By Sura KhuderIC Staff Writer

The following is a two-part IC Series on student finances. The fi-nal part of the series will look at student investments and whether students should invest money.

When Adrienne Reyes graduated from the University of Toledo two years ago, she was more than $23,000 in debt.

Her degree may be in pharma-ceutical sciences, an otherwise lu-crative degree, but Reyes found she needed to attend graduate school in order to achieve her career goals.

Like many students, the hole made by her undergraduate debt has become deeper as she now needs to pay for her graduate stud-ies in public health.

Today, she estimates she owes over $50,000 in government loans.

“I have a plan to pay all of this back, but it definitely hasn’t es-caped my mind,” Reyes said.

The amount of student borrow-ing and debt accumulation after graduating is on the rise.

Today, two-thirds of college stu-dents borrow for college with the national average of post-graduate debt amounting to $23,186 accord-ing to the government’s National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, compared to $13,172 in 1991.

The average student debt at UT is below the national average at

$19,351.Assistant Director of

Loans and Financial Aid at UT, Sherri Jiannuzzi, has seen an increase in the amount of money students have been borrowing, sim-ilar to the national trend.

Experts such as Deputy Undersecretary of the U.S Education Depart-ment Robert Shireman blame the economy for the increase in student borrowing and subse-quent debt.

“The sharp growth is definitely above expecta- tions,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “The eye-opening increase in bor-rowing is largely due to the dire economic environment, which is causing more people to seek feder-al loans.”

UT Debt Management Advisor Amy Burns notes that while stu-dent borrowing is increasing, stu-dents are generally more alert of the rise in student debt.

“The more it’s in the news, the more students are aware of it,” Burns said. “People are aware that ‘this is a loan, I’m going to have to pay it back.’”

Jiannuzzi points to the current

“I manage them by having a job

and I look at my

statements ev-eryday because I have a shop-ping problem.

Taylor MattsonSoph., accounting

How do you finance your college expenses?

“Darren McCadney

Junior, art and history

“I use my finan-cial aid to pay for my books and classes

and I take care of living ex-penses with

my job.Nate Austin

Senior., art education

“Loans and summer work

for books.

Colin RichFresh., hist. edu.

“Fahad Sadouni

Grad., law

Be sure to read our feature series on college finances that begins this issue.” ” ” ” ”

First place Ball State holds off Toledo; Rockets roll past Buffalo.

Sports, B1

Turning a dorm room into a sanctuary.

Arts & Life, B4

Teetering on a tower of debt

Serving the University of Toledo since 1919

ICIndependent Collegianwww.IndependentCollegian.com

Issue 3291st year

Monday, January 24, 2011

The

— Debt, Page A6

Error in services stalls student paymentsBy Oreanna CarthornIC Staff Writer

Students, faculty and staff who made any purchase on the Uni-versity of Toledo’s campuses in the past four months may experi-ence a sudden change in their bank statements.

Computer problems at UT pre-vented credit cards from being charged for purchases on the Main Campus and Health Sci-ence Campus from September to Jan. 18.

During the four-month period, it appeared all transactions were being processed, but they were not.

According to Jon Strunk, Me-dia Relations Manager at UT, there was a computer error that prevented the system from con-necting to the server, resulting in information on purchases being stored rather than processed.

In a letter sent to the commu-nity on Thursday, Director of Auxiliary Services Joy Gramling explained the computer glitch.

UT students to compete for ‘app’

Nick Kneer / IC

Students at the University of Toledo will have the chance to compete in developing the next OnStar application for smartphone devices.

University selected to develop application over other schools due to strong technology programs

By Jennifer IsonIC Staff Writer

　University of Toledo

students could play a vi-tal role in making roads safer by the end of the semester — they just have to win a competition first.

OnStar is offering a $10,000 reward for the best application design through the first OnStar Student Developer Chal-lenge that will continue helping drivers stay safe.

The University of Tole-do was one of five colleg-es selected to enter. Oth-er institutions include the University of Michigan, the University of Texas, Carnegie Mellon Univer-sity and the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology.

“The University of To-ledo is a school with a strong reputation in the

New voluntary furlough policyBy Oreanna CarthornIC Staff Writer

Staff in the departments of Campus Police, Safety and Health and Human Resources have all volunteered to partici-pate in a furlough program.

“Here are the options,” said Vice President for Human Re-sources and Campus Safety Bill Logie. “We either have to reduce staff, which in turn re-duces resources and impacts customer service and all of the things that normally [hav-ing] less staff does, or we could have cut services but that still would have meant cutting back on people.”

The voluntary furlough pro-gram was the solution for the departments to a campus-wide 1.5 percent budget cut.

“The only way that we can really meet budgetary targets because of the requirements is to look at either reducing ex-penses, which translates into

people for us, or to find other ways of further reducing our expenses,” Logie said.

The department is prepar-ing for a possible 20 percent reduction, which UT Presi-dent Lloyd Jacobs has said may affect all university bud-gets in the upcoming fiscal year that starts in July.

Kathie George, coordinator of human resource informa-tion systems, said as a group the department discussed op-tions for saving money and decided, as a group, to take furlough days.

George said the original idea was for everyone to take four furlough days before the end of the fiscal year 2011.

But Logie did not want to put that burden on lower-in-come workers.

“I was very insistent that the burden not be unfair to every-one, because I have people

— App, Page A2

— Payments, Page A2

Students can expect $20K in debt after attending college

— Furlough, Page A6

I finance my college ex-penses by working.

My parents finance my

expenses for college.

Hopefully I’ll be able

to pay them back in the

near future.

Photo illustration by Nick Kneer / IC

Independent CollegianTheMonday, January 24, 2011A2

Women’s Program Initiative

The WPI will host a brown bag seminar tomor-row from noon to 1 p.m. in the Mulford Library Gar-den Café on the Health Sci-ence Campus. Ronald Mc-Ginnis, medical director and associate dean for clinical affairs, will be pre-senting on depression and heart disease. For more in-formation, contact Rebec-ca Diaz at 419-383-6133.

UT Learning Collaborative

The UT Learning Collab-orative will host an under-graduate research propos-al writing workshop this week at Sullivan Hall. Plan to attend a grant proposal writing workshop if you are interested in participat-ing in summer research programs. For those in arts, humanities, business, education and related dis-ciplines, a workshop will be tomorrow from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. For those in sci-ence, engineering, math, medical, pharmacy and re-lated disciplines, the work-shop will be Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The UT Learning Collab-orative will host an open house Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the base-ment of Carlson Library. Meet the staff and tutors, learn about our academic workshops, hear how sup-plemental instruction can improve grades, experi-ence eTutoring demonstra-tion and discover online study resources.

Catherine S. Eberly Center for Women

The ECW will host a brown bag seminar Thurs-day from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Libbey Hall. Celia Williamson, professor from the department of social work, will give a presenta-tion looking at hip-hop and other media forms that de-fine manhood sexism, vio-lence and homophobia. For more information, con-tact Cheryl Skolmowski at 419-530-8570.

UT Department of Film

The film department will show “Mr. Death” Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Performing Arts Lab The-atre. The admission cost is free, but a $3 donation is welcome. For more infor-mation, contact Angela Riddel at 419-530-2452.

Toledo EXCELToledo Excel will host

their 27th annual Confer-ence for Aspiring Minority Youth Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Stu-dent Union Building Audi-torium. This year’s keynote speaker is Wes Moore. For more information, contact David Young at 419-530-3820.

CampusBriefly

Want to be included in the next campus briefly? Send events for consideration to News@IndependentCol-legian .com.

ICDon’t just Read the

Get Involved

We’re looking for an editorial cartoonist and writers for all sections. Visit our office, call us at 419-534-2438 or e-mail us at Forum@Independent-Collegian.com for more information.

“As UT recorded these transactions, they would be stored in a queue for a time while trying to connect to the corresponding financial in-stitution,” Gramling wrote in the e-mail. “As a result of the error, payments would be dropped from the connection queue after a given time and new charges would populate the queue, making it seem like connections were being made properly. Clearly they were not.”

The error went unnoticed throughout the fall semester because credit card charges would appear on the screen when a card was used and then disappear as if the trans-action were successful.

Strunk said officials in the finance area discovered the error while performing main-tenance work on the system.

Cashiers at on-campus venues were given no indica-tions an error had occurred.

Strunk compared the situa-tion to trying to send an e-mail when the Internet cord is not connected to a computer.

A user can hit send on the screen and the message will disappear, but if there is no connection to the Internet then the e-mail will not send, Strunk said.

“Instead, it will stay stored on the computer until the cord is plugged back in and the Internet connection is re-established,” Strunk said. “What actually happened is that it was timing out.”

