Oct. 28, 2019
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THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Mock trial takes first at annual tournament Team goes undefeated with 8-0 score against four other universities
‘It allows us to have our own heritage, our own pride’
ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF
Dallas replaces Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day
UTD Mock Trial members argued their cases in front of judges at the tournament. ESTHER MATHEW | MERCURY STAFF
Native American students, who make up 0.1% of UTD's student body, will now be honored alongside Indigenous populations in Dallas. AYESHA ASAD Mercury Staff
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hile some UTD students celebrated a recent Dallas City Council decision to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, others disagree with the change, citing an erasure of Italian history. The resolution was placed on the voting agenda with a five-signature memo by councilmember Omar Narvaez and passed on Oct. 8. Narvaez said that the passing of the resolution would “right a wrong” for the Native Americans that originally populated America. Among the Native American leaders present during the vote was Leroy Pena, a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and national director of the Red Handed Warrior Society, who approved of the change. According to Fall 2018 data, the Native American population at UTD is 0.1%, which is about 2,875 students. Lauren Boggs, a biology junior, is one of the Native American students that make up that percentage. “Indigenous Peoples’ Day was actually started by Indigenous people for Indigenous people. It was a form of protest for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in the Caribbean,” Boggs said. “Most tribes don't celebrate Columbus Day. They don't even recognize it as a holiday. A lot of tribes opt to completely throw it out and celebrate their own tribal history and significant figures in their tribes.” Boggs said that she supported the name change and that it was a step in addressing
the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Native Americans that occurred as a result of Columbus’ arrival. “We define Indigenous history into two eras: the Columbian Era and the Pre-Columbian Era. This is something that was a very definitive change in our history — it marked the beginning of eradication,” Boggs said. “I don't think Columbus is the representative of American ideals — I don't even think he's the representative of Italian or Catholic ideals, which is kind of where this holiday originated from. I mean, he served as the first governor for the Indies and during that time, he mutilated and tortured indigenous people. He sold them into slavery. He murdered them.” For Boggs, the name change meant having a voice. She said that it shifted the focus towards having pride for her Native American culture and the recovery of culture for many tribes. “It’s a really powerful act of solidarity because not only does it legitimize the protests and movements for decolonization, but it also shows that there are people actually listening to what Native Americans want and what they believe is best for our cultures,” Boggs said. “I think changing this can help shift that narrative back to Native Americans telling our history, rather than white people telling Native American history.” A student who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution or backlash told The Mercury that changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day takes away from overlooked groups such as Ital-
ian Americans celebrating Columbus Day as their heritage. “Indigenous People's Day seems a bit redundant when Native American heritage has an entire month, which is November,” he said. “I don't like Columbus. He treated people like slaves. He literally tortured Native Americans. He wasn't a good guy. So instead of celebrating him, it should be celebrated for what it currently is, and currently, Columbus Day is celebrated by a lot of Italian American communities as their day, their heritage. Irish have Saint Paddy’s. Native Americans have an entire month. Black culture has a month. And, so they like their little spot.” The student said that the name change felt like the Dallas City Council was trying to quell outrage rather than focusing on what the day represented instead of the person it was named after. “Columbus Day is, first and foremost, not exactly about Columbus. It was initially created to celebrate the anniversary of his landing in the Americas, more of a celebration of the unification between North America and the Americas and Europe,” he said. “So, I would say change Columbus Day to either the anniversary of the landing, or say something about — make it Discovery Day, or — people can come up with better names than I can. Or simply name it Italian American Heritage Day.” The anonymous student said that the passing of the resolution was a lose-win situation. “It shows that we're still a democracy,
→ SEE INDIGENOUS,
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PATRICIA MATHU Mercury Staff
A UTD mock trial team went undefeated and finished in first place with a perfect ballot at their latest tournament. The team competed at the Bulldog Brawl against four other teams from two other universities, Gonzaga University and Washington State. The Bulldog Brawl is an annual tournament hosted by Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Political science junior Annika Russell joined the team this fall. “It was interesting because our competitors were all from the Pacific Northwest and the Washington Area. And then we came from Texas, out of left field, and swept the tournament,” Russell said. They went completely undefeated with an 8-0 record. Mock trial coach Tony Seagroves said he’d never seen this happen in his five years with the university. Political science junior Zahrah Khan, a captain of the team, said that in each round, two judges sit and score the teams to decide which team won. “All of the judges were actually in the legal profession,” Russell said. Judges included the Vice Dean of Gonzaga Law, the assistant attorney general for the State of Washington, the district attorney of Spokane County and a federal prosecutor turned federal judge. Winning 8-0 means that beyond winning the overall competition, every single judge the team interacted with voted for them. Khan said it is important to read
→ SEE MOCK TRIAL,
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Esports to add ‘Rocket League’ team to roster BEN NGUYEN Mercury Staff
The esports department announced the addition of a "Rocket League" team to the official varsity roster, making it the fourth esports team in the athletics department. “Rocket League” is a game in which players drive rocket-powered cars to maneuver a giant soccer ball into a goal. In the competitive version, teams of three face off with a general setup of two offensive players and one defensive player, but two-versus-two remains a popular playing format. One key factor in the creation of the “Rocket League” team is the game’s
understandability, “Rocket League” Club treasurer and computer science junior Skylar Sonnevelt-Bixler said. “I mean, it’s easy,” Sonnevelt-Bixler said. “Somebody scores and that’s the game.” The “Rocket League” Club already had a focus on esports when it was founded last semester by president and ATEC junior Brenden Strenger and vice president and computer science senior Margey Shah. SonneveltBixler said the team is likely going to funnel players to the newly-established esports team, with the club’s A and B teams moving up to varsity while the C and D teams will take their place in the club. “We were brand new, and we got
picked up and we were super stoked,” Shah said. “We started an A through D team so that just in case there were people who wanted to get better, they have the opportunity to do so, so that when UTD does pick us up, which they did, they would be ready for varsity.” “Rocket League” is an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master game, Shah said. He added that there have been members who start at the bottom and then work their way up the in-game ranked system by improving their skills. “We’ve had people go from the lowest tier to champion and to grand champion, the highest tiers of the
→ SEE ESPORTS,
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BEN NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF
Tryouts for “Rocket League” will be held Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.
Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
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THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM Volume XXXIX No. 44
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October 14 • A student reported they were scammed into sending money to a fraudulent bank account at 1:46 p.m. October 14 • A student reported her bike was stolen at 3:14 p.m. from University Village Phase 2. October 14 • A complainant reported her bag and money stolen from McDermott Library at 3:20 p.m. October 20 • Officers on foot patrol issued citations to three underage students for possession of alcohol after two students were found helping a female student walk at University Village Phase 8 at 1:06 a.m.
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Contributors Ayesha Asad Alesandra Bell Sarah Besserer Charlie Chang Mansi Chauhan Jenna Cherrey Pranathi Chitta Ethan Christopher Bianca Del Rio Emily Gao Astrid Hernandez Amina Hussain Ann Jitcho Roshan Khichi Calis Lim Chinh Le Esther Mathew Patricia Mathu Bhavan Mehta Keaton Nations Ben Nguyen Elizabeth Nguyen Minh Nguyen Louise Nillas Cecilia Romero Mrunmayi Sathaye Larry Shen Quinn Sherer Sarah Streety
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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. Advertising is accepted by The Mercury on the basis that there is no discrimination by the advertiser in the offering of goods or services to any person, on any basis prohibited by applicable law. The publication of advertising in The Mercury does not constitute an endorsement of products or services by the newspaper, or the UTD administration. Opinions expressed in The Mercury are those of the editor, the editorial board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily the view of the UTD administration, the Board of Regents or the Student Media Operating Board. Readers are welcome to collect one (1) free copy of The Mercury from any campus stand. Additional copies are available for purchase at 25 cents each in the Student Media Suite (SU 1.601). The Mercury’s editors retain the right to refuse or edit any submission based on libel, malice, spelling, grammar and style, and violations of Section 54.23 (f) (1-6) of UTD policy. Copyright © 2019, The University of Texas at Dallas. All articles, photographs and graphic assets, whether in print or online, may not be reproduced or republished in part or in whole without express written permission.
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B LEGEND VEHICULAR INCIDENT
THEFT
DRUGS & ALCOHOL OTHER MAP: UTD | COURTESY
Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
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NEWS
UH implements new rules for packages
ANNA PHENGSAKMUEANG | PHOTO EDITOR
By twisting and untwisting wires, resesarchers can create cooling effects more efficiently than traditional compression methods.
Project uses method of twisting fibers to cool more efficiently than traditional gas compression MANSI CHAUHAN Mercury Staff
Researchers from UTD’s NanoTech Institute and Nankai University in China discovered a way to increase the efficiency of traditional refrigeration methods through the use of rubber fibers. Chemistry professor Ray Baughman, the director of the NanoTech institute, and Zunfeng Liu of Nankai University were corresponding authors for the paper, which was published in the Oct. 11 issue of Science. The scientists discovered that rather than compressing gas, as traditional refrigerators do, a more efficient method could be to twist
rubber fibers. Untwisting the wires produced a more effective cooling method and didn’t release greenhouse gases like traditional refrigerators. Baughman said that while this discovery could potentially combat the efficiency issues found with traditional refrigeration, which has an efficiency of less than 60%, it hasn’t been tested in a fully functional fridge. “Our goal was to get higher efficiency than conventional compressional refrigeration,” Baughman said. “We wanted a cheap, smaller refrigerator, and a smaller volume refrigerator, which this tech allows.” This project was based off the knowl-
edge gained from a previous study conducted by Baughman and his associates. For over 15 years, Baughman and the Nanotech Institute have been researching the concepts that eventually allowed for this technology to be developed. “About a year ago, we had a paper in which we took several kinds of fibers like nanotube yarns and regular fishing line,” Baughman said. “We were able to make a mechanical artificial muscle just using those materials. Each discovery is based on the one before that.” Most air conditioners, heat pumps and refrigerators use vapor compression of refrigerants to provide their temperature altering effects. Air conditioning
and refrigerators take up around 20% of the world’s electrical energy according to the International Institute of Refrigeration. Refrigerators also release gases that can pollute the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Other types of alternative refrigeration techniques such as thermoelectric cooling and hydrostatic pressure haven’t been used on a large scale. The technology used in this particular study is simple, Baughman said. If you take rubber and stretch it, that decreases entropy, or disorder. Releasing that stretch results in the conver-
→ SEE REFRIGERATION,
A new University Housing policy has tightened residents’ timeframe to pick up food packages. Perishable food in deliveries can go bad by the time University Housing residents pick them up, which prompted a deadline for when residents need to check out their packages. “My parents sent me a care package that I was going to pick up the next day, because I was busy. When I went to pick it up, I didn’t realize they’d given me blueberries and strawberries,” freshman resident Wesley Chan said. “By the time it got to UTD, I guess it was already a few days old, so (they) went bad really fast and smelled.” According to the new policy, which was sent to all University Housing residents through student email on Oct. 9, perishable food packages that are not picked up by the end of the business day that they are received will be thrown away. Non-perishable packages will continue to be kept for 14 days before being returned to the sender if unclaimed. The changes are also reflected in the new Resident Handbook. The policy does not apply to prepared food deliveries from services such as Postmates, Ubereats and GoPuff, which should continue to be picked up directly from the deliverer.
