The Mercury 9/30/19

Sept. 30, 2019

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Students strike against climate change PATRICIA MATHU Mercury Staff

THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

Two environmentally-focused clubs at UTD headed to downtown Dallas to participate in a global protest to draw attention towards climate change.

On Sept. 20, the Environmental Conservation Organization and the Citizens Climate Lobby took part in the international global climate strike. With an estimated 4 million people striking globally, UTD students participated in the international discourse about climate justice and sustainability.

The global climate strike, also known as the

Global Week for Future, was a series of strikes from Sept. 20-27. The international culmination of events that took place on Sept. 20, including the strike UTD students attended in Dallas, made world history as the largest protests about climate change.

Inspired by figures like 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg, the Facebook page advertising the strike said it “is about much more than emissions and scientific metrics — it’s about fighting for a just and sustainable world.” Global business senior Helia Alaghemand, who serves as ECO’s president, said

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SARINA MAK | COURTESY

Two UTD organizations marched in the global climate strike in Dallas on Sept. 20.

Leukemia patient inspires UTD team Volleyball players honor child during fundraiser for pediatric cancer

MINH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

Mechanical engineering senior Greta Suchy began going barefoot in her freshman year of college, saying the practice helps her feel closer to nature.

DOUGLAS FEJER | COURTESY

A volleyball game was held in honor of leukemia patient Kaitlyn Johnson (left).

MARCO SALINAS

How one student has spent the past few years of her life almost completely barefoot

News Editor

The Comets volleyball team honored nineyear old leukemia patient Kaitlyn Renee Johnson with their third straight sweep at the fifth annual Gold Game against LeTourneau.

Johnson has been with the team since the fall of 2015, when the first Gold Game was played in September, which is childhood cancer awareness month. The game served as a fundraising event to help those with childhood cancer. Volleyball head coach Marci Allison said adding Johnson to the roster helps keep the game in perspective.

“Over these five years we’ve just kind of tried to figure out ways to incorporate her more and include her more and share her story with our players, not only that were there then but (that) have come along since we have had Kaitlyn with us,” Allison said.

Between sets, Johnson and her fellow Royce City Bulldog cheerleaders performed their routines for the roaring audience of 545 guests, the largest for a home game this season.

For their part, the Comets landed 49 kills to LeTourneau’s 24. Leading the Comets in kills was freshman outside hitter Catherine Croft with 12 kills and one ace. The Comets finished the game 25-17, 25-17 and 25-16. Since 2015, the Gold Game has grown in number and in support, Allison said.

Kaitlyn’s father, James Johnson, said that having her at the Gold Game helps to promote awareness and brings the issue of childhood cancer close to home. The team has also been supportive of Kaitlyn, Johnson said.

“There was a time when Kaitlyn got pretty sick one day and several of the girls showed up and — even including their dog — came (to) hang out with Kaitlyn for a little while just to

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No shoes, no problem STORY BY: AYOUNG JO | LIFE & ARTS EDITOR PHOTOS BY: MINH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

U

niversity students have the freedom to wear anything they like, from pajamas to tuxedos. Every day, rain or shine, one UTD student traverses the campus with no shoes.

Mechanical engineering senior Greta Suchy has been living the no-shoes lifestyle for three years now. Growing up homeschooled, Suchy said it was natural for her to walk barefoot inside and sometimes outside of the house. The first time she went without shoes in public, Suchy said, was when she attended a community college while in high school.

“There was one day that I was late for the bus or something,” Suchy said. “I was like, ‘Hey! I could save two seconds by not putting these shoes on,’ and I thought it was kind of fun.”

Suchy said she wore shoes for the first several months of being at UTD. However, that changed on Halloween of her freshman year, when she

dressed up as Bilbo Baggins, a character from “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”

“It wasn’t like an elaborate costume or anything, but I didn’t wear shoes for that, and I was like, ‘Hey, this works!’”

Suchy said. “And basically after that, I didn’t wear shoes.”

Suchy said she chooses not to wear shoes for several reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is that she likes being barefoot and feeling different textures on her feet.

“I just like the way it feels, especially when it rains,” Suchy said. “I think some people don’t like wet feet, but I just like to feel more connected with nature.”

Suchy said walking barefoot has also allowed her to meet different people on campus, which is another reason she continues to do so.

“I enjoy the random times when people would stop me and ask why I’m not wearing my shoes,” Suchy said. “I get a chance to talk to random peo-

→ SEE BAREFOOT,

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CHIAMAKA MGBOJI | GRAPHICS EDITOR

Sept. 30, 2019 | The Mercury

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THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM Volume XXXIX No. 44

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Contributors Alesandra Bell Sarah Besserer Alex Cantu Charlie Chang Grace Chang Pranati Chitta Ethan Christopher Bianca Del Rio Lauren Duernberger Emily Gao Amina Hussain Astrid Hernandez Ruhma Khan Roshan Khichi Chinh Le Patricia Mathu Luis Partida Shelby Perez Keaton Nations Elizabeth Nguyen Minh Nguyen Louise Nillas Cecilia Romero Andrew Sanchez Larry Shen Quinn Sherer Sarah Streety Anjali Venna

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Sept. 30, 2019 | The Mercury

3

NEWS

Religious group accused of soliciting at UV DART Members of The Church of God approached student residents in apartments to discuss ‘God the Mother’

breaks ground on Silver Line MADISON YORK Mercury Staff

MINH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

A representative for The Church of God said members of the group did not realize they could not solicit to residents of University Village apartments.

EMILY GAO Mercury Staff

A religious organization at UTD is responding to student concerns after reports surfaced of various members soliciting residents in University Village.

Although the Senate Bill 18, which took effect on Sept. 1, allows canvassing by non-university affiliated groups on campus, solicitation is still prohibited in University Village, which is considered private property. The University Housing resident handbook instructs residents to inform solicitors of the rule against all types of solicitation and to contact UTDPD. An alert on the Wildfire safety app that reached over 1,900 in-app views warned that UTD students have been approached at university housing by members of the World Mission Society Church of God in an attempt to engage them in conversation about “God the Mother.” ATEC senior Mary Braden shared her experience on the app and said that representatives from the Elohim Bible Study Club, the

UTD branch of the Church of God, approached her twice at her previous apartment in university village in the fall of 2017 and 2018. “(The first time), there was a knock on my door, I come to it, and there are a few people standing around,” Braden said. “They start talking to me like, ‘Hey, do you know what God the Mother is?’”

University Village does not have any policies in place to prevent solicitors at student housing. “(University Village policy is) just what’s written in the handbook,” said Matthew Grief, associate vice president for student affairs. “If there (are) solicitors there and they don’t leave when they’re asked, call the police and ask for assistance.”

After the representatives from Elohim Bible Study Club left Braden’s apartment, she was instructed by her Peer Advisor to report the incident to UTDPD. “I called PD, and about two hours later an officer came to my door. He took my statement but said that as long as they’re not soliciting payment, try-

ing to force themselves in, or asking you to go somewhere, they’re allowed to be on campus,” Braden said. “I felt kind of hopeless.”

