The Mercury Sept. 9

VOLUME XXXIII NO. 13

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF UTD — WWW.UTDMERCURY.COM

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

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Educated and Empty-Handed Story by: MIGUEL PEREZ Mercury Staff Photo Illustration by: CATHRYN PLOEHN Graphics Editor

As 2011 census data show a rising poverty rate among 18- to 24-year-olds, many students remain uncertain about the value of a college degree.

Kids Count Data Center, a national and state-by-state project that analyzes census data, reports poverty among this age group jumped from 20 percent in 2000 to 26 percent in 2011. Texas’ poverty rate among young adults matched national levels in 2011.

Of the 51 most populated U.S. cities, Dallas ranks 17th in poverty among young adults (number one being the lowest rate) at 30 percent.

Forty-three percent of Austin’s young adult population is considered poor, and Detroit represented the highest citywide rate from 2011 data at 51 percent.

From an economic standpoint, poverty is determined by income and is measured by households.

Susan McElroy, associate professor of economics, said an important factor that influences data on the poverty of young adults is whether they are pursuing a college degree.

2011 data from Kids Count reveal that 43 percent of young adults in Texas and 36 percent in Dallas were enrolled in or have completed college.

“College students who live off campus are very likely to be in poverty, but a lot of people consider it a different kind of poverty,” said Anthony Galvan, a senior research associ-

Brain Blaze ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE Web Editor

ate at the Institute of Urban Policy Research. “If you’re on scholarship or have some other mode that’s not measured as income that you’re using to pay for room, board and meals, then you have less of a need for income.”

From a time management standpoint, if you’re enrolled in college, it’s going to limit how much you can work and, by consequence, your earnings, McElroy said.

The problem students face is clear in the data: the Census Bureau reports that 72 percent of undergraduate students in the U.S. were working in 2011 and a fifth of undergraduates in Texas were working full-time, year round.

“You’re sacrificing work and income to go to college,” said economics senior Prisha Gaddam. “That would be a huge detriment to getting your education if it means that you have to pay for tuition in addition to supporting yourself.”

Jessica Palacios Gutierrez, economics and finance senior, said she remembers semesters where she had to work long hours just to make tuition and pay for books.

“Honestly, I think it makes students more productive. It demands time management out of you, and if you’re really

Fifteen-year-old Trace McCaslin had heard a lot about his mother, about her trips to prison.

Yet, as he started walking toward his great-grandmother’s funeral, he was excited — excited to meet April, his mother, whom he’d last seen when he was three.

It was an awkward first meeting — the son who barely remembered his mother, and the mother, now reformed and married, who felt guilty after all these years for not being there for her child.

As McCaslin stood through the service, he discovered, deep down, despite everything his father’s family had told him, his mother wasn’t a bad person.

She’d just had a problem — an addiction to meth and heroin. And he was ready to give her a chance.

“I wanted to get to know her myself,” McCaslin, an emerging media and communications junior, said. “There was

something skewed about the opinions of other people … So when I met her for the first time, I wanted to see for myself how I felt about her.”

Now cured of her addiction, April started using marijuana and meth when she was 11 years old, and her addiction to meth led her to try harder substances like heroin. Her story isn’t unusual.

An estimated 2.9 million people started using illicit drugs in 2012, of which 55 percent were under 18 years of age and more than half of the new users started with marijuana, according to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, or NSDUH, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The survey found a hike in rates of illicit drug use among young adults aged 18-25 nationally, as well as an increase in marijuana usage from 18.2 percent in 2009 to

ABBY LAM/STAFF

Pres. Obama proposes college-ranking system to better measure true quality JAMES LOPEZ Mercury Staff

President Obama proposed the creation of a new federal college-ranking system on Aug. 22 with the aim of providing more complete information to students.

Speaking at the University of Buffalo, Obama criticized private rankings such as the U.S. News and World Report, which he argued incentivizes universities to “game the numbers” and reward them with higher rankings.

College rankings usually include factors such as academic resources, alumni giving rate and selectivity. According to an Aug. 22 article from The New York Times, Obama’s proposed system would factor in qualities such as a school’s financial aid, affordability, student postgraduation debt, rate of on-time graduation and post-graduate success. Obama said he believes that a school’s quality should be judged by how accessible a school is to students of all incomes, how high graduation rates are and how well

the students do in the workforce and graduate and professional school.

Despite the clarity these metrics are supposed to provide, many college officials and lawmakers are debating whether metrics such as graduation rates give a picture full enough to help future students decide where to apply and enroll, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“My concern is that (the metrics) wouldn’t recognize institutions that are transforming,” said Rodney Andrews, associate professor in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. “I worry that it might miss out on some of the things that UTD is investing in.”

Andrews said the ideal way of evaluating universities involves much more than metrics such as graduation rates.

Rankings might lead people into overlooking such academic qualities that even a lower-ranked school might have, he said.

“You might miss out on a place that matches up well with your interests and proclivities, and you might not know that because those things are not evi-

dent in a single metric,” Andrews said.

Obama’s new proposal would also allocate federal financial aid and resources to schools according to how they would rank in his new system.

“I’m not sure that I see a (financial) threat for UTD,” said Terry Pankratz, vice president for Budget and Finance.

Pankratz said federal funding, such as Pell Grants, makes up a very small portion of UTD’s infrastructural budget and financial resources. The university’s financial resources are unlikely to be affected by federal funding except for Pell Grant distribution, which, according to Pankratz, is currently distributed to 4,281 students at UTD. What other financial implications Obama’s proposed ranking system would bring is still unclear, but Pankratz said he isn’t worried.

“Based on the quality of our student body, the success rate that they have, if there were an evaluation mechanism put into place, I think UTD would rank

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Caught Reading

The Mercury

THE MERCURY

SEPT. 9, 2013

Competition kicks off search for next big idea

YANG XI/STAFF

Students hold toy cars that will be awarded in November to the winners of the Business Idea Competition. Teams will develop and ultimately present their business proposals to a panel of business professionals to compete for $20,000. Entries will be accepted from Sept. 9 through Oct. 10.

SALMAN KHALEEQ Mercury Staff

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In Brief Physics department will relocate to former ATEC building

Geoscience sophomore Jonathan Nguyen was caught reading The Mercury. He will win a $20 gift card to Palio’s Pizza.

