the mercury women's issue

facebook.com/theutdmercury | @utdmercuryTHE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COMMarch 9, 2015

THE WOMEN'S ISSUE

...and the men's issue?Editor's Note

BREAKING GROUND

MARCH MADNESS

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

WONDER WOMEN

SEX &SALARY

ON THE FRONTLINES

A history of the Women's Center, UTD's pioneers

Women's basketball squeezes by UT Tyler, advances to third round of NCAA tourney

From Oscars to prime-time, what's changed for women on TV ?

Student leaders share advice for up-and-comers

A breakdown of wages among men and women at Texas universities

PG 4

PG 12

PG 10

PG 9 PG 8

In recognition of Women’s History Month, The Mer-cury set out to celebrate the best way its staff knows how: by telling stories. Throughout the issue, readers will find narratives highlighting the trials and triumphs of womanhood, especially the women on our campus.

As with many annual observances, there’s a certain, anticipated objection: Why isn’t there an equally recog-nized Men’s History Month?

It's a matter of representation and perspective. Simi-lar to Black History Month, I think March's spotlight on women is meant to expunge the systemic erasure that women experience in their personal lives, the media and society at large.

As a man, I cannot speak on the experiences of wom-en, but as a gay person of color, I can appreciate the importance of representation and understand how un-derrepresentation can hurt groups of people.

Even in 2015, we are still unaccustomed to seeing or hearing our experiences being told truthfully by people

who are like us. In books, on television and in the news, there is a

clear focus on the man's experience, and men often-times control the narratives of women's lives. That's the way things have been for a very long time. In a bit of un-intentional irony, even this very issue was made under the direction of two male editors, but rather than writ-ing the stories ourselves, we reached out to the students, veterans, athletes, artists, administrators and scientists that call UTD home, and let their words guide us.

Throughout history, women have always matched men in their ambition, their achievements and their victories. The stories here aren't necessarily special, but they have worth. Equal representation isn't about fight-ing for more screen time. It's about recognizing the worth of an indivual's experience. It shouldn't take an annual observance to acknowledge that.

- Miguel Perez, Editor-in-Chief

HUMZA KHAN | MERCURY STAFF

Veterans on campus share experiences of women in combat

Retired Air Force Col. Kim Olson will visit campus March 26 to speak about women in combat as part of a series of events celebrat-ing Women’s History Month.

Olson, who fought in Iraq and Afghani-stan and retired after 25 years of service in 2014, authored “Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win the Peace.” She is also the CEO of Grace After Fire, a nonprofit that provides assistance to female veterans.

She said her talk will focus on women as warriors in all professions and about how the workforce and economy have changed.

Since 1994, when Congress raised the ban on women on board combat vessels and air-crafts, more women have gone to the front-lines, she said. They have proven they can be just as effective as men, Olson said. There are critical skills — which women excel in — re-quired to fight wars that have little to do with being physically strong, she said.

“(The military) won the combat portions of Iraq and Afghanistan — I would argue — in the first 30 days,” Olson said. “... We took

over Baghdad in 30 days, and we had to stop for all the gas tanks to catch up with us. We moved so fast across that desert, but what took us so long was in securing the peace. And, those skill sets — securing peace, win-ning hearts and minds, collaborating with the locals, building a democracy — have got nothing to do with how much weight you can carry.”

Between September 2001 and February 2013, 299,548 female service members have been deployed for operations in Iraq and Af-ghanistan, according to “Women in Combat: Issues for Congress,” a Congressional Re-search Service report. That's 40 times more than the 7,484 women who served in Viet-nam of which 83.5 percent were nurses.

A Pentagon estimate in 2011 put women at 14.5 percent of the military workforce in-cluding 69 generals and admirals.

While these numbers are a significant in-crease from what they used to be when Olson joined the Air Force in 1979, she said women still form a minority in the armed forces.

→ SEE VETERANS, PAGE 16

ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEEWeb Editor

2 THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015 NEWS UTDMERCURY.COM

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LEGEND

VEHICULAR INCIDENT

THEFT

DRUGS & ALCOHOL

OTHER

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THE MERCURYUTDMERCURY.COM

Volume XXXVNo. 5

ContributorsJennifer Chi

Hena HafizullahMegan JenkinsHumza Khan

Sejal MaliLina Moon

Cara SantucciRanjit Sreenivas

Shyam Vedantam

Senior StaffNidhi GotgiEmily Grams

Priyanka HardikarLinda NguyenArun PrasathTim Shirley

Parthasarathy S.K.Yang Xi

Editor-in-Chief Miguel Perez

[email protected](972) 883-2294

Managing EditorEsteban Bustillos


Web EditorAnwesha

[email protected]

Photo EditorConnie Cheng

[email protected]

Social Media Manager

Joseph [email protected]

Life & Arts EditorPablo Arauz

[email protected]

Assistant Graphics Editor

Ian [email protected]

Assistant Photo Editor

Andrew [email protected]

Ad Sales RepresentativesNaaema Abedin

Monisha [email protected]

Media AdviserChad Thomas


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Feb. 26

stolen from Phase 8 at 11:06 a.m.

was taken from the Activity Center at 1:42 p.m.

driving while license invalid on North Floyd Road at 4:33 pm.

Feb. 28

possession of drug paraphernalia at Res-idence Hall 3 at 12:19 a.m.

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criminal trespass warning after a ver-bal altercation in the Student Union at 10:05 a.m.

-dence Hall Northwest in reference to a theft at 4:28 p.m.

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Rahul GuptaSupply chain

managagement senior

“What is the most important issue facing women today?”

Do you think women are portrayed fairly in video games?

YesNo, and it’s a huge problem.

“I think one of the issues is that they

should be encouraged to take up STEM

courses such as engi-neering and computer

science.”

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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 pub-lished on March 30. Contact us by March 11, and submit your opinion by March 23.

Tell us what you think about modern women’s rights and answer our poll at www.utdmercury.com.

RESULTS FROM LAST ISSUE“I think it’s the whole wage equality, like

how there are a lot of women who are just as equally skilled and have just the same

qualifications and they don’t get paid the same

like a man does.”

Brieann KeltonCriminology senior

COMET

COMMENTS

The online poll was open from Feb. 23 to March 6 and had 43 participants.

MARCH 9, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COMOPINION 3

No I don’t play video games.

“I think representation within politics. It’s generally

a white, male, Christian demographic and there’s

very little representation of anybody else whether it’s

women, Hispanics, Asians or blacks, and I think that is

a pressing concern.”

Edward VillarealATEC senior

Of course they are.

53% 21% 19% 5% 2%

The March 4 report by the Jus-tice Department on policing in Ferguson, Missouri came with mixed messages about the national dialogue on race in America. While the DOJ decided not to charge Darren Wilson with civil rights vi-olations in the shooting and death of Mike Brown, they found that the department as a whole had violated the rights of African-American resi-dents in the city.

The report details unconstitu-tional policing that deeply impact-ed the city’s residents. It exposes racially discriminatory emails that blatantly enforce stereotypes of black people. Perhaps, one of the most damning details is the fact that officers routinely deployed canines on black residents, even when it was clear that they were unarmed.

While these facts are indeed shocking, there’s a lack of surprise with the idea that these same kinds of incidents take place every day in cities and counties across the country. The DOJ report repre-sents a bigger issue with American

law enforcement and stands as a re-minder that American justice isn’t at all what it should be. It’s all part of a greater debate about power and privilege happening across the country.

In New York City, the case of Eric Garner being choked to death by a group of police officers created similar tensions. The New York Po-lice Department was persistent in saying that officers were just doing their job and that Garner simply shouldn’t have resisted. Although Garner was for a fact illegally sell-ing cigarettes, his actions weren’t worthy of a death sentence. Mean-while, none of the officers involved were indicted and a climate of fear grows as protests give way to more confrontations between people and police.

Over the past several months, waves of demonstrations have oc-curred in reaction to a system that uses underprivileged and low-in-come people as a source of revenue by way of citations and court fees instead of protecting them, as it was reported in the DOJ report on Ferguson. Some have made calls for police reform in response to these events while others have gone so far as to suggest revolution to break away from an incompetent system.

Reacting to the protests, Pat Lynch, spokesperson for the Pa-

trolmen’s Benevolence Association, which is the largest police union in New York City, said, “There is an attitude on our streets that it is acceptable to resist arrest. That at-titude is a direct result of a lack of respect for law enforcement.”

Of course there is an attitude. That attitude is a response to the culture of oppression that has ex-isted for years. Not to mention Lynch’s remarks are a condem-nation of the civil disobedience, which has been a tactic for activ-ists for generations. Lynch’s words overlooks the basic rights of people under an excessive rule of law.

The repercussions of bad polic-ing especially impacts communities here in Texas. Mothers Against Po-lice Brutality, a local activist group reported that there have been over 68 reported deaths of unarmed Af-rican-American and Latino men in Dallas since 2003. Yet, these cases, albeit each one its own individual event with various complexities, are being treated the same in the grander scheme of injustice for the lives of people of color.

It seems like the decisions by po-lice and courts are even encourag-ing a rampant culture of bigotry and victim blaming that is a toxic deterrent to progress. Intolerant hate-groups such as the Klu Klux Klan are even seeing resurgence in

attention and support over the past few months in counter-protest.

This past weekend, just as presi-dent Obama visited Selma, Ala-bama to commemorate the march led by Martin Luther King Jr. across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, “The New York Daily News” re-ported that a billboard ad to visit “War Between The States” historic sites within sight of the bridge. The ad showed thinly veiled support for the ideals of the KKK. This just shows that such groups still hold sway in a supposedly post-racial society.

