Movie ReviewSunshine Cleaning

A new movie starring Emily Blunt and Amy Adams blends comedy and drama.ENNTERTAAINMENT page 17

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Last week’s poll resultsDo you feel you can be more engaged on campus?

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WHAT’S INSIDENews......................2-5

Editorials...............6-9

Comics...............10-11

Entertainment....13-19

Features..............20-22

Sports.................23-28

TORCH GRAPHIC/KERI DODGE

Managing Board LXXXV

GREGORY LEPORATI, Editor-in-Chief

EVERTON BAILEYNews EditorPASQUALE PASSARELLA

Editorial Page EditorPATRICE BENDIGFeatures EditorCAITLYN NOLANEntertainmentEditor

ANTHONY MORREALE

Sports EditorLAURA AMATOPhoto EditorJONNATHAN COLEMAN

Online EditorZACH DAVINOArt Director

ELIZABETH JALONSCHI

General ManagerSARA RHODESLayout EditorELLEN CAREYAdvisor

Directory

Business (718) 990-6576 Advertising990-6756Editorial Board990-6444

Features 990-6445 Letters990-6445News990-6444Sports990-6444

Special thanks to Richard Rex Thomas for assisting in the design of The TORCH

PostSecretFrank Warren

Frank Warren came to SJU to talk about his popular project. Read about what inspired his creation.

Features pg. 20

FilmAdventureland

Inferno gives its readers a preview of Adventureland, a hilarious new fi lm by Superbad director Greg Mottola. The fi lms opens April 3.

Inferno pg. 15

LacrosseSlipped Up

The Red Storm lacrosse team lost an overtime game to Lehigh this weekend after Lehigh tied the score in the game’s closing seconds.

Sports pg. 23

Junior Matthew Coleman, VISION candidate for Senior Senator, pulled out all the stops trying to get students to vote in the Student Government Inc. elections Tuesday afternoon. Coleman edged out junior Samantha Songle of the P.R.I.D.E. ticket by 23 votes to win the seat.

RATE MY PROFESSORS OPINION PG. 9

FOR MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS: 718-990-6756 The TORCH is the offi cial student newspaper of St. John’s University. The Torch is written, edited, designed and produced by students of the University. All contents are the sole responsibility of the editors and the editorial board and do not nec-essarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of St. John’s University unless specifi cally stated.

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To contact The TORCH by mail:The TORCH, St. John’s University8000 Utopia ParkwayQueens, NY 11439

The TORCH is typically published on Wednesdays, approximately 20 issues throughout the academic year. Circulation per issue is 3,500 copies distributed free on campus.

MATT CHOQUETTE

Chief Copy Editor

CHRISTINA HEISER, Managing Editor

TORCH PHOTO/LAURA AMATO

Vendor Fair gives St. John’s sample of campus products

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Students got the chance to check out the latest food and drink products at the fi rst Ven-dor Fair on March 19 in Montgoris Dining Hall.

The event, sponsored by Chartwells, featured 19 vendors including Dreyer’s ice cream, NOS energy drinks and Coca-Cola. The vendors’ products are sold at the different cafeterias on the Queens’ campus. According to Gina Capetanakis, marketing director of Chartwells, the fair gave vendors the opportu-nity to show students new products and their address students’ needs.

“It’s a win-win situation for students and vendors,” she said.

Capetanakis also said the Vendor Fair is

an event that Chartwells sponsors at most of the universities it services. She added that the event was a successful one.

“The event has exceeded our expecta-tions,” she said.

John Zanghi, a vendor from Dreyer’s was excited to be at the fair.

“It’s great to get out of the kitchen and show our products to students,” he said.

Students said they enjoyed the games and give-aways offered at the fair. One of the games students could play was Guitar Hero, sponsored by NOS. Students who won Guitar Hero received a free NOS energy drink and a free t-shirt.

Jose Guerra, promoter for NOS, said stu-dents enjoyed the event.

“The kids loved playing Guitar Hero on the big screen,” he said.

THOMAS CARNEVALEStaff Writer

Clarifi cation:In the March 18 issue of the TORCH, an article titled “Increasing student engagement a concern on campus,” featured a quote by Charisse Willis, associate dean for the School of Education, that was taken out of context. The TORCH regrets the error.

Hundreds of St. John’s students gathered in Marillac Auditorium on March 19 to listen to “the most trusted stranger in America” spill the beans on confi dential information from people all over the country.

“My name is Frank and I collect secrets,” the stranger plainly announced to the audience.

“Frank” is actually Frank Warren, founder of PostSecret.com, a popular online blog where people anonymously submit their secrets written on postcards. The postcards displayed on Warren’s site range from haunting and sad to uplifting and humorous.

Junior Angel Pena said he is a fan of the blog.

“I like the fact that these are real people telling the world their secrets,” he said. “It helps for other people to know that they’re not alone in what they’re feeling.”

The lecture was part of St. John’s Spring Semester academic lecture series and Warren’s own nationwide college tour.

Since the Web site was created in 2005, Warren has published more than 200,000 postcards on his blog and four books.

“I’ve found that you will fi nd a postcard that speaks to you no matter what your situation,” Warren said. “I’ve gone through depression, being homeless and the death of a friend and believe that there is still hope.”

Warren has even managed to translate his online venture into mainstream success when the postcards he published were used by rock band The All-American Rejects in a music video for their 2005 song “Dirty Little Secret.”

According to Warren, his project began

four years ago while working for a suicide prevention hotline.

“I printed blank post cards and drove to D.C.,” he said. “I approached strangers and asked them to anonymously contribute a secret to an art project. I was soliciting secrets.”

He eventually found that postcards were arriving in his mailbox and soon enough, the idea began to spread by word of mouth.

Warren said he was surprised by how courageous these strangers were and how their secrets inspired him to share with his own family. As the secrets kept coming in, he said he knew he wanted to keep sharing.

Soon after, he started the PostSecret blog, where he would scan the postcards he received and share them with a larger audience.

During his college tour, Warren usually closes his presentation by asking the audience to share their secrets and stories. However, he told audience members that St. John’s had asked him not to do this and instead opened the fl oor for questions. This did not deter students from sharing secrets anyway.

This was one rule many students said they were glad was broken.

“I have to say the part that really got to me the most was seeing my fellow peers standing up and sharing their secret,” said Pena. “It was moving to see people that you go to school with letting go of something close to them.”

Other students shared similar feelings. “I think that Warren has tapped into

something brilliant that has helped so many other people deal with issues that they might not have the courage to tell people, so by doing this, in a way, is therapeutic to them,” said junior Tiago Fernandez.

“It also gives other people inspiration to do the same.”

Student Government, Inc. held an academic forum called “Meeting of the Minds” during their organizational congress on March 18 in the UC Commons. Dr. Julia Upton, the University provost, and academic deans were there to answer students’ questions.

Concerns ranged from issues with the new schedule to issues with obtaining internships and studying abroad.

SGI holds an organizational congress meets every month. It serves to connect student organizations with administrators and other student organizations.

Students meet with ‘minds’ behind the University

TORCH PHOTO/ LAURA AMATO

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What’s your secret?

Frank Warren, creator of the blog “PostSecret,” shared his experi-ences with students on March 19 in Marillac Auditorium.

KIRAN JOSENStaff Writer

THOMAS CARNEVALEStaff Writer

Creator of PostSecret blog speaks to students

Questions asked at ‘Meeting of the Minds’“Why is the administration making changes to the course schedule?” “Having classes meet for an hour and a half makes the classes more productive,” said Upton. “With the new schedule we create two new common hours. We also create time on Fridays for three-hour classes, service learning and labs.” “How can more interactive classes be achieved?” “We conduct some mandatory and non-mandatory workshops for professors, but we can’t force it on them,” said Upton. She also stressed the importance of end-of-the-semester surveys. “The surveys were a result of lots of work from student leaders and administrators so that your voice can be heard,” she said. However, Upton said

that while students are e-mailed the surveys and given in-class reminders, only about 30 percent of students fi ll them out. “How does Tobin College want to expand its internships?”“We are in a very good position with more internships than internship applicants. I believe that St. John’s graduates can compete with the best people in the world,” said Steven Papamarcos, dean of the Peter J. Tobin College of Business. “I worked in the business world for most of my life before coming to St. John’s and our students are highly competitive in the workplace. St. John’s students have street smarts because they are probably working their way through school.”

A record number of students voted in this year’s Student Government, Inc. elections, voting in a near equal number of candidates from the two tickets, P.R.I.D.E. and VISION.

Of the 10,342 eligible voters from the Queens and Manhattan campuses, 1,617 students submitted their ballots on campus and St. John’s Central. This year’s 15.6 percent voter participation was a 27 percent increase over last year when 1,277 students cast their vote. In the 2007 SGI election, 633 students participated.

The P.R.I.D.E (Promising you Reliability, Innovation, Dedication to Excellence) ticket took three of the seven contested positions with junior Patrick McBurney elected as the new SGI President, junior Christina Zaccarelli chosen as vice president and sophomore Katie Beckmann winning the junior senator position.

For the VISION ticket, sophomore Patrick Brewer took the position of secretary, junior Jacqueline Torres won treasurer, and junior Matthew Coleman and freshman Ixtli-Nitzin Sanchez won senior and sophomore senator, respectively.

Current SGI Secretary Dominic Baccala credited the rise in voter participation to the greater publicizing of SGI as a whole during the election.

“Not only were the tickets out there pushing, but John [Kelly, SGI vice president], Dana [Lezama, SGI president], myself and the election committee were all out there,” he said. “I think the collaborative effort between those in standing and those running was what the increase can be attributed to.”

Lezama said she agreed and further suggested that the increased involvement is a continuing trend.

“With students this year, based on the outreach we have done in the past two years, they felt the need to get out and let their voices be heard,” she said.

McBurney said that the continuing increase in voting is a sign that students are responding to the efforts of those who work in SGI.

“Obviously we must be doing something right to gain an increase in interest,” he said. “So our goal now is to keep this going.”

Mary Pelkowski, the University’s director of leadership development, shared McBurney’s enthusiasm.

“Each year this number continues to rise and students are becoming more involved in campus-wide activities, programs and events,” she said.

McBurney spoke shortly after the results were announced Tuesday afternoon in the University Center, expressing his enthusiasm over his election.

“I’m really happy and excited for myself and all the winners,” he said. “I give all the credit to the people on my ticket. I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for each and every one of them.”

He said that one of his top priorities for the new SGI board is to continue to raise the level of student engagement, an issue that was mentioned by University

president Rev. Donald Harrington in an interview with the Torch last week.

McBurney also addressed the fact that for the fi rst time in years, the SGI board will be signifi cantly divided between members of two tickets.

“I’ve worked with everyone on the other ticket, so I don’t anticipate a problem with getting everyone on the same page,” he said, adding that he hopes the diverse range of ideas will be benefi cial. “Both tickets had some great ideas, so we are all going to sit down, combine ideas and fi gure out what is going to work the best for everyone and to help make SGI the best that it can be.”

Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Darren Morton congratulated all the candidates, while

emphasizing the jobs the newly elected students must focus on over the positions themselves.

“The important thing for everyone to remember in all of this is that you run for the purpose of serving the organization and serving the students, not necessarily just because you want a position,” he said.

Facebook’s latest makeover has sparked outrage among its users. Just like the previous makeover did. And the makeover before that.

But despite the constant outrage, the site has continued to grow and now has more than 175 million users. The reason, students said, is because regardless of its appearance, Facebook remains a dominant form of communication on the campus.

“I think it’s funny how everyone always fl ips out when they see a new Facebook layout, but change is good, I guess,” University of Maryland junior government and politics major Justin Perlman said. “I think it’s a continuous cycle; the next time there’s a change, those people complaining now will be wishing they had this version back.”

Perlman said he actually fi nds the changes refreshing, because looking at

the same design can get boring. But a signifi cant number of people disagree - 1.7 million people have joined a group protesting the new changes, making this possibly the largest Facebook user revolt since the introduction of the news and mini-feeds in 2006.