The system repeatedly tried to process the requests

over and over again until they eventually went through.

While it appeared the transactions were being pro-cessed, the system needed to be reconnected and was holding an inventory of all unsent purchases until the connection was reestab-lished, according to Strunk.

The problem was correct-ed and all transactions went through to the various finan-cial institutions on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

“As soon as it was con-nected, it immediately pro-cessed all these transac-tions,” Strunk said.

All credit card transac-tions were processed and charges were deducted from individual bank ac-counts at once.

UT is still investigating to find out the cause of the system error.

“Once they are able to de-termine what the root cause was, they will work to en-sure that it doesn’t happen again,” Strunk said.

Larry Burns, vice presi-dent for external affairs and interim vice president for equity and diversity, said UT will have a way to deal with the issue figured out by the end of this week.

“In today’s world, in big organizations, you are going to have computer prob-lems,” Burns said.

He said UT is working to ensure students do not en-counter overdraft fees or other financial fees as a re-sult of the system error.

“We’ll make sure that our students are not harmed by this,” Burns said.

But Cornelius Winters, a

sophomore majoring in me-chanical engineering tech-nology, said he has already been charged four overdraft fees from transactions he made on campus as a re-sult of the computer glitch.

“They charged 16 trans-actions to my account from Aramark,” Winters said. “They totaled $60.13 and then I was charged four overdraft fees of $37.50 a piece totaling $150. Every-thing summed up to $210.13.”

Winters said his initial response was anger and a “loss of trust” for UT.

Winters said he was told by university staff to send an e-mail listing his com-plaints and a solution would be “determined by the proper offices.”

Some students have posted complaints about the computer glitch on UT’s official Facebook page.

On the Facebook page, UT student Rene Couret said she had $130 taken out of her account after the error was discovered.

Taurean Young, a sopho-more majoring in mechani-cal engineering, said he does not plan to make any credit card purchases on campus in the future.

“I haven’t used my card on campus before and there is probably a slim chance to none of me us-ing it on campus now,” he said.

All venues accepting credit cards for transac-tions on campus are now working and processing charges correctly.

area of application develop-ment, specifically voice,” Markeisha McCall of OnStar Communications said.

Students may enter as an individual or as a team to design a voice-enabled ap-plication using OnStar’s data model and the QuickFuse Voice Application building platform.

This new application should provide a hands-free connection to original infor-mation and support.

OnStar, the in-vehicle

communication system de-signed to keep drivers safe, secure and connected, is owned by General Motors.

College students were chosen to design the new technology because OnStar believes that no one could have bigger and more inter-esting ideas for staying con-nected in the vehicle than the college demographic, ac-cording to the company’s website.

Student participation is not limited to any specific majors, although schools were mainly chosen based upon the reputation of tech-n o l o g y a n d

engineering programs. Any student currently enrolled in one of the selected universi-ties who is at least 18 years of age and a legal resident of the United States is eligible to participate in the challenge.

There are several reasons as to why students should enter the contest. The indi-vidual winner or team will be awarded a prize package valued at $10,000. There are two prize options available to choose from, one includ-ing a MacBook, an iPad, a Canon 7D digital Camera, an Xbox/Kinect, a pair of Shure SE535 headphones and a

AppFrom Page A1

Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press/MCT

Kerry Barbato, voice product manager of OnStar, demonstrates the Facebook audio updates feature in a 2010 Cadillac SRX, Wednesday September 8, 2010.

Panasonic HDTV. The other package consists of five MacBook Pros.

In addition to the prizes, six semi-finalists will re-ceive an all-expenses paid trip to the O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference in Santa Cruz, Calif. At the conference, stu-dents will present their cre-ation in front of a panel of judges who will choose the winning voice enabled ap-plication, which may be-come the newest OnStar feature.

The judging panel will consist of four t e c h n o l o g y and engineer-ing experts who work for some of to-day’s most r e c o g n i z e d c o m p a n i e s , such as NetF-lix and the New York Times.

The criteria the judges will be looking for are safety and minimal distraction. Judges are also looking for originality, inte-gration, user experience and reach. Judges are interested in knowing how people will enjoy the application, whether it will make good use of OnStar vehicle data, and how exciting and useful the technology is.

UT students interested in joining the challenge should attend a workshop today on Main Campus; however, the location and time have yet to be determined. The

purpose of the workshop will be to help students get started on their projects and learn what to expect while designing their application.

Following the workshop, students will have until March 11 to submit their fin-ished creation and the six semi-finalists will be an-nounced on or about April 19.

McCall said the challenge is also a great opportunity for students to test their hands at

working with an actual busi-ness before graduation.

“There is an awesome po-tential to see-ing the work come to life,” she said.

O n S t a r wanted to give this chance to students be-cause the com-pany believes

that today’s college students are becoming technology ex-perts while gaining knowl-edge about what new tech-nology people want to be able to use.

“This is a great opportunity to see what else is out there and a chance to build On-Star’s strong reputation of be-ing innovative,” McCall said.

— To register for the 2011 OnStar Student Developer Challenge, or for more in-formation, visit www.on-starstudentdeveloperchal-lenge.com.

The University of Toledo is a school

with a strong reputation in the area

of application development,

specifically voice.

Markeisha McCallRepresentative,OnStar Communications ”

“

PaymentsFrom Page A1

Nation

2 people killed in shootings outside Wash.state WalmartBy Jennifer Sullivan, Mi-chael Berens and Jona-than MartinThe Seattle Times (MCT)

SEATTLE — Four people were shot, two fatally, after shootings outside a Walmart in Port Orchard, Wash., Sun-day afternoon, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.

Kitsap County sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson said that two deputies ex-changed fire with two peo-ple in the parking lot. A man was killed outside the store and two male deputies were wounded; a third deputy who was present when gun-fire broke out was not hurt, Wilson said. A fourth per-son, a female possibly in her teens, died after being trans-ported to Tacoma General Hospital, Wilson said. It's unclear if the woman had any connection to the man killed.

Wilson declined to name

the deputies, only saying that they've each been with the agency more than five years. He said the deputies were called to the store be-cause of a 911 call; when the suspect saw the deputies, he ran, and shots were fired.

"This situation is all very, very fluid and somewhat chaotic," Wilson said during a news conference.

An official at Tacoma Gen-eral Hospital said the two deputies have non-life-threatening injuries.

The Washington State Pa-trol will investigate the shooting, said State Patrol spokesperson Krista Hed-strom. Patrol investigators are on the scene and are currently being briefed, she said.

An unidentified Walmart employee said she was in-structed not to discuss the incident.

Port Orchard is about an hour away from Seattle.

TuesdayTuesday

ExtendedForecast

ExtendedForecast

NBC24.comWednesdayWednesday ThursdayThursday

2214

High

Low 3018

High

Low15Low

High

2914

High

Low26

Deadlines All ads and ad material must be received by Thursday at 3 p.m. forMonday’s issue, and Monday at 3 p.m. for Thursday’s issue. The Independent Collegian reserves the right to pull any advertisement that misses this deadline.

Error responsibility Read your ad on the first day of publication. We accept responsibility only for the first incorrect insertion. If you cannot find your ad on the first day it is running, call us immediately. Adjustments will be limited to the cost of the first insertion.

Payment policy All Classified ads must be prepaid with a credit card or a check. You can stop by our office during regular business hours or mail us your ad and payment. All display advertising must be prepaid until sufficient credit has been established.

Phone in your order to Rachel Rabb at 419-534-2438. Fax in your order to 419-534-2884.E-mail in your order to Classifieds@IndependentCollegian.com.

Weather courtesy of Chief Meteorologist Norm Van Ness at NBC24.com

Classifieds Independent CollegianThe

Monday, January 24, 2011 A3

BARTENDERS WANTED! Make up to $300/day. No expe-rience necessary. Training available. 800-965-6520 ext. 224Part-time nanny/babysitter needed. Must drive and be available Wednes-day, Thursday and some Friday at various times. Please call 419-250-2504.

For Rent 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 Bedroom Homes, 2&3 Baths, all appliances including wash-er & dryer, security systems, free lawn care, plenty of park-ing, less than 1/2 mile from campus, some within walking distance. Call Rick at 419-283-8507! www.university-properties.net

-1 bedroom available in a new, spa-cious 3 bedroom 3 bathroom apart-ment-$496/month plus water and electric-Female only-Lease until August 8th-Across from Rocket Hall-330-663-6372One, Two, Three, and Four Bedroom houses for rent very close to cam-pus. All appliances; Furnished.Call Chris 419-867-1100.1-Bed apartment with-in walking dis-tance to campus. Off-street parking. Stove and refrigerator included. Laundry facilities on-site. Very clean. Available immediately. $325 plus utilities. Call Chris 419-867-1100.

