The Mercury 10/06

October 6, 2014 M RY.CO CU R E

THE MERCU

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Students form indie rock outfit, sign with label

ABBOTT

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Frats open talk on assault

DAVIS

ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE Web Editor

THE RACE FOR TEXAS Highlights from the Sept. 30 gubernatorial debate

STORY BY ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE | DESIGN BY MIGUEL PEREZ

HEALTH CARE

IMPORTANT DATES Oct. 6 Last day to register to vote.

Oct. 20 First day of early voting.

Oct. 24 Last day to apply for ballot by mail.

Oct. 31 Last day of early voting.

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Nov. 4 Last day to receive ballot by mail.

Visit the Texas Secretary of State's website for information regarding voter registration and application. http://www.sos.state.tx.us/

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→ SEE ASSAULT, PAGE 5

Candidate Congressman to speak on beginnings Nonpartisan student group hosts San Antonio lawmaker Joaquin Castro on Oct. 6 outlines platform ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE Web Editor

LINDA NGUYEN Staff Writer

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→ SEE ALAMEEL, PAGE 16

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COMETS crush LETOURNEAU MARCELO YATES | STAFF

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Comets dominate in a triple takedown.

Sports

12

2

THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM Volume XXXIV No. 15 Editor-in-Chief Miguel Perez

editor@utdmercury.com

Managing Editor &TUFCBO #VTUJMMPT managingeditor @utdmercury.com

Director of Sales and Promotions +VWFSJB #BJH ads@utdmercury.com

Web Editor Anwesha Bhattacharjee

web@utdmercury.com

Photo Editor Connie Cheng

photo@utdmercury.com

Copy Desk Chief Lauren Featherstone copy@utdmercury.com

Media Adviser $IBE 5IPNBT

chadthomas@utdallas.edu

Contributors Pablo Arauz +PIOBUIBO #BOLT Nicole Brown +FOOJGFS $IJ 'BJUI &OP %BMJB 'BIFJE

NEWS

THE MERCURY | OCT. 6, 2014

UTDMERCURY.COM

UTDPD Blotter Sept. 24 t " TUVEFOU XBT BSSFTUFE GPS QVCMJD JOUPYJDB tion at Phase 1 around 1:30 a.m. t " TUVEFOU SFQPSUFE TPNFPOF UPPL BOE VTFE his credit card on campus without his consent at 2:49 p.m., committing credit card or debit card abuse. t 5XP TUVEFOUT XFSF BSSFTUFE GPS QPTTFTTJPO PG NBSJKVBOB BOE QPTTFTTJPO PG ESVH QBSBQIBOFMJB during a traffic stop on Synergy Park Blvd. at 11:57 p.m.

Sept. 27 t " TUVEFOU XBT BSSFTUFE GPS SFDLMFTT ESJWJOH on Waterview Parkway at 12:33 a.m. t "O VOBï MJBUFE NBMF XBT BSSFTUFE GPS QVCMJD JOUPYJDBUJPO PO 8BUFSWJFX 1BSLXBZ BU B N t " TUVEFOU SFQPSUFE IFS XBMMFU XBT UBLFO without her consent in Green Hall at 8:20 p.m.

Sept. 29 t " TUVEFOU SFQPSUFE UIF UIFGU PG B CJDZDMF BU Residence Hall South at 3:50 p.m.

Oct. 1 t " TUVEFOU SFQPSUFE IFS MBQUPQ XBT UBLFO GSPN IFS JO UIF 4UVEFOU 4FSWJDFT #VJMEJOH around 2 p.m.

Oct. 2 t " TUVEFOU SFQPSUFE SFDFJWJOH OVNFSPVT IB SBTTJOH FNBJMT GSPN IFS FY CPZGSJFOE BU 1IBTF at 1:21 p.m.

Oct. 3 t "O VOBð JBUFE QFSTPO XBT BSSFTUFE GPS ESJW ing with an invalid license on Waterview Parkway at 1:40 a.m.

Sept. 21: Officers were dispatched to ResiEFODF )BMM 4PVUI JO SFGFSFODF UP B XFBQPO on the premises at 2:33 p.m.

Sept. 28: A student reported being struck by a motor vehicle while skateboarding at Phase 8 around 1:42 a.m.

%VODBO (BMMBHIFS Andrew Gallegos

LEGEND

Nidhi Gotgi &NJMZ (SBNT

VEHICULAR INCIDENT

Priyanka Hardikar 5BZMPS )FBHMFS .FHBO +FOLJOT

THEFT

Ian LaMarsh Sarah Rachel Larson Billy LeRoy

DRUGS & ALCOHOL

Madeeha Mian

Sept. 29: An unknown offender evaded police during a vehicle pursuit on Campbell Road at 12:31 a.m.

Lina Moon Linda Nguyen

OTHER

+VEZ /HVZFO +BNJF 1BSL

MAP: UTD COMMUNICATIONS | COURTESY

Arun Prasath Saara Raja 5JNPUIZ 4IJSMFZ

SG REPORT

,BSBO 4IVLMB "TJG 4IFJL 1BSUIBTBSBUIZ 4 , Yang Xi

BILLY LEROY Staff Writer

Mailing Address 800 West Campbell Road, SU 24 3JDIBSETPO 59

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Newsroom Student Union, Student Media Suite 46

The Mercury is published on Mondays, at two-week intervals during the long UFSN PG 5IF 6OJWFSTJUZ PG 5FYBT BU %BMMBT FYDFQU IPMJ EBZT BOE FYBN QFSJPET BOE PODF FWFSZ GPVS XFFLT EVS ing the summer term.

Advertising is accepted

by The Mercury on the basis that there is no discrimination by the advertiser in UIF PGGFSJOH PG HPPET PS services to any person, on any basis prohibited by BQQMJDBCMF MBX 5IF QVC MJDBUJPO PG BEWFSUJTJOH JO The Mercury does not conTUJUVUF BO FOEPSTFNFOU PG products or services by the OFXTQBQFS PS UIF 65% administration.

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The Mercury’s editors SFUBJO UIF SJHIU UP SFGVTF PS edit any submission based on libel, malice, spelling, grammar and style, and vioMBUJPOT PG 4FDUJPO G

PG 65% QPMJDZ $PQZSJHIU ª 5IF 6OJWFSTJUZ PG 5FYBT BU %BMMBT All articles, photographs and graphic assets, whether in print or online, may not be reproduced or republished in part or in whole without FYQSFTT XSJUUFO QFSNJTTJPO

The Mercury is a proud NFNCFS PG CPUI UIF "TTPDJ ated Collegiate Press and UIF 5FYBT *OUFSDPMMFHJBUF Press Association.

JUST THE FACTS

FIRST COPY FREE /&95 $01: $&/54

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

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OPINION

3

OCT. 6, 2014 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

Unpaid internships must have defined objectives After participating in Disney college internship student highlights benefits, pitfalls of programs without pay MACAIRE AMENT COMMENTARY

Low-paying internships can provide students with invaluable experience and connections, but only if students can afford the opportunity.

In the spring of 2014, I completed a paid internship with The Walt Disney Company, known as the Disney College Program. I spent a semester making magic as a custodian in Epcot, one of the Walt Disney World theme parks. I made minimum wage.

I also lived on Disney property, had the opportunity to take classes through the Disney Education Office and enjoyed the benefits of free park admission. I loved every minute of it — even the minutes I spent cleaning restrooms.

The classes I chose to take helped me connect with professionals in the industry, and my status as an alumna gives me a leg up when I apply for the highly coveted Disney Professional Internships. I was also granted 12 hours of internship credit for completing the program.

Everything about my experience was positive, despite the paltry level of my pay. But lately, I have realized that this isn’t the case for everyone.

Where I was overjoyed at receiving a full semester’s worth of hours for the program, others would have been in a jam. My 12 hours of credit

AMANDA HURST | STAFF DESIGNER

would have cost me $5,432 without my scholarship. In Walt Disney World, I had an average weekly pay of about $125. Without my scholarship, it would have been impossible for me to cover the cost of my credits even if I saved every penny I made at my internship. Not everyone has a scholarship to fall back on.

Many of my friends opted to receive no credit, rather than use financial aid or loans to cover the cost of school credits. Unfortunately, receiving few to no credits can put students behind in their degree plans. In some cases, participating in the program without receiving credit requires students to formally reapply to their college when the program ends.

That’s a lot to consider when you apply for an internship. Scholarships could be affected, as

could financial aid. Some students try to remain enrolled and on track by taking a full online course load, but it’s incredibly difficult to balance that with the unpredictable schedule of a college internship program.

It seems to me that the academic success of a college program is dependent on the ability of participants to reap the networking benefits of an internship while minimizing the potentially negative impact on their college track. The same is true for other low-paying, high-commitment internships.

I accepted early on that I wasn’t going to really make money. I could accept this because I had parents willing to help me out and a scholarship covered the cost of my credits. For me, this program wasn’t a way to supplement my income. It

was a bucket-list dream and a foot in the door toward more applicable, higher-paying Disney internships in the future.

The benefit of that foot in the door is very real. According to a spring 2013 study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or NACE, 67 percent of students who completed a paid internship were offered a job prior to graduation, compared to 37 percent of unpaid student interns and 35.2 percent of students with no internship experience.

In a more recent NACE study, 61 percent of graduating seniors had an internship or co-op experience, but 46.5 percent of those internships were unpaid.

All things considered, I would participate in the Disney College Program again in a heartbeat. I would not, however, recommend it blindly. When looking at internship opportunities, honestly evaluate the potential for debt against the potential for future employment within the industry. Unpaid internships rarely pay off, and while low paying internships can carry many benefits, those benefits significantly diminish if the internship negatively affects educational goals. At the end of the day, these programs were designed to fill a need, and it’s up to participants to turn them into valuable experience.

Students can get a lot out of low-paying internships, but only if they are willing and able to put a lot into them.

