vol. 80 no. 3

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Sports 17 Arts & Living 9 Opinions 6 News 3 Daily news updates at www.gsusignal.com SEPT. 4 - SEPT. 10, 2012 VOL. 80 | NO. 3 As Georgia State grows, what will the rest of Atlanta look like? BUILDING AN EMPIRE DRAGON * CON RETURNS A&L | Pages 9-11 NEWS | Pages 3 - 5 PATRICK DUFFY | THE SIGNAL

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Building An Empire

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Page 1: Vol. 80 No. 3

Sports 17Arts & Living 9Opinions 6News 3Daily news updates at www.gsusignal.com

SEPT. 4 - SEPT. 10, 2012 VOL. 80 | NO. 3

As Georgia State grows, what will the rest of Atlanta look like?

BUILDING AN EMPIRE

DRAGON * CON

RETURNS

A&L | Pages 9-11

NEWS | Pages 3 - 5

PATRICK DUFFY | THE SIGNAL

Page 2: Vol. 80 No. 3

blotterLocal20-year-old Isaac Grubb died after falling from the upper deck of the Georgia Dome during the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game last Friday. Wit-nesses say the Tennessee fan was seen drinking before the game but Georgia World Congress Center employees deny that he was sold alcohol on the premises.

A federal magistrate judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against the city of Atlanta by Occupy At-lanta. Occupy Atlanta claimed that Mayor Ka-sim Reed revoking his own executive order that allowed the protesters to stay Woodruff Park overnight was unconstitutional.

Good Samaritan Jeff Justus pulled a man from a burning truck last Wednesday after a driv-er traveling the wrong way down a Spaghetti Junction ramp. Justus went to visit the trucker, 62-year-old Gary Tucker, in the intensive care unit of Grady Memorial Hospital to check on his condition.

NationalAide to Homeland Security Secretary Napoli-tano Suzanne Barr resigned after allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior. Barr stated in her resignation letter that allegations of sexual

discrimination and retaliation are “unfounded.”

Songwriter Hal David died in Los Angeles from complications after a stroke. David, aged 91, wrote for many popular artists in the 1960s. He most popularly teamed with singer Burt Bacharach.

Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan is now redacting the claim that he ran a marathon in less than three hours. Ryan had originally made the statement during a radio interview. Ryan changed his story after Run-ner’s World magazine found evidence of a 1990 race time of more than four hours.

WorldTwo suicide bombers killed 13 people outside of a U.S.-Afghan military base last Saturday. The blast killed a child, two women and four policemen. The explosion injured at least 78 others. According to authorities, the Taliban is claiming responsibility for the attack.

A fisherman in Scotland has found the oldest message in a bottle on record—released in 1914. It was released during a government ex-periment to track the undercurrent of the Scot-tish oceans. The Guinness Book of World Re-cords confirmed the record last Thursday.

August 30Barbara Asher SquareOfficers arrested a Non-Georgia State individual for an Outstanding Non-Felony Warrant. A male who stated he had a warrant for his ar-rest from Cobb County ap-proached an officer. The of-ficer confirmed the informa-tion and the individual was arrested

Alderhold Learning CenterA report was filed for Theft. A Georgia State student stat-ed she left her iPhone and a phone case on a desk unat-tended. When she returned she noticed that it had been stolen. This case is being han-dled by investigations.

Gilmer Street SEA report was filed for Vandal-ism. Officers observed a Geor-gia State student writing on a parking meter. The individual cleaned up the writing before being released.

Gilmer StreetA report was filed for Suspi-cious Activity/Behavior. A Georgia State student stated she obtained a Temporary

Protection Order from Cobb County against a female sub-ject. On 8/30/12 she observed the individual but no contact was made.

August 29Education BuildingA report was filed for Theft. A Georgia State staff member stated she received three pack-ages containing three Apple Map Book Pro Laptops from a deliver company and she no-ticed that one of the comput-ers was not in the package it had been stolen. Student Recreation CenterA report was filed for Theft. A Georgia State student stated he laid his iPhone and head phones down on a window ledge while he played basket-ball and when he returned his property had been stolen.

N-DeckA report was filed for Entering Auto Theft. A Georgia State student stated she parked and left her car and when she re-turned she noticed someone had broken one of her side windows and stole her book bag, but she later found the

book bag near the vehicle with no items stolen from it.

August 27Natural Science Build-ingA report was filed for an Odor of Smoke. Officers responded to a complaint of an odor of smoke. An investigation en-sued and it was determined the building had to be evac-uated. Atlanta Fire Depart-ment responded and cleared the building of all hazards and it was reopened. Student Recreation CenterA report was filed for Theft. A Georgia State student stat-ed he left his pants unattend-ed while he played basket-ball and when he returned approximately forty minutes later; someone had stolen his iPhone from one of the pock-ets.

Alderhold Learning CenterA report was filed for Theft. A Georgia State student stated he secured his Mountain bike at a bike rack and when he re-turned someone had stolen his bicycle and the lock.

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Page 3: Vol. 80 No. 3

Before the rising sun clears the build-ings to heat up Atlanta, Auburn Av-enue is silent, but awake. Past Pied-

mont, where weary students head to class, a ghost town sits. A dusty man sits on a bench in John Calhoun Park, wearing a coat, hat and threadbare jeans in the humidity. Further east a couple of aged women sit on the steps of the Big Bethel AME Church. One, in a thin dress with the straps hanging off her shoulders, stares at her hands. The other, with a leathery, dark- skinned face wears dingy socks in place of shoes. Her milky eyes watch thrashers make a nest in the “A” of the blue “JESUS SAVES” sign mounted on the steeple.

This is John Wesley Dobb’s Sweet Auburn: “the richest Negro street in the world.”

Georgia State’s “opportunity” “More recently, over the summer, the Na-

tional Trust came out with a new list of endan-gered places and the Sweet Auburn District was one of those places listed, ” said Richard Laub, director of the Heritage Preservation Program at Georgia State.

The National Trust came to Auburn Avenue to personally relay the alarming news.

After the news, the Sweet Auburn Stake-holders, including Laub, was formed. Created

by the National Trust and the Historic District Development Cooperation (HDDC), the Sweet Auburn Stakeholders include Councilman Kwanza Hall, Rep. John Lewis, the Atlanta Pres-ervation Center, Fulton County Commission and the Atlanta History Center.

Laub was the only person from Georgia State that was a member.

“I’m not representing the university so much as representing that place,” Laub said. “I’m not privy to the university’s design decisions or what they’re going to be doing.”

The situation intensified when news of Georgia State’s purchase of the Atlanta Life building reached the stakeholders.

After the meeting, Laub reached out to Georgia State administrators. Laub and Mta-manika Youngblood, former president of the HDDC and the chairman of its board, met with Jerry Radcliff, the vice president of finance for Georgia State.

“Jerry was very reassuring in terms of what the intentions were in regards to Georgia State,” Laub said. “He said if Georgia State goes into the Sweet Auburn historic district they are looking to rehabilitate buildings or to build buildings on empty sites that would be compatible with archi-tecture of the area. Just saying that was a big re-lief for a lot of people in the stakeholder’s meet-ing.”

Georgia State’s move into Sweet Auburn in-cludes 100 Auburn Avenue and the building at 60 Piedmont.

Between the two Georgia State buildings sits

the historic Atlanta Life structure. The HDDC is currently protecting the properties, hoping they can be purchased by an organization with the power to revive it.

“Georgia State University has a great op-portunity here,” Youngblood said. “Those two buildings are in a dangerous place.”

Golden days

The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 caused black business owners to migrate to the area sur-rounding Wheat Street. Wheat Street soon be-came Auburn Avenue—the Mecca for African- American prosperity. Home to the black elite, Atlanta’s African-American middle and upper class thrived on Auburn Avenue. The Atlanta Daily World, founded in 1928 by Morehouse graduate William Alexander Scott II, was the first black daily in the US. Nightclubs, a hotel, grocery stores and churches lined the street. At-lanta blacks did not need to leave the corridor of cosmopolitan Auburn Avenue to find all the comforts of big city life.

Sweet Auburn’s most powerful success story may belong to Alonzo Herndon. Herndon was born in 1858 as a slave in Walton County. Eman-cipated at age seven, Herndon became a share-cropper in Social Circle.

With $11 in his pocket, Herndon opened a successful barbershop in Clayton County. His business savvy led him to Sweet Auburn, where he started Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Ca-tering to the black community of Atlanta, Hern-

don’s multi-million-dollar company made him Atlanta’s first black millionaire.

His success can still be seen on the corner of Courtland Street and Auburn Avenue. The im-pressive Atlanta Life building, with its unique stone façade and striking glass walls, was just purchased by Georgia State this summer.

The original Atlanta Life Insurance build-ings, only footsteps away from Georgia State’s latest acquisition, are all but forgotten. Slats of particleboard keep the sun out of places where windows and doors used to be. Vines and weeds grow over cracked plaster on the walls. A dirty rain-soaked blanket, alongside empty vodka bottles, rests in one of the original entry ways. A makeshift bed for one of the city’s homeless is all the building is used for now.

What went wrong?

“Probably what was the biggest detriment to Auburn Avenue was the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Laub said.

“It’s a little ironic that with more freedom it became a less popular place to go because Afri-can-Americans basically had freedom to go any-where they wanted to,” Laub said.

As African-Americans enjoyed commerce and socializing anywhere in the city, Sweet Au-burn lost its usefulness.

“When it was a segregated neighborhood basically all African-Americans had to shop

NEWSwww.gsusignal.com/news

All but forgottenTERAH BOYD

News Editor

Can Georgia State save Sweet Auburn?

Auburn Avenue ...continued on page 5

PATRICK DUFFY | THE SIGNALThe original Atlanta Life buildings sit next door to the building Georgia State recently purchased.

Page 4: Vol. 80 No. 3

Fifteen years ago, Georgia State set out to expand its campus

to accommodate its growing enrollment numbers and need of modern teaching facilities. The Main Street Master Plan was developed to change not just Georgia State’s campus, but also downtown Atlanta.

“Most of the campus mas-ter plan is to provide a general framework for physical growth of the campus,” Ramesh Vaka-

mudi, assistant vice president of Facilities Acquisition and Op-erations, said. “They are not go-ing into specific details, such as building designs, which itself is a very involved process which can take a few years.”

