The Mercury 10/14/19

Oct. 14, 2019

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Soccer teams open season with success

picture perfect

Men’s, women’s teams take home wins against McMurry University

How social media harms students

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Coworkers remember UTD professor James Carter, who played an instrumental role in the Apollo missions.

RYAN MAGEE | VIDEO EDITOR

A UTD survey found that over 50% of students reported some negative effects from social media use.

ANJALI VENNA Mercury Staff

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How UTD's 'Rocky Horror' cast are using impromptu flashmobs to raise money for their show.

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Overwatch team places second in North Texas tournament.

n a typical weekday, psychology freshman Isa Hernandez finishes her homework at around midnight, and then uses Instagram and Twitter for about an hour before going to bed. Like other UTD students, she may experience lower self-esteem and lose sleep due to social media use.

A fall 2018 Student Wellness Center survey of over 1,000 UTD students found that 75% of respondents spend one to five hours on social media per day.

Hernandez said she has always used social media very little, and uses it after her academic work is completed. She said one of the negative effects of social media for her was negative body image and a small amount of self-esteem issues.

“I think it’s the type of people that everyone wants to be, like those travel bloggers and stuff, that everyone follows and wants to be. I think that would be the main cause of those negative effects,” Hernandez said. “On social media I tend to be a little bit more stressed, tense almost.”

In the survey, 20% of respondents said social media use interfered with sleep and 15% said it negatively impacted their selfesteem. When she has more time, journaling and painting are two activities Hernandez said she does in place of using social media.

She has been journaling for six to seven years.

“It’s mostly for me about coping mechanisms and how you deal with negative self-image generally, not just with social media,” Hernandez said. “I have less anxiety and less stress for sure when I’m doing things that are not social media.”

AASAV SUREJA | MERCURY STAFF

Junior midfielder and forward Jesse Ardila plays against McMurry in an Oct. 10 match.

PRANATHI CHITTA Mercury Staff

ALESANDRA BELL | MERCURY STAFF

To prevent distraction while studying, Herandez uses an app called Pocket Points which earns the user points for staying off their phone for allotted time blocks.

Those points can then be cashed in for coupons from clothing stores and food brands.

“I like to do mine in hour chunks or if I feel like I really can’t concentrate really well then 30-45-minute chunks,” Hernandez said.

Business administration freshman Taylor Vaughan said she uses Instagram and Snapchat. She has been using Snapchat since 2013 and Instagram since 2012. She said she spends three hours daily on social media: an hour on Instagram and two hours on Snapchat.

“Sometimes it’s overwhelming to constantly be checking it, and there’s just always that pressure to look the best, act the best and be the best,” Vaughn said. “Also, a big thing is time, because if I’m spending that much time on social media, I’m not having enough time for other things.”

Survey respondents chose Instagram as the most negative social media platform, with 38% saying it had the biggest impact on users.

Vaughn said the negative effects of her social media impact her studying and academic success as well as the amount of sleep she gets. She said she utilizes screen time on her phone to set limits, particularly at

→ SEE SOCIAL,

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The UTD men’s and women’s soccer teams are currently leading successful seasons with overall records of 8-3-2 and 110-1, respectively.

The women’s and men’s teams played the University of Mary Hardin Baylor, a longstanding rival to the Comets, on Oct. 3 and Concordia on Oct. 5. The women’s team won 2-1 against UMHB and the men’s team lost 3-2. The women’s team won 6-0 against Concordia and the men’s team tied 1-1.

“We are playing well and have been all season,” said UTD Men’s Head Soccer coach Jason Hirsch. “We just need to compete and take advantage of the chances we create, while limiting our opponents’ clear-cut chances.”

The men’s team will continue their season this week by playing against East Texas Baptist and Letourneau at home. The team is currently number eight on the ASC standings after East Texas Baptist. Last season, both teams advanced to the ASC tournament before losing to UMHB. “We need to compete first and foremost,” Hirsch said. “We must win first and second balls and then have the confidence to play our game. We need to be physically and mentally prepared for these games, as they will both be tough match-ups.”

The women’s team has been nearly undefeated this season with one tie against Sul Ross State.

“It’s about the progress and what we’re actually doing and the actual product on the field has evolved, therefore the wins have continued to happen,” said UTD Women’s Head Soccer

→ SEE SOCCER,

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GAME SPACE: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO CREATE GAMES AT UTD MARCO SALINAS News Editor

If you’ve ever seen a cool game come out of ATEC, chances are it was made in Game Lab. Game Lab brings enthusiastic students from different disciplines together into a bustling classroom where multiple teams collaborate to solve problems and make award-winning games.

Aspiring game developers at UTD have a number of resources, tools and spaces available to them. Two such resources offered to students are Game Lab and the Student Game Developer Association.

Game Lab was started by ATEC’s first Ph.D. graduate, Monica Evans. Previous ti-

tles developed from Game Lab include the game “Soul Horizons,” which was showcased at DreamHack in 2019.

Game Lab is a class only offered to ATEC students, while SGDA is open to all UTD students. Game Lab allows students to go through a game development cycle over the course of a semester. Students can work in animation, production and programming among other jobs.

Having a dedicated space for Game Lab helps students create a sense of accountability, ATEC senior and Game Lab producer for “123 Date with Me” Jakky Nguyen said.

“I know working remotely is on the rise right now, but I think that that interaction (in the lab) is something that we need,”

Nguyen said. “It also helps with accountability and responsibility if that ever should arise. But it also creates a connection.”

