Feb. 3, 2012

TechniqueThe South’s Liveliest College Newspaper

Is this tale of swords and souls one which

should be eternally retold?413

Friday, February 3, 2012 • Volume 97, Issue 22 • nique.net SC: V arrives

MSFAC releases health, transport fee increasesNo changes recommended for athletic fee, AA warns of future increases

By Kyle BulkleyContributing Writer

The Mandatory Student Fee Advisory Committee (MSFAC) met on Thursday, Jan. 26, to dis-cuss proposed increases to Tech’s mandatory student fees for the 2013 fiscal year. It discussed pro-posed changes to the athletic,

transportation and health fees, ul-timately deciding to recommend to change the transportation fee from $76 to $81 per semester and the health fee from $154 to $160. The committee will give its recom-mendations to Institute President G.P. “Bud” Peterson, who will, in turn, recommend fee changes to the Board of Regents.

“The deliberations are based on thorough reviews of the budgets submitted, especially the explana-tions of how the dollars are linked to the services,” said Jim Kirk, Director of the Tech Office of Institute Budget Planning & Ad-ministration and co-chair of the committee. “One of the key ques-tions that we always ask is, ‘what

would be the impact on services to students if the requested increase is not approved?’”

The committee’s goal was to strike a balance between provid-ing exceptional services to Tech students and keeping the cost of school affordable.

“Because of the significant fi-nancial burden that Tech students

have recently incurred through the Special Institutional Fee — a $544 per semester fee issued by the USG Board of Regents that is not covered by HOPE — we ex-amined all fee requests with great scrutiny,” said Elle Creel, Under-graduate Student Body President.

Stingerette to designate “pick-up” zones NSSE shows emphasis on collaboration

By Mike DonohueNews Editor

Tech students are more likely to col-laborate on coursework than their peers at other universities, although they are less likely to receive academic and personal support from faculty, according to a report released last week by Institute Office of As-sessment using data from the National Sur-vey of Student Engagement (NSSE).

“The results of the 2011 NSSE sur-vey continue to show that Georgia Tech students find that the Institute sets high academic expectations and provides op-portunities to participate in co-curricular activities...all of which provide preparation in solving real-world problems and work-related knowledge and skills,” the Office of Assessment wrote in the report’s conclu-sion.

The NSSE is administered yearly around the country to measure what Tech’s report calls “self-reported behaviors that correlate with positive learning and personal devel-opment outcomes.”

The report compared a survey admin-istered to 637 first-years and 820 seniors at Tech to similar surveys administered at six other universities: North Carolina State, Penn State, Texas A&M, Minnesota, Washington and Virginia Tech.

Respondents to the survey at Tech, 65.8 percent of whom were majoring in engi-neering compared to 23.4 percent at peer universities, indicated that they were more likely than their peers to spend 11 hours per week on class work. Tech students also indicated that they were more likely to feel that the Institute emphasizes spend-

By Sam SomaniStaff Writer

To increase the overall effi-ciency of their transportation systems, Parking and Trans-portation has introduced vari-ous changes to the Stingerette system.

“One of the problems Stin-gerette drivers encounter is finding a student who has re-quested a ride,” wrote Emily Gooding, SGA Parking and Transportation Committee Chair, in an email. “Although the student might identify a

See MSFAC, page 5

See NSSE, page 5

Photo by Sho Kitamura / Student Publications

Stingerettes are parked in Tech Square during the day before beginning their service at 6:00 p.m. Parking and Transportation will designate certain locations as “pick-up points,” which will be given to students when they call a van.

street corner, they could be in-side a building, waiting on the sidewalk, etc.”

This has caused great de-lays to other students waiting for Stingerette rides.

“I remember a few weeks ago, when I was riding the Stingerette, and I had to wait in the car for like five min-utes for some guy who was inside the recreation center,” said Luke Bufardi, a first-year CHBE major. “I thought to myself, ‘Why bother taking the Stingerette in the first

safest, best-lit locations, and many are areas inside build-ings where students can see the street,” Gooding wrote.

In addition, students need not wait very long for the implementation of these im-provements.

“They will be implemented as soon as possible,” Gooding wrote. “The location of the correct pick up point will be sent to the student as soon as they request a Stingerette ride, so it’s just a matter of chang-ing the programming to reflect this.”

The changes may take some getting used to, however.

“It’s a mini-culture change. I’m sure it’ll have its rough points,” said Eran Mordel,

SGA Vice President of Cam-pus Affairs. “I think

at the end of the day it’ll be helpful on the both efficiency side and the safety side.”

place?’”However, Parking and

Transportation has been able to come up with what may be a long-term solution.

“We recently pulled togeth-er a focus group to identify the best ‘pick-up-points’ for various locations on campus,” Gooding wrote. “Now, when a student requests a ride, they will receive a message with specific instructions on where the Stingerette will pick them up.”

The focus groups also sought to increase the safety of students who rode the Stinger-ette late at night.

“All of these areas were determined to be the

Photo by Sho Kitamura/Student Publications

Infographic by Ian Bailie / Student Publications

2 • February 3, 2012 • Technique NEWS

Founded in 1911, the Technique is the student newspaper of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and is an official publication of the Georgia Tech Board of Student Publications. The Technique publishes on Fridays weekly during the fall and spring and biweekly during the summer.

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An article last week about the campus debate on gun control laws stated incorrectly the date of a town hall to be held by GT Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. The town hall will be held on Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. in the Molecular Science and Engineering building.

Correction

Crazy, stupid loveAn officer was dispatched in

the early morning hours of Thurs-day, Jan. 19 following an angry call from a woman. At the scene, he found a male victim who had been physically attacked by his ex-girlfriend.

Earlier in the evening, the victim and the suspect had been watching television and consum-ing alcoholic beverages in her apartment. Later, the two be-gan to “mess around” and took a shower together, but the male victim could not remember if the two had engaged in sexual inter-course.

The suspect began to vomit in the bathroom and then wanted to talk about her relationship with the victim.

The victim then suggested that he would leave, but the suspect “went crazy on him” and began to hit and choke him. The male vic-tim dialed 911, but his friend gave him a ride from the apartment shortly after.

The victim and his friend re-turned home, and the victim

called his mother about the situ-ation.

The suspect appeared in the front yard, and when the victim asked her if she had driven her car there, she confirmed that she had and then threw her belongings onto the lawn. The victim then called 911 again for help due to his ex-girlfriend’s irate behavior.

The officers arrived on the scene. Neither party pressed charges at the time, but the female suspect was given a Student Code of Conduct violation for underage possession of alcohol.

Alcoholics Anonymous

In the early morning hours of Saturday, Jan. 14, two offi-cers were dispatched to the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity. There, they found an intoxicated female stu-dent vomiting in the men’s rest-room.

The officers were unable to find the student’s identification, but her friend provided the officers with her information.

The student slipped in and out of consciousness. Vomit was

found on the toilet, the floor and her clothing, and the offender’s speech was slurred and incompre-hensible.

The offender was taken to Emory Midtown Hospital, and she was issued a Student Code of Conduct for underage possession of alcohol.

Flashing lights

In the late evening of Wednes-day, Jan. 11, a police car was parked near the intersection of Fourth St., NW, and Fowler St., NW, with his blue lights activated to get the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Beta Theta Pi fraternity hous-es to turn off their loud music.

A male holding a can of beer approached the officer in his car and began banging on the win-dow. The suspect demanded to know why the officer was there. Upon further questioning, the of-ficer discovered the suspect had lied about his age.

The suspect then walked away, claiming he could do whatever he wanted on his “property.”

The reporting officer ordered the suspect to approach the police vehicle several times.

“Come make me,” the suspect said.

The suspect was then arrested for public intoxication, underage possession of alcohol and obstruc-tion.

By Kamna BohraManaging Editor

From the files of the GTPD...

Campus Crime

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 3 NEWS

Council Clippings Breaking theubbleB

Facebook files for IPOTraders can expect to see

the ticker symbol “FB” on a major stock exchange soon.

Facebook, Inc. filed paper-work to go public last Wednes-day. The social media company intends to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering.

Raising income from adver-tising to its 845 million active users, the company earned $1 billion in profits last year.

While the exact price of a stock isn’t yet certain, Face-book has conducted a self-val-uation and expects to be traded at about $29.73.

The company is likely to refile its paperwork numerous times before being traded in the coming months. Each filing will provide more information about the financial details of the move, including how many shares will be initially sold and the exact trading price.

Republican primaries heat up

The Republican race to the candidacy continued Tuesday with a heated debate in Fl., preceding Gov. Mitt Romney’s win there.

Each debate and subsequent primary election has shed light on the complex electoral fac-tors that will determine the Republican candidate for the presidency this fall.

Romney has attracted voters

as a more moderate candidate that might be more successful in swing states and states with multipart electorates, such as Florida.

Former Speaker Newt Gin-grich, has emerged as the most staunchly conservative, attract-ing evangelicals, tea partiers, and strongly pro-life groups. He focused on illegal immigra-tion before losing the Fl. pri-mary to Romney.

US, NATO to exit from Afghanistan soon

Defense Secretary Leon Pa-netta announced last Wednes-day that the United States and NATO intend to end combat missions in Afghanistan by next year. Some forces will re-main in the country, serving in a “training, advise and assist role,” said Panetta.

He further explained that the U.S. intends to maintain a “strong presence” in Af-ghanistan, including civilians involved in recovery and devel-opment efforts.

The Obama Administration had previously expressed a goal of ending combat military op-erations in the region by 2014.

Atlanta streetcar construction begins

The City of Atlanta be-gan work last Wednesday on a downtown streetcar project, estimated to be completed in 2013.

The streetcars will travel between Centennial Olympic Park and the Martin Luther King Center, with twelve stops along its 1.3 mile span. Fares will be equal to those of MAR-TA trains.

This week in Student Government

Each Tuesday, elected members of the two houses of the Student Government Association, the Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) and the Graduate Student Senate (GSS), convene to consider allocation bills and discuss issues facing campus. Here is a summary of those two meetings.

By Jordan Lockwood, Staff Writer

RaasAs this organization had al-

ready received money last semes-ter from SGA, debate ensued about the actual money required by the organization to cover their event. Calculations from one un-dergraduate representative showed that SGA might in fact be giving the organization more money than necessary for the event by passing the bill.

However, another representa-tive brought to the body’s atten-tion that Tech would host the event and that the event would feature a few dances by the orga-nization. This would allow Tech to polish its national reputation, according to the representative. On this note, discussion ended and the bill passed in the House.

The Graduate Senate expressed concerns that the event might be

unnecessarily expensive due to its venue at the Georgia World Congress Center. The organiza-tional representative rebutted by explaining that the Ferst Center, the original venue, would be too small to accommodate the high attendance expected.

HytechThe HyTech Racing team sub-

mitted a bill to purchase equip-ment for their upcoming compe-tition later this spring. A major expense on the bill was the pur-chase of a $20,000 trailer. The purpose of this trailer would have been to serve as a method of trans-portation and storage for tools at their competition, but some repre-sentatives shied away from passing the bill at this cost.