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BHAVAN MEHTA | MERCURY STAFF
Freshman Micah Katz started doing magic tricks when he was 13 years old.
Freshman magician brings tips, tricks to new club MRUNMAYI SATHAYE Mercury Staff
Without even seeing the card that was picked, he knew what the exact card was. A marked deck — cards with supposedly indiscernible patterns that would indicate the exact card — was what garnered the reactions of shock that stayed with computer science freshman and magician Micah Katz. Katz began doing magic when he was 13 after he was gifted a magic kit. He is now taking what he has learned over the course of seven years and bringing it to UTD through the Magic Student Organization. “I’ve always been interested in magic,” Katz said. “The defining moment when I (began to) want to do magic was when I had a magician at my birthday party when I was little. When I see magicians, it makes me want to do more magic.” Katz said he learned mainly from watching magic on YouTube, and he would build off of tricks and concepts he learned. He primarily performs
card tricks. “I learn (magic) as I go,” Katz said. “Everyone thinks it’s really hard to do magic when really anyone can do magic if they know what to do. The hard part would probably be looking up the YouTube videos and then (figuring) it out from there.” Along with learning magic from YouTube, Katz was a camper at URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy, a camp in Massachusetts that focuses on enriching young minds with project-based learning. After being a camper for five years and engaging in the magic trick classes, he began to teach the classes once he became a counselor in 2018. “I started out as a camper and I was doing magic,” Katz said. “I remember the first day at camp: I did a trick and no one knew how it worked, so they started videotaping it to try to figure out how I did it and they couldn’t figure it out. It took them a whole week.” Katz can do rubber band and pen magic, using those basic tricks to introduce
→ SEE MAGICIAN,
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CALIS LIM | MERCURY STAFF
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LIFE&ARTS
Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
BHAVAN MEHTA | MERCURY STAFF
The SP/N gallery featured work from several artists, including some university professors. The exhibit ran from Sept. 20 to Oct. 19.
Surviving in interesting times Artist exhibitions at SP/N portray alternative perspectives on media-filled era MADISON YORK Mercury Staff
A bathhouse. A garden of books. A portal to different dimension. These were just a few of the exhibits that appeared in the “May You Survive in Interesting Times” art exhibition, which served as an exploration of modern society from the perspectives of various artists. The gallery featured a total of 10 exhibits and ran from Sept. 20 to Oct. 19 at the Synergy Park North gallery. Greg Metz, UTD clinical associate professor and curator of the exhibit, said that the theme was inspired by a Chinese proverbial curse, “May you live in interesting times.” “When someone tells you that, you're in trouble because interesting times are coming ahead and we don't like anything that we don't understand, or that we're not used to or that is represents change,” Metz said. “It was also used, in a lot of ways, to — in a spirited way — inflame a coalition: to meet some challenge that is, in many cases, fabricated.” The idea of survival, he said, was incorporated to explore how artists deal with modern times, and how they express their own creative
BHAVAN MEHTA | MERCURY STAFF
survival mechanisms. “They may be political, they may just be humorous, but usually they have something to do with their personal situations and their identities,” Metz said. “(The exhibition was) really
developed around fake news and alternative facts and the way that they're being used today by the media to create crisis that can coalesce like a kind of unionized opposition.” These mechanisms took a variety of forms in the different exhibits. One was “Public Bathhouse,” by Ashling (Chunyu) Han, depicting the nakedness and erasure of class lines that occurred in Chinese bathhouses. Another was “Books, Borders and Boundaries,” a collaboration between artists VET and Sheila Cunningham, featuring the way pages from books can be recycled and re-invented into complex shapes and designs. Still another was “Suburbia Stargate,” by Ryder Richards: a large, portal-shaped structure of plywood, wires and AstroTurf — replete with functioning sprinkler system. “It took me about a week to construct it,” Richards said. “Then I put some Pine-Sol inside the sprinklers so that when people would step on a pressure-sensitive mat, the sprinklers would pop out, and would mist them with the scent of Pine-Sol, like a disinfectant.” The piece represented a sci-fi portal into a suburban “pocket universe.” Richards said
→ SEE SP/N,
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Singing the ‘Typical Story’ Concert review: Hobo Johnson at House of Blues BEN NGUYEN Mercury Staff
BEN NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF
Hobo Johnson along with Nate Curry, The Philharmonik and Mom Jeans recently took the stage at the House of Blues in Dallas to promote his sophomore album. Filled with performances of old and new songs, Hobo Johnson provided a hype show for fans. The openers at the Oct. 14 show provided a range of sounds before the main event, with the Philharomik’s synth-laden rants about the world being followed by Mom Jeans’ punk, and Nate Curry opening the night with a cool rap beat. While the openers were great, Hobo Johnson’s show was the main event, and a sight to behold. The light crew at the House of Blues really outdid themselves, with the lights complimenting every song to the tee. Hobo Johnson’s music can be described as a combination of rap and spoken word, even setting up a song as a slam poetry segment before diving in. When the beat drops and the more musical part of song starts banging, the lights make Hobo Johnson and the Lovemakers look like silhouettes in pink red, or purple light. But when he makes the sharp transition into spoken word, he is illuminated as though he’s on stage, almost like a monologue in a weird Shakespeare play. The music selection picks from old and new tracks, including a long buildup
to the famous “Peach Scone” involving the mention of various other coffee shop treats. Songs from his new album “The Fall of Hobo Johnson” included “You and the Cockroach” with memorable lyrics referencing the evolution of humanity and our potential cockroach successors, and “Typical Story,” the lead single off the album. The lyrics evoke the rollercoaster of emotions that can be associated with late college — post-college life, the kind of reflection on love, life and what’s happening. Hobo Johnson is a relatable performer. Whenever he talks between tracks, it comes off as just a guy that’s very grateful, slightly awkward and just trying to have a good time. His reflections even break through in his commentary, by saying “How’re we feeling tonight!” and then promptly mocking artists for saying it at concerts. His awkwardness shone when he relayed a story of shouting “Houston!” to a Dallas audience at the same venue, and dealing with the following crowd silence. Throughout all of it, he comes across as just a fellow member in life, trekking through much the same as us, but with a concert tour. Overall, the concert was great, with a light show and setlist to take the audience on an amazing poetry/rap journey. Johnson ended the night with a rendition of “September” while thanking his fellow bandmates, and the night ended with a happy mood in the air.
