The Mercury 06/08/15

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June 8, 2015

ULBRICHT SENTENCED TO LIFE

STUDENT RECALLS NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

TENNIS PLAYER GOES TO NAT'L TOURNEY

A look at the case of the UTD alumnus who founded Silk Road

McDermott scholar witnesses damage from disaster firsthand

All-time leader in singles play wraps up her career at UTD

PG 4

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PG 5

#860038

GUNS SET TO COME TO CAMPUS

WHAT'S BELOW?

Charges levied against Jindal

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE

MUSLIM IN AMERICA

Indian federal investigators allege alumnus illegally obtained coal blocks CARA SANTUCCI Mercury Staff

STORY BY: ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS I EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND NIDHI GOTGI I MANAGING EDITOR ANDREW GALLEGOS | PHOTO EDITOR

Neuroscience senior Nour Sharaf is the Sister's Activities Coordinator for the UTD chapter of the Muslim Students Association. She moved to the United States from Egypt with her family when she was a child. She said there have been times she has felt others give her flack because of her religion.

N

our Sharaf was on Facebook when she saw a link about the shooting in

Garland. Immediately, her heart filled with dread.

rhetoric, organized the event.

The shooters fired on security at a parking lot exit, hitting one security officer in the ankle before they were

On May 3, two gunmen opened fire outside an art

both killed by a Garland police officer who returned fire.

exhibit held at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland

Sharaf, who is a neuroscience senior and the Sister’s

that displayed cartoon depictions of the Prophet

Activities Coordinator for the UTD chapter of the

Muhammad. Participants had the opportunity to

Muslim Students Association, said she knew that

win a $10,000 prize for the best piece of work.

people would immediately blame it on the Muslim

The American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group founded by Pamela Geller that focuses on anti-Muslim

PG 9

community.

Unfortunately, she was right.

→ SEE ISLAM, PAGE 12

The Indian Central Bureau for Invesitigation charged the School of Management's namesake on April 29 with criminal conspiracy in connection with the allocation of a coal block in 2008.

Naveen Jindal, who received his MBA from UTD in 1992 and had the School of Management named in his honor after he donated $30 million in 2011, has been granted bail at $16,000. A date for his court hearing has not been set.

The dean of JSOM, Hasan Pirkul, could not be reached for comment.

Under the JINDAL leadership of former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, mined units of coal were sold through the government to the highest bidding company between 1993 and 2010.

A report published on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s website in 2012 listed discrepancies in the distribution of coal blocks during that time.

The CAG reported that since 2004, 194 coal blocks were allocated to government industries and private parties based on letters of recommendation from government officials rather than through the mandated auctioning process.

The CAG estimates the failure to follow procedure resulted in a loss of about $37 billion, a part of which would have gone to the government. In 2014, the Supreme Court of India declared all coal allocations made between 1993 and 2010 illegal.

According to the Times of India the Central Bureau of Investigation is charging

→ SEE JINDAL, PAGE 10

Legislature passes concealed carry bill

Bill needs governors signature for approval, university officials weigh responses ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE Mercury Staff

HAMID SHAH | MERCURY STAFF

After three sessions of repeated debates in the Texas Legislature, Senate Bill 11, the controversial concealed carry on campus bill passed the Texas House 98-47 on May 31. The bill currently awaits Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval.

Both sides went back and forth, adding and deleting amendments to the bill in the week before it passed. After two failed filibuster attempts, abandonment of normal legislative proceedings and a conference committee hearing, SB11 finally passed the Senate on May 30 in a slightly amended form than the original.

Rep. Allan Fletcher (R), who coauthored the bill, could not be reached for comment.

The bill, if signed into law by Abbott,

will come into effect Aug. 1, 2016.

While private universities will be able to opt out based on campus opinion, public universities can request certain areas within the campus to be made gunfree zones.

According to the amended bill, presidents of public universities can draft a policy on concealed carry on campus in consultation with students, staff and faculty which can be presented to the Board of Regents.

The Board can approve all or part of these provisions with a two-thirds vote, just like any other policy change.

These policies have to be reviewed and/or revised every two years.

The language of the bill leaves a lot to speculation as to what areas are accept-

→ SEE CAMPUS CARRY, PAGE 10

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THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM Volume XXXVI No. 1

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UTDPD Blotter April 30 t " TUVEFOU TUBĂŞ NFNCFS XBT BSSFTUFE on a Carrollton PD warrant for aggravated sexual assault at 10:51 a.m. in Green Hall.

B May 12 t "O VOBĂŻ MJBUFE NBMF XBT BSSFTUFE GPS soliciting without a permit in the SU at 1:24 p.m.

May 21 t 6OLOPXO TVCKFDUT TUPMF B $MVC $BSU that was between Residence Hall North and Residence Hall Northwest around 4:17 p.m.

May 25 t " TUVEFOU SFQPSUFE VOBVUIPSJ[FE VTF of her debit card after she left her property unattended at the McDermott Library at 2:30 p.m.

May 27 t " GPSNFS TUVEFOU XBT BSSFTUFE GPS interference with an emergency call and for resisting an arrest search at 6:24 p.m. in Phase 5.

May 29 t " 65% FNQMPZFF BEWJTFE BO VO known person to use his information to file a tax return with the IRS at 1:44 p.m.

June 2 t " TUBê NFNCFS SFQPSUFE BU Q N that a student fraudulently presented a handicapped placard to the Bursar’s office to clear a campus citation.

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LEGEND VEHICULAR INCIDENT

Contributors Dalia Faheid Nancy Fairbank Michael Gordon Sai Saripella Hamid Shah

NEWS

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JUST THE FACTS

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OPINION

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JUNE 8, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

Policy change good for campus

Free speech restrictions to be loosened, giving students orgs more of a voice particularly well enforced, as I have never heard of a campus group or organization going through this process. However, the idea of the rule is troubling. If NANCY FAIRBANK a student group wants to bring in a political speaker, COMMENTARY an expert in their field or even a guest lecturer with relatively radical views, they should not have to receive permission from the Dean of Students.

While I understand that informing the school that a certain speaker is coming to campus is important, “Campus Cop Blocks Students from Promoting the requirement for permission should be removed.

Conservative Group” boldly proclaimed a Fox News Asking for permission implies the potential for perheadline from April 24 over a video purportedly mission to be denied.

Free speech on college campuses has been a crucial showing an egregious violation of student rights.

The premise of the article was that a UT Dallas necessity in American history, from protesting the campus police officer blocked a conservative student Vietnam War to fighting for LGBT rights. For a group, the Network of Enlightened Women (NeW), public university, UT Dallas has a surprising number from petitioning students about campus carry. After of restrictions on free speech. These restrictions could watching the video, it was clear that there was no be used to keep us insulated from the types of issues oppressive campus police officer telling students to that have been historically addressed and discussed shut up and jog on. Nevertheless, the issue of free by students. Some campuses in the 1980s allowed speech on the UT Dallas campus was still thrust into more free speech than modern-day UT Dallas, the limelight and I support the UT Dallas adminis- actually supporting the building of shantytowns in tration’s move to change the policy so that students the middle of campus to protest apartheid. These no longer need permission from the dean of students shanties might have been a blight on the beautiful grounds of various universities (just think of what to exercise free speech on our public campus.

While I don’t think that NeW was targeted because Peter Walker, architect of the North Mall, might they are a conservative group like certain news sources say!), but they made an important point in a very reported (we’re in Texas, y’all), I also do not believe visible manner.

