. “[I would like to analyze] where the bees are going and which pollen sources they are going to. I would like to set up a nesting site for native bees, the 3,999 species of solitary bees that don’t live in a beehive. I’d like to set up a place where native bees can go and complete their life cycles.”

Work day tasks depend on the needs of the Eco Hub, including pulling weeds, installing mulch, planting produce, preparing for up-

CPRIT Chief Scientific Officer Michelle Le Beau said the organization aims to develop the research prowess of Texas institutions and works closely with universities that nominate stellar investigators for a CPRIT award. Inga Musselman, the vice president for academic affairs and provost, nominated Fasan as an investigator to join UTD, and Le Beau noted the university’s strong commitment to growing their drug development program.

“Dr. Fasan is going to be a very critical recruit to join the faculty in the center,” Le Beau said. “He is a world-class synthetic chemist and his research involves developing new biologically-active molecules that can be developed for cancer therapeutics.”

A recipient of the Chair in Synthetic Organic Chemistry at the University of Rochester, Fasan said he developed an interest in cancer research since the field correlated with chemistry and biomedical science, two areas he has worked in extensively during his career.

“Our research is very much focused on the chemistry side and developing methods to make molecules,” Fasan said. “We enjoy being able to construct and build molecules. On the other end, we're also very interested in finding [some] sort of useful application for these molecules. And clearly cancer is such a major human health problem, so being able to provide our contribution in that research is what really drives our work.”

Fasan said he studied pharmaceutical chemistry as an undergraduate in Italy and later worked on interdisciplinary research between chemistry and biology in graduate school in Switzerland. He later moved to the U.S. and worked on laboratory evolution of proteins and enzymes for his postdoctoral degree along with Francis Arnold, the 2018 chemistry Nobel Laureate from Caltech.

“His work on new-to-nature enzymes has taught us a great deal about how evolution creates novelty,” Arnold said. “It also beautifully demonstrates how the combination of deep chemical knowledge and an appreciation for enzymes can solve challenging problems in chemistry. Rudi is a brilliant researcher, with a great track record of creative work.”

Following his academic career, Fasan had the opportunity to start his own lab at the University of Rochester in 2008. The Fasan Lab focuses on two major areas: developing enzymes and biocatalysts for chemical synthesis and developing methods to synthesize both the derivative of natural product and macro peptides for biomedical applications.

“That’s where I sort of merged what I

RYLEE RUSSELL Mercury Staff

FOCUS signs were

RYLEE RUSSELL | MERCURY STAFF

FOCUS

RYLEE RUSSELL | MERCURY STAFF

RYLEE RUSSELL MERCURY STAFF

VAISHNAVI JOSYULA Mercury Staff

RUDI FASAN

VARSHITHA KORRAPOLU Mercury Staff

Brandon Hudson, singer and guitarist. VEDANT SAPRA | MERCURY STAFF

Savannah Hudson enjoys the concert.

VEDANT SAPRA | MERCURY STAFF Comets sing and dance along to music duo, Between Friends, at a SUAAB event.

VEDANT SAPRA | MERCURY STAFF

ECO HUB | COURTESY

UTD chess conquers Texas Women’s Championship

Tennis team undefeated

VAISHNAVI JOSYULA Mercury Staff

UTD’s men’s and women’s tennis teams are No. 1 in the ASC East conference for Division III, where they have persisted as undefeated against other DIII teams.

The women have played 12 games so far — three of which were against other DIII colleges in the East conference — with an overall score of 8–4 and a conference score of 3–0. The men, on the other hand, have played 10 games so far — two of which affected their conference standings — with an overall score of 5–5 and a conference score of 2–0. Games against DI and DII schools do not affect conference standing.

On March 14, freshman Nathan Qi and sophomore Elyssa Ducret were named Players of the Week for the ASC East division. With five and six overall matches to go for the men and women respectively until the ASC Championship Quarterfinals, coach Bryan Whitt said he hopes that both the teams can retain their No.1 spot.

“Ultimately, beating the teams of the ASC East is really the main thing that matters to get us to the tournament,” Whitt said. “We’re undefeated in the East. We still have East Texas Baptist University and LeTourneau University on the men’s side, but on the women’s side we just have ETBU left.”

Despite the smooth progression throughout the tournament so far, software engineering graduate student Jeremiah “Jed” De Luna said that the men’s doubles lineup has been changed to improve results and camaraderie.

“We felt like if we wanted to take some of these doubles matches, there would have to be a change,” De Luna said. “I definitely think we’ve got three stronger doubles teams as a result. I think us being more flexible now has really helped our doubles lineup because we’ve been able to make a couple swaps, and we’re really able to fit the puzzle pieces together. I could watch my teammates compete, and it really felt like we were coming together as a team, not just as competitors.”

The women have also been practicing rigorously. According to healthcare management sophomore Megan Zeng, spring break has been both a relaxing and crucial time for the team.

“We each either went home, or some of us [stayed] in Dallas because a lot of our team is from Dallas,” Zeng said. “Even though we had a break, a lot of us were still able to practice just because we know we have a lot of matches following spring break. Each of us just practiced individually. One of our teammates, Rebecca, is also from Austin, and I’m from Austin, so we were able to practice with each other.”

Whitt said he hopes to secure the first spot for DIII in the East conference. The upcoming men’s game is on April 9 against SMU and the next women’s game is on April 1 against Southwestern University.

“April is the big month because that’s when we play the bulk of our conference [matches] and all the seatings kind of get worked out because they’re all playing each other too, and their results affect our results,” Whitt said. “Within the next week or two, we might know who the number one seeds are even if we haven’t played everybody because they’ve played other people.”

Two UTD students secured chess honors on March 25 at the 2023 Texas Women’s Chess Championship.

The format of the tournament consists of six rounds, and each round is 30 minutes per game per player with five seconds of delay. Two players from the UTD chess team were the final finishers: Gergana Peycheva, a business administration freshman and FIDE master, or FM; and Tarini Goyal, a business analytics graduate student and international master, or IM. Peycheva earned first place, making her the official Texas Women Champion, and Goyal earned third place as a finisher.

Peycheva claimed the title of 2023 Texas Women’s Champion after winning five of six games and drawing one game with her fellow teammate Goyal.

“I didn’t expect it, to be honest, but it felt good,” Peycheva said. “It felt nice because we prepared a lot, and we planned everything, and the way we went on the tournament was very professional, comparing to maybe our opponent. So I think it’s deserved that we took first center.”

Goyal won four of her six games and drew against Peycheva, bringing her to third place in the match. Goyal found this tournament to be very competitive as she was playing people rated higher than her after a couple of rounds. It was Goyal’s first time playing in a women’s championship in the U.S.

