Category: Opinion
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Letter to the Editor
Dear UT Dallas Mercury, Students, Staff and Administration, In a recent issue of The Mercury, an article addressed the recent SG resolution on a permanent cease-fire. A quote in this article shared views of the off-campus organization, “Jewish Voice for Peace,” which does not speak for all American Jewry. This anti-Zionist organization is composed of Jewish…
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The trials and tribulations of Graphics Editor
Despite being The Mercury’s Graphics Editor, I will write my farewell, not draw it. My two years at The Mercury encapsulate a wide range of emotions and my journey has been, as Editor-in-Chief Fatimah Azeem said, “riveting.” My Mercury lore began in August 2022, when I joined the publication as a staff photographer. My responsibilities…
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Preserving student media: accountability’s last stand
Picture this: it’s 11 p.m. on a Friday, and you have 16+ hours of newspaper production on Saturday and Sunday. Suddenly, you receive a late draft and open it. There are no sources, the tone is off, the writer seems to not know what quotations are, and everything will have to be redone before it…
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Mercury mascot takes last distribution tour around campus
I’ve done it all at The Mercury, and I earned the in-house title of “Mercury Mascot” not just by being the office goblin, but because I’m one of the loudest and proudest members of both this newspaper and our Comet community. This is my story and my farewell. “The only reason I read Mercury is…
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Empathy is not a weakness: a letter from the Editor-in-Chief
“I’ve been waiting for someone to call me. No one has even tried.” These were the words Katheryn Montgomery, the victim of a horrific case of animal abuse, told me after our hour-long interview for my first major crime story. It became clear to me in that moment why I had persisted for weeks to…
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The protester’s polemic
As Gaza solidarity encampments pop up across the U.S., UTD’s own are among those protesting the involvement of their academic institution in what the International Court of Justice has called a “plausible genocide.” As Gov. Greg Abbott pushes for Texas to respond violently to campus protests while suppressing student activism through executive orders, it is…
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Vote for the future: vote green
College often feels like extortion — between skyrocketing tuition prices, fees and housing costs, choosing to increase how much you pay may sound insulting. But the small financial commitment of the “Green Fee” is a charge you should support, as it will make campus more sustainable, give power to student voices by giving them the…
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Entitled students: No one owes you a degree
Imagine this: you’re in a core class, past the withdrawal deadline, and suddenly a few choice classmates start to complain about the level of work required to pass. Exams are weighted too high, the projects are too long and we shouldn’t have to take this class to graduate. Entitled students: why do you feel like…
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‘Heartstopper’ makes minorities tokens
To justify queerness to heterosexual audiences, queer media loses its nuance and limits exploration of other topics besides sexuality. This stems from new queer media treating queerness as a political concept rather than what it actually is: human expression. On March 20, Netflix announced several new titles coming to the platform in 2024, including a…
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Flooding in UV: UTD needs to do better
Any resident of UV knows that after a rainstorm, it’s best to take the long way around and avoid the sidewalks. Whenever there is even a small amount of rainfall, housing areas become impassable quagmires full of water and mud — but does it have to be that way? University Village’s foundational issues with the…