Leaders must support action on climate change BRETT CEASE COMMENTARY

You can never be too careful when it comes to Ebola.

COMET COMMENTS

It was a moment never to be forgotten. The streets of Manhattan were bursting with an atmosphere electrified by the human energy of more than 400,000 people coming together to demand a diversified plan of action on climate change.

On Sept. 21, I had the chance to witness the largest climate action in history in New York City during the People’s Climate March. The global action encompassed more than 2,600 additional events that took place throughout major cities with hundreds of thousands of people calling for immediate political action to address climate change.

Marching down the Avenue of the Americas beneath the towering headquarters for Exxon Mobil, Fox News, Time Warner Cable and CNN, I could feel the buildings tremor as the marching crowds chanted, “We stand strong with our planet for our world!”

The march was organized in response to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for international leaders to work together to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce industrialized greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions.

Ki-moon’s sense of urgency was in large part a response to the overwhelmingly strong evidence — including more than 97 percent of peer-reviewed climate science papers — and increasing number of scientists who have agreed that human-produced GHG is the leading cause of global climate change.

To get to New York, I helped organized a 15-passenger carpool that departed from the Dallas area

with a diverse crowd of Texans aboard. College students from UTD, the University of North Texas, St. Edward’s University and Abilene Christian University joined together in our traveling caravan, as well as artists, educators, public servants and business owners. Although we did not know each other beforehand, our message was united: Take climate change seriously before it’s too late.

We arrived early to attend workshops and join with people who came from all corners of the country to flood the streets of New York to collectively call attention to the scientific fact that if we do not pay heed to this issue now, generations will in turn suffer the consequences.

In order to raise awareness of maintaining the more stable climatic conditions that have made human progress for the last 10,000 years possible, a large group of university presidents across the country have signed on to a document called the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which recognizes the need to reduce the global emission of greenhouse gases by 80 percent by mid-century at the latest in order to avert the worst impacts of global warming.

With Texas’ dependence on exporting oil and gas for our current economic well-being, there is no doubt that the message of the People’s Climate March poses a significant concern to those currently in power. However, considering the majority of our state has been in drought-like conditions for more than three years and state climatologists warn it will continue to wear on longer than ever before, Texans must become a part of the change.

Indeed, transitioning our entire global economy — currently reliant on fossil fuels as the primary energy source — will be no small task.

Nevertheless, steps toward finding solutions are

→ SEE CLIMATE CHANGE, PAGE 4

“Do you feel that open discussion on sexual assault is taboo at UTD? Why or why not?”

Question related to “Frats open talk on assault” on pg. 1

Do you think your campus promotes open discussion on sexual assault? Answer our poll at www.utdmercury.com.

RESULTS FROM LAST ISSUE “I don’t think there’s a lot of sexual assault here to be worried about as much, but I don’t think people are uncomfortable talking about it.”

Anisha Lakhani Neuroscience junior

“I feel very uncomfortable when anyone asks me about that ... some people are comfortable with it and others are not.”

Alisha Lakhani Accounting and finance Junior

“I would say yes, in general, just like most campuses, people don’t like talking about sex openly or anything like that, so I would say it’s probably a taboo.”

Rohit George Biochemistry sophopmore

How do you feel about campus police departments acquiring military equipment from the Department of Defense for emergencies?

It’s not okay. I don’t think

It’s okay. I think it could be

campus PDs should have

helpful in emergency

access to military gear.

situations.

69%

21%

I don’t care.

10%

The online poll was open from Sept. 18 to Oct. 3 and had 62 participants

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OPINION

THE MERCURY | OCT. 6, 2014

UTDMERCURY.COM

Comets and Craters FEMINISM IS NOT FOR SALE

Politics galore: With Election Day on Nov. 4 fast approaching, there seems to be a political guest speaker every week.

Senatorial candidate David Alameel visited campus on Oct. 3, and congressman Joaquin Castro and attorney George P. Bush are visiting the week of Oct.

Krishna lunches: Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., students can pick up a wonderfully delicious vegetarian or vegan meal in the SSB. The Krishna lunch program was brought to life by the Vedic Organization for Inspiration, Culture and Education, or VOICE, and Student Government. The food is good, and at only $5, it’s a real bargain deal. Make sure to order online the week you wish to purchase a lunch.

DESIGN BY MIGUEL PEREZ | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Consumer culture, big business miscontrue, damage idea of feminism images in our minds: a lingerie item and a topless woman, both ANWESHA instantly drawing attention to the BHATTACHARJEE body and away from the issue.

COMMENTARY We forgot that feminism was about choices: the choice to vote, the choice to work or stay at home, the choice to be a mother or a wife, the choice of a job and The demise of a human right the choice of sexuality.

We forgot that feminism didn’t It has always served in the interests of consumerism to place peo- include demeaning others who didn’t choose what we chose, that ple in mutually exclusive boxes.

“The feminist” label is put in it meant getting rights for ourone such box. It commonly refers selves that were not to be taken to men-hating, pants-clad, shark- away.

Big business has managed to like females.

The feminist label is deemed make us believe that women who inconvenient for the entertain- identify as feminists are interested ment, beauty, jewelry and fashion in being promiscuous, nudity-lovindustries — the four industries ing females who refuse to adhere that profit-hunkering businesses to traditional roles or women that feel they need to suppress their associate with women.

Males are consequently put in a femininity and bodies to be able box that tells them they must earn to fight fair in a world controlled more than women, encourages their by men.

Simultaneously, the business involvement in all things macho and dissociates them from any display of world spread the notion that emotion, save for immature displays a woman could certainly work beside a man, but it also stressed of male sexuality.

Firmly entrenched in our that a female breadwinner, in her beliefs, these labels have given way jeans and callused palms, was to stereotypes that are self-fulfill- hardly a real woman. ing, a psychological state where we satisfy the positive or negative expectations society has of us.

Right from the start of the feminist movement in the United States, the business world has worked toward proactively labeling gender-equality movements into a conversation about women’s bodies and how much or how little they’re allowed to show, allowing industries to exploit the bodies of women to catapult their brands’ marketability.

It has suited their purpose to Women applying for corporate divert the attention away from feminism’s true cases, including jobs have been advised to not be equal pay for men and women overtly sexual, to cover up their and paid maternity leaves that cleavage in an interview, to wear a would affect their bottom lines to pantsuit if they want to be taken the sex appeal of the female form. seriously by men and to not take As corporations slowly aban- maternity leaves more than necesdoned moral obligations to causes sary to avoid falling behind in the in favor of greater capital, mass race to the top of the ladder. media assumed the role of the The visible impact business mouthpiece and selectively chose what aspect of femAs media, big businesses and inism’s past to share with the consumers all focus on not letting public.

Our distorted memories men open car doors for women, of what happened in the Miss core issues such as equality of pay, America pageant protest of 1968 reducing high female infanticide is a failure to honor the role and feticide rates, high maternity of women in American history, deaths and illiteracy of women writes Jennifer Lee, director of have taken a back seat.

Women have avoided study“Feminist: Stories from Women’s Liberation,” in a June 2014 TIME ing science, technology, engiblog titled “Feminism has a bra- neering and mathematics, or STEM, subjects for the longest burning myth problem.”

“There is no statue on the time with less than 25 perAtlantic City Boardwalk to com- cent of STEM jobs held by memorate an important protest women, according to a 2011 about standards of beauty for report released by the U.S. women and a contest tied into Department of Commerce.

They have preferred to go into capitalism, war and race,” she said in the blog. “Instead, our cultural less-demanding professions such touchstone from that day is the as nursing and teaching that they negative and trite association of believe will help them juggle their family commitments while at the feminists as ‘bra-burners.’”

With two words, the media same time earn lower than their managed to place two parallel partners to keep the balance of

power even in their families.

Consequently, women make up 81 percent of elementary and middle school teachers, 94 percent of administrative and secretarial workers and 90 percent of registered nurses, according to the Leading Occupations for Women in 2013 report released by the U.S. Department of Labor. The median weekly wages for women in all of these professions is $100 less than the wages for men in the same positions.

The number of female faculty that research schools have is equally dismal. Only 28 percent of full-time senior faculty in science, health and engineering are women, while women comprise a total of 35.7 percent of all positions that employ doctorate holders in the United States, according to “Science and Engineering Indicators 2014,” released by the National Science Foundation.

At UTD only 122 faculty members are women — a measly 29 percent of the 536 who teach here.

We live in a world where there is not one nation that can truly say women and men have the

WE’VE FORGOTTEN THAT FEMINISM IS ABOUT CHOICES... same privileges or pay and are perceived in the same light by their peers.

The U.S. Congress is 81 percent male in a country yet to see its first female president.

In nations that have voted for strong female leaders, such as India and Pakistan, a majority of women are still illiterate, sexually abused and forced to abort female fetuses, according to the United Nations.

In India, which has celebrated several renowned female leaders in the past 100 years, marital rape is not constitutionally recognized as a punishable offense.

In Liberia, headed by the first female African head of state Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, less than half of women giving birth have a doctor, nurse or certified midwife present at the time of childbirth. Almost a thousand women die during childbirth for every 100,000 babies born in Liberia, according to a UNICEF statistic.

The solution We are well into the 21st century, and we are still grappling with the issues that we were dealing with three decades ago. While

the numbers have changed, the problems themselves have not.

As people, we have allowed ourselves to be cheated by big conglomerates into believing that women are far better off today and that progress has been made. Partners are helping in the home and women can choose to leave their partners or be single moms without facing economic consequences.

While all of this is important work accomplished, a lot more remains to be achieved.

Part of the process forward is to recruit men and women to work for gender equality together, as Emma Watson called for in her speech on Sept. 20 at the United Nations.

The other part is to look at women across the globe and how they affect their societies and children as we work to end the disparity between men and women, both psychologically and physically.

Men are still not comfortable with the idea of earning less than their partners as a 2013 study “Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households” funded by the National Bureau of Economic Research found.