The Elohim Bible Study Club no longer goes door-to-door for recruitment purposes.

“We had bible studies with students in the UTD apartments (and) invited others in the building, not realizing this wasn’t allowed,” said Brianna Redick, the off-campus advisor to the Elohim Bible Study Club. “UTD police met with us and informed us (of ) the student housing rules.”

Although the incidents were reported to and addressed by UTDPD, UTD Housing Operations was unaware of any solicitation at University Village.

“I haven’t (heard about solicitors at University Village),” Grief said. “A response to a student concern is usually how we find out about somebody who’s not supposed to be (there).”

According to the official website of The Church of God, the church was established in 1964 in Korea by a man named Ahnsahnghong, who members

believe is the second coming of Christ.

The official mission of the Church of God is to “save all mankind” and the church has received awards for its community service initiatives.

“That day everyone in the (building) group chat was Googling this group and (they were) like, ‘This is a cult.

There’s human trafficking,’” Braden said. “We were all a little weirded out that they were allowed to be on campus to begin with.”

Local police departments in Pennsylvania and Georgia have issued apology letters to the church in response to rumors about human trafficking, and a police investigation at Kennesaw State University found no evidence of involvement in any criminal activity by the church.

“Elohim Bible Study Club will continue to share God’s love with students on campus,” Redick said. “It’s important to us that all people have a chance to learn about God the Father, and God the Mother and receive the water of life from God Elohim, including the students at UTD.”

Representatives from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Richardson officials, university administration and students gathered together on Sept. 19 for the groundbreaking of the DART Silver Line.

Richard Benson, president of UTD, said in a speech at the event that the new Silver Line will pair perfectly with the already established transit-oriented development, Northside apartments.

“UT Dallas will benefit greatly from the enhanced transportation options that the Silver Line makes possible,” Benson said.

“We have transitioned from having no bus service for our campus to (having) one of DART’s fastest growing routes, serving almost 1.5 million riders.”

Gary Thomas, CEO of DART, said in his speech that the Silver Line is scheduled to be completed by midnight on December 31, 2022.

“The Silver Line is one of those projects that, as a project, connects Plano, Richardson, Dallas, Addison, Carrollton, Coppell and Grapevine,” Thomas said. “And we’re going to DFW airport for this project.”

In addition to providing transportation to and from the airport, Paul Voelker, Mayor of Richardson, said the Silver Line will help encourage growth in the area around UTD. “Patience is a virtue, and this project proves that,” Voelker said. “This Silver Line will pay dividends for our residents, and our businesses, and this university for so many years to come.”

Voelker also said that this project wouldn’t have come to fruition without the network of individuals — within Richardson, DART and UTD — who worked to make construction of the Silver Line possible.

“I get to stand on some pretty broad shoulders: people that had the vision and the insight and the fortitude to start this, but more importantly, to see it through,” Voelker said. “I look forward to standing on this platform and going to DFW and beyond.”

Texas company on track to build nation’s first bullet train Texas Central’s petition for rule of particular applicability approved by administration

GRACE CHANG | MERCURY STAFF

Jennifer Holmes was announced as EPPS Dean on Sept. 12.

Q&A: New EPPS Dean Jennifer Holmes

CHIAMAKA MGBOJI | GRAPHICS EDITOR

RUHMA KHAN Mercury Staff

What did you receive your undergrad and graduate degrees in, and what made you want to study those disciplines in the first place?

Oh boy. My undergrad degree was in political science at the University of Chicago. Then I went — I hate to say it — straight to graduate school to study political science at the University of Minnesota.

I always liked politics. I never wanted to study American politics because I was active in American politics, and I didn’t want to study what I just wanted to participate in. But I was always very interested in comparative politics, and, in particular, Latin America. So, not sure how that started from Minnesota — because I grew up in Minnesota — not a lot of people speak Spanish up there, everyone speaks German, a little Scandinavian, maybe some Norwegian, and I decided, I want to learn Spanish.

You mentioned you were active in American politics. Could you kind of

dive into that a little more?

Well, you know, I always liked politics. Growing up, my mother was a city council person and on a planning commission — she helped run a congressional campaign when I was really young. I have triplet older sisters, so she has pictures of my sisters dressed up with these little candidate hats and things like that. Kind of grew up around it, and I really liked it. And as a high school student, I would be involved in bringing a congressperson to campus, that sort of thing. But I never wanted to study American politics. So, then I went to Chicago as an undergrad, and got into Latin American studies — that just kind of started it — but I was really interested in U.S.-Latin American relations. So, specifically, there’s a lot — there was a lot going on in Latin America in the 20th century, right? We had U.S. interventions, we had regime instability, democratic breakdown, democratization,

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PAGE 8

A Texas-based company is aiming to build the nation’s first bullet train.

Railway company Texas Central is undertaking the project. The train will run between North Texas, Houston and the Brazos Valley area.The proposed train will be an N700 series Shinkansen and is currently privately funded by investors.

Holly Reed, managing director of external affairs said the two federal approvals necessary before the project can get to construction are an environmental approval and a safety approval, called a rule of particular applicability.

Texas Central’s petition for a rule of particular applicability has been approved by the Federal Railroad Administration.

“The action by the Federal Railroad Administration a week and a half ago is a major milestone forward. That is movement of one of the two federal approvals that need to happen to get to construction,” Reed said.

Texas Central estimates the construction period will be five to six years. According to their website, tickets will have a variable

pricing model, with high-end tickets costing about as much as a plane ticket while low-end tickets will have pricing competitive with the cost of driving.

Reed said the environmental draft process has been underway for years with the draft of the environmental impact statement from the FRA coming out in late 2017.

“The draft environmental impact statement is a document that comes from the Federal Railroad Administration; it is over 5000 pages and looks at whether the project should be built, and if it’s built, how to build it in a way that is least impactful for communities and the environment,” Reed said. “The results of that draft coming out were that it should be built.”

Reed said the project will be the first true high-speed train in the United States.

“It is the preferred environmentally friendly way to travel between Houston and North Texas because it is a very clean alternative, it’s powered by overhead electric,” Reed said. “It is a very efficient, aerodynamic way to travel and we already know that there are 16 million trips being made between (Houston and North Texas) each year and growing because Texas’s population is growing.”

The train will be an alternative solution to air pollution in Texas as the population grows and will be less impactful on the environment than building new roads or flying, Reed said.

“In addition, we can build the train as the population grows. You don’t have to build incremental lanes, and service roads and development. You build a train once and just run it more frequently when there are more people,” she said.

Reed said the company has agreements with landowners on 30% of the parcels necessary to build the rail.

“There’s no perfect way to measure progress. If you use acres, if you use miles, if you use parcels, they all have a little bit of a struggle for how to account for what one agreement is. We have chosen to measure success by parcels because that is an agreement that we have with landowners,” Reed said. “We view this as a very personal experience, so we want to track our progress by how many of those agreements on each piece of land we’ve come to.”

