The UTD men’s basketball team overcame second-place East Texas Baptist University at home with a  66-59, recording their eighth consecutive win on Feb. 4th. The Comets are now 17-4 overall (12-4 ASC) and have widened their lead in the ASC East division standings.

The team was off to a commanding start with an 8-0 run, but slowed down as ETBU started sinking shots of their own. Senior Chris Barnes led the team to victory with 18 points and 12 rebounds while fellow senior Kyle Schleigh had 13 points and sophomore Carter Nash finished with 10.

Chris Barnes acted as a catalyst for the Comets’ offense, popping in threes after coming off well- designed screens whenever the team couldn’t find their rhythm. Kyle Schleigh also lit up the atmosphere when he dished out the only dunk of the night on a fast break.

“The thing I love is that our guys made quality offensive plays in the second half when we absolutely had to have it,” coach Terry Butterfield said.

ETBU took UTD to two overtimes on Jan. 28th in a hard-fought win for UTD with a score of 95-93. Butterfield compared the points allowed in the previous game to this game, where UTD managed to limit ETBU’s powerful offense to just 59 points.

The Comets went into halftime trailing 29-27 after struggling in the first half, but they turned up the defensive pressure when they came out for the second half. ETBU had trouble getting to the boards as effectively as they did in the first half thanks to a more organized Comets defense.

“We only allowed 59 points this time compared to 93 only 7 days ago, and so I was really pleased with the way we defended,” Butterfield said.

Butterfield emphasized the need to come out on the good side of things, especially in this time of the season, when a game can decide whether you win the conference title or not.

“Anytime you can get a win at home against a quality team like (ETBU), it’s always a good thing,” Butterfield said.

From looking at the Comets’ remaining schedule, their remaining games can be expected as easy outings. The Comets will need just one more win to seal the division title, but they will approach the last remaining games with the same focus and mentality like they have been doing all season long.

“Our approach has to be like every game is a championship game. We have to find a way to get on top of every game and not let ourselves slide,” Butterfield said. “We’re getting so close to the conference championship time that now is the time to extend ourselves and play our best.”

The Comets have four games remaining in the regular season, and their next two games will be at home against Mississippi College and Louisiana College on Feb. 9th and 11th, respectively. They will then travel to Tyler and Longview to face Tyler and LeTourneau, respectively, and hope to close out their season on a high note as they head into the ASC Championship Tournament.

While it’s clear UTD has become one of the ASC’s best teams year in and year out, the Comets’ basketball program has a chance to solidify its recent run as the greatest in ASC history.

Now that UTD clinched yet another ASC East regular season title — its fourth in as many years — it joins fairly exclusive company. Since the conference’s inception in 1997, this is only the fourth time such a feat has happened. The first two times a team won its division four seasons in a row — Mississippi in the East, McMurry in the West — also coincided with the first four years of division play.

Since 2002, only Mississippi has put together a run of four straight outright division titles. In 2004, Mississippi and UTD shared the regular season title, and the Choctaws owned the East from 2005-2008.

Since 2008, though, no team has knocked UTD off its perch atop the division.

Most remarkably, UTD has a chance to become the only team in ASC history to qualify for the NCAA Tournament four seasons in a row. After advancing to the Elite 8 in 2009 and Sweet 16 in 2010, the Comets qualified for the national tournament for a conference record-tying third straight season before losing to Mary Hardin-Baylor in the first round.

UTD had advanced to the National Tournament four times in seven campaigns before this season, a run that can only be beaten by Mississippi’s five trips in six years.

Such accomplishments should not go unnoticed. While established programs like McMurry have flirted with moving up to D-II, UTD has quickly become one of the most successful and consistent teams in the region.

But the Comets have claimed the division by force; Mississippi has only prevailed once against UTD in the last three seasons.

The Comets have really been on a meteoric rise to the top of the conference, especially considering how young the basketball program is. UTD only started fielding a basketball team in 1998, and Terry Butterfield took over in 2000.