In many developing countries, men define what they want or don’t want in their partners, and women are raised to fulfill those expectations irrespective of what the women want.

At the same time, society does its best to reinforce stereotypes about women that in the long run prevent women from breaking out of the mold, as early as their teenage years.

We tell our daughters they are poor drivers, bad at math and bad at logic until they believe it to be true of themselves and of other women. We communicate to our sons through actions and beliefs that they must be emotionally stunted and make enough money to feed a family to be esteemed in society.

It is beyond time for people to see that while women across the globe have become significant contributors to the economy, they are still, in many ways, accessories to men.

Our step forward must be twopronged: We must allow ourselves to acknowledge history without the veneers of big money contorting it, and we must condition ourselves to treat the men and women in our circle with equal standards and see them first as people and then as men or women.

As parents, teachers and role models, we should think through the psychological and physical consequences of our actions on fresh minds and how they might perceive and translate these actions to reflect on their beliefs of themselves.

As thinkers in a free world, it is our duty, our moral obligation to those that came before us and ourselves, to defy conformity fostered by consumerism and exercise our choices that will truly make us a gender-equal civilization.

Sweater weather: Dallas summer heat fluctuates from sunny, tolerable and unbearably hot, and this year, the dog days rolled well into October. The cooler autumn air is starting to creep up and with it comes a big sigh of relief.

Radio UTD’s new logo: The bright minds over at Radio UTD recently updated their old turntable logo to one with a more sleek, modern design. The antiquated look of yesterday has been replaced by a stylized play button outfitted in school colors. Check it out and make sure to tune in to The Mercury Morning News every Monday at 10 a.m.

Lot K: The parking lot behind the Student Services Building had a broken meter starting Oct. 1, and instead of cordoning off the lot, Parking and Transportation Services made the spaces complementary. When it takes students 20 minutes to find a spot during peak hours, — that’s a big plus.

→ CLIMATE CHANGE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

being made. According to a World Bank report, one of the most promising results of the UN Climate Leadership Summit held the Tuesday after the march was the more than 1,000 businesses and 73 countries, including China, the world’s largest GHG emitter, that agreed that a price on carbon is necessary.

These signees accounted for more than half of the world’s GHG emissions.

The Sustainability Club and the local Dallas area Citizens Climate Lobby chapter are ways for students to become involved in this important issue. Call on the wisdom of

our campus’ presidential leadership to join the more than 650 U.S. colleges and universities that have signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment.

Undoubtedly, the most powerful moment of the weekend took place at 12:58 p.m. when a wave of silence washed over the entire procession, everyone raising their fists in solidarity for those on the frontlines who have already experienced the ravages of climate change. As I reflected on these impacts, my mind was filled with a quote I had heard from Bill McKibben, founder of 350. org and one of the march’s lead organizers, the night before.

“Climate change is not one more problem on a list of problems,” McKibben said. “It is a lens through which we understand the world we live in.”

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? Students can send submissions of 500 - 800 words to editor@utdmercury.com.

Letters to the editor must be 250 words or less.

Include references for any facts you cite. We ask for your name and contact information. Personal info will not be published.

We reserve the right to reject submissions, and we cannot be responsible for their return.

We reserve the right to edit for clarity, brevity, good taste, accuracy and to prevent libel.

The next issue of The Mercury will be published on Oct. 20. Submit your opinion or letter by Oct. 13, and contact us by Oct. 10.

NEWS

UTDMERCURY.COM → ASSAULT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

were more likely to be victims of such advances than sophomores.

Members of fraternities have been found to come under more peer pressure to have sex that leads to sexual assault, according to a 2012 study titled “Sexual Assault on the College Campus: Fraternity Affiliation, Male Peer Support and Low Selfcontrol.�

The study, which surveyed 255 male students in a large, public northwestern university, found fraternity membership also indirectly led to more alcohol-related sexual assaults. Members who had lower self-control were more likely to watch pornography and show risky alcohol consumption and sexually predatory behavior.

Peer pressure is much less of an issue here, however, said Julie Murphy, assistant director for Greek Life Programs. “They don’t feel like they have to prove anything unless it’s in the classroom where they want to get a 4.0,� she said. “They save their competitive juices for that environment, and this is supposed to be their fun, extracurricular, friendly, safe place to be.�

Fraternities and sororities are more concerned about their image as a whole and how their actions reflect on the entire Greek community on campus, Hernandez said. “They don’t want to be what that stereotypical negative image of a fraternity or sorority is,� he said. “They want to show that they’re above that so they think about (the consequences).�

UTD attracts students who are career -oriented and have their 10-year paths mapped out, and members of fraternities

and sororities don’t want to get involved in any incident that will blemish their academic record, Murphy said.

As a result, women in the sororities are very confident and vocal about speaking up against men who try to shut them down or make unwanted advances, she said. “I think the men and women in our population have a healthy respect for each other as well,� Murphy said. “I think they appreciate what the other side is doing, and they help each other.�

Fraternity and Sorority Life actively provides opportunities for men and women in Greek chapters to talk about sexual assaults, peer pressure and how to stick together and protect each other, Hernandez said.

The Student Health Center and Student Wellness Center are invited to speak to members of the IFC, and members can ask questions about coping with image stereotypes, peer pressure and alcohol consumption, he said.

Similarly, the PanHellenic Council hosts “Lunch and Learn� sessions where women can have important conversations pertaining to safety. In one such session, staff from the Health Center and Wellness Center spoke about how students should buddy up at parties, discuss situations where members might have received unwanted sexual attention and talk about bystander wintervention.

All fraternities and sororities frequently go through risk-management training, both at the university level and from their national chapters, she said.

UTD reported two sexual offenses in 2013 and one in 2012, while also reporting nine instances of dating violence and 23 instances of stalking on campus, according to

UTDPD’s Annual Security Report.

At the national level, several universities have recently come under scrutiny for mishandling sexual assault cases and for violating federal mandates on prevention of gender discrimination.

On May 1, the U.S. Department of Education released a list of 55 universities with Title IX violations that were currently under investigation for noncompliance with the federal mandate on sexual-violence laws.

The list includes top universities such as Harvard, Princeton, University of California Berkeley and Dartmouth College.

Southern Methodist University and UT Pan American were included on the list.

Members of fraternities have come under fire nationwide for alcohol-related sexual assaults according to a New York Times article, “Efforts by Colleges to Curb Assaults Focus on Fraternities,� published June 12.

After being linked to several allegations of injuries and deaths, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon national chapter announced a ban on its pledging rituals.

Amherst College barred its fraternities from campus, but the fraternities continued to function off campus and left administrators with no oversight of their activities.

Banning fraternities is not a solution, Murphy and Hernandez agreed. “I think (banning fraternities) is just a quick fix. People are scared and they want the situation to go away, and who doesn’t?�

Murphy said. “But like many things in 2014, there’s no quick fix. It’s built up for this long, and now we slowly have to peel away the layers and figure out how to solve it.�

5

THE MERCURY | OCT. 6, 2014 PREVENTION AND DEFENSE The Dean of Students Office handles all cases of sexual misconduct on campus, and all cases have to be reported to UTDPD. The Student Counseling Center provides help with recovery for victims of sexual assault. “I want to encourage people to come in when something happens,â€? said Sharon Bowles, a counseling specialist and sexual assault liaison at the center. “I think often people are so embarrassed and so demoralized from going through an assault that they want to just hole up ‌ and try to pretend it never happened, but that strategy doesn’t work for very long.â€?

The UniTeD Against Sexual Assault Project aims to educate students through a variety of programs.

Among the several preventative programs available on campus, the Rape Aggression Defense, or RAD, classes taught by UTDPD are very popular, said Sgt. Kendra Penny, the instructor who leads these courses.

This two-day course teaches self-defense against sexual assault and prevention tactics. It is offered for free on campus every month and open to all female students and faculty, but unaffiliated members of the community are welcome to register as well.

Penny said the course empowers women to feel safe when facing difficult situations. “A lot of women feel like there aren’t any options, and they don’t have the confidence. We instill that confidence in them that they can defend themselves and they can survive,� Penny said.

The nationwide program requires its instructors to be certified. The male instructors, who act as assailants in the course, are sent through a special sensitizing training that makes them aware of how disempowered a woman feels when she is assaulted. “I still have those same fears,�

Penny said. “Even as a police officer, I still think that, but also I feel confident in my ability to protect myself. That’s the confidence we want to instill in these women.�

While statistics often state that victims are most often assaulted by acquaintances, she said the RAD program helps students treat all assaults equally at an emotional level. “There’s no such thing as acquaintance rape because that’s society trying to minimize the fact that rape is wrape,� Penny said.

The next RAD class will be on Oct. 25 and 26.

- Jamie Park

UPCOMING EVENTS KEYNOTE: JOAQUIN CASTRO 1R /DEHOV 87' LV KRVWLQJ &RQJUHVVPDQ &DVWUR IURP 6DQ $Qtonio. There will be a Q&A session and a catered reception.

Oct. 6, 4 PM - 6 PM Clark Center

TEA TUESDAYS WITH THE WOMEN’S CENTER 5HIUHVKLQJ WHD HYHU\ 7XHVGD\ VWDUWLQJ 6HSW 'LIIHUHQW varieties such as Earl Grey, Rooibos and Peach available.

Oct. 7, 10 AM - 4 PM Galerstein Women’s Center

ACCESSABILITY SUMMIT The event will encompass accessibility standards at UTD and includes a panel discussion. Register online by Oct. 10.

Oct. 13, 9 AM - 5 PM Davidson Auditorium

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT

VIVA VOLUNTEER

Hear Bush speak on topics pertaining to the importance of voting, education and veteran affairs followed by a Q&A session.

Join UTDPD, Res Life and the National Association of Town Watch for an anti-crime block party with hot dogs and drinks.

UTD’s annual service day provides students the opportunity to serve their communities on national Make a Difference Day.

