april 5, 2012
DESCRIPTION
This is the April 5, 2012 issue of The Johnsonian, Winthrop University's campus newspaper.TRANSCRIPT
CAMPUS NEWS 2-5
OPINION 6-7
SCIENCE & TECH 8-9
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 10-11
CULTURE 12
SPORTS 13-15
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INDEX
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THURSDAY April 5, 2012 WINTHROP UNIVERSITY Issue 24
Do you know how to balance the good, the bad and the sloppy?See Opinion, page 6
Track and field finishes strong
Patrick Nickler, freshmen, sprints for Winthrop in last weekend’s Invintational. Photo by Sarah Auvil • [email protected]
JEFF BRODEUR
The idea of home fi eld advantage proved itself true, as the Eagles track and fi eld teams were running strong in the 2012 Winthrop Invitational this past weekend.
The ladies squad took home three second place fi nishes on the second day of the event. Mariam Abdullah, Jessica Whitmire and Jeanne Stroud fi nished as the top run-ner ups in the long jump, 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter respectively.
Leading the pack for the women on day three was junior Sharrone Honor, who captured three fi rst place fi nishes. The Fort Washington, MD Native tallied the best times for the 200 meter dash, the 4X100 relay, and the 100 meter hurdles, beating out her own teammate, freshman Synera Shelton.
Shelton was just one of several freshman Chanda Cucklar, Ohio University, vaults during the Winthrop Invita-tional. Photo by Sarah Auvil • [email protected]
See ATHLETES page 14
SPORTS
DSU chief awarded highest accolade, leadership honor
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
MONICA KREBER
Last February, University Programs Director Boyd Jones sat in a room full of 2500 people during the National Asso-ciation for Campus Activities’ (NACA’s) national conference, held in Charlotte.
At one point dur-ing the conference a speaker began to an-nounce the winner of the NACA’s Founders Award, the association’s
highest honor. The award, according to the association’s website, is given to those individuals who, during the years, have given their time and talents in such a way as to contribute signifi cantly to NACA.
“It’s like a Lifetime award,” Jones said.As the speaker began to describe the
winner of this year’s Founders Award, Jones found himself fl ipping through his conference program book.
“Then they said a thing or two that kinda made me think, ‘Oh, that person sounds like a nice person. I’ll be sure to write them a note to congratulate them,’” Jones said.
Jones was not listening completely and then he heard his name being announced. He looked at assistant director for univer-sity affairs Mike Rapay.
Boyd JonesUniversity Programs Director See JONES page 11
SPORTS
Men’s basketball head coach dribbles way to Winthrop U.
DAVID THACKHAM
It was plain to any-one watching that the Winthrop Eagles men’s basketball team went out with a whimper in their 2012 Big South Tourna-ment loss to the Virginia Military Institute earlier this March.
Winthrop needed a spark to regain some life
in the troubled program (25-37 in the past two seasons). It needed some energy to revitalize the fan base. It needed a leader to bring excite-ment back to the Win-throp Coliseum. For all intents and purposes, Winthrop has found just the man for the job.
Enter Coach Pat Kelsey. The former Wake Forest and Xavier as-sistant coach was hired
as head coach of the Eagles last Thursday to a 6-year, $175,000 a year contract, making him the highest-paid man at Winthrop.
Kelsey replaces former coach Randy Peele, who was fi red after the pro-gram’s second straight losing season. He will be formally introduced to the community and
See COACH page 13
NEWS
Police: Tennis player punches teammate
JONATHAN MCFADDEN
A senior Winthrop men’s tennis player was arrested and charged with assault and battery after he knocked a fellow tennis player unconscious in the Dinkins parking lot last Wednes-day, police say.
Luka Stanic, a political science ma-jor from Boca Raton, Fla., is accused of repeatedly punching a fellow team-mate in the face, resulting in a broken nose, lacerated lip and concussion-de-rived injuries, according to a Campus Police report.
However, during an interview with The Johnsonian, Stanic maintained that the victim initially “antagonized him,” forcing him to retaliate after he himself was on the receiving end of mistreatment.
The victim, a freshman, told police that he, Stanic and another tennis player, Stanic’s roommate, were wait-ing in the Dinkins parking lot a little after midnight on Wednesday to catch a ride on the party bus to Charlotte.
The three athletes missed the bus, so the other player walked over to the
meadow parking lot to ask for a ride from another bus driver.
Stanic drove all three players to the parking lot. Because the car was over-crowded, the victim rode in Stanic’s trunk, the report says.
Once the three exited the vehicle, Stanic locked his truck. The victim realized he left his cell phone in the trunk and asked Stanic to unlock the car so he could get it.
Stanic ignored the victim’s request, the report says.
After a few minutes of being ig-nored, the victim told police that he began getting loud at Stanic, demand-
...He was doing stu� most people would � nd out of control. Luca StanicSenior tennis player
“”See PUNCH page 4
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
DEVANG JOSHI & CATHERINE ZENDE
[email protected], [email protected]
Illegal downloading is not just an issue for students. Universities are also under legal pressure to monitor and prevent students from illegally down-loading torrents of music, movies and software online.
To fi ght the piracy battle, Winthrop’s division of information technology has equipment to hinder the downloading and they are considering new technolo-gy to even track downloads on campus.
The big picture
At the beginning of every semester, students receive a mass email regard-ing the dangers of illegally downloading copyrighted materials, but few know why the email is sent.
James Hammond, associate vice president for information technology at Winthrop, explained that the email is
part of Winthrop’s efforts to be com-pliant with a federal law. According to Hammond, illegal downloads are a big problem for college campuses.
For Hammond, there are three main reasons to stop illegal downloading on college campuses: to stop enabling, to comply with the law and to protect bandwidth.
“You know potentially that your students are illegally downloading. You don’t like to know they are doing something wrong and not do anything about it because it is almost like you are enabling that,” Hammond said.
In addition, part of the Higher Educa-tion Opportunity Act of 2008 requires universities to make efforts to stop illegal downloading.
Finally, Hammond is concerned about maintaining adequate band-width. “You’d hate to think that you’re sucking away bandwidth for an illegal activity,” Hammond said.
According to Hammond, Winthrop is
Online piracy hindered by techNew tech program inhibits illegal downloading, WU
considering program tracking future illegal piracy
See PIRACY page 8
WU’s sole Kurdish student reflects on battle for independence.See Culture, page 12
Model UN student immigrate to Winthrop for hearty debates.See News, page 2
THURSDAYApril 5, 2012
JONATHAN MCFADDENNews Editor
AMANDA PHIPPSAssistant News Editor
2
By Zoe [email protected]
Twenty-six high schools from South Carolina, North Carolina and Geor-gia participated in this year’s Model United Na-tion conference on Mar. 28- 30.
The conference is for the high school students and the focus is on debating, not writing resolutions. Recent uprisings in the Middle East was the theme of the conference.
Model U.N. Secretary General Chris Addison said that the goal for this event was to raise aware-ness, not only about the United States but interna-tionally as well.
The college students in the political science 260 class served as represen-tatives for each country. They helped guide the high schoolers through the events over the three day period.
Brandi Geurkink is a freshman and represented Venezuela. Geurkink had three high schoolers to ad-vise.
When the students she was working with got ner-vous, she had to talk them through it.
“I said you are Venezu-ela. You can say whatever you want to say. That made them a little less nervous,” Geurkink said.
Geurkink told her stu-dents that knowing a lot of facts and putting heart into their work would make for meaningful speeches.
Dawn Lisk, Nation Ford High School’s advisor, had her students practice de-
bating and learn the rules and proper procedures in preparation for the confer-ence.
“They learn how to have a civil debate, how to in-teract and meet new peo-ple. It helps their personal skills,” Lisk said of the things her students will gain from participating in the conference.
Not only did the high schoolers reap the ben-efits of participating in this event, but the college students also gained new experiences.
Chris Van Aller, political director of Model UN, said that the students learn to take chances. Van Aller said that Model UN teach-es students that they have to be willing to be criti-cized and embarrassed in order to learn and do bet-ter.
“While it might be scary to learn about the world and do public speaking, at the same time it can be fun. Coming to something like this wakes them up to the fact that there’s a big world out there. They learn what it takes to be successful,” Van Aller said.
Winthrop offers three political science classes that deal with Model UN.
“Everyone should take Model UN. It’s an awe-some class,” Geurkink said.
High schoolers pour hearts into Model UN debates
Students debate and deliberate on issues surrounding other countries. This year’s debate had students consider solutions to quell recent uprisings in the Middle East. Photos by Claire VanOstenbridge • [email protected]
Countries ranging from the Horn of Africa to the Middle East were represented at this year’s confer-ence. Photo by Claire VanOstenbridge • [email protected].
Interested in learn-ing more about the Model UN classes?
• Contact Dr. Van Aller: [email protected].
By Amanda [email protected]
Media and democracy go hand in hand, said former U.S. Rep. John Spratt to a group of students during a visit to a Winthrop jour-nalism class last Thursday.
As a former member of the U.S. Congress, Spratt has been through his fair share of elections and said the role media plays can-not be overlooked.
“We couldn’t run a de-mocracy as well as we do without the media,” he said.
Though Spratt admitted reporters misquoted him in the past, he said this was not deliberate and there is an active link between me-dia and congress.
“Congress members have a way of dealing with reporters,” he said.
Spratt said the Obama campaign understood how important media is.
“The Internet is the new frontier in political cam-
paigning,” he said. This relationship be-
comes even more impor-tant as more money is put into elections, Spratt said.
Spratt said the biggest issue facing the candidates is the economy.
He also touched on edu-cational spending.
“The government has an enormous interest in edu-cation,” Spratt said. “We have to put out resources in the infrastructure of ed-ucation to be competitive.”
Spratt has been teaching at Winthrop as a visiting
professor since last semes-ter.
In 2010, he lost in the congressional election race to Mick Mulvaney, a Republican from Indian Land.
Spratt talks media, politics at WU classroom visit
By Jonathan [email protected]
Believe it or not, Ron Paul is Jesus, sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken and art is what you can get away with.
At least, that’s some of the random expressions of free speech students have been posting on the Di-Giorgio Campus Center’s latest attraction —a yellow wall made for writing whatever, erected by the College Libertar-ians.
Kicking off Free Speech Week, the group of students pin-ing for liberty searched “the interwebs” and found that people put up free speech walls to celebrate a basic First Amendment Right, said Trey Stokes, president of the College Libertarians.
Earlier this week, Stokes and members of the College Libertar-ians built the wall from
plywood. It took about 30 minutes to make, he said.
Anything can go on the wall except death threats, Stokes said.
Thus far, someone has openly admitted to be-ing bisexual. They also add: “That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with me.”
Someone else has drawn a marijuana leaf and beside it posted: “Legalize freedom.”
Another person has rebuffed Paul’s claim to godhood by writing, “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.”
Profanity and dirty words are allowed, Stokes said, and the university has signed off on it.
John Spratt The Free Speech Wall stands in the campus center’s lobby. Photo by Allison Angel • [email protected].
The Internet has changed the way politi-cians campaign.
DIGS wall gives students chance to let it all out
THURSDAY April 5, 2012 3
By Amanda [email protected]
How many books can someone check out at one time?
This is the most com-mon question asked at Dacus Library and the an-swer may surprise some students.
While there is no limit for how many books a stu-dent can check out over the semester or even over a week, there are only so many books a person can
have checked out at one time.
That number is 512. This means that a per-
son cannot check out any more than 512 books at one time since a person’s record cannot hold more than that at once, Dean of Library Services Mark Herring said.
This number is also in place to make sure the li-brary stays stocked.
“The other point would be less obvious, but check-ing out 512 books in, say
biology, would pretty much ransack that area for the duration of the check-out,” he said.
Even though this limit has been in place since the 1970s, no one has ever come close to reaching it, Herring said.
“Of course, even if you wanted to check out 513 books at one time, getting them to your car would prove most difficult, too,” he said.
How many books??
Worldwide Winthrop Day
By Sydney [email protected]
Despite the rain, over 600 families participated in the festivities.
March 31 saw the second annual World Wide Winthrop Day, where students, alumni and members of the extended Win-throp community showed their Eagle Pride by wearing their garnet and gold gear.
