March 26, 2018
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WHO WILL YOU CHOOSE?
Vice Presidential Candidate William McKiernan
Presidential Candidate Yilong Peng
Presidential Candidate Eric Chen
Your Voice With a platform focused on communication and bridging the gap between students and Student Government, two candidates are running for president and vice president on the Your Voice ticket in the first contested election in two years. Both molecular biology sophomore Yilong Peng and global business junior William McKiernan, who are running for president and vice president respectively, have served as senators for the 2017-2018 SG administration. They said they used their experience on the Technology and Communications Committee to develop a platform with a focus on bridging the gap between the students and the senators. “Our platform is composed of seven things, anything from accessibility, transparency … but our big focus is communication, because it is about ‘your voice,’” Peng said. While having a clear direction and achievable goals play an important role, McKiernan said the experience he and Peng have as senators influenced their decision to run for higher positions. “Having been the boots on the ground, so to speak, you’re better to lead the new senators,” McKiernan said. “In the capacity I’ll serve, it will be easier to mentor them and guide them through that process and encourage them and give them more of what they need.” To achieve this primary goal of increasing communication, the candidates on the Your Voice ticket aim to include students and club leaders in weekly meetings, as well as committee meetings to give
Vice Presidential Candidate Carla Ramazan
Catalyze STORIES BY: ARIANA HADDEN | MANAGING EDITOR GRAPHICS BY: MATT STRACK | GRAPHICS EDITOR PHOTOS BY: NOAH WHITEHEAD | MERCURY STAFF
www.utdallas.edu/vote
Two candidates running for Student Government president and vice president on the Catalyze ticket represent a platform focused on spirit, communication and sustainability during the first contested election in two years. Actuarial science junior Eric Chen has served as the Communication Committee’s chair for the 2017-2018 administration, and undeclared freshman Carla Ramazan has served on the Student Affairs Committee. Both said the goal to spark a change within the student body is what encouraged them to run for the positions. “The name catalyze came from our vision to want to start a reaction on this campus,” Chen said. “I think that the student body really wants people in office who can bring real change, and I think that catalyze kind of fit into the unique intellectual culture here at UTD. We really pride ourselves in being a STEAM university, and we felt like catalyze really embodied that.” Chen said after serving as a senator, his desire to do more for campus and the students are what lead him to branch out from his position. “As a senator, you are a little bit limited to one realm, and as president you really get to have hands in all different parts, all different initiatives, and you have the opportunity
→ SEE YOUR VOICE, PAGE 16
→ SEE CATALYZE, PAGE 16
Student Government leaders reflect on time in office President, vice president remember year’s accomplishments as well as drawbacks, hopes for future of Student Government MADELEINE KEITH Mercury Staff
STUDENT GOVERNMENT | COURTESY
Student Government President JW Van Der Schans speaks at a general senate meeting on March 6. Van Der Schans and SG Vice President Alex Holcomb (left) reflect on their time in office as the election for next year’s representatives approaches.
The president of UTD’s Student Government pulls over a chair from his corner office and takes a seat next to the desk of his vice president. While SG’s election day edges closer, neither man will occupy these seat much longer. Soon new representatives will arrive to take their mantle and act as the primary voice of UTD. When Van Der Schans and Holcomb began their venture as president and vice president of SG, they entered into leadership on the platform of CometUnity, with an emphasis on improving both communication within SG and student involvement as a whole. Van Der Schans said developing transparency and availability has been in constant development and he admits student involvement is always in need of improvement. “Alex and I came into this year with a drastic uphill battle in terms of not a lot of students knowing about SG and not many caring,” Van Der Schans said. “I think from our side, communication has improved a lot. Utilization of social media has improved a hundred-fold, and I feel like the idea of us being here and being available is also been
transmitted the best we can. But (student involvement) is going to be a perpetual issue that needs resolution.” Though Van Der Schans and the rest of SG continue to work towards that resolution, SG’s outgoing president said he is most proud of the steps he and his fellow senators have taken to advance engagement and involvement with UTD’s faculty and staff. “I’ve heard time and time again that this year has been a really great year in terms of building relationships with staff,” Van Der Schans said. “SG has the ability to act in a number of ways — use our budget, use our influence — but at the same time, certain projects need cooperation with multiple departments and offices to actually get them done. So I think that that reputation increase is really important for SG going forward.” Perhaps the accomplishment Holcomb said he is most proud of is the institution of the arts initiative on campus, which allowed for an additional piano to be placed outside the Student Union, funded a mosaic on the northern wall of the School of Management and will aid in placing student-produced art around the SU.
→ SEE REFLECTION, PAGE 16
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THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM Volume XXXVIII No. 21
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THE MERCURY | MARCH 26, 2018
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Editor-in-Chief Miriam Percival
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Managing Editor Ariana Hadden managingeditor @utdmercury.com (972) 883-2287
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Contributors Carolina Alvarez Madeline Ambrose Saher Aqeel Noumika Balaji Emaan Bangash Donia Bosak-Barani Jenna Cherrey Ethan Christopher Travis Dickerson Ayoung Jo Christina Jia Madeleine Keith Achint Khanijo Sam Lopez Anthony McNair Izzy Morano Nadine Omeis Shamika Patel Bianca Del Rio Anna Schaeffer Yannis Shafi Amit Singalwar Sarah Streety Michael Stout Tommy Tan Dev Thimmisetty Noah Whitehead Xinyue Zhang
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The Mercury is published on Mondays, at two-week intervals during the long term of The University of Texas at Dallas, except holidays and exam periods, and once every four weeks during the summer term. Advertising is accepted by The Mercury on the basis that there is no discrimination by the advertiser in the offering of goods or services to any person, on any basis prohibited by applicable law. The publication of advertising in The Mercury does not constitute an endorsement of products or services by the newspaper, or the UTD administration. Opinions expressed in The Mercury are those of the editor, the editorial board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily the view of the UTD administration, the Board of Regents or the Student Media Operating Board. The Mercury’s editors retain the right to refuse or edit any submission based on libel, malice, spelling, grammar and style, and violations of Section 54.23 (f ) (1-6) of UTD policy. Copyright © 2017, The University of Texas at Dallas. All articles, photographs and graphic assets, whether in print or online, may not be reproduced or republished in part or in whole without express written permission.
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March 5 • An unknown person stole a student’s headphones at the Activity Center between 10-10:30 p.m.
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March 12 • At 3:01 p.m., an unknown person stole a student’s resident parking sticker from their vehicle at Phase 2.
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March 13 • At Engineering and Computer Science North building, an unidentified person posing as Homeland Security scammed $1,400 from a student at 12:52 p.m. March 19 • At Green Hall, an unknown person stole a student’s laptop from their backpack while they were in the bathroom at 1:02 p.m. March 20 • An unknown person destroyed a student’s vehicle’s rear window at Phase 2 at 1:03 p.m.
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E D A LEGEND VEHICULAR INCIDENT
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DRUGS & ALCOHOL OTHER MAP: UTD | COURTESY
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Students rally for right to safer schools Students participate in protest against recent mass shootings, advocate for stricter firearm legislation
WILLIAM LEGRONE | PHOTO EDITOR
Finance senior Rebecca Tjahja speaks at the Dallas March for Our Lives protest on March 24. The series of rallies come as a response to the Parkland shooting in Florida that killed 17 students and teachers.
BHARGAV ARIMILLI Life & Arts Editor
Finance senior Rebecca Tjahja said when she learned about a Florida high school shooting last month that left 17 dead, she knew she needed to act. Her desire to push for gun control led her to help organize the Dallas March for Our Lives that took place at Dallas City Hall on Saturday. “There was the Las Vegas shooting not too long ago, and there were a few shootings in between, but this shooting hit way too close to home,” Tjahja said. “When you go to school, you don’t ex-
pect to see your friends die.” The march, which paralleled hundreds of other marches that occurred across the world on the same day, was a response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14. “After hearing all of the stories of all the students (who) were shot, it just made me really angry,” Tjahja said. “It made me really want to do something.” Tjahja contacted a group of students from the Dallas area who had expressed interest in organizing a march. The committee, composed of 10 high school and college students, first met Feb. 27.