Still, not everything is black and white. Just like the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, the pub-lic’s responses to these events are varied. To break down these events into two sides, of good and bad – of heroes and villains – is to ignore the greater historical meaning of our current era.

In my view, the real problem isn’t the police, the courts, or even a person of any race or background. The problem is fear sprouted from ignorance. Staying informed and speaking up is one way to fight it. Unless the right steps are made to bring justice to a failing system, the country may be falling into a dark era of conflict that could destroy the fabric of everyone’s unalienable human rights.

Ferguson records show disparity, injusticePABLO ARAUZCOMMENTARY

MIGUEL PEREZ | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

4 MARCH 9, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM WOMEN’S ISSUE

BREAKING BOUNDARIES

“It’s not an overnight process, but it carries a message of urgency.

- Lauren DeCillis, founding director of the Galerstein Women’s Center, on gender equality. ”

1979

2010

FALL 1996

JAN 2003

1973

1975

From the yellowed pages of a 1979 edition of the school newspaper, two young women smile behind era-appropriate teased hair and heavy glasses. They are Susan Smoller and Debra Carlton, the newly elected president and vice president of Student Gov-ernment. It was the second year in a row two women were appointed to the highest offices in the student-

run cabinet.

The Galerstein Women’s Center opens in the Student Union. The center is named in honor of Carolyn Galer-stein, former dean of the School of General Studies.

The Women’s Center, in conjunction with the Student Counseling Center, Multicultural Center and Inter-national Student Services, develop the Safe Zone project to help foster a network and safe space for

LGBTQIA people, as well as allies.

Prominent women’s rights activist and writer Gloria Steinem visits campus for a lecture on how feminism

benefits men.

Maureen Steiner in the field of geological sciences earned the first doctoral degree awarded to a woman

at UTD.

Susan Malhum completed her master’s degree at UTD, securing her place in history as the first female

graduate student.

Emily Tobey wears many hats. She became the Nelle C. Johnston Chair in Communica-tion Disorders in Children in 1995.

Today, she still holds this position in addi-tion to being vice pro-vost and vice president of diversity and com-munity engagement at UTD.

Tobey works in speech pathology, a field that is overwhelmingly fe-male. According to a 2012 study done by the American Speech-Lan-

guage Hearing Associa-tion, 95 percent of speech language patholo-gists are female. Yet, only about one out of every four provosts are female, according to a survey conducted by North Dakota State University.

Rather than being met with resistance from the boys’ club of university administration, Tobey said she feels as though the biggest gender-related challenge she faces as provost has to do with communication strategies.

“Men and women tend to communicate in different ways and that sometimes can be a challenge,” Tobey said. “I don’t mean that in any derogatory sense at all: it’s just reality.”

Being a woman who works in both a STEM field and an administrative field is good be-cause she can make a difference in how the world is viewed, she said.

“I like doing work in the provost office and working in the office of diversity because it allows (me) to find new avenues that make it easier for women to succeed and to find new opportunities that (women) can take advan-tage of,” she said.

- Cara Santucci

TOBEY

CROSS COMMUNICATION

FEATURETTE

For some, March’s warming weather and days indicate the be-ginning of spring. For the Galer-stein Women’s Center and feminists across the world, March means Women’s History Month.

In the late ’70s, Sarah Lawrence College, the Women’s Action Alli-ance and the Smithsonian Institu-tion came together to put on a two-week conference celebrating women’s history. After an overwhelmingly positive response, schools across the United States began to hold similar summits discussing the contribu-tions made by women to history.

Due to the efforts of the National W o m e n ’ s History Proj-ect, an or-g a n i z a t i o n started in the ’80s af-ter noticing the absence

of women in t e x t b o o k s ,

Congress officially declared March Women’s History Month in 1987.

The Galerstein Women’s Center celebrates the month with a series of events designed to shine a spotlight on the triumphs, trials and tribula-tions of women across the globe. In 2010, the center arranged for a visit from Gloria Steinem, a prominent activist during the second-wave fem-inist movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s. This month, the women’s center is hosting lectures, movies and other events to call attention to women’s issues and the importance of feminism on college campuses.

Women did not always have an empowered presence on campus. The first women on UTD’s campus, like Carolyn Galerstein, had to work hard to advocate for representation and support.

“(Galerstein’s) program was the genesis for advocacy and support for women on our campus community with issues around balancing work and family, breaking the glass ceil-

ing, relationship violence, harass-ment, discrimination and campus climate issues,” said Lauren DeCil-lis, the founding director of the cen-ter.

The Galerstein Women’s Center

Carolyn Galerstein first came to UTD in 1975. Shortly after, she was named the Dean of the School of General Studies. During her time on campus, she accumulated national attention for her efforts in both the field of education and in the wom-en’s rights movement. She was the former chairman of the Dallas Com-mission on the Status of Women, an organization started in 1975 that sought to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex.

In the early ’90s, the Association for Professional Women was formed on campus. It was a group of female faculty members who advocated for the equal treatment of women in the workplace. It was due to their pres-ence that the Galerstein Women’s Center — named in honor of the work Galerstein did for the women’s rights movement — was founded.

In the fall of 1996, the center opened its doors to the public for the first time. Thanks to the ef-forts of the Association for Profes-sional Women, a formal proposal for a place that fostered support for women on campus was brought to the university’s attention. The pio-neering group of women was given only a room, a desk and a chair in the Dean of Students suite to start.

“The question has been asked, ‘why not a men’s center?’ I say, ‘build it, and they will come.’ Be clear about… the issues salient for men, but also address the broader issues of gender,” DeCillis said. “Women still disproportionately experience marginalization within society, de-spite advancements in gender equal-ity and legal protections.”

DeCillis has been involved in women’s issues on campus for 18 years. At the time of the center’s founding, the male to female ratio on campus was about 70 to 30, she said.

Now, DeCillis and the center are

still focused on fighting similar is-sues they faced back in the early ’90s. The center still receives reports from women who want to be treat-ed as a professional based on skills, work ethic and character, rather than appearance. They hear from women who want to see everyone — not just other women — working toward established equality among all genders.

“UT Dallas is emerging as an ad-vocate for changing the norms and stereotypes that inhibit women from achieving gender equality,” DeCillis said. “It’s not an overnight process, but it carries a message of urgency.”

Reclaiming the F Word

From March 3-5, the Women’s Center hosted its event, “Reclaiming the F Word.” Students were encour-aged to participate in the center’s “I am a Feminist/I need Feminism be-cause…” photo series.

“By collecting and displaying re-sponses from our diverse campus, we’ll expand the definition of femi-nism and encourage more people to proudly identify their inner femi-nist,” DeCillis said.

Gabriela Sosa, a senior EMAC major, has worked at the center for two years and was a participant in the “Reclaiming the F Word” event.

“Something that affects a lot of women on campus is what is con-sent and what isn’t,” Sosa said. “Be-ing coerced into yes is not consent. “(UTD) never talked (to us) about safe sex, violence in relationship or abuse in relationships or what con-sent is.”

Sosa, along with other students of all genders who participated in the event, are continuing the work that people like Galerstein and DeCillis began.

“The biggest thing for me is hav-ing a discourse and a dialogue about what we’re doing to foster inclusiv-ity and safe spaces for this diverse population,” Sosa said. “Having a diverse population doesn’t necessar-ily lend itself to everybody feeling like they’re in a space where they’re equal.”

CARA SANTUCCIMercury Staff

GALERSTEIN

PAGE DESIGN BY MIGUEL PEREZ | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

5THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015 NEWSUTDMERCURY.COM

Student visualizes life-saving device

Mechanical engineering senior designs appliance that warns parents, detects deadly temperatures in cars

A device developed by a UTD student may help prevent the death of children left unat-tended in hot cars.

Every year, children die from heatstroke because they’re left in cars. According to the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University, there have been 636 documented cases of deaths of children in vehicles since 1998. Cars tend to reach life-threatening temperatures of 104 degrees or higher very rap-idly, even in moderate 70 degree weather, leading to an average of 37 child deaths each year.

Nancy Dominguez, a mechanical engineering senior, came up with the idea for a mechanism in the summer of 2014 during her internship at the AT&T Foundry, an innova-tive center in Plano dedicated to creating new products and services.

As part of the internship, each student was assigned indi-vidual and group projects to take part in.

“They encouraged the interns to kind of find a project to work on — something we were passionate about,” Dominguez said.

The technology — which looks like a small silver box — has different motion, infrared and temperature sensors that can recognize whether or not someone is in the vehicle.

If the sensors notice movement inside the car or if the tempera-ture gets too hot or cold, it sends out text alerts to the owner.

“It has different sensors to see if there’s someone inside the car, and if it starts reaching uncomfortable temperatures, then that’s when it starts con-tacting the caregivers,” she said. “If for some reason they can’t get to the car in time, it’ll reach out to emergency services.”

Dominguez came up with the idea last summer during the course of her internship.

I was at home talking, kind of brainstorming with my mom…and she said…why don’t you make something that could save the kids that are stuck in cars,” Dominguez said.

It was instantly an idea she became passionate about.

“Nancy came to the rest of the team with an idea or tech-nology to help solve the prob-lem of kids getting locked in cars in the summer,” said Mike Albrecht, an innovation coach at the Foundry.

Dominguez said her classes definitely helped prepare her for her internship, but as a mechan-ical engineering major, a lot of the work with the gadget had to do with electrical engineering.

Dominguez received a lot of support from her co-workers and supervisors, who helped her research different technolo-gies that could be used in the prototype.

“I was able to put all of that together so that this prototype

could essentially be effective,” she said.

Dominguez said the intern-ship helped her get a feel of what it was like to be a part of a professional team and work with people of different techni-cal backgrounds.