Oct. 6, 1 PM - 2 PM Davidson Auditorium

Oct. 7, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM Residence Hall North

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KEYNOTE: GEORGE P. BUSH

GENDER STUDIES LECTURE SERIES

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Celebrate National Coming Out Day with UTD’s LGBTQ community.

Lemonade and candy will be served.

7UDLQLQJ LQ 6DIH =RQH KHOSV VKDSH D FXOWXUH WKDW YDOXHV WKH VH[XDO orientation and gender identity/expression of students, staff and faculty.

Oct. 7, 5:30 PM - 7 PM Galerstein Women’s Center

Oct. 9, 11 AM - 1 PM SU Plinth

Oct. 24, 11 AM - 4 PM Galerstein Women’s Center

6

NEWS

THE MERCURY | OCT. 6, 2014

UTDMERCURY.COM

BEHIND ISIS STORY BY ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE | DESIGN BY MIGUEL PEREZ

A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRAQ > 3300 B.C. - 884 B.C. Mesopotamia/Sumerian civilization > 884 B.C. - 605 B.C. Assyria and Babylonia Empires » 538 B.C. - 637 A.D. Persian and Greek Empires > 637 A.D. - 1920 Islamic Caliphate, Mongols, il-Khanate > 1920 - 1958 Hashemite Iraq under Kings Faisal, Ghazi, Faisal II and ‘Abdallah > 1958 - 1968 Several coups and dictators come to power > 1968 - 2003 Ba’ath party comes to power; Saddam Hussein overthrows predecessor in 1979; executed in 2003 > 2003 - 2014 Shiite Iraqi government elected by the people led by Nouri al-Maliki, steps down under pressure > June 30, 2014 ISIS declares itself a caliphate after sweeping as far south as Baghdad

5

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

ISIS-controlled locations

with commentary from political science associate professor Clint Peinhardt

WHO ARE THEY? An Al Qaeda offshoot considered more brutal than its parent organization and primarily a Sunni militant group, ISIS is estimated to have close to 31,500 fighters, according to a Sept. 11 Associated Press report.

It exploited the Syrian conflict, the state of unrest in the region and the United States’ reluctance to get involved in the conflict to rear its head as it captured large swathes of land in Syria and then Iraq in the past few months, Peinhardt said.

They announced themselves a caliphate and proclaimed its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the “Caliph,” according to a June 29 Reuters report.

“The Iraqi government that just stepped down did not put all of the groups in Iraq’s interests to heart,” Peinhardt said. “They disproportionately advantaged the Shiite group in Iraq and did not really pay much attention to the Kurds or the Sunnis. To some extent, ISIS has gone ahead and filled the void that the central government (had created).”

HOW & WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS? Their goal seems to be religious in part, as far as establishing a unified caliphate, Peinhardt said. They managed to recruit members of the previous Ba’ath regime under Hussein that hadworked for the military who have proven to be

very valuable in the expansion of ISIS, he said.

They are also recruiting citizens of western countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

For the longest time, the world did nothing. The western countries were war weary after two major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Peinhardt said. The Obama administration’s reluctance to jump into a conflict unilaterally was another reason why the United States ignored the Syrian conflict, he said, even after last year when Syria’s ruling Assad regime used chemical weapons to attack its opponents.

While the west refused to get involved and Assad was fighting the moderates, ISIS took control over parts of Syria, and it was only when ISIS released footage of a member beheading American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff that U.S. public opinion swayed in favor of intervention, Peinhardt said.

“I don’t necessarily understand why it took the executions to get our attention,” he said. “I personally think the chemical weapons attacks (would have been enough).”

ARE NATIONS REACTING? The United States announced it would conduct airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, even as they train Iraqi forces to recapture their territory, said President Obama in a statement on ISIS Sept.

10.

The United States also tried to gather support

through a coalition with allies including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and several powerful Sunni Arab nations like Saudi Arabia. The British parliament recently approved air strikes against ISIS only in Iraq.

HOW IS IT FUNDED? For the longest time, Iraqi Kurdistan has traded oil through underground tunnels on the black market. When embargoes were imposed on Hussein’s government, he, too, smuggled oil in a similar fashion, Peinhardt said.

Now, with Kurdistan under their control, ISIS is doing the same, pulling in close to $1 million a day in oil revenues according to a Business Insider report. ISIS controls major oil fields in Syria and some big fields in northern Iraq.

HOW DOES IT AFFECT US? ISIS is a threat primarily to the middle-eastern region, but also to the western world, Peinhardt said, because they are inspiring attacks in other countries like Belgium where one follower already conducted an attack.

The government under Nouri al-Maliki has already stepped down to pave the path for a better, more-inclusive government.

While the United States was trying to lean toward the moderates in the Syrian conflict, its intervention in the three-way conflict might be beneficial for Assad who can now reclaim Syria, he said.

UTDMERCURY.COM

NEWS

THE MERCURY | OCT. 6, 2014

7

SILENT EPIDEMIC Eating disorders plague college campuses, new forms of mental illness surface SAARA RAJA Staff Writer

An epidemic more common than the flu has millions of victims in colleges across the nation.

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, or ANAD, approximately 20 percent of all college students suffer from an eating disorder of some kind, a number that currently stands at more than 4 million.

Jenna Temkin, a counselor who specializes in eating disorders in the Counseling Center, said the beginning of college is a time when students are particularly vulnerable to a variety of emotions that may lead to eating disorders.

“This is a really important time in their lives,” Temkin said. “This is the time that they are transitioning from being at home. There’s the stress of school, and so oftentimes this is a point that really may lead to mental health problems that we may see in college students.”

Temkin said in this critical period, eating disorders are prone to rise, worsen or resurface from prior experiences.

One of the challenges during this period is the freshman 15, a phenomenon where students new to the college environment gain a significant amount of weight due to the sudden change in lifestyle.

Experts argue over whether the phenomenon can actually be substantiated considering most students only gain 2.5-3.5 pounds during their first year, according to a study done by researchers at Ohio State University in 2011.

Despite all of this, Temkin said that the freshman 15 is a significant concern for many of the

ABBY LAM | STAFF DESIGNER

students who seek help from her, also saying that an unhealthy obsession with the phenomenon could be a cause for eating disorders.

“Individuals will come in with such fear that they are going to get this weight gain, this freshman 15, which in this developmental period of time could absolutely cause eating disorder behaviors to arise,” Temkin said.

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are the most common eating disorders on college campuses. Anorexia is deliberately depriving the body of food, while bulimia is the practice of food binging and purging.

According to ANAD, 25 percent of collegeaged women suffer from bulimia in an effort to lose or maintain their weight. Stephanie Setliff, the medical director for the Eating Recovery Cen-

ter of Dallas, said bulimia is one of the most pervasive eating disorders on college campuses. “(Eating disorders) are rampant in college campuses,” Setliff said. “I think college campuses really present their own challenges, and we always see a lot of bulimia nervosa in those campuses.”

Temkin said the stigma around seeking psychiatric help still exists, making it difficult to gauge the actual number of students living with debilitating disorders.

“There is a lot of secrecy around eating disorders,” Temkin said. “There may be even denial.

Also, there is a lot of guilt or shame or self-blame that comes with eating disorders, which can sometimes make it hard to take that next step, which is admitting that there is a problem.”

People of all ages and both genders suffer from

eating disorders, Setliff said. She sees patients typically between the ages of 9 and 70, but she has worked with children as young as 6 years old.

Eating disorder data is less concentrated for men, Setliff said.

“There is an epidemic (of eating disorders) in boys and men, but it is still primarily a female disease, with being female and dieting probably being the two biggest factors anyone would have at being at risk for eating disorders,” Setliff said.

Setliff estimates that she sees approximately two to three males for every 10 female patients.

“It used to be very rare for me to get a boy in treatment, but now I always have at least one boy in treatment,” she said.

→ SEE DISORDERS, PAGE 16

University officials: We’re Prof tasked with patching up monitoring the outbreak Hadron collider in Geneva

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY IAN LAMARSH | STAFF DESIGNER

Outbreak of the Ebola virus, pictured as a viron on the left and as particles on the right, in the United States. The man infected traveled to DFW from Liberia.

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Managing Editor

The recent outbreak of Ebola in Dallas has prompted officials from the national to the local level, including those at UTD, to address the issue.

On Sept. 30, Thomas Eric Duncan, a native of Liberia, tested positive for the virus at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. He is currently being held there in an isolation unit.

According to Dallas County health officials, about 80 people have had contact with Duncan directly or indirectly. Duncan’s family has been ordered by state health officials to stay home until Oct. 19, with no one allowed to visit them unless they have been pre-approved.

The possibility of a spread of the virus has raised concerns about the possibility of Ebola spreading across the Dallas area, including UTD. Mariah Armitage, the director of Emergency Management and Continuity Planning said they have been monitoring the situation before it reached the United States. She said via email they have been in collaboration with the International Student Services Office, the Student Health Center, University Housing and the Office of Communication to review plans and procedures on what to do if action needs to be taken here.

“We have also been in collaboration with external partners, including the Dallas County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Dallas County Health and Human Services, the City of Richardson Office of Emergency Management,

and other state and federal health authorities,” Armitage said.

She said the individuals currently being monitored have no known connection to the university.

The Student Health Center posted an advisory on its website giving some basic information about the outbreak to students and faculty.

The advisory includes basic information like how the virus is spread and what students and faculty should do to protect themselves.

Lea Aubrey, director of the center, said via email the university has a pandemic policy in place to handle extreme health conditions.

With an international student population of around 5,000 students, the International Student Services Office has taken steps to ensure the students here are kept safe.

“The International Center and Multicultural Center have reached out to UT Dallas’ African students, to ensure they are aware that they have an avenue to ask questions, request support, and voice concerns as needed,” said Cristen Casey, assistant vice president of International programs, via email.

She said university sponsored travel to countries with State Department Travel Warnings requires review and approval from the Advisory Council on International Education.