Vakamudi explained that the Master Plan works as a “liv-ing document” that changes ev-ery time certain needs arise.

Master Plans normally have a five to 10 year horizon. Once that time span nears its end, the administration updates it ac-cording to its needs and feed-back from students.

The original 1997 version

of the plan was intended to ac-commodate the growing en-rollment numbers and provide adequate research space for stu-dents.

All of the concepts that were envisioned in the original plan are either in the process or have been implemented.

Such concepts include the Student Recreation Center, Hel-en M. Aderhold Learning Cen-ter, North Metro Center, Uni-versity Lofts, Andrew Young School Of Policy Studies and the University Library Transfor-mation.

In 2005, Georgia State be-

gan to prepare an update of the Master Plan. While the origi-nal plan expanded the campus to provide sufficient teaching space, the updated plan would provide students on-campus housing, administrative office space and student social space.

As a part of the updated Master Plan, Georgia State now wants to house 20 percent of its students.

“Where we are now, we are about 32,000 students,” Vaka-mudi said. “If we want to house 20 percent we need 6,400 beds. We currently have about 4,000 beds on campus.”

Currently Georgia State has about 32,000 students and 4,000 beds--8 percent less beds than its goal requires.

Despite lacking 2,400 beds, Georgia State still wishes to at-tain its goal of housing 20 per-cent of students and having around 40,000 students by 2020. Georgia State would need to provide a total of 8,000 beds.

Vakamudi said that anoth-er housing development, like University Commons, would be close to impossible. Instead, Georgia State hopes to build or acquire smaller buidings to house smaller groups of stu-dents.

“We will probably do these projects in chunks of 300 to 500 beds every few years,” Vakamu-di said.

Georgia State has a current graduate student housing pro-totype project in the planning and design phase.

“It’s going to be a very small housing project,” Vakamudi said. “37 beds for graduate stu-dents.”

The housing project will be located next to the Petite Sci-ence Center. It will address the need for graduate students con-ducting experiments who con-stantly need to be on campus.

“We want to see if it can work, if the students like it or not, get their feedback on it,” Vakamudi said. “It’s very hard to imagine it unless you actu-ally live in these things. If they like it we will proceed to a big-

ger project.”The difficulty that arises

with Georgia State’s location is just that: its location.

“Most of these buildings that we acquire aren’t used for general purpose classrooms be-cause the elevators are not de-signed for that kind of traffic, or the restrooms,” Vakamudi said.

While Georgia State is now looking for more housing and general-purpose classroom buildings, the majority of build-ings in downtown Atlanta are office buildings. These spac-es are practically unusable for dorms or classrooms.

One plan is to move offices from the top of General Class-room Building and use those spaces for classrooms. Office spaces, like the Humanities De-partment, can be moved to of-fice buildings, like SunTrust.

Other office spaces will be available in Dalhberg Hall once President Becker and the Pro-vost offices are moved into the Atlanta Life Building, according to Vakamudi.

Building its own facilities would provide spaces that bet-ter address student needs, but the cost of building the facili-ties and finding and purchasing the land becomes more than the cost of purchasing an already existing building.

Georgia State is currently in the concept phase of their latest Master Plan. They are anticipat-ing the release of their new con-cept art and maps later this year.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 04 NEWS

University Commons

$161 million

(bonds)

SunTrust $7w3

million (Bonds)

Petit Science Center

$25 million Rialto Center$14 million

Aderhold Learning Center

$13.7 million Parking

$5 million

$160 MILLION $20 MILLION $ 10 MILLION

Master Plan on Track FinanciallyIn spite of budget cuts, Georgia State expansion has no shortage of funding

LAURA HAASStaff Reporter Funding for the Master Plan

has continued in spite of re-cent state budget cuts.

With state funding to the Univer-sity System of Georgia decreasing by $54 million this year and $54 million more for fiscal year 2014, cuts have not affected the success of the Master Plan.

“These two are unrelated,” said Andrea Jones, director for commu-

nications. for Georgia State.

This is due, in part, to the Georgia State Uni-

versity Foundation, a non-profit orga-nization founded in 1958 to support Georgia State.

The foundation was responsible for raising the funds to renovate the Rialto Center and to construct both the Aderhold Learning Center and the Petit Science Center.

The Georgia State University Foundation is responsible for rais-ing all funds for the Master Plan. The Foundation, comprised of faculty, alumni and partners of the Universi-ty, was founded in 1958 as a non-prof-it organization responsible for rais-

ing funds and developing partnerships to support the University financially.

“The Foundation as-sists in the public/private

partnerships with the state and also has the ability to buy and hold prop-erty for the university for future use.” Jones said.

Georgia State was unable to pro-vide the names of those individuals and organizations that have donat-ed to Master Plan projects. Howev-er, a glance at a campus map or a flip through the course packet will pro-duce many donor names.

Petit Science Center, Helen B. Aderhold Learning Center and other campus landmarks constructed and funded as a part of the Master Plan were named for major financial con-tributors.

The current Master Plan, set to extend from 2004-2015, was expected to cost the University more than $1

million. Georgia State could not

produce the complete cost of the proj-ect so far, but but were able to provide donation amounts for specific proj-ects.

“The recession has had an impact, but has also provided the universi-ty with real estate opportunities that may not have been available in a dif-ferent economic environment,” Jones said.

These opportunities include the purchase of the Sun Trust Building in late 2006 for $55.2 million and, more recently, the Atlanta Life Building for $9 million.

Jones expressed confidence in the funding of future projects.

“With our clear strategic plan and a strong alumni base, the foundation has continues to raise funds and has been very successful.”

The Complexity of Main StreetANDRES CRUZ-WELLMANN

Associate News Editor

MASTER PLAN PROJECTS HAVE DRAMATICLY CHANGED GEORGIA STATE’S LANDSCAPE

AYSHA JOHNSON | THE SIGNAL

The Georgia State University Foundation responsible for funding Master Plan projects.

1998Student Center

2001Student recreation center

2002University Lofts

2007University Commons

2004AYSPS(built in 1904)

2007Citizens trust building

2010Petit Science Center

2011Piedmont North

2002Helen M. Aderhold Learning Center

Page 5: Vol. 80 No. 3

there.” Laub said.The churches, hair salons

and shops of Auburn Avenue were the focal point of African-American life. The YMCA was a cornerstone of the community and politics.

“But once the Civil Rights act was passed then African-Americans could go anywhere. There was a big disinvestment in Sweet Auburn and in the Au-burn Avenue corridor,” Laud said. “That’s where you would mark the beginning of the de-cline of that business district.”

Laub started working on the Auburn Avenue effort in the 80s.

More than a decade ago, the National Trust for Historic Pres-ervation put Sweet Auburn on the endangered historic neigh-borhood list for the first time. It was number 11 in the country.

Laub, with the HDDC and other concerned groups, focused on the King Center and the southern tip of the Old Fourth Ward that contains Dr. King’s birth home to keep the neigh-borhood from loosing its histor-ic status.

“Through the 90s there was a lot of work that was done on [the residential] end of Auburn Avenue,” Laud said.

For more than 30 years, the HDDC helped revitalize the Au-burn Avenue residential district near Dr. King’s birth home. As it revitalized, the commercial dis-trict of Sweet Auburn continued to experience trouble.

“I have been here to see, frankly it’s been over time, but the dramatic change. The good news is that it is for the better, which doesn’t always happen in

neighborhoods,” Youngblood said. She had lived on Auburn Avenue for more than 27 years.

The success of the residen-tial revival has not been enough to spark new business interest in the dilapidated commercial dis-trict of Sweet Auburn.

“It’s time to turn our atten-tion back to Auburn Avenue,” Youngblood said.

More than History

There aren’t many historic buildings left on the street.

“These two buildings,” Laub said, “are probably some of the key buildings on Auburn Ave-nue, and across the street at the Atlanta Daily World.”

The Atlanta Daily World was almost demolished, but Youngblood said it “galvanized” neighborhood leaders to save the street.

“We really can’t afford to lose any more of our historic fab-ric, and there is a real reason for that,” Youngblood said. “In addi-tion to the more emotional, psy-chological and economic one the reality is that with the demolition of the block that is currently Re-naissance Walk we were told by the Historic Preservation Com-mission…that we were on the presuppose of losing our land-mark status.”

Youngblood fears that losing one more building will render the street no longer historic in the eyes of the government.

Although the Atlanta Trust and other organizations care for Sweet Auburn, Youngblood said that leadership within the neigh-borhood is the only way real ac-

tion and change can happen. “To get folks to move, that’s

leadership,” Youngblood said.Aside from the historic val-

ue of the neighborhood, Young-blood said there is a lot to move for; people travel from all over the world to come see Sweet Au-burn.

“It’s a literal gold mine, and we haven’t mined it,” Young-blood said.

“They come because they recognize that Dr. King was a unique world citizen and they want to see what birthed him,” Youngblood said. “What kind of place was the cradle and Gen-esis for his work and the cradle and Genesis for the Civil Rights movement.”

Many cities have tall build-ings, aquariums, theme parks and big universities to attract tourists.

“That’s really all we have that’s unique,” Youngblood said of Sweet Auburn.

Youngblood is perplexed at why the economic opportuni-ties alone do not provide enough motivation for people to invest in Auburn Avenue. After all, tourists bring money.

“It’s money we’ve left on the street—we’ve left on the ground,” Youngblood said. “So even if you don’t get the historic signifi-cance, or if you get it you don’t care, because some people don’t really care about it, which is an-other story. Even if you don’t get that part, I don’t see how you don’t get the money part.”

“Schools like Georgia State, because of its location, and the historically black colleges and universities, because of the their

historic development relation-ships as a result of Auburn Av-enue finances, should put effort into the revitalization and aware-ness of Auburn’s impact on life in Atlanta,” said Georgia State alum Sheena Williams.

Williams is a graduate of the African- American studies program. Most of her studies in-cluded Auburn Avenue.

“With a prominent business area and an emphasis on its re-markable history, Georgia State can definitely utilize this to and to the schools charisma and di-

versity,” Williams said. Youngblood was saddened

by Atlanta Life’s decision to sell its current building, but said that Georgia State buying the space did create an opportunity.

