UTD PD Blotter

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Contributors

Danielle Bell

Charlie Chang

Jacky Chao

Ally Duong

Martin Friedenthal Katheryn Ho

Juhi Karnalkar

Zain Khan

Andrew Peters

Casey Rubio

Rylee Russell

Shriya Vyasam

September 24

• A student reported theft of a bicycle from RHW at 2:52 p.m.

September 27

• A student reported theft of a bicycle from CCHS at 4:57 p.m.

October 1

• A student reported theft of money from wallet at 12:02 p.m.

October 2

• An unattended vehicle was reported damaged by another vehicle at 11:01 p.m.

REFERENDUM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 is that the athletics fee specifically did not pass.”

With the athletics fee failing by a margin of 200 votes, the university does not currently have a set avenue for supporting the department. That being said, a prior student vote is not needed to raise fee caps — for example, UT Arlington raised their fee cap in the legislature first and afterward had students vote on whether to implement the increase.

"There was a post made on social media

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“When students have good ideas, you want to encourage them,” Prakash said. “[Kannan’s] genuine interest in developing this app is a good thing. Secondly, considering that everybody is under so much stress these days, if this can help even a few students, that is a significant step forward. So both these reasons are why I decided I should get involved.”

The app contains different interfaces. Some are visible to students, one is visible to volunteers and the last is for moderators to step in if the situation requires more support. No individual identifying information will be kept about any of the

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“I want to make sure that the use of state resources is a little bit more equitable across public universities in Texas,” O’Rourke said. He prefaced “giving the same share of funding”

Corrections/Clarifications that we took down by one of our team that contradicts what I just said,” Fitch said. “It said that we had already made the decision to go to the legislature about the athletics fee, which is not true…but I would expect in the next two to three weeks we’ll know what we’re going to try and do to help athletics.”

Fitch said he suspects the spread of misinformation about the athletics fee on social media contributed to the close failed vote.

One example Fitch pointed out is a Reddit post put out by Nikhil Jeeva — a computer engineering junior and the president of the men’s ultimate frisbee team — that said his users, and all sides will remain anonymous. This promotes a safe space where students can share their issues with a peer and receive non-judgmental support. The app is not meant to replace formal means of therapy, but rather to help students better manage their emotions and connect them with individualized resources.

“The peer-service line is not meant to replace any service that currently exists, it is only meant to be an addition,” Sebeniecher said. “In a world of health promotion, which is the field that the Wellness Center is in, it’s all hands on deck. One resource or one department addressing mental health for college students is not enough. We need other ar- that UT Austin and Texas A & M receive to schools like UTD, UT El Paso and Sam Houston State University. club wouldn’t be able to utilize the track and field complex.

“When we do that, it means that they can offer more students the ability to attend those universities,” O’Rourke said.

Bring factual errors or innacuracies to the attention of The Mercury’s staff by emailing editor@utdmercury.com or calling (972) 883-2287 and a correction will be published in this space in a future issue.

You can also DM Ben Nguyen (bln180001) on Microsoft Teams.

"They outlined three or four points about why it was bad, but every point was inaccurate,” Fitch said. “Actually, we would've gained a net plus of one field. Yes, the track and field would be built on two fields, but there would’ve been an all-turf infield that soccer, lacrosse or ultimate frisbee could use. The other part of the plan was to go to the multipurpose field and turf that to create two more fields … what’s frustrating is that there was so much misinformation, and we were doing our best to scan those eas to get involved and support anybody who is struggling with mental health. I want to see [the peer text line] come into fruition.”

Not many other universities have a peer-to-peer text line like the one that Kannan is developing. For schools that have a text line, it is mainly used for research purposes. Some of Kannan and other contributors’ goals for this project include extending its use to the entire UTD system and working with OIT to integrate it with the UTD app for easier access. Although all users will be kept anonymous, information such as when students are using the app and what concerns they mention will be used for fine-tuning. The goal of this informa-

He also wanted to revive programs that would pay tuition “for those willing to go into underserved or indemand professions in communities that don’t have enough … nurses, psychologists or doctors.”

Psychology junior and president of LULAC Nathalia Patricio said sources and correct them, but by that time it was too late.”

SG did not appoint zero senators. Instead, there were five appointments to the senate.

Raul Hinojosa is not the Vice President for Equity Policy Education. He is actually the Assistant Vice President for Equity Policy, Education, and Administration.

When reached for comment, Jeeva said he was concerned about a potential power struggle between the athletics department and UREC over when club sports could use the fields.

“After processing it, I've realized that those examples I brought up before might not be 100% accurate, but what I feel is accurate is the fact that UTD club sports won't have the priority in the use of fields,” Jeeva said.

“I’m more than happy to take back those negative things I've said about athletics...I tion collection is to give the developers a clearer idea of what times of the semester student need more mental health support and in what ways.

“One of the hard realities of a university like UTD, which is growing very rapidly, is that the resources we have are always trying to play catch up with the demands that we have,” Prakash said.

“We have good people who want to help, but they are working under constraints.”

Student volunteers are a necessary component in the project's success, and they will receive training on how to address different types of mental health concerns. Volunteers will also be able to refer users to campus, national and other resources that spread mental health aware- that inviting O’Rourke onto campus aligned with LULAC’s goals for mobilizing the Latinx community.

LULAC hopes to get people more involved with politics and pursue educational and economic opportunities. “A lot of us are unfamiliar with

The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is not abbreviated oDEI. It is instead abbreviated ODEI.

The AccessAbility Resource Center was not acquired by ODEI, nor the Student Equity Initiatives or Equity Policy Education departments merged into ODEI. The mean, if we had [priority], I honestly would have 100% supported this.”

Fitch said that it is likely administrators will ask students to vote on an athletics referendum again in the future. Athletics Director Angela Marin was unavailable to comment.

“It’s no different than someone running for a political office,” Fitch said. “They get beat the first time, and unless they were just all in, they’re going to go back and try it again. And we’d be foolish not to. What message would that send to our studentathletes if we didn’t try again?” ness. To qualify, volunteers must have a designation of sophomore or above and must have taken Intro to Psychology (PSY 2301). Applications for this position will be available at the beginning of each semester. Interested students should contact the Student Wellness Center for more information.

“If we can impact even one person in a positive way with this app, then the effort is worth it,” Sebeniecher said. “Making connections and supporting each other as peers is so important to the campus community. I hope we help at least one person, where they can text in and get the support they need from a peer and feel a part of the UTD community. That to me would be a success.” the different processes because we come from a family of immigrants,” Patricio said. “We’re here to educate our community and show our people that it’s easy to have people register to vote. And we hope that this event made it easier for the UTD campus in general to register.” former was moved into ODEI, and the latter two were created under ODEI.

We apologize for these errors.