“I was very happy,” Goyal said. “The last game was very tense, and I won that, so I was happy to get a prize after that.”

Both Peycheva and Goyal played perfectly in the game they played against each other, but there were no other moves that could have given either player an advantage, so their game resulted in a draw.

“The position seemed to be equal and dry so that there were no big chances to win, and so I offered her a draw, and I think that was a good decision because we finished our game a little bit earlier, comparing to the other players,” Pey -

cheva said. “So we managed to rest, and we had some time with the coach to prepare for the next round.”

Goyal prepared openings beforehand and trained with UTD Chess Coach Julio Sadorra to lock down time control.

“The coach prepared some positions in which we would be given ... similar time control with the delay,” Goyal said. “They were trying to pressure us on those points where things could go either way, it’s a risky position, it could go good for me, good for them.”

Goyal had a risky game with women’s international master Sila Caglar from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, but nevertheless won the game. The position in this game was closed initially, but Goyal had an opportunity to sacrifice a pawn to promote to queen. As Goyal foresaw possible moves, she took the risk and sacrificed her pawn in exchange for a passed pawn, ultimately winning the game.

“I could have repeated moves, and that would have led to a draw, but I wanted to take that risk,” Goyal said.

Peycheva has also played matches against UTRGV players. However, her crucial awarddeciding match was the fifth game against Caglar.

“I chose to change my opening in the last moment, so that was a very important decision,” Peycheva said.

As the spring semester comes to an end, Peycheva seeks to compete in more tournaments in her home country, Bulgaria, to reach her goal of becoming a woman grandmaster, or WGM. However, to become a WGM, you must complete three norm, high-level performances in chess tournaments where a player must play higher than their rating. For Peycheva, her norm would be playing at a performance rating of 2,400 against opponents rated higher than 2,130. Peycheva has so far completed one norm out of the three and is thankful to have a team that supports her to reach that goal.

“I have the rating,” Peycheva said. “So I hope I will be able to get there. I really like to thank Coach Julio. He created a very good atmosphere

in the team, not only between me and Tarini, but in general.”

Peycheva said that this was a huge achievement not only for her, but for the UTD Chess Team, and she is very happy that she played for UTD.

“After I got it, when I see how glad the people near me are, I can understand afterwards that this is actually a very important thing, and also I’m very happy to perform at our university,” Peycheva said. “And I will keep improving, so I hope we will have even bigger success in the future with our great team.”

Men's basketball star second ever Comet to ball as an All-Star

Kyle Poerschke was selected by the NABC to play in the elusive national D-III All-Stars game on March 18

Graduate guard Kyle Poerschke became the second Comet in the history of UTD men’s basketball to play in the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division III All-Star game.

The All-Star game on March 18 featured top DIII senior players from across the nation, including another player from the American Southwestern Conference, Ty Prince of Mary-Hardin Baylor. Poerschke played under Coach David Hixon, a basketball legend with 826 career games won — the third most in DIII history — while Prince played under Coach Kevin Vande Streek. UTD men’s basketball coach Terry Butterfield selected Poerschke for the All-Star honor, and it is one of many honors Poerschke has received over the past year, including three ASC Player-of-the-Week awards and ASC First Team Newcomer of the Year.

All-Star games are usually rapid shooting competitions, but Hixon came into the game with a different mindset for his team, emphasizing defense and holding down the fort. This strategy kept the match neck-and-neck in the first half but didn’t pull through in the end. The opposing team, Team Streek, won primarily through offense with a final score of 116–112.

“It was really cool to see how quickly the guys

could get along together who had never seen each other,” Poerschke said. “Ty Prince was in our conference, so I knew him, but most guys had never even really heard of each other or seen each other and were from all across the country. But they were really unselfish and just open to creating friendships in such a short amount of time. That was my favorite part about it.”

Despite the game’s seemingly competitive nature, Poerschke said he and all the other players duked it out for entertainment more than anything else. And while Team Hixon went for primarily defensive plays, Poerschke had fun with it and tried to land some 3-pointers. Poerschke said it was easy for him to get acclimated to the new team, even if they only had one practice together, and he compared the personalities of players he met to the personalities of his teammates back at UTD.

“It was a lot of similar types of guys,” Poerschke said. “That can be said about DIII players – it speaks to the quality of men and people that play DIII sports. You’d think at an All-Star game that there would be some people that are a little entitled and are really full of themselves. But that was not the case, they were just regular people. I could see myself being good friends with these guys and that just speaks to the quality

UTD CHESS TEAM COURTESY

IM Tarini Goyal (far right) and FM Gergana Peycheva (third from right) travelled to Brownsville, Texas to compete in the March 25 tournament.

AAFIYA ASLAM Mercury Staff

FATIMAH AZEEM Mercury Staff

UTD ATHLETICS | COURTESY Poerschke is known for dominating score-boards, and he holds the record for most points scored in a single game (43 points). The All-Stars game found him facing off against top talent across the country.

Graduate student Jeremiah De Luna hits a forehand.

UTD’s new sustainability initiatives include community gardens, bee apiaries and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified buildings. A key part of this campaign was increasing student involvement. By implementing a composting program, the Office of Sustainability can engage more students to be cognizant of their impact on the environment.

Prashanth Boda, the Eco Representative who oversees the compost bins, said that an understanding of accountability often inspires composting.

“Why is it done? Why does anyone compost? Because they feel responsible about the environment … If they can divert it from going into landfill, that’s a success. So the intention [with] which people come into this program, that’s the beautiful part for me,” Boda said.

The first step for students to participate in residential composting is

BILLS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

a certain testosterone level. SB 15 also runs alongside other anti-transgender bills in Texas, including the very similar “Save Women’s Sports” act that will affect all public institutions and the recently-passed Senate Bill 14 that will ban minors from transitioning on taxpayer money and prevent mental health professionals from endorsing their transition. SB 15 requires that the university pay a fee if caught violating this rule. It also, however, proposes that all public universities will must allow female students to compete in equal intercollegiate competitions designed for men if an alternative is not already offered.

Senate Bill 15, which was passed March 29, has over 18 authors and is supported by Gov. Greg Abbot, who said that transgender women hold an unfair biological advantage in sports compared to cisgender women.

“We’ve fought for the rights of women to be able to succeed in the world, only to have that now superseded by this ideology that men are going to be empowered to compete against women in things that should be protected by federal law, state law," Abbot said.

Another bill that has racked up controversy is House Bill 4736, which prevents international students from China, Iran, North Korea or Russia from enrolling in a public school. Additionally, the bill proposes that citizenship will no longer be obtainable even if they graduate high school after living in Texas for three years. This bill

CHIEF CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

organizations and athletics.”

