the quad 108-5
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The Quad Issue of March 2, 2015TRANSCRIPT
WCUQUAD.COM VOLUME 108, ISSUE 05THE STUDENT NEWS SERVICE OF WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY
MAR 2015
02
SWIMMING AND DIVING TEAMS CELEBRATE PSAC CHAMPIONSHIPSSTORY ON PG 25 | JOSE MESTRE/ PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
NEWSPage 2 March 2, 2015
WEIRD NEWSWhen a Florida man’s niece refused to go to
the liquor store on a beer run for him, he got so angry that he lit a vehicle and part of
his home on fire. The suspect’s brother noticed him pouring gasoline on a large area rug placed on top of a four-wheeled ATV. The brother put the fire out with a garden hose before driving the suspect to the hospital to get him treated for second-degree burns.
Researchers examining a nearly 1,000-year-old statue of Buddha on display in Holland discovered something very unusual hidden
inside: the mummy of a meditating monk. A Dutch hospital used a CT scanner to take images of the body inside the statue and an endoscope to examine the thoracic and abdominal cavities.
A thief made off with an entire house in Klam-ath Falls, Oregon. The owner hadn’t visited his log cabin in several months, but police are still
baffled, despite finding the home about a mile away, because it was on foundation, and surely was not meant to be a mobile home.
JAPANESE-AMERICAN INTERNMENT VICTIM EDUCATES WCU STUDENTS
By Theresa Kelly and Emily EysterFeatures Editor and Special to The Quad
On Monday, Feb. 23 at 4:15 p.m. A. H. Nishikawa gave his pre-sentation “From Concentration
Camps to Today’s Issues” in Sykes Ball-room C. When he was four years old, Nishikawa was interned in the Jap-anese-American internment camps during WWII.
During WWII, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which enabled the Unit-ed States government to send around
120,000 Japanese-American citizens to internment camps. They had com-mitted no crimes, but the United States government claimed that it was for the good of the war that they interned the Japanese-Americans.
There were 10 “relocation” camps and four DOJ detention centers throughout the country. They were located, pri-marily, in the West, though two camps were as far out as Arkansas. Most of the Japanese-American citizens who were interned lived in California.
Nishikawa’s family was ordered to the Salinas Assembly Center in March 1942. Later, they were relocated to the
camp in Poston, Ariz. in July. Because of the camp in Poston, it actually be-came the third largest municipality in Arizona.
When Japanese-Americans were sent to the camps, their families were tagged, sent through a medical check-point, and their possessions were con-fiscated. Most photos from that time period are from government databas-es, as cameras were also confiscated.
Nishikawa, showing humor, showed a photo of a young girl with her fam-ily’s information on a tag around her neck. He said, “The only good thing was, they didn’t insist on tattooing the family’s name on your arm.” After a pause, he added, “That was a joke.”
The camps were broken into blocks and were surrounded by barbed wire fences. There were watchtowers and guards to ensure “protection,” though that was really just a front for keeping people in the camps. Each block had a recreation building, mess hall, laundry room, ironing room, a men’s restroom, a women’s restroom, and roughly ten barracks.
For people in the camps, some were allowed to become school teachers and others worked as mess hall cooks. Mess Hall cooks earned about $19 a month.
Nishikawa, interestingly, brought up the fact that his 70-year-old brother was born in the camps.
Some people did resist being in the camps. Though fighting back was dan-gerous, some people protested through committing arson in the camps. Mit-suye Endo, one internee, filed a writ of habeas corpus in June 1944. It went all the way to the Supreme Court, but he lost his case.
How did this kind of mass intern-ment happen? Nishikawa explained that there were many anti-Asian-American sentiments in the United States.
The effects of internment did not end the second the Japanese-American
people were released from the camps. After WWII, there was much emotion-al distress. Nishikawa explained that it was uncommon to want to talk about internment, and he had to convince his mother talk to him about it.
In 1991, internment victims re-ceived $20,000 as an apology for internment. The United States gov-ernment officially apologized for in-ternment.
At the end of the talk, people in the audience were allowed to ask ques-tions. Nishikawa explained that sev-eral lessons can be learned from the unforgiveable event in American his-tory. It was key for the community to organize. Preventing this type of injustice from happening again was crucial, and to do that, they needed to prevent laws like that from being passed in the first place.Theresa Kelly is a third-year student majoring in
English literature secondary education. She can be
reached at [email protected]. Emily Eyster is
a third-year student majoring in political science.
She can be reached at [email protected].
By Stephanie FrascaStaff Writer
Photo by Theresa Kelly
March 2, 2015 Page 3
JAPANESE-AMERICAN INTERNMENT VICTIM EDUCATES WCU STUDENTS
WCU’S NSSLHA TO HOST TWO FUNDRAISERS THIS SEMESTER
By Stephanie FrascaStaff Writer
West Chester University’s Na-tional Student Speech Lan-guage Hearing Association
(NSSLHA) is hosting two fundraisers this semester.
The National Student Speech Lan-guage Hearing Association is a group of students who are interested in com-munication sciences and disorders. Many of the members in the club
are interested in pursuing careers in speech-language pathology and au-diology. This group meets every other Tuesday evening to learn more about their future professions, fundraise for charity, and become more involved by volunteering within the community.
The first fundraiser NSSHLA is host-ing is a yard sale. The event will take place on Wednesday, March 18 and Thursday, March 19 in Sykes Student Union from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The or-ganization will be selling gently used clothing and accessories that were do-nated from the members of their orga-nization.
The second fundraiser NSSLHA is hosting is their Second Annual Art with a Heart. The event will take place on April 1 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Sykes Ballroom. This event is a silent art auc-tion. All of the artwork is donated, and created by children of various ages.
During the event, there will be raf-fles, food, and entertainment. The en-
tertainment for this year’s event is a DJ and performances by acapella groups. All of the proceeds from this event are
going towards The Christian Carib-bean Home for the Deaf.
The Christian Caribbean Home for the Deaf was founded in 1958. They
have three schools for the Deaf in Ja-maica. The schools sponsor deaf chil-dren in Jamaica by providing them with food, education, and a close-knit spiritual community. They believe that every child should have access to language, basic life necessities, and religion. For more information about The Christian Caribbean Home for the Deaf, students can visit http://www.cccdjamaica.org/.
All students are invited to come out and support the National Student Speech Language Association on campus.
For any students that have questions regarding their upcoming fundrais-ing events, or would like to donate any gently used clothing or artwork, they can contact Rebecca Peneranda at [email protected] Frasca is a fourth-year student majoring in communication sciences and disorders with minors in psychology and linguistics. She can be reached at [email protected].
“All of the proceeds from [Art with a Heart] are going towards The Christian Caribbean Home for the Deaf.”
The yardsale will take place on Wednesday, March 18 and Thursday, March 19 in Sykes Student Union from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Page 4 March 2, 2015
SGA DISCUSSES 2015-2016
FISCAL YEARBy Dylan Messerschmidt
Special to The Quad
The Student Gov-ernment Associa-tion met on Tues-
day with its main focus being the proposed fees for the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
With fees expected to rise for meal plans, the student rec. center, health center, trans-portation, and park-ing, those in attendance were given the chance to voice comments or questions regarding the changes. All questions asked for the reasons be-hind the raised amounts. The increase in the rec center’s fee is due to a state-required fee on new buildings that goes toward a fund for when the building must be removed. Food service price hikes are the result of Aramark raising their rates by 2.99 percent and the CPI dictating in-
creases. Both the Kronum Club
and the Swing Dance Club gave presentations, giving details on what their respective clubs are about and what they do. Both are looking for new members.
The meeting was mired by a lack of at-tendance from SGA members. With so many missing, any votes that had been planned were postponed until the fol-lowing meeting. Mem-bers of the cabinet men-tioned that there are currently multiple SGA seats open to those who are interested, and that there are plenty of funds available for sponsor-ships of club events. Dylan Messerschmidt is a
third-year student majoring
in communication studies.
He can be reached at
On Feb. 18, WCU lost an outstand-ing member
of the community. Al “Skip” Plant, an Infor-mation Services Support Specialist and graduate of WCU, passed away at the University of Penn-sylvania Hospital.
Plant grew up in Coatesville and gradu-ated from WCU in 2001 with a degree in earth and space sciences. He was also an intern for the Academic Computing
Department from April of 1999 to July 2005, when he was hired as a full-time technical ad-visor for the ResNet De-partment. After spend-ing three years working for Resnet, Plant became a Tech Fee Support Spe-cialist in the Information Services Department.
In Plant’s personal profile for the Informa-tion Services depart-ment, he responded to the question, “What do you like most about your job?” by saying, “Tech-nology is evolving at a
rapid pace, and keeping up with all these new in-novations is very excit-ing. I have the privilege to work with some very tech-savvy co-workers which makes com-ing into work each day something to look for-ward to. The overall at-mosphere of the univer-sity community is why I choose to work here. It can’t be beat!”
Donna L. Beckett, and Teresa Hudson, Plant and became very close co-workers and friends of his.
“It was his dream to work here. He always wanted to work here since he was an intern and he loved his job,” Beckett said.
“Al made me laugh ev-ery day. He had a great attitude and helped anyone who needed it,” Hudson said. “He un-derstood how to put the
human side into tech-nology and would give you the shirt off his back. He geared the services toward the students and put his heart and soul into it.”
Both of Plant’s co-workers said that he will be deeply missed by all of those who knew him.
Plant is survived by
his wife, Alison L. Kon-chek Plant, with whom he shared 12 years of marriage; his two chil-dren, Coulson P. Plant and Julianna L. Plant; his brother, George Plant of Pottstown; his uncle, Tom Coulson of Mal-vern, and his nieces and nephews. Online con-dolences can be posted at www.wildefuneral-home.com.Christopher Cox is a third-
year student majoring in
English and minoring in
journalism. He can be reached
at CC [email protected].
By Christopher CoxSpecial to The Quad
WCU LOSES FACULTY MEMBER
STUDENTS ATTEND AN-NUAL SPRING CAREER
FAIR IN SYKESBy Colleen Curry
Asst. News Editor
On Wednesday, February 25, Sykes ballrooms
and lobby were filled with professionally-dressed students scram-bling to talk to as many employers as possible at West Chester Univer-sity’s Annual Spring Ca-reer Fair.
This annual event gives current students and alumni the oppor-tunity to connect with representatives from all different career paths and learn about differ-ent companies, whether they are looking for a full-time job, part-time job, or an internship.
This year’s Career Fair, hosted by the Twardowski Career De-velopment Center, had 70 different organiza-tions for students and alumni to network with
and give their resume to. The wide range of
employers gave the chance for all majors to
find something in their niche. These employ-ers included ARAMARK, Frontline Technologies, Propulsion Media Labs,
Verizon Wireless-Zone, and Vanguard.
Students and alumni were asked to sign in and get a nametag to
display their name and major outside the doors before entertaining the fair. They were then given a booklet with a
list of all the organiza-tions present in order to make it easier to navi-gate through the crowd.
Each organization had their own table and at least two representa-tives to talk to the eager students and alumni. Because of the large amount of organiza-tions, tables were also placed outside the ball-rooms in the Sykes lobby to accommodate for all employers.
The career fair is a beneficial opportunity for students and alumni. Senior Adam Farence said, “The career fair is a rare opportunity to have one on one conversa-tions with potential em-ployers. The experience was invaluable.”Colleen Curry is a fourth-
year student majoring in
communication studies.
She can be reached at
“The career fair is a beneficial opportunity for students and alumni. Senior Adam Farence said, ‘The career fair is a rare opportunity to have one on one conversations with potential employers. The experience was invaluable.’
“It was his dream to work here. He always wanted to work here since he was an intern and he loved his job.”
March 2, 2015 Page 5
MELL JOSEPHS RETIRES
On Friday, Feb. 27, President Weisenstein an-
nounced the retirement of Mary Ellen, “Mell” Josephs. In the email, Dr. Weisenstein wrote, “[Mell] Josephs has pro-vided outstanding lead-ership to SSI and is well known for her emphasis on “students fi rst.” The following Saturday, Jo-sephs sat down with The Quad for a brief inter-view about her time here at West Chester Univer-sity.
Josephs originally started her employment at West Chester Uni-versity as the Assistant Director of Student Ac-tivities. From there, she became the Director of the then newly con-structed Earl F. Sykes Student Union, where she implemented the organizational structure under which the union still operates today. Fol-lowing the university’s name change from West Chester State College to West Chester University, the then Intercollegiate Governmental Asso-ciation became Student Services Incorporated in 1986. Josephs then ap-plied for, and received, the executive director position. Josephs is the fi rst, and has been the only executive director of SSI.
Currently, SSI boasts an operating budget in
excess of $20 million, 24 full-time employees, 203 part-time employ-ees, and 11 service orien-tated divisions. Josephs praised all of SSI’s sta� saying: “[They’re] a small group of dedicated indi-viduals in very diverse component units that come together every day in support of the Univer-sity’s mission.”
Josephs has always believed the students should have a strong say in the university’s a� airs, and structured SSI with this concept in mind. She has always held by the concept that “a student can always walk in.” The student ac-tivities fee, which every full-time undergradu-ate student pays, is the primary source of fund-ing for SSI. SSI then dis-burses the collected fees to West Chester Univer-sity’s clubs and organi-zations. For this reason, Josephs believes every student who pays the activities fee is a “share-holder” in the organiza-tion.
Among her contribu-tions to the university, Josephs brought food service operations to Sykes Student Union, gave the SSI bookstore the presence that it cur-rently boasts, developed the Ram E-card for the university, and ran the check cashing and tick-
eting services.Josephs also support-
ed and partnered with the Student Government Association (SGA) erect-ing the bronze ram stat-ue that currently stands on the corner of South Church Street and West Rosedale Avenue. “This project was something SGA was not going to give up on!” she stated. It took SGA several years to slowly save the funds. She also supported stu-dents who went before the West Goshen Town-ship to get the antenna approved for WCUR, the campus’ radio station.
