The Mercury 05 03 21

THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM

Volume LIII No. 53

Editor-in-Chief

Tyler Burkhardt editor@utdmercury.com (972) 883-2294

Managing Editor

Ben Nguyen managingeditor @utdmercury.com

Copy Editor

Sophie Boutouis copyeditor@utdmercury. com

Graphics Editor Alesandra Bell graphics@utdmercury.com

Photo Editor

Anna Phengsakmueang photo@utdmercury.com

News Editor

Anjali Venna news@utdmercury.com

Life & Arts Editor

Lauren Dougherty life@utdmercury.com

Web Editor

Trever Tomer web@utdmercury.com

Outreach Editor

Jacky Chao media@utdmercury.com

Opinion Editor

Nandika Mansingka opinioneditor@ utdmercury.com

Video Editor

Ali Khan video@utdmercury. com

Contributors

Fatimah Azeem

Sofia Babool

Emaan Bangash

Charlie Chang

Astrid Hernandez

Christine Jacob

Juhi Karnalkar

Roshan Khichi

Calis Lim

Elizabeth Nguyen

Louise Nillas

Quinn Sherer Keerthi Srilakshmidaran

Smrithi Upadhyayula

Isabelle Villegas

UTD PD Blotter

April 14

A student reported theft of their bicycle from Residence Hall South at 3:26 p.m.

April 15

A student’s tricycle was reported stolen from Phase 2 at 8:45 a.m.

April 19

An individual unaffiliated with the university was arrested for public intoxication in Northside at 3:33 a.m.

April 25

An individual reported theft of their catalytic convertor at 12:01 p.m. The complainant’s vehicle was located in a Phase 3 parking lot.

Mailing Adress 800 West Campbell Road, SU 24 Richardson, TX 75080-0688

Newsroom

Student Union, Student Media Suite SU1.601

Media Adviser

Chad Thomas chadthomas@utdallas.edu (972) 883-2286

“The reason we stay on campus is not necessarily about costs, that’s certainly a factor, but we really think there’s value in having commencement on campus. We think we lose something if we go to a neutral location.”

- Terry Pankratz, UTD vice president of budget and planning, on the location of commencement ceremonies

“I had actually never really watched Wheel of Fortune ever in my entire life. I’m not really a game show person.”

- Christian Nevarez, a UTD student who won $60,000 on Wheel of Fortune

“My goal was to have Skyline do everything in Richardson. I wanted the players to stay in Richardson, I wanted to play in Richardson, I wanted to just do everything and be a part of the Richardson, Texas community.”

-Prescott Mack, owner of the Dallas Skyline, a professional affiliate basketball team renting UTD’s facilities

Why are graduations still being held in the gym?

Comets will soon be back on campus, and they’ll go back to graduating in the Activity Center as well

EMAAN BANGASH Mercury Staff

Historically, commencement ceremonies have been held at UTD in the Activity Center, but why is that the case, and could it ever change?

The Activity Center holds a variety of facilities, one of which is the gymnasium, a 3,200-seat room that has been the home of commencement ceremonies at UTD since 1998, when the first phase of the Activity Center was built, said Director of University Events Judy Barnes.

For the last few years, students have been voicing their opinions against the Activity Center as a venue. The UTD subreddit has numerous posts, one of which dates back to 2013, from students proposing to change the location, or having students sign a petition to change it. In addition, members of Student Government voiced their concerns about the graduation location to administration and created a survey for students after the petition began circulating on Reddit, said biology senior Serena Bhadsavle.

In a survey conducted by The Mercury, out of 181 respondents, 146 answered that they were planning to attend their commencement ceremo-

ny. When asked how they felt about ceremonies being held in the AC on a scale from 1-5 (1 being “Very bad” and 5 being “Very good”), only four respondents answered “Good” or “Very good,” and of those who indicated they would not be attending commencement, about 60% ranked “Don’t like the chosen location” as their top reason for not attending.

On the UTD subreddit, ATEC senior Griffin Callahan posted a petition calling for commencement to be “held somewhere more respectable.” The petition currently has 581 signatures. He said his high school graduation was held in a basketball stadium, and other high schools nearby had done something similar. He said he decided to start the petition after noticing posts on the subreddit talking about the same issue for 6-7 years and nothing had changed.

“Some of these people are graduate students that are graduating in a gym when a high school can do better than that, and that just blows my mind,” Callahan said. “I feel like aesthetically there isn’t much of a difference between graduation and a basketball game, so I would just like to see something a little more grand like a lot of high schools in DFW do.”

Barnes chairs an ad-hoc Commencement Committee composed of other faculty and SG members that makes recommendations for commencement. Barnes said several factors are accounted for when deciding the location, including general costs, weather, faculty transportation, amount of seating and the importance of having commencement on-campus to students.

“It’s a little bit of art and a little bit of science and [the Activity Center] is our largest venue on campus. That’s why we have it in there. A lot of people say, ‘why don’t you go to ATEC?’ ATEC seats a third of what it seats [in] the Activity Center. Where would we seat our graduates? Event planning is just that – it’s creating the right environment, creating the right atmosphere, creating or utilizing the venues there,” Barnes said. “If we chose to go outside on soccer fields, on the mall, wherever, you have to bring in chairs, you have to bring in staging, you’d have to bring in seating, you have to worry about the elements and stuff.”

The University Events Team manages an operating events cost center assigned as “CommenceSEE GRADUATION, PAGE 15

LOUISE NILLAS | MERCURY STAFF

University offers postponed alternative for virtual graduation

In-person ceremony to take place end of summer

CHRISTINE JACOB Mercury Staff

By August 2021, five semesters’ worth of UTD graduates – about 15,000 students – will have finished college primarily in an online format, compelling the university to offer an in-person alternative later in the summer.

The university began exploring alternative spring graduation options in February with a survey sent out to graduating students. Judy Barnes, senior director of university events, said this year’s ceremony format will be based on the university’s pandemic response guidelines.

“Our typical cycle is to start looking at responses earlier in the semester,” Barnes said. “Come this spring, it looked like we were still in a virtual situation. Commencement committee met, and we put into motion another ceremony that would be virtual.”