One way, Nguyen said, that students use the space is for their daily standups: a 15-minute, standing meeting with the entire team. Connor Kirkpatrick, an ATEC junior, said she likes the way the room is set up.

“We're able to move around easily. So if I have a question and nobody on my team understands, I can go to another team because our game lab room is kind of split so we can go to another team,” Kirkpatrick said. “That's anybody that's not on a project and I can ask questions and that helps

→ SEE GAME SPACE,

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RYAN MAGEE | VIDEO EDITOR

Students at ATEC's Game Lab playtest early versions of their video game projects.

Oct. 14, 2019 | The Mercury

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THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM Volume XXXIX No. 44

NEWS

UTD PD Blotter

Editor-in-Chief Cindy Folefack

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Managing Editor Emaan Bangash

October 1 • Items were reported stolen from an office on campus at 9:22 p.m.

A

Copy Editor Andrew Barlass

October 7 • A faculty member reported fraudulent use of their personal information to acquire a credit card at 3:11 p.m.

B

October 7 • A staff member reported purchasing giftcards for a person impersonating a UTD supervisor with a UTD email account at 5:21 p.m. at SSB.

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October 8 • A student was arrested for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana at Residence Hall Southwest and transported to Richardson City Jail.

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Contributors Ayesha Asad Alesandra Bell Ellis Blake Hidalgo Alex Cantu Mansi Chauhan Jenna Cherrey Pranathi Chitta Ethan Christopher Bianca Del Rio Emily Gao Ann Jitcho Ruhma Khan Roshan Khichi Chinh Le Keaton Nations Ben Nguyen Elizabeth Nguyen Minh Nguyen Louise Nillas Cecilia Romero Andrew Sanchez Larry Shen Quinn Sherer Sarah Streety Aasav Sureja Anjali Venna

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Mailing Address 800 West Campbell Road, SU 24 Richardson, TX 75080-0688 Newsroom Student Union, Student Media Suite SU 1.601 The Mercury is published on Mondays, at two-week intervals during the long term of The University of Texas at Dallas, except holidays and exam periods, and once every four weeks during the summer term.

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Oct. 14, 2019 | The Mercury

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NEWS

Online therapy offers self-help solutions Q&A: New Student Counseling Center provides students with access to courses to aid anxiety, mindfulness

ECS Dean Stephanie Adams

COURTESY | STEPHANIE ADAMS

Adams was appointed dean on Aug 1.

ANNA PHENGSAKMUEANG | PHOTO EDITOR

Therapy Assistance Online’s online modules can be completed on a computer or via their mobile app.

AYESHA ASAD Mercury Staff

Since its introduction in 2018, Therapy Assistance Online has been used by over 200 students and has provided an online alternative or supplement to in-person therapy at UTD. The online therapy program, implemented by the Student Counseling Center, is a self-help program that all UT schools have access to. Students can watch educational videos about mental health concerns related to issues such as anxiety, depression and interpersonal relationship communication.

About 250 UTD students out of the 28,755 at the university have used TAO. When a student logs in, there are nine pathways or courses that they have access to. Among them are a ‘Let Go and Be Well’ course, a ‘Calming Your Worry’ course and a ‘Pain Management’ course. Each course contains multiple modules on subjects such as mindfulness, relaxation and anxiety reduction. Each module contains activities and videos that are tailored to issues such as facing your fears and reducing the negative impact of pain.

To finish a pathway, one must complete all modules.

“A student can log in with their UTD email, and then they’ll have access to all these videos and all these different resources, and they just kind of choose which define most of them,” said Stacey Appiah-Opoku, a

mental health professional at the Student Counseling Center. “I think it’s been a good option, especially for students who are not necessarily needing one-on-one ... therapy but are kind of in the stage where they’re wanting to learn more about what might even be causing this anxiety.”

In a survey conducted by The Mercury, one student wrote that TAO was “crucial for students in need to be helped.” Three respondents who had not heard of TAO before the survey suggested that TAO be made more visible online, be mentioned in orientation or be advertised. One respondent wrote, “I had no idea this existed and would have taken advantage of it.”

“I think that’s really good feedback for us to hear. So, the ways that we have been advertising are just different flyers that we bring to all of our outreach events,” Appiah-Opoku said.

“If a student was coming here and we referred them to TAO, we usually give students at the end of a session this little treatment plan, and on the back it also has information about TAO. I think students nowadays really are big on social media and things like that, so we now have an Instagram page — we already have a Facebook page, but this year we got Instagram.”

On the Student Counseling Center website, the TAO link is listed under self-help resources.

“I think that’s something that I can talk to others about — maybe mak-

ing it bigger or on its own separate page,” Appiah-Opoku said. “We go to the international student orientation, the transfer student orientation and the incoming student orientation. We have it as a flyer, so I’m just curious if they maybe mean on a PowerPoint that everyone sees. (I) would love to hear more about the best way to get their attention to TAO because we want all incoming students to know about it.”

Appiah-Opoku said that TAO also contains meditation exercises and mood tracking and can be used by any UTD student.

“You could use it without ever stepping foot in our center, but then, also, a lot of the counselors here will recommend that their clients use it in between sessions or when we meet students for the first time,” AppiahOpoku said. “In the initial evaluation, we might say, ‘Actually, start with this, because it seems kind of where you’re at,’ and then if this doesn’t really answer all your questions or if you need more support, then we could do a counseling group or individual counseling.”

TAO is also available as an app called TAO mobile on the iPhone and Android app stores. Students can sign up to get daily positive affirmations to encourage them and improve their mental health.