Thank you Palio’s Pizza!

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-Samantha Lim

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Opinion

SEPT. 9, 2013

THE MERCURY

3

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Egyptian democracy threatened Miley coverage eclipses Syria JOSEPH MANCUSO

MOHAMMAD FAISAL

COMMENTARY

COMMENTARY

As I watched BBC and CNN this summer, I couldn’t help but think about the events that were occurring in Egypt. The new democratically elected president was being removed from office by the military.

The ousting of Mohamed Morsi from the Egyptian presidency has drawn attention from around the world, after incidences of military violence and protests in the streets.

After doing some research, I learned the terrible truth about what was happening in Egypt. According to The New York Times more than 750 people died in violent protests in Cairo from Aug. 14-16. Clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi Egyptians have resulted in deaths among both demonstrators and civilians who have stayed off the streets.

I talked to an Egyptian friend to see if anything was being done to gain the attention of the people who did not have knowledge of what was occurring in Egypt. That friend, biology senior Es-Haq Hassanin, told me that concerned observers have called for several rallies around the United States in support of Egyptians killed during the protests. Members of the Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights, or EADHR, held a rally in front of the headquarters of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth. The organization held the rally at this location because the Egyptian military purchases a large amount of weapons and planes from Lockheed.

The idea to have a rally at Lockheed Martin was a solid action taken by the students.

The rally showed the company officials that the students wanted the company to cease its sales of weapons to Egypt, which were being used to terrorize and kill individuals.

Another event that has gathered the community to show their support for the victims of the violence in Egypt was the prayer vigil.

“A prayer vigil was also held in downtown Dallas in honor of the people who were murdered in Egypt,” Hassanin, who is also the spokesman for the Dallas chapter of EADHR, said. “Another rally will soon be held in downtown Dallas, expressing our distress with the military coup as Egyptian Americans.”

Egypt had the second round of its first democratic election in the nation’s history on June 16 and 17, 2011. The two final candidates were Mohamed Morsi of the Freedom and Justice party and Ahmed Shafik, who ran as an independent but served as the prime minister during the former president Hosni Mubarak. The election swayed slightly in favor of Morsi, who re-

LINA MOON/ASST. GRAPHICS EDITOR/CEDRIC DAVIS II/STAFF

ceived 51.7 percent of the votes, according to The Times Of Israel.

The close election seems a little ironic after all the effort that was needed to oust Mubarak from office. One would expect the election to sway stronger in favor of Morsi, not be a close race since Shafik had ties with Mubarak.

“Morsi, being a part of the Freedom and Justice Party, caused people to automatically choose the other candidate. The Freedom and Justice Party is politically linked to a group known as the Muslim Brotherhood,” Hassanin said.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a political party that strikes concern among some Egyptians, as they suspect the members of being responsible for acts of terror and violence. According to The Huffington Post, people across the Middle East fear oppression from the Muslim Brotherhood based on religion.

After serving only one year in office, Morsi was ousted by the military. A movement —known as Tamarrod — was formed with the intention to oust Morsi, as they declared that he was unfit to be the president of Egypt.

The movement succeeded when Morsi was removed from office on July 3. Zawya, a news outlet that covers the Middle East and North Africa region, reported that some analysts view the removal of Morsi as the failure of democracy. Morsi’s departure from office spurred more movements by pro-Morsi groups.

The movements among the pro- and anti-Morsi groups have grown until the military decided to intervene. The military killed and wounded thousands of people

and declared a short-term government until future elections.

“The military and police then took to the streets and opened fire on protests killing several hundreds of people and wounding thousands,” Hassanin said.

Currently, the nation is under strict rule by the military. The military has formed an interim government until elections are held next year.

Hassanin said he has been greatly affected by the events in Egypt.

“This affects me mostly emotionally since democracy was completely destroyed in my country,” Hassanin said.

Hassanin said he believes UTD students should be concerned about the events that are occurring in Egypt.

“This isn’t something that has to do with being an American or an Egyptian, this has to do with being a citizen of this world and standing up for what’s right,” Hassanin said. “Murdering innocent people is against human morals in every aspect. So not only should UTD students care, but anyone who has basic ethical values or morals.”

“In any case, when people are massacred around the world, UTD students should organize some sort of event to show it’s condemning of the murders and its solidarity with the innocent people murdered,” he said.

With many other events occurring worldwide, such as the crisis in Syria, the situation of Egypt has lost the attention of some people. However, the events that are currently happening in Egypt should not be shadowed by other events. The nation is still under military rule and justice has yet to be served for the Egyptian people.

Syria has been embroiled in civil war for the past couple of years, and perhaps the only force keeping it from escalating into an international war is the unintentional efforts of pop star Miley Cyrus.

Last month, reports began to come in of a chemical weapons attack just east of the Syrian city of Damascus, a rebel held area that had been under siege by the Syrian army for months. Almost immediately, members of the international community screamed for military action against Syria, assuming that the government was responsible for the attacks.

Every major news outlet was reporting on the latest Syria-related statements from politicians and military leaders alike. Britain, France, the United States and other countries all pledged their support, and it seemed that international involvement in a war that is not our own was all but guaranteed.

But then something magical happened. Something so bizarre that no one saw it coming. Miley Cyrus emerged from an oversized teddy bear at the MTV Video Music Awards and gave the most distressing and disturbing performance of the year.

Suddenly, Americans weren’t talking about the horrors of chemical weapons or war; they were discussing the racial and sexual implications of Miley’s performance. And as America turned their attention to more pleasant subjects, so too did the rest of the world begin to lose interest in the conflict.

British Prime Minister David Cameron withdrew his support of sending British forces into Syria after parliament voted against such an action, and in France, CNN has reported that only one in three citizens support a strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Following the confirmed use of weapons of mass destruction in Syria, American approval for a military strike sits at 36 percent, according to a Gallup poll conducted in September. This number is much lower than in 2003, when 59 percent of Americans supported going to war over suspected weapons of mass destruction.