While our students and administration are discussthat student groups should have to request permission ing a policy change that would relax from the Dean of Students in order free speech restrictions at UT Dallas, to petition on campus. As someone the nation as a whole is examining who disagrees strongly with NeW’s anti-feminist principles, I still want Limiting free speech just the idea of free speech following the them to be able to express their because it can be irritat- shooting in Garland during a ‘Draw opinions on campus. Putting a video ing undermines our core Mohammed’ Contest.

What I’ve learned from both of up on Fox News and creating a con- American values. It also troversy about conservative students subverts the goal of univer- these events is this: We can condemn vs. a liberal administration was not a sities, which is to introduce certain types of speech, from religious constructive way to address the issue students to new ideas and baiting to anti-feminist rhetoric, but of free speech on campus, but I am thoughts, however uncom- when push comes to shove we should still hold free speech as one of the most glad that the issue was indeed raised. fortable they may be. important values we have in this counIn the video, I watched Officer Ted Palmer politely informing stu— Nancy Fairbank try and on college campuses. There certainly are reasonable limitations to dents from NeW that they needed be placed on campus speech, including the Dean of Students’s written permission in order to petition and solicit signatures. banning hate speech or a speaker that might incite The problem was not with the officer, but rather violence and cause harm to students. However, just with the policy he is charged with enforcing, which because certain messages make us uncomfortable or angry does not mean they should be banned or that overly limits free speech on campus.

The 2014 UT Dallas catalog policy regarding they should require prior permission to be heard. We free speech requires registered student organizations need to remove our emotions from these situations to obtain permission from the Dean of Students and uphold free speech no matter how much we prior to both soliciting and distributing materials hate the messages it may bring to our campuses and communities. on campus.

Free speech is difficult. It’s dirty, it’s messy, it’s ugly.

As a member of multiple student organizations, I don’t understand why officially registered stu- Few people want to be asked for the millionth time dent organizations need to get permission from the on the way to class if they believe in Jesus, or open Dean in order to distribute materials. This adds an carry, or abortion or better Wi-Fi on campus. But unnecessary restriction to free speech on campus. limiting free speech just because it can be irritating Even Student Government, the voice of students on undermines our core American values. It also subcampus, is limited in how it can communicate with verts the goal of universities, which is to introduce the student body. Student Government representa- students to new ideas and thoughts, however uncomtives have previously been asked to stay at a reserved fortable they might make people.

Changing our policy so that registered student table and to not go around surveying students, even though this action is crucial to help bring student organizations will no longer need the permission of the Dean of Students to petition, distribute materivoices to the administration.

An additional area of UT Dallas policy I find trou- als, and bring guest speakers to campus will allow free bling requires a registered student organization to fill speech to flourish and for new ideas to surround our out a formal application and submit it to the Dean of students. As our student body grows, the freedom to Students in order to bring a guest speaker to campus. exchange opinions and controversies will grow with The application must be completed at least 48 hours it. Students will challenge each other and themselves, before the scheduled event or before any advertising perhaps questioning long held beliefs or developing new convictions. This is what college is ultimately takes place for the event.

In this policy, a guest speaker is defined as “a about. Free speech is an important part of campus speaker or performer who is not a student, faculty culture and something I look forward to seeing more member, or staff member.” This rule may not be of at UT Dallas.

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“What [it] illustrates is that this is really something that is internal. It’s not something that can be dismissed by psychiatry. it’s not something that needs to be cured.”

Martin Kamp UTD alumni

“It doesn’t bother me.

As long as it’s none of my business, I don’t care.”

David Trinh Mechanical engineering senior

RESULTS FROM LAST ISSUE

“I have some friends that are

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But honestly, people are who they want to be.”

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INFOGRAPHIC

THE MERCURY | JUNE 8, 2015

UTDMERCURY.COM

Ulbricht's Road One UT Dallas alumnus’ journey to prison RESEARCH & DESIGN BY CONNNIE CHENG | GRAPHICS EDITOR ILLUSTRATION BY HAMID SHAH | MERCURY STAFF

2000’s

2002 Arrived at UT Dallas

2006 Graduated with B.S. in Physics

2011 February 2011 Created Silk Road, an online marketplace where drugs and other goods were sold

2013

October 2, 2013 Arrested in a San Francisco library

by FBI agents Silk Road is shut down

2014

February 4-7, 2014 Formally indicted on charges of computer hacking, money laundering and the ‘kingpin statute’ of running a ‘continuing criminal enterprise’ Pleaded ‘not guilty’ to all charges

2015

February 9, 2015 Found guilty on seven charges, including conspiracies to sell drugs, launder money and hack computers

Sources: CoinDesk, Forbes, Getty Images, LinkedIn, Reuters, TIME, Wikipedia

May 29, 2015 Sentenced to life in prison, to be served with no possibility of parole

?

NEWS

UTDMERCURY.COM

McDermott scholar rattled by quake

THE MERCURY | JUNE 8, 2015

5

Production problems Musical theatre faces issues relocating to Jonsson Performance Hall

Student has firsthand exposure to damage from earthquake in Nepal

FRANKLIN CO | COURTESY

Students in the musical theater class perform “A Little Night Music” in the Jonsson Performance Hall after they were told to shift future productions to there from the University Theatre.

DALIA FAHEID Mercury Staff

ARDEN WELLS | COURTESY

Arden Wells, a geology senior and McDermott Scholar, was participating in an environmental field course in a study abroad program in Nepal with California State University, Monterey Bay, when a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck the country. Approximately 8,800 people died in the quake.

NIDHI GOTGI

Managing Editor

Arden Wells was sitting in a teahouse in the small village of Sete, Nepal, playing cards with fellow students when the first earthquake hit on April 25. Even though she was 80 miles northeast of the earthquake’s epicenter, she could feel the tremors shake the teahouse.

“What was so crazy about it was that it felt like the (earthquake) simulator at the Perot Museum,” Wells said. “We ran out as quickly as we could from the teahouse. What we were feeling was probably a (magnitude) 4 or 5 (quake).”

Wells, a geology senior and McDermott Scholar, was taking an environmental field course in a study abroad program through California State University, Monterey Bay. Other students, a professor, a teacher’s assistant and Nepalese porters accompanied her as

they hiked through the Himalayas for 30 days.

Five days after they’d left Kathmandu, the first earthquake struck with a magnitude of 7.9, bringing down homes, buildings and cultural monuments in the city. 8,800 people were killed and more than 23,000 were injured. Wells said that her professor for the course, who had lived in Nepal for a while, said that there had never been an earthquake that strong.

There was a house in Sete that had a radio which the group used to learn more about the situation in Kathmandu. The professor was able to get in contact with the Wild Lands Studies director in California with a satellite phone, who emailed all the students’ parents to ensure them that they were safe.

→ SEE NEPAL, PAGE 8

The relocation of musical theater performances from the University Theatre to the Jonsson Performance Hall has left class members expressing frustration due to the lack of accommodations.

The group consists of 15 to 20 students who take a musical theatre class and put on two shows every year: “The Best of Broadway,” a largescale show performed in the fall and the Spring Musical, a smaller version presented in the spring.

Kathryn Evans oversees the class.

Students in the musical theater class had been performing in the University Theatre since 2009.

Last spring, Dean of Arts and Humanities Dennis Kratz told them they would no longer be able to perform there and they would have to use the Jonsson Performance Hall.

Kratz could not be reached for comment.

Other groups, including dance and theater, wanted to use the space and were given priority, whereas the musical theater class was not prioritized due to the lack of qualified staff and classes about musical theater.

The Jonsson Performance Hall is significantly smaller than the University Theatre. The University Theatre seats a total of 275 people while the Jonsson Performance Hall seats 196

people.

The 2015 spring musical, in which students performed “A Little Night Music,” was the first time the group had to use the Jonsson Performance Hall. At the time, however, students believed it was a temporary scheduling issue. Kratz advised them to have a choral performance instead of a full musical theater performance because the hall didn’t allow them the capacity to do so.

