principia pilot march 2014
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March 2014
W
Meet Principia’s MOTORCYCLISTS
page 22
SUSTAINABILITY Not a Fad but a
FUTUREPAC 2014
page 8
Changes Coming to the Pub
page 16
2016 Presidential
Elections page 36Swimmers
and Divers
BREAKRECORDS at Liberal Arts Meetpage 14
06 Letter From the EditorsHalfway there!
06 What Students Want to StudyAcademics at an ideal principia
08 Sustainability: Not a Fad, But a FuturePublic Affairs Conference 2014
10 Women’s Rugby Joins the PitchA new group on campus gains momentum
12 Principia’s Housekeepers They’re here for you
14 Swimmers and Divers Break Records at Liberal Arts Meet
16 Changes Coming to the PubNew buzzers and more
18 Sugarbush Management UpdateStay up-to-date with their progress
20 Happy Birthday, Saint Louis!250th anniversary
21 Trial and TriumphInternational application struggles pay off
22 Meet Principia’s MotorcyclistsBikes are in
26 Microsoft: The Fall of a GiantStruggling to survive?
27 It’s Tornado SeasonPrepare yourself
EDITORIAL
NEWS
March 2014Vol. 71 No. 2
38
16
24
2 PILOT March 2014
CAMPUS SNAPS
06
22
30
44
36
1008
14
35
28 NetflixSlower service at a price
29 Minimum Wage IncreasePros and cons
30 Spring Break in TrinidadSea turtle research
32 Sustainability on CampusStudent projects
34 Fukushima: Radiation Overreaction?Spreading to the West Coast
35 Whole World Festival RecapA look back on this great event
36 2016 Presidential Elections No frontrunner, no problem!
38 The Problem of OverfishingOne of the world’s largest ecological issues
39 A Solution to Argentina’s Economic Woes What needs to happen
40 Stand Your GroundA liberal perspective
41 Keep Up the Iran Sanctions A conservative perspective
42 ”Son of God”A movie review
43 Childish Gambino Why he should be your favorite rapper
44 Alcohol and Live Music A bad mix
46 Why Gangsta Rap MattersColby & Chicago’s drill music
NEWS
March 2014 PILOT 3
OPINION
35
Annika FredriksonJulia Suber
Colby Bermel
Stephen PurcellBobby Witney
Abigail BlattAnnelise Suber
Emily Skala
Galen Collins Lauren Furbush
Angela LupherAnna Tarnow
Briggs DeLoach Cameron Douglas
Casey LeeCassidy Orth-Moore
Christina Beck Dani McKenzie Gemma Ritchie
George Napper Georgia Mae Hurley
Kate Kagali Kathryn Croney
Melissa Odell Sam Williams
Samantha BronkarSusie Bonwich
Angela LupherAnna TarnowAntonio Reis
Gemma RitchieGeorge Napper
Georgia Mae Hurley
Hayley MacWilliamsKathryn Croney
Kristin KayserNikki Papadopolous
Samantha Bronkar
Ashley WrayAshley Woodley
Haley ChichesterJessica Santos
Kim Donadelli Lisa Lewis
Nathalie DeLoachNaveed Hossenmardi
Olivia Adams Sage Stafford
Phil DrakeTori Raine
Kimberly Sheasley
Alice Batista
Paul Van Slambrouck
This periodical is the product of the hard work of those listed here. If you have comments, questions or wish to write a letter to the editor, please email us at: principia.
Cover Photo: Lauren Furbush Cover Design: Alice Batista
© 2014 Principia College The Principia Pilot,
1 Maybeck Place, Elsah, IL, 62028.
TEAMEditor-in-Chief
Assigning Editors
Design Editor
Copy Chief
Photo Editor
Staff Writers
Copy Editors
Designers
Photographers
Faculty Adviser
photo/travelerguidance.com
The editors were too busy chillin’ on the beach to take a picture.
Dear Campus,We hope everyone enjoyed their spring break. We certainly did, as you can see above. Now it’s time to
get back into the swing of things and finish out the remaining seven weeks strong. Aside from our vacation week, the campus has been busy and involved as usual. Principian swimmers
and divers broke records at the Liberal Arts meet and divers went on to compete at regionals, events highlighted in our cover story. A group of students also took a trip to Trinidad this past week to conduct research on sea turtles there. Sugarbush continues to work hard to produce maple syrup and two students have started an informal women’s rugby group.
Needless to say, there’s a lot going on around campus, not to mention the rest of the nation and world. Topics covered include minimum wage, Netflix, Microsoft, and Fukushima just to name a few.
vvWe hope you’ll enjoy browsing these pages and as always, contact us with any suggestions, comments, or questions. We encourage everyone to voice their opinions.
March 2014 PILOT 5
Survey Results: Thank you to everyone who participated in the online survey. We were considering moving to an exclusively
online periodical, however survey results showed that our readers like the print edition. 55% of those who completed the survey prefer reading news in print, while 12% prefer online and 31% have no preference.
With that being said, we will continue to make each print issue available in its entirety on our Pilot website (www.principiapilot.org). Of those who completed the survey, 32% responded that they had never visited the Pilot website while 43% said they didn’t even know the website existed. Now everyone knows! Feel free to check out the website at any time. You can leave comments on specific articles directly on the website, and we certainly encourage you to do so.
6 PILOT March 2014
News
If money, class size and faculty availability were no object, what would you study if you could take
any course in college?This question was posted to the
“Prin’s Crägslist” Facebook group as an experiment by Pilot staff. However, the volume and variety of responses triggered more questions: Why can’t Principia offer certain classes? And what is the administration doing to offer more of the classes and programs that students want to pursue?
Follow-up interviews revealed that many students are interested in courses or subject areas that Principia does not offer currently. The majority of responses, both to the Crägslist post and in person, centered on broadening humanities offerings, especially languages. Junior Alaina Carlson and sophomore Tessa Miller both expressed interest in Italian classes. Mandarin and German appeared to be other popular suggestions from students offering similar sentiments.
When asked the same question, faculty members had similar responses. “If we had unlimited money and faculty, I wish we’d teach a lot more languages, including Mandarin, Farsi and Arabic,” political science professor Julie Blase said. Another political science professor, John Williams, also expressed interest in Mandarin and Arabic, as well as Russian. In fact, both professors offered an interest in expanding the non-Western course offerings in the areas of language, religion, arts and history.
Students also suggested courses in life skills, the arts and a variety of
physical education courses. Pottery classes were an especially popular suggestion, along with broadcast journalism and film studies. Physical education suggestions included whitewater kayaking or team handball. Junior Josephine Finen also discussed the education program, stating, “it is more elementary focused. Generally to work with kids aged six and under, you need a minimum of 12 early childhood credits. I’m not sure if that is what I want to do, but I wish I had the option to test it out.”
Although the majority of courses proposed by students were humanities-type courses, a fair number of students expressed interest in a full-scale engineering program at Principia. Currently, the College offers a “three-two” program in engineering, through which students have the opportunity to spend three years at Principia and two years at another college in order to earn an engineering degree. The College does not have its own four-year engineering program.
Junior Gabe Korinek said that he would be interested in such a program because “it would increase the amount of funding and professors [for] the science department.” Other students agreed, despite a lack of personal investment in engineering as a field of study. Senior Jamie Rybak, a business administration major, said, “I wish they had engineering here. Not that I’d do it, but I think it would be nice to keep engineers at the school.”
Associate Dean of Academics Joe Ritter also expressed interest in an engineering program at Principia. As expected, a new program includes initial costs that mean that Principia must tread lightly. However, Ritter said,
“We’re looking into options.”When asked about possible
computer science courses at Principia, computer science professor Tom Fuller said, “The computer science department faculty has gradually shrunk over the years from three to just over two at present. Thus we have reduced the number of courses we teach.” He went on to list several courses that have faded from the program, including Artificial Intelligence Systems, Management Information Systems, Intro to Computer Science (offered this semester on a one-time basis), Computer Graphics and Advanced Algorithms.
The sheer volume of student and faculty responses to the ideal world of possible classes prompted questions. What restricts the number of courses that Principia can offer? How can the administration respond to student demand in currently unoffered study areas?
The simple answer to the first question is that Principia is a small college. Most other colleges that fit the “small liberal arts college” description
What Students Want to Study Christina Beck Staff Writer
photo/Lauren Furbush
Education professor Winnie Needham
News
March 2014 PILOT 7
have between 1,000 and 5,000 students or more. Principia is much smaller, at approximately 500 students, and that restricts the number of professors, as well as the number of courses, that Principia can support.
College President Jonathan Palmer asserted that the administration is constantly walking a thin line between the courses that Principia must offer to fulfill major requirements, and the courses that students want to take. It is all about finding a balance, and sometimes, “there just aren’t enough students.”
Provost Scott Schneberger agreed, saying that along with budgetary concerns about how many faculty members Principia can hire, “a low number of enrolled students can also limit what we can offer, because we need a sustainable number of students interested in a course before we invest in faculty and course development.”
A small student body and a lack of apparent student interest has also had an impact on the much-requested
courses in the language department. When asked about why Principia does not offer a wider variety of language courses, language professor Duncan Charters answered, “I think the main question has always been the number of students who would actually be taking the course. We’d love to offer more languages, but right now its just a bit of a struggle, because even in French there are just a handful of majors. In the more advanced courses, you might only get two or three people sometimes.”
Despite students’ seeming interest in foreign language, there is a great lack of students in the language classes that are currently being offered. “We have a fair amount of interest [in other languages], but how many students would really sign up for a whole program? If we could get a dozen students to commit to another language, we would want to offer it,” Charters said.
Instead, the language department is working on making other language
learning resources available for students. Because Principia cannot offer the courses itself, due to student interest and limited faculty, Charters said, “We feel the best thing we can do is try to guide people to where they can do something with the language they are interested in.”
What can Principia do about disparity between the courses students want to see, and the courses it can offer?
Ritter said the solution lies in hiring faculty that can teach in multiple subject areas. The right number of professors in a subject area is not always a whole number, according to Ritter. “The idea of having multidisciplinary faculty, is like having a utility player,” he said. “Part of it is finding faculty who can teach in more areas, who could help broaden or strengthen our curriculum.”
Another option is, as Charters suggested, for students to seek out faculty that can help them develop their interests in areas of study that Principia cannot offer.
What Courses Would You Want to See at Principia?
“They should bring the German program back.” - Sophomore Moriah Early-Manchester
“A course that covers basic instruction for musical instruments, or voice parts, and how to teach them.” -Senior Catherine Joyner
“It would be nice to see the music department branch out and create either a major or a minor for contemporary music and songwriting.” - Sophomore Nick Boyd
“I think Prin could have an interesting architecture program if they had the resources, given the varied architec-tural styles and techniques on campus.”-Sophomore Ashley Woodley
“Working on camera is an essential skill for actors. We are able to give them some basic training, but we could offer so much more training and opportunities to develop skills and creative expression through this medium.” -Theater professor Chrissy Steele
News
8 PILOT March 2014
Stopping massive environmental problems such as rainforest destruction is a daunting task for
an individual to take on. Sometimes it feels like there’s no point in trying. Thankfully, the 65th annual Public Affairs Conference (PAC) is here to show us otherwise: people can make positive changes by learning how to choose sustainable, responsible options on the individual level.
As the nation’s longest running student-organized conference, PAC’s purpose is to bring to light issues that face our world community. Senior Shelby Tisinai, the conference’s executive director, explains that “the underlying theme of the conference has been what’s going right in the world, rather than what’s going wrong. Of course the things that are going wrong are still addressed. But this year’s conference will also talk about what’s going right by highlighting the businesses and individuals who have committed to operating and living sustainably.”
PAC’s slogan this year is “sustainability: not a fad, but a future.” What does it mean? The survival and effectiveness of the sustainability movement depends on the actions of individuals. Here’s where PAC comes in: it’s an opportunity to discover how individuals have made an impact and how you can do the same, even when you’re still a student where many of your “controllables,” such as where
you buy your food, are determined largely by the institution where you study. Tisinai hopes that PAC will help “encourage delegates to look at what they could change in their lifestyle to make it more sustainable. It’s all about what’s going well and how we can continue to do well.”