The support for war just isn’t there right now. The media continues to push coverage of the Syrian conflict, and governments around the world claim to have evidence that Assad is to blame for the attacks, adding that they will reveal the information any day now! The war mongers cry for war but we sit there, agape in our brave new world, watching YouTube videos of that girl with her tongue out like a giraffe.

As long as she captivates us, we can do no harm. She leads us away from the bloodshed and horror of the Syrian civil war and into greener pastures of gossip. She keeps us out of the conflict and in our comfort zone.

She’s the hero that we deserve, but not the one we need right now.

The media will hunt her and report on every controversial issue with her name on it. Because she can take it. Because she is not a hero. She’s a pop-star, a dancing distraction, a booty-shaking bewilderment, and she could very well be the biggest force in keeping American minds off Syria.

Question related to “Educated and Empty-Handed” on page 1

“I’d get into a job that uses a degree I came here for, because I’m passionate about what I’m studying and I can’t see myself doing anything else.”

Jake Swindle

“I think the job I went to college for because I would like it better, and I would have the skills for it.”

“I would take the job I went to college for — it would make me happy.”

Stacy Hudman Neuroscience sophomore

Yabsera Mesfin Neuroscience freshman

“I would take a job I got the degree for because that’s what I’m getting the degree for. ”

“I’ll try to get a job that would relate to my college degree, but it is hard, and if I don’t get one, I’ll probably take one that isn’t related to my degree.”

Yuxi Cai Finance graduate student

“I’d rather take a job that has to do with my degree because I’d like to spend my career doing something I like.”

Historical studies sophomore

Prateek Sharma Engineering graduate student

Editor-in-Chief Lauren Featherstone Managing Editor Sheila Dang Director of Sales and Promotions Nada Alasmi

Web Editor Anwesha Bhattacharjee Graphics Editor Cathryn Ploehn Asst. Graphics Editor Lina Moon

Photo Editor Christopher Wang

Ad Sales Representative Juveria Baig

Features Editor Sarah Larson

Contributors Pablo Arauz Arghya Chatterjee Connie Cheng Cedric Davis II Bruno Ifebi Mohammad Faisal Srayan Guhathakurta Paul John Salman Khaleeq

Media Adviser Chad Thomas Staff Writers Joseph Mancuso Miguel Perez

Abby Lam Samantha Lim James Lopez Lillian Raemsch Parth Sampat Aravind Sivasailam John Thottungal Shyam Vedantam Yubin Wang Yang Xi Misbahuddin Zuberi

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L&A

SEPT. 9, 2013

Love for language leads libary archivist to UTD MIGUEL PEREZ Mercury Staff

Hardcover books are stacked high on the conference table in a room sprawling with leather-bound texts from wall to wall.

With crossed legs and a charming German accent, Patrizia Nava begins to point out the varying rare texts filling the bookshelves. She carries a palpable sense of pride in her role as curator of Special Collections in the McDermott Library.

Nava is currently overlooking a temporary exhibit on the Berlin Airlift. Displayed on the fourth floor of the library, the collection commemorates the U.S., British and French effort to supply aid to East Berlin after World War II. Nava relishes in the connections she finds between her work as an archivist of

historical texts and an interesting family narrative rooted in European history. To begin with, her Italian father and German mother met during the last months of WWII. Her father, a prisoner of war, was confined to a German labor camp, and her mother worked for an aviation unit distributing clothes to soldiers and pilots.

The diversity in her family’s heritage and history is something Nava said she admires.

“Language is really something I’m very proud of because if you were to look at my family reunions, we would have four languages at one table,” Nava said. “This pride in our languages was always instilled in us, and that’s the reason I like this work so much and the reason I like books as well. “ Nava, who has a master’s degree in Me-

dieval and Modern History and French Literary Studies from the University of Heidelburg in Germany, said her career path has been anything but traditional.

“I became a medical assistant for about two years, but I decided I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life,” Nava said.

“I was looking for a profession that has more to do with people and that gives me more independence.”

She studied midwifery for an additional two years at Heidelburg and was a practicing midwife for 18 years with close to 2,000 deliveries.

Nava said her time as a midwife was psychologically demanding but, ultimately, rewarding.

While pursuing her master’s degree,

CONNIE CHENG/STAFF

Patrizia Nava, curator of the library’s Special Collections, finds joy in archiving WWI collections and reading the letters soldiers wrote during the war.

Student researcher beats tough odds ‘Short Term

12’ a heartwarming flick SHYAM VEDANTAM COMMENTARY

CHRISTOPHER WANG/PHOTO EDITOR

Matt Hosek works in a lab creating virus particles that will affect the genetic expression of brain cells in rats. Despite a challenging start, he beat the odds of a tough childhood to become a co-author on a paper published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, a reputed neuroscience journal.

JOHN THOTTUNGAL Mercury Staff

Being an 18-year old single parent and living through a dangerous childhood did not stop one student from achieving his goal of pursuing a university education.

“I have always wanted to be a doctor since I was eight and have never given up on my dream,” neuroscience senior Matt Hosek said.

In the second and third grade, Hosek had

serious problems with keeping his attention in the classroom. The problems continued until 1986, when a doctor with the Easter Seals Society screened and enrolled him into a clinical trial for ADHD. With the help of group therapy and education, Hosek went from being on the last leg at his school to excelling in every class. Hosek decided that he wanted to make it his mission in life to help others in the same way.

Growing up in a poor south Dallas neighborhood where it was not unusual to hear gunshots

from local gangs and their enforcers, Hosek was forced to drop out of high school to work at the age of 16. A single father at 18, he had to work various full time jobs to support and take care of his new family.

His son is now 16 and is on his way to successfully graduating high school while also being a JROTC member.

“I decided that I could go back to school as

“Short Term 12” takes what could have been a preachy message and subverts convention with an earned emotional catharsis at the end.

Written and directed by Destin Cretton, a relative newcomer, “Short Term 12” is about Grace, a counselor at a foster care facility called Short Term 12 that houses at-risk children up to age 18.

These kids have slipped through the cracks of bureaucracy and are seen from time to time by psychiatrists, but it is really the young, 20-something counselors that see and interact with these kids on a daily basis.

Grace, played by Brie Larson (“21 Jump Street,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”), seems too good to be true at first: she’s empathetic, charming and loves her job.