West Toledo Homes for Sale:3417 Downing: $49,900 – 2 blocks from UT!

2921 Barrington: $154,900 – Old Orchard. Next to UT!

4807 Douglas: $89,900 – Commer-cial Building near UT! Call Aaron Wozniak at Pathway Real Estate for more info!

Help Wanted For Rent For Sale

© 2011 Michael Mepham. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

SolutionCompletethegridsoeachrow,columnand3-by-3box(inboldborders)containseverydigit1to9.

For strategies onhow to solve

Sudoku, visitSudoku.org.uk.

Instructions

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MondayMonday

For Rent

For Sale

write much?

Independent Collegian419-534-2438

The

The recent debacle involving Univer-sity of Toledo campus locations’ credit card charges has left many students suddenly penniless — or worse, buried under multiple overdraft fees. Besides the financial crisis caused by the sud-den and unexpected emptying of one’s bank account, overdraft fees leave a lasting blemish upon a person’s credit report. The university has a responsi-bility to enhance students’ reputations, and overdraft fees are especially dam-aging during the college years, when students are just beginning to form their professional reputations.

It was reported that the error was found while finance officials per-formed maintenance on the system. This begs the question, how did four months pass in which not a single fi-nance official examined any revenue or tax documents that would indicate such a massive error? Even without any great insight into the financial pro-cesses of UT’s various campus busi-nesses, it seems reasonable to state that the overlooking of several months’ worth of revenue is more than a simple error — it is evidence of systemic flaws or neglect.

The understaffing of many of UT’s service departments is likely a major factor contributing to such prevent-able mistakes as these. Enrollment is rising, and a “student-centered” uni-versity such as ours must hold itself to certain standards of student satisfac-tion, convenience and success.

While we understand the need to re-duce employment costs, the university cannot allow the quality of services provided to drop. Everyone in the UT community must share the burden of tough economic times — students

have to meet rising expenses with di-minished financial aid, professors must compete for smaller pools of re-search funds and administrators must share a steady workload with a dimin-ished staff. The mandated furlough system is an effective compromise be-tween layoffs or a hiring freeze, and we hope the university continues to seek solutions that maintain the ex-pected level of quality.

How can the university possibly make reparations for the damages caused on a case-by-case basis, as has been stated? In each and every in-stance, the blame rests upon the uni-versity for the extended delay of the charges and any overdraft fees as-sessed on students as a result. There is no way that students could be expect-ed to prepare for such an event — the use of non-cash payment is accompa-nied by the tacit understanding that the funds will be transferred to the seller’s account in a timely fashion.

Instead of trying to settle this com-plicated problem internally, the uni-versity should open a dialogue with students’ credit card companies and establish that the blame rests entirely on UT’s financial administrators. Kaye-Patten Wallace or another ad-ministrator could write a letter ex-plaining the situation and asking the companies to show leniency, saving students from potentially permanent damage to their credit.

Perhaps this is a warning that should be given serious consideration in fu-ture budgetary decisions. Clearly, the available funds and the necessary costs of running the university are limiting factors, but a minimum acceptable level of service quality must be set.

The workings of the United States legal system have sometimes been so twisted and illogical that the term “friv-olous lawsuit” almost can’t be applied to a legal proceeding taking place any-more. In legal terms, “frivolous” refers to a case that is known to be unwinna-ble, but is pursued anyway; this is more commonly used to refer to a legal claim that is absurd or illogical.

Most in the United States are proba-bly familiar with the famous example of the McDonald’s coffee case in which a woman successfully sued McDon-ald’s after being burned by the hot cof-fee she bought from them and spilled on herself. Other examples include a woman who brought suit against a store in which she was injured by her own child and a man who sued a fam-ily whose garage he was trapped with-in after breaking in.

We take so many things for granted, as if the “American way” is indisput-ably correct, but these and other ex-amples demonstrate glaring flaws in our legal system and therefore, our ba-sic ideas about justice and punishment.

Some of our basic mores, translated through time and trial as legal code, rest upon assumptions that are both morally and practically flawed.

These shaky logical foundations are not to be ashamed of nor regretted, but need to be understood and changed. As a culture, we must learn to acknowledge our many flaws and the aged falsehoods to which we cling so desperately. We must be willing to consider the possibility that our dear-est traditions and beliefs are nothing more than the unrecognized mistakes of past generations.

This is not something that can sim-ply be decided and implemented — it is the responsibility of each member of society to challenge the norm and break traditions when they do not fit.

It requires great personal strength to challenge accepted beliefs and set new standards of behavior. Our evolution as a culture depends on individual courage and change, and our survival, as always, is only a measure of that evolution’s success.

- in our opinion -

American legal lunacy indicates the need for questioning and change

Credit card catastrophe

Forum A4Monday, January 24, 2011

Hasan DudarEditor in Chief Business Manager

Managing EditorJason Mack

Elizabeth Majoy

Forum EditorEthan Keating

Independent Collegian Staff

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- Letter from the editor -

Dear Readers,

This is my last issue as ed-itor-in-chief of the Indepen-dent Collegian. As much as I love this organization, I have accepted a 12-week position

as a legis-lative re-p o r t e r with the Associat-ed Press in India-napo l i s . The posi-tion is a full-time gig that starts in e a r l y

February. My responsibilities will include covering legisla-tive affairs and general news in and around Indianapolis. Our managing editor for the past semester, Jason Mack, will be taking over as editor, and I am positive he will do a fine job in leading the paper. He has served in several ca-pacities during his tenure here, and I can attest that he is capable of carrying out nearly any task in the newsroom.

I am excited to work with the AP, but that excitement is tempered by the reality of leaving an organization that has meant so much to me over the past three years. I owe a whole lot to this place for all the unique opportuni-ties I’ve had here. That is why, while many may expect my farewell column to de-scribe my experience with tales of coffee-induced late nights, I would like to take the time to thank everyone who has helped me along the way. After all, when I think of the IC, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t the newsprint but rather all the thoughtful people I have come to know over the years. So here goes my long list of thanks.

Thank you to the read-ers of the Independent Collegian. Without you, we would serve no purpose. You are why the IC exists, and why any news organization should exist. I have always believed that those in the news industry are as much public servants as those in elected office, and it has been most rewarding serving you over the past few years. We might not have gotten things right every time, but believe me, we try our best to ensure you have the most engaging, meaningful con-tent that helps you make bet-ter sense of your community. Please, continue to read and continue to hold us accountable.

Thank you to my family. They have always been so supportive of me, and are undoubtedly my biggest fans — not that I have fans. My father, Tarik, reads the paper front-to-back every day. And most of the time, he knows what’s in it better than I do. And my mother, Samia, al-ways knows how to bring me back down to earth when I get too far ahead of myself. I’d also like to apologize to

them for any time I’ve bored them with stories about uni-versity politics or IC drama. You guys have been great in putting up with me all these years. Thank you for the all the advice and for listening to me.

Thank you to the Colle-gian Media Foundation Board of Directors. For our readers, this is the non-profit organization, made up of community members from academia, media and the business sector, that over-sees the IC. Without our board of directors, we would be starved for guidance and criticism. Their mission of bringing in young, motivated students and helping them navigate the media and busi-ness worlds is truly com-mendable. Your dedication to us has not gone unnoticed, and you are a valuable re-source to us all. Thank you for your meaningful advice, but most of all, thank you for our editorial independence. That attribute is something unique to our paper. Not hav-ing even one advisor in the newsroom on deadlines speaks volumes to the amount of trust you invest in us. Allowing us to make our own decisions and be held responsible for our mistakes helps us grow as profession-als, and moreover, it enables us to learn more about our-selves as leaders.

Thank you to Dr. Pau-lette Kilmer. Working with you as our Society of Profes-sional Journalists advisor and ethical mentor has been delightful. Your counsel is always logical, respectful and challenging. Thank you for pushing me to think criti-cally and equipping me with the confidence to navigate the grey area that is journal-istic ethics. Knowing we can call on you whenever to bounce ideas around has been a priceless comfort. I hope future IC staffs contin-ue to recognize your wisdom and your genuine care for budding journalists.

Thank you to the Uni-versity of Toledo. I have truly been honored to serve as editor at such an exciting time in our university’s his-tory. There is so much going on right now, and I know that, despite differing opin-ions on campus, something very good will come of the changes. My wonderful pro-fessors, such as David Wil-son, Mike Dowd and Mark Denham, to name a few, have made my academic journey all the more memorable. Col-lege can be an intimidating place, but there was not one professor I came across who didn’t go out of their way to welcome me and help me expand my skill set. The fac-ulty and staff here are what enrich the academic experi-ence, and I hope all students take advantage of the re-sources they offer.