On campus, ac-cepted freshmen were given the VIP treatment as they were introduced to all that they can expect upon arrival in the fall.
The students and their families had
the opportunity to tour campus, speak with professors and explore the opportu-nities that Winthrop offers.
Over a bar-b-que lunch, members of the Winthrop admin-istration welcomed the newest additions to the Winthrop community.
Throughout the day, there were sev-eral entertainment options, including a photo booth, the Big Red Chair and an inflatable obstacle course. After lunch, representatives from university depart-ments and student organizations greeted many families in the West Center.
Library construction changes students’ routeBy Amanda [email protected]
Students will have to do their work a little differ-ently this summer.
Dacus library will re-main open, but construc-tion to remodel the main floor will begin on May 2nd.
President DiGiorgio an-nounced the proposed im-provements to the library during a Board of Trust-ees meeting on Feb. 1. The plan includes technology infused study rooms and a new area for circulation.
During construction, the main door to Dacus will be closed students will enter the library through the emergency exit on the side of the building, Dean of Library Services Mark Herring said.
The handicap accessible entrance will be located at the back of the building and there will be a card-
swipe system located at both entrances.
After they have entered the library, students can access the second and basement floors, Herring said.
The construction is planned for 24 weeks and should be completed be-fore the semester begins. Herring encouraged stu-dents to have patience during construction.
“It will be chaotic,” he said. “But if people work with us, I think we can manage it.”
The improvements will also include 24-hour ac-cess for students.
The new hours will be implemented for two full semesters. If these hours are not used, they will not be available in the future, Herring said.
“We can’t do this if there is not enough interest,” he said.
During the extended
hours, students will have access to the main floor of Dacus and the computers, but no other services, such as copying, will be offered, Herring said.
There will be a security guard on duty.
Herring said while stu-dents may be inconve-nienced over the summer, it is for a bigger goal.
“This will hopefully improve the main floor and we look forward to changes to the second and third floor in the future,” he said. “We are trying to keep services available.”
Dacus LibrarySummer Hours:
M-Th: 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Fri.: 7: 30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sat. and Sun.: Closed
Even with extensive research projects, no student has ever reached limit on the 512 books they can check out at once. Graphic by Courtney Niskala • [email protected]
Families, students show WU spirit
Diagram courtesy of Dacus Library.
THURSDAY April 5, 2012 4
-ing that he open the trunk.
In response, Stanic punched the victim several times in the face, knocking him to the ground.
Stanic says that he didn’t know anything about a phone being locked in the car until after the fi ght was over, he said.
More than that, he’s never had any kind of physical or verbal con-frontation with the victim in question, he said.
“We were all pretty close friends,” he said. “One thing led to another, and he was acting what I would consider out of line.”
“I went out of my way to calm him down almost,” he said.
Because the incident is a pending legal mat-ter, Stanic declined from explaining what he meant by “out of line.”
“…He was doing stuff most people would fi nd out of control,” Stanic said.
Acting out of what he called “self-defense,” Stanic punched his
“friend,” he said. The other player re-
turned to the Dinkins lot and pushed Stanic away from the victim. The play-er helped the victim to the Dinkins Hall bathroom, where he cleaned off his face, which was bleeding excessively, the report states. At this time, the victim asked the player to take him to the hospital.
The victim, the other player and another friend who arrived on the scene took the freshman to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken nose, according to the report.
During this time, Stanic began sending text mes-sages to the other player, threatening the sopho-more with bodily harm, the report states.
Stanic was allegedly upset that the player was taking sides, the report says.
Stanic admits that he and his roommate got into an argument via text mes-sage, but it wasn’t threat-ening or overtly serious.
“…I felt that he wasn’t exactly being impartial,” he said.
Stanic said he was frus-trated and probably did
text things he shouldn’t have. At the close of their text message conversa-tion, Stanic said he and his roommate started joking.
Nevertheless, Stanic’s roommate turned over his text messages to Campus Police for evidence.
Offi cials also charged Stanic with the unlawful use of a telephone.
The next morning, the victim was released from the hospital. Once leav-ing the hospital, the two players went to Winthrop police and reported the incident.
Stanic’s coach, Andrew Stubbs, informed him that authorities had warrants for his arrest.
So, Stanic turned him-self in.
Stanic confi rmed that he has legal representa-tion. He’s been temporar-ily suspended from the tennis team, unable to compete in matches.
He’s been trespassed from campus, allowed only to attend classes.
“They told me to basi-cally stay out of trouble and go to class,” he said.
Chief of Campus Police Frank Zebedis confi rmed that the investigation is
closed.“Winthrop PD signed
the warrants on Stanic and it was the PD’s deci-sion to prosecute because of all the facts in the case,” he said.
Though slated to graduate in May, Stanic will face the university’s judicial proceedings, said Sean Blackburn, assistant dean of students.
The judicial council will convene at the end of the month, Blackburn said.
Winthrop’s Athletic Department refrained from commenting on the situation.
Athletic Director Tom Hickman was unreachable for comment.
Several administrative offi cials declined to com-ment.
Report: Tennis player punched teammate, sent texts threatening bodily harm to friend
I went out of my way to calm him down al-most. Luka StanicSenior men’s tennis player
“”
By Shamira [email protected]
On a chilly night such as last Tuesday, several Winthrop students didn’t let the time or location pre-vent them from paying respect to the life and death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin at a vigil entitled “Cold Blooded.”
The event was organized by the Mu Xi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
In addition to two performances by the Vision of Prayze Gospel Choir, Adolphus Belk, associ-ate professor of political science, gave a speech appropriate for the occasion.
“I stand before you as what he could have become,” Belk said in reference to Martin.
Belk wore a black hoodie during his speech and assured the crowd that no one could see his degrees through his clothing.
“The hoodie isn’t the problem,” he said. “People say it could have happened to anyone, no it couldn’t.”
Being certain that race was not inject-ed into the issue but was apart of it the entire time, Belk explained to the crowd that he too has previously been a suspect and judged because of race.
“I know what it’s like to be a suspect,” he said.
On Feb. 26, 28-year-old George Zim-merman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, after following the teen in a patrol car.
Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in a gated Sanford, Fla. commu-nity, called police and reported him as a suspicious person.
Martin had just returned from a con-venience store. He held a bag of skittles and a bottle of iced tea in his hands.
Dispatch instructed Zimmerman to take no action.
He didn’t listen.Zimmerman confronted Martin. In the end, Martin was dead.Zimmerman told police that he shot
Martin in self-defense after the teenager attacked him.
Taking his word and blood on the back of his head as proof of his claims, San-ford police refused to arrest or charge Zimmerman.
Offi cials have cited the state’s Stand Your Ground law to justify not arresting Zimmerman.
The Stand Your Ground law states that
individuals who feel threatened can use lethal force to defend themselves.
Over 20 states adopt Stand Your Ground laws, including South and North Carolinas.
Nearly a month later, the incident has incited several rallies and vigils around the nation.
According to the Florida legislative website, the law states that a person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to pre-vent the commission of a forcible felony.
“[Zimmerman] pursued and engaged,” Belk said. “He got out of that car and engaged.”
Belk said there are some rather nega-tive consequences of the Stand Your Ground Law.
Leslie Landrum, president of the Mu Xi chapter of AKA, said that it was key that the chapter spread awareness to the case.
“Our whole purpose of this event was to spread awareness,” Landrum said. “You have to be the change you want to see.”
Excerpts from the Free Speech Wall
PUNCH • from front
I stand before you as what he could have become. Adolphus BelkAssociate professor of political science
“”
Winthrop gathers to pay respect to slain teen
Trayvon Martin
A tennis team roster photo of Stanic during his freshman year.
Tickets. Elevation-Church.org. Jesus told me to. Anonymous
“”I’m sassy, classy and still kickin’ assy Anonymous
“”Accept life. Move on. Anonymous
“”
PUBLIC DISORDERLY CONDUCT, ASSAULT AND BATTERY (3/29/12)
At 10:26 p.m., a Winthrop offi cer was leaving the Student Activities Center after an event when he heard yelling, according to the police report. He went to the parking lot next to Withers where he saw a female victim screaming and cursing for a male sus-pect to let her go. The offi cer noticed the suspect to be holding the victims arms with an aggressive expression on his face. He told the suspect to let go of the victim multiple times, according to the police report. The suspect still did not let go of the vic-tim’s arms so the offi cer removed the suspect’s arms and placed him under arrest. The victim denied persecution for assault and battery. The suspect informed the offi cer that the situation arose because the victim punched him in the back of his head, according to the police report. He also declined persecution for assault and battery. The suspect was taken to Rock Hill City Jail and charged with Public Disorderly Conduct, according to the police report.
DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE (3/30/12)
At 2:10 a.m., a Winthrop offi cer spotted a vehicle that abruptly turned left in front of his vehicle, according to the police report. The offi cer had to quickly step on his brakes in order to not hit the suspect’s vehicle. The of-fi cer turned on his lights and siren and the suspect kept going. Eventually the suspect pulled his vehicle over behind the DiGiorgio Campus Center, accord-ing to the police report. When the offi -cer approached the vehicle and spoke with the suspect he smelled alcohol. He asked the suspect if he had been drinking, and the suspect told him he had had a few beers at the White Horse. The offi cer asked the suspect to exit the vehicle and perform several fi eld sobriety tests, according to the police report. The suspect was read his Miranda rights, and he waived them. He informed the offi cer that he had only had three beers. The sus-pect failed the three sobriety tests, and the offi cer concluded him to have been driving under the infl uence. The offi cer placed the suspect under ar-rest and took him to the Rock Hill City Jail, according to the police report.
Compiled by Zoe Irizarry
–– Police Blotter ––
yelling, according to the police report. He went to the parking lot next to Withers where he saw a female victim screaming and cursing for a male sus-pect to let her go. The offi cer noticed the suspect to be holding the victims arms with an aggressive expression on his face. He told the suspect to let go of the victim multiple times, according to the police report. The suspect still did not let go of the vic-tim’s arms so the offi cer removed the suspect’s arms and placed him under arrest. The victim denied persecution for assault and battery. The suspect informed the offi cer that the situation arose because the victim punched him in the back of his head, according to the police report. He also declined persecution for assault and battery. The suspect was taken to Rock Hill
to the police report. The offi cer had to quickly step on his brakes in order to not hit the suspect’s vehicle. The of-fi cer turned on his lights and siren and the suspect kept going. Eventually the suspect pulled his vehicle over behind the DiGiorgio Campus Center, accord-ing to the police report. When the offi -cer approached the vehicle and spoke with the suspect he smelled alcohol. He asked the suspect if he had been drinking, and the suspect told him he had had a few beers at the White Horse. The offi cer asked the suspect to exit the vehicle and perform several fi eld sobriety tests, according to the police report. The suspect was read his Miranda rights, and he waived them. He informed the offi cer that he had only had three beers. The sus-pect failed the three sobriety tests,
THURSDAY April 5, 2012 5
By Shamira [email protected]
Grace Grindstaff came to Winthrop with the expectations of enjoying her time here, just as most freshmen do.
However, she quickly realized that enjoyment was nowhere near what she was experiencing.
Being two hours away from her home in Easley, S.C., Grind-staff had a hard time adjusting to campus life. It eventually led to an overall hatred towards the university.
“I hated Winthrop,” said Grindstaff, a junior family and consumer science..
Things quickly changed after she completed a survey dis-tributed by the Department of Residence Life.
The survey sought student opinion on living on campus.
Grindstaff didn’t hold back.
After displaying her strong dislike of campus life and her desire to leave throughout the survey, Grindstaff was assigned to Kara Westmoreland, Residential Learning Coordinator, for one-on-one counseling.
“She told me that I could leave or make the best of it,” Grind-staff said.
Westmoreland sent her resources on different forms of campus activities and strongly encouraged her to get involved. Soon after, she ob-tained a job at the West Center, and was certain she would remain at Winthrop.
“Thanks to her, I now love and live in the West Center all of the time,” Grindstaff said. “It’s my pride and joy.”
She said she thinks if she had gotten sent to anyone other than Westmoreland, she prob-ably would have had a different story now.
