November 2, 2015
facebook.com/theutdmercury | @utdmercury
Freshman dies in Res Hall West
Toxicology report shows no signs of illegal substances, police say no indication of physical trauma ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Editor-in-Chief
THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
An 18-year-old freshman was found dead in his dorm room in Res Hall West on Oct. 18. After Collins Chima, who was studying neuroscience, hadn’t replied to numerous phone calls and texts, his family called for a welfare check. That’s when Chima’s body was found. “I was totally numb,” said Vivian Chima, Collins’ older sister. “I’m still numb. I still think that this is like a dream, like this is not happening.” Toxicology reports from the Collin County Medical Examiner’s office found that there were no signs of alcohol or drugs in his system. The official cause of death has yet to be determined.
School mourns loss of longtime dean
Additionally, an investigation by UTD Police found that there were no signs of physical trauma or suicide. Vivian said Chima had a number of offers from other universities, but chose to come to UTD because of its neuroscience program. His plan was to one day become a neurologist and open a clinic in Nigeria “He was so psyched about leaving home for the first time,” she said. “I took him to the orientation and everything … He was just looking forward to his life. He was just excited about, you know, school and making new friends.” Chima was the youngest of six siblings and was the only boy. This led to him getting coddled by the rest of his family, something that Vivian saw as driving him to push for his own independence and
establish his own identity as a man. Vivian, who described herself as being like a “second mom” to Chima, fondly remembered how Chima shed his childhood nickname of “OC” once he reached UTD and instead preferred to go by CHIMA his first name, which he believed was more mature. “He was like, ‘Yeah, this is the new me. I’m a man now, so I need to go to a man name,’” Vivian said.
→ SEE CHIMA, PAGE 12
Marijuana users create growing drug culture on campus, risk arrest for lifestyle
Psychologist remembered for expanding, improving BBS
STORY BY CARA SANTUCCI | NEWS EDITOR PHOTOS BY ANDREW GALLEGOS | PHOTO EDITOR ART BY HAMID SHAH AND CHAD AUSTIN| MERCURY GRAPHICS
ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Editor-in-Chief
Members of the UTD community are mourning the loss of Bert Moore, the longtime dean of the School of Brain and Behavioral Sciences. Moore died in his home in Dallas from pancreatic cancer on Oct. 20. Moore came to UTD in 1980 as the head of the psychology department. He was named dean of the School of Human Development in 1989 before it was renamed the School of Brain and Behavioral Sciences fourteen years later. Under Moore’s direction, the school’s enrollment grew from 387 students to nearly 2,500. Moore also had individual accomplishments. He was named a Distinguished Psychologist by the Dallas Psychological Society and was well known nationally for his research on child development. On campus, Moore was most recognized for the connections he made with his peers. For Marion Underwood, the dean of graduate studies in BBS, Moore’s kindMOORE ness stood out. “He was a very brave person, but also really gentle,” she said. “He was really good with people, very sensitive. He was very, very generous in seeing the best in other people and helping people become the best they can be.” Moore was also the chairman of the search committee that hired President Ad Interim Hobson Wildenthal in 1992. Moore’s personal qualities, like his trustworthiness and honesty, stood out the most to Wildenthal, who was one of the speakers at the memorial service held for Moore in the ATEC lecture hall on Oct. 24. “He made you He made feel good about you feel good yourself,” he said. about yourself. “In that sense … He’s just going In that sense ... to be missed as a He’s going to person who all of us enjoyed being be missed as a with.” person who all Moore was of us enjoyed also known for his commitment being with. to civil rights and equality. In 1965, when he — Hobson Wildenthal was a student at Southern Methodist University, Moore invited Martin Luther King Jr. to speak to the student body there. When King accepted the invitation, Moore picked him up from the airport and drove him to campus. It was this type of commitment to equality that made Moore a role model to Dru Sherrod, who attended SMU with Moore and was his best friend for more than fifty years. “He really was, for me, kind of a moral center,” he said. “If there was ever a hard decision I was having to make, I would run it by Bert, or often we would just call up and have nothing significant to talk about at all. But when there was something significant, it was important to be able to talk to Bert about it.”
Marijuana and drug paraphernalia covers the table of an off-campus apartment where several drug users from UTD live. Several of these users have claimed the marijuana community at UTD is growing and will continue to do so.
Names of some sources have been changed to protect their identities
C
asey, Jeff and Arjun, three students at UTD, live in an unassuming, offcampus apartment. Nothing seems out of place, except for the unmis-
takable smell of marijuana. A small coffee table is surrounded on all sides by overstuffed couches. On the wooden surface are three bongs, two pipes, a vaporizer, a grinder and a blowtorch. In the center is an open metal tin, which is filled with ground up weed. These three students, who have had different experiences with weed, are all a part of the often-overlooked drug culture on campus.
WHY DO IT?
Peter has tried practically every drug on the market, from shrooms to ketamine to research chemicals. “There is sort of a culture around it and there’s this sort of cred you get for it,” he said. Although the biomedical engineering senior has experience with all sorts of drugs, marijuana is the one he comes back to the most. He first got into the drug culture on campus his freshman year through his fraternity, using it partially for stress relief, but mostly for the social aspect. Now he smokes weed nearly every day. “I love the idea of a smoke circle. Everybody’s sitting around, you’re passing the bowl. You’re kind of forced into this group conversation,” Peter said. “It’s a big socialization thing.” Upon first arriving on campus, he said he thought there was only a small number of drug users at UTD. Since then, he’s discovered it’s much more prevalent than he previously supposed.