Basically, you don’t have to go rally an army and defeat “evil companies” in battle to be sustainable. Instead, you can educate yourself in order to make informed choices: you can do anything from taking shorter showers to buying products that are sustainably sourced. Junior Becky Skala, a director of speakers, says that PAC will “bring to light how sustainability is practical to everyone. No matter what your everyday experience is, it’s something that can be integrated into your
everyday life. It’s so universal, and it is literally the future.”
PAC’s main feature is its incredible array of guest speakers. This year, delegates will be able to hear from many important contributors to the sustainability movement. Senior Kynan Witters-Hicks, the executive director of
speakers, explains that the best part about the speakers is the opportunity to “get to know individuals who are professionals in the diversified field of sustainability and who are working to help our communities make better choices about how to live and think about our world and our fellow people.”
It’s a pretty rare opportunity, Witters-Hicks adds. “There are only a few chances in life that we get to meet people like this, and I certainly don’t want to miss my chance.”
PAC 2014: Sustainability What to Expect
Anna TarnowStaff Writer
PAC Director, senior Shelby Tisinai, leads a planning meeting.
News
March 2014 PILOT 9
One of these speakers is Vincent Stanley, a longtime executive at Patagonia. He has spent his life working with ways to make the company more sustainable. More importantly, he recorded his results, both good and bad, so that others could learn from his experiences.
Stephen Mills is another prominent sustainability advocate, who has meshed his interest in the environment with community and grassroots organizing. He worked as the international programs director at the Sierra Club, partnering with Amnesty International to help defend environmental advocates from threats. He also developed programs to help new economies be mindful of their ecological impact.
Author Kelsey Timmerman will focus on how to be mindful of what you support with your money. He deals with this subject in his books “Where Am I Wearing?” and “Where Am I Eating?,”
in which he details his journeys to discover the sources, methods, people and factories that produce the food and clothes that many consumers take for granted.
T.H. Culhane – founder of the Solar C.I.T.I.E.S. NGO that works to find cheap, resourceful energy solutions
for poverty-stricken communities – is presenting the keynote address on Friday night of the conference. Witters-Hicks describes Culhane as a “dynamic and energetic” speaker, saying “you won’t want to miss his talk.”
Other speakers include Joshua Foss, founder of sustainable business-planning group Ecala, and Catherine Werner, the City of St. Louis’ sustainability director.
On top of all those learning opportunities, PAC will also provide some entertainment in the form
of events like a Phil Riley concert in the Science Center and a fair in Holt Gallery to showcase art and organizations.
Senior Emily Osborne, executive director of delegates, says that “the events where we’ve had more
interaction with the campus, like the cupcake night… [that’s where] we get to talk about these ideas and help people understand what sustainability means and how it can be practical for them.” PAC not only introduces students to important speakers and ideas, but lets them discuss and process them interactively.
At PAC, delegates will be treated to delicious, locally-produced foods while they learn and discover opportunities to better the place they live in. But the most important result of PAC is a community with an expanded worldview and practical knowledge that will help us give back to the world. As Tisinai says, “Every single step taken to plan and run this conference is completely based in prayer. I think that is pretty special.”
This year’s logo featuring Severus the snail
photos/Emily SkalaPAC board members contribute ideas during a weekly meeting.
News
10 PILOT March 2014
When freshman Frannie Dakin-White first came to Principia from England,
she was determined to start a women’s rugby team. Dakin-White played rugby in high school and was thrilled when she heard she would be able to watch the men’s team play. After the Thunder Chickens finished their season with a national championship, Dakin-White asked sophomore Tori Raine to help her get the women’s club team established. Raine has managed the men’s team for the past two years and has developed a great understanding of the game. Both Dakin-White and Raine are elated about their new club.
At the first informational meeting, 19 women showed up ready to learn
about the basics of rugby. Members of the men’s team drew diagrams on the board and demonstrated passing motions. A week later the newly formed team met for practice in Crafton. When asked about their impressions, both Dakin-White and Raine beamed. “We already have a huge sense of team, which is really important,” Dakin-White said.
At the end of the practice they had optional sprints and nearly every girl stayed to participate. Junior Jessica Santos sees rugby as an opportunity to express harmony. “It is an aggressive sport, but just like in any other sport, [we] can reflect harmony on the field,” she said. “Also, I believe as women we need to support clubs like this that go beyond gender stereotypes.”
Previous experience comes in handy when introducing a new sport. Junior Anna Tarnow played rugby at Bates College in Maine her freshman
Women’s Rugby Joins the PitchGeorgia MaeStaff Writer
photos/Kim Sheasley
Men’s rugby coach Ward Patterson
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March 2014 PILOT 11
year before transferring to Principia. “I found that it was a really fun and energetic game, and so I was really happy to join when Frannie and Tori started up a team,” she said. “The first practice was fun. We were practicing passing and falling correctly, as well as doing some sprints. I’m excited to get to play in a real game and also just to have the team experience.”
Freshman Kat Biang, like many, is new to rugby. “It is not a famous sport back in the Philippines, where I’m from,” she said. “I joined women’s rugby because I think it is a fun sport and I find it interesting. We learned how to pass the ball and fall safely, kudos to Toby Raine. I am already building a strong bond with my teammates, and I’m hyped about that.”
The team plans to play “fifteens” against other clubs such as the University of Missouri. While the primary season is in the fall, they are
using this semester to learn the game and improve fitness. There are not many local teams, so for now they will be scrimmaging themselves and possibly working with the men’s team.
Luckily the new players will have elite instruction from Ward Patterson, the head coach of the men’s team who will contribute his knowledge. There will also be immense help from the men’s team. Senior Naveed Hosseinmardi said, “I definitely plan to help them train whenever I can. I can’t wait to see what they are capable of.” photo/Emily Skala
photos/Kim SheasleyThe new women’s rugby team tries out a play in practice
Group founders Tori Raine (L) and Frannie Dakin-White (R)
News
12 PILOT March 2014
While the housekeepers at Principia are great with a mop and scrub brush, they
are also always excited to meet and interact with students.
The housekeepers have made it clear that they love being here, and that they’re here for the students. “The students are why I’ve gotten up everyday for the past 19 years. They’re our kids,” housekeeper Sara Foster said.
Foster has grown up around Principia her whole life. “I just love this place,” she said. Her father worked here when she was younger and she loved being around and helping out. Foster even got married in the living room of Joe McNabb House while working
here. She currently works in Hexberg Tennis Center, Voney Art Studio, Lowrey House, and Cox Cottage with her housekeeping partner, Cindy McCoy.
Foster and McCoy have become close friends over the years, having worked together at Principia for 19 years, and at a restaurant in Grafton.
Housekeeper Michelle Ayres has worked at Principia for 16 years. She can be found in Joe McNabb House, Buck House and Ferguson House with her cleaning partner Becky Hill. Ayres really enjoys getting to know different students with varying cultures and backgrounds.
Years ago, when each housekeeper was assigned to clean just one house, Ayres spent a lot of time in Brooks House. She really got to know the girls. “The girls were so good to me, we had to have a spa day,” she said. Ayres is still in contact with some of the girls on Facebook.
Hill has been here for 20 years, and her husband, facility worker Kevin Hill, has been here for 27 years. When Hill was asked what has made her stay for 20 years, she said, “Everyone is so friendly, nice and appreciative. I feel comfortable here. I don’t know that I would feel that way anywhere else.”
Like most of the housekeepers, Hill has worked in numerous houses and buildings throughout her time here at Principia. Her favorite place to work has been the Guest House. She likes change, though, so she can meet
different people and make new friends. Foster and McCoy agreed that their favorite place to work was Eliestoun - they couldn’t get enough of the view over the Mississippi River and the beautiful house itself.
Ronda Trask, housekeeper of Rackham Court, Buck House, and Marshall Brooks Library, said one of her favorite things about her job is the drive to work. “I drive the country way. It’s nice and peaceful and I love the drive into campus, especially in the fall,” she said.
Trask has been at Principia for seven years now and she couldn’t be happier. She had heard about it being a great place from friends and decided to
Principia’s HousekeepersKathryn Croney Staff Writer Are Here For You
Cindy McCoy, Foster’s housekeeping partner.
Sarah Foster has grown up around Principia her whole life.
News
March 2014 PILOT 13
“I think Principia is a wonderful community. The people are all
great, the faculty and staff, everyone that works here. I’ve
never had a problem.” -Ronda Trask
check it out. Since then, she has found that to be true. “I think Principia is a wonderful community. The people are all great, the faculty and staff, everyone that works here. I’ve never had a problem,” she said. Trask always feels welcome and is glad to be working in a
great environment.Shari Manees, housekeeper of
Sylvester House, Gehner House, and Crafton Athletic Center, also agreed that Principia is a very welcoming community. She has only been here for three years so far, but she definitely sees
herself being here a long time, like Hill and Foster. Manees really enjoys her hours and interacting with students. When Manees was asked what her favorite part of her job was she said, “I don’t know, because I like it all.”
Longtime friends and housekeeping partners Cindy McCoy and Sarah Foster in Hexberg.
photos/Galen Collins
News
14 PILOT March 2014
Sophomore Jesse Dehnert had to hold up fellow diver sophomore Connor Walton as Walton nearly
fainted in shock after he was awarded the highest score in Principia history for his 3-meter dive performance.
The Principia-hosted Liberal Arts Swimming and Diving Championships was full of successes. In the preliminary round, Dehnert set the team, pool and meet record with a score of 563.00. During finals, Walton raised that to 621.75. “I was not expecting such a high score. I had intended to break the 570-point record,” Walton said of his
score that was 50 points higher than his prediction. “There wasn’t any pressure; it was just fun.”
Walton won the 1-meter and 3-meter dives; Dehnert placed second on the 3-meter and third on the 1-meter. Both were selected to compete in the NCAA regional diving meet in Ohio on Feb. 28.
Walton said that “mock meets,” which he suggested to the diving team after competing in such events at his home club in Colorado, really helped prepare him for the meet. “I’m really glad to have Connor here to dive with,” Dehnert said. “It can be easy to lose motivation to improve if there is nobody pushing you.”
Walton has been diving for the past five years. He started diving
Gemma RitchieStaff Writer
Swimmers and Divers Break Records at Liberal Arts Meet
image/warrenaquaticsclub.com
News
March 2014 PILOT 15
photos/Lauren Furbush
after he became too tall to compete in gymnastics, and his love of diving comes from the thrill of being in the air. “As a child, I was obsessed with airplanes,” Walton said. “When I was four, I pretended to be Superman.”
His diving dreams do not end at this meet or even at the regionals meet. Walton dreams of one day competing in the Olympics, but said, “I will see how things work out.”
Dehnert also started diving five years ago. He was inspired by the 2008 Summer Olympics and started diving at his high school. “I am really excited to see where the next two years take me,” he said.
There were many other achievements at the meet. Freshman Hunter Mehring won the 100-yard
and 200-yard breaststroke, making the NCAA Division III B-cut time in both. He also placed second in the 200-yard individual medley. Junior Josh Harmon broke Principia records for the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.
The women’s team also made headway in the competition. Freshman Bailey Bischoff came in 12th in the women’s 100-yard backstroke. Senior Joanna Patzwald, sophomore Dani McKenzie, Bischoff and freshman Shelby Barner earned a top 10 place in the 400-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relays.
Head coach Carl Erikson said that this year’s team trained harder than any group he has trained in the last seven years. In his words, the team “showed a lot of potential and a lot of
good work.”Erikson noted that the 2014
team’s success is founded on the team’s “ability to become friends.” Erikson would like to thank assistant coach Tyler Loechner, volunteer assistant Laura Perry, the athletic department and the supportive fans for helping run a successful Liberal Arts Championship meet.
On Feb. 28, Dehnert and Walton competed in the Region 1 Diving Championships. Neither were invited to the national competition, however they certainly represented Principia well. Walton placed 11th in the 1-meter and 10th in the 3-meter while Dehnert finished 15th in the 1-meter and 16th in the 3-meter.