Former women’s bas-ketball coach, Deirdre Kane, stated: “It is so di� cult to quantify the contribution that Mell Josephs has made in the transformation of West Chester University, and for that matter, the borough of West Ches-ter. Her management of student fees and funds generated by university events has enabled the university to become one of the most fi scally sound institutions in the Commonwealth.”
Her contributions also extend beyond the university. In May 2014, with much help from the SSI Bookstore, Josephs opened The Ram Shop in the borough. Ever since the store opened, it has become a popular place
for alumni and support-ers of the university to stop and visit.
She also served on the Chester County Hospital Board of Directors from 1996 to 2013 and the Chamber of Commerce of Greater West Chester Board of Directors, from 1987 to 1992. In 2007, the March of Dimes rec-ognized Josephs for her excellence in the Field of Public Service. She was also a supporter and committee member of the 25th Annual Salute to Chester County Wom-en of Achievement that took place on Oct. 22, 2014.
Linda Lamwers, the Provost of West Chester University, said: “When I arrived at West Chester University from Minne-sota, Mell introduced me to the local community organizations and lead-ers. During the years I have known her, she has been an incredible uni-versity citizen, support-ing students from the arts to athletics. Many regard her as one of the ‘faces of WCU.’”
Josephs’ last day as ex-ecutive director will be on May 22. “It’s been a good ride. West Chester is my home. But it’s time for me to try something new.”Adam Farence is a fourth-year
student majoring in history
and French. He can be reached
“‘West Chester is my home. But it’s time for me to try something new.’”
SURI SEEKS APPLICATIONS
The second Student U n d e r g r a d u a t e Research Institute
(SURI) applications are now open, and the O� ce of Research and Spon-sored Programs (ORSP) encourages students from all majors to apply. The SURI program of-
fers about a dozen or so undergraduate students the chance to conduct research during the summer under the guid-ance of a faculty men-tor who shares the same area of interest in a par-ticular fi eld of study.
The mission statement for the program states: “SURI aims to enrich the undergraduate experi-ence and encourages students to grow be-yond consumers of in-formation into creators of knowledge. SURI sets the stage for students to pursue scholarship, research, and creative activities that broaden their academic experi-ence and prepares them for active engagement in their chosen fi eld.”
The summer program runs from May 26 to June 25. SURI students will receive meals, on campus housing, access to research and recre-ational facilities, and a stipend of $1,500. Also during the program, stu-dents will attend weekly workshops to develop essential research skills. In the fall, the SURI stu-dents will present their
research and fi ndings at all fall symposium spe-cifi cally for student re-search.
Each year, the Council of Undergraduate Re-search elects two SURI students to serve on the West Chester University Council of Undergradu-ate Research for a one- year term to help pro-mote student research on campus. The O� ce of Research and Spon-sored Programs ORSP can help students seek-ing external grant fund-ing for their research.
Applications for the program are due March 6.Adam Farence is a fourth-year
student majoring in history
and French. He can be reached
“The O� ce of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) encourages students from all majors to apply.”
Adam FarenceEditor-in-ChiefAdam FarenceEditor-in-Chief
Adam FarenceEditor-in-ChiefAdam FarenceEditor-in-Chief
Page 6 March 2, 2015
SKIING REMAINS GREAT EXERCISE
By Colleen GoldhornAssistant Photography Editor
Exercising at the gym or going on a run is great, but if
you’re anything like me, then you probably prefer a sport with a little more adventure than your stereotypical “working out.” There are tons of options: hiking, obstacle races, or rock climbing. But during the cold win-ter months, the top pick has to be skiing.
West Chester is situ-ated at a prime spot to experience all the win-ter sports the Pocono Mountains have to of-fer. With over six ski re-sorts located less than two hours from the uni-
versity, half of which have fantastic begin-ner slopes, it’s no won-der that every weekend groups of West Chester students head out to the slopes for day and week-end trips.
Aside from the ex-treme rush that flying down the hill brings, skiing also physically helps your body. Har-vard Medical School has reported that a skier who weighs 155 pounds will burn around 223 calo-
ries in just a half hour of downhill skiing. Skiing regularly also improves balance, strength, and flexibility.
The best part about skiing is that almost anyone can do it, re-
SPRING BREAK OFFERS STUDENTS A CHANCE
TO RELAXBy Elizabeth Angstadt
Special to the Quad
Spring break, the long-awaited vaca-tion every college
student looks forward to. Whether you’re stay-
ing at home or traveling, a week-long break from classes can be just the re-fresher students need.
According to Yahoo Travel, more than 35 per-cent of the 2,000 college students surveyed ven-ture to warmer, more tropical places during spring break. Another 17 percent plan to hop on a cruise and enjoy their spring break on the ocean.
For students planning
to travel to warmer places during break, StudentCi-ty.com is one of the most college-friendly trip-planners. Since 1987, Stu-dentCity has been a lead-er among travel agencies for summer, winter and spring breaks- where they accommodate trips for a variety of group sizes ranging from two students to 200. Repre-sentatives at this trav-el agency send nearly 20,000 students a year to their perfect destinations all around the world.
The No. 1 interna-
tional travel site for 2015 spring break, according to StudentCity, is Can-cun, Mexico. Packed with pool parties, music festivals, and captivating scenery, Cancun is the ultimate trip for college students looking to leave the frigid winter behind. Depending on the airline chosen by travelers, the
all-inclusive StudentCity spring break trip to Can-cun, Mexico ranges be-tween $1,200 and $1,700.
Don’t want to travel in-ternationally? You’re in luck! You can find warm, sunny destinations for spring break right here in the U.S.!
Panama City Beach, Florida is StudentC-
ity’s No. 1 destination for spring breakers looking to stay in the U.S. Since PCB is a domestic loca-tion, it gives students much more flexibility with traveling. Hop in a car or on a bus and you could be on your way to a sunny beach without the airfare costs. StudentC-ity’s all-inclusive spring break trip to PCB, Florida costs anywhere between $1,000 and $1,300. Trav-eling by car or bus? Rates can be as low as $438.
West Chester Univer-sity senior Brittnee Ri-
gel plans to visit PCB for her 2015 spring break because “it’s the place to be!” Brittnee said she chose PCB because “it’s where all my friends are going and it’s along the Gulf Coast of Mexico so the beaches are gor-geous.”
Aside from the top-
ranked destinations, cer-tain travel agencies run discounted packages to select destinations in the Bahamas. However, some students choose to get all the R&R they need by laying back, grabbing a book, watching Net-flix and spending time with family and friends at home. as, Texas, and the Dominican Republic. Many cruise lines also offer student-affordable rates to premier destina-tions for spring break.
Traveling can be a per-fect time to admire unfa-miliar, beautiful scenery while getting the much-needed R&R after a long winter and beginning of spring semester.
Whether you choose the beaches in the Ba-hamas or your couch at home, spring break is a week to relax and reju-venate so you can finish the spring semester out strong. Elizabeth Angstadt is a fourth-
year student majoring in
political science and minoring in
journalism. She can be reached
“Aside from the extreme rush that flying down the hill brings, skiing also
physically helps your body.”
“Traveling can be a perfect time to admire unfamiliar, beautiful scenery while getting much-needed R&R after a long winter and beginning of spring semester.”
gardless of age or ath-letic ability. The slopes are constantly filled with toddlers who are expe-riencing skiing for the first time, or 60-year-old grandparents who are still hooked on the ex-citement speeding down a mountainside brings.
Aside from all of this, the view from the top of the mountain is always breathtaking, the people are friendly, and having a glass of hot chocolate from the lodge after a day of exercising in the snow may be one of the best things about winter.
So, shake it up from your normal routine of running on the tread-mill. Experience a sport that does much more than just gets you in shape, but allows you to have a fun and get out-side. Get out and ski!Colleen Goldhorn is a third-
year student majoring in
graphic design and minoring
in art history and marketing.
She can be reached at
Photo by Colleen Goldhorn / Asst. Photography Editor
“Cancun is the ultimate trip for college students looking to leave the frigid winter behind.”
March 2, 2015 Page 7
CREATIVE WRITING CLUB PRESENTS: 8 DAYS TO SANCTUARY
By Xander McMenamin and Lauren Christ
Special to the Quad
DAY 3: ZANE“ E m e r g e n c y
Services can be provided at Linvalley Hospital in Linvalley, Pennsylvania. Anyone who hears this mes-sage is urged to report to Linvalley as soon as possible. Repeat: Emer-gency Services can…” The message was be-ing continuously broad-casted on every station. I kept it on because it comforted me to have some sort of noise to drown out the silence of the drive.
A couple hours out from Linvalley, I noticed I was low on gas. I knew the map I had didn’t show gas stations on it, so I kept my eye out for any signs along the highway, which would be difficult to see in the snow. At least I had a map.
I stopped the car to take my Xanax with one of the water bot-tles I packed from my dorm. Thinking about the strong possibility that the station wouldn’t have a hand pump was making me a little anx-ious. For the millionth time, I read the label on the translucent orange bottle. “PILLEN, ZANE A. TAKE 1 TABLET BY MOUTH TWICE A DAY AS NEEDED.” I always felt like the all capital letters were yelling at me. Through the bottle, I could see that I had about three days’ worth of the little white pills left. It was a blessing that I was headed to a hospital.
I took the first exit with a gas station symbol, leading me into some small town. Hopefully the area had already been evacuated. I didn’t need — no — want to run into people along the way, especially since anyone would probably just leech off of my sup-plies. Luckily, everything in the town seemed de-serted.
I parked at one of the pumps out of habit, locked the car, and head-
ed into the station in the hopes of finding any-thing that would help me get fuel. The mini-mart was completely raided, save for a few paper goods and cheap tools. Anything that could be consumed had already been culled, but since I had plenty of provisions, it didn’t bother me. I have always been the type to keep stocked up for emergencies.
I went to check behind the counter for some sort of hand pump or an instruction manual to jump start the ordinary pumps. The manual laid carelessly on the floor, no doubt by someone rummaging for supplies. A quick search through it revealed these partic-ular model gas pumps, through some sort of miracle, did have a man-ual override — but only with a special attach-ment.
In my search to find the attachment, I no-ticed that a lower drawer was locked. I bet I could
pry that open with a screwdriver… It was probably just money or something else unim-portant nowadays, but I had to check. I ran and grabbed the strongest looking screwdriver left in the place and worked on the lock. In no time at all, it came open with a loud clang.
There was a sudden shove against my back, and I fell forward, slid-ing a few feet. The lay-ers of shirts and jackets
helped to cushion my fall, but for a moment I was stunned.
I looked back to see a guy about my age in a puffy grey jacket crouching by the drawer. He pulled out the manual override and said some-thing, but I couldn’t hear him. I decided to keep quiet. He looked at me as he stood up straight and spoke again. I still c o u l d n ’ t hear him. The mus-cles in his jaw c le nc he d , his taut skin grow-ing white.
“… you deaf?” I c o u l d n ’ t hear the start, but he got louder as he asked the ques-tion.
“ Y - y e s . I have h-
hearing aids,” I said. I wouldn’t need to ask him to talk louder. He seemed like he enjoyed yelling.
“That your car?” He pointed out to the gas pumps where I’d parked. I nodded, though I sus-pected he didn’t need an answer.
“I’ll take the keys.”I picked myself up
slowly, trying to make it seem difficult. He knew now about my disabil-ity and heard me stut-ter, so I was certain he
would underestimate me. Abruptly, I tackled him at full speed, or as close as I could reach in so many layers. As I knocked him down, I tried to grab the pump, but his grip was too tight. I just ended up falling to the side. I scrambled to stand again, anticipating a counterattack.
The guy was rubbing the side of his head. He examined his hand, eyes widening at the sight of blood. His hand went to his other ear: more blood. He screamed and pounded the pump into the wall, breaking it. He kept pounding as I ran for the door. I almost tripped over a girl sitting on the curb.
She looked up at me, “Where’s Devon?”
I assumed she meant the guy inside. She was wearing a hood and cov-ered in snow, but the purple hue of the bruises on her cheeks still stood out.
I took a deep breath. “The A-Virus. C-come on,” I reached my hand out to her and she flinched, but took it. We ran for the car.
“We ha-have 10 miles. M-maybe,” I calculat-ed out loud as I drove. “Then, about 160 miles to Linvalley. A p-person walks th-three miles per hour. That’s 53.33 hours.
SPRING BREAK OFFERS STUDENTS A CHANCE
TO RELAXgel plans to visit PCB for her 2015 spring break because “it’s the place to be!” Brittnee said she chose PCB because “it’s where all my friends are going and it’s along the Gulf Coast of Mexico so the beaches are gor-geous.”
Aside from the top-
ranked destinations, cer-tain travel agencies run discounted packages to select destinations in the Bahamas. However, some students choose to get all the R&R they need by laying back, grabbing a book, watching Net-flix and spending time with family and friends at home. as, Texas, and the Dominican Republic. Many cruise lines also offer student-affordable rates to premier destina-tions for spring break.
Traveling can be a per-fect time to admire unfa-miliar, beautiful scenery while getting the much-needed R&R after a long winter and beginning of spring semester.
Whether you choose the beaches in the Ba-hamas or your couch at home, spring break is a week to relax and reju-venate so you can finish the spring semester out strong. Elizabeth Angstadt is a fourth-
year student majoring in
political science and minoring in
journalism. She can be reached
“The mini-mart was completely raided, save for a few paper goods and cheap tools.”
Add in s-sleep, eating, and some l-lag due to weather. We’re up to f-five days.”
She was looking at me strangely.
“Ma-math major,” I ex-plained with a shrug.
She was saying some-thing, but I couldn’t hear her soft voice. “Louder p-please,” I asked, motion-ing to my ear.
“What if I have it, too?” She checked her ear for blood.
“We’re go-going to a h-hospital.”