→ SEE WEED, PAGE 4
UT DALLAS MARIJUANA STATISTICS
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-CorrectionsDRUGS & ALCOHOL In the last issue of The Mercury, in the story titled “The Watchman,� the breaking news date that changed the FCIC’s view of Richard Bowen’s testimony was incorrect. The date was Mar. 29, 2010.
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OPINION
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NOV. 2, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Website’s shutdown mirrors industry trend Loss of site that mixed sports with pop culture just example of struggle journalists face in modern era of corporate control ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS COMMENTARY
When ESPN announced that Grantland — their groundbreaking sports and pop culture website — was being shut down, another blow was dealt against journalists everywhere who struggle to balance integrity with corporate interests. The website, which was founded in 2011 by Bill Simmons, was put on the chopping block on Oct. 30, just a few months after Simmons’ contract was not renewed by ESPN. Grantland was known for the mix of topics readers could spend hours sifting through. Detailed breakdowns of practically every major sport known to man could be found right next to articles about how Taylor Swift had climbed to her rank as America’s pop princess. There was nothing on the Internet like it and, for a time, it was beautiful. Unfortunately, once Simmons left, the Worldwide Leader in Sports seemed to have very little interest in the Grantland experiment and left the great majority of the staff of the website hanging out to dry. What has made so many people upset about this move, besides how the network suddenly laid off these employees with essentially no warning, is the loss of some of the only unique voices in journalism. In a medium where the Internet has made it possible for hot takes to be posted within minutes of any event, Grantland found a way to present readers with a fresh voice that also provided unique insight. Speaking from experience as a writer, that’s a lot harder to do than it sounds. More disturbingly, it shows how little integrity seems to matter to one of the largest content creators in modern journalism. Simmons had never been one to hold his tongue when it came to being critical of something he thought was wrong. When he spoke out about the inconsistency NFL commissioner Roger Goodell showed following the leak of a video where Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was shown hitting his girlfriend, it was widely rumored that the network tried to silence Simmons because of its relationship with the league. This relationship exists because of the odd pairing of ESPN and Monday Night Football — which is one of the NFL’s most lucrative ventures. Since the network airs the games every first night of the week during the football season, a conflict of interest worth millions of dollars is presented to the station. Think of it like this: ESPN airing Monday Night Football would be like The Mercury getting paid
GRANTLAND | COURTESY
Grantland’s current homepage, which has replaced the updated stories that graced its front almost every day, stands as a chilling reminder of a journalistic institute that once was.
by the university to specifically write articles about how great UTD is and never writing anything different. It just doesn’t make any sense. This is just one example of the control that corporations have over journalism in general. Some individual or group that has millions of dollars at stake controls almost every major newspaper or magazine on the planet. ESPN showed
that if the bottom line is put at stake, it has no problem throwing journalism out the window. During my time at The Mercury, the influence that Grantland has had on my writing has been critical. I’m sad to see it go, but I’m more worried about what this means for the future of the profession. For years, journalists have been struggling to eat, much less to attempt to be adventurous with their careers. It often
...When news outlets turn their backs on content creators the way ESPN did, it goes to show just how ruthless they can be.
just doesn’t pay anymore to be a writer, and when news outlets turn their backs on content creators the way ESPN did, it goes to show just how ruthless they can be. Journalism is an incredibly hard field to be successful in, but it’s one that’s still necessary for society. When I heard about how the staff at Grantland had been treated, I felt sad because I knew it was a blow to everyone who is still fighting to be a real journalist. Instead of articles with substance, people are now consuming either borderline propaganda or entertainment masquerading as news. If we as consumers want to see change, we have to start actively reading the in-depth journalism that matters. If we continue to keep taking what corporations are giving us, they’ll continue to screw with journalistic integrity.
Letter from the Editor Why we cover death on campus Few events are as traumatic in life as the death of a loved one. For journalists, few stories are as difficult to write as the ones we have to print about members of our community who pass away. In the last couple of weeks, UTD has experienced two deaths in its family. Collins Chima, an 18-yearold freshman studying neuroscience, was found dead in his dorm room on Oct. 18. Two days later, on Oct. 20, Bert Moore, the longtime dean of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, died at the age of 71 from pancreatic cancer. For this issue, I made the decision to write about each of these events, something that may not sit well with readers. For a large swath of people, journalists can often seem like vultures when they try to just talk to people after the death of a loved one — let alone publish a story about them. To those on the outside,
it’s understandable why it seems like we’re using their deaths as “clickbait.” For the staff of The Mercury and me, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Whenever someone who is in our university’s community dies, our first goal is to get the facts out there about what happened. More importantly, we want to paint a picture of the lives of the people who have died. Even if we didn’t know these individuals personally, we want to be a platform for the people who knew them the best to communicate to the university who they were and how they should be remembered. The other goal we have is to relay the facts as quickly as possible. For the death of Moore, the university was better equipped at sharing information about his life to the school more efficiently than we were, which is why our story about him didn’t come
out until this paper. Our job wasn’t to necessarily inform the masses, but to cover whatever percentage of the school’s population the university had missed. For Chima, the story surrounding his death played out in a different way entirely. The day after he died, we had heard rumors about a suicide that had occurred in the dorms. Typically, we don’t report when someone takes their own life in an attempt to curtail any possible imitators. I looked at the blotter, saw that there was indeed a death that had occurred in Res Hall West and concluded that the rumors of a suicide were true. What I should have done was look further into the event to see what happened. There are no signs that Chima took his own life, or that there were any drugs or alcohol involved with his death. While I’m happy we were able to get the story for this issue with the
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correct facts, I know I should have done a better job at checking our facts and for that I apologize. It’s ironic that these two deaths happened so close to one another. The passing of both a man just starting his life and a man who had already seen and done so much with his own shows just how fragile our existence is and how closely we should hold on to the people we love. For the staff of The Mercury, it’s a reminder that we have to always be vigilant and aware of our surroundings. It’s our job to let people know about the lives of those who have passed away, so that they won’t be overlooked like a mere statistic. It’s never something we look forward to, but it is something we will strive to improve on. - Esteban Bustillos, Editor-in-Chief
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Apart from your name and photo, personal info will not be published. We reserve the right to reject submissions, and we cannot be responsible for their return. We reserve the right to edit for clarity, brevity, good taste, accuracy and to prevent libel.