“Georgia State has always been here, but not with the force, frankly, that it’s here now,” Youngblood said. “It has the re-sources and it brings with it stu-dents and faculty, and opportu-nity to help us as we try and fig-ure out how Auburn Avenue can be the really special place that it should be.”

Youngblood believes it takes a community—a community Georgia State is a key member of. Georgia State has students, teachers and parents that have a lot to learn from Sweet Auburn.

“There’s a lesson, there’s something there that we should be mining not just economically but intellectually as well,” Young-blood said. “We are in a posi-tion, I think, to really rally all of the stakeholders, to see and view Auburn Avenue for the oppor-tunity it provides. We’re not just stuck in time.”

Georgia State’s Col-lege of Law will be the next to get a

change of scenery as a result of the Main Street Master Plan.

The College of Law is in line for state funding for a new building, but must wait on the legislature to approve the budget next spring. The budget for the project is $82.5 million.

If approved, construction would likely begin in the sum-mer or fall of 2013 and the facili-ty could open for classes in 2015.

Georgia Board of Regents submitted a request to the Gov-ernor’s office for $58.8 million in bond funding. That money is awaiting approval in next ses-sion’s legislature.

“[The College of Law is] so-liciting donations from alumni and law firms amongst other groups to help pay the differ-ence,” Hill said.

The new law building will

be constructed on land cur-rently occupied by a parking lot at the corner of J.W. Dobbs Av-enue and Park Place. Hill said the building will be seven floors with 130,000 sq. ft. of usable space for students, faculty and staff.

A new artist rendering of the project will be released later this semester.

Associate Dean for Admin-istration and Finance in the Col-lege of Law, Chip Hill, explained how the new facility will be “dedicated to legal scholarship and serving the community.” The College operates two pub-lic legal clinics and will have the opportunity to open more in its new space.

“The College of Law has grown organically in a facility not designed for law,” Hill said.

Space for guest speakers, student engagement, and com-munity involvement are some of the current building’s limi-tations. Currently, the College competes for University space and resources when hosting large events.

The design process has been a “Collaborative effort” between the SmithGroup architecture firm, the Student Bar Associa-tion, and faculty members, Hill said.

Features of the new law building will include a state-of-the-art library, a 200-seat moot courtroom and group study rooms to ensure that students have space to work.

The new building will also satisfy the University’s need for more communal space for stu-dents, according to Ramesh Vakamudi of Facilities Acquisi-tions and Operations.

Hill said that the new facil-ity will serve as “a recruiting tool for attracting top notch faculty, students, speakers and more.”

While the current enroll-ment at the College of Law is around 675, the new building’s capacity will be around 800 in order to accommodate future growth.

“We’re planning on being [at the new facility] for several decades or possibly even a cen-tury,” Hill said.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 05NEWS

Auburn Avenue ...continued from page 3

ALEX OSIADACZStaff Writer

Law set to buildCollege of Law will be the newest addition to Georgia State skyline

A vacant parking lot on the corner of J.W. Dobbs Ave and Park PL is the future home of the law building

A prototype housing unit for science graduate students will be built next to the Science Center

The recently purchased Atlanta Life Building will house the President and VP offices as well as the welcome center and Honors college.

Intramurals fields will be rut near Old Wheat Street, walking distance from student housing.

MAP COURTESY OF GOOGLEGeorgia State has a number of projects still working out their final design decisions.

CANDRA UMUNNA | THE SIGNALThe Atlanta Life Building is surrounded by Sweet Auburn history.

The Alumni Association will go to 60 Piedmont.

Page 6: Vol. 80 No. 3

We’ve all heard some one say “I don’t do drugs,” but in this

day and age, how many people can honestly say it? We live in a society so medicated that who can draw the line at what is and isn’t a “drug?”

We all know that college is a time of experimentation and ex-ploration, and it’s no secret that experimental drug use and col-lege years go hand-in-hand. It’s a time to find yourself and learn your limits, and there is nothing wrong with trying something out now and then, as long as you keep it under control.

That being said, as the popu-lation of kids who grew up dur-ing the war on drugs “zero-tol-erance” era reaches college age, they seem to have a strange frag-mented concept on what quali-fies as “drugs” and what doesn’t.

And it isn’t entirely their fault. My fellow classmates and I grew

up in an era where prescription drugs are advertised on televi-sion and in magazines. Our lives are inundated with chemicals that are designed to cure what ails us and enhance our day-to-day experiences. Pharmaceuti-cal companies have done such a good job of normalizing the cul-ture of drugs that we’ve become a society where it’s acceptable to advertise drugs to people who probably don’t need them.

“Ask your Doctor about tak-ing [insert brand-name drug here].” Really? If I’m in a situation where I feel like I need to suggest treatment options to my doctor, I must be in the wrong hospital.

I’ll bet that if you asked your typical college student if they do drugs, chances are they’d say “no,” since most of the drugs they enjoy have been normalized to a point that they don’t even reg-ister to them as a mind-altering substance. Ask them to name the drugs that they don’t do and you’ll probably come up with a list like: heroin, cocaine, meth and crack. Chances are they won’t mention Adderall or alco-hol.

If I snorted meth everyday and shot up heroin every night, my community of peers would ostracize me. If I took Adderall every day and got drunk every night, I’d be a big man on cam-pus. All four substances can have fatal consequences, yet two of them are perfectly socially ac-

ceptable to abuse.In the same vein, use of phar-

maceutical opiates has been nor-malized among my generation. It’s okay to recreationally take codeine pills, but snorting heroin is different. Chemically, these drugs have the same effect on your body but entirely different effects on your social life.

Maybe what most people mean when they say, “I don’t do drugs” is “I don’t do drugs recreationally.” And that’s a fair enough statement, unless you drink alcohol. In that case: hold your tongue, because alcohol is a drug, and you use it.

In short, my generation’s drug use has been normalized to take the profits out of the pockets of the drug dealers, and give it to the drug manufacturers. At the end of the day, it’s still all drugs.

Be careful out there, kids, and remember just because it came in a bottle instead of a baggie doesn’t make it not drugs.

OPINIONS www.gsusignal.com/opinions

Bottles & Baggies

MILES KEENLYSIDEOpinions Editor

...it’s no secret

that experimen-

tal drug use

and college

years go hand-

in-hand.”

Many of us might like to have a nice, high wage career some day after

finishing up at Georgia State. Un-fortunately, these types of jobs are becoming much more competitive and harder to find for recent grad-uates. If this sounds overwhelm-ing, don’t get discouraged. Here are some tips for those hoping to start a career after graduating:

The school offers job fairs where companies send out representatives to scout out students as potential em-

ployees and interns. At all of these events the ratio of people looking for work and jobs available can be intimidating. This is why all job fair events should be kept a secret. If you ever see signs for a job fair, try your best to sabotage the sign in a misleading kind of way (change the dates and locations). When people ask you if you have any idea when or where the job fair is, tell them to go open a bunch of tabs on Craig-slist and find work that way instead. Not only does that make the pool of applicants smaller, but also it shows employers that you take initiative and can overcome obstacles.

Most people trying to find work send out applications and resumes. Stand out from

the crowd by sending pictures of me instead.

If you’re lucky a company might just call you up and ask to schedule an interview.

Congratulations! You’re almost there, but not quite yet. Interviews can make or break you, so instead of going to the interview and ruining your chances, let me fill in for you. I’m glad to help out my colleagues by going to your interview instead.

When you finally get that high wage career offer from an employer, don’t be so quick to accept it. What if this

job isn’t for you? Again I’m here for you. I can just accept the position for you, get a feel of the place, and then I can get better insight into whether this job is right for you.

Job tips

KEVIN MALONEYColumnist

3.)

1.)

2.)

4.)

Editorial

You should buy the Atlanta Dai-ly World’s original building.

We know, we know…it has had better days.

Since the Atlanta Daily World moved out of its original location, it has withstood some challenges.

For starters, it was hit by a tor-nado in 2008.

Atlanta Daily World publisher and owner of the property Alexis Scott fears that the building is be-yond repair; it has been vacant for more than 25 years.

But we see lots of potential.It would be a bit like starting

from scratch. There have been pre-vious project ideas that suggested rebuilding the structure and keep-ing the original façade and founda-tions.

Well, if a new building needs to be constructed anyway, then what’s the point?

It would still be a landmark. The building is trashed no matter how you look at it. It can sit there and continue to rot, or it can be rebuilt to look the same to honor its great legacy.

Sure, it will cost a little money.Money that I’m sure you can

charm out of a few donors with ease. It’s a great story.

Renovation of the original building for the first black daily newspaper in Atlanta would go over well with the masses. It’s a win- win: folks on Auburn Avenue have been praying for help to rebuild their street. Members of the greater Atlanta community that have been part of the effort to rebuild Sweet Auburn will admire Georgia State’s good will. Student, alums, faculty and staff will be proud of a univer-sity that can take time to help re-build the community it is a part of.

Plus you’re moving in across the street. It’s better than baking muffins or getting a Jell-O mold to make nice with your new neigh-bors.

What do you suggest that we do with the building, you ask?

There are a number of things that you could do with the new-and-improved building. One idea, we think, is to put social media programs in it.

Think of the statement that would make: new student pro-grams under a historic roof. It would be a great declaration to the community about Georgia State’s commitment to the neighborhood and to its growing media programs.

Hopefully you will see the po-tential too.

“Hey President Becker,”

2012 Modern Media ConferenceFriday, Sept. 28 and Saturday, Sept. 29

23 speakers. 2 days. Everything you need to know about journalism.

Editorial Cartoon

Page 7: Vol. 80 No. 3

I ran into an old friend from high school last week. She arrived on my doorstep with

my roommates in tow at one in the morning. For the first time in five years we had a beer together. I can’t say we were ever close. I can’t say we did anything more than share a common experience and mutual friends. But here she was, on my doorstep, at one in the morning.

We quickly fell into old hab-its, off the back porch. We traded platitudes and hugs before turning toward barbs and embarrassing sto-ries of the past. I hate this game; it always ends in me being called con-ceited or suburban. But our game didn’t play out as it always had. This girl in a thin white blouse, her per-son crowded in designed affecta-

tions looked me dead in the eye and said the meanest thing she could muster: “You haven’t changed since high school.”