Art exhibit honors immigrant workers Photographic art portrays legally contracted Mexican laborers as fundamental part of U.S. workforce
XIANG LI | MERCURY STAFF
Photos from the Braceros exhibit on display in the skybridge between Jonsson and Founders. The collection will be shown from March 23-30. ANNA SCHAEFFER Mercury Staff
An art exhibit displayed at UTD hosts a collection of photographs by immigrants of immigrants for students to observe a segment of history where Mexico and the United States intersect. A series of photographs by Los Hermanos Mayo portray Braceros, Mexicans legally contracted to work in the United States in the mid-1900’s. It will remain displayed in the walkway between Jonsson and Founders from March 23-30. The Braceros came to the United States between 1942-1964 for two main sectors: agricultural tasks and railroad maintenance. “Brazo” means arm, so Braceros means, “the arms that came up” to assist the labor force during World War II. When much of the working-age male population of the United States was involved in the war effort, the contracted Mexican workers contributed significant labor to the U.S. economy. The Center for U.S.-Latin America Initiatives invited a prominent Mexican photography scholar, John Mraz from Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico, to speak at the inauguration of the exhibit.
“Basically, the exhibit is a way of showing that Mexicans have always been a fundamental part of the United States workforce,” Mraz said. “You can write all you want, but when you see the photos, they tend to stick more in your head than do words.” Los Hermanos Mayo, refugees from the Spanish civil war, worked as a five-man photographer collective in Mexico during the mid-20th century. In 1982, Mraz began working on their archive, containing 5 million negatives, or photographic images. That same year, he met Julio Mayo, the oldest living member of the collective. The two are now old friends; together, Mraz and Mayo recently celebrated the latter’s 100th birthday. “The pseudonym ‘Mayo,’ which the five members of the collective have used — Francisco (Paco), Faustino, Julio, Candido, and Pablo — is a nom de guerre (pseudonym) that reflects both their commitment to the working class and the difficulties that can accompany such an undertaking,” said Mraz in his publication, “Foto Hermano Mayo: A Mexican Collective.”
→ SEE GALLERY, PAGE 13
In under four weeks, the group was tasked with planning and executing the march almost entirely on its own. Tjahja said part of the challenge was that many of her colleagues had never organized something on such a large scale. “We all have a full-time course load while we’re managing this,” said Tjahja, who served as the volunteer manager. “Being so young and not having a lot of experience in this is a challenge.” The event began shortly after noon on March 24. Attendees marched from City Hall east on Young Street and circled around the Hutchinson Convention Center before returning to City
Hall for a series of speeches. The choice to feature student speakers was deliberate, Tjahja said. “We’re not emphasizing politicians, we’re not emphasizing professionals,” she said. “We’re emphasizing students. We want students to be the driving force of this.” Mechanical engineering junior Andrew Wright, an attendee, said the march was especially important to him because of its student-centered nature. “This shooting, in particular — I think it’s different,” he said. “Instead of
→ SEE MARCH, PAGE 13
Nobel laureate gives lecture
Researcher discusses steps leading to scientific breakthroughs, achievements TOMMY TAN Mercury Staff
Following numerous accomplishments in the scientific world, an alumnus returned to campus and gave a lecture to students and faculty on the research that led up to his achievements. After receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015, alumnus Aziz Sancar came back to campus to host the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics annual Clark Lecture on March 23. During the event, Sancar discussed his career path and development as a scientist. He later received the university’s first Lifetime Achievement Award during the annual Alumni Awards Gala on March 24. Sancar graduated from UTD with a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology in 1977. During his time at the university, Sancar worked with former faculty member and researcher Claud Rupert to study DNA repair mechanisms. This research became the focus of his career and led to his Nobel Prize achievement for his work in the field. Sancar, who credits UTD with having a strong influence on his career
Sick Plates Added to Dining Services Dining Services has approved the Sick Plate Initiative, a program that would allow ill students to have food brought to them by a friend. Once finalized, students will be able to fill out an online form to request a “sick plate.” The form can then be delivered by a third party in exchange for a biodegradable box that can be filled and taken back to the unwell individual. Constitutional Amendments Student Government President JW Van Der Schans proposed an amendment that would allow students not currently in
SAHER AQEEL | MERCURY STAFF
Nobel Laureate and UTD alumnus Aziz Sancar talks with a lecture attendee after the event. This is Sancar’s first lecture at the university since winning the prize.
choice and subsequent achievements, took the first step in understanding how bacteria repair their DNA by purifying the photolyase enzyme, which repairs damage caused by exposure to UV light. He did this using cloning technology that had recently been developed at Stanford University. The process, which can now be completed in two days, took Sancar one year to
SG to run for president and vice president. Currently, the constitution states that anyone running for these positions must be a senator in SG for at least a semester. A number of other changes have been proposed for both the SG bylaws and constitution. Amendments include changing the required GPA for students who wish to join SG from a 2.75 to a 3.0, as well as a revision that would increase the number of senate and committee meetings a person is required to attend before they can be appointed to SG. According to the constitution, all proposed amendments must be before the committee for a total of 28 days, and will be discussed and debated for the three remaining weeks before any changes are finalized.
complete at the time. In addition to the photolyase enzyme purification, Sancar developed a new research technique while at UTD. The Maxicell system bombards bacterial cells with UV radiation to increase production of plasmids. These plasmids then replicate and transcribe the
→ SEE SANCAR, PAGE 13
Newsletter Created Chairmen Eric Chen and the Communications Committee are currently working on developing an SG newsletter, with the first letter to act as a year in review for SG, and any further editions to be published on either an annual or semester basis. The magazine would share with students the operations of SG, what projects have been proposed and what undertakings are approved or finalized. Chen will act as the newsletter’s editor, with three fellow senators contributing updates from each SG committee.
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THE MERCURY | MARCH 26, 2018
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ARIANA HADDEN | MANAGING EDITOR
Friends and neighbors of alumna Christina Morris gathered for a candlelight vigil on March 8 after the remains found in a field in Anna, Texas were identified by the Plano Police Department.
Remains of missing alumna found After missing for almost four years Plano police identify remains found in a field in Anna, Texas ARIANA HADDEN Managing Editor
Editor’s note: This article was previously published on the web. After nearly four years of searching, the partial remains of missing UTD alumna Christina Morris were discovered last week. According to an article by WFAA, on March 7 at 9:45 a.m., while clearing land to lay foundation for houses, a team of excavators came across a partial skull, a dress and a pair of underwear in a field by Taylor Boulevard in Anna, Texas. The evidence was sent to the Plano medical examiner’s office and later con-
firmed to be those of Morris. Following the identy speculation, the Plano police department held a press conference on Thursday, March 8. Morris’ family, including her sister Sarah Estes, spoke and thanked everyone who aided in searching for Morris over the years. “We promised to Christina that we would find her and we would bring her home. We refused to let her down in her most desperate time of need. She would expect nothing less, and we were determined to keep that promise,” Estes said at the news conference. “(1,285) days after her disappearance, Christina was found. Our hearts are irreversibly broken. We
never wanted closure, even if there was such a thing, we only wanted Christina.” Morris was last seen Aug. 30, 2014 at the Shops of Legacy in Plano, where she met up with a few friends, including acquaintance Enrique Arochi. Her family filed a missing person’s report on Sept. 4 after not seeing her for days. For the past three and a half years, Morris’ family and friends have been searching for her without much progress – until now. Enrique Arochi, the last person to see Morris, according to video camera footage, was the primary suspect for her disappearance and was convicted in 2014 for aggravated kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison October 2016.