“No, I… to you?” I guessed the full ques-
tion.“It d-doesn’t spread
that way. Not through o-open wounds or b-breath. Ju-just infected m-meat.” I could tell she was still scared. I gave her an impish smile, “I’m Zane.”
“Moira,” she answered.And we drove until we
ran out of gas.Xander McMenamin is a third-
year student majoring in English
writing with a minor in creative
writing. He can be reached at
[email protected]. Lauren
Christ is a first-year student
majoring in communications.
She can be reached at
Photo by Naotake Murayama via wikiepedia
Page 8 March 2, 2015
LE THÉÂTRE DE L’ABSURDE ENTERTAINS
By Angira PickensPracticum Writer
Not unlike its com-plicated name, Le Théâtre de
L’Absurde is a mix of multiple art forms bril-liantly fused together in an e� ort to entertain and inspire.
The newly established and highly capable group of actors, come-dians, poets, writers, and musicians are on a collaborative mission to push the boundaries of art and performance by interacting with- and learning from- one an-other’s crafts and talents.
Founder and pro-ducer of Le Théâtre de L’Absurde, Patrick Bro-gan, a student at West Chester University, was inspired by the Boldface Conference, a weeklong seminar for emerging writers in Houston, Tex-as.
According to Brogan, Dr. Kristine Ervin, a pro-fessor in the department of English and a lover of words, was instrumental to the development of Le Théâtre de L’Absurde.
As an advocate for the collabora-tion of artists, Dr. Ervin encouraged several emerging writers to attend the Boldface Writ-ing Conference in Texas last year.
“I made friends with people who were from the Houston area,” says Brogan, “and they took me out on the town and we explored dif-ferent genres of art through per-formance such
as punk shows, under-ground clubs, and cold readings at a bar-- where you submitted your work and then someone else would read it, someone who has never read your work before. This ex-change was inspiring. The bar was packed, 250 people came out, and I just came home with that energy of Houston. I wanted to bring that same energy to West Chester.”
In an e� ort to produce, perform, and encourage artists of several diverse genres to interact and generate new, impro-vised art without limita-tions or borders, Brogan teamed up with long time friend, comedian, and former fi lm student at Temple University, Bob Kaplan.
“Last semester, it was hard,” said the gentle-men as they recalled their fi rst semester of promoting Le Théâtre at West Chester University.
“We were lining up people to do the show, and we had musicians but many backed out. However, the people that stayed are awesome
and so dedicated to the group,” said Brogan and Kaplan.
In the Fall of 2014, members of Le Théâtre de L’Absurde produced a well-received and wildly imaginative show titled “Waiting for the Snow: a Night of Lateness.” With 65 attendees, the actress-es, writers, directors, co-medians, and musicians were able to showcase their unique talents to a huge audience.
“We really tried to get audience members in-volved,” said Brogan as he and Kaplan.
“That’s what it’s all about,” said Kaplan, “en-couraging people to step outside of their comfort zones and experience something new. A lot of fi rst time actors and co-medians join Le Théâtre because they crave something exciting and fresh.”
In agreement with Kaplan, Brogan added, “We WANT fi rst timers. We want to remind peo-ple that its not so much about the performance as it is about perform-ing.”
The actual act of get-ting on stage and letting loose allows audience members and perform-ers to relate on a multi-tude of levels.
“This club, this en-ergy, these experiences will live in the individu-als that are willing to put themselves and their work out there,” Patrick stated, “They will be the ones to carry the torch of Le Théâtre de L’Absurde.”
Current members and local artists that have shard their talents with Le Théâtre are Mike Pir-rotta, singer, actor, co-median; James Weir, comedian, writer ac-tor; Emily Brogan, poet, comic, intern; Nikki Horrocks, West Chester University student and poet; Melissa DiGiovan-nantonio, West Chester University student, writ-er, actress, stage man-ager and co-emcee in “Waiting for the Snow: a Night of Lateness;” Evan Clarke, West Chester stu-dent, director, writer and actor; Carolyn Dixon, ac-tress and intern; Heath-er Heyer, actress and writer; Lewis Conover,
writer, and t e c h n i c a l m a n a g e r ; and Dr. Kristine Er-vin, sound and light-ening.
L e Théâtre de L’Absurde’s r e c e n t showcase, a double mic event, which con-sisted of one hour of open mic f o l l o w e d
by one hour of comedy, took place on Friday, Feb. 27, 2015 in West Chester University’s Main Hall Auditorium.
During the fi rst hour of open mic, Melissa DiGiovannantonio read a descriptive and pow-erful short story titled, “A Eulogy,” where she channeled the voice and emotion of one who has Alzheimer’s disease.
Sean Gold, a come-dian, and Evan Clarke, who spoke about his fi rst time “playing Poké-mon cards,” followed Di-Giovannantonio.
After an hour of short stories, comedy, and a descriptive coming of age tale six local come-dians from the Academ-ic Probation Tour com-manded the stage.
James Weir opened the Academic Probation Tour with a raunchy set that exposed his inner racist.
Glenn Deery, also known as “The Deery,” joked about his struggles with fi nding women on online dating sites and living up to his favorite rap lyrics.
Chris Nee, who at-tended Delaware Com-munity College, con-fessed that he was on academic probation. His short-lived stint at DCC prompted him to start the Academic Probation Tour.
Bob Kaplan, long time comedian and pro-ducer of Le Théâtre de L’Absurde had plenty to rant about including West Chester Univer-sity’s disproportionate Ram Statue, his dating disappointments, and how he looks at the gym.
Norristown native Alex Magakis discussed his contempt for unruly kids and credits his lack of sexual experience to his inability to escape the dreaded “friend zone.”
Lastly, South Phila-delphia native Rick Mi-rarchi closed the show by painting a heartfelt and ridiculously hilari-ous portrait of his Italian family.
The six comedians will continue their tour; their next stop will be the Trocadero on 1003 Arch Street in Philadel-phia on Sunday, April 12, 2015.
Tickets may be pur-chased on Ticketfl y.com and a line up of tour dates can be found on www.facebook.com/AcademicProbat ion-Tour. You have to be 21 or older to attend all of their comedy shows.
The next Le Théâtre de L’Absurde event will take place at Gemelli-Artisanal Gelato and Dessert Café on 12 W. Market Street, West Chester Pa. The free event is open to the pub-lic. The time and date are to be announced.
As stated by Brogan and those a� liated with the growing arts col-laboration, Le Théâtre de L’Absurde is really a “place to explore endless possibilities and to fi nd a niche.” For artists that need to expand their vi-sion and have fun while doing it, Le Théâtre de L’Absurde is a place you can call home.
For more informa-tion on Le Théâtre de L’Absurde check out their Facebook page at w w w.facebook.com/theatredelabsurde and a review of their last show “Waiting for the Snow: a Night of Lateness” writ-ten by Emily Brogan at www.kenningjournal.com/creative-people-doing-creative-things-theatre-de-labsurd-at-west-chester. Angria Pickens is a fourth-year
student majoring in English with
a minor in journalism and ethnic
studies.. She can be reached
WCU SPEAKS ABOUT SENSITIVE ISSUES
By Sean TrawickSta� Writer
Last Monday, WCU Speaks hosted a panel discussion
in the Sykes Student Union Ballroom. The West Chester University O� ce of Multicultural A� airs, LGBTQA, and Women’s Center spon-sored the event and the turnout was everything it promised to be.
On the panel, a diverse group of student leaders and some of the Univer-sity’s dignifi ed faculty, such as professors and counselors, shared their
thoughts and experi-ences as members of the community here. People of all walks of life showed up and listened in on the panel’s Q&A piece, and then had the opportuni-ty to ask their own ques-tions, and deliver sug-gestions and thoughts.
One student asked how to best respond to a slur directed towards him regarding his sexual identity, and the panel suggested trying to edu-cate those that may be ignorant on the various identities people prefer, but also added there is importance in staying safe, knowing yourself and learning to not be bothered by the igno-rance.
Another student in the audience, towards
Photo by Patrick Brogan
March 2, 2015 Page 9
Lastly, South Phila-delphia native Rick Mi-rarchi closed the show by painting a heartfelt and ridiculously hilari-ous portrait of his Italian family.
The six comedians will continue their tour; their next stop will be the Trocadero on 1003 Arch Street in Philadel-phia on Sunday, April 12, 2015.
Tickets may be pur-chased on Ticketfl y.com and a line up of tour dates can be found on www.facebook.com/AcademicProbat ion-Tour. You have to be 21 or older to attend all of their comedy shows.
The next Le Théâtre de L’Absurde event will take place at Gemelli-Artisanal Gelato and Dessert Café on 12 W. Market Street, West Chester Pa. The free event is open to the pub-lic. The time and date are to be announced.
As stated by Brogan and those a� liated with the growing arts col-laboration, Le Théâtre de L’Absurde is really a “place to explore endless possibilities and to fi nd a niche.” For artists that need to expand their vi-sion and have fun while doing it, Le Théâtre de L’Absurde is a place you can call home.
For more informa-tion on Le Théâtre de L’Absurde check out their Facebook page at w w w.facebook.com/theatredelabsurde and a review of their last show “Waiting for the Snow: a Night of Lateness” writ-ten by Emily Brogan at www.kenningjournal.com/creative-people-doing-creative-things-theatre-de-labsurd-at-west-chester. Angria Pickens is a fourth-year
student majoring in English with
a minor in journalism and ethnic
studies.. She can be reached
WCU SPEAKS ABOUT SENSITIVE ISSUES
By Sean TrawickSta� Writer
Last Monday, WCU Speaks hosted a panel discussion
in the Sykes Student Union Ballroom. The West Chester University O� ce of Multicultural A� airs, LGBTQA, and Women’s Center spon-sored the event and the turnout was everything it promised to be.
On the panel, a diverse group of student leaders and some of the Univer-sity’s dignifi ed faculty, such as professors and counselors, shared their
thoughts and experi-ences as members of the community here. People of all walks of life showed up and listened in on the panel’s Q&A piece, and then had the opportuni-ty to ask their own ques-tions, and deliver sug-gestions and thoughts.
One student asked how to best respond to a slur directed towards him regarding his sexual identity, and the panel suggested trying to edu-cate those that may be ignorant on the various identities people prefer, but also added there is importance in staying safe, knowing yourself and learning to not be bothered by the igno-rance.
Another student in the audience, towards
the end of the event dis-closed how he as a white student, and American in general, is tired of the long precedence of rac-ism and social injustice towards black people and delivered a passion-ate message when given the microphone.
The point of this se-ries of events is to get the general population of West Chester University engaged in some ideas that may seem touchy or controversial, but in-stead opens the fl oor for everyone to speak, hence the name, “WCU Speaks.” This way, stu-
dents can freely speak about the problems they face every day and hear or o� er ideas as well as potential solutions that lead to an increased positive environment on campus.
Ti� any Lane, a West Chester alumnus, un-dergraduate social work-er here and the director of the Frederick Douglas Society, said “being in these kinds of uncom-fortable discussions are the best ways to raise awareness and prompt change”.
The panel discussion is just one part of three that WCU Speaks has or-ganized for the semester. The fi rst event occurred a few weeks ago in early February and o� ered a platform for students to listen in on a pair of trav-
eling counselors and fa-cilitators as they recom-mended ways to foster diversity and inclusion on campus. The next event occurs on March 26 and will engage at-tendees in another way that will ultimately lead to diversity inclusion on campus.
All students are en-couraged to come and bring as many friends as possible. Both the LG-BTQA and Multicultural A� airs o� ces are open to anyone that wants to be a part of the move-ment or needs a place to feel secure and safe in
their true identites. Feel free to email me, a peer mentor and diversity ambassador on campus, or Querida Lugo, the Of-fi ce of Multicultural Af-fairs Assistant Director at [email protected]. Shawn Trawick is a third-
year student majoring in
communication studies and
political science. He can be
reached at [email protected].
HILLEL CLUB SEEKS
MEMBERSBy Lindsey VernickSpecial to the Quad
Looking for a fun interesting club to join? Join Hillel! We
are best known for our shirts: Just Jew It.
When people come across our table at in-volvement fairs or when I tell my friends I have a Hillel event, they always ask, what is Hillel? Hil-lel is the Jewish student organization on campus, but you do not need to be Jewish to be a member or come to events.
We have events on various Friday and Sat-urday nights in Sykes called Shabbat and Havdalah. Shabbat is the Friday night service where we eat delicious bread called hallah, drink grape juice, and have a small 30-minute ser-vice. Saturday nights are Havdalah where we have an even shorter service, followed by a fun activity such as making caramel apples.
Our services are led by our rabbinic intern, Ja-nine. She makes services not so boring and every-one always has a good time.
Starting this semes-ter, we have Wednesday night non-religious ac-tivities such as movie night and game night. Out of about 900 Jewish students that attend West Chester University, there are only about 20-30 ac-tive members in our club and it has been growing. Since our club is small, everyone is very good friends which is what makes Hillel so much fun. Hillel is a great orga-nization where you can be involved as little or as much as you want!
For the High Holidays in the fall, we have start-ed to hold them in the ballrooms for the fi rst time as Hillel continues to grow. After services, we had so much food,
“The point of this series of events is to get the general population of West Chester University engaged in some ideas that may seem touchy or controversial, but instead opens the fl oor for everyone to speak, hence the name ‘WCU Speaks.’”
including bagels and lox! As we continue to grow, we receive higher bud-gets, which allows us to hold even bigger events. Hillel is a great way to meet more people and to get involved with the school.
We have some excit-ing events coming up! We will be holding a bake sale on Wednes-day, March 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We will be selling hamantaschens for Purim and later that night we will be holding a Purim Party at Sykes at 7 p.m. with mask mak-ing and food! We are still selling Just Jew It t-shirts for $10 each.