She also said a majority of international students are required to obtain a travel authorization by ISSO to regain entry into the United States after travelling abroad.

Additional reporting by Priyanka Hardikar

JOSEPH IZEN | COURTESY

Physics researchers Kendall Reeves (right) and Joseph Izen (left) are participating in the ATLAS project, a particle-physics experiment with the Large Hadron Collider at The European Organization for Nuclear Research facility in Switzerland.

ASIF SHEIK Staff Writer

When thousands of scientists in Switzerland proved the existence of the Higgs-boson particle in 2012, it was a milestone in scientific history.

Now, researchers from UTD are taking a role in continuing one of physics’ most prominent experiments.

Kendall Reeves, a research scientist with the physics department, is working as an operations manager for the ATLAS project, a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, research facility in Geneva, Switzerland.

ATLAS is a large-scale project involving thousands of research scientists working to understand and make new discoveries concerning the Higgs-boson, a particle often cited by scientists as a missing link in understanding the composition of elementary particles.

The discovery of the particle was accomplished through the contin-

ued experimentation at the collider, a device that accelerates atoms and analyzes the various types of reactions between protons.

Physics professor Joseph Izen also works with the ATLAS project.

“The site of the Large Hadron Collider is truly vast. It facilitates the research of over a thousand researchers from around the world from the most esteemed physics institutes,” Izen said.

After the two-year maintenance period for the collider comes to a close soon, researchers from around the world will begin conducting experiments. The physics department is hoping to increase its contributions toward the community through research and development at the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, site.

The department’s main goal is to aid the scientific community in the quest to prove the existence of dark matter, or matter that cannot be directly observed because it does not emit visible light.

“As research begins to ramp up at the collider in the next month or so, the opportunities for scientific advancement in the search for dark mat-

ter, which has been the goal of the LHC since its establishment, will become more fruitful,” Reeves said.

Izen and Reeves have made contributions to the operational capacity of the collider, not only through research and development, but also through substantial repairs that make research at the collider possible.

While Reeves was performing maintenance at the collider, he rearranged and repaired the physical components of the particle laser and deflector modules, which was heavily inhibiting research and development.

Students also have become involved with the community and have collaborated with world-class scientists at the collider.

Physics graduate student Harisankar Namasivayam worked alongside physics researchers at the collider site to observe the effects of colliding protons.

“After spending several months at the LHC, even today the vastness of the ATLAS experiment and its collective goal to find proof of the existence of dark matter in the universe is just astonishing,” Namasivayam said.

10

OCT. 6, 2014 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

band of brothers

LIFE&ARTS

PABLO ARAUZ| STAFF

Students from UTD, UTA form indie rock outfit Duo Contra, sign with record label to release debut album DUNCAN GALLAGHER Staff Writer

Duo Contra, an alternative and indie rock band, performed for students Oct. 1 on The Plinth. The band started less than a year ago and consists of three UTD students and a UT Arlington student, who combine creativity, musical talent and close friendships.

Although it has only existed for about a year, the band has already gained a reputation both on and off campus.

Duo Contra was conceived in the summer of 2013 by historical studies sophomore Gabriel Jordan and UT Arlington composition freshman Lukas Bartke.

The two friends had been involved in a postgrunge band named The Perjury prior to forming Duo Contra. They wrote several songs together but decided their style did not fit with the band’s. They waited until later to revisit their ideas.

After taking a hiatus from The Perjury, Jordan and Bartke began to collaborate further. Bartke suggested the name Duo Contra Mundum, which translates to two against the world in Latin, referring to the end of

the book “Brideshead Revisited” by Evelyn Waugh.

The name also related well to their status as a twoperson group.

Eventually, with the name shortened to Duo Contra, Jordan and Bartke wanted to expand their new project to include a bass player and a drummer.

They did not have to look far to find any either, as Jordan was already friends with several musically inclined students on campus.

“I was roommates with (Jordan) last year,” said mechanical engineering sophomore Gareth Mason.

“He just called me one day and asked if I wanted to play drums.”

Mason had already been involved in several unnamed bands and also played for his worship band in church. He and Jordan had also already practiced together in their dorm room prior to Duo Contra.

Jordan said he specifically wanted a guitarist to play bass for the band instead of someone used to playing bass. He found that guitarist in accounting and finance sophomore Karan Bindra, whom he had become friends with at orientation his freshman year.

Bindra had played in various shows and groups before joining the band, and had also played with the

Director shares stories of women’s rights struggle PRIYANKA HARDINKAR Staff Writer

When she was 9 years old, Jennifer Lee didn’t just hear about the women’s liberation movement in New York; she lived it.

“The women’s movement was happening, and you absorbed it,” Lee said. “The feeling of that movement was one of incredible promise and joy.”

Three decades later in 2004, she began a 10-yearlong project to LEE make the documentary, “Feminist: Stories from Women’s Liberation.” The film premiered at UTD on Sept. 18, with the School of Interdisciplinary Studies Gender Studies Program and the Galerstein Women’s Center sponsoring the event.

“Feminist,” which focuses on the significance of the second wave of the women’s liberation movement, has played in public libraries across the country, was distributed to gender studies classes in colleges and was even shown by invitation in three universities in Islamabad after its release in 2013.

It later won Best of the Fest for documentary at the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival.

“I really didn’t know how people would take it,” Lee said. “I don’t have a master’s degree in women’s studies or a Ph.D., but I am a person who felt the need to do this, and I hope that’s inspiring to people.”

Lee financed the film herself, save the $12,000 she proposed on Kickstarter toward the end of her project. She filmed the documentary while pregnant with her daughter, Lillian.

Her main challenge came when she started balancing her responsibilities as a new mother with her full-time job as a visual effects editor — the thought of her unfinished documentary lingering in the back of her mind.

“If I have half an hour tonight, I’ll edit, and if I have half an hour tomorrow, I’ll edit more,” she said. “And I just kept going.”

At first, her husband came along and helped with the video shooting. If he couldn’t make it, she’d findfriends who were willing.

While creating her documentary, Lee interviewed more than 35 women — women who

she believed played a crucial role in the second wave of women’s liberation movement but weren’t necessarily known.

The women took her on a journey to World War II where it all began. They then introduced lesser-known but transformative events that occurred during the movement, including the Statue of Liberty takeover and the abortion speak out in 1969.

Lee said The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women was a significant milestone in inspiring the women’s movement. The commission initiated by Assistant Secretary of Labor Esther Peterson was tasked with advising President John F. Kennedy with issues concerning women’s equality in education, in the workplace and under the law.

Feminists interviewed included Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique,” and women involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was one of the key organizations of the American civil rights movement in the 1960s. The women who were already fighting for racial equality fought for gender equality as well.

At a young age, Lee associated herself with feminism. When she was 17 or 18, Lee lived in the Quaker Meeting House in the artists’ area of Atlanta, Little Five Points, where she began volunteering at the feminist bookstore, “Charis Books and More.”

According to the feminist and film director, there are only 13 feminist bookstores left, but at one point, there were a couple hundred across the nation.

“It was extremely important as a teenage girl to sit in a feminist bookstore and see and hear the posters, pamphlets, self-published books and women’s music on the stereo — all about feminist history,” Lee said. “That shaped me as a woman.”

But it was the movie “Meet the Press” on the court case Roe v. Wade that sparked her 10-year goal.

“Everyone at the table were men, and I’m wondering, ‘Why aren’t there any women at the table?’” Lee said.

She came to work the next day and told a coworker about what she had seen and how it left her in shock. That’s when Lee realized something that would change her perspective of the world — people were afraid of the word “feminist.”

→ SEE GENDER, PAGE 11

other members on multiple occasions in the dorms.

However, he learned how to play the bass specifically for Duo Contra.

“The style of our bass is more arpeggiated and I didn’t want someone to play the bass like a bass,” Jordan said. “And I really trusted Karan. He had a really good work ethic and was really passionate about music.”

Having most of the members of the band go to the same school has helped the group bond socially, even more than their friendships prior to Duo Contra.

“It’s very easy to know how to play a song,” Bindra said. “But not that easy to collaborate with different members in a band. I think that more than anything being at the same school, hanging out all the time, there’s not a communication barrier. We can feed off of each other, we know who needs to give the energy that day and who needs to take it, and I think that’s the best part.”

Three members of Duo Contra have extensive musical experience from a young age. Bartke said that he has been playing violin since he was seven, which transitioned into his skill on the guitar. Jordan has been playing the drums since he was 11, and

he eventually picked up guitar in high school when he began songwriting. Mason started playing piano in fifth grade and switched to playing percussion through high school marching band.

Bindra said that he had a very different experience with music growing up.

“I think I’ve learned and forgotten how to read music a countless number of times in my life,” he said. “I didn’t like being taught really boring stuff in orchestra. I just never liked music in the classical sense.”

Bindra eventually bought a guitar in the eleventh grade and has been playing ever since.

Duo Contra’s unique style and sound lies somewhere between jazz, samba rock and alternative rock.

Both Jordan and Bartke write its unique tracks, and the band’s influences include The Strokes, Tycho and various jazz artists.

“What’s really important about Duo Contra is that it’s really upbeat, it’s very happy, it’s very comforting,” Bindra said. “It’s really a theme throughout our music.”

→ SEE DUO CONTRA, PAGE 11

Student starts nonprofit to help underprivileged youth

JENNIFER CHI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Rebecca Tjahja started her own nonprofit organization, Truly Absolute, after serving in a church goodwill program that helped low-income students and families.

NIDHI GOTGI Staff Writer

A student turned a small volunteer opportunity into a full-scale non-profit organization for underprivileged children.

Rebecca Tjahja, a finance and information technology management freshman, was inspired to start her own nonprofit after serving in her church’s goodwill program, Motel Ministry, in Anaheim, Calif.

This is where she realized the widespread, adverse living situations of low-income families.

