HELMSMAN

Wednesday2.19.14

Vol. 81 No. 074

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Tiger Babble 2Tigers’ Tales 5

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Of mice and research students 5

Number of applicants increases at U of M

An email was sent on behalf of Provost Michael David Rudd to all faculty and staff Monday detailing an increased number of undergradu-ate applications for the fall 2014 semester at both the Main and Lambuth campuses of the University of Memphis.

The email highlighted the increased statistics and had an attached link that graphed the data on the applicants, such as if the applicants are in-state, out-of-state, international or transfers. The graph also accounted for transfer applica-tions and border county residents.

The data shows that the University saw major increases in applicants in almost every category for under-graduate applicants compared to the fall 2013 semester, especially for out-of-state prospects.

The number of out-of-state applicants increased 229.8 percent while the Lambuth Campus saw an increase of 840 percent in out-of-state applications, although only 47 people applied.

Steve McKellips, director of Admissions at the U of M, believes there are many reasons for the increase in applications from out-of-state students, but cited a U.S News & World Report that placed the U of M in the top ten for student internships.

“The Main Campus delivers on future careers for its students, and people are considering that when they are thinking of schools to apply to,” McKellips said.

The University is also offering more scholarship programs for non-residents that makes it much more affordable.

As far as general applications at the U of M, there are many pos-sible reasons as to why the increase occurred for the upcoming fall semester. The scholarship dead-line was moved from February to December, forcing students to apply earlier than usual.

By David Creechnews@dailyhelmsman.com

Race and labor panel speaks on unions and living wages

Alvin Turner speaks on his experiences in the sanitation strike in Memphis in the 1960s.

Photo By Brandon caradine | Staff

New gender options go beyond male or female on Facebook

Facebook users now have the option to identify their gender beyond male or female.

On Feb. 13, the social media giant announced that the new update increases the gender vocabulary on users’ profiles by providing around 50 different terms for people to describe themselves, such as gender neutral, transsexual, androgynous or bigender.

Users also have the option to choose which pronoun — her, him and them — they would like their friends to use. Like other Facebook profile features, the new gender options hold the same privacy set-tings such as public, private or only friends.

The new option is relevant for those whose gender identity may not fit in a male or female category.

A person’s gender identity is the psychological sense of self as mas-culine or feminine and is not always the same as one’s biological sex,

according to the Oxford Reference Encyclopedia.

Sara Bridges is a Counsel Educations Psychological Research associate professor at the University of Memphis.

“What Facebook is doing is allow-ing people to represent themselves in the way that feels most natural and right to them rather than having to choose a binary that is not appropri-ate to what they feel inside,” Bridges said.

For transgender and gender neu-tral individuals, this is a big step

toward acceptance by those who don’t understand gender issues.

Kal Dwight came out as trans-gender to friends and family Oct. 11, known as National Coming Out Day, with a status post on Facebook and a gender change to male.

“I always knew I wasn’t on the normal gender binary,” the 22-year-old Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center volunteer said. “I never felt like I was a girl and I felt like I was in drag in girl’s clothes.”

When the option became avail-

By Hannah Baileynews@dailyhelmsman.com

The University of Memphis held the “Race and Labor in Memphis, 1968-Present” panel to discuss the

importance of unionizing and living wages on Tuesday.

Co-chairperson of the Progressive Student Alliance Brandon Shaw, 24, described the purpose of the panel as bridging the gap between oppressed people, referring to present-day unions

and the sanitation strikers of 1968.Joseph Wyatt, current Memphis

Sanitation Department employee and member of the union, said witnessing unfair terminations of coworkers and dehumanizing comments sparked his decision to get involved.

“When you get tired, and every-body else gets tired, something has to be done,” Wyatt said.

He was one of the six people who made up the panel.

By Wyatt’s side sat Alvin Turner,

By Amber Williamsnews@dailyhelmsman.com

see PANEL on page 3

see GENDER on page 4 see INCREASE on page 6

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www.dailyhelmsman.com2 • Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Baxter Leeche and Coby Smith who were sanitation strikers in 1968.

Turner recalled the original union of 1960.

“Thirty-three men went on strike (and) 33 men were fired,” Turner explained.

According to him, it took eight years to get it completely organized, and, on Feb. 13, 1968, about 1,300 men walked off the job to collectively fight for a living wage, something they had not previ-ously known.