Rafael Martín, the vice president and chief of staff of UTD, who was a part of Tourangeau’s hiring process and promotion, believes that Tourangeau was the only right pick to ensure UTD’s safety.

“Brent is really somebody that I trust,” Martín said. “He has already developed so many relationships with key stakeholders across campus, and the feedback that I got from all of those groups was just so positive.

People were very enthusiastic about his candidacy, about seeing him as the new chief of police here at UT Dallas.”

Tourangeau has served UTD since February 2014 but has a long history in law enforcement. Born in Bennington, Vermont, Tourangeau graduated from Castleton State College before arriving in Richardson, Texas. Between 1986 and 2007, Tourangeau worked various positions in the Rich-

completing an online training and post-quiz, which teaches participants what goes in compost containers, how to manage the food caddies and how to acquire a combination lock for securing the containers. Boda said that many students enter the program without this information.

“Even though it has been there for a long time, it sounded pretty new to me because right now with all the modernization that’s happening, we are not aware of [the composting process] … Composting is just a natural phenomenon, and being aware of that and participating in it … that's why I encourage people to participate in composting,” Boda said. After the training is complete, students can pick up their compost bins from locations specified in the video. There are eleven drop off locations for composted food waste located throughout Canyon Creek, Northside, University Village, residence halls and the campus, a map of which can be found on the Office of Sustainability’s website.

would apply to H1B Visa Holders, students and refugees, and it parallels Senate Bill 147, which was endorsed by Abbott to prevent foreign citizens from buying land. While the bill has a low chance of passing and has only been referred to State Affairs so far, its proposal has sparked concern for several groups.

Meanwhile, House Bill 2390 and House Bill 4465 propose a bill that prohibits schools from hosting polling sites. Both bills claim their goal is to keep outsiders off campuses during voting days. However, critics point out that the bills would create added difficulties for students to exercise their voting rights and target locations often associated with Democrat turnout.

The bill was referred to Elections on March 21 for HB 2390, but the author of both bills, Representative Carrie Isaac, is adamant that these bills will protect students.

“There’s a lot of opportunity there for people to be places they shouldn’t be,” Isaac said. “I just know in this session, this is going to be a topic we cover intensely, school safety. I just believe these are a couple areas we can improve on.”

Another bill following Uvalde is House Bill 13, which encourages teachers to undergo training to identify individuals with mental health issues that could pose a school shooting risk. Additionally, campuses will have to prepare an active shooter plan if one is not already in place, and the budget allotment for student safety will increase to $100 per student.

ardson Police Department, or RPD, under former UTD Chief of Police Larry Zacharias. Starting off in the patrol unit, Tourangeau moved up the ranks into special investigations, a crimes against persons unit, the Drug Enforcement Administration task force, FBI Foreign and Domestic Counterterrorism task force and the motorcycle unit and crash investigations team. In his time at RPD, Tourangeau served as a firearms defensive tactics instructor, an A Team member of the SWAT unit for 26 years, the Tactical Operations Commander of RPD SWAT and then finally as the captain of the patrol unit.

Tourangeau retired from RPD with the Life Saving Award and a Meritorious Conduct award for his response during a bank robbery.

After his honorary leave, Zacharias invited Tourangeau to UTD and has since become an integral part in making UTD one of the safest campuses in Texas. Tourangeau has also played a role in repairing the previously fragile

“Composting, I would say, is just like a tiny portion of what sustainability is … so you’re just a small part, but still it plays an important part,” Boda said.

If students would like to participate in sustainability in other forms, they can apply for the Office of Sustainability’s Sustainability Honors Program and sign up for the newsletter. This program allows students to submit their volunteer hours applying to any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and get recognized at graduation for their service. The Office of Sustainability also provides a list of other volunteer opportunities on their website, both in-person and virtual.

“It’s just wonder, like you get to experience nature through your eyes,” Boda said. “When we start composting on a personal level, [we] get to see maybe on day one you kept all the waste … and after two months, when the compost is ready, when you go and see it, it's no longer that [same] waste.”

HB 13 would accompany an increase funding for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium for school-based telehealth care, which came after Texas Children’s Hospital reported an 800% increase in mental illnesses late last year. UTD is expected to be one of the institutions providing health care professionals to address the growing mental health crisis, with Congress funding a telehealth care program at UTD last year. HB 13 was left pending on March 27 in the Texas House Select Committee on Youth Health and Safety.

While these bills primarily affect university students; faculty and staff can also expect changes. Senate Bill 18 would effectively end the tenure program starting Sept. 1 if passed. Critics argue that this bill would diminish the pool of quality faculty and would target critical race theory, which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has repeatedly expressed opposition to. Supporters point out that this bill removes a seniority hierarchy that has previously been abused and that it will allow more opportunities for younger educators. Meanwhile, House Bill 600, Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 10 are all expected to improve educator retirement plans and costs of living. Additionally, SB 9 would provide incentives for retired teachers to return to teaching and provide mentorship programs to help the next generation of educators.

As of March 30, SB 10 has been approved and passed. HB 600 has been voted favorably after amendments, SB 9 is awaiting vote results and SB 18 is pending under an education subcom-

relationship between students and law enforcement.

“Chief Tourangeau has a great deal of respect for our students,” Zacharias said. “Brent and I have worked with each other for more than 20 years. He is a servant leader with high ethical standards. We share very similar policing and management styles and philosophies. He will have very little problem maintaining what the police department has established over the past several years.” Tourangeau is frequently seen at events or traveling across campus in a golf cart to check in on students. While students can reach Tourangeau through text or email, he is more than happy to hear from anyone willing to visit the UTD police station.

“We will also continue to promote a professional policing culture and inclusive environment. I will always communicate honestly and transparently, and we will maintain our focus on ethics here at our organization,” Tourangeau said.

learned from graduate school and from my postdoctoral training,” Fasan said. “A lot of our projects revolve around essentially the matters to be able to generate molecules that can be used for cancer. And, as a group, we sort of grew over the years until we had this opportunity to join UTD.”

Fasan will join UTD — the first transfer in his career — with his lab members in fall 2023. He said he is excited both to collaborate with UTD faculty and UT Southwestern Medical Center — a leading institute in cancer research — and also to recruit new students at UTD and work with undergraduates. “What I found sort of very excit-

ing about the move is really the opportunity to continue to grow and expand this research program,” Fasan said. “This is clearly possible through a lot of synergistic collaboration that can happen at UTD. We received this recruiting award from CPRIT that will provide a significant boost to all this research. This will essentially give a unique opportunity to be able to apply and generate libraries of our molecules and be able to apply and test their anti-cancer activity and evaluate their anti-cancer potential in collaboration with the investigators at UT Southwestern.”

