News 2 - 8 Viewpoints 9 - 12 Entertainment 13 - 16 The Quickie 17 - 18 Sports 21- 24PleaseRecycle INDEX:

The Current is a free, biweekly student newspaper produced at Eckerd College. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writers.

Health & Fitness 19 - 20

The Official Student Newspaper of Eckerd College

Vol. 3, Issue XXII—May 4, 2012

Senior editors say goodbyeSix dedicated editors say goodbye, reflect on their experiences.

Viewpoints: pages 10-11 Entertainment: page 13News: page 7

A fond farewell to Pro-fessor BrookerProfessor of Literature retires af-ter more than 30 years at Eckerd.

Tupac hologram per-forms at CoachellaExploring ethics in musical per-formances.

Farewell 2011-12Good luck, Seniors

ASPEC brings dragon boat to campusBy Malena CarolloAsst. News Editor

Though the Mississippi riverboats didn’t quite pan out for Eckerd, another type of vessel is making its way onto Eckerd’s aquatic scene.

Andrew Chittick, professor of East Asian studies, settles barefoot in a soft green armchair in his office, pulling his legs up under him as he explains the newest addition to the Eckerd College waterfront: a dragon boat.

“[Dragon boating] is fun for two reasons,” Chittick said. “First, it’s a fun sport to engage in. It’s also a great way to promote the East Asian studies program. It leads to all kinds of interesting conversations about Chinese religion, culture and history.”

In researching early Chinese history for a book he is working on, Chittick became interested in dragon boat racing. He began tracking the sport in China, as well as modern dragon boat racing, and thought it would be “great for Eckerd to have our own boat team.”

Traditionally used for military training practice where rowers would attack opposite boats with paddles, the sport has become popular internationally

since the 1990s, organized by the International Dragon Boat Federation. It has spread to areas as local as Tampa, where the 9th Annual Tampa Bay International Dragon Boat Races were held from April 23 to 28.

“The objective is to go really fast,” Chittick said. With 20 paddlers, a drummer to keep time and someone to steer, making the 41-foot canoe go fast is just a matter of team coordination.

Chittick took his idea of a dragon boat to Ray Kulla, then director of Academy of Senior Professional at Eckerd College (ASPEC). Kulla had been a discussant colleague for Chittick’s Western Heritage class, giving presentations called “What in the World” about what was going on at the time each text was written.

“[Chittick] said gee, I’d like to build a boat, do you think ASPEC would be willing to help?” Kulla said. “I know our Applied Tech guys have been talking about building a boat and donating it to the college as a legacy, so I called Tom [Handcock]

and they, no pun intended, jumped on board enthusiastically.”

The Applied Tech group is no stranger to big projects. Since their inception under Dr. Peter Armacost, who brought seniors back to campus for “lifelong learning,” the group has taken on several larger projects including a

plane and a boat identical to the African Queen.

A f t e r doing three years of o f f - s i t e p r o j e c t s

for charities in the community, the group was looking for a long-term project on site.

“We wanted to do something interesting and unique for the college that would be educational as well,” Kulla said.

Building a dragon boat to race is uncommon. Usually teams borrow boats to practice with, but the five to six boats available in Tampa make logistics inconvenient for an Eckerd team to practice on a weekly basis.

To solve this, ASPEC took on the project to help Chittick, agreeing to provide the labor of Applied Tech and funding up to $4,000.

This is significantly less expensive than purchasing a new dragon boat, which can range anywhere from $10,000 to $13,000, not including a head and oars. Funding covers materials, including the marine plywood necessary to build the frame and a computer routing table to cut plywood pieces into precise shapes.

The core group of Applied Tech includes four surgeons, the average education is a doctoral degree.

“We have a saying,” Handcock, one of the leaders of the group, joked, “that we don’t start until we have at least four surgeons.”

Handcock, who joined the group seven years ago, and the four surgeons are five of the dozen members of Applied Tech working on the project.

“They’re all of the age where you did [things] yourself,” he said. “If you had a broken window, you fixed it yourself.”

ASPEC isn’t the only group getting their hands dirty. A few of Chittick’s students are also involved at various levels.

“Sometimes after class on Fridays we go out and chill and talk dragon boats and help out a little bit,” Kevin Lewis, junior, said. “When it’s all set and built, I’d enjoy sailing the seas on a dragon.”

See DRAGON BOAT, page 5

courtesy of Eckerd CollegeThe class of 2012 at their ceremony of lights, August 2008.

The Quickie 17 - 18

The Quickie: page 17

The mega crossword by Will SkinnerA crossword that will last you through the summer.

Health & Fitness: page 19

Evaluating caffeine pillsWeighing the pros and cons of the caffeine supplement.

“I’d enjoy sailing the seas on a dragon.”

—Kevin Lewis, junior.

See Allocation, page 8

New ECOS president to veto senate approved budgetBy Elizabeth TomaselliNews Editor

In her first day, ECOS President Rhemy Brezin said she would veto the senate approved club budget passed at the April 30 senate meeting.

Brezin confirmed there were “valid violations of the ECOS Constitution.” In addition to her veto, she will recommend “that the Financial Affairs Committee meet to vote and approve the revised budget, post it for a minimum of 48 hours, and then bring it before the ECOS Student Senate for approval at the meeting this Monday [May 7].”

Club budgets for the 2012-2013 school year, according to ECOS constitution, were unconstitutionally allocated and approved by various branches of the student government. The budgets for 17 clubs were cut by a total of $16,900 from the original allocation list posted outside the ECOS office and the Pub on April 27. At the recent senate meeting, April 30, senate voted and approved the new budget proposal that was never posted. To compare the two different budget proposals, see page 8.

The old budget, posted April 27, was unprecedented in that neither Fred Sabota, asstistant dean of students for campus activities, nor Lova Patterson, associate director of campus activities, had seen it. “This was the first year that I’ve ever walked in and there was a budget just posted without having someone sit down with me or Fred,” says Patterson.

Upon seeing the already posted budget, Sabota and Patterson noticed there were major clubs not represented—including clubs that had not re-chartered as well as clubs that failed to show up for allocation.

“Normally we have that opportunity to sit down and go over [the budget], at least with the finance director,” said Patterson.

Sabota and Patterson spoke with outgoing Vice President of Financial Affairs Dan Aldridge shortly after the budget was posted April 27. “We wanted to point it out and say ‘what could you guys do to fix this, do you want to fix this,’ because it’s not going to go away…they [clubs] are either going to come back now, or they’re going to come back in the fall,” said Sabota.

Patterson reiterated, stating, “All we said was that you have to go back and revisit this.” On their advice, Aldridge reexamined the

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BriefingNationalGlobal

Statewide Campus

White House Correspondents dinner brings the laughsLos Angeles Times

The 98th Annual White House Correspondents Dinner recently took place at the Washington Hilton. President Obama did his fair share of poking fun at Republicans and Mitt Romney, as well as recent scandals that his administration has come under fire for. He referenced Hilary Clinton drunk texting him at the Summit of the Americas, intimated that he cut his material short for the night to cater to the secret service’s new curfew and Joe Biden’s occasionally unfortunate way with words. The night also had a serious side as the president honored fallen journalists and those who deserved awards for outstanding achievement. The event raised $132,000 in scholarships to journalism students. Jimmy Kimmel also presented through out the evening leaving no person or party unscathed.

9/11 memorial unveiledThe New York Times

This week, the defining steel column will be added to the construction of 1 World Trade Cen-ter making it the new tallest building in the city. The 100th floor will be 1,271 feet, which will bring it 21 feet higher than the Empire State Building. The finished product of 1 World Trade Center will be 1,776 feet. The developers boast floor to ceiling views in every direction. This new con-struction is extremely important for New York City and the United States. It serves as a marker for the memorial and fills out the skyline that had a painful void post 9/11.

Irish priest wrongly accusedCNN

In Northern Ireland, a priest at the center of a gay porn controversy is leaving his parish. Father Martin McVeigh was giving a PowerPoint presentation at a grade school in Pomeroy, County Tyrone and accidently showed images of naked men to parents of children taking their First Holy Communion classes. The parents asked for the church to retaliate. Upon reporting the incident to the police, they realized there was no actual crime committed. Father McVeigh has admitted to destroying the memory stick and apologizes for not checking his presentation and any harm he has caused. The cardinal will allow the father to leave for a sabbatical with the condition that he would return to the diocese when he is ready.

Monitors sent as Syrian violence continuesReuters

More monitors have been sent to Syria to oversee the U.N. brokered truce in Syria. Robert Mood, a Norwegian general, arrived recently in Damascus on Sunday and the increase of monitors for the mission has helped to ease the violence in Homs, the main city of the 13 – month uprising. The U.N. report states that presi-dent Bashar al-Assad’s army has killed 9,000 people. Activists report that there has been a substantial drop in violence since the mission was deployed last week, but the violations of the ceasefire continue throughout the country.

St. Pete police sergeant under investigationTampa Bay Times

A sergeant on the St Petersburg Police force is under investigation after he shot and severely wounded a robbery suspect. The incident took place early on the morn-ing of Sunday, April 29. The police got a call at 2 a.m. from a man who said he was robbed of his bicycle. They intercepted Anthony J. Stahley, 27, of St. Petersburg on 1040 18th Ave. N. That is when he threatened Sgt. Karl D. Lounge with a large ax.

SAAC and Her Campus Eckerd co-sponsor Mr. Triton

The annual Mr. Triton Make-A-Wish Foundation fundraiser will be held at the GO Pavilion on Friday, May 4 at 5 p.m. A dozen men will be competing in the areas of formal wear, swimwear, onstage question and talent. The triton with the most money donated in his name by the end of the night will be Mr. Triton 2012. Presented by the Student Athletic Advisory Committee and Her Campus Eckerd, there will be free food for all students who attend and $1 beers to support the cause.

Kappa Karnival to be held this weekend

Kappa Field will be buzzing on Friday, May 5, starting at 5 p.m. Kappa Karnival is back and bigger than ever. With $25,000 being spent on rides alone. Campus Activi-ties and the Kappa Krew are going all out. Be sure to catch all of the great attractions including local and campus artists, karnival food and the rides.

USF offers entrepreneurship majorTampa Bay Times

USF St. Petersburg is the second state university of offer a major in entrepreneur-ship. Five members of the school’s Entrepreneurship Club won first prize at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’’ Organization. They created an online simulation of a computer business that scored them $1,000, mentoring from some of the country’s top entrepreneurs and an amazing network experience when they go to the week-end long award ceremony in Chicago in November to pick up their prize. Nathan Schwagler is USF’s creative-in-residence and visiting instructor in entrepreneur-ship. He believes that the world has evolved into a different place, which means that students need to evolve their talents to be employable. “No company is going to be around 50 years to take care of them.”

courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

promotional photo

EC-SAR helps in search for owner of paddleboat

The U.S. Coast Guard asked EC’s Search and Rescue (EC-SAR) to assist in a search April 29 for a missing paddleboarder, according to Emily Reichert, a staff instructor for EC-SAR.

According to Bay News 9, “an unmanned paddleboard” was found the night before near Manatee River’s north entrance. A wallet, car keys and cell phone found with the board identified the missing person as Jeffrey Comer, 50, of Tampa. Tampa Police De-partment did not find Comer at his house after conducting a “welfare check.” His car was found at Ft. Desoto Park.

Reichert said EC-SAR dispatched two boats after the 4 p.m. call for help. Two hours later, EC-SAR switched out crew members and added a third boat.

EC-SAR is one of several agencies assisting in the search. The Coast Guard has dis-patched helicopters and boats, and is working with Pinellas County Sheriff helicopters, 911 Dispatch and Ft. Desoto and Egmont Key park rangers.

The search, Reichert said, will continue until the Coast Guard feels the search has been exhausted.

Cnews3May 4, 2012 the current News

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Dragon boat photo spread 5

Budget Allocations 8

Mocha Vida Cafe 4

Prof. Brooker to retire 7

Summer storms 6

INSIDE news

By Rhemy BrezinECOS President

First, I would like to thank all of the students who voted in the 2012 ECOS Executive Council Election. Your votes truly do matter and you can create change on our campus through who you elect and the ideas that you bring forward to those candidates.

As a new executive council, we really want to work on the communication between students and ECOS, because all students belong to ECOS. We are here to work for you.

Second, I would like to take this chance to thank all of the candidates who participated in the 2012 ECOS executive council elections in March.

It is always hard to put yourself out there in that type of public forum to pursue your ideas to improve our campus and I want to congratulate you on your courage. I hope that all of you will continue to be active within ECOS next year so that we can put your ideas into action.

Third, I would like to thank the current ECOS executive council. This year they have provided Eckerd with many intellectual events, Resisting Climate Reality with Bill McKibben, as well as fun events, Valentine’s Day dinner in the Caf and assorted campus improvement projects, Cigarette Butt containers, the residential ice machine and the trash and recycling bins in the Omega parking lot. I wish them all the best of luck after graduation.

Fourth, I would like to personally thank Stephen Barber. He has been an active member of ECOS since his freshman year at Eckerd and has been a valuable asset to anyone with an ECOS related question.

He has been an excellent example of an efficient ECOS president and I look forward to continuing to bring that excellence to this position. Stephen has worked hard to support clubs that have come to him, not only through monetary means, but also with physical support by being present at athletic and club events.

His initiation of the Small Changes, Significant Impact Campaign has positively impacted campus with the addition of new volleyball nets, South Beach seating, pool cues and balls in the traditional complex lounges, flat screen TV’s in the Caf, and much, much more. You have done an amazing job this year, Stephen, and I thank you for your inspiring mentorship. Good luck in the Big Apple!

Finally, I want to wish all of our graduating seniors good luck out there in the real world and I hope that all of the returning students have a safe and fun summer. But remember, just because it is summer doesn’t mean that ECOS isn’t here working for you. If you need anything just shoot me an email at ecospres@eckerd.edu.

From newECOS president, Rhemy Brezin

Introduction to the new ECOS exec council

You asked for it, you got it:

C

By Elizabeth TomaselliNews Editor

She’s only been on the job for three days, but new ECOS Presi-dent Rhemy Brezin’s got a solid plan moving into next year. As president, Brezin will be respon-sible for managing a new executive council including Executive Vice President Eliza van Dissel, Vice President of Academic Affairs Erin Stringer and Vice President of Fi-nancial Affairs Brady O’Donnell.

With three females and only one male, next year’s ECOS execu-tive council will be a sharp change from the all-male council this past year. Brezin has already organized meetings with the new council, though they only took office on May 1, to get to know each other and begin organizing for next year. And it worked. It seems in a mat-ter of weeks they’ve established an impressive combination of playful and respectful camaraderie that takes some teams years to achieve.

Luckily, she’s confident they’re already off to a good start. “We are all coming up with our own goals for exec as a whole and then for each of our individual positions and personal goals,” she says, “I feel like all of us moving toward set goals that we want to accomplish is going to keep things moving for-ward and operating smoothly.”

Since the election back in March, Brezin indicates it’s been full speed ahead; in between get-

ting to know each other, exchang-ing telephone numbers and even discussing the new Justin Bieber song, they made time to meet with their current position holders to talk about the transition process and create their individual budget proposals.

With her budget, Executive Vice President Eliza van Dissel hopes to start introducing Rerev gym technology to the fitness cen-ter. The cardio equipment from a locally owned St. Pete company

uses an adapter to convert kinetic energy into electricity to power the fitness center.

Overall, van Dissel’s driving goal is “to rally senate and rally the students and let them be aware of what we can really do.” She adds, “It would be awesome if everyone really knew what was out there.”

Brady O’Donnell, vice president of financial affairs, also has big ideas for ECOS including more environmental awareness and ini-tiatives and creating a closer re-lationship between residence life and ECOS. For his own position, O’Donnell plans “to turn the reim-bursement process from a paper process to an online process.”

As vice president of academic affairs, Erin Stringer hopes to strengthen ties within the Eckerd community by focusing on more

co-sponsored CPS events with students, faculty and ASPEC. Or-ganizing pitchers with professors also falls under her responsibil-ity, and Stringer hopes to make them themed next year and in-clude activities to create “a more interactive environment between students and professors.” She also

hopes to add more non-alcoholic options to the menu.

As for Brezin, for right now, she has three main goals she’s working toward: a food committee, foster-ing community at Eckerd and the ECOS website.

Brezin recently drew up a con-stitutional amendment and draft-ed the bylaws for what she’s calling the culinary relations committee. Pending senate approval, it will be a joint committee with adminis-tration and students. One of their first projects will be working on getting student input and feed-back for a 24-hour food vending machine.

To focus on what she deems “the community aspect of Eck-erd,” Brezin will continue with ECOS initiatives such as the Small Changes, Significant Impact cam-paign and work on bringing seat-ing to the areas outside the GO pavilion and around Kappa field as well as installing more mural space by Kappa and Nu. Brezin under-stands that to enhance commu-nity, there must be cooperation. “I want to focus on being a collabo-rator with Palmetto or other clubs on campus with events they want to throw, “she says. “That will en-hance our community.”

Finally, she wants to complete the new ECOS website. “I want it up and running so we can get all the minutes and scheduled meet-ings up,” said Brezin.

Women’s ResourceCenter becomes Female Empowerment SocietyBy Rachel BeckStaff writer

The Women’s Resource Cen-ter club has recently changed its name to the Women’s Empower-ment Society. Members of the stu-dent club decided to change the name for many reasons. “The name ‘Women’s Resource Center’ did not really say anything about our mis-sion statement or what we do,” says Senior Rebecca Cassidy, co-chair of the club.

“There have also been several discussions about how the name ‘Women’s Resource Center’ is not attractive to most male students ei-ther,” she explains.

In addition, there has been some confusion with the difference be-tween the Women’s Resource Cen-ter club (now the Women’s Em-powerment Society), the Women’s Resource Center building, and the faculty and staff committee known as the Women’s Resource Commit-tee.

Cassidy clears up the confusion between the three, which are simi-lar in name but distinctive in pur-pose.

First, the Woman’s Empower-ment Society is a club funded by ECOS that addresses topics such as sexual assault, feminism and women’s rights. One of their larg-est events is called Take Back the Night, which this year consisted of two weeks of activities ranging from CPS speakers to Breasts and Bagels, an event that promotes healthy body awareness.

“The student club meets every Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Women’s Resource Center office behind Fox Hall. We are also a fun bunch of awesome people if anyone wants to check us out,” says Cassidy.

The Women’s Resource Center office is a building in Fox Hall that is used for a variety of purposes. Many clubs hold meetings there, including the Women’s Empower-ment Society.

Some have suggested that the Women’s Resource Center office should change its name in order to honor the women’s rights activ-ist and former Eckerd Professor Margaret “Peg” Rigg, who passed away recently. The building would then be called “The Margaret Rigg Women’s Resource Center.”

There have been no solid plans to change the name so far, however.

Finally, the Women’s Resource Committee, established in 1965, promotes gender equality on cam-pus and is comprised of two faculty members, one student, one admin-istrator and one staff member. Pro-fessor Mary Meyer-McAleese is the current chair of the committee.

All are welcome to the meetings of the committee, which covers a variety of topics. “The committee’s purpose is to identify women’s is-sues on campus and beyond and raise awareness about these issues,” says Cassidy.