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NEWS
THE MERCURY | NOV. 2, 2015
UTDMERCURY.COM
New brain facility coming soon UTD funds Polycraft scholarship Brain performance institute makes research topic of interest
Scholarship given to students for proficiency in video game
CENTER FOR BRAIN HEALTH | COURTESY
The Brain Performance Institute, a $33 million, 62,000-square-foot facility, will be situated on Mockingbird Lane next to the Center for Brain Health. Its goal is to spread awareness about the brainrelated research conducted in the Center. SHIVANI SHARMA Mercury Staff
The groundbreaking of the Brain Performance Institute, a facility that will serve as the extension of the Center for Brain Health, took place on Oct.14. The $33 million, 62,000-square-foot construction project will be finished in about two years and will be housed next to the Center’s current headquarters on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas. One of the main roles of the Brain Performance Institute is to connect the public with the research that takes place in the Center for Brain Health. “(The goal) is to provide the evidence-based programs provided by the Center of Brain Health to the public,” said Eric Bennett, the executive director of the Brain Performance Institute. “We want to be a leader in bringing research to the public’s awareness and for them to have access to it.” Dee O’Neill-Warren, a senior clinician for the Center of BrainHealth and Brain Performance Institute, said that the Brain Performance Institute will have a unique role as a bridge between research and application. “I’ve worked in neuroscience for fifteen years, and research and clinical application have always been two separate worlds,” she said. “Just the impact of those being together under the same umbrella is pretty groundbreaking.” Bennett said this is especially important due to the rapidity with which brain research is expected to change. “There’s going to be so much new research that
comes out on the brain in the next five to 10 years, and we want to be in the position to really make sure the public has access to it,” he said. Through the awareness brought about by the Institute, authorities aim to make preventative brain health an important topic for individuals. “You know your teeth get more attention than your brain,” Bennett said. “We want brain health to be part of the discussion of health. So that’s a big part of our mission.” Features of the Institute will include cognitive brain training, cognitive brain assessments and an imaging suite. The architecture of the Institute’s building is also unique. “The ellipse (shape of the building atrium) represents the frontal lobe of your brain. Researchers here have determined that a strong frontal lobe is vital to overall brain health and brain recovery in case of injury,” Bennett said. “Since we do so much work that’s frontal lobe focused, we thought it was appropriate to have a building that has something symbolic of the shape of a frontal lobe.” The building will be surrounded by large, glass pane windows and will also house an expansive entryway in its lobby. Bennett affirmed that they planned the architecture of the building intentionally. “Even though we have clinicians there, we don’t want it to feel like a clinic,” he said. “We want it to be a learning, empowering, inspiring environment so people walk in and feel that they’re in there to learn and improve, not to be treated.”
POLYCRAFT WORLD | COURTESY
A $5,000 scholarship will be awarded to current and prospective students for doing well in Polycraft World, a game designed to teach students about science. The first scholarship will be given out to the student that achieves a record score in the game between Sept. 3 and Dec. 1. TEENAZ RALHAN Mercury Staff
Current and prospective students can now be awarded a $5,000 scholarship for excelling at playing a video game made by students and professors at UTD. Polycraft is a modification of the popular game Minecraft. It was developed by a team of students and professors with the aim of using it as a learning tool to teach students about science in an innovative way. Ron Smaldone, an assistant professor of chemistry at UTD who helped develop the game, said that the requirements for entering the scholarship are that the applicant must be thirteen years of age or older and that the applicant must either be a current student or someone who wants to attend UTD in the future. “(The scholarship) was something that Walter Voit approached the then-provost, now president Hobson Wildenthal about,” he said. “(Wildenthal) has been extremely generous in setting aside money to allow us this money for the program.” The aim of the scholarship initiative is to measure the analytical skills that students get from playing Polycraft in order to evaluate them, as well as to evaluate other skills that they need for college courses. “This (scholarship) has been in the works for over a year. It was thought of even when the game
was being developed,” Smaldone said. “It was always part of the plan.” The time period in which applicants must get a record score in the game to win the first scholarship opened up on Sept. 3, 2015 and will close on Dec. 1. Jennifer Tildwell, a UTD alumna, is working on publicizing the scholarships. “The scholarship helps the good students finance their education at UT Dallas,” she said. “It also helps UTD find the kind of students that UT Dallas would want to have here.” Christina Thompson, a lecturer of Chemistry at UTD, uses Polycraft as an instructional tool for a class that she teaches, and also helps publicize the game. “The winner will be announced once a week starting Jan. 1, 2016. The aim is to give students enough time to do something big which deserves that $5,000 scholarship,” Thompson said. The scholarships cater to a wide variety of fields like chemistry, journalism and networking. Smaldone said that the different scholarships are meant to measure the strengths of the students who play the game. “You are looking for people who have proficiency in science and other skills, like leadership,” he said. “The game allows students to do whatever they like with it. It allows a broad audience for a university to look for the kind of students that they want to join them. It allows the natural skills and characteristics of the player to come out.”