Two years have passed and now Grindstaff serves as vice president of the Winthrop Recreation Advisory Council. She’s also an ambassador for the university.
“I want to experience every-thing,” she said. “It’s all about
the Winthrop experience.”To help accomplish her goal
of experiencing everything, Grindstaff is now running for vice chair of the Council of Stu-dent Leaders.
She compares her decision to run for offi ce to the food in Thomson Café.
“The best part about Thom-son is that you have choices,” she said. “When picking a rep-resentative for a large group of people, you should have choices also.”
Grindstaff said she did not get the inclination to run until she found out that the candidates for chair and vice chair were both running unopposed. How-ever, she did not want to run
against Kambrell Garvin, the current student body president, because she agrees with a lot he has accomplished.
“I’d rather help him instead of run against him,” Grandstaff said. “He’s so good.”
Grindstaff said her running against candidate Christopher Aubrie for vice chair is not a matter of disliking him.
“I have absolutely nothing against him,” she said. “I want everyone to know that.”
After receiving more than the 200 required petition signa-tures and meeting all other requirements to be a write-in candidate, Grindstaff knows exactly what she wants to focus on.
“I want to focus more on campus safety,” she said. “I think it’s impor-tant.”
Grindstaff said she wants to bring more awareness to campus safety. She would also like to see more self-de-fense classes on campus for men and women with the possibil-ity of them being offered as one hour credit.
In addition to illuminat-
ing campus safety, Grind-staff would like to see their
being more interaction between the graduate students and un-dergraduate students.
“A lot of grad students come here and don’t get the Winthrop experience,” Grindstaff said. “We should be more encour-aging to them to come out to events and get that Winthrop experience.”
Grindstaff said she is the right person for the position of vice chair because she is older, energetic and has the drive to want it.
“By getting 250 signatures, it’s shown that I have the drive to get the job done,” she said.
Who is Grace Grindstaff?
When picking a representa-tive for a large group of peo-ple, you should have choices also. Grace GrindstaffCSL Vice Chair contender
“”
By David [email protected]
Candidates vying for the top spots in Winthrop’s student government had their last public attempt to sway undecided voters at The Edge Tuesday morning in a public forum.
Kambrell Garvin (incumbent president), Christopher Aubrie (vice president candidate) and Grace Grindstaff (write-in vice president candidate) found com-mon ground in telling Winthrop students to vote in the Council of Student Leaders’ second demo-cratic election in 11 years.
But clashed on issues such as improving veteran relations, Greek Life’s involvement in gov-ernment and increasing diversity on campus.
When one student brought up the question of what the candi-dates would do to augment af-fairs between student government and military veterans, Aubrie and Grindstaff suggested action.
“I feel like [CSL] needs to begin co-sponsoring events with military personnel,” said Aubrie, a sophomore international business major. “So we can truly incorpo-rate people, so we can increase awareness to let them know what they do.”
Grindstaff noted her experience as an employee at the West Center as a possible solution.
“I get to see the ROTC class work out,” she said, “so I think the instructors should be able to try and teach more physical education courses. This will give people opportunities for a job and teach the non-military stu-dents their experiences.”
After Garvin offered a closer working relationship with the admissions offi ce to attract more transfer and military students, the topic soon turned to Greek Life, another minority looking for more representation at the political table.
Grindstaff said she was surprised more represen-tatives from fraternities and sororities were “not showing up.”
“I think that’s impor-tant,” the junior family and consumer sciences major said, “If you want to integrate Greek Life [with CSL], you’ve got to show up.”
Aubrie took the senti-ment one step further, saying Greek Life should
have at least one leader from each sorority and fraternity on campus come to CSL meetings each Monday.
Garvin spoke out that he believed Greek Life has a fair amount of representation, regardless of atten-dance.
“Greek Life already has a lot of leaders,” the cur-rent president said. “We should be reaching out to the people who aren’t Greek. We need to make lead-ers out of regular students.”
For Aubrie, regular students include those who arrive from outside the United States.
The vice presidential candidate had fi rsthand experience of diversity in the classroom during his three year stay in Shanghai, China from 2006-2009. Aubrie and his family moved because of his father’s heating and cooling business.
“It’s helped me become more adept to commu-nicating with the diverse populations here at Win-throp,” he said, continuing that he felt minorities deserved equal rights to infl uence CSL.
“As a leader,” added Garvin, “you have to be will-ing to listen to people with different backgrounds.
I’ve been to GLoBAL meetings, I’ve been to NAACP meetings… you have to realize you’re representing every student here at Winthrop.”
Voting started early Tuesday morning and con-tinued on through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday for vice
president and presidential positions for CSL.“We can’t afford to allow [our experiment in democ-
racy] to fail,” said Garvin.We all encourage everyone to go and vote today.”
Candidates talk Greek Life, minorities during forum
CSL Vice Chair dishes on bumpy start at WU• Junior prompted to get involved after negative comments on survey
Grace Grindstaff lays out her plans if elected vice president of the student body. Photo by David Thackham • [email protected]
When campaign season began this psring, Aubrie initially ran unopposed for the position of vice chair. Days later, the sophomore international business ma-jor was challenged by Grace Grindstaff, a junior. Photo by David Thackham • [email protected]
(From left) CSL Chair and unchallenged incumbent Kambrell Garvin and vice chair contenders Christopher Aubrie and Grace Grindstaff speak to students and answer questions during the candidate’s forum. Photo by Da-vid Thackham • [email protected]
THURSDAYApril 5, 2012
SYDNEY EVANSOpinion Editor
Our Say
The good, the bad, the sloppyYour last semester
of college is hard. Between researching to engineer a 20-page paper that will serve as my contri-bution to my field of study; 2 ten-page pa-pers; and a semester research project, life is a little stressful.
Add an internship, part-time job, extra-curricular activities and figuring out how to answer that dreaded question “What’s next after graduation?” truly causes me to want to pull my hair out some days.
I know that I’m not the only one that has this full of a plate. How do we handle it? We drink.
I say that with sarcasm, but it’s true. When we socialize with friends, under the influence of nostalgia as a chapter of our lives comes to a close, I have ob-served that there is a tendency to do it over a drink or several.
I do not see this as a bad thing. We are adults that have reached the magic age of 21, making the consumption legal.
If we’ve made it this far in our Win-throp education there has been at least one Red Flag seminar and a night of over-indulgence that has taught us a valuable lesson.
I think for the most part, we can handle ourselves as long as we follow the Golden Rule, “beer before liquor, never
been sicker; liquor before beer, you’re in the clear”.
In my experience drinking in groups has its advantages. It’s fun, relaxing, and there is safety in numbers. But when your beer goggles are on and top-ics get crazy, people say and do things that they normally wouldn’t do. Vio-lence is as American as cherry pie, but no one really wants to be in a bar fight.
Every person’s body is different; some have a high tolerance when it comes to substances and others have to sip one beer all night long and still feel it in the morning.
Health and Counseling Services encourages us to drink responsibly, but there is a trial and error period before you figure out what works for you.
When I watch people get sloppy, I can’t help but wonder, this really is not working for you. Making out with Mr. Can’t-Remember-His-Name that tastes like sour cream and beer is probably not a good life choice.
We’ve all made questionable choices when intoxicated. So, how do you bal-ance the good, the bad and the sloppy?
I think this comes back to personal responsibility and accountability among friends. Have fun and make question-able decisions, because we all want re-ally good stories to share in our old age. Just don’t do it alone and remember there are consequences (good and bad) for every choice.
Sydney EvansOpinion Editor
It is the humble opinion of this Winthrop
student that the Winthrop University Police Department does not have the best interest of the students at heart.
If we look at the Police Blotter published by The Johnsonian, since September 15, 2011, there have been 9 marijuana and alcohol related inci-dents, 5 violent crimes, 5 larcenies (2 of those being bait bikes), 2 indecent exposures, 1 trespassing, 1 carrying a handgun, and 1 incident of damage to laundry.
We all remember the no less than ad-ditional 4 violent crimes that occurred in the Winthrop area recently reported by The Johnsonian. If we look at which crimes have the highest arrest rate at Winthrop, we see an interesting differ-ence.
When it comes to arrests or citations, marijuana and alcohol are the most frequent. Two arrests (both of which were violent crimes, not alcohol or drug related calls) were made for the use of marijuana or alcohol. In one of those cases, it was the victim. Winthrop Po-lice are arresting victims now?
Bait bike theft, carrying a handgun, trespassing, and damaging laundry all have 100% arrest or citation rates. That’s exciting, except there are only 1 or 2 cases for each.
Indecent exposure ranks, with 50 percent of the cases being solved. Here’s the message: Expose yourself and you have the same chance of get-ting away with it as you do flipping a quarter and getting heads. Not that you want heads or tails shown during indecent exposure.
Violent crimes have a 12 percent ar-rest or citation rate, and larceny has a zero percent arrest or citation rate. If you have your things stolen, don’t even bother to call campus police, because they haven’t gotten it right yet.
Let me be the first to admit, I had a drink under the age of 21. So has every single other person that I know. Not that I believe that every student at Win-throp has consumed alcohol under age, but a vast majority of them have done so at least once.
Furthermore, the possession and use of marijuana is a questionable offense
in and of itself, though I’m not getting into that debate right now. So what is our beloved WuPo doing if they aren’t arresting people for alcohol and mari-juana?
Giving parking tickets. According to a phone call to the Campus Police Parking Enforcement Division, there are, on average 100 tickets given out every week. That is about 1,600 per semester.
A parking ticket can range from $25.00 all the way up to $200, and that’s not taking into account the steep price of a moving violation (such as running a stop sign).
This leaves me wondering as to what their real priorities are. Why are their arrests so limited except in cases of marijuana and alcohol?
Is that really to protect the students? If they really wanted to protect their students, wouldn’t they settle for a mere 10 tickets a week and devote the manpower to figuring out who raped, burglarized or assaulted the students for whom no justice is forthcoming?
Perhaps it’s time for a change in the priorities of the Campus Police. Per-haps its just time for a change in Cam-pus Police. Perhaps it’s time for Cam-pus Police to just realize that the real threat to campus safety isn’t a pothead smoking in his room, nor is it the stu-dent who parked in visitor parking for five minutes to go to the ATM in Digs.
It’s the people walking around raping people behind Courtyard, or busting into student’s homes and stealing their stuff.
When I feel like the police actually care for my safety, I will let you know. But don’t hold your breath.
Josh DemarestSophomore
Lessons learned from “The Hunger Games”
Harry and Bella, be warned. The girl on fire just may be stealing your spotlight. Dazzling as the latest phe-nomenon in American popular culture, Katniss has captured the hearts and minds of readers nationwide.
Meanwhile, the books behind her —Suzanne Collins’ immensely popular Hunger Games trilogy— have left other prominent series like Harry Potter and Twilight momentarily by the wayside.
Collins’ novels are set in the post-apocalyptic country of Panem, which is controlled by a strangling, capitol-centered government. This regime re-minds citizens of its power by hosting the annual “Hunger Games,” a tele-vised show of 24 Panem teens fighting to their deaths.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss finds herself in the arena, surrounded by enemies, after she volunteers to take her young-er sisters’ place.
Despite their futuristic plots, the books are more than just dystopian fantasy. For those in competitive or stressful environments (ahem...sound familiar, college students?) The Hun-ger Games spells out valuable lessons.
Skeptical? Read on. Here are some of those lessons, especially applicable to the trying, sometimes uncertain world of the college student:
1. Recognize your strengthsWhile training for the Hunger Games, the competitors are instructed to iden-tify ability and hone it. Katniss, a life-long hunter, chooses archery—which serves her well in the long run.
For the college student, realizing the qualities that make you unique and the skill sets that separate you from others will also help you in the long run.
Whether your next step is graduate
school or the job market, recognizing your strengths may give you an edge on the competition.
2. Realize the value of a good mentorAt first, Katniss is dismayed by her mentor, Haymitch, who spends most of his time in a drunken stupor. However, he proves his worth when he saves Kat-niss in the arena, remaining a loyal ally throughout the rest of the books.
In college, it is important to find someone who has “been there, done that” (Haymitch won the Hunger Games when he was young). Think professor, coach or someone in the field that you wish to pursue.
