the eagle -- feb. 8, 2011
DESCRIPTION
The Feb. 8, 2011 issue of The Eagle.TRANSCRIPT
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SNOWPOCALYPSEONE YEAR LATER
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MISSION! e Eagle, a student-run newspaper at the American University, serves the community by reporting news involv-ing the campus community and sur-rounding areas. ! e Eagle strives to be impartial in its reporting and be-lieves " rmly in its First Amendment rights.
SUBMISSION AND EDITORIAL POLICIES
!"All submissions become the prop-erty of ! e Eagle. Unsigned letters will not be published. ! e Eagle reserves the right to edit letters and guest col-umns for length and clarity. Letters and columns may be published in print or online. Letters and columns are the opinion of the writer and not the newspaper.
!" ! e Eagle has a com-mitment to accuracy and clarity and will print any corrections or clari" cations. To report a mistake, call the editor in chief at (202) 885-1402 or e-mail [email protected].
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.>?%!"#$%&!since JAN. 31
1. AU shouldn’t give in to phony ROTC patriotism
2. 11 AU students evacuating Cairo
3. Eagle rants
4. Stories from Egypt: A student account of unrest in Cairo
5. Students protest at Egyptian Embassy, White House
NEWSEagle rants (3), STI testing (4), Snowpocalypse (10)
OPINIONStaff editorial (6), Shapiro column (7), Shapiro responses (7), CERF letter to the editor (8)
SCENEValentine’s Day ideas (13), Playlists (14), Calendar (17)
SPORTSWomen’s basketball (20), Super Bowl winners and losers (19)
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FEB. 15
“RT @caitdouglas: Bummed @americanu rejecting an expanded @chefgeo# s. ! ey’re a huge part of the community; we shld treat them that way.”
@chefgeo! s, Feb. 4
“You know it’s a crappy day when #wmata is running better than the @AmericanU shuttle. #AmericanUniversity ! is happens too o$ en.”
@jordanc, Feb. 4
““drop dead - best income tax planning option out there” #kogod professors $ w @AmericanU”
@bachledova, Feb. 2
“so tired. must stay awake. why do beds at #americanu look so darn comfy. #smcedu”
@mckeeverfever92, Feb. 1
“I see the #wonk ad from #AmericanU rockin’ this AM in the #dcmetro #wmata Express newspaper :) wohooo! #proudalumn <3 <3”
@moipaprika, Feb. 1
CAMPUS CALENDAR
Hybrid Psychology Discussion with Rom Harre3:30 p.m.WHERE: Mary Graydon Center 200WHAT: Rom Harre, a philosopher and psychology scholar, is currentlyco-authoring a book on “hybrid psychology,” a " eld which he is in the process of de" ning.CONTACT: [email protected].
A Panel of Experts, Kogod Case Competition5 - 8:30 p.m.WHERE: : MGC 4WHAT: Executives with expertise in the case topic of the annual Kogod Case Competition will answer student competitors’ ques-tions and give insight into the cases.CONTACT: [email protected].
“Our Patchwork Nation” Book Talk7 - 8:30 p.m.WHERE: MGC 4WHAT: Journalist Dante Chinni discusses his new book, “Our Patchwork Na-tion: ! e Surprising Truth About the Real America.”
Soapbox in the Mudbox7 - 10 p.m.WHERE: Bender Library MudboxWHAT: An open mic night will bring music, slam po-etry and performances of all kinds to AU.CONTACT: Student Government at [email protected].
Romantic Movie Night in the Tavern10 p.m. - 12 a.m.WHERE: ! e TavernWHAT: In honor of Val-entine’s Day, there will be a showing of the romantic comedy, “Serendipity.” Free frozen hot chocolate will be served.CONTACT: Patrick Ledesma at [email protected]
American University Sym-phony Orchestra Concerto and Aria Competition3 - 7 p.m.WHERE: Abramson Fam-ily Recital Hall, Katzen Arts CenterWHAT: Student instrumen-talists and singers from AU compete to perform with the AU Symphony Orches-tra.CONTACT: Katzen Arts Center Box O% ce at [email protected]
TUESDAY 8 WEDNESDAY 9 THURSDAY 10 FRIDAY 11 SATURDAY 12 SUNDAY 13
NEXT PAPER
TOP TWEETS
IN THIS ISSUE
Front page image credit:Aaron Berkovich
SAVEFERRIS2":6@1A./""&@B">1B61"C7>5
EDITORIAL STAFFEditor in Chief Charlie Szold
Senior Editor andManaging Editor for Web
Ethan Klapper
Managing Editor for News
Stefanie Dazio
Managing Editor for The Scene
Yohana Desta
Design Editor Chris Droukas
Assistant Design Editor
Katherine Riddle
Photo Editor Ana Santos
Assistant Photo Editor
Rachel Devor
Student Life Editor Lauren Landau
News Assistants
Marie Zoglo Paige Jones
Kate FroehlichNicole Glass
Administration and Local News Editor
Leigh Giangreco
Sports Editor Sam Lindauer
Sports Assistants Kate GreubelTyler Tomea
Editorial Page Editor Linda Barnhart
Arts and Entertainment Editor
Hoai-Tran Bui
Music Editor Stephan Cho
Scene Assistants
Maeve McDermott
Madeline Wolfson
Blog Editor Abby Fennewald
Assistant Blog Editor
Erin Greenawald
Multimedia Editor Kira Kalush
Web Producer Rachel Karas
Assistant Web Editor
Anna Scalamogna
Copy EditorsRocio Gonzalez
Marissa Cetin
BUSINESS STAFFBusiness Manager Sam Yolen
Finance Manager Bobby Jones
Sales Director Alexander Robinson
Public Relations Coordinator
Kasturi Puntambekar
Ad Rep Jonathon Gaynes
In “AU fundraising campaign exceeds goal,” the number of Board of Trus-tees donors was misstated. A total of 41 trustees donated to the AnewAU campaign.
In “CERF falls short in fundraising, will rename and re-evaluate goals,” ! e Eagle incorrectly said a Student Government referendum proposed a $10 increase to the Student Activities fee. In fact, the $10 increase would have been to student fees.
CORRECTIONS
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CLASSIFIEDS
Sitters Wanted. $12 or more per hour.
Register free for jobs near campus or home.
www.student-sitters.com
Want an answer to your rant? E-mail your queries to our advice bloggers at [email protected].
! Why are some people at-tractive and others, not so much? Have you thought about who/what decides this and what it means? Hmmm...
! So far I’ve been admitted into the easiest law school in the country to get into and the second easiest law school in the country to get into. Hoping for the third ...
! We went on a date ... or I think it was ... and I felt NO chemistry. It’s been like ! ve months that I’ve had a weird friend crush on you. You’re basically perfect, let’s just get drunk and see if we can make some sparks " y.
! When I hear about peo-ple dropping a couple grand at a club, it makes me a little sick. I’m about to be a couple hundred thousand dollars in debt. If you want to throw money around, how about throwing some my way?? Much appreciated.
! # ere’s a new girl who
works at the Dav with short brown hair and the most mesmerizing blue eyes. Your laugh makes my day so much better. Don’t be sur-prised if you see me in there a lot more o$ en, despite the terrible lines.
! To the person who point-ed out that there are less smokers on campus now ...
really? Are you seriously ar-guing that whether or not a person smokes corresponds with how intelligent they are? Wow.
! I want to rant but then I think about the starving children in Africa and I don’t.
! You are beautiful. Yes, I mean you.
! To “It’s called a straight-ener and makeup, girlies!” chick - I’d rather not have damaged hair and bad skin, thanks. And not look like a total clone.
! Give me liberty, or give me a wonk shirt.
! Has anyone heard any-thing about a secret society?
! I know everyone says that
Communications is the easi-est major, but I’m drowning — DROWNING in work right now. Junior year fail.
! Dear Conservative who is afraid to admit it ... Didn’t you know that liberalism is a new form of fascism? Disa-gree with a lib and run for your life.
! Dear friends,# ere’s more to life than
being in a sorority. Some-times I honestly feel like you don’t get that.
! Dear Mr. Shapiro,I am an ROTC Cadet and I
would like to get co% ee with you, because you obviously have never sat down and
spoken with one of us.If that’s not possible, if you
see one of us in uniform please come up and talk.
# ank you,An ROTC Cadet
! To the girl that I bought co% ee for who was sitting next to me in the grad study lounge on Monday: I didn’t have a chance to get your name because it’s hard to have a conversation in the li-brary, but I just wanted to say that you’re gorgeous. I’m in the gym every night. Come ! nd me?
! I want my friend’s help to get me a boyfriend, but I’m afraid he’d just want her — she’s really pretty. Prettier than me.
! Tavern curly fries. that’s all.
! Went to London instead of Cairo for study abroad. Seriously regretting this de-cision.
! I just spoke to someone who graduated in 1937 from American University at Pho-nathon. CRAZY.
! # ere should be a campus wide protest/rally in honor of the Egyptian people. If we are ranked the most po-litically active school in the country, we need to show it!
! First time in Kogod and what am I welcomed with?
Business Wonks Live Here.Gross, I wanted to turn
around.
! Get a hold of yourself Kogod, I thought you were classier.
! # ey’re no Georgetown Cupcakes, but the cupcakes from the Eagle’s Nest are surprisingly good.
! Dear shuttle driver who gives students a “word of the day” each morning: You are AWESOME!
READ THEPOLICE BLOTTER
ONLINE.
EAGLE RANTS
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By LAUREN LANDAUEagle Staff Writer
If you’re doing the dirty this Valentine’s Day, make sure you’re clean and get tested for STIs. But be ready to shell out more than you did for that bouquet of roses.
! e Student Health Center can no longer provide free on-site testing for chlamy-dia and gonorrhea due to D.C. Department of Health funding cuts.
! e Health Center now provides these tests for a $30 fee. ! e screenings were previously free for stu-dents because the city gov-ernment provided the kits to AU at no charge.
Student Health Center Di-rector Dan Bruey said the Health Center is currently working on obtaining low cost or free testing, through either its lab or outside pro-grams.
In response to student concerns over a" ordability, the Health Center created a discounted STI package that tests for herpes type 1, herpes type 2, syphilis and hepatitis C.
! e package costs $80 and is not billed to insurance. If students would rather bill the testing to their insur-ance, the price is higher.
Bruey said that most stu-dents choose to pay the discounted fee rather than have it billed to insurance because some students are on their parents’ insurance plans and don’t want their parents to know they got tested.
Bruey said that students usually visit the Health Center for another reason, but start discussing STI screening and decide to get tested while they’re there.
When students come into the Health Center for STI testing now, they are given the option to either pay the Health Center fee or go to a free testing site. ! e Health Center refers students to Planned Parenthood if they cannot a" ord the fees.
! ere are more than 40 locations in the District where students can get free
STI testing, treatment no longer free for D.C. college students
Old Balducci’s space to be split among multiple tenantsBy KATE FROEHLICHEagle Staff Writer
The space of the former high-end grocery store Balducci’s on New Mexico Avenue will likely be di-vided up into AU offices, a gourmet Italian restau-rant, a soup/salad shop and a yoga-related space, according to AU officials.
These tenants for the AU-owned 3201 New Mexico Ave., NW have not been finalized yet, according to Jorge Abud, assistant vice president for Facili-ties Development and Real Estate. The tenants should move in April at the earli-
est and February 2012 at the latest.
The space has been va-cant since June 30, 2009.
AU wanted to offer an opportunity to other lo-cal businesses, including some women-owned busi-nesses and neighborhood owners, according to Pen-ny Pagano, AU’s director of Community and Local Government Relations.
“We used both financial and nonfinancial criteria. These are good businesses that will help the commu-nity,” Abud said.
Chef Geoff ’s owner Geoff Tracy offered two propos-als for the vacant space, a neighborhood market and
gourmet sandwich/salad shop, both of which were ultimately rejected.