Floored.I knew it was nothing, less than

nothing, coming from a girl who’d had too much to drink, but I’ve been thinking on these words since. I was thinking about these words, as she turned from our talk and ran into the backyard to play with my room-mate’s dog.

How do we measure change? How do we measure personal growth? I pay bills now. I have responsibili-ties—adult responsibilities. I carry more weight now than when I was a boy, and I believe when I look into a mirror this shows through my eyes. So, why am I caught up on this slight made by a plasticine girl?

It’s two thirty in the morning and she’s shouting now, tripping through the wet grass. Every time she slips, she rises, carrying more green and brown splotches from the lawn: the dog’s bathroom. The third time she rises, I realize I had been cruel.

I don’t like the words phony, hip-ster or quirky; these expressions define the speaker more than the person being labeled and placed in a box. What I should have done

in this situation was only smile. I should have let it go. I wonder what my reaction would have been if she were a stranger, if her’s had been just another vacant face whose en-tire cultural relevance changed as one removes or puts on a shirt. But, when she spoke through that terse smile, “you haven’t changed since high school,” my response echoed back, “you think for someone who tries so hard, you would learn to pull your punches.” In an instant I was made a hypocrite.

I made myself as shallow, as cold as what I disliked. She was hurt then, but now she’s playing with the dog, making uneasy eye-contact. She had only called me simple, I pointed out all the fissures in how she shows herself to the world. That she was fake.

I watched her stumble, fall and rise again in the yard. I went inside and found a clean shirt. She wasn’t a stranger. She was someone I had a shared history with. A person I shared friends with. Underneath the DIY haircut was another person try-ing to find out who they are. Does anyone change? Maybe, maybe not, but all anyone wants at this stage is to get out of the valley of adoles-cence not covered in shit.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 07OPINIONS

Editorial DepartmentEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sabastian [email protected]

ONLINE EDITOR Anna [email protected]

PRODUCTION DESIGNER Aysha [email protected]

ASSISTANT DESIGNER Anna [email protected]

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ARTS & LIVING EDITOR Chateaux Capri [email protected]

SPORTS EDITOR Ismael [email protected]

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Patrick [email protected]

OPINIONS EDITOR Miles [email protected]

COPY EDITOR Laura [email protected]

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Andres Cruz-Wellman

ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR Nicole Holman

ASSISTANT LIVING EDITOR Leah Jordan

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR Tiffanie Smith

Marketing Department

Marketing MANAGER Chris [email protected]

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MISSION STATEMENTThe Signal shall provide, in a fair and accurate manner, news of interest and significance to the Georgia State University community and serve as a forum for the expression of ideas of members of that community. Furthermore, The Signal shall

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DISCLAIMEROpinions and Letters to the Editor expressed in The Signal are the opinions of the writers and readers. It does not reflect the opinions of The Signal.

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THE SIGNAL STAFF

The school year has begun again and for many of us it’s back to business as

usual: late nights of procrastination, treasuring precious moments of sleep—things we’re use to. For oth-ers, such as our new Class of 2016 and a few others, life has changed dramatically. No more teachers that take the time to invest heavily in each student, no more being in-volved in every single club, and no more parents breathing down one’s neck...at least not as much. For those newly initiated to college life, I’d like to offer a bit of unsolicited advice.

Let me begin by saying you’re only a freshman for a year, but you’re

in college for four (five or six for some). When you’re in school hav-ing the time of your life, YOLO-ing it up, it’s easy to forget that what you do now affects the rest of your life. Just know that your grades now af-fect your GPA that you’ll be using to apply for internships next fall, the internship that will determine the connections you’ll make, which will determine what kind of job offer you get upon graduation. All of this stuff matters, so turn up, but don’t turn out!

Now, after maintaining that de-cent GPA, you’ll probably want to strengthen your resume with some-thing else—campus involvement. In high school it was acceptable to be involved in a lot, but in college you do not want to spread yourself too thin. It is best to become involved in a few select activities, and become influential in those areas. Employ-ers what to know what you’ve done, not what you’ve joined. By being in-volved in organizations that you re-ally care about you’ll also meet oth-ers that also care, and you’ll make some important connections. These people around you are going to be the future CEOs of companies, en-

trepreneurs of tomorrow, people you’re going to want on your team. Make a positive name for yourself on campus.

Last but not least, date selec-tively. I cannot stress how important your reputation is. You do not want to become known as THAT guy or THAT girl. Of course, you’re in col-lege to have a some fun, experiment a little and do some things that you could NEVER do in your parents house, but be aware that someone is always watching. Whether it be a member of the greek organization you want to join or the president of that organization you want to be a part of, someone is aware of who you are and what you are known for on campus. When it comes to dat-ing people, unfortunately, get very sensitive, and even if no one should care who you talk to or who you do “other things” with, there is going to be someone who wants to hold your personal life against you. Guard your reputation with your life.

Well, folks, I think I have giv-en enough of my two cents for the moment. Heed my advice, because when you get to senior year it will be too late to go back.

Unsolicited advice: turned up or turned out?

DESTANY CALDWELL Columnist

If you were given the opportunity to choose what kind of facility Georgia State would build or purchase, what would you want?

Kate VlasovaMajor: Marketing

China EasternMajor: Film

Shalin GyontishiMajor: General Science

“I think I would probably like to have a study lounge.”

“More dorms so the cost of living on campus can go down and I can have more options.”

“I would like to see more improvements at [the Petit Science Center]...because I know that a lot of universities that grow do it through their science program.”

YOUR VOICE • YOUR OPINIONS

Terry WomackMajor: Music Management

“I would like to see more dorms on campus.”

“I like it the way it is. Of course I’m a non-traditional student and a math major so all the classes I have are [in the general classrooms].”

Dany DelanyMath Major

“More classrooms. Some classes are really overcrowded, and like for me this semester some of classes I needed to get in I didn’t get in.”

Lahbadoe Pinder Major: Biology

The Visit

JAMES MCDOUGALDColumnist

Page 8: Vol. 80 No. 3

ARTS & LIVING

9/28 - 9/29 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at Student Center

Page 9: Vol. 80 No. 3

ARTS & LIVING

Dr agon * C on , one of the larg-est science fic-tion and fan-

tasy conventions in the nation, took over downtown Atlanta this labor day weekend as fans celebrated an extensive canon of their favorite pop culture fig-ures and themes.

The conference encom-passes five large downtown hotels: The Marriott, the Hyatt Regency, the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, The Hilton and The Sheraton. Visitors to the conference often make appear-ances masquerading as their favorite characters. It attracts thousands of fans to Atlanta each year, clogging the streets with costumed revelry.

With Dragon*Con tak-ing place so close to campus, the event attracts a number of Georgia State students each year.

Georgia State student Sa-mantha Osburn was one of the students The Signal caught up with at the convention this year.

This year was Osburn’s first year at Georgia State, and also her first time attending the convention. She was dressed as Sailor Venus from the popular anime show of her childhood “Sailor Moon.”

“Sailor Venus was always one of my favorites, so its really exciting to get to portray her…I was more excited about dress-ing up than actually going,” Os-burn said.

Her friends shared her ex-citement about getting dressed up for the convention.

Georgia State student Brendan Lindsay said his por-trayal of Captain Jack Harkness from the cult favorite British television show “Dr. Who” took a lot of time and effort to put to-gether, but he still managed to save money on his costume.

“It was very cheap…this

jacket you can [get] for $300 online, but I went to an Army-Navy [surplus] and bought a 25 buck version…it’s fantastic,” Lindsay said. Although he got a bargain on his vestments, some costumed fans (or cos-players) admit to shelling out hundreds of dollars for their garments.

Lindsay’s friend and fellow student Alex Davis compares Dragon*Con to a holiday.

“This is indeed Christ-mas…it’s a three day long beau-tiful thing, it’s what we revolve our years around,” Davis said.

The excitement of planning echoed in the other student’s sentiments as well.

“Planning the costume is just as fun as wearing it,” Os-burn said.

This year marked Davis’s sixth Dragon*Con. Davis first attended the conference at the age of 16 with his friend Matt Quinones. Now Georgia State students, Davis and Quinones attended this year’s convention together.

Both Davis and Quinones chose to attend the convention dressed up as different manifes-tations of “The Doctor” from the “Dr. Who” series.

Quinones said the he first went to the convention at the age of 14, and he has been hooked ever since.

Osburn explained that at-tendees get excited about imi-tating their favorite characters because they get to “see other people living their childhoods through us.”

All of the students shared the same sentiment about Dragon*Con: it isn’t just for nerds.

“It’s for anyone that enjoys pop culture,” Lindsay said.

Georgia State senior Ca-mille Jenkins attended the con-ference for her first time this year alongside the other stu-dents. She said there was “defi-nitely” something there for ev-eryone.

“Dragon*Con is amazing,” Davis said. “I hope that anyone who has some kind of interest here will actually come experi-ence it.”

MILES KEENLYSIDEKENDALL HARRIS

Opinions EditorStaff Reporter

The *Conthis citydeserves

ILLUSTRATION BY SABASTIAN WEEINK AND GRAPHICS BY AYSHA JOHNSON

Page 10: Vol. 80 No. 3

“Uuuuugh-hhghhh-hhh..........” he said. “uuugghh ugghhh...”

A thanks to the real superheroes of dragon*con

TESTIMONY ACCEPTED

On a dragon for con

The *Con

has landed

Dragon*Con invades the

streets of Atlan

ta

This year’s Dragon*Con parade

started in Woodruff

Park and

went down Peac

htree Street

towards the loc

ation of the

convention near

the Marriott,

Hyatt, Westin, Sheraton and

Hilton hotels. Each year

convention-goers tur

n out in

droves to march

in the parade

with others of s

imilar ilk.

Steampunk costum

es, pirates,

zombies, G.I. Joes, Star Wars

stormtroopers, G

hostbusters

and many more sh

ow up to

start off the fe

stivities with a

spectacle that

anyone downtown

would have a har

d time missing.

Page 11: Vol. 80 No. 3

Atlanta’s 501st legion in full force

IGNORE ME!

The Ice Man cometh!