The program took off quickly, and its reign over the East has been impressive. The Comets will have the chance next season to become the first five-time defending champion in the history of ASC men’s basketball. That would be some five-year run, and a run that would further establish UTD basketball on a national level.

The women’s basketball team played their best offensive game of the season so far with a season-high 84 points against East Texas Baptist’s 66. The win now takes their record to 17-4 overall (13-3 ASC). They are still in second place behind Louisiana College, whom they will face on Feb. 11th at home.

“We really played well as a team,” said coach Polly Thomason, referring to the team’s win over ETBU on Feb. 4. “Our players just did a good job of passing the ball around, attacking [the board], and finding open players who knocked down shots.”

UTD’s excellent perimeter game was the difference maker against ETBU, as the Lady Comets shot 48.5 percent from the field and connected on 11 three-pointers.

Despite its convincing win over ETBU, Thomason still felt there are areas in which the team needs to improve before heading into the ASC Championship Tournament, where UTD will battle it out for the title.

“It would be great to stop sending (the opponent) to the line and let them have easy points,” Thomason said. “We can also get better at rebounding the ball, and the players are making the effort to do it which is the first step.”

Senior Lyndsey Smith led the team in scoring with her game-high 26 points, knocking down six from downtown. She finished the game 10-of16 from the field, with nine rebounds and five assists, and narrowly missed out on recording her first career double-double.

“She’s just a phenomenal player, really intelligent, and understands the game well enough to know when she’s going to get open looks,” Thomason said. “She started off the game hitting some threes, and I think that gave the players around her confidence.”

With 1,302 career points in the bag, Smith is just 12 points shy of the all-time scoring record set by Chelsea Edwards, who scored 1,314 points from 2006-2010. She is expected to set the program’s new record as the Comets play their final two home games of the season in the coming week.

It’s a crucial part of the season as the championship tournament looms near and pressure mounts, and Thomason reiterated the importance of just taking it one day at a time and getting better every day.

“We want to play our best basketball the last three games of the year in the conference tournament,” said Thomason.

The Lady Comets will host Mississippi College and Louisiana College on Feb. 9th and 16th, respectively, for the final two home games of the season, before going on the road to UT Tyler and LeTourneau for the last two for the season on Feb. 16th and 18th, respectively.

Reporters surrounded Lee Harvey Oswald as he stood to be interviewed for the first time after his arrest. The whole nation was buzzing. What was supposed to be a press conference quickly turned into a shouting match amongst the dozens of newspaper writers and television cameras. But Bill Mercer had the best seat in the house: He knelt right next to Oswald.

One reporter asked if Oswald had been charged with anything. Oswald shook his head and said no. Mercer answered, “Yes you have. You’ve been charged with the murder of the President of the United States.”
Oswald and Mercer briefly made eye contact, but both were silent. John F. Kennedy’s assassin then walked away.

Almost 50 years later and in the twilight years of his illustrious career, Bill Mercer can say he’s seen and done it all. He was an innovator. If something didn’t exist, he’d create it. If something wasn’t happening, he’d make it happen.
And if nobody was talking, he’d talk.

Now 85 and retired from teaching and broadcasting professionally, Mercer spends his time announcing UTD sports. But his legendary voice still echoes in the past, before the Internet and before television. In his heyday, Mercer wasn’t just a voice in Dallas. He was the voice in Dallas.

“At one time in Dallas, I was the only legitimate play-by-play announcer,” he said. “It was a wonderful time to come through. I was in the right place at the right time.”

Mercer’s first broadcasting experience came as a child in Muskogee, Okla., when he would spend his summers announcing make-believe baseball games, teaching himself on-the-fly all along. Instead of playing on the football team — Mercer was no taller than five feet, five inches in high school, so he was instantly employed as the water boy during team tryouts — he used his newly found gift: his voice.

Looking at Mercer today, with his aging face and even smaller stature, it’s hard to believe he still has that same, deep voice as he did decades ago. During regular conversation, Mercer clings onto his cup of coffee and talks slowly and softly, but his voice still carries that same weight as it did in the ‘60s.