“(We) didn’t know where the next meal was coming from,” Turner continued.

Ashley Cathey, a 26-year-old McDonald’s employee, was also on the panel.

She described herself as its younger voice.

“I just want all the younger people to stand up for themselves—don’t be afraid,” Cathey added.

Cathey admitted that $7.25 an hour is not worth it when, according to her, McDonald’s is making $5.5 billion a year.

“You think we don’t deserve $10, $12 or $15 with the union? They can spend $2 million on advertisement, but they can’t help us take care of our families,” Cathey vented.

Much like her elders, Cathey said that her generation must have the same bravery.

“Y’all had a lot of courage. We have to have courage. These people came from a long way to get to where they are,” she said.

She stressed the importance of not repeating history and urged the younger

Panel

Page 1

generation to make a change in less than eight years.

Thelma Rimmer, the vice president of Memphis’ chapter of the United Campus Workers, elaborated on Cathey’s statement.

“We have families and kids—it’s been hard,” Rimmer, who has been a custodian worker here at the University for seven years, said.

She compared the current-day living wage goal of unions with Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of equality.

“Nothing has really changed,” she continued.

She also attributed poor health to the minimal wages, citing stress as a direct result of not being able to pay bills.

Like Rimmer, Leeche compared the two time periods.

“We’ve come a long way, and we have a long way to go,” Leeche said.

He stated that young people should make it a priority to get an education in order to avoid falling into unfair worker’s traps like he did.

Smith said Memphis is important to the movement of unions. He was a member of the Black Power group The Invaders and helped organize student involvement in the sanitation strike of 68.

He advised this generation to take full advantage of the opportunities that have been placed before them. He recalled segregated unions when he was younger, noting that the times have indeed changed.

“It’s not about race anymore,” he said.While Turner acknowledges that

many fear standing up, it is the only action that will bring change for this generation.

“A day didn’t pass where I wasn’t afraid,” Turner, who was supporting a family during his strike, said. “In order to succeed, that’s what they have to do.”

Internships vary vastly from grunt duties to real-world experience, but one of the most important aspects for stu-dents is the size of the paycheck. More often than not, students living the non-financed dream might find themselves with more trouble than they bargained for.

In the summer of 2008, University of Tennessee-Knoxville senior Zachary Losher found himself taking out a $5,000 loan and working three intern-ships in New York City.

“I went up there because I was work-ing as the music director at the UT college radio station WTK. While I was there, I was in contact with promoters and label, and one of the promoters that I talked to had formed a good relation-ship with Domino Records,” Losher, who is currently a journalism grad-student at the University of Memphis, said. “When summer came around, she asked me if I wanted to work at Domino as a college-radio promotion intern.”

Losher left for NYC the day after classes ended for his fourth year of col-lege to work at the prestigious London-based label, which also has a wing locat-

ed in Brooklyn where Losher worked. Domino Records is the label for many of the world’s most notable indie-alterna-tive artists, including Animal Collective,

The Arctic Monkeys and The Kills.“I sent out mailers to all the radio

stations, I called the stations and talked to them and ask how the station liked

them, how the records were doing, etc.,” Losher said. “I also did other intern things: get coffee, answer phones, things like that.”

After budgeting more than $3,000 out of the initial loan for rent alone, Losher found himself answering Craigslist ads in an attempt to find a part-time job to help support himself while working as an unpaid intern at Domino.

“I found an internship at insound.com on Craigslist, which didn’t pay either, but they give all of their interns store credit, and I collect records, so I though that was good enough,” Losher said.

Instead of getting another job that might have paid, Losher took on a third unpaid internship with his roommate’s new promotion company that she was in the midst of starting after she had gotten laid off from her previous pro-motion company.

“I interned for her doing mailing, sending records to stations. I didn’t get

Before moving to New York City for an unpaid internship, Zachary Losher worked at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s radio station, WTK.

Photo courteSy of Zachary loSher

U of M grad student reminisces about unpaid internships, sleeping on couchesBy Samuel Pragernews@dailyhelmsman.com

see INTERN on page 4

The University of Memphis Wednesday, February 19, 2014 • 3

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paid for that either, but it pretty much consisted of hanging out with room-mates, drinking beers, going to shows and helping them decide whether or not they should represent certain artist,” Losher said.

