THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF UTD — WWW.UTDMERCURY.COM
NOVEMBER 18, 2013
Homecoming | pages 8-9
VOLUME XXXIII NO. 18
Friends mourn loss of fellow student Witness: use of cellphone a factor in deadly car wreck SHEILA DANG
Managing Editor
Some people thought it was a joke. When Dongkwon Shin posted a Facebook status to let friends know that Tam Hoang had died in the car accident they were both in earlier that day, Shin said some believed his Facebook had been hacked. The tragic news was true. And the events leading up to the accident were nothing out of the ordinary. Management inforTAM HOANG mation sciences junior Hoang and computer science junior Shin were returning to campus from Walmart, driving eastbound on Frankford Road at about 1:50 a.m. on Nov. 7, when Hoang took his eyes off the road to look at his phone, Shin said. When he warned Hoang that the left lane they were in was going to end, Hoang jerked the car to the right, and hit the median before the car spun and hit a utility pole. Unable to open the car door, Shin had to climb
fifty years ago, University’s forerunner lost a patron in jfk
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—In brief—
Sexual assault reported; second in three months A female student reported that she was sexually assaulted in the Phase III apartments between 1:30 and 3 a.m. on Nov. 10, according to UTDPD’s crime log. The Mercury requested the police report regarding the incident in a phone call to Lt. Ken MacKenzie of UTDPD, who denied the request because the incident was still an ongoing investigation. MacKenzie, however, said the victim knew the assailant, and students should not worry that this particular perpetrator was a random attacker. Earlier this semester, another sexual assault was reported on Sept. 2 in which a female student said she was assaulted in her dorm room in Residence Hall West. Two reported sexual assaults in the past three months stand in stark contrast to the past three years. In 2012, only one sexual assault was reported on campus, while the one report that was filed in 2010 was unfounded, according to UTDPD’s Annual Security Report. MacKenzie said the reason for the recent increase in reporting could be attributed to efforts both by UTDPD and the Student Counseling Center to help students feel more comfortable reporting such crimes. —Sheila Dang
Safety concerns raised on parking lots, crossings
CHRISTOPHER WANG/PHOTO EDITOR
A request for a traffic signal at the corner of Rutford and Synergy Park has been placed with the city. SARAH LARSON Life & Arts Editor
Students have been noticing the lack of upkeep of the E-Parking areas causing unsafe driving conditions as well as personal safety remaining an issue across Synergy Park Boulevard. When biochemistry junior Josh Mathew parks
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in later years. Dallas itself changed post-1963, and it took a while before the community could begin to put the event into perspective and move beyond the blame the world piled on its people, said Sharron Conrad, That afternoon, almost 2,000 people were at the director of Education and Public Programs at the luncheon at Trade-Mart in Dallas, waiting for the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. president to arrive and address the gathering. Since 1989, the book depository window from Among those were the faculty and their wives where Kennedy was shot has been a museum from UTD’s predecessor, the Graduate Research hotspot, and people from all Center of the Southwest, or GRCS, and members of the Is JFK important to you? Is he relevant even today? over the world — researchers, journalists and tourists — have Dallas Citizen Council. visited the Sixth Floor Museum A soft announcement found CD)'<$3'3)+3,!,?)'!"'!.)'4,6.!3'"@'E-$>/3'$+#'!.)'4,6.!3' to learn about the man, his presits way from a pocket radio to "@'=,+"4,!,)3'&&&'('!.,+/'.)F3'="4)'$-,?)'!.$+'#)$#&'EG!'(' idency and his assassination. Denise Hales’ ears — the presi!.,+/'.,3'#)$!.'<$3+F!'4)$--%'@"4'+"!.,+6'5)>$G3)'('!.,+/' dent of the United States had .,='#%,+6'HG3.)#'!.)'>,?,-'4,6.!3'="?)=)+!'@"4<$4#&B Kennedy’s legacy been shot — which she quickly Akeen Akinyele, part time student Fifty years after his death, relayed to her husband, Anton President Kennedy is rememHales, head of the geoscience bered by many as a man who indivision at the GRCS. CD)'H4)?)+!)#'$'+G>-)$4'."-">$G3!