The new layout changed the homepage from a mash of friends’ status, photo, group, event, link and note activity into a more organized display that focuses on their statuses and wall-post activity.

“As more and more information fl ows through Facebook, the need for people to easily discover the most recent and relevant content has grown,” Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on “The Facebook Blog.”

“The new home page will let you see everything that’s shared by your friends and connections as it happens. It will also provide you more control by letting you choose exactly who you see among the people and things you are connected to.”

The new design has drawn comparisons to Twitter, a rival social networking site that allows people to

post “tweets” - short statuses or links of fewer than 140 characters.

“The new home page is very similar to Twitter, because it tells you what your friends are doing. But with Twitter, you choose the sources of the statuses and that’s all you see. On Facebook, I see that two people I haven’t seen in years are wall posting - I don’t care that that’s occurring. It would take too long to go through all of your friends and pick which statuses you care about,” freshman communications major Kaye Schacter said. “Even so, Facebook is still the best way to stay in touch with friends.”

Sophomore government and politics and criminology and criminal justice major Andrew Fisher wishes Facebook would stop trying to reinvent itself.

“As the old adage goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fi x it. It was okay before but has gotten worse with each update,” Fisher said.

Sophomore communications major Emily Kaplan echoed that sentiment, saying, “It’s been a little annoying, but I remember I felt that way the last time

they changed Facebook. I’m sure after a while I’ll get used to it.”

In the Facebook blog, Zuckerberg said interface redesign decisions will not be subject to a user vote, because “Facebook is still in the business of introducing new and therefore potentially disruptive technologies. This can mean that our users periodically experience adjustments to new products as they become familiar with them, and before becoming enthusiastic supporters.”

Not all students believe the update won’t stop them from frequently visiting the site. Felicia Garay-Stanton, a freshman journalism major, gave up Facebook for Lent because she thought she spent too much time on the site. After seeing others use the new Facebook layout, she thinks the change will cause her to visit the site less.

“Without Facebook, I feel like I have more free time,” Garay-Stanton said. “I don’t like how it looks now. Why would I spend my time looking at something that’s no longer visually appealing to me?”

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5SGI election garners high voter turnout

JEFF NASHThe DiamondbackVia UWire

The ever-changing Facebook upsets students

BRYAN BURTNERStaff Writer

TORCH PHOTO/LAURA AMATO

Over 1,600 students voted in this year’s SGI election, a 27 percent increase from last year’s race.

Can’t get enough TORCH news? Visit our Web site for online

exclusives.torchonline.com

GREGORY LEPORATIEditor-in-Chief

CHRISTINA HEISERManaging Editor

EVERTON BAILEYNews Editor

PASQUALE PASSARELLAEditorial Page Editor

Illustrator’s Corner:

Two-way streetLook closely at your tuition bill

the next time it arrives and you’ll be sure to notice, if you haven’t already, a few small fees in addition to the major cost of tuition.

One of those fees, a $95 “Under-graduate Student Government Activity Fee” paid each semester, sparks par-ticular attention as it may cause you to wonder what this fee is used for and why it exists.

According to the St. John’s Uni-versity Web site, the activity fee is maintained by SGI and used mainly to support student organizations. Further-more, this fee is pre-determined yearly by Student Government, making them responsible and in control of where our $190 a year is going.

This year, according to SGI Vice President, John Kelly, the SGI budget is about $1.2 million. Naturally, this is an extremely large sum of money to be put in the hands of undergraduate students. This only reinforces the need to hold Student Government accountable for the money they allocate and spend.

With Student Government elections complete, there will be some new faces running things at the SGI offi ce. Now is the perfect time for students to start paying attention to where their $190 a year is going.

Getting involved can be as easy as attending a Student Government meet-ing, getting to know who the mem-bers of the new executive board are, and asking what their plans are for next year. Most importantly, students should communicate their concerns or opinions to the elected offi cials who have been placed in charge of these fi nancial matters.

To learn specifi cally how their ac-tivity fee is being used, students can examine the budget reports and trans-action detail reports that are published

quarterly by the SGI treasurer. This in-formation is public and can be obtained from the SGI offi ce in the UC.

The leaders of student organiza-tions interact with SGI and hear about its budget on a regular basis. But stu-dents who are more casual members of groups and are not as involved may not be aware that they can still obtain fi nan-cial records and attend meetings to fi nd out where SGI is spending our money.

But keeping students informed is a two-way street. While SGI does make its records available to the public upon request, perhaps making them viewable online could be a better way of making students aware of how easy it is to see where their money is being spent.

Additionally, a member of SGI (treasurer, most likely) could write a weekly memo to explain and clarify major purchases, in order to make the reports easier to understand for typical students who are not necessarily as in-volved in organizations or in SGI.

As they are now, the budget re-ports fail to provide the average student with enough information about their money, making them almost useless to the student body.

Student Government needs to re-lease budgetary information in a clear, understandable format and make it known to students that such records are available. Otherwise, making it public to the general student body is pointless.

It is important that students take a proactive stance on working with SGI, and also are given the opportunity to do so. The transparency of SGI could greatly improve if it were to make its records more accessible and clear, al-lowing students to hold them more ac-countable and ensuring that students can never say that they have no idea where their “Undergraduate Student Govern-ment Activity Fee” is spent.

Editorial Board LXXXVI

FLAMES OF THE TORCH

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Mail letters to:The TORCH Letters, St. John’sUniversity, 8000 Utopia Pkwy,Jamaica, NY 11439

E-mail letters to:torcheditorials@gmail.com

EDITORIAL POLICY

TO CONTRIBUTE

Editorials are the opinions of the Edito-rial Board of The TORCH. Columns are the opinions of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of The TORCH. Opin-

ions expressed in editorials, columns, letters or cartoons are not necessarily those of the student body, faculty or ad-ministrations of St. John’s University.

Please include your full name, year, and college (or department). Letters have a limit of 350 words and may be edited for content, grammar, or space. Unverifi able or anonymous letters will not be published. All letters are subject to the approval of the Editorial Board of The TORCH.

TORCH ILLUSTRATION/CHRISTOPHER LAUTO

To the Editor:

Let me begin by stating that I loved this week’s edition of the TORCH. I read your pieces about student retention, involvement and your interview with Rev. Harrington and I felt compelled to write to you.

I wear two hats here on campus; I am an RA and the President of the College Democrats chapter here at STJ. As an RA, I have personally seen that the situtation in the residence halls has begun turning people away. If you were to average rent at $500 a month and gas at $3 a gallon, it is cheaper to live off campus than it is to live on.

Also, if you live off campus you get the added perk of not having to live by the strict rules and you do not have to live through the 3 a.m. fi re alarms. As an RA, I hear these complaints all the time and often do not have an answer to provide.

While the Department of Residence Life has been doing an outstanding job with what they have at their disposal, I be-lieve the school needs to work on provid-ing students better incentives to live in the residence halls in order to promote campus pride and a stronger retention rate.

As the President of College Demo-crats, I have issue with your piece on student apathy. This year our organiza-tion has proved that apathy is not the case here on campus.

During the fall, we had meeting atten-dance rates as high as 52 people, and an av-erage over four months at 32. In September we had 17 people standing at tables reg-

istering over 700 STJ students to vote. In freezing temperatures, we managed to pull over 15 students to spend their weekends knocking on doors and making phone calls for assorted candidates during the 2008 election season.

Our cooperative work with the Partici-pate in ‘08 committee brought us a debate with the College Republicans bringing in 300 members of the STJ community, the candidates forum bringing in around 400 people from students, administrators and the surrounding community, and an elec-tion night watch party which, after a lively celebration on the great lawn, brought in a packed Council Hall.

So I must disagree with the notion that students are apathetic. While I agree that there is a shortage of STJ pride, I think refering to the student body as apathetic is erroneous; there’s hope for us yet!

As for a solution, I’m not sure that’s something we can manipulate. Even though the school has spent a ridiculous amount of money on incentives to pull people to the basketball games, more than half the popu-lation still hasn’t attended a single game. If free prizes and money do not attract peo-ple, I am not sure what will. The new UC/AC is great, but keep in mind that this is just a building. The key is reaching out to the people in that building.

Thank you for your time and the work that you do.

Nick RolosonSophomore

St. John’s College

Letters to the Editor

There’s a lot to respect about Duke men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski – three NCAA champi-onships, 10 Final Four appearances and an Olympic gold medal among the highlights.

But when it comes to political state-ments, I can’t say I wholeheartedly agree with him. Take, for example, what he re-cently told the Associated Press about the president’s NCAA selections:

“Somebody said that we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four, and as much as I respect what he’s doing, re-ally, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets.”

Granted, Coach K’s response could have been meant as a cute zing, aimed at gaining laughs more than pointing fi n-gers. But given the coach’s track record (he’s been an outspoken Republican dur-ing his career and even got in trouble in 2002 for hosting an on-campus fund-raiser for senate candidate Elizabeth Dole), I’d wager he was going for more than just a joke.

Coach K, though, is the least of Presi-dent Obama’s worries; he’s just one of a number of conservative voices that have been lambasting Obama lately, criticizing him heavily for his apparent embrace of his celebrity status.

I’ll be the fi rst to admit that there’s

some validity to these claims. Obama is a superstar, and he’s certainly being treated like one. In the last week alone, I saw him on my television screen more than Ryan Seacrest and the Jonas Brothers combined (certainly not a bad thing).

First, Obama popped up on my TV early last week as he broke down his se-lections for the NCAA; the next two days, I saw him giving town hall Q&A ses-sions throughout California; on Thursday night, he became the fi rst sitting president to appear on a late-night talk show when he sat down on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno; and on Sunday, he appeared in an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes, as he discussed how his life has changed since moving into the White House.

Coach K, among countless political pundits and conservative bloggers, has criticized Obama’s recent enjoyment of the media spotlight, saying he should fo-

cus on his actual job and cut out the TV appearances, the NCAA discussions, and the petty back-and-forth at his town hall meetings.

But these critics have missed the point, and perhaps even fail to realize what makes President Obama such an outstanding and dynamic leader.

Let’s face it: Obama has a tough product to sell. Critics have cried “so-cialism” regarding his American Re-covery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which aims to invest hundreds of bil-lions of dollars into the economy, while others have denounced his call to tax 90 percent of bonuses in response to the AIG controversy.

It’s been hard for Obama and his team to pass the type of legislation it would like to, as Republicans in the house and senate have been less than accommodat-ing. Things reached a boiling point in late January when conservative mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh admitted on air that he “hopes Obama fails.”

That type of attitude is precisely what makes it necessary for Obama to con-tinue to sell his product to the American public. His overwhelming charm, cool demeanor, and hilarious impromptu com-ments exude a type of confi dence that the American public needs to see during these rough times.

And it’d be foolish to say that Obama

is somehow “not doing his job” just be-cause he’s taking 10 minutes out of his day to explain his NCAA selections to a few reporters. I’m sure he has a han-dle on the various aspects that go into running the country.

By keeping his face in the nation’s eye, creating a relatable and likeable public image, and going on television and town hall meetings to promote his policies and instill confi dence in an unsure America, President Obama is going above and be-yond to lead this country through diffi cult times.

There’s certainly no reason for him to stay locked up in the oval offi ce for weeks at a time, and he defi nitely wouldn’t be winning any popular support of his poli-cies by doing so.

When all is said and done, I doubt Obama could lead a men’s basketball team to a Final Four, and I’m more than skeptical over whether Coach K could govern the free world.

But when it comes down to both men weighing in on each other’s area of expertise, I’d say Obama beats out the Olympic gold medal winner any day.

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Gregory Leporati is a senior English major. He can be reached at: torcheic@gmail.com

Obama: America’s sweetheart

STUDENTSPARKSWith the offi cial end to the basketball season, what do you

believe should be the fate of Norm Roberts?

Seeing that we were blown out in the Big East Tournament, I say fi re him.

