2013 november 6

NOELLE FUJII

News Editor

Freshmen who have not yet declared a major and seniors who are about to graduate but face an obstacle will receive help through two initiatives the campus will implement next fall. The Office of Undergradu-ate Education will implement the “Exploratory Student” and “Come Home to Mānoa” initiatives in fall 2014, offering workshops and advising assistance. The goal of these initiatives is to increase the campus’ graduation and retention rates, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education Ronald Cambra, Ph.D. “All of these initiatives that have worked are all based on one theoretical frame, and that is you cannot be passive if you’re going

to be a student here at the Univer-sity of Hawai‘i at Mānoa,” Cambra said. “We want you to be active with us from day one.” The offi ce hopes to fi nd ways to actively engage undergraduate stu-dents in the campus, which is one of its central themes. According to Cam-bra, if students are actively engaged, they will become a partner and even-tually a steward of the campus. “And if they’re partnered here with us, then yes they will graduate, and we will improve the graduation rates on campus,” Cambra said. Cambra said these three themes are important because as tuition increases, more of the fi nan-cial burden falls on student dollars. “And as that happens and as the value or the amount of tuition is charged, the length of time that a student stays with us become critical,” Cambra said.

EXPLORATORY STUDENTS TRY DIFFERENT MAJORS About 30 to 35 percent of the incoming freshman class did not declare a major upon being ac-cepted to the Mānoa campus, ac-cording to Cambra, who said this percentage has remained relative-ly steady for a number of years. “They’re in the category called ‘general,’” Cambra said. “We’re going to change that cat-egory to ‘exploratory.’” He said graduation and reten-tion rates are still a concern. “The biggest population that seems at risk are the students that still seem unsure of what to do when they get here,” Cambra said. The initiative will include a way of identifying students’ interests early in their academic careers.

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N I G H T S

Continued on Page 2

According to Kyle Van Duser, director of Mānoa’s First Year Pro-gram, if a student is uncertain of their desired major when applying online to UH, they will select the “general exploratory” option. Once accepted and once the student has submitted the tuition deposit, he or she will use the STAR pre-registra-tion system to help guide him or her into choosing a broad interest area, or “Learning Interest Area,” and se-lecting coursework. “Each broad interest area will have guided course options, which align with degree attainment within four years,” Van Duser said. “This way, even though a student is still exploring, they can continue to make forward progress towards graduation in four years.” Students will then be asked to complete a brief major/occupa-tion assessment, which will help students explore their own values and interests. Students will be provided the opportunity to pro-cess the assessment with a UH professional staff member upon beginning the fall semester. “And that will be the fi rst steps in bringing them into the advising center to work with specially trained advisers that will assist them in iden-tifying their goals, assist them in identifying things they want to study, what they’re interested in and then showing them what the options are in terms of degrees,” Cambra said. According to Megumi Maki-no-Kanehiro, Ph.D., director of the Mānoa Advising Center, new and continuing Mānoa peer advisers were polled for their opinions in terms of how they saw groupings of majors. “I think it is safe to say that they helped us to address issues in ways that we hadn’t thought of before and this impacted the way in which we are classifying, labeling and ex-plaining the interest areas,” Maki-no-Kanehiro said. “For example, students highlighted the fact that major clusters do not always match the way majors are clustered under colleges here at Mānoa.”

There will also be a two-credit course, IS 197 (Academic Explora-tion through Advising), that will help students go through the process of understanding what their strengths and interests are and how that might tie in with an academic major. The offi ce will pilot test the course this spring for two credits and will offer it again in the fall for three credits. Matthew Eng, an academic ad-visor in the Mānoa Advising Center who will be teaching the course, said that “an emphasis on self-refl ection and decision-making will serve as the core of the course.” “The course will use a workbook developed by the instructor, exten-sive in-class discussion, online journ-aling and other written assignments, projects and assigned texts to iden-tify and explore strengths, abilities, interests and goals,” Eng said. IS 197 will be designated as a writing-intensive course. “The whole purpose here is to get students to start thinking about a major,” Cambra said. “And then to assist them in identifying the areas that interest them so that they can start making decisions

about what they would like to do while they’re here with us.” Sophomores Maggie Chung and Isabella Yu both had trouble deciding on which majors interested them. “I think it’s really good because, honestly, I’m really confused about what I want to study,” Yu said. Chung had trouble deciding between two majors. “For me, I was kind of stuck be-tween two,” Chung said. She is now a pre-psychology major.