“Nancy came up with the idea and AT&T provided her with resources, both equipment and technology,” Albrecht said. “We helped mentor her on how to take her idea and turn it into a prototype.”

Dominguez said she has always been interested in help-ing others through her career.

“My life goals that I want to accomplish is to be able to help people, the environment or animals.” Dominguez said. “I had the idea, but I had to ask myself, ‘How can I make this a reality?’”

The device will take six to nine months to complete. Dominguez is no longer work-ing on the project directly but she goes down to the Foundry and gets updates on the prog-ress of the gadget from time to time. The device has formally been adapted as an AT&T proj-ect and an AT&T team is work-ing on it.

AT&T hopes to develop the device into something they can introduce into the market for consumers to buy.

“Now that Nancy has left her internship, we’re continuing to develop the project as one of our passion projects,” Albrecht said.

Student government spring elec-tion results will be announced at 6 p.m. on March 11. after online voting takes place from March 9 to 11. Grant Branam, an arts and tech-nology freshman and Caitlynn Fortner, an international political economy junior, are running for vice president and president, respectively. Fortner said she would like to hold more hunger-awareness events on campus.

invited Jenna Temkin from the

Student Counseling Center to speak about “The Body Project,” a peer-led program brought to UTD for women to talk with each other about body image and work to change their perceptions.

Committee chair Akshitha Padigela said the committee is working on a proposal to put printers in each of the residence halls.

announced the new policy requiring professors to provide blue books for all exams.

Tim Sullivan announced that the second debate series on concealed carry on campus will be held on March 11. Recently, the Texas Senate

introduced a bill allowing the con-cealed carrying of handguns on col-lege campuses across the state. Along with UTD, UT El Paso and UT Rio

further funds to accommodate campus carry if the bill passes. The institutions together requested about $630,000 for security measures.

Katie Truesdale mentioned the 3rd annual Earth Week coming up in April. Student organizations includ-ing Student Government and outside community agencies are participating in the Earth Fair on April 22 to pro-mote the “be green” motto. The next SG meeting is March 24 at 5:15 p.m. in the Galaxy Rooms.

-Priyanka Hardikar

Women still lag in science, technology, engineering and math jobs as compared to biology, nurs-ing or teaching which have a balanced gender representation in the workforce.

Only 18.2 percent of degrees in computer science and 19 per-cent of those in engineering and physics are awarded to women, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project.

Boys at the K-12 level are four times more likely to take the advanced placement computer science A exam and two to three times more likely to take an AP physics class, according to the National Science Foundation’s 2014 Science and Engineering indicators.

“The whole divergence between women choosing a STEM field or choosing not to go happens at a really young age because of

mechanical engineering senior

and student adviser to the Society of Women Engineers.

imposes gender roles on children such as what colors to wear, how to dress and what is attractive in each gender.

A young girl grows up to believe that to make an impact, she has to join a nonprofit or be a teacher, while still being attractive, where-as engineering jobs often involve wearing overalls and eye protec-tors and getting their hands dirty — an image girls are conditioned

said. While almost half of the girls in

the eighth grade want to go into a STEM field, by the time they graduate and come to college, very few remain, she said.

This phenomenon is common, especially when comparing the number of elementary school girls who show up to coding camps to the number of high school girls who come to these workshops,

-turer in computer science that

organizes coding camps and work-shops at UTD for school students from elementary through high school around the year.

In a workshop for elementary school kids, there is usually a halfway split between the number of boys and girls, but the number of girls dwindles in the higher grades, he said.

girls are usually afraid of ask-ing questions they think the boys know and will make them look stupid.

Another problem is that girls cannot relate to STEM fields because they don’t see women role models, said Katie Pier, an electrical engineering alumna and an applications engineer at Texas Instruments.

“It’s really important (for me) to encourage girls and women to go into STEM fields and engi-neering, just to make sure that they get to see some role models,” Pier said. “It can be hard if you look up there and not see (some-one) that looks like you.”

Not only is representation in STEM jobs important, it is equally important for girls to see their peers go into these fields,

strong support system around them. Sometimes, they are afraid of venturing into a major where they know they’ll be a minority,

she said. Support from male peers in a

classroom is also crucial for a girl to feel like she can succeed, but sometimes, that can be hard to get, said mechanical engineering senior Nancy Dominguez.

Dominguez helped build a device during her internship at

the AT&T Foundry which could prevent children from dying in hot cars during summers.

While at UTD, there have been times instances when men in her class have come up to her after she did well on exams assuming she


JENNIFER CHI | MERCURY STAFF

From Left: Irma Rangel ninth-grade students Abgel Testaye, Kathy Villa, Magan Stewart and Genesis Gutierrez work on the musical instrument they designed during Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.

Female representation lacking in STEM fieldsStudents, faculty explain need for participation from girls in computer science, engineering industries, present role models during event

SEJAL MALIMercury Staff

NOE CUMPLIDO | COURTESY

Dominguez displays her device during an interivew with KTXT Telemundo 39. Work on the project will take six to nine months to complete before it will be ready to be made available on the market.

SG REPORT

→ SEE STEM, PAGE 6


was awarded more points because she was a girl, Dominguez said.

She said the insunation was that since they had all studied together and just the same amount, she and the other girls who scored more than the men couldn’t possibly have done better otherwise, she said. That attitude upset Dominguez.

“I felt that wasn’t right,” she said. “I thought I did all of my best work, and I think that profes-sors just grade according to your work and not the name they see on top of the page.”

The situation is not too different in the work-place either, despite positive efforts by companies to make STEM jobs appealing to women.

Women make up 47 to 49 percent of the entire workforce in the United States, but when it comes to STEM jobs, they comprise only 24 percent of the working population, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey of 2009.

Texas Instruments runs the TI Women’s Initiative

that acts as women’s support group, Pier said. Dominguez said she encountered two kinds of

people at her internship: older men that valued her opinions and older men who were indifferent to her input but were more receptive to her male colleagues.

However, what is perhaps even more prevalent is that women can get very competitive with each other preventing them from having a good support group, she said.

Helping break the stereotype

Every year, since 2009, the Galerstein Women’s Center hosts “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” when ninth grade girls from Irma Lerma Rangel Leadership School, a girl-only magnet school in Dallas ISD that ranks tenth in Texas, to come and interact with women leaders in engineer-ing and work on activities that help inform them about the field.

The event helps these girls understand what engineering is all about, said business administra-tion sophomore Maribel Velazquez, an alumna

from Irma Rangel herself and a student worker at the Women’s Center.

“It helped me realize whether or not I wanted to go into engineering and whether or not it was something I was interested in,” she said.

Studying with girls helped Velazquez focus on her career and her goals without the distraction of boys or the pressure of stereotypes that her friends from other schools faced, she said.

Luisa Ameola, a ninth grader from the school who attended Girl Day this year, echoed Velazquez’s thoughts. While Ameola is certain she wants to be journalism major, she said studying at Irma Rangel helps her to think her dreams are all reachable.

“(Studying with all girls) makes a difference because I don’t have to impress anybody,” she said. “I’m doing this for me.”

Since fall last year, Veerasamy has helped orga-nize weekly coding workshops that are just for middle school girls. This semester, 10 such work-shops have been conducted with 25 students at almost each one.

Usually when the instructor is also a female undergraduate or graduate student from UTD, the

attendees are more comfortable asking questions and enjoy the classes more, Veerasamy said.

With time, Veerasamy said hopes that the ele-mentary school and middle school girls attending these workshops will retain their interest in com-puter science and consider a STEM major.

UTD students are also conducting workshops in people’s homes so that small groups of girls can learn coding along with their friends, so they feel that they fit in with their peers and end up learning more in the process, he said.

Parents, teachers and peers all play an important role projecting the belief in a girl that she can be good at a STEM subject, he said.

Before her internship Dominguez said she had always thought she would have to wait before she got a job and had money to be able to make an impact on the environment and do what she wanted to do, she said.

Yet, she said her internship showed her that small steps can take you to your dream, and engi-neering can be fun and gratifying at the same time, even if that means sitting in a class of 60 with only nine other girls.

→ STEMCONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

Frisco Police arrested and charged 63-year-old Robert Moses with the murder of his ex-wife Anna Moses, a UTD employee, on Feb. 26.

Moses, who has been charged with first-degree murder, has been transported to the Frisco Police Detention Center, a Frisco Police Press release stat-ed. His bond has been set at $1 million.

On Jan. 14, Frisco Police responded to a wel-fare check from UTD employees who worked with Anna, and found the 43-year old single mother dead in her garage.

Investigators recovered .22 shell casings from her garage and the medical examiner found several .22 caliber bullets in her body during the autopsy.

The case was classified as a homicide and an iso-lated incident, said Frisco Public Information Of-ficer Chad LaPrelle.

Anna’s light blue 2009 Hyundai was missing and investigators believed it was taken away after her murder, according to the arrest affidavit filed by Frisco Police.

The police interrogated Moses on his where-abouts at the time the murder was thought to have happened, the affidavit stated. Moses told the po-

lice he had stayed at home to work on Jan. 13.Moses gave the police consent to search his resi-

dence and analyze guns and magazines from his house that matched the caliber of the weapon used to murder Anna, according to the affidavit.

When Anna’s family came to UTD to collect her belongings from her office, where she worked as assistant director of strategic planning and analy-sis, they called UTD Police to open a locked draw-er. UTD Police found a letter in Russian that they turned in to Frisco Police who in turn sent it to the FBI for translation.

The letter listed the questions Anna had for her divorce attorney, the affidavit stated. It also in-cluded a portion that indicated Moses’ intention to kill himself. Anna also wrote that she had heard Moses say he would leave a letter with their son that would blame Anna for his suicide, the affi-davit said.