With the new evidence that Morris’ disappearance was a confirmed homicide, whether Arochi will be tried for murder and to what degree is unclear. Tearing up at the conference, Morris’ mother, Jonni Hare, said despite the difficulties they faced over the years, they kept their promise to bring Morris home. “This, I must say, is the most difficult day I have ever faced in my entire life,” Hare said. “I know our daughter is in a better place. I know she’s in heaven, I know she’s proud of us for not giving up. I know she’s smiling.”
→ SEE MORRIS, PAGE 13
ETHAN CHRISTOPHER | MERCURY STAFF
Student startup selected for Red Bull Launch Institute Co-founder of augmented reality platform for tourist attractions attended program to help develop young entrepreneurs NOUMIKA BALAJI Mercury Staff
A UTD student startup was selected to participate in the Red Bull Launch Institute, a program Red Bull developed to support entrepreneurs. Management and administrative sciences graduate Elaine Wang, who is the co-founder of Cthrough, was invited to participate at the program that “gives wings to entrepreneurs” at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin on behalf of her team, from March 8-10. Along with Trusit Shah, a computer science graduate, Wang co-founded Cthrough, a technology company that provides an immersive augmented reality guidance to help visitors easily locate themselves at various tourist attractions. “Currently, my co-founder and my other team members are working on building new experiences for Dallas,” Wang said. “They have given me the confidence to attend this event and showcase to other people our awesome technology.” According to their website, the Red Bull Launch Institute shortlists and selects collegiate or seasoned entrepreneurs to help them gain exposure and knowledge
on overcoming the barriers of access to resources, networks and funding. “My team and I were invited to participate at the event and submit a 90-second video pitch as part of the selection process,” Wang said. “They selected six final teams and provided three days of training and networking.” Participants in the program also came from Lehigh University, Southern Methodist University, Texas A&M University, Princeton University and Duke University. Wang said it was a learning experience for her, as she listened to successful entrepreneurs who were invited to talk about their journeys at the event. Following two days of training and networking, each team was asked to teach the attending audience on the third day, which was open to the public. “Each team was given five minutes for their pitch, followed by a three-minute Q&A round, and then a conversation,” Wang said. “But we had to do this without any visual aid. It was challenging, but very interesting.” Cthrough won second at the UTD Big Idea Competition in November 2016, and they are currently working on building experiences for Dallas.
ELAINE WANG | COURTESY
Management and administrative sciences graduate Elaine Wang (left) participated in the Red Bull Launch Institute for entrepreneurs at South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas on March 8 through 10.
LIFE&ARTS Dance TURNING OVER NEW LEAVES groups MARCH 26, 2018 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
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Veteran alumnus expands business to revitalize tea industries in war-ravaged countries
unable to find space Performance teams resort to classrooms, outside for practice sessions
NADINE OMEIS | MERCURY STAFF
Finance sophomore Aneesh Bindingnavile and Information Technology Systems senior Vraj Mehta practice bhangra. AYOUNG JO Mercury Staff
People walking through campus buildings at night may notice groups of students practicing their dance routines in seemingly unlikely places, such as the Founders building lobby or a small pocket of Hoblitzelle Hall. The rising number of student groups, coupled with a lack of rooms and time slots, has led to room reservations becoming more competitive. Instead of relying on the online reservation system, several dance groups have chosen to seek out big and small practice spaces on their own. “People at some other schools, they have set spaces where they can practice, but we don’t have that,” said Anil Sankaramanchi, a recent UTD alum who is currently involved with two Indian dance
→ SEE DANCE, PAGE 13
BRANDON FRIEDMAN | COURTESY
Brandon Friedman (right), a 2006 UTD graduate, founded Rakkasan Tea last year. The company specializes in importing tea from war-stricken countries. DEV THIMMISETTY Mercury Staff
A UTD alumnus and army veteran is expanding his new tea company that is focused on economic development in war-afflicted countries with the addition of products in local farmer’s markets and stores. Brandon Friedman, the founder and CEO of Rakkasan Tea, launched a Kickstarter campaign for his venture last August. The company focuses on importing tea from war-afflicted countries, such as Rwanda, Nepal and Sri Lanka, to encourage economic recovery in these communities while also providing rare, organic tea to American consumers. The name Rakkasan comes from the nickname of Friedman’s unit in the army.
Business partner Terrence Kamauf also served in the same division. During his time serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Friedman was introduced to hot tea. He said his upbringing in Louisiana frequently exposed him to iced tea, but he didn’t like it, so hot tea abroad was a pleasant novelty. “Whenever we did business with the locals or anything like that, we would drink hot tea,” he said. “In America, we drink coffee, which is more of a solitary drink, but there, tea was much more of a social thing.” After receiving his MPA from UTD in 2006, Friedman moved to Washington D.C. and stayed there for eight years working in politics as a General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the Obama administration, as well as in
corporate P.R. He said he moved back to Dallas last June after a change of heart. “I wanted to do something more fun and rewarding and actually help make the world a better place,” he said. “So I came back to tea, and I moved back to Dallas.” Friedman filed the paperwork for hnRakkasan Tea Company in July of last year. After the Kickstarter campaign raised over $30,000, Friedman and his team went to work, identifying potential suppliers that could provide organic tea, while also maintaining standards of fair trade, ethics and sustainability. “The whole idea behind it is to promote peace and economic development in countries that are recovering from war. We have seen the toil that war takes on communities,” he said. “At the same time, most imported tea comes from China or
India, so we are bringing tea drinkers tea they typically don’t get to have.” The tea estates the company partners with have to meet certain standards with regards to the way they produce the tea, as well as the ways in which workers get their fair share, Friedman said. “The Sri Lankan tea estate really fits in with what we are trying to do. They are trying to take care of their employees, so they use a revenue-sharing system instead of just a profit-sharing system,” he said. “It’s organic, it’s sustainable and it’s really an example of what we are trying to do.” Friedman said the tea community is spread out and interconnected across the world, so several networking connections have helped the company land suppliers
→ SEE TEA, PAGE 13
Alum spearheads disaster relief initiative UTD graduate specializing in relief coordination creates training program for students following trip to Greece to aid in Syrian refugee crisis EMAAN BANGASH Mercury Staff
In 2015, a UTD alumnus went overseas to help with the Syrian refugee crisis. Recently, he applied his experience to lead a disaster relief training for students. The training program is the first Muslim program to partner with the Red Cross, so attendees may receive valid certifications during the training. Islamic Relief USA regional U.S. programs coordinator Abdullah Shawky graduated from UTD in 2009 and previously worked in disaster relief efforts in the United States, such as during the 2012 Lancaster tornado in Texas. He said he hadn’t been prepared for the scale of human suffering among the refugees when he was deployed to Greece during the Syrian refugee crisis. The total refugee count, as of 2017, is around 22.5 million refugees, with 5.5 million coming from Syria, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. “Disasters here in the U.S, they’ve never occurred on the scale that was in Greece,” Shawky said. “When a disaster happens, you see all this support and money and resources, whereas working in Greece, Greece itself is a country running on little resources, even more so that we were on this small, remote island.” He was dispatched with a group of volunteers by IRUSA in October 2015 to help refugees at the height of the crisis. They worked on the island of Lesvos — an hour plane ride from mainland Greece — and helped with language translation, as well as receiving and transferring incoming refugees from boats to buses to be taken to safe locations. He said initially, he didn’t realize the scale of the crisis until he went to Lesvos and experienced it firsthand. “For me, it was a very emotionally taxing time that I didn’t fully process
ABDULLAH SHAWKY | COURTESY
Abdullah Shawky, who graduated from UTD in 2009 from the School of Management, is a regional coordinator for Islamic Relief, a national humanitarian group.