SPORTS
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Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
MEN’S GOLF HAS SUB‘PAR’ SEASON Coaches, players cite need for improvement in performance going into spring COURTESY | UTD COMETS
The men's golf team placed seventh at the season preview on Oct. 22, and managed to have an average team score of 305.11 across four tournaments and nine rounds. PRANATHI CHITTA Mercury Staff
The men’s golf team closed out their fall season on Oct. 22 at the ASC preview where they placed seventh overall. The Comets played four tournaments this season from Sept. 9-Oct. 22 placing sixth, fourth, ninth, and seventh. The average team score for the season was 305.11, with total scores ranging from 878-601 across the four tournaments and nine rounds. The Comets scored 601 points total as a team at the ASC preview, the lowest of the season. “We have a lot of work to do,” Head Men’s Golf Coach Butch Edge said. Edge said the team did not play as well
as he hoped this season due to the way tournaments were scheduled. “I think October was a little tougher because it was the first season we’ve played three tournaments in October,” Edge said. “The ones that were right in the middle are more my fault than theirs because of midterms and projects due then. It’s tough to be out with the demands of golf, especially traveling to New York.” The Comets played in the Saratoga National Invitational in Saratoga Springs, NY on Oct. 12-13, where they placed ninth. Senior golf player Jacob Rockefeller said although he didn’t feel they played their best, they now have a good idea of how to improve their skills
for the spring. “We’re going to get stronger this offseason and work on the things we’re going to work on so we can come back in the spring and try and win the conference championship,” he said. Rockefeller had an average of 78.67 this season with his lowest total score of 150 (75-75) at the ASC Preview in Brownwood, TX. He placed 23rd at this tournament, and despite consistently improving scores during the season, he said he struggled with keeping the ball in play. “I had a lot of big numbers on holes so I just need to keep it in play and manage my misses better,” he said. Rockefeller is team captain this year
and it will be his last year on the team. “I really think the thing I’ve improved on the most in the past four years is mentally, I used to be weak. I’d let small things bother me, but now I’m working on more control and keeping a good mindset,” Rockefeller said. The Comets hope to come back stronger and better next season in the spring, Edge said. “It’s just a matter of consistency,” he said. “We either play the first time terribly and we come closing on the second round and it’s too late, or we play the first round great and the second round great. I’m excited when the spring comes around and make some changes and hopefully improve.”
Volleyball wins sixth ASC title
Coach feels 'extremely proud of the team' amidst team composition changes, busy season ANN JITCHO Mercury Staff
The UTD volleyball team won its sixth straight American Southwest Conference East Division title at the second ASC Crossover Tournament of the season. The team kicked off the first of two ASC crossover tournaments with a Sept. 27 game against Sul Ross State, which the Comets won 3-0. Throughout the season, the Comets have been able to build up to a 13-game winning streak, which was broken by a loss of 3-2 to Mary Hardin-Baylor in the opening game of the second ASC Crossover Tournament held in Austin, Texas from Oct. 18-19. The Comets got 69 kills and five aces, but ultimately fell to Mary Hardin-Baylor in the last three sets as their hits fell from .552 in the first set to -.150 in the fourth. Senior hitter Alyssa Porter led in kills and blocks, with 15 and six, respectively. With two more 3-0 victories against Concordia Texas and Howard Payne at the October tournament, the team secured the ASC East Title. The underclassmen, who make up a majority of the team, showed out at the last two games. Sophomore blockers Allison Owen and Gabi Sommerfield each got 10 kills in the match against Concordia
while freshman hitter Abby Jones got 13 digs against Howard Payne. "I'm extremely proud of the team,” Head Coach Marci Allison said. "We've had a lot of changes and our freshman have really stepped up and our returners are doing a good job of leading them and setting the culture of our program.” Since the second ASC Crossover tournament, the team has played a non-conference regional match against Austin College which they won 3-0 with only 4 errors in the match. They followed with a 3-0 conference win against LeTourneau on Oct. 25, bringing their overall record to 20-4 and upping their conference record to 12-1. Caroline Shecterle, the team's senior setter and defensive specialist hit a season high with 37 assists against Mary Hardin-Baylor and was named ASC East Division Volleyball Player of the Week for the forth time on Oct. 22. Schecterle said that the team's main focus right now is to take each game one at a time throughout the season. "Every game is important," Shecterle said. "Every game is an opportunity for us to get better." Allison said that with the demands of a busy season and the academic rigor of
→ SEE VOLLEYBALL,
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AMINA HUSSAIN| MERCURY STAFF
Despite a team composed of mostly underclassmen, the volleyball team managed to win the American Southwest Conference East Division. Before the tournament, they maintained a 13-game winning streak throughout the season.