There are about 4,600 students who have applied to graduate in the summer of 2021. Student Government surveyed graduating seniors to determine what students would like enhanced for the virtual graduation ceremony in May. Barnes said that there will be modifications from the past virtual ceremonies to make graduation more interactive this semester.

“One of the things that people wanted was photographs, to kind of show off regalia, etc. We are offering a series of photographs with our flash vendor who is going to come on campus,” Barnes said. “We are going to have three opportunities. Graduates can take pictures walking the stage, in front of the spirit rocks that we are going to have painted and we are setting up the UTD letters so that students can take pictures.”

ANNA PHENGSAKMUEANG | PHOTO EDITOR

“One of the things that people wanted was photographs, to kind of show off their regalia.”

How to combat vaccine anxiety

Prepping for the COVID shot is both physical, mental

SMRITHI UPADHYAYULA Mercury Staff

While approximately 51% percent of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, many who have received or are planning to receive the shot are experiencing vaccine anxiety, which can make the experience uncomfortable and even discourage them from getting their first or second dose.

Daily RX defines vaccine anxiety as a sense of unease around the COVID-19 vaccine due to a fear of extreme side effects, skepticism about how quickly it was released or other factors. If a reaction is severe enough, it can even lead to physical symptoms after vaccination such as sweaty palms, abdominal pain and heavy breathing. These symptoms can also mimic those of an allergic reaction, further propagating the anxiety.

University Emergency Medical Response (UEMR) has already responded to several vaccine anxiety-related calls at the UT Southwestern vaccination site on campus. UEMR is usually called for dizziness or a

suspected allergic reaction, but upon arrival, EMTs find that the patient is doing much better after some water and reassurance from the nurses.

UEMR Captain Tess Helfrich said that vaccine anxiety is likely caused by a conjunction of generalized anxiety around COVID-19 itself and other factors such as misinformation, a fear of needles and the fact that the trip to the vaccination site is some people’s first time leaving their house in over a year. She said that this phenomenon isn’t unique to COVID-19, as she saw something similar while interning on the Ebola vaccine campaign in West Africa.

“COVID has been such a hot topic of discussion, and I think that in and of itself makes [the vaccine] a very stressful thing,” Helfrich said. “Everyone has been impacted by this in some way, shape or form – the baseline level of anxiety is already high.”

PSYCOM and Mental Health America recommend several measures that can help pre -

Practice cyber hygiene with your vaccine card

As the number of Americans receiving COVID-19 vaccinations continues to climb, so is the number of people posting “vaccine selfies” on social media. However, by displaying their vaccination cards online, vaccine recipients are opening themselves up to a different kind of threat: identity theft.

The Federal Trade Commission and FBI released statements advising people to keep vaccine cards – which contain names, birthdays and vaccine providers – off the internet because of the increasing threat of vaccine scams. Executive Director of The Cyber Security Research and Education Institute Bhavani Thuraisingham said that though this information seems simple, it is enough for hackers to access a vac-

cine recipient’s address, credit card number and social security number and scammers to retail fake vaccine cards made from real information.

Thuraisingham said that a hacker knows which database they need to hack into to obtain a person’s sensitive information by knowing where a person got vaccinated. A hacker may only need to input a vaccine recipient’s name and birthday into their vaccine provider’s database to complete the “identity puzzle.” Even if a hacker can’t obtain a social security number, Thuraisingham said they would still have enough sensitive information by that point to find a social security number through other means.

“These aren’t typical people trying to scam you,” Thuraisingham said. “These are smart, cun-

ISABELLE VILLEGAS | MERCURY STAFF

FATIMAH AZEEM Mercury Staff

Practice makes perfect

Ochem professors develop website, app that prepares students for exams

CHRISTINE JACOB Mercury Staff

Ochemrank.com, a new organic chemistry webapp aimed at students taking organic chemistry (OChem) I and II, has revolutionized how students prepare for difficult exams.

The webapp, developed by chemistry professors Mihaela Stefan and Michael Biewer, as well as computer science professor Ovidiu Daescu and their team of graduate and undergraduate students, allows organic chemistry students to practice a variety of tricky ranking questions.

“I have always taught sophomore-level organic chemistry, and I would write these ranking questions, which would test the student’s understanding of different chemical properties like acidity or basicity in different molecules,” Biewer said. “So, the students rank molecules from most to least basic for example.”

The idea for the webapp was born when Stefan and Biewer found themselves accumulating a large number of ranking questions, which are a common way for students to show their understanding of organic chemistry concepts.

“Dr. Biewer actually wrote a book, but usually book publishers are usually looking for a way to make money, and then they want the students to be charged, which is something that we did not want to do,” Stefan said. “One of the most important things for us was that it was free, so we started to explore other ways of making the problems available. I started

working with Dr. Daescu, and I am very grateful because he was the one who brought the project to the table on the computer science side, and luckily it was selected as a senior design project in 2020.”

The website currently has 120 problems covering topics from both OChem I and II. Sophomore neuroscience major Teja Devanaboyina took OChem I during the fall 2020 semester and used the website at the recommendation of her professor.

“It was a wonderful practice resource for me, especially for the first exam that we took,” said Devanaboyina. “It worked really well and was easy to use.”

The team said they are improving the tool based on feedback from students who took OChem I and II and used the webapp in fall 2020. Computer science seniors Zacharia Shoaib, Narayana Yenukonda, Raheel Ahmed, Umar Kazi and Saman Laleh are currently working on improving the app this semester.

“The website was primarily developed over the course of the fall 2020 semester. Sean Kennedy, who is a graduate student, worked on the original team and has been really helpful to us as we continue to develop the webapp. Our main goal this semester is to add more problems so that students can study better,” Shoaib said. “We are looking to add about 80 more problems this semester.”

Stefan and Biewer both said that the graduate and undergraduate students who worked on the website as a part of their senior design project were invaluable

to the success of the app. One of the most difficult aspects of the project was bridging the gap between chemistry and computer science.

“It was extremely helpful that one of the original students that worked on the project, Vishal Rajesh, had taken both computer science classes and organic chemistry classes which meant that he spoke both ‘languages’ so that the two departments could work together,” Stefan said. “Two of my graduate students, Justin Miller and Hanghang Wang, were also invaluable to me in order to make sure that all of the struc-

tures looked right.”

Stefan said that the website was a good aid to the virtual instruction format brought on by the pandemic.