“There’s no way you can stop it.” - Arjun, a UTD drug user, on the growing marijuana culture
→ WEED
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“I think a lot of people do weed,” Peter said. “I think a big part of the campus is definitely smoking.” According to data compiled by the UTD police department, the amount of arrests made on campus, or on perimeter streets, related to possession increased this year as compared to last year. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 25 of 2014, 16 arrests were made. In that same time frame in 2015, 18 arrests were made. However, in 2014, 18 more calls were made to the police station about students allegedly using marijuana than in 2015. Despite the mild difference in the numbers, UTD Chief of Police Larry Zacharias said he has noticed a discernible rise in the amount of marijuana busts on campus, especially coming out of the residence halls. “This has kind of been a banner year for it,” he said. “It’s gone up quite a bit.” The UTD Police Department has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to drugs and alcohol. If a student is found with a usable amount — generally the amount needed for a person to consume in order to get high — of any intoxicant, they are arrested and sent to the Richardson jail and the dean’s office is notified. When Zacharias was first laying out the campus’s official policies on drugs and alcohol, he referenced the UT System’s statement that all laws on alcoholic beverages should be strictly enforced. “If that’s what they’re telling us for alcohol … then that’s probably the same protocol we should use for illegal drugs,” he said. Although the Police Department has official guidelines for dealing with possession, getting caught using marijuana on campus can result in different kinds of punishments for students. James, a senior studying finance, has seen several of his friends face those different consequences during his time at UTD. He knew someone who dealt on campus. That person was found with a gram and kicked out of school. He appealed and won readmission, but later had to drop out because he lost his scholarship and could not longer afford his education. Meanwhile, Peter lived in an on campus apartment last year, which he referred to as “the trap” for the risky
activities that went on there. He was never caught. “We literally had eight to 15 guys in this apartment basically all the time rotating through … just smoking together,” he said. “We didn’t even get a knock at the door for an entire two semesters. I literally have no idea how that’s possible.” James said he thought the campus police shouldn’t be arresting the students for incidents of minor possession. “Take it easy on us. We’re just college kids,” he said. “We’re just trying to get by.” Zacharias said he wasn’t surprised by the students’ attitude towards the cops on campus. “The hardest thing is for you to want your police department to be the group that determines which laws should be enforced and which laws shouldn’t,” Zacharias said. “We’re not supposed to be judge, jury and hangman. We work off of probable cause. There’s still a lot of (places) in this country where that’s the way people police. They police based on how they think the law should be done … I just don’t agree with that.” ARRESTS AND CONSEQUENCES James was arrested when he was 19 in Plano for marijuana possession. He was first sent to the Richardson jail and then transferred to Plano before finally ending up in the Colin County Detention Facility. “I thought it was kind of excessive, honestly,” he said. “And I felt like they were making such a big deal out of something I thought was so harmless.” After struggling to find the money to pay his bail, James was finally released with probation and 60 hours of community service. He also had to attend drug counseling classes and corrective thinking classes as a part of his sentence. “I was just kind of scared,” James said. “Honestly, I just didn’t know how long I was going to be in there. I didn’t know if I was going to see my friends … Finals were coming up and I was just like, ‘Great, I’m going to fail all my classes’ — which I did.” James is an Academic Excellence Scholar at UTD, but was able to keep his scholarship since the arrest happened off campus. The school never found out. He said his experience in jail really opened his eyes to the contradicting way drugs are dealt with in the state of Texas. “I was in jail next to people who were in there for
ANDREW GALLEGOS | PHOTO EDITOR
A student displays some of the marijuana he keeps for his personal use. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 25 of 2014, UTD Police arrested 16 people for crimes in relation to marijuana. In 2015, 18 people have been arrested in the same time period for those charges.
assault and battery,” James said. “I was literally five feet away from someone who committed murder. Just for smoking weed. That made no sense to me. It just made me realize how entirely backwards the system is in regards to drugs.” James’ roommate at the time of his arrest was nowhere near the premises. However, because of the way possession laws are written, his name was on the lease and therefore he was arrested. He tried to fight the charge by taking it to trial, but he lost. James’ roommate ended up serving two years of probation — 15 months more than James did for actually owning the marijuana. In contrast to James’ experience, Peter had a very different outcome when police showed up at his place off campus in Plano. He said there was paraphernalia all over the place. They had a crack pipe lying out filled with DMT, pill canisters about to be filled with Molly and marijuana everywhere. Peter walked away with a paraphernalia ticket and his roommate was given a citation for marijuana. CHANGE IN CULTURE
Jeff, Casey and Arjun all predict a change in the culture on campus as it continues to grow and develop. They said elements typical of the traditional college experience — partying, drugs and alcohol — are becoming more prevalent on campus. “The shift is happening, but I think it’s being fought a little bit,” Casey said. “Obviously, they’re not going to try and encourage it. I just don’t think they’re being as open to it as other college campuses are.” Arjun, a senior international student, agreed with Casey’s perception of the shift that’s happening on campus. He went even further, saying that the new party culture is almost a necessity. “I feel like there has to be some kind of party culture being developed here,” he said. “Not only for prospective students, but for students that are here. So there’s something to do besides, ‘Hey, there’s a ping pong tournament going on.’” He attributes the growth of the smoking population on campus to a simple process of networking. “People who don’t smoke right now are more likely to become friends with people who do and that develops the culture more than anything,” he said. “There’s no way you can stop it.”