Class members worked to put on the full musical theater performance in the hall, though it was challenging for them.

“Understanding that we had a smaller space, we had to adjust the big ideas we had because we couldn’t really do much in the performance hall,” said child learning and development junior Franklin Co. He said the space was limiting because they didn’t have enough room to create an extravagant set.

The Jonsson Performance Hall was limiting to students in many ways. The hall has a basic lighting and sound system that allows for limited control.

Sound equipment in the hall is very minimal, which posed a problem during the performance.

Members had to project their voice over the musical accompaniment so audience members could hear them.

“We ended up screaming and shouting lines,” said

→ SEE THEATER PAGE 12

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THE MERCURY | JUNE 8, 2015

NEWS

UTDMERCURY.COM

Provost prepares for presidency Replacement for President Daniel gets ready to take his role as interim, UT System gears up for quest to find permanent replacement

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Current Executive Vice President and Provost and soon-to-be Interim President Hobson Wildenthal has been involved in academia for several years, after gettin a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Kansas, Wildenthal moved on to work in several labs and universities before coming to UTD in the eariler 90s.

SAI SARIPELLA Mercury Staff

With the departure of David Daniel as president of the university, the wheels have already been set in motion for the administration and university to move forward.

Daniel, who will assume the role of Deputy Chancellor of the UT system on July 1, will be replaced by Hobson Wildenthal , who was appointed as interim President to the University WILDENTHAL on May 6. Wildenthal has served as Provost for the

last 23 years. This experience will allow the normal administrative functions of the university to continue under his supervision while the search for the next president begins.

Wildenthal said he hopes to sustain the progress the university has experienced during the last few years.

So far, plans have been put in place for a nationwide search by the Board of Regents, and there will be a special committee formed for this task. The Presidential Search Advisory Committee will include three faculty members, one dean, one student and one non-faculty member as well as ancillary positions for external members.

Meanwhile, Wildenthal will oversee the day-today administrative tasks of the position.

The newly appointed Provost and former Vice Provost, Inga Musselman, said Wildenthal has helped

Former students makes court appearance A former UTD student who was indicted for bringing a gun on campus has had his first appearance in court and was scheduled for a bond hearing on June 2.

Natas Centner Hastings, a former freshman, was arrested by UTD police on September 21 and charged with the possession of a weapon on campus after a shotgun was found in his dorm room in Residence Hall South.. He is currently facing a third-degree felony charge.

According to his lawyer, Vanita Parker, Hastings’ hearing was initially planned for the middle of May but was rescheduled after the judge had a scheduling conflict. Parker could not disclose any more information about the case.

On May 11, the Register of Actions from the 416th district court showed that there was a motion to declare the Hastings’ bond insufficient, which generally signifies that the prosecuting attorney found the bail amount too low. Representatives of the court could not be reached for comment.

The Register shows that the original bond amount and conditions are to remain in place.

Hastings is scheduled for an announcement meeting on July 2, where Hastings will declare whether or not he wishes to reach a plea agreement with the prosecuting attorney.

-Cara Santucci

HEY, YOU. ARE YOU SMART? ARE YOU TALENTED? GOOD. WE NEED YOU. JOIN THE MERCURY.

prepare her for her new role.

“Since 1992, Dr. Wildenthal has hired many outstanding faculty, created innovative degree programs, started institutes and centers, and initiated prestigious scholarship programs for UT Dallas students,” said current Provost Inga Musselman. “Personally, Provost Wildenthal has been an invaluable mentor, and I am most grateful for his willingness to share his insights regarding the building and operation of a major research university such as The University of Texas at Dallas.”

One of Daniel’s operations was to work closely with the leaders of Student Government. SG vice president Grant Branam said this interaction between administration and SG will continue under Wildenthal.

“With Dr. Wildenthal soon becoming the interim president, we have noticed that he is gradu-

ally taking over the roles of current president Dr. Daniel,” Branam said. “We look forward to working with the Provost and expect the teamwork between him and SG to be as strong, if not stronger, than in the past.”

Aiming to keep the current direction of the campus stable, maintaining his administrative tasks and continuing his work for the university lay high on Wildenthal’s current ledger. With the search for the University’s next president approaching, Wildenthal said he wants to follow in Daniel’s footsteps.

“I and the very numerous other important key leaders of UT Dallas are continuing to do our jobs as before, and we will work that much harder to continue the paths we were following under President Daniel,” said Wildenthal. “The university is in essence the students, the faculty and the staff, much more than any individual or group of individuals.”

LIFE&ARTS

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JUNE 8, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

Alumna starts fashion magazine Publication focused on fashion and lifestyles of modern Muslim American women NIDHI GOTGI

Managing Editor

LAILA MIR | COURTESY

UTD alumna Laila Mir presents the first issue of her publication, Demure, the culmination of her senior Capstone Project as an EMAC major.

PIN POSSIBLE

A recent graduate’s passion for publication and her religion has led her to start a full-fledged magazine about the lives and fashion of modern MuslimAmerican women.

Laila Mir, who graduated in May as an EMAC and marketing major, wanted to originally film short documentaries on Muslim women with a focus on fashion for her senior Capstone Project. This proposal changed to working on a fashion and lifestyle publication called Demure, which tackled the lack of media expressing the issues that young MuslimAmerican women deal with.

“You don’t see Muslim women on the cover of magazines,” Mir said. “I wanted to show a side that isn’t in the media.”

Senior EMAC lecturer Lisa Bell said one of the reasons the project was successful was because Mir was able to build a network of people across the country that were involved in a small segment of the fashion industry. She said Mir presented subjects in the magazine that don’t conform to the stereotypes attached to Muslim women in the media.

“She showed modern Muslims that retained their identity,” Bell said. “The subjects were very approachable and likable.”

The publication explored what it is like to live in the United States for someone who is balancing a

Muslim American lifestyle.

“I haven’t dealt with stigma, but many sources I talked to have,” Mir said. “Kaz Kouture, a Turkish jewelry store that started in Dallas, made it [their] mission to get rid of negative aspects of Islam in the media.”

On the cover of the first issue, Mir featured Dalia Kassem, a Muslim model. She also interviewed Aleena Khan, a fashion designer whose work was displayed at New York Fashion Week.

“I carried the principles of Islam into my work,” Mir said. “I featured women who wanted to dress modestly because that’s how we were raised.”

Mir said the magazine was too big a task for a single person, so she enlisted the help of writers and photographers to produce the publication.

“One of the difficulties was doing it all on my own,” Mir said. “My strengths weren’t in all aspects, so I needed to bring in other people’s talent as well.”

Zahra Sandberg, a Chicago-based fashion blogger, wrote about her interracial marriage, a rare ordeal in the life of a Muslim woman.

“This story about mixed marriage is not common because a Muslim woman usually won’t marry a man of another race,” Mir said. “Muslim men will marry women of other races, but not Muslim women.”

Visiting assistant professor of EMAC Mona Kasra,

Every issue, The Mercury’s craft connoisseur will scour Pinterest and craft blogs in search of the best and worst DIY projects. Show us your results on social media using #pinpossible.

@utdmercury

LINDA NGUYEN COMMENTARY

During my freshman year of college I bought an infinity ring off of Etsy. It was a very simple, soldered ring. The $30 price tag, however, kept me from buying another one after losing it a year later. Wire jewelry is a cheaper alternative to straight soldering, and can often produce cute pieces of jewelry that look store bought.

With the summer just beginning, I thought making wire jewelry would be a fun June DIY project for those lazy days sitting around the house. After not touching wire jewelry since my freshman year, I decided to dig up this technique again for my latest and longest PinPossible.