“I think in general when I bring (TAO) up to students, they like that it is … used at your convenience: you

CINDY FOLEFACK | MERCURY STAFF

The Therapy Online Assistance mobile app allows users easy access to modules so they can use the self-help content on-the-go.

don’t have to schedule an appointment; you can do it on your phone,” Appiah-Opoku said. “It’ll send you a little notification that says, ‘You’re doing the best you can today.’”

Professor, creator of moon dirt dies at 82 James Carter retired in 2008 after 43 years at UTD ANN JITCHO Mercury Staff

Longtime UTD geoscience professor emeritus James Carter passed away in a house fire on Sept. 21, 2019. The pioneer, who created synthetic lunar moon dirt still used by NASA today, was 82.

Carter first joined UTD’s precursor, The Graduate Research Center of the Southwest, as a senior researcher in 1964. He stayed with GRCSW when it became UTD and was a professor and researcher at UTD for 43 years until he retired in 2008. After retirement, Carter focused his career on outreach and created museum-style displays and detailed maps for UTD. Throughout his career as a geoscientist, Carter had several notable accomplishments. He assisted in analyzing samples from the Apollo 11 collection.

He also helped with the excavation of an Alamosaurus thigh bone at Big Bend National park. Carter was the creator of simulated moon dirt, a material similar to lunar soil which was used by researchers for studies about human

activity on the moon.

As a professor at UTD, Carter worked to spread knowledge and awareness for the geosciences, serving as head of the department for a significant amount of his time as a professor.

“He was a great communicator and he was a great teacher,” said Gloria Eby, geosciences graduate support assistant. “He could communicate with a person (who was) three years old as well as a person (who was) 103.”

Carter was known for his cheerful demeanor and willingness to teach and help others.

“He was one of those guys that (was) always in a good mood,” said Paula Fleischmann, a geoscience major at UTD. “He was always so helpful and would always go into detail about processes and would help you look under the microscope to identify minerals.”

Carter had no children and his wife passed away in 2004.

“His whole connection with the world was through UTD,” said Geosciences Professor Robert Stern, one of Carter’s colleagues.

Even after retirement, Carter con-

COURTESY | UTD TANDEM VAULT

Professor Emeritus James Carter created the rock garden located between Founders North and Founders.

tinued to help geoscience students as a mentor for the GeoClub, helping the club to arrange field trips.

“His commitment to the university was total,” Stern said. “Even after he retired, he was here, oftentimes more than many of the faculty were. He was a constant fixture.”

In addition to the maps and displays he made for the UTD Geosciences Department, Carter also spent four years making

the UTD rock garden, located near the Founders North and Founders buildings.

After retirement, Carter was recognized for his years of service by the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics which established the James L. Carter Scholarship/ Fellowship Endowment Fund. The James L. Carter Master’s Scholarship Fund for Geosciences was established in 2016.

“He just wanted to bring the earth to UTD,” Stern said.

Newly-appointed Engineering and Computer Science dean Stephanie Adams came in on Aug. 1st. She holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Texas A&M University. The Mercury sat down with her to talk about what led her to UTD, and her vision for the future of ECS. What brought you to UTD? Well, I think the thing that really attracted me to this school (is) the vibrant dynamic nature of the school and the university. It’s got a clear vision of who it is and where it wants to go. Second of all, it’s crystal clear that engineering — given (UTD) being founded by the same people that founded TI — we were going to be scientific and engineering. It’s a place where engineering is cool, science is cool, right? I laugh at it and tell people it’s one of the first schools I’ve worked at where we actually give chess scholarships and not football scholarships. As an engineer, that’s really cool. That was sort of a first level of things that got me excited. Then I started looking at the kind of research that the faculty and the students were doing, I started looking at the facility and all of that. And there’s a huge investment being made.

And so I kept going through the process and they picked me to be a Dean and my quality of life went up exponentially when I came to this job from, you know, wanting to really make a difference in how we educate students, for the next decade and beyond.

Following up on that, what are your goals for the future of ECS and how do you think you’re going to try to improve the academic experience at the school?

Well, I think it’s a little premature to give too many goals right now. This is a very loose vision. My vision was that UTD would be a destination of choice for faculty, staff, students and external partners. What that means to me is that we’re not like, ‘Oh, we really wanted to go to X place and we couldn’t get in there,’ or ‘They didn’t want to partner with us’ or ‘We couldn’t get hired there, so we’re coming to you guys.’ No, people are going to come to us because we’re doing really cool things. We would be highly sought after because we had distinctive academic research and educational programs. We were doing innovative, trans and interdisciplinary work. And when we talk about the problems of the future, that the next wave of engineers are gonna follow, I’ve heard them be called a lot of different things. One of my favorite terms is ‘wicked problems.’

You know, that these are wicked problems that have no solution, no answer in the back of the book. And one of the things we think we know about the current generation of students is that you all are very interested in ‘How is what I’m doing gonna benefit my fellow mankind,’ right? And so that’s why it’s important that we’re not only advancing the profession, but we’re advancing society. And then lastly, I would like the school to be a place that very rarely we’ll talk about diversity, but we get to go beyond diversity.

I mean, I strongly believe that it has to be diversity, inclusion and belong-

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LIFE&ARTS

Oct. 14, 2019 | The Mercury

Students share ‘bruh moments’ Growing instagram account features various campus inconveniences

ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF

The UTD theatre and dance programs from the School of Arts and Humanities are collaborating to perform the ‘Rocky Horror Show.’

ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF

The Instagram account has gathered over 700 followers in less than two months.

EMILY GAO Mercury Staff

One UTD freshman pokes fun at the conditions of some campus establishments with an increasingly popular Instagram account that has gained over 700 followers in less than two months.