SAMANTHA LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF
Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
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coursework, the team constantly faces difficulties in preparing for their games. "Any time you are a student-athlete at UT Dallas, it is challenging," Allison said. "Plus it's midterm time ... it is getting down to that point of the semester where grades are coming out … the biggest challenge is balancing school and volleyball.” Senior middle blocker Lauren Schilling said that the limited number of players is also a challenge for
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sion from low entropy to high entropy. The universe prefers more disorder, or higher entropy, so the release results in cooling. “The problem with this is you have to stretch the rubber almost 600% to get cooling. We use twist,” Baughman said. “We maintain only a little stretch, we just have to release twist and you get cooling.” Baughman said that by using coiled or even supercoiled fibers, one can provide the same amount of cooling as a stretched fiber at at approximately 30% the amount
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the concepts of magic while specializing in card tricks. “I do a lot of card tricks because there is a lot you can do with them. I got into doing magic tricks with (regular decks) and magic decks, which are specific decks that are made certain ways and there are certain tricks you can do with them,” he said. “When I do tricks, I adapt. You can learn a bunch of tricks, but once you know a lot of tricks and have done them, you can combine them. A lot of the tricks I do are not the original trick; they’re my adaptation. I’ll even change them in the moment. I can do multiple tricks in different ways.”
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that making interactive pieces — like “Suburbia Stargate” — can be tricky to do in an art gallery, where viewers are taught not to touch the art. That in itself, said Richards, was a commentary on the sets of rules in the art world; how, in many ways, the environment of an art gallery is a false construct, like the stereotype of suburbia. “To get people to break out of that construct is one of the purposes for ‘Suburbia Stargate’: to start talking about the idea that we’re possibly living in a utopia right now, instead of living in one of the worst times ever,” Richards said. “The fact that I can live in the suburbs and not think about anything but my lawn—I think that’s an amazing time period to live in. Yet, we choose to engage ourselves in all this political turmoil.” The 6,000 square feet of the
NEWS
the team. "We only have 14 people,” Schilling said. "So, if someone gets injured or someone's just having a rougher day, we have fewer options.” Schilling said that the team’s main strategy for the championships is to analyze the opposing team and their tendencies. “We’re focused on executing the things that we know we can do and discerning things we know that (the opposing team) likes to implement,” she said. The team’s schedule of three to four games per week poses many
challenges, Shecterle said, as the players constantly have to practice and travel. Despite these challenges, the team has a conference percentage of .923 and previously held a 13-game winning streak. "It's just getting through those mental challenges," she said. "We practice really early in the morning and we've got school going on, so the biggest challenge is separating volleyball from everything else. But I think our team is really supportive ... We do a really good job of working hard for each other every day."
of stretch. Releasing the twist and stretch from a supercoiled rubber fiber produces cooling of about 16 degrees Celsius. “Efficiency is key,” Baughman said. “With stretch you only get half efficiency. The efficiency of our method is at 67%.” The researchers are testing the cooling ability of other materials as well. One material is nickel titanium wire. The wires were able to reduce the temperature of running water by almost 8 degrees Celsius. “Think of a metal spring. When you stretch it, it’ll get longer but not because its length is
changing,” Baughman said. “It’s because the twist in the coiling is being converted to the twist in the wire.” Baughman said that there has been industry interest in the technology. This material performs better than competing ideas in circulation. The concept of twistbased cooling could also potentially be used to make clothing that keeps the wearer cool. “We know now that we can take artificial electrochemical energy and harvest mechanical energy from it,” Baughman said. “Who knows what else we can find out from this discovery?"
While he will be the teacher, the club also has four other officers, and the advisor is internship coordinator Kori Farley. “There wasn’t a magic club here,” Katz said. “Right now, I’m doing everything because I need to figure everything out so then I can delegate. I’ve been managing the website portion, adding all the members, submitting the forms. I’m making sure I know of everything that’s going on. We have 20 plus members already.” The club will initially begin with lessons on magic, but Katz said he plans on expanding the club after people start learning. For example, Katz said the club might have competitions and fundraisers.
“First, I’m going to talk about the concepts of magic like misdirection and there are secret things that are a part of magic like very basic moves that nobody else knows of,” Katz said. “As people start grasping magic, (the club) will be more of a place to compare and learn tricks. Other people will also be able to lead meetings if they prepare and talk to the officers.” Although Katz said he might not go into magic professionally, he does want to continue teaching at the camp and at UTD. “No one in the club knows magic, so I really just wanted to teach people magic,” he said. “Just take what I did in camp and bring it here.”
SP/N gallery allowed some artists like Richards to occupy large amounts of space with their works. Another such artist was Josephine Durkin, an associate professor of art at Texas A&M, whose wall drawing “Lost in Translation” took up three walls in one room of the gallery. “There’s a repeated form in this work. In earlier works, I've made these things that look like flowers,” Durkin said. “But in this instance, it was new. These do have a kind of similar shape, but because of the color palette and because of what these were stemming from, I really wanted them to take on that look of a storm.” “Lost in Translation,” Durkin said, is representative of something, that, in itself, is hard to articulate: the psychological impact of experiencing certain events alone, and the difficulty of translating that experience to others. “I really enjoyed making this
work because it was like the upand-down of going up and down the ladders and looking and so forth,” Durkin said. “I think that kind of activity, that physical exertion of making the work — especially in a short amount of time — I think that mirrors the kind of exhaustion that can take place from trying to communicate something that's impossible to communicate.” The exhibition incorporated works from alumni, as well as distinguished and emerging artists. Metz said he sought to create a balance between the two. “I also wanted to use artists that were performing with different materials and mediums, and I also wanted to have artists who had diverse methodologies for how they approach their work,” Metz said. “So, we had a good presentation of very different approaches to this idea of ‘survival in interesting times.’ And interesting times are what you make them, you know?”