The company’s website states that the 240mile project will cost over $12 billion and construction could begin as early as this year.

4

LIFE&ARTS

Sept. 30, 2019 | The Mercury

game space:

INSIDE UTD’S GAMING COMMUNITY

RYAN MAGEE | VIDEO EDITOR

A group of students gather around on of three TVs to play “Super Smash Bros” together in the game room on the first floor of the Student Union.

EMAAN BANGASH Managing Editor

On any given day, a small lounge on the lower level of the Student Union is packed with numerous students gathered around tabletops and TVs. A group of three students buzz around their laptops, clicking away at an “Overwatch” game they just queued up. A rowdier crowd can be seen cheering at people competing against one another in “Super Smash Bros," their fingers flying on their controllers. There are people sitting nearby with headphones in their ears bent over calculus homework. This microcosm is the game room, teeming with noisy life, and an important place for many students who consider this their second home.

Joseph Gibbs, a criminology senior, came to the game room for the first time in 2016 with a friend after transferring from another college.

He said they immediately hit it off with some students playing card games, and he hasn’t stopped coming since.

“We jumped in and played the game and before you know it, you're knowing who these people are who (become) friends come in the next day like, ‘Hey, what's going on? I’ve got a game, you know how to play?’ or something like that,” Gibbs said. “It was pretty open, inviting, fun and crazy.”

The concept of a game room at UTD isn’t new, and students at UTD have been gaming since the Student Union was created in 1981.

Student Union Assistant Director Andrew Helgeson said he has worked at the SU for the past 16 years, and when he became assistant director in 2008, the room was called the TV Lounge and was filled with beanbags, one sixfoot tall box TV and eight round tables.

“Occasionally we'd hand out board games and people may (have) played in there, but that was it. And it would get a little stuffy because the doors would always be closed. It was an enclosed area. It was just a group of kids that played cards nonstop,” Helgeson said. “After a few years, it would get really messy in there.

It kinda had a funky smell to it. So we would talk about, it'd be a good idea to open up that wall and make it more inclusive of the whole environment of the union on the first floor.”

Helgeson said in 2015-2016, after receiving input from students about opening up the game room, the room was upgraded to include new furniture, flat screen TVs on the wall and sitting areas. Students were able to bring their own consoles and plug them in. Now, about 2,000 people pass through the room per month, or up to 40 people at any given time every day, Helgeson said.

“People are in there all the time and it's kind of become like a little self-sustained commu-

nity of people that are in there. We see regulars every day in there in between classes. They're probably even skipping class. You never know,” Helgeson said. “But it's pretty cool. They are their own little community. I don't really know any of them by name, but you know, we see them all the time.”

Gibbs said he comes to the game room anytime he’s not in class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and spends his time meeting with friends, gaming or catching up on studies. He said the variety of activities and types of people in the room creates a more open, welcoming environment.

“It's variety. It's a different variety. I mean you can look around, you have different people playing games. You know, it's open to everybody. It's not exclusive. It's not for men only or girls or only the young people play this. I'm the oldest in this room and yet I play ‘Overwatch’ with these guys every now and then,” Gibbs said. “And I was playing here once and someone was like ‘Oh hey, you play ‘Overwatch?’’ I was like ‘Yeah I do. What are you playing?’ You connect off.”

Computer science senior Walter Han spends his time in the game room to play games with friends or study, since he prefers to work in a noisy environment. One person usually brings new games every now and then for the people in the room to try such as anime

MINH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

fighting games and golf simulators, and rarely does a game get judged harshly, Han said.

“We're pretty darn open about games.

I mean we don't really judge anybody for their choice in games for the most part.

As long as it's within reason,” Han said. “I mean we really don't care, and frankly, most times we're pretty willing to strike up a conversation with anybody.”

Along with playing games, people in the game room gather to watch game conferences, game reveals and talk about the lat-

est game releases. ATEC junior Jacqueline Thorpe said although the room is quite loud most of the time, it gets really noisy and excitable every now and then during more intense card games or fighting game matches, and the existence of so many people with common interests in gaming and anime makes it a welcoming environment.

“I think we're a lot more friendly with regards to gamers and geeky culture in general.

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PAGE 8

Group of students help raise, train future service animals UTD students care for puppies to become skilled companion, facility dogs

AMINA HUSSAIN | MERCURY STAFF

Business administration sophomore Aubrey Rowan has been training her labrador Colby since May of this year.

ANJALI VENNA Mercury Staff

ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF

Amidst the bustle of sneakers and sandals on pavement is the steady tread of four paws directed to the same classes and buildings as students.

These service dogs help UTD students with disabilities in their everyday lives. Heather Dragoo, the Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator at UTD, said the university does not require a student to register their service dog. Service dogs fall under Title 2 of the ADA which allows a service dog to accompany their handler in all public spaces.

“We, institutionally, recommend the student notify the Office of Student AccessAbility,” Dragoo said. “If there is some issue, whether it's with the dog or with the setting, we are in the best position to be able to address it quickly if we know about it in advance.”

One student with a service dog is biomedical engineering freshman Jackson Winn who is accompanied by a black labra-

dor named Tucker. Winn got Tucker when he was in sixth grade after being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.

“Whenever I start getting stressed and spiraling into negative emotions, his job is nodding me out of that,” Winn said. “He's very serious and laid back, but it's very obvious when he's concerned because he’ll be right up in my face or put his hand on my leg or lick me.”

Several students on campus are raising puppies that could eventually become service dogs. According to State of Texas Code Section 121.003i, service dogs in training are not denied entry to public settings when accompanied by an approved trainer.

Biology freshman Jessica Loucks is a puppy-raiser on campus. She trains Reber, a tenmonth-old yellow labrador, for Guide Dogs for the Blind, a non-profit organization that trains dogs for visually impaired individuals.

She has been involved with the Dallas chapter of the organization since her freshman year of high school.

“Since days are structured differently, I

think it's a little easier than high school because you have that eight-hour block day where you can’t take a break to train,” Loucks said. “I also found that there’s a lot more students here and a lot more people who have never seen or interacted with a service dog before, so I find myself explaining what I’m doing a lot.”

Reber has been with Loucks for about a month and he is a transfer dog, a dog that started puppy training but could not stay with their previous trainer. When the dogs are young, Loucks said, puppy-raisers attend weekly training meetings, and once they are older, they attend monthly training meetings and outings.

“As puppy-raisers, we use positive reinforcement, so I always have a bag of kibble on my hip where anytime he does something I want him to or follows directions I give him a piece of kibble to let him know keep doing what you’re doing,” Loucks said. “I’ll find periods in the day where I do mini-trainings, but he’s

→ SEE SERVICE DOG,

PAGE 8

SPORTS

Sept. 30, 2019 | The Mercury

5

THE RACE HOME Collegiate cross-country teams from across Texas compete at UTD for first time

UTD CROSS-COUNTRY | COURTESY

The UTD cross-country teams competed at their first on-campus meet with over 130 students from nine universities.

