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April 25, 2016
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THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Campus carry list released
Recommendations for concealed handguns need Regents’ approval ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Editor-in-Chief
Editor’s note: This story originally ran on The Mercury’s website. It has been updated since its original publication. After months of behind the scenes work by a special committee, President ad interim Hobson Wildenthal has released UTD’s recommendations for the implementation of Senate Bill 11, a law allowing the concealed carry of handguns on campus. Wildenthal, who sent the recommendations to UT System Chancellor William McRaven on April 8, made the public announcement on April 11. Last year, the Texas Legislature passed SB 11, a law that allows concealed handgun license holders, who have to be age 21 or older unless they are military veterans, to carry their weapons on public university campuses starting Aug. 1. Although no public institution within the state can opt out of allowing CHL holders to bring their concealed firearms onto school grounds, each public university president had the option to recommend to their governing board policies on how the law should be carried out at their respective schools, including suggesting exclusion zones where CHL holders can not bring their weapons. To do this, Wildenthal appointed a working group headed by criminology professor Alex Piquero to research the topic and discuss where exclusion zones should be on campus. In the recommendation, the group emphasized CHL holders must have their weapons concealed
PHOTOS BY ANDREW GALLEGOS AND CHRIS LIN | MERCURY STAFF
Students of different races face challenges, find new environment at UTD ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Editor-in-Chief
W
hen political science senior Nick Hernandez looks back on when he first arrived at UTD in the fall of 2012, he readily admits he felt out of place. Hernandez, who grew up in the predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood of Pleasant Grove in Dallas, was used to being around those minorities from his time at Skyline High School and Eastfield Community College. When he came to UTD, however, he encountered a new environment. “Every time I would come to UTD, it would be completely different from my regular setting of Eastfield or my high school,” he said. “Honestly, it was like all Hispanic, all black and there were like one or two white people. We had one or two Asians as well, but coming here, it was completely different. … I just wasn’t used to this atmosphere, this environment.” For Hernandez and other minority students, UTD has been a place to learn and grow, but it has also been a place where the realities of racial relations — both good and bad — have taken shape. Early Encounters One of the traits that define the university is just how diverse it is. Although white students are still the majority, comprising 32 percent of the campus population, international and Asian American students combine to form 45 percent of
the student body. That’s one of the things that surprised neuroscience senior and Chinese Student Association member Cynthia Liang when she first came to campus, even making her uncomfortable at times. For much of her life, Liang didn’t want to fit
Everytime I would come to UTD, it would be completely different from my regular setting. And then
the rest. Nick Hernandez, political science senior the “stereotype” of the Asian who would only hang out with other Asians. In her high school, which only had a few minority students, she said she would spend most of her time with the white students in an effort to make herself stand out and not validate what she thought were the preconceived notions people had of Asians. Part of that attitude stemmed from an incident in a school bus on the way home from elementary school one day. “I was sitting next to this little boy. … We were both second graders, and I think he just turned to me and was like, ‘You shouldn’t be in the United States,’” she said. “And I was like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah,
because you’re Asian.’” Liang, who was around 7 years old at the time, proceeded to get off the bus and cry before she went inside her house, trying to prevent her parents from knowing she was upset. Although she doesn’t blame the boy, she admits the incident still hurts, even 15 years later. Since then, she said she always felt weird around other Asian people in large groups. When she got to UTD, however, that all changed. “When I first joined the Chinese Student Association (and) the Filipino Student Association, it was all Asians, everywhere. So it did feel a little uncomfortable in the beginning, even though I was with my own people,” she said. “But I kept hanging out with them and I realized … that they also go around with themselves, groups of Asian people and it’s not a big deal at all. Before, I wouldn’t have been OK with that.” For Liang, going to UTD has been the first time in her life when she has actively hung out with people who are Asian and not felt awkward doing so. For other students, being around their own people was one of the main reasons for coming here in the first place. Home Away from Home Pavan Kanteti, an information technology and management graduate student and the president of the Indian Student Association, said he was choosing between attending UTD and San Diego State University after his move from India. He was
→ SEE RACE, PAGE 16
MOBILE HOME
Cash strapped student lives out of car for months
We talked extensively in our internal working group about all the isses and the advantages and disadvantages of the various places around campus. — Alex Piquero, campus carry working group head at all times, have direct control over their gun anytime it is on them, carry their firearms in an adhesive holster that covers the trigger and trigger guard area and properly store their guns when they are not on them. Along with areas where firearms are already prohibited by state law, including sporting events, patient care facilities and hearing facilities for disciplinary action, UTD’s recommended exclusion zones are Callier Center-Dallas, Callier CenterRichardson, the Center for Brain Health, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory, the Bioengineering and Sciences Building and all dorms on campus. Licensed CHL holders who live in on-campus apartments will be allowed to keep their weapons there, so long as they are properly stored. The potential exclusion zones did not include areas such as classrooms and professors’ offices, which have been points of contention at other universities implementing SB 11. Piquero said the working group had a long and deliberative process about which exclusion zones would be included. “We talked extensively in our internal working group about all the issues and the advantages and disadvantages of the various places around campus, but we wanted to also seek to minimize disruption while at the same time doing what we can do to secure safety and at the same time ensuring that we uphold what Senate Bill 11 says that we have to do,” he said. “And if you read the senate bill in its entirety and very closely, you will notice that the legislature put language in there basically saying that we cannot exclude parts of the campus where students have to go about their business of being students and it’s very clear.”
