July 3, 2017
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TemocNet OIT addresses issues after residential internet switch
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CentralTrak Graduate ATEC artist space closes after June 24 exhibition
University-wide graduate student association proposed
THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
UTD revises emergency policies after bomb hoax New measures focus on increased communication MIRIAM PERCIVAL Editor-in-Chief
Following a campus-wide evacuation for a bomb threat later determined to be a hoax, UTD is reviewing its emergency notification and communication policies to help reduce confusion in future evacuations. Chief Larry Zacharias said the police department received a call at 2:01 p.m. from an anonymous person saying a bomb was on campus. The caller then demanded $10,000 within 30 minutes or they would detonate the bomb. Before the dispatcher could ask for any additional information, the caller hung up. “It was determined that since we had not received any similar threats like this before, and considering the things going on around the country and the world, to be precautious and send out the UTD alert telling people to evacuate the buildings,” Zacharias said. While the university sent out a text and email alert at 2:33 p.m. biomedical engineering sophomore Kang Choi was one of the students who did not receive an emergency notification. He was working in his research lab at the Bioengineering Sciences Building when another student told him about the evacuation. “We stepped outside and we got all of our stuff. We were leaving and saw this huge mass exodus of all the researchers,” he said. “Everyone (was) kind of puzzled, kind of confused we didn’t really know what was happening.” Zacharias said the third party alert system, Everbridge, automatically en-
→ SEE HOAX, PAGE 8
STORY BY : ARIANA HADDEN | MANAGING EDITOR GRAPHIC BY : CHAD AUSTIN | GRAPHICS EDITOR After establishing the gender-inclusive housing option last semester, UTD staff are preparing for the fall semester by addressing any problems students have with their room assignments. Director of Residential Life Catherine Pickrel and Matt Johns, assistant director for LGBT+ programs at the Galerstein Gender Center have been working through the implementation process. UTD is the first UT System school to formally adopt a gender-inclusive housing option, and recently received four and a half out of five stars on the Campus Pride Index, which is the premier LGBT+ national benchmarking tool for colleges and universities to create safer, more inclusive campus communities. Pickrel said as of now, 18 percent of first year applicants and 26 percent of non-first year applicants have opted into genderinclusive housing. “Traditionally, we have placed students together based off their gender in the university system,” Pickrel said. “If a student opts into gender-inclusive housing a student can be placed with another student who also opted into gender-inclusive housing. This is done without regard to
biological sex or gender identity.” ATEC junior Emily Wheeler said she ran into trouble with the roommate assignment after applying for housing. She and her friend wanted to room together and went through the process, but discovered they couldn’t select the same room and were separated. When they received their room assignments, Wheeler discovered her housemate was male, which made her uncomfortable. When Wheeler heard about the gender-inclusive housing option, she was under the impression that by selecting the box on the application, the applicant is fine with rooming with someone who identifies as a different gender. “We both clicked yes on the form for gender-inclusive, not aware that it meant anybody who selected that option can be roomed with you,” Wheeler said. “We didn’t realize you could be roomed with a guy, we thought it was if there was a special circumstance where someone identified as a woman.” As her interpretation of the policy did not align with what the Galerstein Gender Center meant, Wheeler’s solution was to send emails and
visit the office to solve her dilemma. Despite her visiting the office three times, she was turned away with no immediate fix to her situation. “I went into their office multiple times to try and talk about how we can fix the situation and possibly live together or at least get me out of having to live with a guy for a roommate,” Wheeler said. “Every time we went in to talk they just said, ‘Have you emailed?’ and that they would get back to us but they just never did and it was very unhelpful.” After attempting to remedy her issues, Wheeler was given the option to decline the current housing offer and go on a waitlist. Even though her living situation worked out, she said it is not fair that her friend is still stuck with a male roommate and the problem might not be the Gender Center, but the application itself. “I understand they probably have a lot of people who are having issues and so it’s kind of hard for them to talk to everybody, but from my perspective, it seems like maybe there is something wrong with the system rather than everyone is messing up,” Wheeler said.