Fasan said he is looking forward to establishing a new center for highthroughput reaction, discovery and synthesis with chemistry professor Vladimir Gevorgyan, which will

boost research and therapeutic application in cancer.

“We are very excited about this initiative,” Fasan said. “It will help with all of our programs for the faculty, myself, as well as other investigators at UTD and collaborators like UT Southwestern to be able to essentially discover new reactions for synthesis and be able to synthesize interesting molecules.”

For undergraduates and the UTD student body, Fasan advised students to pursue their passion and push themselves, but to not be demoralized by failures.

“Maintaining a positive attitude, pursuing what you're passionate about and not being afraid to fail, I think, provides a great attitude really to move forward,” Fasan said.

FASAN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

Highlights from 2023 iWeek

UTD celebrated its annual International Week festivities from March 6 to 10, showcasing Comets’ wide breadth of cultures and diverse demographics. Festivities included Passport to The World – a cultural showcase complete with cuisines and activities from countries all around the world – and the Global Talent Show – a performing competition filled with classical and modern singing, instrumental music from the sitar and dancing, such as K-pop choreography, Vietnamese traditional dance and Indian Nagin or snake dance. Bangladesh won first place Best of Show at Passport to The World for their vibrant booth, delicious cuisine and warm hospitality. Three lively dance acts from Vietnam won first place in the Global Talent Show.

Lockers in ATEC showcase symbolic art

Nasher Prize Laureate’s work on display in Dallas

dent body along with judging the installations and creating an installation themselves.

The fifth annual Pop-up Locker Exhibition is currently on display in ATEC from March 23 to April 21. Open to students and staff, the “Shadowlands”-themed exhibition showcases student artwork in lockers and includes prizes for the top three displays.

While graduate students and faculty conducted past exhibits, this year’s exhibition was organized by undergraduate students enrolled in the HONS 3199 Pop-up Exhibition Design readings course, which is taught by Creative Director of LabSynthE and co-curator of the exhibit Xtine Burrough. Students helped put out the call for submissions from the stu-

“We had these really iconic lockers in the Edith O'Donnell Art and Technology Building, but they weren’t really being used very much, and so we thought that what we could do was transform them into a space for exhibition,” Burrough said. “I had some good conversations with Valerie Brunell in the honors college and proposed doing a reading seminar for the production of the locker exhibit.”

As part of the course, students read Audrey Blake’s “The Girl in His Shadow,” a book that circulated on the UTD library’s shelf over the summer about a female surgeon in the 1800s.

“Nora is a character in the book who really

learns to be an excellent surgeon, but has to keep that information secret, and so there are a lot of ethical issues around that,” Burrough said. “Gender, cultural problems, challenges and questions around that as well. It takes place in the peak of medical innovation and novel surgeries, but also [during] a time and [in] a field dominated by men.”

Computer science sophomore Fatima Khalid, a student in the readings course, said that she and her peers chose the theme of the exhibition after finding details from the book that they connected with.

“Our thought process was collectively kind of all over the place, but there were a lot of ideas about the inner self and concealing iden-

tities because that’s what Nora goes through all throughout the novel, and that’s really the theme that resonated with the most of us,” Khalid said. “Professor Burrough brought up the idea after a while to literally just connect the name of the novel ‘A Girl in His Shadow’ to the theme, and we all decided that shadows encompassed a lot of our ideas and also left enough room for interpretation and creativity for students to participate.”

Prizes were given for the top three winners, and Khalid’s installation titled “Emergence” — one of the winners — is a paper work that symbolizes emerging from the dark into the

‘Daisy Jones and The Six’ brings the ’70s back to life

Imagine the ’70s music scene: the Sunset Strip teeming with fame-obsessed youths and band members snorting coke off whatever they can find. This explosive environment makes or breaks artists, and “Daisy Jones and The Six” explores how far musicians can go before the drama of the industry catches up to them.

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, “Daisy Jones and The Six” paints a messy picture of a fictional world-renowned band‘s rise to fame and the events that lead up to their dissolution. The miniseries switches between interviews of the aged band members unreliable glimpses of the past and scenes of how those events shaped who they became. The plot focuses on Los Angeles “it” girl Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) as her path collides with rising rock band, The Six, and her vocals and chemistry with lead singer Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) skyrocket them to success. Their success feels short-lived as Daisy and Billy’s attraction to one another slowly breaks their marriages and friendships apart.

While the series does a great job of immersing the audience in the glow and aesthetic of the ’70s, it never feels corny because of the

focus placed on the band members’ relationships. In a time period that seems so far away, the characters remain human. Daisy and Billy have an electric dynamic, fighting the chemistry that lies underneath the constant arguing. They are incredibly flawed, sometimes extremely unlikable, and it reminds the audience that this era is coated with addiction and toxicity.

This series practically revolves around Daisy and Billy, leaving other characters underutilized. More scenes across the board would have given the audience more clarity of the overall group dynamic, because it often feels like Daisy and Billy are the sole members. Even in the music production scenes, you can barely see the other members playing their instruments, while the two leads get to sing for a majority of the episode. The other members of The Six, Billy’s wife Camilla and disco pioneer Simone have captivating subplots that are far more entertaining than Billy and Daisy screaming at one another, but their screen time is minimal. Guitarist Graham and keyboardist Karen’s blooming relationship is sweet and offers a break from the drama, while Camilla’s affair with bassist Eddie is so spicy it makes the main love story seem lackluster.

What is especially unique about the series is the soundtrack, which is marketed as an actual album created by the fictitious band. The band has their own Spotify profile, and their album “Aurora” is available for purchase on vinyl, featuring the photoshoot depicted in the show. This genius marketing plan makes the show one of the most immersive series of the year. The songs are electric, capturing a Fleetwood Mac-inspired sound with catchy lyrics that translate well to energetic concert scenes. Often television utilizes body doubles

playing instruments instead of taking the time and money to train their actors, but the cast actually performs on each track, making the viewers feel like groupies listening to the season’s hottest band.

A fictitious band has never felt more real, and “Daisy Jones and The Six” is a messy coming of age drama filled with hedonism and pure unadulterated mayhem that pulls viewers into the limelight of a pop-rock band. All ten episodes are now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Sculpture and performance artist Senga Nengudi was awarded the 2023 Nasher Prize for her powerful and meaningful art, bringing attention to the talent of both women and the Black community, and her current exhibit is worth a visit.

Nengudi is the seventh laureate of the Nasher Prize, which honors outstanding contemporary sculpture art. Her passion and thoughtfulness can be seen in her works, which are currently displayed in the Nasher Sculpture Center in downtown Dallas until April 30, only a 20-minute drive from campus.