STUDENTS ʻCOME HOME TO MĀNOAʼ The offi ce will be implementing its “Come Home to Mānoa” initiative for seniors who face obstacles that prevent them from graduating. “We have a large number of se-niors that for whatever reason do not complete their degrees,” Cambra said. “Now some of those students, we suspect, are students that are in good academic standing and come across challenges economic challenges. So they either drop out or they either simply forgo coming to school until they you know make enough money to come back and make it through.”

The “Come Home to Mānoa” initiative will be tasked with ex-amining the services necessary for students to finish their de-grees at UH Mānoa, procedural issues that create hurdles to graduation and methods to better communicate with students about degree completion. “So for example if a student drops out and they’re missing one course and all they need is to get through one more course, we can work with them to help them with their registration, get them signed up with class, see if there’s a way to address whatever issue was prob-lematic for them and then try to get them back into the campus to see if we can get them to graduate,” Cambra said. “So we’re going to go aggressively after those students to see what we can do to assist them in getting through with their degrees.” Senior Mike Justa, a marine biol-ogy major, said the university should be helping its seniors to graduate. “I mean it sounds like that is an awesome way to help stu-dents,” Justa said. “It ’s what the university should be doing.”

NewsPage 2 | Ka Leo | Wednesday, Nov. 6 2013 Twitter @kaleoohawaii | [email protected] | Noelle Fujii Editor Fadi Youkhana Associate

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IEVA BYTAUTAITE

Staff Writer

Mercedes Ramos established La Raza Unida, a new Latino stu-dent organization, this semester to raise awareness of Latino cul-ture and population on campus. “There is a lot of misunder-standing of Latino culture,” said Ramos, a senior psychology and sociology major. “People have a lot of misconceptions and that ’s how stereotypes start.” Ramos said the goal of the or-ganization is to bring Latino stu-dents on campus together, create a home away from home, raise awareness of Latino culture and have a Latino graduation. “I am from California, where the majority of the demograph-ic make-up is Hispanic, so it was pretty different moving to Hawai‘i where Hispanics are un-derrepresented culturally,” se-nior psychology major Adriana Quijano said. Quijano joined the organiza-tion because she wanted to rep-resent a minority group that is seeking higher education. She will also be competing for Miss Latina Hawai‘i 2014 title, a schol-arship pageant, in the spring. “It will be an opportunity to represent my culture in a posi-tive light,” Quijano said. “As a Hispanic, I grew up in a culture where it ’s rare to go away to col-lege far away from home. There are family obligations that we have, especially if you’re the old-est. And when you go away it ’s hard to swallow your pride and admit that you miss home with-out having to hear from your family ‘told you so.’” Claudia Lara, a junior eth-nic studies major and one of the founders of the organization, said that the Latino community in Hawai‘i has grown significant-

ly through the years, but lacks an organization. “Even on campus, you know there is a Latino presence but no place where we can all come to-gether and feel a sense of home,” Lara said. “I hope that the orga-nization will eventually become that – a home away from home.” Although the organization is focused on raising awareness of the Latino community on cam-pus, it is not exclusive to one eth-nicity and anyone can join. “We are not trying to isolate ourselves,” Ramos said. “Any-one can join. You just have to be respectful and willing to learn about the different cultures.” Besides focusing on spread-ing and teaching students about Latino clubs through its social events, the organization also wants to get politically involved in issues that affect not just the Latino community but also other ethnic minorities. “Recently, a policy was passed in Hawai‘i that allows undocumented students to get in-state tuition,” Ramos said. “Micronesian students are ex-

cluded from this, so we want to work with their club and hopeful-ly change that. We want to work with different allies on campus. We need to embrace our differ-ences, instead of making them drive us apart.” Any UH student can join the organization, and currently there is no application process. For more information contact Mercedes Ramos at [email protected] or Adriana Quijano at [email protected].

hopes to unite Latino students on campusLa Raza Unida

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The first events the or-ganization has planned is a social on Nov. 14. “Everyone is welcome to attend,” Ramos said. “We will be having Mexican food and will be learning about different Latino cultures. Eventually, we want to teach people through our organization, to under-stand, embrace and become allies with all minorities.” The event will be held in QLC 412 from 4-6 p.m.