I feel like he should stay and get the team to work harder for next year.

I think he should stay here, especially with Mason, Jr. coming back.

Steve Lang Noah Hicks John Beale

COMPILED BY THOMAS CARNEVALE

Bailout abuse shows need for real, immediate change

In the wake of increasing dis-satisfaction with corporate ex-ecutives for paying themselves millions of dollars in bonuses as their companies receive bil-lions in stimulus money, some folks are taking their frustration to the streets.

On Saturday, The New York Times reported that a motley crew of protestors that included a pastor, an out-of-work steel-worker and about 40 others participated in what they called the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous” bus tour, a day long protest meant to bring the outcry over corporate bonuses to the doors of executives.

The trip, sponsored by a Connecticut labor and commu-

nity group, took participants to two Fairfax, Conn., homes of Douglas Poling and James Haas, both executives for the Ameri-can International Group.

The protestors, greeted by security guards, assembled peaceably and read aloud a let-ter condemning the recent an-nouncement of the payout of $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives before depositing it in the executives’ respective mailboxes and adjourning.

This protest, however, was just a small part of the fallout from the multimillion-dollar AIG bonuses.

This move comes after sev-eral bailout payments from the federal government to improve the health of the company to the tune of $150 billion total, accord-ing to The New York Times.

As could be expected, criti-cism has come out on all fronts

against the company, overtaking the opinion pages of local papers all the way up to the president’s offi ces. But we need more than empty words and individual rep-rimands to solve this problem.

This is a systemic problem that requires a systemic solu-tion. And fortunately, some are already in the works. The down-side is they may not be enough.

While the original stimulus bill passed under former Presi-dent George W. Bush was most-ly hands-off in terms of what was and was not considered an acceptable use of funds, and the more recent bill lacked on the same token, there are options.

Just last week, a bill was pro-posed in the House to tax bonus-es given by bailed out compa-nies to its executives. Naturally, some -- mostly Republicans -- are not big fans, but really, they should reconsider.

As it stands now, the federal government has absolutely no authority to tell bailed companies like AIG not to spend company money on executive bonuses in excess of one-third of the em-ployee’s annual pay. If the bonus payout falls below this level it is perfectly legal and the harsh-est sanction the government can give is a wag of the fi nger.

This bill would allow the government a retroactive out to punish companies receiving fi nancial assistance for using their aid to pad already high executive salaries.

Unfortunately, the bill lacks approval from the White House and will almost certainly die in favor of a watered down over-sight set-up for banks and Wall Street fi rms.

President Obama is look-ing instead to grant the Federal Reserve greater power to track

executive pay rates of publicly traded banks and other fi nan-cial companies. The fi ndings of this increased oversight could then be used to develop fu-ture regulations on executive pay and bonuses.

While this program is a good idea and probably should be implemented, it does nothing to solve the immediate problem. We need something with an im-mediate punch to prevent the abuse of stimulus funds now.

The federal government cur-rently holds 80 percent of AIG’s assets and is pumping billions of our tax dollars into these compa-nies; it should really have some say over how that cash is being spent.

Hopefully, public outrage over the continued abuse of these funds will fi nally prompt Congress and the White House to do something about it.

SEAN REEDRocky Mountain Collegian(Via UWire)

The president’s on-air confi dence is a welcome sight

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The story goes that a somewhat younger Rev. Donald Harrington once stood before the administrators and fac-ulty of St. John’s University and swore that this school would, as long as he was in charge, be a commuter school.

For once, I’m glad that the man went back on his word. St. John’s is a better place because of it. Now, the University must continue on the path it started down 10 years ago, and getting resident stu-dents to actually stay on campus would be a huge step in the right direction.

There’s nothing wrong with an ur-ban college acknowledging that there’s something in its nature that requires it to embrace off-campus housing and its ur-ban surroundings. For places like NYU and Columbia, their locations in the heart of Manhattan demand as much. But St. John’s is different. It is as close in char-acter to those other “urban” universities as Jamaica is to Washington Square.

Ultimately, the University would ob-viously be remiss to neglect one group of students for the benefi t of another. To truly grow, though, St. John’s must fos-ter a residential community that entices students to spend time on campus. Hav-ing a “nice” campus is not enough.

To that end, a modest proposal: bring back the on-campus bar. Please, just for a moment, forget about all the reasons that it will never happen, and think about the many reasons that it should.

For all the causes that Rev. Har-rington lists for the issues with student engagement at St. John’s, it’s pretty easy to see what the real problem is: to the vast majority of resident students, it just isn’t a fun place to be.

On weekend nights, students would rather go to bars off-campus, or even travel to Manhattan (a trek that usually takes about an hour going in, and even longer coming back late at night) to par-take in the night life. On weeknights, many choose to just stay in their rooms.

Rebuilding the on-campus bar (and, believe it or not, one did exist here for many years) would give students an out-let in which they could socialize with fellow students, enjoy themselves, and yes, have a (legal) drink, within the safe confi nes of 8000 Utopia Pkwy.

To the same end, the University could eliminate the “dry campus” status that has hung over the school and its stu-dents for so long, fi nally giving in on the unavoidably illogical rules involving on-campus drinking.

These are simple suggestions, and though the University would surely nev-

er go for such progressive approaches to student engagement, the point is that if we ever wish to raise our long-term student retention rates and our middling academic reputation, we have to give students a real reason to want to spend their nights on campus.

As it is, we ride the fence, striving to sell ourselves on the same shelf as the big time “urban” universities of New York when the product can never be quite the same. If St. John’s ever transcends the dreaded “third tier” label it’s been branded with, it will be on the strength of its status as a truly residential university. We’ll all reap the benefi ts when, sudden-ly, it’s cool to stay on campus.

BRYAN BURTNERStaff Writer

Resident or CommuterCommuter week. They might as well

schedule “Catholic week” in Rome.Commuter week is designed as a

time during the school year to appre-ciate St. John’s commuter students. Apparently it is supposed to be some-thing of a gift, a sort of “hey, we appre-ciate you too” message sent from the school to those poor folk who have to travel every day.

But who is “the school” besides these same poor folk, the ones who make up the vast majority of the student

population?When you consider that commut-

ers make up the majority, then surely the school should be concentrat-ing its efforts mostly on the greatest group of people. Certainly the school serves all students, but as the majority, commuters should expect to receive the most attention.

This is why commuter week is not so much a gift, but a joke. The events are good, and the people that run the program do a fi ne job, but the idea behind it is absurd; one week to con-centrate the school’s efforts on its ma-jority? Shouldn’t “commuter week” be all the time?

Modern St. John’s has been a school that is very interested in increasing its reputation as a residence school. Many of the recent big projects have been in order to increase housing opportunities for out-of-town students. This is great. It is very good to bring in students from all over the country (and even from outside the country) to increase even further the diversity we have on campus. And cer-tainly, additional housing is needed as the demand continues to be high.

But building the school’s residence reputation should not mean shrugging your shoulders at commuters. A recent hot topic at St. John’s is students not feeling engaged. For residence students, engagement should be a given. They live together, they can plan events to-gether, and if there’s “no life” on cam-pus, they have the facilities to change that on their own.

But commuters could use some as-sistance for engagement. Commuters probably will not come to campus on the weekend to attend events, or stick around for late-night events, when they have to catch a bus afterwards.

There is also not much of an envi-ronment for commuters to feel like a community. While the residents have Residence Village and all the facili-ties that come with it, commuters only have primarily classrooms and, perhaps, Marillac cafeteria. Neither of these are ideal situations and neither have spe-cifi cally commuters in mind. In fact, the only area of campus that commuters re-ally share is the parking lot.

Hopefully the new University Cen-ter can solve some of these problems and give commuters a place where they can feel like a part of the community.

The commuter student base is the traditional (and still the majority) St. John’s student. As a group, they shape the school at least as much as the resi-dents and thus, should be shown at least as much appreciation and attention – and not for just one week.

STEPHEN PINTOStaff Writer

Should SJU focus on one to solve its engagement issue?

TORCH ILLUSTRATION/CHRISTOPHER LAUTO

TORCH ILLUSTRATION/KERI DODGE

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Look before you leapTORCH ILLUSTRATION/KATRIN ASTARITA

As the Spring 2009 semester draws to a close, it is time for students to choose their new schedules and classes for next semester. When college students are de-ciding what classes to sign up for, they take into careful consideration the professors they may be choosing. One very helpful tool that many college students use when it comes to this is Ratemyprofessor.com.

This invaluable Web site gives accurate feedback and reviews of professors’ classes from actual students. The site is available to anyone and all of the reviews and comments that students make are anonymous. This allows for students to feel comfortable in making assess-ments about current or former professors.

In addition to anonymity, there is a comment box where students can briefl y write about their experience in a professor’s class. The search database on Ratemy-professor.com is very extensive and has colleges and universities from all across the United States. There are fi ve rating categories on Ratemyprofessor that are scaled from 0 to 5.

The fi rst category is “Easiness,” meaning how

much work is required. For example, if a 15 page pa-per is going to be assigned for that class, a student who has an after-school job may decide that this is too heavy a workload for them and as a result will not take this professor’s class.

Second is “Helpfulness.” This reviews the profes-sor’s approachability and willingness to help a student to understand the material. Next is “Clarity,” which de-scribes the organization of the professor and how knowl-edgeable he or she is in the class subject. The fourth rat-ing category is “Overall Quality,” which is the average of the “Helpfulness” and “Clarity” ratings.

The “Easiness” rating is not included in the “Over-all Quality” rating, so this can assure the student not of the easiness of the class, but that the class is worthwhile to take. The last category is “Rater Interest,” which states whether the student would recommend the pro-fessor to other students and whether or not they would take the class again.

These fi ve categories provide a good evalua-tion of the professors. Some people argue that stu-dents only use Ratemyprofessor.com to fi nd an easy professor, an easy class, and one that requires no thought or work at all. This may be true for some col-lege students, but that is not necessarily the case

for the majority. Some of the most popular professors are not rated

as having easy classes. These classes are often chal-lenging and require students to put in a decent amount of work. Yes, it is much easier to take a class that has a professor who misses class at least once a week and who gives no work whatsoever; this will give the student an easy A. But in the long run, it is more satisfying to take a class that calls for students to think and formulate their own opinions.

According to the site, over 65 percent of the feedback and ratings are positive. This statistic alone shows the va-lidity of Ratemyprofessor.com because there is no reason for students to lie about positive comments if it is anony-mous. The Web site also helps to warn students about any professors who are arrogant, grade unfairly, or are very close-minded in their class discussions. A professor’s poor attitude can affect the learning environment of his students and there is no need for anyone to be subjected to this kind of behavior.

Many St. John’s students already use Ratemyprofes-sor.com when choosing their classes. This is because it is a great tool that allows students to choose the professors they think they will work well with and that they would like to learn from.

RACHEL DOLCEStaff Writer

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UIS only complicates class selection process

The last few months of the academic school year can be diffi cult ones, especially with the fast approaching warmer weather tempting us to swing from study mode into the sum-mer mentality.

It’s hard to believe, but with midterms and spring break al-ready in the rearview mirror, it’s time to start thinking about fi nal exams and wrapping up the academic school year on a positive note.

Another big part of the spring semester is getting organized for the fall, and more specifi -

cally, class registration. Choos-ing the classes that you will be taking next semester is often a stressful and time-consuming process. Students must keep track of major courses, elec-tives, and satisfying their gradu-ation requirements when signing up for classes.

But perhaps the biggest rea-son that class selection is such an aggravation in the fi rst place is the outdated and faulty St. John’s “UIS,” the University In-tranet System.

If St. John’s UIS wasn’t as unreliable and outdated as it is, picking classes wouldn’t cause as many headaches as it does this time of year.

Currently, many students

dislike the illogical format of the Web site and the defective glitches that often occur when using it, making the actual pro-cess of looking up and register-ing for classes a very arduous assignment.