Early on in the movie she finds out she is pregnant but keeps it secret from her live-in boyfriend Mason, played by John Gallagher Jr. (“The Newsroom”), who is also a counselor at Short Term 12.

Global identity shared at socials MISBAHUDDIN ZUBERI Mecury Staff

The International Student Services Office held a series of six socials geared toward international students from different regions around the world from Aug. 27 through Sept. 4.

Though primarily for new international students, the socials were open to all students to give them a chance to communicate and make friends. ‘‘It definitely helps with the transitioning and culture shock,’’ said Jennifer Smith, program coordinator for the International Student Services Office, or ISSO. The series included socials for Latin American, Middle-Eastern, European, Ko-

rean, Vietnamese and African students.

“The purpose of (the socials) is to essentially help students from countries that are not largely represented at UTD to meet other students from the same region,’’ Smith said.

Fifteen students from Columbia, Mexico and even China, attended the Latin American social that took place on Aug. 28. The attendees participated in an activity similar to speed dating, as the students were given five minutes to converse with one person before introducing themselves to the next.

Short-winded streams of Spanish could be heard throughout some of the conversations.

The social for Middle-Eastern students on Sept. 3 brought together students from

Iran, Eygpt, Saudia Arabia, and Turkey. It was similar to the social for Latin American students with a chaotic round of people talking with one another in five-minute rounds. Business administration junior Ayaz Aliyev said space was a big difference between Texas and his old home in Turkey.

“Dallas is a big city with wide roads and big houses — people have their own space,’’ he said. “In Turkey people are close to each other.’’

Smith said she hopes to broaden the diversity among students who attend ISSO events such as the regional socials.

“If I get 15 to 20 students at every regional social and that’s 15 or 20 students that get to connect and find a friend, then I’m OK with that,’’ Smith said.

YUBIN WANG/STAFF

Students new to the U.S. participate in an ISSO social to meet other students from their own countries and make friends with some from different ones.

‘Dine in Dallas’ introduces new tastes to int’l students SARAH LARSON Features Editor

Fifteen hungry students sat at a table filled with chips and salsa, looking at a Tex-Mex menu for the first time on Sept. 6.

The International Student Services Office, or ISSO, hosted their Dine in Dallas event at

Mi Cocina, bringing international students to experience new types of food.

The Dine in Dallas program started last spring to introduce ordering food, American dining customs and the art of tipping to new international students.

As they dug into the salsa, someone ex-

plained the double-dipping faux pas, and there was talk of the difference between a burrito and a tamale.

Shan Huang, who often goes by Sandra in the U.S., ordered a taco and a cheese enchilada.

An information technology and management graduate student, Huang moved to

UTD a month ago from South China but said she has adjusted well to being in a new country.

“My favorite part about the U.S. is the fresh air,” she said. “It’s so fresh here compared to China. China has a lot of people, really tall buildings everywhere and a lot of pollution.”

Although her taco shell was too crispy for her liking, she said she enjoyed her time at Mi Cocina.

Finance senior Julie Wang previously at-

THE MERCURY

SEPT. 9, 2013

L&A

soon as my son was old enough to go on his own,” Hosek said.

While working a full time job at a local bank, he took classes at Collin County Community College after work to fulfill his pre-med prerequisite courses and graduated with an associate degree in science.

By then he was married to Karah, who completed graduate school from UTD, and he transferred the university to continue his education. Karah currently works as the associate director for communications in the Jindal School of Management and Hosek works full time as the event coordinator at the Granville Arts Center in Garland while attending classes and working at the Ploski Lab. “Matt showed up one morning holding a gizmo he designed and built himself and it transformed how we purify the viruses we make in the lab,” said Jon Ploski, assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Hosek’s ability to build and fix

things in the lab as needed is a skill he picked up while working as part of a pit crew at the local racetracks before he went back to school.

Hosek took Ploski’s molecular neuroscience course and was asked to join Ploski’s lab at the Natural Science and Engineering laboratory.

The neuroscience lab uses cutting edge molecular cell biology techniques to create virus particles.

These viruses are then used to deliver a genetic package to the rat amygdala that can increase or decrease the expression of specific genes.

When the expression of these genes are increased or decreased, it affects the memory and learning process.

Learning the role of these molecules help in elucidating the key components of how memory is formed, Ploski said.

Hosek is now a second author on a paper published in the September edition of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, a reputed neuroscience journal. He will also be presenting the paper at the annual Pavlovian conference in Austin at the end of the month. The amygdala in mammalian brains plays a crucial role in

memory consolidation and the behavior learning process.

Hosek, along with other students in the lab, came up with a novel way of differentiating gene expression between the nuclei of interest in the amygdala, the almond-shaped set of neurons located deep in the brain.

“Matt contributed significantly to the project as he is very adept at data analysis,” said Alex Partin, first author on the paper and now a neuroscience Ph.D. student at UT Southwestern.

Their research provides scientists in the field of memory and learning a road map to the genes involved with some genes that have not been studied before, Hosek said. In addition to his authorship on this paper, Hosek is on his way to becoming an author on a second paper that has been submitted for publication.

In his spare time, Hosek serves on various committees for the Garland Chamber of Commerce Leadership program, works for the Audio-Visual Broadcast ministry of the Eastridge Church of Christ and talks to youth about staying away from the gangster life and making the right choices.

tended Dine in Dallas when the theme was southern cooking. A trip to The String Bean yielded a coconut cream pie that was decidedly delicious.

A native of Beijing, China, Wang will graduate by the end of this semester but has no intentions of speeding up the process.

“I love college; this is the best time,” she said. “I want to stay as long as I can.”

Jennifer Smith, program devel-

oper of the ISSO, was with them every step of the way to explain the ins-and-outs of Tex-Mex. Smith, who two years ago had an experience in ordering food in Taiwan during an internship, knows the challenge in getting to know new dining options.

“We try to pick places off the 883 bus route so that way it is really easy for students without cars to come and revisit,” Smith said.

Gisell Durand, an MBA student and a native of Peru, said Tex-Mex was distinctly different from Peruvian cuisine.

“We use more meat like chicken

and a lot of vegetables, too,” she said.

“But I really like the warm chips here.”