During further interrogations, the police con-tacted Moses’ office and found that he had not produced any clients since November 2014 and had stopped attending sales meetings a week be-fore Anna’s murder.

Surveillance of Moses’ vehicle allowed Frisco

MEET THE CANDIDATE

Caitlynn FortnerCandidate for Student Government president

Man arrested, charged for murder of UTD employee


Caitlynn Fortner is a international political economy junior from Dalton, Georgia. She chose UTD for its em-phasis on academics and its diversity. Since high school, she’s focused on fighting hunger though agricultural research, and she’d like to have more hunger-awareness events on campus.

She is the vice president of the Sustainability Club, and created a move-out collection program last spring which will be expanded this year. She is also a member of the Running Club having recently finished her first half marathon.

“In order to empower more students, our administration will focus on three overarching goals: network-ing with student organizations, transparency and presence on campus and accountable and approachable atmosphere in senate. In order to empower our fellow student leaders, senators as well as off icers would like to be an outlet for making connections — in other words, organizations should see Student Govern-ment as a resource for support in both policies and networking. To increase involvement in campus policy, our ticket will focus on being present at major school events, including sports competitions and cultural celebrations. Finally, an eff ective team requires a cohesive foundation. Our administration would like to create an open and candid atmosphere in senate by encouraging guest speakers, engaging in one-on-one meetings with each senator and hosting events to bring our team closer together,” Fortner said in a state-ment to The Mercury.

Fortner will be running alongside Grant Branam uncontested. Online voting will take place from March 9 - 11, and results will be announced March 11.

→ SEE MOSES, PAGE 18

7THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015ADVERTISEMENTUTDMERCURY.COM

8 THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015 SALARY & SEX UTDMERCURY.COM

9THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015WOMEN STUDENT LEADERSUTDMERCURY.COM

Wonder Women

DESIGN BY CONNIE CHENG | PHOTO EDITORDESIGN BY CONNIE CHENG | PHOTO EDITOR

Wonder Women

DESIGN BY CONNIE CHENG | PHOTO EDITOR

“You should strive to succeed through all of your ambitions.” - Brooke Knudtson

SG President

“I officially want to ask all the women on campus to step up and lead and to find something that they are passionate about and willing to work on and be dedicated to and lead in those roles.” - Nancy Fairbank

SG vice President

“(If you’ve overcome obstacles, you’re) already there, so (you) shouldn’t think that it’s a disadvantage that (you’re) the only girl.” - Mito Are

WOMEN WHO COMPUTE vice President

“Just use (your) femininity to (your) advantage...If (you) keep (your) femininity, (you) will earn more respect from them.”“if you need help, there are people that can help you out — just don’t be afraid.” - Grace Kaldawi

WOMEN WHO COMPUTE President

“Just to know how to juggle everything; keep a balance…if you don’t learn how to bal-ance then things just fall.” - Marriam Khan

Society of Women Engineers President

“Be persistent when it comes to your success, but also know when its time to move on to bigger and better.” - Sereena John

SUAAB executive chair

“You should be proactive and assertive in certain ways…be courageous and come out of your comfort zone.” - Shiva Sharma

Society of Women Engineers vice President

“Don’t be afraid to try things you’ve never tried before — step out of your comfort zone.” - Miranda Harman

College Panhellenic Council president

“Don’t settle — keep trying until you reach that goal.” - Monica Garza

College Panhellenic Council vice president

PHOTOS & REPORTING BY: JENNIFER CHI | MERCURY STAFF ANDREW GALLEGOS | ASST. PHOTO EDITOR MEGAN JENKINS | MERCURY STAFF RANJIT SREENIVAS | MERCURY STAFF

MARCH 9, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM10 LIFE&ARTS

At seven years old, Michelle Mackey would tag along to her grandmother’s real estate work. She was shy and devoted much of her time in drawing in the open houses while her grandmother attended to clients. Today, she said that those were the formative years of her life as an accomplished artist. The physically empty spaces that sur-rounded her made an impression and influenced the conceptual art she now shows in major galleries on the national level.

Recognized for her art both the art communities in Dallas and New York City, Mackey, who teaches painting foundations on campus, describes herself as teacher, a sister and a daughter. Although at her core, she’s a creator.

“When I think about my iden-tity, artist is the term that captures the most aspects of who I am,” Mackey said

Much of her artwork deals with architectural spaces. Her work pas-sively distorts and melds corporeal places.

One of her most recent exhibi-tions presented a series of paintings inspired by an old gas station in Dallas that used to belong to Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame. Each painting conveys the mate-rial world in a metaphysical light, portraying the haunting dimness of the antiquated building that she said pulls from the history of the Depression era and incorporates an element of hidden criminal secrecy.

Mackey wants to show abstract ness with just enough recogniz-

able imagery for the observer to be able to locate themselves. The imagery reflects interior spaces of sharpened corners and forms con-trasted with radiant bright colors. In one of the paintings, titled “Al-cázar,” the shape of what seems like a doorframe or reflection of light is juxtaposed with a shadowy wall or backdrop.

At her other job in Brooklyn, New York, she’s a scenic painter on the sets of various television productions including “Board-walk Empire,” “The Following” and “The Slap.” She said she en-joys working with like-minded artists there. On any given day, there may be anywhere between one and 15 scenic painters on the set, along with the set designer and art director who has every-thing planned.

“We have to finesse spaces and surfaces in the paint jobs to make whatever scene they’re trying to build,” Mackey said“I love it.”

While the work can be an adven-ture, it can also be tough. She said the demanding environment con-sistently tests her abilities.

“Some days are great and some other days you might be trying to do an on-location job,” she said. “It’s really random as to what they’re going to have you do from day to day.”

Mackey started her tenure at UTD this semester after visual arts professor John Pomara asked her if she could teach the painting foun-dations class a few weeks after her solo exhibition last spring at Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas.

“Her knowledge about the whole history of painting is very deep and

full,” Pomara said. “I thought she would be a perfect person. Not only is she very strong in her career as an artist, but she’s a very gifted teacher expressing ideas to students and giving them the tools to make and create their own work.”

As a painter himself, Pomara said Mackey’s work as an emerging art-ist contributes to conversations of what defines abstract painting.

“It makes you ask questions, and I love art that makes a viewer ask questions of not only, ‘What am I

looking at?’ but what art can pos-sibly be instead of telling me or de-scribing something,” he said. “Ev-ery day, I kind of look at something that reminds me of her work.”

As a lecturer, Mackey said the unpredictability of the job is what inspires her to teach. In the class-room, she said she wants to give students a skill set in basic color mixing, understanding, composi-tion and principles of good design to give them the ability to describe what they’re seeing. The object is to

focus on looking at art with intent and being able to translate that into their own work.

“There’s so much planning and research that goes into creating your class, but that doesn’t neces-sarily provide a script,” she said. “That’s what I like most – the pre-pared surprise of it.”

For Mackey, the insight of her career experience is moved by the discipline of timing and dedica-tion that she puts into her teach-ing as well as learning. For her, be-

ing a fruitful artist isn’t just about knowing when to create, but also when to give herself some room to breathe.

“The hardest part starting out, getting out of grad school – as well as still to this day – is constantly reassessing what you’re doing,” she said. “Whatever is happening in your life, you have to make adjust-ments. You’re making adjustments so you can protect that side of your life to give you that space to create. That’s the main challenge.”

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony was the most male-dominated show since the ’90s. Because of this, many media outlets, actors and actresses used the Oscars as a way to draw attention to diversity in entertainment.

Actress Patricia Arquette received praise on social media after using her acceptance speech for best supporting actress in Boyhood to bring light to women’s issues, especially the issue of wage equality. However, she also faced media criti-cism after fumbling over her comments in the backstage pressroom regarding statements that disconnected people of color and the LGBTQIA spectrum from the issue.

Much like other industries, film and television have tried to increase their gender representation all around, but many films and television shows are still male-dominated.

“The entertainment industry has always been valuable for giving images of what’s possible for everybody, even if they’re fantasy,” said Adrienne McLean, professor of film studies. “They’re still powerful images of what they would be able to do if given the chance. In that sense, they can be progressive even if they are not made by women. They do provide very powerful stereotypes that are hard to break away from.”

McLean and other professors agree that it’s hard to say if women have more of a role in this influential industry even though film and television are shifting toward including more diverse groups — both in gender and race.

“There are certainly more films about different elements of society, different types of women, but overall, again, it’s still sort of shocking how few films there are that are big budget films (starring women) that really are anything oth-er than romances,” McLean said.

Jillian Duquaine-Watson, who teaches classes such as introduction to gender studies and gender, society and poli-tics, said there has been increased representation of women and other gender groups across the board in shows such as “Orange is the New Black” and “The L Word.” However, she said other indicators show there is still progress to be made.

“We are seeing a very narrow representation with regard to diversity,” Watson said. “In some ways it’s still this very hetero-normative, very white, very gender-dichotomous representation that we’re seeing.”

Women such as Shonda Rhimes, creator of “Grey’s

Anatomy,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” and “Scan-dal,” along with Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres have all established reputations as powerful women on television.

In the case of Rhimes, Wissinger said she is a minority in the entertainment industry being an African-American woman. All of her current shows portray a strong female character who is often undone emotionally and in some cases, physically.

Winfrey and Degeneres have both established them-selves as mega industries. Degeneres has spin off shows in-

cluding “Ellen’s Design Challenge” and uses her influence to be a powerhouse in society as well. Winfrey also has built a brand around her name, which includes a network televi-sion channel. However, oftentimes Winfrey and Degeneres are considered the exception rather than the rule.