“I’m obviously disap-pointed,” Tracy said. “I’m a good tenant, been a ten-ant for 11 years, and pay my rent on the first of every month. My hope was my reputation and track record in terms of per-formance. I thought my connections to neighbor-hood might have resulted in at least a little more communication from AU in regards to getting the space.”
Tracy offered to pay $5 more per square foot than he currently pays for the adjacent Chef Ge-
off ’s space, which is also owned by AU. The Univer-sity wanted $55 per square foot for the new space, but Tracy said he was only willing to pay $43.
Tracy said his proposals were rejected without an explanation.
“When we get a number of proposals, we work and negotiate with the most competitive party. We don’t usually point out why we chose somebody else,” Abud said.
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testing, including at the De-partment of Health Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic, at 1900 Massachusetts Ave., SE.
D.C. Public School students receive free testing
Although the city cut free testing from certain com-munities, including college health centers, it increased coverage for D.C. public high schools.
Now any public high school student can get free on-site testing and treat-ment for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
D.C.’s rate of chlamydia is three times the national av-erage, according to the De-partment of Health.
Fi# een to 18-year-olds make up half of D.C.’s chlamydia and gonorrhea cases, according to Michael Kharfen, a Department of Health spokesman.
! e Department of Health decided to cut free screen-ing at college health cent-ers and other communities a# er reviewing the statistics on chlamydia and gonor-rhea infections in D.C.
“We were not $ nding very high infection rates among the college students, but we found very high rates among our adolescent stu-dents aged 15 to 19,” Khar-fen said.
Because of the lower in-fection rate among college students and higher rate among high school stu-dents, the Department of Health needed to reallocate where their money was go-ing.
“With the limited funding that we receive, we have to focus those e" orts where we know there are lots of infec-tions,” Kharfen said. “O" er-ing free testing for people who don’t have the disease is not the same as o" ering free testing for adolescents who have no other resources and o# en cannot rely upon their parents, because they don’t want to talk to their parents about it.”
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Stories from Egypt: A student account of unrest in CairoBy NICOLE GLASSEagle Staff Writer
Catherine Litten, a junior in the School of International Service, had been in Egypt less than two weeks before she and other AU students were evacuated. She will continue her study abroad in Rabat, Morocco.
Are you currently studying abroad in Egypt and where? Since when have you been there?
I was studying abroad in Egypt. I was to attend Amer-ican University in Cairo for the 2011 spring semester. I had arrived Jan. 21, and le! Feb. 1.
What’s your living situation like? Homestay/apartment/roommates? Where in Cairo?
I was living in the Zamalek dorms, located on the Zamalek island neighbor-hood near downtown Cairo (Tahrir Square was right across the Nile from us). It was a dorm of largely Ameri-can/international students, separated by genders (one half of the building was men’s, one half women’s).
Can you describe what you have experienced in Egypt so far? Have you experienced any of the violence/riots/etc.? What was it like? Is it scary? What have your friends expe-rienced?
In terms of experiencing the sights of Cairo, not a lot happened. We had a week of orientation on the AUC campus, which is located 20 miles outside of Cairo in New Cairo, and most days the ori-entation ran from 9 to 3, with us catching a 1.5 hour shuttle ride back to the dorms ... not a lot of time to explore.
On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the start of the protests, a tour of Old Cairo/Islamic Cairo was arranged for us. We had at least 15 plainclothes cops/security o" cers follow-ing us (about a group of 100, mostly American, students), as well as quite a few regular police o" cers. # e day was supposed to last until 5 p.m. Around 1, we were rushed
through Khan el Khalili (the big, famous bazaar in Cairo) and around 1:30 were loaded onto our buses saying we were all being taken back to New Cairo campus ... not the dorms. We were told by our RAs this was simply a precautionary measure and that we were all safe, but we’d have to stay on campus for an hour before the buses could take us home.
Hearing this, Eva Rasho, Macarena Torres-Girao and I (all AU students), went to sit a mere 30 feet away from where everyone else was sit-ting so we could chat and en-joy the view of the gardens at AUC. AUC’s campus is liter-ally the most gorgeous cam-pus I have ever seen. Knocks AU’s socks o$ .
Anyway, a! er 20 minutes we head back to the main plaza and everyone is gone. We’re told by someone that the bus le! 10 minutes ago. We of course panicked, but believed another, regular shuttle would take us back. At that point it was 3:55, and we were told another shuttle would arrive at 4. We get on this shuttle, and 10 minutes out, the shuttle turns back and the driver says we are stuck on campus ... no shut-tles are running to Zamalek since the roads have been blocked (we drive through downtown to get back to Zamalek). We began calling RAs, orientation leaders and others ... and are told we will probably have to spend the night on campus.
However, the three of us as well as two other girls le! behind did not want this to happen. We called a cab, and spent 2.5 hours driving to our dorms. We had to take a circumnavigated route, going halfway across Cairo in order to % nd an unblocked bridge onto our island.
For the past week we’ve been on curfew set by the govern-ment, usually from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. During the day we would walk around Zamalek, since we could not access the rest of town really. At night, we’d sit on the roo! op ter-race and hear gunshots and tear gas grenades echoing through the city, because
Cairo, a city of 18 million, essentially became a ghost town at night. # e dusk calls to prayer echoed through-out the city, being the only sounds beyond those shots we’d hear.
We’d watch billowing smoke rise from buildings that were set on % re/being looted, and would look down below as we watched people who lived in the Zamalek neighborhood arm themselves with sticks and pipes, the only means of defense against looters. Tear gas would wa! up to us along the wind, making our throats burn and our eyes water.
One night, I can’t remember which now, we saw a car get smashed in from the terrace. Another night, I think Sun-
day night, around 2 a.m., RAs came pounding on our doors telling us to lock them from the inside – something was going on outside. It turned out to be a false alarm, but nonetheless, for many stu-dents who le! the next day (Monday) for evacuation, it only con% rmed the need to leave Cairo.
As for myself, I never felt in danger on the island. If I had ventured into the protests I would have felt di$ erent I’m sure, but if I could have stayed I would. AUC howev-er had already delayed class a week, and the day we le! said they were delaying it another week – AU said if the semes-ter became too truncated, we would not receive credit if
we stayed. None of us could risk staying and not getting credit/no refund, so we le! . It was not due to the protests that we evacuated, but due to academic uncertainty.
What’s happening to the stu-dents in the AU program now? Are they remaining in Egypt for the rest of the semester or are they being sent home?
For AUC, 7 of the 8 of us have evacuated (we weren’t really in contact the with the last person). Macarena and I are going to the AMIDE-AST Rabat program, leaving Istanbul for Morocco tomor-row. Hannah and Kaitlin are studying abroad in Istanbul and are already here (they le! Monday night, we le!
Tuesday a! ernoon). Eva is returning to D.C.,
however it is up to the profes-sors whether she can get into classes, and many professors have shown reluctance at let-ting her reenter due to their feeling that she could not catch up, even though she is willing to do the work and is in a dire situation.
Patrick is unsure yet, but may go to the UAE Sharjah program or back to D.C. Finally, Greg is planning to attend AU Rome. We’ve all been evacuated and all ended up in Istanbul.
But more information on the AMIDEAST program: It already started, however, half ! see EGYPT on page 9
“... we can understand why such cuts were made, but we believe
that the subsidizing of such test-ing is important to increase access for students who cannot afford to
pay for it.”
!"#$#!$!"#$%&$'()*(+,-- .Love does cost a thing
D.C. cuts to college STI testing justi able, but need to be restoredAs we approach the
one day of the year that it’s acceptable to be an overly sentimental, lovey-dovey sap, we de-cided to editorialize on a relevant issue: STIs.
In D.C. alone, the rate for gonorrhea is 4.3 times higher than the national average, while the rate for chlamydia is 2.7 times higher, ac-cording to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. How-ever, accessible testing for these infections also exists, sometimes even free of charge — un-less the Department of Health decides to cut funding for free tests, as has happened recently to D.C.-area universi-
ties. Upon hearing their reasoning, we can un-derstand why such cuts were made, but we be-lieve that the subsidiz-ing of such testing is important to increase access for students who cannot afford to pay for it.
Not all STI testing was affected, just that of chlamydia and gon-orrhea. The Student Health Center, up un-til last fall, provided the now $30 test free of charge to AU students. Although $30 does not seem like an enormous chunk of change, to col-lege students operating on little to no income, it’s a pretty big deal. For some, it’s a large enough
chunk of change to avoid testing altogether, especially if they don’t know for sure if they need the tests.
We’ll hand it to D.C.
college students — the primary reason for the funding cut was that STI rates among us are pretty low. The Depart-ment of Health diverted
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As we continue through these long, desolate, de-spairing days of winter, it’s time that we bring a little more light into your lives. " at’s right, it’s time for the commencement of our “" e Eagle’s Next Great Ranter” competition.
Despite the title, this is not a glori! ed Eagle Rants — this is a place where you can elaborate upon your rants, taking them from a two sentence vent to a well-con-structed article. " is contest is for those of you who love to comment on our content, but yet have not tried your own hand at it. It’s also for those of you wanting to try your hand at a di% erent style of writing, or just attempt-ing something new because you have some extra free time (lucky you). Whatever your motive, we invite and encourage you to put your
best e% ort forth. Honestly, what do you have to lose?
Now this isn’t going to be some free-handed, haphaz-ard e% ort on our part, and we hope it isn’t on your end, either. We have some ground rules to lay down:
1. Any work submitted must be original — it can’t be something you did for class or something you post-ed on your blog and want to pass our way a& er. (If you think it’s super awesome and want to post a link to it a& erwards, that’s ! ne, but it cannot be featured before-hand).
2. " is should go without saying, but we’re saying it anyway — no plagiarism. Your work must be your own, no making up facts, all the same stu% that goes for class regarding plagia-rism applies here as well. All entries will contain a source
are being made without our input.
In the meantime, the Student Health Center is hard at work trying to restore free testing and is even considering collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Univer-sity to make this a real-ity.
We applaud the efforts of the Health Center in helping ensure AU students have access to these tests, although we wish that the Depart-ment of Health would restore the funding first.
our funding towards high school testing and treatment, which is substantially more important considering that the 15-18 age de-mographic accounts for half of chlamydia and gonorrhea cases in D.C.
One factor contribut-ing to these cuts may have been the lack of student representation in the D.C. government. Aside from Deon Jones and the student repre-sentative elected to the Georgetown area Ad-visory Neighborhood Commission, college student representation in D.C. government is non-existent, which means that important decisions that affect us
CONTEST: THE EAGLE’S NEXT GREAT RANTER
!"#$%&$'()*(+,-- ./"!"#$! 0123243(5
!to Punxsutawney Phil for predicting an
early spring this year – this cold weather deal is so last month.
" to the Dav not being open more o! en –
those of us dead and trying to function before 11 a.m. on a weekend morning are forced to rely on McDonald’s co" ee (which isn’t terrible, but just isn’t nearly the same).
!to Super Bowl commercials. Don’t
tell us you didn’t love the little kid dressed like Darth Vader in the Volkswagen commercial.
"to those people that go overboard on the
cheese factor on Valentine’s Day. We get it - you’re in love, you’re not single – no need to make the rest of us want to gag.
!to the Washington Post’s Going Out Guide
for this upcoming weekend. # ey have some pretty good ideas for what to do even if you’re not celebrating that one holiday on the 14th.
Cadets deserve same respect given to all AU students
“Are the male and female cadets who already attend American University deserving of the same common respect and dignity
as the rest of the students on campus, or should they be ridiculed for their identity?”
and humility is a necessary part of the development of a commissioned o$ cer, it comes with the drawback that ROTC cadets may be hampered from engaging in the dialogue necessary to justify their presence on campus when it is called into question by men such as Mr. Shapiro.
Good thing I’m not a
# is past # ursday, I was invited by a squad of D.C. ROTC Cadets to one of their morning physical training sessions. Being a enlisted Iraq veteran who has just returned from his second tour, my ego took a little hit a! er being beaten by 20 year old cadets during shuttle sprints (of course I patron-izingly told them that if I had a college gymnasium to train in, I would be running circles around them). A! er the workouts, the platoon leader called the cadets in, and told them that an arti-cle had been published in the American University newspaper that they might take o" ense to. She told the cadets that while they may have strong feelings on the matter, they were not to criticize the article or re-spond publicly. # at’s just not what cadets do.