until I actually got back,” Shawky said. “There’s a lot that I remember very vividly, and I think that’s part of what happened to the volunteers. We’d never seen anything like this.” The first day they arrived, the group saw around 300 refugees. After two weeks, he said he estimated the group seeing around 7,000 refugees come to the island per day. He said the numbers kept growing, and, throughout the month they had spent in Lesvos, they had seen and transferred
nearly 30,000 refugees. While in Lesvos, Shawky was called during his lunch break one day because a baby on a recently docked boat was critically ill. He said even after passing the baby to the doctors to treat it on site and trying to transfer him to a local clinic, the baby did not survive. “That really hit us very hard, it was the first time we’d seen a death happen in front of us, it had happened to this young baby,” Shawky said. “His name
was Omar and he might have been six or eight months old. His mother was a Syrian refugee and 19 years old, she was a child herself.” Islamic Relief at UTD, a college chapter overseen by IRUSA, coordinates IR events on campus, such as Project Downtown to feed the homeless, and the annual Disaster Relief Training. The organization conducted their annual DRT program on March 3 and 4 to train people to be prepared for
disasters and to volunteer overseas in the ongoing refugee crisis if interested and able. Umar Khalid, secretary of IRUTD, said he and his team of officers were involved in coordinating the event and began the program in spring 2017, however Islamic Relief USA covered costs and sent Shawky to help train the attendees.
→ SEE RELIEF, PAGE 13
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THE MERCURY | MARCH 26, 2018
LIFE&ARTS
UTDMERCURY.COM
Comets on the quest for camaraderie LLC creates UTD-themed Dungeons & Dragons campaign to engage professional, critical thinking skills with students by a collaboration of students, and it’s also UTD-themed. It’s an alternate realMercury Staff ity version of UTD, so our students that Twice a month, students gather to play are designing the game have built-in ina post-apocalyptic UTD-themed tabletop side jokes, they’ve made things really fun,” Garner said. game their peers designed “Our students already to embrace the student connect in some way to culture at the university It’s just discovthe material, and it’s just and develop essential skills. ering a different discovering a different Comet World is a part of campus of part of campus of this Dungeons & Dragonsstyle tabletop game the this fantasy world fantasy world component that students — their own Living Learning Commucomponent that peers — have created.” nity designed, in which Throughout the acathe board is an entirely students — their demic year, the LLC UTD-themed fantasy own peers — offers academic, social world. D&D is a game have created. and networking-based in which players progress programs. The game through the world by en— Ashley Garner, fulfills the social comcountering and solving LLC coordinator ponent of the initiacreative problems planned tive. The game series, by a dungeon master. although it has a casual Ashley Garner, an LLC coordinator, was first introduced to the con- tinge, is part of the LLC’s effort to help cept at a conference in fall 2017, where she students develop essential skills for their saw the successful implementation of the careers. “It’s a way to teach some skills that stuidea. Other universities integrated similar games into their student cultures, and Gar- dents need to have when they leave here in a ner said she thought it would fit well with fun way that’s not sitting down in a lecture or sitting in classroom with a group you have to the gaming population on campus. The program is designed for students who do an exercise with,” said LLC Director Mary want to make a casual, rather than lasting, Jane Partain. “Getting to do some teambuildcommitment. All skill levels and students, ing, communication and critical thinking even those not part of the LLC, are welcome through a different mode versus a lecturestyle activity is what I’m interested in.” to join and play at any time, she said. Comet World has engaged students in “This is home grown. It was designed DONIA BOSAK-BARANI
MICHAEL STOUT | MERCURY STAFF
Justin Burch, a freshman studying computer science, maneuvers his pieces during a UTD-themed apocalyptic D&D game.
several sessions, each of which resumes where the last one ended. New players create characters that are incorporated into the existing storyline. In contrast to traditional D&D, the series is more spontaneous, said Corey Brasseaux, a computer engineering sophomore who serves as a game master. “Usually for D&D, you’re playing with a group that you’ve known for at least a little
while,” Brasseaux said. “(In) Comet World, you’re getting thrown in with a bunch of people you probably haven’t met before, so it’s nice for meeting new people and makes for an interesting group dynamic.” A player can expect to find inside jokes and themed relics, such as Temoc, Enarc and campus buildings. Consistent with the UTD theme, character development is based on attributes of players’ majors.
“It’s a really innovative idea to get students out there to try new things and get involved in, for a lot of them, their first tabletop game,” Brasseaux said. “It’s really easy to get into, and it’s really easy to set up. The other D&D group I’m in has been playing for almost two years now, and I feel like I’m connecting with the people at Comet World as much as I have with the group I’ve been with for two years.”
CHRISTINA JIA | MERCURY STAFF
SPORTS
MARCH 26, 2018 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
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New softball coach arrives Athletic department hires program’s fourth new coach in past eight years on an interim basis YANNIS SHAFI Mercury Staff
The athletic department has named a new interim softball head coach after the previous one departed UTD last November. Athletic Director Bill Petitt announced the hiring of Corrie Hill to be the interim head coach in December. This is the fourth time the softball coaching job has changed hands since 2011. Hill has previously coached at top softball programs such as the University of Central Florida and the University of Texas. Hill grew up in the DFW Metroplex and attended the University of Texas at Arlington for the last two years of her collegiate career. “It kind of brings your career full circle when you can come back to where you started,” Hill said. “It’s a very satisfying way for approaching the position and the experience that I’m getting to have now.” This past fall, former coach Rich Wieligman left the softball team after two years to become the associate head coach for the University of Kansas. During his time at UTD, he led the team to a 61-30 record, with two ASC tournament appearances, one NCAA Division III tournament appearance and the program's first ASC Championship. Hill’s Division I experience has allowed her to incorporate specific drills and health techniques into practices. In addition to this, Hill takes an active approach in making sure the players are staying healthy, both on and off the field, senior outfielder Stefanie Polderman said. “The biggest things are her expectations of what we can do and what we are expected to be able to do,” Polderman said. “She’s really focusing on specific things, like when you walk up to
MADELINE AMBROSE | MERCURY STAFF
Interim head coach Corrie Hill practices drills with the softball team on March 8 in preparation for its upcoming home games. The Comets have gone 9-11 so far this season, including a five-game win streak from March 2-6.
the plate, how you carry yourself and what kind of things you’re thinking.” Hill emphasizes the importance of being mentally aware in practices and runs a variety of exercises and drills. When the team had to play six games over the course of five days, Hill taught a drill called “getting present,” which is a method players use to forget about the stresses going on in their lives and focus on softball. Sa-
mantha Halliburton, a senior catcher, said Hill is very structured and efficient in their practices. “She’s definitely done a lot with us to help strengthen the mental aspect of our games, which we haven’t focused on as much in the past,” Halliburton said. “It’s definitely something that’s different.” The Comets will play the heart of their ASC schedule starting March
29. Even though the team has a new head coach, Halliburton is one of the team members who said they believe Hill can help UTD achieve success in the postseason. “Coach Hill is going to do nothing but help us to continue down the path that we started last year,” Halliburton said. “We’re ready to win the national championship, and I do think that coach Hill will help us do that.”