Despite living in the U.S. for only a month, Durand already has a supportive friend group that she often goes out with to enjoy the weather or go shopping.

As the meals finished and the checks were passed out, Smith explained how to tip and which receipt was the customer’s receipt.

The ISSO will hold another Dine in Dallas event on Oct. 4 at The String Bean for another round of southern cooking and teach new arrivals the art of American dining.

Nava said her travels to Hawaii in her late 20s changed the course of her life.

“I saved enough money to see the world, and I wanted to know how other people lived,” she said. “Everything fell into place, and I took

off. “ Nava happily recounts meeting her husband, Harold, on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu while trying to learn how to surf.

In 2003, Nava immigrated to Dallas with her husband and fouryear-old daughter.

“I was looking for a job (at UTD) because I had always wanted to work in a library or in an archive,” Nava said. “History has always interested

me because it’s the gateway to understanding a group of people.”

She met with the director of the library at the time to investigate job opportunities.

Nava said her chances weren’t looking good until she noticed a copy of Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, and revealed she could read old German script from her studies at Heidelburg.

As a curator, Nava is involved in

CONNIE CHENG/STAFF

One piece from the Collective Bargaining gallery, which opened Sept. 6 in the Visual Arts Building, stands among eight other DFW-area art collectives’ paintings and sculptures. Look for coverage of Collective Bargaining’s opening reception in the Sept. 23 issue of The Mercury.

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‘Short Term 12,’ written and directed by Destin Cretton, is about the everyday lives of Grace, played

by Brie Larson, and children like Marcus who are counseled in their Short Term 12 foster care facility.

The story unfolds focusing on the day-to-day interactions between the counselors and the children. One of the residents named Marcus is angry and bottled up, but as he is about to turn 18, he must face being discharged from the facility. Jayden is a self-harming teenager who refuses to believe she needs to be at Short Term 12 and doesn’t want to make any friends. Sammy is a young boy who consistently tries to run away from the facility where he technically can’t be physically touched or grabbed by the counselors to bring him back forcibly.

Each of these kids is a foil to the counselors and their internal struggles. Grace and Mason have achingly painful life stories, which are revealed slowly throughout the film. Grace gets particularly involved with Jayden. Grace, for reasons the audience gradually learns, responds emphatically to Jayden’s situation in ways that may not be safe, ethical or legal. “Short Term 12” is the break out role for Larson. While this

every part of the archiving process.

She assesses collections, organizes texts and helps patrons find material for research.

Ty Lovelady, a university archivist in Special Collections, said Nava’s knowledge on archiving collections is always helpful.

“She’s a great colleague,” Lovelady said. “When you come to a job like archives, I think the greater the experiences you have in other fields will

might not be Oscar-worthy level, her performance is captivating. Larson is emotional without overacting. Her character reacts and changes over the second and third acts in ways that are dramatic but very believable.

It’s a detailed performance that gives credibility to the main character. Larson is a rising star, and it will be interesting to see how her career takes off after this role.

The supporting cast also breaks out of the mold. Gallagher Jr. plays the ideal boyfriend — he’s caring and genuinely a good guy, but he’s not a sucker or wimp. There’s a pivotal scene where he tries to tell Grace that opening up isn’t just advice she should give to the teens, which leads the audience to hope that their relationship works out in the end.

The child actors are surprisingly talented. Keith Stanfield, as the troubled and angry Marcus, has a scene where he delivers a rap song he wrote and as the camera zooms in, the hurt and anger of the scene is achingly poignant.

Cretton has written and directed a powerfully honest representation of what it is like to work in a facility like

help you because it gives you a new perspective on what these collections are.”

Apart from UTD faculty and students, patrons of Special Collections include authors, researchers from abroad and documentary filmmakers.

Special Collections houses one of the largest World War I aviation collections outside of Germany, and Nava works with a variety of texts

Short Term 12. Cretton had worked previously as a counselor in a facility like the one depicted in this movie, and it is evident that this aided his script.

There are some minor faults in the movie. Some of the steps the narrative takes seem like plot conveniences in order for Larson’s character to remain a perfect protagonist.

At 96 minutes, the film is shorter than most. An extra 10-15 minutes of character development and story would have helped — some of the teen’s stories could have been elaborated upon, which would have made their arcs a little more earned. Oddly enough, the film does lose some of its narrative push at points even with its short run time.

Even with these shortcomings, “Short Term 12” is a fantastic movie about people who care for others. No one is without faults and their own baggage; some just have more than others. While the film doesn’t preach this message in a heavy-handed manner, it certainly shows that helping those around us can be helpful for ourselves as well.

7.5/10

varying from diaries to sets of letters.

Nava said her work gives her the chance to understand the emotions beyond the text.

“What is a soldier in the field really talking about? They’ll never say they’re afraid or cold or hungry. You don’t hear that,” Nava said. “You need to read between the lines, and then you can hear what they’re really talking about. This tells you so much more about the situation.”

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THE MERCURY

SEPT. 9, 2013

Sports

Coach tackles new sport, school and challenge BRUNO IFEBI Mercury Staff

Baseball and basketball had long been Sean West’s passion growing up in State Mountain, GA. He played both basketball and baseball in high school before choosing to play baseball in college. As shortstop at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, West said he tried to emulate some of the greats like Chipper Jones and Cal Ripken Jr. This season, West tackles a new challenge as head coach for the UTD men’s cross country team — a sport he said he has not coached before, while at the same time becoming the new baseball assistant coach.

After graduating from Palm Beach Atlantic, West became the assistant coach for the team he had played on just the season before.

“It was tough to be teammates (with my friends) and then go coach them,” West said.

For the past four seasons however, West served as the assistant coach for the baseball team at Denison University

in Ohio, where he helped guide the Big Reds to a pair of 20-win seasons.

This past summer he was an assistant coach to the championship winning team in the Cape Code League — arguably the most premiere summer baseball league for college players who want to go pro.

“That has been my favorite coaching experience thus far,” West said.

Although the baseball team hasn’t started formal practice yet, some players say he has already made a good impression.

“Coach West seems like he appeals to the players well,” said third baseman and shortstop Shahid Sattar.