Through cultivating a relationship with this person, you, like Katniss, of-fer yourself a chance for “safety” in the future. Of course, this “safety” will not likely descend from the sky in a silver parachute. It may, however, take the form of networking or an excellent let-ter of recommendation.
3. Stay true to who you areThroughout the trilogy, Katniss stands up for what she believes in. Despite facing others’ doubt and exasperation, she ultimately spearheads a rebellion that is based on her own experience of injustice.
While I’m not necessarily recom-mending engaging in such drastic measures, it is important to be true to yourself and your values. For the col-lege students, this might factor into the process of choosing a major or career.
It might also allow you to see the larger picture amid the chaos of finals, job applications or graduate school tests. Finally, remember that though college may be stressful, it is also full of opportunity. You are allowed to shine. Take it from the girl on fire.
Not holding my breath...
I was flipping through my year-book from my senior year of high school the other day when I stumbled across the superla-tives page.
Now I’m not sure how it worked in other schools across the globe, but at my
school, let’s just say it was kind of a big deal. Students would campaign for spe-cific superlatives, and by campaigning, I mean begging and pleading for their friends to vote for them.
This made me wonder if any of these awards stayed true to their titleholders throughout their college careers, or if it was all just a popularity contest. And so my Facebook stalking adventure began.
Let’s start off with the winner of most coveted award, “Most likely to succeed.” For privacy reasons, we will call him Greg. Greg’s Facebook page showed that he’s an engineering student at the Uni-versity of Wisconsin-Madison, a very prestigious school.
In his profile picture, he is shirtless at a football game sporting a giant “W” which was made from the abundant amount of chest hair he was known for in high school. His favorite quotation; “I don’t know what’s better, getting’ laid or getting paid.” To his credit, Greg is about to graduate as planned, and based on that quotation, his finances don’t seem to be an issue.
Nevertheless, he isn’t the studious kid I remember from the old days.
The “Best athlete” was another award that students took a lot of pride in. Since both a male and a female were picked for this, I’ll call them Mike and Lisa. Lisa’s profile showed her in a field hockey uniform from one of the local colleges. To this day, she is still playing
and seems to have lived up to her super-lative. Mike is a different story.
He is listed as attending a local com-munity college, but no sports were to be found. Over spring break, I ran into him outside of a Dunkin Donuts puffing on a cigarette.
I thought the “Class clown” prizewin-ner would be an interesting person to check up on, and it did not disappoint.
His name will be Ben. Ben’s profile picture showed him in a homemade cos-tume made entirely of Bud Light boxes. It made me laugh, so he’s lived up to his reputation. Also, his job description lists him as a unicorn trainer. So yes, he’s still got a sense of humor.
Lastly was the student who was “Most likely to fall asleep in class.” Dan, as I’ll call him, is about to graduate from Northeastern University in Boston, and is heading to the renowned Syracuse University College of Law. Clearly he paid a little more attention to his classes after high school.
These are just a few superlative win-ners I looked up, as many of them are hard to judge through Facebook, such as personality traits. I’m sure many more of them have lived up to their high school titles as well. The cutest class couple just celebrated their four-year anniversary last week.
I guess the moral to the story is that the people we were in high school don’t necessarily define who we are or who we are going to be. It’s never too late to make the changes we want to see in ourselves.
High school superlatives: revisited
Jeff BrodeurSports Editor
Alana PatrickUSA Today College
Get it together, athletesIt seems, at least to The Johnsonian,
the athletic department has struggled to keep their players in line this year.
From the Oct., 2011 arrest of Gideon Gamble, senior men’s basketball player, and Reggie Middleton, senior men’s basketball player, to the recent assualt and battery incident with tennis player Luka Stanic, the athletes aren’t han-dling themselves too gracefully. Let’s not forget last April’s arrest of Robert Dreher and Julius Francis on charges of criminal sexual misconduct, or Middleton’s recent legal troubles with marijuana.
We’re not saying athletes can’t make mistakes, and learn from said mistakes,
but come on, guys. This is a good num-ber of mistakes.
Many of the recruited athletes play for their tuition, room and board, and meal plan. That’s a full-ride for an edu-cation; most people don’t even recieve more than the LIFE scholarship, if that.
As much as we love paying for Win-throp’s pinestraw, elaborate donor dinners and leafblowers, we’d rather not help pay the tuition of people who aren’t taking education seriously.
Let’s get it together, guys. Channel all that aggression and energy into games, matches, practices and school.
Besides, we’re running out of space for police reports.
Winthrop Police are arresting victims, now?
“”
About The Johnsonian
The Johnsonian is the weekly student newspaper of Winthrop University. It is published during fall and spring semesters with the exception of university holidays and exam periods.
EditorCLAIRE BYUN
Managing Editor& WebmasterDevang Joshi
News EditorJONATHAN MCFADDEN
Assistant News EditorAMANDA PHIPPS
Opinion EditorSYDNEY EVANS
Culture EditorALISON ANGEL
Arts & Entertainment EditorMONICA KREBER
Science & Technology EditorCATHERINE ZENDE
Sports EditorJEFF BRODEUR
Sports EditorDAVID THACKHAM
Copy EditorSTEPHANIE ROJENCHES
Copy EditorEDWARD SZEMAN
Multimedia EditorJEREMY ALLEN
Assistant Multimedia EditorSARAH AUVIL
PhotographersCLAIRE VANOSTENBRIDGESARAH AUVIL
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Our offices are located in suite 104 in the DiGiorgio Campus Center.Phone: (803) 323-3419E-mail: [email protected]: mytjnow.com
LETTER POLICY
Letters and feedback can be sent to [email protected] or by mail at The Johnsonian, 104
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Please include your name, major and year if you are a student; your name and title if you are a professor; or your name and profession if you are a member of
the community.Letters, cartoons and columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opin-ions of The Johnsonian staff.
CORRECTIONS
Contact us if you find an error in an issue of the newspaper. We will correct it in the next issue.
THURSDAY April 5, 2012 7
“While the comments or photos could
have been bad enough to deserve the harsh repercussions, should employ-ers or schools have the right to use our personal social media platforms as suf-ficient means for firings or rejections? The answer is usually no.”
After considering this question and the arguments laid out by Taylor Bloom in her article about Facebook beginning to replace resumes, I have come to a dif-ferent answer: yes.
Bloom mentions how “individuals often have little control over their perceived Inter-net personalities” due to privacy settings not being straightforward.
I agree that privacy set-tings, especially on Face-book, are not as easy as they once were to maintain and have become increas-ingly more difficult to control.
However, I do not believe that individuals have to forfeit their personalities. If a friend posts a picture or status update and tags me in it, Facebook alerts me.
I can easily un-tag myself from the picture or status update. I even have the ability to hide the posts from my timeline or delete it from my timeline entirely.
Do I think it is easy to monitor every-thing that gets posted to Facebook that someone might include me in? No, we all have lives and cannot monitor Face-book all day, but we can — and should — still try.
Bloom also wrote about people alter-ing the spelling of their names or using Photoshop to alter their photos. She argues that this is unfair to others and causes a bias.
I believe there is truth in those points and I agree with her.
Yet, should worry about what others are doing to mask who they are? If I was an employer and found out a prospec-tive employee altered their name to hide from me, I would see that as having something to hide.
Would I really want to consider hir-ing someone intently trying to hide, or would I consider someone who is up-front about who they are? Public, open and honest is the safer bet.
The last point Bloom touched on is
how we all face the pressure of trying to appear “cool” and often use social media as our personal PR campaigns. Again, I agree with her here, but would like to add a couple of thoughts:
Like Bloom, I do not think employ-ers or colleges considering applicants should use our social media platforms to fully judge us. Some pictures, status updates and tweets can only tell some-one so much.
With that being said, what are you try-ing to say when you post your pictures, status updates and tweets?
Are you more concerned with what that cute boy or girl from English 101 thinks of you, or are you more concerned with protect-ing your image?
Another USA TODAY College piece, by Daniel Horowitz, picks up on these points as well. And Daniel, I am not sure your Facebook is better than mine, but I agree with your main points.
I want to leave you with one important thought about social media: what you post is public, especially if you
setup no security measures. Therefore, I do not think it is wrong for employers or colleges to look at your social media platforms to determine if they should hire or accept you.
Should you setup security measures? I have some in place if we are not friends on Facebook. You can view my favorites, my about section, my profile picture and cover photo and some limited contact information.
This is enough to tell someone who I am. Want to learn more? Please, friend me.
Be who you are online and offline. Even if you are able to masquerade as someone you are not on your Facebook, if you get hired, the truth will eventually come out. Be your best: be you.
Facebook, the new resume’
Although the hype has died down since the passing of Obama-care, anti-socialism advocacy continues to thrive.
Both the right and left-wing politicians cringe at the thought of allocated re-sources put into the
hands of the federal government. This writer asks why? Why is it that a similar approach to government is demonized?
I think it is because our congressmen don’t wish to control us through our resources, they would rather control us through reinforcement of consumerism.
What’s the difference? For one, social-ism is an open approach to maintaining control over radical personal interests that may harm the public.
Capitalism wishes to maintain such control while also indoctrinating its citizens into blissful submission. The tac-tics of capitalism are questionable because they adhere to the wants and needs of those with money.
The corporations wish to keep the people in line by mak-ing products and con-suming irresistible. Sure, consuming is a basic function of hu-man existence, but the so called “need” for the newest phone, car or television is not. Some would say that regardless of the socioeconomic system, the want for new and better quality items still exists.
I agree, but moderation is the key. A perfect example of this is a clip from a Michael Moore film. This example is presented by a simple comparison made in the movie. Moore walks into the houses of an American pop-star and a Swiss pop-star.
The American pop-star’s home was extravagant. It had a movie theatre,
several luxury bathrooms and bed-rooms, and an indoor pool. The Swiss pop-star’s home was quaint. It was a flat with a medium sized kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom.
While many would find some minor happiness at the extravagance of the American pop-star’s home, many would also be content with the home of the Swiss pop-star.
People obviously don’t need luxury, so why is it so important to hold on to?
Why are we so afraid to lose the possi-bility of owning a hundred cars, plasma screen televisions and houses?
The answer is that we have been con-ditioned to fear what most of us won’t ever gain for the sake of those who already have those things.
The people on top don’t want to lose their luxury, so they make it a primary goal to make those in the middle and lower classes feel the same way. We are
coerced into fearing a sys-tem that has been shown to produce more happi-ness in more people.
The Swiss are the hap-piest people alive, and we Americans are among the most fearful and depressed. Maybe there is a link between our so-cioeconomic system and our prevalent discontent. Maybe there is a connec-tion between the Swiss people’s system and their prevalent happiness.
Maybe we are afraid of something that is relatively harmless. Socialists main-tain their basic freedoms and incentives; all that really changes is that the luxu-rious are taken down to the economic level of normal people because the gov-ernment owns the means of production.
Socialism vs. the pursuit of more
People obviously don’t need luxury, so why is it so important to hold on to?
“”
Ode to WinthropAs Spring begins, I
think about change. I think about how much I have changed over the past four years, how Winthrop University has changed and the changes that are coming.
This past Satur-day we had recently accepted incoming freshmen and their families on campus. Worldwide Winthrop Day was exciting!
As I was standing in the West Center talking to students about all that Win-throp has to offer, I was proud of the progress that our school has made over the past two decades under President DiGiorgio.
Just in my four years, I have seen Ow-ens close and re-open, the West Center, the DiGS, Carroll Hall, Scholars Walk and the Hardin Gardin. I have watched as Winthrop teetered on the precipice of economic depression. Dynamic leader-ship and empathy for the perspective of every interest group on campus pulled us through.
I have enjoyed watching our com-munity come together, grow together and become better. My class saw the beginning of the College Town Action Plan, and the classes to come will see it come to fruition. Last year, Winthrop successfully received affirmation of its accreditation and the implementation of the first stages of the Global Learning Initiative.
As the class of 2012 exits and the class of 2016 enters, I wonder how many things will change in the near future. My one hope is that students continue to be included in the conversations of progress.
There is no doubt in my mind that students will always complain about Thomson food, parking and “that” professor. But I’m proud that the “halls are rich with memories to which we’ll always cling. A part of each one here remains, as a part of you [she] claims, Alma Mater, may your name be grand, Winthrop ever stand.”