Netherworld terror! MILES KEENLYSIDE | THE SIGNAL

Page 12: Vol. 80 No. 3

Alex Morrison isn’t just the drummer for a popular local band.

He’s also the president of Geor-gia State’s Jewish Fraternity, Al-pha Epsilon Pi, and he’s one of the friendliest people you could ever meet.

Between gigs with the Wesley Cook Band, the 22 year-old be-havioral psychology major also dabbles in heavy metal, charity events and medicine. Needless to say, Morrison is a busy guy. But he loves making music.

Morrison was thrilled when he got the chance to play drums with Wesley Cook; he was a fan of Cook’s music long before the opportunity presented itself. The band consists of six people, and Morrison said he gets along well with all of them. He’s even known a few of them for much longer than he’s known Cook.

“I’ve actually known most of them my entire life,” Morrison said. “The bass player is one of my best friends from elemen-tary school.”

Aside from his happy-go-lucky attitude, Morrison said he’s received extra help handling all of his responsibilities.

“It is tough,” Morrison said. “I think the thing that’s helped me the most is that the last president of my fraternity basi-

cally...showed me the magic of Google.”

Morrison said he keeps his schedule organized by checking class syllabi immediately after he gets them each semester and entering important dates into his calendar.

Despite being incredibly or-ganized, Morrison still makes time to have fun. He plays ex-treme frisbee in Piedmont Park in his spare time, and he’s even working on a side project.

“I still play with one of my buddies from high school,” Mor-rison said. “We’ve actually been trying to start a metal band for the longest time.”

The name for his in-the-works metal band is Morier, which he said means “death” in Spanish. Morrison said the name started as a joke but then it stuck because one of his favor-ite bands is “Death” from Swe-den.

He’s now been with the Wes-ley Cook Band for about 2 years and enjoys working with Cook, who Morrison calls a “supreme workaholic.”

“He’s such a light and warm-hearted person,” Morrison said. “…Even after playing he goes out into the crowd and intro-duces himself to new fans and says hi to old fans.”

He brought up a specific in-cident when the band played a “ridiculously long” four-hour set yet Cook still took the time to interact with his fans after-

wards.Cook’s determination seems

to have rubbed off on Morri-son—he’s so dedicated to the band that he once played a show with a broken hand—a tough feat for a drummer.

As for his future as a musi-

cian, Morrison said he would love to continue his music ca-reer and has always had a dream of playing in the Atlanta Sym-phony Orchestra.

But his Plan A is to “either go into business or even medicine, ‘cause my dad was a doctor.”

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 12 A&L

column

According to an article from the Huffington Post, stu-dents are getting lazier when

it comes to their schoolwork. A student posted on Yahoo Answers that she need-ed a full summary and list of important parts of DC Pierson’s “The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To.” She claims she didn’t have time to finish it.

“I REALLY need this! AND it’s not because I’m slacking,” she said in the post.

Pierson himself responded to her post, causing a national reaction to the situation. He lightly reprimanded her and explained that his book actually has “a ton more sex, swearing, and drugs than anything else you have been or will be assigned in high school.”

Many other people commented on the thread, both reprimanding and en-couraging the student to read. The article went on to comment on school reading level statistics being quite low in the U.S.

Perhaps this is because our genera-tion has a world of knowledge right at our fingertips. One click of the mouse and most questions can be answered instantly. With resources like Google, Yahoo Answers, Ask.com and others, it could be that students are not challeng-ing themselves anymore. A few Georgia State students, who prefer to remain un-named, shared some ways that they cut corners in school.

“Sometimes I get overwhelmed with my workload. There are some things that just won’t get done unless I use the inter-net as a resource,” said a senior student.

But it can’t all be the fault of the stu-dents. After all, they are only utilizing the tools in front of them. Farmers use wheelbarrows to transport things that they don’t want to carry. Mathemati-cians use calculators so they don’t have to write everything on paper. None of these people are considered lazy for using the inventions that benefit them.

“I Google everything just to double-check myself,” a junior student said.

Perhaps students have wizened up to the fact that they can find almost any straight answer online. They know the ar-eas of their schoolwork that they have to spend more time focusing on, and those they don’t. With the insane demand placed on students as a direct result of the economy, students have to optimize the time they have.

“Fake it ‘til you make it,” said a sopho-more student.

So, perhaps the Internet needs to be accepted for what it is: a gigantic tool. It’s a body of free and useful information and knowledge. It is the responsibility of teachers to give assignments that the In-ternet can’t answer. That’s not to say that everything is the fault of the teachers—it’s a combination of students, teachers and demand. Of course, there are lazy stu-dents out there, but there are lazy every-bodys out there.

BRITTANY BROWNStaff Writer

Indolence! Optimizing time or slacking?

Metal and medicine

KENDALL HARRISStaff Reporter

FRANK ARSICS | THE SIGNALAlex Morrison juggles his music, fraternity and school life.

Best Decorated Dorms

Residents:Tyler Weaver (early childhood educa-tion major) and Nick Bello

Location:University Commons

“I wanted to make this space mine and Nick’s. We have very different tastes, but it came together very well. Modern & antiques brought together bring it together in the colors & mix anything,” Weaver said.

Residents:Andrew Winterfeld (sophomore and computer science major) and Jared Young (computer information systems major)

Location:The Lofts

“I like being here much more [than home],” Winterfeld said. “We actually have space this year!”

Dorm #1

Dorm #2

Fraternity president balances rock and school

LEAH JORDAN | THE SIGNAL

Page 13: Vol. 80 No. 3

Featured Events

calendarSeptember 3rdBraves Vs. RockiesTurner Field(1:10 P.M.) The Braves play a baseball game right up the street at our home-team’s stadium. Hot dogs, nachos or ice-cold beer, anyone?

September 5th -11thThe King and IWed.-Fri. and Tues. 8 p.m.Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.Sun. 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. Tues. 8 p.m.The well-known love story of a stubborn king and a determined governess comes to the Fox in Atlan-ta this week. Tickets range from $25-65. Students can purchase discounted tick-ets online.

September 6th-9th44th Annual Yellow Daisy Festival Thurs., Fri., and Sun. 10 A.M. - 6 P.M.

Sat. 10 P.M. - 7:30 P.M.The Yellow Daisy Festival, Georgia’s most prized Arts and Crafts Festivals, will be held at Stone Mountain

Park. More than 400 art-ists and crafters will fea-ture their work.

Fashion’s Night Out at Lenox Square6-9 p.m.An evening of deals for shopping fanatics at Lenox Mall. The first 100 shoppers to visit Guest Services receive a bag full of offers and samples.

The Jesus and Mary ChainVariety Playhouse(8:30 PM)Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983.

Chris IsaakCobb Energy Perform-ing Arts CenterAmerican rock musician and occasional actor.

September 7thTrain at Chastain Park (6 P.M.)The popular pop rock band from California is visiting Atlanta on their current tour. They will be performing at Chastain Park Ampitheatre. Mat Ke-arney and Andy Grammar will also be performing.

The Tabernacle (7:30 P.M)TNA Impact Wrestling World Tour presented by Direct Auto Insurance brings your favorite Im-pact Superstars to Atlanta.

Bolder and Fresher Tour 2012 (8 P.M.)Cobb Energy Perform-ing Arts CentreBill O’Reilly and Den-nis Miller team up for an evening of references and rants! See www.bolder-freshertour.com for ticket information and direc-tions.

September 8thThe Battle of the Burgers and 5K (9 A.M. & 12-5 P.M.)Virginia HighlandsAfter a 5K in the morn-ing, restaurants team up to support Embraced, a non-profit organization that shares gently used medical equipment, to see who can make the best burger. See www.batt leof theburgers .com for ticket information and directions.

Great Atlanta Beer Festival at Turner Field(3-8 P.M.)

The Great Atlanta Beer Festival returns to At-lanta for its second year. Over 150 beers will be featured and participants will be able to play games in Scout’s Alley and enjoy live music. College foot-ball and the Braves vs. Mets will be shown on the big screens.

The Masquerade(5:30 P.M.)Blackberry SmokeAtlanta based band is growing to be “the pre-miere Southern Rock band in America”.

Chastain Park AmpitheatereCharlie WilsonAmerican R&B singer-songwriter-producer and the former lead vocalist for the Gap Band.

The Tabernacle(8 P.M.)YeasayerAmerican psychedelic pop band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2006.

Georgia State Foot-ball (4 P.M.)The Panthers face the University of Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville at Neyland Stadium at 4 p.m.

September 9th Chukkar Farm & Polo Club Taste of Polo(1 P.M - 5 P.M )A fundraising event for children with developmen-tal disabilities. There is a day of polo and a showcase of Atlanta restaurants.

Park Tavern(6:00 P.M.)99X Unplugged in the Park Presents Delta SaintsFree!

September 10How Sweet The Sound Tour (7:30 P.M.)Verizon-sponsored How Sweet the Sound, a com-petition to select the best church choir in America, is coming to Phillips Are-na on Sept. 10. Judges in-clude Cece Winans, Erica Campbell and Bishop He-zikiah Walker.

September 11The Civic Center8 P.M.Bruce BruceAmerican actor and stand-up comedian from Atlanta, Georgia.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 13

On CampusBlue at the Zoo Sept 7th 5:30 P.M-10:00 P.M Spotlight Programs Board and Georgia State Campus Events present Blue at the Zoo locat-ed at Zoo Atlanta! Enjoy free food, live music, caricature art-ists, and of course the animals! Tickets are on sale at Campus Tickets in the University Center now! $5 for Georgia State Stu-dents and $10 for Non- Georgia State Students! Children under 2 are free! Georgia State is taking over the Zoo! We will also have a Student Organization Fair at the zoo!

DOwntOwnMetro Atlanta ChamberStrut Your Vote Fashion ShowSept 6th 2012 7 P.M.-11 P.MThe event’s goal is to increase voter registration and encourage the community to vote. This fashion show will celebrate fashion, beauty and music. Some of the ticket sale proceeds will benefit the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia. It’s a great cause hoping to get a message across to the people of Atlanta, so go show your support on Thursday September 6th.