Although money was tight, Losher said that by being an intern he was able to attend concerts and events through-out his summer in New York that he would of otherwise never had been able to afford.

“Even though the internships were unpaid they had their perks. I got to go to concerts for free all summer,” Losher said. “If I hadn’t gotten to do that so often, I wouldn’t have done nearly as much social stuff since the city is so expensive.”

Halfway through his stay in the city, Losher, who had known prior to arrival, found himself in a predicament. His roommates were moving to a new apartment and he had nowhere within his budget to live.

According to him, his roommates took pity on him and allowed him to live on their couch for the remaining time he had in the city, which was about a month and half. While living on the couch Losher still paid a quarter of the three-bedroom apartment’s rent, total-ing close to a $1,000 a month.

“At the time it was all great,” Losher

Intern

Page 3

said. “Sure it was stressful not having any money, but again I was young. Being in NYC and promoting records with these socialites who party and go out every night had this mystique of like, ‘Oh, I’m sleeping on a couch.’ A lot of the people you meet are all working for magazines and labels and radio stations and you get caught up in this whirlwind of hanging out with these musicians you admire, drinking every night and just being wild. Just having fun all the time.”

As the summer neared an end, Losher said he found himself reconsid-ering his career goals, as well as his self-conceptions which he said is one of the most impacting things about the whole experience although it didn’t directly relate to the internships themselves.

“Towards the end of my internship, although I was having fun, I realized that this wasn’t necessarily what I want-ed to do as a career,” Losher said. “By the end of the summer, I knew I was going to leave that lifestyle behind and not further pursue it. It was a great life experience, but going $5,000 in debt to have fun for a summer at the end of the day was not worth the time and effort.”

Losher left New York City behind after three months and headed back to UTK the day before his last semes-ter’s classes started. After graduating mid-year, Losher worked several jobs not related to his internship experi-ence for a few years before register-ing for Memphis’s journalism graduate program.

“At the end of the day, you see how

much of a scam unpaid internships are,” Losher said. “You get caught up in the allure of ‘Oh, its on my résumé,’ you get this experience, which is kind of cool, but in retrospect, I feel like it just made my résumé a little ‘cooler’ not necessar-ily better.”

Currently, Losher said he is still pay-ing off debt and attending the U of

M. He also noted that he would con-sider working for a similar company if the opportunity arose, however, it is no longer his ideal career goal. He hopes student’s weigh out the pros and cons of unpaid internships before jumping into one headfirst.

“I would really recommend to peo-ple who are looking at unpaid intern-

ships to first see if it’s actually going to be beneficial,” Losher said. “Really look into it and see if it pays to be unpaid, which sometimes it will. Ask previous interns for the company how their experience was. Try and get paid for the experience you’re earning rather than just trying to intern somewhere with a flashier name.”

able, Dwight changed his gender on Facebook from male to trans male. However, he admits that he is actually more gender neutral than male.

“If I didn’t live in Memphis, I wouldn’t pick a gender,” Dwight said. “But I want to work in politics, so I claim he.”

Gender neutrality is a misunder-stood issue, according to Dwight. He mentors individuals new to the MGLCC who struggle with issues surrounding gender identity and is an advocate for transgender rights in Memphis.

“I am proud when someone at the center admits to me that they prefer to be referred by the pronouns they, their and them,” Dwight said. “If you don’t feel like you are more ‘him’ or ‘her,’ that is just your identity. It’s just who you are.“

Whether it is through social media or telling friends or family, declaring

Gender

Page 1

a gender identity is a big step for a transgender or gender-neutral per-son, according to Bridges.

“It’s a huge step to declare who they are authentically,” Bridges said.

Bridges is currently develop-ing a gender identity course at the University of Memphis. The class will train counselors and psychotherapists to work with the transgender popula-tion on the transition and gender affirmation processes.

The transgender community does not receive the same civil liberties as non-transgender Americans. They face obstacles in housing, health care, economic opportunity, education, documentation, federal prisons, fam-ily recognition and immigration.

The National Center for Transgender Equality is working to change federal policy in these areas to advance transgender equality.

“For the larger community to understand that there are people in the world who identify differently, this is a very nice step in the right direction,” Bridges said. The “Gender” selection under the “Basic Information” section of the Facebook profile information

now contains more options than just “male” or “female.”

