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October 17, 2016
HISPANIC REPRESENTATION :
IS
THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Student arrested on theft charges PD: student removed cash from AC lockers over course of semester
IT ENOUGH ?
Hispanic students face challenges due to background in university with lowest Hispanic population in UT system SAHER AQEEL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
UTD Police arrested a graduate student on three counts of theft on Oct. 12, after security footage showed him removing cash from lockers in the AC. SAMEE AHMAD Mercury Staff
UTD police arrested a student in the Activity Center on multiple charges of theft on Oct. 12. Aditya Arolkar, an information technology and management graduate student, was caught on security footage several times since the beginning of the semester taking cash from students’ lockers, according to the police report. Many victims remain unidentified or unknown because the students have not realized they are missing cash, said UTD Police Lieutenant Ken MacKenzie. Lead UTD investigators Melanie Cleveland and Nashotta Luckett said Arolkar started his streak on Aug. 31. He took advantage of a previous absence of cameras in one particular locker bank and discreetly opened the unlocked lockers to remove cash. “The problem area that we were having with a lot of thefts was one that didn’t have coverage, and they didn’t turn those cameras on until Oct. 3,” Cleveland said. Once the investigators identified the area, AC administration installed cameras immediately. MacKenzie said going through the security footage produced instant results. “What’s funny about this is once the cameras were put in … all of a sudden, you know, not even realizing, there was (a) suspect on it. We see this guy acting weird, and we start watching him,” he said. Cleveland and MacKenzie also identified the problem as student negligence. Students failed to properly lock their possessions because they did not rotate the knob to the closed position and press the green ‘C.’ Arolkar manipulated this carelessness, they said. In security footage, Arolkar approaches the locker bank and tries to pull open nearly every locker. He finds two that are open and identifies one that has cash inside. He props up his backpack below himself and slides the money out. “When you’re watching it, it’s almost unbelievable,” Cleveland said. Though Arolkar committed these thefts in daylight, no one attempted to stop him, as the video showed. “People pass by him all the time and nobody notices a thing,” Cleveland said. Currently, UTD police said Arolkar may have stolen anywhere from $100 to $750, which is a Class B Misdemeanor, for which he was ar-
→ SEE THEFT, PAGE 14
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espite Texas having the second largest Hispanic population in the country, UTD’s Hispanic student enrollment this fall continues the university’s trend from last year of being the lowest ranked among all the UT System academic institutions for Hispanic representation. With the Hispanic population totaling just 13 percent of student enrollment in fall 2016, the shortage in representation poses a challenge for Hispanic students as they compete with their peers and for the university as a whole.
STORY BY : NIDHI GOTGI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PHOTOS BY : ANDREW GALLEGOS | PHOTO EDITOR CHRIS LIN | MERCURY STAFF
The Tier One Bias Raul Hinojosa Jr., the director of Community Engagement, said one of the reasons The University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Texas at El Paso, The University of Texas at San Antonio and The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley have higher Hispanic populations than UTD is that the schools have a goal to maintain their Hispanic Serving Institution status.
→ SEE HISPANIC, PAGE 14
HAMID SHAH | GRAPHICS EDITOR
(Top left to right) accounting and finance junior Flor Morales, global business sophomore Jennifer Garcia, mechanical engineering sophomore Erick Villa, (bottom left to right) biology senior Junior Cruz, finance senior Govanny Quintana and EMAC junior Gabriela Torres discuss the struggles of being a minority, adjusting to college as a first-generation college student and how their backgrounds play a role in their pursuit of higher education at UTD.
Game library shut down temporarily Faculty plans to diversify space’s use for spring THOMAS CASSA Mercury Staff
The ATEC Games and Media Library is shut down for the remainder of the semester for renovations. The GML was commonly used by dozens of students a day as a hangout spot to play video games and meet others interested in game design to potentially embark on collaborative personal projects. On Oct. 4, the space was shut down so changes could be made that would make it more appealing to a wider variety of students and faculty. Michael Andreen, an ATEC game design professor involved with the faculty committee in charge of the GML, said all the planned changes ideally were to happen over the summer, but that was pushed back because of multiple new faculty members being hired. Now that the semester has begun, the changes are too jarring to be made while there are students occupying the space. “If the students are watching this happen piece by piece, without a greater context and seeing all the stuff going on behind the scenes, it looks really disjointed, and that’s not the image we want them to see. We want to present them the whole pack-
age,” he said. Over the summer, the GML transitioned from a small closet-like space that fit around 10 people, to a much larger space with its own projector, big round tables and small extra rooms that are attached to the original. When the GML was re-opened just two weeks into the fall semester, the new room was intended to be packaged with policy changes involving time and inventory management that weren’t properly implemented due to the rushed re-opening of the space. A goal for the new GML was to make it more friendly for students looking to use the room for research. Previously, the space was used more for gaming and socializing. Faculty is aiming to put policies in place to make both possible by implementing a time schedule for different activities. “What we’re talking about right now is having a block of time during the day and over multiple days in the week — this is when you can come in to play,” Andreen said. When students aren’t in the GML playing games for fun, the space will be devoted to conducting research. Game design students often have assignments in which they need to play
→ SEE GAME LIBRARY, PAGE 14
SAHER AQEEL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
The ATEC Games and Media Library was shut down on Oct. 4. Originally used as a place for students to relax and play video games, the GML is undergoing policy changes to accomodate students who want to use the space for research.