Cirque Motion: AwakenMICHAEL EDEN

Photographer

On Aug. 25, a moderately sized crowd gathered inside the Playhouse on 14th Street to

see a humorous, yet awe-inspiring con-temporary circus performance. Once the set’s break bell rang, the lights dimmed and the four performers sprung to their feet and executed their acts of back flip-ping, balancing, juggling and knife wield-ing. Their acts did not skimp on danger. The audience gasped at performer Tony Duncan as he ate a piece of cheese from

the tip of one of the three blades he was juggling, which was accomplished with the help of several au-dience members. Keith Kaplin also received some unsettling reactions from the crowd as he balanced on a board resting on cylinders that were on top of a table. While the four perform-ers gave the impression they were all about business, they were truly about en-tertainment.

MIKE EDEN | THE SIGNAL

Page 14: Vol. 80 No. 3

Owl City has put together another mediocre, forget-

table album, “Midsummer Sta-tion,” released on Aug. 22.

After its very popular hit, “Fireflies,” which came out in 2009 on the record “Ocean Eyes,” Owl City has failed to re-lease anything quite as impres-sive.

Every song on this track sounds exactly the same—and would fit in perfectly with Ryan Seacrest’s “ATL Top 40” list. Only “Embers” and “Silhou-

ette” are paced slower than the rest of the upbeat dance tunes that make up the other songs in the album.

Even the lyrics fail to im-press. The albums’ opening song, “Dreams and Disasters,” contains the cheesy and poor-ly written “Follow the light through the dreams and disas-ters/Think, of the sun, and the sound, of it rising.../I wanna feel alive forever.”

The lyrics get worse as the album goes on as Adam Young repetitively sings “Love is a high-speed chase racing down the street/I’m coming af-ter you,” in the fifth track, “I’m Coming After You.” He even

mimics the sound of a siren in between each “I’m coming af-ter you.” The song paints Adam Young as the “police officer,” and the girl he loves as “under arrest.”

To put the icing on the cake, Carly Rae Jepsen, the young artist who sings the very popular “Call Me Maybe,” is featured in the seventh track, “Good Time.”

Perfect for a Disney Chan-nel Music Video, this album is clearly geared towards those who like listening to Big Time Rush—Nickelodeon’s popu-lar boy band—or enjoy jam-ming out to poorly written pop tunes.

This album is a drone compared to Morissette’s ear-

lier work. Hearing her music in 2012 is like a blast from the past, but the 90s would not call back for this album. Sadly, I think Morissette has gone downhill with this one.

Morissette had so many memorable hits, still popular today. “You Oughta Know,” from her third album “Jag-ged Little Pill,” is an ang-sty and fierce tune and her deeply moving “Thank You,”

from the album Supposed Former Infatuation Junk-ie, which brought people to tears. There’s also the famous “Hand in my Pocket,” which is one of the best tracks to lis-ten to on a ride to the beach.

But this new album, “Havoc and Bright Lights,” is slow and drawn out. Many of the songs, such as “Hav-oc,” are pretty, but they go on forever without any real rise and fall. They stay in a con-stant frame that doesn’t move much and are great to take naps to.

For example, “Guardian,” the single released in May, just has no punch. Moris-

sette’s voice and background music are as beautiful as ever, but she has lost an edge that was so characteristic of her earlier music. The best track is “Numb,” which shows a little bit of inner struggle—always a strength for Moris-sette.

It seems there is no real point Morissette is trying to make; instead, she’s making one continuous comment about her life. Since the mak-ing of her last album “Flavors of Entanglement” Morissette got married and had a baby. Maybe she is less restless and her music reflects that change.

Owl City | “The Midsummer Station”

“Bachelorette” or Bust

Bachelorette” is the lat-est movie to try and recreate “The Hang-

over,” but like “Bridesmaids,” the movie seems to prove that wom-en are just as funny as men.

First-time director and writer Leslye Headland enlisted the help of producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to put together an incredibly talented cast. Rebel Wilson from “Bridesmaids” gives a standout performance in the film as Becky, the bride-to-be and formerly geeky friend of charac-ters played by Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan. Dunst plays maid of honor Regan who calls Katie (Fisher) and Gena (Caplan) after learning the news that their friend was getting mar-ried to do what girls do: insult their friend behind her back.

Regan, a self-centered per-fectionist, works with pediatric cancer patients. Dunst plays her perfectly, at times making you hate Regan and at times making

you want to kiss her for being so on the ball. Katie, the endearingly dim friend who can’t hold a job, somehow manages not to be-come the butt of the joke. Fisher plays Katie with such innocence that it is hard to dislike her. How-ever, the real star of the film is Lizzy Caplan, as the drug ad-dicted Gena. Gena, a thirty-year-old woman still in love with her ex-boyfriend from high school, drowns her sorrows in cocaine, alcohol and one-night stands. Gena and Katie deliver the best lines in the movie by far.

The title suggests that this is a movie about friends who en-dure a crazy bachelorette party the night before Becky’s wedding. In fact, Becky’s actual bachelor-ette party lasts a total of five min-utes before her mother breaks it up and everybody goes to bed ex-cept for Regan, Katie and Gena, who do cocaine and then rip Becky’s wedding dress. The rest of the movie follows the three friends trying to figure out how to fix the mess they’ve created.

For the few hits “Bachelor-ette” has, there are a lot of miss-es. Most of the punch lines are

funny simply because they are so ridiculous. At one point, tu-pon learning Regan drove Gena to her abortion appointment in high school, Katie screams, “You guys had an abortion and didn’t invite me!?”

For a movie that is marketed as a raunchy comedy, it lacks the charm that makes movies like this genuinely funny. There are few moments in the film that will make you laugh out loud because most of the time you’re cringing at the often-hurtful things the girls say to each other.

This is easily the most honest portrayal of female friendships in a movie from the past ten years. For all the awful things that the four friends say about and to one another, there is never any doubt that they genuinely care for each other. They are flawed, overly dramatic, and utterly ridiculous characters that are meant for more of a “dramedy” setting and less of a comedy one. The best moments in the film come when the girls are serious and intro-spective, bringing a surprisingly poignant and real layer to this girls-behaving-badly comedy.

Director: Lorene ScafariaCast: Steve Carell, Kiera Knightley

Synopsis: An asteroid is set to collide with the earth in three weeks, threatening to end all life. Dodge and Penny embark on a road trip togeth-er to see her family one last time and search for his high school sweetheart. On the open road they meet strange characters, bond over past re-grets and learn what humans are really capable of when the end of the world is nearing.

Running Time: 101 minutesRotten Tomatoes: 53% (certified rotten)MPAA: Rated R for sexual references, some drug use, and some violenceShowtimes: Monday – Friday: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m.Weekends: 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m.

CROOKED COWBOY & THE FRESHWATER INDIANS

ANALOG & HER HOPEFUL DIARIES10HEAVENLY BEATTALENT9MAGIC CASTLESMAGIC CASTLES89TH WONDERTUTANKHAMEN (VALLEY OF THE KINGS)7DIIVOSHIN6NETSKYNETSKY 25ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITIMATURE THEMES4POOLSIDEPACIFIC STANDARD TIME3APOLLO BROWN & O.C.TROPHIES2GROUNDISLAVAFEEL ME1

reviewsTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 14

MUSIC

LAURA APPERSONCopy Editor

MOVIES

NOW PLAYING AT

CINEFEST

Alanis Morissette | “Havoc and Bright Lights”

MACKENZIE SEIGLERStaff Reporter

BRITTANY BROWNStaff Reporter

Rating: D-Worst Track: “I’m Coming After You”Release Date: August 22, 2012

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Grade: C Best Track: “Numb”Release Date: August 28, 2012

Grade: B+Running time: 1:27:08Rating: RRotten Tomatoes Average Rating: 6.1/10

Page 15: Vol. 80 No. 3

INVITE YOU TO A PRIVATE SCREENING OF

Main Stage at 14th Street Playhouse | 173 14th Street NE, Atlanta, GA | Friday, 9.7.12 @ 7pm

Gift bags! Cool prizes! Refreshments!Bring your friends!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 15A&L | REVIEWSTECHNOLOGY

At The Pool

In Mid-July this year, UCLA grad Alex Capace-latro, along with other stu-

dents, launched Atthepool.com. The site is exploding on college campuses, launching at The Uni-versity of Georgia about a week ago and Brigham Young Universi-ty on Aug. 27. At The Pool is tear-ing down the cyberwalls of the internet by making it easier for students and young professionals to network.

The site is set up like a pool party, the founders playing host by matching people up who have similar interests and locations. It’s organized into online “pools;” each interest has its own where other people interested are “swim-ming.” It’s all geared towards meeting new people (instead of stalking them) who, in theory, are people who could then meet up in real life. The hosts even threw the site’s first “real” pool party in L.A. recently, where people who met on the site could come meet in person. According to their blog, they plan to host more parties in other cities around the U.S. as the site grows.

Here’s how it starts: sign up to join, then wait to be invited. To do this, tell the people at the pool what makes you so great. Then, wait for the email invite to join the site. Honestly, it comes across as a bit pretentious in the begin-ning, as the site markets itself as an “exclusive” online site. It’s re-ally not that exclusive.

Once you accept, describe yourself in five words or less (but I had six and they didn’t taze me). It’s up to the individual who they choose to meet. The choices are: only men/women who want friends, only men/women inter-ested in dating, all of them at the same time, only two, etc. Then, pick out which pools are the most interesting. Those are the pools where you will meet other people interested in that same category. For example, the “foodie” pool is where foodies meet other foodies.

The site also syncs up to Face-book, pulling all of the informa-tion from it so things such as interests, favorite quotes, etc. will not have to be typed all over again.

Next, upload a few thumbnails of yourself and answer some ques-tions, like “Why are you so awe-some?” The five (or six) words describing yourself are posted on the profile page, along with a big

picture and a thumbnail picture. Voila! You’re ready to go meet people! Each person is matched up with someone new every day, and they have about a day or so to get acquainted.

The layout is simple to navi-gate; Facebook is more compli-cated than this site. However, it is a VERY new site. There are occa-sional browser glitches.

What’s great about this site is that there are no status updates that everyone could care less about, or 456 pictures of some-one’s new red, wrinkly baby. They also include a list of sugges-tions, one of them being “Don’t be Creepy”. They actually lay out how to not be a creeper, how to not offend people or be offended by people, and, overall, how to make the best of your experience At The Pool. Both hilarious and helpful, perhaps this simple list will be what keeps the site afloat and the Craigslist Personal mu-tants at bay.