Thank you to past IC editors. Joe Griffith, Josh Martin and Dave Hochanadel have all helped me figure out tough problems I’ve

encountered. Just chatting with them about the IC has allowed me to learn more about what exactly my role is as both an editor and journal-ist. I mean it when I say I have looked up to all of you throughout my time here.

Thank you to Business Manager Beth Majoy and the IC Business Side. I have to give you all a ton of credit: selling ads in this economy is not easy, but you all don’t let that get to you. You are the kind of business leaders we need, because you know it’s not all about the money and you put the product first. Prime exam-ple: your openness to make the editorial side’s idea for a downtown special section a reality. But that’s only one of many areas where we owe you thanks. And Beth, it has been a pleasure working alongside you to run the newspaper. Your passion for this place matched mine, and there’s not much more I could ask for in that regard. I look to you not only as a col-league but also as a close friend.

Thank you to the won-derful editorial staff of the Independent Colle-gian. Individually, you all are terrific. Collectively, you make up a team whose dedi-cation to inform the public and keep improving by the deadline is relentless. Every issue, I had more to be thank-ful for. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know how I would make it through deadlines. Sometimes we would get carried away cracking jokes with each other, but that is something worth looking back on despite it pushing us late into the night. I will miss all those slap-happy mo-ments when you can’t help but laugh. I hope those joyful moments remain a fixture in the office, but please contin-ue to join that enthusiasm with a serious approach in objectively serving the com-munity. The staff is privi-leged to have the IC as a valuable resource, and I am confident you will ensure it remains a resource for the community first and fore-most. I am excited to see all the great things you will ac-complish in the semesters to come.

Space permits only so much in my column’s length, so please, if I happened to miss anyone or any group, leave me a comment online, and I will be sure to respond to you. I wish the best of luck to everyone, and I hope you all keep reading and contributing.

Sincerely,

Hasan Dudar

__________Hasan Dudar is the exit-

ing Editor-in-Chief of the Independent Collegian. He graduated in December with a Bachelors in Art in politi-cal science. He can be reached at hdudar@inde-pendentcollegian.com.

Hasan Dudar

Thank you, all

The GOP alternative

African examples of change and independenceThe “self-liberation” of a

nation is often seen in two ways: the toppling of its gov-ernment or the secession of one region from the state. In the first month of the new year, the world has witnessed both these forms in action.

The ever-evolving conti-nent of Africa has played host to these extraordinary examples of global develop-ment. In Sudan, the conti-nent’s largest constituent, the southern region of the country has conducted a ref-erendum for secession. In Tunisia, a small, semi-penin-sular country on the Medi-terranean, escalating pro-tests toppled the president and his government.

So, what mobilizes people to the streets and the voting booths? What inspires such a strongly unified, mass con-viction in a population? The answer reflects the point at which oppression surpasses the threshold of people’s tol-erance. While this may seem like a simplistic or obvious answer, the fact is that when human rights have been trampled upon or forced into submission, there comes a time when people can take no more.

Just as every individual has

a point at which “something snaps,” whatever stressor may induce it, that point can be reached in terms of a pop-ulation and the result is al-ways the same: a widespread and powerful reaction, fueled by emotion.

In Sudan, that point has been reached after decades of chaotic build-up. Defective borders laid by colonial pow-ers in 1956 created a region that would painfully separate into respective diasporas. Civil war has ravaged the country over the years, con-tinually dividing its citizens and resulting in the deaths of some 2 million people.

In 2005, the Comprehen-sive Peace Agreement was signed, providing a glimpse of peace in the region. Yet despite being implemented by the United Nations, the treaty could not prevent vi-cious attempts by northern Sudan to squash the south’s ambitions for independence. The northern-based govern-ment provided aid to rebel groups, including the notori-ous “Lord’s Resistance Ar-my” from Uganda, attempt-ing to destabilize south Su-dan. This yielded even more bloodshed in the country, in-cluding the deaths of thou-

sands in 2009.But after all that suffering,

the South may finally have achieved its long-sought goal. As a referendum resulted in a 99 percent vote for seces-sion, South Sudan is on the cusp of its long-desired achievement of recognition and national identity.

In the same continent as the cultural bloodbath seen in Sudan, a different form of the same resentment is dis-

played. The economic tur-moil experienced worldwide served as a catalyst against something much more detri-mental — an oppressive, au-tocratic government.

For the past 23 years, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has held the citizens of Tunisia in a vice grip. Human rights vio-lations have been rampant, as the executive branch of government has continually brushed aside the law to

allow, for example, the use of torture, arbitrary arrests and extremely stringent cen-sorship in every form of me-dia. Copious levels of cor-ruption were also displayed, as the ruling family embez-zled their way to a lavish life.

But even as bullets and tear gas poured on to protes-tors in the streets of Tunis, the organized mayhem that was engineered over the years by the Ben Ali’s regime

was finally overcome by the will of the people.

The effects of the events in Sudan and Tunisia transcend international boundaries. Even the opportunity to vote for independence is a victory for several regions striving for the same goal.

In the ever-volatile state of Somalia, notoriously famous for its pirates, the western region called the Somaliland has conducted four national

elections, each with a peace-ful transition of power - a rare occurrence among the many nations of the African continent. But as an unrecog-nized country, it remains in international purgatory. Sev-eral other regions around the world share this fate, includ-ing the well-known examples of Kurdistan in Iraq, Taiwan and Tibet in China.

The toppling of an oppres-sive ruler may seem like a story told time and time again over the course of history, but the new chapter in Tuni-sia still provides both an in-spiration to the citizens and fear to the governments of nearby countries. Algerians expressed widespread sup-port for the protests.

In the West Bank, rallies were planned to celebrate the ousting, before being pre-vented by the Palestinian Au-thority. Muammar Qaddafi, the leader of Libya for the past 41 years and ally of Ben Ali, condemned the uprising. In Egypt and Jordan, national demonstrations have been staged or are being planned.

In the end, it is impossible to determine the results of these movements. South Su-dan’s bid for independence may not come to fruition,

instead reverting back into civil war, while Tunisia hosts yet another dictator. The nu-merous other struggling na-tions in the world may re-main unacknowledged. The dominoes may stay upright, as rulers continue to retain power. Either way, the ef-fects may seem trivial for us, residing in the world’s stan-dard-bearer of freedom and equality.

But these events continue to demand our attention. While the repercussions of political volatility may be translated into economic or military issues that eventual-ly involve us, something much more important is rep-resented by dissidence. As people across the globe vote or march, they are a testa-ment to the human desire for liberation - and whether one agrees or disagrees with the cause, it is something that at the very least deserves our recognition.

—Rahul Prasad is an IC

columnist and a sophomore

majoring in biology and

philosophy.

This week, President Barack Obama will give his second State of the Union address. After a year that included a long string of ac-complishments from the passage of health care re-form to the repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” poli-cy, the political landscape is much different this time around. Just last week, Obama’s approval rating re-gained the 50 percent mark after dipping to its lowest level in June.

Though the momentum seems to be moving in the White House’s direction late-ly, Obama will for the first time address a legislature in which Republicans are a ma-jority. With their calls for the repeal of health care reform and drastic spending cuts, Obama’s message Tuesday night is likely to highlight a sharp divide between the two parties.

In an online video released to supporters over the week-end, Obama previewed the focus of the State of the Union address, one that makes job creation and America’s long-term compet-itiveness a high priority in the second half of Obama’s first term as president. While Obama also mentioned tar-geted spending cuts, it’s like-ly that maintaining America’s competitiveness will mean new spending in areas like education, research and infrastructure.

In a political climate that is decidedly hostile to grow-ing deficits, a call for new spending is likely to spur a new round of debate. It’s un-likely that anything new will be said, since the case against higher spending rare-ly changes and the threat imposed by higher spending rarely materializes.

For that reason, I think the

most interesting development to watch after the State of the Union will be the Republican Party’s response. The GOP has managed to rail against rising spending for two years now without party leaders identifying specific, meaning-ful cuts they’d like to see. This will change when Con-gressman Paul Ryan gives the GOP response Tuesday night.

Responding to the State of the Union is difficult to begin with. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, once the GOP’s rising star, is still recovering from his enthusiastic faceplant two years ago. Paul Ryan’s

task is complicated further by President Obama’s recent legislative wins and growing popularity with the public. But the truly consequential aspect of Ryan’s role is that he is the author of the Road-map, which is, to date, the only alternative to President Obama’s economic agenda that has been offered by a Republican congressman.