West said he looks to revitalize the men and women’s cross country teams that finished in the bottom half at the ASC Championship meet last year. Even with no prior experience in coaching and running cross-country, some of the runners have already placed their trust in him.

“He is very supportive,” said men’s cross country runner and biology junior Akshay Narendra. ”He pushes us so we do our very best.”

ARGHYA CHATTERJEE/STAFF

Sean West has been named the new assistant baseball coach at UTD and will also serve as head coach for the men’s cross country team. This will be his first time coaching cross country. The Georgia native will look to lead a comback for both the men and women’s cross country teams, who finished in the bottom half of the ASC Championship last year.

Lady Comets stumble Volleyball team struggles during in UT Tyler matchup tournament, begins season 0-3

MERCURY FILE PHOTO

The volleyball team recorded their worst start to a season since 2005 after falling in the Mary Hardin-Baylor tournament.

Head Coach Marci Sanders said the team will work to identify their strenghts and weaknesses, as well as improve consistency.

YANG XI/STAFF

The Comets were handed their second loss of the season after UT Tyler tied the game on Sept. 1 during the first half, leaving the women unable to recover.

PARTH SAMPAT Mercury Staff

ARAVIND SIVASAILAM Mercury Staff

The women’s soccer team fell 2-4 to UT Tyler in a non-conference home game on Sept. 1.

This is the Comets’ second loss this season, scoring 1-2 to Northwood University on Aug. 30. The Comets are 0-2 for the first time since 2007.

“I think last week was a very humbling and an eye-opening experience for all of us,” said Assistant Coach Katie Challenger. “At this point, it’s just moving forward and taking one game at a time.”

The women had a strong advantage in the first half of the game against UT Tyler when junior forward Carli Beckett tallied her first goal of the season after a free kick from sophomore defender Courtney Walton was deflected by the UT Tyler goalkeeper, grabbing an early 1-0 lead in the 17th

minute. However, the Patriots responded by scoring four goals consecutively, tying the game in the first half and taking the win out of the Comets’ reach when they scored their final goal with just 52 seconds remaining.

UTD finished the game with a goal from junior defender Nicole Frank, who collected her first goal of the season as well.

In the previous match against Northwood, the Comets were down 0-2 in the second half before sophomore midfielder Andrea Guevara knocked a goal past the Northwood goalkeeper to open the team’s tally with just 10 seconds left in the game.

“Honestly, we did not play up to our potential. We have a lot of areas that need to be fixed,” said Head Coach John Antonisse. “I think it’s also about doing the little things right, and we are going to turn this thing around.”

The volleyball team started the 2013 season on a low note as they lost three out of four matches at the Mary Hardin-Baylor tournament in Belton.

The Comets started the tournament with three consecutive losses before earning their first win in the final match, recording a 0-3 start to the season for the first time since 2005.

The team, led by Head Coach Marci Sanders, returned with eight

players from a squad that broke the school record for wins last season.

The squad lost its two highest scoring players, Dana Hilzendager and Halea Williams, who graduated last year.

Solid start for men’s soccer PARTH SAMPAT Mercury Staff

The men’s soccer team started strong on the road with a 5-0 win over Whitman College in Colorado Springs at the Colorado College Tournament on Aug. 31.

This is the first time since 2010-11 that the team has started the season with a win.

The Comets had a goal-scoring frenzy when they found the back of the net four times in the first half. Three of the four

goals came in a span of nine minutes followed by a fourth goal in the same half and a lone goal in the second half. Junior goalkeeper Steven Nicknish started his season with a clean sheet and shut down Whitman’s offense.

“We played really well against Whitman on Saturday, and we controlled the tempo of the game throughout the match,” said Head Coach Jason Hirsch. “We also did a fantastic job of taking advantage of our chances when they presented themselves,

especially in the first half.”

The opening goal came from an attempt by sophomore forward and midfielder Omar Jaroun with an assist from sophomore midfielder Travis White. Jaroun scored twice in the match with his second goal coming in the second half of the match. Junior forward Michael Darrow added to the tally five minutes later with an assist from senior forward and midfielder

THE MERCURY

“We are playing a very difficult preseason schedule,” Sanders said. “We knew with the loss of our top two point scorers that we needed to expose this young squad to some challenges early so we could see our strengths and weaknesses.”

The Comets played their first match against Trinity on Aug. 30 and lost 25-21, 13-25, 25-20, 25-21. Junior middle blocker and outside hitter Taylor Toso and freshman middle blocker Michelle Toro finished the match with 10 kills each and scored 13.5 and 12 points respectively.

The team lost to Wayland Baptist the same day in straight sets with the opponents scoring 25-19, 25-18, 25-20. The Comets hit a meager .184 percent as a team. Toso again led the team with six kills while sophomore outside hitter Meredith Crawford contributed with five kills.

The losing streak continued the next day as they lost a tightly contested five-set match against Southwestern 25-21, 22-25, 25-15, 20-25, 8-15. The team took the first and third set and could have won the match

Sports

SEPT. 9, 2013 in four sets, but eventually went on to lose in five sets.

Sanders said lack of consistency resulted in the losses.

“We played well at times, but inevitably made too many unforced errors, especially late in sets,” Sanders said. “We also had two starting freshmen getting injured and were not able to play the entire tournament.”

A major improvement occurred the next day when Toso scored 16 kills while Crawford added 15 kills. Crawford also led the team with 36 digs and the Comets hit 0.202 for the match.

The Comets finished the tournament on a high with a win over Huston-Tillotson in straight sets and hit 0.297 for the 75-minute match, while their opponents scored a miserable 0.049 for the match.

The win was the 200th victory for Sanders and the volleyball program. Crawford led the team with 15 kills, followed by Toro with 6 kills.

With the 2013 season having a new single-league format, the road ahead does not look easy for the Comets as they will be facing the teams from the West league for the first time. However, Sanders is confident that her team will rise up to the

challenge.

“Fewer home games, more away and neutral games I think will lead to more upsets,” Sanders said. “Additionally, our conference coaching has improved tremendously making every team better.”

Sanders hopes that with a little bit of time, the team will start making better decisions and reduce the number of unforced errors. The key to success lies in improved serving, receiving and defense, she said.