The bill was ultimately amend-ed per GSS, which struck out the

www.nique.netsliver

don’t be that guy who buys a milkshake at Chickfila-the guy in the back of the linelost and insecure...you found me, you found me!look at me now...I’m spending paper!!!!I don’t wanna graduate. there are no engineers where i’m goingbrian gregory ftw!my econ professor talks about drugs instead of econ in class. wtfwoot woot!dear Tech: it’s the third wk of school and I’ve already almost pulled 2 all-nighter...St op that!Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing and boxing, riding and rowing.great genius is declared in doing nothing particular to prove it.There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.if you’re an Object(), does that mean a girl can’t say “You’re not really my type”?I’m a bi.....pedalI listen to the Harry Potter soundtracks when I’m walking to classesI hate computers and Im a cs major. Is this bad?Girl with the nyan cat shirt, pretty sure I just fell head over heels for yaGLue from horses? How? They dont even have opposable thumbs.tea time on fridays, classywhat is it with guys and not using umbrellas? does it make you manlier? note that pneumonia isn’t sexy...i’d date a ginger...i don’t care what color your hair is :)Do i really have to have a facebook to comment on nique.net? $1.3 billion, not trillion....the ME school spends $20million on research and $4 million on TA, tutoring, and other class room support. Apparently this is how we get good teaching.To the annoying Asian guy in my physics 3 class: could keep your enthusiasm to yourself? You’re making a fool out of yourself.

GSSBill Amount UHR

Bill Summary

HyTech RacingPaintball Club

Woodruff Arts NightClimbing ClubRamblin’ RaasDisc Golf Club

Airsoft ClubMars SocietySailing Club

SCPC

$23,977$5197

$112.50$3584$5061$874$666$1682$5519$4725

8-17-224-1-223-0-026-0-026-0-026-0-020-0-117-0-015-0-214-0-2

47-4-046-1-045-1-045-0-145-4-244-0-140-2-343-1-047-0-046-0-0

Prior Year: $328,946.72 Capital Outlay: $743,252.88

line items for the trailer and a capital expense of buying a chas-sis, on grounds that they were un-necessary.

The bill was unsuccessful in the Senate due to concerns of ex-penses and funds transfer between organizations.

WoodruffThis bill was amended from

last week’s bill to remove trans-portation fees after funding was successfully secured from Auxil-iary Service’s BuzzFunds.

MGT Rep. Mathias Rost moved to censure Graduate Presi-dent James Black for allegedly at-tempting to interfere with confer-ence commitee. The motion failed 1-44-2.

ClimbingThe GT Climbing Club sub-

mitted a bill for travelling fees to an upcoming competition. One of these travel expenses was struck out because the destination was within the 150 mile radius of Tech, making it ineligible for SGA funding.

Mars SocietyThe Mars Society is taking a

crew of six people to conduct a two-week simulation of life on Mars at the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah. The bill was amended to a larger total to give the club more travel expenses.

Vice President of Finance Charley Crosson, in his report, mentioned that organizations are allowed to ask for more travel ex-penses, especially those requiring return travel.

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 5 NEWS

One proposed increase in par-ticular — the $5 requested by the Athletic Association (GTAA) — did not receive approval from MS-FAC. In general, the current ath-letic fee of $127 per semester helps the AA organize sporting events, subsidize student ticket prices and fund student transportation to those events. Athletic Director Dan Radakovich said that the AA would ask for bigger fee increases in future years if they did not get the $5 per semester increase this year. The committee decided by a vote of 9-2-1 to recommend no increase in the athletic fee.

“The majority of the commit-tee felt that the Athletic Associa-tion didn’t adequately justify the fee increase,” said Charley Cros-son, co-chair of the committee and Undergraduate Vice President of Finance.

MSFAC looks to tie fee in-creases directly to actual services, according to Crosson. In the case of the athletic fee, the GTAA could not identify exactly what the increases would be used for.

Parking and Transportation asked for a small transportation fee increase to maintain its current level of bus service. The commit-tee elected to increase the fee by a total of $5 in order to increase the number of Midnight Ramblers in service, with several members cit-ing campus safety as a reason for doing so.

“We’ve had a lot of positive stu-dent feedback about the Midnight Rambler,” Crosson said. “We thought it was important to con-tinue increasing late-night travel options, especially in light of re-cent safety concerns.”

The committee will recom-mend a $6 increase in the student health fee, amended down from the requested amount of $9. Stu-dent Health Services had hoped to use the additional $3 to fund sal-ary increases.

ing time studying “quite a bit” or “very much.”

Although the report showed that Tech students were more like-ly than their peers at other institu-tions to feel that their experience at Tech contributed to their skill in analyzing quantitative prob-lems, students at peer universities indicated that their schools helped improve their speaking and writ-ing skills better than Tech did for Tech students.

According to the report, Tech students felt they had substan-tially worse relationships with their faculty than students at peer universities. 58.1 percent of Tech seniors said that their relation-

ship with professors was available, helpful or sympathetic compared to 75 percent of seniors at peer universities.

Tech students indicated that professors helped little when it came to work outside the class-room and lab, with only 12.6 percent of Tech seniors saying that professors helped with non-academic work “quite a bit” or “very much.” Of seniors at peer universities, 25.5 percent indi-cated that professors helped with non-academic work.

The report also compared the 2011 data with data from 2008 and 2003. It noted significant in-creases in first-years who reported that they felt Tech helped teach them to work effectively with oth-

ers “quite a bit” or “very much” between 2003 and 2011.

When looking at extracurricu-lar activities, 30.9 percent of Tech seniors reported studying abroad, compared to 21.8 percent of se-niors at peer universities. Tech students were also more likely to report that they had had serious conversations with persons of a different ethnic, religious or po-litical group than themselves.

Overall, 89.1 percent of Tech first-years and 87.3 percent of Tech seniors reported that their educational experience at Tech was “good” or “excellent”. This was an improvement of 5.8 per-centage points from 2003 for first-years and 5 percentage points from 2003 for seniors.

News Briefs

North Ave Dining Hall to open 24/7

North Ave Dining Hall will re-sume its 24-hour service and hot breakfast beginning Feb. 5.

In response to student com-plaints regarding the reduced ser-vice, GT Dining released an email last week announcing the reversal.

Students were encouraged to use the facility at late night and early morning hours, as atten-dance will determine future ser-vice, according to GT Dining.

Asst. Coach Todd Spencer resignsTodd Spencer, assistant foot-

ball coach for offensive linemen, resigned last week after reports that he had violated NCAA regu-lations.

According to the Athletic As-sociation, the Association’s inter-nal monitoring system revealed that Spencer had sent text messag-es to prospective student athletes, a violation of member-created NCAA rules.

Severe Weather Awareness WeekFeb. 6-10 is Severe Weather

Awareness Week in Ga. In light of last year’s particularly danger-ous spring storm season, students are encouraged to make prepara-tions for storm-related emergen-cies.

Preparedness programs are cat-egorized as family preparedness, thunderstorm safety, tornado safe-ty, lightening safety, and flooding preparedness. Each will be given consideration in preparedness programming and planning.

MSFAC from page 1

NSSE from page 1

www.nique.netsliver

It is turning into a habit to read slivers while on the toilet.==So excited to see my slivers on the Technique!!! Thank you sliver guy!!!The fate of my Technique: sliver, cartoon, random interesting articles are read; tablecloth for eating near my laptop; tossed or recycled in the end.I am lonely and have nothing to do on a Friday night.... :(Congrats! You’ve been upgraded from the friend zone to the col-league zone! *\o/*Is it bad when your prof uses slides from MIT and does nothing but read straight from the slides? I am at GT right?i ruv you :) muahComedy @ Tech - Feb 18th, 8PM - East Arch 123 | Laugh. Smile. Cheer.“You might want to use Joe’s toilet next time.” “Why?” “Just a thought.” ~happy birthday to my weird roommateI’m glad my fees allow bums to hang out in the front row of the student center lounge every morning.would you forever alones please learn to properly cook toast so that we don’t have to have a fire alarm at 4am?!Meow meow meow meow... love that commercialHave no plans for Spring break... any ideas?what’s the probability that I fall asleep in statistics?suck it February!!!can netflix be a class?HUSTLA DA RABBIT. Yes, that means you Liz.Here is a scary thought...Gordon Ramsay comes to our dining hallsUm, to the guy in Barnes and Noble who sold me my notebook: You make my giney say “Oh Dear!”thanks for lunchlibrary sex is the bestCoding is the best thing ever when it works. Coding is the worst thing ever when it doesn’t.Ever walk through home park at night? Course I want to carry a gun.

Infographic by Lisa Xia / Student Publications

OpinionsTechnique

6Friday,

February 3, 2012

If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up. —Hunter S. Thompson

Opinions Editor: Chris Russell

“”OUR VIEWS CoNseNsus opiNioN

Fee TransparencyMandatory fee increases require explanations

This week, the Mandatory Student Fee Advisory Committee released their recommendations for increases to student fees for the following year, and while the recommendations of the committee are spot on, some of the fees they had to consider are worrisome.

The lack of accountability shown by the Athletic Association (AA) of the proposed increases to the Student Athletic Fee is the main concern. Whereas other departments laid out exactly where the additional revenue will go, the AA gave no information on where they planned to apply the funds from their requested $10-per-year increase. Given the fluctuating costs (particularly in recruiting) and revenues (from ticket sales and merchandise) inherent in sports, it is understandable that it is difficult to make exact statements about their finances, but they should still be able to say specifically how the increase will benefit students or give specifics as to why it is necessary.

This would not be a major issue had it not arisen before. Last year, the AA attempted to do the same: a fee increase without any context for the spending, and threats that a larger fee would be necessary if they did not get funding soon. This cannot continue indefinitely, and the issue must be resolved.

What really needs to happen is for MSFAC to draw up rules about what costs departments can expect students to pay for through fees. Ideally, such guidelines would force the AA to communicate what concrete things it needs students to pay for to exist in its current state. They argue that students are not the only recipients of their spending, but if this is the case, students should not be the main source of their discretionary spending. The AA should be able to depend on students to keep the lights on, but it is their responsibility to find the funding to grow their programs through other sources of revenue.

MItt ROdnEy By CaSEy tISdEl

In last week’s Technique article regarding on-campus concealed carry, President Peterson asked, “... what are the chances that we could actually use that weapon to defend ourselves?” The answer: certainly higher than if we are not carrying. And if he expects a stu-dent being attacked to reach into their pocket, pull out their phone and pull up their Jacket Guard-ian app, can he please explain why drawing a weapon would be out of the question?

He states that the crime num-bers for Tech seem high because we report off-campus crime, which is reasonable, but the admission that it is largely an off-campus problem hurts his own arguments. By dis-allowing any and all carrying on campus, Tech is effectively dis-arming, proactively targeting, and further endangering off-campus students, the same ones that Tech is supposedly “bending over back-ward” to protect.

Violent crime is sure to in-crease as our poor economic situ-ation continues. However, stu-dents are still discouraged from ensuring their own safety and are forced into relying on solely on the Hill and GTPD, who have of-fered no real solutions for the off-campus crime problem. I applaud both groups for keeping the actual campus extremely safe, but they continue to patronize and endan-ger off-campus students by infan-ticizing those who are capable of responsibly carrying a firearm.