Make sense, I thought. Ca-dets are going to need to learn that discipline to keep their head down and stay fo-cused on the mission, shrug-ging o" praise and criticism alike, even when their % rst instinct may be to react.
While the development of military professionalism
cadet.# e practicable issue that
this article poses to the stu-dents of American Univer-sity has nothing to do with the concept of reserve of-% cer training, but rather the following: Are the male and female cadets who already attend American Univer-sity deserving of the same common respect and dig-nity as the rest of the stu-dents on campus, or should
ences and group culture are di" erent from the non-mili-tary student. # e closest way to illustrate how cadets and veterans perceive this arti-cle is to humbly ask you, the reader, if you’ve ever been told that because of who you are, and that which you can’t change, you are somehow contemptible. Being called a killer and warmonger may seem fair game to some, but for soldiers such criticism
tures may hold, together we are American University. At this school we pride our-selves on diversity not only of being, but also of beliefs, and by extension of this soli-darity our di" erences may serve only to enhance the greater community. As a student who has served two tours in Iraq, what has struck me most about American was how much I had to learn from students who demon-
strated their service in dif-ferent ways, from those that volunteer in the D.C. com-munity to those brave study abroad students who have witnessed the uprisings in Egypt this past week. Conor Shapiro would like to imag-ine American University’s relationship with the mili-tary as a binary between idolatry and criticism, praise and scorn. As members of the military, we have asked for neither, but rather only the common equality and shared kinship with the rest of the student body.
# e discussion over wheth-er or not ROTC should be expanded is a legitimate discussion, and faculty and students alike should give serious thought and analysis to the matter. Mr. Shapiro is by no means required to support the program. But as with all students at Amer-ican University, our cadets are owed the reciprocal dig-nity and respect that makes our school as exceptional as it is. John KaminSchool of Public A! airs, 2012Vice President, AU Vets
cuts to the % ber of our being, as it suggests that the service that has become the cruci-ble of our lives will forever alienate us from our civilian brothers and sisters.
Yet despite the discrimina-tory rhetoric employed by Mr. Shapiro, let this be abso-lutely clear: No matter what our backgrounds may be, and no matter what our fu-
they be ridiculed for their identity? By inferring sol-diers are murderers, war-mongers and delusional vic-tims, Conor Shapiro makes it absolutely clear that cadets are second class students at American.
Perhaps it is hard to under-stand how deeply upsetting this rhetoric is to cadets and veterans alike, as our experi-
Free elections, checks and balances protect freedom, not military
“I’ve been spraying it for weeks, and look, still no sign of elephants,” he says.
# e same assumption reso-nates with the notion that the military preserves and pro-tects our freedoms.
# e freedoms bestowed from the Constitution aren’t under attack. America faces no militaristic threat — 9/11 was an isolated incident. America wasn’t invaded. It was brutally victimized, but our borders were never threatened. # e militaristic response however, has in-& amed violent extremism, creating multiple jihad net-works expanding throughout the Middle East. # ings get worse, not better, when you combat violence with vio-lence because new enemies emerge — angered over fam-ily and friends who’ve been murdered.
Our militaristic involve-ment increases the probabil-ity of future terrorist attacks, leading our government to
revoke our freedoms. Objec-tively speaking, Americans have fewer freedoms result-ing from these unjust wars (see airports, Patriot Act). # e idea of preserving and protecting our freedoms via military intervention is not only wrong, but the oppo-site has proven true. Ameri-cans are less safe today than before 9/11 and have fewer rights and freedoms.
Secondly, America has an opportune geographic loca-tion. With massive oceans surrounding our borders, we’re largely insulated from invasion. Canadians don’t attribute their freedoms to militaristic hard power. # eir freedoms are upheld through participatory elections; checks and balances; and free press. # ey don’t provoke con& ict through privatized, pro% table, unilateral wars. If military is what makes us free, what of nations who rarely deploy?
Some nations have no mili-
tary. I was asked how I could possibly imagine what a na-tion would be like sans mili-tary. A dreamer, a utopian I was called.
Costa Rica, in Central America (a region that’s been plagued by con& ict) is far more geographically vulner-able to attack than America. It’s one of the freest nations in the world, according to Freedom House. # ey man-age quite well, ranking % rst in Happy Planet Index. Costa Rica is also ranked by some to be the most environmentally friendly country on earth.
Evidence overwhelmingly points to non-violent activ-ism as a preserver of free-dom, not military strength.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, “One of the most important lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that military success is not su$ cient to win.”
Scholar David Cortright writes, “New research shows that nonviolence is twice as
e" ective as force in achiev-ing social or political goals,” One reason why is “Govern-ments can justify the use of force against groups that also use force … It is much more di$ cult to justify the use of violence against completely nonviolent protesters.”
Anyone suggesting if I don’t like it here, then move, is missing the point. # at’d be taking the easy way out. It’s because I love this na-tion that I write and espouse non-violence. It’s because I’m distraught by the sight of wounded veterans that I % ght to abolish the military. It’s be-cause I care that I work dili-gently to expose our addic-tion to violence as a source of our problems, not the resolu-tion thereof.
Guess I’m patriotic a! er all.
My previous column gen-erated many interesting re-sponses, some of which were impassioned, thoughtful and well expressed. I appreciate those who took the time to engage in the debate. I read each comment, whether it was a personal indictment, an emotional anecdote or a logical argument.
One prevailing sentiment many expressed can be sum-
marized in one sentence: # e reason I’m able to espouse my (naïve) paci% stic views is only because others are will-ing to % ght for my freedoms.
While other common criti-cisms can hopefully be ad-dressed in future columns, I challenge that spurious claim on its face.
It’s common to make in-correct causal relationships, attributing one factor as ex-planatory for another.
For example, a salesman travels door to door selling elephant repellant. He’s usu-ally shunned, but a few peo-ple give him the time of day.
His pitch is simple:“How does it work, you
ask?”
SMARTER THAN I LOOK
CONOR SHAPIRO
TRENDING TOPICS LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In response: Shapiro veers off course on military
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thus need ROTC. So why can’t AU have both peace-makers and war fighters? If anything having an ROTC program at AU would only help liberalize the military. Given our student body, it is not unreasonable to as-sume that the majority of cadets in an AU ROTC program would be liberal. This would mean every year we would be send-ing liberal officers into the military. Robert Gates and Mike Mullen make up the most liberal defense secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman com-bo the U.S. has probably have had. On top of that, our president is Barack
With the campus plan hav-ing been ! nalized and re-leased, increased attention is given to the Advisory Neigh-borhood Commissions that have a large in" uence over the approval of these plans.
It is important to have a dia-logue with the community, both between the commis-sioners and residents. During the campaign for the current Commissioner positions, current Commissioner Tom Smith (3D-02) had stated the importance of reaching out to the students that form the bulk of his constituency.
In the September 21, 2010 issue of the Eagle, Mr. Smith participated in the “Five Questions with…” series of the Eagle. He was asked “What will you do to repre-sent the AU community in the future?” He responded that he would reach out to Student Government leaders for opportunities to meet with students, which will be occur-ring when he sits down with Commissioner Deon Jones (3D-07) on Feb. 22 to discuss issues facing students at a public forum. He also stated he would “ask # e Eagle to consider making space avail-able for a column periodically to communicate directly with student.”
# is is a great idea, as he would be able to have an un! ltered means of commu-nicating directly to students. Unfortunately, Smith has not written an editorial to date, which has taken an opportu-nity away from the students to hear directly from Smith on how he feels about issues relating directly to them.
I hope that he will write more frequently in these pag-es and continues to engage AU Students.Ed LevandoskiSchool of Public A! airs, 2012
EDITOR’S NOTE: # e Ea-gle has not received any sub-missions from Smith.
Some questions for Tom Smith Reading your articles
these past months have done wonders for my mental health. I thought to myself, “here is a guy who gets it.” A real liberal, not some obnoxious kid yelling about legalizing marijuana and overthrow-ing the government while living in his parents’ base-ment. After reading your last article, however, I can only describe my feelings as disappointment. I am a liberal democrat. But I am also a cadet in Air Force ROTC.
In roughly 18 months, I will receive my com-mission and go on active duty. My father was in the Air Force, my grandfather served in the Army. I have had a member of my fam-ily serve in the military going back all the way to the American Civil War. Are we murderers, as you implied in your article? Lord only knows that I do not agree with every mili-tary decision that the past two presidents have made, and I will certainly not deny that there have been cases of soldiers, sailors and airmen committing atrocities up to and in-cluding murder on the battlefield. But implying that soldiers are murder-ers because of a few bad eggs is like saying because there are doctors who per-form abortions perform abortions at points when the fetus could be birthed and survive independently means that all abortionists are murders.
I also agree with you in your article that military service is not the only way to serve your country. My brother is a school teach-er in Cincinnati public schools and his work is invaluable to this country. But how are the fire fight-ers who died in the World Trade Center towers any more or less noble than the Special Forces operators who died in the mountains of Tora Bora only months
later? Both died in service of their countries, proba-bly scared out their minds, in situations they probably did not fully understand.
The idea of world peace, and working together to achieve it, is a noble goal. But it is completely unre-alistic in this day and age. Until the day that swords are beaten into plow-shares, the United States will need a military and
Obama. Imagine what could be accomplished if there was a sizeable stock of junior and mid-level of-ficers behind them.
The mission of the United States military is to aggressively wage war against an opponent when called upon. But this does not mean that the U.S. military has never done anything for the better-ment of mankind. Chief Master Sergeant Tony Travis of my beloved Air Force was named as one of Time Magazines Top 100 influential people in 2010, because 12 hours after the earthquake in Haiti he and his team were in a helicop-ter on their way there. 28 minutes after touchdown, they had set up the larg-est single runway opera-tion in history, bringing food and supplies to the people of Haiti. The USNS Hope is essentially a float-ing hospital without a sin-gle weapon on board. It just returned from South America, making stops at major ports and giving away free medical treat-ment. These two examples are just a few out of liter-ally hundreds examples where the military stepped in for no tactical or stra-tegic gain, but simply to help.
I do not ask you to re-think your status on U.S. foreign policy, or what you think you know about military service. But I do ask you to be more opin-ion minded about it, about us. Be more liberal, if you will.Cadet Evan M. WieczorekAir Force ROTC Detachment 130SIS, ‘12
“Until the day that swords are beaten into plowshares, the United States
will need a military and thus need
ROTC. So why can’t AU have both
peacemakers and war ghters?”
LETTERS TO THE EDITORThe American Dream is Green: The new AU Sustainability Fund
# is January, leaders in Stu-dent Government and AU’s environmental community announced an evolution of the Clean Energy Revolving Fund to help mobilize students and community members to create a more sustainable campus.
Instead of waiting until $100,000 is fundraised for projects to begin and focus-ing only on clean energy, the improved AU Sustainability Fund will bene! t students im-mediately and empower our community to implement a diverse array of sustainability initiatives. # e change from CERF into the AU Sustaina-bility Fund was made to adapt to changing local and national environmental developments, to better re" ect the strengths of our community, and to help bring our campus together around environmental issues.
# is fall, the Sustainability Fund will enable all AU stu-dents and community mem-bers to apply for grants to implement sustainability initi-atives on campus. # e Sustain-ability Fund board will allocate funds for worthy projects and provide support for applicants to put their ideas into action throughout the year. # rough this collaborative and grass-roots e$ ort, the Sustainabil-ity Fund will help empower, educate and engage our com-munity to make AU America’s greenest campus.
# e AU Sustainability Fund will not be limited to projects that pay themselves back. # is creates more opportunities for students and community members to design mean-ingful sustainability projects with greater " exibility and resources. # e creativity, in-novation and passion of the AU community can now be fully unleashed to grow green initiatives from expanding the community garden to com-posting.