The simplest project you can do with wire is shaping it into different forms or words. The great thing about wire is that it is very malleable.

Most gauges of wire are easily shaped by your hands, which is great for detailing, but can be incredibly frustrating when you’re trying to keep something in a particular shape.

A larger gauge number represents a thinner wire. I like to work with either 18 or 20 gauge wires because they are thin enough to shape with my hands, but thick enough to use for spelling out words and shaping designs.

The simplest way to explain how to shape wire is to find a design and visualize it as one continuous line. Sometimes it’s helpful to draw it out and other times you just have to dive right in.

For the bow ring, I followed a photographic tutorial on Pinterest that involves loosely forming the ring out of wire around whatever finger you want the ring to go on. Then you take the two ends of the wire to make the bow loops and use one of the ends to wrap around the cross-section of the loops and secure the bow in place. Cut off the edges to shorten the bow ends.

Another popular thing to do with wire is to make words. This is where that cursive writing you learned in elementary school comes in handy (do they even teach that anymore?). This requires a little bit more attention to detail in order to get the sizing of the letters all correct, so write out the word in cursive and use the needle-nose pliers and fingers to shape the letters. You can either shape them with two loops at the end to attach chains for a necklace or make a bangle bracelet out of them (more on that below).

My last wire charm involved a little more imagination than the others. I absolutely love photography, and I am kind of a dork about it.

I’ve been eyeing this camera necklace for the last several months, but much like the infinity ring, cannot justify the $45 price tag that comes with it, so I decided to get a little creative with my wire crafting and make a camera. It definitely isn’t as cool as the necklace online, but hey, it was fun to make.

With this one, I knew I would have to secure parts of it together such as the circle of the lens with the bottom of the camera body. I

WHAT YOU’LL NEED - a variety of wire in different gauges and colors (I had 20 gauge bronze, 20 gauge copper, 18 gauge silver and 26 gauge siver) - wire cutters, flat tip pliers and needle nose pliers (I bought these in a pack at Hobby Lobby) - beads and charms for your various projects

→ SEE MIR, PAGE 8

LINDA NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

LINDA NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

used the smaller 26 gauge wire to make it a little less conspicuous. I just wrapped the thinner wire around the two wires of the camera that needed to be secured. My sister thinks it looks more like a suitcase than a necklace, but I have an extreme case of wanderlust anyways, so I guess it works out.

Another fun project I found using wire are some Alex and Ani-inspired bracelets. For those who have never heard of Alex and Ani, it’s a company that makes adjustable bangle bracelets with charms on them. Their bracelets usually run $25+ for one, but I was able to make three bracelets for a fraction of the cost.

You cut the wire so that it wraps loosely around your wrist with a few more inches on each side. Thread your charm of choice in (I would recommend one with the same kind of metal coloring as your wire). Then you take a little bit of the end of the wire (probably about an inch) and bend it in a right angle towards the other wire and bend it over the wire and secure it so it

doesn’t move. Then do the same thing with the other end. There you have it. I used the 20 gauge, but it ended up being a little too malleable for my taste. If I did it again, I’d probably use a thicker wire (maybe 14 or 16 gauge).

I will caution you, however, I’m not as happy with them as I had hoped I would be. I might just call it a day and shell out the money for a couple of those. I used the 20 gauge bronze wire as well as a set of bronze charms I found for $3 at Hobby Lobby.

The last project I decided to attempt for this Pin Possible was a bird’s nest charm.

This is probably my “most plausible to sell for money” project, but it ended up being super easy as well.

I measured out 5 feet of the 20 gauge copper wire. I strung three pearl-like beads about 3 inches down and shaped them in a triangle making sure to leave some space in between the beads, leaving the extra 3 inches of wire alone for later. I then curled the wire to make it a little messier. Then I wrapped the wire around my beads five times.

I secured the loops by threading the wire through each of the spaces in between the beads twice. After that, I worked on building the bottom of the nest using a variety of loops and zig-zags of wire, making sure to secure the loops and wire after every few layers until the bottom looked like a bird’s nest.

Finally I brought the remaining wire up next to the extra piece from the three inches I’d left out and twisted them together. Then I formed a loop cut and off all the excess wire. I couldn’t find a chain with the exact same copper coloring as the wire, but I’m sure it exists somewhere.

Otherwise, I’ll use some leather cord and some wire wrapped ends.

This has officially been my longest Pin Possible ever, but I hope it inspires you to create some wire jewelry of your own this summer. What has your experience been with it? Let me know by tagging your posts on social media with #pinpossible or #utdmercury.

8

THE MERCURY | JUNE 8, 2015

→ MIR

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

who served as Mir’s primary advisor on the project, said that Mir had an interdisciplinary approach to her project.

“In EMAC we really try to have all these aspects,” Kasra said. “It’s not about just the technology, the media, the social media or the Internet. It’s about having a wholesome idea about, ‘I need to achieve this. I want to use the technology to get the word out and have a bigger audience and a bigger impact.’”

She said Mir’s biggest strengths were her organization skills and flexibility through the process.

→ NEPAL

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

“I had gotten up Saturday morning and I was fixing breakfast and my husband came in and he told me there’d been an earthquake in Nepal,” Wells’ mother, Robin, said. “Both of us just had this cold fear come over us. We turned on the television and with every passing minute it was looking worse and worse.”

Wells’ parents checked immediately with the travel insurance agency their daughter was registered under and its advisory was to stay in a safe area within Nepal rather than try to evacuate from the international airport in Kathmandu. They got a call within two to three hours after the news broke reassuring them of her safety. Both Wells and her parents thought it best to continue with the trek away from the damage.

“They had the means to stay outdoors, which was the primary consideration because of falling buildings and such,” Robin said. “They had their own water and food so they were totally self-contained and weren’t reliant on anything in Kathmandu, so the decision was made by the Wild Lands Studies program and the insurance that it was safer to continue on.”

Reaching out to families for the locals was harder than it was for the students, however. A guide who went by Bhakta wasn’t able to get in contact with his family at all at first.

LIFE&ARTS/NEWS

UTDMERCURY.COM

“She was very open about the process – she had an idea, she wanted to get something done and as time went by she organically adjusted what’s achievable,” Kasra said. “She was also very organized, and in the world of publication and any media production, that kind of structure is necessary.”

Mir has been putting out content on the magazine’s website since the beginning of April. 14,000 people have viewed the site and her work has reached 34,000 people through circulation on Facebook.

At the launch party for her magazine, members from Southern Methodist University’s Fashion Media Program reached out to her to see if she’d be inter-

ested in other projects that dealt with the lack of media representation of minorities. She’s considering their offer as one of her future projects.

Her work was recognized at the Capstone Celebration on May 13, in which it won the Outstanding Capstone Award in the undergraduate category. Faculty advisors nominated nine out of the 35 students in EMAC to audition to be chosen to formally present at the Celebration. Five out of the nine, including Mir, were chosen to present on stage.

“EMAC alumni who came to the celebration were blown away by [Mir’s project],” Bell said. “At a simple level, it was because of the breadth of the plat-

form she used to develop it. She crowdfunded and promoted through social media and incorporated writing and photography. There was a lot of buzz at the event about how beautiful it was.”

Mir plans to keep producing more issues of Demure magazine and is working on an issue to be released in December 2015. She has even had some people show interest in interning for her. She hopes to turn the magazine into a quarterly publication starting next year.

“I’ve always wanted to work for a magazine, but I never thought I could start my own,” Mir said. “I got a very positive response, way more than I’d expected.

[Everyone’s] pushing me to keep going with it.”