Both the committee and the Woman’s Empowerment Society work to promote gender equality at Eckerd. To get involved, contact Rebecca Cassidy.

successes of Small Changes, Significant ImpactBy Elizabeth TomaselliNews Editor

In its freshman year, the new ECOS campaign has proven to be an overwhelming success for both ECOS and the student body, using student feedback to create changes on campus.

The brainchild of outgoing ECOS President Stephen Bar-ber and Director of ECOS Pub-lic Relations Erik Brydges, the Small Changes, Significant Im-pact campaign uses ECOS mon-ey—namely the president’s—and sometimes funding from other executive council members, sen-ate and student affairs, to make changes on campus requested by students.

Ironically, the idea came to them while up late writing the ECOS column for The Current, thinking of ways they could re-connect ECOS and the student body. “Stephen and I were both very passionate about getting the regular student back involved with ECOS,” says Brydges.

“It really came from that homegrown idea of how can we motivate people?” Barber adds, “How can we get them excited and make these changes come from their ideas, make it their initiative?”

To gather student feedback, ECOS relied on social media to help start a conversation on campus. The campaign’s Face-book page, with 115 ‘likes,’ acts

as a discussion board for students to post ideas for small changes they would like to see. Some of those suggested, and actually implemented by the campaign, included new pool cues, new sand volleyball nets, a new ice machine in omega, new TV’s in the caf, re-cycling bins in the Nu parking lot and hammocks on South Beach.

However, both Barber and Brydges agree that the campaign wouldn’t have been as successful as it was without the help of the public relations graphic design team, Sophomore Vincent Lynch and Freshman Barbara del Castel-lo. Both were responsible for de-signing the posters all over cam-pus and on the Facebook page.

The successful campaign has been a win-win situation: stu-dents getting the changes they want, and ECOS creating a stron-ger bond with the student body. “Finally, people are seeing stu-dent government as useful and accessible,” says Brydges.

As for next year, Barber says, “It’d be good to see it continue because it’s been so successful. I’d really like to see it stay under the president’s responsibility.”

New ECOS President Rhemy Brezin has already said she plans to continue the campaign next year and Barber hopes that it will eventually evolve from small changes to a community change. “Hopefully, with each year, it can transition from a small, physical change into a conceptual, organi-zational change.”

photo by Alez Zielinksi(L-R) VPFA Brady O’Donnell, VPAA Erin Stringer, President Rhemzy Brezin, EVP Eliza van Dissel

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By Sarah MalhotraStaff Writer

As soon as you enter, palm tree landscapes and vibrant colors deluge your senses. Eclectic artwork featuring red-eyed tree frog portraits, metal sculptures of tropical fish, and painted sand dollars compliment the multitude of chairs, tables, and couches in various styles and patterns. Seventeen Frisbees adorn the wall, souvenirs of past ultimate matches. Wooden wind chimes and multicolored butterflies contribute to the island paradise experience. Exotic flavors of iced organic teas, including Blackberry Sage and Moroccan Mint, grace the menu, along with the more traditional

coffee favorites of cappuccino and Americano. This is Mocha Vida Café.

Jeff Sprinkmann, an EC alum from the class of ’98, opened the café a year ago.

“In Costa Rica I fell in love with the concept of how coffee shops are a place for people to get together. The community grows from a coffee shop. You have discourse, you’re talking, you’re outside of the box,” said Sprinkmann. “The coffee, the smells, it just brings back wonderful memories. I just wanted to capture that and bring it here.”

Sprinkmann came to Eckerd from a small town in Wisconsin on academic and tennis scholarships, to pursue the new environmental studies program.

After graduation, he worked with the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission as a scientist investigating environmental complaints. He later worked with the police department as an environmental investigator before spending five years at MacDill Air Force Base working in civil engineering and environmental flight.

In 2005, Sprinkmann joined a friend and went on an adventure of a lifetime to Costa Rica for the volcanoes, surfing, diving and Frisbee.

“My favorite place on the planet is underneath an active volcano shrouded in a rain forest with 200-foot waterfalls and hot springs,” Sprinkmann said, describing the location of a Frisbee tournament. “I fell in love with the Costa Rican rainforest.”

His love of Costa Rica and the unique coffee experience provided by the country prompted him to open his own café.

In Sprinkmann’s words, Mocha Vida Café is “local, eco-renaissance, and vibrant.” His goal is to create the perfect rainforest surf café where people can get together and appreciate local talent and work toward creating environmental and political change.

The third Thursday of every month brings Mocha Vida Manifesto, a chance for local artists to perform spoken word and poetry. Other distinctive nighttime attractions include open mic night on Tuesdays, cinema

night on Wednesdays and reggae and jazz band performances on Fridays. All poets, musicians, and artists featured are local.

Sprinkmann even employs current EC student Katherine Schaefer, who he claims has been instrumental in helping him keep his business alive.

Mocha Vida Café is a local business, which means it’s extremely difficult to survive past the first year. The café had help from organizations such as Keep St. Pete Local and St. Pete Small Business Center.

S p r i n k m a n n describes the effort of keeping the café open this long as the hardest personal challenge he’s ever had and compared his café to a young tree struggling to survive. “I like to think we’re young trees trying to get through the canopy. You’ve got to buy time, sunlight and water to get to that place where you can flourish.”

Recently, Sprinkmann had to introduce wine and beer into the menu to increase the café’s profits.

“People don’t come to a café to have four coffees. But they do come to have four beers and hang out and listen to music.”

The intimate atmosphere provides a different feeling from the regular, characterless, chain

coffee shops. Even the title of the café indicates how it is the only one of its kind.

“Mocha Vida” means “chocolate life,” which to Sprinkmann captures the spirit of living life to the fullest and seizing the day. His philosophy is that happiness is in the simple things.

This is evident when he recalls his favorite memories from EC: playing guitar on the shoreline, climbing the chapel and biking to the beach.

EC students are welcome to perform and show off their talent at Mocha Vida Café, located at 10468 Roosevelt Blvd. N. Gateway Crossings Plaza.

EC alum returns from Costa Rica, opens cafe

Sustaining St. PetersburgBy Devon WilliamsDirector of PR/Advertising

Sustainability isn’t a trend; it is a lifestyle change. Eckerd College is making the change by hiring the first ever Sustainability Fellow, creating clubs on campus like Students Against Plastic, Campus Sustainability Congress and supporting the Edible Peace Patch Garden.

Beyond the Eckerd bubble, the community of St. Petersburg has a lot to offer for students who are interested in exploring sustainability and having a positive impact on the environment.

Saturday Morning Market, MISRED Outfitters and Vita de Café are just three of the many business downtown as well as on the beach that run sustainably. This assortment includes a market to shop for products and produce, a place to shop for clothes and a restaurant illustrating how sustainability can be done from each angle.

Already a hot spot for Eckerd students, Saturday Morning Market is a great place to shop locally and sustainably. By supporting local businesses and bringing reusable shopping bags, students can cut out a lot of the unnecessary and unsustainable practices used by big, corporate grocery stores.

It is important to make sure you ask each vendor where they get the materials for their products, produce, etc. because not each station is local or organic. By

talking to the vendors, you’re not only researching what kind of organization you’re supporting but you’re also gaining a better understanding of where your food is coming from.

MISRED Outfitters, located on 615 Central Ave., is a self-described buy, sell, trade shop for cutting edge and vintage clothes. One of the ways Miss Red is a sustainable organization is due to the way they recycle and resell clothes.

Eckerd senior and MISRED employee, Lila Lupetin, says that in addition to being a great place to work, the sustainable aspect of the recreating and designing of the clothes is a great way to feel good about your wardrobe.

Located on St. Pete Beach, Vita de Café is a vegetarian, vegan and raw restaurant. With an “environmentally friendly” label, Vita de Café uses mostly organic produce and recycles everything. All of their paper and cleaning products are biodegradable

Kristy Williamson, the owner and manager, commented, “We make everything ourselves so we don’t buy any packaged products.” She went on to say that by being a vegan and raw restaurant they don’t use any meat, which in itself is a sustainable practice.

In addition to shopping at these local establishments, there are also simple ways to start living a more sustainable life. The point is to ditch excess plastic and preserve resources. Stop buying bottled

See Sustainable, page 7

photo by Angela TomassiniJeff Sprinkmann, Eckerd alum, shows off his cafe.

photo by Angela TomassiniJeff Sprinkmann serves a customer at Mocha Vida Cafe.

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Construction began in January. The group works on the boat every Friday from 9 to 11 a.m. behind Wallace Boathouse, where the boat is stored and beginning their mornings with donuts and coffee.

They’ve made quick work of things. The frame has already come together in a few short months, and the past few Friday sessions have been dedicated to spreading Epoxy.

“It’s making faster progress than I thought,” Chittick said. “We’re actually at a place to put it in the water by the beginning of next spring term.”

What’s left is finishing the Epoxy, applying fiberglass tape and decorating the boat, including

installing the dragon’s head at the front.

Chittick hopes to collaborate with Kirk Wang and Art Skinner, professors of visual arts, to find art students to decorate the boat with “coiling dragons, demon faces [and] scales,” Chittick said. Ideally, Chittick says, the student would take an independent study and get credit for taking on the major project.

For the head, the group isn’t sure if they will create their own or purchase one through a connection of Handcock’s in Tampa. Traditionally, it is taken to a temple to be blessed, bringing the boat alive, but in the absence of a temple, Chittick hopes to bring the boat alive another way: a fire jet in the dragon’s head.

“If we can do that in a way that won’t set the whole boat on fire, that’d be fun,” Chittick said.

Though the boat is well on its way to completion, Chittick stresses the need for a team of willing students, including a drummer, someone to steer and a coach. Students interested in becoming involved in any aspect of the process (from decorating to drumming) should contact Chittick directly at chittiab@eckerd.edu.

The group’s hope is that an Eckerd team will be able to participate in the 10th annual race in Tampa, with the big reveal at a launch party during the Chinese New Year.

“We’re hoping EC students will get into dragon boating,” Handcock said. “We’re in an excellent position to win races. This could be big for the college.”

Dragon boat sails to EC

2

1 3

4

5Professor Andrew Chittick speaks with students.

Chittick attaching the mold forms.

Applied Tech members laying the keel.

Applied Tech members attaching the gunwales.

Applied Tech member attaching the gunwales.

photos by Bill Stickley

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the currentMay 4, 2012 News6

The Current is a free biweekly student newspaper at Eckerd College. Offices are located upstairs in Cobb at 4200 54th Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL, 33711. Opinions expressed in this publica-tion are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of EC stu-dents, staff, faculty and administration.

The Current welomes letters to the ed-itor. Submissions should be typed and not exceed 400 words. Writers must include their full name, graduation year and contact number. Faculty and staff should include their title, department and contact number. All submissions are subject to editing for the purposes of clarity, style or length. The Current holds the right to reject any letters deemed inappropriate. Letters can be sent via email to thecurrent@eckerd.edu with subject “Letter to the editor.”------------------The Current will run full-length articles covering any arrests that pres-ent a clear danger to the community. Charges that would be investigated under this policy include robberies, assaults, weapons charges or illicit drug manufacturing, such as metham-phetamine. The Current will continue publishing a small police blotter for felony arrests, and misdemeanor charges against student goverment leaders, Residential Advisors and staff members of The Current. We learn of arrests through searching the police arrest database by entering Eckerd’s address, as well as from tips. Ques-tions and comments can be emailed to thecurrent@eckerd.edu.

News EditorElizabeth Tomaselli

currentnews@eckerd.eduAsst. News Editors

Malena CarolloJosh Keeler

Viewpoints EditorJeralyn Darling

currentviews@eckerd.eduAsst. Viewpoints Editor

Carver Elliot Lee

Entertainment EditorShelby Howell

currententertainment@eckerd.eduAsst. Entertainment Editor

Cait DuffyIan Lindsay

The Quickie EditorsHayden Johnson

Ely Grinfeld

Health & Fitness EditorJaclyn New

Asst. Health & Fitness EditorKelly CostonMike Geibel

Sports EditorLincoln Andres-Beck

currentsports@eckerd.eduAsst. Sports Editors

Will CreagerGreg Reiley

Photo EditorAlex Zielinski

Web EditorJohnny Jones

Asst. Web EditorsMike GeibelSeth Ravid

Web MasterShawn Craine

Graphic DesignersCarver Elliot Lee

Max MartinezAlex Zielinski

Faculty AdviserTracy Crow

Director of FinancesBeth Robinson

Director of PR/AdvertisingDevon Williams

currentads@eckerd.eduAsst. Director of PR/Advertising

Arielle Burger

ColumnistsSean Lawlor

Ethan PackeyEvan Bollier

Editor-in-ChiefAshley Daniels

thecurrent@eckerd.edu

Managing EditorMax Martinez

Police BlotterIan Lindsay, 19, was arrested April 20 and charged with one felony possession of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, one felony possession of Phenethylamines, one felony manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance and one felony possession of a schedule II controlled substance. He was also charged with a misdmeanor pos-session of a controlled substance and a misdemeanor possession of alcohol by a person under the age of 21, according to the VINE report. Lindsay was released on his own recognizance.

By Cait DuffyAsst. Entertainment Editor

The summer of 2012 is just around the corner, and with the intense Florida heat comes intense storms and hurricane season.

The Weather Channel released its hurricane forecast April 24, showing some favorable conditions for floridians. While only a preseason forecast, the Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30, a lower-than-average number of named storms are expected to form.

This season is expected to yield “11 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane wind scale).” While only slightly below the long-term average, the forecast shows a large decrease from the current active era, which is measured as the time between 1995 and now. The current active era average is 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes.

Hurricanes are measured and categorized by their wind strength and intensity at that point in time. Storms are named when they have a cyclone-like formation with sustained winds between 34 and 74 mph. These storms are referred to as Tropical Storms, and offer the same risks as an intensive lightning storm, such as torrential rains, frequent lightning strikes, flash floods, hail and destructive winds.

When winds are between 74 and 95 mph, it becomes a Category 1 Hurricane, signaling that there will be some damage caused by the storm.

Winds between 96 and 110 mph classify as Category 2, offering the threat of extensive damage to mobile homes, roofs and windows. A Category 3 guarantees some devastating damage with high risk of injury or death to people and livestock with winds between 111 and 129 mph.

Category 4 and Category 5 both guarantee catastrophic damage, with winds for a Category 4 hurricane landing between 130 and 156 mph, high storm surges flooding coastal areas, complete destruction of homes and businesses and power outages likely to last for weeks, if not months. If a Category 4 or 5 is headed your direction, it is most advisable to leave the area and seek refuge away from the storms predicted path.

More commonly experienced than hurricanes are severe summer thunderstorms. While not as threatening as their named cousins, flash-thunderstorms cane be just as dangerous.

Depending on the severity of the storm, heavy rainfall will typically last between 30 minutes and an hour, though it can last longer. In sever storms, these rains can be accompanied by gusts of wind that reach speeds of 58 mph or higher, as well as multiple lightning strikes within and surrounding the rain-soaked area.

If conditions become dangerous while on the road, you should slow your speed, turn on your headlights and your emergency flashers to alert other drivers of where you are. If visibility

becomes even more limited, it is advisable to pull over and wait for the storm to pass.

Most importantly, remember what the Weather Channel describes as the “30-30 rule.” If you are outdoors and see lightning, you should go indoors “if you cannot count to 30 before hearing thunder.” After you last hear thunder, wait another 30 minutes before returning outdoors.

Severe summer weather on the hori-zon: know your storms

photo by Daniel Paul Matthews IIILightning strikes outside Omega dorm.

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7May 4, 2012 the current News

Sustainable from page 4

photo found on google mapsMap of the St. Pete area where blue dots represent offenders, purple multiple offenders and red predators; white dot is Eckerd College

Sustainable options for every Eckerd student

By Devon WilliamsDirector of PR/Advertising

Hearing the feminist buzz on campus? It is not a recent development. Long before the Women’s Resource Center even existed, a group of female faculty got together and decided that the “where are the women” question should finally be answered at Eckerd.

In the 1970s, Professor Margaret Rigg created the Women’s Resources Committee. Considered an unofficial committee in the eyes of the administration until about 15 years ago, the group has made large strides to earn their place in the Eckerd community.

Professor Myer McAleese, the chair of the committee, expressed that their goal is “to promote the status of women in all forms that we can.”

This past fall, Women’s Resources Committee spent a lot of time working on the best practices for the Community Review Boards on sexual harassment and assault hearings. By working with Student Affairs, they were able to obtain online tutorials to ensure that Eckerd is up to the best practices nation wide on these kinds of cases.

McAleese noted that those are the initiatives that don’t always make the headlines but are of core importance to what the committee is all about.

The committee is made up of two faculty members who serve as either co-chairs or chair and vice-chair, one staff person, one administrator and one student. They meet once a month and their meetings are open to anyone who is interested in the representation “of all persons in the college community concerned with women’s interests and groups,” as stated in their by-laws.

When talking about the structure of the committee, McAleese commented, “I don’t think there are any other committees on campus quite like it that work so closely with students.”

The student-run Women’s Resource Center is actually a spin off from the faculty committee. Students were very heavily involved and wanted a way to throw more events in the theme of Take Back The Night. That is when they chartered as an official ECOS club so they could obtain a budget and create a stronger presence on campus. Rebecca Cassidy. Current president, serves as the liaison for the committee.

This year, the Women’s Resource Center worked with an $8,000 budget and support from the faculty committee, the president’s office and ECOS to bring big name feminist speakers, Ariel Levy and Jessica Valenti to campus.

McAleese and the committee hope to continue the close relationship with the Women’s Resource Center in addition to three major goals for the 2012 -2013 academic year, including: reaching out to more men on campus, enhancing the Women’s Resources Committee’s visibility by finishing the refurbishment to the physical center which will be renamed the Margaret Rigg center and continuing to work on issues of gender justice on campus and around the world.

Students, staff, faculty and administrators are encouraged to get involved with the Women’s Resources Committee and can begin by reaching out to students in the center or attending one of the committee’s monthly meetings.

Women’s Re-source faculty committee

Registered offenders living in St. PetersburgBy Kelly CostonAsst. H&F Editor

Sex offenders are closer than you think. The Florida Offender Alert System allows anyone to pull up a map sprinkled with dots that rep-resent sex offenders, predators and multiple offenders in their area.

The difference between an of-fender and a predator, according to Florida Statutes, is that a predator designation requires that a person be convicted of a first-degree felony sex crime, or two second-degree felony sex crimes. In addition, the court must issue a written order finding for predator status. Preda-tors should be feared more than offenders because they have been convicted of a capital, life or first- degree felony and also threaten greater danger than offenders.

Though there are less scattered directly around Eckerd’s campus, the city of St. Pete is saturated with dots. There are 333 registered sex offenders whose permanent address is located within a five-mile radius of campus. Most are one time sex

offenders, but there are about 25 predators and six multiple of-fenders listed on the map.

The Palace Mobile Home Park, also known as a “sex of-fender’s paradise,” located on 54th Ave. N, just off of I-275 is a place many offenders call home. A report by Rich Phillips of CNN found that 95 of the 200 residents of Palace were convict-ed sex offenders. “The adults-on-ly, nondescript, low-income trail-er park in St. Petersburg, Fla., has gained a reputation among sex offenders on probation as a good place to live and stay out of trouble,” Phillips wrote in his article.

Freshman Kelsey Taber was sur-prised by the amount of offenders in the area. “I had no idea there were so many,” Taber said. “I will definitely be more cautious when I’m downtown after learning that.”