FeaturesPage 4 | Ka Leo | Wednesday, Nov. 6 2013 Twitter @kaleofeatures | [email protected] |Jackie Perreira Editor |Karissa Montania Associate

Release Dates :

Engine :

Publisher :

Background :

Players :

Additions since precursors :

Campaign :

PC Windows, PS3, XBOX 360: Oct. 29PS4: Nov. 12XBOX One: Nov. 19

Frostbite 3

Electronic Arts

The BF franchise was established in 2002 with game Battlefi eld 1942.

- Twenty-four players on current gen, 64 players on next gen and PC, plus two “Commanders.” -No co-op or splitscreen.

- “Levelution” (Map evolves as players progress through match).- Battle Pickups (see “Weapons” row).- “Commander Mode” through tablet integration.- Sea Combat.

BF has always struggled to get good cam-paign reviews. Campaign tends to be longer than CoD’s, but lacks the plotlines desired.

Players looking for a more immer-sive, realistic play experience may prefer Battlefi eld with its better graphics, full environmental de-structibility and state of the art warfare au-dio. Teamwork is also more imperative to BF4 than Ghosts, so those looking to join gaming clans or receive battlefi eld support are more at home here. Matches take longer as the maps are massive and support 64 players. This may overwhelm some players, but can offer various opportunities in warfare tactics.

who are you looking to game with?

Adrenaline junkies crave CoD for a rea-son. With such small map sizes and quick-shot kills, danger is at every corner. It’s a First Person Shooter playground. If you choose to play solo more often or to play with a friend on the same console, then “Call of Duty: Ghosts” is the better choice. Al-though you are assigned a team, players tend to focus on kills rather than objective points, which detracts from teamwork. The game also has a split-screen option, so you can see what your friend is doing and vice versa.

ʻCall of Duty: Ghostsʻ

ʻBattlefi eld 4ʻ

- PC Windows, PS3, XBOX 360, Wii U: Nov. 5-PS4: Nov. 15 -XBOX One: Nov. 22

IW engine

Activision

CoD fi rst hit the scene in 2003, but didn’t re-ceive its mass attention until “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” in 2007.

-18 players.- Co-op and splitscreen offered.

- In-battle perks system. -Kill-streak and Strikes award additions and altera-tions.- Deathstreaks removed.- Dynamic Map Events (Player-triggered traps and map changes).

Takes place in the 2023. Past campaigns have always been more popular than BF campaigns.

Read the full story at kaleo.org

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BRAD DELL AND IKAIKA SHIVELEY

Staff Writers

With the release of “Battlefi eld 4” and “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” gamers are faced with a choice of which gaming titan is most worthy of their time and money. Below is a point-by-point comparison of the two, designed to help you fi gure out which game you’ll spend $60 on.

ComicsPage 5 | Ka Leo | Wednesday, Nov. 6 [email protected] | Nicholas Smith Editor

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BUILD YOUR RESUMEBUILD YOUR RESUME

ACROSS1 Lies as a whole?5 King who raged to

Edgar on the heath9 Turbaned Punjabis

14 Matty or Felipe of baseball

15 Puffs additive16 Pistons great Thomas17 Hog product18 *Madonna20 Leave open-mouthed22 Gets under control23 *Ivy League professional

school26 PC brain29 Skier’s challenge30 Tuna holder31 Sci-fi hybrid33 Running or jumping36 Mideast flier37 *Fruity dessert with

sweetened crumbs42 Wrath, in a hymn43 Writes to, nowadays44 Green stuff47 Transfer __48 Orchestra site51 Say more52 *“The Lord of the Rings”

genre56 Liszt or Schubert57 Plaque honoree58 Prize for an aspiring

musical artist, perhaps from the first word of the answer to a starred clue

63 Avatar of Vishnu64 Congo critter with

striped legs65 Golden St. campus66 Grace ender67 Concise68 Use FedEx, say69 Male deer

DOWN1 Versailles attraction

2 Los __: Manhattan Project site

3 Pink shades4 Invasive vine5 WC6 Actor Roth7 Arterial trunk8 Kingly9 Like the village

blacksmith’s hands10 Philosophies11 Rio automaker12 Laugh syllable13 Shunning the spotlight,

maybe19 Computer that may use

Snow Leopard21 Toastmaster24 Caustic comeback25 Accustom (to)26 Firearms pioneer27 Backside28 Hard to look at32 Nectar collectors33 High spirits34 Pierre, e.g.35 Friend of Snow White37 Verdi opera with

pyramids38 Nudge39 Tex’s bud40 NPR correspondent

Totenberg41 Short on taste45 “__ Melodies”: Warner

Bros. shorts46 Tablet debut of 201048 Land on an isthmus49 Chemical relative50 Oppressive ruler53 River near Karachi54 Austerlitz native55 Holy ark contents56 Dandies58 Decompose59 __ out a living60 One may be hired61 Onetime ring king62 Track circuit