“It was a lifesaving instruction aid for the fall of 2020, as I had to rely on a type of testing that was multiple choice that I usually don’t use,” Stefan said. “I used a lot of ranking-type problems on the quizzes. Students would play with the ranking app and they would train so when the time for the quiz or test came around, they did very well.”

MIHAELA STEFAN| Courtesy

An interdisciplinary team of chemistry professors and computer science students created an OChem study aid.

Number of people receiving meningitis vaccination declines over past year

Recent survey data reports drop in meningitis immunization appointments due to lockdowns, fear of catching COVID-19

EMAAN BANGASH Mercury Staff

Vaccinations for meningitis – a requirement for college students in the state of Texas – have decreased in the past year during COVID-19.

A study conducted by VaxCare found that among individuals aged 19-49 years old, there was a 60% drop in non-influenza vaccinations during COVID-19. Now, a recent study conducted through pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) across eight countries revealed that 50% of parents who had previously scheduled a meningitis vaccine appointment for their child delayed or canceled it. As a result, UTD – and other colleges, per state law – requires students to receive the MenACWY vaccine but not the meningitis B vaccine.

In an email intervieww with The Mercury, vaccine researcher and physician at GSK Len Friedland said that COVID-19 played a role in the delays and cancelations.

“The top reasons for delaying or cancelling meningitis vaccine appointments noted in the survey were stay-at-home regulations and country-wide lockdowns, concerns of catching COVID-19 in public places such as the doctor’s office, and the need to care for either themselves or a family member who had contracted COVID-19,” Friedland said. “Drops in immunization rates are concerning, and if less of a population is protected through vaccination, we could see a resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases.”

Director of the Student Health Center Lea Aubrey said that the drop wasn’t surprising at all because in addition to health centers and hospitals limiting services to mitigate spreading COVID-19, the public is panicked about the pandemic and generally fearful of the unknown.

“You have some people that understand the precautions: they’re going to

wear the mask and they think ‘if I go out, I’ll be okay,’” Aubrey said. “And then you have some people that have the thought ‘if I go into a medical facility, I may encounter someone that is positive or that has potentially been exposed. They could continue to potentially expose me.’”

The SHC did not see as many students coming in for vaccinations as normal because most of them went virtual. The center does provide a meningitis vaccination for admitted students, though Aubrey said most people receive it at 16 and no longer need to do so in college and as a result, most students ask if their documentation is valid enough.

The severity of meningitis lies in its symptoms: while it can often resemble the flu early on, complications survivors may face afterward include brain damage, hearing loss and amputations.

About 20% of meningitis survivors experience these kinds of complications, and 10% of those afflicted with meningitis do not survive. There are

SHERER | MERCURY STAFF

five vaccine-preventable serogroups of meningitis (A, C, W, Y and B), Friedman said. But the meningitis B vaccine was only made available in 2014 and – according to the CDC – one out of five 17-year-olds in the US was vaccinated at least once for meningitis B.

Aubrey said the meningitis disease is crucial to focus on because of the nature of college living, including dorm life and shared close quarters leading to the increased likelihood of transmission.

“The vaccination definitely protects you from getting meningitis, but then you just think about how deadly it can be,” Aubrey said. “It impacts everybody differently, but I think you get to the point where you’re sharing your room with three or four other people, plus the friends to come visit, plus the shared community bathroom. You’re constantly in contact with other individuals. Knowing the risk of increased transmission of different diseases in that capacity, it is very necessary to have

that vaccination in order to protect yourself from contracting the disease.”

According to the GSK survey, however, 77% of parents intended to reschedule their vaccination appointments, though 21% said they still wouldn’t in fear of catching COVID-19 in public spaces. Friedman said organizations such as the CDC are making efforts to catch people up on immunizations.

“Even before the pandemic, there was a need to increase vaccination rates for meningitis. 2019 data shows that while ~89% of 17-year-olds have received at least one dose of a MenACWY vaccine, only ~54% have received two doses, and only ~22% received even one dose of a MenB vaccine,” Friedman said. “Work to promote policy change at these schools and at the local, state and national level is ongoing, including by non-profit groups like the Meningitis B Action Project.”

Despite classes going online for many students this year, the university continues to require vaccination for meningitis, and students who haven’t submitted their vaccination documentation by May 14 will be withdrawn for the summer semester. Students interested in receiving a vaccine for meningitis from the SHC can make a virtual health appointment on the SHC website.

“The scary part about it is that there’s often no warnings, whether or not you have it, and (the symptoms) can progress very, very quickly,” Aubrey said. “We’re very fortunate that we’re able to continue offering the vaccine for those that have never had it. We’ll definitely keep making sure we share information in a capacity that’s understandable for our students. I’m just glad that we’re able to provide access to the vaccination.”

QUINN

TOGETHER AT LAST

ISABELLE VILLEGAS | MERCURY STAFF

QUINN SHERER | MERCURY STAFF

ELIZABETH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF

BUILDING AN EMPIRE

LOUISE NILLAS | MERCURY STAFF

JACKY CHAO

ASTRID HERNANDEZ | MERCURY STAFF

Boba Blockage

Local businesses grapple with shortages caused by pandemic, Suez crisis

SOFIA BABOOL Mercury Staff

Shipping delays are creating a country-wide boba shortage, making it a challenge for boba tea providers in the Richardson area to supply one of the most popular drinks today.

According to Fortune Business Insights, the bubble tea market was estimated to value $2.02 billion in 2019 and is projected to be valued at $3.39 billion by 2027. The increasing popularity of boba tea has skyrocketed demand, leaving many stores around the United States in vulnerable positions due to the pademic-induced labor shortage.

The Suez Canal blockade from March 23-29 caused immense shipment delays for many food products, including boba. According to Marketwatch, all shipments from Asia to the U.S. are currently being heavily delayed. Coupled with an increased labor shortage due to infected staff, boba delivery to local shops in Dallas such as “Boba Latte” in Richardson has been significantly slower. Even companies that have resorted to manufacturing their own boba, such as the “Boba Guys,” have also reported slower delivery times to local shops due to infected labor. Ramesh Subramoniam, a professor for operations management at UTD, said that the recent supply chain distribution disruption is not new.