Sophomore divers Connor Walton and Jesse Dehnert stole the show at the Liberal Arts meet.
News
16 PILOT March 2014
Huge changes are coming to the Piasa Pub this semester. Buzzers, menu switches and
maybe even refurbishment are in line to improve the current menu and make production more efficient.
Over spring break, buzzers like the ones at Panera were introduced to the Pub. There are no longer any “runners” that bring your orders to customers, as buzzers make runners unnecessary. Students are now able to go outside or to the student center and
know when their food is done without having a runner track them down.This system will also keep track of how long an order is taking so the workers know how well they are keeping up with their orders.
Another change is thinking about how to improve the pub facilities themselves. Delivering food in a timely manner has been a challenge for many of the workers in the Pub. The space that students are working in makes it hard to complete the orders with such a small grill. “While total reconstruction is ideal, it’s expensive, so our team is trying to figure out how to make the best of a small space,” said junior Susie Bonwich, the Student Senate dining
services representative.The Pub’s “tiger team” in charge
of making these changes consists of three students, one faculty member, one staff member, Pub manager Mary Odhiambo, and dining services director Lance Thornton.
The team will also examine the menu to come up with a more condensed list of options. Over the past few years, the menu at the Pub included healthier options, as well as wider variety of toppings. In 2004, the option to charge food to student meal plan accounts was added. This exponentially increased the amount of orders that the Pub handles.
Today, the Pub is still one of
Changes Coming to The PubDani McKenzie Staff Writer
the liveliest social gathering spots on campus. The logistics of serving a high quantity of customers with little storage space has brought about the need to revise the menu. “We are always looking for ways to improve the service,” Odhiambo said. To decide what to change, she gathered data from orders last fall, and will be sure to keep the top sellers such as burgers, fries and shakes.
News
March 2014 PILOT 17
Top Changes:
- Buzzers like the ones at Panera have been introduced.
- Pub facilities will be improved.
- The menu will be shortened with a more condensed list of options.
photos/Lauren Furbush
The pub is a great place to hang out, study, or meet with
friends.
18 PILOT March 2014
News
Sugarbush Update
Syrup is Coming
Well, it’s confirmed. The first bottles of maple syrup this season have been made
and bottled. Let’s take a look back at the past couple of weeks’ progress. Below are modified exerpts from the Sugarbush Managment class blog.
Week 3, Tamara Thomas and Shelby Barner: On Thursday, the class went over estimating the amount of firewood needed for the sugaring season. We also discussed and put into practice some firewood splitting techniques. Everyone in the class had the chance to practice these new skills on their own piece of wood! Unfortunately due to the freezing temperatures, 0 gallons of sap were collected, 0 gallons of syrup were produced, and no firewood was consumed. Some of us went to check on the buckets and found that no sap had been running and the little amount of sap that was present was completely frozen.
Week 4, Hayley Scheck and Nadine Tidwell: The buckets are all put up now and most of the lines. The class continued to learn how to put up lines and which connectors to use for different scenarios in the tree lines. We learned how much wood we’d need to boil all the sap we collect. In addition, we were introduced to the business project portion of this class.
Week 5, Shane Reisen and Aean McMullin: We are almost to the point of boiling and will most likely start that soon, once our stores of sap become a bit larger. We tapped some new trees and repaired the main line. We also got to bring out our inner lumberjack while we split wood at the Main Bush. While some were chopping wood, others were measuring the brix values of some of the bucket-tapped trees to determine the sugar content of the sap. Unfortunately, the flow of sap was less than satisfactory, and only yielded 42 gallons.
Week 6: This week a total of about 70 gallons of sap were collected from the two bushes. Later on in the week, the class had the opportunity to boil down the sap into maple syrup for the first time. Beginning the boiling process at 10 AM, the students took hour long rotations, finishing earlier than expected, at 9PM, because of a frozen hose. The class successfully made approximately 4 gallons of syrup. The students also finalized their business plans and decided which products they will be producing. Fun fact: When the sap is 7 degrees above boiling, about 219 F, the conditions are perfect for the sap to become syrup. Any hotter and the sap will burn. Any cooler and the sap may not boil.
Week 7, Candace Grennie and Natalie Gill: This week we went on two collection runs. The first collection yielded 32 gallons of sap. Temperatures rose by the second collection run and the sap was no longer dripping out of the spiels and tubes; it was actually running in a small current. We were able to collect 48 gallons of sap in total. While we were out collecting sap, a group of our fellow classmates started bottling the boiled sap (or syrup). As a class we bottled 26 bottles of syrup. The syrup looked really cool, especially if you held it up to the sun. It’s exciting to finally see everything coming together and that all of our hard work and frozen fingers are proving worth it.
Annika FredriksonEditor-in-Chief
March 2014 PILOT 19
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photos/courtesy of the Sugarbush class The sugarbush class has been busy collecting sap, boiling the collection, and bottling the completed syrup.
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The city of St. Louis celebrates its 250th birthday this year. In 1764, Pierre Laclede Liguest,
along with his scout Auguste Chouteau, selected the site of St. Louis to be a French fur trading post named after King Louis IX, and the rest is history.
Today, St. Louis is host to a variety of neighborhoods, each with their own distinctive styles and characteristics, including festivals, quality dining, sporting events and attractive parks.
Throughout the city’s history, it has contributed multiple food inventions to the world. These include toasted ravioli, pork steaks, peanut butter, St. Louis-style pizza, provolone cheese, gooey butter cake, the concrete and cotton candy. The popularizations of ice cream in a waffle cone and a hot dog in a bun took place in St. Louis as well.
Is this making you hungry? Well, you’re in luck. St. Louis is home to hundreds of one-of-a-kind restaurants ranging from Vietnamese to Italian, Bosnian to Lebanese, and Mexican to Ethiopian. You can also expect some of the best barbeque food. There’s a reason why it’s known as the “St. Louis-style” rib. There is a restaurant for every craving and within every price range.
St. Louis is also home to a vast amount of parks, including the renowned Forest Park, which was host to the World’s Fair in 1904. Several people don’t realize that Forest Park is larger than Central Park in New York City, and that it’s also home to the No. 1 zoological park in America. Forest Park is also home to the Saint Louis Science Center, the Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis, the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Missouri History Museum.
What sets Forest Park apart from other urban parks is that it is known as a zoo-museum district, which allows a
zero cost of admission. The zoo, art museum and history Museum are all free of charge every day.
St. Louis also hosts several farmers’ markets during the summer on Saturday mornings. Clayton, Ferguson, Tower Grove and Maplewood are a few to check out around the area. Along with these, the Soulard Market is one of the oldest farmers’ markets in the country, first opening its doors in 1779. Market-hopping is a fun way to spend a Saturday morning and see the different neighborhoods of St. Louis.
Don’t forget the classic attractions, including the Gateway Arch, the Old Courthouse and the City Museum, which make St. Louis an exciting city that is worth exploring. Look past the stats about crime and open your mind to a culturally and historically rich city, but be sure to travel with common sense along the way. Happy Birthday, St. Louis!
Happy Birthday, St. Louis!
Susie BonwichStaff Writer
March 2014 PILOT 21
News
Principia College admits students from all over the world every year. The task of selecting the
best applicants to join the college is a collective effort of both the applicant and the admissions office. Many international students agree that this journey of thousands of miles begins with taking the brave step to apply.
Marina Byquist, former international admissions counselor, explained that international student admission revolves around three major steps that are carefully scrutinized before students can finally join the college.
The first step involves communication between the admissions counselor and the applicant. Each year, Byquist communicated with applicants to help them decide whether this community would be suitable to their needs. She noted that many students felt certain that Principia would be the ultimate place for them.
The second step involves taking candidates through their application. Byquist encouraged students to ask questions during their application process to avoid minor mistakes that could disqualify their admission. Timely updates and feedback take place between the counselor and the applicant at this stage and vital application documents are submitted.
The final step involves an application presentation to the executive board of enrollment at Principia College. In these meetings, Byquist directly represents students. She had been in such close contact that she could essentially speak for them if necessary. Byquist noted that she directly represented students in the board because she was accountable for their actions in case of an inquiry of any applicant by the board.
For most international applicants, these three steps are accomplished with relative ease. The hitch comes about during the visa application, which can sometimes be complicated and overwhelming.
According to freshman Gerves Baniakina from Congo, the visa application process is what determines whether one comes to Principia
College. Some international students who are qualified to be admitted at Principia miss the opportunity because their visas are denied. At this point, one’s application journey comes to an end.
Senior Laud Adjei from Ghana said that “the visa process can sometimes be taxing in a way.” Adjai stated that the visa issued to him was a lucky strike. “It’s like winning a lottery. You never know when you are going to get it or miss it, and that’s the awkward part of the application process,” he said.
On the contrary, senior Jessica Jordao from Brazil said that getting the visa “is not a matter of luck, neither is it a guarantee. I can try applying for it, and if I have the right documentation from my college and a normal background, odds are I will get my student visa.”
Sophomore Merle Schmuland from Germany said that getting a visa as an international student is
comparable to tourists travelling abroad. So long as you have the
appropriate documentation sent from the college you applied to, the process can be smooth.
Many students from different countries had different takes on the visa application which confirms the assumption that different applicants face varying
challenges when applying to a student visa. Fortunately, most
of these students do not have problems with their desired college’s
application process.
Trial and Triumph: International Application Struggles Pay Off
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Kate KagaliStaff Writer
Many students choose cars as their preferred mode of transportation, but there are
other options, including longboards, bicycles and motorcycles. It might be surprising to know that a good number choose the last of these. Four students agreed to share why they enjoy riding motorcycles.
Sophomore Matiss Klava rides a Kawasaki dual-sport, 250cc motorcycle. By choosing to ride a motorcycle instead of driving a car, Klava gets better gas mileage and cheaper insurance. Apart from the economic benefits, he enjoys riding and fixing bikes because it’s a fun hobby. It has “increased my awareness of the outside world,” Klava said. He also said it gives him “a great feeling of being in the moment.”
Senior Heike Verleih started riding in Germany when her boyfriend
encouraged her to join him on his bike. Soon after she learned to ride, they took an exciting weekend trip on their bike to the Baltic Sea. When she came to the college, Heike did not do much riding on her own. But during finals
last fall, she decided to buy a Suzuki SV650. “After seeing Matiss ride his Kawasaki,” said Heike, “I couldn’t resist any longer.”
Sophomore Aaron Switzer rides a 1998 Triumph Speed Triple. He admits that the functional benefits of having a motorcycle on campus are limited. “There’s hardly any storage, and you can’t drive it in the winter” he said, “but the fun factor is definitely worth it. There’s nothing like cruising down River Road at sunset on a bike.”
Like Switzer, senior Stephen Purcell also enjoys riding a motorcycle because “they allow for amazingly scenic outings.” Purcell has ridden his Kawasaki Ninja 500R on three 1,100-mile trips between Principia and his house in Maine. He made the decision to buy his own motorcycle after
a friend took him on a motorcycle during Purcell’s sophomore year. Now, Purcell likes helping people figure out what motorcycles they want to buy. “If you’re curious or want a ride, let me know,” he said. “I love sharing the fun.”
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Dani McKenzie Staff Writer
(Left) Senior Stephen Purcell by his Kawasaki Ninja 500R.(Top) Students enjoy riding on the Great River Road.
