BRONZE MYSTERY

Enigmatic sculptures entice

21 sculptures showed up across campus seemingly overnight. How did they get there and what do they represent? Find out on Pg.7

Biden loan forgiveness plan promises debt relief

to

MARTIN FRIEDENTHAL Mercury Staff

Days after the fall semester started, President Biden announced a student loan forgiveness plan that could alleviate the debt of millions of Texans. The state’s more than $120 billion in federal student loans could be significantly reduced after an administration press release detailed $10,000 in forgiveness for individuals earning less than $125,000 and as much as $20,ooo for Pell Grant recipients.

Despite UTD’s history of generous academic scholarships and an almost billiondollar endowment, a quarter of incoming freshmen and a third of overall undergrad- treme financial dilemmas brought on by the pandemic and inflation by lessoning or completely erasing their balance before the end of the year.

Students such as Neuroscience junior Erin Lauraine have expressed support for the bill.

“I feel that this is definitely a good move,” Lauraine said . “Policies like these are going to allow people more control over their livelihoods.” uates have taken out student loans according to the National Center for Education Statistics, amounting to roughly $23,000 when they graduate. Additionally, tuition at UTD rose by 41% from 2012 to 2021.

Mass forgiveness could help UTD students and faculty struggling through ex-

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Corrections/ Clarifications

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

In the Sept. 6 issue, in Comet Comments, Tanvi Pardhi is incorrectly named Tanvi Kiran Mate.

In the Aug. 22 issue, in Comet Comments, Nakshatraa Kurmude is incorrectly named Nakshatraa Gupta. We apologize for these mistakes.