A UTD student who chose to remain anonymous started the UTD Bruh Moments Instagram account after dealing with repeated utility problems on campus. Instead of complaining, this Comet said he decided to create a humorous archive of the experiences, which have reached students and faculty alike.

“I was thinking that there needs to be some sort of account because there are so many ‘bruh moments.’ I was here during the summer and there were so many ‘bruh moments’ happening,” he said. “The first post on my account was when the internet went out, and that was when I knew.”

The account owner said the emotion that UTD Bruh Moments is intended to draw upon in its audience is somewhere between distaste and resignation.

“A ‘bruh moment’ is some experience or action that causes an emotional reaction in someone so strong that they can only reply with ‘bruh,’” he said.

“Bruh moments are universal – everyone can share that emotional reaction.”

Some of these problems have been continuously complained about by students, while others are individual situations that are still widely understood among the account’s growing following.

“Bruh Moments is a meme account but it also highlights a lot of the issues we see on campus — a lot of the problems that need to be fixed,” the source said. “A lot of (submissions) are from Dining Hall West. There’s been metal in food, hair in food and it’s rotten. A lot of the res halls have a lot of bruh moments. You see toilets, showers (and) sinks being broken.

However, (someone) commented that the Chartwells managers saw the post about the rotten oranges and solved the problem.”

The account’s following has grown from just above 50 accounts in August to over 700 a month and a half later. The creator started off posting only problems that he encountered and now receives daily submissions of “bruh moments” from other UTD students.

“It started to take off especially after UTDCometLife shouted me out. After that, people started submitting a lot more bruh moments and now I get one or two submissions every day,” he said.

Although the UTD Bruh Moments account wasn’t intended to reach UTD faculty, posts about spoiled food and faulty sprinklers caught the attention of administration. University Housing has sent direct messages to the account through Instagram to address the problems that have been posted.

“Originally, I was just trying to have fun with it,” he said. “It’d be nice to break 1,000 followers and I think it’s well on its way – honestly, I just want to see how far I can take it.”

‘rocky horror show' to light up audiences

UTD production of cult classic uses creative crowdfunding to raise money for interactive light show RUHMA KHAN Mercury Staff

The UTD's theatre and dance programs launched a crowdfunding campaign allowing donors to flashmob friends in an effort to fund LED wristbands for the audience of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Popular at concerts, sporting events and theme parks, LED lights bracelets can be programmed to sync to the beat of the music, lighting and movement of the crowd.

The programs from the School of Arts and Humanities launched an “Impact” page with several perks available to donors in order to raise money for programmable LED wristbands to be worn by the audience during the performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show musical. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical horror comedy performance collaboration between the school's theatre and dance programs. The musical tells the story of a couple who are stranded at the home of transvestite scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

Director of the Rocky Horror Show and theatre

professor Shelby Hibbs said the idea came after their technical director Chris Trevino was introduced to the technology at SeaWorld.

“You’ve probably seen these LED wristbands at the Olympics or the NFL. (Trevino) worked with another light designer to program them for these live events at SeaWorld and the person he was working with said he could possibly hook us up with PixMob, (a company that makes LED bracelets),” Hibbs said.

“Using LED wristbands is not something that’s appropriate for every theater production, but for ‘Rocky Horror,’ because the vision that I have for it is a blend of theater production and a rock concert, it fits really well.”

Hibbs said she launched the impact page after the team could not secure funding for the wristbands.

“This is a very expensive idea. We are spending $20,000 to do the show and now we’re talking about adding another $9,000 on top of that for these LED wristbands,” Hibbs said. “You can’t just go to your dean and say ‘Hey can you give me $9,000 for this idea that’s never been tried out before at a university

or really any other theatre production in Texas?’”

Arts and performance junior and Rocky Horror Show cast member Samantha Kirchdorfer said audience participation is key for this particular show and the crowdfunding campaign has been set up to reflect this.

“You can come up with us on stage during the show and you can dance a time warp with us at the end. There’s one (tier) where you can be Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Hapschatt. They’re mentioned at the beginning of the show. And you can get married at the beginning of the show in a fun cameo,” Kirchdorfer said.

Hibbs said the impact page has several tiers with different perks that donors can choose from, including an ambush tier where the cast will sing and dance for a donor or someone of the donor’s choice anywhere on campus.

“Because it’s Rocky Horror and because we are theatre people I wanted to create some interesting perks. Signed posters, people love souvenirs, especially family members. We will actually sell

→ SEE ROCKY,

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Students attend rally for immigrant rights Members of non-profit organization ‘Who is Hussain’ promote activism to help with immigration cases

CALIS LIM | MERCURY STAFF

Malahat A. Kizilbash from the non-profit organization 'Who is Hussain' speaks out to garner attention and raise activism for the migrants and detainees.

ELLIS BLAKE HIDALGO Mercury Staff

In an effort to show support for immigrant rights and promote activism within the community, a rally was held on Sept.

29 at the Plinth.

Organized by the non-profit ‘Who is Hussain,’ the rally featured local speakers and activists advocating for the involvement of attendees in their cause.

Who is Hussain’s head of media relations Azra Kazmi talked about the necessity of activism, saying that the local members felt the border crisis made such events unavoidable. In fiscal year 2018,

the number of border patrol apprehensions in the southwest increased by over 90,000 from the previous fiscal year.

These immigrants, mostly comprised of families and unaccompanied minors, are being held in detention facilities which have gained national attention due to unsanitary conditions and possible abuse. In January, NBC News reported that 22 immigrants had died at U.S. detention facilities in the past two years.