COMICS I'M NOT MAD, I'M JUST DISAPPOINTED
Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
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CLOWN NOSE: ON
JENNA CHERREY | MERCURY STAFF
SHOW AND TELL
KEATON NATIONS | MERCURY STAFF
BIANCA DEL RIO | MERCURY STAFF
TO DO: TAKE CANDY
NOT AGAIN
KEATON NATIONS | MERCURY STAFF
O&B: PURRANORMAL ACTIVITY
SARAH STREETY | MERCURY STAFF
CAN'T R.I.P.
ELIZABETH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF
WITCH WICH
SEXY COSTUME IDEAS
QUINN SHERER | MERCURY STAFF
SARAH BESSERER | MERCURY STAFF
CECILIA ROMERO | MERCURY STAFF
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Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
ACTIVITY
MERCURY GRAPHICS TEAM
OPINION
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Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
Lost in the ‘Blizzard’
One video game company's intolerable censorship BEN NGUYEN Mercury Staff
SARAH BESSERER | MERCURY STAFF
Recently, video game company Blizzard revoked the prize winnings of a Hearthstone Grandmasters player for supporting the Hong Kong protest movement. This might be the most obvious example of Chinese pandering in a while, but it’s certainly not the first or last time a video game company will bow to Chinese influence. On Oct. 6, Hearthstone Grandmaster Chung Ng Wai — player name blitzchung — repeated the slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” in a post-game interview while wearing a gas mask: a direct reference to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. The same day, Activision-Blizzard revoked Wai’s tournament winnings and banned him and the two shoutcasters conducting the interview
for a year. This was immediately followed by a massive backlash, with subreddits, forums, US representatives and media outlets immediately condemning Blizzard’s actions as Chinese appeasement. Six days later, Blizzard sent out an apology, trying to justify the ban and reconcile it with their core value of “Every Voice Matters.” While the second quarter financial report of Activision-Blizzard only shows about 12% of their total revenue coming from the Asia-Pacific area, it’s clear that they want to get into the Chinese market. In 2018, Newzoo reported that 619.5 million players in China spent $37.9 billion that year, making it the largest video game market in the world. Ninety-four percent of those players also spend money on microtransactions. Perhaps they are predatory to children, and lead to addiction with the variety of loot boxes available, but in China? That’s an invaluable revenue source. Blizzard’s apology came across as half-
hearted, an appeasement to the Western audience trying to declare that in tournaments, politics has no place. And while politics might be out of place in esports, it’s certainly a concern for the Western audience where free speech is an inalienable right. The apology definitely seemed unfaithful in light of Blizzard’s official Chinese response, where they promised to “defend the pride and dignity of (China),” which doesn’t quite ring of “Every Voice Matters”. Free speech is the core issue here, both with Blizzard’s expansion to China and other video game companies China interacts with on a regular basis. In the West, freedom of speech is a necessity, an unquestionable right. In China, it’s restricted by the government. Trying to reconcile the two in a fashion that claims to protect free speech, but doesn’t, is unsustainable. Blizzard also can’t claim this punishment is uniform. Especially since in an American collegiate tournament, Ameri-
can University team members held up a Free Hong Kong sign on stream with no consequence. Post-game interviews are notably absent from the tournament. Wai has since posted a response on his Twitter, acknowledging that in the future he will take his support to personal platforms, rather than official tournament settings, giving blessings to the community for their support and to Blizzard for giving back his prize money and shortening his ban. Does this mean the issue should be dropped? No. Ultimately, both game companies and us — as the consumers — need to decide what our position is. If we simply accept that Blizzard is a company that appeals to China and its censors, we’ll end up with a censored gaming experience. But we don’t have to accept it. American consumers still make up 55% of Blizzard’s revenue. What we do and say, especially regarding our wallets, matters. We need to
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The student's candidate Why Bernie Sanders deserves your vote GEORGE CUBA Contributor As university students, we have a multitude of concerns; the cost of college, healthcare, housing affordability and fair employment, both before and after graduation to name a few. According to the Student Monitor, which sampled 1,020 students, while 67% of students believe their GPA is a cause of daily stress, 48% of students consider the “biggest problem on campus” to be the cost of education. As we approach graduation, our academic anxiety is then overshadowed by an economic one. What can help us? Who can help us? Who is at the forefront proposing College for All, Medicare for All, Housing for All and Jobs for All? Let me introduce you to senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. College for All is a comprehensive
higher education proposal that includes, among other things, making public colleges, universities and trade schools tuition-and-fee-free via the College for All Act, ensuring a debt-free college degree for low-income students via an expansion of Pell Grants, tripling funding for the Work-Study Program to reach more than 2.1 million students and cancelling all student loan debt. All $1.6 trillion dollars and counting of student loans canceled, no questions asked. All of this will cost approximately $2.2 trillion, and will be funded through a Wall Street tax on stock, bond and derivative trades, same as a sales tax when we make daily purchases. This tax would raise $2.4 trillion in the first 10 years. Though I consider Bernie’s solution to be the best, he isn’t the only candidate offering proposals on reducing the cost of a college education. To be fair to the other candidates, we should examine the higher education plans of the other candidates, such as Sander’s supposed politi-
cal twins, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, who I would offer is an example of how not to do a student loan forgiveness program. Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes the Affordable Higher Education for All plan. Like Bernie, Warren is committed to eliminating the cost of tuition and fees at every public two-year and four-year college as well as expanding the Pell Grant. However, her student debt relief program isn’t a comprehensive as Senator Sanders’. She promises the cancellation up to the first $50,000 in student loan debt, cancelling debt for more than 75% of student debtors. However, the remaining 25% of student debtors are then placed on a scale with higher household incomes receiving less loan cancellation that stops after $250,000. Bernie’s College for All plan would relieve the 25% of student debtors that Warren’s plan would either partially or not at all relieve. Senator Kamala Harris’