LIFE&ARTS
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NOV. 2, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
A SURVIVOR'S TALE: FREEDOM
A Dance to Remember Comet Swing Society helps create lasting friendships, fun
Professor recalls experience during Russian occupation of Hungary
RANJIT SREENIVAS | MERCURY STAFF
Lindsey Ward (left), a literary studies senior and the president of the Comet Swing Society, dances with a partner at one of the club's biweekly meetings in the Galaxy Rooms of the student union. ANDREW GALLEGOS | PHOTO EDITOR
Ozsvath was one of the 250,000 people who fled from Hungary during the Russian occupation in the late 1950s. She is pictured with her photo album filled with photographs and mementos from her family's experience during World War II. CARA SANTUCCI News Editor
This is the third and final part of a multi-part series on Ozsvath. Once again, Ozsvath’s family was in the difficult position of deciding whether or not to leave Hungary. Everything in their apartment had survived the Nazi occupation. Ozsvath remembers her family thinking everything would be fine. Then the Communists came. Her father wanted to leave and, once again, her mother refused. Ozsvath said the Russians were almost as bad as the Germans. In 1956, the Russians crushed the Hungarian uprising and people began to leave the country. Ozsvath wanted to be one of them. “I just had (had) enough,” she said. “Some people need to be beaten up once to understand something. Some people need to be beaten up twice. Some people maybe six times, but you know — I’d had it.” Now a married, young woman, Ozsvath told her husband they needed to leave right then or they never would. “Somebody must start (the leaving) because we (would’ve lived) in that hell, in that horror … until
the last day of our lives,” she said. Four months after her husband left the country, she followed using a false passport her father had bought for $400. Today, that sum of money is worth $3,400. She left her apartment and walked through the streets of Budapest. Ozsvath, then an accomplished musician, keenly remembers seeing broken and abandoned Steinway pianos in front of apartment buildings. She said the city was in a state of complete chaos. She was just one of the 250,000 people who fled Hungary at that time. She joined her husband in Vienna where he was working at an observatory as a graduate student in astronomy. They relocated shortly afterwards to Hamburg so he could get his Ph.D. Ozsvath continued to play the piano, earning her concert diploma while they were living in Hamburg. One day, Ozsvath’s husband was approached by Americans to come work in Austin, Texas because of his advanced knowledge of astronomy. They left right away.
→ SEE FREEDOM, PAGE 6
MIRIAM PERCIVAL Staff Writer
Faint music and laughter fills the Galaxy rooms most Friday nights as students dance swing jazz. From experienced movers to novice ones, all of them are brought together by the Comet Swing Society. The club meets every two weeks and is open to everyone, from beginner to expert swing dancer. Alumnus Christopher McClure founded the society as a sophomore when his friends invited him to go swing dancing downtown. He noticed how popular it was and decided to form a club on campus. “Eventually we thought, ‘Why not do it here for free without the 20 minute commute?’” he said. “It just took off from there.” Jacob Guerra, the club’s event coordinator, helps teach dance lessons before the main event. The lessons mostly focus on teaching basic swing dancing, but the club plans to introduce advanced lessons soon. “Usually, the people who go to the lessons are beginners or people that may have gone once or twice before, but still want to go to solidify what they’ve learned,” he said. “After nine, we turn down the lights and turn on the music and people from all different levels dance around.” The club’s president, Lindsey Ward, says there are other benefits besides learning to swing dance that come from participating in the club. “I was really self-conscious back then and this really helped me to come out of my shell and kind of
explore a new way of expressing myself,” Ward said. There is an aspect of social interaction that is an extra advantage of joining the club — members have the opportunity to spend time together after the club events, like when they go out to dinner. Sometimes these bonds go beyond friendship. Ward met her current boyfriend, McClure, while participating in the club her freshman year. To get the club started, McClure invited everyone he knew, including Ward — a freshman at the time. “I barely knew her,” McClure said. “We started spending more and more time together.” Two months after joining the club, McClure and Ward started dating. Now it’s been over two years. “It was definitely a place where we strengthened our relationship and got to see more of each other,” McClure said. “We met and danced every Friday night, so I guess that sped things up.” Guerra encourages people to try out the club, even if they don’t have anyone to go with. “You don’t have to come in a group or with a significant other — you can come individually,” he said. “We have plenty of individual dancers as well.” McClure said that the point of the club is to have fun and learn swing dancing. It’s not supposed to be a competitive environment. “It’s fun to be there with your partner, struggling to keep in sync with the music and messing up and
→ SEE DANCE, PAGE 6
Difficulty
PINPOSSIBLE
Arm Knit Scarf
Cost Durability
LINDA NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF
S
everal years ago, when my sister was in elementary school, she went through a crocheting phase. I don’t remember where she picked it up, just that she was pretty into it for a few years. At one point I asked her to make me a scarf, but she said that it would take several hours of work to make it happen. Now that I think about it, she never actually finished many projects. Recently, I’ve been loving that knit scarves are coming back into style because they’re great for keeping warm when we get any sliver of cold weather. While I had heard of arm knitting, I never actually thought it would work, so when my friend offered to show me how to do it, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.