“The cell phone lines got tied up very quickly,” Wells said. “It was hard to contact people, but a couple of the guides were able to get in touch with their families immediately. Everyday it was awful how we saw the number of people affected go up.”

All the porters and one out of the five guides of the group went home to their families. The group had started in the town of Jiri and were planning on going west to east towards Mera Peak, but after the first earthquake, it changed paths so that it could stop and change porters.

The group hired people from the villages it passed through to replace their original porters. One of the guides heard that his father-in-law’s house was destroyed, while another guide owned a guesthouse in Kathmandu that suffered damage because a house nearby fell on it.

“All of our guides, their families were safe, only their homes suffered damage,” Wells said.

While in Nepal, the group was able to view some of that damage firsthand. One house in Sete collapsed and the group’s professor and TA helped clear the rubble and reunite the owner with his family.

Wells said that a lot of students were thinking about staying in Nepal to help with the relief efforts despite being called back to the United States by the director of the program after the first quake.

“The government and aide groups issued a statement that they didn’t need more international volun-

teers,” Wells said. “The best thing we could do was stay out of Kathmandu at that point.”

24 hours after the first earthquake, members felt a tremor almost as strong as the one they first felt.

They had gotten to the top of a mountain near Sete that was a safe place to be because the ground was secure and nothing could fall on them from above.

“You could see giant clouds of dust and hear avalanches all around you,” Wells said. “It was a lucky place to be. I think the biggest hazard for us was having things fall on us.”

Three days after the quake, the group slept at a campsite near a monastery and a service was underway the whole night for a local who’d been on Everest putting up the ropes and lost their life in the first earthquake.

Going north, group members saw a lot of damage and were worried about landslides. They’d just descended from Kala Patthar and reached a flat area where there weren’t boulders looming overhead when they felt the second earthquake on May 12. It was a magnitude 6.8 quake.

This time, it took longer for Wells’ parents to hear back about their daughter’s safety.

“We knew they were close to the epicenter of that earthquake,” Robin said. “We knew they’d gone to the Everest region and it took seven hours to hear back.

We were frantic. That one was worse for us.”

The group decided to return to Kathmandu to fly out of Nepal. On the way there, it passed through Namche, a town within Sagarmatha National Park,

for the second time. What once was a bustling tourism hot spot with people selling goods in the streets and busy coffee shops was now a ghost town with only one open café, Wells said.

When the group got back to Kathmandu, it was very different from what it had experienced when it first landed in Nepal “The part of Kathmandu that we were in seemed a lot quieter,” Wells said. “Things were closing a lot earlier. In the villages outside Kathmandu almost everything was destroyed.”

She said there were military vehicles like planes and helicopters at the airport. Tourist activity had died down, so there were less law enforcement officers on the streets and vehicle traffic had also dwindled.

“You just walk down the streets and there would be police in neon vests,” Wells said. “There was less of this police presence after the earthquake.”

On May 19, Wells and the rest of the group were finally able to catch a flight out of Kathmandu, arriving in the United States on May 21.

She said that the hospitalitiy of the Nepalese people, even in the face of such a massive natural disaster, left a lasting mark on her.

“In the midst of everything, I think what amazed me the most was how warm, kind and hospitable all the Nepalese people we met were,” Wells said. “In the midst of so much heartbreak and destruction, the warmth that everybody showed to a group of privileged students from the U.S. was really inspiring.”

SPORTS

Golf coach retires

THE FINAL SERVE

Programs’ first full-time coach leaves profession after 40 years ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Editor-in-Chief

After 40 years of coaching at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels, head golf coach Ed Bull retired on May 31.

Bull, who took control of the men’s and women’s golf programs in 2007, said it was time to move on to something new after being in the profession for so long.

“It’s a situation where I think that I’ve done all that I can do,” he said.

“I’ve got other things that I would like to do … It’s time for me to do someBULL thing else.”

Athletic director Bill Pettit said that Bull had made the department aware last month that he was going to retire, but he didn’t want the decision to be announced until after the awards banquet athletics holds every year.

Pettit said he is happy that Bull will get a chance to take a break from coaching both the men’s and women’s golf teams.

“He was the first full-time (golf coach) and I thought he did a good job,” Pettit said. “He stayed within the rules of the NCAA and got kids that could come in here and be a good student-athlete, so I thought he did a good job of managing the program and I’m really excited that he’s got an opportunity to take a step back and rest a little bit.”

After playing football at Howard Payne University, where he was an All-Lone Star Conference player

→ SEE BULL, PAGE 10

9

JUNE 8, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

Record-breaking senior finishes career at UTD with appearance in national tourney

ARUN PRASATH | CONTRIBUTOR

Senior Casey Johnson finished her playing days as the all-time leader in singles victories with a record of 26-3. She came to UTD after starting her collegiate career at Murray State University, a Division I program. After injury issues her first year, she transferred to UTD when she was a sophomore.

MICHAEL GORDON Mercury Staff

Senior Casey Johnson fell in the round of 32 in the NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Individual Championship, which took place on May 21- 23.

The tournament was held at the Linder Family Tennis Center at Ohio Northern University and drew 32 student-athletes from across the nation.

This was Johnson’s third consecutive trip to the tournament, where she represented the ASC as the only women’s player selected from the conference for the singles draw.

Although she has gone far in her final days at UTD, the Plano native and fourtime high school state champion had a slow start to her collegiate tennis career.

Johnson battled injuries as a freshman at Murray State University, a Division 1 school, only playing in three games for the Racers.

“I tore a ligament in each of my wrists at the same time,” she said.

With her collegiate tennis career in doubt and doctors uncertain she would ever play again, it took two years of rehabilitation to recover.

“I can’t even believe I am still playing tennis because the doctors said I wouldn’t be able to play competitively, but here I am,” Johnson said.

Johnson transferred to UTD as a sophomore and she developed as a player, earning first team All-ASC honors her first year as a Comet. Led by Johnson that season, UTD won the ASC title in 2013 and was offered a place in the NCAA Division III Team Championship.

Unfortunately for Johnson, she picked up an injury at the end of the season that would lead to a withdrawal from the national championship.

Rebounding from the injury, Johnson’s junior season was highlighted with a perfect 11-0 record in singles play, earning her First Team All-ASC honors.

She made it back to the Division III Women’s Tennis Championships as a junior, but fell in the round of 32 in a straight-set loss to Brandeis’ Carley Cooke.

Head Men’s and Women’s Tennis coach Bryan Whitt said he is impressed with how Johnson has grown throughout her career with the Comets.

“Casey handles pressure very well; people expect her to win when she goes out

→ SEE JOHNSON, PAGE 10

BY ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS I Editor-in-chief sai saripella i mercury staff When LeBron James made the decision to come back to CleveGolden State’s flashy style of play is cemented by an incredibly

STATS BREAKDOWN

land after an extended stay in Miami, every basketball fan wondered

deep roster that features former and current NBA All-Stars on the if he could lead his team to another shot at the NBA title. starting five and even the bench. Role players like Leandro Barbosa and Andre Iguodala were once near the top of the league at their respective positions, but now take a back seat to Steph Curry and Klay

110

POINTS PER GAME

103.1

Now that James has done just that, it’s going to be harder than ever for The King to bring his city back to glory. The Warriors are stacked, with Steph Curry, the reigning MVP, leading Golden State to the best

Thompson and willingly play sparingly at crucial stretches in games record in the league with one of the most prolific offenses ever. to provide quality depth.