PATRICIA MATHU Mercury Staff

For the first time in team history, the university’s D-III cross-country teams hosted a home meet in Richardson for a collegiate race.

The UTD Cross-Country Invitational, held at the Practice Tee Golf Center near campus on Sept. 14, made program history as the first home meet.

The men’s team took second place with 63 points to first-place Austin College’s 56, while the women’s team took third with 74 points to first-place HardinSimmons’ 36.

The women’s team had 10 runners finish the race while the men’s team had 13. Their average times were 21:56 and 16:57, respectively. Danielle Kcholi, UTD cross-country coach, said she had

always wanted to have a home meet.

“Being in Dallas, we’re so centrally located,” she said. “It seemed like a good idea.”

The meet drew over 130 students to Richardson from nine universities, including athletes from as far away as University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, 2.5 hours south of UTD. There were also three runners who opted to race without a team.

Junior men’s runner Trent Sakakini finished the five-kilometer course sixth overall with a time of 16:27, moving up from his 11th place finish at Midwestern State on Sept. 5. He said the home meet brought friends and family to the course.

“My parents came, my sister came, my cross-country coach from high school came,” Sakakini said. “It was

cool because they’ve wanted to come see a race but they have never been able to because they’re hours away.”

Being so close to campus, Sakakini also said members of the UTD student body came.

“We had the cheer team and I bet a lot of them haven’t been to a crosscountry meet before,” Sakakini said.

“It was really cool to see the extra support from the student body and other athletics people.”

With upcoming races in Marshall, Abilene and Arkansas, racing close to home was a change of pace, Kcholi said. The last meet for both teams was at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls, over two hours away from campus. The men’s team took second at that race while the women’s team placed fourth.

“It was nice to have the opportunity

to not travel and just be home while we’re training. Also, it was nice to have some of those conference schools come to us because we’re always traveling to them,” she said.

The course involved running a loop three times, and its tight layout made it easy for spectators to see runners multiple times, Sakakini said.

“You can see people five times in any one spot walking 10 feet one way and then 10 feet another way,” Sakakini said.

“It pushed me to see all these people watching me. I can’t slow down at the back of a course. I can’t let them down.”

Senior women’s runner Brittany Parga placed 13th overall with a time of 21:55. She said the footing on the course was challenging.

“That is just Dallas soil,” Parga said.

“I think it was a legit Dallas course. It

is not supposed to be perfectly level or (have) no holes.”

Kcholi said North Texas has been in a drought, making the soil dry and cracked.

“It can never be perfect. It is not on a track,” she said. “There are going to be some spots in the ground that are rocky.”

Kcholi said she has a site in Frisco with better footing that she wants to move the course to. It was under construction this year, but Kcholi said she is looking forward to using it in the future.

Kcholi said that the men and women’s performance at the meet makes her look forward to November, the championship season.

“One thing that makes me excited is our goal to get progressively better,” Kcholi said. “Watching everything click is exciting to see what is going to happen in November.”

Golf team ‘aces’ season opener Freshman breaks records by winning first tournament, scoring eagle in second PRANATI CHITTA Mercury Staff

MINH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

Freshman Karen Alvarez started this season strong with a two-round total score of 150, which is the third-lowest in team history.

Freshman Karen Alvarez had a strong start to her first collegiate golf season, placing first at the team’s opening tournament before matching a school record with a score of 70 in the second round of another invitational.

Alvarez took the top spot at the Lady Bulldog Classic on Sept. 10 with a tworound total of 150, the third-lowest in team history. The Comets took second place overall at the tournament. Alvarez initially tied with Texas Lutheran player Summer Swift before the winner was decided via scorecard tiebreaker.

Alvarez said she began playing golf at the age of five in Venezuela and continued when she moved to Katy in her sophomore year of high school.

“We had a small team (in high school) like here,” Alvarez said. “(Golf ) helped me adjust to everything so it was a big part of my high school career.”

After graduating high school, Alvarez began practicing for collegiate golf.

“During the summer, I wasn’t taking any summer classes or work(ing), so I just practiced really hard and I would spend six hours usually on the course,” Alvarez said. “My coach told me to play collegiate tournaments over the summer, which was when I first played against college kids and

didn’t play well at all.”

Alvarez attributes her mental skills and practice to improving her golf skills from the summer to her first tournament.

“Golf is a very weird sport — you have it or you don’t,” Alvarez said. “It’s also a very mental sport, so for me, it was a mental thing. And after a while of practicing, my swing got better through my coach. A week before going into my first tournament, my swing was so bad, and I fixed it the morning of the tournament. It was definitely a mental change.”

Senior golfer Michelle Edgar also said that mentation is a big part of golf. Edgar took 25th place out of 52 golfers at the Southwest Christian Fall Invitational on Sept. 24 with a two-round total of 161.

“Golf is a very mental sport and (Alvarez is) very mentally mature and is very calm and collected on the course, which is really important for golf,” Edgar said.

“She works very hard at practice and is driven, passionate and motivated. It’s really good to see those things early on because it shows how great she’s going to play in college, and she hasn’t even reached her full capacity yet. It’s exciting to see where she can grow from here.”

Alvarez scored an eagle at the Southwest invitational, matching the school record of 70 and closed out the event in seventh place with a 36-hole total of 146,

breaking junior teammate Lindy Patterson’s record of 148.

“The fact that she performed super well is just awesome, so everyone was super happy for her,” Edgar said. “We were surprised because it’s never really happened.”

Alvarez said that she focuses on being in the moment rather than thinking about the tournament as a whole.

“You’re not really thinking about your end score, you’re just thinking about that one shot in that one moment and what to do with the next shot after that,” She said. “My head was in each shot rather than in the ultimate score so the way I adjust my own game is by each shot and not by the actual number in the end and more importantly shots in the past.”

At their tournament against Southwestern Christian, the Comets broke school records with four players shooting in the 70s, and finished in third place with a two-round team total of 606, the lowest in school history. The Comets have their next tournament on Sept. 30 Oct. 1 against Mary-Hardin Baylor.

“It feels really rewarding, I’m really seeing that all the effort I put in actually comes out,” Alvarez said. “I want to shoot my best and do the best I can do — the lower I can go, the better. I’m just trying to be the best player I can be.”

SAMANTHA LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF

6

COMICS

Sept. 30, 2019 | The Mercury

WORKING HARD AT HARDLY WORKING

WILT

BIANCA DEL RIO | MERCURY STAFF

O&B: FELINE COZY

ELIZABETH NGUYEN| MERCURY STAFF

SARAH STREETY | MERCURY STAFF

IMPORTANT PRESENTATION.PPTX

PARKING LOT PURSUIT

KEATON NATIONS | MERCURY STAFF

LIFE AFTER THE SHOW ENDS

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NO PATIENCE

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METAL BUSTS GET COLD, TOO

THAT'S A GOOD BOY

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OPINION

Sept. 30, 2019 | The Mercury

7

Not my Muslim How Muslims are misrepresented in popular culture

EMAAN BANGASH Managing Editor As a Muslim, I love seeing Islam being represented in TV shows and movies. I get so excited when I see a glimpse of a hijabi in a TV show or Muslim practices being mentioned such as praying or fasting. These depictions help non-Muslims understand how Muslims live their daily lives, which (surprise, surprise) often resembles most peoples’ lives. However, there has been a problematic rise in having Muslim characters do things that are considered extremely taboo in an effort to make them more relatable to larger audiences.