A healthy and full squad will be a necessity if the Comets are to be considered contenders for the title this year.

With another difficult preseason tournament at California Lutheran, the Comets will hope to play better and take the positives from these few games with them.

“We need to see where we are with nationally ranked opponents,” Sanders said. “This will show us what we are excelling in and areas where we need improvement. This is a great opportunity to see where we need to be in October.”

The Comets will face Chapman and California Lutheran on Sept. 6 and ClaremontMudd-Scripts and La Verne on Sept. 7.

Sports writers and photographers are invited to join our award-winning staff.

No experience necessary, but hustle is always a plus.

sports@utdmercury.com

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MERCURY FILE PHOTO

The men’s soccer team started their season with a win for the first time since 2010-2011. The Comets scored an impressive four out of five goals during the first half of a game against Whitman College.

Benjamin Tijerina.

The Comets were awarded a penalty kick two minutes after the second goal for a foul on Darrow as he tried to get open for a cross from a corner kick. Junior midfielder Bryan Shiba easily converted the spot kick and picked up the Comets’ third goal.

Freshman forward Michael Matthews finished off the scoring for the half at 36:40 with an assist from freshman midfielder Connor Crabtree, who was playing his first collegiate game.

“Scoring goals in soccer is very

difficult, and scoring four first half goals was very unusual,” Hirsch said. “I hope that we can continue to score four goals in the first half of matches throughout the season, but it’s not something you expect on a regular basis.”

The second half was a more subdued affair on the Comets’ part as they scored only one goal.

The Comets were out-shot 20-14 in the match, but managed to maintain a clean sheet as Nicknish blocked all the shots.

“They played a bit better, and we didn’t finish our chances the same way we did in the first half,” Hirsch said. “I believe we still controlled the game, but the ball didn’t find its way into the net the

same way it did in the first half.”

The Comets’ game scheduled for Aug. 31 against Colorado College was cancelled due to severe weather.

Hirsch doesn’t expect to make drastic changes to the team’s play and was happy with his team’s performance.

“We did really well on Saturday, and I would like to build on that performance,” Hirsch said.

“You can always improve, and so we will be working hard this week in training to be prepared for two really tough matches this weekend in Abilene.”

The Comets will face Southwestern on Sept. 6 and Trinity on Sept. 7 in Abilene, TX.

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12 Continued expansion leads to new dining options on campus WWW.UTDMERCURY.COM

SRAYAN GUHATHAKURTA

Changes in menu items, hours of operation and dining options were implemented this fall as UTD works to better match demand.

Alison Jenkins, marketing manager of Dining Services, said there has been a 50 percent expansion in dining since 2010.

“With the influx of (more) students, we felt responsible to have extra seating,” said Carrie Chutes, manager of Auxiliary Services. “So we have strategized from a seating standpoint at all of our venues. We are also putting steps in place for further expansion, which would be the opening of a second dining hall next fall.”

The food truck added a second location to its route between the new Edith O’Donnell Arts & Technology Building and the Jindal School of Management from 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. In addition, it will continue to park between Residence Hall South and West between 8 p.m. and midnight Monday through Thursday.

A new hot dog cart will also be introduced this semester.

While customers are currently only able to pay with cash or credit card at the food truck, Chutes said Dining Services is working to allow payment with Comet Cards.

Jenkins said Dining Services are in tandem with UTD’s direction of evolving into a residential campus. With students, faculty and staff on campus at varying hours working, Dining Services have worked to roll out a layered approach toward service options. The idea is to have food venues, such as the dining hall, The Pub or the food truck open until the late hours, she said. Hours for The Pub are 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and 3-8 p.m. on Saturday.

Saturday hours for Subway and Chick-fil-a inside the Comet Café have changed to 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. instead of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. last semester.

The Pub saw refurbishment this semester with new printed menus, new flat screen TVs and an improved sound system.

The Pub’s menu, however, has been shortened, discontinuing items such as the cheese ravioli and hummus with pita bread.

“We have restructured the menu to make it more consistent with results from student surveys across the country,” Jenkins said.

The dining hall will introduce reusuable to-go containers this semester to replace the styrofoam containers. Students who wish to use this service pay a $5 fee for the school year and will receive a token. Students then deposit the token to have their meals packed in the container and are issued a new token when they return the container.

James Paul, resident district manager of Dining Services, said students should be vocal about what they would like to see or change in regards to food options on campus.

“Never ask permission for what you guys are going to be the end users for,” Paul said. “Be proactive on the social network, and speak to us through the several avenues to communicate in a structured approach. Tell us about the food, hours, the service, the menu.”

Some students have proposed ideas to help make dining more affordable.

“It would be great if we could have a loyalty program for students who eat (often) at venues like the Comet Café, just like there are bonus dining dollars,” said telecommunications engineering graduate student Ashwin Wuluvarana.

To provide feedback to Dining Services, students can visit their homepage on the UTD website and fill out the comments section.

lax about things, then you’re going to fail,” Gutierrez said. “I think it should be a motivator for us. I think students should evolve to the circumstances.”

The rising costs of a college education are probably forcing more people to work, Galvan said. More students use their loans to pay for room and board now than 20 years ago, he said.

McElroy said that although young adults do tend to have higher poverty rates, those who are completing a college education increase their possible earnings and labor prospects.

On the other hand, there’s a growing concern that college graduates are getting paid much less now than what they might’ve made three years prior, Galvan said.

“That’s sort of a position that people are in, especially graduates from 2008 through now,” Galvan said. “They’re going into a soft job market where if they want to get a job, they are going to have to take less than what they once thought the job was worth. That

does affect them for the rest of their lives.”

There’s a growing tension in this idea about whether or not college is a place that should teach you how to get a job.

There’s a demand from students that college be a license to get a job, Galvan said.

“I don’t think we can depend too much on school to prepare us for a job,” said economics senior Tra Tran.

“The school system cannot be perfect.

It already prepares us to some extent, but it’s our responsibility as well.”

Galvan said students often have to choose between making the money they need versus taking a job in their field that they just spent four years of tuition on.

Gutierrez said she believes a student’s choice of major may determine whether he or she moves past low income.