ScreenShotS

www.dailyhelmsman.com4 • Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Sheila Murphy was washing dishes when she got a call from DeSoto Central Elementary School. Her 7-year-old son Phillip was lay-ing on a cafeteria table bench in the fetal position. A doctor, who had come to evaluate another student, passed through the lunchroom and recognized Phillip’s symptoms.

“They told me that my son had Asperger syndrome,” Murphy said. “He had always been different but we didn’t know what it was. But once I had a name for it, I could try to understand and do more for him.”

Comprehending her son’s form of autism spectrum disorder was only the first step in the life long struggle. Raising a child with autism increases the medical cost on a family by up to six times according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Not all of Phillip’s meltdowns are always as quiet Murphy explained. Walking down the bright, flores-cent-lit crowded aisles of Wal-Mart on a Sunday afternoon could easily set him into a yelling fit. Murphy recalled mothers dressed in church clothing giving her and Phillip dis-approving looks.

“They think I’m spoiling or cod-dling him — that he is a brat — but it is not that simple,” Murphy said. “They have no clue what we are dealing with.”

Phillip, now 19 years old, has an IQ of 130 and has an extensive knowledge of astronomy and pre-historic creatures, but he has dif-ficulty communicating.

“It is physically uncomfortable for him to look someone in the eyes.” Murphy said. “It is difficult

for him to make friends. He does not go out often.”

The reason those with autism are not able to socialize with peo-ple is because they lack theory of mind said Charles D. Blaha, direc-tor of Experimental Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Memphis.

“While you can walk into a

room and look at people’s faces and determine their mood. Those with autism cannot,” Blaha said. “You can empathize with people because you assume you are similar. Those with autism have trouble relating.”

In the same way Murphy had to understand her son’s condition in order to give him proper care, Blaha and Guy Mittleman are working on understanding the cause of autism

so that methods of correcting it can be developed.

The research they have done on the brain has attracted students from around the world, but the studies are all on mice.

Suelen Boschen, a pharmacy graduate student, is visiting from Curitiba, Brazil, for six months.

“A mouse brain has 85 percent

genomic similarity to a human brain,” Boschen said. “The neural pathways, chemistry, receptors and enzymes are all the same.”

Eric McKimm, an Ohio State University graduate with a major in psychology concentrating in neu-roscience, said he came to study at the U of M because of Blaha’s broader approach to studying the brain.

“Most schools will focus on one part of the brain and are very niche,” McKimm said. “But the methods researched here are appli-cable across many disorders.”

Social behavior and cognitive reasoning are usually associated with the frontal cortex, which led some to originally believe this was the dysfunctional part of the autis-tic brain. However, Blaha’s research indicates that autism could come from a malfunctioning section located near the brain stem.

Low firing Purkinje cells, pro-duced in the cerebellum, causes the dentate to reduced levels of dopa-mine going to the frontal cortex.

“Any disruption of these path-ways causes problems,” Blaha said. “Over activity can cause schizo-phrenia and under activity leads to autism.”

For a long time, the cerebellum had been considered the home for only basic motor movement, but their research is revealing a cogni-tive layer, he said.

They have removed Purkinje cells from mice and discovered that the neurochemistry is almost identical to a human with autism. Blaha said that this is a strong sign that these cells play a huge factor in autism. In addition to measur-ing chemicals in the brain, their research has a behavioral aspect.

“The mice go through serial-reversal tests, similar to the ones given to humans,” McKimm said while opening up a white cabinet and pointing to a clear box with a touch-screen monitor in it. “The monitor changes images and the test animals have to pick which fig-ures are correct. Normal mice and humans can pass these test with no problem but autistic people and mice with no Purkinje cells fail it

every time.” Recently, the National Health

Institutes gave the research team a $2 million grant after looking at the evidence they had collected.

“So we are not the only ones confident in what we are doing,” Blaha said.

However, Blaha admits that there could be other issues that need to be addressed with autism, but the research these students are a part of will be the foundation for clinical trials down the road.

McKimm said he does it for the chance to collaborate under Blaha and Mittleman.

“This research allows me to think critically,” McKimm said. “Working with them has broadened my understanding of behavioral psychology and electrochemistry.”

Only 17 percent of adults with autism eventually live on their own according to a study published in Autism: international journal of research and practice. Although Phillip is high-functioning and has graduated high school, his mother still worries.