According to “The Celluloid Ceiling,” a study of wom-en’s behind-the-scenes employment in film sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, women made up 12 percent of all film protagonists, 29 per-cent of all major characters and 30 percent of all characters in total, in 2014.

“When you look at the percentages, it’s incredibly low,” said Tonja Wissinger, a senior lecturer who teaches a course on women in management. “It hasn’t really increased. In 2002, women were 16 percent of protagonists. It fluctuates, but it never goes over 40 percent of all characters.”

Behind the camera, women haven’t fared much better than their on-screen counterparts. According to another study from “The Celluloid Ceiling,” there were 17 women in key behind-the-scenes roles compared to 83 men, in 2014. These numbers were similar to statistics dating back to 1998.

This holds similarly for film and television — where women made up 27 percent of workers behind the scenes and 42 percent of on-screen characters.

Though “The Celluloid Ceiling” focuses on network television shows such as ABC, NBC, CBS and

FOX, Wissinger said even for people who prefer shows on other stations such as HBO, the influence of these shows is still there.

Beyond representation on and off-screen, women also face the challenge of finding their voices when they finally

ARUN PRASATH | MERCURY STAFF

Professor Michelle Mackey lectures in her painting foundations class. She’s inspired by the unpredictability of teaching.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS | COURTESY

PABLO ARAUZLife & Arts Editor

Chinese historyprofessor talksancient rituals

Most people would not consider ancient Chi-nese philosophy to be useful in the modern age but Harvard professor Michael Puett argues that we have much to learn from Confucian rituals in his lecture, “Why Classical Chinese Philosophy Still Matters in the Age of Globalization” which took place on Feb. 26 in the Jonsson Performance Hall.

Puett is a professor of Chinese History and has won multiple awards for teaching and advising.

During his lecture, Puett examined the rituals of ancient China, particularly ceremonies called “shi” which means impersonation of departed people. This ancient ceremony is similar to a role reversal.

In rural areas of China, where families did not have spiritual tablets to worship their ances-tors, the youngest son of a family impersonated a passed father or grandfather and served as the object of worship. They ate and drank with the son as if they were eating and drinking with the dead.

“Shi” has long been regarded as futile and archa-ic by modern China, but Puett argues that people can still learn from this tradition.

“You do the role reversal because it lets you see the active world from a different perspective,” Pu-ett said.

Ming Dong Gu, director of the UTD Confu-cius Institute, said these rituals have greater pur-poses than were previously realized.

“It forces the man who is doing the worship to view things from his son’s and departed ancestor’s perspectives,” Gu said.

These rituals are set apart from reality. Once a person steps into the “shi” ceremony room, they are completely separated from everyday life. This allows people to open their minds and perceive ideas in different, unexpected ways.

“It may force us to rethink some ideas,” Puett said. “It may challenge our assumptions about lots of things, but I argue, challenge them in very ex-citing ways.”

Le Trang, a Ph. D. student in the School of Arts and Humanities believes that Puett’s teachings have real world applications.

“Although people are becoming independent,

Abstract art professor teaches from experience

When female actors are on the car-pet, so many times they’re asked, ‘Who are you wearing?’ instead of the more substantive questions male actors are asked.

— Jillian Duquaine-Watson

HENA HAFIZULLAHMercury Staff

Harvard lecturer gives lecture on old Confucian philosophy

Numbers show that Hollywood still lacks fair representation of women in films

LINDA NGUYENMercury Staff

→ SEE RITUAL, PAGE 11→ SEE ENTERTAINERS, PAGE 11

Painting lecturer Michelle Mackey uses background as career painter in course, works in New York on sets for TV shows

OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT

11 THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015 LIFE&ARTS UTDMERCURY.COM

‘Marigold’ sequel delightfully simple

As the title suggests, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” doesn’t portray anything new or particularly interesting, but the film’s geriatric cast is charming and delightful.

The sequel to “The Best Exotic Mari-gold Hotel” picks up right where the 2011 film left off. While the original isn’t required viewing for the sequel, the stories are a natural progression from those of the first. Watching the sequel as a standalone will be akin to starting a television show after the first season; it will be a satisfactory story, but it won’t feel complete.

This film features several storylines. Sonny (Dev Patel) is now trying to ex-pand his business of renting out hotel rooms in India to British expatriates at the end of their lives with the aid of Ms. Donnelly (Maggie Smith). This might be too much for him to handle, as he is in the process of getting married to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tina Desai). Most of the cast of the original film re-turns, including Evelyn (Judi Dench), Douglas (Bill Nighy), Madge (Celia Imrie), Norman (Ronald Pickup) and

Carol (Diana Hardcastle). They have entered the Jaipur, but are struggling to define their relationships in old age. There are two new additions to the ho-tel, Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Greig), who might decide the fate of Sonny’s hotel business.

This film sometimes feels like an over-60, all-star game, with the script teetering between the different sto-rylines and the loaded ensemble. The inherent likability and charm of the ac-tors really shows here, as they are able to elevate a messy script by Ol Parker. Everyone’s performance, from Dench to Gere, is solid. They understand what type of film they are in and don’t try to overact or just recite the lines. It should be mentioned that Patel holds his own, chewing up the scenery with a hyper-active shtick that doesn’t tread into an-noying territory.

Unfortunately, the script doesn’t live up to the amount of acting talent pres-ent. There are just too many characters and arcs to juggle to get any depth in any of them. The script doesn’t natu-rally connect each of the independent storylines that well, but the actual hotel and wedding events make for exciting exchanges where the characters get to interact.

The conclusion of the film technically wraps everything up logically, but “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”

feels rushed. This also speaks to the pacing of the film, which is largely uneven. This is probably due to the unenviable task of trying to balance all the delightful performances from everyone in the cast.

However, it could be argued that the script, and director John Mad-den, aren’t aiming for some higher understanding of the human con-dition. Rather, Parker and Madden are trying to give underutilized tal-ent a fun, lighthearted vacation and an enjoyable afternoon at the the-ater for audiences. In this manner, they’ve succeeded wholeheartedly.

“The Second Best Exotic Mari-gold Hotel” is simply fun. Every cast member gets their own share of good lines and jokes. Maggie Smith in particular is hitting home-runs in the comedy department with ev-ery scene she populates. Those who weren’t interested with the first film aren’t going to find anything new here to hook them, but those who wanted to revisit this hotel are more than likely to enjoy their stay. Ul-timately, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is overstuffed and cramped, but the film is charming with its very talented cast.

PIN POSSIBLEEvery issue, The Mercury’s craft connoisseurs will scour Pinterest and craft blogs in search of the best and worst DIY projects. Show us your results on social media using #pinpossible. @utdmercury

What better way to spend a few unplanned days off than in a bak-ing and crafting frenzy? Am I the only one?

Regardless, I used the snow days to rearrange some of the photos in my apartment, and there are a lot of them.

For me, one of the best ways to capture memories with people you love is through photographs, and accordingly, there are photos on the walls of my apartment that span years of schooling, memories and adventures. I have a photo from my fi rst ever Baylor football game and one from my last. Th ere is a photo from every single haunted house adventure I went on last year (there were fi ve) and photos that marked nearly every high school and under-graduate milestone.

Unfortunately, with so many photos, the only options are to stick them into a scrapbook or album or display them around my apart-ment. So this Pin-Possible post is a little diff erent because instead of writing about one specifi c craft, I’m aiming to write about several sim-ple ways to display photos.

What you’ll need:- Pictures, lots of pictures- An 8” x 10” picture frame- Spray paint- Wire- Hemp string or Christmas

lights- Mini clothespins - Hot glue

Instructions: Picture heart

1. Arrange photos into nine rows:

Row 1: Four photosRow 2: Six photosRow 3: Seven photosRow 4: Seven photosRow 5: Seven photosRow 6: Five photosRow 7: Four photosRow 8: Th ree photosRow 9: One photo

Photo frame collage

1. Remove the glass and photo backing from the picture frame so you only have the outside frame.

2. Spray paint the frame what-ever color your desire

3. Use the wire to run across the frame like a clothesline

4. Secure the wire with hot glue5. Use the clothes pins to hang

the photos

Photo lines1. Put pins into opposite sides of

the wall, as long as your want your photo line to be

2. Attach a string from one pin to the other.

3. Attach photos to the line us-ing mini clothespins

If all else fails, arranging the pho-tos on the wall in a random place-ment usually yields an aesthetically pleasing display. Add in some ran-dom pieces of art and you can make a simple and fun wall display.

LINDA NGUYENCOMMENTARY

EMILY GRAMS | MERCURY STAFF

What

you’ll need →

IMDB | COURTESY

“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is about a group of British expats living the ends of their lives in an Indian Hotel.

there is a tendency of isolation in people’s lives,” Trang said. “In the traditional Chinese perspec-tive, kinship is good and there is a bond be-tween generations.”

Trang said it is important for us to return to these natural relationships that were prominent in traditional so cieties.

“Th ere is an ethical relationship from the very nature of human beings,” he said.

Puett argues that if these rituals aren’t per-formed on a regular basis, bad energies will arise within a person.

Th ese energies, or emotions, can be solved and relinquished if these rituals are done. However, if these energies are left to fester, the consequences could be dire even after death. He attributes famines and other natural disasters to a collection of these negative energies.

“Ritual works because it breaks you out of these patterns,” Puett said. “It forces a rupture.”

Although, these rituals seem odd in theory, the real world implications are endless. If a per-son continues to perform these rituals, he said they could be more open-minded and sense things in diff erent ways.

Despite the benefi ts, he explains that some may not like ritual because it forces people to be insincere and to not be true to themselves. However, he said, that’s the point. In order for people to live mentally healthy lives, people must step away from reality.