“I think poverty will wear out for the people who have decided on a major after educating themselves on the job outlook and know that there’s going to be a job and a salary for them when they get out,” Gutierrez said. “College is an investment, not a necessity.”

Mercury Staff

very well,” Pankratz said.

Some students may have a different opinion of how UTD would rank.

Biochemistry freshman Alina Esenalieva said she took out $5,500 in federal loans per year while her family pays the rest. She said her family is neither rich nor poor, and if she would rank UTD based on Obama’s criteria on a scale from 1-10, she would likely give the university a 6 or 7.

Biology freshman Kailee Magyar said she took out $23,000 in private loans in addition to $5,500 in federal loans. Despite her loans, however, she gave UTD credit for its abundance

of scholarships. She said her family is upper-middle class, and when asked how she would rank UTD, she said she would probably rank the school a 6.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Obama said he plans to cap student loans at 10 percent of the student’s family income and start a campaign encouraging students to take part in loan-repayment programs, which a White House budget proposal said would cost about $6 billion over 10 years. Obama said he will work to implement his new ranking system by 2015 and begin allocating federal funds based on rank by 2018.

Additional reporting done by Sheila Dang

News 19 percent in 2011. It found a decrease, however, in alcohol and tobacco use for the same age group.

Drug use was found to be highest among individuals in the their late teens and early twenties — 22 percent of fulltime college students aged 18-22 reported use of illicit drugs — the NSDUH survey of more than 70,000 households claimed.

The trend at UTD is similar to those nationwide where the number of arrests on campus due to illegal possession and consumption of drugs has increased more than 200 percent from nine in 2009 to 28 in 2011, according to UTDPD’s most recent Clery Report, even though the enrolment has only gone up by 26 percent in the same time period.

The number of arrests for drug violations has doubled in the apartments and residence halls in the same time.

The number of arrests for liquor violations on campus increased from 64 in 2009 to 76 in 2010, but decreased to 70 in 2011. A similar trend was displayed in on-campus housing, where the numbers went up from 56 to 72 in 2010 and then down to 54 in 2011.

In the past month alone, UTDPD recorded six cases of drug and alcohol related violations involving UTD students during the summer break, five of which were in the University Village apartments.

However, not all illicit drug users, or users who consume drugs deemed illegal

by United Nations, fall prey to substance abuse.

Substance abuse, or the frequent consumption of unsupervised or illicit drugs and alcohol leading to dependence, is more likely to develop among those who try them when they are young, said Francesca Filbey, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Repeated alcohol and substance abuse in adolescence can lead to structural and functional changes in brain development leading to decreased performance in the classroom, a recent study at the University of Maryland sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, found.

Chronic users of marijuana (more than 17 times a month) were twice as likely to drop out of college as those who used less than once a month, the study stated, and dependence on drugs led to graduation delays and unemployment.

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SEPT. 9, 2013

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Trace McCaslin, an emerging media and communications junior, talks about his experience growing up with parents who had substance abuse problems and how students facing similar challenges can be helped.

More than 13 percent of the adults who tried marijuana when they were 14 years or younger were seen to have illicit drug dependence, the NSDUH survey found.

Among adults who consumed alcohol for the first time when they were 14 or younger, 16.1 percent were found to develop alcohol addiction.

“Adolescence is a very critical neurodevelopmental period so anything we expose our brains to at that period of time can definitely have long-lasting effects on how our brain works,” Filbey said.

While each drug induces different physiological effects on adolescents, all drugs increase the sensitivity of the human brain toward rewards, she said.

The brain is wired to make sure humans repeat activities, like eating, by associating those activities with either pleasure or reward, according to the NIDA. Whenever this reward circuit is activated, the brain remembers and repeats the action that caused it, without thinking — in this case, use of alcohol or drugs leading to an addiction.

In addition, drugs target genes like the dopamine coding genes and the cannaboid receptor genes, Filbey said. Any variants of these genes can increase an individual’s likelihood to consume illicit drugs, she said.

Although one-time use of an illicit substance won’t lead to an addiction, the biggest challenge for college students, even with drinking, is to be able to handle the consequences and take responsibility for their actions, McCaslin said.

Identifying that there is a problem and

approaching someone for help can prove to be another major challenge, as most students who start consuming illicit drugs at a young age are reluctant to acknowledge they have a problem, said Jim Cannici, director of the Student Counseling Center.

Cases where illicit drug users themselves approach for help constitute only 5 percent of the total cases that come to the Counseling Center, he said. The others are brought in through judicial referrals after they are caught, and the Counseling Center is required to make an assessment of the student’s involvement in substance abuse, but not required to treat them, Cannici said.

While public shaming of those with an addiction won’t help them change, educating high school and college students about the effects and consequences of drug and alcohol consumption will go a long way toward helping adolescents pace themselves and making them aware of the side effects, McCaslin said.

Despite growing up with an absentee mother with an addiction and an alcoholic father, McCaslin understood why April needed to escape from her unhappy school days and find solace in drugs, he said.

“I can see how giving up a habit can be a problem; I can see it with the little tiny things that I do … I think what my mom had to do was 10,000 times more difficult,” McCaslin said. “She had to give up a habit that was not only physically inducing, but it was also something that made her feel like she really needed it.”

In Brief First reported sexual assault on campus in three years A UTD student reported being sexually assaulted on Aug. 30 in her dorm room in Residence Hall West.

The alleged assailant, who is not a UTD student, was arrested late evening Sept. 6.

The crime report, filed on Sept. 2 stated the incident occurred between late Aug. 30 night and early Aug. 31 morning.

The victim knew the alleged accused, and there was no sign of forced

entry into the dorm, said Lt. Ken Mackenzie from UTDPD. Criminal proceedings will be pursued against the alleged assailant, who is currently being held in Collin County jail, even if the victim does not press criminal charges.

UTDPD informed the Dean of Students’ Office of the incident, but the university will not pursue disciplinary action, as the alleged assailant is not affiliated to UTD, said Gene Fitch,

dean of students.

UTD will assist the victim with counseling and other resources, Fitch said.

This is the first reported sexual assault on campus since 2010, and the single report filed in 2010 was found to be false after a university investigation, according to UTDPD’s Clery Report.

-Anwesha Bhattacharjee