Olympic games gain new twist Online workers go for gold in ATEC associate professor's Mechanical Turk-based art project TRAVIS DICKERSON Mercury Staff
An associate professor has helped online workers get on their feet in a participatory project. This year marks 10 years since ATEC associate professor Xtine Burrough began the Mechanical Olympics. Created for Amazon’s crowdsourcing marketplace, the Mechanical Turk, the Mechanical Olympics is an art project intended to encourage the online marketplace’s workers to be active and creative. The Mechanical Turk, an Amazonowned company, is a marketplace where workers are hired to perform functions that are too smart for computers to process. Thge work includes data entries or categorizing of images for online stores — simple tasks that would confuse computer systems and require human interaction. Prices for these workers are usually very low, with most of these tasks being simple and requiring little to no energy. This is where the Mechanical Olympics comes in, as the project requires the workers to film a short video of them recreating an Olympic sport in any way they want and upload it to YouTube. The video that gets the most likes wins the competition, receiving a bonus payment through the site as a prize. Sabrina Starnaman, an arts and humanities associate professor, is a frequent collaborator with Burrough. Starnaman described the projects Burrough usually
AMIT SINGALWAR | MERCURY STAFF
UTD associate professor Xtine Burrough began the Mechanical Olympics 10 years ago in honor of the Olympics in Beijing as a form of participatory art.
chanical Turk website by a colleague. works on as distinct. Previously, she spent “Since she is a socially time creating particiengaged artist, we get to I felt the way patory art projects for take what we do at the the public and she was university and bring it my kids feel looking for a way to exout to a much broader on Christmas pand her projects. After artist,” Starnaman said. spending an hour on the “Projects are usually morning. site and coming up with solo endeavors which — Xtine Burrough the Olympic idea, she makes these so unique.” Burrough started the ATEC associate professor posted the project on a Friday. Paying $3.50 per Mechanical Olympics in 2008 in honor of the Beijing Olym- video, she was surprised to find that pics after being introduced to the Me- the response to her request was imme-
diate, with a total of 26 videos created by the end of that weekend. “I put them up on a Friday night, and next morning I went right to the requester page and I felt the way my kids feel on Christmas morning,” Burrough said. “I was surprised, not that people had done it, but that people had taken it seriously and had creative thoughts in these videos.” This year resulted in several more videos, including a man using his bathtub to simulate a bobsled, and one individual using two action figures to recreate a hockey game. Burrough also set up a reflection series in which previous participants of the Olympics could come in and discuss their feelings about their experience with the project. Starnaman said the reactions the project receives is what makes it so special. “The sort of aesthetic beauty of her work isn’t always in the objects she creates, but in the experience that the viewer or participant has in the art,” she said. “That’s where the beauty of her work comes from.” Burrough plans on keeping the Olympics going and wants to host it again for the upcoming 2020 summer games in Tokyo. “Every two years I think I’m done and then I end up doing it,” Burrough said. “It’s almost mechanical for me to do it, so the project has sort of inverted itself back on to its creator. With that in mind, I feel like I’ll keep doing, feel like it’s my pursuit.”
WILLIAM LEGRONE | PHOTO EDITOR
Ashwin Vaithianathan (top), Rodney Brown (mid) and Zach Tavallaee competed against Collin College in an exhibition match on Sunday, March 25.
ETHAN CHRISTOPHER | MERCURY STAFF
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THE MERCURY | MARCH 26, 2018
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Springapalooza
2018
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Los Angeles-based duo FRENSHIP perform for UTD students on March 22. The band shared the stage with Ron Gallo to fill out Springalpalooza’s Totally Awesome Concert. XINYUE ZHANG | MERCURY STAFF
SHAMIKA PATIL | MERCURY STAFF
Volunteers from the Baptist Student Ministry provide lunch for students at the Plinth. The free lunch was provided as part of Lunchapalooza on March 22. Sean Schemmel, the voice of Goku in the “Dragon Ball Z” franchise, goes super saiyan. Schemmel spoke to UTD students at Springapalooza’s Comet Con event on March 21. ACHINT KHANIJO | MERCURY STAFF
NOAH WHITEHEAD | MERCURY STAFF
Ron Gallo performs live at UTD’s TI Plaza on March 22. Gallo started his solo career in 2014 and has since received global attention for his music.
UTD students play blackjack during Comet Casino on March 23. The event was to host classic casino games such as roulette and Texas Hold ’em. ACHINT KHANIJO | MERCURY STAFF
SHAMIKA PATIL | MERCURY STAFF
UTD’s Baptist Student Ministry collaborated with SUUAB to coordinate providing free lunches to students. The student ministry regularly offers free lunch to students on Tuesdays at noon in the SU Galaxy rooms.
James Sunderland (left) and Brett Hite from FRENSHIP perform a song from their album Truce - EP. Sunderland and Hite have released the single “LOVE Somebody” after their first album in 2016.
PAGE DESIGN BY: WILLIAM LEGRONE | PHOTO EDITOR
LIFE&ARTS
MARCH 26, 2018 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
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Juliet Garcia, the first Mexican-American female college president addresses the audience at the Galerstein Gender Center during their celebration of Women's History Month on March 21.
Q&A WITH
JULIET GARCIA Juliet V. Garcia became the first female MexicanAmerican president of a United States college or university in 1986, when she was named president of Texas Southmost College, and later the University of Texas at Brownsville. The Galerstein Gender Center invited Garcia, now a senior advisor to the chancellor of the University of Texas System, to speak at UTD on March 21 in honor of Women's History Month. The Mercury sat down with Garcia to talk about her career and thoughts about Women’s History Month. What does it mean to you to be the first Mexican-American woman to serve as president of a U.S. university? We didn’t know that was the case for a few years until some reporter did some research, so it was a surprise. At the time, it was a community college, and there were 50 community colleges in the state of Texas by then, so I became the girl in that good old boys’ club. And then nationally, I think there might’ve been about 5 percent of women as college presidents in the U.S. When I started getting introduced that way, I kept waiting for someone to say, “No, there was someone else,” and then they could never come up with someone else. I didn’t earn anything as the first one. It just so happened that history took us down that road.
You were named as one of Time magazine's Top 10 College Presidents in 2009 and Fortune magazine's World's 50 Greatest Leaders in 2014. What was it like to be recognized with these honors? I’ve got a funny story about this one. The 50 greatest leaders, including the pope. I have five grandkids and they were very proud, so they bought me a cake, and I was No. 27 on the list so it said, “Twenty-seventh in the world.” We were together, two of the grandbabies and I, working in the yard, and they were hungry. I took them to get a burger, and we go to this nice burger place and place our orders. And we sit down, and people get served and we’re not getting served. My grandson goes to see what’s wrong and he tells me that they’ve lost our order. I said, “What do you mean, they lost our order?” and he said, “I guess they didn’t know you’re number 27.”
You said that your mother passed away when you were young. What was it like to grow up in this family situation?
"The women in my family, to me, are heros, for surviving some very difficult times in their lives." The positive part of it was that I grew up with boys. I think that prepared me for the life that I was to lead professionally, because I’m not intimidated by boys, I’ve never questioned whether I should have a voice equal to them. You learn how to fight and make up and go back to play. You can’t hold grudges because these are the only guys you can play with. All of those things were very helpful to me. I was a debater at the college level. If you have a man and a woman together as a team, PAGE DESIGN BY: SAM LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF
you had to debate in the men’s division. I debated men, and in retrospect, father and I couldn’t have been better prepared in any applied way than growing up with brothers and a father then debating men in college. That's what I ended up doing for the rest of my life: testifying and advocating for our university. I think that we made the best of a very difficult situation.
What does Women's History Month mean to you? I think it’s an acknowledgement of the important role that women play in this society, and it’s an honorific moment. As someone said, “When is men’s history month?” And the response was, “Every other month of the year.” So it is fitting that we take a special month out of the year to nod towards those women who have been important in our lives or who have provided such an important role in our country. In our world, absolutely. It is so special to read stories of the next generation of young women who are taking their place. It does us all good. Not men, not women, but all of us, to pause and think on it.