“It’s been going on and last year it was very different because of the pandemic. In some cases, the end product itself can get stuck in the ports because of a labor shortage to process the backlog,” Subramoniam said. “Because we are importing more from other countries now, this isn’t a local problem anymore. Supply crises become demand crises. For example, in the Los Angeles area, our

labor force isn’t showing up because they’re sick and that affects the supply chain.”

Finance and economics sophomore Kevin Choi, who works at Gong Cha in Carrollton, said that his first reaction was concern, wondering what the staff at the store would tell the customers if they ran out of boba.

“What I have noticed, though, is that our managers have been operating with a lower daily boba inventory. We usually have enough stockpile to last a whole week, but now we just have enough for two or three days, and there has been a noticeable increase in demand,” Choi said.

When UTD decided to close an extra week during spring break at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Terry Pham, founder and CEO of Fat Straws, said he knew he would have to make changes to ensure customers could still drink boba safely.

“It isn’t just boba – it’s even the boba supplies, like the cups. A lot of stuff for boba shops is manufactured in Taiwan, so what’s happened is that because of COVID, there is a shortage of workers who actually unload these containers,” Pham said. “We’re pretty lucky to be in a niche where we aren’t fine dining. Grab-and-go isn’t that far of a stretch.”

Although the national boba shortage has affected stores across the country, many students and customers like marketing junior Anika Kotaru have resorted to alternatives offered at those locations, such as “popping boba” or flavored jellies.

“There are lots of awesome alternative options, and I believe those small businesses deserve as much support as we can offer them right now,” Kotaru said.

just glad I can check it off the bucket list: I did a game show’

Comet wins big on Wheel of Fortune

CALIS LIM Mercury Staff

While some students might spend their Wednesday night at home watching TV, Christian Nevarez – an interdisciplinary studies junior – spent Wednesday, April 7 in the studio of Wheel of Fortune to be broadcasted on TV.

Once the pandemic hit and classes shifted online, Nevarez moved to California, where – in addition to taking classes – he is now pursuing a dance career and working as an EMT. With those commitments to balance, Nevarez said he didn’t exactly plan on being on a game show.

“I had actually never really watched Wheel of Fortune ever in my entire life. I’m not really a game show person,” Nevarez said.

The thought came to him last September when a friend was visiting for her birthday.

“Me and my friend were getting ready to go out and get drinks,” Nevarez said. “I had already been drinking a little bit, and I was watching this game show, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, that would be so fun to be on a game show. How do I do this?’ So, I Googled it.”

Later that day, he submitted a minute-long video introduction; two weeks later, he attended

an interview process through Zoom. It wasn’t until months later that he was notified he’d gotten onto the show and that his appearance would take place the following week.

“It was super fast. I had to learn how to play the game – I had to look it up on my phone,” Nevarez said. “I was playing on the app trying to figure out how to play the game.”

On the day of shooting, the studio followed COVID-19 safety protocols, meaning there was no live studio audience. The staff was kind and the other contestants offered words of encouragement, Nevarez said.

In one round, Nevarez landed on the Express Wedge, where contestants can call out consonants and gain $1,000 per correct consonant. However, a missed consonant results in a Bankrupt, where the contestant loses all their money. By figuring out the phrase “It’s always what I’ve wanted,” Nevarez gained $6,000 and a trip to Mexico.

Although Nevarez said it was nerve-wracking to speak live on the show, he advanced far enough into the game to walk away with $17,000, which he will put to good use towards his career.

“I’m continuing to use that money to fur-

‘I’m

ANNA PHENGSAKMUEANG | PHOTO EDITOR

Nevarez won $6,000 and a vacation during an Express round for guessing the phrase “It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

Brett Adelglass

Aditya Agrawal Osayamen Aimuyo Talha Akram

Josean Albelo-Cortes Yousef Alhamoudi Ali Alhaque Marques Allen Ken Armentrout Alexandra Arteaga

Todd Baty Cecilia Bentley Manju Bhadesher Vishnu Bhemireddy Sina Bueckle

Theodore Cackowski Debarati Chakrabarty Talissa Chapin Shajee Chaudhry Mayank Chetan Craig Cole Sarah Diesing

Loretta Donaldson

Brian Doupnik Haokun Du Satwik Dutta

Hajira Elahi Nitya Eleti Charley Ford Kiyanoush Forough Rebecca Frederick Ashley Garber Negar Geramifard Debargha Ghosh Suprovo Ghosh Johnnie Gilder Raul Gonzalez Khaled Hallak Tyler Hanson Josephine Harras Syed Hasan Madelyn Hastings Alisa Hauser Jacob Henne Andrew Herring Byron Howard Long Huang Yuzhou Huang Lauren Hunter Jessica Ingle Regina Theresa Jordan

Kaitlyn Judge

Yun Ho Jung Nsanga Kabwe Melinda Kalanzis Sanya Kamra Keyvan Kasaian Vijay Kaundal Ziad Kharrat Francis Khuong Madison King Pratik Koppikar Toby Krakauer Ganz Kristin Kronenberger Ruba Kuzbari Elizabeth Labra Julia LaFond Taylor Lawson Ha Thu Le Sarah Lee Abigail Lewis Qianying Li Xintong Li Minh Truc Luong Catherine Lux Bruce Magness Biswajit Mahapatra

Stephen Matthews

Avirut Mehta Tina Melamed Darrah Merillat Yasir Mian Parsa Modareszadeh Pouya Modareszadeh Afza Mohammed Navnit Mohan Shah Otoshi Moni Jonathan Moore Samantha Moore Robert Musgraves Zara Nadir Zach Neiger Tuong-Vi Ngo Fan Ni

Stephanie Oliver Bjoern Ollendike Justin Pate

Hetal Patel Naman Patel Rhythm Patel Bhaash Pathak Kara Peak

The UT Dallas Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi wishes to recognize the following 153 undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and staff who were recently inducted into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest, largest, and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Congratulations on their outstanding achievements!