A prominent figure in the world of sculpture art for five decades, much of Nengudi’s art serves to portray the human body and its movement in unique methods. Her use of unconventional materials, such as plastic bags and pantyhose, allow for a modern, human touch, unlike most other sculpture art, which is usually made using metals or other moldable materials. While her art can be appreciated in many ways, it isn’t until you see it in person that you feel the careful intention in each of her works.

In her piece “R.S.V.P. Reverie Scribe,” Nengudi utilizes pantyhose stockings filled with sand to represent the weight of the human body. The contrast of the stockings against the dragging of sand evokes an empathetic response as viewers can almost physically feel what she is portraying. Past her work in sculpture, Nengudi also delves into performance art in collaboration with other artists. While only photos of her performances are present, written explanations offer more insight into the symbolism of her work.

The world of contemporary art is one of controversy, with some people regarding it as not “true” art. However, a look at Nengudi’s art shows that the genre requires thought and effort just like any other. Her strange use of materials may puzzle you at first, but with observation, the relationship between her art and physical feelings of the human body is slowly revealed.

Relating to Nengudi’s work and feeling it is a form of art in itself and offers a nice refresher from the stiffness of college life. For the best experience, consider visiting the Nasher Center yourself in the historic Dallas arts district, located near the Dallas Museum of Art and Crow Museum of Asian

DEVINEE AMIN | MERCURY STAFF

BANGLADESHI STUDENT ORGANIZATION | COURTESY

BANGLADESHI STUDENT ORGANIZATION | COURTESY

BANGLADESHI STUDENT ORGANIZATION | COURTESY

VEDANT SAPRA | MERCURY STAFF

VEDANT SAPRA | MERCURY STAFF

VEDANT SAPRA | MERCURY STAFF

The

Art.

TEJAL DHAN | MERCURY STAFF

TEJAL DHAN Mercury Staff

VAISHNAVI JOSYULA Mercury Staff

DEVINEE AMIN | MERCURY STAFF

VEDANT SAPRA | MERCURY STAFF

FATIMA KHALID | COURTESY

UTD professor gives back to

VAISHNAVI JOSYULA Mercury Staff

From attempting to escape communism 11 times to becoming the president of the Vietnamese American Community in the U.S., adjunct professor Trong Phan has endured hardship; yet, he has prevailed in giving back to the Vietnamese community.

Phan, who teaches Vietnamese at UTD, was born in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, where North Vietnamese communists confiscated his family’s property and violated their human rights. Phan credited his mother for instilling beliefs of freedom, which encouraged him to learn English and attempt to escape the country.

“During that journey of several attempts to escape Vietnam, I was caught during the escapement twice, and I was in prison twice,

Vietnamese

community

been swallowed by the storm that was brewing in the area. They spotted us on the sea and dispatched a Japanese ship to pick us up and bring us to Singapore.”

Residing in a multi-ethnic country has helped Phan assimilate among other cultures and improve his English. Phan later moved to the U.S. after being sponsored by his brother at UT Austin via a private sponsorship program.

and I got shot at once,” Phan said. “I made it to Singapore when I was 19 years old. My boat was saved by the U.S. Air Force. If they didn’t find us that very night, we would have

“After so many years of interruption I went back to college,” Phan said. “I went to community college and eventually graduated from UT Austin, became an engineer, and guess who I’m working for. After a couple years working as an intern for a different electronic company, I decided to work for the U.S. Air Force, so I spent 33 years with the U.S. Air

What are the best places to nap on campus?

Commuters and poor sleep schedules can finally get some rest between classes

Latinx Film Festival addresses pressing humanitarian crises

UTD celebrates movies that tackle heavy subjects

foster knowledge and culture exchange. A film festival is an example.”

Between busy schedules and commutes, it’s no secret that college students struggle to get some shut-eye. There aren’t any designated sleeping areas on campus, but UTD does offer lofty areas that could serve as much-needed napping spots between classes.

A meta analysis by the Center for Disease Control found that 60% of college students get approximately 7 hours of sleep, with 75% experiencing sleep disturbances and 26.4%

experiencing insomnia. Students at UTD reportedly get even less than these numbers, with the National College Health Assessment recording 57.2% getting either four to six hours of sleep or five to seven hours of sleep on average. Additionally, inadequate sleep could result in a decreased GPA, as found by the National College Institute.

Rey Manriquez, a psychology graduate and Student Wellness Center peer health educator, is a work-study student assistant in the ongoing “Sleep and Daily Experiences” research

project. Manriquez agrees that students aren’t getting enough sleep and believes part of the crisis comes from time management.

“I think it’s very important to create boundaries for yourself,” Manriquez said. “Learning to say no and establishing your boundaries when it comes to your personal life is extremely important before you take on any additional projects. You should always make sure that your needs are met first, and that’s highly applicable when it comes to school, work and

Dynamic DJ in the house

RadioUTD celebrated its 20th anniversary with its second annual live DJ Fest on March 9. DJs immersed the audience in their diverse musical tastes ranging from ambient Intellectual Dance Music to smooth ‘90s old school rap to upbeat Latin dance music. DJ Arch Nolan, cognitive science sophomore (they/them), played upbeat alternative metal-core rock.

“I usually play jazz on my [radio] show, but I went for something different tonight,” Nolan said. “It was so cool to hear the songs that I know loudly played. Being able to see people’s reaction – people grooving and getting with it was awesome –you can’t do that in the radio station.”

DJ Marco Frescas, computer science junior (he/him), played “euphoric” dance music.

“I like playing music where the beat and the sound is happy but the vocals are a little bit depressing… I’m not the best at conversation, I’m very awkward and I found music to be better at expressing my feelings. These harmonies convey emotions that I never could. I love DJing – been doing it since high school – and I’ll remember this night and how the crowd went while for a long time to come.”

The Hispanx/Latinx Film Festival debuted on March 22 outside the Jonsson Performance Hall, where professors from the school of Arts, Technology and Humanities addressed social and geopolitical issues impacting the Latinx community.

While students might have arrived at the event for live music by the Bass Junkies, tacos from the Taco Taxi and mezcal concoctions by Zunte Spirits, the event also brought awareness to the crises of immigration, sexuality and abortion for an underrepresented community. This event came after the proposal for Senate Bill 602, which gives border control increased power to arrest any suspected criminals. Just a week before, a mass illegal entry in the El Paso Border was met with US officials in riot gear.

“It’s important to understand the reasons behind [why] people do the things so you can form a more informed opinion,” Angela Mooney, first-year assistant professor of Spanish, said. “[The film festival] just creates the perspective; it gives a chance so students can see maybe a side that is not always shown on media or maybe a perspective they don’t get to meet.”