Florida law requires all sexual offenders and sexual predators to register their address with the Florida Department of Law En-forcement or the local sheriff ’s of-

fice. If a victim of the offense was less than 16 years-old, the offender cannot reside within 1,000 feet of any school, day care center, park or playground according to Florida Statute 794.065. A map of these of-fenders can be easily accessed by typing in your city or zip code.

The Jacob Wetterling Act, the law requiring states to register sex offenders registered of sex crimes against children, states that it is necessary because sex offenders

pose a high risk of re-offending af-ter release from custody. Protecting the public from sex offenders is a primary governmental interest as well, and the privacy interests of persons convicted of sex offenses are less important than the govern-ment’s interest in public safety.

Steer clear of danger and search the Florida Department of Law En-forcement website at offender.fdle.state.fl.us for registered predators or offenders near you.

water. Living the full Eckerd lifestyle means that the average student is involved in multiple outdoor activities. Eckerdians understand the importance of staying hydrated. Skip the multi-pack of waters at Wal-Mart and invest in a reusable plastic or aluminum water bottle.

Often times, students don’t have to buy one because between Palmetto Productions, Campus Activities and ECOS, they are given away at multiple events.

Students can also bring their own reusable cup to the pub and caf. It can be tempting to grab a plastic to go cup at the pub or caf when the new class schedule allots a limited amount of time for lunch. Don’t

do it. When preparing for the day,

throw a reusable cup from your dorm in your backpack and use it throughout the day. If you don’t have one, free reusable cups are given away in the ECOS office to support the “put it in a cup” campaign.

The idea of recycling and reusing is very important when transitioning

to a more sustainable way of living. Instead of contributing to problem of excess plastic that can’t break down, bringing a personal reusable shopping bag is an easy way for a college student to make a positive impact.

With all of these resources in St. Pete, there are plenty of opportunities for students to explore a more sustainable lifestyle.

By Jeralyn DarlingViewpoints Editor

Dr. Jewel Spears Brooker will retire at the end of the semester after more than 30 years at Eckerd College. Professor Brooker cur-rently serves as Professor Emerita of Literature and is teaching three final literature classes this semester: British Short Story, Literature and Art of the Great War and T.S. El-iot’s Poetry and Prose.

Professor Brooker has held visit-ing professorships or appointments at Cambridge, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Columbia, Harvard, Colorado School of Mines, Yale and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, as well as the T. S. Eliot In-ternational Summer School in Lon-don.

She is an Honorary Member of the T.S. Eliot Societies of the United States and South Korea, earned the Distinguished Humani-ties Graduate Award in 2010 from University of South Florida where she earned her doctorate in English in 1976. She also earned the Lloyd Chapin Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2003, the Distin-guished Service Award from the T. S. Eliot Society in 2002, and the

Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teach-ing Excellence and Campus Leader-ship Award in 1990 among dozens of other awards, fellowships and grants.

She is currently the Chair of the International Association of Uni-versity Professors of English, Ex-ecutive Committee and has been a member, chair or president of many other committees, councils and as-sociations including her Richard Wilbur Society presidency from 1996-2004 and her T. S. Eliot Soci-ety presidency from 1985-88.

During her time at Eckerd, be-ginning in 1981, Professor Brooker has served on many committees on campus, including the Academic Standards Committee, Educa-tional Policy and Programs, Faculty Searches, Institutional Self-Study and General Education Curricu-lum Revision. She also served for four years as Chair of the Faculty Liaison Committee for the Eckerd Academy of Senior Professionals.

She has written more than 100 essays and reviews, which have been published in books, scholarly journals, and read at lectures and conferences.

Professor Brooker has traveled to Switzerland, Japan, the Republic

of Malta, Canada, Germany, Greece and Italy among other countries to spread her research of T.S. Eliot.

“More than just an intellectual and professional bea-con, Dr. Brooker has also been my mentor and friend. She has supported me tirelessly—academically and otherwise,” said Sarah Partin (’12), Professor Brook-er’s Ford Scholar. “I feel blessed to have forged the type of close relationship with Dr. Brooker that most students only dream of. Truly, it has been my relationship with Dr. Brooker that has made and will continue to make a significant im-pact on my academic career. I am more grateful to her than words can express, as are, I am sure, many of her other students. It is cer-tainly sad to see her leave Eckerd (although I am eager to study her future scholarship), because I know that there are generations of stu-dents that could benefit, as I have, from her unparalleled guidance and wisdom.” Partin will be speaking at Professor Brooker’s retirement din-

ner. Among all of her many accolades,

Brooker has touched hundreds of students and scholars around the world. Eckerd College was blessed to have her as a professor, leader and mentor.

As for her future endeavors, Brooker has been invited on several lecture tours around the world fol-lowing her departure from Eckerd and has been offered several scholar in residence positions. She has nine published or soon to be published books, which she has authored and/or edited.

Her most recent task is editing several volumes of Eliot’s prose, the first of which was unveiled this year. She will also be writing anoth-er book on Eliot and writing a book on Katherine Ann Porter.

Prof. emeritus of literature re-tires after 30 years at Eckerd

courtesy of Eckerd CollegeDr. Jewel Spears Brooker.

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the currentMay 4, 2012 News8

ECOS 2012-13 budget pending senate approval, posted outside ECOS April 27. ECOS 2012-13 budget approved by senate April 30.

Budget allocation process deemed unconstitutionalAllocation from front cover

Ashley Daniels, Max Martinez, Malena Carollo, Cait Duffy and Ian Lindsay contributed to this article.

budget. “[He] came back later on in the afternoon and had a completely revised budget.”

Among the clubs that re-chartered, yet failed to show up for an allocation meeting, was the Afro-American Society. Though other clubs are in the same position, Aldridge confirms that approximately $14,000 has now been set-aside for the Afro-American Society for next year. The club’s involvement in hosting CPS and “academically affiliated” events has made its situation unique, according to Aldridge.

Outgoing ECOS President Stephen Barber agrees. “Not supporting Afro-American Society, that’s more political just because of the history of the organization and because of everything they do on campus. That’s something that couldn’t be overlooked.”

According to the ECOS constitution Article IV, Section 401, Number 12, the allocation budget proposed by ECOS must be posted for 48 hours for the student body to review before it can be voted on by senate. The initial proposed allocations were posted sometime on April 27. The changes made exclusively by Aldridge, however, were done on April 30 and voted on the same day, violating the 48-hour rule.

The fact that Aldridge created the new budget without a meeting of the financial affairs committee also violates Article IV, Section 401, Numbers 6 and 10, which state that the vice president of financial affairs will only have a vote on budget proceedings in the case of a tie, and that the committee shall allocate funds. Since the financial affairs committee was not given the new budget for review or voting, the budget given to senate April 30 was not in keeping with ECOS constitutional standards.

Additionally, at budget meetings, the ECOS constitution requires that a majority of the

financial affairs committee—in this case, five of the nine members, including at least one senator—must be present for any voting to take place.

Presently, there is only one senator on the committee, Senior Brett Thompson. According to outgoing Parliamentarian Derek Kelly, Thompson would have had to be present at each allocation meeting to make quorum. Thompson was not present at The Current’s April 24 budget allocation meeting, and may have missed others, according to sources.

Brezin claims in her emailed response, “For budget allocation meetings, the Financial Affairs Committee does not need quorum to hear club’s budget defense; they only need quorum, including a member from the ECOS Student Senate, for the actual voting to approve the allocated amounts of money that clubs received.”

However, according to Aldridge, “We try to decide after each [budget meeting].” The ECOS constitution, under Article IV, Section 401, Number 7, states, “A quorum of the majority of the committee’s full membership, to include at least one senator, must be present for any voting to take place.”

Here, the constitution does not explicitly define what “any voting” could be. For further clarification, a formal complaint surrounding the unconstitutional and unclear budget allocation process may be filed with the incoming ECOS parliamentarian. The new parliamentarian can be reached at ecospmtn@eckerd.edu.

As stated in Article IV, Section 402, the parliamentarian’s constitution, regulations, and bylaws committee, of which he/she chairs, would then review the case and provide further clarification of the constitution as well as a decision to be filed for future ECOS reference.

7:00-7:20 p.m. Jamal Dutton

7:25-7:45 p.m. Abigail Gardner

7:50-8:10 p.m. David Steren

8:15-8:35 p.m. Elliot McDaniel

8:45-9:05 p.m. The Moyles

9:10-9:30 p.m. Ivan Power-Kronick

9:40-10:00 p.m. Matt Squared

10:10-10:30 p.m. The Leather Muppets

10:35-10:55 p.m. Hans Hamann

11:00-11:20 p.m. Corbin Hayes

11:30 Have Gun Will Travel

Other fun things to do:

-eat a funnel cake

-make a dog tag

-ride rides

-play games

-eat some food

-enjoy the full beverage service

-have a great time at the biggest party of the year

Kappa Karnival music lineup

CViewpoints9April 20, 2012 the current Viewpoints

Visit us online at www.theonlinecurrent.comCVisit us online at www.theonlinecurrent.comC

INSIDE Viewpoints

It’s Sean and Ethan’s last time to battle it out. This time they’re talking about the value of a liberal arts education

MBFGC:A year of transparency

comes to a close as Max concludes his senior column

page 10

Friendly Fire:

page 12

Augusta National Club: The host of the Masters Tournament should let women join club

photo courtesy of Wikicommons Israel is highlighted in red.

By Greg ReillyAsst. Sports Editor

Every year when the Masters Tournament rolls around, it comes with great fanfare and its share of controversy.

Augusta National, the club that has hosted and run the Masters for all 76 years of the tournament, does not allow women to be members. In fact, women aren’t even allowed on the property for the other 51 weeks of the year when the Masters isn’t being played.

While Augusta is a private orga-nization and can let in whomever they want, it is time the club opens its doors to women.

Augusta has traditionally invited the CEO of IBM, one the tourna-ment’s title sponsors, to be a mem-ber. But it just so happens that the new CEO at IBM, Virginia Rom-etty, is a woman. Could the found-ing fathers of golf ’s biggest event seen this coming? Never, just like they never thought they would let blacks into their club either. Some guy named Tiger Woods ruined that for them.

Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne, along with his posse of rich, southern white men standing in their signature green jackets, needs

to wake up and realize this isn’t 1930 anymore. Not only do women work (in Rometty’s case, men work for her), they play golf too. I realize it may be a hard concept to grasp, but we are in the 21st century. It is time the “tradition unlike any oth-er” gets tweaked a little bit.

If you watched the Masters, each day you saw Joe Ford, vice chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, stand up in front of the camera and talk about how the club continues to grow the game.

How much can it grow the game if 51 percent of the population can’t play there? Perhaps they should pay attention to the IBM commercials about how bad Americans are at math.

But would Rometty even want to join? It might be a little awkward being the only women member, and I can only imagine the number of “looks” she would get. The “look” is when a member looks at you like “what the hell are you doing here?” It’s the same look Tiger Woods got when he was traveling around the country with his father to play, and the same look my mother and I get when we go out to play on a Sunday morning.

My mom is the only female mem-ber at our club in Connecticut. For some reason, the men think that they own the course on the week-end because they have been slaving

away in the office all week; women should only play after them. Not only does my mom, who is also the CEO of a company (almost as big as IBM, but not quite), work harder than them, she can beat 90 percent of them on the course.

I don’t know how good Rometty plays, but if she made it all the way to the top of IBM, I think she has the work ethic to pick up golf quick enough to keep up at Augusta.

Yes Mr. Payne, Rometty works. A lot harder than you do. And she could make your job a lot more work by yanking the IBM signs from your tournament, leaving you without a sponsor and the future of your tournament in jeopardy.

The future of the golf business is in question, just like everything else in America. If golf popularity is going to increase, women need to be targeted. And the message that needs to be sent is that if they work hard enough, they too could com-pete on the best golf course in the nation.

Augusta isn’t the only men’s-only club, but it is the face of American golf. Like it or not, they are re-sponsible for the perception of the game, and the perception they cre-ate is that golf is a game played by rich, white men.

Only Augusta can change that, but they had better do it soon, or the future of the game looks bleak.

By Gabe Stanberry Contributing Writer

When I heard the news about Romney hiring openly gay foreign policy spokesman Richard Grenell, I could not help but imagine how much of a childish temper tan-trum the religious right would have thrown if Bush had attempted this even as recently as the 2004 race. And to be fair there are plenty of “family values” spokesmen who are giving Romney a hard enough time for this move. Many of the hard line social conservatives are resorting back to their earlier rhetoric of how Romney must not be a true conser-vative.

As usual, they are attempting to define conservatism as an ideology that’s main focus is being anti-gay. As usual, to them it doesn’t matter how good someone is on the job; if he’s gay, he’s not qualified. But on the bright side, even though there are a significant number of conser-vatives who’d still rather have their bigotry than a coherent ideology, the overall trend of American con-servatism seems to have moved in a direction that is more open to ho-mosexuality.

Over the course of the election, Romney’s viewpoints on gay mar-riage have shifted significantly. In the beginning of the election I actu-ally thought Romney was a decent choice because he seemed more concerned with fiscal conservative issues over issues like family values. As a libertarian, I found most of his free market ideas pleasing and was quite glad that at the very least so-cial conservative issues were not at the top of his agenda.

However, once I actually heard him vocalize his position on gay marriage, I was not quite sure what to think. In one of the early presi-dential debates he stated that he was against discrimination toward homosexuals but he thought mar-riage should be between a man and a woman. Now, to be fair, this is a tremendous improvement from previous Republican elections when the party was not only against equality in marriage but even the more moderate candidates seemed to feel the need to encourage dis-

crimination as a way to have a scapegoat for all the nation’s prob-lems.

However, Romney’s view at that time to me sounded a lot like say-ing, “I’m against discrimination of black people but I think marriage should be between a white man and a white woman or between a black man and a black woman.” Not to mention that the only type of dis-crimination that the government should be concerned with when it comes to homosexuality is in mar-riage. But I still have to be optimis-tic and admit that this is tremen-dous progress in that it appears to be much less acceptable in this country to run on bigotry as a plat-form. But since I had significant confidence that Romney would not care more than Bush about banning gay marriage and do nothing about the issue, like any of the other can-didates, this did not overshadow the fact that I liked many of his economic ideas.

But once Santorum started catching up to Romney in the race he suddenly decided that he need-ed to eat up the social conserva-tive base of the party and started pretending to care more about the Christian stuff. I was then left feel-ing that all the candidates, aside from Ron Paul, would just be more of the same. But now Romney has decided to at least be open-minded enough to let a gay man be his for-eign policy spokesperson.

This doesn’t just have to be a positive victory for gay rights ad-vocates. This could be a positive turn for the Republican party as well. With a growing number of independents in this country, it has become more essential then ever that the party have an appeal to a broader group then just the evangelical Christians. Now that Republicans have realized that just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you can’t give a presidential candi-

Positive appoint-ment marks change for GOP

Seniors say farewell to Eckerd

See GRenell, page 12photo courtesy of Eckerdtritons.com

The women’s golf team earlier this year. Because of Augusta National’s rules these ladies would not be allowed to play.

“Women aren’t even allowed on the property”

photo courtesy Richard Grennell TwitterRichard Grenell, Romeny’s foreign policy spokesman.

photo by Alex Zielinski From left, Shelby Howell, Shawn Craine, Lincoln Andres-Beck, Johnny Jones, Max Martinez and Ashley Daniels, the seniors of The Current staff.

This experiment in transparency needs to end; 650 words to free-dom.

Although as far as experiments go, this column has proved to be more interesting than most of mid-dle school science. Taking a rela-tively unexplored piece of who you are and writing extemporaneously about it publicly is, well, nerve wracking as all hell.

But I’d be dishonest if I said writ-ing My Big Fat Gay Column hasn’t changed me, and there’s this part of transparency that calls for honesty.

Research for columns that never got written led me to some of the strangest experiences from senior year. I’ve interviewed married men, high schoolers and a Division 1 foot-ball player, all of whom are deeper in the closet than I’ve been in years. They’ve reminded me to take stock of my progress, and to remember it’s not over for everyone.

On a related note, this year showed me how easy I have it at Eckerd; if you’re going to come out anywhere, it might as well be here.

I drink less, in volume and fre-quency, and my desire to push the envelope in terms of experimenta-tion is waning quickly, so much so that I feel like an old man compared to other seniors. I never considered my choices to be overwhelmingly negative or harmful; they were, ei-ther directly or indirectly, catalysts in my development as a person and should be respected as such.

But it doesn’t take a vow of trans-parency to get me to admit my rec-reational activities were fueled by the stress of being in the closet. Re-search shows LGBT teens are twice as likely as straight peers to use and abuse substances, an anecdote etched into my consciousness (and the front page of my only Five Star notebook) in sophomore year. With that stress gone, I’m not as eager to make every Friday and Saturday night, well, like most of my Friday and Saturday nights.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, the gay blog Queerty has surpassed the pot blog Toke of the Town on my Internet browser’s frequently vis-ited websites (added transparency: nearly every column this year can be traced back to a Queerty post). What this ranking shift really sig-nifies is a changing of the guard in terms of my political self, with my interest in drug policy taking a backseat to the gay rights move-ment.

But this year of transparency wouldn’t be complete without one final admission: I’m straight.

No, wait, that wasn’t it. What I meant to say is that I

can’t wait for this column to be over, not because I don’t like trans-parency but because I have nothing left to say. I’ve grown so used to be-ing ungodly transparent that I’ve begun volunteering far more infor-mation than most people ask for. I don’t try to hide a damn thing, re-gardless of whether it has anything to do with my sexuality.

But when there’s nothing left inside waiting to be put on paper (or a Word document), it’s time to put down the pen (or wireless key-board). So when this article con-cludes in roughly 200 words, it will be a timely end.

In the first edition of My Big Fat Gay Column, I attempted to com-pare my situation to America’s re-garding gay rights: fully conscious of our LGBT identity but divided on how to integrate it.

Surprisingly, I think we’ve pro-gressed together this year. As the military ended its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, I ended mine, with plenty more asking and telling than I was used to.

And while America moves to-ward full integration, with the pos-sible repeal of the Defense of Mar-riage Act and the continued success of Modern Family, so too do I, with purple v-necks and a senior comps paper on “Will & Grace.”

And to make my departure even easier, I don’t even have to worry about what Eckerd will be like without a gay ginger guy. Somehow, at a school with only 749 men, when only two percent of people have red hair and roughly four percent are gay, there managed to be two of us.

Only at Eckerd.

The end of an experimentMy big fat gay column

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the currentApril 20, 2012 Viewpoints10

By Max Martinez Managing

Editor

Q: Seniors, what has been your favorite thing about your past four years at Eckerd College?

“I’ve done four spring break ser-vice learning trips and they’re the highlight of my college career.”

- Doug Robinson

“My favorite thing about Eckerd is that you’re encouraged to study abroad. Some of my best memories are from 35 Gower Street in Lon-don.”

- Amanda Walton

“The entire Eckerd community. Every aspect of Eckerd that I’ve experienced has been in-credibly positive. Oh and rugby.”

- Padraic Fitzgerald

“I like that professors outside of my major are also willing to bend over backwards and do anything for their students, even if they’re

in a different major.”