Man to man, you could argue that the Warriors are much more tal-

44.7

REBOUNDS PER GAME

43

If the Cavaliers are going to have a chance at taking home the title, they’ll need James to play better than he has in his entire life. His

ented and battle tested than the Cavaliers, but this series will likely supporting cast has been plagued with injuries the entire year and come down to whether or not they can successfully contain LeBron. even at full capacity they haven’t matched the fire power the WarThat is a task much easier said than done. No matter who wins this series, it is setting up to be a historic display of entertaining and hard

27.4

ASSISTS PER GAME

22.1

riors have presented. It will be up to James to be the equalizer for the Cavs. If he can play the best basketball of his life, Cleveland may

fought basketball that anyone from the die hard to the casual fan just have a chance. can enjoy.

9.3 14.5

STEALS PER GAME

7.4

Turnovers PER GAME

14.3

SOUrce: nba.com

10

THE MERCURY | JUNE 8, 2015

→ GUNS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

able to remain gun-free on campus, said Julie Gavran, a humanities doctoral student and the Western Director for the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus.

“Had it been amended in the Senate with common sense amendments that were offered up (from institutions) such as the health care centers, counselling centers, day care centers and it would have been clearly amended, we wouldn’t have to go through this every two year process with the Board of Regents, President and the students in registering the decisions with the Texas Legislature,” Gavran, who testified against the bill, said.

Student Government will work with Vice President of Student Affairs Gene Fitch and Provost Hobson Wildenthal, who will become interim president on July 1, to draft a proposal for the areas on campus which could potentially be made gun-free if Abbott signs the bill into law, said SG President Caitlynn Fortner.

Students can expect extensive polling on Facebook and at SG booths on which areas they would like to see made gun-free, she said. SG will also bring in students through focus groups to have conversations on why they think certain locations on campus are justified to be gun-free, which will include students in favor and against the bill.

The bill already excludes sporting and school sponsored events, but residential areas and laboratories are some other areas of concern. During the reading of the bill, Sen. Brian Birdwell (R), another co-author of the bill, suggested that one acceptable area that could be excluded from the bill would be a bio-chemical lab.

Terry Holcomb, executive director of Texas Carry, said there would have to be a sufficiently justified reason even for that.

→ BULL

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

three years in a row, and a stint in the Canadian Football League, Bull started coaching in 1976 when he became the head track coach and assistant basketball coach at Farmersville High School.

Since then, he has coached everywhere from Highland Park to an international school for Americans in China.

Bull said one of the most challenging parts about coaching at UTD was trying to incorporate athletics into university life. He said there have been times when the support system for athletics didn’t function how it should have.

“We have people in the administration that come over and try to talk to us and tell us how to recruit,” he said. “It’s like, ‘You know, there’s a lot more to

→ JOHNSON

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

there on the court and she lives up to that,” Whitt said.

Transitioning from a Division I program, there was added pressure on Casey to be the best every time she played.

Johnson, who finished this season with a 7-1 record despite a shortened schedule, headed into this year’s tournament with high expectations placed upon her.

Whitt said he believed Johnson had a chance to

NEWS/SPORTS

UTDMERCURY.COM

“There is this fear out there that if you somehow say guns can come in (to a lab) then an average student is going to steal something from the bio lab with a handgun, and that’s just fictional,” he said.

While those opposing concealed carry on campus think day care centers and counselling centers, among other facilities, should be off-limits, political science junior Erick Bruno, a Concealed Handgun License holder, said he didn’t think restricting guns in dormitories, apartments and the counselling center is acceptable.

“As far as people working in the counselling center, I wouldn’t want to restrict their rights,” he said.

However, since these provisions for exclusion have to go through the Board of Regents, the vote could go either way despite student opinion, Andy Pelosi, executive director of The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, said.

“The Board of Regents are political appointees,” he said. “We don’t know which way they would go.

I’d like to think they would support presidents’ recommendations to carve out areas, but there are lot of unknowns.”

In other states such as Arizona, Louisiana and Georgia, regents have been in opposition to campus carry and have respected the wishes of campus presidents. Pelosi said there might be a possibility Texas regents will be the same.

However, Holcomb said student opposition to campus carry should in no way be accounted for while making a law because no voting block should be allowed to infringe upon the rights of others.

The financial cost to implementing the bill can be anywhere from $4 – $7 million for the university system, Pelosi said. In Idaho, the the cost of enforcing the law cost $4 million in eight public universities.

This included the cost of signs in prohibited areas, hiring new enforcement staff, metal detectors and gun safes in residential areas on campus.

Holcomb said that gun safes should be a responsibility of the gun owner and not the universities, and the only expenses should be for signs, which will be minimal. He said that universities can mandate that CHL owners find a way to keep their guns locked and safely stored when left unused.

In 2013, only 0.31 percent of all convicted individuals in Texas were CHL owners, although that number has risen from 0.13 percent in 2008, according to statistics released by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Injury in family violence cases constituted a consistently high proportion of CHL owner convictions for each of those years.

Of the 158 CHL owner convictions in 2014, three were for murder, 20 for sexual assault on a child, 10 for aggravated sexual assault on a child, 17 for inappropriate sexual contact with a child and 16 for unlawfully carrying a weapon.

While this law will only apply to those with CHL authorization, Pelosi said it will increase risk of suicide on campus considering suicides comprise the second largest cause of deaths on college campuses.

“We’ve just made it easier,” he said. “We’ve just expanded the population of people who can and will carry weapons.”

Holcomb said that the law wouldn’t introduce criminals into the environment and said colleges aren’t full of people that are ready to fire a gun at the slightest provocation.

“If you were to believe the opposition from that point of view then you would seriously reconsider sending your children to college because it’s obviously full of unstable people; that they would go off at the drop off a hat killing people,” he said. “That’s just ludicrous.”

UTD Police Chief Larry Zacharias opposed the bill along with UTD President David Daniel and UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven, because it was one

less thing to worry about, he said.

However, he acknowledged if someone with criminal intent decided to bring a gun to campus, he or she would do it regardless of a law that allowed concealed carry.

“When we see problems with guns, it’s the criminal elements, not the concealed handgun owners,” Zacharias said earlier this year. “We were lumping everyone with a gun into one classification and that’s not the case.”

Bruno said there aren’t that many CHL owners in Texas to start with.

As of 2014, Texas had 825, 957 CHL owners according to the Texas DPS. More than 200,000 applications were issued in the same year, of which slightly over 8,500 were in Collin County and 13,462 in Dallas County.

In the same year, 9, 669 applications for licenses were issued to people in the 18 – 24 age group in Texas, approximately 0.8 percent of the population in the state in that age group.

When narrowed down further to UTD, the bill only impacts 40 percent of the student body, leaving the remaining under-21, international and out-ofstate demographic unaffected, Zacharias said.

The likelihood that the passing of this law will cause those without CHL to apply for one and get it is very low, he said.

Fortner said students should try to read the bill itself and understand the terms of it themselves, considering it is a fairly short 12-page bill.

“I encourage students to read the bill and I think many people will be surprised at how different it is than its original form,” she said. “It’s more in line with what students wanted according to our opinion poll. It’s more in line with giving campuses the opportunity to opt out when appropriate under specific circumstances and I think students will be pleasantly surprised.”

this.’… We need to understand that there’s a support agency and then there’s coaches.”

While Pettit said he understands that individuals can have problems with how the university handles the athletic program, he doesn’t think there is a problem with how the two cooperate.

“I think they do quite a bit,” he said. “Look at the other programs within the department and how successful they are … I think there’s enough here to be successful, but I can see where maybe he compares it to some other programs that have other resources that we’re not at yet.”

Bull, who has taught high school courses in physics, chemistry, geology, biology, English, journalism and government, said he has plans to work in something involving environmental science.

He got hands-on experience working in this field when he went to help with relief efforts in the after-

math of Hurricane Katrina. He was sent to Long Beach, Miss., where the eye of the storm made landfall. Bull said the devastation there was unbelievable.