Fighting climate change and ! nding a way to live sustain-ably is one of the most criti-cal challenges our generation faces. # e Student Govern-ment and the AU community responded to this challenge
with the Clean Energy Revolv-ing Fund. # is was a necessary and practical ! rst step in start-ing a conversation on campus around sustainability that is evolving into an even stronger initiative. All of this can be achieved while uniting our campus without an increase in the Student Activity fee.
In addition to the broad range of environmental projects that our community will start through the Sustain-ability Fund this fall, the Clean Energy Revolving Fund has al-ready created tangible changes on campus. It has sparked a meaningful discussion about sustainability at AU, helped inspire the senior class gi% of a wind turbine, and earned overwhelming support from students in the spring 2010 Clean Energy Referendum. Also, later this year, the De-partment of Sustainability will announce a solar installation project that will make AU the largest solar energy producer in the D.C. area at nearly no cost to the University.
# e ultimate goal of the Clean Energy Revolving Fund was to engage our community around sustainability and cre-ate a culture of environmental consciousness on our campus. No matter what it is called, the e$ orts of all who supported the Clean Energy Revolving Fund last year continue on through the Sustainability Fund. From uniting our community around environmental issues to generating ideas to build a more sustainable school, we look forward to seeing the Sustainability Fund ignite the passion of AU students to leave our campus, our city and our country better than when we found it.
We welcome your comments and feedback about this initia-tive. If you have questions or ideas for sustainability projects, please contact: [email protected] Jones, Stephen Bronskill and Sara SchwartzAU Student Government Department of Environmental Policy
Neil and Ann Ker-win aren’t the only AU alumni to tie the knot. In fact, they’re in good company:
! ! ere are 2,500 alumni couples that AU knows of.! 50 alumni are mar-
ried or partnered with a current faculty or sta" member.! ! ree alumni board
members are married or partnered with an-other AU alumnus.! Alumni weddings are
regularly held at the Kay Spiritual Life Center.
— ROB COY
SOURCE: Heather Buck-ner, assistant director of Alumni Programs
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! from EGYPT on page 5
Kerwins find lasting love at AUBy KATE FAHERTYEagle Staff Writer
! ey met at a party. He was a policy wonk. She was an art history major.
Neil and Ann Kerwin met nearly 40 years ago while both were undergraduates at AU. ! ey # rst met as juniors at a party and felt an im-mediate connection to each other.
“I felt something pretty strong. He was serious, so he made me look at things from a di" erent perspective,” Ann Kerwin said. “He was funny, and he still is.”
Although the two felt a connection, they le$ the party without even knowing each other’s last names.
Soon a$ er their # rst en-counter, the two ran into each other near what is now the Katzen Arts Center. ! ey began dating, spending their # rst date celebrating Neil Kerwin’s 21st birthday with friends at a local bar, the Old Styme.
! e Old Styme, featuring a sing-along accordion player and décor resembling an old German beer hall, was a fa-
vorite of the Kerwins, as well as many other AU students.
! e two graduated in 1971 and married in Indianapolis in 1972.
“So much of our lives are invested in the University,” Neil Kerwin said. “AU has been an enormously large part of our lives.”
Forty years later, the Ker-wins still enjoy spending time with college friends, visiting their favorite res-taurants in D.C. and along Bethesda Row. Just as they did as students, the Ker-wins enjoy taking advantage of the city’s museums and cultural events, in addition to speakers and events on campus.
“We’ve always had a close connection to the quad,” Neil Kerwin said. “We spent a lot of time there together. It was always a special place, and I think it still is.”
Ann Kerwin said that her husband made her a better student because he was very serious about his school-work.
“I so wish I would have met him freshman year,” she said.
Many of Neil Kerwin’s memories of AU involve his academics, whether as a student majoring in Political Science or as an undergrad-uate teaching assistant.
Even their son Michael attended AU and similarly met his wife while earning his undergraduate degree here.
Michael Kerwin, a 2005 alumnus of the School of Communication, met his wife, Kara, a 2007 alumna of the School of Public A" airs, at an o" -campus party when she was a freshman. ! e two carried on as friends for years before # nally realizing that they had much more than just a friendship. ! e couple married in 2008.
Something special the elder Kerwins enjoy about Valen-tine’s Day are the handmade cards they have shared in the past.
Ann Kerwin’s favorite is an anatomically-correct heart drawn by her husband.
“On the inside, he wrote me ‘My heart pounds for you,’” she said.
COLLEGE SWEETHEARTS — Neil and Ann Kerwin met nearly 40 years ago as AU students. They graduated in 1971 and married in 1972. Their son Michael Kerwin, a 2005 graduate of the School of Communication, met his wife Kara here.
ANA SANTOS / THE EAGLE
By SAL MOTIANEYEagle Contributing Writer
Washington Semester Dean David Brown will step down from his position at the end of the academic year.
Brown is not permanently leaving the University. He will still serve as an adviser within the program, where he will have more time to reach out to students di-rectly.
“I won’t be coming into this big o% ce anymore now, but rather a cubicle down the hall,” he said.
Brown said he has accom-plished everything he ever thought of and much more.
“I’ve done just about eve-rything I can do to run and develop a great program here in our nation’s capital,” he said.
Brown has been at AU since 1971, when he started o" as a professor in the School of Public A" airs. During that time, he also began teaching in the Washington Semester Program, and soon became the program’s dean. He also was in charge of the World Capitals program, now known as AU Abroad, until 2003.
During Brown’s tenure,
the number of students who come from colleges across the country to experience D.C. for a semester has in-creased.
In the beginning, there were about 90 students per semester. Now, there are over 350 students from across the globe in the program.
“It’s a rare job at any insti-tution to have the freedom to conceptualize, create, market, implement and ad-vise a series of new, exciting programs,” he said.
As dean, Brown would also travel the country and some parts of the world, where he would go to di" erent colleg-es and market the program. Brown said he now looks forward to spending more time at home.
“Part of my decision to retire rests on the fact that I just want to spend more time with my family,” he said. “I want to see my granddaughters grow up. For 40 years, I’ve been con-stantly traveling and I think now is the time to put that to a close.”
Brown’s replacement, Don-na Fish, will take over in the summer.
Washington Semester Program Dean David Brown to step down next year
of AMIDEAST Cairo is going to the same program, so we’ll all start behind together. I will be doing home stay and the program ends May 14, early than AUC’s May 26. Luckily, I booked a one-way ticket to Cairo to being so do not have to worry about cancellations/connections/reimbursement for that & ight.
Are you getting reimbursed for any part of your study abroad program?
For AUC, since we did not start classes we get a full re-imbursement for our tuition, which will go to our new pro-grams. For dorm costs, we are unsure, but are hoping we’ll be mostly reimbursed. Most of us also paid for trips arranged by AUC, such as trips to Alex-andria and Sinai that were ob-viously canceled and we hope to be reimbursed for those as
well. We are unsure how long this process will take.
Do you plan to return to Egypt when things have calmed down?
Macarena and I plan to re-turn to Cairo at the end of our Rabat program for two weeks to actually see Egypt, and visit our Egyptian friends we made there. Hopefully things are calm by then.
Is there anything else you think is interesting to add?
As much as this was an in-teresting experience, never did I once feel unsafe. More than anything, the worst part was us not knowing what to do, what was happening or where we’d go. It was a state of limbo for a number of days, and everyone was feeling the pressure. I may have a stom-ach ulcer now.
AU IN LOVE
In retrospect: Snowpocalypse
‘SNOWMAGEDDON’ PACKAGE PREPARED BY PROF. JANE HALL’S COMM-320 REPORTING CLASS
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One year later, students and staff remember the epic
February snowstorms
“We did have a few interest-ing people come down to the front desk drunk out of their minds. It was a handful of people. ! ey weren’t trans-port-drunk, but they were funny-drunk, which are the better ones because at 3 a.m., you need to laugh.”
Margot Witter, 19Junior, SIS
“Well, a" er four days of sleep-ing until 3 p.m., we got bored and decided to go on a Steak and Egg adventure. ! ere was snow completely cover-ing Mass Ave. and we were walking in the middle street and there were other groups of people walking down the road. It really looked like the apocalypse. We # nally got there and the TV was on, and that’s when I found out that we got 44 inches of snow instead of usually four in a year.”
Julia Schultz, 20Sophomore, SIS
“I haven’t really decided whether a lot [of snow] is good or not. I mean, it’s exciting. I haven’t really experienced enough of it to get sick of it yet. I was kind of surprised that people just grab it with their hands and stu$ . ! at’s intense, man. I play with the sand because I’m from Hawaii and that’s what we do because we don’t have snow, but that’s a trip, man.”
Kate Greubel, 20Eagle sta! member
“Let me break it down for you. ! e good things about the snowstorm were that we were paid time and a half, we got to close early, and the students really enjoyed the specials we had. ! e bad things were that it was hard to travel, there were a lot of falls and accidents, and we didn’t always get our breaks on time.”
Kevin NelsonCounter Attendant for Terrace Dining Services
Courtesy of KATE GREUBELONLY IN D.C. — After the massive amount of snowfall last February, some locals trudged down to the National Mall to sled down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
NICOLE GLASS / EAGLE FILE PHOTOWHOOPS! — Snow and wind collapsed the front canopy covering for the bridge between the Mary Graydon Center, Battelle-Tompkins and the Butler Pavilion during the second February snowfall. No one was injured in the collapse.
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AU better prepared for Mother Nature
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
PROTEST FOR PALESTINEMembers of Students for Justice in Palestine protested on the Main Quad Feb. 7. The students raised awareness for the group’s upcoming event, “UnblockAID Gaza!,” using a Palestinian fl ag and cardboard cutouts of guns.
Send submissions [email protected]
SHIRA KARSEN
By RACHEL KARAS and ANTHONY MARTINEZEagle Staff Writer and Eagle Contributing Writer
After a year of snow and precipitation-fueled puns, AU officials say they are now better equipped to deal with winter’s natural disasters.
The blizzards of February 2010, known as “Snowpocalypse” and “Snowmageddon,” tested the strength of AU’s emergency preparedness. In the process, it set a precedent for handling future storms.
Preparation for short-term and long-term snowstorms is the same, according to Chris Moody, executive director of Housing and Dining
Programs. Groundskeepers and
snow removal crews begin planning for winter storms as early as November, according to Mark Feist, assistant director of Facilities Management. Preparation involves equipment maintenance and adding snowplows to University trucks.
First, an emergency management work team looks at the University’s protocols for weather-related emergencies and creates a plan based on what is most relevant to the time of year and the weather situation, Moody said.
Facilities Management is then in charge of stockpiling salt and equipment to clear roadways and sidewalks. From there, the challenge is
managing the actual storm and student reaction.
To combat last year’s storms, the entire Facilities Management staff was housed on-campus and worked around the clock.
“After 10 hours of operating equipment, you’re pretty burned out,” said David Wilson, a grounds maintenance zone supervisor. “Sometimes we have to drop back and let it just come down. There’s no way to keep up.”
Once a storm starts, the University focuses on communicating with students about upcoming activities on campus, such as sporting events, movie nights and dances.
“Snowpocalypse” helped show Housing and Dining how to plan successful events in bad weather,
should another storm occur.
“Last year was a good case study in what activities would attract students and what activities would not,” Moody said. “More informal things worked better because people just wanted to get out of their rooms and interact.”
In the event of another large snowstorm, Housing and Dining plans to work with information technology resources to expand communication to students who live off-campus and cannot receive e-mails through the residence halls.
Professors used Blackboard, Wimba Classroom, Google Wave, Facebook, Microsoft PowerPoint, Skype, e-mail and telephones
to communicate with students during the storm. Twenty-one classes were held via Wimba during last year’s storms, according to the Center for Teaching, Research and Learning.
CTRL Director James Lee believes AU faculty is better prepared for another blizzard because of online classes. Since last February, enrollment in CTRL’s online tools training course has doubled.