- Kelly Henry

photos by Carver Elliott Lee

perspECtives

Ashley DAnielsEditor-in-Chief

West Chester, PennsylvaniaCommunications Major

I have never liked the letter Q. It started in second grade when my teacher, Ms.

Quigley told me, “Now, Ashley,” pointing at me but re-ally at the ground because of the crooked bend she had in her index finger. “What am I supposed to do with this type of work?”

She was referring to a paper I had handed in on a sub-ject that I forced myself to forget. Honestly, the only thing I remember writing, or learning about in second grade was dinosaurs. Every night, I had nightmares.

A mere three years later, Ms. Quale asked the same question. But this time instead of an index finger dis-tracting me, it was her rat-tail peaking around her neck.

Back then, math was my subject, so being a poor writer didn’t really affect me until Ms. Quale enrolled me in a special reading class that took me away from my classmates and into a room the size of the old Cur-rent office, a shoebox. The worst part? I was the only girl.

After a few weeks of the “special class” I started to become embarrassed, thinking something must be wrong with me. I remember saying to myself, “my writ-ing must be that bad.” Let’s just say that class didn’t help.

Throughout middle school and high school I worked

on my writing but never really got it. Even during my senior year, my English teacher told me that my weak-ness was writing. I had all these great ideas; I just could not get them to translate on paper, oh, and my gram-mar was terrible.

Why am I telling you all this? I’m not really sure other than it’s a part of the journey of how I got here, editor-in-chief. Believe me, I’m as shocked as you are.

The Current has allowed me the chance to finally “get it.” Journalism is my style of writing. It’s a style that gives you structure, yet the ability to be yourself. Journalism, or should I say, Tracy Crow during Journal-ism I, taught me to never fear the blank page. Some days you just need the inverted pyramid.

Over the past three years, we have built a qual-ity newspaper that questions everything, tests us and pushes the limits. A newspaper I’m so proud to have been a part of.

Graduation, moving on, it’s a bittersweet feeling. The unknown is exciting, but I’m not ready to say goodbye to The Current, to my editors, to my writers, to my ad-viser. I’m not ready to say goodbye to an organization that has been the best experience of my life. Yes, even with the stress, early mornings, misunderstandings and debates. I’m not ready to say goodbye. So I won’t. I will say thank you and I’ll see ya later, Current.

See ya later, EC

shelby howellEntertainment Editor

Roberts, WisconsinAnthropology Major

Life is full of choices. A choice that seems insignificant at the time can end up evolving into something far greater than you could ever imagine.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. Short version of this story, I made a random choice to check out the school newspaper and it ended up completely chang-ing the direction my life was head-ed.

But I’ve been told I need to make this 450 words, so I’ll give you the long version. I actually first came to The Current without any previ-ous journalistic experience. I never watched the news, and I was a busi-ness major with a bit of a stigma against writing. Actually, as I re-member all this, I’m not sure why my past self thought it would be a good idea to check out The Cur-rent. I’m sure I had some reason.

I arrived to my first staff meet-

ing just wanting to check out the situation and was utterly terrified by what I found. I didn’t know anybody and they kept using ter-minology that I didn’t recognise like “layout” and “InDesign.” To make matters worse, people kept asking my opinion or my ideas, like they bizarrely thought I might have something worthwhile to contrib-ute to the conversation.

Here’s the first thing you need to know about me. When I’m in-timidated by a situation, my first instinct is to make sure absolutely no one knows I’m intimidated. So what did I do? Instead of following my original plan of sitting quietly, taking a few notes and getting a feel for the environment, I volunteered to write an article. I couldn’t even make it easy on myself and do a

fluffy movie review piece. No, I vol-unteered for a news article about banking and the current economic situation.

I know just enough about bank-ing to set up an account and cash a check, and I know even less about the economic situation of any time period. But being the shameless over-achiever that I am, I dove in head first. For that little 500-word piece, I interviewed three profes-sors and five students, surveyed my entire finance class and read several issues of The Wall Street Journal. After all that work, there really was no way I was turning back.

Almost three years later, I’ve be-come editor of my beloved enter-tainment section. I’ve worked with some of the finest people who can make me laugh no matter the situ-ation. I’ve learned not to fear the blank page and publishing is now one of the most exciting aspects of my future anthropological career. And 50 years from now, when I’m looking back on my time at Eckerd, there is not a doubt in my mind that my strongest and most pre-cious memories will be about my time with The Current.

My most precious memories at Eckerd

#AmusingMusings

11April 20, 2012 the current Viewpoints

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Physics ProfessorDid I lie to you?....Prob-ably. You’ll get over it. #RulesOfPhysics

Political Science Pro-fessorLady Gaga? I’ve secretly got two of her records.#PopCulture

Political Science Pro-fessorIn my day, drinking formaldyhyde strength-ened the weekend.#WeekendActivities

Physics Professor If a guy with a gun came in here, I’d just pull out my gun and shoot him. I’d have to. It’s florida law. #StandYourGround

Physics Professor I wish I knew the hippie guy’s name, but I don’t, so I just like to call him Clyde. #YouTubeProfessorswww.youtube.com/watch?v=9kkARcvTWsE

Creative Writing Pro-fessor But that’s a bad word! #InappropriateConvos

Sitting in class and your professor says something funny? Tweet it to @TheECCurrent and include the hashtag #AmusingMusings

Words to live by: “let’s go”

Senior editors say goodbye

lincoln AnDres-beckSports Editor

Grants Pass, OregonCommunications Major

During my time at Eckerd Col-lege, I have run the gauntlet of the sporting world for the Tritons. I started out as a member of the Tri-tons as both a soccer goalie and a tennis player before a meniscus tear ended my athletic aspirations.

I moved on to doing commentary for both soccer teams, color com-mentary for volleyball and doing commentary for basketball, first just women’s then moving on to both men’s and women’s my junior year before being replaced on basketball this year by Eckerd Alumnus Nick Agress.

The Current has been a part of my time at Eckerd College whether I wanted it to be or not. Starting freshman year, my roommate Max Martinez was involved so I heard all about the troubles of the Triton and as we moved on, I became involved right after the shift to The Current as a sports writer who turned assis-tant sports editor who, by default, became the sports editor in this, my senior year, after returning from a se-mester abroad in London.

To me, Eckerd has become a fam-ily that surrounds school in the last four years, what we have done to-gether, gone through together, expe-rienced together, creates a bond that being classmates and fellow alumni of an academic institution does not cover.

My teammates on the soccer team and I bonded to the point of being

brothers. The people I have lived with have a bond that is greater than just being forced to listen to one an-other’s taste in music through the thin walls and ventilation systems of traditional dorms.

Finally, The Current editors, who have gone through more than any other group with me in the last two years (aside from my girlfriend Ra-chel) I would be proud to call them family. The bond runs as deep as those with any friends I will ever have.

The late nights of layouts with chocolate, inappropriate jokes and giggles have become the norm every other Monday. Our trip to Orlando for the ACP convention cemented the bond between us more fully than I could have imagined.

Our wonderful adviser Tracy Crow has become like a parent to me in the journey of being an editor.

Together, our team is as strong as I could imagine any college newspaper editorial staff being, as creative as any group of students as I have seen at Eckerd and as strong a group as I have ever had the pleasure of being a part.

If I had to sum up the feeling of coming to Eckerd in one sentence I would do it simply.

Once a Triton, always a Triton. Pe-riod!

shAwn crAineWeb Master

Port Orange, FloridaComputer Science Major

The culmination of three years working with The Current as web master has provided me the opportu-nity to contribute to a team of dedi-cated and extraordinarily enthusias-tic colleagues. When I was recruited freshman year, Tracy Crow presented me with the idea of constructing an online version of Eckerd College’s rapidly emergening student newspa-per.

With the help of our entire staff and specifically our web team, in-cluding Johnny Jones, Max Marti-nez, Seth Ravid, Mike Geibel and I we were able to develop not only an online presence for our print edition but also a medium of extensibility. Through this extension of the news-paper, we were able to offer students, alums, family and friends a place to connect and receive important and interesting breaking news through theonlinecurrent.com. Having a committed online team allowed us to capture the exponentially grow-ing audiences of Facebook and Twit-ter by regularly dispatching engaging material to all of our followers.

After an award worthy effort spread among the shoulders of our entire team, we prevailed to become nationally recognized as an ACP On-line Pacemaker finalist; during this time we were invited as a group to attend the ACP/CMA National Col-lege Media Convention in Orlando, Fla., where I became considerably closer with the inner workings of the newspaper and those who participate

continually to guarantee its success. The experience given to me by par-

taking in this “club” is irrevocably the most pertinent real-word experience I gained while at Eckerd College. I was rewarded with praise of worthy work and was criticized when my work was not up to par; but whether compliment or suggestion, the entire time I was supported by my peers to recognize my weaknesses and excel through my strengths.

This persistent backing was my motivation in further developing a foothold in the strategic planning of features to implement in future re-leases of The Current’s related online media website. Democratically and very openly I was given the chance to propose my thoughts and help make decisions and manage the addition of website features and appearance.

Many times, I found myself unex-plainably committed to a certain task or project; I found myself committed to the commitment shown by others and I was fueled by the ability to sup-port a vision that encompassed the dreams of an entire unit.

I am beyond proud to have con-tributed to The Current staff ’s vision of dominance among other nation-ally recognized college newspapers. I only ask that all future staffers commit themselves even more than I have, as now when I reflect upon these past years…the return has been amazing.

Johnny JonesWeb Editor

Seattle, WashingtonTheater Major

“Let’s go.” My high school English teacher Tom Doelger always uttered this phrase on the first and last days of his Modernism class-es. As I have grown, the significance of these two words has changed. In middle school, it meant “get out of bed, Johnny, you’re going to make carpool late…again.” Mr. Doelger’s class made me ponder its philosophical im-portance.

During my freshman year at Eckerd, “LET’S GOOOOO!” became the trademark greeting my friends and I howled across cam-pus to get each other riled up.

When people ask me if I’m a senior, I usu-ally respond, “unfortunately.” My experience at Eckerd has been so enjoyable, fulfilling and all around amazing that I don’t want to leave this magical little bubble. Yet entering the “real world” is unavoidable.

All good things must come to an end, and as my final term at this school fades into his-tory, I often feel like I’m sinking in quicksand. I’m stuck on a slow descent into a daunting unknown, so it’s better to simply enjoy my remaining time than to struggle against the inevitable.

Sometimes I fantasize about not graduat-ing. I imagine a utopian paradise of continu-ous charge-free winter term classes. They say you should be careful what you wish for, but I almost wish I could allow myself to fail. Al-most.

In an attempt to impart the knowledge I have gained to future Tritons, I really only

have one piece of advice: don’t complain. I’ll say it again so you know I mean it. Don’t complain.

This might seem like an absurd request to some, but I’m serious. Too often, Eckerd kids grumble about minor inconveniences. Our campus has a flawless white sand beach, free community bikes, a diverse assortment of wildlife, a flexible faculty and a couple of incredibly understanding deans. Most of the world is not so lucky.

Complaining is certainly a human condi-tion (I have to acknowledge a certain degree of hypocrisy here), but it shouldn’t be an ex-cuse to adopt a negative outlook on life.

I lost my friend Nate Mosby this year. Fac-ing that loss was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But being the eternal optimist that I am, I tried to take something positive away from the experience. Nate squeezed more out of his short life than most people ever do. Now, I feel like “let’s go” encapsulates the es-sence of Nate’s bouncing vitality.

So the next time you open your mouth to whine about the Internet being a little slow or your order at the Pub taking a few extra minutes, remember the less fortunate.

Appreciate what you have when you have it because it’s going to be gone before you know it. “Let’s go.”

MAx MArtinezManaging Editor

Wilmington, DelawareCommunications Major

Two weekends ago, fellow seniors Alec Ogg and Lila Lupetin stood on stage in Miller Auditorium and said their solemn goodbyes at Another Man’s Trash’s final show of the school year.

But not a word they spoke could be heard over the crowd’s cheers. As Ogg and Lupe-tin read off scripts, the rest of AMT paraded across stage with large poster-board signs, introducing the newest members of our be-loved improv comedy group.

The fact that I use “beloved” and “improv comedy” in the same sentence is notable; it’s not a medium I typically find enjoyable, a sentiment many share in regards to print media and newspapers. But AMT has made a fan out of me with their incredible on-stage chemistry and uncensored, R-rated humor. If I could print here what they say there, I’d be the happiest editor on earth.

As the newest AMT jokesters were shown off to the so-packed-even-the-floor-was-crowded audience, the decibel level rose and fell like a Zeta Beach tide. Ogg and Lupetin continued their drowned-out goodbyes at the forefront of the stage.

I sat in the second to last row, a cup of coffee spiked with Kahlua resting in my lap, and all I could think about was how in a few days I’d be forced to say my own goodbye, and how I had no idea what I would say, and how no matter what I said, my words would be lost in a matter of hours after publication,

filed into our archives amongst thousands of other anecdotes from our 54-year history.

It’s then that I realized how Ogg and Lu-petin had already figured it all out; maybe not consciously, but they figured it out nonethe-less. Their silent goodbye, covered up by the roar of excitement for another generation of AMT, was all a departing senior could do. We shout at the top of our lungs, squeezing out every last breath of appreciation, nostalgia and sheer joy before May 20, only to be out-done by those with more time left.

Ogg and Lupetin, for as long as I’ve been here (and in my goodbye column, that’s all the time that counts), have been the face and lifeblood of AMT. I haven’t been to a show where they didn’t perform.

But in three years, maybe less, their time at the helm of AMT will be an afterthought, as will be my time with The Current. Such is life for any Eckerd student, destined to anonym-ity within a couple years of graduation unless you a) pay for a new building on campus or b) get a job with Campus Activities.

The significance of my goodbye is negligi-ble, my legacy nameless. The Current is The Current, and while I’ll always think of her as my baby, she belongs to Eckerd now. Please, take good care of her, and she’ll take good care of you.

A negligible farewell

Chocolate and giggles Committed to commitment

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the currentApril 20, 2012 Viewpoints12

Grenell from page 9

Additionally, there is a huge double standard that is being ignored here: women are just as, if not guiltier of looking at men as sexual objects; they just do it in different ways. Instead of going to a strip club they sit around and go on and on about how hot Edward Cullen is. The habit of viewing the opposite sex in such ways is not a cultural issue, it’s a biological issue, and it’s something we cannot completely remove because it’s in the way we’re wired as humans. I do think we can tone it down a bit in regards to the talk about how “hot” someone is, but that applies to both men and women.

There’s been a lot of talk about feminism on campus lately with Take Back the (fort)Night and guest speakers Jessica Valenti and Ariel Levy. Personally, I would consider my-self a feminist. I highly believe in the idea that everyone should at least be given equal rights no matter if they are male, female, gay, straight, bi-sexual, black, white, Hispanic or whatever. It’s 2012, about 50 years since the 1960s movement many are familiar with, and women still only get paid 77 cents to every dollar a man earns for the exact same job. I work too hard as it is as a student to not be paid what I deserve in the workforce. I believe feminism has a set of values that I can believe in that will allow me to support equality and choice in society.

I, on the other hand, am an anti-feminism female. Personally I do not see what the huge deal is anymore, in fact the current “feminism” movement often doesn’t even make good logical sense. You say that you think everyone should have equal rights like women don’t have equal rights. Technically speaking, women do have equal rights; the issues of equal pay and not being looked at as sexual objects are business and cultural issues, not a governmental issue. As for being paid less, it only makes sense from a business standpoint. Generally speaking, women are the ones who have to take off more time for family obligations, such as sick children. Additionally, women are liable to become pregnant at any time and they are legally entitled to a certain amount of paid maternity leave. Because of this, it only makes sense that companies want to hold back some pay from women in order to help compensate for the costs of paying them on days that they aren’t actually doing any work.

Women are not the only ones who can take work off when a child is born. Sure, they are the ones who carry the child, but both parents should be equally responsible for the child. If it’s a single parent then they need money more than anyone. Women still tend to be seen as sexual objects or incubators more than actual people. It’s caused a lot of unconscious damage to girls and women in modern society, myself included. I’m tired of comparing myself to the images in magazines and television that make me feel inferior. I would like to be given the same rights and pay that a man has and not be considered some object that guys can just touch whenever they want or flaunt on their arms who only pops out babies and cleans the house. I know that I’m a lot more than that.

In the final Friendly Fire of the year, our columnists talk about their liberal arts education, nationally and locally

By Sean LawlorStaff Writer

Throughout my life I have experienced several models of education. Growing up in Florida, I was educated in a public school system that adhered to the omnipotent grad-ing standards of the FCAT (Florida Compre-hensive Assessment Test). In high school, I attended a magnet school that channeled education through the visual and performing arts. In China, I observed a rigorous lecture style of education based on memorization and test taking abilities. While some of these I found more successful than others, none of them can come close to replicating the re-sults I have seen at Eckerd.

From the very beginning of their time at Eckerd, students find themselves caught in a dialogue between the greatest texts human-ity can offer from Homer to Machiavelli to Hawking. Through Area Perspectives we are given a unique opportunity to choose how we approach other disciplines and ways of think-ing.

Philosophy majors can apply what they learn in the natural sciences to the concepts of rationalism and logic. Science majors can acquaint themselves with the art of the writ-ten word in literature or rhetoric classes that can help them write lab reports that are un-derstandable to the average reader. Political science majors can learn more about the mor-al values of particular voting groups by taking religious studies courses. Whatever the case, each student’s time at Eckerd is an intellec-tual journey. Eckerd’s education is based on dialogue rather than compartmentalization.

My education at Eckerd has taught me to value this cross discipline dialogue. Differ-ences will always exist between philosophy, political science, literature, biology and mu-sic majors. But at Eckerd, we have succeeded in making those differences work to our ad-vantage, an advantage of understanding how your discipline is viewed through another’s

perceptions. Instead of treating interdis-ciplinary education as a war zone, Eckerd serves as a monument to civil discussion, a virtue that is an exception rather than a rule in today’s world. In many respects, Eckerd is an intellectual community.

This brings me to my next point about education at Eckerd. A liberal arts education typically includes the multi-disciplinary ele-ments that I have already referenced. What makes Eckerd unique is the use of communi-ty as an educational medium. At Eckerd, the classroom is not where my education ends. Eckerd has several communal forums orga-nized by both students and faculty that help advance the liberal arts dialogue. Such forums include the Ford Program, Service Learning, CPS events, Ethics Bowl, Pitchers with Pro-fessors and this very newspaper.

We all become students and teachers, learning from one another as we develop our community and ourselves. The value of com-munity itself is an important lesson we can all take from Eckerd.

Wherever I go after this, I will truly miss student community institutions such as The Current, the Rugby Games, Kappa Karnival, Another Man’s Trash and unofficial one’s that I am not allowed to mention, that made us bond with each other and our campus. Eck-erd not only serves as a model for a liberal arts education, it serves as a model for the global community.

By Ethan PackeyStaff Writer

Everyone knows by now that I’m one stu-dent among a small group of conservatives that differ from Eckerd’s rather liberal social atmosphere. Sean and I have had a great time this year debating policy responses to current political issues. But Sean is graduating, so this chapter of Friendly Fire will be coming to a close; however it does provide me with an op-portunity.

As a graduating senior, Sean is writing a reflection on his time at Eckerd, so I too will write a reflection on what the liberal arts mean to me as a conservative student-citizen of the United States.