Don’t be shy to come out; we are always look-ing for new members no matter what your re-ligion is! To become a member, join our Face-book group: WCU Hillel and follow us on Twitter: @WCUHillel and Insta-gram, @WestChester-UHillel. We will be tweet-ing all of our upcoming events!Lindsey Vernick is a second-
year student majoring in
communication studies.
She can be reached at
Photo by Zzubnik via wikipedia
OP–EDPage 10 March 2, 2015
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‘AMERICAN SNIPER’ UNIFORMITY UNDER FIRE
By Lauren GrowSpecial to The Quad
And the award goes to…
I am pleased to announce that the Quad received an honorable men-tion in our website design from the Keystone Press Awards. Lately, we as an organization have been trying to strengthen and grow our
online presence, and this award is a testament to The Quad’s staff of their hard work and dedication to West Chester University’s number one news service.
I would like to thank everyone who has written; who currently writes, and will continue to write for their contributions in making the news service what it is today. I would like to thank everyone who has taken photographs and will continue to take photographs, and everyone who has made and will continue to make news videos for the paper. I would like to thank everyone who has worked for, who currently works for, and will continue to work for the Quad.
We have grown tremendously since last year and through the efforts of no single person alone. We have grown because everyone on the staff cares deeply about the news, and even more so about delivering the news to our readers and viewers in a timely and efficient manner. And lastly, I would like to thank you, our readers and viewers. Without your support, the news service would not be what it is today.
Sincerely,
March 2, 2015 Page 11
Every Monday, I anxiously antici-pate reading the
articles dedicated to the university I love and the opinions of students who occupy the same few blocks of academic property that I do five days of the week. But on Jan. 25, I regret to say this was not the case. In the article, “Ameri-can Sniper Disappoints” by Rob Gabe, the only thing that was apparent to readers was the bla-tant attack and analysis on the human individual that was portrayed in the blockbuster film and the man who ultimately dedicated his life to the safety and well-being of Americans while over-seas. Ironically, service-men and women defend the same right that has been used to slander Chris Kyle in publica-tions all across the coun-try, especially as the trial of his murder is continu-ing this second.
The article published was a mix of contradic-tory and extreme opin-ions on the life of the solider and how he was represented in one of the top-grossing mov-
ies of all time. The au-thor specifically cites the experiences of Kyle that were addressed in his autobiography, the same experiences that have gone under scruti-ny for exaggeration and lack of truth, which is clearly a possibility and what many believe to be the truth about his time overseas. As a strong proponent of the first amendment, I refuse to discredit the opinions
of the author, but offer a different perspective on the matter.
A component of being an intelligent member of a democratic society is questioning and re-searching the truth, but sometimes, the truth is separate from the mat-ter. When all is said and done, Chris Kyle honor-ably served our coun-try and dedicated his life away from friends, family and his beloved state of Texas in order to defend the safety and
foundation of the Unit-ed States of America. American Sniper wit-nessed extreme success and caused a national discussion about war and its implications be-cause it demonstrated to Americans something most of us will never see – war in the raw. Despite the movie’s accurate de-piction, or lack thereof, of post-traumatic stress disorder or the accuracy of Kyle’s remembrance of bar fights, the solider is someone Americans should fight to defend the honor of and not slander their integrity and service, especially of a man who is not pres-ent to defend himself. In response to “Ameri-can Sniper Disappoints,” I question whether the author held animos-ity towards Kyle, or truly had a vision for what the film should have been or had the potential to be.
To anyone criticizing the actions and recounts of stories of servicemen and women, I encourage these individuals to even attempt to identify with them and their story. As men and women risk their lives overseas, ask yourself, what have you done today? I suppose questioning Chris Kyle’s honor in a print publi-cation and exercising your right to freedom of speech is exactly what he fought for you to have the liberty to do.
Lauren Grow is a third year stu-
dent majoring in Communications.
She can be reached at Grow.Lau-
‘AMERICAN SNIPER’ UNIFORMITY UNDER FIRE
By Lauren GrowSpecial to The Quad
“In response to ‘American Sniper Disappoints,‘ I question whether this author held animosity towards Kyle, or truly had a vision for what the film should have been or had the potential to be.”
College is demand-ing for students. Try adding a job
on top of it. According to a 2013 study con-ducted by Citigroup, 80 percent, four out of five students, balance a job while attending school. In today’s society, work-ing while attending col-lege is becoming essen-tial to make it through the standard four years while pursuing a B.A.
The rising costs of a college education are forcing more and more students to work part-time, in some cases full-time, to cover costs including textbooks, housing, and tuition.The cost of tuition has surged an astonishing 42 percent in the past 10 years, according to studies at the U.S. De-partment of Education’s National Center for Edu-cation Statistics. Maybe this is to blame for the high number of students who are employed while attending college.
Elle Steinman, a ju-nior at West Chester University said, “As a college student, I baby-sit on the weekends in order to afford grocer-ies, textbooks and other necessities I need while living on my own.” Ac-cording to a 2014 study done by the College Board, students spend approximately $1,200 a year on textbooks and supplies. Many college students are in my pre-dicament. Their parents are paying a majority of their college expenses, however, the remaining is left up to the student.
Costs such as textbooks, groceries, etc. was the driving force behind me getting a part-time job on a golf course where I serve drinks and snacks to players.
My 15 hour week job presents a challenge in dealing with my studies. The pressure of com-ing home after a long day at work and hav-ing an exam the next day or homework due is much more added stress than I bargained for. I have found myself sev-eral times throughout my almost four years in college having to decide between sleep and fin-ishing an assignment.Staying up all night to study or finish a home-work assignment is not uncommon. Most pro-fessors have a strict late assignment policy in place which adds extra pressure to already over-whelmed students.
Another demanding element students must consider when working while attending college is the post-college job market. If students be-come too overwhelmed with working and can’t keep their grades up, it can result in a harder time finding a job due to the student’s lower grade point average. Accord-ing to a 2013 study done by the National Asso-ciation of Colleges and Employers, 67 percent of companies screened potential employees by their GPA. If a college student chooses not to get a job during their years at college, they may find a harder time paying off debt and loans after graduation. My mom, paying a majority
of my tuition, has saved that money my entire life, in hopes it would be enough to cover my four years as an undergradu-ate.
In pursuing my part-time job at the golf course, I feel it will at least give me a jump start post graduation. Aside from using my part-time job money on college costs, I put as much as possible from a paycheck into my savings. It seems that the demands and pressure on a college student are coming from all angles. If you don’t work, it be-comes more and more difficult to afford the ris-ing costs of a college ed-ucation. If you do work, balancing studies can be a real challenge for many students.
In the future, it’s im-portant for faculty and administrators to better understand the stressful conditions students face.Many students would agree with me that it would not be fair to make certain exceptions for working students, however, I believe there are several different ways faculty at colleges could work together with the majority of students who are trying to bal-ance a work and college life. The four years stu-dents are pursuing a B.A. can be four of the most demanding years of their lives. Even though it is up to each student whether to pursue a job while attending college, many students do not have a choice. Working while going to school is the new “normal.”Elizabeth Angstadt is a student
majoring in English. She can be
reached at [email protected].
COSTS ARE UP FOR WCU STUDENTS
By Elizabeth AngstadtSpecial to The Quad
“I question whether the author held animosity.”
Page 12 March 2, 2015
As a college student, you already know how much GPAs
matter. Your grade point average determines whether or not you keep your scholarships. It af-fects your admission into grad school. It could be the tie-breaker when you’re competing for a job. Your parents proba-bly care about it, too, es-pecially if they’re writing big tuition checks. When everyone gets easy A’s, no one benefits.
But grades are also im-portant because they are supposed to reflect what you know and can do. While everyone wants good grades, it’s often a bad sign when every-one gets them. If that’s
happening, the bar for “excellence” is too low. It means some people are getting high grades for doing less, cheap-ening the value of an A. Moreover, this may leave some students more confident about their knowledge and skills than they should be.
A new report, “Easy A’s and What’s Behind Them,” by the Nation-al Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) looks at more than 500 colleges (including West Ches-ter University) and finds that, on average, about 30 percent of all students at these schools gradu-ate with grade-based honors. Think about your classes. Are almost a third of the students sitting next to you hit-ting it out of the park on
all their exams and in most of their classes?
Especially troubling for NCTQ, a research organization that ad-vocates for improving the instruction of K-12 students by improving the preparation of their teachers, is that Easy A’s also found that 44 percent of teacher can-didates graduate with honors. That means that students getting ready to teach are nearly 50 per-cent more likely than all their campus peers to earn a high GPA.
West Chester Univer-sity is among the schools that perform worse than average, awarding es-pecially high grades to teacher candidates. Its honors rate for teacher prep candidates was 95.74 percent, while the
overall rate for all pro-grams across campus was 53.73 percent. This number puts West Ches-ter University in a group of 95 institutions out of 509 where the differen-tial between teacher-prep students graduat-ing with honors and all students with honors is a stunning 25 percentage points or more.
The disturbingly large differential raises these questions: Why are fu-ture teachers earning much higher grades than everyone else? Are education majors that much smarter? Is the program too generous in its grading policies? Are the expectations for stu-dents too low?
NCTQ believes part of the explanation lies in the type of assignments
COLLEGE LACKS VIGOR FOR TEACHER AND STUDENT PREPARATION
By Kate WalshSpecial to The Quad students are given. When
you dig into syllabi, edu-cation majors often are given what we termed “criterion-deficient” as-signments – meaning they are overly broad or subjective. These as-signments are often
an inadequate gauge of whether students have mastered specific content and skills. Dis-turbingly, teacher prep programs at the univer-sities we reviewed as-sign more than twice as much criterion-deficient coursework as other ac-ademic programs.
Predictably, criteri-on-deficient assign-ments correlate with higher grades, not just in teacher-prep courses, but in other majors as well. This outcome just makes sense: If your grade depends simply on completing an as-signment or on your opinion, more people are going to do well.
Relying too heavily on these assignments in any program can cheat students out of knowl-edge they need to mas-ter. Teacher preparation shares much with train-ing for engineers, nurs-es, or doctors: teacher candidates must learn and master the skills and knowledge they’ll need in the classroom – if not, they are left ill-prepared for the relent-
lessly tough work that awaits them and risk doing great harm. The result for teacher candidates and their future students can be devastating.
College can’t teach you everything you’ll
need to know to be suc-cessful in your field. There’s no substitute for experience, and smart professionals learn on the job every day. But teaching isn’t for the un-prepared or underpre-pared. The profession is too demanding, and children deserve teach-ers who can be effective from their first day in the classroom.
Regardless of the pro-gram you’re in, make sure you’re taking class-es where professors have clear indicators of the content you’ll learn and whether you’ve learned it. If they’re not giving substantive feedback, ask for thoughtful cri-tiques that compare your work to a high standard.
In the end, the benefits of an easy A are tempo-rary. When virtually ev-eryone has stellar grades, undeserved high grades won’t help you get a job, and they definitely won’t help you keep it.
Kate Walsh is president of the
National Council on Teacher
Equality in Washington D.C. She can
be reached at [email protected].
“Relying too heavily on these assignments in any program can cheat students out of knowledge they need to master .”
TNS
March 2, 2015 Page 13
COLLEGE LACKS VIGOR FOR TEACHER AND STUDENT PREPARATION
lessly tough work that awaits them and risk doing great harm. The result for teacher candidates and their future students can be devastating.
College can’t teach you everything you’ll
need to know to be suc-cessful in your field. There’s no substitute for experience, and smart professionals learn on the job every day. But teaching isn’t for the un-prepared or underpre-pared. The profession is too demanding, and children deserve teach-ers who can be effective from their first day in the classroom.
Regardless of the pro-gram you’re in, make sure you’re taking class-es where professors have clear indicators of the content you’ll learn and whether you’ve learned it. If they’re not giving substantive feedback, ask for thoughtful cri-tiques that compare your work to a high standard.
In the end, the benefits of an easy A are tempo-rary. When virtually ev-eryone has stellar grades, undeserved high grades won’t help you get a job, and they definitely won’t help you keep it.
Kate Walsh is president of the
National Council on Teacher
Equality in Washington D.C. She can
be reached at [email protected].
TNS TNS
TNS
Quick when you’re sick.
No-appointment, no-waiting care
for everything short of the ER.
At Pioneer Urgent Care, you’ll fi nd experienced doctors.
Evening hours, too. And we’re backed by the strength of
the Crozer-Keystone Health System. Find out more at
UrgentCare.CrozerKeystone.org.
610-459-FAST (3278) | 1572 West Chester-Wilmington Pike
West Chester, PA | M-F 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., S&S 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
UrgentCare.CrozerKeystone.org
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Whether it's your Parents, Grandparents, Aunt or Uncle: Authorized Users can view and pay your WCU bill online.
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1) Log into your MyWCU.
2) Under the heading Student Financials (Bursar) click on the link to Quickpay ePayment & eBill.
3) Select Authorize Payers from the menu.
4) Fill in the form and you're done! You can add up to three profiles.
For more information go to http://www.wcupa.edu/bursar/
1) Log into your MyWCU.
2) Under the heading Student Financials (Bursar) click on the link to Quickpay ePayment & eBill.
3) Select Authorize Payers from the menu.
4) Fill in the form and you're done! You can add up to three profiles.
Quick when you’re sick.
No-appointment, no-waiting care
for everything short of the ER.
At Pioneer Urgent Care, you’ll fi nd experienced doctors.
Evening hours, too. And we’re backed by the strength of
the Crozer-Keystone Health System. Find out more at
UrgentCare.CrozerKeystone.org.
610-459-FAST (3278) | 1572 West Chester-Wilmington Pike
West Chester, PA | M-F 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., S&S 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
UrgentCare.CrozerKeystone.org
CALENDARMarch 2, 2015 Page 17
EMAIL [email protected] TO SEE YOUR EVENT HERE
Weather OutlookPartly Cloudy / Hi 36 / Lo 16
Ongoing Knauer GalleryBeg Borrow Steel Artwork by sculptor Stan Smokler. Stan has developed a unique palette, applying industrial cast-offs, “found objects” to create scuptures which de-liberately deny their past his-tory in order to serve a new formal purpose at the Knauer Gallery in the Swope Music Building through Saturday, April 4.