“There were houses right there by the coast,” he said. “Beach houses, nice, big, kind of open houses.

They’re not there (anymore.) They were slabs.”

He said taking on projects like this that help other people is one of his main callings.

Even though the men’s golf team hasn’t made it to the NCAA tournament since 2003 and the women’s team has never made it, Bull said he sees potential in the group that will remain at UTD. “I think the women have a really good shot,” he said. “The people that were recruited, when they come in, they’re going to be very helpful. The bad thing about it is, what we shot at conference and finished this year, when I first started that would have won conference. Now it’s just a different game.”

Now that the job is officially open, there will be a national search for a replacement for Bull. Pettit couldn’t comment on any leads into the search, but he said he is hopeful the department can find someone who can improve the program.

“Now we’ll be able to post (the job opening) and then go out and do a national search and see who we can find that will be able to continue to improve the program,” he said.

Even though he is leaving, Bull said he believes the program is in good hands and he will miss his interactions with the players and other coaches the most.

“If you do what we do, it’s a very finite set,” he said. “There’s not many people that do what we do…

Because all of us are competitive and we’ve all been there and competed. How you get to that point is different. We all talk about it, we exchange ideas…

It’s a comradeship.”

make a deep run.

“She was definitely capable of advancing throughout the tournament,” he said. “The result was unfortunate because she played a strong match.”

This year’s draw saw Johnson matched up against Megan Tang from The University of Chicago.

The tournament was familiar territory for Tang, a three-time All-American who was making her third consecutive appearance in the competition.

“She was a great player, UOC consistently has a top program with exceptional athletes,” Whitt said.

Despite her efforts, Johnson fell in two sets, going

6-2 and 6-4.

“We had a really close match and a lot of long sets but she seemed to (have) won all of the important points,” Johnson said. “Either one of us could (have) won the match.””

Whitt witnessed Johnson’s frustration of her second consecutive first round exit.

“She was discouraged to lose, but she played exceptional and that definitely helps alleviate some of that pain,” Whitt said.

Despite her loss, Johnson finished with one of the best career records in program history. Across

her three seasons with the Comets, Johnson is 26-3 in singles play and is the Comets’ all-time leader in singles victories.

Even though she has played her last match for UTD, Johnson plans to contribute to the tennis program to give guidance to younger players. She said that she wants to instill the wisdom she has learned over the years to the next generation of players.

“If you put in the work, the results will come,” Johnson said. “But make sure you have fun along the way.”

→ JINDAL

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Jindal, along with several other executives, with obtaining coal using the old system of using letters of recommendation from government officials instead of bidding on the tons of coal. There are five firms currently under investigation, four of which are Jindal properties.

Although the coal blocks distributed in the 2000s were declared illegal, the 2012 report by the CAG states that the process of bringing in transparency and objectivity in the allocation process was delayed at various stages, and in February 2012 an official policy had yet to materialize.

In an article in The Economic Times, a spokesperson for JSPL denied all allegations raised against it in and claimed that it has not violated any rules and regulations and allocation was made to the company purely on merit.

COMICS&GAMES

11 7

JUNE 8, 2015 | THE MERCURY

Who Needs Effort Anyways?

New Job

by Emily Grams

by Hamid Shah

Summer Days

by Tim Shirley

Puzzles: Sudoku 5 6

1 9

2 5

7 1

2

8

4 1

2

3 9 8

Ultra!

3

5

7

2

4

9

8

7

6

3

1

4

9

1

5

6

2

8

6 8 1 2 9 5 3 4 7

1 5 6 3 8 2 7 9 4

8 9 7 5 4 6 2 3 1

4 3 2 9 1 7 5 8 6

2 4 3 6 7 9 8 1 5

9 1 5 4 2 8 6 7 3

7 6 8 1 5 3 4 2 9

Puzzle Answers

by Emily Grams

9

12

THE MERCURY | JUNE 8, 2015

→ ISLAM

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“I saw someone share the article on Facebook,” she said. “I read through it a little and I was like, ‘Of course they’re going to blame it back to Muslims.’

It was when they didn’t really know who did it … I kind of knew that’s what was going to happen.”

Investigators later confirmed that the gunmen, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, were indeed followers of Islam. Shortly after the shooting, the terror group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria claimed responsibility for the attack, although there has not been any evidence to support that claim.

Sharaf said it was frustrating to see the response from people who blamed the Muslim community as a whole for the attacks when there had been a concentrated effort to not give the organizers of the event any more attention than they were already getting.

“The fact that you want to kind of piss people off and the fact that you got no response from them and then still found a way to kind of blame it back on them was a little irritating to the Muslim community because we didn’t respond to it,” she said.

“We thought that if this woman wants to say that she’s (practicing her) freedom of speech and it’s her right to hold this competition, then it’s her right to hold the competition. No one’s going to care. But even after that when we didn’t respond, to find a way to put it on Muslims was kind of the irritating part about it.”

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS| EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Shaheer Ali, president of the UTD chapter of Alpha Lambda Mu, said more Muslims need to identify with being American.

With approximately 1.6 billion followers and roots in the seventh century, Islam is one of the world’s largest and oldest religions. In Texas, the religion is the fifth largest religious group in the state.

Despite this widespread proliferation, the spread of groups like ISIS and al-Qaida has led many to take a negative stance against the religion.

Since 2013, ISIS, the extremist group that has amassed large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq, has been on the rise. Headed by the elusive Abu Bakr al-Bhagdadi, ISIS has grown to have a force of about 30,000 fighters, some of whom have traveled from North America and Europe to join it’s cause.

The group has become notorious for the wave of terror it brings wherever it goes. Murder, executions, rape and slavery have become commonplace for those living under its regime.

Alia Salem, the executive director for the Dallas/ Fort Worth chapter of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations, said that while many have called for mainstream Muslims to condemn the actions of this and other groups, people don’t understand that these denouncements are already taking place.

“One of the most repetitive criticisms that the Muslim community gets in the United States is that we don’t condemn terrorism enough and we don’t condemn extremists,” she said. “However, that’s very frustrating because that is literally half my job.

Every time something happens that has to do with a Muslim and it reaches national or international prominence, people look to us to comment on it and so we do. But then people say, ‘Oh, they’re not commenting. They’re not condemning.’”

One of the facts that Salem said people tend to overlook is that most incidents of terrorism actually don’t involve Muslims. According to an FBI study that examined domestic terrorism cases from 1980 to 2005, 94 percent of acts of terrorism committed in the United States were carried out by non-Muslims.

Even though there have been few acts of violence carried out by Muslim extremists in the United States, Sharaf said that the portrayal by the media that equates extreme groups with Muslims as a whole puts the Islamic community in a bad light.

She said that what many people don’t recognize is that groups like ISIS are not representative of Islam, not only because of their violence toward people in general, but because the group often turns its weapons upon Muslims as well.

Dealing with ignorance when trying to combat fallacies regarding Islam isn’t only limited to those who oppose the religion. Shaheer Ali, president of the UTD chapter of Alpha Lambda Mu, the nation’s only Muslim fraternity, said ignorance about the faith often plagues those who carry out violence in the name of Islam.

He said that many people who associate themselves with Muslim extremists often accept facts about Islam from other people rather than learning what the religion actually means. He said this has allowed violent Muslim groups to use Islam as a means to an end.

“There’s always going to be an agenda that people want to push among other people,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it comes down to a sense of power or right among others and promoting their own agenda, whether or not it’s supportive within Islam and the boundaries of Islam. But if the outside

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community isn’t educated or doesn’t know what any principle means and what it is, then I could sit here and tell you something and you might believe it and go with it.”