Jenica Pelayo

Joy Peng

Roger Philip Christopher Phillips Jamie Pierce Sonali Poudel

Tahir Qasim

Vijaya Ramreddy James Ramsey Vinay Rao Alekhya Ravilla

Rithika Ravishankar Samantha Redig Cari Reinert

Venkatraman Renganathan

Abner Rincon

Gunner RobisonSarah Romanko

Julie Rooney

Alyssa Rossen

Aubrey Rowan Benjamin Rubarts

Mandar Samant

Mohammad Mahdi Samie Aliabadi Alexander Sanchez Estrada

Angelica Sanjuan Bermudez Kannan Sharma Christopher Shatley Anja Sheppard William Shutze Ashley Simpson Sushmita Sinha Roy Paige Smith Pranavi Sreeramoju Kevin Su Pooja Suhagiya Sruthi Suresh Anish Talsania Vineeta Tanwani Richard Tett

Narendra Tilwani Jessica Tinker Emily Tran Vivian Tran Veda Tsai Ruta Uttarkar Faith Vincent Michelle Vo Sophie Voss Hang Yang Abbas Zaki

Dallas Skyline to practice, play on UTD Courts

Minor professional basketball team to spend upcoming season on campus

LAUREN DOUGHERTY Life and Arts Editor

The Dallas Skyline, a minor professional basketball team, is calling the UTD Activity Center and University Housing home for its 2021 season.

The Skyline is part of the 35-team The Basketball League (TBL), which Team Market Owner Prescott Mack said is considered to be the third level of professional basketball in the US. Mack said that the TBL is considered a showcase league – ideally, players will move on to play at a higher level, either in the US or abroad.

“If you compare to UTD, we’re like NCAA DIII,” Mack said. “So, we’re still a really high level of basketball, just not as high as a Division II or Division I.”

The Skyline opened the season on April 9 to a crowd of about 150. In addition to the players and staff – all of whom get tested weekly and are required to wear masks – the team brought in cheerleaders, outside food vendors and two youth basketball teams. Mack said that he doesn’t anticipate selling more than 500 tickets per game, which meets the AC’s current 25% capacity limit.

“It doesn’t really affect us that much because we can still social distance and operate the way we need to operate, like sell enough tickets to complete our budget,” Mack said.

The team started competing during the 2020 season, using the Loos Fieldhouse in Addison as their home court. Mack said that from the beginning, it’s been a goal of his to have the team play at UTD. Ideally, he’d like for the Skyline to play at UTD for at least three seasons, before eventually getting into their own gym space.

“I knew the facility at UTD was really good,” he said. “I knew that the campus was really nice, and it always looks better to play at a college campus or any type of arena.”

Director of Athletics Bill Petitt said that their agreement with the Skyline allows the team to use the AC for two practices each week as well as 12 home games through the second week of June, but that there haven’t yet been any discussions of use beyond this season.

“We just have to see how this season goes and see if it would be something that we would be interested in doing,” Petitt said. “I think about all the freshmen orientations and the camps that our teams have in the summer normally, so I don’t know if that would fit into the schedule or not.”

As the Skyline goes into its second season, they’re still getting established in North Dallas; Mack holds office space in Richardson, and he wants the team to be active in community out -

Comets land top eight in Overwatch Collegiate Championship

Overwatch team also wins two other tournaments

BEN NGUYEN Managing Editor

UTD’s Overwatch team just finished in the top eight of the Overwatch Collegiate Championship (OWCC), going on to ride the momentum into two tournament wins.

Despite having to compete remotely, the Overwatch team persevered beyond what was already its highest placement in the team’s history in the OWCC. This follows an earlier placement in the top ten Overwatch colleges by coaches in the nation and what some players say is a massive improvement in team structure and communication. ATEC junior Kaedmon “Kinetic” Penney says he realizes the irony of improving communication after being forced to quarantine.

“The communication aspect is definitely our biggest improvement,” Kinetic said. “Being able to have conversations about topics in and out of game because being in a team environment is never easy.”

One way the team improved its communication this semester was through the help of Louis “Tikatee” Lebel-Wong – alongside startup PECO – in coach-

ing the team. UTD was chosen as one of the test-run schools for the Adopt A College program, and CS junior Kyler “Blank” Marcantel says that Tikatee played a major part in the team’s enhancement this semester.

“So, the two big things he gave us is early on he helped us set up a communication structure, which was kind of who has what role originally, and those were like hard walls. But over time it’s turned more into responsibilities that need to be done and anyone can do it,” Blank said. “He’s also done a lot in the form of information, just like what jobs you need to do with certain compositions.”

Overwatch team compositions take many forms including a “double bubble” setup focusing on the tank characters Winston and Zarya or a brawl composition centering on DPS characters Mcree and Mei.

UTD mainly plays variations on a brawl composition, but Blank says that they’re able to play multiple variations to fight different teams in different scenarios.

In their final winning match in the OWCC, UTD’s communication improvements showed in their match against Ohio State. Both Kinetic and

ANNA PHENGSAKMUEANG PHOTO EDITOR

ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF

Game audiences are permitted, with safety protocols and limited attendance.

In their final winning match in the OWCC, UTD’s communication improvements showed in their match against Ohio State.

Periods need to be recognized. Period.

Menstrual inequity pressing issue for college students

HANA AHMAD Courtesy

Ten percent of individuals who menstruate in college face a tough choice: do they buy a box of pads or their next meal? Period equity involves the effort to make menstrual products accessible and advocate for reproductive health – and it needs to be more adequately addressed.

The cost of period products is affecting menstruators across age groups. The State of the Period study found that 20% of teens had difficulty affording menstrual products or were unable to buy them at all. A study in BMC Women’s Health found that 1 in 10 menstruators in college face period poverty, and this number rises among first-generation college students. Crawford and Waldman assert that period poverty has been exacerbated by the pandemic and because period products are not covered by food stamps or SNAP benefits, menstruators living in period poverty may have to choose between buying their next meal or buying period products. A research article by Das et. Al found that women using period product alternatives – such as rags or paper towels – faced a heightened risk of urogenital infections. Menstrual products are a matter of

personal hygiene and can even affect the hygiene of other people if inadequately managed.

“The physical illnesses and extreme stress that folks who don’t have access to menstrual products, support and resources can experience can take a mental, emotional or social toll on students and affect their academics and livelihood,” said Re’Nesha Weston, former student director of the UTD Wellness Center. “The shame and stigma . . . can have an effect on a student’s ability and willingness to learn about or seek resources.”