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ASTRID HERNANDEZ | MERCURY STAFF
Breaking up the fight Why pulling troops from Syria was a mistake EMILY GAO Mercury Staff In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Trump virtually single-handedly committed to pulling out 1,000 troops from Syria and gave the go-ahead for Turkey’s military to enter an area that is under the control of Washington’s Kurdish allies. The Kurds are a stateless ethnic group of Western Asia. In the northeast of Syria, they make up an overwhelming majority of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a critical actor in the fight against ISIS. Erdoğan, however, considers the Kurds an existential threat to Turkey because of the group’s historical ties to the PKK, an officially recognized terrorist group, but more importantly because of his fear of an independent Kurdish state on Turkey’s southern
border. Erdoğan wants to not only expand the “buffer zone” between the Kurds and his country by pushing them further into Syria in order to prevent an influx of Syrian refugees but also to prevent Turkish Kurds from mobilizing. The US, on the other hand, saw the Kurds as a necessary ally against the presence of ISIS in Syria and provided not just military support starting in the Obama administration, but also arms and airstrike assistance by the Trump administration in 2017. After the fall of Raqqa in 2017, when ISIS lost its “capital” to Kurdish SDF forces, the alliance became less strategically critical for President Trump. On Oct. 13 — one day after Turkish forces attacked Kurdish civilians — Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced that the US was committed to removing all 1,000 American troops from northeastern Syria. This move can’t even be considered unilateral — by acting against the advice
of his own national security staff and the wishes of his own party, Trump is playing right into the hands of the ErdoğanPutin duo. Along with opening up a vacuum that the Russian-supported Turkish military is already using to establish a buffer zone, Trump raised tariffs against Turkey and threatened more economic consequences if Erdoğan did anything “off-limits.” “Off-limits” seems like a standard that is harder and harder to reach, however, as the Turkish military is increasingly aggressive while President Trump turns a blind eye to blatant abuses. At his rally in Dallas on Oct. 17, Trump said it was good to let the Turks attack the Kurds, saying, “Sometimes you have to let them fight like two kids.” Maybe it’s just me, but when I got into fights as a kid, I don’t remember anyone being raped and then stoned to death. That’s what the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-
Sharqiya fighters did to Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. According to Amnesty International, Erdoğan’s military and mercenaries have committed war crimes and “displayed a shameful disregard for civilian life.” Witness testimonies, video footage and medical reports provided evidence of deadly attacks, in which Turkish authorities claim to have taken 18 civilian lives and injured 150 more in the first four days of attacks. The Kurdish-led administration said that at least 218 civilians, including 18 children, have been killed in the first six days of attacks. The Turkish government made concessions as a signal of their official commitment to a “peaceful resolution,” but they are laughably empty. Erdoğan’s promise is to officially demilitarize in the region until the Kurds back out of it. In reality,
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ALESANDRA BELL | MERCURY STAFF
COMET COMMENTS
“I still dress up. This year I’m being Eleven from ‘Stranger Things.’”
Ji-Won Kim Visual & Performing Arts Senior
Do you dress up on Halloween?
“I stopped (dressing up for Halloween) a long time ago.”
Khushi Surey Computer Science Freshman
“Actually, it will be my first Halloween, so I’m quite excited to do something. Go to a Halloween party, dress up, and things like that."
Krish Mehta Information Technology and Systems Graduate
Comets and Craters Internet outage at Northside Northside Phase 1 apartments lost internet service for a week following storms on Sunday.
Alumnus receives science award UTD alumnus Ryan Burchfield received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which is coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Oct. 28, 2019 | The Mercury
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first and foremost, because when enough people get mad, the governments go, ‘Hey, we should change something,’” he said. “However, I feel like in this case, they didn't ex-
NEWS
actly change it in the way that accurately reflects all American values.” Boggs said that the passing of the resolution resulted from looking at history critically and understanding that people negatively affected were asking for change. “It allows us to have our own
heritage, our own pride,” she said. “And it does provide the support from the community around us going, ‘We hear you, we recognize what has happened. Now let's try and actually address this, heal it and figure out where to go from here.”
ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF
Mock trial members attributed their perfect score to the team’s adaptability in front of legal experts.
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BEN NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF
The “Rocket League” team will be joining UTD's growing esports varsity groups which already include “Overwatch,” “League of Legends,” and “Smash Bros. Ultimate.”
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game,” he said. “Rocket League” is growing as an esport, and there is local competition already present. UNT and UTA also have teams competing in "Rocket League" in a similar way that the UTD club was representing the university before it was an official varsity team. UNT has a “Coming Soon!” message on
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think about where we spend our money, to make clear that the
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the way that the Kurds leave is through being continued to be violently forced deeper into Syria by Turkish-backed fighters in the region. This means that war crimes and other serious human rights violations will continue without technically violating the terms of the agreement, thus facing no additional penalty from the United States. American sanctions on Tur-
their page for a varsity “Rocket League” team, while UTA only has a varsity Overwatch team. “Well, I think every team, every school can do what they want. And for us it’s based on the popularity and the growth of the games,” Bill Pettit, head of intercollegiate athletics said. “If one day ‘League of Legends’ becomes unpopular and not played, then I could see us dropping it and adding whatever the
next game is out there.” Tryouts for the varsity team will be held from Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, and more information can be found in the UTD Esports Discord server. “These guys have been grinding, they’ve been getting better and there’s going to be a challenge for me too at this point,” Shah said. “Since all the UTD players have become so good, I'm going to need to turn my monitor on.”