3-8 PM Residence Halls American Red Cross Blood Drive Did you know 1 pint of blood can save up to 3 lives? Do your part and do-nate now! We need donors and volunteers to help us coordinate the blood drive. To volunteer contact Ernest Anziano at [email protected]. Blood Drives are from 3-8 PM but volun-teers will be needed for set up and breakdown outside of those hours. Blood drive located in Commonwealth, Tyson, and University Halls
7:30 PM Asplundh HallLecture ,Seminar ,Guest Speaker Chris Herren pres-ents Unguarded A basketball legend from Massachusetts realized his dreams by play-ing for the Boston Celtics only to lose it all to addic-tion before rising with a new dream. This event is Sold Out
7:30 PM Sykes 255BTalk Back: Using Your Voice to Create Change Join the Association for Women’s Empowerment (AWE), the American Association for University Women (AAUW), and the Women’s Center as we give you skills to use your voice to create change. For more information contact, 610-436-2122.
9 PM Madeleine TheatreSymphony Orchestra Tick-ets Required. For ticket pur-chases please call the WCU SSI Ticket Office at 610-436-2266. For event information please call the School of Mu-sic at 610-436-2739.
All Day Lawrence 225Pricewaterhouse Coopers on-campus interviews will be held all day for those who have previously arranged appointments through the Ram Career Network.
Weather OutlookIce Pellets / Hi 34 / Lo 31
3:30 PM Sykes 225SAC General Meeting All WCU students are invited to the Student Activities Coun-cilice’s weekly meetings
7:15 PM Sykes 115SGA General Assembly-Meeting All WCU students are invited to this weekly meeting of your Student Government Association.
5:30 PM HollingerWomen’s Basketball vs Ship-pensburg University (PSAC Quarterfinals)
6-8 PM Sykes Ballroom AGolden Ram Tales: Explor-ing Careers in Law Come learn from alumni about the various types of law and the process of applying to school! Get your questions answered. Free food and re-freshments. Co-sponsored by the Pre-Law Society, Of-fice of Alumni Relations, and Career Development Center.
7-9 PM LibraryBrain Food Sustainability council will be handing out trail mix, highlighters, post-its, notepads, and pens col-laborating with WCU Well-ness outside of Starbucks.
7:30 PM HollingerMen’s Basketball vs Kutz-town University (PSAC Quar-terfinals)
8:15 PM Ware Recital HallNetwork for New Music featuring the sounds of Kan-dinsky, Sons Découpés, and more.
Weather OutlookRain / Hi 48 / Lo 25
9 AM-4 PM PhiladelphiaWest Chester Travelers Please join the WCU Travel-ers as we travel to Philadel-phia to enjoy the world’s old-est and largest indoor flower show! Location: Philadelphia Convention Center. Bus de-parts from WCU at 9:00 AMand arrives back at WCU at 4:00 PM. RSVP by February 6, 2015. Spaces are limited! $75.00
All Day Lawrence 225JPMorganChase & Co. On-Campus Interviews will be held all day for those who have previously arranged appointments through the Ram Career Network.
11 AM-4 PM SykesTarget Info Table Stop by for an informal chat with this employer to learn more about their organization and their job opportunities!
12- 1 PM Sykes 115Women in Leadership Dr. Hyoejin Yoon (English De-partment), Dr. Lori Vermeu-len (Dean, College of Arts and Sciences), Dr. Idna Cor-bett (Dean, Undergraduate Studies and Student Support Services) tell us about their journey to leadership. Co-Sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies
12:15 PM University Ave University Forum Open Discussion on Grant Fund-ing Dr. Marcos Campil-lo-Fenoll (Languages and Cultures) and Alina Torres-Zickler (Social Equity) will present information about the University Forum grants and allow time for questions and suggestions for prepar-ing proposals. Located in 13/15 University Ave, Confer-ence room 101.
3-4 PM Sykes 209 Non-Traditional Student Success: Interview Prepa-ration Do you feel prepared for your first big interview? If not, you’re not alone! Join the Twardowski Career De-velopment Center to learn how you can improve yourinterview skills and acquire new techniques. Co-spon-sored by Career Develop-ment Center.
5-6 PM Lawrence 225Target Info Session Stop by for this information session; chat with this employer to learn more about their orga-nization and their job oppor-tunities!
7:30 PM Sykes TheaterWCU Women Speak Experi-ence WCU through a wom-an’s lens. Come listen to students as they share their experiences and stories of race, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, and more through a variety of medi-ums and performances.
7:30 PM Philips LibraryThe 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide: A symposium Ethnic Ar-menian Andrew Malkasian, WCU ’14 History graduate and Aysenur Korkmaz, a young Turkish scholar will speak about Turkey’s ongo-ing refusal to call the mas-sacre of an estimated 1.5 mil-lion Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire a century ago a genocide. 66 years after the United Na-tions’ framing of a statement about genocide, mass mur-der of entire communities flourishes. “Never again?” we must all ask ourselves. This program is free and open to the public. For more infor-mation contact: [email protected]
8:15 PM Madeleine TheatreWinter Choral Festival Da-vid DeVenney & Ryan Kelly, directors.
Weather OutlookPartly Cloudy / Hi 216 / Lo 12
All Day Lawrence 225McGladrey on-campus in-terviews will be held all day for those who have previ-ously arranged appoint-ments through the Ram Ca-reer Network.
All Day Lawrence 225Target on-campus inter-views will be held all day for those who have previously arranged appointments through the Ram Career Network.
3-8 PM Allegheny Halls American Red Cross Blood Drive Did you know 1 pint of blood can save up to 3 lives? Do your part and do-nate now! We need donors and volunteers to help us coordinate the blood drive. To volunteer contact Ernest Anziano at [email protected]. Blood Drives are from 3-8 PM but volun-teers will be needed for set up and breakdown outside of those hours.
4-7 PM Knauer GalleryBeg Borrow Steel Artist Re-ception.
7:30 PM Sykes TheaterFilm: Saving Face Every year in Pakistan, many people, the majority of them wom-en, are victimized by bru-tal acid attacks. Saving Face is an intimate look inside Pakistani society, illuminat-ing each woman’s personal journey while showing how reformers are tackling this horrific problem.
Weather OutlookClear / Hi 32 / Lo 19
8:15 PM Madeleine TheatreWinter Choral Festival Drs. Adam Silverman and Van Stiefel, directors.
8 PM Asplundh Concert HallSpecial Event: Jane Pauley The President’s Speaker Se-ries presents Jane Pauley, a respected broadcast journal-ist for over 30 years, her ca-reer has spanned morning, primetime and daytime tele-vision making her one of the most recognizable person-alities in America. Tickets: $20-$25
SATURDAY
Weather OutlookClear/ Hi 43/ Lo 24
1 PM South CampusWomen’s Rugby vs DC Fu-ries Women’s Club Team
5:30 PM Sykes BallroomLegacy of Leadership Din-ner Join us as we honor and recognize the following for their outstanding commit-ment to student leadership and service to West Chester University.
Spring Break The univer-sity will be closed from Mon-day, March 9 through Friday, March 13.
ENTERTAINMENTPage 18 March 2, 2015
JEFFREY’S JAMSTHIS WEEK: ARIEL PINK COMES TO UNION TRANSFER
On Feb. 24, 2014, P h i l a d e lp h i a ’s Union Transfer
Center hosted lo-fi pop auteur Ariel Pink and his band, the Haunt-ed Gra� ti, in a night brought to life by music that could best be de-scribed as AM radio for the modern age. Ariel Pink is a multi-instru-mentalist from Los An-geles, Calif., best known for his hits, “Round and Round” with its disco-infl uenced groove, and last year’s infectious “Put Your Number in My Phone.” The venue, the Union Transfer Center, is located in the heart of Philadelphia on Spring Avenue, with concerts put on by a conglomer-ate of R5 Productions, the Bowery Ballroom Presents, and Four Cor-ners Management. While Union Transfer is no stranger to under-ground artists and the occasional oddball like Ariel Pink, the promot-ers at the venue are also notorious for their wide palette of the artists booked, ranging from black metal author-ity Mayhem to Swedish hip hop sensation Yung Lean & the Sadboys.
Opening in 1889, the building was initially known as the Spring Garden’s Farmer Market, and was owned by a private group of investors and farmers. Due to competition from other privately-owned and operated markets, the building was bought out by the Union Trans-fer Baggage Express Company in 1918, trans-formed into a train de-pot station. The physi-cal building itself has undergone numerous incarnations brought about by several di� er-ent ownerships, typi-cally changing with the demands of Philadelphia itself, and it has severed as everything from a spaghetti-themed res-taurant to a tire shop. In 2011, independent New York promotion company the Bowery Presents, R5 Produc-tions’ Sean Agnew, and Avram Hornik and Mark Fichera of Four Corners partnered up to use the spacious warehouse as a concert venue, host-ing indie veterans Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as its fi rst o� cial show in that September. Since then, Union Transfer has become an epicenter for local promotion, featur-ing and selling products made by Yards Brew-
ing Company and Little Baby’s Ice Cream. This past week continued the venue’s few years of ex-cellence with a stunning performance from Ariel Pink and his Haunted Gra� ti, an artist known
for penning his eclectic humor alongside scads of indeliable hooks.
Born Ariel Marcus Rosenberg, Ariel Pink got his start as a solo pop artist interested in psy-chedelia, soul, and cas-sette culture. His earliest recorded albums con-tained compositions of him performing and re-cording all of the instru-
ments into a four-track recorder, starting with a collection of songs com-piled and fi rst released in 1996 titled, The Nite Pan, Pts. 1-11. Pink would go on to repeat this process for almost a full decade,
never performing a live show, but constantly cat-aloging his songs onto CDs or cassettes. He happened to strike luck in 2003, passing on one of these selected works to the experimental pop band Animal Collective after meeting them at a show in Maryland. After listening to Ariel Pink’s cognizant Frank Sinatra
croon work alongside his surf rock guitar strums, the band did not hesi-tate to sign him to Paw Tracks, their record label.
Ariel Pink started performing live for the fi rst time in 2006, and with a few projects un-der his belt funded by Paw Tracks, he had am-ple material. However, completely new to per-formances, he simply removed the vocals from his tracks and sang along karaoke-style in a series of shows that were poor-ly-received. It was not until the advent of the Haunted Gra� ti band that his shows became brimming with the per-sonality seen last week, with fi ve other esteemed musicians coloring his compositions with their talent. In 2009, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graf-fi ti was fi nally signed to major label 4AD Re-cords, the same label re-sponsible for punk band Bauhaus, and dream pop pioneers Cocteau Twins. With 4AD’s funding and guidance, the band re-leased Before Today in 2010 to rave reviews and nearly-universal praise, landing top spots on Exclaim! Magazine and Pitchfork Media’s year-end lists. This mo-mentum has continued throughout the 2010s,
Ariel Pink’s nearly 20-year journey has fi nally been brought to fruition and exploding with phe-nomenal live shows.
This past Tuesday was no exception and served to further Union Trans-fer’s legacy and con-tinue Ariel Pink’s uphill momentum. The band performed mostly new material from last year’s album, pom pom, but made sure to include favorites from earlier al-bums House Arrest and the Doldrums, like the songs “Artifact” and “In-teresting Results.” What was most notable about the concert was how well-executed all of the compositions were. The band’s stellar musician-ship shone as speedy bass runs and tricky multi-part harmonies soared over Ariel Pink’s songwriting. The indi-vidual musicians’ ban-ter between the songs showed a group of friends instead of a band of session musicians hired by Pink, creating a lighthearted and play-ful atmosphere. At one point in between songs, Ariel Pink joked about how no amount of herbs and algae supplied by his bandmates could
ARIEL PINK cont. on pg. 21
Photo by David K. O’Neil
Je� rey HolmesCopy EditorJe� rey HolmesCopy Editor
March 2, 2015 Page 19
WCU STUDENT INTERVIEWS YOU-TUBE SINGER JULIET WEYBRET
Ariel Pink’s nearly 20-year journey has fi nally been brought to fruition and exploding with phe-nomenal live shows.
This past Tuesday was no exception and served to further Union Trans-fer’s legacy and con-tinue Ariel Pink’s uphill momentum. The band performed mostly new material from last year’s album, pom pom, but made sure to include favorites from earlier al-bums House Arrest and the Doldrums, like the songs “Artifact” and “In-teresting Results.” What was most notable about the concert was how well-executed all of the compositions were. The band’s stellar musician-ship shone as speedy bass runs and tricky multi-part harmonies soared over Ariel Pink’s songwriting. The indi-vidual musicians’ ban-ter between the songs showed a group of friends instead of a band of session musicians hired by Pink, creating a lighthearted and play-ful atmosphere. At one point in between songs, Ariel Pink joked about how no amount of herbs and algae supplied by his bandmates could
Since 2007, 21-year-old singer-song-writer Juliet Wey-
bret has posted videos on her popular YouTube channel. Now with 132 videos, 61,552 subscrib-ers, and 8,670,235 views, Juliet Weybret has be-come a YouTube success story.
Raised in Lodi, Calif., Juliet was surrounded by music and instruments growing up. According to Weybret, she was put in the toddlers’ music program, Kindermusik, as a child. At seven, she took piano lessons. Her mother’s love of sing-ing, guitar, and the vio-lin also infl uenced Wey-bret’s love of music.
As a middle school student, Weybret posted vlogs on YouTube. That channel is long deleted, but with the develop-ment of her passion for music, Juliet began a YouTube channel that would focus strictly on music.
When asked about the popularity of her chan-nel, Weybret said, “I had no idea that people would actually take an interest in my music, but to this day, I am so fasci-nated by it.”