Dane KalejtaISYE ‘10

Relying on police insufficient

“John Koch, President of the College Democrats, urged stu-dents to keep their faith in GTPD. ‘These are people who have sworn an oath to protect us,” Koch said. “They’re armed for a reason.’”

And that reason is to enforce the law. The police motto “to serve and protect” applies to the law, not the citizens the law is written to protect. From a legal standpoint, the protection of in-dividuals is a side effect of a po-lice officer upholding the law. This well-documented American legal doctrine was ignored in the quoted piece and the concerned article. We cannot manufacture or reprint skewed claims, no mat-ter how much we would like to believe they are true.

Similarly, a key perspective was omitted: it is not the success-ful use of force that is required to deter crime, but the equal threat of its use. By the very definition of “deter,” if the use of force is necessary, we have already failed. The area around and on campus is targeted because there are no weapons allowed. Criminals see no-firearm zones as safe targets because they assume we are law-abiding citizens. The police force

works in a similar fashion. If po-lice were to advertise their absence from an area, crime would likely increase. We have made known an area where there is little threat of deadly force, so why would that area not be a target? Unfortunate-ly, cursory searches for crime sta-tistics and their locations yield less than satisfying results, so support-ing my argument with statistics is not possible at this time.

Nicholas SmithFifth-year CS

Violent crime supports case for concealed carry

I must first commend the GTPD’s efforts to curb crime on campus. Thanks to their efforts, crime on campus has decreased by 67% since 2008. The majority of this reduction has occurred in burglaries, which have consistent-ly decreased since 2008. While all reductions in crime are welcome, burglary, by definition, does not pose risk of physical harm to students. More pertinent to the immediate safety of students is violent crime against individuals, which can be narrowed to aggra-vated assault and robbery. Violent crimes on campus also decreased from 2008 to 2010, falling from 16 incidents to seven. However, that progress was lost: The most current statistics show 16 inci-dents again in 2011.

For those of us who support concealed carry on campus, vio-lent crimes are a sticking point. By no means will concealed carry reduce crimes where an individual is not involved or threatened. However, in cases of robbery and aggravated assault, a concealed weapon poses a decisive confron-tational advantage. While the debate regarding concealed carry on campus is beyond the scope of this letter, proponents of con-cealed carry are correct to note an increase in violent crime on cam-pus. Given this increase in crime, many wish to protect themselves against such crimes and deter criminals seeking easy targets.

Robert EagarPres., Marksmanship Club

yOUR VIEWS Letters to the editor

Safety statement ignores key details

Write to us: [email protected]

We welcome your letters in response to Technique content as well as topics relevant to campus. We will print letters on a timely and space-available basis.

Letters should not exceed 400 words and should be submitted by Tuesday at 7 p.m. in order to be printed in the following Friday’s issue. Include your full name, year (1st, 2nd, etc.) and major. We re-serve the right to edit for style and length. Only one submission per person will be printed per term.

The Consensus Opinion reflects the majority opinion of the Editorial Board of the Technique, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors.

Technique Editorial BoardVijai Narayanan, Editor-in-ChiefKamna Bohra, Managing Editor

Nishant Prasadh, Development EditorChris Russell, Opinions EditorAlex Sohani, Sports EditorHank Whitson, Entertainment Editor

Maddie Cook, Production ManagerMike Donohue, News EditorWill Folsom, Photography EditorSiddharth Gurnani, Focus EditorIan Bailie, Design Editor

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 7 OPINIONS

I was cold, terrified and very unhappy with gravity.

It was winter break, and I was flying down a mountain in northern Idaho a few notches above my skiing skill level. Although my run had begun quite well, my skis eventually decided that they wanted to take the fastest route between my current position and the bottom, despite my protests.

“I can handle it,” I thought. “Just turn a little bit more, and you’ll slow down enough to take the rest of the route slowly.”

That didn’t happen.“Oh, screw it.” I bailed.From what my friends (who

are much better skiers than I) say, the tumble was spectacu-lar. All of a sudden, my skis were four feet in the air, my head was six inches in the snow and powder was everywhere. I skidded to a stop, thankful that I had given up on the run before a tree had made the de-cision for me.

I learned a lot in those 30 seconds, and I don’t use “learning” as a euphemism for carving a face-shaped track down the mountain. Having averted catastrophe, I stepped away from my disaster and be-gan another run.

We often find ourselves in situations similar to my pre-dicament on the slopes, where we’re forced to make a choice: quit immediately and suf-fer a few bumps and bruises,

or stick it out, hoping to fix things in time to avoid truly crashing and burning.

Silicon Valley is full of peo-ple who attempted to create a start-up but saw the writing on the wall after a few months. They eventually quit, but they went forward leveraging the knowledge they had gained from their failures to be quite successful in their subsequent ventures.

After all, when do we learn more than when the whole world is falling apart around us? Mistakes beget negative consequences, and once that link is established you can be sure we’ll avoid that mistake again. Failure teaches us what works and what doesn’t, what we like and what we abhor.

A failed entrepreneur will have learned about the perils of markets, the fickle tastes of consumers, and the warn-ing signs that portend disaster. By stepping away early, he or she will be able to process that knowledge with relatively few negative consequences.

Entrepreneurs have a lot of incentive to bail out of a ven-ture: They have finances tied up in it, they have families to care for, etc. Those factors don’t make the decision to quit easy, but it does mean that there are forces at work in both directions. As students in col-lege, we don’t have nearly the same pressures.

I could easily create a laun-dry list of things I have quit while in college. I’ve quit ex-tracurricular activities, two majors, projects, relationships and leadership roles. Many of those times I’d stayed longer than I should have, trying to salvage my pride and not want-ing to let the situation beat me.

Sometimes (a series of Jan. conferences I’ve planned come to mind) I tried doing the same type of thing again and again, despite knowing deep inside that I received no enjoy-ment and little value.

If I had bailed earlier in those instances, I could have saved myself a lot of stress and channeled my energy to more

useful pursuits.The hardest thing to deal

with when contemplating quitting is the shame and fear of what friends will think. I recently worked with someone who was planning on quitting one of the groups I’m involved with. She went back and forth on whether she should step back, with most of her anxiety directed at what the rest of the group would think.

While I’m sure some of the people we worked with were not thrilled to see her go, none of us begrudged her when she eventually did leave. We all understood that she had to take care of herself, and leaving our group was the best thing for her.

Am I saying that we should quit the moment the going gets tough? Of course not. Perseverance will often result in success down the road. We often need to do things we don’t enjoy in order to get things done.

We need to recognize when it is time for us to step away as gracefully as possible and hand the reins over to some-one more passionate or more capable. Quitting will cause discomfort, hurt feelings, and hurt pride. People may get an-gry and projects may suffer.

But when the alternative is skiing yourself head-first into a tree, sometimes bailing out and starting anew is the best option.

Lessons can be learned from quitting“When the alternative is skiing yourself into a tree, sometimes

bailing out and starting anew is the best option.”

Mike DonohueNews Editor

Nicole Garcia First-year MSE

“Because the police [liter-ally] can’t be everywhere and because we are in the middle

of Atlanta, yes.”

Kaitlin Ahlstedt First-year BCHM

“If they have proper permits for it, they should be al-

lowed to.”

Jake Wetherall Third-year ISYE

“With proper licenses stu-dents should be allowed to

carry weapons.”

Rohan NagarkarFourth-year ECE

“I think it’s a horrible idea.”

Do you think that concealed carry should be

allowed on campus?

BUZZAround Campus

When four-star defen-sive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson turned down Tech to commit to Alabama on Wednesday, it probably should not have been a surprise. It’s hard to fault a top prospect for spurning Tech for the defending national champions.

There’s a slight issue, though. With Tomlinson and other Signing Day commits in tow, Alabama received letters of intent from 26 players for its 2012 class, meaning they have committed to one scholarship over the limit of 25 imposed by the SEC starting this season.

It could and would have been worse, though, if Ala-bama had not already taken questionable steps to avoid the problem. Two longtime Ala-bama commits, running back Justin Taylor and defensive tackle Darius Philon, had their scholarship offers revoked by coach Nick Saban in January without warning. Suddenly, just days before National Sign-ing Day, each player found himself without a scholarship despite having been commit-ted to Alabama for months.

Mark them down as two new entries on the ever-grow-ing list of victims of oversign-ing, a disgusting practice that has gained a foothold at several major programs. It’s a tactic that always ensures that teams that oversign will be able to fill out their 85-scholarship allot-ments, provided they are will-ing to betray players who have

committed on the promise of a scholarship offer.

What happens to the vic-tims of oversigning varies from case to case, but none end cleanly. Many are asked to grayshirt, or defer enrollment by a year to count toward the following year’s class. Those with poor grades are often sent to junior colleges to improve their academics.

The most brutal tactic, though, is the “medical hard-ship,” something that Alabama has allegedly abused heavily. Here, a rarely-used scholarship player already on the roster is forced to accept a release from the team under the guise of a nonexistent medical issue. He can no longer play and, more importantly, no longer counts for the 85-scholarship limit.

Oversigning and its ef-fects result from a push to get as much talent on the roster as possible, so it is little sur-prise that many of the schools known to habitually oversign are in the cutthroat SEC. For-mer Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt once signed 30 and 37

players in back-to-back classes. South Carolina’s Steve Spurri-er and Arkansas’ Bobby Petri-no have historically abused the practice and have spoken in favor of it, citing the flexibility it offers to support their case.

It’s pretty pathetic. Even Alabama’s Saban said that try-ing to achieve a 25-player class was “difficult,” ignoring the fact that the vast majority of the nation has had little trou-ble accepting this completely sensible practice.

There have been fairly suc-cessful efforts to crack down on oversigning. The Big Ten has been one of the most in-novative conferences in college athletics, and its policies on oversigning are no exception. Schools are never allowed to be more than three scholar-ships above the limit of 85 for any reason, and internal dis-cussions have persuaded nine of the 12 schools to shift from renewable one-year scholar-ships to four-year grants as of this season, an approach that a handful of schools around the country are adopting.

The change from one-year deals to four-year deals, while technically separate from the oversigning debate, would give players much more security upon signing by forcing coach-es to be far more accountable.

There is a case to be made that with the freedom recruits have to jump from school to school and switch commit-ments, college coaches almost have to oversign to ensure they reach 85 scholarships each sea-son, even if a few recruits are stepped on along the way.

It’s a completely unfair comparison, though. Where the loss of one or two recruits in a 24-person recruiting class will hardly cripple a program’s ability to compete, withdrawal of a scholarship offer to a com-mitted recruit can be devastat-ing to the player, leaving him without a school and, in most cases, without any other offers.

The two spurned Alabama recruits, Philon and Taylor, were lucky enough to sign with other SEC schools in the end…but if they had not had those offers, they would have had to accept Saban’s “offer” to let them grayshirt at Alabama.

It’s a simple sign of the power that oversigning-prone coaches can wield to manipu-late their recruits. Increased awareness of the practice has produced change, oversigning will not truly be curbed until more formal regulations are put in place at both the NCAA and conference levels.

Oversigning persists in recruiting process“[The] withdrawal of a

scholarship offer to a committed recruit can be

devastating to the player.”