The GOP has been hesi-tant to stand behind Ryan’s agenda, even without a sub-stantive alternative. The GOP’s position over the past two years has been one in which they would rather be known as the party of “No” than be known as the party of ideas. In other words, for

the entirety of Obama’s pres-idency thus far, the Republi-cans would rather do noth-ing if their only option is Ryan’s plan.

With their selection of Ry-an to give the GOP’s re-sponse, they have implicitly endorsed the Roadmap and committed to a plan of their own instead of simply reject-ing Democrats’ ideas.

So what is included in the Roadmap? I’ll give a quick rundown of its key points make it clear why elected officials have been slow to show enthusiasm. It would privatize most of Social Se-curity and Medicare, give seniors medication subsi-dies that do not rise with costs and have the middle class pay higher taxes than the wealthy.

Since party leaders such as Speaker of the House John Boehner and House majority leader Eric Cantor are either unwilling or inca-pable of coming up with pol-icy alternatives, Tuesday night will mark the point at which they must begin at-tempting to justify the dra-conian measures outlined by the Roadmap.

They will also likely face tough questions regarding the stark contrast between messages. If Obama’s State of the Union address is a call for a stronger investment in an educated workforce and a commitment to using re-search and technology to maintain our status as a world leader in the 21st cen-tury, Ryan’s platform of do-ing the exact opposite is go-ing to be hard to sell.

—Jason Copsey is an IC

columnist and a junior ma-

joring in political science

and public relations.

Delayed chargesA few days ago I checked

my bank account to find about 11 dollars of charges that originated back in Sep-tember but were only charged to my account just recently. I was a little con-fused and thought some-one had found a way to rip me off until I checked my email.

I understand that mis-takes happen and I’m not necessarily upset about the university attempting to recoup the funds they had clearly lost, but I thought that their decision to send out an e-mail and process charges on a Fri-day without proactive noti-fication or consideration for individuals that may not have additional fund-ing in their account was a bit unprofessional, to say the very least.

The phone calls and text messages began pouring into my phone, my friends asking me whether or not my account had been “hit up” by the Student Union food court for charges from September, October or November, as theirs had been. One of my friends was unfortunate enough to find that more than one hundred dollars had been taken from her account — she has since vowed to never patronize the food court again.

Again, while I do under-stand the university’s need to streamline their finan-cial process by batch pro-cessing credit card charges and to recoup funds they should have taken months ago, I believe it is deplor-able to process these or-ders on a Friday without any form of recourse for students that may not have had any additional funding

in their accounts at the time. I am sure that there will be many complaints filed this coming week and it seems like it’s just an-other grievance students will have to discuss.

If there is an issue with the food court’s credit card processing system, I sug-gest the university fixes it. I also suggest that they figure out a fair and diplomatic

way to rectify the public relations and customer ser-vice issues they have creat-ed because there will be many individuals on cam-pus now wary of purchas-ing anything from the food court.

In an economy where stu-dents and parents are al-ready struggling, when tu-ition and general fees are steadily rising and where there are mostly menial jobs in the area surround-ing the campus, perhaps those in charge should give people fair warning before processing payments for services rendered several months ago.

People shouldn’t have to suffer unnecessary hard-ships because of someone else’s accounting error. Most of the problems could have been easily avoided by notifying students of the mistake earlier in the week or at the beginning of the next week, giving them time to place the needed funds into the proper ac-count and obviate the fees and credit score damage suffered.

—Nicole Doan is an IC

columnist and a senior ma-

joring in individualized

studies.

Independent CollegianTheMonday, January 24, 2011 A5

One of my friends was unfortunate

enough to find that more than $100 had

been taken from her account — she has since vowed to never patronize the

food court again.

”

“

The GOP’s posi-tion over the past

two years has been one in which they would rather be

known as the party of “No” than be

known as the party of ideas.

”

“

So, what mobilizes people to the streets and the voting

booths? What inspires such a strongly unified, mass conviction

in a population? ”“

YouUsWhatTell Send your letter to the editor to

forum@independentcollegian.com and let the campus and community

know what’s on your mind.Think

Letters must be under 500 words and are subject to editing for content and length. All letters must be signed.

Independent CollegianTheMonday, January 24, 2011A6

economic situation for making students “smarter” about taking out loans.

“We are find-ing more stu-dents are really asking ‘do I need to borrow all of this,’” she said.

Sean Battista, a fourth year student in the PharmD pro-gram, estimates his total debt by the time he graduates to reach $150,000.

“It concerns me how much debt I have, and will have, by the time I graduate, but it’s a neces-sary evil, I couldn’t have gone through college without taking all of these loans,” he said.

Battista has two years left to complete his degree and isn’t worried about finding a job as a pharmacist and eventually paying back his loans.

Degrees in health care such as pharmacy, medicine, engi-neering and technical work are expected to give students an easier time to pay off their

20

40

60

80%

Õ052000Õ95Õ90Õ851980

Choosing a school

Net college costs as a percent of median family income*

Total college loans

© 2009 MCTGraphic: Chicago Tribune

As the amount of tuition loans rises, students deciding on colleges are increasingly weighing finances as a major factor.

Expensive choices

*Costs include tuition, room and board without financial aid; figures donÕt total 100 due to rounding

Income category Public four-year Public two-year

Attended Òfirst choiceÓ college or universityOffer of financial aid Òvery importantÓ to decision

Lowest 39%55%

40%49%

In billions of 2007 dollars

2007-08 $85 billion

1997-98 2000-01 Õ03-04 Õ06-07

7%9%

6%7%

Upper

12%16%

10%13%Upper-middle

18%25%

15%20%

29%

Middle

23%33%

22%Lower-middle

2008 61%

2008 43%

Percentage of respondents

Source: 2008 Freshman Study, Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA (school choice data); College Board, National Center for Education Statistics, National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education

1999-2000 costs 2007-Õ08 costs

20

40

60

80

$100

Chicago Tribune/MCT

Charts showing the amount of loans available to students is rising.

Credit reform

Card ownership

67%76%

90%88%

$4,100$2,900

$2,400$2,000

© 2009 MCT

FreshmanSophomore

JuniorSenior*

FreshmanSophomore

JuniorSenior*

Percentage of students with credit cards, 2008

New legislation that awaits President Barack Obama’s signature will make it harderfor college-aged students toget credit cards.

• Customers must receive 45 days notice of higher rates• Accounts must be at least 60 days late before raising rateson existing balances

Average credit card debt

Other restrictions

• People under the age of 21 will have to get an adult's signatureor prove they can pay off debt

Too young for a card

2008

Source: Sallie Mae Graphic: Melina Yingling*Includes 5th years

debt, according to Jiannuzzi, because of good job potential, higher income and forgiveness programs.

An income-based repayment option began in July in order to give those with low salaries and

larger house-holds more time to pay back their loans.

A student us-ing this pay-ment plan is ex-pected to pay back their loans within 20 to 25 years after grad-uating, in con-trast to stan-dard repayment plans that take an average of 10 years.

Loan consol-idation programs are also of-fered that give students the ability to consolidate all their

debt into one payment. Ac-cording to Jiannuzzi, this is so students are not making pay-ments to multiple servicers and have a longer time to pay back their loans.

Forgiveness options are avail-able to students in teaching, medicine, and law careers that require them to enter public service occupations for up to 10 years. A student is required to make 120 loan payments, and the remaining balance will be “forgiven,” or paid off.

Burns works to prepare stu-dents when they graduate and enter repayment by sending them exit counseling consultation.

She said the most important thing for students to remem-ber is the classic warning of only borrow what you need.

“If you don’t need it, don’t take the loan money that is offered to you and look at other options to cover it through scholarships or through working,” Burns said.

DebtFrom Page A1

It concerns me how much debt I have

and will have by the time I graduate, but it’s

a necessary evil, I couldn’t have gone

through college without taking all of these loans.

Sean BattistaFourth-year student,Pharm-D program ”

“who are fairly low-income people and I have people who make fairly high sala-ries,” Logie said.

The decision was then made that everyone — Cam-pus Police, Safety and Health and Human Resources —would take at least one fur-lough day before June 30 and the management team includ-ing Logie were required to take two or three days.

George said she would rather take a furlough day than to have someone laid off.

Laying someone off, George said, would just mean extra work for her and her colleagues.

“I really don’t want some-one to lose their job,” George, who has already tak-en two furlough days, said. “Why make someone lose a job that they worked and ap-plied for?”

The days were staggered, so someone was still working

while someone else was tak-ing the day off, Logie said, ensuring there was no de-crease in work being done.

Over half of the staff in the three departments already participated by taking at least one of their furlough days, according to Logie.

This system will allow the department to save approxi-mately $150,000 and meet the 1.5 percent budget reduction.

“I’m not a big fan of impact-ing peoples’ paychecks nega-tively,” Logie said.