Couple that with the annual task of running around campus trying to obtain a “priority num-ber,” and the entire situation be-comes rather irritating.

Unfortunately, class selection isn’t the only function that takes place on the prehistoric UIS. University payments along with all other fi nancial matters that lead to the next semester takes place on UIS, complicating yet another part of registration.

Due to the poor design and

terrible user interface, many students complain about experi-encing some kind of complica-tion or setback while using UIS, and rightfully so. The entire St. John’s intranet system is a set-back in itself and a major source of inconvenience to the typical St. John’s student.

As class registration is one of the more important tasks a col-lege student has, it makes sense that the process used should be an easy one that doesn’t cause extra aggravation.

With 15,000 students at St. John’s, it’s easy to under-stand the necessity of organi-zation and the diffi culty in the task of accounting for a student body of that size.

The University seems to understand this, but in the pro-cess is failing to meet students halfway. Is it too unreasonable for the UIS to be updated and transformed in the wake of the new St. John’s Web site and e-mailing system?

Should St. John’s students forevermore expect to have to tolerate inconvenience, when easier solutions exist?

JUSTIN THRIFTStaff Writer

Ratemyprofessor.com lets students know what to expect

TORCHCOMICS25 March 2009

Geek! Zach Davino

I Can’t Draw Alex Reyes

Ethel & Wilfred Christopher Lauto

Short Shorts Tim Olwell

MORECOMICS25 March 2009

Controlled Chaos Catharine Corrigan

Quarter-Life Crisis Preston Palmer

Thanks For the Reminder! Katrin Astarita

Cloister Matt Brown

Writers welcome.Photographers, graphic de-signers, cartoonists, editors, and business people welcome too.

If you have an interest, the TORCH has a role for you.Come visit us for our next meeting of the semester, on March 31 during Common Hour in the UC room 29.

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Visually stimulating and 1980s nostalgia inducing, Adventureland contains all the intrigue of high school drama surrounding people who are older and quicker-witted than the average 10th grader. The fi lm is about a

recent college graduate, James Brennan, played by Jesse Eisenberg, whose plans to summer in Europe are ruined when his parents experience a severe fi nancial down grade. Instead of exploring the streets of Paris, Brennan is stuck working at an amusement park in order to pay for his graduate school expenses in the fall. Through this experience, Brennan encounters several interesting people and quickly falls for Kristen Stewart’s character, Emily, as hilarity ensues.

The typical amusement park faux pas are present including a spoof on the constantly repetitive play of popular songs and the age old question of whether or not carnival food is harmful to your digestive system, giving the audience insight into the hilarious reality of the theme park lifestyle. The protagonist James Brennan is feeble, quirky and kind of pretentious, once remarking that he does not celebrate Independence Day but instead looks forward to Bastille Day, a blatant and pompous allusion to the popular uprising of peasants during the French Revolution. Otherwise likable, this dynamic character’s interactions with his coworkers are humorously facilitated by illegal drugs that he receives in the beginning of the fi lm which subsequently serve as a social lubricant between the

“carnies” and himself.Contrastingly, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are a

dynamically hilarious duo. Famous for their stints on Saturday Night Live, the two actors play off of one another’s completely opposing characters with such accuracy and precision that the audience cannot help but be entertained by their idiosyncrasy. The two sketch comics seem to in fact steal every scene that they are in. Any slapstick-esque vulgar comedy is dispersed sporadically within the witty and intelligent script by Mottola, in this semi-autobiographical project about his own experiences working at a Long Island amusement park of the same name.

Moved to suburban Pennsylvania, this movie contains some surprisingly dark moments through which the humanity of each character becomes abundantly clear as they grow to three dimensional beings without the veil of comedy surrounding them. Mottola has a knack for making his characters seem relatable and real, which is evidenced in the recent Superbad and once again within Adventureland. Also, the irony and humor derived from writer/director Greg Mottola’s choice of quick scene changes and forward thinking in direction could defi nitely be categorized as new and inventive.

As the pet project of the acclaimed director of Superbad, Greg Mottola, Adventureland proves to be an intense and hilarious blend of comedy and sincerity leaving the audience with a fi nal project worth watching. As writer and director of Adventureland, Mottola had a clear image of what he wanted from the fi lm. Mottola’s vision combined with the on-screen antics of Saturday Night Live cast members, promising young actors such as Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, and an unconventional setting all work to create a crowd pleasing experience complete with light-hearted laughter and an atypical love story.

LIZ WALSHStaff Writer

Not Another Teenage Movie

Who Says a Woman Can’t Wear the Pants?

SUPERBAD DIRECTOR GREG MOTTOLA IS SUCCESSFUL WITH HIS NEW MOVIE, ADVENTURELAND

INFERNO EXPLORES THE IMPORTANCE OF DYNAMIC FEMALE CHARACTERS IN TODAY’S COMEDIES

PHOTO COURTESY OF AVAILABLEIMAGES.COM

ADVENTURELAND- OUT OF 4 STARS

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While the newly coined term “bromance” is silly, it is refreshing to see movies concerned with the trials and tribula-tions of male friendship. That is why I enjoyed the recently opened fl ick, I

Love You Man, so much. But unlike other similar fi lms such as Knocked Up, the characters in I Love You Man are more well-rounded and believable; the friendships, especially between co-stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, seem real and natural.

What surprised me even more, however, is how strong the female characters are in this fi lm. Remem-ber how Katherine Heigl, the star of Knocked Up, com-plained that the movie she headlined was sexist?

“It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and up-tight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys,” she told Vanity Fair in December 2007.

Heigl’s statement about Knocked Up is warranted, but luckily, this is not the case for I Love You Man. The two main female characters, Zooey and Denise (Rashida Jones and Jaime Pressly) are both portrayed very posi-tively; they are funny and in control of their lives and of their romantic relationships.

My favorite aspect of the fi lm, actually, is the rela-tionship between Denise and her husband Barry (Jon Favreau), who despite their love, constantly argue with each other.

“They’re madly in love with each other, but there’s a fi ght of whose gonna wear the pants,” Jaime Pressly said

about their relationship at a press junket held on March 8. “They both want to wear the pants, they both want to be in control and they both are extremely strong-minded and strong-willed individuals. And at the end of the day, she wears the pants.”

Zooey doesn’t put up with Peter’s (Rudd) shenani-gans, either—she leaves him and moves in with Denise and Barry when he starts spending more and more time with his new best friend. Peter obviously realizes he was a moron and ditches his “bro-mantic” partner, Sydney, (Jason Segel) in order to save his relationship with his fi ancé.

It is a really nice change of pace in a comedy of this vein to have the main female character stand up for her-self and not put up with her fi ancé’s ridiculous behavior. Even better, the guy actually realizes he did something wrong and apologizes for it.

Jones even said that what fi rst attracted her to this project was the fact that Zooey is “a well-rounded char-acter” with a “strong point of view.”

She noted that that director and screenwriter, John Hamburg “clearly really likes women and has a lot of respect for them.”

After interviewing Hamburg at the press junket, it is apparent that he does have a lot of admiration for women.

“To me, I don’t think men/women, I just think peo-ple,” he said. “I think women are just as funny, if not funnier than men.”

Maybe what makes these female characters seem so real is that Hamburg didn’t claim to be an expert about women while making the fi lm. He spoke about one scene in particular—a “girls’ night,” with Zooey, Denise and their group of girl friends and how he let the female actresses guide that scene.

“They really fi ll in the blanks, because I don’t pre-tend to know how women speak,” he said. “I have an idea and I listen in on a lot of people’s conversations, but still, they have their own life experience, and I would say ‘guys, what would you really talk about?’”

When I fi rst walked in to the screening of I Love You Man, I was expecting a typical guy comedy that wouldn’t really pay much attention to the female characters. But I was pleasantly surprised that the fi lm didn’t take that path; it is refreshing to see women portrayed as not only strong-willed, but funny and fun-loving, too.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CELEBRITYWONDER.COMPHOTO COURTESY OF ALLMOVIEPHOTO.COM

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Drama? Comedy? Dramedy?

An Unforgettable Experience

NOTEWORTHY ACTING SKILLS MAKE UP FOR THE IDENTITY ISSUES THAT CONFUSE AUDIENCES

RYAN LESLIE AND OPENING BAND FRANCIS AND THE LIGHTS PLEASE AUDIENCES ON MARCH 12

ALEX QUEVEDOStaff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF LATIMESBLOGS.LATIMES.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELECTRICITYANDLUST.WORDPRESS.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALEX BRACETTI

SUNSHINE CLEANING- OUT OF 4 STARS

Sunshine Cleaning is a bit of an odd fi lm, but having said that right off the bat is not necessarily a bad thing. With minimal research prior to viewing, the fi lm seems to be a comedy dabbling in some spots of

drama. Considering the fi lm’s producers were the ones behind Little Miss Sunshine, it comes as no surprise that Sunshine Cleaning follows a similar path. But behind a fi rst-time writer, it sways back and forth in wanting to be a comedy or a drama.

The lives of Rose (Amy Adams) and her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) have seen almost nothing but drama. Rose works for a cleaning service, left alone to raise her slightly-troubled son Oscar while sneaking around with a married cop (Steve Zahn).

Norah is the not-quite-fully-matured type. Living at home with their dad (Alan Arkin), she blows off her job, does what she wants and plays the role of Oscar’s hip aunt. But after being fi red from her job, she has no other option than to hop on board Rose’s idea to start a crime scene clean-up service (Sunshine Cleaning) for some quick money.

Of course, their experiences set up the comedic aspects well enough: two dramatically different sisters with no clue of what they are doing trying to clean up crime scenes. But the girls’ troubles soon start to rise. It is quickly introduced that Norah (more so than Rose) has suppressed issues with their mother, while Rose deals with her awkward romance.

The main issue with the fi lm, as mentioned, is its identity issues. Does it want to primarily be a comedy? Or does it want to be drama sprinkled with some comedy? There is never one clear answer, perhaps stemming from this being the writer’s fi rst script (fi rst released script, at least). Just when the fi lm starts to go on a funny streak, something pulls it

right back down to a saddened level, and vice versa. Its sadness might put some viewers off. Sunshine

Cleaning has its share of sad moments but perhaps there are too many for some. It certainly adds depth to the fi lm, but it might be over doing it.

Regardless, the fi lm is boosted by superb acting. Amy Adams does a great job playing the role of a weathered single-mother struggling to stay happy. Better yet, she’s convincing. But she is easily overshadowed by Emily Blunt, who does an even better job with an oddball character. She struggles with more psychological issues than Rose and Blunt nails essentially every situation she’s in. Even in some of the more drab situations, she does a solid job making them a little more interesting. The only knock? Adams and Blunt’s natural beauty stick out a bit much against the background of this indie fi lm. But that’s not really a bad thing, is it?

While the fi lm isn’t great, it succeeds in telling an interesting story about sisters dealing with their struggles. Nothing is ever really left open-ended, even if some sub-storylines are quickly wrapped up. Overall, it’s a solid fi lm with some identity issues that is worth checking out.

A repeat sold out venue at SOB’s wel-comed Ryan Leslie with open arms. On Thursday, March 12, a fairly young and stylish crowd included a handful of couples, single women, on-the-

prowl-men and hardcore male fans reciting lyrics to every song.

“I love his music. He has all the aspects of an R&B Kanye,” said Terrence Liverpool, an audi-ence member.

Also, for the crowd’s Francis and the Lights. Picture a quirky-looking Elvis with a live band, alongside the infamous electric keyboard theme of the night to accompany the sound. The lights dimmed and the audience grew excited.

For the love of music, the crowd managed to bob their heads and applaud the band for their vibrant identity. Francis and the Lights recently gained the attention of Kanye West, appearing on his personal blog.

At the time when the feature entertainer was to hit the stage, the crew was still setting up. Blame it on the vision of the saxophone, trumpet, keyboard and electric guitar to claim your immediate atten-tion and beg one to believe: This was an interesting show.