&'D)'<$3'$'5,6'$#8 spired young people into serving Shortly after, Erik Jonsson, ?">$!)'"@'>,?,-'4,6.!3&'D)'<$3'$+',+3H,4$!,"+$-'-)$#)4&' the nation, pioneered support one of UTD’s founding fathers, D)F3'!.)'"+)'<."'3$,#'I13/'+"!'<.$!'%"G4'>"G+!4%'>$+' for civil rights and spearheaded announced to the whole assem#"'@"4'%"G'5G!'<.$!'%"G'>$+'#"'@"4'%"G4'>"G+!4%&F'D)F3' man’s mission to the moon, said bly that the president had been "+)'"@'!.)'5)3!'J4)3,#)+!3'<)F?)')?)4'.$#&&&B Stephen Rabe, an arts and huinjured. Jeff Walls, sociology senior manities professor and author Everyone sat in stunned siof multiple books on Kennedy’s lence, said a prayer and stared foreign policies. at the T-bone steaks that had “(JFK) is a big part of our history, and a lot of what he In 1963, the 14-year-old Rabe just been served, unable to eat, said and a lot of what he believed in still holds true and other Catholics like himHales said in an interview to UT !"#$%&'('#)*'+,!)-%'!.,+/'0121',3'3!,--'$'4)$--%'5,6'7"46$8 self were particularly inspired Dallas Libraries in 2002 that has +,9$!,"+:;'$+#'<."'/+"<3;'<)'=,6.!'#,3>"?)4'$'4)$-' by Kennedy, the United States’ been archived in McDermott Li>"=)!'+$=)#'$@!)4'A)=">&B first Catholic president, and his brary’s University Archives SpeAnonymous, person playing Temoc motto for service to the nation, cial Collection. Rabe said. Just as they were leaving the Kennedy’s assassination was auditorium a half hour later, the followed by the Civil Rights event obviously cancelled, Hales Act, the Vietnam War and an heard a police radio announceera of changes, and the Kennedy ment that changed the city and presidency was probably the last the nation forever. administration to have had high It was 1 p.m. on Nov. 22, popular ratings before the deep 1963 when President John F. cynicism toward government Kennedy, 35th President of the took root in American minds, United States, passed away at Rabe said. Parkland hospital from a bullet “Maybe because he was assaswound to his head fired by Lee sinated, he represents one of the Harvey Oswald. last few times that our nation was What most don’t know is that unified and he represented those with his passing remained an ideals of freedom and liberty and undelivered speech to the faculthe city on the hill that we aspire ty and founders of UTD, salutto but don’t constantly reach ing their scientific initiative and CECIL STOUGHTON/WHITE HOUSE recognizing GRCS as an initia- President John F. Kennedy inspects Mercury capsule Friendship 7 with its pilot, John any longer,” said Charlie Hannitor of astronomy, geoscience and Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, in this photo taken Feb. 23, 1963. Kennedy gan, vice president for Student famously called for manned exploration of the moon to begin by the end of the 1960s. Government and a mathematics technology in the Southwest. sophomore. Weeks before his scheduled For many, the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame at visit, letters were going back and forth between the versity Archives Collection. “We realized already at President’s office and Lloyd Berkner, then president that point that the loss of Kennedy would really be, the Arlington National Cemetery is the first symbol of patriotism, Hannigan said. of GRCS, planning details of Kennedy’s possible in the end, bad for science.” For others, it is trying to be better, to aspire to the Rindler, who joined GRCS in September 1963, visit to the GRCS campus, said Davis Lovelady, curator of Special Collections at the McDermott was also at the luncheon, and in the same interview, romantic ideals that Kennedy stood up for and to said that Kennedy’s death led to the demise of enLibrary. Ultimately, the plan that was decided upon would couragement, funding and enthusiasm for science
Story: ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE/WEB EDITOR Photo Illustration: LINA MOON/GRAPHICS EDITOR Design: CHRISTOPHER WANG/PHOTO EDITOR
involve Kennedy presenting Berkner with an engraving at the luncheon that would recognize GRCS as an institute of national importance in research and education beyond the doctoral degree. “For us, it was a terrible shock because the enthusiasm for science, in those days, somehow had radiated away from Kennedy,” said Wolfgang Rindler, a physics professor, in an interview to UTD’s Office of Communications in 2009, also part of the Uni-
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