Logie said his staff reas-sures him they are fine and willing to make the sacrifice.

Because workers will not be getting paid for the days they take off, their pension will decrease, Logie said.

“It’s really a double wham-my for them and most people don’t realize that,” Logie said. “They are really losing twice.”

Logie said everyone on staff was informed of this impact.

The program was able to be successful, Logie said,

because everyone was not required to take a furlough day all at the same time; they were given a six-month win-dow in which they could plan to take a day off.

“While some people said ‘oh yeah, you’re right, I’ve got to think about this payment or that payment,’ nobody said ‘gosh, I’m not going to eat to-day,’” Logie said.“The goal is to avoid any layoffs. Assum-ing that nothing changes be-tween now and June 30th, we’ll meet our goal and we’ll be okay.”

Logie said he is proud of his staff.

“I have not had anybody even give me a hint that they are unhappy or upset,” he said.

George said volunteering to take a furlough day is the right thing to do.

“I soul searched and thought that it was the right thing to do,” she said.

George said it would help “a great deal if everybody would just tighten their belt a little and help out.”

Furlough From Page A1

By IC Staff

The Collegian Media Foun-dation Board of Directors has selected a new editor-in-chief for the remainder of the Spring Semester at their Jan-uary 17 meeting.

Jason Mack, a senior in communications, will take over as editor-in-chief of the Independent Collegian be-ginning today. Hasan Dudar, who served as editor begin-ning in April, tendered his resignation to the Collegian Media Foundation earlier in the month when he accepted a temporary position as a legislative reporter with the Associated Press in India-napolis, IN.

Mack, who served as man-aging editor throughout the academic year, is excited to lead the newspaper starting on Thursday’s issue.

“I’m excited about the op-portunity. It’s a shame to see Hasan leave, but at the same time it’s a great opportunity for him and a great connec-tion to make for the paper,”

he said.Mack said he plans on stay-

ing the course the staff has taken this year, but his goal is expanding the IC’s online presence.

“We’re going to continue progressing in online media like we have been,” he said.

“We’re going to put a lot of emphasis on developing the Facebook page and adding more to the website.”

The Temperance, Mich. na-tive has worked at the IC for

four years and considers his experience at the newspaper on par with his educational experience at the University of Toledo.

“As much as I value my education at UT, you really learn so much more here than anywhere else,” he said.

Mack has held several po-sitions at the IC, including staff writer and sports edi-tor. He also has added pho-tography as a skill during his tenure at the newspaper.

Mack believes his ability to work with others and his versatility in developing di-verse content will serve as his greatest strength as editor.

“Most of all, I think just my overall experience here, I’ve kind of had my hand in every section of the paper at some point,” He said. “Just kind of knowing where they’ve all been and being able to relate to what they’re doing and help them out with their sec-tions [is my greatest strength as editor].”

New IC editor selected

Mack

SportsMonday, January 24, 2011Section B Page1

www.IndependentCollegian.com Zach Davis – Editor

I thought we had an opportunity to win this

game and we let one slip away tonight.Tod KowalczykUT Men’s Basketball Coach ”“

First place Ball State escapes from Toledo By Zach DavisSports Editor

Toledo let a halftime lead slip away against first place Ball State on Saturday as the Rockets fell 70-60 at Savage Arena.

“Maybe I shouldn’t be as disappointed as I am,” Toledo head coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “It’s got nothing to do with winning or losing. It’s about how we approach the game and I think this team is just having a real hard time with handling any type of success.

“[You just have to] keep your thumb on the guys at all times. That’s a hard way to coach and a hard way to play. It takes an unbelievable amount of energy from their end and my end. We are going to do whatever we have to do to build this program and win. We just can’t accept guys that don’t play with grit or a sense of purpose. Maybe I’m asking too much of certain guys. A walk-on in the start-ing lineup—maybe I’m asking too much of them. I don’t think I am, but maybe I am.”

Toledo (4-15, 1-4 Mid-Amer-ican Conference) committed over 20 turnovers for the third time this season after league unbeaten Ball State (13-4, 5-0 MAC) forced 21 UT giveaways.

“I thought we had an op-portunity to win this game and we let one slip away to-night,” Kowalczyk said. “We are up one at halftime against supposedly the best team in our league and we had 13 turnovers and probably as many mental breakdowns as we’ve had in any half this year. We can’t afford to do that. We should have been up 14 like we were on Wednes-day night at halftime [against WMU]. We didn’t give our-selves a cushion—it’s disappointing.”

Rockets run away from Buffalo 67-53By Zach DavisSports Editor

After squandering a late lead in a loss on Wednesday at Central Michigan, the Rockets reclaimed first place in the Mid-American Conference West Division with a com-manding 67-53 victory over Buffalo on Saturday at Savage Arena. The Chippewas lost their share of the division af-ter a 28-point loss at Bowling Green this weekend.

“I don’t think that anyone slept well after that game,” UT head coach Tricia Cullop said. “We all really worked hard to prepare for this game know-ing that because we have had success the last few years we are facing a lot of team’s best effort when they come in here. They want to knock us off. We have got to prepare for that momentum every night and not come out with a sub-par effort.”

The Rockets held a nine point lead in the second half against the Chippe-was, including a five point advantage in the final 90 seconds on Wednesday, but lost in Mount Pleas-ant 78-74. Toledo took out their frustration against the Bulls, jumping out to an early 15-6 lead and coasting to a 40-16 advantage at halftime.

“Central was a very tough game to swallow,” Cullop said. “It was great today to get back to what we are good at. I do think that how you re-spond from that shows a lot about your character and I re-ally am proud of our players to come out and play hard and have a great first half. That’s what we needed.

“We wanted to come out and make a statement,” senior center Melissa Goodall said. “We needed to get our feet back under us and improve on some of the things we messed up on Wednesday and prove that when we make mistakes we can turn it around before the next game.”

Junior point guard Naama

Shafir had a team-high 12 points and seven assists for the Rockets. Senior guard Jes-sica Williams scored 11 points while Goodall had 10 points and four rebounds.

Toledo shot 44 percent (27 of 61) from the field and made 8-of-16 three-pointers while holding the Bulls to just 32 percent (16 of 49) shooting.

“We were just able to set the tone,” Goodall said. “We were able to get stops and turn those stops into transition of-fense. We set the tone and didn’t let their defense fluster us.”

Lecretia Smith returned to the lineup for the Rockets af-ter missing the last two games with a concussion. The soph-omore forward did not return to her starting spot but played 21 minutes off the bench, grabbing a team-high six rebounds.

“It was tough to play a cou-ple games without her,” Cullop said. “Tonight it was good to give her a chance to play and give her her lungs back be-cause she’s been sit-ting out not allowed to have a lot of con-

tact because of the concussion.”

Toledo’s bench outscored the Bulls 22-10. Of the 13 Rockets who played against Buffalo, a season-best 12 play-ers scored.

“It was great today to get a large enough lead to get the rest of our bench in because they don’t always get the op-portunity to play,” Cullop said. “They need those opportuni-ties too because we are build-ing for the future, not just today.”

The Rockets renew their ri-valry against defending MAC Champion Bowling Green when they travel to face the Falcons on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Toledo topped BGSU 66-63 in their only regular season meeting at home last season before losing to the Falcons in the MAC Championship game 62-53.

Jason Mack / IC

Toledo head coach Tod Kowalczyk speaks with a referee as the Rockets fell to 4-15 on the season.

Jason Mack / IC

Lecretia Smith returned against Buffalo from a concussion that sidelined her for two games.

Fisher sets MAC record for mile

Courtesy of the UT Athletic Department

Ari Fisher led Toledo to a fifth place finish, setting a MAC record for the mile at 4:48.93.

By Tony BiblerIC Staff Writer

Junior Ari Fisher set a new Mid-American Confer-ence record for the mile, with a time of 4:48.93 and led the Rockets track and field team to a fifth place fin-ish at the All-Ohio Champi-onships Saturday at Kent State.

“I was really impressed

with Ari’s performance to-day, especially since the mile is not her strongest event,” said head coach Kev-in Hadsell. “To run like that really shows a huge jump in her abilities, and I’m ex-tremely excited to see her run the 5K for the first time this season.”

Fisher’s time not only eclipsed the old record of

4:49.10 held by Everlyne Lagat but is the fifth-fastest time in MAC history and ranks as the 19th fastest time in the nation this year.

Other highlights over the weekend for Toledo includ-ed sophomore Emma Kertesz, who placed fourth on Saturday in the 3000

— Escapes, Page B2

— Record, Page B2

ToledoBuffalo

6753

Independent CollegianTheMonday, January 24, 2011B2

Malcolm Griffin scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting with five re-bounds and three assists. The sophomore guard has scored over 20 points three times in his career, all of which oc-curred in the last three games.