Th e habits that humans fall into such as uncontrolled anger or behaving a certain way become social conventions that they are born or socialized into. He said these patterns should not be defi nitive of a person’s life.

“Th e goal is to transform us as human be-ings,” Puett said.

He said the act of role reversal is a common practice for therapists as well. In psychology and psychodrama, children and parents often switch roles in order to better empathize with each other. Often sparking insight between both groups.

He said this practice also aids people from becoming solely profi t seeking in a capitalist, globalized society because taking a step back and viewing life from a diff erent perspective can be liberating.

“Chinese philosophy is something that all of us should be studying,” Puett said. “It’s some-thing that can truly change your life.”

→ RITUALCONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

get to the top, said Sheryl Skaggs, associate professor of sociology and public policy.

“Just saying they’re there isn’t enough,” Skaggs said. “Are they still being over looked? You do have, and this is the misconception, you have a few women that have really risen to the top and are well-respected, and we tend to use it as representative of all the women in that industry.”

Skaggs, who currently studies the represen-tation of women in top positions across indus-tries, said one thing she has found is that while society is willing to use one woman as repre-sentative of the entire gender, it does not view one man as representative of all men.

Even on the red carpet, actresses face a dif-

ferent set of questions and expectations than their male counterparts.

“When female actors are on the carpet, so many times they’re asked, ‘Who are you wear-ing?’ instead of the more substantive questions male actors are asked,” Duquaine-Watson said.

In an industry that aims to refl ect American culture and society in a diverse way, on-screen and off -screen women still face the challenge of getting their voices and perspectives told on camera.

“It’s easy to say things are better now, and I think they are (if not) we’d probably be at home,” McLean said. “Th ings are diff er-ent. Th ings are better. We’ve made progress, but there’s still not equality… We don’t have equality, so Hollywood isn’t going to portray it either. Hollywood both creates reality and responds to it.”

→ ENTERTAINERSCONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

Film underwhelmingly mixes talented cast with stuffy plot

ARUN PRASATH | MERCURY STAFF

Harvard professor Michael Puett visited campus to give a lecture about ancient Chinese philosophy.

SHYAM VEDANTAMCOMMENTARY

712 MARCH 9, 2015 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM SPORTS

THE CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN IN SPORTS

HUMZA KHAN | MERCURY STAFF

Head coach Polly Thomason pumps up the crowd after the teams’ 67-65 victory over conference rival UT Tyler in the second round of the NCAA tournament on March 8. Before this season, the team had never won an NCAA tournament game. The team won its first two games against Rhodes College and UT Tyler and will play against George Fox University on March 13 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

→ SEE TOURNEY, PAGE 13

→ SEE WOMEN, PAGE 13

The year was 1976 and for the first time, the state of Indiana was holding a girl’s high school basketball championship.

For years, boys had gotten the chance to play in state championships, but girls were required to play in a separate athletic organization that catered only to them.

Amy Carlton was a junior from Greencastle, Ind. when she was a member of one of the first girl’s teams to be recognized at the state level.

“I always say my big claim to fame is I got to play in the first girl’s state basketball tournament (in Indiana),” she said. “It was exciting. We were so excited to be able to do that.”

Carlton, who is now the commissioner of the ASC, said players and coaches didn’t realize at the time how monumental that moment was, but it dawned upon them as they looked back.

Moments like these paved the way for women in athletics today. When Title IX, the ban on sex discrimination at schools that accept federal funds,

passed in 1972, it opened the door for women in sports to get equal opportunity in athletics where men typically got better treatment and recognition for their athletic accomplishments.

Before the act was passed, Carlton said the separa-tion between boys and girls was simply the way it had been for years. Afterward, she was able to see the positive effects of giving female athletes the spotlight.

Those effects were not only felt by Carlton but by the generations of women who came up after her.

Two of those women, volleyball head coach Marci Sanders and women’s basketball head coach Polly Thomason, have both been positively affected by the act. For Thomason in particular, the act had a tremendous affect on her family.

When her mother was growing up, she wasn’t allowed to play sports. Her family was very tradition-al, and they didn’t think women should compete. She said there was a social stigma that prevented women from being accepted as athletes.

“It was really more of the gender roles and stereo-types as far as what was socially accepted for women at the time,” she said.

When Thomason was in graduate school, she

worked on a project that examined different genera-tions of women in her family and their perception of sports. Talking to her mom, she discovered the regrets she had over not getting the chance to par-ticipate.

Because of her regret, her mother encouraged Thomason and her sister to play sports growing up. Still, even when she was young, women athletes were something of pariahs.

“I played with the boys at recess when they were playing football,” she said. “I’m sure I was outcasted and made fun of, but I never really heard it or paid any attention to it if I did. It was just who I was. It was what I wanted to do…I think that would prob-ably be the biggest challenge was just growing up knowing that you’re different. You enjoy playing with the boys. You enjoy playing football at recess instead of hopscotch or whatever it is that the girls did.”

Thomason said times have changed dramati-cally and the last few generations have become accus-tomed to women in sports. She said part of this had to do with the popularity of cross-fit workouts that encourage women to be athletic.

“More people are living an active lifestyle,” she

said. “It’s out there in marketing. It’s out there in the media. That’s the image you see out of a lot of girls and women these days — actively fit and strong — which wasn’t the case.”

Despite the doors opened by Title IX, there have still been obstacles. Sanders, who coaches for the women’s national collegiate team, noted that there are no women coaches on the senior national team staff.

“It’s interesting to notice those things as I get older,” she said.

Part of the challenge comes from men taking jobs in women’s sports. She said that there has never been a woman who has coached a women’s volleyball team to an NCAA Division I championship.

Another difficulty she has observed for women who are coaching is the struggle to balance the demands and desires of family life. She said because the job of a coach is so demanding, some women don’t pursue it as a career because they have other priorities.

“I think more women aren’t interested in those

HOW SWEET IT IS

Women’s basketball team advances to round of sixteen in national tournament after hosting emotional first-round games

LINA MOON | MERCURY STAFF

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOSManaging Editor

For the first time in program history, the women’s basketball team hosted the first round of the NCAA tournament March 7-8. With two victories over Rhodes College and UT Tyler, the Comets advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

The team opened up play in the first round by taking down Rhodes College 63-38 on March 7. After its win, the first national tournament victory in program history, the team had to turn around immediately to play UT Tyler the next day.

Tyler, who won the conference regular season title, lost to the Comets a week earlier in the ASC tour-nament championship game. In front of one of the

largest crowds of the year, it was apparent the Patriots came to Richardson looking for revenge, opening up the game on an 8-0 run.

Defensively, Tyler put pressure on UTD up and down the court, causing the Comets to give up the ball eight times in the first half.

UTD looked sloppy in the opening minutes on offense and couldn’t seem to shake off Tyler’s pressing defense, but it eventually found its groove and was able to take the lead with just over 11 minutes left to go in the half.

Head coach Polly Thomason said coming back from a deficit was something the team had done all year.

“We play through adversity,” she said. “We play through bad things that happen through the course

of the game. Teams are going to go on runs, things are not going to go our way through the course of the basketball game. So, it’s just kind of our philosophy to withstand it.”

One of the main reasons UTD was able to pull through was the effort of senior guard Iemah Wallace-Perry. She picked up a season-high 12 points in the first half, going 5 of 6 from the field includ-ing 6 points from beyond the arc. This helped to counterbalance the lack of scoring from senior guards Madi Hess and Christina Brosnahan, who both had zero points in the first half.

Heading into the half, Tyler led 36-35. After the break, the Comets looked like a brand new team. They came out of the gates swinging, going on a 12-4 run to open up the period.

Defensively, they were able to slow Brittany King, the Patriots’ leading scorer, coming out after the intermission. King, who had 13 points in the first half, was kept away from the basket for well over half of the second period.

On the offensive side, Wallace-Perry continued her output picking up another 10 points to finish with a career high 22 points. She was the highest scorer on either team.

She said she composed herself before the game knowing that it might be her last.

“Every time I get on the court, I just give it my all, play with my heart and just try to play smart,” she said.

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOSManaging Editor

Women face unequal access to jobs, lack of female role models in the field of athletics despite advances in gender equality

13THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015 SPORTSUTDMERCURY.COM

positions as much because they don’t feel like they are going to have the balance to have a family,” she said.

Sanders said this has lead to a lack of women apply-ing for coaching positions, which is something she has dealt with when being a member of hiring committees for new coaches.

“There aren’t always qualified females that are applying for these jobs,” she said. “So, it’s like, ‘Where are are they?’”

According to the NCAA, only 40 percent of all col-lege coaches are female. This disproportion has been prevalent even in the ASC. In women’s basketball, out of the 12 teams in the conference, only six of them

have a woman as a head coach. Thomason said part of the reason for this is because men have started to gravitate toward coaching women because the compe-tition in men’s coaching has become so intense.

This trend has led to Thomason recruiting players who haven’t been coached by a woman in their careers.

“When we recruit girls out of high school, some of them have never been coached by a woman,” she said. “So when we start talking to them, sometimes that’s a question and that’s a thought in their mind; ‘Can I be coached by a woman?’…It’s weird for me at times.”

Seeing these trends hasn’t been necessarily frustrat-ing for Sanders except for when she sees men getting hired over women when they have the same or better qualifications.

“I think my biggest frustration comes from see-ing the opportunities that males have to coach men’s

sports and women’s sports, but we as women don’t have that same luxury to go out and coach a male sport,” she said. “People are going to think it’s silly for us to even sit here and say, ‘It would be nice to see a woman coach a male sport.’”

