Author: The UTD Mercury
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Transgender bathroom debate comes to campus
SG installs neutral bathroom signage, members of UTD LGBT community respond to national policies Student Government joined with a committee on campus to construct an initiative to update restroom signage across campus to be more inclusive of transgender needs. The UTD LGBTQ Education, Advocacy and Programming Committee helped SG with the signage updates, which are…
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International students struggle for work permit
Foreign grads at UTD unable to take jobs in fields of study Strict caps on the number of H-1B visas distributed each year by the United States Citizen and Immigration Services means that only around of 36.5 percent of all applicants will be able to attain permanent jobs in the United States after graduation. For…
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Money talks
Service teaches money management, works to erase debt stigma A financial success program has made progress in bringing financial literacy to campus, but social stigma and a lack of awareness continue to cause money management issues among students. Comet Cents began as a way to meet the requirements dictated by Texas’ House Bill 399, which…
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Gorilla’s death should bring focus back to endangered species
Protecting western lowland gorillas in wild best way to honor Harambe’s memory, come to terms with controversial shooting When Harambe, a western lowland gorilla, was shot about a week ago at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens to save a toddler who’d fallen into his moat, I immediately joined the side of the debate that…
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Bathroom use debate ignores basic rights
Transgender people wrongly portrayed as dangerous in national discussion about using bathrooms corresponding to gender identity The reason many people are so frightened about allowing individuals to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity rather than that listed on their birth certificates is, for the most part, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of transgender people.…
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Sophomore makes studying abroad easier
International student starts YouTube channel to offer information, tips for individuals looking to pursue college in United States He walks around campus filming himself with his phone. He’s not crazy, he’s a vlogger with thousands of fans. Harsh Gosar, a computer science sophomore, creates YouTube videos to talk about school in America and give advice…
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Out of Uniform
Student veterans adjust to civilian life by finding community, inform classroom discussion with experiences It was only within the first two weeks of Richard Bailey’s deployment to Iraq that his life was put seriously in danger. He was coming back from the on-base gym with a few of his buddies. All of a sudden, something…
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Between the Lines: The Washington Redskins and the art of misplaced justice
In the grand scheme of things, professional sports are pretty worthless. People put balls through a hoop or run up and down fields for a certain amount of time until whoever scores the most points is declared the winner, and then everyone goes home. On the surface, athletes just aren’t doing a whole lot of good…
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Between the Lines: Have race issues gotten better or worse under Obama?
As the year rounds out and the nation gets closer and closer to November, the idea of living in a country where Barack Obama is not president is becoming more of a reality. For a large portion of young people, his rise to the highest office in the nation in 2008 coincided with their journeys into…
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Between the Lines: Superhero movies and the death of escapism
Editor’s note: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for several movies that have come out this year. Movies are a place where we go to forget our problems. When the lights go down and the projector illuminates the silver screen, you can’t help but feel at ease. Most films do a good job at giving us a…