“I served them breakfast on Saturday mornings and played with the kids,” Tjahja said. “The more I played with the kids, I realized how bright they were, despite the condition they were in. After a while, I thought, ‘I can’t just sit here and serve them breakfast once a week.’ It just didn’t settle right with me.”

Surviving on food stamps and minimum wage, families often found themselves living in motels as temporary residents. As Tjahja interacted with the children in these families, she came to know their true potential and wanted to provide them with the same opportunities afforded to everyone else.

Tjahja jumpstarted her own nonprofit organization, Truly Absolute, four years later in 2012.

The program aims to enhance the education of underprivileged students in kindergarten to 12th grade.

In the summer of 2010, Tjahja shadowed the CEO of Indonesia Frontier Consulting to learn more about business practices. Upon her return to the United States, she combined her passion for helping children and interest in business and set up

Truly Absolute.

With professional support from her mother, Anna Selamat, and creative feedback from her teacherturned-mentor, Bryan West, Tjahja was able to launch an academic enrichment program that funds scholarships, develops the social and artistic skills of students and emphasizes the importance of a college education.

Tjahja worked as the developer for Frontier Consulting’s social media platform and used those skills to advertise her cause and recruit dedicated members to help run Truly Absolute.

“It was like applying for a job almost,” said Truly Absolute board member Sohan Daryanani. “They had to fill out a list of qualifications, and we basically looked for people who had genuine and sincere feelings for our cause.”

Tjahja had prior leadership experience as the vice president of California’s Southern Section Future Business Leaders of America in high school, but as she adopted an administrative role in her organization, she found it increasingly challenging to distinguish between being a friend and being a leader to her peers.

“A personal struggle for me is just keeping grounded in my thought and who I’m working for,” she said. “Sometimes I get too goal oriented, but when I go back and hands-on volunteer for those kids, it just brings me right back, and I realize, ‘OK, this is why I’m here.’”

Tjahja’s drive to help the children in Anaheim has led her to open branches of her organization in Indonesia and Cambodia, and she set up a partnership with Latinas Aliadas, a group with

→ SEE NONPROFIT, PAGE 11

UTDMERCURY.COM

LIFE&ARTS

THE MERCURY | OCT. 6, 2014

11

PHOTO SERIES BY MADEEHA MIAN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Graduate students display final art projects SARAH RACHEL LARSON Staff Writer

Three UTD employees are finishing up their art degrees with the final display of their thesis artwork in a show called Reflex Soul, which opened to a large crowd Sept. 26 in the Visual Arts Building.

Reflex Soul is an exhibition of a final semester of work, including photographs, sculptures and videos from humanities doctoral candidate Jillian Round; arts and technology master’s student LeeDon Moore; and arts and technology master’s student Donald Davis.

The show was curated by art professor John Pomara, an adviser for Round, Moore and Davis.

“It’s been very exciting to see their personal growth and success in hanging a show,” he said.

With each artist having a unique style, putting together the show in a cohesive way was a challenge.

“Part of the deal is having the students learn how to put up a show,” Pomara said. “It’s the grand finale of their education to be able to organize their work together.”

Along with both Round and Moore, Davis is

→ GENDER

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

“She whispered to me, ‘Are you a feminist?’” Lee said. “I whispered back, ‘Well yes, I am a feminist,’ but then why were we whispering it in the first place, when it has been 40 years since the women’s liberation movement?”

The word “feminist” has been made congruous with words such as man-hater and lesbian, Lee said, but feminism is not about that. It is a movement that values everyone regardless of gender, according to Karen Prager, the program head of Gender Studies.

→ NONPROFIT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

similar goals in Mexico. A total of 300 kids have received the guidance of trained volunteers in schoolwork, character building and social skills.

To raise money for these projects, Truly Absolute recruited Miss Southern California to model its line of unique merchandise and a local band called Heart & Soul to record an album that sold over $1,500 worth of copies.

Through the work of Truly Absolute’s volunteers, Tjahja and her team saw not only immediate scholastic improvement, but also a sense of empowerment in the children they tutored and mentored.

Tjahja remembers working with a young woman named Sierra who, despite being bullied for her autism, was able to attend Fullerton College on an art scholarship.

“Their confidence level, how they handle themselves and how they’ve matured goes to show the determining factors in what Rebecca’s trying to achieve,” West said.

The Anaheim academic enrichment program now helps more than 20 kids, and the arts program engag-

→ DUO CONTRA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

The band has had several live performances of its original tracks since its formation, including shows at The Prophet Bar and The Liquid Lounge in Deep Ellum, as well as Gator’s Downtown on North Market street, among other venues. Their success as a group earned them an offer from Parthenon Records.

Paul Putman, the band’s booking agent from Parthenon Records, said he first discovered Duo Contra through one of his talent agents. After listening to its demo recordings and attending one of Duo Contra’s performances, he met with Bartke, Jordan and Jordan’s father at a Starbucks, and then eventually with the whole group, to discuss a record deal.

The two parties agreed to a contract and the band signed on.

“Duo Contra has something a lot of artists don’t have,” Putman said. “They have a kind of charismatic innocence, but they’re also very mature. I love that band. Ten or fifteen years from now, if I’m not backstage with them, I’ll be in the front row cheering them on.”

One stipulation of Duo Contra’s contract with the record company was to create an Indiegogo campaign to raise additional funding for the group.

The band created a campaign video and offered various rewards for donations, from keychains to yoga lessons with Bindra. After raising the required 70 percent of the $3,000 budget, Duo Contra was able to move forward with producing the album.

currently employed at UTD and has been balancing school with work for years.

“I’ve worked here for 17 years,” he said. “I like taking classes, but I take them very slowly.

My job doesn’t allow me to take more than one or two at a time.”

Davis will be completing his master’s in arts and technology at the end of the semester. He currently works for UTD as director of technology customer service and information resources.

Davis’ personal collection of old, black-andwhite family photographs that he digitally altered to remove the subjects is a representation of fractured memories.

“Once we start forgetting who the people in the photographs are, we start to fill in the gaps of who they were,” he said.

Through the concept of anamnesis, or a remembrance of the past, Davis was able to find inspiration for his show.

Anamnesis is a term from Plato that describes what’s left behind after someone dies, which are the memories those living have to learn from, Davis said.

Round’s video art presented at Reflex Soul is part of her political commentary in her pursuit for her creative doctorate in humanities.

Her works are political satires meant to be humorous and thought-provoking. One of her pieces named “Simply Pat” is a video and audio loop of quotes from Pat Robertson, the host of the religious lifestyle television show “The 700 Club.” “(Robertson) is very anti-everything, so I wanted to make this very overwhelming,” she said. “You have to listen closely to make sense of it all, but at the same time it doesn’t make very much sense.”

Her other video works are takes on gay issues, which are a big part of her dissertation.

“A lot of what I do is appropriated from the mainstream media, and I turn it back on its head to say, ‘Hey, this is what you say, but I’m gonna give it my own uniquely gay interpretation of it’ and give it back to them,” she said.

Round completed her bachelor’s degree at UTD in arts and performance and her master’s in arts and technology. She currently teaches in the ATEC program.

Moore will finish his Master of Fine Arts in ATEC at the end of the semester. Moore is currently the creative director of the marketing department at UTD. Moore’s work took a while to find its bearings

and become a cohesive unit. His photography, conceptual sculpture and video piece are proof of his diversity and growth.

“I do big ticket items: religious, politics, sex, guns,” he said. “It’s those big issues that I have strong opinions about.”

By the repetition of religious imagery and the dollar bill, Moore comments on the business of the modern church and how money is the metaphorical religion of the United States. There’s also a sculpture piece about Chick-fil-A and its anti-gay rhetoric.

After the new ATEC building opened, Moore was motivated to take a class and continue his education even though he had enough credits to graduate at the time.

“I went back to doing digital work, and that’s where I made my video piece,” he said. “The video piece has the same sense of humor and irony you get out of the sculptural pieces.”

Now that Moore, Round and Davis are about to complete their final degrees after Reflex Soul ends Oct. 24, there’s a level of uncertainty ahead for them.

“I’m about to graduate, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do with myself,” Moore said. “I guess I can just keep making artwork.”

“Women can and must be full citizens of the countries and states in which they live,” Prager said. “Their rights and opportunities should never be restricted simply because they are women.”

When Lee began making the documentary, she couldn’t recall ever seeing a film on the entirety of the women’s movement.

“We don’t have cultural memory of the women’s liberation movement, and that is a significant problem in our country right now,” Lee said.

She believes Aug. 26, the day women won the right to vote and the day of the 1970 march, should become a federal holiday.

“That’s a perfect day to tell young girls and boys what women achieved in our country,” she said. “Because not remembering those women is a real tragedy.”

Lee hopes there will be more films made on women’s liberation and that her documentary will help to dissolve the myth that this was a white-women-only movement.

Rejecting black women from the movement for gender equality erases the accomplishments of women like Pauli Murray, who Lee considers her hero.

Murray was a black woman who stood side by side with Friedan and whose work played a big part in racial and gender equality.

“She was an unsung hero in that we don’t know her name, and we should know her name,” Lee said.

What feminists want, Lee said, is to witness women getting into politics and leading 50 percent with men, and for women to know they can take the path they want and be treated fairly without sexism.

That’s why Lee is passing along these stories of the women’s liberation movement to younger generations, including her 9-year-old daughter.

“She won’t have to whisper ‘feminism,’ because she’ll know it,” Lee said. “It will be engraved in her. It will be in her consciousness.”

es 10 talented students. In addition, Truly Absolute is currently opening branches in Buena Park and Hawaiian Gardens.

West said people who do great things aren’t just motivated by external sources.

“It’s an internal thing,” West said. “She’s constantly seeking to challenge herself and prove things to herself, not to others. Most of her drive comes from within.”

At only 17 years old, Tjahja has been successful in balancing her campaign to help improve the education of underprivileged children and her own academic career. A McDermott Scholar and recently appointed student senator, Tjahja prioritizes school above all else but doesn’t forget to have fun along the way.