Sydney EvansOpinion Editor
What are you trying to say when you post your pictures, status updates and tweets?
“”
South Caroli-na’s own West-brook Brewing (right outside Charleston) has created a won-derful treat for those of us who like to tango with the dark side of things.
A dark, creamy full bodied brew, Mexican Cake is definitely a beer that brings a myriad of flavors to the drinker. An imperial stout, Mexican Cake is brewed with cocoa and other spices that gives your pallet a real “punch to the face” and keeps you thirsty for more.
The beer pours like any other stout with a wonderful mocha head that effervesces cocoa/coffee notes that entice the pallet. How-ever at 10.5 percent ABV this beer is definitively a big boy, so mind yourself.
Questions, comments or con-cerns? Want to write a review of your own?
Email me at [email protected] and maybe we will go grab a pint. And remember folks, enjoy-ing any alcoholic beverages means enjoying responsibly, so keep it classy folks. Until next time, cheers!
A Pint of Cake? Eh, Why not?
Devang JoshiSenior
Justin MonsewiczUSA Today College
Seth GossweilerSophomore
THURSDAYApril 5, 2012
CATHERINE ZENDEScience & Technology Editor
Students track recyclables in waste auditBy Catherine [email protected]
Bags filled with paper towels, plastic bottles, food packaging, gum wrappers and bits of food are strewn across a large plastic mat as Winthrop students begin sorting.
The trash was part of a waste audit designed to examine trash collected from the West Center. Some volunteers were the Student Environmental Action Coali-tion (SEAC) and others were students in the new sustainability course and minor offered at Winthrop. The event was also mentored by Chris Johnson, sustainabil-ity coordinator for Winthrop.
Trina Flood, a sophomore interior design major, helped with the audit because she was interested in the audit’s results.
“It’s important to know what’s going on here and let Winthrop students know about it,” Flood said. Flood was also interested in the audit because she is in Johnson’s Sustainability 102 course and is becoming a sustainability minor.
The purpose of the waste audit was to determine how much of the trash could have been recycled. Flood stood over the trash with plastic gloves and a checklist of recyclable materials.
The “waste stream”, or trash collected for the audit, was then analyzed in terms of how much of the trash could have been recycled.
“We hope to see how much wase in here should have been recycled,” said Flood. “Next year we hope to show the school how much we waste.”
Freshman philosophy major Kyle Steele helped with the waste audit in order to support SEAC, an organization that has helped with many eco-friendly events on campus.
Steele also hopes the efforts will help educate other Winthrop students about recycling. “Hopefully we’ll have a cam-
pus more capable of being sustainable and willing to recycle,” Steele said.
His advice to students is to be proac-tive about recycling. “Don’t be lazy. If you see a recycling bin around you, use it,” Steele said.
While some audits show the power of recycling efforts on campus, other audits dig up lots of unrecycled recyclables. According to Johnson, one audit showed that 75% of the trash could have been recycled.
On Wednesday afternoon, the volunteers laid out all the trash to show how much Winthrop could have recycled in only three days.
The waste audit only included the West Center, a building that received LEED Silver Certification by the US Green Building Council. The audit was performed in the morning and the after-noon and lasted three days.
The waste audit was just one of many events on campus that focus on the en-vironment. April is Earth month, which is the inspiration for many eco-friendly events.
(From top to bottom) Students sift through bags of trash col-lected from the West Center. Chris Johnson and sophmore Trina Flood keep track of all recyclable materi-als found in the trash. Photos by Catherine Zende • [email protected]
Technology to stop illegal torrentingWinthrop’s current and proposed tracking technology
dedicated to being in compliance, but is not as extreme as other schools fighting illegal downloading.
“Some schools take it very seriously and they just chop everything off and you can’t do anything. Other schools are real slack about it and do the minimum they need to get by [with compliance],” Hammond said.
The technical details
To keep up with ever evolving tech-nology Winthrop University employ’s advanced technology to help restrict the use of certain programs (such as bit tor-rent clients or any other peer-to-peer file sharing).
This “restriction” is accomplished by the use of packet shapers, specialty pieces of computer hardware that at-tach to the Winthrop network and can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks. The packet shapers can simply restrict bandwidth, or even restrict the bandwidth of certain programs. So for example, the packet shaper can see that your computer is running BitTorrent, and simply throttle the bandwidth for that application so low that the program is unusable.
Why not just restrict that specific Internet connection all together? Well
some programs will try new connections when the absence of a primary connec-tion is noted, so by leaving the connec-tion open and very slow, you have a very effective way of cutting down on the issue.
In addition to packet shapers, Win-throp also uses dynamic bandwidth partitioning, which takes all of the avail-able bandwidth on campus and evenly distributes it to connected users.
This gives everyone on campus equal speeds, and this also explains why you may note “slow” Internet during peek usages hours of the day. However the beauty of dynamic bandwidth partition-ing is the fact that it is smart. If there is enough “left over” bandwidth, the sys-tem can give you a little extra if you are doing something bandwidth intensive (i.e. video streaming).
Although not in use by the university, there is a cutting edge hardware/soft-ware system that is being researched by information technology. This new solu-tion is called a “recognition appliance,” a system that can watch Internet traffic and differentiate between the various types of data.
For example, a recognition appliance can tell the difference between Internet packets that load say mytjnow.com, and the illegal copy of The Hunger Games that you found on Pirate Bay. Going even further the system is smart enough to go
through and tell the differ-ence between legal down-loads (say from iTunes) and illegal downloads.
This new technology is very lucrative because it al-lows maximum freedom for Internet users on campus while still upholding laws that prevent the sharing of copyrighted materials via the internet.
The take-away
While Winthrop is still pursuing technology to further comply with regula-tions, Hammond believes the current technology has effectively helped Winthrop adhere to HEOA.
And though disciplinary incidents have been infre-quent in recent years, Ham-mond still advises students to familiarize themselves with Winthrop’s policy on appropriate use of informa-tion technology resources.
Students can find an on-line version of the policy at http://www.winthrop.edu/technology/.
The Division of Computing and Information Tech-nology has the ability to hinder illegal torrenting and is considering a tracking system to track the downloads. Graphic by Courtney Niskala • [email protected]
Graphics courtesy of James T.S. Hamond
Understanding WU Internet usageHave you ever complained about Internet speeds on campus? Access to the web can often be limited based on time of day and applications being used by students.
Check out the graphs to the left to get a better idea of usage peek hours (far left) and the top eight sources of inbound internet traffic (far right).
Hopefully we’ll have a campus more capable of being sustainable... Kyle SteeleFreshman
“”
piracy • from front
THURSDAY April 5, 2012 9SCIENCE & TECH
It is a well-known Inter-net safety tip: don’t give your passwords to anyone. Your email accounts, your banking accounts, your online shopping accounts and even your social networking ac-
counts all advise you to keep passwords safe, secure and ever-changing.
But a revolting new trend in business is spurring employers to violate the car-dinal rule of Internet protocol by asking potential employers to hand over their Internet passwords before being given the job as the company’s way of viewing their profile.
It is a disgusting violation of individual rights, and it also leads me to wonder about all the urban myths regarding employers’ power to access Facebook ac-counts regardless of our privacy settings.
We have all heard the warning: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t friend them or if you block non-friends from seeing your page. They have ways.” I have al-ways questioned how this was done, but never received an answer. It led me to believe that was an urban myth designed to scare college students into behaving online or possibly deleting entire ac-
counts. But if they really had this power, why
would they start asking interviewees to voluntarily hand over access to the accounts? The logical reason is that we caught onto the game. There may have been a time when we did not protect our accounts from strangers and companies could then access the information. But users have become more savvy at guard-ing against unwanted visitors, and now employers are finding other ways to get inside the social pages.
The issue at hand here goes beyond an invasion of privacy online. Instead, it speaks to an employers’ desire to hover and spy on all activities, even those unre-lated to professional pursuits.
Is it not enough that during the interview process I submit myself to a plethora of background checks to ensure that I am not a criminal, a sex offender or a terrorist? Is it not enough that I provide multiple, specific references who can verbally attest to my personality and skills? Is it not enough that I provide a portfolio of work and submit myself to drug tests to ensure that I am “clean” enough for the company?
Our privacy is already invaded, but I accept those requests. After all, my criminal record and my professional persona are extremely relevant to my potential work performance. But things like what holidays I celebrate, what I did for my last vacation, who I am dating or
married to, what political party I support and what I think is funny to share with my close friends have nothing to do with my performance.
In fact, many of the things these em-ployers will see on my page (nationality, hometown, religion, marital status) are things they are not allowed to ask me during the interview. So by coercing me into providing access to the page, they are coercing me into revealing innocent information that could unfairly bias them against me.
Furthermore, almost no company would advocate me surfing my social networking site while on the job because the two areas are distinctly separated. I do not bring my personal life to busi-ness, so business should not invade my personal life.
I have had this discussion with many people my age who are actively (and somewhat desperately) seeking employ-ment. Some tell me that they whole-heartedly agree and would never submit the information; some tell me that if they really want the job, they will do it. I hate this latter admission.
Believe me, I understand the despera-tion behind the job search (and you can see that if you have been reading this section). But this is an issue of compa-nies requesting a sacred password to es-sentially spy on me and judge what they think is unacceptable. I do not have pic-tures of keg stands or videos of me get-
ting into fights or yelling at others. I do not post statuses professing to drunken escapades or overly offensive rants.
The only thing on my page that would turn an employer off is my religion and political mindset—and that is just wrong.
I refuse to work for a company that tells me from day one that they do not trust me and want to spy on me. I refuse to work for a company that would com-modify an individual and judge them based on trivial preferences and ideas. I refuse to be a part of that.
And because I so strongly support my first amendment right to post my beliefs without fear of persecution, I refuse to give my password. It is not out of a need to protect my information necessarily, but rather a need to protect my freedom.
Let me be clear about my intentions with this piece. I am writing this because I want everyone to firmly but politely say “no” to any employer who asks for social networking passwords. Give any reason you like, but make sure you say “no.”
The only way for social change to occur is if the masses unite around the cause. If we all say “no,” we can affect these vio-lations of free speech and privacy. Most importantly, we can show companies that a line has been drawn and we are determined to fight for our rights—but only if we stand together.
Your Facebook password is yours and yours alone
By Catherine [email protected]
Singing for the shrinking mountainsBy Frances [email protected]
The Lorax may speak for the trees, but the Student Environmental Activism Coalition (SEAC) sings for the shrinking mountains.
This Thursday evening, SEAC will host a rock concert to help raise money to save the mountaintops from being mined. The concert is from 7-10 p.m. and features three bands: Dopename from Rock Hill, Old Charlie from Colum-bia and Senseless Beatings from Win-throp.
The concert is to raise awareness about mountaintop mining and dona-tions to help stop mountaintop mining. There are mountain top removal (MTR) activists groups such as Keeper of the Mountains Foundation.
Christine Da Rosa, co-president of SEAC said, “We personally met a mem-ber of this organization last Sunday at a teach-in about Mountain Top Removal from Rainforest Action Network (RAN).” All of the proceeds raised from this event will go to the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation.
According to Da Rosa, mountain top removal is a new form of coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains mainly
in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. “[Mountain top mining] is important. We are so close to West Virginia and Kentucky. Just because it is in another state, doesn’t mean it won’t affect us,” Da Rosa said.
The website, ilovemountains.org states that blasting in the mountains sends boulders into the road and even into homes, because the blasting can hap-pen within 300 feet from homes in the mountains.
Blasting can also damage the founda-tion of the house as well, making the home unsafe. “Sludge dams represent the greatest threat to nearby communi-ties of any of the impacts of coal min-ing,” according to ilovemountains.org. These dams are faulty and often con-taminate drinking water in communities near the mountains.
These effects of MTR are damaging to the inhabitants of the mountains, but MTR is also dangerous to the environ-ment. According Da Rosa, MTR strips all the topsoil and vegetation of the moun-tains. When blasting occurs and all the excess is removed from the mountain, more than 800 ft. of elevation has been lost. All of this happens just to get coal, which when treated produces coal dust, and toxic chemicals, when mixed with
clay, create coal slurries.