And during UTD broadcasts, his classic tone comes alive.  He speaks quickly, yet clearly, with an energetic enthusiasm that perfectly captures the pace of any sporting event. During the action, he’ll describe a wonderfully executed crossover as seen through his thick glasses, and when a timeout is called he’ll hear the brass blast a crowd-pleasing tune, cry out “And listen to that band,” crank up the in-house volume, sit back and smile out of the side of his mouth. Trademark Bill Mercer.
Mercer’s classic style wasn’t easy to master; with no teacher to call his own, he mostly taught himself while attending the University of Denver. After becoming the first student at his university to call sports games for the college radio, he’d review game tapes in an effort to perfect his craft.

“I was working so hard to be a good announcer,” he said. “I didn’t really believe I was that good for a long, long time.”

After moving to Dallas with his wife and taking on a job calling wrestling matches at KRLD, Mercer had found his voice: He wasn’t flashy, he wasn’t artificially exciting and he certainly wasn’t going to shout out catch phrases or buzzwords as he says most announcers do today.

“I didn’t think about it. I just did the stuff the way I felt it,” Mercer said. He learned on his own, and quickly scored a job calling Cowboys games, and later announced Rangers games in the team’s first season in Texas.

Among his many notable sports experiences, Mercer called the 1967 NFL Championship Game, better known as the Ice Bowl. The game-time temperature was estimated at -15 degrees. As far as the game goes, Mercer recalled, his memory is fuzzy.

“I don’t remember much from that, except for my own freezing to death,” he said with a chuckle.

Despite all his success as a sports broadcaster, Mercer says his finest moment came in November 1963, during one of the worst events in American history.

The minor league baseball season ended in September, which meant Mercer spent his days in the KRLD newsroom filling in on news reports. President John F. Kennedy was riding through Dallas in a massive procession. All the station’s regular reporters were downtown to capture a glimpse of Kennedy, during what Mercer said was supposed to be a great, memorable day in Dallas history.

Around noon, Mercer went on the air to announce the President was in town. When the reporters came back to the newsroom with the stunning bad news, Mercer and three other reporters had an idea: They’d report from downtown at the police station and feed the live coverage to CBS headquarters in New York.

The four went to the police station and performed the first-ever live remote news broadcast, using the same techniques and technology that KRLD did to broadcast Cowboys games.

Mercer and his colleagues all worked individually, and none of them knew what the other was doing. They improvised and taught themselves, as Mercer always had.

“I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Mercer joked. “Except for me, I didn’t know what was what.”

Between talking to sheriffs and FBI officials, he tried to catch glimpses of Oswald, Kennedy’s killer.

Mercer tried to squeeze between the hundreds of other reporters and policemen to get close to Oswald when officials brought him out. He said at one point on the broadcast, viewers could hear him yelling, “I’m being pummeled! I’m being pummeled!” During one such moment, Oswald walked through all the reporters while Mercer was pinned behind a door.

“My size didn’t help,” he said with a huge grin. Mercer’s small build, though, made it possible for him to meander his way up to the very front for what he calls the proudest moment of his career: his face-to-face interaction with one of America’s most infamous men.

“That was above the Ice Bowl, above all these other things,” he said. “You’re in the right place at the right time for the wrong thing.”

Just over 40 years later, Mercer eventually landed at UTD after meeting with Athletics Director Chris Gage and Sports Information Director Bruce Unrue shortly before retiring from the University of North Texas in 2007. Gage and Unrue were considering streaming games via the Internet, and they wanted Mercer to become UTD’s first sports announcer. He agreed, and brought his UNT students along with him to practice broadcasting live games.

Among some of Mercer’s most successful students are Mark Followill and Dave Barnett, the TV voices for the Mavericks and Rangers, respectively. He also taught Craig Way, who announces UT sports.

