Category: Opinion
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Decisive Indecision
Why staying undeclared major has hidden benefits Calling adventurers — undeclare your majors! What’s more daring than explaining to extended family at Thanksgiving that you aren’t actively working towards a degree? Or anything more terrifying than not knowing when you’ll graduate? Being undeclared is a signal that you are planning to gain something from your…
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choose your adventure
How choice-based video games help with real-life decision making In life, we’re all faced with an almost overwhelming amount of choices. As technology — and, with it, game development — has advanced, we’ve been given yet another outlet to exercise our decision-making: choice-based games. With the number of choice-based games increasing in recent years —…
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Arrive at your own conclusions
Say you want to purchase a car. You will likely take time to assure that the purchase will be worthwhile by gathering information about the car and the manufacturing company: reading customer reviews, researching the company, and understanding how the car you might purchase is different from other cars on the market. Voting is not…
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‘Alexa, why are you here?’
On April 15, The Mercury reported that UT Dallas is planning to install Amazon Echo Dots in Residence Hall South this summer, with the long-term aim of installing Echo Dots in every residence hall. The university outlaid money for the Echos without consulting the students that actually live in the residence halls, and it’s still…
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Government transparency, by request
Sometimes, with an institution as big as a university, it can be difficult to see mistakes if you’re just another cog in the machine. After all, bureaucracies are made of humans, and humans make mistakes. I firmly believe that it’s invaluable to have someone checking your work — ultimately, it makes you better at your…
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Ethics needed in JSOM curriculum
It’s hard to imagine, but banking in America was once a relatively boring profession. In the wake of the Great Depression, when 9,000 banks failed, strict government regulation and a more restrained financial culture transformed finance into a sober workaday profession. Financiers made safe, moderate investments and took home good salaries. For decades, the financial…
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Letter to the Editor: Dining Services values community voices
A series of articles has been published by The Mercury this year about the university’s food service contractor, Chartwells. We value this input, and we have consistently encouraged dialogue with students and continue to work diligently to improve the dining experience for everyone on campus. We may not always get it exactly right when conducting…
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Finding middle ground
This past Friday, I read the March 11 opinion article published in The Mercury titled “Letter to the Editor: How to Help ATEC Grads Improve Job Prospects,” which proposed that ATEC students should be required to take on a STEM minor in order to increase the chance of getting a job after graduation and improve…
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The campus campaign
When running any sort of campaign, be it political, charitable or even social, canvassing is the most effective way to spread your message. Broadly speaking, canvassing refers to direct outreach to potential supporters of a cause. In political campaigns, canvassing usually entails block walking — knocking on the door of every house on the block…
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‘Pro-life:’ a misnomer
Ever since the most recent Comets for the Preborn demonstration this last Tuesday, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about exactly what it means to be “pro-life.” As someone who’s protested at both of CftP’s demonstrations, I’ve had the chance to hear the main concerns of those who consider themselves to be pro-life, and it…