Nishant PrasadhDevelopment Editor

Photos by Sharad Gopal / Student Publications

8 • February 3, 2012 • Technique OPINIONS

Some fees worth increasing, despite burden of Regents’ fee

Tech equals a great education. Not only for the numerous ben-efits a degree will yield upon grad-uating, but also for the privileges students enjoy while in school. Tech strives to solicit solutions and ideas from its truly gifted student body to solve institute-wide problems. In the levying of student fees, Tech is no different. The Mandatory Student Fee Ad-visory Committee is tasked with forming a recommendation each spring to the President as to how the five fees should be modified on behalf of students and the rest of the Tech community. Deciding how much of students’ money will be spent, and on what, is one of the most sobering duties student leaders have.

The Board of Regents rocked the student body last April with its decision to increase the Special Institutional Fee by $350 per se-mester to a total of $544 per se-mester. The climate surrounding student fees could not be more tense as students struggle to find a way to fund this added burden. For graduate students, the effect was a pay cut. Clearly, any recom-mendation to self-impose a fee in-crease must come with a concrete need. This year, above all others, the committee’s responsibility to thoroughly investigate the need for fee increases would be all the more important. I firmly believe that’s exactly what we did. Only two fees were recommended for an increase and were done so for a total increase of $11 per semes-ter, one of the lowest proposed in-creases in years.

The Health Fee was recom-mended to be increased by $6 per semester to offset increased Institute Overhead charges and

changes to Board of Regents poli-cy on employee benefits. Institute Overhead is charged for central-ized Tech services that the Health Center utilizes at no direct cost. Unfortunately, Institute Over-head was instituted in FY2010 to be phased in over multiple years. This year is the fourth year of con-secutive overhead increases which are passed on directly to students through fee increases. This is yet another way of billing students through fees for things that tra-ditionally were handled via tu-ition revenue. Aside from this, in order to prevent employees from leaving the health center for jobs with benefits, workloads had to be increased to meet the minimum requirement set by the Board of Regents to remain eligible.

The Transportation Fee was recommended to be increased by $5 per semester to meet increased contractual costs ($3 per semes-ter) to maintain services at their current level. The other $2 per se-mester were added due to recent concerns about campus safety and the need for a more robust late-night bus service. An additional bus will be added to the Midnight Rambler route to cut wait times between buses in half (from 30 to 15 minutes).

The committee also recom-mended maintaining the Athletic

Fee at its current level despite an increase request of $5 per semes-ter. Proponents cited rising costs due to tuition and fee increases for athletes, but why should stu-dents who are currently struggling to pay their own fees have to pay more to cover athletes’ fees?

I’d like to close with a serious reminder that the fee process we are privileged with here at Tech is undermined every time the Board of Regents institutes a modifica-tion of the SIF without soliciting input from committees such as Tech’s MSFAC or students in gen-eral. It’s clear to see that the pro-cess we hold so dear to debate $6 here or $5 there is rendered mute by their insistence that the SIF is the answer to decreased state funding and lottery revenues. I can tell you it’s not the answer and it isn’t the only solution to the problem. A better solution would be to expend some political capi-tal and fuel the economic engine of the state by increasing Tech’s state appropriation. The general public complains about increasing tuition, but schools are forced to do so by the decisions of the very people they vote into the state leg-islature when cuts to state appro-priations for education are made. There is a better way. Maybe it’ll just take more Tech grads in gov-ernment positions to figure it out.

OUR VIEWS hot or Not

North Ave. DiningEarly birds and night owls

alike got some good news this week, as GT Dining an-nounced that the North Ave. Dining Hall would be resum-ing hot breakfast and 24-hour service, effective Feb. 5. This comes as welcome news, par-ticularly to residents of the complex who can grab a hot breakfast on the way to class or take a snack break from late-night cram sessions.

HOT– or –NOT“Deciding how much of students’

money will be spent...is one of the most sobering responsibilities

student leaders have.”

James BlackGraduate Student Body President

Slidin’ AlongThe men’s basketball team

simply cannot catch a break. A slim halftime lead at No. 21 Florida State evaporated as the Jackets dropped the road contest 68-54. The Jackets are 1-7 midway through the ACC schedule and have now lost 10 of their last 11 contests. A re-turn home will hopefully help, but perhaps not: The Jackets are 0-5 in “home” games at Philips Arena this season.

Architect AlumnusTech’s College of Architec-

ture was paid a visit by one of its more distinguished alumni this week, as Michael Arad, the architect behind the 9/11 memorial in New York City, spoke at a David C. Allen Lecture. Arad’s design for the memorial was completed and dedicated at a ceremony mark-ing the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Untimely TextingThe football team will have

to add a new assistant coach after Todd Spencer, who over-saw the offensive tackles, re-signed some time after com-mitting a recruiting violation. In November, Spencer sent two impermissible texts to a recruit and was suspended before handing in his resigna-tion. As of press time, there is no word on a replacement.

CLASSIFIEDS

No one understands the genealogy in Genesis 5. In that gene-alogy many individuals are reported to have lived over 900 years. If you think you understand it, I can prove that you’re wrong.

In “From Adam to Noah-The Numbers Game: Why the Geneal-ogy Puzzles of Genesis 5 and 11 Are in the Bible”, I show that the genealogy is a puzzle. When the puzzle is solved, a fully function-al, highly accurate *calendar* is revealed. This calendar puzzle is not an aberration. If the Bible writers had something important to say, they said it with a riddle or a puzzle. We don’t understand the Bible. Those who fight for it and those who fight against it are both fighting about something neither understands. In the sci-ence versus religion debate, “From Adam to Noah” makes peace. Visit: http://www.AdamToNoah.com

Buy/Sell

OFF CAMPUS HOUSING - Perfect LocationAvailable starting in either May or August 2012. Three different houses available - Three bedroom two bath, or four bedroom 3 bath, or five bedroom 5 bath. Two miles to campus... large bed-rooms, private parking, all appliances including washer and dryer included. Safe neighborhood! Contact [email protected] or 404-355-9381 for details.

Real Estate

Notice something HOT or NOT around campus? Email us at [email protected].

[email protected] Editor: Siddharth Gurnani

Assistant Focus Editor:Gaines Halstead

Technique

9Friday,

February 3, 2012

Color

FocusTechnique

9Friday,

February 3, 2012

Color

By Avanti JoglekarContributing Writer

The elimination of global poverty is an incredibly difficult goal to make a reality without focusing efforts and resources within the community struc-tures most likely to result in sustainable progress. Tech in-vests in a variety of programs providing assistance to third-world countries abroad, yet the bubble created by a beautiful college campus makes it hard to imagine that the same lack of basic human needs includ-ing food and shelter plague an entire neighborhood within a 10-minute drive from the Stu-dent Center.

Head down Northside Drive and turn onto Joseph E. Boone Blvd, where, amidst one of the worst neighborhoods in Atlanta, populated by the homeless, alco-holics, drug addicts, prostitutes and 4900 malnourished chil-dren under the age of 12, a non-profit outreach facility called the City of Refuge exists to help the local community. Within the City of Refuge is the 180° Kitchen, named for the alterna-tive path it offers less privileged 18-25 year old “at risk” youths

By Gaines HalsteadAssistant Focus Editor

Leading the change for phil-anthropic efforts on campus, Greek organizations have their unique ways of helping give back.

Social sorority Zeta Tau Alpha participates in monthly service events and annual fund-raisers to raise awareness about breast cancer. Social fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha volunteers with the St. Baldrick’s foun-dation to shave their heads in order to raise awareness about childhood cancer.

South Asian fraternity Alpha Iota Omicron’s philanthropy includes a large initiative to help those less fortunate in coun-

tries throughout South Asia. Their annual 5K “India Run for Hope,” hosted ever year here at Tech, collects over $30,000 to combat cancer in India by providing the nation’s impover-ished communities with the op-portunity for cancer screening and treatment.

Perhaps there isn’t a greater hands-on volunteering orga-nization than that of the local chapter of Habitat for Human-ity. By enlisting non-paid help to work and building supply donations to build with, the or-ganization is able to build new homes or repair older ones at affordable costs for those less fortunate.

Volunteers for Habitat for Humanity are responsible for

building over 50 houses and saving $50 million in labor costs every year in the Atlanta-Metro area.

One of the most recognized events in the world has become a cornerstone of Tech’s philan-thropic efforts. The Relay for Life is part of the American Cancer Society’s national and annual fundraiser project de-signed to help put an end to cancer.

Last year, employees from the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center helped build a house.

It is not only the students that are doing the work, but faculty and other employees are helping out with the initiative as well.

EWB develops solutions for impoverished

Greeks head philanthropic efforts at Tech180° Kitchen teaches participants culinary arts

By Lorelyn KilbyContributing Writer

Designing and implement-ing a solar powered well for the villagers of Mungoa-Goa, Cameroon, removing uranium and arsenic from water sources in the Navajo Nation: These are just two of the many proj-ects the Georgia Tech Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) are working on cur-rently.

This humanitarian group puts their engineering skills

to work by develop-ing and imple-

m e n t i n g solut ions

to health hazards in de-

veloping communities. EWB is a national non-profit organiza-tion that helps student chapters create solutions for health infra-structure needs.

Travel costs are covered by funds raised through dona-tions and corporate sponsor-ship. Currently at seventy-five members, EWB-GT has several active projects and is constantly working to spread philanthropy throughout the campus.

In Oct. 2011, they organized the inaugural “Designing for Good” competition, a chal-lenge in which small groups of students competed against one another to provide an improved design for refugee camps.

In addition to improving health on a global scale, EWB has several local outreach pro-

grams that service the commu-nity. They have many education opportunities and fundraising initiatives.

This organization serves as a resource for students to both raise their awareness of health concerns as well as building engineering skills in a humani-tarian setting, both locally and internationally.

heading in the wrong direction, through training in the culinary arts.

“The saying give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for life represents the holistic ap-proach we take at 180° Kitchen,” said Damon Sheppard, who fa-cilitates the higher education in culinary nutrition provided by the program.

The 12-week program does more than just feed the partici-pants and the neighborhood; rather, it metaphorically teaches them “how to fish” via cultivat-ing skills in the culinary realm, from the urban gardening proj-ects to educate the youth on where food comes from, all the way to the preparation, delivery, and services aspects of the din-ing experience.

Emphasis on the health bene-fits of proper nutrition empowers individuals with an education and valuable skills that help alle-viate the barriers to a sustainable source of income and stability.

“Solving an issue like poverty involves a relational process with long term commitments from organizations like City of Ref-uge to help a person walk the path from dependency to inde-pendence,” said Tony Jones, Di-rector of Community Involve-ment.

This week’s Focus highlights philanthropic efforts undertaken by Tech students both in the community and around the world. For more content, visit nique.net/focus

Phi·lan·thro·py (noun): Goodwill to fellow members of the human race; especially : active effort to promote human welfare

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 11 FOCUS

Each week, the Focus section seeks student opinion on some of the most important and pertinent questions related to the theme of the week.

Giving back to the communityBy Julia Wayne

Contributing Writer

Service projects aren’t just ben-eficial for the recipients — they also allow Tech students to leave campus and meet interesting people and get to see and explore other areas of Atlanta.