Recently, there have been forms of media coming out that have been portraying Muslims in a much darker, stranger way. Former hijab-wearing girls take off their hijabs and proudly walk into a nearby club. Confused Muslim men frequently sleep with other women or drink in an effort to be relatable.

I’m not saying none of the above ever happens in real life or that you’re a bad Muslim if you do them, but it’s definitely not something the majority does. It’s insulting, juvenile and, frankly, pathetic when I see these shows and can’t relate to the Muslim characters being portrayed. It is entirely insulting when my religion is portrayed as oppressive, its followers trapped by practices thought of as restrictive and subsequently in need of liberation. Why should Muslims have to take off their clothes, have sex or drink to be more relatable as characters?

An example of this phenomenon is in the recently created comedy-drama series on Hulu

“Ramy,” created by and starring stand-up comedian Ramy Youssef. Ramy (who plays himself in the show) is a confused Muslim youth who just wants to get closer to Islam. The show outlines his journey to becoming a better Muslim during the month of Ramadan, a sacred month for Muslims where they abstain from eating food and drinking water from sunrise to sunset. However, throughout the entire month, Ramy has sex with women every other episode, which is forbidden during Ramadan and in general before marriage. He even offers to drive a mother and her child home from the mosque while her husband is away on a trip and they have sex that very night (I’m pretty sure this is okay for absolutely no one, Muslim or not). This serves as a representation of the struggles he faces as a Muslim living in America, but is it really a true representation of Muslim youth overall? Maybe not.

Sex before marriage is a big no-no in Islam.

People definitely do it, but it’s taboo because it undermines the sanctity and value of marriage itself. I’m not going to discount this as a struggle, because avoiding sexual activity or dating before marriage is definitely hard to do as a Muslim in this day and age, but shows like this depict this as literally the only struggle Muslims face when practicing their religion.

It’s not.

Some Muslim parents make their daughters wear a hijab, but it’s pretty much looked down upon to force it because it doesn’t encourage them from an internal motivation. Muslim parents are stereotyped as stupid, hyper-conservative often backwards people completely incapable of kindness or understanding. In the show “Elite,” a Muslim character named Nadia wears hijab (by choice!), but ends up

ASTRID HERNANDEZ| MERCURY STAFF

rebelling against her conservative parents by taking it off and heading to a club. She’s shown to be “liberated” after she takes it off because now she has the chance to have sexual encounters, drink and go to clubs. It’s so demeaning to see this because, most of the time, Muslim parents aren’t backwards extremist tyrants, and a hijab liberates rather than restricts the wearer.

To be clear, the purpose of hijab is generally to observe modesty and make people see you for your character rather than your looks. These shows make it seem like hijab is just meant to restrict women in Islam and reinforce the tired age-old stereotype that women can’t make their own decisions and have very little rights

in Islam.

Muslims have very detailed but simple methods to practice their faith, such as required daily prayers and observing modesty in their dress and manners. However, these come with their own struggles. Trying to find a place and time to pray for each of the five prayers every day can be exhausting and difficult. Observing hijab is hard when covered clothes that you don’t sweat like a pig in are hard to come by, especially in Texas. Being subject to everyone’s opinion about the way you dress, how you act with the opposite sex and your beliefs — all of which are closely connected with your religion — is a struggle. In a college environment,

trying to stay away from drinking alcohol and doing drugs is harder than it seems. These are seldom shown in forms of media and, rather, extremes such as sexual intercourse have been portrayed as the only thing Muslims can do to feel liberated. I know for a fact there are nonMuslims out there who don’t engage in sexual activity frequently, so why is this an indicator of relevance and relatability for Muslims?

Why is this such a problem? Because it makes us average everyday Muslims look heinous and backwards when we’re just living our lives. If we avoid sex, drugs, alcohol or try to

→ SEE MUSLIM,

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DARTing toward a solution Why public transit still needs improvement MARCO SALINAS News Editor

ALESANDRA BELL| MERCURY STAFF

Dallas Area Rapid Transit has a tough job. It has to cater to the needs of commuters going to and from Dallas proper and the many surrounding suburbs as well as get people living in the densely populated pockets of Dallas where they need to be without using a car. DART’s directors have shown a desire to improve DART’s performance, but local politics, an area many students usually ignore, often stunt their progress.

For my commute, I can either drive 20 minutes or take anywhere from one hour and 20 minutes to an hour and 40 minutes with the DART. Having buses arrive early or late makes it even harder for students and commuters to rely on DART. But the blame doesn’t fall solely

on DART. Many suburban areas recognize this problem. Yet, development plans to improve public transit access and performance have been met with waves of criticism. The Plano Tomorrow plan, for example — which includes plans to increase the number of public transit options in Plano — has faced considerable criticism, including an attempted repealing by city council members and a resident-led petition demanding a repeal of the plan.

The Plano Tomorrow plan also designates areas to be used for mixed-use residential developments that include apartments and social spaces. Groups like Plano Future are against the Plano Tomorrow plan and distribute prewritten letters for detractors of the Tomorrow plan to sign and send to the Plano Planning and Zoning Commission. The letter critiques potential increases in population that the Plano Tomorrow plan could cause, saying the population growth should be modest to con-

tinue Plano’s “suburban form.”

This years’ election for Plano City Council’s Place 7 exemplifies the struggle for advancing public transit in the Metroplex. Both candidates Ann Bacchus and Lily Bao opposed creating more apartments in Plano. But only Bacchus supported the Plano Tomorrow plan to increase public transit. Bao, in a Q&A with Community Impact during her mayoral race, said she will work to keep Plano suburban by working to repeal part of the Plano Tomorrow plan. Bao lost the mayoral election, but won Place Seven on the city council with similar promises made to keep Plano suburban.

By actively fighting to keep public transportation out of suburban areas, community leaders make affordable transportation less attainable, privileging populations who can afford the costs of owning a car. Census data from 2017 shows that the median income for Dallas is $20,000-30,000 and the median cost to rent a one-bedroom

apartment is $10,752, which would leave around 1.9 million people with somewhere between $9,000-$19,000 left for everything else, including transportation. These are the people who are the most impacted by the suffocation of DART because of local politicians.

Recently, DART has made strides in improving transportation. DART hired transit consultant Jarett Walker to help with the first complete redesign of DART’s bus network. Walker has previously been involved with the redesigns of Seattle and Houston’s bus networks.