I find the various humanities disciplines the most important among the liberal arts, philosophy most of all among the humani-ties disciplines. Humanities scholars chart the course of Western civilization with all its triumphs and tragedies since its inception several thousand years ago. This accumulated body of Western knowledge is what I find most important to anyone seeking a liberal arts education.

Receiving a liberal arts education places you in a small group of individuals who know the prejudices, actions and philosophies that have brought Western society to the place it is today. It also places a responsibility on you as the next generation of leaders to learn from and incorporate that body of knowledge as you seek to lead society into a better and brighter future.

In short, the liberal arts are important be-cause they inform society’s leaders about the successes and failures of past leaders as well as the general philosophies of Western civili-zation, past and present.

In our increasingly global age, this process of learning the past in order to provide a bet-ter and brighter future can and should be ap-plied to the global body of knowledge.

But I find a secondary component of equal importance in a liberal arts education; that the liberal arts have the effect of humbling budding intellectuals.

As budding intellectuals with limited life experience, we sometimes become arrogant, thinking that we know better than peoples and cultures of times long gone. The liberal arts are useful in humbling this arrogance by showing that human civilizations have inde-pendently acquired similar characteristics.

This reality speaks to an implicit human nature which intellectuals would be terribly unwise to defy in the name of “improving” society.

But I must emphasize that the liberal arts are not meant to be oppressive; every single one of you is free to choose your own path and your own beliefs. However, the liberal arts are a handy guide that can prevent the repeat of historical mistakes.

So I congratulate each of you on choos-ing to come to Eckerd College, a liberal arts school. And I highly recommend a greater exploration of the Letters Collegium where most of Eckerd’s humanities scholars teach. My own explorations led me to philosophy and a whole new major.

There is a great body of Western knowl-edge out there waiting for you so inquire free-ly, for we are all the future leaders of America and the world community.

Now that Republicans have realized that just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you can’t give a presidential candidate good advice on the best methods for killing terrorists, maybe they can grow up enough to realize that their small government doesn’t need to be concerned with the possibility that two men could walk down the street with linked hands, wearing matching rings and dare to call it marriage. Especially with the Repub-lican party claiming to have a new focus on economics due to the recent debt crisis. And good, they should focus on the economy, be-cause first off, it is one of the more important issues lately, and second it is an issue where they have the better argument.

Continuing to harp on how evil homosexu-ality is may get the people who are going to vote for them regardless to be even more en-thusiastic about voting for them, but it won’t rein in any independent voters, which is what it takes to win an election these days. I know to expect that the Republican party would become full on pro gay marriage just during this election cycle is putting my hopes up a little high, because after all, even many Dem-ocratic candidates are not showing as much full-fledged support as they could. However, if Republicans want to win any elections any time soon, and want to make this election about what’s truly important, they’ll take my advice and at the very least continue to move toward a more moderate stance on gay mar-riage.

The girls take on Feminism New appointment a positive turn for Republican party

By Hailey EscobarStaff Writer

By Evalyne McInnishStaff Writer

By Christine TweeteStaff Writer

A new local restaurant, Brewburgers, has found itself being absorbed into the Eckerd bubble. The new burger joint, located at 4195 34th St. South, has quickly become popular with Eckerd students and staff alike, providing a new location to relax, watch a game and eat a greasy burger

One of the more interesting traits of Brewburgers is the restaurant rarely seems busy. This should not be taken as a complaint, but should be noted because it provides for a quiet and intimate atmosphere, as well as quick, attentive service.

The menu is small and simple with a decent variety of appetizers. The main entrees include salads and burgers. The burger options include regular beef patties, ‘Guinness’ patties and chicken breast. There are 15 beers available on tap.

Once your meal arrives, expect to dig and eat your way past a pile of fries to reach the burger. The burgers come to you hot and fresh, straight from the kitchen. The ingredients are all crisp and the portions are sized well; the patty is the perfect size for the bun.

The prices for drinks, appetizers and entrees are reasonable at Brewburgers. The only cautioning in price involves the desserts. Both of the dessert options are not house made and rather expensive compared to the rest of the menu. It would be the only thing to avoid, unless you find a reheated, pre-packaged chocolate cake to be worth $6.

Other than dessert, the menu options are delicious and budget-friendly

for the average college student. A fair warning: while at Brewburgers to write this review, a professor came in

to buy dinner. Be conscious of who you may run into at this local burger joint due to its proximity to campus.

On Tuesdays, burgers are just $2 after 6 p.m.. Brewburgers is located at 4195 34th St. S in St. Petersburg. Brewburgers opens at 11 a.m., and remains open until at least midnight. Calling ahead and ordering take-out is welcome.

By Aaron LevyStaff Writer

“My only fear in death is reincarnation.” - Tupac Amaru Shakur

Las Vegas, Sept. 7, 1996 —Tupac Amaru Shakur, known across the nation for his moving and often militant rap lyrics, is gunned down while sitting at a red stoplight in his car. Though he survives the emergency surgery, he is pronounced dead six days later.

With a die-hard following, comparable to that of Elvis or John Lennon, Tupac’s death marked the loss of perhaps the greatest rapper to live.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Indio, California, April 22, 2012 —It’s Sunday night and Coachella’s first of two weekends is almost over. Two of rap’s most celebrated household names, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, are on stage for the headlining act of the night, when suddenly, the stage goes black for a few moments. An eerie piano melody begins to play as, lo and behold, Tupac is seen rising from the middle of the stage.

Wasting no time, the rapper then proceeds

to perform verses from two of his successful hits, including the spookily appropriate “Hail Mary” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted,”

alongside Snoop Dogg.Conspiracy theories aside, it wasn’t really

Tupac that people saw on stage that night. It was actually an intricate combination of archival concert footage and CGI graphics compiled into a video.

The video was projected through a high definition projector from above, and then reflected off a mirror on the floor of the stage onto a light-weight foil, designed to imitate semi-transparent glass. It’s an old magician’s trick of manipulating a 2-D image, the same one that helped Mariah Carey perform simultaneously in five European cities last year.

As simple as the trick was, the result was staggeringly realistic. If you haven’t seen it yet, a YouTube search for “Tupac Coachella Hologram” will bring it to your eyes, with goose bumps soon to follow.

A firsthand account of the performance posted on the popular online hip-hop blog The Smoking Section told of crying fans, pandemonium, and overall confusion in the crowd following the hologram’s appearance

CENTERTAINMENT13May 4, 2012 the current Entertainment

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Hell on Earth 14

Military ball 14

Music festival guide 16

Local winery review 15

Final exams calendar 15

INSIDE ENTERTAINMENT

promotional photo

courtesy of youtube.comThe faux Tupac finishing his Coachella performance.

Brewburgers satisfies wallet, palate with brews and burgers

By Ian LindsayAsst. Entertainment Editor

As soon as my ears finally stopped ringing from Bassnectar’s Oct. 2011 show, it was time to turn the subwoofers on again for his ninth studio album,“Vava Voom,” released on April 10. This album is a party. A party packed full of distorted bass, unorthodox rap lyrics and synthesizers that’ll make you grit your teeth as you mingle your way through the album.

The album was released strategically with Bassnectar’s spring tour appropriately named the Vava Voom Tour. The tour began April 11 in Indiana and ends May 12 in Seattle.

From the second you press play you are hit with low sub bass on the first song of the album, also titled “Vava Voom.” The track features rapper Lupe Fiasco, who delivers a tug of war between underground and commercial flow. Fiasco’s vocals make this song really catchy and very radio-friendly for an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) artist.

Delivering lyrics such as, “Live my life like I do/ Her high heels on my side views/ My eyes peeled for the 5-0/ My horse power match my IQ,” Lupe matches the high-energy, adrenaline rushing dubstep instrumental provided by Bassnectar. The song just makes you want to bob your head. This was likely the artist’s intent, as the promotional video for the album features Lupe and Bassnectar head banging together in silence.

“Vava Voom” and the track “What,” featuring electronic music producer Janesten, were my favorite heavy bass club bangers. They’re loud and fun to dance to. “What” has reggae vocal samples that are accompanied with both typical dubstep “womps” and “drops.” Scattered throughout the track is what sounds like old-school video game music from the early Nintendo era. The mixture makes it perfect for the dance floor.

Another interesting track is the Pennywise Tribute. Bassnectar does his own remix of the punk rock “Bro Hymn” by turning up the electronics. Interestingly, archival samples of Bassnectar’s high school band “Pale Existence” are included. The sound works. The punk hymn-like chorus churns with Bassnectar’s old metal rifts at the end of the song.

The album is not gritty and fast paced all the way through. Bassnectar includes tracks such as “Empathy,” “Butterfly,” “Nothing Has Been Broken,” as well as a new remix of the classic Bassnectar track “Laughter Crescendo.” All four take a break from the heavy hitting hip-hop vocals and serve up more synthesizers with melody driven vocals from Mimi Page and Tina Malia, two

Bassnectar brings the bass

See TUPAC, page 16

See VAVAVOOM, page 14

promotional photo

By Cait DuffyAsst. Entertainment Editor

In Oct. 1849, one of America’s most prolific writers met a mysterious end after he was found unconscious outside of a saloon in Baltimore. Edgar Allen Poe was transported to the Washington College hospital, where he suffered from hallucinations, tremors and extreme fevers for four days before passing away at the age of 40. Officially, his cause-of-death was declared “congestion of the brain.”

Writers Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare have another idea as to what caused his early, mysterious passing.

“The Raven,” released April 27, depicts the last few weeks of the poet’s life as a frantic search for a murderer who’s crimes were inspired by Poe’s own stories. John Cusack

brings the tormented writer to life on the silver screen in a story attempting to mimic one Poe would have written himself.

Unfortunately for Livingston and Shakespeare, their attempts at mimicking the master’s craft fall short.

While the diction toward the beginning of the 111-minute long film strongly set the mid-19th century tone, with Cusack vehemently

spitting poetic insults at a bartender and room full of salty seamen, he slips into modern dialect by the end of the film.

Directed by a James McTeigue, director of such films as “V for Vendetta” the Matrix trilogy, dark scenes of brick buildings, countless ravens and a catacomb-like underground water department bring an

“The Raven” fails to deliver due justice to works of Edgar Allen Poe

Sixteen years later, Tupac takes the stage once again

Quoth the critic, “What a bore.”

promotional photoJohn Cusack as Poe in “The Raven.”

See RAVEN, page 14

By Alexandra RobertsStaff Writer

Four cadets walk through the heavy, brown double doors into a ballroom of lights, music and the outstretched hands of their superiors. Each hand welcomed Senior Alex Simpson (Military Science level 4), Junior Nick Napoli (Military Science level 3), Junior Mark Head (Military Science level 3) and Sophomore Madison Durley (Military Science level 2) to the April 13 Military Ball, dedicated to the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) members of the Suncoast Battalion.

Approximately 350 people were in attendance at the ball April 13 – including cadets from USF Tampa, Hillsboro Community College, USF St. Petersburg, Clearwater Christian College, St. Petersburg College, St. Leo University and Eckerd College. “We have about 250 cadets in the whole Battalion,” Simpson said.

The guests all arrived before sunset. Durley was celebrating his two years with Army ROTC, his last for the time being, becuase he did not sign the contract for commitment past this spring semester. “I want to pursue my

major of environmental studies outside of the military for now,” Durley said. “But I value my two years in Army ROTC, and am not opposed to the idea of finishing the course in the future.”

Simpson will be the first commissioned graduate in Eckerd College’s recent history. He reports to flight school December 2012. He then plans to take his position as a second lieutenant and platoon leader in a UH60 Blackhawk unit for the 1-171st Aviation Regiment in Oahu, Hawaii. Simpson hopes to fly MedEvac one day.

“Looking back, [Army] ROTC was a great experience, especially my time as Bravo Company commander,” Simpson said. “I loved leading my soldiers and presenting myself as a model of leadership. I also loved training my soldiers and the camaraderie which comes in the Army.”

Napoli has one more year left of Army ROTC. He plans to make a career out of the military as an infantry officer with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team stationed in Vicenza, Italy.

“[The Military Ball] was done very well this year and is a great chance for us to share the Army culture with civilians and other

branches,” Napoli said.Head also plans to finish the

program through his senior year. “This year’s military ball was outstanding,” Head said. “The ceremony was great, along with the entertainment, and we had a lot of senior cadets to be proud of. The ball was a great end to a year full of hard training to prepare the junior military science class to take up the mantle for the upcoming year.”

Drinks were provided upon arrival in the lobby of Pepin’s Hospitality Centre. After the welcoming line into the ballroom, cadets took their seats at their assigned tables. Out of respect for their superiors, cadets waited to seat themselves after the senior battalion Cadre took theirs.

Foremost among these officers and senior non-commissioned officers were Lieutenant Colonel Clark, professor of military science and leader of the Suncoast Battalion, and Master Sergeant Patterson, senior instructor of military science. These officers and others were always paired with a non-commissioned officer counterpart.

Dinner was served in three courses, following a presentation by the President of Clearwater

Christian College, Dr. Richard Stratton, concerning finding and following one’s personal moral compass.

Following the ceremonies of the evening, cadets and their dates were invited to the dance floor in celebration of their branch’s achievements.

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the currentMay 4, 2012 Entertainment14

Bassnectar delivers ninth album

Eckerd ROTC attends Suncoast Battalion’s Military Ball

vocals from Mimi Page and Tina Malia, two relatively unknown singers. The effect is very eerie ambient music that sounds like a fusion of pop and dubstep. It’s easy for these songs to get stuck in your head.

“Laughter Crescendo” has always been a crowd favorite, and the 2012 remix is sure to keep inspiring audiences since its initial release in 2004 on the album “Diverse Systems of Throb.” The track still has the samples of laughter and giggling echoing throughout the song, but Bassnectar amped up the percussion, making the kick drum louder when it hits. The song is also 37 seconds longer. The last two minutes of the song are more danceable than the original.

The last track, which isn’t really a song, is titled “Chronological

outtakes.” This track serves as the bloopers of the album. Any sound created with Bassnectar’s producing equipment that didn’t make the cut is dumped on this track. It begins with a brutal heavy metal song, has spoken outtakes of artists who recorded vocals for the album and all the possible quirky electronic sounds in-between.

The album as a whole is vocals, bass and creative sounds all combined in a blender and minced into electronic music. I would recommend it anyone who follows EDM, and it is a producer’s dream to sample while DJing. I do believe that the album should come with a warning label: experiences change depending on wattage of subwoofers and speakers, and to enjoy the full dynamic of sounds in the album, it is important to play loudly.

From VAVAVOOM, page 13

eerie, dark feel to the Baltimore of the film. Unfortunately, this viewer was disappointed to discover that not one scene was shot in the United States, with the production crew opting for filming locations across Serbia and in Budapest, Hungary, instead.

Interestingly enough, the story of “The Raven” does not come in to play within McTeigue’s film. Poe is noted as mentioning his success with the poem at multiple points toward the beginning of the film, but aside from the ravens found flying through most scenes the title has little other connection.

While an interesting theory as to how the great Edgar Allen Poe spiraled toward his premature death, “The Raven’s” attempt at mimicking Poe’s silky prose comes off as a nylon imitation.

Cait Duffy’s ranking: 3.5/5 starsA thrilling and bloody movie to

watch once on DVD.

From RAVEN, page 13

“The Raven” disappoints

promotional photo

photo by Alexandra RobertsMSIV Alex Simpson before the ball.

photo by Alexandra RobertsMark Head accompanying his date Adria Englehard.

ROTC logo

Eckerd College’s Senior Theatre Company Presents:

Deflowering WaldoMay 3, 4 & 5 at 8 p.m.; May 6 at 2 p.m.

Admission is free. No tickets or reservations are required.

By Emily CohenStaff Writer

These days, everyone wants to eat local. But what about drinking local?

I recently sampled two wines from Keel and Curley, a local winery located about 45 minutes away from campus at 5210Thonotosassa Rd, Plant City.

The Sweet Blueberry wine, which is made with 100 percent blueberries, was very sweet but not unbearably so. “[It] tastes like juice, but the alcohol isn’t completely covered up,” said Junior Laura Moe “I also love the blueberry flavor.” Since the wine is made with 100 percent blueberries, the taste really comes through which makes it have a very unique flavor.

The Strawberry Riesling is one of the many fusion wines produced by Keel and Curley. The fusion wines are made with grapes and then mixed with fruit juices. When I first tried the Strawberry Riesling, it wasn’t my favorite, but after sipping for a while I began to really enjoy it. Senior Christine Twete called it “the lightest of the three,” while Tess Busch, also a senior, said, “I can really taste the strawberry. It is not an artificial

strawberry taste, but a real s t r a w b e r r y flavor.”

The overall opinion of the two wines was that they were sweet, almost too sweet for some. These wines are not ones that you can drink all night, unless you want a nasty headache the next day. They are, however, delicious and ideal for one or two glass servings.

The Keel and Curley winery is located in Plant City, Fla. They have 11 different flavors of wine and conduct wine tastings daily. A few select flavors of wine, such as the ones sampled here, can be purchased from Publix for about $10 per bottle.

By Christine TweteStaff Writer

It’s getting to be that time of year again when finals, packing up, and heading home are all students can think of.

Some students will be returning to Eckerd in the fall, while others may be starting a career or heading to graduate school. To keep your mind off what lies ahead, here are some weekend night distractions.

All ingredients except for the alcohol are available for purchase at Triton’s Pub.

Summertime1 part vodka1.5 parts orange juice1.5 parts Sprite

Mix together, add ice, and enjoy.

The Job Search1 part whiskey1 part rum3 parts cola

Put cola in cup with ice. Add whiskey and rum.

15May 4, 2012 the current Entertainment

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Issue 9 The Hooker Tea Company300 Beach Dr. NE #1244.5 stars16 minutes campus$Mon.- Sat. 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.Sun. 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.No alcohol available

Issue 10 Skyway Jacks2795 34th St S.5 Stars 8 minutes from campus$$Daily 5 a.m.-3 p.m.No alchohol avilable

The St. Pete Sampler: A Dining Reflection

Price $-$$$$ ($ = <$5.00 per meal $$$$ = $20.00+ per meal)Food Quality (1-5 stars)

With the end of the academic year, we at The Current tend to look back on the fruits of our labor with pride. Below, we’ve select-ed the ripest of the St. Pete Sampler. Here you can find the highest rated selection from previous samplers, and even a new one for you to sample this summer. Bon Apetit!

Note: The beverages and reecipes on this page are intended for consumption only by individuals who are 21 or older. The Current does not promote underage drinking. When combining alcoholic beverages with caffeinated beverages, it is important to be aware of the potential side-effects and limit your consumption accordingly. Drink responsibly, our friends.

Bartending on a budget

May 14 - 18

14 15 16 17 18

To advertise your event with The Current, contact Current Entertainment at currententertainment@eckerd.edu

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

CLASS

MW 3:20-4:50 p.m.

W 3:20-6:15 p.m.

TR 10-11:30 a.m.

TR 11:40-1:10 p.m.

MWF 8:20-9:20 a.m.*

MW 7:50-9:20 a.m.*M Evening Courses*

WF 7:50-9:20 a.m.*

EXAM

8-11 a.m.

8-11 a.m.

11:30-2:30 p.m.

3-6 p.m..

6:30-9:30 p.m.

6:30-9:30 p.m.6:30-9:30 p.m.

6:30-9:30 p.m.