"You want to be remembered not for the accolades, but because someone was kind to you or you were kind to them." Who are your heroes? I have many. In our family, the women were very much in charge of the business of life. So maybe it’s a more matriarchal environment that I grew up in, even though our mother passed away when we were young, so I was raised with my brothers and father. But the roles of women in our families have always been very important roles. All the women in my family, to me, are heroines, for surviving some very difficult times in their lives. And then there’s several that I have known through the years. Irma Rangel: she was the first Latina to be elected to the House of Representatives in the state of Texas. And she became the chair of a higher-ed committee in Austin. Boy, did I like going before her committee when I was a chair. She was an attorney and could play with the boys, and didn’t get a lot of credit, but did a lot of important work. One of the things she did was to install the top 10 percent rule. It’s controversial, but she did it because she felt that she had to fling open doors of opportunity for people. She is one of my heroes.
When students and faculty look at your life, what do you want them to learn? That they don’t remember the 27. Now that I’m older with my white hair, it’s funny; people don’t recognize me because I’ve had jet-black hair all my life. All they recognize is my voice, which hasn’t changed. But people will say, “Oh, I hadn’t heard that voice in so long,” because I’d been away from the university. And they’ll say, “Can I just give you a hug? Thank you, thank you.” You want to be remembered, not for the accolades, but because someone was kind to you or you were kind to them. I’ve had people come up to me and say, “If I could ever help you with anything, in any way, you call me. I always will.” Remember the kindness of people you work with. We spend most of our lives at work; it really is a family, too. I didn’t understand that until I lived it. I thought family was only the blood relatives that you have, but your family is often the university. You know everything about them, the good days and the bad days. You celebrate with them and mourn with them. To be remembered for kindness
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UTDMERCURY.COM → MORRIS
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Plano PD Chief Gregory Rushin, who followed the case and the Morris family since the day Morris went missing, said the past three and a half years have been difficult for everyone – her family, friends, neighbors and all police involved. “Today is bittersweet,” Rushin said. “As we return Christina to her family, continuing efforts to bring answers, and perhaps some measure of peace to those who’ve been personally affected by our recent news.” In honor of Morris, friends and
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Shawky said in the training, he focused on three components: disaster assessment, housing and case work. Other topics included psychological first aid, CPR and first aid, food and clothing distribution and the construction of temporary shelters. “We pride ourselves in having some of the most trained volunteers in the disaster response community,” Shawky said. “A lot of times, other organizations take spontaneous volunteers, but anybody can do that type of help. When the disaster response team was formed back in 2011, it was set with a specific goal in mind, is to have our volunteers to have full
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in Vietnam and Laos, providing the latest additions to the product line. “I was just reading an article online about a British guy in Vietnam who was giving a rundown of the tea market and the tea industry,” he said. “We’d been looking in Vietnam for about a year and couldn’t find anyone, so I just sent him an email, told him our story, video-called him from Dallas to Ho Chi Minh City, and long story short, he’s our supplier now.” The interconnectivity of the international tea community has been crucial for the company, Friedman said. “The British guy from Vietnam actually introduced me to a German woman … who does the same thing he does, but in Laos. She is now our supplier from Laos, and it’s really nice having these connections, especially because of the language barrier,” he said. “I do not speak those languages, so it would have been much harder if it hadn’t been for these individuals.” In mid-March, the company achieved two important milestones — having orders shipped to all 50
neighbors held a candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 8 in the surrounding neighborhood in Anna where the remains were found. Participants included friends from school, neighbors of Morris and members of the search team. In a statement, the family said they were not in attendance for purposes of private grieving. During the vigil, community members took turns reflecting on Morris’ life and the influence she had on them. The memorial concluded with a song and a close family friend reflecting that they “did it, we found her, we brought her home.”
training, to have full understanding of disaster relief.” Khalid said the board will continue the DRT program in the future and continue to bring individuals such as Shawky to train students and others. Khalid said they are considering evening courses and spreading it over a week to accommodate for students with time constraints or those who cannot come during the weekends. “It’s always good to learn a new skill, have another notch on the belt … with CPR and first aid,” Shawky said. “If the need were to ever arise, if the volunteer would need to use those skills to save those lives, it’s just another way for people to benefit the community.”
states and also receiving its first international order from Iceland. “Things are going well for a company of our age. We are still not profitable, but we are also less than a year old,” he said. “We are now in two stores in Deep Ellum and McKinney, and we also are also getting involved in farmers’ markets on Saturdays.” Friedman said the hardest obstacle to overcome is spreading awareness of the company. “Our biggest challenge has been letting people know we exist and what we offer,” he said. “Everyone who hears our story, it tends to resonate with them, so we’ve had no problem selling to people who know about it; it’s just that not very many people know about it.” The company has not put any money into advertising, but after receiving favorable press in tea magazines and military publications, Friedman said the next step is likely going to be targeted social media marketing. “What we really want to do is be part of the Dallas community,” he said. “We are really into that, and we want to be part of the fabric of this community, and of course represent this community as best as we can because we are an international business.”
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teams on campus. “We’re kind of working with a disadvantage, but we try to make it work.” Twice a year, at the beginning of every semester, registered student groups on campus have an opportunity to submit requests to reserve rooms, Delvora King, assistant director of the Student Union said. Students use an online reservation platform to directly reserve rooms in the various buildings across campus, mainly the SU and Student Services buildings. However, because the system is on a firstcome, first-serve basis, a number of groups do not receive the room designations they hope for. “We treat all of our student organizations equally, and we don’t place any limitations on which types of groups can be formed or how many,” King said. “Planning ahead is key because real estate is limited, and you’re competing with 360 other organizations.” Seol Morah, a biology freshman and the president of 200PERCENT, a K-pop dance
→ MARCH
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hearing people speaking on behalf of the victims, we’re hearing … the victims speak up. This is change.” Ruqiya Barreh, a neuroscience freshman who attended the march, said the shooting and the protest inspired her to become more politically active. “We’re making sure that when we say ‘never again,’ we mean it this time,” she said. “We’re going to vote out these people if
→ SANCAR
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gene products, or proteins, they contain, allowing for numerous copies of the proteins to be made. Sancar perfected the Maxicell technique while working as a laboratory technician at Yale before becoming a professor of
group, found her team a place to practice. Members of her organization meet in the Multipurpose room in Recreation Center West when it is not being used by fitness classes or other student groups. “Sometimes it works out for us, but sometimes it doesn’t because some other dance groups don’t use the reservation system either,” Morah said. “Another group and (ours) would always end up trying to get there at the same time, and it’s just too many people in one space.” Sankaramanchi said his team often has trouble finding campus space big enough to fit the team of around 15 members and props needed for the performance. The bhangra team that he leads often meets in the small room in the corner of Hoblitzelle Hall in Wednesday and Friday evenings to practice their set. Sankaramanchi said before every practice, he checks the nearby lecture halls and classrooms to see if students are studying or taking an evening test and plans the practice for the night accordingly. There
necessary. Enough is enough.” Tjahja said her committee’s plans don’t end with the protest. Some ideas moving forward are to organize a student rally in response to the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas on May 5. “(Students) are not to be messed with,” Tjahja said. “It’s quite inspiring to see that our generation is strong and that our generation is willing to stand up for what we want.”
biophysics and biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he completed his research in DNA repair mechanisms and earned the Nobel Prize. “I’m glad to be home,” Sancar said during his opening statements at the Clark Lecture. “UTD is home.”