MTR doesn’t just affect the people living in the moun-tains, and the envi-ronment, but also the economy and the nation’s future energy. According to ilovemountains.org, the labor force in the mining busi-ness in the Appa-lachian Mountains has decreased dramatically caus-
ing these counties to become the poorest in the United States.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and ilovemountains.org in the early 1950’s there were between 125,000 and 145,000 miners employed in West Virginia; in 2004 there were just over 16,000. The current use of coal for energy will not sustain the United States for much longer, according to ilove-mountains.org, as seen in a report from the US Geologic Survey in 2000.
The report states that “Sufficient high-quality, thick, bituminous resources remain in [Appalachian Basin] coal beds and coal zones to last for the next one to two decades at current production.”
There are several activism websites, such as ilovemountains.org and moun-
tainjusticesummer.org that help to raise awareness and money to stop MTR. Activists are urged to get in touch with their senators to help pass bills in the state’s senate and the representative in the House to protect the mountains such as the Appalachia Restoration Act. This will reduce the amount of coal mining resulting in an improvement in the residents’ lifestyle, according to the ilovemountians.org website.
The event tonight was originally started in 2010 but only recently came to Winthrop, thanks to SEAC.
Da Rosa believes the event will raise awareness of the issue. “This is a pas-sionate event, and music is a great way to ignite that passion,” Da Rosa said.
This photo shows the effects of mountain top removal on a mountain. Moun-tain top removal (MTR) is a new form of coal mining in the Appalachian moun-tains that, according to activists, poses a threat to residents and the environ-ment. Photo courtesy of ilovemountains.org
Graphic courtesy of SEAC
SEAC fundraiser concert tonight helps fight mining
Tips for politely declining giving up your Facebook password to employers1) Valuing security
“I really value the importance of security and privacy. When I work for a company, I am sure to keep information and passwords secure.”
2) Separating work life and social life
“I am more than willing to offer you sources demonstrating my reliability as a worker and proof that I am in compliance with all local, state and federal laws. My personal life will not interfere with my work performance.”
3) Offering options
“I would be more than willing to give you more references to my character and link with you on LinkedIn so you can view my career profile.”
THURSDAYApril 5, 2012
MONICA KREBERArts & Entertainment Editor
Three strangers, all innocent suspects in a homicide case on the run from the police. What do they have in common? They’re all “Nineteen,” an age of lingering dreams and the search for oneself as well as the respon-sibilities of adulthood and the restrictions of teenage status.
This movie was the perfect mix of suspense, thriller, character develop-ment and comedy for me. Last spring, the award winning Ko-rean movie “Mother” was played in Dina’s Place, but it was a bit too strange for Ameri-can audiences, as well as very intense.
I think this movie is a breath of fresh air for non-horror foreign film fans, as it really resonates with people our age who, in this time of transition of trying to be an adult, are also still very young in many ways.
Nineteen stars (in my opinion) the greatest mainstream male Korean rapper
– T.O.P, along with another band mem-ber from Big Bang, Seungri, and actress Heo Yi Jae. Big Bang is currently the one of the biggest Korean pop bands in terms of international success, so seeing T.O.P and Seungri as actors for the first time, I didn’t really know what to expect. Movies that star musicians usually seem kind of gim-micky to me. Super Junior’s “Attack on the Pin-Up Boys” be-ing a prime example, it seems like many of these movies are too cheesy for my tastes and are just trying to garner attention for the band.
However, T.O.P’s acting was brilliant in my opinion. He plays the typical, slightly awkward college student who didn’t choose the most practical major, and is therefore looked down upon by his family and most of the girls he goes out with. I would have never thought the suave T.O.P, with his unyielding pokerface, could have pulled off
this kind of role so well. He also raps in the movie, which is pretty cool. Seungri plays a babied and spoiled rich kid, and Heo Yi Jae is a hair-dresser struggling to pay her dying moth-er’s medical bills. It was deep, suspenseful and even a little cute and fun at parts.
I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning what it’s like to be our age in a different culture, who likes a little mystery, is a fan of Big Bang or simply would be intrigued by watching a rap battle scene in Korean. It definitely was a movie I couldn’t pause for long.
I was pleasantly surprised how good it was and wish I had known about this movie sooner. It’s available on DVD on Amazon with Eng-lish subtitles for all regions for about $15. Be careful to always buy the right region code with the correct subtitles. Mix it up one weekend and give foreign film a chance!
Foreign film gives interesting twist on the number ‘19’
Staffer encourages others to give foreign movies a chance
Sarah [email protected]
‘Organ donor’gives to Byrnes
On March 6 Winthrop News and events posted online that an anonymous donor gave $50,000 to the David Bancroft (D.B.) Johnson Memorial Organ Restoration Fund for the maintenance of the historic Æolian-Skinner organ in Byrnes Auditorium.
The donation completes the or-gan restoration campaign’s total.
Donald Rogers, chair of the De-partment of Music, said the D.B. Memorial Pipe Organ was installed in Byrnes Auditorium in 1955. It was sent out for renovation in 2008 – the first time any major work had been done on the organ since the installation.
“This renovation was made pos-sible through private donations from alumni and friends and Winthrop University,” Rogers said. “This final donation completed the fund raising project for the organ.”
Rogers said the instrument is a historical organ and is well-known throughout the region. The organ is featured during Convocation each year and in concert 2-4 times addi-tional times per year.
“It is also available for instruction and practice by students and faculty,” he said (it was actually being used
two weeks ago during the annual All-State Choral Weekend to accompany one of the choirs.)
The organ will be used this summer with Eric Plutz, university organist at Princeton University, who will be recording a CD which will be distrib-uted around the world.
“We are looking forward to the en-hanced recruitment we will be able to accomplish with this fine instrument on campus,” Rogers said.
Monica [email protected]
The D.B. Johnson Memorial Organ Restoration Fund has now reached its financial goal
The Æolian-Skinner organ sits in Byrnes Auditorium and is regularly used for instruction and practice by Winthrop Faculty and staff. Photo courtesy of Winthrop News and Events.
Thursday, April 12
Open Mic Night
Come out and show off your talent, whatever it may be, at DSU’s Open Mic Night with The Monkey Brothers (Zade and Ted Patterson).Where: The Edge - DiGiorgio CenterWhen: 8 p.m.Price: free
DSU presents:
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THURSDAY April 5, 2012 11
Rapay said to him, “Get on stage; you just won the Founders Award.”
Jones said, “What?!”
“Get on stage!” Rapay repeated.
The NACA’s website states the Founders Award is “presented to an individual or individuals who, throughout their affiliation with NACA, have given continued and outstanding service to the organization, have exemplified the standards of professional integrity and conduct, have achieved stature in their professional or academic pursuits, hold the esteem of colleagues and peers, and have worked to further the field of campus activities programming.”
While Jones said he is not good at saying positive things about himself, he feels he received the award because of the hard work he and the students of DSU put into to make a school and budget like Winthrop’s provide a wide variety of quality, diverse, entertaining and educational programming for the campus community.
“We try to do a wide variety of things,” he said, “and we do it all for a low cost.”
In addition to NACA, Winthrop is also part of the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA). The APCA regularly gives out a programming award that has been named the Boyd Jones Award. During Spring Break Jones gave the award to this year’s winner, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). The award recognizes the school’s activity program.
Jones gave NYIT its award roughly two weeks after receiving the Founders Award.
“Between that (the Boyd Jones Award) and the Founders Award it was just crazy,” Jones said. “It was very, very nice
that both of those organizations chose to honor me, because I never tell anyone that I’m the best student activities director in the country. That’s just not like me.”
Jones has been involved with student activities since 1981. After spending 11 years at the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Okla. Jones came to Winthrop in 1992.
Jones feels his contribution to student activities was most likely recognized by colleagues, performers and agents who noted him as someone who puts on a good program, who treats the artists well when they come to campus and who does everything possible do to get the word out about the artists.
“When a performer comes to Winthrop we do everything we can to make sure the campus knows they’re coming,” Jones said, “and then it’s just up to the campus to come and enjoy the show.”
Jones attributes most of his recognition to how well the students of DSU cater to the artists that come to campus.
“I could gush all day about how great my students are,” he said.
In an interview with Winthrop News and Events, Mike Rapay, assistant director for university programs, said working with Jones has been an enjoyable working experience ever since he came to Winthrop two years ago.
“Working with Boyd has been a real educational experience,” he said. “I have taken time to learn things that have kept Boyd an essential piece in the field for such a long time.”
Rapay also told Winthrop News and Events that Boyd is the reason Winthrop alumni look back on their college days with “such fond memories.”
“Boyd has been the model citizen as far as maintaining relationships with students, agents and performers,” Rapay
said. Brian Wooten,
Chair of the Board of Directors for NACA, presented the award to Jones at the convention.
Wooten said Jones was “totally surprised” to receive the Founders Award.
“He was blown away,” Wooten said.
Wooten said each year NACA receives nominations from members who put forward potential recipients of the award. Wooten said the recipient has to be someone who has significantly impacted the world of student affairs and has had “outstanding” contribution to their field.
“(Jones) was one of those that was nominated, and he is just such an incredible leader and has done so much in our field,” Wooten said. “It is a fitting honor for him.”
Wooten said Jones is also recognized for his spirit of giving back and trying to help others.
“I’m very pleased (Jones) was recognized in this way,” he said.
David Coleman,
the Dating Doctor, said he attributes launching his career as an entertainer to Jones, who has booked him for events at Winthrop several times.
“Boyd is one of the top five best student activities professionals in the world,” Coleman said. “And I mean that with all sincerity. The fact that it has taken him this long to get the award just means people weren’t reading carefully enough in the past.”
Coleman said Boyd is the what campus activities are supposed to be on a college campus: he is “all about the students, giving them a diversity of things to attend and learn from, keeping things affordable, (and) tying things into their learning.
“He’s everything good about student activities,” he said.
Coleman also noted how proud Jones is of his students and school.
“I’ve never seen a person more proud of an institution…he’s
proud of everybody,” Coleman said. “He’s really a special guy. There’s one Boyd Jones in this country and you guys have him.”
As an entertainer, Coleman said he feels a career cannot go into effect until an artist has visited Winthrop.
“If Boyd Jones believes you’re good enough for his campus, it means your career has hit another level,” Coleman said.
That being said, Coleman feels he never would have been Entertainer of the Year or won Speaker of the Year 13 times had he not met
Jones.“He’s launched
dozens of careers for people in the college market,” Coleman said.
Faculty member recognized for leadershipUniversity Programs Director Boyd Jones receives one award while bestowing another award that now carries
his name
Boyd Jones, left, holds up the NACA Founders Award that he won in February. The award is the highest honor given by the NACA. Above is the 2012 Boyd Jones Award, which was given to New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). Photos provided by Boyd Jones
CrossWUrd PuzzleAcross1. Sydney Evans writes there is a trial and error period for doing this action.4. The assistant director for university programs (last name).5. An organ can be found in this building.7. The “other” Iraq.8. The location of WU women’s golf Big South Confer-ence.9. Movie released this past week...it’s also a book (nix “The”).
Down1. Last name of the sophomore who has concern for po-lice priorities at WU.2. The name of a foreign film that represents the charac-ters’ ages.3. Last name of the Monkey Brothers.6. Pat Kelsey is the new coach for this type of athletic team.
-compiled by Monica Kreber
Jones • from front
Boyd has been the model citizen as far as maintaining relationships with students, agents and performers. Mike RapayAssistant Director of University Affairs
“”
THURSDAYApril 5, 2012
ALISON ANGELCulture Editor
If someone told you they were from Kurd-istan, how would you respond? Would you laugh and think they were delusional? Or would you just be confused, trying to recall if you had ever heard of such a country and trying to mentally place it on the map?
Many people have heard of the attempted genocide of the Kurdish people under Saddam Hussein and know a little about the discrimination they face as an ethnic mi-nority in many countries.
On just one day, March 18, 1988, during the al-
Anfal campaign, Hussein used poisonous gas in concentration camps to kill thousands of Kurdish people in Halabja, Iraq.
“Most of the time I say I am from Kurdistan and people tell me it’s not a country,” said Ramazan Abdulla, 23, currently Winthrop’s only Kurdish student.
