The Mercury 3/30

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March 30, 2015

BREW BUSINESS

CLASSES CANCELLED

Former students found, manage small Fort Worth brewery

April Fools! The Mercury attempts humor in its annual satire issue.

WHAT'S BELOW? Student affairs VP to retire ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Managing Editor

Vice President for Student Affairs Darrelene Rachavong announced on March 27 that she will retire from her position in June. Rachavong, who turned 69 in February, said she originally planned to retire in 2016 but decided to retire sooner after her latest birthday. “I thought, ‘You know, I really shouldn’t wait until 2016,’” she said. “Life is very fragile. You never know what’s going on in RACHAVONG your life, and I just thought, ‘I just need to do this now, while my health is fairly good.’” She said no formal decision has been made yet about who will replace her, but President David Daniel has already started to think about who will be her replacement. She said her staff will be able to function during the transition, but she would like to see President Daniel make a decision soon. “I hope a decision is made pretty quickly so people will feel comfortable and stable,” she said. “For the next couple of months, I’ll be doing the job I’ve always done on a daily basis as the VP, but certainly, once the president makes his decision, if there’s anything I can do with whomever he appoints that makes

SECTION B

PG 6

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BUTTERFLIES COMING SOON

PLUS + Springapalooza events galore // PHOTO, PG 12 Where do UTD's athletes hail from? // PG 10

STUDENT REGENT FINALIST CHOSEN

OUT OF THE GATE RUNNING Connecting student leaders, alumni relations among goals for newly appointed SG president NIDHI GOTGI Mercury Staff

The newly elected president of Student Government, along with her ticket, has plans to focus on connecting student leaders with SG, working with alumni relations and Safe Zone Ally training, among other initiatives. Having served on senate for one semester, international political economy sophomore Caitlynn Fortner was elected into office with a voter turnout of 1,825 votes. ATEC freshman Grant Branam was the vice president candidate on the Empowering Students ticket. They ran unopposed. “The thing that most heavily influenced my decision to run was meeting Grant,” Fortner said. “I realized we worked well together and he had begun to gather a ticket that would make a strong team.” Branam has just completed a full semester on senate, but he said

that the length of his term doesn’t equate to the amount of experience he’s gained. “Gathering student opinion and being able to bring issues to senate is what is important,” Branam said. “Exercising that transmutation between student issue and changing it to something administration will listen to and converting that to something students are able to measure in terms of change is what matters.” Fortner and Grant have a number of goals for their time in office. They said they would like to connect student organization leaders across campus and encourage them to be involved with SG’s activities. “Student government can’t necessarily be an outlet for event planning or funding for specific things that student organizations want to do,” Fortner said. “We can still build a network of student leaders, but we have to work more to figure out what that looks like.”

→ SEE SENATE, PAGE 14

→ SEE RETIREMENT, PAGE 14

Landscaping project to support dwindling butterfly population

Senator selected as finalist for student regent ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Managing Editor

ARUN PRASATH | MERCURY STAFF

Craig Lewis, the greenhouse landscape coordinator for Facilities Management, worked to cultivate two variations of milkweed, a main larval food source for monarch butterflies. He hopes to attract more of the distinctive orange and black butterflies as they pass through North Texas during their migratory season. CARA SANTUCCI Mercury Staff

Thousands of monarch butterflies may soon come to campus as part of an ongoing project to cultivate the university’s open fields with their food and shelter supply. Craig Lewis, the greenhouse landscape coordinator for Facilities Management, has been working in the greenhouses planting more than 800 seeds of two different varieties of milkweed that he harvested around campus. Lewis took a special interest in the health of the species after noticing a distinct decline of them on campus. “The monarch is what the canary in the mine used

to be. They are a telltale sign of bigger events or bigger losses to come,” he said. “Seeing them decline at such a rapid rate put the eyes of several people on what’s the cause.” According to Lewis, the butterflies have declined largely due to a lack of native habitat. There has also been a relationship between butterfly extinction and non-organic chemicals used in the agricultural industry. Monarch Watch, a conservation program focused on the butterfly, has registered UTD as an official waystation for migrating monarchs thanks to the efforts of the Landscaping/Grounds department. Leaders of the project hope to see growth in the dwindling population of monarch butterflies after planting species-specific grasses and flowers all over

campus. Through the national Monarch Waystation Program, individuals or groups can host designated locations for butterfly migrations after agreeing to plant monarch-friendly flowers and grasses. UTD became an official hub following their promise to plant over 120 flats of milkweed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services reported earlier this year that since 1990, 970 million monarch butterflies have vanished, and the insect is currently under review for endangered species status. In response, a national movement has begun to plant milkweed — where monarchs lay their eggs — and other nectar-providing flowers.

→ SEE BUTTERFLIES, PAGE 14

Mathematics senior Charlie Hannigan was named one of five finalists for the student regent position on the UT System Board of Regents by Chancellor William McRaven according to The Daily Texan. The student regent holds a nonvoting position on the UT System Board of Regents for a year-long term. The finalists for the positions are named by McRaven, who sends his picks to Gov. Greg Abbott for selection. The other candidates are Justin Drake, a Ph.D. HANNIGAN student in biochemistry and microbiology at the UT Medical Branch in Galveston; Erika Long, an advertising and public relations senior at UT Arlington; Laura Santibanez, a Ph.D student in nursing at the UT Health Science Center-Houston; and Jefferson Schilder, a global affairs junior at UT San Antonio. Hannigan said Student Government collects candidates every year who are qualified to run for the position. He said he has three main goals in mind he wants to accomplish if he is named regent. The first is to implement an aggressive sexual assault policy. “Having an aggressive universal sexual assault policy to protect victims of sexual assault on all of our campuses is absolutely critical,” he said. “(UT Austin) has done some amazing work with its sexual (assault) policy and how it’s enforced, which I think is a very good standard for how the UT System should be run. I think those policies are something we should look into or make them even more stringent is something that we can consider. No one should ever feel unsafe on their campus.” He also said he wants to emphasize mental healthcare on campus. One of his goals is to make

→ SEE HANNIGAN, PAGE 14


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