THE MERCURY | MARCH 26, 2018 have been times where the team had to practice the choreography without any music, he said. “We’re not trying to intrude into people’s spaces, but we just need to somehow have room,” Sankaramanchi said. “With all of the factors combined, it’s difficult to find a space that accommodates for all our needs.” King said even academic groups, that do not require open floor plan to move around in, have a hard time securing their spots among the limited number of lecture halls and classrooms. However, it is especially difficult for dance and musical organizations because there exists an even smaller number of spaces that are soundproof and further away from classrooms where students study. “Ideally, if we were a school like Julliard, it would be fantastic, because the focal point would be on music and the arts, and we would automatically have those spaces,” King said. “We kind of make do with rooms we can customize, such as the Galaxy rooms, but for the most part, we are a science, engineer and math school, and the majority of the
→ GALLERY
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Mraz said he realized an exhibit about the Braceros shouldn’t be circulating in Mexico, but in the United States because they are a vital part of both nations’ history. He began writing to professors about the opportunity, and since then, the University of Washington, Yale, Columbia University, the University of Chicago and dozens more have hosted the collection of photographs. “Thinking people realize that the U.S. is a hybrid nation, a nation of immigrants, and that racism embodied by Trump is simply not acceptable in a nation of so many hues,” Mraz said. “It struck me that it would be an important time to have the exhibit around the U.S. because we live in a hyper-visual world.” Mraz said the most important thing students and faculty can
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real estate are lecture rooms and classrooms.” Though there are more open areas on campus, such as the Visitor Center atrium, student groups do not have access to sign up to use them as dance practice spaces. Sankaramanchi said he hopes the university will free up those areas as UTD dance teams receive more recognition over time. “This school is heavily dancecentric, but I don’t know that people who make executive logistical decisions know that, and that’s not to their fault either,” Sankaramanchi said. “To them, we’re just students asking for a place to pursue our hobby, but for us, this is something we pour our blood, sweat and tears into.” While the SU cannot create more rooms dedicated for dance groups at this time, King said she encourage students to take their voice to SG. “Practicing on campus is definitely a give and take process, but we find a lot of joy out of it,” Sankaramanchi said. “Because it is something that we enjoy, and we can showcase to the world what we can do.”
take away is the idea that travel and art broaden us. “Visual art makes you see the world differently,” Mraz said. “That’s very important in terms of breaking the gloss. We see through a filter; you don’t see the world like I see the world. People see the world in the function of the historical context that has formed them, and through racial, ethnic, gender and class relations. Great art can make you suddenly see the world differently.” The 36 photos depict the struggles of everyday life for ordinary Mexicans. Mraz said the Mayo brought a different ethos to photographing immigrants, and that idea is especially important in the current racist political climate of the United States. “We often don’t live up to our possibilities because we’re afraid or because we think we’re stupid,” Mraz said. “Great art inspires us to become better people than we think we can be.”
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MARCH 26, 2018 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
CARLZ SAYS
APRIL FOOLS
COMICS
SARAH BESSERER | MERCURY STAFF
O&B: INCOGNITO MODE
CAROLINA ALVAREZ | MERCURY STAFF
OBSESSION GONE WRONG
SARAH STREETY | MERCURY STAFF
BUG OFF
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BAD JOKES
EMAAN BANGASH | MERCURY STAFF
MAZE
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FORBIDDEN FINGERS
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TRAPPED
MATT STRACK | GRAPHICS EDITOR
BIANCA DEL RIO | MERCURY STAFF
OPINION
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MARCH 26, 2018 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Art classes are vital to college experience
Lack of representation for arts in UTD culture prevents students from reaping its cognitive benefits, academic advantages EMAAN BANGASH COMMENTARY
It’s a known fact that the arts are underrepresented at UTD, with the destruction of the Art Barn and the lack of real updates to the current arts buildings. However this lack of representation could lie in the student culture. We have a large population of students interested in STEM-related majors. This is what our school is essentially known for. However, perhaps people are losing the knowledge of the merits behind learning about the arts. It is no longer just about creating art for entertainment and self-expression. While it may not be integral to one’s major of study, taking art classes aside from major courses is important because it can help improve physical and mental health and open the mind to new possibilities and perspectives about world issues. Taking a fine arts class can help with mental health and increased brain function. According to LiveScience, playing an instrument requires one to train cognitive abilities and to think about the connections between notes and their meanings. Another art form and a way of interpreting music is dance, an important source of exercise that can lead to better mental health. German neurologists Christian Maihofner and Anne Bolwerk and their research team concluded that creating visual art improved interactions between certain parts of the brain and found improvements in self-monitoring, memory and introspection. The arts are a definite mode of self-expression. Producing an intricate painting or performing a dramatic monologue is self-expression, which is an important aspect of our lives because it helps us maintain emotional aware-
ness and stability. In the chaos of learning complicated formulas, equations and definitions, people often get lost in their emotions because they often don’t know how to express themselves or can’t figure out a medium with which to express. According to Bowdoin Magazine, creating art allows for constructive criticism and multiple interpretations, causing one to expand their perspectives and become more open-minded. According to a report by Rand Corporation in 2005 called “A Portrait of the Visual Arts,” arts education could bridge the gap between socioeconomic groups and create greater community cohesion. People can connect to one another through self-expression, transcending societal roles and becoming one with the arts. Often college students worry about how to get into graduate school, especially how to distinguish themselves among the thousands of other applicants. Graduate schools, especially medical schools, are changing their standards to favor students with experience in fine arts. Students who engage in art develop skills outside of their major classes and are therefore stronger candidates to graduate school admissions staff. Well-known colleges such as Yale and Harvard started to incorporate the arts into their college courses. In their first year, students at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons take humanities courses as part of their curriculum. UTD itself requires incoming freshman to complete a fine arts class as part of their core credit. Fine arts are no longer being restricted to a certain group and are being spread to people of all majors and backgrounds. Therefore, taking a class and developing those skills make you a much more distinguished candidate for graduate schools to consider in the future. The arts are becoming a more important way to communicate emo-
ANTHONY MCNAIR | MERCURY STAFF
tions today, where passion and emotion are the important tools to revolutionize what we aren’t happy with, such as government regulations and societal standards. There is heartwrenching photography, such as activist Mahmoud Raslan’s photo of the Syrian Aleppo child, and political cartoons about terrorism and social justice. Film has become one of the most powerful tools to bring awareness to issues and convey integral life lessons. Music can reach across the globe and transcend language, communicating emotions and feelings that cannot be portrayed in words. It’s
one thing to paint a picture for our enjoyment, but it’s another to create a picture that forces us to examine the unconventional, the uncomfortable, the revolutionary. Equations and numbers can’t exactly do that the way the arts can. This is why taking arts classes and becoming exposed to that kind of media is so important. With all the benefits that come from engaging in fine arts, such as increased mental and physical health as well as personality development, it seems trivial not to take advantage of the opportunity to learn and understand it. The arts aren’t just enter-
tainment or enjoyment, but can be used as a way to convey emotion and portray unusual ideas. UTD offers diverse courses in fine arts besides ones we traditionally know, such as digital music composition, film studies, dance and musical theatre. It’s worth it to take one class and delve into the ever-changing world of the arts. You might find an unknown talent or hobby, or may simply learn a perspective about an issue you didn’t think about before. Unlike the former Art Barn, the fine arts are not about to be left forgotten and replaced by other, more popular subjects.
Comets and Craters Online scams Students received an email on March 19 from the Information Security Office informing them of an email phishing scam that stole passwords from UTD Office 365 accounts. The site hosting the scam has been taken down, and victims can contact ISO to change their password.
Mock trial wins competition Two UTD mock trial teams are advancing to the national competition after winning second place at their regional tournament. ETHAN CHRISTOPHER | MERCURY STAFF
COMET COMMENTS
Are you voting in the Student Government election? HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? Students interested in writing opinions can email editor@utdmercury.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
“I am planning to vote. I’m voting for Will McKiernan, he’s a part of my fraternity, but on top of that, he’s an honest guy. He always has his stuff together, out of every guy in the fraternity, he’s probably the most organized.”
“I’m voting because I think it’s important for people to have their own opinions on different topics. It helps the overall community and the school, so I think it’s important to vote.”