22 PILOT March 2014
“After seeing Matiss ride his Kawasaki, I couldn’t resist any longer.”-Heike Verleih
“There’s nothing like cruising down River Road at sunset on a bike.”-Aaron Switzer
“If you’re curious or want a ride, let me know. I love sharing the fun.”-Stephen Purcell
Motorcycles are gaining popularity as a mode of transportation among students. Even one of our very own Pilot editors, Stephen Purcell (pictured far left) owns a bike. The rest of the editorial team is considering purchasing bikes and starting a Pilot bike club. Anyone is welcome to join. Also pictured: Heike Verleih (left) and Matiss Klava (above). photos right page/Galen Collins photos left page/ Jake Meier and city-cata.com
March 2014 PILOT 23
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1 Junior Aean McMullin and senior Anneke Reed perform at the pre-show for the 2014 Arts on Tour.photo/Annelise Suber
2 Sophomore Kristin Kayser buys bud for buds at the concourse for Valentine’s Day.photo/Lauren Furbush
3 Freshmen Elaina Cokinos and Kama Luciani enjoy spending time at the Student Center.photo/Lauren Furbush
4 Senior Jake Milner and sophomore Henry Hathaway during an off sea-son match.photo/Abigail Blatt
5 Sue serves lunch to students.photo/Lauren Furbush
6 Students watch television in the Student Center.photo/Lauren Furbush
7 The women’s LAX team cheers before their first game of the season.photo/ Annelise Suber
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To the surprise of analysts, tech giant Microsoft’s Q4 earnings release in January showed a
14 percent increase from the previous quarter and beat projections by over 5 percent. As a result, optimism abounds that Microsoft’s Surface tablet, Windows 8 operating system and newly-released Xbox One will boost earnings into the future and keep Microsoft viable in a highly competitive technology market.
Yet it is important to dig deeper beneath the surface numbers and cut through the exuberance surrounding the better-than-expected earnings. Microsoft, which once cornered the computing market, is struggling. While the company’s antitrust lawsuits indicated market dominance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Microsoft is now having difficulty beating out its competitors in any category.
Take, for example, Xbox One sales. Microsoft had been long overdue for an update to its line of video game systems, not having released a new console since the debut of the Xbox 360 in late 2005. Finally, consumers and investors alike got what they were looking for with the Xbox One’s November 2013 release.
While analysts lauded Xbox One’s ability to beat projected sales volumes last quarter, Sony’s PlayStation 4 sold nearly twice as many consoles in the same time period due to its superior technology and cheaper price. Worse yet for Microsoft, Sony’s platform outperformed that of the Xbox One without a worldwide release. Once the
PlayStation 4 hits the Japanese markets in Q1 2014, the gap between Microsoft and Sony will only grow.
Microsoft is clearly being outperformed in the video game console market. This is especially disappointing considering the Xbox line is “clearly a feather in Microsoft’s cap,” according to FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives.
But what about other sectors? Surface, Microsoft’s foray into the tablet market, saw a sales increase during the final quarter of 2013 with about 2 million units sold. Still, Surface’s sales barely put a dent in a market dominated by Apple’s iPad, which sold about 20 million units in the same time period.
Even Microsoft’s flagship product, its decreasingly ubiquitous operating system, is having to cut prices to stay competitive. In late February, the company announced that it was reducing the licensing fees it charges computer manufacturers by 70 percent in order to stay competitive with Google’s low-cost operating system alternatives.
While Google takes away Microsoft’s low-cost computing market share, Apple continues to chip away at Microsoft’s corporate market share.
Recent Forrester data shows that Apple is hitting Microsoft where it hurts: in the business market. Three years ago, only 3 percent of professionals indicated that they used Apple computers in their work life. Today, that number has rocketed to 18 percent. Apple’s deliberate attempts to make their computers more desirable to the business market have succeeded. At this rate of growth, Apple could be the leader in business computing in two years.
Microsoft’s earnings continue to surprise investors, but the company faces an uphill battle to continue this trend and, ultimately, regain its position as a market leader. CEO Steve Ballmer’s retirement announcement last August provided the company an opportunity to buck the downward trend and hire a younger, more innovative chief executive. Instead, Microsoft hired industry insider Staya Nadella, who may continue Microsoft’s “more of the same” mentality.
Success for Microsoft in the future will come in the form of innovation and expanding into other areas of technology, most analysts agree. Today, Microsoft cannot rely upon past models of success. Not only are these models not as viable in today’s mobile, cloud-based world, but Microsoft is struggling in areas in which it used to lead the industry. It is time for Microsoft to, as Robin Crowe famously stated, “evolve or die.”
Microsoft: The Fall of a Giant
image/b-i.forbesimg.com
Briggs DeLoach Staff Writer
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March 2014 PILOT 27
The snow is gone, the temperature is warming, and the trees are preparing
to bloom. With spring comes the beginning of one of the most dramatic weather seasons Mother Nature can produce: tornado season.
A tornado is defined by “Meteorology Today” author C. Donald Ahrens as a “rapidly rotating column of air that blows around a small area of intense pressure with a circulation that reaches the ground.” Every tornado has its own sound, color, and shape.
Principia College is located on bluffs, so the chance of a tornado forming on campus is slim. But right across the river is flat farmland, the perfect spot for funnel clouds to form. With proper visibility, the bluffs are front row seats for tornado watching, though this is a dangerous spectator sport.
Tornadoes have been reported in every state, including Alaska and Hawaii. But the Midwest is the most susceptible because of the atmospheric setting for thunderstorm development. Springtime caters to perfect thunderstorm conditions. With a layer of warm, humid air near the surface and a drier air mass above comes an unstable atmosphere, and thus the perfect atmosphere for the forming of storms.
In other words, when Gulf of Mexico air meets Canadian air, instability occurs. Add some strong vertical wind shear, and there’s a twister. Wind shear refers to a change in wind speed or direction with height in the atmosphere. For example, wind at one altitude is blowing at 25 miles per hour while the wind below is only blowing at five miles per hour, causing rotation.
Ahrens states that major twisters usually form in a series of stages: dust-whirl, organizing, mature, shrinking and decay. The dust-whirl stage is fairly self-explanatory. Dust begins swirling up from the ground and a funnel starts rotating downward from the storm cloud. In the organizing stage, the intensity increases, and the funnel extends closer to the surface. During the mature stage, the funnel reaches its greatest width and strongest winds. Following this, the tornado might begin to curve and weaken until it completely dissipates.
A tornado’s strength is measured on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, named after severe storms researcher Ted Fujita (1920-1998). EF0 tornadoes
have winds from 65 to 85 miles per hour, whereas EF5 tornadoes clock in winds greater than 200 miles per hour.
While tornadoes are beautiful, they aren’t meant to be experienced from within. When seeking shelter, it’s important to be on the lowest level and in the most interior room. Don’t open any windows because the tornado center has a lower pressure than the surrounding air.
If driving during a tornado-producing thunderstorm, you must drive faster than 70 miles per hour to outrun it. If you’re just walking in a field, your only hope to avoid a tornado is to find a ditch or a ravine and lie flat in it until the tornado passes.
The difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning is that a watch is issued when the conditions could lead to tornado development, whereas a warning is issued when a tornado has been spotted. Either way, it’s important to take any warning seriously, even when in a concrete Maybeck house on top of the Illinois bluffs.
It’s Tornado Season
photo/thelmagazine.com
photo/gustfront.com
Susie BonwichStaff Writer
News
28 PILOT March 2014
Forty percent of the American population will be watching Netflix movies without
interruptions. However, for Netflix subscribers on Principia campus, the buffering just got worse.
Recently, cable and broadband provider Comcast joined forces with Netflix in order to provide improved quality viewing when streaming media, leaving other providers in the lurch. In the Elsah area, though, AT&T provides
the majority of broadband service. Upon arriving at the Principia campus, many students are encouraged to join AT&T to receive better cellphone coverage. However, this merger will leave the students of Principia and the residents of Elsah with slower service when streaming content from Netflix. “I’m not a subscriber to Comcast and I have had slower streaming [already],” junior Reed Brumm said. “It’s actually very annoying.”
Netflix is a giant television and movie streaming service, providing the
latest films and TV series at the price of $7 a month to subscribers. According to the Los Angeles Times, the quality of streaming slowed to 27 percent for Comcast clientele between the months of October to January. The reason for the poor quality is under dispute, but Comcast took the initiative to work with Netflix and improve the situation. In an interview with the New York Times, Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said, “Working collaboratively over many months, the companies have established a more direct connection between Netflix and Comcast, similar to other networks, that’s already delivering an even better user experience to
c o n s u m e r s , while also allowing for future growth in Netflix traffic.”
N e t f l i x will pay to use Comcast’s infrastructure by connecting through the b r o a d b a n d and cable tycoon. This
is similar to Google’s agreement with YouTube. Netflix has made similar arrangements around the globe in order to provide better service for its global customers. In most instances, Netflix has used “Open Connect,” a system which uses a third party to deliver media content. It has used this system with British Telecom, Bell Canada and Cablevision.
However, Comcast was not prepared to be a third party. Before the deal was made, Netflix accessed Comcast providers through content
distribution network (CDN) Cogent Communications. As reported by Forbes magazine, Netflix will pay an undisclosed amount to Comcast for better streaming service, while continuing to use CDNs for other Netflix subscribers. The concern is that all Netflix viewers will be forced to subsidize the costs of the Comcast merger, and still suffer from slow service.
Netflix controls 30 percent of Internet traffic during peak hours. Comcast’s agreement with the Internet service, and its purchase of Time-Warner Cable, makes Comcast the provider for 30 million cable and broadband subscribers.
The Comcast-Netflix agreement has issued warning bells for the Consumer’s Union, who are calling for the federal government to monitor the deal in order to prevent a monopoly of American entertainment. Consumer Union attorney Delara Derkhshami wrote to the Los Angeles Times, saying that “We are concerned that many Comcast customers who experienced problems with Netflix sought faster and more expensive services from Comcast to alleviate the problems.”
“Other network providers, like Verizon and AT&T, slow down, dropping megabytes that can be used, because Comcast has control,” freshman Emily Bumba said. “Therefore, people will need to move towards Comcast in order to get better connections.”
This merger threatens other internet providers, but most importantly threatens Netflix. Freshman Haley Schabes said, “If it’s a choice between choosing to switch over to Comcast [to keep Netflix], I would turn to cheaper choices.”
Netflix: Slower Service at a PriceGemma RitchieStaff Writer
image/whats-on-netflix.com
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For many minimum wage workers at Principia, President Obama’s promise in his most
recent State of the Union address to “raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour” was welcome news. A pay increase close to 10 percent is nothing to sneeze at. But before everyone heads out to spend their newly enlarged paychecks, let’s take some time to look at how the minimum wage works and the likelihood of an increase.
There are two levels of minimum wage in America: that set by individual states and that set by the federal government. This is because the federal government can set minimum wage for the country as a whole, but states reserve the right to set their own.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 for most workers. Twenty-one states have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum. Washington has the nation’s highest minimum wage, $9.32 an hour. On the other side of the spectrum, Arkansas set its minimum wage at $6.25, while Wyoming has it at $5.15. Arkansas and Wyoming are the only states with minimums below the federal limit.
Employers are responsible for paying the highest minimum wage applicable in their state. This means employers in Arkansas must pay workers at least $7.25 an hour while Washington employers must pay workers at least $9.32 an hour.
Recently, Obama and congressional Democrats have proposed raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016. This would mean all minimum wage workers, with a few exceptions, would make $10.10 an hour. Such an increase would
compensate for inflation and then some. It is currently being considered in the Senate.
Advocates for raising the minimum wage argue that paying Americans more would boost the economy and combat poverty. A widely cited 2013 study by UMass economics professor Arindrajit Dube, called “Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes,” claims that an hourly minimum wage of $10.10 would reduce the number of people living in poverty by 4.6 million, without forcing the government to spend a cent.
Those opposed to raising the minimum wage are concerned that a higher minimum wage would result in greater unemployment. They point to the recent Congressional Budget Office study which states that increasing minimum wage to $10.10 could cost the United States 500,000 jobs.
Pro-increase advocates wrote a letter to Obama and congressional leaders. It was signed by over 600 economists, including several Nobel laureates and past presidents of the American Economic Association. The letter states that increasing the minimum wage would not hurt employment.
The opposition has numerous economists, including Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who agreed that raising minimum wage would cost jobs as a CBO report had suggested. For such a carefully studied economic phenomenon, results remain largely inconclusive.
Inflation further complicates the issue. Business Insider pointed out that raising the minimum wage to the initially suggested $9 would put minimum wage on the same purchasing
power level it had been for decades in the middle of the twentieth century. Yet wages throughout the U.S. economy have stagnated over the last several years. The New York Times reported that while the average American income today is $20.39 an hour, it would be $36.00 an hour if paychecks had kept pace with productivity gains.