“Just because we had a big snowstorm does not mean we stop [teaching],” Lee said. “It can happen again even if it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience … Swine flu kind of brought [emergency preparation] to the conscience, but ‘Snowmageddon’ made it a reality that [we] won’t
forget.”Weather emergencies
require that essential staff members still be able to reach the University. Last year, Bon Appétit workers stayed in Georgetown hotels and 40 AU employees were housed on-campus over the course of a week, according to Moody.
“Snow events take major commitment from the staff to be away from their families and to be here to provide services,” Moody said. “It’s great when students appreciate the [staff ] that don’t have a day off of work like many others have. Those are the real heroes of a snow event.”
Staff writer Abby Fennewald and Melissa Winn contributed to this story.
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Twitter covers #AU
AU ranks fourth in division on Peace Corps list
!Our goal is to send out graduates who can see a problem, understand what to do, attack that problem and be able to solve it creatively.”
—Leonard SteinhornProfessor, Public Communication
The School of Communication prepares students for professional careers in !lm " media arts# pu$lic communication# and %ournalism&
' second ma%or in S(C is a smart pairin) *ith most '+ ma%ors# as S(C ma%ors onl, ta-e ./012 credits to complete& 3n fact# students *ho ma%or in S(C are also re4uired to choose at least a minor in an additional School or Colle)e& 5an, choose a dou$le ma%or&
5a-e the most of ,our '+ education& Consider S(C as a !rst or second ma%or and )et read, for a career in ma-in) a difference&
Undergraduate Majors: Information SessionsTuesda,# 5arch 67# 28679.867pm 0 5:C 2;; <ednesda,# 'pril /# 28679.867pm 0 5:C 21=
For more information, contact [email protected] or visit our Web site at www.american.edu/soc
Film and Media ArtsJournalismPublic Communication
Serious. Passionate. Professional.
Alum Michael Kempner, CEO of the PR agencyM!! "roup, meets #ith students in his $% of&ce'
By NICOLE GLASSEagle Staff Writer
AU was ranked as having one of the highest numbers of Peace Corps volunteers in the nation this year, com-pared to other universities.
Last year, 55 AU students served in the Peace Corps, ranking it fourth with Cor-nell University on the list of medium-sized universities with the most Peace Corps volunteers. AU was also ranked ! " h for the high-est number of Peace Corps volunteers from graduate school.
AU ranked No. 2 in its di-vision in 2009 with 51 stu-dents in the program.
Blair Ufer, the Career Center’s employer services coordinator, said AU has a high percent of students who volunteer compared to other universities.
“We’re extremely pleased with the number of volun-teers relative to our under-graduate population,” she said.
AU has signi! cantly small-er undergraduate population than George Washington University — which ranked ! rst on the medium-sized universities list — and other D.C.-area universities, but has a large number of vol-unteers.
Since the Peace Corps’ inception, 819 AU alumni have served in the Peace Corps, Ufer said.
Stephen Chapman, pub-lic a# airs specialist for the Peace Corps’ Mid-Atlantic Regional O$ ce, said AU’s high number of volunteers is due to the school’s focus on international a# airs.
“AU students have a strong interest in both service and international a# airs, so the Peace Corps is a perfect way to launch a career,” Chap-man said. “Volunteers re-turn to the United States as global citizens, with leader-ship, language, teaching and community development skills that position them well for educational and profes-sional opportunities.”
% ere are many bene! ts to joining the Peace Corps,
including free housing, medical insurance, gradu-ate study bene! ts and a re-adjustment allowance upon return to the U.S., according to Chapman.
Some of the countries where current AU alumni are serving include Zambia, Jordan, Ecuador, Honduras, Cambodia, Togo, South Af-rica, Bulgaria, Rwanda and Madagascar, Chapman said.
In 2009 and 2010, 51 AU students volunteered each year. % is number has been steadily rising since 2006, when 34 AU students joined the Peace Corps.
By MARIE ZOGLOEagle Staff Writer
Campus was a-Twitter last week with the Social Media Club’s ongoing competition, #hashtagAU.
More than 160 people posted nearly 400 tweets tagged to the contest on its ! rst day, Jan. 31, according to Alex Priest, presi-dent and founder of AU’s So-cial Media Club.
% e contest runs through Feb. 14.
% e Social Media Club cre-ated hashtags for buildings around campus at the begin-ning, but the club hopes to encourage people to build a broader conversation that will be more free-form and organ-ic as students create their own hashtags, Priest said.
“We’ve created hashtags for di# erent parts of campus, dif-ferent buildings, di# erent indi-vidual things, like the Dav and [Mary Graydon Center] and [the Terrace Dining Room] so that we can start building con-versations around individual parts of the campus, whether that’s the shuttle or the Dav or [the School of International Service] or [the Kogod School of Business],” he said.
Any Twitter user can get involved in the competition. Participants must post a tweet featuring the hashtag #sm-cedu. Any post related to AU
is eligible for the contest.“If it’s something that ! ts into
the AU community as inte-grally as Chef Geo# ’s or Gua-pos or whatever it might be, of course you can create your own hashtag,” Priest said.
As of Feb. 6, over 225 people posted 1,015 tweets featuring the #smcedu hashtag.
% e Social Media Club hopes the competition will encour-age participants to start using Twitter to bring the real world online.
“You might talk about getting breakfast in TDR, and that’s ! ne, but then you might have a friend who sees that and asks you what do they have for breakfast this morning, and then maybe they’ll go over there later,” Priest said. “% at kind of conversation wouldn’t be possible without Twitter.”
% e person who uses the #smcedu hashtag the most will win $100 in LivingSocial Deal Bucks.
% is is not the only activ-ity the Social Media Club has planned. Along with regular meetings, they will be hosting a panel on LinkedIn on Feb. 16. % ey will also be hosting the Social Learning Summit April 1-3, a conference on so-cial media and learning.
Dialogue Development Group Applications. Apply today to participate in DDG's dialogue program this semester. Application deadline is Monday, February 14. All dialogues are open to faculty, staff, or student at AU. Beginning on February 21st for a period of seven weeks, each dialogue offers an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations and serves as a great tool to learn a new form of conflict resolution.
Topics this semester are:
! When Gender Identities and Power Converge: A Dialogue on Gender and Power ! Between Clash and Coherence: Exploring Culture, Identity, and Life in the U.S. ! A Meeting Point: Honest Conversations on Faiths and Secularism ! Religion and Sexuality: Exploring the Divide ! Black, Brown, Red, Yellow: A Dialogue for People of Color ! Who, What, When, Where, and White: Perspectives on Whiteness from Around
the World
Email [email protected] or visit www.american.edu/sis/ipcr/ddg.cfm to learn more or download the application. Hard copies of the application are also available outside the IPCR Office on the 2nd floor of SIS.
Advertisement Paid for by the American University Club Council
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Three creative ways to mix up a sweet Valentine’s Day
CLASSY — There are a variety of ways to make this Valentine’s Day something special. It’s easier than you think to prepare a unique and romantic date on a college student budget. From coffee at Tryst, to going to the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden’s ice rink or going to an Ethiopian restaurant at U Street, the options are endless.
By MADELINE WOLFSONEagle Staff Writer
It’s coming, just around that chilly February corner — the day that either sparks dread and induces eye rolls or makes the heart of lovers go all a-! utter. Valentine’s Day is almost here and for some young AU students that means planning the perfect V-day date, a task less simple than it may seem.
A truly atrocious Feb. 14 may be the last for a once happy couple, but a suc-cessfully planned night of romance can be a beacon of continuing success for another couple. But how to know what plan is perfect for your sweetheart! " ere-in lies the paradox.
Well the Scene sta# is here to help provide a path that avoids a Valentine’s Day that ends with your Ju-liet/Romeo throwing a box of mediocre chocolates in your heartbroken face.
Not every date is appro-priate for all stages of a re-lationship. While a night in a roadside motel may be just the spice a dull mar-riage needs, it’s an unsa-vory choice for that girl/guy you met last week in World Politics, unless of course they’re “into that” and then you may or may not want to reconsider your choice in mate.
We’ve done some of the grunt work and have scout-ed out some D.C.’s best date spots tailored to your hon-ey’s needs.
Cool operatorGo for a calm, creative
and classy location if it’s a tricky $ rst date. One possi-bility include an a% ernoon at Tryst, located in Adams Morgan. " is bustling cof-fee shop is a great choice to keep things casual while still showing her/him a good time. " e eclectic dé-cor, slouchy couches and tempting pastries make for a super-sweet setting.
Not to mention that this AdMo treasure is usually a-buzz with chatter which means less awkward $ rst-date silences.
Who knows, maybe you’ll share more than a pain-au chocolat.
The white knight
Maybe a laid back a% er-noon of chatter isn’t your style.
For those looking to go all out and sweep your valen-tine o# of his or her feet feel free to up the ante. Begin with the night with a tried and true gesture. Roses from that subway guy, free-form poetry, why not break out the old guitar then seal the deal and send chills down his or her spine with a night of ice-skating at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden’s ice rink.
End the night with a stop to one of D.C.’s best cupcak-eries (Cake love, Georget-own Cupcake, Red Velvet, what have you).
Who knows, you might be getting breakfast as well.
That super-creative jerk who makes everyone else look bad
" is year it could be you! Put fellow couples to
shame by planning an ex-citing night that will leave your date in awe, rendering them nearly un-dateable for any future partners because they will never live up to your epic standards of awe-some!
Consider what makes you guys great if you’ve been dating for a while. If you love comedy and ethnic food than head out to an Ethiopian restaurant on U Street and follow it up with two surprise tickets to a nearby show at the Wash-ington Improv " eatre. Or simply do something they’d never expect.
Finally, go dancing, sing to your sweetheart at a ka-raoke bar, see that sports game even though you have no idea what a Washing-ton Wizard is — leave your comfort zone in the name of love!
Another option? Share a unique experience together. Hike through Fort Reno Park and share a frigid picnic, go out to a fancy-shmancy Embassy event, dress up and catch the mid-night showing of Rocky Horror picture show, sky-dive — just get creative!
Who knows, you may ac-tually have a great Valen-tine’s Day this year.
SHIRA KARSEN / THE EAGLE
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Setting the mood for Valentine’s Day with the perfect playlist
Celebrating Anti-Valentine’s Day with style in the District
Courtesy of RYAN MUIR / FLICKR
SONGS OF LOVE — Whether you’re in the mood for love or not, artists like the Flaming Lips and Bright Eyes have penned romantic love ballads, while some artists like Kanye opt for writing quite the opposite.
By MAEVE MCDERMOTTEagle Staff Writer
Valentine’s Day is coming fast upon us, and its coming is inexplicably linked with love songs. Musicians have been singing about the boy-meets-girl conundrum for as long as pop music has existed, and in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, here are some quality love songs of past and present:
Bright Eyes — “First Day of My Life”
Even if your soul is as black as the night, this song’s una-bashed beauty will still make you cry. Conor Obsest’s frag-ile voice coupled with heart-breakingly gorgeous lyrics make for one of the best love songs of recent memory and one quintessential for Valen-tine’s Day.
The Smiths — “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
If you sco! at romance and prefer your love songs served with an edge (or on the “500 Days of Summer” sound-track), this masterpiece by the Smiths more than su" ces. Besides, nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day!” like prom-ising your lover a tandem death.
The Flaming Lips — “Do You Realize??”
themes of love and a! ection are rejection, anger, bitterness and dismissal. A brief selec-tion of the very best anti-Val-entine’s Day songs is below.
Weezer — “Pink Triangle”Boy meets girl, boy falls for
girl, boy discovers that girl likes other girls. “Pink Trian-gle” is the best song ever writ-ten about # nding out your crush isn’t interested in you — or member of your gender, for that matter.
Kanye West — “Gold Digger”$ e title is self-explanatory.