And it was with Free, the former 106 & Park host, current Ed Lover morning show cast on POWER 105,to properly introduce the “one man groove,” Mr. Ryan Leslie. At 9:40 p.m, he took center stage. Leslie wore a green zip-up, fresh white tee, gold piece and stunner shades. He fi rst fed the crowd with “Gibberish,” a song from his newly released self-titled album, Ryan Leslie.

Paying tribute to his fans, Leslie sang a ballad that gave thanks to his fans for allowing him to do his “dream job” since he was a “young boy.” He continued with “Quicksand” and more songs off his album such as “You’re Fly”, “Diamond Girl,” and “Valentine.” Leslie even performed “Irina” with a synthesizer while on stage. Talk about multi-tasking, as if the keyboard wasn’t enough. A product of an Ivy-league education? Not only did every song play off this smooth, relationship themed plot, but the live band com-pletely shut down the stage. From the drum solo to the electric guitar solo, every instrument was on point. To the crowd’s surprise, a quartet of vio-linists came on stage to co-perform “Addiction.” The surprises didn’t stop there. Leslie performed “Zodiac,” a single not on his album, reminiscent of a more up-tempo, male version of “Signs” by Beyonce.

The clock hit 10:10, which summoned his Bill-board chart-topping label mate Lloyd to hit the stage and harmonize. But he decided to preview only a tid-bit of songs off his latest album Lessons in Love such as “Girls Around the World.”

The band playfully took center stage again without a complaint, as the crowd steadily bobbed their heads in appreciation. Then it was time for one of Leslie’s “most personal songs.” A familiar kick-drum pattern, sneaky synthesizer and catchy lyrics compromised “How It Was Supposed to Be.” Leslie was completely in the zone; he even broke his gold piece.

Still, it was an applause worthy ending for the “Ryan Leslie Experience.” His stage performance is as sweet as his talent on the production side. Because the trance begins once the beat rocks, the not-yet-mainstream songs deserve attention. The quality of his singing may be lagging as he defends a title for a top R&B release of this year, but the pleasure of his sound is hard to forget.

MELISSA ENAJEStaff Writer

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Sometimes all a movie needs to attract an audience is charm, which The Great Buck Howard accomplishes thanks to its story and cast.

Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks’ son, plays Troy Gabel, a man who doesn’t know what to do with his life. He has recently dropped out of law school and isn’t sure how he is going to make ends meet. By answering an ad in the newspaper, Troy fi nds himself the road manager for the Great Buck Howard, a down-and-out mentalist/magician played by John Malkovich.

As Troy travels with Buck to small venues in small towns across the country, he begins to admire Buck and his corny act. Troy has to deal with Buck’s diva qualities and anger, but he realizes that Buck does offer something truly genuine to his audiences—the hope that magic does truly exist in this world. Troy is particularly in awe of Buck’s fi nale, in which Buck never fails to fi nd his performance fee that has been hidden in the audience.

In an attempt to boost his career, Buck plans to unveil a new trick in Cincinnati, in which he will put a room full of people asleep at once in front of the media. Buck hires a famous New York publicist to manage the publicity for his event, but ends up with a replacement. Valerie, played by Emily Blunt, hates working for Buck and does not see why Troy still works for him. However, Valerie and Troy hit it off, and Valerie succeeds in getting Buck his publicity.

Buck completes the trick but all of the reporters

rush away to cover a bigger news story—Jerry Springer has been in a car crash. When Buck discovers that the reporters left, he instantly blames Valerie. Valerie decides to quit and give Buck the magazine article on him that shows just how much of a has-been he actually is. The shock from the article in combination with the exhaustion from the performance causes Buck to collapse.

At the hospital, Troy realizes that he is all Buck has, which helps him understand why he can’t quit this job just yet. And Buck realizes that his career is really over. However, the media did cover the event, and suddenly Buck is an immediate celebrity. His career takes off and he eventually lands a show in Las Vegas. Yet tragedy strikes and Buck’s career crashes as quickly as it resurged.

Eventually Troy learns that Buck has started doing his old show at his old venues again. Troy goes to visit him, to learn exactly what happened in Vegas. He watches Buck’s show for the fi rst time, and he understands that Buck does truly represent the magic, no matter what happens.

Overall the plot of the movie is rather predictable, but sweet. Hanks is surprisingly convincing and charming in his role and Malkovich is spot on as usual. The supporting cast was also very good, particularly Blunt and Steve Zahn who plays a bumbling driver. Additionally, the movie has several amusing cameos by famous talk show hosts including Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien, and Jay Leno.

However, the appearance of Tom Hanks as Troy’s father seems a little unnecessary. Instead of conveying the plot of the story, all this aspect of the fi lm seems to do is emphasize that Tom is Colin’s father. It is diffi cult to believe the scenes between Tom and Colin because all that seems to matter is how they are related in reality too.

Yet, the charm of the movie makes up for the predictability and slightly amateurish script. For audiences who want a sweet and fun escape from reality, The Great Buck Howard is a wonderful choice.

SARA RHODESLayout Editor

THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD- OUT OF 4 STARS

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PHOTO COURTESY OF COLLIDER.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF ACESHOWBIZ.COM

Charming - Just Like MagicTHE GREAT BUCK HOWARD ENGAGES AUDIENCES, PROVING THAT NOBODY IS TOO OLD FOR MAGIC

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Writers welcome.

If you have an interest, the TORCH has a role for you.Come visit us for our next meeting of the semester, on March 31 during Common Hour in the UC room 29.

Everybody has a secret, ranging from small things like dancing around in your underwear when no one is around to dark ones that can wreak havoc on a person’s life.

Frank Warren, possibly the most trusted stranger in the world, started asking people to share their secrets with him fi ve years ago.

Warren began an art exhibit by pass-ing out blank postcards on the streets of Washington D.C.

He asked people to share a secret, and mail it back to him at his home ad-dress. The secrets haven’t stopped com-ing ever since.

Four books, numerous art exhibits, and a world-wide blog later, PostSecret has become part of everyday popular culture.

After launching this phenomenon, Warren now travels around the country speaking at various engagements, in-cluding college campuses.

Speaking at over 25 colleges this year alone, Warren gives insight about why he created PostSecret.

However, getting Warren to visit the St. John’s campus was not an easy task.

Seniors Olivia Hartle, Alexander Shalan and Ben Liss (who have been known as the “dream team” of this event) campaigned to bring Warren and his secrets to St. John’s in September 2008.

“Initially, we were told that it was too expensive to bring Frank Warren here,” said Hartle.

Hartle, Shalan and Liss then went to Mary Pelkowski, director of Leadership Development, and pitched the idea.

After coming up with all of the de-tails and costs, Pelkowski agreed to in-vite Warren to St. John’s.

The students created a Facebook group called “I’d see Frank War-ren if he spoke at St. John’s,” which gained 245 members.

After raising the $12,000 to pay for the speaking fee and accommodations,

it was set that Warren would be on the line-up to speak at the Queens’ campus in Spring 2009.

“There was a major advertising push to get the word out about the event,” said Hartle.

Frank Warren fi nally came to St. John’s, speaking to an eager audience in Marillac Auditorium on March 19.

“My name is Frank Warren and I collect secrets,” was how Warren intro-duced his lecture, making the audience comfortable.

He went on to talk about how secrets were connected to feelings, which can affect a person greatly.

“Secrets are the kernel of knowledge that we can learn from,” said Warren.

He also shared his experience re-ceiving various items along with secrets, including hotel keys, fruit and a bag of coffee.

The big emphasis of Warren’s lec-ture was how it takes courage to share a secret, which could in turn change someone else’s.

“The act of sharing secrets is trans-forming,” said Warren.

Warren himself has found a sense of liberation by taking part in this ongoing project, through experiencing complete strangers’ secrets.

“The courage of strangers has showed me made me realize that I could deal with my own secrets while sharing their own,” he said.

In this fi rst book, Warren wrote one of his secrets to put inside of it. At the end of the lecture, he shared it with the surprised audience.

The event created much anticipation for students, in which more than 500 free tickets were given out.

Students began lining up outside of the door an hour before the event even began.

“I hope students are aware and relate to themselves, while sharing a common bond,” said Pelkowski.

After Warren was fi nished speaking, students were encouraged to ask ques-tions, which prompted several students to even share their own secrets.

“St. John’s students are awesome. They have courage and trusting,” said Warren.

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PATRICE BENDIGFeatures Editor

PostSecret creator reveals idea behind his popular blog and books

secrets

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Dear Devil’s Advocate, My girlfriend always hates March because I get all

into March Madness and just watch the NCAA Basket-ball Tournament.

She says that I ignore her. So, this year I encouraged her to fi ll out her own bracket and have a friendly com-petition with me.

It started out great. We were having fun watching the games together. The only problem is that now she is beating me!

She has more teams correct in her bracket than I have in mine and she keeps holding it over my head. It’s starting to get annoying and I wish I had never tried to share my love of March Madness with her.

What should I do? Sincerely, Miffed Matthew

Dear Matthew, Are you telling me that your girlfriend, who knows

next to nothing about sports, is beating you in the NCAA Tournament bracket competition? That’s ludicrous. It is unbelievable. One might call it madness, perhaps.

It probably makes you feel like less of a man. You probably feel as if she is invading your private sanctu-ary.

You might even feel insulted by the fact that this girl can just waltz right up and be better at something that you have been doing your whole life.

So, what should you do? You should do the exact same thing to her.

Figure out what her favorite thing to do in the world is, and then do it yourself, except better.

See how she likes it. It should sound like this:

“Oh, you went shopping today and got a great deal on a designer purse? Yeah, well guess what, I went shopping today and got an even better deal on a pair of shoes!”

The downside is that you will have to do some girly stuff, but the upside is that she gets a taste of her own medicine. Sometimes you must make some sacrifi ces in order to get your point across.

Of course, this whole plan does have the potential to backfi re.

She might be all happy and excited that you like to do girly stuff. If that happens, then she will insist that the two of you do stuff together every weekend.

So, maybe you should just do that. Be happy that she is starting to like watching games with you, even if she does have a better bracket than you.

Maybe you can make it a routine thing. Consider yourself lucky that you have such a cool girlfriend.

Sincerely,

Devil’s Advocate Dear Devil’s Advocate,

I saw Frank Warren talk about his PostSecret proj-ect the other day on campus and it inspired me to come clean with some secrets about myself to my boyfriend.

My secret is I cheated on him almost a year ago. It was just a one-time thing and hasn’t happened

since. I fi gured my honesty might bring us closer together,

but it didn’t. He broke up with me on the spot. Now I am alone and sad. I thought telling the secret

would be like getting a weight lifted off my shoulders, but it wasn’t. It just hurt both me and him.

Do you think I did the right thing? And do you think there is anything I can do to win him back?

Sincerely, Secretless Shana

Dear Shana, I love PostSecret. There is something nice about

reading other people’s deepest secrets. It always makes me think to myself, “Okay, well at least my life isn’t sad enough that I have to anonymously tell millions of strangers my inner most regrets in order to feel better about myself.”

Now, on to your questions. Do I think you did the right thing? No. The right thing would have been to not cheat on him.

The right thing would have been to tell him the truth immediately after it happened. The right thing would have been to not lie to him for a year. You messed up big time.

Can you win him back? I doubt it. He might come back to you and be in a relationship again, but it won’t be the same.

No matter how much time passes, there will always be a seed of doubt in his mind.

This probably is not what you want to hear, but it is probably better for both of you just to move on with your lives.

But I have a more important piece of advice for you, right now. If you are still feeling sad and alone, remem-ber that there is always someone who has it worse than you.

There are people with real problems out there: can-cer, war, addiction, and homelessness. Be glad you don’t have to deal with those.

You made you bed, now you must lie in it.

Sincerely, Devil’s Advocate

New York is known for its bagels, cheesecake and pizza, but certainly not this delightful dish. This simple meal is just strips of steak fried to per-fection in a matter of minutes, and is easy enough for anyone to make.