→ SEE CAMPUS CARRY, PAGE 16
ANDREW GALLEGOS | PHOTO EDITOR
For the majority of last year, Chris, a geoscience senior, didn’t have a home because of expenses he had to cover for a program required by his major. Instead of finding an apartment, he opted to sleep in his car. CARA SANTUCCI News Editor
Editor’s note: The source’s name has been changed to protect his identity. His car was outfitted with two Coleman coolers filled with non-perishable food. He hid everything he owned under a tarp in the bed of his truck, or on the floor of the passenger side. From April to November of last year, Chris lived entirely out of his car. The geoscience senior began living out of his car in the summer of 2015, when his major required taking six hours of field camp, which entailed taking geoscience courses out in nature. When Chris saw the $9,000 price tag, however, he decided to take the credit hours with Oregon State. He packed up his truck and started the 2,300-mile journey from Houston to Corvallis, Ore. To prevent paying for his on-campus apartment over the summer to keep his spot, Chris elected not to renew. “Instead of paying for school and an apartment where I’m not going to be, I was like, ‘Okay, let me just duke it out (for the summer),’” he said. From April 15 until school started in August, Chris travelled around the United States, living out of his car and attending field camp. When he came back to campus, the opportunity to live in the house he had planned to move into had closed. Because he was not employed, he had trouble find-
parking garage. If he was feeling bored with campus, ing another place to live. “August through the last week of October through he said he would drive to rest stops in Corsicana or November, I was either in my truck or at the library,” near the Winstar Casino. He said he wasn’t sure if there he said. were other students in the same Due to the money he was savsituation. He has seen people ing on rent, Chris had plenty of Your creature sleeping in their cars, especially funds to put towards food. He said comforts are international students, but he because there is often free food didn’t know if they lived there. on campus, his biggest concerns gone ... If you get Chris would stay in the library became about sleep and hygiene. too hot you want two or three nights a week. Between the Activity Center Sometimes he’d rent the study and his membership to 24-Hour to roll down the rooms there to get at least two Fitness, Chris had no problem windows, but if hours of uninterrupted sleep in a finding places to shower. locked room. After his time was “If I really needed to, I probyou roll down the up, he’d sleep on the couches in ably could have found a place a windows it’s easy the Veteran Services Center, his lot quicker than I did,” he said. backpack straps securely around “I could have lived in McCallum, for someone to his legs to prevent theft. but I really didn’t want to deal reach in. Going from sleeping in a comwith McCallum. … I’d rather hold fortable bed in an apartment to out and stay in (my truck) than go staying in his truck took some somewhere I wouldn’t be happy.” Around five times a week, Chris would spend the getting used to. “Your creature comforts are gone,” Chris said. “No night in the cramped cab of his truck. By putting bags on the floor of the car, he was able to sleep in climate control. You don’t have blackout curtains. … an “L” shape. He’d put the sun visor up on the dash- If you get too hot you want to roll down the winboard to prevent people from seeing in, since sleeping dows, but if you roll down the windows it’s easy for someone to reach in.” in a car is illegal in Texas. Although safety was one of his biggest concerns “I had two run-ins with UTD Police,” he said. “They were very nice. I just explained my story and when starting out, he said he slowly took more and … they understood.” → SEE HOMELESS, PAGE 16 Chris usually parked by the baseball fields or in the