“I volunteered as the manager of the concession stand for the North Metro Miracle League. It made me feel like I could contrib-ute to people’s wellbeing without being a professional,” said Joey Benamy, a second-year CE major.

Other students choose to join service-oriented organizations in order to constantly have opportu-nities to volunteer with a set group of people. “I joined [Omega Phi Alpha] because I wanted a chance to meet girls who like doing ser-vice and having fun as much as I do,” said Laurel Street, a first-year INTA major.

Omega Phi Alpha is a service sorority open to all girls on cam-pus. “I’ve volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club. Upcoming proj-ects include volunteering at a local furniture bank that makes furni-ture accessible to low-income fam-ilies and helping with the AIDS memorial quilt,” Street said.

Another important part of ser-vice lies with those who organize

the projects and encourage other students to take part.

“I plan projects with contacts I’ve gained online or through past experiences. Last semester, a cou-ple of sisters and I took part in fin-ishing the construction of a house in the Bankhead neighborhood,” said Katie Flint, Director of Com-munity Service for Alpha Phi and a third-year STaC major.

“I’ve gone on Trailbazer trips, which involve restoring nature trails while hiking through the woods,” said Trisha Long, a first-year ISyE major.

Service can even involve leav-ing the country. A Tech organiza-tion, GT Trailblazers, organizes alternative spring breaks. For some students, however, a week or two isn’t enough.

“I’m going to Africa this sum-mer to teach kids English,” said Taylor Donnell, a first-year ChBE major. “It’s part of the army’s mis-sion to develop soldiers that are more aware of other cultures so that the army knows I’m not just learning about war, I’m learning about other people and how to best represent the US in front of them.”

Regardless of where you are, or who you’re helping, philanthropy evokes joy and compassion from within.

STUDENTS SPEAKSoap project recycles, fights diseaseBy Emily Moran

Contributing Writer

Sometimes, the biggest prob-lems have the smallest solutions. Derreck Kayongo illustrates this concept brilliantly.

After a tough childhood as a refugee in Uganda, he moved to the U.S. to create a better life for those back home that are less fortunate than him by tackling a huge epidemic with a simple solu-tion.

Millions die every year because of a lack of basic cleanliness: since 2009, seven million children have died due to disease that could have been prevented with proper hygiene. Kayongo’s idea started with a stay at a hotel, where he no-ticed his soap was replaced every day although he barely used it.

When he inquired the fate of the lightly used soap, he discov-ered it was all being thrown away: not even recycled. While this seems like an insignificant fact, in fact an estimated three million bars of soap per day are thrown away.

Kayongo found an ingenious way to bridge the gap between the waste of the hotel industry and the lack of sanitation measures in less developed countries.

In 2009, he began asking for hotels in the Buckhead area for their used soap and was given, in all, about 500 pounds of soap by the Intercontinental after his first presentation.

While maintaining a full-time

job, he faced the challenges of finding the time to collect soap, lifting and loading soap, usually with only his wife to help, and spending time and money trying to network with potential donors. The work was physically demand-ing, and it put a financial strain on his family.

With determination, Kayongo was able to get the Global Soap Project off the ground and man-aged to begin sending soap to various countries in need. Fast forward three years, and the suc-cess of The Global Soap Project is evident.

Desmond Tutu, a South Af-rican Nobel Peace Prize winner, gave a nod of approval to Kay-

ongo’s work. “So many times you think that

the best feeling comes from help-ing poor people, the whole reason we do this. But the best feeling was getting recognition from him [Tutu], it felt like we received part of his Nobel Peace Prize,” Kay-ongo said.

Last year, Kayongo received national recognition for his work as a Top Ten Finalist in CNN’s Hero’s Awards. Through this pub-licity and the efforts of the Kay-ongo family and dedicated vol-unteers, The Global Soap Project has been able to send soap to Af-ghanistan, Haiti, Uganda, Kenya,

Photo by Will Folsom / Student Publications

Volunteers help out at the warehouse in Norcross, Ga., where they clean, shred, disinfect, process, cut and distribute used soap.

See Soap, page 12

12 • February 3, 2012 • Technique

Swaziland, Ghana, South Sudan, St. Lucia and Uzbekistan.

While publicity has helped the organization immensely, there are still several ways to get involved and help out. The best way to do so is to volunteer at the warehouse in Norcross (for more informa-tion visit http://www.Global-Soap.org). Get a group of friends together and spend a day doing meaningful work.

Another equally important way to help is to spread awareness. Create an event for Global Hand-washing Day, Oct. 15, and let others know how important basic hygiene is to saving lives.

Or go the extra mile. Create an on-campus group to raise aware-ness and help get others involved in the Global Soap Project. Yet another way to get involved is to raise money for the Global Soap Project.

“Every bar of soap we make costs about 15 cents; so for about every $100 dollars that gets do-nated we can send about 100 bars of soap, which is amazing. You can’t buy soap for that cheap in the US,” Kayongo said.

Also, every time you stay at a hotel, ask them what they do with their soap, and educate them about the Global Soap Project. Kayongo envisions that every hotel in the US will wake up to the notion of recycling soap and hopes to make the Global Soap Project truly global by acquiring soap from hotels throughout the world and re-distributing it as needed.

Soap from page 11Alumni donations, gifts help build campusBy Nirav Bhatia

Contributing Writer

There is no greater gift than the gift of giving, especially when the gifts are given to Tech by former students. Alumni contributions make up a large part of the effort to help better both our school and our campus as a whole.

Be it Klaus’s socket-ready ta-bles or the colossal Bobby Dodd stadium, Tech needs money for development. To fulfill the high demands, Tech’s fundraising campaign initially had a target of 1 billion dollars, but what’s better than a billion dollars? Try 1.5 bil-lion.

To assist Tech in achieving its fundraising target, alumni give back to Tech in three forms: gifts, pledges, or deferred pledges, a method in which the donor in-cludes Tech in his or her will.

“Alumni provide 50 percent of all philanthropy that comes to Tech, which is atypically huge,” said Barrett Carson, Vice Presi-dent of Development.

Even the co-op program is a reality thanks to alumni gener-osity. A seven-figure endowment by Newton W. Thomas supports many of the engineering students who participate in the co-op pro-gram.

About 50,000 to 75,000 of Tech’s donations are given to one in four members of the faculty and put towards a variety of different needs, ranging from helping fac-

ulty with their research efforts to providing lab equipment to high school students. With all this, the question that obviously arises in one’s mind is: why give back?

The answer: rigor. The aca-demic rigor at Tech prepares its graduates to go above and beyond in any work environment and other high performance situations throughout life.

Tech graduates are one of the most sought-after individuals by corporations and it this desir-ability that provides a rewarding income.

When a company like Face-book or Apple approaches a stu-dent nearing graduation, whom do they ultimately have to thank? None other than the very institu-tion that gave them the opportu-nity to excel at that level.

The reasons alumni give back are plenty.

“They want to increase the size and quality of school, improve faculty,” Carson said.

They also want to improve stu-dent experience by making the campus more beautiful by adding walkways, trees, and benches ev-erywhere.

Even parents give back, out of the desire for their child to suc-ceed at this institution.

“Corporations, after alumni, are the largest philanthropists at Tech and they simply want to in-vest in an extremely talented pool of individuals who can eventually serve them in the best possible

way,” Carson said.It is important that we all don’t

just walk out of Tech and never look back at the institution that gave us a world-class education and led us to our dream job or career.

If we were all to do so, we would be denying many more wishing to be in our positions.

It is not just a privilege, but an honor to be a Tech alumnus

Photo by Josh Sandler / Student Publications

Tech’s development office is located in the Wardlaw building on North Avenue. Administrators here help raise capital for projects.

and without the support of the alumni, there wouldn’t be Grant Field, Bill Moore Success Center, Marcus Nanotechnology build-ing, Zelnak Basketball Center, or many other pillars that make Tech a superior institution.

“Philanthropy makes a very big difference at Tech,” Carson said. As future alumni, it is our responsibility to maintain that tradition of giving back.

EntertainmentTechnique

13Friday,

February 3, 2012

[email protected] Editor:Hank Whitson

Assistant Entertainment Editor:Jonathan Peak

SOPA-style legislation jeopardizes online entertainmentBy Joe Murphy

Contributing Writer

Imagine a world without free knowledge. This was the mes-sage that awaited the millions of people who tried to log in to the hugely popular online reference site Wikipedia on Jan. 18. View-ers soon found that access was restricted to the site for an entire 24-hour period, the reason being that Wikipedia, along with hun-dreds of other popular sites in-cluding Google and Tumblr, was participating in what was soon to be called the largest online protest in history. The target of this pro-test was the government’s recent

proposition of the Stop Online Pi-racy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), which if carried out would have allowed corpora-tions to shut down websites that distribute any form of copyright-ed material. All protesting sites (excluding Google) completely shut themselves down, giving the public a taste of what the effects of these two acts might be.

Of course such censorious legislation has been proposed in the past, but without much ef-fect. Bills like the Digital Millen-nium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998 sought to enforce the rules of copyright infringement on the Internet, but were proven to be

easily circumvented by Internet pirates. SOPA and PIPA, on the other hand, take a much more ag-gressive approach, allowing cor-porations to demand government intervention without first seeking court orders and due process. The acts would also entail harsher pen-alties for pirates, including stiff fines and jail time.

In effect, this would allow enormous entertainment corpora-tions like News Corp, Sony and Time Warner to shut down any sites they accuse of violating copy-right terms.

Due to the massive number of protestors mentioned above and President Obama’s opposition,

both bills have been postponed indefinitely. But in no way does this mean that the legislation is gone for good, and the question of what would happen to the en-tertainment industry if both bills pass still remains.

Hollywood lobbied hard for SOPA and PIPA. From the mov-ie studios’ perspective, the bills would simply ensure that earnings went to the right people. For ex-ample, the Motion Picture Associ-ation of America has been cheated out of billions in revenue due to the enormous number of pirated films available on the Internet.

In addition, music that is ille-gally downloaded robs musicians

of money that should rightfully be theirs. Lawful compensation, therefore, would be one of the key policies implemented by the SOPA and PIPA bills, and would most likely be considered a rea-sonable undertaking to the aver-age working-class citizen.

However, the fact remains that a substantial portion of the popu-lation still opposes SOPA and PIPA despite the studios intellec-tual property claims. The reason for this opposition is that the two bills would prohibit much more than just illegal downloading of film or music. In fact, if the bills

See Piracy, page 15

By Brent HornillaContributing Writer

Lately, the fighting game scene has been dominated by 2-D franchises like last year’s Mortal Kombat and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom, so the recent release of Soulcalibur V is a welcomed one. For those unfamiliar with the genre, Soulcalibur is a weapons-based, 3-D fighting game featur-ing horizontal, vertical, and kick attacks.