Thomason said this has not only led to a lack of opportunity for women to coach, but also to a lack of role models for women who want to enter the profession.

She said it can be disheartening to see men who are taking women’s coaching jobs because she wants athletes to have someone to look up to.

“To be honest, I know what (the women athletes) are going through on a daily basis as far as the strug-gles they have in the classroom and off the court,” she said. “There’s a whole emotional and mental side of it that I can relate to because I’ve been there. I was a

female athlete. I was a college athlete.”Even if the barrier between men’s and women’s

sports still exists, Carlton still believes it’s possible for women to one day reach that threshold of women coaching men.

She said she believes it will take a long time to get there, but she already sees examples of women being able to lead men such as Becky Hammon of the San Antonio Spurs. Bridging that gap is one of the last barriers she sees for women in sports.

“Everybody always talks about seeing that first female coach of a men’s basketball team in the Big XII or one of the Big Five,” she said. “We will have made it. I think that time will come. It shouldn’t matter what your gender is or your race or ethnicity. It’s what you know.”

→ WOMENCONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

→ TOURNEYCONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS | MANAGING EDITOR

SOURCE: UTD AHTLETICS

As the game wore on, UTD continued to flex its offensive muscles, leading by as much as 9 points. The Patriots couldn’t be contained forever, however, and Tyler mounted a ferocious comeback.

King’s lack of scoring dissipated as she picked up 10 points in the final minutes. Behind her scoring and the play of sophomore forward Madison Wilson, who had 8 points in the final half, the Patriots tied the game 63 to 63 with 46 seconds left.

On the ensuing possession, senior guard Amber Brown was able to lay it to put the Comets up 65-63. The Patriots gave King the ball on the other end of the floor, but right as she attempted to go up for the

shot, she was called for a charge.Forced to foul, Tyler hand-checked Brown, who

went 1 for 2 from the charity stripe. Leading 66-63 with 13 seconds left, the Comets let King maneuver in the paint to score beneath the basket, putting Tyler within one point with 4 seconds left.

With no timeouts left for either team, the Comets inbounded to Hess, who was fouled with 2 seconds left on the game clock. All eyes were on the senior as she headed to the charity stripe.

“I was thinking ‘Please make your free throws. Knock them down,’” Thomason said.

Hess hit the first shot, but couldn’t sink the sec-ond. With two seconds left, King pulled down the rebound and heaved up a Hail Mary shot, but it fell short of the basket. After one of the hardest fought

games of the year for the team, the Comets had earned a trip to the Sweet Sixteen.

UTD finished the game with just two players who scored in double digits: Wallace-Perry and senior guard Amber Brown, who picked up 20 points. The team made up for the lack of scoring leaders with distribu-tion, finishing the game with seven players with points.

Patriots head coach Kevin Baker said they chal-lenged the Comets to shoot the ball throughout the game, something he said UTD was able to do regard-less of Tyler’s defense.

“One of the things we said going into the game is that we had to make their guards make shots and they did and they did and they did,” he said. “What we wanted to do is make sure if they were going to beat us, they were going to beat us from the perim-

eter and they did that.”The team will play its next game on March 13

against George Fox University — the third-highest ranked team in the nation — in Grand Rapids, Mich. Thomason said George Fox will be a tough opponent for the Comets.

After the game, she held back tears as she described her emotions following the win.

“That was the greatest moment of my coaching career to this date,” she said. “I was just proud of how this team battled and they fought…They never gave up. They got behind early and it’s just the character that they have inside them. I couldn’t be more proud of a team. I love coaching this group. I love being around them and I’m just thankful that I get another week with them and get to be on this floor.”

714 MARCH 9, 2015 | THE MERCURY COMICS&GAMES

by Tim Shirley

by Ian LaMarsh

Meteorologists Are In On It Too

921 Episode #4

Ice Day

by Emily Grams

15 THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015 COMICS&GAMES UTDMERCURY.COM

The Jumpers #3

by Emily Grams

2 Deep 4 U

by Time Shirley


on the frontlines

Lisa McNeme, assistant di-rector of the Veteran Services Center, was the fi rst aircraft com-mander on her base, although there others who followed in her steps later.

Ninety nine percent of posi-tions in the Air Force are open to women, McNeme said, and more women are coming in to fi ll those positions now more than ever. Currently, seven jobs are closed to women in the Air Force, and the DoD is looking into opening them up to women by Spring 2016.

McNeme, who is in the Air Force reserve and a liaison offi cer at the Air Force Academy, has seen the number of new women recruits grow over the years.

When she started in 1995, women had just been allowed to go into combat, and throughout her service she saw women who had joined in the ’80s begin to fi ll out the upper ranks.

“I think the military is one of the few industries in which there is equity,” McNeme said. “It is based on your performance. It is based on your rank, time and grade, and you don’t see that in other industries.”

For Olson, that moment of equality came the day she took command of her squadron, along with the aircrafts, resources and the responsibility that came with the job.

“It was, if you will, an affi rma-tion that indeed women could aspire. We could be successful in this career path that many thought we wouldn’t be able to achieve, and that was a big day,” Olson said.

While no one discourages women from making use of all the opportunities in the military, it is still hard for women to ad-vance the ranks, said Delvora King, assistant director of the Student Union and a Navy vet-eran.

“I do believe that once you get to the offi cer levels — the upper management type of ranks — that (the glass ceiling) is true,” she said. “I do believe that that is pervasive, but to me, that’s typical of our society, in general. Th at’s typical of our institutions, in general. Why

would the military be any diff er-ent than that?”

McNeme and King said they always felt confi dent doing their jobs and chose not to set unrealis-tic standards for themselves.

“I think every environment has its own culture, and the one thing I always appreciated is that everyone is focused on the mis-sion,” McNeme said. “So, (your gender) doesn’t matter. You’re focused on the mission. Are you aware that you are a minority within? Of course, you are aware of it, but that doesn’t hinder your ability to (complete) the mis-sion.”

Still, being a minority in a male-dominant profession meant that women often put a lot of pressure on themselves to keep doing well, Olson said.

“You are a female, and you are naïve to think you are not repre-senting all of the females because if they only know one woman pilot and that one woman pi-lot makes a bad landing ... well, then all women pilots are like that because when you are a mi-nority, then the stats are small,” she said.

Narcely Ruiz, assistant direc-tor of the Galerstein Women’s Center and a former U.S. Air

National Guardsman, said she felt stereotyped while in service, particularly after she was assigned as a fi eld offi cer at her base.

On duty, she had been follow-ing procedures to allow a sailor entry into the base, and the man had commented — in awe — on how she knew to do her job.

“At the time, I remember thinking that was weird,” she said. “I didn’t understand the tone of that, of what he was trying to say. But, later I under-stood: he said that because I was a woman.”

After entering the military, the fi rst few years are made up of a se-ries of training sessions and an ef-fort to survive, Olson said. Once women get to mid-level man-agement positions, they want to make the path easier for those that followed, she said.

“My service doesn’t really mean a lot if it can’t aff ect change once I get into positions of pow-er,” Olson said.

Yet Ruiz said she remembers the scrutiny women in the mili-tary face from their peers if they moved up the ranks.

“I hope it’s not like this any-more, but before — while I was in (the military) — the implica-tion was that if you advanced as

a woman, then you were hav-ing some sort of sexual relation with someone who was at the top, and that wasn’t the case,” Ruiz said. “(Th ese) women, ac-tually, were smart.”

Ruiz, who joined the force in 2000, said she was usually one of two women in a unit of 30. In her six years of service she had been friends with only one other woman. As one of few women, she felt like she was one of the boys, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

She said she remembers hearing her colleagues com-plain about sexual harass-ment or uncomfortable sexu-al advances from supervisors and placing blame on the victim.

“I would never think that maybe someone was harass-ing (her),” Ruiz said. “I would sort of blame the girl because I’m thinking ‘stop fl irting with them, stop getting drunk’ be-cause I was conditioned to that.”

It wasn’t until Ruiz left the military and went back to

school that she realized how much she had been used to groupthink, she said.

Men are protected in the mili-tary, just like in the civilian social structure and in politics, King said. She said, however, there is one big diff erence between those vocations and the military: wom-en working in the defense forces who’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted by their co-workers could still be asked to save their rapist’s life.

“For someone to have the au-dacity to say ‘that still doesn’t put you on an equal footing with us. Th at still doesn’t put you at the same level as we are in a society, as a citizen, but don’t stop. We still want you to do this.’ It’s hypoc-risy and it’s an insult.”

However, all four veterans agreed none of that should take away from the overall experience of the military and the variety of experiences one can learn while serving their country.

None of them would have traded their time in service for anything else, they said.

“I think the military is an ex-cellent career choice for a woman and ... from my viewpoint, it is a great environment for a woman to excel,” McNeme said.

KIM OLSON| COURTESY

Retired Air Force Col. Kim Olson retired in 2014. She authored “Iraq and Afghanistan: Inside the War to Win the Peace,” and she’s CEO of a nonprofit that helps women veterans. Olson will be on campus March 26 to speak for Women’s History Month.

Women vets struggle with systemAt UTD, there are 600 military-affi liated students and the

number is growing, McNeme said. Most veterans require assistance with healthcare services,

ways to support their families fi nancially when the benefi ts are not suffi cient and help with trying to interview for civilian jobs, McNeme said.

Many women use the education benefi ts available to veter-ans and the GI Bill and come back to school, McNeme said,

and she has noticed more women coming back to school than men.

Transitioning from military life to civilian life is always a diffi cult process because, all of a sudden, the structure that comes with military routines and discipline in life is gone,

Assistant Director, Veteran Services CenterService: 1995 – 2004, currently liaison offi cer at the Air Force Academy, Reserve ForcesBranch: U.S. Air Force

YANG XI | STAFF

Lisa McNeme, assistant director for Veteran Services, was a B-52 bomber in the Air Force in Afghanistan before she chose to work in higher education.