Redesigning routes can be beneficial and speed up commute times, but to ensure those new routes are effective, community leaders need to be on board. The way to fix DART is simpler than billiondollar-hopeful startups, emerging technology or “microtransit.” The easiest way to fix DART is to elect effective local leaders.

The ‘core’ of the issue Why Comets to the Core needs reform CONNER MCCULLEN Contributor If you’re a freshman or junior, at the start of the semester you probably noticed an extra class listed in the menu of eLearning: UNIV 1010 or 2020, respectively. This is Comets to the Core, a project meant to assess the effectiveness of UTD’s core curriculum. Since its implementation in the fall of 2017, CttC has been poorly executed and is in desperate need of reform.

On Sept. 9, students received the prompt for this year’s project: A Multi-Faceted Approach to Solving Childhood Poverty. CttC admittedly takes each year’s prompts from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and even the UN’s website recognizes that it is a “call to action by all countries … to promote prosperity.” The solution to this problem requires a global effort in which politicians in all countries, backed by the funding of billions of dollars, will be able to initiate the massive amount of change necessary. In other words, a project on such a large scale is far too big of a problem for a small sample of students to tackle. And the discouraging thing is that UTD knows this. For the fall 2017 semester, the prompt was to find solutions for the global water crisis, in which some students took the time to film 5 minutes of a water tap running, preceded by a sign that read, “Don’t do this.” They passed. UTD clearly isn’t taking

this project seriously, and with many of the students on campus taking 15 or more hours of classes amidst studying for midterms, why should we?

Frustrated with the project, I opened a thread on UTD’s subreddit page on Reddit to discuss CttC with other students. I did not do this to provide much of an argument, but rather to vent, in a comedic manner, to any others who felt the same way. However, naturally, some people took what I had to say seriously, leading some to defend my points and others to rebut them. I feel it’s necessary to address the point of those who held the counterargument. A user on Reddit asked an interesting question: “Is it a waste of time?

Only as much as any other assignment. You don't think your calculus professor is using the answers on your homework to make major mathematical breakthroughs, do you? No, it's being used to benchmark your calculus skills.”

While I can’t help but agree that the purpose of homework and CttC can be somewhat similar, I don’t believe they are properly analogous to make a complete argument in this situation. In homework for our courses, the assignment is meant to track our learning so that the professor may know whether we are able to apply the knowledge we’ve gained in the future (exams, careers, etc.). With Comets to the Core, whether or not we will ever be able to use the knowledge we acquire is unknown; and as evidenced by UTD’s 2017 CttC grading habits, it is likely we won’t. Furthermore, the class offers students 0 credit hours. So, while a homework assignment may be given

as work to be completed outside of class, it can still have value contributed towards overall completion of that course — a value nowhere to be found in CttC. Students at UTD want to be involved in something bigger than themselves, as I’m sure most people would. The problem that most of us have with CttC is not that it is extra work.

It’s that we will not have a direct effect on the task we’ve been given. Our time would be far better served if we could take the funding that’s available to us and apply it to projects that we are the experts in: projects centered around strengthening our communities and campuses for future generations.

Discussion of potential project ideas has already begun on the subreddit. Some of these ideas — which could be meaningfully researched and explored by our students — include the increasing suicide rates in high school and college students, the predatory student loans being offered to 17-year-olds with little-to-no financial literacy or even the difference in educational opportunities offered to inner-city Dallas youth versus to suburban Dallas youth. Please take the time to consider these and maybe allow them to inspire you for any other ideas.

UTD could be a leading cause of change in our city, addressing problems close to home and serving as a pilot program for many ideas that the university actually has the power to fund. This could give the students something bigger than themselves to work on and something that they could see measurable effect on in their lifetimes.

CECILIA ROMERO| MERCURY STAFF

Sept. 30, 2019 | The Mercury

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always kind of training, learning to be calm and collected in a classroom environment.”

Loucks said she keeps the dogs until they are 1.5 years old, when they attend formal training. This consists of eight phases where they learn skills such as harness work and intelligent disobedience. Afterwards, the dogs are matched with guide dog handler applicants.

“We have what’s called ‘graduation’ where you get to go back to campus and hand your dog off to their new handler,” Loucks said. “It’s like when you’re a parent and see your kid graduate from high school ... mostly proud.”

Service Dogs in Training is an oncampus club that works with Canine Companions for Independence, a non-profit that trains assistance dogs for individuals with physical and hearing disabilities and as skilled companions and facility dogs.

Business Administration sophomore Aubrey Rowen joined SIT her freshman year and is Vice President of the organization. Rowen is a puppyraiser and got her first puppy, a fivemonth-old black Labrador named Colby, in June.

“As a puppy-raiser, I do a lot of basic commands, so he’ll come out of my care with about 30 or so commands under his belt,” Rowen said.

“The other big part is socialization, so I bring him around campus with me, and that's what we are really in charge of, making sure every experience he has is positive so he comes out with few fears and is comfortable.”

Rowen went through an application with Canine Companions to be a puppy-raiser. The application requires the individual be 18 years of age and be in good standing with the on-campus club. There is also a home visit where they meet their

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We're a lot more laid back about it as well. Like you can see a bunch of people just on campus that have merch, or games or anime or some show. And then when you come in here, it's just like boom, there's a whole group of people who share the same interests as I do.”

The room has a group of five friends who frequently play games like “Overwatch” and “League of

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ple. I like talking to people, so it’s fun.”

Suchy said she also saves a bit of money because she does not have to purchase as many pairs of shoes as before.

“When I used to wear shoes, I liked cute shoes, like flats that would get worn out really quickly. Walking barefoot allows me to only wear really nice shoes, because if I don't wear them often, they don’t get worn out,” Suchy said. “It’s not enough to have that be the sole factor of why I don’t wear

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provide emotional support to her while she was in a time of need,” Johnson said.

“She looks at all the girls like big sisters … she gets to cheer on somebody she knows … she gets to watch her group,” Johnson said.

“To see her light up when they get to spend their girl-time together really is meaningful to us.”

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cover ourselves, we’re weird for limiting ourselves from experiencing things in life. Shows like these don’t make us look more relatable; what they’re doing has the opposite effect. They make it seem like if we’re not doing those things the Muslims in the shows are doing, we’re regressive and backwards.

Of course, no one is immune to the things I explained were forbidden in Islam earlier. It takes great

NEWS

pets, roommates and assess the applicant’s living situation.

“They’re looking for someone who the dog will be their top priority and has a flexible enough schedule or living situation,” she said. “But I really think the biggest thing they’re looking for is someone who is devoted to the cause and feels that connection to it.”

Once her application was accepted, Rowen was placed on a waiting list for a dog. In May, she received a call that a puppy was available, and she picked him up at the Canine Companions training center in Irving.

“They gave me an hour-long orientation for some basics but since I had been going to puppy class I kind of knew those things,” she said. “Then they sent me home with him and a little booklet saying these are what to do the first four or five days and here’s a pamphlet of all the things you need to teach him eventually.”