Don’t shy away from this idea if you’re a fi rst time cook. Fried food is an easy task, as long as you watch the temperature of the stove. You will be a pro in no time, and will move on to other fried foods, such as chicken fi ngers.

All you’ll need to make these are some strips of steak, fl our, milk, cooking oil, a little salt and your preferred dipping sauce; A1 and barbecue sauce are highly recommended.

This treat may throw people through a loop at fi rst, but explain to them this is a unique dish. It is a treat that has that red meat fl avor of tender steak, but also has the crispy, fl aky taste of fried foods.

Since the weather is starting to get warmer, bring these tasty treats to your next barbeque or picnic gathering.

These are also great to impress a girl or guy you are pursing. Instead of making the normal pasta and salad dinner, fry up some steak fries and whip up some salad. This will not only fi ll up your date, but will showcase your knowledge of recipes.

While these probably won’t kick fried chicken out of anyone’s diet, they are certainly good for a change of pace.

Steak with a special twistMARK MCDONALDStaff Writer

What You’ll Need:

-Bowl of flour

-Bowl of milk

-Salt

-Steak strips

-Vegetable oil/Crisco

-Pan

What To Do:

-Mix some salt into the flour.

-Dip the strips of steak into the flour.

-Dip the strips in the milk.

-Dip the strips in the flour once more.

-Pour the oil into the pan.

-Put the strips in the pan and fry them until they are golden brown.

In these economic times, help has proved itself hard to come by, but the St. Johns community is there to aid local area mothers.

Jane Paley, assistant professor of Public Relations, teaches a class specifi cally to help those less fortunate. Her Public Relations Campaign class, which consists of all females, is helping to raise support for “Momma’s House,” a group home in Long Island. The class is holding a drive to collect badly-needed supplies for babies and their mothers.

“The Momma’s House girls are dedicated mothers with dreams and goals to be successful in life, so as a class of all girls, we want to try and make their lives a little easier and to recognize their efforts and determination to their kids, and dreams,” said Angela Virviescas, a junior.

Momma’s House is actually four group homes accommodating 17 mothers and their babies.

These young ladies, despite harsh circumstances, are continuing their educations or vocational trainings, which

were halted by early pregnancy. MetroCards have already been donated to the women for convenient travel to and from school or work.

“The purpose of this initiative is to support the mission of the University which is to help those

in greatest need,” said Paley. The class is working with

Academic Service Learning staff as well. Academic Service Learning allows students to apply the principles they learn in class to better the community.

The Momma’s Lil’ Helpers Baby Drive will accept donations of paper goods, household supplies and toiletries. Faculty, administrators and students are asked for things such as linens, crib sheets and diapers.

Students can easily pick up extras that they would normally buy for their own use.

“We know these items are easy to contribute,” Paley explained.

At the end of April, the class will host a lunch reception for the mothers in celebration of Mother’s Day. The moms in attendance with their babies will receive gifts to pamper themselves.

Donation boxes dispersed throughout the campus will remain up until April 21.

They are located in the Offi ce of Residence life along with RA offi ces of all the residence halls, Campus Ministry in Marrillac Terrace, Community Relations on the fi rst fl oor of Newman Hall and the Deans’ Offi ce on the fi rst and third fl oors of Bent Hall.

SHALIA ALTIDORContributing Writer

Students are holding a drive to help unwed mothers who are in need of supplies

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Facts about Momma’s House

-Momma’s House provides a home for girls aged 17-21.

- Offers daycare for babies while mothers focus on vocational and educational goals.

-Provides mothers with life skills such as food preparation, fi nancial literacy and bud-geting, domestic violence and even yoga.

-Momma’s House fi rst began in 1986.

-Momma’s House is funded through various organizations, foundations and corporations.

-Shoppers can help raise money for Mom-ma’s House by shopping online at iGive.com and GoodShop.com. A percentage of the profi ts go to the foundation.

-Momma’s Lil’ Helpers Baby Drive will be collecting items such as toilet paper, tooth-paste, shower gel, dish soap, baby wipes, linens, etc.

-Visit www.MommasHouse.org to fi nd out more ways you can help the mothers and babies.

Can’t get enough TORCH features?

Visit our Web site for online exclusives.

torchonline.com

Writers welcome.Photographers, graphic designers, cartoonists, editors, and businesspeople welcome too.

If you have an interest, the TORCH has a role for you.Come visit us for our next meeting of the semester, on March 31 during Common Hour in the UC room 29.

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John’s University

Storm have a habit of fast starts

The Red Storm baseball team can get used to this pattern.

For the past two years, St. John’s has claimed the Big East regular season crown, perhaps thanks to hot starts in the confer-ence. They are at it again. Over the weekend, the Storm swept the Big East opening series at home against Villanova with 19-7, 3-2 and 10-3 victories.

“From the start of the series, we look to win at home and get two out of three no matter what,” catcher Danny Benedetti said. “If you win three, it’s defi nitely going to add up in the end.”

In the series’ fi nal game, it was Benedetti who produced the separation runs that lead to the win and the sweep. In the eighth inning with a slim 4-3 lead, the catcher looked for a ball to drive. He got his fastball and de-livered a two-run RBI single up the middle.

Beside his offensive respon-sibilities, Benedetti has also been charged with the task of guiding the staff’s young pitchers during the game. He said there is a lot of talent, especially in the fresh-man class, but sometimes they lose the strike zone.

“My job is to just calm them down and get them back to where they started,” he said. “I just need to be a positive role model for them.”

Tim Morris continued to lead the Red Storm at the plate, com-ing through with another pro-ductive stretch of at-bats. The junior earned the Big East Player of the Week award after batting .600 (12-for-20) with a homerun and eight RBIs. Morris opened the season with an 11-game hit-ting streak and has hit safely in 17 of 18 games, while adding 12 multi-hit games and six multi-RBI games.

There were many heroes to salute during St. John’s 32-run weekend. Head coach Ed Blank-meyer won’t have to worry about young pitchers if he can count on offensive production like this every weekend.

“It was a team effort,” Blank-meyer said.

“Anytime you can put up a big number changes the com-plexion of the game. Those guys

did a great job.”In the fi rst game of the se-

ries, Brian Kemp went 5-for-5, Carlos Del Rosario belted four doubles and Jimmy Parque had four RBIs.

There wasn’t nearly as much offense in the second game, but the runs were the most dramatic of this young season.

Locked in a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth with two

strikes, Del Rosario looked to bring Tim Morris home from third. At the end of a hard-fought at-bat, he blooped a single into left fi eld, giving the Storm the lead.

Ryan Cole picked up the win after striking out one and throwing two innings of hitless baseball.

Despite some of the trepida-tion over the starting pitchers,

Blankmeyer said the bullpen got the job done in St. John’s three wins over the weekend. The 3-2 victory on Saturday marked the 14th-year head coach’s 450th ca-reer win.

“It fi rst starts with pitching,” Blankmeyer said. “We need Nick [Cenatiempo], we need Ryan [Cole], we need the back end of that bullpen. That was the difference in this series.”

MATT CHOQUETTEChief Copy Editor

TORCH PHOTO/LAURA AMATO

Sophomore infi elder Greg Hopkins drove in three RBIs off two hits in the Red Storm’s series opener against Villanova.

Johnnies cross the plate 32 times in three-game weekend sweep of Villanova

Lehigh’s last-second goal downs SJU lacrosse Everyone at DaSilva Memorial Field

was ready to celebrate a Red Storm victo-ry Saturday, but Lehigh’s Ricky Cornetta spoiled the celebration and sent the game into overtime with one second left.

Overtime would belong to the Moun-tain Hawks, as a turnover by the Red Storm would end up in the winning sud-den death goal by Lehigh’s Brian Biene-mann to top the Red Storm, 10-9.

“I don’t think it was our best effort, but I think they [Lehigh] had a lot to do with it,” head coach Jason Miller said. “They’re a great lacrosse team, they caused problems for us. In a close game, every possession counts.”

Miller’s squad got off to a very slug-gish start, as Lehigh went up 4-0 in the fi rst quarter.

Harry Kutner would be the fi rst to strike for the Red Storm (5-2) as he found the net after rolling around the crease and fi ring in a lefty shot.

After another Lehigh goal, the Red Storm fi red back with three unanswered goals to make the score 5-4, two of them coming from Kutner and one from se-nior Trevor Michaelsen off a feed from Drew Schanen.

The fourth quarter of the game, would

prove to be the main event of the after-noon as St. John’s and Lehigh put on a back-and-forth style show.

Kutner was spectacular again as he opened up the fourth quarter with a div-ing goal, which he injured his head in the process.

Without Kutner, other members of the Red Storm would have to step up and they did as Drew Schanen found Bobby Fitton to score at the 10:29 mark.

Then rookie Carl Iacona would score to tie the score at 7-7.

Malcolm Miles netted the go-ahead goal at the 6:11 mark, only to be answered by Lehigh’s star Ricky Cornetta, brother to sophomore defender Carlin Cornetta.

With less than two minutes left in the game against Lehigh, Kutner went out and did his best Willis Reed impression.

After scoring his fi fth goal of the game and getting injured in the process, Kutner came back to score a goal off a beautiful feed from Malcolm Miles with a 1:13 left to put the Red Storm ahead of the Moun-tain Hawks, 9-8.

Kutner led the Red Storm with fi ve goals, while Schanen had a team high two assists.

Junior goalie Gavin Buckley fi nished the game with ten saves.

Kutner, who was recently named the ECAC Player of the Week said, “We dug ourselves in a hole, we played too much defense in the fi rst half. We fought hard in the second half, but it was too little too late.”

The Red Storm return to action against Rutgers at the Lacrosse Day of Champi-ons this Saturday at noon in Manhasset.

KATIE BECKMANNStaff Writer

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Should he stay BUYthe

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What about that other basketball team?

A statiscal argument against Norm Roberts

Anthony Morreale2

I have a suggestion for St. John’s Uni-versity: pay attention to the women’s bas-ketball team for once.

Unlike many of my opinions, this is not one that I am preaching from an en-lightened pulpit. I know that overlook-ing the women’s hoops team is easy and something that I am often guilty of. This space is rarely reserved for issues con-cerning the women of St. John’s basket-ball and I will even admit to having seen the team play a limited number of times this year.

The fact of the matter is that the men’s team takes so much energy to follow that the women’s team often slips under my radar.

But there were only 203 fans in atten-dance at last Friday’s fi rst-round WNIT game against Harvard. It was a game that the Red Storm were able to win by 23 points and served as a very rare moment to prove that St. John’s was better than Harvard at something. Sadly, just over

200 people took advantage of that oppor-tunity. Again, I was not one of them.

With the win, the Storm moved on to play the University of Hartford on Sun-day. There were 703 fans in attendance at the Chase Arena in West Hartford. Not an astronomical number, but an impressive one considering Hartford is home to just over 4,800 full-time undergraduates.

And that brings us to today. Well actu-ally, it bring us to tomorrow when the Red Storm take fl oor against Boston College at Carnesecca Arena for the WNIT’s third round in what is undoubtedly the most important basketball game played by a St.

John’s basketball team all season long. I just checked St. John’s Central;

there’s no mention of it. The University poured plenty of time,

effort and money into garnering support for the men’s basketball team this season. They offered movie tickets, free Metro-Cards, free dinners, t-shirts and gift cards to any student willing to go watch the men’s version of St. John’s basketball. I think even University-administered mas-sages may have been on the table.

I don’t know how successful any of these attempts were in gathering fans for the games, but, as my fi fth-grade teacher always said, at least they tried.

Incentives have been given for at-tending women’s basketball games. The University gave away $1,000 to the cam-pus organization who brought the most members to a regular season game at Carnesecca Arena a few weeks ago. More than 2,300 fans showed up.

But, as of right now, no effort is being

made to get fans to the game on Thursday. I urge the University to try something.

The student body of this school has proved its apathy countless times on countless different issues. The only thing that gets us excited about anything St. John’s related is good old-fashioned bribery.