“It means so much to me that I taught them,” Mercer said, referring to all his students. “I’m really proud of them. They all have great passion and I’m so proud of each one of them.”

Perhaps the pupil Mercer is most proud of, though, is his granddaughter Emma, who has announced dozens of UTD games throughout the past few years. Now at the University of Missouri, Emma has more announcing experience than any of her freshman classmates in Missouri’s journalism school. Mercer glowed as he said Emma is the only one of his children or grandchildren who wants to become a broadcaster.

Mercer carved his own niche in the broadcasting industry, and has become one of Texas’ signature voices. When something needed to be done, he did it — whether it was covering Dallas’ darkest day or the NFL’s coldest game. If the pieces weren’t already in place, Mercer put them there.

Among his many accomplishments, he kick-started UNT’s student-run, 100,000-watt radio station. He and his students put the whole thing together.

“We built that sucker,” he said, with that familiar Mercer smile.

His pride in his work is tangible and his innovations have carried across almost seven decades. And he isn’t stopping anytime soon.

Mercury Staff

What is the Gentlemen’s Fight Club?

Eric Alfonso will tell you that it’s an idea, a mindset, as he sits on his leather couch with a circa-1999 Mr. UTD T-shirt on.

“You tend to pick up habits with the people you live around,” he says. “Somebody’s slobby, you’re going to become slobby. If people are confident around you, you’re going to become confident.”
This mentality of surrounding yourself with the right kind of people in the right kind of place was the beginning of the Gentlemen’s Fight Club — what might best be described as a non-Greek fraternity based upon a chain of houses next to UTD that rents to students.

Alfonso, the founder of the club and a former stockbroker, had saved up enough money to purchase his own house in 2003.
He took in four roommates who would become the original members of something they could never foresee.

“We came from different schools: One was business, I was psychology, another was engineering and another was computer science,” Alfonso said. “Each roommate had their friends over so it became a community.”
Once the roommates settled down into the house, more and more of their friends would come over to hang out for parties and barbecues on the weekends.

It would eventually get big.
And they needed a name for this.
“We called it Fight Club because we didn’t know what to call it,” he said. “It was kind of like an inside joke that we had with our friends.”

While no bare-knuckle brawls actually broke out like the Chuck Palahniuk-inspired name suggests, Alfonso’s amateur boxing career remains a standout chapter in his past. A pair of blue boxing gloves signed by Sugar Ray Leonard proudly hangs in his room in the one of the houses.

Near the end of 2006, two of the roommates had moved out and Alfonso began searching for tenants to fill their rooms. More importantly though, he needed people to carry-on the group dynamic that the original four had. This was when Alfonso began to develop a system, or program, to find the right tenant.

He needed people who had character, shared the same interests as him, a tenant that could pay rent on time and most importantly, someone who knew how to make their bed.
Neatness was key.

Naturally, there were rules for this Fight Club as well.
As both a landlord and resident of the house, Alfonso wanted to create an environment he would be proud to live in, and roommates and neighbors that shared his same positive outlook.
“When I went to UTD I didn’t want to join a fraternity with the idea that I might limit the interactions I would have,” he said.
Since then Alfonso’s had everyone from 20-year old college students to 40-year old professionals. He’s even had girls in a co-ed living arrangement and now he’s working on housing solely for the members of the fairer sex.

He currently runs four houses, all adjacent to one other, each with its own house leader that he handpicks. While Alfonso won’t turn down tenants that have contrasting lifestyles, the 2002 UTD graduate is always looking for the people whom he and his tenants would get along well with.

Aside from hanging out together at weekend barbecues, the members of this community also participate in group activities like going to the gun range, learning to ride a motorcycle, or maybe even boxing at the gym to escape the weekly doldrums. They also have a tradition of traveling together to a new country every year. New Zealand has been thumbtacked on the map for 2012.

Godswill Ugwa, a biology junior and a SUABB leader, doesn’t live in the houses anymore, but still remains active in the Gentleman’s Fight Club. A Chi Phi himself, Ugwa doesn’t liken the club to a Greek fraternity.
“It’s a community of guys and girls trying to become better people,” Ugwa said. “As a man trying to really establish myself, it makes sense trying to find a community like that which lifts you up.”
Moses “Mosey” Munoz, a physics freshman, currently lives in the Gamma house. He says that his rent is cheaper than it would be anywhere else on campus.

In addition to the competitive rates, all of the Fight Club houses are fully furnished, designed and maintained by Alfonso himself — something he credits his parents for teaching him.
His undertakings in real estate can be traced back to his family’s construction business that he worked for long before he was ever a heavyweight boxer. Not only did this upbringing teach him how to renovate a house, it gave him the blueprints to build a successful business.

Alfonso said he is always looking to expand, and while he owns other properties outside of Fight Club, he considers the four houses by the university his pet project and still resides there himself.
“I love the university and I want to give back,” he said.

Providing cheap housing for college students and anyone else interested is strictly business. But creating an environment that encourages betterment of self and society, Alfonso said, is his passion.
With plans of establishing a Gentlemen’s Fight Club house in Austin, so his friends can visit the city, the 32-year-old says the sky’s the limit for what he’s doing.
Regardless of how far his business grows, he can always look back at the four original Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta houses off of Lookout and Custer.

John D.McCrary

One would think that after almost 100 years of making films, billions of dollars invested, and the highly competitive and cut throat culture of major motion picture production, Hollywood would have been able to figure out the formula for the perfect date movie a lot sooner than this, but it would seem that they’ve almost managed to with “This Means War.”

The story of two partner CIA agents and best friends as they compete for the affections of the same woman, “This Means War” tries to blend action and romance in the hopes of satisfying everyone looking for an easy movie-going experience with their special someone this Valentine’s Day weekend. And if they were looking for a happy medium, I can’t think of any other film that comes closer.

The film features two very talented actors, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy who, while still lingering in the “that guy from…” range, are both threatening to become household names as the competing American and British spies respectively.

At the center of this battle of wasteful use of expensive government resources is a woman quite deserving of such excessive competition, Reese Witherspoon, playing (well let’s face it) Reese Witherspoon.

Ms. Witherspoon brings all her adorable spender, but it’s really the fresher talent that manages to bring a bit of charm to the very formulaic concoction.

Hardy is endearing as the shy and romantic single father, and if the part wasn’t so damn simple I’d call it good acting seeing as how it’s such a departure from his more intense fare, like “Bronson,” “Warrior,” and the “Dark Knight Rises.”

Mr. Pine on the other hand manages to bring the same kind of All-American swagger which seems to come so naturally to him and landed him the role of JJ Abrams’ Captain Kirk.
They both make what could otherwise have been very “stand here and recite your line” parts, and bring enough personal nuance to their performance to keep the rather two-dimensional characters from feeling too terribly stiff.

Though the real sleeper hit of this flick is the foul-mouthed sexually frustrated best friend fanning our Helen’s flames played by Chelsea Handler. She manages to not only bring the biggest laughs, but a kind of insight and dimension that the movie would most certainly be lacking otherwise.

While all of the performances are above average enough to keep the routine parts from feeling too artificial, they can’t help that they are performing in a world that isn’t limited by things like money, responsibilities and jobs, or even terrorists for that matter.

The subplot concerning a jilted German bad guy is made so terribly irrelevant in the grand scheme of the film it almost feels like it’s not worth mentioning here in the review.

While painted like an episode of “Spy vs. Spy,” which in a lot of ways it is, the overall feel of the films is a lot more like a condensed season of “The Bachelorette” than anything else.

I think the major drawback for this film, which manages to avoid a lot of the pitfalls that seem to snare so many other attempts at romantic comedies aiming for both sexes, is the very high amount of gloss applied to the world of “This Means War.”

To put it bluntly, I couldn’t get over how nice all of the sets were.
From Ms. Witherspoon’s candy shop colorful and conveniently cute day job, to the government agency made of waxed granite and glass, to the apartment that features a swimming pool roof (complete with busty bikini clad swimmer), everything about this movie is neat, and pretty, and apparently within budget.

Oh, and in case you had forgotten, we are talking about two government employees.

The film is wrought with little mistakes and oversights that, while easy to miss between fumbling for your soda and drooling at your preferred eye candy, could still be seen on the first viewing.

Things like why a British man is working for the CIA, how no one bats an eye at the destruction of a predator drone, or how the main kid somehow grew front teeth in a matter of days.

Considering the genre though, which is loaded with some of the most pathetically thrown together smut in cinema, if these complaints are the greatest I can come up with then I’d consider it a success.

Yea it’s a little too glossy, the villain is an afterthought, and there are more than a few eyebrow raising details, but ultimately this is just a really nice date movie. And in terms of the formula, I think that’s exactly what they were aiming for.

No, I’m not talking about the awkward days of playground love, where we gave each other frogs and peanut butter sandwiches as our true signs of affection.

I’m talking about that 269 AD kind of love, where we martyred priests in Rome and named a holiday after them.

I do realize that it’s probably extremely superficial of me to bring up the fact that Valentine’s Day has been completely bastardized and commercialized, because you probably already know that.

You know just as much as I do that if we wanted to stay true to Valentine’s Day, we’d be exchanging the sacred gift of Roman martyrs.  So why do we continue to buy into the arbitrary requirements of showing love and affection every time February rolls around?

I mean brainwashing’s all good and well, but it’s peculiar that we haven’t recognized as a society that there’s nothing natural about the Valentine market.

Time and time again, we find ourselves rushing for a Valentine, rushing to buy that Valentine something sweet or pink or fluffy, and sighing in relief when we wake up the next day and don’t find our things strewn about the street.

Why are we so sure that we know how Valentine’s Day works?
Why do guys invest in pounds of chocolate and women know to practice their shocked-but-pleased face in the mirror before bed?

If we want to get technical, we could probably talk about gender roles and how Valentine’s Day is steeped in the same male-dominated ideas that we find in any other part of society.  You know, Man sees Girl, Man dates Girl, Man takes care of Girl by buying Girl things.

Valentine’s Day only serves to exacerbate that kind of thinking, because now a woman’s giant ring has to be about love.

Those chocolates have to be about commitment.
That giant pink bear (that will inevitably end up in the dumpster like all bears before him) has to be about affection.

All these ideas seem normal and even sane — when, in reality, most couples probably don’t understand that roses and bears do not make a relationship.

But hey, I don’t blame people for thinking otherwise.
I don’t blame the guys out there for the pain in the pocketbooks and I’m definitely not going to fault the girls for coveting all things glittery.

The Valentine market works hard and early to make sure we understand that love doesn’t come without a little pocket change.

The commercials vary widely, from cards to romantic get-away cruises.

Everywhere a couple turns, notions are being set up to watch their every move:
Didn’t buy your girlfriend a ring?
You must not love her! Don’t want a diamond ring from your hubby?
There must be something wrong with you!

At the risk of sounding radical, I’m all up for a total Valentine’s Day revolution.  Forget the necklaces and forget the expensive “exotic” trip.

Tomorrow, call up your honey-doll-sweetie-pie and invite them over to…stare at them.
Talk to them.
Watch a movie they like or you hate.
Prepare them a meal and burn down your kitchen in the process.
Play them a moonlight love song and pop a guitar string.
Find some other way to show how you feel that comes as natural as the love you have for them.

If nothing else, at least you can say you saved a bit this year.

We all had to go out and buy Valentines for everyone in my fifth grade class.

Actually, we didn’t really have to in the way we had to do our homework or take standardized tests, but to only receive and not give back on that February day resulted in a form of ostracism only an 11 year old would understand as he plays alone at recess.

So naturally, I dragged my tortured parents along with me to the local Walmart the night before to purchase a box of two dozen Valentines for my classmates, certain that most of them would have one for me as well.