Now the pair attend puppy classes every other week where they learn certain games and commands to train the puppies.

“We work on a lot of food drops where you drop a bunch of food on the floor and they’re supposed to look at you,” Rowen said. “Each class we work on different commands, so last week we worked on recalls, dropping toys and going in and out of kennels.”

One training tool Rowen uses is the gentle leader, a harness that attaches to Colby’s snout. It teaches him not to pull on the leash.

“When I pull on it, it pulls his nose, so it's a lot more sensitive and I don't have to do as much to get his attention,” she said. “They don’t love it, but once they get better about it, we get to loosen it and it becomes less of an irritation.”

After the puppy raising stage, Colby will undergo professional training which lasts about six to nine months with professional trainers. The last step of this process

is called team training, which occurs two weeks before graduation.

“All of the people who have been accepted to receive a dog come into team training and meet different dogs and learn how to handle the dogs,” said Rowen. “They make pre-matches a few days in and the rest of the two weeks is spent creating those bonds with the animal.”

Rowen took on financial responsibility for Colby, so she pays for his food and toys while her parents agreed to pay for the larger vet bills.

“A lot of vets and stores have a really nice discount for dogs in training, so sometimes the vet bills aren’t as expensive,” Rowen said. “But Canine Companions does have a system in place where if your dog has a medical emergency that's unexpected, you can contact them and they’ll have ways to figure out how to pay for it.”

Rowen registered Colby with the city of Richardson for his rabies vaccination, and since he is living on campus with her, she registered him with University Housing which included his vaccinations and her roommates' acknowledgement of his presence.

“Canine Companions does not consider Colby to be a ‘service dog in training’ or me to be his trainer, so what this means is that we rely on the goodwill of business owners for public access,” said Rowen. “If he was my service dog and serving me then I would go through the student office of accessibility, but since he’s not, I had to do a different process.”

Colby accompanies Rowen to most of her classes, but two of the places she does not take him to are her extracurriculars or exams.

“I don’t take him anywhere I can’t devote attention to him,” she said.

“As a puppy-raiser, we are a lot more vigilant and consistent about what we do with the dogs.”

Legends,” but don’t consider themselves to be great at the games.

Gibbs, who is a part of the group, said they call themselves “The Benchwarmers” as a joke and homage to the UTD esports teams.

“We have our leaders here, but we play our games. We'll get good every now and then, but sometimes we just bomb it but we're having fun and we're like ‘UTD Benchwarmers!’” Gibbs said. “Because if we were to ever be on an official team, (we) would most

likely be the benchwarmers.”

As UTD expands to accommodate more students interested in gaming, additional areas for gaming have been added such as the SSA Game Wall and TVs being added into the pub. In the meantime, the game room continues to be an open space for all gamers at UTD to meet and play their favorite games.

“Now, all you need is a big neon sign that says ‘Open, everyone’s welcome here.’” Gibbs said.

shoes; it’s just an extra perk.”

Although Suchy said she does not have trouble going barefoot at most places on campus, there are some exceptions. Food establishments, such as the campus dining hall, and research labs require everyone to wear proper shoes and clothing.

“I come prepared for places like that,” Suchy said. “I just keep a pair of shoes in my backpack to put them on when I need to.”

Suchy said although one of her friends seems to be slightly bothered, or rather, worried, by her walking barefoot, she has received support

and excitement from most people in her life.

“My family thinks it’s fun. Sometimes when I go home and we take hikes together or something, a couple of them will not wear shoes either now,” Suchy said. “And most friends are like, ‘This is cool, rock on!’”

Suchy said she hopes to remain barefoot as much as she can after graduating and getting a job.

“I recognize that in the future, I’ll definitely have to wear shoes more frequently,” Suchy said. “I think college is a very special time where you can do more interesting things like this.”

Allison said it’s fun to watch the excitement of Kaitlyn and her cheer team when they perform. It feels different to play for something bigger than yourself, Allison said.

“The first year, watching Kaitlyn realize she was a part of something you could just see that she glowed,” Johnson said. “I guess kind of that moment she realized she really was a part of the group.”

Johnson said he and his wife

have big dreams for Kaitlyn. They both hope she goes to college and Kaitlyn, Johnson said, said she wants to go to UTD. “The love and compassion that the team and the whole athletic department has shared with Kaitlyn and even others through our passing truly is overwhelming,” Johnson said. “Our outcome medically has been great, but emotionally has been impacted positively by this experience.”

strength to try and avoid those in the name of faith. However, it’s possible to portray the struggles Muslims face daily in the media. There exist quality forms of media such as the popular comic book series Ms. Marvel, in which a Pakistani Muslim girl gets super powers and has to deal with things like curfew and relationships which portray Muslims as relatable and able to make mistakes without forcing a Muslim character to completely abandon their religious values. I’d like to see shows go this route, rather than

touting the same tired old cliché of resorting Muslim characters to the same stupid makeover treatment from oppressed Muslim to liberated “normal” people every time.

If you’re curious about how Muslims practice or what their day-to-day life is like, I encourage you to ask them. There’s nothing wrong with it, and most of the time we’re happy to answer (if you ask nicely). It’s definitely a unique lifestyle, but for the most part, we’re not so different from everyone else.

Waterfall Academy School for Children with Learning Differences; notably Autism 469-207-8439 Homeschool Curriculum / Customized Learning www.waterfallacademy.com Please refer to our website for our non-discrimination policy

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this was their club’s first political event.

“It is hard to not be political in this day and age when it comes to the environment,” Alaghemand said.

CCL president and neuroscience senior Malissa Owen said club members were excited to try out this event, which was unlike things they have pursued in the past. “(CCL wants) to be more about talking face-to-face to representatives, but we thought this was a good way to go out, meet new people and advocate for something advantageous that we’re passionate about,” Owen said.

Lucas Eddy, a physics senior and CCL officer, said club members are typically wary of what they’re involved with.

“The organization itself is nonpartisan, so we try to be careful with what we get involved in,” Eddy said.

Computer science senior Sarina Mak, who serves as vice-president of ECO, said an estimated 15 students from ECO and CCL carpooled downtown for the rally. In addition, Mak said she saw familiar UTD faces.

“There were lots of other people from UTD, including some faculty,” She said. “I was also surprised to see people not associated with any environmental clubs there. That was cool.”

The strike was held downtown on the Continental Bridge, the pedestrian accompaniment to the iconic Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. It started at 7 p.m. with a native blessing and rally featuring speakers in the Dallas-area environmental movement.

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all sorts of insurgency and political violence, which is really getting interesting. So I was like, that’s what I want to study.

What’s some of the research you’ve done in the past, or are currently doing?