The event was brought to life through a love for film by Mooney as well as Toni MuñozHunt — interim director of the Center for US-Latin America Initiatives, or CUSLAI — and Pragda Latin Cinema. Attendees watched five movies chosen by student votes over the course of three days.

“I believe that knowledge and cultural exchange are essential in building strong and lasting relationships,” Mooney said. “We have to

After the festivities ended, students were welcomed into Jonsson Hall to watch an award-winning 2021 film from the Dominican Republic, “Elena,” and the award-winning 2019 Brazilian film “Alice Junior.”

The short film “Elena” exposes the racist tensions against Haitians in the Dominican Republic as a young activist and her family face countless hardships after being stripped of their citizenship. It is a hostile, bureaucratic documentary that uses every minute to depict the uncertainty felt by nearly 200,000 souls fighting against educational and executive barriers.

Meanwhile, “Alice Junior” brought the perspective of a young transgender Latinx millennial faced with their sexuality in the face of conservative Catholic communities in Brazil. A coming-of-age comedy, it manages to address concerns still relevant today under the veil of awkward teenage romance and surprising laughs.

While the in-person festivities began March 22, virtual screening for three other awardwinning international films started two days before thanks to the Spanish Film Club. Each of the films are exceptional stories that recognize regional conflicts as universal challenges still relevant today.

“Nudo Mixteco,” a 2021 Mexican film, unveils the plight of indigenous women and their sexuality in a drama accompanied by striking monologues based on true stories. It addresses the communities of Oaxaca with a feminist view on topics including abuse, infidelity and

Phan at USAF retirement ceremony. TRONG PHAN | COURTESY

ANDRÉ AVERION Mercury Staff

FATIMAH AZEEM Mercury Staff

been on the UTD

Are superhero movies going the way of the Western?

ANDRÉ AVERION Mercury Staff

The golden age of the superhero genre is showing signs of expiring in a similar fashion to the Western genre that came before it, thanks to audience fatigue and recent flops in quality.

The Western genres provided escapism through a series of classics that dominated in a golden age between the 1940s and 1960s. However, despite revivals with Spaghetti Westerns in the 1970s, the genre largely died alongside the Hays Code — a set of rules that forbade taboo topics in movies — as directors investigated more experimental ideas like sci-fi and horror films. Westerns couldn’t compete with greater spectacles and the several flops that brought the genre down. They became formulaic and predictable so naturally, tired audiences weren’t as excited seeing a cowboy

SEE SUPERHERO, PAGE 11

Board of Education is only half-right about energy use

ROBERT J. STERN Courtesy

The State Board of Education’s new anti-science campaign ignores the truth about the renewable energy transition.

Recent news articles report that the Texas State Board of Education has asked that writers of the state’s K-12 science textbooks focus on the positive impacts of fossil fuel energy sources such as coal, natural gas and petroleum. They also ask textbook writers to highlight natural fluctuations in Earth’s climate and not to focus on the link between manmade contributions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and global warming. The board, which is dominated by Republicans, adopted changes proposed by board member, Patricia Hardy.

“If they’re going to tout how wonderful the alternative climate change stuff is, then they need to also say all the things that are not good about it and not just hit on the fossil fuel industry,” Hardy said in an interview with The Scientific American.

Is this just another political battle between conservatives and liberals, or does science support the board and the proposed changes? As a professor of Geosciences at UTD, I have been studying the Earth and

The South — backwoods, not backwards.

Those who stereotype the South as backwards ignore all the civil rights leaders it has produced.

I spent a long time hating the South. I hated the music, I hated the incessant chirping of insects outside my window during the dry heat of the summer, and most of all, I hated the fact that the triple-meat Whataburger exists and that I could get it with a 72 oz. bottle of Sprite without a second look from the employee taking my order.

Anti-Southern language like this only gets worse the further you get into school. Somewhere along the way, discomfort with the pledge morphs into turning your nose up at trailer parks, and suddenly you find yourself in a college classroom arguing the South has

how it works for all my 41 years here. For the last four years, I have been teaching a graduate course in sustainable energy. I know something about the related topics of climate change and energy. And as director of UTD Geoscience Studio, I am committed to informing students and the public about Earth science topics like these.

There’s a lot to unpack in the TSBE’s “internal guidance.” First of all, the board’s denial of human-induced climate change is absurd and harmful. It is clear that our climate is changing and that humans are responsible for the increased addition of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. More needs to be said on this issue, beyond the usual rhetoric that denying human-induced climate change is “politics as usual.” K-12 students should be taught about humaninduced climate change so that they can help fix the problem. But Hardy and the board are partially right; the Earth has experienced many radical changes in climate over its 4.5 billionyear history, from times when the Earth was encased in ice to times when it was warm and humid, and the seas covered where UTD is today. These changes happened long before there were humans around to cause them, so there is some climate change that is not caused by humans.

The board is also correct in that K-12 students should be taught about natural climate change and Earth’s 4.5 billion-year history. But many board members who ask for students to be taught about natural climate change — the evidence for which is preserved in sedimentary rocks — deny what science has established about the age of the rocks that contain this evidence!

Their denial is motivated by a religionbased disbelief of biological evolution, partly because evolution takes a lot of time. Take the evidence that the Earth was encased in ice about 650 million years ago, in a period called “Snowball Earth,” a time before the first fossils of primitive animals appeared. Do they want schoolteachers to explain Snowball Earth without explaining how long ago this happened? Or do they want to jam the Earth’s great natural climate changes into their story of a 6,000 year-old Earth?

If you’re going to teach K-12 students what science has learned about the Earth’s climate history, teach it to them correctly!

Energy is the key to modern civilization.

If you disagree, just imagine your daily routine without electricity and gasoline. Everything that makes modern civilization possible relies on abundant energy, including

nothing redeemable about it at all. This works for a little while … right? It’s refreshing to establish distance from this place. There is a level of control in being able to “transcend” the South, but the distance I try to put there has always been hollow.

I think there are so many things about the South that are valuable and worth giving the region a second glance for. Reducing Southern culture to a dramatized caricature erases the rich diversity and history that also exists here.

Hating the same place I call home does not fix the problems that exist here — it only makes them worse.

I do see racism and sexism and extreme nationalism in the South, but there is also the work of Southern civil rights groups and grassroots political campaigns born out of a fierceness unique only to Southern upbringing. Women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruby

SOUTH, PAGE 11

OLUWASEUN ADEYEMI MERCURY STAFF

AKHIL SHASHI MERCURY STAFF

About the author: Professor Robert J. Stern has

Geosciences faculty since 1982.  His research specialty concerns many aspects of plate tectonics.  He is director of UTD Geoscience Studio and co-director of the Permian Basin Research Lab, the UTD Microimaging Lab and the UTD Meteorite Education and Research Lab.