Abdulla hails from Saruchawa in the Sulai-mania province of Iraq and is currently studying business administration. He speaks Kurdish and English, and can under-stand a little Arabic. But why make the distinction to people?
Even in Iraq, the two regions and cultures are
so different, people will say “we are Kurdish, not Iraqi,” Abdulla said. “Americans have been killed in Iraq. No one has been injured in Kurdis-tan. That’s what we’re proud of.” This stability and security has attracted businesses, boosting their economy.
Since 1992, the north-ern province of Iraq, known as Kurdistan or “the other Iraq” has had extensive independence and is known for its peacefulness and security, Abdulla said. “We have our own government,” he said.
This includes a sepa-rate parliament and their own elected officials, along with extensive bor-der security and check-points, he said.
It can become confus-ing because “Kurdistan” can also refer to areas in Syria, Iran, and Turkey where Kurdish people are simply the majority. The name is used inter-changeably with what is officially classified as the “autonomous region” of Iraq.
“If we have interna-tional support, we can [become] an independent state,” he said.
“What makes it more
difficult for us is that the four other countries have to first admit our inde-pendence. The rest don’t want our independence... except Kurds.”
In the recently war-torn and much less economi-cally and politically stable Iraq, it is not too surpris-ing this opinion is not popular among Arabs.
Oil has been found in northern Iraq and there is an agreement that both regions would profit, Ab-dulla said.
Because of the violence in the rest of the coun-try, many Iraqi women are left widowed with no one to support them and many children are now orphaned, he said.
Iraq is the exception in allowing this degree of freedom and self-rule; Kurdish people in the other three countries are treated badly “because Kurdish people are differ-ent,” Abdulla said.
There are 20 million Kurds in Turkey, and altogether there are about 40 million, roughly the population of Canada, he said.
Abdulla has never experienced any of the violence or heard the sound of rifles or gunshots often associated with the
By Sarah [email protected]
Middle East where he lives –it’s just like Rock Hill, he said.
The Kurdish of north-ern Iraq also pride them-selves on the freedom of religion, speech and women’s rights.
“We have almost one-quarter women in parlia-ment,” Abdulla said. “You
Kurdistan: The ‘Other’ IraqWinthrop’s only Kurdish student reflects on division between country and cultural identity, struggle for independence
Ramazan Abdulla, business administration major. Abdulla is a citizen of Kurdistan, a country that is technically not recognized as independent by the countries (Syria, Iran and Turkey) in which it over-laps. Photo by Sarah Auvil • [email protected]
can find churches beside mosques.”
Three more Kurdish students are currently taking English classes in Charlotte and are on their way to Winthrop, Abdulla said.
Family Guy, South Park teach Winthrop community about diversity in the mediaBy Jordan LentSpecial to the Johnsonian
The proposed ‘country’ of Kurdistan as it stands today; it currently overlaps four different countries. Photo courtesy of Google Images
Anyone who has been to a few cultural events has seen it. The shuffling around, the checking of phones, and the pained sighs accompanied by glances at the clock. All of these are telltale signs that students are ready for the presentation to end. However, these symptoms of boredom were not as common in the cultural event held on Tuesday called, “Diversity Ac-cording to South Park and Family Guy,” co-hosted by DSU and Disability Services. In fact, nationally-known speaker Matt Glowacki kept the audience laughing and engaged throughout his presentation from his excited greeting of, “Hello, hello, hello!” to his pre-sentation ending called Five Minutes with Matt where students got to ask him questions about the event and his own experiences with being disabled. Indeed, the mention of the two popular TV shows is what drew many people to the event. Sydney Moultrie, a senior, said, “They mentioned Family Guy and South Park, and I watch both of those shows so I thought it would be interesting.”
Glowacki was born without legs (though he joked with the audience that he likes to tell kindergartners he has no legs because he was staring at someone without legs, causing his own to vanish into thin air). Rather than take a pessimistic view of life, he has em-braced it and strived to do the things he loves. He told the audience that when people come up to him and say things like ‘You don’t have any legs…’ He looks down and gasps out in feigned surprise something like, ‘You’re right! Where did they go?’ When people ask Glowacki how he can be so happy in spite of his disability he says, “It seems to be that my disability exists more in your mind than mine.”
Indeed, the event focused on the importance of understanding diversity and looking at who people are inside rather than how they look on the outside. Glowacki illustrates these important concepts by showing several clips from Family Guy and South Park and explaining how the clips relate to diver-sity. Glowacki has always been a fan of the shows, and when he realized that his friends did not always understand why the jokes were funny, he thought that the shows would make a really neat presentation topic.
He explains that the shows take situations which could be considered risqué and amplify them while at the same time poking fun at them. According to him, a lot of the time people think that the jokes are offensive when they are really not. Rather, one just has to take everything they hear with a grain of salt. “Diversity is not walking around and looking at people. It’s learning from the people,” Glowacki said,
explaining that someone is not diverse simply because they can see the differences, say, between a black per-son, a white person, and a “purple” person. Two impor-tant aspects of understanding and respecting diversity that the presentation focused on was the perception of beauty and racism.
Thin is in. It is a fact of life. According to Glowacki, children are taught from a young age what it means to be beautiful. Even four-year old girls are starting to say things like, “I feel fat. I don’t think I’m pretty,” when
asked how they feel about themselves. Glowacki tells the audience that companies are the ones who set the standards of beauty for their customers, for the obvi-ous fact that they are trying to sell a product. Glowacki believes that modeling agencies do not sell clothes, but eating disorders. In fact, during fashion week in Ma-drid, Spain in 2006, a model died from anorexia on the runway. Although Spain has since enacted a law that states that models must have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of at least 18.5, this law only applies to Spain and there
are still several places around the world where ex-treme thinness is the ultimate glory. Indeed, in Japan, to be considered attractive you must weigh less than 100 pounds and women are ingesting tapeworms in order to meet this ideal, a fact that elicited gasps of shock from the audience.
To illustrate the concept of the idealization of thin-ness, Glowacki showed clips from Family Guy where Peter got liposuction, then became so full of himself he could not stop staring of himself in the mirror, causing him to get into a car accident and eventually fall into a tub of lard, which he had to drink so he did not drown. By the end of the clip series, Peter was back to normal and his family by his bedside at the hospital. Though Peter claims he has no idea what he was supposed to have learned from his experience, the message was clear: what’s inside is more impor-tant than how you look on the outside.
The second issue he focused on was racism, more specifically, the stigmatism surrounding the use of the proverbial “N-word.” This situation was illustrated by clips from South Park, where a character mistak-enly thought the “N-word” was the answer to Wheel of Fortune question, and had to literally kiss a black person’s back-side as an apology. In this part of the presentation Glowacki gave a quick history of what we know today as the “N-word” and said that a word is just a word until someone makes it a bad word. Interestingly, in some schools now, children are not allowed to say the word ‘weird’ anymore because soon it will be known to mean ‘gay,’ which Glowacki found out when he got a small slap on the wrist for using the term during one of his presentations at a high school. When he asked the teacher if the school would explain why the students could not use the word anymore the teacher reportedly replied: “[The students] would never understand. They’re only in high school.”
Rather than explain what is happening, some schools are deciding to just let the word become an-other stigmatized, politically incorrect term. Lastly, Glowacki talked about the importance of standing up for what you believe, even if you have to tell your friends that what they say makes you uncom-fortable. He calls this “fighting terrorism by putting your own belief system out there,” saying how some-times you can get a person to open their minds and accept people more readily by having an adult con-versation where both people can state their views and explain where they are coming from.
The presentation was very educational and infor-mative, and at the very least made students more sensitive to issues surrounding the concept of diver-sity. At least, as he told the audience, that is what Glowacki hopes.
THURSDAYApril 5, 2012
JEFF BRODEURSports Editor
DAVID THACKHAMSports Editor
13
Sports Briefs
Baseball falls 5-1 in game two of series to Gardner-Webb
The Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs used a five-run fourth inning to propel itself to a 5-1 vic-tory over the Winthrop Eagles on Saturday after-noon at John Henry Moss Stadium in game two of a three-game Big South Conference series.
The Eagles fall to 8-20 on the season and 1-4 in the conference, while the Runnin’ Bulldogs improve their record to 16-12 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
Conner Scarborough (2-3) earned the win after tossing the first complete game of his career giving up one run on four hits, one walk and four strike-outs. Eric Ruth (2-2) took the loss allowing five runs on seven hits, no walks and four strikeouts in 3.2 innings of work.
Men’s tennis fall to conference leading Radford, 7-0
For the second straight match, the Winthrop men’s tennis team started short-handed, only this time, the Eagles were on the opposite side of the scoreboard, falling 7-0 to Radford on Sunday after-noon at the RU Tennis Courts.
With the loss, Winthrop falls to 9-12 on the season and 2-3 in the Big South, as Radford (13-3) remains undefeated in the conference with a 5-0 mark.
The Eagles could not gain an early advantage, dropping two doubles matches. In the singles round, Radford maintained its winning ways, capturing all five matches. Winthrop’s Nadav Rup-pin went into three sets with Stijn Meulemans, but eventually fell 10-0 in the final set.
Winthrop will be back on the courts Friday, April 6 when the Eagles return to Memorial Courts to face Coastal Carolina. The doubles round is set for 2 p.m. and admission is free.
Softball Falls 4-3 At Liberty In Walk-Off Hit, Takes Series
The Winthrop softball team battled back to take the lead in the top of seventh inning but lost the final game of the series after Liberty rallied for a 4-3 win, Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles falls to 13-22 overall and are now 2-5 in the conference. The Flames improved to 9-19 on the year and 3-5 in conference play.
Head Coach Mark Cooke said, “I was pleased we were able to take two of three games from Liberty. We hit the ball well and pitched well today and the whole weekend. This was a knock-down drag out affair the entire game and we fought hard.”
Women’s Tennis Cruises To 6-1 Victory Over Radford
The Winthrop women’s tennis team continued their conference winning streak, knocking off Radford 6-1 Sunday afternoon at the RU Tennis Courts.
The victory evens up Winthrop’s overall record to 10-10 and maintains the perfect conference record to 6-0. Radford falls to 14-6 on the year and 3-4 in the Big South.
The Eagles started the match with three victories in the doubles round, earning the opening point. Sandra Herrera and Giovanna Portioli notched an 8-1 win over Hannah Crawford and Meg Napoli-tano at the No. 2 position, as the freshman tandem of Monica Aguado and Ekin Gunaysu defeated Petra Dajevic and Gemma Valls with a matching 8-1 score at No. 3. Capping off the doubles round was Yasmine Alkema and Andressa Garcia win-ning 8-4.
The winning ways continued for Winthrop in the singles round as four Eagles captured straight set victories. Alkema defeated Dajevic 6-0, 6-3 at No. 1 singles, as Garcia took down Crawford 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 2 position. At No. 3 singles, Herrera earned a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Mia Drobnjak, and Portioli defeated Valls 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4
Earning the last point for Winthrop was Aguado, as she defeated Napolitano 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 at the No. 6 slot.
“I’m very proud of the girls,” head coach Cid Car-valho said. “They are continually improving with every match they play.”
Schoenfeldt Earns 3rd Big South Player Of The Week Honor
For the third time in the 2012 season, Winthrop junior Chelsey Schoenfeldt has been selected as the Big South Conference Choice Hotels Softball Player of the Week.
Schoenfeldt helped the team to a 2-2 record on the week as the Eagles went to Lynchburg, VA and took the series from Liberty.
She finished the week with a .900 slugging per-centage, along with a .615 on-base percentage and nine total bases.
In her three-year career, Schoenfeldt has now earned the honor four times. She is one shy of tying Janiva “Willis” Thompson for the most in a career. During her time, Willis garnered the award five times, three in one season. Kelli Johnson has the most weekly awards in a career, being named BSC Pitcher of the Week nine times.
Meet Coach Kelsey
Ex-Xavier assistant Pat Kelsey hired as WU head men’s basketball
Kelsey will be introduced to the media and the Rock Hill community on Thursday at the Winthrop Coli-seum. Students are invited to attend. Photo courtesy of Winthrop athletics
media on Thursday at the Winthrop Coliseum at 1 p.m.