I don’t care what marketing gimmick they come up with between now and to-morrow night, but they better come up with something because St. John’s bas-ketball, no matter the team, should not be out-fanned by the University of Hartford.

I just checked St. John’s Central again: still nothing.

Anti-Norm Web sitemakes agenda obvious

The subject of Norm Robert’s job security has been the focus of Red Storm message boards and blogs for some time now.

During the waning minutes of the Storm’s Big East Tour-nament loss to Marquette, Lou Carnesecca’s famed banner, boasting his 526 wins, was ac-companied by an ominous chant rising from irritated fans. “Fi-re Ro-berts! Fi-re Ro-berts!” has been heard echoing through the rafters of the historic building.

The comment sections of New York tabloid online stories have turned into an outlet for Johnnies’s fans to cry out for a change.

In an attempt to organize the masses, Daniel Stallone, a 20-year-old St. John’s fan from Suf-folk County, created FireNorm-Now.com, a Web site with a cause that speaks for itself.

“It’s about fans getting to-gether to say we’re not pleased with the situation right now,” Stallone said. “From all accounts, we think Norm is a nice guy. But he’s not getting it done on the court. This is not a defamation site, but it seems his lack of suc-cess is falling on deaf ears.”

FireNormNow.com is es-sentially a petition open to any-one who cares about Red Storm

basketball. As of March 24, 387 people have signed. The site also maps out some disturbing sta-tistics from Roberts’ tenure at St. John’s.

Stallone is not a self-pro-claimed basketball scholar. In fact, he simply seeks to reso-nate what he says many fans are thinking in the fi rst place.

“I think that anybody who is a disgruntled fan and thinks this man isn’t doing a good job can make this site,” Stallone said. “I’m just as qualifi ed as any-one else. I just thought since no one else did it, maybe I can be the one to build up support for his dismissal.”

The site’s creator said he and his fellow supporters are sick of the excuses, whether it is inju-ries, an all-underclassman lineup or transfers.

Stallone said that he didn’t have a problem with the program trying to clean itself up after the calamity resulting from the Mike Jarvis regime, but added that at some point, enough is enough. He suggests that the team might be worse off than ever before.

“They were a laughing stock [after Jarvis], but now they’re ir-relevant,” he said.

Many fans’ opinions may change if Lance Stephenson tries on the Red Storm uniform for a year before he turns pro, but Stephenson also has Kansas and Maryland to consider.

“It would be an indictment

on the lack of success,” Stal-lone said. “If he loses a recruit again, how can I ever trust him? He hasn’t been able to build this program up to look like a winner.”

Stallone wonders if the Uni-versity’s administration can hear the voice of the fans. His idea is to give the program’s support-

ers the loudest voice possible so change can be achieved. For these passionate fans, apathy and boycotting games is not an option.

“I just hope all the stu-dents can get to see this,” Stallone said. “They are the ones, along with the alumni, that can make something come of this.”

MATT CHOQUETTEChief Copy Editor

135315

0

The number of Big East tournament appearances before the tournament opened to all 16 teams

in 2009.

The Storm’s Big East rank in conference

scoring margin in 2009.

The Red Storm’s average 2009 home attendance.

Number of Red Storm NCAA Tournaments under Norm Roberts.

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19.6Average margin of loss against top 8 Big East fi nishers in 2009.

Avg. Scoring Offense Free Throw PCT

Field Goal PCT

Turnover Margin1. Villanova 79.5 2. Syracuse 79.23. Providence 78.4 4. Pittsburgh 78.25. Marquette 77.413. St. John’s 62.5

1. W.V. .7432. Rutgers .7433. Villanova .7224, N.D. .7215. Seton Hall .71012. St. John’s .650

1. Syracuse .4892. Pittsburgh .4883. Villanova .4664. Conn. .4605. Louisville .46013. St. John’s .405

1. Marquette +4.392. Seton Hall +2.563. W.V. +2.394. Villanova +1.945. Louisville +1.7215. St. John’s -2.00

With the men’s team done for the year, let’s not forget about the women’s team

Anthony Morreale is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at torchsports@gmail.com.

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or should he go?

”Keep him

Decision-makers remarks prove they remain in Norm’s corner

Though calls for Norm Roberts’ job have become apparent both on campus and online, the statements of the people in charge of the University hirings and fi rings have remained in Roberts’ corner.

Over the past few weeks, both Uni-versity President the Rev. Donald J. Harrington and Athletic Director Chris Monasch have come out in defense of the men’s basketball head coach.

Harrington addressed the most re-cent criticisms of Roberts in a recent interview with the TORCH.

“Fair, unfair, I understand why peo-ple really want us to win on a regular ba-sis at the top immediately,” Harrington said. “I don’t think anybody’s more in that categroy than Norm Roberts.”

“But I’ve also seen what has to get done to get where we are now, and I think we’ve made great progress, and I have great confi dence that Norm is go-ing to be able to bring us back there. He is a fi ne man and a fi ne coach.”

On Feb. 20, Monasch was inter-viewed on a sportstalk radio show by St. John’s alum Mike Francesa.

Like Harrington, Monasch also de-fended the man who runs the Johnnies.

“ Norm will be our coach,” he told Francesa. “He’s had a good recruiting year. With all these players coming back we expect to do very well next year, and beyond that, he’s making more inroads in New York.

“Our two signees this year are both New York players, he’s still in-volved with some quality players that I can’t discuss.

“I think people have to keep in mind, when Norm got here, there were two Division I players, literally, left in the program.

“I know we haven’t progressed maybe as quickly as some people have wanted us to, but Norm’s done it the right way.”

Monasch also addressed his expec-tations for next season.

“The trajectory of where we would like to go, and based on the young talent we have, I think making the NCAA Tournament next year is a reasonable goal,” he said.

ANTHONY MORREALESports Editor

A fourth losing season in fi ve years hasn’t garnered many peachy feelings for Norm Roberts, with many calling for the St. John’s coach’s head in light of recent postseason losses to Marquette and Richmond.

But even though his plethora of ex-cuses have exceeded his team’s number of double-digit losses this season, Rob-erts should not become the scapegoat for a St. John’s program slowly sinking into college basketball irrelevance.

Sure the fans want a big-name head coach to compete for recruits, and the rat race for a potential Bob Knight comeback has left Storm fans yearning for some In-diana magic.

Nothing against coach Knight, but handing over the reins will give credit to an undeserving coach, insulting both Roberts and the players who have worked their tails off for him.

When Knight’s assistant Mike Davis was hired as his replacement at Indiana back in 2000, he took the Hoosiers to the National Championship game with a ros-ter made up of players Knight recruited.

While he received a whirlwind of credit for the team’s achievement, he took a huge hit when Knight’s players realized the man that put them in position to win wasn’t on the sidelines anymore.

As a result, Davis’ future Indi-ana teams suffered and he resigned in 2006. Indiana basketball hasn’t been the same since.

St. John’s was bitten by the injury bug this year, spending nine games of the 2008-09 season without Malik Boothe, Roberts’ ‘fl oor general’ of a point guard, and nearly all of it without its sharp-shooting senior leader, Anthony Mason, Jr. Justin Burrell also missed signifi cant time and played most of the year with an annoying Hannibal Lector-esque mask which limited his court vision and aggressiveness.

That the Storm were struck with such consistent bad luck is as tragic as the Red Storm’s recent attendance records.

The fact that the team was able to salvage anything of this season, as dis-appointing as the numbers may be, is an accomplishment in itself. Robert’s start-ing fi ve, consisting exclusively of sopho-mores, showed fl ashes of brilliance at times this year.

Those sophomores are going to be juniors next year and already have two years of playing experience behind them.

And these guys have talent. Guard D.J. Kennedy averaged 13.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game as the backbone of the Storm this season.

Burrell averaged close to 11 points and 5 rebounds per game despite looking like Anthony Hopkins. Paris Horne had a few 20-point outbursts, and forward Sean Evans impressed during tournament play. Even Boothe, upon returning from a thumb injury in January, continued his jack-of-all-trades point guarding with noteworthy averages in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

These are all players Norm recruited to St. John’s. Despite all the players that have left the program, Norm rarely re-ceives credit for the players he brings into the school. And this year’s signing period may bring about the crown jewel of New York high school talent, Lance Stephen-son. Why would Stephenson want to play for a school whose head coach didn’t even recruit him?

The St. John’s program is on the brink of something special. Its play-ers have a quiet confi dence about them that, with a bit of Norm’s tutelage, could change the now negative culture of St. John’s basketball.

It would be a shame if those play-ers fi nd the man that put them in po-sition to win no longer roamed the sidelines, either.

SPORTS AND THOUGHTS

Lately, looking at the lineup of Big East coaches has been like playing an old game from Sesame Street.

Jim Calhoun. Rick Pitino. Jim Boe-heim. Bob Huggins. John Thompson III. Norm Roberts.

One of these things is not like the others.

During this time of Madness, the grandest stage for college hoops, the Big East has silenced any skeptic’s claim that the conference isn’t the best in the nation. With fi ve teams in the Sweet Sixteen, there is no question the Beast is back on top as the model of exemplary basketball.

With that said, this is the worst time for St. John’s to retain their head coach after fi ve seasons of barely reaching the tip of mediocrity. There is no one, all-encompassing remedy to the problems plaguing St. John’s, but all possible solu-tions stem from one major change: fi ring Norm Roberts.

It’s been fi ve years of rebuilding, with one postseason win and a .301 win per-centage in the Big East.

Imagine the unlikely scenario where Connecticut or Syracuse found itself in a rebuilding transition period. Would a new coach at either one of these programs be given fi ve years of excuses, transfers and overall failure without foreseeable prog-ress?

These hypothetical coaches would be out in the unemployment line with every-one else after two years.

During his time, Roberts’ skill at recruiting was supposed to be the key-stone in the process. Instead, every re-cruiting season sees more top New York kids going to proven winning programs with established leadership under the head coach.

Roberts has yet to fi nd that player with the special ability to build a team around. He’s found bits and pieces, and half of them transfer after a year or two.

The one situation that would put a foot in the mouth of this argument is if Roberts and his staff succeed in recruiting Lance Stephenson. But let’s think about the likelihood of that happening.

Lance has already made a decision. He said he is just waiting for the right time to make the announcement. Rumor had it the star recruit would be making the announcement at Madison Square Garden last Saturday after the PSAL Class AA Championship. Instead, he will be mak-ing the announcement at the McDonald’s All-American Game on April 1, April Fools Day.

St. John’s fans would be fools for thinking he’s coming to Queens. If he was, he would have said so on the Red Storm’s home court. He’s making the an-nouncement in Ohio on a national stage. Think about it.

The dwindling supporters of St. John’s are simply not being heard. Listen to the chants at the Garden, read the collective voice of the blogosphere and realize how much those empty seats really speak to the problem at hand.

The people are angry and want Rob-erts to go. These angry people are the ones who will decline to purchase tickets if this type of management continues.

Roberts’ opponents must lick their lips at the opportunity of drawing X’s and O’s against St. John’s because the Red Storm offense cannot penetrate a zone defense. They look lost. On the other end, Roberts has not shown the ability to match up ef-fectively to stop teams’ binge scoring.

It’s time to bring in a coach with a his-tory of winning and pay him what he de-serves. Norm Roberts truly is a nice per-son with an extraordinary work ethic, but that is not enough in the Big East.

This is not the American Dream. This is a basketball program with over 100 years of tradition and pride. It’s time to start treating it that way.

BILL SAN ANTONIO MATT CHOQUETTE

“I know we haven’t progressed maybe as quickly as some people have wanted us to,

but Norm’s done it the right way.

-Athletic Director Chris Monasch

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Storm ready for Eagles Confi dent Red Storm draw Boston College for WNIT third round

With wins over Harvard and Hartford, the St. John’s women’s basketball team is riding a wave of confi dence and success as it forges ahead in the WNIT.