RAINIER PEDERSON | MERCURY STAFF

RYLEE RUSSELL Mercury Staff

light.

“The idea is that emergence sounds like a pleasant thing, like healing from a traumatic experience … [but] I wanted my piece to focus on how that’s not always a beautiful process,” Khalid said. “I wanted to kind of create a piece that made you feel a little creeped out and spooked,

PROFESSOR CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

Force.”

While Phan has been interested in literature since his early days, he said that the language barrier led him to pursue electrical engineering instead. He later went back to literature and teaching in an attempt to give back to the Vietnamese American community and share his experiences.

“I love reading, and I love writing, so when I got here, I felt like people like us have to voice what we’ve been through, so I became a staff writer for a small newspaper in Austin, Texas,” Phan said. “About 10 years later, when I went to work for the U.S. Air Force on a weekend, I and a group of five to six people decided to start our own monthly magazine called U.S. Viet News. I became a chief editor for that magazine for five years. It ran in Austin for almost 10 years, but the paper base was not popular anymore, so we stopped, but I continued to write. I am currently writing for a number of online newspapers. ”

Along with writing about corrup-

SUPERHERO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

in a desert for the thousandth time when the 1970s introduced the “Superman.”

The superhero genre’s golden age didn’t start until 1998, arguably with the success of Marvel’s “Blade.”

With the following successes of “XMen,” “Spider-Man,” and “The Dark Knight,” the genre’s momentum seemed unstoppable. You know the rest. In 2008, “Iron Man” would begin the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the flagship of the superhero genre, which climaxed with 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” arguably the end of the genre’s golden age. While there have been several successful films that came after, like DC’s “The Batman” and Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the quality just isn't the same.

“Avengers: Endgame” felt like the appropriate final chapter to the genre. This is obvious considering supposed

Bridges and Diane Nash are all examples of Southern women who fought for Civil Rights in the heart of the South. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jane Roe from Roe v. Wade, the woman who provided so many people around the country bodily autonomy, was a Texan. I don’t think it’s an accident that today, the five women who are suing over life-threatening pregnan-

so there’s a little figure I used to shine through multiple layers of black and white paper to kind of create the effect of a figure rising out of a swamp.

It’s a little unnerving, and the figure’s eyes follow you as you walk past just to kind of create a sense of the paranoia you feel when you're going through something very difficult.”

Khalid said that her experience organizing and participating in the

tion and sovereignty in newspapers, Phan also hosted radio shows, namely the Saigon Broadcasting Television Network, as a means to connect with the Vietnamese population in San Antonio. Phan proclaims himself a civil activist and is heavily involved with the Vietnamese American community, especially in Texas.

“I am the president of the Vietnamese American Community in the USA, and I have been in that leadership role for many years, and I am always active in voter registration, encouraging Vietnamese Americans to vote,” Phan said. “I’m seriously involved with the advancement of freedom of religion for the Vietnamese. We help write a lot of violation reports for the United Nations, for the U.S. Committee on International Religious Foundation.”

Phan, who works at Dallas College as a career coach, is currently teaching VIET 2310, Vietnamese for Heritage Speakers, at UTD for the first time in his career. Phan added that the class is being offered again after over 20 years.

“Dr. Hempfield said he got a lot of interest from Vietnamese American

blockbusters like 2022’s “Doctor Strange: Multiverses of Madness,” 2022’s “Thor: Love & Thunder” and 2023’s “Ant-Man: Quantumania” fell short as critical, audience or financial failures. Since 2019, DC has only produced “The Suicide Squad” and “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” and while both were fantastic, they were essentially remakes of previous failures that will likely be erased along with the DC Extended Universe. For independent superheroes, most people can only look towards “Invincible” and the later seasons of “The Boys,” which weren’t even feature films.

The two genres share a core trend of audience fatigue. The Western genre pumped out up to 140 movies per year between the 1940s and 1960s. Between 1998 and 2019, the superhero genre has seen 235 superhuman vigilante films, with over 52 of them belonging to Marvel. I’m exhausted just thinking about watching 235 films, and I’m not even including the count-

cies are Texans. So much change is a product of Southern value in loyalty, hard work and determination.

Maybe this is just an overly hopeful look at the harsh reality of Southern ideology. I still walk by the “pro-life” tables and groups picketing on campus trying to pander their harmful agendas. But I can’t help but think about a famous quote from late author James Baldwin.

“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly

exhibition has been enriching in not only opening doors to non-STEM topics but also as a creative outlet.

“Everyone who can visit the exhibition should definitely visit, because it’s going to be up for one month,” Khalid said. “It will be fun, and there’s so much to see and so many talented artists that worked on their pieces, so definitely go check it out.”

students who don’t speak Vietnamese at home but want to learn Vietnamese,” Phan said. “He asked me if I wanted to teach that class, and I said ‘Oh my God, I’d love that,’ so he and I talked, and we built a curriculum for the class. Hopefully in the future we can grow Vietnamese into a permanent program that we can provide to UTD students, particularly Vietnamese Americans, but also to whoever wants to learn Vietnamese.”

Phan is currently involved in a project to resettle 1,000 Vietnamese refugees as part of a sponsorship starting in June. He said that he tried to raise awareness within the Vietnamese American community to help them to form sponsorship groups as well.

“I greatly appreciate this country,” Phan said. “It gave us a free space to really grow and to become a good person. As American citizens, we are also responsible for bettering our living environment, so I’m involved in a lot of projects to make sure we continue to give this gift of freedom. And hopefully this gift continues to give to a new generation of Americans that come to this country.”

less TV shows. After 23 years in the limelight, it is easy to admit superhero films are predictable, formulaic money grabs. While there have been hundreds of superhero films outside Marvel, the universal flagship was the MCU, and with “Avengers: Endgame” feeling like the last chapter for most audiences, James Gunn’s new DC plan might just revive the genre like Spaghetti Westerns did. However, it is uncertain whether Gunn can pull off the same miracle he did with “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Suicide Squad.”

I think there are still masterpieces that have yet to come, but my hopes aren’t as high as they used to be either. What we can learn from Westerns is that it is not quantity we need to keep the genre going, it is inventive challenges to pre-existing formulas and creative decisions that help movies stand out past pretty faces and CGI nano suits. Otherwise, maybe superheroes are destined to go the way of the Western.

for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually,” Baldwin said.

Replace “America” with “the South” and you’ve got a succinct summary of the posture I think self-proclaimed anti-Southerners should have toward the place we call home. Sustainable, long-term change in the region can only happen when we accept the flaws of the system we live in and choose every day to make the South better for ourselves and the people around us.