Core basics aside, there have been a number of significant changes, key among them being the removal of the Soul Gauge and the introduction of the Criti-cal Gauge. This new gauge func-tions similarly to the super meters in just about every other fighting game, filling up as you give and take damage so that you can use it later to execute a flashy super move (“critical edge”) or to beef up a normal one (“brave edge”). Parries have also been replaced with a more advanced Guard Im-pact that repels any attack at cost of some Critical Gauge. More ad-vanced players will be glad to hear the 8-Way Run system is still in place, but with the addition of a double-tap for side-stepping. This new fighting system runs smooth-ly for newbies and veterans alike, but some may find themselves disappointed with its similarity to other franchises. While the game boasts some new characters, most

of them play like older characters with new skins, notable excep-tions being Natsu (Taki’s demon-imbued apprentice), Ezio (of As-sasin’s Creed fame), and Devil Jin (accessibly only by character cus-tomization).

That being said, there is a lot to desire outside of actual match-es. The story mode follows Pa-troklos (and only Patroklos), son of Sophitia from previous install-ments, on his quest to rid his sister of the “malfestation” that has be-fallen her from contact with Soul Edge. This is a twist for any fight-ing game, as convention is to have a brief story for every character to tell a greater story from multiple perspectives, but while the idea is a step in the right direction, its ex-ecution is definitely flawed.

The plot itself isn’t that inter-esting, and the few redeeming cut scenes are overshadowed by endless storyboarding and poor voice acting. More often

than not, players will find them-selves frustrated with Patroklos. This forces players to endure a story they probably won’t care for with a character they might not be comfortable with. The standard arcade and quick battle modes are still present but none are all that impressive.

However, to judge a fighting game by its lack of an immersive single player wouldn’t be fair. Vi-sually, the character designs and stages are wonderful to look at, with some stages even featuring multiple tiers. True to expecta-tions, the franchise still boasts the most expansive customization sys-tem of any fighting game. Players

can detail just about every feature, from their character’s voice to their facial scars. The clothing selection itself ranges from suits of armor to polka-dotted miniskirts. While move sets are borrowed from the game’s pre-existing characters, it’s important to note that height will actually affect game play through reach and attack rating. You can even bring your custom characters online, which is where most of the fun is anyway. Making people rivals allows head-to-head stat comparison, and thanks to Global Colosseo, you can even meet other players locally.

While certainly not the pin-nacle of the franchise, Soulcalibur V is a great game with solid ame play. Diehard fans and new play-ers alike will be able to enjoy it so long as they aren’t afraid to play online, but if they’re looking for

something with an in-depth and moving story, Soulcalibur

V is not the best choice.

GAMES

Soulcalibur VCONSOLE: PS3, Xbox 360

GENRE: Fighting

DEVELOPER: Namco

RATING: T

RELEASED: Jan. 31

OUR TAKE: «««««

Soulcalibur’s story shallow, character creation deep

image courtesy of Namco

image courtesy of Namco

14 • February 3, 2012 • Technique

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Money juvenile, unconvincingFILM

One For the MoneyGENRE: Romance

STARRING: Katherine Heigl

DIRECTOR: Julie Anne Robinson

RATING: PG-13

RELEASE DATE: Jan. 27

OUR TAKE: «««««

By Lorelyn KilbyContributing Writer

Only one month into the new year, the book One For the Money has already set some pretty high standards that will be near impos-sible to top. The story, based on the work of author Janet Evanov-ich, follows the trials of Stephanie Plum, an independent woman born and bred in New Jersey who struggles to stay above hard fi-nancial times. In desperation for some cash after her car is taken by debt collectors, Plum convinces her cousin to give her a job as a re-covery agent for his bail bonding business. Out of her element and unprepared to face the criminals she is tasked to bring in, Plum re-ceives aid from “Ranger,” a boun-ty hunter at the top of his game.

Plum immediately jumps on the case with the highest reward: bringing in vice cop Joe Morelli, a sexy man from Plum’s past who left her bitter with no compas-sion or pity. The hour that follows is packed with witty banter and a cat and mouse game between Morelli and Plum, until Plum re-alizes she’s in over her head and things are more dangerous than she imagined. In true chick flick fashion, she has a moment of rev-elation during which she becomes gung-ho bounty hunter and com-

mits to getting to the bottom of a mysterious murder.

The movie, however, does little to capture the playful and comic moments of Evanovich’s novel. For those who have not read the book, the finished film was like a stone skipped across a lake, giving the audience ripples of a story, but leaving no desire to dive in. The story was shallow with little char-acter development to show what life Plum had been living, alien-ating the audience and leaving no context with which to relate. The lack of character development left events unimportant, making the movie fairly anti-climatic.

The story line itself was un-realistic and so typical it might make a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie gag. Somehow even more unrealistic than the plot line was Heigl’s “Jersey” accent. It was as if her voice coach sat her in front of a marathon of Jersey Shore fol-lowed by a class in vocal delivery by Jenna Marbles. However, if it were not for her awful attempts at convincing the audience she was

from Jersey, the movie would be far less comically entertaining.

As far as romantic interests go, there is about as much sexual tension in the movie as a game of Truth or Dare at a sixth grade party. Katherine Heigl looks great in the movie, with her body fea-turing as one of the only redeem-ing qualities. While the two male co-stars (Jason O’Mara and Dan-iel Sunjata) are both as fit as ac-tion figures, there’s no “action” in these Barbies. Any flirty interac-tions were sarcastic jabs cut short of anything serious.

Director Julie Anne Robinson, also responsible for The Last Song, failed to capture the story that has been so popular on paper. Overall it was impressively fickle, even for a chick-flick. Between the bad ac-cents, predictable story, and lack of action, this movie lacks cre-ativity and more serious themes making it a hard watch for even the most open-minded. One can only hope the sequel, Two for the Dough, does a better job in recre-ating Evanovich’s visions.

By Lauren PayneStaff Writer

CITY SCENEPhoto by Chris Gooley / Student Publications

Vinyl record showCome celebrate the culturally enduring vinyl record

this Saturday, Feb. 4, at the Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Take the opportunity to reminisce and connect with fellow record enthusiasts, enjoy live performances from local bands, and browse rare record collections all for an enticing entrance fee of $0. Vinyl records of myriad age and genre will be on sale, and food and drink will be readily available. Bring a friend, steep in nostalgia for a beloved relic of 20th century culture, and spare yourself from an otherwise empty Saturday afternoon.

Mandala art showSwiss psychologist Carl Jung once stated that the

mandala (Sanskrit for “circle”) embodies “a safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness” and often used this artistic medium as a psychoanalytic tool and form of therapy for his patients. The Oglethorpe University Museum of Art opens its doors to the general public on Sunday, Feb. 5, for a firsthand viewing of The Sa-cred Round: Mandalas by the Patients of Carl Jung. The exhibit also features a handmade book containing the drawings and dream descriptions of one of Jung’s patients. For a humble fee of $5, fight the Freudian ma-chine and get to know Jung’s innovative approach to-wards the psychoanalytic method.

««

Photo courtesy of Lakeshore Entertainment

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 15 ENTERTAINMENT

were put into action, web-masters would become responsible for anything that is posted on their site’s forums. Bloggers would even be held accountable for content posted in comments. The use of company logos, even those found on a Google Image search, could lead to legal intervention if the company deemed it a form of copyright infringement.

Perhaps some of the most radi-cal changes would occur on sites like YouTube. If SOPA and PIPA were passed, remixed songs, tele-vision episodes, and game replays could be criminalized and those responsible for unauthorized re-distribution could be prosecuted. In order to avoid liability, video sharing sites would have to manu-ally review the content of each submission before making them publicly viewable, negating the possibility of immediate uploads.

This is obviously a complicated issue. While the bills would allow traditional entertainment moguls to exist and thrive in a digital world, the considerable cons are the potential for censorship and sending online creativity into a steep nosedive.

The bills have been struck down for now, America is holding its breath, and the Internet con-tinues to be the largest source of media and information in history. But if similar bills are put into ef-fect, they would fundamentally alter the face of the internet. We may have to ask ourselves if we are prepared to live in a world where what goes online is controlled.

By Jonathan PeakAssistant Entertainment Editor

Lana Del Rey was one of the most hyped artists of the past few months after the release of her single “Videogames” last October propelled her into the blogosphere limelight. The attention only in-creased after her performance on Saturday Night Live was slapped with the unbecoming label of “worst performance ever.”

True to the adage that “any press is good press,” the excite-ment around her major label de-but only increased as netizens jumped to both ferociously attack and vehemently defend her. All this culminated last Tuesday (Jan. 31) when Born To Die was released to strong sales and polarizing re-views.

Del Rey’s given name is Lizzy Grant, under which she drew a bit of attention in 2008 with her first EP. However, after an album, a name change, and subsequent era-sure of any previous material Lana

Del Rey was ready to expose her self-proclaimed “gangsta Nancy Sinatra” persona to audiences.

On her album, Del Rey astute-ly deconstructs American culture over the course of 12 tracks. On the surface her album could be a non-stop party anthem, name dropping more brands of alcohol than any rapper. However, behind the Cristal, Bacardi and Pabst Blue Ribbons are self-important, sometimes clever, but often vacu-ous lyrics with content most com-parable to Lady Gaga’s work.

Each paints a picture of a lost America, youth with nowhere to go on a search for purpose and religion — but ultimately losing themselves in booze and sex. But both conclude that’s just fine; one deciding we were Born This Way, the other we were Born To Die. But while Gaga’s records could be the party, Del Rey’s feels more like the hangover: full of regret and heavy weariness.

And morose her album is, every song a slow-burning, tear-filled manifesto of lament. However, Del Rey creates a unique album that feels truly “American,” using seemingly every trope from popu-lar music in the past 20 odd years. Ballads like “Born To Die” and “Blue Jeans” feature in the back-ground cat calls often reserved for the raunchiest rap songs. She does her best Gwen Stefani, faux-rap-ping her way through the tracks “Off to the Races” and “Diet Mountain Dew.”

For “National Anthem,” Del Rey pulls the strings almost di-rectly from The Verve and chan-nels Rihanna’s stuttering vocals on “Summertime Sadnessa.” Del Rey’s voice changes almost ev-ery song, ranging from the dark, husky vocals of Cher to the high-pitched squeals of a Bollywood singer. Through all of these con-trasts, Del Rey still manages to create a cohesive album, which, though slow, never bores.

Del Rey is essentially a con-trasting artist and persona — one destined to be both hated and loved. Though ambitious, Born To Die never raises itself above the mere pretense of promoting Del Rey’s view of what America is and should be. Instead Del Rey’s strong songwriting capability car-ries the album; when the glum lyrics and obtuse production are

removed and only bare melodies are left, they are undeniably some of the catchiest in the business.

Interesting, however, is how far her promoters will go in the fight against detractors. Del Rey’s SNL performance was flat and off-key, both musically and artistically, and deserved criticism — though “worst ever” may go too far. Many major music outlets already award-ed her the “Next Big Thing” and are now faced with the reality that maybe she’s not all that. It will be interesting to see how the public reacts as the gap between taste-makers’ and consumers’ whimsies comes to a head. Del Rey is by no means a bad artist, but rather one whose music and persona prove to be more conflicting and divisive than likable, warranting a listen simply for juxtaposing all of what is America into one album.