“Who is Hussain’s theme this year was to help better our communities,” Kazmi said. “So we decided to do this because he inspires us to come and speak out against social injustice, and we feel this is a big

crisis going on right now at the border with the detained migrant children to call for their reunification.”

Kazmi said that fighting for immigrant rights was natural to the organization. Named after the 7th century Islamic leader Hussain ibn Ali, she said volunteers like her are inspired to stand against perceived injustice and oppression. On top of political activism, the organization also hosts blood drives, gathers books and distributes food to impoverished and refugee families.

“The message of Hussain is to speak up at any time whenever there is any sort of injustice going on. I think that

message is for all of humanity,” Kazmi said. “So, it doesn't matter that this is happening right here. Our organization is spread over the world, so there's different issues and different countries. We believe that at the end of the day, all people have to help each other out in the name of humanity.”

Executive Director of the Human Rights Initiative and UTD alumni Bill Holston spoke at the rally in an effort to garner attention to the legal battle for immigrant rights. Holston provides legal services for refugees and said he gets a sense of fulfill-

→ SEE HUSSAIN,

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SPORTS

Oct. 14, 2019 | The Mercury

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NORTH TEXAS AT 'MERCY' OF UTD OVERWATCH TEAMS MINH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

The UTD Overwatch teams had to adjust to the new meta this time around, which affected how they played in the tournament.

BEN NGUYEN Mercury Staff

On Sept. 21-22, the UTD Overwatch esports team won second place at the Battle4TX event hosted by the University of Texas at Arlington.

Battle4TX is a tournament between 16 Texan colleges for the title of Champion of Texas in Overwatch, the first ever hosted by UTA. In their playoffs run, UTD beat Texas State University 2-0 in the quarterfinals, and then longtime rivals University of North Texas 2-0 in the semi-finals before losing to UT Austin 3-0. Caster and Dallas Fuel assistant coach Justin “Jayne” Conroy was also at the event and was present with the team.

“It was a really good competition,” UTD Esports coach Greg Adler said. “I think the event was just really well run, so it was just a really good experience overall, and I think that made it pretty special.”

A big factor in the tournament was the new meta that developed since the creation of a 2-2-2 lock, meaning teams are forced to pick 2 characters for each role. This removed the GOATS team composition from the game, which allowed teams of only tanks and healers to slowly wear down the enemy, and was virtually undefeatable. With teams being forced to vary team compositions and have two DPS, or damage-dealing, characters, the meta has shifted to enabling DPS heroes to do the damage.

Heroes Sigma and Orisa have risen up to create the Bunker Composition, utilizing the double barriers available to complement other DPS characters.

The amount of barriers in the game can make it difficult to play, especially due to Orisa and Sigma’s current power level, senior support and team captain Alan “Toxic” Arce said.

“It’s pretty boring … double shield is not a fun thing to play with or against, with four shields on in any fight at one time. It’s not really meant for a first-person shooter game.” Arce said. “The characters that have the shields are inherently too strong … they have good utility and they’re just busted overall. So you can’t really play anything else.”

Simply put, the new meta has forced more characters into the mix, bringing all sorts of different characters into play, making competitive games more entertaining to watch. During the Battle4TX stream, DPS player and sophomore Kyler “Blank” Marcantel’s Pharah multikills stand out as highlights in the event. The Comets’ coordinated support play of Moira, Lucio, and Mercy, and the Bunker necessities Sigma-Orisa combo, in tandem with Pharah, Reaper, Doomfist and other heroes played were also key in the defeat of Texas State and UNT. “It makes the competitive scene more exciting because you get to watch DPS heroes instead of just tanks and healers the whole time,” Adler said.

The team is still adjusting to the new meta, and with the large pool of DPS heroes made available and potentially viable, they can still be surprised by different heroes and compositions, such as the Ash played by UT Austin that helped in their defeat.

“They were running an Ash who was very oppressive, just, you know, very high skill player and we didn't really know how to play around it. So we got a little bit a flustered I guess,” Arce said.

Overall, Adler said the team enjoyed the event and playing against skilled teams.

“The whole event was just a lot of fun,” he said. “It was cool to see 16 unique colleges in one place for Overwatch, and to just to get to meet so many people.”

CHIAMAKA MGBOJI | GRAPHICS EDITOR

SAMANTHA LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF SAMANTHA LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF

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COMICS

Oct. 14, 2019 | The Mercury

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OPINION

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Oct. 14, 2019 | The Mercury

Two sides of the same coin How Trump, Prime Minister of India promote nationalist agendas

SAM LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF

MANSI CHAUHAN Mercury Staff Never did I think I would watch Donald Trump be the warm-up act at a Texas political rally. As one ethnonationalist commits human rights abuses at the American border, his South Asian counterpart places a communications blackout on a heavily militarized area of disputed territory.

Trump and recently reelected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are two sides of the same coin. Trump indirectly endorses a white supremacist agenda by supporting policies excluding African-American, Muslim and other non-white minority groups.

PM Modi’s administration has been promoting a Hindu nationalist agenda, excluding Muslims, Christians and other minorities in India. Their similar ideologies were on full display at Howdy Modi, a Houston rally at which both were present.

Modi may be popular within the Indian communities of the U.S., but Trump is definitely not. According to Politico, 80% of Indians voted for Clinton over Trump

in the 2016 election. Trump’s presence at the rally in Houston presented an awkward situation to the audience at NRG stadium on Sept. 22. However, you could hear the cheers of “USA!” from the audience of over 50,000 Indian-Americans. Modi didn’t leave the audiences much choice when he showered praise on Trump and introduced him as “full of wit” and “a true friend of India.” Their speeches at the rally tackled similar issues. Both have openly expressed their distrust of journalism. They both emphasized the importance of curbing Islamic terrorism and strengthening their borders.