GamesPage 6 | Ka Leo | Wednesday, Nov. 6 2013 [email protected] | Gabrielle Pangilinan Student Ad Manager

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OpinionsPage 7 | Ka Leo | Wednesday, Nov. 6 2013Twitter @kaleoopinions | [email protected] | Doorae Shin Editor

ROMAN KALINOWSKI

Staff Writer

Almost three years after the earthquake and tsunami that caused meltdowns of three nu-clear reactors in the Fukushima power plant, more than 1,300 spent fuel rods remain, which must be manually removed. If just one fuel rod were dropped or exposed to air, it could burn and cause a fission chain reaction that would set off an explosion containing as much radiation as 14,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs, forcing the evacuation of more than half of the island of Japan. Nuclear fission is a dangerous form of energy generation and must be phased out worldwide in favor of nuclear fusion and other renewable methods.

WHO CARES ABOUT RADIATION OVER THERE? The situation at the Fuku-shima nuclear power plant is dire both for Japan and all nations that rely on the Pacific Ocean for their economic and nutritional well-being. The nuclear cleanup ef-fort led by Tokyo Electric Power Company is expected to take at least four decades and cost ap-proximately $11 billion, while thousands of metric tons of ra-dioactive water are leaking annu-ally into the surrounding sea and water; the project is so large that the U.S. government has offered to help both TEPCO and the Japa-nese government deal with it. Increased radiation levels have been detected in fish as far away as Alaska and California. Douglas Dasher of the University of Alaska projects ocean radio-activity levels from this single incident may reach the Cold War heights from hundreds of above ground bomb tests. Already, 35 percent of children from Fu-kushima have been diagnosed with enlarged thyroids, an early symptom of exposure to radioac-tive caesium and iodine. Mother

nature is also constantly threat-ening regional nuclear Armaged-don, striking Fukushima with a 5.0 earthquake on Sunday and a heavy typhoon last week which caused additional releases of con-taminated water.

F ISS ION VS. FUS ION There are several differenc-es between nuclear fi ssion and nuclear fusion in terms of their risk, materials and place in soci-ety. Nuclear fi ssion is the result of the breakdown of uranium and plutonium into lighter radioactive molecules, which gives off some heat energy. This heat is used to boil water in nuclear power plants, producing steam that turns the plant turbines, generating elec-tricity. Fission releases no green-house gases directly, but pollutes during mining of uranium and plu-tonium ore, as well as during stor-age of nuclear waste that remains hazardous to life for thousands of years. As there are only about 200 years left of ore reserves at cur-rent consumption rates, fi ssion is ultimately unsustainable. Fusion is the result of hydro-gen being fused into progressive-

ly larger elements, which gives off heat and is the process that occurs in the sun. In contrast to fi ssion, fusion materials are only dangerous to life for about 50 years. While fusion is still a de-veloping technology, it is a truly sustainable form of energy with worldwide supplies of deuterium, a hydrogen isotope, enough to last more than 100 billion years at current consumption rates. Fu-sion combined with the harvest of naturally occurring geothermal, solar, wind and wave energy will provide the planet with pollution-free energy as the technologies become cheaper and fossil fuels become scarcer and costlier.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? Nuclear fission power affects the entire world ecosystem, and natural disasters are inevitable. Because of the continuing catas-trophe at Fukushima, the people of Japan regularly organize mas-sive protests against nuclear power, TEPCO and the govern-ment, leading to the continued closure of all 48 of the nation’s nuclear reactors. Germany is also in the process of disman-

tling its 17 reactors by 2022 asa result of the latest meltdowns.Thankfully there are no nuclearplants in Hawai‘i, but in the restof the U.S., nuclear plants almost60 years old are in the processof falling apart. More than halfof the reactors are on the EastCoast, subject to hurricaneslike Sandy, which almost causedcooling pumps to fail at a reactorin New Jersey. Unfortunately, there are cur-rently plans to add four reactorsto America’s total of 104, whichwill be the first new ones in de-cades. The people of the U.S. andthe rest of the world must followthe Japanese departure fromnuclear fission before anotherreactor melts down and untoldhundreds of thousands die ofcancer and radiation sickness.If enough Americans vocally op-pose all new nuclear projects bymeans of protest and petition,fission power can be replacedwith safer, more efficient and ec-onomically viable technologies. Listen to “The Morning Jive”with Roman Candles on Thursdayat 8 a.m. on 90.3 KTUH FM formore on Fukushima.