CLASSMWF 11:50-12:50 p.m.

TR 8:20-9:50 a.m.*

M 3:20-6:15 p.m.*

TF 1:40-3:10 p.m.

TR 3:20-4:50 p.m.*

T Evening Courses*

T 3:20-6:15 p.m.*

T 5-6:30 p.m.*

EXAM

8-11 a.m.

11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

3-6 p.m.

6:30-9:30 p.m.6:30-9:30 p.m.

6:30-9:30 p.m.6:30-9:30 p.m.

CLASSMFW 9:30-10:35 a.m.

MWF 10:40-11:40 a.m.

W Evening Courses*

R 3:20-6:15*

R Evening Courses*

CLASS

F 3:20-6:15 p.m.

Makeups/Conflicts

Makeuos/Conflicts

EXAM

8-11 a.m.

11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

3-6 p.m.

6:30-9:30 p.m.

6:30-9:30 p.m.6:30-9:30 p.m.

EXAM

8-11 a.m.

11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

3-6 p.m.MR 1:40-3:10 p.m.

Final Exams Schedule- Spring Semester 2012

Drinking local: Keel and Curley Winery

Issue 11 Joey Brooklyn’s Famous Pizza Kitchen344 Ist Ave S 4 Stars14 minutes from campus$$ 7 Days a week 11a.m.-3 a.m. Beer and Wine Only

Issue 12 Five Bucks Drinkery247 Central Ave4 1/2 Stars$Mon-Sat 11 a.m. - 3 a.m.Full Bar

Issue 8 Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaurant300 Beach Dr NE12 minutes from campus4-5 Stars$$$Sun and Mon 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tues-Thurs 11 a.m. - midnightFri and Sat 11 a.m.- 1 a.m.Full Bar

Issue 7 Shaner’s Land and Sea Market200 Pass-a-Grille Way9 minutes From campus$$$4-5 Stars7 Days a Week 8 a.m.-7 p.m.Beer and Wine Only

promotional photo

courtesy of googlemaps

EXAM

Makeups/Conflicts

Class times with *have an overlap of exam times, please resolve any conflicts through your professors

next to the real-life Snoop Dogg, who was pretty composed consid-ering the emotional nature of the performance. Though rumors had already been circulating, few knew of the event in advance. In the days that followed, the Internet erupted as everybody anxiously voiced their opinion on the “resurrection” of ‘Pac.

On one hand, the p e r f o r -mance was absolutely

amazing. I grew up in the nine-ties, and needless to say, I wasn’t listening to Tupac during the hey-day of West Coast rap music. So, I recognize that I can’t grasp the full significance of the event. Still, it made quite the impression on me as a rap fan. During his short ca-reer, Tupac spoke to something in people that few contemporaries have been able to do since.

Despite the clashing emotions and feelings he expressed in his music, Shakur proved that you could create an aggressive, violent song, like “Hit ‘Em Up,” then turn around and express utter sad-

ness and discontent with the ha-tred facing black culture in a song like “Changes,” and have them be

complementary to each other in earnest. Hailed by Eminem as “the greatest songwriter that ever lived,” none of his

music ever came across as insin-cere. I must’ve watched the video of the hologram’s five minute long performance at least ten times that first day that it surfaced. Those of us who never had the privilege to witness a live Tupac show were given the oppor-tunity to witness something close to what it must have been like 20 years ago.

However, I also completely un-derstand the opposing point of view, that bringing back a slain cul-tural icon like Tupac for the sake of selling tickets and creating a buzz is, well, a little immoral.

When hologram ‘Pac took the stage, he yelled, “What the f--k is up Coachellaaaaaaa,” hinting at what a performance would be like if he were given the chance to come

back from the dead for one week-end only and hadn’t aged in sixteen years. It truly was surreal, and I was just looking through a com-puter screen.

Though close friend and fre-quent collaborator Dr. Dre was the

one with the idea for this project, who knows how others close to ‘Pac felt about it. As fans of rap and pop music, don’t we owe our entertainers some respect once they’re finally gone?

One must ask, if pop-culture is willing to bring back dead rappers for concerts, where does it stop? Years from now, will consumers be able to hire graphic designers to make holograms of their dead loved

ones? That’s a big jump to make, but not an inconceivable one.

At the end of his short set, the image of Tupac walked to center stage and, just as quickly as he had risen, he was gone. Elaborately scored to a creepy and utterly ti-

tanic choral ac-companiment, he vanished in a beam of bright light with his head down,

arms by his side, microphone still in hand.

The concert begs a few ques-tions: If the real Tupac, The Maka-veli himself, were alive today, would he still be relevant? Would he still bring out the huge crowds? Would he still be the Tupac that we re-member, that we still aren’t willing to let go of? To quote the late MC, “Lord knows.”

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courtesy of 2pac.com

From TUPAC, page 13

The Current’s summer 2012music festival survival guide

Simulated Coachella performance met with mixed feelings

“My only fear in death is reincarnation.” - Tupac Amaru Shakur

promotional photo

promotional photo

Hangout Music FestivalMay 18-20 Gulf Shores, Ala.

Bonnaroo Music & Arts FestivalJune 7-10Manchester, Tenn.

Electric ForestJune 28-July 1Rothbury, Mich.

Camp BiscoJuly 12-14Indian Lookout Country ClubAlbany, N.Y.

All Good Music Festival & CampoutJuly 19- 22 Legend ValleyThornville, Ohio

Some of this summer’s most anticipated music festivals across the United States include:

promotional photopromotional photo

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By Hayden JohnsonQuickie Editor

Music festivals can be a great mini vacation. They combine sonic pleasure with the great outdoors. The more festivals you go to, the more experiences you gather.

Here are some suggested items to bring along, as well as some survival tips, for those new to the festival scene.

Jumper cable

For the most part, your car will be your only source of electricity. You will need it to keep your phone charged to stay in communication with other members of your party.

Human error and shenanigans will ensue during a festival, which could put your car battery in a weak position.

The jumper cable can be a life-saver when you get ready to leave the festival. Even if you are responsible with your car’s battery, you can help any neighbors who weren’t as fortunate.

Flag

These can save you a lot of time and trouble while searching for your campsite in a sea of cars. Secure your unique flag with a portable flagpole near your party’s vehicle. From past experiences of

wandering aimlessly into the late hours of the night looking for my campsite, I can honestly say a flag will make your life a lot easier. Preferably, try to make your own

flag with cloth and a fabric marker.

This will make it distinguishable from other campsites.

Large heavy-duty garbage bags

When I leave a festival and see a beautiful field trashed, I feel ashamed. Even though festival workers do pick up the mess, it is still important to be friendly to the environment. Cleaning up after your party will help mother nature and the festival workers.

There are many other uses for heavy-duty garbage bags as well. In case of rain, many vendors will try to sell you over-priced ponchos. But with extra garbage bags, you can cut holes through the sides for your arms and head, making your own stormy weather attire.

Rendezvous points

After every set you will likely be running to the next performance you want to see. When traveling in groups, it is easy to get separated. Talk with other members of your party about landmarks near stages.

These landmarks can be merchandise booths, promotional tents or bathroom areas. You can save time by meeting at a point instead of having multiple people describe to you where they are over the phone.

Extra supplies

When it comes to essentials, such as drinks, food and tools, it’s

always better to be overstocked instead of lacking. Some of your greatest assets for surviving festivals are your neighbors. They are the friends that you didn’t come with.

Living amongst each other you may find that you could have forgotten to bring something that they have or vice versa. It’s a token of kindness to invite your neighbors for a barbeque.

Nothing expensive

Thinking about wearing your $100 Ray Bans to a festival? Think again. You think you may get just a little dirty, but you will be filthy by the end of the festivities.

Don’t bring anything that you value too much or would not like to be lost, drenched in grime or both. Make sure that the most valuable item in your inventory is your phone.

Solar shower bags and a bathing suit

Many festivals have public showers that you can go to, although past experiences have taught me that these can break down or be quite repulsive.

The “outdoors” department in stores will typically have something called a solar shower bag. They are sacks of water with a nozzle. Usually made out of plastic, you leave them on top of your car to heat up in the sun.

With your bathing suit on, you can easily shower outside with these and be clean for a day of pure jamming.

ACROSS1 Kennedy complex5 Military field rations8 UVB shield effectiveness11 Cobra used as a symbol of divine authority in Ancient Egypt14 TV show about army doctors stationed in Korea18 Anglo end19 A long time20 ___ de Cologne21 Filler word22 The Washington Nationals, once upon a time24 What Descartes did which he claimed affirmed his existence25 Plus26 Bread choice27 Before28 Tantalize29 Cereal meal?30 Jamey of Res Life33 Jaime of Dining Services36 Campus eatery37 Desire39 Lethargic40 Grammar subject41 Cincinatti team42 The super in Nietzche's mensch44 A coral island which encircles a lagoon48 Office note50 Excuses53 James of Student Affairs57 Sexual desire61 Baggins of Bag End62 Aetna, Cigna, or Humana, e.g.63 Alec of "Deflowering Waldo" and AMT64 Suffix with gator and lemon66 At no time

67 Wile E. Coyote onomatopoeia, perhaps68 Examined with interest70 Frame of mind71 _____ brûlée72 Precipitate74 Knicks point guard Jeremy76 Eckerd international ed. program77 Track competition79 Post-Eckerd school82 Weird84 Squeals86 Occasionally unintended type of humor87 Yard, for example91 Piña colada base92 Espoused93 WRC student body, now94 Tavern95 Overtake by a full circuit96 Inscribe98 Subject taught in/by Ransom99 Deluge101 Eckerd domain102 Without103 "Bond" author Fleming and Sir McKellen105 Sandra ___ O'Connor106 Head of an ochlocracy108 Magnitude110 Spanish dishes113 Aroma115 Vagrant117 Retail organizer121 Euphoria122 Location of some vets' service123 One-eighth of a byte126 Rupert Grint, to many127 Author of "Hedda Gabler;" also, an Eckerd dorm128 Martial arts instructor

130 Bay off of South Beach133 Fermented134 Sicilian mountain136 Nut occasionally chewed with betel leaves137 Oracle138 Manfred ____'s Earth Band141 Horizontally or vertically mov-ing text144 Famous riveter147 Trial151 Spanish expression of encour-agement and approval152 Campus feature, of palm or between palms154 "Woods" around the rock wall156 Radley of "To Kill a Mocking-bird"157 Northernmost complex159 Kwik-E-Mart proprietor160 Since162 Wallet bill163 Plate appearance not resulting in a BB, HBP, SAC, or CI165 Frequency unit166 Lair167 "All Things Considered" station168 Farm animal169 What a game of marbles might be played for170 Meddling171 Put together172 Dig in173 Spanish teacher honorific, perhaps174 Contrary or circular current

DOWN1 World religion with nearly 8 mil-lion followers2 Leaves the stage

3 Loads4 Hieroglyph of eternal life5 More spiteful6 Florida state senator Storms (R)7 Planet around which the Ewoks orbit8 Feudal slave9 Shell out10 With oxygen and heat, a prerequi-site for fire11 Cars12 The destroyer in Hinduism's trimurti13 Symptom of acute bronchitis14 Self-referential15 Let go from employment16 Part of a continuum with time17 Swindled18 Pack23 "Gimme a couple ____."31 Astonishes32 Seacrest or Gosling34 Break35 Fishing tool38 Zeta dorm41 Music Center43 The flora and fauna of a region45 ___ Te Ching46 Non-profit domain47 Relay race segment49 Chop into tiny pieces50 Car feature which does away with the need to pump brakes51 Back talk52 Not well53 Comedienne Schumer54 Christmas55 Southeast Asian nation56 Matrimonial promise58 Beginning of a Langston Hughes

poem: "___ known rivers."59 Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for one 60 Mine output62 Zeta dorm65 Bookstore building69 Ikea furniture assembly, for instance70 Org. of the LA Galaxy and NY Red Bulls73 Cedar Rapids resident75 Recently76 Salt type78 Boredom79 Grad school prereq.80 Pattern81 "The Walking Dead" and "Break-ing Bad" network83 Insecticide which Rachel Carson criticized in "Silent Spring"85 Cancer follower86 Pecan or pot88 In the manner of89 Party for gamers90 Music records that are not quite full albums97 Zeta dorm99 Distant100 Homer catchphrase102 Location of the Letters Col-legium104 Benefit105 ____ arigato107 Star Trek collective109 The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly110 3 tsp.111 Beverage that can be pale, mild, old, or brown112 Means by which Eeyore's tail is attached114 Apply lightly116 Feather accessory118 Compass dir. closest to the name of an Austin music/film/interactive festival119 Civil War general120 Cutoff123 Prohibit124 Chill125 Tourette's symptom129 Andean civilization131 Subj. which claims both Newton and Leibniz as inventors132 TV comedy series "My Name is ____"133 Pong variety135 Fleet137 Brown color138 Dance done in a pit139 Sci-fi franchise first directed by Ridley Scott140 Leagues of Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, at first142 Energized143 Harm145 Vows146 Direct148 Receded149 Sudsy150 Lathered152 Uncertain153 "Citizen" of Xanadu154 Kind155 Rice "wine"158 Vesuvius and McKinley, e.g.161 Transcript no.164 Conferences which disseminate "ideas worth spreading"

Scan the QR code above to see the solutions to the crossword!

CThe quickie17 May 4, 2012 the current The Quickie

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There’s always enough time for a quickie

courtesy of Will Skinner

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the currentMay 4, 2012 The Quickie18

THE OCEAN THE ARTS

Stony Brook University/SUNY is an affirmative action, equal opportunity educator and employer. 12031253

Immerse yourself in marine studies as you explore Long Island’s bays, estuaries, salt marshes, beaches and open oceanin this full-semester program at one of the nation’s premieroceanographic institutes.

Offered by Stony Brook’s School of Marine and AtmosphericSciences, it ranks sixth among U.S. graduate programs in marineand atmospheric sciences by the National Research Council.

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCEYou will work side by side with Stony Brook University’s world-renowned faculty on our research vessels and in our waterfront labfacilities, and you can earn up to 15 credits.

WALK TO THE ATLANTIC OCEANTake advantage of the unique campus location on the shores ofShinnecock Bay for direct access to the Atlantic Ocean and nearbymarine and coastal habitats.

Program runs August 27 to December 14

Free your muse this fall in our “study abroad” college arts program right in the heart of the Hamptons. Got a great idea fora play? Itching to make a movie?

In 10 weeks you will write, stage and perform a play or write,shoot and edit a film — all while earning 15 college credits. Youwill work closely with top-notch creative writing, theater and filmfaculty of Southampton Arts.

GREAT GEAR, GREAT CAMPUSFilmmakers, you will be trained with state-of-the-art equipment.Playwrights, you will stage your work in the 400-seat Avram Theater. Throughout your 10 weeks you will work in small groups,with plenty of personal attention.

GREAT LOCATIONThe cultural legacy of the Hamptons is rich with noted playwrightsand filmmakers, from Tennessee Williams to Steven Spielberg.

Program runs September 11 to November 18

Registration begins April 9, 2012To register or for more information visit www.stonybrook.edu/sea

Semester by the Sea at Stony Brook Southampton

Two unique undergraduate residential programs for Fall 2012

CHEALTH & FITNESS19May 4, 2012 the current Health & Fitness

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1.“Levels” by Avicii2.“Fire” by Kasabian3.“How Soon Is Now” by David Guetta4.“A Certain Romance” by Arctic Monkeys5.“I Am the Resurrection” by Stone Roses6.“Earthquake” by Labrinth7.“Ready For the Weekend” by Calvin Harris8.“Stand By Me” by Oasis9.“Leave the World Behind” by Swedish House Mafia10.“Open Your Eyes” by Alex Metric & Steve Angelo

From the iPod of Alex Patterson

Workout PlaylistCommiserate, then celebrate

By Shannon VizeStaff Writer

It seems the impossible has been made possible: A diet pill that actu-ally works.

The catch? It’s not designed or marketed as a diet pill, and can eas-ily result in negative side effects.

The latest craze in the health and fitness world today is caffeine pills. They are cheap, available at your nearest drug store and reliable for weight loss. But they’re also not ap-proved as diet pills, and taking even two at a time can result in an over-dose.

A box of pills can be bought without a prescription for any-where from $5 to $10 at any CVS or Walgreens. The most common caf-feine dosage taken for weight loss is 200mg tablets, which is about three times the amount of caffeine in a Red Bull.

For those looking to shed a few pounds, caffeine pills can be a tempting option. The pill increases stamina, allowing for increased ath-letic performance and endurance, suppresses your appetite, slows down adenosine (which causes muscle fatigue) and acts as a mild diuretic. For those who struggle with waking up early and getting to the gym, a caffeine pill can give you the energy and drive you lack with-out the calories of soda or coffee.

However, as with all pills, there are negative effects. Caffeine acts on the central nervous system, so withdrawals and tolerance are both likely for avid caffeine users.

You can overdose on caffeine by taking more than 300mg in one day.

Overdoses can result in nervous-ness, sweating, excitement, flushing of the face, depression, paranoia or irregular breathing. Panic attacks, dehydration, emotional fatigue, in-somnia and addiction are also side effects of caffeine.

I heard about caffeine pills through a friend of mine who has tried every crash diet and pill that is out there. Without doing much research, I ran to CVS to grab my own bottle and started taking the pills every morning. I was unaware you can overdose on caffeine with the consumption of just two pills. I unfortunately made that mistake.

After hitting the gym, I attended my morning classes, only to have my heart start racing. I was unable to concentrate, and develop ed-clammy hand syndrome. I also had the unlucky obligation of a class presentation that day and it was definitely one of the worst I have ever given. My voice wouldn’t stop shaking and I couldn’t calm myself down to save my life. The overdose effects only lasted about an hour or two, but it was enough to demand more research on the pills I was taking.

Since then, I have begun taking the pills only once daily and skip-ping them on the weekends. Be-cause 200mg of caffeine is equiva-lent to about two cups of coffee, it is reccomended that one avoids other sources of caffeine, like soda and energy drinks, while taking the pills.

Even with the possibility of a number of negative side effects, I’ve found that caffeine pills offer the better results than other unreliable diet plans and pills.

Caffeine pills: harmful or helpful?

The healthy griever: By Ely GrinfeldQuickie Editor

How can we find the words to summarize a person’s life?

Nathan Mosby, beloved friend, student and peer, passes away and the Eckerd community is at a loss for words. Tortured with the mys-tery of death, people have asked “Why him and not someone else?” They only found more questions, not answers.

Everyone was having fun on First Friday, St. Pete’s infamous downtown festival on the first Fri-days of every month. It was at the main cafeteria, where I was told that Nate passed away from a gal pal of mine. I had just picked out the perfect grapefruit for myself.

“Why him and not someone else?”

My initial thought was to re-member him the best I could. I wanted to capture his image in my mind and process every memory I had of him as fast as humanly possible. It did not even seem humanly possible. My mind ran at the speed of a supercomputer. I’m sure others did the same. No matter what the sentiment, the community opened itself up for a

mutual catharsis.It’s been a while since someone

at Eckerd has passed away. No matter how old or the circum-stances, our community is affected greatly by the loss of a loved one.

When people came together, they began to realize that life is not a question that truly gets all its answers. The need for control dis-sipated. At first, people felt like they had enough control that they could have prevent-ed what hap-pened. But that is not good for our hearts and minds.