silencing of free speech is not supported. To do this, we can explore other video games that aren’t influenced by Chinese investment, and share the #Boy-
cottBlizzard movement. My recommendation is “Team Fortress 2” — the free class-based shooter on Steam — which is an old classic.
key are a slap on the wrist when compared to how much removing troops from Syria supports Erdoğan — and when Sen. Lindsay Graham and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are on the same page about an issue, it’s bad. The problem is, even in the unlikely scenario in which President Trump completely reverses his stance, the can of worms that is an American green light for a military incursion is incredibly difficult to close back up. Making an impact seems like
an impossible ask of college students, but all it takes to read the news is a couple of minutes. All it takes to make a donation to the Kurdish Relief Fund is a dollar and an internet connection. It’s easy to forget about the impact of humanitarian crises when they are happening on the other side of the world. It’s even easier to turn off the news when it feels like every story is a tragedy wrapped in politics. For the 1.8 million Kurds in need of relief, however, ignorance is not an accessible luxury.
the judges to predict what they will be looking for in a round. Political science senior Allison Clay, another captain of the team, said that adaptability was the most important key to their success. Being able to enter a room and determine what the judge was looking for, then catering to that, made them fierce competitors. “Because mock (trial) is so subjective when it comes to judging, the fact that we went 8-0 means even more because we were consistent,” Russell said. Mock Trial is a one-credit UTD course. Students enrolled meet five hours a week, in addition to preparation outside of class, and travel on weekends, like the competition in Spokane. Clay said the class learns about
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higher education plan shares some of the complexity of Warren’s and none of the comprehensiveness of Bernie’s. As part of a larger plan called “Reducing the Opportunity Gap,” one of Harris’ loan relief initiatives was mocked on Twitter when it was discovered that participants could have up to $20,000 of their loan debt forgiven, but only if they were “Pell grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities.” To add the cherry on top, if participants qualified they could “defer all of their student loans, interest-free, during a business-formation period that can last for as many as three years.” Talk about complex! It looks as if it’s designed to not work for anyone. A minority of the minority of students would benefit from Harris’ plan. Bernie’s plan is superior, no contest. After viewing the two other most talked about higher education plans, it is clear Bernie’s College for All plan best addresses students’ primary challenge: the cost of higher education. Yet major concerns are raised, such as paying for College for All, maintaining its funding and ensuring student completion rates. Alongside the cancellation of $1.6 trillion in student debt,
rules of evidence, procedure, how to write an opening statement and how to build a theme. Just a month ago, they started scrimmaging against another team from UTD, Clay said. In that last round, stacked with the best competitors from the host university trying to give UTD a run for their money by forming a team made up of all their captains, the ballots were really close. “I thought we were going to lose,” Clay said. “The other team was so good.” In the end, the ballots were close, but UTD still won. Khan said the experience level of their competition made the tournament more enjoyable. “The most fun rounds are the ones where you’re competing against really good teams and it is really close,” Khan said. “It
was just back and forth the whole time in that round.” All the team members said they were thankful for how kind their competitors were. Some said they made friends and professional connections they will keep. Clay and Khan each won outstanding lawyer awards. Next weekend, the other two mock trial teams will be headed to Rice University in Houston. This team’s next competition will be in Santa Barbara, California. “In the end, it is a bonus if we win,” Clay said. “But we’re doing this to learn and prepare us for law school and to be successful in the real world. I’m excited to see us do even better because you improve exponentially after your first tournament. I’m so excited to see how polished, how complex our arguments are going to get.”
the College for All Act will provide at least $48 billion annually to eliminate tuition and fees at “four-year public colleges and universities, tribal colleges, community colleges, trade schools and apprenticeship programs.” According to Prof. James Felkerson, a visiting instructor in economics at Bard College, in Working Paper No. 698, the 2007-2009 Federal Reserve bailout was calculated to have cost in excess of $29 trillion. Remember that when anyone says we can’t afford it. If the College for All budget was allocated half the amount as the 20072009 Fed bailout of Wall Street, we would not only afford the initial down payment on College for All of $2.2 trillion, but also continue its funding for about 279 years, and that’s ignoring that College for All will be covered by the Wall Street Tax. Finally, in a 2011 paper by Syracuse University sociology Prof. Vincent Tinto, student completion hinges more on “classroom experience” even as institutional enrollments, which at the time swelled by 11 million more students, and expenditures in improvement programs increase. Neither expansion translated to increased completion rates. So, if student completion relies more on classroom experiences and 48% of students consider the cost of education to be one of the biggest problems
on campus, then implementing free higher education would have a negligible to beneficial effect on students. Although Bernie is not alone in ensuring tuition-and-fee-free public higher education, he is unmatched with respect to student debt relief. There is a difference between entirely bailing out debt and progressively reducing debt. Yet we must also be cognizant of the fact that Bernie Sanders isn’t the end-all-be-all for the future of this country; he is not the end, but instead the means. Bernie continuously and consistently reminds us that he is building a movement rooting itself in Democratic Socialism best captured by his slogan, “Not me. Us!” If you want to learn more about the Bernie Sanders campaign and Democratic Socialism, you can visit his campaign website at BernieSanders.com, as well as the Democratic Socialists of America website at dsausa.org. Finally, don’t forget to register to vote for the Democratic primary by February 3, 2020. And when you vote, consider how Bernie Sanders and our burgeoning democratic socialist movement is the start of our society becoming truly democratic.
ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF