Welcome back, Comets! Until we all get deported, at least. While everyone’s having fun with Labubus, the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong release, and the UTD namedrop in the new season of “King of the Hill” (holy shit??), the people running this country and this state have been busy, busy, busy.
Between the White House’s AI renditions of ICE agent alligators outside Auschwitz 2 Alligator Alcatraz, threats to deploy the military to Democratic cities, and a new executive order banning flag-burning — a first amendment right per a 1989 Supreme Court ruling — it’s safe to say a large portion of this country is counting the days until whatever’s wrong with Trump’s hand turns him into a pile of wet mush. Even just in Texas, half our team is going to have to start peeing in bushes thanks to the recent anti-trans bathroom bill the state Senate passed last month. Hopefully, this campus is progressive enough to evade the onslaught of straight-up Nazism securing its footing in American culture.
But you can learn all about that elsewhere. Classes are starting again! As far as big changes on campus this semester, keep an eye on the new UTD president, Dr. Prabhas Moghe. His predecessor, Richard Benson — whose claims to fame are removing the Spirit Rocks (and thus school spirit), the death of the old Mercury just last year, and somehow hiding from students that he goes by Dick behind closed doors — tried to sink his reputation even further by cutting our track and field department right before the semester, only to walk that back after negative backlash that we’re sure feels like just another Tuesday to him by now. Moghe does not have a high bar to clear… but we’ll just have to see how he does in his first months in office.
Speaking of the school newspaper, The Mercury… they’re starting back up again. More or less. It’s a new team; they aren’t exactly printing yet, and from our point of view, probably won’t for a while. The award-winning team from a year ago is still running The Retrograde to give you the latest campus coverage, though, and they even have their own kiosks now! We encourage you to get your campus news where you can. We’re large proponents of your right to stay informed.
Hmm… y’know, we seem to have a lot to talk about this month. Perhaps. Perhaps we should start a podcast. Nothing too fancy. “A Modest Podcast,” even. Hosted on Mondays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. by RadioUTD, maybe. Hypothetically. Huh? It’s already on their schedule? What’s that? It’s gonna be really fun and cool and everyone should tune in? That’s so crazy. It’s almost like WE’RE COLLABORATING WITH RADIOUTD GO CHECK THEM OUT!!! Something like that.