Currently, most of my research is still on political violence in Latin America. I have a couple of research projects that are funded by the Natural Science Foundation, and it’s some of us in political science policy working with a few computer science faculty, and so we’re coming up with new tools to create real-time event data — that’s a big mouthful — but not just reading things in English, but also in other languages. So I was involved with, I like to say, “Team Spanish,” so, you know, we train the programs to read things in Spanish, and then tally events: so, in our case, types of violence. So they can be state-on-state violence — so, one country versus another — or what’s more interesting, especially in Latin America, is looking at what’s going on within the country. So, different groups, governments against insurgents, insurgents against civilians, all those sorts of activities, including conventional force-on-force military conflict. So that’s one big part. I also have another project that’s finishing up on critical infrastructure protection in Columbia. So we’re looking at pipelines and power grids and these things have been the target of a lot of attacks for 40-50 years — groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army. So, that has to go down as one of the most interesting things I ever did when I was doing field work, because I had to give them my blood type. We were at (not) a refinery, but … a transfer station, where things are coming in from the pipeline and then they mix it a certain way, and then they fill up the tanker trucks. And as you can imagine, there’s a really high explosion risk. So they wanted to know all sorts of things, and my husband was a little concerned when I sent him a text and said, “They want my blood type!” They’re taking my phone, I can’t have any electronics, like you gotta take your watch off, anything that might create any sort of spark. He wasn’t very happy with that that time. But that was in Colombia; it was fun. So, fine with groups like

As the sun set, participants began walking across the bridge. Halfway through, the group gathered at a rally point to chant statements pushing for the Green New Deal, a legislation proposal addressing climate change and economic inequality, and a reduction of fossil fuel consumption before finishing the walk. To end, participants did a “die-in” for climate, where they laid on the ground and organizers traced them in chalk. They wrote aspects of climate change that “killed” them inside their silhouettes.

Chay Creswell, ECO Community Leader and biochemistry senior, attended the march.

“We have to do something. The world is too complacent for us to not try something,” Creswell said. “Senioritis is taking a different route with me, I guess.”

Creswell said he has had a passion for justice and attended the Women’s March in 2017, but has recently become more cognizant about ways to address his advocacy towards environmentalism.

“I wanted to do something more than just help people,” Creswell said.

“I also wanted to change my habits so I can be better for the environment, so that propelled me to actually do something.”

Mak said for many other ECO club members, this was their first political march altogether.

“They felt really empowered by it,” Mak said. “A lot of them were really inspired and want to do more political things.”

Alaghemand said she hopes clubs like ECO and CCL give students an

outlet when they feel inspired to act on climate change.

“I think the majority of UTD students are passionate about this, they just aren’t sure where their outlet is when it comes to enacting change and being involved in the process,” Alaghemand said. “That is what is good about having a club like ECO on campus where they can all collaborate.”

Since the climate march, Mak said ECO’s group chat has been more active than it was in her three prior years. Algahemand said she was happy to see this increase in participation from students.

“It is great to see that change,” Alaghemand said. “People want to get involved. They want to do things on campus and they want to be more involved in getting things done in Richardson, in Dallas and in the US. Everyone is so passionate and it is so exciting because that is what we want to see.”

Alaghemand added that ECO members are looking forward to feeding off this inspiration and catalyzing collaboration.

“Even if protesting is not your thing, there are more ways to enact change,” Alaghemand said. “If you have any desire or passion to make a difference environmentally, find your way in it. Whether it is political, talking to people, educating people, protesting.

Whether it is making a huge, bold statement, whether it’s creating artwork, whether it’s writing. Find your outlet because it is going to make a difference.”

that, so FARC, ELN, paramilitaries in Colombia, little bit of Shining Path in Peru, although they’re not as active anymore.

are topics you don’t want to invite to the dinner table, say, on Thanksgiving. But my students have always been pretty mature, and intellectually curious about getting to some sort of policy response that may be the best you can get given bad choices, which is often what we have. So those are fun. The students have always been delightful. I’ve been able to bring people into class, different speakers, they might be foreign ambassadors, or agents — I’ve had FBI, ATF, it’s fun when you have DEA come in to talk on War on Drugs, especially former DEA agents, because they’re not actively employed anymore. So that’s, it’s just a lot of fun. So I say the best thing is the students.

Kind of transitioning now, how long have you been at UTD, and do you have a favorite memory of your time here? Or a handful, if it’s difficult to decide.

That is. I’m gonna have to come back to that one. Let me think on that one. Oh, actually — I can give you one, you can get a picture of this.

We had a faculty, what do you call it, like a team-building episode where we went and painted Temoc. And Temoc came to visit! And we have a picture of Temoc doing a self-study. So I think that’s probably my favorite thing as dean, or interim dean, that was a lot of fun. Some people find Temoc frightening; I adore Temoc. I was on the faculty when we almost changed, when the students voted on whether to save Temoc or change the mascot, and I was very happy that it was Temoc. So I would say recently that’s probably one of my favorite things.

What do you enjoy about teaching?

That’s gotta be the students. I mean, when I was program head, I would routinely schedule my classes for 8:30 a.m., and the students who show up, who volunteer to take an 8:30 a.m. class, are just awesome, right? They’re motivated, they want to be there, they’re in the front row, they’re asking interesting questions.

I had a nice mix of students from some veterans who maybe had served a term or two in Iraq or Afghanistan, they’re awesome to have in the classroom when you teach terrorism, right? Then I might have a different grouping of students with different backgrounds, and when I teach that class, I really try to get people out of the ‘I’m an American’ mindset and thinking all about terrorism as 9/11, because we’ve had terrorism for millennia, and to think about it from other contexts — and then we can be a bit more critical about our own current challenges we have with that type of violence. So, it’s just the students are great, the students here have always been good, the quality of students has consistently been high. They’re just a lot of fun. We’re really fortunate here at UT Dallas, just the culture of the students. People are bright, they’re respectful, they’re engaged, they’re civil. I mean, these are the kinds of, my classes tend to have things that

As newly instated dean of EPPS, and interim dean since June 2018, what’s something you hope to bring to this department, or something you want this department to achieve in your time as dean?

Well, I think our big challenge is scale. The president wants the faculty to grow. The provost wants our students, our majors to grow — so we need to grow in majors. And I think it’s ‘How do we attract more students to EPPS, but do it in a way that still builds the university’s general areas of strength?’ So we’re able to move into some new areas. For example, we have a cybersecurity policy and technology master’s degree that’s gonna come online next year, and that’s with computer science. We got one class from BBS, and a couple classes from JSOM — so it’s a really widely interdisciplinary master’s degree. I think if we do more of that, we can really add some value to the students. So you guys might see some new majors or minors that are attractive to maybe a physics major or healthcare studies. It might be health policy, global health, all sorts of things. But we’re looking at ways to strengthen core disciplines, keep our basics — the CRIM, the ECON, the political science, the public affairs, the sociology — keep those real strong, but also move into some areas that are kind of the next 50 years of the university. I mean, the university’s going through a lot of change — academic disciplines are going through change.

We’re thinking about how to evolve in a way that can really position us to take advantage of the next 50. So it’s a great time to be dean, actually, even of our little small school. Because we’re agile, we’re high quality, we’ve got great faculty, (UTD) students are, of course, the best.