“I had no idea the election was happening to be honest. It’s not really advertised very well, and even though I live on campus, I had no idea.”
Zayd Bensellam Political Science Sophomore
Neha Ravi Economics Junior
Chris Diaz Mechanical Engineering Junior
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THE MERCURY | MARCH 26, 2018
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constituents first-hand knowledge and influence on projects. “We invite them to the committee meetings that take place every week, and this is where the real work gets done,” Peng said. “They can sit at a table, just five or six people – people who are dedicated to that project and understand what needs to be done – and they can contribute their voice.” McKiernan said not only is it important to include club leaders in SG-related affairs, but it is critical to show them they are willing to return the favor by attending other clubs’ meetings, booths and events as well. “If we want people to take an interest in Student Government, we have to make sure they take us seriously and they know that we are for real, and along with inviting people out … we would like to invite the presidents of organizations because they represent constituents, and we want them to voice their concerns to us, so then we can have a short discussion there and let them know that we’ve heard them,” McKiernan said. *** McKiernan said a major obstacle affecting the level of involvement includes isolation from the rest of
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“I’ve been working on (the art initiative) since the beginning of this year,” Holcomb said. “I’ve seen it come from an idea to now having the JSOM mosaic about to be completed. The rest will be done by the end of summer, and I’m still going to be here for that, so it’s going to be rewarding to see that come to fruition.” These are only two of a dozen projects which SG completed, out of the roughly 25 proposals made throughout last year. While an estimated 20 percent of the recommended programs were never completed, another third is in the process of being approved and executed. SG also has a surplus of roughly $19,000 left to spend, almost half of the original budget. From the $31,000 originally apportioned to SG, $5,000 was allocated to the arts initiative, $1,200 to health and wellness pamphlets in the residence halls and another $3,400 appropriated for the senators’ 2017 fall retreat. Van Der Schans explained, however, that the expansive surplus was not due to a lack of productivity, but rather
NEWS
campus by past administrations. “We want people to know that we are a resource, we’re here to be used by the student body to influence the change they want to see,” McKiernan said. “It’s not just about what we do as a group of 35 to 40 people, it’s about what the student body needs, and we want to hear their opinions too to change the campus for the better.” While voter turnout has been an issue in the past, McKiernan said such issues could be resolved by utilizing organizational outreach, disseminating flyers and increasing SG election awareness by announcing it to classes. “If somebody is apathetic about something, you have to make it interesting to them, and to make it interesting to them, it has to have value to them, so it is somewhat of a process,” McKiernan said. *** If elected, one goal of the Your Voice candidates is to increase accountability among senators by having them take on bigger roles and establish greater connections with the student body. “We want senators to feel like more than just work horses, we want them to understand who they are working for and to not forget why they are doing this,” Peng said.
“They’re doing it to improve UT Dallas and the lives of UT Dallas students, and I think we forget that sometimes.” In addition to increasing accountability, another focus for the candidates is projects. An idea that Peng aims to establish is an email chain that delivers messages regarding specific initiatives directly from the president to the corresponding committee. “We want to assign senators specifically to certain emails, so the way that it would work is that the ‘contact us’ link would go directly to the president or vice president and, depending on what it is, the president would send it down the chain to the committee chair of one of the committees,” Peng said. The candidates on the Your Voice ticket expressed that any initiative to improve UTD was a good one, and that a good administration would be reached by informing one’s vote. “Vote for whoever you think can make the most positive change on campus, because at the end of the day, it is a competitive election, but it is also a Student Government that serves the entire student body,” Peng said. To watch the full interview, go to UTDTV.com. Voting will be online March 28-30 at utdallas.edu/vote.
an abundance of cooperation and generosity from UTD organizations and administration. “The surplus seems bad, but the majority of the projects that we’ve worked on have either been low cost or the groups that we’ve worked with have been very generous in volunteering their funds or thinking that it’s such a good idea that they just front the cost anyways,” Van Der Schans said. The SG president also explained that $15,000 of those funds will be allocated to ongoing projects before the year’s end, with $4,000 put aside for the next administration to utilize throughout the summer. Van Der Schans and Holcomb provided possible suggestions as to how their successors could apply their money and time towards future improvements. “I would say the biggest thing is to never plan a project on your own and to really reach out to other groups to get projects from them,” Van Der Schans said. “Obviously we’re elected to represent student opinion, but sometimes that opinion changes and you need to reach out and see if that perspective has changed.” Holcomb emphasized the need for a more efficient and driven SG.
“For me, I think the biggest improvement would just be increasing the government efficiency of the next Student Government. Not to say that we weren’t — I think we were more efficient than the last group — but I think that it could always improve,” Holcomb said. “A senator can accomplish so much and if you can get them to understand that and get them to invest in it, I mean, that’s the biggest improvement I can see.” While Vice President Holcomb hopes to serve as a senator in next year’s SG with members of the Catalyze ticket, Van Der Schans will be leaving SG to pursue his graduate degree. However, he hopes to remain available with the next administration to provide advice and serve UTD in any capacity he can. “I’m still continuing grad school here, so I still have one more year after this. In terms of Student Government, I probably won’t be involved,” Van Der Schans said. “I feel like it would be a huge disservice if I joined (Student Government) and wasn’t able to commit a lot of time. I may talk to the new president just to give advice or to answer questions, but being a senator probably won’t be in the cards.”
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to really drive the overall direction of the student body as a whole,” he said. *** One project that Chen and Ramazan aim to begin is an eco-coin project. Adapted from UT Austin, it would essentially allow students to purchase an eco-coin at the start of the semester and exchange it for a to-go box, much like in the dining hall. The eco-coin, however, would not be limited to Dining Hall West and would be available to use across campus. Another idea is the freshmen bike project, in which freshmen and new students are encouraged to leave their cars at home and encourage sustainability. “We want to encourage freshmen or other first-year students to leave their car at home, giving 100 lucky freshmen the opportunity to win a bike, a bike helmet and a bike lock,” Chen said. Regarding the communication initiative, Ramazan said increasing transparency would thrive by having SG reach out to student organizations rather than the reverse. “Right now, SG wants students to come to them and talk
UTDMERCURY.COM to them, and I think that is great, but I think we need to flip that around a bit,” Ramazan said. “I think it is our responsibility on SG to … attend multicultural meetings, just go to various areas around campus and being like, ‘Hello, we are your Student Government representatives, and we would like to know what you would like to see from us.’” While the SG candidates have multiple long-term and large goals, including the sustainability projects, Chen expressed the importance of prioritizing why they are there in the first place. “Ultimately, Student Government needs to be about the students, and when we say that, we don’t just say that,” Chen said. “I think one of the most powerful things for me was seeing how projects impacted students and how we could tangibly impact students’ lives on campus. A lot of times, I think when we get caught up in doing our jobs and getting the tasks done, we lose sight of the end goal of just making Comets happier on campus and just making them proud to be able to call themselves a Comet.” *** In addition to hearing the
student body’s voice by reaching out, Ramazan said spreading awareness will also contribute to voter turnout. In 2016, there was a turnout of 7 percent, and in 2017, 6.6 percent. “People on campus definitely want to engage, I just think there is not enough awareness on who is running, what the platforms are, when elections are happening, so I think that reaching out to organizations, letting them know when voting is happening would be a great way to start that,” she said. With the Student Government elections coming up on March 28-30, Chen said he believes his ticket’s experience and large-scale goals are what give Catalyze the upper hand. “I think that one thing you’ll see with this ticket is that we want to see SG come out the other side completely different,” Chen said. “We have a lot of new things we want to implement, and I think we have the prowess and the experience to understand what goes into these implementations.” To watch the full interview, go to UTDTV.com. Voting will be online March 28-30 at utdallas. edu/vote.
ETHAN CHRISTOPHER | MERCURY STAFF