WHAT YOU NEED - 120 yds of yarn - Scissors - Your arms
INSTRUCTIONS 1. First, you’re going to want to measure out your tail. Your tail is about six to
eight arm lengths of yarn that you measure out initially. This will help you when you “cast on” your first row of stitches. The end of yarn coming out of the yarn is called your “working yarn.” 2. Next you’re going to tie a slip knot. To do this, you’re going to want to make a loop with your working yarn over the tail end and pull through the working yarn to make a loop. Slip this over your wrist. 3. Now you’re going to cast on your first row of stitches. You’re going to grab the tail end and working end of the yarn. Using your thumb and index finger, you’re going to bring them into and out of the yarn to make a sort of cross section. 4. Take the hand that you’re casting on to and bring it under the yarn sitting below your thumb and over the yarn coming down from your pointer finger and through that loop onto your wrist. 5. Repeat this for as wide as you want your scarf, about 12-15 stitches. 6. Now begin to move all the stitches from one arm to the other. Grab the working yarn with the hand that has the stitches, take one stitch and bring it over the hand and drop it and then slide the new loop onto your other arm. Do this
for all the remaining stitches. 7. Continue moving the stitches back and forth from arm to arm 27-30 times. 8. Finally, you’re going to “cast off.” In order to do this, grab the working yarn and do two stitches normally after you've finished your last row of stitches. Then, you’re going to take the stitch closest to your body, bring it over your hand and drop it. 9. Add another stitch like you would normally do, take the stitch closest to your body, bring it over your hand and drop it. Continue doing so until you’ve done the last stitch. 10. Finally, you’re going to tie a knot with the remaining yarn and cut it. It’s a bit harder to explain than it is to do, and it might look a bit messy at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually a really quick process. It definitely works better with bigger, fluffier yarn rather than the typical acrylic yarn that you’ll find at most stores. They make quick and easy Christmas gifts that people will definitely appreciate.
Every issue, The Mercury’s craft connoisseur will scour Pinterest and craft blogs in search of the best and worst DIY projects. Show us your results on social media using #pinpossible and @utdmercury.
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→ FREEDOM
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LIFE&ARTS
arriving, he passed away. CHAD THOMAS | MERCURY STAFF
Switzerland, 1949
Coming to America When they came to the United States, Ozsvath wanted to change careers. She got her Ph.D. in German Literature from UT Austin and moved with her husband to Dallas when he was offered a professorship at the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest — later known as UTD. Eventually, she was offered a job in the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at UTD in the ’80s, where she is still teaching today. Back in Hungary in 1957, her parents were still struggling to get passports so that they could visit her. They put in an application every month and were refused each time. Then, one day, her father was up for a big prize for the pharmaceutical work he had done. A representative of the organization that was giving out the prize asked if he would mind sharing the prize with someone else. “My father said, ‘Do I mind it? I couldn’t care less. The only thing I (care about) is my only daughter who is in Germany whom I haven’t seen for years. The only thing I’m interested in getting (is) a passport,’” she said. Finally, he and Ozsvath’s mother received passports. With the government’s permission, they visited Ozsvath in Germany. Later, he came to Dallas and intended to stay with her for a year. Three weeks after
Back in Ozsvath’s home in Richardson, the professor finishes reflecting on the time before she was free and how it inspires her to this day. One time in particular stands out to her more than others. She was sitting on the floor with her friend trying to learn 500 Hungarian folk songs for her piano education. The last thing she wanted to do in her life was learn even one Hungarian folk song, she remembered with a sharp laugh. “I sat with my friend on the floor. We were learning the songs and I was cursing and I was raging,” she said. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Ozsvath opened the door to see a mailman holding out a letter to her. It was from a friend who fled Hungary in 1949 for Switzerland. “I sat down on the floor and I turned to (my friend) and I said, ‘You know, there are countries in the world where people don’t wear the yellow star. There are countries in the world where families are not killed in gas chambers. There are countries in the world where you don’t have to sit on the floor and learn 500 folk songs (when) you want to (just) practice the piano,’” she said. “And, in a way, it was then that I thought: I (must) go away from here. Whatever happens, however it will happen, I want to go away.”
→ DANCE
them more than just lessons on how to dance. “When I came in, I had zero experience and I thought I was the most awkward person in the world — and I probably was one of them — so anybody can do it,” she said. “All it takes is showing up once and finding that it’s something you can enjoy to get it started.”
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just laughing about it,” he said. “You’re talking while you do this and you’re having a fun conversation and you’re struggling through it together sometimes.” For Ward and others like her, the club has given
UTDMERCURY.COM
UPCOMING EVENTS Join the women's center on campus for refreshing tea and conversation.
A R&B and pop artist brings her eclectic sound to campus.
A concert presented by the Huayun Orchestra of the Confucius Institute at UTD.
Join Onomatopoeia for a night of learning and practicing improv.
Dining services hosts a pop up market featuring local produce and recipes.
A strategist and author comes to campus to give a presentation about his work.
SPORTS
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NOV. 2, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
FALL playoff preview Everything you need to know about UTD sports as they enter playoff contention PABLO JUAREZ Sports Editor
Volleyball team clinches ASC East title, Men’s squad looks to bounce back set to host conference tournament from late season slump in first rounds
Women’s team looks to shake up ASC tourney after year of learning, rebuilding
JENNIFER CHI | MERCURY STAFF
SAHER AQEEL | MERCURY STAFF
SAHER AQEEL | MERCURY STAFF
Senior setter Kayla Jordan sets up her teammates during the Comets' 3-0 victory against Belhaven on Oct. 23. The team heads into the post-season riding a 20 game win streak.
Sophomore midfielder Isaac Urcuyo wards off a player from Louisiana College in their 7-0 win on Oct. 29. The team will play in the ASC semi-finals on Nov. 7 after earning a first round bye.