Some cried, others laughed, ev-eryone missed Nate. At that point, it became apparent that healthy grieving is done through others. We must not be alone. In grieving together, we can celebrate.

People come to realize their own mortality. The thought is terrifying to some. But it’s not healthy to fear death. We are all going to die. Such a notion in-

duces a great amount of stress and these stressors, combined with the increased vulnerability seen in people who are mourning, spells out a recipe for disaster.

Eckerd needs to alleviate its stress. Thankfully, our intimate environment encourages students to express their hurt. Counsel-

ing services, friendly teach-ers, and even peers have done more than enough to support the grieving. But there is some-thing more.

One should acknowledge

that there is no sense of finite closure. In a piece titled “How to Move On After The Death of a Loved One,” the author, Lisa HW, recalled Diane Sawyer interviews of 9/11 victim’s families. The fami-lies stated that after five years, they finally found some hope for the future and can move on. That is a long time.

It was what the author said af-terward that touched me: “Saying that it takes a full five years to feel

back to oneself isn’t saying that we feel equally horrible at four and a half years as we do when only one year has passed. With each day that passes we move farther and farther away from that initial shock and grief.”

What that means is we have to use our time wisely. Grieve while you can, hug people who are cry-ing and tell them that life is beau-tiful.

Other people are not the healthiest grievers and we must do our part to guide them. No man is an island, as John Donne said.

Eckerd suffers along with its students. If you really can’t smile, ask someone to smile for you. What scares people the most is the knowledge that someone’s death has such a profound and disturbing effect on the psyche. Thankfully, there have been some signs of that at Eckerd. Those who remembered Nate did so fondly.

In putting this piece together, The Current hopes that we can find a light at the end of the dark tunnel. We can only hope that our lives will be full of love and mean-ing, so go out there and live, love and laugh as much as possible.

“Why him and not

someone else?”

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the currentMay 4, 2012 Health & Fitness20

More fat than a cheeseburger?

Starbuck’s cheese danish

Bruschetta chicken salad

Cake batter ice cream

Clam chowder

Baked goods are often made with milk, butter and eggs, mak-ing them high in saturated fats. Aside from the flaky pastry, the cheese filling certainly doesn’t help. It’ll cost you 16 grams of saturated fat, the same as a Whopper with cheese.

Ordering the brushetta chicken salad from Applebee’s seems like a healthy option, but the toppings make it more fattening than a cheeseburger. The salad contains two kinds of cheese, one of which is fried, making it full of 18 grams of saturated fat.

Cold stone creamery offers many flavors filled with saturated fats, but the cake batter ice cream con-tains the most with a whopping 19 grams. That is before adding any toppings!

The creamy New England clam chowder from Red Lobster will cost you 20 grams of saturated fat. One bowl contains more than the recommended amount for an entire day.

Affordable acupuncture gains popularity

Meat lover’s pizzaA single slice of Pizza Hut’s meat lover’s pizza has ten grams of saturated fat. Splurge on that second slice and you’ll have eaten your saturated fat for nearly an entire day.

Garden omeletteThis hearty breakfast from IHOP containing fresh green peppers, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and cheddar cheese is full of healthy ingredients. But, at 840 calories, it’s simply too big a portion. Asking for egg whites or going light on the cheese can help, as can splitting an order, since the whole thing will set you back 26 grams of saturated fat.

Easy ways to protect your skin from the sun

By Shelby HowellEntertainment Editor

At the beginning of this semester, acupunc-ture was nothing more than an obscure con-cept to me. However, I’ve been a part of one of Eckerd’s first QEP classes which placed me at St. Pete Community Acupuncture to help out with odd jobs during the semester. Dur-ing this time, a whole new side of health was opened to me.

Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years, originating in China. Long before Western biomedicine came on the scene, this tradi-tional Chinese medi-cine was treating and curing a vast range of ailments. This treat-ment works by apply-ing tiny needles to as many as 2,000 acu-puncture points on the human body, which are connected by 20 meridians. These merid-ians conduct qi (pronounced “chi”) between the body’s surface and its internal organs. Each of these 2,000 points has a different ef-fect on the qi that passes through it and thus can have a different effect on the body.

Acupuncture has been proven to be a high-ly effective means of treatment. Everything from headaches and back pain to ulcers and drug addiction can be treated by acupuncture. Treatment with acupuncture can also be quite a bit safer than some Western biomedicines.

“Acupuncture is a simple, low-tech rem-edy that can help with many of the problems that arise from living in a high-tech, high-stress, fast-paced culture,” says St. Pete Com-munity Acupuncture’s owner and acupunctur-ist, Greg Jones.

In 1997, the National Institutes of Health reported that “Adverse side effects of acu-puncture are extremely low and often lower than conventional treatments.”

But there seems to still be a bit of hesi-tance for many people to give acupuncture a try. Part of this may be caused by the cost. Many acupuncturists in the U.S. are set up to see only one patient an hour. This results in a single treatment cost-ing up to $175. Acupunc-ture works best when it is used consistently

(about once a week) over a long period of time. Because many health insurances don’t fully cover alternative medi-cines like acupuncture, many people simply can’t afford treatment.

However, St. Pete Community Acupunc-ture is trying to change that, joining a move-ment to make acupuncture affordable for everyone. Across the country, acupuncture clinics are stepping outside the norm and changing the way their clinic is run so anyone who needs treatment is able to get it.

As it says on the St. Pete Community Acupuncture’s website, “Each community

acupuncture clinic is independently owned and unique in its own way. However, we all share one common goal, which is to make acupuncture more affordable and acces-sible by offering acupuncture in a support-ive community setting for a sliding scale.”

This sliding scale ranges from $15 to $35. As Greg says, “We want people to be able to get the treatment they need without having to worry too much about how they are going to afford it.”

What makes St. Pete Community Acu-puncture even more appealing is its in-credibly open and friendly environment. The two acupuncturists, Greg and Val-erie, are always happy to answer ques-tions and make sure every patient is at ease and comfortable during their treatment.

“Working at St. Pete Community Acupunc-ture has been a great time. The atmosphere is very peaceful and quiet for optimal customer comfort and relaxation,” said Sean Yunker, senior, another volunter from my QEP class.

“The operation is small scale; only Greg and Valerie work there with the occasional volunteer.

A final concern that may be keeping you from trying out acupuncture may be the needles. These needles are incredibly small, about the width of a cat’s whisker, and even someone sensitive can barely feel them. In fact, many people find the stimulation to be relaxing and it’s not uncommon for a patient to fall asleep during treatment.

Acupuncture is a great way to kill two birds with one stone: improve your health and re-lease some of the stress about upcoming finals.

Fettuccinie alfredoAt Olive Garden, one of the fattiest offenders is the creamy fettuccine alfredo dinner. It con-tains 47 grams of saturated fat, which is more than enough for two whole days.

courtesy of St. Pete Community Acupuncture

By Megan CoyCoordinator of Health Pro-motion

May is Skin Cancer Aware-ness Month and the largest organ humans have is skin. Many of us don’t think about our skin as an organ, but with it being the larg-est organ we have it is important to know how to protect it. Ev-eryone also needs to remember to protect their skin year round, and not just during summer days at the beach.

The Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) has several tips for preventing skin cancer:

Shade: It’s a good idea to seek shade during the peak hours for UV exposure, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This can be under an umbrella at the beach or even a tree or other type of shelter.

Clothing: The best clothing to wear for protection from UV rays is long sleeve shirts and long pants made of tightly woven fab-ric. Since this may not always be realistic in the Florida heat, at least wearing a t-shirt or other light material clothing can help. Some interesting points to re-member about clothing is that a wet t-shirt doesn’t provide as much protection as a dry one, and that darker color t-shirts may provide more protection than lighter color t-shirts.

Hats: While baseball caps can help shade your face, they don’t provide the all around protection of a hat that has a brim all the

way around. These hats can help protect your face, ears and neck. Just like with clothing, you want to make sure the fabric of your hat is tightly woven and a dark color for the best protection. If you do wear a baseball cap, don’t forget to put sunscreen on your neck and ears.

Sunglasses: Your eyes are or-gans that need to be protected from UV rays, as well. Wearing sunglasses can help prevent cata-racts and protect the delicate skin around your eyes. When purchasing sunglasses, check to make sure they block close to 100 percent of both UVA and UVB rays.

Sunscreen: When choosing a sunscreen, make sure you pur-chase one that is SPF 15 or higher

with both UVA and UVB pro-tection. Don’t forget to reapply sunscreen every two hours be-cause it wears off from swimming and sweating. If you go to grab a sunscreen that you’ve been car-rying around for awhile, check the expiration date. If there isn’t one, the shelf life of sunscreen is about three years, less if exposed to heat from things like leaving the bottle in your car.

Make sure you take all of these tips into consideration when protecting yourself from the sun. For example, wear sunscreen even when you are sitting in the shade or wearing a t-shirt.

For more information on skin cancer, visit: www.cdc.gov/can-cer/skin/.

Students responsible for fitness center careBy Kelly CostonAsst. H&F Editor

Many students spend the same amount of time at the Eckerd Fitness Center as they do in some classes. Some students even con-sider it their “second home.” So what is it that keeps people com-ing back each day, and what is it that keeps other students away?

According to a survey com-pleted by 206 students, 52 per-cent use the fitness center more than three times a week. 51 per-cent answered they were some-what satisfied with the cleanli-ness of the fitness center, and 60 percent said they were somewhat satisfied with the center’s equip-ment. What needs to change in order to get student satisfaction up?

According to the survey, many students responded saying things like “the weights need to be re-racked,” “machines need to be cleaned better,” “cardio machines are broken too often,” “we need locker rooms with showers,” and of course those who felt the need to mention “more hot girls in re-

vealing outfits.” While these are valid requests,

many of them are up to you. Ben Maxwell, Coordinator of Fitness and Wellness, said that the disor-ganization of weights and cleanli-ness of the gym is a reflection on students not following the rules. The fitness center is cleaned every night by employees who wipe down the floors, mirrors and machines. “There are signs posted all over explaining that it is the students’ responsibility to put their weights back and wipe machines when they are finished using them,” Maxwell said.

Cardio machines do seem to be out of commission a bit too frequently, especially for how popular they are. Every other week, someone is sent to per-form necessary maintenance on machines that need it. Judging by the student consensus, maybe every other week is not enough.

As far as locker rooms and showers go, it is not necessary for a school of this size. Accord-ing to Fred Sabota, Associate Dean of Students, more than

80 percent of students live on campus, so for most students, a shower and a place to change is a brief five minute walk back to their room. “We cater to differ-ent needs here, we’re not trying to be compared to Gold’s Gym,” Maxwell said.

Some changes have been made to fitness center this semester and there are more to come. Recently, the gym expanded by adding a spin room, added a fil-tered water station and made an emergency alert system available

through portable panic buttons that immediately alerts campus security officers. This summer, speakers will be mounted in the group fitness rooms and a new speed bag will be installed.

Have suggestions for improv-ing the Fitness Center? Ben Max-well and Fred Sabota are always open to student suggestions. They can be reached at max-wellbp@eckerd.edu and sabo-tafr@eckerd.edu

The Fitness Center is open from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily.

photo by Alexander Zeilinski

Shrimp scampi and herb crusted salmonThe Cheesecake Factory is known for its larger than life portions. This seafood dish is no exception, containing 1,830 calories. While salmon contains a small amount of saturated fat naturally, it’s not nearly enough to account for the 79 grams that the dish offers.

Weights racked in the fitness center.

CSportS21May 4, 2012 the current Sports

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Eckerd Rugby back cover

Current Choice Awards page 22INSIDE SportS

See TRITON, page 22

A year of sports in reviewBy Lincoln Andres-BeckSports Editor

It has been a year of great highs for Eckerd College athletics. A number of teams participated in na-tional championships while several senior student-athletes had stand-out seasons to end their careers.

It all got underway in the fall with men’s and women’s soccer as well as volleyball. Men’s soccer had their season ended in the SSC Con-ference championship after losing to the no. 3 seed Rollins College Tars by a score of 2-1, one of four one-goal losses this year.

This marked the end of the road six men’s soccer seniors: Midfielder Alex Patterson from Newcastle, England; Midfielder Anthony Arico from Charlotte, North Carolina; Forward Thomas Serta from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Defender Jimmy Lawler from Charlotte, North Car-olina; Midfielder Drew Smith from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Can-

ada; And defender Sawyer Frank from Chicago, Ill.

But the future looks promis-ing for Triton soccer and coach Steve Magee. Junior Forward Matt Knight led all scorers with eight goals this year, and Sophomore Goalkeeper Toni Virtanen looked very strong, posting six shutouts during the year for a 1.45 goals against per game average.

Women’s soccer and head coach Danielle Fotopoulos will look to improve next year on their 5-12 re-cord, which included an 0-7 record against SSC opponents. Women’s soccer is losing three seniors: De-fender Ella Miller from Atlanta, Georgia; Forward Callie Pederson from Sarasota, Fla; And midfielder Brianna Murphy from Saugerties, New York.

Volleyball had a true banner year for the Tritons, bouncing back from last year’s 9-18 record in a big way. They went 27-5, 13-3 in the SSC, and finished second in the SSC, just behind Tampa. They did, however,

manage to up-set Tampa at home while Tampa was ranked no. 1 in the coun-try. It was the first Eckerd upset of a no. 1 ranked team since men’s soccer beat Lynn 2-1 in overtime dur-ing the 2008 season.

Vol leyba l l went on to the NCAA cham-pionship tour-nament, ad-vancing to the

sweet 16 before falling to Tampa. Tampa in turn made it to the final four before they lost to the eventual national champions, Concordia-St. Paul.

Volleyball is going to have some gaps to fill next year, as they lose three seniors from their squad: Setter Bri Smith from Highlands Ranch, Colo; Libero/defensive spe-cialist Hallie Ward from Austin, Texas; And right side hitter Ariana Chinn from Houston Texas.

Coach Courtney Draper is al-ready taking steps towards filling the holes left by departing seniors. The team has already received com-mitments from Setter Emily Schad-ow, from Bloomington, Minn., and Defensive Specialist Kelie Reimer of Fond du Lac, Wis. Coach Drap-er will look to Kaleigh Humphrey to take up the libero position and Madison Burr will continue her role as setter in the 5-2 rotation em-ployed by Draper.

With NCAA tournament ap-pearances in five of the last eight years, and the reigning SSC and All-South coach of the year at the helm, I would expect more great volley-ball from the Tritons next year.

As the wintery season of Florida approached so did the basketball season, perhaps the most exciting for the majority of Tritons fans. Men’s and women’s basketball each carried high expectations into the season, with conference polls tab-bing them to finish second and fourth in the conference respec-tively. They sure didn’t disappoint.

Women’s basketball succeeded in matching the expectations of the preseason poll finishing fourth in the SSC, but lost to the no. 5 seed-ed Nova Southeastern Sharks in the SSC tournament.

Coach Paul Honsinger will be looking to fill some rather sizable

holes next year, as the all time best 3-point shooter in Eckerd women’s basketball, Kati Rausberg, is gradu-ating. Rausberg, who hails from Estonia, holds three of the top four marks for threes made in a season, among other school records, by an Eckerd athlete. Also graduating is point guard Tyler Young, from Galesburg, Ill., and Forward Linsey Niles, from Lorraine, New York.

Despite the loss of these three key players, there is still a solid base of talent remaining, including For-ward Krystal Charles and Guard Amy Buccilla.

There is also a solid group of newcomers this year that may make contributions in the future, includ-ing Guards Taylor Bestry and Kayla Bowlin, Forward Emilie Hesseldal, and Center Katja Kotnik.

Men’s basketball had a very strong year, racking up a seven-game win streak and sitting atop the SSC standings for a while be-fore finishing the season in second place. The squad eventually lost in the semifinals of the SSC tourna-ment, but still received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, where a missed buzzer beater shot ended their run against Christian Brothers University in the second round.

Although only two players are graduating for the Tritons, a lot of productivity will be lost with the departure of Guard Wayne Sears Jr. and SSC player of the year, All-South first team, All-American fourth team and D-II All-Star Game leading scorer Lance Kearse. Both of these players were high in-tensity workers who showed aggres-sion driving to the basket as well as the ability to shoot from range.

But even with Sears Jr. and

By Malena CarolloAsst. News Editor

Eckerd baseball suffered back-to-back losses against University of Tampa on April 28 at a Sunshine State Conference double header.

Game one began strong with Jor-dan Huchro on the mound. A crowd of a little over 100 people shouted encouragement to their teams from under multi-colored beach umbrel-las; a shady spot on the bleach-ers was heavy with members of Eckerd’s other athletic teams, all dressed in Triton gear.

Huchro began well, striking out the first three batters he faced in the top of the first. Although short-stop Alex Del Monte reached on an error to lead off the bottom of the first, he was forced out at second base when catcher David Regidor hit into a double play. After infield-er Lee Spinelle hit a single to left, left fielder Joey LaRose struck out swinging to end the inning.

This pattern continued into the second inning, as Huchro retired three straight Tampa batters but again Eckerd still failed to score a run.

Huchro’s pitching began to wane as he allowed four hits during the third inning, three of which turned into runs for Tampa. At bat, Del Monte managed to hit a double into left field advancing to a tanta-lizing third base, but didn’t make it home before Spinelle struck out, ending the inning.

The game continued against Eckerd’s favor. Though the fourth inning brought no runs for either team, Tampa scored twice in the fifth inning and the sixth inning heralded four runs for Tampa, zero hits or baserunners for Eckerd. Tampa’s two runs in the seventh inning brought the score to 9-0, Tampa.

Though Tampa scored another run in the ninth inning, Eckerd saw a little light at the bottom of

the inning as first baseman Joe McLemore hit a home run into left field, picking up an RBI.

The first game ended with a score of 12-1 in favor of Tampa.

Game two began with the crowd as determined as the players. Little was said as fans watched intensely, littering the bleachers with sun-flower seeds.

Wilder took the mound for the first inning. The game began shaky, as he allowed three runs to squeeze by, putting Tampa in the lead. Though Eckerd’s designated hitter Spinelle and Del Monte each got a hit, Eckerd left the first inning with no runs.

Fans’ shouting to the players be-came more tense in the second in-ning as Tampa scored seven runs on six hits and two Triton’s errors. All seven runs were charged to Alex Menendez. Though Rea walked to first in the bottom half of the in-ning, Gibson struck out and Senior Aaron Shapiro was forced out along

with Rea in a double play. McLemore was moved from first

base to the mound to start the third inning, though Tampa continued to extend its lead with another four runs. Eckerd made no hits or runs. The fourth inning brought no runs for either team.

Tampa pulled out another two runs off of McLemore in the fifth inning. Neither team scored a run in the sixth inning. Eckerd finally saw its first run in the final seventh inning, as infielder Audrey Santana hit a double, advancing to third on an error by the Spartans and then came around to score on catcher Mike Abraham’s groundout.

The game ended with a score of 16-1 in favor of Tampa for the sweep.

Eckerd concludes their season with a series against Palm Beach At-lantic with games at 7 p.m. on May 4, and at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on May 5.

Eckerd Baseball swept in double-header against University of Tampa

By Greg ReillyAsst. Sports Editor

The Eckerd men’s golf team is headed to the NCAA Division II South/Southeast Super Regional tournament after receiving a bid for just the second time in school history.