The issue of menstrual inequity and the lack of products provided has even been attributed by some legal scholars as a Title IX issue. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, designed to provide students protection against sex-based discrimination, states that “no person in the United States shall, based on sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In an article by Johnson et. Al, the authors argued that a denial of education opportunities on the basis of sex arises when schools fail to address menstruators’ needs.

This issue is far from abstract. More than 84% of

menstruators in the U.S. have missed class or know someone who has due to a lack of product access according to the State of the Period study. Of 32 menstruating students surveyed at UTD, 17 report having had to miss class because of their period.

The Period Project is an organization at UTD seeking to serve the local community by educating and advocating for menstrual equity. UTD currently does not provide free menstrual products to students in restrooms but notably does provide free toilet paper. At the Period Project, we ask: when toilet paper is not viewed as a luxury, why should tampons be? Periods cannot be controlled or prevented, but they do have to be managed.

“Many of our menstruating Comets do not have access to or consistent hygienic products, which is essential to one’s physical health and mental wellness,” said Jaqueline Price, assistant director for Women’s & Gender Equity Programs at the Galerstein Gender Center. “When we talk about menstrual equity, we start to reflect on important questions like ‘why isn’t this something that is commonly provided in public restrooms?’”

The Period Project is advocating for UTD to provide free menstrual products in the same way it provides toilet paper or paper towels, which are

viewed as necessities. One could argue that you can replace paper towels with air drying alternatives or go without them altogether, but there are not safe alternatives to period products.

Over the last semester, the Period Project planned to fundraise and stock the Student Union bathrooms with free menstrual products. Unfortunately, the staff brought up concerns regarding a lack of storage, the possibility of messes and stock being taken too quickly. We ask the UTD administration to help us arrive at possible solutions, such as providing product dispensers in the bathroom for storage and controlling stock portion to provide students with the necessities to do something as simple as sit in a classroom.

If you would like to call attention to the quality education barriers that periods create and urge the UTD administration to begin supplying free period products on campus, sign this petition. It is time that period products stop being treated as a luxury and are instead treated for what they really are: a necessity.

Hana Ahmad is a biology sophomore and advocacy chair for the UTD student organization The Period Project.

LOUISE NILLAS| Graphics Editor

For the record: professors should record

KEERTHI SRILAKSHMIDARAN Mercury Staff

While virtual classes can be exhausting or unengaging for many, class recordings allow students to re-watch lectures at their convenience rather than feel pressed to scribble down messy notes or attend office hours. Even though classes will be held mostly in-person next semester, we should still have the privilege of viewing lecture recordings.

UTD announced on Feb. 9 that in-person and hybrid classes would no longer be required to have an asynchronous component in fall 2021. But recordings for synchronous classes have an undeniable academic benefit: in case of unexpected absences due to work or family responsibilities, students no longer have to fear falling gravely behind. There is, however, the concern that if attendance is not mandatory for a certain class and is instead simply encouraged by a professor, there will be a drop in attendance if professors post their class recordings online. Or will there?

Margaret Smallwood, a JSOM professor, said that during the pandemic her classes have been offered both synchronously and asynchronously. As part of the asynchronous option, the recordings of her classes have been posted to Microsoft Stream. She said that even though students have the option to not attend live class, most of them do. She thinks this is because many students understand the importance

of listening to lectures.

While she has no problem with lecture recordings being available to students, she is concerned that because her teaching style varies between her different sections, just posting a recording of one section may not fit the learning style of another class. However, she also understands the benefits of online recordings especially if students are distracted, tired or not at their best.

If professors are still concerned about accessible recordings impacting attendance, they can enforce mandatory attendance requirements with some leeway for a small number of absences: perhaps two to three per student per semester. Therefore, if a student does happen to miss a class or if a student wants to revisit something a professor said, they have the option to view a recording of the lecture and develop a better comprehension of the material. Professors can also add incentives for their students who come to class, such as giving bonus points on exams or requiring that students answer a question about the lecture to ensure they’ve seen it.

Regardless of the impact on attendance rates, it is not justified for UTD to restrict learning by not posting online recordings. UTD’s mission has always been to support students in their academic

A

TYLER BURKHARDT Editor-In-Chief

I’d like to begin by thanking The Mercury’s most dedicated readers, Babe Ruth and President Biden. If you’re wondering why Babe Ruth and Joe Biden are such close devotees of UTD’s student newspaper, read on.

Comma rules: if you’re anything like me, the pesky stipulations were the bane of every high school writing assignment. But as a journalist, I find the biggest offender of them all to be the “rule” which tends to vary: the widely contentious Oxford comma (also known as the serial comma).

CHAO | MERCURY STAFF

For the uninitiated, the Oxford comma is an optional comma placed before the last item in a list, as in the statement “Alice, Benny[,] and Clarise went to school.” Critically, unlike rules governing com-

CHARLIE CHANG | MERCURY STAFF

ma splices, appositive phrases, and coordinating conjunctions, style guides do not have a consensus on the usage of the Oxford comma. For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style recommends its usage, while the Associated Press’s AP Stylebook (the industry standard for journalism) does not use the Oxford comma. Taking after nearly every major newspaper in America, The Mercury also prohibits the usage of the Oxford comma.

While comma rules probably aren’t the first place a well-intentioned Comet looks to enact change, grammatical ambiguities aren’t just the subject of esoteric debates between grammarians. The function of a single semicolon in Article 4, Section 3 of the Constitution could hold the key to the future power

JACKY

GRADUATION

ment,” which covers the logistical planning of ceremonies, Barnes said. The budget for UTD’s commencement, according to the 2021 Operating Budget, is about $200,000. Since 2016 (the oldest operating budget available online), that number has not changed. Vice President of Budget and Planning Terry Pankratz said that this number is decided by the Commencement Committee and can often be added to as needed. The money comes from grants and gifts to the university, not

tuition. Pankratz said in his conversations with other campus leaders, he ascertained that the more important factor was holding the ceremony on campus, rather than just costs.

“The reason we stay on campus is not necessarily about costs – that’s certainly a factor, but we really think there’s value in having commencement on campus. We think we lose something if we go to a neutral location,” Pankratz said.