The issue is deeply complicated. In the balance are the millions of Americans at or below the brink of poverty, as well as those who are unemployed. A higher minimum wage will not do much to help those without jobs. Then again, a full time job that doesn’t allow Americans to pull themselves and their children out of poverty isn’t much help either.
Whether Congress can tackle such a contentious and highly partisan issue remains to be seen. A vote in the Senate on raising the minimum wage was supposed to take place in early March, but has since been pushed back several weeks, possibly to early April. Given the recent track record of Congress, it’s likely that a decision could take even longer.
In addition to federal legislation, states have been taking matters into their own hands. Some governors, including Pat Quinn of Illinois, have been heavily advocating for raising their respective states’ minimum wages. Other governors, most notably New Jersey’s Chris Christie, have spoken out against such an increase.
Minimum wage was first established in October of 1938 as part of the New Deal. Initially set at $0.25, it has since been raised 29 times. The most recent changes were a series of hikes from 2007 to 2009, resulting in the current minimum wage.
Minimum Wage Increase?Angela LupherStaff Writer
News
30 PILOT March 2014
Last week during spring break, students in the Sea Turtle Biology course took a trip to
the beautiful Caribbean island of Trinidad. This country is well known for its gorgeous beaches, a wide variety of wildlife, Carnival and leatherback turtles. In fact, Trinidad is the world’s second largest nesting colony of leatherback sea turtles. Biology professor Scott Eckert led the students through an intensive lab collecting and observing data on the turtles.
Trinidad is the southernmost island in a chain of islands stretching from Florida to Venezuela and enclosing the Caribbean Sea. The country is wet, lush and green, making it more similar ecologically to the jungles of South America than other Caribbean islands. “We stayed in the rural east coast village of Matura” said Dr. Eckert. “Matura is situated near several rivers and surrounded by the eastern end of the north coast range. The area is heavily forested and supports a vast array of wildlife, both plants and animals.”
Students got to know other community conservationists, resource managers and fishers who provided a
“real world” context to their studies of sea turtles and marine conservation. “I fell in love with Trinidad- it’s people, it’s natural beauty, and definitely it’s turtles! You don’t fully comprehend the size, strength, and grace of a leatherback sea turtle until you see it’s dark, silhouetted body emerging from
the water, and kneel down beside it as it begins to lay its eggs.” said Biology Major, Kelsey Braum, “To top that off, we were taught by an incredibly influential person in the world of sea turtles, Scott Eckert!”
Eckert serves as the director of science for the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST), a partner organization to the United Nations’ Caribbean Environment Program.
When the students arrived on the island, they split up into small
groups to do research. They worked at night alongside the naturalists of Nature Seekers, considered one of the world’s finest community conservation organizations responsible for managing and protecting Trinidadian nesting
Spring Break in Trinidad
photos/courtesy of Molly Dixon
Dani McKenzie Staff Writer
colonies. Each group completed the lab and hands-on portion at night when the female sea turtles come to rest. Then during the day, they analyzed the data that was collected the previous night.
“We were up on the beach till 2 or 3 a.m.,” said sophomore Molly Dixon, “so we were going nonstop.” Dixon loved interacting with Trinidadians and learning about the culture. Biology Major, Kelly Adams has been looking forward to the trip very much. “Getting hands-on experience will help me in my career” said Adams “ it will also help me determine what of field work I want to do in the future.”
Aside from completing their lab work, students also had several opportunities to explore the rich culture of Trinidad and Tobago. The students visited a steel drum maker as he built the steel pan instruments that were invented in Trinidad. Some of the other excursions included exploring the island’s jungles and hiking through rainforests to tropical waterfalls. Overall, the trip to Trinidad was certainly an enriching experience for the sea-turtle biology students.
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The Sea Turtle Biology class enjoyed a week on Trinidad full of research and a bit of relaxation.
photos/courtesy of Molly Dixon
image/Google
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Across the world, humans are fighting the threat that this planet’s heart may stop beating soon. Massive movements are coming together to push back the Earth’s expiration date, and communities are working to reduce their ecological footprints. These issues can’t be answered in any one way, but it seems that it should be met with gusto.
Principia College has its very own environmental guardians in the form of individuals from the sustainability minor. Three different projects - the bee project, Aquaponics, and zero-waste management - are currently breaking new ground on campus. Sustainability professor Karen Eckert is the advisor for the minor and, according to sophomore Tyler Nichoson, is said to be very “jazzed up” about the sustainability entrepreneurs on campus.
Nichoson is the president of a new sustainability group called the Principia Beekeepers Association (PBA). The group currently has four
other members: sophomores Amanda Milhous, Chase Schneider, Andrew Jesper and Sam Harlan. These four recently discovered their love for bees through Nichoson’s independent project, which he developed with Eckert.
Nichoson explains that there is a lot more to bees and pollination than most people are aware of. Albert Einstein said “without bees the human race would die within four years,” making the world extremely dependent on these creatures. The PBA hopes
to teach more people about the importance of bees and to appreciate them, rather than be afraid of them. The bee project and the association on campus are long-term projects that can be continued by future students
for years to come.The PBA aims “to involve
students and the college community in beekeeping and pollinator conservation.” The group recently built their first two hive boxes, located near the soccer field on the road up to Elliston. Eventually these hives will be up and running with 20,000 bees. Beginning the first week of the fall 2014 semester, PBA will be working with dining services and the Store to supply fresh, local, and organic honey to the campus. All profits will go back to the sustainability minor so that the project itself will be completely sustainable.
Sophomores Nadine Tidwell, Ryan Richardson and Conrad Bollinger are also pursuing sustainability minors, and are working on another new project called Aquaponics. “We’re finding new ways to live sustainably,” Tidwell, by “finding out how to produce locally grown fish and vegetables for the campus without needing land to do it, and cutting out transportation to make a smaller carbon footprint.” Aquaponics is a food production system that
Sustainability on Campus
image/apitherapy.org
CassidyOrth-MooreStaff Writer
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March 2014 PILOT 33
combines aquaculture and hydroponics into a symbiotic environment.
“We’re planning to build our system using at least 80 percent recyclable materials, to make the system more natural,” she continued. “What happens is that the waste from the fish fertilizes the lettuce, so instead of using outside fertilizers and chemicals to make the lettuce grow, we have just added an animal to the system. We do have to add new water, occasionally, using rainwater collection. The lettuce sucks up the leftover nutrients and the leftover water is recycled back.”
Another student in the sustainability minor is junior Vanessa Waller, who is currently writing her capstone on how to manage Principia College as a “zero-waste” community. This means that Prin would “diverge 90 percent or more of their waste away from landfills by using recycling
or composting,” says Waller. She is making recommendations on how the college could change its system down the road. According to Waller, “Principia’s current divergence is at about 30 to 40 percent, so this project won’t be implemented overnight.”
Zero-waste is one of the most cutting edge ways to manage waste in the world; for example, San Francisco is currently working on a proposal to be implemented by 2020. Waller connects this mission of hers to Principia’s vision statement, which says to strive to be sustainable and technologically up to date with the 21st entury. Ultimately, Waller says, “if Principia could achieve this zero-waste status, it would become a role model for other institutions who want to reduce their footprint. It would also make people feel better about how they are contributing to the environment. I’m doing it because
I want to make waste-management popular and fashionable, because it’s important to have a smaller footprint.”
According to the World Footprint Network, humans currently rely on the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources consumed and to absorb waste. Since only one planet is currently in service to humanity, the Earth is backed up with requests and takes a year and a half to regenerate what is used in one year.
Ecologists refer to this phenomenon as “overshoot,” which is most visible with global climate change. It affects not only the Earth but all of its inhabitants as well. In addition, the United Nations predicts that at least two planets will be necessary to support humanity by 2030 if current patterns continue.
image/aquaponicsfish.landscapeideasandpicture.comAquaponics combines aquaculture and hydroponics
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34 PILOT March 2014
In the aftermath of the nuclear meltdown that occurred at Fukushima, Japan in 2011,
there has been continued discussion regarding the safety of nuclear energy as a power source. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake damaged a nuclear reactor. Now, as leaked radiation approaches the West Coast of North America, the question of radiation has become a renewed topic of discussion and alarm. Although the federal government assures citizens that the radiation levels
that have been found through testing do not pose a danger to those who live on the West Coast, many remain unconvinced.
According to research done by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the largest institution of its kind in the United States, the radiation from Fukushima is likely to reach the West Coast by April of this year. This forecast has alarmed people who live in the area, especially those who surf or are involved in the fishing industry. In January, the Tahltan people of British Columbia called for increased government involvement in radiation testing. An online petition that calls
for a United Nations takeover of the Fukushima cleanup has more than 128,000 signatures.
Despite widespread fears, the radiation levels are one thousand times less than the safe limit set by the Food and Drug Administration. In other words, the average banana contains more radiation than fish affected by the Fukushima incident. According to University of Washington oceanographic researcher Kim Martini, radiation levels are, “about 20,000 times less than drinking water standards. And so what we like to say is it’s detectable but harmless.”
The area in which West Coast residents’ concern seems most valid
is the lack of government monitoring of the situation. The FDA has been monitoring radiation levels in food, and independent research entities and scientists have been testing radiation in fish since 2011. The EPA monitors air and water quality across the United States, but the extent of its radioactivity testing capabilities lie in a
network called RadNet, composed of 132 stationary testing facilities. Many complain that these scattered facilities are hardly adequate to cover the amount of ground required to fully monitor the Fukushima radiation situation.
It is not just concerned civilians that feel that the government’s monitoring of the situation is inadequate. One of the most outspoken researchers on this issue, Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole, says that neither the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, nor the Department of Energy, have the jurisdiction to test radiation in seawater. Buesseler was concerned
enough that he took matters into his own hands and founded a volunteer driven research project called Our Radioactive Ocean. The group tests water supplies for elevated radiation levels, but so far, their results have been unassuming. While the group has been finding cesium-137 (evidence of old nuclear testing in the Pacific) in their water samples, they have yet to find evidence of cesium-134, the isotope associated with Fukushima.
Despite the reassurances of various government and independent sources, many coastal dwellers remain alarmed. Concerned citizens have taken matters into their own hands, forming groups along the West Coast with the intent of monitoring radiation themselves. Many of these activists use Geiger counters, which monitor a variety of different kinds of radiation, including radiation that is natural in certain areas. In order to raise awareness, activists often post videos of their findings on social media sites. Although the intent is well-meaning, researchers often say that the popularity of these videos belies their inherent inaccuracies.
So the situation stands on the West Coast. Researchers insist that there is nothing to worry about, and activists are unwilling to listen. It remains to be seen how western states and provinces respond when the plume actually makes landfall in April.
Fukushima: Radiation Overreaction?Christina Beck Staff Writer
images/fukuleaks.org
News
March 2014 PILOT 35
Whole World Festival Recap
The 13th annual Whole World Festival held in Wanamaker Hall on March 1 was full of pomp and color. Participants were adorned with elegant and fashionable dress, clear displays of the culture and diversity that were this year’s main themes. The lively festival was hosted by freshman Gwenydd Kirkpatrick and senior MoonHee Kwon.
Dances, songs, poetry and skits showcased the performers’ talents and gave voice to their respective cultures. Junior Enyonam Akpoblu of Ghana
kicked the night off with a poem recitation. “People make culture and we can change it. Culture is constantly changing,” Akpoblu said.
The F4 trio – comprised of senior Benedick Suryanata and juniors JV Duran and Arthur Soemarsono –
rocked the stage with a Chinese song called “Qing Fei De Yi” by Harlem. The crowd cheered and saluted them on their performances. Freshman Grace Njogu commented on the trio’s performance, saying that “it spoke to her in a different way.” She appreciated their technical skill as singers and “the video clips [that ran before and after] their performance also helped to bring out the mood of the song to people in the audience [who didn’t understand the language].”
“We wanted to bring in something different and we felt that the videos in between the performances would keep our audience engaged,” junior Shirley Moihloe, president of the Friendship Around the World club, said.
Out of the 11 performances, the Carnival Revival Group and the Ainvayi Ainvayi Indian
dancers were two performances that really revved up the crowd.