Kanye puts a nail in the cof-# n of romance, trashing the ubiquitous money-hungry female of hip-hop culture. It’s a perfect song for anyone tired of blowing all their free cash on an ungrateful signi# cant other
Sufjan Stevens — “Casimir Pulaski Day”
If you prefer a weepier Val-entine’s Day, look no further than this tearjerker from Suf-jan to tear your heart into tiny shreds. A tale of a girl stricken with bone cancer, this song is perfect for spending the holi-day with your Kleenex box.
OutKast — “Ms. Jackson” What anti-Valentine’s Day
would be complete without OutKast’s ode to the beloved mother of one of their baby
It’s a sweeping love song that serves as the perfect anthem for Valentine’s Day (and for the other 364 days of the year, too). It’s about the brevity of life, the scope of the universe and the simple joy of seeing the smile of someone you love.
Ben Gibbard — “You Remind Me Of Home”
“I Will Follow You Into $ e Dark” has been inexplicably ruined by every wannabe Ja-son Mraz with an acoustic guitar, so if you like romance accompanied by so% strum-ming and earnest vocals, dig a little deeper with this song from Death Cab For Cutie lead singer Ben Gibbard. He’s married to Zooey Deschanel, so he must know some valu-able secret about wooing the ladies.
The Beach Boys — “God Only Knows”
Probably the best love song ever written, the Beach Boys say it all on “God Only Knows”. It’s a song about eter-nal love, plain and simple. If you listen to just one song this Valentine’s Day, make it this the one.
Anti-Valentine’s SongsIf sentimentality and feel-
ing aren’t on your Valentine’s agenda, you’re in luck. Almost as common in music as the
mamas? $ anks, Andre 3000, for teaching us the true mean-ing of chivalry.
R. Kelly — “Real Talk”An R&B classic, R. Kelly
lashes out at his lady in the most hilarious way possible — over the phone with as much drama and ri" ng as possible. Perfect for any jaded listener who’s killed a few re-lationships by creeping at the club, or goaded an ex-lover with relish to burn all his or her clothing.
Bob Dylan — “Like A Rolling Stone”
$ e best diss track of all time features Dylan mocking an ex-& ame fallen from grace. $ is Valentine’s Day, though it may be tempting to trash your previous lovers via Col-lege ACB, take Dylan’s lead and and compile an eloquent litany against your ex, mock-ing them for their misdeeds.
The Beatles — “Norwegian Wood”
John Lennon knew how to treat a lady correctly: pay her a visit, sleep in her bathtub, and then light her house on # re when she leaves for work the next day. It really doesn’t get any less romantic than this. Happy V-Day, Yoko.
By HOAI-TRAN BUIEagle Staff Writer
Today’s incarnation of Val-
entine’s Day is a holiday cre-ated by greeting card com-panies. $ e plump image of Cupid, the mass-produced cards and the silly hearts on candies are so shallow and super# cial that it’s nauseat-ing. Anti-Valentine’s Day celebrations are a part of a growing movement against the hypocritical holiday of Saint Valentine’s.
Whether you’re single or part of a couple, there are plenty of ways to enjoy yourself on Valentine’s Day without subjecting yourself to the lovey-dovey details.
Go sight-seeing
Honestly, it’s probably one of the most un-romantic things you can do in D.C. Even in the chilly winter weather, there will be no limit to the sweaty and loud tourists who accompany you to the Washington Monu-ment or the Lincoln Memo-rial. $ e setting may seem picturesque, but in a place as public as the National Mall, no traces of romantic intrigue can be found. D.C. couples will most likely stick to the exclusive, local areas. If Valentine’s Day is all about “intimacy,” go in the oppo-site direction. Take pictures, wear fanny packs, and just obnoxiously point at our be-loved national monuments.
Throw an Anti-Valentine Party
Decorate your dorm with black paper hearts. Serve bowls full of broken heart candy. Vandalize pictures of adorable celebrity couples (mustaches and pirate teeth never get old). Buy a heart-shaped piñata and smash the hell out of it. Make T-shirts. Tell date stories gone wrong over a fake camp# re.
What better way to spend
the day of love than hanging out with close friends while blasting anti-love songs? $ ere is no end to the fun that can be had in mocking of people who celebrate Val-entine’s Day.
Find your inner guy
Sometimes there’s noth-ing better to drown out the mush and love than to kick back in your PJ’s and watch some explosions and gun-# re. $ e Bourne Trilogy is a good pick if you’re feeling intellectual. If you’re in the mood to drown out your feelings, rent a “Transform-ers” movie. It doesn’t matter which one.
If you get tired of zoning out in front of the TV screen, bust out the video games. Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros or Madden are great group games. If you feel like playing solo, grab the RPG’s or shooter games.
Have a girl’s/guy’s night out
$ ere are plenty of clubs and restaurants having themed nights either before or on Valentine’s Day bitter singles. D.C. clubs are al-ways a good place to loosen up and, if you want, meet other singles, especially since most doting couples are stuck in crowded, for-mal restaurants. Or go to a restaurant like Co Co Sala in Penn Quarter which is host-ing its own “Anti V-Day” party on February 10.
If you’re part of a couple that doesn’t feel like doing the candle-lit dinner, head over to Ben’s Chili Bowl, or even a random hot dog stand and dig into some greasy food. If you really want to make a point, make it an eating competition. $ ere’s simply no limit to the ways in which you can celebrate your own Anti-Valentine’s Day.
For those who scoff at the sappy holiday, there are other ways to spend the day.
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By MAEVE MCDERMOTTEagle Staff Writer
! e California duo of Best Coast and Wavves played the 9:30 club on Monday, stopping by as part of their “Summer Is Forever” tour sponsored by MTVU. ! e two bands are inexplicably linked: Both bands are new-comers to the scene of inde-pendent music, both share a slight obsession with their home state, marijuana, Twitter and yeah — the two lead singers Bethany Cosentino and Nathan Wil-liams date.
Wavves’ brand of skat-er-punk noise-pop is the project of Nathan Williams, the bratty punk-du-jour of independent music. Best Coast is the creation of Bethany Cosentino, a Cali-fornia native who writes and sings beachy indie rock songs about boys, weed, her cat and more boys, with a sound reminiscent of 1960s girl groups and lyrics that are beyond elementary — the number of times she rhymes “crazy” and “lazy” on debut album “Crazy For You” is probably unsur-passed in modern music.
! e two bands’ rising pop-ularity and personal con-nections has just been pray-ing to be capitalized on, and MTVU brought these two beach bums to 9:30 for a night full of guitar feed-back, repetitive lyrics and Twitter jokes.
Wavves played " rst, and gave a performance that was exactly what one would expect from an MTV-spon-sored Wavves show — road-ies threw beach balls into the crowd. Williams made a Kanye joke referring to his ridiculous-looking gold chains, some bros crowd-surfed, etc. ! e sloppy, brawling Williams of infa-
my was nowhere to be seen at 9:30, supplanted instead by a young man who sang relatively on key, remem-bered most of his guitar parts and even deigned to thank the audience every few songs. ! e crowd re-sponded well to Wavves’ fast-paced live show, jump-ing around and yelling the words along with Williams, particularly to the new sin-gle and fan favorite “Post Acid.” Playing in front of a backdrop that featured a cat puking green goo on a beach while surrounded by aliens, Wavves were loud and brash, though the sets nonstop fuzzy guitars and whiny vocals le# something to be desired.
Best Coast took the stage a# er Wavves to deliver a quieter and ultimately more enjoyable performance. Bethany Cosentino’s voice was stronger and throatier in concert than on the album, and her songs thankfully sounded less monotonous. ! e highlight of the set was Cosentino’s cover of Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City,” a song that showed o$ Cosenti-no’s substantial vocal talent. ! e crowd faithfully sang along to album standouts “I Want To” and “Boyfriend,” responding with laughs to Cosentino’s well-mannered banter about her cat, her Twitter and Justin Bieber. ! e set was solid, if a little slow at times, and gave fans a taste of new songs “Sunny A# ernoon” and “When You Wake Up.” Cosentino’s voice is undoubtedly Best Coast’s most valuable feature, and the songstress’ performance (and accompanying swag-ger) proved to be the high-light of the night.
VISIT THE INCUBATORBLOGS.THEEAGLEONLINE.COM
By STEPHAN CHOEagle Staff Writer
Cheesy romance " lms have always helped to grease the wheels in our own intimate lives with their cultural sig-ni" ers and incredulous sce-narios. While some of us have grown to adulthood with a certain ache of cyni-cism, we here at ! e Scene believe in keeping with the spirit, and have come up with a list of romantic " lms to watch in honor of that day of Saint Valentine.
“Say Anything …”Despite our overwhelm-
ing tendencies to sco$ and mock, romantic " lms thrive on clichés, possibly because of how memorable they be-come with the passing of time.
No other " lm proves just that than this 1989 classic featuring John Cusack and
Ione Skye. Who can forget the scene where Lloyd Do-bler tries to win the heart of Diane Court by blasting “In Your Eyes” on his stereo with outstretched arms?
“The Notebook”To some people, " lms based
on Nicholas Sparks’ novels are the epitome of sap. ! ey are so overwrought and dra-matic that they make you want to gag.
Sure, the plot isn’t exactly subtle nor do the charac-ters seem to show any di-mension, but it’s that overly idealistic vision of love that serves as the focal point between the characters of Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gos-ling) and Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams).
“Love Actually”“Love actually is all around”
is one of the opening lines in this British comedy. As more
than just an expression of two consenting partners, love is explored through a number of loosely inter-weaving stories, ultimately displaying itself as adven-ture, friendship, rejection, loss and identity.
Whether you’re a Type A personality who’s fallen for a coworker or a sexless dork who’s grown world-weary with rejection, there’s some-thing here for everyone.
“(500) Days of Summer”! is ever-popular 2009 in-
die romantic comedy featur-ing Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel has all the trimmings that appeal to our generation — the music, the o$ -beat cinematography and a coming-of-age “love story” expressed through in-security and humor.
A# er losing Summer Finn, whom he believes to be the love of his life, Tom Hansen
tries to win her back, facing recurring bouts of disap-pointment and realization.
“Amélie”“Amélie” — both the name
of this unforgettable, award-winning 2001 French " lm and the eponymous heroine — isn’t conventional by any means. Whether she’s talk-ing to photos or counting the number of orgasms peo-ple are having at any given second, Amélie is an e$ er-vescent girl who " nds joy in the peculiar.
A# er she discovers a child-hood treasure chest and vows to return it to its own-er, she resolves to devote her life to doing good things for others, getting herself into all sorts of mischief and " nding love in the process.
Five heartfelt movies to watch on Valentine’s Day, date optional
Courtesy of CACA JOUCLAS / FLICKRMOVIE NIGHT OF LOVE — This Valentine’s Day, post up in your room with whomever you please and watch some memorable fi lms. Whether it be “(500) Days of Summer” or “Love Actually,” have some tissues handy.
CONCERT REVIEWBest Coast
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CONCERT REVIEWSLissie
By YOHANA DESTAEagle Staff Writer
Lissie’s voice is stuck some-where between a girlish coo and a sultry rasp. ! e folksy singer-songwriter took the stage at 9:30 club last Sun-day, changing the mood of the room with her easygoing nature and cheerful grin.
Opening the show was the young and ra" sh Dylan LeBlanc. As he ambled on-stage, he stood awkwardly with a guitar slung over his shoulder, in a worn out blazer and red button down. He had just released his de-but album and was full of nerves, choosing to launch right into his set with songs from “Pauper’s Field.”
LeBlanc’s voice was thick and mournful, with his lyr-ics gushing into one anoth-er. Onstage he was accom-panied by a keyboardist, which did not particularly do anything for his music, but rather just added un-necessary sounds to simplis-tic guitar strums. LeBlanc’s personal style and musical choices strongly resembled folk singers of late, especially Neil Young — the di# erence is that LeBlanc has a much stronger voice than the folk stars of yesteryear.
A$ er playing a few mourn-ful songs, like “5th Avenue Bar” and a particularly ro-mantic cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” LeBlanc decided to get a bit chattier with the audience. He talked about his hometown in Lou-isiana, his love for sad songs and how he despised Ameri-can Airlines for smashing one of his beloved guitars and not reimbursing him.