BRITTANY BROWNStaff Reporter

Could this be the new networking site?

Cost: FreeFor More Info: www.atthepool.comGrade: A

Wondering what to do after graduation?

Peace Corps is a life-defining leadership experience you will draw upon throughout your life. The most significant accomplishment will be the contribution you make to improve the lives of others.

Live, learn, and workwith a community overseas.

Submit your online application by September 30th to be considered for an assignment departing before October 2013.

www.peacecorps.gov/apply/

For more info, contact Becky [email protected] / 404.562.3456

Stay Connected || Facebook || Twitter || YouTube || Flickr || Tumblr || LinkedIn

Page 16: Vol. 80 No. 3

Let us help you survive college.

Research workshops every week.

Research tutorials anytime/anywhere.

Research experts available to help.

LIBRARY.TRUST.

library.gsu.edu/researchsuccess

SUDOKU

CROSS WORD

games&suchWORD SEARCH

7 5 3 6 8 9

7 5

5 2 4

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9 5 1 2 3 8

Puzzle 1 (Hard, difficulty rating 0.60)

Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/~jdhildeb/software/sudokugen/ on Tue Aug 28 01:28:56 2012 GMT. Enjoy!

ACROSS

4.) Some sites are blocked from Georgia State computers. This is what?5.) Georgia State football coach retiring after 2012 season6.) Georgia State school getting national attention7.) When football players practiced

DOWN

1.) Which Georgia State sports team will play in Athens on August 24th?2.) Holiday weekend coming up3.) Block party dedicated to which class of students5.) Group of students who went to The Olympics in London over the summer6.) Georgia State’s mascot

REGENTSHEALTHMONEYDRAGONDRUGBANDTRAGEDY

VEMMAVETERANSYELLOWCARD

ENGAGEMENT

SOCCER

FOOTBALL

PANTHERS

STUDYABROADGOOGLESUCCESS DECORATED

SOLUTIONS

7 5 3 6 8 9

7 5

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Puzzle 1 (Hard, difficulty rating 0.60)

Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/~jdhildeb/software/sudokugen/ on Tue Aug 28 01:28:56 2012 GMT. Enjoy!

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTING FEDERAL CRIMES(for 29 years)? by Leland Yoshitsu

nonfiction/documentary eBook (& paperback) Amazon, B&N Nook, eBookPie, etc. ISBN 9780985262280

“Dear Leland …we hope that the issue you brought to the President’s attention has been resolved. However, if you still

need help with a Federal agency, we are pleased to assist you.”

Attention: Baylye BoxallThe Signal, Georgia State, print issuesAugust 28, September 4 & 112” x 4” for the amount of $252.00

including President Obama’s August 2009 White House letter to Leland (page 2):

16

Page 17: Vol. 80 No. 3

www.gsusignal.com/sportsSPORTS

Matt Hubbard’s 80-yard punt was Georgia State’s most glorious moment against South Carolina

State. It spoke for the Panthers’ performance of-fensively on Thursday night.

The Panthers managed only a pair of field goals in their tilt with the Bulldogs, who pre-vailed 33-6.

Missed field goals, hurried and inefficient offense and spotty defense were the main fac-tors that lead to Georgia State being beat down by 27 points.

At times it felt like Georgia State was lucky to even get those six points, with kicker Matt Ehasz missing just as many field goals as he made.

The offense turned the ball over three times and both Georgia State quarterbacks, Ben McLane and Kelton Hill, were under fire the entire night.

“We didn’t protect well,” head coach Bill Curry said after the game. “Both quarterbacks were having a rough time tonight.”

The defense applied no significant pressure to South Carolina State’s quarterback Richard Cue and allowed the Bulldogs to rack up close to 500 yards of offense.

Although the score indicated that the Pan-thers were outclassed, they were in the game until the final play of the first half.

McLane fumbled with 58 seconds remain-ing, which led to a 22-yard touchdown pass to South Carolina State‘s wide receiver Tyler Mc-Donald, killing the Panthers’ momentum. The Bulldogs extended their lead to 14-3 and didn’t look back.

Despite the offensive line’s inability to sub-due the Bulldogs’ pass rush, they did pave the

way for running back Donald Russell to eclipse the century mark for the third time in his ca-reer.

But the big, explosive plays eluded the Pan-ther offense all night and they were unable to find the end zone.

“We didn’t make a lot of big plays that we needed at certain times,” Russell said. “We just couldn’t finish.”

And even though the defense gave up a large chunk of yards, they did force Bulldog quarterback Richard Cue into a pair of inter-ceptions. They also kept the Panthers within striking distance for three quarters of the game.

South Carolina State looked like a team that has accumulated over 80 wins and four confer-ence titles in the last ten seasons.

Georgia State looked like a team in its in-fant stage, whose win total remains in the single digits.

Thursday night demonstrated that the Pan-thers still have much to work on. And blow-outs like these show that they are still a work in progress.

Curry still believes that the team is better than what it appeared to be against South Caro-lina State.

“We can play a lot better than we did to-night and we will,” Curry said. “We have got an excellent group of young men who understand that they have to keep plugging.”

Georgia State’s next game is on Sept. 8, in Knoxville, Tenn., where the Panthers will take on the University of Tennessee Volunteers.

The Panthers will have a tougher challenge there, as they will be playing in front of more than 100,000 Tennessee fans.

Russell, who already played away at Ten-nessee with his former school, Kentucky, shared tips based on his experience.

“We don’t have to pay attention to the crowd,” Russell said. “You have to stay focused as much as you can.”

FALLING FLATRHETT LEWIS

Staff Writer

Georgia State’s performance did not match the fans’ expectations as they fell 33-6 against South Carolina

Several times during the game, Curry showed discontent towards his players.

GRAHAM ROBSON | THE SIGNAL

GRAHAM ROBSON |THE SIGNALGeorgia State looked like a team in its infant stage, whose win total remains in the single digits.

PATRICK DUFFY | THE SIGNAL

An analysis of Georgia State’s beatdown in the first game of their third season

Page 18: Vol. 80 No. 3

The classic “Na na na na na na/ hey, hey, hey/ goodbye!” chant cascaded from the vis-

itor’s section at the end of Thursday’s game at the Georgia Dome, as South Carolina State blew Georgia State out on and off the field.

Not only did the Bulldogs embar-rass the Panthers with a 33-6 score, but their fans and band were twice as loud as Georgia State’s, despite being the away team.

“Their band was impressive,” said junior Hugo Moreno, a Georgia State student who attended the game. “They came in and took over the Dome.”

Prior to the game, Georgia State’s crowd was the louder one, as 18,921 ex-pectant fans—including a packed stu-dent section—cheered nonstop.

Also, many tailgates were orga-nized at the Orange and Brown park-ing lots outside of the Dome.

“I expected a win from our team,” Moreno said. “They had it all –the sup-port, the crowd, the cheers and home advantage. Therefore, I expected a great performance.”

But with just one minute into the game, South Carolina State’s wide re-ceiver Lennel Elmore set the mood by

catching a 72-yard touchdown.As Georgia State’s fans saw get

their team get smashed on the field, their energy died.

By the third quarter’s waning min-utes, the student section was almost empty.

“I simply lost interest in the game,” Moreno said. “After you, as a fan, give it all you got by cheering and your team is not responding, you get aggravated,”

He said that the most interesting aspect of the game was the atmosphere.

“Honestly, I was watching the band members from each side perform and the fireworks,” he said.

Head coach Bill Curry talked about the fans leaving the game at the postgame conference.

“If we want students to stay, then we got to play well and get them to stay,” Curry said.

Running back Donald Russell rec-ognized the team’s mistakes, but chose to stay positive and not let the fans’ dis-appointment affect him.

“It’s definitely something I don’t think about,” he said. “We’re going to change and make sure they stay all four quarters next time.”

Although Moreno thinks that “GSU needed to play their hearts out on that field” against South Carolina State, he said that he would give the Panthers one more chance and go to their next home game. He said he’s hopeful for some fans to keep attending.

“I believe there will be a very small

portion of the student body and alum-ni that will keep attending their games,” he said.

Russell and Curry agreed that in order to get fans back on the stands, the team’s offense will have to be sharper.

“We just have to work on finishing and we have to make big plays,” Rus-sell said. “I see ourselves making that change soon.”

“When we get in the red zone, we have to score,” Curry added. “And we just didn’t do that.”

Russell is hopeful for Georgia State’s future fan base, as he believes the program will grow.

“Before you know it, they (the fans) are going to be filling up the whole Georgia Dome after a while,” he said

Every football player has his own way of getting pumped be-

fore a game. In Georgia State running back Donald Russell’s case, he prefers to be calm rather than hyper.

“I like to listen to a few Alicia Keys and Rihanna songs,” Russell said. “Nothing too jumpy, just something to calm me down.”

That’s not the only way Rus-sell gets ready for his games, though.

He said that head coach Bill Curry’s speeches are good stim-uli.

“I love our team meetings and the motivational speeches he gives us,” Russell said. “He comes and gives us things that we could use in life. Curry is the old school and he loves to talk and tell us about his experiences.”

Although Russell hasn’t ex-perienced nearly half of what Curry has, he is far from inex-pert.

With only one year left at Georgia State, the 2011 transfer from Kentucky has left his mark on Georgia State.

He is the leading rusher with 665 yards on 128 carries and has made more touchdowns than

anyone else in the school’s his-tory—nine so far.

He was also named to the FCS Independent Football All Conference Team selected by College Sports Madness, despite missing two games due to injury. With Russell’s momentum grow-

ing this season, he said he hopes to accomplish more.

“I am proud and I’m happy to accomplish things, especially my first year being here,” Russell said. “I want to win more games as a team this year and we got to get that 3-8 taste out of our

mouth. I’m looking forward to the season.”

After spending two years at Kentucky as a backup running back and, the Wildcats third leading rusher in 2010, Russell decided to become a Panther due to communication issues

with the coach there. “It was some things me and

the coach did not talk about and I wish things could have changed,” Russell said. “It all happened for the best and I am happy to be here. I love Georgia State and a few people seem to

love me so I’m happy.”Russell’s football back-

ground is what got him on the field. Combining the fact that he started playing when he was four years old and that his father was also a player, football has seemed to stick with him for life.