Operating in the adult business world hasn’t stopped Tjahja from having normal teenage experiences such as going to concerts. This is what makes her approachable and able to empathize with the children who live in disadvantaged conditions, West said.

“I’m the type of person who never settles,” Tjahja said. “I see their struggle and see how I can help them and constantly want to do more for them.”

“The past few albums we produced together we mixed and produced ourselves,” Bartke said. “It takes a lot of trust to be able to hand your art to someone else.”

Duo Contra’s upcoming album, “An Ode to the Sun,” is made up of five original tracks that all deal with the star in some way, Jordan stated that Duo Contra will most likely ride its contract out with Parthenon Records for this album, tour on the weekends and keep producing new music to see what comes next. “An Ode to the Sun” will be released on Oct. 11. “‘An Ode to the Sun’ was basically our way of having a self-titled album without having a self-titled album,” Jordan said. “There’s a big motif dealing with the sun in all the tracks and there’s always a reference to the sun.”

The album is the group’s first themed collection of work.

“We have a connection to the sun, it’s the creator of life in every way,” Bindra said. “When stars explode, those enriched guts are what causes life.

That’s our nature, that’s our origin. So (the album is) literally an ode to the sun.”

Although they all have different majors and academic pursuits, all four members of Duo Contra are enthusiastic about sticking together for the future after college.

“I don’t like being told what to play or told how to learn something; I love to learn and to express music in my own way,” Bindra said. “That’s what I like about Duo Contra. I wouldn’t imagine doing music with anyone else.”

Mid-Autumn Festival

MEGAN JENKINS | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Students perform a traditional lion dance for the Mid-Autumn Festival hosted by the Vietnamese Student Association on Sept. 25. The event also featured martial arts demonstrations and performances from students. Tet Trung Thu, meaning Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnamese, is also called the Children’s Festival because children are believed to be close to animalist spirits and deities.

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OCT. 6, 2014 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

SPORTS

TRIPLE TAKEDOWN Comets triumph over conference rival LeTourneau in soccer, volleyball

COMING FULL CIRCLE Kanute Drugan

John Antonisse PHOTO SERIES BY YANG XI | MERCURY STAFF

Former, current women’s soccer head coaches face off for first time; team shows off new scoring capability ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Managing Editor

In its first matchup against former head coach John Antonisse, the women’s soccer team beat Letourneau 4-0 Oct. 2.

The game was a showcase of old against new coaching philosophies.

Antonisse, who served as UTD’s women’s soccer coach from 1997 to 2014, had a successful career with the Comets, going 20894-34 overall. Under his leadership, UTD claimed one ASC championship and a conference co-championship in 2002 and 2004, respectively, along with two berths in the NCAA tournament.

After being let go last spring, he was hired as head coach by LeTourneau in June.

Despite the unique situation of playing their old head coach, the Comets tried their best to treat the game like any other.

“It doesn’t matter who it is or what the situation is, you just need to play every game the same,” said senior forward Carli Beckett.

Heading into the game, however, the circumstances facing the team could not be overlooked.

Beckett said the game would be in a different environment, whether they wanted it to be or not.

A week before the event, head coach Kanute Drugan, who was hired in February, said Antonisse’s presence would not play into how he would prepare. “(Antonisse) is not a factor in anything I’m doing,” Drugan said. “As far as that game is concerned, we take every game with the same approach, and that is nameless and faceless. When we played Trinity we didn’t ever use their name in practice; when we played anybody this year we didn’t use their name in practice.”

The contest was one-sided from the start, with Beckett starting off the attack with a goal on an assist from sophomore forward Megan Mugavero late in the 24th minute, Beckett’s 10th of the year. The scoring was relatively slow for the rest of the half, even though the Comets (8-1-1) controlled the ball for the majority of the period with 18 shots.

The second half quickly went south for the YellowJackets (4-5-1), as the Comets scored three times, twice by senior wing Alissa Burch and once

by Mugavero.

Throughout the game, the drastic differences between the two coaching styles were apparent. The Comets’ passing attack was fluid and aggressive, focusing on moving the ball toward the center of the field to set up shots for the forwards.

On the other side, the few offensive possessions LeTourneau had were characterized by keeping the ball away from the other team rather than a focus on striking.

Drugan said he and assistant coach Sterling Mueller have attempted to make the offense much more dynamic and focused on movement, something that didn’t happen last year. He said Antonisse’s style was much more direct and about going to the ball.

This strategic change shows in the number of goals the Comets’ have scored this year, with the team already picking up 32 in only 10 games – just one goal short of last year’s total.

Beckett was happy about how the team performed, especially in the second half.

“We knew we were doing the right things; we just knew it was going to take a little bit for the goals to come,” she said. “There was nothing unhappy to talk about, nothing bad to talk

about. We just kind of knew we were going to have to be patient … we were sitting there talking about how ‘The goals are gonna come.

The goals are gonna come,’ and then boom, we get three more.”

She said after the game Antonisse came up and greeted his former team, complimenting them on how they played.

Antonisse said his history with UTD and the players on the team allowed him to know beforehand about what certain players would do in certain situations. He said he could see how the chemistry and experience between the players had helped them as a team.

Antonisse said the game was no different for him than any other, despite people asking him otherwise.

“I had people say, ‘Did you even sleep last night?’ I slept like a baby,” he said. “It didn’t even faze me. It was definitely just another game, because I’m 100 percent totally committed to Letourneau.”

The Comets played again Oct. 4 against UT Tyler, finishing with a 1-1 draw. Their next game will be at home Oct. 11 against Carroll.

Men’s soccer wins V-ball team strikes, 4-3 against LETU defeats YellowJackets

ARUN PRASATH | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ARUN PRASATH | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Comets kick in one of their four goals against LeTourneau on Oct. 2. UTD won 4-3.

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS Managing Editor

The men’s soccer team (6-2-2) beat LeTourneau (2-7) 4-2 in its conference opener Oct. 2.

The Comets controlled possession for the majority of the game, getting a 2-1 lead in the first half on goals from senior midfielder Travis White and freshman forward Danny Meyer.

The YellowJackets wouldn’t go quietly, however, tying the game in the 65th minute. This set up the stage for junior forward Michael Matthews to win the game for the Comets, scoring two goals late in the contest to put the game away.

Matthew’s two goals, which were his first of the season, came in the 77th minute and 85th minutes.

“It really helps to get this conference win for the whole season,” Matthews said. “We got big roles.

We wanna win this whole year, so win every game at home, win every game on the road, host a tournament, bring the win home.”

Despite the Comets strong offensive play, they still had trouble overcoming LeTourneau’s strong defense.

“When we weren’t able to either maintain posses-

sion or clear it, they were picking up those balls,” said head coach Jason Hirsch. “They were attacking us, and it was working for their counterattacks, picking up second balls, things like that. So they made it real tough for us, I mean, it was very difficult.”

The team had 10 shots on goal but struggled with getting the ball to go in on close shots. Hirsch said this was something he addressed to the team at the half.

He said he told them they had to find a way to get one of those close shots in because the chances to get them were there.

The victory was the Comet’s first at home this season.

“The two (home) games we played before LeTourneau, against Hardin-Simmons and UMHB, they were difficult because they’re the toughest teams in our conference,” Hirsch said. “They typically finish in the top three or four, so that was fair, good competition.”

The Comets followed the victory with a 3-1 loss to UT Tyler Oct. 4. They will play their next game on the road against Ozarks Oct. 11.

-Additional reporting by Billy LeRoy

Two Comets jump up to defend a lobby from LeTourneau while senior middle blocker Taylor Toso looks on. The team went 25-15, 25-9, 23-25 and 25-13 against the YellowJackets on Sep.30.

JOHNATHAN BANKS Staff Writer

After a two-game losing streak, the volleyball team (11-6) beat LeTourneau (6-11) 3-1 on Sept. 30.The Comets had a fast start in the first set, holding off a small comeback from the YellowJackets to end the set with a score of 25-15.

In the second set, the Comets had a strong lead early on, not letting up on either side of the ball. By LeTourneau’s first timeout that set, UTD had already achieved a 16-6 lead. The game ended with a score of 25-9.

A major contributor to the team’s success was junior outside hitter Meredith Crawford, who had 10 kills by the end of the second set.

“I think our offense was a power today,” Crawford said. “We were doing fast transitions and that’s one of the reasons we were able to open so many things up on the offensive side. We could still get a bit better with our ball control and defensive, but our offense was taking care of the ball when they needed to.”

Crawford ended the game with 11 kills, a .391 hit percentage and 15 digs for UTD. The Comets started to struggle in the third set, as

they hit only .091 and gained just 10 kills. LeTourneau came out strong and pulled out a 25-23 win.

The fourth set was a different story, as the Comets answered their lackluster third-period performance with a bold statement in the game’s final set.

Holding the lead the entire set with no sign of letting up, they won 25-13, hitting a .379 average.

“A win is always nice, but there are always things we need to continue to get better at,” said head coach Marci Sanders.

Senior middle blocker Taylour Toso finished the night with 13 kills, 3 assists and 13 digs.

“I think I did a really good job of communicating with my teammates on what was open and talking about defense and scouting reports and attacking which zones and stuff like that,” Toso said.

Other standouts included junior setter Kayla Jordan who had 3 kills, a .429 hitting percentage, 38 assists and 14 digs. She also set 38 of the team’s 50 kills.

Sophomore middle blocker Holyn Handley made 9 kills and 18 digs.

UTD followed its win over LeTourneau with three straight losses to 10th-ranked Elmhurst, Texas Lutheran and UT Tyler. The Comets will play again Oct. 7 at East Texas Baptist.

SPORTS

UTDMERCURY.COM

THE MERCURY | OCT. 6, 2014

13

Growth in athletics should not be feared ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS COMMENTARY

UTD athletics have come a long way from the days of being a doormat for Division III– a change reflected in the university’s commitment to improving athletic facilities on campus.