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Alia Salem, the executive director of the Dallas/ Fort Worth chapter of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations said Muslims need to be more active in the community.

The negative coverage associating Islam with extremist groups has led some to carry out acts of bigotry against Muslims in the United States.

Salem said CAIR has seen a large number of hate crimes and cases of discrimination against Muslims in recent years.

“It’s actually worse than it was post-9/11,” she said.

“It has been gradually increasing and it seems to tie in with election cycles. So it’s kind of disturbing that people are utilizing the Muslim community, and elected officials from certain parties tend to disparage and make horrible statements against Islam and Muslims in order to appeal to their base.”

Cases of bigotry she sees against Muslims vary from something as simple as being harassed in the street to having a mosque being vandalized. There have even been times when she has been directly threatened and she has had to call the police and the FBI. Even though Muslims have roots in practically every nationality and ethnicity, there are still obvious physical features to identify someone of the Islamic faith, which can sometimes be a mixed blessing for Muslims.

One of the easiest ways for people to recognize Muslim women, for example, is if they wear a hijab, or headscarf. Many Muslim women wear it to maintain modesty, as dictated to them in the Quran, the Islamic holy text. Salem said this often leads to major misconceptions about her faith.

“I often get (comments) that I’m oppressed and that I’m doing this because a man told me to and that women are supposed to be subjugated in Islam, they’re supposed to be treated poorly, like second class citizens, when that’s actually the opposite,” she said. “Are there Muslim countries where that kind of misogyny exists? Yeah, absolutely, but it doesn’t have anything to do with Islam, it has to do with cultural and environmental situations.”

Recently, the hijab has come into the spotlight with the case of Samantha Elauf, a Muslim woman who brought a lawsuit against Abercrombie and Fitch for not hiring her because she wore a hijab. On June 1, the Supreme Court, in a 8-1 vote, ruled in her favor and sent the case back to an appellate court for further consideration.

MSA member Sharaf said she she has never felt threatened for wearing the hijab, but she has felt heat from others because she chooses to wear it. She said that sometimes she’ll get awkward looks or stares from others and has even had people tell her to go back where she came from.

She said people behave this way because they simply do not know enough about the religion and what it stands for.

“You just understand that people come from a different mentality and anything that they don’t understand becomes a threat or becomes scary to them,” she said. “So they don’t really understand it and they’re just acting out of fear.”

Even though the religion started in the Middle East, most Muslims are not of Arab descent. The largest Muslim populations in the world are located in countries like Indonesia, which has approximately 170 million Muslims, and Pakistan, which has 136 million.

Garey Massey, who teaches at the Islamic Association of North Texas, grew up in Kansas City, Kan., in a household that wasn’t very religious. He converted to Islam when he was 16 after a series of deaths in his family left searching for deeper meaning in his life.

Converting to Islam after growing up in an area that didn’t have a very large Muslim population helped to show Massey that Muslims come from all types of backgrounds and lifestyles. He said this is something that is still yet to be understood by many in America.

He said Muslims are often portrayed in ways that overlook the millions of productive members of the Islamic faith and focuses only on the negative aspects portrayed by ISIS and other groups.

“Someone thinks (of a) Muslim…they might say Osama bin Laden,” he said. “They’re not going to say Muhammad Ali, the famous American that fought for his rights, fought (against) injustice…. they don’t think about that and he’s pretty devout. I think the biggest challenge is try to change that narrative.”

When a conference hosted by Muslims at the Curtis Culwell Center was protested in January, ALM president Ali and several members decided to go to the event to counter-protest and open up a dialogue with those who were critical of Islam.

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What he and his fellow ALM members found was a tangible sense of bigotry among those who honestly believed that Muslims were inherently bad.

“You hear about these things that people will say.

‘Oh, you’re just going to blow me up!’ or ‘You’re just going to this!,’ and you think it sounds far fetched,” he said. “You think, ‘OK, this is definitively an exaggeration, people don’t actually say this.’ But you go to that crowd and there are actually people that are saying these comments that are convinced that this is going to happen. In fact, they see it as a way of preventing terrorists from coming into their own land.”

He said many of these people that he spoke to got their information about Islam from second-hand sources who misinformed them about the facts of the religion and what it actually entails.

Even though he said he feels like there are varying degrees of those who are close-minded in the United States to what Islam truly is, he feels like the community as a whole and individuals have to stand up to correct the false notions that are out there about Islam.

“Whether or not they agree with you, whether or not they go back to their homes saying, ‘My mind is changed,’ that’s not for us to decide,” he said. “What it comes down to is, ‘Did I get my message out? Did I at least put in the effort to tell them the true message and what I truly stand for; who I am?’ Because at this point, it’s not even about being able to sit here and say, ‘Oh, they’re talking about these people.’ No, they’re talking about you. If someone’s talking about you like that, you don’t just sit there and take it. You stand up and convey what is actually true.”

Salem said that after 9/11 she observed the Muslim community becoming insular and not as engaging with those outside the religion. Instead of going out into the community, many Muslims decided only to go to events where other Muslims were and participated.

She said if Muslims want to see a change in how they’re perceived, there has to be an effort to get out and participate with other members of society so they can become fully visible.

Salem also said that society as a whole has to stand up to discrimination.

“You have to stand up for justice no matter what the issue is and even if it’s against yourself,” she said.

“When we as a community start to think of these issues as our issues despite whatever background somebody’s from, if it’s injustice that’s happening, until we start to look at those issues as our issues, we will not see any progress.”

Ali said if the atmosphere of bigotry against Muslims is going to end, more American Muslims need to identify with being American and getting a sense that the United States is their home and more people need to be accepting of Muslims in the country.

“I identify myself as an American, the issue is will other people accept me in bringing back that feeling that, ‘Yes, we’re all Americans. We’re all Muslim.

We’re all on the same side,’” he said. “That’s what I would say (is the challenge.) Getting to that part.”

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political science senior Sarah Grubaugh.

Another disadvantage was the lack of backstage area for performers to go after their scenes had ended. The group had to cram into a small classroom with the lights turned off in order to not be seen by the audience. The small space also meant there was little to no room for costume changes.

The University Theatre, on the other hand, includes dressing rooms and a lighting/sound booth.

On the night of the spring musical, “Dangerous Liaisons”, a play by Christopher Hampton, also opened in the University Theatre. This resulted in a division of audience members between the two shows and another obstacle for the musical theater group.

“Students were pitted against each other for audience members, which is not what we want,” Grubaugh said.

After the spring musical performance, Grubaugh said the group believed it would return to performing in the University Theatre as they did every year. Shortly after the spring musical had ended, Kratz informed the group that its shows would have to be relocated permanently to the performance hall.

Grubaugh said the students were not pleased with their relocation to the Jonsson Performance Hall because they felt they deserved to be in the theatre. They immediately decided to take action.

After several weeks of trying to convince Kratz and Arts and Humanities faculty to let them stay in the theatre by presenting alternative schedules, students were given the choice to either perform in the Jonsson Performance Hall in April or the University Theatre a week before finals. They opted to perform in the University Theatre, though Co and Grubaugh said the timing is going to be inconvenient.

In the future, Grubaugh said, Kratz told the group he wants musical theater to be student run and directed. She said it wouldn’t be a problem because it is already very student oriented.

Because of the limited staff and resources, they create the set and costumes for the shows and are free to produce it on their own. Grubaugh said they don’t mind doing the work themselves because it has helped them work alongside different people and have fun while doing it.

“It’s really something that helped us grow as people and future professionals,” she said.

Co said he hopes the change doesn’t affect the future of the group.

“The thought that it could dissipate into something smaller is scary to me because I’d like other people to feel like they can be accepted into this group because it has been so welcoming and open to me,” Co said.