His life isn’t only about foot-ball. Russell is a sociology major and works hard off the field.

“Whenever I have any off time I go in for study hall.” Rus-sell said. “I check all my classes to make sure that I am doing all of my work.”

With graduation right around the corner, Russell has graduate school on his mind if football doesn’t work out.

“After graduating I am defi-nitely trying to see where foot-ball takes me,” Russell said. “I actually wanted to come back for graduate school. It’s just try-ing to figure out what I want to do and I actually wanted to be a salsa dancer.”

Once he graduates, he said he’ll miss being a Panther.

“I will miss everything about GSU football,” Russell said. “To come into a program and help start a legacy means a lot to me. I have a close relationship with the team, I treat everyone like they are my brothers and I will miss them a lot.”

TIFFANIE SMITHAssociate Sports Editor

ISMAEL SUAREZSports Editor

The Russell Hustle

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 18 SPORTS

Georgia State fans disappointed in season opener

PATRICK DUFFY | THE SIGNAL

PATRICK DUFFY | THE SIGNAL At the third quarter of the game, the disappointed fans started to take off, leaving the student section almost empty.

GRAHAM ROBSON | THE SIGNAL

Student-athlete splits time between football and school

Page 19: Vol. 80 No. 3

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 19SPORTS

HUNTER BISHOPStaff Writer

Curry’s potential replacement

Pugh has both the coaching and famil-iarity needed for the next head coach of the Georgia State Panthers. He has head coach-ing experience at both the high school and collegiate levels, with three collegiate divi-sion titles. He has many ties to the greater Atlanta area, which is vital for recruiting.

Why we want him:His connections to Atlanta are one of

the biggest pluses if Pugh were hired. He has steadily brought in high recruiting class-es, and produced excellent wide receivers. Keeping the same staff will be important, as well, as the connection to current players cannot be understated.

George Pugh

Jim ReidDavis is an expert on the triple option, having installed and

coached at previous stops. During his four years at Virginia Mili-tary Institute, his ‘keydet’ rushing offense was ranked number one in 2008 and 2009. He then returned to Georgia Southern, where he had coached previously, to run the offense.

Why we want him:Davis has had great success in the recruiting top-notch players

to Georgia Southern, such as Jayson Foster and Chris Covington. Foster won the Walter Payton award (the FCS version of the Heis-man), while Chris Covington won the 2008 Southern Conference defensive player of the year. His ability to recruit in the South would be an incredible advantage.

Brent Davis

Gary AndersenHead Coach, Utah State

Associate head coach/defensive coordinator, University of Virginia

Offensive coordinator/offensive line coach, Georgia Southern University

Associate head coach/recruit-ing coordinator/wide receivers coach, Georgia State

Defensive coordinator/linebackers coach, Univer-sity of Louisiana - Monroe

Reffett is a top defensive co-ordinator in the Sun Belt. Ref-fett’s defensives have improved every year at ULM. His defense finished number one in the Sun Belt in both rushing and total defense, setting a record for few-est rush yards per game. In the overall NCAA rankings, they finished eighth in rushing and 21st in total defense.

Why we want him:He is able to make quick

defensive turnarounds. His de-fenses force turnovers and stop the run better than any other Sun Belt program. Having direct access to the Louisiana recruit-ing bed would be invaluable.

Troy Reffett

Reid is a solid defensive coordinator with mountains of head coaching experi-ence. In his second year as defensive coor-dinator for UVA, Reid took them to third in the ACC, and 40th among all FBS schools. Reid spent five years as the head coach of the UMass Minutemen, as well as nine years as head coach of the Richmond Spiders, lead-ing them to their first ever 10-win season in 2000.

Why we want him:He’s an extremely experienced coach.

His reputation as a coach would have an im-pact for a fledgling FBS program, as well as attracting bigger names coming from a BCS conference.

Andersen is in his fourth year at USU, hav-ing spent five years at ri-val Utah coaching the de-fense. Andersen took the program from eight wins the first two years to seven in 2011, taking them to the first bowl game in fourteen years.

Why we want him:He’s a bit of a dark

horse, having little to no connections to the South. However, his record at Utah State speaks for itself. Though the numbers are underwhelming, the fact that USU went to a bowl game in only his third year shows his quality as a head coach.

Top left: Georgia State AthleticsTop right: Georgia Southern University AthleticsMiddle left: University of Virginia AthleticsBottom left: University of Louisiana Monroe AthleticsBottom right: Utah State Athletics

Given that head coach Bill Curry will retire after the 2012 season, The Signal believes that any of these five candidates would be a good replacement for him.

Page 20: Vol. 80 No. 3

Styles Spacing Lists

Campus Events

CAMPUS EVENTS • www.gsu.edu/studentevents

Karaoke, Krispy Kreme and CoffeeThursday, September 65:30-9 p.m.Courtyard StageStudent Center, First FloorCome sing your heart out to your favorite karaoke tunes or listen to the talented GSU student body as they express their passion for singing. Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee will be served.

GSU vs. Tennessee Viewing PartySaturday, September 8Doors open at 3:30 p.m. Kickoff at 4 p.m.Student Center BallroomDress in your Panther blue and come cheer on the GSU Panthers as they go head to head with the SEC Tennessee Volunteers. Enjoy tailgate games, giveaways, prizes and a performance by Frenchy. Tailgate food will be served, but donʼt forget to bring your own folding chair or blanket.

Campus Events at Unity PlazaThursday, September 13, 12:15-1 p.m.Enjoy performances at this Diversity Plaza by the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company, African Student Association dancers and the GSU Salsa Club while eating lunch or hanging out between classes. Plaza Days highlight a diverse range of music and entertainment from rock bands and hip-hop to classical performers. If youʼd like to perform, contact the Campus Events Music Director at [email protected] or 404/413-1857.

All shows free for GSU staff,students and faculty with ID. Guests $3 before 5 p.m. and $5 at 5 p.m. and after.

performers. If youʼd like to perform, contact the Campus Events Music Director performers. If youʼd like to perform, contact the Campus Events Music Director at [email protected] or 404/413-1857.

All shows free for GSU staff,students and faculty with ID.

xcinefest movie times

All shows free for GSU staff,students and faculty with ID. All shows free for GSU staff,students and faculty with ID.

cinefest movie timeshttp://www.gsu.edu/cinefest

Georgia State University uLearn Facebook TwitterGeorgia State University uLearn Facebook Twitter

Cinefest Film Theatre

students and faculty with ID.

and $5 at 5 p.m. and after.

All shows free for GSU staff,students and faculty with ID. students and faculty with ID.

and $5 at 5 p.m. and after.

All shows free for GSU staff,students and faculty with ID.

and $5 at 5 p.m. and after.

students and faculty with ID.

and $5 at 5 p.m. and after.

All shows free for GSU staff,students and faculty with ID.

x

September 4-9 • Seeking a Friend for the End of the WorldTuesday: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m.Wednesday: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 9 p.m.Thursday-Friday: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m.Saturday-Sunday: 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m.

September 5 • The Healthcare MovieWednesday: 7 p.m.

September 6 • InstrumentThursday: 9 p.m.September 7 • The Street Fighter, Friday: 9 p.m.

Styles Spacing Lists

Spotlight

SPOTLIGHT PROGRAMS BOARDwww.gsu.edu/spotlight

Plaza: Brazil in MotionTuesday, September 4, 12:15-1 p.m., Unity Plaza

This Spotlight plaza will be a grandiose display of Brazilian culture featuring a capoeira performance from Cordoa de

Ouro. There will also be a colorful display of Samba provided by dancers and drummers from Dance Brasil Entertainment.

Good Morning CommutersWednesday, September 5, 8-10 a.m.

Aderhold Learning Center, General Classroom Building and Unity Plaza

Come grab some light breakfast snacks and get information about upcoming events with Spotlight Programs Board!

Blue at the Zoo • Tickets on Sale Now!Friday, September 7, 5:30-10 p.m.

Zoo Atlanta, 800 Cherokee Avenue SE, Atlanta 30315See ad in this Signal for ticket information.

Come join Georgia State University as Spotlight and Campus Events paint Zoo Atlanta BLUE! After closing for the day on September 7, Zoo Atlanta will re-open its gates for the GSU community for its inaugural Blue at the Zoo event. Students, faculty, staff and guests will have the zoo to themselves for a private event that will include music, food, face painting, stilt walkers and much more! Donʼt forget to bring your camera so you can catch a lasting memory with GSUʼs own Pounce!

Panther Prowl: YOLOFriday, September 14, 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

Student Center BallroomYou say, “Carpe Diem”; we say “YOLO (You Only Live Once)!”

Join us for Panther Prowl as we live out life in one night, from crashing the red carpet to getting married in “Vegas.”

This event will feature live-band karaoke, fried snack food stations, a black light party, wedding chapel, rock

climbing wall, ball pit, giant tricycle track and so much more. We look forward to seeing you there!

Homecoming 2012!SAVE THE DATE: October 15-20

For more information, call Spotlight Programs Board at 404/413-1610.

Fall semester rental of lockers in the Student Center, University Center, Urban Life Building and General Classroom

Building is now available in 360 Student Center on a first-come, first-served basis. The rental period will end Dec. 7.Fees for first-time rentals are $20 per semester plus

$10 for a lock. After a lock has been purchased, fees are $20 per semester. For more information, visit

www.gsu.edu/studentcenter or call 404/413-1860.

www.gsu.edu/studentevents

SPOTLIGHT PROGRAMS BOARD

Tuesday, September 4, 12:15-1 p.m., Unity PlazaThis Spotlight plaza will be a grandiose display of Brazilian culture featuring a capoeira performance from Cordoa de

Ouro. There will also be a colorful display of Samba provided by dancers and drummers from Dance Brasil Entertainment.

Aderhold Learning Center, General Classroom Building

Come grab some light breakfast snacks and get information about upcoming events with Spotlight Programs Board!

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http://www.gsu.edu/studentcenter

WHATʼSHAPPENINGON CAMPUS! Supported by Student Activity Fees