Freshman midfielder MaKayla Forsberg fights for ball possesion during the women's soccer teams' 5-0 shutout win against Louisiana College on Oct. 29. The Comets finished fourth in the ASC.
With a 3-0 victory against East Texas Baptist University on Oct. 20, the volleyball team secured the ASC East division title — the eighth in program history. The Comets (27-2, 11-0) will now get to host the ASC tournament, which is scheduled to take place from Nov. 5 to 7. After being slotted only for five home games all season, senior setter and captain Kayla Jordan said she finds it refreshing not having to travel to open the post-season. “I think we got pretty used to traveling this year, so I don’t think it would have been that big of a deal if we had to travel,” she said. “But, you know, it feels good to be able to do the conference tournament in our gym and have our own fans there.” Despite losing senior starting outside hitter Meredith Crawford to injury early in the season, head coach Marci Sanders is pleased with the multiple players who have managed to improve in her absence in order to avoid any drop-off.
An unassisted shot from the left side zipped past LeTourneau’s keeper, finding the back of the net. The lone goal of the evening secured a Comets victory on Oct. 17, extending the team’s shutout streak to five in a row and making it their ninth overall consecutive win, tying the program record. Riding the high of the winning streak, junior defender and captain Sam Konstanty said complacency marred the following weekend’s games. Opening goals by Ozarks and UT Tyler in the first half on Oct. 22 and 25, respectively, saw the Comets playing catch-up for the remainder of each match — something that had happened only once all season previously. They tied with Ozarks 1-1 and lost to UT Tyler 3-2. “We thought we were the best team in the conference,” Konstanty said. “We got a bit lazy and stopped working hard. We thought these
After graduating nine seniors and losing all 11 starters from last season, the women’s soccer program has entered a rebuilding phase. Despite this, the team (13-7, 6-4) is still right in the middle of the ASC play-off picture. They finished fourth in the conference and will get to host LeTourneau in the first round of the ASC tournament on Nov. 3. The squad consistently starts eight freshmen and rounds out the rest of the line-up with a combination of sophomores and juniors to fill in the final three starting spots. The team’s only two seniors have been sidelined after suffering injuries in the early portions of the season. “It’s unusual to have more than two or three freshman in a starting line-up,” head coach Kanute Drugan said. “We’re a very young team — the youngest team I’ve had in my 21 years in the NCAA.” Drugan said he set no expectations for the young team that was
→ SEE MEN’S SOCCER, PAGE 8
→ SEE WOMEN’S SOCCER, PAGE 8
→ SEE VOLLEYBALL, PAGE 8
CHAD AUSTIN | MERCURY STAFF
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“Kristyn Schott has been on the outside for us all year as a freshman,” Sanders said. “Abbie Barth has really stepped up into Meredith’s spot. Those two kids have just stepped up for us. It’s interesting because they kind of balance each other out. One will be having a really good game and the other might be struggling. If we could ever get them on the same page, it’ll be a lot of fun.” The team is currently first in the NCAA in assists per set for Division III, averaging 13.58 — indicative of the up-tempo playing style the coaching staff has tried to implement. Jordan is leading the attack,
→ MEN’S SOCCER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
wins would just come to us.” With the post-season approaching, the team said those games served as a wake-up call for an attitude adjustment if the Comets plan on claiming the ASC crown. “We have to stay consistent,” sophomore forward Danny Meyer said. “We just have to come out every week and play intensely and let our skills takeover.” Head coach Jason Hirsch has voiced a similar sentiment since the beginning of the season. “Every team can beat any team,” he said. The Comets (14-3-2, 7-1-1) finished second in the ASC. The teams with the top six conference records make the ASC tournament — with the top
→ WOMEN’S SOCCER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
already facing enough pressure. He was more concerned about their game-by-game development than the numbers on the scoreboard. “I’ve told them time and again I don’t care about the win or the loss,” he said. “Just this season, I don’t care. I don’t care what the score says on the scoreboard during the game or after the game. What I care about is us getting better.” After posting the program’s sixth straight 10 plus win season and the sixteenth time overall in its nineteen year history, the team has already surpassed last seasons 46 goal scoring total.
PLAYOFF SCHEDULES
SPORTS
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averaging an individual 11.81 assists per set — an NCAA best. “Our defense is really awesome this year,” Jordan said. “It helps to have such great defense because then we’re able to run the offense how we want to. With our faster offense, we’re able to get more kills which lead to more assists.” The losses against Southwestern and Pacific Lutheran are two that Sanders feels could have gone in UTD’s favor if not for a certain coaching approach and a shift in the line-up. “With Southwestern … I think I probably over coached them a little bit in the fifth set, and so I’m just letting them do their thing right now,” she said. “In the Pacific Lutheran game, I really wish I had changed
the line-up to what we’re doing right now. Had I done that, I think the outcome would’ve been different.” The Comets finished the season undefeated in ASC play (11-0), the first time since the program’s 2009 campaign and the second time overall in 12 years. “I told the girls after we had seen everybody that I feel the only team in our conference that can really beat us is us,” Sanders said. Sanders explained that there has been a culture change in the program with the current squad compared to previous ones. A word that the coaching staff is frequently using to describe the team is composure. “You’ll hear sometimes (athletic directors) tell coaches not to recruit kids with character that aren’t characters,” she said. “I’ve had another coaching
mentor say you want to recruit characters with character and I think that’s definitely what we have. I think we have a lot of good characters on our team. (We) just have to trust that we’re a good team.” As the team prepares for the post-season, their relationship with Kaitlyn Johnson — a 5-year-old cancer survivor that the team adopted this season through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation — has been especially noteworthy. “I think having the whole Kaitlyn thing that’s going on with us … is helping keep things in perspective,” Sanders said. “I think that has helped motivate the kids to understand there’s bigger and more important things going on in the world than winning or losing a volleyball match.”