Following its 70-59 win over Hartford on Sunday, the Red Storm will take on Boston College this Thursday before its home crowd at Carnesecca Arena in a rematch of last year’s WNIT quarterfi nal game.

“We’ll be ready to go,” head coach Kim Barnes Arico said.

The Red Storm cruised against Hartford, leading 35-22 at the half and coasting be-hind fi ve players who scored in double fi gures. They trailed only once in the game, early in the fi rst half.

Now the Red Storm get Boston College, a team they knocked out of last year’s WNIT with a 65-56 win.

When the teams met back in December, St. John’s came away with the 72-63 vic-tory for the Holiday Classic Tournament title.

But a third consecutive win may not come so easily. Barnes Arico noted that Boston Col-lege’s tremendous size advan-tage over the Red Storm could ignite its strong play in the paint. She said her players will have to be physical and play aggressive-ly in order to be successful.

“[Boston College has] been here before too,” Barnes Arico said. “We’d better come out with

our A-game.”The Eagles will put the ball

in the hands of Mikkel Picco, who had 19 points the last time the teams met on 5-12 shooting, including 3-6 from three-point range. The junior guard aver-ages 15.7 points per game as the team’s leading scorer.

Sophomore Carolyn Swords leads the team in rebounds with 8.8 per game, and led the team with 16 points and 10 rebounds against Boston University on Monday.

Barnes Arico thinks the team is much more balanced than last year’s WNIT team, and won’t have to rely solely on one player for the majority of the offense.

“We’re sharing the ball well, we’ve had plenty of people in double fi gures,” Barnes Arico said. “We’re just very balanced right now.”

Due to the consistent play of Sky Lindsay and Kelly McMan-mon, the Storm’s offense has opened up for Big East Fresh-man of the Year Da’Shena Ste-vens, who scored eight of her 14 points against Hartford in the second half and 12 of her game-high 20 points in the second half against Harvard.

Barnes Arico thinks Stevens has become the team’s go-to player, settling into the role as the season has progressed.

“Her confi dence is very high,” Barnes Arico said. “If we had to run a play at the end of a game, we’d probably want the ball in her hands.”

Last year’s WNIT quarterfi -nal loss to North Carolina State left the Red Storm with an emp-

ty feeling that has left the team hungry for a deeper tournament run this time around.

Advancing past Bos-ton College this year would

send the Red Storm back to the quarterfi nals. They would face either Georgetown or Richmond.

“I think there has been some-

thing to prove all year long,” Barnes Arico said. “They feel they’re a good basketball team, and they want to show the world they’re a good basketball team.”

BILL SAN ANTONIOAssistant Sports Editor

TORCH PHOTO/LAURA AMATO

The Red Storm already have a 72-63 victory over Boston College this year.

Small in number but strong on the court, mid-major college basketball teams upset some of the top teams in the nation and took others down to the wire this past weekend in true NCAA Tournament fashion.

A mid-major is any program outside of the top six conferences in college bas-ketball, which are the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC.

“I watched [East Tennessee State] and said there’s no way this team is a 16 seed,” said Pitt men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon after the Panthers hung on to defeat the Buccaneers 72-62.

Nearly every Big East team in the Tournament faced the same tough mid-major matchups as Pittsburgh.

The Midwest region’s No. 11-seeded Dayton from the Atlantic 10 conference stunned Pitt’s rival West Virginia 68-60. The Mountaineers had been 11-2 outside of Big East opponents.

“We knew when it comes down to us versus them, it is not Big East versus [At-lantic 10],” said Dayton forward Charles Little to the Associated Press after the win. “It is West Virginia vs. Dayton, and we will take our chances with that.”

Unheralded mid-major Utah State came within one point of upsetting Marquette.

The No. 11-seeded Aggies, a 30-win team, qualifi ed for the Tournament after winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

“I think [Utah State] is the hardest team to prepare for of any in my career as an assistant or as a head coach,” said Marquette coach Buzz Williams to the AP after the Golden Eagles escaped into the second round.

Top overall seed, Louisville, found it-self leading just 35-33 at halftime against play-in game winner Morehead State. The Cardinals pulled away in the second half to win, 74-54.

“You look at the way Cal State Northridge has played and East Tennes-see State, Morehead State, all these teams are playing tremendous basketball, and that’s what this tournament is all about,” said Louisville coach Rick Pitino after the game.

“We didn’t play bad in the fi rst half. We shot 50 percent, and they hung right there with us.”

Cal State Northridge, a No. 15 seed, led Memphis with less than nine minutes to play. Memphis required 10 three-point-ers in the game from sophomore guard Roburt Sallie to pull away, 81-70.

“[Cal State Northridge] came out and

made some shots,” said Memphis se-nior guard Antonio Anderson to the AP. “That’s what they do.”

Tigers coach John Calipari noted the strength of mid-major conferences, in-cluding his team’s own Conference USA, after the game.

“Our league is way better than every-body gives it credit,” said Calipari. “[Cal State Northridge] played us like teams in our league play us, which is they’re not afraid, they battle, they go at us, and they were not going away.”

Cleveland State pulled off the big-gest upset of the opening weekend. The Vikings, a No. 13 seed out of the Horizon League, defeated Wake Forest 84-69.

The Demon Deacons had been ranked No. 1 at one point during the season. Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio believes mid-majors like Cleveland Sate have big-time basketball talent.

“I think they’ve got some tough, hard-nosed kids,” said Gaudio. “[Cleveland State senior guard] Cedric Jackson, we told our kids he could start for anybody in the ACC.”

Likewise, North Dakota State senior guard Ben Woodside – in the state of North Dakota’s fi rst Tournament appear-ance – scored 37 points against defending champion Kansas.

“I was surprised he was that good,” said Kansas sophomore guard

Tyrel Reed.“We watched a lot of tape of him, and

we knew he was dangerous, but the stuff he showed us tonight, he showed he was a really good player. Really good.”

Unlike the cliche “we’re just happy to be here,” many mid-majors are not satis-fi ed being one-and-done anymore.

“We’re just not happy to be here,” said Western Kentucky coach Ken Mc-Donald. “We want to be dancing as long as we can.”

The No. 12-seeded Hilltoppers de-feated No. 5-seeded Illinois, 76-72, be-fore losing to fellow mid-major Gonzaga in the second round. Gonzaga, Xavier and Memphis, small-school powerhouses, are the only three mid-majors in the Sweet 16, as Dayton and Cleveland State joined Western Kentucky in the second-round loss column.

Also falling in the second round was the Midwest’s No. 9-seeded Siena, which outlasted Ohio State in a double-overtime thriller in its fi rst game.

The Saints, hailing from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, fell to Lou-isville 79-72 in another close match for the Cardinals.

“What I told our guys before the game is that Siena could compete in the Big East, be in the top half of the league, and I really meant it in watching them,” said Pitino.

GREG TRIETLEYThe Pitt News (via UWire)

Mid-majors go through ups and downs in NCAAs

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TORCH SPORTS

Blowin’ in the Wind

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He is one of the best athletes in the country.

There are very highexpectations for

him.

-Fencing coach Yury Gelman

about Daryl Homer

Leavin’ their MarkLet’s play four

The Red Storm softball team opened conference play over the weekend with two doubleheaders in as many days.

After being swept by No. 21/24 DePaul, the Storm went to South Bend for an outing with Notre Dame.

A four run sixth inning provided enough offense for pitcher Linzee Sumrall, who surrendered just two earned runs while striking out nine in the complete game win. Kacee Cox had two RBIs in the win, and Roxy Struble added two hits of her own.

St. John’s dropped the second game against Notre Dame to fi nish the weekend 1-3, their current Big East standing. The Johnnies will take on Rider Wednesday at Red Storm Field.

Headin’ this Way

Baseball:April 1April 3April 4April 5

NYITRutgersRutgersRutgers

3 p.m.3 p.m.1 p.m.Noon

CASTSTORM

Red Storm home games

Lacrosse:April 17 Hobart 3 p.m.

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Softball: Mar. 25 Mar 28

Rider (DH)Louisville (DH)

3 p.m.Noon

St. John’s freshman sabre Daryl Hom-er earned a silver medal this past weekend at the NCAA Fencing championships in University Park, Penn.

After upsetting top-seeded Mike Momtselidze of Ohio State by fi ve touch-es, Homer moved on to face Penn State’s Aleksander Ochocki in the fi nals, to whom he would eventually fall to by one touch.

“Being at home gave him a second life, I’d say,” said Homer of Ochocki, whose success can be partially attributed to the role that the fans and familiar surround-ings played. To claim the two are familiar with each other would be an understate-ment, “I trained with him for my entire freshman year,” Homer said.

The level of competition encountered at NCAAs seemed to catch Homer off guard, “It was a lot more diffi cult than I thought it would be, everyone was out to win, the level was very high,” he said.

Homer’s silver was the fi rst medal by a St. John’s sabre since 2005, when Sergey

Isayenko won the event. “He is one of the best athletes in the

country,” said head coach Yury Gelman, “there are very high expectations for him.”

Overall, the Red Storm squad fi nished with 115 points, good for sixth place and only one point behind Harvard for fi fth.

It should come as no surprise that the Penn State Nittany Lions won the team championship, scoring 195 points and tal-lying four individual gold medals along the way.

St. John’s has been a dominant force in fencing, as this marks the seventeenth year the university has fi nished in sixth or higher in the nation, including a national championship in 2001.

“We expected to get somewhere from fi fth to sixth place, and that’s what we got,” Gelman said in regard to his team’s performance.

Now in his 14th year at the helm, Gelman has established his team as a national power, never fi nishing be-low sixth in the nation during his tenure at St. John’s.

It was ultimately an impressive show-ing for the Red Storm sabres, as sopho-

more Dagmara Wozniak took home the bronze medal on the women’s side.

Wozniak lost in the semifi nals to Har-vard’s Caroline Vloka, the eventual na-tional runner-up, leaving her in a tie for third with Daria Schneider of Columbia/Barnard.

Because of a mere one-point advan-tage in indicators, Wozniak edged out Schneider for the bronze.

Ten St. John’s fencers competed at the meet, the fi nale of the fencing season. Sabre Dora Varga and epée Tanya Novak-ovska fi nished with identical eighth-place fi nishes in their respective events.

Also competing were sabre Alejandro Rojas, foil Alexis Landreville, epée Stan-ley Vaksman, epée Nicholas Vomero, foil Nora Szita, and epée Joanna Guy.

For seniors Guy, Varga and Vaksman, the NCAA championships marked the end of their collegiate fencing careers.

Both medalists, Homer and Wozniak, are underclassmen with several years of eligibility remaining.

Look for them to be among the NCAA’s elite sabres again during the 2009-10 fencing season, and to challenge for national championships.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ATHLETIC COMMUNCIATIONS

Freshman Daryl Homer won the fi rst silver medal in sabre for the Red Storm since 2005.

ANDREW DA SILVAStaff Writer

Homer wins silver at NCAAsFreshman fencer leads Red Storm to sixth-place fi nish

Women’s Basketball: Mar. 25

Boston College 7 p.m.

Tennis faultsThe St. John’s women’s tennis

team lost to conference foe Cincinna-ti, 5-2, on Tuesday at the Alley Pond Tennis Center.

With the loss, the Red Storm falls to 3-8 overall (2-2 Big East), while UC improves to 10-6 (2-1 Big East).

TJ won the doubles point with victories at the No. 1 and 2 spots. The duo of sophomore Jenny Yonkus and freshman Joanna Zwirbulis fought out a 9-8 (7-4) triumph over UC’s Ksenia Slynko.

25 MARCH 2009 | VOLUME 86, ISSUE 19 | TORCHONLINE.COM

SPORTS

In its fi rst taste of Big East competition, the baseball team swept Villanova over the weekend.

page 23

Red Storm fencingcontinues to be one of the best programs in the country, fi nishing sixth in the nation.

page 27

TORCH PHOTO/ LAURA AMATOTORCHSPORTS.WORDPRESS.COM