In 2010, she posted a cover of “Airplane” by B.o.B. and Hayley Williams that took o� . Weybret recalled going to school and coming home and seeing that the video had gained 100,000 views since that morning. It was her fi rst video that “really took
o� ,” she said. Now, in 2015, it sits at over 1.79 million views.
In general, Weybret’s channel is fi lled with acoustic videos cover-ing her favorite songs. She also writes her own music and posts videos of those. While her cover videos are just her and her guitar, her original music videos sometimes go full-Hollywood, com-plete with zombie-esque makeup. (See her music video for “Back to Life”).
Weybret only sings songs that she feels a connection with. She “believes 100 percent in staying true to myself in what I sing.” Her re-hearsal time varies, de-pending on how much time she has to perfect the songs.
To aspiring YouTubers, Weybret advised to have fun and be consistent. She credits her channel’s success to her enjoy-ment in posting videos. “It never feels like work or a chore,” she said.
To singers and musi-cians, she said, “Cov-ering songs is the best way to get your videos discovered.” She stressed the importance of high quality audio and visu-als.
She did say that it is not necessary to have fully-produced mu-sic videos, as her own acoustic videos can at-test. “Just be you and sit in front of your camera with your instrument, and your talent will shine through.”
Her fi ve-song-EP, “Back to Life,” show-cased her best originals. “Back to Life” and “Crash and Burn” are pop-
friendly acoustic songs about love and heart-break. The EP’s star is “Numb” in which Wey-bret heart-wrenchingly – with a touch of falsetto - repeats on the bridge, “Just love me, please.” It is an achingly emotional song.
Posting that EP and
her other original sin-gles on iTunes taught Weybret a lot about the music industry and on-line music distribution. It was also the fi rst time in her life that she got to make an income from her original music.
Her experience with YouTube and iTunes did infl uence her deci-sion to major in vocal performance in college. Originally from North-ern Calif., Weybret went to L.A.’s Musicians In-
stitute College of Con-temporary Music. “My viewers defi nitely had an infl uence on my de-cision to major in mu-sic. YouTube made me fall in love with music even more than I already was, and my fans played a big part in making me realize there was noth-
ing else I love more and wanted to pursue than music,” Weybret said.
Having graduated, Weybret now continues to post on her YouTube channel and work as a musician. Recently, she performed at the Uni-versity of Southern Cali-fornia for the “Chalk the Block” event. The event has children illustrate their dreams in chalk and o� ers a safe envi-ronment for children to share their hope.
In L.A., Weybret also works at a restaurant, plays gigs, and does vo-cal studio sessions. “I love every second of the journey,” Weybret said.
YouTube has been a huge part of her life. “My favorite thing about You-Tube is the friendships I have made,” Weybret
said. In the past Juliet Weybret has worked with Ally Rhodes, another popular YouTuber with over 78,000 subscrib-ers. Weybret said they became internet friends fi rst, but when Rhodes moved to Los Angeles last year, they were able to collaborate in person.
Weybret has also col-laborated with Drew Tabor, who has over 183,000 subscribers. Tabor and Weybret col-laborated on “Payphone”
by Maroon 5 about three years ago, and they are now best friends.
Weybret said about YouTube, “It’s the best thing that’s ever hap-pened to me. I don’t know where I would be in life if I hadn’t started posting videos. The cool thing about it is that anybody can post some-thing, and it’s out there for billions of people to potentially discover. I think it’s incredible how successful people can become on YouTube.”
Weybret herself has been recognized a few times from YouTube. Once, Weybret recount-ed, a cashier at Yogurt-land recognized her, which was one of her favorite experiences, be-cause she loves frozen yogurt.
Her family and friends are incredibly supportive of her channel. Her mom posts videos of Juliet on Facebook “at least once a day,” she said.
Last May, Weybret shared her personal life on her channel through her song “Bad Thing.” The song was intensely personal and shared her story of depression and anxiety over the past two and a half years.
She introduced the song, explaining that she wanted to “turn it into something positive and share my story – put it out there – and hope-fully somebody can get something positive out of it.” She wanted her viewers to know that they were not alone.
The song talks directly
WEYBRET cont. on pg. 21
Photo by Kristina Tolleson
Theresa KellyFeatures Editor
Page 20 March 2, 2015
CRITICS OVERLOOK“INTERSTELLAR” FOR MAIN OSCAR CATEGORIES
OSCARS CEREMONY LACKS PIZZAZZRachel Alfiero
Staff Writer
Kevin CallanPracticum Writer
The 2015 Oscar Awards Show pre-miered on Sun-
day, Feb. 22, and many people may have been content with movies like “American Sniper” and “Birdman” taking most of the spotlight, but for others like me, there was a bigger question on our minds: why isn’t anyone talking about “Interstel-lar?”
Sure, “Interstellar” was nominated for less ex-citing categories like best sound editing, sound mixing, original music score, production design, and it even won for best visual effects.
The way the 2015 Academy Awards started off seemed
to foreshadow a funny and promising evening. The opening song and dance number per-formed by Neil Patrick Harris was campy and upbeat, but what else have we come to expect from the seven-time awards show host? The addition of Anna Ken-drick was smart and added a lighter touch to the opening, and when Jack Black stepped on-stage, the whole song took a different form for a moment or two, which left much of the audi-ence laughing hysteri-cally. However, for me at
least, after the opening number the rest of the awards show was slow and slightly dull.
One thing that I be-lieve contributed to this year’s Oscars being somewhat drab was the no-suprise-there fac-tor of the acting awards. The first award of the night went to J.K. Sim-mons for his supporting role in the music-based drama, “Whiplash.” Pa-tricia Arquette nabbed a statue for her role in Richard Linklater’s epic, “Boyhood.” Since both actors won the Golden Globe for their perfor-mances, it was really no surprise when they also took home the Oscars. Same goes for Julianne Moore, who won both
the Globe and the Os-car for her portrayal of a woman with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in the film “Still Alice.”
The only truly big mo-ment in the acting cat-egories was the race for Best Actor between Mi-chael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne. Many critics and audiences saw Ke-aton’s performance as a washed-up superhero as a parallel in some ways to his own life, and worthy of the gold. Red-mayne’s performance as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Every-thing” blew audiences away and established him as a leading man in Hollywood. Redmayne had smaller roles in well-known films prior to
this, such as “My Week with Marilyn” and “Ju-piter Ascending,” but his role in “The Theory of Everything” was career-defining. Many critics favored Keaton to take home the statue since he is a well-established ac-tor who’s been snubbed by the Academy occa-sionally throughout the years. Both actors were first-time nominees which made the stakes even higher. Redmayne ended up taking the big prize, which proved to be the biggest shock of the night.
For the first time since 2011, the winners of Best Director and Best Pic-ture matched up. Ale-jandro G. Iñárritu’s dark comedy “Birdman” won
him the big awards. It was ultimately a fight between Iñárritu’s de-piction of an aging has-been trying to make a new go of it and Linklat-er’s heart-wrenching tale of a family’s journey in life, “Boyhood.” Ulti-mately, the more “artsy” of the two took home the prizes.
Aside from the win-ners, losers, and nomi-nees, the 2015 Oscars had seldom shining moments. Lady Gaga’s musical performance was the best of the night and payed a nice tribute to “The Sound of Music.” Other than that, things were, for lack of a better word, boring. The show dragged on for over three hours and Neil
Patrick Harris had high and low moments as the host. Some of his jokes resonated with viewers while others fell flat. To be honest, that whole secret briefcase bit was painfully awkward at best.
Perhaps what I took most from this year’s Academy Awards was to not expect too much from the get-go and to relinquish the hope of being shocked by the winners. Only time will tell if next year’s Oscars will show another side of the spectrum. Rachel Alfiero is a second-
year student majoring in
communication studies and
minoring in Latin American
studies. She can be reached
But the film was clearly overlooked in the long run by movie critics and audiences alike when it was not given a nomi-nation for best film or best directing by Chris-topher Nolan. Even worse was the movie’s lack of presence at the Golden Globes earlier this year, with only one nomination for its mu-sic score.
Now I will be the first to admit that the film’s stars were in no way deserving of awards for best actor or actress, but that is simply because “Interstellar”’s storyline did not require amaz-ing acting from anyone for it to be a great film. Matthew McConaughey
seemed to be chosen simply for his charisma and his ability to carry a movie, which he did spectacularly. Anne Ha-thaway comes in as a supporting actress who is essentially just Anne Hathaway in a spacesuit, and there is even a nice surprise visit about half-way through the movie from a huge movie star who will remain name-less to avoid spoilers.
When it comes to directing, don’t get me wrong: Alejandro G. Iñárritu definitely earned his Oscar for his directing of “Birdman,” which also won best film, but Christopher Nolan was completely robbed of a nomination
for one of his best mov-ies to date. Nolan sent his viewers on one of the most epic cinemat-ic journeys that any of them had probably ever experienced.
Not only is the movie set in a not-so-distant future with “the end of the world” in sight for humanity, but it manag-es to accurately explore the thought-provoking science of wormholes, foreign galaxies, and black holes in a way that all audiences could be-gin to get their minds around it.
Movie critics on the website Rotten Toma-toes gave “Interstellar” a 72 percent, while it received an 86 percent
from its normal audi-ence. Critics on the website use phrases like “bent logic” and “pseu-doscience,” but for an-swers on scientific facts, I like to turn to today’s most popular and trust-worthy scientist, Mr. Neil Degrase Tyson.
When asked in an interview about his thoughts on the movie, Tyson said he would rate “Interstellar”’s science an eight or nine out of 10 and tweeted things like “In #Interstellar: Experience Einstein’s Curvature of Space as no other feature film has shown.” Yet Tyson completely glossed over 2013’s “Gravity,” a film that received count-
less awards and a 97 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, tweet-ing everything that was wrong with the film as he watched, such as the various issues dealing with gravity.
So who are these award shows really for? The answer seems to be “critics,” who have much more knowledge of movies than they do of science and logic. The answer, though, should be “moviego-ers,” a.k.a. the people who saw “Interstellar” whose minds exploded out of the back of their heads and all over their seats. Kevin Callan can be reached
at KC [email protected].
Big Sean, born Sean Michael Leonard Anderson, is one
of Detroit’s finest who went between Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, Def Jam and now on Roc Nation record la-bels. Dark Sky Paradise is his third album, after his freshman release Finally Famous and his sophomore album Hall of Fame, Big Sean is re-ally starting to cause commotion within the rap realm. Having one of the most underrated bangers of 2014 with his feature on “Kingpin” by R. L. Grime, I had high hopes for Dark Sky Para-dise. The album is drip-ping in A-list features such as: Kanye West, Drake, John Legend, Lil Wayne, the lovely Ariana Grande, and a few more notables. With executive production from Kanye West, almost all of the beats manage to flow seamlessly with Sean’s clever wordplay and pre-sumptuous vocals.
Surprisingly, the al-bum is a little over an
March 2, 2015 Page 21
CRITICS OVERLOOK“INTERSTELLAR” FOR MAIN OSCAR CATEGORIES
BIG SEAN RELEASES THIRD ALBUMOSCARS CEREMONY LACKS PIZZAZZPatrick Harris had high and low moments as the host. Some of his jokes resonated with viewers while others fell flat. To be honest, that whole secret briefcase bit was painfully awkward at best.
Perhaps what I took most from this year’s Academy Awards was to not expect too much from the get-go and to relinquish the hope of being shocked by the winners. Only time will tell if next year’s Oscars will show another side of the spectrum. Rachel Alfiero is a second-
year student majoring in
communication studies and
minoring in Latin American
studies. She can be reached
less awards and a 97 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, tweet-ing everything that was wrong with the film as he watched, such as the various issues dealing with gravity.
So who are these award shows really for? The answer seems to be “critics,” who have much more knowledge of movies than they do of science and logic. The answer, though, should be “moviego-ers,” a.k.a. the people who saw “Interstellar” whose minds exploded out of the back of their heads and all over their seats. Kevin Callan can be reached
at KC [email protected].
Zach RitzSpecial to The Quad
Big Sean, born Sean Michael Leonard Anderson, is one
of Detroit’s finest who went between Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, Def Jam and now on Roc Nation record la-bels. Dark Sky Paradise is his third album, after his freshman release Finally Famous and his sophomore album Hall of Fame, Big Sean is re-ally starting to cause commotion within the rap realm. Having one of the most underrated bangers of 2014 with his feature on “Kingpin” by R. L. Grime, I had high hopes for Dark Sky Para-dise. The album is drip-ping in A-list features such as: Kanye West, Drake, John Legend, Lil Wayne, the lovely Ariana Grande, and a few more notables. With executive production from Kanye West, almost all of the beats manage to flow seamlessly with Sean’s clever wordplay and pre-sumptuous vocals.
Surprisingly, the al-bum is a little over an
hour long with no song reaching under two minutes and 30 seconds, and a couple reaching over five minutes. This is somewhat unlikely for a hip-hop album. Typi-cally, you’ll see a 12-13 song album with songs that are around two to three minutes. Luckily for the listener, this al-bum hardly drags on.
“All Your Fault” featur-ing Kanye West is hands down the highlight of the album with production by Mr. West himself with haunting chorus vocals and banging trap drums. Kanye and Big Sean trade bars on the last verse in-tertwining beautifully, with Travis $cott doing his classic “Straight Up” adlib throughout. This song is easily a high con-tender for Rap Song of the Year. Kanye gives us a verse that any classic Ye fan would appreciate. With all the flack Kanye’s been receiving with his experimental songs like “Only One” and “Wolves,” he shows the rap com-munity that he is still nothing to mess with. I was even more im-
pressed with Big Sean on this; it’s hard to compete next to Kanye but Big Sean is more than able to hold his own.