“I am not only looking forward to continuing the winning tradition,” said Kelsey in a press release, “but hopeful-ly helping the program to levels never seen before.”
His former mentor at Wake Forest, Dino Guadio, had nothing but praise for his former associate. “Winthrop just hit a grand slam,” Gaudio said to The Herald. “Pat is a super, super hire. Can’t say enough good things about him and what he’s going to do. They just found themselves the next Brad Stevens, the next Shaka Smart.”
College Bound Hoops ranked Kelsey, 36, eighth in the nation among college basketball assistants. In addition to his recruiting prowess, Kelsey is also recognized as an excellent teacher and
tactician in terms of player development, scouting and game preparation.
After a successful playing career under legendary coach Skip Prosser at Xavier from 1996-98, he would later follow Prosser to Wake Forest in 2001 as the program’s director of basketball op-erations. Kelsey was then promoted to assistant coach three years later before
returning to Xavier in 2009. Kelsey and wife, Lisa, have two daughters, Ruthie
(4) and Caroline (3).“We were fortunate to have a large group of highly
qualified and successful coaches in the candidate pool for our head men’s basketball coach,” said Winthrop athletic director Tom Hickman. “Kelsey emerged as a dynamic and energetic leader who has had a rich background in working for and learning from highly successful coaches. We look forward to having him join the Winthrop family as our next head men’s basketball coach and know that he will excite our fan base.”
With a team that has suffered multiple run-ins with the law in the Peele era, Kelsey will have his hands full rebuilding the image of the program to Winthrop students who are largely apathetic about athletics.
To his credit, Kelsey has already begun his own marketing campaign based solely on just that. His Twitter account (@patkelsey), as well as his Tumblr website, “http://coachpatkelsey.tumblr.com/” have already been push-ing a catchy mantra of “#RockTheHill,” designed to get students excited for the upcoming season.
“First of many nights in Rock Hill,” Kelsey posted on Saturday. “Proud to be the head coach at Winthrop. Loved meeting the guys. If you are very quiet... and listen very closely... you can already hear the ball bouncing!”
“Recruiting a 6th man crucial for our success,” Kelsey tweeted later. “Stu-dents of WU & Citizens of Rock Hill. Im comin’ 2 get u! (sp).”
Kelsey earned a reputation as an inno-vative marketer during his time in Winston-Salem. He worked with current XU head coach and former Wake assistant Chris Mack and Wake marketing to produce the “Tie-Dye Nation” campaign, which still thrives today as the heartbeat of the Wake Forest fan base. It’s in his training. Kelsey is a 1998 graduate of Xavier University with a degree in business administration and marketing.
Wake Forest averaged nearly 21 wins per year in Kelsey’s eight seasons at Winston- Salem, N.C, earning five NCAA tournament berths, a No. 1 national rank-ing two different seasons and an ACC regular season championship.
Although Prosser’s influence on Kelsey is likely to fos-ter a strong defensive unit, the new coach also preaches a higher tempo offense, a welcome sign for fans frustrat-ed with Winthrop’s unconvincing 63.6 points per game last season.
“We will be a tough, defensive-minded team that will play with a fast, downhill offensive mentality,” he said. “The thing that I think is most important in winning championships, however, is a team that can defend with great toughness, with great intensity and great resolve. The combination of these things is what defines me as a coach.”
The pillars of the new program, Kelsey says, will be based on his ‘ABC’s.’
“[A]cademics, basketball and character,” he said. “These three letters were the fabric of what [Prosser] taught and what he believed in.”
The players are already buying in. Tobias Pinson, a sophomore guard, confirmed that the team was im-pressed when it met with Kelsey just last week.
“He explained to us that the past is the past and the future is now,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do before basketball season comes around.”
The countdown is on: there’s only 190 days until tip-off in Winthrop Coliseum.
Winthrop just hit a grand slam. Pat is a super, super hire.
Dino GuadioWake Forest head coach
Pat KelseyWinthrop head men’s
basketball coach
COACH • from front
TIMELINE OF WU BASKETBALL
March 1: Winthrop’s 2011-2012 season ends 12-20 after a 75-55 loss to VMI in the Big South Tournament SemifinalsMarch 4: Winthrop relieves former head coach Randy Peele of men’s basketball coaching dutiesMarch 29: Athletic Director Tom Hickman announces Pat Kelsey as Winthrop’s sixth men’s basketball coach in school history
THURSDAY April 5, 2012 14SPORTS
Eagles finish strong at Winthrop Invitational
The men and women of the track and field team showed promise as the outdoor schedule gets into swing. Photos by Sarah Auvil • [email protected]
runners to turn in solid performances for Winthrop on the final day. Sarah deVaux won the 800 meter with a time of 2:16:83, followed closely by Lisa Nichols, who earned a fourth place finish with a time of 2:18:04.
In the 100 meter dash, fellow freshman Kendra Bufkin and Deshaun Squires grabbed second and third place finishes respectively, with times of 12.62 and 12.68 seconds.
Vicki Crise and Shalace Rose also rose to the occasion for the fresh-man class, finishing second and fourth in the 400 meter hurdles and the 400 meter dash respectively.
Rounding out the strong performances on the day for the Winthrop ladies was by juniors Tara Bowman and Stephanye McCarroll. Bow-man tied for second in the pole vault with a height of 3.35 meters. Mc-Carroll finished third in the discus throw with a heave of 36.26 meters, and fourth in the shot put with a heave of 12.55 meters.
Despite the women’s team raising the bar for Winthrop, the men’s team fared quite well.
One the second day, senior Adam Freudenthal captured the 10k with a time of 31:58:30, while freshman Doug Gibson finished third in the long jump with a distance of 6.67 meters.
The men fared even better or the final day, with junior Adam Leroux claiming the top finish in the 1500 meter run. Seniors Dexter Young, Billy Pearce and freshman Andrew Chavous all grabbed second place finishes on day three in the high jump, shot put and 400 meter hurdle respectively.
Between the leadership of the veteran players and the early success of the younger athletes, the Eagles, track and field teams have a lot to look forward to for the remainder of the season. Their next meet will be this weekend in Gainsvillle, Fla., followed by the Carolina’s Cup the following weekend right here on their home track.
Winthrop senior point guard booked in pot chargeBy David [email protected]
Reggie Middleton, Winthrop’s se-nior point guard on the men’s basket-ball team, was arrested and charged Tuesday with possession of marijuana (first offense), according to a Winthrop University campus police report. The report states that a Winthrop campus police officer discovered eight grams of marijuana in Middleton’s bathroom in the Courtyard Apartments.
According to Winthrop police, a reporting officer was called to the Courtyard on Monday by the apart-ment’s residence learning coordinator (RLC) who told the reporting officer that a facilities management employee had discovered the contraband while repairing Middleton’s leaky sink. Middleton had completed a depart-ment work order to work for manage-ment to work on the bathroom.
While completing the work order, the employee noticed a portable scale on top of the sink and a 2.5 quart jar in the sink’s cabinet, according to the report. The witness said the jar con-tained a “green plant-like material.”
The RLC, reporting officer and the witness went to Middleton’s apart-ment, but only Middleton’s roommate, Gideon Gamble, was there. Gamble is a junior guard for the men’s basketball team and Middleton’s teammate.
Upon entering the room, the report says, the officer could smell the faint odor of marijuana and then observed a small quantity of green plant-like ma-terial scattered around the sink near the scales. The report states the officer also noticed the jar, which contained a small bundle of green plant-like mate-rial in a plastic baggie. The reporting officer then seized the jar and digital scales and placed the contraband into Evidence.
The reporting officer met with
Gamble on Tuesday, the report says. Gamble told the reporting officer that he had no knowledge of any marijua-na, or any other illegal drugs, being in the apartment.
A short time later, the reporting officer interrogated Middleton, who waived his Miranda rights. Middleton told the officer that the marijuana in Middleton’s personal bathroom was not that of Gamble’s, but did not admit that he owned it himself.
After being taken into custody, Middleton was then transported to the City of Rock Hill Law Center to be booked.
Tom Hickman, Winthrop’s athletic director, had no comment.
Middleton’s court date has been set for April 24 at 9 a.m.
The point guard from Augusta, Ga., started and played in all 32 games of the 2011-2012 season and is the fifth player in school history to reach 1,000 points and 400 assists in a career. Reggie Middleton
athletes • from front
UPCOMING EVENTSHOME GAMES IN BOLD
Baseball
April 6 @ VMI - 5 p.m.April 7 @VMI (DH) - 2 p.m., 5 p.m.April 10 @ College of Charleston- 6
p.m.April 13 vs. Liberty- 6 p.m.
Men’s tennis
April 6 vs. Coastal Carolina - 2 p.m.April 13 vs. Presbyterian Col-lege- 2 p.m.
Women’s tennis
April 6 vs. Coastal Carolina - 2 p.m.April 13 vs. Presbyterian Col-lege- 2 p.m.
Track and Field
April 6-7 @ Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fl. April 13 @ Carolina’s Cup in Rock Hill, S.C.
THURSDAY April 5, 2012 15SPORTS
By Casey [email protected]
The Winthrop men’s and women’s soccer teams geared up for two games each in the Manchester Cup.
On Friday the women faced UNC Charlotte twice after some of the women’s teams that were supposed to play in the tournament dropped out. Winthrop was not able to pull out a win in either of the games, losing the first game 3 to 1 and the second game 1 to 0.
“We were a little bit unorganized at first,” said head coach Spencer Smith, “but I think as both games went on we got a little bit more organized. We were able to battle them a little better.”
Winthrop’s defense had trouble preventing Charlotte from pushing the ball down the line and crossing the ball into the box. Charlotte was able to score three of their four goals against Winthrop this way.
Winthrop’s offense came into the first game strong, but couldn’t manage to score.
After they didn’t score within the first 10 minutes the offense seemed to lose their steam, which they never gained back. Freshman Grace Radler was the only player who managed to put the ball in the net.
Winthrop was using these two games as an attempt to try players in new positions, which may have had some influence on the two losses.
“We’re trying some players out in different positions and just trying to get a look at some things,” Smith said. “I think it was, for them, a new experience, so they weren’t quite sure of themselves at times.”
The team will only have two more games in the spring, but they hope to correct the issues they faced in the two games at Manchester.
“We’ll try to address some of our breakdowns and try to correct those before the next two games,” Smith said.
The Winthrop men’s team faced a similar fate on Sat-urday when they lost both their games to College of Charleston and Davidson Col-lege, 1 to 0 and 2 to 0 respectively.
Winthrop had a few opportunities to score throughout both games, but were never able to capital-ize on their potential.
Charleston man-aged to score their only goal on Win-throp on a header during a corner kick. Winthrop’s defensive breakdowns allowed Davidson many op-portunities in front of the Winthrop goal, which they were able to capitalize on twice.
Men’s head coach Rich Posipanko wasn’t too worried about the losses because much like the women’s team, his team was trying different things out in their spring games.
“I don’t think anybody here is concerned about win-ning or losing the games,” Posipanko said. “It’s the spring and everybody’s experimenting. “Winthrop’s spring games allowed different team members about equal playing time and gives the team an idea about where players will fit in the line up for next year when
the new recruits come in.“We think we have a pretty good recruiting
class,” Posipanko said. “So if we’re going to get back to the top of the conference, we need to figure who we count on that we have here now and hopefully mesh that with the seven or eight guys we have coming in that we think are going to be able to play right away.”
So although both teams lost their games in the Manchester Cup, it gave them a good look at what they will need to work and what players they can depend on for the fall season.
Winthrop soccer falls to nationally ranked opponents in Manchester Cup
Photo by Casey White • [email protected]
I don’t think anybody here is concerned about winning or losing the games. It’s the spring and everybody’s experimenting. Rich PosipankoWinthrop head men’s soccer coach
THE MANCHESTER CUP
Last weekend was the 6th annual
Manchester Cup and the second
straight year with a women’s day
of competition.
Local high school teams also had
their chance to shine at Manches-
ter Meadows, including Fort Mill,
South Pointe, Northwestern and
Rock Hill.
VISIT MYTJNOW.COM/SPORTSFOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE
16THURSDAY April 5, 2012 THE JOHNSONIAN