Author: The UTD Mercury
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Credit hour limit extended
Starting this fall, UTD undergraduates will be allowed to take a maximum of 19 credit hours in a long semester without special permission. In previous semesters, students who wished to take more than 18 hours had to obtain permission from the Associate Dean of their school. After reviewing the student’s academic record and intended course…
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Update: Housing’s COVID protocols
UTD’s proactive testing and isolation programs will continue this fall, but on a reduced scale, as the University plans to rely on vaccinations to drive down case count. Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Matt Grief, who oversaw University Housing’s COVID testing and response program last year, said that due to CDC restrictions on international…
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Cafe Review
Opening the doors to La Casita Bakeshop, a gentle aroma of freshly baked delicacies and warm smiles greet visitors as they peruse through the shop. Only open on the weekends, La Casita is run by Marisca Tresco and Alex Henderson in an old plaza located off of Arapaho and Custer. The bakery’s name derives from…
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Rewriting the book on religion
As a Muslim growing up in the United States, UTD alumnus Badees Nouiouat often found himself frustrated at the lack of an authentic representation of his faith in children’s books. At school, the history he was taught was extremely Western-centric, and it was difficult to find literature and media that didn’t vilify Muslim characters. As…
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Student debt mural
ATEC senior Erin Bray kneels on the Texas Instruments Plaza pavement, etching a chalk outline of America onto the concrete while grabbing stacks of Maruchan ramen to assemble. They stand there for hours talking to passersby about the 250 packages of chicken, shrimp and beef ramen they’ve dumped onto America to represent the country’s $1.7…
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The SCC needs to do better
Due to visible understaffing issues, the UTD Student Counseling Center (SCC) is unequipped to address mental health in a personalized manner that acknowledges individual identities and situations. While stress has been a prevailing problem on many college campuses for years, the pandemic has made it more important now than ever for students struggling with anxiety…
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Too many esports not enough vods
Following collegiate esports is often much more difficult than it should be due to a lack of video footage and coinciding broadcast times with esports leagues around the world. For nearly all of UTD’s esports, from Overwatch to League of Legends, games are broadcast on a platform, sometimes on UTD esports’ Twitch, and they’re normally…
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Boosting Brain Fitness
UTD’s Center for BrainHealth (CBH) is conducting a study to help individuals optimize their overall brain performance. BBS professor and Chief Director of CBH Sandra Chapman has been studying the brain for more than 20 years. During her time in research, she and her team developed a way for people to train their brains using…