“It horrifies me to think that if something were to happen to me and my husband that my son could end up homeless,” she said. Struggling not to cry, she contin-ued: “You have to make plans for your adult child to either live with someone or hope they can be on their own.”

Blaha also hopes those liv-ing with the disorder can be independent.

“If we could affect at least the more behavioral aspects of the dis-order or possibly increase function-ing levels so that those with the syndrome could live on their own and not be a danger to themselves — that would be beautiful.”

How did you spend your fi rst paycheck?

By Robbie PorterTigers’ Ta es

“I bought a nice sweater. It was a really nice sweater.”

Erika Williams, Biology sophomore

“I went shopping and bought myself some clothes.”

Adrian Sanders, Supply chain

management senior

“I filled up my truck.”

Hunter Sutton, Biology sophomore

“I used my first check to buy an ENO.”

Isabell Hornsby, Pre-nursing sophomore

“It covered my court costs, because I didn’t stop for a school bus.”

Briana Irvan, Pre-nursing sophomore

Of mice and research students

Savannah Traybosh (right), general psychology graduate stu-dent, anesthetizes a mouse to be studied. The Psychology Department has a veterinarian on staff to maintain the mice in colonies similar to how they live in the wild.

Photo By Jonathan a. caPriel | Staff

By Jonathan A. Caprielnews@dailyhelmsman.com

U of M students’ research helps to understand autism

The University of Memphis Wednesday, February 19, 2014 • 5

The University of Memphis will host one of the nation’s most pro-vocative artists on Feb. 20.

Arist damali ayo, who stylizes her name with lowercase letters, will be coming to the University Center Theatre to present “Race-girl: How an Artist Tackled a Touchy Subject, and How It Tackled Her,” a lecture on her experiences as a black artist.

In “Race-girl”, ayo explains how the very same institutions that fund and promote the arts can also stifle artistic creation by pigeonholing black artists into making only art that deals with race.

The lecture was opportunis-tically timed—February is Black History Month and March is Women’s History Month.

Robert Marczynski, assis-tant director of Interdisciplinary Studies, said that ayo could bridge the gap and reach a wide audience.

“She would really like people to take a look at the whole notion of race and ethnicity, not just how we define other people but how we define ourselves,” Marczynski said.

The lecture is part of a larger exhibit entitled “Race: Are We So Different?”, currently featured

at the Pink Palace Museum. The exhibit explores race relations

using photographs, multime-dia presentations and historical

artifacts. The lecture is co-presented by

the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities and the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change. The Program in African and African American Studies is also sponsoring the event.

Ayo rose to national promi-nence after the 2005 debut of rent-a-negro.com, a satirical website which grew out of the artist’s feel-ings that she was a “professional black person,” and advertised a fictional company that allowed people to rent a black person.

Prospective renters were told that this was a great way to seem more multicultural and interest-ing without, as the website puts it, “the commitment of learning about racism, challenging your own white privilege, or being labeled ‘radical.’” Ayo shut the website down in 2012 amid a flur-ry of racist hate mail.

Ayo is also the author of a number of books, including the book version of rent-a-negro.com, “How to Rent a Negro,” which won an honorable mention from Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in 2005 and “Obamistan! Land without Racism: Your Guide to the New America” in 2010, a book that seeks to debunk the idea that America has moved beyond

race in the wake of the election of Barack Obama by providing a satirical look at a nation where racism truly was defeated in 2008 and how it would change our national identity.

Though ayo’s most prominent and popular works have focused on race relations, her work cov-ers everything from gender and sexual orientation to music, spiri-tuality and the creative process.

Her visual art, focusing on such subjects as family secrets, sexual assault and public image versus private feelings has been exhib-ited in museums in New York, Portland, Ore. and other museums across the globe. She is also one of the cofounders of Portland’s Defunkt Theater and served as a set designer, winning Drammy awards for set design in 2001 and 2003.

A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by ayo’s lecture at 6 p.m. Admission is free.