MUSIC

Lana Del ReyBorn To Die

LABEL: Interscope

GENRE: Pop, Alternative

TRACK PICKS: “Blue Jeans,” “National Anthem” and “Radio”

OUR TAKE: «««««

Del Rey divisive, destined for controversy

««

Photo courtesy of Interscope Records

Piracy from page 13

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 17 ENTERTAINMENT

thEME CROSSWORd: hIghS and lOWSBy James Barrick

United Features Syndicate

ACROSS1. Inbox clutter5. Unfriendly10. Fig genus15. Jane Austen title19. “For -- -- Jolly Good Fellow”20. Control system, for short21. Love22. Midday23. Uncertain: 4 wds.25. Impoverished: 3 wds.27. Borrowed term or ex-pression28. Carapace30. Hollow stone31. Corn spikes32. All -- lead to Rome33. Crop34. “Annie --”37. Mohair relative38. In a joyous way42. Of snow-capped peaks

43. In good order: Hyph.46. Apocalypse47. Honey wine48. Draconian49. Organic compound50. WAVE relative51. Raggedy --52. Certain club members53. Cane54. -- -- hand56. Prolonged meeting58. Tribunal59. Presses down60. Ancestral groups61. “-- Idiot Brother”62. Saint --63. Take as a given64. Outpouring66. Fax predecessor69. Saddle animal70. Digital money: Hyph.71. Linden and Holbrook72. Coffee, disparaged 73. -- Ben Canaan

DOWN1. Synagogue2. Gourd3. ‘80’s supergroup4. Affected5. On solid ground6. Dastardly looks7. Toward the mouth8. Egg: Prefix9. Indeed, of old10. Withered11. Solid anagram12. Monk’s hood13. Vessel with a spigot

14. Tropical shore plant: 2 wds.15. Equipped16. “-- Indigo”17. Pouting look18. Emmet24. Aka Clemens26. Unmixed29. Glory relative32. Decomposes33. Dull, heavy sound34. Lorenzo of “Falcon Crest”35. Coeur d’--36. Showing promise:

Hyph.37. Rathskeller fare38. Order39. Purchase requirement: 2 wds.40. Lots41. Org. founded in 184443. Marriage notice44. Makeup45. Arab VIP48. Favorite place52. Easy to break53. “-- Pacific”54. Spikes55. Send forth

57. Word in a threat58. Moves effortlessly59. Stiffened fabric62. Memorize63. Gay --64. Source of dandruff65. Cousin to the agouti66. Defrosts67. A stamping out68. -- Rice Burroughs69. Sagan or Sandburg70. Citizen overseas, for

short74. Snail on a plate75. Postscript76. Troubles77. Aurora --79. Scandal sheet81. Circle dance82. Pupa antecedent84. Nonsense poet86. Linksman88. “Who’s Afraid of Vir-ginia Woolf” playwright

74. Verbatim75. Knowing77. Glacial frag.78. Ripped80. End-of-flight event82. “Ars --, vita brevis”83. Writing paper: 2 wds.85. Pindarics86. Band for a sleeve87. Pummel88. “-- moi, le deluge”90. Encore!91. -- plexus 93. Disinfect94. Worth saving98. Available to all: 3 wds. 100. Ruined102. Certain bond, for short103. Start104. Tsar’s order105. Role in “Othello”106. Prompt107. Accepts108. Alma --109. Put in storage

89. Troublesome ones90. Church house91. Secondary track92. Point -- -- return93. Hogshead94. Slap95. Raucous sound96. Toy-blocks brand97. Sufficiently, once98. Game VIP99. Letters in genetics101. Russian river

18 • February 3, 2012 • Technique COMICS

nOn SEqUItUR by WileyPIlEd hIghER & dEEPER By Jorge Cham

CROSSWORd SOlUtIOn from page 17

SUdOKU PUZZlE By SUdOKUCOllECtIOn.COM

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 19 COMICS

dIlBERt ® By sCott adamsnOn SEqUItUR by Wiley

20 • February 3, 2012 • Technique SPORTS

2012 GEORGIA TECH FOOTBALL SIGNEES

NAmE POSITION

Dennis Andrews

Micheal Summers

Freddie Burden

Marcus Allen

Francis Kallon

DJ White

Anthony Autry

Chase Roberts

Pat Gamble

Adam Gotsis

Travin Henry

Ryan Rodwell

Tyler Stargel

Lynn Griffin

Roderick Chungong

Justin Thomas

Beau Hankins

QB

WR

OL

BB

DE

CB

WR

OL

DT

DL

ATH

P

LB

S

DE

QB

LB

HOmETOwN

Tallahassee, Fla.

Statesboro, Ga.

Statesboro, Ga.

Hilliard, Fla.

Lawrenceville, Ga.

McDonough, Ga.

Norcross, Ga.

Duluth, Ga.

Carrollton, Ga.

Victoria, Australia

Sparks, Ga.

DeLand, Fla.

Orange Beach, Ala.

Jacksonville, Fla.

Silver Springs, Md.

Prattville, Ala.

Birmingham, Ala.

Jackets sign 17 in 2012 classBy Alex MitchellSenior Staff Writer

Feb. 2 marked the annual Na-tional Signing Day — the day where potential football recruits send their letters of intent to various schools. This year, Head Coach Paul Johnson and his staff managed to sign 17 players to be-come freshmen next season.

The recruiting class is balanced with eight players on offense, eight on defense, and one special teams player. The special team’s player is punter Ryan Rodwell, and he is expected to help solve some of the team’s recent punting woes.

On defense, the Tech recruit-ing class is heavy on defensive line. A total of four players are committed to play defensive line next year for the Jackets, but the standout of the group is defensive end Francis Kallon.

Kallon played at Central Gwinnett High School this past season. He is originally from England, and just started playing football this past season. Howev-er, his lack of experience did not stop some of the top schools in the country from trying to persuade him to join their team.

Tech received another defen-sive line commitment from an-other international prospect in defensive tackle Adam Gotsis. The Australia native was originally scouted by a former Hawaii player who played under Johnson at Ha-waii, and at six-foot-five and 295

pounds, he should be competing to become Tech’s starting nose tackle in the coming years.

A pair of linebackers also com-mitted to Tech to help strengthen the front seven of the defense. Tyler Stargel and Beau Hankins are both expected to play inside linebacker in Tech’s 3-4 defense and come to Tech as three-star prospects.

Stargel blocked four kicks as a senior, suggesting that he could be a force on special teams right away and help a unit that was a major weakness for Tech this past season.

Hankins, meanwhile, could project as a ballhawk considering his four forced turnovers during his senior year.

The Jackets also addressed con-cerns on offense with two running backs and two receivers to replace the starters they lost at those po-sitions this season. Tech also re-ceived two letters of intent from quarterbacks.

The biggest name in that group is B-back Marcus Allen of Hill-iard, Fla.

Allen, who is not related to the NFL Hall-of-Famer of the same name, but is related to longtime NFL star Champ Bailey, chose Tech primarily for the opportu-nity to play running back rather than linebacker.

Quarterback Dennis Andrews was the first player to sign with Tech, and he is already enrolled in classes this semester. Andrews is

small for the position, but projects the athleticism necessary to play quarterback in Tech’s offense.

Justin Thomas is the other quarterback that Tech signed on Wednesday, and he is Tech’s highest-rated recruit in the class. Thomas originally committed to Alabama as a cornerback, but de-cided to come to Tech so he could have a chance to play quarterback at the college level. Thomas is re-portedly one of the fastest players in the nation coming out of high school, and he could create a bit of a quarterback controversy next season if he can learn the offense quickly enough.

The offense also beefed up its offensive line with a pair of com-mitments from three-star guards. Both Chase Roberts and Freddie Burden come from Ga., and both come to the Flats with surprising athleticism.

Even at 285 pounds, Rob-erts played tennis in high school while Burden played tight end. One positive for Burden is that he played for a run-dominated of-fense in high school that is similar to Tech’s scheme.

Tech’s recruiting class includes eight players from Ga., four play-ers from Fla., and four players from Al..

The eight from Ga. is the low-est number of commitments Tech has received since 2008. Tech’s re-cruiting class is currently ranked ninth in the ACC, according to ESPN.com.

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 21 SPORTS

Tennis drops two vs. ranked opponents

Photo by Josh Sandler / Student Publications

Kevin King hits a shot against Auburn’s Andreas Mies. King topped Mies 6-3, 6-3 before losing his singles match on Monday.

By Joe SobchukStaff Writer

The No. 19 ranked men’s ten-nis team hosted the ITA Kick-Off Weekend for the first time in school history this past weekend, playing host to three other ranked teams in Auburn, Illinois, and North Carolina.

The Jackets met the No. 20 ranked Auburn Tigers on Sunday, while the No. 18 ranked Tar Heels faced the No. 15 ranked Illini on Sunday, Jan. 29. The winners of the two matches met on Monday, with the winner of that match ad-vancing to the ITA National In-door Team Championships.

The losers played a consolation match on Monday as well. The Jackets lost both of their matches, falling to Auburn 4-1 on Sunday and Illinois 4-3 on Monday.

Senior Kevin King and junior Juan Spir, the second-ranked doubles pair in the country, gave the team an early lead with an 8-3 win over Auburn’s Alex Stamchev and Daniel Cochran. However, that would prove to be the Jack-ets’ only doubles victory as the Tigers’ Andreas Mies and Lukas Ollert beat junior Juan Melian Puigventos and freshman Vikram Hundal, 8-6 and Dennis Lengs-feld and Lucas Lopasso defeated senior Dusan Miljevic and fresh-man Eduardo Segura Mandarino, 8-5 to take the doubles point.

King, who is also the nation’s No. 9 singles player, won the first

singles match of the afternoon, besting No. 18 Andreas Mies in straight-sets, 6-3, 6-3. But Au-burn responded, overcoming an early deficit by winning each of its remaining matches in straight-set fashion. Auburn’s Ollert defeated Hundal 6-3, 6-1, as Stamchev beat Spir 6-2, 6-4. Lengsfled eked

out a win in a tight match with Miljevic, 6-4, 7-5, to seal the 4-1 victory for the Tigers.

The loss to Auburn meant that the Jackets would square off with the Illini in the third place con-solation match. This match was a closer one for Tech compared to the previous day, but the Jackets

still fell short, 4-3. This was the third straight loss to a ranked team for the Jackets, whose record now sits at 1-3.

Tech earned the doubles point in a sweep, as King and Spir de-feated Illinois’ Dennis Nevolo and Farris Gosea 9-8 (7-3), while Me-lian and Hundal beat Tim Kopin-ski and Ross Guignon 8-5. The third doubles match was a close one between Miljevic and Segura and Illinois’ Bruno Abdelnour and Roy Kalmanovich, but was left unfinished at 8-8 as the Jack-ets had already clinched the point for doubles play.

The Jackets could not find sim-ilar success in the singles matches, as they lost their first three to fall behind the Illini 3-1. Each of these losses was in straight sets, as Hundal lost 6-0, 6-2 to Go-sea, Miljevic dropped a 6-1, 6-1 decision to Kopinski and Segura could not keep up with Illinois’ Guignon, falling 6-1, 6-1.

The Jackets mounted a small comeback after that, tying the match at 3-3 with a 6-1,6-4 victo-ry by Spir over Kalmanovich and a 7-5, 6-1 win over Abdelnoir by Melian. However, it would prove to be too little as Nevolo, the sec-ond-ranked singles player in the nation, bested King in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4 to earn the victory for his team. The loss was King’s first of the spring season.