That Marxist notion of love was beyond me as I indiscriminately passed out my Dragon Ball Z Valentines.
I gave one to every girl.
I gave one to every boy.

Mrs. K would smirk and peer through her glasses with all the semblances of a self-satisfied Trotsky as we gave each other a befittingly red Valentine and received 20 or so back.

This seemed like a fair transaction to me at the time. It wasn’t until I graduated from the iron curtain of elementary school that I learned that while such a system looked great on our wide-ruled paper, it would never work in the real world.

Those cartoon cards affixed with bite-sized bonbons really meant nothing to any of us.

Soon I would discover that the more expensive and exclusive my Valentine was, the more return I got on my investment.

And so Capitalism prevailed.

Valentine’s Day narrowed down from a group of twenty students to a single girl, my girlfriend, or pseudo-girlfriend at the time.

The obligation to spend was still there though, and I remained oblivious as I stumbled into competition with all the striving boyfriends across the expansive United States.

Adam Smith’s invisible hand directed my marionette strings as I waddled up and down Hallmark and Hershey aisles every year on this day of love.

I would trade my tiny paychecks in for perishable gifts that she would show off to her classmates, coworkers and ex-boyfriends.

Hierarchy was at play here: Flowers beat chocolates, which rivaled stuffed animals, but jewelry trumped them all.

A wealthy, or perhaps desperate, boyfriend would go for the trifecta.

There was no more Mrs. K, but there was Adrianna Lima during the Super Bowl whispering to me, “Give and you shall receive.”

Leaning closer to the television screen, I clung on to every word uttered from those unattainable lips. She and the likes taught me that every kiss began with “K” and a diamond was forever.

And of course, if I ever hoped to be a truly loving boyfriend, I would go to Jared’s.But anyone in a lasting relationship will tell you, the novelty of a Valentine wears off by each year. Last year’s flowers, adjusted for inflation, would be this year’s necklace only to gross the same level of surprise or adoration — if not less.

Eventually this game would play out until my perfunctory Valentines were worth as much as they were in fifth grade.

And so capitalism collapses.

Girlfriend unemployment rates would soon be at a record high, and I would be spiraling towards a Great Depression.

The market would recover though, and I would find a new girlfriend, but I was doomed to repeat that vicious cycle again.

After a while, you start to wonder what a Valentine really is — kind of like how you’d ponder on what a dollar really is as you direct it into a vending machine.

A Valentine’s Day gift is supposed to represent the sentiment behind a couple’s relationship.

Just like that green paper in your wallet is supposed to represent the fungible goods and services you can exchange for them.

But what happens when you bloat the value of a relationship through materialism?

I eventually realized that it was never about giving gifts or making outward gestures that keeps relationships going, but instead it was something that was always there.

Mrs. K and Adrianna Lima were both wrong.

And I would eventually adopt a resource-based economy where I wouldn’t need gifts or showmanship to prove to that I had the kind of love for her that would inspire Stephanie Meyer novels.

Maybe I’m being bitter.
Maybe I’m being broke.

But for sure, without a doubt, I can safely say that the lovely women that I’m currently seeing will get nothing from me on Valentine’s Day.
Nothing but love that is.

As college students reach the end of their undergraduate education, many begin to wonder if graduate school is worth the costs and the possible student loan debt they will have to pay off after graduating.

Although students can learn more and gain knowledge beyond the education of an undergraduate level, they should also consider the opportunity cost of gaining this knowledge. This can vary widely between different degrees and careers. Investing in a graduate-level education pays for itself in many professions; however, in other careers, attending graduate school might be a waste of both time and money.

A master’s degree is a long-term investment. According to a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, those who get a master’s degree earn an estimated $2.67 million over the course of their careers, roughly $400,000 more than the median lifetime earnings one earns with a bachelor’s degree. Doctoral and professional degrees lead to even greater lifetime earnings of $3.25 million and $3.65 million, and $1 million more than a student with a bachelor’s degree.