Nearby universities with comparable student populations have different budgets. University of Texas at Arlington, with a student population of 34,000, allo-

cates about $525,000 to commencement and holds their ceremony in the Globe Life Field baseball stadium. University of Houston’s commencement ceremony is budgeted at around $310,000, with 46,000 students, and is located at TDECU (their own stadium). Barnes said the Commencement Committee has previously recommended venues such as Globe Life Field, Allen ISD Stadium and Star Ford Center, in addition to on-campus venues such as the mall or soccer fields. However, the Activity Center remained the chosen venue because it was the more “efficient” option, Barnes said.

In the same Mercury survey, when asked how important it was to hold commencement on campus, 83 students chose “Not at all important,” 23 chose “Very important” and 36 chose “Neutral.” Barnes declined to comment on the Mercury survey results, but she said that in feedback received from graduates, an overwhelming majority want commencement on campus. This was based on a formal survey Barnes received that was conducted prior to her working at UTD. Additionally, over the years, student representatives on the Commencement Committee were asked to gather information on student attitudes

on commencement in the Activity Center. No other formal surveys were conducted aside from recent focus groups conducted on the virtual ceremonies.

“Every year, we have a concern, you know, voiced on it, but it’s out of 5,000 graduates and you get two – that’s a very low number or whatever that number might be,” Barnes said. “No matter what we do, let’s say we did take this off campus, we’re going to hear from students who aren’t happy about that as well. We’re never going to please every single student, but we can do our best to make it meaningful and of value.”

CEREMONY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

The university also committed to holding in-person ceremonies this summer for virtual graduates who want to physically walk the stage to receive their diploma. Barnes said the graduation committee is not yet sure how many new degree hold-

ANXIETY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

vent vaccine anxiety. Seeking out information about the vaccine from reliable sources, avoiding online forums that fuel

ers plan to attend the make-up ceremonies. Opt-in invitations for the in-person ceremonies will be sent out at the end of April.

David Kim, a biology senior, says that he will be attending the virtual ceremony in May, but he hasn’t made a decision about the fall.

“The graduation effort is good,” Kim

said. “It’s good to see that they actually care, but it also seems very procedural, which is honestly a bummer after enduring years of school.”

Barnes said that while the university is always looking at possible venue options, the plan is to hold the ceremonies at the Activity Center – which seats about 2,500 people – like in past years.

“It will be limited tickets to ensure safety there,” Barnes said. “We will be able to accommodate about 450-500 graduates in each of the school ceremonies. We have always done our ceremonies by school, but starting in the fall, we will be shifting towards a model used by other schools like UT Austin with a large commencement ceremony … and then

all of the graduations will be led by the deans.”

Barnes says that the university is committed to celebrating all of its graduates and providing the most memorable experience possible.

“We made this promise to our graduates, and we want to deliver on it,” Barnes said.

your anxiety and not allowing yourself to be carried away by “what-ifs” can help you feel more confident about getting your shot.

There are also some practical measures you can take on the day of your

vaccination to help stave off anxiety. Helfrich suggested reading a book or listening to music at your vaccination appointment in order to create a pleasant distraction. If unanswered questions about the vaccine or potential

side effects are the source of your anxiety, most providers administering the vaccine would be happy to answer them.

“Definitely stick to whatever your routine is. If your appointment is at

11:00 and you usually have a bagel and some water for breakfast at 9:00, stick to that,” Helfrich said. “If you need to, have a friend drive you there and back. Keep drinking water – stay hydrated. Do things that are good for your body.”

ning individuals. All they need is a couple of stepping stones to go into the web and get a complete profile of you.

Scammers can also use people’s vaccine cards to profit off their vaccination status. Thuraisingham said that scammers can create fake vaccination cards from information posted online to sell to third-party individuals or other scammers without needing to hack into any databases. Scammers may also choose to sell personal information they discover on vaccine recipients online.

“The thing is, [scammers] likely wouldn’t have even been able to do that if you hadn’t posted your card online,” Thuraisingham

said. “They could do a random Google search and find information to use that way, but this is something like gold that you’re just handing to them, making yourself the target.”

Thuraisingham said a more unsuspecting scam that doesn’t require people to post their cards is scammers offering fake or blank vaccine cards. These offers can come in the form of advertisements, social media posts or phone calls and can target anyone. Thuraisingham said the danger in purchasing these fake or blank cards is that scammers will have direct access to the purchaser’s credit card information, from where the scammer can steal money and make expensive purchases.

Of the UTD population, Thuraisingham said younger people – especially students – excited about vaccination and un-

vaccinated international students worried that they need vaccine passports to attend UTD in person are most susceptible to vaccine scams.

“I know we’ve been in this pandemic for a long time, but that excitement for doing your part and getting vaccinated doesn’t need to translate into showing the world your vaccine card,” Thuraisingham said. “Everyone, especially [these] groups, should be taking preventative measures to protect their information.”

Thuraisingham said the best – and most simple – way the UTD community can protect itself is to avoid posting “vaccine selfies.”

If a student has already posted their vaccine card online, Thuraisingham said, immediately taking down the post can minimize exposure to scammers. Additionally, Thurais-

ingham said avoiding purchase or response to inquiries from vaccine-card-selling entities is essential. If a student loses their vaccine card, there’s no need to buy a blank one to fill out; instead, the Washington Post says that vaccine recipients can contact their vaccine provider to coordinate a new card. There’s also no need for international students to purchase vaccine cards; regardless of vaccination status, they can still attend UTD in person because of Executive Order GA-35, which prohibits publicly funded institutions from requiring vaccine passports.

“Practice cyber hygiene,” Thuraisingham said. “Don’t give out information to strangers about your COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine history. You wouldn’t post your driver’s license online, so don’t post your vaccine passport.”

For those who are already experiencing identity fraud, Thuraisingham said to get professional help and avoid trying to handle the situation yourself to avoid further damage. Companies that specialize in identity protection, such as LifeLock, charge a fee but are most equipped to assist.

“COVID-19 vaccines have become such a hot topic,” Thuraisingham said. “It’s something you absolutely need. These scammers know that and are on edge for that golden opportunity. They are going to be on the lookout for what we are posting. We are going to see more and more fake vaccine cards being sold, and more and more real cards being stolen and identities being stolen as well. Keep yourself safe, and don’t post what you don’t need to.”