And both have implemented their version of a Muslim ban.

In 2017, Trump’s administration instituted a travel ban which resulted in a drastic drop in the number of visas issued to people from most Islamic countries. Although North Korea and Venezuela were also among the blacklisted countries, there was no significant reduction in visas issued to citizens of those two countries. Similarly, members of Modi’s party tweeted in April that Muslim migrants from neighboring countries are “infiltrators,” while attempting to streamline the citizenship process for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and

other non-Muslim migrants.

Each politician revs up his base with huge rallies and questionable talking points. Modi presents himself as being responsible for Indian economic growth, when in 2017 he plunged the nation's economy into chaos by the infamous demonetization campaign. In a failed effort to reduce the use of black money, he voided old banknotes and replaced them.

This action led to cash shortages and an overall reduction in India’s GDP growth.

On the other hand, Trump credits his administration with record low unemployment and record high stock market values. However, according to Bloomberg, his economic policies are failing in regions such as the Midwest, where they need success the most.

The disturbing parallels between the two run even deeper. Modi’s recent reelection campaign, along with his speech at Howdy Modi, was centered on his actions in Kashmir. Kashmir was acceded to India on the condition that it would have a separate constitution and internal administration. A previously semi-autonomous, Muslim-majority region that has been disputed between India and Pakistan for decades, was stripped

of its status and placed on a complete communications blackout about a month ago, according to Forbes. Now, Kashmir is under full Indian control. There have been reports of serious human rights abuses happening there, none of which can be credibly reported due to everything being shut down.

Modi advertises his actions as an attempt to bring peace in the region, yet they result in the furthest thing from peace.

In comparison, the Trump administration recently announced its decision to overturn the Flores settlement. This settlement sets limits on the time that children can spend in detention centers at the border. If overturned, then children will be detained indefinitely and will face even greater physical and psychological damage.

The flawed logic behind this decision is the principle of deterrence: if migrants know what they will face at the border, they may not come at all. However, the situations that migrants escape may be even worse than detention. These two situations are just state-sponsored human rights abuse thinly veiled as effective policies.

With this information, it is no surprise that these two right-wing leaders walked with their arms around each other along

the perimeter of NRG stadium on Sept.

22. Trump and Modi’s heavy association with each other may only make their bases stronger. Modi will be regarded as making India a formidable world power who holds events with the leader of the most powerful nation. Trump will garner support from the Indian community, whose voting power is growing, especially in a critical electoral battleground like Houston.

Dallas, like Houston, is a vastly multicultural city. Many Dallas residents, including UTD students, were present and even performers at the event in Houston.

We cannot support one person’s policies without indirectly supporting the other’s.

Our community is highly educated, yet we still get sucked into the glitz and glamour of these huge rallies and politicians’ borderline illegal words. As the Indian community’s influence inevitably grows in the United States, it’s important that we don’t turn a blind eye to the people suffering in our home country, in Kashmir and those at the border, just a few hours south of us.

Mansi Chauhan is an Indian neuroscience senior from Lewisville, Texas.

Absolution by misdirection Sympathetic view of Guyger overshadows cries for change from Botham Jean's family CINDY FOLEFACK Editor-In-Chief

LOUISE NILLAS | MERCURY STAFF

COMET COMMENTS

On Oct. 2, fired police officer and convicted murderer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking an innocent man’s life. Following her sentencing, the media and the public ran with the story of the forgiveness she received from the victim’s family rather than focusing on how the Dallas Police Department plans to fix its relationship with the black community. The path to white forgiveness is overrun with black bodies, and ignoring our struggles to forgive our oppressors has deadly consequences, as seen in this case and others like it nationwide.

At Guyger’s sentencing, the brother of the victim offered his forgiveness to the convicted killer, even giving her a hug.

The judge, Tammy Kemp, went on to do the same and gifted Guyger a Bible. These interactions made headlines nationwide, but took the focus off of a much more important, impactful story: what is being done to solve this problem? The decision to focus on forgiveness was deliberate: it seems like a happy ending to a sad story. After the trial, one juror told NBC News that “(Guyger) showed remorse in that she's going to have to deal with that for the rest of her life.” In their rush to humanize and forgive Guyger, the facts of the case and the murderer’s lack of remorse were forgotten.

During the trial, Guyger testified that she gave 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean a warning before opening fire, despite the fact that Jean’s neighbors said they heard no such warning. Additionally, Guyger claimed that Jean “charged” at her before a report from the Dallas County

medical examiner showed that the bullet traveled in a downward trajectory, indicating that Jean was most likely getting up from a seated position or cowering. In the 911 call Guyger made, she expressed concern for her job as Jean lay dying in his own apartment. While Jean’s bullet wounds drained the life from his body, Guyger nervously texted a fellow officer.

Guyger testified that she “briefly” attempted CPR, but a witness’s video shows her frantically pacing outside of Jean’s apartment while making phone calls. Had Guyger truly been remorseful in the moments after the shooting, she would’ve given CPR until paramedics arrived. She wouldn’t have lied to villainize the victim for her own benefit. If Guyger had any remorse for taking an innocent life, she wouldn’t have pleaded not guilty and put Jean’s family through the pain of a trial.