No nuclear fission, no new Fukushimas PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ROMAN KALINOWSKI / KA LEO O HAWAI‘I

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SportsPage 8 | Ka Leo | Wednesday, Nov. 6 2013 Twitter @kaleosports | [email protected] | Joey Ramirez Editor | Jeremy Nitta Associate

HAYLEY MUSASHI

Staff Writer

In what was expected to be another f lawless conference sea-son for the Rainbow Wahine vol-leyball team (18 -4, 7-3 Big West), this fall campaign has seen the ‘Bows through their ups and downs. But no matter the out-come, this season is one for the record books. The Rainbow Wahine were off to a fast start this season, overthrowing top-ranked Texas in four sets and taking the title in four-of-four preseason tourna-ments. In addition to the team’s success, head coach Dave Shoji was honored as the winningest coach in Division I history when the ‘Bows took down Santa Clara on Sept. 6. Entering conference play, the Rainbow Wahine were 11-2 and looking to defend their seat atop the conference standings with another perfect 18 -0 record, the first Big West team to do so since UC Santa Barbara in 2002. But Hawai‘i’s record-breaking campaign was abruptly brought to an end when UCSB defeated UH in a shocking five-setter at Stan Sheriff Center on Oct. 11. The loss to UCSB (13-8, 8 -1 BWC) snapped a 77-match con-ference winning streak dating back to the 2008 season when UH was still a member of the Western Athletic Conference.

Two weeks later, the ‘Bows lost two straight conference road matches against Cal State North-ridge (19 -4, 9 -1 BWC) and UC Davis (14-9, 6 -4 BWC). CSUN currently stands atop the Big West conference leaderboard. The trio of losses leaves Hawai‘i ranked third in the conference. “Losses happen — they’re part of the game,” senior outside hitter Emily Hartong said. “We learn from them and move on.” In a season that has tallied the most conference losses in almost two decades dating back to the 1994 team that finished 15 -3, the Rainbow Wahine have displayed a characteristic that is hard to deny — resilience. “We used the losses to fi nd our strengths and weaknesses,” Har-tong said. “And during practice, our mindset changed because we had to change those things.” A fter the back-to-back road losses, the Rainbow Wahine returned home this past week-end to sweep their conference matchups against UC Irvine and Long Beach State. The ‘Bows will look to take down opponents Cal Poly (10 -12, 4 -5 BWC) and UCSB this week-end on the road. UH swept Cal Poly in their first contest, and the Wahine hope to even the score when they face off with Santa Barbara on Saturday. Cal Poly is coming off a loss in straight sets to UCSB and cur-

rently sits in sixth place among Big West teams. The Mustangs are led by senior outside hitter Chelsea Hardin, a Honolulu na-tive and ‘Iolani graduate who is averaging 3.11 kills per set. UCSB is currently riding an eight-match undefeated streak dating back to Sept. 28 and is currently in second place in the Big West. The Gauchos only con-ference loss this season was a five-setter in their BWC opener against Long Beach State. On the attack, the Gauchos are av-eraging 12.9 kills per set with a .232 hitting percentage. The of-fense is led by senior opposite Katey Thompson, who has tal-lied 227 kills this season. The Rainbow Wahine will look to their leaders in this weekend’s face-offs. Hartong leads the team with a total of 377 kills this season and a .293 hitting percentage. Senior li-bero Ali Longo and sophomore middle blocker Jade Vorster lead the defense with 332 digs and 79 blocks, respectively. “I’m excited to play them (UCSB),” Hartong said. “It should be a good, exciting crowd, and we’re ready to play.”

‘Bows look to avenge home loss to UCSB

UPCOMING GAMESHawai‘i at Cal Poly

Friday, 4 p.m.Hawai‘i at UC Santa Barbara

Saturday, 3:30 p.m.

Freshman out-side hitter Nikki Taylor is second

on the team with 192 kills.

JESSICA HOMRICH KA LEO O HAWAI‘I