GAME SHOW

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

“I’m continuing to use that money to further be able to be more creative and not to work so much. Rent out here

is expensive, so it’s nice to be able to have that cushion for a little while so I can focus more on my arts and my creative side,” Nevarez said. “And then of course finishing my degree. I’ve been in school off and on for almost six

years now and I’m tired. I’m ready to be done so I can finally get my bachelor’s degree and move on with my life.” After the show, Nevarez said he emerged with a newfound respect for people who can speak on national TV.

That being said, he doesn’t foresee himself being on another game show any time soon.

“The universe tends to reward the crazy, outlandish decisions. Anything that’s ever happened to my life that’s

been good or amazing or fantastic comes from a decision that was made on a whim, or was a risk,” Nevarez said. “It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. I’m just glad I can check it off the bucket list: I did a game show.”

SKYLINE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

reach and partnerships with local businesses.

“My goal was to have Skyline do everything in Richardson. I wanted the players to stay in Richardson, I wanted to play in Richardson, I wanted to just do everything and be a part of the Rich-

ardson, Texas community,” Mack said.

In addition to the team’s use of the Activity Center for practices and home games, Mack said that Skyline players who live outside of Dallas will live on campus for the duration of the season.

Pam McElrath, associate director of Residential Camps and Conference Services, said that the opportunity to house professional athletes on campus is

unique: typically, she works with camps, conferences and corporate interns who need summer housing. Citing privacy reasons, McElrath declined to say exactly where the players are staying but said that student residents remain the priority.

“We do have our guests in the same area as our students, but we have a lot of parameters we look at – is this somebody that could normally be in or close to our

student population?” she said. “We were able to get them in based on the number of bed spaces that we have available, [but] our students obviously come first.”

Petitt said that it’s not unusual for external groups to use the athletic facilities. In the past, the university has hosted summer camps for the Dallas Mavericks and NCAA team practices around the conference tournament time. This is

the first time that UTD is hosting professional games since former women’s basketball team the Dallas Fury played at UTD in 2004.

“It’ll be a chance to kind of expose the campus to this group of people,” Petitt said. “I’m not sure what the attendance figures will be like for them, but we feel pretty proud of the facility and feel like it’s another way to market UT Dallas.”

OVERWATCH

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

Blank cited the game as the highlight match, despite being down 0-2 heading into the hope for a reverse sweep.

“The first two maps we took extremely seriously. Maybe too seriously. And

we were really stressed about it,” Blank said. “There’s just a mental shift where everyone just kind of came back after break and we’re just calm. It felt like practice. Everyone’s just in the zone and it wasn’t hype.”

The team eventually took back two maps to even the score to 2-2 – what

both players say was the most hype play to save the match for UTD.

“We had four people dead on our side, and then Luey ends up killing three or four [enemies] just by himself as Reinhardt,” Kinetic said.

This comeback play fueled UTD’s momentum to save the game. Following

the top-eight finish, the team went on to win the UGC League and the USF Invitational. And while UTD isn’t among the top three college teams yet, Kinetic said that the Comets are only getting better.

“I’m going to call out the higher level of collegiate: I think they kind of dis-

counted us a bit,” Kinetic said. “I think they’re still discounting us, and to them, I say they should watch out because we’re going to keep improving. We’re going to keep getting better. We’ve already proven it here, and you should watch your backs.”

RECORD

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

journey. Restricting access to recordings for students or not requiring professors to conduct recordings impairs learning and doesn’t support students

in need of more flexibility.

Furthermore, Smallwood said that UTD is in fact storing videos that professors have been uploading to Microsoft Stream during the pandemic. For repeated classes, UTD can simply provide these recordings or allow professors

teaching the same class with the same curriculum to provide them so that new recordings don’t have to be filmed during class time next school year. This eliminates any sort of distractions or technical difficulties that could arise from recording in class. A few professors

may be concerned that some material may have changed between this year and the upcoming year, but posting these recordings is better than having no lecture material to view at all.

Students deserve to have an accommodating and flexible education, and

recording classes during the upcoming fall semester will help achieve that goal. As students, we can encourage and ask both our professors and the UTD administration to consider moving forward with posting class recordings online.

COMMA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

balance of American politics. Moreover, the debate over the Oxford comma has had tangible impacts to the tune of $10M, as ambiguity in a Maine statute led to Oakhurst Dairy being sued for additional overtime salaries in 2017.

Presiding Judge Barron laments “for want of a comma, we have this case” in his decision. And while The Mercury probably won’t be turning out legal codes for some time yet, clarity is still central to our organizational goal of providing quality, relevant

content to the students of UTD. A newspaper can only claim to be effective if its readers understand the content being produced.

It is for precisely this reason that I believe we should use the Oxford comma, both as an organization of Student Media and as a society in our day-to-day lives.

Consider the following example: “In the White House, Alice took a picture of her parents, the President and the Vice President.” Written according to AP guidelines, Alice has an impeccable political pedigree. But if Alice has no relation to prominent politicians and the intention was simply to recount Alice’s

trip to Washington, D.C. as part of a school-sponsored chess competition, the lack of a comma has actively introduced ambiguity into the sentence’s meaning.

It is situations such as these where the Oxford comma shines. “Alice took a picture of her parents, the President, and the Vice President” clearly conveys four separate objects of amateur photography. Returning to the opening sentence of this piece, we see another unnecessarily ambiguous statement caused by the omission of a serial comma. Why I chose to thank the greatest baseball player of all time and the leader of the free world

remains an equally valid question either way, but “I’d like to begin by thanking The Mercury ’s most dedicated readers, Babe Ruth, and President Biden” leaves the true readership of this paper clear.

Detractors of the Oxford comma may claim that ambiguous cases are few and far between and that standardizing the use of the Oxford comma will lead to unnecessary punctuation at every turn. But this response is uncompelling for the same reason that we do not regularly omit articles such as ‘the’ from communication. With such an omission, could meaning still be conveyed? Yes – if I asked you to “meet

me for walk by Love Jack on campus,” you could probably decipher my message without the inclusion of the words ‘a’ and ‘the.’ However, clear communication is more important than using fewer characters for minimalism’s sake, and thus we persist in using articles in daily communication. So, too, should we view the Oxford comma.

The point of language is communication, and the aim of journalism ought to be facilitating better communication, so why are we splitting hairs over clarity-inducing conventions? If it adds clarity, use the Oxford comma in all of your writing, whether it be news, satire, or academic assignments.