The Jackets will be back in ac-tion on Saturday, Feb. 4, when they host South Carolina.

30 points and 17 rebounds.Once again, the Jackets started

the game off slow, allowing Clem-son to go on an 11-3 run through the first seven minutes. However, the Jackets rallied on a 12-4 run over the next five minutes to tie the game at 15-15.

Both teams exchanged a series of field goals and turnovers to end the half before the Tigers went into the intermission up 27-26.

Tech turned up the intensity level on the defensive side of the ball for a second straight game, holding the Tigers to 38 percent shooting in the second half while shooting 50 percent on the offen-sive end.

Clemson came out of the lock-er room and quickly earned their largest lead of the game, going up 36-31 through the first three min-utes. However, the Jackets struck back quickly, coming within one point after two straight baskets by Marshall.

An 11-5 stretch by the Jackets gave them a 47-40 lead midway through the second half with two free throws by Goodlett. Despite efforts by the Tigers, they never came within two points of the Jackets through the rest of the game. The Jackets held Clemson to one basket through the last 4:22 of the game.

The Jackets, with a 6-3 con-ference record, returned home to play against the N.C. State Wolf-pack on Thursday, Feb. 2, after the time of press. They then will host the Maryland Terrapins on Monday, Feb. 6.

Winning from page 24

Technique • February 3, 2012 • 23 SPORTS

points scored by the Jackets was the third highest scoring total of the season.

Udofia led the Jackets in the scoring through the game with 16 points on 14 shot attempts, and sophomore guard Jason Mor-ris was the only other Tech player in double figures with 15 points. Freshman forward Julian Royal continued his streak of strong play in ACC contests posting nine points and six rebounds.

The Jackets then travelled to Tallahassee, Fl., to face the Semi-noles in what proved to be an early defensive battle. The two teams combined to shoot 15 of their 43 shot attempts in the first half, while only scoring a combined 49 points.

Rice, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, missed the game with a foot injury, adding to the Jackets’ woes. Without Rice, the team managed to come out on top in the first half with a 25-24 advantage. However, Tech’s de-fensive efforts were not as strong in the second half, as the Jackets allowed Florida State to shoot over 61 percent and hit six of their 10 three-point attempts to close out the 68-54 loss.

The Seminoles started off the game quickly, kicking things off with a 14-5 run through the first seven minutes of the game. A jumper by sophomore center Daniel Miller with 11:24 left in the half lit a spark for the Jackets and begun an 18-8 run that gave the Jackets a 23-22 lead with just over three minutes left in the first period.

The Jackets hit five of their eight shot attempts on the run, while adding seven points from the foul line.

Two more free throws by Udo-fia gave the Jackets a narrow 25-24 lead going into the locker room.

To start the second half, Flor-ida State retook control of the

game. With 18:34 left, Florida State’s Luke Loucks hit a jumper to put the Seminoles up 28-27, and the Jackets would never take the lead through the rest of the game. Tech struggled from the perimeter, allowing Florida State guard Michael Snaer to hit open three-point attempts throughout the half.

Snaer scored 16 of his gam-high 21 points in the second half on five of seven shooting from the field.

Sophomore guard Brandon Reed scored a team and season-high 18 points in the contest, hitting 50 percent of his shots through the game. Sophomore

center Daniel Miller was the only other Jacket to finish in double figures. However, the Jackets al-lowed three Florida State players to hit double figures in the game with each shooting over 70 per-cent.

With the win, Florida State is tied at first place with North Carolina in the ACC with a 6-1 conference record.

After posting the two losses, the Jackets fell to a league-worst 1-7 ACC record. The Jackets will look to turn their season around on Saturday, Feb. 4, at home against the Eagles of Boston Col-lege before hosting the N.C. State Wolfpack on Thursday, Feb. 9.

Jackets succeed at Rod McGravy Inv.

By Adam WestContributing Writer

The Tech Track and Field teams had a successful weekend at an event hosted in Lexington by the University of Kentucky. Ath-letes from Tech performed well all around and brought the school the gold in the men’s high jump.

Senior Mykhail Chambers cleared 2.04 meters to take the gold medal in the high jump, while freshman Brandon Mbaba reached 1.99 meters for third place.

In the women’s long jump, sophomore Julienne McKee leaped 5.97 meters for second place. McKee also placed second in the women’s triple jump with a distance of 12.46 meters. Senior Jhanelle Mcleod also placed in the top ten for the triple jump, clear-ing a distance of 11.88 meters.

The men had a productive day on the track, placing high in the mile run, the 200-meter dash, and the 800-meter run.

Sophomore Alec Clifford, freshman Jeremy Greenwald and junior Eric Powers placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the mile run. All three crossed the line within one second of each other, the first after 4:10.04, and the last after 4:10.82.

In the 800-meter run, senior Rick Scheff and freshman Zack Fanelty placed fifth and seventh. Junior Perron Jones came in third in the 200-meter dash.

For the women, freshman Stephanie Kalu finished in fourth place in the 60-meter dash with a final time of 7.52 seconds.

The next event for the Jackets is the VT Elite Invitational in Blacksburg, Va., this weekend, Feb. 3-4.

Stretch from page 24

Photo courtesy of the GTAA

Perron Jones runs the 200-meter in an event earlier this season. Jones finished in third place in the 200-meter at the McGravy Inv.

Photo by Josh Sandler / Student Publications

Sophomore forward Kammeon Holsey shoots a layup. Holsey combined for 11 points and five rebounds in these two contests.

[email protected] Editor:Alex Sohani

17 AgainAlex Mitchell discusses the 17 new incoming recruits in the new 2012

recruiting class.420

Technique

24Friday,

February 3, 2012

Photo by Josh Sandler / Student Publications

Glen Rice Jr., the team’s leading scorer attempts a shot over a defender earlier this season. Rice struggled against the Tar Heels before sitting out against the Seminoles due to injury.

By Alex SohaniSports Editor

Coming off of a 1-8 stretch over their last nine games, the Jackets were looking to turn things around during a two game road stretch against the No. 7 ranked North Caro-lina Tar Heels and the No. 21 ranked Florida State Semi-noles. However, the Jackets were unable to put a win in the record books, falling 93-81 to the Tar Heels on Sunday, Jan. 29, before dropping another contest 68-54 to the Seminoles on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

Tech fell to 1-10 over their last 11 games, the worst los-ing stretch since the 2008-09 season.

The Jackets had their worst defensive performance of the season, allowing the Tar Heels to shoot over 54 percent for the game while giving up 15 turn-overs. Junior guard Glen Rice Jr., the team’s leading scorer, struggled through the game, hitting two of his seven shot attempts and only four points through the contest. Rice fin-ished the game missing both of his three-point attempts.

North Carolina started the game off quickly, shooting 60 percent in the first half and knocking down 18 shots for 52 first half points.

Within the first 20 sec-onds of the game, North Carolina’s Kendall Marshall hit an open three-point shot, which prompted an 11-4 start through the first three min-utes of the game. The Jackets tried to respond with a quick three-point score by junior guard Mfon Udofia, but the Tar Heels went on a 7-0 run to take an 11 point, 18-7 lead.

Despite the Tar Heels hav-ing early-season woes from be-hind the arc earlier in the sea-son, they hit five three-point shots through the first ten minutes of play, blowing open a 30-18 lead. The Jackets never

closed the margin to under 11 points in the first half, eventu-ally going into the locker room down 52-32.

North Carolina finished the first half, hitting eight of their 12 three-point attempts, a season high.

Coming out to kick off the second half of the game, the Tar Heels continued with a strong shooting performance, only allowing the Jackets to come within 15 points through the first ten minutes of the pe-riod. After going up 84-63 on

an electrifying dunk by North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes, the Tar Heels coasted through the rest of the game for an easy 93-81 win.

Despite the loss, the 81

shortsKilborn named

ACC Co-Player of the Week

Junior Elizabeth Kilborn earned ACC Women’s Tennis Co-Player of the Week hon-ors on Tuesday, Jan. 31, after finishing the past week with a perfect 3-0 record.

With the three wins, Kilborn improved her season record to 12-1 overall with a 6-1 singles record. Kilborn and her partner, se-nior Lynn Blau, have a perfect 6-0 record in doubles play.

Against Georgia State and South Caro-lina, Kilborn dropped only two games in singles play, winning 6-0, 6-1 against Geor-gia State’s Maryna Kozachenko and 6-1, 6-0 against South Carolina’s Dijana Stojic.

Golf fifth after opening round of

Amer Ari Inv.With the Jackets’ golf team opened up

their spring season in the Amer Ari Invita-tional on Wednesday, Feb. 1. The Jackets finished the first day of the tournament in fifth place behind Texas, UCLA, Washing-ton and Southern California.

Sophomores Richard Werenski and Bo Andrews both posted a score of 3-under-par 69 to lead the Jackets to a 10-under team to-tal. Senior James White, an All-American, finished two-under-par along with freshman Anders Albertson to close out a strong day.

The Jackets will conclude the tournament from Feb. 3-4, prior to the time of press.

Bard named to Stopper of the Year

Watch ListJunior RHP Luke Bard was named to the

Preseason Watch List by the Baseball Writ-ers Association for their annual Stopper of the Year Award. Bard was named after eight saves and a 2-2 record in 2011.

shorts

Women’s hoops extends winning streak to three

Photo by John Nakano / Student Pblications

The team huddles together before a game. Tech continues to play strong defense in the second half, holding Virginia and Clemson below 40 percent.

By Songee BarkerContributing Writer

The women’s basketball team was riding high com-ing off a conference victory against the Florida State Semi-noles on the road. The Jackets were looking to continue their success at home against the Virginia Cavaliers on Jan. 25, before heading on the road to face the Clemson Tigers on Jan. 29. Tech came out suc-cessful in both contests, beat-ing the Cavaliers 63-53 and the Tigers 63-54.

In the Jackets’ victory 63-53 victory against Virginia, senior center Sasha Goodlett posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while senior point guard Metra Walthour contributed with another 11

points. The win by the Jackets was the fourth straight victory at home against Virginia.

The 11 points by Marshall marked her 20th game in dou-ble figures this season.

The Jackets started off slow against the Cavaliers, only hit-ting four of their first 12 shot attempts before hitting their stride and shooting 56 percent to close the half and go into the locker room up 34-30.

Walthour hit three three-point shots in the final seven minutes of the period to close out a strong first half.

Tech’s defense then took over, holding the Cavaliers to only 23 second half points on 32 percent shooting.

The Jackets took a 40-31 lead early in the second half and held off the Cavaliers for

the remainder of the game to secure the win. A 12-2 run with less than ten minutes left to play gave the Jackets a 13-point lead, all but securing a win for the team.

Of the 24 shots made in the game, 18 were off of assists.

The Jackets then hit the road to take on the Clemson Tigers. They were successful in continuing their winning streak against the Tigers with a final score of 63-54, making this game the fifth straight win over their rival.

The Jackets have not lost in Clemson, S.C., since the 2006 season.

Goodlett and sophomore guard Tyaunna Marshall both lead the team with a combined

Jackets hit worst stretch since 08-09

See Stretch, page 23

See Winning, page 21