Applications are now being accepted for theStudent Activities Council Executive Board

Plan Events - Work with Artists & Agents - Become a LeaderMake Friends - Build Campus Community

Applications are available in UC 211 & online at:www.memphis.edu/sac/join.php

Informational SessionsMonday & Tuesday, Feb. 24 & 25 • 5-6 p.m. • UC 203

Applications must be submitted by Friday, March 7 @ 4:30 p.m. in UC 211

The University also implemented an Application Fee Waiver system, which replaces the application fee. The eligibility takes into account an individual’s ACT/SAT score, status as a ward of the state or placement in foster care and participation in the Federal Free or Reduced Lunch Program.

McKellips also credits the recruit-ment staff for the rise in applications.

“There have been tremen-dous efforts from the recruitment staff, both directly and indirectly,” McKellips said. “They have been calling high school seniors and talk-ing to them about the U of M, as well as sending emails and meeting them face to face.”

The U of M has also seen a 24.5 percent increase in transfer appli-cations for the fall 2014 semester. While returning home may be a huge deciding factor to transfer, only 28 percent of the transfer applications came from outside of Tennessee. McKellips credits the maturity of the students as a big reason they transfer.

“After students go to school some-where, they realize what they want to study,” McKellips said. “They know which schools offer the best pro-grams and go to get it.”

The Lambuth Campus has seen a monumental growth in applications for the fall 2014 semester. With less than 1,000 students, many are apply-

ing there for a private school feel with a public school cost.

“The Lambuth Campus is begin-ning to become its own realized school,” McKellips said. “Many stu-dents don’t want to go to a school with 23,000 students. They want the dynamic of a university in the coun-try. It’s a small school with a small price tag.”

As for what future application rates have in store, the admissions

department has no definite answer. “The majority of the applications

are behind us,” McKellips said. “Most high school seniors have found their place. There may be more applica-tions in the future, but certainly not as many as we have received already.”

Franklin Wallace, a 17-year-old senior at Faith Heritage Christian Academy, is planning on attending the U of M in the fall to study architecture.

“It’s a great local school and a lot of kids don’t realize that,” Wallace said. “The architecture program is amazing, so I don’t have any reason to move out of town for my studies.”

In order to gain experience, Wallace is planning on interning sometime during his college career.

Luke Enzor, a Memphis native, transferred to the University of Memphis from Mississippi State for the fall 2013 semester.

“I wanted more aspects of the col-lege life,” Enzor said. “I really wanted to become more involved.”

Enzor also said changing majors as a reason he returned to Memphis.

“I changed my major from biol-ogy to communications with a focus in film and video,” Enzor said. “The University of Memphis has a much better film curriculum and a bet-ter Communications Department overall.”

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Provocative artist comes to campus

damali ayo says her early focus on race relations has stifled her creativity.

Photo courteSy of damali ayo

By Joey Kachelnews@dailyhelmsman.com

Send us your thoughts@dailyhelmsman#tigerbabble

www.dailyhelmsman.com6 • Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Just a free throw or rebound could have sealed the game for the University of Memphis men’s basketball team on Saturday in Connecticut, but the University of Connecticut made both hard to come by for the Memphis (19-6, 8-4 AAC) in the 86-81 UConn (20-5, 8-4 AAC) win in overtime.

The loss puts Memphis, who stayed in the AP Top 25 on Monday, in fifth place in the American Athletic Conference behind the University of Cincinnati, the University of Louisville, Southern Methodist University and UConn, respectively. It also gave UConn the advantage over the Tigers in the case of a tie in conference record come tournament time.

Memphis head coach Josh Pastner would have liked to get the win on Saturday, but he was pleased with the way his team performed.

“I’m glad that we stayed in the polls,” the fifth-year coach said. “Saturday was a great high-level game. We played really well as did UConn, and they made a couple of extra plays and that’s kind of what it was.”

All four teams ahead of Memphis in the American currently sit inside the top 25 except SMU (20-5, 9-3 AAC), who fell out this week following a tough-road loss to Temple.

The No. 22 U of M has battled every inner-conference foe at least once, and they’ve faced several teams twice. The American has proved to be a much more daunting task than their former conference — Conference USA.

Pastner feels like the tougher con-ference has prepared the Tigers for postseason play more so than in previ-ous years.

“I think the schedule — both non-conference and conference — have prepared us for the NCAA Tournament,” Pastner said. “Now for us to get to the NCAA Tournament, we have to win more games. It’s not a birthright. You’re not guaranteed to get in. You’ve got to work to get there.”

