August 22, 2016
THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Northside move in delayed
facebook.com/theutdmercury | @utdmercury
Head Start, Late Finish Two students recieve college degrees at remarkable ages
Complex puts residents in hotels for 1-2 weeks
STORIES BY CARA SANTUCCI | MANAGING EDITOR YASH MUSALGAONKAR | MERCURY STAFF
Helen Small began college for the first time in 1938. Seventy years later, she continued her degree at UTD. She graduated in 2010 with her master’s in psychological sciences. She was 90 years old at the time.
ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS | MERCURY STAFF
Northside, which is managed by Balfour Beatty Communities, rented buses to take residents to and from the hotels where they’re staying. ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Mercury Staff
Hundreds of students are without apartments for at least the first week of school due to delays in the construction of Northside, the private luxury apartments north of Synergy Parkway and managed by Balfour Beatty Communities. Over the course of the last week, residents received emails from Northside informing them their apartments would not be ready by the original move-in date of Aug. 19. In copies of the emails obtained by The Mercury, Northside told residents in Block 1, which makes up the west side of the apartment complex, delays on construction of common areas had to be completed before anyone could move in. Although residents in Block 2, the eastern half of the complex, also received a notice of the delay, Northside did not list a specific area in the block that required more attention before the move in date.
Alumna oldest in UTD history
(The students) ended up being so helpful in so many ways. They were so accepting of me.
H
elen Small’s experience at UTD was a decidedly unconventional one. At her graduation, former president David Daniel held his arm out and walked her across the stage to get her diploma. Her family — which, 29 in number, is decidedly not small — came out to support her in mass. After graduation, the photographer accidentally mixed up the photo of her accepting her diploma. They called and asked her to describe herself. She told them she wears big glasses and has curly hair. It was only after she realized she should’ve mentioned her age — 90 years old. “I knew one day that I was going to go back to school someday and get that degree, because it was an unfulfilled desire of mine to graduate from college,” Small said. “But I didn’t know it was going to take me 70 years to do it.” It was 1938 at the University of Akron in Ohio.
Any mental barriers about ... talking to older students were gone when I found we were ... going through a similar thing.
→ SEE LATE FINISH, PAGE A10
Alumnus started school at 15 years
A
aron Kotamarti, the youngest student to ever attend UTD, started college when he was just 15 years old. His mother dropped him off on campus every day, parking far enough away so no other students could see. “If I … summarized it, it would be terror at first, but then adapting really quick and having fun,” he said. He graduated from UTD with his master’s degree in bioengineering last May. He was only 21. Starting school so young, Kotamarti said he felt a “lot of anxiety” in the beginning. When he first came to UTD, people were taken aback by his apparent youthfulness or would assume he was the professor’s son. “The cool thing is people got used to it pretty quick, so I got used to it,” he said. Although Kotamarti kept piling on classes, he said he was always committed to sticking with the level of academic rigor he was pursuing.
→ SEE HEAD START, PAGE A10
→ SEE NORTHSIDE, PAGE A10
Alumna voice for Trump campaign
Katrina Pierson earns key spot in politics following years of volunteering, political activism for tea party movement, Republican Party MIRIAM PERCIVAL News Editor
KATRINA PIERSON | COURTESY
UTD alumna Katrina Pierson is currently working as a spokeswoman for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. After graduating with a degree in biology, she found her calling in politics through volunteering for the Republican Party.
As a national spokeswoman for the Donald Trump presidential campaign, speaking on national television is just one part of alumna Katrina Pierson’s job description. After graduating from UTD in 2006 with her bachelor’s in biology and subsequently working 14 years in the healthcare industry, Pierson said she found her passion in politics. “I started volunteering in Republican grassroots and from there I became more and more interested in the process of change,” she said. “That’s how I was sort of thrusted into the realm of politics.” When Pierson first heard of the new tea party movement in 2008, she said it “fit her to a T” because of its version of a constitutionally limited government. Until this point, she said she hadn’t
been enticed by a political party because she didn’t agree on key issues like outsourcing labor or “cradle to grave” welfare programs. Pierson then became politically active and began volunteering on both local and state campaigns for Republican candidates to help get them elected. She said her son, nieces and nephews inspire her to be an activist because she wants to make the world a better place for them. “I truly believe that evil exists when good men do nothing,” she said. “And I feel like it is our duty as people in a community where if we know something is wrong and we do nothing then we’re part of the problem and not the solution.” Although Pierson said she volunteered on Ted Cruz’s senate campaign in 2012, this year she instead decided to support Donald Trump because she felt he could
overcome any bias in the media. “I was originally a Ted Cruz supporter for his senate race,” she said. “However, I think that it is going to take somebody that is more bold and brash to break through the media to run in 2016.” Pierson said she remembers meeting Trump about six months before he announced his candidacy. “I simply told him, ‘If you’re going to run, I want to help you,’” she said. Pierson said after Trump’s announcement, she was immediately on television as a political commentator defending his right to run for president. Soon after, she was offered a job on the campaign as a spokeswoman. While the job can be rewarding, she said, it requires a 24 hours per day commitment to keep up with political and international events.
→ SEE PIERSON, PAGE A7
Parking Structure 4 open for use All levels of the garage will be operational on Aug. 22. Handicapped spaces are on multiple levels, but the elevators in the structure need more work and will not be ready on the first day of classes. Those unable to use stairs will need to use spaces on the first floor until mid-November. The structure includes 1,150 spaces, with spots for gold, green, orange and purple permits, as well as a few metered spaces. ANDREW GALLEGOS | PHOTO EDITOR SOURCE | NEWS CENTER, OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
Parking Structure 4, which sits on the corner of Franklyn Jenifer Drive and Drive H, will open on Aug. 22.