LATINX CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

homophobia. These stories use rich and divisive storytelling to bring light to the nature of poverty and the frustrations of those in Latinx communities.

“Vicenta,” a 2020 Argentinian film, documents the odyssey of a malnourished 19-year-old Latinx woman seeking to abort a pregnancy from nonconsensual incest. Despite the legal status of abortion for rape victims in Argentina, she is faced with constant obstacles produced by fearful doctors and a deceptive legal system. What might surprise viewers is the medium of this film, as the entire story is recounted by claymation as a poetic voice speaks over silent dolls. It is a powerful plea in the face of recent

NAP CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

sleep.”

To support students, some universities like Texas A&M offer sleeping pods or designated areas for sleep between classes for students who don’t live on campus or don’t have time to return home for a short nap. However, UTD does not have any designated sleeping spots on campus. All that is currently offered outside hammock spaces is educational programs and aid by the Student Wellness Center.

“In those ways we can promote sleep wellness, but we can’t hold the person’s hand and force them to go to sleep,” Manriquez said. “I know that other schools like bigger universities and small universities too have sleeping pods specifically for students who need to take a nap on campus because they can’t go to their dorm easily or they live very far away from campus. And I think that’s a great resource to have.”

However, commuters and poor sleep schedules don’t have to lose hope yet, because there are still plenty of makeshift nap spots across campus.

The couches on the third floor of

ENERGY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

electricity, and right now, that energy is dominated by fossil fuels. Anyone who advocates immediately dispensing with fossil fuels is advocating for civilization to collapse. This is not a sane approach. Instead, we want it to improve civilization in many ways, including addressing human-induced climate change. The importance of cheap, reliable energy to human progress cannot be overemphasized. Modern civilization took off with the industrial revolution, which was made possible by an energy transition from muscles to coal. This happened over several decades in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A second energy transition, from coal to petroleum, occurred in the first half of the 20th century. A third energy transition to nuclear energy began in the ‘70s and ‘80s but has stalled due to safety concerns. The fourth energy transition to renewable energy is now underway. Energy transitions take decades to

legal attacks on bodily autonomy.

“Drowning Letters,” a 2020 documentary from Spain, told the heartbreaking true story of the immigration crisis across the Mediterranean sea using the letters of those who crossed or died trying. It follows both the exasperating missions to save those shipwrecked across closed borders and the violence that erupts between a thin line separating the law and the desperate. Today, this immigration crisis is still ongoing, and the United Nations reports that last year, migrants were at even greater risk of dying than before.

UTD wasn’t the only community watching these movies for the festival. According to Mooney, this event was shared as far away as Missouri.

“A professor of Spanish at Saint Louis University sent [the films] to her students, and she told me the students

Founders are lifesavers. With rarely any noise to disturb during daylight hours, it’s a convenient pit stop in the middle of campus where most people will not bother you. However, in the evening, you are more than likely to be awakened by any number of dancing groups or private events.

The fourth floor of the library is also a nice spot to nap if you don’t snore or rely on alarms to wake up. It’s a little uncomfortable because the space is reserved for only the most studious, but if you bring a jacket to use as a pillow, you can get plenty of rest. You can also technically rent out a free study room for silence, but the chairs aren’t exactly made for comfort.

The ECSW second floor study lounge is another great place to nap if you can secure lounge seats. In the morning and noon, these spots are rarely noisy, but they are scarce as a popular study spot for the same reason. They are close to parking and mostly quiet when everyone else is in class.

The best spot, however, is only accessible if you have a hammock. If your sleepless soul doesn’t already own one, you can rent one at Recreation Center West for $5 a day.

accomplish, so we are going to need fossil fuels for a long time as we invent and adapt renewable energy.

The good news for UTD students is that Texas is a key player in the transition to renewable energy. Texas leads the nation in oil and natural gas production, and we lead the US in wind energy and will soon lead in solar energy. Texas is truly the “Energy State.”

Four points need emphasizing. First, the electrical grid will be increasingly important as electric vehicles and wind and solar energy proliferate. Reliability of the grid will become paramount because renewable energy poses special challenges to grid stability, and wind and solar energy are intermittent sources of electricity. We will always need electricity from other sources to fill these gaps. Batteries can store excess electricity from solar and wind, but we are a long way from having enough battery storage to do away with fossil fuels or nuclear power.

Secondly, there is a major transition happening in the mix of fossil fuels used to generate Texas’ electric-

watched it. So, we went abroad and serve a community, not only our community, but other people from other universities and other colleagues [that] saw the films,” Mooney said.

Given the success of the festival for its first year and the packed room for the movies, Mooney expects and hopes that even more will attend when the Latinx/Hispanx Film Festival becomes an annual occurrence.

“I think [these films] helps us to develop empathy and understanding or different cultures races and ethnicities,” Mooney said. “But I was also surprised how bold these students were when they were selecting the film, and I was very happy about it.

I think the universities are in the right place to have difficult conversations and talk about social issues in a safe environment.”

Hammock Grove, next to Parking

Structure 1 and behind the library, is perfect in good weather, especially in spring with warm sunlight, chirping birds and nobody to bother you from feeling fully refreshed. At most, you’ll only see water scientists and a few other people looking for a place to sleep or read alone. If that’s too far away, then look no further than Phase 8’s hammocks in the center courtyard, which go unused outside nightly volleyball games.

Of course, the best place to sleep is in a bed. Students should plan on at least eight hours of undisturbed sleep, and a nap can’t be a substitute for that. If you need to take a nap, consider only getting 20 to 30 minutes of shuteye to refresh and prevent disturbing your sleep cycles.

“It's a big issue for a lot of college students, including UTD students,” Manriquez said. “Some people forget to prioritize themselves and their wellness, it’s so much more important because that includes like social wellness, emotional wellness, physical wellness, mental wellness, just a holistic area of wellness. And sleep is a big contributor to that.”

ity. Coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels and releases the most carbon dioxide per unit of electricity generated. Luckily, coal is being replaced by plants burning cleaner natural gas and renewables.

A third point is that if we want to move faster to remove fossil fuels from the energy mix used to power the grid, we need to use more nuclear power, which produces no carbon dioxide. There are challenges with nuclear energy, but the technology is improving rapidly. We didn’t stop flying airplanes because early ones crashed. Our faith in technology paid off, and now air travel is the safest mode of transportation. We can expect similar benefits from improving nuclear energy.

Finally, UTD needs to teach more about energy at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students at UTD, a leading university in the Energy State, should be leading our energy transition and help the Texas Board of Education improve K-12 climate and energy education!