However, for many other professions, the difference in earnings between degrees is marginal.

For example, a real estate broker earns $1.5 million whether they have a bachelor’s degree or a graduate-level education.

This is also applicable to editors who have a master’s, doctorate or professional degree. An editor with a bachelor’s degree only earns $100,000 less over the course of their lifetime compared to the earnings of an editor with a master’s or professional degree.

Another factor to consider is the labor market and the current demand for your major.

Although you may be interested in learning more about literature or life sciences, you have to consider whether you can earn back the money you spend to earn that degree when you begin your career.

According to MainStreet, there are 10 top professions where workers receive the biggest lifetime earnings increase by attending graduate school compared earnings from a bachelor’s degree.

These top 10 include:
1. Natural sciences, medical and health services managers
2. Marketing and sales managers
3. Sales representatives
4. Business operations specialists
5. Purchasing managers
6. Chemists and scientists
7. Education administrators
8. Securities, commodities and financial services sales agents
9. Budget, credit and financial analysts
10. Financial managers
Yes, a graduate education is important and may potentially increases your lifetime earnings, but make sure you calculate the return you are going to get from this investment. It may or may not have the payoff you are looking for if you enter the wrong career.

If you have any questions about personal finances or are interested in taking an undergraduate or graduate class in personal finance then contact jared.pickens@utdallas.edu.

Senators give their support for a student veteran center and reveal details on the Founders Fountain renovations at the Feb. 7 Student Government meeting.

Matthew Melton and Mike Rials, both veteran students at UTD, presented a proposal for the creation of an on-campus veteran center.

Currently there are 650 veteran students enrolled at UTD and the center would help provide resources and build a community for these students, Melton said.

The center would be accessible to all students, not solely veterans, who are interested in such matters. The senate gave their support for the proposal.

Justin Hajek, Student Affairs Committee chair and Arts & Technology senior, reported the current status of the Founders Fountain renovations.

After the old tile is removed, new tile will be put down and further additions will be implemented such as a handicap ramp, increased lighting and outlets around the fountain, Hajek said.

The renovations are tentatively scheduled to be completed by Scholars’ Day, March 1.

Sharkey Andrews, SG president and Arts & Performance senior, addressed important decisions made by the University of Texas System Student Advisory Council, or UTSSAC.

UTSSAC recommended that, with the rising cost of housing, teacher’s assistants and research assistants should be ensured an adequate pay rate that reflects their high quality and time spent.

Also, UTSSAC recommended that students be made aware of the Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Teams, which allow students to report other students who may be dangerous to themselves or others.

Andrews also mentioned a possible opportunity for students to take road trips. Route Sprout, a company that organizes road trips for students, hopes to begin a partnership with UTD.

With this service, students could say how many people they wanted to take out-of-town for a weekend and Route Sprout would then make arrangements with the bus company and give students a seat price, Andrews said.
Jessica D’Souza, Communications Committee chair and undecided junior, announced that the online sound-off was very successful.

Although sound-off results have not been released yet, there were over 300 participants, D’Souza said. With the strong turnout, it is likely that SG will lower the amount of paper sound-offs, Andrews said.

Filing for General Elections opens Feb. 27 at 8 a.m. and closes March 23 at noon, said Braeden Mayer, SG secretary and international political economy senior.

Senate made a resolution supporting the elimination of residential combo parking passes.

Senate elected Alyssa Foster, political science sophomore, to the position SG treasurer.

Cameron Broussard, Zach Johnson, Liza Liberman, Amy Ngo, Danny Polisetti and Joey Sankman were appointed to senate.

Senate allocated up to $100 for the JSOM town hall, scheduled Feb. 27 at 5p.m. in the executive dining hall.

Senate allocated up to $700 for the Recycling Race, a recycling competition between on-campus housing complexes.

Senate allocated up to $3,000 for elections and referenda advertising materials.

The next senate meeting will be at 5:15 p.m. on Feb. 21 in one of the Galaxy Rooms.