Kirkpatrick said that the Carnival Revival and the Ainvayi Ainvayi Indian dancing groups were astounding. “Even though the energy of the dancers stood out to me, I thought that the festival as a whole was such a beautiful collection of cultural diversity,” she said.
Many international students in the event were once again connected with the smile of their former “international mother,” the late Bente Morse. The two-minute video reminded many students of the warmth and love they felt from Morse.
This year’s festival took a different direction compared to previous years. In the past, a fashion show always marked the end of the occasion in a colorful way. However, it was not observed in this year’s celebration. Moihloe said “the fashion show was missing because it was preserved for parents’ weekend, which will be in April. Many parents have not encountered international students, and I think this will be a good opportunity for parents to meet them.”
Moihloe said that the festival was an incredible success, noting the dedicated board, lots of planning and proper advertising of the event. She also passed her gratitude to the attendees who supported the event.
Kate KagaliStaff Writer
Gwenydd and MoonHee entertain the crowd while introducting acts during the Festival
photos/Annelise Suber
Opinion
36 PILOT March 2014
Although there have been exactly zero primaries, zero “Super Tuesdays,” and zero
credible candidates actually signed to a campaign, America already seems smitten with the 2016 presidential elections. The focus until now has been a hypothetical race between Democrat Hillary Clinton versus Republican Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey. However, “Bridgegate” and a slew of speculation about potential candidates have muddied the waters, so to speak.
The only Democrats to have filed with the Federal Election Commission are conspiracy theorist Jeff Boss and former Savannah State University football coach Robby Wells. Josue
Larose, the famed political organizer from Florida, is the only credible Republican to have filed, and he seems to be gaining a small bit of traction. Comedienne Roseanne Barr has even expressed interest in running again on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. However, it would be a tall order for any of these candidates to actually make it to the White House. With that in mind, here are some speculative candidates for 2016 that have all expressed interest in running:Democrats
Hillary Clinton: At first glance, it might seem as though nobody could beat Clinton if she confirmed her anticipated campaign. However, she would have to overcome 18 years of political legacy. The attacks could be vicious and perhaps ultimately detrimental. But if being a first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state
doesn’t foster grace under fire, nothing will.
Joe Biden: Yes, that Joe Biden. But don’t be so quick to put his foot in his mouth before he does it himself. If he can avoid doing that and create a campaign based on reminding the electorate of his long history in the Senate (he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009) and his positive contributions to key pieces of financial legislation, he might have a shot at the DNC nomination.
Martin O’Malley: Under his watch as mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, violent crime in that city dropped by nearly 40 percent. And as the current governor of Maryland, he legalized same-sex marriage in the state before a voter referendum upheld his ruling. If the Democrats don’t want a centrist but a record, O’Malley could have appeal.
2016 Presidential Elections: No Frontrunner, No Problem!
image/i2.cdn.turner.com
George NapperColumnist
Opinion
March 2014 PILOT 37
Brian Schweitzer: The former governor of Montana (2005-2013) has friends, but not across the aisle. He famously used a branding iron to veto bills sent to his desk by state Republicans. He also expanded Montana’s green energy technologies and created the Yellow Ribbon Program, a veterans benefit program.Republicans
Jeb Bush: They call him the smart one. However, Bush’s proximity to his father and brother in the minds of many Americans will probably hamper him. His record doesn’t help, either. As governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, he flip-flopped on offshore drilling, slashed $5.8 million from grants to public libraries and oversaw 21 executions, switching from the electric chair to lethal injection.
Chris Christie: Already somewhat of a national fixture in his own right, Christie’s powerful response to Hurricane Sandy was seen by most pundits as a big upswing for his candidacy. His strongly Republican record as the current governor of New Jersey makes him a contender for the GOP nomination, and his stance on same-sex marriage might make him marketable to Democrats. But the Fort Lee lane closure scandal won’t disappear anytime soon.
Peter King: Despite not having filed yet, King seems the most serious about running for the Republican nomination at this point. As a congressman representing for New York’s 3rd and second districts (1993-2913 and 2013-present, respectively), King supported the Wall Street bailout,
the Iraq War and opposed the closing of Guantanamo Bay. He was also a co-sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and, earlier in his career, a supporter of the Irish Republican Army.
Rand Paul: The son of outspoken former congressman Ron Paul, Rand has continued his father’s tradition of striving to protect personal freedoms as a senator representing Kentucky since 2011. He gave a near-13-hour filibuster in the Senate last year, questioning the Obama administration’s use of drones. Only time will tell if the grassroots support the Pauls have enjoyed in recent years can translate into enough cash for a successful presidential campaign.
Some of the potential candidates for the 2016 presidential election. From top left: Joe Biden, Brian Schweitzer, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Peter King, and Chris Christie
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38 PILOT March 2014
Opinion
One of the world’s largest ecological problems manages to be rarely discussed in mainstream culture. Overfishing is largely a product of consumer eating habits, which people remain unwilling to change. Climate change, greenhouse gases, pollution and endangered species seem to be in the limelight far more often. One reason for this may be overfishing’s relative lack of glamor or cuteness in comparison to the other issues, but there is also a common misconception that there is an inexhaustible supply of fish in the ocean.
As reported by the World Wildlife Fund, “Eighty-five percent of the world’s fisheries have been pushed to or beyond their biological limits and are in need of strict management plans to restore them.” Ever since industrial fishing started in the 1950s, edible fish populations all over the world have declined at an astonishing rate. Among these are the Atlantic bluefin tuna, which is classified as endangered, but still served in restaurants, found on the open market and fished past its quota. Eventually, if these practices don’t change, bluefin tuna and similar species will be extinct.
So what’s wrong with killing off entire species of fish? Extinctions can affect the environment in which it lived. In many cases, when the number of bigger fish (like bluefin tuna) dramatically decrease, smaller fish and crustaceans—the prey of the bigger fish—have a population boom. For instance, in Maine and the east coast of Canada, where cod has all but
disappeared, the lobster population has exploded. The cod fisherman have now have no supply, and the boom in lobster expands its market, setting it up to be overfished in turn, and repeating the cycle. The fishing markets and the ecosystem are in this way put at serious risk.
Overfishing has many other negative side effects. Coral reefs are constantly being destroyed by trawling, a method of fishing which involves dragging a large net across the ocean floor. Many other fish, dolphins and sea turtles—many of which are endangered—are caught in the nets, die and then are thrown overboard because the fishermen can’t get any profit for them. With the death of sea turtles comes the increase of jellyfish populations, because sea turtles are jellyfish predators. This is starting to make beaches and other areas that were perfectly safe dangerous because of the huge number of jellyfishes which wash up on shore.
How can we create a world where we can fish what we need, but preserve the fishing stocks for future generations? The ocean is hard to regulate, as there are only so many security boats that can patrol. It is impossible to stop all the pirate fishing, and it’s even harder to pass legislation to get countries to fish within their quota. Countries like Italy and Spain, among many others, lie about how many fish have been caught that year. Furthermore, even when scientists have proposed a certain quota, it usually is bumped up to keep fishermen happy.
Marine Policy, a leading ocean policy journal, is attempting to fix the problem right now. The existence of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), highly regulated areas of coast or
ocean dedicated to rebuilding diverse and populated ocean environments, are starting to be enforced. However, they only constitute 1.6 percent of the world’s oceans, according to the WWF. The group also reports that 90 percent of the MPAs are open to fishing in some way or another. The truly strict ocean rebuilding effort is being done in no-take zones, which prohibit any fishing or gathering of any species in that area for any reason. This allows overfished populations, such as sea turtles, to begin to grow their population back to a sustainable level.
No-take zones are also hard to put in place, because they destroy fishing jobs. Though fishermen have been told that the fish populations will go extinct, usually the incentive of money outweighs concern for the future, and the overfishing continues. In order for MPAs and no-take zones to make a real impact, fishermen and consumers need to understand as well as be aware of the problem so that a solution becomes possible.
The Problem of Overfishing
image/worldfishing.net
Sam WilliamsColumnist
Opinion
A Solution to Argentina’s Economic Woes
Briggs DeLoach Staff Writer
Following further devaluation of the Argentine peso in recent weeks, analysts now suspect
that Argentina’s GDP has fallen to the fourth largest in South America behind emerging regional powerhouse Columbia. This is just the latest in a string of setbacks for the nation, which was considered one of the world’s strongest economies just a century ago.
The problem, according to many analysts, stems from a combination of declining output and high inflation. On the production front, Argentina, once famous for its beef production, has now fallen behind neighbor Uruguay’s annual output of beef. Unfortunately, the struggles of the beef industry are joined by slumping world prices for commodities that Argentina produces, like soy.
Yet, the falling GDP figures are due to more than falling output and prices. Argentina’s skyrocketing inflation, which the Economist predicts could hit as high as 55 percent this year due to compounding, decreases the value of Argentine products compared to the world market. While inflation is not the sole cause of Argentina’s economic woes, it must be controlled before the nation can become competitive in regional and international markets again.
Traditionally, the go-to measure to combat inflation for central banks around the world has been to increase the federal funds rate. An increase in the federal funds rate raises interest rates, reduces inflation, and stabilizes the economy. This approach works when monetary policy is predictable and when currency values are validated by reserve currency stockpiles held in
national coffers.Argentina, however, is unable to
control inflation through traditional means because the nation has had erratic monetary policy and has printed currency while simultaneously spending reserve currency stockpiles to pay off debt. This combination has led to high inflation rates, averaging between 25 percent and 30 percent a year, and a devaluing of the Argentine peso, which has lost over 75 percent of its value compared to the dollar since 2007.
The irresponsible monetary policy of Argentina’s central bank, El Banco Central, has led to economic downturn and high inflation, causing the nation to lose the confidence of domestic and international firms alike. These firms fear investing in Argentina because of the peso’s instability. Therefore, the Argentine central bank must resort to creative policy alternatives to stabilize the currency and regain investor confidence. No option is more practical and can yield better results than tying the health of the peso to the U.S. dollar through a fixed exchange rate.
The benefits of such a strategy are twofold. First, tying the peso to the dollar through a fixed exchange rate will depoliticize monetary policy in Argentina. Columbia’s recent surge in GDP, which allowed it to surpass Argentina’s output figure this week, is due to what Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry calls “predictable and boring” monetary policy. Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose policies have led to economic uncertainty in the nation, and El Banco Central President Katya Daura, who is directly responsible for
printing non-backed money, will no longer influence the monetary policy. Instead, monetary stability will be tied directly to the world’s foremost depoliticized reserve currency, the U.S. dollar.
Second, tying Argentina’s peso to the dollar will encourage foreign investment in Argentina. Investors around the world trust the stability of the dollar, so a fixed exchange rate between the peso and the dollar would increase investor confidence in Argentina and lead to a resurgence in the nation’s economy. Investors would no longer worry that profits made in Argentina could be lost to extreme exchange rate fluctuations or to poor Argentine fiscal management.
A similar measure was adopted by Belize in the late 1800s, which led to increased trade with the United States and Canada, a stabilization of the nation’s currency, and an increase in Belizean business performance. Today, international financiers, especially those interested in real estate, invest large sums of money in the Belizean market, helping the nation keep a healthy GDP. A similar inflow of foreign capital stemming from currency stabilization would go a long way toward jumpstarting the Argentine economy.
Even if El Banco Central decided to tie the health of the peso to the dollar, Argentina would still face an uphill battle in reviving its economy. However, the resulting fall in inflation and increase in foreign investment in the country would be a significant step toward reviving its faltering economy.
March 2014 PILOT 39
Initially, “stand your ground” laws seems logical – we have the right to defend ourselves if we feel
threatened. Upon closer examination, it seems to actually protect institutionalized racism in American society.
What’s frightening is that almost anything can be interpreted as a reasonable threat – even something as harmless as someone playing loud music or sporting a hooded sweatshirt. In 2012, both of these actions resulted in the deaths of African-American teenagers and older, light-skinned men in court for murder.
Since Florida enacted it in 2005, stand your ground has justified what many citizens would call unjust, racist crimes, including the murders of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis. Both of these 17-year-old African-Americans were shot and killed while unarmed.
