facebook.com/theutdmercury | @utdmercury
March 27, 2017
Professor teaches literature through anime
Bill Nye speaks on climate change
Golfer who is deaf shares experiences THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Comedians amuse students during Springapalooza
Election and reflection
MERCURY ARCHIVES
Joey Campain, SG vice president, and Akshitha Padigela, SG president, ran on the United As One ticket in the 2016 election. Padigela won the contested election with 1,133 votes. Campain, who ran unopposed, won with 1,419 votes.
President, vice president look back on year in office CARA SANTUCCI CHRIS LIN | MERCURY STAFF
JW Van Der Schans (left), SG president-elect, and Alex Holcomb, SG vice president-elect, sat down with The Mercury on March 20 to discuss their plans for office.
CometUnity president, VP take office in uncontested election DONIA BOSAK-BARANI Mercury Staff
JW Van Der Schans and Alex Holcomb from the CometUnity ticket have been elected as next year’s Student Government president and vice president, respectively. Van Der Schans, an international political economy senior, has been a member of SG since his sophomore year and has served on the executive council as secretary and treasurer. Holcomb, an economics junior, is currently a senator in the legislative affairs committee. Together, with 24 senators, Van Der Schans and Holcomb said their ticket represents community. They said they hope to increase student involvement on campus by giving students a voice as a collective body, while still expressing their diversity. “It’s a lot about involving students in our organization and involving students in other organizations. All coming together as a student body
to push the campus forward, which the backgrounds of where they’re as a community, CometUnity, that’s coming from, but the organizawhat we’re trying to do,” Van Der tions that they’re in, the voices that Schans said. “So that’s kind of the they would have, the opinions that would be shared or crux of why Comenot shared,” HoltUnity is a name Having that comb said. “Having ticket, the idea. We that diverse intersechave a lot of pasdiverse intersectionality is really, resionate senators that tionality is really, ally important, and I want that same idea think that the issue to move forward.” really important, lies with where we The students on and I think that don’t have it reprethe ticket itself reprethe issue lies with sented in SG.” sent a diverse array of Van Der Schans UTD students from where we don’t and Holcomb ran on international stuhave it represent- a platform of technodents to Greek life, logical advancements, which will be an asset ed in SG. accessibility, food reto SG because it will — Alex Holcomb, form and communiincrease representaSG vice president-elect cation reform for ortion, Holcomb said. ganizations. Students “Whenever we will drive every aspect were choosing the senators … we were doing it very of the platform, Van Der Schans said. deliberately, making sure that there → SEE ELECTION, PAGE 12 was a wide diversity of not just
Managing Editor
With the 2017 Student Government elections drawing to a close, the current president and vice president are wrapping up their term in office by reflecting on their administration. “I underestimated how much work it is,” said Akshitha Padigela, SG president and finance senior. Over the past year, Padigela spent 20 hours a week in her office, in addition to several additional hours to prepare for her official obligations. Padigela ran on the United As One ticket with current Vice President Joey Campain last January. She was not the original choice for president, but was voted into the spot by the members of the ticket after the first candidate dropped out. “I had reservations and that’s why I never did it, but I had been in Student Government prior to me being president, so I knew I was qualified,” she said. “So when the opportunity came, I was like, ‘Why not?’” The primary goal of Padigela’s ticket was to unite the campus on all levels — from administration to the student body to Student Government. “For me, it was, ‘Okay I’ll just meet with every single organiza-
tion.’ That’s not plausible,” she said. “You can’t hear the concerns of every single student. Working on that, that has been the hardest.” Instead, Padigela and Campain turned most of their attention second semester to making changes in the governing document of SG — the constitution. Before they addressed the issue, there was not a way to hold senators accountable to their obligations. “If you weren’t doing your work outside of senate, if you weren’t doing your projects, if you weren’t bettering student life, then there was no way for us to reflect on that,” Campain said. “And if you weren’t willing to change, there was no way for us to remove you.” In the past, the only way an underperforming senator could be removed from SG was if he or she violated the attendance policy three times. “As far as legacy, I don’t really care if they realize a couple years down the road that this is what Joey accomplished. I see my legacy as being how senate runs as a whole, which is why I’ve been so passionate about editing our constitution,” he said. “It enables the organization two, three, four years from now to be as effective as a student senate should be. There’s a lot of room
→ SEE REFLECTION, PAGE 12
Housing adds gender-inclusive application option
Fall 2017 application choice first of its kind in University of Texas System RUTH VARGHESE Mercury Staff
RUTH VARGHESE | MERUCURY STAFF
Samuel Price (second from left), an ATEC freshman, and Akira Lear (third from left), an ATEC junior, are slated to be roommates next year. Both made use of the gender-inclusive housing option offered.
Beginning fall 2017, UTD will be the first school in the UT System to formally adopt a procedure for gender-inclusive housing and one of the first institutions in Texas to address the issue. Catherine Pickrel, director of residential life, and Matt Johns, assistant director for LGBT+ programs at the Galerstein Women’s Center both worked to bring this to campus. “(This change) has essentially added a third gender in our system,” Pickrel said. “If you have opted into gender inclusive housing, that opens you to room with any student that has also opted (in), regardless of whether or not they’re male or female in Orion.” If a student chooses gender inclusive housing, they can only view others on
the system who have also opted in and are placed in a room with them. As of now, 23 percent of those who applied for housing, both new and returning, have opted-in. The option is only for university related housing, such as the residence halls and University Village apartments. Because gender is a protected category under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, students will not be able to see the gender of anyone who has signed up. There is no specific area of the residence halls or University Village that will be gender inclusive, only individual suites and units. “I think it’s really important to everyone on this campus that no matter how you identify or where you’re from or who you are, you’re not excluded or secluded in a certain area. We really want to have it integrated in all areas of campus,” Johns said. The idea came from a growing number
of LGBT+ students who wanted to be sure they could live in a safe place, Pickrel said. Prior to gender inclusive housing, the housing department worked with students individually to find a place where they could feel comfortable. “That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to move forward with this,” Pickrel said. “So that we can get them an option and so any student that is supportive or affirming, we want them to be able to have the same option as other students.” A UTD task force was created approximately one year ago that researched what other universities were doing and how they addressed the issue of genderinclusive housing. The team was created in response to the increasing number of LGBT+ students who approached the housing staff for rooms where they could
→ SEE UV, PAGE 10