“My shots are more on bal-ance now,” Griffin said. “I look to penetrate and pass and that frees me up. I’m just trying to help my team as much as I can so we can keep moving forward.”

Freshman forward Reese Holliday had his fourth dou-ble-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Senior forward Anthony

Wright hit three triples and finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

Although Ball State trailed at halftime, the Cardinals outscored UT 44-33 in the second half as leading scorer Jarrod Jones scored 10 of his 12 points after the break.

“[Jones] is a 100 percent left shoul-der post scorer and we let him turn over his left shoulder,” Kowalczyk said. “Guys saw it on the scouting report and on tape and a couple of our guys let him turn over his left shoul-der and he can score that way. He can’t score over his right shoulder. We have to do better on our scouting.”

Ball State scored 10 of the first 14 points in the second half after they began pressing the Rockets inbound passes.

“As a Division I player you have to be able to pass, catch and dribble,” Kowalczyk said. “We have got to make better

plays against the press than we did.”

Junior guard Ran-dy Davis led the Cardinals with 24 points and made all 14 of his free throw attempts. Sopho-more guard Jauwan

Scaife also scored in double figures with 13.

The Rockets will host rival Bowling Green (8-11, 3-2) on Tuesday at Savage Arena at 7:30 p.m. and will be tele-vised on SportsTime Ohio.

meter run with a time of 9:58.93. Three Rockets also placed in the top eight in the 5000 meter run with sophomore Devyn Ramsay finishing fifth (17:34.95), Audra Brown placing sixth (17:39.93) and sophomore Lei Bornhorst taking eighth (17:44.43).

“Our distance runners had an amazing weekend,” Hadsell said. “Where we are in our training is way ahead of what I had predicted. I’m very excited to see how our distance program continues to show that it is one of the

top programs in the country.”

UT took first and second in the triple jump after se-nior Alexandra Afloari cleared 39-02.25 for first while sophomore Yuhong Fu took second after a jump of 38-05.5.

“I think we really estab-lished ourselves today as a legitimate contender with EMU to win the Indoor MAC Championship,” Had-sell said. “We didn’t get greedy for points by dou-bling up our distance run-ners, so in five weeks I think we’ll be a big surprise at the Indoor Championships.”

By IC Staff

The University of Toledo women’s swimming and div-ing team finished the Rutgers Invitational Saturday night with a fourth place finish. Senior captain Jacy Dyer broke her own Mid-American Conference record in the 1650 free time trial with a time of 16:12.58. Dyer’s time Saturday bested her previous record of 16:21.74, by nearly nine seconds and qualified her for an NCAA “B” time.

Junior Laura Lindsay took second in the 100 Breas-stroke in a season-best 1:01.99 which also qualifies as an NCAA “B” time. Senior Kelsey Atchison finished third, behind Lindsay, in a time of 1:05.05.

“Overall we had a much better session today,”UT head coach Liz Hinkleman-said. “We had some lifetime and season-best times. Dyer had a great mile to break both the school and MAC re-cord, which should put her in

a great position to make NCAAs. Lindsay also posted a season-best time with her excellent swim in the 100 Breast.”

The Rockets return to ac-tion this Saturday at 5 p.m. for their final home dual meet of the season as they host Bowling Green at the Student Rec Center. UT will recognize their six seniors: Kelsey Atchison, Jacy Dyer, Megan Friedli, Laura Heck-roth, Katie Jackson and Amanda Thompson.

EscapesFrom Page B1

RecordFrom Page B1

Jason Mack / IC

Sophomore guard Malcolm Griffin has scored over 20 points for the first time in his ca-reer in each of the last three games.

Courtesy of UT Athletic Department

Senior captain Jacy Dyer broke her old MAC record in the 1650 free time trial posting a a time of 16:12.58, nearly nine seconds faster than her old mark.

Dyer sets MAC record

Courtesy of UT Athletics

In their second-straight road match to start the 2011 season, the Rockets’ men’s tennis team dropped a tough 6-1 decision to ITA No. 12-ranked Kentucky on Sun-day. Toledo was unable to overcome the Wildcats, who swept doubles action while winning five of six singles points.

The lone Rocket win came from senior Aleksandar Elezovic in the No. 1 slot, who pulled out an incredible win over one of the top-ranked singles players in the country. Elezovic battled back after dropping the first set to defeat Kentucky’s Alex Musialek, currently ranked No. 39 in the ITA singles rankings. After losing the

first set, 2-6, Elezovic came back to win the second set in the tiebreak, 7-6(3), then pre-vailed in set three, 6-4, to pick up the win. Elezovic al-so teamed with fellow senior Sven Burus in No. 1 doubles, dropping a close 8-6 decision to Musialek/Rossi.

“Great start to the dual match season with a signa-ture victory for Aleks,” said Head Coach Al Wermer. “He sent a clear message today to upcoming opponents and we are very proud of him, but not surprised.”

Kentucky picked up wins in the remaining two doubles bouts as well as the five re-maining singles matchups to secure the 6-1 win. The Rock-ets didn’t make it easy, how-ever, for the highly-ranked Kentucky squad. Senior

Nutthavit Likitkumchorn was locked in an intense matchup at No. 3 with Ken-tucky’s Brad Cox. Likitkum-chorn pushed both sets the the tiebreak, but was unable to pull out the win, falling 7-6(2), 7-6(2). Also putting up a tough fight was senior Gur-sher Harika, who kept it close at No. 6, but lost 7-5, 6-4 to Ryuji Hirooka.

“After a slow start in dou-bles, we fought back hard to the point of finding ourselves locked in a pretty good match,” said Wermer. “I real-ly liked how our players turned the match into a battle.”

Next on the slate for the 1-1 Rockets is a home-open-ing doubleheader, as they host Case Western and Ken-yon on Friday, Jan. 28.

Courtesy of UT Athletic Department

Senior Aleksandar Elezovic defeated No. 39 ranked singles player Alex Musialek of Kentucky.

Elezovic beats top-40 opponent

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Independent CollegianTheMonday, January 24, 2011B3

Dorm RoomsFrom Page B3 ice,” particularly during the first few weeks of school.

He also added that “blan-kets and extra seating are probably the biggest thing” when it comes to creating a place to relax.

His roommate Tyler Koel-liker, a freshman majoring in pharmacy, agreed.

Moved in a week before the rest of his roommates, Koel-liker described the lonely room as “horrendous.” He suggested placing “anything [in a room] that would make it more homey” to avoid typi-cal impersonality.

Not having fully bonded with his new roomies before move-in, he jokingly said that

“it takes a large projector screen to bring four strangers together.”

While much of the décor in this upscale bro pad was cheaply salvaged, Koelliker believes that it’s a good idea to have “one big aspect in the room that’s out of the ordinary.”

In addition, a quirky skele-ton hangs from one wall, as well as a life-sized cardboard cutout standing ominously near the shower and a humor-ously daunting hazard sign posted on the bathroom door.

“Little touches like that make the difference be-tween having a normal dorm room and one that everyone wants to hang out in,” Koludrovich said.

it off so quickly they closed the Gramophone Q&A by say-ing they hoped to collaborate. A few months later, Dinner-stein gave a recital in Durham and noticed that Aaron Green-wald, the director of Duke Performances, booked genre-defying artists. She told him she and Merritt had an idea.

“He made it happen,” Din-nerstein said.

Word of the collaboration got out, and three venues in Florida and California have booked the duo to perform this month.

In Durham, Merritt will try

out a few new songs; Dinner-stein will play new arrange-ments of classical works and premiere variations on the Cohen song “Suzanne.” Then there are the duets, commis-sioned songs by Patty Griffin, Philip Lasser and Brad Mehl-dau, plus four complete re-imaginings of opera arias and classical art songs.

Their re-imagining of Schubert’s “Nacht und Trau-me” began with Dinnerstein translating the 1825 German text into English.

Then Merritt “changed the words into something con-temporary, like a song she would sing, and then I changed the rhythm to support what

John Davisson / MCTTift Merritt performs at the Tampa Theatre in Tampa, Florida.

she was singing,” Dinnerstein said. During one verse, the piano picks up the melody and Merritt picks up the harmonica.

“The song is like country blues meets Schubert, and it’s totally gorgeous,” Dinner-stein said.

To commit the music to memory _ and compensate for her difficulty reading scores _ Merritt would record and take copious notes during their rehearsals in Brooklyn, where both women live.

“The next day she’d come in and have totally absorbed ev-erything from the day before,”

Dinnerstein said.Learning folk-rock and re-

working classics didn’t come easily to the pianist. “I’ve been reading a chord chart and try-ing to improvise, and that’s something that I’ve never done before,” she said.