The Tritons are headed to Rock Barn Golf and Spa in Conover, N.C., where 20 teams will converge for 54 holes of golf May 7-9. The top five teams, along with the next two best individuals, advance to the National Championship the follow-ing week in Louisville, Ky.

“It was one of our goals to get this far,” said Head Coach Bill Buttner. “We were very close last year and we have a better team this year. It’s definitely nice to set a goal and reach it.”

Last year, the Tritons finished 11th in the South region, one spot below the cutoff for making re-gionals. This year, the Tritons are ranked 9th thanks to a second place finish at the Jay Jennison Memorial in September, an 8th place finish at the Buccaneer Invitational and a 6th place finish at the SSC Champion-ships in April.

Buttner credits the team’s depth in getting over the hump this year, and thinks the squad is peaking at the right time.

“Now we have to turn our atten-tion on getting to nationals, which I truly believe we have a great chance of being one of the five teams to move on,” Buttner said. “Last year we had four good players, but this year we are a lot deeper top to bot-tom and we have five good players.”

Callum Georgallides will play number one for the Tritons. He competed at regionals as an indi-vidual last year and finished tied for 16th, two shots off the cut for nationals. Jeff Evanier, the medal-ist at the Jay Jennison Memorial in September, will play number two, followed by Paul Henderson, Greg Reilly and Curtis Lahey in spots three thru five.

Live scoring will be available on golfstat.com.

Golf invited to South Region Tournament

promotional photo

courtesy of Sunshine State ConferenceCallum Georgallides takes a swing.

NBA Playoffs back cover

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TRITON from page 21

Manchester City beats Manchester United in Premier League showdown

With a 1-0 win over Manchester United on April 30, Manchester City now controls their own fate in their fight for the Premier League crown. The only goal of the game was scored just before the end of the first half, when Vicent Kompany scored on a header on a corner kick. If Manchester City can win their last two games against Newcastle and QPR, they will be crowned Premier League champions for the first time since 1968.

David Stern dismisses injury suspicionsNBA commissioner David Stern said Monday that

he doesn’t believe Derrick Rose’s ACL tear, or the other major injuries plaguing the league this season, had anything to do with a schedule condensed by a lockout. The New York Knicks’ Iman Shumpert also tore his ACL on Saturday, adding to a list of major injuries that included season-ending back surgery for the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard. Some players have speculated that a season that was reduced from 82 games to 66 with one day off between the regular season and playoffs played a role.

Laker Jordan Hill faces felony assault charges

Los Angeles Lakers forward Jordan Hill faces a fel-ony assault charge after an incident with his girlfriend in Houston. Hill is charged with allegedly shoving and choking 28-year-old Darlene Luna, about 1 p.m. on Feb. 29 at his Houston apartment. Luna told police that the two had been dating for about two years. He was charged by Harris County prosecutors in March. The Houston district attorney’s office said that Hill faces a sentence of two to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. After paperwork is complete, a warrant for his arrest will be issued.

GlobalSoftball seniors honored during game

Alex Sasso and Emily Wiemken were honored in ceremonies as part of a memorable Senior Day as the Eckerd College softball program concluded the regu-lar season against No. 13 Barry University on Satur-day. The Buccaneers (40-9, 19-5 SSC) completed the three-game Sunshine State Conference series sweep against the Tritons (12-43, 4-20 SSC) with two twin-bill victories, 11-1 and 8-0 (5 innings). The Tritons fin-ished eighth in conference, exceeding expectations from the coaches’ preseason poll released at the beginning of the season. Sasso and Wiemken were recognized between games with sports information intern Sean Sullivan and athletic training intern Er-ica Buehning.

Baseball team wraps up regular seasonThe Eckerd baseball team (15-28, 3-18 SSC) wraps

up its regular season with a three-game home series against Palm Beach Atlantic University (20-21). They will play a night game at 7 p.m. on May 4, and then wrap up the series with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on May 5. These will be the last collegiate baseball games for 13 senior Tritons, including ace Joey Cuda, who has won Sunshine State Conference pitcher of the week three times this season.

B.o.b. hangs out with Eckerd athletesRapper B.o.b. paid a visit to some Eckerd stu-

dents’ house last week as part of contest put on by ra-dio state Hot 101.5, won by Sawyer Frank. Everyone who entered the contest submitted a picture of their backyard, and the best backyard won a barbeque par-ty with B.o.b. Frank played soccer for Eckerd along with his roommates Anthony Arico, Ben Donovan, Jimmy Lawler, and Luke Bobrowski plays on the golf team. They and 30 other students got to hang out with B.o.b. in their backyard last Monday night for a few hours. They all live in together in the Broadwater neighborhood just north of Maximo.

EckerdSports Briefly

courtesy of eckerdtritons.comSenior Point Guard Taylor Young.

Kearse gone, there is still a deep talent pool for Coach Tom Ryan to work with. Woody Taylor, Josh Snodgrass and Alex Bodney make up a solid backcourt and Darrien Mack and Walade Wade’s inside presence for the Tritons will remain a force to be reckoned with next year.

Spring followed, and with it came the busy seasons of baseball, soft-ball and men’s and women’s rugby.

Baseball always has it tough, play-ing in the most difficult conference in all of Division II. This year was no exception, but there was a bright spot for Coach Bill Mathews. Se-nior Pitcher Joey Cuda, the reign-ing SSC Pitcher of the Year, contin-ued his dominant play by winning the SSC Pitcher of the Week and National Collegiate Baseball Writ-ers Association (NCBWA) South Region Pitcher of the Week three times. In 78 innings pitched, Cuda racked up more than 100 strikeouts while posting an ERA of 3.1

The face of the baseball team will be completely different next year though, because they have 13 se-niors graduating. Almost the entire staring lineup will be gone as well as most of the starting rotation of

pitchers. It will be interesting to see how Mathews brings together next year’s team and how they will fare in the hyper-competitive SSC.

Softball, another team sport competing in the especially tough SSC, went 12-43 this year, 4-20 in the SSC. The SSC this year includ-ed two teams ranked in the top 15 nationally.

Softball is losing just two play-ers this year, Pitcher/Utility fielder Alex Sasso, from Holbrook, N.Y., and Infielder Emily Wiemken, from Saint Petersburg.

Coach Josh Beauregard will look to fill their holes in the infield as he hopes to improve his squad’s stand-ings in the SSC next year.

Men’s rugby this year took on a new face when Coach David Hedg-es took the reins in the fall. The ad-vances in tactics and strategy were apparent as Eckerd moved solidly through their schedule. The squad’s only loss came at the hands of UNF by a single score. They then trav-eled to Mobile, Ala., to compete in regionals, where once again UNF stumped the Tritons and prevented them from advancing further in the national tournament.

Rugby will lose a number of starters to graduation, including Ju-lian Buck, Leslie Claridge, Michael

“Shiva” Best, Nigel Hammond, Frank Arcuri Jr., Michael Loop, Jon McChesney, Padraic Fitzgerald, Shawn Crane and David Hebden. The emergence of several newcom-ers, like scrum half Rob Mabry, and the established squad of returning ruggers will continue to push for success as they wear the teal colors of Triton Rugby.

The newest member of the Eck-erd Athletics family, the women’s rugby Sirens, has made a big splash in the Florida women’s rugby land-scape. They carried an undefeated streak into the year and kept rolling until regionals. In the regional tour-nament, they were unable to pull off another victory, bringing their second season as a team to a close.

The Sirens will be losing a cou-ple of seniors, including the likes of Kristina Krajcik, Lauren Van Woudenberg and The Current’s Female Athlete of the Year Zoe O’Donoghue. But with plenty of young blood on the roster and a fantastic coach in Candi Orsini, the future is bright for the Sirens. It’s time to start the win streak again.

Whether you like sports or not, it is worth an hour or two of your time to go out and support Triton athletics. And, as always, RIDE THE WAVE!

EC athletics looks to build on successes in coming year

The Current Choice Athletic Awards 2012

Men’s Athlete of the yearLeslie ClaridgeCenter BackMen’s Rugby

26% of the vote22 votes of 95

Men’s Senior Athlete of the year

Michael “Shiva” BestLeft WingMen’s Rugby

18% of the vote17 votes of 95

Women’s Athlete of the Year

Zoe O’Donoghue8 manWomen’s Rugby

25% of the vote24 votes of 95

Women’s Senior Athlete of the year

Taylor YoungPoint GuardWomen’s Basketball

12% of the vote11 votes of 95

Coach of the year

David HedgesMen’s Rugby

59% of the vote56 votes of 95

courtesy of David HedgesMen’s Rugby Coach David Hedges.

photo by Lincoln Andres-BeckMichael “Shiva” Best making a run during Sevens practice.

photo by Lincoln Andres-BeckLeslie Claridge makes a stiffarm.

courtesy of Zoe O’DonoghueSenior 8 man Zoe O’Donoghue.

Chosen by popular vote through online survey of Eckerd students

Baseball v. Palm Beach Atlantic Uni. 7 p.m.

Rays v. Oakland Athletics 7:10 pm

Baseball v. Palm Beach Atlantic Uni. (DH) 1 p.m.

Rays v. Oakland Athletics 7:10 pm

Rays v. Oakland Athletics 1:40 pm

Rays @ New York Yankees 7:05 pm

Rays @ New York Yankees 7:05 pm

Rays @ New York Yankees 7:05 pm

Rays @ Baltimore Orioles 7:05 pm

Rays @ Baltimore Orioles 7:05 pm

Rays @ Baltimore Orioles 1:35 pm

Rays @ Toronto Blue Jays 7:07 pm

Rays @ Toronto Blue Jays 7:07 pm

Rays v. Boston Red Sox 7:10 pm

Rays v. Boston Red Sox 7:10 pm

Baseball

April 17 v. Warner University L 2-1(EC) Gibson 3-4, 2B, RBI(EC) Regidor 2-5, Run, SB

April 25 v. Webber InternationalL 1-0 (11 innings)(EC) Nabers 2 IP, 0 ER, 3 K’s, ND

(EC) Lancaster 2 IP, 0 ER, 1 K, ND

April 27 v. University of Tampa L 5-4(EC) Cuda 8 IP, 5 ER, 14 K’s, L(EC) LaRose 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI’s

April 28 v. University of Tampa (DH) L 12-1, L 16-1(EC G1) McLemore 1-4, HR, RBI

(EC G1) Del Monte, 2-4, 2B(EC G2) Santana 1-1, 2B, Run(EC G2) Crus-Sanchez 2 IP, 0 ER

Softball

April 20 v. Saint Leo UniversityL 10-0(EC) Jeffares 1-3, 2B

(EC) Sasso 1-3

April 25 v. Saint Leo University (DH) W 5-3, L 8-1(EC G1) Mitchell 7 IP, 2 ER, W(EC G1) Sasso 3-3, 2 2B’s, 3 RBI’s(EC G2) Mitchell 1-3, Run(EC G2) Schurr 1-3, RBI

April 27 v. Barry University

L 3-0(EC) Bernier 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 K’s, ND(EC) Jeffares 1-3, SB

April 28 v. Barry University (DH) L 11-1, L 8-0(EC G1) Agnew 1-2, RBI (EC G1) Lolo 1-3, Run(EC G2) Mitchell 1-2(EC G2) Jeffares 0-1, SH

9

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754

14

6 8

17

10

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Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Eckerd Scoreboard

Sports Calendar

Visit us online at www.theonlinecurrent.comCVisit us online at www.theonlinecurrent.comCVisit us online at www.theonlinecurrent.comC

23May 4, 2012 the current Sports

NBA from BACK COVER

courtesy of NBANBA 2012 postseason bracket.

NBA jump shoots at the buzzer; scores ratingsdanger of losing star players to suddenly having a genuine three headed monster.

In what is now the infamous free agency of 2010, the Miami Heat resigned longtime shooting guard and team captain Dwyne Wade amid speculation of him returning home to Chicago, as well as welcoming in 2008 Gold Medal winner Chris Bosh. And then, just to top it all off, owner Pat Riley convinced the best basketball player on the planet, Lebron James, to sign with the Heat instantly making them the favorites to win not one, but multiple championships.

That pressure has yet to crush the

team, yet each passing season seems to come with more expectations to fulfill. Yet it appears that a trial year, which still resulted in a trip to the NBA Finals, was all that the group needed to begin playing together cohesively as a unit.

The pressure is on the South Beach club to emerge victorious in what the NBA has billed as its biggest postseason yet, and as time passes and teams begin to fall, the term beat the Heat will have two meanings for a hot summer of NBA action.

So stay tuned as the NBA Playoffs unfolds during the coming weeks until a new champion is crowned and lifts up the Larry O'Brien Championship trophy.

courtesy of Keith AllenInjured reigning MVP Derrick Rose.

Visit us online at www.theonlinecurrent.com C

The Official Student Newspaper of Eckerd College

See NBA, page 23

CSportSMay 4, 2012

Beachside Sevens Invitational taken by hometown Senior SevensBy Mike GeibelAsst. Web Editor

Senior members of the Eckerd Men’s rugby team ended their ca-reers on a high note April 28 on Kappa Field. After a grueling day that included five games, the older of Eckerd’s two entries into the tournament, cleverly named “Se-nior Sevens” won the Beachside Sevens Invitational in a thrilling fi-nal over FAU.

Eckerd’s Young Stars started out

the day with a convincing win over the Pasco Myrmidons, setting the stage for an exciting tournament.

The Eckerd seniors came out strong in the sec-ond game of the day but were only able to score a tie, 12-12, against a strong St. Pete Pelicans side.

As the day wore on, the fitness and ability of the Eck-erd seniors began to shine through as other teams became tired and started making mistakes. Eckerd’s seniors continued to capitalize on the mistakes. Mi-chael “Shiva” Best scored 5 tries on the day to lead all players in scoring.

The seniors soon found them-selves on a colli-sion course with

an FAU team that was dominating the rest of the competition. In their first match, during the round robin, FAU scored two late tries to pull ahead and secure the victory against the seniors.

After the records had been tal-lied, Eckerd found themselves at 2-1-1, tied for 2nd place alongside the St. Pete Pelicans.

The Eckerd seniors held the tie-breaker for total points scored and thus gained a berth into the cham-pionship match against the unde-feated FAU team.

From the opening kickoff of the final match, Eckerd seniors fought hard for every possession and tack-le. After a minute or two of stale-mate, Eckerd finally broke through the line and scored two quick tries to pull ahead before halftime.

FAU’s hope of a comeback vic-tory was thwarted when a player was sent off the field for throwing a punch at Eckerd’s Julian Buck. Eckerd continued to hit hard and control the ball for much of the game until FAU scored again in the second half. The try would not be enough to catch the Eckerd men as

the final whistle sounded and Eck-erd was victorious, 26-20.

Both of Eckerd’s sides played well and showed great character by not falling to the level of dirty play that was demonstrated by several players on the other teams.

Senior Sevens reigned supreme on the day in what will be the se-niors’ final official rugby match on Kappa Field this spring. Senior Pa-draic Fitzgerald said of the teams: “It meant a lot to win one last time on Kappa Field.

Both teams gave it their all and left it all on the field. I think this tour-nament really made a name for Eckerd Rugby today.”

E c k e r d will now look ahead to next season when the game re-turns to the 15s

version, which is what most Eckerd fans will recognize from earlier in the year. Younger players will need to step up into the spots vacated by the graduating seniors to dupli-cate the team’s successes during the 2011-2012 campaign.

Rising sophomore Rob Mabry will take over as the captain of the team as he leads Eckerd back to the south championships and possibly into the national tournament.

By Colin CaseyStaff Writer

As the shortened NBA season drew to a close, the realization that professional basketball had returned to the highest level finally hit home. For better or worse the NBA had played a shortened 66 game season to the unusual end that set the pairings for the upcoming two month onslaught on the hardwood. The fans returned in droves for the return of basketball and now a champion must be crowned.

Back again are the favorites to try and once again win their cities the glory of being named the NBA Champion. The returning champion Dallas Mavericks backed into the postseason this year with a championship hangover clearly present. Still the Mavericks, led by all stars Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and Jason Kidd made the playoffs for a matchup with the favorites to win the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Since being uprooted from the former NBA hotbed of Seattle, the

Thunder has stormed through the league thanks to their dual threat stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

While the fans in Oklahoma City have not experienced NBA basketball for very long, they have already pressured their team to write their history early on in its life. Meanwhile, the Mavericks look to regain momentum lost to the shortened season and contend in the playoffs while so many experts have counted them out.

Also lying in wait out west are two perennial title contenders. The number one seeded San Antonio Spurs have built a successful team out of a small market primarily due to their ability to judge talent deep in a draft.

As a result, aging talismans such as Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are helping train their replacements. Duncan's replacement in particular, DeJuan Blair, a center out of Pittsburgh has shown promise this season coming in off the bench.

While age has been San Antonio’s opponent in recent years, their attempts to rebuild their

depth, which helped build their championship rosters, will likely help them progress in this year's postseason.

With the Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers are one of only eight teams to claim the NBA title in the last twenty years. Throughout that time the constant driving force for the team has been Kobe Bryant. Since being drafted out of high school in 1996, Bryant has helped his team reach the postseason in most of his years with the team.

But the winds of change blew through Los Angeles during the extended offseason with the retirement of longtime head coach Phil Jackson.

With Jackson’s departure, also came a new offense for the team to learn. For the last decade, the Lakers had run the famed triangle offense made famous by Phil Jackson’s Bulls; the system thrives on a strong shooting guard to possess the ball with supporting legs to a strong center and small forward.

This year, however, the offense has been allowed to flow more

freely, which the Lakers struggled to achieve early on but now look to hang a new banner in the Staples Center.

But with little question the focus of these playoffs has been on the Eastern Conference where one major power has been severely crippled in the opening games. The Chicago Bulls have risen from the ashes in recent years after almost a decade of mediocrity. This rise has centered around the first overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft and hometown hero Derrick Rose.

In his short time in the NBA, Derrick has already garnered Rookie of the Year honors, led his team to consecutive best records in the NBA, started the All Star Game twice, and won last year's Most Valuable Player Award; all in all not bad for a kid from the worst neighborhood in Chicago. However, this year, Rose has been oft injured, finally culminating in an ACL tear in last Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Now, what once seemed to be a likely Eastern Conference Finals berth has turned into an

uphill battle for the Bulls, yet they have been unfazed through it all. Without Rose the team has lost a total of nine games against current playoff teams, but the other facets of the offense have stepped up in his absence.

The noted new leader is veteran small forward Luol Deng, an eigth year career Bull out of Duke. Deng has been among the league leaders in time on the floor in each of his seasons and is noted for his hard work and staunch defense. Also chipping in is a group known as the Bench Mob, a collection of players off the bench that combine to make Chicago among the deepest teams in the league. With the support of Deng, Carlos Boozer, Taj Gibson, Kyle Korver, CJ Watson, Omer Asik, and the most dangerous of all, Brian Scalabrene, the Chicago Bulls still look to win the championship.

But to get to that championship, the Bulls, and every other Eastern Conference team must go through the Miami Heat. In just four years, Miami has gone from being in

Rose-less playoffs heating up the courts

Top and Left photo by Ethan Cooper, Right photo by Mike Geibel

Clockwise from Top:Top: Taylor Harned running in to score a try.Right: The winning Eckerd Senior Sevens team after the Beachside Sevens Invitational Championship.Left: Senior Sevens player Leslie Claridge catches a kick.