I personally find Big Sean to have one of the smoothest flows in the past few years. Though he has a 50/50 mix of great songs and snooz-ers, when he has a song he fits well on, he usually
kills it. You can hear the confidence seep through Big Sean’s flow alongside his fantastic “Oh God!” adlib. A good amount of the time, it seems like his subject matter is seem-ingly redundant, but it is hard to fully care be-cause his wordplay is usually quite clever. Of course, this album has the radio hit “IDFWU”
which I find to be one of the weaker songs on the album, from the be-yond corny hook to the basic production from DJ Mustard, it did what it needed to do and got him the hype he needed. The song has a minor saving grace after the abysmal verse from E-40, with a pretty well-done beat switch up, though it only
lasts for around 20 sec-onds. Though “IDFWU” falls unfortunately flat, the songs following it are more than enough to make up for it. “Play No Games” featuring Chris Brown and Ty Dolla $ign is a fantastic blend of solid hip-hop with a nice touch of R&B vocals. “Paradise” is an absolute banger of a song. Big
Sean sounds truly hun-gry on this and the beat fits him perfectly. “Deep” would have been anoth-er insanely strong point of the album if it wasn’t for the poor choice of featuring Lil Wayne. While Lil Wayne was pretty important to the rap game and influenced a lot of artists’ flows, at this point, Lil Wayne is fading.
Alongside “All Your Fault” featuring Kanye West being the high-light of the album, “One Man Can Change the World” featuring Kanye West and John Legend is equally a highlight. While it’s nearly a po-lar opposite of “All Your Fault,” it is certainly a powerful song. I’ve never heard Big Sean’s bars be so real before, he is gen-uinely speaking from the heart on this one and it’s easy to tell. The piano or-chestrated by John Leg-end manages to pair up with Big Sean’s voice in a way that actually gave me goosebumps on my first few listens. This song is genuinely inspir-ing, with the hook “re-
member one thing, that one man can change the world.” It really helps to give out a positive mes-sage after being flooded with all of Big Sean’s egotistical verses. Not to mention the fact that any song John Legend gets put on automatically turns into a ballad that will make you call any-one and tell them you love them.
Overall, this album is highly recommended. Big Sean seeks to im-press on this and he does quite well. After falling a little too flat on his past albums and mixtapes, this album is certainly a positive step for Big Sean. Though his fea-tures are many, he is able to keep up, if not easily surpass his fellow part-ners, allowing him to shine when needed as well as give others the spotlight. This album is a great kickoff to what is expected to be a fantas-tic year for rap. Zach Ritz is a second-year stu-
dent majoring in communica-
tion studies. He can be reached at
ever cure the cold he got when he ran outside in his underwear at mid-night in December. The band proceeded to close with a ballad from pom pom, “Picture Me Gone,” a dolorous threnody of a parent separating from their young child. It was here that Pink demon-strated himself as pow-erful vocalist, his sing-ing the standout facet of the song.
At the show’s conclu-sion, Pink made sure to introduce his band
members and thank them for their perfor-mance, and then thank the audience for attend-ing. This night success-fully marked another in the Union Transfer Cen-ter’s catalog of star-stud-ded shows with content concertgoers. In the next few months, Union Transfer plans on host-ing indie favorites the Mountain Goats as well as death metal forefa-thers At the Gates.Jeffrey Holmes is a third-
year student dual-majoring
in philosopy and English.
He can be reached at JH
ARIEL PINK cont. from pg. 18
WEYBRET cont. from pg. 19
about her issues, speak-ing of one-night stands and eating disorders with lines like, “Is it bad that I feel best with a fin-ger down my throat?”
The chorus speaks to the problem of men-tal illness, “There’s a bad thing inside of me. Thanks for waiting, pa-tiently, while I’m swim-ming through an open sea, with this bad thing inside of me.”
In an honest blog post on Tumblr, Weybret ex-plained how her anxiety
and depression came about. In 2011, at col-lege, Weybret did mari-juana with friends and suffered a “bad trip.” She had an extreme panic attack and felt like she was dying. The next time she smoked, she suffered from an equally terrifying panic attack. This triggered suicidal thoughts. Luckily, Wey-bret reached out to her mother and friends for help.
Now, Weybret has been diagnosed with gener-alized anxiety disorder, depersonalization disor-der, derealization, panic
disorder, and depression. In spite of this, Weybret
remained positive in her post, explaining that she had a “little light of hope” that her story would con-nect to people.
Now, almost a year later, Weybret explains, “Opening up about my struggle with anxiety and depression was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” She went on to say, “I’ve never been happier. Nothing but good has come of [post-ing the video]. I’ve been able to help and inspire strangers around the world. There is no bet-
ter feeling. I still have my bad days, but I no lon-ger feel alone.” Weybret’s openness has certainly inspired loyalty from her fans.
Interested in Juliet’s music? You can sub-scribe to YouTube chan-nel at https://www.youtube.com/user/Ju-lietOriginals. You can also follow her on tumblr at julietweybret.tumblr.com. Her music is avail-able on iTunes.Theresa Kelly is a third-
year student majoring in
English literature secondary
education. She can be reached
wikipedia.org
Page 22 March 2, 2015
THE QUAD CROSSWORDFill in the grid so that each of the numbers 1 - 9
appears once and only once in each row, each column, and each 3x3 square.
THE QUAD SuDoKu
FREE FREE MOVING BOXES
and PACKING PAPER (used once) while supplies last. Please contact Shannon 862-432-6059.
Last issue’s solutions
5 3 2 8 9 4 7 1 66 9 4 5 7 1 8 3 21 7 8 6 2 3 4 9 58 1 6 9 4 7 5 2 37 2 9 1 3 5 6 8 43 4 5 2 6 8 9 7 12 5 7 3 8 6 1 4 94 6 3 7 1 9 2 5 89 8 1 4 5 2 3 6 7
Difficulty level: Diabolical - 14
5 3 2 8 9 4 7 1 66 9 4 5 7 1 8 3 21 7 8 6 2 3 4 9 58 1 6 9 4 7 5 2 37 2 9 1 3 5 6 8 43 4 5 2 6 8 9 7 12 5 7 3 8 6 1 4 94 6 3 7 1 9 2 5 89 8 1 4 5 2 3 6 7
© Philip A. Thompsen, Ph.D.
Across1 Sardine cousin5 “My take is ...”10 Princess from Amphipolis14 Iota15 One-up16 “Head With Pipe”
artist Nolde17 Watchable, in a way18 Jar for leafy veg-
etable storage?20 2000s World #1
female golfer22 Nurture23 Word with cake or break24 Actor Jackie’s pet fi sh?27 “__ Love” (Maroon 5 hit)29 Smoking, perhaps30 Half a score31 1959 novel in whose
fi lm version Mary Crane became Marion Crane
33 Giant36 Rabbit’s friend37 Opine ... or cre-
ate four long answers in this puzzle?
41 Literary __42 More than hammer home43 Video game segments45 Jr.’s jr.46 Spot for a soak49 With 60-Down, only
South Korean World Golf Hall of Fame inductee
50 Emulate an invet-erate swindler?
53 Small songbird54 Work on a canvas?56 Unfortunate57 Vessel with limited space?61 Bard’s verb62 “See Dad Run” star63 Steer snagger64 Mishmash65 TripAdvisor alternative66 “No worries”67 White side, maybe
Down1 More than peck2 Head __3 Besides4 Plymouth’s county5 Org. with a multi-ring logo6 “No __!”7 Whitewater fi gure8 Pitcher?9 Green sage10 Survey taker, at times11 Text clarifi er12 Compliment on a course13 Antacid brand word19 Old PC monitors21 Martin’s start?25 Hollywood glitterati26 Sambuca fl avoring
28 On a sugar high, say31 Psychologist’s concern32 Quaker Honey
Graham __33 Toast, with “a”34 U.S.-U.K. separator35 “Truth is more of a
stranger than fi ction” writer37 The works38 Second section of
Verdi’s “Requiem”39 Fit nicely40 Quarters, e.g.44 Da� y Duck has one46 Move on a screen47 Shakespearean heiress48 “But I digress ...”50 Trainee51 Marine predators52 Bygone birds53 Mango tango
smoothie server55 Prefi x with cardial58 Post-spill need59 __-Aztecan languages60 See 49-Across
Solutions will appear in the next issue.
9 1 4 7 3 5 6 8 27 5 6 8 9 2 4 1 32 3 8 4 6 1 7 9 51 4 5 6 2 7 8 3 96 7 9 5 8 3 1 2 48 2 3 9 1 4 5 6 73 8 7 1 4 9 2 5 64 9 1 2 5 6 3 7 85 6 2 3 7 8 9 4 1
Difficulty level: Moderate - 6
9 1 4 7 3 5 6 8 27 5 6 8 9 2 4 1 32 3 8 4 6 1 7 9 51 4 5 6 2 7 8 3 96 7 9 5 8 3 1 2 48 2 3 9 1 4 5 6 73 8 7 1 4 9 2 5 64 9 1 2 5 6 3 7 85 6 2 3 7 8 9 4 1
© Philip A. Thompsen, Ph.D.
Brewster Rocket: Space Guy by Tim Rickard
Bliss by Harry Bliss
CLASSIFIEDS To place a classified ad in The Quad, just visit wcuquad.com and click on the link for “classifieds.”
Catch the WCU Weather Outlook with
Lauren Alexanderon wcuquad.com
SPORTSMarch 2, 2015 Page 23
GOLDEN RAMS SNAG 2ND SEED; PREPARE FOR KUTZTOWN
A lot was on the line for the men’s basketball team
as they approached the fi nal regular season game of the season. It was a home match up against a red-hot Mansfi eld team.
It was also West Chester’s Senior Night, as they recognized two seniors who have been in the program for four years, Cory Blake and Eric Frans. Both players have been crucial parts in West Chester’s success over the years, and Coach Blair knows they will be missed. But this was not yet the end of the road, as they were going to do everything they could to elongate their West Chester basketball careers.
Mansfi eld has struggled throughout the season, but they were coming in on a four-game win streak, including two big wins against East Stroudsburg and Bloomsburg. If they were able to beat West Chester, they would secure the sixth and fi nal spot for the PSAC playo� s. As for West Chester, if they were able to win and Kutztown lost to East Stroudsburg they would have secured the second seed, which included a
bye and a quarterfi nal home playo� game. So a lot was on the line for both teams and both teams knew that.
The beginning of the game was a little sloppy and you could see there were some nerves coming from both sides. Both teams were making u n c h a r a c t e r i s t i c turnovers and mistakes, and neither team could jump out to a strong start, and after the fi rst 11 minutes of play the game was tied at 20 apiece. After the nerves settled down, both teams started playing their brand of basketball.
For Mansfi eld, the big three that West Chester had to watch out for were Joe Bell, Charles Pemberton, and Thomas Moore. Bell averages over 16 points a game, while Pemberton is the reigning PSAC defensive player of the year.
But West Chester was ready for them, and they were very aggressive on the o� ensive side of the ball, putting pressure on the big three, and getting them in foul trouble early on in the game. Bell and Moore each had two fouls at halftime, which allowed West Chester to really attack the bench of Mansfi eld. They were getting everything that
they wanted on the o� ensive side of the ball, getting to the rack and if they did not convert, they got the charity stripe and were able to cash in. They compiled 51 fi rst half points on 21-24 shooting from the free-throw line. They also were 6-10 from beyond the three-point arc, including 3-3 for senior Cory Blake.
Mansfi eld was able to cash in on a fi ve-point swing at the end of the fi rst half, as West Chester turned the ball over which led to a three-pointer on the other end, and then a driving layup at the buzzer was cashed in by backup point guard Eric Lewis, to cut what would have been a 17-point lead for West Chester to a 12-point defi cit for Mansfi eld heading into the halftime locker rooms trailing 51-39.
In the second half, the lead that West Chester fought so hard for quickly disappeared as Bell and Moore were able to get on a roll a little bit. With just seven minutes gone by in the second half, Mansfi eld was able to cut the lead to three, only trailing 60-57.
Then entered Mike Wilson. Wilson has had his struggles in the past few games, and he quickly picked up two fouls in the
fi rst half, which only allowed him to play one minute. As he entered in the second half he was ready to go. West Chester was stuck in the mud o� ensively and they desperately needed a spark on o� ense. He came down the fl oor and hit two huge back-to-back three-pointers to extend the lead back to eight. They then clamped back down on the defensive end, causing turnovers, and began to be aggressive on o� ense, which put Mansfi eld back in a tough situation. Both
Moore and Bell fouled out before the under four minute-media timeout. That meant that they had to rely on Pemberton to try and keep them in this game.
It was too much for Pemberton and company to handle, as West Chester was able to keep Mansfi eld at arms length for the rest of the game, and come away with a victory of 90-78. Parrish Grant led West Chester with 19 points including 12 points from the free-throw line. Matt Wiseley also chipped in with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Wiseley fi nished second in the PSAC in rebounding averaging 8.4 a game.
With the loss Mansfi eld fell out of the PSAC playo� race, as they fi nished 7th, one spot out of the playo� s. With the West Chester win they fi nished the season 16-12, and 13-8 in the PSAC, and they were awaiting the result of the Kutztown East Stroudsburg match up to see if they would be receiving a bye. Luckyily for West Chester, East Stroudsburg was able to defeat Kutztown.
West Chester would receive the second seed, and a bye, as Kutztown dropped down to the third seed, and would have to face Shippensburg in the fi rst round, with the winner facing West Chester in a quarterfi nal match on Tuesday.
Kutztown defeated Shippensburg 77-54 on Saturday, meaning that they would head to West Chester on Tuesday to face for the third time this season. West Chester beat Kutztown both times this season, but both games were instant classics.
The fi rst time they defeated Kutztown was earlier on in the season and Wiseley hit game-clinching free throws in the fi nal seconds to win 63-60. The next time the two faced each at Kutztown the two teams put on a show that the fans would remember for a long, long time. West Chester escaped with a 97-96 win in four overtimes. And again Wiseley was able to hit the clinching free throws, as they fi nally were able to get a lead in the fi nal overtime. He fi nished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
So this playo� game, and the fi nal episode between these two teams in bound to be spectacular. Wiseley said, “They are a very good team, and we will have to play our best game if we want to be able to move on into the semi-fi nals.”