The AAC has also proved to be a five-horse race. UConn and Memphis each have an 8-4 conference record and sit at fourth and fifth, respectively. The sixth-ranked team in the AAC,

the University of South Florida, holds a 3-10 conference record. For any of the bottom five teams to catch UConn or Memphis, the Tigers or Huskies would have to lose the remainder of their games with any of the bot-tom five winning out, which is highly unlikely.

Memphis still has time to surge to the top of the American standings. They are only three games back of Cincinnati –—the current leader — in the loss column with six games

remaining.“For what’s at stake, there’s not an

option but for us to play unbelievable and great and have so much respect for our opponent,” Pastner said. “You’ve got to bring it, and at this time of the year if there’s any slippage, you shouldn’t be playing.”

The Tigers play six more con-ference games before the confer-ence tournament here in Memphis. They travel to Rutgers University on Thursday to take on the Scarlet

Knights, who the Tigers crushed 101-69 in their first meeting. Then, the Blue and Gray host Temple, who they beat 79-69 earlier in the season on the road, at FedExForum on Saturday. Then, the Tigers have two road games — at Cincinnati and the University of Houston — and two home games (Louisville and SMU) before starting the postseason.

Memphis boasts victories over Rutgers, Temple, Houston and Louisville, but they will be looking

for their first wins over SMU and Cincinnati. The Mustangs beat the U of M in Dallas 87-72 on Feb. 1, and the Bearcats defeated the Tigers 69-53 at FedExForum on Jan. 4. Both game are especially important in case of a tiebreak.

The Rutgers, Temple and Houston games shouldn’t present the 22nd ranked Tigers with too much of chal-lenge, but the games against SMU, Cincinnati and Louisville hold numer-ous postseason implications for seed-ing in both the AAC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.

With games against Rutgers and Temple this week, the Tigers refuse to take anyone lightly.

“Right after the game, coach (Pastner) stressed about how this week is going to be important for us,” senior forward David Pellom said. “We need to get two victories this week. Coming out with two wins this week will defi-nitely give us an edge.”

Pastner agreed with Pellom, saying the next three games are more impor-tant than the games against Louisville, Cincinnati and UConn because of the way the RPI ranking works — tending to punish teams more for bad losses than quality wins.

With losses to SMU and Cincinnati earlier, Memphis can only force a split, meaning a tie would be determined based on which team fared better against the American’s top teams all the way down the rankings until one team gained an advantage, rather than the two teams’ head-to-head record. For example, if Memphis beats Cincinnati and both teams finish with the same conference record, the team that fared better against the highest ranked teams in the conference would receive the higher seed.

A win over Louisville would guar-antee the Tigers an advantage in the case of a tie.

Wins over those three teams would be huge for Tigers in climbing the American’s standings as well. With each win, Memphis would gain a game in both the win and loss columns.

The U of M can still secure the reg-ular season conference championship with a strong finish and some missteps from the teams ahead in the stand-ings, but it all begins Thursday with a matchup against Rutgers at 6 p.m.

Senior forward David Pellom has struggled with injuries all season, but his role has become even more important with the suspension of reserve freshman big man Dominic Woodson.

Photo By david c. minkin | SPecial to the daily helmSman

By Hunter Fieldsports@dailyhelmsman.com

Tigers eye top slot in conference tourney

Noose tied on Ole Miss integration statue OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — The FBI

on Tuesday was helping investigate who tied a noose around the neck of a University of Mississippi statue of James Meredith, who, in 1962, became the first black student to enroll in the then all-white Southern college.

University police on Sunday morning found the rope noose and, on the statue’s face, a pre-2003 Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle symbol, said campus police Chief Calvin Sellers. Two men were seen near the statue early Sunday and investigators were looking at surveillance footage.

“It’s a racial hate crime,” Mississippi NAACP president

Derrick Johnson said Tuesday after a news conference at the state Capitol in Jackson. “At what level do they get prosecuted? I don’t know. But as long as we tolerate hate, we will continue to revisit history and the past of this state, and at some point we must move forward.”

In a statement, Chancellor Dan Jones condemned the action as con-trary to the beliefs and values of the university community.

“These individuals chose our university’s most visible symbol of unity and educational accessibility to express their disagreement with our values,” Jones said. “Their ideas have no place here, and our response will be an even greater commitment

to promoting the values that are engraved on the statue — Courage, Knowledge, Opportunity, and Perseverance.”