two teams earning first round byes. The team ranks third in goal against average and is tied for the most shutouts in the ASC, with .65 and 5, respectively. Konstanty explained that with the team escaping major injuries to their starting eleven, as compared to previous seasons, they have been able to establish continuity, especially on the defensive end. “When I was a freshman, we were plagued with injuries and I feel like the starting eleven changed game to game,” he said. “The back four hasn’t really changed very much throughout this season. So it’s always good to know where the other players are going to be — (knowing) when to step or when to drop.” The continuity has led to a further development of chemistry both on and off the field. “I think this year is different in that we’re much closer off the field,” Konstanty said. “I definitely feel
like this is a family. In past years, maybe it’s because I was younger, but I didn’t feel the team was as close as they are this year. So that’s really helped the chemistry on the field.” A familiar foe sits atop the conference standings. UT Tyler blemished the Comet’s conference record, handing them their only ASC loss of the season. Despite the loss, the team’s confidence remains unmoved. “To be honest, we’re not really afraid of any of these teams,” Konstanty said. “We’ve beaten everyone in our conference so far. We’re not afraid of (UT Tyler), we just had about twenty minutes of bad soccer.” Taking a game-by-game approach is something Hirsch has reinforced to the squad throughout the season. Meyer said keeping their foot on the gas pedal is one thing the team needs to consistently do
in their bid for the ASC title. “There was a game earlier this season against Austin College where we should have beat them,” he said. “That was a team we were better than … we let them stay in the game and then we ended up tying it. That’s something we can’t let happen. We have to come out and just beat teams.” After being on the wrong end of two elimination games in the past two seasons, Konstanty explained what sets apart the conference tournament from the regular season. “Everyone is going 100 miles per hour,” he said. “There’s a little bit more nerves, but it’s fun. It’s exciting knowing everything is on the line. Coming out with a win is the only way we continue to play that season and that’s definitely what motivates me because I hate the season being over.”
“We do a lot of sequences,” junior forward and captain Megan Mugavero said. “We’re trying to become more of a dynamic attacking team this year, so we work a lot on that in practice and just kind of finding the side of the net more … we always go far post this year and that’s something we usually struggle with. That’s why we’re scoring so much.” The Comets are third in the ASC in goals with 32 and fourth in assists with 24. In each of their victories, the Comets have been able to break open the scoreless game and tally a goal in their favor — something Drugan sees as a result of the team’s make-up and hopes carries over into the post-season. Now that the season is winding down and more games
are under their belt, the coaching staff said it has noticed the team playing with a new sense of confidence. “What I (see) is a team that seems to be pressure free,” Drugan said. “We weren’t pressure free from the first game through a number of games. We’re more certain about each other (and) more certain about ourselves individually.” After suffering an ankle sprain on Sep. 25 against Mary Hardin-Baylor, Mugavero has returned to the team and said she feels close to 100 percent. Being one of five active upperclassmen on the roster, Mugavero said she tries to instill belief into the young core. “We just played Tyler, the number one team (in our conference), … and only lost 1-0,” she said. “We
just saw we could’ve won that game and that’s our top opponent. It’s realizing we can win this whole championship if we want to put our mind to it.” Lapses and organizational errors on defense are two things Drugan said the team must eradicate if they hope to have any success in the post-season. However, he said he sees this season as a building block for a team that isn’t anywhere close to peaking. “As we measure ourselves now as compared to back then when we would’ve played some of those teams (in our conference), I think we feel like we’re a better team and maybe they are too,” Drugan said. “But we had more room to grow than they did. So I think that evens the playing field a lot more and maybe even slides it in our favor.”
VOLLEYBALL STARTS NOV. 5
MEN’S SOCCER STARTS NOV. 7
WOMEn’s soccer STARTS NOV. 3
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IT’S GETTING COOLER
COMICS&GAMES THAT AWKWARD MOMENT
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THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN
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Vivian said Chima loved anime and had even planned to travel to Japan this summer. He was also looking forward to taking part in her wedding in Nigeria this winter. “He was excited,” she said. “He was the only male, because my dad also passed away … He was talking about going to the capital of Nigeria with his sisters … He just talked so much about plans ahead of him.” At UTD, Chima quickly became involved with campus life. He had become interested in Pi Kappa Phi and was planning on joining the fraternity. Afeef Ali, a business administration and finance sophomore and a member of Pi Kappa Phi, had taken on the role of Chima’s mentor in the organization. ” “We had a meeting with everyone and a few counselors right when we heard the news,” he said. “We just sat there in silence because we did not know what to say.”
NEWS
The day before he died, Chima was at a Pi Kappa Phi event where they named the big and little pairings before he went home. UTD Police are not investigating the fraternity for any wrongdoing. Ali, who had become close to Chima during the rush process, said the fraternity is planning on holding a candlelight vigil later this month in memory of Chima. For Ali, Chima’s willingness to give is what stood out the most to him. “He loved helping others,” he said. “He was very ambitious, also. He was a pre-med. He really wanted to be a doctor. He always talked about helping people and doing the best he could … He would always put a smile on anyone’s face.” As others memorialize Chima’s life, Vivian said she hopes people continue pursuing their goals in her brother’s memory. “I just want people to remember him as a person who came in with a dream and it was cut short,” she said. “We want people in that school to continue on with their dreams and be careful what they do.”
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