Texts from Guyger’s phone that came out during the trial showed her mocking participants in an MLK parade as well as berating her black colleagues on the police force. It is undeniable that Guyger had racist prejudices, and Jean paid for that with his life. According to Bowling Green State University’s police crime database, Dallas County saw 84 law enforcement officers face criminal charges from 2005 to 2014, the highest in the state along with Harris County. Both during and after the trial, Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association and the man who turned off a squad car camera while he spoke to Guyger shortly after the murder, repeatedly defended the murderer. In the aftermath of the shooting, a Community Police Oversight Board was created, but in its first meeting, board members did not include a period of time for public comment. After attendees grew understandably upset, Dallas PD Chief Renee Hall,

Do you think you use social media too much?

a black woman, said she wouldn’t have the mostly-black audience “acting like animals.” Despite the fallout from the trial where both Guyger and Dallas PD were so clearly in the wrong, no goodfaith effort has been made to repair the department’s relationship with the Black community in Dallas.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the witness who recorded Guyger pacing outside of Jean’s apartment lost her job after complaints were received calling her a “black extremist” and “anti-police.” Ten days after the trial, key witness Joshua Brown was murdered in an alleged drug deal gone wrong. Both of these people stood up for Jean, all so his murderer could get a measly 10-year sentence. According to data from the Texas Tribune, 55% of inmates convicted of murder in Texas were sentenced to over 40 years in prison. That same data set showed that 1020 years was the most common sentence for inmates convicted of aggravated robbery. Guyger was sentenced as though she stole an object, not a human life. One witness lost her job and two people lost their lives while Guyger received compassion from the nation.

The media and the public were so focused on presenting a sympathetic image of Guyger that they muffled the cries for change from Jean’s family. “Talk but no action means nothing,” said Allison Jean, Botham’s mother. Local religious leaders are also calling for an overhaul of Dallas PD’s procedures as well as an independent investigation into the death of Brown. Leaders also brought up the fact that Guyger may be released in five years while black inmates routinely receive harsh sentences for lesser offenses. These leaders, as well as Jean’s family, are not equating a hug to complete absolution, so why are we? Our focus should not rest

solely on the forgiveness shown at sentencing, but also the rightful anger of the black community in Dallas. This trial showed egregious behavior on the part of Dallas police, and we should hold them accountable, as Jean’s family is trying to do. We should not let one moment of peace distract us from the violence that led to the exchange between Jean’s brother and Guyger. That hug stemmed from the cold-blooded murder of an innocent man and should we allow ourselves to forget that fact, even briefly, then he and other victims of police violence will have died in vain.

So how can we, as members of the UTD community, help make sure this never happens again? We can start by attending protests and amplifying the voices of the oppressed, in this case, the black community. We can also attend Community Police Oversight Board meetings, which are held at City Hall on the first Tuesday of every month at 1:00 p.m. to voice our concerns and demand actions such as an independent investigation of the Dallas Police Department and its current practices, firing Guyger’s partner, who deleted messages from the killer the night of the murder, and ensuring that the department compensates Jean’s family for their loss. Finally, one of the most important things we can do is ensure that we don’t lose focus in the future. We can serve as a megaphone for victims’ families to amplify their concerns rather than humanizing killers. We have to make sure that if there is a next time, we let the victim’s family have full control of the narrative. We have to make sure that next time, we don’t just listen to the victim’s family at our convenience.

Cindy Folefack is a biology junior from Southlake, Texas.

Comets and Craters Power surge causes network outage

“Definitely. I feel like I spend too much time on social media ... it distracts me a lot from important stuff.”

“Personally, no, but I think a lot of people do.”

Jonathan Washington Computer Engineering Junior

Nicole Pillai Neuroscience Senior

“I use Instagram a lot — a few hours a day.”

Karan Vedi Information Technology and Management Graduate

Northside residents experienced an internet outage on Friday, Oct. 11 after a power surge at noon.

ECS gets cybersecurity grant A National Science Foundation-funded program is granting $4 million for UTD students to get advanced computer science degrees.

Oct. 14, 2019 | The Mercury

8 → ROCKY

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prop packs at each performance. Usually people sell prop packs there, so I decided if you spend 50 bucks we’ll give you your own prop pack for free instead of you having to purchase it there,” Hibbs said. “Rocky Horror is pretty anarchic so I thought of doing an ambush time warp or having a few actors show up and do the time warp wherever you are on campus. If you donate 35 bucks we’ll do

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ment as an attorney in being a social activist.

“My first asylum client was a Guatemalan woman… and I helped her get asylum and it was the most fulfilling thing I've ever done as a lawyer over the years,” Holston said. “I became more and more passionate about the work because as I met more immigrant clients, I had a greater respect for

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night when she needs to go to bed.

Computer Science freshman Kamden Wilson said he spends approximately three hours per day on social media: about an hour and a half on Snapchat, an hour on Twitter and then about 30 minutes on Youtube and other platforms. Wilson said he does not use Instagram, but Snapchat appeals to him because it contains his group chats and is how he talks to his friends.

“I don’t really keep up with streaks anymore...there just wasn’t really a point,” Wilson said. “If I wanted to talk to somebody I don’t need to consistently send a picture every day,

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just moving the project along. If nobody knows what's wrong, it causes a delay.”

SGDA president and ATEC senior Hope Nasr said the ATEC major tends to need external resources and projects to help students succeed in industry. SGDA, she said, plays multiple roles in helping student game developers.

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coach Kanute Drugan.

At the beginning of the season, Drugan said he felt uncertain but his feelings have changed.

“It was the uncertainty if we were going to reach a point to evolve,” Drugan said. “If we

→ NEW DEAN

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

ing because, you know, diversity is just having a bunch of different people in a room. That doesn’t mean they’re talking to each other. It doesn’t mean they feel respected or valued. Inclusion means, okay, we’re all in the room and really talking to each other and belonging says it’s comfortable for me … to really be optimistically whoever I am, I bring all of my identities to the table and be proud of that and feel as though I’m being embraced.

What do you think about the student body at UTD compared to previous schools like Virginia Tech?

I think the student population at UT Dallas and the student population at Virginia Tech are more similar than different. My most immediate school was with Old Dominion University and I think there’s definitely a signifi-

NEWS

that for you.”

One of the perks include a social media callout for donors where the cast will sing a short song, said Kirchdorfer.

“We’ve been having so much fun doing the singing videos on our Instagram page to thank people, putting names into songs and working the songs around the donors, it’s been really fun,” Kirchdorfer said. “I’m really excited to get started on the dance, people will tell us a time and place we can just time warp out of the blue and no one

is going to really know except that person who claimed that tier, so I’m excited to jump on that. It’ll be good practice for the audience participation aspect of our show.”

Kirchdorfer said the cast is excited to see how the final product will come together during the performance.

“It’s a really cool opportunity and we’ve been having so much fun raising money for this show, Kirchdorfer said.“The lighting is going to be the cherry on top.”

them and found the work inspiring. Then I think sort of parallel to that, I'm a Christian and the fight against oppression and the fight for the rights of people is very central to those beliefs.”

Founded to provide legal services for people suffering human rights abuses, the Human Rights Initiative becomes involved with immigration cases. On top of his legal work towards that end, Holston said it was important to be vocal about the issues he supports.

“To be honest, what's going on at the moment is really a human rights abuse that's done by our country and I feel a moral responsibility to speak up about it,” Holston said. “I really never say no to an opportunity to speak to people about it. I've been doing this for a long time and I've seen other periods where these rights were under assault, but I've never seen the efforts by our government to really destroy the rights of asylum seekers.”

and if you’re keeping a streak with a random person, it’s not really genuine.”

Of nine different media platforms, Snapchat was voted as having the fourth most negative environment/impact on users, according to the Student Wellness Center Survey. Twitter took third place, with 15% of respondents choosing it as the most negative platform.

Hernandez said she uses Twitter mostly for news, and gets about 60% of her news from Twitter and 40% from other news sources.

“I think social media informs my political opinions a little bit, but I like to be educated on that kind of stuff,” Hernandez said.

“So I read a lot from a lot of dif-

ferent sources because everyone is going to look at it differently.”

Vaughn said she usually hears about social issues on Instagram.

“I don’t read the news or anything, but if certain things come up usually people post about it,” Vaughn said. “And if there’s news for organizations I’m in, those will be on Instagram.”

Kacey Sebeniecher, the Director of the Student Wellness Center, encourages students to use social media in moderation.

“Know when to disengage, when its not healthy for you,” Sebeniecher said. “Make those boundaries for yourself that I am only going to engage in something positive, and if it becomes too negative for me then I’m just going to take a break.”

“There's the networking role where it's like people will meet professionals and network. There's the social role where people will meet, make friends, probably form groups, and then learn to work on projects,” Nasr said. “And then there's just a general information sense that like SGDA tends to fit into where it's like, we'll have events posted for local events with game developers, we'll have game lab postings, we'll have information and resources on what

SGDA is either working on or what people in SGDA are working on.”

Nasr said that SGDA has gained recognition in the North Texas area with one professor from Richland College asking to join their Discord chat.

“Surprisingly, I feel all right,” Nasr said. “This is not a narcissistic moment at all, but SGDA has a decent role to play in ATEC and ATEC itself has a decent role to play in UTD.”

weren’t evolving, we wouldn’t be undefeated so far. As long as that progress doesn’t plateau and continues to advance, we may be able to continue the success we’ve been having. We’ve been largely injury-free until now, so we’ll see how that affects us.”

The women’s team played McMurry, the current number one on ASC standings, on Oct.

10 and won 1-0 while the men’s team won 7-1. In the coming weeks, both teams will face off against East Texas Baptist, Letourneau and Belhaven.

“This was the vision I hoped for from the beginning. The only difference is that that vision is being a lot clearer,” Drugan said. “If we can stay healthy, this can be super special here.”

cant difference between (them) — we had open admission at Old Dominion, so we had a lot of kids who may not have been admissible schools like UT Dallas and Virginia Tech — I think because of that difference, you’re able to have students come in and really hit the ground running with hands-on activities and programs like ethics that we have and really do engage in the truth. That’s the fabric of what engineering is. And you don’t have to wait a semester, or two or three. I think that that’s the biggest thing. And then I think the mission of the university, the fact that we have a first rate chess (team), even a large number of students in the chess team are engineering students. So, if you want to come and play basketball and be an engineer, it’s easier to do that here than some other places. I think that what I liked about the UTD offering is that I think students can still have a very well-rounded experience and being engaged in

things other than, you know, cocurricular activities as opposed to they’re only focused on 100% of their academics.

What do you think your favorite engineering discipline is?

Now you’re going to get me in trouble. I really think that the next generation of engineering needs a smattering of everything. So, I think that the problems — and I say this all the time — the problems that you and your classmates are going to be solving in the real world are not going to be solved in one perspective or the other. You know, we can talk about robotics and I’ll give you the example of robotics.

Robotics is cyber-mechanical, right? Cyber-mechanical, electrical discipline. I think I really don’t have a favorite, because I think we all, each of us has something to bring to the table and we’re going to bring better solutions to problems when we’re all working together.