University police asked for the FBI’s help, said Deborah R. Madden, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi FBI office in Jackson.

About 150 Ole Miss students, black and white, rallied around the Meredith statue Tuesday to protest the vandalism, according to Charlie Mitchell, a journalism professor who attended the event. They held post-ers with several hand-written slo-gans, including, “Justice for African-Americans,” ‘’Respect the Students” and “This is Our University.” One poster said: “The actions done in the

cowardly dark will never diminish the light of James Meredith’s legacy nor our creed.”

Johnson said there is a problem with Old South imagery at Ole Miss.

“You cannot have a university where, when you turn down the main drag, it’s called Confederate Drive. ... At some point, we’re going to have to reverse course on the image of Ole Miss so we can reverse course on the image of the state of Mississippi,” he said.

The Ole Miss Alumni Association is offering at $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

When Meredith tried to enter Ole Miss in fall 1962, Mississippi’s governor tried to stop him, and that

led to violence on the Oxford cam-pus. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 500 U.S. marshals to take control and days later, Meredith was allowed in the school. Though he faced harassment during his time at the school, he graduated with a degree in political science

Assistant to the Chancellor for Multicultural Affairs Don Cole reit-erated the creed that the university stands by.

“This is particularly painful because the James Meredith statue has become a gathering place for students to discuss many things, including the tenets of our creed, which calls for dignity and respect for all people,” he said.

The University of Memphis Wednesday, February 19, 2014 • 7

The University of Memphis base-ball team started off the season on the right foot with three-straight victories in a sweep of Western Michigan at FedExPark over the weekend.

The Tigers fell behind in the first two games but were able to regroup and secure the victory in each.

“You’re always happy to get sweeps, especially early in the year,” Memphis head coach Daron Schoenrock said. “I think the keys to the sweep were one, we have some-what of a veteran lineup. We were behind the first two games and they never really panicked.”

The Memphis coach said that another key was that the Tigers played consistent defense.

The sweep was fueled by strong pitching by the Tigers, with Western Michigan scoring just two runs in each of the three matchups. Memphis took the first meeting 3-2, the second 4-2 and closed the series 5-2.

Senior second baseman Zach Willis led the Tigers offensively, recording six hits, two RBIs and two runs in 10 at-bats.

The road gets much tougher for Memphis as they have a short turn-around before their road game at No. 7 Mississippi State, who advanced all the way to the Championship Series of the College World Series a season ago, falling to UCLA.

Pitching gives Mississippi State the edge over most of their oppo-nents, according to Schoenrock.

“They return the key ingredi-ents of that pitching staff (from the national runner-up team),” the tenth-year coach said. “You’ve gotta figure out a way to go into the fifth or sixth inning with the lead, because they have a shutdown men-tality with their bullpen.”

The Tigers will play just one game against the Bulldogs as opposed to

a full series which poses its own unique challenges.

“One game series are tough,” Schoenrock said. “Really in college baseball you do whatever you can to win each day. We don’t typi-cally throw our weekend rotation of pitchers on weekday games.”

Schoenrock added he might use more pitchers in a single game than a full weekend series.

The game also marks the first time Memphis will play on the road this season.

This season is the first for the Tigers in the American Athletic Conference. While the new confer-ence brings tougher competition in

sports such as basketball or football, Schoenrock doesn’t think that it will be a major difference for the base-ball team.

“We are coming from a very good baseball league. You could say we’re prepared,” Schoenrock said. “This league top-to-bottom is going to be just as good as Conference USA.”

American Athletic Conference member Louisville is ranked No. 13 in the latest rankings, while Rice from C-USA is slotted at No. 11. No other schools from either confer-ence are ranked in the top 30.

First pitch for the Tigers and Bulldogs is set for 6:30 pm Wednesday in Starkville, Miss.

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Baseball hopes to bully No. 7 Bulldogs following sweepBy Austin Reynoldssports@dailyhelmsman.com

Senior second baseman Zach Willis batted in two runs in the series against Western Michigan. He and the Tigers hope to stay hot against the No. 7 Bulldogs on Wednesday.

Photo By Joe murPhy | SPecial to the daily helmSman

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www.dailyhelmsman.com8 • Wednesday, February 19, 2014