All this was said in LeBlanc’s Southern murmur, always with the ghost of a smirk on his face. He rounded out the set with a few more songs from his album, including “Chesapeake Lane” and a George Harrison cover. ! en with a quick grin, and a few more magical guitar strums, LeBlanc made way for the main attraction — Lissie.
With her % axen hair tied in a loose knot, dressed in a pale yellow T-shirt and bell-bottom jeans, Lissie looked every bit the bubbly folk rocker that she is. Proceed-ing straight into the opening number, accompanied by guitarist Eric Sullivan and bassist and drummer Lewis Keller, Lissie charmed the crowd with the self-depre-cating Hank Williams cover, “Wedding Bells.”
She continued plowing through songs, such as “Worried About” and “Here Before.” A$ er each number, she would breathe out a delighted ‘thank you’ as though surprised to still be surrounded by an audience. And why wouldn’t she be? Lissie knows how to put on a performance. Her voice is raw and strong, singing lyr-ics that tell stories of inno-cent love and bravery.
A$ er tearing into each song relentlessly, she took occasional breaks to tell lit-tle stories to the audience, prefacing each song from her album with an explana-tion for its inspiration. For the knockout song “Bully” — which was without a doubt one of the highlights of the night — Lissie spoke brie% y about her youth and how she felt out place, but how clinging to those who
loved her got her through those tough times. ! e song was a re% ection of that feel-ing, with lyrics like “I know your heart’s been broken/ but martyrs never open doors/ the world is yours, carry this torch/ and use your voice.”
She peppered the rest of her performance with lit-tle facts about herself. For example, Lissie only drinks tequila that is a hundred percent agave and willingly accepts shots from the au-dience (which immediately prompted a random audi-ence member to send a shot up her way — which she took albeit begrudgingly). Before singing the song “Everywhere I Go,” Lissie told the crowd that because the music video for the song featured an elephant, she kisses a small elephant stat-ue every time before singing that song onstage.
A$ er a tour de force per-formance, & lled with chat-ter and delicious guitar so-los, Lissie le$ the stage, and subsequently, fans wanting more. A$ er returning for a much-needed encore, she performed the heartfelt bal-lad “Oh Mississippi,” and then the cover song that gained her recognition in the & rst place.
A$ er taking her traditional shot of tequila, Lissie and co. dove head& rst into an exhilarating rock cover of Kid Cudi’s ode to the fast life, “Pursuit of Happiness,” turning it into a rollicking and re% ective rock song with a sweeping outpour of emotion. ! e luscious guitar solos didn’t hurt either.
Courtesy of YOHANA DESTA
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY PRESENTS...
THE FOUNDER’S DAY BALL
“AN AU MASTERPIECE”HOSTED BY AMERICAN UNIVERSITY STUDENT GOVERNMENT
AND THE RESIDENTIAL HALL ASSOCIATION
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH, 2011, 8PM
THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART
500 17TH STREET, WASHINGTON, D.C.TRANSPORTATION IS AVAILABLE TO AND FROM THE GALLERY
PURCHASE TICKETS:
FEBRUARY 8TH @ 9AM-6PM, 8PM-10PMFEBRUARY 9TH @ 9AM-6PM, 8PM-10PM
AT THE STUDENT ACTIVITIES DESK
TICKETS ARE $10, 1 PER AU IDPAYABLE BY CASH OR EAGLEBUCKS
FOR MORE INFORMATION,PLEASE CONTACT [email protected]
We Deliver Monday — Thursday25% o! for AU students (with valid ID) after 8:30 every night
PETE’S NEW HAVEN STYLE PIZZAColumbia Heights 202-332-PETE (7383)
Tenleytown-Friendship Heights 202-237-PETE (7383) Hours of Operation: 11AM-10PM Sunday-Thursday
11AM-11PM Friday & Saturday
! e Evil Cat8 p.m.WHERE: ! e Passenger, 1021 7th Street, NWMETRO: Metro Center (red/blue/orange lines)WHAT: ! e Washington Psychotronic Film Society is a group of " lm lovers who o# er weekly screenings to obscure, o# -beat " lms both new and old. ! eir " rst screening for Feb. features this 1986 Dennis Yu slasher about an imprisoned spirit of an evil cat breaking free and wreaking havoc.COST: Free ($2.00 suggest-ed donation)CONTACT: www.wpfs.org
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MONDAY 14
TUESDAY 8 WEDNESDAY 9 THURSDAY 10SCENE CALENDAR
Out in the Silence8 p.m.WHERE: Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va.METRO: Rosslyn (blue/or-ange lines)WHAT: ! is inspirational documentary follows the controversy that ensues when " lmmaker Joe Wilson proposes to another man. Created by Dean Hamer, “Out in the Silence” at the Artisphere will also be fol-lowed up with a discussion with Hamer and Wilson.COST: $6CONTACT: www.arlingtonarts.com
Bi" y Clyro7 p.m.WHERE: Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NEMETRO: Union Station (red line)WHAT: Presented by AP, this show features Bi# y Cly-ro on tour with the release of their latest album, “Only Revolutions.” ! ey’re joined by Moving Mountains and Solar Powered Sun Destroy-er.COST: $12CONTACT: www.rockandrollhoteldc.com
FRIDAY 11 SATURDAY 12 SUNDAY 13Baths8:30 p.m.WHERE: Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NEMETRO: Union Station (red line)WHAT: Will Wiesenfeld of Baths received much ac-claim a$ er the release of his album, “Cerulean” with its interesting electronic sound and use of water imagery. He’s joined by Braids at the Rock and Roll Hotel as part of his ongoing tour.COST: $12CONTACT: www.rockandrollhoteldc.com
Homo/Sonic9:30 p.m.WHERE: Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NWMETRO: U Street/African-American War Memorial/Cardozo (green and yellow lines)WHAT: Homo/Sonic is de-scribed as an “alternative dance night” for gays and the gay-friendly. ! is Black Cat debut will feature songs from the ‘80s, Britpop and indie. COST: $10CONTACT: www.blackcatdc.com
Party CrashersAll dayWHERE: Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va.METRO: Rosslyn (blue/or-ange lines)WHAT: Feb. 13 marks the last day for the “Party Crashers,” a collaborative e# ort by the Artisphere and the Arlington Arts Center which explores the in% uence of comic book art on estab-lished artists. ! e exhibition is curated by Cynthia Con-nolly.COST: FreeCONTACT: www.arlingtonarts.com
Valentine’s Day Rock & Roll Dance Party8 p.m.WHERE: Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NWMETRO: U Street/African-American War Memorial/Cardozo (green and yellow lines)WHAT: ! e Rock and Roll Hotel is celebrating Saint Valentine’s Day with a dance party featuring " ve di# erent DJ’s. ! e event will be held in the Red Room.COST: FreeCONTACT: www.blackcatdc.com
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!"#!"#$%&'()$#%&'(&)*+,*-.// /+A Hunger for Awareness – Part II
Courtesy of CAITLIN TREANOR
GETTIN’ HER GROOVE ON — The author, Caitlin Treanor, dances in the streets of Accra, Ghana. Adjusting to the Ghanian culture has proved to be an entertaining challenge.
By FELIX FUCHSThe Incubator
I hope you liked the begin-ning of “A Hunger for Aware-ness.” It is the result of a lucky accident. As I was searching for the lyrics of the Casa-blanca theme, because it would not leave my system, I stumbled over the fact that the original text by Herman Hupfeld actually starts with a far deeper verse than just the famous lines “You must remember this /A kiss is still a kiss”.
Other in! uences that had their share in telling my story range from the simple Christ-mas classic “Let It Snow” to " omas Pynchons use of the shortened “Wha?” instead of the whole word. Also I am referring to the play “" e Ice-man Cometh” through the mentioning of the iceman as well as the so called “pipe-dream”. " is play by Eugene O’Neill has a similar topic like Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” which I con-nected to my story through the cliché of the lonely sales-man who has failed in every aspect of his life — much like Willy Loman in Miller’s play. " is time prepare for a change, not of setting, but concerning the point of view as the story continues…
“Mommy, who is Ein-
stein?” Pulling hard at her daughters hand to make her go a little faster, she barely turned. “What did you say?”
“Who is Einstein?” the lit-tle girl queried, tears already forming in her eyes.
“Oh, for God’s sake, who cares?” her mother retorted distractedly, unwilling to concern herself with her daughter’s petty little prob-lems, at least not right now.
She had just bought the tickets for her daughter, her husband and herself and was now desperately trying to ! nd him again in the tumul-tuous bustle that was the old main station. He had said that he would be right back
and never look back? Oh, dear Lord, I will have to live with mother again. Her sight blurred by tears, she ran into a small man in a suit who stood right in the middle of all the swarming people among the biggest of the three chandeliers which hung from the high ceiling, lighting the room dimly.
“Easy, missus, easy. What’s the hurry?” he asked in a somber bass, almost sound-ing like a radio show host.
“I… I think my husband has le" me here and now… I…,” she ran out of words and ideas at the same time. She felt dizzy and sick and did not know for how much longer she would be able to stand upright.
“Ah, missus, there ain’t no man in this town who would leave a sweet, pretty thing
in a minute. Just a last small errand he had to run.
Oh, no, she thought, now he has ! nally le" me.
I should have paid closer attention to him, asked more about his work. At least I should have sounded more interested in his life. And now he dumped me and this child who is constantly cry-ing about something she just picked up.
Oh, God, what am I to do now. Should I wait for him and miss the train? Leave
Americans can’t dancemy accommodations were not going to be like they were in D.C. # ere is a constant layer of dirt, sweat, bug spray and sunscreen on my skin. I look good. To make things more di$ cult, with the side e% ects from malaria pills, the heat, the new food, the bagged wa-ter, and a host of other random problems, people have been consistently ill. I’m just going to assume these things will get better!
One thing that is di$ cult to get used to is how white I am. Everybody notices you, and most are surprised to see you. A lot of the people are very friendly, and will simply greet you and ask how you are. Kids will wave frantically, grab your arm, laugh at you or ask for money. People will take your arm and put it up next to theirs, marveling at how dif-ferent the skin tones are. It’s usually very pleasant or funny. However some of the Ghana-ian men are less than respect-ful. # ey will stop you, try to get information from you, fol-low you around, compliment you excessively, and generally harass you. It’s impossible to avoid and di$ cult to put an end to.
Ghanaian women also have some preconceptions about Americans — including men. We are seen as very incapable. In comparison to many of the
By CAITLIN TREANORThe Incubator
ACCRA, Ghana — We also can’t bargain, navigate with-out street names, deal with heat and behave politely. In a country like Ghana, these are necessities!
# e very ! rst thing you no-tice about Ghana is the heat—unsurprisingly. # en it’s the high number of women who had learned to defy gravity, balancing frighteningly large amounts of random items on their head while carrying a baby on their back, interact-ing with people around them using both hands, talking, bar-gaining and likely doing back-& ips when I’m not looking.
I was among the ! rst stu-dents to arrive in the capital of Ghana — Accra. A" er get-ting through customs we were bussed to a nice hotel, where we were spoiled with air con-ditioning, expensive food, internet connection and our own bathrooms with relatively consistent running water. It was great!
A" er two nights at this ho-tel we went to the University of Ghana to settle in. It was a bit di% erent. # ere was no air conditioning, our rooms were quite dirty, the bathrooms didn’t have toilet paper or soap, there was no Internet, etc. I could go on! But I knew
Ghanaians, this is partially true! However, I have had my shoes put on for me, been told how to carry a bucket by its handle, shown how a broom works, and many other ran-dom things. It’s a bit patron-izing, but their intentions are good so it’s nearly impossible to feel insulted!
Nearly every time you ex-change money, some bargain-ing will be involved. My very ! rst day in Ghana, we went to a street market. First we bar-gained with a taxi to take us there, and paid slightly higher than a local would — but it wasn’t too bad. Once we got to the market, it was chaos. Cars mixed in with people on the streets, and sellers ran at you from all sides to drag you to their stalls or show you an item in their hands. We bought some items, and paid too much for them. In fact, I spent so much on a bracelet that a woman came over and asked how much I paid. When she got the answer, she was completely shocked. It was embarrassing.