By the end of the year, UTD will have spent $500,000 on improving the baseball, softball and soccer fields, as well as adding a new conference room to the Activity Center. All of these changes are partly because of the widespread success of the sports teams. Last year alone, the basketball, soccer, volleyball tennis and baseball teams all qualified for postseason play.

While the success of UTD’s teams is nothing new, it’s the mixture of winning and a larger and younger student population than ever before that has created a more exciting environment for fans. Last year, for example, the men’s basketball team brought in the biggest crowd in school history for an athletic event with its first-round, NCAA-tournament win against Chapman.

This event showed the need for better facilities for student athletes, particularly the new conference room,

which will be up by Nov. 1, according to Athletic Director Bill Pettit.

“That was something that we had looked at for several years,” Pettit said. “It’s been in the discussion phase, but then I think the president really saw the need after the basketball tournament last year, and he really stepped forward and came up with the funds to help us get that thing put up.”

While the administration stepping up to help fund the new room may seem like no big deal to the casual observer, it’s a far cry from the borderline apathy the school showed toward athletics in its early years.

When the program began in the late ’70s, there was no recruitment of athletes and almost no student interest. Mary Walters, who was the school’s first athletic director, said growth in the beginning of UTD athletics was much slower and harder to come by.

“Stuff has changed. It’s grown in the sense that it’s become more incorporated in university life,” Walters said. “I think it’s become more accepted amongst not only students, but faculty as well. It was a very interesting sort of separate entities back then.”

Even after the school joined the NCAA in the ’90s, Walters said there were very few faculty members who were willing to work with athletics to get simple things such as exemptions for students who had to travel for games and tournaments. According to Walters, many

faculty members at the time only saw the school as a purely academic institution and didn’t welcome the growth of athletics. She said they associated sports with corruption and letting in unqualified students just so they could play.

She also said there was very little interest generated by the sports on campus, causing attendance to be very low at games. Most of the fans in the stands were actually personal friends and family members of the athletes.

That is no longer the case, and it shouldn’t be. Sports is one area where the growth of a university can be measured visually. Looking at the rising number of people going to games and the growth in facilities because of it, it’s fair to say sports on campus have become a bigger deal than ever before.

More than that, it’s showing our teams are having a great amount of success. No matter how loyal fans are, attendance doesn’t grow when teams are losing. Lately, losing hasn’t been in the Comets’ track record.

Unfortunately, those old fears of sports being full of students not interesting in studying tend to still linger. While there are undoubtedly some athletes who take advantage of their status and do little to no work, athletes here tend to consistently have high GPA’s, with student athletes at UTD required to maintain at least a 3.25.

People who object to the growth of athletics often

fear UTD will become just another school that cares too much and pays too much for sports. According to a report by the American Association of College Professors, Division II and III schools without football programs saw per-athlete spending double between 2004 and 2012.

That can be scary for a school that is used to only focusing on academics.

Contrary to popular belief, though, there are schools that have been able to maintain a balance between academic and athletic success. Institutions such as Duke, Notre Dame and Stanford, who Pettit said he aims to be like, all hold their athletes to high standards on and off the fields and courts. There’s no reason UTD can’t be the Stanford of Division III. As more students enroll, sports will be necessary to foster a sense of growth. There’s nothing quite like being in a room full of people wearing the same colored shirt, screaming at the top of their lungs for the home team. Whether or not the school ever moves to Divison I or forms a football team, sports will continue to be important for UTD. That inevitably means money will have to be spent to support the ever-growing program. As long as the balance between academics and athletics is kept intact, there is a monetary obligation that should be welcomed, not feared.

NUMBERS ON THE BOARD *

*SOURCE: fivethirtyeight.com

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Honors college set to become official DALIA FAHEID Staff Writer

The Honors College is posed to become an official honors college, should it pass the Board of Regents’ review in November.

The Honors College is an umbrella organization that has eight programs. Four of the programs are fouryear cohort experiences that incoming freshmen can apply for: the Collegium V honors program, Eugene McDermott Scholars, National Merit Scholars and Terry Scholars.

The Collegium V honors program is the largest and oldest section of the Honors College, established in 1997. Initially, it was very small with only 60 students.

Over the next couple of years, it grew as the other scholars programs were added. However, there wasn’t a full honors program until 2005.

Associate provost and political science professor Edward Harpham came to UTD in 1981 and became director of Collegium V in 1998. Harpham will become the dean of the Honors College if it is approved.

As of this year, 250 freshmen were admitted to Collegium V, and there are nearly 700 students in the

program. The full Honors College is more than double this amount.

“We are one of the high-end programs in the state.

There is just no doubt,” Harpham said. “Moving to an Honors College shows that we have reached a maturity and a recognition that we offer a wide set of experiences to people in a program.”

The minimum SAT score to be admitted into the honors program is a 1350, and the average score for those admitted is a 1440. A student also needs high class rank and three letters of recommendation. To stay in the program, a student must maintain above a 3.5 GPA and write a senior thesis.

The Honors College provides opportunities open to all students, such as Archer Program that allows students to intern and study in Washington D.C., and The Thomsen Fund, which provides two free tickets a month to students for events such as symphonies, operas and ballets.

“There is a lot more of an emphasis on studying but also having friends and having a social life,” said Kathleen Alva, a literary studies junior in the honors program. “To have that access to the arts which nobody gets to have is key, especially as an arts and humanities major.”

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→ ALAMEEL

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Before deciding to run for senator, he worked as a dentist — an achievement that he credits to the opportunities he had as an immigrant and through his service in the Army.

He said that part of his reason for deciding to run for office was his desire to provide the same opportunities to Texas youth.

“You know the saying, ‘It’s all good men to come to the aid of their country,’” he said. “Now is such the time.”

He and his family began working in gas stations and working in the field. He credited the army, however, for changing his life — making it so he could afford an education. He said now, however, opportunities for people to rise out of their socioeconomic class are limited.

“The American Dream is out of reach for most American families,” he said.

Alameel highlighted the high cost of higher education and the insurmountable rise in student loans as some of his key issues.

“It’s the biggest scam in history,” he said. “There’s now $3.3 trillion in student loan debt.”

He said education is how the best and brightest can rise to the top and how we can begin to rebuild the economy.

→ DISORDERS

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Temkin said positive physical change could be made by eating healthier meals and by increasing exercise. Even the most wellintended eating behaviors can lead to eating disorders when carried to the extreme, she said.

“Dieting can be a normal thing, but 35 percent of dieters progress to pathological dieting and 20-25 percent progress to full-blown eating disorders,” she said. “The intention is not to develop an eating disorder, but oftentimes it can develop inadvertently.”

A new term called “orthorexia” describes people who are overly obsessed with eating organic and healthy foods. Seemingly innocuous, these behaviors resemble the unhealthy behaviors of

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If corporations on Wall Street can borrow money on a 0.25 percent interest rate, students should not have to pay 5 to 7 percent interest on their loans, Alameel said.

“We should either demand that they make it the same interest rate as they give these corporations, or they should forgive it because I don’t think our children should come out with loans,” he said. “We owe them free education.”

Alameel said loans are the reason Americans never truly own anything.

“By the time you finishing paying off your house in 30 years, you’ve paid three times as much as it’s worth, and by the time you own it outright, it’s ready to be demolished,” he said. “You buy a car, and by the time you pay it off, (you’re) ready for a new car.”

He said the United States needs to transition to a uniform education system rather than leaving it up to the states. He said he also wants every public school to have the same amount of money to spend per student regardless of where the child lives. “(Education) is a civil right,” Alameel said. “Every country in the world thinks it’s a civil right.”

He blamed Wall Street for the United States’ rising debt and economic troubles.

Alameel said 35 years ago, the United States could compete with any country when it came to manufacturing and production, but now the

United States has outsourced almost all of its manufacturing oversees.

“We need to bring those jobs home by removing the incentive,” he said. “We are paying (corporations) to take them overseas.”

He said the corruption in government doesn’t involve just Republicans but Democrats as well.

Along with taking jobs overseas, Alameel spoke out against the United States’ constant involvement in war. He said the more money that is spent on wars, the less money is available to invest in the country.

Alameel said he believes in choice for families in regard to abortion and marriage equality. He explained that while social justice is important, he also wants his children to have a good, solid education.

“Opportunity without education and good jobs and a career does not amount to anything,” Alameel said.

Political science senior Marisa Durham, president of UTD Democrats, said the purpose of bringing Alameel to campus was to start alerting students about the upcoming elections.

She said UTD has a unique problem in that it sits between Collin County and Dallas County, so trying to get a physical voting booth on campus is difficult.

Durham said that UTD Democrats hopes to have more events on campus to encourage people to vote, including a gubernatorial information session and a possible Election Day watch party on Nov. 4.

people with eating disorders.

Other eating disorders surfacing on campus are binge eating and drunkorexia.

Drunkorexia, though not a clinically defined eating disorder, has become the term used to describe the practice of depriving the body of food in exchange for excess amounts of alcohol. The logic is that weight gain from calories in the alcohol will be balanced by avoiding calories in the form of food.

“It makes sense that people who are vulnerable to these kinds of problems would drink and not eat to lose weight,” Setliff said.

However, drunkorexia does not balance out weight gain but exacerbates it along with causing other complications.

Though eating disorders may begin because of food or weight issues, they usually transcend those problems. “(Eating disorders) can serve as a way for individuals to dis-

tance or distract themselves from overwhelming emotions. It can serve as a way for individuals to feel success or accomplishment.

These behaviors are serving a much more underlying function to these individuals,” Temkin said.

Eating disorders are the mental health illnesses with the highest mortality rate, according to ANAD. The official site of anorexia nervosa and related eating disorders states that about 80 percent of people with eating disorders who seek treatment either recover completely or make significant progress.

However, according to ANAD, only 18 percent of people suffering from eating disorders seek help. Paying attention to symptoms early on and taking advantage of the recovery services available can significantly increase the rate of survival for people with these diseases.