B-52 bomber helps vets segue into school

In middle school, a physics teacher taught Lisa McNeme the basics of space exploration and put her on the path that would lead her to the U.S. Air Force.

She joined ROTC at the University of Michigan and received her commis-sion after graduating.

She was activated in 1995, and she began fl ying large aircraft, including a C-21 jet and later a B-52 bomber air-craft.

For McNeme, 9/11 was a turning point that gave a renewed purpose to her life.

“I think Sept. 11 had a huge impact on me because we were in such a train-ing mode and really, it gave purpose to what we were doing,” she said. “I know that for me personally, as a mother, I wanted to defend my territory, my country so that my daughter would not grow up under the threat of that sort of

thing happening again.”McNeme was stationed in Texas and

Louisiana and fl ew combat missions in Afghanistan.

Currently, she is an instructor at the Air Force Academy, where she interacts with young recruits. She enjoyed the experience so much that she decided to come to UTD to work with veterans.

McNeme was part of a generation of women who had just been allowed to go into combat and her peer group was ac-customed to women.

Even then, she could have let her gen-der get in the way of her performance, but she was confi dent she could do her job well.

She didn’t need her job to defi ne her, an idea that women realize with time and maturity, she said.

“Your identity is not what you do but who you are,” McNeme said.

Assistant Director, Galerstein Women’s CenterService: 2000 – 2006Branch: U.S. Air National Guard

YANG XI | STAFF

Narcely Ruiz, assistant director of the Women’s Center, transitioned from an almost all-male environment to an all-women work culture.

One of Narcely Ruiz’s earliest memo-ries was watching her dad play “Taps” on his trumpet at Army funerals.

“I recall — as a little girl — hiding behind the bushes as my dad played “Taps” for military funerals and even though I didn’t understand it at that time, I thought it was the coolest thing that my dad did,” she said.

She followed in her father’s footsteps and in high school joined the JROTC program. When she graduated, howev-er, she found herself unprepared for col-lege. Neither of her parents had received a formal education and she hadn’t done much pre-college preparation. Her only application, to UT Arlington, had been rejected.

Crushed, Ruiz didn’t know what else to do, and told her dad she wanted to join the Marine Corps, but he took her to the Air Force recruiting offi ce instead.

“He just did not want me to be a Marine… I didn’t understand it then, but after my military experience, I un-derstood.”

To her dad, the Marines seemed like a grunt-fi rst job compared to the more academic and technical Navy and Air Force, which he thought would be a better fi t for her, she said.

Ruiz served for six years, with four years of active duty and was stationed at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.

She worked in base law enforcement

and was promoted to fi eld offi cer, a rare circumstance for a junior airman like her-self, she said.

Th ree years before she left the force, she joined Texas Christian College to pursue her undergraduate degree in criminal justice. Th e experience changed her outlook toward life.

She learned to question her beliefs and reason her way through life, Ruiz said.

She joined the Chi Upsilon Sigma Na-tional Latin Sorority at TCC and said she remembers thinking that at 24, she was so much older than them that she would have nothing to learn from them.

“I remember having that arrogance that I knew everything and thinking ‘What could these little girls teach me?’ but they taught me everything I needed to know about womanhood,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz joined the Galerstein Women’s Center in 2007 and transitioned from being surrounded by men in the mili-tary to an offi ce full of women which was a unique experience for her, she said.

Th e support system working here has been much more than what she was used to in the military.

What Ruiz had been most afraid of when leaving the military was losing her connections and the camaraderie she shared with her fellow service members.

Ironically, she forged the very same kind of relationships with her sorority sisters and the women at the Women’s Center at UTD which helped her move back seamlessly into civilian life.

→ FRONTLINESCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

→ SEE STRUGGLES, PAGE 18


Assistant Director, Student UnionService: 1985 - 1989Branch: U.S. Navy

YANG XI | STAFF

Delvora King served in Guantanamo Bay and Hawaii and used her experiences in the Navy as life lessons.

Delvora King grew up in the melting pot of all cultures: New York City.

After graduating from high school, King attended commu-nity college, but didn’t care much for any major. She started work-ing for an insurance company in Manhattan as a claims adjustor, but soon realized there was more out there for her to explore.

“Brooklyn — where I grew up — was nice but there were other things out there in the world that I wanted to experience, and al-though I enjoyed working for the insurance company, I guess I had this adventurous gnawing,” King said. “I thought to myself ‘Do you want to be that person? Do you want to be that New Yorker who has never left because you’re

just so connected or do you want to go out and see what’s going on?’”

When she turned 23, King de-cided to enroll in the military, but she wanted to join either the Air Force or the Navy rather than the Army or Marines which involve a lot more brute force, she said.

Out of boot camp, King’s fi rst assignment was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After 11 months, she trained at San Diego, and then was assigned to Hawaii.

King welcomed the varied ex-periences she had in the Navy.

“I really enjoyed the fact that I got to meet people from diff erent walks of life, diff erent cultures,” she said.

Brooklyn native takes pride in Navy experience

Sorority support taught vet civilian survival

→ SEE KING, PAGE 18

17 THE MERCURY | MARCH 9, 2015 ICYMI: SNOW DAYS UTDMERCURY.COM

Snow daysSnow daysSnow daysSnow daysSnow daysSnow daysSnow daysSNOW, ROUND ONE—The university canceled classes due to the winter weather on Friday, Feb. 27. Students used this time to relieve some stress by having a massive snowball fight at the Plinth.

EVEN MORE SNOW—DFW recieved a second round of snow on Thursday, Mar. 5. With the heavier snowfall, students were able to build life-size snowmen, such as these mod-eled aft er UTD mascot Temoc and Baymax from Disney’s “Big Hero Six.”

DESIGN BY ANDREW GALLEGOS | ASST. PHOTO EDITOR

MEGAN JENKINS | MERCURY STAFF



MEGAN JENKINS | MERCURY STAFF PARTHASARATHY S.K. | MERCURY STAFF

YANG XI | MERCURY STAFF

PARTHASARATHY S.K. | MERCURY STAFF

LEFT & ABOVE: CONNIE CHENG | PHOTO EDITOR

CONNIE CHENG | PHOTO EDITOR

CONNIE CHENG | PHOTO EDITOR


Ruiz said. Olson said transitioning

to a college is hard for both men and women veterans but transitioning to normal civilian life is often much harder for a woman veteran.

The average age of a male veteran in the United States is 61 and that means the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs is geared toward a predominantly older, male group that typically suffers from diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and pros-tate cancer, she said.

These men probably also have a spouse or a partner who can drive them around and have kids that have moved out, she said.

On the other hand. the av-erage age of a female veteran is 48. If the group is nar-rowed down to women vet-

erans who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, the average age comes down to 30.

Of these, 60 percent are married and 40 percent have school-going kids.

In the 12 years of war, 300,000 women have gone to these two countries and many have seen combat.

“The legacy systems set up to care for vets was absolutely unprepared for the number of women that were going to come back,” Olson said.

The needs of this much younger female demographic include healthcare, childcare, fi-nancial stress and treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Most VA offices don’t hire an OB-GYN, a sexual assault counselor or have facilities for mammograms.

Younger women who are struggling to balance a fam-ily and school and work don’t want to sit around for a whole day at the VA office hoping to

get help, she said. “Women don’t do that,”

Olson said. “I don’t have the time or the energy to fight a huge bureaucracy. I’ll just go downtown. I’ll pay for it my-self, or I’ll go without. And that’s a bad thing, especially if you need some kind of mental health help.”

As more women veter-ans find their way to college campuses, it’s important for the traditional undergradu-ate students to reach out and accept veterans into their cir-cles, she said.

Olson said the notion propa-gated by the media that all veter-ans are damaged goods isn’t true.

The transition process — with all its uncertainty and hiccups — can be very trau-matic for veterans who have seen and experienced many horrors in a very short time.

“It’s hard to fit into a world you’re not sure you belong to anymore,” Olson said.

→ STRUGGLESCONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

Toward the end, King was as-signed to communications, which involved encrypting and decrypting classified mes-sages. She had to have high-level security clearance as well as practice caution in who she associated with on the base.

After Hawaii, she would have had to go on board a ship and work from the depths of

the vessel as she worked her technical job in communica-tions.

“It was an interesting expe-rience in that I was taught that skill, but I’m a people person,” she said. “I think of myself as being rather altruistic, and it was very confining.”

That was when she decided she was going to leave the force. After a brief stint as a social service worker in Flor-ida, she moved to Texas, fin-

ished her education at Rich-land College and took her job at UTD.

King said she never found it hard to survive in a man’s world, nor did she think it was hard to come back as a civilian.

“I actually felt quite wealthy in what I was going back into the civilian world with, better equipped to be in a civilian world, certainly than when I left,” King said.

→ KINGCONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

Police to arrest him for not having a front license plate after which they obtained a search warrant for his ve-hicle.

Several high capacity magazines were found in his car that matched the bullets

used to kill Anna, the affida-vit stated.

Moses had voluntarily agreed to provide a DNA sample from a bleeding lac-eration on his finger the day after the murder. The sample matched the DNA samples in the deceased’s car recovered from the crime scene, ac-cording to the Frisco Police

report.Moses’ statements, the

DNA sample, the high capac-ity magazines found in his car and the letter provided suf-ficient grounds for the police to issue an arrest warrant. The arrest was made with the help of the Texas Ranger Division and the United States Mar-shals.

→ MOSESCONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

the mercury women's issue

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