George Zimmerman, a light-skinned Latino, stated that Martin attacked and injured him. Zimmerman allegedly acted in self-defense and shot Martin, fatally wounding him. In court, he was acquitted of the murder and was left unpunished for Martin’s death.
However, there remain several disturbing questions. Why would Martin approach Zimmerman, unprovoked, and try to kill him for no apparent reason? Why did Zimmerman exit his vehicle even after the police ordered him not to, leading him to partake in the deadly confrontation with Martin? Couldn’t the wounds Zimmerman suffered have been sustained during Martin’s attempt at self-defense?
Similarly, the case of Michael Dunn and Davis leave Americans
appalled by the seeming injustice of the justice system. According to witnesses, Dunn, a middle-aged white man from Florida, and Davis, a young black male, had a heated confrontation at a gas station. According to witnesses, Dunn approached Davis and complained about his loud music. In response, Davis cursed at him, leaving Dunn feeling angry and apparently threatened. As Davis and his three African-American friends drove away, Dunn shot at the van 10 times, with three of the shots hitting Davis and killing him.
In court last month, Dunn was convicted of three counts of attempted murder, but regarding Davis’ death, there is still no conclusion. One must ask: how is that not an open-and-shut murder case? Dunn aimed, shot and killed a young man, and it isn’t murder?
Dunn is claiming self-defense; he felt threatened and had reason to believe that Davis meant him harm. Under the provisions of stand your ground, Dunn is justified in killing an unarmed kid.
Sociology professor Billy Miller warns that this law “opens the door for a lot of freedom to hurt and injure people who may not have any malice of forethought.” This couldn’t be more true in the cases of Martin and Davis, both of whom were shot and killed for posing a threat even though they lacked a weapon.
It seems that above all, it is fear that drives the defense of stand your ground. “People preconceive and stereotype certain groups of people as a threat, and then they feel justified in arming themselves and then secondarily shooting other people. That becomes very problematic,” Miller said. “If already in our society there is a fear
of certain groups of people, namely young, African-American males, I already have a notion that they may do me harm. I’m going to be more sensitive to that, simply because of the stereotypes associated with being young and black. And oftentimes that means that I may pull the trigger a lot faster.”
Stand your ground seems to encourage quick action rather than using violence as a last resort. As Miller puts it, the law “doesn’t allow for a cooling-off period” where the confrontation can be handled in a civil manner. “There’s no time to think through that. There’s no time to ask questions. The easiest, quickest answer in response, under color of law, is to shoot the person,” Miller said. “I don’t have to think about it. I can just shoot you and say, ‘I really believed that this person could shoot me.’”
Miller explains how racism plays into stand your ground: “If I, as a young, black male, perceive that harm is going to be done to me and I shoot a white person because I have reason to believe they will do harm to me … there is already a preconceived notion that young, black people are going to do harm anyway. I don’t think I would be given the benefit of the doubt.”
Miller continues, “I would think that most people would view that as, ‘See there? They are aggressive!’ The benefit of the doubt would go towards the white person because we tend to think that white people are upstanding citizens and they would not aggressively towards anybody unless there was a cause.”
Ultimately, as Miller points out, “This is clearly hypothetical. There’s no way that we can even prove that, unless – until – these things happen. Hopefully, nobody else gets shot, either white or black. But that question is suspended out there, and much of America is waiting to see what happens.”
40 PILOT February 2014
Liberal Column
Stand Your Ground
Samantha BronkarStaff Writer
February 2014 PILOT 41
Conservative Column
Once again, the United States is negotiating with Iran over the latter’s nuclear program.
Allegedly on the table is the easing of sanctions. The U.S. must keep pressure on Iran until there is enforceable, verifiable and complete elimination of any nuclear-weapons infrastructure, not just a pause in enrichment. Anything short of that, anything that gives Iran any room to obtain nuclear arms, is worse than no deal at all, and we and our allies should in no way accept it.
The deal is still in the works, and not all the details are entirely clear or finalized. From what we do know, it appears that the deal will involve easing certain sanctions while Iran stops enriching uranium. The deal is bad for many reasons, but first among them is this: Iran could restart its centrifuges at a moment’s notice. Sanctions, on the other hand, take time to implement – six months minimum, according to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee – and they take even longer to have any effect. If Iran were to break this deal, any economic response would be too little, too late.
Furthermore, the deal would only stop nuclear material production – work on other portions of a nuclear weapon would continue apace. Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Judiciary
Committee in a Feb. 11 hearing that he expects Iran will develop
intercontinental ballistic missiles – able to deliver a warhead just about anywhere in the world – by 2015.
Why negotiate now? Ostensibly, because Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, is a “moderate” – a possible friend and negotiating partner to the West. A much more respectable character than his predecessor, the borderline-certifiable, Holocaust-denying wacko Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Two problems here: Rouhani is often described in Western media as a reformer, but this isn’t exactly true. One of the more recent examples of his extremism is a quote in Iran’s government-run media that “One of the wishes of the Iranian nation is liberation of [Jerusalem]” from “the yoke of Israel” – substantially, if not rhetorically, exactly in line with the regime’s position that Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth. (Remember, a genuine, pro-Western reformer couldn’t be appointed dogcatcher in today’s Iran, much less president.)
Secondly, the president doesn’t matter. Iran is ruled, ultimately, by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, a rabidly anti-Western, anti-Semitic all-powerful theocrat. The mask may have changed, but nothing else has.
As President Obama flirts with this disastrous deal, the aforementioned Menendez, a member of the president’s own party, has introduced a bill to keep sanctions in place, and to increase them if Iran should violate
previous agreements. The president has, unhelpfully and falsely, accused supporters of the bill of warmongering, but 58 of 100 senators have co-sponsored the bill. Two more votes would overcome a filibuster; nine more would override the president’s veto. Both of these options are well within the realm of possibility.
When so many people from such diverse ideologies unite in opposition to something, especially in this time of increased political polarization in America, it’s generally a sign that the proposal is a very bad idea. Obama would be well served to heed his bipartisan opposition in this regard.
The U.S. and the world have very little to gain and very much to lose by easing sanctions. If Iran were to go nuclear, it is to be expected that the other regional power, Saudi Arabia, would soon follow. A nuclear arms race in the Gulf would be among the very worst possible things for global security at the moment. Furthermore, Iran lies in a target-rich neighborhood, with Muslim rival Saudi Arabia and Israel at the top of the list, along with plenty of U.S. military installments. It is unlikely that those weapons would go unused for long.
It is in the best interest of everyone in the world, except the Iranian mullahs, that Iran be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. The United States, her allies, and even her rivals should maintain the economic pressure on Iran so that more drastic measures are not needed later on.
For more commentary from this columnist, tune in to “We The People,” Sunday nights at 9 p.m. Central on Principia Internet Radio.
Cameron DouglasColumnist
Keep Up the Iran Sanctions
Movie Review
42 PILOT March 2014
At face value, “Son of God” might seem like the ultimate
spoiler-proof movie. It’s the story of Jesus’ following in Galilee, his clash with the Romans and Jews of Jerusalem, and finally, his ascension. Though there are many versions of this story, director Christopher Spencer’s re-telling (adapted from segments of History Channel’s “The Bible”) is filled with fresh moments. However, the film can’t escape its own theological and intellectual contradictions.
Diogo Morgado is excellent as Jesus. Whether he’s speaking to disciples, Pharisees or sinners, Morgado displays a humanistic, compassionate personality that paints the Nazarene as a conscientious public speaker. He seems to know exactly what to say in any situation, even though we as an audience can predict which Bible verse is coming. Jesus feels less stoic and more spontaneous here than in other adaptations, and it’s a joy to watch him.
The disciples are talented actors as well. Of the 12, “Son of God” focuses on John (Sebastian Knapp), Peter (Darwin Shaw), Judas (Joe Wredden), Matthew (Said Bey) and Thomas (Matthew Gravelle). John and Peter bookend the film, but they all have their time to shine. They’re played earnestly, at once unaware of their importance and proud to be standing with their teacher.
Showing all sides of the disciples and others helps ground the movie and
supports a more historical, realistic tone. However, this realism is lost at points.
While dutifully showing the chasm of opinion on Jesus between the Romans and the Jews, the movie forgets one key figure: Herod. Although the IMDb page lists actor Rick Bacon as having portrayed him, I honestly can’t recall Herod’s name ever being mentioned in the film. This presents a valley of questions between Son of God and the historically-accurate achievement it wants to be, even though Caiaphas (Adrian Schiller), Pilate (Greg Hicks) and Nicodemus (Simon Kunz) are portrayed exceptionally well.
The other hurdles the movie can’t jump over are twofold: it struggles to separate itself from the episodic nature of the television show on which it’s based, and it’s not as nondenominational as it thinks it is.
Very seldom in the film is there a good transition or a subtle reminder of setting. At times, it’s hard not to laugh when terrible CGI mock-ups of palaces or temples zip by. What makes it worse is that these aren’t even necessary placeholders because Son of God actually has good-looking set pieces and doesn’t shy away from using subtitles to establish setting. These transitions smack of bad television writing.
To speak to the nondenominational – there is a heavy emphasis on the wine and bread being the blood and body.
When we get to the crucifixion, we do follow the Stations of the Cross, but this is fine by me because Jesus meets someone new at each stop, and through them we learn more about his followers.
I was disappointed at the length of the crucifixion scene. It pales in
comparison to the infamous length of the scene in “The Passion of the Christ,” but this movie was more engaging at other points and I felt it shortchanged itself. However, this crucifixion scene doesn’t pander to any one religion and it’s followed by an admirable depiction of Jesus’ time with the disciples after his ascension.
Son of God is helped by a truly gifted cast who breathe new life into scenes that could have felt rote. I’m hoping Diogo Morgado doesn’t develop Jim Caviezel syndrome, meaning I hope he won’t only be remembered for playing Jesus. I’d like to see what else all these actors can do. But the same could be said for this story – I’d still like to see how else it could be told.
“Son of God” = 3/5
Great Performances Make Sins of “Son of God” Forgivable
George NapperColumnist
Diogo Morgado plays Jesus in “Son of God.”
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Music Column
March 2014 PILOT 43
In today’s music world, it is hard to find a really good rapper amidst all the amateurs. Thanks to the
Internet, music spreads easily and everyone thinks they can become a YouTube sensation. Clearly though, having a webcam and a guitar doesn’t define how great of a musician you are.
With that said, Donald Glover has surpassed expectations of becoming a YouTube virtuoso and has actually made a life and career out of it. Originally starting from a comedy base, Glover was a member of the sketch group Derrick Comedy, which eventually landed him a gig writing for NBC’s “30 Rock.” He had his own stand-up comedy show, a movie titled “Mystery Team” and most notably played the character Troy on the hit TV show “Community.”
Now Glover has an alter ego that has become bigger than Glover himself. I’m talking about Childish Gambino, soon to be your favorite rapper. You may not know it yet, but just wait and see.
Gambino began his career in 2008 with a mixtape titled “Sick Boi.” He didn’t really explode onto the music scene until his first studio album, “Camp.” This was when he really transformed from rapper to storyteller. “Camp” began a story that Gambino is still telling through his work today.
Gambino’s most recent album, released in December, entitled “Because the Internet,” continues
the story that began with “Camp.” Gambino’s album, “Because the Internet” has tremendous complexity and multiple layers that must be unpacked to be understood. The album has 19 tracks, and is so much more than just an album. I like to call it an art project because of the many facets that went into making this album.
If making an album and collaborative short film, plus various music videos, wasn’t enough, Gambino wrote a 75-page screenplay to accompany “Because the Internet.” With the screenplay, Gambino also created short silent videos to watch while his fans listen and read the screenplay. If you are interested in immersing yourself in this musical adventure, you can go to BecauseTheInternet.
So do these facts make Childish Gambino your favorite rapper? If they don’t, go see him on his tour for further
confirmation. The closest he will be to Elsah is Chicago, but it will be worth it. He even has an app designed to use specifically for his concerts!