Catherine Pickrel said that if students are running into problems with the process and do not get a response to their email, she encourages them to contact her directly. She also said Galerstein Gender Center is working to educate students on gender -inclusive housing through staff training, follow up emails and including information during housing tours. “We are communicating about genderinclusive housing in multiple ways,” she said. “As with any new program or procedure, we are always open to suggestions and strive to always improve our communication methods.”
Alum launches Kickstarter campaign for card game ‘Bad Actors’ party game created to allow players more creativity, improvisation with alternate game styles allowing flexibility BHARGAV ARIMILLI Life & Arts Editor
A UTD alum’s efforts to bring a new party game called “Bad Actors” to the college scene may become a reality this fall thanks to an upcoming Kickstarter campaign. “We play a lot of party games and what we noticed is that some of the more popular games are fun but they’re a little bit predictable,” said Evan Carr, UTD alumnus and co-creator of the game. “‘Bad Actors’ is a game where you have the opportunity to really bring the creativity and bring the fun through the game itself.” Larry Leon, co-creator and Carr’s business partner, said the level of player involvement in “Bad Actors” sets the game apart from others. “A lot of the games today — and I’m certainly not disparaging any of the games — (come) with pre-answered questions, you’re picking the one you think is the funniest,” he said. “Ours is more of an improv situation where you play a character and you answer the question as if you’re that character.” A few years ago, Leon came up with an idea for a party game called “Crowned,” centered around stereotypical beauty pageant questions. “Crowned,” through several rounds of research and iterative design, gradually evolved into “Bad Actors.” “One of the funniest things in beauty pageants is these questions like, ‘What do you think about world peace?’” Leon said. “I created a whole collection of pageants for men and women — Mr. Macho or Motorcycle Mom or whatever it is — and they were going to answer questions as if they were contestants in these various pageants.” Leon met Carr through a men’s support group and pitched the idea to him. After initial research, they realized their target demographic — primarily college-aged men —
EVAN CARR | COURTESY
Alumnus Evan Carr (left) co-created the game “Bad Actors” with his business partner, Larry Leon. On July 11, the Kickstarter campaign will go live.
didn’t have an affinity for beauty pageants. In August 2016, Carr and Leon scrapped the pageant idea and decided to focus on the mechanics of questions, characters and voting and renamed the game to “Bad Actors.” Since then, they’ve created nearly 15 prototypes and tested their prototypes using different focus groups. “I’ve actually connected with a couple of my fraternity brothers on campus who have given some really great feedback on the game,” Carr said. “The process was really just constant iteration. Putting together a first prototype, playing it, getting feedback and constantly coming up with different prototypes.”
Leon noted that one of the biggest challenges they faced during development was cementing the specifics of gameplay, such as the voting mechanisms or the way in which cards are drawn. Rather than limit the types of gameplay, Carr and Leon decided to leave the mechanics of “Bad Actors” sufficiently open-ended. “You can play (the game) so many different ways — the mechanic is super flexible,” Carr said. “And that’s great because when we’re shipping the game, we’re recommending a bunch of alternate game styles that you can play a little differently.” In “Bad Actors,” one player draws from a
stack of character cards. An adjacent player then draws three cards from a stack of questions and chooses the funniest question. The first player then must answer the question while in character. The rest of the players give a rating of one to five based on the first player’s performance, and the player with the highest cumulative ratings wins. With the “Bad Actors” campaign set to launch in a couple of weeks, Carr and Leon are now gearing up for manufacturing and distribution. “The thing that we’re really doing right now is making sure we’ve done the right amount of planning and that we’ve …
prepared all the necessary things like shipping and logistics,” Carr said. “How do you manufacture something on the other side of the world in China (and) reliably deliver it to people on four different continents? We want to make sure that our backers get the best experience and get the best product.” The Kickstarter campaign will go live on July 11 for a 30-day period. Carr and Leon hope to raise $11,000 to cover manufacturing and shipping costs. At present, backers who contribute $25 to the campaign will receive a deck of “Bad Actors” cards. If the campaign is successful, shipments will start in October.