All in all, it’s a lot to get used to. I have many more things to write about and will in the coming weeks — when I can actually get online!
%01234!"##(20#15065#4718
“The world will always welcome
lovers.”
like you, especially not on Christmas,” he tried to calm her. His voice almost sound-ed as if he was to burst into a song and the next melodi-ous sentence seemed to ring a bell in her. Deep inside the tomb that was her fearful heart. “Don’t you know it, missus? Woman needs man / And man must have his mate…”
Before she could answer and ask the man where he had heard those lines, some-one grabbed her from be-
hind spinning her and the child around. “Hello pretty,” she heard a familiar voice – his voice – whisper in her ear as he hugged her, “sorry, honey, but I had an appoint-ment at the jewelry on the corner. Merry Christmas.”
He handed her a small red box and she knelt down to open it, so her daughter could see what was in it. A small heart shaped gold necklace lay silently on a small cushion in the box. Next to it there stuck a small card with the handwriting of her husband. “What’s it say, mommy?”
She gulped and started to cry.
“# e world will always wel-come lovers.”
!"#$%&$'()*(+,-- ./"!"#$! 012$.3(-4
AU wrestling team dispatches Binghamton Universityhttp://eagl.us/goLdyF
ADVERTISE IN ./"!"#$!
in the second half, Brewer hit three straight jumpers to give AU a slight edge be-fore his teammates would follow suit and give the Eagles their largest lead up until that point at 41-36. For the first time, it looked like one team had a chance to put their oppo-nent away for good when a Moldoveanu three-pointer gave AU a nine-point lead, 52-43. Lehigh was able to remain in the game thanks to their scoring leader, C.J. McCollum, who would finish with 21 points and 10 rebounds. The Moun-tain Hawks’ guard then hit back-to-back three-point-ers before Lehigh’s Gabe Knutson’s capped off a 7-1 run with a dunk in the final minute and tied the game at 61.
Though the Eagles had given up a large lead, there was still time to get the ball down the court and put up a shot for the win. AU’s scoring leader, Brewer, put up a would-be-game-win-ning shot but it fell short. Luckily, Moldoveanu was there to grab the ball. When he went for the last second shot he was fouled, which sent him to the line and meant the end for the Mountain Hawks.
Brewer finished the game with a team-high 17 points, with help from Molde-veanu and Lumpkins who both netted 13. McCollum did not receive much help from his teammates as he was the only member of the Lehigh squad to finish in double digits.
With the victory, AU im-proves its Patriot League record to 6-2, which is good for second place in the conference. The Ea-gles next game is tomor-row night in Lewisburg, Pa. where they take on the conference-leading Buck-nell University [email protected]
! from EAGLES on page 20
By TYLER TOMEAEagle Staff Writer
What’s the best way to recap the Green Bay Packers 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, you ask? With a 700-word “Winners and Losers” column, of course!
WinnersFOX Sports
! e last four Super Bowls broadcast on Fox have each been decided by six points or less. Included in this stretch has been a game between two of the NFL’s top fan bases (Pittsburgh and Green Bay), two of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history (New York over New England and New England over St. Louis) and the culmination of the Patriots dynasty (New England over Philadelphia).
Is this simply a stroke of good luck? Absolutely! Up until 2006, the game rotated among the four major networks, and is now alternated between FOX, CBS and NBC. But some-where, FOX Sports President Eric Shanks is smiling.
Aaron RodgersAnd I think this just set the
record for most obvious “Win-ner” in a Super Bowl recap column of all-time. ! is year, Rodgers has performed the impressive task of stepping out of a legend’s shadow, defeating a convicted felon and taking down a quarterback twice ac-cused of sexual assault, all in the same postseason!
As for his performance on Sunday, all it does is put the exclamation point on Rodg-ers’ ascension to the top of the quarterback class. His 304-yard, three-touchdown dissec-tion of the Pittsburgh defense is as good a performance as I’ve seen in a Super Bowl, and the stat line could have even been better if not for a few costly drops.
! e biggest praise I can give Rodgers is that, just like the other great quarterbacks, he makes his receivers better. How many receptions would Austin Collie bring in if not for
his quarterback? How about Deion Branch?
Jordy Nelson and James Jones are good players. But they’re not a combined 14 catches for 190 yards and a touchdown good. Elite quarterbacks make those around them better, and that’s what Rodgers has done.
Howard GreenIf you’re not from Wiscon-
sin or are a Green Bay Packers fan, I could give you a thou-sand guesses before you real-ize Howard Green is an NFL defensive tackle. But Green’s play was as big as any in Super Bowl XLV.
With the Steelers backed up on their own seven-yard line late in the opening quarter, Ben Roethlisberger was ready to hit a streaking Mike Wal-lace down the le" sideline to tie the game 7-7. Wallace had his man beat, but Green surged through the line and hit Roethlisberger’s arm dur-ing his throwing motion.
! is resulted in one of the easiest interceptions of Nick Collins’ career, which he re-turned for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
In a game where Green Bay knew it was just a matter of time before Pittsburgh made its run, any early lead the Pack-ers built would be crucial.
LosersPittsburgh’s Two-Minute Offense
Some of the words I’ve seen used to describe Pittsburgh’s # -nal drive: “confused,” “discom-bobulated,” “Redskins-esque.” And If I hadn’t told you I made that last one up, I’m sure you would’ve believed it.
In a situation where Pitts-burgh has thrived in years past, the Steelers were not on the same page at all, as evi-denced by Wallace not know-ing the play on the drive’s third down. I never thought I’d see Pittsburgh unravel with the game on the line like that.
Shaun Suisham! is falls partly on the shoul-
ders of Mike Tomlin, who thought it would be a good idea to call Suisham out for
a 52-yard # eld goal. A good kick in this situation, however unlikely, still keeps Green Bay in front. But a miss gives one of the league’s hottest o$ enses starting # eld position at their own 42-yard line.
As for the kick, the ball missed about 10 yards to the le" . Remember, the game was played with the roof closed. Yikes!
Whoever Watched The Game For The Cheerleaders
Because there weren’t any. Of the six NFL teams that do not have cheerleaders, two of them played this past Sunday, mak-ing this the # rst Super Bowl in its 45-year history without cheerleaders.
! ere is a joke to be made here somewhere, and I could go that route, but I don’t think either of my editors would let it appear in the paper.
Breaking down the Super Bowl: winners and losers
The good, the bad and the ugly of SB XLV
MARK NATALE/ THE EAGLE
GP PPG FG% 3PT% FT% RBP APG
2010-11 22 11.7 42.2 32.0 82.4 4.8 2.72009-10 8.8 42.3 27.4 74.7 4.4 2.0 2.02008-9 3.2 31.7 18.4 52.9 1.9 1.1 1.1
Name: Lisa StrackAge: 20 Hometown: Langhorne, Pa.Grade/School: Junior/Kogod School of BusinessPosition: Guard
Why did you decide to come to AU to play basketball?“A lot of it had to do with the academics and the intensity level of the basketball pro-gram. ! e Patriot League every year every team has an opportunity to win, so I like the competition.”
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? “Hopefully a job somewhere. But with a family and I would love to still be involved in sports, speci# cally basketball, whether it’s coaching or anything.”
What is your best sports moment at AU? “Probably last year’s Patriot League tournament we really came in and played hard and showed that we deserved to be in the championship game. Obviously the cham-pionship didn’t go our way but it was a great experience.”
!"#$%!!"#$%&$'()*(+,-- +,Poor shooting leads to loss against Patriot League rival
MARK NATALE / THE EAGLE
GOING UP STRONG — Sophomore center Stephanie Anya shoots over a defender in AU’s 57-46 loss to Lehigh University. The Eagles’ next game is Wednesday night against Bucknell University in Bender Arena.
By SAM RAPHELSONEagle Contributing Writer
! e AU women’s basketball team failed to sustain o" en-sive momentum in a 57-46 loss to Lehigh University.
! is Eagles team has es-tablished themselves as a strong shooting team, but they only shot 29.4 percent from the # eld and 18.8 per-cent from three on Saturday. Senior forward Liz Leer led the team with 12 points, fol-lowed by Nicole Ryan at 10 points.
Head Coach Matt Corkery said that the main reason for the loss was inconsistent of-fensive play.
“We just never got in a rhythm o" ensively,” Cork-ery said. “Never got any-thing going consistently for a long period of time, and our o" ense really sputtered and struggled most of the game.”
For most of the # rst half, the team fought on defense to try to make up for a strug-gling o" ense. A$ er early baskets by Lisa Strack and Tori Halvorsen it seemed as though the Eagles were struggling just to keep pos-session of the ball.
With nine minutes remain-ing in the opening half, the Mountain Hawks took the lead, which they would not relinquish until the midway through the second half.
Heading into the second half, AU trailed, 22-21. ! e Eagles failed to score for the # rst few minutes of the half until Leer came up with a layup followed by another two points. With Lehigh leading 40-30 with 10:02 re-maining, the Eagles went on a 12-2 run to tie the game up at 42.
! e Eagles hit their stride when Ryan hit back three-pointers followed by anoth-er three from Strack. Unfor-tunately a$ er that run, the defense faltered.
“! at spurt was when we were playing our best, it was when we were pushing the tempo, when we were in con-trol, when we were attacking them,” Leer said. “! en they hit a wide open layup be-cause we didn’t communi-cate enough on defense and then we couldn’t come back a$ er that.”
In the remaining minutes, the o" ense improved at the expense of the defense. Eve-ry time AU scored, Lehigh scored twice, leading to the 57-46 Mountain Hawks’ vic-tory.
Lehigh’s Erica Prosser led the Mountain Hawks with 29 points, # ve rebounds and three steals. She completely dominated the lackluster AU defense.
“Prosser killed us, I mean she was running down our throats,” Leer said. “It’s not just whoever’s guarding her to take care of it and we didn’t do a good job of stop-ping her.”
In preparation for Bucknell University on Wednesday at Bender Arena, Corkery said the team needs to work on their mental game more than anything.
“I think that’s the biggest area of improvement for us is mental, you know our concentration, our focus, and our mental toughness,” he said. “It’s a quick turna-round. We’ll have three days to get ready for Bucknell, a team that’s very good. For us I think it’s getting back to the basics and what we do as far as our roles on the team and just trying to execute them.”
! e loss knocks AU’s con-ference record down to a 5-3 and their overall record to 15-7. ! e Eagles are in second place for the Patriot League.
! see EAGLES on page 19
Eagles win nail-biter with last-second free throwBy SAM LINDAUEREagle Staff Writer
Somehow, senior forward Vlad Moldoveanu finds himself in key moments in big games and Sunday’s 62-61 victory over Lehigh on the road was no differ-ent. With just two seconds remaining in the game, Moldoveanu hit one of two free throws to give AU the lead.
The Patriot League matchup remained close all the way until those final seconds as the Eagles and Mountain Hawks would trade leads and never pull too far in front of the other. AU started the game with momentum as they took a 6-0 early lead while hold-ing Lehigh scoreless for the first five minutes. But like most advantages in this game, it did not last for long.
The Mountain Hawks went on a run of their own and pulled ahead 9-8 early in the first half. Over the course of the next five min-utes, the two teams would trade the lead four times. Late first-half efforts from junior guards Charles Hin-kle and Troy Brewer gave the Eagles a 26-23 lead before a Lehigh buzzer beater pulled the Mountain Hawks to within one.
The first half leaders for AU were junior forward Stephen Lumpkins who had eight points and six re-bounds along with Hinkle’s and Brewer’s five points apiece. Both teams were evenly matched in the first half, as the Eagles shot 34 percent from the field while the Mountain Hawks were a slightly better 36 percent. The second half brought better shooting from both teams, but neither team was able to pull away.
After falling behind early LISA STRACKLISA STRACK
GUARD — #15GUARD — #15