Why Childish Gambino Should Be Your Favorite Rapper
image/isupportlocalmusic.com
Josh BensonColumnist
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Opinion
44 PILOT March 2014
John Lennon once said “Music is everybody’s possession.” However, at the Arctic Monkeys concert on Feb. 15 at the Pageant, it seemed that the experience belonged much more to those old enough to legally hold beer bottles than it did to the rest of us.
Cordoned off from the rest of the crowd in the back of the room, it was hard not to feel like I was being deprived of the sole reason I was there: to enjoy the music with a community of fans.
It was evident from the beginning that the institution saw anyone under 21 as a liability. Sectioned off in different lines to enter the building, those not yet old enough to drink were stamped with “under” in bold red letters on the back of their hands and told to pay the minor surcharge fee of $2.
One of the definitions of surcharge is “an additional or excessive load or burden.” I certainly felt like one when I entered the building. After I entered and took five steps, I found the enclosure in which I would spend the rest of the evening. Those of us not drinking alcohol were asked to stand two feet away from a metal gate that separated the bar area and the rest of the room. A guard stood watch to make sure no one moved over the invisible line.
The whole experience was so different from any other concert I’d been to. In the United Kingdom, I had never been tagged as underage, and was usually able to get to the front of concerts. Those who would drink would be asked to show their ID at the
bar but we would always be allowed to intermingle.
When talking to a friend from the U.K. about my experience, she said, “I guess I could probably ask people to buy a drink for me if I was underage, but I don’t see the point because people are there for the music. If you’re there to get drunk, you’ll end up getting kicked out anyway.”
The emphasis placed on alcohol took precedence over the music. The Pageant management was so concerned with getting money from the anyone drinking that they segregated everyone who was too young, keeping them from potentially getting access to alcohol or taking advantage of the inebriated.
My friend from the U.K. said, “I can’t even imagine going to a concert where you’re split like that. It would ruin the atmosphere completely.” She says this is because “the whole point of [a
concert] is that you’re there to enjoy the music and have a good time regardless of your age. It’s one time where age is the least of anyone’s worries.”
Interviewing junior Shamus Jarvis shed some new light on the situation. “I’ve been to the Pageant many times and I’ve never had an issue there,” Jarvis, a notorious concert-goer, said. “I’ve never had any problem with my age at concerts.”
His last trip to the Pageant was in September last year. So why the sudden strict attitude when it comes to drinking? I wrote to the Pageant requesting an answer, and they have not replied back as of press time.
However, various reviews on the
Internet reflect experiences similar to mine. CitySearch.com user Payton Wilson writes, “The Pageant is a great place to see bands EXCEPT when you’re a MINOR and you have to pay more to see bands and get stuck sitting in a kiddie section.” On the same website, user slm1998 says, “The staff there is by far the worst. They are rude and harassing.”
It’s not just under 21-year-olds that seemed to have their experience ruined by the emphasis on drinking at the venue. On Google Reviews, user Timothy Pfeiffer wrote, “they treated our group (all above 21, with multiple forms of identification) like hostages. … Overall this is a very strange/tightly regulated place.” User Dana DoStuff, also writing on Google Reviews, told how she and her friend were frisked and made to leave for no legitimate reason. She calls the service “outrageous” and says, “I love the venue itself, but they really need some new employees.”
There is also a Facebook page
Alcohol and Live Music: a Bad MixBobby WitneyAssigning Editor
It ultimately comes down to the plague of alcohol and
how venue owners have used it to pervert the original purpose of the venues: a space for music to be
experienced and appreciated by a community of people.
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Opinion
March 2014 PILOT 45
entitled “The Security at The Pageant STL is Horrible and have a God Complex.”
Overall, I don’t think it’s right to blame the Pageant or its staff specifically for the extremely regulated feeling of the concert experience there. I don’t think this problem is unique to the Pageant, but undue focus on money that has polluted the concert experience in America.
It ultimately comes down to the plague of alcohol and how venue owners have used it to pervert the original purpose of the venues: a space for music to be experienced and appreciated by a community of people. The venue owners exploit the belief that alcohol is an essential part of the concert experience in order to make
huge amounts of money.If you Google “alcohol at music
concerts” the first hit that comes up is an article entitled “How to Smuggle Alcohol (Or Other Contraband) Into
an Outdoor Concert.” It is evident that alcohol has become a huge part of music culture, which is understandable. I take no issue with those that choose to drink along with their concert
experience.However, when the person in
front of you smokes weed through a vaporizer and the man beside you spends more time inspecting his bong than listening to the music – all while security is turning a blind eye to them but insists you don’t stand within two feet of the bar area, making it impossible to dance to the music – it is evident that venues like the Pageant are more concerned with getting their cut of the money rather than the ethics of underage drinking and other illegal activity.
I believe that music, especially when performed live, is truly “everybody’s possession,” not something reserved for those most likely to empty their pockets.
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It is evident that venues like the Pageant are more
concerned with getting their cut of the money rather
than the ethics of underage drinking and other illegal
activity.
Opinion
46 PILOT March 2014
Why Gangsta Rap MattersColby BermelCopy Chief
You learned in this semester’s first issue of the Pilot that I am a Netflix addict. Well, here’s
something else you might not know about me: I love rap music.
I have almost 3,000 hip-hop songs in my iTunes library, and many more in Spotify playlists. The genre is capable of so much – from the political prose of Common to the witty wordplay of Cam’ron – and it contributes to music just the same as rock and pop have. Jon Caramanica, a New York Times music critic, said in an interview last year that “if you are working at a major national publication writing about music, and you do not have a grammar of contemporary black music, you should not be writing about popular music.”
Since we’re now talking about hip-hop, it’s time to address the elephant in the room: gangsta rap. For those who don’t know, this subset of the genre is characterized by aggressive lyrics that reference sex, drugs and violence. It’s been utilized by some of the most critically acclaimed rappers of all time, including Jay-Z and Eminem. Gangsta rappers claim that what they’re describing in their lyrics is part of a musical persona, which is a valid point.
The same can also be said of musicians like Queen’s Freddie Mercury. In “Bohemian Rhapsody,” he describes himself as “just a poor boy” who committed murder. This song is considered by many to be the best of modern music, yet no one is up in arms about his “Mama, just killed a man, put a gun against his head” lyric. The point of music, like any other art
form, is telling a story. And many times, musicians use creative license to do so. Although Jay-Z doesn’t deal drugs in the Marcy Projects anymore, his past informs his present in terms of lyrical content.
However, for today’s rappers in Chicago, there is no distinction between artistry and reality. Many view this trend as detrimental to society, but I think of it as a wake-up call.
The Windy City has always struggled with violent crime. In the 2013 calendar year, 2,194 shootings and 431 homicides occurred, according to the Chicago Tribune. And as of Feb. 10, there have been 124 shootings and 31 homicides in 2014. In recent years, Chicago has had a higher murder
rate than New York and Los Angeles, leading some to crown Chicago as the “murder capital of America.” Many Chicagoans, especially those living in crime-plagued areas, have begun referring to their city as “Chiraq,” a portmanteau of Chicago and Iraq.
It’s sad to think that citizens and rappers alike see their neighborhoods as war zones. This, unfortunately, was made abundantly clear in an eight-part documentary titled “Chiraq,” produced and published early this year by the music website Noisey. In interviewing rappers, gangs, police and priests, the miniseries paints a grim picture of the current state of Chicago and the rap music many scapegoat for it.
Known as “drill music,” Caramanica describes this new kind of hip-hop as “unmediated and raw and without bright spots, focused on anger and violence. The instinct is to call this tough, unforgiving and concrete-hard music joyless, but in truth it’s exuberant in its darkness.”
And that’s the scary part: how these rappers are making talk of murder and other nefariousness so appealing. Musically, drill music is incredibly catchy, with booming bass and haunting melodies. And this is complemented by lyrics that convey “a sense of the struggle bedeviling the communities that produce much of the music,” Caramanica says.
Arguably the most famous of these drillers is Chief Keef, an 18-year-old who’s featured throughout much of the “Chiraq” documentary. Born Keith Cozart and raised in the dangerous Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, the dreadlocked rhymesayer has become a phenomenon in the rap world. Despite having been confined to his grandmother’s apartment on house arrest these past few years for selling heroin at age 15 and shooting at police almost a year later, his homemade music videos have garnered millions of hits on YouTube. Keef ’s most-watched song, “Love Sosa,” has 37 million views and depicts him and his buddies drinking, smoking and making gun motions at the camera.
To be honest, his videos are quite mesmerizing. Most mainstream hip-hop videos are celebrations, showing rappers driving fancy cars or popping champagne bottles. But this isn’t the case with Keef and his colleagues. You can’t help but get drawn into this posturing, this show of force meant to convey the superiority of his gang over your gang.
For today’s rappers in Chicago, there is no
distinction between artistry and reality. Many view this
trend as detrimental to society, but I think of it as a
wake-up call.
Opinion
March 2014 PILOT 47
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“He’s a kid. He’s growing up on camera in front of everyone on the Internet,” Keef ’s manager said in the “Chiraq” documentary. “When people saw the videos, they could see the authenticity. This is the real deal; it’s nothing fabricated.”
And this authenticity has lifted Keef to dizzying new heights. Interscope Records signed him to a deal reportedly worth $6 million. He has his own line of Beats headphones. He moved to a huge mansion in the wealthy suburb of Northbrook, where he races ATVs in the backyard. And his Instagram account is even more telling. One post shows him holding five iPhones; another shows 20-plus electric toy cars for his infant daughter to drive.
Keef hasn’t been able to fully leave trouble behind. He has been hit with several paternity suits, along with a marijuana arrest, a 110-mph speeding charge and a stint in rehab. But the events of Sept. 4, 2012, epitomize the South Side’s new life as Chiraq.
Joseph Coleman, an 18-year-old from Englewood, was an aspiring rapper by the name of Lil Jojo. He was also a member of the Gangster Disciples, the chief rival to Keef ’s Black Disciples. In the months leading up to Sept. 4, Jojo and Keef were threatening each other on Twitter and in their music videos.
“Social media isn’t just the engine for drill music’s crazy ascent to popularity. It’s become one of the main lines of communication in Chicago’s increasingly violent gang wars,” Noisey’s Thomas Morton said in the “Chiraq” documentary. “The threats, beefs and callouts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube end up being settled on the streets.”
And that’s what ended up happening on Sept. 4. At around 3 in the afternoon, Jojo was deep in Black Disciple territory, and he tweeted the specific intersection he was at – 69th
& Princeton. Just four hours later, unknown assailants found Jojo and fatally shot him in a drive-by. “There was little blood, but Coleman’s eyes were dilated, cold and fixed,” the Chicago Sun-Times chronicled. “‘It was like the look of death,’ another witness said.”
What makes this situation even more disgusting was that Keef joked about the murder on Twitter literally
hours after Jojo died: “Its Sad Cuz… Jojo Wanted To Be Jus Like Us #LMAO.” After facing a well-justified online backlash, Keef later claimed that his account had been “hacked.” If his account was really broken into, then why is the tweet still up two years later? It’s absolutely monstrous.
Although police still haven’t identified Jojo’s killers, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say they were probably associated with Keef and his gang.
I was initially going to title this
piece “Why Chief Keef Should Be Your Least Favorite Rapper,” to go along with the headline of Josh Benson’s music column (see page 43). While you could certainly make the case for this superlative, I believe it’s important to look at the deeper meaning of all of this.
Why do people join gangs? They seek protection, structure and support. These things and more are either lacking or absent in the crime-ridden areas of major cities like Chicago. In the South Side, shooting victims have to be driven 10 miles north to the nearest trauma center, and many die in the ambulance. Housing projects in the area have been torn down, leaving low-income people without a decent place to live. Eliza Solowiej, executive director of First Defense Legal Aid, said in the “Chiraq” documentary that “all the resources are segregated, the people are segregated, so people in Chicago may only know of [the South Side] on the news. There’s no crossing boundaries into communities that are poverty-stricken if you’re not part of that.”
Many of these rappers seem to be products of their environment. And maybe that’s the point of gangsta rap: bringing to light the symptoms of urban decay.
Many of these rappers seem to be products of their
environment. And maybe that’s the point of gangsta rap: bringing to light the
symptoms of urban decay.
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