The game will take place at 7:30 p.m. inside Hollinger Field House as West Chester will do everything they can to try and make a run in the PSAC tournament and be selected to the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row. Ryan Calpin is a third-
year student majoring in
communications with
a minor in journalism.
He can be reached at
RC784188@wcupa
“We will have to play our best game if we want to be able to
move on into the semi-fi nals.”
Ryan CalpinSports EditorRyan CalpinSports Editor
BEGIN THE NEXT CHAPTER IN YOUR SUCCESS STORY.
CHESTNUT HILL COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL INFORMATION SESSION
For reservations, contact Andrew
McCarthy at gradadmissions@chc.
edu, call 215.248.7193, or visit
chc.edu/sgsvisit.
Saturday, March 14, 2015 11 AM St. Joseph Hall
Chestnut Hill College’s School of Graduate Studies offers Graduate Degrees, Post-
Graduate Certificates, Licensure and Certification Programs in the following areas: Administration of Human Services Clinical and Counseling Psychology (5 Concentrations) Education: Early (PK-4), Elementary/Middle-Level (4th-8th) Secondary, Special Education, & Reading Specialist Instructional Technology, including E-Learning & IT Design
CHC also offers an APA-Accredited Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.)
There comes a point where any great team can jump the
barrier from mediocrity to forever seal their names in the history books for years to come. At PSAC Championships, held last weekend at Grahams Aquatics Center, West Chester University’s men and women’s swimming and diving teams continued building on their untouchable resume, adding a 17th straight PSAC Championship win for the men, and a ninth straight victory for the women.
Seniors Kendall Somer and Jared Haley led the
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and employers by contacting the Twardowski
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March 2. 2015 Page 25
BEGIN THE NEXT CHAPTER IN YOUR SUCCESS STORY.
CHESTNUT HILL COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL INFORMATION SESSION
For reservations, contact Andrew
McCarthy at gradadmissions@chc.
edu, call 215.248.7193, or visit
chc.edu/sgsvisit.
Saturday, March 14, 2015 11 AM St. Joseph Hall
Chestnut Hill College’s School of Graduate Studies offers Graduate Degrees, Post-
Graduate Certificates, Licensure and Certification Programs in the following areas: Administration of Human Services Clinical and Counseling Psychology (5 Concentrations) Education: Early (PK-4), Elementary/Middle-Level (4th-8th) Secondary, Special Education, & Reading Specialist Instructional Technology, including E-Learning & IT Design
CHC also offers an APA-Accredited Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.)
MEN AND WOMENS SWIMMING AND DIVING; DYNASTY?
There comes a point where any great team can jump the
barrier from mediocrity to forever seal their names in the history books for years to come. At PSAC Championships, held last weekend at Grahams Aquatics Center, West Chester University’s men and women’s swimming and diving teams continued building on their untouchable resume, adding a 17th straight PSAC Championship win for the men, and a ninth straight victory for the women.
Seniors Kendall Somer and Jared Haley led the
way for their respective teams. Somer, a local product from Unionville, Pa., grabbed an individual PSAC victory in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 16 minutes and 55.97 seconds. “The mile was actually my fi rst individual PSAC win, and having this race on the last day to end my PSAC career was great.” The victory by Somer made her one of only 10 swimmers that scored points for West Chester. However, the Golden Rams still found a way to stay afl oat and pull o� the underdog victory.
“It took a lot of working together to get our ninth [consecutive] conference title,” said Somer, “Every single girl has their own role and without
all thirteen of us, I really don’t think this would have been possible.” The biggest key to the surprising victory for the Lady Rams was the all-around team e� ort. Despite only having 13 swimmers, 10 still scored points for the Rams. Experience and teamwork is what sealed the win though, according to Somer. “We all had worked so well together and really meshed as a team,” commented Somer when asked about what the driving forces were of the victory.
The women built up a total of 636.5 points over the four-day event, enough to lead by a landslide to any one else. Their fi rst place
victory marked their ninth straight victory and thirteenth PSAC Championship overall. On the other side of the spectrum, the men continue their dominant ways just as they have all season. Haley, a senior from Dillsburg, Pa., was named MVP after winning three events he participated in (500 freestyle, 1000 freestyle, 800 relay). Haley also grabbed second place fi nishes in the 200-yard freestyle and the 1650-yard free.
The men’s team could not be stopped. From the beginning of the weekend till the last race, West Chester dominated the pool. Totaling out at 977.5 points as a team, 300
more then any other team, the Rams swam as fast as they could straight away from the competition. Along with Haley, Eric Long set a new PSAC record for the 200-meter butterfl y posting a time of 1:49:37.
Golden Ram standout Victor Polyakov, who has been outstanding for the Golden Rams in the past three seasons, set yet another PSAC record for the 100 backstroke with a time of 49.30 seconds. Polyakov, the junior distance swimmer from Toganrog, Russia, has been a cornerstone in the success of the Golden Rams since his arrival to West Chester. Last year, Polyakov went a perfect 4-4 at nationals,
becoming a four-time individual National Champion.
Overall, the weekend could not have gone much better for the women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams. Sure, everyone has di� erent views on what a “dynasty” really is. The Golden Rams have etched themselves in to the conversation of a dynasty, rightfully so. With another successful season nearly in the books, both teams can look back and be proud, yet again, of what they have accomplished in the pool. AJ Arcaini is a third-year student
majoring in communication
studies with a minor in
journalism. He can be reached
AJ ArcainiAsst. Sports EditorAJ ArcainiAsst. Sports Editor
Page 26 March 2, 2015
A valuable education with heroic results.Summer Registration is Open!Coming home to the Lehigh Valley this summer? Earn credits for transfer and get ahead for fall. Registration is open now for summer semesters: Summer 1 May 26-July 1 or May 26-August 12; and Summer 2 July 13-August 18.
Go to www.lccc.edu/summer
Bob KuhnsSchool of Technology, Class of 1993
Office 365 Specialist
LADY RAMS PREPARE FOR TOURNAMENT RUNBy Cullen Wright
Special to The Quad
The night would already be special.
Senior Night always is and, for Serfi at Junaid, was her chance to celebrate four memorable years with West Chester’s women’s basketball team.
“She’s by far one of the hardest working kids on our team and I’d even say she’s the heart and soul of our team with the intensity and the energy she brings to the team,” Coach Wooden said.
“I’ll miss her so much,” added, Jasmen Clark. “She just brings such a spark when she’s in the game.”
By the end of the night, it would be Clark who would be on the receiving end of praise from her coach and team mates. Jasmen erupted from the three-point arc with what would become a historic performance in the Golden Rams’ 95-71 drumming of Mansfi eld in the season fi nale.
The Golden Rams got
their scoring going with some sharp shooting from Dallas Ely (14 points, 10 assists) and Clark (28 points). The two guards put up West Chester’s fi rst nine points with a deep three-pointer from Ely and two more from Clark to set the tone for the evening.
Early on, it became clear Mansfi eld wouldn’t
be able to win the game in the paint. All West Chester had to do was win the shooting game and the game would go well.
While Mansfi eld’s Katie Fitzpatrick and Tianna Jackson were able to keep their school in the game, there was never any real push from the Mountaineers.
Clark would hit another three-pointer to start the game 3-3 from beyond the arc and extend West Chester’s
lead to seven midway through the fi rst half.
Down the stretch, Coach Wooden’s squad pulled o� some nifty passes and timely steals to get the comfortable lead they were looking for at half.
Porsche Speller (six points) was nipping at Mansfi eld’s heels with tight man-to-man
defense, forcing bad pass after bad pass and was responsible for most of, if not all, West Chester’s fi ve steals in the fi rst half.
Meanwhile, Clark just carried on with her hot shooting from three-point range, knocking down a three-pointer from the corner to close out the half and send the Golden Rams to the locker room with a 43-28 lead.
As if Clark’s game up until this point wasn’t impressive enough, she
came right out of the gate in the second half shooting threes left and right and making them.
“She shot the ball out of her mind today”, said her coach, Kiera Wooden, thought of her junior guard’s hot shooting.
To start the second, Clark hit three straight three-pointers to kick the Golden Rams’ 15-point advantage from halftime into overdrive in the blink of an eye.
After her third three-pointer in the opening fi ve minutes, word had reached the West Chester bench that Clark had tied Kiesha Mack’s school record of eight threes in a game; they responded accordingly.
“Just shoot it when I’m open,” Clark would say of her thoughts as she neared the record. “I just wish I was more relaxed.”
“I think her teammates did a great job of fi nding her, understanding the (plays) and fi nding the hot hand,” Wooden said. “There are plays we’d normally run for Dallas and Dallas would say, ‘We need to run it for
Jasmen’ and I was like go for it!”
With 15 minutes left in the game, it seemed like Clark would sure end the contest with the single-game record for three pointers made and West Chester certainly made every e� ort to make it happen.
Mansfi eld, the game out of hand, had instead focused solely on shutting down Clark for the remainder of the game.In that, they would succeed.
Clark would fi nish with a game-high 28 points (24 coming from eight three pointers) and settled for a tie atop the Golden Rams record book. On the other hand, West Chester would cruise to a 95-71 win at Hollinger Field House to cap of a 22-4 regular season and send the team into the PSAC tournament on a high note.
“I think we’re going to play every game the way we do now - hustle and shoot the ball with confi dence,” Clark said of her team’s upcoming
PSAC tournament game.
“I think the team is confi dent. I think going in on a win streak after the way we’ve dominated our last two games, I think they’re confi dent. I don’t think they’re overly confi dent so I think they know whoever we play we have to bring our A game in order for us to be successful,” said Coach Wooden afterwards. “I think they’re excited.”
Does she think they can make a run in the tournament?
“Absolutely. When we’re playing our style of play, I think we’re a tough team to beat.”
The tough, hot-handed Golden Rams will get their fi rst chance to show just how tough they’ll be to beat on March 3, when they play their fi rst PSAC tournament game at Hollinger Field House.
Cullen Wright is a third-
year student majoring in
communications. He can be
reached at CW830391@wcupa.
edu
“When we’re playing our
style of play, I think we’re
a tough team to beat.”
By Jared FortunatoSta� Writer
March 2. 2015 Page 27
LADY RAMS PREPARE FOR TOURNAMENT RUN
Terrible news struck the basketball world
when Derrick Rose was diagnosed with a torn meniscus and would be out for at least four weeks of competition.
Many current National Basketball Association players, including LeBron James, wish Rose well with his recovery. However, other people have decided it was an opportune time to make fun of Rose and his inability to keep healthy. People all over social media poked fun at Rose for tearing his meniscus, saying that he should retire. It must have been infuriatting for Rose, his family, his friends, and his teammates when listening or seeing pictures of Rose clutching his knee. It was sickening to witness memes and gifs along with other comments posted on social media about Derrick Rose, because no basketball player ever wants to get hurt.
Practicing and training every day to obtain their goal of winning a championship, Rose and others play the game they love because of their passion and their belief that they are the best players in the game today. People on social media commenting on Rose’s injury should look themselves in the
mirror and wonder what if the roles were reversed? How would they feel if they tore a
meniscus or any other ligament of muscle that takes time to heal? Granted, Rose is fragile and gets injured easily. However, he is there to win games. He cannot predict his injuries or when they will occur.
Fans of the sport and others alike should just say positive comments about Rose’s recovery
process instead of mocking him. Who knows? Rose could return just before the playoffs and have a sensational playoff run with the Chicago Bulls en route to an NBA championship.
WEST CHESTER’S PRO TALKCAN THE BULLS STAY AFLOAT WITHOUT
DERRICK ROSE?By Jared Fortunato
Staff Writer
However, as Bulls fans might think that their team is done for the year, which they would
lose in the first round to an inferior opponent, they still have time to gel and work as a cohesive group to win basketball games. Not only does Rose’s injury set himself back, but the team’s ability to secure a high
seed and face a lower seeded team. Right now, the Atlanta Hawks, the Toronto Raptors, and the Cleveland Cavaliers all have better records than the Chicago
Bulls in the Eastern Conference. There is still enough time for the Bulls to maintain a high seed. However, it might be more difficult to do so than without Rose.
The Bulls have played countless games before without Rose due to other various injuries, so it’s not like the Bulls are playing without Rose for the first time. All Stars such as Pau Gasol and Jimmy Butler have complemented this team by creating shots for other teammates, passed the ball to the open man, made clutch shots, and had a will to win crucial and critical games. The Bulls’ schedule is fairly moderate for the rest of the season, but they have to hope that no other player, starter or second-team unit, would sustain an injury. If so, their season would flash before their eyes. The Bulls need to play as a team in order to win the championship and have the pieces to do so, but they need the win games without Rose and plenty more when Rose
comes back in order to move far in the playoffs.
The Chicago Bulls’ Tom Thibodeau is one of the best head coaches in the NBA because he was an assistant coach
for the Boston Celtics when they won the championship in 2008, where he found a way to stop an unstoppable Kobe Bryant at the time. Thibodeau’s philosophy is defense, and if the team plays better defense, the team’s offense would drastically improve because of the opportunities created, such as steals, fast breaks, and forcing the other team to turn over the ball.
Will Derrick Rose return as the same player as the beginning of the season? Time will tell. Rose is their clear-cut most valuable player and his play-making skills are what makes this Bulls team a contender. The Bulls have the nucleus to defeat the Eastern Conference powerhouses of the Cavaliers, the Raptors, and Hawks. They just need Rose to help them reach the promised land.Jared Fortunato is a freshman
majoring in physical therapy.
He can be reached at
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Derrick Rose has missed 187 games since first tearing his ACL in a playoff series against
the Philadelphia 76ers back in 2012.
“Rose is their clear-cut most valuable player and his play-making skills are what makes this Bulls team a contender”
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