Merritt would ask, “How

do you feel this should go?”

and Dinnerstein would riff

on a theme she had been

playing for years. “It was re-

ally exciting to see her say, ‘I

don’t like how that goes’ and

cross something out, or even

throw the music out,” Mer-

ritt said, laughing.

ShowFrom Page B4

Award shows face hard timesBy Mary McNamara

Los Angeles Times(MCT)

There is nothing more dem-ocratic in this country than network television. Regard-less of taste, artistic merit or critical response, the shows that no one likes enough to watch vanish, while popular shows return. On cable, the size of a show’s audience is often inversely related to the number of Emmys it wins, but on the networks it’s the peo-ple’s choice.

With awards season upon us, I bring this up because much of the response to Ricky Gervais’ acerbic performance as host of last week’s Golden Globes, which like most award shows appeared on network television, struck a single chord. Some reviews, many blogs and my e-mail box (I reviewed it negatively) rang with variations of: “These ce-lebrities with their long, bor-ing and ridiculous self-con-gratulatory awards shows are so rich and self-satisfied that they deserve whatever they get. Thank you, Ricky.”

The irony, of course, being that all these celebrity and award-show haters spent three hours of

their inarguably finite lives watching the Golden Globes. Instead of, say, figuring out a way to cheaply mass-produce an electric car or shooting some hoops.

Here’s an insider’s tip on how to put an end to these long, boring and ridiculous self-congratulatory award shows: Stop watching them.

Also stop talking about them, even in a negative way; Hollywood lives on buzz, es-pecially when it’s negative. Just look at Gervais’ pal Char-lie Sheen.

Celebrities are not, in fact, royalty; they are not born to positions of great wealth and power _ we put them there.

Without a seemingly insa-tiable demand for pictures and stories about her, Angeli-na Jolie would be just a work-ing actor who broke up a mar-riage and now has a bunch of kids. I cannot be the only per-son who counts at least one woman, or man, of similar description among my per-sonal and nonfamous friends. It happens.

Film actor or even movie star is a job description _ ce-lebrity is a status that we, the people, bestow. We do so with our eyeballs, with our dollars and lately with our tippity-tap

typing on the Internet. Cer-tainly, we have been a bit more profligate, or democrat-ic, with the term. There are times when I console myself with the thought that the emergence of Snooki et al. is part of a highly orchestrated and secret campaign to end celebrity culture by rendering it patently absurd, that the rise of the Kardashians is the work of a creative anarchist underground.

But that seems overly opti-mistic if for no other reason than so many people are watching the Golden Globes.

Every year, my colleague Patrick Goldstein, bless his

heart, dutifully points out to whoever is listening that the Hollywood Foreign Press As-sn. is a small group of foreign journalists with varying de-grees of professional integrity who have managed to lever-age their little ceremony into national importance.

This year, Patrick gave Ger-vais a pat on the back for ridi-culing the Golden Globes, but as he also pointed out, Ger-vais took the gig (twice) and cashed the check (also twice). Just as he took the Globe he won for “The Office” in 2004 and the nomination for “Ex-tras” in 2008.

I didn’t find Gervais’ opener

funny; not because it was mean but because it was lazy. A Charlie Sheen joke, a Mel Gibson joke, a Cher joke, a Scientology joke _ the only original swipe was at Jolie and Johnny Depp for their in-explicably nominated film “The Tourist.” That was just nasty.

Here’s another Hollywood “secret”: No one hates award shows more than celebrities. But what are nominated stars supposed to do? Not show up? Woody Allen got away with dissing the Oscars for years, but these days a star boycotting even the Globes

would be labeled a snob, like Jonathan Franzen dissing Oprah.

If everyone is sick of the Golden Globes, let’s stop in-vesting them with so much importance. If everyone is tired of big-salary stars, then for heaven’s sake start going to smaller movies.

If you actually saw Gervais raising a banner for revolu-tion, then revolt. Talk about politics, science, literature and theater, follow the lives of humanitarians and great thinkers, of real social provo-cateurs and artists. It’s your culture; take it back.

Arts“...said baby boy you’re only funky as your last cut,”

— Andre 3000, Rosa Parks andLifeMonday, January 24, 2011BSection

www.IndependentCollegian.com DC Guastella - EditorPage4

Turning a dorm room into a sanctuary

Morrison Wilson / IC

Above: Kathryn Lambert sits atop her lofted bed in her newspaper-adorned dorm room. Below: (Left) Alex Josway keeps an antique record player in his room. (Center) Lambert glued pieces from a broken mirror to her dorm wall. (Right) Roommates Michael Koludrovich and Tyler Koelliker use a projector and a number of unsheathed records to make their room unique.

By Weslie DetwilerIC Staff Writer

Dorm life is notoriously de-picted as being drab, gray and sometimes even a bit moldy. However, when given the right amount of tender loving care, residence hall rooms can easily be transformed in-to creative hangout sanctuaries.

For Kathryn Lambert, a freshman whose major is unde-clared, a place to call her own is of the utmost importance.

“I don’t function in a boring place very well,” she said. “I need somewhere to come back to that’s my place.”

Lambert’s creativity comes in the form of newspapers lin-ing every white concrete block wall of her home away from home. An artistically-placed broken mirror adorns one wall, as well as a pink floral piece of wrapping paper that gracefully connects each corner of the room.

She describes her space as “spontaneous, chill, and

relaxed,” which stems from nothing more than the wish to be original while still saving some cash.

Lambert’s surefire way to get a dorm room looking spiffy is simply to “pick things off the ground and tape them to the wall.” This solution to monotonous dé-cor should be more than rea-sonable for the average col-lege student, regardless of fi-nancial situation.

She looks at a dorm room “like a new canvas,”

exemplifying the notion that bland walls are to be em-braced rather than feared.

For Lambert, pristine isn’t necessarily equivalent to per-fection. Rather, her advice is short and sweet. “Make beau-ty out of mess,” she said.

Alex Josway, a freshman majoring in jazz guitar, also finds importance in personal-izing a new space, but with a more condensed approach.

While Josway does believe that a room “represents who you are,” his personal decora-

tion focuses on just one atten-tion-grabbing piece.

His faux antique record player displays his love of mu-sic and adds a musician’s touch to his desktop.

“I enjoy music in pure forms… and it totally looks cool,” said Josway.

Although an extensive record collection may not fall into the hands of many students, for a passionate music major the idea of a wooden, antique player is perfect.

“I like things old school,” he said.

Similarly, Michael Koludrov-ich, a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering, has an affinity for records.

He and his suitemates cov-ered one wall with black vi-nyl, rummaged from garage sales, and another with a plain white sheet, ideal for film projecting.

Koludrovich said that the projector, accompanied by a vast amount of extra seating, was a “good way to break the

Musicians combine folk-rock and classical piano for interesting showBy Rebecca J. RitzelMcClatchy Newspapers(MCT)

RALEIGH, N.C. _ To even the playing field between a folk guitarist and a classical pianist, ask the guitarist to read music and the pianist to improvise. That’s what hap-pened last month when sing-er-songwriter Tift Merritt and concert pianist Simone Din-nerstein began preparing for two concerts they will present

this weekend at Duke University.

You could say that they fell back on the common lan-guage they know: music.

But that would be senti-mentalizing and over sim-plifying a rehearsal process that both artists describe as a challenge unlike any they have encountered in their separately successful careers.

That’s because Merritt, a North Carolina native, learned to sing and play guitar by ear, while Dinnerstein, a classical musician, has been sight-read-ing notes on a page since the age of 7. Together after much compromise and a little con-sternation they have prepared an 80-minute set list called “Night,” which includes varia-tions on a Leonard Cohen classic, a Schubert art song

with a harmonica interlude and more.

“It’s been a huge learning process for both of us,” Din-nerstein said.

“It was very scary. At first,” Merritt said.

The guitarist claims she came into the project unable to read scores, especially rhythms. Dinnerstein says she protests too much.

Merritt “can read music,

she’s just not used to learning to sing a song from reading the notes,” the pianist said. “It’s not how she processes music. It was actually really interesting, because we spent a very intense week rehears-ing over the Christmas holi-days ... at the end of the week, we had both really grown as musicians. We put on a run-through at my parents’ house for our friends, and it went

really well.”They met about two years

ago when Gramophone, the British magazine, was looking for someone outside of classi-cal music to interview Dinner-stein before the release of her second album. (Her third, “Bach: A Strange Beauty,” de-buted last week at No. 6 on Amazon.com.)

Merritt and Dinnerstein hit

— Dorm Rooms, Page B3

— Show, Page B3